Three days later after I acquired the sigil of distortion. We arrived at a rocky area. We just confirmed that the people Asonius and the others were ordered to find are hiding out here in a cave. Outside guarding that cave was a couple of Minotaurs, orcs, and a lone centaur.

All of them had armor and weapons that were given to them.

We were hiding on a rocky cliff overlooking the hideout. The three Centaurs were looking at their ex-fellow village member with open hostility.

"There they are." Deleina said then turned to Dominic. "So, what's the plan?"

"Asonius, you take care of Oris." The centaur that fled their village is named Oris. "Deleina you can handle the Orcs. Arata, you and I will take care of the Minotaurs." Dominic said. "Let's go."

We all agreed.

And so, we slowly walked up to them. I hid on Dominic's back.

"hmm." The centaur, Oris, hummed in confusion as we drew closer.

The orcs and Minotaurs readied themselves but didn't attack.

"what's this?" He said with a smirk once we were in front of him.

"Oris, by village Chief Elilus, you are hereby ordered to return with us to Amphion Village. Know that the actions you took have made you an enemy to our people. Return now, so that the chief can give you an appropriate punishment." Asonius said.

"Come now, I just came to take a little walk. There's no need for you to get all angry with me." Oris said with a grin.

"You turned your back on the village. You even killed some guards in order to escape." Deleina said. "We've known each other since we were kids. So why did you do this?"

"You're right, we have known each other since childhood. So you should know exactly why." Oris said. "I've always been the weak one. Everyone always laughed at me for it, even now. They promised us power. And when I get my hands on more power I'm going to show it to everyone who laughed at me back then."

"We never made fun of you for being weak. We accepted you and treated you as a friend for many years." Asonius said.

"You're right, I'd hate to fight you. So turn back and leave." Oris said.

"You know we can't do that." Asonius responded.

"Well, that's a shame." Oris gripped his sword.

Oris took out his sword and swung at Asonius. Asonius blocked and locked swords with Oris.

"You were always the weakest one. How do you expect to win." Asonius said.

"I don't plan to win. I just need to hold out long enough until he gets here." Oris responded. "Then you'll die."

"Ha. You won't last long." Asonius laughed mockingly.

Oris clicked his tongue in annoyance.

By this time all the orcs and Minotaurs were already coming at us. I lost sight of Oris and Asonius as I was getting ready to fight my own battle.

"Get ready kid." Dominic said as he was running toward the army of Minotaur.

Before jumping off Dominic's back I prepared a spell.

Swirling Core

I shot it out and a lot of the Minotaurs were pulled together. We arrived and Dominic started killing these beasts, I jumped off his back and let go of the spell. I moved to my first target.

Minotaurs stand on two legs and have two long arms they're big and very muscular. With the head of a bull and long horns, and their whole body is covered in fur.

My opponent swung a giant metal axe. I backed up, raised my arm, and focused my gravity magic on my target. The Minotaur stopped moving completely as I raised him in the air. I closed my hand shut and at the same time, the Minotaur got crushed to death under all its armor.

Their strength is not that different than that of a normal Orc.

I looked for my next target and saw Dominic going on a rampage.

Sheesh. What a show-off.

A group of them were coming toward me. Two of them had swords, and three of them had axes.

The first one swung down its sword. I backed away as soon as I did another one swung at me. I backed away again. One of them positioned itself behind me and swung low, since its sword was so long I couldn't back away so I jumped and flipped over the sword. Once I did the Minotaur stumbled a little bit. Just enough time for me to close in, jump, and kick it on its head. Then I got back to dodging their combined strikes.

Well, this isn't good I can't focus my mana on a strong attack while moving around this much.

So I decided to do something simple but strong. I covered my blade in fire magic and spun around. Like a ring of fire, it shot out all around me. The Minotaurs blocked my attacks easily but I'm not done yet. Now that I got this current of fire magic flowing I strengthened it more and more. Until you could feel the heat in the air instead of the cold winds. The Minotaurs started to struggle.

And finally, they stopped trying to block and started dodging. I dashed to one of them who I caught off guard and sliced its head off. Then I moved to the next one I jumped and swung straight down. The Minotaur reacted in time and brought up its thick sword to block. I fell to the ground while the Minotaur spun around gathering speed and force to cut me in half. I got down to dodge its strike and slithered my way through his legs slicing them off.

The Minotaur yelled loudly in pain but was cut off by me as I thrust my blade through the back of its head. The three remaining ones came at me. Using a strong gravity force I pushed them back knocking them all off their feet. I focused on one and pulled it toward me. As it was coming fast at me I compacted some stone into a thick pointy spear and with gravity, I threw it at him at full force. With enough force to go straight through its armor, the spear-shaped stone pierced its chest. I knew I missed its heart as it yelled in pain.

Whatever since it can't move I'll finish it off once I'm done with the other two.

I charged straight at my next opponent. The Minotaur roared and ran at me. It swung its axe down at me. I swung my sword as hard as I could to block the axe. Both of our weapons ended up flying off our hands. The Minotaur didn't waste any time and swung its fist at me. I moved to the side and with gravity, I crushed it. We both pulled back. After a second we rushed to each other. As I approached him I used gravity to pull his giant axe to me. With his remaining arm, he swung at me but I jumped dodging the blow.

In the air, I caught the axe, and with gravity, I pushed it down adding more force to my attack. The axe cut straight through its helmet, slicing its face in two. I heard a loud roar in back of me. I moved aside dodging a blow from the Minotaur that I had pushed away earlier. Using the full force of my gravity I pinned it to the floor. With every step I took on top of him, the snapping of bones was heard along with pained yells. And finally, I stepped on its face crushing it to the ground.

"Arata." Dominic called.

"What?" I looked at him who was still fighting.

"Go in the cave to see what's going on inside." He said.

"Shouldn't we all go together?" I asked.

"Whatever's inside I'm sure you can take care of yourself." He said. "Plus we can't fit through the entrance."

"Okay, I'll go." I said.

"Be careful kid." He added as I made my way inside.

The entrance to the cave was some distance away from where I was. I took this chance to launch Swirling Core again. Watching it grow as monsters got crushed into a ball in midair clearing the way for me. I let go of Swirling Core, put mana on my legs, and began to run.

Some monsters got in my way as I ran towards my destination. I ran passed some or slashed my way through others. And now, I had made it.

I quickly got in and ran through the tunnel inside. I quickly looked behind me to make sure no monster followed. As I looked around I noticed several more tunnels going in different directions, like a maze.

Okay, now where exactly do I go?

I looked at one of the many tunnels.

Maybe this way?

'If you go that way you'll get lost even more.' A voice said from nowhere. 'Keep going straight instead.'

I turned around with my sword out. Once I saw that there was no one I started to look around.

'Don't bother looking around for me. Since I'm not near you.' It said. 'Don't worry I'm not an enemy.'

"Huh? So where are you? What are you?" I said out loud.

I began walking ahead.

'You don't have to speak out loud. I can read your thoughts. Your existence is quite rare.' It paused. 'Reincarnation, huh?'

"WHAT!!!" I yelled. "How do you know that?"

'Quiet down you'll be found out and what part about me reading minds don't you understand.' It said.

"Sorry. So do you know how I got reincarnated?" I asked quietly.

This was one of the questions that were always on my mind. Since this new world that I see every day through this new body. I thought that maybe it was just through luck that I got reincarnated.

'Yes, that certainly is a possibility however I don't know much about reincarnation. You might have a better chance asking the Phoenix race.' the voice said. 'But they reside within the Fluxus realm. Good luck getting there.'

"What are you talking about? What's a realm?" I asked.

'Do you not know of the 6 realms' it paused to scan my mind. 'I see you never had the interest to learn of this world. Well anyway, I think it's about time I introduce myself.' it paused.

"Well, go on." I said impatiently.

'I am the Wolf God Amarok of the Lycaon tribe.' He said.

"What?!?! God? You're a God?" I said in surprise. "Isn't that a big deal?"

Lycaon tribe? I'm sure I've heard that before.

'Well no, I'm not really a God. It's just the title that people have given me due to my status and strength.' He said. 'The reason I can communicate with you is because of my race's Clairvoyant prowess.'

"So why did someone like you reach out to me?" I asked.

'I want to ask you for a favor.' he said.

"Well, what is it?" I said.

I can't really refuse him. If he's truly who he said he is then I don't want to get on his bad side.

'Great so you'll do it.' He said.

Dammit, I forgot he can read minds.

'Anyway, I ask that you save my people from where they are held in. Some time ago our village got attacked by an army of monsters. They captured and took my people just to use them as fuel, once they've served their purpose they'll die.' he said.

"No offense but aren't you like all-powerful?" I asked.

'Some unknown person came to keep me busy while my people got attacked. Once they got enough the person I fought left.' he spoke sadly. 'I failed. I couldn't save them. So please, save as many as you can. I would go myself but I exhausted too much of my strength.'

"I'll do my best." I said.

Amarok gave me directions through the cave. After some walking, I was some distance away from an opening and he told me to stop.

"What is it." I whispered.

'There are two people in front of you. One is a demon the other a human. They're enemies so you have to fight them. From your memories, I can see that you are a strong individual. So you should be okay.' he said. 'Now go.'

I hid on the wall before the opening and peeked my head through. I saw two people. One man holding a staff with brown hair wearing robes and the other had black hair with horns sticking out of his head and a sword at his hip. They were talking some distance away that I couldn't hear. I charged up my lightning for a surprise attack.

Dark purple lighting shot out of my hand. Then I heard a loud crash. Once the fog cleared I saw a thick stone wall and I was also able to make out two silhouettes.

"You think we didn't notice you." A voice said.

Both of them came out and were walking toward me when the demon guy stopped and began to laugh.

"Ahaha. Are you serious? When I sensed a large mana source nearby, the last thing I expected was a kid to show up." He said mockingly. "Anyway since this kid was able to sneak in I'm going outside to see what that idiot Oris is doing." he said looking at his partner.

"Make it fast. Once the Exousia is done we're moving out." the Man said.

"Got it." he said walking past me to the tunnel leading out.

'Good thinking letting him leave. This way the three centaurs can take care of him while you take care of this one.' Amarok commented.

"Listen kid unlikely that demon I'm merciful. So leave now and you won't get hurt." The man said.

"No." I said walking closer to him.

"Then you leave me no choice. I really don't want to kill a child but whatever, there will be no one here to see it." He said.

'Well, I'm here.' Amarok said.

"Die." The man said.

At his words, the ground beneath me started shaking and I was losing my footing.

'Jump' Amarok said quickly.

As soon as I jumped, stone spikes shot out of the ground I used gravity to move away from the spikes safely to the ground.

'He's an earthen mage.' Amarok said in my mind. 'Mages are weak in close combat, so get close.'

"Hmm? You're one of those special-born kids huh?" The mage said. "It doesn't matter, you'll still die."

I dashed and swung my blade at him. Before the blade reached him he put up a thick wall of stone that blocked it. I activated distortion, with a dim golden glow, the stone wall protecting him crumbled. His eyes went wide but he didn't say anything. I swung my blade at the unprotected magician. And again my blade hit another stone structure.

This one was different he elevated himself on a cylinder-shaped pillar. I quickly jumped up after him. When I did, he hurled an earthen boulder at me. The boulder slammed against my body. Before I got crushed under the weight of the boulder, I focused my gravity magic and pushed it with so much force that it went flying back towards him. The boulder didn't hit him directly, but it hit the pillar causing it to break and fall over.

The man fell alongside the pillar. As he fell I changed at him and swung my sword. Before my blade hit him out of thin air stone manifested in a way that protected his body, like armor. My blade hit stone again. I pulled back. He fell to the ground protected by a cacoon of thin stone. Once he crashed the stone cracked open, he quickly got out of the shell and prepared himself.

I haven't landed a single hit. What should I do?

'You're not getting anywhere with this dude. I might have thought too highly of you.' Amarok said.

"Shut up. If you're going to start talking you better say something helpful." I said out loud.

The mage tilted his head in confusion as I said that.

'Well, you sure are a rude one. I was going to help but I guess not.' he said.

I immediately realized the person who I was talking to. I didn't mean to talk to him like that. The adrenaline buildup from the fight made me forget.

"I'm sorry I take all back." I said sincerely.

'Hmm. Well, the lives of my people are at stake here. So just this once I'm willing to forgive you.' He said.

Thank goodness.

'Now listen, earlier when you launched a surprise attack your lightning destroyed his conjured stone completely. If it wasn't for the demon that deflected it they both would've gotten hit. Earth is weak against lightning. Use that to your advantage.' he said.

"Got it. And. . . thanks." I said expressing my gratitude.

'Thank me by saving my people.'

I charged up my lighting keeping it at its strongest level and coating my sword with it. I looked at my opponent and charged forward. Within an instant, there was an earthen projectile launched at me. I swung my lightning-coated sword, Lightning Slash, and the stone got destroyed as the slash continued racing through the air toward the mage.

He put up several thick walls in the path of it, but the slash cut through all of them. The man moved out of the way. Too focused on my slash he didn't see me as I dashed to him and sliced him across the chest.

"That's it you've lost." I told him.

"Hehe." he let out a small laugh.

Afterward, the man injected some kind of blue liquid into his body. Then the wound on his chest began to heal under a green light.

Once I saw that I pulled back.

"Damn you boy." The man said angrily. "Making me resort to using such a thing. Just who the hell are you?"

There was a change in the air. His mana became so pure and abundant. But his face twisted in agony as if he was in pain.

"What did you do?" I asked.

He didn't respond.

'He took a drug that enhances the purity of his mana. This comes at a cost. The normal human body cannot handle the stress of this kind of power. So if he uses his abilities for too long, under the drug's effect, his body will get destroyed.' Amarok said.

"So I just need to hold out until he can no longer fight." I said.

'That is possible, but I don't recommend it.' He said. 'While he can die over time that route takes too much time, you might tire yourself out and he'll kill you and still keep on living.'

"So what do you think I should do?" I asked.

'Fight.' He said. 'Fight with all your strength and win.'

"What if it's not enough?" I said.

'Then go past your limits and make it enough.' He said.

"Fine. Here I go."

I once again charged my lightning and dashed at him. Before I could even get close to him, I slammed into a wall. And then a stone pillar hit me on the side pushing me back some distance.

Huh?

What I saw in front of me made me cower in fear. The entire room we were in was moving to his will as if it were alive. I changed forward and then stopped right before I slammed against another stone wall. I quickly moved past it and continued moving. I quickly stopped before another and then another wall. Spikes came out of the ground. I jumped to avoid them but crashed into a conjured ceiling.

Dammit.

I fell to the ground and quickly evade the spikes as they shot out from the ground and moved a safe distance away. From the back, I was hit by a stone pillar that threw me forward into another. I was being tossed around by all sides. Before another hit me I shot a lightning bolt and destroyed it. I ran towards my enemy at full speed. As I ran he put a stone wall in my way but I destroyed it with lightning. Before I reached him I swung my sword, lighting slash.

He put up another wall for defense. Once my attack reached him the stone wall didn't break. There was only a shallow cut on the stone. A spike shot out from the wall, I shot it with lightning but again it didn't break. I quickly dodged the spike. Several more spikes flew out of the wall like projectiles. I deflected the ones aimed at my body as the rest crashed into the ground.

My lightning isn't working.

'He's compacting the earth to make it stronger.' Amarok said.

'Then what should I do?' I asked.

'Make your lightning stronger.' he responded.

My feet got caught on the ground again I couldn't move. The ground started shaking. Spikes. With several lightning shots, I broke free and jumped. As I did spikes came out of the ground, but when I looked around for a safe place to land, there were stone projectiles all around me. I was too focused on my feet, I didn't notice. I maximized my gravity and pushed out, for a second they stayed still then the next, the projectiles got thrown back.

Thick walls closed in on me threatening to crush me. With gravity, I pushed them back. For a second, they were held back, but then they started moving again. The walls were now crushing me.

He's too strong I can't beat him. I've been close to death so many times now that I don't feel afraid.

I feel strangely calm.

Just as I lost the will to fight. Memories began to resurface in my mind. Memories of when I got reincarnated, how I felt sad and alone. Then my family, how Emma and Leon took care of me when I was a baby. Growing up I always played with my sisters and my best friend. I learned magic and Leon taught me to fight with a sword, I always enjoyed training with Leon. He was always such an idiot. But still, it goes without saying that I love both Leon and Emma as my parents and I love both my sisters as well.

Is my life flashing before my eyes?

No.

That didn't happen the last time I died.

'Amarok, is this your doing?' I asked.

No response came.

I can't die here.

I have a family to return to.

So I can't.

I focused my mana, a large portion of it, and used it to refine my magic even more. I tried to push out with gravity but it still wasn't enough.

More.

I need more.

With a pained yell, I pushed out with gravity once more. The walls that were crushing me got pushed back in a flash, even leaving a crater in the wall which they came from. I kicked off the ground and dashed forward. With an even faster speed, I quickly maneuvered around every obstacle that the mage put in my path. I was on him. He put up a stone wall in defense, but I wasn't planning to slash him. I pushed him out with gravity causing him to crash into the back wall.

I held him there and was making my way to him. He put up a giant wall separating both me and him. I lost my hold on him due to this. Then the wall came down spikes came from every direction rapidly. I pushed them back. A stone pillar got past me and slammed against my body sending me flying some distance away. I clenched my stomach in pain. I looked at him, he was focusing a large amount of mana into one attack, his last attack.

I did the same and charged up my lighting. As I looked at the lightning tendrils that surrounded my body I noticed that they were not the dark purple color that I grew used to seeing. They were completely black. I gathered them up into one attack and looked at the mage.

The mage shot first, it was a projectile of compacted stone that was flying through the air at an incredible speed. Then I shot, in a split second the black lightning shot out, the force of it caused me to fall backward. There was a loud crackling of lightning that resounded throughout the cave. I quickly looked at the mage only to find him with a giant whole hole through his chest. Blood gushing out of him, he fell to the ground dead.

No.

'That was incredible. Well done.' A voice in my head said.

No.

No.

No.

I shook my head in denial.

'Hey, what's wrong? Calm down your heart is racing.' Amarok said.

I didn't mean to kill him.

I didn't want to kill him.

I- I- killed someone.

I feel nauseous.

I feel sick.

I- I-

I gripped my stomach as I felt something coming up my throat. I vomited. I fell to the ground, taking in deep breaths, trying to calm down.

-----

'Are you calm now?' Amarok asked.

"Yeah. Sorry about that." I responded.

'If you break down like this after killing someone you won't make it far in his world.' He said.

"I grew used to killing monsters, but people. . ." I trailed off.

'Stop thinking about it. You won, that's all that matters. Now keep going.' he said.

"About that, what exactly happened?" I asked.

'The dark lightning burned straight through his earth and then through his chest. An impressive feat.' He said. 'Through your thoughts, I understood the theory of how you developed lightning magic but I've never heard of someone learning it like that.'

"So you're going to learn it?" I asked.

'I already use it. Lightning is a common attribute in the Lycaon tribe.' he said.

Ohh so I'm really nothing special.

'Come on don't put yourself down like that. For a human to master lighting magic is impressive. Not even I mastered lightning at your age.' He praised.

"Master? Is this as strong as it gets?" I asked.

'Black Lightning is the final stage to master it. But as you get older and your mana control gets better the lightning will grow stronger with you.' he said. 'So the earlier you master it the better.'

"That's good." I said then looked around. "So where do I go?"

'There's a tunnel in the wall that's in back of you.' he said. 'Just follow it.'

"Got it."

I followed the tunnel into another open room. There were bodies piled up on the floor with wolf ears and tails the people looked like they had been sucked off all their blood, they were dried up.

"What happened to them?" I asked.

No response.

"I-Is someone there?" I heard a weak female voice call out.

I looked in the direction of the voice. There was a woman tied up in tree branches, being sucked off all her mana. I rushed up to her.

"Stop!" she said before I got closer. "If you get any closer you'll be sucked dry of your mana and die."

I looked down where the tree branches came out of the ground and saw a magic circle. It connected to several others, all coming together in the middle where a tree trunk that looked like a pedestal had a glowing white orb rapped up in small branches sitting on top.

"So how do I get you out?" I asked.

"It's too late for me. I didn't call you over to help me." She said. "there is a cage in the corner of the room with my daughter trapped inside. Please I'd like to see her one last time."

I nodded and quickly made my way to the corner of the room. As she said, there was a cage. In the small cage was a silver baby wolf with markings on its face. I took her out and carried her to her dying mother.

"Thank you child." she said with tears running down her face. "One last favor, p-please take care of her." she said as her face fell. "H-Her. . . Her name. . . Is. . . Flare."

She said as the glowing circle below her stop sucking her mana and lost its glow. She was dead.

After that, a low humming noise came from the center of the room. The branches surrounding the white orb untangled, revealing it completely.

"I'm sorry, I took too long, and your people died." I said looking down at the small wolf in my arms. I noticed she was injured and used healing magic on her, she hummed as a response.

'Don't be. It's not your fault, you just happen to get caught up in this whole mess.' he said.

"You already knew I wasn't going to make it. Didn't you?" I said.

'Yes. I felt guilty about not being able to protect my people.' He said. 'Even if you only saved one I'm truly thankful.'

I stayed silent.

'The monsters that attacked us took the enhancement drug the human mage took earlier. They're all dead now but we suffered a great loss. We don't have proper arrangements to send a team to retrieve the bodies along Flare. So would you please look after her?" He asked.

I looked down at the small wolf as it was moving around in my arms. She slowly raised her eyelids revealing a pair of dark blue eyes and just stared at me.

"Woof." It barked and licked my face.

"I guess. . . I can." I said while petting Flare.

'Thank you. Now I owe you two favors.' He said.

"Anyway." I said walking to the orb at the center of the room. "What's this?"

'Tsk.' he clicked his tongue. 'That is the Exousia Orb.' He said angrily.

"what does it do?" I said.

'If absorbed the orb doubles your mana capacity and makes it purer.' he said. 'It's like the drug the mage took earlier.'

"Didn't you say that if anyone gets that much pure mana their bodies would get destroyed?" I asked.

'Yes. But the orb makes your body go through a change. It infuses pure mana in your muscles and bones making them stronger to be able to hold the power of the orb.' He said.

"Meaning anyone can use it?" I asked.

'Yes, as for me I absolutely hate that thing. It drains pure mana off of an ancient race member and gets pulled into the orb. Too many of my people have fallen in order to fuel that thing.'

"So your tribe is very ancient?"

'Yes, but not only our tribe. There are three others as ancient as us. The Dragons, The Manticores, and The Hippalectryons, but there haven't been any trace of them for years now.'

Dragons?

"So what do I do with it?"

'Destroy it if you want, or take it if you want.' he said.

I mean not to be selfish or anything but I guess I can take it.

'You're totally being selfish.' Amarok said.

"Hehe. Sorry." I said.

I do feel bad.

'If you plan to take in the orb. Do it after you reach the limit of your mana capacity.' he said

"Got it." I said as I picked up the orb and put it inside a small bag that I found in the room.

'Well then, this is goodbye. Thank you for saving Flare and agreeing to take care of her. I'm sure we'll meet again since I owe you for this favor.'

Already huh?

"You know it's kind of sad to say goodbye."

'What you grew attached to me or something.' he said.

"Hah? Not a chance. Anyway, goodbye."

'I'm breaking our connection now. Goodbye.'

Everything went silent.

"You there?" I said aloud. "Amarok?"

No response came.

I took in a deep breath and looked at Flare. "Come on let's get out of here."

"Woof." She said then wiggled out of my arms into the ground and began walking towards the tunnel where I came in. She looked back at me signaling me to follow.

"I'm coming." I said.

Flare guided us out of the cave and I saw the centaurs resting. With all the Orcs and Minotaurs dead around them along with Oris and the demon guy.

"Hey, Arata what's up?" Asonius said.

"Hey." I said tiredly.

"Who's that?" Deleina said pointing at Flare.

"Ohh her. I guess I need to give my report on what happened." I said.

"Come rest with us and tell us what happened." She said motioning with her hand for me to get close.

So I did and told them everything that happened. From going inside the cave, fighting the Earthen Mage, and finding Flare along with the Exousia. I left out the part about being contacted by Amarok simply because I didn't think they'd believe me. They didn't know what the Exousia orb was, so I explained everything that Amarok told me about it, and I even showed it to them.

They asked me how I knew so much about it and I just said that I read about it in a book. They said for me to keep it since I was the one who found it. Also, they didn't want to take it from me because of their honest nature.

"Well, now that we're done with our mission it's time to return to our village. Once we make our report, I'll ask my father to arrange an escort party for you." Asonius said.

"Yes, thank you very much." I said bowing my head.

"I think we've gotten enough rest. Let's go." Said Dominic.

I grabbed Flare, climbed up Deleina's back, and we set off.