"Who can tell me what creates a Lyi?"

  In an unassuming building in the lower city of Poenticivt, through many doors and many passages, laid a classroom filled to the brim with young Anshorans in rough, woolen robes. Many of them had perplexed expressions, some assuming poses of thinking and others looking up to the roof. The stocky Arch-Custodian stood besides a bald man in dark-blue silk robes that was nearly thrice his height: an Anasharan, a subset of Anshorans from the South.

  "Nobody? You all wish to be Lyiata, correct? How do you expect to defeat one if you cannot even understand what one is?"

  The Anasharan snorted, disappointed in the students infront of him. He nudged the dwarf-like Arch-Custodian besides him with his knee, prompting the Mage to walk up to the stand at the front of the classroom which the giant-like man was ignoring. With a huff the Custodian took his vigil at the stand, taking a sharp intake of breath before beginning his speech, light winds congregating around his mouth.

  "Listen up you dolts! To be a Lyiata, you must be like a Lyi! To hunt like the grandest predator, to kill like it, to cast like it, even to think like it! Lyi are born in the cesspit of rage unbound when a high ranked Mage is killed with unfufilled murderous desires. As such, you must surround yourself in death, kill, slaughter, butcher! To think like the dead, you must be inebriated in death! Remember the meaning of Lyiata. Who can tell me what Lyiata means?"

  "Beast butcher, Arch-Custodian!"

  "Correct, Lada! Lyiata means beast butcher, a term coined when Choho first learnt their language. What are a Lyiata's targets?"

  "Beasts of any kind which commit mass slaughter?"

  "Incorrect! A Lyiata targets any beast, so long as they are dangerous! Now, who can tell me of a very recent exception to this?"

  "Would that be the Magical Beast the NST discovered just a week ago?"

  "Correct, the Espi Hylimdem! She is a beast of amicable nature, could you believe it? However, what does her status as an amicable beast not grant her?"

  "Equal standing to us Anshorans?"

  "Incorrect! She is the equivalent of us, as we are beasts in her eyes, much like we are beasts in your professor Gaha's eyes. What it does not allow her is free study of the Magical arts, as her heritage could potentially lead her to violent, perhaps unintentional, but still violent acts! She can freely learn to progress as a Lord, perhaps it is even in her very blood, but much like Gaha here, she must constantly be monitored!"

  "What beautiful Magic..."

  What was simply a light wind in Hylimdem's eyes assembled into a flawless medley of light in Hovi's - what was described by Mages to be their 'Intrinsic Aura'. She could see arrangements of light forming into a crooked, inverted letter C, with a sharp line jutting out of the lower end. An Intrinsic Aura she didn't recognize, one born entirely of nature itself only dragged forth by the rage of its youngest daughter. It built and built, layering more and more onto itself before a small light started revolving around the center of it all, none of the other lights being able to move any further out than it orbited. In but a scant moment, the sound of metal screeching emerged in the room as the small light expanded into a glass-like polyhedron with small red lines darting through its innards. Upon its full formation the gathering motes of light rapidly dissipated, alongside a thud as the winged girl slammed into the floor. It didn't take long after she hit the floor before the polyhedron disappeared with a loud popping noise.

  "Y-you're kidding? You can get Klazhu to descend only seven or so days after your birth? There's only three... nay, two Anshoran Mages who can even do that! You Magical Beasts... every time I think you're done surprising me, you keep going..."

  "M-My skull..."

  "You're awake?! Stay down there for a bit, you just experienced an overload of your own Magic."

  "Hnnrgg..."

  "That's about right... I need you to see something now. After that stunt, anyways."

  "Mnnph."

  "No arguing."

  With a light exhale, Hovi flipped the Espi onto her right shoulder, walking out of the library and down an extensive maze of corridors. After no less than ten doors, the two arrived in a small courtyard, bordered by transparent walls that allowed an unparalleled view of the surrounding region. Grand snow-laden mountains laid all around them, with the facility they were in previously situated behind them in an open field covered not in flowers, but in the same snow that was inescapable regardless of where they looked. In the night sky above them, three moons of various sizes hung imposingly, taking up more of the sky than the stars themselves.

  Halua, the Moon of rust. Its magnificent size blotted out nearly half of the sky with its deep orange, rust-like hue, craters clearly visible on its surface. Though it seemed close to Anshora, it was situated further away than even the planet's own star. In technicality, Anshora was a moon of Halua rather than the other way around, but Halua's inability to support life led to its misguided title as the planet's moon.

  Gala, the Moon of waves. Though much smaller than Halua, Gala was situated far closer, making it appear only half Halua's size rather than its true size. Covered in water, the moon's waves had a tendency to fall onto Anshora in a grand downpour when its orbit brought them closest to one another, a catalyst for many disasters before the invention of defensive measures by the combined efforts of Water and Ice Mages.

  And finally...

  "That one there's Lata, our Glass Moon. Tell me, Hylimdem, what do you feel when you gaze upon it?"

  "A sense of... suppression. Like my body wants nothing more than to move away from it, even against my will."

  "A common answer. We call that the Klazhu, or Glass Curse. In records, it was 80 years ago when Lata first appeared in our skies, first described as a tiny mote of light, before it burst into that massive polyhedral chunk of glass. See those red lines darting through it?"

  "N-no, I can't see them."

  "Neither can I, little bird. But because of the Klazhu, we know that they're in it. Whenever a creature begins releasing too much Magic, a small replica of Lata forms around them, begins to orbit, then severs their connection to magic temporarily through those red lines - a Magic Overload. It can't kill, there's been no records of that, but through extensive research, we've found that Klazhu acts as a hard limit for a Mage's strength. No matter what we do, we can't pierce Klazhu. As for Lata itself... it doesn't seem to do much besides protect us from outside influences and make us want to move away from it. Ever since its appearance, there's been no record of meteorite strikes, no earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. On the contrary, it was Lata's creation that allowed creatures like you to rise up, which has caused its fair share of issues. Your kind can't escape the Klazhu, either, so atleast we're all on the same field."

  Stolen story; please report.

  Hylimdem's eyes fluttered as she took the time to comprehend what she had just been told. She fixed her eyes on Lata, the gut-wrenching feeling Hovi had called Klazhu writhing its way into her once more. It was like her body was ignoring her commands, all parts of it ignoring the rest of her internals, each piece trying their individual best to move away. Though it was just a feeling, she wondered if it would become more should she move closer to the Glass Moon. Regardless of her attempts, however, the only direction she found herself moving in whilst locked onto that Moon was backwards. With every attempted step forward, a flash of red would dart through Lata and disappear the same instant it appeared, only just being enough for her to notice.

  "Hovi, I can see red flashes."

  "A Zekard. It's simply Lata's way of telling you to stop trying to approach it."

  "I can feel that... its like my whole body is trying to push itself out of my own skin."

  "Hurts, right? It may just be in the mind, but your brain doesn't know that - so it'll make you feel very real pain."

  With a light nod, Hylimdem broke eye contact with Lata, feeling a fake rebound within her body as Klazhu slowly dissipated. At first it was a far more uncomfortable feeling, but before long, the sweet sensation of nothing once more spread throughout her body. Regardless of if the feeling was gone, however, it was one that she would never forget - and never purposefully try to experience again. She couldn't help but wonder why Lata did this - it was the first truly hostile phenomenon she had experienced since she had first woke up. She could understand the Klazhu that emerged when a creature used too much Magic, but for it to repel a simple attempt to move closer...

  "Why does it do that, Hovi?"

  "I'm not sure, but at the very least, I know the how. I attribute it to Force-based Magic. The pushing away, severing of the Magic connections and even the psychological effects are all known uses of Force. Multiple subdivisions of Force, yes, but still Force. I took you here so you could get a feeling of what the influence of Force is like. So you understand what pain you will be inflicting on others if you truly wish to hunt and destroy the beasts that threaten us. You will be inflicting that pain on Anshorans like me, on Lyi like your predecessors, and a myriad of other species. Can you bring yourself to terms with that?"

  "I... I am not sure. I don't think there's a worse feeling in the world."

  "That's good. You shouldn't want to. Now, another question for you, Hylimdem. What do you see when you gaze over the landscape before you?"

  A sense of confusion overwhelmed Hylimdem. What was she meant to say? There were mountains in front of her, a big drop, three giant moons in the sky, and a whole lot of empty space. There wasn't much else, besides those dots and lines of Magic she had seen earlier in much smaller quantities than in that room. Maybe a creature wandering here or there, snow being pushed aside as they stalked the mountains in search of prey or shelter; even then, some particularly loud specimens pierced the silence with their howls as Hylimdem felt herself being evaluated by their distant gazes.

  Even after a few minutes of deliberation, she didn't quite know how to answer Hovi. Shivers crawling down her spine didn't help her thoughts, as she saw faint cyan dots accumulate occasionally above a few of the creatures wandering. Though she couldn't quite see what they were doing, it was painfully obvious to her eyes that the Magic in the air was swarming to those creatures, or Magic Beasts as Hovi would call them. Faint lights flashed from their positions, followed by screeches which fell back into the night's silence as those lights faded.

  "I think I have my answer, Hovi."

  "Go ahead, go ahead."

  "I see life, Hovi. Those creatures down there... they all seem to be fighting eachother for their life. Those moons above us, they all have an effect on life, too. The mountains have seen their fair share of life, too. Everything down there is life, not like staying in this... facility."

  "Interesting. Then, based on that, would you like to leave?"

  "Of course I would. I was born out there, afterall, not here."

  "Yes... naturally... haaah, I'm an idiot, little bird."

  "Hovi?"

  As Hylimdem watched the blonde Anshoran in puzzlement, her purple eyes slowly started to widen as she watched the grey dots of light in the air gather around Hovi. In but a second, alongside the sound of the wind screeching, Hovi pushed her right arm forward as she clicked her fingers, a light muttering under her breath. The grey dots gathered into the form of a giant, invisible cylinder and shot out infront of the woman, punching a hole through the walls that bordered the courtyard. Through her shock, Hylimdem watched as Hovi fell to the ground, the Anshoran's right hand's skin cracking as the grey motes dispersed back out into the atmosphere alongside her bloody coughs. Immediately as the shards of the wall touched the ground, blaring alarms rung from the facility behind them, the bright red lights piercing the darkness and illuminating the two women.

  "Clickrend, little bird. When you find out how to- ack, ack- move Magic yourself, and you will, it'll come in handy. Ju- just remember, push your arm slightly, click, then extend fully. Now go- go! Don't think, don't speak, go!"

  Hylimdem wasn't an idiot, even if she was shocked by the researcher's actions. It took her less than a second to bolt out of the facility, her brown hair flowing through the frigid winds as she felt the weight of the atmosphere crush down on her. It wasn't like it was in the facility, she felt she had to expend twice the effort to move- but it didn't stop her. The snow layered onto her as it fell, adding extra weight to the already burdensome wings extending from her back, remaining as unmoving as they had always been. Her ears twitched as she heard footsteps a great distance away from her- followed by a blinding flash and a sound that drowned all else out of her mind- besides the burning holes on the floor around her. It was faint, but she could see orange dots moving away from the impact points; it must have been some kind of Magic.

  She didn't dare turn her head back to look, but it wasn't long before she knew she was out of sight of the courtyard she was in earlier. There was distant shouting, followed by more blinding flashes and the sound of Clickrend - Hovi had almost certainly gotten in a fight with whoever launched that Magic at her earlier. Why had the Anshoran let her go? And her arm after she used Clickrend... it looked like she was breaking apart simply from casting. Nevertheless, she didn't dwell on it, she could ask whenever they next met.

  Running... and running... and running. Minutes turned into hours, and hours into days. Every night, she saw Lata hanging in the sky, each glimpse she accidentally made causing that horrid feeling she had experienced when she first looked upon it. But no matter what, she never stopped running. She didn't feel tired, nor hungry; even thirst seemed to be evading her. Even if the run was long, atleast she had discovered the precious fact that she didn't need sustenance to keep running.

  And finally, on reaching a shallow cave whose end was clearly visible from the outside, Hylimdem stopped running. Not to rest, but to focus on the more important thing: Clickrend. She had seen how Hovi had done it, but she had no doubts it would somehow work differently for her. No matter how much she tried to recreate the gesture after learning to make her fingers click, it didn't seem to work. The grey dots in the air barely even budged, if they even moved at all. But there had to be some way she could use it.

  Then she remembered. That feeling the first time she summoned her Magic, that anger that had brought it about. Though she didn't feel near as much ire as she did then, there was still a hidden remnant of it lingering in the back of her mind. But try as she might, she failed to bring that same rage back up, and no movement could ever be felt in the air. She scratched at the base of her ear, before remembering a crucial detail: Hovi had spoke.

  How could she forget? If there's one thing she excelled at, it was hearing. What did she say? The day was practically a blur now, besides a small fluffy creature that had tried to bite her leg off.

  "Rend!"

  "Clickrend!"

  "...force?!"

  But nothing came, regardless of what she said. Hovi's words were over as fast as she started speaking, there was no time to memorize them... though, she could remember one detail, now that she had tried everything she could logically think of. Since she had finished speaking fast, the word must be short... and she didn't recognize the word. It must be in that tongue that Choho had discovered, the one from her predecessors... the one in her head whenever she woke up.

  The main problem... she didn't know what the words meant. But the shortest she had heard...

  "Di."

  The second she flung her arm forth after murmuring that word, she felt the grey motes around her rush to get into position - even though they moved at blinding speed, she noticed that they only reacted after her click. Though it was barely even a percentage of the motes that Hovi had gathered, the wind still emitted noises similar to that of metal screeching against eachother as the motes forced themselves forward... and dissipated before her very eyes.

  Despite the failure, nothing less than an ecstatic expression could be seen on Hylimdem's face - she had used Clickrend! As she was trying to remember the feeling of using it, she felt something else; something within her body. Constant popping noises rang out, as she felt herself able to move her body around with far greater freedom than before... like she had just crawled out of a mile deep pit of mud. The same popping noise she had heard when she was face-first on the floor after experienced a Magic overload... was her entire body effected by Klazhu before this point?

  Not that it mattered anymore. With her newfound freedom, she tried again. Murmuring 'Di', extending her arm, clicking, the screeching of wind, then fully extending her arm... all followed by a small pit in the cave emerging as her first true Clickrend found its way into the world.

  Sorry for the big big lateness on this one, life, monster hunter wilds (i platinumed it :D), and deciding to rewrite the entire chapter (thrice) got in the way!