Leaving the...

"Haah—haah!" Aiden was struggling to get a lung full of air. Soon, he realized he didn't have a problem doing that. However, when he looked around, he felt that something wasn't right.

The bright white room wasn't something he'd seen before, nor did he remember how he came here, but there's something in the room he'd seen before.

"Is it your doing?" Aiden's yell was mixed up with a little curiosity.

"Other than me, who else will take care of your mess?" Said the little bluebird who was right in front of him. "You would have died a long time ago without my help. Little gratitude would have been a good thing."

"What the hell are you doing?" Aiden cried out. "Are you trying to take control of my body"

"Do you think there is a spell for that?" the face of the little blue bird was still expressionless, but his annoyance was clear from his voice, "Do you even remember what happened to you?"

Aiden wanted to say something, but a splitting headache sent him down to his knees. It took some time to recover, but when he did, his face was white in fear. "Am I dead?" that was all Aiden could say.

"Hmmph!" it was as if the bluebird didn't even want to talk. Yet he said, "Your use of mana is so primitive…" The bird shook his head as he continued, "Let me show you how it is done."

"So you ARE controlling my body?" Aiden cried, but the bird acted as if he didn't hear it at all.

**************

"Wh-at are you?" The sylph was having a hard time talking.

"To think, I'd find such a delicious treat in such a desolate plane!" Aiden said in a monologue as if he hadn't heard the words of the sylph, "I haven't had a wonderful meal in a long time."

"Ahhhhhh!" The sylph cried in pain, as Aiden's pale blue ice hand gave off a strong hue. Yet her painful crying soon turned into an angry howl, and the body of the sylph burst with a loud bang.

"Shit!" Aiden cried out in a voice that didn't sound like him. He had never expected the body of this measly beast to be so weak that it could not hold on to the power of a simple sylph.

The part of his glowing hand was still unstretched, but from the top of it to his shoulders, his hand was riddled with wounds, and the cloth was wet with blood.

Looking at the body, Aiden could not stop frowning. He hurriedly tore off the tattered shirt of his chest to inspect his body, but it only made his expression darker.

"You are not even a mana beast," pale-blue crystal eyed Aiden continued to poke his chest with a grim expression on his face, muttering, "This body is even weaker than a wild beast."

"How could you dare to absorb my essence? Did you want to die?"

"Child of a man, I wanted to take you without hurting you, but..." the whisper in his ear shortened his inspection, as the voice continued, "But you forced me to use it."

As soon as the whispers in his ears were gone, the wind roared around him. With each passing moment, the speed of the wind increased and the number of wounds of Aiden's body increased along with it.

*

"What was going on back there?" One of the city lord guards muttered as he released another fire arrow from the top of the wall to the beast made of vines. But none of his friends around him could have answered him.

They already knew that someone was fighting there, but they were shocked to look at the tornado that was peeking from the back of the building.

"What kind of monster could create such a powerful wind?" They wanted to know, but they were more than worried about the identity of the user.

"Is it a friend or foe?" But before they could confirm it, they found in utter despair that the tornado was frozen solid in a matter of a second.

*

The wind that was gathering around Aiden disappeared in a matter of seconds, leaving behind a twisted pillar of ice in the middle.

And Aiden was standing in the middle of it. As soon as he touched the Ice Pillar, it turned into mana and was absorbed by him.

"It's been long enough." Aiden sighed as he looked around. "Oh! Are you fleeing?" Looking at the wall's direction, a smile appeared on his face, and he vanished from the spot.

"Aahhh!" They were much closer to the wall now, and the cry of sylph attracted the attention of many. But when they looked, they found a boy with a crystal eye standing in the middle of the road, raising his hand as he held on to something.

Aiden was holding the sylph by her neck as she continued to struggle. But Aiden had no intention of letting her go. Her unbearable scream continued for a moment before the body of the frozen sylph burst again.

However, when Aiden opened his hand, there was a round yellow ball. "There is always a core inside the body of sylph." He spoke like he was teaching someone, "it isn't just sylph; Gnome, Undine and Salamander. They all have a core inside their body."

"And these cores are great sources of mana." As Aiden spoke, the core was rapidly losing the yellow glow. At the same time, all the wounds disappeared from his chest, leaving behind the scar on his chest and abdomen.

However, the smile on his face soon faded, as if he was in great pain. He cursed, "I don't understand, with your weak body, how do you dare to absorb my essence?"

Even as he spoke with a straight face, blood trickled down his nose. And it wasn't just his nose. Blood oozed out of his skin, too.

"I need to vent out some mana." Blood kept tickling his nose as he walked toward the wall. "Those humans are your friends, right?"

"Hey, isn't he the one with a scar on his chest?"

"The one, the lord of the city was looking for?"

As Aiden walked towards them, the people in the rear guards were surprised. But as the vanguard cursed, they soon began to shower the enemy with fire arrows.

"They are so primitive." Aiden sighed as he looked at them, "Did they think they could take care of Ent Golem without any salamander fire?"

"Hey, who are you?" As soon as Aiden reached too close to their comfort, several spears turned towards him.

"What are you doing here?"

"Who sent you?"

"Are you a mercenary?"

They showered questions at him from all directions, but it was like Aiden didn't care about it. To make matters worse, he grabbed a spear that was aimed at him.

"What the hell are you doing?" cried the man holding the spear. He was weaker than the ones who were fighting in the vanguard, but he was confident about his strength against the teenager in front of him.

However, as the boy pulled, the spear escaped his hand before he could resist. In the blink of a moment, the air around Aiden turned hostile.

Aiden didn't care about it, though. He continued to scrutinize the spear, "It is not Elm, neither it is Alder. Even Applewood would have made a better conductor of mana. How primitive could your species be?"

"Wh-what?" The owner of the spear stammered, not understanding what that the boy was talking about. Aiden, however, did not spare a glance at the owner. He said, "still, let me try."

As soon as Aiden said those words, a chill ran down the spine of the spear owner. And he wasn't alone, either. All those around him felt that the temperature had dropped a few degrees.

Aiden threw the spear at the next moment. With the strength of Aiden, it reached beyond the first human vanguard and impaled a vine-skeleton to the ground. And a strong icy wind burst out of the spear.

They all looked around in surprise, as all the vine-skeletons around it were frozen inside the ice. Even those who fought with human vanguard were no different. However, none of the humans was affected by it.

But Aiden was not so happy with the result. He walked through the rear guard. This time, however, none of them dared to stop him.

"There are so many golems out there. They really want to wipe out your species." Looking at the endless waves of vine-skeleton, he spoke again, "That wood wasn't good. Let me show you how to use this mana."

Aiden crouched down with a smile on his face and touched the ground. The next moment, the thick sheet of ice spread in the direction from which the golems were coming.

"Look here!" One of the soldiers cried out from the top of the wall, "It's ice! The outer land is covered with ice!"

"What's going on? Is a new enemy coming?"

One of the smart ones shook his head and said, "Look, the ice is trapping every one of those vines-bastards in the ice. It could be friendly."

"Should I close the wall gap, too?" Without knowing the chaos he had created, Aiden continued to speak to himself, "What? You're trying to leave this settlement!"

Aiden walked out through the gap in the wall while nodding his head. His action was similar to the last time, but the result was different. A thick, pale-blue ice wall sprang up from the ground and closed the broken part of the wall.

With a smile on his face, he said, "That is how you should use mana." However, compared to him, the onlookers had a different reaction.

"We have been fighting for hours. So many of our brothers have died..." The guard had no idea how to explain what had just happened, "But that one man! He killed all of them."

From the top of the wall, they could see far and wide. But no matter in which direction they looked, all those things that could move were now trapped inside the ice.

The shock silenced those who were standing on the wall. Those who were on the ground were more so. But it didn't last long.

"WE won." They didn't know who cried first, but soon all of them joined the chorus. Amid joy and triumph, very few noticed that Aiden was walking away from the city while still muttering to himself.

"So you are saying that If I follow the green footprint on the ground, I will reach my destination?" Aiden's voice sounded curious, "Wow! Is it some kind of spell?"