Using my sleeve to wipe my blurry eye, I found sparks floating around as they faded into nothingness.

Moisture tickled my nose.

Subconsciously, my head turned up as my lone pupil constricted to the size of a needle. My back stiffened. The black clouds up above were serving as a backdrop to the intensifying lightning.

I dragged my body to the rear until I could feel the texture of the bark of a tree through my back. My head turned to look at the tree bark as my lip trembled.

*BOOM!*

An ear piercing sound made my ears go numb. Fading sparks at my front sent a shiver running down my spine. My eye moistened, causing my vision to go blurry.

With wobbly legs, I ran up to Samuel.

I shook Samuel to wake him up. “Samuel, wake up. Let’s go. It’s going to rain soon. Samuel!”

However, as soon as my hand touched him, Ouch— With a grimace, I pulled my hand back.

My hand was a little numb from the fingertips as the feeling of lightning flowing through my hands was fresh in my mind.

W-what’s going on?

Half disbelieving, half in shock, I ended up touching him again.

Yet, the result was no different. My palm was numb as the feeling of lightning rubbing my palm sent shivers down my spine.

Panicking, I thought of what I could do. Immediately, an idea popped up.

I’ll go and look for Aunt. She probably knows how to get him back. I raised my head up, looking at the clouds. It’ll rain soon. I should hurry.

Without waiting for another moment, I headed to the path straight towards the village.

But, *Boom*— my legs gave out after seeing another spark fall a few metres ahead of me. Sweat popped up on my back as my breath got caught in my throat.

In the end, I could do nothing but curl up against a tree while shivering and waiting for the storm to end.

Alright, a little more… Samuel thought as his skin glistened due to transparent beads rolling along it.

To his surprise, his consciousness, although now a bit strained, was nonetheless cleared up when the roar echoing through his inner world disappeared to oblivion. Arcana flowed along the channels within him as he wished, like wind flowing through a twisted canyon while he commanded it like a sovereign.

To his utter jubilation, he could feel the arcana bending to his every whim, doing whatever he commanded it to. A surreal feeling took over him, as he felt like he could do anything.

However, at the same time, the pain radiating through his chest grew at an exponential rate. Although he could brush it away at first, it soon caught up to his limits of endurance, putting a damper on his excitement.

However, by the time the ‘mood-breaker’ had caught up, he was almost done.

He found himself standing in a world with no land nor a sky, with only a lone obelisk floating in front of him.

The obelisk floating in front of him radiated a blinding arctic light. He couldn’t determine how big or how far the obelisk was. All he could do was feel it’s existence.

Fine threads of light twisted around the obelisks, forming spirals like a thread weaving around a spindle. Yet, no thread touched the obelisk, staying a distance from the centre

Taking in a deep breath, he followed his instincts, trying his best to not bend away from the piercing force trying to burst open his abdomen.

The threads around the obelisk mixed together, forming a fluid. Unknown symbols appeared around the obelisk forming three rings, guiding the fluid along. The fluid formed three rings, one parallel to where the ground would be, another one straight and the last one going around the obelisk from the side.

*Crack*

Following a sonorous cracking sound, the fluid turned into three solid rings with unknown engravings etched atop them.

A wave of relief washed over Samuel as he felt like a mountain was lifted off of his chest. Although he felt stifled, as if he had eaten to the fill, it didn’t come with a chest-bursting pain like before.

Readjusting his focus, he began cursing the bastard who made this foul technique yet again.

A rumbling sound echoed out as the world he saw spun in circles. A whirlpool of pure arcana coming from the obelisk was swallowing him whole.

‘Wait… Am I… being flushed out of here? Wasn’t there a better way like just wake me up? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!’

His eyes snapped open as his hands caressed his sticky skin.

Snapping his eyes open, he found himself in the middle of a forest filled with sounds of flowing water as a chilly breeze blew across his sweat-drenched body.

‘I’m alive! I’m alive! I’m alive! That damn bastard who made this technique… is adding a flushing thing important?’ He thought, while gulping in mouthfuls of air.

His heart was pounding against his chest like it was trying to break out, whereas he felt a slight discomfort in his abdomen, akin to the pain someone would feel when they eat more than they had the space for.

*Burp* he let out a burp as he covered his mouth.

The wind brushing against his face helped comfort his somewhat erratic nerves as a drowsy yawn escaped his mouth.

He rubbed his eyes as he looked around while stretching lazily.

‘Mmmm, that was good.’ He was enjoying his time, basking in the feeling of accomplishment. ‘Though, it kinda hurts. I wonder what would happen if I eat food? I hope mom won’t try to starve me to fix this. Man, I wish I could—’

*BOOMMM!*

‘Wh-what the…?’ He looked around to see fading sparks and black clouds overhead. A burning smell tickled his nose, snapping him out of his reverie. ‘L-lightning?! What’s burning? This smells like….’’

His hand reached his head and his fingertips felt a rough, coarse texture.

‘My haiiir! MY HAIR! My precious hair! It took me so long to make them look good! No, no, it’s not the time for that. It’s about to rain. Shit! Where’s Zack? I remember bringing him here and I told him to not go away on his own. But where is he now?’

Pushing against the ground, he got to his feet. Looking around and finding no signs of anyone else around, the blood in his veins flowed just a tad faster.

Scratching his head, he paced back and forth as cogs in his head began spinning. ‘What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? I brought him out, and I lost him on the first day. Damn it!’

“*Aargh!* Zack, where are you?” he let out an anguished scream.

While screaming in agony, inspiration struck him— ‘Mom! Mom would know what to do! But… No, doesn’t matter even if she gets mad. I am going to get starved—’

“Sa-Sammuel? Is that you?” A shaky voice responded to his anguished scream.

Following the source of the scream, he ran towards where the voice came from to find a boy curling up in a ball, shivering against a tree.

Sighing, he shrugged before he hurriedly rushed before helping the boy to his feet.

“L-lets go home, alright?” Samuel said, still shaken.

Shivering, Zack replied, “Y-yeah. Let’s go.”

Time flew by as both boys walked towards the house, passing through the familiar forest.

*BOOOOMMM!!!*

Zack jumped while his eyes darted around instinctually to see the cause of danger, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. After a few minutes of inspecting his surroundings, he noticed the skyscape of overhead, ready to throw a bolt or two down on the ground.

Samuel patted Zack’s back, consoling, “It’s alright Zack, it’s just lightning.”

Both boys ran back as fast as they could, trying their best to reach home before the rain reached the earth.

They weaved their way through streets of the village, evading the villagers rushing back to their homes or taking cover.

On the way back, Zack crashed against a big lump of meat before falling back on his butt.

“Owww…” he let out a groan while trying to get up.

The lump of meat jiggled up and down a few times before settling still.

‘Why is he…’ Samuel cursed internally as he looked at the man his companion crashed into, disgust hidden deep within his calm eyes.