Promise

Kelana Field's Salt Traders' Camp

The meadows outside the City of Filanesia's main gate have turned white due to the first snowfall of the early winter. Along the road leading to the location of the old temple ruins, a number of salt traders' camps and rows of wooden barrels filled with the best salt Terra has to offer from the Black Sea were carefully arranged at the edge. Under Meuz's direction, a historical monument is immediately guarded with a barrier that is even comparable to Terra's guardian. It is the home of the black dragon, one of the ten harbingers of death that hundreds of years ago brought about a major disaster on Terra.

The sun has not yet risen, and it is just now dawning. Anthonius stood by himself in the middle of the motionless, silent meadow, staring at the city's main entrance. Anthonius's expression was composed, but he could not fool himself. His heart was restless, and his mind was a mess. Anthonius kept his fear to himself. Even Anthonius was baffled by the recent loss of senior forensic physician Georgy Lantsov from Crimson Knight. Anthonius, however, is concerned about his group. Anthonius is unsure about their ability to resolve this situation. He said Meuz should be in charge of this situation personally. Anthonius even fervently hoped that Zu, Afar, and Zamman were still alive because they could have helped Meuz in solving this case.

"They're late!" Anthonius complained angrily.

The outer gate of the city of Filanesia was opened. Anthonius turned, gazing at the 30-meter-tall, 5-meter-thick wooden gate being pushed open by several guard soldiers. As the door was fully opened, a young elf walked arrogantly past each of the guard soldiers lined up near the gate, bowing in respect to him.

"There he is...," Anthonius said with annoyance. "That damn kid must have overslept as usual!" Antonius was very familiar with his brother's bad habit of being difficult to wake up in the morning.

Not long after Javier's arrival, the ice crystals near Anthonius's shoes rose into the air, then formed a small vortex. Slowly but surely, the ice vortex then formed the figure of Dmitriy Borisov.

"Sorry…, I… have to prepare breakfast for my daughter first!" said Dima.

The arrival of Dima and Javier, followed by Alexander Puzrin, who suddenly appeared from one of the salt traders' camps along with Khaled Omar.

"Isn't there still one more missing?" Dima asked, "We don't have a medical expert," he added.

Anthonius then pointed to the sky. "She's over there!" said Antonius.

"Damn!" Dima cursed when he realized one of the Lazuardy Sword members was sitting comfortably on her flying broom. "What... do we also have to cooperate with Lazuardy and the royal soldiers?!" Dima glanced at the man standing next to Alyosha.

Anthonius smiled, without answering Dima's question.

"Are you serious?!" Dima said, annoyed, raising his voice. Then he slammed his two-handed sword onto the ground, creating a loud noise. Dima seemed to sign that he did not want to cooperate with any of the royal soldiers or the Lazuardy Sword.

Anthonius turned, then said to Dima,. "Watch your attitude!" Anthonius warned Dima. Perhaps Anthonius's words didn't sound like a threat, just a simple command. However, that was enough to scare Dima.

"Don't embarrass the Crimson Knight!" said Anthonius, warning Dima again.

Dima did not dare to answer. He just remained silent, looking down full of regret, while calming his trembling hands out of fear.

…

To get to the Wind Demon Temple Ruins, every member of the main investigative team had to trek past the Graveyard of the Afar Wind Demon from Kelana Field. Until the murder case in Terra is solved, that location will serve as the main investigative team's headquarters. Anthonius picked that location for the headquarters on purpose. Anthonius believed that the location was the center of the ongoing conflict between the Lazuardy Sword, the Crimson Knight, and the royal soldiers. Afar, the wind demon, was one of the founders of Terra.

"Total up to today... there have been 500 corpses successfully identified and buried in Vorkuta. This data includes those who have settled in Terra and those who have lived among humans. Some of the bodies that had been destroyed were forced to be buried in a single grave in a mass grave located on the outskirts of the City of Akarmara," explained Anthonius.

All members of the main of investigative team seemed serious as they listened to the report given by Anthonius. Especially Vanity Fair, who even took notes on every important thing conveyed by the young general.

Alyosha wanted to ask a question, so he abruptly raised his right hand. The whole main investigation team turned to look at Alyosha as he inquired, "Is there a possibility that the number of victims will increase?"

Anthonius nodded in response.

With a very quiet voice, Dima stated, "I even predict that the actual number of victims could reach 2… or even 3 times the number that has currently been identified."

It was easy to see how deeply sad he was trying to conceal. Every member of the main investigative team became silent. Then, with shocked and perplexed looks, they gazed at Anthonius.

"Based on the investigation results of the Crimson Knight members stationed in the City of Ein, the amethyst crystals found on each corpse have characteristics that are almost similar to an antimatter shield. This is reinforced by the death of one of the senior forensic doctors who handled this case. He was exposed to the miasma produced by the crystal, and the process of his death, or... I might call it the decomposition of his body, was very similar to the symptoms experienced by several previous victims who were exposed to the miasma from the antimatter shield. We can only assume that this amethyst crystal is a combination of several antimatter shields, as so far, research by the sorcerers of our time on antimatter magic is still very limited.” Anthonius explained the findings of the investigative team from Crimson Knight stationed in the City of Ein in detail to the entire core investigative team. Anthonius's wants that all members of his team can be more cautious in the future when handling the mysterious crystal.

Javier stood up. He then took out a piece of crystal that he had been carrying in his quiver. Everyone immediately stepped back, except for Anthonius, who walked towards Javier with an expression of anger and annoyance that was so evident. "How could this kid get it?!" Antonius whispered while hitting the back of Javier's head quite hard.

"Did you steal it from the body that was found?!" asked Anthonius, raising his voice. "If Meuz finds out…, I'll be the one in trouble too…!" It was clear that Anthonius could not hide his annoyance towards Javier.

"It is true that I stole it, but from the successful independent investigation I conducted..., I found out that the miasma produced by each crystal can be very different from one another, even though the crystals are from the same body." Javier pointed to one of the crystals he brought, which had a more faded amethyst color. "Based on the investigation results, the color of each crystal will greatly affect the side effects of the produced miasma. Here, I managed to steal 3 crystals with different concentrations of amethyst color from one another. The lighter-colored crystals have a shorter miasma effect range and will only neutralize the magic we direct at them without causing any side effects on our bodies," explained Javier.

Deliberately, Javier threw the most brightly colored crystal towards Anthonius, and when Anthonius held it, nothing happened.

"Use magic now!" Javier, commanded Anthonius.

"I... cannot use my magical abilities!" said Anthonius, then returned the crystal to Javier. "My mana seems to be blocked!"

"The second crystal has a more intense color…" Javier continued his explanation. Pointing to another crystal fragment that was successfully stolen from the body his team managed to find. "For me... maybe this won't have any impact, but for humans who are near it within a 20-minute period, the story might be different. In the early stages, he will feel dizzy and nauseous, vomit, have light bleeding, and then experience seizures. At worst..., the person will experience severe diarrhea and loss of consciousness. This effect is also caused by another crystal with a darker amethyst color, but... the duration can be much shorter."

Dima took the crystal with the brightest color. "The most important thing... how do we destroy it?" Dima asked.

"I have never heard of a sorcerer who can destroy an antimatter shield. Worse yet... this crystal is a combination of several reinforced antimatter shields. Of course, destroying it will be more difficult compared to destroying a regular antimatter shield.” Anthonius ran out of ideas on how they should solve this case.

Antimatter magic is the only type of magic that has never been studied or developed. The reason is quite simple: no normal human has a large enough amount of mana to create a complete and perfect antimatter shield, even for elves and demons. Mana for a wizard is like a battery in a phone that can be recharged repeatedly when its power runs out, but unlike a phone battery, the maximum mana points of a wizard will increase with age, magical ability, and emotional maturity. A certain amount of manna is required to use specific magic, but if the required amount of manna is insufficient, the magic will be flawed or even fail completely.

"I and Meuz have discussed how to destroy the crystal, but we still haven't found a solution. This is... too impossible for the wizards of this era, even for Meuz; this feels impossible...," said Antonius. "For now, we are only ordered to record the missing witches in every major city in Terra, as well as the young witches in every magic school in the cities of Andreas, Filanesi, Euhro, Tohron, and Sofya. Some of the data... I already have it with me. Javier has already done the initial data collection, so you can continue from there!”

Javier threw several sheets of paper containing a list of names of wizards declared missing by one of the magic schools in Sofia. "There are 170 people, 162 of whom have already been declared dead and buried in Vorkuta a few days ago. Meanwhile, the whereabouts of the others are still unknown," explained Javier.

"The amount is too large. Truly unexpected," Alyosha said.

"A very large number... that's why I dare to say that the actual number could be two or even three times what we have managed to find. Moreover… actually, this case has been ongoing since early last year… but due to the high investigation risk, Meuz asked us to postpone handling this case for months,” said Anthonius.

"Until it has claimed this many victims?!" Javier felt disappointed. He actually knew about this case since early last spring, but it turns out everything happened long before that. "What was that old man really thinking?!"

"You're going to regret it if you say that!" Vanity Fair warned Javier. "That old man is the one who created the protective barrier magic that has shielded Terra for hundreds of years. Without that protective magic... maybe today we wouldn't be here!”