“Come ooooooooon.” Dylan pleaded, looking over to his brother. “One more time.”

Leoric smiled at his brother, before gesturing at the half empty beer bottle in his hand. Flicking his index and middle finger upwards, he began to move the liquid upwards. Taking the outline of a star, the beer orbited around the picnic table to Dylan’s joy. After a few rotations, the star broke into a downward spiral and funneled towards Dylan’s open mouth.

“Whooo! Magic is so cool!” Dylan screamed out before breaking into laughter.

Leoric didn’t know if his brother was just really excited or a complete lightweight. The two were only on their third drink, but Dylan seemed to be getting pretty intoxicated. Just in case, Leoric infused the alcohol with a little bit of Restoration before performing the star trick.

The two gazed out at the city lights below, as if a sea of stars drifted to Earth. They went high enough on a nearby mountain to see the actual stars, but nothing beat the sentimental view of the city lights. After moving here, Dylan would drive Leoric and Kelly up here to get away from everything and just have some quality sibling time. Leoric wished that Kelly would’ve accompanied them, but for some reason Dylan didn’t invite her.

“I bet it feels nice to get away from your babysitter for a night.” Dylan teased.

“I don’t think I’d call Aera my babysitter.” Leoric chuckled.

“Then how about girlfriend?”

“No.”

“Oh come on, she’s pretty cute.” Dylan jabbed out his elbow.

“Don’t know, she’s pretty young.” Leoric gave a nervous smile.

Dylan got a flash of realization, “Oh yeah, I keep forgetting you’re like three hundred. Maybe we could stop by a retirement home.”

“Again, too young.”

Dylan and Leoric bursted out laughing, with Dylan not stopping for a full minute. As soon as he regained focus, his face darkened and he looked down to the table they were sitting on.

“You were gone for a while then, huh?” Dylan tapped the wooden base awkwardly.

Leoric rubbed his ear and looked out to the city. “Yeah. I was.”

“During that time, did you have to kill anyone?”

“Yeah.” Leoric choked out. “A lot of people.”

Dylan tensed up, clenching the ends of the table. “Was it… Was it scary.”

“Yes. Yes it was.” Leoric informed, looking over to Dylan. “Why do you ask?”

Dylan forced out a dry chuckle. “Sorry, but it's been on my mind for a while now. It must’ve taken a lot to do what you did. I wish I was kinda like that.”

“Like what?”

Dylan’s chest tightened and was quiet for a minute. He tried to speak but couldn’t seem to find the words, lost in the sea of distress that was his head. He’d never said these words out loud, but had never been able to. Dylan looked over to see Leoric’s concerned face and took a deep breath. They talked a lot before he left. If it was him, he could do it.

“You know how I’ve been going to the nearby community college?” Dylan questioned, waiting for his brother to nod. “I wanted to go to an actual college, move out and all that. But, when you visited Josh at college and you both went missing, something changed. I guess… I was scared?”

Leoric listened quietly, and an eerie silence filled the mountain before Dylan spat out a momentary laugh.

“What the hell am I even saying?” Tears began to form in Dylan’s eyes. “You were out fighting monsters and armies, and I can't even move out in fear of the off chance that something kills me. I’m so stupid.”

“Don’t do that.” Leoric snapped. “Don’t play down what happened to you.”

Dylan looked back over to see his brother looking very concerned. “But, it's nothing compared to what you went through.”

“You’re right, I went through plenty of hardships while I was gone.” Leoric looked down and rubbed his ear again, before fixing his hunched posture. “But that doesn’t change what you went through. I was gone. Josh is still gone. Losing your life is scary, and there’s nothing wrong with being afraid of death.”

Dylan smiled, holding his chest as a warm feeling flooded in. He knew it would take a while to accept Leoric’s words as truth, but it was definitely nice to hear out loud. He thanked him for saying that before laying down on his back to see the actual stars. Some clouds were covering a few spots, but the view was still amazing. Countless lights pierced through the empty void of space from an astronomical distance. A mass of lights were always nice to look at, be it the ones nearby or the ones out of the reach of man.

Leoric and Dylan gazed up for over an hour, talking about some of what each has been up to in Leoric’s absence. Dylan talked about how he tripped at graduation and Leoric talked about how he stumbled upon a girl bathing in a nearby stream, who turned out to be a high class mage. Dylan laughed at the cliche before asking if he added that girl to his harem.

“Harem?” Leoric asked.

“Yeah, it's a classic troupe that anyone isekai’d gets a harem.” Dylan informed. He even heard from the channel run by a Hero that quite a few of them had harems before coming back.

“Huh. I never had one while I was there.”

“Really? How about just a special someone?”

“Nope.”

Dylan sat up surprised. “How about a crush? Girlfriend?”

“Nope.”

“Boyfriend?” Dylan raised an eyebrow. “It's okay if you did, we’d all be fine with it. Like when Josh came out.”

Leoric sighed before sitting up, looking away from the table with a nervous expression. “I’m not attracted to boys. But, I’m not attracted to girls either. It just never really interested me.”

Dylan kept a brow raised, before patting his brother on the shoulder. “Can’t say I’m familiar with something like that, but it makes sense. Whatever you are, I’m fine with it.”

Leoric thanked him before stating that they should be heading home, since it was already almost two in the morning. Dylan checked his phone and cursed before leaping off the table. At this point, the Restoration cleared the alcohol out of their systems, so it was fine to drive back home. As they opened the car doors, Leoric gave a cheeky grin.

“I may not have gotten married, but I was a dad.” Leoric shared.

“Really!?”

“Yeah, to a few kids. It happened when-”

Leoric stopped his story as he felt an overwhelming sensation flood through the mountain: ambient magic.

The amount was torrential, matching the density of some of the most dangerous places back on Durria. It began to disperse quickly to the rest of the mountain, but that only placed the worry that whatever caused that was nearby. Leoric didn’t have to contemplate for long on where the magic came from, as guttural growls reverberated through the mountain side. Leoric was fine, but glancing over he saw fear plastered on his brother’s face.

“Get in the car!” Leoric called out, taking a defensive stance outside.

Dylan snapped out of it before jumping in and locking the doors. Leoric extended his Will, claiming the mass amounts of ambient magic while searching for any other claimed magic. He found ten sources on the mountain, but clicked his tongue at the rest of his investigation. That would have to wait, however, as the ten sources were barreling his direction.

They were too close to allow Leoric to create an Emission domain in time, so he had to settle with spreading Transmutation through the ground within range. Simultaneously, a barrier of blue light surrounded the top and bottom of Dylan’s car, with a fenced membrane electrifying itself over the barrier. And with the creation of ten glowing spheres the size of ping pong balls rotating around, the first wave of creatures appeared.

Seven boarish figures the size of cars barreled towards Leoric with three sets of tusks protruding outwards. Patches of their hairless bodies were decaying while other parts were turning into stone, with green lines of light outlining the stone patches.

Twisting his foot, Leoric transmuted the ground, shooting up steel pikes towards the boars. The pikes slowed their charge, but broke under the mass of their disfigured bodies. They snorted sulfur and continued towards Leoric, who was sending the spheres outwards to each of the creatures.

With ballistic speed, the spheres reached the boars and reconfigured into large, barbed nets. Strengthened with Restoration and held in place with Conveyance, the creatures halted their movements and moaned in pain as Entropy and lightning ate away at the body. Pikes rose and fell, piercing their underbellies multiple times a second. Rotten flesh and stone fragments were ripped apart as the seven boars stopped moving altogether.

A barrier rose by Leoric’s face as a strengthened arrow shot out from a distance away. Humanoids, huh? Well, whoever that sniper is was a real idiot. If you don’t know the range of the opponent’s will, don’t take in any ambient magic until you’re ready to shoot. Another mote of energy shot out towards the arrow was shot, but was intercepted by another arrow, breaking the sphere. At least one of them was smart.

The last two spheres shot towards the known archer, with one being broken by the last archer in hiding. The final one finished the course, and shifted into a net as well. With the tightening of Leoric’s fingers, the net with the humanoid inside was rocketed towards the Ice Elf.

Behind the barbed net was a decayed humanoid, with stone parts attached in the same method as the boars. In the place of eyes were two glowing gemstones, one gold and one purple, dimming and glowing with every minute movement of the humanoid. Using the knowledge he had back on Durria, it seemed to be a mix of an undead and a golem.

“A body animated through both Restoration and Entropy, whatever made you, is very clever. Now, care to tell me where your friends are? From your idiocy I know you’re sentient.” Leoric demanded.

The face of stone and decay gave a malicious grin. “I don’t know how you learned our tongue pale one, but I’ll never give up my comrades.” The figure hissed.

“Malicious, but loyal. Very well, I believe our conversation is done here.” Leoric noted, driving two fingers into the gemmed eyes.

The finger touching the golden gem was filled with Entropy, while Restoration magic infected the purple one. On contact, the gems shattered, causing the body to go limp. Leoric smirked at the success of his experiment, before focusing his full attention to his Will once more. There were no major draws of ambient magic, so he focused on the subtle things. If they were like their friend on the floor, and presumably the boars, they had a constant, minute flow of ambient magic to keep them alive.

Focusing on the general areas that the two mystery arrows shot from, he was able to find two minute pulls running around. Their areas of control were small, so they only took in what was needed at the moment, so Leoric decided to end this quickly. With a deep breath and tightening of his fists, he took control of all the ambient arcana not controlled by the two.

As the two were moving, they suddenly stopped as they felt the constant flow of magic halted. Panicked, the undead golems felt outwards to sense that another force already claimed the magic. Desperately, they tried to break the hold, but couldn’t even get a splinter. Their bodies hobbled in a direction, trying to escape the enemy’s area of control, but no matter where they walked, the enemy had a hold on their magic. After a minute of running, they cursed in an unknown language, before their twisted sensation of life was suffocated from their bodies.

Leoric felt the minute pulls puff out of existence, giving him a momentary time of solace before teleporting to the locations to take the gems from each of their sockets. If they were the kinds of gems he thought they were, they’d come in handy at some point. Strangely the boars lacked these gems, which meant their lives were only temporary.

Dropping the barriers around Dylan’s car, Leoric ran into the passenger’s seat. Dylan quickly glanced over to see his brother clenching his phone in one hand.

“What the hell was that!?” Dylan trembled, pointing at one of the boar creatures outside.

“Bad.” Leoric grunted, pulling up his contact page. “I need to call Aera and tell her to get everyone out, start driving back to the city.”

“Wait, I get why we’re heading back to the city, but why call Aera?” Dylan questioned, starting up the car.

Leoric looked up with the phone already ringing by his ear. “Whatever brought those things here brought a vast amount of ambient magic. And right now,” He gestured toward the city lights in the distance, “I sense a great deal of magic coming from the city.”