Year 2, Winter, First Month, Third Week.

Windsor, who still remained in the awkward standoff with the other cloaked figures, noticed the hunters leaving and started to gather energy over his free hand, clearly something to intercept the fleeing villagers. However, the talkative cloaked figure moved to the left, symbolically blocking the Mage’s attack, who responded by making an unpleasant expression.

“Are you really trying to get in my way? Even your people should know better than meddling into Kingdom’s business…”

Again, it looked like the mysterious person was smiling.

“This isn’t the Kingdom… How unusual for a Warden to leave his region. I wonder what gave you the confidence of leaving your domain unguarded.”

Windsor hesitated for a moment, was this a threat or a warning? Either way, he couldn’t back down anymore. He defied their resolve by continuing to gather energy over his hand, a wind servant would be enough to finish the escapers.

“It seems the famous, “wind that guides the east”, isn’t that wise after all…”

The strong connection with the wind element helped Windsor to easily pour his wind intent into the servant’s body. The wind-formed bird of prey appeared over his hand and he finished the spell by giving it a target. The bird dashed through the air, eager to hunt its prey.

The silent cloaked figure pointed to the bird and a reddish translucent cube appeared around it. The wind-formed bird instantly dropped to the ground, it struggled to return to the air but it couldn’t. Windsor was furious with the intervention but he couldn’t treat these enemies lightly.

He started to gather the dense wind energy around him as he looked suspiciously at the cloaked trio. They were set on stopping him from killing the villagers but didn’t try to attack or preventing him from casting spells. Was it confidence or some principle? He knew the Dynasty had some peculiar habits but they weren’t in any way against killing their enemies.

In an instant, the apparently quiet Mage, launched dozens of Wind Blades at the cloaked trio as the wind around him rotated furiously to form a Hurricane. The talkative one was closer to the Mage and was the first to face the attack, strangely, the attack just passed without causing any harm. The next one to face the attack was the silent cloaked figure, a red-ish translucid wall appeared and reflected the blade. The last one, who saved Toni, just dodged the Wind blade with an exaggerated flip in the air.

The Wind Lord’s Hurricane grew wider consuming everything around him. He didn’t expect to inflict damage with the Wind Blades, he just thought it would nice opening. Against these enemies, he wouldn’t hesitate to use his most destructive spell.

At this time, a fourth cloaked figure appeared from among the trees controlling a floating object with strange reddish waves. Inside what looked like an energy barrier there was a charred corpse emitting small lightning arcs. Surprisingly, Windsor’s Hurricane diminished before disappearing.

“Is she… alive?”

He was looking at the newcomer, but the cloaked talkative figure was the one to answer.

“For now… Somehow, the girl survived having her entire body burned and being launched kilometers… But once we release her… I would give her a couple of hours, maybe a few more since she’s so tenacious…”

Windsor’s expression turned grim, he would have to pay a huge price to heal her, probably even higher than it cost to get her to this point, maybe it would be better to give up on her and start again. In a few seconds, he made dozens of calculations. He gritted his teeth while moving towards the floating Thundery, in the end, the risk of failing to get another descendant to this point outweighed the costs.

The Wind Lord conjured his gale horse and left towards the Kingdom holding his dying daughter, his vengeance against the villagers would have to wait, although the beasts in the Forest would probably beat him to it.

***

In a dark room full of relics and crystals, a cloaked tenebrous individual analyzed a dagger with red geometric drawings.

“Have you find the crafter?”

“Yes, Master… We gave him the box.”

The owner of the deep obscure voice stop playing with the dagger and turned to the four kneeling disciples.

“So, he is worthy… Who is he?”

“Forgive us, Master… We couldn’t get too close or we risk being revealed, but he’s an enemy of the Kingdom, in the future he will…”

“I see… It does not matter. Either he or the Kingdom…”

***

The Council meeting looked more like a funeral, nobody wanted to start the painful recounting of incidents. After traveling for two days, they couldn’t keep going so they stopped at a less hilly clearing and hurriedly erected the barrier. Although everyone was grateful to finally rest inside of the protective bubble, they knew it would take a couple of days before the energy levels inside dropped to an acceptable level.

Even though the Alchemy Department’s hastily constructed tools prevented the deaths from cold, many couldn’t resist the high-density magic energy. At this point, a lot of villagers plead to stop, but how could they? They learned from a painful experience that there was no such a thing as far enough from the Kingdom. And now it was time to account for the dead, and for the living. Karl was especially in low spirits, his father was still in a critical condition. He didn’t want to admit it, but if it wasn’t for Kanin’s high position and popularity amongst the villagers, he would have been left behind.

Karl pushed his worries to the side and decided to address something that was bothering him since Toni arrived with the wooden box. At that time, he didn’t miss Omero and Marlen’s strange exchange. Although the elders looked surprised by the timely intervention that saved Toni, they seemed to know something about it. It wasn’t the first time Karl or others noticed something strange with them, but everyone decided to ignore it since their knowledge and experience were important for the villagers' survival. Karl also didn’t feel qualified to press them about a secret because he was maintaining his own.

However, this time his father was wounded and a lot of villagers died. If they knew something about it, they should have said it before this tragedy happen. From now on, Karl was done with whatever it was that they were hiding. He stood up abruptly and said:

“I’m done with your secrets… Either you tell us everything or...”