ã€ŠWitch apprentice and moon haloã€‹


 Chapter 1. Prologue

    I have lived with a witch almost all my live. It was hard live but I managed to stay happy as her witch¡äs apprentice. I¡äm in my deathbed. No one except real witch can cheat death but even they can¡ät save people around them. I wasn¡ät talented with magic. Put it bluntly I can¡ät do any magic. You might ask why I¡äm witch¡äs apprentice. Reasoning being I was meant to be a lab rat. Somehow I managed to stay alive until the witch as an apprentice found me imprisoned. I was important witness so I could talk with her and we became friends. This friendship lasted my whole live to this day. Of course we had fights and disagreements so we had some breakups. We still stayed together.

    Not all things were good because of this. I stayed virgin my whole live. That is one big regret for me. Even witch apprentice Rota could loss his virginity. Just you know even crows try to escape from him because of his looks and smell. Even if he is going to die (before he become a witch) some day, no worm is going to approach his corpse. I think even the ¡±time¡± has escaped far from him. He looks same as I first met him.

    ¡±Maybe I should write something good in this diary. Rota is going to read this for sure.¡± I said with small voice. I haven¡ät held back my voice ever since from that big explosion. It destroyed my voice before anyone could heal it. Those days no one wanted to help me. These days I have access to all help available but no one can return my voice back. It goes against laws of magic. Since my wound have healed from long time ago, it can¡ät be healed. Magic can only return things into their natural place. My body has accepted this throat as it¡äs original state. No one can reverse that.

    There is still one possible way to heal it and it is time magic. Maybe for this reason why she specialized on it. Thanks to it she rose to third rank among the witches. There is only 144 alive today. Since witches are eternal being, this amount is correct for sure. This doesn¡ät mean they can¡ät die. There has been 34 witch wars to this day. At least that is the amount which is heard from surviving witches. It is highly likely this is incorrect knowledge. The first witch Gaelo might not be even the first witch.

    Well that doesn¡ät matter since even her can¡ät find the truth. She might someday look into past and look into the truth or even return to that past. She has enough time for it but not for finding anything which could save me. Reason why I can¡ät do any magic based on this damage to my throat. My body was damaged so badly that magic won¡ät be able to go through my body without resistance. Not all was bad because of it. I would have surely died from some test back when I was lab rat.

    For this reason I have high resistance to magic. There is even people how purposely damage their bodies to gain this very same resistance. Of course there is more to it than that. Body damage is only a trigger to start gainig this resistance. More important point for it is how that injury effects to that persons mentality. More specifically my mind stops any magic around me although I¡äm capable of using magic artifacts. There hasn¡ät been as extreme case as I was. Maybe no one took any effort against us because of it. No one wouldn¡ät be willing to go up against time witch and anti-magic apprentice at same time.

    Even if my body is old my knowledge is threat to everyone, I highly doubt anyone would strike at her. I only hope she can live peaceful live after I¡äm gone. That reminds me. I should write my will and testament.

    ¡±Don¡ät use my body for any experiment no matter how small it is. Knowing their understanding of word small, I should state no kind is allowed. Cremation would keep everyone else away too.¡±

    ¡±What are you doing?¡± Next to me Rota was looking and asked why was I writing a will. I haven¡ät told anyone both of my kidneys have stoped working. No operation can save me when my body is like this. I have accepted this long time ago. I have been pushing my will for long time. They would see it as soon they step in this room. This doesn¡ät mean there isn¡ät things in my room. They all can see changes in my room thanks to their magic. Truly unfair.

    ¡±Exactly as you can see. I¡äm going to die today.¡± I need to hold an artifact to talk with everyone else. They couldn¡ät hear anything otherwise.

    ¡±I see. You hardly were trying to hide it. Everyone could tell you were going to die soon. Those pesky witches have started to visit more often than before. Anyone can tell what is in their minds when thay come here.¡±

    ¡±Don¡ät say that. Some of them have come here for honest reasons.¡±

    ¡±Of course I meant only those pesky ones.¡±

    ¡±To my understanding they all are pesky ones to you.¡±

    ¡±---¡±

    ¡±¡±Hahaha!¡±¡±

    Thanks I- no we needed that. I know I didn¡ät do great job by hiding it. Well, I have been near death state over a year. Of course I have noticed everyone¡äs unrest. I can¡ät blame them. I have suffered plenty of losses in my live like everyone else. My sister, step brother and best friend at that order. There was many other but these were lost way too soon. Regretting does no good. Even if given another change to do everything again, I wouldn¡ät save them. Harsh words I know. I just can¡ät suffer over things that have passed and can¡ät be done anything about.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    I should talk to Rota about my past and how my live was.

    ¡±So. Everything is going to end for you today. Can I assume you are going to sleep at bed with mindset of dying?¡± Rota finally asked me after I told about the most of my live.

    ¡±You are save to assume so.¡±

    ¡±You know. I don¡ät think so. Do you have any ideas why she hasn¡ät come here today?¡±

    ¡±It is because of your smell. Even if your magic can hide it, it can¡ät be avoided by real witch.¡±

    ¡±Oh boy. Those were some harsh words. Don¡ät you think?¡±

    ¡±You can take it. It is truth after all.¡±

    ¡±You should learn to use that artifact properly. I think you said something after ¡±You can take it.¡±¡±

    I would be with huge troll face if I wasn¡ät in so much pain. I have perfect control over this artifact. When I start talking it doesn¡ät even matter what I¡äm saying. I have got a habit to think aloud. Fortunately it hasn¡ät caused any problems.

    ¡±You were just imagining it. Well I can assume she is going to test one of her dangerous time magic tests on me.¡±

    ¡±Yes. I think she hasn¡ät done her redo time magic at all today.¡±

    ¡±That is strange indeed. Normally she would just test them over and over again. It isn¡ät miracle she gained third rank from apprentice in out lifetime. I can¡ät believe she is even younger than I¡äm.¡±

    ¡±What!?¡±

    ¡±---¡±

    ¡±You mean that snake is in fact¡­ No That can¡ät be. I was sure she was at least¡­¡±

    ¡±What are you talking about?¡±

    So said snake suddenly appeared behind Rota. Reason why I stayed quiet was because she came in while he shouted. I¡äm sorry. I couldn¡ät save you.

    ¡±Good day master. How has day gone by to you?¡±

    She was very tired which means she is even easier to anger than normally. I can¡ät spent my last moments fighting against her. Sorry Rota. You are on your own. To no suprise Rota suddenly vanished.

    ¡±Where did you sent him?¡±

    ¡±He is apologizing in time loop while suffering damages against icejetis claws and bites. He wanted so of their blood essence a while back.¡±

    I knew it. It was right choice to leave him alone. She is definitely angry. Normally she would just sent him into time loop where he is whipped over and over again. Maybe that isn¡ät much a difference.

    ¡±Do you have reason being here?¡±

    ¡±I¡äm planning to return you back in time before you lost your voice.¡± I had a feeling this was the case. It¡äs still to much. It isn¡ät going to work. It might not work on me and everyone forgets everything about this timeline. Wait a minute. Maybe that is very reason why it might work. My mind might be uneffected by the change then it might be possible. Wait. That isn¡ät a problem.

    ¡±You will loss your existence. Not just you but everyone.¡±

    She is going to destroy the whole world. Well, it wouldn¡ät be first or last time such thing have happened. How dare you ask why people are afraid of witches? This is the very reason behind it. Unending curiosity and knowledge of unknown. I¡äm suprised I haven¡ät changed because of them.

    Difference between apprentice and witch is huge. One top class apprentice could fight and won against thousands of normal people even still they are people. Witches are different. Arrows going through their heads doesn¡ät top them. They are way closer to god than human. There has been cases of apprentices how had killed witch. In spite of that words ¡±only witch can fight against other witch¡± is correct. Magic power infinity is too powerful. That kind of change changes people.

    ¡±I know. Listen to me. There isn¡ät permission for this. I¡äm doing this alone. There is no need to worry. If I fail, I can make it only you would suffer and no one else. In addition it would be useful if you find out how demons arrived here. Don¡ät you think you are perfect person for the job.¡±

    ¡±Stop joking around. I¡äm not going to meet that demon princes again. One time was more than enough. I¡äm not going to kill her again. Why are you smiling?¡±

    ¡±Huh. Oh sorry. Since that artifacts noise doesn¡ät change tone of the noise, it only feels like robot language to me. It is just funny.¡±

    ¡±What is wrong with you? Does this feel like a joke to you?¡±

    ¡±Hahaha! Stop it! I can¡ät breath! Hahaha! Please stop!¡±

    How dare you laugh at me like that? If your magic does succeed then I will make you suffer. Just you wait and just maybe I tell you the truth someday.

    She suddenly stopped laughing. What is wrong?

    ¡±Are you planning on something?¡±

    ¡±No. What do you mean?¡±

    Her instict haven¡ät rusted even lightest.

    ¡±Alright. Sign this paper.¡±

    She then brought one contract to me. That is a lot of paper. I don¡ät think I have enough time to read then through. Strange. In the past there wasn¡ät anything else but time.

    ¡±What is this and why haven¡ät you used time magic today at all?¡±

    Just you know time loop where Rota is isn¡ät considered as time magic. It is space where everything returns to its original place after a while. It is meant to training and imprisonment uses. Rota is capable of escaping but he is afraid punishment is even harsher afterwards.

    ¡±It is contract to let me do this bullyin-... sorry experiment without punishment if I make some unfortunate mistakes. If you disappear, die or some other reasons harmt then no punishment is targeted to here. You just need to sign. As for time magic. It is just for guarantee to keep everything under control if something happens.¡±

    Well I was going to ask cremation for my final wish. There is no harm to sign this contract. I¡äm going to die today eitherway. (Unfortunately that contract possess all time magic that is left of her. She won¡ät be able to use time magic ever again after today. For this reason this contract WILL effect to his next live.)

    I signed and no further ado everything started to change around me.

 Chapter 2. Train pal part 1.

    Well. Everything became bright so either I died or it was succeed. Time to place bets. Maybe it is too late now. My eyes hurt. It is like I¡äm rising from sleep after hardly getting enough sleep. At least pains are away. That is big positive. Let¡äs see where I am.

    Place seems like 15 m<sup>2 </sup>room. Sun was up and light was coming from the window. There was no curtains. Room was clearly cheap one with small amount decoration. I didn¡ät know where I was. It didn¡ät look familiar. I rose to look outside. Few hundred meters away was forest in to hill. Before it was many buildings. I finally figured out where I was. This was small apartment where I studied before I was taken away by wizard apprentice. It didn¡ät take even a year to stay here.

    ¡±Time to find out what day is it to plan for the future.¡±

    What was that noise!? I haven¡ät heard that voice before. Is she playing a joke with me. Could this be illusion to make my last moments tolerable?

    ¡±Could you stop playing around?¡±

    There was that voice again.

    ¡±Maybe I should do a joke on her.¡±

    ¡±???¡±

    What a minute.

    ¡±Aaa¡±

    ¡±Bbb¡±

    ¡±Ccc¡±

    ¡±---¡±

    No doubt about it. This is my voice. I completely forgotten how my voice was. I have really returned back in time. So that accident has not happened yet.

    Far left of the window was clock tower. It was morning for sure 7:00. It was summer in northern globe. Sun wasn¡ät going down at all. Harsh cold winters are common place here. I¡äm staying in the most popular city in these parts even then population is only half a million. In the north pole area there is less that million people. No doubt this is large city.

    Only witch living in these parts is rank 70 ice witch. She wasn¡ät born in these parts but her study brought her here millennium ago. I was working part time here for her like most students here. My work is to bring resources here once per week. Luckily my home town was the place where those resources are found. It was simple work. I just go back home every weekend and bring everything here. Simply put I was mailman. My Calendar shows that it is day I should return home. Only train go past my home once per week. I¡äm reason for it for sure.

    I should hurry to the station. Train leaves the station exactly at 9:00. It is only 5 km to station. It takes only one hour to arrive but better save that sorry. If I¡äm late then there is no doubt what is going to happen. Good pay, simple and free travel expenses. Not only ice witch but every student would be after my live. Maybe this kind of tress is reason for good pay. No wonder I haven¡ät heard of my predecessor.

    These days weather temperature is close to 20 celsius. This is as good as it can get. I see people going to work and work places full of haste. This was normal day like any other. Only difference was I. I was buying news paper. I didn¡ät buy hardly any papers even in my past life. This is abnormal both as student and apprentice. Somehow I managed without such things. I didn¡ät care how world was but now it was most in my concern.

    New restaurant is opening today, ice jeti population is danger of extinction, more news about dead politician and more pointess scrap. I haven¡ät heard of this restaurant. Ice jeti population is going to rise vastly in near future. I haven¡ät even heard of this politician. He was nobody. No reason for concern. I have no idea what kind of day this is. At least I have my voices so explosion hasn¡ät happened yet. Unfortunately I don¡ät remember what day explosion happened. It wasn¡ät even put in the news so day can¡ät be found out. Well, I was kidnapped after it. I have no idea how long it took to that I was found. My family members were only ones how could have known about it but they were long gone. Of course there was other news to but there was nothing intersting there.

    At the station I bought the ticket and carefully took receipt. Clock was 8:01. I wasn¡ät sleepy anymore. I started to remember more and more. It was terrorist attack to the train when I was coming back to city. At least it won¡ät be this trip. This gives me some time to prepare. There is three stations before my home. I have already verified it. It was told by my sister it was a bomb. I don¡ät know if it is true. I survived but I don¡ät have same resistance against magic or trained body to endure explosion. How could I have survived if it was a bomb? ¡±Maybe I should stop that terrorist attack from happening.¡±This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    ¡±What!?¡±

    There was a man looking at me amazed look in his face. What happened? Why is he panicing so much? It would be problem if I change history too much needlessly. How would have young me acted in this situation. I don¡ät remember seeing this man before. It might b etoo long time ago to remember. ¡±Maybe I should take care of him.¡±

    ¡±What!!?¡±

    He started to shout even louder. Everyone in close proximity were looking at us. What was going on? It looks like he thinks me as his worst enemy. What I have done to deserve this?

    ¡±I¡äm sorry if I have offended you some way. I have no idea why you act like that.¡±

    ¡±Please don¡ät kill me.¡±

    He was looking at me with scared look. I don¡ät remember what I have done to him to make him think that way. Maybe I should be happy that he isn¡ät shouting no longer. No one except me heard his words. I don¡ät know should I laugh or cry.

    ¡±I¡äm not going to harm anyone. Why are you scared of me so much?¡±

    ¡±I haven¡ät heard anything. We didn¡ät meet or see each other. Please let me go.¡±

    What is this? This makes no sense. ¡±I haven¡ät caused any harm to anyone and I¡äm not going to do so other people. Why this is happening?¡± I haven¡ät harmed any people in my life. Maybe hurt for self defence but nothing more than that. I have killed witch and demons but can they be considered as people. They aren¡ät normal at least.

    Person next to me was looking at me. He was wondering about something. Maybe he can start conversation on his own. He was student like me. His closes and equipment were clear evidence for it. We both might have been in same classes in the past. Only note worthy part is his hair. It is red and it is natural red not some artificial. How can I tell? There is one tribe how has red hair as common trate. They are quite well known for their bad reputation. Their bloodline possess aspect of dwarf fire magic. It was useful aspect which was found much later in time. Current times they must be heavily bullied daily. Their ancestors were responsible of one uprising in here north. It was long ago. That kingdom was lost but their reputation as traitors has stayed to this day. If I remember correctly this problem was going on even to day I died.

    ¡±Where you murmuring?¡±

    ¡±Ah! Was I thinking aloud?¡±

    ¡±Yes, you were. More than once.¡±

    That explains it. There must have been huge misunderstanding. I should explain myself carefully.

    ¡±What did I say?¡±

    ¡±You were saying ¡±maybe I should take care of him¡±. I was sure you were going to kill me when you said it.¡±

    He honestly said what I said. People with reputation like his might interpret my words so differently.

    ¡±You were panicing so I was thinking how could I have helped you. There isn¡ät deeper meaning behind it.¡±

    It seems like he believed me. People around us started to move again. There was even one group of students approaching red haired man. They started to leave when we started to talk at ease. They were going to harash him if I wasn¡ät here.

    ¡±What did you mean when you said ¡±maybe I should stop that terrorist attack from happening¡±?¡±

    Ah. C**p. I really should get rid off this old habit of my soon. My habit of thinking aloud has backfired this soon. How could have made such mistake? I have to hurry and explain what is going on.

    It is too late. He is suspicious of me. He has concerned look in his face. I¡äm sure he is thinking of telling about me to law forces. That is what I would have done in his place. Probably long time of suffering has cause him doubt his own judgment. It is too bad but I have to take advantage over it.

    ¡±There has been news about threats. These days there is change it is truth so I was thinking how these could be prevented. There has to be ways to do so daily basis.¡±

    I came up excuse which give half a truth but keeps my identity hidden. It isn¡ät like anyone would believe me even if I told. I might gain even ways to save my situation. I can¡ät hope that I survive explosion again. I should at least find proves what was going on in my past. I don¡ät know if I want to change anything. At least I don¡ät want to die as soon as I returned. So I want to keep myself save.

    ¡±Oh you were thinking something like that. That explains it. Sorry for doubting you.¡±

    He was going to make a bow so I put stop to it. I don¡ät enjoypeople bowing down at all. Even more so when they aren¡ät the blame.

    ¡±Don¡ät bow down on your own initiative. You aren¡ät the blame. I would have suspected me if I was in your shoes. If you bow down it reduce your human worth. Not just yours but your kinds too. You should get down to your fours so easily. Some cases you have to do it to survive. This isn¡ät such moments.¡±

    I started to rant way longer than intended. I hope he got something out of it. We stayed silent sometime. At least he wasn¡ät going down to floor or calling law forces.

    ¡±Are you going north?¡±

    I choosed to ask him if we travel the same path. It is save to assume he is. Next train comes 10:30. There is two hours to it. Thing is red hair tribe¡äs land isn¡ät in north from here. What kind of purpose might he have coming here?

    ¡±Yes. I¡äm going to meet my friend. He has called me to visit his home.¡±

    Some reason I have feeling they aren¡ät friends. I hope nothing goes wrong for him. If I have guessed correct then he is going in middle of nowhere and there is no one waiting for him there. Even if he manages to return, they would just say ¡±Sorry. I didn¡ät see you at the station. Did you really arrive?¡± I hate people like that. Just because someone is easy to bully, it doesn¡ät justify your actions.

    ¡±My name is Ari. I¡äm going north. Would you like to talk with me as we travel? What is your name?¡±

    ¡±My name is Tyr.¡±

    I haven¡ät heard person called Tyr before. No matter what destiny brought for him, it isn¡ät my problem. For now I should hear more about current moment so I can know when those kidnappers arrive. Can I do anything even if I know? I should also find time to test if I can do magic. Maybe I should wait until it is save to get rid off magic resistance. Once I gain other then the other might disappear.

    ¡±How has your studies gone so far?¡±

    So our talk started until conductor arrived at the station.

    ¡±Tickets please. Good journey.¡±

 Chapter 3. Train pal part 2.

    ¡±We are sitting across each other. Lucky this happened appropriately. So you were saying this is your final year in economics. Your reason is to help your village. Should you use your skills elsewhere where profit is higher? You should know about it since this is your last year.¡± (Ari)

    ¡±Of course I have thought about it but I want to help my people. They are staying behind time. This can¡ät keep going like that. It is most likely too late now. No matter next generation can¡ät survive if done nothing.¡± (Tyr)

    ¡±You are for sure better child than I¡äm. I left home to study potions. My parents died ever since I was small child so I left only my sister and half brother behind. My brother is 2-years older than me from my mother¡äs previous marriage and my sister is 3-years younger than me. I¡äm 17-years old. We did get help from our village to survive but my half brother took responsibility for us. He is working as hunter and my sister is working on our housekeeping. I was the one how didn¡ät do anything. I escaped.¡± (Ari)

    It isn¡ät strange that I was only one how grow old. I escaped my shame but I survived thanks to it. My sister died in stampede and my brother in hunting how knows where. They both choosed their lives and I too. I just hope they found happiness in their lives.

    ¡±That was kind of heavy but thanks.¡± (Tyr)

    ¡±Oh. Did I say all of it again?¡± (Ari)

    ¡±Yes you did. At least people know you are honest one. You probably can¡ät lie even if you wanted.¡± (Tyr)

    ¡±Can you cut it out? It can¡ät be that bad.¡± (Ari)

    Honestly I¡äm not sure. Even when I was mute people close to me could figure out something always. Well people close to me weren¡ät normal so it could be coincidence.

    We talked about our studies, homes, family members andhow world it. Thanks to him I could remember quite a lot. It also helped me to remember how my home was. There is 9 households in my village. It is actually quite a lot. North Pole has about one person per 100 km<sup>2</sup> and my village has 9 households (50 people) in 100 km<sup>2</sup> area. This was thanks to ice witch¡äs business interest to this area.

    At the first station we went outside to wait stowage ending. This place¡äs main product is oil. So everything has to be done safely. It is about a hour wait. It isn¡ät save to stay inside while they are working. So we both went outside. This wasn¡ät the first time for me here. I intented to work here in the past. I knew this place quite well so I showed around. It wasn¡ät the greatest idea. I had forgotten more things than I had thought. At least I remembered the place where we went eat.

    Between the first and second station we went along the bridge over big lake. After it rails started to rise to the mountain range. I remembered the explosion happened somewhere here. Rails went both up and down and sometimes we went to the tunnels. If I have to leave train somewhere here I think I could manage. At least this area isn¡ät anywhere close as dangerous as my home. Our ears locked as we went up. Tyr was suprised about it so I explained it was because of air pressure. I also warned him about oxygen amount. He should get used to it soon.

    Second station was mine. Some of the oil was brought here for equipment uses. It was town with thousands of workers. Last week here was tunnel collapse. I had forgotten about it but familiar faces brought back memories. Previous trip to city had many passengers going away to find new hope in life after serious injury or family member¡äs death. This group was going to the seas. Fourth station is the last one which was in the coast. Next station was going to be my home.

    It was dark when we arrived to my home. Sun was blocked by a mountain. Even when it is mid summer no cultivation is useful. All food eaten here is brought from city with this train or when it comes back from the coast. At least that is the case if hunting isn¡ät counted.

    ¡±Okei. I¡äm leave the train here. Let¡äs see again in going back trip. Eh? What is wrong?¡± (Ari)

    ¡±My destination is here.¡± (Tyr)

    I was speechless. There isn¡ät anyone how even looks like friend he described here. This was a ruse. Althought it wasn¡ät winter, this place was dangerous without house. Plus we use different currency here. This isn¡ät place to stay as a stranger.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡±Do you want to come with me?¡± (Ari)

    ¡±Are you thinking aloud again?¡± (Tyr)

    ¡±No. This is me talking.¡± (Ari)

    He is trying to sound brave but he was hurt. He must have known this was going to happen but he still hold small amount of hope.

    ¡±Are you coming or not?¡± (Ari)

    Tyr knows that I don¡ät want to bother my family. He is hesitating. I haven¡ät heard of red hair named Tyr before. He must have died in same attack which I was part of or he was injured badly so he couldn¡ät get back up. If he comes with me then I can¡ät just threw him away anymore. Future will surely change if he comes with me. I don¡ät know which path I should follow. So, I choosed to let him choose. If he disagree then I follow same path and find how demons got here. If he agree then I start to change the world as I see fit. I know I should choose myself but this affect to everyone. As individual I want to save those I can save but as part of society I want to keep everything certain. Also there is no telling how long I can keep my memories. I could loss them any moment but same time it isn¡ät save to write them down. The most dangerous person I could meet now is mind witch. He will find me someday even if I start hiding now. I have to prepare.

    ¡±Can I choose until we got there? I will think if I should find help elsewhere.¡± (Tyr)

    ¡±I have to know now if you are coming. Direction where I go depends on your answer.¡± (Ari)

    I know. I¡äm pushing on answer but I need to know for more than one reason.

    ¡±It would be better to stay with someone how knows you. If you don¡ät like my place then just change places later.¡± (Ari)

    ¡±I¡äm going with you.¡± (Tyr)

    ¡±In that case I will follow this path.¡± (Ari)

    We got different meanings from my words.

    ¡±We need to go look at my family¡äs hunting traps since there is going to be one extra mouth. Can you help me carry them around?¡± (Ari)

    I saw he nodding so we went to the forest. These traps are used to keep monsters from coming here. Their meat isn¡ät particularly good but they will fill our stomachs for now. One trap had sabre-tooth fox. These monsters are low class one¡äs but can deal harm to weak people. There isn¡ät anyone like that here. The worst one here is way upper than average in the city.

    ¡±Do you know how to skin it?¡± (Ari)

    ¡±No. I don¡ät.¡± (Tyr)

    ¡±In that case watch me. This might become useful to you in the future. Take everything which I throw away. You are going to carry them.¡± (Ari)

    No matter how long it has been, I won¡ät forget how to skin leather. These leathers, teeth and claws are thing which I bring to the ice witch. These aren¡ät worth much but they sell nevertheless.

    At the evening sun was up behind the mountain. I didn¡ät take anymore monsters since cooking takes time and I supposed to be there already. My home is only 2km away from station. I¡äm happy it isn¡ät long path. It was strange see forest younger than it used to. Even after becoming witch apprentice, I came here many times.

    The house was partly new and old. All fixing has done for the winter. This is easiest time on the year here. Most monsters are hiding and waiting for the winter. Human is strongest creature at the time. If not taking account monsters in deep in the forest. I didn¡ät even need to knock.

    ¡±Hey. Brother Ari is back. Welcome home¡­¡±

    My sister came to welcome me but she stopped after she saw my friend. She didn¡ät know how to react to the new visitor. Me too was suprised. I didn¡ät accept fully that I came back in time. I saw my death sister alive again. I have gotten over this loss long time ago. I didn¡ät know how I should react. Maybe it was good that I brought him here.

    My sister look much like me. Curly polka brown hair, blue eyes and long legs and arms. She is very tall about 172cm I think and I¡äm only 176cm. She is lightly smaller than me but she would have out grow me in time at least to 180cm.

    ¡±Brother brought redbear here. Please come help your brother carry it in.¡± (Sister)

    ¡±What?¡± (Ari)

    It seem like she thinks that Tyr is monster. I know I haven¡ät brought anyone here before but isn¡ät this rude still. Can¡ät you even consider that he is human?

    ¡±Hahahaha!¡± (Tyr)

    ¡±What are you laughing for? Shouldn¡ät you be crying?¡± (Ari)

    ¡±Sorry. This is first for me. No one has looked me that way. People have called me monster but this time she was so happy to call me to that.¡± (Tyr)

    ¡±I think you are first human being how was happy to be caller monster. Are you sane?¡± (Ari)

    My words cause him to cry while laughing.

    ¡±Please calm down and come inside. I introduce you to all.¡±

    Both my brother and sister were waiting for us. My sister has noticed her mistake already but she doesn¡ät know when to apologize.

    ¡±Sorry for the wait. This is my friend Tyr. He is staying with us tonight. This here is my brother Ville and she is my sister Maria.¡± (Ari)

    ¡±Thank you for your hospitality. I hope it isn¡ät too much of the bother for you.¡± (Tyr)

    Basic welcomings were down so we started to work on the leathers and meat. My brother is about 185cm tall. There isn¡ät no helping it. I¡äm going to be smallest in this family.  Other difference would be his straight small blond hair.

    We didn¡ät talk much until it was time to sleep. I gave my bed to Tyr and I started to sleep on the floor. My sister apologized Tyr about her mistake at some point. We choosed to talk tomorrow before we are going back. Train is coming in middle of night so we have time to talk whole day. My brother doesn¡ät need to work tomorrow either.

    Whole evening I had feeling that I forgot about something important. My family knew about it but didn¡ät say anything. They had clearly told about it to Tyr. It has to be something important but why keep it secret from me. Maybe it is something I have to remember for sure.

    During these thought I managed to finally fall asleep. Unknown to me another change was happening while I was sleeping.

 Chapter 4. Spirits

    I had many nightmares. I could sleep but I didn¡ät get good sleep. I must have suffered from some fever previous and today¡äs nights. I saw my accident which caused me to loss my voice. I don¡ät know which really happened or what are figment of imagination. I was traumatized so I might have been seeing things. All blame was placed on apprentice witch of nameless witch.

    This witch haven¡ät taken any major movements. She was judged as innocent and I believe them. I think that apprentice witch was innocent too. I didn¡ät see either of them where I was taken. I spent two years trapped. I should have seen or heard either of them even once if they had been leaders. Person how was charge of me got away. He forced me to call him ¡±beautiful¡±. Normally that wouldn¡ät be problem but he caused me more pain and trauma than any human before and after. I should be glad that I didn¡ät make him angry even once. I have seen many prisoners loss their virginity to him. Woman or men didn¡ät matter to him.

    My memory is blocked so I don¡ät even remember how they looked, but I¡äm sure those how took the blame where the once how tried to save me. I want to save them all if I can. I¡äm going to find and trap them before they can do anything to anybody.  I¡äm not going to succeed. I¡äm not as strong as I used to be. In that case I should become strong. It is time to learn magic.

    Many years spent as apprentice witch weren¡ät for nothing. I have even teached one how became witch. I doesn¡ät matter that he only got rank 144. Witches are clearly stronger than apprentices by large marking. In my live 7 people got rank witch and three of them were close to me. That says something. Of course witch Merlin was the best teacher word ever had but I got second place. Merlin had died about 50 years ago in the last witch war. My legacy became to be 50 years later than now.

    At first I should test how my mana flows in my body. In the past my throat had blocked the most movement. Let¡äs see how it is now. Unfortunately it isn¡ät so easy. At first I should figure out what type my mana is. It depend to day to day. What is eaten, drink, sleep, fitness, health and so on depend highly. I was trying to become fire apprentice witch. I was planning to learn both ice and fire magic. I had natural gift for ice so I improved my fire aspect so both would be in balance. That day it was noticed my throat damage had caused damage to manaveins. This cause loss of both fire and ice essences. Of course I gave up on those two but nothing else worked either.

    This time no such throat damage but I don¡ät know which essences are strongest in me now. Ice is for sure in but it is summer now. The worst time to rise ice essence. As for fire it is best time possible but it is night. I can¡ät try that either. I could wait for better moment but terrorist attack might happen tomorrow or next week. I don¡ät know. I¡äm not reliant to either essence anymore so I can choose from others. I have eaten saber-tooth fox today so small amount beast essence is certain but it is least potent one. There is hardly any change to future growth. That is no too.

    I could also use wind or mountain essence. Both are common within mountain people. Neither is bad but they aren¡ät highly good either. If you would ask what is most special part of them then I would say their rarety. Hardly anyone has this essence and people in mountains rarely had access to knowledge to gain this magic. Of course this also means possible unlimited potential. No body knows what is in the end. To my days no one had heard of any witch how used either these essences as main. I¡äm curious but there isn¡ät any positive essences at first. The most useful part would be figure out accurately directions in the mountains. These user won¡ät ever get lost to the mountains That¡äs all.

    More I think more I know how much in trouble I¡äm. There isn¡ät any useful essences to gain fast with great strenght here. This is worst place to be in at this time. Even common light and dark magic are in chaos here. How can I find anything without accurate knowledge of my blood essence.

    My only choice is to train in neutral essence. Out of all aspect it is most versatile but with big weakness. It is hardest one to use. It is only aspect which can be changed to other essence later. You can also changes its mana to other essences mana.

    Of course there is still other negative points. Only essence currently in my body could be used. In other words I can only use magics previously listed. All witches can produce water with their spells but I can never do that. I have gotten used to it long time ago. Also strenght is quite weak but without almost any energy loss. All spell get weaker as further you are. Neutral magic doesn¡ät have that. Plus my wind essence makes it even stronger with invisible bullets. Perfect sniper isn¡ät far away. It is also strong at first compared to other essence at starting point. Another negative would be its power limit. It isn¡ät easy to make it stronger over time. Naturally I would change essences when penetrating or raw power are too weak.

    To neutralize other essence best way would be by sleeping while staying conscious in other words meditating. Chaos over my blood essences makes it easy and difficult. It is easy to notice differrent essences but same time it is hard to separate them also you have to talk with them. That is the biggest problem.

    ¡±Hello everyone. How have you been?¡± (Ari)

    ¡±¡±You threw me away again!¡±¡±

    ¡±I know and I¡äm very sorry. Please forgive me fire and ice. I¡äm not throwing you away.¡± (Ari)This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    ¡±¡±How can you assume so? You coming to talk with us is proof of it.¡±¡± (Fire and Ice spirit)

    How could I forget this negative? Neutral aspect users must speak with their essence spiris. There isn¡ät no such problem with other magics. This is so unfair. I was over 90 years old. Why should I take care of these over aged spirit babies?

    ¡±You were thinking something rude didn¡ät you.¡± (Time spirit)

    Oh great. That witch tricked me. She put part of her time essence to me as time spirit. Her soul lives inside me. Shivers. That sounded so bad. At least I¡äm not thinking aloud in here. None can talk to spirit with their mouth. As for talking with one¡äs mind then I¡äm master.

    ¡±No. What do you mean?¡± (Ari)

    We all had small silence until I got to the business.

    ¡±I¡äm planning to use neutral aspect for now. Are you be willing to cooperate with me?¡± (Ari)

    ¡±No! We are not!¡± (Fire and Ice spirit)

    Oh boy. Those two act like married couple. They are saying same things and then pretent not to notice each others words. They are so meant to each other. Why can¡ät they work thing out together.

    ¡±You should let him a change.¡± (Wind spirit)

    I have heard Wind spirit follows ideas of freedom and change. We are very like-minded. We will get along well for sure.

    ¡±I agree. I have good feeling about this. I think we should follow him.¡± (Beast spirit)

    That was unexpected. Beast spirit has short-tempered and aggressive mind. He acts before he thinks. I was sure he would have been the most difficult one to convince. World has plenty of unexpected things. Maybe it is because of beast instinct. Beast essence users are most difficult one¡äs to get an unaware or cause suprise attacks. It is going to be easy while I¡äm with him. Thank you sabre-tooth fox. You were very helpful.

    ¡±¡­¡± (Light and Dark spirit)

    Light and dark spirit talk rarely and only the one¡äs how they recognize. Holy person or evil person are only once how they talk to. Their own initiative is only way to get their help and strenght of their power depends on person¡äs faith and dedication. They naturally don¡ät get along well but they will for sure follow other¡äs ideas.

    ¡±You can talk. I will just listen.¡± (Mountain spirit)

    Mountain spirit was quite quiet. Not as much as light and dark but still. Constancy, faithfulness and durability are his ideas. He is very simiral to rock and earth spirit but there is one important difference between them.

    Rock is unyielding, earth is ever-changing and finally mountain¡äs gradual change. Rock doesn¡ät allow any kind of change. They endure all. Earth accepts change but wants to it return to its original state. Stability is his call. Finally mountain is gradual change. They aren¡ät changing fast but taking their time they can integrate to anything. He is most likely going to follow me. As long as I move forward then he won¡ät betray me.

    These spirits were decent group. Spirit which small essense couldn¡ät come out. I¡äm going to be only with them. Normally neutral essence user would have piled multible essences beforehand or keep only natural element essences. I choosed latter since strenght would be stronger. There is still one spirit behind sealed gate.

    ¡±How is behind that gate?¡± (Ari)

    That must be some hidden essence which transmits over relatives. Tyr¡äs dwarf fire essence is one example of it. I didn¡ät know that I inherited some bloodline essence from one of my parents. There is high change that my sister has it too. Maybe even my brother if it comes from father. Most of the time these essences are stronger than common essences.

    ¡±How knows? There has been plenty of movement but it isn¡ät taking any changes to talk. I don¡ät want to deal with it.¡± (Time spirit)

    There must be some bad blood between them. Since it is sealed, we can¡ät communicate. There must be some conditions to get access to it. By the way it seems they know I came to the past. Throwing away must be summary of it. They all must have seen everything that I have seen but they can¡ät hear anything that I say.

    ¡±I think it is part of beast essence. We two have some contact between us. It was half awakened your past live. Your magic resistance came from it.¡± (Beast spirit)

    What!? There was actually other season than throat damage which resisted magic. Half awakened essences are peculiar. In these cases user can use parts of the essence. Sometimes there are positive results such as with rank 7 witch Golem. Golem has half awakened rock giant essence. He got strong body and magic but without losing reason and intellect. Sometimes there was negative results such as half awakened vampires. Sun light and blood hungerwere present without great strenght from them.

    In my case it stopped magic using but I got world¡äs strongest magic resistance. My high ice essence must be big clue. The first thing which comes to mind is leviathan. Most likely not the case since my family has lived for generations travelling in the mountains. Plus no water essence is huge no. Leviathan is beast how is largest creature to this day. Magic immunity, great regeneration, strong body and power. These creatures used to have ice and water magic but these were lost by the time. Instead their bodies became larger and stronger than before. Not even my master could fight against them and she was rank 3. I don¡ät know if rank 1 and 2 could have fought them.

    I have no idea what is behind that seal but I was capable of unseal some of it in past live. I must find what caused unsealing.

    ¡±Let¡äs forget it for now. I need your help to move away so I can harness neutral essence so we can stay together and help each other.¡± (Ari)

    ¡±No way. You must choose one of us otherwise I won¡ät cooperate.¡± (Fire spirit)

    He is hot headed for sure. Unlike him ice is cold hearted. She stayed silent but her mind was clear to see from her appearance. These two think alike but they act differently. It is going to be difficult to be with them.

    ¡±You two are only one¡äs against it. I don¡ät like him either. He is stupid. He doesn¡ät take into account the feelings of others. He doesn¡ät negotiate with fair mind. Actually, he is like you Beast spirit.¡± (Time spirit)

    ¡±I¡äm not as bad as him!¡± (Beast spirit)

    ¡±But you agree that he is dense.¡± (Time spirit)

    ¡±There is no mistaking it.¡± (Beast spirit)

    ¡±Don¡ät I have any saying about it?¡± (Ari)

    ¡±¡±¡±¡±¡±¡±¡±¡±No!¡±¡±¡±¡±¡±¡±¡±¡± (All the spirits)

    After debating for many hour spirits were feeling sorry so they let it go for now. I managed to neutralize my mana so I became rookie neutral spirit magician. I didn¡ät have any time to sleep. My body was rest but my mind wasn¡ät. Unfortunately I was woken up by song when I was about to sleep.

 Chapter 5. It is today

    ¡±¡±¡±Happy birthday.¡±¡±¡± (Everyone)

    ¡±What?¡± (Ari)

    ¡±Happy birthday brother. Did you forget about it this soon?¡± (Maria)

    Looks like it. I had no idea about it. No wonder you were acting so strange yesterday. You wanted to suprise me. I appreciate gesture. It has been too many years since I had birthday celebration. Good thing I came at this time. One week later is my sister¡äs birthday. I had to remember to bring present. I¡äm not hoping to get anything. Everything here is get by making and finding on your own. There is no present giving tradition here.

    ¡±Look brother. We get you a present.¡± (Maria)

    I don¡ät remember I had ever got any presents before. Did I change timeline too much without me knowing about it. What could have changed it. They gave me wristwatch. I remember now. This was memento from my father. Maria ja Ville ordered me to take this fixed. They probably meanted to give it to me later when it isn¡ät broken. Wristwatch on my hand was working quite well.

    ¡±You friend helped us to fix it¡± (Ville)

    Ville gave me decent explanation. As a merchant you should know how to fix easy damages. If this is all changes then it is alright. I should thank them.

    ¡±Thank you for your inconvenience. I like my present very much.¡± (Ari)

    There is no doubt about that part. This wristwatch was my memento of you two. I always carried it with me even though it was broken. Explosion damaged it too much so it couldn¡ät be fixed. Wait a minute. Doesn¡ät that mean it is going to happen tonight?

    ¡±You became pale suddenly. Did you not like your present?¡± (Maria)

    My sister was worried that wristwatch wasn¡ät to my liking. It is just this was the last thing you gave me before you died. I was trapped for half a year. After I got free I found out that my village was destroyed by monster stampede. My brother and few other managed to survive. Maria¡äs body wasn¡ät found but how would cut open every monster¡äs stomachs in these mountains.

    ¡±No. Don¡ät worry. I just remembered something important.¡± (Ari)

    I tried to keep my face under control. I was more happy than angry so it was easy. I should enjoy this moment for now. It is going to be difficult later.

    We spent day talking with each other. Tyr heard all the stories about me. Especially embarrassing things. I was happy and unhappy the whole day but I was glad about it. I didn¡ät have time to meet my best friend today. He was in a hunting trip. He managed to survive the stampede so I wasn¡ät worried.

    ¡±Thank you but we must return to the station. I go get all of the stuff. Villagers have brought it to usual place. Right?¡± (Ari)

    ¡±Just go to village¡äs chief¡äs house like usual. There shouldn¡ät be any problems.¡± (Ville)

    ¡±¡±¡±Bye¡±¡±¡± (Ari, Maria and Ville)

    ¡±Bye¡± (Tyr)

    We went to get everything and went to the station.

    ¡±Thank you for helping me out.¡± (Tyr)

    ¡±You are welcome.¡± (Ari)

    There was no point to say more. We haven¡ät known each other for long but we became friends. At first I was worried that he would try too hard. Fortunatelly that didn¡ät happen. I would like to spent some time with him in a future. He doesn¡ät have talent just as merchant or essence user. He is good friend. I think I should tell him about my past. He is going to believe it and he won¡ät try to ask anything difficult because of it but not now. I need to focus on this moment. Best way to stop explosion and terrorist attack would be by essence collapse.

    Essence collapse is misfire of spell. It causes user to be unable to use magic for long time. It also causes other magics to be neutralized. This also works on chemical bombs. Essence collapse¡äs other side effect is curb sudden thermodynamic movements. Thanks to these effect explosion can be stopped or at least calm it.

    Unfortunately there is negative problems too. First would be it would show how stopped and activated the spell. Both parties would know each others identity and find them even from other side the world. I should know it. I became famous because of this technique. I deliberately used essence collapse to stop and locate my enemies. Even if someone managed to escape from me then I could find them easily later.

    Unfortunately I would be the lossing party this time. They would be able to find from anywhere. Of course this problem wouldn¡ät be if it was normal bomb. I highly doubt it is going to be normal bomb. Strong investigator mage can locate builder¡äs identity easily. No one would take a change. I wouldn¡ät at least.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    Essence collapse also causes the train to malfunction. Passengers can¡ät escape. I have to escape fast so terrorist couldn¡ät take hostages. They would have to go after me. At least explosion wasn¡ät too big. I would have died in the past if that wasn¡ät the case. I gained magic resistance but it isn¡ät immunity. For that reason terrorists want as many alive as they can or they aren¡ät strong. Either one being the case, it gives me change to stop them.

    ¡±We two would like to buy tickets to city.¡±

    There was no point to tell conductor which city. There is only one. After buying ones to both of us, we spent rest of the time by looking the view. It was midnight but everything was clear to see. We didn¡ät need to talk to each other. After the mine I gave excuse to look around the train by saying that I¡äm going to toilet.

    It was difficult to stay with passengers. I spent half a year with them and I was only one how survived. At least mentally. I had seen them dying in front of meanwhile I didn¡ät do anything. I was close to vomit many times. Fortunately I have gotten used to up and down in this road so I didn¡ät vomit. I still don¡ät remember Tyr. Could he have died back them? There is no point think about it now. This time no one is going to get hurt. As long as I escape alone then I can avoid terrorists until rescuers arrive. Normally it would take six hours but time to find me is half a day. Tyr can tell that they went to chase me.

    There isn¡ät any suspicious activity or magic use nearby. This means explosion happened in moment notice. It wasn¡ät preparedby the hand. They must be outside the train. If this is the case choosing wrong direction will cause my death.

    ¡±Can you locate them?¡± (Ari)

    ¡±Yes I can. But you won¡ät be able to move meanwhile.¡± (Mountain spirit)

    That could be a problem. I need to move to take sudden actions. Explosion could come unnoticed by me. I need to know perfect moment to do it. Close but not too close. Time essence could come in handy but my level isn¡ät anywhere close enough.

    I¡äm not capable of using essence of spirits to their fullest capability. For that reason spirits uses my mana to use skills but one at the time. In addition I can¡ät change it to other fast. There is going to be time between uses. This is big reason why neutral essence isn¡ät popular. You hardly can do anything in sudden situations. I know explosion is going to happen but weakness is still causing problems. There is still one thing which is going good for me. Neutral essence can¡ät essence collapse. Well, that is what people are thinking at current time.

    Neutral essence is peculiar by how magic break down. It does but extremely small amount. For this reason it is popular essence to use to form barriers or other defensive magic. Only way to cause neutral essence to collapse it do it on purpose. When normal essence collapse happens so of energy is used to form it. For this reason directing collapse¡äs direction is impossible. Neutral essence doesn¡ät have that problem. It is in user full control. Direction, power, effect, duration and finally side effects. It is no wonder why I used my damaged mana flow to use neutral essence to cause collapses. My damaged mana flow made it even stronger and faster. My body naturally caused these occurences easily. It is different now. I might make careless mistakes if I don¡ät give myself some room to move.

    ¡±Sure. Go a head. If you won¡ät find them in ten seconds then cancel it.¡± (Ari)

    By calling time limit beforehand helps with speed. Before starting I took some saber-toothfox¡äs fangs and casted beginner beast essence magic. It is called animal instinct. It can sense some harmful and dangerous presences by vibrating. Magic causing explosions will always cause some murderous intent. These fangs will notice them for sure.

    Nothing was wound in first ten seconds. That means about 3 minutes of this road is save. I should try again 2 minutes later. For now I should rst and look outside. If I stay tense then it causes more problems than help. I can¡ät expect something is going to happen the whole road. How knows. Maybe something I caused avoided it from happening. Not likely but I should take a break when I can.

    Toilet where I¡äm saying has a window. Many mountains were going past me with quick speed. Everything was easy to see. Sun wasn¡ät the only thing up. I couldn¡ät see the sun. I saw the moon. It was full. It was even sending moon halo. There isn¡ät many times when something like this was seen. Especially in summer but high up here ice halos could happen.

    I was calm for sometime until I noticed two minutes were gone.

    ¡±Can you start again with same way¡­?¡±

    Unfortunately I got heavy headache suddenly before I could finish. Same time my fangs started to vibrate heavily. What is going on? Why now? How could these two happen at same time?

    ¡±Sealed gate is reacting. You have partly awakened it. You cleared one condition to free it.¡± (Beast spirit)

    He sounded bot happy and afraid. I have to remove this feeling fast. I can¡ät fight in these circumstances.

    ¡±Please help me to remove this feeling away. Not to mention others I can¡ät even help myself as I¡äm.¡±

    ¡±Best way is to fully awaken it.¡± (Time spirit)

    ¡±Can you do it?¡± (Wind spirit)

    What do you think? I don¡ät know what is there. How could I know the way to release it? I have to stop this awakening. It is shame but I don¡ät have a choice.

    Stopping spirit awakening is easy but side effects are severe. It might cause awakening to be closed forever or even death.

    Spirits undestood my silence.

    ¡±I might have away to stop it safely but I would take damage for it.¡± (Ice spirit)

    She was asking me take this on my conscience. She hates me very much but same time she saw me all the time in my last life. There is no way that she hasn¡ät got some sort feeling over this time. Unlike other spirits ice essence was strong in me at birth. For this reason when I started to train magic she must have waited for me. I betrayed her even before that. I was going to use fire essence as main. Of course she would feel betrayed by her worst enemy. Back in that time I was young. I didn¡ät even consider spirits¡ä feelings.

    ¡±¡­¡± (Fire spirit)

    Fire spirit was trying to say something but he finally stopped. Fire essence power is way smaller than ice¡äs. In the past they were equal but difference is too big now. Ice spirit is only one how can help me. Beast spirit is his limits. His power were constantly drained by animal instinct. We can¡ät wait any longer. Cruel but logical or naive but selfless options were in front of me. What should I choose?

 Chapter 6. On the run part 1. Necromancer

    I have hobby of reading novels. Thanks to it. I can predict how thing will end up with. Using naive way I can succeed with all of my plans but at same time risk of complete failure will rise. As for being cruel, change of succees will rise but I will loss something.

    Unlike other spirit fire and ice are special. They have seen me all of their lives. They have read the same stories as I. They know the best how I feel. They weren¡ät against me because they hated me. They know what I would loss if they were gone. They were distant because more closer we are more harsher the loss is going to be.

    Why couldn¡ät I see this before? They aren¡ät asking my permission. They are saying good byes. If Ice spirit isn¡ät strong enough then Fire will help too. They must have known this was going to happen. They must know everything that is going on. Why didn¡ät they tell me? Is our thrust this small?

    ¡±I didn¡ät understand you at all. Why would you risk all for me?¡± (Ari)

    No one told me anything. They must have known this before. I was left out. Don¡ät underestimate me. I have experience of one life behind me. Do you think that I can¡ät take on difficult decisions? I¡äm not the same person as past me. It might be because I¡äm young again. I feel like I can do more. I was only logical in my past life. I didn¡ät do anything unordinary. Maybe this was why I read the stories where main would take stray cat to home and raise it. I couldn¡ät do anything like it. I want to be that kind of person in this life. I was happy and I¡äm going to be happy in different way now. I¡äm logical person. I can¡ät get rid of it then I won¡ät try.

    ¡±Please help me. I don¡ät accept failure and lossing you is the worst failure of all. You have no choice but to succeed.¡± (Ari)

    They all came silent. They must have been suprised. I¡äm too but this isn¡ät the time to waste time.

    ¡±We will succeed.¡± (Ice spirit)

    She is such reliable ally.

    Some of my headache has calmed down. At least I can move now. Animal instinct has been reacting so attack is happening soon. I don¡ät need mountain essence. I can deal with this. I came back to my seat. Tyr was waiting for me.

    ¡±You took long time there.¡± (Tyr)

    ¡±Someone is going to attack the train.¡± (Ari)

    I whispered as small voice as I could. If panic arises before the attack then something unexpected might happen. I can¡ät deal with unexpected thing as I¡äm now. I must fight with my own rules and not with the enemy.

    ¡±What are you talking about?¡± (Tyr)

    He must have understood. He was as silent as I was. For in case Wind spirit was using spell silence around us. It was on for nothing. So I cancelled it. I need all the mana as I can get.

    ¡±I was testing my beast magic but it was reacting to strong murderous intent. Do you remember the gorge yesterday? It starts one more kilometer away. That is perfect place to take hijack on.¡±

    I gave him an explanation. I hope he is going to believe me. I couldn¡ät tell him before otherwise he would have asked more questions which I couldn¡ät answer. After we all survive I can tell I hit my head so I don¡ät remember anything.

    ¡±What should I do?¡± (Tyr)

    He was more prepared than I thought. In my mind I was thinking what if he is with them. It was unnecessary thought. He is better friend than I thought. What could have happened to him in my past?

    ¡±I need you to gather all the passengers to front cabin. There is artifact which produce strong defensive shield. You can hide behind it for more than a day. Unfortunately it can only be activated by engine driver in normal circumstances. Terrorist must be targetting him first. Changes of him surviving are slim. If he dies then you have to activate it on your own.¡± (Ari)

    ¡±How can I do it? Why can¡ät you do it?¡± (Tyr)

    ¡±There is notes for manual activation next to it. You must have seen it before. As everyone are coming to front cabin please read them meanwhile. You can do it. I must be elsewhere to make them concentrate on me. I will arrive later. Since you are activating it, you can allow some people enter after activating it.¡± (Ari)

    He nodded. He rose up and started to go to the front to read the notes. It would have been dangerous to go there but my plan was based on essence collapse cancelation. If I¡äm going to survive then both engine driver and Tyr are going to survive.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    I have to choose my retreat road. River, tunnels, mountains, lake and forest which would be the best choice. As beginner neutral essence magician the best place would be far away from the enemy. Being surrounded would be the worst case. River, tunnels and lake are out because of it. In the river attacks would be coming from both shores. In the tunnel everything is going from one direction without change of retreat. In the lake it is easy to trap me against it. If I had strong water, rock or earth magic then I would consider. Mountains and forest are my only choices. My magic would be stronger in the mountains but it give enemy empty line of sight. I could take cover in the forest.

    I have to choose depending on what kind of magician is against me.

    At that moment I noticed change in mana around me. One trait of it was strange to me. It wasn¡ät offensive spell. It belonged to supporting kind. It was magic which cause magical artifacts to malfunktion.

    I get it. Its purpose is cause defensive artifact to malfunktion which causes explosion. No wonder everything was kept hidden from the people. Low lever magic which can cause artifacts to explode would change market of artifact heavily. People trust artifacts very much but if there is found way to use them against the people how own them then it causes panic and unrest. This was wanted to avoid.

    There was still one trait which was weird to me. It wasn¡ät using any common magic. It was one sect od dark magic called as necromancy. Biggest weakness of neutral magic in battle against other magic is necromancy. Necromancer can bring to life death people as mindless being. For this reason their magic become extremely weak compared to their alive once. Neutral magicians are big exception to this. For this reason necromancers are hunting strong neutral magicians as they pleases.

    In my past rank 4 witch was necromancer. She wanted to buy my death body to her research. She was the reason why I wanted desperately cremation. I wasn¡ät neutral magician back then but I was close to it. For this reason she had big fascination for my body. That sounded so wrong but that is the most correct answer.

    ¡±This is going to be bad more than one way.¡±

    I have seen necromancers to stop their work if they found promising neutral magician. It isn¡ät no suprise that there isn¡ät any neutral magic witches. They won¡ät live old enough to become one¡äs.

    ¡±Neutral veil.¡± (Ari)

    I used spell neutral veil. It was unique magic which belonged only to neutral magic. It was middle rank spell which produces defensive veil around target. Once casted it doesn¡ät spent or disappear until it takes enough damage. It also doesn¡ät spent lot of magic. Unfortunately it was middle class neutral magic. So it was stronger than my capacity. Nevertheless it caused essence collapse which caused necromancer magic from targetting artifact and also defended artifact from activating for a moment. Thanks to it I know now were the enemy is and also which class of magic is used against us.

    Squeak!!!

    Trains engine was overheating because of violent magic use. I have to shout to warn the people.

    ¡±Group of people are running right towards us! They must be going to hijack the train!¡± (Ari)

    Scream!!!

    Panic rised up fast. I have no time for them. My headache was getting worst all the sudden. I don¡ät notice any magic use against me. Sealed gate must be reacting even stronger. I have to trust Ice spirit and others.

    ¡±Hurry up and go to the mountains!¡± (Beast spirit)

    He must have noticed something. There isn¡ät moment to waste. It doesn¡ät matter that window is in my path.

    Crash!!!

    I jumped out of the window and I spun along the road without looking behind me. I was going toward the mountains. No enemies were in front of me. There must have hardly any participants on this mission. Otherwise how would leave other side of tracks unguarded. Well, it works for me.

    There was three mountains in front of me. Should I rise or circle them?

    ¡±You must rise up.¡± (Mountain spirit)

    I see. There must be traps in pass. Unlike Beast spirit Mountain can give advises ahead of time before Beast. There isn¡ät hardly anything which can be hidden from them here.

    ¡±Forget passengers. Go capture the fugitive.¡± (?)

    It was voice of young woman. She must be close to my age or older. She must be the necromancer. Plan to distract was huge success. Only thing I have to do it to survive about six to twelve hours. It is easy, right?

    I¡äm so happy how my fitness is. It isn¡ät as good as my prime one but it is way better than my final years. I can rise up without getting winded. I can concentrate how things are behind me.

    ¡±How things are behind me?¡± (Ari)

    ¡±It looks good. There is good distance between us and the enemy. She is necromancer how is commanding close to 200 basic level zombies. Most of them concentrate on strenght but there is few how are spellcasters with fire offensive magic. There is also 20 mid level swamp rats and finally one mid level spear master. Spearmaster is close to the necromancer, swamp rats are trying to siege you from the flanks and zombies are mindlessly chasing you while keeping spellcasters save.¡± (Fire spirit)

    Fire spirit gave out exactly the information which I wanted. It was usual formation against people how are escaping and are needed alive. I have seen this formation many times. The fastest are going for the flanks. The weakest are keeping target in constant move. Finally strongest one keeps caster save and deals finishing blow.

    It was simple but it works because it is simple. Only weakness that I can see is lack of flying creatures. In this case open mountain is way better place for battle than forest. Of course this would be the case if I could take everyone of them on. I¡äm not strong enough to kill all of them. My body isn¡ät used to fighting. Even if I have knowledge of martial arts, I can¡ät show them at the level they used to be at.

    I might be strong enough to kill spearmaster but surrounding zombies will take me in return. Good thing that I don¡ät need to kill them. I have to just survive without getting captured. At least there is one category where I¡äm way stronger than she. That is experience.

    Being young and experienced in battle can make me overpowered against young enemy. I will challenge you to battle of survival.

 Chapter 7. On the run part 2. Which gender?

    ¡±Why are you chasing me?¡± (Ari)

    I hope you will tell me your whole plan. Most amateur will tell their plans when they will confident about their victory. Even if she is lying, it tells a lot about her. I can take that change and use it against her. I must present myself weak and scared kid. I must take every change that I can get to buy time for me.

    Retreating back to train would be useless too. It was lie that I could enter inside the barrier. After six hours are passed this moment then I can approach back here. For now I must get as far away from here as I can.

    ¡±Why would I tell you?¡± (Necromancer)

    This is bad. She won¡ät be telling me anything. She has a big ego. She won¡ät allow any failure. She thinks that she can get me fast. This is reason why she let the rest behind. She must be alone and working as someone¡äs apprentice. Once she knows that she can¡ät accomplish the plan then she will take it out to me. First two hours will go swimmingly for sure but after is she will come desperate. I must find how her character works in that time. The best way to do it is to make a game.

    ¡±If I guess correctly, can you let me go?¡± (Ari)

    ¡±¡­¡± (Necromancer)

    Intence running to the mountain.

    Meanwhile necromancer and zombies were left far behind. Only swamp rats were close to me. They were starting to prepare attacking me. Its purpose is the most likely test my powers.

    At first two rats were attacking from opposite directions. I could coordinate both attacks at same time but I choosed to pretent to be weaker than I¡äm. I blocked one rat going across a rock and other rat was killed by throwing a rock. I also took its low sword as weapon. It was badly rusted. Even if hit it only would deal mediorger damage. Of course even small damages would slow me down. I must avoid them but given perfect change to attack caster then I could take few attacks. Of course these two might have been given worst weapons on purpose. If I was her master then I have ordered her to do it that way. I must find out how capable master she has.

    Other rat was killed fast by low sword. I didn¡ät have a plan to take its weapon. It must be as bad as this. This low sword can be only used 5 times effectively.

    ¡±Impressive. You could deal with those two.¡± (Necromancer)

    She was playing with me. I wasn¡ät angry because I was doing the same. She had used group necromancy magic to rise moving speed of every monster. She must be frustrated to get left far behind. Her voice was heard many hundreds of meters away. I would have not used such spell in this moment. She must be thinking that I was slowing down. Unfortunately I¡äm not carrying anything. I can easily run this fast for hours. For this reason I speed up for two minutes even swamp rats were left behind.

    ¡±Can we talk now?¡± (Ari)

    I can¡ät pretent to be too weak. It might cause possible allies to strike when I don¡ät want them.

    ¡±I won¡ät tell you anything.¡± (Necromancer)

    Unlike the first time she sounded tired and breathless. Her heavy breathing can¡ät be faked otherwise battle power would decrease. No one would pretent so far against unknown enemy.

    ¡±I can make a deal with you.¡± (Ari)

    ¡±¡­¡± (Necromancer)

    ¡±We both need to rest so let¡äs make a treaty for this night.¡± (Ari)

    It was true. I wasn¡ät tired physically but my mind was heavily damaged. I was worried about Ice spirit and how sealed gate was doing.

    ¡±I allow it.¡± (Necromancer)

    She must be tired but I can¡ät let my guard down. She will surround me for sure and attack when she has rested enough. This will only buy me half a hour at most. Two minutes are all I need.

    I went to top of the steep mountain. There was only one way which her monsters could use to get to me. I can barricade in it for small time. Her spellcaster zombies will cause problems for me in a long run. To no suprise I was surrounded from every direction. Too bad these monsters can¡ät attack me in meantime.

    ¡±How is things going with you?¡± (Ari)The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡±It is difficult to explain without showing you at first. More like I don¡ät want to explain.¡± (Fire spirit)

    What did happen?

    I entered into my consciousness. What I ended to see was nothing. More accurately Ice and Beast spirit weren¡ät seen anywhere around.

    ¡±Where those two are?¡± (Ari)

    ¡±Try figure out that on your own.¡± (Time spirit)

    She was very angry and she had pity look on her face. Something terrible must have happened. My only clues were facts that both Beast and Ice were gone, sealed gate was reacting and finally no one is willing to talk about it.

    There is only two reasons why spirit would disappear from neutral essence user. The first one being essence out. Since only spirits with strong share in mana can embody themselves if there isn¡ät enough essence then they would disappear. Ice essence is strong but beast essence was weak so that isn¡ät impossible but why stay quiet about it. The second option would be essence change. It is spirit evolving to something else. Most commonly into stronger form but I haven¡ät done anything to make something like that to happen.

    ¡±Really. You don¡ät know.¡± (Time spirit)

    She was even angrier than before. For some reason she didn¡ät understand why I don¡ät understand it. Thankfully Mountain spirit started to explain carefully in shame.

    ¡±You know we spirit will embody our bodies mix your idea of how we would look. For this reason we don¡ät have genders but you made us become part of one gender. Do you understand so far?¡± (Mountain spirit)

    ¡±Yes?¡± (Ari)

    I couldn¡ät understand why he was talking about something like this all the sudden.

    ¡±You really don¡ät understand.¡± (Mountain spirit)

    I have nothing to say.

    ¡±Let me tell you another way. When you think how we look or you see us for the first time then our appearance can¡ät be changed. So. Do you have idea how things are now? Please don¡ät picture anything.¡± (Mountain spirit)

    I don¡ät feel so good. My whole body is screaming not to think just about anything. All my warning signals were warning me not to take any hasty actions. For some reason their strange looks made very good sense. They were trying to keep both me and Ice spirit save. We can forget about Beast spirit. For some reason it seemed like Beast spirit was screaming about how I was thinking. This must be just my imagination.

    Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts. Butterflies are flying in beautiful meadow. People are smiling and happy. Big fox¡äs was brought for the festival. No there isn¡ät any male beast here. Let¡äs think about winter. Everything is beautiful white. People are wearing beautiful leather jackets. The most beautiful person was wearing beautiful fox leather jacket. She was white all around. Unlike old people she looked beautiful and young. Certainly she must be mst beautiful person in the winter. It is such a shame that it is summer now.

    My danger signals were constantly calming down. I had feeling that everything was going to be fine. This was the second most scariest thing that I have experienced ever before. I¡äm happy that is over now.

    ¡±Is it okey to see her?¡± (Ari)

    Spirits seemed to be finally calm. They looked to the sealed gate and gave a okej signal to somebody that I couldn¡ät see behind it. Behind it young woman how I pictured revealed herself. She had incredible happy look in her face. I don¡ät even care what happened before.

    ¡±Thank you.¡± (Woman)

    ¡±You welcome. For what reason you are thanking me? Ai!¡± (Ari)

    Fire spirit hit me behind my head.

    ¡±Thank you.¡± (Woman)

    ¡±How should I call you?¡± (Ari)

    ¡±Ice werewolf spirit would be fine for now.¡± (Ice werewolf spirit)

    My past and present were going fast in my mind. I could finally understand what is was. I was half awakened ice werewolf essence user. No wonder I couldn¡ät use magic properly in my past. Unlike werewolves ice were wolves are close to unknown. In fact I knew only one ice werewolf in my past and he was part of demon army¡äs high ranks.

    That isn¡ät important. What is important, is how should I use this newly gained strenght against my enemy. In the end hardly anything changed. I had decent change on succeeding without any power up. This does instead complicate things. What if I change my form suddenly and loss my reason. That would be bad in many ways. Under these circumstances avoiding use of both beast and ice essence is must. In other words my most powerful magic is out and I don¡ät get any warnings from Beast spirit. This could become difficult.

    ¡±Nice to meet you Ice werewolf spirit. For now I want to avoid using your skill before I test them in save place and time.¡± (Ari)

    ¡±Looking forward working with you.¡± (Ice werewolf spirit)

    She doesn¡ät act like either of them. Combined spirits are rare but there is few although most of them might be kept as secret and for a good reason. Even still that spirit should act like both of them or only one personality stays. Which of the two might be the case here?

    I have feeling that she has Ice spirit¡äs mind. It think so because of she is a girl. It would be strange if Beast spirit was in control. By the way I haven¡ät observed enough how these spirits are. It must be because I had clear in mind how they looked from people how had seen them before.

    Light and Dark were fuzzy so I can¡ät see them clearly. I have no idea what sex they might be. Fire is big bearded man with powerful muscles and tall figure. Man with ruffian face was best depiction. Mountain looks like any normal young man. It is scare how normal he looks. It might be because I had gotten used to see my villages faces so Mountain spirit took the most normal kind of face. At least it is easy to look at him. Wind spirit is the problem. He looks exactly like my adult self in my thirties. Some reason when I asked how wind spirit looked then they would say that we look alike. No kidding. We look exactly the same. This is all your fault. Finally Time can be forgotten forever.

    ¡±Au! That hurt!?¡± (Ari)

    ¡±Sorry. I had feeling that I should pinch you.¡± (Time spirit)

    I have nothing to say to her.

    In the end I know they are save and no headache would strike me suddenly. My powers were limited but also grown for now. I should rest my eyes for now since Beast spirit won¡ät be warning me no longer. I must trust Mountain spirit to this work.

 Chapter 8. On the run part 3. Reveal

    ¡±Enemy is moving.¡± (Mountain)

    It took longer than I thought. One hour has passed since treaty was made. She must not have good fitness. She is disgrace to all magic users. This is exactly the reason why so many died when demons came here. I¡äm not ideal either but I would cause shame to my own kind. Well. In truth I wasn¡ät exactly magic user. I should get used to my new identity. That reminds me. She is the reason why I lost my voice. I should pay it up in return.

    Fortunately there is only one path where all those zombies can come from.

    ¡±Mountain echo.¡± (Ari)

    My spell caused loud sound. Normally this spell is only used to disturb, wake, taunt and warn allies but this spell¡äs true power can only be revealed here in mountains. This spell gives 100% change to cause an avalanche.

    Ten or so zombies were burried alive. Well, it isn¡ät much of difference compared to before. I almost can feel necromancer¡äs angre all the way here. She won¡ät be as stupid as before. I should make her even angrier.

    ¡±There is only three options left to you.¡± (Ari)

    ¡±One! You orders zombie group after another until my spell can¡ät be used no longer. That would be the worst choice for you.¡± (Ari)

    ¡±Two! You order your spearmaster after me at first and bring everyone over here when I try to survive against him. That would be mediogre choice.¡± (Ari)

    ¡±Three! You use your spellcaster to flatten this mountain top. That would be great choice. Don¡ät you agree.¡± (Ari)

    I almous can feel her frustration. Truth be told I experienced very simiral circumstances in my past. Unfortunately my enemy left out correct choice out. Like I did just now. I can deal with all problems without much suffering except one. She could use her swamp rats to climb from different directions. I would have no choice but charge from the front.

    ¡±Why are you telling me all of this?¡± (Necromancer)

    She is certainly different from me. I didn¡ät ask anything back then. Maybe I can pay more time or even negotiate with her. I should test the waters.

    ¡±To make you choose the wrong answer.¡± (Ari)

    I like these moments when I don¡ät need to lie to keep everything as a secret. Necromancers¡ä have skill called lie detection. It is same kind of skill like animal instinct but it belongs only to necromancers. It is also always on. As time passes such skills become automatic for me too. She must be scared if I have many such useful automatic skills too. Unfortunately I gained these skills only yesterday. I¡äm not anywhere close to use them without prior warning. This must be her first neutral magician hunt. She is scared of what I¡äm capable of.

    ¡±Don¡ät try to deceive me. I know what you are doing.¡± (Necromancer)

    ¡±Unfortunately knowing does nothing good for you without decisions.¡± (Ari)

    ¡±Shut up!¡± (Necromancer)

    For a moment her hood came down so I could see her face. It took only moment to see until her face was covered up again but it was enough. I saw her face and hair. It was long blond with pigtails to her sides. I actually know her.

    She is second child of commander Topi from second division. Her name is Ruut. She was one of my best friends.

    ¡±I¡äm suprised.¡± (Ari)

    ¡±What are you so suprised about!?¡± (Ruut)

    Ups. I was talking aloud again. This is too dangerous. She is actually Ruut. I can¡ät believe this. I know she has done some heinous stuff but this. I can¡ät believe this. She was the one how trapped me and destroyed my voice. In second thought this might explain why she was so odd around me. She must have known that we had meet before, after I told about my past. I should prank her.

    ¡±There is a bee inside your hood.¡± (Ari)

    ¡±Ahh!¡± (Ruut)

    It was inhuman sound. Seems like she already has apiphobia. How could have guessed that this would come to use? She used to command undeath bee army in the my past. The way she fought was so different compared to past so I could figure out Ruut was the necromancer. Reason why she is scared of bees isn¡ät because of allergy. She had lost her friend to them and she always feel guilty when bees sting someone. It always causes the bee to die. Thanks to these strong feelings she gained great strenght and approval from people. She was one of few necromancers how could walk openly in streets.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    ¡±Just kidding.¡± (Ari)

    I showed her my tongue. She must know that I know how she is indirectly. She must be desperate to kill me to keep this as secret. How should give her another option.

    ¡±We can negotiate. You haven¡ät caused any crimes. If someone has caused any harm then it would be me. I caused essence collapse which broke the train engine. You could say that you chased suspicious person living unmoving train. I would become the suspicious one that way. Of course I have ally in the train how knows the truth. We won¡ät do anything if you do something for us in return.¡± (Ari)

    ¡±What are you offering?¡± (Ruut)

    ¡±I want you to help us to find somebody. More accurately the one how you were going to sell passengers to. I¡äm working on these strange disappearances. I don¡ät need location but I want names of people involved. How ever they might be?¡± (Ari)

    To very end no name was revealed except guiltless ones. I don¡ät need location since I know were it is also my words gives out that I know quite a lot. Topi and Ruut weren¡ät people how like to do human trafficking. There must be serious reason behind this.

    ¡±I can¡ät tell you any names. They are fake names even still I can¡ät tell them. I¡äm sorry. Could you let my family out of this?¡± (Ruut)

    Even now she isn¡ät going back to train. Could it be that I¡äm her actual target from the start? It wasn¡ät like this in the past. There can only be one choice. Among the enemies there must be a fortune teller. No that can¡ät be right. I wasn¡ät surroundedwhen I was in the train. No fortune teller would let out such weakness. Could it be? They want to be found out. For what reason? I can¡ät understand. I must make sure whatis her objective.

    ¡±What was your goal when you attacked the train? Why would you chase me and let everyone go? Isn¡ät your succees more important than me?¡± (Ari)

    ¡±What are you talking about? My purpose was keep you out from the train for one hour. My job is already done. I just have to escape somehow.¡±

    ¡±F**k!¡± (Ari)

    They fooled me completely. Their goal was make me guilty for this train accident. Ruut¡äs job was to keep me occupied. This can¡ät be happening. Enemy must have seen everything. I was too overconfident. They must have played it save keep wildcard like me out of the picture. They could know that I¡äm ice werewolf in the worst case.

    ¡±You are free to go away.¡± (Ari)

    I have to calmly analyse what I should do next. Train could be trapped. All passengers might be kidnapped or killed. Wait a moment. What was Tyr doing when I left?

    ¡±Mountain. Can you found out what is happening in the train?¡± (Ari)

    ¡±Sure. I start right away.¡± (Mountain)

    ¡±I was sure that we were playing mind games while pretenting to fight for real. Actually. It was opposite. You sure aren¡ät meanted to be leader.¡± (Time)

    Time was putting more salt to my wounds. So ironic with so many ways. Sure. I deserved this. I was pretending to be leader while I was alone. No. I have Tyr. I should trust him. He wouldn¡ät make such mistakes when I warned him ahead of time. There isn¡ät reason to hesitate. Passengers are save for sure. I have to believe it. I have to go to the train as fast as possible.

    ¡±Sorry for you. Less than two hours wasn¡ät enough to other accomplish their share of work.¡± (Ari)

    Ruut was suprised about how fast I run past her army and her. Speed wasn¡ät the largest reason for her suprise. Ari¡äs big smiling face was her largest suprise. How could someone be so happy under these circumstances. She hasn¡ät seen anyone like him before. It feels like I could do the same too.

    ¡±Do you want good or bad news at first?¡± (Mountain)

    Normally I would have choosen good news to last but I want to perk up myself.

    ¡±You choose.¡± (Ari)

    Mountain spirit doesn¡ät like sudden changes since I¡äm happy now he will tell good news at first.

    ¡±Unknown enemies are inside the train with passengers.¡± (Mountain)

    How is that good news? Enemy being there is obvious. It does tell at least some passengers are still in train.

    ¡±As for bad news your ice werewolf essence is starting to activate.¡± (Mountain)

    What? That might explain my fast moving speed. Should I be transforming? There isn¡ät any such change happening. Normally werewolf essence would cause user¡äs whole body to change. It is big weakness to werewolves. There is large difference between those two changes.

    ¡±How is it happening? Wasn¡ät our intention keep her out of this. Why would you let her do it?

    ¡±She hasn¡ät done anything. You are doing it on your own. It has become your instinct. You shouldn¡ät think yourself as werewolf. You are ice werewolf. There must be damn good reason why hardly anybody has heard of them. They most likely are hiding both information and themselves from others. If this is the case then they are highly intelligent group of werewolves.¡± (Fire)

    ¡±Are you hinting that ice werewolf can keep full control and power in both beast and human form?¡±

    ¡±I¡äm not claiming anything. You are free to do your own decisions.¡± (Fire)

    At least there isn¡ät any pressure put to my muscles. I can continue moving forward but problem might happen after a while. I should hold back for now. I should save it until moment when this skill is truly needed arises. There has been plenty of people how came drunk over their newly gained power. I¡äm not going to be like them. I have made already huge mistake. That I can fix but in future isn¡ät certain.

    Maybe Fire was right. I¡äm suprisingly calm and collected while running. Reason behind it can¡ät be just past experience. I might have survived in my past thanks to these partly awakened powers but what caused it to open. To werewolves condition is massacre in full moon.