"There was once a town that was famous for producing great mages and sorcerers. Even in this town, one family stood out for having a history of the best mages in the entire land, more than enough to gather attention from numerous kings and lords of different countries. Then one day, the next heir to the family was born. People expected so much from him even months before his birth. His parents were at that time the most powerful mages. Would he be a king? Or more than that? Perhaps a God of Magic? Whatever the case, prosperity would surely follow him and his family.

But none of that happened. The boy had no talent for magic. He could not even cast the simplest of spells. Soon the family and the town shunned him. But he did not give up. Instead of magic, perhaps he could use something else. Something that would bring him recognition, so that his parents would accept him. He departed from the town and travelled the world. Years after years, he searched. And one day he found it. Inside a dungeon far to the North, he found the golems. Machines that existed since ancient time. If he could not cast spell, then he could create golem to fight for him.

The once talentless boy in magic found himself a new goal. A few years later, he became famous for his creations, receiving countless invitations from kings to join their army. Happy more than ever, he decided to go back to his town, waiting for the price of his efforts: his parents' recognition. But he received none.

The father was angry when the boy showed up with his golems. He rejected the ideas of machines, thinking it was preposterous to use them while his magic could do much better. Then he hit him.

The golems, reacting to their master's injury, grabbed the boy's father and threw him to the ground. The villagers were terrified. They began to attack the golems. But they underestimated them. And so the golems destroyed the entire town, killing everyone else. There was nothing the boy could. He just stood there, watching the carnage with tears in his eyes. He could not stop the golems from killing his family. Or could he? Perhaps the golems simply acted according to their master's hidden desire....

The boy disappeared from the world that day. Some speculated that he continued his research in golems. Not just any kind of golem, a golem capable of human emotions, one that could be considered a living being. But for what? Perhaps to replace a now lost family."

- "Tales of the Artificer" by Arshe the Wanderer

* * *

BANG! A loud noise sounded from downstairs. “It sounded like someone just knocked our door down,” Alastor thought out loud. He had jumped out of his bed and landed face-down on the floor. He was sweating and breathing heavily. Not too much surprise, what happened last night or rather what happened in his dream was quite terrifying and so real. All the years he sometimes thought that all those conversations, all those exchanges he had in the dream was just him being wacky. Even though it seemed so .... real, so authentic. But yesterday was completely different. For the first time in his life, he felt fear. And the pain he endured... even now it persisted. By instinct, Alastor wanted to check the gemstone on his chest. It did not change much in term of size but now it was glowing a dim light and he could clearly a small red glow in the center, although nobody would notice it with a mere glance. "Ascension.... Demon Lord... What the hell was that all about? " he thought to himself. Then he felt something lacking. Something was amiss.

Then he realized it. Alice. The boy freaked out when he didn’t hear the annoying wake up from Alice as usual. She would usually shake him up while yelling his name, something accompanying with a few slaps in the face. Well it was not like he hated it, rather it soothed him that when he waked up, he would see a cheerful face, albeit an idiot one, of someone he cared about. He also noticed that he did not hear his mother's humming when she cooked breakfast. The house was totally noiseless.

Not a minute later after being in deep thought, Alastor knew something wasn’t right. Still half asleep, he grabbed his clothes, paced around his bedroom contemplating if he should walk out or not, and finally, he decided to take the leap of faith and opened his room's door. He took two steps out the door. Looking left and right, he saw everything was still in its place. He raced downstairs to see if anyone was there. None. He tried to look around, seeing if Morgan left a note like she always did. But nothing.

Anxious of what might happened, he took his coat and went out of the house. He spotted footprints in the snow. They leaded to the village. It seemed like someone was coming here and then his family decided to follow that person back to the village. He decided to follow the footprints to see what was going on.

After arriving at the village, he saw a commotion at the town center. Everyone was gathering there. He looked left and right. People had a scared and confused expression. Just what was happening?

* * *

Gazel's POV

I still couldn't believe what Alec told me this morning. Earlier he barged into our house, screaming how everyone was dead. The boy looked shaken up and could not even speak properly. I had to calm him down for a while before he conveyed to me the horrible thing that happened. After hearing the whole story, I called everyone up to the village center. Rumors have already been spread around like a plague. Better speak the truth now before anyone took them any further.

"Alright. Now that everyone is here. Tell us what you have just told me earlier. Speak up boy!", I told Alec.

“Ka….Karl village has been attacked. Everyone there is dead. They are all dead” - the young man trembled as he speaks. You could see the fear in his eyes, as if he has seen hell on earth. Then he continued.

“I was on my way back from visiting the Guild when I decided to go to nearby villages to sell some stuffs left from the trade at the capital. Then, from afar I saw several column of smoke. At first I thought they were holding a festival or something. But when I got there, all I see it’s blood everywhere. They were all killed. Then I panicked and ran as fast as I could back here. It must have been the bandits. Only they could do this. The others villages in the area have also been attacked. We are the only left. They will surely come here to kill us. Oh god it’s so horrible”

I was horrified by the story when I first heard it. I knew people there. Some of them were my friends for years. But now it was not the time for mourning.

“Everyone, please calm yourself. We should not panic now. What we must do is strengthen our defenses. Lote, you go recruit a team of scouts and secure a zone of three kilometers around the village. I want to know everything that come in or out. Pan, go gather equipment from the storage. If there isn’t enough, take from the blacksmith. The others men, please follow me. Women and children should go back to their home. Please don’t worry! As Alec has said, we have asked aid from the Guild for a monster subjugation. With luck, they may come here tomorrow morning.” I called out to every villager.

All villagers quickly followed my lead. The tension was not as heavy as before. Hearing the Guild sending aid surely calmed them all down. I only hoped that they will make it in time.

I was still bothered by the news. The Karl village was double the size of his village. Plus, they had a few competent fighters. No bands of bandits in this area were large or organized enough for this scale of attack. It was true that for years villages in this area have been plagued with bandits but they have never been this aggressive. And yet Karl fell so easily. Not to mention that most people of Caine village were simple farmers who have never held a weapon. Something was not right. However, contemplating here all day wouldn’t solve anything. All I could hope for was to pass the night and wait for the adventurers to come.

For now, I asked Morgan to take the two children who followed us back to the house. Although I preferred for them to stay inside the village, Morgan insisted that she was more than capable enough to defend the kids. I knew that she was no common elf and her mana clearly belonged to an experienced fighter, perhaps even more than more. I have tried to ask her what exactly happened ten years ago for her come in this isolated place, accompanied by two children but each time she avoided the subject and I would not push it further. But I knew it had something to do with the boy and his.... lineage.

* * *

The sun has gone down for a few hours and tension was raising. The eerie sound from winter gust only added the stress inside the village. Ever since the announcement at the plaza, everyone has been on edge. Houses have been fortified with wooden planks. The guards have been increased and many have volunteered to join them to protect their families. The women and children stayed inside their houses with closed doors. The men, some had pitchforks, others with rusty swords or even sticks. With just one look, it was obvious that most of them have never even held a weapon in their entire life before. But it was not like they had any other choice. Something or someone has been attacking village after village in the area and theirs was the last standing one. They could not just wait to die. Something had to be done.

Usually villages and towns were under protection of the royal family. If someone dared to attack them without any provocation, the royal army could be deployed to take care of the threat. If they paid a good amount of taxes or present a good strategy position, the army or at least a squadron would always be around to protect them. However, that was not entirely the case for frontier villages. They were poor and poor people had little to pay for the taxes. And so they were abandoned. Another reason was that villages near the borders of others countries usually were attacked and pillaged by those countries. Since they could not provoke open wars without concrete reasons, small skirmishes like these were more or less ignored as the blame could always be placed on bandits or monsters. So long as the damages were not important enough.

This was the reason why in case of emergency these villages would call out for help from the Guild of Adventurers. They accepted all kind of requests, as long as they were legal ones and the prices were more reasonable compared to what they have to give to the royal family. If they could hold out until morning, everything would be fine. Or so they hoped. This hope was shattered the moment they heard the bell from the watchtower. What followed was the guards screaming.

“WE ARE UNDER ATTACK”

The guards and volunteers quickly grabbed their weapons and moved to their positions. Standing on the wooden wall was Gazel in his old armor. He was the first one to spot moving torches from afar. The enemies numbered at least a hundred. Judging from the moving speed of those torches, they were cavalry.

Gazel couldn’t believe in what he was seeing. Not only he was amazed by the number of the knights and their heavy equipment. But there was another reason: their banner. On the flag was an emblem of a shield with the image of an eagle on it. It was the banner of Ceadric, their own kingdom. Gazel was shocked by this revelation. He didn’t hear anything about reinforcement from the king nor did he inform the authorities about what happened since he knew they would simply ignore it.

The villagers were overjoyed when they heard the coming of the imperial army. Their king has not abandoned them after all. Their joy did not last long however.A small boy who has always been fascinated with knights ran to the fence. In a backwater place like this, seeing an entire battalion was rare so he could not miss this chance. The boy excitedly waved his hand to salute the army. And what did he receive in return? An arrow right in the head. The moment he fell down, confusion spread as the villagers started to scream, horrified. Even the guards were not able to keep calmed and start throwing arrows back to retaliate. This time what came back were not arrows but fireballs at the size of a man’s head. Hundreds of them. They came from the ten hooded men standing in front of the imperial army. They each wore a blue robe with golden signs on it.

‘Mage’, the word echoed inside Gazel’s mind. They were master of magic who manipulated mana inside their body and surroundings to their will. There were many levels of mages and some even had unique powers. But whatever the case, mages were rare. Only one out of ten can have the potential to be a mage and even so they would have to go through training for years before becoming a master.

“This is not possible. Army from our own kingdom coming to kill us. If we go outside the knights and archers will massacre us and if we stayed inside, those mages will burn this entire place to the ground. What can we do?” Gazel muttered to himself angrily. This was far worse than what he was expecting.

“God help us all!”