As we approached the town square, a sudden realization had begun to dawn on me. At first, it was just a vague feeling of uncertainty, but the closer we got the more apparent it became that something was obviously wrong. There was a large crowd gathered around the fountain that usually boasted streams of sparkling water spewing from some large aquatic creature’s mouth. However, right now that didn’t seem to be the case, there was a palpable sense of tension in the air, one so thick you could almost cut it with a knife.

“What’s going on over there?”

“I've got a bad feeling about this...”

The people behind me, who’d been engaged in idle chatter up until now were slowly starting to catch on to the conspicuous situation. Just then, a peculiar scent drifted over to my nostrils and even though this was my first time experiencing it, somehow, I could instantly discern its true origins. It hung heavy in the air, thick with a metallic tang that seemed to cling to every breath.

Despite it being my first encounter with such a scent, there was an instinctual recognition, a primal understanding that sent a shiver down my spine. It was unmistakable—the unmistakable scent of blood. That realization alone was enough to put a smile on my face, but even more so was the scenery I witnessed after tuning my vision.

With a blink, the world went dark, reducing everything around me to a black and white canvas. The obsidian color served as the backdrop to my surroundings, while the silhouettes of every living creature took on a transparent, white hue as if they’d been reduced to nothing more than a crude sketch. Tuning my vision like this allowed for a much better perception of the souls around me, within each and every one of these sketch-like figures was a small white flame, burning lazily like a dying candle. That was in fact their very soul; whenever I looked at a mage with my vision tuned like this, I could even see their mana channels, they took the form of needle eyed tubes that branched out like intricate webs pulsating with energy. The soul acted as the point of origin for these channels, they carried the magical essence it produced to whatever part of the body the user desired.

However, the majority of the crowd gathered in front of me had yet to awaken as mages, so it was rather easy for me to see past them. On the other side of that blockade, there was an interesting spectacle unfolding, to say the least. Three mages were standing over a man whose back was now leaning against the crystalline fountain. He was clutching the area just below his shoulder, where his left arm should have been, but the three people standing over him seemed to have no desire to render assistance.

Needless to say, the truly interesting part in all this was the fact that his flame was now starting to go out, whoever was writhing in pain over there was drawing closer to the edge of death by the second.

Come to think of it, in the four years I’d spent here this was the first time I’d ever actually been in the presence of a dying human. If the circumstances hadn’t changed so drastically, I’d be playing a completely different role right now, but for the time being I was simply an observer.

“What happened here?” Vreena called out, drawing the attention of the panicking crowd back towards her.

“E-elder Vreena, Captain Owen, Oliver - We need your help! It’s Dale these bastards just took his arm!” It was one of the very same men who’d been fawning over Julia the last time we came here. The only difference right now though, was the fact that he wasn’t trying to curry favor this time, right now, he lacked the initial sense of flattery he had only a few days ago. His eyes were widening in a mix of terror, fear, confusion and even anger, by all accounts he couldn’t be anymore indifferent to Julia’s presence right now.

“Calm down Eric, tell me what -”

“Pardon the intrusion but allow me to give that account on his behalf.”

That voice immediately cut through both the chaotic chatter, as well as the crowd that had previously been blocking our view. Mere seconds after the gentle voice called out, the bystanders swiftly began to open up a path to reveal the origin of those eloquent words.

“.....A girl?” Somehow Julia had managed to utter the exact phrase that was brewing in my mind. Despite the initial shock I’d felt after seeing her, she was also another familiar face, I saw her on the same day Julia and I went on her so–called ‘shopping trip’. At the time it looked as if she was accompanying those domineering raiders from before, and judging by the situation, that status quo had yet to change.

Donning her frilly white dress that covered everything from her bosom to her ankles, her small face and round eyes cast a mischievous look in our direction. On her head right now was not the matching white broad hat I’d seen her with before, but something much smaller, one that allowed for a clear view of her cascading azure hair.

“Didn’t think I’d be seeing you again so soon, Vreena.”

Scowling at the young girl's remark, Vreena tightened her grip on the wooden staff now firmly planted before her. Just before the odd sense of tension in the air could thicken any further Julia began sprinting towards the haughty girl on the other end of the onlooking crowd. Her reaction had sent waves of confusion into everyone here besides me and Oliver.

“W-what are you doing?” Stunned by the druid woman’s charge, the young girl ultimately began fumbling her own words, yet Julia hadn’t even been looking at her, from the very beginning, her focus was centered on the scenery behind her.

It was only after Julia had sped past the stunned girl that Vreena, Owen and a few others had begun to catch on.

The crystalline fountain that once spewed crystal clear streams of water from the mouth of an aquatic statue was no more. The majority of that statue had been destroyed, along with a portion of the waist height crystal barrier that served to isolate the fountain from the rest of the environment.

The water now pooling at its base had taken on a crimson color, but despite the obvious destruction that had recently taken place here, there was still someone within the vicinity of the ravaged construct. It was a man with blond hair that seemed to be around the same age as Owen, he was currently slumped to the ground, leaning his back against what remained of the crystal wall and clutching his now dismembered right shoulder. Panting heavily and wincing in pain, he clutched at the crude bandage now being used to suppress his own bleeding, judging by how frequently his eyes were rolling back it was obvious that he’d constantly been fighting for his own consciousness.

A viscous fluid was dripping through the gaps of his remaining fingers, falling gracefully to the ground before staining the bricked streets of Zale with vibrant crimson droplets.

Julia stopped just beside him, before stooping down and uttering the same cryptic chant for her ‘Faerie Light’ spell. After the ensuing neon glow that enveloped the man’s body, the enigmatic girl slowly turned her head to look back at the desperate scene unfolding by the fountain.

“Oh? So that’s what you were worried about?”