Choice

The fire raged on as Hodwan's axe completely liquified.

His steed's fur was covered in a film of frost, however after forcefully shaking its body, the ice broke apart, and the monstrous creature was freed as it distanced itself from the burning fire next to it.

The ice storm completely subsided, and Hodwan's body became increasingly clear to look at.

Frey and the woman noticed a pattern of characters engraved onto his skin; they were lit in the same colour as the blaze.

"Runes?! You are a lunatic! You'll die even without my interference!" the woman exclaimed in shock.

"Hehe, but I am not going down without putting up a fight!" Hodwan shouted in response as the various red, orange, and yellow light particles in the surroundings gathered around him, seemingly intensifying the flames.

The fiery radius around him kept on increasing outwards, as he confidently strode towards his assailant.

Frey stood on the sidelines; he was completely captivated by the sight.

Both of these people in front of him made use of the strange lights in a different way, while Hodwan struck them to cause a reaction, the woman instead gathered them, before turning them into an attack that physically interacted with the world.

There were many of these lights all around Frey, they had all sorts of colours, blue, red, green, yellow, brown, and several others.

As Frey observed and immersed himself in these particles and their natural movements, he noticed that the red colours mostly emerged from around Hodwan, the blue and white dots hovered within the air.

The brown dots gathered at the ground, all across the earth around him, whereas the green colours accompanied the brown, but also appeared where there were plants and various other lifeforms.

The red particles were spread in all directions, some also approached Frey, who raised his hand and attempted to reach out to one, to touch it.

Frey's movements slowed as his finger got closer, he feared that he would burn himself, but no matter how close he got, there was no heat, until his finger poked against the small floating orb.

The orb looked like a soap bubble, however instead of bursting at the faintest touch, it was pushed backwards from Frey's poking.

This miraculous sight completely drowned out the intense fight that had been going on in the meantime, as well as Lu's reappearance.

Frey was completely absorbed, however the more he interacted with these particles around him, the more questions he got.

What were they?

Why could he not see them until now?

How could he control them like the white-haired woman did?

Could he use them to escape his current predicament?

He continued reaching out to the dots of light, while the woman that was fighting Hodwan gathered yet another bunch of white lights, which she subsequently turned into sharp icicles.

They were launched at Hodwan, whose veil of flame burned and melted the ice before it could reach him.

The icicles were reduced back to blue and white dots, before they were destroyed by the storm of red.

However, many of the red dots were also evaporated as they collided with the residual parts of the spell.

"Haha, where is your confidence now? Weren't you planning on killing me?" Hodwan laughed loudly from within the fire.

His mocking voice echoed within the woman's ears, her eyebrows furrowed and turned into a frown.

She formed her hand into a fist, then opened it with a quick motion, like a flower that blossomed, and through her actions the few remaining ice particles within Hodwan's inferno were triggered once more.

The orbs grew in size, taking the form of a spike-ball, before detonating these spikes into all directions.

Although Hodwan reacted in time and protected his head with his arms, many of the spikes shot at him and pierced into his chest and legs.

He grunted in pain, though the heat quickly evaporated the stuck projectiles, his wounds did not heal on their own, he had accumulated quite a lot of them already, especially the wound to his neck was finally showing an effect.

Frey was reaching out his hand towards another light, this time he decided on one of the bright blue dots, which the woman gathered prior to any of her attacks.

This time he expected the light to feel cold, however his expectation turned out to be wrong yet again.

The floating orb was repulsed by his touch as a stray icy spike whooshed past Frey's head, missing him by a short distance.

Frey finally became aware of his surroundings again, he stopped all of his movements, sweat running down his back after just barely escaping death.

Through all of his experimenting he realised that he lacked the knowledge to use the lights like the two in front of him did.

Simply observing them fight gave him no tangible results either, he could not imagine any way to control the particles with his mind… until he remembered this cursed ability of his.

Frey hesitated shortly, every time he used his voice, something bad had happened.

"Gather!" he urged the lights around him after making up his mind.

He was waiting for something to happen, anything, however just like his voice did not reach Hodwan nor the white-haired woman due to the intensity of their fight, Frey felt that the particles couldn't hear him either.

No matter how long he waited, there was no reaction.

He decided to give up on this attempt of his and instead looked around the battlefield, in search of the brown illusory monkey he believed to be Lu.

Most of Frey's vision was filled by vast amounts of blue and red, making the speed of his search much slower, but along the ground he spotted a small mound created from a bunch of brown lights.

Frey rushed over and knelt down in front of the pile of particles, he gazed inside and found a small human creature which appeared to be sleeping peacefully.

"Lu! It really was you, Lu! Thank you!" Frey began to sob as he used his hands to dig into the pile of orbs in order to free his only friend.

"We need to run!" he said as he held the sleeping Lu close to his chest, however he turned to look back towards the battlefield.

"I admit you are strong… know that you forced me to use this!" Hodwan shouted as he stretched out his left arm.

Five separate runes lit up all across his arm, the red colour inside was much darker than the rest around his body.

A pungent smell permeated the air, it smelled like burned flesh.

Hodwan's left arm turned black as smoke rose from the runes, he winced in pain as his expression distorted.

He was a man that could withstand great amounts of pain without batting an eye, but even he finally let out a loud grunt as a dense wave of red emerged from the burning runes.

In just a few breaths a wall of fire appeared between the white-haired woman, Frey, and Hodwan, the loud burning of fire suppressed all other noises in the area.

The woman took a large step backwards, putting more distance between her and the big wall of fire.

She gathered as many particles as she could in preparation for whatever would follow to Hodwan's previous action.

She waited, and waited, the seriousness on her face slowly turned into impatience.

After several more seconds she no longer wanted to wait and took action herself, as she formed many of the particles that gathered in front of her into white crescent moons.

The projectiles collided with the wall of fire, the first volley had no impact, however the subsequent volleys managed to create openings in the fiery curtain, and the white-haired woman quickly realised… Hodwan was gone.

Even more crescent moons chipped away at the wall, until it finally revealed a figure already far in the distance, it was Hodwan who rode on his runic empowered steed.

"How shameless!" the woman cursed inwardly at Hodwan's cowardly behaviour.

Her gaze swept over the remainder of the battlefield, she saw that the entire town was littered with fresh corpses, whereas the ones all around her were burnt to a crisp, or frozen in ice.

A sigh escaped her lips, light worry flashed in her eyes… until she spotted Frey.

Both of their gazes met, and Frey instinctively started to run in the opposite direction of this dangerous woman.

"Stop!" she shouted, but Frey neither responded nor slowed down.

Frey was mentally exhausted, but he forced himself to keep moving, he felt that something bad would happen to him if he stopped now.

A cold feeling creeped up his back, he first thought it was a chill from the terror he was fleeing from, however each of his steps became harder and harder, until he could no longer move forward.

Frey felt like additional weights were holding his feet down, but as he glanced towards his feet, he saw that they were nearly frozen solid inside of a block of ice.

He was unable to move, the sound of footsteps came from behind him.

"I told you to stop… if you refuse to listen, then I must resort to magic."

"Calm down, I want you to tell me what exactly happened here."

The woman slowed her steps as she got closer to Frey, attempting not to frighten him any more than she already did.

"Will you… kill me?" Frey was shaking, not just from the cold, but he was completely on edge ever since he was forced to join Hodwan's group of bandits.

"That depends… I am Agnes, royal mage under the jurisdiction of Lord Cykrus Aventia, the current ruler of Aventia." the white-haired woman proclaimed proudly.

Frey stood dumbfounded.

"I know, I know. You are awed from meeting the renowned frost mage herself." Agnes flattered herself, misinterpreting Frey's silence.

"…Who?" Frey uttered in confusion, causing Agnes to recoil in shock.

"You… you don't know of me?! Preposterous! You must be joking!" she berated Frey.

"I… don't know who you or that man are… and what is Aventia?" Frey said, though he read many books, they were mostly fictitious stories and fables.

"You actually don't know? What kind of backwater place did you grow up in?" Agnes gawked at him like she saw a ghost.

"No, forget that, that's not important right now… You were going to tell me about the events that led up to… this." she reminded herself as she gestured around herself.

"…I… was kidnapped by the bandits, after they attacked my home… I had to live with them until they came here to attack the next village… that is all." Frey spoke very carefully, purposefully leaving out his own involvement, as well as his cursed power.

"No, that is most definitely not all. I overheard that man calling you a demon, as well as that summon of yours…" Agnes wanted to probe to gain more information from Frey, however he remained silent.

"You know, I didn't come here out of pure coincidence… My Lord, Lord Cykrus received a letter some days ago. Within was a plea for help, as a demon had appeared in the midst of a peaceful village…" she recounted the events that led up to her appearance today, evoking a grim expression on Frey's face.

He guessed that the letter was written by Grandpa Dom, and that he was indeed the demon that was mentioned.

"I don't know about any of tha-" Frey shook his head as he tried to lie to the woman in front of him.

"There was a description: a young boy with short black hair, an innocent face that one must not trust, and an alluring voice that can turn people into his slaves… I am not sure about that last one, but the others certainly apply to you… do they not?" Agnes asked him, her tone sounded somewhat indifferent.

"Will you kill me?" Frey asked her once more as he lowered his head, he knew that there was no longer any way for him to escape this predicament.

At least he could join his parents in the afterlife… he could finally return to that peaceful bliss he had felt most of his short life.

"Lord Cykrus ordered me to head out to find this demon and to exterminate it… if I was unable to recruit them." Agnes admitted, causing Frey to raise his head to meet her eyes once more.

"My Lord has a desperate need for capable warriors and mages. I can feel your aura, you have just recently awoken your magical senses. A rarity for someone as young as you, however that means your rise to power can start that much sooner." she said as she reached her hand out to him.

"Will you follow me back to my Lord? Will you dedicate your gift to the prosperity of Aventia? If so, I shall impart you with all the teachings you require to begin your journey as a mage." Agnes offered, not mentioning the obvious outcome if Frey were to decline her invitation.

Frey extended his own arm to reach for her hand, he did not need to consider the pros and cons, he himself was aware that this was his only chance of survival, the rest did not matter.

After all, Hodwan was still alive… Frey still had a way to ask the people of his village for forgiveness, and that was through action!

But to achieve that he would need to get stronger… much stronger.

"I… will." Frey answered as his hand and Agnes' met.

Agnes revealed a smile, a stark contrast to her cold demeanour as she shook his hand.

"What's your name?" she followed up.

"Frey. My name is Frey. But why didn't you chase him? Can't you catch up with your magic?" he spoke, his admiration towards these mystical arts just kept on growing.

However, Agnes' expression got turned on its head in that moment, as she remembered a crucial piece of information…

"My horse!!" she shouted, her head turning left and right, trying to spot her means of transportation.

"It ran off!" she covered her mouth with her hand before speaking.

Beads of sweat gathered on her forehead as she looked far off into the distance in a daze.

"…all the way… I'll have to walk all the way…" Agnes mumbled to herself.

She dejectedly gazed into the air for some time before she returned to reality, her eyes turning back to Frey, she waved her hand and the ice that stopped him from using his feet began melting away.

The moment his feet were free again he fell to his knees, his body gave in, all the pressure that had accumulated, both physically and mentally, finally caught up with him, as the adrenalin wore off.

Frey's lungs filled and then deflate, he attempted to slow his breathing, to clear his mind and stand back up.

His wobbly feet took a good while before they returned to normalcy, Agnes however did not mind, she quietly waited for him to rise, a feeling of nostalgia assaulted her mind.

She vividly remembered those days of her first steps into the world of the arcane.

"Come, perhaps we are lucky and a horse or two survived. Do you know how to ride?" Agnes inquired but was met with the shaking of Frey's head.

She waved her hand in dismissal, it didn't matter, just finding a single horse would already be extremely fortunate.

The two walked towards the centre of the small town, or at least what remained of it, many buildings had been turned into ash due to Hodwan's destructive magic.

Frey's gaze was glued to the ground, it was littered with corpses, some burnt, others frozen, even more beheaded, gutted, and worse… but all of them dead.

Dead… because of his actions… or so he told himself.

His stomach churned and turned from the disgusting view, but he couldn't stop himself from looking, this was the situation he created.

If only he had handled things differently, then he might have been able to save these people, perhaps several groups, or maybe a family… or simply just one person.

Frey stepped over several of these bodies, trying to keep up with Agnes who walked in front, looking for a means of transportation, as one particular body stood out to him.

He involuntarily halted in front of it, his stomach had reached the breaking point, ready to empty itself.

Frey stood over Giselle's cadaver, he could no longer hold it in, this was the initial victim of his cursed ability, he turned away from her, facing a patch of bloody grass as his belly cleared itself out.

He puked in between his coughing and gagging, the combined smell of this and the blood all around him caused him to grow nauseous once more.

Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder, he jolted at first, but calmed down after seeing Agnes standing next to him.

"Get it all out. Every bit. Mark this day firmly in your memories. Remind yourself of this sight whenever you waver on your journey, when you ask yourself who or what you are still holding on for. Only through strength can you gain control, and only through control are you in charge of your life." Agnes decided to use this moment as his first lesson.

Learning to wield magic wasn't just about the magic itself, the user was just as important.