"So how long ago was this?" Ayame asked as she sipped on a plastic tube coming out of her backpack. They were camping in a parking lot of an abandoned building. A day after.

"Oh, that's well over couple Hundred years, for sure" the man said as he was squeezing a packet of blended food into his mouth.

"And then what happened ?" She asked

"Long story short I infiltrated the supreme province along with the prince and posed as a mage who is also a single father. The law and order division sensed something suspicious about us. Naturally... Also since the description of the prince was being circulated so diligently, it threatened his safety a great deel. So I dropped him in a distant planet and promised him that I'd come back. That was before I decided to surrendered myself as a kidnapper to tie all loose ends. As there were neither any evidence of me killing the child nor a complaint of a missing one, I was charged for suspicion and exiled"

"You made a LOT of bad decisions " Ayame remarked.

"I was told to train him in a remote planet and mold him to become the next "Simha" by the queen mother, her dying orders are to be fulfilled...In time. The prince being safe was of paramount importance and I had no other option. we were being watched at every step. We couldn't just disappear. They need to think that it's over, like I said. No loose ends" He justified.

"But still, there was so many other ways you could have done it" she said.

"Look. According to them, the knight and the Prince of Terrotrophe slipped away into the unaccounted verses, never to return. There is much more to the story than what I let on so... let's just say that the circumstances did not allow any other outcomes" he said.

There was a moment of silence for a while.

"So how to get to him now? You do have a plan, don't you?" She asked him out of curiosity.

"I don't know how but I have to. His kingdom awaits him and I'm the only one he has left" He replied.

"And I have to get to Heavensworth, so...can you open a portal?" She asked.

"It's your turn to share miss Ayame" He said ignoring her last question.

"I don't think I want to" she replied and turned away.

"I just narrated my life story woman!, Vaguely but truthfully" he said. She did not respond.

"What does Sector 111 hold? Or who?" He questioned.
Ayame closed her eyes "Ant Ar satyum gorgontale tis" she whispered.

All the interlocking curved rings of the cuff chain expanded and straightened out, slowly unlocking from each hook. The man pulled his hands apart and all the pieces fell down like a snapped pearl necklace.

"that's stright up dark magic, isn't it? WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?" he said aloud.

"I can help you to get to the prince, but before that we have to infiltrate Heavensworth, I need an insider" She said, but he looked at her with his eyes half shut while maintaining a straight face, he tilted his head to one side a little, suggesting his mild frustration. Ayame rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Sector 111 is a deep sea prison and my husband is held captive there" she said.

He didn't ask further, as he related to her emotion of being seperated. He decided to change the subject. There was silence between them for a short period.

"By the way My name is Ashwasena, you can call me Ashwa if you want and I am a lithore. My reach is magnetism, I was the knight of His highness the late Agharj Vardhan, second of his name, Former King of Terrotrophe" Ashwa said.

"I am Ayame kizuki, from prime earth"

"That doesn't even explain how you can use magic, let alone dark magic" Ashwa expressed.

Ayame took off her ring and played with it, she sat down on the floor. "okay, but no questions" she warned after taking a deep breath before she began.

"My grandparents were scientists under the government's medical division. They were commissioned by the military for formulating some kind of mind controlling drug for the soldiers or something... I don't remember. It happened one day while researching. The cadets reported something on the radar, somthing never seen before. They found out that there was interdimensional travel happening subsequently in a particular area. The woods behind a colony to be specific. They marked and camped at the very vicinity. They took all sorts of precautionary measures and waited to witness it in person. Eventually they saw two mages exiting a portal. My grandparents were just watching from a distance and nothing else. They saw while one mage just murdered the other in cold blood and left through the portal, just like that. They uncovered the body to find an abnormally tall man with pointy ears"

"An elf" Ashwa exclaimed.

"Yes, but at that time, it was the most valuable and probably the best discovery in the field of science, but my grandparents kept it a secret. He was brought back to life slowly and steadily. He told that his name was Ricardo Armslong. He showed them his ways. He taught my father too, and... that's how I know" She said and stopped abruptly.

"Lot of gray area there, but okay. No questions ofcourse" he said.

"See, you shared something personal, thats what matters. Now there's a sense of trust between us, don't you agree?" He added.

Ayame liked his logic and grinned. She looked at him head to toe for abnormalities, but found none, none physically atleast. He seemed like any normal human being. Just like her husband. Ashwa noticed her watch him after he finished wiping his mouth with his shirt bottom. Ayame failed to look away so she decided to ask a random question.

"Honestly, never seen a lithore before, I've heard a lot" She tried to start a conversation.

"Well, Im glad to herd that" he said and smiled.

"How are you different from the... others" she asked.

"for starters, we don't fly, intern we are very strong and invincible, our magic is called reach"

"So, it differs from race to race?"

"Yes, Airentines have attributes, like Light, shadow, Time, Materialization and Annihilation etc, on top of spiritual and flight. Reach is more ground based, terraformation, climate control, mineral bending etc, on top of spiritual and durability. There is another race, info on them is quite minimum...Aquarils, they are allegedly a province now.

He gestured quotation with his fingers when he said "province"

The mysterious Aquarils so as they're called, the sea breathers, old records show that they have Taming techniques, like Water taming, Steam release, lava release, Ice Conjuring etc, on top of spiritual and duel adaptation.  It's more on the conceptual side, no one has ever seen these techniques in action for centuries" Ashwa explained.

"It's..., All this sounds the same to me" Ayame said as she flipped her hands to denote confusion.

"It's just the tip of the iceberg, there are many more under all the major three categories, it's basically channeling but with tweaks and personalisations, it's much more complex, there's more for example.. cerebral magic, Segarney, Aloganey, which are spells and hand signs, The Provincial education spends years teaching these to all young mages"
he explained.

He then glanced at her ring

" speaking of young mages..?" He tried to lure more conversation as he looked at Ayame with a smirk while twitching his left brow.

"Clever, but I said no questions. Thats enough small talk for now, let's try to get out of this plant already"

She said and dodged further interrogation, but knowing his past was necessary to ensure her safety, he seemed to be trustworthy enough. Yet.

With every dangerous leap she took, Ayame Seemed to be getting closer and closer to her goal, she felt like a slip up was right around the corner, She raised and walked away towards the opening of the parking lot and looked out at the clouds waiting for a clear sky...Hopefully.

Captain Shisuke walked on the stone laid path through the green meadows of the lush garden, back from the sea prison. Sunlight fell through the tree canopy and on him with shadows of the tree leaves flowing over as he continued strolling along. In a distance he saw a figure with glittering silhouette, and felt the presence of a strong mage. The angular Tyndall effect of the falling light through the trees kept the person anonymous. Captain was curious and took faster steps. To his great disappointment, it was Yasobu Karatsuchi, caption of the first Attack team.

"Why'd it have to be you?" Shisuke cried out looking upwards with closed eyes.

"Rude!" She said with a smirk and approaching him.

"I'm on my way back to my cabin, if you don't mind"
Captain said, making zero eye contact.

"I actually do. You see, I was going to meet Zenbara today, since sector 111 only allows 1 visit per day, You took my spot"

She said looking up as she stood short right in front of him, he finally moved his eyes towards her. She was in her captain attire with a bandana on her forehead that said 'Red flowers'

"There's always a tomorrow Yasobu" Shisuke said as he looked away and walked around her.

"You didn't ask why" she pointed out.

"Don't know, don't care" Shisuke said and continued gaining distance.

"Oh is that so, I thought you might want to know how he leaks magic out of the most contained fecility in the entire world"  Shisuke froze and turned back, utterly surprised.

"Yes, I Transcended magic for him. I have. Multiple times now. He asked to provide passwords to activate the transcendence, for Himself and...to your lieutenant" She said.

Shisuke's brows arched, he recollected the times when he pretended oblivious of Zenbara's interferences, not realising Tarou was also secretly in on it. He finally realised why he acted wired.

"Why am I knowing about this now?, from you of all people?" He asked, walking back to her.

"Zenbara needed aid, not a team, he kept each helping hand in the dark"

"So you just outed him?"

"Please, you weren't being any subtle about it, you run to his cell whenever you get the opportunity" she said.

"What's your goal here?, Why tell me now?, Why help him in the first place?," He asked while being physically frustrated.

"It's a shame to see both my senior and junior in prison, glad sensei is not here to see all this" she said and hung her head.

"I have also promised him to take the lady's side when she gets here" she added.

"I don't understand your new found morality"

"There's nothing to understand Shisuke, Hinaro sama would have sided with him, so will I" she said.

Shisuke was surprised by her behaviour, she was completely out of her character, but everything she said felt genuine.

"So, why did you want to meet him today?" He asked

"It's about Edmar, The Grandelmar Province has pushed him to be hier" she said.

Shisuke inhaled steadily, "unfortunate" he Said.

Strange noises were heard from behind, both looked up. It was a bird which landed on Yasobu's shoulder. She looked into its eyes, as she gazed deeper and deeper into its eyes, her point of view became one with the bird, in which she saw a piece of paper, written on it was a number, 664766. She closed her eyes and looked away, the bird took off.

"What is it?" Shisuke asked.

"Nothing, it has gotten down to animals reminding me of my duties" she joked and disappeared while bowing.

Shisuke continued walking slowly.

"You are unfathomable Yasobu, I'm not taking my eyes off of you" he said aloud and launched up.

A few weeks have passed since the demon outbreak and Tarou is off to deal with civilian interference in the incident. A footage was leaked by some bystanders which has to be erased. He intends to deal with it harmlessly and peacefully. Hence taking his time while leaving Aoki to train with Mel and Max.

"Wind spirit wielders are looked up on highly in the Supreme Province "

Max said to Aoki, who took his last try at blasting an oil barrel with gusts of wind compressed into narrow projectiles. He was back in the baseball filed training Spirit magic. Max sat at a distance supervising.

"I don't think you know what you are talking about. I'm what they call a half blood. I am a decorated disgrace over there, I doubt they'll even let me pass the entrence without a commotion"

He said, creating a whirlwind around him to cool off.

Tonic, who's now a Poodle was chasing butterflies in the background, Maxwell sat on a step splitting grass blades while listening to Aoki.

"Well, I can sort of relate to that, it's wild to think that we get all this hate just because we were born a certain way" max said while keeping his eyes on the grass blade in his hands.

Aoki sat next to him, thats when he noticed Max's ear had an unusual scars on it. He didn't feel comfortable enough to ask about the same. But Max picked up on him noticing.

"I am an elf" He said, and kept a straight face.

"You are?, I didn't know, that's awesome" he said, not realising why he brought it up.

Max was thrown off gaurd by that responce, he never got anything other than a frown or disgusted scan, he felt different, warm , Aoki's reaction was a first, something fresh.

"So you do have an attribute... and a spirit right?" Aoki asked after an interval.

"Yes. actually, my attribute is shapeshifting and my spirit is a healer called purity" he said with a smile.

"Ah, like tonic's"

"Pretty much. But tonic... he used to be completely different"

he said and remaind silent, Aoki didn't know what to say,

max glanced at tonic,

"when I found him, he was tied hanging from a tree by his hands, reminded of my childhood, except no one was beating him thankfully"

Aoki was speechless, gust of wind blew over them, bending the grass to its direction.

"I was,... I'm sorry, Is it hard..? being an elf?" Aoki asked.
Max touched his ears.

"Didn't you encounter Ernesto Armslong? He's the last of the Armslongs, well the Armslong clan was always at war with the Everwell clan, the reason was unclear, it was an annual thing for them. One day we refused to fight back and retreated, we deemed it pointless. War was just a sport for their leader, Stefan Armslong. lives of good people, people who had families were killed simply, wasted away like, Pawns in a game.

The Everwells were trying to make strides for the elf race, we wanted to achieve prosperity as a kingdom and join hands with the Supreme Province in further development of our magical technologies like Aloganey and phlithoganey... most importantly teleportation, which was exclusively an Airentine perk, but.." he paused and sighed.

"But what?" Aoki asked curiously

"Stefan, wanted battle. He became mentally disturbed without it. He craved war and was restless until he got what he wanted. He had a twisted complex for proving superiority, quite frankly, I'd say the guy was super Cracked"

Aoki had flashes of kiske at that moment.

"Our leader knew him very well. We were sure that he was going to attack, we anticipated it, but what came was somthing far worse" he added.

"One day the Armslong Had found some kind of potion that turned elves into dark elves, violent, mindless, bloodthirsty beings who lived to kill. The Armslongs made a breakout and leaked it into our kingdoms water supply. And it was chaos from there.  many races were wiped out within a couple of weeks, clans and tribes destroyed, while Armslong presented themselves  clean, eventually, after countless lives were lost and irreparable damage was done, Supereme Province created an antidote, and cured everyone.

It was the biggest massacre in the history of Heavensworth, we were not considered highly, or even equally because of our origins..., and then after that horrible thing, our reputation plummeted. Ever since elves were considered untrustworthy, disgrace and worst of all disregarded as a recognised and registered sector holders, lowest of all, we might have been on the same levels of the Fauna or lower. We were treated like filth, so we had to cut off our past from us... Literally.

Max said while gracing his fingers on his ear.
Aoki realised that it was missing the pointy end.

"That's awful, I'm sorry I di.."

"It's fine, actually" max interrupted.

"Infact you were among the few who treated me for who I am" he said with a smile.

"What happened after the cure ?" Aoki followed up.

"It was 500 years ago, not many of them were left, after the cure, they slowly died one by one. Only a handful remained, like my family. Most of them were diseased.

Armslongs...they merged into the Supreme Province, but they got their end of the racism too, they are elves after all. Many went rogue, some.. ended their lives"

"Wait, you said it was an antidote, why did they die then?"
Aoki questioned.

"It was a cure indeed, dark elves were turned back into Normal elves and.... After years, it we discovered that the antidote completely halted the reproductive system and everyone and endangerment ensued" Max said.

Aoki was conflicted. He was having a hard time justifying what the supreme province did, weirdly the antidote came after the damage was done and it lead to mass extinction! Also they recruited the Armslongs, why?, Was that the only way?, it's not fair to receive such extent of hate.

Aoki contemplated, he sat there facing down for a while.

"Aoki, it was nice talking to you, I have to tend to your mother now. So...see you later, Tarou mus.."

"Your value as a person is not what others think of you, its what you make of yourself" he said suddenly whilst looking away and slowly turned to face him, with a cheerful smile.

Max was touched. He looked at Aoki, In his deep green eyes, the same warmth radiated, max saw someone else in him, a person with a similar kind and forgiving eyes, from his past.

"You're right" he said with filling eyes and walked away to hide it.

"Wise words" Mel complimented. His smile faded the more he thought about what Max said.

"So it's true, what he Said?" Aoki asked after a pause.

"The Dark elvian tragedy has many versions, but it was indeed a true event. The sources are still unclear, the Everwells believe it was Stefan, but Armslongs clan did not have any record or evidence pointing towards developing a potion of  such  sorts, that could inflict Destruction of that magnitude, infact the clan is not well versed in anything other than battle" she replied.

"What?, Are you suggesting that max just lied?"
Aoki asked.

"As I said, their are multiple perspectives. The most common one was that the Everwells spearheaded this incident for world domination, if you look at the records, they were pretty close to succeeding" she said.

"No!, I don't think so" Aoki denied.

"Well you can't know for sure, Max is a good person, that doesn't mean his ancestors were, they are the descendants of Lumor saints afterall"

"What saints?"

"Lumor saints, A species dating way before the God's eye, they were the first beings on Heavensworth" she said.

"I thought the gods created Heavensworth!"

" Yes they did. Heavensworth is a pseudo Heaven, to contain all of god's extraordinary creations and the god's eye is watchful entity, it's omnipresent in heavensworth, it only watches and never acts. It is said to be the direct connection to God himself so praying to it will be fruitful" she said.

"Okay now that's getting a little out of hand..."

"It's too early for you to begin history lessons, let's just leave it there for now" she suggested.

"Ok, but why did Armslo..."

A hand from behind graced his shoulders.

He turned immediately to find a girl with purple Hair and purple eyes in a school uniform.

"Mayumi?" Aoki said and sprung up.

"Who are you talking to?" She asked slowly removing her hand off Aoki.

"No one, just thinking out loud here, nothing much"
He said awkwardly.

"Look,.. if you want to talk, about anything, I'm here, ok?, Please don't quit school, I know life can be hard, don't label yourself abnormal. You are just special, and that's no reason to quit school.  I'm here fo.."

"It's nothing like that, I'm fine, I'm , it's just, this...thing came up, and my mother, she was not herself, and I am not me, so..."

"Aoki.. SHUT UP!" Mel yelled.

"It's ok, your safe, I looked around, he's not here, you can tell me everything" Mayumi said.

"What?" Aoki and Mel asked togather, one more confused than the other.

"The guy, with the scar face, he can't hurt you anymore Aoki, I've been watching, ever since I saw you and him at that Diner. You stopped coming to school that day, and you walked out pretty upset out of there" she said.

"Wait is she talking about Tarou ?" Mel asked.

"He's a, he's... Family. Friend.. family friend" he said awkwardly.

"Wait Aoki" Mel called, but Aoki was not concentrated on her.

"Family friend?, Come on, is that what he told you to say?" Mayumi asked.

"No, I'm telling you the truth, I'm in no danger here, so how do you? Been have?, have you,... What's up?" He mumbled out, blushing.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"Yes yes, no problemo" Aoki replied with a thumbs up gesture.

"AOKI!!!" mel screamed

Both Aoki and Mayumi heard it.

"Can you excuse me for a second?" He asked, she nodded.

He walked down to the ground and held his phone to his cheeks.

"What is it?" He asked energetically, turning his back to Mayumi.

"So, do you fully comprehend who she is talking about?"
Mel asked.

"Tarou, who else, his scar is distinct" Aoki said.

"Huh uh, and she 'SAW' him, correct?" She asked patiently.

"Well ofco....oh my god" he said in complete realisation.

"You numbskull, who is she?" She asked.

"This can't be, I've known her my entire life, she, .. she's my classmate, my friend, my girlfriend hopefully, but no, how?Why?" He said while breathing heavily.

"Ok wait, let's just clarify this, conceal yourself"
Mel said.

Aoki compressed his magical projections into a thin line, completely turning off his visual presence.

"Now wave at her" she instructed.

He waved at her, and she waved back while standing on her toes.

"Good god, she's magically active" Mel said.

"Yeah no shit, Now what do we do?"

"don't loose your cool, just walk up to her and make her stay, until Tarou gets here"

"Ok", he said and sighed.

He approached her. She had a gleaming smile on her face, her shining purple hair blew in the wind. She tied her hands behind her and swayed back and forth slightly, she was dreamy. He was mesmerized by her. Aoki couldn't muster any words, he was lost in her eyes.

"Aoki?" She woke him.

"Are you really ok?" She asked.

"Yes ofcourse, there's nothing to worry about"

"Kiske asked about you" she added.

"Oh, really?, What was it?" Aoki asked with a false smile

"He thinks that you didn't turn up since he hit you, that day"

"No , no , it's actually, there is this wired thing, Im not able to remember what happened that day" He said, with a frown.

"That's exactly what he said" she added.

"How about I come to school tomorrow?" He said after a quick thought.

"Really? You can?

"Ofcourse"

"Then lets meet tomorrow" she said

"Okey"

"Aoki, the point was to stall her" Mel reminded.

"Umm, hey, uh, can we.., let's, catch up?" He asked.

"I'm running late, I waited for quite a while, your friend talked a lot, didn't he" she said.

"Yeah, that's my friend, yes, indeed, yup. Mmh mm" He said.

"Your hopeless Aoki" Mel sighed.

"Just let her leave, you do know her house don't you, we'll figure this out later, when Tarou gets here" she added.

"So, see you later Aoki" Mayumi said and walked away.

"There is something suspicious happening" Mel said.

"No, Mayumi is.., she's been the same to me, before I could fly and after, she saw me for who I am, she has this, amazing ability to look deep into people's hearts, that's what draws me close to her, but I've been ignoring her" He said, his smile faded.

"Drew me closer to her,...until.." he whispered and stopped.

A swish of wind on his left, it was Tarou.

"Tarou, right on time, this girl Aoki knows is magically active" Mel said.

Tarou completely ignored her.

"So how was training" he asked as he approached Aoki.

"Good, how was the cleanup?" Aoki asked casually.

Mel was a little confused, she called out Tarou's name again, but he didn't respond.

She realised something. "Aoki?... are you suppressing me?" She asked. He kept a straight face, and continued talking to Tarou."How did you learn that?" She asked followed by other questions, but Aoki didn't respond to any of them.

He didn't want to reveal it to Tarou, the sence of betrayal was holding him back from doing it, he didn't feel that when he withheld Mel's consciousness from him.

Why am I doing this? Is this act even helping her,
He asked to himself, he didn't know. All he knew was he wanted to look into it by himself.

"Aoki?.. what happened? Is everything ok? You seem disturbed" Tarou enquired.

"No no, im just tired" Mel was furious, but Aoki's willpower was way greater than her's.

He walked away with guilt and fear, Tarou sensed the tension and kept it to himself, he followed him towards home.

Heavy rains filled the streets, overflowing gutters. Umbrella heads were everywhere.  dogs were taking shelter in bus stations filled with people cramped in a tight space for cover, waiting for the bus to come save them. The rain didn't hinder the busyness, despite the weather the evening was still a rushy one.

A boy with red hair and old looking clothes walked down the street all wet. He stood out as the only one without an umbrella. He crossed an electronics store displaying TVs, he was mesmerized by the flashing of vibrant colours. A begger sitting next to the store invited him inside his plastic envelope, he crouched and joined him as he  kept staring at the television which he seemed to have never seen before.

The channel changed to a news broadcast in which Aoki was displayed hovering. The boy was fascinated. He raised and approached the TV while holding  his hand out to  touch the glass. The owner of the store rushed out agressively and yelled at him. The boy looked over confused, not understanding the language. The owner then picked up a pebble and threw it at him. The boy opend his eyes wide and the flying pebble was reduced to dust in front of him. He turned towards the TV again and looked closely at Aoki

"Airentine" He whispered while slowly touching the glass.

_________

Hello folks. Breaking the forth wall here to inform you that after this chapter, the spin off story-
'Survivors of Terrotrophe'
Is going to be relevant and will follow the past of Ashwa and give insight on the History of lithore, the race of Nature bending mages!

Thank you and happy reading!