"I have seen humanity die a hundred times.

It is only by our hand that your kind survives."

Faf Nekrok - The Third Immortal Monarch

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Over the years many people had asked Badar why he chose to stick to the scouting role for so long. To most, it was nothing more than a gateway to joining the Guardians Guild. A means to get a foot in the door before moving on to a better path. It was a road that was simply too dangerous and paid too little. Badar didn’t see it that way. To him it was quite the opposite in fact.

The scouting role only seemed so dangerous because it had so many beginners. And it only had so many beginners because it was the only way into joining the guild if you didn’t have any fighting background or prior training.

If you asked Badar, the work was easy, if only you were willing to stick it out and cross that critical threshold from beginner to novice. Pay wasn’t so bad either, when you considered the relative ease of climbing the ranks. That, and the lower cost of acquiring new spells; reconnaissance spells simply weren't prized as highly, or guarded as closely, as their combat counterparts.

Badar could rank up any time he wanted; he had the knowledge, the skills, the equipment, and the reputation, but to him, Heron-Class was the perfect balance of income and safety. Indeed, Badar had become quite comfortable, he could probably even hold his own in a frontline combat role for any threat at his rank.

Right now though? He felt anything but comfortable.

Like an ant in the shadow of a mountain, he could sense the looming presence of something far beyond his grasp. Alicia described it to him as a thrumming of power in the ambient mana, and though he couldn’t feel it as she could, some primal recess of his mind had realized it and was screaming of danger. It gave him goosebumps. It wore away at his mind, a tide of invisible dread that buried him, suffocating him beneath its unfathomable power.

Badar stopped. He shivered. To most, ambient mana was immutable, their own influence over its tide no more than a drop of water in the ocean. Even for Alicia he knew this to be true. But she had felt something, and a little while later he had too. To move ambient mana to such an extent was ridiculous. Such a draw on power was only something to be found at Nishina-Class or higher, something which rivaled, or even eclipsed, the power of the Immortal Monarchs. For the first time in his life, he felt truly powerless.

"What is it?" Alicia asked.

Badar flinched, almost ready to attack. The air around Alicia crackled with energy. Incomplete spell circles flickered in and out of existence before her, sometimes even given enough structure to begin manifesting, before being swiftly disassembled.

His hands grew clammy. Alicia was more than proficient in the art of quick-casting. He’d never once seen any signs of her misfiring before.

“It’s nothing. Nothing new anyways.” He answered. "Whatever this thing is though, it must be related to why the jungle is so quiet. Right?”

“I hope so. Better we have one problem to deal with than two.” Alicia said. "Do you think it's dangerous?"

The two of them looked at each other silently.

"No." He gave an answer neither of them believed. "If whoever was responsible wanted us dead, I'm sure they could have easily killed us by now."

So he said, though power wasn’t always so simple. In truth, they didn’t have the slightest idea of what they were dealing with here. There were plenty of entities that had monstrous power but horrible perception. His words were only meant as a small comfort, and not of any sound reasoning.

In contrast to what he said, their actions only grew more cautious the closer they approached the source of the disturbance.

The underbrush of the jungle floor was horribly thick; a dense entanglement of vines, thorns, bushes, and fallen branches. When the day had started, they made quick and violent work of the vegetation with machetes and magic, carving out a path at speed. But now, their progress slowed to a crawl. Their hastened steps were now slow and deliberate; careful to avoid snagging on loose vines, cautious to not snap any twigs underfoot. A rather peculiar measure, given all the noise they were making in hushed conversation and the steady rhythm of Alicia's misfired spells.

As they grew closer, Badar finally felt waves of mana wash over him, eroding away at his strength. The feeling rapidly grew so strong, that it almost felt as if it were physically pulling them forward.

It was stupid. What they were doing was stupid. Still they were drawn forward to it like moths to a flame. Why was that? Why did they continue to press on?

All the way Badar cycled between every detection spell and enchantment at his disposal. Everything from simple enhancements to his senses, to methods of identifying the exact spells which were used in an area.

“Signs of combat up ahead. Astral remnants.” He whispered. “I’d guess Jacobian-Class. Several days old now.”

“Anything you can gather on what family of spells were used?” Alicia asked.

Badar shook his head. “Hardly. I can make out a few specific ones here and there, but mostly it’s indiscernible to me. Their patterns are completely different from anything I’ve seen before.”

"Maybe it's a different astricon?" Alicia mumbled.

“What’s that?” Badar asked.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“An astricon? It’s the foundation that magic is built upon. Don't tell me you don't know about astricons?"

"Afraid not. Was this something you learned at that fancy noble school?"

Alicia frowned. "It's astounding how far you've managed in magic without the slightest grasp of the fundamentals. But no time for that now. We should keep moving."

Badar stayed put. "I've got a bad feeling Alicia. It makes no sense! Why are we doing this? We should just leave and report this to the guild."

Alicia continued past him, unbothered by his words. That was how she was, always so focused on power and prestige. Whatever the risks; the possibilities of what she could learn, what power she might acquire; it was a potent temptation that wouldn't be easily dismissed from her mind. He knew that for all her talent, for all that she’d accomplished at such a young age, she was far from satisfied.

“It’s an unnecessary risk Alicia.” He pleaded to her.

“You go back then. You won’t need my help, there’s no monsters to stop you.”

For a moment he considered it, but shook the thought from his head. “At least tell me what you’re thinking. I'd like to at least know what we're taking such a big risk for.”

"Fine.” Alicia stopped and turned to face him. “Do you really know nothing about Astricons?"

Badar shook his head. "It’s vaguely familiar, but I never heard much of anything about them before today."

"I suppose you haven't because you've only ever used one your whole life. Basically, they're a language of magic. Except…well it’s more than that. Take a simple fireball spell. When it's cast, what exactly is happening? What is the flame actually made of? What is it burning? How does the mana interact with the world to create that phenomenon? An Astricon defines all that, all the caster does is channel the spell and point it in some direction. Maybe they tweak it a bit, make it burn hotter, travel faster, that sort of thing. Minor variations. But no one really knows what goes on beneath the surface.

"The magic you and I use, the magic most of the known world uses, it's all built on the Central Astricon. It's versatile, that's its strength, but it's not very powerful."

"So it's a tradeoff between versatility and strength then? Are all the other astricons less versatile, but more powerful?"

"Well, that's what's believed broadly speaking, but in truth as I said nobody really knows about their inner workings. There are exceptions to every generalization."

"I’m confused, this sounds like a major aspect of magic. How could nobody know? Surely the Immortal Monarchs know more? Have they not shared any of their wisdom? It's not as if every single one of them is a recluse."

"Oh, they most definitely do know more, in fact, it's well known that some have even created their own astricons. But whatever their knowledge is, they're stingy about sharing it, and they're always looking for more."

"So you're after what here exactly? Learning another astricon?"

"I'm after anything at all related to them. There are few things in this world worth as much as knowledge on another astricon."

"They're that valuable?"

Alicia nodded. "There's a chance you could retire tomorrow if we found so much as a drop of blood from one of their practitioners.."

Badar sighed. “Fine. We go forward. I'll take point. It isn't much farther now to the clearing I saw from above the canopy.”

Before he could take another step forward Alicia grabbed him by the shoulder.

“You should know that our astral domains are likely to be overmatched. I better not hear any second thoughts when that happens.”

Badar gulped and nodded. “I understand, I figured that might be the case. But don’t worry, I’m committed. You had me convinced with the prospect of an early retirement.”

With that, Alicia let him go and the two of them proceeded.

As they grew closer to the epicenter of the disturbance, the terrain began to show signs of a struggle. It was subtle at first; a broken tree branch here, a stray arrow there.

Quickly though, it became apparent that this was no minor scuffle. The land was scarred by signs of high velocity combat. Its path traveled in a chaotic line, broken up and decorated by the craters and ditches carved out by heavy blows.

“Looks like a slayer fight.” Alicia commented as she stared at the trunk of a redwood, with bark as tough as steel, snapped like a toothpick.

Badar was inclined to agree, he could practically see the arc of quarter-ton swords carved into the landscape.

At the center of it all the land was a hellish visage of earth. Not a single piece of vegetation remained, all was turned to ash. Sunlight poured in from the hole in the canopy overhead. At the edges of the destruction, shards of shattered redwood bark were found everywhere, sometimes embedded half a foot deep in another tree.

Only a single living thing remained, though to call it living might be a stretch. It was a lone human figure, standing, buried in the dirt beneath its waist, disfigured so much it was impossible to tell their age or gender. They were hunched forward. Unmoving. Limp. But Badar was certain they were still alive.

“What the fuck?” Alicia muttered as she followed Badar’s gaze.

Badar thought much the same. Here was a person that shouldn’t be alive, half their skull was sheared off, and what remained was badly mangled. Only a minor chunk of their brain remained in their skull, and it was badly mixed with grim and dirt. There were some injuries that even the most potent healing magic was beyond saving, brain injuries being the most notable case. Even if a person could recover from such a state, magic could do nothing to bring back their memories.

As they took their first steps into the clearing, what Alicia predicted came true, their domains collapsed to the confines of their soul. Badar was locked out of casting any spells.

Alicia would fare much better. As an augmenter, even when overmatched, she could still enhance her body.

Slowly, Badar approached, machete at the ready, cautiously analyzing the situation. What could cause something like this? Naturally, necromancy was at the forefront of his mind, after all, what else could it possibly be?

But it couldn’t be. Anything reanimated by necromancy did not breathe, had no heartbeat, and could not heal. They were temporary puppets wrought with death and decay; an effect achieved by burning away the lingering mana of the recently deceased. He'd seen it before, and it left behind distinctive astral remnants, but leading up to here he hadn’t seen anything of the sort.

But what were the other possibilities then? A lifesaving treasure? A god-like healing factor? Or maybe they were one of the Immortal Monarchs? Any answer he could think of was ridiculous, but then again, so was the situation. There was only one thing for certain, and that was that they were no ordinary person.