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Primal Devourer- The Broken Hatcher’S Rise
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Short filmTranscript
00:00My mentor gives the blonde girl the best egg in the hall. He tosses me the one no one wanted.
00:05I am last in the rankings. Refusal is never an option. For seven years, I fed it everything I had.
00:11My magic, my sleep, my youth. No one helped. No one noticed. When the shell finally cracks to reveal the
00:18air of Yormonkar, the rarest bloodline in a millennium, suddenly, everyone wants a piece of what I've made. The blonde
00:24girl claims him. My mentor backs her up. Three seniors corner me, forcing me to give him up.
00:29And my lintworm? He just stands there, saying nothing. Aurelia is the only one worthy of me. Let me go.
00:34I gave you life. I could take it back. So I drive a blade through his heart, devour his core
00:40and become stronger than all of them combined.
00:42Seven years ago, the hatching hall. On the altar lay 20 familiar eggs, each radiating a different light. Aurelia walked
00:49to the center and picked up an egg glowing with golden flames. This egg is calling my name Mentor, she
00:54said with a smile. She never once looked at me. The last egg lay alone in the corner.
00:58Dull, gray-white, without a trace of light. Archmaster Maldus gave me a side lay glance.
01:03Vesper, you are patient. You can bear this stillness. This one is yours.
01:06I cradled it in my hands. Heavy. Ice cold. It took me seven years.
01:11I slept with it against my skin every single night. Fed it my magic, thread by thread. I turned down
01:16every field trial.
01:17Missed three ascension rites and four tower galas. I read every lintworm-hatching record in the Grand Library.
01:23I learned to scrape the absolute bottom of my magical core when utterly exhausted.
01:27Seven years later, the shell cracked. A boy with silver hair and amber eyes stepped out.
01:32He opened his eyes, and I was the first thing he saw. After that, he never chose to see me
01:37again.
01:38He became Aurelia's shadow. She practiced the sword. He played the harp by her side.
01:42She frowned. The smiled. He bent over backward to make her gentleman.
01:46All she had to say was such a gentleman, and from that moment on, I became an obstacle in his
01:50way.
01:50Today, three senior apprentice block my path. Lysander stands next to them. He says it to my face.
01:55Aurelia is brilliant. She's beautiful and kind. She is the only one worthy to be my mate.
02:00Vester, if you actually care about me, break the bond!
02:03The three seniors turn to stare. They are not here to mediate. They are here to witness my humiliation.
02:08Cedric speaks first, talking down to me from on high.
02:10Vester, Lysander is the direct heir of Jormagard. There isn't another bloodline like his in the entire northern frontier.
02:15Face reality. Dragging this out only makes you a laughingstock. You two were never a match.
02:19Orlando chimes in a soft voice.
02:21It's not your fault. It's a matter of bloodline.
02:24If you truly love him, set him free. It would be best for everyone.
02:28Gabriel cuts to the chase.
02:30The heir of Jormangel is destined for the highest nobility, and Auraria is a daughter of the phoenix.
02:36It's fate!
02:37The whole tower is dying to celebrate their bond ceremony. Standing in their way just disgraces you.
02:42Word after word, sentence after sentence. Then they just wait in Lysana. Waiting for my tears.
02:47He turns his head. Won't even meet my eyes. He agrees with every single word.
02:52Seven years. I've led my magic into him, drop by drop. I turned a cold, dead stone into a living,
02:59breathing man.
02:59And now they demand I hand him over. If he will not keep faith, then he forfeits the right to
03:04exist.
03:04The meteoric iron dagger sinks into Lysander's chest. I drive it beneath the breastbone. Straight into his Lindwarf core crystal.
03:10The one place no hand had reached in seven years. Those amber eyes, always so arrogant, widen in shock and
03:15pain.
03:16Vesper. You. What did you?
03:18He stares at me. He really stares. As if the wound had finally taught him where to look.
03:22I steady my grip. Twisting the blade deeper. The meteorite edge crushes his core into dust.
03:27Not a chance of survival. Archmage Maldiz mentioned it in a lecture once.
03:31The nine lives of a Lindworm? Just a myth. But the core? That's their fatal weakness.
03:36At last, one of Maldiz's lessons proves useful.
03:39Why wouldn't I? What I gave shape to, I can also destroy. If I want you dead, then you die.
03:45Blood runs down the hilt. Covers my fingers. Lysander tries to speak. He only chokes on blood.
03:51The light leaves his eyes. His body hits the floor. He shifts back to his true form.
03:56A massive silver white serpent. Its scales go dull at once, stripped of all their glory.
04:00It coils across the floor, taking up half the room. I don't blink. I watch until he stops twitching.
04:07I rip the dagger out. Walk to the center of the room. Drop to my knees. I start carving into
04:12the floor.
04:13Deep in the tower's restricted vault lies a book, The Chronicle of Primal Blood writes.
04:17I copied a page from it in secret and hid it in my room, studying it in silence for seven
04:21years.
04:21The Devourer's Gift. A 3,000 year old taboo. No tools required. No setup needed. Just one caster. And one
04:30formidable sacrifice.
04:31I finish the last rune. I slice my fingertip open. Let the blood drip into the center. I drag Lysander's
04:37corpse into the circle.
04:38My blood spreads out. It lights up every carved line. The whole array blazes with dark hole lights.
04:43I've never seen a color like it. But every vein in my body hums. Lysander's serpent form lights up. First
04:49the scales. Then the muscles. Finally the bones.
04:52Everything breaks down. Bit by bit. It melts into threads of dark gold energy. Ripped straight from his corpse. Flowing
04:59right into me.
05:00The threads sink through my skin. Hook into my bloodstream. The moment the first thread enters, something explodes in my
05:06head.
05:07A memory that isn't mine. Locks deep in my soul since the day I was born. It cracks wide open.
05:12I see a creature. It eats stars, swallows light, devours the laws of reality.
05:18It has existed since the beginning of the world. The first predator. The primal devourer. I always thought I was
05:24worthless. My magic was pathetically weak.
05:27Ever since I entered the tower at 12, I ranked at the bottom. I thought I was born broken. But
05:32now I realize I was wrong. Basic magic is useless to me.
05:35Everything the tower taught me is worthless. Something in me had lain dormant since birth. Seal behind an appetite no
05:41ordinary magic could feed.
05:43Lysander, the heir of Jormungandr. The only sacrifice to break the seal in 3,000 years. I smile. So that
05:50is the truth.
05:51Lysander's body vanishes completely. Every drop of his energy floods my veins. The shackles that bound my magic for 7
05:57years collapse, one by one.
05:59When the last of the dark gold vanishes into me, I rise with an archmage power in my bones. All
06:04that's left is a dry ritual ray and a pool of blood. Not a single trace of Lysander.
06:09Like he never existed at all. I rise to my feet and roll my wrist. My joints crack. The door
06:15bangs open.
06:16Maldra stands in the doorway. Arolia cowers behind him, eyes red and body shaking. She clutches her golden phoenix. The
06:23three seniors flank them, faces pale with terror.
06:25How could you? You killed him, and then you devoured him!
06:29She breaks down sobbing. Maldris unleashes his full Archmaster era across the room.
06:34Vesper, what you did in this room defiles the tower. Yet you also performed a forbidden ritual.
06:41By my authority you are cast out and remounded to the abyss!
06:45His power crashes down on me. Seven years ago, this would have crushed me. But now, I'm an archmage.
06:51I hold the power of the primal devourer. I straighten and meet his gaze.
06:55Killing my bonded creature? Mentor Lysander wasn't a human. He was a familiar.
07:00I hatched him from a shell seven years ago. Tower Code, Volume 7, Chapter 3, Section 11.
07:05A familiar's life belongs to its hatcher. Your language, not mine.
07:09Maldris chokes on his own words. Aurelia suddenly cuts in, tears already gathering as if on command.
07:15Her voice trembles with practiced grief.
07:17Even if he was just a familiar! You were together for seven years! Do you feel nothing?
07:23He was the heir of Jormagon! That bloodline was irreplaceable, and you just destroyed it!
07:29Irreplaceable or not, he was mine. He wanted to go with someone else, so I killed him.
07:33I glare at her. You care an awful lot about what belongs to other people.
07:37Do other people's belongings always catch your eye?
07:40Aurelia goes white. The phoenix in her arm struggles. She grips it tighter. The bird pecks at her wrist.
07:46How dare you!
07:47Maldus snaps. He knows I have him cornered on the rules. But Aurelia's tears matter more than his own laws.
07:53He cannot accuse me of murdering a familiar, so he pivots.
07:56Fine. The familiar was yours. But your mindset is dangerous.
08:00You performed a forbidden ritual. You have shown open malice towards Aurelia.
08:04Someone like you is a threat to this tower. I sentence you to three years in the atlas.
08:08The three seniors actually flinch. The abyss. The deepest forbidden zone beneath the tower.
08:14Toxic magic. Poisoned air. Feral beasts. Most apprentices don't last three weeks down there.
08:20So that is a sentence. Death. Draped in formal language.
08:24A flash of satisfaction crosses Aurelia's eyes. Then she fakes a worried look.
08:28Mentor, surely there is another punishment. The abyss will kill her. Please. Not that.
08:34Her mouth says the words. Her feet don't move an inch.
08:38My word is final. Take her away.
08:41The tower guards step forward. I will walk on my own. I head for the entrance.
08:46Passing Aurelia. I stop. I lean in and drop my voice to a whisper just for her.
08:50Hold that bird close. I may decide I'm hungry.
08:55Aurelia freezes. She hugs her bird tighter. Pure terror in her eyes. I walk to the edge of the abyss.
09:02Black mist rolls up from the dark below. I jump in and let the abyss swallow me whole. I hit
09:08the bottom of the abyss.
09:09Blood. Rot. The stench from hundreds of feral beasts. Old bones under my boots. Green eyes flashing in the shadows.
09:16Growls echoing from every direction. The primal devourer in my veins wakes up instantly. It feels no fear.
09:22Only hunger. A forbidden zone? Looks more like a grand feast.
09:27I crack a smile. A spike armored boar charges first. Bone plates hard as steel. Tusk's meant to shred metal.
09:33I don't even use magic. I sidestep. Drive my bare fist into its ribs. Crack!
09:39The boar slams into the rock wall. Bone gives way. It dies instantly.
09:43The devourer doesn't just give me magic. It remakes my body.
09:47I press my palm to the boar's chest. Dark gold breads rip from its corpse into me.
09:52Core. Bloodline. Energy. I take it all. The corpse crumbles into an empty husk.
09:56Not a bad start?
09:58Over the next few days. I hunt my way through the abyss.
10:01Shadow panthers give me speed. Rock shell lizards leave toughness in my bones.
10:05Toxic bog toads try their poison on me. And my blood devours that too.
10:08The magical concentration is higher than I expected.
10:11I stalk through the abyss like an apex predator. Grading my prey. Everything in my path runs for
10:16its life. My power surges to Archmage, level 2. Every day, I grow stronger. I just killed a
10:22two-headed wind serpent. As I reach for its core, I sense movement above. I hide my aura. Melt into
10:28the shadows. Up on a rock ledge. Maldus, Aurelia, and the three seniors. Standing inside Maldus's
10:35protective ward. Without it, the toxic air would destroy their lungs in minutes. Aurelia hugs her golden
10:40phoenix, her dress somehow still spotless. She holds a silk handkerchief to her nose,
10:45staring down into the dark.
10:46Mentor, the dark magic down here is dreadful. Do you think she's even alive? I'm worried
10:50for her.
10:51She's resilient. She'll survive. A little suffering might finally teach her her place.
10:58Aurelia strokes as her bird's feathers.
11:00That's a relief. It is still such a tragedy that his bloodline was lost. If he were still
11:06here, my phoenix could have joined with him. Their cores would have resonated beautifully.
11:10The phoenix lets out a sharp cry, backing up its master.
11:13Don't waste tears on him, Aurelia. Lysandar was rare, yes. But your phoenix is pure blood.
11:19Its future reaches even higher.
11:20Exactly.
11:21Vesper is selfish and cruel. She killed Lysandar. What a loss to the whole tower.
11:25You have a heart of gold. Stop wasting your pity on her.
11:28Aurelia nods softly. Then, she raises her voice.
11:32I just think, maybe she's broken down. Lost her way. If she just came out and apologized.
11:38Lysandar is gone. But Mentor is generous. He'd give her a second chance. She doesn't
11:43have to suffer here.
11:43From the shadows, I listen and wait. The phoenix breaks free from a lady's arms. It spreads
11:49its wings and dives for my dead serpent. Pure arrogance in its eyes. It thinks the kill
11:54is unclaimed. A glowing golden light trails from its claws as it swoops down. So it comes
11:58down after all. Before its talons hit the serpent, I burst out of the shadows. The phoenix senses
12:03danger. Tries to pull away. Too late. My right hand snaps around its throat. Its screech cuts
12:09off. It thrashes wildly. Golden fire erupts from its feathers, trying to melt my arm to
12:14the bone. But a pulse of dark gold energy instantly snuffs out the fire.
12:18What are you doing? Let him go! Let him go!
12:21Vester! Don't you dare!
12:24I slowly tighten my grip. I look up at their faces. Everyone is frozen solid.
12:31Your bird came to steal my kill. Why shouldn't I take it? Snap! Its neck cracks cleanly under
12:36my grip. The phoenix goes limp. The light in its eyes dies. The golden glow fades. I toss
12:42it in the dirt. Aurelia's screen rips through the abyss. Her face turns white. Her knees buckle.
12:48Cedric barely catches her before she falls to the ground.
12:50My phoenix! You really killed him!
12:53Tears spill over. Her finger points at me. No sweetness now. Only hatred.
12:58He was my destined mate! How dare you! How dare you!
13:01Mentor! She killed Lysander! And now she killed my phoenix!
13:05Aurelia throws herself at Maldus' feet. Maldus' face shifts from cold indifference to murderous fury.
13:11That phoenix was a pureblood. Handpicked for Aurelia. Raised on the tower's premium resources.
13:17Years of investment. Worth far more than Lysander had ever been.
13:20The cornerstone of his entire master plan for Aurelia, and the student he cast into the abyss to die,
13:25has just snapped its neck as if it were nothing. His archmaced aura explodes. His magic pours out.
13:30A giant hand made of raw arc power hangs above me. It slams down. He is trying to kill me.
13:34I will grind your soul into ash. The hand hasn't even touched me yet. The pressure already cracks my bones.
13:41The primal devourer roars awake. I dig my heels in to hold my ground. I look up at him. Grind
13:46my soul? For a phoenix?
13:48Mentor, am I not your student, Toos? Seven years of questions boiling over. Something flickers across his face.
13:54It vanishes. Buried by absolute rage. Shut up! You murdered your bonded beast! You slaughtered your sister's familiar!
14:00And now you play the victim? She wanted Lysander. You forced me to give him up.
14:04Her bird swoops in to steal my kill, and now you want me dead?
14:07Since the day I walked into this tower at 12 years old, she had the best of everything.
14:10Every mistake, every unfairness was mine to bear. Because she's more talented? Because her tears matter more?
14:15Because she's the chosen one in your eyes? Then what am I? You pulled me out of an orphanage.
14:20Was this the plan all along? Was I just a stepping stone? Was I always supposed to die the second
14:24she needed me to?
14:25Answer me, Mentor.
14:26Dead silence.
14:27The three seniors don't say a word. Everyone knows. It's an open secret. But no one ever ripped it open
14:33and forced them to face it.
14:35Aurelia stops sobbing. Her eyes dart around, showing the fear of being exposed.
14:39Muldrus' face twists. My words strike a nerve he refuses to face.
14:43Taking me from the orphanage might have started as real pity.
14:45But year after year, beside Elyria's talent and fortune my mediocre gifts lost all value to him.
14:49My worth had been decided long ago, whatever served Elyria best.
14:52And now, the tool in his hand has turned on him.
14:55Silver tongue. Twisted fact.
14:57His tone is hard, merciless. He tries to cover the wound I have carved into his pride.
15:01What you have done is beyond forgiveness.
15:03The last shred of loyalty I had for this place? It burns out completely.
15:07Then as of today, I owe neither you nor this tower anything. We are done.
15:10Done? You think a lowest rank apprentice gets to decide when this ends? This abyss is your grave.
15:14The magic hand glows brighter. The power spikes. Enough to level the entire bottom of the abyss.
15:19The shockwave alone cracks the ground under my boots into a spider web.
15:23I can't take this hit head on. My eyes lock on the phoenix corpse.
15:26Broken neck. Fainted gold. The primal devourer roars with hunger.
15:30This pure blood core is stronger than Lysiater's. No time for a full ritual.
15:33I grab the bird and shove it against my chest. Dark gold threads rip out of the corpse.
15:37They flood straight into me. Pure phoenix essence explodes in my body.
15:41Every vein burns. My power surges. Archmaster level 3. Level 4.
15:45Peak. Three leaps. Three heartbeats.
15:47Maldius's magic hand is still dropping. I lift my head. I point a single finger.
15:52Dark gold energy pools at the tip. It isn't magic. It's the devourer's source.
15:56Older. Stronger than everything. I flick my finger.
15:59Maldius's peak archmist attack shatters like glass breaking from within. Soundless.
16:03Everything fades into a thousand specks of light glistening across the abyss.
16:07The abyss falls silent. Five faces staring down at me.
16:10I'll never forget their expressions. It's the look people wear when their world shatters before their eyes.
16:15I don't hesitate. I launch myself from the bottom onto the ledge.
16:19Cedric. A blast of dark gold energy slams them into the rock wall. They go limp before they hit the
16:23ground.
16:24Aurelia crashes to the dirt. Paralyzed by fear.
16:26Maldius the man who just tried to kill me is frozen. His eyes are wide with disbelief.
16:30I walk up to him a full head shorter. He takes a step back.
16:33Mentor do you remember what you told the orphanage mate from the day you brought me here?
16:37Aurelia was next to me. Three years older. You adopted her from a top tier noble family the year before.
16:43You said she had the phoenix mark. A once in a century prodigy.
16:46Seven years.
16:47I woke up two hours early every day to study.
16:49She slept in. I stayed up four hours late every night to research.
16:52She went to galas. In every magical trial I placed at the absolute leg top.
16:56You said she never even sat for an instant. Seven years hatching and you tossing like rubbish.
16:59I hatched into the air of Yorma Mangahar.
17:01And today? Today you tried to kill me for her phoenix.
17:03Maldus's lips tremble. Vesta, I...
17:06I press my hand against his chest. Your turn.
17:09The devourer wakes up. Not death. An archmage does not fear death.
17:13This is worse. Total erration. His magic? Everything that makes him an archmaster.
17:18Pulled out. Thread by thread. Turned into dark gold energy. Drawn into my veins.
17:23I do not devour him completely. I let him live. I strip him of everything.
17:28Magic. Affinity. Rank. I leave him breathing.
17:31For a man like Maldus, life without magic is worse than death.
17:35I pull my hand back. He collapses. His hair turns white.
17:39Deep wrinkles carve into his face. His eyes go dim.
17:42He looks up at me. I look down at him.
17:44Tell me, Maldus. Who betrayed whom?
17:47Aurelia is still on the ground. Too terrified to make a sound.
17:49I pick up the phoenix corpse. Most of its energy is gone.
17:52Even dead, its flesh and bones still have value.
17:54The three knocked out seniors? Not worth my time.
17:57And then there's Mardus. A few bounds up the abbess walls.
17:59I grab the bird by the wing and leap upward, and I land dead center in the tower's main plaza.
18:03The senior mentors and apprentices are crowded together, panicking over the power spakes from below.
18:07Was that archmaster energy? What happened?
18:09It came from the abbess. Do we have an intruder?
18:11If the archmist is handling it himself, we should be fine.
18:13I drop from the air, holding a dead bird in one hand, pouring out massive dark power without restraint.
18:19Is that Vesper?
18:21She got out of the abbess? Is that the phoenix?
18:23That power? Peak archmaster?
18:25No way! She's only been down there a few days.
18:28Vesper! What are you doing here?
18:30That phoenix, what did you do to Aurelia? Where is the archmaester?
18:34I toss the bird on the cobblestones and sweep my gaze across the plaza.
18:39Every apprentice flinches when I look at them.
18:41The archmaster? You mean the man who abandoned me to that place?
18:44He tried to kill me.
18:45I pause.
18:47So I took everything from him.
18:49Impossible! Lies! How dare you slander the archmaster?
18:53Tivadar and the other mentors flare their magic, getting ready to take me down.
18:57Don't believe me? Go look.
18:59He's on the edge of the abbess.
19:00If you hurry, you might just save his life.
19:02They feel my power.
19:04That cannot be faked.
19:05As for the rest of you, I glare at the mentors, especially fixed on Tivadar.
19:08You all agreed to throw me into that abyss.
19:10I move, fast as lightning.
19:12Three strikes land before anyone can react.
19:14The shields of Tivadar and the other two mentors who approved my sentence shatter, piece by piece.
19:18One by one, they collapse onto the ground, out cold.
19:21Silence.
19:22Even the senior mentors don't have time to lift a finger.
19:24As of today, the Tower of Ashes belongs to me.
19:26If any among you object, step forward.
19:29No one.
19:30No one bows.
19:31But the first one drops his head.
19:33Then the second.
19:35The third.
19:36One after another.
19:37Every one of them lowers their head.
19:39Two guards drag Aurelia into the plaza.
19:42Her pristine image is ruined.
19:44Her dress is torn to shreds.
19:46Covered in dirt and blood.
19:47She drops to her knees.
19:49No fake tears this time.
19:51Please!
19:52I was wrong!
19:53Just leave me alive!
19:54Her voice cracks.
19:55She crawls towards me.
19:57Reaches for my robes.
19:58I give her one look.
20:00She freezes.
20:01It was me.
20:02I was jealous.
20:03I only wanted Lysimir for his bloodline.
20:05I shouldn't have let my phoenix go after you.
20:08She chokes on her sobs, stuttering.
20:10Please!
20:10We studied together for seven years.
20:12Just spare me.
20:13I'll do anything.
20:14I'll leave the Tower.
20:15I'll give up the title, Daughter of the Phoenix!
20:16Alradia.
20:17I cut her off.
20:18And crouch down so we are eye to eye.
20:21Do you remember what you said to me three years ago?
20:23She goes blank.
20:25I was hatching Lysander.
20:26Three months with no sleep.
20:27My magic was so drained I almost fell down the stairs.
20:30You grabbed my arm and comforted me.
20:32You said, don't push yourself too hard.
20:34When you're familiar hatches, he'll take care of you.
20:36Did you mean any way of it?
20:38She can't answer.
20:39I stand up, looking at the unconscious seniors and mentors.
20:42You told me to do the decent thing and let go.
20:44Did any of you hear what you were saying?
20:47Lysander was mine.
20:48Seven years.
20:48I raised him from an egg little by little.
20:50And you just expected me to hand him over?
20:52Did anyone ask whether I was willy?
20:53I did.
20:54Oh, man.
20:54You kept Muldris preaching about Avodia, the daughter of the Phoenix, the tower's golden
20:57hope.
20:58Everyone had to protect her.
20:59Did you forget?
21:00At 12, my control scores exceeded hers by 12%.
21:02At 14, I undertook my first solo mission.
21:05I nearly died bringing back a toxic Magrosa from the Blackwood Ridge.
21:08You said adequate.
21:10Then you spent 20 minutes praising Alaria for picking a lavender in the garden.
21:14At 16, I volunteered for a beast hunt on the Ebus Rim.
21:17You said our radio was a better candidate.
21:20She backed out.
21:21Said she had a headache.
21:22The hunt got canceled.
21:23You never brought my name up again.
21:25Those jerks his head up.
21:26His cloudy eyes are blank.
21:28He has absolutely nothing to say.
21:30I stare at his blank face.
21:32The last trace of pity in my chest dies.
21:34You all forgot.
21:35I didn't choose to be like this.
21:37You made me this way.
21:38Your favoritessness taught me that resources must be taken.
21:41Your sentence taught me that stepping back means getting crushed.
21:44Your attempt on my life taught me that weakness is a sin.
21:47If you hadn't squeezed every drop of humanity out of me, if you hadn't thrown me in the
21:51abyss to die, I'd still be the quiet little Vesper, keeping her head down, begging for
21:56fair treatment.
21:57You created the monster standing in front of you.
21:59Utter silence.
22:01Just Alaria's muffled sobs.
22:02The crowd is barely breathing.
22:04They understand now.
22:05I wasn't born cold.
22:07They made me this way.
22:08Their bias, indifference, and cruelty.
22:10Strike by stroke, they forged me.
22:12I square my shoulders and turn away, not looking at their faces.
22:16You admitted your sins.
22:17Now it's time to pay.
22:18Aurelia.
22:19She looks up.
22:19Your apprentice status is revoked.
22:21Your magic is sealed.
22:22Just enough to keep you alive.
22:24You will live at the bottom of the abyss, where your terror will draw out the lesser beasts
22:27to serve as target practice for the apprentice.
22:29You will live.
22:30That much, I will guarantee.
22:32But you're going to spend the rest of your life in the abyss where you tried to bury
22:36me.
22:36All the color drains from her face.
22:38She knows exactly what that means.
22:40She opens her mouth to beg.
22:42I don't give her the chance.
22:44Maldus.
22:44For the sake of the one useful thing he taught me.
22:47Volume 7, Chapter 3, Sectional 11.
22:49He gets to stay in the tower.
22:51Stripped of all privileges, reduced to the lowest servant in the tower.
22:54A former archmist, scrubbing floors and handing out rations.
22:58The rest of you keep your lives.
22:59For now.
23:00But this tower will never drag anyone down again.
23:03Starting tomorrow, advancement will be earned under my rule alone.
23:06Fewer rewards.
23:07Harder trials.
23:09No exceptions.
23:10All resources go through me.
23:12I walk toward the main spire.
23:13I don't look back.
23:15Only one thought remains.
23:16What I will hunt next.
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