Year 2, Winter, First Month, Third Week.

The moment of the explosion.

Mages live interesting but really ironic lives, they sacrifice everything, even their families, to advance and reach the apex of magic. Life-saving spells are just a good example of this, they pay a lot to get it and put a lot of training into something they wish to never use. Even though they imagined the situation when they would use it, most would be surprised when the time comes, or even furious, if in their case, like Johann’s, the spell fails to activate.

When Johann realized something was wrong it was already too late, even so, he didn’t panic, the hidden wind servant would save them, or so he thought. When he saw it passing through him and dashing towards Thundery, he understood he wasn’t a priority, neither for the servant or its Master. Maybe that’s the reason why he failed to activate the spell, not that it would have made a big difference. He tried to reach for the energy in his crystals while manipulating the strong wind around him to form a high-pressure Wind Cannon. He needed two seconds to cast the spell, and in exchange for being launched kilometers away, he would probably break some bones, definitely his ribcage.

However, he was an instant late. Actually, he felt like he had activated the spell but he wasn’t launched. Instead, he was skewered by an Origin-forsaken arc of lightning, even in death Thundery was beating him up. His only comfort was seeing the wind servant being dispelled and the irritating girl’s spell backfiring, she would die too, maybe if his Master had chosen to save him… Johann’s thoughts became confused as the lighting arc finally moved out of him, leaving a hole in his abdomen. Strangely, instead of pain, he felt the connection with his element strengthen, in less than a second he understood more than in years of training, maybe now he would be able to cast all the spells he had failed to.

Before he was taken by darkness, Johann remembered his parents. The same ones he abandoned without thinking twice when he was offered a chance to study magic at Sky Palace. In the end, the nobles of the capital were right, he was only a lucky commoner. His pride of being chosen as one of the Wind Lord’s disciples deceived him, he forgot his origins, he thought he was better than these villagers, but his Master took care of teaching him right, he was nothing more than a tool.

***

“Collect everything you find without touching it and don’t go near the center.”

After retrieving the crystals and checking on his parents, Karl decided to take a look at the location of the explosion. The sky was already dark, but fortunately, a few lightning arcs kept the place illuminated. If it wasn’t for the bad situation, Karl would be jumping from excitement. Unexpectedly, the energy reaction ended up creating a high-density lightning environment and even a few crystals appeared. Master AI had pointed that only one crystal was MQ and the others were only LQ, but that was still amazing. As soon as his shadowing disciples arrived he instructed them to look for the crystals around the place while he tried to retrieve the MQ crystal. Unfortunately, the crystal was in the center of the accident, where the lightning arcs still raged.

Karl was trying to pick the crystal with a big wooden stick, if it didn’t work, he would get his wind staff to push the crystal out of the lightning net. Thankfully it didn’t come to that, soon, the crystal was secure in his bag. After reminding his disciples to hurry, he started to walk back to the destroyed outpost, they needed to leave before morning came. However, on his way back, Karl tripled over something, or more correctly, over someone.

Because of the darkness, he failed to notice the almost dead man laying around the explosion’s site. He couldn’t understand how he had survived the accident being so close to it, in fact, if it wasn’t for his chest moving strangely fast he would just regard the man as dead. After considering for a moment, Karl decided to drag the man back so the Council could decide what to do with him. When he concluded that they would have to kill him after getting some information, he felt uncomfortable. Even though he just help to kill a dozen people, he felt strange about killing them directly, he knew it was hypocritical, but it was somewhat different.

“What is… this?”

When Karl got close to the recently started fire, he could finally see the man better, which made him utterly confused. The man had a hole burned in his regard robe but his abdomen under it… It wasn’t skin… It looked like… A crystal in the same form as the hole in his robe, the grey crystal-like material seemed to replace his skin and maybe even his internal parts. Karl wondered if this was a result of the explosion or if he was already like this before. He asked Master AI about it, but he didn’t get an answer, which meant the explanation touched on an Alchemy lesson he would have to learn by himself or at an appropriate time. Karl decided to leave the matter for later.

The mood in the emergency Council meeting was as low as expected, even though the deaths in the explosion could be counted in one hand, nothing guaranteed they wouldn’t start dying by the dozens from now on. Moving through the wild in winter and facing the high levels of magic energy while hundreds still suffered from poisoning, could be as dangerous as facing the Kingdom. Even so, they didn’t want to meet them, so they would need to make this meeting short and leave as quickly as possible

Relief appeared on Councillors' expressions when they saw Karl arriving, this would save time, which was now their most precious resource. Unfortunately, their fellow Councilman seemed to have brought more problems instead of solutions. Karl dropped the man at the side before sitting in the hastily arranged seat. He thought the seats were a strange and silly luxury, though most of the Councilors advocated that the simple furniture was a symbol of order that calmed the villagers. Before they could gather the words to ask, he explained:

“The explosion formed a high-density lightning environment and caused the appearance of lightning crystals. I was collecting the crystals when I found him, I brought him so we could decide what to do… I don’t know why his body is like this, I can’t say if it’s related to the explosion, but if we could take him, I think studying him might help in the future…”

The Councillors were shocked by the whole situation and especially at the man’s crystal body part, but Karl’s parents were also concerned about their son’s attitude towards another person. Omero realized something and was the first to speak.

“He’s the Mage, the one that said he was representing the Wind Lord…”

Fortunately, Marlen had enough sense to bring them back to reality.

“Let’s deal with… him later. We have to focus on our escape plan. How are we going to move in the snow? The hunters have boots but we don’t have enough for everybody and the clothes are too thin…”

Unfortunately, their problems seemed to be piling up. The supposed-to-be fast meeting ended up being two hours long. The morning was approaching and they would soon face their biggest challenge. But this was a problem for the others, Karl’s only task right now was to sleep. Without his spiritual energy, he couldn’t be of help and sleeping accelerated the energy recovery. So, while all of the villagers ran around preparing their escape, Karl would be sleeping at a quiet corner. However, before he left for the kingdom of dreams, he passed a long list of tasks for his disciples, who would tirelessly work while their Master enjoyed a good night of sleep.

***

The first rays of light bathed the Forest pushing away the darkness and marking the beginning of another day. However, the hate in Windsor’s heart still raged like a furious dark hurricane.

“Where is she?”

The three Fighters’ figure instantly became smaller like children facing their parents. They trembled as their Master continued to approach with a promise of suffering in his eyes.

“We don’t know your Grace… Young Mistress Thundery send us on a mission…”

“Is that so? And what mission did I gave you?”

Windsor extended his open hand and the trembling Fighter who spoke started to get pulled by the wind energy stirring around him. He knew of his Master’s temper, so he didn’t try to resist.

“Forgive me, your Grace… I failed in my mission… Please, your Grace… Argh…”

The man struggled as the air left his lungs, Windsor released him but he continued to suffocate. The Wind Lord didn’t pay any more attention to him.

“You two, go find her body… and how about the villagers?”

The two Fighters bowed before answering.

“Reporting to your Grace. Before the explosion, the barrier didn’t allow us to check inside, but after it, they didn’t use the barrier anymore. There was movement inside their camp during the entire night.”

After getting Windsor’s consent, the two Fighters bowed and left.

“Let’s see how strong you are…”

***

Kanin cleaned the sweat out of his forehead as the last bag of wheat flour was loaded onto the LC and the villagers carrying it left through the recently opened forest path. Now, he only had to join the last batch of villagers and leave this place.

The wind flow increased pushing the cold against the already shivering villagers. Kanin looked at the long string of villagers walking east and plead to Origin to help them survive before joining them. He tried to force a smile, at least they would be moving further from the Kingdom.

A painful scream brought Kanin out of his contemplation. His heart raced and he turned back to see what was happening. The blood almost made him throw up. He hesitated for a second before joining the fray of villagers running and screaming.

“Where do you, disgusting slaves, think you’re going?”