Chapter 56 - The Change

The sun's rays peeked through the clouds that dotted the sky on this cold winter morning, bringing with them light but no warmth against the chill. This marked the start of the day in Blackreach City, as most people needed to get on with their business.

Somewhere near the center of the third district, more than a hundred white-armored guards vigilantly blocked the roads leading to a specific area. If one could get past these guards, they would see numerous people dressed in green robes, looking around.

Among these green-robed individuals stood a similarly dressed middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair and eyes that betrayed his lack of sleep. Next to him stood a much younger man in similar green robes, though he held a file in his hand.

The middle-aged man looked at the younger man and spoke with furrowed brows and a tired voice:

"Have you found anything that tells us what happened here last night?"

The younger man glanced at the file in his hand and replied in a respectful, professional tone:

"From what we can tell, a battle between two mages occurred here last night. There are a few Earth Spikes scattered around, and those two houses were presumably crushed by an earth spell. We know one of the combatants was an Earth mage, but we have no clues about the other. There are no signs of either of them."

The middle-aged man's eyebrows furrowed further, and a frown spread across his face. He looked ahead toward one of the crushed houses and spoke:

"What about the houses? Why were they crushed?"

"We don’t know."

"Who do they belong to?"

The younger green-robed man flipped through the pages of his file before responding:

"One house belonged to a family of four—the Hay family. They are all presumed dead. The other house was bought by an inn, and there was no one living there."

"Hmm. An empty house? Send a few people to the inn that bought the house and figure out why they did so. Also, get me everything we have on that inn."

"Understood."

The middle aged man's face was emotionless, but seemed to be perpetually frowning. He immediately started walking away from the crushed houses, but no before saying one last thing to the younger man:

"And report this to the Academy. Magic related incidents are their jurisdiction."

The younger man jotted something in his file and spoke without looking up:

"Understood."

--------- -------

Around noon, In a random alley past the outer edge of the perimeter around the blocked off area of the third district, two white armored guards were walking shoulder to shoulder while speaking.

"Jay. What do you think could have caused those two houses to become like that."

The other guard whose name was Jay simply shook his head with a slight look of sorrow on his face as he spoke:

"I don't know. I just feel sorry that there could have been people inside those houses."

The other guard just spoke apathetically, with a slightly cold voice:

"Yeah. I guess they were just unlucky...."

Before the guard could finish his sentence, he saw something move slightly in the corner of his eye. He immediately turned his head and as soon as he saw what it was that caught his attention, he spoke while patting the other guards shoulder:

"Hey Jay. Check this out."

Jay immediately turned his head. As soon as he did, he saw a dark clothed youth with a pale face sleeping on the floor motionlessly. The youth had many wounds around his body, such as two gaping holes on both his hands, and a bloody chest.

As soon as he saw this, Jay spoke:

"Hey Tom. What should we do. He seems injured."

Tom just looked at the body with disinterest and spoke:

"We don't need to do anything. These damn bums; ever since those damn Black Family emerged, these kinds of people have been appearing more often in the other districts."

"Tom. He seems on the verge of dying. Let's take him to the clinic."

Tom only looked at Jay with an odd look and spoke with some disdain:

"He's already on the verge of dying...."

Tom kicked the person lightly causing the figure to grunt lightly and then continue sleeping. Tom immediately continued speaking:

"No point wasting time on someone who'll die anyway. Also, it is way too much work. Let us leave."

Tom immediately walked forward while pulling Jay by the shoulder and prompting him forward. Jay looked back at the passed out figure before shaking his head and continuing his walking.

- - - - - - - - -

Wesley felt like he was floating inside his mind. He could sense the world around him, yet he couldn’t feel it. It was as if he was in a state between sleep and wakefulness, but he still couldn’t understand what was happening. All he knew was that it felt comfortable.

"Ugh..."

Something slammed against Wesley's body, pulling him from his slumber. He slightly opened his eyes, but they were immediately assaulted by sunlight, forcing him to close them again. He wanted to go back to sleep.

Wesley had no idea where he was, but he still felt sleepy, so he tried to go back to sleep. However, no matter how much he wanted to rest, his mind had already awakened.

His eyes abruptly burst open as he remembered everything that had happened: being captured by the old expert of the Kader Family, enduring torture, escaping, hiding in the void, trying to escape, and... his core shattering.

All those images ran through Wesley's mind in sequence as he lay on his back, staring blankly at the cloudy sky. Wesley almost couldn’t believe what had happened. He hoped—no, he believed—that it was all just a dream, or a nightmare, and that he was finally waking up from it.

How did he escape from the void? Was his core truly shattered? Was his life as a mage truly over? Multiple questions flooded Wesley’s mind, causing him to feel slightly overwhelmed. He simply couldn’t believe any of it.

Wesley's nature had always been restrained. He never considered showing off or flaunting in front of others. However, this wasn’t because he was meek or weak; rather, his pride shaped his behavior.

Wesley had a lot of pride—his pride as a prince, as a mage, and as the disciple of the Keeper. All of these things formed his personal philosophy. He believed that if you had power and a solid background, you shouldn’t look down on others. Instead, you should be more humble and considerate.

Yet, Wesley had always been seen by others as talentless, someone without a single redeeming quality. He was looked down on by his father and other relatives. The oldest child of the king, yet the second prince, viewed as inferior by everyone around him, scorned and despised.

And yet, Wesley never paid their contempt any mind because he always knew that he wasn’t talentless. No amount of contempt or disdain would ever change that. But now, with his core shattered, how could he accept it? His mind simply disregarded the whole thing as an illusion—nothing more than a construct of his dreams, feeding on his greatest fears.

Wesley dismissed everything as a bad dream and immediately tried to sit up. As soon as he did, a sharp pain coursed through his entire body. Wesley grimaced from the pain, but he mostly ignored it and managed to sit up.

Once seated, Wesley surveyed his surroundings. He was in some alleyway. He had no idea how he had gotten there, but he knew he had been stuck in the void. There was no way he could have escaped if his core had truly shattered.

Wesley immediately looked at his two hands. There were two few inch wide circles in both of his hands. Seeing this, Wesley was startled and slight frown appeared on his face as he remembered how his hands were impaled and caught by two earth spikes from the old expert.

He next moved his right hand to his chest. He could feel three circular lacerations in the area near his heart. Once again, Wesley frowned as he remembered how the old expert used needless to injure his heart.

Wesley was feeling his heart beat faster as he realized that what he dismissed as a nightmare were proving to have truly happened. He started getting a bad premonition as the thing he dreaded most was appearing more and more true.

Wesley looked down at his shirt which was ripped in numerous places when he crashed through the window of the small house when the old expert tracked him down. He also noticed that his left shoulder is also broken from when he was almost impaled by a earth spike right before hiding in the void.

At this point, there was no longer any doubt that everything Wesley believed to be a nightmare truly happened. Wesley's heart dropped, and two tears uncontrollably streaked along his face. Wesley's stomach knotted and churned with fear and other things.

Wesley didn’t care about any of his other injuries, neither did he care about death, however, he simply couldn’t heart his core being shattered. His magic was his identity, his pride, and yet now he has being deprived of it.

Wesley instantly felt his mind grow numb and dizzy. He didn’t fight it or anything, rather he simply closed his eyes and embraced the blankness. He simply didn’t know what to do, rather he didn’t want to do anything.

Wesley's eyes turned dark as he instantly lost consciousness and fell on his side lifelessly.