Something isn’t right…

I was only a few kilometers away from the village, and I could see it in the distance, and that was exactly the weird part. There were no traces of any kind of attack. Leaving aside the fact that it was fairly dark outside, probably only a matter of minutes until full night darkness, everything seemed to be perfectly fine. Was this all just a extremely fucked up prank? As I was questioning the story told by mom, I was unexpectedly, and painfully stopped from my sprint.

What was that?

There was nothing in front of me, yet I had just stopped as If I ran into a wall at full speed. Something was definitely wrong. I quickly got back on my feet, and extended my arm forward, and surely enough…

Don't tell me… she forgot to tell me there’s a barrier?!

What do I even do now? There’s a few ways to break a barrier, but they can all be summarized to a single thing. It’s either you use your mana to break a hole in it, or you use magic which would work as long as the intensity of its mana concentration is high enough, which was exactly why I had no idea how to proceed.

How the hell do I even get in? You’re telling me she enchanted my body but didn’t think of giving me any way to get through the barrier?

It was then that a thought came to my mind, and I immediately took out my dagger which I had in my belt to test it out. Praying that she didn’t just forget about it, I unsheathed it, and just as I thought. There was mana infused in it. Mom didn’t forget to tell me about it, she simply decided to not waste any more time than she already had and sent me on her way with something to get through. Thank you mom, I really love you.

Let’s see if this works…

As if carving a wall, with the help of the mana infused inside of it, I was able to open a small entrance in it, but it was just wide enough for me to be able to pass through. When I finally entered the inside of the barrier though, my eyes widened in pure terror. All I could see while looking in the distance at where our village was supposed to be, was flames. The sun had almost completely set, and it was almost pitch black yet I could still see due to them. I knew I had to hurry, and I was about to start sprinting again, but to my complete terror, I saw something which I never forgot. A green and blue mixed ray of light which resembled a “Cero Oscuras” going straight towards the village, and at its impact a massive explosion took place. I then saw something fly towards me, which landed a meter short of my foot. I looked down to take a better look, and when I finally realized what it was, I fell on my knees and threw up so hard that I felt as if my guts would come out of my mouth. It was completely mushy and hardly recognizable, but I could tell what, or rather… who it was.

It was only a torso, one that was too small in size for it to be of an adult. Part of its guts were somehow still attached to it, and though they were crushed from the impact on the ground they were still there. The head which had also been crushed at impact had parts of his brain leaking out of it, but even then I could still tell.

A few years prior, the day when I raised my voice at the diner table, when I was out with Maia there were many kids who were already using magic before me.

Most of them were older than me, but I remember a single kid in particular who was a year younger than me… who was able to use magic, but now he was nothing but a mauled corpse.

Ever since I got reincarnated, though I didn’t treat it as if I’m a main character in some novel, I still had that fantasy in mind. The thought of me being special, the thought of me being reincarnated here to have adventures and become a hero as a reward for my terrible past life was always there. But seeing the brutal image in front of me made me realize something I was aware of, but degraded the importance of. This was real life. People could get hurt and die in this world too, it wasn’t any different just because we had magic. I was forced to accept it at that moment. I gritted my teeth after wiping my mouth from my vomit, and while I was doubting my actions with every single step, I still sprinted forwards, because unlike that poor kid, there were still 2 alive people waiting for me.

When I finally got close enough, I saw 3… people? One was Aldric who was on the ground knocked out, the other was dad who was being held by his throat by what seemed like a third person… but his horns were indicating otherwise. After a few moments of thinking about it, the realization of who the third one was hit me pretty hard, because now I was also feeling it. The mana leaking out of him was so incredibly creepy that it almost froze me in place. There really was no point in this. I’m sure that even if I did turn around and left dad and Aldric there to die they wouldn’t blame me, and Maia would just take care of it in the end, but even then. I kept moving until I was only a few meters away from them. All the fear, all the doubts I had were all underwhelming in comparison to the intoxicatingly high amount of anger and unreasonable excitement I was feeling.

“So you really did… come before her, huh? You should've just gone and hid with the others… my dear and stupid son.”

He let go of dad, and he lost consciousness when he fell to the ground after saying those words, and they only pumped me up even more. I was angry at the man in front of me, because he was the cause of all this chaos, but I was also feeling a weird sense of excitement, rooting from my own delusions which made me genuinely believe deep down, that this was my moment.

“By those horns… I take it that you’re Alduin?”

“Correct… I assume you’re the one I was told about by him, huh? I was planning on looking for the few of you that were out of the barrier later, but this also works. Regardless of the unusual circumstances, I’ts good to meet you, Cael Ashford…”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I guess it doesn’t really matter, does it?”

I took out my dagger once again, and got ready to strike, but when I did his expression changed to that of surprise, which I didn’t really understand the reason for.

“So it really is like I was told, you really have close to no mana in your mana pool, huh? Oh but wait, that’s?… I see. I see! I get it now! How amusing! How interesting! I didn’t think it was to this extent! Come, come at me with all that you’ve got! I’ll entertain your futile attempt at stopping me!”

What’s the deal with this guy? Saying he was crazy would be an understatement. He was spouting so much nonsense that I didn't even bother to try and think about it. I gritted my teeth, and thanks to the enchants mom put on me, though I could feel my strength being severely downgraded I still charged forward. I had a decent amount of sword skill in my previous life; and while I wasn’t actually using one, my dagger movements weren’t actually that bad. If I charged towards his abdomen he’d probably just dodge then kick me, it wouldn’t work. He was way too tall for me to aim at his face, and aiming at either of his limbs would’ve been nothing but a waste of time. No matter where I’d aim, he’d easily counter it, I knew that. So because I knew it didn’t matter what I did, I quickly made up my mind as I was only a meter away from him, running at my full speed while holding my dagger in a stabbing position, but that wasn’t it. At the last minute before my supposed stab, I slid right in between his legs, which he probably didn’t expect from his reaction and I then quickly turned around just enough to manage to get some force in my actual stab, but as expected, he was only surprised, nothing else. He caught it in his hand without any problem.

“Going for an unpredictable move when you know it doesn’t matter where you strike your opponent… an adult wouldn’t be able to slide through the small gap between someone’s feet usually, but since you’re just a kid you used that to your advantage… you’re disgustingly smart for your age.”

He let go of my arm, and as he did I tried to stab him once again, but right as it had almost reached him, my dagger fell from my hand, and I was screaming in pain. What happened? I didn’t see anything. I didn’t even see him move, but when I looked at my hand, I saw a bunch of cuts… and every single tendon connecting to my hand was cut. I looked up at him with nothing but terror in my eyes as I realized what happened. His movement was so fast that my eyes couldn’t even perceive it.

“While I did say I’ll entertain it, I didn’t expect you to be this smart you know? I was planning on holding back just enough to not kill you right away, but I never said I would refrain from hurting you, did I?”

He was smiling. I don’t know why, but he was refraining from killing me and instead was just playing around. I have no idea what his goal was, but the way he was so openly letting me see his excitement caused by it was freaking me out. So much that I completely lost my composure. Adrenaline started pumping in my veins as I took the dagger from the ground with my left hand and tried to stab him again. I wasn’t even thinking about it anymore, my body was just mindlessly moving as a pitiful attempt of survival which kicked in as an instinct. But of course, it was all pointless. My eyes still couldn’t see him move a single finger, yet before I knew it my left hand also got all of its tendons cut off, immobilizing it completely.

“Agghhh!!!”

I screamed even louder than earlier, but I gritted my teeth as I picked up my dagger with my mouth, clenching my teeth against it to keep a hold as I charged towards him again, but the next moment I was on the ground, unable to get up. The tendons in both of my legs had been cut off just as fast as the ones in my hand.

“Seems like you completely lost your mind, huh? I can’t blame you honestly. But…”

He started slowly walking towards dad.

“If you don’t get up and stop me… your dad might just get his head blown off.”

He then picked dad up by his head with a single arm, lifting his unconscious body as he was looking back at me with a grin so creepy that not even the devil himself would be able to pull it off like him, and I started losing screaming at the top of my lungs.

“Stop it! No! No! Noooo! Stop it you bastard!”

A blue and green mixed light started glowing from his palm as he was holding dad’s head with it, and he started counting down slowly.

“10…”

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Move! Move! Move already you stupid body!

“9…”

I told you to move! If you don’t move then… dad will die!

“8…”

What am I going to do? I had to move, but my body didn’t want to. If only… if only I could use my mana… I started crying as he kept slowly counting down.

“7…”

Why was I unable to do it? What was tying me back? I could feel a bunch of chains tying me down, yet couldn’t see nor understand who set them up, how not why. There was no explainable reason for my inability, and it made me feel completely hopeless.

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“6…”

But If I didn’t do something…

“5…”

Move. Move. Move. Move!

“4…”

I don’t care how! I won’t let dad die! Not while I’m watching, you hear me?! I will break these chains, and I will save dad!

Like a mindless beast, I focused all of my strength in a single task. Whatever those chains were they had to go. I started screaming even louder, and I kept thinking of a single thing.

“3…”

Break! Break! Break!

I could feel the invisible chains binding me crack as I poured my entire soul into breaking them.

“2…”

I will… I will definitely, Save dad!

I felt the chains break, sending shivers down my spine, and at that moment, I had somehow instinctively strengthened and repaired all of my tendons enough just to grab my dagger once again and instantly charge at him. He stopped my attack with a single hand once again, and as I was breathing heavily from exhaustion he finally spoke after letting go of dad’s head.

“Magnificent. You actually managed to do that with so little mana in your pool? And to this extent too…you don’t even seem to know how you did it, so maybe your survival instinct?”

His tone then switched to an excited one once again, and without any warning, he facepalmed and slammed me to the ground before my brain could even process what was happening. He slammed me so hard that the ground broke below me a bit, but somehow I was still alive. Moms enchants probably were the reason for it, but while I survived it… the impact shattered most of the bones inside of my body, and I was so exhausted that it was now impossible for me to move a single finger. I was able to break free from the chains binding me down, but it didn’t make any difference in the end.

“Come on! Get up! Regenerate! Let’s play some more, Cael!“

He was about to hit me again, but was stopped as an arrow passed by his face with immense speed.

“That’s enough playtime for today. I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but my little brother has a pretty strict training schedule, you know? He needs to go to sleep soon so we can get back to our training tomorrow.”

I couldn’t turn my head around, but I could easily tell who it was by her voice. I wonder what dad thought when I arrived earlier… I don’t know the answer to that, but I know that the only thing I was feeling now that Maia was here, was relief. She walked in front of me, and my head was positioned on top of the unbroken ground and tilted enough for me to see in front of myself, though the only thing I was seeing now besides Alduin which backed up a few meters, was the back of our hero.

“Did you really have to burst in like that? You completely ruined my mood, you know?”

He clicked his tongue and was visibly annoyed by Maia’s arrival, and even though I was relieved she was here, I had a terrible feeling about it.

“I can’t allow you to injure him more than what healing magic can heal, you know? As I said he has a pretty strict training schedule, so I need him to be up tomorrow morning.”

I couldn’t see her face, but I could hear it in her voice, she was confident. She was probably even grinning as she talked, which was genuinely crazy. She definitely knew who he was, and was still acting like that. It was either overconfidence, or victory awareness, but regardless of which it was, Alduin didn’t seem pleased by the possibility of either of them.

“Look, I’ll be nice. If you move out of the way and let me play with him a bit more, I’ll kill you last and I’ll do it fast and painlessly.”

“I’ll pass on that. I appreciate your kindness, but that’s not an option.”

Maia then loaded her bow with an arrow, and infused her fire magic in the tip before pointing it towards him as she fully charged it.

“This will be over quickly.”

“Yeah… it will.”

She shot her arrow, which moved so fast that the naked eye wouldn’t even be able to follow, yet we all could tell. Before Maia’s arrow even reached half of the distance of the shot, both her arms had already been cut off. How did we tell her arrow didn’t even reach halfway? At the same instant that her arms had been cut off, so did the arrow. We could only tell how far the arrow got because of where its remains got scattered.

“M-Maia!!”

I shouted her name, but I couldn’t help her. No matter what happened, I was physically unable to do anything anymore. Before Maia could even start screaming, Alduin grabbed her by her face then threw her so far that she had completely exited the barrier.

He then let out a sigh of relief, and quickly recomposed himself as he walked towards me, stopping just a few meters ahead and crouching before talking, looking down at me with a serene face.

“When you broke in, you managed to cut a hole with your dagger, right? The one your mom infused with mana. But that’s not what actually happened.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s impossible for anyone to get inside without my permission. I allowed you to get in earlier, though I had to do it manually. Every single living being’s body is made out of energy we call mana, just like everything else in existence. Your mana pool is what you use for spells and mana manipulation, and though you can control it even subconsciously, a larger mana pool increases the flow of your body’s mana. If I had to put it in simpler terms, the more mana in your pool you got, the bigger your body’s mana flow becomes, and so do your physical stats like speed, strength etc. your body’s mana flow can’t be hidden, nor can it easily controlled, and it’s constantly leaking an insignificantly low amount, which is what we call people’s aura. An average living being's aura isn’t even visible by the naked eye, but that’s besides the point.”

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“The reason is simple. When I set up this barrier, I made it so it would automatically detect the mana of the few of you that were out, and also allowed your mother to leave it. If you’re trained well enough, you can use the mana in the air or even extend a thin layer of yours to see or I guess perceive? Anything around you. Kinda like a hawk's vision? Either way, I felt their mana and automatically allowed them in… but I couldn’t do it with you because of how minimal your mana is.”

“Shouldn’t my body mana release aura?? Regardless of my mana pool, isn’t that how it works?”

“Yes, every single body of any living being has a set equal amount of mana excluding the automatic enhancement you get from your mana pool, but that’s the thing. The base amount of a body is so low that it doesn’t even release any aura, as a matter of fact because of your extremely dry mana pool, not only are your strength, speed, defense and any other physical stats low, your presence is undetectable. I didn’t realize she came in earlier because I was focused on you, but I had to allow you in manually and the only way I could tell you were there was because you bumped into the barrier, haha”

He started laughing as soon as he finished explaining his mockery, but it didn’t last long. His face turned completely serious as he started walking towards dad.

“She completely killed my mood, you know? I don’t really feel like playing anymore unfortunately, sorry about that… I’ll start by killing these tw-“

What’s wrong with him? He had stopped moving completely, and quickly looked around himself before seemingly letting out a nervous chuckle. I’m not sure since it was dark, but I think that I could even see sweat coming down on his forehead at that point.

“Damn monster…”

“H-huh? What are you on about?”

“Seems like you’re lucky. It’s time for me to go haha, but…”

He then snapped his fingers and a few gates opened in the sky, and what came out of them was 5 adult dragons and 20 wyverns?! A single adult dragon is a threat that would require at least 100 recruits of the sentinels, 5 of them alongside the wyverns could be described in a single way. death.

“I had to get rid of these fellas here, they got in a bit of trouble, but that’s enough talking. I don’t want to waste a single second getting out of here.”

A gate appeared in front of him then, and he was teleported away, but the dragons and wyverns were not. Instead of freaking out, at that point I had already given up. There was nothing I could do. My body had subconsciously regenerated, probably using whatever mana drops I had left to heal me enough to just get out of the hole I was in and sit on my own, though it still hurt. I didn't care anymore, since we were all going to die soon anyways.

Awh man… if I knew it would end this quickly, I would’ve run away from home and explored a bit more of this world.

As I was awaiting certain death, I suddenly felt something familiar. Someone had hugged me from behind, and I could feel it. All of my concerns melting away, any negative thought alongside it. In a matter of an instant, I was fully at peace. I knew what this was.

“Long time no see… It's been about 7 years, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Her voice was gentle, healing my soul as they drugged me with an unexplainable sense of comfort, and her embrace was as warm as I remembered.

“You seem to only appear when either someone close to me dies or when I’m about to die… which one is it this time?”

I didn’t notice it right away, since I had closed my eyes when she hugged me, but when I opened them, it was as if time had stopped. Nothing was moving around us, and it was as if we were the only 2 alive at that point, which both reassured and intrigued me.

“Neither, though I understand why you’d think it’s one of those haha”

“Then why are you here this time? Are you here to save me yourself?”

“That's not it either… I’m not allowed to unfortunately, or I would've done it plenty of times.

This time I’m here to tell you something.”

“And that is?”

Before answering, she started patting my head while she kept holding me from my back in a tight and comfortable embrace.

“Everything will be fine. You won’t die. Neither will Bartholomew or Aldric. She’s here after all.”

She? Last time she mentioned someone referring to her as she… could it be?! I couldn’t help but think of it, but the most logical thing that came to mind was probably just Maia doing something, although I have no idea how in her condition.

“I see…”

I didn’t question it though. I decided to just wait and see for myself.

“Alright then, it’s time for me to go. I’ll also tell you right away, I cannot answer any of the questions you might be thinking of… yet. But one day, I’ll tell you everything. So just wait, alright?”

“Alright.”

I don’t know why she wouldn’t be able to tell me, but unlike the last 2 times I’ve seen her, she promised me some answers. I just had to wait now. As she disappeared into thin air, time seemed to go back to normal, and at that point the dragons had also started moving alongside the wyverns. The dragons being in front of them, and going straight towards me as they probably noticed me first.

I'm still calm after her arrival, but I honestly have no idea how I’m going to survive this…

At that moment, I saw a purple light in the sky which had randomly appeared inside the barrier, and charged at speed so high that my eyes could only perceive it as some lightning like light moving towards the dragons. The light then landed a few meters away on the rooftop of one of the few semi intact houses, and at its end there was a single person. A young girl, with black hair and a thin glowing layer of aura surrounding her. Since it was still pretty dark, I couldn’t see her face even from her side profile, or maybe it was her mana blocking it, I don’t know. But I could clearly see her purple eyes glowing. She had landed on 1 knee with her blade halfway through its scabbard, and she then sheathed her blade with a single move, and the moment she did… all 5 of the dragons have been butchered. Their flesh, bones, skin, all of it was gone for all 5 of them the instant her blade was sheathed. The only remains of the dragons were their blood raining down from where they were a moment prior.

Who is she? What is she? How did she do it so easily?! I had many questions, but frankly I was so shocked and impressed that I couldn’t utter a single word. She then looked over at me, and gave me a grin which honestly I found extremely arousing given the circumstance of it as well. Unexpectedly though, my moment of arousal was interrupted also by her, as she threw her sheathed blade towards me, making it land next to my foot. I tried to say something, but before I could do it, she had turned around. With a spiraling like motion going upwards from beneath her feet, she disappeared as soon as it enveloped her. She was gone. Her entrance was genuinely both cool and arousing enough to get me an erection, but there was a small problem…

She didn’t kill the wyverns?!

They had stopped for a moment probably in shock as the dragons were reduced to nothingness, but they had resumed their marching towards me and this time there was no mysterious strong girl to save me. I was still way too tired to actually run away, and the calmness I had from that white haired woman’s arrival earlier had already been washed off so now I was actually freaking out.

“Don’t worry.”

Someone had just spoken to me. It came from behind, and when I turned around, I saw Maia a few meters behind me walking towards me with both of her arms still missing… or so I think?

“Maia…?”

As she slowly walked, she created some flames with her magic which then got reshaped to replace her arms?! Reshaping magic into precise shapes was one of the hardest techniques to learn, and she wasn’t able to do it earlier. I don’t know what happened, but Maia… was different. As she got in front of me, I saw her make a fireball, then with her left fire hand she shaped it into a bow, formed an arrow still out of magic with her other fire made hand, and got ready to shoot.

“Your older sister has arrived to save you.”

She fired the arrow, but it was nothing like what I expected. It completely incinerated everything in its way, not just the wyverns but even some of the ground beneath it in its way, with a radius of about 20 meters in width and about 25 in height, seemingly in a perfect circle also filled by more fire. The arrow had not only easily killed the wyverns, but also destroyed the barrier around us completely at impact, and still kept going until it reached the hills where we first trained a few years back, making a clean hole through it, still burning anything in the path and stopping after a clean hollow hole in the hills.

“W-wow”

Maia’s fire made arms then disappeared, and instead her real arms regenerated in a single instant. She then turned to face me, and healed me with her own healing magic which he had been learning from mom, but wasn’t this good at before, and my entire body was now fully healed.

“Cael. After the village is repaired, and we attend everyone’s funerals, I’m going to leave.”

“L-leave?! Where are you going?”

She then turned around again, and I was forced to sit and merely watch her back as she replied.

“Last month, the Sentinels of Ascendancy got a new Commander… Mio, right? I’ve heard a new Lieutenant for the commander hasn’t been chosen yet, which means only one thing.”

“Are you saying?!”

“I’m going to claim my spot as the next Lieutenant of the Sentinel’s Commander.”