The Last Warlock

The third day had come, and the mages didn\'t appear just like Mack expected.

But the city of Honiara had become a ghost town.

Looking from the penthouse, Mack didn\'t see a single soul walking on streets. It had become so empty that Mack could even hear the sound of waves crashing on the beach close to the building, a feat impossible a few days ago.

Honiara was the capital of Solomon Islands and the largest city too. For it to be empty, one can only imagine how high things escalated from the first moment Mack appeared on the airport.

[What you are going to do now kid?]

"Is it not obvious? Find the most influential person on Earth and get those mages names, then, kill one by one"

[Geez, sit down kid, we need to talk]

Said Harlack, using his mind link while appearing in the main room of the penthouse.

.

"What now? Dont come nag me again about how much time I will lose by doing this."

[You didn\'t want answers? That\'s the moment, come sit]

Said Harlack, pointing to the couch in front of the one he was sitting.

Seeing the serious expression of the old man, Mack walked and took a sit by the couch, but didnt say anything. Waiting to see where things will go. The old man never had a \'moment of openness\'. If he wanted to talk, Mack was sure that he was aiming for something.

[As you can guess by all the information I gave until now, the Mage Association is an enormous \'empire\' of sorts]

"humm"

[....and as you can guess too, I\'m not part of it. I belong to an organization that acts in the shadows to destroy this same Mage Alliance]

"Its pretty obvious. But what is the name of it?"

[By the moment, I can\'t tell you, but you will know soon]

"When?"

[Once you pass the test that I scheduled for you. It\'s a test that every single member of my organization has to do. Once you pass it you will be able to learn more things, for now... what I can tell you...]

"..."

Hearing that, Mack didn\'t say anything, but the dislike expression on his face could fully express his thoughts.

[What?]

"Old man, who told you that I want to join this shady organization of yours? If there is a thing that I hate more than mages, is being a lackey of someone."

Hearing what Mack said, Harlack knew it would not be as easy as he thought to convince him. He imagined that Mack would do anything to join an organization, that the focus was to destroy the Mage Association.

Harlack thought for a moment. If he didn\'t use the correct arguments now, it was all for nothing.

[First hear me out...]

"No, hear me you, old man, I keep asking for answers about the tower, about you, about those mages that you let run rampant and you keep avoiding everything, now you want to brush things off and ask me to join some shady business? Go get yourself a new face old man, this one is already hard as a wood door."

Said Mack, already raising from the couch to leave. He had mages to kill.

[You are an experiment subject of the Project Doom, a guinea pig.]

But what he heard made him stop, but he didn\'t turn back, as if pondering to continue or to stay.

Mack took a step forward.

[My name is Harlack, and if you have a single drop of love for your world, you will not kill those mages]

Mack stopped again, and without turning back...

"Why? Give me a fucking good reason."

[The moment you kill them, a team of really powerful mages will be sent here, I didn\'t kill them, because... the Mage Association thinks that I\'m dead, but they are careful and those acolytes here on Earth were sent here to monitor me not to kill warlocks, this is just a facade and way to make me move, if they know that I\'m alive for sure, you can say goodbye to Earth]

Mack pondered over what he heard and turned back.

"Easy said than proved... Why are you so important to them?"

[Because in all history, not a single Warlock got so powerful as me, the story that the sword on your hands was got by me from the inside of the headquarters of the Mage Association, is true. This is just an example]

Mack looked Harlack in the eyes as if scrutinizing every bit of information in his head to see flaws or to see if the old man was indeed saying the true, but that old man was way experienced than him, he looked the same no matter what he said.

"If you are so strong, why did you not ended the Mage Association for once?"

[Kid, you don\'t understand, the Mage Association, have under their control, billions of planets. BILLIONS! What is a headquarter for them? ]

Mack face suddenly became stagnant and his pupils moved left and right, the realization that the mages had billions of planets under they control was a shock for him, not because of the number itself, but because he would not be able to kill every single one of them.

Mack initially thoughts were that they should have a thousand planets, but he would live a lot, he had the time to do it, but a billion?

But then... Mack suddenly remembered of the void flame.

"What about the void flame? I saw a memory fragment of you using it, and burning an entire planet with it."

Once Mack said that, another question came to his mind.

\'Why he left the void flame on that floor?\'

And with that question, a realization even bigger.

[You realized, don\'t you? Yes, not everything that \'the arcane\' said was a lie. I\'m truly dying]

Mack\'s gaze changed and kept looking at Harlack as if not sure of what to say.

[Don\'t need to be sorry, I lived for so many aeons that I even can\'t remember how much I lived anymore. I .... how do I say, I used the doom project, the tower, to choose an heir, and this heir is you]

[Why do you think that even with you failing, I brought you back to Earth? And you still have the void flame and the swords.]

Mack kept looking at the old man, unsure of what to say, he didn\'t felt he was special or something, but he also knew he was the last warlock of his planet, but also, the old man could always have some children and just pass down.

Mack\'s thoughts kept running wild, but he chose to not say anything. He was close to the Arcane, but that was a lie, and the old man in front of him was almost a complete stranger to him.

[Yes, I could make a bunch of children and pass my things down, but you don\'t know the pain of seeing your sons die, I had sons a long time ago, and all of them died, all of them, do you understand that, kid? Can you imagine it?]

"I can\'t"

Said Mack, remembering of his father, but he knew the pain of seeing a son die would be thousand times worst.

[If you think that this is all a lie, go ahead and kill those acolytes, and see your planet be destroyed]

"I believe in you old man"

Said Mack, siting on the couch.

He knew that this old man would not bring up his sons into the conversation for nothing.

Harlack took a moment to ponder if was the right time to tell the kid the rest about warlocks and what he will need to do in the coming future.

\'He is not ready for that. I should do it myself and leave it at the tower.\'

[Also, remember, once I die, you need to go up the tower of chaos and climb it again. The tower will be closed for 3 aeons and nobody will come there. You have 3 aeons from now to prepare for that. But you must climb it!]

"Ok, I get it. You prepared the tower for an heir and all you put the good stuff is there. But why not just take out and just pass it to me?"

[Its not that simple kid, but remember to go up the tower in 3 aeons. The tattoos are still working and will continue to work. They are the key to the tower, literally. You only need a portal to go there on the first floor again. The coordinates are in the tattoos of your right hand]

Mack extended his hand and looked at the tattoo, reading the runes, he saw a pattern around one of them, ten numbers close to each other, forming a circle around the rune.

"Ok I got"

[Since I already spilled the secrets, there is no more need to keep holding things back. Now let\'s talk about my plan]