"Alright, boy! Quit stalling! Hand over your money!" the lead man demanded again, his voice cracking slightly on the final word.

  Kaelen didn’t move. His eyes quickly scanned the assailants. Just as he suspected, there were three of them.

  The man was in his late twenties, broad shoulders under a patched coat, face rough but not exactly battle-hardened. He had the stance of someone who had practiced intimidation in the mirror and held a pitiful-looking knife with an unsure grip.

  Behind him, a woman eased out from behind a column. Her lips were pressed into a thin line, and she was holding two blades. Half-hidden behind a trash bin, peering out with wide eyes, there was also a girl barely sixteen at most. Thin, quick-looking. She was watching everything without blinking.

  A family operation? Or a crew of desperate misfits?

  Kaelen let his gaze drift over them. There were two things he didn’t tolerate from common folk: one was a lack of piety when standing in his presence, another was poor weapon technique. The man was guilty of both.

  “Well? Your money,” the man repeated once more, trying to sound more confident. “Hand it over.”

  Kaelen raised an eyebrow and smiled. “I heard you the first time. But is that really your best opening line?”

  The woman bristled. “Don’t make this any harder.”

  “Oh, this is hard enough already.” Kaelen moved forward without a care, and the man took a reflexive half-step back. “I can’t believe how little finesse the criminals of this age have. If you intend to mug someone, at least do it with posture. Square your shoulders. And find yourself a more intimidating weapon. This knife makes you look like you’re about to peel an apple.”

  The man blinked. “What?”

  “Also,” Kaelen pointed at him, “speak from the diaphragm. Threats should not sound like questions.”

  “I… I wasn’t—”

  “You were absolutely asking,” Kaelen said. As much as it pained him to admit it, he was enjoying it. “Try again. Deeper voice.”

  The girl behind the bin snorted. The woman shot her a glare and jabbed her blade toward Kaelen. “Stop messing around and give us your valuables!”

  “Better,” Kaelen said approvingly and folded his arms on his chest. He turned to the man. “It seems to me that she should be the leader of your ragtag group, not you.”

  The man shook his head, regaining a shred of bluster. “Look, wisecracker, we’re armed and you’re alone. You make a single sound, and we’ll–”

  Kaelen smiled thinly. “Oh, that’s a splendid point.”

  He raised his hand. A circular pattern grew out from his fingertips, warping the air around the alley.

  [Sound Barrier]

  A translucent sphere appeared in his palm and rapidly increased in size. It enveloped Kaelen, all three robbers, and most of the Gnometown alleyway they were standing in. The edges of the sphere even went through some of the solid objects and walls.

  The alley went still at once. The distant shouts of street vendors, the rumble of carts, even the drip of water from a nearby gutter vanished. The world muted itself. The muggers looked around, astonished.

  Kaelen’s voice cut through the silence. “There. Now you have my undivided attention. You have my word that we will not be disturbed.”

  “Magic? He’s a mage!” the woman shouted.

  “mage, but still, that’s quite observant of you.” Kaelen gestured at the man. “Come on, I don’t have all day. Attack while you’re still brave enough.”

  The man obliged.

  It wasn’t a good lunge. His shoulders telegraphed the movement half a heartbeat beforehand, and he clearly expected the blade to do all the work for him. To Kaelen, he might as well have been fighting an armed turtle.

  He stepped aside, letting the attack slide past him like a lazy breeze. The woman swung next, equally wide and equally slow. Kaelen leaned out of the way again. He should have ended it there and then, but after three centuries of inaction, his body demanded more.

  They came at him together, one from each side, but even that held no real danger. Their coordination was poor. Neither watched the other’s movement and neither adjusted their strike to account for the space the other occupied. Their blows overlapped where they should have alternated, crowded where they should have flowed.

  Kaelen noted it all with distant irritation. Clearly, these two were not partners. They were a couple of frightened amateurs swinging in the same direction and hoping for the best.

  “You. Move. Like. Two. Snails,” Kaelen uttered between each dodge. He was feeling like his old untouchable self.

  He concentrated energy in his fingertips, intending to maim the woman first with [Rending Strike]. When he shifted his weight to attack back, something seized in his side again.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  A sharp, familiar pressure knifed beneath his ribs. Not physical pain — Kaelen had endured worse over the centuries in this world — but a hollow feeling, as if a piece of him was simply missing. His left hand twitched. His stance faltered for a single, humiliating heartbeat.

  The same old wound the Sun-Kissed Blade had carved into him three centuries ago. It should have healed in the rejuvenation chamber. But when he tried to channel power through that side, the spell sputtered, refusing to form.

  The man saw the opening and stabbed at him again. Kaelen pivoted out of range, annoyed. Another opening appeared. He could have snapped the woman’s weapon in half, tripped her, – but when he moved to retaliate, the hollow pull returned, dragging on his magic like an anchor. So he evaded instead.

  Thinking it might have some to do with that particular spell, Kaelen tried a few dozen others, each with more frustration behind it.

  [Thunder Burst]

  [Eldritch Flame]

  [Moon’s Bane]

  [Shadow Bolt]

  [Fire Whip]

  He tried every school of magic he knew, dusting some of them off after a lifetime of misuse: Arcane, Nature, Frost, Shadow, Entropy. He moved from raw evocations to controlled enchantments, from conjurations to minor cantrips, testing everything short of holy magic.

  The spells worked. Power flowed, sigils formed, bolts scorched brick, thunder cracked, shadows lashed outward. But none of it connected. Each attack slipped wide, detonating against walls or dispersing harmlessly into the air. If it weren’t for Kaelen’s [Sound Barrier], the entire city would have heard the chaos by now.

  Nature spells fared slightly better. [Vine Bind] erupted from cracks in the stone and managed to snare the man’s legs for a heartbeat before snapping loose under frantic kicks. It was something, but nowhere near enough.

  , Kaelen thought grimly.

  The knife carved empty air nearby. The attacks of these sorry muggers grew more frantic. Kaelen stepped around them, parrying with two fingers, sidestepping like he was practicing choreography rather than fighting for his life.

  The little girl watched him with growing awe and confusion. At least she had the sense not to attack Kaelen head-on. Instead of directly participating in the fight, she kept shouting out advice to her two crewmates (“From behind! You go to the right! No, right!”). It was all for naught. These two were as frustrated as Kaelen and were slashing at him wildly.

  “I do not have time for this,” Kaelen growled. What should have been an enjoyable game turned into an exercise in frustration.

  Another wild swing. Kaelen blocked the strike with his palm, barely applying pressure. The blade trembled in the man’s hand. He could dodge forever, but it seemed that answering in kind was not in the cards. The wound tugged at him every time he braced his mana core.

  Kaelen stepped back, more annoyed than threatened.

  “This is getting tiresome,” he said.

  The man panted. “Then… just… stop… moving!”

  “If only you attacked properly, I wouldn’t have to.”

  “You think this is funny?” the woman threw back at him.

  “Not anymore, it isn’t.” The hollow ache in Kaelen’s side throbbed again, sharper this time. He felt his patience thinning.

  If he could not fight physically or cast lesser spells cleanly, he would escalate. Kaelen lifted his hand and snapped his fingers.

  [Summon Demon]

  A red sigil flared beneath his feet, then split in two, forming a jagged crack in the air. Something clawed at the edge of the breach, a pair of coal-red eyes peering through, curved horns scraping the tear.

  The man dropped his knife, the woman stumbled backward, and the little girl bolted behind a stack of crates, eyes huge.

  But it turned out it was not the demon that startled Kaelen’s muggers. A sudden siren blared across the entire district before the demon could make his first step.

  AoooOoooAoooOoooAoooOoooAoooOoo

  Kaelen froze. The sound punched through his [Sound Barrier] without resistance. It wasn’t muffled or distorted, either. It simply his spell.

  “What is that?” Kaelen demanded, turning to one of the attackers. “Is that your doing?”

  The man stared at Kaelen like he was deranged. “Man, are you stupid or something? You summon demons and then ask that?”

  “You triggered the city alarm, idiot!” the woman added, backing away with rapidly growing panic.

  The siren pulsed again, louder, like the city itself was howling. Kaelen dispelled [Sound Barrier] and heard that people on nearby streets started shouting. Somewhere, metal shutters slammed closed. Patrol whistles rose, and a multitude of boots thundered over cobblestone.

  The Dark Lord dismissed the demon instantly. The breach sealed with a hiss, leaving behind the smell of sulfur and a couple of hoof marks.

  The thieves had no interest in further confrontation. The man and woman sprinted down the alley in opposite directions, abandoning any pretense of criminal unity. Kaelen watched the two of them disappear.

  he realized suddenly.

  Expecting a sneak attack, Kaelen turned abruptly and monitored his surroundings. The view was clear. It was so unlike him to get this paranoid, yet he could tell something was wrong. Either there was an attack that he would not see coming or…

  He opened his [System] menu and rummaged through his [Inventory].

  It was completely empty. The Dark Lord did not have that many valuables on him, only a few pieces of gold (not that he had many chances to use them) and the book he stole from the Royal Archives.

  He looked around him again, and this time he spotted her. She was a tiny speck, working her way up the faraway building. The girl was moving like she’d been slipping through alleys since the day she learned how to walk.

  “You!” Kaelen said, pointing with controlled anger. “Return—”

  She leapt onto a balcony ledge, stuck out her tongue at him, then flipped herself over a railing, and vanished onto the rooftops.

  A whistle shrieked nearby. “ALARM SOURCE NEAR THIS BLOCK! MAGES ON ME! GO, GO, GO!”

  Kaelen sighed. He stepped backward until his shoulders brushed the wall, then folded into the shadows using [Shadow Walk]. The chaos of the alarm worked in his favor. Everyone was looking for something monstrous, not paying attention to a malformed shadow.

  The patrol squad charged into the alley, weapons drawn. Their leader scanned the ground.

  “Signs of destruction,” he said. “Possibly demonic. High grade.”

  “Casualties?” another asked.

  “No bodies,” the younger soldier replied. “None that I can see. Whatever it was, it booked it fast.”

  Kaelen slipped out of the alley’s opposite end while they argued theories. Once he reached the street, the crowd swallowed him again. The alarm continued to ring, echoing off every stone surface in the district.

  Kaelen ignored the sound and the panic around him. He was looking for the signs of the little thief.

  The book was of little value to him. If he wanted to, he could take another from the same library without anyone noticing. But it was a matter of principle. No one in the last four centuries dared to put their hands on Kaelen’s personal belongings.

  The girl would have to pay for it. Dearly.

  Patreon, which is 7 chapters ahead right now (it will be expanded to 12 chapters in the coming weeks).