“Sometimes it takes a few iterations of the multiverse, but you always meet again.”

- The Journey to the Afterlife

***Kingdom Newerth, Capital City***

***Seria***

It's the second day of our search and we've got nothing. After my duty as a teacher was fulfilled, I searched for clues. But even with Marcus's excellent tracking abilities we came up empty handed and retreated to our base, the Hearth Coffee.

Sighing, I press a cup with cold milk to my forehead. Marcus is sitting across from me, enjoying one of the enchanted cakes. He eats with pleasure plastered all over his face.

But then his eyes set on me. “You know that what you are doing with the food is dangerously close to breaking the law regarding mind control and magical addictions?”

I freeze and force myself to smile. “Really? I must admit that I don't know the wording of that law, not a single word. Hahaha...”

He squints his eyes. “Just make sure not to go any further than implanting emotional suggestions in your food.”

I wave my hands. “Nono! Never. I would never do that.”

Besides... using hearth magic for that purpose is wasted effort. If I want to control someone, I would torture his true name out of him and place a strong compulsion. There is almost no way of breaking out of that. Hearth magic can only affect emotions, the rational decision still belongs to the affected person. “The stuff at my shop is only supposed to give my customers the ability to relax. Nothing more.” Well, maybe a little more than that, but I certainly won't admit to something that causes me trouble.

We are interrupted by Patricia, who is taking the used tableware. “Have you seen Adea recently?”

I shake my head and look around. “Ahem, she was at the academy today. I didn't see her afterwards. But I think she was with her B.F., so she should be okay. Probably they are just making out somewhere.”

Patricia's gaze rests on the table. “It's just that she kind of walked in on Jimmy and me in an inopportune moment. We were busy doing some kinky stuff. I didn't manage to talk to her about it since she ran off. And when she didn't show up at the shop today...”

I purse my lips and raise my eyebrows in surprise. Patricia surely doesn't waste any time. Go girl! Will she also marry Jimmy? Or just use him as some kind of vibrator? “I hope you aren't using my shop to explore each other. I am paying you for work, you know?”

Patricia blushes. “I would never do that! It was at my place, though I suppose it's my and Jimmy's place now.”

She doesn't waste any time.

“Her B.F., you mean that she was with my little brother?” Marcus asks with a concerned voice.

I look at him. “Yes?”

He tilts his head in thought. “It's probably nothing, but he talked about exploring the battle zone with his friends. They think it's some kind of courage test. Of course I forbade him to go anywhere near the area.”

I puff up my cheeks and let the air flow out. “Dang! If they really want to go exploring, they will surely find a way past the blockades. It's not like there are enough soldiers to cover the whole area.”

Marcus shakes his head. “My little Bro is still childish at his core, but he isn't so stupid as to not follow my orders when I say that something is dangerous.”

Patricia's voice turns unexpectedly sharp. “Oh! You never had children, did you! It isn't about him being smart or a good kid. It's about the people in his group. Three smart heads don't count for much if there are seven idiots to counter them!”

Marcus pulls a grimace, one of concern. “We better go and look for them.”

I sigh. What did I get myself into when I took Adea in. “You stay here, Patricia. Maybe Adea is just late in showing up.”

The woman nods and I follow Marcus out of the shop and to his car. As soon as I am inside and the door is closed, he accelerates and we are on our way. The way in which he decisively takes the first street towards the battle zone tells me that he knows something I do not.

“Did your little brother tell you where they intended to go?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “No, but I've known Caden's aura since he was born. I'll always know where he is as long as he is close enough.”

I say nothing to that. Sometimes it's beneficial to have an inbuilt GPS-Tracking-Device. I wouldn't want my family to always know where I am. Though getting away from them is always a challenge.

When we close in on the battle zone, Marcus opens the window of his car and slows down. “He really came here.” With a sudden jerk on the steering wheel, he pulls into a side street which leads away from the blockades.

The blockades are intended to stop people from entering the restricted area. The reason for the lockdown is as much the fact that there are still bodies all over the place, as to stop people from looting.

Nobody cleans up several thousand bodies in just a few days.

I say nothing, figuring that interrupting his concentration doesn't help. Instead, I concentrate on watching everything on my side of the car. It's late in the evening when Marcus finally stops at a street which leads towards the battle zone. “They are in that street... and something else.”

The statement wakes me from daydreams and before I can stop him, Marcus is out of the car and running down an alleyway.

I hurry to follow him, stretching out my senses. There are fourteen people in front of us... and five of them don't feel normal. Their auras feel twisted.

Three people are on the ground, but alive. They are students. The six remaining students are pressured against a wall, obviously frightened. They indeed managed to encounter our mysterious attackers, but the supposed spirits look entirely too much like humans in my opinion.

“Stand down, or suffer the consequences!” Marcus calls out, but the strange men are unimpressed. Two of them turn towards us and attack while the three others go for the students. A shadow in the corner of my eye alarms me and I dodge out of pure instinct.

Everything what happens afterwards is a matter of action and reaction as I don't even have time to think about it. We are surrounded by enemy reinforcements as they drop from the roofs.

My attacker strikes out yet another time and I barely avoid the hand which has strange claws instead of fingernails.

Bringing my leg up and around his head, I use him like a dance pole to get to the guy behind him. As I twist around my unwilling victim, I force his head to rotate with me until his spine crunches to my satisfaction.

The next opponent in line isn't as unprepared and blocks the first strike. I didn't hold back, so it's a little surprising to be simply stopped with an explosion of displaced air.

Frowning, I re-evaluate the danger level of these guys. My opponent raises his other hand and I recognise the forming spell. As my father taught me, I jab two fingers into the spell matrix and emit my own mana into it, empowering the spell.

Using spells with long casting times in hand-to-hand combat is just stupid. I dismiss the opponent from my mind, as his spell goes out of control and backfires, his own death magic rebounding into his body.

As I turn to face the battle, something hits my chest and I exhale in pain. Fire wavers over my skin and scorches me. The smell of burning flesh wafts into my nose. Fighting these guys while keeping my aura in check is difficult, so I abandon keeping my life magic under control.

A quick search exposes the guy who threw the fireball at me and I scream, using a flash step to get into his defence.

The following rain of fists quickly takes him down. The life magic is already repairing the damage as I place my fist in his side, breaking the fourth and fifth ribs. He folds over and I use both hands to strike the back of his head.

A scream returns my attention to Adea. She is on the ground with one of the attackers looming over her. He raises his arm and Adea blocks the following strike, barely. It seems like the stress of real life combat made her forget about our combat training.

Whatever our attackers are, they aren't in a completely human form and his claws rip through her clothes and into her flesh.

And I do nothing.

I just stand there, waiting for the finishing strike. The battle around us is in a stalemate, but Marcus is tearing through the enemies like through a group of preschoolers. If Adea isn't pushed over the edge soon, she will have lost her chance.

And then it happens! With a scream, Adea points her palm at her attacker and a stream of pure, uncontrolled mana shoots out, instantly obliterating the man's upper body!

My eyes widen as Adea panics and attempts to drop her hand. That would be bad for the city! In an instant I am at her side and grab her wrist, forcing her to point the uncontrolled spell safely towards the sky. That much power could surely tear through half the city.

“Control!” I order her, looking deep into her eyes.

Finally she gets a grip on herself and aborts the spell. I look up and scan our surroundings. Several of the students are down and moaning about their injuries. It doesn't seem like any of them are in danger. Marcus is standing above a mangled body, looking for more attackers, but there are none. Whoever they are, they decided to retreat when Adea's spell went nuts.

I let go of her arm and give up my kneeling position at her side to get to my feet. Then I study one of the corpses who fell close by. Claws instead of fingernails, strange, completely black eyes and a set of a little too sharp teeth. It wouldn't surprise me if someone has a spirit form which looks like that, but several people with exactly the same spirit form? Not likely. Unnatural.

“Are you okay?” Marcus calls out to me while he helps his little brother to his feet.

“Sure,” I answer, still studying the corpse from afar. Something else I noticed is that they didn't make a single sound while fighting. I don't like it when something puzzles me. This is definitely something my parents want to hear about.

“Are you raving mad!? Why did you just stand there and watch!” Adea screams at me and gets to her knees, shaking. Her forearms are a shredded mess, but I should be able to heal that in no time.

“I just wanted to give you the chance to remember, aunty!” A mad smile spreads on my face as I dig in my memories to remember from where I know Adea's power.

“I... I... don't...” Adea visibly tries to understand what just happened. She had a flashback to one of her past personalities. And now I know why that girl grew so fast on me!

Before she can say or do anything, I bend down and reach under her armpits. Then I lift her like a little child and spin her around, laughing.

“I would have never thought that I'll ever meet you again, aunty Jazira!”

Adea pales upon hearing the name and her pupils dilate, her voice drops to a whisper, “Your parents aren't here, are they?”

Our little reunion is interrupted when Marcus approaches us. “You aren't hurt, are you? I saw you taking that fireball head on! Why didn't you release your aura?”

His words get stuck in his throat as his eyes wander to my chest. I look down on myself and drop Adea to cover myself. If that wasn't a treat for him, then I don't know what was. I never should have bought the clothing of this world. The crystal mesh of my own clothes would never rip because of a little fireball!

“If that wasn't a treat in your favour! Stop staring and give me your jacket! It's not like you haven't seen them already!” I reach out with an open hand, expecting.

“Aw... yeah... sorry!” He quickly gets out of his jacket, leaving him with just his shirt. A stupid grin spreads on his face. “You definitely like my clothing.”

I seriously don't have an answer for that.

.