The Last Warlock

Mack opened his eyes and, still a bit dizzy, tried to stand up.

But something was odd.

"The hell I am?"

He looked at the white walls around him and to several hospital machines and recognized the place.

"A hospital?"

But even if was a hospital, something was odd about that place that Mack could not pinpoint.

Mack raised himself from the bed and stood up.

He passed his hand over one machine.

Dust..

There was dust everywhere.

"Is this the same hospital that I was before entering the tower?"

Asked himself Mack, not sure about why he was there.

[Correct. You had been sent back to Earth. To the same place you were before entering the tower]

"Fuck! did you send me here old man?"

[Oh shit. I forgot to erase your memory. Ah Nevermind.]

"Erase my? ....The heck? Just kill me already... why erase my memory?"

Mack saw something moving in the corner of his eyes and there it was.

An old man eating ramen.

"You know... I really don\'t want to kill you. But I will if you bother me while I\'m eating." said Harlack.

Mack stood there watching the old men eat ramen, not sure what was happening.

Was not he supposed to be dead already?

\'The fuck is going on? And why I\'m on Earth?\'

"You know I can read your thoughts, right?" said Harlack

"So answer me. What the heck is going on?"

[You failed] said Harlack, using the mind link.

"Failed?"

[Yes, you failed the 9th gate. But we opened an exception for you. You will be able to try again in the future]

"Why would I? I don\'t care about that tower"

[You will not ask me how you failed?]

"I don\'t care either. Why you keep talking in my mind when you have a mouth and you are so close to me? It\'s annoying."

[Because I\'m eating, it\'s practical]

Said Harlack, pointing his finger at the ramen.

"So....you are not going to kill me?"

[No]

"Fine then. I\'m leaving, you can enjoy your food"

Said Mack, leaving the room.

"How much time will take for him to come back?"

Said to himself Harlack, already putting the finished ramen to the side and crossing his legs, as if a grandfather patiently waiting for a kid to stop his dramas.

Less than a minute later, Mack was back.

"There is no one in this town. What you did?"

[Me?]

"Yes, you bastard! Where are the people!"

[What do you think?]

Said Harlack, already vanishing from his place, only the cup o ramen remained there as proof that he was once there.

Mack stood there, looking at a wall now, a bit lost for words and confused to what was happening.

But one thing he knew.

It seemed this old man would not leave him in peace.

~sigh~

"What exactly is happening? First you want to kill me, now you don\'t want, and bring me to Earth. AND why there is no one else on this island?!"

[Who knows? Maybe a ghost ship passed by. It happens. Go figure it yourself. I will take a nap]

"What ghost ship? Are you joking with me?"

Mack was losing his cool with the old man.

Not a second later, he could swear he heard a snore from the place where his ancestor vanished.

Mack walked out of the hospital building and looked around, but still could not see a single person.

The streets looked like those abandoned mining cities when the mines run out of gold.

Everything was still there, covered with dust and grass or other herbs growing on them.

Mack closed his eyes and waited for his scan.

One second later, the scan came, and he saw several dots in his scan, but all of them were animals.

"Whats wrong with this place?"

Mack knew this island like the back of his hand. It was not densely populated, but had a lot of people in. They lived from tourism and fishing. There was no reason to leave the island in such a hurry.

Mack looked around to search for any oddities. It was then that he saw a dried pool of blood by the side of the road.

If was a normal day, anyone would think it was an animal hit by a car.

But in this desert city? Mack doubted.

Mack walked to the place, and saw that the blood was dried for at least a dozen of days, and was already being covered with dust from the air.

"Probably something related to all those people disappearing"

Mack didn\'t care if an entire city disappeared, or thousands of people died, but that changed when the place was this island.

This place is where Mack grew as a kid. There were still some natives that remembered Mack by name. How could he not care?

He was not devoid of compassion, or a ruthless bastard that cared only for himself.

He just minded his own business, and this island was one of them.

Touching the dried blood with his hand, Mack remembered one runespell he learned during his tests. It was not a battle type, so Mack didn\'t engrave on his body.

It was a tracking runespell.

Mack could create a scan similar to his own, but instead of pinpointing all the owned essence, he would pinpoint a specific Essence signature.

Mack did this in one of his attempts to understand better how Essence worked.

As the runespell was useless to him during the trials, he even forgot about it, but now seemed a good chance to put it to use.

"Let\'s see if I can remember"

Said Mack, drawing a few runes on the ground with his own blood right in the middle of the empty street.

After a few minutes, a complex rune circuit could be seen on the ground.

Mack scrapped the dried blood and put on a specific part of the circuit.

After making sure everything was correct, Mack approached and touched with his finger.

The circuit was activated but suddenly stopped working.

Mack looked at the circuit again and again and could not see anything wrong with it.

"The heck?"