A dark forest filled with poisonous fog.

'Hu~~Hu~~~Hu~~~'

The young boy Oriande hid in a secluded corner, breathing heavily, but his eyes were looking around, always observing the surrounding environment.

Try your best to explore any corners that can be used for hiding, such as cracks and holes in collapsed buildings, dense bushes and vines, the crowns of large trees, etc., to avoid being attacked by hidden monsters.

As an elite member of the Eye of Dawn Mage Society, he is well aware of the dangers of the Poison Mist Forest.

But it was precisely because of the danger that he came in.

Because behind him, there are beings more dangerous than the monsters in the Poison Mist Forest.

As he fled cautiously, Oriande couldn't help but flash through scene after scene in his mind.

When he was six years old, his father sold him to the Eye of Dawn Mage Society for five gold klings.

In the setting sun, he was holding the hand of a strange wizard, and kept looking back at the dilapidated home behind him.

At the door of the home, stood a woman in tattered clothes, with a pale face and a skeleton-like figure.

That was his mother who was seriously ill and dying.

His mother kept waving at him, her sunken eyes filled with tears.

A month later, he was sitting in a flying hovercraft and was transported to a very glamorous but unknown secret valley along with hundreds of his peers.

In the next six years, he underwent strict and almost cruel learning and training, and gradually gained incredible magical powers.

The training time was very difficult, but it also brought unforgettable warmth.

"Brother Oriande, you are amazing. You can learn magic as soon as you learn it. Unlike me, I can never learn it no matter how hard I try."

A sweet and childish voice echoed in my ears, it was the voice of a companion who had studied magic with me since childhood.

"Wow wow wow~"

The unusual movement interrupted Oriande's thoughts.

He immediately tensed his body and held his breath.

After a while, a group of gray-skinned ghosts appeared in front of me. They were not very scary, but there were a lot of them.

Crouching there motionless.

The cloak he was carrying took effect immediately, completely blending him into the surrounding environment.

He shouldn't have been distracted at this moment, but his mind stubbornly emerged with an image of a little girl with flaxen hair, freckles on her nose, and a pair of ice-green eyes.

"Illya!"

Oriande felt an unbearable sting in his heart, but more and more conversations emerged.

'Brother, you are so kind to me.'

'Brother, you protected me again, thank you.'

'Brother, you are so strong. I wish you could stay like this forever.'

Scenes from the past flashed through the boy's mind, making the pain in his heart more and more intense.

It was like someone was stabbing his heart with a sword, causing him to feel an almost suffocating pain.

The gray-skinned imp finally passed by. Oriande gritted his teeth and shook his head hard, as if to completely erase the memory from his mind.

Standing up again, he continued on his way.

He hadn't run far enough, and the anti-tracking spell told him that the hounds of the Eye of Dawn were still closely following him.

If you want to survive, you can't stop for a moment.

Taking a deep breath, he ran through the dangerous forest again.

But soon, the painful memories suddenly came back to my mind.

"Brother Oriande, the Mage Council raised us and taught us knowledge. Not only do you not show any gratitude to the Mage Council, you even want to overthrow it."

"This is a shameful betrayal!"

"Illya!"

Oriande clenched his hands into fists, and a look of determination and a hint of irony flashed through his mind.

Obviously, it was the same person, so cute when he was a child, so gentle when he was intimate, and he always said the sweetest words in the world.

But in the blink of an eye, she turned and threw herself into the arms of the top leader of the Mage Association and stabbed him with the most deadly sword.

"Brother Oriande, you are indeed very talented, but you have taken the wrong path."

"In the face of the powerful force of the Mage Society, your little talent is like a tiny candle flame under the sun. It is completely meaningless."

"I'm calling you brother for the last time. I want to tell you that you're dead. Hahahaha~~"

The laughter that was so proud that it was almost crazy still echoed in Oriande's mind even though more than half a month had passed.

Over the past half month, he has been recalling his past with Irina over and over again, and gradually he came to understand a fact.

"Irina has never changed. She used to flatter me and fawn on me just because I was the strongest among my peers and could protect her."

"Now she has resolutely betrayed me and resolutely turned to the arms of Master Saceris, just because I will bring disaster to her, while Master Saceris can bring her a decent and comfortable life."

"She is a heartless, indifferent, philistine and vulgar woman. In her eyes, justice and ideals are worthless."

"How could I have loved such a woman so deeply and been deceived by such a cold-blooded man? How foolish I am!"

Oriande raised his hand and slapped himself hard.

Although her cheeks were burning, she felt much better in her heart, and her determination became even stronger.

"As long as I live, the evil Eye of Dawn will be my eternal enemy."

"I will definitely try every possible means to turn all those evil wizards into ashes!"

"This is not only for me personally, but also for the innocent people living on this land!"

Just as the thought came to his mind, there was a "rustling" sound, and several pitch-black thorns suddenly shot out from the bushes next to him.

"Puff, puff, puff~~"

The spiked hood that Oriande was wearing created ripples like water waves, and the huge impact force of the spell knocked Oriande to the ground.

After rolling on the ground for a few times, he instantly stood up and pointed his finger at the bushes, shooting out a dark green flame.

'Huh~~~Zi~~~'

Amidst a series of shrill strange cries, the bushes were instantly turned into ashes by magic.

But Oriande was not at all proud. As soon as he stood up, circles of light appeared on his body, and then he ran at full speed into the depths of the forest.

Compared to the monsters in the Poison Mist Forest, he was more afraid of the wizard from his fellow guild who was chasing him.

He clearly felt that the previous action had alarmed them, and they were speeding up to chase after him.

He began to run at full speed.

He didn't know if he could escape, but this was the only thing he could do at the moment.

He hoped that his opponent would be besieged by monsters, or that he would be injured or even killed due to a spell casting error.

In short, I hope that fate will bless him and help him escape from this almost desperate situation.

But fate did not seem to favor him.

He provoked a monster first, a terrifying petrified monster with a thousand eyes.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak~~"

Rays of white light shot out from the other party's countless gray eyes.

Although he tried his best to dodge, he was still hit by two beams of light.

The first ray of light penetrated his magical defense, and the second ray of light hit his arm.

He suddenly felt a strong numbness in his arm. It was the effect of the petrification ray. If he didn't do something, he would be petrified.

Oriande immediately drew out the dagger he carried with him, gritted his teeth and directly cut off the skin at the place where he was hit. Then he did not entangle any more and ran desperately into the deeper part of the forest.

The good news is that the Thousand-Eyed Petrified Monster is not very fast. It usually likes to ambush in the dark, but its hunting ability is very weak.

Although half of his body was soaked in blood, Oriande successfully escaped the petrified monster's pursuit.

Suddenly, a towering cliff appeared in front of him, blocking his way.

The pursuers behind him were getting closer and closer, but there was no way forward.

A feeling of despair suddenly emerged in Oriande's heart: "Am I destined to fail?"

"No, I won't give up!"

The tenacious young man looked around and suddenly found a hidden cave on the mountain wall. He suddenly thought: "Cave. This may be my chance!"

If the cave is deep enough, he can use the terrain of the cave to play hide-and-seek with the pursuers. If he is lucky, he may even be able to kill his opponents.

Thinking of this, he no longer hesitated, and with the help of magic, he climbed up with all his strength.

The wound on his arm felt a twitching pain and blood was still flowing, but he had no time to treat the injury. He just gritted his teeth and kept climbing up.

"Hurry up~~Hurry up~~~"

"Traitor! Don't run!"

Suddenly, there was a roar from behind.

The wizard is being hunted down.

There were three mages, and Oriande knew each of them.

Because they are the Purifiers of the Mages' Association, and Oriande was once a member of the Purifiers, and even the leader of an elite action team.

If it was a fair fight, Oriande would not be afraid at all, but there is no fair fight in this world.

The opponent was carrying a powerful magical weapon bestowed by the Moon City, while the magical weapons he had were all crudely made and of low quality.

In a head-on confrontation, let alone winning, it would be very difficult to even break the opponent's shield.

So he climbed harder and harder.

This time, the goddess of fate finally stood by him.

He managed to crawl into the cave before his opponent's spell could hit him.

But when he saw the situation inside the cave, his heart sank.

The cave was very shallow and one could see the bottom at a glance. The so-called "hide and seek" in the cave was nothing but his wishful thinking.

"Will I eventually die?"

Oriande's legs went limp, and he fell to the ground with a thud, feeling unwilling in his heart.

The severe pain in his body and the anguish in his heart intertwined and tortured him violently.

He couldn't help but murmur.

"Is there no justice in this world?"

"Will the shadow of Moon City really shroud the world forever?"

He was unwilling to accept this, but he also knew clearly that his strength was too weak.

Actually, what Illya said was right.

If she didn't want to die, she had no choice but to stay away from him.

"Hey~~"

With a long sigh, Oriande showed a resolute will in his heart.

"Since I'm going to die anyway, I might as well burn my soul completely and fight to the death!"

Driven by this will, he began to activate the secret art of burning his soul.

But at this moment, a gentle male voice suddenly emerged in my heart.

"Young man, you seem to need help?"

(End of this chapter)