Sora had heard of God.

A mortal man who was capable of wiping armies by himself, or so he was just a few decades earlier. Before God had arrived, there were hundreds of holy knights and magicians around the world. Not only that but there were even some who possessed the even higher title of royal knight or magician.

That wasn’t something to laugh at. The world had come up with universal terms to describe one’s power and according to them, the royal title was one of the highest.

However, in that current day, there were no royal knights, and only a dozen held the rank just below it, the holy rank.

Sora was one of those blessed few.

As he walked through the forest, he removed his eyepatch and blinked to allow his eye to acclimate to the light. He had worn it in public ever since he had been a child and was so used to the familiar feeling of the cover that he felt naked without the cloth covering his right eye. As comforting as the pressure and cover were, there was a reason he kept it hidden from the world.

Currently, he was supervising the finals of the Axan University as a proctor to make sure none of the precious mages participating would perish from the arduous tasks. Most of them were repeating the exam, and quite a few were much older than him.

Most of them were novice magicians, and adept magicians — the lowest and most common ranks — yet two were already high magicians, meaning they were already some of the top mages in the world… And they still wouldn’t have had a chance against Sora.

It was one of the advantages of being a prodigy at the young age of 17. He could supervise and beat those who were old enough to have been his father.

Rubbing his eye from the brief strain, Sora felt the edge of his lip curved upward as he took in the sights of the mages.

It wasn’t the first time he was asked to supervise here, but it was the first time he wasn’t out adventuring while the finals were being held. He could feel the tension in the air, and the brief pressure of the natural mana in the air would feel much more oppressive to those exam-goers.

Brushing a red strand of hair away from his eye, Sora composed himself and set his face as professional as he could despite his rugged white shirt and baggy pants which nobody liked besides him. His appearance was far from professional, but at least he stood out. Even with his slightly below-average height, his bright red hair made him easy to find in the middle of a crowd, which allowed him to become famous relatively quickly once he started adventuring.

‘The Red Cyclop,’ ‘The Red Mage,’ and ‘The One-Eyed Mage’ were all names he was called by other people… He hated all of them as anyone would. They were pretty bad.

But let’s get back to the exam.

Usually, the finals would have at least one supervisor per student, but this year became an exception. The redhead was currently following twelve of the forty-seven students during this turbulent time. Not only that, but another prodigy was also in the midst of the exam as a fellow supervisor.

A 16-year-old holy mage that was able to omit incantations just like him and apparently had defeated a dragon all alone a few months prior after having achieved S-Rank in the Aide Guild.

But unlike him, this other prodigy wasn’t supervising as many people as he was because of a very simple thing he and only he had. His right eye.

In the middle of the woods, he couldn’t see everything with his left eye. Like anyone else, he couldn’t just see through trees and foliage and somehow see the twelve people dispersed around the forest. But his right eye was peculiar. Instead of reacting to light, it reacted to mana. He could see the shapes of everything that had mana — such as animals, monsters, and people — as well as every single spell that was being cast.

Not only that but he could even tell which spells they were thanks to the peculiar color every type of magic had. Wind magic was cyan, water magic was blue, earth magic was dark blue, and so on and so forth. He could see everything with his right eye, even what was behind him.

A blonde flash ran towards Sora from behind, causing Sora to break away from his thoughts.

He set his eyepatch over his eye and quickly turned around, ready to strike as mana converged inside his body. He blinked, his brief hostility extinguished as he saw a short girl in front of him. She had long blonde hair that briefly shined under the sun, piercing scarlet eyes, pointed ears that could resemble a knife’s edge, and had her tongue sticking out at him. Hostility had given way to neutrality and now had devolved to annoyance as Shift — that was her nickname — repeatedly made mocking faces at him.

“...Shift, could you please focus on your job instead of trying to catch me by surprise?”

“You’re no fun,” the girl snorted, “and I told you to not call me that! My name is Mena! M-E-N-A.”

“Yes, yes, Miss Mena. I understand.” Sora smirked, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he crossed his arms.

Shift pouted but didn’t press the matter further. She had something more important to discuss.

“Wanna hang out later? There’s a new place in town that serves some real tasty pork, and I know you have nothing better to do. So, want to?” She asked in a dismissive tone, changing the topic entirely.

“Sure,” Sora replied as he shrugged, already getting the underlying meaning in her words. “I bet you also want me to bring over Micchan, don’t you? Since just us two would look like a date, and we all know that you’re such a pure maiden.” Sora snorted, his eyes rolling.

“Y-You would?” Shift’s eyes sparkled, excitement creeping upon her voice at the mention of ‘Micchan.’

“Ha! No. Just ask him out yourself; I don’t want to be a third wheel during whatever you two have going on.”

“I-I don’t know what y-you’re talking about! I was just being nice since, you know, you two have nothing to do! Ugh, never mind!” Mena denied everything with all her might before turning and quickly fleeing the scene, going back to her supervisor duties and leaving behind her duties of being a teenager with a crush on Sora’s best friend, Mitt Böl (or Meatball, though he’d punch anyone who dared to make that pun again for the nth time).

After having watched over the mages for another few hours, the final exam finally concluded. The sun was already beginning its descent across the horizon, leaving Shift and Sora finally free from their supervision as they escorted the mages back to the town.

“Ugh, this was the most boring thing ever. I shouldn’t have accepted the invitation.” Shift frowned as she walked beside Sora, her pace matching his own. Walking through the forest at the edge of town was normally extremely dangerous for a regular mage. Still, the two prodigies were skilled and powerful enough to not worry a lot about their own safety.

Sora hid a grimace as he nodded in agreement. Trying to not vocally agree as they weren’t more than a few meters from the mages who had finished the exam just a few minutes earlier.

“But if you hadn’t come you wouldn’t have casually ended up in the same town Mitt is staying at.”

“True! Do you think he’s waiting for us? We could all go out and do something together!” Shift noticed the smug look Sora was giving her and immediately became flustered. “I-I mean, o-only if he wants to! It’s not like I care, o-or anything…”

Sora sighed. Two things were certain in life for him: death, and Shift being obviously infatuated with his hot friend with silver hair and wolf-like ears, who also happened to be one of the strongest swordsmen in the world, only second to a guy that went by the name of Inquisitor.

“I’m sure Micchan will agree to go out with you, but I’ll have to pass, even if we just stayed still the whole time, I want to enjoy my comfy bed whilst I still can before embarking on another journey.”

“You’re a party pooper, but it’s your loss anyway.”

Sure is. thought Sora as he shook his head with a smile.

As the two made their way to town with the students in tow, the wind began to pick up, the howling groan of the evening air picking up a few leaves from the earthen ground.

Mana coalesced before the two teens heard the rustling of leaves.

Feeling as if he was being watched, Sora opened his left eye. He saw what looked like a human in the distance, but it didn’t really alert him.

And that’s when a monster leaped towards them from right behind a bush.

Three eyes on one side of its snout and three empty sockets on the other, possessing four legs and fur that looked as if it glistened in the remaining sunlight and smooth enough to the degree that made one wonder if there was even fur at all. Standing over seven feet in length, the monster was identified as a Khandwe, and yet, Sora knew it wasn’t a monster from the local area.

But that wasn’t everything. Somehow Sora’s right eye couldn’t detect its mana.

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It was invisible.

The monster growled, staying still on its haunches, letting itself be seen by them before it dashed away.

Sora was the one who would always lead his team during chases, despite his companions not knowing of his actual ability, they knew he could track anything, including a needle in a haystack. So, Shift looked at him and waited for him to start chasing the monster, yet Sora couldn’t see it at all.

Even with the weird predicament, he couldn’t disappoint his friend, especially after seeing a monster like that. They had to find it and kill it before it did any harm. And so, despite being blind to its form, he ran after the monster with Shift in tow.

They ran through the forest as the sun set down, leaving the duo in the darkness as they kept searching for the monster that had disappeared from their view. Sora’s eye couldn’t help the two, so it was up to them to manually search through the thickets for the beast. However, it didn’t take long as Shift’s shout echoed through the empty forest.

“There!” Shift pointed at the beast a few meters away from them, its form barely perceived through the lack of moonlight and the canopy of leaves above them. With no preamble, Sora launched himself towards it.

At such a speed, the beast would be run over and become incapacitated for enough time for Sora to cast a spell and end it, so Sora had no qualms going all out in his sprinting towards it.

Sora threw himself at the beast with a jump... And he went through it.

To make matters worse, the unidentifiable beast barked, a mockery of a laugh as Sora felt his legs give way to air, and the sudden pressure change caused his ears to pop. On the other side of the beast, there wasn't anything to support him: he had been tricked and was now at the mercy of gravity as he fell down the cliff.

“Sora-!” Shift’s cry grew faint as Sora screamed, his arms flailing through the air.

“SHIIIIIT!”

He needed a plan. Yes, he just needed to use some magic, and he’d be fine. The ground was getting closer, so he had to act fast. Sora lifted his arm and-

* * *

When Sora opened his eyes, he found himself in a bright white void.

Lifting himself from the floor, Sora rubbed his eyes and gazed at the world in confusion. Where was he?

It took him little time to realize he was dreaming, yet pinching himself didn’t wake him up. He stayed right there, without the ability to do anything. Walking didn’t feel like he was going anywhere, and the endless white landscape held a mist that covered Sora.

Yet, in the middle of all the white, his left eye saw a human-shaped brown light from afar that was walking towards him. Summoning magic? Or perhaps some kind of mirage?

“Hello, Sora.” A cacophony of voices spoke in unison, hundreds of male and female voices together that drove through Sora’s ears, the painful volume causing him to fall onto his knee. His ears rang, yet the voices didn’t stop.

“It is a pleasure to meet you.”

Finally, whatever it was, it had stopped speaking. “Where am I?” Sora asked, panting while his ears rang.

He winced as the voices began, but he held himself against the pain to finally understand what the words were being said.

“That does not matter now. You are in danger, Sora.”

His ears felt as if they were going to fall off. What danger?

“What do you mean?” As he replied he thought for a second about why he was even having a conversation with this imaginary being. He probably hit his head hard after the fall and is currently hallucinating.

There was, thankfully, a pause. Somehow this being was trying to form their words. Given the real pain and the ringing in his ears, Sora chalked it up to meeting some sort of being.

He would have been far more enticed to care about the situation if he didn’t feel as if he had a shovel being pushed through his ear, or if he knew this wasn’t just a dream.

“An evil god is forming an army to destroy humanity. To prevent this, I have looked upon the world to find candidates to stop this evil. You and your friends are the means to fight against this deity. However, they too will have this knowledge, and they will surely try to kill you. Perhaps if you survive, they would recruit you under the guise of benevolence. Take heed, Sora — do never trust them.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Sora eked out as he shakingly stood back up.

“I need you to kill this opposing deity.”

God-slaying? The call to adventure for this weird being who has been harassing his ears? This dream was definitely wild.

“Woah there, what? No, thanks. Kindly piss off.” Sora grinned before his ears rang once more.

“Then do as you please. You will understand why soon enough.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever.”

As the being kept on talking, it became apparent that it didn’t care for his refusal.

“To prove my trust in you, I’ll help you with the current threat to your life. You will find a yellow stone when you awaken. Let mana flow through it, and all the monsters will disappear after.”

Suddenly Sora’s vision started getting blurry as the brown light slowly started fading away.

“Heed my words Sora. Benevolence lays the way to ruin. Follow your eye.”

“What does that mean?!” The void began to shudder before dark ink blots began to pool from beneath Sora.

“What the hell– shit!” Sora fell through, his screams silenced as the eternity of darkness consumed him before he fell unconscious.

----------------------------------------

“Sora! Wake up!” Sora felt a shove on his shoulder before opening his eyes, finding Micchan staring at him from above.

“Uh- bwh-what?” Sora put a hand on his aching head. How the hell did he survive that? Well, not without some pain at least — the fall had hurt quite a bit.

“You fell, and there are more monsters. You good to help out?” Micchan replied.

Sora got up and saw tens of monsters beginning to circle around them. Well, even if he wasn’t fit to help, given the circumstances…

“How did you get here?” Sora asked Micchan, confused as to how he arrived when they hadn't even come back to town.

“Some guy ran into town screaming like a little kid, so I ran over to help. Glad to know my best friend was doing his best by sleeping.” Mitt replied with a lighthearted smile, as he made those remarks.

“Come on, you idiots. Let’s take care of them.” Shift said as she bared her teeth towards the beasts, interrupting the small talk between the two boys.

The monsters, akin to wolves with rotting heads that dripped mucous, howled before beginning to paw the ground. And it was only then that Sora realized he had landed in the middle of some weird ruins filled with pillars and rubble overgrown with vegetation. It was the kind of place Shift really liked to explored, but she probably wasn’t feeling in the mood for that at the moment. I should probably focus on the fight as well.

“Got a plan?” Mitt stood by Shift’s side, his sword raised.

Shift’s face flushed, her eyes briefly flitted to Sora before she bumped shoulders with him.

“Does teaming up and hitting them until they die count?”

Mitt sighed.

“Oh, thank the goddess you’re not the leader…” Sora brought out a wand as he palmed his face.

Micchan chuckled before he took a step forward, challenging the beasts. With another howl, they started their charge.

“Support me!” Micchan cried out to the two before he swung his blade across the pack. Three of the beasts jumped away and the others ignored the swordsman and aimed their jaws at the two mages.

Shift twirled a wand in her fingers as a quick incantation left her lips. Within a moment’s notice, earthen spears erupted from the ground.

Just as quickly, Sora pointed his wand towards the air, and with a twist of the cool metal, spheres of fire formed before their forms changed. The air grew hotter as the fire formed into vivid flame before being launched forward.

The beasts quickly backpedaled, their forms twisting as they dodged the spears and icicles. Another twirled as Mitt tried to ambush it from behind, its body twirling through the air before it landed upon his blade.

“Mitt!” Sora cried out as a stream of flame sought for the beast, yet with unnatural finesse, the damned monster evaded.

With a click of her tongue, Shift twisted her fingers as tendrils of mud flew in the air, trying to catch the beasts as several of them scattered, her spell just barely too slow to catch them.

They were being pushed towards a ruined pillar, their bodies beginning to perspire as the monsters growled just out of reach.

“These things are getting annoying…!” Mitt brought his blade close to his center, the blade parallel between two planes of glass in his mind. With one step, the monster that was about to attack Shift suddenly flew back as Mitt’s form blurred forward, his blade cutting the air itself as a rock pillar exploded from the force just ahead of him.

“Thanks, but I had that.” Shift pouted as the two placed their backs against each other.

For all the growling and lunging the beasts did, nobody had scored a hit. Not even Micchan, a holy knight, who’s able to move faster than almost everything… in theory, even faster than Khandwes, but the ones they were facing not only were invisible to Sora’s eye but were somehow more agile than the second strongest swordsman in the world.

This is useless, we can't hit them, and they won’t hit us. We'll be at this forever. Then, Sora noticed something. Every one of the pillars that formed the ruins they were fighting in had a stone in its center, and each one was of a different color. One was of dark yellowish color. A yellow stone…

It had to be what the being in his dream was referring to. Maybe it would be able to kill those monsters?

Sora ran up to the pillar with the stone, and, sensing magic inside the stone, he let mana flow through it. It was just a dream, what am I even doing-?!

“--Damn it!” Sora cursed. His mana wasn’t entering the stone as it should, it kept flowing out and sliding off the stone, meaning that the magic stone was somehow disturbing the mana flow around it... But it definitely wouldn’t be able to handle much more.

Closing his eyes, Sora forced himself to ignore the most basic principles of magic and threw his all into the stone.

Suddenly, Sora felt a great pain in his head and body, the rivulets of mana suddenly flowing through him, its magic torturously flowing through his veins and arteries. Glowing under his skin and turning his blood white; Sora screamed as the monsters disappeared, their forms dissipating in thin air as everyone around him felt a growing headache and their sight grew fuzzy.

Collapsing, Sora felt his body get caught by his friend’s strong arms. Mitt slowly lifted Sora before looking at the ruins around him. Then he focused his eyes on Sora’s arms.

“What the…”

Blue lines were etched upon Sora’s skin. The etches faintly glowed in power as they started from his fingertips and ended below his elbow.

Nothing that Mitt knew could correlate what kind of magic this was, and his brief glance at Shift showed she didn’t know either, from the looks of her head shaking.

What the hell did you do, Sora?