It should have all worked out, John should have picked them up, given them some form of protection and tried to find out what exactly had many people after them.

It was what he had planned and it was what he believed would have worked, however, it didn't.

That night, John had a dream, a dream of everything that would happen on the following day. It was so real it hurt, Just thinking about it gave him a hollow empty feeling on anger and despair.

Everything about it was real, the pain, the sensation, the conversations, all of it.

In the dream, John went to the spot where they had promised to meet but was ambushed without finding a single clue as to where they were.

He easily dealt with the ambusher and tried asking questions but it didn't work. The man ended up getting away and John failed to gain the necessary information from them.

After this, he continued on the day like normal and was about to head to the ball after promising Master Sylvia and his two-party members that he'd go after dealing with what he had in plan.

But that was when it happened, an explosion came from somewhere east of where he was at in the city. It was so loud that it managed to alarm even the guards in the area.

John thought off checking it out, so he quickly cast 'furtim' and 'levite' before rushing to it.

He arrived there faster than anyone so he rushed to check it out before anyone else could.

However, even now he regretted that decision.

There were many storage rooms piled up next to each other in that area, yet the explosion seemed to have come from one storage room in particular.

At first, after walking inside, he couldn't see anything through the piles of smoke and flames which were around, but after walking for a while.

He found himself standing in front of a single burnt corpse part. There were probably other parts scattered around but John couldn't bring himself to look.

"What...?

" He muttered; his voice cracked ever so slightly

John couldn't believe what he was staring at. Or rather, more than that, he didn't want to.

His heart rate got faster and faster as dark air began to surround him. His eyes began to cloud themselves in a violent dark colour and John began to clench his fists harder and harder.

John squeezed his hands so tightly that he felt like it would break but just as he was about to lose himself in his rage, he remembered Zestari's sacrafice for him.

He hadn't heard her voice ever since she disappeared in the dungeon, but for that moment, just that single moment, he thought about her and gained strength.

His eyes began to glow a bright yellow colour suppressing the darkness within seconds before it eventually calmed down and returned to its normal green once the darkness was finally gone.

John panted heavily before all the food that he had in the morning felt like it was going to burst out of his throat.

He turned around and leaned down before vomiting parts of the bread and milk which he had for breakfast.

"Who... Did this...?

" He muttered as he wiped his mouth

Right as he asked that, a person came out from the Shadow's slowly walking towards John.

"It failed...? My plan failed? Impossible... The king should have been able to awaken after this sacrafice, so why...? How...? I even kept that brat and his sister alive, but for what? Maybe killing the young girl alone wasn't enough?

" The person asked himself as he continued to walk towards John

John who heard this, slowly raised his head and turned to the person as he asked while tilting his head

"...What did you just say...?

"

After that, electricity quickly began to pass through John's body in a way that it hadn't before. Metals and broken steel panels on the ground were beginning to being pulled towards John as he quietly muttered

"Modero.

" Translation: Slow down

--------------------------

"And then I woke up... What sucked even more about all of this was how I couldn't remember a single crap about what happened... Hell I still can't even remember most of it.

" Muttered John as he crouched down beside the three

He carefully inspected if they were harmed before casting 'sana' on each of them.

"Sorry... If only I had remembered that the storage was the area...

" John muttered

They weren't hurt and just like the other man had noticed, they were completely unharmed.

The reason for this was simple, right before the man activated the spell, John activated his spell 'revertatur'.

What John reverted was only their body without including the spell. He reverted their body a single minute back, right as the spell activated.

This caused the original spell that he had cast on them to be erased once their body rewinded as the person's spell wouldn't be able to go back in time with the body If the spell had been activated at the same moment unless it was John's spell.

After that, John created a fake explosion after creating a fake shield for them shielding them from the explosion. He had no idea whether it would work or not, but it was a gamble.

"There isn't a particular need to cast sana, but just in case, he did anything else to you three...

" John muttered

A glowing light surrounded them as they laid on the ground, as he looked at the three.

Saphir, Hayden and an older sister who had the same pink hair as him. John instantly recognised the older sister as the girl who he had met at the restaurant.

"So even a girl as nice as her was going through these sort of difficulties...

"

John ended up saying words that he never once thought he'd say.

"King, huh... Maybe that might not be so bad... If I'm able to create a peaceful and equal kingdom stronger than any other, then it'll be fine.

"

Just as he said that, he stopped healing them and got up before giving a look around the room

"If that's your attempt of hiding your presence, than you may as well quit trying.

" Said John as he let out a sigh

He formed a small ice sphere around the four before saying.

"As much as I'd love to stay and fight, I have to go.

"