Concession

**Date Started:** November 7th, 2022
**Date Completed:** Ongoing
**Next Role-Play:**
**Users Involved:**The ancient terror
**Setting:** Bosco
**Characters Involved**:
**Light Mages**: Friedrich Strider, Badman Forward
**Dark Mages**:
**Others**:

## Cold Hands

It was the year X904 in the land of Bosco. Winter was approaching, and the cold swept through their lands, faster than other lands, thanks to the proximity to Iceberg, as the lands and cities were covered with a layer of snow early. But even if the winter was very hard, it showed a great and peaceful atmosphere, and the snow turned the places into a beautiful white. In Bosco's capital, however, it was anything but peaceful, as cries of anger and sounds of fighting could be heard. It is known that a civil war is underway, as the population begins to protest and fight against the current rule of the king of Bosco, Dimitri Bosco XI. Even though things are not yet bloody, soldiers of the kingdom and even rune knights of the Magic Council have been sent out to stop this attempt at revolution. The fact that this kind of fight went on for weeks and was still not resolved shows how serious the current situation was.

In the throne room, said king sat on his throne with a permanent frown on his face, probably the result of the civil war that cost him not only a blow but also many hours of sleep. Even with his soldiers and the requested rune knights of the magical council, there was no end in sight. As he pondered how to proceed, one of his advisors entered the throne room and bowed to him.

"Report," the king said, sounding neither angry nor happy about the appearance of his advisor, but simply tired and finished. But the advisor knew it was better to take his chance, even if he was surprised at his king's tone.

"My majesty, I have two big news to report. With the help of the Rune Knights, we have finally been able to push the revolutionaries back from the main trade routes and the mining mountains, so we once again have safe access to goods and ores without being disturbed," the advisor explained, while his king's face turned to cheerfulness, which made him a little nervous, knowing that what he would say next would ruin the whole mood again.

"This is excellent news! One step closer to finally getting rid of this ridiculous nonsense of our people! Tell me what the other news is!" the king said cheerfully, while the advisor sweated even more and swallowed nervously, but after a while he was able to gather his courage and speak.

"Well...."

While the civil unrest happens, a lot of knights and guards needed to lessen in places to maintain the control in the capital. This causes especially experienced and the stronger knights to venture out, while the newer and less experienced ones took the jobs, were less trouble was to expected. One of the less trouble places where the treasure room, deep inside of the castle of the capital. Normally, with all the commotion around the castle, the chances of something happening are slim, but that was not the case.

In front of the treasury lay dozens of dead soldiers, and four people were standing there. One of them, dressed in a robe, was sitting in front of the door, which was covered with protective runes, and was working to dissolve it.

"How long are you taking, old man?" complains a gray-haired man with strange blue glasses, leaning against the wall and looking a bit impatient while looking at the very tall guy next to him, whose big fists and even part of his mouth are covered with blood, blood that does not belong to him. "Even though this civil war is the best distraction, I don't want to jeopardize our chances."

"Shut up, brat. It's not easy to despise runes created specifically by the Mage Council," the old man complains as the last rune shatters and the door finally opens. "It is done."

"What did you-!/Kikahahah! Kikahahaha!" the punk was about to complain before being interrupted by the laughter of the last person as the room was filled with the maniacal laughter of a woman. Laughing, she began to enter the treasury, while the bodies of the soldiers that passed them looked like they were being dragged into the ground by their own shadows. The other three people let the woman go first before following her. The treasury was filled with all sorts of valuable things. From gold, to jewels, to expensive goods, everything was represented. But none of that mattered as they looked at the items in the center of the room. On an altar in a glass container that held two gaunlets, one in a bright blue, while the other was in black.

"Finally," the woman almost sang as dark, shadowy tendrils emerged and destroyed the glass container before grabbing the gloves and bringing them to her. Her smile grew unnaturally wide before she looked at her comrades, her smile unsettling them a bit.

"We got what we wanted. Let's get away from her. We don't have time to waste," she commanded as a circular purple thing suddenly formed, which they all entered before disappearing out of the treasury with it.

"**WHAT!?'**, the king shouted in anger, looking as if a vein was going to burst after hearing the news from his advisor. The advisor was trembling with fear as he tried to find words.
"HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN! GET THEM BACK! Do something!" commanded the king, whose anger level was rising.

"B-B-B-But my L-Lord, we don't have a-/I DON'T CARE! FIND A SOLUTION! PAY SOMEONE TO DO IT OR ORDER A GUILD FOR THIS MISSION! THE CIVIL WAR HAS COST US MOST OF OUR RESOURCES, BUT GETTING THEM BACK IS JUST AS IMPORTANT! GO NOW! DO WHAT I SAID!" the king ordered gruffly, to which the advisor nodded weakly.

"Yes, my lord," the advisor said before quickly walking out of the throne room to escape his king's wrath. Once outside, he sighed.

"Again, all the work is on my shoulders. Looks like I need to quickly contact strong mages and make an investment," the advisor groaned, remembering that it wasn't the first time he had done the dirty work for his king, especially since he now at least had a good reason to do it.

“Should be here somewhere,” Friedrich spoke aloud.

“Just look for the biggest building, the rest should come easy master,” retorted Scutum, a large face-shaped shield that hovered around the older mage.

Amassing the stares and looks from ongoing passerby's, Friedrich was wearing nothing but a simple tunic, leaving his bare chest exposed in the cold air, with what could be heard as keys jingling from his waist. With Scutum passively observing him, he served as a type of navigator, nudging him to the right direction as he immediately swung straight toward the corner of his head, turning his direction off to the side of his peripheral vision.

“Right over yonder.”

“Oh yea how do you fig—,” cutting himself off, Friedrich could see a large castle not too far from town, where the client was undoubtedly located. Following the roads and direction from the guards, Friedrich made his way to the king’s domicile, nearly ready to barge in through the large doors with a single well-placed kick, nearly tripping as his Celestial Spirit knocked him underfoot.

“Manners master, wait for an opportunity and strike true, you’re not on your own anymore,” he smiled, vanishing once they had arrived at their location.

“I guess a little restraint couldn’t hurt.” Picking himself off the floor, he dusted himself off and took a more formal posture, just about ready to knock on the door.

“Dark mages…and artifacts hmm…,” he mumbled to himself. Standing straight up, he was looking all over for the second member of their party to arrive. From what he was informed, it was a two-man job, meaning he’d have to partner with another mage for the remainder of the request.

“Come on Scheze, why don’t you join my guild?!” Badman said with a loud belly bouncing laugh. He wore his signature pants and nothing more but the purple cloak tied around his neck and the gigantic sword, Pops, on his back. The man towered over everyone so he casted a large shadow over the small ebony girl before him.

A new, upcoming spirit alongside the other two girls who’d been making waves in Chimera Head. The rival to his own guild Troll Arm.

“We fan show you how real warriors fight! A guild where women are leading the rankings is one that needs dire help.”

“I don’t care. And no.” Scheherazade said. She didn’t lift her eyes from the book in her hand. A staple. Badman always wondered what made this girl so inquisitive. If she wasn’t on jobs with her friends, she was often found reading some old book. This one read *The Ones Who Left*.

“You know whatever is holding your heart down’ll never leave if you keep holding back!” He exclaimed with a proud pose. But to no avail.

“It’s fine. Then I’ll get Cass and Chang. If I can’t get all three then bedding 2 will surely be enough.”

Her eyes shot up in a deathly scowl. Her eyes shooting through him. Wind started to blow.

“I curse you, that you will have a daughter and she will disappoint you by the man she loves!” Scheherazade demanded.

“W-wait!” Badman screamed. “D-does that mean you wanna have my daughter?”

And that’s how Badman found himself walking through Bosco with a black eye he held an ice block too “Damn cold hearted wench. You’d be bless to have my seed.” He grumbled. Although skimpily dressed, the purple cloak possessed a powerful Holder Magic which earned off the elements. Allowing him to traverse while barely clothed. It wasn’t too long until he reached the castle’s massive doors.

“I’m here. Badman Forward of Troll Arms Guild.” He said with a bicep flex…except one arm remained on his eye.

While the two figures were standing in front of the door, not yet having time to notice each other's presence, there was more shooting behind the closed door and something was hurled against the wall. A short time later, a small man came out of the door and closed the door behind him. He was half bald, as in the back of his head, where there were only strands of black hair, while his eyes had large dark circles around them and looked as if he had not slept for a long time. When he turned around, he saw the two people, and his expression was a mixture of surprise, relief and tiredness.

"Ah! You must be the mages we are looking for! I am the king's advisor, and I am glad you came so quickly! Please follow me," the advisor said, leading the two mages down a corridor before they entered a room with a large table and a few chairs.

"Please take a seat. I will bring the visual Lacrima to explain everything. May I offer you something to drink?" the advisor asked as he walked over to a chest in the room and pulled out a visual Lacrima.

“Bring your best bottle, I’ll need it if I’m going to warm these old bones as it were, and two glasses, for the fine gentleman,” Friedrich gestured to his partner. Although he was a man well past 60 years, the Celestial Spirit Mage had a significant build that was unnatural for someone his age, almost brazen enough to flaunt it around with such revealing clothes that was out of touch with the fashion of Ishgar, insinuating that he was from out of the country. Taking a load off as close as he could to the lacrima, he let himself fall on the seat, the couch creaking from his weight as he folded one leg over the other, giving the other mage a small wink.

“Tell your king that he has the pleasure to bask in the presence of Freidrich Strider, and all is well. And while we wait, I can enjoy YOUR company even more,” he insinuated, speaking in almost coquettish manner, more so to gauge his reaction over simply ruffling his feathers.

Badman followed the buff old man. Two buff mages would be enough to take on any issues that's stressing this kingdom. It was less like a competition and more like a father and son baring their massive muscles for all to bow to. He smiled while sitting next to Freidrich. "Y'know old man, ya ain't that bad." He said.

"Bring us the finest drinks. And tell your chefs to start cooking. We'll handle everything going on by the time our great feast is finish."

The advisor sighed, but decided he couldn't handle any more headaches than he already had. So he ordered a couple of servants to bring the mage duo some drinks. He opens the visual lacrima projecting the image of two strange gloves, one in light blue, the other in dark color.

"I apologize, but our king is still busy with the riots, so I apologize on his behalf for not being able to give you the task, so I will," the advisor said, probably lying when he said the king was sorry for not being present, but they didn't need to know that.

"During the riots, a dark guild managed to sneak into our treasury and steal two of our most important artifacts. The Gloves of Share and Theft. A pair of cursed items that can be used to permanently steal and take magic from living and non-living beings. We use them to permanently punish dark mages and other criminals by taking away their magic as punishment while giving it to other people who carry on the peace of Bosco. So you can imagine how important it is to get these artifacts back from the hands of these dirty mages," the advisor explained, taking short breaks in case his guests had a few questions.

"This Bosco wine, its exactly what I needed," Freidrich paused, taking a moment to knock back the whole drink down in a single swig, letting out a sigh of relief, his skin and face bright red from the spontaneous burning of the drink moving down his throat before wiping his mouth with his forearm. In that instant, any sense of jubilance or mellowness that insinuated an easy to-going geezer was gone, replacing it with a stern, almost sober expression that only illustrated his wrinkles on his face even more in mock irritation, giving off a greater aged appearance to the older mage. Stroking his beard, a glint in his eye was focused squarely on the item on display, taking in the details before turning to the messenger.

"Quite the impressive purpose, I imagine your 'magnanimous' ruler doesn't simply leave it lying around for every tom to use. That begs the question: how could an item used to punish criminals be stolen by those very criminals in the first place." Speaking in the same manner a father would to scold a child, Freidrich made no attempt to hide the condescending tone in his voice, glossing over any names to blame for this incident, finding it futile to point fingers at this point on who should shoulder the blame.

"We have the opportunity, but lack the motive. We must ask ourselves: who would best take advantage of such a situation if presented the chance." Turning to his partner, Freidrich wanted his thoughts on the situation in order to gauge the room, "Master Badman, your thoughts?"

"My thoughts exactly." Badman said while slamming the empty bottle on the table. "Stealing and gifting magic are powerful spells that are seldom seen in the world. I can imagine that this is the workings of something greater than angry criminals."

He took a second and leaned forward. His hands holding his head up while his eyes remained on the man before him. "Are there any criminals or criminal syndicates that you might know of which holds any ill will towards the king and your people? We're going to need to start a search for who'd even *know* of this treasure. And fast. I'm sure they're on their way out."

The advisor sighed again, already anticipating these kinds of questions. "Well, as far as intentions, why they would want to do that, aside from the obvious abilities, is beyond my knowledge. The only historical connection we have is that hundreds of years ago there was a being that had these curses as its abilities. It was feared as a literal god of magic, deciding who could have magic and who could not, for even dragons or magical animals were not safe from this being. His tyranny ended, however, when a magic-less hero rose up who died in battle but slay this being who left these artifacts. That, at least, is the only tale that has survived about the origin of these artifacts." the advisor explained before opening his palm, around which magic was gathering, looking as if the particles were searching for something.

"As far as their way out. They already left when they got the artifacts. My magic is called **Search Magic**. It is capable of using magical particles, reading and analyzing them. Even past scenarios can be read this way. With this, I could track down the culprits behind the action. And that would also explain the exact reason how they knew about the existence and location of the treasury and these artifacts in the first place," the advisor said before a guild symbol from the Lacrima became visible. "The dark guild, Compote Pony," the advisor finished with a growl in her voice.

"A dark guild that was quite insignificant, for it was not even known who or if the dark guild even had a guildmaster. And now we learn not only the existence of the guild master, but also that it is the same person we thought was dead. The former advisor to the former king who was believed to have been killed after an attack by the dark mages. So the exact reason why this guild knows about the existence of these artifacts. The bitch faked her death and is now abusing her knowledge for her plans," the advisor explained, sounding extremely pissed off.

When he calmed down, he continued to show the image of a woman with silver-white hair.

"According to the research of the confirmed ex-advisor and guildmaster of Compote Pony, Maria Stickholm, also known as "**Night Crawler**", is the reason how the dark guild could know about our secrets. If we had known about her existence before, we would have gotten rid of her long ago...., even though I thought I would get rid of any dark guild, regardless of the connections. I just don't understand why nothing was done about them. But we are getting off topic. This woman is known as a skilled user of shadow magic, her sheer mastery and creativity, which was known in her time as an advisor and has probably grown stronger, makes her at least an S class dark mage." Then the vision showed three more figures, a tall man completely bald, a normal lanky looking person with gray hair and a person completely wrapped in robes.

"The dark guild is mostly a group of thugs who are pretty pathetic compared to mages of your strength, but there are at least two mages who pose a noticeable threat from an A-class mage. The bald Flop, also known as the "**Butcher**," is one of these mages. While not much is known about his magic, his physical abilities are immense, as he can break people like sticks and even bend metal with his sheer physical strength, which he has demonstrated on the guards. The other is known as Bruce, also known as "**Dark Goggles**". He's the reason they can get in and out so quickly. He is known for being able to create purple portals that can move from location A to B, with no set limit on range or size. It is a top priority to take care of him, otherwise they could easily escape," the advisor finished before looking at the bound figure.

"This person was present during the attack, but we have no information stored about him. However, he was the one who was able to despell the protection runes. He may only be a grunt, but I would still keep an eye on this figure. It could be a secret weapon or a third party in this whole situation."

The vision changed again before showing a map. "However, the dark guild was not prepared for my magic and how it interacted with portal magic. I was able to read the flow of magical particles and was able to locate the magical structure from another location," he gave the mages a small lacrima.

"This lacrima will tell you the exact location of their hiding place, which I was able to locate. It is located on the borders near Iceberg. Here is the mission. Retrieve the artifacts and capture the traitor and her dark guild to bring them to justice. If necessary. Kill them. And if it is the very last option, if there are too many fights and the stacks are too high....destroy those artifacts. Either these artifacts should be destroyed immediately, instant being in the hands of these dirty mages. Have you any questions?" the advisor explained in pur determination, nearly sounding like a king himself, carring for the future of his country.

"Hmmm," Friedrich hummed, soinning the leftover wine in his cup, carefully examining it as if he were looking for something inside. placing the small goblet down, he stared at the two translucent glovs floating in the air, alongside the map. "As a mage myself, it'd be a loss if I couldn't continue working for my livelhood, I have a family to support after all," he joked, waving his hand in the air in a relaxed manner. As the current patriarch of the Strider Family, his mage's pride couldn't allow him to let a group of dark mages to run ramapnt into his "territory", but he wasn't blind enough to take on a request that could potentialy end his career in that same instance.

"I must ask, for a device as malicious as this, it must have all manner of secrets only privy enough to its original retainers, wouldn't you say master Badman. So naturally one must ask: what are its capabilties? What are the conditions in which it allows it to take magic from the intended target? And how best can we defend agaisnt it?" Friedrich had no interest in the gloves beyond either destroying or retrieving them, or the children who's hands it had fallen into, but its mysterious nature left him weary of it.

"Of course." Badman answered. He listened intently. Rubbing his chin as he absorbed the massive flux of information. Despite his giant biceps squeezing against his forearms, Badman had the eyes of a scholar. He even came to the same conclusion. The last thing they needed to do is to rush into a battle where someone wielded possible weapons of mass destruction.

"Prized possessions or not they're weapons in the hands of enemies. And such we need to prepare for any outcome. Including ensuring our magic isn't stolen. What're the methods of invocation? Its weaknesses and range? I assume that the alternate gloves are the reversal spell of one another. So worst comes to worst we need to retrieve the gloves separately."

The advisor looked up and was pleased with the mages who actually thought like professionals and made him happy to be there.

"These gloves for function, they must both be worn. As explained, only the black one has the ability to steal magic, while the white one has the ability to give magic. It is also only necessary to take away one glove, because if only one glove is worn, the powers will not work. Both gloves also allow the user to somehow alter the magic core with their abilities. We don't know exactly how, but it allows the user to have multiple magical types in their body without any problems unless the gloves are taken off, which causes the person to get multiple cases of magical illnesses, up to and including death from magical overkill. The activation is done by touch. Once the user touches you, there is no turning back. This glove rips out the magic core and magic and transfers it to the user. So avoid being touched by the black glove and you should be fine," the counselor explained before thinking about something.

"There's also one thing you might be able to accomplish if the dark mages figure it out. After various tests, we also found out that the effect can also take place through a magical connection. We have found out that the glove effect can also be taken over and used through a magical connection. Some maker-type mages have found that the glove effect can also go through elemental magic when the element is connected to the glove. This means that it is possible for the guild leader to use her shadow magic to create tendrils that are connected to the glove and can steal magic from afar. Even if it is possible, it is extremely difficult and find out in the first place, and it is unlikely that Maria learned about it, as we found out about that after she left. Still, there's a small chance she might, so also avoid attacks and shadows associated with the Black Glove."

“Ho ho ho, I see…” Friedrich had heard everything he needed to know, with whatever else he needed easily taken from those involved in this incident. Gripping both hands together, the pressure applied caused the veins in his hands to bulge, his muscles across his arms and shoulders to swell up and contract in an unnatural way, a smile creeping up as his large hands broke free from their power struggle, smashing the table that held his drink to pieces along with the floor’s marble surface from the sheer pressure of the sudden motion, doing so as if it was the only thing stopping him from doing much worse. With the spur of the moment gone, Friedrich composed himself again, running his hand through his hair as he let a relaxed breath escape his lips.

“How embarrassing for a man my age to act out, I could die from the shock alone. But you’ll have to forgive this old man for a moment, I couldn’t help but indulge the young man in me once more,” Friedrich said bashfully, bringing his hand back up to his side.

It was a job well worth his time, something that would do more than break his boredom, but actually require real effort on his part, even in his advanced age, something he hadn’t done for the longest time ever since his family had gotten larger with the birth of his 10th son. With the mission well in hand, and a destination set, he had everything he needed on hand, his keys being the only real piece of equipment on hand that mattered to him, anything else was inconsequential. He turned to Badman.

“Did you need anything before we left?”