The dark night sky turned a shade red, wooden houses and other establishments surrounded the the City's residential district burn a bright color, screams and sobs and and the sounds of something collapsing echoed throughout the streets, the burning smoke and the lack of oxygen was Suffocating and the aura of death lingered in the surroundings.
The chaos was despairing, many lives was taken by the flames and help seemed too far away.
Men, women, young and old, All was equal to the fire, death was ever reaching, ever so near within the infernal flames made by the arcane.
'I always wanted to be a mage...' I thought as tears run down from my eyes, holding the burned corpses of my family.
'I want to help people, wanted to make them happy...' my thoughts scattered as I screamed in anger.
'But what is this?! Why did it became like this...' my spirit turned dark with rage, questioning fate from within my being.
The screams and cries and the sounds of burning flesh of what was once people resounded in the background like a twisted song of the cruelty of this worlds reality.
"Mages... They did this..." I muttered in realization.
"Magic... The arcane arts... Because those mages wielded those powers, I've lost everything..." I kept on muttering, a hint of madnesses in my eyes.
Slowly the world turned silent with an exception of the sound of a clock ticking.
The surroundings froze and all color seemed to have been erased from existence, all movement cease as well as all sounds, arcane runes gathered in a massive formation above the burning residential district, illuminating the skies above with it's sickly colorful and detailed patterns.
And with a flash of light, everything turned back to normal, there was no fire, no people screaming and crying and dying, no homes was broken, and everything seemed to return to how it should've been.
I slowly rosed from where I sat, my home empty of life with only I as the exception, the arcane arts are powerful, they can twist reality for their own whims and wishes.
"My friends, my family, the memories of them are slowly fading from my mind, those mages think that they can just twist fate as they wish and cover all their sins by changing reality? Damn..." I said to no one in particular, my tone empty and cold.
"I may forget everything that happened today... But this pain, this anger... It will never fade... I swear... I'll murder ever mage in this accursed city! That, I swear, that I'll Never forget!" I said in an unfeeling and detached tone, my eyes burning with unbearable rage.
I swear it...
Then the ticking clock turned silent.
***
"Ace wake up! We're going to be late for the entrance exams!" A female fox demi-human shook the sleeping Ace who covered himself in a thick blanket.
It was a bright and sunny day with clear blue skies, inside a certain room of an inn, a beautiful fox beast demi-human with beautiful white fur is urging her roommate and best friend, Ace to awaken for the day's special occasion.
It was in the middle of the beginning of the first month of the year and the magic academy's annual apprentice mage selection is almost starting, different races will gather in the academy to try and enrol, but only a limited amount of students are allowed to be admitted.
"Minerva, please stop shaking me, I'm up, and it's still two days away before the selection..." Ace, a normal human with long brown hair and a skinny build said as he slowly raised from where he slept and carefully folded his blankets before wearing his glasses.
"Why did you assume that todey will be our entrance exam? Didn't I reminded you just last night about our schedule for today?" Ace asked looking at Minerva and asked.
The selection will officially starts two days later. A large number of people are starting to gather in the city to try their luck in the academy. Most that came are normal people that has some talent in magic but some of the new arrivals are from distinguish magic families from all over the world.
"Oh... I was mistaken? But I thought..." Minerva slightly paused and took out her pocket watch and started cranking it. "Um, this is awkward, I'm sorry Ace, I think I'm just a little bit excited." Minerva said awkwardly, her face bright red, her fox ears and tail slightly drooping down overall her reactions clearly indicated that she is mildly embarrassed about her error.
"Your just acting like normal, anyway, let's clean ourselves and eat breakfast downstairs, we have a busy schedule ahead of us." Ace said as he slowly turn around and started to undress himself.
Minerva also turn opposite Ace and started to undress herself. Being poor, both Ace and Minerva wa sforced to share a room, over the years, both had became accustomed with each other's presence.
Both Ace and Minerva started to clean themselves with wet rags.
"Minerva, the water's cold, did you forget to ask for a warm water?" Ace asked Minerva, shivering from the cold wet cleaning rags he had just used to clean himself.
"Oh, I didn't forget, you just didn't wake up when our free warm water arrived... Like usual." Minerva said to Ace indifferently while still cleaning herself.
"What do you mean like usual? If I remembered correctly, you were usually the one always waking up late. Today was the only exception." Ace raised his eyebrow slightly confused but then shook his head and quickly finished cleaning himself.
"Are you done?" Ace asked Minerva behind him after clothing himself with a magic robe.
"I am, let's hurry up and eat already, I'm starving." Minerva said finishing earlier that Ace.
Both the fox demi-human and the brown haired youth exited their rooms and came to the inn's dinning area, the tables are mostly empty, not because the inn was unpopular but because most of the inn's patrons has already finished eating and is already doing their businesses for the day, the dinning area is clean and tidy surprisingly, at night, the area is mostly crowded with rowdy adventures and most are not exactly clean or civil, the dining area is mostly messy at night, but probably because of magic, the entire establishment is squeaky clean when dawn arrive.
Both Ace and Minerva sat down in an empty table in the window side, looking over the busy crowd outside going through their day. Hard at work.
"Eye, ye be wake'n late, it'n be close te noon, I'm afraid that ye free breakfast be colder yet." A massive giant of a man, with arms thicker than Ace's waist appeared without a sound behind Ace, effectively making him jump from shock.
"For the love of... Innkeeper, don't surprise me like that." Ace said looking around noticing that gge limited crowd was laughing at his reaction.
Minerva also giggled and look at the innkeeper of the establishment. "Good morning Mr. Innkeeper, we don't mind cold food, since little Ace here decided to wake up late today."
"Oh shut it Minerva, I apologize for not waking up early, but you do know what I'm doing last night right?" Ace said as he composed himself.
Ace is a hard working mage apprentice, even though not yet enrolled in the magic academy, Ace us one if the many genius who was able to teach himself the arcane arts. Just the night before, he was trying to create a special magic grimoire for Minerva to easily study the mystic arcane arts more effectively.
"And Mr. Innkeeper, good morning, and just like what Minerva said, we don't mind cold food." Ace said to the massive innkeeper.
"Eye ye feast be with ye in bout' a second er two." The inkeeper silently Walked back to the kitchen and swiftly came back with a tray of food. "Breakfast is free as usual, ye be enjoy'n yer meal, I'll be off, call out when ye need some'n later." He then disappeared back in the kitchen after preparing the food in Ace and Minerva's table.
Despite the innkeeper's intimidating size, he is a kind and accomodating person who will always serve his customers kindly.
"Corn soup... It would have been delicious if this is warm..." Complained Minerva.
"Again, sorry for that, and your right, it's a pitty." Said Ace. "By the way, why didn't you say breakfast without me?"
"To be completely honest, I didn't wake up much earlier than you." Minerva admitted shyly.
Before Ace can respond, he felt a disturbance in the air. An ominous aura just past by outside the inn, it felt was cold and violent.
"Minerva did you felt that?" Questioned Ace as he adjusted his glasses with a serious expression
Minerva took out her pocket watch once more and took a glance at it. "Yes, it seemed like dark magic."
"How did they even get in this city?" Ace asked himself.
Minerva was silent for a moment before asking Ace. "What do you want to do?"
"Without proper clearance to use magic we are not able to do anything inside this city, for some reason a dark mage has entered the city and is able to walk freely, I'm not entirely sure, but I think that there is some corruption in the mages guild to make that possible, for now we're stuck unable to do anything." Ace said after theorizing many possible actions to take.
A mature woman sat in Ace and Minerva's table without permission, she was a beautiful woman with short blonde hair and shining blue eyes, she was wearing an official mage guild uniform with a badge that clearly distinguish her rank as a high ranking mage officer "Good morning, I apologize for interrupting your conversation, I couldn't help overhearing something about some corruption in the guild, can you tell me about it boy?"
'We're screwed' both Ace and Minerva thought internally.