In the wasteland that occupied the space between the Human and Demon territory.

  The ground rumbled under the march of the thousands of undead. Sounds of dry grass crunching underfoot echoed wherever the army passed. Although the ground was more or less clear, there were a few patches of dark red on the brown and yellow ground of the wasteland. Death was common in the wastelands, but the only evidence of that was the common sighting of large patches of dried blood adding to the color of the wastelands. No bodies could be seen on the ground.

  Behind the army, a figure in a sleeveless white half coat and baggy white pants suddenly appeared, seemingly stepping through thin air. After it looked over the surroundings, a toothy smile of understanding crept onto its face in understanding before it took another step. As if passing through a barrier, the figure disappeared.

  There was another wave of undead approaching Human territory through the wasteland, their numbers completely lining the horizon. Zinaethia had already notified The Kingdom that she, along with The Destined, were currently walking there now. The Kingdom prompted her to use the Warp Formation within Twin Star Lake City, but she was dead set on walking. Unable to actually force her to use it, The Kingdom could only remind her to not dawdle, as the course of the war may well be in the balance. Since she was currently traveling, her area of jurisdiction was left undefended. In order to fill the massive gap she left, The Kingdom had to issue a quest to the Mercenary Magister Guild as well as send squads of young nobles to gain experience in fighting against the undead.

  A young noble with spiky violet red hair volunteered to defend Twin Star Lake City when he heard about the situation from his father. His goal was simple, to gain clout among the higher ups in The Kingdom! “If some random talent from a coastal city can defend the place, a noble like myself should have no problems. I was thinking about requesting some in the field training anyways.”

  Despite the clear arrogance he displayed in that statement, nothing he said was technically wrong. Nobles were inherently stronger than half-nobles and commoners who had more diluted blood than them, and therefore naturally weaker mana veins. In spite of that common knowledge, his father only shook his head and warned him. “Be careful while you’re out there. She was able to defend Twin Star Lake’s jurisdiction single handedly, yet The Kingdom is sending squads upon squads of talents with enough potential to inherit the title of Imperial Guard out to defend it. That should not only be a testament to her strength, but the danger of the battle out there. You must always proceed with caution. And for God’s sake, stop underestimating Lady Zinaethia. You’re nothing but an ignorant calf with no fear of a tiger!”

  The noble’s father had watched Zinaethia overpower his firstborn son, the Imperial Guard of their family! As such, he had a deep and profound respect for her strength. Although he could understand his second son’s arrogance, since he shared such a feeling when he first met Zenithia, all that had changed.

  Now that she had apparently made contact with The Destined, his Majesty issued a summon in order to verify her claim. Since she was walking, the King was prepared to wait a few days and had people stationed at the northern gate so they could receive her immediately.

  The young noble was able to reach the city instantly thanks to the Warp Formation in his family’s territory and was currently preparing to intercept the undead with his squad. “We should do a check down before we encounter the undead. I refuse to allow even a single one of you to die.” Despite his strong words when he volunteered, the young noble actually took his father’s words to heart. In the Complex Magister Academy, he and his squad trained together for years and were extremely close, therefore he was prepared to do everything in his power to keep casualties down to zero. The young noble didn’t want to attend any of his friend’s funerals!

  Everyone in the squad understood two important points about a battlefield: that it was unpredictable, and that life and death were never guaranteed. As such, they had to do everything in their power to prepare for the worst. The check down was an efficient way to find out relevant information from each other.

  “First check!” The violet red haired noble yelled out a simple phrase, everyone in the squad responded in an orderly and efficient manner.

  “Elathia! Mana reserves max!”

  “Cazun! Mana reserves max!”

  “Kyozin! Mana reserves max!”

  “Nanskynn! Mana reserves max!”

  “Good! Second check!”

  After confirming his squad’s status, he looked over them as he proceeded to the second check. “The healing potions are all accounted for and stored in our wristbands. Each of us has five.” Elathia, a pretty woman with hair that looked like liquid gold and bright pink eyes, confirmed how many healing potions they had. In total there were twenty-five, but these were only to be used in life or death moments since producing them was somewhat tedious.

  Using water from an extremely mana rich environment as the base, then concentrating the mana from healing magic into the water created a healing potion. The effectiveness varied based on the concentration of mana in the base and the amount of healing mana inside, but they were a lot faster to use than just standard healing magic and didn’t require any mana to activate, meaning these could even be used to treat the injuries of non-magisters.

  “All of our magic weapons are also prepared. This includes Captain’s Blowgun and wind manarocks, Ela’s Shadow Prison set, my Hioqi magic sword, Kyo’s Thunder Storm set, and Kynn’s magic shield.” Saying so, the tall and thin Cazun who had short gray hair that seemed almost metallic and large orange eyes, handed everybody their weapons.

  “Perfect. Third check.” The captain nodded and turned to his next squadmate.

  “Wristbands are functioning fine. Communications should not be an issue unless something happens during the battle.”

  “I’ll take care to make sure it doesn’t. Final check.” The captain confirmed that communications were up with Kyozin, who had one of his yellow eyes covered by his neon green hair. He then turned to his final squad member, Nanskynn. Her hair was sky blue and short in length, barely reaching above her shoulders and her eyes were neon orange. She was also the shortest one in the squad.

  “Everybody is completely calm and has no extraneous thoughts that may distract them during the battle.”

  “I’m still thankful that a psychic magister like you joined our squad.” His words caused Nanskynn to blush slightly and she lowered her head to hide her face. The captain turned to face the rest of his squad and spoke loudly.

  “That goes for all of you. You’re all my important squad mates and friends. I won’t tolerate any of you losing focus and getting yourself or anyone else hurt. Let’s handle this mission and prove why we were one of the top squads at CMA before graduating.”

  ““““Yeah!””””

  Everyone responded positively to their captain's speech. After finishing their war cry, they prepared to face the undead army that was approaching this time. Each put on their battle outfits. The women wore gold and white, lengthy hooded robes with a design of a castle tower with a crown on the back and the men fashioned tight fitting, black compression clothing underneath Beast armor or half length shoulder cloaks. Once they completed getting dressed, they set out from Twin Star Lake City in the direction of the battleground of the war against the undead, the wastelands!

  They walked neither fast nor slow on their way to the battlefield. The scenery gradually became less and less of the lush green plains that the city was located in and more of the dead, yellow and brown wastelands where Humans and Demons fought to expand their borders. Silhouettes of other squads appeared in the distance as they closed in on the battlefield. The sky also turned from blue to grey almost imperceptibly. Their captain was obviously in the lead, followed by Elathia and Kyozin who were walking in silence, and Cazun and Nanskynn talking quietly in the rear.

  “Captain is taking this pretty seriously, huh?” Cazun leaned down and spoke to Nanskynn with a low voice. They were the tallest and shortest members of the squad respectively, so he had to lower himself considerably to get near her ear.

  “Of course he is, this city has been defended personally by a member of the Imperial Guard after all. If he can defend this city well and make a name for himself here, he’ll have an argument about why he should join a city guard. If it works, he can use it to springboard up the social ladder and gain enough reputation to have the right to challenge his older brother for his spot in the Imperial Guard!” Nanskynn explained their captain’s motivation to her squad mate, which he responded to by nodding.

  “Which means it’s our job to make sure he can achieve his goal.”

  This time, Nanskynn was the one that nodded. “Exactly. After everything he’s done for us, it’s the least we can do to try to pay him back, right?”

  With her last word, she smiled sweetly and stared at her captain’s back. “Easy now. If you stare at him so longingly he may finally notice your intentions.”

  Nanskynn blushed and her eyes quickly darted away from her captain’s back to the ground near her feet while she wore an embarrassed look, forcing Cazun to stifle a laugh. Their captain didn’t seem to notice, but Kyozin and Elathia both glanced back for a moment with raised eyebrows before returning their eyes forward. Once they looked away, Nanskynn lightly punched him on the shoulder and berated him. “Be serious! We’re about to enter a battle you know?”

  “It’s not like we haven’t fought waves of undead before. Besides, Captain did his research. Apparently ever since Lady Zinaethia took over the defense of Twin Star Lake City, not a single Demon has been sent to attack here. Rumor has it that this place was a crisis zone that was constantly in danger of being swallowed up by the Demon territory, but once Lady Zinaethia showed up everything changed. The numbers have been obscured over the years, but the older locals who were around at the time claimed she single handedly defeated anywhere between five and fifty Demons on her first day of defense.”

  Nanskynn practically jumped from how startled she was. “Fifty? Aren’t they over exaggerating?”

  Cazun shrugged at Nanskynn’s incredulous response. “That’s what me and Captain thought, but even barring that, five Demons by herself is already unbelievable. Most nobles have to form squads just to be able to take on a single Demon with some certainty, but the Demons had to form a squad just to challenge her, and lost anyway! She’s like a Demon to Demons!” Nanskynn nodded and tried to imagine being able to take on even a single Demon by herself, but she couldn’t even picture it. “Getting back to the point, ever since that day, not a single Demon has been sent to attack the Twin Star Lake City. Although the waves of undead are ceaseless, it seems as though the Demon God has given up any real attempts at trying to capture the city thanks to her. With that in mind, I think I can stand to be a little light hearted.”

  Nanskynn sighed, helpless before Cazun’s light hearted attitude. Her thoughts returned to the situation of Twin Star Lake City. When they arrived through the Warp Formation the city was peaceful and beautiful, the citizens were happily chatting away, and the city guards were slacking off by either sleeping or drinking. Nanskynn couldn’t even imagine that place being a crisis zone in constant danger of being usurped by Demons. And to think it was all thanks to one person.

  “There’s a reason she acquired the title of ‘Strongest Imperial Guard’…” Nanskynn mumbled quietly and Cazun also nodded with a serious expression before it quickly changed to a light smile.

  “Let’s do our best to help Captain earn that title in the future.”

  “It starts with this battle.” Saying so, they both sped up their pace and fell in stride with the rest of their party.

  The sounds of battle rang throughout the air. Looking down from above, countless flashes of colors shot across the yellow and brown ground of the wastelands. On one side, a sea of grey and green slowly approached Human territory. On the other side, a smaller but still considerable number of Humans faced the wave of undead, constantly firing off magic spells into the crowd of zombies.

  Squads of magisters each used their own methods and tactics to try and annihilate the approaching army. One squad in particular stood apart from the rest in terms of the speed they killed the undead. Three of its members were behind enemy lines wreaking havoc from within the army while other squads were stuck holding off its advancement.

  One of them sliced through one zombie after another with a blade of fire, cutting those in his path down like straw and leaving a long trail of fire that followed the path of his sword. His movements were sharp and dangerous, yet he flowed from one slash to the next elegantly, as if he was creating art with his sword technique. He moved fast through crowds of zombies and anywhere he passed by, heads would be sliced open and bodies would be falling.

  Another was surrounded by multiple streaks of lighting orbiting around him, creating rings of lightning that would electrocute anything that approached him. With the guide of his hands, the bolts would jump out and pierce multiple zombies before coming back and returning to orbit again. With every flash of lightning that extended into the army of zombies, dozens of heads would explode and undead bodies would collapse onto the ground and disintegrate into dust.

  The final member of the three that were infiltrating the undead side was actually facing off against a few Skeletons.

  The undead army consisted of three tiers of strength. In order of weakest to strongest, the tiers were zombies, Skeletons, and Demons. zombies were produced when the Life Crystal put into the corpse by Demon God didn’t have enough mana to qualify ascending to a Skeleton. zombies had no conscious mind and were only reanimated thanks to the mana from the Life Crystal. As such, they had minimal mana control and only moved on orders from stronger undead. Although they had high physical strength and were unperturbed by pain, thanks to their lack of self awareness they were weak enough that even if new magisters couldn’t kill them, they could at least avoid being killed by them.

  The power gap between Skeletons and zombies was so wide that it was hard to believe Skeletons essentially evolved from them. Skeletons somehow managed to regain their minds to a certain degree, meaning they were able to strategize and use magic! Not only that, but the strength of their bones were enhanced by their mana, which could result in strange mutations like spikes on their bones, horns on their skull, or tails emerging from their spines. Skeletons had access to a unique type of magic deemed “bone magic” by Humans. Like the name implied, Skeletons could manipulate their bones with their magic, granting them a sharp offense and sturdy defense.

  The captain was facing off against three Skeletons. Two of them had no notable features, but the one that was obviously the leader stood in front and had four horns. The two outside horns were thick and curved backwards to sharp points and the inside ones were thin and pointed upwards at a slightly tilted back angle.

  Three Skeletons and a man stood a dozen steps across from each other. The area around them was empty. No zombies or magisters were within twenty meters of them. Time seemed to freeze. Suddenly, there was a dull boom and the captain became a blur that shot towards the horned Skeleton.

  He arrived in front of it in an instant. His figure became clear and his violet red hair fluttered violently. His arms were surrounded by high speed winds that rotated like drills and he punched at it’s skull. The Skeleton ducked under the punch and swung its hand upwards, violently ripping through the captain! Bones also erupted beneath the captain’s feet and formed a pillar of long javelin like bones skewering him. His figure distorted and faded away, and there was a crash next to the horned Skeleton. One of the regular Skeletons was on the ground without a skull. Standing above the pile of bones with a hand through its detached skull was the captain, holding a heart shaped crystal that was emitting strong mana fluctuations and contained a mysterious energy swirling within it.

  A Life Crystal!

  The captain immediately crushed it in his hand and the pile of bones beneath him turned to dust and drifted away. The him that was pierced by bones was an afterimage created using wind to distract the horned Skeleton so he could deal with the small fry. While the horned Skeleton was distracted, he needed to kill both of the regular Skeletons so they wouldn’t distract him at some point later. With that plan in mind, immediately after he crushed the Life Crystal, he used his other hand to point at the second regular Skeleton. A yellow magic circle formed in front of his finger in two seconds, then a thin ray of lightning pierced through the Skeleton’s head. Its fire-like eyes faded and it quickly collapsed on itself before turning to dust and fading away.

  The horned Skeleton turned around just in time to see the second Skeleton collapse and lunged at the captain. It thrust its claw like finger bones forward and countless bones began to branch out from its arm and shot towards the captain like a spear. In response, a wind magic circle formed to his right and a Wind Track carried him out of the way of the attack.

  He cast an advanced wind spell while he rode his Wind Track and the air around him began to swirl and launched a flurry of sharp wind blades that curved at various angles, making predicting and dodging them several times harder. The horned Skeleton tried its best, but small cuts began to stack up. Once one limb was completely severed, the rest began to get sliced off left and right until all four limbs were detached and chopped to pieces. The captain approached the… Well, it wasn’t so much of a Skeleton anymore as it was just a rib cage and skull tethered together by the spine and magic. He wanted to ask if there were any more Skeletons around, but he knew it was pointless. Undead couldn’t talk.

  With that in mind he pointed towards the skull of the horned Skeleton and prepared to cast another electric spell, but his chest tightened and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He had a few years of experience fighting undead, not to mention his time in Complex Magister Academy, so his instincts were very sharp and reliable. At that moment, he felt as though there was danger nearby and quickly turned around. A storm of small, sharp bones were flying at him from behind! The horned Skeleton was trying to catch him right before he dealt the finishing blow, when his guard was the lowest. Out of nowhere, a thick wall of ice formed between the bones and the captain. All of the bones either crashed into it or were frozen inside of it. No matter what, though, not a single bone managed to reach him.

  -Perfect timing, as always.-

  -You can count on me, Captain.- The captain returned his focus to the horned Skeleton on the ground after Nanskynn’s thought communication. The limbs of the Skeleton were rapidly regrowing, but they weren’t done yet and it couldn’t move. Since it was focusing on regeneration, it couldn’t split its focus to keep attacking the captain. The captain aimed his finger at its forehead once again and cast the same electric spell that killed the last Skeleton. With that, all of the Skeletons in the area were killed.

  After looking around to confirm, he brought his wristband close to his mouth and cast Transfer on the acoustic manarock to begin a transmission to the rest of his squad. “Cazun, Kyozin, we’re pulling out of this area. I took care of the Skeletons leading this troop of zombies so they should become like loose sand and collapse soon enough. We can leave the rest to other squads while we regroup with Nanskynn and Elathia.”

  [Sounds good to me!]

  [Right.]

  Cazun and Kyozin confirmed the order and all three began to make their way back through the zombies. The captain was approaching the edge of the army where they clashed with Humans and called out to his squad. “First check!”

  “Elathia! Mana reserves about 50%.”

  “Cazun! Mana reserves around 30%.”

  “Kyozin! 30% as well.”

  “Nanskynn! I’m at less than a quarter of max.”

  “Aleius! I’m doing fine!”

  The captain clicked his tongue after hearing how his squad was doing. Ignoring that random man, Aleius, the rest of them were all worse for wear. Thankfully, throughout the battle they managed to slay a majority of the undead in this attack and crush their Life Crystals, but there were more than they anticipated so they were running out of mana. Especially Nanskynn, who used her magic to defend the others. They were only able to survive so long with minor injuries because she could use her psychic magic to determine when someone was in danger and use her freeze and metal magic to block attacks. As a result her mana consumption rate was a lot more severe than the rest. -I’m at about 40% of my maximum amount of mana as well. This may call for a change of tactics.-

  An average squad of magisters usually consisted of about five magisters. While different groups had different types of magisters, squads always wanted at least one person to be able to deal high damage, one to block damage, and one to heal. The young noble’s squad was actually extremely well balanced and stable. They had three attackers in the front to kill the undead, a healer in the middle to take care of the ones that managed to get hurt, and one defender who could cover everyone’s back in the rear. Their formation was designed so the three attackers at the vanguard could kill as many undead as they could while the other two out of harm's way for the most part so they could provide support in the most efficient way possible.

  After pondering for a moment, the captain gave new orders. “Prepare for a retreat. We’ve severely cut down the number of undead advancing towards Twin Star Lake City. The rest of the magisters that came should be able to handle it if they aren’t complete wastrels. Our positions will be myself and Elathia covering us while you guys hurry back to safety. Let’s go!”

  At that last sentence, two of the three vanguards fell back while one of the rear guards stepped forward a bit. Elathia transferred mana into four palm sized pitch black stones, then threw them towards the zombies in front of her in four different directions. Once the others got behind her, she set down the last stone in front of her and formed a black Transfer magic circle in front of her hand. A stream of shadow mana flew from the circle to the stone. Soon enough, thin black lines extended from one stone to another until they were all connected. If one were to look down from the sky, it would look like a pentagon was drawn on the earth. The thin black lines rose into the sky, creating walls of darkness that no light could enter, forming a structure of darkness that encapsulated the large area between all the stones.

  Shadow Prison constructed!

  Elathia’s Shadow Prison set was a group of five shadow manarocks that were magically linked to each other. Using the spell concept of Shadow Domain as the foundation, a certain magical scientist developed a method to allow the set to be able form walls of shadow mana between themselves as long as all of the manarocks in the set were stimulated by a shadow magister. The main advantage of using the Shadow Prison set rather than the Shadow Domain spell was mana efficiency. Although the spell was directly under the caster’s control and therefore more versatile, it also came at the cost of a lot of mana to cast and maintain. In contrast, although the Shadow Prison was less flexible in usage, it was able to maintain itself after its initial activation without any additional mana from the magister.

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  After the Shadow Prison was formed, Elathia spoke into her wristband. “Alright captain. We’re waiting for y—!”

  [Elathia?! What happened?! Respond!]

  The captain began to panic. He remained in the midst of the undead, allowing the Shadow Prison to form around him since he was also a shadow magister. He was planning on killing all of the undead trapped in the Shadow Prison before he made his way towards his squad since he still had a bit of mana to spare, but since Elathia was cut off from her communication, he forgot about all that and immediately warped to the edge of the Shadow Prison and ran out. The scene before him was almost enough to make him pass out from an explosion of emotions.

  Before his eyes, Elathia lay in a pool of blood, staining the dry dirt and dead grass of the wasteland red. There was a hole on the left side of her chest, blood ran down her mouth and chin, and her eyes were wide with shock. Just from the look on her face, the young noble could tell she didn’t even know how she died. He looked up towards his squad and saw Cazun received a similar fate, and Kyozin and Nanskynn were both being held in the air by their throats by a man with dull gray hair and murky brown eyes that seemed to trap all light that entered. His white loose half coat and pants were stained scarlet and his dripping red hands holding the young noble’s remaining two squad mates stood in stark contrast with his otherwise pale as paper skin.

  “ALEIUUUUUUUS!” The young noble roared out in a rage and pointed his finger towards the one holding his two squad mates hostage. Without waiting for an explanation, he transferred mana to a royal blue manarock on his wristband and grabbed the Blowgun that appeared from it. Putting it on his finger, a pale green magic circle began forming at the tip of it, expanding rapidly. “For killing them, you shall pay with your life! I swear it! On the name of Zyn Seigxin, I swear it!”

  Wind magic: Phantasm Spiral Shard

  As he finished declaring his revenge, a sound exploded as something shot out from the Blowgun. It was covered in a spiraling wind and was moving so fast that it was impossible to make out, only leaving an elongating tornado behind it. The two from Zyn’s squad knew that it was a shard of wind manarock. The special property of wind manarock made it extremely light, meaning it was easy to carry and accelerate it with wind. In addition, the spiral nature of the wind increased the penetrative power of the shot, making this Zyn’s most effective anti personnel attack. -This attack would be enough to pierce even a Demon! It’s a bit excessive, he dared to kill my friends like that! He deserves to die a thousand times!-

  Aleius tried to move his hostages in front of the approaching manarock, but as if it knew he’d try that, the winds guided the shot to curve around the hostages and hit him between the eyes. Aleius dropped Kyozin and Nanskynn, allowing them to breathe again. They were coughing as Zyn flew in and swooped both of them up without stopping. He quickly became a small dot in the distance, approaching Twin Star Lake City at max speed.

  “Sht! Sht! Sh*t! Why did it come to this?!” Zyn couldn’t stop cursing as he flew towards the Twin Star Lake City.

  “Elaaaa! Cazuuuun! Captain, we have to go back and get them! What are you doing?!” Nanskynn was crying as she demanded Zyn to return. As the team’s defender and a psychic magister, she was constantly protecting all of them and would always blame herself if they got hurt, whether it was emotionally or physically. Without a doubt she was the most in tune with each of the squad's members. On top of that, she felt how shocked and terrified they were when they died. Now that they were flying away, she couldn’t help but question her captain’s actions. There was no way she could leave her best friends behind like that.

  “Did you see any blood?”

  “Huh?” Nanskynn stopped complaining momentarily at Zyn’s sudden question. Kyozin, who looked like he had lost his soul, also looked at Zyn, confused.

  “When I shot Aleius, did you see any blood splatter?”

  “Of— huh?” Nanskynn was about to respond, but when she thought about it, even if she didn’t see it, she definitely would’ve felt some of the blood splatter on her, however she didn’t feel anything like that. She looked over at Kyozin, and he didn’t have any blood on him at all. Before she could gather her thoughts, Zyn spoke again.

  “Somehow… Somehow I think he survived my attack.”

  “That’s impossible!”

  “I can’t explain it either, but no matter what, even if I wanted to go back for their bodies, I couldn’t. This guy is obviously gonna be a problem. I have to report to The Kingdom about his existence as fast as I can.” As he said that, his shoulders were trembling, but not from the weight of his friends. Rather, it was the weight of his decision. Zyn thought back to before the battle.

  -‘I refuse to allow even a single one of you to die?’ Yeah right. Two of them… Not just one, but two of them died today! And here I am running away just because I don’t think I can win. Elathia… Cazun… I’m sorry. I’ve failed you as a captain and as a friend.- Zyn’s vision began getting blurry, then a tear fell from his eye and was immediately left behind in the distance. Trying to use his shoulder to rub his eye, he tilted his head to the right and noticed a strange flicker. All the alarms in his body immediately triggered. A feeling of anxiety, dread, rage, confusion, and sadness all swirled up into one and made him feel uncomfortable in his own skin. Without waiting to confirm what it was and without warning, Zyn immediately rose to a higher altitude. He was originally flying low to the ground in case his two remaining friends asked to be set down, but he could no longer afford such luxuries. Kyozin and Nanskynn were confused by the sudden rise.

  “H-Hey! What’s going on?” Nanskynn immediately checked his thoughts with psychic magic, her face filling with fear as soon as she did. “That’s impossible. That’s actually impossible! There’s no way he caught up! We were flying so fast and we had a head start. If he caught up…”

  She didn’t dare finish her thought, but even without psychic magic, the other two knew what she was thinking.

  -There’s no escaping him.- They all thought those words, but didn’t speak them out loud, not wanting to bring that fear into existence. But whether or not they said it, reality proved their premonition correct.

  Suddenly, Zyn froze. No, that wasn’t right. It was more accurate to say he was sinking at an accelerating rate. “Th-This feeling!” Zyn struggled those words out as they began plummeting from the sky. Still trying his best to resist the force pulling him down, he looked down and began calculating how long until he hit the ground. Once he was a safe distance from the ground, he flung his arms forward, throwing Kyozin and Nanskynn ahead of him towards the Twin Star Lake City. “Tuck and roll!”

  He called out as he threw them. The two of them were confused as they looked back at Zyn. They could see all the veins on his neck and head, showing how hard he was trying to resist the force to no avail. The two that were thrown managed to land safely, but their captain crashed into the earth, creating a giant dust cloud and leaving a crater.

  ““CAPTAIN!”” The two called out towards their leader, but instead of his voice, an ominous laughter rang out, sending chills down their spines and causing their skin to crawl.

  “Fufufu. FUAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! AMAZING!” Aleius walked out from the dust cloud, holding the limp body of Zyn. “You’re seriously amazing you know? Your control over mana is amazing, being able to curve the bullet like that. Your decisiveness is amazing. You immediately realized I was alive and tossed your dead comrades to the side to save the ones that were still alive. Even now, you didn’t want them to get hurt in the crash, so you tossed them out of the way. Your ability to survive is amazing. I’m surprised you still haven’t kicked the bucket yet you know? Especially considering how Humans are so squishy. When you become a Demon, maybe we’ll be able to work together, huh? I’m sure with your ability, Lord Demon God will make you a general of the army easily.” Aleius tossed Zyn’s body towards the other two, causing them to run over to him.

  “Human?”

  “Demon God?” They repeated keywords that Aleius had said as they both took out healing potions and poured them on his wounds and helped him drink it.

  “Yes, yes, you’re shocked and confused so you can’t help repeating what I’m saying to try and make sense of it. Let’s save the irrelevant chatter and white noise for someone who will entertain it. Those are healing potions right? How long will they take to fix him up? If I get bored, I may just kill some time killing you both.” As he rambled on, Zyn began coughing. He had been in a strange state where he was conscious, but couldn’t move. Naturally he heard everything Aleius had said.

  He struggled and stood up, then patted both of his friends on their heads. “Thanks for being by my side all this time.”

  “We would never leave you behind!” Kyozin wordlessly nodded and Nanskynn immediately reassured him as they stood up next to him.

  “You two are basically out of mana though, right?”

  “Mmm.” Kyozin nodded.

  “Yeah. To be honest, I have a pretty serious headache. It feels like my nose will start bleeding at any second.”

  Headaches were the tell tale sign that a magister had overused their mana from their mana vein. When their blood-mana concentration levels get under 20%, their noses will start to bleed. If their mana levels reached absolute zero, their mana vein wouldn’t be able to produce more mana naturally, essentially turning them into regular people. Zyn wouldn’t allow his friends to throw their futures away! “Give your weapons to me, then run.”

  “Huh?”

  “What?!” Nanskynn and Kyozin were startled by their captain’s sudden order. Didn’t he hear what they said about staying by his side?

  “There’s no reason all three of us have to die! If you give me your weapons, with my remaining mana I should be able to hold him off long enough for you two to get back to the city. There’s no way he’ll be able to take down the entire city filled with magisters.”

  It was a lie. Both Kyozin and Nanskynn knew it was a lie. Since Zinaethia requested and managed to defend the city by herself, the only magisters there were the city guards, who weren’t outstandingly strong, and the regular residents who happen to be magisters. All of the other magisters were already in the wasteland holding off this wave of the undead! The only magister that may have been of any use was the city lord, however he had to defend the city and couldn’t leave for any random reason. However, since their captain had gone out of his way to lie, they trusted him and went along with it.

  “Mmm.”

  “Yes— Yessir.” They obediently handed over their magic weapons. Once they did, a gust of wind pushed them in the direction of the city. Understanding Zyn’s message, the two turned around and ran, crying their eyes out and stumbling multiple times while wiping their eyes.

  “You know, for all the amazing things you’ve shown me, that was pretty lame. There’s nothing stopping me from killing them whenever I want.”

  “Hmph! You’ll have to trample my dead body if you want to even head in their direction!” Without waiting for what Aleius said next, a large, pale green magic circle formed behind his back, generating a tailwind that launched him forward. Holding the shield he received from Nanskynn, he braced for impact. The magic shield was made from metal manarock.

  Manarocks had special effects based on what mana they had in them, and magisters who also use that mana can increase the potency of the manarock’s natural ability. Earlier on when Zyn shot the wind manarock from his blow gun, the increased effect of being aided by wind magic made it one with the wind, essentially becoming weightless. That’s why Zyn could so simply alter the course of the rock. That’s also why Nanskynn, who could wield metal magic, used this magic shield. Even though he couldn’t bring out the full effect of the metal manarock’s natural ability, it was still as hard as usual and the metal manarock’s special ability of extreme solidity was still present, even if it wasn’t being enhanced.

  With all of that in mind, Zyn decided to attempt a charge on Aleius. He didn’t really hope to win, but he was hoping to stall him for long enough that his last two friends could survive.

  All of a sudden, an extreme force crashed into Zyn, causing him to drop the shield and get sent flying backwards. After bouncing off of the ground a few times, he recovered his posture and landed on his feet before skidding to a stop. The shield happened to land right beside him, so he was about to pick it up when he noticed there was a huge dent in it.-Did he do that with his fist?!-

  After seeing that, Zyn had decided to trust the conclusion he reached earlier. “You! One of your magic natures is the Hidden Class, force magic isn’t it!?”

  “How very perceptive. You’re definitely awesome, being able to figure that out after only seeing it displayed twice.”

  “...” Zyn didn’t bother responding. The only reason he knew was because his father also had force magic. He had seen it first hand up close, so of course he would recognize it. -This guy… he’s gonna be a real problem if he’s allowed to run free.-

  Discarding his hesitation, he threw out the Thunder Storm set of manarocks. They were electric manarocks, and Zyn just so happened to be an electric magister as well, so he could utilize these to their maximum potential. Yellow Transfer magic circles appeared in the air one after another, each sending a stream of yellow mana to one of the five manarocks of the set. After they received his electric mana, the Thunder Storm set crackled with lightning that made them look like stars and began darting around him before they shot out towards Aleius, long streaks of lightning connected where they were a moment ago to their current location.

  With the enhancement from Zyn’s electric mana, their penetrative ability increased by ten times! Normal magisters may not have been able to see such a drastic enhancement in the manarocks’ natural ability, but in addition to being a noble, he actually specialized in electric magic. The Thunder Storm set blasted through where Aleius was and there was a huge crash, but Aleius had vanished from the spot. -Bright magic invisibility? No, I didn’t see any weird light fluctuations.-

  “You’re thinking too hard about it.” The voice sounded from right next to Zyn’s ear. He was startled, but before he could react, an intense wind blew by him from where Aleius previously was.

  “—! He used force magic to launch himself away?!”

  “Ding dong bing bong! What a smart guy! You’re such a nerd to be able to figure out something like that. Sir Demon God will definitely like you.” Aleius’s childishly happy voice sent a chill down Zyn’s spine.

  Zyn immediately cast a Wind Track to carry him away and willed the Thunder Storm set to attack Aleius again. Since he transferred his mana into the manarocks, he had a magical connection with them that allowed him to control them as if they were an extension of himself, even without casting a specific spell to guide them! Focusing more on Aleius’s movements this time, Zyn was able to keep up somewhat and direct the Thunder Storm set to follow after Aleius.

  While he was running and dodging, Aleius began to speak to Zyn again. “You know, I keep saying it, but now I feel like amazing doesn’t even do you justice. You’re crazy man! I mean that in the coolest way possible. I mean, to be able to produce an attack I feel the need to dodge and keep it up for so long— when Sir Demon God makes you a Demon, I’ll be sure to put in a good word. I’m sure you’ll be in his inner circle of strongest fighters along with me in no time.”

  After finishing his piece, he suddenly stopped dodging. Well, to say that wasn’t completely accurate. He allowed the individual manarocks to get near him, then sidestepped at the last second and hit them, destroying the Thunder Storm set one by one. “I didn’t want to take them head on, but in the end your manarocks are so fragile. If you had high quality gear, you may have been able to last a little longer. I guess the gift is just as useless as the people you receive them from.”

  At those words, Zyn was ready to fly into a rage, but he kept his cool. His goal wasn’t to kill the bastard in front of him. Well it was, but it was an unrealistic goal. No, what he wanted to do was buy enough time for his friends to escape.

  Seeing his lack of a reaction, Aleius frowned. “Even that wasn’t enough, huh? That was the best provocation I could think of too. Darn. Well, since you’re not gonna lose your mind to anger, I might as well reward you for being so awesome. You remember how I said I could kill your friends whenever I wanted? I wasn’t kidding. I’ve marked them with my mana. And with my chaos magic—” He vanished from Zyn’s sight. In the next instant, there was a hand grabbing the back of Zyn’s neck. “I can go where they are at a moment’s notice. Do you understand now? I hate people who do pointless things, like those irrelevant comments they made. That’s why I thought it was lame. If I hadn’t already tagged them, I would’ve thought this whole self sacrifice thing was pretty cool. It’s a shame, but since you’ve earned my respect, I’ll allow them to live until I run into them naturally again.”

  Zyn’s fist, which was clenched tightly since the moment he felt the grip on his neck, loosened slightly at his last words. -As long as they aren’t unlucky, they can live out the rest of their days in peace. I’m glad. I’m sorry, Elathia, Cazun, I couldn’t protect you, but I managed to keep those two safe. Please forgive this useless captain for feeling relieved right now.- Tears fell from his eyes as he thought of his dead friends.

  “On one condition.” As if sensing he was at peace, Aleius interrupted his reprieve. Wiping his eyes, he gave Aleius a glare. “That’s what I like to see. Anyways, you should have one more type of magic you haven’t used right? I’ve seen your wind and electic magic, but what’s your third nature? I want you to show me in a battle. Go all out! This will be your last stand as a Human before you get turned into a Demon!” Zyn had given up on responding to Aleius, writing him off as a psychopath. Rather than immediately using his shadow magic though, he pulled out his Blowgun and loaded a wind manarock, and started making a magic circle.

  “...I see…” Aleius made a comment, then something shocking occured. The wind magic circle that was forming in front of the blowgun shattered. Zyn was startled, but he took it in stride, resigned to fight the best he could. The next spell he started casting was electric. The spell was different from any he had used during his battle with the undead, so he assumed it should work. In the instant his wind magic shattered, he made an assumption the magic Aleius had seen before wouldn’t work. Thinking like that, he began to cast a complex tier electric spell, but to his shock and dismay, the magic circle shattered before completion again. “Wasting time until the end? I told you to show me your last magic nature. I won’t allow anything else.”

  “How did you interrupt my spell?” Zyn was glowering at Aleius as he tried to deduce the cause of his spell’s failure. “I didn’t feel any mental disturbance, so I don’t think it’s psychic magic.”

  “You haven’t earned enough respect to learn my third magic yet.”

  “I see… so it wasn’t your chaos or force magic. I was worried for a second.” Before Aleius could respond, Zyn casted a complex tier shadow spell. Unlike the other ones, this magic circle formed completely and activated its effects. An area of pitch darkness formed around the two combatants.

  Shadow magic: Shadow Domain, cast!

  Zyn warped next to Aleius and threw a punch. His Shadow Domain had an additional effect added using the darkness to generate addition gravity. With the increased weight of his punch, his goal was to vent his anger towards Aleius, even if he had no hope to win. When his punch landed, however, his hand and wrist felt like they broke from the impact. He didn’t hold anything back in that punch, but he didn’t imagine Aleius’s face would feel like a mountain he had no hope of hurting.

  “Going for close combat instead of spells? Bad choice. You should remember how even your enhanced wind manarock couldn’t hurt me. How did you expect a regular punch to do anything?” Zyn pulled back and warped a safe distance away within the darkness, shaking his hand from the recoil of the punch. “Unless you were trying to do something else..?”

  A dark feeling rose within Zyn as soon as he said that, but it was too late. All of a sudden, and overwhelming pressure pressed down upon the whole area. Zyn had no choice but to drop to his knees. He began sweating profusely as he tried to resist, but he couldn’t do anything. He had to give his whole attention to not being crushed by the pressure, he couldn’t even try to cast a spell.

  The pressure was so immense that even the darkness began to distort, and eventually shattered. With the surroundings back in light, Zyn saw Aleius casually walking towards him. When Aleius got there, he grabbed Zyn’s hand with the wristband and took it off. “Man, you really are cool. You started a communication with your friends to transmit what you learned about me to them, huh? I get it, I get it, based on the way I talk I’m suuuuuper sure you thought I wouldn’t notice, but I’m sharper than I look you know? It’s pointless asking when you started recording since I have a pretty good idea, so I guess just let me tell them this: thanks to your awesome captain, you guys get to stay alive a bit longer! Exciting, I’m sure, but I hope you do something useful with this information and tell The Kingdom about me. I think they’ll be quite interested to know that I’m The Destined! Well, for the Demons and undead anyways. Have fun trying to make counter strategies for me and my mysterrrrrious third magic nature that seemingly negates magic. And if you can, tell your Destined that I look forward to having a match. It may happen sooner than you think! I mean after all, he wanted Lord Demon God to send something with a bit more intelligence. Bye now~!”

  As he finished, he crushed the wristband and tossed it to the side. He turned to look back at Zyn, who was still sweating intensely. “Oh, my force magic is still on, huh? My bad.” After saying so, the extreme pressure on Zyn lifted, however he still didn’t move. “Huh? Have you given into despair knowing that even your last move was seen through? Don’t feel too bad. Like I said, I’m pretty sharp you know? Hmmm… it seems that didn’t cheer you up. Oh! I know just what’ll do it. In addition to you, I was gonna make your subordinates that I killed into undead as well!”

  At those words, Zyn’s eyes flickered. Not missing this, Aleius continued on.“There’s a reaction! Well, I’m not sure if they have enough talent to be Demons, but they’ll be Skeletons for sure at the very least. I’ll ask Lord Demon God to make them your subordinates again! That probably motivates you a little bit, yeah? Now be ready to do your best for Lord Demon God. Well, it’s not like you really have a choice in the matter, you know?”

  Zyn realized Aleius was finished rambling and looked up to see Aleius’s huge, psychotic smile. Then, there was a sharp pain in his chest, followed by nothing.

  ———

  ———

  Four days after we started our journey, we finally reached the northern gate of The Kingdom. A giant gate made of royal blue bars with a design of a castle tower with a crown on top of it directly in the center stood before us with a line of people and vehicles extending into the distance in front of it. Silver stone walls were erected around the gate and spread as far as the eye could see. The wall was huge, tall enough to completely block vision of any buildings inside, and it looked like people were moving around on top of it.

  Compared to Twin Star Lake City or home, this place was incomparably vast. From what I heard from the city guards of my hometown, The Kingdom was an amalgamation of the sixteen noble families’ territories, and each nobles territory was at least the size of our city! Apparently some were even larger, and that wasn’t even mentioning the space within The Kingdom that was meant for commoners like myself. I peeked through the entrance gate and saw the buildings were huge and mostly made of stone, the streets were wide and filled with foot traffic and shop stalls, and the actual castle in the center of the city gave off an imperious aura that seemed to dominate the world as it stood head and shoulders above every other building and could be seen even though it was at least a hundred kilometers away.

  When we reached the entrance gate, a guard looked at all three of us, then knelt before Zinaethia. “Lady Zinaethia. I’m glad to see you’ve arrived in good health.”

  “Of course. Let’s skip all the formalities, shall we? This is The Destined, and we’re his squad.” As she said that, she pointed at Justin, indicating he was the one she was referring to. In response, the guard asked a question.

  “All three of you are in his squad? I was under the impression it was just yourself and The Destined.”

  “Does that matter to you? Just inform some of the higher ups rather than questioning me.”

  -Wait wait wait, he was under the impression it was just those two? Dear sister, mayhaps you forgot to tell them your little brother was the one who actually found him?-

  I looked over at Zinaethia. Seemingly sensing my stare, she turned her head and we met eyes. Her eyes showed no remorse or sympathy, as if saying, “I didn’t tell them about you, so what?” Feeling her intent as clear as day, my head dropped in defeat. Even if I wanted to be upset, there’s no point in that now.

  Before long, a lady with golden hair down to her shoulders that was tied in a bun seemingly appeared out of nowhere. She wore a tight fitting, white, long sleeve shirt that revealed her shoulders and a long dress with lots of folds on it that fluttered lightly in the breeze. Covering one shoulder was a white and gold high collared half robe bound at the collar by a golden chain. Her skin was quite pale, but was vibrant, as if her vitality was bursting out of her. She was rather short, her head reaching my shoulders, but her aura was so overwhelming that it made my heart race. I subconsciously prompted my chaos mana to flow through me and resist.

  She approached Zinaethia with wide arms. “Zinaethia! It’s good to see you again!”

  “Kiaethia! I’m so glad it was you that came to get us rather than someone else.” To my shock and awe, Zinaethia seemed genuinely excited as she ran up and hugged this new lady, Kiaethia. I didn’t even know she had access to such an emotion! After they finished, they both turned to look at us.

  “Hello, I’m Kiaethia Yuzutian. I’m currently the next in line to be the head of the Yuzutian family and am part of the Imperial Guard. Zinaethia and I have known each other for about a decade, I think. You two are..?” She introduced herself to us with a salute.

  “I’m Justin. I’m The Destined sent here by Human God to help defeat the Demons.” As he spoke, his aura generated an updraft that made his robe flutter majestically.

  “I’m Zinaether, but I’m sure you don’t actually care.”

  -You were just expecting Zinaethia and Justin anyways. I might as well just go home at this rate.- I gave a half assed introduction as defeated thoughts ran through my mind and I absentmindedly stared at the ground. I couldn’t help it though. I was probably just as irrelevant as my sister made me feel in the eyes of someone from the Imperial Guard. They were the strongest among the strong after all!

  Kiaethia approached us, but rather than walking straight to Justin like I expected, I felt her soft hands on my cheeks and my face was turned towards hers. At such a close distance, her purple-orange eyes like the sunset filled most of my vision and I could smell the scent of flowers coming from her.

  I was stunned. No girl had ever done anything like this to me before, so I didn’t know how to react. It was a situation I had absolutely zero experience in, so I froze, not daring to move. While I was stuck, she began speaking to me. “Of course I care. You were the one that discovered Justin, yes? You’ve done a great service to Humanity just by doing that. On behalf of all the Humans on this continent, I thank you.”

  After saying that, she kissed me on the tip on my nose, and that pushed me over the limits my mind could take. As she let go of my face, I fell backwards and landed on my butt. I could still feel where her lips were, but as I moved one of my hands towards my nose, a thought stopped me. -This is one of those things where the feeling will vanish as soon as I touch it, right? Does that mean I shouldn’t touch my nose? But I’m afraid I’m just imagining it, so I really should confirm that just happened, right? But wait, what if she thought I was trying to wipe it off? Wouldn’t that be rude?-

  My hand was stuck in mid air, unable to determine a course of action. Seeing that state she left me in, Kiaethia lightly laughed. “Do whatever you feel is right. I won’t think you’re rude or anything.”

  -Did I say that out loud? I must have. Wait, I should be thanking her, right?-

  “I just thanked you, so I believe the proper response is ‘You’re welcome.’”

  “R-Right! Thanks. I-I mean—! You’re welcome. Uhhhhh…” I felt like there was something else I wanted to say, but I couldn’t think of anything. I was just stuck staring at Kiaethia. Seeing me struggling, she laughed again.

  “You know, based on Zinaethia’s stories, I imagined you were the type to act like he was more important than The Destined. I’m glad to see it was just her habit of exaggerating.”

  “Please don’t believe her lies and slander. I promise I’m a good guy.”

  “Fufufu. Of course…” She chuckled as she finally turned towards Justin. “However it seems she wasn’t exaggerating when she told me how attractive you were.”

  Justin seemed a bit caught off guard, but he took the compliment in stride, unlike me. “You’re too kind. I’m not anything special. However, I would appreciate it if you weren’t trying to invade my privacy.”

  This time, it was Kiaethia who seemed caught off guard. Zinaethia walked over and patted her on the shoulder, smiling as she spoke to her. “Looks like Justin is just too good, huh? Even circle-less psychic magic doesn’t slip by him.”

  -Circle-less psychic magic?-

  “Does that mean…” I began mumbling to myself, but before I could finish, Zinaethia interrupted me.

  “Yes, she was reading your mind. That’s how she was able to respond, so even when you didn’t say anything. I’d say I’m disappointed, but to be honest, if I didn’t know she was a psychic magister she’d probably be able to read my mind as well, so don’t feel too horrible. Just realize that you’re trash compared to Justin.” And there it was. I almost got sympathy from my sister, just to be brutally shot down right at the end. It felt like she knew she got my hopes up and did it on purpose.