It was as though time stopped around Fiora and Lily as the anomaly swaddled the whole cave inside its ominous aura. Fiora’s punch didn’t land, for the dark mage had suddenly dispersed into a black smoke, leaving an arid and pungent sulphuric smell. Fiora scanned the whole area but couldn’t find the mage. Then—

“Peekaboo!”

The dark mage appeared behind Fiora and snatched Lily away from her grip. The mage then flittered to the back, distancing himself from Fiora. Lily squirmed and screamed for her life, as the dark mage tugged on her hair. The dark mage, whose face was hidden under a mask, laughed creepily with a voice like the screeching of nails on a blackboard.

“I win!” whizzed the dark mage. “I got the prize.”

Fiora immediately turned and used wind magic to propel herself forward, rushing to the foul mage with a staff on her right and a knife made of mana on her left. Her staff glowed in a blue flash, causing sharp ice crystals to sprout in the air above the dark mage, ready to fall in a barrage.

“Clever tactic,” said the mage with a grin behind his mask. “But I won’t fall for that.”

The tactic Fiora had used was a simple and direct one: she had conjured the numerous ice shards to supposedly distract the mage and slow down his reactions, as humans tended to instinctively flinch when they sensed danger, while at the same time, she would quickly grab Lily. However, the foul mage wasn’t someone who could easily be tricked. In an instant, dark clouds billowed before him, which prevented Fiora from passing through as though the clouds repelled her with an invisible force. She cancelled her ice shard spell and went for teleportation.

She appeared behind the dark mage, readying a piercing spell on the tip of her staff. However, the mage merely turned and her magic stopped. Another interference! Such skill in the use of magic—this mage was more powerful than she had originally thought, or was it because of the anomaly? She didn’t know.

The mage’s eyes glowed in blood-red, coursing through the holes of his mask, sending a piercing gaze towards Fiora. The moment Fiora met his eyes her body’s muscles started stiffening, preventing her from moving. She helplessly froze on the spot. The dark mage reached out his hand to touch Fiora’s beautiful face, sliding his hand from her long and pointy ears down to her lips.

“You’re beautiful,” he commented, “I think I’m going to enjoy this.”

Fiora greeted her teeth. As a last resort, she secretly casted a teleportation spell on Lily, chanting the incantation in her thoughts. Blue light wrapped around Lily and her figure dissipated. Fiora teleported her to the place she knew she would be safe—Mark’s side. The dark mage had tried to reach for Lily’s figure but was too late.

“Tch,” spat the mage, gripping Fiora’s chin tightly. “You bastard woman, how dare you trick me!?”

The mage took off his mask, revealing a putrid face, covered all over with rotting skin that oozed in sticky bodily fluids.

“Aren’t I handsome?” crackled the ominous voice of the mage. “This is what happens when people like us use the ‘mark’ and open up an anomaly. Whenever we forcefully open this space we have to sacrifice some part of our body’s formal mana. Isn’t it a shame? That is why I’m taking yours bit by bit. For now, I’m going to take your fundamental mana. Then—”

The foul mage grinned from ear to ear, staring at Fiora directly to her eyes. “I’m going to take all of your formal mana, and you know what that means don’t you? Soon, you’ll lose all this beauty.”

The dark mage guffawed, sending echoes upon echoes inside the cave. The next second Fiora wriggled and screamed in pain as the mage slowly imbibed her fundamental mana, sucking her dry. Her energy flowed from all over her body then passed through the hands of the dark mage holding her chin. As the large amounts of energy gushing into the mage brought great bliss to him, he shouted in ecstasy.

“Delightful!” he cried. “Delightful mana! Ah! With this I can be of more use to Bach, I can open more gateways, and soon—Twin Worlds shall return to how it once was. Aether and Gaia—forever distant, never to be joined in marriage. Two worlds to always be divided! Ah! Bach! Bach! I pledge my loyalty to you! Soon I shall be able to harness my full potential once the two worlds divide again!”

Fiora’s mana was slowly getting drained until the last drop. Minutes passed by before Fiora reached her limit. She gasped for an instant before falling to the ground. She was still conscious but she couldn’t move.

“Huh?” expressed the mage. “You give up so easily woman; come, give me more of your magic. Be glad and rejoice, you will be part of this grand plan!”

Would Fiora’s life end here? Will she die here never to see her beloved Mark again? Her eyes watered tearfully while her face flushed in red. Her heart beat faster and faster. Suddenly, Mark’s face flashed in her head. She remembered the past when she would hide her feelings for him, trying to act indifferent, and how Mark would always make up the funniest jokes to unexpectedly make her laugh. She remembered Mark’s gentle touch, his smile, his smell. She remembered the day she finally admitted her love for him—that was embarrassing.

Little Guam’s face also flashed in her mind. Their beloved child who was constantly getting bullied because of his tier-F mana capacity. She thought of his reaction if she would depart from this world. She remembered Guam’s face when he would say in an innocent smile, “Mama is awesome and Dada is cool!” Remembering that memory, she couldn’t help but poignantly smile.

And then Arthur—that boy whom Mark and Fiora had decided to raise as their own. Will she no longer see Arthur’s acts of silliness again? Will she no longer see him adorably copying Mark’s every move while saying, “I’m going to become like Pops! A very responsible man!”

‘Will I die here?’ she asked herself.

Suddenly, before the mage could continue sucking all her fundamental mana, someone grabbed her by the waist and lifted her up. The one who grabbed her jumped back a few meters. Then she felt the warmth of a man’s embrace, an embrace that wanted nothing more but to tear the world for her sake, an embrace that gently tightened by the seconds that passed, indicative of the extreme worry—the fear of losing her—of the one hugging her. She heard the man’s heart beat fast as he held her tightly near his chest. Tears dribbled down from the man’s eyes to her face like raindrops.

“Fiora my dear,” cooed Mark, tightening his embrace around her body. “I thought I was going to lose you. Thankfully, we were able to get here in time. Had you not teleported the girl to me, we wouldn’t have known your condition.”

“It’s okay,” gently said Fiora, smiling while shakily caressing Mark’s face with her palm. “Don’t worry dear, I’m alright. This is just nothing. In the first place I should be the one protecting you.”

Mark kissed Fiora’s forehead. “No!” he said, “I will protect you.”

Behind Mark was Arthur, holding Lily’s hand tightly. Lily, on the other hand, felt two conflicting emotions: fear and embarrassment. It was the first time she held a boy’s hand and it felt so sturdy and dependable. Being close to Arthur, though they had just met for the first time, was strangely agitating her feelings.

Arthur noticed and looked towards her.

“Are you okay?”

Lily however, averted her gaze and looked to the ground, blushing at the same time. “Y-yes,” she replied with a wavering voice, while tightening her grip on Arthur’s hand. “I-I’m alright.”

“Take care of them, Arthur,” scowled Mark, as he stood up in fury.

Arthur nodded in assent. Arthur let go of Lily and helped Fiora up; thereafter walking towards the corner with Lily following suit.

***

Mark stood before the dark mage, confidently unsheathing his sword from his waist.

“You dare hurt my wife?” Mark growled. “Do you think you can get away with this?”

The dark mage merely laughed.

“And do you think you have the power to fight me?” taunted he. “I’m not blind, I can see even from afar that you’re nothing. Weakling. Useless. You don’t have the power to protect anyone.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Mark flicked his sword in a sudden sweeping motion. He then placed his right leg behind his left leg, then lowered his centre of gravity. He placed his left arm horizontally before him, while he lifted the sword to his face like an arrow in a bow. What happened next, made the eyes of the dark mage widen in shock.

“I summon!” Mark chanted, “O guardian of the Wispy forest, heed my voice and come to my aid.”

Arthur who was sitting on the ground, beside Fiora and Lily, leaning on the cave’s wall, gawked in awe.

“Hey mom,” Arthur brought up, looking at Fiora. “Is pops chanting?”

Fiora smiled at Arthur’s childish curiosity. “Close,” she responded, “but not quite. You see, your pops has made friends with a peculiar being from another dimension, who has agreed to help him in times of need.”

“He made friends with a ‘peculiar being’?”

“Yes, that’s right. That is why whenever Mark would chant a specific incantation, the creature would hear him and appear. But for that to happen—”

“Open, summoning gateway!” Mark screamed.

His sword vibrated and strange markings took shape on its surface, which appeared to be magic circuits. Mark thrusted his sword upwards and swirled it five times, thereafter tearing a small hole in the fabric of time and space, thus opening a portal to another dimension.

“He has invented a magic circuit that can open portals,” Fiora continued to explain. Arthur listened intently while Lily awkwardly fidgeted at the side, still perplexed of what was going on. “It’s not that he’s using a summoning spell—more like he’s chanting a secret password that would incite the creature from beyond to pass through the portal that he would create.”

“Wow!” beamed Arthur, “I never knew pops could do that!”

“However,” pointed Fiora, weakly raising a finger. “There’s one condition: Mark must always use the right pitch, the right words, and the right tempo—this condition was placed by the creature itself in order to ensure that it won’t be entering into a trap.”

“What happens if pops get it wrong?”

“The creature would cause Mark’s portal to explode. This ability is a very risky one, that’s why he doesn’t use it often.”

“But,” Arthur began, expressing confusion. “I saw pops use mana earlier, and nothing exploded.”

“Oh so you’ve seen it?” Fiora asked, gently gazing at Arthur. Arthur responded with a brisk nod. “When Mark borrows the creature’s mana, he doesn’t have to call on it to appear in our world, hence, since there’s no risk for the creature, it allows Mark to borrow as much mana as he can.”

After Mark had finished tearing open a hole to another dimension—much like dimensional pockets but in a smaller scale—the portal’s border swirled in yellowish sparkly light, while the inside of it remained pitch black. From this blackness descended a small fox, with a body that wispily flickered like blue fire.

“I summon, Wisp, guardian of the Wispy Forest!”

The fox pranced in the air around Mark, circling him playfully. It purred as it caressed Mark’s cheeks with its body.

“I miss you too friend.”

The dark mage should have been surprised—no he should’ve have been paralyzed in awe; yet he simply laughed.

“What an idiot,” the dark mage held his stomach as he belly-laughed. “I’ve got to admit, you surprised me when you summoned that creature. But—”

The dark mage sent Mark a disappointed gaze.

“That’s simply a Lesser Elemental; one that cannot use its own mana as a weapon. Although it’s a creature of pure mana, it can’t use any magic! The best it can do is cause explosions by haphazardly bombarding pure mana to a target, aside from that—useless. Your Elemental is useless.”

“Oh?” smirked Mark, raising an eyebrow. “Have you never thought—”

The fox giggled in a high-pitched sound as its flickering body expanded into a cape and wrapped around Mark’s shoulders, cloaking him in its energy. Ten fiery balls flared and danced in an arc behind Mark.

“—that if aether can be turned to mana, the opposite could also be true?”

The next instant, Mark’s strength increased to a level 10 power.