<Atsumi Pov>

The two of us continue to walk along the path leading back to the main temple.

“Man, I’m starving,” timothy said, throwing his hands over his head.

I walked beside him on one of the dirt paths leading toward the Temple.

“Same here. I haven’t even eaten breakfast yet.”

“How’s your water magic coming along?” Timothy asked, walking ahead.

“No progress,” I Replied.

It was strange enough that I had water magic in the first place. It’s not uncommon for magic users to inherit elemental magic types from their parents before their own innate affinity awoken. I know for a fact my mom used wind and lightning, and I heard from Shino that my dad used lightning and earth, so where did I get water magic from?

I sighed, looking up into the sky through the canopy. “Unlike wind and lightning, I can’t seem to make any progress with it. I’m thinking it was a fluke that I even resonated with it.”

“Do you think it’s your innate magical affinity?” Timothy replied.

“I don’t know, but I highly doubt it. Maybe if I didn’t have this stupid seal, I would have a better idea.”

Timothy nods his head. “Yeah, that sucks, also your mana hasn’t acted up in a while. Maybe we can ask Shino to remove it, then we might even get to know what your innate affinity is .”

“You might as well ask her to jump over the moon, because that isn’t happening,” I retorted.

A thought crept across my mind: the timothy I had interacted with today differed from how I knew him. Obviously he’s the same Tim, but I can’t shake the thought. Today, he displayed a level of strength I had never seen from him, not to mention his eyes, which were normally content and unambitious, were now lit up and filled with purpose.

“Have you been training in secret?” I asked.

He stopped for a moment, looking ahead. His thoughts seemed distant, as if I had brought back memories long forgotten.

“Yeah,”

“It’s not like I was hiding from anyone. It was just isolation training and nothing else.”

“Is there a reason you would go into isolation?” I asked.

“Well, for one, the training here doesn’t help me at all,” he said, shaking his head.

“And two, I decided that I have played around enough,” he said, turning his gaze to me.

I could tell there was more to this than just getting stronger, so I pressed him a bit more.

“Would you like to talk about it?”

He shook his head in response.

With that, I no longer pursued the topic. I was curious to know what had caused this change in him, but it seemed he wasn’t ready to talk about it. It was most likely related to his father, but I couldn’t make any assumptions.

A few minutes later, he separated from the path and turned towards the path that lead to the forest.

“Well, I’ll take this path to the village. Not really in the mood to eat food from the kitchen today.”

“Don’t feel too bad about your water magic. Just keep to the pointers I gave you and you should be fine.” The merfolk boy said just before running done the path towards one of the nearby villages.

I took the hint and went on my way. He obviously wanted to be alone.

I continued to walk up the path, taking in the views of nature and taking a few deep breaths as well. That was when a foul stench wafted into my nose. It was putrid, the worst smell I had the misfortune of inhaling, the air became heavy as if rocks had landed on my shoulders, making me buckle under the pressure. The atmosphere had completely changed.

..........

I had been running around for several minutes and had completely lost my bearings. This crimson fog had been thickening by the minute.

A loud bang and sounds of fighting echoed in the distance. Taking the time to compose myself, I ran to the source to see what looked like a black tiger, but I could tell right at that moment it was a cryptid.

A man and a woman were standing face to face with the beast. It was Anne and Jacob's shop owners from a nearby village.

“Hey what’s going on?” I shouted at them.

He looked at me, surprised. “What are you doing here?”

The beast then charged and swipes down towards him, which he then parries. He swung his broadsword, aiming for the beast’s neck, just barely missing it, as the beast takes a sharp turn. Anne then prepares her bow and arrow, infusing it with fire magic. “I need it to stop moving,” she shouted.

Jacob then switched his stance and swings upward, a pillar of rock then hits it right in the jaw, the beast staggers now unable to keep its balance, a stone hand then shoots out from the ground and held the beast by its neck, before it could break free, Anne began chanting .

“Spirits of Embers and blaze bless this child and bring hellfire to those who oppose thy will of destruction, Brilliant Burst arrow.”

Her arrow glowed bright red as fire infused her attack and with the release of the arrow, the Cryptid disintegrated by the massive explosion.

Jacob approached us. “We should get you back to the temple. Cryptids are appearing all over the place.,” He said, while looking around.

“We were on our way home after paying tribute to the shrine and this started happening.” Ann said.

“Let’s go,” Jacob said. “We can’t stay here for too long”

“Wait, my friend is still in the forest. I have to check if he’s ok,”

Jacob snapped back at me.

“Why?

“He usually takes a shortcut to get to the town, which passes through the edge of the forest.”

“It’s too dangerous. We can’t have you going in the forest alone,” Anne said to me.

Jacob then grabbed my shoulders and turned me around to look at him.

“This forest path. Is it the one next to the Kitsune statue?”

“Yes, that’s it.”

“How do I get to the other village from there?”

“There is only one split. Take the left one.”

He got up and returned his sword to its scabbard.

“I’ll go evacuate the villagers while I am at it. Anne, get her to the main building. You should be able to leave the temple with the others. Alright, be careful.”

He then left quickly, disappearing into the crimson fog.

She held a simple pendant in her hand and gripped it tightly while looking at where the man was last seen. She whispered something in that moment, but I couldn’t quite hear what she said.

She then pulled me forward without saying a word, and we continued on the path to the shrine. I could feel the many twisted beings in the area, malformed creatures that I couldn’t quite understand. In this world, mana was life, but these things, their mana, were something else entirely. It took away life instead of giving. It was like insatiable hunger given form.

I hoped dearly that Tim was ok but I could only count on Jacob for now.