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C1475

The heat of the morning sun tingled on the back of Emery's neck as he was sitting in the midst of an enchanting garden. He felt calm surrounded by lush greenery and a shimmering pond that sparkled in the sunlight. With his eyes closed and his hands resting gently on his knees forming a lotus position, he sat alone in the midst of practicing his nature spell.

As he channeled his energy, Emery felt his connection to the world around him deepen. The leaves on the trees rustled softly, responding to his every command. The soil shifted and moved beneath his fingertips, like the ebb and flow of the tide. The water in the pond rippled and shimmered with a life of its own, all at his own will. It was as if he had complete control over the very essence of nature itself.

On this particular morning, he was attempting to gently move all of the leaves in the glade without breaking a single blade of grass or soiling its roots and ruining the garden.

This spirit control training had been assigned to him by the magus selected by the Queen herself.

Despite his inability to progress past tier one spells for weeks, Emery was mastering the small things - the leaves, the soil, and the water around him with ease.

As he further increased his mastery, Emery began to form intricate animal figures out of plants growing above the surface of the pond. The figures moved and danced to his command, their forms coming to life as if they were truly living creatures.

With satisfaction, he opened his eyes with a slight smile brushed on his face realizing the one he has been waiting for has come.

"Waaaa that's so cute!! That's a wolf!! And that's a snake!" a voice belonging to a young girl exclaimed, filled with wonder.

The voice came from Shinta, the little girl that has been coming around a few times whenever he was practicing in the garden, and today he prepared a surprise for her.

"Thank you, uncle... I really like it"

It was pretty easy to grow fond of such young innocent things, especially with the amount of strife in his life right now.

Now that he had seen the smile on her face, Emery was ready to leave when Vizla, the little girl's father arrived.

This time however, the man stopped him in tracks, calling him to stay.

Emery was surprised. Vizla had never shown any interest in speaking with him before. It was even more surprising that he came to talk about his training.

"You still have a problem casting a higher-tier spell, don't you?"

Not knowing his purpose in stating the obvious, Emery chose to stay silent and wait until the other party finished what he was about to say.

"With your current condition, you will never make it past tier one in a few years."

"If you know something, just spill it,"

"Let me ask you this… do you know how your Magus core came to be? With such a shattered soul? It's not easy at all... Especially a nature type core"

"How? Tell me?" Impatient, Emery questioned again.

"It's not my place to say, my mother forbids me and everyone to speak of it… but you should ask her… ask her about your nature core and ask about the wood elves," Vizla said his voice filled with both warning and a hint.

"What kind of game are you playing?"

Vizla chuckled. "No game.. Just the truth," he said before turning to leave, taking his daughter with him.

As Emery watched him go, his mind was filled with questions. Having not recovered from memory loss made him especially sensitive about being in the shadow of such important things. Now another list of things were added for him to find out about his past, about the truth behind his shattered soul.

With Annara still not back from her trip, he knew there was only one place to turn for answers: The Ouroboros palace.

Before venturing out, Emery consulted the information cube about the process that was called the crystallization of the soul. It was commonly practiced by magus who had lost their immortal bodies.

The time consuming process involved the spirit soul crystallizing into a magus core, which then had its power reduced to compensate with the new body.

Emery knew he should have experienced the same process, but the terrible condition of his soul meant that the drawback would have been worse for him. This gave him a good enough reason for him to believe there was at least some truth in what Vizla said.

Despite his reservations, Emery eventually made it to the palace. When he arrived he was welcomed or rather halted by Duke Syre, the Queen's second in command for the faction.

Although Emery didn't remember much about the middle-aged man from his memory, he had seen and heard of him a few times before since three months of awakening.

"I would like an audience with the Queen, please," Emery requested.

"The queen is occupied, you can speak to me and I will tell the queen if it's necessary," replied Duke Syre.

Emery had no interest in causing trouble, not because some words were given by someone he barely knows. So he simply relayed his message to the Duke, hoping to get a response from the Queen.

After explaining what he heard and requesting an explanation, he gave a polite bow, turning to leave.

—--

Moments later, Duke Syre flew towards the Queen's private residence, his thoughts preoccupied with the encounter with Emery. He entered the room where the Queen was and relayed the message.

"Vizla… that son of mine still unable to accept all this" the Queen muttered, her expression troubled.

Seeing this, Duke Syre said "Sister, I heard the blood experiment has not been working as planned... Perhaps it's time to let go of the kid… his presence here would only be an inconvenience to you and the faction"

He took a deep sigh before saying "I really think it's time you honor her wishes"

The words leave the queen in deep thought. "I really hope it will lead to something useful… I guess you are right, we cannot let him stay here anymore… make the necessary preparations"

Hours later Duke Syre came to Emery's residence with the words of the queen

"The circumstance of your crystallization indeed was complicated, but we have prepared a way for you to recover from it, we will leave immediately"

"Where are we going?" Emery asked

"To a wood elves planet"

To be continued