Life didn't get easier, even in another world

300 The sun

“Cough cough.”

Kairen covered his mouth with a hand and not caring about the hot liquid rising in his throat, he moved all of his cracks towards his brother.

“Hah! How funny!”

The white-haired man glanced at the cracks created by Kairen, scoffed, and glanced at the boy for a brief second, before closing his eyes.

ZAAAAAPPP

A blood-red thunderbolt shot out from his palm.

No, it would be better to call it a figure created from thousands of concentrated cracks. It was the same attack he used on Kairen three weeks ago, but a weaker form of it.

Stones, big and small, rose to the air at the same moment, all heading towards Aaron at once.

BAAAAAAANGGG

.....

And the three powers all collided.

The red thunderbolt hot the barrier created by Kairen. The barrier managed to stop the thunderbolt for a few seconds, but that was it. Kairen’s barrier turned to dust after a short time and vanished completely.

“Ugh-”

Feeling as if he was stabbed in the chest, Kairen frowned and curled up his body. He swallowed the blood in his mouth and moved his hand again.

BAAANGGG

Before Kairen could create another barrier, the thunderbolt hit the stone wall.

CRACKKK

BAMMMM

The stone wall shattered to pieces, unable to withstand the power for even a brief second.

“Stop!”

The commander’s order didn’t even manage to slow down the thunderbolt a little bit. Kairen was unable to form another barrier on time and the thunderbolt passed the cracks that were aimlessly scattered around.

ZZZZZZ

ZZAAAAP

And hit the white stone on Aaron’s cloak.

“Argh-”

“Ron!”

Kairen, who was standing right behind Aaron’s back, caught the staggering man before glancing at the white stone.

Zzzzz

Zaaaap

The red thunderbolt that had hit the stone now looked more like a red thread than a thunderbolt that connected the man and the stone. Red-purple electric currents were jumping around the white jewelry. It was as if water was poured on an electric device with all of those cracks and currents all around the place.

“What have you- ugh.”

Aaron was glaring at the man with bloodshot eyes. His face was pale and his body was trembling. His hand that had unconsciously moved to grab the white stone was red and burnt, blood dripping down from it was making the ground wet.

“Amazing!”

The holy saint mumbled, his eyes shining from excitement and his lips now curled up so much that it looked scary.

“Here!”

He then moved up his other hand and gestured in the air as if he was coming for someone to move to him.

Onnngg

The jewelry started to tremble at the same time. It was moving up and down as if it was trying to break free from whatever was attaching it to the mattress of the cloak and rush to the man’s hand.

“Wha-”

Aaron glanced at the stone with his eyes wide open before grabbing it once again with his burnt hand. Kairen could smell the scent of burnt flesh and he could even see some smoke rising from Aaron’s hand.

“R-Ron!”

Kairen couldn’t help but frown at the sight. He moved his head again, staring at the white-haired man leisurely watching Aaron’s struggles.

“Bastard!”

Ha then moved his hand towards him.

ZAAAAPPPPPP

Golden-silver cracks swirled around in the air before a huge wave headed towards the man.

ONNGG

And it wasn’t only the cracks. Magic symbols started to shine around the boy, glowing as they floated in the air. Kairen was a mage, and a mage casts magic spells in battles.

SWOSHHHH

A huge fireball formed in the air in the blink of an eye.

It wasn’t just one fireball.

One. Two. Three... Ten fireballs appeared one by one and all of them were shot at the white-haired man.

“Hmm?”

In the face of the power that could probably destroy mountains in the blink of an eye, the holy saint only raised an eyebrow slightly.

SHHHH

And all of the fireballs faded as soon as he glanced at them. The fireballs faded, vanished as if they had never existed at all.

“H-huh?”

Kairen could only stare dumbfoundedly at the air where his fire spell had faded.

‘What the hell?’

He couldn’t comprehend what just happened. Did the man cancel his spell only by... glancing at it? Was that even possible? Seriously? Isn’t this person a cheat?

“Cough.”

Drip

Drip

Kairen stared at the blood that was dripping from his mouth with an expressionless face. He felt as if his head became empty all of a sudden as if all his energy was consumed all at once. His body felt lighter, he wobbled, then he sensed his knees hitting the ground.

“Ah...”

‘I overdid it...’

He had used so much mana and energy with a body that was still injured. It was normal for him to feel this way after doing all that. Even though he had not used too much mana or performed any large-scale attacks, his body seemed to be at its limits. His vision was getting blurry and he was coughing up blood.

He wasn’t surprised though. He knew the reason already. Since coming back from his... disappearance, he had trouble controlling his mana. He could only use a tiny bit of it and that tiny bit burdened his body as much as using his whole mana would do. Reyan had said that it was because he had used his power too much lately... Something about its side effects temporarily blocking his mana veins... But Kairen didn’t expect it to be this intense.

“Cough.”

Drip

Drip

“...Ren?”

Kairen looked towards the source of the shaking voice that was calling for him. Aaron was staring at him, his face pale, eyes wide open, pupils shaking, and lips trembling. His expression was a mixture of pain, anger, and fright.

“Ops!”

Then turned towards the holy saint. He was looking at Kairen as if he was just a little kid who had fallen down while running and hurt his knee, not someone who was throwing up blood.

“That’s why I said you have to listen to me!”

He smiled at Kairen while his words were directed at Aaron. His hand that was still in the air in the gesture of pulling the stone towards himself clenched in a fist.

ONNNNGG

And the jewelry jumped out of Aaron’s toughly clasped hands like a piece of iron that was near a powerful magnet.

“Wait-”

Aaron reached out to grab the stone that was moving towards the man at a high speed, but the thing slid out of his grasp once again.

“Haha!”

.....

The red thread finally disappeared and the holy saint chuckled as he opened his palm to grasp the stone.

But then the jewelry, that was moving at a high speed towards the man, suddenly stopped moving midway, just before the holy saint could grasp it.

“Huh-”

The man suddenly looked up. His eyes opened so wide in an instant that it felt as if his eyeballs would fall out.

“What?”

His action made everyone else also look up at the location he was looking at. They all stared at a spot in the sky, not knowing what was going on. They were all forced to clench their eyes shut as soon as they raised their head as the place that the man was looking at, the sun was not something one could stare at.

‘This...’

But of course, Kairen was a little bit different from the others.

‘It feels the same...’

The place that the holy saint was staring at, the sun... Something was there. He could feel a familiar power appear in that place.

‘But it’s different...’

The power that appeared there was completely different. It wasn’t like the holy saint’s power. It didn’t make Kairen frightened or suffocating. It instead...

‘It feels warm...?’

It felt like a completely another kind of power, nothing similar to what he knew. But he still felt like they were the same.

“....”

Kairen opened his clenched eyes a little bit.

Shhhh

Something had changed there. He didn’t know what it was, but the sun looked kinda different all of a sudden.

“Oh!”

The holy saint quietly gasped, realization dawned on his face.

Shhhh

The sun was different. The cold weather of winter felt warm. The sunlight felt gentle. The sky felt darker, yet brighter.

Yes. It was brighter.

The place they were all at, a spot right in front of Kairen, was getting brighter. Like a star directly shining at one spot, like a spotlight, focusing on only one actor in a theater, a circular area in front of Kairen was getting brighter.

“Huh...”

He could only quietly gasp at the sight. He gasped and looked up again.

SHHHHHH

ZAAAAP

And at the same time, something flashed right in front of his eyes. Something too bright for the others to watch, a golden ray of light, a crimson thunder, flashed in the air, one tip of it was the sun and the other the ground, the bright ground.

“You’re here!”

No one cared about the holy saint’s words anymore as all of them were focused on the light, no, everyone was focused on the person that had appeared by the light.