Chapter 58: Elders council

Chapter 58: Elders council A day earlier, in the hallway of the institute of wizarding building, Boris was walking at the front and towards his left and right were John and a man in a black robe and his face covered with a mask, with only his green eyes and a cut below the eyes visible. He was non other than the man who had pushed Ames in the pit, Boris’s special man, Garth. "Is everything ready?" Boris asked. "Yes master! No witnesses were left and the bodies are handed over to the institute for inspection." Garth replied. "What about the girl?" "We have her body with us!" "Good! Present it in front of the council when I give the signal!" "Yes master!" "You have to testify against him, tell whatever I told you to say John!" "Yes elder!" John replied. Boris nodded and increased his pace. After a few minutes they reached in front of the huge door of the council judging room. There were a team of about five men beside the door waiting to enter. They were in dark blue coats, the uniform of the wizard enforcers of the institute. The man at the front was the leader, Zeus. He was in his thirties and had a dark complexion. He had rough skin and a well trimmed beard. There was a long cut at the bridge of his nose, probably a mark of honor from his duties. "Elder Boris!" Zeus nodded while the other enforcers slightly bowed in greeting. "Master Zeus!" Boris nodded. He had to show respect to Zeus though he was an elder as Zeus was a sixth circle ’Master wizard’ while he himself was a fifth circle wizard. From the first circle to fifth circle, wizards had no titles. But from sixth circle, they were called with their titles as reaching that stage showed their strength and garnered respect from others. The sixth circle were called ’Master wizard’. The seventh circle, ’Grandmaster wizard’. The eighth circle, ’Archwizard’. The ninth circle, ’Archmaester’, which was achieved by a miniscule amount of wizards and was the highest level in the generation, which only the headmaster was near to achieving, and Ames was considered a prime candidate to reach this stage. The tenth circle were called the ’Realm master’. They are walking calamities. Capable of bending rules, and wielding law magic. Just then the doors opened. Boris and his two men entered first. Zeus and the others then followed them inside. The straight path from the door led to a circular platform in the middle. Straight at the periphery was one long rectangular column with a seat at the top. It was almost four meters in height and in the seat at the top, headmaster Blaze was sitting. Beside him were two more columns a little lower. At his right was sitting an old man in his eighties, long white beard and bald head. Being seated he supported himself with a cane in front. He was the highest elder and previous headmaster, Archwizard Angus. And at the left was a man in his forties with a lean figure. Long curly black hair, clean shaved face with prominent jawline and cheekbones out. He was wearing a dark crimson long coat and was the vice headmaster, grandmaster Acheron. There were also a total of eight columns on both the sides at the circular periphery lower in height then the central three seats. The seven seats were filled and the eight seat at the left was empty. Boris walked over and took his seat there. The enforcers along with Zeus moved towards the right and took their seats below the platform while john and Gart took the seats at the left. After everyone settled, a woman in the elder seat, just beside Angus stood up. She was a beautiful woman looking to be in her thirties, having a voluptuous body, with long red wavy hair, wearing a red body tight robe. She was the head of the runic circles research department and the first elder, master wizard Davina. "Today’s council is being called in regard to accusations on one of our genius students, Ames. He is being charged of getting himself into dark magic, killing innocents and even enforcers and has gone rogue." Davina announced. Blaze had an ugly expression on his face. He was most shocked and disturbed with the news. "Elder Boris, address the council on the specifications of the matter!" She said looking at Boris and took her seat after. Borris nodded and stood up. He bowed towards the central seats and then started speaking. "Since a few years, Ames had been doing research on a new spell which he believed was a healing spell. But the results proved to be otherwise. Even the headmaster had warned him about the darkness hidden within that spell!" Boris looked towards Blaze to take his approval. Everybody turned their head towards Blaze, as he in turn nodded in affirmation. "By lying and taking headmasters permission, he recently went to the forest of corruption to test his spell and the more he delved deeper, the more he got sucked in by the darkness, which corrupted his mind and lead to him killing so many innocents!" Boris said shaking his head with a saddened expression and the continued. "I’d like to call student John as a witness." Boris announced. John immediately got up and moved to the center of the platform. "Tell us what you saw that day, before Ames left for the forest!" Boris said. "Headmaster had asked me to call him to his office, so when I went to the research room, I saw him standing still holding a book in his hand and gazing at it. I called him numerous times, but he just kept gazing at the book and didn’t answer!" John went on. "Finally when I touched his shoulder to get his attention, he looked at me ferociously, like a beast, and released intense bloodlust, as if he’d kill me for disturbing him! His eyes were blood red and he growled at me with his canines out! H-he...he looked like a devil!" The elders started discussing among themselves and then looked towards the headmaster to know about the validity of the book. "Ames got that book from a dungeon a few years back and the spells he was researching on were from that book only!" Shocked gasps followed after that! A grin appeared on Boris’s face, but he immediately hid it and continued. "Thank you, student John! Now, I’d like to call special officer Garth" Boris then looked towards him. Receiving his signal, Garth stood up and moved towards the center as John passed by him to take his seat back. Each elder could appoint a special officer under them for outside works, since the wizards didn’t travel much because of their busyness and dangers outside, as wizards were prime targets of evil organizations and bandits as they were loaded with money. Garth channeled mana into his dimensional ring, and then a white mana cocoon appeared on the platform. The mana threads slowly unfurled and dissipated, revealing the lifeless body of a young child, of Cora’s. Her eyes were opened wide in shock, her heart ripped open with the black gooey substance sticking on the wounds and skin of her chest as if it had rotted away. Her body was kept just how it was at the time of her death. All the elders gasped in shock, their eyes opened wide. The dark mana in the wounds could be seen and felt by everyone present there. Even Blaze was shocked, since he could feel Ames’s mana signature in the wounds. He believed that Ames could never do anything like this, but now his belief was shaken, he didn’t know what to believe and what not to. Seeing Blaze’s shocked face, Boris grinned as his lips parted wide.