Differences (Part Two)

A ray of morning sunlight pierced the clouds and fell upon the earth. A new day was about to begin.

Luo Laike gazed silently into the distance. Yellow dust kept rising from the ground, and the once-clear sky gradually took on a restless air as the filthy color stained it bit by bit.

The breeze carried waves of heat and the smell of blood. Fierce fighting had already broken out in the distance, battles that could claim countless lives. Humanity was locked in a struggle with the Demons of darkness.

Suddenly, a muffled boom came from the ground far away. Brilliant light shot upward and burst across the sky. At the sight of such beautiful fireworks, everyone who saw them turned a shade paler.

It was a signal flare summoning forces for the local Mages' Guild. Once it appeared, every mage who was not already fighting had to go there.

It was an order, and a rule they had no choice but to obey.

"Mages, you saw that signal, didn't you? Form up and head northeast!" a Level-Five Mage ordered from horseback.

Before him lay a battlefield where the fighting had only just subsided. More than a dozen mages of varying levels stood there, looking at him with slightly pale faces.

They had not gathered by design. The fighting was so fierce that mages who had once scorned cooperation now had to form teams to improve their chances of survival.

The mages reacted differently to his order, but not one dared object.

Two days earlier, a mage unhappy with such peremptory orders had been blasted into a heap of cooked flesh before their eyes. The mage sent by the local Guild to oversee them had done it on the spot. None of them dared show their resentment. They could only