Li Tanrin woke up in a warm bed, covered by a woolen green blanket, in a pinkly decorated Maler's dorm.
What???
He bolted upright in bed, throwing the covers off. There sat at the fully decorated desk the nervous 1st year blonde girl that had held him when he'd fell in the 2nd year corridors.
She now sat so concentrated her tongue was sticking out -and so confident in her zone that she resembled nothing like the girl earlier. She seemed to be drawing something with a sketch-stick and some paper.
Banners of Luina Agalene hung all over the wall, so carefully decorated the room, so unlike poor Tren Klavir's austere room.
Li Tanrin got up from the bed, alerting the girl and shocking her stylus out of her hands.
"Oh, erm, hey, uh, hey there -you fainted back there, you know, so you..."
"Yup thank you." He interrupted her and left the room.
Outside the yellow-stone arches lining the side of the dorm halls showed a fully dark sky.
Fuck. There goes the first day as Tren Klavir. Li Tanrin had gathered almost no information, save Tren Klavir's little stupid stunt and his newly-issued revenge side mission. He'd yet to get his hands on any info on Kiyoko, much less have the time to hunt down some necromancy.
The problem with necromancy was that it drained your body's health -visible by purple and green withered blotches emerging all over the torso, then the limbs and eventually the head.
He'd previously imagined all sorts of countering strategies to that as Ewan Sorrenswal, such as double-maining magic and the prayers of the god Teantlochrich, whose prayers included sacrifing humans into goats and eating the goats raw for unlimited regenerative ability.
In the fifth year last time, they'd encountered worshippers of Teantlochrich who had started a military coup d'etat against the royal family of the kingdom Ebrallasac -and raised the biggest quintuple-reinforced barrier in the history of Iverssorn against outside invaders, seeking to prolong the united alliance between the other kingdoms from wiping them out straight after.
Of course, the six of them had crushed the barrier -they had become to OP for some mere hundreds of satanic worshippers to stop -but Thomas had kept their patriarch alive -torturing him for info.
That's when Li Tanrin had learned about their prayers -and thought it could be used to counter necromancy.
Of course, the others were too deep in their role-playing to watch him practice necromancy -he should've known by then that they'd grown attached to the world -that none of them wished to return, thus making him the black sheep of the group.
Even Kiyoko. Who often talked stars and moons about Tokyo, and how she'd show him around once they went back.
Even she couldn't let go of the power.
Feh. Humanity is not to be tested, for it is doomed to ugliness.
The other strats for countering necromancy can be basically categorized into either consumables, or voodoo dolls.
Except for Curse.
Humans in Iverssorn cannot use curse -unless transformed by a vampiric bite or fucked by a succubus or something else relating to night creatures. However, an obvious exception is possession -a possessed human can instantly wield the power of Curse due to its host's exertion.
Yes. Curse might be the key to mastering necromancy, then this time Tren Klavir shall become the greatest archmage that ever lived -tapping into the greatest forces known to man: the hopelessness of dying people and the agony of the dead.
Li Tanrin sighed as he walked the long walk back into the male dormitories, lighting a cig as he strolled.
A door opened behind him. Shit. If some girl is gonna send him into probation now he's gonna kill that bunny bitch for carrying him here.
"W-wait!" Thank god. It was the bunny girl. "You forgot your jacket!"
He waited for her to catch up. "Thanks again."
She smiled and suddenly relaxed a bit, looking to the side. "You know. You didn't have to be all rude like that and shut the door in my face."
Li Tanrin sighed. "Okay. I'll take you out of Maler's to dinner tomorrow."
"W-WHAT" She lit up red, and suddenly started investigating the wall.
"Oh my god" she started muttering to herself and fidgeting with her hands, "w-what is this indecency, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god what is..."
Li Tanrin took the jacket over and slung it on. "Good. I'll see you outside the gates then. I better go before they catch me here."
He left and the girl suddenly started, "Y-yes, ah, yes you b-better go. I don't want them to catch you. You know. That and all that... maybe.... but...."
Tren Klavir sat on his own small bed, scribbling some Armen-language runes onto a floorboard he'd torn out earlier. Runes, relying solely on knowledge and experience, were the easiest way to become powerful for a speedrunner. And the Armen language is the easiest and most accessible traditional runic language -basically every single hot water system and draining system and all those other commodities relied on it.
There is no great risk with inscribing it, and much abstract ways of connecting every individual rune.
Right now he finished inscribing three broken-off planks the length of his skull and the width of three fingers.
One was a basic tri-pentagonal inlaid rune that would swap his adrenaline with his mana. Very handy both ways, both when he needed mana, or when he needed a physical boost.
The other two were more complex quadri-triangular overlapping runes that would explode upon command.
Very handy.
Finishing up, he decided to go out for a small excursion. It wasn't like he really lacked sleep anyways -being knocked out by frigging Tren Klavir just this noon.
He was growing hungry though -but the hunger focused him more than anything.
Sneaking out of the dorm was easy. He jumped out the arches between the balustrades onto the slightly damp evening grass.
He and Kiyoko had done this many times.
Fuck memories.
He ran across the grass and scaled the academy walls. This wall he knew very, very well.
Outside he saw Moros Tyr for the first time in all its glory. It was very different from when he'd last been here.
How long has it been?
The cobblestone streets were still the same of course, a silvery grey palette lined with blue and purple rune-powered lanterns, lighting the wet roads slightly shimmery.
Most of the shops and fronts were closed now, but a few occasional taverns and inns were lit orange from within and exceptionally rowdy in that quiet night.
So far unchanged.
However, all the houses were over two-storied now, which, when he'd first came, were a rarity. They were lined with copper gilt running on the ledges between every storey, funneling the rune systems that had been employed city-wide only a couple of years after he'd arrived.
And the banners were different now- the white, red, and gold of the Rulienceza family no longer hung upon every flying buttress and every arch, loved by everyone that walked below -now there were barely any flags. The only flag he espied on a distant metallic tower was the familiar black and white encircling flag that he'd once rode under.
The flag of the Worldwalkers.
Whatever. He lit a mevius. New beginnings, old hate.
Come, old friend.
He started off towards the apothecary.