The past

The next day they woke up early. Joseph walked out to the hallway leading to the meeting room where he always met up with Cley but this time he did not find anyone there.

He walked across several rooms he knew about until he got to the training halls.

It was the first place where he found people and the ones he found were some of the kids who he saw training there the other times. They were training the same as last time.

Five were meditating, three of them were practicing with bows and two of them were trying out different spells on each other's magic shields.

He walked up to one of the girls practicing with a bow.

"Good morning!"

She shot one more arrow straight into the target, which was at least 20 meters away, and then turned to him.

"Oh! Good morning! Haven't seen you for a while!"

"Do we know each other?"

"Not really, but I saw you around before the calamity."

"I see."

She put down her next to the other practice bows while they were chatting.

"So, what can I do for you?"

"I would like to know where is everybody. I barely saw anyone since I've arrived yesterday."

She scratched her head.

"Yeah... About that."

She started to walk to the door leading outside.

"Follow me!"

They walked out to a hallway that looked very different from the others. Everything inside was white and on the right side, there were simple white doors. A strange but fresh fragrance was in the air. Some of the doors were open and some were closed.

"A lot of people ended up here after what happened."

She pointed at a door.

"You'll see if you go in there."

"Alright. Thank you."

She shook her head slowly and went back to the previous place.

Joseph walked up to the open door and looked in.

In the room, there was one bed, in which Flinn was lying. He looked as white as the place itself. His expression showed great pain and he groaned painfully while sleeping.

Next to the bed Cley was sitting in a chair with closed eyes and held Flinn's hand in the main time. It seemed like he was concentrating on something.

As Joseph was standing there Cley stopped and stood up. His eyes had dark circles under them.

"We have a lot of problems right now. Sorry kiddo, for not welcoming you."

"That is not a problem. I can see something is wrong. What happened?"

He sighed and stood up.

"This is going to be a long story."

After Joseph left the mansion to go back to the forest the day went by normally until they felt the barrier shake and that something dreadful entered far away from them.

Later on, they knew it Draco Nigrum, who was destroying all the spirits. He already finished one of them off and was on his way to go to the forest where Joseph was.

After the forest was gone the dragon came to the village and attacked it. Fortunately, Flinn and a group of people has already readied teleportation magic to escape from it.

It was all fine until they activated the circle. Then they all used up all their mana in a second to teleport. It seemed like they miscalculated something and they all got to death's door by casting the spell.

"Later on, they all have been collected and laid rest here in this section. We have tried to restore their mana and strength, but we have failed so far. All we can do is keeping them alive."

Joseph didn't know what to say. He walked up to Flinn and looked at his white face.

"What about the city?"

Cley shook his head.

"We don't know. It seems like it's only us, who has been teleported here. Just as a lot of people were scattered all over the continent. Thankfully everyone got back safe. Also, I would like to thank you, that you brought back that kid."

He smiled at Joseph tiredly.

"Yeah. Not a problem."

"What happened to you meanwhile?"

Joseph told the story of how he got back to the mansion including Catherine and the rift he found. He also spoke about what he heard about the spirits.

Cley was somewhat surprised but took it well.

"It seems like there was more to it than we thought. I'm glad everything turned out ok."

Joseph noded.

"By the way. It seems like you are better at speaking than last time. What happened?"

"I'm too tired to concentrate. I can't use telepathy as I'm now."

"Oh, I see. I'm sorry about that."

"Don't be. It is for my friend."

He looked at Flinn.

"You should meet up with your friend, who you brought here. She is looking for you."

Joseph looked surprised at first, but then he realized what Cley was talking about.

"All right. I'll be back later!"

He left the room and silence returned to the place once again.