Edited by Wesley Au (Paradox), the one and only.

By god, formatting on Royal Road is the devil's work, I tell you! Almost up to date though...

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*Clachenk*

The downward thrust was met with a light blue shield in Ragnar’s hands. With a loud clanking noise the swing was intercepted, the force of which made the man stagger back for a bit.

Ragnar took this moment to get to his feet at quickly as possible and took a few steps away. He lifted his hands to his head, his weapon was nowhere to be found.

“Not bad, brat. You’re lucky you can still change your soul, or else that’d have been the end of you.” Said the man as he looked at the boy. He hadn’t expected that shield.

“Not bad yourself, mister pig,” said Ragnar as he regained his posture.

“Can I give it a go now?” asked Mia as she saw her brother panting. She increased the size of her hammer to a size where the head could compare to an anvil.

“Sure,” said Ragnar and he retreated back a bit more.

The man barked out a laugh. “You sure you want this little girl to protect you? She doesn’t look any older than 10!”

But his laughing face quickly turned ugly as he saw the little girl slam the ground with her hammer. The impact of the force caused the entire ground to shake and the little girl flew up into the sky.

Unable to hide his surprise, the man’s mouth opened involuntarily. Did that girl just hit the ground with that much force?

He didn’t gawk for too long as he could see the trajectory of the girl would make her land to his left. In order to avoid her incoming blow, he took a few step to the right and lifted his machete.

Mia’s target, however, was not the man but a boulder the size of a bear. She knew that he wouldn’t stay in the same place. Her aim was to make him step aside a bit.

The man could not understand why she would aim for that rock. He looked back at the boy who was still standing over twenty meters away from him, but all the boy did was smile as he saw the man look in his direction.

Only then did the man realize the problem, his feet were stuck to the ground. He quickly looked at his feet and found that they were encased by solid ice. The ground he had just stepped on had frozen solid. That sneaky brat!

Mia knew that this would happen and prepared to actually attack her opponent now. She hit the boulder she had landed on, smashing the massive solid to little pieces. Yet this force did not push her into the sky, it propulsed her small body directly at the immobile target. Her body flew at an astonishing speed, the hammer facing forward to bash into the bandit.

The robber broke out in cold sweat. He couldn’t move so he had to face this incoming threat head on. If it were a sword attack he could parry it with his blade, but this hammer was just too massive. He did the only thing he could think of, he ducked.

Mia had predicted this move, but she did not change her charge. The hammer was currently also protecting her body. Instead, she flew right over the man with a swooshing sound, but behind his back she slammed the hammer into the ground. Her body followed the motion and both her feet landed on the ground.

Her next move followed quickly, Mia raised her hammer over her shoulder and mimicked Ragnar’s spinning blade creating a devastating blow.

*Clachanck*

The hammer clashed with the man’s machete. The moment she had passed by him, the bandit prepared to protect himself from the next attack.

Yet the man did not think this blow would pack such a punch. His frozen feet detached from the ground and he was sent flying in Ragnar’s direction. He landed on his back, unable to maintain his balance.

The bandit tried to get up as quickly as possible, but on his way up he felt something sharp touching his neck.

“I don’t think so,” said Ragnar.

Ragnar was standing next to the man, a position where the bandit could not try any sudden moves, and pointing his icy blade at the man’s neck. As he saw the man fly in his direction he moved forward and summoned his soul sword to his hands.

“Haha,” laughed the man, “I guess this is my loss. Here I thought I’d be able to handle two little kids.”

Ragnar smiled, “Isn’t that the first thing you learn at the academy? ‘Don’t underestimate your enemy’?”

The man spat on the ground, “Bah, the academy. That propaganda filled brainwashing machine has taught me nothing. Trust me brat, don’t listen to a word they say over there.”

“Do you think I’m that stupid?” said Ragnar as moved his sword slightly to remind the guy he had a sword in his neck. “I won’t accept everything people tell me, I’m not that naive. Now tell me, why are you robbing travelers?”

“Simple, we need the money. Our New Halram Army has…” the man started to say.

“I don’t want to hear about your petty little group of bandits,” said Ragnar angrily.

“Don’t hurt him!” shouted Mia as she was running towards the scene.

“Ha, that’s rich coming from the girl that just pummeled me with all her might,” said the man as he noticed the girl approach them. He then looked up at Ragnar.

“How’d you freeze the ground like that? You shouldn’t have learned magic yet at your age, let alone one of this intensity. Or did the Academy change their teaching policies?”

Ragnar grinned at that remark. “Actually, I’m not a student yet. I turned 11 just over three months ago. What you saw there was my soul at work.”

The man thought about that for a moment, but it was visible on his face that he didn’t understand.

Ragnar sighed. “After you hit me on the ground I dropped my soul into the sand and made it stay there. My soul currently has an ice attribute, so the rest was fairly simple.”

The man suddenly understood what had happened. When the girl had leapt into the sky, she didn’t intend to attack him from above, but to make him move towards this specific spot. Once he was in place, the boy used his energy to freeze the ground, along with the man’s feet.

“That’s quite cheeky, you brat. Now what are you gonna do with me?” asked the man.

“Well, we’re going to tie you up and we go back to our uncle. I’m sure your friends will be able to find you here.”

“I guess that’s fair,” said the man, not mentioning the fact that he had every intention to kill them at the start.

Ragnar didn’t waste any time. He formed his soul into a thick bluish rope and proceeded to tie his hands together.

“Now be a good boy and sit tight. I’ll recall my soul once we’re back on the road,” explained Ragnar.

“Hay mister, got a name?” asked Mia.

The tied up man turned around and looked at the girl. “The name’s Kreop, might I ask yours?”

The little girl stuck out her tongue. “Nope, you may not. Let’s go Ragnar! Ymil might need our help!” She turned around and ran off into the forest as quickly as she could.

“Hay Mia,” Ragnar shouted. “I can’t fight when I’m binding him like this! You go on ahead!” He was also slowly walking away from the man called Kreop.

Mia turned around and shouted, “I’ll go ahead then. See you back on the road!” And she disappeared into the forest.

“Hey boy, you guys are way too nice, you know.” Said the man as Ragnar walked towards the forest.

Without turning to look at the man, Ragnar replied, “The world is shaped by our actions, and we want the world to be a friendly place.” And he too disappeared into the forest.

The man just sat on the ground, looking at forest the two kids just ran off to. He shook his head:

“Naïve, that kid is just too naïve…”

—-

Ragnar wasn’t hurrying to meet up with Ymil. He knew that he would just drag him down because he’s unarmed. He was just strolling through the forest at a walking pace. He enjoyed the sounds of nature, the smell of flowers in bloom and the soothing swaying of the tree tops.

“Ragnar Aesir, I finally get to meet you,” said a childish voice from behind him.

Ragnar turned around as quickly as he could. He hadn’t sensed anything, what if it were hostile?

“Relax, relax!” said the voice, and a small fairy appeared in front of him. The fairy was about the size of an egg. He had a round little face and a brown stubby beard. His outfit was entirely green and he was holding a lily pad as if it were an umbrella. His big round eyes were looking up at Ragnar.

“I mean you no harm, Ragnar Aesir,” said the little fairy. “I am here to help you.”

Ragnar didn’t understand. “Why do you keep calling me Aesir? My name is Ragnar Forgeron. And what would you help me with?”

“Ah, my apologies. I guess I was misinformed,” said the little man. “I am offering you my services as a fairy. You’ll find that I can be very useful to you.” The fairy gave a curt bow.

“And why would you want to help me?” asked Ragnar doubtfully.

“Because it would be my honor to help serve the chosen one, off course.”

—-

Things weren’t going so smoothly on Ymil’s end. He was running through the forest with an injured hip while being chased by a trained killer. Unlike the Forgeron siblings’ opponent, this guy had finished Military Academy and was proficient in the arts of combat.

The man was confident, he knew that his fighting abilities were much better than this youth in front of him, which is why he was taking his time to pursue his target. He just jogged along at his own pace, knowing that an injury to the hip would severely decrease the victim’s mobility.

But Ymil wasn’t running away, he was initiating his second plan. The reason he could not summon his soul earlier was simple, he was already using it.

When they were running through the forest Ymil didn’t run around without a goal in thought. He actually materialized his soul as hundreds of tiny silken threads and stuck them to each tree he passed. The threads were as long as he wanted them to be and as strong as iron. He had, in fact, enclosed the area entirely with threads. He’d used them quite often in the bookstore to make his life easier, but Uncle Max had taught him the offensive capabilities of this form as well.

Ymil ran towards the edge of his web and hid behind the tree. He cautiously looked around it and saw the green figure approaching him slowly.

‘This is perfect’, thought Ymil. ‘I should test the thread’s strength before actually ensnaring him.’

Ymil retracted his head and thought for a bit about which thread to pull, he had quite a few of them. Once decided, he pulled at it gently, creating a trip wire on the man’s path.

“Boy, you can’t hide from me!” said the man with a smile on his face. “I can see much clearer than you, you kno~” As he was talking he suddenly tripped over a thin wire. He lost his balance for a bit but quickly recovered. Ymil’s test had been a success, even though he could sense that the thread had snapped, he also knew the man had lost his balance.

“What the?” asked the man puzzled and he looked at the spot he nearly tripped. One of the life lessons you learn at the academy, “Never lose your balance,” was deeply ingrained in every student that goes there. To lose one’s balance was the equivalent of losing one’s life.

Ymil used this distraction to run up to the next tree without being seen. For his next move he’d need a bit more time so it would be better that the opponent doesn’t know where he is.

The man clad in green shrugged and walked towards Ymil again. “That was an opening, boy. You should have taken it.” The man was clearly assured of his own might.

He sat down and focused on his threads again. Identifying the ones he needed, he pulled at them according to the effect he wanted. Thin threads were strung in front of the man, not over the ground but much higher. Now that the trap was set, Ymil got ready to attack his opponent once the opportunity sprung. His breath was heavy and his hip wound was stinging like hell.

One, two, three… It took ages for the man to actually set off the trap. Four, five…

*Snap*

With a loud noise the threads snapped as the man tried to walk through it. The man became completely entangled in the threads Ymil had sown around. Threads came from every direction, pinning his arms to his side and he was about to fall over.

This was what Ymil was waiting for and he rushed towards his target. Unable to summon his soul, Ymil intended to give the man a debilitating chop to the neck while he was immobilized by the string. Every step became increasingly painful as he dashed in.

“What is this?” asked the man with a stupefied look. He looked at the incoming boy and realized that this was his doing. “Very sneaky, boy, I like the way you think.”

And with those words he closed his eyes, focusing entirely on his next move. His entire body tensed up and started to shake slightly.

Ymil didn’t stop, he had to reach his opponent before he could break free. Trying break out of the threads by brute force would take a significant amount of energy, not to mention time. Ymil would have finished him off by then.

But as Ymil was within five meters away from his target he sensed a great amount of heat emanating from the body in front of him. He slowed down a bit to find where the heat was coming from, but it was too late.

“RAAAAAH!” roared the thief and his entire body became engulfed in flames. Bright red flames were dancing on the surface of his skin. Every thread on his body was turned to ashes in an instant, the restraints were gone within a flash.

This caught Ymil by surprise. When Ymil was about to land his final strike, the fire had flashed so abruptly that Ymil was blinded for a second. His instincts screaming, Ymil had no choice but to take a step away from the fiery man in front of him.

The fire vanished just as quickly as it appeared and the thief launched himself at Ymil. Caught off guard, Ymil fell to the ground, unable to react. The man placed his weight on the boy’s chest and quickly summoned his pitch black dagger to his right hand as he placed it near Ymil’s neck.

“This is the end, boy,” said the man and he smiled. “Clever trick you had there, but you should know that I graduated from the Academy.”

‘This can’t be the end,’ thought Ymil frantically. ‘But if I move this guy will slit my throat.’

“So what’s the plan now?” asked Ymil, trying to sound brave.

The man was clearly enjoying himself, so he thought he’d play with this boy’s hope for a bit longer.

“I let you have a last few words and then I send you to your maker,” said the man. “There’s no point in keeping you alive other than to jeopardize our operation.”

Unable to think rationally anymore, Ymil started to panic hysterically.

“I don’t want to die, I want to live. I want to~”

As Ymil started to struggle against the man on top of him, he suddenly felt a spray of warm liquid splash over his face. Some of it even got into his mouth, a metallic taste overpowering all other senses. He didn’t even realize he’d emptied his bladder.

Blood.

“Ymil, what the hell were you thinking?!” asked an angry voice.

Ymil looked at his assailant and found a bloodstained hand protruding from the center of the chest. The man’s eyes had gone wide open, eyeballs rolling back into the man’s skull and blood had gushed out of his mouth. He’d died instantly.

The hand was then pulled out of the man’s chest and the body was thrown to the side. Ymil could see Uncle Max standing at his feet but it took him a while to calm his mind.

“Did you really think you could handle him alone?” continued Uncle Max as he wiped his hand clean on his black coat. “The odds are both bandits that followed you finished Military Academy. Did you really think you could beat them?”

Ymil had recovered quite a bit. “But Uncle, we thought….”

“That’s the problem!” shouted Uncle. “You guys didn’t think! You guys thought you could just casually beat two trained killers? Those guys are taught to kill! You’re lucky he was unprofessional and took pleasure in torturing you. For Christ’s sake, you….”

Uncle Max stopped mid sentence as he noticed someone else approaching. He quickly stood up and picked up the dead man’s body. He quickly disappeared into thin air, not leaving a trace behind.

Mia came running to the scene. She had been running around the forest, not knowing where to go, but was led here by the sudden flash of light that the thief had made.

“Ymil, are you alright?!” she asked as she ran up to the boy. She looked at his face and saw that it was covered in blood. Her face quickly turned to worry.

“Don’t worry,” said Ymil as he sat up. “This isn’t my blood.” He looked at himself and realized he had wet himself. His pants had become completely soaked and his shirt features large drops of blood.

“You look like a mess!” she exclaimed. “I ran past a little lake just now, you can clean up there.” She helped Ymil back up and pointed in the direction she came from.

“Thanks,” Ymil said a bit absentmindedly. He hoped she wouldn’t see his pants right now. “You should go help Ragnar, he might not be able to handle the pursuer.”

“Don’t worry about that, we dealt with him without much of a problem. He was no match for Ragnar’s ice control,” she said cheerfully.

‘I should have known that,’ he thought, ‘or else Mia wouldn’t be here.’

They walked to the nearby lake and Mia gave Ymil some privacy as he took off his clothes. Ymil quickly washed his clothes and then soaked his body in the clear water. He floated in the water for a while, the man’s death replaying in his head over and over. This was the first time he’d seen a dead body.

He quickly recovered his composure and put his clothes back on and walked towards Mia. Together they walked back to the road to meet up with the others.

—-

Ragnar was the last to arrive back at the road. He had been… distracted by the little fairy that had offered him his help.

“I heard from Mia, good job on defeating that butcher,” said Uncle Max as Ragnar approached them. “Everything else has been settled here as well.”

Ragnar looked around and noticed that they were alone. ”What’d you do to the robbers,” he asked.

“They ran away the moment I disabled their leader. That guy’s not going to walk for a good long time,” said Uncle Max. “Alright, since we’re all here, we should get moving now. We will stop at a nearby inn to recover.”

Civilization began at the end of the forest. As the group left the woods, they were suddenly overwhelmed by activity on the street, chickens roaming the road, goats standing idly on the side and country men trying to sell their fresh local produce.

They asked for directions from a passerby and they walked towards the nearest inn. They were assigned two rooms, one for the kids and one for Uncle Max and they quickly went to bed.

“Remember kids, stay in your room until I come get you,” said Uncle Max before he entered his room. The kids nodded and went in their room to get ready to sleep as well. The room was fairly standard, it was big enough to accommodate three adults, a cute little balcony to look at the beautiful scenery and three wooden sleeping beds. The room looked quite comfortable.

—-

Ragnar fell asleep soundly that night, but Ymil was having some troubles. After lying in bed for about two hours, he couldn’t stop thinking about the dead man on top of him. It had happened so fast and suddenly that it just seemed so surreal. Every time he closed his eyes he was reminded of the smell of blood.

Unable to sleep, he decided to go out on the balcony to get some fresh air. He rested his arms on the railing and looked up at the sky. It was very quiet, all activity on the street had subsided and all the animals had gone to sleep.

“Couldn’t sleep either, could you?” asked a girly voice from behind him. Mia appeared next to him and leaned on the railing. Her eyes were glittering in the night as she was looking at scenery.

“No…” said Ymil.

“Wanna talk about it?” she asked without diverting her attention from the sky.

“No…” responded Ymil. How could he want to share such a horrific scene with his friend?

“That’s fine.”

“What about you? Why can’t you sleep?”

“I just don’t like the idea that this is our last night together. You know…” said Mia.

She didn’t have to continue, he understood her problem completely. Even though he was going to military academy with Ragnar, Mia would be left all alone in Sophia village. They had been the only children in the entire village ever since the great Liberal Library Fire. She would be all alone, without friends for the next two years.

“It’s going to be alright,” said Ymil trying to sound reassuring. A comfortable silence surrounded the two children as they were looking up at the sky.

“Do you know the legend of the blue moon?” he asked suddenly.

“No,” answered Mia. “What is it?”

“I read this in a children’s book the other day. It goes as followed:

The Sun is the source of all life, space and time,

A powerful being with no equal and two daughters:

Hecate the mage, Artemis the hunter,

Yet who are their mothers?

It is the bright blue moon, Selene, that no one knows.

Her beauty is so stunning you freeze at her sight,

The water stops flowing and the world turns silent.

Not a soul can move under her bright blue light.

As the Sun in the master of the future,

Selene the blue moon is master of the past.

Living outside the flow of time,

Nobody knows when she was seen last.

And I don’t remember the rest very well,” admitted Ymil.

“That’s so sad!” sighed Mia. “Did she love the sun? I mean, she did bear him two daughters.”

“Yes,” answered Ymil. ”However sad it might be, she loved the sun dearly. It’s just that they were born to be polar opposites.” When he had read the story he hadn’t thought about it for too long. He was more interested in the story that followed, of the woman dancing under the blue moon.

“The story says that the blue moon is able to reverse time,” added Ymil. “It was a children’s story about a woman trying to get her husband back.”

“And did she get him back?” asked Mia as she turned around to face Ymil.

“Well, the last pages were missing, but I can guarantee it worked!” Ymil didn’t know for certain, but it was a children’s story, they always had good endings.

“That’s good,” said Mia and they both went back to stare at the starry night sky.

They were quiet for a moment, both imagining a big blue moon hanging in the air.

“Promise me, don’t ever leave me behind like that,” said Mia suddenly.

“But aren’t we getting separated tomorrow?” asked Ymil. Wasn’t it inevitable that they would separate?

“I mean, don’t ever go someplace where I can’t reach you. I don’t want us to end up like that.” Mia was looking at Ymil with glittering eyes. It was clear that she was on the verge of tears.

“I promise. I will never go someplace where you cannot reach me,” promised Ymil and he meant it. He also didn’t want to be in a world without Mia, or Ragnar, or Olaf… He’d even miss Uncle Max.

“That’s good,” said Mia and she scooched over a bit. He shoulder leaned against Ymil’s and they both went back to staring at the night sky. This gentle touch was enough to provide the comfort in both of their hearts.

They would remember this night as a night with a warm, summer breeze. Crickets had started chirping in the background and the streets were completely quiet. Shoulder to shoulder, they were watching the starry sky in the moonlight of the two moons. Neither of them dared to move, afraid that it would break this gentle feeling of peace they felt at that moment.

It was only when the sun illuminated the horizon that they returned to their beds.

Some rest was better than none, right?