Chapter 3: Beta -3- The Piercing Through White
The children had all found themselves inside a lively and cursed sea of grey-black mud. Julius tried pullings his legs out but every time he used power to attempt to escape the muddy sea, his body as a whole sank down faster into the sea of mud below.
Although Julius was the closest to the carriage which was just outside of the radius of the magical attack, even he did not know if he would be able to reach the carriage before the swiftly charging cavalry pierced through him.
Julius had a rather strange look on his face.
'This looks like an acting set. So are those horse-men actors as well? I guess that makes sense."
Lucas looked down, with eyes bulging.
"Take my hand."
He spoke gravely, his figure leaning out as far as it could, threatening to fall off the carriage and into the sea of writhing black mud.
Julius reached out, sinking in the process, just as Julius thought that he would sink into the muddy underworld below, a sweaty palm grasped his own and Lucas pulled him up and away from the stubborn mud below.
Julius went into the insides of the carriage immediately from the moment he got pulled upward.. He could hear Lucas' muffled shouts from the insides of the carriage.
"Albert. We have to save them."
Albert seemed to be the old carriage master.
Albert looked at the stuck and now weeping children with solidarity.
"We don't have enough drust to save them all, unfortunately."
Lucas was desperate.
"We don't need to save them all. Just half. Just a few. Even one."
"Please just save somebody Albert."
Albert nodded and gave up.
"Sure, I'll save two kids."
Lucas smiled graciously.
Bang.
The entire carriage started to shake and rattle as it shot forward, away from the struggling children.
Julius looked around in confusion.
'God I'm confused. What was with that mud? I've never seen a place with this kind of ecosystem. Or was it part of the set? Do they have a wave machine designed for mud?'
'Or maybe it was a prank or something? I could see that being a pretty viral youtube video.'
Soon the carriage started skidding forwards rapidly. A gold mystical trail was left in its path. Two tanks of golden glitter started to deplete as the carriage crossed through an eighth of the entire mountain range within moments. It stayed afloat in the air momentarily due to the drust.
As the last of the drust was used to propel the carriage away from the horses of the cavalry, Lucas could only look back in betrayal.
"Albert..."
"You said. You said you would save two kids!"
Lucas looked at Albert in rage. Albert merely responded humbly.
"And that's what I'm doing."
Lucas lost his breath as he saw the horse's mirages of white flow through the children, soon after the children slumped before falling and being devoured by the muddy sea of black. The sea only parted when the horses were about to get stuck, it was a military-grade spell used for eliminating enemies by the Kingdom of White.
The commander met eyes with him, grinning psychotically. He had waxed back black hair and a disgustingly charming face.
Lucas stared back in outrage.
"Bastard."
Lucas hit the sides of the carriage in anger. The children, all other than Julius had perished.
A few tears slipped down Lucas' cheeks.
"I don't even care anymore."
Julius opened the carriage door.
"What."
And there he saw that all the children had disappeared, in fact, the entire scene had disappeared.
The carriage had travelled tens of miles in a matter of minutes. They were in an entirely different biome already.
There were no longer mountains or rocks in the surroundings, rather now they were in a field full of surreal black grass.
Julius knocked his head.
"There's no way a carriage can go that fast. Did I fall asleep along the way?"
Julius hadn't, he was still merely glued to Earth logic.
Julius had no clue about the death of the children.
"Hey uhm, Lucas."
Lucas was at the back of the carriage.
"What happened to the rest of the kids and how long has it been? There's no way we left them behind right?"
Lucas looked back with dead eyes.
"Exterminated in no less than a minute."
Julius coughed.
"What are you on about."
He still had no clue about his current situation.
Julius sighed.
"Well, I just hope we didn't leave all the kids behind with those strange military cavalry guys."
Lucas laughed bitterly.
"Can you leave behind someone who has already died? Or do they leave you behind first?"
Julius furrowed his eyebrows.
'Why's he acting all weird.'
Julius couldn't comprehend that the reaper had just descended and took the lives of all of the children mercilessly.
It was only a few hours later, that his thoughts came to that grim conclusion.
Yostel Devian, the Commander of the White-Dirt Extermination Unit adopted a serious and adapted gaze.
"Can we use the tracking magic on them yet?"
All the men there were wearing heavy coats of audacious greys and they all had white stripes in their hair as they sat on their horses.
"Yes sir."
Soon, one of the men began moving his hands around mystically, within a few moments a tangible and fairy-like blue substance was remnant in the air.
It seemed unsure of what to do and poked itself in random directions.
The commander squinted his eyes.
"What's going on? Why is it not tracking them?"
The tracker shivered, one bad move and he could get white-washed for knowing too much.
"Sir, the only reason it wouldn't work is if I was out of mana..."
The commander laughed dryly.
"Which you are most definitely not."
The tracker continued hesitantly.
"Or if it was used on Irregulars."
The commander put a hand on his chin.
"That's... too unlikely. There's rarely more than 1 irregular in a kingdom and you're trying to tell me there's 3 in one carriage?"
The tracker quivered.
"... Yes sir."
Chrt.
In one sick instance, The commander pulled out his bayonet from its hold and slashed upwards.
A silver glint resided for a split-second before a wave of blood left the Tracker's chest through a newborn slit.
The tracker then fell to the floor with tears on his face.
"He lies."
The commander chuckled darkly.
"We do not need a tracker, spread out into the Iron Kingdom, retreat when it turns dark or if Iron troops catch on to you. Those children cannot escape. Not if any of you lot want to see your families walking by dusk."
The troops all nodded solemnly before charging off, horse trottles resounded for another minute before it was finally silent.
"Even if my men do not catch them by the time night strikes, the Bandits of the Eastern Mountains will do their job pleasingly."
The commander rode off with his valiant steed, ready to report his works to his superior swiftly.
Julius still had no idea what had happened. He didn't even know who the owner of his body was. Who knows, maybe they had swapped lives.
Julius cackled evilly.
'Little man's gonna have a lot to clean up.'
It was around night time at this point.
Lucas walked in steadily, he looked like he had been shot thrice in the neck.
"Julius, make some light I need to study these papers. I can't fail again."
Julius shrugged his shoulders in discomfort.
"Do I look like a caveman to you?"
Lucas cursed.
"I don't have time for these goddamn jokes Julius, use Soleil."
Julius sighed, his voice now filled with anger and frustration.
"I already told you, I don't remember a thing. What can't you understand about that?"
Lucas gripped his hair in frustration.
"Arghh. Just say Soleil and stop being a stubborn little brat."
Julius tousled his hair whilst lifting his right hand.
"Soleil."
Soon, a small construct of light formed, shimmering the insides of the carriage with a chill yellow hue.
Julius felt like throwing up.
"Magic?"
Lucas felt like hitting Julius.
"You're not funny."
Julius felt like his brain was choking on the illogical light construct that had just formed before him.
"We have magic?"
Lucas looked at Julius dead-panned.
"Yes Julius, we have magic. But because you are the biggest idiot I know you could only master Soleil and Hades. The weakest light and darkness spells. So despite being the one with the most potential out of all of us, you ended up being the most useless even after we escaped."
Julius had been infused with intense curiosity.
Instantly he stopped focusing on Soleil. He wanted to try out his other spell.
"Hades."
Darkness magic shot into Lucas' eye.
Lucas swore.
"Fucker-."
Before Julius knew a thing, the atmosphere grew drier and Lucas' eyes had been corrupted black, giving him a rather freakish look.
In outrage, Lucas placed two fingers on his eyes.
"Anti-magic."
A green source of energy filled his eyes, disrupting the darkness.
"What the hell did you blind me for?"
Julius shrugged.
"My bad, I forgot what it did."
Lucas breathed out heavily.
"Whatever. Bring back Soleil."
"Soleil."
Silence descended as Lucas began studying some papers on the kingdom of Iron under a soothing yellow light that had descended due to Julius' new magic.
Julius was overcome with boredom but he knew he shouldn't distract and annoy Lucas.
Julius left the carriage innards and went to the front by Albert. As he left he recognized huge peaks of mountain summits. The sky was black and full of silvery clouds.
"Hey... You know where we are?"
Albert looked back in humbleness.
"The Eastern Mountains of the Iron Kingdom I would like to believe. Somewhere around the middle now."
Julius nodded in silence.
"Why are you helping us?"
Julius just couldn't help but ask such a question.
The driver looked at Julius nonchalantly with cold eyes.
"Because we are the same."
Julius looked back at him in uncertainty.
"Me and you?"
The driver nodded.
"And Lucas."
Julius felt sort of creeped out.
"Yeah, that's uhm... good on you."
"Yeah."
Julius went to the back of the carriage with a feeling of melancholiness.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone