Shades of the New World

Kens, who was watching the assault on the house unfold from one corner inside it, was determined that he was doing the right thing.

"That boy has to die. His Air Needles showed his ruthlessness and the Thunder Blade showed his disregard for human life. If he learns Aran's accursed spell on top of it, there will only be destruction in his path," he muttered under his breath.

"On top of that, he seems to be much more talented than Aran as well. Even if he's a Child of the Empress, it is obvious from the past week, that it was his first time casting magic. We could safely say that he was a common person in his previous life… But the swiftness of his learning is comparable to some high-mages who were reborn," another female mage commented from the side.

Kens felt immense killing pressure building up inside him, but the familiar feeling of the tentacles of a something grasping at his heart forced him to forget about any thought of killing the dangerous boy with his own hands.

"If only we were in Arcvallen… we could've hired assassins to do our jobs and we wouldn't be stuck with a disorganized mob like this one," Kens lamented.

"Do we give up, then? There's practically no one left to assault the house," the other mage asked.

"No, since things have come to this, we can't give up halfway. I'll rouse the big guy and the few others who were left of the mob and you will give them protection for the Thunder Blade, there shouldn't be many more charges in the device," Kens said.

"Are you sure it will be fine?" the mage asked with worry.

"It should. Technically, this is a fight between 2nd grade citizens and we're just unrelated mages who took pity on one side. I'm only boosting their morale a bit. It doesn't count as directly participating in the fight," Kens said, as if convincing something inside himself.

"Then I'll clean up the corridor as well. It's too bad to leave them rotting in such a narrow place," the other mage followed behind, spouting out some random excuse.

Even though the two spoke inside Liza's house, no one could hear the two speak, not to mention see them.

…

There were two lines of pure destruction on both sides of the corridor, and everyone who witnessed the power of such a weapon could only stare blankly at the aftermath. Evin could see that the spell also hit the house at the opposite side of the street, completely demolishing it.

Norna and the remaining four assailants were thanking the Empress for their luck of not entering that corridor first.

The three women in the house were vomiting their innards out at the gut-wrenching sight.

"Empress almighty…" muttered Theor as he watched the destruction that the device had wrought. And after realizing that it was his own 8-month-old child who wrought it upon them, he could not help but think of Evin with fear.

Half-expecting his child to smile like a demon, he glanced at Evin, but thankfully saw that the boy was more shocked than himself.

'That's not a Thunder Blade, that's a fucking Plasma Blade!' Evin was screaming internally.

Judging from the name, Evin only expected the spell to cut in half the first person, and then paralyze the others with electricity, even though the description said otherwise. Never in his life, he thought that it would go through everyone like a sickle mowing down grass.

But he didn't have enough time to think as the cut down bodies of the attackers begun to float by themselves and promptly fly out of the corridor. The blood of the fallen all disappeared from the floors like the previous carnage never happened.

"What is happening?" Evin muttered, but then heard an animalistic cry from outside the door. Judging from the voice, it seemed to be Norna who was shouting like an animal. A moment later, few other cries followed.

Just as Evin was wondering what had happened, Norna and four other men appeared at the end of the corridor, wielding various weapons. Their eyes were bloodshot, and they were drooling at their mouths. Evin understood that there was definitely something wrong with them, so he didn't hesitate to send out the strongest Storm attack his mana-core could muster.

The attack hit Norna straight in the eyes, but the man only looked like he was hit with a banana, instead of an attack that could reach someone's bones.

'They're reinforced with something!' Evin panicked.

The five men started running towards the stone wall.

"Fuck it!" Evin said and aimed the deadly magical device at the enemies.

When the crazed Norna ran half of the corridor, Evin shot the Thunder Blade at the enemies.

But this time, the deadly weapon only managed to slow down Norna and the others, without even leaving a single scratch on their bodies. But Evin could see that there was a thin layer of something covering the men, and it was slowly regenerating itself. Evin did not hesitate and shot the final Thunder Blade.

This time, the areas of the barrier that were destroyed by the previous Thunder Blade and could not regenerate itself in time wasn't able block some parts of the lethal spell, making a mess of the assailants' bodies. But the enemies still hadn't fallen dead, only holding their cut up parts with a grimace on their faces.

Evin took the final device from Liza's side and pressed on the button that would've activated it.

The magical device transformed into a metal panther of some sorts. Its base body was made of a sleek black metal, and its claws and fangs had a silver hue to it. The tiny metal sheets that made up its body were connected tightly like the insides of a brigandine armor. But Evin did not have the time to be impressed by the metal golem.

"Go attack those five, they're threatening your master's family!" Evin shouted.

The metal panther ran through the stone wall's gap and ran towards the men. Unlike Evin, it seemed to see where the assailants were protected with the invisible barrier, opting to attack their more vulnerable spots.

The injured men could not keep up with the golem and could only struggle futilely before they were ripped to shreds.

Evin, seeing the destruction that the golem was bringing, sighed in relief, thinking that everything was over.

But suddenly, after the metal golem finished off the third assailant, it suddenly started floating in the air and was engulfed by large amounts of water. The water then turned to ice, effectively putting the golem out of commission.

"Fucking hell!" Evin screamed.

The mages couldn't attack Evin and the rest of his family, but that didn't apply to the golem. Norna and the other assailant walked towards Evin with confidence now. Their wounds were closing up rapidly, even though with a slight deformation at some places.

"Run!" he shouted to the others, and he himself entered the World of Thoughts to stock up on Thought energy.

The rest of the family had left one window that was weakly blocked, so like they discussed beforehand, Lora and Liza picked up the two kids, while Theor worked on dismantling the blockade.

Norna and the other guy made short work of the stone wall and begun approaching the family.

"What's taking so long!?"

"I can't open this! The nails aren't budging a single bit!" Theor shouted in reply.

The mages had reinforced every part of the house beforehand, so the family couldn't escape.

Evin began to panic for real this time, as his backup plan was rendered useless. As a last measure, he used illusions to distract them, but the two men ignored them like they knew exactly what were illusions and what was reality.

Slowly, they approached the family with grins on their faces. Evin could see Norna eyeing Elina, while licking his lips.

Evin started to hate this man from the deepest part of his heart. After living for three centuries and reviving, he refused to die at the hands of a rapist. He clutched every lodestone that he held in his pockets and slowly started gathering the energy of the World of Fire inside his mana-core. Very quickly, Evin's tiny mana-core was filled with such energy, but Evin continued to absorb the energy of the World of Fire.

He could feel his mana-core cracking from the overburden, threatening to explode into countless pieces. Evin had to use the energy just before it exploded, or else everything would be wasted.

'Even if my mana-core explodes, it will be worth it if I can kill them,' Evin thought through the pain in his heart.

But just as Evin was about to release his bottled up energy, a shining golden light appeared in front of him and what looked like the portal started forming in midair.

"No, why is he here already?! Kill the boy now!" A voice resounded from somewhere in the house and Norna lunged at Evin to strike with his axe.

Evin did not hesitate any longer and released the inferno that he built up in his mana-core. The blast that would have destroyed Liza's house completely, only served to stall the lunging man for a single moment, as the barrier on the man seemed many times stronger now.

But that moment was all the man needed to appear from the portal and block the deadly strike. The newcomer was not fazed by the inferno that Evin created, as the tongues of the flame would dissipate after reaching his body.

"Quite a warm welcome you prepared for me, isn't it, my lord wisdom drake?" the man joked through the smoke and dirt that Evin's final spell created. But the child he was addressing could barely move himself, as he pain he was feeling now was like his heart just exploded. But even though the pain was very real, the explosion that Evin felt didn't seem real, or physical, so Evin was still awake, his eyes wide open and face contorting from the agony.

But Liza, noticing who the man was, cried in happiness.

"Aran! You're alive!"

"Of course I'm alive, but I have to take care of some matters first. Lord Abvelgail, please," Aran said.

"It is already done," a voice resounded in the room.

Evin could see a cosmic feline appear from thin air. The newcomer carried himself in a regal manner, surveying the surroundings calmly and unhurriedly. The stars on his body were white and dazzling. Compared to the orange stars that Evin saw on Rith's body, they looked much brighter and felt much more powerful.

"Since you've attacked me first, it means that I can defend myself, right?" Aran said to Norna and effortlessly punched the two commoners in the head, easily bashing their heads in with those casual swings. He then started taking on a silver hue in Evin's eyes.

"Shit, we can't get away!"

"The Cosmic locked the space here!"

Two voices came from inside the house again, one male and one female. Evin felt fearful that he was never able to realize that there were intruders in the house, who were simply observing everything, with no one ever noticing them.

"Kens, Nona, so it was you two…" Aran muttered with a dangerous grin on his face.

"They others are part of this as well! Will you kill them as well?" Kens shouted as he enabled every anti-World of Thought methods he knew of.

"Hah, you think me an idiot? If I kill so many, only death will await me at the hands of a high-mage. But if it's only you two I kill, it will serve as a proper warning for the others," Aran said and threw two silver beams at the two mages.

Evin felt like he could see human faces in front of the beams.

"Just kill him!" the woman shouted and directed a plethora of ominous looking ice needles toward Aran. The man followed suit and earth pellets that looked like drills flew towards Aran at high speeds.

But none of them could reach Aran, as a huge portal appeared in front of the family and sent every single projectile back to the two mages.

Kens and Nona easily took care of the counterattack, but they felt powerless after seeing the sight.

'If the Cosmic actively helps him, there's nothing for us to do,' were their last thoughts before the ghastly spell of Aran hit the two of them in their chests.

The anti-World of Thoughts measures they've employed were all breached like they didn't even exist, and the two started to feel a foreign presence take root in their minds. A great struggle to control their own bodies ensued inside their head.

Two minutes of stillness later, the two silently pulled out two daggers from somewhere and stabbed themselves in the hearts in perfect unison.

'Guess that is pretty scary,' Evin saw the double suicide and had another look at Aran.

The man was much more buff compared to when he left for the war, and honestly, he looked quite handsome.

The pain of having his mana-core explode was killing Evin, so his mind started thinking about random things to distract himself from it.

'I wonder how this would all look like when Aran was still the thin, lean, scholarly Aran… He would definitely look like some minor evil character, but since he looks gritty and muscular now, he seems cool as hell. Guess looks are everything in the end. Maybe it's also because he saved my life,' random thoughts flew through Evin's head as his consciousness started relaxing after everything that had happened.

And silently, he fell asleep.

…