Aero cero 

Nothing had gone as it was supposed to, this was supposed to be a simple errand. Just help the Lionheart guild with their request, get rid of the blighted mana beasts coming from Salvaje mountains and head back to Asylo. As simple as that.

Yet somehow nothing went according to plan. As soon as I come here, I see a horde of grade 3 and grade 4 beasts. From what I saw for the elite of the guild, this was nothing, but the numbers were so large that even the low tier guild members had to fight these grade 4’s, something they weren’t prepared for. So I had to sweep in and deal with all those, while helping capture a few for research.

When I sent the report back, the church replies with a sudden spotting of a few Kin of Blood members around the outskirts of the capital, inciting that there might be a case of their involvement in the appearance of recent high level hordes occuring around the major cities. And Ignis was sent here to investigate the cause of the horde and confirm the spotting of the Kin members.

  In Between all this, I sit down for a few minutes to have a drink, and suddenly a wolf crex shadow steps into the inn, killing a man in front of an entire crowd!!. Now I had to deal with that too and placate the crowd. Ignis did help a little in controlling the chaos, saying that the wolf must have targeted the inn because of the dense mana caused by the presence of two Exquisa. But that makes almost no sense, how wasn’t it spotted sooner?

And as if all of this wasn’t enough, the guildmaster’s brat just had to be present there! So now I had to barter with this kid to keep his mouth shut or the incident will put a rep for the church. And now even the training had gone devastatingly wrong somehow! I swear it’s as if god had personally chosen me to be a subject in some sort of sick entertainment for him.

“Heh, as if that already wasn’t the case from the moment I was brought into that orphanage” I scoffed to myself as I rushed down the chasm in the training grounds towards the kid.

I should have known something was wrong as soon as I felt the disappearing mana signature, but I guessed I could take care of it after making sure the kid was out of the compound. Who could have guessed that in the time it would take me to call the kid up, something………… or someone would trigger the gates to three crexes, that too two grade 3 panthers, and a freaking grade 4. 

“These random encounters are happening way too often to be comfortable” I said out loud to no one in particular while sending another pulse of mana throughout the compound to see if anything was out of place. Other than the mana signatures of the beasts locked up in the chasm walls and the faint remnants of mana from the fight, there wasn’t anything else eye-catching present anymore. Whoever had done this had either already gotten away, or used some sort of remote magic to trigger the gates. But the biggest question was why?

As I made my way towards Adrian, I still couldn’t believe the kid had managed to kill an Earth Wyrm by himself. I would have come to his aid faster if I wasn’t preoccupied with the panthers myself, but having no weapon I had to deal with those two just by my bare hands. I couldn’t just blast them with large amounts of mana, as I feared setting off more gears opening more gates.

I had left my exquisa locked back at the inn because I didn’t want to attract more beasts out near the mountains with it. If there was even the slightest chance Ignis was right, I didn’t want to risk it while training at the facility with the kid. I didn’t want more events breaking out like at the inn, I had attracted more than enough attention at the city already. Yet after this, I was just reminded how reliant a paladin was on that accursed tool.

Still even for a tier 4 awakener a wyrm was a big challenge, let alone a blighted crex wyrm. And yet the brat had managed to kill one as soon as he awakened. But that was not the part that concerned me. As I walked past the mutilated corpse, I noticed that the kid lied out cold on the ground. He was unconscious and injured, but not in a life threatening state.

I moved to his side as I started pouring mana into my eyes, the kid had managed to form a core after all. But it was the colour of it that made my face turn involuntarily into a scowl. “Black” the words rolled out of my tongue. But how? There weren’t any void priests around, the Lionheart guild had no association with the Kin according to any church investigations, hell to even get a void core you had to layer it on top of a normal mana core.

Then how in hell did the kid awaken with one? This made no sense, According to the reports the Guild master had a bestia layered fire core. The sword from which he drew pure mana out of to kickstart the process came from me, so it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that he could have awakened a wind core. Yet instead of a red or a green core, he had one that was pure black.

What in the world was I supposed to do now? By the decree of the church, all void mana users were to be executed on sight. Their connection to the Kin and the Blood Emperor cannot be overlooked. Besides that, just having void mana, the same thing that blighted beasts and men alike was a sin in and of itself. It went directly against the doctrine of the church, of spreading the word of the God of Light, Lux and his blessed light mana.

I raised my hand preparing a current of sharp wind aimed directly at Adrian’s neck. The whistling sound of wind drowned out the crackling of the fire torches around us in the silent night. Just then, the kid winced. A look of pain visible clearly on his face as he lied down on the cold rocky ground, suddenly an image invaded my mind as I recalled the foolish brat attacking the wolf at the inn with just a sword and having no mana. Even with no chance against the crex, he placed his faith in his sword skills to fight it just to help the people around him.

I lowered my hand as I felt a sudden prick in my chest. “Strange, haven’t felt like this in a long time” I said to myself, “So this what guilt felt like huh?”. I took my hand, still potent with mana, and placed it on the kid’s chest, just above the core inside his heart. I started coalescing his core with wind mana, poring in an amount enough to cover the entire thing in a layer of vivid green making sure that no one will notice the black underneath.

After being done with that, I went ahead and picked him off the ground onto my back, ready to head out of the training grounds back to the city. “I did promise to help awaken your core and train you” I said to the kid, who was now slumping on my back. “The bigger question is how to take care of this mess now” I said thinking about what all I will need to do to keep this incident under wraps.

As I walked past the wyrm corpse again to get out of this chasm, I noticed something weird. Pouring back mana into my eyes, I glanced back at the mutilated corpse. Somehow, there was way too less mana in it. Even for a corpse, the mana needed some time to dissipate back into the surroundings. But for a beast of this size which was just killed recently, the mana present in the body was way too less. Making a mental note of it, I turned around with mana rushing to my feet as I jumped out of the chasm onto the training grounds.

I will need to make sure Ignis doesn’t know what happened to the kid, and also find a way to keep an eye on him so that people don’t get too curious about his core. Also I will need to start a personal investigation on the guild and all its members to see if the church missed anything. With that I started making notes on all what I would need to do as I made my way out of the compound. 

As I was walking I felt the sensation of warm liquid dripping on my hands as I looked down to notice the kid’s blood was starting to drip onto my back and hands. “Sigh, I will need to give a call to Catherine too” I said to myself as I continued walking to the city.