With his mission done, Yuki collapsed on the floor in exhaustion. The surge of energy he had before had disappeared and left him in an even worse state than before.

 

‘But where did that energy come from?’ Yuki thought. ‘That wasn’t all from me.’

 

The other first years stood up slowly, in shock. Yuki turned his head toward them and they retreated backwards, scared, and went to check on the other elementalists that had fainted from Robert’s Gale Blade.

 

‘Ah,’ Yuki remembered. ‘I have blood on my face.’

 

He started to wipe it with the sleeve of his track jacket but a sudden yell distracted his attention.

 

[Yuki! Can you hear me!] Akira called out loudly.

 

‘Yes. Why are you yelling?’ Yuki asked.

 

[Oh thank god, I was so worried,] Akira sighed in relief. [Don’t ever block me again. Ever.]

 

Yuki was confused, he wasn’t blocking her at all. Then he realized that during the fight he wasn’t really paying much attention to himself. He might have ignored her calls then.

 

The fight.

 

His memory of what happened was hazy but it still left a deep impression on him. He had felt something for the first time in years. A raging unchecked anger had exploded out of him.

 

But when he searched within himself, he couldn’t find that anger anymore. All he could find was the dark and cold abyss that ate his emotions.

 

‘Ah well,’ Yuki said and brushed it off. He would have to keep a better check on himself, losing one’s self was not a good idea.

 

‘I wonder where that power came from?’ he wondered again.

 

[Ah um, I think it was from your necklace,] Akira replied.

 

‘My necklace,’ Yuki repeated thoughtfully. His hand reached to the stone attached to the silver chain around his neck.

 

The golden gemstone felt cool to his touch. Experimenting, Yuki released some of his residual mana and it, much like the martial arts manual he had used before, absorbed the mana. Then Yuki reached out to the gem and discovered a mana pool that dwarved his own. It was nearly empty but the capacity made his look like a kiddie pool.

 

‘That explains a lot,’ Yuki thought. It seems like he had reached toward this pool of mana instinctively when he was in his blind rage. Then he had used the mana from it to strengthen himself. But this didn’t explain another mystery.

 

Deep in thought, he tried to think of reasons why his earth magic had suddenly improved so dramatically. Mulling over this, a notification appeared in front of his eyes.

 

[The Skill {Dance of the Dragons} Has Unlocked A Branch. {Earth Dragon Lv. 1} Has Been Unlocked.]

 

‘Hmm? What’s this?’ he thought. In his mind he watched as a mini version of himself performed a new technique. It resembled the original Dance of the Dragons but had some major differences. The most obvious was a golden brown aura that surrounded this mental Yuki. The aura seemed to be energizing Yuki as he slashed and stabbed imaginary enemies. The fighting style had become more graceful, a beautiful dance of death. He continued to watch this, analyzing every detail.

 

‘Mhm,’ he thought after a while. ‘This seems quite overpowered.’

 

Looking back at his hazy memories, Yuki saw the same golden aura shine around himself. It seemed that he had used the Earth Dragon branch on instinct as well, the power to do so being given by the stone on his necklace.

 

‘It seems that losing control of myself can lead to some interesting discovers,’ Yuki remarked.

 

[Yuki.]

 

Akira called to him again. But her voice was tight and confused.

 

‘Yes? Is something wrong?’ Yuki asked.

 

[I just felt an abnormal surge of mana,] she said. [I don’t know who it came from, but the source is very close to you.]

 

Yuki looked around but couldn’t find anything that stood out. The other first years were still helping the unconscious Aether elementalists. All of the monsters had either died or retreated. And the dead body of the Shikaku member was still lying there next to him dead.

 

‘Wait,’ Yuki thought with his brows furrowed.

 

Yuki looked more closely to the corpse of the man. Although it was faint, Yuki could see a heat haze being given off by the body. The skin, which should have been becoming pale and cold, was still red.

 

‘Akira, what’s happening?’ he asked in a serious tone.

 

[I don’t understand it any better than you, Yuki,] she replied tersely. [But I do know that the surge is getting stronger.]

 

Yuki’s mind raced, trying to piece together the clues given to him. A red body that is giving off heat. A body that belonged to a now dead fire elementalist. A fire elementalist that warned Yuki before his death that the battle wasn’t over.

 

‘Ahh,’ Yuki realized. ‘This might be bad.’

 

[Yuki! The body!] Akira warned.

 

Yuki refocused on the dead body and saw immediately what Akira was warning him about. The eyes were glowing a bright red the skin had become an unhealthy shade of scarlet. It looked as if the corpse was about to explode.

 

“This is bad,” Yuki calmly said.

 

The other people in the hangar also noticed the odd light that was being emitted from the body. Curious, they approached where Yuki was lying on the ground.

 

“Yuki-chan? What’s going on?” Sayuri asked, walking towards him.

 

Yuki stuck out his hand, signaling them to stop. But before he could warn them, he felt a sudden rise in temperature and on instinct reached for the last drops of his mana. A granite dome tore out of the ground and encased him and the glowing body behind him. Then as Yuki fainted from the exertion of creating the wall, the last thing he saw was a flash of blinding white and heard the resounding boom of an explosion that shook his soul.  

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

The next day, the whole of Aether was gathered outside in the drenching rain. Before them were seven cold tombstones, each the resting place for a brave soldier that had died fighting for them.

 

They all remembered the events of that mournful day. The sudden attack of the monsters. The battle that ensued. The deaths of their comrades.

 

But the ones that suffered the most were the ones that had witnessed what had happened after.

 

Under the shadows of the storm clouds above, Aaron, Tracy, Leo, and Sayuri stared at the grave of one person. With the rain dripping down their faces, they remembered the life of the one that sacrificed himself to save them. The rain was replaced with the downpour of their hearts as they recalled the last moments they had together.

 

The wall of rock. The explosion that followed. Them being knocked backwards by the shockwave and the being bombarded by rocks and scorching heat. The dust clearing to reveal the disappearance of their savior who seemed to have been incinerated by the blast.

 

“We’re pathetic,” Aaron growled, his eyes misty. “We’ve trained and trained but we couldn’t even kill a monster.”

 

The others could only look down, not wanting to meet Aaron’s gaze. Sayuri covered her face, shaking.

 

“He was my first friend in years,” she sniffed. “Everyone else only ever found me to be annoying. And now he’s dead because of me.”

 

Her tears began to mix with the rain.

 

“I shouldn’t have went up to him that time,” she bawled. “I shouldn’t have asked questions then. Now he’s dead because of that.”

 

Tracy hugged her tightly, burying her face into her shoulder. Sayuri turned her head and did the same.

 

“We’ll get stronger,” Leo said, his eyes filled with resolve. “We’ll get stronger and not let Yuki’s sacrifice go to waste.”

 

And at that moment, the four made a vow. A vow to not let the life of their friend and savior be wasted. A vow to improve themselves so that the next time they would be the ones saving.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

“Doctor! Doctor!” a man yelled, running into the building that served as the office of the village’s only physician.

 

“Yes?” the doctor asked, looking up with an eyebrow raised. She was reading paperwork that related to the last patient she had.

 

“In the fields,” the man gasped, panting for air. “In the fields there is a person. Their condition looks bad.”

 

Immediately the doctor’s expression changed, her eyes furrowing and her mouth frowning.

 

“Take me there right away,” she ordered rising up from her sit.

 

The man nodded and started to speed toward the direction of the fields, the doctor following closely. A few minutes later, they arrived. In the middle of the grassy meadow, a body was laying still.

 

The doctor rushed over to check on the person and turned them over. She placed her hand on the person’s wrist and with her other hand began to wave it over the body of the person. Mana was released from her hand, analyzing the body.

 

“Their mana is nearly depleted. Slight burns on the face and arms, but nothing too severe,” she muttered to herself. “If we treat them right away, they’ll be fine.”

 

With a sigh of relief, she picked up the body and carried it like a baby back to her office. On the way there, a silver necklace slipped out of the person’s shirt and hung from their neck. A shining brown jewel hanging from the chain.