In a time before our historic records disappeared, the whole world was owned by humanity. We built sky-high Towers, made of glass and concrete. We erected cities far wider and more spacious than you could ever imagine. In especially large cities, millions of people used to live together. Through the cities ran streets, made from asphalt, on which cars powered by gasoline drove.
But despite these millions of people living in close proximity to each other, they were strangers to each other. Oftentimes not even greeting each other when coming across one another.
And there was violence among the people. Killing each other with knives and guns on the streets was a common daily occurrence. No one could trust anyone. Fear and distrust ran through the veins of the people. They had to live in fear and anxiety every single second. Not because of monsters, but because of each other. Monsters, and such, only came to be later.
“So we should feel proud and lucky to live in this town. Here, deep underground, away from the deserted wasteland of the surface, we live in a loving community where everyone can trust anyone. We are one big family, relentlessly striving to outlast the dangers lurking in the surrounding cave systems. But all of this would not have been possible without the almighty Mana. So praise our lord the Mana for it brings us light, it brings us food, and it brings us the power to withstand all hardships. And praise it for blessing our wonderful Town called…”
The teacher standing in front of the class pauses in his words. He looks at a certain student who quite obviously is thinking, and quite honestly dreaming about other things, as his head is lying on the desk. And he just started snoring. The whole classroom turns to look at the oblivious teenager, a few giggling, some frowning, more looking in disgust, and most filled with anger. But the teacher only looks at him with a face filled with disappointment.
“…as”
He feels like he heard something in his dream.
“…vitas”
Hmm? Is someone calling him?
“CIVITAS, wake up, right now!”
His head jolts up. He looks around, confused, and disoriented. It takes a few moments for him to realize this is not the small hut he lives in. But then the realization hit him, he was sleeping in class.
In shame, he quickly wipes away a few drops of saliva that were running down his right cheek. While doing that, he looks down and sees that he drooled on the table, and it's quite visible at that. The shame and embarrassment intensify. At that moment, he wished he would sink into the ground, never to be seen again.
A tall student with blond hair and piercing blue eyes stand up from his desk at the front of the class. He then turns around and walks straight in the direction of Civitas, whose desk is in the far back of the class. As poor Civitas sees him approaching, his shame turns into fear, and as he sees the look in his eyes, the fear turns into terror. His brown, fearful and shaking eyes then meet the other Students' blue, anger filled eyes. Civitas did not know most of his classmates' names, since he never really interacted with them. But he knew that students' name. He was Joseph, the top student of the class who is soon to reach the level of a warrior in strength. He was known for his violent tendencies but was left alone due to his enormous talent. So when he looked at Civitas like he was about to kill him, that was not just an empty threat. Especially since…
“Do you even have the slightest idea of what you just did?” Joseph starts speaking in a snarling tone, like a growling animal.
“I-I-I f-fell as-asleep, accidentally?” Civitas manages to utter while stuttering, quite literally fearing for his life.
“Oho, accidentally, you say? I think you don't get the severity of the situation.” Joseph said while laughing maniacally. He then proceeds to explain in a shouting and aggressive manner. Clearly finding some kind of cruel joy in this.
“I and all the others here, have only tolerated your wrong, desecrating and disgusting presence in this class because you were diligent in your studies and the teacher argued in your favor. Now you can't even seem to pay attention to your one supporter?” That last question felt like it drove a stake right through Civitas' heart. He starts shaking even stronger. His eyes start to feel teary, his vision blurring. Guilt taking over. But then, everything around him seems to cool down. Joseph switches to a slow, calm and icy tone, that hardly conceals the anger inside him. All of this a practiced play Joseph had “performed” often before. He feels like he is facing his doom, his own personal apocalypse.
“Did you already forget the fact, you were never even once welcome here? Since you don't appreciate this favor that was done to you, I believe you've lost your right to be here. You have lost your right to be protected. And I think a certain punishment is due!”
With every word, the freezing tone more and more melts away, until a raging fire takes over, and he is shouting at the top of his lungs. And as he speaks his last sentence, he raises his fist.
Civitas starts ducking away, but he knows there is no escape. Joseph is an opponent, he has no chance of winning against. Even running away is an impossibility.
But right as he unleashes his fist, the assertive, strong and Mana filled voice of the teacher resounds through the classroom, “That's enough Joseph, stop right there!”, making every student flinch and then freeze. They heard once before, their teacher was supposed to be a grand warrior, but his usually gentle manner never made it seem like that.
Not even the unruly Joseph dares to move a muscle. The pressure he felt from those few words makes him doubt if that teacher is even human.
He quickly pulls his fist back, then turns to the teacher and says hurriedly: “I apologize for overstepping my boundaries, sir Stirling. But nonetheless, Civitas has to be punished. I expect you to be unbiased and make a wise and rightful judgement.”
This bastard sure is glib tongued for how ruthless and thoughtless he often seems.
But the teacher was never one to be commanded by the likes of Joseph. The teachers' look gets more gloomy with every word spoken, and at the end even faint anger can be seen in his expression. “You dare command me, how to do my job? I think all that praise and useless first places in fighting competitions rose to your head. I think you have forgotten your place!”
At these words, Joseph seems to shrink half a meter, not too dissimilar to how Civitas shrank back a few moments ago.
Joseph, who just now seemed oh so confident and mighty, presently is unable to utter a single word. Cold sweat of fear suddenly starting to form on his face.
Meanwhile, the teacher takes a few breaths and seemingly calms down. He resumes his usually gentle and warm demeanor. Then he starts talking again, this time in a much softer tone.
“I think you are well aware, Joseph, of the fact, your disrespect to me just now is also heavily punishable just like what Civitas did. But I don't feel like punishing anyone today, so how about I let all that happened today slide, and we all just go about our days like normal?”
Joseph quickly glances back at Civitas with a look that seems to say, “We're not done yet”. He then proceeds to say with regained confidence: “I am grateful for your magnanimous mercy, sir Stirling. I will make sure to better heed your teachings in the future”
Civitas also utters a short sentence with a shaking voice to thank the teacher.
Joseph then walks back to his seat, but right as he is about to sit down, the teacher interrupts him and says: “No need to sit back down, the lesson is close to its' end anyway, so let's call and end right here. Oh, and my dear Joseph, please stay for a few minutes, I have something to talk to you about.”
Civitas recognizes this as the teacher helping him to get away without Joseph being able to follow him. When he looks at the teacher while leaving, his theory seems to have been proven, as the teacher smiles back at him and nods lightly. But something feels odd about his expression. He knows the teacher for many years now, so he is quite sensitive to his expressions. And he feels like he sees some kind of shadow. A shadow of loathing that makes all of this seem like a facade. But how could that be? He would expect such an emotion towards him from anyone but this teacher.
He must simply still be on edge because of what Joseph said earlier. Yes, that must be it. After halting in the narrow hallway of the school for a few seconds and taking a few deep breaths, Civitas regains his composure. He shakes off all the doubts and distracting thoughts, and then he starts running.
He runs like his life depends on it because it just might. After leaving the small School building, he takes the second stair down. This one takes him down 3 branches at once and is the most direct way to get to his home. He then turns left, turns right, runs downstairs, takes one stair up and so on.
While running, Civitas comes across a few people. All of them have one thing in common, after seeing him, and recognizing who he was, they ignored him. And some even looked at him in disgust.
But Civitas was used to that, he experienced this far too many times to be faced by this.
He much rather pays attention to his pathway across wooden bridges, wooden platforms, wooden ladders and wooden branches, so that he doesn't slip.
He runs for 10 minutes straight, not allowing himself to slow down even a bit, despite his burning lungs. That is because he knows that if Joseph manages to track him, it would be impossible to outrun him. Joseph ran 100 meters in 9 seconds and one kilometer in 2 minutes before at a competition.
But after running for this long, he doubts Joseph is still following him. Otherwise, he would already have caught up. He slows down and takes a look around. He takes a look at the stars that were set-in in the cave walls. Civitas takes in the shimmering blue light coming from these Mana crystals that were commonly referred to as stars in this town.
Despite him living in this town for 17 years now, the cave surrounding the town is still a sight to behold.
Currently, he wishes he could once again see the giant spherical Mana crystal, which is half buried at the very top of the giant cavernous space they live in. From this giant Mana crystal grows the upside-down tree on which most of the town is built on. Civitas only got to see the crystal at top once before, when the teacher took the whole class on an excursion to the chapel which is built at the very top. But he still remembers the mesmerizing feeling he felt while looking at it. Sadly, people like him who live on the lowest living-space branches aren't allowed to just enter the upper branch areas where the important people live. His small hut is the lowest living hut, just above the barracks which are placed at the very bottom, so warriors could get to cave entrances the fastest in case monsters attack from them.
After a while, he reaches the small hut he calls his home. He walks in and quickly locks the door behind him. His hut only has a single room. In this room are a bed, a chair, a small desk with a wooden window above it and a basin with water to wash with.
Civitas instantly lies down on his bed and starts contemplating what happened before. Firstly, he surely is glad he never once told his classmates where he lives before.
His mind then wanders to the words Joseph had said. He thinks about his own existence, which in other peoples minds seems… disgusting and wrong. But what could he change about the way he was born? Born forsaken by Mana, that's what people call him. People say there has never before been a person who couldn't use the slightest bit of Mana. Except Civitas. But it's not only that he can't use it. Civitas can't even feel Mana, like his body is cut off from everything. Likewise, he could only deduce the reason for why everyone in the classroom froze at the teachers' words. It probably was because of Mana. This is especially bad in a society such as this one, where Mana is treated like some kind of transcendental god. So, being forsaken by Mana is equivalent to being hated by god in many peoples eyes. They think Civitas will bring doom upon this town with his mere presence. Another effect of him being forsaken by Mana is him being unable to access the “system” as the people call it. This is something supposedly also granted by Mana to the humans.
They say this system displays your status, like your strength, intelligence, and dexterity score and such.
It is the best way to track someone's progress while he trains and improves.
They say it also tracks something called “skills”. He heard of the swordsmanship and the carpentry skills and a few more before.
This system is used to evaluate someone's ability. Without this, a person is unable to find any kind of occupation, since they all require certain skill levels.
For an example, someone who designs and constructs new platforms or buildings needs to have the architecture skill in their skill list to even have a chance of being employed.
As he thinks about this, he pulls out the small stone tablet, engraved with weird runes, from underneath his mattress. This is a device called skill-display, which is supposed to display all skills a person has registered in their system. Then he places his hand on it. When he places his hands in the middle of it, the runes, as always, start to flow and shift across the tablet, but they never settle down to form words, contrary to everyone else. He sits there once again, just like every single other day, and waits for the runes to create discernible words, but they don't. They never do.
Does the whole world want to tell him he had nothing to show and no abilities whatsoever?
Frustrated, he throws the tablet at the wall of his hut. *clank*
It broke in two.
Fuck, it broke in two.
He hurries over, kneels on the ground and picks the two pieces of the tablet up.
That thing is so expensive, why did he have to do that, why was he this stupid and useless?
Were the people right? Was the display right? Was he really just this worthless?
Right at this moment, something seemed to snap within him.
“FUCK this shit and fuck all of this!
I will do it, I will change my fate myself!
No. One. Will. Ever. Look. Down. On. Me. Again.”
Civitas screams as he pounds his fist hard on the floor again and again, splitting open his skin.
This is it. Today he is going to do it. He will do what he had in mind for a long time. His last ditch effort to somehow unlock his access to Mana.
The giant Mana Crystal at the top of the cave isn't the only one. There are two more giant crystals at the bottom of the cave. They are surrounded by a fence because the Mana they emit is too strong for most people. If people get too close to it without being able to withstand the Mana, they melt in a gruesome and horrifying way. First their skin melts, then their muscles and finally, their bones until nothing is left that could be recognized as a human being. Such, they say, is the strong will of their aloof god.
This is well known, so the fence surrounding the area is more like a reminder and is at most lightly guarded at most times.
Civitas had this idea. A certain something could be blocking his connection to Mana so he could probably overpower this blockage with Strong Mana as long as it's powerful enough.
He had this theory for more than 7 years now. Why didn't he try it so far? Because he was scared, of course. Because he was scared, he would just melt away like anyone else.
But he does not care now. Everything is just getting worse and worse and worse over and over again. People appear to hate him more from day to day. He can't go on like this. Something HAS to change, or he might actually go insane.
So he sits back down on his bed, ripping off a bit of the bedsheets to sloppily bandage the bloody spots on his right hand from pounding the floor just now.
All while simultaneously forming a plan in his head on how he is going to execute his plan.
Despite the fence usually being only lightly guarded, there are still two or three guards, just to make sure some unruly children don't climb the fence in a fit of overconfidence.
He decided to wait for the night. If he remembers correctly, at night there would only be a single guard because children young enough to underestimate the power of Mana would typically be at home, sleeping, at that time of day.
It would still take a few more hours until the giant Mana crystal at the top of the cave would start to dim down and introduce the night.
He slowly calmed down from his anger fit earlier, and he was afraid he would lose this fire which burnt within him earlier once again if he waited too long.
So Civitas sat there, alone on his bed, solidifying his determination and his commitment by thinking about all the things he had to go through because of his condition.
Sleepiness or exhaustion never once came to him, despite time clocking late by now. That makes him wonder, when and how did he even fall asleep in class?
He always paid as much attention to the teachings of the teacher as he possibly could. He would even argue he was the most arduous, motivated and attentive person in the whole class.
This was so unlike him, and it gets even weirder when he thinks about some other things. He can't even remember going to class today. Did he just not remember since it was something he did daily and his brain judged it as unimportant? That might be the case, like when you aren't sure if you locked your door behind you today because you have done it so often.
And while he was sleeping, he dreamt of something. He knows for he dreamt of something, but no matter how hard he tries to remember, not one clue as to what it was comes to his mind.
All of this might sound quite common to everyone who would hear it, but not to Civitas. He usually had an immaculate memory. He usually could remember most, if not every, detail of a day that passed for quite a long time. He always devoured knowledge like a little glutton. This was one of the few traits he was really proud of. Was he losing his mind now?
Just then, after an agonizingly long time within his own mind, midnight falls, the magical lanterns turn off and Civitas stands up, ready for the greatest gamble of his life.
He slowly opens his door and peeks out, checking if anyone was there to see him leave.
After making sure no one will see him, he leaves his hut and hurries for the abandoned stairs. These are stairs which weren't maintained in a while and were blocked and marked as unsafe accordingly. But the benefit of them being abandoned is the lack of torches around them, so they were occluded in the dark. Just perfect for someone who doesn't want to be seen.
And if you are careful and watch your steps, they are still safe enough. Safe enough for someone who was about to gamble his life anyway.
While making his way down the last bits of the town, Civitas' heart starts beating faster and faster. Adrenaline pumping through his veins at the mere thought of what he was about to do.
But this wasn't fear he felt just now. It was excitement. Excitement for a future where he wouldn't be an outcast, where he wouldn't be looked down upon. He just wanted to find a friend, a person to relate to and to trust.
As he slowly climbs down the last ladder towards the cave floor, he calms down. His unwavering determination and unwavering resolve have reached unprecedented heights.
It is now or never.
Civitas sneakily approaches the closed off area around one of the two large crystals. He picked the slightly larger one because there is no reason to be unnecessarily careful right now.
He tries to look for the guard who should be somewhere around here, but to no avail. Civitas approaches further and further until he is right at the fence, still no Guard in sight.
Had they abandoned their post because there obviously was no one crazy enough to go in there? Well, whatever the reason, this situation is fortunate for Civitas.
But it instills a doubt. Like the warning of intuition right before walking into a trap. Could he really be lucky enough for the to be absent right this one night?
But he swallows down these thoughts and instead confidently and swiftly climbs the wooden fence. He can't even feel the pain signaling from the hand he hurt earlier.
After just a few seconds, he jumps down on the other side. He is in. Surrounding the Crystal in this blocked off area grow blueish Mana trees similar to the Giant Tree they live on, but much, much smaller.
He quickly takes a few steps into the small forest-like area. Now he can't be seen from outside, even if the guard should return.
He slowly approaches the crystal further until he comes across a sign which says in big red scary letters:
“Warning! Danger!
Do not proceed further
because strong Mana
WILL kill you!”
So he arrives at the danger zone. He couldn't see the crystal after entering the forest because of the lush leaves of the trees and bushes blocking his vision. He still can't see it, but now he knows he must be on the right track.
He picks up his pace in excitement and starts walking quicker than before toward where he believes the crystal to be.
After a while, the trees appear to be spread thinner and he finally sees the Giant crystal.
They are only 100 meters apart.
He still can't feel anything. No, to be precise, he does feel something. His hair started weirdly standing up from his head just a tiny bit, and his Clothes seem to float from his body.
Isn't this ridiculous? Even his clothes and hair react more to Mana than him.
After that thought occurring to him, he feels more resolute than ever.
He walks straight towards the crystal, while it feels like his clothes were floating away and being blocked by something at the same time. Like a strong wind blowing towards him that affects anything but himself.
Now he is only 20 meters away, doubt starts to form in his heart. Normal people would have died 300 meters ago, and he still can't feel anything?
But he walks further, he decides to touch the crystal. Something he had never heard of before.
There he is. Standing right in front of the Crystal, the size of which he only realizes now. It is at least 30 meters tall and just as wide. And it is beautiful. A majestic, light blue, but deep color which is just so mesmerizing.
His clothes feel like they are in a typhoon or a tornado, but he still feels nothing.
His thoughts are racing through all sorts of possibilities. What would happen if he touches it?
But after some time, he calms down. There is only one way to find out.
He raises his hand and places it on the crystal.
It feels weird. Like he is touching something that's hot and cold at the same time. Like it is liquid and solid at the same time.
He quickly pulls his hand back and examines it. No, it didn't start melting. So he places his hand back on the crystal.
He feels so many contradicting things at once.
And he thinks… no, could that really be?
He feels something! Something is there, slight and almost unnoticeable on the palm of his hand.
A slight tingling sensation that seems to seep into his hand.
It was a pleasant feeling, like something scratching an itch he didn't know was there.
It feels like it goes deeper, and deeper, but then… it stops.
And after halting for a few seconds, it feels like it starts to retreat.
Civitas begins to panic.
“Is that it? All of this for just that? NO!”
Civitas desperately raises his second hand and also places it on the crystal, and he starts to push.
There it is again, the stronger he pushes, the more he feels like the “something” he felt before is coming back.
And as he pushes harder and harder, the feeling of touching something liquid instead of something solid intensifies.
And when he opens his eyes, it even looks like he is making some kind of dent in the crystal, but that could not be. And moreover, he doesn't care.
Today, he will do anything it takes to gain access to Mana.
So he pushes harder and harder until he pushes with everything it has.
The feeling he felt before now penetrating until it reached his elbows.
He tries to give it one more shove but then suddenly…
He falls?
The Crystal suddenly gave in.
When he sees the blue crystal approach his face, he expects his nose to be broken any moment, but instead it feels like he fell into a large body of warm water.
Water which seems to be pulling him further and further in.
He tries to turn back, but it's already too late, he looks around and everything around him is just blue with stars twinkling in between.
Weird, despite this unknown and obviously dangerous situation, Civitas feels a deep calmness.
The surrounding liquid causes the same pleasant feeling he felt before all around his body, but this time it does not reach further in than the very thin, first layer of his skin.
He might just have died and this is the afterlife.
He raises his right hand and sees the wounds from before still being there, so this probably isn't the afterlife.
And even if it is, it's not like he could do something about it.
Man, this calmness really helped him stay rational.
Oh, he notices just now, he was breathing all this time. What even is he breathing in this space, which he assumes is inside the Mana crystal.
Is he breathing Mana? The more important question is, does it matter how he can breathe? He is just grateful he can breathe, the rest doesn't really matter.
He turns around and tries to search for the place he came from, but everything looks the same.
He never learned to swim, since they don't have any large bodies of water in the cave, that are safe to swim in. Just one monster ridden lake no one would ever want to swim in.
But he can't drown right now, so he guesses this is the right time to learn how to swim. He starts making clumsy movements and somehow manages to paddle in a random direction.
After doing this for a while, Civitas recognizes he can't get tired right now, like he has infinite energy. Well, he is basically swimming in energy, could that be the reason? Probably.
Time seems to pass slowly and quickly at the same time. Any sense of time Civitas had is now completely lost. He can't tell if he is swimming in that one direction for a few minutes or a few hours, could even be days.
But then, suddenly something changes. He can't quite tell what changed, but he feels like he is being watched.
Like some insanely powerful being is watching his every step.
Just as he turned around because his intuition is telling him something's wrong, everything changed.
Suddenly, the light blue around him turned a deep purple, which felt just so evil. Then he hears the devilishly charming voice of a woman from behind:
“Who do we have here? Are you perhaps lost, little one?”
Civitas swerves around as fast as he can, and there she stands.
A woman with grayish skin, glowing purple eyes and four curving horns on her head.
She is clothed in a sparse gown, obviously made to lure in men by showing just enough.
Civitas had never seen someone like her before, but his deepest subconsciousness procured one single word: Demon
A primal fear etched into his genes was about to grip his heart at the mere sight of her, but instead the calmness he felt ever since entering here washed over him once again and suppressed the fear by force.
He felt instinctively, she was stronger, much stronger than him and there was no way to get away.
So he might as well just talk.
But what should he say? He really couldn't think of an adequate answer.
“Hello, my name is Civitas. And yes, I'm indeed quite lost. Would you perhaps tell me how I could find the way back to where I came from? Of course, only if it isn't a bother to you.”
Civitas is more than a bit surprised at how he talked right now. The words came from his mouth but didn't seem like they were his own. Did he ever choose such words?
Never mind, he has to focus.
The female demon seemingly is also surprised because with every word Civitas said her Eyebrows started to raise further until she started laughing heartily after Civitas finished speaking.
A kind of fascination seemingly gripping her.
“My name is Zabula, my dear. And of course, I know how you could get back, but why don't we talk a bit first, you seem like you could be to my liking. And if you are to my liking, I'll lower the punishment for trespassing into my territory, or perhaps I might even completely abstain from punishing you, how does that sound?”
The name Zabula seems to sound familiar, but he can't quite tell where he heard it before. Anyway, he uses his current calmness to analyze the situation. If talking could help him escape from this situation harm free, then let's talk.
“I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Zabula, but what could be so interesting about me for your illustrious self to want to talk to someone simple like me?”
There it is again, these words don't seem to be his own, but they obviously have to, whose else would they be? Well, however or whoever came up with these words, Zabula seems to truly enjoy them based on her pleased expression.
“Oh dear, but even these few words are so fascinating to me. How come someone like you who is so incredibly weak, he could be reduced to ashes by a mere touch of me, doesn't shake in fear at the sight of me? I have seen warriors who are a million times stronger than you shake in fear after meeting my eyes.”
So it really was strange. How he was so incredibly calm and how he could talk to her like this. Everything felt like he was a spectator inside his own body, merely taking part, distanced like a third party while some other part of him is controlling his actions. The feeling is alien and actually quite scary, but he can't find any other emotion in him apart from calmness, like everything else has been numbed. The next words come from his mouth without him even having the intention to speak yet.
“Oh, but how could I be scared of someone as beautiful and charming like you? Anyone who can't appreciate your beauty and elegance obviously is just a fool”
With any passing second, Civitas seems to lose more and more control, like he is about to fall asleep and just sleepwalking.
Then Zabula replies.
“Dear, oh dear, do you want to say you aren't a fool like the others?”
Civitas replies.
“Isn't that your task to find out?”
Zabula smiles in the most creepy and charming way at once.
“So you are even daring enough to assign a task to me? Hmm, I somehow like that. Then tell me how and why did you come here?”
Did he assign a task to her? he feels like he didn't say anything. Or did he? he can't quite remember.
He has to take back control! The next words will be his own and none others'.
he will answer that question. Now, how did he get here again? His memory seems strangely faded, but he manages to remember.
“I came here by swimming through a Mana crystal vein. First I didn't know where to go, so I randomly started… but then I noticed a trace of your Mana, so I started swimming straight to this place. Because even your Mana is just too charming to me.”
He said what he wanted to say… or did he? Well, judging by her expression, she didn't dislike whatever he said.
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“You are such a flatterer, but how come you picked up a trace of my Mana so far away? That should be impossible even for the greatest beings out there. And you are quite obviously none of them.”
She says he had picked up a trace of her Mana? But he can't even feel Mana? How did she come up with this weird idea? He has to make things clear.
So he it starts speaking again:
“I think there was a misunder… You say it's impossible, but quite obviously I am right here looking into your beautiful eyes. I can't even feel M… If you don't believe me, how about you check with your memory reading abilities? I know you have them, and I am willing to let you use them on me, so you don't distrust me, and let me leave safely.”
Ok, that should have clarified the fact, he can't sense Mana. He hopes she won't be too angry at him contradicting her words.
Her expression tells him she is surprised at the fact, but not angry, that's good.
“Oh, so you even know about my abilities, that's fascinating. Then let me check what is inside this cute brain of yours.”
Wait, what, does she want to cut open his brain? Before he could panic, which he wasn't even able to, she suddenly appeared right in front of him, like she teleported.
Only now that she is right in front of him, he notices she is at least 5 meters tall, the vague surrounding of undefined Mana confused his sense of distance.
She reaches out and lays her hands on his head. He feels the urge to resist at first, but suddenly that really doesn't seem important at all.
Her hands reach his head, and immediately he feels something. Like something is gently protruding into his mind, this isn't such a bad feeling. Then suddenly he feels his arms instinctively spring up and hold her hands in place, then everything goes dark… and he thinks he heard her scream? No, why would such a mighty demon scream. Oh, that's right, she is a demon, he somehow forgot about that.
Out of nothing, he feels a large hand gripping his arm and pulling at him. Then he suddenly feels normal air again and hits the ground hard. Someone is shouting. Is that person shouting at him?
But why would they? Then everything until the part where he entered the crystal comes back to memory. Right, he entered the crystal, but thereafter, he had no idea.
“Are you okay? Civitas, talk to me!”
After taking a few moments to “boot up” his brain, he finally understands who is screaming what at him, he opens his eyes and looks straight at the person gripping him at both shoulders and shaking him. It was Miles, the strongest warrior in this town and one of the few people who used to treat him well for some unknown reason. He remembers spending a lot of time with him in the distant past.
There was a time he spent almost every single day with him. He was the closest person to a father to him.
But they hadn't spoken for 5 years now. But what was he here now?
“Uhm yeah, I'm fine, Miles, but what are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here? You were stuck in a giant Mana crystal until now, and I thought you were dead for Mana’s sake. We couldn't find you for 2 weeks! And you ask why I am here. Why are YOU here?”
Oh, that's right, I could have died. Right then and there, the emotions, of which he didn't feel much so far, all came at once.
Panic, guilt, anxiety, fear for his life they all hit him at once, and he started crying like he was a 6-year-old again.
Miles calmed down his angry face and instead hugged Civitas to give him some time to calm down. While trying to calm down the shocked Civitas, Miles takes a look once again at the Mana crystal from which Civitas came. It was now cracked cleanly in half, and it stopped shining. The whole 35-Meter Tall crystal is cracked in half. The amount of Mana it emits does not seem to have changed much, so any normal person who approaches this far is still sure to die.
After a few minutes, Civitas manages to collect his thoughts again and calms down. Then Miles and Civitas part again.
Miles then asks:
“Now tell me, what were you thinking, why would you ever execute your dumb plan, you were gone for two weeks! If I hadn't suddenly remembered you telling me of your crystal plan all those years ago, I wouldn't even have thought of searching for you here.”
Miles said with more concern than anger and more love than hate.
“Oh, so you do still remember me…”
He really thought Miles had forgotten about him.
Civitas felt left alone by Miles.
“What are you saying, of course I remember you!”
Miles suddenly looks pained and hurt, like he is pained between guilt and something else.
“Then why couldn't I see you even once in the past 5 years? Only after you thought I died did you think of me again!”
One day, Miles said they couldn't meet anymore, but he can't tell the reason. Then he disappeared from his life.
“Civitas I told you before, but there is a reason we can't meet anymore, but by the love of Mana I can't tell you, or else the consequences would be dire.”
Civitas thought all of that was just an excuse because Miles just was finally sick of being around the freak like everyone else.
“I know how hard it must have been for you these past years. I'm sorry. I should have made it somehow possible. But there are forces even I can't oppose…”
Miles suddenly starts coughing hard. Civitas instantly reaches for him, concerned, but Miles raises his hand to block him. After finishing coughing, Miles just says:
“Don't worry about that, that's all my fault. Now let's get out of here.”
Thereafter, Miles and Civitas start walking back out of the dangerous zone. But as they reach the fence, something unexpected awaits them.
The Fence is torn down and instead, 50 fully armed high-ranking warriors stand there looking at Civitas, like they are replacing the fence.
Each of these soldiers is well known to everyone because they are a force to be reckoned with, each individually. Civitas estimates, the combined force gathered here, makes up about two thirds of the town's entire fighting power. Well, excluding Miles since it's rumored he is stronger than everyone else combined, but rumors tend to be exaggerated a lot.
Civitas thought Miles must have brought these guys here with him, but then Miles shouts in clear disbelief:
“What's the meaning of this!?”
Civitas' expression turns pale in the split of a second. Judging by Miles' eyes darting from opposing warrior to opposing warrior, he was not the one to call them here.
Then he hears a loud voice resounding clearly in his ears.
“Don't move a single step further, you two, or you will regret it.”
He knows this voice so well, but he had never heard it speak in a tone like this. He must have misheard that.
Shortly after, the warriors split into 2 neat rows and reveal a person standing in the middle at the back. The person has their hands clasped behind their back and wears their usual grayish brown gown, to which Civitas had gotten used to so long ago. But despite Civitas knowing who this person was, he could not believe his eyes at all.
There he stands. There stands the teacher who had helped him get away from Joseph in what feels like just yesterday.
This confirms what he had heard just now, it was the teacher who told them not to move. But why did he sound you threatening? And why did he look so dangerous?
Civitas looks at Miles, he must have a way out of this as the strongest. But all of Civitas hopes seem to crumble as he sees Miles clenching his jaw with drops of sweat forming on his forehead. This is not the look of someone confident. It is The look of someone who feared for his life.
After a long pause in which no one moved, the teacher starts walking towards them slowly and resumes talking:
“We had a deal, Miles. A simple deal. The conditions were, that I would never ever see you and the freak with each other again, and you tell him nothing about this deal. In exchange, I support him in every way through school I could. I argued in his favor. I defended him from bullies, I gave him emotional support, I did everything. Now look at you two. Obviously, having talked. Obviously, having broken the deal. And you know there are no valid circumstances that allow breaking deals with me. Be. Fucking. Ready. For. The. Consequences.”
The whole speech was held in a monotone lecturing manner like he was stating the obvious, but the last few words were spat like venom in their faces.
But if you thought this was the end, the teacher had just started.
“You know how bad your reputation got when people saw you two together so often. You know I can't allow that. You and I are the pillars that kept this town up for the last 800 years. Switching names, switching roles and switching appearances rhythmically, so people wouldn't notice our extraordinary long lives. Each time we lived one of our false lives, our image, and our status was the most important to unite the people beneath us. This principle mustn't be shaken”
Civitas' Mind is swirling worse than when he was inside the Mana crystal. What is all this? None of this makes any sense! All of them must have gone crazy!
“You must all have gone crazy!”
Civitas shouts from the top of his lungs. The warriors surrounding them suddenly drew their weapons after hearing that. They seem ready to attack but strangely afraid of… Civitas? They aren't as much afraid of Miles as they are afraid of him? But why?
He confusedly looks back and forth from Miles to Sir Stirling, the teacher.
He then hears a slight whisper from Miles.
“Civitas, why are your eyes suddenly glowing a faint purple?”
He then suddenly fixates his gaze on Miles.
“What are you talking about? My eyes are obviously brown.”
Civitas asks, unable to form any connections since he can't remember anything that happened inside the crystal.
Then the cruel voice of the teacher resound once more. This time even more sinister.
“There you have it, Miles. It came just like I told you 17 years ago. He is a demon. I don't know what kind since I have never seen any like this before, but this proves it.
Because of your foolish and naive goodwill, we brought a goddamn demon into this town! You could have killed hundreds, if not thousands, of people.
I told you from the beginning something was strange about his Mana from the beginning. But you asked me to simply seal it and raise him without Mana.
We will execute him in three days with the will of Mana. You have no right to object to this. Now you follow me. Guards, throw that beast into a cell and guard him with at least 10 highrankers at all times.”
At this point, Civitas sense of the World seems to dim down and shut everything out. Like an airplane taking off in his ears and a flash bang going off in his eyes, he looses his insignificant standing in this world. None of this makes sense. He falls into a deep state of shock. And then he simply collapses after his brain somehow, through all this muffles noise, comprehended the word execution.
He dreams about something wonderfully tranquil. He dreams of sitting next to a beautiful woman with enchanting purple eyes which look so familiar and captivating. They leisurely share unimportant matters like what he learned in school the last few weeks or what chores he still has to do. He learns from her, she is a mother to quite a few kids, which keeps her busy all the time.
After a while, she says something odd. She tells him everything will be fine, he has to keep his cool and then to… wake up.
Then he wakes up. He lays down on the wooden floor, his arms, and legs spread wide, chained to the walls with thick metallic chains. Judging by its blueish color, these cuffs, and chains seem to be made from manasteel, an insanely rare material which usually is only used to craft a few weapons for selected warriors.
They must really think he is dangerous. He tries to sit up, but the chains are too short to allow that. To be precise, the mechanism at the back wall, to which his arms are chained, seems to be retracted to the maximum to give him the least possible space to move.
After producing a bit of noise with this attempt, the 10 guards who stood with their back to him suddenly all turn around and face him, hands on their weapons but not quite drawing them.
His head isn't restrained, so he is able to raise it and look straight at the guards. Meeting their eyes is a true reality check. He sees the fear in them. Unable to longer keep looking at them, he closes his eyes and lays his head back down, tears slowly flowing from his eyes down his cheeks. One of the guards then starts speaking.
“Why are you still hiding your appearance, you creepy demon shit. We all saw your eyes turning purple. It appears your rotten demon brain does not understand the situation. Now suddenly turning back to normal won't make us forget what you are, you dumb fuck.”
The insults thrown at him intending to hurt him serve more like a cold water bucket suddenly being dumped over him, clearing his troubled mind. If he is to be executed soon anyway, then why shouldn't he play a small trick on the guard. What's the worst he could do, kill him?
He then proceeds to say in his most serious voice:
“Huh, I thought you were dumber. Then it doesn't matter. Have you ever seen a real high-ranking demon? I don't think so. and your feeble mortal dare insult the great me? Now I will show you what I am capable of. These chains can't hold me!”
While saying this, Civitas notices in the reflection of the chains, his eyes unwillingly turned purple while talking, which just fit the act too perfectly. Then, after shouting the last sentence, he looks straight at the guards with wide open eyes and suddenly yanks at his chains as hard as he could.
All the guards jumped back, some drawing their weapons, some about to flee, and the man who spoke earlier stumbles over his own feet, crashing with his face to the floor.
The sight was far too funny, and civitas started laughing heartily. Having nothing left to lose feels really freeing. He just noticed.
“Oh my Mana you guys really fell for it. You are such morons. As if I could do anything. I don't even really know why I am supposed to be a demon. You should have seen your faces!”
The guards suddenly all had a sheepish look plastered on their faces. They all clearly felt embarrassed. Civitas starts looking around again because he thought he heard a woman laughing in the distance at the same time as him, but they are no woman present anywhere he could see. Must have been his imagination.
The guard who insulted him earlier now draws his weapon and then shouts:
“I don't care if you are to be executed, I will kill you right here, right now.”
And just as he is about to unlock the cell door, a large hand suddenly lies on his shoulders.
“Who gave you permission to execute the target 2 days early?”
The Guard utters without turning:
“I deeply apologize, group leader, I got carried away by my emotions.”
The leader takes his hand off the shoulder and whispers into the guards' ear.
“This is the first, and will be the last time something like this happens, otherwise the next person to be executed will be you. Now go and report to the exploration team.”
At the mention of the exploration team, the guard turns pale. The exploration team consists of the most powerful and experienced warriors and advance the furthest into monster territory. Anyone who is inadequate for this has a high possibility of dying.
The guard slowly leaves the room. The commander then also tells everyone else to leave until only he and Civitas are left.
“So you are the boy Miles tried to protect so hard. It's such a shame, truly.”
At the mention of Miles' name, Civitas starts to listen attentively.
“Are you a friend of Miles? Is he ok? Stirling threatened him with something.”
Civitas asks back. Miles' wellbeing currently more important to him than his own.
The guard raises an eyebrow and answers.
“You will soon die, boy, but you are still concerned about others. That's truly special, I'm starting to get, why Miles liked you this much.
Miles' situation is difficult to describe. I don't know the details, but at least one thing I can assure you, he is alive and in good health.”
“What do you mean, it's difficult to describe? Did Stirling do something to him?”
Civitas starts panicking. After all the things he heard yesterday, he does not know what to expect from his teacher anymore.
“Listen here, boy, all I know is this. Stirling took Miles with him into the chapel yesterday, and thereafter, no one was allowed to enter. They left tomorrow morning and since then, Miles seems… different.
He said things I never thought I'd hear from him and behaved strangely. Like his mind was manipulated or something, but those are only my uneducated feelings. I have no idea what is going on.
I am here to inform you of this, so you don't get shocked by who Miles turned into should he visit here. That's the least I can do for you, who My best friend Miles thought of as his son.
Now I have to leave, or they'll suspect me as well. My name is Charles, by the way. it was a pleasure meeting you at least once.”
After quickly rambling all this down in record time to save time, the Commander quickly leaves and orders the regular guards back in. Some of them new faces, some old faces.
Civitas is burning from the inside. Burning within him are the flames of hatred. First Stirling betrayed him, and then he did something to Miles. He will never forgive this. He will take revenge. Somehow, someday. He swears to himself, even if he dies the day after tomorrow, he will come back from the underworld and will drag down Stirling with him.
He never once prayed in his life before. He never believed in all this talk about Mana being some kind of godlike being.
But this time he prays. But he does not pray to Mana specifically. And he does not pray to a specific god.
He prays to everything that could exist out there. Like a desperate try to send an SOS call on all possible radio frequencies, he prays to the gods, the angels, the dragons, the demons, the devils and every other being out there. He does not care what it takes. He will save Miles. Even if he has to sell his soul to the greatest demon queen, Zabula.
While thinking in this enraged state, he stumbled over the name Zabula. He clearly knew this name from books and lessons of Stirling.
But didn't he recently hear this name in another context? he feels like he is right about to remember something, like it's on the tip of his tongue.
And then there is the purple-eyed woman from his dream, who clearly was a demon. Why was he leisurely talking to a demon in his dreams? Had that something to do with his eyes turning purple?
Was he really a demon? A demon who was just sealed by Stirling many years ago? That would make somewhat sense. The Mana of the crystal, breaking the seal. Unlocking his demon nature, creating a connection to the mother of all demons, Zabula of whom he now dreamt. Is that it? It could be, but something feels amiss, like he is missing some part of the puzzle.
Another thing just comes to his mind. If the seal on his Mana and demon nature came from Stirling, and it took this much Mana, to even crack the giant crystal in half to undo it, then how powerful must he be?
Then it would make sense for him to be able to oppose Miles like this. Now everything makes more sense. The reason Miles left him 5 years ago was Stirling.
While thinking that, he suddenly felt something. Like an incoming call. No two calls, actually. he knew instinctively, the prayers he sent out were answered. And both questions were practically identical.
They both told him:
“I will soon descend”
Civitas feels elated at the prospect of a mighty being descending here and helping him defeat Stirling, who betrayed him. And there isn't only a single being who is willing to help. He will get revenge with their help; he is sure of it. Now the only problem remaining is the definition of soon. He does not have much time left. The guards said he would be executed two days later. But he did everything he could.
So the wait begins.
It is everything but a pleasant wait.
It is uncertain if the help would really come, and it is uncertain if the help would come in time.
On top of that, the hard wooden floor he is lying on is very uncomfortable.
He tries to adjust the posture he is lying in multiple times, but to no avail.
The only thing he achieves is a small splinter in his elbow from rubbing over the wood repeatedly.
He somehow endures the first day and finally manages to fall asleep late at night.
He dreams of the woman once again. This time, she seems much more distinct, like her features have become more accentuated and her eyes are much more piercing.
But this time, they don't talk. They just sit there facing each other, looking into each other's eyes. A bit of lucidity allows Civitas to form a mental association with his earlier thoughts when he was awake.
So this might be a demon queen, to which he is now connected as a demon.
He was told every demon is subject to a demon queen, whom they refer to as their mother. This information came from very low-ranking demons, whom the exploration team managed to capture.
It could be the greatest one, Zabula, but he doubts that. That is a name feared by many. Some say just mentioning her name might curse one's whole bloodline to go extinct.
He never once believed in these stories.
Now that he thinks of it, shouldn't he be scared or wary?
Probably, yes.
But he feels comfort in her gaze and can't find it within himself to hate or be afraid. Something within him tells him she means no harm and that she isn't hostile at all.
But as many things in dreams do, this faint moment of lucidity and this train of thoughts fade into the background.
Civitas returns to just sitting there with the woman, doing nothing until he wakes up.
When waking up, Civitas instantly notices the bulky bear of a man sitting outside his cell.
It is Miles. Civitas knows he can't expect this to be the Miles he knows, but still, there is hope within him. But in any case, he is mentally prepared for what is to come, thanks to Charles' warning yesterday.
After looking at each other for a few moments, Miles starts talking in a grim and threatening voice, which sent shivers down Civitas' spine.
“So, you traitorous wretch, you are finally awake. How does it feel to have your mask pulled down from your face?
How does it feel to have your true nature revealed to everyone?”
Civitas had prepared himself, but still, every word felt like a fist hitting his stomach. Tears and anger want to form within his feelings, but he swallows them down, thinking about the one behind all this, Stirling.
So he answers as confidently as he can.
“I feel like shit, seeing you changed by Stirling. What did he do to you?”
Miles promptly responds in a loud, almost shouting voice.
“He did nothing to me but open my eyes. I finally see you for what you are. You're a little deceiving demon. Leeching off my status and power so you could one day betray me. But your plans were spoiled by the great preacher Stirling, who blessed me to be able to not be fooled by you any longer.”
These words sound like they were spoken by Stirling himself. Civitas knows there is no point in talking to him. Whatever Stirling did to him must have something to do with magic. He will undo this magic with the help of the great beings who will soon descend, but now is not the time yet. He will seek out Miles once again once the time is ripe to undo this spell. So for now, he just says the following:
“If you know all this, then please leave me alone to at least spend these last few hours of my life in peace and quiet. At least this much should be allowed, even to a demon like me, right?”
Miles loughs lightly at that. He then says, he will grant him this temporary peace and leaves the room, leaving Civitas and the guards alone in the room again.
Civitas guesses Miles could have been sent by Stirling to shake his will and torment him once more, before the execution tomorrow.
But why does Stirling hate him this much? Just because he broke into the restricted zone and his eyes started turning purple? All of this is happening far too fast.
He feels like there is some other reason he doesn't know about.
If his promised helpers arrive on time, he will surely find out in time.
Other than the visit by Miles in the early morning, nothing else noteworthy happens over the day.
Civitas just gets fed some murky water and stale bread to sustain himself until tomorrow.
Then, after a time that feels like an eternity, night falls.
Still, not even a single trace of the promised helpers. Civitas' thoughts repeatedly return to his execution, which is scheduled for tomorrow.
During this night, sleep never comes to him.
Civitas just keeps waiting for any sign of help to appear, but to no avail.
After an agonizingly long time, morning arrives and announces the day of his execution. Still nothing.
At noon, a group of high-ranking warriors barges into his cell, removes the chains, and instead places him in a kind of pillory. This pillory is made of pitch-black wood with blue-shining runes engraved into it. All of this happens without a single word being spoken. There is no need for words because no one present doesn't know what's about to happen. It is time for the long-awaited execution.
Civitas is brought along by the group of warriors to the outside. After walking up the stairs and exiting, Civitas finally realized that the cell he was placed in was built near the top of the town, only one platform lower than the chapel at the top.
The other thing that surprises him is the number of people surrounding him.
A large group of people, which might be at least half of the whole town, stand there, shouting profanities at him and sometimes throwing things at him.
He had not expected this. He had expected some people to be there and do this, but the sheer amount surprises him.
Then, he is led by the group up a flight of stairs, leading directly to the large, ceremonious space in front of the chapel.
After all this time living in this vertical town, he is very used to walking stairs, but this time his legs feel like giving in.
While shaking, he makes it up to the top, where he is greeted by even more people standing in a large circle, surrounding the ceremony place.
In the middle of the place is a small, raised platform with a contraption built on top that he had never seen before.
Also on top of that platform stands the preacher and teacher of the town, Stirling.
Unlike the other times, he is clad in expensive-looking purple robes, which give him a royal look. He solemnly smiles at Civitas. A smile of victory.
And until this very moment, there are still no signs of the mighty helpers arriving on time.
Now, panic grips Civitas' heart, but it's too late for that. He gets shoved to the top of the platform, where his pillory is placed into the contraption.
On the way here, Civitas noticed two dozen long chains going up, away into the distance from this contraption. But the only thing far up there is the giant Mana crystal, their sun. From this highest platform to the crystal, there is still a distance of more than a kilometer. This damn cave is just too big.
Civitas tries to say something, in a last-ditch effort to plead for mercy, but an invisible force keeps his mouth shut.
Instead, he hears the clear voice of Stirling reverberate through the whole area.
“Thank you all for coming to this joyous occasion today. We were fooled for far too long by this little demon. He is very dangerous, so we are lucky to have removed him from our midst. I will place a modified seal on him that only allows Mana to go in, but not to go out. We will use this to pump Mana into him, until he melts. This is a worthy punishment for a being who tried to take it all away from us.
Now he will receive as much Mana as he ever wanted and die a fitting death from it.”
The entire crowd starts cheering joyously. The words of Stirling were infused with strong Mana, which made his words seem much more true and convincing.
Stirling then places his hand on Civitas' head to modify the seal he placed on Civitas all those years ago. While that happens, Civitas hears his voice inside his head.
(You should not resent me, but resent the way you were made all these years ago.)
Civitas is way too panicked to process the words that he just heard. He wants to scream for help, but his mouth is still forced shut.
After a few seconds, Stirling takes his palm away. Civitas instantly notices the difference; suddenly he feels all the Mana surrounding them, and without having any control over it, he starts absorbing some from the atmosphere.
Absorbing Mana after all this time feels so good; he almost forgets in what situation he is. Then Stirling starts talking aloud again.
“The seal is done; now let our righteous god Mana punish this vile being.”
After he says that, he takes a small blue brush, completes the last blue rune on the contraption, and takes a few steps back.
At first, Civitas doesn't feel anything different, but then, at once, the Mana that started flowing through one of the chains at the top reaches him. A large amount of Mana starts flowing into his body. It is a bit uncomfortable but not that bad, so he thinks he might be able to endure this, but then he notices only one of the chains is glowing, so there are 23 more to go.
Right as he realizes that, the second chain starts glowing, and the Mana intensifies, turning the bit of discomfort into large discomfort.
Then, quicker than before, the third chain starts emitting light and turns the discomfort into aching pain, like a finger being bent backwards too far, but through the whole body.
Without any time to get used to this, the fourth lights up, then the fifth, and in quick succession, all the chains light up.
Civitas has never felt this much pain before. The power forcing his mouth shut is gone, so he screams from the top of his lungs.
Right when his mind is about to break, he suddenly feels the pain lessen. It feels like someone is embracing him from behind, protecting him from the Mana. The pain reaches a bearable level with this help.
But this newly gained hope, Civitas feels, quickly gets beaten back down, as a new change happens.
Between two of the chains, a light screen connecting them, suddenly starts racing down the pair of chains. When this reaches him, the force intensifies once more.
Then, just like before, this starts to repeat itself. First slowly, one after the other, but after a short while, all chains are connected. It looks like a giant finger made from blue glass pressing down on him.
The pain almost reaches the level of before with this, despite the help he is receiving from someone.
Civitas is still determined to not give up. He will make it out of here.
He starts to pray one last time.
Then, he begs the beings he got answers from before to descend faster.
Stirling is a truly meticulous person.
There is still one last level of Mana pressure.
The space, enclosed by the chains and the screens of Mana connecting them, starts to function like a wire.
Spontaneously, from the crystal at the top, a gigantic amount of Mana starts to flow down the middle, filling the whole space.
As it reaches Civitas, it makes the construct truly look like the finger of God pushing down on a mortal.
Civitas can't describe the pain and agony he feels at this moment. It feels like every bone in his body is being ground up in a mortar.
He feels every cell in his body is being pierced by burning needles soaked in acid.
His mind starts cracking. His life is about to end right here.
Suddenly, everything starts shaking, like an earthquake rattling the entire town. The strongest earthquake they have ever felt. Civitas doesn't notice this at all, but the people who were cheering so far quiet down and look concerned.
While this is happening, Civitas collects the fragments of his mind together to pray once more. He only manages to articulate one single word in his mind: Help.
But that was enough, “they” received it.
Suddenly, the earthquake stops.
Then two large shadows break out through the middle of the Mana crystal at the top. The stream of Mana is disrupted, and Civitas punishment ends, revealing his state, which was occluded by the blinding blue light.
But it is too late. His heart is only beating its' last few beats faintly. His skin is charred black, both arms have molten off, and his eyes have lost all functionality. He will die soon.
Then the two large shadows land on the platform with a crash.
One of them has the appearance of a 7-meter-tall human person with three pairs of large white wings on his back. Or whatever remains of them, two wings at the top having burned away to mere stumps and the bottom three clearly ripped out, leaving bloody holes where they once were. The last two wings in the middle were almost cut off too, hanging on by a thread.
And the look of his body was even worse, with a large burnt-out hole making his chest see through and one half of his face charred black; The eye gone.
But the person opposing him, a 10-meter-tall anthropomorphic dragon-like creature, is also wounded until near death. The horns on his head were sliced off, and one arm and one leg are missing. He has two deep slashes across his torso, forming a cross. They are deep enough to see his heart being sliced through by one of them.
Now they stand there, looking at each other. Then they simultaneously notice the reason they both came here. They both look at the charred-black adolescent boy. And he seems to look back, not with his eyes, which are already useless, but with his soul.
This alluring soul, which was convincing enough to lure both of them here.
Both mighty beings then make a split-second decision.
They charge at the boy, both chanting a spell in their own respective ways.
As they crash into Civitas, space seems to crack and times seems to come to a standstill.
Then everything goes dark— not only for Civitas, but for everyone present.
After the light comes back, neither the crowd nor Stirling can find the boy they tried to kill.
----------------------------------------
A few days later, in a dark cave in the middle of nowhere, a boy wakes up.
Civitas wakes up.