Grand Marshall Craine rushed to meet the prince after receiving a distress message from them. With his elite unit, they left the capital city and rode through the harsh weather to reach them. The crown prince was just returning from a short visit to one of the kingdom's towns to attend a festival when they received a message transported through magic.
As they neared the Great Forest of Livia, their horses stopped by instinct and refused to enter the dreary forest. The once great trees and vibrant forest was now left with gnarly and dead trees. The place exudes an eerie and heavy atmosphere, the coldness of death hanging in the air.
Coaxing the horses, they managed to continue. Ignoring their surroundings, they rode fast and finally reached Lyonel. It did not take them long to pinpoint his location after using a location spell that could detect mana but what they found left them stunned.
The place was leveled, dead bodies were lying on the cold and black ground. Choosing to ignore the death, his gaze fell on the unmoving prince in the middle of the carnage. Afraid that he was also dead, Grand Marshall Craine cautiously approached him and gently grabbed his shoulder with his unsteady hands. A sigh, he could still feel warmth from the prince's drenched body, a clear indication that he was still alive. The moment he kneeled in front of him, Lyonel's unconscious body fell towards him.
Grand Marshall Craine carefully held the prince in his arms as he checked for his pulse. It was there but it was weak, so weak that it might stop anytime. The general motioned for one of his men to cast a healing spell on the prince but the moment the holy magic touched his body, it was deflected, taking the people who were there by surprise. Dark red smoke, reminiscent of blood, slowly rose from the prince's body, a reaction that only happens when holy magic comes in contact with magic incompatible with it.
"Grand Marshall..." the man became unsure and took a step back.
The general took a deep breath as his senses spread through the battlefield. He could feel a variety of mana but the dominant one was that of the crown prince's mana. The distinctive bloody red color saturated the place.
"Try again and this time, use Lesser Healing." He instructed and once more the healer tried healing the crown prince, this time it worked. After making sure that the crown prince's pulse was back to more or less normal, the general ordered them to return. "Let's go back. And, no one should know what happened here. Clean this place, don't leave any trace."
His elite team understood. Grand Marshall Redmond Craine rode with the prince first. What happened that night would remain a secret to be buried in the dark. Crown Prince Lyonel Ingrave's magic was so peculiar that it might cause more commotion once word got out that it was incompatible with holy magic.
After they reached the palace and with the king's permission, the prince was secretly treated and barely managed to survive the night. His body was already weak and now it was further damaged because of the attack. Whoever was behind this assassination, Grand Marshall Craine would make sure that they wouldn't get away.
"How is he?" He asked after the royal physician took care of him.
"The prince is out of danger but the death surrounding him needs to be dealt with. This power will only give the aristocrats reason to punish him." The royal physician looked at the sleeping prince. "We already knew that the prince's magic is different from what has been seen within the kingdom and now that the aura of death followed him, I'm afraid that he won't be able to survive if someone would discover this change."
"I understand. We will do what we can to hide the prince's aura." The grand marshall's gaze lingered on the sleeping prince before he looked at the physician once more. A group of mage under the Grand Marshall entered and started casting a protection spell towards the prince that would hide the scent of death on him.
"Don't let the tragedy ten years ago happen again." The royal physician gave him a meaningful look before he left.
His fists tightened as he swore that it wouldn't happen. He failed to protect his friend's family but he won't let that repeat itself. He would do everything to protect the prince.
Engulfed with fire, the Everleigh estate turned into ashes and by the time he reached the palace, it was already in tatters. The palace's once porcelain floor turned black and burnt bodies were scattered in every direction. General Craine tried to ignore the dead and was focused on looking for his friend only to find Zygler and his wife, Arcania lying in a pool of their own blood.
He staggered to where they were and fell on his knees soaking his clothes with blood. His hands trembled as he reached and gently touched Zygler's shoulders. The general remained in a kneeling position for a minute before he carried Arcania's body out and gently laid her on a pile of leaves. He then carried Zygler's body and laid it beside his wife.
He gave them one last look before he turned around and continued in his journey to look for Elyssian only to come up with nothing. Despite searching the entire estate, he still didn't find Elyssian and with all the burnt bodies strewn everywhere, he was not sure if the youngest Everleigh was one of them. The memories struck him and left him with an unreconciled anger.
Lyonel was unconscious for three days and when he finally woke up, confusion was written all over his face. His body was in pain.
His last memory was the echoing voice of that mysterious man who called himself Chaos and a mechanical voice telling him of a system. He tried opening his eyes again but all he could see was darkness followed by a sharp stabbing pain in his head. Groaning, his body twisted and his jaws clenched at the onslaught of images he did not recognize. He did not know the people in the images but strangely his body reacted to them.
"Your highness..." A worried voice sounded from his side but because of the pain he couldn't focus on it. The voice passed in a blur before he passed out again.
[Welcome Primordial User. I am Alfyon and I will be your guide.]
It was the mechanical voice repeating the same phrase that he heard before his consciousness slipped away. It came from his mind but he could not see who it belonged to. It was cold and contained no emotion at all.
[What are you talking about?]
He did not understand what the voice was saying. He was still in a state of confusion and the voice only added to his already throbbing head.
[Do you want to access the user manual to this system?]
Alfyon ignored him and continued with its script. User manual? What was that supposed to mean? He was becoming dizzy but he still managed to answer the voice.
[Yes.]
After answering, a glowing book appeared in his mind, startling him. This reaction manifested in a creased brow and frown that alerted the people who were looking after him. He did not want to read whatever it was but as if a puppet, his attention became entirely focused on the contents of the glowing book.
The words were written in an unfamiliar language that he did not understand but after a few seconds of staring at it, the words slowly formed within his understanding, he could finally understand them. He managed to browse through it despite the dizziness as it automatically changed pages according to his reading pace. It turned out that it contained information and instructions about the voice and the system that it was talking about. Getting a grasp of what was happening, he turned to ask the system once again.
[Therefore, I am already dead and now, I am inside the body of the heir to the throne of Ingracia. Am I correct?]
[Yes.]