Arch-Magician Nassif Of the Villa and his Scroll

The archmage of the kingdom of Villa, Nassif, was out on a quest in search of a fabled scroll that withheld powerful magic, making his way through narrowing pathways inside a cave system. There was a prophecy that the kingdom would come under threat by an inescapable maw of pure darkness, and the time that it was said to begin drawing nearer. Nassif worried about how to defend the kingdom from such a force, unsure of what it even was that he was trying to train to defend against, but he knew that there was great power in magic. “This spell must have been powerful to have been locked away in a crypt.” Nassif said while he walked out of the caves and into an opening. He walked up to a pyramid standing within the open room, drawing Nassif’s eye up to the top of it. There sat a scroll sitting atop two curved platforms when he got up to it. Nassif looked around for any traps that were linked to the scroll while he carefully pulled out a small scroll. He unraveled the scroll and double-checked what it was before he held ahold of it and muttered incantations. The paper suddenly flashed before it erupted out of his hands and scattered around the room. Several hidden traps began glowing with a faint light-green aura but none were connected to the scroll itself. Nassif placed his hand on the scroll but the moment he touched the paper, the warmth of his hand activated the spell instead, causing an explosion that created an orb of white energy. Horrifyingly, the spell inverted and began drawing things into it and grew a slight amount each time something was pulled in. Nassif’s eyes widened while he rummaged through his scrolls but the only thing he could think of was his staff. It could contain the spell. He hoped that the staff perhaps had the energy needed and quickly pulled it off of his back. Nassif pushed the brim of his hood up slightly, grabbed ahold of his staff with both hands, and tapped into its energy before he guided it towards the strange anomalous magic. “Oh, I sure hope this works!” Nassif said, gripping tighter onto his staff as he suddenly feared the blast would push it out of his grip. Instead, his staff began pulling towards the anomaly. Nassif scrambled away from the strange, slow-growing dark sphere. Nassif quickly let go of his staff with one hand to dig into his scrolls before he activated one that increased the strength of whatever attack he was using and actively saw the dark sphere shrink. Reinvigorated, Nassif dipped into his scrolls once again and lessened the amount of energy needed for the attack he was using, allowing him to keep the pressure on the dark sphere for longer. He was beginning to think he would contain it when it began absorbing his energy.

     “No!” Nassif said, angrily glaring at the strange dark sphere before he began

taking peeks behind him towards the cave system, “I had it!” The mage ran into the network of caves and made his way through quite quickly knowing where he had come from allowing him to get back outside far faster than it took him to get to the pyramid. Every step he took Nassif knew that the dark sphere was growing and worried about how large it would get by the time he got back. Knowing this, Nassif ran as fast as he could back to the kingdom of Villa. Nassif feared the dark sphere would grow large enough to begin tearing into the walls of the kingdom. “I was lucky to not have been drawn in by it. I fear what would become of somebody should they be drawn in.” Nassif thought while he ran into the kingdom and headed directly for the castle. “My king! I’ve… discovered a dark sphere in the caves not far. It’s growing and I believe it to be the prophesized maw of darkness.” Nassif said, unintentionally spreading nothing but terror through the royal court before Nassif noticed the glow of the crystal adorning the top of his staff beginning to dim, “But, there is hope. I have managed to shrink it slightly before I ran out of scrolls to boost my power.” “What would you need to contain this dark maw for good?” King Mazar asked, very slightly tilting his head to the side, clearly intrigued by the proposition. Nassif’s crystal began shining brighter than it had before and it nearly made him want to run back to the caves and try. Nassif picked out the best scrolls directly from the king’s collection. Once he was set he headed off out of the castle when the cave system deteriorated and collapsed, creating a loud, growling-like sound to thunderously echo across the lands. “Oh, no.” Nassif said while he ran up the stairs to the top of the kingdom walls to get a better view of what was going on only to confirm that it was worse than he thought and that the dark sphere had grown tremendously, “Oh… no.” Nassif attempted to cast a hovering spell with his staff but the crystal was barely glowing and only lifted him off of the kingdom wall enough to slip a hand under. Nassif shook his head and ran across the sky towards the maw of darkness with each step being a little closer to the ground until he was standing on it. “C’mon, I’ve got to show them. Maybe then it’ll rebuild their hope.” Nassif said before he embraced the king’s scrolls he obtained and boosted his magical power tenfold. Nassif wished he had had that level of power when he had first activated the strange-looking sphere of destruction. He cast a containment spell at the sphere and began pouring every bit of energy the scrolls had granted him into the singular spell. The gigantic maw of darkness and destruction ripped the very landscape

inwards, pulling whole trees and any animals unlucky enough to get too close until Nassif’s energy struck it as it immediately began working on creating a seal. “I was worried that you wouldn’t grab enough.” King Mazar said as he rode up beside Nassif before the king dropped a satchel full of scrolls beside the mage, “This thing was hidden within the caves?” “Sort of. It was a scroll, but when I touched it, it became… that.” Nassif said while he took a momentary break from powering the containment spell to catch his breath and quickly rummage through the spells King Mazar had brought, “Aha! These are great! How come these weren’t in your collection?” “They were in my private collection, but I thought you could use them more than I could.” King Mazar replied, still staring out at the strange dark sphere drawing everything it touched inside. “I need to shrink this at least some to show the people that it’s possible.” Nassif said before he began trying to shrink down the dark sphere. Nassif’s staff’s crystal was shining, but it was wavering from dimming to getting brighter. King Mazar looked at it and took off back for the kingdom while Nassif continued using his spells to boost his energy. Nassif grimaced, hoping that the maw of destruction wouldn’t grow large enough and pull him in. “I never meant to be the one to unleash the prophecy.” Nassif said to himself while he continued doing his best to contain the monstrous dark sphere threatening to engulf the kingdom. King Mazar rode his trusty stead all the way back to the kingdom. King Mazar ran up onto the public stage and watched alongside the crowd of onlooking civilians as Nassif’s magical energy slowly spread across the dark sphere. “Arch-Mage Nassif’s great power protects us!” King Mazar said loudly to his people as they all watched the mage’s energy flow around the strange, giant dark sphere. The crowd cheered and, unbeknownst to them, the crystal in Nassif’s staff began glowing unwaveringly. Nassif instantly began pouring the energy into his spell, hoping desperately to get a better grip on containing the tremendously powerful, yet equally unstable magically anomaly. “Yeah!” Nassif said while his crystal began glowing quite brightly and boosted his base power, “The people have hope!” Nassif’s energy spread slightly faster across the dark maw and began curving around to the backside. Nassif felt his energy collide with each other and knew he had successfully covered the dark sphere, but he also knew that it wasn’t over, that he had only just stopped it from growing. Nassif began maintaining the seal while he tried to shrink the dark orb down like he had before, but it refused to budge. Nassif sighed and felt fear attempting to creep into him, but he staved it off and refocused on trying to figure out how to shrink the monstrous magic.

     Nassif stumbled back, unable to continue to power it as he breathed quite

deeply in an attempt to catch his breath. Nassif rummaged through the king’s satchel but wasn’t able to find anything that could help him with the idea he had in mind. He dumped out the scrolls and stepped on them before he activated them all at once and instantly fired an energizing beam into his containment spell, hoping desperately that it was just a matter of power he needed. “Shrink!” Nassir said angrily as his crystal’s brightness began fluctuating once again, “No, I need that power!” The dark sphere of destruction began eating away at the energy encasing it, slowly getting closer to being able to continue absorbing everything it touched. Nassir looked over the scrolls in the king’s satchel once again and found a combination of spells that he wasn’t sure would work together, but it was the only thing he could think. Nassir wrapped one scroll around the crystal on his staff and tied it in place before he used the two of the other scrolls to enchant the staff. Finally, Nassir took the last scroll and slapped it against his shoulder and instantly felt the top-of-the-line spell boost his raw strength quite considerably. “I’ve only got one shot at this, but it’s a really big target. I still hope I don’t miss.” Nassir said while he aimed his staff like it was a spear with the crystal top acting as the head. Nassir activated the spell on his crystal before he threw the staff like a spear directly into the giant, monstrous black void of destruction. The staff disappeared but the prophesized inescapable maw of destruction had started to shrink. Nassir chuckled gleefully as the void shrank down so far that it was becoming hard to see at the distance they were at and prompted Nassir to chase off towards where the cave system used to be. “Good job, Nassif.” King Mazar said when Nassir returned to the city without his staff, “It was a great sacrifice, but it was worth it.” “I was just glad that spell worked.” Nassif replied quietly so that only he and the king could hear him before the two shared a chuckle. “Me too.” The King replied while the two looked out at the perfect sphere cut into the landscape, “That was close.” The two walked to the top of the kingdom wall and watched as the landscape began reforming. Nassif’s staff even hovered out as the rocks reformed before it returned to Nassif’s hand while the mage stared at it wide-eyed. “The crystal… it has the void inside of it.” Nassif said feeling the intense power his staff held now because of it. “We are lucky to have a mage such as you protecting the kingdom.” King Mazar said, getting a cheer from the crowd behind them in the street. The crowd began cheering for Nassif for saving them all while the mage stood next to the king and watched the rest of the landscape reform.

Entered by: 0xf86B…591f and preserved on chain (see transaction)