"Rise!

"

The shout spread through the entire plain. For a moment, everyone turned stale, expecting some kind of disaster to come. After Layn's showcase of his abilities and its bloody count, no one dared to doubt his powers anymore.

"BRACE YOURSELVES!

" Castor shouted, falling to his knees and hugging the ground. He even went as far as digging his arms into the ground, hoping to find something to hold on to.

But nothing happened.

"What a monster,

" Sitra whispered as she stared at Layn's still figure. The look in her eyes was enough for Castor to realize that something on an unimaginable scale was going on.

But nothing happened.

"Aaagh...

" Layn moaned weakly as most of his freshly obtained energy poured out of his body, pumped into the skies. For how simple his spell was, its energetical efficiency was indeed something else.

'I guess it was a good choice,' the archmage thought, despairing over the immense power leaving his aura.

"What's going on?

" Castor whispered to Sitra, hoping to understand the situation. 'Is he trying to bring an end to the entire world or something?' he thought, grasping the crude earth in his fists in a powerless struggle against the overwhelming power of that stranger.

"I... I don't really know,

" Sitra replied with a weak voice, no longer bold enough to as much as look at Layn's actions.

'Just a little bit more...' Layn thought while gritting his teeth. The act of releasing such an overwhelming amount of energy felt nice at first. But the situation changed pretty quickly.

Once the excessive mana that he couldn't handle either way exhausted, the pleasant feeling of relief also came to an end. And once Layn had to contribute the energy he was capable of holding on his own, the former relief turned into torturous pain.

"Just a little bit more,

" he squeezed those words through his gritted teeth, forcing every last bit of mana in his system into the spell.

Tack.

Rather than a sound, a feeling of something falling into place spread through Layn's mind. At the same time, the pull of energy of the spell ceased to exist, freeing the archmage and finally allowing him to fall to the ground, exhausted to the bone.

"Huh?

" Castor muttered as he watched the situation. 'He fell... so he failed? Or did he succeed?' he asked himself. His forehead started to sweat under the immense stress that the situation was causing him.

'It was a while since I got a cold sweat like that,' Castor thought, not daring to move his hand to sweep the sweat away.

As strange as it might sound to an outsider, Castor's situation wasn't all that weird at all. He could calmly go into the battlefield because he understands what would happen there. He understood the danger of swords and spears. To a degree, Castor could deal with the threat of enemy magic as well.

But he couldn't understand the actions and capabilities of this man at all. And like always, it was the fear of the unknown that was the strongest.

But nothing appeared to happen at all.

"Hey, isn't it a bit hot in here?

" Sitra asked, wiping her own forehead clean from the sweat.

"Huh?

" Castor muttered, surprised by the question. 'Could it be?' he thought, finally daring to clean his forehead as well.

"It actually is...

" he muttered in response before raising his eyes at Layn's collapsed body.

Soon, not only Castor and Sitra noticed this weird change, but the entirety of Castor's unit as well. It was also at this time when Layn finally managed to regain a tiny bit of his strenght.

'I guess I overdid it a little,' he thought, sensing how the temperature of the surroundings rose a bit higher than the originally intended.

This was the truth behind Layn's gamble. Just like when he messed around with time by using the gran arcana, he decided to go against the very fabric of the world to waste all the overflowing energy he had right now.

Just like any other spell that infringed on the fundamental elements of the world, changing the weather, even if only temporarily, required an overwhelming amount of energy. Not because doing so was something complicated that required one to break the natural laws.

Most of the time, when one used magic to influence the outside world, magic would work locally. Just like a single piece of wood would be enough to work as a torch, it would be far less than enough to heat up an averagely-sized house. That's why it was far easier to raise the temperature of a small area by a considerable amount than raising the heat of a vast area by even a few degrees.

"Did he just change the weather?

" Castor turned his face to the girl beside him, still unable to believe his own senses.

"It seems like he did... But just for what reason?

" Sitra countered with a question on her own. But rather than waiting for the answer to appear by itself and enlighten them, she carefully stood up with her eyes glued to Layn's unsteady march.

"Just who are you?

" Sitra muttered as she moved towards the powerful stranger. Right now, there was no sign of the earlier suspicion in her eyes, just a curiosity mixed with respect.

"I'm Layn. Didn't I tell you this already?

" the archmage responded while putting a small smirk on his lips.

"I'm also an archmage, former husband of who turned out to be a whore and a former member of the hero party that saved the world on three different occasions,

" he added before stopping his march and resting his hands on his knees for a moment.

The toll of unleashing such a draining spell was getting to him.

'No, I can't loathe myself for overestimating it a bit,' Layn scolded himself.

The reality of using this kind of spell was far more drastic than people without sufficient knowledge could expect.

As annoying as it was, there was no spell that would allow one to freely modify the amount of energy inputted into it. In order to cast a spell, one had to decide how strong it would be while creating its structure. Once said the structure would be set, one could either fill it with the necessary amount of magical energy or not.

In the first case, everything would go as planned. In reality, though, there was some wiggle-room for either tunning a spell down or up a notch, although it wasn't big enough to change anything in Layn's former situation.

But there was also the other possibility of the mana inputted into the spell's structure not being enough. If such a case were to happen, the entirety of the mana invested would rebound only to return all at once to the user.

'If it were a tiny spell, it wouldn't matter at all, but with the weather changing one?' Layn shook his head while thinking about it.

"I seriously need to stop putting my life at risk for others,

" he muttered under his nose, not realizing that he actually voiced his thoughts before it was too late.

"I'm not going to ask what that means,

" Castor said after he followed Sitra's example and approached the archmage.

"But not understanding what you did won't stop me from doing this one thing,

" he added before falling on one knee and lowering his head before the archmage.

"For saving my people and me alike, you have my endless gratitude,

" he announced, bowing his head.

"While I can't offer you my loyalty as it's already with the Eagle's crown if there is anything I can do to help you, feel free to hit me up,

" he explained the situation while pushing his head even lower.

"Huh?

" Layn looked at the man with a clear surprise in his eyes. 'Isn't this a chance to learn their magic?' he thought, instantly noticing the possibility.

"Tell me,

" Layn spoke up,

"would it go against your loyalty to that crown you mentioned to teach me about the... Or nevermind,

" Layn suddenly changed the direction of his sentence.

'If I were to ask for this now, it could weigh heavily on our future relationship,' he noticed, deciding to keep his lips pursed instead.

"Rather than teaching me, can I ask you for a small favor instead?

" Layn changed his approach. 'Even if I were to get them to teach me their magic, I'm about to collapse right now. What could I learn from them in such a state?' he asked himself before putting the entirety of his attention into keeping himself straight.

"Shoot,

" Castor replied while nodding his head and eagerly looking up at Layn's exhausted face.

"Right now, I'm tired to no end. Can you get me somewhere where I can rest? I can't say for how much l... longer I... I can...

" Layn failed to finish his request. His body was now fully deprived of mana. There wasn't a single speck of the magical energy left in him.

The last thing that Layn could remember was falling towards the ground, only for his face to land on something soft.