The next week was incredibly grueling, leaving Tharon more strained than he had ever been in his life. Every day he practiced cleansing soil until he could hardly move, and then was given combat training on top of that.

  Even Calyx was being pushed to his limits, which were admittedly much higher than Tharon’s.

  Despite the pain, progress went far faster than he had expected. By the end of the week he could cleanse a vase of soil in 35 seconds, while Calyx was at 24.

  One nice thing Tharon noticed was that they had running water in this world. Apparently, mages ran water through pipelines across the kingdom.

  It was nice having toilets.

  As they trained, Lania managed about 10 other trainees besides them. Tharon noticed that out of everyone she trained, she was the strictest with the two brothers.

  “Does it still tire you to burn it?” Lania asked as Tharon absorbed the Veil from an old tree in the nearby forest.

  “Yes.”

  Apparently, there was a point in which burning the Veil became completely natural, and the body didn’t even feel it. Calyx, of course, had already reached said point.

  Tharon had noticed it became much easier, but every time it became easier Lania threw him at something bigger.

  His mind slowly calmed as the st of the Veil drained from the tree.

  “Augh.” He released a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

  “Don’t be a baby about it.” Lania said, grabbing the back of his shirt and pulling him towards another dying tree. “You still have three more to go.”

  Great.

  “Don’t act as if you didn’t have issues starting out.”

  Lady Hiva appeared from behind a tree, following them. She was an odd figure, and Tharon had noticed she often wandered around aimlessly throughout the Profectus headquarters and the forest behind it.

  “The boy is doing better than most full members already.” Lady Hiva said, staring at them unblinkingly. “Not to mention his brother, who is quite remarkable.”

  Tharon looked over to Calyx, who was in the nearby woods purifying trees with ease.

  “That doesn’t mean I want to listen to his whining.”

  Lady Hiva simply smiled and walked off, and Lania followed her, leaving Tharon alone to continue training.

  “Hey.” Calyx said, coming over to Tharon, purifying the dirt as he went. “I gotta say, you’ve talked to more girls this week than you probably have ever before in your life.”

  “Same goes for you.” Tharon replied.

  “You wound me.” Calyx said, pretending to be offended. “I gotta say though, all of the girls around here are kinda cute.”

  “If you say so.”

  “Oh come on, you’re thinking the same thing.” Calyx ruffled Tharon’s hair. “Lady Hiva is like some sort of model. Out of my league, but maybe not out of yours.”

  Tharon rolled his eyes.

  Calyx smirked. “What? A several hundred year old spirit queen seems perfectly fitting for your love interest.”

  “Even if this was one of your shows I don’t think I’d be the one with a love interest.” Tharon said, tired of Calyx always teasing him every time he talked to a girl.

  A fantasy romance wasn’t realistic, much less something Tharon could ever see happening to himself. He had too much to worry about to be thinking about stuff like that, even if a small, rebellious part of his mind was.

  “Not a love interest, you say? Are you thinking to try multiple?”

  “Ew, no.” Tharon pushed his brother’s head down lightly, rolling his eyes.

  Tharon shifted his focus back to his work and resumed purifying the tree. He closed his eyes and he didn’t know how much time had passed before he opened them, but by then he had managed to purify it.

  “You aren’t supposed to close your eyes when you do it.” Calyx said from behind him. “It doesn’t do anything.”

  “It helps, okay?” Tharon said.

  “Alright boys.” Lania’s sharp voice almost startled Tharon, as he thought she wasn’t going to come back for some time.

  “You’ve been making good progress, but we need to know how you’d perform in an actual situation.” Lania inspected Tharon’s tree. “That’s why Lady Hiva told me to give you two your first assignment.”

  Tharon’s head snapped up. Were they almost done with their training?

  “There’s some ruined farmnd near the coast that needs revival.” Lania handed Tharon a map of the country, with a small red dot on it. On the back there was a close-up map of the exact area they were meant to cleanse.

  “So we’re finally getting a job?” Calyx said, excited for the change of pace.

  “Think of it as a test.” Lania said. “Before you set off, Lady Hiva needs to give you more vitei. You’ve been working with only a bit more than the average person, but on the mission you’ll be using over a hundred times more than you are now.”

  A hundred times?

  Tharon already felt oddly different ever since he got the first dose, but a part of him didn’t want to know what the vitei of hundreds of people would feel like.

  “Also, you’ll need to fight veilbeasts if you see any.” Lania told them. “This patch of nd was recently corrupted, so the veilbeasts haven’t had time to merge or distort too much, and probably still resemble animals.”

  “What are the veilbeasts, actually?” Calyx asked.

  “Animals that get corrupted by the Veil. The longer an area is corrupted, the more energies the veilbeasts will absorb.” Lania expined.

  Tharon suddenly felt a slight bit of trepidation. The beast they fought looked like something straight out of a horror film. If that was one of the more mild ones, he didn’t want to know how bad they got.

  Lania smirked, almost as if she was seeing into him. “You can kill them by taking the Veil out of them, but usually that takes too much time. Unless they’re too distorted, they usually share the vitals of their respective animals, and can be killed as such.”

  Only half of that was reassuring.

  Tharon felt much more confident in his ability after the combat training he had received, but the thought of putting his life on the line was still daunting.

  “So, when do we set out?” Calyx asked.

  “As soon as you get the vitei.” Lania told him. “Also, you two will be doing different sides of the nd, so you will be split up.”

  Tharon knew that it was the most efficient way to go about things, but…

  “Calyx can’t defend himself.” Tharon argued, remembering Calyx’s performance in their first fight.

  “Hey, I’ve been training too.” Calyx said defensively, as if that would stop Tharon from worrying.

  “Well, as luck would have it, I’ll be there assessing you.” Lania said, sounding like she’d rather be doing anything else. “If anything tries killing him I can easily take it out, unless I don’t feel like it.”

  “Don’t you have other people to train here?” Tharon asked.

  “They can handle me being gone for a while.” Lania said. “Usually it takes people over a month to get this far, so these assessments are few and far between.”

  Lania threw something at him, and he caught it, staggering back at the weight. It was a bag of some sort, and when he opened it, he saw an assortment of basic clothing.

  “You two should get dressed.” Lania began to leave. “Because we’re setting off tonight.”

  ~=~=~=~=~=~

  When Calyx first received the extra vitei, it felt like swallowing a star. It was hot, and made him feel like he was about to explode.

  By the time they reached the farmnd, however, he had already gotten used to it. The trip was only a day, since they travelled in a cart, but it felt so much longer with how strange the sensation felt.

  “We’re here.” Lania said, pointing to the dry, barren soil in the distance.

  Calyx felt a bit uneasy, but mostly filled with anticipation to use his new magic at a hundred times the strength he was used to.

  “Here.” Lania sped ahead and put her hand on the ground as she reached the soil, and she purified a line going down the center of the fields. “Everything on the north half is for Tharon and everything on the south for Calyx.”

  It was more nd than Calyx expected, but he was more ready than ever. He also noticed that his portion seemed rger than Tharon’s, but he didn’t question it.

  “Alright, begin.”

  Calyx began to purify the soil with ease, and the vitei in him felt like it was overflowing. With the amount he had, he could purify an acre of soil in around 15 minutes.

  He looked around for any veilbeasts as he purified the soil, but he didn’t see anything. Even though they were dangerous, he still thought it would be cool to do some actual fighting.

  The work was monotonous, but Calyx didn’t care. The rush of energy he felt when he used vitei was amazing, and he felt like he could get addicted to the feeling.

  Eventually, after almost an hour of purifying nd, he heard something coming from behind him. It sounded like a horrific blend of a screech and a chair falling down the stairs. When he turned to look, it didn’t appear any better.

  It was a veilbeast, this one looking like a raven or eagle. It still had its eyes, but its wings looked deformed and it had very few feathers. It tried to fly, but just tumbled around.

  This one would be easy.

  Calyx brandished his dagger, getting ready to fight. The bird stopped trying to awkwardly fly and attacked, switching between galloping and gliding towards him.

  He jumped forward and sshed at the wings, trying to take them out first. The bird was quicker than it looked, and pecked at his arm, leaving a small puncture wound before he kicked it away from him.

  Calyx mentally cursed and decided to switch to his backup pn. Lania had said that it took too long to draw out the Veil, but he was pretty sure he could do it in no time.

  It glided towards him and he reached his hand forward, but before he could focus enough to draw the Veil out it smmed into him, trying to cw at him with decayed, dull talons.

  The impact made him stumble, but it wasn’t strong enough to topple him. It started to attack at his chest with its beak, tearing through his shirt.

  Calyx was going to attempt to get a stab from behind it while it was preoccupied, but realized st second that it wouldn't work in his favor. He couldn’t nd a clean hit while it struggled against him, and would likely move out of range if he made a clumsy attack.

  In a split second he made the decision to instead grapple the bird so it couldn’t escape. His arms were too occupied in the position to attack, but that didn’t matter.

  He squeezed, and began to siphon its Veil energy. The bird reacted violently to the treatment, shaking in his arms until it fell limp.

  “Let’s go!”

  Calyx lopped off the warped bird’s head just to ensure it was thoroughly deceased. He then put it in his backpack, and resumed purifying, satisfied with his first monster sin in this world.

  After much more time passed, he began to feel worn out. Before that point he felt too energized by the vitei flowing throughout him to feel tired, but he began to have a sinking, tired feeling that felt as unnatural as the sensation caused by the vitei itself.

  Lania had told him it was simply a side effect he would get when he used too much magic, but that it was rather harmless. Despite her reassurance, he felt plenty harmed in the moment.

  After a long time, he finally finished his side of the field. It was satisfying looking back on his work, and he wondered how Tharon was doing. He headed back to the cart where they started.

  “I’m finished.” Calyx said, walking up to Lania.

  “Good.” Tharon said, standing behind her.

  “Wait, how are you finished before me?” Calyx asked.

  “I gave you a bigger test, since you’re naturally better.” Lania said.

  “That’s not fair.” Calyx said, folding his arms. He wasn’t actually mad, but he felt obligated to protest.

  “I also did it because I enjoy watching you suffer.” Lania said in a completely serious voice, making Calyx unsure if she was joking or not. He assumed she was, but sometimes she made him wonder…

  “How many veilbeasts did you fight?” Calyx turned to Tharon.

  “Maybe five?” Tharon said.

  “What? I only got to fight one!”

  The cart behind them had a bag with several chopped up animals inside. Calyx grumpily put the bird he fought in with the rest.

  “Now that you’ve finished that, we’re stopping at a bar.” Lania said as she prepared the cart for travel. “It’s tradition.”

  Calyx and Tharon weren’t old enough to drink in their old world nor did they want to, but the thought of going into a fantasy bar excited Calyx regardless.

  This world was certainly cking in some things that made Earth home, but as Calyx had already decided that this world would be his opportunity to become more than he had ever been before.

  They were probably here for a reason, and saving a dying world didn’t seem like a bad start.