Al also had three red birds, but he decided to eat the bunnies because plucking the birds' feathers was really troublesome. 'They will also make a nice gift for the kind pair that took us in,' Al thought as he leisurely strolled back to the house. He could hear some rustling from the alley where he had heard people before.

'Hmm... should've figured that they'd attack me.' He barely heard some raspy hushed voices saying things like '...re you rea...oys?' and ' be...ful. He might lo...ike a kid, bu...as an element' 'Well, he mus...e tired fr....unting'

This confirmed Al's suspicions, and just before the shady characters jumped out of the alley, he threw at them a fully charged [Palm of the Storm] that he had been preparing for the last few minutes. 'No need to go through unnecessary trouble'

When the flashing light suddenly disappeared, all that was left were charred bodies in the blackened stone alleyway. He'd been careful not to set any of the nearby wood on fire, and the control over the skill that he had obtained in his time in the forest had helped considerably.

A blue screen also appeared in front of him.

[Palm of the Storm] skill has reached Mid proficiency. The required amount of mana to make the ball throwable has decreased, and it will lose much less mana as it travels space.

The upgrade wasn't that incredible for the amount of time that it had taken him to upgrade the skill, but it was a welcome one. He didn't really need more conversion efficiency with the amount of kana he had at his disposal, but more stability when he poured a lot of mana would have been handy.

'Oh well, let's see what these guys had on them.'

He took some time to turn the evidence to ashes after searching their bodies for valuables, and then went on his way. They had quite a bit of money on them that fortunately hadn't melted, but other than that, just some rusted and blunted iron weapons and what Al guessed used to be ropes of many kinds.

When he reached the house, he left the birds on the table and went up to his bed. He looked at Yuly, who had regained some color over the past few days and now only looked skinny, not anorexic. 'You gotta wake up soon. You've got us worried sick.' He tidied her messy black hair up a bit with the little expertise he had and went to sleep.

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Caexiu hadn't been able to fall asleep after that child, Al, revealed just how powerful he was. He and his friends had clearly gone through things no child, no human in fact, should ever had to go through. They seemed like good people so they wouldn't be a threat though, so,when her dear husband got back home she told him everything except the level of power the child had.

She just told him what they had gone through and that the child had already awakened his element. She just...didn't want him to worry.

The two went to sleep on the sofa once more, but the worries didn't let her fall asleep. She then heard light footsteps, and was about to wake her husband up when she noticed they came from above. She acted asleep as Al came down from the room. She had her eyes closed so she couldn't see anything, but she suddenly felt a layer of mana covering Al.

Her prowess in cultivation wasn't high, so she didn't know what it was, but it let her 'see' Al's general position as he went out of the house and in the direction of the forest.

She got out of bed and went to  the trio's bags, only to discover that he had taken several knives with him. She decided not to fret over it too much and went back to the couch, though it took her several more hours to fall asleep.

When the next morning there were three dead Konyans on the table, with signs of having been singed to death, she could only sigh. 'Seriously, what's up with that kid...'

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

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Al was woken up next morning by Koro, who seemed to have already had breakfast. Al still felt full from last night, so when he went down he declined his portion. He expected Caexiu to insist, but instead she just showed a wry smile as she turned nd said something under her breath that Al's enhanced hearing could barely make out. "As I thought, he really..." But sice she was walking away, he couldn't make out the rest.

Al felt too stuffed to train his physical skills, today, and he was still hurting all over despite his condition steadily improving, so he went back up to the room. By what Koro had told Al, eating so little had taken a big toll on the guy, and even though his current physical capabilities were a bit higher than the Al's, he would take quite a bit more time to make a complete recovery.

'It's kinda like comparing a rechargeable battery and a car battery. Even if they both have the same amount of electricity inside them, it would take much less time for the rechargeable battery to get back to full, just because the capacity is lower.'

Al sat on a chair next to the bed that Yuly was on as he thought of these things to pass the time, looking at the still unconcious Yuly.

She had been crying in her sleep again, though the last time she did it had been over 2 weeks ago. She had been getting better and gained some expressiveness back over the weeks, at least until they started starving, but she still hadn't spoken a single word.

'I know that not being able to talk is an aftereffect that can happen after having gone through a traumatic experience, but... how the hell am I supposed to fix that? I can use skills to dispatch monsters and save people, but... there's no skill or instruction book for this.'

Al slapped himself for getting emotional and decided to get a piece of wood to carve. 'Come on Al, pull yourself together. I have to keep doing things, or my mind will wander into dark places.'

He got a piece of firewood from downstairs and  brought it into his room. It wasn't the best carving material, but it would do. He let his subconscious do all the work as his mind, calmed by the rhythmic sound of wood being peeled off, thought of what to do in the future.

'I don't know who that eerie mana belonged to, but I swear I'm going to make him wish he could travel back in time to kill his mother and prevent himself from being born. I can't do it with my current power, though. To have that much mana, his core must have been in A Grade at least. What would go after that? S Grade? Anyway, he must also have the evolved form of [Mana Molding], Mana Meddling.'

The only person back on Earth who Al knew had that skill was America's top magician, Lily, and it had taken her an enormous amount of time, so the perpetrator must be someone extremely powerful.

'We have to get stronger first, and for that, we have to head west, where the mana is denser.'

Before he realised it Al had already finished his carving, and it was 'An...angel? Well, it has wings and long hair...and it kinda looks familiar? Seriously, how does this pop out of my subconscious?' Looking at it, it was more detailed than any of the carvings he'd ever done before. It was a bit rough around the edges, but the face was strangely well done.

Al put it on the desk next to Yuly's bed since it was the closest surface, and took the girl's hand. 'Hurry up and wake up, dammit. Haaah, I'm kinda tired. Used my brains too much...' Just like that, he fell asleep.

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Yulia's body hurt. It hurt a lot, more than it ever had. In the orphanage, she was happy, and nothing hurt. She could play with Jiao, Koro and...Al.

Then the black things appeared. When they killed ms. Khan, Yulia's chest started hurting a lot. Her mind became muddled, and she could only think about getting her back. But that was impossible, even Yulia understood that, but before she managed to come to terms with it, she saw the orphanage gone, and before she could even take it in, Jiao was gone too. The mist in Yulia's mind that had been dissipating became extremely thick, suffocating. Her chest felt like it was melting in lava, and freezing in the coldest ice.

'No, why Jiao? Why the orphanage? Please, no! Why ME!?' 

When she woke up again, the mist in her mind had cleared a bit, but her chest still hurt. Her healing couldn't cure it, even though it had took care of other pains. Yuly just did what told, no motivation left in her.

Over the days the mist went away, and Yuly realised the situation. This only made her chest tighten even more. Then her body started hurting too, along with Al and Koro's, but her magic couldn't help them either. 'Useless' she had thought countless times. 

But when her chest hurt, when she felt lonely, when she wanted to go away and stop being a useless burden...

He was there.

His warmth made Yuly cry away her worries. He was like a strong mountain, providing reliable support. When she felt useless, he made her feel needed. and when she hurt, he distracted her from the pain.

That's why, even though her body hurt more than it had ever before, she was happy.

Because through her hand, she could feel his warmth.

She slowly opened up her eyes and found herself lying sideways on a bed. She was inside a large wooden room with a funny-looking tilted ceiling, and a big window that let sunlight in. Al was holding her hand while sleeping on a chair.

She looked around, and found something that almost made her cry. It was a wooden figurine of an angel, but that angel...

looked exactly like her.

Yuly didn't understand the meaning behind it, but she disn't have to. She knew Al carved it, and she knew It was for her. That was enough.

She took the figure and embraced it in her arms, falling into a peaceful sleep.

Something she hadn't done in months.