1 The Cruel Wizard

Tired...

Exhausted...

Sleeping is cold, as always. Dark, and lonely.

Kai Morgan, the protagonist of this story, is having another nightmare. He whispers, "Mom," his voice wobbly and hands trembling. The heavy rain continues to wash away the rusty iron smell, and all the while he's been kneeling on the ground crying.

His parents' bodies, which suffered lacerations all-throughout, lay dead on the flooded ground- Both of their hands are forever entwined. While struggling to breathe, he hugs his inanimate father, whispering "Dad."

As he grieves, a disembodied and muffled voice of a young boy begins to call him. He pays it no heed. "Kai!" the voice says, steadily becoming louder and louder.

"Shut up!" he exclaims as if he was slowly turning crazy- He begins to smack his head repeatedly, trying to get the voice out of his mind. "Kai!" it yells, which splits his ears, so he wakes up gasping.

He's been sitting on the ground, leaning against a big tree when the voice asks, "You had another nightmare, Kai?"

While his hands that are formed into a fist tremble, he looks at them with watery eyes and tries to calm himself down. Then he breathes deeply all the while ignoring the voice. As he relaxes, he takes a long sigh and wipes his tears off while staring at the twinkling midnight sky.

A streak of falling light passes by his eyes, and he mutters, " If wishes do come true, then I wish to eat my mom's cooked meal for at least one last time."

Then he sighs and carefully stands up; a wooden cane supports him since he has a faulty leg- He walks toward the wooden log in front of him.

There is no one else in the forest, except for a cat with mismatched eyes and a round donut tail. "Are you alright, Kai?" it asks while following him.

"I look like an old fart, Oz, and you're asking if I'm alright?" he asks nasally while walking towards the wooden log in front of him.

It argues "You just haven't had the chance to take care of yourself."

He slouches down on the log, and says "Yeah, yeah, go give me a light."

"You always use my powers for insignificant things," it scoffs.

He yawns, and says "I won't bother putting in effort when I have you, Oz."

"Ugh, whatever," it replies rolling its eyes. Then it went near the inactive campfire, but notices that it's wet.

Seeing that the cat was just staring at it, he asks "What are you doing?"

"It's wet, you dummy," it says, looking annoyed.

"Alright, alright," he replies, then stares at the stacked wet logs all the while extending his left arm. "Fit aqua caeli," he chants while his dark-blue eyes shone a lighter blue. A sizzling sound escaped together with the steam until they turned dry.

He asks "There, satisfied?" his eyes returned to normal.

"Um-hum," it nods. Then it went to emit flames from its small mouth continuously. Their surroundings quickly lit up, and the campfire popped in their ears.

"Now that's warm," he says, exhaling deeply.

It walked toward him and snuggled itself beside him. "It's my turn to rest now," it says in a tired voice, yawning.

"Yeah sure, have a good one buddy," he replies all the while it starts to sleep.

While occasionally dozing off, he kept on thinking, 'Ma, pa, I miss you,' until the sun rose. The sounds of rustling leaves, the buzzing of insects, and the hooting of owls kept them company. Two hours later, dawn came.

"Hey Oz, wake up."

Upon hearing this, it opens its eyes slowly, but stays leaning on his thigh.

"Who's lazy now?"

"A few more minutes Kai, please..."

He swiftly stands up, so its head falls onto the log. "Not today. We need to get to the village now."

It blinks for a while before stretching its body, then sighs "You're that eager, huh."

"Why of course," he chuckles. "Now come on."

After mostly forty minutes of walking, a village with a breath-taking landscape as its background ushers into their view.

"We're finally here," he exhales in relief.

The village has huts, while a river splits the land so that it looks spacious. Behind it is an extension of the forest and a mountain range. The residents are already walking about as they wear large colorful woven clothes. Some of them are carrying baskets, others are doing laundry by the river, while the rest are either talking or playing.

They notice him but continued what they're doing, except for one man. A brawny man who looks like a warrior, holding a crafted spear in his hand, is carefully walking toward him.

"Who are you?" he asks in a hurry.

"I am a comrade of Elfire Forest," Kai Morgan replies.

"The chief?"

"Yes, the chief. May I go see her?"

"Wait here," he gabbles, then went toward the biggest hut in the middle. A few seconds later he went back to Kai Morgan.

"The chief asked for the passcode." he says, his eyes filled with suspicion.

"Slaves are for those who are utterly incompetent," he says sternly, "is the passcode."

"You may meet her, follow me."

They slowly approach the big hut and enter along with the cat.

"Stand outside, and don't come inside," says the chief, "unless something happens outside."

The warrior then goes outside, standing still.

"I don't recognize you." says the chief while looking at Kai Morgan.

A woman in her sixties is sitting on a long wooden chair, and loose wooden bracelets encircle her hands. She had worked as a farmer for the nobility, so she looks athletic and persistent, her eyes as sharp as knives.

"Of course you don't," he says. "I am a friend of Atlas."

Her suspecting eyes vanished since only those in the higher echelons of their group would know Atlas.

"Do you mind?" he says while looking at the wooden chair in front of him.

"No. You may sit," she replies. He went on to sit down while the cat went to sit on the rough wooden table.

"Woo!" he heaves a sigh of relief. "Thank you, I had a long walk to get here."

"Is that so?"

She places her arms flat on the table, and says "So what brings you here?"

"Well, have you heard of the rumors?" he says while gently rubbing the cat's body.

"What rumors?"

"You haven't heard of it?"

"Enlighten me."

"Well, rumor has it that there's a crazy hobo who's hunting down all of the important figures of the revolution."

She becomes alert again, bringing her hands down, then says "You look like a crazy hobo."

"Well, that's because I am a crazy hobo."

Her eyes widen while motioning her hands upwards and chants "Plantarum sequere m-- gurg!"

But before she can finish, Kai Morgan is one step ahead of her by extending his arm and chanting "Silentium aqua!" Water instantly spurts out of his hand, sticking onto the chief's mouth and silencing her.

With how sudden it was, she almost swallowed the water though she didn't, because he had control over it. Fortunately for her, she can still breathe through her nose. But of course, a fierce lady will never go down without a fight, so while she breathes as if she's hyperventilating, she quickly jumps on her chair and tries to grab him.

In lightning speed, Kai Morgan chants "Aqua catena!" Chains in the form of water quickly whips around both the chief's hands and legs, so she instantly drops on the table, nearly hitting the cat-- Her face is right in front of it. The noise of her hitting the table reaches outside, so the warrior peeks inside.

He saw the chief struggling to say something while she looked at him with teary-eyes, telling him to "Run!" He was puzzled at first, but quickly did what every warrior would do-- Lunging their spears onto their enemy, yelling "Die!" his voice filled with rage.

All the while Kai Morgan has been sitting on his chair, and although he hasn't looked behind him, he instantaneously extends his right arm toward his back, shouting "ABENTES!"

A gush of water swallows the warrior whole before he is able to make a single step. It rapidly covers the entire hut like a ball, and bubbles form as he tries his best to survive. While the chief has begun to mope like a rabid dog with how violent her attempts to break free from the water chains are, the people outside gasps in both shock and terror, dropping their baskets, clothes, or they themselves.

Those who have fortitude slowly approach the ball, but it turns into ice when Kai Morgan chanted "Aqua fit glacies!"

They soon made noise as they tried to shout "Chief!" while knocking on the huge ice crystal, but although the ball had a foggy see-through look, it was soundproof. Well, whilst it was see-through, it only showed the walls of the hut. And the warrior... has died along with most of the chief's will.

But she must press on for her peo-- oh... Kai Morgan is about to finish her last bit of motivation to fight back-- her people, since he has chanted "Ego Luna!"

He has now become attractive to the river's eyes since he is the same as gravity, except it only works for water. Despite that, he can still control it. The ground has started to quake heavily, and the stream's flow is becoming harsher. Those who had done the laundry and were near it, are bewildered with what they saw.

A giant wall of water with fishes as its hostage quickly rises far above the tallest tree in the forest. All of the sea creatures swiftly falls down like rain until a clear wall of water remained.

While stunned in both shock and fear, they shriek "R-run!" and those who are able to get back to their senses ran for their lives, but to no avail as Kai Morgan's eyes have returned to normal, and their doom has never been so near-- literally.

Kai Morgan heaves a sigh of relief as he tries to stretch his back, but then the chains that bound the chief have been removed.

She instantly attacks him by gripping his neck tight, and threatens him in a ragged voice "You undo this spell of yours right now or I will choke you to death, you motherf*****!" not knowing that her people outside have been drowning to their untimely deaths.

Meanwhile, the cat is still sitting soundly on the table, wiggling its donut tail. Kai Morgan raises his arms in surrender and replies in a hoarse voice as he gags a little "Ha. Haha, why don't you... look outside first... Hmm?"

With her in panic, the words of Kai Morgan sent her down deeper into the depths, her eyes looking like a tarsier's. Ever since her warrior was devoured by the ball of water, her focus has always stayed on him. She hasn't noticed the events unfolding outside, which can clearly be seen if she just looks at the entrance of the hut.

But then... as the chief quickly peeks outside while still gripping Kai Morgan's thick neck, a young girl instantly shows up and knocks on the ice, asking for help. This startled her as her hold on him loosened, allowing him to throw her on the floor. Meanwhile, the girl got vacuumed into the endless void... of death.

With this, all of the chief's hope and will has been shattered. She looks at Kai Morgan with contempt, her teary-eyes like knives being thrown at him, so he returns the favor. "You know, I felt guilty when I first saw those eyes. It pierced my heart," he says.

"What did my people ever do to you? They're innocent!" she says with a growl.

"Now, calm down. The air will run out."

He stands up, then squats in front of the chief. Opening his left hand, palm up, his eyes turn a lighter blue. "Aqua cultro," he chants. Water flows out from his hand, steadily becoming a knife.

"W-what are you doing?" the chief asks with a breathy voice.

"Aqua fit glacies," he chants.

The water knife turns into bone-chilling ice, though it doesn't bother him. After seeing this, she instinctively knows what he is about to do. She scurries with her hands while sitting on the ground, slowly moving backward until hitting a dead-end.

"Do you feel it?" he asks. "It's probably what my parents felt.

"N-no, please!" she yells, her voice quavering.

Kai Morgan's eyes show neither pity nor mercy. There are bitter cold. He stands up, then steadily approaches the chief. He slides the knife against her right leg while slowly adding pressure to it.

"P-please..." she whimpers.

"Please... stab me? Alright," he says with a dead voice.

So he did. Despite the knife being ice-cold, it was still razor-sharp, so it pierced right through her thigh.

"W-what..."

Since her adrenaline has jittered down her spine, she isn't able to feel the pain. Although she does see her thigh bleeding heavily, so she screeches.

"Hey, do you feel this?"

Kai twists the knife, squelching the blood inside, and she begins to feel it. It is like a million frozen needles pierces her skin deep, so she screams, gasping. She soon became numb.

"My love, I can finally see you again," she whispers softly.

She reaches for the sky, and her breathing slowly calms down while her limbs turn into noodles. Tears are clearly seen in the corners of her eyes as they fall down together with her head.

"Hey, don't just leave."

Her eyes steadily close, so Kai, wanting her to feel more pain, removes the knife from her thigh, then stabs her continuously. On her other thigh... no response. On the side of her stomach... still no response.

As silence came, her breathing soon faded. "Why..." Kai whispers. He stops as he notices her being lifeless, then rests on the wooden chair, panting. "Ice aquae," he chants.

The ball of ice and the knife melted, and the river that gushed throughout the forest had settled down. Some survived the small tsunami he created. They are gasping for air while lying on the branches of the trees, and others are on the ground, trying to fight the feeling of asphyxiation. Kai sighs.

"So, are you satisfied?" the cat asks.

"Eh, more or less," he shrugs. "They always croak too early anyways."

"Do you want to go now, or shall we rest first?"

"Let me rest first," he says while slapping his hand. It became numb.

"Dumb frostbite," he utters. "Hey Oz, can you warm me up?"

"You may be powerful but you're still a mortal, huh?"

"Yeah sure, just get me warmed up."

Kai places his hand on the table, then the cat gently discharges a series of flames from his mouth. His hand swiftly returns to its normal color, regaining its senses.

"Be thankful that I can control my flames," the cat says confidently.

"Yeah, thanks buddy," he says while smiling and gently rubbing its head.

They sit resting in the damp forest. The once deep river turned shallow with how little water it has left. Those who survived quickly ran for their lives. They went to other villages to warn them of the cruel wizard coming their way.

But before seeing Kai Morgan settle his demons, we must first go back in time when he was nothing more than an intelligent and innocent young boy. It was before everything went into chaos.