The Mysterious Black Magician

With a ghastly face, Lilia was staring at the back of the person who suddenly popped up in front of her.

\'A lifeline\' is what was in her mind the moment she saw it.

A meter to her right, a friend of hers was staring at the same person with a dumbfounded face. Based on her gaze to him, Lilia was certain that Achan saw it when that person cut the head of the monster.

After killing it, blood sprayed from the wound of the headless monster that was lying on the ground as a corpse.

They could not believe that someone came in the right time to save them. If not, the one lying on the ground at this moment would be their corpses.

"You are…?" With a skeptical voice, Achan muttered as she was staring at the person while wearing a can\'t believe expression with the mixture of gratitude.

Although she asked him, her voice had a tinge that the person in front of her was seemingly familiar to her..

But instead of answering her, the person looked above, then a moment later, a large bird with the body of black color landed in front of them. Weirdly though, the bird wasn\'t the typical bird that could be seen around. It didn\'t have feathers. Just looking at it, anybody could tell that it had a smooth body.

Then they heard him saying: "There\'s no time, let\'s go--!" He said but stopped his word when he glanced at the ladies and saw a grimace expression on their faces. 

Lillia was making a twisting face as she was enduring the pain of having her arms cut above her elbow; blood was gushing from it like a fountain.

Arrrgh! She cried in pain while holding what came to be the remains of her slender arm.

"Wait M-Mister, let me heal my friend first!" Achan ran to Lilia\'s side. She was pointing her hand to Lilia\'s wound.

Although she could not regrow back her lost arm, she could at least heal the wound.

Achan was about to use her healing spell; however, before the first word came out from her mouth, a warm hand landed on her arm.

"Let me?" She heard him said in a calm voice.

Achan stared at him with a skeptical face, and wearing a frown.

Her mouth opened but all she could say was: "Uh--"

For some reason, the feeling of wanting to save her friend and the feeling of wanting to believe and depend on him were clashing inside Achan\'s mind and soul.

"My friend was…" she tried to say something but he already walked in front of her.

"Eh!?"

Lilia had no way to say no as her mind was muddled up by pain.

Her breathing feels deeper and hard to exhale and inhale. Her chest was in pain, and her vision was dimming.

Achan was watching when the person beside her slowly lifted her hand and touched the cut part.

From out of nowhere, something crawling from his hand.

"A-Ant?"

A black Ant was crawling towards the remains of Lilia\'s arm.

Although something was crawling on her, she felt nothing about it as all she had was a numbing feeling.

"What are you doing?!" Achan shouted at him. Though he saved them, it was rude to bully a grieving person.

After the black Ant bit her, it suddenly disappeared.

\'What a heartless man!\' Her thought.

But she changed her mind a second later because she noticed Lilian\'s wound was glowing. Then the next thing that happened widened her eyes in disbelief.

"Wh-What is happening!?" She shouted.

After Achan had shouted, the cut was glowing and a new arm was starting to form.

"It\'s growing…?" Achan mumbled and stared at him with curiosity.

The ashen face Lilian had a while ago was starting to regain its natural vibrant. Until the cut could no longer be seen and a new slender arm appeared.

"Lilia, how are you?!" Achan asked in a panic.

Lilia blinked her eyes and replied saying that she was fine.

The two girls stared at him with dumbfounded faces. He on the other hand, did not even take a second glance at their dumbfoundedness. He slowly retreated his hand that was still holding the newly materialized arm.

Lilia could feel the warmth from his hand. For some reason, after he took his hand, her hand was left hanging in the air, seemingly unwilling to depart from that warm.

The ashen face she had a while ago, now had a rosy red bloom. Especially that they noticed he was a handsome young man with white hair. A young Encan to be specific.

Aside from that, both of them remembered his face. He was the person they saw a while ago when they were walking towards here.

A guilty feeling rose within them because they ignored him when he tried to talk to them.

His mouth extended to both sides and formed a slight smile. 

Lilia opened her mouth and said: "Uhm! What is your n--!" 

"Let\'s go," he said ahead of Lilia\'s words. He had no time for \'a getting to know each other\' thing.

"....."

Lilia fell silent when he noticed his eyes were peering ahead to the direction where they came from a while ago.

She felt that his eyes were looking at something that only he could see.

\'Such a mysterious man,\' in Lilia and Achan\'s mind.

The two ladies glanced at each other and nodded.

Again, from out of thin airs, another black colored bird without feathers had materialized.

They were wondering what he did. They didn\'t hear an incantation from him. If it was a summon, an incantation or magic seal is a must element to achieve it. Yet, this person just produced them on the get-go without any of those, not even a single word!

The two of them were bewildered as they stared at him with awe.

Although they saw many talented students on the campus, no one among them could summon a beast like this person did.

Anyhow, they were skeptical to ride the bird because of its smooth surface, but after a growling sound that came closer was heard by them, the two immediately hopped on it, out of fear.

Fortunately, there was a long whisker on the bird that seemingly functioned as the rope.

Lilia who was on the front was gripping it with too much strength, probably, afraid to fall. On the other hand, Achan was hugging Lilia\'s waist.

After seeing them on top of the other bird, he jumped also on the second bird.

Without wasting time, the birds flapped their large wings, and slowly ascended to the sky.

Just right when they left, the two monsters that were chasing after them a while ago had arrived at the time rock.

But all they had seen was the headless corpse of another monster.

The two birds were flying beside each other towards the southeastern part of the mountain.

The pressure of the wind made their hairs dance in the air and they had trouble looking straight, especially that the two girls weren\'t used to flying.

But the person riding alone on the bird beside them was keeping his silence while unbothered by the wind pressure. The silence among them was nauseating. "Ahem!" Achan cleared her throat to break the ice that was known as \'Silence\'.

He noticed that they were staring at him with a readable face. A face that wanted to ask him.

After successfully grabbing his attention, "Uhm! May we know your name?" Achan braved herself and asked.

"....."

"Crimson….. my name is Crimson Agila," he replied.

"Crimson Agila?" Lilia repeated.

"Mhm!" He nodded.

Thanks to his scout birds that were able to find these two girls when they were running towards the northern part of the mountain while being chased by two fierce-looking monsters. Because if not, these two would be lying as cold corpses in that place.

After his scout birds found them, he immediately summoned his flying mount enhanced fire doll, then flew rapidly towards the area with all the speed that this bird-model can offer.

He even disregarded the call from the raccoon man he left behind without an explanation.

Fortunately, he arrived just on time.

"Uhm, Mr. Crimson…"

"Crimson will do," he said immediately.

"Uh-- okay. Uhm, Crimson, do you know something about the current situation?" asked Lilia.

"Right, Mister! Did you find the guys who came with us to this place?"

After Lilia asked him, Achan also added.

Yman nodded and told them what happened.

"What? The seniors did it?" Exclaimed Lilia.

"Thankfully, Ran was fine," said Achan.

Both of them replied differently.

He also asked them about the current situation. However, he noticed the two girls went silent. He narrowed his eyes and thought they were acting suspiciously.

Yman did not force them to answer as it would cause unfavorable reactions from them. The best thing to do at this point was to act as friendly as he could-- for them to willingly open-up to him on their own accord.