Shades of the New World

Liza went to the guards to report this matter, but was only told that she was being too paranoid. Somehow, even the guards of the 1st grade district were ignoring their pleas.

Liza asked her neighbors to help, but they even refused to open their doors. Most of the people who lived here were knights, mages or rich merchants. The fact that they are allowing a bunch of 2nd grade citizens to terrorize one family could only mean that someone was ordering them to look the other way.

At this point, Evin understood that there was something terribly wrong with their whole situation. Norna was obviously using fear tactics against the family. They were basically like cats playing around with their food before pouncing on it.

'That mage, Kens must've told them that Aran will be gone for at least a two more weeks, or they wouldn't dare to play around like this,' Evin lamented.

Technically, the family had two more weeks to prepare for the intruders to come in, but no one could think of anything to do to help their situation.

Everyone in the family was scared out of their wits. Liza couldn't connect with Aran for at least one more week and no one in the city seemed like they wanted to help them. Liza even thought of running away from the city, but Evin managed to convince her out of this dumb decision.

Instead, Evin asked Liza if there were any devices inside the house they could use, just in case when someone came inside. Liza took out a few magical devices and explained their functions to Evin.

One would create a stonewall shield with an adjustable size. At its maximum size, it could cover the whole corridor. Another was something akin to a storage device with food inside it. The only offensive options were a device that could shoot three World of Storms spells a day and a device that could turn into some sort of miniature golem.

The three blades were nothing like Evin's own, fully capable of mowing through a group of enemies. It was named Thunder blade, and it was a much better version of Evin's air blade. The golem was apparently a single use beast-type golem. Liza couldn't know what exactly it did, but Evin reckoned that it was pretty powerful.

Evin refused to stay passive in this situation, so he asked his family to blockade the windows and leave only the front door untouched. He did not want enemies trying to crawl through the windows. It would be best if they all came from the front door in an orderly way. There was a long corridor that reached the front door, so if Evin timed it right, he could kill a few people with one of the Thunder blades.

Also, for the past few days, he was contemplating whether the Cosmics were trustworthy or not.

Judging from his own experience, any individual who focused too much on money could not be trusted in general. Even though Rith seemed to be a very well-mannered Cosmic, it could also be said that Evin acted extremely well-mannered during that conversation as well. One could not judge people based on their business faces.

But after being pressured by the Norna's men for a week, Evin decided to to talk to them after a few days. But at the end of the first week, a loud bang resounded from the front door. The door seemed to hold on, but Norna's loud laugh resounded afterwards.

"Hahaha, Elina! Come on out! And bring the kid out as well. I'll take you and the mages will take the kid. Come on, I know you felt good when we were having our fun! Too bad your grandpa came and ruined the fun for us! But this time, your grandpa's not here to crash the party!" Norna said, as he slurred some of his words.

'Fucking rapist...' Evin cursed, hearing the man speak.

Elina shuddered at the mention of what happened. Her knees gave out, and she fell down to the ground and started sobbing uncontrollably. Lora tried to comfort her, but she herself was having trouble keeping herself calm, so her actions weren't that effective.

Evin on the other hand was much calmer than the rest of the family. Sure, he was fearful of what would happen, but he was still a mage, albeit a very lackluster one.

'Did someone rile him up before he came here? Was it with the World of Emotions? Or is he just drunk?' Evin thought after hearing the man speak.

"How dare you threaten the family of a mage?! Do you know what happens to 2nd grades who harm 1st grades?!" Liza shouted from behind the door.

Evin and the rest of his family had gathered behind the door at this point.

"Hah, Liza, you're not a 1st grade citizen anymore. Just a fucking 3rd grade whose pillar of support does not exist anymore," Norna seemed to sneer from behind the door.

"What? W-what do you mean?" Liza's voice shook with fear.

"I asked someone I knew from the Recruitment Place. Told me that Aran died in the South… apparently, his body was pulled apart by the fucking Myrmis," Norna said with a jeering laugh.

"No… You're lying, they would've told me if that was so," Liza said with an unbelieving face.

"Yeah, I suppose they would've if they cared. But your current situation doesn't really look like they care that much," Norna said, and another loud bang came from the door.

"Hah! This door's tough! It only took one hit to smash apart Theor's door! Come here boys, let's get this over with," Norna said, and another louder bang resounded.

Evin held the lodestones that he received from Liza tightly in his hands. He entered the Worlds of Storm and Thoughts one by one and filled his mana-core to its utmost limits. A slight freeing feeling breezed through his heart, and Evin could feel himself becoming slightly more quick-witted.

This was another things that he found out. If one had an ounce of Thought energy inside themselves, they would find it slightly similar to how they would feel inside the World of Thoughts.

"Liza, please hand me the shielding device," Evin said in a serious voice.

"What?"

"They're probably lying about Aran's death. It's most likely their excuse to execute this whole thing. And when Aran comes back, they'll blame it on the person who was supposed to relay information. Don't believe that man's lies"

"Are you sure?" Liza asked through her tears.

"Yes, now I need to create that stone wall in front of us. From what I could gather, luckily, we won't be facing mages here. Only normal people. I don't know why mages can't attack us, but I'm sure it has something to do with the obligations and rules," Evin continued.

In the background, the sound of a door slamming could be heard repeatedly.

"What are you talking about, boy?" Theor shouted.

"I'm telling you, we have to fight. We've prepared for this the past few days and now is the time to protect our own lives," Evin said.

Theor and Lora was thoroughly shocked by Evin. The boy was mature and smart, sure, but he was usually sweet and soft.

"I'll try to hold them off to the best of my abilities when they enter, but when they get close, you have to activate the device with the Thunder Blade, okay?"

"Are you sure you can hold them off?" Theor asked with worry.

"I'm a mage, remember? Even if I'm only almost a year old, I can still hold my own against commoners," Evin replied confidently.

"Sure, I'll sick 'em good with the thunder blade or whatever," Theor said and picked up a cone-shaped magical device with a thin mouth on its front. One that was facing towards Theor himself.

"Dad, you're pointing it towards yourself," Evin pointed out, and the man hurriedly turned it around in a panic.

"Liza, please, the shield," Evin urged.

Receiving it from the lady, Evin conjured a stone wall that would cover the entirety of the corridor, while leaving a thing gap for Evin to look through. Just in time, one of Norna's boys broke down the door and started running at Evin and the rest.

'Wish Norna himself would start running at us himself, but, sadly, he's too smart to run headfirst into a house of a mage,' Evin lamented.

Evin immediately threw two air blades at a man that came from behind the door. He willed the blades to find its way to the assailant's eyes. Since Evin had no shortage of hatred towards the assailants, both of the blades hit its intended target.

"Argh, my eyes!" the man bellowed and started struggling on the ground. Blood dripped from behind the man's hands, which were holding his eyes. Another tried to run at the stone wall, but received the same treatment. Two blinded people.

Evin could see that the rest of the group started hesitating slightly.

Evin's magic wasn't powerful enough to kill anyone and Evin himself could barely move. But he could still be vicious. Would one be afraid of a gentle giant or a vicious rabid goblin? Sure, the giant could probably smash you without effort between their hands, but more often than not, you will die to the goblin.

Evin could notice that his own family started to look at him weirdly, but he couldn't care about that for now.

"Boys, protect your eyes and charge towards them! He can't hurt you through your skin! It's a straight run, so there's no worries of getting lost! Everyone gather around! The mage boy can't hit every one of you! Don't you want those gold coins for yourselves?! Whoever manages to get me the two kids will receive 5 gold coins!" Norna ordered.

'Why is this dude so fucking rich?!' Evin cursed, but had no time for stray thoughts. He could notice that the enemies were gathering behind the door, so he recharged his mana-core to the brim and waited patiently while conjuring a big spell that would use up all of his mana-core.

'It's a big wave this time, but thankfully, the effect that the World of Emotions has on these people seem to dull their already rotting wits,' Evin found a positive aspect in the dreaded situation. If Evin was out there trying to break through, he would have built a shield or blockade of sorts to take the brunt of the attacks.

"Charge!" Norna ordered from behind the door. Sadly, Evin couldn't see him in this wave of attackers as well. The runners were holding their hands in front of their eyes tightly, practically running blind. Shouting and screaming all the way.

Immediately, Evin fired off his prepared spell at the feet of the foremost runner. It was a much sharper and bigger Air blade. It whooshed through the air and hit the man's legs and the runner could hear a cracking sound from his feet and a wave of unbearable pain afterwards.

Evin's spell could not cut off his legs entirely, but it could definitely cut through the skin and muscles to reach the bones. The impact would cripple it, and the man could only fall forward and become an obstacle to jump over for the rest of the runners. Since they were holding their arms in front of their faces, trying to save themselves from getting blinded, some of them tripped over the man, creating an even bigger mess in the corridors.

Evin looked at Theor next to him to instruct him when to shoot the Thunder Blade, but saw the man's hands shaking uncontrollably.

Shaking his head, Evin took the device for himself and waited for the perfect moment to shoot the spell, as he slowly recharged his mana-core. He couldn't throw another one of those huge Air Blades, since that would render him unable to fight at all. But he could recharge his mana-core so he wouldn't need to waste time on recharging after the cooldown period ends.

The first row of the runners were nearing the stone wall and Evin could see that the corridor behind them was practically filled with enemies. Evin could even see some other people coming in from behind the door.

Just as one of the screaming men reached the stone wall and his hands reached forward to pull Evin from behind the gap, Evin aimed the Thunder Blade as horizontally as he could and pressed the button on the device.

The crackling of electricity sounded from the device and Evin could see something bright as lighting forming at its mouth. A moment later, the ear-shattering roar of a thunder sounded and a wide projectile with the shape of a moon shot out from inside the device at unbelievable speeds.

The Thunder Blade mowed through the piling mass of flesh in the corridor, cleanly cutting in half anyone who was unlucky enough to stand in its way. As it went right through the middle of the corridor, everyone who was in a standing position was obliterated from the face of Alvox. A litter of limbs and cut off bodies filled the corridor and the vile stench of blood and guts entered everyone's noses.

Silence filled the bloodstained house and the people surrounding it.