A light breeze filled the room causing the room to become stiff and cold. As people felt the chilling breeze graze over their bodies each held their blankets tightly trying to fight the foreign invasion of cold.

However, the breeze didn’t only carry the cold but something else ominous followed behind it. It glided gently and carefully without causing unnecessary movement. One’s it reached its target it slowly raised its hand over its target.

The hand caressed the target from head to toe checking to see whether anything was wrong with it. Once it was satisfied nothing was wrong it gently glided out and its presence replaced by the breeze as if nothing had occurred.

The target a young boy felt something touch him and then suddenly disappear into the night. He raised his head drowsily and saw nothing was there. As he got back to bed and prepared to sleep his back was hit by a cold breeze which destroyed his chance of finding sleep.

Now fully awake he got out of his grass bed and slowly walked over the other children who were sleeping and made his way outside the house.

Once out he saw the moon was silently fading to give way to the sun. Seeing morning was not too far of he made his way inside the forest to his favourite spot.

Incidentally, his spot was where Nini and Koji had initially found him. He didn’t know why he was so attracted to this place. All he felt was something drawing him there every time he came to the forest. It gave a sense of Euphoria and control which he desperately required.

Once he got there he checked if there was any sign of disturbance and once, he saw there was none he started his routine practice of magic.

“Flame arrow,” he shouted while raising his palm.

The only thing that appeared was a weak candle flame which was quickly by the cold breeze that suddenly swept the place.

He was not disappointed but still, he tried again which proved to be useless. Each time he repeated the chant the flame only got weaker until finally, no flame came out of his chant. He thought the chant was the problem so he decided to try and repeat some other spells they were taught.

“Water cannon,” he shouted again. This time the spell activated had better results than his first spell. A water ball was created from his palm which shot and hit the tree in front of him. The damage wasn’t much but at least he had managed to strip a small portion of the bark of the tree.

However, a green glow appeared where the water cannon had inflicted damage and started repairing itself. First, the tree grew some green vein-like structure that attached itself to the part where the bark was ripped off. Then a brown overlay covered the vein-like structure which then mashed together returning the tree to the original state.

After practising the water cannon spell for some time, he felt exhausted and decide to go and rest near the big old tree behind him. He walked over to and sat down placing his back on the tree.

He felt his mana tank had taken quite a huge drop and being near the tree had a sweet spot which made him close his eyes and doze off.

“Dark flame”

He got up hurriedly while confused and looked around. Something had whispered into his ear but when he looked for any signs of intruders, he found signs indicating no one had been there.

He had only heard dark flame he heard the sound and woke up. What is dark flame he wondered? What is a spell because it definitely had the chant of a spell but still, he was weary whether it was something else?

By its chant it meant it was some sort of fire spell but what did it do. Now the curiosity had gotten to him and he wanted to test whether or not it was a spell.

So, he prepared himself and the chant and when he was ready, he cast the spell.

“Dark flame,” he shouted.

However, nothing out of the usual happened. He tried repeating it but nothing magical per se happened. Nothing was happening he thought but why did he feel his mana being drained far quicker than when he used to cast the other spells. He thought maybe the problem was the way it was arranged or the chant was not full he thought. So, he decided to cast the water cannon magic to check whether he still had mana.

“Water cannon,” he shouted.

This time the sensation of casting the magic was different than the dark flame.

They had been taught that magic was activated through a four-step process.

First envision what it is you want. For example, for flame arrow one thought of an arrow that was set on fire and shot by the bowman.

The second step was what the spell was for or the intended target. For example, what is the purpose of the flame arrow or what was the intended target? If you want to attack another person then that person becomes your intended target.

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The third step was now the mana. Mana is a source of magic but not magic itself. Magic depends on mana which is found in almost every living being. Each and everyone had different capacities of mana but some creatures possessed higher and purer mana than other creatures.

Mana has two properties. The first is that it is not visible or tangible. This means one cannot touch or see mana thus only one can feel mana.

The second is that mana concentration and level of purity is different across different creatures and races. Some races have more concentration and a higher level of purity than others.

The higher the concentration of mana one has then the higher the level of purity of mana one also has.

For one to cast a spell, one must channel their mana and link it together with the thought of the spell to be cast. The higher the mana one pours then the higher the effect the spell will have. But also, each spell has its minimum and maximum amount of mana required which when not met will prevent the spell from activating.

The fourth and final step was the chant. These were the words that one said was to bring your imagination to reality. Using the example of the flaming arrow the chant was ‘Flame arrow’. By chanting this spell, it uses the mana in the body which enables one’s mana to be reformed and cast in the shape of a flaming arrow which appears from the caster being visible and also tangible.

Now the spell-like ‘Flame Arrow’ would be mostly used to attack one’s enemy by piercing them with the flaming arrow.

Also, chants have various level of degree with the lowest being called the base chant.

For fire, the base chant is ‘Flame’. When one casts the spell ‘Flame’ a fire will appear but will do nothing but only illuminate.

By giving the base chant another form like ‘Flame arrow’ it causes the base chant to evolve further into a flaming arrow. This flaming arrow is now superior to the base chant ‘Flame’.

So, for the water cannon, the boy thought of water falling from a waterfall but only faster and more powerful. He then poured his mana linking it together with the thought and finally by saying the chant a water ball appeared which then shot forward and hit another tree in front of him. Just like before he damaged the bark and the tree repaired itself.

Now for Dark flame, he didn’t have any concrete thought and also didn’t know how much mana to pour into the spell which caused the spell not to activate but also drain his mana which became wasted.

He tried to guess what dark flame might be but nothing came to mind.

While still pondering on the spell he had someone shout his name.

“Letifer”

He wanted to respond immediately but once he recognized the person calling him, was Nini he decided to ignore her.

When Nini called Letifer again but heard no response she went towards where she mostly found him near that big old tree.

Once she reached, she saw signs of Letifer being there but no signs of him. Instinctively she guessed that the worst-case scenario had happened and she switched her mode to that of hostile.

‘Dark vision’ ‘Mana essence’

She activated both of the skills and started searching for Letifer.

The dark vision was for superior sight at night or in places of dense growth like forests.

While Mana essence was basically like the name said. It was used for tracking the mana signature of a specific person because each one had its different mana qualities.

She began seeing traces of Letifer’s Mana which presented themselves to her eyes like whiffs of black-purple smoke which started leading her to him.

However, once she got near the old tree the black-purple smoke started disappearing.

This could only mean one thing. Someone had used another skill to cancel out the ‘Mana Essence’ or there was something stronger than her that possessed higher mana which automatically cancels out any skill below it.

She moved her left hand near the short sword on her hip and began gripping it slowly because she sensed something hiding above her.

However, the sensation she got from the intruder was a familiar sensation of joy mixed in with some grief and there was only one person who gave off that aura.

“Flame blade,” Nini chant.

While Letifer was sitting on the branch looking at Nini searching for him, he saw a yellow flash move past him suddenly.

What followed next was a moment of weightlessness as the branch he was sitting on broke off from the main tree.

He could himself getting nearer to the ground and he didn’t have any spell to break the speed and make him land safely.

Nini on the other hand saw Letifer falling while closing his eyes waiting for the worst. Just as Letifer was getting closer to her she grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt.

Letifer was waiting for the sensation of pain but nothing came so he opened his eyes to assess the situation and found himself caught by Nini.

They both looked at each other for some time when Nini began speaking to him.

“You woke up early again to practise your magic. Then show me what you gained?” she asked him.

“Nothing much has changed from before. I still can’t properly cast fire magic,” he replied.

Nini looked at his dejected face while he said that so she decided to end the conversation there.

She still didn’t release him and decide to carry him back to the village as she saw the sun had started rising and was slowly dyeing the clouds crimson red.

As Nini carried Letifer and walk back to the village something that was concealed from the general eyes came into view and watched the two head back.

From its eyes, one could tell it had a longing look as it watched Letifer disappear from its view but it also had another repressed emotion which one could only notice if you knew it or looked closely enough.

“Ten years have passed since I last saw you, Letifer. Will you succumb to fate or be the one to rewrite it I wonder?” it continued, “I have already given you a very special spell but I still want to see how you will use it?” it said as once again it slowly faded away from sight.