Offensive spells dyed the earth crimson, and metals tore at each other in piercing sound. Two figures danced across the ruined sky moving so quickly only blurry images were visible to the naked eyes. The sound of their breaths and of weapon clashing were getting more drastic. Their spells have long gone, and their stamina would soon follow. Wouldn’t be long till their speed stops being supersonic.
The first to have faltered was the knight in bloody armour. Being a pegasus centaur, she has the torso of a woman but the lower half of a winged horse. Her forehead carried the proof of royalty, two unicorn horns. They were arranged in a vertical line with the smaller one below the larger.
Not letting the opportunity to go to waste, the opponent overwhelmed her senses with their last display of speed. In a blink of the eyes, the knight lost sight of her opponent. The next moment, a sharp pain alerted her brain. She has lost one of her four precious wings. With exhausting effort, the deed was done. This blow would permanently set the knight below in speed regardless of their current stamina.
Her opponent could now take a small break. He has body of human with only one difference, the six gracious wings. His plate armour was in no better shape than the knight’s. It had holes and cracks all over. Through these openings, red blood trickled from the battle wounds.
The knight bit her lips refraining from screaming. She quickly assessed the situation. It was lucky that the small wing got hit. Her hand reached out to the other lesser wing on the right. This one would just cause instability for her flight. Without another thought, she got rid off the other wing as simple as cutting hair.
The bold move was interpreted as desperation by her opponent. The battle presumed. The angel would not let his enemy recover. With feeble resistance, the knight sustained more and more injury. The angel slashed her helmet, removed her left cheek as his sword dug deep through the gum on her upper jaw. He swiftly moved on to her hindlegs cutting them in succession. Before the knight could register the pain, the angel has already at his next target. The sky was showering blood and flesh. For the big finale, he flew below her. His two swords made a long cut along her horse belly.
The knight fell to the ground. The impact forced her innards from the wound.
The angel slowly descended. He stepped on her spilled guts crushing it with his foot. The knight could only make minor reaction at the cruelty of her opponent. Deemed the battle has ended, the angel turned his back.
In the moment, the centaur princess stood up with the help of her spear and the remaining of her front legs.
This moment he has foreseen. The angel’s blades sunk into her chest. A logical decision from the angel but fatal. He couldn’t imagine the depth of her tenacity.
At the time her body was skewered by the metal, the knight continued to work on her legs. She pushed her body forward while her right hand, with only 3 fingers remained, led her spear into the heart of her opponent.
Face to face with his enemy, the angel was dumbfounded. The moment he cut off her wing, he should have realised that she no longer considered walking away from this battle alive. He should have recognised she was waiting for the perfect opportunity to commit a mutual destruction. He should have known she was letting him waste stamina by allowing him to inflict wounds on her body. He should have dodged that last assault instead of believing his strengthless thrust could finish her.
The Archangel Gav’rail returned to ash.
“No. No!” The elephant man fell to his knees. The grievous injuries in his body were being healed rapidly. The painful tears streamed down to the rubbles beneath.
He knew this. This red light that was healing him and his allies. It is said that the bravest and most honourable centaur's heart would become a bloodstone. It would hold all the lifeforce accumulated in the brave centaur’s life. When this stone was crushed, it would replenish the person the centaur treasured with its lifeforce.
Another person on the scene, a two-headed ogre looked at his friend with sympathy. Another of us has gone. He thought to himself. Then his gaze turned to the unrecognisable carcass on the right. The bloodstone was miracle-class treasure but even it could do nothing to those who have passed the door of death.
His enemy, the corrupted goddess, has a distaste look at the unfolding event. It has received heavy damage from the sacrificial attack of the shark prince. It had a missing pierce on its left head and the right hand. There was a huge crack running from its right shoulder to its left leg.
The ogre could see the dim light of victory at the end. “Bankai! Are you with me?”
The elephant man swiped his tears. His scornful look was more than enough for an answer. Putting his hands together, the elephant man shouted. “Brahmanda Astra!”
The goddess cursed the elephant-like creature in its head. It threw out defensive spells like mad but they all failed to block the golden arrow. Despite being the second time this spell was used against it, the goddess had no countermeasure against the spell. No matter how fast the goddess ran, the arrow would always follow, each time getting closer. Just like the first time, it connected and pierced the abdomen of the goddess.
Although the goddess suffered no damage, it was in grave danger. Brahmanda Astra is, of course, not an offensive attack. What it does was countering everything including divinity. With it on the goddess’ body, all defensive and supportive spells the goddess put on its body shattered. As long as Brahmanda Astra was still being channeled, nothing will work including passive skills, innate abilities, and racial attributes.
“Macro Instability!”
“Micro Destruction!”
Each of the ogre’s heads casted a different spell. Macro Instability caused mayhem to its system rendering complex spells unusable and disrupting its ability to cast multiple spells. Meanwhile, Micro Destruction seeded the Goddess’ body with tiny bombs. As they all came off, its skin and flesh were slowly reduced to dust. The goddess’ torso fell from its leg.
It was time. The ogre rushed toward his fallen enemy. His battle axe shone with all the buffs he could cast on.
Check!
The goddess’ body fractured. It has decided to abandon the body. The physical body that it took millions of years to create. To be precise, it sacrificed that body as a condition to use an experimental spell, Spacetime Portal.
Being caught off guard, the ogre screamed in anger as he was taking away by the portal.
At the sight of its enemy’s frustration, the goddess laughed hysterically. Its mind crumbled. Its soul returned to the divine world for rejuvenation.
The heroes have failed to destroy the goddess' entire being but they have forced it to retreat. The goddess would not be able to interrupt the mortal world for many millennia.
“Damn you!” The sleeper slowly opened their eyes. They recognised this ceiling. It was the third day in a row. The first night they dreamed. They awoke with swollen eyes and terrible headache. The information was too much for their 5-year-old brain to process. Well, they completely remembered their past life now. In the past life, they were an ogre mage belonging to the Twelve Heroes, a group of chosen. Their task was to be the spear head in the Great War against the Goddess.
It was a terrible war. Among the twelve, only them and Bankai survived. With them being here, only Bankai would return and tell the tale. Anyway, everything has fallen into places. With the goddess being absent, the other races would be able to accumulate their force. Long before the goddess could fully recover, the united army would knock on the door to the divine space with force magnitudes beyond the Great War. By sending them into the portal and returning to the divine space, the goddess avoided the check, but not the checkmate!
The past was secured so now is the present. They looked at each other. Ah, yes. They reincarnated as an elven conjoined twin. It was Ren and Gowen from left to right.
Baam! Baam!
“Oi! Shitheads. Are you going or not?” The familiar voice accompanied the door knock, who else but their shitty brother. The only memory they have about this shitty of an older brother was him calling them “an abomination”.
Father must have told their brother to wake them up, else this bastard would never be here. Father wanted to see them? They wondered what was the reason. Then it dawned on them. Today was Career Day.
They jumped out from the bed. “Arrgh!” They got dress and dove through the door.
Below the stair, their father has already been waiting. A clumsy misstep sent them flying down the last 6 steps.
They have already prepared for a full-body agony except it didn’t hurt. This softness. They got themselves up questioning where this rug came from. Tracing the rug to their father, the question was answered.
Their father withdrew his fluffy tail. In second, the cinnamon tail disappeared into thin air. Ren’s hair colour is definitely taken from him. He approached them settling a strand of unkempt hair on Gowen’s head. “Careful there!”
They have just been reminded of a crucial information. Their father is a fox spirit. The term is used to describe fox that has lived more than a hundred year and accumulated power.
Their father smiled gently. “There is no need to rush.”
His words shook them. Their father in the previous life is a harsh man down to his last day when he sacrificed himself to buy time for them and their siblings to run away. They knew he meant well. They knew it was necessary to keep them survived but sometimes, they just want to have a moment like this in their childhood.
Seeing the almost teary eyes, their father deducted they must still be sleepy. Kid getting excited before a big day is perfectly normal.
The pair of parent and child headed down the small city’s street. They met a lot of people on the way. Most also came for the career day either as participants or audiences. People being people, they love drama and tales. An extraordinary talent would make a good dinner talk.
They and their father met and greeted many people. They appeared friendly saying good words to their father. However, the twins knew better. There was a pattern in their behaviour. All smiled softly at their father but avoided or made little eye contact with them. Their children too followed suit. Having two heads really is out of the norm for elven society. It could also be their brownish skin. This skin colour does not exist in their parents’ family. It belongs to them from previous life. They could recall faint rumour from their neighbour’s children when they were smaller. Some said it was their mother’s infidelity, but people quickly pointed out that in the last hundred year no one with this skin colour has ever visited this city. Thus, the rumour changed into a curse which could be fitting due to their peculiar body.
This just made them respect their father even more for his acceptance. Their previous father was more limited in his view. To the ogres which have already suffered greatly during the Great War, defective children were best relieved off their life. They heard from their brothers that father left their 6th brother to the wild after seeing him too weak for a 4-years-old. Food and effort would be more efficiently spent on children that have greater survival chance. It was heartless but logical. They wondered whether their father has abandoned a lot more of his children, their siblings, before. They wondered if he has gotten to the point that he couldn’t show sympathy. From his perspective, could it simply be pointless to think about those that would die?
They queued into lines along with other 5-year-old and their parent. The process for career day is quite simple. The children would have their magic affinity determined. Then the counsellor will discuss with the parents about potential career path for the children. This is just part one of a much longer process in planning their career. There are other opportunities to discuss their growth and career when they were 10, 15, and later, the Coming of Age Day at 16 year old.
The magic affinity determination process is straightforward. The children put their hands on a slab of glass, and their affinity would be measured. Occasionally, they could hear exclamation coming from the head of the queue. Those kids must be quite talented. As they came closer, they could make out the talking.
“515.”
“Very good!”
“430.”
“That’s a fine number.”
As their father explained the day before, 500 is considered the norm for adult. For children at their age, 420 is the national average. Therefore, anything above 500 is a rarity.
“580!”
“That is the highest so far.”
“Mommy.”
“That’s my girl.”
“493.”
“That’s a good one.”
“I will be a great magician when I grow up.”
“That’s the spirit, daughter.”
“Hmm.”
They looked up to see their father was looking at the noisy crowd on the left. Among the background noise, they could hear the volunteer’s voice.
“I am sorry. Let me check it. Sweetie, can you do it again?”
“I can’t believe it.” A man shouted. That guy must be very near to the scene.
“791?!” The volunteer raised her voice.
“791? That’s a hundred point more than last year record.”
“That kid is in the top 8% in the nation population. Can you believe that?”
“Unbelievable!”
“The elite status only has requirement of 760.”
“But 760 is for adult.”
“I know. Just how amazing is that kid?”
“It was almost double the standard, isn’t it?”
That was even more than their brother’s 702 when he was the same age, and he was considered national talent. Being a great mage in their previous life, they were dying to see that kid. They wanted to know what that kid’s name or their look. It would be interesting to see what kind of thing they would do when they grow up. Unfortunately, they were only 5 year old, and had the height to match. With all these people around, they couldn’t see a thing. Even if they ask their father for a lift, they may not see either. Height isn’t their father’s strong point. Think about it, kids with high score like that probably got special attention from the counsellors. If they also got a high score, they may be put near each other.
“Father. It’s our turn. Let’s go.”
Hearing the excited tone, their father believed they must want to prove themselves. He smiled.
They proudly placed their tiny hand on the glass expecting a huge uproar. They were, after all, a great mage in their previous life. Gaining high score in these magic affinity test should be normal.
The volunteer’s eyes blink several times. “Sorry can you do it one more time?”
They obediently complied.
The volunteer said softly in his confused voice. “Uhm, just one more time if you could.”
“0!”
“Huh?”
“Did the volunteer just say 0?”
“I think he said 0.”
“It was 0?”
“That kid got 0.”
The crowd started to converge around them. It was even bigger than the crowd around the 791 kid.
“I don’t think my great grandfather have even heard of that.”
“A kid with no affinity to magic?”
“Wouldn’t that mean he won’t be able to use magic?”
“It’s not set on stone. Magic affinity changes overtime but having a “0” is a major setback for the kid.”
“The kid looks strange though.”
“Is that Mr. Taka at Summer street?”
“Poor guy. His kid got a 0.”
“But his eldest son was so talented.”
“It’s just duality of life.”
Ren and Gowen arrived home with a dejected face. They excused their father to return to their room. Those words said on the career day found their anchor within them. How could they be so worthless. It’s ok to throw humiliation at them. Just leave their father out of it.
They knew that father said he didn’t mind, that he hugged them saying they were him and his wife’s children, that there was nothing greater than that. They should have been happy that he saw them not for their talents. Why is it that they felt so miserable. They felt ashamed for not being able to make him proud. Why can’t they be able to make him the father of the most amazing kid? Even if his father cared little for that pride, they wanted to do so. They wanted to gift him everything greatest.
“Why do I have to cheer them up?”
It was the bastard’s shouting. Father probably was saying something; but it was downstair, and his voice was not loud enough for them to hear.
“Just let them be. They will show their face when they are hungry.”
Although they hated the bastard, they agreed. There was no way they could face him at the table.
The footsteps were getting louder till they were right in front of the door. This type of footsteps was not their father’s. Seem like father managed to convince somebody.
“Oi! Shitheads! Open up!” Getting impatient, the shitty brother knocked on the door. “Hey! Open up! I know you are not sleeping.”
Yeah. Who the heck would open the door for that bastard. They blocked their ears with the pillows.
Knowing he was ignored, the brother changed tactic. “HMM! This feels familiar. Did little potty pants wet himself again? OH! It MUST be, else why does he hide in there like that time LAST YEAR!”
The door slowly opened to the expected brother who was making a smug face.
Ren and Gowen clearly were not amused about those over-the-door talk.
Their brother may be a male, but he was surely talented at being a bitch.
“What do you want, bitch?”
“WHAT?! Do you want a smack down to sober up?”
“No. I just decided on your new nickname.”
“That’s it. I WILL FUCK YOU UP YOU LITTLE SHIT!”
“Do your worst, BITCH!”
A nine-year-old should belong to a different weight class than a child 4 year younger. Thankfully, their brother, despite also being a fox spirit, took after their mother’s female frame. Meanwhile, they exhibited more elven racial trait of being tall. Their size was not much different from their brother’s, and therefore, the damage was acceptable.
When the kids settled down, Taka scolded them.
Although their father doesn’t like his children to squabble, he couldn’t deny that the little activities managed to relieve some stress from his younger sons. Still, he should say something. “Niko. You are the older brother. You shouldn’t use heavy hands on your little brothers.”
“I don’t need to use magic against the like of them.”
“Niko!”
“Yeah Yeah, it’s just a joke.” The fox boy looked away. “I don’t feel hungry. I will be in my room.”
The father can only sigh.
Why did this bitch hate them so much? They wondered.
Set that aside, they got serious problem at hand. The counsellor said that there were still other career paths even to them. There were only some they particularly interested at.
First is the position of either a scholar or a researcher. Magic affinity has no connection with how well one understands magic. An elite swordsman to a master swordsmith is a good analogy.
To be a scholar, having deep understanding of magic was the sole requirement so they just have to study a lot.
For a researcher, what is required is the ability to navigate through the problem and discover the solution or, in layman term, intelligence. A researcher will be dealing with what could be done to magic formula to improve the efficiency, like reducing the complexity of the formula, quickening the activation time etc. By the look of it, knowledge on magic of this world operates in similar manner to their own. Being a mage before should make thing easier for them.
Now that they remembered it, the counsellor also mentioned magic teaching. Being a magic teacher requires a different skillset from scholar and mage. They didn’t pay attention to that since teaching was not their forte.
The second one is fighting-related careers; One of their previous positions was a war hero anyway. Taking part in military career is a big no. Military goes hand to hand with politics, and they hate playing politics or being near it.
A different job that utilises their fighting skill would be mercenaries. During one of their morning strolls with father, they asked him about the armed people around the passing-by caravan. Their father said merchant companies would pay handsomely to reputable mercenaries to be their security. The only downside they could think of is recognition. Mercenaries can be popular but on average their fame is lukewarm in comparison to the other alternatives.
Beast hunter can be a potential. Go out to the wilderness. Bash some unfortunate creatures. Bring their remains home for the clients. With experience of an ogre, they checked up many requirements for this job.
Adventurer is another option. Go to unexplored area. Map them up. Write down the info. Go home. Profit. These jobs can make them famous if they have good achievement; And fame means good talks about their father.
To be honest, they leaned more onto adventurer than beast hunter. Despite having the same prestige as a beast hunter, being an adventurer allows them to explore this new world. The nature of the beast hunter career would leave them little opportunities to go into the unknown.
They had this being-in-deep-thought face for the entire dinner. Their father contemplated whether he should interfere or let them be. Behaving like this was odd for kid their age but it may be necessary for their mental development. Maybe he should ask them what they were thinking tomorrow. The father thought to himself. Thinking is good but letting those thinking out is also important for good mental health. Taka finished his meal and cleaned up his plate as well as his older child’s.
It was a new day for Ren and Gowen. Thinking long and hard, they decided to postpone their career plan for much later. What was more crucial is practicing. Magic affinity isn’t a permanent feature. They believed with enough practice they would get better.
They opened the “Magic for beginners”. Despite having been in the house for years, this book was relatively new. There was no misfolding, no scratch, just a little discolour and the dusty smell. Their parents bought this book for their brother, but he was too talented. In the end, these pages have only been turned once before being left on the shelf. Now was its time to serve its purpose.
The introduction held no information that they haven’t been told by father. They turned to the practice section.
The first practice was “Shine”. Self-explanatorily, it makes an object bright up. The details said despite its name, the spell doesn’t make an object shines light. Meanwhile, “Light” is a more advanced spell that creates a source of light.
If Shine is used on a book in a dark room, everyone can read the book as if it was glowing up. Since Shine doesn’t create a light source, the book won’t illuminate the darkness or objects around it in the dark room.
The trivia said this is the simplest spell. Even people with the lowest magic affinity can use it after some tries. The only problem with this spell is you need a dark place to check its effect. Have already been outside, they turned the page for the next practice, hoping it would be more appropriate to their surroundings.
The next one is “Lift”. It was another simple spell. In plain terms, it moves objects without touching them. According to the book, this spell has universal application, and its limitation solely depends on the user’s skill and imagination.
They found a good-looking pebble and named it “Kara” after their first crush. Ren and Gowen stared at it for half a minute. They stretched out their left hand toward the pebble.
One of the key factors that influences the success rate of casting a spell is concentration. Staring at the pebble helped clearing irrelevant thought, while suddenly reached out a hand acts as a mental trigger that boosts the focus at the moment of activating the spell. Next, speaking out loud the name would start the spell.
“Lift!”
…
“Lift!”
…
…
“Why didn’t you lift?!” Could it be that I am not focusing enough? They thought.
The book did say people with low affinity needs a few tries to succeed. Furthermore, there is also a chant being laid below for people with difficulty in casting the spell. In the face of desperation, they threw their pride away and start learning the chant by heart. Let’s do it again. They encouraged themselves.
…
…
…
It has been 40 or so minutes, but “Kara” was still staring back at them innocently. Their throat was dried after all the shouting. They were panting in frustration.
Maybe I was impatient and didn’t focus enough after the first few failures. They tried to reason with the results. If that was the case, there are rooms for improvement.
For the next 80 minutes, they tested all the fixes they could think of.
Firstly, they calmed themselves. Only when their heartbeat became quieter did they restart the practice.
Since 30 seconds were not enough, they spent a minute, a minute and a half, and then 3 minutes. They also started using both hands.
When that failed too, they changed “Kara” name to “Baka”, and kicked her butt saying that she has a fat ass. They found a new “girl”, “Tiny”. As “her” name suggested, the new “girl” was more petite than “Baka”.
After another 5 minutes, they started imagined “Baka” cursed them to fail the spell for shaming her body.
The heatstroke started doing thing to their brain. They hallucinated “Tiny” saying she hated them for only dating her because of her body. The imaginary slap woke them up from their little nap.
They left the comfort of the shade, and resumed their practice. No matter how much they tried, “Tiny” remained unmoved by their “flirt”. After some more unfruitful “convincing”, they said “Tiny” can have intercourse with herself.
They dashed into the house getting a nice shower. Hopefully, the shower would relax their mind and improve their focus. They headed up to their room and returned to Shine.
After memorising everything, they closed the curtain then dove into their blanket.
It was dark enough that they couldn’t make out the pages in their hands.
They started clearing their thought. In their mind, they visualised the shape of the book. Considered the visualisation was real enough, they began chanting.
Their effort was a waste. Nothing has brightened up. They repeated the process again believing they made some unknown mistakes.
After many attempts, they poked their heads out of the blanket gasping for air. When their heartbeat and breath stabilised, they went back to practice.
To maximise their mental power, they closed their eyes. This time, the image of the book appeared much more vivid. The chanting went even smoother. A feeling running through their body. As this feeling became more and more real, they spoke out the word with confidence. “Shine!”
They slowly opened their eyes. They couldn’t believe their eyes. They could see the words on the page. Their mind celebrated loudly but soon the words turned dark.
They enthusiastically redid the spell while their eyes opened widely. They wanted to see the magic happens. Oddly, the spell didn’t work. They blamed themselves for not getting used to it.
They repeated everything during the successful attempt: closing eyes, calming mind, visualising the page, chanting, and calling out the spell.
That was odd. They did see them this time, but the words were much darker.
Their mind quickly searched for an explanation. Could it be they were too hasty with the spell? Could that be the reason the words were darker?
They start experimenting. Each time change their process a bit. Sometimes, they closed their eyes. Another time, they kept them opened. Sometimes, they took time to calm their mind. Other times, they fast-forwarded the process. They stayed to their practice even when Taka told them to have dinner.
Hearing their chanting from outside, their father was concerned if they were alright. As they paid his call no heed, he could only head down stair. Ren and Gowen were brilliant children. They learned how to read at the age of 4, and after 5 months they could read books at decent pace. That, his elder son could only do when he was 7. It was no surprise that they could read the magic manual by themselves. It pained his heart that his sons were inflicted with a magic handicap.
Wondering what he could do for them, Taka ate much slowly than normal. His older son has already finished and went his way. Only when Taka was halfway done, they turned up for dinner. They were sweaty even in the cold evening. Their eyes were anxious. They were somewhat worried. Taka wanted to ask for their progress. At the last second, he decided against it.
During the dinner, Ren and Gowen only ate to swallow the food. Their behaviours said they just wanted to get it done and continue whatever they were doing. It came with no surprise, they finished before Taka.
“Sons. Don’t be rash.”
They quickly went back to their room. They continued into the night. When sufficient results have been collected, they collapsed to the bed sheet.
It was confirmed. They have never succeeded a single time. Those times, when they mistakenly believed the spell has worked, are actually their brain playing trick on their mind. They have reviewed the contents of the book so many times that they could recall the shape even with their eyes closed. They visualised it too real in their mind that the imagination overlapped with the signal from their eyes. This was why after a while the words turned dark giving the expression the spell expired when in fact it hasn’t been activated in the first place.
They felt exhausted and disappointed.
When their body was about to cry, they suddenly got up. A shed of hope shone in their eyes. A lot of people out there must have felt the same when they failed and yet there hasn’t been a case where people couldn’t use magic. More importantly, this was but their first day.
They rushed out to the garden. After some struggles, they managed to find “Tiny”. They reasoned that a smaller object would make thing easier. They returned inside to continue the practice.
They kept on going. Despite saying that this was but the first day, they did feel disheartened. Their tone gradually became a plea. It soon broke, and they would cry themselves to sleep.
