Althea lay there, mama swirling around her, just beyond her reach. A dragon of wind fought in the sky, taking beasts down with it. The image was quite nice to see. An awe-inspiring sight to see as she died.

A sad smile snuck at her lips. Even if she died today, the Steward would win the battle. The beasts would still die. The county would still be safe. At least, she had succeeded at something. Althea felt her mind start to go silent, the pain fading away. There was a certain peace to this.

And then the Beast Prince had to go ruin it.

A clay paw clutched her neck, the sharp edges pricking her.

"Do you know how long I have been waiting for this?" the beast shouted into her ear.

"No?" Althea replied, not caring for the beast anymore. What was it going to do? Kill her? Torture her? The beast was going to do that anyway.

The beast growled, its emotions getting the better of it.

"A thousand years! I have been trapped in this cavern for a thousand years. Practicing, training to fight a Druid." the beast let out its frustration. "I wanted to take revenge for my father, and let you know how wrong you were!"

The beast's voice kept getting louder with every sentence. Althea decided to remain silent this time. But kept her expression bored. The beast could kill her, but it wouldn’t get any acceptance from her.

The claws clutched her neck, lifting her into the air and turning her face towards the wall.

"Do you see that?" the beast growled. Althea hadn't noticed it before, but there were drawings on the wall. Reaching the ceiling, huge, intricate depictions of battles. And each of them had a huge winged beast and a woman with a staff. Just a staff, not the tiara, not any of the other artifacts.

"Do you see that? That was your ancestor!'' The beast's other claw pointed to a carving of the woman pointing her staff at the army. Four different symbols emerged from her. The next carving had her standing in an empty field, little plants rising from the corpses of the deceased beasts. A spell?

"This is how this forest came to be! That is a Druid of Soleria! A woman that could kill an entire army and use the entire army as fertilizer!" the beast growled.

"Look there. Look how she fought seventeen Adepts stage beasts and came out victorious."

The carving of a woman surrounded by beasts of various types as she fought them.

"And it was not just her. Look there, how her ancestors fought." the beast pointed to the carvings.

"Where three Druids fought an entire Grandmaster clan alone."

Three cloaked figures stood against a dozen humans in the air.

There were so many carvings on the wall. Not just Druids fighting, but healing, helping, growing, protecting. The elements answered their call and they fought. Even against enemies that looked legendary and scary.

In the air, an aged druid protected a weak looking man against a horde of gaudily dressed men.

In the deep underground, a single druid grew a habitat as hunched figures watched.

On the surface, a huge palace was born, in the shape of a flower, around a tree. A grove of trees grew around it, Silverbirch trees.

And in each of these, the figures had their eyes closed. Blindfolded. Or just half open. As if they were thinking of something else.

"Now look at you." the beast's claws tightened around her neck. "I waited so long to fight you, to beat the legendary Druids of Soleria. But you-."

The beast growled in frustration as she was lifted into the air, closing her eyes and not resisting. A strange thought was flitting through her mind. And truly, what had she to lose trying it out?

"This is what the Druids have come to. A mere weakling that cannot even fight back.” The beast's growl seemed to contain its frustration at being disappointed by her power. But Althea was not paying much attention to it.

The Emperor had mentioned the Druids being in touch with the land. Althea had shoved it aside, presuming that it was something she had to deal with in the future. But what if it was not? What if it was something she had to do now?

So, instead of calling to mana, she did something else. This time, she let herself go. Just like the first time she had sensed mana properly, back in the Diery palace. There was an emptiness, and she flailed for a second, thinking she had failed again. But perhaps it was her blood loss driven delirium, or something else, but she stayed in that state.

And finally mana answered her call. Or rather, it invited her in. The feeling was different from before. The Diery palace's mana was calm, in peace. But not here. This was a place of war, of battle. The mana was a torrent. A faster, stronger and more insistent torrent.

Althea felt herself being pulled into the air by the wind. There she felt it circle excitedly, blowing through the battlefield as it showed her where it had defeated the beasts. A tale of fighting against constraints, and breaking free to do as it wanted to. Destroying things that dared stand in its path.

This wasn't the wind she had seen before. No, this was the wind that formed typhoons and ate mountains. A force of nature. A rotating circle that wanted to just destroy.

The perspective shifted, and she was suddenly a black fog, hovering in the air. A creature of malice and hunger, seeking to take and not give back. And then she was a fire, taking without asking, a force that sought to grow, become something greater, but still lacked something.

And then she was neither, just a push that watched the two. Then the push broke the fire, and she saw it. How propel acted. How it was supposed to work.

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And then she was sunk from the sky and into the earth, finding herself within the statues, watching as mana walked in specific directions to work. As long as you told it what to do, it would. Mana was like this. An ai that you had to work with, not a thoughtless thing that would just do what she wanted it to. Althea knew this, but she hadn't truly realized what it meant till now.

When you called, mana answered. But when mana calls, the world answered. And if you just lent it ear, it would tell you secrets long forgotten and forbidden, it would go through the world, for that is what it was. A friend.

Althea's eyes shot open, distinctly aware of how little time had passed.

“— wanted to fight a real Druid. Not you." the beast said, apparently not having stopped talking.

"Would you like to fight one then?" she said as the beast was flung away. The wind flitted through the room, circling around her, a cyclone waiting to be unleashed.

Althea did not have the strength to stand on her own two feet, but the wind was kind enough to help. The elements seemed to rejoice, circling around her as she half closed her eyes.

The strange power showed no sign of stopping, flashes of light appeared in her vision as she began attacking. The fight would still not be easy. But she was not fighting alone anymore. The rays of the sun shined down from the sky, bringing sun mana from the far-off center of the solar system. The planetary core glowed, projecting its warmth in the way of land mana.

Althea greeted both.

"Fire of the sun. Fire of the land. Lend me your strength. Shed your light on this land, let those invisible be made visible, let secrets live no more."

Mana rose in the air. Not omnipresent. Not omnipotent. Not omniscient. But still far more powerful than her.

Althea's own core began to glow a little, the spell cast on it thawing as fire rotated around her.

"How interesting." the beast smiled. And then shot towards her. This time, she saw it coming. And reacted in time.

The wind moved it away as it attacked her, her wounds closing slowly as mana churned through her. There wasn't much time. Or was there? This space was truly quite strange. A thing trickled at the edge of her senses, a weirdness that she was only now realizing.

But she had to deal with this Prince of Beasts first.

"Wind, oh wind. Wind of the sun, wind of the land. Come to me, my friend. Lift these problems into the air."

The Prince growled as it found itself in the air, struggling to get back on the ground. Althea smiled. The next clash was more awkward. The wind made it harder for the beast to attack.

There was too much mana in the air, and even more was coming here, attracted by a certain clash in the air. Perhaps in another place, the beast would be able to defeat her, but not here.

"Earth of the sun. Earth of the land." The beast got ready for an attack. Mana revolving around it as it tried to hide from her view.

"Water of the sun. Water of the land." Althea called again. "Come join us, come together in mud, earthquakes, and whirlpools. Come, let us show this beast what we are."

The wind howled. The fire glowed. The earth quaked. And water precipitated, wetting earth to into mud and making a suction force of it. The elements here were so easy to use once you knew what to do.

"Emotion of land, feelings of the sun." Althea used the one element she could barely wield. "I bid you, come, empower me with your strength."

A strange power entered the field, as Althea suddenly felt much more powerful. The wounds closed at a much quicker pace. And mana was much easier to wield.

Althea smiled at the beast, and then whispered. "Captorum"

A host of vines appeared as the beast tried to run away, its speed still faster than her. Althea winked at the vines, telling them what to do as the mud carried them towards the beast. The wind tied them together, and the vines strengthened themselves.

Mana soared as she broke through, reaching Apprentice 8.

A rotating shield appeared in the air, circling her head. Rotating faster, and faster, and faster, and still faster, even faster. The speeds reached a point that the shield's friction with the wind was nearly audible. The shield shot out, reaching her opponent in a heartbeat, cutting off its legs.

The beast howled as mana soured again, finally letting her breakthrough to the Apprentice 9.

And finally, the last step. Mana circled. The elements sat around eagerly as Althea pointed her hand at the beast and gave a gentle push.

Propel.

The power reached the beast, passing through the vines and into its body. Then further through until it reached its heart…and fizzled out.

A fizzle appeared on its body, like a hologram being interrupted. The beast fell silent, and then faded away. Althea just watched as mana pooled into her. Mana from the beast, the land around her, and from somewhere else.

The elements called to her. A calm spread outward from her as she closed her eyes, feeling the mana that revolved around her body. The wounds healed. Mana entered her body, her core, her skin, her mind. Not painful like before, but in fact pleasant.

A single wave of mana spread out, breaking the illusion as Althea opened her eyes, and saw the world as a Journeyman.

And then she fainted.

sc

Nerusia looked at the city of Marile from the sky, watching a golden light move through the horde, killing at speeds that she could not have achieved at his level. Adept 5, she was sure of it. There was over there, and possibilities. If cultivated well, the Empire would not feel the loss of the Admiral very hard.

The black fog appeared before her, sweeping through the air, into the land, and the monster's bodies. A crown sat on her head, jewels adorned her body. The dress was gold, and so was every other apparel she wore. For today, she was going to make a show of power, and she had to do that as the Empress.

The fog ate just the monsters that were alive, leaving piles upon piles of beasts. That would help give the county some funds.

"That is enough, Adept Verest. I shall take it from here." she said, letting her aura flow. The half-elf stopped at once, turning to her with a wary expression on his face. And then he presented her with the hilt of the sword.

Nerusia nearly took it, it was a good gesture, and the weapon was dangerous to begin with. But she couldn't. But the Beast King's words reverberated in her mind. Seven hundred years ago, the royal family had broken the treaty that the three Grandmaster clans of Soleria had signed.

The sword was not hers to take, she was Empress, but not over the Diery family. That was not part of the deal, a deal the Diery family had kept even at their peak. But the royal family had broken. There would be a price to pay, the beast was right about that.

What it forgot was that not every person wanted to run away from the consequences of their actions. When the day came for Althea to collect, the cost would be one she would gladly pay.

Nerusia shook her head, turning to the city as she floated in the air.

"I am Nerusia Solerian, Empress of the Solerian Empire. A great enemy attacked us today, using the inheritance of Archduchess Hirrita Diery and the resting place of the last Beast Emperor to bring the Empire to its knees."

The city was quiet, not daring to interrupt as they felt her power.

"But with the aid of the Countess Guarding Diery and the brave warriors gathered here, the crisis has been solved. And the Countess has received the inheritance of the Archduchess, officially breaking through to the Journeyman stage."

A cheer rang out in the city, presuming her next words. Nerusia smiled slightly.

"And so, I call this emergency to an end."

The city cheered, finally getting permission to do so. But her eyes met Verest's, and then they both knew the truth.

Just because you won a battle, did not mean you won the war. This was just the beginning, they hadn't even met the real enemy yet.