“So this is what you’ve found?”

  Following the trails left through the lush vegetation, the old Sergeant backtracked back to where Ethan had confronted the young man, ultimately taking his life. There was blood everywhere: his own but also his opponent. Many trees were left with deep scars that would take years to fade. There were also a few that had fallen, and a shallow trench was left by a body being dragged along the soft forest ground alongside many deep animal footprints.

  "This is quite the mess," the old Sergeant said, looking at the scene.

  He carefully approached the young man squatting over what seemed to be where the young student had first perished. His eyes slightly narrowed, noticing a deep body-shaped indentation in the soft dirt, yet something was strange. It was much too deep to have been made by the young student's body weight alone, almost as if something else stood over him. The young man's gaze rose to meet the two new arrivals.

  “Have you found the body, Sergeant?" he inquired.

  “Yeah,” the old man replied. “You’re lucky you didn’t see it. It was quite gruesome.”

  The young man's expression turned slightly pale, even imagining what the body could look like. But then, he swept the duo with his gaze and frowned slightly.

  “Jack isn’t with you, Corporal?”

  "Someone needed to watch over the body," the man beside the old Sergeant said, shrugging slightly. "Wouldn't want to lose any more pieces to the local wildlife."

  “We’ve already alerted the nearby squads. They should be able to take it from there,” the Sergeant added.”

  “I see..." the young man replied; many gruesome images flashed in his mind as he remembered the chaotic scene all around him, prompting him to grow even paler before adding, “Any idea as to the cause of death?”

  "Nothing jumped at me except for being mauled to death by a grizzly." the old Sergeant added. “Did you have better luck here?”

  "Well, as you can see," the young man replied, shaking his head to clear it before spreading his arms to show the scene. "It's evident there was a struggle, but with all the animal disturbances around, it's hard to pinpoint a single culprit. We'd have better luck searching randomly than trying to make sense of this mess."

  "Agreed," the old Sergeant said, standing over the slight dent in the soil. "We'll need you to do your thing. With one of the students dead, the Dean will want an explanation. We can't half-ass this one."

  “I figured as much,” the young man shrugged. “That’s why I’ve been preparing for it. If you would all just take a step back.”

  The two men did, standing at the edge of what could be described as a crime scene while the young man remained in the middle, eyes closed as if concentrating on something. However, no matter how long they waited, nothing seemed to happen. After a while, the young man finally spoke up.

  "Eh... Forgive me for asking, but you wouldn't happen to have a timeline for the time of death? The earth's memory is quite muddled around here. There's too much interference."

  “I'm no expert, but judging by the corpse's state, I'd say two days at a minimum," the Corporal replied.

  “Gotcha!”

  The young man closed his eyes again, and after what seemed like an interminable wait, something finally happened. Shining lights rose from the ground as if miniature stars. They battled with the sunlight piercing from above, bathing the world in white. Yet, they soon concentrated into a single point, slightly above the ground where the body once stood. Then, the ground shook until countless spikes rose from the dirt, rising to the sky.

  In less than a few seconds, large clumps of soil rose into the sky, detached from the ground as they formed a halo, void in its centre. Soon after, a mass of water slipped through the dirt, congregating into the mass of dirt, creating a thin film that reflected the world before it as if a makeshift mirror.

  “I’m ready,” the young man said.

  His expression was serious, but perspiration pooled on his skin. His breathing had accelerated slightly, becoming uneven, but despite it all, he remained firm.

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  “Proceed,” the old Sergeant said.

  The young man nodded before closing his eyes. He concentrated, feeling the subtle fluctuations of the dense mana flowing through the ground. However, what he sought was currently out of reach. He needed to plunge deeper, seeking traces of mana untouched since over two days ago.

  The process was slow and laborious, but with time, small traces of mana finally emerged from the ground before being added to the water mirror encased in a dirt frame. At first, no changes appeared on the reflective surface, but as more was added, a blurry picture made itself known, slowly becoming clearer until the two men could finally make out the scene.

  “Still pictures?” the Corporal inquired. “Isn’t your spirit adept in divination? Aren’t you supposed to be able to recreate complete scenes?”

  The young man remained silent, unable to speak, yet the water mirror shivered, becoming slightly unstable. He frowned and dug deeper into his own mind, concentrating further on the minute traces remaining within the earth's crust.

  “Keep quiet,” the Sergeant whispered, clamping his hand over his subordinate's mouth. “It’s to be expected you do not know as he has only used his spirit to divine something on the same day, allowing him to produce a faithful recreation with even moving pictures. However, the more time passes, the more the surrounding mana gets overwritten, and information is lost. There’s already a shortage of divination spirits within the Imperium. Getting a still picture after two days is already very good.”

  The Corporal nodded, feeling this made sense, yet something felt wrong. He couldn't help but ask softly, "If there's such a shortage of divination spirit mages, why was the private assigned to our unit? Shouldn't he be somewhere more prestigious where his gift could be better utilized? Isn't it a waste?"

  The old Sergeant frowned, looking left and right before inching closer to the Corporal’s ear, whispering even softer.

  "I wouldn't dig deeper if I were you," he said. "The top brass always have their reasons for personnel assignments. From my experience, the best way to have a long and peaceful career is to shut up and follow orders. Don't ask too many questions. I've seen people vanish for asking less."

  The Corporal gulped audibly, feeling dread creep down his spine. Yet, the fear vanished just as soon as it appeared as the image within the watery mirror became clear enough to see, but what he saw left him puzzled.

  There it was, the crime scene represented in one all-encompassing picture. It was shown through a slight aerial viewpoint, depicting the young student being pinned down on his back, blood staining his clothes and mouth, dripping slightly to the ground. There were no lights in his eyes, a clear sign of his demise.

  The scene was dark, with only a few rays of moonlight piercing through the night, yet they were enough to illuminate all its details—except for one single thing. Above the body stood a mass of darkness with miniature stars scattered throughout as countless points of light, and yet still, this wasn't the most unnerving thing.

  “Am I growing senile?” the old Sergeant asked softly, rubbing his eyes as if to wipe away something.

  “No, Sarge. I see it too,” the Corporal replied with a tinge of dread dripping from his tone.

  Although this was supposed to be a still picture, the stars within the mass of darkness seemed to spin, resembling a galaxy spinning on its axis. It felt eerie, yet the two men couldn’t help but stare, entranced by the miraculous sight.

  After a while, the stars congregated into two slightly larger points, strangely resembling two eyes. In fact, while looking closer, one could see its outline strangely resembling that of a person, yet it was much more undefined as it seemed to blend into the night.

  The two were stunned, gazed fixed onto the image as they watched it shift while the young man's eyes remained closed, focused on sustaining the technique. But even then, his breathing slowly became uneven, and his body began to shift ever so slightly. One could see beads of sweat drip from his forehead as his expression began to twist, not quite with pain but something much more insidious: fear.

  The scene shifted again.

  The mass of darkness had risen, offering a full view of the corpse. The body was pristine with no external wound to be found except for a massive amount of blood covering all his clothes—enough blood to be fatal, yet no wounds it could have leaked from.

  The mass of darkness walked leisurely, and in its wake, the two men saw the scene change, if ever so slightly, becoming what was currently around them, as if the mass had altered traces of its presence. Still, as the two men were fixated on this apparition, they didn't notice the change in the moment.

  “What is that thing?” The Corporal said, eyes wide open. “How can it move? Did Private Johnson’s spirit grow stronger somehow?”

  The Sergeant didn't know what to say. He could only shake his head in disbelief as he stared at the mass.

  “I’m not responsible for this.”

  Both turned sharply, only to see Private Johnson standing beside them, exhausted and pale. They felt like their hearts would leap out of their chests, but soon, the old Sergeant frowned, feeling something was wrong.

  “What happened? Aren’t you supposed to be maintaining the spell?”

  Indeed he was, yet the water mirror encased in a dirt frame remained, showing the same picture as two days before.

  “I don’t know what’s happening,” the private said, showing a twisted smile of doubt and fear. “My spirit isn’t responding to me, and I only barely feel the contract. It’s almost as if something has wrestled control of my spell.”

  His words cut through the silence, bringing a shiver to the two men's backs. While such a thing wasn't unheard of, it would only happen due to a more powerful spell. Except, no other spell had been cast. The surrounding mana hinted as such.

  Then, all three men sharply turned back to face the mirror, dread slowly growing as they realized the origin of this feeling. They came face to face with the mass of darkness; the countless stars congregated into the shape of a pair of eyes pointed straight at them as if piercing through time and space to gaze at them.

  They felt an invisible pressure—as if the world had stopped—as if they were staring death in the face. This feeling was primal, something no living being could overcome. They weren't even given the luxury of fainting out of pure dread. Their muscles were fully tensed, almost painfully so.

  The contract stones on their ears became dim, almost losing all colour. They felt the connection with their respective spirits be nearly severed, yet one concept was fully conveyed—one that could be interpreted in one single word: death. This mass of blackness from beyond the water mirror was death incarnate.

  Mere moments later, the construction of water and dirt began to crack as the water surface undulated with ever-increasing strength, as if constructive interference soon reached its breaking point.

  The mirror exploded, slinging mud all around the bloody scene. Wet muck rained all around, yet they bore the brunt of it. Unable to fully close their oral cavity, the three were left with a taste of wet dirt in their mouth, yet this wasn't important. Just an instant before the blast, the old Sergeant had seen the mass turn and move in the same direction Ethan had left two days prior. Even if he wanted to forget, the sight of this phenomenon was forever etched into his memory, never to fade.

  “What should we do, Sarge?” the Corporal said after a few minutes of silence, only now recovering his senses and wiping the mud covering his face and body.

  "Nothing. This is way above our pay grade," the old man finally said, his tone serious yet shaking slightly. "We'll let the Academy deal with this... or even the Magisterium, for all I care. I want no part of this."