Andar small town was greeted with a loud bang from an explosion, and everyone in the street looked with dread as the entire top half of the four-story laboratory of the esteemed Alchemist in their town rose as if gripped by the hand of a giant before it slammed down destroying the entire building and any others in its vicinity.

A huge wave of dust and debris was scattered as many chemicals and reagents kept inside the laboratory began releasing fumes and some of them combusted, creating many-colored flames that lit up the skies.

Luckily enough, the Alchemist had purchased the entire street decades ago, and the houses there were empty, else the casualties would have been in the hundreds.

Two figures emerged from the dust, Silas and a shaken Mayor, who was finding it difficult to comprehend the quick changes happening, just a moment ago, they had all been smiling and celebrating the birth of a profound genius, now… it was all chaos.

Silas roughly turned the Mayor to face himself, “Find that duplicitous son of a cantankerous whore!” Silas spat his outrage in the face of the Mayor.

It did not take long for Silas to put together all the little pieces that he had missed when he had been enraptured by surprise, especially when he questioned the Mayor about the so-called communication hideout, and the man informed him that indeed they were usually such blackouts, but it did not last for more than a few minutes, any more than that, then the supervisors in charge know their heads would roll.

Silas was about to give a new order to the flustered Mayor when the Communication device on his waist lit up, he saw the imprint on the surface of the device and like a deflated balloon, all his outrage left his body only to be replaced by deep terror.

He began to shiver and he held the Device aloft in the air with magic and he backed away and bowed, his eyes fixed on the ground.

“Don’t look up, you fool,” Silas whispered furiously at the startled Mayor.

The Mayor was slow to respond and the words of Silas even made him inquisitive, he looked at the floating device, and he shrieked, his eyes bulged from his sockets and his head exploded.

The explosion did not stop at his head and continued down his body until there was nothing left. What was even more strange was that his body was blown into bloody bits but into pieces of red glass.

A soft female voice came from over the Communication Device, “I see my disciple is still fond of handing over his duties to his servants. I have received several urgent alerts from you Silas, for the fact you choose to contact me instead of your master must mean you have something important to tell me. Have there been any new developments in your task? Wait, don’t answer that, my image is already here, let me see for myself.”

Four seconds later a cold voice escaped from the Device, the anger of the Archmage was apparent, “You foolish child.”

The word was like a divine curse and Silas’ body began to crack like glass, he coughed and pieces of red glass escaped from his mouth. He knelt and his left leg cracked and detached from his body and fell at his side where it shattered into pieces.

Silas gasped in pain, but he made sure his voice was still steady, “Great One forgive me, I had no idea the Alchemist would flee with the child, I will swiftly pursue them, they would not have gone far.”

The voice snorted, “At least tell me you checked the degree of change of this Spirit Body, how much of his body was Elementalised?”

Silas began to panic, “I… was about to do that when…”

“You are useless, pursue quickly, and I will chart a course for you. I am occupied with many issues at this time and I cannot send any help down to you to avoid any attention being drawn to this place.”

The shattered body of the mayor that was lying on the floor began to shake and then the red glass on the floor began to grow and change configurations. Three minutes later, five large beasts made from glass arose from the body pieces.

“Follow my hounds, hunt them down, and bring the boy to me. I have checked there is no deep Karma with the people of this town with any major power, wipe all their memories of this event. Silas if you do not bring the boy to me, then never return. I shall punish your master for his laziness, you do not send a dog to do the work of a man.”

The cold female voice disappeared and the Communication Device fell from the air, and Silas fumbled and drew it to him, carefully placing it away before letting himself feel the effect of the Archmage’s anger.

Silas groaned and reattached his leg with a chanted spell, it was a rough job and the edges of the wound still glinted with pieces of glass. He could not reverse his body back to flesh, and unless he brought Andar to the Great One, he would be cursed to become a hybrid half-man, half-glass creature until he perished.

His master would also face severe punishment from the Archmage. Indeed Silas was not the personal disciple of the Archmage as he had touted to the people here, he was simply a servant of one of the disciples of the Archmage, the same as Daniel. They were simply too talentless to enter the eyes of an Archmage.

It was one reason why Daniel was so frustrated and jealous when he saw Andar refusing the discipleship of an Archmage, countless geniuses would do anything to become acknowledged by an Archmage, while a backwater bumpkin was refusing a divine grace.

Silas began to walk towards the town. Each step he took brought him great pain, and he almost barked with rage at the hounds, but he managed to keep his tone in check, who knew what the Archmage left inside these creatures, “Find him!”

He began chanting a spell to erase the mind of every mortal in this town. It was not a particularly difficult one, it just involved a bit of Aura Manipulation, and in a short while he was done, he released a pale yellow light that rose into the air where it shattered into tiny bits and began to slowly spread all over the town, infecting every mind and robbing them of their memories.