- "Today we are going to have a special training" Isaac announced with a big smile.

Rebecca shuddered when she saw Isaac's smile before returning her worried gaze to Artiel who was standing next to her. The young man had never taken part in a training, what is more, he had never been called by the master before.

What had happened to get him summoned? Isaac had asked him to bring his sword, but he wasn't sure what that meant. A sword is not very useful for mages. In any case, according to him.

They were currently in the garden battle arena. This was not a good omen for Rebecca who had fought there so many times and for Artiel who had seen Rebecca fighting there as well.

Seeing the confused and worried looks of his 'apprentices', Isaac laughed lightly before continuing by opening his spellbook making Rebecca shudder even more. "Bad sign" she thought.

- "I will train you to fight together!" he finally said.

- "Huh?" replied the two teenagers in unison.

- "You heard right. Fighting together, side by side" he repeated.

The two young people were speechless. A mage is the pinnacle of military might, a single mage was able to raise armies and turn battlefields. What would Artiel be used for? It was what they thought and Isaac had guessed it. With a smile on his face, Isaac ordered the grimoire to open to a certain page before infusing mana into it.

- "Summon: 5 Minor golems" announced the Archmage.

Five Arcana suddenly appeared in front of him, creating five runestones before dirt came tearing from the ground and began to envelop each stone before five small one-meter golems formed.

By reflex, the two put themselves in combat posture. Artiel immediately drew his sword and Rebecca pulled out her wand, both focused on the golems.

- "A mage is certainly a formidable weapon in combat, but this is not true everywhere or all the time" began Isaac.

This, Rebecca had assimilated very well since Isaac had repeated it many times. Unsuitable terrain, lack of surrounding mana, spirit spells or just physical exhaustion, there were many factors that could lead to the downfall of a mage.

- "In the event that enemies land behind you while you are summoning a long range spell such as a giant fireball, what are you doing Rebecca?" Isaac asked.

- "I suspend the incantation and I erect a barrier to protect myself" she replied proudly immediately.

- "Boom" said Isaac, mimicking an explosion with his hands. "The fireball becomes unstable and the accumulated energy explodes on you."

- "I ... I redirect the energy of the fireball and send it towards the attackers!" she retorted.

- "The Arcanum you summoned becomes unstable as you try to make it do something it was not designed for. Result, the fireball becomes unstable and ..." he came to place his hands and mimic an explosion. "Boom."

The young woman sank into a deep reflection. Isaac was not wrong. After all, a mage is only fearsome when he's prepared. Rare are the situations where a mage caught by surprise manages to escape. Of course, Isaac is a big exception besides being an Archmage, but Rebecca is neither an Archmage nor Isaac.

- "A mage must foresee the maximum possible outcomes and create countermeasures to them. After all, a mage ..." began Isaac.

- "... is fearsome only when he is prepared. Yes, Isaac, I understood" completed Rebecca. Isaac had repeated this phrase to her so much that she had memorized it and sometimes heard it in her dreams.

Seeing his apprentice complete him, he smiled and continued.

- "And a swordsman is a possible and simple countermeasure to put in place as long as you are used to working together" said Isaac. "Swordsmen are mobile and good at close protection, they offer an extra layer of protection which, in a battlefield, is not to be taken lightly."

Artiel understood. If a mage was preparing a high level spell, a close protection escort would be of great help. Even a few seconds to hold back an attack would probably be enough for a mage to undo what he was doing and then focus on his new targets.

- "So, you're both going to work as a team today" said Isaac, snapping his fingers. "Artiel, Rebecca must not be touched once by minor golems. As for you Rebecca ..."

The pages of the grimoire began to turn again and then an arcane appeared before a large enough boulder about five meters high and three meters thick appeared in the air before falling heavily and sinking into the sea. Earth.

- "Destroy this boulder as fast as possible. If Rebecca is touched or this boulder hasn't fallen in thirty seconds, you lose and you will have to start over" he said before activating the golems. Without waiting for a response from the apprentices, Isaac launched the golems on the attack. "Start!"

An arcane clock suddenly appeared in the air above Isaac who was floating far away. As soon as the word was spoken, the golems threw themselves at Rebecca who began to cast a wind spell to cut them up.

But before she could finish the spell, the golems were suddenly pushed back and sliced ​​by Artiel who turned to the young woman, his gaze serious.

- "The rock, quickly!"

A little surprised, the young woman nodded and summoned a rune in front of her on the ground and began to draw the traces. In five seconds, the rune was completed before a fireball appeared in front of it. As she was about to throw it, one of the golems suddenly jumped up and entered the fireball.

The young woman widened her eyes and jumped back, dragging Artiel with her before a sudden explosion took place and enveloping everything in five meters of flame.

Rebecca was above the young man, her eyes closed, their faces inches apart. When they both opened their eyes, an expression of surprise and then of embarrassment crossed their faces, but neither of them seemed to move.

- "Uh ... I ..." Rebecca stammered.

"Here, usually it's the boy on top of the girl, not the other way around," Isaac thought as he saw the scene with his mana vision.

Seeing Rebecca's face reddened, Artiel smiled slightly as he stood still. They stayed like that for about ten seconds before hearing Isaac cough. The clock chirped as the hands reached zero.

- "Say, it's true that you're in puberty but can't you do that at night in the camp rather than in the middle of a fight? Even the golems are embarrassed" Isaac pushed.

Immediately, the two teenagers stood up before seeing an arcane of containment around them creating a slightly black bubble. Around, the ground was on fire with, a little further, the four remaining golems motionless. Isaac removed the containment arcane before summoning new earth golems.

The flames on the ground suddenly disappeared, as if they never existed, then Isaac snaps his fingers, resetting the clock above him.

- "We start again!"

Again, the golems started to move and resumed their attack.

Under the rising sun, a cavalry of fifteen men left the small border town of Erivia and set out for the great plains of Fray'r. In front of the formation was Raphael setting the course for all.

Very quickly the group left the outskirts of town and were riding the plains with in the distance, the rock formation beginning to appear on the sunlit horizon. As they rode, a horseman quickened his pace and approached Raphael. This was the same man who had spoken to him at the inn that same evening.

- "What's wrong, Iracuz?" Raphael asked in exasperation.

- "Big brother, the men are anxious. We are heading towards the shrine after all. There are many stories about this place, I think it would have been wise to give them the reason why we are going there, you don't think so? " replied the horseman.

- "They are horsemen under the orders of His Majesty. If the orders are to investigate the sanctuary, then they do not have to discuss" he resumed dryly, speaking loudly enough for all to hear.

The riders sighed in frustration before looking at Iracuz with a grin of thanks. They hadn't dared to ask their captain directly and since they were both brothers, Iracuz was more likely to get a favorable response.

If Iracuz couldn't convince his brother, no one could. Especially since Iracuz would never disobey his big brother's orders, it was impossible for them to hope that he would tell them instead. So they were stuck.

Despite Raphael's stifling loyalty to the crown, the latter was as strict as during the missions. Outside the missions, they could drink, sing, dance and celebrate in the taverns and inns of the cities in which they passed without fear. That was what they liked about him.

They had learned that Raphael could be strict and relaxed and had quickly learned to identify when they could relax. And the current moment was not.

So the company went on their way silently and without any complaints until the rock formation began to impose increasing influence on the group.

The sun was setting, they were about ten kilometers away when the captain ordered the troop to stop abruptly, raising their eyes and then narrowing them slightly.

- "Iracuz. In the sky" said Raphael pointing in one direction.

Immediately, Iracuz concentrated his mana in his eyes allowing him to activate his mana vision as well as increase his visual abilities. He then proceeded to search the empty blue sky for anything suspicious until he spotted something.

High in the sky, the young man could see five humanoid figures. Immediately, Iracuz transmitted the information to his brother who raised his eyebrows slightly. "I suspected ... their formation is far too aligned" he said looking at a series of dots in the sky.

- "Can you shoot them?" he asked Iracuz who shook his head negatively. It wasn't surprising considering their height. "Everyone be on your guard. Iracuz, keep an eye on them and tell me if they are doing anything suspicious ..."

- "They are leaving" hastened Iracuz.

- "Leaving ?" Raphael asked surprised.

- "Yes. They are moving away ..."

- "To where ?"

- "The sanctuary..."

A moment of silence passed before the captain frowned. He had a bad feeling. He put his horse back to a gallop and the troop set off more quickly than before in the direction of the sanctuary.

After a full day of training together, Artiel and Rebecca were exhausted after their joint training and were currently sitting around a fire with Isaac smiling, unable to move or do anything. They hadn't taken the time to cook and were enjoying a slice of cured meat when suddenly a shrill noise echoed through the shrine.

The noise echoed three times as red streaks began to appear and flash across the surface of the grass before a female voice sounded.

- "Scouting squad GELOM 002 retrieved priority report"

- "Maximum intruding entities threshold exceeded in extended security perimeter"

- "Transferring sensory data ..."

It was the familiar voice of the battle arena. Although the young woman never understood the meaning of what the voice was saying or the language that the latter used, she had retained pretty much the messages which she repeated often in the arena. So she quickly knew that this message was new.

For his part, Isaac's eyes suddenly lit up a sky blue under the gaze of the two young people. Although the sensory data was transmitted directly to the rune of logic, Isaac had managed to find a way to access it directly by tweaking a few nodes.

The solution wasn't quite perfect and had a lot of things that could be improved upon, but it was functional and that was the main thing at the moment.

- "What's happening to him Rebecca ?!" Artiel asked, standing up.

- "I don't know, it never happened!" she said, getting up in her turn.

After a few seconds, Isaac's eyes returned to normal as he stood up with an even more pronounced smile on his face. He then turned to his apprentices and continued in a calm and serene voice.

- "Our guests have arrived" he said at last.

Immediately, the two young people took their things and put out their campfire before heading to the elevator and down to the fort below to climb the ramparts and wait for the arrival of horsemen. Isaac meanwhile came down with his aura and waited patiently for them with his hood over his head to hide his ears.

- "Let's try to give them a warm welcome" Isaac announced to his apprentices.

The two teenagers put away their weapons they had taken out by reflex. Seeing that they understood, Isaac smiled, nodding positively and sighed. "Hopefully they're reasonable," he thought.