An unknown anomalous zone far from the Southern Continent.

3rd rank Mage Stevens has been the ruler of the continent for many years. He was the first Rank 2 Magician to break through the barrier. Not wanting to share wealth with other Mages, he killed one by one all the Mages who, in his opinion, could compete with him.

At first, he acted with the excuse that these Mages were his natural enemies. But soon the Mages of the 2nd rank realized that at such a pace they would simply be slaughtered like pigs. All Mages of the 2nd rank of the Southern Continent formed an unspoken alliance. Even though Stevens was stronger than them, dealing with dozens of such Mages at once would not be easy even for him.

Stevens had to stop and deal with the other Mages. A contract was established between the two parties. He remained the ruler of the Southern Continent and received the lion's share of resources from local organizations, but at the same time he could no longer kill 2nd rank Mages without reason.

Its lifespan could reach up to a thousand years. Although he had all the resources and Mages of the Southern Continent at his disposal, he still couldn't find a way to approach a rank 4 Mage.

Not wanting to give up so easily, he decided to take a chance and get to other continents on his own. He flew in a small aircraft cutting through the sky. The ship was invisible and created an invisible barrier in the sky that hid any magical fluctuations. Beneath it was scorched earth covered with dark rocks of various kinds. From time to time, rivers of lava came across along the way, standing out against the background of the anomalous zone like scars.

Suddenly, a menacing growl sounded. The dark red dragon somehow sensed something in the sky and rushed towards Stevens and fired a volley of fire. The fire could not penetrate the barrier, however Stevens was discovered.

- Stupid animal - Stevens commented.

Bright red lightning flashed around Stevens, the next moment they rushed towards the dragon as if alive. A second later, lightning surrounded the dragon in a sphere of lightning. He tried to fight off with the flames, but to no avail. In the next instant, lightning flashed sharply and the circle closed. The dragon froze in the air and its body began to break into pieces. But before the pieces sang, an explosion sounded that vaporized most of the dragon from the inside, only its remains were scattered through the air.

At the same moment, one of the nearby mountains trembled heavily. It seemed like an earthquake started as the rock began to take the form of a monster. A huge demonic colossus hundreds of meters high appeared among the endless rocks. His dark silhouette turned towards the Mage.

- What the hell is this. - Stephens was amazed.

He immediately turned in the opposite direction and began to gain altitude. An additional barrier formed around the ship. Around Stevens himself, in addition to the innate barrier, a formation arose, it formed a bright shining shield ten meters high, it seemed that it could reflect anything.

At the same time, Stevens pulled out several artifacts from the spatial artifact and threw them out. Several turned into the image of Stevens and the ship, flying away in different directions. The others called forth magical attacks of various kinds towards the giant for distraction.

The eye of the colossus opened, but it seemed that everything around was plunged into even greater darkness. A chaotic fog covered the entire surrounding space. As soon as Stevens felt the gaze of the giant on him, he was seized with chills.

What he didn't expect was that a small female mist elemental suddenly appeared right next to him. Although he was moving at great speed, looking at the elemental, it seemed to him that he was standing still. On the other hand, he immediately realized that this was not a real body, but just an image. However, this did not lessen his fear, he needed to get out of here immediately.

- Human? I don't like humans. Have you come here to become my pet? - the elemental sent a thought question.

Stevens ignored her and activated the teleportation formation. In the blink of an eye, the ship was covered with iridescent runes, in the next moment it was a hundred kilometers from the previous place. He hung in the air above the clouds. The sky was clear and there was no more fog or giant around. But he suddenly noticed with horror that the elemental still remained next to him and continued to look at him, waiting for an answer.

Trying to remain calm, Stevens answered cautiously.

- I'd rather just leave if you don't mind.

The elemental tilted her head slightly to one side, then answered.

- As you wish.

The giant colossus still stood in the midst of the swirling mist. As soon as the elemental gave her answer, colossus grabbed the nearest rock with its huge hand. The rock shrank and turned into a ball that fit comfortably in the hand of the colossus. Making a swing, the giant threw the ball towards Stevens. From the force of the swing, hurricanes rose and thunder sounded, causing even more destruction than the awakening of a giant.

The ball from the compressed rock flew off into the distance like a meteorite tearing space apart.

The elemental vanished into thin air and Stevens no longer sensed any danger around him. Nevertheless, he did not weaken his defense and rushed into the distance at full speed. Before he had time to fly safely for a minute, a meteorite fell right on him. The shield was helplessly torn to shreds. The ship collapsed into nothingness, the Stevens barrier evaporated as if it didn't exist in the first place. In an instant, the very existence of a Rank 3 Mage, along with his body and soul, was erased from the Mage World.

 

Empire of Taros. Edu village.

Two teenagers around 12 years old were talking in a half voice on the outskirts of the village.

- I don't like that idea - Joe said with a grimace.

- Listen, Joe, what exactly do you want? - Ron asked.

- I told you, I want Lei to pay attention to me ... - Joe said, lowering his voice by another octave.

- You remember what happened last month when Harry confessed to May? Girls still make fun of him for any reason. Are you going to follow the same path as the loser Harry? - Ron asked.

- Well... maybe instead of talking about feelings I will give her something...

- Nonsense! The result will be the same, tomorrow the whole village will laugh at your pathetic attempts, do you want to walk around with your head down in shame until the end of your days?!

- But what you offer is even worse! - Joe puffed up - And in general, how would a weakling like you know something about such matters, none of the girls will even look in your direction.

- Hehe, this is my advantage, the girls do not pay attention to me and I use it perfectly. How many times have you chatted with girls in the last year? I communicate with them regularly, so I understand them much better than you.

- What kind of communication is this, you are just such a weakling that even girls use you for any reason. - Joe objected.

- Don't make me laugh, even I can handle the girl, I just have completely different goals. By sacrificing myself and actively joining their team, I discover a lot of things that someone like you can only guess about. I am your only chance, a guiding star that can lead you to the top. I may not be a fighter, but unlike you, I have long been able to read and write. I have already read several books, and once I ran into the writings of an ancient sage and adopted his wisdom. You will never win Lei with your fists, I am your only chance. - exhorted Ron almost spraying saliva.

Of course Ron was exaggerating a little. He didn't read that much, but that doesn't matter.

Under his pressure, Joe finally gave up and soon Lei's desperate screech sounded throughout the village. Joe snatched off strong cuffs from his own father for what he had done.

After a couple of days, Joe was finally released outside and he rushed to Ron screaming.

- Bastard! You lied to me! - cried Joe, and seized Ron by the chest.

- Fool! I explained to you that the result will not appear immediately, be patient for at least a week and you will understand everything yourself.

Joe looked at Ron with eyes red with rage, but he let go.

- You can't go anywhere anyway, if you lied, then in a week I will beat you to death. - said Joe.

- OK OK. Most importantly, don't forget to apologize to Lei for what you've done, just like I told you. Now let's go fishing.

We went to the river not far from the village. We caught fish with our bare hands, the river was shallow and calm. Along the edges of the shore under water there were many earthen depressions and cavities, which we checked by fumbling in them with our hands. We regularly managed to find fish, usually trout. It happened, of course, that other living creatures like loaches came across, but there were no deaths before. At least in recent years.

The river was generally one of the main attractions near the village, so it's not surprising that not far from it we saw girls chatting about something near the shore. Among them was Lei, who suddenly became quiet when she saw Joe, and the other girls was staring at Joe with anger. They glared at us in unison, but Ron waved happily at them anyway.

According to the plan, Joe was supposed to apologize not now, but somewhere in a week, and necessarily in private. Now he just blushed and diligently maintained an indifferent face.

When they got a little further down the river, Joe began to whine again.

- Well, did you see the way they looked at me? Still, it was a lousy idea.

- How did Lei react before when you were around? - Ron asked.

- Well... Reacted? She didn't pay attention I guess. - Joe hesitated.

- Here you go. And now you can be sure that she will always pay attention to you. It doesn’t matter what exactly she will think about you to herself, the only thing which is important is that she will think about you now, even if you are not around, you understand? Isn't it a progress?

Joe hung for a moment, trying to digest what he'd heard.

- Hmm... well, maybe you're right. - Joe answered doubtfully.

Ron patted Joe reassuringly on the shoulder. Joe was almost a head taller than him even though they were the same age.

Usually they helped their parents with the housework, feed the animal, chop firewood. The most busy was the period of sowing and harvesting. Well, even the local school twice a week. But otherwise they had plenty of free time.

Most of the time they spent either training or by the river. Well, either for training by the river. Ron's father taught him how to work with wood, so he regularly carved wooden swords and bows, which they used during training.

Joe's father was an ex-soldier, though now he was limping in one leg. However, this did not prevent him from time to time giving us weapons lessons. Many guys wanted to become soldiers, but Ron, although he trained with them, was not eager to become a soldier. Rather, he dreamed of getting rich and becoming a merchant or an official, well, at least an artisan. Yes, anything but to not end up in the mines. There were terrible rumors about the mines from merchants in the city. Luckily, there were none like them near their village.

However, in the Taros Empire there were no unofficial associations of magicians, sects, temples or other organizations, at least they were prohibited by law and the only legal way to become a Knight or Mage was to enter the service of the empire. For this reason, even Ron had thoughts of enlisting, but the likelihood of becoming a Knight or Mage is extremely low, he would not want to serve half his life as a simple soldier like his own father.

But every rule had exceptions. If Ron could get rich then it is likely that there would be other options.

Just a couple of days later, in broad daylight, an explosion was heard in the middle of the village. Several houses were almost completely destroyed and some nearby houses were also damaged. Even Ron's house was not left untouched, it was a miracle that only about ten people died. There was a slight uproar.

Soon the villagers surrounded the destroyed and burnt houses and extinguished their remnants together. At the epicenter of the explosion, the house was completely absent, only a crater about 10 meters wide remained.

Someone complained about the punishment of heaven, someone said that a piece of the sun had fallen off. As a result, the news reached the empire, which soon sent an official with soldiers. They cordoned off the house and made its territory a restricted area while investigating what happened.

However, soon after the first official, more people from the capital came, then Ron had a chance to see a real Magician in action for the first time in his life.

In appearance, he looked like an ordinary person, but wore an imperial robe with a symbol in the form of an eye, which had a blue sphere instead of a pupil. It was a symbol confirming the status of the Mage of the Taros Empire.

The magician drew an intricate symbol right in the air, then grabbed it with his hand and pressed it to the ground. Blue lines that resembled blood vessels began to spread from the ground throughout the crater. After sitting like this for about a minute, he finished casting the spell and it went out.

For two whole months, various imperial officials and Mages visited our village trying to find out exactly what happened. The territory of the former house was completely cleared and active excavations were carried out. But after two months, the noise finally subsided. Whether they achieved what they wanted remained a mystery to us.

Worst of all, no one cared about the inhabitants of our village. When the area around the disaster was cordoned off, all the inhabitants of the surrounding area had to seek shelter in the homes of other people. Ron's father was one of those who turned to one of the arriving officials for help, because their house also fell under the cordon.

- Our house was near the crash site, we lost everything and we have nowhere else to live. Your Honor, I beg you to help the families of the village of Edu. - on his knees asked the father.

Next to him were many other residents on behalf of whom he spoke. He was addressing an obviously high-ranking official, although it was hard to tell who exactly. He was accompanied by Knights in gleaming armor and even a Mage.

Official was ignoring villagers, but at some point he took out a mirror and looked at it for a while, then he finally spoke.

- We need to decrease the amount of villagers around here. Start from those. - he pointed at the crowd.

Ron will never forget this day. Some Knights were hesitant for a moment, however, one of the Knights jumped up in an instant and cut his father in two. He did not stop there, a real massacre started afterwards. There is no way commoners could resist a real Knight in a plate armor while being unarmed.

Even he had heard that for Mages, mortals were just soulless. But until this day, Ron could not even imagine that they were cattle even in the eyes of the empire.

 

There was a meeting in the Harding family. The projections of all the True Magicians were present.

Fring was the head of the Harding family. At the moment, he was the most powerful Mage of the family. One of the True Magicians responsible for the meteorite incident was reporting to the rest.

- We dug up all the ground around the meteorite, but when you try to dig deeper, it only sinks lower, so it's useless. We could not find a way to damage this core. We tried the highest possible temperatures and the strongest techniques for processing artifacts, but we could not even scratch this core. In the area of ​​the village where the meteorite fell, there was an outburst of mental energy of an unknown nature. So far, no anomalies have been observed. Now this thing is no longer emitting any energy. We cordoned off the area around the meteorite and hid it by erecting a new building over it. - he finished his report.

- In the end, the treasure landed right in our garden, but we are too weak to use it? And how could a meteorite get here at all. Isn't the Mage World isolated?

- There is no definite answer to this question. However, there is a possibility that this core was formed due to some kind of catastrophe like a volcanic eruption and flew here. It is difficult to imagine what kind of force the release should have been for something like this. Although we have not heard of such cases anywhere else. One theory suggests that although the Mage World is isolated from outside entities, physical objects can still leave or enter it.

- Okay, let's leave everything as it is for now and look for other ways to influence the object. Well, let the villagers live around the object as an experiment. If there are too many, you can simply cut out the extra ones. Try not to leak information. Even if we can't do anything about this thing, it's better that no one else gets it aswell.