Damian focused his mind, inspecting the strange sensation in his head. A vision of the ring-shaped metal disc appeared clearly in his mind's eye.
He had crossed into another world! The disc was the key to this extraordinary journey.
The red crystal on its rim acted as an energy reserve, and the crossing had drained it completely. Fortunately, it recharged automatically, requiring exactly seven days to reach full capacity.
A round-trip crossing… After digesting the sudden flood of information from the artifact, Damian exhaled a heavy breath of relief.
Having already transmigrated once over a decade ago, crossing into yet another universe wasn't entirely world-shattering. Plus, this time, he actually had a return ticket.
Seven days until I can go back. Damian mentally prodded the dim crystal on the phantom disc.
It's already dark. I need to find shelter first, then explore this area tomorrow. He felt a pang of helplessness. Surviving a week in this frozen wasteland was not going to be easy.
"Awoo—" Faint wolf howls drifted from the path ahead.
A wolf pack? Damian grew instantly alert. He flicked his wand, casting a swift, non-verbal Disillusionment Charm to blend perfectly with the snowy surroundings.
He crept forward for a few minutes as the howling grew nearer. Sounds like something else is out there, too.
Moments later, Damian spotted a pale blue glow racing through the heavy snow. He quickly surveyed his surroundings, scaled a thick, icy tree, and watched from his concealed vantage point.
Within seconds, the blue light closed the distance. It was a snow-white stag, easily the size of a Hanoverian horse, desperately pulling a wooden sled. Its massive antlers shone like magical beacons through the dark forest.
Driving the sled was a broad-shouldered, red-haired man with deep-set eyes. His face was twisted in frantic terror as he urged the great stag to go faster.
When the sled was barely thirty meters from Damian's tree, disaster struck. The right runner clipped a hidden stump, snapping the wooden shafts and leather reins, sending the speeding sled violently overturning into the snow!
"Damn it!" the red-haired man roared, shoving away the heavy planks that had pinned him.
He crawled desperately toward the wrecked canopy, shouting in alarm, "Tina! Are you hurt?"
A small, red-haired girl scrambled out from beneath the collapsed wood. "Papa, Tina's all right!"
She looked only seven or eight years old. The rough fall had clearly hurt, and tears glimmered in her eyes, but she stubbornly refused to cry.
Listening closely, Damian realized with a start that they were speaking in fluent Ancient Runes!
At that moment, more than a dozen massive wolves surrounded the wreckage. They were bigger than calves, with grey-blue fur and unnerving, glowing red eyes. They bared fangs thicker than a man's fingers.
Those wolves are unnaturally large. I have no idea how strong they actually are. Damian held his breath, staying hidden in the branches.
"Awoo—" The pack lunged as one.
The man's face hardened as he drew a longsword from his waist, slashing wildly at a beast leaping toward his daughter.
The steel blade flashed with a strange cyan light. Half the wolf's head flew off, and the massive carcass thudded into the snow, twitching violently before going still.
But before he could shift his stance, agony shot through his left arm. Another wolf had sunk its teeth deep into his forearm, pinning him as the rest of the pack closed in.
At the same instant, little Tina screamed. A cunning wolf had circled completely behind them!
Hearing his daughter's cry, the man burned with a desperate rage, fighting to tear the wolves apart. "Get off!" he roared.
The cyan sword-light flashed again, decapitating the beast clamped to his arm. But the rear wolf had already knocked Tina into the snow, baring its massive fangs for a fatal bite.
"Tina!!!" The man's eyes widened in pure anguish.
He tried desperately to reach her, but the remaining wolves piled onto him, pinning him to the frosty earth.
Trapped beneath the beast, the terrified girl miraculously snatched a jagged plank from the wreckage and jammed it sideways into the wolf's slavering jaws!
The wood only bought her a second. Cracks raced across the timber as it began to shatter under the immense bite force.
Suddenly, the plank in the wolf's mouth cleanly transfigured into a razor-sharp steel blade. It drove straight through the beast's palate, instantly shredding its brain.
Tina stared in absolute shock as the massive wolf went limp and collapsed beside her.
Around them, the scattered sled wreckage morphed into thick, writhing vines that bound the remaining wolves fast.
The trapped beasts thrashed wildly, but the magically conjured vines only tightened their crushing grip. A moment later, the vines morphed again, sharpening into a flurry of deadly blades. The wolves were cleanly sliced to pieces, their dark blood staining the pristine snow.
Damian had finally made his move. To a wizard of his caliber, these creatures—lacking any magical defenses of their own—were nothing more than unusually strong beasts.
The father and daughter gaped at the slaughter. The nightmare pack that had nearly doomed them was utterly annihilated in the blink of an eye.
"Tina, are you hurt?" The man scrambled over and hugged her tight, his face a mess of self-reproach and staggering relief.
Tina buried her small face in his chest. "Tina's fine, but Papa, you're bleeding."
Damian hopped down from the tree and approached, releasing his Disillusionment Charm. With a casual wave of his wand, he ended the Transfiguration, turning the bloody metal blades back into harmless sled debris.
Startled by the boy's sudden materialization, the red-haired man quickly knelt in the snow, shielding the shaken Tina.
"Thank you, Wizard, for saving my daughter," he said with fierce gratitude. "I, Chris Watson, will remember your kindness forever!"
Tina's wide eyes were full of wonder. She had never seen such a young wizard before.
Damian nodded politely. He met Chris's gaze, easily masking his unfamiliarity with a calm demeanor. "I am a reclusive wizard, new to these parts. Where is the nearest town?"
"White Stone Town is very close, Wizard," Chris answered, still visibly dazed by the magical display. "I am the blacksmith of Gem Village, but our home is no longer safe. The animals nearby have grown savage and started attacking us. They look just like these wolves—glowing red eyes and unnaturally large bodies."
He gestured down the dark path. "I was taking my daughter to White Stone Town to seek refuge. The Guards there will protect us. You would be welcome to come with us."
Damian nodded thoughtfully. So these wolves were abnormal mutations. He bent to examine one of the mangled corpses and immediately sensed a wild, chaotic energy lingering in the flesh—something entirely unlike wizard magic.
That violent, alien energy was likely what had driven the beasts mad.
As Damian's fingers brushed the cold fur, the phantom metal disc in his mind suddenly shimmered. A faint red wisp of energy rose from the wolf's corpse and was eagerly absorbed by his hand.
He blinked in surprise at the mental shift. He quickly noticed that the once-dim crystal on the disc now glowed just a fraction brighter. The artifact could absorb this alien energy from the mutated wolves!
Wasting no time, he moved quickly to check every single carcass. He could feel the disc's stored energy rising with each touch. His mood instantly lifted; his return trip to Devon might come much sooner than a week.
After draining all the bodies, he sensed the red crystal was already over one-third charged. At this rate, it would be full in less than five days.
Meanwhile, Chris had been rummaging through the overturned wreckage. He approached Damian, holding out a battered, leather-bound notebook.
"Wizard, thank you again for saving us. My ancestor was a wizard, and this was his personal notebook. It records a spell—I hope it may be of some use to you."
Chris clearly possessed no magical gift himself, but it seemed wizards were not forced into hiding in this strange world. Immensely grateful for their lives, the blacksmith offered Damian the original heirloom without hesitation.
Damian raised an eyebrow at the unexpected loot. The goatskin cover was heavily worn by time, but flipping it open, he saw the Ancient Runes scrawled inside were perfectly legible.
He accepted the notebook with a polite nod and formally agreed to escort them to White Stone Town. Turning to the shattered sled, he aimed his wand.
"Reparo!"
Like a tape rewinding in time, the splintered wood and torn leather flew back together, seamlessly reassembling the sled into its pristine, pre-crash state.
Soon after, Chris returned from the tree line, leading the massive white stag by its harness. "Luckily, the beast wasn't hurt and didn't run far."
Damian offered a faint, knowing smile. He didn't mention that the stag hadn't run far because it had been locked in place by his silent Full Body-Bind Curse, Petrificus Totalus, since the battle began.
Every 100 stones = 1 EXTRA CHAPTER