With two carriages loaded, we made our way out of Durhan, going farther west according to Ebbo. Just he and Fatima accompanied us; I’d assume he would opt for more men.

The carriage was deathly quiet. Perhaps because it was quite early in the morning and everyone was understandably cranky. Or perhaps it was the fact that Fatima continually, persistently, and blatantly stared at me. When we first met outside the inn, I doubted it was me who was the victim of her shameless gaze, so I purposely walked away from everyone else. Sure enough, it was me.

Were my clothes weird? Well, yes, but so was the everyone else’s except Ebbo. Did I have something on my face? No, Donna assured me I was fine. Did I have horrible bed hair? Pretty sure I groomed myself so that couldn’t be it.

She said nothing at all since meeting us, not even a greeting. Yet, when she finally chose to speak, she asked, “Are you the guardian of balance?”

I shook. I mentioned nothing of the sort to anyone in Rhilstorm, so how did she know? “N-not exactly? I’m her successor. Who are you?”

“You’re, not lying…” she trembled. “Then, the great Emily Crescent, is dead?”

Donna and I looked at each other, “Well, yeah. She passed away a few years ago.”

The poor woman looked traumatised. But then she looked up at me in a strange fervour, “So then, you are the guardian of balance! Guardian,” she pulled her hood down, “I hereby pledge fealty to you. I will serve you faithfully until the day I draw my last breath.”

Ebbo was shocked and confused, and so was the rest of us.

I raised her chin up. The only reason she probably didn’t kneel was because the carriage was too small. “I’m only the guardian of balance in training. And even if I was to properly take on that mantle, that doesn’t earn me your loyalty. Relax, okay? I’m just Eric, nothing more, nothing less.”

Her face contorted, going through several thoughts I’d imagine, “T-then, if you save this world from the titans forever, I will give my all to you, Guar– Eric.”

Wow, what an extremist. “And my fist command would be to live your life the way you want to. So, who are you?”

“Fatima the Clairvoyant, Apostle of the Crescent Moon, and hopefully Apostle of the Voidchild soon,” she smiled.

“Voidchild?” Donna leaned forward, “What’s that about?”

“This guardian’s fate is irrevocably tied to the void,” she explained, in a manner that felt like it was something we should all have known.

“I’m afraid I don’t follow,” Donna squinted her eyes.

“Ah, how do I describe it?” Fatima thought out loud. “Do you know of mana pathways?”

We all nodded.

“Do you know that they exist within the body?” she prodded further, and we nodded again. “Well, the mana pathways in the body aren’t the only pathways there are. There is a single mana pathway in the soul – the soul that us lower beings can access.”

“Hold, the fuck up,” I rubbed my temples trying to remember what Yraz the Tormented told me about souls. As far as I can remember, there were two souls. One in which gods and only gods can use, and the other in which non-gods use. Does this have anything to do with soul magic? I glanced at Adrasteia and remembered she mentioned using soul magic. “Okay, sorry, carry on.”

“R-right. The soul we use – or spirit to make things clearer – has a mana pathway. That mana pathway is forever locked to one type of magic, and that type for you, Guardian, is void magic. When you master soul magic, it will directly influence your void magic.”

“How? Why does the soul’s mana pathway have such importance?” I questioned.

“Well, that’s because, the soul itself is a source of power. It’s an inexhaustible font of energy. If you think using mana is great, wait until you use soul magic as the fuel for your void magic. You should start learning it if you haven’t already.”

“So, what mana pathway does my soul have? And what about Master?” Donna asked, a tad excited.

Fatima indulged her, “Master was arcane, that’s mainly why she was so powerful. Arcane can replicate any other magic type, and if one uses soul energy instead of mana, one can become the closest being to a god. And you’re, you’re quite strange. Your soul seems to be attached to Voidchild, but instead of being having a void mana pathway in your soul, it’s light instead. D-did you,” Fatima ogled me, “resurrect her?!”

I smiled and nodded. “Good grief.”

As we spoke, we came to realise Emily gave Fatima a special type of sight. She didn’t explain it too much into it, but it appeared she sacrificed a lot of other magic types completely in order to accumulate knowledge and see truth in all things. Fatima was perhaps a better scryer than Hethekk the Scryer. I had no idea how Emily managed to make someone incapable of using most magic, but she did. I guess that’s what Fatima meant when she said an arcane soul was a godlike existence.

I learnt a lot, so much so that I made it my mission to have Fatima teach me. Donna didn’t mind me having another master. Wait, so if she becomes my master and I become the guardian of balance. Then who’s really the master? I chuckled and figured I wouldn’t bother thinking about it.

What really plagued my mind was whether or not I should begin learning soul magic from Fatima and Adrasteia, since it seemed like such an amazing thing. Apparently, one didn’t absolutely need to master mind and nature magic to learn soul magic, however, the understanding that one would gain from mastering mind and nature manipulation would go a very long way in mastering soul manipulation, according to Fatima.

She was all too ready to teach me; in fact, she looked at it as the greatest honour of her life. I wondered if she was being so submissive to butter me up or something, but she wasn’t telling any lies according to Mana Perception.

“Wow!” Donna grinned. “Putting up with the greatest pain in the ass, Eric Archibald, is her greatest honour? Man, that’s kinda sad. She needs to get laid. Eric, you need to rail her.”

No, that’s abusing my position.

“No, it isn’t. You want me to tell you what real abuse is? Real abuse is putting up with you and not getting any action.”

Don’t drag me along in your nasty ways. I know you want her, so go get her.

“But I don’t have a member.”

So? You’re pretty convincing right?

“Hey, can you teach me soul magic too?” Adrasteia asked Fatima.

“Of course not,” Fatima quickly denied her. Ouch. “Soul magic is forbidden even amongst the Apostles of the Crescent Moon.”

Donna spaced out a little and almost fainted. I held up her body with void magic, then she suddenly came back to the present. “Hydra’s holy fucking ass! That’s why Sven killed me! I remember everything!” She gripped onto her robes, “I can’t believe I was that dumb! Soul magic is, extremely, dangerous. How the hell did you,” she pointed at Adrasteia, “learn something like that?”

“Uh,” Adrasteia scratched her face, “your book?”

“Oh, right, yeah, I forgot about that.” Donna smiled nervously. “Anyway, you really should forget everything about soul magic and focus on the other types.”

As we chatted about other things, I heard something in the distance. There was a rhythm to it; heavy thuds, yet fast. I peeped outside the carriage and found that the forest shrubbery and trees wiggled a little as something zoomed past them. It was, a bear? But it had feathers about it. I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at, but I didn’t particularly care. It was beelining right towards our carriages, so I focused and cast a bolt of arcane lightning out the palm of my hand. The creature immediately stiffened and fell over, making several amazing rolls until it came to a stop.

“An owlbear out here?” Ebbo questioned the irregularity of the sighting. It bothered him greatly, as he spent quite some time simply standing over the subdued magical beast and pondering just how strange it was that it was outside its territory. It was huge, much bigger than a grown male grizzly bear. The legs, top, and sides of the beast was covered in feathers, whilst the underbelly was engrained in fur. Instead of a scary maw like a normal bear, it had the face of an owl, and of course, the limb-ripping beak to go with it.

“We should continue,” Fatima advised, taking note of the sun’s position.

Ebbo’s mood shifted a bit after our encounter with the owlbear but who really knew what kind of thoughts swam through his ocean. It certainly seemed to preoccupy him, and later that day, I would understand why. Adrasteia complained that it was her turn yet again to fend off another magical beast. The farther we travelled, the more of them we encountered. White-maned wind parrots, astral elks, rock-eating rhinoceroses, and many other interestingly named magical beasts were seen, all with varying levels of magical abilities.

They weren’t a threat to our party, but I could see a normal group of Rhilstorm inhabitants easily dying from one or two encounters. Ebbo looked quite worried; I could almost see him mentally sweating. “What’s eating you?” Donna questioned.

“Ah, well,” he looked like he hesitated to answer, but he continued, “there’s a small village east of Durhan that I’m worried about. I just hope these animals’ dangerous behaviour is only contained to this area.”

Donna nodded to show understanding. After a few more days waltzing with magical beasts, we came across a town that was bordering on being a city called Hyallen. The place was more developed that Durhan, and would give much of the same vibe if it weren’t for the uncannily suffocating presence of knights and soldiers. It honestly looked like they even had a call-to-arms for militia. Our group was about to be turned back, but another man stopped the guard that halted our advance into Hyallen.

“Let them through, Gregor. The woods aren’t safe,” said the stoic man.

Gregor grimaced faintly, so as to not show insubordination or disrespect, “But Captain, our reserves are already stretched so thin. We won’t last more than three days if we contin–”

“Gregor,” the Captain said, in quite a friendly voice, “you’re my deputy, right? Let’s say we turn these people away, then it would only be fair to turn everyone else who seeks refuge away. If we do that, and those people don’t see tomorrow, the failure would fall on my shoulders, would it not? Who do you think would have to be the captain if I am relieved of my duty?”

Gregor looked like he’d seen a ghost. He cleared his throat and gestured the guardsmen to let us through without spewing another word.

What was that about? I pondered.

“Dunno. This is a good chance though,” Donna said. “Adrasteia, go help Eric and support the town.” She took notice of the disappearing sun, “The rest of us will find lodging and continue investigation.”

I shrugged and just viewed it as a good chance for training the arcane arts, and perhaps trying to learn more about soul magic. Adrasteia and I made our stop near the entrance of Hyallen while the others continued farther inside the town. “Excuse me. Gregor, right?” I stood at the side of the deputy, “What is the ‘reserve’ that you’re low on?”

He watched me in a confused manner, but quickly caught his bearings; he must’ve thought I was from some far away rural village who didn’t even understand how to speak to those in high positions in the military. “Mostly food. Hyallen isn’t big on farming, so we import food from surrounding towns and villages, but with the magical beasts acting as they are, food transport has taken quite a hit. Excuse my dismissive attitude, but I am quite busy. Who are you, where are you from, and why do you ask?” he questioned. Despite his disapproval, he was still quite the lenient man it seemed.

“My name is Eric, I come from a land far away. I ask you this because I am training in the magical arts and wish to assist you to further my training,” I said.

I could tell he was disinclined to believe me, but as he sized me up from head to toe, I’d imagine my strange garments made him think twice about doubting me. “And how do you plan to assist? Will you provide protection for the transporters?”

“Well, I can, but that’s not what I had in mind. Instead, I could simply refill your food banks and preserve it.”

He scoffed, “I don’t have time for your games, son. Go play with someone else.”

“You like sweets?” I asked and totally ignored his dismissal. I turned some arcane ice into three chocolate cookies, “I can guarantee the taste.”

He flinched, and stood as still as a rock.

Not long after, Adrasteia and I were standing before their food reserves. Sure, we certainly showed them we were capable of making food, but I found it a bit foolish to trust some strangers with something that could be the deciding factor for whether or not the people you’re supposed to protect would die of starvation. It made me wonder just how desperate the people of Hyallen were. If I was their enemy, it would be laughably easy to burn their storehouses down. What was also sad, was that they also stored important medicines, plants, and other chemist goods where they stored their food.

For a town of that size which also accepted refugees, I began to understand where Gregor was coming from. I’d be concerned too. Well, I wasn’t just about to help these people for nothing in return. So, I told them they’d owe me favours if I was to achieve certain things. Although the scepticism of Gregor made him oversee almost everything Adrasteia and I did, but thanks to him being there to witness it, we were solidified as allies who actually helped them escape the jaws of uncertainty.

“Fine,” Gregor hesitantly agreed, “solving the food problem gives you one favour. I see two other areas in which you can help. Would you be willing?”

“Yes, we are,” Adrasteia answered for both of us without even listening to what the areas were.

Gregor smiled, “Good. If you can tend to the wounded, that would be great. Losing manpower in these times would be the catalyst to our downfall. The second area I wish to ask for help with is the problem of the magical beasts themselves. We’ve no idea why they’ve become this violent.”

Alright, those are some big things you’re askin’. Time for me to ask big stuff too. “Grant us access to Old Castle,” I said. “Or at least tell us who can give us access.”

Gregor paused, looked around at some other soldiers, and guffawed. “Boy, not even royalty is allowed in Old Castle. No one but vetted guards are allowed there, and they can only secure the perimeter. That was a funny joke though, so I’ll overlook this because you helped us.”

“I’m not joking, Gregor. We came here from another world because the titans appeared in ours through a portal. We believe the portal and titans are somehow linked to Old Castle.”

Some seconds of silence passed and Gregor drew his sword then pointed it right at my throat, “Who are you really?”

I shrugged, “Like I said, I’m Eric, a magic user from another world. If we help out Hyallen with their magical beast problem, would you at least think about–”

“You’ll get what you want,” a voice interrupted me. It was Captain Springfield. “If you can heal the wounded and help us beat the magical beasts, I can at least strongly suggest to the Knight Corps Commander that you should meet with the king. Deal?”

I shrugged, “Sounds good.” From then, I began with tending to the wounded, which was an easy channel of Vivify and in a few seconds, everyone was in top health again. Once that was done, I concentrated heavily on forming a watery dome of protection through arcane magic. The water was forming, expanding, and generally seemed easy, but I could feel that the arcane manipulation was leaning heavily towards another thing. I wasn’t sure what that thing was, but I cancelled the dome and decided to try again from scratch.

This went on for about a dozen times until I grew tired and decided to just go with the flow. The more I concentrated on making a half-dome of protection around Hyallen, the thinner, clearer, and harder the dome became. I felt the properties in the magic shifting to pure arcane the more I focused on what type of attacks the dome should protect against. Eventually, I felt the creation of a new spell – Barrier.

It was quite simple. A white, translucent honeycomb-designed wall would take the form of regular shapes to protect against physical and magical attacks. Physical attacks would simply feel like hitting a wall, whilst magical attacks would be absorbed by the barrier and used to maintain the barrier, because it was technically a channelling spell that needed its own source of energy in order to stay active. It could take flat shapes like circles, squares, or three-dimensional shapes like spheroids and cuboids.

It was a basic defensive spell, but very versatile when it came to size and shape. The only thing I wasn’t sure of was its strength. I pondered how strong an enemy would have to be in order to break it. Dispel didn’t seem to get rid of it, since it didn’t actually affect anyone directly. I expanded Barrier until it covered Hyallen, then tested how strong it was with a few simple spells like Ice Javelin, Phoenix Wave, and Hand of God. They all broke Barrier in one hit. Hmm… Maybe it was only useful against weak attacks.

After testing it out with Adrasteia, I learnt that Barrier could be broken if the attacker’s base mana power is at least 50% of Barrier’s caster.

So now, Hyallen’s food supply was secure and the injured were now healthy. We rested that day and met up in the morning with deputy Captain Gregor, Captain Harris, and their squads of soldiers. With the town protected, there was no need to spare men for defence.

Donna, Fatima, and Ebbo stayed back. With the crimes Ebbo and his men committed, it would be risky for him to be seen too often. He was quite a mysterious fellow. And I definitely didn’t want any harm to come to Fatima, so I left a clone with her just in case. Adrasteia and I, along with Hyallen’s forces set out to the densest populations of magical beast that the environs could offer in order to cull them.

On the hunt, after we must’ve killed over three hundred or so magical beasts, I asked Captain Harris about the beastkin. “It’s my belief that they are stronger, faster, and just as intelligent. So why don’t you train them to become knights?”

I literally heard him snarl, “Those uncouth beasts aren’t worthy!”