Nine years ago, in Wizard Hossens' domain.
The sky was the same dull gray, with a fine drizzle falling.
Yet in the square where the children gathered, the air was warm and dry, and no rain touched the ground.
They looked up at the indistinct figure before them.
"Children, have you ever wondered why one seeks to become a wizard?"
Bathed in hazy light, Wizard Hossens sat suspended in the air. His posture was relaxed; though his face was hidden, they could tell he was smiling.
"When I was just a mortal child, I asked myself that very question.
I once asked my mentor why he became a wizard.
He thought for a moment, then smiled and said
At first, it was simply so he could eat his fill every day.
Later on, of course, the reasons multiplied
: long life, extraordinary power, curiosity for knowledge, the urge to explore distant horizons…"
Hossens shook his head slowly, his eyes tinged with memory.
"My mentor has been dead for a century now.
Over the years, I have come to understand all those reasons he spoke of.
But…" he looked down at the wide-eyed children in the square, his voice lifting, warm and inspiring
"…none of those are my reasons for continuing to climb the wizard's path."
"You may not yet understand,
but in the vast Astral Realm, across countless worlds,
order is a miraculous accident
Chaos is the inevitable curse.
Leave a house unattended, and it will eventually fall into disarray.
Leave food out of the ice cellar, and it will soon rot.
A blazing fire will always burn out; even the brilliant sun will one day fade…"
Hossens sighed.
"Chaos and disorder lead, inevitably, to utter stillness, lifeless stillness.
Miraculous order must be guarded with care.
That is why we clean our houses, why we feed the fire with fresh logs.
But the power of mortals is limited.
For example, the sun.
What if one day the sun were to go out?"
Hossens lifted his gaze to the sky, and the children instinctively followed.
It felt as though their eyes pierced the leaden clouds to glimpse the dazzling sun beyond.
Could the sun, which had shone since time immemorial, really go dark?
Unease flickered across their faces.
"Thousands of years ago, the sun almost went out," Hossens continued.
"The earth was covered in frost; countless lives perished; the world fell silent.
But wizards changed everything.
One wizard, later known as the Sun-Day Sovereign, rose to power and fed the sun new fuel…
The sun blazed anew, and this time, it will not dim again for at least a billion years."
Hossens rose slowly to his feet, smiling at the awe-struck children.
"That is what a wizard builds order amid chaos.
It is the ultimate romance, the ultimate grandeur, the ultimate greatness.
I believe that one day, the light of wizardly order will illuminate the entire Astral Realm.
That is my reason and purpose for climbing the wizard's path…
But yours, what will yours be?"
His figure gradually faded into the air, leaving only his final words drifting down:
"Whatever it may be, your first step is to cross the extraordinary threshold within the next nine years
to become a wizard's apprentice.
So work hard, children… I'll be waiting for you on the road ahead."
...
Inside the shack, Lynn opened his eyes, excitement flashing within them.
"The complex runes formed by Hossens' apprentice meditation method…
Some parts resonate faintly like the White Crow Sword Technique."
He had a feeling, an unshakable intuition that with just one more insight session,
He might break through the extraordinary threshold and become a wizard's apprentice!
Lynn took out five lesser magic stones, placing them in his palm.
Countless thoughts flowed through his mind.
He held the stones, yet did not immediately begin the insight process.
He had always known this day would come,
But now that it was here, his heart was far from calm.
Sitting quietly with his eyes closed, he thought of many things
He thought of the hopes and regrets of the boy who had once owned this body,
and of his hidden loneliness and confusion as an outsider from another world.
The past two months flashed through his mind,
Finally freezing at the moment when Kersey fell to the ground.
Lynn's heart gradually stilled.
A faint smile touched his lips, and in a tone that seemed only natural, he whispered:
"I will chase power with passion… and I will follow my heart without hesitation."
In Lynn's left hand, the five lesser magic stones slowly cracked apart.
He began the process of Insight.
This time, the trance lasted far longer than ever before. Lynn felt as though he had fallen into an endless dream.
And when the Insight ended, the dream did not fade.
Following an instinctive pull from deep within, he continued to meditate.
Threads of mental light wove and intertwined in his consciousness.
It was impossible to say how much time passed.
When Lynn finally opened his eyes, faint, inverted-triangle runes seemed to flicker deep in the pale gray of his gaze.
Closing them again to confirm, he found in the depths of his mind a strange rune shaped like an inverted triangle overall, yet far more complex in its structure.
The Hossens Meditation Rune!
He had successfully formed the meditation rune.
He had stepped across the threshold; he was now a wizard's apprentice!
Rising to his feet, joy lit his face as a silent thought stirred in his heart:
"From today… my path as a wizard truly begins."
...
Shh…
Shhh
The sound of rushing sludge echoed before Giggs.
He stared ahead in horror at the grotesque scene.
Inside the shack, Dor stood by a wooden table. His body softened and slumped like melting wax, flowing toward a corpse lying on the floor, its calves severed, its heart pierced.
It was Wayne's body.
This was Kersey's shack.
As the mass of blood and flesh that had been Dor neared Wayne, the corpse itself began to liquefy.
Specks of green light drifted out from Wayne's sludge-like remains, flocking like swallows to the vomit-like mass that was Dor.
But it still wasn't enough.
Dor surged forward, engulfing Wayne.
The two gory masses merged into one, forming a single, crimson abomination.
After a long while, chunks of flesh began sloughing off the monster, a foul stench of rot filling the shack.
"Urgh!"
Giggs could no longer hold back and vomited.
Ant's face remained wooden, utterly indifferent.
Dor paid no attention; he had absorbed every useful scrap from Wayne's body and now peeled himself free from the mass.
With a look of distaste, he tore away a strip of flesh still clinging to his neck. His eyes gleamed with amusement as he murmured:
"…Lynn Kent."
From the dead node, Wayne, Dor had obtained information, and in the next instant, it was passed on to Ant.
A flicker of surprise crossed the otherwise blank face of the boy.
"Lynn…"
He, too, murmured the name.
At last, Giggs caught their words. Shocked, he wanted to ask, but his mouth was firmly gagged.
He could only cast a questioning look toward Ant.
The boy showed no outward response, yet his lips moved in a whisper:
"One of our kind is dead… and so is the Great One's sustenance.
This is an offense that cannot be forgiven…"
Expressionless, Ant turned to Giggs, his voice utterly flat as he said:
"Lynn Kent… will die."
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