Chapter 57: Unrest.

Meanwhile outside the perimeter of the Beaufort territory. There is a group of soldiers patrolling the edge of the fog, with different insignia displayed on their chests, signifying the different forces behind them.

Although all of this soldiers came from different forces, every one of them has the same expression on their face, which shows a gloomy look while all of them are staring at the thick fog that has suddenly stopped spreading.

This soldiers were led by several flamboyant knights who wear their bright and shiny armor and all of the have the same look on their faces, as they look at the fog with a strong fear. Since this knights weren't the ones who grew up on a battlefield, as most of them are the children of the nobles that were forced to go in this place, in the honor of their family name.

A piece of alarming news have suddenly spread throughout the kingdom a week ago.

That a mysterious fog, has suddenly appeared and blocked everyone from entering the territory of the fallen Beaufort family.

It is said, that a group of knights has accidentally discovered this unusual phenomenon, while they were on their way to the city, ruled by the famous knight, Hubert Francis Beaufort.

This group of knights said that they have gotten their selves injured in a fight with something inside the fog.

This news is actually reported by the knights of the Burnham family, they claim that they were on a mission, to escort the members of the Stratnan family towards the city of Florentine, but a fog suddenly appears.

This knights from the Burnham family said that the fog have made them sick, and even with the full coverage of their aura, they still weren't able to prevent themselves from being affected by it.

The Burnham knights said that they have lost the caravan of the Stratnan family, while protecting it from the danger that has suddenly attacked them.

The entire Beaufort territory and Stratnan family, are now declared lost by the knights of the Burnham family, even though, it wasn't officially confirmed yet.

This shocking news has already spread like a wildfire, throughout the entire kingdom. A week after it was reported, and even the neighboring territory has gotten their ears on this piece of news.

A lot of people have immediately believed this news, as no wizards nor knights can last inside the fog for a long time, because no matter what kind of skills they use to isolate themselves, the fog can still penetrate their shields and make them sick.

It also didn't help that they have discovered something horrible living inside the fog. Which is, the countless numbers of tiny parasites that blend around the air and it's surroundings.

And the situation have worsened, when the knight from the Burnham family, who got their selves exposed in the fog for a long time, have suddenly shown some symptoms of corruption, that only a blood of demonic creatures can do. The corruption was discovered by one if them 3 days after the fight inside the fog when he decided to clean his armor in the nearby stream of water.

This knights have discovered that their wounds didn't show any signs of healing, and instead it has started to rot. Their veins have also turned black, which is still spreading throughout their body, and even their aura can't stop it from spreading. But the most alarming thing is he is not even aware that he has a huge wound on his back that is already rotting.

Thankfully, the wizards that the royal family have deployed, managed to find a solution to cure them, a day after this discovery.

And that is to expose the corrupted part of their body under the strong sunlight as can immediately stop the parasites from growing. This wizard have also discovered, that mana elements can greatly help in killing all those tiny parasites in their body.

This news, about the parasites and corruption, has brought a huge disturbance throughout the land, and this story have immediately spread in the entire Turox kingdom and even the Helios empire have heard about this peculiar news.

Ordinary people have also started to avoid the Beaufort territory, as they become more fearful of this place, especially when they received the news, that the Helios empire of the central continent, have announced the revival of the Demonic Creatures, which is on the other side of the Great Fortress.

Every kingdom in the Vreachland continent have also received a message from their great antenna, detailing the event of the sudden activity of the Demonic Creatures.

All human kingdom was ordered to be prepared anytime for emergency deployment, if the situation in the central continent would worsen.

This news is so sudden that it directly stimulated a lot of people, as they all know, how dangerous Demonic creatures are.

It also didn't help, that this event have happened at the same time, that the mysterious fog have appeared on the Beaufort territory.

The Turox kingdom have immediately imposed a ban on everyone from entering the Beaufort territory, while they are still waiting for the result of the investigation conducted by the royal wizards.

It also didn't help, that the location of the Beaufort territory is just behind the mountainous land of the northern continent, and only this giant mountain separates them from the invasion of the Demonic Creatures.

A lot of people are now thinking that the Demonic Creatures have finally breached the mortal land by crossing this northern mountain, and their invasion would begin from this place.

A lot of wizards from different kingdoms have also started to arrive a week after the fog have been first reported. They are here to conduct more study, and different experiments regarding the unique situation of this place.

But in reality, a lot of wizards have already arrived on the first day that the fog have started spreading throughout the land of Beaufort territory.

"Halt! Who goes there?" Sternly said by the soldier in front as he stop a person from crossing the border set up by the wizards as a safe zone.

"It's me." Calmly said by the mysterious person as he removed the white hood covering his head and face.

"Sir Aide?" Said by one of the soldiers in shock as he quickly saluted and vow his head.

"My apologies sir Aide I didn't know it was you." The soldier said as he commanded the others to step out of his way.

"It's okay, you're just doing what our majesty have ordered you to do." Aide said as he bring back the hood towards his head before entering inside the thick fog.

A few moments have passed by, and all the tense soldiers have released a heavy breath full of relief..

~Sigh~

"Captain! What do you think is sir Aide doing here at this hour?" Ask by one of the soldiers as he approaches his captain.

"It would be much better if all of you won't talk about this. There are some things that we, normal soldiers shouldn't meddle about." Strictly said by the captain as he gets back on guarding the place.

"It's just weird that he would come inside the fog alone, other wizards would rather go inside of this place together with an entire team." Ask by the youthful-looking soldier to his captain.

"Were talking about sir Aide here boy, he doesn't need those kinds of things. He is one of the youngest and strongest wizard we have in our kingdom, even our king have greatly complimented him before." Strongly said by the captain before reprimanding all his soldiers to go back on their work and stop their idle talk.

"That's right, sir Aide is already a 3rd level Intermediate rank at a very young age, his future is unmeasurable. Someone like him doesn't need those old wizards from the magic academy." said by another soldier who still seriously looking at the place where Aide have vanished.

"Besides we're here to guard this place, so stop talking and get back to your duty." Gravely warned by the captain as he ordered all his soldiers to stand guard.

------

Meanwhile, inside the fog, Aide the wizard is closely observing the scene around him.

"This place does really look peculiar." He said as he kneeled in the floor to observe a flower blooming in its full glory.

"Snow daisies blooming in the middle of the spring season, how magical." He said as he collected the flower of the Snow daisies and putting it in a special container.

"The sudden appearance of this mysterious fog have created a huge social unrest in the entire Turox kingdom, and the news about the sudden revival of Demonic Creatures activity in the northern continent have make it worst." Aide said as he proceeded to conduct his daily investigation of the mysterious fog.

Aide is a man that looks like on his 20s but his strength is also known throughout the entire kingdom of Turox as one of the powerful wizard who works under the royal family.

He have a bright golden hair with deep gray eyes and a somewhat muscular body that is not fit of a wizards image.

Most people who doesn't know him, would thought that he was just a powerful knight at first glance, since he doesn't have the normal appearance of a powerful wizards that was known to many.

"The deeper I go into this fog, the harder it is for me to control my mana, and my spells are also being affected by this fog for an unknown reason." Aide thought off as he snap his finger and a basic spell of fireball have appeared levitating a few inches above his hands.

The moment that the fireball was formed the fog around him, the fog have suddenly become much thicker than before.

Like a magnet, all the fog in the surroundings has been attracted to his fireball, weakening it's fire, at the same time, he also needs to exert more effort in order to maintain this spell from dying.

"Incredible." Aide whispered in a low voice as he seriously observed the fireball in his hands that has now changed its color from orange to red.

Signifying that the temperature of his fireball spell have gone down by a huge margin.

"No matter how many times, I saw this phenomenon I can't help myself but be mesmerized by it." Aide said to himself as he put out the spell.

If Aide let the spell stay active for a longe time, it would be harder for him to control it anymore, as the fog would just becomes thicker and thicker.

The thicker it becomes the harder it is to control his power, that a simple spell like this fireball would take him a long time to activate, and it would also consume more mana than before.

"But, I'm still curious as to how is this possible, all the varieties of plants that was supposed to grow in different seasons have all bloom inside this fog." Aide said as he collected more samples of unique plants around the place.

"Not just that, but all the trees in this place have also grown by a lot, despite the fact that it's only been a few days." Observed by Aide as he mark several trees with light magic to prevent himself from getting lost.

"At the same time, It's been a week but we still haven't found any magic beast or animal inside this fog. This situation is very mysterious, Where did they all go?" Aide thought off before proceeding deeper in the Beaufort territory.

"However, the most troubling thing, Is still the existence of this parasitic black dust. There has been no records of them on any known library." Aide whispered as he change his hood to a new one.

The white hood that he was wearing earlier have now lost all of its color, and it's now covered by a thick black dust, especially the part where it covers up his nose and mouth.

"It's terrifying, to think that even with my full senses activated, I can't still detect this many parasites around me." Aide thought off as he reinforce the barrier around him and burn the sullied hood into ashes.

But this time he is using a pure light element, even though it was still made in mana, but for some unknown reason, this fog wasn't attracted to it. Unlike in other elements. Light element was also the most effective way to blocked all the parasites, as they just found out that this parasites are weak against the light and mana elements.

Although Aide, call kill all the parasites around him by using his abundant amount of mana, It would be a foolish thing to do especially inside the fog.

No matter how many parasites they killed. By luring it with basic magic spell, like fireball, there's no end to the number of them.

This tiny parasites inside the fog is getting more and more harder to control, as there's no end to the number of them.

In fact, a lot of wizards have noticed that the longer they spent inside the fog the more parasites they can attract.

Many wizards have thought that it wasn't a big deal to be infected by this parasites but they were wrong because the longer they let it spread in their body the weaker they become.

It also didn't help that the longer the parasites stays inside the body of a person the stronger they become and it's more difficult to kill them all.

And just today, Aide have received a grim news from the Burnham family. One of their knights, have secretly hid his condition of becoming infected by the parasites, and Aide have just learned that this knight have transformed into something unrecognizable today.

It was said in the report that this knight have managed to kill several dozens of the private soldiers of the Burnham family and infecting them all with the parasites in the process.

The fallen soldiers have suddenly rise as their skin have quickly turn into a dark slimy texture.

It was also said, that the process of mutation was much faster than before the infected knight have a much stronger parasites than the fog the speed of its spread is phenomenal.

It took the Burnham family 4 senior knights to destroy this single mutated knight, but it also injured them in the process of subjugation.

Thankfully, the Burnham family managed to put the situation under control and they prevented this news from spreading outside their land.

Though Aide still managed to discover this secret as the king himself put some spies into the queens family without her knowledge.

All the corrupted soldiers that the knights have killed were also burn down in the process and all the people who showed signs of infection of the parasites was cured by using the abundant resources of the Burnham family

They bought a lot of potion rich in mana elements and they also recalled all the wizards they support in their lands for an emergency meeting.

All of this things have happened in just a matter of weeks from the day this fog have appeared.

And Aide's mission today is to find the reason for this fog and check if there are other mutated creatures inside of it.

And if Aide found anything dangerous, that might put the Turox kingdom at risk, Aide was tasks to fall back, and immediately report this situation to the kingdom using the miniature antenna he brought with him.