Chapter 15: The fourth trial begins

With his cape fluttering in the air and his new warlock clothes, Mack looked like a warrior coming for a battle, and indeed, a battle was waiting for him.

A battle to the death.

At the top of the small hill, Mack could see an immense field below, and there, warlocks and mages were fighting. Mack could recognize the now familiar clothes of the warlocks, and the other side could only be the mages.

He was at the back of the battle on the warlock side, and in those few seconds, while looking at the grand battle, he had already seen several spells and magic effects running amuck through the small skirmishes on the battlefield.

A ball of flame killing several warlocks, a warlock stabbing a mage with a small sword and another one raising his hand and turning dozens of mages in to a pulp of flesh and bones.

That warlock caught Mack's attention, because that warlock only pointed his hand toward the mages and they become a bloody mass of disfigured corpses, with no flourish movements, and no effects, simple as it could be. It seemed like he had killed those mages with no effort at all.

"So strong. Is this what a true warlock is capable of?"

[That and much more]

"Is this is a recreation of a battle when my ancestor's planet was invaded?"

[Yes]

"As I expected, and my guess is this is not only a holographic projection like in the previous gate, right? The spells... they are really damaging the ground."

[Correct. Those are like real spells, and the damage dealt is almost the same, too. This battle is being replayed by a very advanced magic circle, inscribed on the top of this room]

Mack looked up but could see nothing, only the sun shining behind the clouds.

"So this is a room... but what is the goal? I'm sure you don't expect me to win this battle with my meager strength."

[...]

"You must be kidding with me. Do you see that warlock there? If he can't win this battle, what can I do?"

[The rules of this gate are as follow]

[All mages should be killed in less than a hundred days]

[If all the mages are not killed by the 100th day, the battle will restart from the beginning]

[This will happen until you achieve the goal or you are dead]

[These are the rules of the Gate of Pride]

Mack could not believe what he just heard. How could he change this clearly losing battle? Worst, he had to kill all mages in a hundred days. He was not sure if he could kill even one, and there were thousands of them.

~sigh~

"Here was I, thinking about adventures... Maybe save a princess or kill a few dragons. Tsk."

Mack completely lost his will to fight.

Fight a lost battle? Why? He could not understand. Even if he wanted to fight, what could he do? Sure, the sword was cool and all, but he would never have the chance to even get close to a mage before being burned to a crisp, or worst.

"I bet no one passed this trial. Right?"

[Correct]

"Of course not. Who could turn a battle like this?" Mack said, while siting on the hill and looking at the fights in the distance. He was not stupid to throw himself head on in a battle like this.

[This battle is a memory replay of your ancestor's first battle ever]

"So, you are saying that my ancestor won this?"

[Not exactly won. He was the sole survivor of this battle]

[He didn't know at the time, but this was the last battle fought, and he, being the only warlock alive in this battle, made possible for him to escape the planet. If there were hundreds of warlocks that survived, the mages would pursuit them. But only one small mage ship leaving the planet was an unsuspicious move]

"But he was a true warlock with training and this sword and all... ohhh no, this sword was made after the battle. He didn't have this sword! How did? Did he forged the sword? How did he won?"

[No. The Mage Association forged this sword. He stole this sword several years later]

"So, how did he survive? He must have been extremely lucky or extremely strong."

[Neither. According to his memories, he was far weaker than you are now when he joined this battle]

"How is that even possible?" Mack could not believe in this.

[That is for you to discover. I'm not allowed to tell you]

Mack fell into thoughts and pondered over why his ancestor would do a trial like this.

"I doubt he would put a scene like this just for me to play hide and seek with mages. He would not taint his memories with such a low test. Can I talk to those warlocks fighting? Or take a ship and run to somewhere?"

[No, you can't. They are not real peoples. They are Light Constructs generated by the magic circle on top of this room. You can't also move the ships. They follow certain pre-configured rules only enough to recreate this battle]

"So they are just like puppets in a puppeteer show? What happens if I appear in front of a mage? Will they attack me or follow what happened in the battle, ignoring me?"

[They will attack you. Because, for those Light Constructs, you are labeled as an enemy. They have basic intelligence, but only at the level required for this battle to be recreated]

"So they act like those NPCs from games."

[...]

"How can you know so much about Earth and don't know what video games are?"

[I only have records from what the host does. Starting when the runes are engraved on the body]

"I see... As soon as we leave this tower, we are going to play some games."

[...]

"...and I will give you a book about how to interact with humans."

[...]

With the awkward silence, Mack knew for sure that the Arcane could not differentiate a joke from a normal sentence. Alas, he had much bigger problems right now. What to do when leaving the tower was the last of his concerns right now. First, he had to live another day.

A Hundred days would be good too.