Edwin was afraid... Deathly afraid.

  He kept running toward his home with a blind fear that made him stumble over root and plant alike. The man who had lived in the forests for over thirty years was stumbling…

  “I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, I don’t…” he repeated that simple sentence over and over again as he ran toward his home base and relative safety. Deep inside his heart, he knew even his home wouldn’t be enough if that monster attacked, but he didn’t care.

  At that very moment, the bandit king would have rather stood in front of the king himself rather than in that clearing. At least with the king, his death would’ve been painless…

  Edwin had never in his life understood the concept of physical pain. He had understood mental pain and the pain of being violated both in body and soul, but he hadn't understood the pain everybody had always kept raving about. Now, he understood. He understood it so, so well.

  When the aura of that being had descended, the so-called Undying Horror had finally discovered the ridiculous nature of his name. He wasn’t undying, just the opposite. He was painfully mortal, and he was just starting to realize that truth…

  He knew he was still in danger, so he kept running toward his home. Still, the feeling of danger never gone away, and the silver ranker’s anxiety only kept rising. Why don’t I feel safe? Is it following me? Why is there a dragon in my forest?

  The feeling of danger only kept rising, so he still let out a small sigh of relief when he arrived at the cave he called home. Nobody else knew of his hiding place, so he was relatively sure he couldn’t be followed there, but the nagging feeling didn’t go away…

  Edwin opened the makeshift door he had built and vaulted inside the hidey-hole. Finally, he could breathe out and rest.

  The impact was painless, as was the infusion of death magic. With his last breath, Edwin had only one thing to say.

  “Thank you.”

  While the bandit king of Ronaheim had entered the ‘secret’ hiding place, he did not step out of it. Instead, a thin man, taller than most but by no means giant, walked out with a frown on his face. His bright green eyes glinted with the sunlight as he walked, and his medium-length black hair flowed with the errant winds that buffeted the thick forest. He wore plain brown pants and a grey linen shirt with short sleeves, perfectly nondescript while still being a good fit for the weather.

  Edwin’s body wouldn’t be found for some days, of that he was sure. The man, while no mage himself, had used an artifact that he had bought from an auction with some other interesting knickknacks a while back. That auction, while highly illegal, had been a profitable one. Khatesh elites needed equipment just as the Leorian ones, and they had more money to give in exchange for them.

  Sebastian Vern wandered through the forest at a relaxed clip, his emerald eyes calm and unthreatened. The beast in the nearby clearing would not care for one such as he, nor would the onyx ranker flying through the sky in search of the beast Edwin had run from. What was one iron ranker in the face of such beasts, after all?

  “I had such high hopes for Edwin too,” he sighed to himself, the calmness of his voice attracting the little unawakened birds of the forest to fly on top of his head in search of a good place to build their nest. “A ruthless man such as he could have been a good leader for the Forbidden Utterance, but eventually, his path was proven to be flawed. Too strong, too fast… I think he might’ve realized that himself too, don’t you think?”

  The small blue bird with a yellow tail chirped happily in answer, eliciting a kind-hearted laugh from the syndicate leader and restaurant owner. He enjoyed such small joys of life, and the forest was one of the best places to experience them. I really should visit more often, shouldn’t I? It’s not like I’m actually busy most of the time anyway…

  Vox shook his head as the bird flew away. Understandably, it had found his hair to be an unnatural resting place, and that was okay with him. Who was he to decide the nesting place of such a beautiful creature?

  The thin man sighed when he saw some bandits in the distance, and moved. No body enhancement spells activated, nor did affinityless mana course through his pathways, but no bandit saw him pass. That was good, as he didn’t want to be bothered. More precisely, Vox didn’t want to be bothered.

  Sebastian would have gladly conversed with the men and women combing through the forest. He imagined a lovely picnic in the forest and sighed. A picnic would be lovely indeed, but these people wouldn’t see Sebastian, the kind restaurant owner. No, they would see Vox, the syndicate leader, and that was no good. Then again, they wouldn't see Vox either, would they? I'm not wearing my mask, after all. Still, I'm fairly sure they wouldn't want to have a picnic... Drat.

  He continued his trek through the forest. He was not in a rush, as his mission had already been accomplished. Even better, he hadn’t had to use even a tenth of the death magic stored in the dagger slung on his waist. The killing of the bandit king had been much easier than he would’ve expected.

  Sebastian walked away back toward the capital, still at the very start of iron rank. No mana followed him even though he had just killed a silver ranker, nor did he wish it to. Instead, it flowed in another direction.

  The unbound mana moved towards the one who was the most deserving of the prize… Facing absolute rejection by the killer himself, it flowed to the one who had dealt the most damage instead. That recipient was the unconscious boy laying in the ruined clearing, unaware of the sudden windfall he was just about to receive.

  Although from the man’s perspective, that mana was no more than a curse.

  When Valar had passed out in the forest, he had expected to either die or open his eyes in the same clearing, but that proved to be untrue. Instead, he found himself in a room that was disconcertingly familiar. The clean white walls, bright blue enchanted lights and strangely comfortable bed reminded him of a place he had found himself just after awakening and had even worked at for a week.

  Valar was at an infirmary, no doubt about that.

  Even better, he wasn’t alone. Unlike the room he had found himself in over two and a half months ago, this one had multiple beds. Six to be exact, although one seemed to have been vacated recently. In the four other beds were his friends, the other members of team Cookie Sandwich.

  “You awake?” Arthur asked with a grin on his face. “We were starting to worry after the second day!”

  “The second day?” Valar mumbled. “What happened?”

  “You don’t remember? We got beat up by that Undying Horror guy really bad… Did you lose your memory?”

  “I remember that!” Valar scoffed. I remember much more too… “But how did we get here? What even is ‘here’?”

  “The answer to your first question is harder to answer,” Rodrick grunted from his bed on the other side of the room. “But the answer to your latter question is easy. We’re in the northern infirmary of Rhondell, and have been for the past three days.”

  The northern infirmary? Oh no… This was the infirmary Valar had worked at for a week, and he had explicitly promised Eva, the silver rank life mage working at the infirmary, that he wouldn’t be back soon. He was pretty sure the woman had not taken the news of his arrival well…

  His fears were soon proven true as the brown-haired woman walked through the doorway, and her eyes locked with his. “Finally awake, adventurer?

  Eva’s tone was dangerously quiet and her words were clipped. She did not look happy.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “I…” What do I even say? Sorry that I got hurt, but I’m alive?

  “That’s all you’re going to say, young man? Do you even know in what condition you were brought here?”

  “No…” Valar cringed as he spoke, ready to receive the verbal beating that was sure to come.

  The middle-aged life mage raised her finger, ready to start yelling, then got a thoughtful look and dug out a piece of paper from the pocket of her robe. It was a medical document.

  “Let’s start with the four broken ribs, shall we?”

  This is going to take a while…

  Indeed, detailing all of Valar’s various injuries took quite a long while. There were broken bones, open wounds, blunt trauma and even internal burns. That last one was the particular injury Eva grabbed onto, beating the fact over Valar's head mercilessly.

  “Melted flesh?” she yelled. “Two of your fingers were practically charcoal when you were wheeled in! How in the abyss does an iron ranker even ruin his body that comprehensively?” Eva took a few calming breaths. “Severe burns inside the arm… How do you even...? Nevermind.”

  The woman’s defeated tone actually made Valar feel quite bad about himself. His injuries had clearly caused her a lot of strife, and while he wouldn’t have changed his actions, the result didn’t seem like a satisfying one. Even if he ignored the adventurer deaths, which he certainly didn’t plan to, what had they actually achieved?

  “Am I alright now?” Valar asked with a sigh. “I feel stiff and weak, but nothing seems burned or broken anymore. What about the others?”

  “The gentleman who brought you here made sure to get some reinforcement healers in the infirmary for a few days and that really helped,” Eva explained. “I still wouldn’t head out and start exercising if I were you, however. You were seriously injured, and even if we healed you to top health, your body is tired and injuries will occur more easily. Relax and take a break, okay?”

  “I will do that, yes,” Valar nodded. “Thank you.”

  “It’s my job.”

  The silver ranker left soon after as she had only been visiting for some routine checks. Also, with Valar awake and kicking, the team needed to leave the infirmary before nightfall. The infirmary was no inn, even if they had spent a lot of time there already. That meant that they had to pack their stuff and haul their asses to the guild, but Rodrick did have one more question to ask…

  “Valar?”

  “Yeah?” the boy turned to the man with one eyebrow raised. Something about Rodrick’s tone suggested that what he was about to say was going to be a doozy.

  “Inspect your aura.”

  “What?” Valar asked in a confused tone. What is he talking about? My aura?

  “Just do it…”

  Grins slowly grew on every single team members’ faces as Valar’s eyes first thinned, then grew as wide as saucers. What is this?

  When Valar had last inspected his aura, his progress had been at just about a third of what he needed to ascend to bronze rank, although that way of counting was a bit flawed. Technically he could have gathered twice as much mana as he had up until that point to ascend, but the process would have been exceedingly difficult. Most adventurers just defaulted to gathering way more than they needed, nearing the absolute peak of what an iron ranker could hold before ever attempting to open their gate further.

  It seemed that that consideration had just become null and void to the teenage boy. No matter how many times he checked, the result was the exact same one each time.

  Valar, a boy who had just ascended less than three months ago, was at the absolute peak of iron rank.

  And that meant that it was time to step forward and ascend!

  3 Days earlier

  A century ago he would have not permitted such flippant behaviour in these great halls, but times were changing, and so would he.

  He was sitting in a great hall situated at the very heart of the palace, the most sacred space within the whole nation—excluding that place—so he really should’ve been more strict.

  But… his children were having their fun, and as a father, he liked seeing smiles on their faces. Alright, most of them were over thirty, but who cared? Leon Aurelius did not, so no one else would either.

  “Stop it, Julien!” Avis, his third oldest daughter snapped. “You are in enough trouble already!”

  “Trouble? What trouble?” his wayward son answered with feigned innocence clear on his face. “Surely you can’t be talking about that behemoth ursa…”

  “Yes, I’m talking about the behemoth ursa!” Avis accompanied her words with a quick spell, and Julien’s hand fell onto the table with a loud crash. Luckily for the palace staff, Leon had ordered them to replace the furniture with durable alternatives some decades ago. Onyx rank furniture proves itself useful once again, yay…

  The table would have to last another century or two to make its money back considering that it cost hundreds of gold to procure, but the reduction in hassle over simple furniture was worth it to him. Perhaps not the noble in charge of crown finances, but his opinion didn’t matter when the king was speaking, did it?

  After a few centuries of being king, Leon was finally almost happy with the state of his palace. In the early days of his rule, it couldn’t have even been considered one, but it had been developed brick by brick until he deemed it fit for a ruler of a nation such as Leoria.

  Such as Leoria… What a laughable thought. His nation was a tiny plot of land in a big world, and just the existence of Khatesh to the west prevented his people from knowing it. There were many other nations east, west and even south of the small country. His nation was small, and in many ways, insignificant.

  However, in some other aspects, they did matter. When Leon Aurelius had split his nation from Khatesh and their emperor, he had chosen his borders carefully. He had natural resources, dungeons and plentiful farmland. The nation’s elites were even quite strong, so the empire would not make another attempt at taking their lands back just yet. The only things he lacked were more land, more people and trade routes.

  Annoyingly, his progeny didn’t seem to share the same worries…

  Avis was far too fixated on her magic, Julien couldn’t even focus on the meeting at hand, Arwen was still enjoying his youth and another ten were just the same. Their magics, adventures and wealth made them flighty and siphoned their drive, and while they were fine fighters, they were all horrendous at politics.

  The notable exceptions were Annabelle and Revan, his oldest and third oldest living descendants. The ones who had been born earlier had already died, be it from war, old age or political assassinations, but those two stood strong year after year. Especially Annabelle…

  Belin, Titus and Werner were all interesting prospects too, but only time could tell… And then there’s him.

  Every single prince and princess of the kingdom had gathered in the hall of diamonds for this day, except one. Every single one of them had abandoned their other duties for this, except one. The dark horse… The only non-force mage in the whole royal family…

  Why is that rascal taking so long?

  “Where’s the storm brat?” Revan grunted. “Everyone was supposed to gather here at the top of the hour, so why isn’t the second youngest here?”

  “I can go get him, father,” Annabelle suggested, her emerald eyes glinting with poorly disguised glee. “It wouldn’t be too much of a hassle, I’m sure!”

  “And how would you do that, exactly?” Leon sighed. Annabelle was plenty strong, being an onyx rank force mage with great understanding of her concept and excellent aptitude, but when you were talking about him… “He wouldn’t fight you, opting to just fly away instead. Besides, he entered the city with some adventurers in tow five or so minutes ago.”

  “Adventurers?” Titus asked. “He hasn’t worked in a group for a long while. Why is he with adventurers?”

  “Seems like a rescue,” the king grunted. “Most of them are bronze rankers.”

  “Irrelevant,” Revan muttered. “He’s ignoring us for some bronze rankers? When I get my hands on him-”

  The third oldest prince shut his mouth as the gemstone studded door to the hall slammed open and the hall was buffeted by winds that did not belong indoors. In walked a tall, thin man with bright green eyes and silver hair. His expression was stormy and his robe was covered in blood.

  “You’ll do what, brother?” the man snapped. “Punch me? Kick me? Shatter my skull?”

  His eyes shifted to a bright silver that matched his hair. “Be my guest and try…”

  Revan bolted upright and moved. The next moment, the onyx ranker's fist was rocketing toward his brother’s head. This would not do… This would not do at all.

  Leon Aurelius, king of Leoria and a true-blue diamond ranker, did not like enforcing his concept on others. The act of spreading his aura, extending his domain, made others remember who he truly was. He did not like it when his sons and daughters remembered who their father was, but alas, he would not let his sons fight it out in the gods’ damned hall of diamonds!

  In the next instant, the king’s tremendous presence spread in the room, and every person in the room slammed down to the floor or their seats. Leon did not let his gravity affect Arwen or Hylar, his two lowest ranked children, but everyone who had reached gold rank was included.

  The difference between onyx and diamond rankers was often forgotten, and that was for good reason. The few diamond rankers who walked the lands of Aldun didn’t showcase their power often, so the highest echelon of strength most people would ever see was those at onyx rank. Even onyx rankers were rare, as hard as that was to believe with so many standing in that very hall right then. Well, they weren’t standing now, that was certain…

  The fifteen people glued to the ground and table alike could have told even the simplest iron rank bumpkin what that difference was actually like…

  Leon did not hold his children down for long—just a short ten seconds. That was enough for Revan and his 16th son to calm down. When he let go, the golden haired princesses and princes got up with frowns on their faces. His oddball son did the same, brushing off his robe with a deep frown, then leaned down to a deep bow.

  “I, the sixteenth prince of the kingdom of Leoria, greet the meteor king of Leoria,” the wind mage spoke with a calm tone. “I apologize for the late arrival, but important matters dragged me to Ronaheim. Those are now handled, so we may start the meeting, father.”

  Leon let out a deep sigh. “Get up, Viktor. We’ve got a kingdom to run.”

  “As you wish, father,” Viktor Aurelius smiled. “As you wish.”

  The storm prince had returned home and everyone had finally gathered together. But the king had one more thing to ask…

  “Viktor?”

  “Yes, father?”

  ”How did that boy you brought to the city reach the peak of iron rank in a day?

  “Good question. As for the answer… I have no idea.”

  End of Book One.