When Zephyr climbed down the spiraling stairway of the lighthouse, he met the furious crowd below. All the men and women looked at him in anger, ready to tear him apart at a moment's notice.
'A mob can never be reasoned with.' Zephyr said to himself, stopping just a few meters away from them.
His eyes quickly scanned the crowd, trying to find the other messengers who had ventured into the black fog.
Like the one he had seen a few moments ago, they too might be brainwashed by the necromancer, or so he thought.
As his eyes moved across the crowd, some of the men stepped back.
While considering nothing else, Zephyr was still a mage.
A mage was higher in status than they, while also being immensely powerful. With a snap of his fingers, he could determine the life and death of anyone there. So, even though they felt hatred for the man who supposedly killed their chief and fellow villager, they didn't dare do anything.
The murmurs in the crowd suddenly decreased.
Zephyr relaxed a little, seeing reason to return to the group. But that only lasted a moment.
Just as he thought he could find a way to reason his way out of this mess, two men stepped forward holding up their weapons.
It was the messengers.
"YOU KILLED THEM." One of them shouted.
His voice spread like wildfire, rekindling the flames of fury that had disappeared in the heart of the crowd.
"YOU ARE WORKING WITH THE DARK MAGE." Another baseless accusation was thrown.
Zephyr noted the face of the man who accused him.
'They are the ones who want me dead. The dark mage really did a number on me.'
The moment Zephyr transmigrated, he was bound by duty to help the people. And he did so by risking his life while trying to save the missing person. He also performs his duty as a weather forecaster without a single complaint.
And yet, these men were accusing him of colluding with evil and murder.
How can they be so wrong?
He was a little disappointed.
'Where is that damned chief? He should know the help I provided, right? So, he should show up and help me, right?' Zephyr grumbled inwardly.
Suddenly, as he was thinking, he paused.
He turned to the crowd and asked.
"What do you mean by them?" His voice was like a sharp blade, slicing through the tensed atmosphere.
But no one answered.
"Men, don't be fooled by him. Let's attack together."
"Yes, kill him. This brutal murderer deserves death."
Despite Zephyr asking something, the messenger duo took control of the situation and turned everyone against him.
Finally, it was getting on his nerves.
The necromancer was clearly trying to turn everyone against him for his amusement.
He couldn't allow that.
But the crowd was not something he could control. They were already influenced by the duo.
'Have I been too kind to these people?' He wondered as he watched the crowd slowly inch its way closer to him.
They had come through the door of the lighthouse and were surrounding him.
Their goal: simply to kill him.
'I think this is one of those moments…' Zephyr sighed.
He needs to make a firm decision right now. After all, his life was being threatened.
There was no place left for empathy. The villagers had turned against him even after receiving his help.
It didn't matter whether it was because of the manipulation of the necromancer or not. Just the fact that they turned against him meant the trust between them was broken.
Broken in ways it could not be mended.
'Here I was hoping for one voice of reason to emerge within the crowd.'
'This is not my world. There are no rules or laws, not in a way that I know of. They will lynch me if given an opportunity.'
'So, I shouldn't be kind.' He decided.
"Not today, you won't." He muttered, watching the crowd come near him.
They suddenly paused.
Zephyr looked at them and began to speak.
"Those who want to die can come forward. The lighthouse is going to collapse and kill us all. I could end you personally before that."
The moment he said that, the black stone wall around them trembled.
The mana in the area began to fluctuate wildly. It was more than Zephyr expected.
'Did I trigger something else when I broke the stabilization part of the rotary mechanism?' He wondered.
Meanwhile, his words sent the crowd into panic.
"No, he is lying."
"Yes, follow us and kill this liar."
Two men dashed towards Zephyr.
However, Zephyr was prepared.
He silently lifted his hand and cast the first attack spell he etched into his cores.
'Mana bolt.'
It was a simple spell constructed using 16 runes.
A glowing blob of light as thick as a pink finger materialized in the air.
It shocked the crowd.
'Now, add an elemental property to it.' Zephyr said in his mind and chained another spell to the mana bolt.
'Lightning.'
The mana bolt transformed in the air and became a sparking ball of electricity.
Immediately, he released it to the person leading the charge, to one of the messengers.
The mana bolt, carrying the thunder element property, flew through the air like an arrow and pierced the man's forehead.
Instantly, the man fell to the floor, dead.
The electricity inside the mana bolt fried his brain and killed him in an instant. To a normal person, a magical attack like that was lethal.
He couldn't even defend himself before he died.
"I used 54 out of 838 cores' worth of mana to cast the chain spell. It is more than the amount it would have required if I had cast them individually. Still, it's worth it." He commented coldly.
He didn't feel much of anything as he killed a person. After the encounter with death in the mangrove forest, he seemed to have grown numb to guilt and sympathy.
'This will not be the last time.' He mumbled and turned to look at the crowd, who abruptly stopped.
"If I wanted someone dead, I could have killed them without even alerting them, just like I did now. I don't need to push anyone out of a building."
Zephyr said slowly.
"So, think for yourself and find the answer. I will talk with your chief and decide whether I should stay or leave this damned place."
Zephyr could hear the lighthouse tremble ever so slightly. The crystal was becoming unstable. Any second now, it would explode.
"Move," Zephyr said and began to walk out. He had said everything that needed to be said.
Just as he took a few steps towards the main entrance, one of the men nearby said.
"But the chief is dead. You killed him."
Zephyr paused.
The revelation that the chief was dead was shocking, but at the same time, not.
He turned and looked at the last messenger.
"You killed him, right?" He muttered while lifting his hand again.
This time, within a second, a mana bolt formed on his fingertip and flew right onto the forehead of the last messenger.
Before he could reply or know what was happening, he fell to the ground.
'Humans are such fragile beings.' Zephyr muttered and turned around to walk out of the lighthouse.
This time, no one stopped him.
When he went outside, Zephyr saw the corpse of the chief right next to the messenger's.
He paused and glanced at it for a while before leaving silently. There was no fluctuation of emotion or anything else on his face. He met the people's angry, fearful, hateful gaze and simply walked away in peace.
Behind him, a bright golden glow formed above the lighthouse before erupting into a pillar of light.