Close by, a chase similar to the one Lee-Ann had experienced was unfolding. A commotion was being created as a man in dark robes dashed through the streets, followed by someone in blue, with a red scarf and eyemask trailing behind him. That someone was yelling something about stopping, white, ancient letters swirling around him as he pointed a finger at the man, a jet of magic about to erupt from it. This all was taking place in front of a certain park bench, in which the red-haired girl with a mark on her face seemed lost in thought. As the man in robes clumsily stumbled along, occasionally almost tripping over his flowing robe, a sudden sound rang out from outside the fourth wall, the sound of a needle scratching along a spinning disk. At once, the situation was put on hold, as though there was some unseen force pressing the pause button. Suddenly: Words.
"See that man, the one over there? The bumbling man in the cloak?"
The image seemed to zoom in on him as though an unseen camera was focusing on the figure.
"Well, that's me. Now, you might be wondering how I got into such a wacky situation. Well, I think to understand that, we need to go back to the beginning."
All off a sudden, everything seemed to go in reverse, and distortions appeared all within reality as time shifted back, showing glimpses of various past events, rushing too fast for the eye to distinguish, until finally stopping on one. There was a dark room, illuminated only by the candles surrounding the pentagram drawn onto the floor with what looked like blood. In the middle of it was a man wearing the exact same cloak as the one previously shown, chanting incomprehensibly in the middle. Suddenly, once more everything stopped.
"Well, maybe not that far back..."
Time started up once more, speeding forward this time, flashing by similar scenes from before. Finally, the scene stopped to show the robed man walking through the streets of Crocus, with a stack of books in his hand. As he walked, a voiceover could be heard from somewhere.
"My name is Simon Wallisch, and I'm a dark mage. I have a special magic: Meta Magic, the power to reach out to the higher dimensions, and communicate with beings from them. It's objectively useless, but somehow it always lands me into some kind of trouble. In my pursuit for an actually useful magic, and my own wealth and glory, I decided to join a dark guild operating in the capital of the nation of Fiore. Of course, little did I know that I'd wind up being hunted down by some unknown member of Lamia Scale. This is how it all started..."
~~~~
Raphael had done his research, his time spent investigating with Rowan had paid off, and, among other things, he had learned about one of the key members of the dark guild he was targeting, Orion's Cabal. A relatively small group that was focused on unwrapping the very essence of magic, and committing petty crimes to fund their research. While that first option wasn't going to be solved anytime soon, the crimes they were committing were becoming increasingly concerning, and now he had taken the quest to take them out. The man who he could see exiting the magic store was a man by the name of Simon. He seemed like a relatively regular looking guy, except for the outrageously "evil" looking robe he had on. It was mostly black, with some purple outlines mixed in here and there. Gold colored buttons and other similar adornments covered it, and Raphael had to wonder where he had gotten it from. Shaking his head clear of such thoughts, he began to approach the man. It would be simple enough to sneakily take him out; but that wouldn't be very flashy now, would it?
"Simon Wallisch, member of Orion's Cabal! I'm Raphael Monticroix, the man who will take you down, in the name of justice!"
He pointed at him, just to make it clear there were no mistakes. The mage reacted rather violently, dropping the tomes and sprinting away. Raphael began to run after him, but not before checking out the books he had dropped. "A History of Magic, Volume VIIII" was the first one that Raphael saw. How reputable could these books be with such a blaring typo right on the front cover? Shrugging, he then began to chase after the man, creating small letters on his fingertips, which began to wrap around him. They were functionally useless, but they would serve to make him: 1) Intimidate Simon into thinking he was much stronger 2) Make whatever actual spells he was to cast on him unpredictable 3) make himself look flashier for the crowd. He shouted more words about justice as he ran, thoroughly enjoying himself. His opponent however, was having much less fun. He wasn't a terribly fast runner, and his robe made it hard for him to run without slipping.
The two carried on with this chase, dashing through the streets, until they had reached the edge of town. It hadn't been a particularly long run, but Simon was panting, somehow managing to keep running. Now that the crowd was starting to thin out, Raphael figured it was time to finish this. Extending his hand, pointing at the man, Raphael shouted out the name of the spell as a letter began to form on his finger.
"Gaaaaamma Raaayyyy!"
~~~~
"And that's the jist of it. And here we are again."
~~~~
A beam of light shot forth, nailing Simon square in the shoulder. While it wasn't a particularly strong attack, it was enough to throw him off balance. he collapsed to the ground as he slipped on his robe. Raphael was able to easily catch up to him, and hunched over the figure. He took a moment to collect his breath before speaking.
"So... *pant* I have some... *pant* questions for you Simon... *pant* ..."