Hello everyone, please enjoy this next chapter! I went back to the previous chapters and fixed things to make it easier to read as well as fixed the status screens as some of them needed to be fixed.

Note: My semester break is ending so I have to go back to school. The speed of updates will be slower as in I can only update once per day. I will make sure that I get a chapter per day up but any more than that will have to depend on my schoolwork.

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Advent, a spell from the Ethereal mana. There are no Ethereal spells that I can learn. All of them I have to create myself.

Advent is a spell I designed that does one thing. It allows me to cast any spell that I know without any preparation. All the mana that I have is converted as fast as possible into every mana type. This is a spell that only I can use not just because I have Ethereal mana, but also because of the training Malakir had me do.

Ethereal is really amazing. This spell is merely Acolyte ranked, now that I have some Adept ranked spells, I can cast them at any time I want.

I can aslo assimilate with Malakir or Chronos very quickly. I can change combat styles at any time I want.

Another thing about this spell is that it has no drawbacks. Since its basically just an unconscious effort in changing my mana it can work at all times.

I went to the training room and took one of the short swords there. It was made of steel and was double-edged. The Ashura style can go from a standard grip to a reverse grip. Adding my abilities while assimilating with Chronos, my close combat potential is great.

I took the sword with me and waited for Arthur to come back.

I barely noticed what time it was when Arthur went through the door. Outside it was dark so I must have waited for hours.

Arthur stood exhausted in front of me.

I stood up and started to say something when he said commandingly, “Rest, you need it. I’ll talk to you both tomorrow.”

He left and walked towards his room leaving me there.

I complied and walked up to my room. Chronos was sitting in front of Alex’s room and said, “Master Alex is going to be alright. I sped up his health regeneration.”

“Thank you,” I said going to my own room.

I entered the room and slept. The events of the day finally catching up to me.

The next day, Alex, Arthur, and I were sitting at the living room.

Alex looked alright for a guy that got hit by a sword on his temple. His eyes looked furious. He wore a silver chainmail with the Rammert insignia, a pointy mage hat with a sword going through it in the middle.

Asher was no longer the kitten he was. A small tiger is what he looked like as he laid on the ground beside his master, Alex.

Arthur wore the armor that he had when we first met him and held his helmet on his lap. His expression was entirely different than the ones I’ve always seen. He had the eyes of someone who’s killed many people for the sake of the kingdom.

I simply wore the school uniform. I didn’t want to wear armor as it will only hinder me and if I need protection from anything, Chronos and Malakir can just help me.

“We found where they are hidden,” said Arthur his face serious, “They are hiding in an old fortress to the east of us. It’s a short journey on my horse. You two’ll ride with me.”

We nodded and left to get Arthur’s horse and we sped away outside the gates and headed towards the east.

Amidst the gallop, Arthur said, “We will enter through the back. My friends will keep them busy from the front.”

We nodded as the wind whistled behind us. All three of our faces were furious and anxious as we got closer and closer to our destination.

A few hours passed and we saw an outline of an abandoned fort. Around the fort were some trees and so we hid there as we approached closer.

We were looking at the back of the fort. It seems to have been constructed with the forest behind it. The use of such a fort was beyond me as it didn’t seem all that defensible. I could see two towers from where we were coming from. A large wall was between the towers and some small windows could be seen there.

The sun was down when we got near enough that you could see the windows of the fort so it was helpful to infiltrate.

When we got to the rear entrance of the fort, which was an old wooden door hidden near the tower on the right, we heard sounds of fighting in the distance.

“My friends must be here already,” said Arthur, “quick! Go inside.”

I tried to open the door but it wouldn’t budge. Arthur broke it down with his body after lunging at it for several tries.

Inside was dark as night so I created a small light and made sure that the light was hidden enough that no one in front of us could see it.

We crept forward with me in the front with the light, Arthur behind me with his sword out and Alex at the back with a sword and shield that I never noticed until now.

I was too focused on making sure that the light couldn’t be seen that I got caught in a trap. It was a pitfall and I fell through the darkness.

Arthur tried to catch me but the hatch that hid the pitfall closed before he could.

Alex screamed with a look of horror as Arthur tried to catch me to no avail, “Zed!”

Darkness… that was where I was.

I created the light again, not caring what saw.

I was in a room filled with skeletons. The walls were dusty and cobwebs were at every corner. Above me was a rectangular shoot with a hatch that I couldn’t reach.

“Malakir, did you save me?” I asked moving my hands around me as I made sure that I was alright.

“Yes. Get ready, there are enemies.”

I stopped what I was doing and peered into the one area that the light didn’t cover. It was a narrow corridor with steps that led up. I assimilated and merged with Chronos, raised my sword into the Ashura stance and readied my left hand with magic.

From the darkness came a black wolf with red eyes as it slowly walked forward. One paw in front of the other, its mouth growling low, the eyes staring at me angrily as if I disturbed its sleep.

“A Chaos wolf,” said Malakir, “This wolf is able to use Chaos magic.”

I nodded and stared at the wolf with unblinking eyes and fear.

This is my first real combat, I thought.

I gulped and the wolf lunged forward with its mouth wide open.

I stepped close to the wolf and slashed at it with my reverse grip. It knocked the wolf away to the wall where it fell to the ground. It got back up and growled even angrier at me.

There’s barely any scratch on it, I thought.

It lunged again trying to bite me. I stabbed towards the mouth of the wolf but it closed its mouth and its speed increased.

Chaos magic!

Its speed increased to twice what it was as it dodged my stab and entered into my stance. Its claws were poised to scratch at my chest when I used ‘Shift’.

The wolf slowed down a bit leaving me with enough time to dodge its attack by jumping backwards.

The wolf clawed at the air slowly but then its speed was back again and tried to bite my exposed right arm.

I wasn’t fast enough at pulling it back so it bit into my right arm up to the wrist.

I screamed from the pain which caused me to drop my sword and I held its head with my left and casted ‘Fireball’.

The head of the wolf burst into flame and it yelped allowing me to dislodge my bleeding arm. I fell backwards to the wall behind me and sat down as I looked at it and there were many bite marks. I began to heal it using magic as I stared at the flaming wolf.

It rolled on the floor yelping. The flame spread from the head to the tail within the span of me getting my arm back and starting to heal it. My left hand travelled over my right arm back and forth as the wounds started to close up under the white healing light.

The wolf rolled to stare at me with hate in its eyes as it died from my fireball.

After healing my arm as much as I could, I stood back up and headed to where the wolf came from. The light I made followed me as I took each step.

“Malakir, are there any more of those wolves here?” I asked as I walked up.

“No, not anywhere near us.”

“Why didn’t you help me?” I asked stopping to look at Malakir who was floating behind me.

“You needed the experience and I knew you would be able to handle it.”

I nodded and continued walking back up.

After a while I saw a door at the end and ran up to it. I opened the door and I saw tables with shackles on top of them. Shackled skeletons were hung on the walls and some torture devices were littered on a table to the left.

“A torture room,” I said as I looked at all the dried blood on the floor, tables and walls.

There was no one here but I could hear faint breathing to my right.

I looked to where I heard the sound and saw a door. I crept up to the door and opened it slightly.

There was Kaiser naked and bleeding a little from the new marks on his body inside a small closet. His breath was a bit ragged as I threw open the door, knelt beside him and cast healing magic on him.

“Malakir help me heal him,” I told Malakir as I healed his wounds, my hands travelling just above them.

Malakir casted a stronger healing spell that enveloped Kaiser’s body and I stopped healing him. The light covered only his body as if in a lover’s embrace and when the light disappeared, all of his wounds were gone and his breathing was no longer ragged.

I heard a thudding sound and looked to a door that I didn’t notice. It was difficult to tell that it was a door as it blended into the decorations so perfectly. I was only able to tell since I was much closer to it than before.

The door was situated right to the left of where I was on the right wall. It opened and I saw Arthur wielding a bloodied sword.

“Zed!” he shouted as he dropped his sword and hugged me, “you’re safe!”

“Nevermind about me,” I said getting out of his grip, “I found Kaiser.”

At that point, I pointed at Kaiser and he left and came back with a large robe.

He wrapped Kaiser in it and said, “This’ll have to do. We have to leave now.”

I nodded and followed him out the door he came in. I saw Alex and a group of people I didn’t know as well as corpses, one of them was naked.

“Zed!” shouted Alex as he saw me and ran towards me, “I was so worried.”

He had blood dripping from his left temple down to his cheek. It wasn’t his blood though as there was no wound. He hugged me really tight when he got close enough.

“Save the reunion for later we have to leave right now,” said Arthur, “You all know what to do.”

The group of people nodded and Alex and I followed Arthur out of the fort.

Along the way, I saw various corpses in different positions and bloodstained walls.

Finally we got back to where we entered and Arthur carefully placed Kaiser in front of him as he sat on his horse.

Seeing as we didn’t have enough space I separated from Chronos and summoned him.

“Chronos, carry Alex and I and follow Arthur back home.”

“Yes master.”

He transformed into a a four legged tiger and crouched down.

Chronos is really useful, I thought.

Alex and I climbed up tiger-Chronos and sat as comfortable as we could over his new tiger body.

Arthur galloped away and we followed behind him.

As we were getting away from the fort, it burst into flames behind us. The sudden heat caused Alex and I to look and Arthur shouted, “The army will be coming to check since I had to do some obvious movements. This was the only way to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”

We didn’t say anything as we just watched the fire cover to fort. Some of it collapsed, leading the forest to also burn.

Soon enough the whole forest was burning and we were already far away heading back home.

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