Prologue: Azorious

The sun shone brightly on the lands of Lucernia. Light fell like divine manna on the white towers and high spires of Resola. Bustling streets vibrated with positive energy, merchant carriages and knights on their mounts passed each other with respectful nods and tipping hats.

Colorful market stalls and tents loudly advertised their goods and contributed to the vivacious air of the city.

A couple of young lovers sat on a white tulip-wood bench, away from the clamor of city life, in a private garden with a pond surrounded by green grass and rainbow flowers. The lady's head rested comfortably on the man's lap, his shadow shielding the fair skin of the maiden from the aging power of the cruel sunlight.

She napped lightly, with a sort of smile on her petite face, her chest heaving up and down gently. The young man mischievously looked down at her unprotected face and, with a wicked smile, used his magical powers to conjure a frog from the pond.

Telekinesis was one of the first Formas that the academy would teach its students, first because of its universal uses and second as it would hone a mage's control over mana.

The man's eyes glowed blue as the frog hoovered closer and finally right above her face. But, as he released control dropping the frog on the unsuspecting lady's head, her big eyes opened with a flash of blue and her smile widened.

"It's a trap!" He belatedly realized. An invisible force seized control of his robe and pulled him forward, intercepting the frog that landed inside his favorite azure robe; he immediately felt disgusted, wanting to push the slimy animal out. As he was about to blast it away, a peal of laughter came from his lap, calming him down.

"Ha-Ha, very funny, Eleria." He complained, levitating the frog out of his shirt and back into the pond. He shortly mused about how to better clean the slime and water from his chest and robe.

"Indeed! I just followed your lead, Azorious." She smiled innocently and stared above at the Azorious' bright blue eyes dimming down to a more mundane brown.

The two stared at each other eyes for a while, enjoying the wind playing with their chestnut hair. As time passed, however, Eleria's smile morphed into a pout. Seeing this, Azorious frowned.

"You know I have to go, but I'll be back in a few days at most. You won't even notice I was gone." He coaxed with a gentle smile guessing his lover was upset about his upcoming trip.

"It's not about that..." She started, then paused and turned away her face.

"Then what?" He inquired, confused. He placed his hands under her cheek and turned her face back towards him. He stared into her blue eyes and looked for an answer in her dark pupils.

"It's your research. I don't think you should make it public." She confessed in one breath, then continued. "It's too dangerous! if even half of what you calculated is true, then..." Her voice trailed as her eyes became empty.

The sky darkened suddenly as if someone had placed a blanket of clouds right above him. Flashes of lightning streaked through the sky like snakes, turning the world blue. Azorious looked up alarmed at the sudden meteorological phenomena. Then he looked back down at the lady in his embrace and, with a gasp, noticed she had disappeared.

"Eleria!" He screamed with all his strength, shooting up to his feet. However, instead of hearing her call back his name, the loud clip-clopping of galloping hooves came from beyond the garden gate. As the sound grew closer and stronger, the ground visibly shook, the tremors spread to the garden walls, and even the small pond frothed like the stormy seas.

Hoofbeats of heavy beasts approached the garden and then crashed on the gate. The decorated steel doors of the garden deformed under the assault.

*BANG* *CLANG* *BANG*

The banging of metal against metal would have frightened anyone, but not him.

Azorious looked at the half-collapsed gates, not with fear but fury. His eyes blazed blue, brighter than the sun at its zenith. In response, the world warped around him, sparks appeared in the air of the garden and even the sky thunders stilled as if hiding from a monster.

"It was you... You took Eleria away... GIVE HER BACK!" He spoke like a madman, half whispering, half screaming. He threw himself at the gate with a roar, positively beaming with world-ending levels of power.

Applying the results of his research he split the indivisible, did what no one before him even imagined feasible and a new sun bloomed before his eyes, blinding him with its majesty.

Radioactive hellfire burst forth; the pond evaporated, the plants burned, the gate melted, and the buildings around turned to dust blasted away by the immense shockwave.

When the dust settled, Azorious looked down on Rosola, a glassed smoking crater on the face of the earth, only some shadows of the city had survived, forever cast against the ground. And in its center, Eleria hoovered peacefully, laying on her back with her eyes closed.

Azorious used his immense power to get closer, but no matter how fast he moved or tried to reach her, an uncrossable gulf of distance kept them away.

As he cried in his maddened sprint, thousands of laughs mocked the futility of his actions, and with a startle, he finally woke up.

Instead of a wasteland, a vibrant green jungle welcomed him back to the real world. He got up with a grunt, and as he reached for his trusty water flask, he saw a brief glimpse of his current face.

Gone was the baby fat on his rosy cheeks, plump lips, and flawless face. Dirt covered him from head to toe, making its home in the creases of his face and the space between the cracks on his dry lips. And to complete his beggar look, burn scars disfigured the right side of his face and forehead, where pink skin covered him like melted ice cream.

His once stout, solid body had emaciated terribly, and his hair stuck together in lumps. He grunted and drank a little bit, struggling to use his magic to refill the silvery container. The ocean of mana he had at his disposal was reduced to a few drops.

His eyes turned where most of his magic was passively channeled, a glass box containing absolute darkness. His magic coupled with a powerful Forma had perfectly frozen its contents, boosted by almost all of his power, the temperature had sunk to the point where even light and time froze, struggling to break free.

With a look of longing and determination, he decided against dispelling the spell and made way in the jungle, guided only by a small compass he had cobbled together before going on his journey. He was close to his target. He could feel it.

Silently behind him, the box followed him, hoovering one foot above the ground.