another chapter, like I said before, dont expect quick and fast update.

just a heads up, the reason I have the awakening thing is because Zain needs a reason to have repair magic, to be his main magic.

I was never good at English so if there is grammar mistake, Im sorry.

Year 769X

Another year has passed by and Zain is now 7 years old and has now grown an extra 10cm, making him about 125cm tall. His hair has now grown into medium length shaggy hair. His magic has increased as well over the past year and he has improved in his usage in Requip magic also. He now has 3 slots in his pocket dimension and only his wooden sword was stored inside. His repair magic has also improved as well. He can now repair his sword at a much quicker rate compared to last year and is now able to fully repair his house but it did leave him with a very drained magic container.

It was about a month ago when Jura and Zain were having a little spar with each other. Zain has learned that instead of always dodging the rocks launched at him, (Jura has now called this spell Rock Avalanche), he could always deflect the rocks with his sword and had it break due to the force of the rocks but that was no problem to Zain for he could always repair it. Jura had also improved his magic since last year and had especially improved in the control of his earth magic.

While sparring, he decided to use a new spell in development. It was a spell called Iron Rock Fist. It is a spell when Jura sculpts a gigantic rock fist from the ground that can be used to attack his opponents, the path of the fist can be controlled by Jura, making it possible for the fist to follow Zain's movement. The spell was in development and Jura had lost control trying to follow Zain's movement. The rock fist was flying out of control and smashing many trees along its way. It wasn't long until the fist connected to Zain's house and crushed it into pieces.

Luckily no one was home at the moment due to his mum being at work and his father was with his friends having fun. But the moment Zain saw the state of his home his soul left him and he quickly went over to Jura and grabbed him by his shirt and shook him aggressively, blaming him for what he had done. Zain, not knowing what to do, thought about excuses he could give to his parents about why the house was destroyed and couldn't think of any.

Until now, he had always repaired his weapons, clothes and furniture before but never the size of his house.

Zain not knowing what to do he tried to repair the house with his magic, all the debris belonging to the house started to gather up and connect to each other. After a minute, the house was finally repaired and an exhausted Zain was lying on the ground due to his magic being drained too much. Jura came over to him and held his hand in front of Zain so he could pull him off the ground to which Zain accepted and pulled himself up.

During the past year, Zain and Jura had gotten closer with each other. They weren't best friends or anything, they don't really hang out with each other and the only time they ever get together is when they are sparring. So you could say they were sparring partners. Jura still had his unpleasant personality but it has quieted down due to that fight one year ago.

Back to the present, Zain's mum was preparing breakfast for the family and his dad was packing up his belongings so he could go on a trip to Crocus after he had breakfast. Xander was leaving Rose village for Crocus because he is going to attend an annual gathering with his friends. These friends were his friends back in his time when they were working as a mage for the capital city. After they all retired, they went their separate ways but decided that each year they were going to have an annual gathering together and have fun and talk about how their lives were going on.

Breakfast had finished cooking and Crystal had called out to her husband and son to eat breakfast. The breakfast was simple, it was just eggs with toast and a couple of beacons complementing it. Once finished, Zain was now helping his mum with the dishes and his dad was preparing his bag for the trip.

"Zain!" He called out, "Once you finish with the dishes, come over to the storage room, I'll be waiting for you." Xander finished and left for the storage room.

"Ok dad," Zain replied and washed the dishes in a hurry.

After Zain had finished washing the dishes, he went to the storage room and saw his dad waiting for him. His dad was holding a small chest in front of him and Zain couldn't help himself and asked his father, "what is it, dad?" His father opened up the chest and inside the chest was a pair of black handcuffs.

"This was the handcuff I used back when I was a mage for the capital city, after retiring, I didn't have any use for this anymore so I stored it inside this chest and put it in this room." he explained, "this handcuff is made with magic sealing stones inside so it can seal mage's magic and they would be like a normal person." he continued and gave the handcuff to Zain so he could get a better look at it.

"Dad, isn't this yours? Why are you giving this to me?" Zain questioned his dad and tried to give the handcuff back to him. His dad rejected the handcuff and said "before I leave for Crocus, I figure I'll give this to you before I leave."

"But-"

"No but," Xander interrupted Zain, "I'm giving this to you as a gift and plus you will need this more than I do." Xander continued and grabbed his bag and started to get ready to leave for Crocus.

"Oh yeah, here's the key for the handcuffs." Xander stopped and said as he searched his pockets for the keys and threw it to him.

"I'm leaving now Zain, Don't miss me too much like when you did when you were younger," Xander teased his son and Zain's face was as red as his eyes due to his dad's teasing. Xander left the storage room and went to the living room where his wife was on the couch reading a book. "I'm leaving now, Crystal," he said and went behind Crystal and wrapped his arms around her.

"Don't be too late and Don't be too drunk like last time Xander." Crystal replied as she grabbed Xander's hand that was wrapped around her.

"Haha, don't worry," Xander said and laughed nervously, "last year won't happen again," he reassured Crystal with a slightly scared tone.

"You better not." Crystal replied with a giggle and Xander chuckled at his wife's actions.

"I love you," he said and kissed Crystal on the cheeks.

"I love you too," she replied and kissed him back on the cheek and Xander said his goodbye and left to go to Crocus.

It is now the evening and Zain and his mum were now eating their dinner for the night. During the time when Xander left and had dinner, Zain had been experimenting with the new gift that he received from his father. After his father had left, he went outside for a walk because he had nothing else better to do and bumped into his sparring partner Jura. bumping into Jura gave him the idea of experimenting with his new magic sealing handcuff on Jura and seeing how effective the handcuffs are.

Just like what his father had told him when he cuffed Jura's hands, he was unable to use his magic and even with his full strength, he was unable to break free from the handcuffs by force. He also found out that if he just cuffs one hand, the other hand that wasn't cuffed is still able to use magic well. The magic sealing handcuff can still be affected by magic when Zain asked Jura to try and smash the handcuff. Jura used his Iron Rock Fist on the cuffs and the handcuff shattered into pieces. With Zain's repair magic, the handcuffs were repaired good as new but it did drain a lot of magic as the quality of the handcuffs were quite high due to it being made out of magic sealing stones.

"I'm finished," Zain said as he stood up from his chair and walked to the sink and put his used cutlery and plate inside it.

"Ok," Crystal replied, "I'll wash the dishes tonight so you can go have fun or something Zain," she added on and Zain acknowledged her words and went to his room.

Meanwhile in a bar at Crocus, among the chattering sound of all the mages and normal people. A table of four men was talking and drinking to their contents. One of the four men was Xander who was drunk real bad. His eyes were glassy and it drifted between the three men continuously, his face was red and his body was swaying left and right. His motor skills didn't have the same fine control he had anymore so whenever he moved his arm, it would be a wild arm flailing around him.

The same could be the same for the other three men as they too were drunk like Xander, swaying from left to right, enjoying their drinks and loud laughter amongst them. One of the three men, a guy with brown hair and beard, put his drink down on the table and then leaned backwards on his seat with his head flopping backwards. "So Xander… hic..." the man struggled to speak due to his high intoxication level. "How has your life been… hic… been so far". He continued with struggle.

"Not too bad bro." Xander drunkenly said to his friend as he took another big gulp of his beer. The person next to the brown hair guy with black hair rest his head on the table while still holding his drink and cried out "Xander bro, how the fuck did you marry such a beauty… hic… I'm so fucking jealous man."

"Dude, I … hic… I know right," Xander began, "I didn't think she was going to accept me when I asked her out if she wanted to be my girlfriend and a few years later, she was the one to propose to me as well." Xander exclaimed drunkenly with a big smile on his face.

"Hahaha Xander, I will… hic… I will never get over the fact that Crystal proposed to you first!" the last guy with blonde hair laughed out loud and said and the others joined in except for Xander. Xander's face could only get redder from his friends' harassment and he tried to save himself from the embarrassment "hey… hic… I was planning to propose to her a week later… hic… but she proposed to me before I could and told me that she was tired of waiting."

"Yeah yeah, whatever you say, dude," his brown-haired friend said and Xander's three friends all together laughed at him and Xander just pointed the finger at them in reply before he too started to laugh out loud with them. They are his friends so of course there was going to be some friendly banter between them.

"So how's your son doing these days Xander?" the blonde-haired man asks.

"Oh, he's doing alright… hic…" Xander began. "Just this morning, I gave him the handcuffs that I used back when I was active." he finished.

"Really?" the black-haired man said in surprise and lifted his head back up, "back in the day, you would always use these cuffs whenever… hic… whenever you were fighting against a bandit that had magic that was annoying to deal with and it became a part of your identity." the black-haired man finished.

"Yeah man," the brown-haired man added, "didn't really think that you would… hic… give it away so early. You might still need it someday. He continued.

"Nah man, I'm retired now… hic… won't see any more action as well and figure he will probably have better use for me than I do right now," Xander replied and rested his head on the table while thinking back to his younger self in action with the handcuffs.

"I guess I can see… hic... why," the black-haired man said as he rubbed his chin, "he is kinda just like you… not being awakened with a magic that has offensive capabilities." he finished and leaned back on his chair.

"Well at least Xander's magic has a few offensive capabilities cause he could blind people I guess, but whereas Zain, he just repairs stuff is all I can think about." the brown-haired man said.

"Well, he is a Durand so I know that he can endure the adversity that will come his way and plus, his repair magic is really useful," Xander exclaimed, "ever since he awakened his repair magic, we didn't have to spend any Jewels on repairs for furniture and other stuff because Zain would always repair them," Xander explained happily.

"Lucky bastard," the three friends all said at the same time. But as the group of four men continued to talk about their lives and other topics, a couple of tables next to them was an above-average height man in a black hooded trench coat that made his face a silhouette. The man was eating his food as he eavesdropped on Xander's and his friend's conversation. There wasn't really anything interesting about their conversation that caught his attention until the man named Xander was talking about how his son can use repair magic to repair all the furniture and stuff.

"Repair magic huh, how interesting," he said in a quiet voice with amusement as a big wide smile appeared on his face.

A week later

A week has passed since Xander left Rose village for the capital city of Fiore. Xander has come back from his annual gathering with his friend, he was meant to come back home the next day when he attended the annual gathering but couldn't due to the fact that he got too drunk and had a nasty hangover. Also instead of staying at the hotel that he was planning to book after the gathering, his blonde-haired friend who was the least drunk amongst the group actually lived in Crocus and had to carry him by the shoulder so he could stay at his place because Xander was too drunk to do anything rational.

When Xander came back home from Crocus, his wife Crystal welcomed him back home with a tone that was far too happy and a sharp death stare. Sweat started to flow down from Xander's head as he silently prayed to the higher beings above the clouds. That day, all the chores were put on to Xander and plus he had to sleep on the couch as well. After whoever knows how many times Xander pleaded, Crystal had finally forgiven him.

It is now late in the evening and pretty much everyone in the village is asleep except for some people who are reading, drinking, having sex and etc. Zain was asleep in his room and his parents were in the living room on the couch cuddling together as they each read a book.

It happens at the dead of the night, no one was expecting anything tonight. All of a sudden, large amounts of fire shaped like a bullet was raining down on the village and proceeded to burn houses down to nothing thus making many people evacuate their house in chaos. A dark guild consisting of around 50 people wearing all black with their faces covered by masks were walking into the village as they shot various types of magic at the people, causing them to die.

Xander and Crystal quickly ran through their burning house as Crystal used her water magic to create a path for them and went straight into Zain's room and shook him roughly to wake him up. A confused Zain woke up and was greeted by his urgent parents. He didn't have time to question them about what was going on because his parents had pulled him out of the bed and dragged him with them. The family escaped their burning house and once they were outside, the people in black turned their heads around and saw the three outside.

"Look!" one of them shouted, "it's the guy we're looking for and that must be his kid." he finished as he went to point at Xander then moved his hand to Zain. The reason they know this is because their guild master has shown them a picture of Xander and told them that he does not want the father but rather the son.

The dark mages which consisted of about 20 people started to gather around the three Durands and had completely circled them thus they had nowhere to run away. Zain was now standing between his parents with his dad in front of him facing the dark mages while his mum was behind him facing the other side. The group of dark mages readied their given magic while crystal readied her water magic and Xander just held his fist up high in a combat position. The dark mages shoot their magic and Crystal tries to deflect them as much as she can by producing several whips made out of her water magic while Xander has come over to Zain and protected him from any spells that weren't deflected by Crystal.

Once the shooting stopped, Xander quickly rushed over to the dark mages in melee range and knocked each mage out before they could even react. However, there were just too many of them and Xander had to quickly retreat back over to Crystal and Zain because he was outnumbered. Looking at the situation, Xander and Crystal both knew that there would be a small chance for them to come out alive and thought that the best thing to do is to make sure Zain stays alive. They turned their heads and stared at each other. Knowing what needed to be done, they gave each other a nod and Xander went back into his combat stance.

"I need about 20 seconds." Xander requested and Crystal nodded. Crystal used her magic to form a big water sphere around the family in order to give time for Xander and absorb any magic that was targeting them. Xander slouched down and held both of his hands out in front of him as he concentrated on his magic and tightly compact the Etherano particles between his palms. While Xander was activating his spell, Crystal squatted down to Zain's eye level and the two just looked at each other. "Mum, what's goin-"

"Shhh, everything will be alright." Crystal interrupted him as she held onto his shoulder. "When I say close your eyes you close your eyes okay?" Crystal whispered as Zain shakily nodded his head. "Good boy…" Crystal replied before water droplets started to form around her eyes and flow down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry Zain," she began, "I'm sorry that mum and dad won't be around with you soon." she finished as her voice cracked and tears started to flow down from Zain's eyes. Crystal let go of Zain and opened up her pocket dimension with only one slot which consisted of Zain's very first birthday present that he gave to his mum.

"Take this with you," Crystal said and handed the flower vase to her son. "As you said before when you were five years old, it reminds us of each other. Mum will be gone soon so take care of this for me please." She finished and Zain nodded and took the flower vase and put it into his last slot in his pocket dimension with his magic sealing handcuffs and his wooden sword.

"I'll take care of it mum," Zain said quietly and his mum emotionally replied "I know you will." tears started to come out of Crystal's eyes even more and she rabidly went to hug Zain tightly and Zain did the same. "Mum loves you… Mum will miss you… Mum wants to see you grow up and become a strong man," she began as her voice broke. "Mum wants to see you married to a beautiful girl and have grandkids to look after with you." she sobbed as she finished.

"Crystal," Xander shouted out and Crystal turned her head to Xander, "the spell is ready," he informed her. Crystal turned her head back to Zain. Xander, who was sweating from concentrating too hard, turned his head backwards towards Zain. The two looked at each other before Xander finally said "I love you son." tears were now flowing down from Xander's face and Zain not knowing what to say just said back to his dad "I love you too dad." Xander could only smile before he turned his head back to face the dark mages.

"Crystal, you ready," Xander asked

"I'm ready," Crystal replied as she wiped away the tears from her face. She looked at Zain and said, "when I say now, you know what to do Zain." Zain replied with "yes" to show that he understands what he will be doing. The water sphere has finally broken down from the dark mages' constant attacks, and Xander prepared to activate his spell.

"NOW!" Crystal shouted and she closed her eyes and Zain followed suit and shut his eyes. A bright light came out from Xander's magic, the light was so bright to the point the group of dark mages were momentarily blinded for a couple of seconds even though it was dead at night. Zain opened up his eyes to see the group of dark mages rubbing their eyes as they tried to get rid of the effect from the bright light.

"Zain! Run now before they can see again!" his mum commanded as she stood up and multiple water whips appeared around her. "But-," "No but! Just run away, mum and dad can only hold them on for about three minutes." Crystal interrupted Zain. Zain looked at his mum then at his dad, they had the look that urged him to run away, deciding to listen to their final plea, he ran away from the battle as headed outside of the village into the woods.

Seeing Zain had run away far enough from the battle, the dark mages' sight had come back to them. Xander had a relieved expression while Crystal had an anxious expression. He held his wife's hand to comfort her that Zain will be alright. The dark mages got back into positions and readied their magic at the husband and wife. The two went back to back with each other.

"This is it isn't it," Xander uttered as he stretched his arms ready to fight.

"Yeah I guess so, I'm just glad that Zain is safe." Crystal replied as water whips started to sway around her as if the whips were protecting her from any danger.

"Then let's make this a good one," Xander exclaimed and the battle between the Durands and the dark mages commenced.

Zain was running for his dear life, his mum just told him to run away from the battle and left them alone to fight against the dark mages. He kept running and running, avoiding the debris of many destroyed buildings and all the people that were panicking from the chaos.

He kept running until he saw Jura. Who was fighting against a single dark mage, he could see that Jura was struggling against that mage for he was very fast, he could completely dodge Jura's Rock Avalanche and outspeed his Iron Rock Fist. Deciding to help him out, Zain waited for the mage to stop moving and quickly ran into his blindside. He grabbed hold of the mage which heavily surprised him and shouted "quick Jura! Knock him out."

Jura once again formed a giant fist from the ground and controlled it to attack the mage's head, struggling to get free from Zain. Zain smoothly slipped away from the mage and the fist connected to the mage and knocked him out.

"Thanks for that," Jura said with appreciation and walked up to Zain.

"You alright?" Zain questioned as he observed Jura's body which had bruises from place to place.

"Just some scratches," Jura assured, "how about you," he added.

"I'm fine but mum and dad told me to run away as they fight a lot of bad guys," Zain mentioned.

"My parents did the same thing as well but I ended up running into this guy," Jura said as he pointed at the guy that he just knocked out. Loud panic sounds interrupted them and they turned their heads around to see buildings exploding and people dying. This was the first time the two boys saw other people killing other people and fear could be seen in their eyes. Both of them felt sick and wanted to leave this place, but they were worried about their parents. They were scared that their parents had suffered the same fate as the people in front of them.

"We should leave," Jura suggested and Zain nodded in response. The two started to run away from the chaos and into the woods. As they ran, Zain spoke up, "do you think our parents are fine?" he worriedly asked.

"I hope so."

Zain and Jura had finally escaped into the woods, once they felt like it was far enough they stopped running and caught their breath. They turn around to see the village engulfed in flames as if it was a campfire but much bigger. They sat down and leaned against the tree trunks to rest and anxiously hoped for their parents to come to them and say everything is alright now.

As they were resting, an above-average height man wearing a hooded black trench coat while holding a staff appeared before them. This immediately alarmed the two boys and they quickly stood up urgently. His head was covered by his hood so the two boys couldn't see what his face looked like.

"Well well well," the man began, "not only do we have the kid that can use repair magic, we also have another kid that can use earth magic. I must applaud you for knocking out one of my members in my guild." the man cockily applauded in a deep voice.

"What do you want?" Zain questioned as he and Jura prepared for anything that could be thrown their way. He chuckles evilly and points his finger at Zain.

"What I want… is you," he declared. When the man finished his sentence, Zain was very shocked at what he heard. This man, who seems to be the guild master of the dark guild, was here because of him. Then the reason why the village was attacked was because of him as well. Then that means all the people in the village died because of him. Zain was scared. everything was his fault, he thought about all the deaths and the destroyed village and everything was his fault.

"Why do you want him?!" Jura demanded the man and snapped Zain from his thoughts.

"It's because of his magic." he announced, "his repair magic to me, is quite important to me." he finished. Now the two were confused, why does a man, who seems to be the guild master of a dark guild, wants Zain because of his repair magic which has zero offensive capabilities.

"Why do you want me because of my magic, my magic doesn't have any offensive capabilities," Zain questioned the man. The two boys couldn't see his face but they were sure that a wide smirk appeared on his face. A smirk that told them that whatever the reason he wanted from Zain, it wasn't a good thing for them.

"Yes, your magic can't be used for combat. But it can be used for something more important… that important thing is efficiency." the man finished. The two were now really confused and the man can see that they don't get what he meant. "With your repair magic, I could achieve my goal, to bring destruction to the world," he explained as he clenched his hand into a fist and held it in front of him.

"With your magic, I could destroy guild after guild without worrying about buying new armour and weapons to attack with. With your magic, I can use you and repair everything and bring destruction to Fiore," he explained his corrupted plan with an evil grin.

Zain was mad, this man attacked his village just so he could use him for his evil plan. He quickly rushed over to him and tried to punch but the man dodged him. Jura quickly used his Iron Rock Fist and a giant fist formed from the ground and he controlled it to smash the man. But a beam was fired from the staff and completely destroyed the fist.

The man knew that Zain didn't have any combat magic so he didn't even bother with him and focused his attention on Jura. Jura then used Rock avalanche and launched all the rocks at the man.

"Dark Gravity!" the man shouted and all the rocks were sent crashing down onto the ground leaving small craters wherever the rocks crashed. The man then shot a beam from his staff at Jura and Jura tried to block the beam with a rock wall but the beam was able to pierce through the wall instantly. Jura could barely dodge the beam as it pierce through, he looked behind him to see where the beam had landed and to his shock, ten trees in front of each other were now destroyed. The beam could have easily killed him, he thought.

Another beam was shot at him and Jura could barely dodge it, he tripped over his feet and fell onto the ground. The man walked towards Jura and looked down on him. He thought Is this what Zain felt when he did this to him during their first fight against each other. The man held his staff towards Jura and was about to cast his beam again. Jura had closed his eyes anticipating the beam would end him but before the man could shoot, Zain tackled the man thus making the man miss.

"Run Jura!" Zain shouted, "he wants me! Not you, so run away". He exclaimed as he continued to try to tackle the man. But because the man was much bigger than Zain, he stood up still as if Zain was not there.

"But what will happen to you?!" Jura questioned in worry, Jura was 12 years old right now and Zain was 7. He couldn't just leave a kid 5 years younger than him with a dark guild master now, can he? But the determined look on Zain's face told him a different story, a face that said he was willing to endure whatever would happen to him. The man stood still, amused at what was happening right now.

"Just go!" Zain shouted.

"Why?" Jura questioned.

"Because you are my friend," Zain explained. This shocked Jura, he didn't give a good impression to Zain when he first met him. He shitted on him for his magic and told him how weak and pathetic he was. He even hurt him with his magic to prove a point. A year had passed and he still had his tendency of a big egotistical and cocky bully even though it had quieted down. But Zain told him that he was his friend. Understanding his first friend's determination, he reluctantly agreed to his plea.

"I'll find help and we will make sure to rescue you." Jura exclaimed and prepared to escape from here but before he did, he turned back around and said "thank you… for considering me as your friend."

"Just go," Zain quietly said with a big smile. Jura complied and ran off, tears coming out of his eyes as he ran away. Zain could only sigh in relief, this must be how his parents must have felt he thought and was suddenly interrupted by the man.

"I must say," he began, "what just happened was quite interesting." he finished.

"I'm glad that you found that interesting, even though I thought that we couldn't be friends at the beginning," Zain sarcastically said as he stopped grabbing the man and let go. They were now standing about a meter apart and staring at each other. "So… what are you going to do to me now?" Zain questioned bravely because deep inside, he was sacred right now.

"Well first," the man started, "I'm gonna need to do this," he said and neck chopped Zain very quickly thus knocking him out. Zain fell onto the ground and several members of his guild came before him.

"Take him," he commanded and one of the members took Zain from the ground and carried him on his shoulder. The man then put his hood down and his face can now be seen clearly. He had silver hair that reached his shoulder, he was dark skin and had dark eyes. "How many people are still alive in the village," he commanded his members.

"Around 40 left master." one of them replied.

"Kill them all." he simply said and all the members in front replied at the same time.

"Yes, Master Brain."

On that night, blood was shed everywhere and Rose Village truly became a Rose Village.

finished.

brain didn't have his mark yet.

I feel that I slightly rushed this chapter so if stuff dont make sense, Im sorry

thanks for reading