“When Goddess Emma reincarnated me, she said that she wanted me to kill Cervos,” Wyliame began explaining. “That’s the only reason why I’m even in this world.”

Yris and Onas looked at each other.

“Cervos…” Yris mumbled.

Onas let out a faint chuckle, although he couldn’t help but become saddened simply by taking one look at Wyliame. “Cervos is a myth, boy. You were being deceived by Goddess Emma.”

Wyliame turned to Onas and shriveled his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“The Great Cervos War fifty years ago was caused by a misunderstanding between the four kingdoms. The Sapphire Kingdom accused our kingdom, the Kingdom of Amber, of commanding Cervos to engulf the land in frost. But the truth was that we had nothing to do with it.”

Yris nodded in agreement and stepped in. “I don’t know much about the era that you guys live in currently, but I can guarantee you that Cervos is a myth. Cervos was a fictional creature that was created by God Yenar millenniums ago. Remember that book that Mya gave you earlier, Wyliame?”

Wyliame put his thumb underneath his chin to contemplate. “But why? Why did Yenar make that book?”

“Even I myself do not know that,” Yris replied. “Us gods are generally not connected with one another in any way. Goddess Emma and I are just a small exception.”

Wyliame appeared even more bewildered than ever. He lay flat on the snowy ground below, exhausted by all the new information that he had to take in.

“But… if it wasn’t Cervos, then who cursed this land in frost?” he asked.

Onas shook his head with just as much confusion as Wyliame. “That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out for the past decades. So far, there haven’t been any answers.”

…

Yris put a hand on Wyliame’s shoulder. “Remember, tomorrow marks the day that you guys will be attacked by the Sapphire Kingdom. Plan accordingly. And remember, Wyliame. You have me by your side now.”

She then vanished in thin air, leaving behind no traces of herself. Once again, it was simply just Onas and Wyliame sitting beside one another, underneath the tree that had been burnt during the war half a century ago.

Onas couldn’t help but let out a chuckle toward Wyliame. “Oh, man! So let me get this straight. You have the power of destroying a timeline, another evil soul living inside your body, and you’re not from this world. You’re sure something else, boy!”

But while Onas was able to laugh about the situation, Wyliame remained tense. 

“We need to keep Mya and Lorelia safe from tomorrow’s attack. We should start heading toward the capital of the Amber Kingdom as quickly as possible.” the boy suggested.

Onas nodded in agreement and stood up. “Sure. But we still have a lot of time before the attack comes, right? Here, let’s take this time for you to learn how to use this world’s magic. Your dark element could prove to be quite useful.”

Wyliame nodded and stretched his arms, readying himself for what was to come.

“In this world, everybody is born with mana and a magic type” Onas began. “However, not everyone could use it.”

Hearing that, Wyliame finished off the sentence. “The magic types are fire, water, wind, and earth. However, the lucky ones fall into a subcategory of a magic type in addition to the original four, like lightning or metal. You told me all of this in the previous timeline already.”

“Oh, I did?” 

“Yeah. You interrogated me for having dark magic and for not having a last name when you used your appraisal on me. You thought that I was a spy or something.”

“Hahaha! That definitely sounds like something I’d do. Did I explain anything else?”

Wyliame shook his head.

“Well then, I’ll try to say this in a way that you’d understand. Let’s pretend that there’s a cup, and your mana is the water inside that cup. As the cup fills up, it becomes heavier and more abundant. Thus, you’re able to pour more of your mana toward spells. However, like everything else in the world, that mana inside your body isn’t infinite. It takes time to fill back up. As your body naturally matures while you age, the cup also grows larger- thus allowing the capacity at which you hold your mana to become larger. But that also means that it’ll take longer for that mana to regenerate inside of you. Regeneration is as simple as resting, eating, and drinking. Mana is simply a resource that your body uses.”

“So since you’re much older than me, your capacity to hold mana is much larger than mine as well. But that also means that you take longer than me to regenerate all of that lost mana if you use your spells, right?” Wyliame summarized.

“Correct. Now here’s the other thing. The gods that we contracted with have an effect on that ‘cup’ that I was talking about earlier. In a sense, having a contract with a god changes the shape of the cup itself, allowing you to shape the water inside the cup- the mana- in many different ways that wouldn’t normally be possible for non-god-bearers. When a contract is established, the souls of a god and the person that they’ve contracted to becomes linked. Thus, the god and the mortal will share the same mana pool. So when Yris used her spell to erase an entire timeline to save your life, she also used mana from your ‘cup’ as well as her own.”

Wyliame nodded, although the expression on his face showed a slightly puzzled look. “So does that mean that I have three mana reservoirs inside of my body? My own, one from Yris, and another one from Merth?”

“Yes. This means that you should be able to use fairly high-level magic spells even though your body is only eight years old.”

Suddenly, Onas turned away from Wyliame, raising his hand into the sky. “[Fire blade].” At that moment, an impressive amount of flames appeared from the palm of Onas’s hand, quickly forming into the shape of a sword. It burned with heavy embers- even from the base where Onas was holding the sword from. But it seemed as though the flames didn’t harm Onas a single bit.

Onas then turned to Wyliame, pointing the sword at the boy. “Being a great magician calls for great creativity. It’s all about combining the right words together to create an efficient spell for any given situation. There are no limits to what magic you can create- as long as you have a sufficient amount of mana to back it up. If you chant ‘dark blade,’ then you should have a similar result as me.”

Wyliame nodded and wasted no time in sticking his hand out in front of him. “[Dark blade].”

Then, a wave of dark energy appeared from the palm of the boy’s hand, shaping into a weapon that had a similar appearance to Onas’s. It seemed as though Wyliame was able to harness the magic of evil itself into a physical form.

Onas’s eyes glittered with satisfaction and amazement. “Wow… you’re a quick learner, boy! Oh man, I can’t wait to see what else you could do!”

After that, the two spent the next few hours training; preparing for the impending doom that the Sapphire Kingdom will bring to them. 

…

Perhaps this time, Wyliame will be able to meet a different fated outcome other than death.