Crisis

His opponent was more cunning than before. Gray did not merely want to defeat Nathanos with magic; he wanted to leave Nathanos with nowhere to run.

"My father told me that dignity was the most important thing. Anyone who harmed our dignity had to pay the price."

"Your dignity? Or your vanity?"

Nathanos's words enraged Gray. "Shut up!" The fireball in his hand grew even hotter with his anger.

Isn't it pathetic that mages can't move while casting? Every time they get hit, their casting time gets set back by a second.

Isn't that normal? Once, I somehow pulled three monsters and got beaten to death without managing to cast a single skill.

"You'd better not move," Gray shouted. Seeing Nathanos standing there in a daze, he knew Nathanos was thinking about how to escape. He would not give Nathanos another chance. "Burn him to death!"

At the command, several children cast fireballs at Nathanos at once. Gray aimed at the snow beneath Nathanos's feet and hurled his fireball. The fireballs in the hands of the other two children flew in the same direction. Nathanos neither dodged nor raised his hands to shield his face in fear. He did not know whether Gray was merely trying to scare him or truly meant it. But Nathanos understood one thing now: the person before him, someone his own age, was an opponent he had unwittingly created with his own hands. Gray's fireball did not hit him. Neither did another one. But the last one flew toward his chest. In that instant, Nathanos clearly felt his life was in danger. Fear and panic rose in his heart as his mind raced, briefly thinking of countless fleeting things unrelated to his current situation. He realized that, like everyone else, he was ultimately just an ordinary person. He had no time to react. Like Gray last time, he was utterly helpless in the face of the attack. He raised his hands purely on instinct, but the impact still sent him tumbling off the cliff. The last thing he saw was the terror on Gray's face—the same terror the other children wore.

"What did you do?!" Gray stared deathly pale at the child who had knocked Nathanos off the cliff. The other child was equally bloodless as he stared at everything before him. He had no experience controlling magic, so his fireball had ultimately flown straight ahead at random. Gray punched him to the ground. There was no doubt about it—they had caused a huge disaster. Gray had only wanted to teach Nathanos a lesson, not actually kill him. He had only wanted Nathanos to be afraid and kneel to beg for forgiveness, but now everything had veered far beyond his plans. Gray rushed to the edge of the cliff. Nathanos's cries had already been swallowed by the freezing wind. The abyss below was bottomless, and more importantly, he could not see Nathanos. He had been swallowed by the abyss. A voice in Gray's heart told him so. What should he do? The question completely consumed his mind.

Under Lordaeron's laws, he would be severely punished, whether he was a child or not, and his family would be implicated as well. Hide it! Gray felt as though he had grasped a lifeline.

"Yes, hide it." He sprang excitedly from the snow and loudly voiced his idea. His lackeys stared at him in shock.

"As long as we hide the truth, as long as we tell everyone Nathanos fell off the cliff by himself, as long as we tell them we only saw it happen and that we weren't the ones who made him fall, it'll be fine." Gray's face twitched as he looked at his panicked accomplices. "Didn't you hear what I said?" he shouted, angrily kicking a crying child.

"We should tell everyone the truth."

"Idiot, do you think we'll be forgiven?" Gray slapped him across the face. "We'll be thrown into prison, along with the rats. We'll become prisoners. Do you want to be a prisoner?"

The child shook his head and stopped crying, or Gray would teach him a lesson at any moment. The other children gradually recovered from their terror as well, forcing themselves to calm down and no longer weeping.

"I'll explain everything later. All of you shut up. Don't make a sound." Gray's breathing was tense. After speaking, he looked toward the cliff again. He was certain Nathanos was dead, smashed to pieces by now. They had forgotten to clean up the evidence, but the sparse snow drifting down from the sky helped them. At the edge of the cliff, only the dead branch Nathanos had dropped remained.

At dawn the next day, a large force of cavalry crossed the road leading from Lordaeron to Alterac. Uther led them. Heavy snow had begun to fall, but it could not extinguish his fury. After receiving Kana's urgent letter, he had rushed to the tour group's camp without even having time to seek the King's permission. Kana and Kaishius were comforting the frightened children. Larein refused to believe Nathanos could have fallen off the cliff. He repeatedly shouted that Gray must have done it, since Gray had been traveling with Nathanos, but Gray adamantly denied it. The two had nearly come to blows. And because the other children all looked terrified, no matter what Kana asked, they desperately shook their heads and replied with sweat on their foreheads, "We don't know anything."

Kaishius had inspected the cliff and found only the firewood Nathanos had lost in the snow. He suspected Gray as well, but he could not believe a conflict between two children could escalate to settling things with life and death.

Uther arrived before the group. His grave expression silenced everyone, while the burning pile of firewood on the ground flickered in his eyes.

"Where is Nathanos? Have you found him?" he demanded, but no one answered. Gray did not dare raise his head to look at him. Uther's eyes could immediately tell he was lying. Kana's face had gone pale with worry and panic. She and Kaishius looked at him with deep shame. Nathanos had not been found, and he might already be gone, but no one dared speak those words.

"Nathanos fell off the cliff? I don't believe it. Gray must have done it!" Larein shouted.

"Y-You're talking nonsense!"

Uther nodded angrily, his eyes wide as he glared at Kana and Kaishius, then at Gray and the children who had witnessed the "truth."

"Adjutant!" Uther shouted.

"I'm here, sir."

"Take these children back. Keep a close watch on those few," Uther ordered. Then he gave orders to the three full squads of soldiers he had brought. "Go rescue that child immediately. You must find him. Search along the cliff and find a route down to the bottom."

The snow in the sky showed no sign of growing heavier. Uther clenched his fists, praying that the Holy Light would protect Nathanos and bring him back safely. But after hearing Larein's words, despair suddenly seized him. Grimness and unease nearly crushed his thoughts. In a situation like this, what could the Holy Light do? Uther had never doubted the greatness of the Holy Light, but he knew one thing: the Holy Light was not omnipotent.