Snowflakes were whipping in my face as I ran through the forest at speeds faster than humanely possible. Considering my normal top speed, this still felt insanely slow. The snow hindered my progress dramatically and even with my reflexes, I dove down under the snow sometimes as I stumbled across something. Still, after these times, I just wiped the snow off my face and kept running behind Irminsul.

She had no problems keeping up with my speed, but that was to be expected. She was a goddess after all, and as far as I understood it, I only saw an illusion with my eyes. Her real body was somewhere else and thus, she had no trouble moving that illusion through the forest.

I ran around three hours, travelling further and further eastwards until I left the forest behind me. Afterwards, I accelerated as my footing got steadier and dashed through relative flatlands for one more hour.

“There.” She pointed towards a lone house a few kilometres away. The lights were still on, giving off a rather comfy feeling in that dark winter landscape. I dashed onwards; a bit slower this time as I didn´t want the inhabitant to see the wide snow lane I created.

“Introduce yourself as the saint.” The goddess said a mere second after I knocked on the wooden door.

“Who is there around this late hour?” Someone asked with a hoarse voice after I knocked a second time.

“My name is Lucy White.” I said, even though I wondered why I needed to. Nobody sane would believe that claim after all.

“The saint?” The door opened a bit, revealing a rather old man with a white beard and dishevelled hair. A thin iron chain stopped the door from opening any further, but it was enough for me to see him through the gap.

“Yes. I am he-“ I started, but was interrupted by the man immediately.

“The gods must have sent you …” He muttered, making me look at the goddess to my side. She whistled innocently and looked away.

“Good sir, I am not allowed to tell you who sent me here, but I do want to note that my way was long and tiresome. So if you could …” He nodded three times and then opened the door completely. Exhaling loudly, I stepped into the warm house and closed the door behind me. The snow on my clothing was already melting as I looked around what was probably the most important room here.

He was a mage. Weird apparatuses stood around everywhere, from distilleries to things I probably read about, but never saw. Irminsul floated through the closed door behind me and looked at the mage for quite some time.

“My time has come?” The man asked, making me blink a few times in surprise.

“I am not here to hurt you … probably.” I said, looking at the goddess who finally turned to me.

“This man is the keeper of holy knowledge. His fate is to tell the saint everything she needs to know and until then, he is allowed to live forever and however he pleases. He is the only man who devoted his entire life to you, Lucinda.” She said and sat down on a chair.

“Don’t worry, I have lived long enough. I experienced the best times this planet had and they say it is best to stop when it is good.” He claimed. Live hard, die hard? Well, I could get behind that but I still didn’t know why his time was necessarily over.

“Does that mean the future will not be good?” I asked, tilting my head to the side in curiosity.

“… it will be harsher than it is now. How much do you know?” Well, I knew about baking cookies, stabbing others with a sword, stabbing others with a lance, stabbing others with a dagger … come to think of, stabbing others was what I was the most knowledgeable about.

“How much do I know about what?” I asked, slightly amused by my own train of thought.

“The future?” He asked ominously.

“It is not set in stone.” I said, completely sure about it.

“Some things are. The seasons for example.” He said and walked towards a nearby table with different stones on it.

“Except something throws the planet out of orbit …” I muttered as he placed a tablet, full of mana stones on the table in the middle.

“Excuse me?” He asked while I sat down, right next to Irminsul.

“Never mind. So, what else is set in stone?” I asked, nodding towards the magical stones.

“Magic.” He said and sat down on the other side of the wooden table.

“Hmm … I´m not following?” I asked, eyeing the stones suspiciously. They were all mana stones, but they looked a bit differently.

“What are these stones?” He asked, pushing the tablet slightly in my direction. I reached over and picked up the first one. Sadly, I wasn’t able to feel the mana in this blue stone, so I couldn’t really say what was differentieated them, except that the blue in them was slightly different from each other.

“They are of different quality. The brighter the blue, the better the quality.” I concluded and put the one I was holding back onto the tablet.

“Right, and wrong. These stones are siblings, all created in the same environment.” So there was no difference in quality, at least not one that would explain the different colours.

“Then the person or circle that filled them with mana was different.” I said, and watched how he stood up, walked towards a shelve and picked up a magical circle. He showed it to me, and then returned to the table empty-handed.

“All were filled using this circle.” He said as he sat down on the table once again.

“You used them already?” I asked, hoping he wouldn’t affirm my hunch. If he would, then this was a complete waste of time.

“I did not.” He claimed, leaving me completely empty-handed.

“Sorry, I have no idea.” I admitted, eying the stones once again.

“Do you know Palm’s Theorem?” I did. His theorem was the basis of higher magical artefacts.

“Mana stones are not affected by diffusion.”  I said and frowned slightly, not knowing what he wanted to tell me.

“His second theorem.” He said, throwing me off trail completely.

“About the maximum amount of mana a human can hold?” We were talking about mana stones and he threw something like this in the conversation.

“Precisely. Think of this mana stone as a little human, capable of storing mana like one.” I thought about his claim for a second and went through everything in my head.

“The maximum amount would be dependent on human factors like capabilities, training and so on, multiplied by Palm´s constant and the mana thickness of the surroundings. I assume we can forget about human factors here … and it is highly unlikely Palm´s constant changed as well. Do you want to tell me the mana thickness increased?” I revealed, even though I wasn’t entirely sure about the conclusion myself.

“Correct.” He nodded happily and stroked his white beard slowly.

“That’s highly hypothetical. It could be a local phenomenon.” I said.

“I did this for two hundred years on a hundred different locations throughout the country.” Well, I already expected something like this but the only conclusion I could draw frightened me nonetheless.

“… if the mana thickness is increasing, then we will have more cases of mana illness.” More. Fucking. Demons. More bothersome races like the werewolves … which were exactly not what I needed.

“That is the only logical conclusion to draw.” He commented unhappily.

“Which also increases the probability of new races being born … humanity will struggle to keep up and will slowly go extinct.” I said, hoping he would have some way to solve this issue.

“Precisely. Evolution will favour the ones who are capable of dealing with the increased mana thickness, and during their lifetime humans are capable of adapting to that change. Alone, humans will survive. Sadly, the increased mana doesn’t increase their general capabilities of fighting. Magic is something reserved for the knowledgeable, and I fear this will not change in time.” He said unhappily.

“Is it a linear curve?” I asked regarding the increase in mana in the atmosphere. Thankfully, he immediately understood what I wanted to know.

“It was … but I fear it is Logarithmic now. So far, the mana in the atmosphere has risen around four times in the last two hundred years and going by my calculations, we will reach sixteen times in two hundred years where it will stabilize.” He claimed and closed his eyes as if he was sorry about something.

“… how much can a human handle?” I asked concerned. What if there was an upper treshhold in which every human would inevitably die?

“The current human? Four and a half times. The human in the future? Probably sixteen times, but this adaption will lag behind the mana thickness slightly.” Thankfully, humans wouldn’t die out due to the mana alone.

“So we are in for new races wherever we look as long as the mana is increasing like this.” I said while giving my best not to slam my forehead onto the table. If it was true what he claimed then I was in for a horrible ride. And sadly, I had to believe him. Irminsul had no reason to lie, and I couldn’t detect any lie as he spoke.

“Most of the demons will die nearly instantly again, but those who don’t will have the capabilities of wiping out the humans and the elves.” My poor humans … I loved to play with them so much …

“So we are in for a fun ride …” Fun enemies to fight! Fun battles to have! Fun while watching humanity go extinct? I certainly didn’t want to see that happening, but I didn’t know what to do you.

“You and the future humans are ‘in for a fun ride’ … but I am leaving this place soon.” Great for him. Sucked for me. Humans were my favourite plaything. I didn´t mind losing a few thousand of them, but all? Who was I supposed to use as my pillow then?

“… someone told me you are the keeper of holy knowledge. What is holy about this?” I asked slowly, already asking myself what role I had in this. Surely I had one, otherwise Irminsul wouldn’t even bother to show me all of this.

“Nothing.” He admitted. And yet, I could see that there was so much he didn’t voice yet.

“I hate these answers so much … is there anything left you to need to tell me?” I asked, completely unamused.

“Oh, there is! You will solve these issues for humanity.” He said as if it was completely normal. I leaned back a little, raised my eyebrow and questioned his sanity. I was in no way capable of achieving such a feat.

“Excuse me?” I asked flabberghasted.

“You were selected by the gods as the most appropriate candidate to help humanity.” I looked over to Irminsul, but she refused to meet my gaze. These gods …

“See that?” I pulled up my upper lip to my right and showed him my sharp canine. “I am a vampire. I doubt I will be the saviour of humanity. Select someone else.” I said, glaring at the goddess angrily.

“The council decided. Unanimously.” Irminsul interjected helplessly.

“You pressured me into being the saint! I refuse to take on such a task!” I exclaimed and stood up furiously.

“The decision has already been made and you accepted the role of the saint out of free will.” Free will? It was either blowing my cover or doing what she wanted.

“Screw this!” I said, lunged over the table and grabbed the old man by the collar. I dragged him onto the table, picked up a mana stone and slammed it onto the back of his head. A sweet scent immediately permeated through the room, making me want to dig my teeth in him.

I was dancing in the palm of not one god, but two gods who did whatever they wanted with me. Furious, I grabbed the hair of the already unconscious man and pulled him up, only to push him onto the table again. Blood spewed out of his nose as I pulled his head up once more and slammed it back onto the table.

“Screw you!” I screamed towards Irminsul, grabbed the man by the neck and pushed the chair he was sitting on backwards a little with my foot. With all my strength, I yanked him forwards. His head hit the edge of the table, stopping me only a little. His neck snapped in two, finally killing him.

“I will not. I will not do your shit!” I screamed at her while letting the corpse fall to the ground.

“You have no choice.” She stated, looking at the dead man with pity.

“I´d rather bury myself under tons of water!” I shouted, kicking the corpse in anger.

“You will fall into a coma when the time is right. Where you are doesn’t matter.” She revealed. And I would only wake up when the time is right again … which was in freaking two hundred years. Come to think of, how often did I hear from her that I would understand in two hundred years?

“… you will understand in two hundred years, eh? Since when is this shit planned?” I said, pointing towards her in anger.

“Long enough … Sofie was a candidate as well, but we decided upon you.” She admitted, calmly placing her hands into her lap. It always had to be like this … always was I dancing in the palm of someone else … and I abhorred everyone for that.

“I hate you so much for this.” I growled and drew my sword.

“I know … and I´m sorry.” She said while I threw my sword at her, naturally not hitting anything. But it felt good.

“When?” I hissed at her.

“A few months.” She said, looking away from me.

“I have a few months to make everything I worked on last two centuries? Are you fucking with me?” I screamed at her. Everything seemed so nonsensical all of a sudden. My plans … all of them were crushed in an instant.

“I fear not.” She said, finally meeting my furious gaze. “But Aska already committed to reincarnating everyone you hold dear around you again, so your loss s-“

“My loss? What do you know about my loss? I will lose everything! Mary won´t even remember me, the children at the orphanage will be gone, … Aska you fucker. He knew about this all along!” He didn´t want to reincarnate Luna this early, because there was simply no reason to. Since coming to this world, he knew what would happen to me.

“He didn´t want you to become emotionally attached to anyone.” How naïve of her. Aska may have played along with their little game, but I knew he wouldn’t do so into all eternity. Because that´s what I definitely wouldn’t do either.

“What the fuck are you talking about? He didn´t want me to feel emotions, he didn´t want me to gain emotional baggage anyone could use against me!” The children at the orphanage were a weakness of mine, and Mary was an even bigger one. I assumed he didn´t want me to make those kinds of friends because he seemed completely okay with Tom.

“I …” She had to admit that my logic was sound, even though she probably didn´t want to hear it. “I´m sorry.”

Finally, I sat down on the chair again, breathed in … and out. In … and out. My mind was still racing, I still felt the urge to murder something, but I was feeling a lot calmer.

“Half a year to secure everything … wow that’s going to be hard.” I admitted. I would need time to turn Tom into a vampire, stop a war from happening, secure my position in the underworld, with the nobility and churches.

“I will help you as much as I can.” She said slowly, earning her a deathly glare from me.

“I need you to push that date back as much as you can.” I said. I didn´t want her help otherwise. Nothing good would come out of that. Maybe I shouldn’t have said it though because her help could come in handy. But I was way too enraged to think calmly about my future at this point.

“I … will try my best.” She muttered helplessly. She really was sorry for what the gods, including her decided on.

“You better do.” I hissed and stood up. I already searched my pockets for my compass, eager to get back as fast as possible. Otherwise … only bad things would happen.

“The unicorn.” I muttered, realizing I was originally here for something else entirely. We weren’t following these stupid poachers for nothing after all.

“You will kill it, right?” She said, sadness all over her.

“I need its horn.” I stated calmly.

“… in front of the door.” I nodded, dashed towards the door and dragged it open. True to her words, a unicorn stood in front of it … whit a little foal to her side. Furious, I turned around, only to find the room completely deserted, except for the corpse in it. That bitch … she knew very well when I refused to murder.