Unjustified persecution founded on blatant lies. Why can't you open your eyes and see that I have done nothing wrong? Aren't we brothers that fought under the command of the Dragon Emperor Krystfallen? There are machinations at work here.

I implore you! Do not fall for these deceptions!

We void mages had nothing to do with the Blight! We fought against them alongside all of you!

Let our deaths be a stain on the glorious legacy of the Dragon Emperor!

-Adept Void Mage Dresden Ashthorne (Head Mage of the Void Mage Division)

First executed void mage

(Sealed Imperial Records)

Even though the sun has barely greeted the impregnable and great city of Krysperium, Orvin was already sitting cross-legged on the grass of the garden of the villa rented by the Dolsworth students. He was meditating, trying to make a connection with the mysterious named cindertoad.

Cindertoads were looked down upon by nearly every fire mage. One of the exceptions was Orvin since he was fortunate enough to be taught by the BasketSlayer the unorthodox way of using summoned elemental spirits. The technique was well suited to him since he has a talent in summoning fire spirits while having troubles with his mana pool. He imagined that if he was a mage that fit the normal description of a strong mage- talent in casting spells, large mana pool, and all that- he would have opted for summoning higher tier fire spirits.

But he wasn’t.

He shook his head and reminded himself that he should be thankful for his gift. With enough practice, he could lower the mana costs of maintaining the fire spirits as his body gets used to having them around. He actually wanted to try maintaining cindertoads while he was sleeping. However, his sister would have none of that. As he thought about it, he agreed that it wasn’t a good idea to sleep while having highly flammable entities hopping inside your room.

The rays of the sun were slowly bathing the city of Krysperium, creeping its height. The people of the city were beginning to stir and awaken, ready to start their day.

Orvin shut his eyes again and began feeling his way through the plane of elemental spirits. It was a pale copy of what scryers can do.

Still nothing.

He couldn’t concentrate well enough because he was still thinking about the fight of his teacher yesterday. He was surprised that his teacher still won even after his opponent used an A-rank beaststone to Forge Spirit. Orvin couldn’t help but grin as he remembered that his schoolmates were jealous of him getting such a powerful personal teacher.

“I wish I become powerful someday,” Orvin said, looking wistfully at the heights of the city. “Better summon my named cindertoad first, or else I’ll be stomped flat in my fight in three days.”

His teacher told him that he has already chosen a beast for him. His teacher wouldn’t tell him what it was but Orvin was sure that it was something big and slow. Those beasts would be easier to contain but the problem was big and slow beasts often have very tough defences to compensate for their shortcomings. His teacher told him that he will only tell him what kind of beast he would be fighting if he was able to summon the named cindertoad before the fight. Otherwise, they would be pulling out of the competition.

Orvin felt downhearted after hearing that. Even if he wasn’t able to summon the named cindertoad in time for the competition he still wanted to continue with it. Obviously, he won’t be able to do anything against a defensive beast if he doesn’t have enough firepower, most likely, the fight would just result in him running away from the giant beast, but, he still…he wanted to try.

He reached for a crumpled paper under his robes. He flattened it and read it.

“I guess my sister was keeping this away from me,” Orvin said. Then he sighed. “I know she does not want me to worry but…”

He laid down on his back. The feel of the grass was quite calming. He held up the letter and just stared at it while thinking about his future.

It was a letter from his family.

Specifically, it was from his grandmother from his mother’s side.

They were a martial noble family, but only a minor one. They were not among the five martial noble families that has supplied Krysperia with its elites for hundreds of years. However, because they were a martial family, strength was greatly prized. Strength and purity of lineage.

He only had one of those.

It was not the first one.

His father died a couple of years ago when he was thirteen years old. According to their family traditions, the strongest child would be the next head of the family. If the descendant was lacking, then the collaterals could step in.

Orvin raised his fist while looking at the sky. He was very much lacking indeed. His level of strength was just below average among his generation in his family. He needed to be above them all, which was not going to happen any time soon.

“Wish I was like Emelie,” Orvin said while he heaved another sigh.

Emelie was very strong. A rare water-lightning mage. Their family does not discriminate between genders when it comes to leading the family. However, Emelie was his half-sister. Illegitimate half-sister. Orvin does not know who her mother was, and probably, neither does Emelie. It’s an unspoken rule that her mother should not be mentioned in the family.

Orvin sat straight back up and summoned several normal cindertoads. He was trying to see what his limit was.

Cindertoads began appearing, hopping around him, slightly singeing the grass, and blowing rings of smoke.

“Eight, huh? Is my progress good?” Orvin had no benchmark for his achievement. No one really bothered with cindertoads.

He turned his mind back to the letter while the cindertoads sat in a ring around him. He was the only one inside the villa yesterday afternoon because he immediately returned after watching the fight of his teacher. Emelie, on the other hand, along with the other students, took his teacher to celebrate his victory in a nice restaurant.

When the letter was delivered, he was the only one present to accept it. It was addressed to Emelie but he opened it as a joke to see if she had a lover that he could tease her with.

Orvin frowned while standing up. He was mildly sweating even though he was not doing anything strenuous. Maintaining eight cindertoads was strenuous enough.

He took out a mana potion and drank it hurriedly. With a flick of his hand, he carved out pieces of rocks from the ground and flung them high up in the air. He then conjured a fireball, blazing white in heat. The cindertoads croaked loudly as they supplied him with high levels of fire essence that were suited for making fireballs.

The fireball snaked through the air, consuming the rocks that were falling. Only bits and pieces reached the ground.

Orvin smiled while he panted. He was very tired. The eight cindertoads were draining away his mana quickly. But he was very happy. He might not be an expert mage, but he could see that he was improving rapidly. The fireball did not waver in strength while it melted all the falling rocks.

“I guess I’m turning into a weird kind of mage,” Orvin said. “Only one fireball throughout the fight.”

He drunk another potion and took out the letter again to read it. He does not know what to do so he just kept on rereading it, hoping vainly that it might somehow change its contents.

His grandmother was telling Emelie how their father’s brother was trying to take over the family. According to their tradition, Orvin should be the next head of the family. However, he was just not strong enough. Although he hated to admit it, his cousin was stronger than him, probably on par with Emelie even though he was only a year older than Orvin.

Obviously, his uncle was grooming his own son to be the next head.

Orvin frowned while thinking about it. His cousin was a prodigy that already entered Milla Lyceum last year, when he was sixteen years old. That was the normal age of enrollment into Milla Lyceum, however, he was already accepted when he was only fourteen.

Emelie was already twenty years old, but she did not enter Milla Lyceum yet. She waited for Orvin to be of age to enter and planned to apply together with him. Orvin knew that she was worried for him and she probably suspected that their uncle would do something sinister while she was away. Even though she was an illegitimate child, she was a prodigy so that shut up all the other relatives.

“As for me, I don’t even know what to do…”

Entry into Milla Lyceum meant being groomed for positions of power in the Empire. Of course, Orvin was aiming for influence in the military. If he was accepted then he can gain the support of many of his relatives who thought that he was too weak to lead them, which was kind of true, he conceded inwardly. But he wanted to change that.

He released the summoning spell for the cindertoads and concentrated once again on looking for a named one. All the books that he had read said that named cindertoads were very erratic and unpredictable. They don’t follow the normal habits of elemental spirits of trooping around a strong mage that summoned them to feast on mana.

“Dammit, I’m remembering the fire serpent, Aznar.” Orvin placed his hands on his face. He can’t believe how proud he was when he used a named fire serpent. He actually bragged about it at school. Since he was superior than his classmates in summoning fire spirits, plus the fact his classmates didn’t know any better, they were impressed with his feat. “Apparently, all of us didn’t know any better. Including me.”

Yesterday, he asked his teacher why he found it hard to summon a named cindertoad even though he has already summoned a named fire serpent, which was a few levels above a cindertoad.

His teacher just laughed at him and said that it wasn’t a complete summoning. Apparently, he only summoned a sort of husk of the fire serpent Aznar. All this time, he was bragging about how he had successfully summoned a named fire serpent although it lasted only for a few seconds at a time, when it wasn’t even a successful summoning.

His teacher consoled him by saying that it was proof of his talent. There was no way he could support a full manifestation of a named fire serpent with his current mana pool, yet, it heeded his call. It was still pretty embarrassing. “I think if I used a normal pillar of fire spell, I can deal more damage than trying to summon a named fire serpent.”

Orvin rubbed his face and groaned. “My classmates will laugh at me once they know the truth.”

At least, he was able to get a good teacher because of his stupid misunderstanding on how summoning works. His teacher said to him that he was interested in Orvin because Orvin could attract a named fire serpent at his weak state. Partial summoning normally occurs due to some mistake in the transmission of the mana offering to the summoned spirit or some other fumble in the procedure. All these partial summoning were done by someone who can support a full materialization of the summoned spirit.

Orvin’s case was truly exceptional. Of course, he felt proud. He also felt disappointed and embarrassed.

“I shouldn’t think about those,” he said with a determined face.

He had the letter in his hands. While family issues are usually complicated, this one was pretty simple. He simply have to be stronger. The letter burned to ashes.

He was thankful that Emelie cared for him. There were only a few people in his family that genuinely cared for him. He knew that Emelie wanted him to succeed his father. She was looking out for him.

“She probably does not know why I wanted to succeed my father. I guess it’s only normal for a son to want to succeed his father.”

Orvin opened his palm as the winds blew away the ashes. He did not care for the wealth and power of his family. However, if his uncle was successful in becoming the head of their family, the first thing that he would do was to disown Emelie and kick her out of the Nephtali family. Orvin does not know why Emelie’s mother was so hated by their family but he was sure that if Emelie wasn’t a powerful mage, they would have already abandoned her.

Orvin wasn’t going to let that happen.

He inhaled and said, “Three days for that named cindertoad.”

A stack of rolled mana parchments was on Aya’s bed. A book on elemental runes laid open beside it.

“Why can’t I activate it?” He was sitting on a chair beside his bed while holding a mana parchment with some kind of seal design drawn on it.

Five, the demon spirit was floating behind his master, looking intently at his work. “Master, perhaps it needs another kind of mana?”

“Dunno. I’ve already used both elemental and void energy to power it. I’ll try it again.” Aya held up his finger and began coating it with a hint of void energy. It was covered by a purple haze with swirling shades of black. The restraint runes expectedly appeared, hindering his powers, but he only needed just a tiny bit of void energy. He touched the seal on the mana parchment. Nothing.

Next, he gathered elemental energy and touched the seal. Also nothing. “See? I don’t know what to power it with. Based from its design it shouldn’t even activate. But it does. On my body, anyway. So … I don’t know.” Aya shrugged.

He rolled up the parchment and threw it on his bed. It bounced off the pile of scrolls and dropped to the floor.

Five eagerly flew over it. Tiny black tentacles grew from the base of its head and reached out for the scroll. It then gently placed the scroll on the bed.

“That’s disturbing,” Aya said. “You really should have a body.”

“Five will be most grateful if Five acquires a body. It is a bit tiresome to be a floating head.”

Aya leaned back in his chair and sighed. He was trying to replicate the seals on his body. If his analysis was correct then they should be powered by a fusion of elemental and void energies. Which was impossible. That’s going against the laws of the world!

It wasn’t a simple matter of using both elemental and void energies together while making a seal. He already tried that. They need to be fused. In effect, it would result in a completely different type of energy.

He was still at a complete loss.

He knew that there were people with special types of mana. One of the Dragon’s Chosen had that kind of abnormality.

Perhaps he should go looking for one? Try out their mana or something. “That’s another fun project,” he muttered. “Having such a long life gives me time for all sorts of things. Kind of miss being an ordinary human though. I should probably get more food…”

“Should Five get master some food?”

“That’s obviously a bad idea. Just hand me that book over there.”

Five looked like it was giving birth to dozens of very long worms. Its black tentacles wrapped around the edges of the book. It floated to Aya while carrying the book.

Aya reached out gingerly. “I don’t know why but I find that really disturbing.”

“I apologize, master.”

“Don’t worry about that. I already have some people in mind that you could potentially eat. Hopefully, that makes you grow.”

Aya opened the book and scanned it. The seals on his body had some features of elemental and void runes. Void runes, he could do fine. But when it came to elemental runes, he had no idea on how to draw them.

Since void mages naturally had a very small elemental mana pool, it would be for naught if he tried to learn crafting elemental seals. That was why he neglected learning about elemental sealcrafting in the past.

Aya looked at the book and said, “Hmmm, would it matter if I had more elemental mana? We void mages only use it to open the void gate anyway. But I do have exceedingly pure elemental mana. Obviously, it was not of any help.”

For several days, he learned the basics of elemental sealcrafting. He was already an expert in void sealcrafting, so his experience helped greatly in speeding the learning process. The restraint seals had a few components that does not look like elemental or void in nature. There was a chance that it was high-level elemental runes; certainly, he would have no knowledge about that. Or, it was a new type of runes altogether?

“New in the sense that it was new to me,” Aya said. He closed the book and tossed it back to his bed.

Five was hovering around him wondering if it should say something or not.

“Too many unanswered questions,” Aya continued. “At least I had that enjoyable fight yesterday. I also learned about Forge Spirit. It seems that there are many new spells and techniques that were invented during the time that I was asleep.”

“There was no doubt that master will win,” Five said.

“I’m not aiming for a win. I'm not even aiming to win this tournament, although I could try. The prize seems sizable seeing that the Church sent some representatives of their own to join. I wonder what it is.” Aya stood and started pacing around the room. “But I do enjoy fighting especially if the opponent puts up a challenge. The two fights I had today were boring compared to the one yesterday.”

“Why is master fighting in the tournament?” Five said. “If I may ask that question,” he hastily added.

“Just killing time while I wait for that ceremony thing of the princess. I’m interested in that.”

“Then master will go to the west? The information Five retrieved from that man floating in the vat points to the western cities of master’s empire. ”

“That would be near that Wall System defense line, right?”

“Yes, master. The man, along with his team captured children inside the western cities then transported them towards the fortress city managed by the martial noble family Hasta. But-”

“-they were ambushed along the way,” Aya said. “So we don’t have a definite location as the possible base of these void mages that seemed to be forming a guerrilla resistance of sorts. Not really a resistance, I guess. Their goal seems to be more focused on saving the children. So they are growing their numbers?”

“Five has no idea, master. I apologize.”

“That was a rhetorical question.” Aya picked up the Dragon’s Heart that was set on the table beside his bed. “Anyway, there was that other city you told me yesterday?”

“Yes, master. Mandolin city. The assassin man whose soul I ate, along with other assassins, was called by the high priest of Mandolin City to eliminate a noble that was behaving suspiciously. They later found out that he was a void mage, and that he was saving the void children and transporting them over the border towards the neighbouring kingdom. They killed him along with the children.”

“That seems to be a more promising lead,” Aya said. He tossed the Dragon’s Heart to Five and told him to catch it.

Caught off guard, Five immediately stretched out its tentacles. Five was sucked into the orb the moment one of its tentacles lightly grazed the orb.

Aya laughed then stopped to transform his hand into a feathery ethereal claw. “Alright, that was a juvenile joke. I’m sorry, Five.” He picked up the orb with his normal hand and inserted his claw, fishing for Five.

Five wriggled a bit as it was pulled out of the orb. The smoky mass formed into a floating half-head.

“Obviously, we could not play catch using the orb.”

“Five apologizes, Master.”

“It was only a joke. Tell me more about Mandolin City.”

Five said, “It is located in the north-western part of the empire. It is near the border the empire shares with the Kingdom of Almeiron. It is quite far from the western cities where the assassin was ambushed before.”

“Which means it is very far from the West System. Aw, I wanted to visit the West System. It sounds like an awesome place.”

“Where do we go, master?”

Aya stroked his chin while looking at the orb. “Mandolin seems to be the better place to look for them. There was only one of them that was caught there. I doubt if he was operating alone. Although Mandolin city is far from the city controlled by the Hasta Noble House, I don’t think they are separate groups. It might be the case that all the void children they rescue are sent to Mandolin or to other border cities. I also doubt if they would transfer their operations just because one of them got caught

“I can’t just look for a void child and sit around waiting for the child to be picked up by the void mage group or that assassin group hired by the Church! That’s way too boring. I know! Let’s capture some more of those assassins! Maybe we can get someone that actually knows concrete information. That crazy guy in the vat seems like he was just an underling.”

“How are we going to look for them, master? They would not reveal themselves easily."

"I could make myself as a bait?"

"No, master! Five will offer himself as a bait!"

"Just kidding. I'm not in the habit of using myself as a bait," Aya said. "Beside, I don't think an actual bait is needed. Just need to stir things up so that they will show up. That would mean that another group will be chasing after me in addition to those white armored men that were guarding the vault. They seemed to be the forces of the church that are out in the open. Those assassins for hire are underground forces. It sounds fun..."

Aya then suddenly looked at the door. He touched Five with the orb, the latter was sucked in instantaneously. He then proceeded to swallow the orb.

There was a knock on the door.

"Teacher, is it fine if I ask for help? I'm really having trouble summoning the named cindertoad."

A grin slowly formed on Aya's face. What was that expression again? Planting two trees with one seed? "Oh wait. That does not sound right. That's not even possible. I can't remember the exact expression. But I do have a nice plan."

Orvin followed his teacher to several narrow and deserted alleys all over the city. He did not understand what his teacher planned to do but he trusted in him. He was also desperate for a breakthrough. He felt that three days was not enough to summon a named cindertoad. It was proving to be very elusive indeed.

After his teacher has chosen an alley, Orvin was ordered to sit down and meditate. Krsyperium was a well-kept city and even its darkest alleys were clean, so Orvin had no problems in sitting down on the pavement. The problem was that all the things that his teacher was doing was nonsensical, Orvin thought.

His teacher probably noticed his expression after their fifth alley.

“Named cindertoads are…hmmm…what’s a nice term for them. Grakking assholes, I guess.”

Orvin stifled a laugh.

“Don’t believe me? There was a case that a named cindertoad pushed itself in a summoning spell of a beginner mage that was aiming to summon a normal cindertoad. The mage fainted due to his mana being instantly drained by the named cindertoad.”

“Really?” Orvin didn’t know that that could happen. However, records of named cindertoad summonings were uncommon. What his teacher said was probably true. “So why are we doing this?”

“We’re showing the named cindertoad that you have a playful side. We run around the city and hide and try to summon it. Named cindertoads are eccentric. They are also quite powerful among named fire spirits. We just need to appeal to their sense of humor. Don’t forget that they don’t care how strong a mage is. They just come if they want to.”

Orvin just silently nodded but was still a bit skeptical about his teacher’s methods.

After he has started meditating, his teacher instructed him to remember the feeling that he gets when being bathed by the light of the Dragon’s Heart. The Dragon’s Heart was a conduit between all of existence as taught by the Church. According to the stories, the Dragon’s Heart was used by the First Emperor to call upon all of existence to aid him in his fight against the Blight Incarnate.

His teacher told him to close his eyes while he performs a spell that would help Orvin connect to the plane of the elemental spirits. Orvin needed to meditate deeply while maintaining the feeling of having the influence of the Dragon’s Heart.

Orvin obeyed his teacher.

It seemed to work. Orvin could indeed feel that he was getting more in tune with other planes. Perhaps, he could succeed if they kept doing it. After several minutes of meditation in one alley, his teacher told him to wait for him outside the alley. His teacher said that he needed to perform a spell to drive away all the elemental spirits that Orvin has attracted. They should continually do this so that all that would be left in the end was the named cindertoad.

Orvin was forbidden by his teacher from looking inside the alley when he cast this spell. It was fine with him. Whatever that spell may be, it was surely terrifying. Orvin could feel his heart getting constricted, headaches, and even nausea.

It felt like the time when he fought against his teacher.

He remembered that his teacher was about to cast a terrifying spell at the beginning of their fight but it was canceled halfway. Maybe, this was the same spell?

They visited some more alleys.

It was already late at night when they reached their twelfth alley.

Orvin was getting tired but he did not dare say anything to his teacher who was smiling broadly at him. He was already considering that his teacher was just pranking him.

He sat down, closed his eyes, and started meditating. Once again, he could feel the sensation similar to being in the presence of the Dragon’s Heart. It felt weaker than how he remembered it should feel. But this means that his teacher had a spell that could mimic the effect of the Dragon’s Heart and another spell that could do the opposite. His teacher truly was formidable. He probably has not shown his real strength.

Orvin’s meditation was punctuated by thoughts of going back to the villa and taking a rest.

A loud croak suddenly jarred his mind.

Then he collapsed.