Adion felt everything around him change. He was still in what appeared to be a cave and still stood on top of a runic formation much like the one in the Remori treasury. But the cave was a different one. A little light was leaking in, so Adion could now see around him. What grabbed most of his attention, though, wasn’t the fact that he had seemingly just teleported to gods know where. It was that the strange mana of black motes that had been so concentrated before was now surrounding him in a much higher quantity.
If the mana of his strange affinity usually felt like a light drizzle, then the treasury was like a pouring storm, and now it was like he was in a raging waterfall. He could barely feel any other type of mana with his mana sense. He felt it was building up to something; he didn’t know how he knew that, but he did.
And even though he had decided to wait at least until he was 14, and that he would try to form a core of fire mana. Adion, almost instinctually, greedily manipulated the mana surging around him.
He manipulated it to gather inside his chest with his Will just like he had done so many times before, but this time, he could feel something different. He could not feel any other affinity inside of him. So he decided to go for it, perhaps because of desperation at being weak and only being able to run from the people who killed his parents. Adion compressed the mana inside of him while keeping it in place and continuously feeding it with more mana.
Usually, this process would take a lot of time. Mages born with a spark would spend their childhood familiarizing themselves with their spark and element, and practice their mana control so that a core could be compressed without complications. And even if one managed to fill their core to the brink, it could still take years before they had the confidence to make a core out of it. It took a certain amount of Will, after all.
But Adion had already trained for this moment for many years. His mana control was much better than anyone his age, and with the absurd amount of mana he had around him, the process was much quicker.
He continued gathering mana while trying to keep it all together inside him for about an hour. He felt that his affinity to this element was much better than his affinity to fire. It made controlling it much more manageable. As he felt the mana inside him increase, he started to get an understanding of the element that he hadn’t felt before.
This mana is everywhere. It caused me to appear in a completely different place. And while I didn’t understand what I was doing when controlling it before, I do now. I was causing ripples in space itself. This is space mana! That’s why it is everywhere and the reason I have such good spatial awareness. And it seems that with enough power, I might even be able to teleport?
At this point, Adion had sat down on the ground, closer to where he felt the space mana gathering. He started getting excited as he came to understand more of his affinity. He felt that if he tried to compress all the mana he’d gathered, he could form a core by now. But he waited a little longer to be on the safe side.
Another two hours later, Adion felt he couldn’t wait any longer. If he kept this up, he would exhaust his Will and have no chance of compressing it to a core. He couldn’t rest either, as he didn’t have a spark to keep the mana in place while he recovered. He would need to do it all at once. If he stopped now, the mana would just disperse.
So, with every cell in his body, Adion pushed his Will to the utmost limit. Every day of gruesome training has led to this moment. His dream of becoming a mage, the despair of being weak. The longing for recognition and making his family proud.
He pushed the mana inside him, compressing it into a smaller and denser sphere. When he almost couldn’t take it anymore, finally, the mana reached the required density, and a small core was formed inside his chest, filled to the brim with space mana, bent to Adion's Will for him to control as he liked.
Adion fell backward, exhausted, with a smile and tears running down his face. Both happy and sad.
Mom, Dad. I did it. I am a mage now. I will show you when I get home. I hope you’ll be happy.
Adion knew that his parents wouldn’t be at their home. They would never know that their sparkless son managed to become a mage. But Adion decided to live in his fantasy for just a short while. He imagined their smiles, their proud eyes, the happy celebration with everyone in the clan.
Adion slowly drifted off to sleep as he thought of his family, still smiling, with cheeks wet from tears.
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Ellien looked at the bodies of the Remori clan before him and sighed. He took no pleasure in killing fellow humans. But if he wanted the Heavenly Light to grow on this continent, as was his task, he would kill those who had to be killed. Even if they were humans like him. He had killed so many of them now that he no longer felt any strong emotions doing it.
Children never gets easier, though. Ellien thought as he looked down at a body of a girl who couldn’t have been older than 10.
But he had to take these extreme measures now while they were still weak on the Shiora continent. Perhaps in the future, a situation like this could have ended with no one losing their lives, but they were not there yet.
He had been doubting this plan of killing off the Remori clan for the rumored artifact. One of his Gold subordinates had a small information network in a couple of 2nd and 3rd-tier family clans, and the one he had in the Remori clan had reported the strange mana around the Remori treasury.
When that Gold investigated the matter, he agreed it was worth looking into. He had hired more people to spy on the Remori family but got no helpful information. But the fact that the Remori clan was in this suspiciously small town, as well as their quick rise to power, made the Gold confident they were hiding something precious.
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When Ellien himself came here to take a look, he had to admit that he was intrigued by whatever caused that strange mana.
He had to sacrifice a lot to gather so many Golds, as well as his two Diamond comrades who were usually stationed in the Alago Empire. Fortunately, he knew that that old monster, who was the clan's only Diamond, would be leaving for Cyalis. He made sure he was gone from the kingdom before beginning his attack. He wanted to make sure he wouldn’t come back anytime soon.
He would still need to be quick, though. People in the town would notice something soon enough, and there was no way to contain the news that a 2nd-tier family had been massacred in their own home. And since their organization’s actual goal was to lay low and recruit numbers to their force, Ellien wanted to get out of there quickly. If they got found out this soon and became known as murderers, Ellien didn’t think even an artifact could cool his superiors' wrath.
“Diamond Ellien. We have eliminated-”
“Killed, Gold Dagor. They were humans, after all. You should take note to speak using the proper terms. Otherwise, it will eventually affect your mind, and you will lose sight of what’s real.” Ellien lectured.
“Apologies, Diamond Ellien. We have killed everyone but a few who are hiding, but we should find them within the hour at the latest.” The Gold named Dagor said.
“Good. Make sure not to let anyone escape. Take every precaution. I will not have any mistakes.” Ellien responded.
“Yes, I will make sure of it!” Dagor said with a firm nod.
“Good. Now let’s see what the cause for this strange mana is, shall we?”
“I hope you don’t forget about us, Diamond Ellien.” The two other Diamonds, Logan and Dashel, moved towards him.
“Of course not. As promised, we will share the reward for this between the three of us. It’s only natural that we get a first look at it together. Please, follow me.”
Ellien and the two other men made their way to the treasury, where they felt the strange mana the strongest. As they got close, they noticed a lot of bodies of their men being carried out.
“Why so many dead? What happened?” Ellien asked a man who was carrying the bodies.
“Diamond Ellien. This building is the treasury, and a man was hiding inside, taking our men out in sneak attacks and then hiding the bodies. When we noticed, we asked for help from a few Golds, and they quickly found and eliminated the man.” the man answered.
“Kill-. Oh, never mind. We are going in, don’t disturb us.” The group of three then stepped into the treasury, led by Ellien. He climbed down the stairs as he noticed the strange mana got stronger the lower he went. Finally, they got to the bottom floor and saw the giant statue of the Fire Phoenix at the end.
“The Fire Phoenix? I didn’t know the Remori clan were followers of that faith. Perhaps it was a good thing to get rid of these beast lovers.” The Diamond named Logan said.
“Maybe. Or is this the artifact?” Dashel asked.
Ellien didn’t answer as he stepped up to the statue and tried to feel the mana around him.
Does it come from underneath?
He tried to push the statue, and to his slight surprise, he succeeded and saw a hatch underneath.
“Hehe, sneaky.” Logan said and, with a grin, added, “Didn’t stop us for even a minute, though.”
Ellien opened the hatch, and they all jumped down while conjuring a small fire in their hands to see. As they got deeper inside the underground cave, they noticed the runic formation that Adion had stood on not even an hour ago.
“What the hell is that? Runes? It’s huge!” Logan exclaimed.
“Well, the good news is that this is definitely something left behind from the Age of Wonder.” Ellien said, “The bad news is I have no idea what it is or how to move it. The metal must weigh tons. And who knows if it will even work to do whatever it is supposed to if we move it.”
“So what should we do?” Dasher asked.
“We can’t stay here for too long. We should get someone well-practiced in runes to draw and record this formation. Then I suggest we bury it so that others won’t be able to find it. If we can get rid of the old man from the Remori clan, we can get one of our men to buy this property and study the runes in peace.” Ellien said.
“Sounds like our only option. Just don’t forget to include us in this process.” Logan said.
“Relax, I have taken an Oath to give us all equal credit after all. Now, let’s get started. I want to get out of here before tomorrow morning.”
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Adion woke up with a start. The space mana that had been so intense earlier abruptly stopped. And he could feel a presence just to the side of him. As he looked to his right, he saw that just a few feet away from him, there was what looked like a flame. But it wasn’t a flame of fire; it was dark in color, as dark as the night sky. Adion also thought he could see small glimpses of light in it, almost like stars. It was beautiful.
It was only the size of a small campfire but felt powerful. The sight completely transfixed Adion, and he could feel his whole body strangely resonating with the flame.
Space mana? But it is something more. I can’t get a grasp on it. It is as if space is only the surface and something else hides deeper within.
Slowly, the flames calmed down and receded. And where the flame had been now stood a small bird, the same color as the flame, and the end of its feather seemed to be still burning in that strange shade of a starry sky.
Is that…a Phoenix!?
It truly looked like a small Phoenix. Except this one wasn’t covered in fire like the pictures Adion had seen. But everything else looked precisely the same: the flames slowly dancing at the end of each feather, the graceful shape of the bird, and the clear eyes that seemed filled with intelligence.
Are there other kinds of Phoenixes? I’ve never heard anything about that. The Fire Phoenix is a unique existence, a mystical beast, a god! The protector or destroyer of the world, depending on which faith you believe in.
The Phoenix in front of him looked Adion in the eyes. Not a sound could be heard, and Adion realized he wasn’t breathing. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t even move. The Phoenix looked at him for a few seconds and then turned away and flew out of the cave through a small opening in the ceiling at the end of the cave.
Suddenly, Adion could move again. He took a massive breath of air into his lungs and almost cried in relief. He could hear the wind outside the cave now, some water dripping a few feet away from him. It was like the world had stood still, afraid to disturb the Phoenix, and now suddenly set everything into motion again.