PART ONE - HEROES IN A DESTROYED WORLD

March 17th

Year 2120

West of the Village of Berken

Kingdom of Fergahn, Gartaena

The sandy desert wind spun around in the air, whipping against the barren land. The sun, just rising, mercilessly burned the world. Strange echoes filled the landscape, and small animals scurried around in the sand. And in the middle of it, moving forward, there was a man. A blond man dressed in black.

Merdilen got down cautiously from the massive rock finger he was on, and kept walking. This rock giant had been especially large. Here was the top of the thumb of its right hand; and far away, one could see the top of its left hand; even farther away, its head. A silent monument to times far gone, buried deep beneath the sands of this desert. The rock giant's head rested close to a strange-shaped and partially collapsed rock triangle—a mountain, turned upside down. And somewhere behind the great giant's foot, lay an unnaturally deep crater.

A grim reminder of what would happen if anyone were to gain too much power.

Transmutators—beings with unimaginable power who could use the power of the mind to Transmutate the world around them to their liking. Beings who could polymorph the world around them to fit their needs—and their desires. A few lucky humans had discovered the secrets to this ancient and forgotten art, and once they started mastering the Transmutation, they became unopposable. But, as it is natural, the Transmutators' desires collided, and they didn't want to share power. And when two powerful beings oppose each other, no one can stop a war from erupting.

The Transmutators learned of a dark branch of the Transmutation, which allowed them to polymorph living beings as well as objects, and with it, they started to create armies of monsters Transmutated from human and beast alike, forming the most terrible armies the world had ever seen. The Transmutation War left the world of Gartaena ravaged and deformed, an utterly chaotic place left with no two mountains alike nor a plain hectare. The Transmutators had ended up killing each other, and only one had survived, never to be seen again. Almost three hundred years had passed since that world-shaking catastrophe, but even though the Transmutators themselves were gone, the world itself became a fearful reminder of what would happen should the Transmutators ever rise again.

Merdilen stopped looking at the buried rock giant and kept pushing forward. Although he was only twenty-two years old, Merdilen used a walking stick the length of a longsword, which helped him a lot, as he had been walking for days. He breathed in and started walking again, leaving a path of fresh grass behind him in the heat of the desert.

After a few more hours of walking through the chaotic terrain, he finally got to a road. It was a plain dirt road, but it wasn't as rough as the desert sand. Of course, that didn't bother Merdilen, but he started walking on the road anyway.

Merdilen supposed it was the King's Road, the long and ancient road that crossed the whole kingdom of Fergahn, and it should lead him right to where he wanted to go. It would be easier to get to the village of Berken that way. Soon, the desert started to end, and grass started appearing naturally on the road. There were more trees now too, and the shadows provided a comfortable relief in contrast to the heat of the desert. He kept walking a while longer until he heard a voice from somewhere within the ever-growing forest surrounding him.

"That's a nice jacket ya got there, ain't it?" said the voice, coming out from within the trees. It was a tall man with dirty clothes and face, carrying a shortsword in his hand. He looked at the long black jacket Merdilen was wearing, and added, "Don't ya think you're too young to be carryin' around something expensive like that?"

"He's got a walking stick, too," added another man, coming out next to the first man and also carrying a shortsword. "Someone your age shouldn't be carrying something like that yet. Let's help him with that."

And with that, the two men, along with a third man that also came out of the trees, started walking towards him, their shortswords ready. Bandits. Merdilen didn't look towards them, but he pointed his walking stick's head towards the ground, as a confident fighter would with a sword. He clenched his walking stick tightly, and when he did, the walking stick transformed into a long sword of pure black steel. One of the bandits gasped at the sight, but another told him,

"Can't ya see it's just an illusion? The boy's trying to trick us. Ignore it."

Then, the bandits attacked, rushing towards him with their swords raised high. They were quite clumsy, but as normal townspeople didn't know how to fight at all, Merdilen supposed they were pretty efficient in their job. Merdilen turned to face the first bandit and raised his walking stick, now a black sword. The bandit ran with the sword raised high, and slashed downwards toward Merdilen. Merdilen slashed upwards, contrary to the bandit, and parried the sword easily with his own blade, which surprised the bandits, as they thought the blade was just some kind of trick.

The clash of steel rang loud, scaring nearby animals. The swords pushed against each other for a few moments, and Merdilen hit the enemy sword backward. The bandit stepped back, surprised at the stranger's strength, and one of the other bandits attacked from the back.

Merdilen didn't have time to turn around completely and block with his sword, so he raised his left hand, leaving it in the path of the bandit's sword. The bandit slashed towards Merdilen's hand, but instead of cutting through it, Merdilen caught the blade with his bare hand. He gripped the sword tightly, and the sword quickly began to crack. A few seconds later, the sword collapsed and fell to the ground. It had turned into sand. The bandit's eyes widened in shock and fear, and Merdilen slashed diagonally across the man's chest with his own blade, throwing him backward.

"I-is that what I think it is, boss?!" the other bandit asked the third one, seemingly the leader of the group.

"Of course not," the bandit leader said in a despective tone. "Don't be fooled by fairy tales and old legends."

Then he rushed Merdilen, his sword held up high. But Merdilen crouched and pressed his hand on the ground right below him, then backed out. The bandit ran over the spot in which Merdilen had stood just seconds ago, and his knees bent. The ground was giving way as if it were quicksand, and the bandit jumped to the side trying to get out. He got out of the quicksand just before it swallowed his feet completely, but tripped in the process. Then Merdilen jumped towards him, and slashed with his blade through his back. The bandit leader screamed, and one of the other bandits muttered,

"I-it actually is. We can't fight him," and started backing away into the trees, scared. "It is Transmutation."

The bandit leader looked at him wide-eyed in fear and started to half-walk half-crawl away from Merdilen, following his partner and the other bandit who was now trying to escape too. The last Transmutator let them go, turned his black sword back into a walking stick, and kept walking down the road.

After a little more walking, Merdilen started seeing the farms and crops that composed the outsides of the town of Berken. They were few and far apart, but as he kept walking, the farms and crops increased, and he started seeing numerous little wooden houses, until he arrived at the village itself. It was pretty small—only a few dozens of houses—and it had only one plaza, in which were the main shops and buildings, along with a small but beautiful fountain and an announcement board next to the town hall, the biggest building of them all. That's where he was headed to. If he wanted to become a hero, helping a village with its problems was a good starting point. The announcement board contained mainly some trivial and relatively unimportant matters and announcements, along with a sign that caught Merdilen's attention.

"Jennifer and her son still missing," he read out loud. That would be a good way to start saving people. He walked towards the small townhall and knocked on the thick wooden door.

"Yes?" he heard a man's voice ask from inside.

"Hello sir, I am not from here, and I am looking for more information about the case of Jennifer's disappearance you have on the announcement board," Merdilen said.

"Come on in," he heard the man say, and the door opened. The townmaster was a middle-aged man with short black hair and a beard trimmed short. He went to sit on a desk at the end of the room, and Merdilen followed. The town hall was pretty small—only a few chairs and a desk, with a stair at the end that Merdilen supposed led to his bedroom—but it served its purpose. Merdilen sat down on one of the chairs, in front of the desk, and the townmaster started to tell the tale.

"Jennifer, the widow of a farmer that used ta live here, went to take a walk with her son a few days ago, walking toward the desert. This is usually a very calm place, y'know... Away from all the politics and complications of the world. So, no one thought anything bad could happen to 'em. But, the thing is, they ain't come back yet. Some evil bandits that had been terrorizing the King's Road since a few weeks ago sent a message shortly after, sayin' they had 'em held prisoner until we paid 'em a very big amount of money.

"But that's the problem right there, I tell ya. We don't have that much money. Us villagers have been saving money these last few days, but it'll take a while to get all that money, I tell ya. Good ol' Jennifer and her son must be suffering a whole lot, and that makes the whole village suffer. We ain't know what to do anymore."

Merdilen sat down thinking for a bit, and then said, "I'll do it. Don't worry, I'll bring them back."

"For real?" asked the townmaster, amazed. "Sorry pal, but we can't afford to pay you much for it. You don't even know 'em, do ya?"

"No," confirmed Merdilen. "But it's what a hero would do."

Later, the townmaster invited him gladly to have lunch with him, still surprised to know someone would do such a service for them without asking for anything in return. The food wasn't that special or tasty, but it was good for its simplicity, and Merdilen enjoyed not having to strive to get something to eat. But he ate quickly, and when he was finished, he stood up.

"Don't worry," he assured the townmaster. "The sun will not set without this town having those two villagers back."

"Thank you very much, kind stranger. We will receive you back as a hero," the townmaster said, and Merdilen went out the door. He started walking towards the road where he had come from, determined to do some good for these poor people. The townmaster didn't know where the bandits' lair was, but he remembered the general direction in which the bandits had fled after their short encounter, so Merdilen supposed going that way would be a good start. He got back to the place in which he had first battled the trio of bandits, which he recognized because of the quicksand in the ground, and after turning it back to normal, he turned to the trees. He still had his walking stick as such, but he was clutching it tightly in anticipation.

Merdilen started walking through the maze of trees in the direction the bandits had fled before, and he shortly found a well-hidden dirt path meandering through the forest. He walked through the trees parallel to it just in case, and after a few more minutes of walking, he spotted a small cave on a hillside which, like many other elements in the world of Gartaena, was completely out of place. It had a bandit he hadn't seen before guarding the entrance. To his disappointment, he could not see what lay inside the cave, as it took a turn a few meters in, but he approached nevertheless.

When he got a few meters from the bandit, he crouched. The bandit had not seen him yet, and it was better to keep it that way. As he now had time to prepare, things should be easier now, and leaving his walking stick in the ground, he put his two hands in the ground and started concentrating. After a few seconds, the ground next to the bandit erupted, and the earth went upwards as two pillars and covered the bandit completely, sealing him inside a box of pure earth. Unlike his ancestors, Merdilen couldn't use his Transmutation at range yet, only with objects he could touch with his hands, but as it turned out, earth was an excellent conductor, so with a little extra effort, he rendered the bandit completely useless, without him being able to give as much as a shout.

He turned his walking stick into the black sword once more and entered the cave. He stopped on the place the cave took a turn, and cautiously peeked inside. It was a very spacious cave on the inside, in which there were five bedrolls and numerous chests with different implements and stuff. The cave was fully rock, but he was already a bit tired from the time he had used his Transmutation on the other bandit, and couldn't risk his powers failing him now.

Inside the cave, sitting on chairs, playing with their shortswords, and doing different activities, were the other four bandits. On one corner of the cave was the woman he identified as Jennifer, along with her young son. They weren't tied up, but with the now four grown men with swords, it would be just foolish for them to try anything. On a box were several bottles of wine, one of which was being drank from by one of the bandits at the moment.

Merdilen gripped his black sword firmly at his side and ran towards one of the bandits. The bandit's eyes widened in recognition, and he rushed to get his sword, but it was too late. Merdilen slashed through him with his black sword, and the bandits weren't wearing armor of any sort, so the blade bit deep. The bandit screamed in pain and staggered backward, where he came to a stop next to the cave wall. The other three bandits had already gotten their swords, and were waiting defensively for Merdilen's attack.

But one of the bandits was still standing next to the bottles of wine. That was his last mistake. Merdilen took a smooth and round stone from the ground, and gripping it hard, he concentrated and the stone erupted in flames. But before the flames could hurt him, he threw it with precision, not towards the bandit, but towards one of the bottles of wine. The alcohol, when it got into contact with the fire, exploded, launching the bandit all the way to the other side of the cave, where it fell to the ground, unconscious.

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He then rushed the other bandits and slashed high with his blade. The bandit he attacked raised his blade instinctively to parry the attack, but then Merdilen moved forward with his left hand, gripping the bandit's blade with his hand and turning it to sand. He then slashed across the stomach of the bandit, making him fall backwards. He then ran to the last bandit, who was visibly terrified, but made a stand nevertheless. Merdilen attacked sideways with his blade, an attack which the bandit blocked with his own, and then he gave a long swing, which the bandit dodged by just a few inches.

The bandit then thrust his sword into Merdilen's stomach, but Merdilen could just in time put his hand in the way to block the attack, turning the tip of the sword into dust. The bandit retreated his sword immediately though, so the rest of the sword left unharmed. The bandit then slashed at Merdilen sideways, and Merdilen parried it with his own blade. Merdilen then started a quick combo of easily-blockable attacks, which weren't able to actually hit the bandit, but forced him to move backward. Before the bandit noticed, his back hit the cave's farther wall, and Merdilen thrust with his left hand towards the wall behind the bandit.

He then retreated his hand, and the earth moved with him, following his command. The earth quickly trapped the bandit, rendering him as useless as the bandit on the entrance. Merdilen breathed slowly, and let his sword down. Although all the bandits were now defeated, none of the wounds had been fatal, so they should be able to recover eventually. His head ached because of the mental strain his Transmutation always caused when he used it too much, but he looked towards the now-free family and smiled.

But his smile faded quickly as he looked at Jennifer, the mother. She was looking at him terrified, as if a pack of wolves had just entered the cave and killed the bandits instead of a young man trying to be a hero.

"You're a Transmutator," she muttered, horrified. "You killed our people. You destroyed our world."

"It wasn't me," Merdilen tried to explain, his happiness at the victory fading as quickly as it had arrived. "I'm not like past Transmutators. I'm trying to set things straight."

"You're a monster," she said, hugging her son close.

"Please, listen to me," he said, taking a step closer to them with a pleading face.

"Get away from my son, you monster!" shouted the woman as she stood up. "I won't let you kill my son!"

"I was just trying to help..." Merdilen muttered, as the woman ran out of the cave with her son, with an expression of horror and hate he would never forget.

After the battle, Merdilen hadn't gone back to the village. He had kept going back through the King's Road, in the direction of a close ruined tower he had spotted on his way to the village. He was unsure of what to do next, and he didn't want to face the townmaster again. He was afraid to see the same expression he had seen in the woman's eyes.

I was just trying to help, he thought to himself, his heart filled with sadness and disappointment. He hadn't expected that reaction at all. The Transmutation War happened almost three hundred years ago. I had nothing to do with that. Why couldn't she understand that?

He kept walking, confused and disappointed, until he reached the tower he had seen before. It was a wide and ancient tower, with only five floors, most of them ruined. It had probably been an outpost once used by a long-gone king, Merdilen had reasoned. All he wanted now was to be alone. Everything would probably be better by tomorrow, once he had properly slept and eaten. He went to the top of the tower and sat down. It was filled with desert sand, which was exactly what he wanted.

He could only alter already existing matter with his Transmutation powers—he couldn't create anything new. So, with enough sand, he could do anything. Transmutating the sand into food, he took it and began to have dinner. He wasn't traditionally a good cook, so he, therefore, couldn't transmute anything into actually tasty food, but it fed him well enough, and that was what mattered. The food tasted bitter to him though, and that wasn't because of his skills. He later formed a simple but comfortable bedroll with the sand remaining at the top of the tower and went to sleep.

Kayline Sherdaine ran through the rooftops of the city of Cornaler at night, chasing her prey, her long red hair flying behind her and her twin longswords ready in her hands. Her prey was running desperately a few rooftops ahead of her, and she was quickly catching up. She wasn't a bounty hunter; she didn't like to call herself that anymore. She was more of... someone who made sure justice was served. She ran behind the man in the darkness, barely seeing him, running through the rooftops mainly by instinct.

Kayline followed her prey for a few more rooftops, until he grabbed on to something in the darkness. A rope, crossing to the other side of the street. The man slid himself through it, attempting to get to the other side and escape. Kayline dashed towards the rope, just in time to cut her end of it with one of her swords. The man fell to the ground below, but as the buildings there were just one story high, he didn't get gravely hurt. He got up with difficulty and kept running down the street.

Kayline jumped down behind him, slowing her fall on a nearby canopy before going all the way down. But, when she got to the street, her prey was already far. He skidded into an alleyway, out of her sight. But the man hadn't counted on Kayline's knowledge of the city. This was her home. She knew it as the palm of her hand.

She ran into another alley, running through a complex maze of alleyways and secondary streets, until she came out on a small plaza, and saw her prey arriving from another alleyway seconds after her. She cut him off.

"Game over, thief," she said.

"Fine, fine," the man replied, sighing.

He approached her, seemingly giving up. But as he did, he whipped out a dagger from his belt, attempting to stab her. Lightning fast, she hit the dagger off the man's hand with her right sword, knocking him out with the left one. She started to bind his hands with a rope.

Mission accomplished, she thought, satisfied.

"Are you... Kayline... Sherdaine?" a man's voice asked from behind her, panting.

She spun around, surprised. The man had a sack of letters hanging from his shoulders, and was struggling to catch his breath. A messenger, who had clearly been running after her.

"Yeah," she answered, raising an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"A letter," he said. "From a nobleman called Erthen." He handed her one of the letters.

"Oh, thank you," she said, taking the letter and opening it. She read it.

Kayline Sherdaine, the letter read. Meet me at the palace as soon as you can. I need your help... to save the world.

"We have summoned you here today because you are the best fighters we could find, and we will therefore assign to you a task of immense importance, a task in which the whole future of mankind may lay," a man, apparently called Erthen, was saying.

Erthen was a short and fat man, wearing expensive clothes and a long rapier strapped to his side, which Kayline Sherdaine suspected he never actually used. She was sitting along with three other people in a big audience chamber in the palace in the capital city of Cornaler, listening to him as the letter had requested.

"For almost three hundred years," he continued, "the world of Gartaena has lived in peace, the Transmutation War only a faint memory in the hearts of the people. But that peace has ended. The Transmutation War is brewing again. And it's up to you four people to stop the world from ending."

The man then paused dramatically to let his word sink into his little audience and, from Kayline's point of view, it worked. The four people sitting there all showed some level of surprise, with the blond man overexaggerating and the little man in the corner showing almost no emotion at all. Erthen quickly wrote down some key words on a chalkboard on a wall. When he saw his words had gotten the reaction he expected, he kept talking.

"Reports have arrived to us from a desperate and quick messenger, who started riding towards here from the small village of Berken in the west a few days ago. He reported of a mysterious man, who after showing signs of being a hero, turned out to be a monster. Although none of us thought it was possible, the man, as the report backed up by some other reports specify, was a Transmutator, a monster of the ancient world."

"B-but, that's impossible, isn't it?" the blond man asked. "Weren't they extinct?!"

"That's exactly what we thought too, young Salvatore," agreed Erthen up front. "But, as a few scholars thought, the Transmutator that disappeared at the end of the Transmutation War seemingly had a son, and his son another son, and so on and so forth. During all these years, his line, which inherited the ability to control the Transmutation, survived unopposed."

"It can't be..." muttered Kayline. "But, if he's a true Transmutator, then how can we stop him? If they could topple mountains and destroy cities, what hope do we have?"

"That's exactly it, young miss," agreed Erthen, again making himself look more experienced than everyone else. "This Transmutator, as reports indicate, is still young and inexperienced. He hasn't unlocked his full power yet. Therefore, we still have hope. We have to stop him now, before he becomes more powerful. Because if he becomes as powerful as the Transmutators of old, then there is nothing we can do that can wish to stop him. If we can't stop him before he gains his full power, it's game over for us, and for the world. Therefore, you have one mission.

"To kill the last Transmutator."

It can't be..., thought Kayline, trying to digest all the information. A Transmutator? Now? She remembered all the terrible tales she had heard about the Transmutators, and she shivered at the thought of one rising again. The Transmutators were the sort of tale adults told children to scare them, all the while being scared themselves too. They were the fuel of nightmares, the chaotic world a silent reminder of the truth in those tales. One of them coming back could very well mean the end of the world. But that gave her determination. Determination to not let her world be destroyed by anyone, no matter how powerful that someone could become.

"Don't worry," she told Erthen. "We will stop that monster, no matter what. Where is he?"

"He was last spotted on an abandoned tower west of Berken," Erthen replied. "But, you have to know this: this first encounter is a recon mission. It is vital for you to get all the information you can out of him, and bring it back. We have to know what we're going up against if we want to have an opportunity to defeat a Transmutator. If you fighters seem to be losing the battle, retreat immediately. You all must survive so we can fight him later on again, better prepared and ready to win. You should depart as soon as possible. Through the next weeks, you will have but one objective: killing the last Transmutator, and thus restoring peace to the world. Anti-Transmutation Strike Team, you are dismissed."

"Sir, yes, sir!" the four of them said, saluting and ready for anything.

Kayline left the room Erthen had spoken to them in and started walking down the hallway, in direction of the exit of the big government building they were in, followed by the rest of the newly-established Anti-Transmutation Strike Team. The palace hallway was richly decorated, with tinted glass covering the windows and banners and paintings spread throughout the walls. Kayline kept walking, ignoring the decorations. She wanted to check in with her mother and brother before departing, and as worried as she was, she didn't notice Salvatore until the rest of them almost bumped into him.

"Hey, guys!" he greeted them. "The sky will be beautiful tonight. Wanna get some dinner?"

"Are you kidding me? Of course not," she said, looking incredulously at the man, and then added. "Humanity might be on the brink of extinction and we might all die tomorrow, and you are trying to have fun? Don't you know what's at stake here?!"

"Okay, okay, sorry!" he answered. "I just wanted to cheer up the ambiance a little."

There were people like him that just didn't understand the gravity of the situation, she thought. Sir Grendar Bartel, the big and strong knight who had also been at the meeting, was always serious, and Kayline supposed he really understood the gravity of this problem. Jarleren, the small rogue who had been sitting at the corner, didn't show any emotion, but she thought he recognized the threat they were facing as such anyway.

In the original Transmutation War, as there had been two opposing Transmutators, the war had eventually ended, leaving the winning one extremely weakened and forcing him to abandon the fight. But now, there was only one Transmutator, so if they didn't stop him before he rose and unlocked his full power, no one would be able to. There would be no one to challenge him and leave him weakened this time.

With these troubling thoughts in mind, Kayline kept walking, until she crossed the big doors of the government building. In front of her was the massive city of Cornaler, the capital of the kingdom of Fergahn. It was the biggest city in Fergahn, and the inner district, the one closer to the government buildings, was full of massive and beautiful houses, parks, and shops, all of which became progressively smaller as they started getting farther and farther from the center.

The sun was already setting, giving a beautiful and glorious glow to the rooftops of the city. She started walking down a side street, and after a little less than half an hour later, she arrived at an ugly and small building. It wasn't the worst place in town, but it was far from being the best one too. On a wooden sign hanging from the wall, it read, 'The Drunken Warrior Inn,' with a sword and a beer depicted in it.

She opened the door and stepped inside. It was a small inn with very few customers in its wooden tables, and an old and rusty sword hanging from a wall, therefore its name.

"Hello, young miss!" greeted the bartender while serving a drink. "Come to see your mama, don't ya? Do you want something to drink first?"

"I'm fine, thank you," said Kayline, and headed towards the stairs at one corner of the room. She didn't like this inn, but it served its purpose, and the problem was, her mother was sick. She had a chronic illness no doctor had ever seen before, and the exclusive medications for it were extremely expensive. Because of that, her mother wasn't able to work, and their father had left them when she was younger and her brother Torlen a newborn, so it was up to Kayline to provide for the family.

Her expensive medications left little money for paying rent, and therefore they had to live in this inn. But Kayline was worried, because even though she consumed her medications every day, she wasn't getting any worse, but she wasn't getting any better either. She didn't know if the medications were actually a cure or just something to slow down the process.

"I'm back!" she said, opening the door to their room and entering. Her little brother ran towards her and hugged her, and her mother smiled at her from her bed. It was a relatively small double room, with their mother's room where she slept and they cooked and ate, and their room, where Kayline and Torlen slept and generally lived. Torlen and her mother both had red hair and blue eyes, but she had red hair and black eyes. Those black eyes were the only thing her father had left her when he left.

"How was work?" her mother asked her with a weak voice.

"It was great, actually," she said, trying to sound calm. "I got a new job, and the government is promising big money for this one. If I am successful, we will probably be able to leave this place at last."

"What is it about?" her mother asked, worried. "Is it safe?"

"I'm sure it is. A small group of fighters and I are meant to find information about some kind of monster near the village of Berken in the west, but it shouldn't be a big deal. Don't worry, I'll be okay. I'll be leaving tomorrow morning, though, and I'll probably return in about five days."

"Be very careful," her mother told her.

"You know I will."

After that, they had dinner and went to sleep. Kayline went to bed early, but it took a while for her to fall asleep. Even though she had told otherwise to her mother and brother, she was filled with anxiety about how it would go. They would be the first people to fight a Transmutator in centuries, so they had no idea what they were getting into. The good news was this Transmutator had appeared a few days ago and had done nothing big so far, so if he was powerful, they would probably know about it already. The problem was now to keep it that way. And she was not sure they would be able to. With those anxieties in mind, she finally fell asleep.

Kayline woke up early in the morning and entered her mother's room. Even though they usually woke up late, she found her mother already making breakfast with Torlen's help. She smiled at them, and after helping them finish the meal, they had breakfast. While they ate, Kayline tried to keep a positive and cheerful attitude, but inside, she couldn't be more worried. She finished eating and hugged her mother and brother hard.

"See you in a few days!" she told them, and strapped to her back the two long and thin swords that rested in a wall near the table they ate breakfast in. Then she opened the door and left the inn with determination in her eyes.

A few hours later, she was already riding. Along with the rest of the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team, they had left early for the village of Berken and would arrive in about two days. Although they would have obviously preferred to go along with an army, it'd be impossible to reach the Transmutator without him noticing from miles away with one, and they couldn't risk him getting away.

They had to get as close to him as possible without him noticing and try to get as much information as they could from him if they wanted to eventually rid the world of the menace he was. The atmosphere was gloomy that day, and no one spoke much during the trip, everyone focused on being brave. They were going in totally blind, but they had to. They had to get that information about him and test his power. For the sake of mankind and her family, they had to.