Otto was awoken by a loud crash; he opened his eyes and was surprised to see no sunlight.

“What the hell?!” he thought.

Looking out his window he saw a blond man with glasses standing in a small crater in the ground.

“I have a bad feeling about this…”

Moments later his gryphon covered in golden armour landed, a single flap of its wings caused the dust created from the man’s fall to disappear.

Moments later another two dozen soldiers descended less dramatically.

Gredrick rushed out of his home to confront the intruders.

“H-hello!” he exclaimed visibly anxious.

“Welcome to WorkInProgressTown!” Gredrick exclaimed gesturing towards the town around them.

Abel looked down at the comparably short man.

“Greetings, I take it you are the leader of this lovely settlement?” Abel asked observing the cosy-looking wooden homes.

Gredrick nodded.

“That’s right, I’m also the town’s healer, so if you need something healed, just let me know!” he exclaimed.

Abel smiled.

“Thanks for the offer, however, we are here on a mission,” he continued.

He extended his hand forward and began to speak.

“SummonExcalibur…”

In his hand manifested a blade of gold, hardened with magic like his armour.

“H-h-hold on! Why?!” Gredrick asked taking a step back.

Otto charged out of his home, book in hand.

“Hold on!” he exclaimed.

“I’m the one who was using magic here!” he began.

Abel looked over to Otto and then at his book.

“You?“ he questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“I-I’m serious!” Otto extended a hand towards the armoured man.

“WATERBOLT!”

A small bolt of water flew at the Archmage, it didn’t even so much as push him.

Abel smiled.

“I see…”

“So, you are the anomaly…”

Abel raised a hand and gestured to the other soldiers to take care of the rest of the village as the Archmage approached Otto.

One of the soldiers walked towards Gredrick with a drawn sword.

“Hold on!”

“Stop!”

Gredrick tried to back away but he couldn’t, his back now pressed against the wall of the inn as the solider continued coming closer.

Gredrick clenched his eyes shut awaiting his death as he felt the warm liquid coming splashing onto face.

He opened his eyes seeing the same soldier sanding before with a slit throat, he dropped his weapon moments before falling over himself.

Beside the corpse stood Abigale, dagger in hand, her expression blank like usual.

Another soldier charged from behind, before Gredrick could even warn her she already spun around to face the attacker.

She jammed her dagger into the underside of his jaw, the blade penetrated the soldier’s skull such that his helmet now stuck out above the man’s head.

She pulled the dagger back, swiping the man off his feet and turning to face her next opponent.

A few of the more capable farmers wrestled with the soldiers, though even without magic being on the attacker’s side, the farmers were unarmoured and mostly unarmed.

A bolt of fire flew at Abigale.

“Vanish…” she mumbled as he moved behind the caster of the spell, both of her daggers met inside the man’s pierced heart before she lifted him up with the firmly impaled daggers to block another ball of fire coming from her left.

The charred husk that was once her shield practically crumbled off her daggers as he heard a sharp whistling noise.

Her efforts to defend the village were cut short when an arrow struck her side, a torrent of blood poured from within.

“ABIGALE!” Gredrick cried pushing the corpse of the soldier out of his way as he began making his way towards her.

Then another hit her in the same place on the other side.

Moments later she collapsed still clutching her daggers, her dying body caught last-second by Gredrick as he fell to the ground trying to cushion her fall.

“ABIGALE!”

He placed his hand to the wounds, he knew he couldn’t do anything about the internal damage, but clinging to hope Gredrick tried to heal her wounds.

Not even the skin closed indicating that the person he was holding was already dead.

Otto could barely hear Gredrick’s voice over the sound of battle.

“Leave them alone! I’m the magic user!” Otto explained holding out the book.

“I’m afraid my orders were pretty strict; I am to kill every villager…” Abel replied.

Otto could see the other villagers being dragged out of their homes, chained and dragged to the centre of the town as their homes were showered with small fire projectiles summoned by the soldiers.

“Listen to me and understand…” Abel began, his expression growing darker.

“A good world cannot exist where the unworthy wield magic…”

With that Abel smashed the flat side of his sword into Otto, launching him against the wall of his own house.

The wall crumbled and the rubble pushed Otto down to the ground.

“Alright, the anomaly seems unconscious, guess I should take care of the other villagers…” Abel said turning away from the still struggling Otto.

“Look…” the book whispered to Otto.

His eyes focusing on the corpses of his friends and acquaintances.

The fire raged on around Otto, homes collapsed, even the inn fell down with a big puff of smoke.

“Look at what you did…” the book continued.

“Burn this into your thick skull…”

“COME… BACK HERE!” Otto struggled, his expression burning with hatred, he broke his arms free from the rubble and extended it towards Abel.

“WaterBolt!” he exclaimed again and again to no avail.

Abel breathed an annoyed sigh.

“You brought this about the, don’t you think people should learn from their mistakes?” the Archmage asked walking up to the still immobilised Otto.

Abel picked Otto up by his collar.

“WATERBOLT!” he splashed some water directly into Abel’s face.

“Is that the only spell you have?” Abel asked.

Otto began reciting a custom spell, but he was already too late.

Abel took careful aim and threw Otto far to the west.

“I’m sure the impact of this attack will kill you unless I somehow calculated something wrong…” Abel replied with a shrug.

With the strength no typically possessed by a human, Abel tossed Otto into the distance.

To him the village became a distant spot, glowing with the flames of everybody’s homes as he could see the forest it was located in as well as the distant capital before crashing a vast body of flowing water only to pass out on impact.

When Otto opened his eyes, he was met with nothing but the splashing of water.

“What… happened…?”

It was already day.

“Welcome back~,” the book said.

Its voice brought back the memories from yesterday, he jumped to his feet.

Otto looked around desperately trying to find any sigh of the Archmage from the day before.

“Where is he?!” Otto demanded.

“What are you going to do to him, splash him again?” the book taunted.

“ANSWER ME, DAMNIT!” Otto demanded.

The book let out a sigh.

“I don’t know. Remember, not really alive…” the book reminded him.

Otto grabbed the book.

“I need to get back to the village!” he looked up and saw the remains of smoke that lingered in the air.

“There!” he exclaimed.

Desperately, Otto ran towards the smoke.

As he got closer the scent of smoke got stronger.

“What if there are still some soldiers there?” the book asked.

“Shut up!” Otto replied still charging towards the town.

When he finally saw it, he couldn’t help but drop to his knees as he the burned homes, piles of charred corpses and many mutilated corpses burned into his mind.

Otto felt his throat tighten as he slowly entered the town.

He could recognise most of the bodies, young and old.

In the centre of the town lay Gredrick’s body still holding onto the equally dead Abigale.

After a few sombre moments, Otto finally broke down and began to sob.