With a loud bang, he dropped to the dry ground as the water above his head engaged in a battle with the fire. With long strides, he came upon the barrier while changing his appearance and pulling down his face shield.

"The exit restriction applies to you as much as anyone else", Cale grumbled as he dropped the barrier and looked into the faces of the frightened people. They were ordinary people, a small group of Anuxers - perhaps even students of the Magistrat, judging by their RM. "Who do you think you are, ignoring the rules? You could have just died!"

Slowly, he examined the three travelers more closely and, to his surprise, spotted a single, familiar face. A face he had known since his first life and could probably never forget. A little girl with bright red hair, a hair color Cale couldn't stand at all. A little girl who would later become the best student of High-Magician Sefra Risztus.

Katarina Ursus.

He stared wide-eyed at the young mage, whose face was streaked with tears. The other two seemed to feel the same way, for they too were trembling all over. If Cale had not left a small barrier over them, they would be completely drenched by his rain.

Cale sighed and rubbed his head. The three of them were all mages, the oldest of them seemed to be about 20, only Katarina would have to be 12 currently - if he wasn't mistaken. Katarina had shown up in Norgram in his first life about a year after the attack on Exarion and had joined the class. That's how Cale knew her, though he rarely had contact with her. It was all the more surprising to Cale when he learned later in life that Katarina Ursus was one of the best mages in the entire country.

"Stand up, you can't stay here", he finally spoke up and looked ahead. One could see quite clearly where the dragons had flown along. They left a brightly shining trail of destruction behind them, accompanied by the kind of howling and a burning forest.

Hesitant and whimpering, the three followed Cale's orders and straightened up. There was a man, who seemed the most experienced of the three, a young woman, and Katarina, who clung to the woman. Cale didn't expect his first encounter with Katarina to turn out like this. He originally assumed she would be somewhere north of Altona, but that didn't seem to have been the case.

Nothing at all could be seen of all her glamour right now. With dirty face and disheveled hair, the good 1.40 small girl stood in front of Cale and tried not to cry. She was currently just a little child who had just barely escaped death. An important person for whose death Cale would have been indirectly responsible. Just one of the people Cale wanted to win over.

"Who are you?", the man nervously spoke up. He held the woman behind him as if he would protectively stand between her and Cale.

"What do you think? Didn't you just see my friends?", Cale challenged. He had no interest in revealing his identity, instead he knowingly let them believe that he was an ally of the dragons. Cale spoke in a deliberately condescending and reproachful manner as he looked the man almost viciously in the eye. "If I were you, I'd rather explain what you were doing here."

"We got a little lost", the mage explaned, making Cale seem even more skeptical.

"Lost? Here? This deep in the plai...", Cale started, but was interrupted by a sortman approaching him from behind. With a simple flick of his wrist, he abruptly separated the creature's head from his body without looking back once. "This deep in the plains? You truly must either have a terrible sense of direction or simply be tired of life."

The woman held her mouth in horror and Katarina hid her face while the man looked to the side in disgust. Cale found the whole thing so ridiculous. How had they survived it here if they couldn't even watch a creature die? How had three inexperienced mages ended up here, anyway?

"There's only one way out of here, and it's north", Cale finally spoke up, pointing in the direction the dragons had disappeared, before sighing. He could hardly demand that of them. Never in a million years would they voluntarily go in the direction of the dragons.

As usual, he wanted to run his hands through his hair, but they were only a few centimeters short and light brown. Cale lowered his hands and looked at Katarina, who did not dare to sit up at all. He almost felt sorry for the position they had put the two adults in. That was probably one of the reasons why Cale decided to help them at that moment. That and the little girl's future abilities.

Without warning, he made an invisible platform appear below them and lifted them all into the air. Abruptly, it jerked the three Anuxers to their feet and they cried out, which Cale watched silently. Without comment, he flew over the black, still-burning trees and headed toward the capital of Exarion.

The man was the first to speak.

"What are you going to do with us?", he asked, frightened, holding the two women with his hands.

"I'm taking you to the capital, what else?", Cale replied. Wordlessly, the man stared at Cale as the wind blew against their bodies. He squinted his eyes and looked ahead as the women spoke up.

"Why?", the stranger reluctantly chimed in.

"You're a bad example for the girl", he explained after a moment's hesitation, looking down at Katarina, who briefly dared a glance after the sentence and hid right back behind the women.

Unobtrusively, Cale made a barrier appear around the entire group and quickened his pace as his path diverged from the dragons' trail. They had turned to the east, while Cale could now see the green meadows of Altona in the distance.

"Aren't you going to eat us?", Katarina softly chimed in, and instantly the woman seemed to shut her mouth. Cale, however, had to laugh.

"A human who eats a human? This isn't Winstest", he gave amused as he recalled the most barbaric acts of Theorik's people. "You better watch out, little missy. What you see here is pure magic. If you study hard, you'll be able to do it one day."

"So you're a mage too?", the woman raised cautiously, holding Katarina tightly in her arms as the girl began to look at the magic with fascination.

"You could say that, yes. However, I am not a magician like you are. They offer lessons in Altona, for adults and for children. You should take advantage of that, I don't want to see such a sad action again", Cale explained as they reached the desert. His gaze turned to the east.

The sun was visible. The new day had finally begun.

When Cale recalled what he had been up to last night, it seemed almost like a dream.

His three guests seemed to relax after a while, and curiously Katarina tapped them unobtrusively a few times on the invisible wall they were sitting on. The woman seemed to want to stop her at first, but as Cale didn't complain, she let the child do it.

Cale reached for his face shield and unobtrusively made them disappear. Serenely, he closed his eyes and felt the fresh wind on his skin as he massaged the back of his neck with one hand. Only now he felt the consequences of the last days and his body complained. Without taking much of a break, he had permanently used mana and fought his way into the mountains. He longed at that moment for a hot bath and something delicious to eat.

He had to think about William, Ben, Aletta and Philippa. He felt as if he hadn't seen them for decades, yet it was barely a few weeks, except for Aletta. With each minute, he got closer to the lights of the city and became a little more nervous. For a moment, he felt like the day he had spent half the night in the tavern waiting for their arrival.

"Mister Dragon Man", Katarina raised her voice cautiously, causing the other two to flinch in fright and look at the young girl. She knelt in front of them and looked at Cale with wide eyes. "Are the people in the city like you, too?"

"Katarina!", the woman shouted, but Cale had to smile. It was nice to see how innocent the child still was. Cale knew full well that Katarina had no parents. Both had died shortly after her birth. But who the other two mages were, Cale did not know for sure. They seemed to be family, or so it appeared on the outside, but he could not be more specific.

Cale crouched down and was now at eye level with the three companions, all of whom were looking at him. When Cale raised his hand, the girl flinched briefly, but when the mage began to gently stroke her head, she looked up warily.

"The people in the city are all kind-hearted. You don't have to be afraid of them", he explained calmly, as the silhouette of the city appeared in the distance.

"Are they also as strong as you?", Katarina gave in her lovely, naive voice.

"Not quite as strong as me, but there are some High-Magicians who come close to my abilities. If you listen to them, you too will become a powerful mage one day."

During the statement, he couldn't help but think of Sefra. In one of his later lives, Sefra had taken Katarina in as a student, they became a kind of family. What had happened before, Cale didn't know. Perhaps the other two had died in an attack, or their paths parted when Katarina became an adult. But Cale did know one thing.

The girl was incredibly close to the Eldest in point of pure mana masses.

When he had been taught by Sefra back in Frignez, that was the first time he had heard of Katarina. Sefra had told him a few days earlier that he had twice as much mana as the next best mage, but then Katarina showed up and eclipsed that statement. At the time, Katarina had more mana than Cale, but by now that was no longer the case. He had long since surpassed her and all other magic, although Cale never really understood how such a thing was possible. Therefore, he suspected that his rebirth was the trigger for his great masses of mana, even though he had no proof of this.

"Really?", Katarina inquired delighted. "My big brother told me not to have such high hopes of becoming a mage. He told me that I was too stupid for that."

"Nice big brother you got there", Cale threw back, and could see in the corner of his eye the strange man glancing nervously to the side. "I know a talent when I see one. You've got good skills for it, but that alone isn't enough. You will have a lot to learn, do you understand me?"

Excited, Katarina nodded several times as the strange woman put her hand on the child's shoulder and looked up at Cale. She said nothing, however, but merely gave him a suspicious look. To the outside world, the conversation must have seemed strange to the adults, but Cale didn't mind. After all, none of them knew who he really was.