Another explosion echoed in the distance. Aiden turned impulsively as he heard the loud sound, clenched his fists, and, grinding his teeth, continued to run.

He was in front of a building like any other in the area, threw a stone and dispatched the remains of a window. For double security, with his leg, he kicked the remaining pieces and sneaked inside. He had been doing this since before the fight on the other side began.

—Haah… Hah. Wrong again —Aiden left the building and started running to the next one, keeping a certain distance from the loud sounds.

His mission was to find the person who created the Homunculi. According to the monster that visited him in his bedroom, that person was definitely nearby.

Maika of course knew, she had felt the vague magic trail every time she came to the abandoned district, but had been unable to find the source. That person always left everything clean of traces while she was dealing with the monsters, and that's where Aiden could shine with his particular vision. Even if he erased the traces after each move, he couldn't eliminate the distortions themselves in reality, Aiden's black smoke.

He was on the terrace of a building of about twenty-thirty meters. The apocalyptic landscape, in its own way, caused a sense of awe, but the turmoil that shook the young man's mind in his mission was the spectacle of the battle in the distance.

In reality, he could not see the events on the other side. It was night, and he was very far away, not to mention the buildings and warehouses blocking his line of sight, so he didn't bother trying to know the situation, he relied on Maika for that. What he did, indeed, was to look around with his unique vision.

His full attention and mental fortitude was put to use in seeing the traces of the strange smoke. Which could perhaps explain the scene several dozens of meters above, Aiden thought, coming from where Maika allegedly is facing the monsters.

Explosions of black smoke were born to take unique forms, that he could only deduce, like some type of symbolic representation of what was happening on land. So black like the jaws of a beast about to devour him, but even then, he could see it clearly at night.

What would have been the attacks of the homunculi, took the form of a bird's shadow; Maika's attacks, more erratic in nature, but they were building on top of each other, giving the impression of a giant versus a dark bird of sorts.

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The dark bird split and attacked the giant like arrows heads, but the giant managed to repelled them with the chaotic explosion out of its body. Every so often, the images warped around buildings, and other times dodged them completely. Of course, the shapes were not perfect, the famous Rorschach test came to Aiden’s mind. The disturbingly large shadow show did not give any indication of stopping soon.

His tiny person watched hypnotized under the summer night sky, for the first time he felt blessed by his peculiarities. Being able to witness something like this was already an ecstasy that he could not buy with anything else.

Aiden came back to himself a couple of seconds later, shook his body and gave short jumps to cleanse the sensation of wonder that had bathed his person, and resumed his mission.

From his fatigue, it could be said that he had been doing it as fast as possible. Clothes dirtied here and there from entering buildings and alleys, he even stumbled and fell once, but Aiden did not lose time and got up immediately. But as they say “who preserves, reaches” And eventually…

—Bingo! —He shouted.

«Oops. Have to be quieter here» Aiden reminded himself.

From the moment he entered the rundown building, he knew this was the right place. Something he was very familiar with began to appear in front of his eyes; dark and fluctuating. It was the same as when he met Maika and that other person who called himself his teacher. The black smoke concentrated around those who had recently used magic. Slowly it spread throughout his range of vision, and strangely it did not prevent him from seeing what was happening, as it had always been, he could see through without problems.

On the second floor of the four-story building, comfortably watching the fight, leaning against an elaborate cane, was a man in his forties, pale and extremely thin.

—There's that bastard —said the young man—. Finally, I found you, magic user —and squeezed out the last bit of determination he had gathered.

The stress before taking the decisive step forward bathed Aiden in cold sweat and a plethora of images crossed his mind: those of his parents, his best friend, his companions, and other significant people he had met throughout his life. He decided to ignore all that, he had no time for anything else, he had to act now, at least he understood that.

Aiden ran into the room, shouting at the top of his lungs. With all his weight packed into his fist, he jumped towards the wizard without giving him time to react, hitting the blow and sending him crashing to the floor. Even Aiden fell to the ground from the force he put into the attack. But it wasn't enough, the wizard, dazed by the blow, got up and ran towards the stairs.

Not wasting any time, Aiden started chasing the sickly-looking man in his forties or fifties.