Knights and Magic Wand

The rushing river waters completely scattered the three boys, and they drifted further and further downstream amid the waves.

Encircled by icy torrents, Leon realized his mistake, he had underestimated the strong force of this rapid.

Wave after wave pounded against his body, and with nowhere to draw support from, everything around him blurred. Amid the churning confusion, he soon found himself inevitably choking on water, the sense of powerlessness to rise to the surface grew more apparent.

No matter how he tried to keep calm, hold his breath, and maintain his balance, his already scarce strength continued to deplete in the relentless torrents, like a merciless giant hand dragging him deep into the waters.

As the river consumed him completely, his consciousness faded along with his dwindling strength.

...How were Azeryan and the others... were they still in the water?

...Was he, himself, going to die...

Pain, repression, silence...

The river water backflowing into his body gradually solidified Leon's lingering consciousness amidst suffocation; he began to accept that this might be his end.

A visitor from another dimension, soon to drown at this deep riverbed, what a sudden, absurd finale.

Unable to struggle any longer, the boy's body sank deeper, until it slowly dropped to the riverbed.

...

"Should I call you lucky... or unlucky?"

"Leon" opened his eyes once again.

Yet those originally black eyes now sparkled with bright gold in the profound darkness.

"We must make it quick."

"Leon" skillfully turned in the water, with his hands deftly sweeping the river waters to draw runes, unknown forces quickly isolated the surrounding currents.

In the next instant, he shot out from the riverbed, his body swimming swiftly like a fish.

In the pitch-black waters, "Leon" now almost ignored the rapid undercurrents below the surface.

"Found them." The golden eyes scanned the darkness, he twisted and broke through the water, darting towards another boy still tumbling on the river surface—

On the river surface, Azeryan was still struggling desperately in the rapids.

He had used every skill he possessed, but even good swimming skills couldn't withstand the cruel reality of his draining strength.

Suddenly, the boy felt a massive force bump from below, then, he was pushed away from the tumultuous waters and flew up.

—Boom!

The river surface exploded dramatically, and within the splashing waves, "Leon" leaped up. Holding Lokhak in one hand and grabbing Azeryan's arm with the other, he soared high from the water and gracefully landed on the rocky riverbank.

Barely steady, "Leon" loosened his grip, dropping Lokhak and Azeryan, his body swayed as the golden glow in his eyes suddenly faded.

"...Ugh!! —Ugh!..." Suddenly regaining consciousness, Leon painfully collapsed to the ground, his head bowed as he vomited incessantly.

The river water gushed from his throat like opening a floodgate, massive torrents spilling onto the ground, he felt as if he was about to vomit out his stomach and lungs.

Dazed, Azeryan looked on bewildered; his mind hadn't caught up to the situation, one moment he thought he was about to die and the next he was unexpectedly thrown to the shore.

But quickly, seeing another companion collapsed on the ground, unsure of life or death, Azeryan snapped back to reality, hurried over to Lokhak to administer first aid in a flurry of actions, stripping off his chain armor and clothing, applying water, and pressing on his chest and lungs, finally hearing the painful coughing of awakening.

"Ugh~ Cough cough... cough—" Lokhak choked and coughed up the river water inside him, twisting his head to vomit for a while, before weakly opening his eyes.

"...Huff~... are we... saved...?" Lokhak panted, glanced at the chain armor stripped off by his companion, his helmet had been lost as soon as he fell into the water, but he wasn't able to remove the chain armor in time in the water, which made him sink to the bottom first.

"It's a miracle you could even pull me ashore... I'll never be foolish enough to enter water with armor on again..."

Azeryan, with legs that had given way, collapsed onto the ground, listening to Lokhak's thanks, he gave a bitter smile and shook his head, pointing at the even more disheveled Leon lying not far away.

"I wasn't even able to save myself, how could I save you? I didn't even know where the river took you, it was still Leon who dragged us up."

Azeryan couldn't understand how he had managed to fly them to the shore from the water, but wisely chose not to delve deeper into his companion's secrets.

Finally catching his breath, Leon wiped his face with his hand, exhaustedly slumped onto the ground, barely managing a strained laugh in response.

Leon still remembered what had happened in the water, his body being controlled to navigate through the river by a mysterious force, it all indicated that he was once again saved by the unknown being that had helped him before.

She's here, she must have been watching over him...

Unable to restrain his gratitude and curiosity any longer, Leon silently called out in his heart, "Are you still there?"

After waiting a while, still, there was no reply.

He couldn't help but wonder if he was assuming too much; perhaps that being couldn't communicate via mental consciousness?

This time, not fearing being overheard by others as before when the mercenaries were escorting him, Leon simply opened his mouth and loudly asked into the air:

"Hey!... Hey hey~? Are you still here?"

The two boys beside him looked at Leon puzzled, unaware of whom he was speaking to.

However, only Leon could hear the voice that emerged from within his heart:

"Hey, I'm here, I'm here~ why are you shouting so loudly..."

The faint voice of a young girl complained, only this time, her voice sounded clearer and smoother.

At last, Leon heard the much-awaited concrete response and was overjoyed.

"I'm sorry, I was just trying to see if I needed to speak a bit louder for you to hear me."

He scratched his wet hair as he spoke, his heart filled with excitement, not only because he had finally confirmed the guess that had troubled him since that day but also because he was excited about the presence of a friendly being with extraordinary powers residing within him.

If he were the protagonist of those web novels he had seen in his previous life, could this be his personal grandpa... or perhaps, miss?

But who exactly was she?

The soul of a local person from this world?

Or like him, a "Transmigrator" soul from some other time and space?

Numerous speculations leapt to his mind.

"...There's no need to shout; I can always hear you calling without you having to speak; I just ignored you before," the pleasant voice lazily replied.

Leon felt a bit embarrassed by the straightforward statement that she had ignored him, but he had no hard feelings, considering she had saved his life twice.

"I'm sorry." Leon obediently closed his mouth, switching back to a mental conversation: "I just wanted to thank you for intervening."

"It's alright, don't overthink it, I don't have anything against you."

The girl's voice continued: "You have many questions, and so do I, but I am too weak now. If I hadn't fallen into this place... I might not be able to maintain a conversation right now. Speaking of which, I never noticed that day..."

Before the mysterious consciousness could finish speaking, Leon heard Azeryan's cry of alarm.

"Leon! ...Leon!"

Interrupted in his spiritual exchange, Leon puzzledly pulled his awareness back to the present reality.

"What's the matter?" he quickly looked toward his companions.

He saw Lokhak, for some reason, staring dumbfounded upward at the sky, while Azeryan gestured around them with a shrug.

Only then did Leon notice the strangeness of the environment around him.

Previously too eager to converse with the voice in his mind after barely escaping death, he had not taken the time to observe his surroundings. Now, regaining his spirit and looking around, he realized the visibility around them had become eerily clear!

If it had been broad daylight, there would have been nothing strange about it.

But if his memory was still intact and had not been muddled, he remembered it should be a crescent moon in the middle of the night.

Whether it was the fierce encounter with the Wild Goblins earlier or the subsequent desperate flight to avoid the fearsome mountain bear, and even including the recent experience of falling into the water, none of these events could have extended the time to dawn.

They had landed in a sparsely wooded area when they fell into water, and even under the moonlight, it was still difficult to see the forest floor and the deadly river.

But now... Leon swallowed hard,

The forest was still a forest, and the river before them was still the one that had almost swallowed them.

But everything around them exhibited an indescribably strange clarity.

It was not the brightness of daylight under the sun, but rather, everything seemed as if it had been overlaid with a faded filter, creating an eerie scene where everything was shrouded in a mysterious, hazy color.

Following Lokhak's stunned gaze, Leon raised his head and, like him, was left dumbfounded.

Above them, there was no sun, no moon, no stars...

The entire unattainable canopy of the sky was an endless dark and mottled spectacle, murky shadows intertwining and surging across the horizon like a sea of pitch-black oil.

"What... what place is this?"

Lokhak's brain seemed about to crash, as even the terrifying forest creature they had faced before did not instill as much fear as the current sight.

Lokhak looked bewilderedly at his companions: "Could it be that we have actually drowned? Is this the afterlife?"

Leon's eyebrows furrowed tightly: "Calm down, don't talk nonsense; we are definitely still alive."

Azeryan seemed to regain his sanity, hesitantly starting to speak with an uncertain tone: "All of you, you must have heard the story of the Despair Plain, right?"

Lokhak widened his eyes, then surveyed their surroundings repeatedly before confirming, "You mean, we've entered the Cursed Land?!"

Leon's memory surged, and he immediately understood Azeryan's reference; it was a childhood bedtime story, repeatedly told by his parents and well-known in the Seryan Kingdom.

The story Azeryan mentioned about Despair Plain was not an unknown rare mystery but rather a folk tale familiar to every household in the Seryan Kingdom.

The legends described territories cursed in various remote corners of the continent.

They hid countless treasures and man-eating demons.

The Cursed Land could sometimes be deep in a vast forest, other times in empty plains or deserts, but invariably, these places share a common description: In that god-forsaken plain of despair, there was no sky, no sun, moon, or stars, and no boundaries; once accidentally entered, there was no chance of returning alive...

"...The Cursed Land... this name does seem fitting."

"Do you know what place this is?" Hearing the young girl's voice in his mind again, Leon inexplicably felt a wave of comfort.

He realized that instead of making wild guesses here, the mysterious consciousness within him, capable of wielding magic, must indeed know more about the current peculiar environment.

"Spirit-like Field, that is this domain's true name..." The girl's voice suddenly turned a little somber, her ethereal and elusive tone tinged with unspoken sorrow.