Before me, an army of thousands surged towards me like a tide. Some soldiers looked like regular people, barring their specter white skin, while others seemed like Chimera Beasts made of human parts. They had limbs that were disproportionate to their bodies or clearly severed body parts that were magically patched up with someone else’s matching body part. Without exception, their eyes were hollow and lifeless, the souls clearly having left their bodies. They trudged forward through the wasteland towards the city dozens of kilometers behind me.

  Suddenly, a figure rocketed out from the middle of the army. It was launched into the air by a massive bone that burst from the ground, flying directly towards me. As the skull and bones of the Skeleton came into view, it shot its arm towards me, detaching from its frame entirely. The arm quickly regenerated as it did the same thing with the other. There were a dozen skeletal arms raining down on me in a mere second and the Skeleton was relentlessly punching around me to try and seal my escape.

  “An undead that doesn’t know the meaning of death!’ I crouched down as I finished and took a deep breath, gathering the strength in my legs. “Grrah!” I exploded from the ground towards the Skeleton that was about twenty meters up, deflecting all of the bony punches in my path with my own punches and kicks. “Maybe coming back gave you a feeling of immortality, but allow me to remind you what dying’s like!” I arrived at the bold Skeleton in a few seconds and reeled back my arm until it was uncomfortable. “Do me a solid— AND DIE!” I punched the Skeleton in the face— err, I guess it was actually the skull. Its head fell into the zombie army, knocking some over and causing nearby zombies to topple like dominoes. Despite the pile of corpses that started stacking up, the army only looked like it encountered a small bump as it trampled over them without a hitch. I couldn’t help but lament as I looked over the hundreds of zombies and dozens of Skeletons that were marching in waves towards Human territory. As I landed atop the pile of corpses I created, I blew off my fist and looked in the general direction I saw the skull bounce. “Phew... Again, I guess.”

  I realized that telling an undead to die was a bit redundant, so I tried to amend what I said. I wasn’t sure if it helped at all.

  Suddenly, laughter rang out from above me and drew my attention to my best friend running on air towards the army of undead with his arms behind him. His receding back always instilled confidence in me, but now that we’ve left our hometown behind, I felt a bit more emotional looking at it. He glanced back as he left me behind, wearing a confident smile. “Good work, Zinaether!” I smiled at his compliment and observed his knee length dark green robe flutter violently as he dashed forward. If not for the large maroon colored waistband, it no doubt would’ve been left behind by his speed. He faced the undead army once more and the magic aura around him grew fierce. “Send a message to the Demon God when you respawn back at his castle: send something with a bit more intelligence next time!”

  As he yelled out a not so subtle taunt, he stopped running. His hands shot out towards the recovering undead and two large magic circles instantly formed in front of his hands, one pale green and one orange. Following their completion, a raging tide of flames erupted from the ground beneath the undead as if they were standing on an active volcano. Patches of earth were launched into the sky by the force of his magic and fell like deadly hail. At the same time, a vicious wind rounded up the zombies outside the range of the flames and swept them into the fire and debris, combining into a devastating tornado of flames as tall as a building that ravaged the wasteland littered with disintegrating corpses.

  -As expected of Justin. He’s so cool.- The familiar figure glowing from the light of the flame tornado perfectly encapsulated the word heroic to me. His curly hair was blown gently by the wind generated from his magic and gave off a majestic feeling when combined with his brown skin turning golden beside his flames. It was as if he was some sort of holy being. To top it off, his gray eyes showed neither hatred nor excitement, but resolve. Resolve to kill every undead in front of him… again.

  “So cool~!” For a split second, I thought I accidentally let my thoughts slip. I quickly realized, however, that the one who said that was my sister. Her silver hair was tied in a ponytail that reached midway down her back and her royal blue eyes shone with admiration when she looked at Justin. The pink half robe she wore was bound by a single button on her chest and fluttered lightly from Justin’s spell. She also wore a skintight black long sleeve that left her midriff exposed, which was highlighted by Justin’s flames. She had a fanatical look on her face as she watched the destruction and re-death brought about by the tornado of flames.

  My lack of amusement at her reaction was reflected in my straight face and flat voice. “Zinaethia, could you maybe focus on your job, please?”

  She responded by glaring at me with icy hatred. Holding that expression, she looked back towards the undead trying to regain their footing amidst a swamp that seemed obviously out of place in the dry, dusty wasteland that was otherwise filled with dead grass and hard soil. With a lift of her hand, the size of the swampland tripled and trapped more undead. Dozens of Skeleton Horses were tripped and sent their zombie riders face first into the mud. They all began to sink under their weight, making it difficult for them to maneuver. The other undead suddenly caught in the range of her magic weren’t in much better positions as they slowly sank into the swamp.

  In actuality, there was no need for her to watch the undead she trapped. Unless a miracle occurred, or some extremely powerful Demon showed up, they weren’t going to break out of my sister’s trap. There was one reason I asked her to focus: what self respecting little brother would be okay with their sister drooling over their best friend?

  “I’m impressed, Zinaethia.” Justin descended from above us and the fire tornado migrated towards Skeleton Horse zombie Riders while avoiding us. “If this is what I can expect, I look forward to working together in the future.” Zinaethia immediately blushed and buried her face in her hands.

  -Have some self respect, sheesh.- As I finished that thought, I felt a sharp pain in my arm. I looked down and noticed my sister’s nails digging into my forearm. The eye that was initially covered by her hand glaring at me once again.

  “You just thought something rude about me, didn’t you?” My sister spoke in a low tone, the threat in her voice was obvious. Was the look on my face just as obvious? Moreover, didn't she have her face covered by her hands, she shouldn’t have been able to see my face to begin with, right?

  -A woman’s intuition sure is scary.- I looked over to Justin to plead for help. He was watching us with a smile, but his eyes contained a trace of sadness. I understood his thoughts instantly after meeting his eyes. -We’ve finally started our journey, but all that means is that we’ve initiated the countdown until he leaves…-

  The somber thoughts caused my expression to sink a little, but what I was worrying about was still a ways off. On a different note, wasn’t it about time my dear sister let me go? I had started bleeding!

  After Justin calmed down Zinaethia enough for me to pull my arm away from her vicious grip, we looked over the battlefield. We were fighting for over three hours and the waves of undead were finally ending. Justin’s magic annihilated a massive amount of the wave of the remaining undead, but there were still some stragglers that managed to not get caught up in the destruction.

  “Zinaether,” Justin gestured towards the survivors of his spell with a sweep of his arm, “-would you be so kind?”

  At Justin’s behest, I sighed and wiped away the blood drawn by my sister, then cast the shadow magic spell: Shadow Domain and shrouded the wasteland in pitch darkness. The shadow mana within the domain was now under my control, and thanks to my spell, I could sense the presence of everything in the darkness and instantly warp anywhere within it. One by one, I decapitated and stomped the remaining zombies and Skeletons, crushing their skulls under my boot and squishing their rotted brains. Since they were already dead, there wasn’t any blood splatter, which I was thankful for. -Now if only they could do something about the smell of literal death.-

  After I wrapped up the last of them, I warped back next to the others and deactivated the shroud of darkness. Zinaethia questioned me as soon as she regained her sight. “Got all of em?”

  “Obviously. Why else would I deactivate my spell?”

  “Don’t get frozen.” I gulped involuntarily at her words as chills shot down my spine due to my confidence that she really would freeze me. It was like my body was trying to prepare for what was to come.

  “Alright, alright, before that though, let him take us back to the city.” Justin chimed in with his opinion, which I was pretty sure no one asked for.

  “What am I, a portable Warp Formation?” I mumbled to myself as I urged the mana in my blood into action. An image of a city gate not far from where we were fighting appeared in my head, and a dark blue magic circle with a white glow spawned in front of my outstretched hand. After a second, a portal appeared to lead us there.

  After we all stepped through and I closed the portal, we showed our magister IDs to the gatekeeper—to avoid the entrance toll—and entered Twin Star Lake City.

  The roads were paved in stone slabs to allow vehicles easy passage through and there were many buildings made of a mixture of wood and stone scattered about, giving the entire city a very open, yet populated feel. There were multiple buildings for various things, including restaurants placed here and there, but there were more chefs who cooked outdoors. They had long lines waiting and I couldn’t blame them since the scenery of the city was very green and pleasant. The flowers within the city were flourishing and felt like they gave the city an atmosphere of serenity in addition to the obvious scent. There were many great places to sit and feel at one with the nature around. Plenty of people and families could be seen interacting and smiling with one another as if there was only happiness within the city. The stark contrast between here and the wastelands was jarring.

  In the distance, I could see a big lake and multiple ponds in various directions that were orange and shimmering due to the setting sun. The lake looked especially magnificent as the sun was right above its horizon, making it look like two suns would soon clash. There were lots of trees of various shapes and sizes throughout the city; tall, cone shaped trees with dark green leaves shaped like arrowheads near the bodies of water, thin trees with long branches that hung over the roads lined the streets, and trees with thick trunks that split into multiple thick branches near the base of the tree that grew into the sky and continued to split into more branches that formed semi-spherical canopies were located in the open spaces.

  Along the way, there was a man standing on the side of the road by a stall that seemed quick to set up and take down. He was advertising his goods to the few people on the street. “Reroll Gems! Get your Reroll Gems here for cheap! Only five hundred mana crystals! Only gonna find this deal from me! Get them while they last!”

  Some showed contemplative looks like they were seriously considering rerolling. I watched with sympathy as people struggled to make their decisions and couldn’t resist remarking as we passed by the stall. “Ahh, the struggles of a magister. Non-magisters don’t know how tough it is to make decisions like this.”

  Rerolling was exactly like it sounded like. With one of those gems, a magister could alter their mana vein to change their magic natures. “Are you reminded of the time when you wanted to reroll?” My sister asked me with a snarky grin on her face like the concept was hilarious to her.

  “You wanted to reroll? Aren’t you blessed with the rare and powerful chaos magic? Why would you want to risk losing that?” Justin looked at me like I was crazy. Now I was irritated because I had to go out of my way to explain myself for something that didn’t matter, and it was all thanks to my sister.

  “Alright look, I didn’t want to reroll. If I did, I would’ve. Just think about it from my perspective for a second. Sure, chaos magic which is said to only emerge in one of every ten thousand people sounds cool, but the problem with it is that there was no one to teach me anything from their own experiences using it. In addition, while not Hidden Class like chaos magic, bright and shadow magic are Rare Class magic too. No one in my hometown was able to teach me anything aside from fundamental mana control that could be applied to all magic. Until you came along, I didn’t want to test out on anyone because I wasn’t sure about the destructive power of chaos magic, so yeah, I considered rerolling.” I turned to my talented sister and continued my rant. “Some of us aren’t generational talents that can cast spells one week after they awaken and fly through the tiers of strength in a year to become complex magisters at eleven years old. Some of us can’t laugh in the face of the magic circle technique that has been in place for over a millennium. Some of us have to take our time and wait for opportunities to increase our strength.”

  I may have put a little extra in there, but it had been years since I last saw my sister and she was always mean to me, so I said what I needed to say.

  Zinaethia raised an eyebrow at me and smirked. “Looks to me like it’s only one of us.”

  I winced and glanced at Justin before arguing back. “He’s the Destined, he doesn’t count!”

  Zinaethia shook her head in disappointment. “I agree. That doesn’t change what I said.”

  “I…” I trailed off. Sure enough, whether Justin was included or not, I was still the only one who didn’t become a complex magister within a year of starting. All that adding in Justin did was make me appear like the worst by comparison! “That’s because I didn’t have a teacher! Not to mention you bastards with Common magic have it easy. Water, earth, fire, and wind mana are as common as their classification implies. This is especially true for you, Zinaethia! Even if freeze is a Rare Class nature, Snow Sand City is barely off of the border to the Icebound region. With how much it snowed and hailed on our beach, cultivating your freeze magic wasn’t difficult at all.”

  “Oh please!” Zinaethia sounded tired of patiently listening to my complaints. “Like day and night are rare! Light and darkness are only a bit more profound than other common mana, which is why the ancestors who devised our systems to judge magic put them in Rare Class.”

  “But because they’re Rare Class, the half nobles had a monopoly on spell books for my natures. Not to mention Hidden Class spell books literally didn’t exist in our library.” I tried to get Zinaethia to see reason and agree that my situation was difficult to grow stronger in.

  “Who needs spell books? I stopped using spells altogether by the time I was thirteen. Even Justin can feel mana as an extension of himself. All he really needs to do is cast a basic Orb or Beam spell and he can guide the mana to do the rest.”

  “Again,” I once again complained, “he’s The Destined! Just because he can achieve complex spell levels of control with a basic spell doesn’t mean I can.”

  Justin must have seen his opportunity to cut in because immediately after I finished talking, he spoke up. “Besides, what matters is that whether it’s my special constitution that lets me feel mana as an extension of myself, Zinaethia’s circle-less spell casting technique, or Zinaether’s method of forming his magic circles in a single second, we’ve all crossed the threshold for complex tier and can easily display that power in battle. After all, even for nobility, most people’s limit in life is an advanced tier magister. For commoners like you and Zinaether, even advanced tier is a dream, with most of them capping out at intermediate tier at best.”

  Zinaethia snorted as she looked at me. “You’re right, Justin. As long as he got here, I guess it doesn’t matter how long he took.” The tone of her voice made it obvious that she was still looking down on me, but Justin at least put an end to that conversation.

  We kept walking long enough for the orange sky to turn purple, before we stopped in front of a house that stood apart from all of the other buildings in the city. It was made of white wooden planks and had golden accentuations that made it seem like the house was holy and untouchable. The area around it was fenced off from the outside world by a tall white wooden fence, and inside the fence was a huge lawn arranged with all kinds of flowers. Some were small enough to be crushed underfoot without a second thought, some were as tall as me, some were so purely white that it almost felt like it could pull me into a white abyss, some were a crazy combination of colors that were almost hypnotizing.

  There were two people in the lawn already, moving about with something in their hands. They were a man and a woman with short, straight black hair, solid black eyes that seemed to carry no emotion, and flawless white skin that looked smooth to the touch. Both wore black vests with white long sleeved undershirts, black pants, and were watering the plants one by one with watering cans the size of their heads. The man wore a long, solid black tie and an overcoat, and the woman wore a black bow tie and had a flower in her hair. She noticed us approaching, calmly walked away from the flower she was tending to, and opened the fence gate for us. She wordlessly bowed as Zinaethia walked past her with a slight nod. As my sister strode forward, the man also paused his flower watering to bow to Zinaethia.

  “Welcome home, Lady Zinaethia.”

  “Welcome back, Mistress.” The man spoke with a deep, hollow voice and the woman smoothly chimed in after with a similar, albeit more feminine one.

  Zinaethia didn’t break stride as she addressed them. “Mmm, proceed with your duty. Come on, Justin.”

  She made her way towards the door to the house while beckoning Justin forward. He entered the gate, following behind her and leaving me at the entrance. She wasn’t going to invite me in, was she? Did she perhaps forget about me? But how horrible was it to forget your own brother, yet remember his best friend?

  I wanted to stand there and cry from the feeling of my heart getting crushed by my sister’s ignorance of my existence, but the woman holding the gate was staring at me. She didn’t look displeased, annoyed, or anything, she was just staring. Maybe it was because the stare seemed completely devoid of emotion, but the longer she looked at me, the more unnerving it was. I pulled my hood over my head and ducked slightly so I wouldn’t see her stare at me, and fell in stride behind Justin. I was unsure if I imagined it, but I thought I heard a sigh behind me before the sound of the fence gate closing.

  The path to the doorway was a straight line cutting the garden in half made of stone, however it was modified using magic so it had a smooth, nearly metallic sheen. The veranda was wooden and had a single step elevating the doorway. Two smooth wooden columns held up the angled overhang that extended out from the wall adjacent to the doorway to cover the entire porch.

  As we entered the door, I glanced around. The inside was extremely spacious and small tables with more plants were placed along the wall. The ground was made of magically modified stone and the floor had countless intricate and precise designs of an ever changing scenery. At the entrance, the design started off as an expansive forest with birds flying above, but quickly grew into a jungle with large cats roaming inside as it moved deeper inside the house. As I followed it along, the jungle became mountains with countless animals on it. Then, it morphed into a lake surface with fish swimming about. I would’ve kept tracking it, but it carried on beyond my vision.

  -Is this big sis’s work? If she wasn’t so unreasonably strong, she would make a great artisan. Or maybe it’s because she’s unreasonably strong…-

  “Whew! Good to be back! Thanks again for letting us stay here, Zinaethia.” Justin spoke in a louder than necessary volume as he stretched his arms towards the sky and rolled his neck around, jolting me out of my contemplation of the artwork on the floor.

  Zinaethia revealed a jovial smile that was really pretty. I wasn’t sure if I had ever actually seen her smile like that before. It was almost uncomfortable. “You could stay here forever if you’d like~. Not you though, you’ll have to find somewhere else.”

  -Wait, isn’t that backwards though?- How wrong was it to kick out your own blood brother, but offer his best friend to stay forever? Why did my dearest sister treat me so poorly?

  While such thoughts were running through my mind, Zinaethia managed to catch Justin’s arm in her embrace, leaving him unable to escape. He looked over at me with an awkward expression.

  I moved behind my sister and cast a chaos spell. A stream of dark blue light with a white glow connected the circle to my sister, transferring a small amount of chaos mana into my sister's mana vein. I was able to form my magic circles in a second, and the spell I was using, Transfer, was a foundational spell that every magister learned as a ten year old after they awakened their magic natures. Due to its simplicity, casting Transfer in even less than a second took no effort, so even a super genius like Zinaethia wouldn’t be able to react to my surprise spell, even if she sensed the magic at that last moment.

  Using my chaos mana that I transferred to her mana vein, I could manipulate her senses to a certain degree. The more mana I transferred, the larger the effect and the longer it lasted, but I only needed a brief moment for this situation. With my spell successfully landing, her sense of sight and touch were under my control. Her grip loosened and Justin pulled his arm from her grasp. After he was freed, I lightly chopped my sister on the back of the head while simultaneously canceling the spell. “No one wants a girl to hug their arm if they’re flat. What’s the difference between that and a guy?”

  I reprimanded her for holding Justin hostage while mixing in a jab at her.

  …

  Okay, so maybe the whole thing was a jab, and there wasn’t much reprimanding, but she always bullied me, so it was fair, right?

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  Unfortunately for me, she didn’t share my sentiments. As soon as I finished saying my piece, a frigid aura burst out from around her, causing the surrounding temperature to drop rapidly. Being able to cause such a phenomena with only her aura was a testament to her incredibly strong mana vein. -Uh oh. Is this the chill of death I’m feeling?-

  My legs had already frozen over, and even if I blinded her and confused her senses, she could just use an AOE attack to make sure she hit me. “Little sh*t! You think just because you’re my brother I won’t kill you?”

  “Hey, hey,” Justin quickly chimed in, trying to reason with this crazy woman. “Isn’t magic use banned in the city unless there’s a crisis?”

  -No you idiot! You’re not supposed to try and counter emotion with logic! Calm her down before giving her the actual reason she’s not supposed to murder me!-

  I spent my childhood with my sister. She was a very upfront and honest person, especially when it came to how she felt back then, and it was apparent that nothing had changed. With that in mind, it was fair to say I had a solid understanding of her character and how to handle her. When she was riled up, she was impossible to speak to. It didn’t matter what you said, how you said it, or how much sense it made, she became a complete contrarian. The wise route to follow would be to reduce her anger so she would be more agreeable.

  “You’re right. How could I forget?” Surprisingly, she seemed to listen to reason and withdrew her frosty aura with a smile that seemed harmless to even insects.

  -It… worked. I guess maybe she has changed…-

  In the next moment, however, she began cracking her knuckles and stretching her arms, maintaining that peaceful smile. “I can just punch him to death, right?”

  -My ass! This is the same evil, tyrannical, imperious big sister I recall!- I turned to run away, but my legs were still frozen and I fell face first! Looking back towards my sister looming over me like a Demon that managed to escape the battlefield, my final thoughts flashed through my mind. -Am I really gonna die here?! Not like this! I haven’t even had a girlfriend yet! What about my ancestral bloodline? How could I face my family in the afterlife?!-

  In my panic, I weighed the utility of a last ditch effort to survive.

  “Wait! You can’t kill him. If you do, I’ll never forgive you.” Justin held up his hand to stop her, but after hearing what he said, my face immediately darkened.

  -How’s that supposed to stop her? She’s insane!-

  To my surprise, however, she stopped stretching and looked at Justin like she was about to cry. “Whaaaa? Justin, that’s not fair~! You heard what he said to me, right? I have to kill him! He should know what can and can’t be said!”

  Justin shook his head at her complaints and shrugged like he was disappointed. “Nope. I’ll never talk to you again.”

  Zinaethia seemed like she was really struggling to come to a decision. Did she really want to kill me that badly? Eventually, my legs unfroze, but they were totally numb so I couldn’t stand. I fell unceremoniously and landed on my butt. Meanwhile, Zinaethia looked at the floor dejectedly and mumbled a question in a pitiful voice. “Was it really that bad?”

  Justin lowered his head and let out an exasperated sigh. “Do as you please.”

  He proceeded to fold, ending right back where he started. I couldn’t be too mad at him though. I could do without her public displays of affection, but I couldn’t tell her how to live life. If I could, I would tell her to stop abusing me so much!

  I stood up after recovering the feeling in my feet and stared at my sister, who was still holding my best friend’s arm and looking happy as could be. -She’s insane…-

  Out of nowhere, I received a blow to the face and flew into the wall. I looked up and recovered my wits after landing— err, crashing. I looked back at where I just was and saw my sister still holding her fist out, arm fully extended. I could only stare in shock as I rubbed the cheek that got punched. I wanted to get up from my uncomfortable position, but I couldn’t muster any strength in my legs. -A woman’s intuition is seriously terrifying.-

  We all went to the living room and sat on a circular couch that greeted us as soon as we entered. Across the room from the door, a square table for four was arranged, and a fireplace was built into the wall next to it. There was also a circular table placed in the center of the circular couch, but it was small and probably only meant for cups and snacks, not full meals. Aside from those, there was also another couch pressed against the wall opposite the fireplace and a couple of chairs between the circular couch and table.

  Zinaethia was still clinging to Justin’s arm, but it seemed like he had grown used to it already or was ignoring it. As we made ourselves comfortable, the man who was outside earlier came over with cups of water for us, and the woman came with bowls of fruit for us to eat. They both placed their items on the table, bowed to Zinaethia, and exited the room. Justin’s eyes bounced between the water and fruits before he grabbed a bowl of fruit. As he nibbled on his food, Justin began to talk. “If only we could keep the Life Crystals of the undead. If we had them from all of the undead we killed today, we would be loaded!”

  Zinaethia looked up at Justin with a pleasant smile. “You don’t have to worry about money, love. The Kingdom pays me, and when the church finds out I’m traveling along with The Destined, they’ll have no choice but to give me a great raise.” I looked at my sister incredulously after hearing her aspirations to get even more money from the region. She already lived better than some City Lords, so if she got a raise, wouldn’t she be too rich? -It’s truly frustrating to compare yourself to others.-

  Justin shook his head before settling his gaze on me. “No amount of money is too much money, right Zinaether?”

  “Huh? Oh yeah, it would also make it worth my shoes getting covered in zombie brains.” My off hand response actually reminded me that my boots were still dirty. I reached into a bag tied to the back of my pants and grabbed my rag that I kept for situations like this. Most of the brains naturally fell off on the walk here, but some were still clinging to the sides of my boots.

  As I reached down to clean my feet, my sister’s angry voice made me halt in my tracks. “Hold it! What do you think you’re doing?!”

  I looked at her, then at my boots, then her again in confusion. It was obvious, wasn’t it? “I’m… wiping my feet off? I don’t want brain stains on my only pair of shoes.”

  Justin chuckled, but he was drowned out by my sister’s irritated voice. She rolled her eyes before redirecting her icy glare at me. “Ohhhh, I couldn’t tell. And what were you planning on doing with those brains?”

  I immediately realized what she was getting at, but didn’t she have attendants? They would come clean it up later, right?

  I wanted to believe that, but the glare she gave me made my survival instincts kick in. I slowly sat up and set my feet back down, trying to avoid setting her off. “Can’t even wipe off my shoes without getting in trouble…” I mumbled in irritation as I stared at my boots. Why was it such a big deal for me to clean off my shoes?

  “Have you got a problem?” My sister took note of my mumbling and addressed me like she was threatening me!

  “No, dear sister. I was just complaining about having to destroy the undead’s Life Crystals. It’s such a shame, isn’t it Justin?” I swiftly gave the correct answer and directed the flow of conversation back towards Justin. As long as he was the one talking, I could avoid verbal abuse from my sister.

  He nodded emphatically before he joined in my complaints. “The worst part is that the Demon God doesn’t even consider sharing. He just takes the shattered Life Crystals right back.”

  He was referring to the fact that shattered Life Crystals would poof into dust that always drifted back to Demon Territory. It was also assumed that the Demon God recycled Life Crystals due to reports of a Demon that supposedly came back after it was killed.

  “Don’t feel too bad, love. There’s probably a special curse placed on the Life Crystals anyways.” Zinaethia spoke to Justin with a softness in her voice that I literally could only dream of hearing before she switched to a more educational tone. “Think about it. Not only do the Life Crystals automatically return to the Demon God, but all levels of undead, be they zombies, Skeletons, or Demons are absolutely obedient. When you compare that to our God, who blessed us with the freedom to believe what we want, that false God is just a filthy tyrant. You probably wouldn’t want to keep anything influenced by the Demon God. It might even curse you!”

  Justin nodded to her words. My knowledge about the undead was a small mound of dirt compared to my sister’s mountain of knowledge, so I let her take the reins. I mean, she encountered their kind basically every day! If even she couldn’t provide a conclusive answer, then there was probably no such thing. “Speaking of curses,” Zinaethia glanced at me briefly before looking into Justin’s eyes. “Justin, how was it that you became friends with someone like him?”

  The last word she said felt like it was filled with malicious intent, making me unconsciously shiver. Did she think of me as a curse? -Dear sister, must you attack me at every opportunity possible? Even one such as myself, with such strong mental fortitude, would be hurt by continuous attacks of such a degree.-

  The pain in my heart wasn’t negligible, but showing it around her was the same as leaving blood floating in the presence of a Shark Fiend. The ferocity of the attacks would only increase!

  “Hmmmm…” Justin thought very loudly, totally unaware of the hurt I was feeling and answering my sister’s question like she didn’t just call me a curse! “It was a few years ago…”

  I sighed and gave up on any hope that he would stand up for my injustice before I specified for my friend. “Five to be exact.” I began to reminisce fondly on the day my destiny changed.

  Five years ago, in a coastal city in the plains of The Kingdom, Snow Sand City

  The sounds of the waves ebbing and flowing was soothing and rhythmic. The sand between my toes sank and shifted as I stepped. Occasionally cool water would just barely reach my feet, making the sand moist and slightly more firm. My calves felt like they were on fire, but it was a familiar feeling so it didn’t hinder me too much.

  At age fifteen, I had pretty much discarded thoughts of rerolling. This was partially thanks to strong dissuasion from my sister, but I didn’t want to reroll either. I mean, who would want to give up a Hidden Class magic? Not to mention my other two were Rare Class.

  Anyways, since bright and shadow magic weren’t very offensive magic, and I was too scared to test out chaos magic, the only way I could become a decent magister was by training my body so I could fight while using my magic to hide from and deceive my opponents. I got strange stares because most magisters around Snow Sand City were able to test out their magic, so they would rather do that than work out. As for me, I felt like I had a solid understanding of bright and shadow magic since I recently broke through to the advanced tier, so I just had to get physically stronger. In order to do that, I was running along the beach to strengthen my legs. Sometimes there were people there practicing magic into the ocean or using it along the shore, but there was no one around at the time because it was too early. The sky was still gray, and the mist from the ocean made it a bit foggy. I’d been doing it for a few years at this point, so I was pretty used to the familiar setting.

  “Whew.” I sat down after doing sprints and looked back towards the city. I wiped off sweat from my forehead and moved my silver hair from hanging in my eyes. My stomach growled extremely loudly as I sat on the ground, but thankfully nobody was around to hear it.

  -I don’t have any food at home. Maybe I should stop by a store before I go home…- As I was getting up to leave, I heard a faint rumbling that was gradually getting louder.

  “...Huh?” I looked around trying to see if I could find the source. I read that chaos magic had the ability to affect the body and senses, and learned I could use it to enhance mine. Allowing the chaos mana to flow towards my eyes, I was able to see farther and clearer than normal. I also increased the brightness of my surroundings with a bright magic spell. Now that the scene was clear, I searched around again, but still didn’t see anything. I urged the mana to my ears to echolocate the rumbling.

  “No way.” I turned my head towards the ocean, but as I thought, there was still nothing in sight. “But it really sounds like it’s coming from that direction…”

  I felt unconvinced, so I peered into the depths of the ocean, using my chaos magic to push my eyes to the limit and using my bright and shadow magic to illuminate under water, but aside from some fish that seemed startled by the sudden light, there was nothing I saw that could be causing the rumbling. Besides, if there was really something causing the rumbling (which was still getting louder) underwater, the water wouldn’t have been so calm on the surface.

  -Wait a second… if I think about it like that, then wouldn’t that mean..!?- After having an epiphany, I quickly looked into the sky. As I expected, there seemed to be something falling at a ridiculous speed above the ocean. -A wind magister practicing? But how high would they have had to be to fall at a speed like that? Plus, why wouldn’t he start trying to change his course yet?-

  I had no idea what to do. It was not like I could catch him, he was falling like a lightning bolt over the ocean. In fact…

  “Is he on fire?!” There seemed to be orange wisps frequently stemming from the falling figure. Was the mystery magister really falling so fast that he began to burn? Or was he a fire magister as well? Unable to find the answers to my questions just by looking, I waited to see if the magister would pull off an amazing feat and stop just above the water.

  CRRRRRRAAAAAAAAASSSSSHHH!

  A loud sound of impact rang out like thunder. The magister hit the water without slowing down in the slightest, and the splash that followed the crash caused a massive tower of water to briefly shoot into the sky and a wave that pushed a few feet past where the water normally stopped on the shore.

  -He’s dead.- There was no way anyone would survive falling that fast from that high, even if they fell into water. He was probably crushed by the force of the impact and his body shattered. I sat there in disbelief for a good moment, replaying what just happened in my head. -Yeah, there’s nothing I could’ve done about that. Still, he may have a family, so I should at least see if I can find his remains and tell them what I saw. How unfortunate, though. Based on how high up he was, he must have been a powerful wind magister. I wonder what caused this?-

  As thoughts like that ran through my head, I took off my shirt and pants and placed them on the rock I put my socks and shoes on before I began training, then entered the ocean. When my feet touched the water, I couldn’t withhold a gasp.

  “Cold as usual.” I mumbled to myself as I proceeded deeper into the ocean. Aside from sprinting on the beach, I did all types of other training to increase my overall strength, including swimming long distances to increase my stamina and moving underwater to increase the time I could hold my breath. Although uncommon due to the threat of the Demon God, there were times when magisters fought each other for various reasons. My sister was a water mage and bullied me quite often, so this type of training was mainly a precaution in case I made her too mad one day and she tried to drown me.

  It was difficult swimming through the waves created by the impact, but I eventually reached the area where he hit the water. Rather than diving down and looking around, I used the Shadow Domain spell and tried to sense for anything that didn’t seem like a fish.

  -It seems like his body managed to stay intact. That makes things easier.- After expanding my shadow magic for a while, I managed to detect what felt like a body floating back upwards. Wasting no time, I warped down to where I sensed the body, grabbed it, then began to swim back up while holding it. I’ve heard that powerful shadow magisters could warp other people with them, but I hadn’t reached that level of mana control yet. He was a lot deeper than I thought, but we eventually reached the surface. Once we were above water, I was planning on swimming back to shore while carrying him, but he started coughing up water instantly.

  “You’re alive?!” I was shocked because I just assumed he would’ve died from impact, or was already dead while falling. Rather than reply though, he continued to cough up water. Without hesitation, I began to swim back to the beach. Although the waves mostly subsided, there were still some smaller ones that gave me a decent boost in speed on my way back. Once I was able to walk, I began sprinting to dry sand, then laid the magister down on his back. He had stopped coughing a little while earlier, but he didn’t seem to be conscious.

  -I’ve never seen him before. I wonder where he came from? More than that, though, how did he survive? Was he not falling as fast as I thought?- I began pushing on his chest to get any remaining water out of his lungs while my mind wandered. I’d rather not perform mouth to mouth on a guy, so this was the best he was gonna get from me. If he survived, I was sure he would agree that not doing it was the best option.

  After getting him to cough up a bit more water, I looked around the beach. The whole ordeal had taken less than thirty minutes, so no one was here yet.

  -I wonder if anyone even heard anything?- Thinking about it, it was still practically dark, so chances were that most people hadn’t woken up yet, much less left their houses and heard the rumbling this guy made while falling. Unable to determine what to do, I stared at the unconscious magister while trying to figure out a plan.

  -His clothes are quite strange. Where did he even come from? I guess since he fell over the ocean, I should consider the possibility that he came from a different continent, but it would be really troublesome if he woke up and we couldn’t communicate.- Obviously if he was from a whole different continent, then his native language would be different. But why would someone come from a different continent from over the ocean? As a magister, his wealth shouldn’t be small, but it’s also a fact that I didn’t know the circumstances of other continents. I didn’t even know my own continent’s situation in its entirety, so I couldn’t even begin to imagine what other continents were like. -There’s also the possibility that he’s on the run. If I assume that, then him falling like that would be because he was shot down by magic. I didn’t see anyone chasing the body while it was falling, so if this is the case, they’re either watching me right now and are planning to kill me along with him, or they assume he’s already dead, which would be reasonable. Hmmm, this may be more trouble than it’s worth.-

  I didn’t sense anyone’s presence, nor any disturbance in the mana flow nearby, so I wasn’t fearful of any random magister coming to claim my life right away, but the fact that he fell from the sky was suspicious enough as it was. I thought about just leaving him laid out on the beach. After all, I already saved him from drowning (probably) and it wasn’t like I owed him any favors. I felt a scowl emerge on my face because I couldn’t come to a decision. On one hand, he could’ve been a curse that brings disaster upon those he comes into contact with, namely me. On the other hand, I had strong enough morals that I would’ve felt bad if I just left him laying on the beach, soaked and on the verge of death.

  -Hmmm. Thinking about this rationally, it’s a lot safer to just leave him here, but even thinking that way leaves a terrible feeling in my stomach. Ahhhhh! Whatever!- After having an intense internal battle, I made my decision.

  “*Gasp* Hah… hah…”

  “Finally awake, huh? You speak Jovixian?”

  The figure under the covers in the corner quickly sat up and looked around my house before finally looking at me. His gray eyes were full of doubt and confusion. Without rushing him, I practically watched him force his mind to start working. His expression changed from confused, to surprised, to serious, to excited. After a while, he refocused on me and finally spoke. “Do you mind listening to me for a while?”

  I was caught off guard by his question. He had been asleep for over a day, so I had plenty of time to predict his questions and plan responses. Most of my preparation was based on the assumption he’d be cautious of me. Questions like “Who are you?” or “Where am I?”. I even brought out an old translation dictionary for Jovixian to Zexeran.

  Snow Sand City received ambassadors from Zexer, a continent where Humanity also lived, as Emissaries of Good Faith on behalf of God. God’s Apostles, the religious figures selected by God to strengthen each of the eight regions, had forewarned us of this, so we held a city wide celebration upon their arrival. They brought the dictionary that I was holding behind my back as gifts and held a few classes to teach basic Zexeran to our residents before they headed to the capital of The Kingdom.

  A small frown formed on my lips because I brought the dictionary out for no reason. I realized it wasn’t his fault, but I somewhat blamed this magister for it. Pushing that thought to the back of my mind, I responded honestly. “I don’t mind.”

  I was genuinely curious about this mystery magister’s origins. For better or worse, I saved his life, so I was at least a little invested in him. “My name is Justin. I’m from a different world.”

  “...Huh?”

  As if realizing how ridiculous he sounded, he quickly held up his hand to stop me from speaking. “Wait, wait. I know that sounds impossible, but I promise on my life that it’s true. Before you dismiss it, please let me keep going.” I looked at him for a moment. He seemed sincere, but after hearing what he just said, I decided to take everything he said with a grain of salt. After noticing I wasn’t gonna say anything, he continued. “I’m not of this world. A being that called itself the Human God put me in a coma in my own world and sent me here with the mission to defeat the Demon God before returning me to my own world. It said something about magic and a special constitution to help me? I don’t know. The last thing I remember is the feeling of my stomach dropping before I blacked out. When I woke up, here I was.”

  Seeing he was finished, I processed his story. I didn’t really believe it, but all of the stuff he said was actually reasonable. God’s Apostle from The Kingdom’s church made a prediction about a year after the Zexerans returned to their continent that God was going to send someone called The Destined to our land to rout the plague known as the undead and Demon God from our land. Supposedly, The Destined was going to be stronger than magisters from our continent on a fundamental level, so this “special constitution” would probably be the reason The Destined was fundamentally more powerful than the rest of us.

  Everyone assumed that the strength difference was going to be something like three Hidden Class magic, something unheard of, or a Unique Class magic or something. Assuming “Justin” was telling the truth, that seemed to be wrong. Also, according to him, the last thing he felt was his stomach drop. When one fell from a great height, that’s typically how they describe the feeling. I unfortunately knew from personal experience.

  After considering what he said from an objective standpoint, it wasn’t 100% certain he was lying. I wasn’t inclined to believe him right away, but I couldn’t instantly discredit his words like I was planning to anymore. I looked at him a little longer, trying to figure out how I was going to approach this.

  “Umm, well… I guess it isn’t unbelievable. So tell me, if you’re from another world, how do you know how to speak Jovixian?” So maybe I was still a bit hung up on the dictionary, but it was still odd that he supposedly came from a different world, yet knew our language. In response, he tilted his head to the side and asked me a question.

  “Huh? You said that word earlier, but I have know idea what that means. Aren’t you speaking English?”

  “English? Is that the language where you’re from?” He nodded and patted his legs for a bit before starting to freak out and feel all over himself. Curiosity ended up getting the better of me, despite me trying to wait until he was done. “What? Did you suddenly feel the effects of your special body?”

  He ignored me and kept going for a moment before seemingly giving up and muttering to himself. “That damn Human God, doing whatever she wants to me and taking my stuff.” I was taken aback by his sudden cursing of the literal deity of our entire race. I was about to say something, but he spoke before I did. “Do you have anything to write with?”

  I was confused, but I nodded and got up to grab a jar of ink, a brush, and a blank scroll.

  “Ehhhh? Seems like a classic isekai setting, doesn’t it?” He mumbled to himself while writing some strange script with the brush on the paper I brought him. “This is how you spell my name. Have you seen these letters before?”

  “No, never.” I took the brush from him and dipped it in the ink and wrote out my name. “This spells Zinaether, my name. As you can see, we definitely use different writing systems, so we should speak different languages right?”

  Justin raised his hand to his chin and stared at my name, seemingly deep in thought. After a bit of time, he pounded his fist on top of his palm.

  “This must be one of my perks!”

  “Perks?”

  “From my special constitution. It’s probably something like, ‘I can understand this world's language.’”

  I raised an eyebrow at him. “You mean this continent’s language?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Huh?” We stared at each other for a moment. It was obvious we weren’t on the same wavelength. In an attempt to form an understanding between us, I had to clarify something. “Is it strange to have more than one language in the world?”

  I stared at him, wondering if everyone from his world spoke English. At least in our world, people of different land masses had different languages.

  “Huh? No- Well I mean… Maybe? But you’re right, there are multiple languages in my world too. I guess this is just a preconception I had that’s wrong. Is your language… something like yo-yo, right?”

  “You mean Jovixian? Yes, that’s my language.”

  “Do you speak any other language?”

  “No, but I have just the thing for this. See if you understand what I’m saying.” Saying so, I revealed my dictionary and asked word by word if he could understand me in Zexeran, trying to dig up the dusty memories of what I was taught a few years ago.

  “The grammar sounds a little off, but you asked if I could understand you, right?”

  “That’s right! I guess you really can understand the languages of the world.”

  “Kufufu. Maybe this won’t be as bad as I thought. At the very least, I can talk to people, plus I already have a friend here! All that’s left is to complete the task I was sent by God to do.” After finishing his monologue, he turned to me excitedly and asked me a question out of the blue. “Zinaether, can you teach me magic!?”

  I was caught off guard by his question, so I took a second to process and respond. “Huh? Wait wait wait, what? Where did this come from? Plus, you look old enough to be a magister already? Why do I have to teach you?”

  “I might as well be a few minutes old in this world. I don’t know anything about anything, and according to God, I only came to this world to defeat the Demon God, so I need to learn how to use magic! Please, help me out.” He looked me in my eyes, and I could feel the honesty from them. At this point, I pretty much believed that he came from another world. His story more or less aligned with what God’s Apostle predicted, and he clearly wrote in a different language I’ve never seen or heard of in this world, so it was hard to say he was lying. Following that logic, wouldn’t I be an enemy of Humanity if I rejected him? He didn’t know it, but he managed to put me in a hard to refuse position. I had to at least put on the airs to show I’m not someone easy to manipulate.

  “Hahhh. I have no obligation to do anything for you. As far as I know, you could be lying. That being said, it also could be said that I saved your life. Since I’m your benefactor, I feel like it’d be a waste to not teach you magic. My training is gonna be harsh, but if I see you ease up or try to quit, we’re through, understand? You better be grateful!”

  “Yes sir!”