The Moon Thief

"Hrr ..."

Heinald froze with a growl he heard. He quickly began to observe his surroundings. There was a black wolf on his right side. The wolf's eyes were red,its eyes fixed on the young man. There was about a hundred meters between him and the wolf, and the wolf was walking towards him in a slow pace.

"Basic Fireball!" Heinald started to cast the only spell that he knew.

Heinald was standing without any move during cast process. If he made a sudden move,the wolf would start runing and attack him immediately. The casting time of the spell was too long, as he was still an Apprentice Ainsar, and he had enough Magic Energy to cast just one spell. This spell was a fire-based spell and it was only a Low Rank.

After about 30 seconds,a small fireball formed in Heinald's hand, even casting this little fireball was very difficult. When casting a spell, you had to construct the pattern of that spell in your mind and integrate it with your Magic Energy. Any mistake in casting process of a spell would result in death because of rebound. If the process proceeded successfully, the spell would be formed.

When the fireball in Heinald's hand began to radiate light and warmth, the wolf snarled loudly and attacked, while Heinald sent the fireball to the wolf's head. When the fireball and wolf collided, there was a rather small explosion of fire. The wolf's fur caught fire. Taking advantage of this, Heinald began to run in full swing. He picked up the one handed small axe that hanging on his belt. The wolf rolled on the ground, stopping his fur from burning,and began running after the young man at its full speed.

"Damn! The gap is closing fast. I will be caught if it goes on like this."

Heinald was looking for an escape route,but in the current situation the only escape he could find was to jump down the slope,which meant certain death. Though, being caught by the wolf also meant death. He took a deep breath and,stopping suddenly, grabbed the axe in his hand tightly and threw it with all his might at the wolf right behind him.

The axe stuck in the wolf's left eye.

After the wolf howled painfully, began to stumble. Heinald immediately fled with all his might, and after running for a while he began to think that he had gotten over the wolf, but after hearing the violent footsteps behind him, he quickly drove that thought out of his mind. Continuing to run at high speed,he saw a cave entrance ahead,and immediately began to run towards there. After moving a certain amount in the cave, his heart started to beat insanely fast with the view he saw.

The road was finished and down was a dark cliff. He turned around and saw the wolf coming, he didn't have much time to think. He took a deep breath and jumped off the cliff.

As he fell down, he cursed his fate and his misfortune, growing in fear of the unknown of death. Hundreds of different thoughts had passed through his mind as he fell,but he was still falling. He was sure now that he could not survive.

However, something he did not expect happened.His falling speed suddenly started to slow down. There were bursts of white light around him. Looking down, after a few seconds his fall had stopped completely, the gravity around him seemed to disappear,he felt like he was floating in space now. He realized that the source of the bursts of light was the crystals forming a rectangular shape.

"Magical crystals?" Heinald frowned.

These magical crystals destroy gravity in a given area. This could only be possible with a high-level formation. But even for a high-level magic formation it would be very difficult to destroy gravity, requiring insane amounts of energy.

Thoughts filled his brain. Thanks to some books that his grandfather had, he knew superficially a few facts about laws and formations, but he did not understand why such a formation was built deep in a mountain. At that time,he noticed that the area around him had begun to refract, and a repetitive burst of light caused Heinald to close his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself somewhere else.

"What the hell !?" Heinald muttered, observing his surroundings,he was confused. He was inside a large hall, surrounded by the same magical crystals he had seen before. The environment was illuminated by the lights emanating from them. There were symbols and seals on the walls of the hall that he could not understand, and there was a white statue in front of him. The statue's hands were open to both sides. It was obvious that the material it was made of was very special,it radiated a mixture of white and blue.

"This?" Heinald was stunned by what he saw, the statue's eyes shining golden like a sun. As he approached the statue, he felt a strange feeling, as if he was losing control over his body. But he didn't even think about it, all he wanted was to approach the statue. He couldn't take his gaze from the statue's eyes, when he arrived in front of the statue, he had now completely lost control of his body. At that moment a ray of light came out of the statue's eyes and entered his eyes.

"Aaaarrrggghhh!!!"

With the unbearable pain he felt, he fell to the ground and began to writhing on the ground ,as if his eyes and brain were gouging out. The pain he felt was so intense that all the muscles in his body were contracted at the same time. The only thought in his mind was that he did not want to live a second more. When he his limits, he could no longer hold on and lost consciousness.

Hours passed...

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself staring at an orange sky, he sat up and began to examine his surroundings. Ahead he saw a man wearing a long black robe. His back was turned. He had long silver hair, tall structure and broad shoulders. Heinald was very confused, he did not understand what was happening. He stood up and started walking towards the man, as far as he last remembered, he was trapped deep in the mountain and was in pain.

"Excuse me, where is this place?" Heinald walked over to the man and asked. However, the scene he saw confused his mind more and more. They were on the edge of a cliff and the height was so high that the clouds were below.

"How long have I been unconscious and how did I get here?" Heinald asked himself.

"Pretty sight, right?" The man pointed to the vast sky with his hand, still not turning his back.

"Where is this place?" Heinald asked.

"This must be one of countless dreamlands. Actually I should have asked you this question." The man turned to Heinald, he was wearing a black mask.

"What do you mean?" Heinald asked.

"You created this dreamland. I'm only a guest here." The man shrugged.

"Did I create it?" Heinald was so confused.

"Destiny is a really interesting phenomenon." The man sighed. "Your and my destiny crossed, you are the one who inherited my eyes."

"My eyes! What happened to my eyes?" Heinald remembered the terrible pain he had suffered and the darkening of his vision.

"You will learn. Our destinies collided with each other, we will surely meet again in the future.

"B-But...who are you?" Heinald was very nervous. He could not understand who this man was or what his purpose was.

"The ancients used to call me as Moon Thief. I guess nobody must remember me anymore... But, these are trivial things. It seems that your spirit is so weak that it has difficulty sustaining the dreamland that it created. If I spend more time here the dreamland will not perish and your spirit will collapse. I hope we can get to know each other better in our next encounter." The man's voice rose a little at first, then became normal again.

These words were the last words Heinald heard, his vision darkened again,and when he returned, he found himself lying in front of the statue. When he tried to stand up,he lost his balance and fell to the ground. After a few deep breaths he tried to stand up again, and this time he was successful. The statue before him no longer had eyes that glowed like the sun, but the magic crystals were beginning to shine fiercely around him.

"What's going on again?" As Heinald tried to understand what had happened but he was struck by a sudden wave of intense energy emanating from the magical crystals and flew up. When he landed, he found himself on the top of the mountain.

"Teleportation!"

This formation was a space formation, it could interfere with gravity and space. Heinald was in shock. Such a high level of formation could only be made by ancient Ainsars who who rule long time ago. Only they could create a formation using such a law that is difficult to understand and control.

"What the hell was this?" Heinald frowned. The man who introduce himself as 'Moon Thief' had said that their fates had collided. He didn't understand what he meant,but he wouldn't think about it right now. He wanted to get away from this valley immediately.

When he was thinking about how he'll get down,a thing that he realized shock him. His vision had changed, he could see everything much more clearly.

He was on the top of the mountain but when he looked down he could even see a leaf running over the stream.

"My eyes..."