“Focus more on your breathing! Breathing that much will take your attention away from the spell!”

The thunderous roar during the midday rocked the entirety of the small camp in the middle of Tenus Forest. A small crowd had already gathered in front of the young boy and the old mentor in front of him. A sizeable puddle of sweat had already formed under him as he quickly felt the warm rush of mana go through his entire body

Viran clenched his eyes shut as he focused once more on the spell. The more he focused, the easier the almost translucent words finally slipped through his teeth.

“Sense severance. Space Perspective.” Each word felt like a punch towards Viran’s gut.

Just as the mana spread through his body, he could feel the pores of his skin opening and his head trembled from the sensations, or lack thereof, of his senses being severed directly from his body. His body no longer felt hot, he no longer saw the mentor in front of him, he could no longer hear the whispers of those near him, and he could no longer smell the sweat and dirt that lingered on his clothing. Everything was lost to him, the feeling was akin to entering a void and never returning. The feeling of death, he thought, would be similar to this.

Except, despite the lack of senses he could still see a small glimmer around him. The small glimmer shone somehow and somewhere, he just knew it was there. His focus directed at it once again and suddenly his mind trembled and the small glimmer blew up into a wildfire of great proportions. The wildfire spread all around him to distances you would normally be unable to see with the bare eye, the very feeling of it all was fantastical. Yet within the wildfire that threatened to swallow him whole from all around him laid a small calm puddle. His mind shuddered, and broke as his eyes met directly with the puddle laid on the ground.

“Ack!” Everything was gone, and Viran felt himself back.

He could hear the yelling around him, the blood that soaked through his clothes, the familiar taste of crimson that he is so used to now, and the smell of iron that hung onto him. But none of that bothered him and instead his fist clenched hard and struck the dirt underneath him heavily.

“I was close… Close…” Viran whispered to himself, ignoring the voices that sounded off around him.

His gaze finally lifted to see Jules and Marcus sitting far off and gazing in his direction. Closer, however, stood Elena and Junia talking with Rufus in front of him in a worried manner.

“Rufus is this really ok? He just coughed up blood!” Junia yelled loudly before she pointed towards Viran. “Elena can you go help him up? He needs to take a rest. Oh and be careful with him! He seems too shaky right now!”

“Look, Junia, the kid can do it! He has already passed the first threshold in only a single day! That brat is another goddamned prodigy!” Rufus bellowed in excitement, much to Junia’s dismal.

With a quick nod Elena runs towards Viran and lifts him up, despite appearances the little girl seemed strong enough to carry some of Viran’s weight despite the age difference. Viran didn’t want to impose, but it seemed he needed to rely on the small girl. His feet were numb at the soles and he doubted he could walk reliably and even if he tried he’d walk like a newborn calf. Viran wasn’t in the mood for making himself seem like a fool so he could only relent.

As he is finally carried to a bench nearby, Viran can now breath out a sense of relief as his body begins to recuperate and catch his breath.

“...Thanks.” Viran said briskly only to receive a small smile in return.

The boy wasn’t in too much of a mood to talk as he needed to reflect on how his spell moved throughout his entire body. Truthfully, Viran knew what had gone wrong when he coughed up blood and it was a simple and silly mistake. A silly mistake, however, was what made it all so bad. Viran was able to make it through the first threshold and was just about to get to the second threshold, except he just cannot get through it no matter how much he has tried so far. Granted, the boy himself didn’t truly realize just how monstrous his talent was in that regard as he was already on the cusp of being able to utilize yet another spell in only a matter of two days.

“Erm… What are you trying to do?” Elena suddenly asked much to Viran’s surprise.

‘We haven’t really talked much since I’ve gotten here…’ Viran thought as he peered at her face. He had heard it right from Jules himself that Elena was his daughter, but the whole situation still seemed mysterious nonetheless. He could only give up thinking about it, wasn’t his business anyways.

“Sense Severance Space Perspective is the spell Rufus had taught me. It basically is just me training to see my surroundings without…. Seeing?” Viran said with some confusion. He himself didn’t know the concept too much himself but that didn’t matter much to him.

“So far with training I have to shut off all of my senses to actually train it to a good enough degree so I have actually made some good progress. Except I can’t see anything that matters just yet, what I need is to reach the second threshold. In practice shutting off all of my senses to focus on some useless sixth sense is suicide, but once I reach the second threshold I won’t have to shut myself off from the world”

The boy spoke very fast and very much to the detriment of Elena who still didn’t understand what the boy was saying. For some reason talking felt refreshing to the boy, it was a scary experience having to purposefully shut down all of your senses just to train a spell only to then cough out blood from some small mistake.

It was all in the process, however.

“Ah…. Yeah?” Elena said with feigned understanding. “But why?”

The sudden question caught Viran off guard slightly, but he still decided to answer.

“Well if I don’t learn how to protect myself I’ll be ki… I won’t be able to find what I wish, you see?” Viran said as he quickly covered up the fact that he will likely be targeted again. After all, saying that to a naive child like Elena wasn’t polite.

“But do you really have to do all of this? Isn’t it just too much trouble? It seems like a hard path to go through…”

Elena’s face became disheartened by only thinking about it. Viran could tell she took what she just said very seriously, as though she is familiar with it all. He couldn’t quite understand it himself, but Viran was compelled to talk even more with the young lady next to him. Due to his trauma Viran was originally anxious when talking to those of the same age, yet something seemed different with Elena.

“Well of course it is a lot of trouble. I’ve gone through things I don’t want to go through again… I don’t know how many times I could take it honestly.” Viran’s face showed a deep rooted determination. “But that doesn’t matter. I go forward because I want to go forward, I need to. If I don’t I feel like I’ll suffocate, this is just something I need to do. Even if I cough up more blood or feel more pain, if it's for finding a new world for myself that is worth it.”

Viran spoke heavily. His voice was stiff and rigid, yet held within a form of resilience and determination that had been constantly sharpened over the previous months. Time and time again he had suffered, yet that only made his wishes grow larger and stronger.

“I just want out of that estate.” Viran whispered to himself.

Somehow the disheartened girl in front of Viran slowly clenched her own fist tight, tears had already filled to the brim within her eyes. The presence of the tears surprised Viran, but he didn’t make a racket about it. He didn’t want Junia or Jules to look over and see Elena crying when all she is doing is talking to him.

“What’s wrong?” Viran asked as calming as possible.

“Do… Do you have a Mom…?” Elena asked as her tears started to drop.

“Erm… Yes?” Viran asked, not quite getting why Elena would ask such a question now.

“Jules says my Mom is across the world over the rocks but… But he said we can’t go see her because I’m not strong enough to make the trip.”

The tears flowed down in a seemingly everlasting stream, yet only questions popped up in Viran’s mind.

‘Across the world? Over the rocks…?’

Once thinking about it, Viran had already come up to a conclusion as to where Elena was referring to. Past the Highland Mountainrange, farther than the Mountain Duchies. A region with almost no connection to the Imperial Hegemony in the West.

“So… So I tried magic… And…And… I hurt, it hurts. I couldn’t do it…”

The sobbing of the young girl soon became more erratic and loud as Viran tried to calm her down.

“Wait! Wait! Look I know it hurts I really do! But there are some things others can do that others are unable to!” Viran hastily explained, however his intentions were dashed as the tears only came down faster.

“I know! I know! I… I’m too weak to see Mom…”

The tears flowed down Elena’s cheeks and Viran couldn’t help but wonder just what led to this moment. His hands flailed around as his mind raced to somehow find something to say to calm down the kid in front of him.

“Uh! Uh! People! Throughout all of my time I have had other people help me through everything! Only because of their help I was able to get this far, and it should be the same for you! Marcus, Jules, Junia, and Rufus all adore you! They’d go through a lot to help you through everything Elena. Trust me.” Viran said with a flushed face. “I had a really nice old man teach me swordsmanship and then an even older mage taught me some of the basics of magic yet without them I wouldn’t be here right now! Marianne too, she helped me through so much!”

“So… So even if you want to cry, let me help you wipe them away. Ok?”

Viran spoke with a pained expression as he tried to stop the tears, and luckily he had. All he received in response was no more tears, but a shocked expression from Elena as though something had finally clicked within her head. Somehow her expression reminded him of a goldfish…

“Really? They’d all be there for me…?”

Elena asked as if doubting the very notion, only to receive a small pat over her head by Viran.

“Yeah, yeah. They’ll all help. You’ve known each other much longer than I have them, and something I’ve only learned recently is that something of that regard is irreplaceable.”

“But… They’ve already done so much for me. How could I ever give them something back?”

“They wouldn’t go through so much for you if they were expecting something out of it, they just care for you that’s all. But if you really want to return the favor, learn to stand on your own. Then when they feel like falling, shelter them from the storm just as they had for you.”

The look on Elena’s face was no longer crying, and to that Viran could only sigh in appreciation to his own efforts. His body immediately relaxed as his gaze met hers, and all he could see were the two sapphires that acted as her pupils shining in a light he had never gazed upon before.

Quickly Viran had become wistful, just how long had it been since he’s been able to talk to another person his age like this?

The one that came to mind, however, only left a sour taste in his mouth.