Das steps outside the palace's main gate to find himself in front of wide stone paths with marching guards wearing their full armour and carrying heavy bags of flour from their backs, all while a man on a horse yells at them to move forward no matter what.
Now so close to the city, he could hear clearer than never the noisy streets and even smell the freshly baked bread.
He soon reaches an almost perfectly cut circular stone at the level of the ground. It is decorated with carefully done symbols and a single large orb in the middle, just like the one in his staff.
Standing right above said orb, Drachen climbs higher from his neck and speaks to his ear, grabbing it with her tiny hands and pulling it closer to her. An occurrence that seems to slightly annoy Das.
"Remember, focus on the mana flowing through the land and find the focus point." She tells him lightly tugging from his ear.
"I know how to do this, Drachen. Don't worry about it" Das takes in a big breath and places his staff in front of him.
"Yes, yes. But it would be pathetic my thousands of years old butt gets turned into mush because you lost concentration" She shook his ear with each word.
"I've done this before" He said between his teeth.
"ONCE! with the help of your old man, who had thirty-five years of experience!" Drachen pulled his ear so hard, Das's head turned to the side "I don't wanna swap my ass with my face! I couldn't even find release in death if that happened!!" She yelled in a fearful and childish manner.
"Stop behaving like a KID!" Das shouted as he shook his head from side to side furiously, making Drachen scream as she was sent flying out of his hood "And the only thing making me lose concentration is you! so be silent this time, I'm nervous enough already"
Drachen, who sat on the floor staring at Das with squinting eyes, growled and launched herself at high speed back to his hood.
Remaining silent for a brief moment, Das relaxed when the little fairy didn't snap back at him. Regaining his composure, he redied for the spell.
Holding the staff in front of him with both hands firmly on it, he closed his eyes and concentrated. At first, it was all darkness, but as he focused on the mana in the air around him, white slow-moving lines began appearing from all directions.
They stretched so far that they vanished into the shadows of the obscurity surrounding him, soon the yells from the man on the horse, the heavy footsteps, groaning men, and the noise of the city all went quiet. It was in this complete isolation that he knew it was the moment to do it.
"Ruhenwind, Eversmile" He whispered out loud and the white lines answered.
All of them became as thin as hair strands, except for one.
Outside of his mind, the black painted symbols began shinning white as a mist appeared from nowhere and rapidly got thicker. Swallowing the archmage's body from the feet to the head in almost an instant. Electricity too joined the mist in ever-increasing quantities. the orb from his staff glowing with bright light.
Back inside, the one white line that didn't shrink created a branch, like roots, that stretched towards the mage until they replaced the darkness with complete white.
At that moment, a powerful beam of lighting launched itself from where the archmage stood. Erasing the mist and returning the stone to normal in an instant. The beam too disappeared, leaving behind no trace of Das.
In a nearby forest, lighting struck an open groove, leaving the archmage standing still.
When he opened his eyes, he couldn't help but smile as he held his staff closer to him, a sense of pride and self-fulfilment washing over him. This was however brief as he heard Drachen throw a shrieking scream as she flew out of his hood.
"What's wrong?!" He asked with clear concern on his face.
Drachen then turned around, showing him that now her naked butt laid where her face should be. For a second Das was mortified, but before he said anything, the shock of the moment vanished as he remembered one important fact about his fairy companion.
Who's butt face then shifted and morphed around until her usual, mockingly wide shark-like smile returned to where it belonged.
"Hehehe! you fell for-" A small lighting coming from Das's fingertips made her shriek in pain, this time for real "How DARE you!" She exclaimed indignantly.
"Not everything is a game, blood fly" He replied, irritated for being tricked.
"Hmph!" Drachen crossed her arms in front of her chest and pouted, then turned her back on him and flew upwards "I'm gonna get some fresh air, being surrounded by your lame mana essence is really tiring sometimes!"
She flew until she hovered above all of the dense pine trees, she could see the far away scattered mountains from the west coast of the land, deep into unknown territory. This sense of freedom turned her pouting into a joyful and excited grin.
Taking a deep breath she inhaled the intoxicating smell of the earth and moist wood. But more importantly, the fresh mana from the trees and wildlife.
But the pleasing aroma of life soon got tainted by the heavy and potent smell of death and fire.
"What is this?" She thought covering her face with both hands "It's too strong! this can't be good" turning around she prepared to go back to Das but stopped as her eyes saw the rising smoke columns coming from not so far away.
"Hey! come down already!" Das shouted at the fairy "We shouldn't be too far away from the village-"
The rushing fairy fell down from above like a stone and covered his mouth with her hands. Das was about to force her away thinking she was messing around, but as soon as he saw the serious expression on her face he stops.
"Don't talk loud, look there" She released him and moved away, pointing behind him.
He turned around and his eyes widened as he noticed the thin but numerous columns of black smoke from afar.
"The village, the bandits must have grown tired of waiting for the ransom payments for the people they have captured and are setting houses on fire as punishment" Das theorized as he looked at the green grass beneath his feet.
"He can't smell it" Drachen thought.
She grew uneasy as she stared at Das trapped deep in thought. While he could see what she could, he couldn't smell or feel what she did. It wasn't only fire, there had been several deaths, a slaughter more likely.
"We must hurry and be stealthy about it. If I can catch a few on their own I should be able to trap them in stone or make their bodies go rigid" Wasting no time, he began moving forward.
Drachen flew ahead of him.
"Wait, let me be the vanguard" She took off her little cloak and threw it at Das.
She began twisting around in circles and in three seconds her body had changed completely. Now looking like a great horned owl, the feathers that look like eyebrows long and the same size of her body that instead of brown was orange. Slimmer as well.
"Sure, thank you" Das was taken by surprise but figured since they had never actually been in a situation like that, she probably behaved more seriously than usual. He didn't open his mouth to speak, but the words reached Drachen anyways.
"I will tell you if I see a group of them" She answered the same way Das did and gracefully flew inside the forest.
Das walked fast inside the green forest, crushing branches and dry leaves as he went. The sun barely managed to get through the heavy foliage above his head and the tree trunks were so many that visibility itself was difficult.
There was no sign of Drachen either, but by catching a glimpse of the smoke through one of the few holes above him he managed to keep a confident pace towards the village.
Finally, the faint glow of orange light could be seen from the distance, but as he began increasing the speed of his steps, Drachen appeared in front of him forcing him to a sudden halt.
"Did you found them?" Das asked swallowing hard.
"Yes, a group of ten, too big for you to face Das, we should move around the village and find a spot where there are less" Drachen replied instantaneously, hoovering in front of him while slowly moving her wings.
"That many? I'm sure I can deal with them" Das said looking certain despite his initial nervousness.
"Too many, we must go around" Drachen replied now more loudly and commanding than before.
"They have taken this village for two days! The things these villagers must have gone through is too much, we must-" Das took a step forward in defiance but Drachen grew in size as she got close to him, looking almost threatening.
"We must go around" She reaffirmed her statement.
Das took a step back and nervously averted his eyes from her. He was suspicious of her behaviour, but she had been in more situations like that with his father so she probably knew best. Believing that, he looked back at her and nodded.
"This way" Losing no time, Drachen turned right and flew away, leading Das away from the orange light.
This went on for a good while, they moving deeper inside the wood until Das loses track of Drachen only to find her as soon as he has gotten closer to the village. Then be told that there are too many to face on their own and be forced to repeat the process.
"Too many here as well, we must keep looking" Drachen said to him for the sixth time and turned around ready to fly away as before.
"It doesn't matter! I have to help these people Drachen!" Das stood his ground and raised his staff pointing at the orange light visible from beyond the woods.
"There are too many Das, as your teacher I KNOW you are not ready for a fight like that" Drachen rushed so close to him that he had to lean back.
"If there are so many does that mean they are an army?! Isn't this some type of foreign invasion instead?!" Frustrated, Das shouted at her telepathically.
She remained silent for a moment making him think she was considering letting him go ahead. Her now bird features are expressionless making it impossible to know what went cross her mind.
"You are right, this may be a foreign invasion " She said after a moment of silence "Let us return to the palace and inform the General about this, they must be better equipped to deal with them." Having said that, she shrinks in size back to her usual tiny form.
Das considered her words carefully but after a brief moment of silence of his own, he nods.
Repeating the same process from before he gets ready to return while Drachen returns to her fairy form.
"You are a strong boy, Das. I have no doubt of It and I know we haven't been training of late, once we are back, I promise to take your lessons more seriously" Drachen gave him a sympathetic smile, even if his eyes were closed.
"Truth is, I have always trained on my own when you slept, Drachen" Das said as he opened his eyes, now turned completely white.
"No wonder you didn't completely mess up our first teleportation together" She smiled fondly, even proud at her student.
"You really got me there for a second. Made me think I had fixed that awful face of yours" He smirked as electricity began to form around him both of them.
"You are not so lucky, dumbass. Nothing can kill me anyways" She hoovered closer to his face, grabbing it with care and affection.
"I know..." He said out loud, his eyes looking aside for a moment, regret in them "...and I count on it" He looked at her once more, his face now filled with determination.
Catching the change in his voice and his sudden shift in expression, Drachen looked at him confused and by the next second, once she figured out what was about to happen he said the word.
"Return"
The mist swallowed him whole and the last thing she saw was his bright white eyes, then darkness and soon, the surprised guards of the palace staring at her.
She was back to the palace.
"NOO!" She yelled in desperation and immediately shifted back to her owl form. Taking fly with all her energy she propelled herself upwards by dozens of meters as her body burned like an orange shooting star until she reached the clouds, then, she began flying all the way back.
"I must do this, Drachen" He whispered as he stared at the tiny black spot of scorched, smoking grass in front of him.
Das took a moment to steel his nerves and turned towards the orange lights a fairly large distance from him.
He rushed through the forest and soon smelled the burning wood. Yet it felt slightly different to the usual smell.
The picture began to get more clear as he got closer and as it did, the speed of his running turned to jog and once he was close enough, it halted completely.
He watched horrified now with the village in view, almost stepping out of the forest, the origin of the smokes. A large pile of corpses burning.
Men, women and children. They all burned together.
Dozen of long pikes with their heads looking in all directions, some still looked in pain or terror. One directly in front of him, a young girl with red braid hair, looked up. As if asking help from heaven itself.