That night, as always, the young version of Regis sleeps together with his sister, Reena.
Based on Arias' observation since that morning, the siblings have a very close relationship and Regis said so too. Thinking that this night will be a hell for the two, Arias can't help herself but pity them for this.
It was close to midnight, as those thoughts are running through Arias mind, Regis' voice suddenly resounded inside her head telling her to be alert.
'Be ready, Arias. The enemies should already surround the whole village by now. In just a few minutes, their assault will begin.'
'The following scenes will be very brutal; you'll see many people die. Children, elders, men and women, none of them will be spared. Should we stop this by now? I'm not underestimating you but you're still young and innocent. Do you really want to see all of this?'
Regis knew that Arias doesn't have any real experience and her still yet to see what a real life and death situation looks like, what's more, if it is a one-sided massacre like this where she will witness the true ugliness of humanity; their greed for power and fame, so he preemptively asked her if she wanted to see all of it.
Hearing this warning from Regis, it made Arias lost in thought; after all, she fully understands what means by that. After a few moments of carefully thinking about her answer, Arias suddenly made a small smile, with her eyes brimming with confidence. Then she said—
"Yes! The seven years old you managed to stomach and survive all of this but I, who was just watching this, cant? There's no way that I, Arias Ella Edinburgh, will allow this. After all, I am your girlfriend, right?"
Hearing this answer, for the second time Regis was really glad that Arias is the girl he loves; the girl who gave light to his dark world when he has nothing.
'Thank you, Arias. You never betrayed my expectations. Hahaha! Here it comes! The moment that change my destiny—the moment of my complete darkness…'
BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*crassssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!*
*rumble!* *rumble!* *rumble!*
Exactly after Regis finished his declaration, loud sounds of explosions erupted everywhere that woke up the whole village. Then, the loud explosions were followed by the screams of some villagers.
—The attack of the forbidden magic practitioners!
Arias quickly run outside to see what's happening to the village. As she passes through the wall because she's not affected by anything, she instantly arrived outside the shrine and from where she was standing, she saw everything…
*BOOOOOMMMMM!*
*rumble!* *rumble!* *rumble!*
Another explosion erupted inside the village. The villagers that got caught instantly died leaving only their tattered, burned body. The houses and every structure were set on fire. Even the forests are being incinerated by the forbidden magic practitioners' fire mages.
A few moments later, the shrine was also attacked by the enemies. A huge fireball headed straight to the shrine; surely, it will instantly kill everyone inside the building.
Because of that, Arias unconsciously tries to activate her spell but she was once again reminded by Regis that there's nothing she can do. Arias can only watch everything happens while biting her lower lip in frustration.
"--!! This kind of thing!!!!!"
Without anything to block the huge fireball incoming to the shrine, the explosion of the fireball made the whole shrine blown into pieces. Burning debris scattered in the surroundings like a fountain.
Thankfully the old priest who takes care of the shrine was a retired Grand Master Magician so he was able to protect himself and the children from the explosion and falling debris.
The children from the shrine were too shocked by this sudden attack. Almost every child cried as some even pissed their pants because of fear and few lose their consciousness because of the overwhelming fear.
Watching this scene in the sidelines, Arias' tear began to fall; surely she's feeling a mixed emotion of sympathy for those innocent children and frustration because she can't do anything but watch.
Amongst the children, the young Regis is also crying as he hugs tightly his little sister, Reena like he's trying to protect her. Inside the embrace of his brother, Reena too was crying, clearly because she's also scared of what's happening to them.
The old priest cleared the fallen debris that blocking the escape route using his magic. He gathered the children to lead them to a safe place. The young Regis carried Reena on his back while they started their escape but the reality is too cruel that it won't allow them to easily escape.
Standing in front of them was a man clad black robe, a forbidden magic practitioner. In his hand, he holds a long, black, eerie staff.
As the old priest and the children entered his view, the black-robed magician invoked a high ranked restraining spell that instantly rendered everyone helpless. Even the old priest who was once a Grand Master Magician can't do anything about their enemy.
After restraining everyone, the black-robed magician continued to cast another magic; magic that even Arias widen her eyes in surprise.
She clearly saw everyone in that scene vanish like smoke. Because of that, Arias was left standing alone in the burnt forest near the end of the village. With that being the case, Regis manipulated the scene and change it.
Instantly, the whole scene instantly changed and Arias is now standing at the central plaza of the Tomana Village. And in that place, she saw the priest and the children sitting on the ground together with the other surviving villagers.
"That magic the enemy used… Was that a teleportation magic?"
Arias was deeply surprised by the magic the enemy used. She can't believe that in this incident, she will witness very rare magic like teleportation magic.
Only a few magicians can use teleportation magic because of it a specialty of the rare space element mages. The function of teleportation magic is almost similar to the Magia's Portal that it will enable the caster to instantly move to another place regardless of the distance.
Although the function of the two magic is the same, the teleportation magic used by a mage requires a great amount of mana control and also it also requires the caster's knowledge of the terrain to safely move to that place.
'Yes, that was teleportation magic and a very high leveled too. As you saw earlier, he was able to transfer that amount of people with him. Even for a normal Grand Master Magician, that feat will be very difficult.'
"Then, that one was a high ranked one. Tch! Looks like your enemies are very capable."
'Yeah… That's why I left the empire in the past to prepare myself for the incoming battle.'
As the two are conversing, the progress of the assault of the enemies suddenly slowed down. Their earlier aggressiveness is nowhere to be seen from their movements. What the enemies are doing now is gathering all the living captives to the plaza.
Half an hour had passed when the enemies stopped searching and five black-robed mages approached the captives. From the behavior of the other black-robed mages to those five black-robed mages, one can already tell that they are the high ranked ones and also, the one who used the teleportation magic is among them.
From the five, the one in the middle, who is most likely the leader, raised his scepter; a scepter adorned with black chains and thorns and has a bloody red crystal at its top, then he chanted a very short incantation for his magic to activate. Although Arias was standing close to that mage, she cannot hear anything the black-robed man said.
'Look closely, Arias. You'll now witness the true ugliness of those mages.'