The sun had set behind the great eastern wall of Ealdton. Its edifice of bleached white stone cast a long shadow over the town. In normal times, the guard of the night shift would have just started their rounds by lighting the lamp posts that lined quiet its streets. Today, however, Ealdton's streets laid in darkness. And in that darkness, a brutal struggle for control over the town was underway.

Led by the Heroine, Sylphia, the guards positioned themselves in a line barricading the recently liberated northwest ward from the bandits of the notorious Wood Vipers. Though her troops had been bolstered from the squads they collected along the way, their numbers still paled in comparison to their opponents, who, until now, had concentrated on looting the abandoned residences northeast of the town.

Like a shadowy sentinel, an old man, hidden beneath dark robes watched over the chaos. He stood, silent, within an abandoned home, peering out from its window.

This old man, Alphonso, muttered to himself as he stroked his beard, "Hmmm... intriguing. It appears our Heroine has some military expertise." His gaze sharpened as a burst of black smoke erupted from Sylphia. "And that magic...", he said with bated breath. It spread out on the street level, like a low-lying fog that slowly seeped into both the guards and the bandits.

It's so strange... I have never seen magic like that before. When I allowed her to use it on me earlier, it seemed to replicate the effects of influence magic. He paused for a breath. But unlike then... the effects it's displaying now are... far too potent. No longer is she merely influencing those around her, she is outright commanding them! Never in my experience, not in my reading of ancient texts, have I seen reference to such a power. Sweat formed over his brows as he agonized to find an explanation for Sylphia's magic. And that she is able to use it over and over without exhausting herself? How could so efficient a spell even exist!?

While he racked his brain on the matter, his eyes noticed movement out of the corner of his eyes. In the back alley connecting behind guards' main line, the group of five men armed with long knives skulked in the shadows.

Meanwhile, the Heroine absorbed herself into micromanaging her soldiers' movements. Even as her stalkers were getting ready to pounce on her, she remained oblivious to their treacherous plot.

Alphonso let a heavy breath out of his nose. Though she does possess some talent, our Heroine can be quite oblivious to her surroundings... He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of beads. Clenching them with his fists, he blew a soft breath into them. Allow me to me lend you a hand once more. Just like that, a dense mote of magic gathered above his hand and circled around it like a swarm of tiny, tiny insects.

Then, he flicked the beads, one by one, into the magical cloud.

As soon as each bead made contact with the magic, a small part of the cloud annihilated and formed a shockwave that focused into a single point on the bead. Without so much as a whoosh, the beads shot out the window.

One by one, they pierced into the head of each bandit, starting from the back and progressing forwards. As if following Alphonso's intentions, each one curved in the air, following his line of sight and hit their marks dead center. Each one was none the wiser as the man behind him fell with hardly a sound but the soft crackle of the bead embedding itself deep within their skulls.

As the last bandit fell to his knees, so did Alphonso lean sideways onto the window sill. He felt a sudden, heavy sensation over his shoulders as if all of his muscles were on the verge of cramping at the same time. Hah... I truly dislike air magic... He rubbed his temples. So much effort for so little effect... But it has its uses.

The battle dragged on thus - with the bandits unable to secure a clear advantage against the tight formation of spear-wielding guards, they lost their men precipitously in their stubborn attempt to break through. On the other hand, the guards' spirits remained high, presumably thanks to Sylphia's magic, and they suffered very few losses.

Interesting... is she sharing her skill in combat with those around her? No, that can't be right. The Heroine never displayed any skill in combat, to begin with. How could she share something she does not have? He tilted his head down and rubbed his chin. But that does not change the fact - these guards cannot be fighting this well. Not on their own, at least. That logic thus points to the Heroine somehow improving their fighting ability... Again - in this case - there are parallels, such as a combination of several Cleric spells, such as Lion's Heart and Blessed Alacrity, but again, the effects should not be this pronounced. Rather than mere town guards, they are fighting on par- no, possibly above, the level of trained soldiers... It is as if her words bestow the blessings of the Gods themselves...

The Gods... huh? He sighed. So this is what it means to be blessed by the Gods - to obtain power that far surpasses any mortal... The power to defeat a Demon King.

"Oy, they ain't breakin' boss!" one of the bandits yelled as he ran all the way back from the front line.

"Who the fuck told you you could run back 'ere, ah!?" A greasy looking man at the far back growled at him. "And who the hell is keepin' the boys in line!?"

"Eh-!? Ah... Oh."

Their men, exhausted from their prolonged attack, and demoralized from what had become a pile of bodies in front of blood-soaked shields, finally broke ranks and pulled back, ending their assault.

Grasping the opportunity laid out before her, Sylphia swiped her arm in the air and yelled, "This is it! All units, charge!" With her command, the ominous black haze wrapped around each of the guardsmen and dissolved into their skin.

With a fierce roar, each one lunged forwards, spears-first into the retreating bandits. They trampled over the retreating bandits, skewering those who stood against them and stamping over the rest. Their movements were swift and precise as if they had not been fighting for at least four hours straight, which, of course, they had been.

What was presumably the leader of the bandits screamed at the man before him, "Shit, you idiot, look what ya did!" He then gave him a slap across his face, before turning around and bolting away. "Sod this!"

Thus, the bandits entered a full rout. Each one fled for their own lives, climbing over each other, even so far as pulling others back to get ahead, themselves. Few would survive.

After chasing them over a short distance, the guards regrouped at their original line.

"Well done, Miss Heroine," Alphonso said under his breath, as he lightly clapped his leather-wrapped hands. "You have shown me a wonderful demonstration today. Perhaps there is hope for you yet."

By this time, twilight had finally given way to night. A pitch black darkness set in as the cloudy sky blocked the moon completely. With that, Sylphia and the guards took a break by the roadside while they collected some torches to burn for light.

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Satisfied, Alphonso retreated away from the window and paced back and forth. "Hm..." He stroked his beard. "Black...? I did not just imagine it, did I? The heroine's magical residue... is pure black... huh... Its potency aside, that is not a color that befits a hero..."

His eyes glazed over as he recalled the twisting torrent of black residue that poured out of her body.

"And such volume... at this point, she must have already used enough magic to exhaust a middling-level of mage, and yet... she still does not show any signs of magical fatigue..."

He then paced right back beside the window and caught the heroine sharing a lively conversation with the guards beside her.

"Perhaps it is true... those myths that tell of the ancient race of fairies. I found it hard to believe..." He tapped his foot against the wooden floor. "When I was informed that she was supposed to be a mythical Fairy, I thought it was just a lie. Tiny, as though she may be, she did not fit the description of the fairies of yore... But now... she fits exactly one:

"Fairies: a race of spirit-like beings whose magical power far exceeded even the greatest of elven sorcerers."

He then placed his hand over his mouth and started stroking his moustache. "If the heroine is truly one of such race..." His eyes narrowed onto her. "I want to know more. Perhaps I coul-"

At that instant, he felt a tingling at the back of his ear. His robes fluttered as he turned around. Swiping his hands across, he created a cloud of magic around him, and said, "Come out, there is no use hiding. I have a magical field that senses living beings around me."

For a few moments, he was only met with silence. He focused his gaze on the open door in front of him. The being he sensed did not move, as if deliberating its next move. He broadened his senses, to find any others hidden nearby, but his magic did not detect anything else.

Then, he heard the click of a tongue.

Fading out of the shadows, a woman, clothed fully in black, entered the room with her hands up. She hid her face behind a black mask that cut diagonally across her face, such that it exposed her mouth and part of her cheek. With a smirk on her lips, she said, "Mages really don't play fair, huh?"

Alphonso sighed. He then dispelled the magic he gathered around him and said, "So it is you."

"Yes, I'm here." She shrugged. "Surprised?"

He turned right back around and continued observing Sylphia, still resting below. "Not in the slightest." he said, "Our subject is of the highest import, after all."

"That she is," she said, as she joined him by the window.

A quick glance revealed a crossbow strapped to her back and a pouch of bolts on either side of her waist. Furthermore, vials of unknown liquids were neatly arranged in a row on her belt. Alphonso could easily guess what they were, however - poison, a standard tool for a woman of her trade.

"Well?" she tilted her head towards him and asked, "What do you think of our dear little heroine so far?"

"At first, I believed this endeavor to be fruitless." He lowered his head. "But now..."

"Ohoho... so, our little miss shows potential?"

He frowned. "Mere potential is not enough."

"Hmm..." She scratched her head.

"But potential, she has."

"Hihi..." She grinned. "His Majesty will be delighted to hear that."

"In any case, what business do you have here, exactly?" He leered at her out the corner of his eye. "If I'm not mistaken, I was the one tasked to look after the heroine." He sharpened his gaze at her. "The only one."

The woman picked her ear and rolled her eyes. "Geez, you're too uptight, Lord Alphonso. No, I'm not here just to watch our Heroine. I've been stationed here for several days now because there were rumors of some big event happening here."

He furled his brows. "And I was not informed?"

"Relax... You know how rumors are." She shrugged. "Half the time they're bullshit, and half the time..." She then gave him a knowing glance. "...you hear Rafale is involved somehow..."

He sighed. "I am entirely uninterested in politics." He turned his head away from her. "But there was no reason to put the heroine's life in such danger."

"Hmm...?" She leaned closer to him, bringing her face just a few inches from Alphonso's ear. "This coming from the man who let our little girl run amok on her own with a ragtag group of town guards?"

"I am here anyway." He glanced at her. "I can protect her if the situation requires it."

He then cast his gaze back down at Sylphia and the guards. They had just finished collecting enough torches to light their way.

"In the meantime," he said, "this opportunity is proving to be an efficient method to gauge her abilities."

"Hmph. As expected from the Lord Alphonso." She bowed her head mockingly.

"Don't you have a job to do?"

"Not really." She shrugged. "The attack already happened, so I can't really prevent it anymore." She then chuckled, "Hahah, who could have known they'd manage to corrupt the guard commander?"

"I see, so that's what happened." He drew a shallow breath. "Perchance, did you see what happened to our carriage driver? Was he able to join the townspeople to safety?"

"Oh yeah, you two must have come by carriage, huh?" She shrugged. "He was probably killed. The bandits came from the direction of the stables, after all. So either that, or he's held hostage or something."

"I see..." He clenched his fist. "He was a kind man. He served long and well... if anything should happen, I will see that his family is taken care of."

"Mm. Sure." The woman looked idly out the window. "Ah, they're moving. Are you sure you don't need to chase them?"

"Hm?" Glancing out the window himself, he saw the group of guards heading further east, with Sylphia lagging behind. "Ah, indeed. I should make haste."

"Hihi. Don't break your hips now! I'll watch over them while you're gone!" She jeered, before leaping right out of the window.

"Hmph." He shook his head. "How reckless..."

As Alphonso left the house that he temporarily intruded in, he made sure to close every door, leaving it just the way he saw it. When he stepped back out into town, however, he first took a detour by the back-alley facing the house.

There, he crouched beside one of the dead bandits lined up in the alleyway. He plunged his fingers deep into the hole he made on the man's forehead and retrieved his bead. Upon inspection, it had been deformed into an almost pancake shape. These ones aren't getting used again... just like the ones earlier. He then rubbed his chin. This is strange. I should not have used so much magic as to cause this much damage... Could this be... another of the Heroine's powers?

Finally, he placed the bloody, flattened bead into his back pocket, along with the two other similarly smashed beads. Either way, I need to remove any evidence of using my magic here... Again and again, he repeated his macabre chore, each time retrieving the disfigured remains of his beads.