A few days after the Shadow Wolf incident, peace returned to the village. The calming routine now felt like a precious luxury to Kenzo. That morning, he was in an open field behind the village with Haelan, continuing their magic practice sessions which had now become a habit.
Their practice was no longer just about a teacher and a student. It had evolved into a dialogue between two vastly different philosophies.
Haelan began. He placed his palm over a lump of wet clay, his eyes closed. "You must listen," he whispered, more to himself than to Kenzo. "The earth has its own memory, its own will. Magic is not a command, boy. Magic is persuasion."
With slow, deliberate movements, the clay began to stir, shaping itself. There were no straight lines or sharp angles. Its form flowed organically, like something growing naturally. A few moments later, a small statue of a sparrow stood on Haelan's palm. It wasn't perfect, one wing was slightly higher than the other, and its beak was a little crooked, but it felt alive, as if it could start chirping at any moment.
"Now, your turn," Haelan said, looking at Kenzo.
Kenzo nodded. He took a similarly sized lump of clay. He didn't close his eyes or try to "feel" anything. Instead, his mind worked with cold precision. 'Objective: Create Bird Statue. Form Parameters: Stable, Symmetrical, feather details simplified. Material: Clay. Trigger: Execute.'
He placed his hand over the clay. "Form," he commanded with a single word.
The clay responded instantly. Not with a gentle flow, but with swift, precise movements. The earth folded, compacted, and shaped itself with the efficiency of a factory machine. In seconds, a bird statue stood before him. It was geometrically perfect. Every angle of its wings was identical, its beak was perfectly straight, and its surface was flawlessly smooth. Yet, that perfection made it feel cold, lifeless, like an architectural model.
Haelan observed both statues, then smiled faintly. "Your magic is strong, boy, and fast as lightning," he said. "But it has no soul."
"But your magic is inefficient," Kenzo replied with the same respectful tone.
A hoarse laugh escaped Haelan's lips, acknowledging the truth in Kenzo's words. In the midst of their dialogue of two worlds, a small voice interrupted.
"That's so cool, Big Brother Kenzo, Old Man Haelan's is cool too!"
Lina ran towards them, her eyes sparkling as she looked at the two bird statues. Since Kenzo had learned to speak their language, Lina often followed him, fascinated by the stranger who could make fire with a single word. She picked up both statues carefully, comparing them in her hands.
After Haelan and Kenzo finished and were resting under a tree, Lina stared intently at the statues. She then set them down, took a small lump of leftover clay, and tried to imitate them. She frowned, trying to shape a wing, but the clay just became a formless blob in her tiny hands.
Frustrated, she abandoned the clay. She looked at her own hands, then closed her eyes, her lips moving silently. She wasn't imitating Haelan's complex chants or Kenzo's cold logic. She was simply focusing with all her heart on a single, pure intention born from a child's innocence: "I want to make a pretty little light, like a firefly for Father."
That pure intention, without filter, without control, without any understanding of consequence, accidentally unlocked the full potential of her Light magic.
It was not a little light that appeared.
A pillar of blinding, pure white light erupted from her body. The light was not hot or destructive. It felt warm, holy, and utterly silent, as if all sound in the world had vanished. The light shot straight into the sky, so bright it turned dusk into day, illuminating the entire region for miles like a second sun. Then, as quickly as it appeared, the light faded and vanished, leaving Lina to collapse onto the ground, unconscious from exhaustion.
Kenzo and Haelan, thrown backward by the shockwave of sheer energy, immediately rushed to her side. Kenzo checked her pulse. It was faint but steady. She was asleep. While he made sure Lina was okay, his mind was already racing in panic.
The cold voice of Prometheus sounded in his head, providing technical context to what had just happened. [Energy Release Analysis: Source - Subject 'Lina'. Energy output equivalent to Tier 3-4 magic (area effect). Affinity: Pure Light, 120%. Probability of natural occurrence: 0.001%. This is an extreme anomaly.]
While Kenzo processed the data, Haelan stared at the now-normal sky with a deathly pale face. He wasn't looking at Lina; his eyes were filled with a horror born from knowledge, not from ignorance.
"That light..." Haelan murmured, his voice trembling. "It was a beacon. A call that can be felt by anyone sensitive to mana... Mages, noble knights... and worst of all... the Church will know."
"The Church?" Kenzo asked, his brain trying to connect the data.
Haelan finally looked at him, his old eyes reflecting a deep fear. "In these lands, Light magic is a holy gift, and the Church believes they alone have the right to control it. They 'gather' gifted children like this, turning them into 'Saints,' symbols of their power."
Haelan swallowed hard, his voice dropping to a terrifying whisper. "They will come for her. And they won't come to ask questions."
Kenzo fell silent. He combined Prometheus's cold data (Extreme Anomaly, 120%) with Haelan's emotional warning (They will come for her). The conclusion was terrifying. He looked down at Lina's sleeping, innocent face, unaware that her incredible power had just screamed its existence to the entire world.