The repaired sled glided smoothly over the snowy ground.
"Brother Damian is so amazing! He restored the broken sled to its original state in an instant!" The little girl excitedly traced the shape of the sled in the air with her small, mittened hands.
Damian smiled gently. "When Tina turns ten, she will be able to go to the Northland United Wizard Academy to study."
Throughout the journey, Damian had learned quite a bit from Chris about this new world.
The Northland United Wizard Academy was jointly established by various wizarding factions in the region. Upon graduation, these factions would select their formal wizard apprentices from the student body.
The academy recruited children around ten years old who possessed magical aptitude, teaching them the absolute basics. It was the easiest, most accessible way for a commoner to come into contact with magic.
Damian couldn't help but feel a pang of regret. He was already fourteen, meaning he had missed the enrollment age for the Academy. To join a magical organization here, he would have to find another route.
"Chris," Damian called out over the rushing wind. "Besides the Academy, are there any other ways to join a wizarding organization in the Northland?"
Chris kept his eyes on the trail but turned his head slightly to answer. "If you have a recommendation letter from a current member, you can apply directly. Alternatively, you can earn your place by passing the Formal Wizard examination."
Formal Wizards were relatively rare in this world. As long as a mage's personal philosophies aligned with an organization, they generally wouldn't be turned away if they proved their skill.
Neither method would be easy. Damian was a total newcomer with no connections for a recommendation, and he hadn't even begun to study this world's unique magic system to pass their exams.
"Are there any other paths besides those two?" Damian asked.
Chris thought for a moment. "Several kingdoms in the region recruit Court Wizards. My great-uncle actually served as a Court Wizard for the Blizzard Kingdom."
"Sadly, he passed away some time ago. He left behind a vacant residence in White Stone Town, which is where we will be staying."
Damian leaned forward. "Are there strict requirements to become a Court Wizard?"
"The threshold isn't terribly high," Chris explained. "They recruit many unranked members to handle daily, mundane affairs. As long as you have the talent and aren't a Dark Wizard, you can join the court. However, becoming a formal member requires passing a rather difficult trial."
Damian nodded in understanding. Court Wizards were bogged down by worldly politics and kingdom administration, leaving them far less time for actual magical research.
Still, Chris was an ordinary man without magic. His understanding of the system might be flawed or incomplete. Damian knew he would eventually need to find a real, local wizard to get the full picture.
Suddenly, Damian's expression hardened.
He noticed the surrounding mist growing unnaturally thick. The ambient forest noises had vanished, replaced by a suffocating silence.
Through his magical perception, he could feel the mist practically vibrating with mana. As a newcomer, he initially wasn't sure if this was just a natural weather phenomenon of the Winter Forest.
But as the fog thickened into a soupy white wall, the magic within it grew violently active.
Suddenly, a sensation like a thousand freezing ants crawled down Damian's spine. He whipped around.
A lifeless face was hovering mere inches from his back.
It was the deathly pale face of a corpse. It was completely hairless, its features twisted into an expression of profound sorrow. Its mouth hung slightly agape, dripping thick, black pus onto the sled. Its dead eyes stared unblinkingly at Damian.
Damian didn't hesitate. With a flick of his wrist, his wand slid from his sleeve directly into his palm. "Diffindo!"
A sharp whistle tore through the air as the Severing Charm's invisible blade slashed cleanly across the lifeless face.
But there was no blood, and the creature wasn't shredded. Instead, its mouth stretched in an exaggerated, horrifying grin that reached its ears. More black pus spilled over its chin, yet its sorrowful eyes remained fixed.
With an eerie, silent chuckle, the corpse-face dissipated into the mist.
Damian frowned, his wand still raised. "An illusion?"
Chris had heard the sharp crack of the spell and turned back. Seeing the lingering black pus, he gasped. "A Phantom Demon!"
"A Phantom Demon?"
"It's a magical creature that only exists deep within the Winter Forest! Why would one be out here?" Chris cursed loudly, gripping the reins tight. "Damn it, how did this road get so dangerous? It was perfectly safe just a few months ago!"
Crossing this mountain range led directly to the border of the Winter Forest. It was a desolate paradise for magical beasts, notoriously lethal to travelers.
Theoretically, the Winter Forest was quarantined by a border of Dragon-Serpent Trees. Because those trees fed voraciously on magic, the beasts inside the forest generally couldn't escape past them.
Dragon-Serpent Trees... Damian immediately recalled the aggressive, writhing grove he had burned his way through upon arriving.
"Chris, how much do you know about these Phantom Demons?" Damian asked, his eyes scanning the whiteout conditions.
"Not much!" Chris shouted back. "They're mostly local legends used to scare misbehaving children! But I once read my great-uncle's Magical Creature Guide. It said they specialize in illusion magic, toying with their prey until they go mad."
"They can also shift their bodies into a spirit-like state, making physical attacks completely useless against them," Chris added grimly.
A heavy silence fell over the sled. Through the thick mist, the vaguely visible treetops looked like towering monsters, baring their fangs and brandishing claws at the travelers.
Tina had both hands clamped tightly over her mouth. She stared wide-eyed into the fog, terrified that making even a peep would summon the monsters from her bedtime stories.
"Salvio Hexia! Protego!" Damian slashed his wand through the air, casting two layered protective enchantments. An invisible, shimmering dome expanded to shroud the moving sled.
But Damian knew standard Shield Charms couldn't block a sustained, heavy assault without a continuous feed of his own magic; right now, they served best as an early warning system.
A second later, Damian sensed a ripple of magic strike the barrier from behind. He spun around—nothing was there.
"Revelio!"
A wave of revealing magic washed over the surroundings. Instantly, two deathly pale Phantom Demons materialized in the mist, floating just outside the magical barrier.
"Petrificus Totalus!" A bolt of blue light shot from Damian's wand, striking the nearest demon squarely in the chest. It passed right through the creature's ethereal body without leaving a scratch.
Suddenly, a violent magical fluctuation erupted from inside the sled.
Damian whipped his head around. Chris and Tina were gone! In their place, four horrifying Phantom Demons were lunging straight for him.
"More illusions?" Damian's mind raced. The four demons were identical in size. Chris and Tina had to be mixed in among them, hidden by the creature's magic!
He pointed his wand at the floorboards. The snow beneath the sled instantly transfigured into a surging pillar of ice, rocketing Damian upward and distancing him from the confined ambush.
Looking down at the four identical monsters, he slashed his wand in a wide arc. "Repello Muggletum!"
It was the Muggle-Repelling Charm.
The effect was instantaneous and outstanding. Because Chris and Tina possessed no magic, the charm affected them perfectly. Two of the "demons" immediately stopped in their tracks, their minds suddenly filled with an overwhelming urge to turn around and walk the other way.
With the mortals safely isolated, Damian took aim at the two remaining monsters.
"Avada Kedavra!" He cast the Unforgivable Curse twice in rapid succession. Two blinding flashes of sickly green light erupted from his wand, striking the true Phantom Demons.
Spirit-state or not, nothing could withstand the Killing Curse. It severed the soul directly from the body.
The monsters shrieked as the green light consumed them. As they died, the surrounding mist popped and vanished like a pricked bubble, leaving only two hideous corpses lying motionless in the snow.
Damian lowered his wand and rubbed his temples.
Though the battle had been brief, casting the Killing Curse required intense, genuine lethal intent. Firing it off twice in a row left a throbbing ache of mental fatigue behind his eyes.
With the mist gone, the normal sounds of the forest returned. The wind rustled through the sparse bushes by the roadside.
A few yards away, Chris and Tina shook off the effects of the Muggle-Repelling Charm and the lingering illusions, blinking in confusion.
Realizing what had happened, Chris ran over and hugged Tina tightly, his heart pounding with lingering terror. If not for the young wizard, they would have been driven mad and slaughtered in the fog.
"Lord Damian, thank you! Thank you for saving us again!" he gasped gratefully.
Damian simply nodded. He looked at the clearing road ahead. "How much further to White Stone Town?"
"We are almost there," Chris panted. "Just past this slope and two bends in the road."
Damian stepped down from his ice pillar and approached the dead Phantom Demons. Their illusion magic was the very first local spellcraft he had witnessed in this world.
He was incredibly curious about the differences between this world's magical beasts and the magical creatures native to his home world.
With a flick of his wand, he transfigured a patch of snow into a sturdy sack and levitated one of the demon corpses inside. Now that the creature was dead, its physical form had solidified and could be touched.
As Damian's fingers brushed the dead flesh, the metal disc in his mind flared with light. A thick stream of red energy floated up from the corpse and vanished into his palm.
He checked his internal connection to the artifact and smiled.
The crystal was completely full. From this moment on, he had the power to return to his original world whenever he wished.
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