"Get down here, Grey!" Emily's voice could be heard shouting early in the morning as she looked up at her son who's sitting above a tree branch in lotus position.

Clearly hearing her words, Grey quickly opened his eyes before standing up and jumped down from the tree branch he was sitting. He then supported his landing with wind magic as his feet slowly touched the ground. "What mom?" He asked, looking up at his seemingly stunned mom while his face was covered with visible drops of sweats.

"Nothing, let's head home, someone's looking for you." She replied, exhaling sharply.

Grey obediently followed what he was told and walked with her to head home with a puzzled look all over his young face.

Three days have passed since that hellish night inside the mining tunnel and the royal wizards already conducted their own investigation regarding to the gigantic door found close to the boss room. This resulted to the queen and the members of royal military to stay longer in the Hotstone village. They already received a report from Jagger and the entire guild about some serious unheard incidents that happened during the raid and wanted to investigate further.

Grey concluded that this could be the reason why someone's looking for him early in the morning. During the raid, Ryner mentioned something about "those guys" to Jurgen that caused several questions to grow inside his head. The fact that the guild is keeping their mouths shut until the queen and other royal wizards to arrive bothered him and continue to create theories in his head.

As soon as Grey arrived inside the house, he saw three people sitting together with Jurgen. The other two being Jagger and Ryner. But among them was another unfamiliar person, a woman wearing a military uniform which is instantly recognized by Grey. The woman seems a bit younger than his mom and got her red hair tied in a single ponytail.

"Who is this?" Grey whispered a question in the air before instantly making eye contact with the person in question.

The red haired woman immediately stood up as soon as she laid her eyes on Grey. "Pardon my rudeness, but when you told me that a someone helped you kill an emberman, are you perhaps talking about this kid?" The woman suddenly started uttering in a rather arrogant and insulting manner, looking down at the child in front of her.

"Y-Yes?" Ryner hesitatingly replied, avoiding to make any eye contact with the woman.

The woman looked at Grey from hair to toe before sitting down once again. Her expression changed to a kind-looking face in an instant. "Like I said, pardon my rudeness... ahem." She surprisingly uttered in a more calm tone before clearing her throat and sat down, "Take a seat.", offering the vacant seat in front of her.

Which Grey quickly accepted and sat down comfortably with his elbow rested on both of his legs, eyes are all over the red haired woman. "Thank you." He surprisingly managed to blurt it out as a whisper, occasionally taking a glance of the beautiful woman in front of him.

"I'm not here to do you any harm or whatsoever. I'm here to listen as a representative of her majesty." She said before bowing her head and formally introducing herself, "My name is Lylia Wagner, one of the Supreme Arc wizards of the Avaron kingdom, nice to meet you."

'Supreme arc wizards?... is that a high ranking wizard?...' Grey's expressions instantly changed to the face of confusion. 'Come to think of it, I haven't been paying attention to my surroundings, but this mana frequency in the atmosphere... it's on a different level.' He looked at the woman once again with curiosity. 'Then this woman might be the person with the queen inside that carriage the other day.' He couldn't help but wonder until a light tap on his shoulder dragged him out of his thoughts.

"Grey, are you alright?... you've been staring at her a lot, it's rude you know." Emily silently whispered to him, causing Grey to unglue his eyes from the woman.

Getting back to Lylia's statement, Grey curiously asked, "You're here to listen?... to what?" His eye brows curled when he asked those question, looking at everyone's face with confusion.

"Let's cut the chase," Ryner said, letting out a long sigh, pulling Grey's attention to him. He let out another long sigh and said, "Didn't I tell everyone during our fight against those giant molten knights that I have something to tell you after we finish?" He explained before straightening his posture. "I think today is the time."

Grey was thrown into confusion and shook his head, "Wait, wait, wait... then what exactly does this has to do with me?" He asked, still couldn't find any reason why he had to be involved in this.

"Well..." Jagger took over the conversation and paused to fill his lungs with air. "... after seeing you fight during the raid, I could say that you're undoubtedly a strong wizard. That is the reason why you're one of the few individuals I could trust with such an alarming information." He explained as the air was filled with awful silence.

Grey stopped breathing for a few seconds after hearing this. 'Strong?... I barely even defeated that lava monster though.' He thought, before returning to the conversation. Looking at Jagger and Ryner's faces, it seems like this is really a serious matter that they have to waste the time of a supreme arc wizard.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

Grey knew that he had to listen carefully to what they're going to say, not just to satisfy his curious mind but also to prove his theories.

After making sure that everyone's attentions are at him, Ryner took over and started telling the story. "Listen everyone... this happened after we split up with Bernard and Mira to enter deeper into the tunnel... from there we saw..."

... ... ...

... ...

...

After a few minutes, Ryner completed his narration and the air was filled with silence with everyone having surprised and anxious expressions. They were told about a creature who interrupted their raid resulting to Ryner and the others to be captured by the molten knights. At first, he almost sounds like exaggerating it and everyone found it unbelievable. But the expression on Ryner's face as he told the story really made them believe his words.

Meanwhile, Grey only managed to prove his theories. 'When we first arrived inside the boss room, I saw them tied in a rope which is already a puzzle to me because monsters weren't the type who will spare their enemies. Moreover, even if those giant molten knights would raise their hands, they could never reach the ceiling to tie a rope on it, which is another puzzle. But after hearing his story, everything makes sense now.' With the silence lasting for about a minute, Grey took his time to finally speak for himself.

"Is it a human or a monster?" Grey calmly asked Ryner. His eyes are full of questions waiting to be answered.

After hearing him said that, Ryner slightly lowered his gaze to meet his eyes and said. "Neither... It was just vague figure, but I heard him spoke before I fully lose my consciousness." His eyes are full of anxiousness as he speak before gazing back at Jurgen.

"Him? Then it's more likely a human." Jurgen concluded, letting out a long sigh after almost holding his breath for a long time during the entire narration.

"I'm honestly not sure about it. That amount of mana he emits, it's overwhelmingly strong, probably equal or much stronger than the king." Ryner replied with his anxious eyes looking around. "It's almost feels like that person was inhuman. He managed to take down all of us in a instant before we could even blink our eyes."

"If you said that you were really attacked by this what you called 'enemy', then how the heck did you survive?" Jurgen has been wondering the entire time and still couldn't find the story making any sense.

"And the fact that you stated that this 'enemy' is as strong as the current king of Avaron really bothers me. Do you know how strong is the current monarch?" Lylia seemed to have no doubt written on her face but what Ryner said really bothered her entirely and suddenly lose her composure after hearing it.

"Then perhaps the king can revive someone who already died?" Ryner stunned everyone with his sudden question, causing them to look at him with dumbfounded faces.

Lylia seems surprised to hear it and took some time before replying, "W-What are you saying?" Her voice is shaky and her face looks terrified as she speak.

"When I said that we all got defeated, I actually mean it. Both my arms were chopped, Jagger got himself stabbed and as for Rose... I saw her die in front of my eyes after getting split in half by the enemy's sword." Ryner explained in trembling voice, causing everyone to be shock.

"W-What?" Jurgen gave him a doubtful look, narrowing his eyes. He found the statement unbelievable.

"I know you find it hard to believe, but I'm telling the truth. Although Rose is still unconscious, I could guarantee that she's still breathing soundly. And look at my hands, I'm doing great as well as Jagger." Ryner stated, pointing at Jagger before looking at everyone around him. "The enemy seemingly revived Rose after the fight and left after he said something."

"Something?" Jurgen looked at him with a more calm gaze with his eyes filled with curiosity.

"He said two things, the first was like this, 'The balance of this world is surely well-maintained. Balance that will sure collapse and crumble in no time after all the preparations are done.'" Ryner explained before taking a glance at everyone's expression and find Grey's face unchanged.

"Then what's the last?" Jurgen eagerly asked, almost ignoring the first statement. He seemingly doesn't want to be even more surprised than he is now.

Ryner straightened his posture and continued explaining. "The final thing that he said is the thing that really sends shivers down my spine. He stated it like this... 'They're moving faster than expected. In ten years, this world should be fully prepared for a war or everything will cease to exist. The pillar of this world shall not waver nor be destroyed.'" He said, only focusing his gaze at Grey who's seemingly unfazed by the statement.

War is something that will never surprise Grey. It was one of those things that he already heard many times before in his past life. 'As long as humans exists, wars are also bound to exist. And that's also true for this world.' That's what he thought after hearing it.

"A war is coming?" Lylia's heart skipped a beat upon hearing it. She wanted to convince herself that she heard it all wrong and asked another question.

Ryner refused to answer once more and silently looked at Jurgen, waiting for his master's opinion.

Jurgen took sometime before he sighed and said, "If that's what he said then so be it. It's not that we could do anything about it." His eyes are calm but everyone could almost hear his heart beating like hell. The old man then stood up and walked outside, lightly closing the front door.

"Is that all the information?" Lylia asked before standing up.

"Yeah, that's all." Jagger also stood up to shake the woman's hand.

"I'll make sure to report everything to her majesty." She said before walking outside along with Jagger.

Everyone also left one by one with their own thoughts in mind. It seems like hearing all those words gave them some kind of warning in mind, causing them to overthink everything. Even Ryner who's usually so worked up about everything seems so down as he told the story earlier and it bothers Grey more than anyone.

Watching everyone left, Grey was the only person remained in the living room. It didn't take that long before he started creating his own thoughts about Ryner's story. 'A war huh?... I haven't heard that word in such a long time.' The thought brought an uncontrollable grin on his face as he slowly exhaled. 'But why would someone like an enemy would warn us about the upcoming war?' A question rang inside his head and wondered, 'I feel like I'm missing something.' Grey suddenly got an urge to find out more about the upcoming major threat.

'Just what exactly is coming?... And why the hell did I get myself involved?' Grey confusingly closed his eyes and breathed all the air from his lungs. 'Is this the peace-shattering thing that gramps mentioned before? Or perhaps this has something to do with my rebirth?'