The jungle lay quiet after combat, painfully so. The burning site where the Harrier had crashed still smoldered, and the acrid taste of burnt feathers and blood clung heavy over the darkness. Kai leaned over the wreckage, his chest laboring, sweat dripping from his chin. He'd fought, he'd bled, and survived in some form. Against all expectations, he'd prevailed.
But the victory was not a triumph. It was a temporary truce in a war he was bound to lose.
Elara crouched next to the bones, her fingers following a soft path across the charred ash. "Harriers don't go this far south," she whispered, addressing neither of them. Her eyes narrowed, her silver gaze scanning the shadowy forest as if expecting others to climb out of the darkness. "Someone shoved it out here. Targeted it."
Kai swallowed hard. "As in the Pyre Hound?"
"Yes." Even, certain, to no doubt. "And like the wolves who preceded them. This is no accident, Kai. Someone is probing you, testing your strength."
That realization gave him a cold, pointed shiver down his spine. He wished with all his heart to be unfortunate, to have fallen into danger by accident. But the tone Elara used—firm, cold, and detached—gave him pause to consider if he had been meant for higher things since the day he came into this world.
"We need to burn it," she stated abruptly, standing.
"What? It's already ashes."
"Not everything," she replied. "Corrupted beasts have to be reabsorbed into mana. Rotting them just leaves the land with their tainted energy still in it. That draws other, worse creatures. Fire cleanses." She gestured, and a fragment of glittering frost erupted in her hand. It burst outward in a gentle tinkle, igniting into searing blue flame that devoured the remains of the Harrier. The flames spat and hissed, consuming what was left—flesh and feathers and bone—and leaving nothing.
Kai observed, uneasily but with curiosity. Even in death, creatures in this world were not animals. They were bound to the trajectory of mana itself. Every step a reminder that he was toying with rules he did not even know.
With the blue flames at last subsiding, a gentle chime resounded within his mind, and the warm, comforting heat enfolded him.
[Corrupted Mana Purified: +150 EXP]
[Level Up!]
[Level: 5]
[All Stats Increased]
New strength coursed through him, the pain in his muscles disappearing as his supply of mana felt fuller and deeper than ever before.
[Health: 6000/6000]
[Stamina: 2400/2400]
[Mana: 2000/2000]
Kai blinked, surprised. He hadn't expected to level so soon again, and certainly not from simply clearing away the residue. "Elara," he called, opening his panel in shock, "I… I leveled again."
She gave him a brief glance, her face unreadable in the moonlight. "Good. But don't let it go to your head. Strength is worthless if you can't apply it."
But he couldn't help but smile. Level 5. In a string of a few brief, merciless days, he had progressed from a hapless boy destined to die to someone who could get by alone, if just barely. It was palpable, real progress.
The next two days became a hellish pattern of movement, training, and complete exhaustion. Elara drove him harder than ever before. At night, she had him practice mana control with him, having him keep a Mana Coating on his arms and legs for hours on end, until he exhausted his stamina and tears came to his eyes. In the daytime, she had him practice Mana Binding, throwing stones charged with his ability until his arm felt like it would fall off. He sprinted as he attempted to maintain his coating intact, tumbling and becoming soiled, to be greeted by Elara's icy instruction: "Stand up. Do it again."
The trees became sparse as they approached the capital, heavy dark shadows disappearing into green fields of multicolored wildflowers and scattered, unadorned farmhouses. The landscape was supposed to be reassuring, an omen of civilization. Kai could not shake the creepy sensation of being observed, however.
Occasionally, he was convinced he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye—a black shape darting between a stand of trees in the distance, too far to discern details. When he mentioned it to her, Elara merely lifted an eyebrow.
"You're not dreaming," she whispered one night as they established a tiny, smokeless camp. "Someone's been following us the past day. But they're after me, not you."
Kai blinked, his blood growing cold. "You sure?"
Her eyes were pieces of ice. "Positive."
She is speaking the truth, Iris's voice whispered softly at the edge of his consciousness. The shadow's attention is drawn to her. But caution you, Kai… such witnesses are never blameless.
The words gave him a chill down his flesh. If someone Elara didn't trust was stalking her, what did that reveal about him? Was he just an unwitting bystander caught up in her storm—or was their hunter somehow involved with the two of them?
Night fell, the air turning cool and cold, a cutting wind sweeping across the open plains. Kai huddled beside their tiny campfire, attempting to beg warmth from the obstinate flames. His Mana Coating continued to flicker uncertainly, a light blue glow above his hands which refused to adhere.
Elara sat across from him, her body illuminated by the light of the twin moons. She had her mana wrapped around her like a second skin, its light stable and perfect.
Kai growled with annoyance. "Why does it come so easy to you? Mine just continues to flicker out as soon as I lose concentration on it."
A flash of a smile passed over her lips. "Because I've been practicing since I was younger than you. And because I do not panic every time it stumbles."
He frowned, throwing another twig onto the fire. "You're supposed to be my teacher. Encouragement would be nice every now and then."
Her silver eyes flashed, pinning him in place. "You don't need encouragement. You need discipline."
He had opened his lips to respond, but caught a tiny spasm on her face. A real smile. Fluttering, fleeting, and yet unmistakable. For all his annoyance, he could not avoid a chuckle. "You're impossible, you know that?"
"Good," she replied, shutting her eyes again.
For a moment, there was only the hiss of the fires and the susurrus of the wind. And for the first time since she'd come into this infernal new world, Kai wasn't quite so alone.
On the fourth day of traveling with them, the capital arose on the horizon.
Kai's jaw fell open. As they topped the rolling hill, the city of Arcanis lay before them. It was not only a city; it was a monument. Massive stone walls, at least hundreds of feet tall, were inscribed with gently glowing blue runes that beat ever so slightly with a hard, warding mana. Skyscraper-tall, delicate spires and towers rose up, their summits glinting in the morning light. Smoke billowed from thousands of chimneys, multicolored banners streamed across the great gates, and beyond the walls he could see endless rooftops, crowded markets, and the distant, glinting forms of airships crawling across the sky.
"Whoa…," Kai panted, naked amazement running over him. "It's… enormous."
Elara did not blink. "This is the center of the Kingdom. The capital of Arcanis. Power, corruption, knowledge, and wealth—they all converge here."
As they approached, Kai saw great queues of people waiting in line to pass through the city gates. Merchants with huge caravans of beasts drawn by six-legged creatures unlike any he had ever heard of, metal-armored sword-fighters in suits of steel plates, peasants carrying sacks of grain lashed to their backs, and more. Steel-clad guards probed each group, spears with sparkling mana crystals at the tips. For Kai, who had struggled to stay alive for days in the wilderness, the view of civilization was utterly overwhelming. It was noisy, chaotic, and vividly alive.
They held back from falling into formation at the gates. Elara spun back to him, her silver hair catching sunlight.
"This is where we leave you," she said.
Kai's brain went white for a moment. "Wait—what? Take our leave? You're just. leaving me here?"
"Do you really need me to enumerate all the things that await me in the city?" she asked, proffering him a piercing, measuring stare, ".you need to grow on your own now."
Panic, icy and bitter, seared his chest. After everything—the battles, the training, the sleepless nights huddled by the fire—he could not imagine himself going out into this vast world alone. "But. where do I go? What do I do? I have no coin, I have no friends."
She relaxed her expression, a tiny fraction. "There is an Academy here. They take those with potential and instruct them in magic, battle, and survival. If you desire power, if you desire to survive more than next month, you'll go there."
Kai blinked. "The Academy? You. you really believe they'll accept me?"
"They will," she said, a calm flat note. Then, after another moment, she continued, "I'll be going there, too."
His heart double-tacked. Relief crashed over him in a wave. "Wait—you're a student there, too?"
A wicked, fleeting smile danced across her lips. "Hardly. I teach there."
Kai's jaw fell for a third time, this one in utter disbelief. "You—you're a teacher?! You've been wandering around all this time like some brooding, wandering warrior, and you're just… a teacher?"
"Not 'just' a teacher," she said firmly. "You'll find out soon enough."
He looked at her in disbelief. In some way, the notion of cold, deadly Elara as a teacher suited her and suited her not at all.
She stepped closer, her hand tracing along his shoulder for a moment. She had never tried to touch him before. "I'll be inside. Go to the central square and inquire about the Academy's entrance examination. Don't say my name. Begin at the beginning. This is your job now. Don't depend on me. Show you can do it yourself."
And she had wheeled and melted into the crowd, gone as silently and quietly as a shadow in the woods.
Kai remained rooted for an instant, the heat of her hand still on his shoulder. His heart thudded. The world was larger and more stifling without her at his side. But he forced himself to take breath.
This was it. This was the reason he was here. To survive. To become stronger. To know the reasons why he was being chased.
He folded his fists and joined the line with the others, his gaze shifting upward to the rising walls and the giant gates promising and threatening in them.
Your journey starts here, Kai, the voice of Iris whispered very softly in his mind. But be careful. The real hunters are not in the woods. They are among these walls.
Deep in the distance, unobserved among the crowd of people, a hooded figure in a black cloak observed him silently before disappearing from the main gate and slipping into the city along a smaller, open boulevard.
Kai had no idea, but his real adventure was only starting.
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