There was blood; a lot of blood, terrible wars waged on dying plains, strange creatures covered in a red haze, torn skies and screaming earth. And then there was death, so many people dead that he couldn’t see the end of it. Lukas could feel the destruction, he could taste the terrible despair hung over the bloody skies like a heavy cloak. It was on an imaginable scale.

But then his visions suddenly stilled on the crimson heavens with a pair of beautiful, archaic eyes slowly awakening. He watched fascinated as the eyes lids twitched with waves of malevolence washing over him threatening to engulf his sanity. But just as they were about to crack open, a pervasive light shattered through the dream, washing away everything in its blinding radiance.

He then awoke, gasping almost as if he had never taken a breath in his life. As it turned out though, it was the worst decision he had ever made as a literal wave of pungent odor assaulted his senses, heavy enough he could almost swallow. He found himself coughing, choking on the putrid air. His lungs burned, his eyes watered and it took all of his strength to focus on his surrounding only to immediately recoil in disgust.

His sister was still unconscious but both of them were covered in a dark, strange gooey substance which was letting off such a stench that it made him regret his nose ever existed. Placing his hand over his face, he pulled himself up before crawling his way towards her, his robe uncomfortably squelching through the vicious liquid. His concern made him force his way through as he could not forget the horrifying image of his sister’s imprint bleeding through all of her orifices mere seconds before they passed out.

Once he reached her, a small relief washed over him. As far as he could see, there was not a speck of blood on her or her surroundings. But he had to wake her up and check if there was something else wrong , see if she was still…alive.

“Ariandel, wake up” he shook her, the unbearable smell momentarily forgotten.

After a short while, his dread increasing with each passing moment, his sister groaned, almost as if she was taking a nap… except the smell was so strong that his sister bolted up right abruptly, her face green seeming as she was about to heave her whole entrails on to the floor.

“By my gods w-what happened? What is this?” She asked disoriented, her voice muffled.

It was only after he saw she was fine, that he relaxed, taking a deep breath which he immediately regretted.

“I wished I knew.” He tried breathing through his mouth; it didn’t make it any better. “We were both out of it. I only woke up a few minutes before only to find this.” his other hand gestured to the mess.

Her sister gagged as she looked around. “I can’t breathe…” she complained. Concentrating out of pure desperation; her mana flared before the familiar wisps appeared in her fingers. A small surprise crossed her face but at the moment she decided to focus on her immediate problem. With as much as mana as she could, her spell bloomed, multiplying with a lot of more motes of light manifesting, overshadowing the both of them and lighting up the room in the golden haze.

Under the radiance of the spell, they soon found it a little bit easier to breath but she wasn’t done. She controlled the motes towards the gooey substances on the floor and on their robes. Willing it, the little lights popped like bubbles as they vanished into thin air every time they met a particle of the dreaded substance. Within seconds their robes were reasonably cleansed and the floor immaculate as the motes of light disappeared in a glittering smoke.

“A really useful spell,” Lukas observed. There was still a trace of dreaded smell lingering in the air but compared to when he woke up, the improvement was too noticeable, preferable even.

Her sister nodded, “This is one of the most recommended spell to master early. No self seeking adventurous priest would dare go out without this spell on their kit.”

Exhausted Lukas muttered under his breath. “Tell me about it.” But out loud he said. “This is much better but… are you okay? You gave me quite a scare when your imprint suddenly bled everywhere.”

After the spell had run his course, Ariandel let out her psyche in the direction of the window, forcing it open.

“Something must have gone wrong during the ritual.” She said. “But I genuinely can’t focus at the moment. I can still feel that smell on me. I have to go and…destroy these robes.”

Without even turning, her sister took the woolen coat from the floor, and wore it as she rushed out of the abode in span of time Lukas took to blink his eyes. As much as the purification spell had got rid of the smell and its source, there was still a trace of it, stubbornly lingering. Lukas could feel it on his clothes and on the floor.

Getting up, he immediately went to the bath to change, and then scrubbed himself so much that his skin hurt. When he was sure he was clean, he dried himself, took new clean robes to wear and then tackled the floor and the tainted clothes in one fell swoop. His window was already open which immensely helped clear the air in his abode, but it wasn’t until he had washed, scrubbed and brushed the floor until he was satisfied did he stop. Taking a short rest, he went in for another quick bath to get rid of the sweat and then wore another pair of robes from his walled in shelf.

Just after he was finished with everything, he didn’t forget to banish the tainted robes in a sealed corner, setting them apart for burning later. Done with the unsavory task, he took a deep breath of contentment before he sat down a healthy distance away from the pile and then began reviewing everything that has occurred since morning. By now the sun was setting, its afternoon hue bathing his abode in a comfortable light. He approximated they must have been knocked out for more than a few hours for their mid morning to suddenly turn into an afternoon.

Taking a deep breath, decided to focus on the first thing that bothered him the most.

The visions he had right before he woke up.

They screamed of death and danger. Lukas had never seen so much blood in his new life and old. Even now he could still taste the horror of such a battlefield; especially those bizarre eyes that emanated so much malevolence that his heart pounded with fear on what would have happened if he had waited until they opened. He had read and seen enough of the troupes in his old world to sense that he might have caught the glimpse of something strange, something has happened or…something that could happen. Regardless the prospect of being in the middle of such warfare curdled his blood and wrung his head. He felt lightheaded, almost as if he was about to pass out again.

Brushing of such feelings, a desperate determination rose once more within him. He had to get stronger. Whether he was really summoned to stop such a war or fight against such creatures he needed strength to make sure he survived. Better yet, he could get lucky and find his way back but deep inside he had a feeling he had no hope of doing so as long as that damn statue existed within his soul.

But then, that begged the next question. What was the Godly statue in his soul altar? For the first time since his transmigration, the still statue strangely responded in a flash of starry eyes. Unfortunately, he couldn’t recall anything else after that but he wondered if his sister was the cause of it. Would it happen again anytime soon? Was it the one responsible for the crazy visions he had seen?

Worse yet…was it alive?

Dread filled him at such thought. Such possibility frightened him. If it was indeed true, then it meant he was helpless. He couldn’t run away even if he tried. Because who would be stupid enough to think they could hide from a cosmic being who might or might not be responsible for their life & death?

Taking a deep breath he thought of something. He could be over thinking it. If it was alive, it might talked to him by now, struck a conversation with him, informed him of why he was brought here and he would make sure as hell that after everything was done, he was brought back the same way he arrived.

Shaking his head, he recalled one of the most important observations his sister had made. At the time he had dismissed but it was likely that his first conjecture was correct. His current soul altar was the result of the union between him and the original host. The duality of the sun and the star was not lost to him. Ariandel’s brother possessed the same elemental gift as his sister hence the bloodline resonance with the Angel Statue while the star might be the result of his soul shuttling through cosmos to arrive here. The Godly statue was the probably the culprit of his current demise but thinking of such conjectures make his head spin.

He tried to relax, his breath settling into a familiar pattern. His senses were marginally sharper, clearer but most of all his mana felt denser, more powerful. Sensing something was different; he sent his mind deeper into his body. The Mortal stage was all about collecting and refining enough mana to set a foundation for the whirlpool one automatically attains as they advance as an Earth Mage. The process was meant to slow and grueling but it offered a stable base for future cultivation while it further tuned the mage’s senses toward mana. These were the hallmarks his previous host had read so much that they were completely burned into his brain.

When he felt the ethereal weight of mana in his body, Lukas smiled with glee. Out of nowhere he had seemingly advanced his cultivation. If he had to guess he had just advanced to become Mid-Mortal mage. He was grasping at straws, at how, when and where when the door to his abode was once again unceremoniously flung open and his sister appeared with a strange smile on her face.

“I have just become a Mid-Earth Mage…”she intoned in the way that sounded almost unbelievable to her ears.

Lukas was stunned. “How is it possible?”

Closing the door behind her, she took one look at his face and immediately guessed. “Your cultivation also advanced?!”

Lukas nodded. “I have become a Mid-Mortal Mage… in fact I’m more than half of the way to achieve the Late-Mortal Stage.”

Her face burst with delight as she flitted closer for a sudden hug. “Congratulations brother, now you are more than half way towards your goal.”

Flustered, Lukas retorted with a hidden smile “Well I’m not the only one who progressed.”

She pulled away from him with a grin. As if demonstrating she flicked her hand and on top of her palm, a small mote of light soon appeared. Rendered in exquisite detail, its wings slowly unfurled to life, and then it flapped to the air like butterfly before it nuzzled his sister’s nose almost like it was kissing.

Although Lukas was quite taken by the scene, he knew they had much more important things to discuss.

“This kind of luck did not fall out of nowhere sister…” he cautioned as he pulled her to the floor, leaving the mote of light to fly wherever it fancied. “…especially to the both of us at the same.”

As the butterfly finally alighted on her shoulder, Ariandel pulled out yet another sack from under her coat. “I brought some food.” She told him. "Something told me you would be distracted and so I thought I could spare you the trouble."

"Thanks "Lukas felt grateful as his stomach grumbled. Too many things were happening at once that he had completely forgotten to eat. Once the bundle was opened, it contained a few fruits, some pleasant scented herbs he could munch later along with a completely sealed container made out of polished wood.

He tried to offer her some of the fruit but she told him she had already eaten. Picking up the container, he slowly opened before it exploded with a delicious aroma that sent his stomach in frenzy. His mouth watering, he picked up a small piece of the roasted meat inside into his mouth and it instantly melted on his tongue, sending a warm energy from his stomach to all over his body.

"What is this?" he couldn't help but ask. Her sister mysteriously smiled as she answered "Just some very special pheasants my master breeds in her courtyard. They are tiered beasts and they are usually her preferred delicacy."

Digging even deeper into his meal, he savored each bite, letting the taste filling his tongue, its energy coursing through his whole body.

"It is delicious" he exclaimed.

"Well don't get used to it." She haughtily said. "I could barely sneak it under her nose. I only get to taste such a meal once in a while, and today was one of those days.”

This Lukas was too curious to stop himself. “Who is your master?”

All Ariandel did was smile and then change the subject.

“When did you realize?” She asked.

He let his question drop. “Just a few moments after you were gone; I was just finished getting rid of that smell when I took a rest and meditated. Immediately I noticed my mana was dense, more collected but I barely had to meditate since my return.”

As he wolfed down the rest of his food, he froze. “You don’t think…”

“That the strange statue in your soul altar was responsible for this." She finished his thought. “By now I’m more than assured.” She hesitated before she continued. “Though whatever it has done, it may have bestowed us the kind of fortune most mages would have killed for."

Tilting his head, he asked. “What do you mean?” which meant what was she talking about apart from their obvious increase of the strength.

Ariandel patiently explained as she played with her butterfly. By now it was flitting around, its luminescence mystical and mischievous and its wings vacillating up and down as it alighted on her stretched finger.

“From what I have seen I think we have been purged” she said, “…purified of all the impurities in our body. Each major breakthrough gives us the chance to purify our foundation, from our soul and mana to our bodies in ways we can barely comprehend until we reach higher realms. If I'm not wrong it also helped refined our bloodline…though for now we have to wait until we are home to find what it is.”

“Oh, so we have been cleansed from inside out?”

Her sister acknowledged. “Almost like being reborn. There are so many advantages to it. Our senses are enhanced, our mana becomes purer, lighter, condensed, thus making our spells stronger and easier to manifest. Our bodies will be less prone to sickness, and since our mana will run smoother, faster recovery is almost guaranteed. Most mages only get to experience this when they advance but you got to experience it before any major breakthrough. This is an advantage that will only compound the more you progress. You won’t feel it now but trust me…one day you will notice the stark difference.”

“But,” Her tone suddenly got serious. “…this means we need to keep this between us only. What you have encountered in that forest is the kind of fortuitous encounter in a magnitude we do not understand yet. We should never allow even a hint of it to escape us, not to our family or even my master. The kind of trouble that could follow might cost our lives.”

Lukas vowed. “Don’t worry; I won’t dare risk my life and yours.”

The atmosphere that had suddenly turned grim it disappeared just as fast with a smile. “I have to go now.” She told him. “Let’s call it a rest for today. I have to return to my abode while you…” she jested. “…still have a long way to go if you have any hopes to reach me. Strengthen your foundation and prepare yourself. You still have a few months left.”

A confident smirk appeared on Lukas’s face. “You shouldn’t worry about me. Just wait for the announcement. This time I will manage to surprise even you.”

She saw the spark was even stronger now. There was something else beneath it, something he wasn’t telling her but she was smart enough to keep mum. After all she also had a few secrets of her own.

She quickly gave her goodbyes. Lukas watched as she disappeared from his room in flurry of white and wool. His mind was filled with too many thoughts yet his spirit was exhausted. It has been a long day, a day where he had learned his innocuous artifacts were created at the expense of his host’s death. A day where he had basically confirmed he was conjoined with a dead soul. A day he had discovered just how endless the impossibilities existed in this new magical world.

It had been too much for one day. So he decided to let it end by resting his head on the bed. Tomorrow he would wake up and the begin working on one problem after another. Hopefully tomorrow will bring another day, just not as intense as this one.

Only time would tell.