The next day, Finwell couldn't really put the words to his mouth as he sat in his room. He was supposed to meet his fellow elders, to assure them not to panic too much with what happened yesterday. Then for the next meeting, whenever it would be called, they need to take the initiative. But it seemed to be impossible for now. It doesn’t help that the person sitting across from him, dressed in elegant clothes and plastered with a face that reeks of pride, Seraphine. Even her words sounded cold as she said. “ I am telling you again. Stop your opposition to my plans. For the good of all elves, you must stop with that cowardly attitude of yours.”

"Rather than me being cowardly, it’s you being stupid." Finwell said and put down his cup of tea. “ Your so-called plans are nothing but smokes of dream and require the luck that even the spirits could not deliver.”

“ That is because you can’t see beyond your limited thinking.” Seraphine snapped at him. “ Opportunities are all based on luck.”

“ They also require one to be grounded in reality, which you seemed to be missing.”

“ I am not disillusioned.” Seraphine then slammed a stack of files on the table, almost as thick as one’s palm, that almost made the tea spill from their cups. “ These are the hard facts and not some empty dreams.”

“ These are?” Finwell raised his eyebrows when he saw this and picked the papers.

“ Reports on those insects' vision for their future.”

Finwell picked them up to inspect. He knew she had some spies among humans but he never knew at what positions. And as he went through the content on papers, he could now at least tell that the position was not low. “ Right, let me assume whatever you put has some truth to it and the so-called ‘insects’ plan to kill a bunch of them just to ‘free their will’ from the grasp of that Princess."

“One-third.”

“ Right. And so, after losing ‘one-third of their kind’, you believe they still stand a chance against Oasis?” Finwell gave a raised eye with stretched lips, like an elf who couldn’t understand the joke being spoken in front of him. “ Just that beast of Oasis is enough to level those remnants in no time. Where did the elves even come in this? You don’t believe we can kill all those that remained after the war, do you?”

“ Are you purposely acting as a blind spirit?” Seraphine raised her fist in front of her chest and said in a deep voice. “ We have a one-in-a-thousand-year opportunity to fully get rid of humans from all the South Continent and reclaim the land that once belonged to us.”

“ Here you go again.” Finwell shook his head at such a display of arrogance.“ Okay, let’s ignore those wizards of humans, since Thar does not have direct control over them. And also ignore their many City Lords who each have either the rank of Grand Knight or Grand Mage. You know, those guys that could literally sink half the continent individually? Since the human alliance would flip upside down if they make a move, there’s no fault if we ignore them.”

Seraphine narrowed ocean-coloured eyes at his mocking words, but otherwise said nothing.

“ Let’s just count their High Knights and High Mages, the guys faster than the speed of sound and makers of the pseudo-law domain. Let me count their numbers, Thar had like, let me see, one, two, three,..” Finwell flipped the papers that Seraphine herself had brought and counted each one such individual on his fingers, not forgetting to say each number exaggerating in front of her eyes.” Ya, some hundreds of them. Oh wait, that’s just for the Easparton?”

“...”

“ How many wizards, Grand Knights or Grand Mages do we have? None. Ah, we choose to ignore them. Sorry, I have a habit of forgetting things.” Finwell tapped his head, like in a self-blame. But soon he returned to his words. “ So tell me, what makes you think we can do anything to them? Did you forget what Thar is? They founded that human alliance with four other families and have ruled since then. Even with them being a pariah now doesn’t mean anything if you look at their power. They have thousands of high knights and mages alone. How many do we have? A dozen or two if I really stretch it? And how many times have they fought with each other over this crown of theirs? It’s too many to count. It’s just a routine for them. Tell me, what makes you think it would change anything when their upper-level strength is almost intact?”

Seraphine just sipped her tea with calm, like his words didn’t reach her ears. This was from her own sources, so there was no point in arguing. In fact, that was just human manpower. Finwell had not even started with beasts, which too got a force equal to High Knights or Mages. One could almost touch the speed of sound while another could create his own pseudo-law domain. None was easy to deal with. “ Sipping the tea would not make the facts go away, you know that, right?” he said to her.

“ As I have said before, your thinking is still old, as always. Times have changed.”

“ Prove it to me then.” Finwell leaned back to get himself comfy on his sofa. "Prove me how right you are."

“ The Spirit stones. I will soon send it to Thar.”

“ And here we go again … wait.” Finwell suddenly had his back straightened up. Spirit stones are the highly concentrated essence of spirits made after they die. If an elf eats it, his blood would become purer and he will gain power, but that’s only true for elves. If another race got it, then even though they got power in a short time, they also became mentally ill and depending on the exposure, being a psychopath was not uncommon. He looked at the first page of the files, which labelled the plan of Easparton. A great sacrifice ceremony circles being built among the depths of mountains, soon, many humans would be sacrificed here at the same time and it would free their will. He could guess what her plans could be, if she could get access to these circles then, it makes sense for a lot of things.“ You plan to…”

“ The Princess of Thar tried to make everyone her slaves but she failed miserably. Her effect weakens as the power of individuals increases, but that doesn't mean it’s not there so all higher-ups of Easparton would take part in this ceremony and open their souls to free their will. I would then use my tool to place some spirit stones in their ceremony. Great Knights or otherwise, may have some resistance to its corruption in normal times but whether that would still be the case when they purposely allow it into their soul would be an interesting case to see, don’t you agree.” Seraphine had a signature smile across her looks. For all she knew, humans were already half dead. All they needed was a little push. “ When they all become crazy, who says they would not make a move?”

“ But what about that alliance?” Finwell asked with some doubts. He could see the path, even if the plan didn’t succeed fully, the people who had gone mad would inflict heavy casualties on each other. Whatever the result may be, Thar would be too weak at the end. It was a great opportunity for them, but the alliance’s intervention needed to be prevented for that to happen.

“ That’s why I need you to agree with our plan. We would use the Illusionary Alliance and have them sign a treaty with those insects on the other continent.” Seraphine was sure of her victory. She could see the struggle within Finwell’s shaky eyes, she knew he just needed a little push. “We are losing nothing even if the plan fails. But we can have all the rewards if it succeeds. Think about it, with their beast dead and society battered, we just need to use our world tree and expand its domain beyond the mountains. We would not get this chance again.”

Finwell fell silent at her words. The reason elves could survive for such a long time with such a huge difference from Thar and even had the confidence to mount a surprise attack at them five decades ago lies in their world tree, Aurelianar. It was not just a sacred tree, but an entity equal to a World's artefact. Something which could make a law domain over the long area. The Whole of Silver Glade Forest was under its domain which suppressed anyone other than elves. If the Thar’s Guardian beast died and Aurelianar’s domain expanded beyond the mountains, humans being wiped out of the Southern continent was not just a dream.

“ I need some time to think about it.” He said to her after a deep breath.

“ Sure, I will be calling the meeting again in a week.” Seraphine stood up and walked towards the door but stopped at the last step. “ By the way, I knew about your faction's diverting troops to work in mines. If you don’t want it to be blown off in the open, you should choose wisely.” She left with such words.

“ Looks like the next meeting would be a lost game.” He murmured and picked up his cold teacup again. For some reason, he felt the ginger tea lacked the taste it once had.

***

Nebula, Terralea.

The woman with enchanting looks and an ever-shifted foggy dress yawned with her rosy lips. But this time, there was a small piece of paper in her delicate soft hand. She looked at its content and muttered. “ One million contribution points deducted, left account, Eleven million contribution points.” The moment she finished, the paper in her hand dissolved into nothingness. Instead, some distance in the air, an old wall clock with a body made of wood and silver metal as the frame. Coupled with a golden pendulum downward. The glass before its hands had some noticeable cracks in it. She made the clock move closer and opened the glass. Her multi-coloured eyes focused on its second hand, the one made with a dark metal of unknown origin.

Then, casually, she raised her index finger and stopped it in front of the second hand. As its path got obstructed, the gears made a grinding sound, with speakers that lit the back cover of the clock. The very space around her trembled and the lights surrounding her flickered. For a while, it looked like the second hand had unimaginable strength as it pushed along its path. But there was no change of emotion on the woman's face. Her multi-coloured hairs all lit up and her finger became firm. Soon, the sparks died out and the space returned to normal. She pulled back her finger but despite that, the second hand no longer moved with the speed that it should have. It was a lot slower. She closed the glass again and the clock disappeared. With nothing else to do, she yawned again and returned to sleep.

****

Faeleaf, Terralea.

With the sound of a smack, a boy around four years old fell to the ground. He had fierce red hair with violet coloured eyes with some build of tears in them. Just some distance away from him had his wooden trainee sword laid on the ground just like him, and in front of him was the middle-aged man with the same hair, but with emerald eyes that lacked the pity for the child.

“ Stand again,” Everard said with a bland tone.

“ But it hurts.” The child said as he rubbed his head. He looked on the verge of crying as he pleaded to the man in front. “ Dad, can we stop for today? I can’t continue anymore.”

What came next was Everard’s wooden sword, and hit squarely on his head. As the pain surged again, he heard the words from his dad. “ Stop crying. Pick your sword up, Leo.”

Leo had no choice even if he cried with all his lungs out, his dad would not stop with his attacks. If anything, the strikes would be more painful if he refused to pick up the sword. Leo was small, but he was not stupid. He understood his situation well, or maybe he just didn’t know any better. In any case, he raised his hands and picked up the sword. And get into the defensive stance. For all he knew, his father only beat him more if he didn’t do as he said.

“ Focus on my strikes, see if you can track the path of my sword,” Everard said and attacked again. Leo tried to focus, but his eyes could not see the trajectory of the sword. The most he could see was the strike was supposed to come from the upper left side and so he raised his sword to defend. But the pain came from the lower left.

“ Don’t close your eyes mid-way. How are you going to defend like that?” Everard said and ignored the cries of pain from Leo. He was ready to strike again, but at that point, a guard came close to him and said with a bow.

“ Sir Everard, butler Orlaith asked me to inform you, he needs your presence in the city.”

“ We will finish the training later.” Everard turned and walked to his horse. He was originally supposed to patrol the surrounding area but the forest was silent for some months so he stopped here for today. This place served as the temporary camp for their patrol team. The guard, a young man with short brown hair and pale yellow eyes, came close to Leo, and helped him stand up. “ Are you ok?” He asked.

“Uhm…” Leo was still rubbing the place that just got hit. Some tears also fell from his eyes.

“ Here, I found this sweet in my room, it should help with the pain.” The guard’s name was Ravin, and he pulled a small red sweet wrapped in a blue cloth. Leo took it without much ado, it’s not the first time he had gotten something from Ravin and just as he took a bite, he heard him saying, “ Let’s go follow Sir Everard, it’s not good if we stay outside too late.” It was close to evening in the forest, and the city was some distance away from the trainee ground.

“ Can we not go there?” Leo said in a small voice. He always felt as if his father didn’t like him much. Ravin scratched his head at his words.

“ That’s not true, he’s just a little strict with your training because he cared for you.”

“ You always lie to me.”

“ No, no, no. I am telling the truth.” They didn’t stop while they talked but walked to the city. It was a twenty-minute journey by foot. But Leo didn’t want to come here. The very sight of the city gate, filled with cracks and rusting iron because of lack of care made him not want to come here. As he entered through the gate, the small city had nothing much left to its name. With many houses left empty, filled with overgrown plants and dust and webs. The more one moved closer to the city hall, the more such a scene became common. On the way, near the roadside, there was some fence of white, dusty old cloth covering the view, mostly to hide the ruins of whatever structure once stood there.

Leo had asked Ravin about it and all he said was that some beast ran into the town some years ago and left with many casualties. He didn't know why, but the people here seemed to avoid him. Even now he could see some people looking away from his direction as he passed by. Only Ravin seemed to care about him.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“ Would he be home?” Leo asked.

“ I don’t know?” Ravin shook his head. “ But I heard something good for you?”

“ Good?”

“ Ya. It seems like the alliance no longer believes that Faeleaf could function on its own anymore and thus might shift everyone into a different city.”

“ Why is it good news?” Leo had a confused look on his face.

“ Because then you could play with children of your age.” Ravin then rubbed Leo’s head with a big smile. “ Also, it meant that you no longer had to train anymore.”

“ Really?” Leo's eyes finally shined at him. “ I don’t have to train anymore?”

“ Of Course. In fact, you would be allowed to go to a place with a group of children close to your age.” Ravin said as Leo cheered, but left some words unsaid.

“ Would you also come?”

“ Well, it depends.” Ravin found Leo’s eyes getting down the moment he said this and hastily followed with his next words. “ Worry not little guy, I am more than able to meet you once a month.”

“ Really? You would come and meet me?”

“ Of Course. I promise on my dad’s hair. But since we are not going to come here anytime soon, how about we go for a trip around here?”

“ Ah…” Leo almost nodded his head but then became down-faced again. “ But he would not agree.”

“Leave that to me.” Ravin thumped his chest. “ It’s decided then, tomorrow I will have you learn how to swim.”

“ We are seeing a river?”

“That’s a surprise.” Ravin put a finger on his lips. Leo just nodded. They already arrived at the manor, but there was only one knight to be seen. Ravin greeted him and moved inside. Everard didn’t come to see Leo at night, but he was used to it.

***

The next day was the same, he didn’t see Everard’s shadow at all. Only a smiley face of Ravin who had a paper on his hands and said. “ Look, I got the permission. Let’s go?”

Leo too, smiled with him. He soon dressed himself in a red T-shirt and black pants. He planned to go through the front door, but Ravin stopped him.

“ Wait, we need to go through the back door.”

“ But why?” Leo looked at him confused.

“That’s the fastest way to go there,” Ravin said and grabbed his hand to walk faster. Leo didn’t notice much but as they passed by people, they always avoided being noticed by them. It was the same when they reached outside, the unattended road with growing weeds in the middle. It was a path which was rarely taken by others. Soon they arrived at the desolate house. Made from wood, a two-story tall house some distance away from the city wall. Ravin entered it from the side of the broken wall.

“ Why are we here?” Leo asked, he didn’t understand why they were here at all. But Ravin was the only guy he knew and trusted in the Faeleaf. Ravin seemed unconcerned at his question but instead looked through the path they had just come from. Only when he confirmed no one was following them did he look back at Leo.

“ I heard that Sir Everard will be leaving the city soon. I thought there would be a crowd in the gate.”

“ Crowd?” Leo was only four years old, but he heard that there were not many people in Faeleaf. It was related to the demon that once attacked this city. But that’s not the reason why he remembered such details. It was because his mother died in that attack, and sometimes, he heard some townsmen blame his dad’s absence for the attack.

“ Yes.” Ravin nodded his head and said. “ You are small so you don’t know, but there are still many people in the city and since they are going to be shifted to another location soon, they are a little agitated.”

Next, he came to the side drawer, which was covered with dust and broken stones. He pulled a short stick, and pointed towards the drawer. As the tip of the stick flashed, the drawer moved to the side and revealed a hidden path just underneath it.

“Wow, you can do magic?” Leo looked at him with shining eyes. “ I thought you were a knight?”

“ Who says the knights can’t do magic?” Ravin raised his chest with a proud look. “The world is big. If you want, I can make you learn it too.”

“ Really? I want to learn fire spells.”

“ Not now, let’s first make you learn swimming.”

The hidden path was dark but Ravin was prepared. His anchor shined with enough strength that made the wet soil walls with sprawling roots appear to the naked eye. Below their feet was the makeshift road of wood for them to ply over, thus not slippery. It was rather straight for what Leo could tell, but because there was darkness otherwise, he grabbed the shirt of Ravin and made sure not to fall behind. He didn’t know how long they walked but when they walked out, it was from some green bushes that hid the exit. Sun was past in the morning and when Leo thought he had to walk more, he found one brown horse with a big tail tied to the tree.

They hopped on the horse and marched southward. With the speed of the horse, it was way past afternoon when they finally took a different turn to the unpaved dusty road and into the forest. But Leo felt tiredness in his eyes, and unknowingly fell asleep on the horse. Ravin made the horse stop in the middle of the dense forest and stepped down.

“Leo, can you hear me? Hey?” He tapped Leo’s head and when he got no response, he smiled in relief. “ I thought they sold me a false drug.” He took Leo from the horse and into his hand and walked further in. He soon arrived at a large open lake in the middle of trees.

“ You are late.” At this time, a man said to Ravin. He was standing near the lake, near the piles of rock and wooden planks from the now-destroyed house. The man was wearing a greyed-out robe, with no descreening symbol to it. His left eye was pure white, just like his unkempt white hairs. With his figure a head shorter than Ravin, he had to look up to the shoulder where Leo was being carried. “ Put him here, I need to check his body first.”

“ I am telling you, that is the right boy.”

The old man didn’t listen and walked closer to Leo as soon as he was placed on the ground. “ Remove his clothes.”

Ravin’s hands moved fast and all the clothes on Leo turned into threads. The old man kneeled and drew out a black knife. Without much hesitation, he made cuts on Leo's tender skin and red blood flowed out from the wound. Leo’s face strained despite his slumber. Soon, his whole chest was made into rest. Soon, from his heart, a wisp of black oozed out that made the old man’s only eye become red with excitement. “ He’s the guy, our lord’s soul fragment is in him.”

“ I already told you,” Ravin said but the old man was busy once again with his knife. He felt a little pity for Leo. Four years ago, one of their friends, Riko, was tasked with guarding the Soul of their god inside the lake and feeding him some occasional blood. Unfortunately for them, the Alliance issued a Starlight Order and caught up with him. Riko died and also their god had to release a part of his soul to take the heat away from the people of Alliance. Faeleaf was destroyed as a result and Leo’s mother too got injured because of it. During that time, part of their god’s soul managed to sneak into the still-unborn baby. The doctors could save only one, and Leo’s mother died. Now, they need to retrieve that and move away. And since Ravin heard that the final merger negotiations for Faeleaf happen to be today, that’s why they rushed with their plan.

“ Throw him in the lake. We shouldn’t delay.” The old man shouted.

Ravin came close and found that the whole of Leo was mutilated. He could see the white bones peeking out from his chest. Even his face was not visible anymore. He had been cut with precise measurements so that he could not die. And no matter how many times Ravin saw such a scene, he could not help but marvel at the art of his teacher. “ Try to be reborn on our side in the next life.” Then he picked Leo and threw him into the lake like a rag. With a splashed sound, Leo’s bloodied body started to sink. He gagged on the water and his eyes struggled to open, but nothing changed. Like a fish off the water, his mutilated body struggled in the water as it sank, which only made the pain increase even more. Just when his struggles weakened and were close to the end, the surface of the lake cracked. The darkness of the bottom disappeared and a glowing blackish-red eye, with a size that was as wide as two houses appeared.

Leo’s weakened body jerked and stopped, it neither sunk nor floated anymore. Then came the change from the symbols on his body, they too sensed the eye and glowed in the same colour. A small creaking noise followed, it came from not the bottom of the lake but from Leo’s chest. A visible thumping could be seen through the red light, as it wriggled and thumped like a heart. More blood swept from his ears and eyes, and it all was sucked into the eye at the bottom. From the eye’s side, a tendril, made entirely of rotten flesh and bones swept up and dug into Leo’s heart. A suction force followed and sucked the part of his soul that resided in Leo’s body. It was done in a minute, but it didn’t stop there. Leo was his next meal.

On the outside of the lake, Ravin and the old men threw themselves on the ground the moment the red eye appeared in the lake. They shouted. “ Servants greet the Lord. The STARS WILL FALL. STARS WILL FALL.”

“ Geeze, can’t you guys say something better?” At this time, another voice asked them. It sounded like that of a middle-aged man but that put both Ravin and the old man in shock. They didn’t notice before when another person approached them. Their hearts rang the bells of fear and sure enough, when they looked up, their fear was confirmed. Dressed in a dark blue robe that was more like a cameo, with little shades of blue mixed in. His face too was covered with the same coloured cloth, as the rest of his body. Leaving only his pale azure eyes. He walked towards them without a care about their shocked reaction. On his chest was a Four-star badge that filled the eyes of Ravin and the old man with terror. They wanted to move their body in the hope of attacking or most likely, escape from him but it was futile. They found their body too rigid to move. Even their thoughts started to become slow and they felt like sleeping.

“ Rest for now, we will talk later.” As the man said, a small space vortex appeared between Ravin and the old man. It then started to suck them by pulling them with such force that their skin almost got peeled. Their bodies morphed into streams as they got closer to the vortex and soon got sucked in completely. In the place of the vortex, a clear crystal appeared with the faces of Ravin on the surface. He took the crystal and placed it in his inner pocket and turned his eyes to the lake. A fierce hot flame materialised in front of him and like a slash from a sword, sped past into the water and cut straight into the tendril of the eyes. The cry of pain created waves in the water. The moment its tendril got cut, Leo’s body got pulled back from the water and came next to the man. He pulled out a bottle of red liquid and spilled it on the body of Leo. Before the naked eye, all his wounds started to heal and disappear. But the next moment, both of them flashed and appeared in the air above the lake, just in time to avoid the many tendrils that were stuck in the place they just moved from. A big crater was formed on the ground that just got stuck.

The mage looked down and in the depths of the lake, he could see the giant eye glowing red. It was an eerie view and the lake water constantly became more and more blacker. Under his azure eyes, he notices the fast-approaching attack in the form of a wave as it is released from the eye. With a big bang, those waves collided with the air in front of him. As with his centre, his pseudo-law domain started to spread outwards and covered the whole lake and the five-hundred-metre area surrounding him. Once again, the eye tried to release the wave attack but they got suppressed the moment they appeared. A huge cry of anger followed after and just as it prepared to attack again, the mage raised his right hand and a ball of fire, about his head, dropped into the lake. It was fast, and only took a blink of a second to come near the centre of the eye.

“ KKKRkkkkkakka…” It was a soul-wrenching scream that followed as the fireball exploded with full might and scorching hot flames no different than boiling magma appeared and expanded to the entire length of the lake. So hot that the very water of the lake evaporated and the bottom surface became a red charred soil for the naked eye to see. As the whole lake evaporated, the sky was filled with white vapour that obstructed the view but that changed nothing for the mage. Nothing in his law domain could escape his senses. He flashed again with Leo and the tendrils plunged into an empty air.

At the bottom in the middle of vapour and the smell of burned meat, the whole eye was visible. Its true height was that of a five-story building, and its skin was made from the skin of decayed animals with wriggling tendrils. A blackish-red light surged forth from it and fired towards the mages who appeared left of the lake. This time it was a more sinister attack, a curse. It tore through the air and zoomed towards its target. But the mage was ready, some of his hair flew out from inside the robes and sucked the water vapours from the surroundings to create a condensed, doll-sized water body of his. The doll got hit by the black ink and absorbed the curse. It became muddy the moment it got hit and fell to the ground. This made the eye scream one more time, this time it understood the seriousness of the situation and didn’t choose to hold back.

It sacrificed half of its body and let it be swallowed by the same black ink substance. But it was worth it. It grew new tendrils made from the ink sped up like never before. The mage had to flash again to avoid it. This time multiple times, the moment he appears, he needs to shift his position again. The sheer number of tendrils could fill a small town plaza, and they kept coming. Most importantly, they kept releasing black smoke into the air, which made the mage frown. He knew it was trying to corrupt his pseudo-law domain to escape. As he again dodged the barrage of tendrils, he made the vapour condense into water and shaped them just like the tendrils that kept coming at him. It all happened in two blinks of an eye and he made the tendrils of water and black ink collide with each other. The eye thought it would be easy to crush them but it was wrong. They looked like water, but the looks can be deceiving. Whenever the water and ink tendrils collided, an explosion rang out in the air. Below the layer of water was another layer of spell that hid the presence of two fires, normal and cold flame. And it didn’t end there with just an explosion as it attached itself to the surrounding tendrils and burned them into smokelessness. A quadruple chantless magic.

Next, amid the screams of the eye, the ink tried to move in, to put out the invisible fire but the moment it appeared, a wave of blue lightning struck them. It burned them into the air, before making them stiff as the temperature dropped to below zero and ice appeared on them which then exploded into tiny pieces, only to be burned by cold fire in the air. The eye was not done yet, its skin wriggled and from it, the ink surged again but this time, it started to take the distorted form of beasts from the flesh consumed. Some had their eyes on their knees and stomachs acting like a mouth with decayed teeth inside. But different from the eye which was the manifestation of soul and flesh they got only glorified meatballs in the pseudo-law domain. All pretence and no substance as each one exploded into a black tar the moment they appeared without a glance from the mage. Mage frowned upon seeing the tar coating the land and thus diverted a little attention to it. The vapour above the soil got sucked up as well as little dirt and a seed with flashing thunder inside started to appear. Thousands of such seeds appeared and got thrown into the tar. They took the tar as soil and started to germinate into small, blue grasses. As they sucked the tar, they died in a blink. That’s how they are made to do as the next instant they place they died had been overrun by the tendril. The eye wanted to stop them but was a little late. All the liquid tar had now solidified into the solid block which turned into dust due to the impact. But it got better because not only the grass sucked the tar but also the pollution from the domain which it worked so hard till now.

It screamed even more, but because of the weakened state of using the black ink, his voice was partially suppressed by the domain. Soon, it would be his turn, the eye knew this and gave a final struggle in hopes of escaping, it sacrificed all of his tendrils and much of his body. Even the red pupil got turned into pitch black. Seeing it the mage used both hands and drew a huge magic circle in the air, the wind swirled around it, and so the remaining vapour with some earth. From his hands, a blue flame shot forth and into the circle, when it came out, it intensified into a whole circle, from head to a whole one metre in diameter, just in time to meet with the blank ink shot from the eye’s pupil. Like a sonic boom, the explosion ripped the air and even the pseudo domain got jittered because of it. The eye seemed to find its way and pushed more power into its final attack and thus it failed to notice the small grass growing on the still red-hot soil near it. It never thought something could grow in the iron melting temperatures. The lightning in the grass exploded at the moment, but only this time, it passed through the rotten flesh and stuck directly into its consciousness.

The attack made the eye scream and for the attack, it was giving its all till now. It was a fatal mistake as the very next moment it got distracted, ten clear crystals appeared surrounding it in a circle and the very space shirked to the singularity, completely crushing the huge eyeball into wriggling munched flesh only to get sucked into the crystals. Which then combined to form a new but bigger crystal and flew into the hands of the mage. He could see the image of flesh inside and smile behind his robes. “ Stars. We are not going anywhere.” He said and glanced below. The lake was gone and everywhere was nothing but destruction. Because of the fight and the black ink, every single tree was now a hollow dried wood. But it was easy for him now. Without the presence of evil souls, he had full control over the domain. He snapped his fingers and from the centre of the previous lake, everything started to revert. From the surface which cooled down, followed by the flood of clear water. The dried trees turned into sawdust and new ones grew in place of them. In just five minutes, no one can tell that a fight once happened here. He then looked at Leo's unharmed, naked body, still asleep. But he didn’t have clothes on him and so decided to leave him at that. His figure then disappeared, along with that of Leo.