Furlheim City, or more modernly called Sweepstake city, a place with no barriers, no unfair laws, no prerequisites to join…

Despite the fact that you would have to adjust to the, at times jarring, battle system of living,

A system in which anything can be won, anyone can be anything, with the only requirement being their own will,

Sweepstake was still but a nice place, the crime rates were unfathomably low, in parallel to the unusually high happiness rates per average citizen,

Truly a place where anyone could move if they wanted to fit in in,

Well, this was all the case till one night,

It started with a big fire,

And ended—

Well who can say how it really ended for sure…

But that night, that fire was only but sign,

Asymbolic form of the changes that would soon ensue.

See that night another fire started, but this one in the adventurers guild,

A flame that bore no color but, a flame that was so hot, instead of incinerating you, its burn would hurt so you would be begging to be incinerated, the pain of the flames’ burn would last for days on end, a panarctic burn you could say..

That was what began to surround the city,

Inch by inch sector by sector soon Sweepstake city had a ‘wall’ of its own,

One that you could not see,

But feel.

****

“……..”

“……..”

“……..”

“……..”

No one has said a word yet,

Sitting around a campfire, we begrudgingly stare at the city, now in uproar, a distance away from us,

The loud cries and panics echo hopelessly in the cold, dull night,

This went on for the entire night.

None of us slept, or even moved, just listened.

What could we do?

Go back there to play heroes?

Claude and Amelia still remained unconscious since witnessing their guild masters unsightly death,

Bzzzzzz

Mosquitoes buzz around us tirelessly attacking Pinoki’s severed arm,

(His lies finally caught up with him)

“It should’ve bee—” I begin to mumble

“—Don’t start with that bullshit” Apollo gruffly cuts me off

“Pinoki died and you survived that’s it,

I don’t want to hear how the wrong person died”

“…..

He kept saying how he’d rather save himself than die for anyone else,

Chh!

Pinoki never could stop lying” Karina laments, wrapping her wounded leg with a torn off piece of her shirt

……..

That was the only exchange of words that happened for the rest of the night.

….

****

“…….!?”

Wh…

Where am I?” Amelia finally waking up, she blinks looking around confusedly as the dawn’s sunlight breaks

“Dead.” Karina replies nonchalantly

“You’re not” dead Apollo reassures noticing the alarmed look on the girl’s face

“Karina is just being snarky”

“errgh!”

Claude also gets up groggily,

“What happened,

Where is Belucci?

I’ll kill him, I swear—”

“—Claude, calm down,” his sister squeezes his hand,

“Look around we’re not in the institute, anymore.”

……

Claude takes a minute to adjust to the surroundings,

“Whose arm is that” he notices the pale, severed limb

“Pinoki,” I answer tossing it into the fire to burn

“Does that mean he—”

“—He didn’t make it,”

“What happed to all of you back there?” Lyra presses scoldingly

“That guildmate of yours, Yannick, ran away like a coward,

You two passed out,

And even you Kage, your face went totally blank for a while,

We could have escaped much easier if not for you all,”

“Well, how would you feel if someone, you looked up to, got murdered in worst possibly way, right in front of your face!” Claude snaps

“When our parents died, we weren’t there to see it, but this time with Giichi…

I don’t know what to feel,

But Ginobelucci will pay.”

“Welcome to our world!” Lyra retorts tartly,

“What do you think we had to experience back in Soterra to get like this,

A nice party!?

I watched both my parents get killed by my own brother,

That same brother that killed Karina’s parents as well,

And from what I heard is responsible for yours’ deaths as well,

Don’t try to play the victim with me, I know how it feels!”

“…...

What do we do now then?” Claude replies, humbly this time,

“The mayor said, or best bet was going to the Bakufu nation,” Apollo informs them

“Giichi’s original home, and Saito’s as well,

He once told me that the strongest warriors in the entire ring are found there,

Hopefully they can help us.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” I remark, cynically

“Why would they make our problems theirs?”

“Kage has point, we shouldn’t rush into this thinking we’re going to be offered free help,” Karina concurs,

“Mhm,” I nod, “For all we know—"

—Umph!

I get up to stretch, forgetting that my leg had been wounded the night before,

The sudden jolt of pain causes me to fall over, inches away from the campfire,

“Kage easy,” Apollo grabs me up

“Your injured” Amelia notices

“I shall heal you with my magic,” she presses her hand on my leg expecting her healing general-magic to begin, in the form of her water attribute as usual, but nothing happens…

“Huh?

…….

Where’s my water ma—”

Before she can finish a small cloud materializes, over our heads, bursting into a soft shower of rain, the droplets healing our wounds,

“Your magic evolved.” Karina points out,

“I can’t feel my second attribute wind anymore,

my water magic is now rain,” Amelia says, in awe of herself

“Does this mean I did as well?” Claude perks up excitedly,

“Haa!” He focuses his hands, aiming at the falling rain, should he just conjure a regular fireball,

…...Beeaamm~

Much to Claude’s surprise, instead of fireball, his flames fire out a bright white color, in the form of a beam, cutting through his twin sister’s rain,

The intersection their magics leave behind a mini rainbow,

“Yes!” Claude grins

“I have evolved magic, and I’ve not gone insane!”

“That’s what you’re happy about?” Lyra rolls her eyes,

“Yes, because this is a sign that I must be the one to avenge Giichi sir, your friend Pinoki, the mayor and everyone else who died at Ginobelucci’s hand last night!”

….

Now we all roll our eyes.

“Slow down there, soldier” Apollo taps his shoulder, getting up

“Urahh!”

He lets a out a big yawn,

“Alright, we’ve mourned enough,

I think its time we get going,”

“Where to?” Lyra asks

“We haven’t made a definitive plan yet,”

“As Pinoki would say,” I put in,

“Who cares? It’s going to be an adventure.”