Chapter 1: Alive Once Again

Where did things go so wrong?

The only thing that I heard was the running water that once shone like glimmering jewels now dyed red. I knew it was red. I could not see anymore, but I knew the corpses of my battalion, who I called friends, were there lying lifelessly. Some were intact, with metal spikes protruding through them, while others with missing limbs.

Remembering the cause of my battalion's demise, a picture of the being with grey skin and scarlet eyes calling itself Vritra brought a lump to my throat as I had the urge to cry. I had never felt so helpless as that thing was massacring my comrades with a smile. He was hardly paying attention to our battle.

I could still hear his mockery while looking at us as if we were mere bugs, "Do you think your efforts will make a difference? The war is coming regardless." He laughed in amusement as he effortlessly ripped apart my vines with a swing of his hands and outmaneuvered the spells from other mages like it was nothing.

I bit my tongue to keep myself from panicking as I realized how outclassed we were. How outclassed I was. I was at the pinnacle of mages in this world. A lance! Yet, the Vritra was messing around like a child. I didn't know where he came from or what he was, but he needed to be stopped. I thought I had a chance to deal a deadly blow since the egoistic bastard kept underestimating me, but I couldn't be more wrong.

The moment I chipped his horn, his demeanor totally changed. His arrogant stance became aggressive, and he started killing the remainder of the soldiers with ease. He fully unleashed his bloodlust and immediately made me feel nauseous. I knew then that there was no hope.

We will all die.

I'm a soldier. I knew I would likely lose my life in the field. But now that I was near my death, I was terrified.

I couldn't see, as there was only darkness, and the only comfort was the boy Arthur I met at Xyrus Academy spying on Bairon. He gently embraced me from the side and laid my head on his chest. I could hear his rapid heartbeat as he slowly stroked my hair to comfort me in any way he could.

"I'm scared," I finally broke into sobs as I felt blood run down my eyes. "I-I don't want to die, Arthur." I felt his grip tighten as he silently whispered in a soft voice.

"Don't worry," Arthur said as his voice faintly quivered. "I'm here with you."

My left arm, which I was using to embrace Arthur, began to numb and lose strength. Happy memories from the past popped up in my head as I silently passed away.

…

I took a deep breath, and the crispy air instantly chilled my dry throat. Sitting upright, I took deep breaths and unconsciously touched the area where the Vritra punctured and raptured my mana core. To my surprise, my once broken elven armor was repaired.

"H-How!" There was no wound! No, my arm and my legs are intact as well! How is this possible?! I was sure I died. How am I alive again?

There wasn't anything else to describe this.

It was simply a miracle.

"I am alive," I then muttered in a complicated tone. I honestly didn't know how to feel about that. Yes, I was alive, but my battalion wasn't. I suddenly began to remember my last few moments alive and felt myself begin to hyperventilate. I brought my hands close to my eye sockets as I remembered my eyes being gouged out and my limbs being painfully torn away.

"Gurgh!" I immediately vomited everything I had on my stomach to the side. "Ugh, disgusting," I pulled out a water canteen from my dimensional ring and rinsed the bitter aftertaste from my mouth.

"Haah," I wiped my mouth and took a deep breath. I smacked the side of my cheeks multiple times as I pushed the grueling images into the back of my mind. "Come on, Alea! You're a Lance, for peek's sake! Pull yourself together!"

I stood and moved away from the smelly excrement and started to inspect the supplies I had on my dimensional ring. "A few rations enough to last for a few days, some water, and what's this? Oh! Some of my favorite sweets from that shop in Zestier. Huh, I forgot I had that," I spoke thoughtfully as I put them back. "Some gold, some silver coins, some five healing beads." I kept listing off what I had.

One of the perks of being a Lance is having the best of the best equipment and having an almost unlimited budget. My dimensional ring is one of them, as it was worth a fortune and had a ridiculously large amount of space to store supplies. I continued to list the supplies I had, such as clothes, adventuring equipment, and other daily necessities.

I immediately began to inspect my armor, which I always do before a mission or my guard duties. I made sure all my plated armor was secure, and the straps were properly tight. My inspection didn't take long, and when everything seemed in order, I began to look around carefully.

I was in a forested area with the sun filtering through the leaves, giving the place a green, golden glow. The plants here seemed to be rich in life and vitality, which brought a small smile to my face. As a plant deviant, I could feel the environment was good. It was calm. Total opposite from the Beast Glades, which had unhidden dangers best left undisturbed.

Being in a place like this gives me a significant advantage in sensing the surrounding environment. At the moment, I haven't been able to sense any other mana beasts nearby. Just the occasional small animals on the trees.

Knowing I was safe for the moment, I immediately summoned wind mana under the soles of my boots, and with a burst, I began to ascend above the tree line to have a clearer view of where I was. "Okay, now where am I," I scanned the area, and like I guessed, I was in a forest. Looking further towards the distance, there were silhouettes of mountains filled with snow.

"Wait, something isn't right." Usually, the mountains would span the horizon and serve as a barrier from the Beast Glades to the other two kingdoms. However, at the moment, they are separated into clusters, which can allow caravans to pass through the large valleys without a problem instead of hiking through the rocky terrain. "How strange," I didn't recognize any of these mountain landmarks at all.

This meant I was probably not in the Beast Glades anymore. I wonder where I could be.

Or better question. Am I even in Dicathen?

I shook my head from such thoughts and noticed a large dirt road cutting through the forest not far from here.

"I'll have to start there," I tried to fly towards the road, but immediately, I started to falter and had difficulty staying airborne. I felt I was also consuming more mana than usual, and a look of confusion began to appear on my face. I widened my eyes with a look of realization, "don't tell me." I descended without delay.

Back on the ground, I immediately checked the stage of my mana core and noticed in what stage I was in. "Dark silver stage!" I yelled in a shocking manner before smacking my head from sheer stupidity. "Right, the artifact is gone. Stupid Alea."

I checked my reserves and noticed close to 5% of my mana was already drained from staying airborne. Usually, this small amount of mana would not have bothered me, but now 90% of my reserves I previously had as a white-core mage were gone. I had to be careful of how I expend my mana from now on. Yes, I could fly, but that would be just wasting my mana reserves and constantly struggle to stay in the air. At best, I could only glide or stay floating like before from now on.

Shame, I'm going to miss flying everywhere.

As much as it hurt to see my mana reserves become smaller and my manipulation of mana become less efficient. At least I still had a mana core. I couldn't imagine a day when I would lose my connection to plants and the surrounding mana.

Considering my mana reserves, I decided to head towards the dirt road with minimum reinforcement around my body. Hopefully, I would encounter someone who could tell me where I actually was.