Somewhere within the Empire territory.
Two boys were playing in the backyard of their familial mansion.
At one simple glance, one could tell that one of the boys was slightly older and taller than the other.
Strangely, especially for nobles like them, their hair has never been cut since their birth, even during their coronation, and as a result, with both of them approaching their mid-teens, their dark blue hair has reached an impressive length, even for a girl of their age.
Both were bestowed with quite androgenous features, for if it weren’t for anyone knowing them personally, one would’ve assumed that they were both beautiful girls.
"Hey, Uriel, look at this," said the older one.
Proceeding with a strange hand seal, the older brother, summoned a small tornado within the palm of his hands. Further, using magic, he turned the tornado into a fist-sized rotating sphere. Then, without that same sphere, fire was infused, fire which started yellow, then turned orange, then red, and ultimately settled on blue.
Proudly showing it to his little brother, the boy said, "I learned of this the other day. If you infuze a certain type of gas within a-"
Before he could finish explaining what he was doing, something suddenly happened with the strange magical phenomenon he created. A plastic balloon that suddenly burst due to being over inflated. The fire contained within the sphere was suddenly released in the four directions.
The consequences were about to be disastrous, but that was if the little brother hadn’t done anything.
"Sigh, If you want to show something to me, at least, make sure it’s safe. "
The younger brother, called Uriel, scolded while casually using a strange vortex like wind magic that sucked in the fire that escaped from his brother's control.
Embarrassed, the older brother said, "Sorry, I didn’t expect it to do this."
The fire having been collected entirely by the younger brother within a sphere of air similar to his brother’s, he chanted a short incantation, "Freeze," which immediately turned the sphere into a ball of ice.
"It’s nothing, but next time, think about the witch, "he said before tossing the ice ball onto his brother.
The moment the words ``witch" were mentioned, both glanced toward their mansion.
Who could be the witch they were referring of?
There was only one person in their entourage that they would refer to with that nickname: their step-mother.
"Yessir, I’ll be more prudent next time."
"As long as you understand," Uriel said before, casually sitting on the well-kept lawn of their garden reading the book he was reading a moment earlier.
"What is this book about?" the older brother asked, before lying, on the lawn, at his brother's side.
"This? This is about… to be honest, I don’t know. It reads like a compilation of studies made in different domains; with no semblance of order whatsoever, of discoveries made in the past 50 years. Long story short, this encompasses no topic in particular, but rather a plethora of random subjects, which, curiously enough, most of what I've read so far was quite interesting."
"Hum,... It sounds interesting; please remind me to read it when you're finished. "
"Yes."
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A silence dawned upon the two of them, then Uriel, a few minutes later, broke it, "Hey, Arte?"
"Hum?"
"Are you sure it wouldn’t if you went?"
"Went? Where where to? "
"You already know where and what I’m talking about.
"Oh… that. I think it is better this way. Besides, Father himself said it would be okay, so…"
"With the way you pleaded it to him, I doubt he could refuse. But still... waiting for me to reach the age of fifteen to attend the academy seems too excessive. You do realize, that you would be seventeen by then? That’s two years wasted. "
The brothers were separated by two years.
Arte, the older brother, turned 15 a few months ago, and just like any other noble around this age, he should be attending the Aurora Academia. Yet unexpectedly, upon reaching his 15th birthday Arte submitted a request, if not a plea, to his father. His favor was to allow him to stay with his brother until he had reached the required age for the two of them to attend the Aurora Academia together.
It was a strange and certainly complicated request to concede to, but their father just happened to have the power, and know the right person, capable of allowing something like that to happen.
"Uriel, what are you talking about? It’s not two years wasted, and even if it was, it’s still worth it?"
"That makes absolutely no sense."
"Haha, maybe, but I think it would be more fun if we went to the Aurora Academia together," Arte continued, "Besides, I'm sure this is what Mother would've wanted."
"Mother, huh?"
The truth is that neither of them actually knows what their mother would have thought of this situation.
Uriel lost his mother upon birth, Arte was barely even two. All they knew of their mother were stories they knew from a third party.
As a result, both of them had an elevated, perfect, and unblemished image of what their mother would be.
Besides, there was no way I would’ve let you live alone with that witch. "
Finally, crackling a smile, Uriel said, "I guess this one is a valid enough reason."
Both laughed.
If there was one thing that united these two brothers besides their fraternal bond, it would be their hatred for that person, who is their step-mother.
After being done with their discussion, Uriel tried to get back into the reading of his book. He felt something making his heart throb. At the reaction of his brother, it seemed he wasn’t the only one.
To the two brothers, it was as if they had both come simultaneously to a sudden ill-omening realization.
Glancing toward the sky, they both saw flocks of birds flying in thousands, flying chaotically as if running away from something.
They didn’t know what the birds were flying away from, but they too felt the urge to run away from it.
Yet, instead of flying away panickedly like the birds did, they both retreated to the mansion. They didn’t enter, but instead remained outside.
The commotion outside got louder, and soon the brothers were joined by the denizens of the mansions, including the servant, their father, their step-mother, and her child.
"What’s going on?" Their father asked, trying to make sense of it.
Up to this point, the sky was completely painted black, hidden behind the legions of birds.
And as if things weren’t looking apocalyptic enough, the ground started to quake.
The siblings first thought that this could be the reason the birds were running away, an earthquake.
But as the quake got more and more violent, they realized that it wasn’t the earthquake that made the bird run away, but rather the thing that was behind those quakes. They didn’t know what it was, but they knew it was approaching.
Without wasting any time, Uriel did what he believed was the most appropriate course of action.
"Full-Elemental Magic: Eight Shaded Barrier"
He was immediately followed by Arte.
"Quadra-Elemental Magic: Four Shaded Barrier."
Both siblings deployed their magic, not only to protect themselves but their mansion as well.
The entire mansion was enveloped within an immense, two-layered, powerful barrier. Yet, beyond that barrier, from where the birds were flying, they felt fright and feral-fear.
Soon, yet felt like an eternity later to them, the source of the commotion came into view.
It happened within a very short, almost imperceptible time-frame, so fast that a breath would feel like an hour in comparison. An immense shadow loomed over them, an immense winged creature flashed above them before disappearing as if it was never there.
Panic stricken cries, reverberated within the barrier, but compared to what was outside the barrier, it was nothing. Then, slightly later than the beast passage, only a few seconds later at most, a loud noise as if thousands of thunder clattered simultaneously, violent and chaotic, tore the lawn, soil, and everything else from the earth.
And the mansion's denizens soon saw yet another shadow looming over them.
A mountain of debris washed up on them like a wave on the beach, including shrapnels, trees, and even the crumblings of what used to be human edifices.
Like a wave would engulf a mountain sand castle, the wave weighing hundreds of tons of debris engulfed the sibling’s barrier.
It was that sight that was their last glimpse of that apocalyptic event.
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Primordial Air Elemental Dragon Quideossa, The Wind Calamity.
Like a storm, it is the kindest form of destruction, it does not care about nor did it even notice your existence.