The air changed. Thickened. It became harder to breathe as if the air was slowly turning thicker. The shadows along the far wall deepened. Then the stone itself rippled, peeled back like wet paper, and revealed a figure wrapped in rust and black. Cloaked in dark blue robes. An obsidian skull glinted where his face should have been. Nubis. The Skeleton King's brother.
"Forgive the intrusion," he said "I was... curious."
Null hissed softly. "You could knock."
Nubis ignored him. Of course. He always did. He always treated Null as something not even worth a glance.
He glided closer, feet barely above the ground. Eyes swept the ritual circle, the mana trails, the books and runes. Before they finally settled on Morte.
"You've grown," he said. "Not in height. In power. I can now feel your magic three levels below."
Morte stood straighter. "If you're here to lecture me about cloaking myself or mana inefficiency dont bother.
"I'm not your tutor," he said, amused. "I leave teaching to the living and the sentimental fools. I came for something else. If you're sharp, maybe you'll catch the hint."
He moved like a shadow. "You faced a sixth-tier," he said. "You survived. That's rare. That's interesting. Tell me—did you enjoy it?"
Morte couldn't help but narrow his eyes. "Enjoy what?"
"The risk. The nearness of death. Knowing one mistake meant annihilation. Did it thrill you?"
Null's growl rose, soft but sharp. "He's not like you undead."
Nubis stil ignored Null Morte honest guess was that he just viewed null as beneath him for whatever reason.
After a few moments Morte answered "I didn't enjoy it. I didn't fear it either. I did what I was taught to do."
"And felt what you felt," he said. "That's what matters."
He lingered now, gaze heavy. "Have you considered what happens when you leave this place? When you walk among the living with all that power? You'll have to hide. Dull your senses. Pretend like you're like everyone else weak unless you're willing to pay the price it cost to be powerful.
Morte looked momentarily confused and couldn't help but let a question escape his mouth. "The price?"
"Thats disappointing Morte I thought if anyone was smart enough to know the cost of power it would be you the Archmages only son."
He turned toward the archway, but didn't leave.
"The King has plans," he said. "And you, dear child, are just the tip of the Iceberg be ready."
Morte couldn't speak he was still surprised by the revelation that he was a archmages son. There weren't many in the world afterall the amount of 7th tier beings could be considered well less than 100.
Morte couldnt help but ask the question hes bveen dying to ask since Nubis had begun to drop hints. "You don't care about me. So why warn me at all?"
Nubis paused and turned the polished obsidian of his skull reflecting the faint light as he did so.
"That is for me to know mortal. Do not dare question me. Know. Your. Place. Child."
Then he stepped forward once and the room changed. It felt Hollow. Like the feeling of being in an abandoned building.
"You think yourself heir," he continued "Because my brother named you. Because you've begun to bloom. Don't mistake that for dominance. If there were ten of you, I still wouldn't need to raise a hand to end them."
Null bristled. Nubis didn't care.
"And don't think he's blind," Nubis added, softer now. "He knows about the hate you carry. That little ember you keep tucked beneath your ribs. Over Kyris. Over what was taken."
Morte clecnhed his fist. But disnt dare to speak.
Nubis turned, voice trailing like wind through bone.
"Sentiment," he said, "is always the first crack in the living's armor. Be careful, child. You're being forged and some blades break when quenched. And like any broken blade, you wouldn't be discarded. You'd be reforged into something else. You're alive because you're still growing. But grow too powerful powerful enough to threaten the King—and he'll end you without hesitation. And don't think for a second that he wouldn't use you even in death."
Then he was gone. No spell. Just gone.
Null exhaled like he'd been holding it since the moment Nubis arrived. "I really hate that guy."
Morte was quite for a moment "So do I Null. So do i. Use what you've heard from him and try to see if you can see what all hints he may have said I'm pretty sure i know but it doesn't hurt to have you check too."
Morte turned back toward the ritual circle and sat once again in the center and began to circulate his mana around himself no longer focusing on pulling it in but using his anger as a fuel to help circulate his mana purifying it more and more of its impurities.