“I told you that we should have executed her long ago! Look at that light show! It must have been her strongest outburst yet! Do you know how much gold we’ll have to spend to regrow all of the crops she’d burnt?”

“Tsk, we did try to starve her to death! Who would have known that she would survive that many days without food?”

“She’s THE CURSED CHILD!!! Of course, she’s capable of that! She must have sold her soul to the devil!”

The villagers roared one after the other. It was a little after dinner, and the moon wasn’t even at its zenith yet. Most of the villagers were enjoying their after-work rest, staying at home with their families and friends.

Some wanted to drink the night away while others just wanted to comfortably rest with their children. Alas, all of their plans were thrown out of the window just a few minutes prior. A rip in space blasted through Ebony Village as thunder and lightning dominated the remote night sky. However, there wasn’t rain or any overcast clouds on the horizon, which could only mean one thing...

“Yasue! Miyo! It’s all your fault! Why would you give birth to a demon child?!” An aged man in his eighties hollered at a couple.

Both in their forties, the man had rich white hair while the woman possessed a pale blonde one. Though, if one looked closer, they would see numerous strands of grey popping out from their scalps.

“C-Chief! Please forgive us!” Yasue bowed down ninety-degrees and apologised with everything that he had.

“W-We didn’t mean to harm the village… We just...” Miyo continued. Her fingers were shaking as her eyes watered up.

“Hah... We should have beheaded you two long ago for bringing us that cursed child. We’ll discuss your punishment later once we dispose of her.” The Village Chief sighed heavily.

“W-Wait, please! We didn’t know that our child would be cursed! She had caused our farm harm as well, remember?!”

“T-That’s right! We were the victims as well! That Demon must’ve killed our real child and swapped places with her during my pregnancy!”

Yachi’s parents protested heavily. In their minds, they were the ones that had gotten it the worst out of all the villagers. When Yachi’s Pinnacle Tempest Body first erupted, it destroyed their entire house and burnt down a quarter of their fields. Not to mention, both of them sustained injuries each time Yachi’s lightning tendrils wreaked havoc.

“Please give us one more chance, Chief! I-I know! Let me kill the demon spawn once and for all! She was born from my flesh and blood, it’s only fitting that I execute her!”

Yasue suggested the unthinkable. In no universe was a parent justified to murder their child. Yet, Yachi’s father volunteered to do the job himself.

“... Are you sure about that?”

“I’m positive! That child is no human being and definitely no daughter of mine! In fact, it would be my honour to eradicate her from Ebony Village with my own two hands! Please let me execute her!” Yasue pleaded once again.

“If that’s the case, I shall give you this chance to redeem yourself.” The Village Chief nodded and walked away from the couple. He progressed to the very front of the crowd where the most able-bodied men were at and strolled forward as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulder.

When the Village Chief was out of hearing range, Yasue’s expectant smile soon curled down into a frown of frustration: “That sly fox...”

“W-What is it?”

“They are afraid of laying hands on Yachi since her lightning could electrocute them in a second. That’s why they are pushing that dangerous job onto me. I suspect that his threat of punishment was just a means for me to volunteer myself.”

“That’s why he was targeting us?” Miyo gasped in fear. “D-Dear! If it’s too dangerous, leave it to someone else! I can’t lose you as well!”

“I have no other choice, Miyo. If I don’t kill Yachi with my own two hands, they will throw us out of the village. Maybe even bury us with her.”

“B-But… Y-Yachi is…”

The middle-aged woman faltered for a split second as her past attachments to Yachi filled her mind. And that change didn’t go unnoticed by Yasue: “Miyo, I hope you don’t have any lingering feelings towards that cursed child! That thing that caused us so much pain and suffering!”

“I-I don’t! S-She must die!”

“Good that you understand,” Yasue snorted.

“We’re still young, we can still try to have children if your body can take it. So just forget about her. She’s just a demon that we should’ve gotten rid off three years ago.”

While the pair were discussing their plans to kill their very own daughter, the village mob had quickly reached their destination. It was still dark, so none of them were able to see the cursed child. But they could see the damage that she’d caused vividly.

“That fucking-! She burnt down the entire field and destroyed the house that we’ve given her! Fucking Demon!” One of the villagers hollered.

They were horrified by the carnage that Yachi had caused. The farmlands in the region had been burnt to the crisp, and most of its soil had been thoroughly incinerated. At best, Ebony Village would take a year to recover from this outburst.

“Find the girl and bring her here!” The Village Chief barked. “We shall rid our lands of this evil and bring it to justice once and for all!”

“Evil? Justice? You talk big for some country bumpkin.”

“Who’s there?!”

Before the Village Chief could order Yachi’s execution, a thirty-something-year-old man walked out from the ruins of the former stone hut with a bored expression. He yawned while stretching his tense neck and watched the villagers disinterestedly.

The villagers, however, couldn’t ignore the man’s existence. In particular, the Village Chief who stood at the forefront of the entire mob. As a man of experience, the eighty-year-old could sense a mysterious force enveloping the young man. It was an indescribable feeling… as if the entire world was meant to kneel at that man’s feet.

Although he didn’t know who Roan was, the Village Chief instinctively knew that the man wasn’t someone to cross.

As a drop of sweat dripping down his face, the elderly man asked in a reserved tone: “Who are you?”

“Who am I? Now that’s a good question...” Roan rubbed his chin as the thought of toying with the villagers passed his mind. “Well, my identity doesn’t really matter to you guys. What you’re really here for, is her right?”

Roan moved his body to the side, revealing a fatigued and weakened Yachi, who was doing her best to remain standing. She was wrapped up in a blanket, to cover the clothes that she’d ripped apart. At times, Yachi would peek out from Roan’s back as she watched the villagers that had come to kill her. Her body was shaking and her eyes tearing up, but Yachi remained firm. Before she left with Roan, Yachi had to end her ties to this village.

“THE CURSED GIRL!!!” The village mob universally roared.

“KILL HER!!!”

“Damn her to hell!”

The villagers instantly got into an uproar as they lifted their torches and pitchforks. Yachi was stunned by the sudden turn of events and attempted to hide behind Roan once more. However, before she could retreat to her safe place, something caught her eye… something familiar...

“Let’s get this over with! Yasue, go ahead and do the job!”

A white-haired man was pushed out from the mob and brought to the very front. He held a knife on his right hand and a torch on his left, and judging from the expression on his face, the man wasn’t going to use those tools for farming.

“F-Father?”

“Yachi, you cursed child! Why couldn’t you just die quietly? We gave you that mercy and you just had to squander it!” Yasue screamed out with everything that he had.

“...”

“My fellow villagers! I’m sorry for bringing this plague into our village! We were blindsided by this demon child and didn’t know any better! As promised, I shall be the one who vanquishes the cursed child from the face of the planet! Please witness me!”

“...”

From the very start, Yasue didn’t spare a single glance at his daughter. He was more interested in pandering to the audience and hadn’t noticed the Village Chief’s odd behaviour. Thus, without any orders, Yasue marched forward as he gripped his knife even tighter.

“Young man, I don’t know who you are, but that child is a demon! I suggest you step aside and let me take care of her!”

Yasue stood before Roan and suggested the unthinkable. In fact, it was so appalling that Roan didn’t know how to react. He had seen many things during his days on the Frontier, but he has never seen a father so willing to execute his own flesh and blood.

“You… you’re her father?”

“It is my biggest bane… So please allow me to rid my sin!”

“Sin… HAHAHA, what a fucking joke!” Roan tapped his forehead and burst out in laughter. “As much as I would love to correct you on that, it would just be a waste of my breath. You’re no better than those flat-earthers!”

The Magic God couldn’t be bothered with the ignorant villagers. Instead, he turned back and gently held Yachi’s arm.

“Yachi, what do you want to do?”

“I-I...”

Yachi hesitated for a second. Even though she was abandoned by the village and her parents, there was a small voice in her head that believed in miracles. It was a hope that she would one day wake up from this nightmare, and everything would go back to the way it was.

But as Yachi looked at the murderous gaze of her father, that small feeling dissipated once and for all. There was nothing left for her in this village.

“I will leave,” Yachi declared unwaveringly.

“Really? Don’t you want to teach these country bumpkins a lesson? They came all the way from the village in the middle of the night to kill you after torturing you for three whole years. I know that you’re not strong enough to do it yourself yet, but if you say the word, I shall put them in their place.”

“No… I can’t burden you like that Sir Magician. Also...”

Yachi looked at her father and the dozens of blood-eyed villagers that she once called family. The thought of vengeance did cross the girl’s mind many times when she was starving all alone with no one by her side. They wanted her dead, so why should she leave them alive? But ultimately…

“I don’t care about them anymore.”

It was Yachi’s honest feelings. She didn’t want revenge because she didn’t feel hate towards the villagers. All Yachi wanted to do was to leave this place and never come back.

“If that’s how you feel, so be it.” Roan shrugged his shoulders. If Yachi didn’t want to enact vengeance, it wasn’t his place to act out of line.

Roan gently grabbed Yachi’s shoulders and supported her up. They both turned their backs to the villagers, and Roan mentally prepared a teleportation spell to warp them out of this god-forsaken place. However, before the Magic God could complete his calculations, a booming voice echoed through the dark farmlands.

“Where do you think you’re going?! Leave the cursed child, and we’ll spare your life!”

Yasue mistakenly thought that Roan was trying to escape with Yachi and moved to stop them. If Yasue didn’t kill the cursed girl with his own two hands, his place in Ebony Village would have been in jeopardy.

Roan’s body jerked. The teleportation spell in his mind was instantly cancelled, giving the man some time to comprehend what the fool just said.

“Spare my life? HAHAHAHA!!! You sure talk big! Even the Demon Emperor wouldn’t have the balls to say that to my face, but you?”

“D-Demon Emperor? I-I knew it! You are a Demon as well! That’s why you’re protecting the cursed girl!”

“Demon? Me? HAHAHA!!! If you told that to the twelve Demon Generals, they’d skin you alive!”

Roan couldn’t count the number of Demons he’d killed, even if he grew a thousand pairs of hands. The Magic God was a name that sparked hope in humanity and brought despair to all living demons. Yet, this tool actually called him a Demon to his face?

“Hah… This is why education is so important. You isolated yourself in the village and know nothing of the real world. That’s why you were unable to recognise the diamond in your hands. Though I must thank you. Because of your ignorance, I was able to obtain this gem all for myself.”

Yachi blushed at Roan’s description. She wasn’t a treasure by any means, at least by the standards of the villagers. However, in Roan’s eyes, Yachi was indeed a priceless diamond that was gifted to him on a silver platter.

“So, as a parting gift, let me educate you, country bumpkins. Yachi, observe! This is what true magic looks like!”

Roan raised his index finger to the sky and shouted. A pale blue aura seeped out from the Magic God’s body and coagulated into an array of intricate lines. An invisible pressure weighed upon the villagers and the weakened young girl behind Roan, forcing everyone to their knees.

A frightening heat kissed the faces of those strong enough to look at the sky as the pressure continued to mount by the second. It was alarmingly hot, yet Yachi didn’t avert her eyes for a second. She watched, spellbound by the complex magic circle that the blue lines created.

That singular magic circle soon spawned a new one. This time, red in colour. It was just as beautiful and equally complex. A half-second after the second magic circle’s creation, the lines spread out once more and created yet another one. And the process repeated itself…

The next… the next… the next… Until finally, seven holy coloured magic circles were layered over each other like a cake.

Yachi wasn’t able to comprehend the complexities of each magic circle, but she could tell that they were unique in their own way. Each one told a story, one of immense power and divine mercy. And they were all… infinitely gorgeous.

The villagers felt the same way as well. The moment Roan released his mana, they knew that they were outclassed. Some of them thought of begging for their lives, but their voices were muted. They weren’t under a hypnosis spell or bound by magic, they were just… enthralled by the mystifying sight.

And then… the impossible happened.

*Zzzzzzssssssssssstttttt*

The bottommost magic circle activated. A bolt of pale blue lightning zapped upwards and collided with the red magic circle. The lightning bolt instantly changed colours and almost doubled in intensity and power.

It continued to rise up and crashed against each one of the upper magic circles—Blue, red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, violet. The lightning bolt doubled in size after each collision until eventually, all of it combined into a dense ball of lightning at the topmost layer of the formation.

Once it was completed, Roan flashed a playful smile. He looked down at the villagers and with his cheekiest voice, he muttered:

“Rainbow Thunder, activate!”

*BOOM!!!*

A seven-coloured lightning bolt descended from the heavens and crashed into the hill just ten kilometres away and then…

The sun appeared.

It was the middle of the night, and the village was cold and damp. Yet, as the seven-coloured lightning hit the hill, heat and light overwhelmed the darkness.

A fiery pillar of smoke gushed into the skies, carrying with it seven colours of lightning tendrils. An immense shockwave spread out from the epicentre and uprooted every tree within a kilometre’s radius.

And as the shockwave approached the farmland, every villager was blasted ten metres back. There were screams, there were yelps… but there was nothing that the villagers could do against Roan’s overwhelming might.

No, there was one villager who couldn’t take her eyes off the colours that brought light to the night.

“So? What do you think?”

“Beautiful… To think that magic can be so… breathtaking...”

“That’s right, it really is.” Roan chuckled and caressed Yachi’s head. “And you can learn it all.”

“I-I can?”

“Of course! It’ll take some time, but given your talent, Rainbow Thunder should be easy for you.”

“Sir Magician… I...”

“Hey, shouldn’t you change the way you address me already?” Roan pinched Yachi’s cheeks and chided the girl.

“T-That...”

Yachi blanked out for a moment but soon realised what Roan was trying to say. Her cheeks turned red as a small whisper escaped her petite little mouth.

“M-Master...”

“HAHA, that’s right!”

Finally… For the first time in twenty-five years, Roan had obtained something that even magic couldn’t provide. Roan, no the Magic God… now had a disciple.

“E-Exalted one! Please forgive us!”

And then… someone just had to ruin his mood. The elderly Village Chief, who had been waiting on the sidelines, finally moved once Rainbow Thunder’s destruction had ceased. He immediately knelt at Roan’s feet and fully submitted to the man who was capable of destroying Ebony Village as he pleased.

“We were blind! We were foolish! Please forgive our ignorance! We will offer you anything you want, just please… let us live in peace!”

“... Wow, you’re shameless, you know that?”

“E-Exalted one...”

“But you know what, I’m in a good mood, so I’ll allow your insolence. Your village is terrible, and your people are worse than trash. But you are still the village that produced my first disciple.”

Roan waved his hands, and a small magic circle rose from his right palm. Although Roan’s next spell didn’t have as many magic circles, that single one was still more complicated for anyone to comprehend.

Once his spell calculation was completed, Roan snapped his fingers and a beam of light dashed towards the sky. All of the villagers unconsciously cringed, fearing that Roan had launched yet another Rainbow Thunder, but their caution was unnecessary.

Dark clouds gathered, covering the starry night sky and the ever-present moon hanging above. And it wasn’t long until Roan performed his next miracle.

“Rain?”

Heavy water droplets poured down from the heavens and swallowed the fires that Roan and Yachi had produced. The fires staunchly resisted, of course, but they were no match for the rain clouds that Roan summoned.

“Y-You can even change the w-weather...”

“Take this as my final kindness, country bumpkins. Educate yourselves. So that you won’t repeat the mistake you’ve made with Yachi.” Roan snorted before turning away to create a portal. He didn’t want to stay in this god-forsaken place anymore.

This gave his disciple one final chance to examine the crowd.

Yachi looked at Yasue, the man who was supposed to be her father. He had fallen flat on the floor and didn’t dare to lift his face, not even to say one final goodbye to his daughter.

She watched Miyo, her mother. The one person that was supposed to protect her no matter the consequence. Miyo was huddled up at the far corner, praying that no one notices her.

Then, she glanced at the villagers. They were raging just moments ago and wanted to rip Yachi apart. Now? They were just scared little kittens begging to stay alive.

And Yachi thought to herself… Were these the same people that terrorised her life? The men and women that had caused her so much pain over the past three years?

In the end, they were nothing more than ants against her new Master. Against… Magic.

‘Yes… This is the right path for me...’

Yachi once again reaffirmed her beliefs. She smiled radiantly as Roan opened up a portal, ready to bring her on a new adventure. One that was far away from Ebony Village and far away from the place she hated the most.

Roan paused before the portal and reached out his hand: “You coming?”

Yachi blinked. Was there even a need to ask that question? From the day that he’d changed her life, there was only one choice for the young girl. And for the first time in three years, Yachi smiled from the bottom of her heart as she replied.

“Yes, Master!”