Behind the church of L'solia, tucked between ancient stone walls and the smell of holy incense, was a modest training ground—once peaceful, serene, perhaps even sacred. Birds chirped in the distance, the morning sun blessed the land with golden light, and somewhere, a squirrel probably prayed for its life.
Because chaos had arrived.
"FIREBALL!" Alaric screamed with the enthusiasm of a kid who just discovered cheat codes in real life. A massive blast of flame soared into the air and singed the clouds. Actual clouds. One may have burst into tears.
Cael, standing far too close for his own safety, ducked behind a stone pillar. "Alaric! You almost flash-fried my cloak! I like this cloak!"
"But did you see the arc on that thing?!" Alaric grinned like a man who'd just met his lifelong pyromaniac dreams. His other hand crackled with light. "Also! I think I have two elements! Light and fire!"
Meanwhile, Lys was gently summoning wind in delicate swirls around her fingers, lifting tiny flower petals in the air—before accidentally sneezing and freezing a nearby bucket solid with a burst of ice.
"Oh—whoops. That's... definitely both wind and ice," she muttered, poking the frozen bucket with a stick. "This world's mana flow is weird."
"Focus, team!" Thorne shouted from the far end of the grounds, holding his spear high. "We are not here to mess around! This is serious training!"
He then proceeded to pose like a heroic painting, electricity sparking off his body dramatically as his long cape fluttered behind him—despite there being no wind whatsoever.
Renna, who had already summoned a swirl of fire, ice, lightning, earth, water, wind, and a random mini tornado for fun, just blinked at him. "Thorne, please. You're literally cosplaying Zeus."
"You're just jealous of my raw elemental masculinity."
"Sure, man. Whatever helps you sleep."
Cael, meanwhile, had cautiously extended his hand toward a shadow cast by the church. He muttered something under his breath—and the shadow moved. It curled upward like ink in water, coiling around his fingers with eerie fluidity.
"…Dark magic," he said, eyes narrowing. "I don't like that it came so easily."
Alaric, now upside down for reasons no one asked, peeked over from a tree. "Wait, you got dark magic? That's kinda cool. Like, edgy protag cool."
"Or ominous-villain-who-gets-betrayed-by-the-party kind of cool," Cael muttered grimly.
Renna waved all her glowing magic around like sparklers. "Guys, guess what. I have every element. Every. Element." She looked down at her hands. "This should be illegal."
"It probably is!" Cael shouted from behind a shield of summoned shadows. "You're either secretly the final boss or someone's pet dragon in disguise!"
A nearby church bell rang as if to signal the gods' alarm.
And speaking of the church—the sewer incident from yesterday?
Miraculously fixed.
Thanks to holy mages, panicked clerics, and what one could only assume was divine intervention, the entire underground system had been restored overnight. The priest had even "generously encouraged" the group to "focus on training far away from any structural foundation."
Hence, the back training ground.
And now?
Explosions.
Random elements shooting into the sky.
And Thorne dramatically punching a lightning bolt for no reason at all.
Truly, this was how legends were born.
Legends of a group that may one day save Overmorrowland… if they didn't accidentally nuke it first.
"Alright, let's try this next part carefully," Cael said, squinting suspiciously at his floating sigil. "Everyone, just… don't point anything glowy at anything flammable, or breathing, or—honestly—existing."
Thorne laughed, spinning his divine spear in one hand like he was born wielding it. "Fear not, lesser mortals! I shall demonstrate the art of infusion!"
He thrust the spear into the ground.
A crater formed instantly.
Lightning crackled up the weapon and surged into the sky, causing a flock of birds to evacuate the area like it was doomsday.
"…Great start," Cael muttered.
"Witness my THUNDERING MAJESTY!" Thorne roared, now glowing like a divine ego in motion.
Meanwhile, Alaric held his sword proudly in both hands. "Let's try… fire and light!"
The blade burst into flames—and began to shine like a second sun.
"Aaagh! I can't see!" Alaric flailed, temporarily blinded by his own sword.
"YOU MADE A LIGHT-GRENADE," Cael shouted, shielding his eyes behind a dark barrier.
"IT'S BEAUTIFUL!" Alaric cried out, even while squinting and accidentally bumping into a tree.
Over to the side, Lys focused, channeling both wind and ice into her bow. It shimmered with icy-blue swirls and a gentle breeze.
"Ooooh, pretty," she whispered.
She pulled back the bowstring—and nothing happened.
"Still not working," she sighed.
"Didn't the priest say it only shoots 'bravery' or something?" Cael asked, peeking around his shadow-wall.
"Yeah," Lys muttered, poking the bow. "Weirdly poetic. Not helpful."
"At least you can still shoot normal magic," Renna chimed in while twirling her rainbow-colored dagger. The thing sparkled like a unicorn got into a rave. "Look at this! Every. Single. Element."
She stabbed it into the ground and made it rain fireflies made of lightning and snow.
"Okay, that's honestly terrifying," Cael said, backing up.
Renna grinned. "I love it here."
"WITNESS THE STORM LORD!" Thorne shouted again, now riding on lightning like it was a noble steed.
"I'm gonna punch him," Cael said flatly.
Lastly, Cael turned to his own divine weapon, the floating sigil. It hovered quietly, now darkened in color—inky blacks and muted greys, with swirling edges like an ancient shadow.
"...Yup. Still just a flying, vaguely threatening coaster," he sighed.
Renna leaned over. "Maybe it'll grow on you."
"Like a fungus?"
"It's giving dark academia," Lys offered helpfully.
Cael groaned. "I look like I got summoned into a fantasy world just to be the group's designated magical graphic designer."
"Well, you do look stressed all the time," Alaric said, still blinking away sunspots from his lightblade. "That's gotta count for something."
Cael summoned a tiny shadow puff and patted it. "At least you're low-maintenance."
Somewhere in the distance, the old priest sighed into his wine cup.
The heroes were glowing, armed, elemental-powered, and utterly ridiculous.
And Overmorrowland… might not be ready for them.
"Field test time!" Alaric declared, marching toward the edge of the church grounds, sword already glowing like the sun after a triple espresso shot.
"We're going into the forest?!" Cael called after him. "We haven't even read about the wildlife yet! What if the trees are sentient?! What if they explode on contact?! What if—?"
"Relax," Renna said, patting him on the shoulder. "If the trees explode, we'll know not to hug them next time."
"That's not reassuring!"
Still, the group barreled into the forest near Koneu with the energy of five overpowered toddlers on a sugar rush. A faint trail led into the woods, overgrown with moss and lined with chirping birds and buzzing insects.
And slimes.
So. Many. Slimes.
"Ooooh! They're so squishy!" Alaric said, poking one with his boot.
The slime jiggled cutely… and then lunged at him.
"I REGRET EVERYTHING!" he yelled, flinging it into the air.
It landed near Thorne, who grinned.
"MY TURN."
He jabbed it with his lightning-charged spear. The forest lit up with a thunderclap and the poor slime evaporated with a heroic splat.
Moments later, the entire forest descended into a glittery war zone.
Renna was dual-wielding magic and her rainbow knife, slicing through slimes while dancing like she was at a battle-themed prom.
Lys attempted to launch bravery from her bow again—nothing. So she just summoned ice spikes and wind blades instead, creating a small blizzard in a ten-meter radius.
"Are we even cleaning anymore?" she asked mid-spin.
"I DON'T THINK SLIME-POCALYPSE COUNTS AS CLEANING," Cael shouted from behind a rock, hurling balls of dark energy like he was playing dodgeball with haunted marshmallows.
Then a massive slime—Boss Slime, if you will—rolled out from the thickets, larger than a cart and filled with other slimes inside it like a gross jelly gacha machine.
"OH MY—WHY DOES IT HAVE BABIES?!" Cael screamed.
"I GOT THIS!" Thorne yelled.
He charged.
His spear crackled.
His ego glowed.
He leapt—screaming something about divine conquest—
—and boom.
The forest shook. Birds flew. Squirrels fainted. A squirrel fainted on top of another squirrel.
Slime parts rained from above like the weirdest confetti imaginable.
Then… silence.
Steam rose from the earth. Small fires fizzled. And in the center of it all, the heroes stood victorious, surrounded by what could generously be described as "an extremely sanitized forest."
"...So clean," Lys said, blinking.
"It's… spotless," Cael whispered, looking around in disbelief.
No dirt. No grime. No slimes. Just a peaceful forest with a faint sizzling noise.
"…Did we just cleanse nature itself?" Renna asked.
Alaric high-fived a tree. "We're naturals!"
Thorne posed dramatically with his spear. "And thus, the Storm Lord brings peace to the land!"
Cael stared into the middle distance.
"I don't even care anymore," he muttered.
Cael barely finished his sentence—"As long as we don't get sued by an ecosystem"—when the sky darkened overhead.
A massive thud shook the earth as something enormous landed just a few yards behind them.
The trees bent from the gust of wind. Birds screeched. A few slimes that had miraculously survived squeaked and popped in fear.
Then came the roar.
Not just any roar.
This was a boss battle screen-freezing, pants-wetting, "maybe we shouldn't have blown up the forest" kind of roar.
A wyvern.
Scaly. Winged. Fanged.
Its claws dug into the ground, its breath steaming from glowing nostrils, and its eyes locked onto the group with the intensity of a creature who just had its nap interrupted by five nuclear toddlers.
Everyone froze.
Well, not everyone.
Thorne's eyes sparkled.
"FINALLY! A CHALLENGE WORTHY OF—"
"NOPE."
Cael didn't even let him finish. He and Alaric immediately grabbed Thorne by the arms—one each—and lifted him off the ground in perfect Looney Tunes fashion.
"LET ME FIGHT IT, COWARDS!" Thorne shouted, legs kicking mid-air as they sprinted away.
"YOU WANNA DIE BEFORE LUNCH?!" Alaric yelled, still running.
"I DIDN'T EVEN BRING A HEALING POTION!" Cael screamed.
Lys was already ten steps ahead, wind magic boosting her speed. "WHY ARE YOU STILL YELLING? JUST RUN!"
Renna appeared beside them out of nowhere, gliding effortlessly with a magic hoverboard made of every element at once. "Y'all are too slow! Did you see the size of that thing?! It eats thunderstorms for breakfast!"
Behind them, the wyvern screeched again and took a lumbering step forward.
The earth cracked.
Trees snapped like twigs.
The group screamed in harmony.
"DROP ME, YOU FOOLS!" Thorne hollered. "I'LL SLAY IT WITH THE POWER OF—"
"WE'LL SLAY YOU IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP!" Cael barked, still dragging him like a screaming electric kite.
It was chaos.
Beautiful, screamy, spell-flinging, high-speed chaos.
And the wyvern?
It blinked… sniffed the air… then let out a bored snort, turned around, and flew off in the opposite direction.
Too much effort.
Too much yelling.
The forest returned to silence.
Except for the group still screaming, now halfway across a hill.
Then Cael stopped.
"…Wait. Is it gone?"
Alaric peeked behind them. "Yep."
They all collapsed into a pile on the grass, panting, sweaty, and still kind of sparking with leftover magic.
"…I still think I could've taken it," Thorne mumbled from under three bodies.
"Shut. Up," everyone groaned.
They laid there in a dogpile of bad decisions and overconfidence, gasping for air like they'd just outrun fate itself—which, to be fair, they kind of had.
Cael peeled his face off a clump of grass and sat up first, blinking like he'd forgotten what day it was. "Did anyone else smell fire and regret back there?"
"I smell it now," Alaric said, singed eyebrows twitching as his sword still gently smoked beside him. "Might be me. Pretty sure I ignited my pants mid-sprint."
"I told you not to overload the blade," Cael muttered, brushing leaves off his shirt.
"Overload?" Alaric scoffed. "That was just me drawing it. The sword is the sun now."
Lys sat up next, casually patting her wind-blown hair back into place. "So… does this count as our cardio for the week?"
"I'm gonna need a new heart if we keep this up," Renna said from where she lay upside down on a tree stump. Her rainbow knife floated beside her, humming like it wanted to file a complaint.
Thorne sat up, absolutely vexed. "I can't believe you cowards dragged me away from the greatest battle of my life. I was charged up. I had a monologue ready. You robbed the world of my greatness."
Cael turned to him slowly. "Thorne. You tried to monologue at a flying lizard that was the size of a two-story inn."
"Yes, and I would have won—"
"You threw your spear and hit a tree, then got it stuck in your own boot."
Thorne opened his mouth, then closed it. Then opened it again. "It was a test shot."
Lys gave a half-hearted golf clap. "Incredible. A true legend in the making."
Thorne crossed his arms, proud. "You'll see. One day, they'll carve statues of me."
"They'll carve your gravestone if you keep charging at things that breathe lava," Renna quipped.
The group sat there in collective exhaustion and secondhand embarrassment.
Cael sighed and looked up at the sky. "So… anyone wanna go back and finish clearing the slimes?"
Alaric groaned. "Only if we don't run into any dragons, griffins, or… giant talking squirrels."
"I'd welcome a squirrel at this point," Cael muttered. "At least they're reasonable."
Just then, a rustle came from the nearby bushes.
Everyone tensed.
Alaric readied his glowing sword.
Renna's rainbow knife started vibrating like an excited chihuahua.
Even Thorne's spear sparked back to life.
Then a squirrel popped out of the bush…
…wearing a teeny wizard hat.
The group screamed again.
Except Cael, who simply stood up and began walking in the opposite direction.
"Nope. That's enough worldbuilding for today. I'm going back to the church, gonna ask the priest for a stronger god."
The squirrel chittered.
The wizard hat sparkled.
A tiny lightning bolt zapped Thorne's boot.
"…OKAY, THAT'S IT. I'M FIGHTING IT!" Thorne roared.
The chase resumed.
And the squirrel?
It ran like hell.