The entire gathering was dumbfounded. Some told him to speak for himself and not Hyzek. Others called him a sell-out and admitted to only having him on their side because Madam Jelly lent them her aid with the shadow beasts, and Leo was the person who spoke for them. One even went as far as calling him a lowly shadow beast himself.

If they revered August like a god when we first came to Hyzek, that can only mean they didn’t realise Leo was a beacon, a holy warrior that achieved one hundred percent quint usage. It seemed he too, could hide his power.

After hearing just about enough from them, he asked that they all state their quint usage. None of them did. “You all congregate here, claiming to care for the wellbeing of Hyzek and her people, yet you cower at the thought of a simple question in the face of this land’s greatest adversary. You call yourselves paladins? Since when have the holy warriors become such pansies?”

A paladin stood up and drew his axe. He was a towering man, with equally sizeable armour. “I will not allow such disrespect in this hall,” he said calmly. “If you would like to pick a fight, we can settle this outside.”

“Unless you’re a beacon, you’re nothing more than a pebble and therefore a waste of my time,” Leo stated. He was poking the nest.

“Settle down,” a paladin said, the only woman of the bunch. “Why not simply ask those in question before we kill each other? Maybe there’s something we don’t understand.” She looked at Edgar, and Edgar looked at us and nodded.

“I’m, Eric Archibald, a magic user,” I introduced myself. “I can’t use quintessential energy so that’s why you don’t feel any from me. It’s not needed anyway.”

August went next, and he was quite convincing might I add. “My name is August King,” he said, then simply flared his quintessence until the soft yellow glow appeared. I could almost hear their sweat dropping on the tabletop as they witnessed it.

“How much was that?” I asked.

“One-ten,” he replied.

“One-ten?” Geona’s paladin took a step back mentally, “As in one hundred and ten?” He wanted to clarify.

August nodded his head and murmurs echoed throughout the hall. With each passing second, I pondered what my reason for being here was. I was sure these invaders could be wiped out with a clone, but chose to wait it out. Life had unexpected ways of tethering seemingly unimportant bits. The burly blacksmith was thinking along the same lines as I. “We’re wastin’ time,” he said. “Just tell us where the enemies are so we can be done with it.”

Their jaws found it hard to close. “Why did you react like that?” a paladin questioned Leo.

“Like how?”

“Why did you not react to that statement? He just said he’s a beacon, yet you’re not surprised. Did you know of this?”

Leo sighed and returned to his seat, “Yes, he’s a beacon, and so am I. While I hav–”

“You too?!” another stood up, not in fear but appalment.

As they continued acting surprised about it, August grunted in frustration, and simply walked out. No explanation, no warning, he just left the room. Oh boy… “I suppose I should do the same. These long meetings are not our cup of tea, you see.”

With that, I gave a little bow and excused myself back to the waiting room with Chelleze and August. She was already briefing him about the enemies, location, and the situation on the whole by the time I got there. I found that this was much more to our liking but admitted, I hadn’t paid much attention to what she was telling him on the expectations that he’d tell me.

Instead, I had a stroll outside and leaned onto the ledge, looking out at the knight-paladins littered across the courtyard. The place was quite posh, and drove home that even in a world like Hyzek where those with the least amount of resources lived highly fruitful and prosperous lives, there was still a difference – though subtle – between ‘classes’ of people. It made my mind flash on Calla and where she came from, Gassity, reminding me of my dream to help the city. It brought on a lot of other thoughts as well, so much so that I hadn’t realised the time that passed by; the calm of night had taken over.

Footsteps encroached me, “Like the view?” The voice felt familiar, but I couldn’t be sure it was who I thought it was. I let my eyes tell me the truth and turned to look at the person. She was a paladin from the meeting, the only female paladin there.

“I do now,” I said, looking right into her eyes. She returned the same, but with graceful intensity. “So, leaving the watchful eyes of your bodyguards to speak with someone you know basically nothing about. You must be very confident in your abilities, uh…”

“Hejra,” she smiled and walked unnervingly close. Yes, she was attractive, but nowhere close to top tier, especially after having been to Tyrr and seeing elves. She looked to be in her thirties, so sexual attraction or seduction wasn’t off the table, yet it didn’t feel like any such thing was the case. “Hejra Telonis, paladin of Telon. And yes, I am confident, but I am cautious as well. I feel like I could take you.”

“Eric Archibald, a mage. And I don’t know,” I shrugged playfully, “if I can kill a man with five hundred percent quint usage, I feel like I can surely give someone under one hundred percent a little bit of a sweat.”

“F-five hundred? Surely you jest?”

“Afraid not. Don’t get me wrong though,” I scratched my chin, “I can only defeat him if I get the chance. For someone with that speed, catching me unexpectedly is as easy as breathing. So,” I made some wine, “to what do I owe this visit?”

“Curiosity. And my sister,” she accepted the glass. “I believe you were the sorcerer that graced our beautiful shores some time ago, yes?”

“Well, I don’t know of any other,” I shrugged and we took a sip. “What about it?”

“She was there,” Hejra scanned my eyes for any sort of reaction, “seeing your feats. That brings me to why I’m here. Would you mind sho–”

“Ready to get this over-with?” August cut her off, not knowing he did. He placed his weapon in his inventory. He used Yunaris’ system a lot more than me, especially for storage.

“Yeah, sure. You got the location?”

He simply nodded, tying his hair together.

I downed the rest of my wine and flushed out the alcohol with Renew, then prepared myself for flight as well. When Hejra noticed we seemed to be getting ready for travel, she inquired about it, her freckled face in suspicion of us. “It would take days to get there. Why not leave in the morning with the allied forces?”

August turned to her in a bit of surprise, then we looked at each other. He shrugged, “We were planning on ending it tonight.” He took a while looking at us, “What’s this about?”

Hejra went on to explain to him what she had just told me, and he went, “Ahh, I see.” He pulled the band out of his hair, “I suppose we could wait until morning.”

“Why?” I questioned him.

“It’s clear in the day time. Everyone would be able to see what was going on. I’m pretty sure there’ll be issues during the night as well. You should at least send a clone as a medic though.”

Honestly, I’d no idea why he agreed with Hejra’s proposal like that, but I accepted it. He then asked her what her plans were for the night, and then I saw where it was going. I was invited to come along to Telon, Hejra’s city, because I was August’s drink dispensary. Wait, he’s Aug, in Hyzek. He’s basically got infinite money. Something wasn’t adding up. If he wanted to get busy with Hejra, why invite me? Eh, whatever.

So, Melissa, August, Hejra and myself partied then slept at her residence.

I woke up by the creak of the door. A harsh light from the windows wrought a hellish awakening, but man, something smelled great!

“O-oh, sorry,” a voice crept inside the room along with the source of the mouth-watering aroma. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

After a few seconds, my eyes grew used to the brightness and I beheld a freckled face, reminiscent of the celestial diamonds of the night. Her hair was reaching the middle of her back, tied together by a pretty white ribbon with navy blue accents on them. Her summer dress stole much of that colour scheme, with it being a plain white but with a thin and fashionable belt, navy blue as well. Like Anjali, she towered over me; I wasn’t the tallest man. As per usual with a girl her height, you’d expect her to be more on the petite side, yet she had some meat on her limbs. Hell, she wasn’t an elf in beauty nor bodily proportions, but she could give them a lot of competition.

“Um,” I sat up, my arms propping me upright, “I don’t believe we’ve met,” and said in a groggy voice. I cleared the hair falling over my forehead, and in the movement, the sheet fell from my chest. Whilst I was trying my best to keep calm about the missing memories of last night, she subtly bit her lips. It clicked to me immediately. Her attire, not what a servant would wear. She lives here and chose to bring me breakfast? I’m not even a holy warrior. I gave a little head nudge to gesture her inside.

“I guess that belief is wrong,” she placed the platter of breakfast down onto my dresser and had a seat on a little chair next to it. “We met last night, unofficially.”

“I guess we should meet officially then,” I stuck my hand out, “Eric Archibald. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’d get up to shake your hand, but I believe I’m naked, and I can prove that belief isn’t wrong.”

She held her laughter in as much as she could, but little sniggers escaped. “It’s okay, I believe you. I am Herona Telonis. I’ve brought you something.” She got the platter and placed it gently on my legs. It was quite a hefty breakfast.

With a lick of my lips, a rub of my hand, and a big “thank you”, I looked on at the breakfast with anticipation and waited a few seconds until I grabbed the fork. “So, you’re gonna stay here, huh?”

“O-oh, I’m sorry! I space-out sometimes! Um…” she turned to the door, but couldn’t really get up off the chair. She seemed to be the awkward type.

“You can stay, but you’re not gonna weird me out by staring at me while I eat.” I transmuted some ice into another knife and fork, then pat the other side of the bed a couple times, “Join me. This is way too much for me to eat by myself anyway.”

She hesitated. She hesitated a lot. Yes, I could’ve simply transmuted the sheet into clothes and say things to make her become more comfortable so that she could discuss whatever she came here for, but I wanted her to take the leap. She seemed to be a rather fun person to tease.

“I-I couldn’t,” she averted eye-contact. She was notably getting anxious. Never thought I’d see a person like that in Hyzek.

The tip of my fingers touched her knee, and I cast Renew. Her breathing steadied. Despite having an idea of her personality, I still chose to be difficult to deal with. “Calm down, okay? And,” I rubbed my chin, “if you won’t join me, I’m afraid I’ll have to politely decline your generosity. Whilst you’ve only shown me hospitality, I can’t be sure if the food is poisoned.” I shifted the nature of my invitation from intimate and personal to an objective-centric discussion.

“Oh, I see. That does make sense,” she agreed after a slow nod. She stood up and walked around to the other side of the bed, getting cold feet for a couple seconds, until deciding to dive in head-first – figuratively of course.

Some ways through the breakfast, I decided to get right to it. I placed the fork down, leaned back a little and stared at her; it was obvious she felt it when she began moving more and more mechanical. “So, you’ve taken it upon yourself to feed me, how can I repay you?”

“Huh? Um, say thank you?” She was genuinely confuddled.

What a piece of work she was! And she wasn’t lying either, according to Mana Perception. I tittered, “No, honey, what I meant was, what was your intention in the first place?”

“Oh! Uh, so,” she turned a bit to face me and interlocked her fingers, “magic users have been killing us, despite quintessence granting us natural magic resistance. I want us to learn how magic works enough to at least defend ourselves against it.”

“Okay, that’s amazing and noble of you, Herona,” I complimented and she had a shy smile. “Anyway, August and I are about to deal with whatever the threat is then go back to our world. So, I suggest you tell me the truth before it’s too late.”

She was dumbfounded, and only the morning birds could be heard for a while. She tried to clear the hair from the side of her face by habit, but it was already in a ponytail. After a while she cleared her throat and then looked at me seriously. “I want to learn magic. I was there when you and your friend fought against the shadow beasts, I saw how easily you did things with magic and I was interested in it ever since. It was as if magic was what I’ve been looking for my entire life. When I saw you, I knew in my gut that I should pursue magic, but then you guys just left before I had a chance to meet you.”

Hmm, I gave her a stern, yet somewhat deadpan look. There’s a lot more to this than she’s letting on. It’s quite interesting, but with this war, and dad’s death, do I really have the leisure to help another person?

A few seconds interluded and gave a break to yet another symphony of plot. “Do it,” Dawn advised. I guess she was listening. “Help her, Eric.”

I don’t mind, but what if this is more than–

“It may be. But I can’t help seeing myself in her,” Dawn said, which surprised me. “I might’ve been able to figure out who was responsible for my uncle’s death, but without you, I wouldn’t have been able to do shit about it. I’d have been powerless. You helped me, Volt, and Pyro in ways you can’t even see by simply being who you are. Don’t lose who you are as you gain power, Eric.”

H-holy shit, I said in my mind, but not using mana for her to hear it. That line felt like it shifted my entire perspective as of lately totally upside-down, inside-out and every which way in between. Was I losing the core of who I was? When did I ever figure out who I was in the first place? How was it that I – the very person who knew myself the best – could not see the things I was doing? Did I, in fact, not know myself as good as I led myself to believe?

Memories from way back began flooding my mind. I remembered when I first met Donna, my days of playing with August as kids, my excitement to learn magic and many other things. But one memory stood out to me the most, it was when Emily commented about how aimless I was concerning my life goals, and by extension, the very essence of who I was. She brought it up a bit nonchalantly, yet it stuck with me like glue. And now again, it was happening. I couldn’t understand how other people were seeing parts of me – important parts – that I myself couldn’t see. My eyes watered a little as I sat there, frozen in thought.

It hurt. I didn’t know why, but it hurt tremendously. It felt like my mind was irreversibly knotting itself in combative thoughts and despite knowing fully well that that was not a frame of mind I should delve into, but I couldn’t help myself. Who was I? Who, am I? The tears couldn’t keep themselves trapped within the dam anymore, and little cracks made some of them leak out. I keeled over a bit and floated the breakfast away, moving my legs to the ground and facing away from Herona. The pain wasn’t going away.

At that point, August busted through the door with his sword in hand. Dawn and Donna appeared as well. Dawn didn’t utter a single word. She simply walked in front of me, wiped my tears and hugged me. One would expect an act so endearing to lift my spirits, but it spiralled me even deeper into despair. Was it the grief for my father finally manifesting itself? Was it truly a lost sense of identity? Maybe a culmination of both? Was I ignoring things I should’ve addressed earlier in my life?

At some point, I woke up again with Dawn at my side and Celosia sprawled out atop my chest sleeping like a bear.

Sleep spell?

“Yeah.”

…thanks.

I wasn’t sure what brought that on, but I cast it aside in face of my responsibilities. Celosia warped herself back around my hand, and Dawn escaped into my mind. I donned the robes of the Order of Mages, the Staff of Scien, then made my way to where August was.

A long line of soldiers’ boots beat upon the road to make their way to the main point of battle deep south. Floating in the skies above them, I felt nothing. This was yet another fight where people would lose their lives. I grunted a bit. Honestly, Ulanos was enough.

I flew down to August and released Voidwalk. Once again, there were no paladins to be found within the holy warriors sent to battle. “Hey, bud. You know who the commanding officers are?”

“Uh, yeah. The guys on armoured horses. You alright, man? You can sit this out if you want and go back home. Just get Hydra to drop off the Diadem of Lunacy for me.”

“Nah, I’ll be a’ight. All these guys gotta go back though,” I flew toward the bunch on the horses, and was promptly shut down. It was hard to discern if their paladin told them about August and I. So, the paladins either don’t believe in our strength, or don’t trust us at all. I floated in the air for a while, unknowingly staring at the mounted commanders whilst in thought.

“You!” I heard a voice over yonder, and peering deeper into the group of commanders, I found Timothy Ansullar, the brat who was trying to seduce Dawn in front of me the first time we came to Hyzek.

I flew over to his side, “Long time no see, man.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “You’ve been busy, huh?” he asked. The boy seemed to have grown into a man. His entire demeanour was different. The slight scarring on his face proved that battle moulded him into humility.

“Mhm. Looks like you’ve had adventures yourself,” I small-talked, then came up closer and lowered my voice. “Listen, the entire reason we–”

I sensed something foul, and within a couple seconds an arcing wave of dark energy was speeding toward us.