On a rather tall tree, the top of which consisted of many thin branches, a boy of 10 years old was lying. His eyes were closed and his face was relaxed. The hands that were on the chest were clutching something tightly, despite the unconscious state of the child.

 

Suddenly, this rather calm idyll was destroyed by the bluish cracks slowly appearing on the boy's body. As soon as this happened, the situation changed dramatically.

 

Surrounded by a vast forest, an incredibly strong wind suddenly appeared, causing some trees to fall to the ground, as if they were ordinary, thin, wooden sticks. But this abrupt change in the weather did not end there. The temperature began to drop sharply, and ice floes began to appear in the air, which, accompanied by a fast wind, spread around.   

 

This act of weather covered not only the training hall, but also spread throughout the huge city of Verne. Ordinary people, seeing what was happening, moved as soon as possible to hide from the weather, while the city guards and the military, under the leadership of their superiors, entered the phase of martial law.

 

The most surprising thing for all the people caught in the bad weather was that even despite their level and the damage they received, everyone unconditionally experienced a strange pain that swept through their bodies.

 

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In the hall of captains.

 

The walls of the room of the hall, capable of withstanding serious attacks by a higher person, because of the pressure exerted on them, went with an abundance of cracks. In the center, around the table, which surprisingly remained intact, three captains stood up from their seats.

 

Their facial expressions, some to a greater, some to a lesser extent, expressed anxiety and fear. Carefully looking at the center of the untouched table, the trio radiated from their bodies an abundant amount of rashu.

 

From Annie, whose eyes, in addition to the previously described emotions, one could see thoughtfulness and incomprehension, came a rising stream of bluish rashu, with an appendage of ice crystals. On the other hand, around the bearded Gottfried, an abundance of winds raged, accompanied by a greenish color rashu. The last person in the hall, unlike his colleagues, was not surrounded by any other element. He was surrounded by a reddish rashu, which, by its strangeness, caused sharply arising streams of pain in others.

 

After a couple of seconds of careful supervision, Annie came to some conclusion and closed her eyes for a moment. Instantly, the energy and ice disappeared as if they had never existed. Looking at the still agitated two, she said sharply but calmly.

 

 - Calm down, now.

 

Gottfried and Grim, hearing the voice of their colleague, looked at her, after which the energy emanating from them disappeared. Nodding at this, Annie spoke without changing her tone.

 

- Ernes is not a stupid boy and did not allow such a serious danger to his life. I'll make sure he's all right. Gottfried, calm down the army, and you Grim deal with the nobles and others.

 

Looking at the image in the center of the table, Gottfried opened his mouth to answer something, but the thought that came to him did not let him do it. With a sigh, he looked at Annie and said worriedly.

 

- Okay, but make sure the prince is okay. 

 

Then, turning around, he headed for the exit. Grim, on the other hand, hearing about his task, muttered something under his breath a little dissatisfied and without saying a word, turned around and followed Gottfried. 

 

After looking after them, Annie shifted her gaze to the image of Ernes covered with cracks and turned around abruptly disappeared into thin air.

 

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- We'll stop here.

 

Alexander's rather tired voice sounded, holding an unconscious man in his arms. Laying the unconscious body on the rather soft moss under his feet and looking at the group that had also stopped, who sat down to rest, he spoke.

 

- I think the one Greg was talking about has already lost us, but to make sure, after a little rest we will need to go even further.

 

Jean, who was sitting next to Nabushi and stroking the soft moss with his hand, asked in confusion.

 

- Do you think that stalker exists?

 

- Yes, my premonition has not deceived me once. But even if this is not the case, I'd rather retreat in a situation where a man with a severed hand is running to meet me and desperately shouting something. – After being silent for a second, the man added. - As soon as he comes to his senses, we will interrogate him with all the passion.

 

Old man Horn, sitting on a small tree that had fallen nearby, heard about the interrogation, raised his head, looking at the former soldier.

 

- Alexander, I hope that you will not torture him, after all, he is wounded.

 

After looking at him, the man was about to reply with an objection, when he felt a strangeness in his surroundings. The same thing happened to others in his team, everyone began to look around in search of the source of this feeling.

 

But they were interrupted by a sudden gust of strong wind, which forced everyone to frown and cover their eyes with their hand. Alexander, realizing that this was something unusual, wanted to open his mouth in order to warn the others. But immediately, the gust of wind changed, increasing in strength, so ice formed from nowhere was added to it.

 

From the force of the wind, Alexander was thrown aside and rolled along the ground, after that, it threw a little into the air. Having flown several tens of meters, hitting the trees tilted by the force of the wind, the man got his bearings a little, managed to stabilize himself and strained himself, grab a branch of the nearest rather thick tree. Holding on to a branch cracking from the load, Alexander felt the flying pieces of ice digging into him, bringing incredible pain, from which he almost lost consciousness.

 

Gritting his teeth and pulling himself up to the already heavily tilted tree, the man turned to face the trunk in order to avoid getting ice in his eyes. Slowly crawling along the trunk to the bottom, he began to descend to the ground. While this was happening, a painful cry reached him through the roar of the wind and the cracking of the breaking wood.   

     

Gritting his teeth, the man cautiously looked in the direction of the scream and saw blurred silhouettes through the wind with an abundance of ice, dust and wood. Looking closely, he was able to make out Jean and Nabushi, who, holding on to each other, were also trying to get down to the ground.

 

Realizing that everything was fine with them so far, Alexander continued his descent again, suffering bouts of incredible pain. When he reached the ground, he lay down and looked around, trying to find some kind of depression in the ground.

 

Soon, he caught sight of a newly formed pit, which apparently appeared due to an uprooted tree. Concentrating and strengthening rashu body, Alexander, holding on to the grass with all his might, headed for the pit. After several tens of seconds of effort, the man finally reached his goal.

 

Crouching down as tightly as possible, Alexander closed his eyes, trying not to pay attention to the waves of pain. A minute later, the strangely arisen calamity of increasing wind, ice and pain, abruptly appeared, dissipated.    

 

But Alexander did not even pay attention to this, continuing to lie in the pit. An abundance of blood flowed from his back, previously dressed in dirty white clothes, now missing. The man himself was breathing heavily, trying to recover. 

 

Ten minutes later, having cleared his thoughts a little, Alexander slowly raised his head, looking out of the pit in order to look around. A rather deplorable picture appeared to his eyes. Previously, a fairly ordinary lush forest turned into a field of fallen trees. Not far away, just a meter from his rookery, a man saw a tree trunk stuck into the ground, which only miraculously did not hit him.

 

After catching his breath a little, Alexander took strength in his fist, got up from the ground and hobbled off in search of his comrades, by misfortune.