As we walk in a long, narrow hallway covered with stone bricks and the dim light of the torches, I began to notice a faint, fluctuating aura of terrestrial magic maybe several feet below us. I closed my eyes and tried to identify the source of the aura but it’s just too weak for me to track, specially with all of these physical sensations interfering with my senses.

“We’re underground right?” I asked one of the guards guiding me to my cell.

“Yes.” he replied monotonously as if not having the interest to engage in any conversation.

After minutes of walking, we stopped in front of a metallic door at the end of the hallway. The number 30 can be seen written above it. The door itself looks mediocre but the magical protections casted upon it and the walls are layered by several stacks. It appears that they really don’t want anyone to escape these prisons.

The guard to my left proceeded to reach unto his right hip to take out a set of keys. After picking the key labeled with the number 30, he then inserted it to the keyhole and turned it clockwise. A quite, unlocking sound can be heard before he opened the jail cell.

“Well? Go in!” said by the guard that opened the door.

As I begin to take my steps into the jail cell, a loud, alarming sound of what seems to be a scream propagated throughout the entire hallways. The guards accompanying me immediately drew their swords, as if they’re ready anytime for something like this.

“What was that?” I asked curiously. However, none of the guards answered so I decided to ask again. “Hey! What was that?”

“NOTHING THAT CONCERNS YOU!” shouted to me by the guard to my right.

I looked at his face and saw that it’s clearly the face that’s reflecting fear and anxiety. Looking closely, I noticed that his right hand that’s holding the sword is shaking mildly. I can also hear his heart beating so fast as if it was a ceremonial drum playing a fast melody. Total silence followed the next moments.

After calming down and regaining their senses, the two guards with me sheathed their swords.

“Get in. We don’t have the luxury to stay long here.” said by the guard to my left.

As if fate itself forbids me from being imprisoned here, the entire hallway lit up with a blinding, blue flare. I immediately realized that this is an attack so I started to quickly cast a barrier around me.

Unfortunately, the barrier I used is celestial magic and if I decided to cast it to the guards too, the mana within their body would quickly evaporate due to the nature of celestial magic and they would die a slow, painful death of mana deficiency, so I came to the conclusion that it’s better for them to die instantly from the lightning storm spell rather than have me responsible for killing them.

After a split second, a burst of lightning struck us covering the entire hallway and scorching everything in its path, the guards included. My barrier is doing it’s job perfectly, dissipating the lightning bolts that’s coming in contact with it and sucking out all of its mana.

After the onslaught, the guard to my right was reduced to nothing but ashes, and his armor that was just shining in silver earlier is now charred dark. I found the guard to my left inside the jail cell, not in ashes but burnt to a crisp anyway. It appears that even the several magical protections in the jail cell couldn’t completely negate that attack.

Moments later, a figure of a human slowly start to emerge from the direction of the attack.

“Oh wow… you managed to survive that unscathed?” said by the figure who sounds to be a woman. “I was sure you’d die with the guards, but I’m glad you didn’t. One less blood of innocent from my hands.”

The figure slowly start to become more defined, until finally, I can clearly see who that person was. It was a woman with jet-black hair and blazing red eyes that reminds me of the primordial flame that the universe gave off at its birth. She’s wearing an old, worn-out clothing that’s more of a rag than clothes.

“Are you a prisoner here too?” she asked. “My name is Frain. If you want to come with us, you’re free to do so. The Imperial Guards would be here any moment now.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait. What the hell is happening? Why did you just attacked us out of nowhere?” I asked her in confusion.

“As I said earlier, we, the prisoners, are escaping. Seeing as how they’re escorting you to one of the prisons too, you’re also a prisoner right? So what are you going to do? Just stand there and wait for the guards to apprehend you again?”

Before I can say another word, a bald man with an eyepatch to his left eye and holding a crossbow comes into the scene, covered in sweat.

“Let’s go Frain, we don’t have much time!” he said. “If he doesn’t want to go, let him be. We can’t afford to say in here longer.”

“This guy just survived one of my strongest spells unharmed. He’d be a huge help to us, Gabriel.” replied by the woman. “Besides, I feel guilty about killing him, even if it didn’t happen.”

The bald man then walked up to me seemingly annoyed, grabbed me by the arm and dragged me all the way to the woman.

“Here, take good care of your pet, ok?” he said as he hand my arm to her.

The woman frowns as Gabriel leave us two.

“Sorry about him, he’s just grumpy and angry at everything in this world. Anyways, you should really come with us. You’d be a great asset to our cause!” she said.

I don’t know if this whole thing is normal for mortals, and I don’t want to sound like I don’t know what I’m doing so just I accepted whatever she’s trying to tell me.

“Ok then.” I told her acting composed.

“Wait… really?” she asked with a gleam smile.

“Yeah, I have nothing better to do anyway.” I replied to her.

“Are you sure? I mean, you know who we are and what we’re doing right? Are you really sure? It’s gonna be dangerous, you know? I’m not forcing you or anything, but I would really really really appreciate it if you joined us!” she said in an eerily enthusiastic look.

As I was about to say that I’m really going to join them, when an incredibly loud explosion followed by the shaking of the earth interrupted our conversation. We quickly ran outside the prison amidst all the chaos that’s happening and saw two gigantic automata powered by some sort of crystal in their chest standing outside of the village.

“Subjects of the Empire. According to the royal decree number seven hundred and twelve, all rebellious activity that employs the use of rank five and above magic shall be dealt with by the Imperial Legion themselves. Furthermore, any individual proven to have participated will be executed on the spot.” said by the amplified voice coming from one of the automata. “If you surrender yourselves now, you will be given one week to say your farewells to your loves ones and will be granted with a final dinner of whatever food they request.”

I looked around the village and see several people running everywhere. Some knights are also fighting people who are similarly dressed with the woman.

“T-the Imperial Legion?” the woman said with definite fear in her eyes and tone.

It appears that these group of people have now been labeled as criminals. This could be interesting but I honestly don’t see them surviving against these knights, much more against those automatas. Maybe I’ll give them a helping hand. Not too much, just enough to let them escape.

“Your name is Frain right? I heard it from that bald guy Gabriel earlier.” I told her. “I need you to cast a spell that would disable everyone in this place from seeing anything for a good amount of time. Maybe four to five seconds would be enough.”

“Huuh? What are you planning to do?” she asked. “Besides, I don’t have any illusion spells like that!”

“No, it doesn’t have to be an illusion spell. For example, you can use your lightning to create an extremely bright flash of light. You can do it, can’t you?” I replied.

“I… I can… but I don’t have enough mana anymore.” she said. “What are you planning to do anyways? Tell me and maybe we can cooperate and compromise with the group.”

“Not enough mana huh. It’s really inconvenient to be a mortal, isn’t it?” I told her. “Ok, close your eyes. Also, keep this a secret between the two of us. If anyone learns of this I’m going to have to kill you and whoever you told it to, understood?”

She closed her eyes and sent out a confused nod to me. I held my index and middle finger out and touched her forehead with it. After circulating my breathing for a while, I relaxed my body and proceeded to focus my thoughts into the part of her body that I’m directly connected with, which is her forehead. Warm sensation suddenly flooded my finger and towards her, which makes her uncomfortable as reflected by her facial expression.

“Done.” I said as I remove my fingers from her forehead. “You should be able to cast it now, whatever it is.”

“What… What was that? It felt warm and bizarre and-” she stopped herself mid-sentence as realization dawns on her.

“Did you just… gave me mana?” she asked in possibly the most shocked expression a human can make. “Wha-... I… I don’t get it. You’re human right? Are you an experiment too? How is that even possible?”

“I’ll explain to you later. For now, just do what I told you.” I replied to her while also preparing myself to cast a spell. “Be sure that it’s bright enough so that no one, not even you can see anything alright?”

She didn’t say anything afterwards and immediately started to cast a spell. I observed very carefully on how she forms and piece together the various magical circuits to cast her complicated spell. Complicated in mortal terms, of course.

In front of her, a glowing blue magical circle started to appear and various runes and characters appear and disappear by the moment, trying to fit in with the spell she’s casting. After a short while, she finally managed to complete the combinations and signalled me that she’s ready. I gave her a nod of confirmation and started to cast my own spell to.

In a single instant, a loud explosion of sound suddenly blasted right beside me followed by a strong gust of wind and a beam of lightning aimed at the automatas. The light generated by this lightning was so bright it felt like it would burn my eyes if I stared at it long enough. I wasted no time though as the spell I’m casting is also prepared already.

I held out my two arms, palms open, each aiming for the two automata that’s deflecting Frain’s lightning like it was a harmless stream of water. Then I released the spell towards my mechanical targets with the closing of my fists, completely draining their crystals and whoever is riding them off of their mana. This celestial magic’s aura is undetectable since all it does is return all of the target’s mana back to the plane of Archeus, but it produces a higher dimensional burst of light that mortal minds wouldn’t even be able to comprehend. That’s why I asked Frain to prevent everyone from seeing it.

Upon the fading of the blinding light, everyone turns to look only for them to see that the two automatas standing outside the village have now fallen down, unable to operate, and their riders dead pale with their eyes still open.

The knights stared at it in silence, losing their morale. Some even started dropping their weapons and kneeling to the ground in defeat. What can they do anyway, if the strongest weapon they have just got defeated in an instant. Those who are fighting the knights however flooded Frain in joy, cheering her for defeating those automatas by herself. For a moment, I thought that I was sharing their sentiment, but that’s ridiculous. I am merely relieved that this whole charade is finally over.

The group then decided to take over the village. They imprisoned all Imperial knights that are still alive and promised to release them once they leave tomorrow. The villagers were also left alone so long as they don’t try to do anything suspicious.

I was sitting in a distance, watching these mortals sing their songs and dance to their hearts in front of a campfire when I was approached by Frain who has now changed to a more appropriate clothing.

“Hey.” she said while sitting down next to me. “I knew it was right to take you. If you weren’t there, we’d all be killed or be brought back for experimentation. Thanks.”

“Speaking of which, what experiments are you talking about?” I asked her. “I only just came in this village today with an amnesia. They said they’ll bring me back to the Imperial Capital tomorrow but decided to imprison me for safety measures.”

“Seriously? You have an amnesia?” she asked surprised. “Well, good thing we decided to escape today. If not, you’d be a labrat too like us.”

“About the experimentation… You see, this village is just a mask to hide what’s really going on below. Under this village is the Empire’s magical research and experimentation facility. Basically, they do anything they want whether it’s humane or not, in the attempt to advance their understanding of magic.” she added. “I’m one of the experiments too. Before being brought here, I was just a below-average mage barely making a living from selling weak monster’s body parts. I couldn’t even cast a single lightning bolt back then. All I could do to kill monsters was to run straight at them until I make physical contact and shock them until they drop dead. Hahaha.”

“Then shouldn’t you be thankful for this facility? They made you stronger.” I replied.

“They made me stronger for themselves! And it was just dumb luck that I managed to survive their experiments unlike the hundreds of others who came before me!” she shouted, angry at what I had just said. “Oh… I… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to shout at you.”

“I see. So then what about the villagers? Why aren’t you imprisoning them?” I asked her while she’s looking at the ground.

“The villagers don’t know anything about it. The village chief sees to it that they don’t discover it.” she replied. “Anyway, what did you just do earlier? You transferred mana to me. And we both know that you’re the one who took down those automatas despite what everyone thinks.”

I paused at her question. Should I tell it to her? What will happen if I did? Well, I can just kill her and anyone she’s told it to if she decided to tell it to others. Is it a bad thing anyway if they learned that I’m a Celestial?

“Hello? Are you still here?” she asked me while waving her hands in front of my face. “Oooooooooooh! I forgot to ask your name! Oh my god, how can I miss that?”

“Wha-... M-my name is Arthur… and what the hell are you doing with your hands?”

“Nice to meet you Arhur! My name is Frain!” she smilingly said while shaking my hand. “Proper introduction complete!”

“To answer your question, I’m going to ask you a question first. What would you do if I told you that somewhere in this world, a Celestial has taken a mortal form and decided to walk amongst us?” I asked her while she’s still shaking my hand in joy.

She stopped shaking my hand and assumed a more serious look on her face.

“Are you saying that you’re a Celestial, Arthur?” she asked me in a serious tone.

“No, I’m merely asking you what you’d do if--”

“I see. That actually makes sense. My answer is this: I don’t know why you would come down here to the mortal realm but it would make me wary. I mean, why would a Celestial, a god-like being come down here? To have fun? Something must be up.” she interrupted. “So? Mind sharing with me why you came down here and made yourself look like a human?”

“Are you seriously thinking that I’m a Celestial? Maybe you should get your head checked. You might’ve bump--”

“I didn’t know Celestials are so bad at lying.” she interrupted again with a smile on her face. “Look, Arthur. I don’t treat Celestials as gods like the other humans or races, ok? With all the pain and suffering that I’ve experienced, god better hope he stay out of my sight or I’ll kill him myself… if he does exist that is. For me, your kind is just another race that’s incredibly powerful and near immortal. So, mind telling me why you came down here?”

I was shocked to what she said. It’s true that we’re not gods like most mortals believe we are, but I never thought that someone, especially a human, would have that outlook on things considering their relatively short lifespan when even elves that are already immortal in mortal terms still sees us as gods. Maybe it’s precisely the reason why…

“I was bored.” I replied to her.

“W-.... What? Hahahahahahahahahaahhahahahahah!!” she said while laughing.

“What? What’s so funny?” I replied in confusion.

“I suppose if you don’t have any physical needs and can do what you want, things become boring huh?” she replied. “Well, welcome to Alsvand! What are you planning to do now, Mr. Celestial? If the Empire found out about you they’d surely experiment on you or use you one way or another.”

“Actually, I only intend to watch mortal events unfold first hand. I don’t intend to be part of it.”

“Ooooh just like reading a book huh? Only you’re a person in that book too but doesn’t interact with the characters in any way. Well, too late for that cause you’ve already attacked the empire. They’d be looking for you now.”

“Is that so? Then I’d just kill whoever comes after me. After a while they’d realize they’re just wasting men to go after a single individual and they’ll stop. Mortals are impatient, right? Besides, I’m part of your group now so I take it you’ll fight them for me?” I replied to her while looking at her blazing red eyes, smiling.

“Oh c’mon. You’re a Celestial. If you want to, you can literally destroy the entire Empire in a heartbeat.”

“True, but I won’t since I only came here to observe.” I said. “Aren’t you going to ask me to fight for your cause? You know, destroy the empire for you?”

“Nah, I alone am more than enough against them.” she jokingly replied. “So, are you still coming with us? If you are then you’re gonna be part of the fight. You don’t want that if you’re only planning to observe, right?”

“On the contrary, I think I like the idea of having a little influence on the story. I’m going to join you but I I’m not going to directly affect anything. Things turn out to be boring if I just let them be.” I tell her. “What do you think would be my role?”

“I have an idea.” she told me and then stood up the seat we were sitting on. “Everyone! I have an announcement! Would everyone please gather here?!”

As everyone started to gather at our position, I begin to realize just how small this group really is. If the knights didn’t lose their morale, they could’ve easily outnumbered this group and win.

“This man right here is named Arthur. He’s the reason why I was able to defeat those automata. He has the unique ability to give mana to a person, although we still don’t know the specifics of it. Without him giving me mana, I wouldn’t be able to cast the spell that I used to take down those automatas. I suggest that we make him the leader of our group, seeing as we still don’t have a leader yet.”

Everyone was shocked at this revelation, myself included. Why would she just casually say I can give mana… and to appoint me the leader of their group too when the one thing I desperately avoid is attention.

“Giving mana? That’s going to change everything! With him we might be able to win!” I heard a man say while they discuss amongst themselves.

Suddenly, everyone seems to be talking about the possible implications of this ability.

“Hold on a second.” said by familiar voice from within the crowd. The man turned out to be Gabriel dressed in a black coat. “Giving mana to others? That sounds too good to be true. Has this man charmed his way to you, Frain?”

“Wha-? What the hell are you saying? I admit that he has the looks but that’s besides the point. It’s true that he can give mana! He did it to me earlier. If you don’t believe him, then why don’t you see for yourself?” she said with her face red as a tomato.

“Wait, that’s what happened to Ella too.” I thought to myself.

“Ok, very well then. I’m going to cast strength amplification and your friend right here is going to give me mana after that. Sounds good?” Gabriel replied.

Gabriel then closed his eyes. Everyone around him backed away a reasonable distance as he began to cast the spell. A brown circle appeared in front of him, and cycled through different runes and magical characters but this time, it only took a second to complete. Then all of a sudden, slits began to appear on Gabriel’s coat and the veins in his arms start to become more defined.

“Well, then. All of my reserve mana should be depleted. All that’s left are natural mana that keeps me alive.” he said. “I’d like to see that mana thing now, if you don’t mind.”

I walked up to him, held up my two fingers just like how I did with Frain and proceeded to transfer some mana into him. After a while, I removed my fingers and backed away a step from him.

“I see. This changes really everything, doesn't it?” Gabriel said.

He looked at Frain, then unto me before walking beside me to face the crowd.

“Everyone.” he said as he placed his arms over my shoulders. “This is our new leader.”

Everyone cheered and laughed together. Amidst the noise of the crowd, Gabriel whispered to me.

“I see you’re a Celestial.” he said. “Don’t worry. I couldn’t care less, but if you want to hide your identity, I promise not to tell it to others.”

“How did you know?” I asked him whispering.

“Aha, only Celestials have the direct connection to the plane of Archeus. I’m the only one who knows of that fact though. Let’s just say that you’re not the only Celestial I’ve come in contact with.” he replied, also whispering.

As the night continues, I wondered to myself just how I got into this position.