Two horses gallop through the field with their rider focused on the road. They move as fast as they could to help the camp holding on the attack that could destroy the village.

They are Romain and Volya, and they are on their way to help Helena and Ludmila that have already gone to the front line before them. Romain looks at Volya and says,

"Hopefully, we could arrive there on time!"

"We will... And I'm sorry for not putting any scroll beforehand. If only I read the future first, we could use my teleportation magic," said Volya as he asked his horse to move faster.

"If we know the future, we don't need to wait for this mage to make their move."

"I know..."

Right now, both of them are in the middle of a field that separates Volkingren Camp and Woodcrest. And this morning, a large number of the undead are moving to Woodcrest from Volkingren Camp and they are already holding the undead for two hours.

Volya looks in front of him and remembers when Albert orders them at Woodcrest Village. He said,

"Your Highness and Lady Ludmila already rode their horse to Volkingren Camp to help fend off the horde. At the same time, Sir Villias will gather the young man from this village to help them."

"What will you do, Sir Albert?" asks Volya

"I will start to evacuate the young, elder, and women of this village to another camp. I need to lead the army to protect them."

"Then... In other words..."

"Yes... Both of your tasks are to help Your Highness... And please protect her."

Volya can't think anything about it as he continues to move. When they are already near the forest, Romain notices something is moving. Because of that, he stopped his stead and tell Volya,

"Volya! Something is coming!"

"Huh?"

Volya stops his horse and looks at the place where Romain is pointing. He focused his eyes and saw two people walking towards them. But, their movement is a little strange. Volya immediately shouts,

"They already passed the camp?!"

"Huh?"

Romain immediately jumps from his horse and takes out his sword from his saddle, while Volya jumps and stands behind Romain. He prepares at least two magics to stop the undead movement. Romain closes his helmet and takes a deep breath.

He then prepared his shield and took a deep breath. Not long after that, they could see four undead moving slowly to them. Romain peeks at Volya and sees that Volya is nodding at him. Both of them standing still until one of the undead are inside Romain's strike zone.

When one undead was already near Romain, he swung his sword to the undead's leg and cut it. The undead falls to the ground and starts to scream. The other undead hears that scream and looks at Romain. They immediately run towards Romain and scream.

Meanwhile, Romain smiles at the undead and looks at Volya, who is already preparing one of his magic. He then stabs the undead that falls to the ground on the head, pulls it out, and then makes a defensive position with his shield.

As the undead comes closer to them, Volya shout,

"O Mother of Nature... Please hear your child pray!"

A green magic circle shows up under Volya as he looks at the undead. He then continues,

"Let your child hold the enemy that does harm to the other. As they hold them to the ground, let the other pass the judgment! Nature Snare!"

The green magic circle vanished from under Volya and the magic circle re-emerge under the undead. From there, a lot of roots come out from the earth and ensnare the undead legions. As they fall on the ground, Romain immediately stabs them one by one with Volya burning them with his fire magic.

After they already sure that there will be no more undead near them, Romain looks at Volya and says,

"If the undead already passed through here... Don't say..."

"I believe they take a detour around the encampment. And if I remember correctly, the number of knights there can't hold the undead that takes a detour," answer Volya

"Wait... If they take a detour, then the villager is in danger!"

Volya didn't answer Romain's concern and looked at the village behind them. He then says,

"We don't need to worry... I believe Sir Albert has something up his sleeve."

"You are... right... We need to fulfil our mission from Sir Albert to help Helena."

Both of them nod at each other and they call their horse. As they continue their way to the camp, Volya notices big residual mana comes from one corner of the forest. He looks at the mana cloud and thinks,

"Don't say that the mage is there..."

"Volya! Hurry up! We need to get to the camp as soon as possible." shouts Romain

"Ah... Yes..."

Volya immediately orders his horse to catch Romain's horse. As soon as they arrived at the camp, they noticed the struggle from the knight unit that was holding the camp.

Volya could see that there is a group of exhausted knights swapping with the not fully fresh knights to the front gate at one side of the camp and at the other side a group of knights and lady knights tried to help the injured unit. When one of the Knight see Volya and Romain, he shouts,

"Sir Romain, Sir Volya! We are sorry for not noticing the undead movement... We..."

"You don't need to worry about it... Where is Your Highness and Lady Ludmila?" asks Romain

"They are leading the group at the front line." answer the other knight

Romain looks at Volya and notices that Volya is concerned with something. He looks at the knight, gives them order, and then whispers at Volya,

"What in your mind, Volya?"

"Eh... Ah... Sorry..."

Volya chuckles a little and then continues,

"This is the first time I see a lot of people injured like this... And the atmosphere is... really foul... And..."

Romain looks at Volya, puts on his helmet, and then pats Volya's shoulder. He then says,

"Volya... If you feel that you need to help them first, go help them first... I will protect Your Highness and Lady Ludmila first."

"Eh?"

"And it's really strange to see you make that face..."

"What do you mean?"

"For several months of staying and joining you on a mission, I notice that you are a sincere guy that will help anyone. You are not the type that will be affected by the atmosphere around you as you tried to cheer up everyone."

Volya looks at Romain for a while and then hears,

"But, I can't blame you... You live in the time of peace. And since you become an adventurer the mission that you take mostly to help a village or slaying mission. Of course, it is a shock for you."

"..."

"You know... I was also shocked the moment I saw them."

"Eh?"

"But, we need to focus on ourselves so there will be no more people injured or dead in this battle."

Romain then taps Volya's back and continues,

"And I know you could do it, Volya!"

With that, Romain immediately joins the fresh team to help Helena and Ludmila. Meanwhile, Volya looks at him and sighs for a while. But, soon after that, he smiles and looks at the people around him. He then says,

"He is right... I need to keep my mind now..."

He then takes a deep breath and then slaps his face. After that, he shouts to the Knight and Lady Knight,

"Please gather those who were injured here. Also, please bring two or three big containers here!"

"Ah... Sir, yes Sir!" shouts the knights

Volya immediately takes off his mantle and notices that several knights already bring three containers. He then orders them to fill them with water while he prepares a spell. After the containers filled, he then takes a deep breath and says,

"O Mother Nature that oversees all the water of the world... Please hear my call..."

A big blue magic circle created under the container as Volya uses his magic. The knights around him are surprised and amazed as this is the first time they could see a mage use magic in front of them. Volya then continues,

"Let the water purify any sin of the man... Let them stand to protect what is important for them! Aqua Elix!"

The blue magic circle then vanished and the knights could see a sparkle on the water. Volya then says,

"Call the knights that are exhausted and drink this. After drinking this, they could return to the front line right away. But, it is only effective when you drink it twice. More than that, you will feel weaker than before."

"Thank you, Sir Volya. I will call the exhausted unit."

Volya nods and then sees the injured knights already gathered around him. He then orders them to lay down near him. After that, Volya takes a deep breath and gathers the residual mana around him. The moment he gathers them, he could feel disturbing residual mana around the camp.

He startled a little bit and the knight noticed it. The knight then ask him,

"What is it, Sir Volya? Are you feeling tired after using previous magic? Do you need to rest first?"

"Ummm... No... Nothing... Did you already gather the wounded here?" answer Volya as he tried to process the residual mana.

'This mana... I know someone... who has this residual mana...' is inside his mind for a while before he notices everyone there. He then takes a deep breath again, closes his eyes, and tries to control the residual mana around him to help him use his next magic.

A big green magic circle appears below them and Volya continues,

"O Great Healer, please hear my plea! Let your hand touch the wounded and release them from their misery and curse! Let them be freed from the chain that holds them! Hand of Dryad!"

The green magic circle immediately vanished and a lot of hands showed up below them. The hand then holds the injured knight to the ground, with most of them terrified with that. Volya then explains,

"Afraid not... Those hands will heal you in the meantime. I know it's terrifying, but please relax for a bit..."

The moment he said that he fell on his knee and tried to catch his breath. The knight near him immediately orders the other knight to bring a drink and chair for Volya. As the knight help Volya to stand up, Volya says,

"Thank you..."

"No problem, Sir Volya. It should be us the one who should say thank you..." answer the knight as the knight helps Volya to the chair.

As he sits down, Volya asks the knight,

"Could I know your name?"

"Eh... My name?" answer the knight surprised

"Yes... I want to at least know the name of someone who helps me to gather all of them here." continues Volya as he smiles at the knight

The knight at first hesitated at Volya's request. But after seeing Volya's smile, the knight put off the helmet. From there Volya could see dark brown hair tied and blue eyes. Volya quite surprised to know that the knight is a woman and before he could say anything the knight says,

"My name is Katrina Perichenko. A knight under Lady Ludmila banner. It's an honour to show my face and let my name be known by you, Sir Volya."

Volya looks again at Katrina and laughs a little. Together with that, Volya says,

"Thank you for your help, Lady Katrina. Please continue to help the injured and exhausted knights. The water and the healing magic should suffice until I find the source of this magic."

"Huh?"

"I will take some rest now. Please continue to look after the knights here."

"Sir, yes Sir!"

And with that Katrina puts on her helmet and leaves Volya alone. After that, Volya says,

"Now... About this residual mana around here... It's thick and full of resentment. Yet... It feels familiar... Like the mana that comes out from that girl..."

Volya then keep silent and mumbles,

"Gracia... Is that you?"

And not long after saying that, he could feel a strong mana surge from the forest. Volya immediately makes a serious face and says,

"Found you... And I hope it's not her."

He then immediately calls his staff and runs towards the front to find Helena, Ludmila, or Romain.