‘Holy shit, that actually worked!’ Evan thought to himself excitedly.

Evan had first thought of this question when he had read accounts of forbidden magic: mages that were so insane, they sacrificed countless lives for their own desires.

Most children would have been frightened by those stories and promise to their parents that they would behave.

Well any child except Evan. Those stories only made Evan wonder.

In every account of magic use he had ever read or heard of, all mages had to use their own mana to cast their spells. So what exactly separated regular magic and forbidden magic? How was someone able to cast forbidden magic with “foreign” mana while regular magic had to be cast with a mage’s own mana?

The answer was simple. How were mages able to draw in world energy and turn it into their own mana? And what differentiated one mage’s mana to another mage’s mana?

The answer was simple. Just like every person has unique fingerprints, all mages have different patterns or configurations in their own mana which Evan named their energy signature.

Thus, when a mage drew in world energy to recharge their mana, it would be stripped of its elemental properties and converted into pure mana with the mage’s energy signature.

This was why mana, despite being coloured in the natural world, appeared white inside mages’ bodies. The elemental properties that gave them their colours had been stripped and all that was left was the pure mana which was absorbed by the mage.

Then, when the mage wanted to cast a spell, that pure mana with the mage’s energy signature would be mixed again with the world energy of the corresponding elemental property before being casted.

So to practice forbidden magic, one just had to override the mage’s energy signature with their own.

So, if mages could sacrifice foreign mana to create objects for their own purpose, why couldn’t Evan use another person’s spell to power his own?

Ever since then, he had developed his personal spell, Fool’s Errand, that he thought was appropriately named, and practiced it whenever Wyra was practicing her own magic.

The results, though, were inconsistent at best. It would usually work on weaker spells, however, they would not power up his own spell by much and he could not change the type of mana used in the spell.

So if he were to use Fool’s Errand on a water spell, it would take the mana forming the spell and Evan could use that mana for his own water spells. However, he could not take the mana used to control the spell which varied with every mage.

After all, if you told two people to do the same task, they would each do it in slightly different ways, even though they accomplished the same task.

That “control mana” he had to substitute with his own.

Also, he could not use the mana he stole from a water spell to power a fire spell.

What’s even worse, when using Fool’s Errand on stronger spells, it would only partially steal the mana forming the spell.

Still, it was quite a handy trump card for situations like this.

“Fuck! Everyone run!” The hooded man yelled in astonishment, being the only one who understood what Evan had meant and was planning to do.

After stealing all the mana from the barrage of spells, he shot them back while adding a little more mana to make the spells more powerful.

Only this time, the spells were coordinated.

Water flooded the narrow corridor then froze, locking everyone except Evan and Fel in place while earth magic shot rocks at bullet speed, shredding the thugs and bodyguards. Finally, a mix of air and fire magic combined to create a fiery tornado that caused a firestorm effect, sucking the survivors into a fiery inferno that burned them to a crisp.

After the triple spell barrage, Evan conjured an air barrier around both him and Fel.

Evan had casted the firestorm not just to finish off any survivors of the shotgun-like blast of stones but also to burn off all the oxygen in the cramped basement. That way, if anyone had somehow miraculously survived, they would at least be disoriented by the hypoxia.

Also, Evan had used part of the air magic that he stole to keep a pocket of air for him and Fel so that his tactic would not backfire.

Slumping down on the ground, he breathed a sigh of relief. Although he had not felt fear during the encounter, it was still stressful and using Fool's Errand was still way too mana consuming for him.

Granted, he wasn't even four years old yet so his feat was already very impressive. However, impressive or not, a dead man would still be a dead man. If he had failed to cast Fool's Errand properly or if somehow, there were still some survivors who could still fight, Evan would be defenseless.

…

Fel was shocked, to say the least.

When she saw the multitude of air blades, fireballs, ice shards, and stone bullets flying at them, she thought that their deaths would have been inevitable. She had braced herself for the pain, but it never came.

When she opened her eyes, her jaw dropped. Everyone was dead: the thugs that had kidnapped her, the bodyguards that would have had their fun with her since she was “just a slave”, even that hooded person who seemed like their leader was lying down on the ground, fatally injured.

And the one who killed them all, who had saved her when she thought all hope was lost, standing tall despite his stature. Fel fell to the ground crying, but not out of sadness. She was finally free. The ones who had wanted to use her were all gone.

“Fel, are you alright? I’m sorry if you were scared by that whole thing. I had to use that spell once everyone had casted their spells. Otherwise, I wouldn't have enough mana to deal with them all.” Evan whispered softly, making her heart skip a beat.

Even when he was tired after using such a powerful spell, panting heavily, he had been worried about her. She sobbed even harder while hugging him.

“Of course I’m not alright, dummy! I was so scared. You could have at least warned or told me about your plan! I thought you were going to die because I was too weak to save myself or protect you!” Fel bawled, while clinging to him.

“I’m sorry.” Evan said with his voice muffled and strained.

‘Note to self: Do not piss Fel off when magic is unavailable. Seriously, didn’t she say she was six? How the hell is she this strong?’ Evan thought, wincing at the pain.

Fel kept clinging to him like a baby koala hugging a tree branch.

Evan pitied the fool who would face her anger when she grew up.

Finally, after several minutes of crying her heart out and pats on the back, she let him go, turning beet-red in shame. Evan, however, focused more on leaving the basement.

‘I hope no one notices at home I’m gone,’ he thought, ‘Otherwise I’m fucked.’

Although it looked like everyone was either gone or dead, Evan remained cautious. There could still be people upstairs. Maybe there were reinforcements waiting in ambush. Only when he was safe in his own house would he let his guard down.

…

When Evan slowly lowered the barrier, Fel wanted to puke. She had caught a glimpse of the scene before, but it was nothing compared to what she was seeing now. Bodies, corpses of once healthy people were now almost unrecognizable due to the various injuries on them.

Burns, holes, shards of rock sticking out like pincushion, purple from frostbite.

Blood splattered on the wall like some sort of gruesome painting with pieces of entrails, organs, and flesh littered the ground or on blood pools near the bodies, making the place stink of burnt flesh, blood, and decomposing corpses.

Evan, on the other hand, did not bat an eye at the sight.

‘I’ve seen worse in my shifts at the morgue.’

Fel was about to vomit when Evan used a healing spell on her, easing her nausea while also calming her nerves.

“I’m sorry you have to go through this, Fel, but this is how you survive. Life will always find a way to screw you over, the only thing you can do is be prepared for whatever it throws at you.”

“This is what you have to do to people who threaten you.” Evan said, pointing at the corpses of the thugs. “Do not pity the wolf that steals your sheep, hunt it down so that it does not harm another.”

Fel was still trying to hold back her repulsion at seeing the dead bodies but nodded nonetheless. Evan was right, these people wanted to harm her, why shouldn’t she harm them?

“Well said, Evan. Well said.”

The duo turned to see the hooded man, still alive with blood dribbling down his mouth. Only, his hood had been burnt off and the person underneath it was Mage Erso, the mage that his parents had called when they thought Evan had a fever when he was first born.

“Well I never thought someone like you would be the ringleader of all this.” Evan said, waving his hand over the destruction.

“Yeah well, I’m getting old and money is hard to come by for an old man. Why? What did you take me for?”

“The old, experienced guy at the tavern with plenty of stories to tell for the younger generation, can hold a good pint of beer, and sing a good song.” Evan said, grinning.

Mage Erso burst out laughing, coughing up blood in the process.

“Yeah, I guess that could have been me. An old man content with the world, waiting to pass on peacefully.” He said with a wistful smile. “Thank you, Evan, for stopping my madness. I hope Hava will forgive me for passing sooner than her and that Yen won’t end up like me.”

Evan smiled in reply, “You’ve suffered enough old man, I’ll send you off peacefully.”

“Thank you.” Mage Erso whispered before Evan shot him in the head and heart with an icicle.

Fel shed tears for the mage, pitying him. Evan simply smiled grimly and said, “Let’s get out of here.”