The misadventures of the necromancer

It had been three days since they had spent the night with the knights of Auron. A tense and unpleasant night, even for Seres. Although Adar had oddly spent the night with a small smile every time he looked at Seres.

Not that this was the main issue now. Over the next two days, they continued on their path to reach the Path of Trials, where they were supposed to find the temple they were looking for. During those days, Nero’s mood, which had improved quite a bit after their night with the knights, had significantly worsened.

This made everyone more tense, especially Seres and Adar, who often became the victims of his bad temper. But that didn’t mean the priests were immune to the growing tension either.

Even though Nero had been more cordial with them, they had their own concerns—after all, it was they who most wanted to find the temple, and time was running out.

Nero had made it quite clear that the reason he was becoming increasingly irritable was because finding the Path of Trials was easy, but finding the actual Temple of Trials was much harder. He had said, “Every single time I came to this damned temple, I never found it on the first try. If the bonus weren’t so good, I’d never set foot here.”

And now, a day after they had reached the Path of Trials, Nero’s words were starting to make sense.

The region they had arrived in was empty and desolate, populated mostly by rocks—especially tall, slender stones pointing to the sky. Additionally, the area was filled with cave entrances, and according to Nero, the entrance to the temple was in one of them—but he was having trouble figuring out which one.

As such, they had spent the last day basically wandering and entering unknown caves. This had made everyone’s mood significantly worse. To begin with, Nero himself had become increasingly irritable with each failure. Even Seres admitted that the necromancer had the talent of making something unpleasant even worse.

On the other hand, there were the priests, especially Mira, who had counted on Nero’s help to find the temple, which had not worked out easily. As a result, Mira started making more and more comments doubting Nero’s seriousness, honesty, and competence.

Meanwhile, Whit, although his doubts were evident in the glances he cast toward Nero leading the group, tried to calm his friend.

Seres and Adar tried to soothe both of them while also trying to guess when Nero’s patience with Mira’s attitude would finally run out—which certainly wouldn’t be good for the two priests.

Adar had already told them several times that if Nero said he knew something, he was usually proven right. But that hadn’t calmed their frustration, especially given that they only had a few days left to enter the temple, and they had already spent so much time just getting here.

Just a few minutes ago, Adar and Seres had been discussing what to do when things finally exploded. But then Nero had decided to try a new cave. Leading them inside, at first, it was just like all the others.

A cave whose interior became quite spacious, but without light, its true extent remained unknown. Since Nero had decided that they wouldn’t use magic—to avoid raising suspicions from the priests—they only had torches to light their way, making the exploration painfully slow.

The only consolation was that Nero seemed to be looking for very exact characteristics inside, so they didn’t have to venture too deep into the caves.

When once again, Nero turned to them and declared, “Nope, next.”

Mira had started to protest when a growl echoed in the dark cave. From the direction of the sound, two small lights appeared, rising above the head of the tallest among them, followed by another growl. Thinking quickly, Adar, who was holding a torch, threw it toward the lights.

As the light from the torch approached, they saw the lights were in fact the eyes reflecting the torchlight from a massive bear reared up on its hind legs. Seres couldn’t make out many more details when a “Run!!” echoed through the cave. Though he didn’t know who had spoken, he rushed to follow the command.

Turning and starting to run with Adar at his side and the priests in front of them, all he could think was how stupid they were not to have brought the mule with them. Even if they didn’t want to raise questions by letting the undead lead the way, which would have been the safest, they should at least have had it with them and not left it outside.

Behind him, he heard a sound that made him think the bear had dropped to all fours, possibly to chase them, while Nero’s voice grumbled, “Wonderful, fantastic, brilliant. Just what we needed.”

Fortunately, they were still near the cave entrance when a new growl was heard, followed by the sound of the bear beginning the chase.

“Take cover!” shouted the necromancer’s voice. And both he and Adar knew immediately what was about to happen. This cave was about to become a fire pit.

“Get down!!” Adar shouted, pointing at the priests who were frantically running in front of them, unaware of what was about to occur.

With his friend’s voice in his ears, Seres leaped forward to throw himself over Mira, who was right in front of him. While hoping Adar would do the same with Whit.

As they collided with the priests, bringing them to the ground, Nero’s voice rang out again. Even the bear’s sounds behind them couldn’t drown it out. “Flames of Draco!”

What else could it be? Falling to the ground, Seres saw the light of the fireball flying away, even passing the bear, which seemed to slow down as it noticed the magic passing it. As Seres already knew well, that was the bear’s mistake—it should have sped up. And keep running as fast as possible out of this cave and never return.

That was all he saw, for while lying on the ground, he brought his head closer to Mira’s, trying to shield both of them with his arms. The girl struggled a bit against him, not understanding what was happening, still trying to flee, worried about the bear. But everything ended the moment the fireball exploded. First the blinding white light, then, the deafening roar and the sea of flames that swept through the cave like the breath of a furious dragon. Leaving them with no room for questions, only the desire to survive.

The heat of the flames was suffocating and terrifying, but thankfully, it lasted only a few moments. Even so, Seres had no doubt that had they been standing, they would all be dead.

Seeing that they were fine, though with a few light burns—something that would hurt later but wouldn't kill them, especially considering they still had plenty of Nero’s healing potions—Adar and Seres quickly helped the two priests up and pushed them a short distance to the cave’s exit. The two were completely disoriented and confused.

“What happened!?” Mira exclaimed, somewhat hysterically, but even as she looked around, she seemed to slowly regain some of her calm. Wisely, she kept her eyes on the cave entrance.

The surprise came from Whit, who asked, genuinely concerned, “And Nero? Where is he?” Something even Seres hadn’t thought of yet.

With the sound of the mule’s hooves approaching, they all silently turned their attention to the cave entrance, from where Nero had yet to emerge. Not that he was truly worried—neither the bear nor the spell had likely harmed the mage.

The bear was just a bear, and Nero had survived two fireballs at once before. Not that he had come out unscathed, but he had survived.

Seres looked at Adar and asked, “Should we go check on him?” to which his friend shrugged and glanced thoughtfully at the mule now beside him.

And so they arrived at this tense moment, everyone waiting to see what would happen. That’s when from inside the cave came, “Damn it!!”

Then Nero appeared from the cave, slapping at his sleeve, which was lightly smoking. Noticing everyone staring at him, he asked, pointing at himself, “Be honest, is it that bad?”

The necromancer’s face was quite red, as was the visible part of his arm. He seemed to have less hair, which was expected considering how close he was to the fire. His sleeve, which he was slapping at, looked quite blackened, likely burned in the heat.

“All things considered looks fine to me,” Adar replied, turning to Seres for confirmation, who nodded.

Nero made a small sound of both irritation and disbelief.

Whit asked in a still confused but worried voice, “Nero, are you okay?” while Mira raised a hand and pointed at Nero, shouting, “Mage!!” and then just stared at the mage and Adar as if seeking an explanation.

Nero, however, seemed more interested in his now-burned coat sleeve than in the conversation. Seres looked at Adar, silently asking what to do now. There was no denying it anymore.

“Am I cursed?” asked the necromancer suddenly, still staring at his arm.

“Well, obviously—I’m stuck here,” he declared, glancing around but seeming to talk to himself. “But still, this clothing issue is really starting to get to me.”

“You’re a mage!” Mira’s voice rang out again.

Instead of answering, Nero sighed and murmured something, causing a soft light to appear in one of his hands and quickly spread over his body. He and Adar immediately recognized the light as Nero’s healing spell. And to confirm this, the redness on his face disappeared.

Nero brought a hand to his face and grumbled, “This crap is unpleasant as hell.”

He sighed again, looking around. “I really hate this place. Even without criminals, cultists, and monsters in every second cave.”

“What does that even mean? Why didn’t anyone tell us he’s a mage?” Mira asked again, clearly upset by Nero’s lack of response.

He, in turn, looked into the distance, more interested in whatever he was seeing than the conversation.

“Well, Mira, it’s not like it’s been relevant until now. And if you remember, both I and Seres warned you not to get between Nero and his target. I think now you understand what we meant,” Adar tried to explain calmly. He didn’t mention that they didn’t want the priests to start wondering what other magic Nero might know— something like necromancy.

She just stood there with her mouth and eyes wide open, not knowing how to respond.

“Well, at least it looks like I’ve found the bastard,” Nero interrupted, still staring into the distance.

For a moment, everyone looked at Nero, not quite processing the strange comment. Until someone—apparently Whit—asked, “The temple!?”

They all turned in the direction Nero was looking, trying to see what he saw. But at least in Seres’s case, all he could see were hills, rocks, and boulders of various shapes.

“Let’s go,” declared Nero, starting to walk.

And everyone began to follow, though not knowing exactly where to. Or rather, almost everyone, because Adar said, “Maybe we should drink some potion. You know, because of the fire—we’ve all got some burns. Better take care of them now.”

For a moment, everyone was a bit disoriented, as if the possibility of finally finding the temple had made them forget what had just happened and the injuries they had sustained. After all, not everyone had a healing spell like Nero.

He, for his part, simply nodded at Adar, who went to the mule to get the potions while the rest began their journey to the Temple of Divine Trials.

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