9 Time And Strength

Puff!

Raven sighed as the small cluster of black flames died out. He pulled back his outstretched hands and looked at his palms. Trails of black veins gradually disappeared under his skin as he stopped concentrating so hard.

"This is... Dark Magic." He muttered to himself.

Days had passed since the incident in the village and Raven had managed to survive on his own so far. He kept on moving without stopping, but he had recently found something that occupied most of his time.

Recalling the memories of what he had done to the villagers, he felt as if he had awakened something deep inside him, which subsequently led to him trying to experiment and finding out that he could create small black flames from nothing.

Every growing child had heard about magic. Whether it be from their parents or from the other villagers. They were all enamored by magic and wanted to be powerful mages and wizards in the future. Raven was no different.

So, he had started practicing on his own. After all, if he was stronger, then he would be able to get revenge on the ones who ultimately caused his mother's death.

'White Empire.'

Raven's eyes burned with hatred and anger. He felt nothing but disgust and animosity towards this distant power that had cost him everything. He would grow this dark power within him and use it to scorch their faces.

But first... He needed to get these flames to burn for longer than five seconds.

"Sigh... It wasn't this hard when they all turned to ash." He sighed and sat back on the grassy ground. A short distance away, a stream noisily rushed. Raven had stopped here to have his fill of water and quench his thirst. He had been able to bring a flask of water with him but it did not take long for it to run out. The stream was a good stop to him.

'I can't keep running forever. But there is nowhere else for me to go. Too many questions will be asked.' Raven thought to himself with a pensive expression. He was in a bind.

Should he live here in the wild? Or should he try to find somewhere that he could be accepted.

'This is the territory of the White Empire. It is impossible for me to find other Dark Magic users on my own. I guess I have no choice but to stay out in the wild.'

Eventually, he came to the conclusion that the only viable way for him to survive in the short term was to live in the wild.

'I guess I can finally try cooking something on my own. Mum never let me.' A sad smile formed on Raven's lips, but it was soon replaced by a determined expression.

Time.

Strength.

Those were the two things that he needed the most right now.

.

.

Time waited for no one. It was a constantly moving law that guided the workings of the world.

Whoosh!

Shuaaa!

A large cluster of black flames spread over a small stream and immediately a large amount of water was evaporated, sending steam rising up into the air, but even the steam was devoured by the black flames, leaving nothing behind.

A young man with black hair was standing by the bank of the stream. His clothes looked haggard and his hair had grown long and obscured his face.

"Seven years... Much progress has been made." A whisper was heard, sounding deep and profound. The young man's hand came up and pushed away the hair that obscured his face. Sharp blue eyes that were as cold as steel stared into the surface of the water, reflected back to Raven.

Raven had matured finely over the years. It had been hard at first, to live on his own in the wild, but he had eventually gotten the hang of it. He learned to hunt, to roast and many other things. He also learnt a lot about plants, herbs and poisons. It turned out that his immunity to poison was quite high, too, which came as a plus.

Over the past seven years, Raven had traveled a lot. He had passed multiple villages, silently snuck into them and learned a bit. He stole some maps, clothes and sometimes, food. It was all a necessity for his grand goal. Plus, his old clothes had eventually grown too small for his growing body.

Currently, Raven was not too far from a small village. The village was led by an old man who took on the mantle of village chief. He had studied the village for some time and had found himself repulsed and disgusted by the behaviors of the villagers. Their actions had made him mark them as the first target of his revenge spree and tonight, he would begin the execution of his plans.

The villagers had incurred his ire for one reason.

In the past few months that he had stalked the village, he had witnessed a few witch burnings being carried out, spearheaded by none other than the village chief.

Raven had noticed a pattern in the time he had spent studying the village.

All the supposed 'unorthodox magic' practitioners that were burnt at a pyre were women. And a day or two before they were declared to be practitioners of unorthodox magic, they would be invited into the home of the village chief.

Now, Raven had no idea what could have gone on within the chief's house, but he knew it was not anything good. Especially if the village chief declared the women to the evil only a few days later and had them burnt to death.

The other villagers simply accepted it as it was, either too scared of the village chief, or simply turning a blind eye to everything.

All these things led to Raven picking out this village as the starting point of his revenge.