The Crimsonmane girl continued to run, ignoring her two best friends screaming for her. The explosion came from the southeast of Howlett's shop, in the town square area. Alicia kept running, then turned right when she reached a fork. Three machine carriages of the civil guard with wailing sirens came speeding past her. They were too busy asking the girl to turn around from the direction of the incident and keep going until they disappeared after turning at another intersection. They seemed to think of Alicia as another bum, curious about what was going on, and stupid enough to witness the furor instead of taking shelter somewhere. One potential victim that did not worth their time.

Meanwhile, at the scene, another food stall suffered more or less the same fate as Howlett's, only 'luckier', because the building was still burning. The town square area was always crowded as a location for night recreation, so no wonder that when the outburst occurred, many residents were scattered in unclear directions like lost sheep.

"Another magic abuse case, Bennett?" asked a middle-aged man in his fifties approaching a group of elegant men who appeared to be local Trinketshore wizards. "About bloody time we take care of this kind of mess." The man wore a long suit and a brown fedora hat, more or less the same as the other wizards, with a dominant black color.

The wizards were already aiming at the burning tavern with a short stick, like a twig. Apart from them, civil guard units also came for assistance, blocking the exit of the tavern with their carriages. They took cover behind the official carriages while pointing their guns at the entrance of the shop as well.

"Mr Taylor! Yes, the perpetrator is Caleb Dune, aged 20, known to be a heavy drug addict. The perpetrator entered the restaurant and harassed the shop owner to give him food as his right as a 'wizard'. The restaurant was flooded with people coming out before suddenly exploding," replied one of the well-dressed people, who seemed to be Bennett in response to the middle-aged uncle's direct question.

"Any victims?" he asked again.

"Mr Taylor, the culprit took an elderly woman captive in a burning tavern!"

"What!? An auld woman?"

"Exactly, sir! But there's something more urgent!"

"What's more urgent than a helpless auld hostage stuck in a burning flat?" the man named Taylor raised his voice an octave.

"The explosion of the building earlier was purple. Eyewitnesses also said the perpetrator did not cast a spell but managed to emit raw energy with deep, purple glow."

"Naw. Don't tell me..."

"The perpetrator is not registered as an official mage. I'm afraid he is the victim of the consumption of Protos particle."

Taylor could only furrow his brow. The fact that Protos particle distribution had already begun to plague Trinketshore made him nervous, but also furious at the same time. Before long, a pair of silhouettes appeared. The closer they were to the entrance that was engulfed in flames, the clearer their stature became.

"Soldier! Standby!" Taylor ordered. The civil guards adjusted their postures to be more alert and stiff, the firearms held ready to fire whatever came out of that blazing pyre. The mages in suits had also taken aim at their wands, and their tips started to emit white dots of light.

The two figures came into view. The one person had absurd black skin, and there were some kind of cracks of purplish light—his nerves that were contaminated by black magic. His eyes were round, big, glowing purple. He showed a big grin, looking at a group of wizards and civil guards that welcomed his presence.

The other one was an old woman in her late 70s, who was in front of the jakey. Her neck was choking from being held by Caleb's hands like he was about to pluck the vocal cords out of her throat. Her mouth was wide open, with a foreign gas flowing through her mouth. That puff of gas was coming from the addict's other hand, which seemed to filter the air to prevent that poor, someone else's grandmother from suffocating to death in the flames. Her hand could only hold Caleb's wrist that held her throat, hoping the addict wouldn't immediately break her windpipes. The old woman could not resist at all.

"You there, nasty minger!" Taylor shouted loud enough without a loudspeaker. "We beg ye to release that woman! Isn't that rude to treat old people like that?"

Caleb just growled, his uncontrollable drool seeping from between his teeth. Then the addict responded, "All I want... is a decent scran! And aw aff ye just kicked me out for thinking I was a cheap jakey instead of yer Trinketshore mage. Yer patron! Is this how ye treat a champion of Trinketshore, ye fucking bastards?"

"That minger's talking keech," said Taylor to his colleagues quietly. "Are we the only ones available here? Where's Lord Donar?"

"Our lord is on his duty in Camelot parliament in the capital, as usual," explained his other colleague.

"Huh, fucking jobby! Why dae Ah have to be the one negotiating with this nasty bastard? Yon hoachin lad, always bothers himself going back and forth from Trinketshore to Eidyn."

Taylor stepped over the civil guard carriages, then assumed a frontline position. Caleb didn't seem to feel threatened, even though a wizard stepped forward a meter in front of him.

"Okay, then, you listen to me, Mr. Caleb! Caleb is your name, correct? I don't know where you got the rules from, but it doesn't matter if you're a fake wizard or the Queen of Great Camelot. If you want to eat at a restaurant, you have to pay!"

"Look at me! You think I'm a fake wizard? I'm the only mage in Trinketshore—"

"Mr. Caleb, as you can see, you're not the only wizard here," Taylor points his both hands back to his colleague wizards, who were still glaring at Caleb. "And you are not a real mage. You consumed a lethal substance that makes you delusional and can kill you if you overuse it! You have a choice to control yourself, release that old lady, and surrender. Otherwise, we won't hesitate to bombard you with magic and bullets! The Magisterium of Arcane Plane punishes severely those who abuse the power of magic!"

***

Alicia arrived at the site. She hid behind an alley across from the city square park, with the crime scene on the other side.

From a distance, she could see the capturing process seemed to be under control, but not sure for how long. The girl suggested that authorities arrived on time, so the residents had already drifted away. The scene only left a group of officers, a perpetrator, and travellers of the night who had no dalliance other than watching the affair from the back seat. The conversational shouts between Taylor, the wizard unit leader, and Caleb, the addict could be heard well by the Crimsonmane girl. A scene filled with conflict atmosphere made Alicia shudder even more. Negative air flowed through her inhalation process. But she couldn't turn back because curiosity dammed her.

'Will they be able to arrest the culprit? Can they fight someone with black magic? What if there were other people in the shop? What if the black mage's power is stronger than the civil guard unit and the wizards combined?' Those were the questions inside Alicia's mind, along with dozens of other questions that resulted from her overthinking.

"Alicia!" someone yelled her name from behind. Alicia turned towards the sound only to see Nadine and Gilmore finding her, and both of them were out of breath.

"Alicia! Have you gone mad? Just run straight to the slaughterhouse?" Gilmore huffed at the thoughtless Alicia.

"I… I'm sorry. I can't. I can't just ignore them, especially when so many people are screaming for help!"

"Why can't you just leave it to the officers? Look, the area is more or less empty, the folks may have been evacuated," said Nadine.

Alicia looked back at the arrest process. Looked like they were still arguing about who would succumb to whom. "We don't know if that's entirely true. The mage seems to keep someone hostage, who knows if there's more inside that building? I need more time to look at it."

Nadine responded to Alicia, "Then, for the sake of Silent Divine, stay put! Let them handle this, don't stick yer oar in!"

Alicia, who was still unsettled about whether it was the time to take advantage of her new power or not, said, "I wish I don't."

Meanwhile, at the site of the siege, Taylor and Caleb Dune were still in a fairly tough negotiation process.

"I beg ye, Mr. Caleb, release that old lady. She is powerless. Let her loose, and we will continue our conversation about your needs on peaceful terms. My men here won't lay you any harm. You have my promise! The more you buy time and cause damage—"

"SHUT UP!" shouted Caleb, cutting Taylor off. "Funny man, you are! You expect me to listen to you and release this old fart so I can take all the rapid shots ye have, don't ye? No, no, no. No, you LISTEN to me, old fuck! I'm pure done in doing this and that for nothing, now ye aw listen to me! I'm stronger than you, you, and you, all of you! I'm the great magus of Trinketshore, I own this town! You will be my minions. Refuse, you will share the same fate as this pathetic, auld boot!"

Caleb started down the steps with the old granny. The grandmother could only groan in pain from the strangulation of his hand. The oxygen rushed into her mouth was her only guarantee of survival.

"Mr. Caleb, what are you doing? Listen! The more you complicate things, the tougher your punishment will be!"

"I'll give you an example of what would happen if you disobeyed me," Caleb's hand that was holding the lump of gas started to emit suspicious sparks of magical energy.

"CALEB DUNE! IN THE NAME OF MAGISTERIUM OF ARCANE PLANE, THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING! RELEASE THE WOMAN, AND TURN YOURSELF IN!"

"Oh, I will release her, of-fi-cer... she's suffered long enough in this rotten hole. Might as well I send her to the afterlife!" The lump of gas, which was originally oxygen, turned into a purple flame, spreading into the poor old lady's mouth. Her screams were very loud—the loudest ones she had ever done in her life—but very short, because her vocal cords were devoured by the fire. All the officers there were shocked to death, including Taylor, who was in the front, now immediately retreated until his buttocks touched the engine carriage. Not to mention that the triumvirate in the alley was also terrified to hear that scream of deep pain. Although the distance is quite far, it did not reduce all the horror felt by those three kids. Alicia and Nadine covered their mouths with their hands, their eyes wide, showing how terrifying the scene was. An execution for an innocent old woman who could have spent the rest of her life in peace.

The burning process had not finished yet. Caleb removed his hand from her and the lump of gas. The old woman's body squirmed, glowing purple intensely because the flame was still roasting inside her. It didn't take long for her body to fall with skin and all parts of her body melting, and the fire never went out. The purple flames produced by the black magic burned the body as well as decomposed it. The smell of burning accompanied by a terrible stench spread throughout the town. Is this the power of black magic? Trinketshore had never experienced this before, and judging by the expressions on the wizards there, they lacked such experiences to face someone with black magic head-on.

Seeing the heartbreaking corpse made Taylor almost vomit. As he turned his gaze back to Caleb Dune, who was laughing hysterically, his anger flared. He launched his wand while shouting.

"OMEN LUCEM!".

A blinding white dot of light flashed at the end of the stick, then enlarged and shot toward Caleb Dune, sending him flying backward. His back hit a few stairs.

"SHOOT!" a command that stirred the nerves of the wizards and the civil guards together to shoot Caleb, who was still lying down. Collections of white rays of light and metallic bullets were hurled through his entire body. Caleb just floundered every time he got hit, but one thing was for sure; he was still fully conscious. And he will rage. His ultimatum was ignored by them altogether.

Caleb braced himself and got up. All those piercing magic shots and bullets became ineffective. Seriously. White light waves? A lead bullet covered in steel? They thought the combination of the two could wipe out the black 'mage' without a trace? Caleb stretched his arms out in front of him. A shock wave with a purple aura shot out from both of his hands, just like the explosion that had occurred in the tavern earlier, pulverising all the troops in one fell swoop! Civil guard's carriages were tossed and overturned, some even falling on them. Some of the men survived, others disintegrated.

That's it. Just like that. The survivors fainted helplessly. Taylor, who was lying half-conscious, saw Caleb in dim vision, but he could still clearly hear his hysterical laughter and cursing.

"Seriously? Are these the Trinketshore wizards?" Caleb burst out laughing. "I've changed my mind. I dinnae need yer acknowledgment. Ye pals are pure rank to admit me as yer champion. I'll melt you one by one like that auld fart over there, and I'll be the one and only Trinketshore wizard." Caleb points his hand at Taylor with a grin. "Starting with you, big mouth." []