When Zephyr climbed down the spiraling stairway of the lighthouse, he t the furious crowd below. All the n and won looked at him in anger, ready to tear him apart at a mont’s notice.
’A mob can never be reasoned with.’ Zephyr said to himself, stopping just a few ters away from them.
His eyes quickly scanned the crowd, trying to find the other ssengers who had ventured into the black fog.
Like the one he had seen a few monts ago, they too might be brainwashed by the necromancer, or so he thought.
As his eyes moved across the crowd, so of the n stepped back.
While considering nothing else, Zephyr was still a mage.
A mage was higher in status than them, while also being imnsely powerful. With a snap of his fingers, he could determine the life and death of anyone there. So, even though they felt hatred for the man who supposedly killed their chief and fellow villager, they didn’t dare do anything.
The murmurs in the crowd suddenly decreased.
Zephyr relaxed a little, seeing reason to return to the group. But that only lasted a mont.
Just as he thought he could find a way to reason his way out of this ss, two n stepped forward holding up their weapons.
It was the ssengers.
"YOU KILLED THEM." One of them shouted.
His voice spread like wildfire, rekindling the flas of fury that had disappeared in the heart of the crowd.
"YOU ARE WORKING WITH THE DARK MAGE." Another baseless accusation was thrown.
Zephyr noted the face of the man who accused him.
’They are the ones who want dead. The dark mage really did a number on .’
The mont Zephyr transmigrated, he was bound by duty to help the people. And he did so by risking his life while trying to save the missing person. He also performs his duty as a weather forecaster without a single complaint.
And yet, these n were accusing him of colluding with evil and murder.
How can they be so wrong?
He was a little disappointed.
’Where is that damned chief? He should know the help I provided, right? So, he should show up and help , right?’ Zephyr grumbled inwardly.
Suddenly, as he was thinking, he paused.
He turned to the crowd and asked.
"What do you an by them?" His voice was like a sharp blade, slicing through the tensed atmosphere.
But no one answered.
"n, don’t be fooled by him. Let’s attack together."
"Yes, kill him. This brutal murderer deserves death."
Despite Zephyr asking sothing, the ssenger duo took control of the situation and turned everyone against him.
Finally, it was getting on his nerves.
The necromancer was clearly trying to turn everyone against him for his amusent.
He couldn’t allow that.
But the crowd was not sothing he could control. They were already influenced by the duo.
’Have I been too kind to these people?’ He wondered as he watched the crowd slowly inch its way closer to him.
They had co through the door of the lighthouse and were surrounding him.
Their goal: simply to kill him.
’I think this is one of those monts...’ Zephyr sighed.
He needs to make a firm decision right now. After all, his life was being threatened.
There was no place left for empathy. The villagers had turned against him even after receiving his help.
It didn’t matter whether it was because of the manipulation of the necromancer or not. Just the fact that they turned against him ant the trust between them was broken.
Broken in ways it could not be nded.
’Here I was hoping for one voice of reason to erge within the crowd.’
’This is not my world. There are no rules or laws, not in a way that I know of. They will lynch if given an opportunity.’
’So, I shouldn’t be kind.’ He decided.
"Not today, you won’t." He muttered, watching the crowd co near him.
They suddenly paused.
Zephyr looked at them and began to speak.
"Those who want to die can co forward. The lighthouse is going to collapse and kill us all. I could end you personally before that."
The mont he said that, the black stone wall around them trembled.
The mana in the area began to fluctuate wildly. It was more than Zephyr expected.
’Did I trigger sothing else when I broke the stabilization part of the rotary chanism?’ He wondered.
anwhile, his words sent the crowd into panic.
"No, he is lying."
"Yes, follow us and kill this liar."
Two n dashed towards Zephyr.
However, Zephyr was prepared.
He silently lifted his hand and cast the first attack spell he etched into his cores.
’Mana bolt.’
It was a simple spell constructed using 16 runes.
A glowing blob of light as thick as a pinky finger materialized in the air.
It shocked the crowd.
’Now, add an elental property to it.’ Zephyr said in his mind and chained another spell to the mana bolt.
’Lightning.’
The mana bolt transford in the air and beca a sparking ball of electricity.
Imdiately, he released it to the person leading the charge, to one of the ssengers.
The mana bolt, carrying the thunder elent property, flew through the air like an arrow and pierced the man’s forehead.
Instantly, the man fell to the floor, dead.
The electricity inside the mana bolt fried his brain and killed him in an instant. To a normal person, a magical attack like that was lethal.
He couldn’t even defend himself before he died.
"I used 54 out of 838 cores’ worth of mana to cast the chain spell. It is more than the amount it would have required if I had cast them individually. Still, it’s worth it." He comnted coldly.
He didn’t feel much of anything as he killed a person. After the encounter with death in the mangrove forest, he seed to have grown numb to guilt and sympathy.
’This will not be the last ti.’ He mumbled and turned to look at the crowd, who abruptly stopped.
"If I wanted soone dead, I could have killed them without even alerting them, just like I did now. I don’t need to push anyone out of a building."
Zephyr said slowly.
"So, think for yourself and find the answer. I will talk with your chief and decide whether I should stay or leave this damned place."
Zephyr could hear the lighthouse tremble ever so slightly. The crystal was becoming unstable. Any second now, it would explode.
"Move," Zephyr said and began to walk out. He had said everything that needed to be said.
Just as he took a few steps towards the main entrance, one of the n nearby said.
"But the chief is dead. You killed him."
Zephyr paused.
The revelation that the chief was dead was shocking, but at the sa ti, not.
He turned and looked at the last ssenger.
"You killed him, right?" He muttered while lifting his hand again.
This ti, within a second, a mana bolt ford on his fingertip and flew right onto the forehead of the last ssenger.
Before he could reply or know what was happening, he fell to the ground.
’Humans are such fragile beings.’ Zephyr muttered and turned around to walk out of the lighthouse.
This ti, no one stopped him.
When he went outside, Zephyr saw the corpse of the chief right next to the ssenger’s.
He paused and glanced at it for a while before leaving silently. There was no fluctuation of emotion or anything else on his face. He t the people’s angry, fearful, hateful gaze and simply walked away in peace.
Behind him, a bright golden glow ford above the lighthouse before erupting into a pillar of light.
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