The damn mayfires have a mana-controlling barrier. Don't ask me how the bastards have managed to get something like that, but I can feel the damn thing in front of me.

  The feeling it gives me is very clear. A sticky sensation that makes me feel like I will be stuck in it if I were to take a step into the barrier. This is a mana-controlling barrier. Nothing else would be able to give such a sensation.

  We have not yet entered into the barrier, though we are going to do so in a minute. Right now Alfred Mayfire is preparing the ritual to enter into the place. Don't ask me what the exact ritual is, I don't think that the mayfires would appreciate me revealing it. Anyway, I have not understood it myself anyway.

  The man has been standing in front of the barrier and has been chanting for the last couple of minutes. The man makes sure that I won't be able to hear anything of interest. The bits that I have understood make the entire thing seem like a prayer to their ancestors. It is all ceremonial. Of that, you can be sure. If it was magic, I would know about it.

  As the man does his thing, I might as well explain how exactly I have ended up here. It took us about a couple of hours to reach the place. Without Alfred Mayfire, we would have not reached here this quickly. Without the man, it would have been pretty unlikely that we would have made it here alive.

  After all, the damn place is crawling in zombies. There are enough corpses here that I am left wondering just how many servants the mayfires keep here. The Mayfires are seriously lazy folks if the number of corpses they have here is to be considered. This also shows that the necromancers have managed to take over almost the entirety of the place.

  I will find out how they managed to allow the necromancers to take over so much of the place.

  Well, I am sure that I will be finding that out soon enough. For now, I am just happy that I don't need to fight the zombies. I mean, fighting zombies is easy. The problem is dealing with a large amount of them because you don't want to get bit by them. They also don't have any vital mana that I can draw on so fighting them back to back is very hard for me. They can be considered to be the perfect counter for me.

  For alfred mayfire, the situation is the exact opposite. The man seems like he was been built to destroy the zombies. Alfred Mayfire doesn't even struggle to get rid of the creatures in an instant. Their magic is just suited to get rid of a large number of weaklings.

  The man summons a flock of fire sparrows and burns a group of eight zombies to crisp just like that. It would have taken about half an hour to pull that off. I would have to attract the attention of each zombie and kill them like that. That is the only way that I am confident that I won't be bit. Then there is always the risk that I will attract more than one of these creatures regardless of how careful I am being.

  The man destroys zombies almost the instant that he sees them. The only reason that it took two hours to come here was that the man needed to rest. Their magic guzzles through their mana reserves. That is the only weakness of his I have discovered.

  "Captain Sevenstars.", Alfred speaks. "How long will you be observing the fire altar's barrier? I have completed the ceremony to allow you inside."

  "Oh yeah.", I reply, as I step in.

  Entering into the barrier is a weird feeling. It feels like a foreign mana is trying to break into me and is trying to take control of it. I could have tried to resist it but this foreign mana doesn't exist. It is just how my mind is processing my mana being restricted. That would also have led to me being killed by the man next to me. My troop would not have been able to save me then.

  It is very hard, but I don't resist it. Soon enough, it finally leaves me as I take control of myself. Almost on an impulse, I try to push out my mana. As soon as my mana leaves my body I can feel it slip out of my control. The mana bleeds away from me.

  I am completely sure that this is a mana-controlling barrier the moment that I enter into it. It is also the only thing that can explain the view that I can see around me right now.

  Mana in the atmosphere is always flowing. They crash into each other, with mana of different kinds combining to form other kinds of mana. In short atmospheric mana tends to be very chaotic. (It is a kaleidoscope of color or whatever its equivalent would be in my mana sense.) Even in the northern wastelands this holds. It is majorly one type of mana, but the others still exist in small quantities.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  You could say that we are in a similar environment right now. In the northern wastelands, it was purely ice mana. Here, it is purely fire mana. Even just feeling it with my mana sense, it feels like the temperature of the room is increasing.

  The truly fascinating thing is that the mana has stopped moving inside the barrier. It almost feels like the mana has frozen in an exact moment. It almost looks like a painting if I am honest about it.

  Well, inside a mana-controlling barrier, the mana is under the control of one man. Inside the barrier, nobody else can take control of mana outside their body.

  That means that I won't be able to do anything that would require me to control mana externally. That includes inscription as well. That means that most kinds of spells cannot be used inside the barrier. Well, let's hope that the mayfires don't plan to kill me. I won't be able to put up a fight inside the barrier.

  "Well, would you follow me, captain? I am sure that you are exhausted.", Alfred speaks, breaking me from my thoughts.

  That breaks me from my study of the barrier in front of me. Can't make it too obvious. Even the most friendly of our allies do not like to be the victims of our curiosity.

  "I apologize, you don't get to see formations like this north of the continent.", I reply. "It must have cost you a lot to build such a fine formation."

  I cycle my vital mana, feeling it strengthen my body. The mana is under my complete control, as long as it remains in my body. The instant that I push even a bit of it out of me, I can feel it bleed away. Now I want to know who has made this formation. It is well made to put it in simple terms.

  Creating a mana barrier capable of breaking a person's control over vital mana is forbidden. The reason for that is necromancers ironically. Such a barrier would make the work of a necromancer quite easy. Before they would have needed to manually kill a person to make him undead.

  You would be able to kill any person inside the barrier instantly. I guess that could have its uses. Even a fool would not enter such a barrier. Dying without vital mana is very painful.

  "Only those of the Mayfire family can use magic inside this place, captain.", speaks Alfred Mayfire. He saw me channel mana.

  Finally, I take a look at the room I have ended up in. The reason I am shocked is that the room is full of tombs. There are rows and rows of corpses placed evenly across the room. I would say that there are at least a hundred corpses in the place. A bow of reverence from Alfred is enough to tell me that this is an important place to these people.

  "Where are we?", I ask Alfred.

  "We are in the fire crypts. Every member of our family is put to rest here in the presence of the fire altar.", Alfred speaks.

  I don't reply to as I digest this information. The mayfires are from the east. They are superstitious about their dead. They would never disturb their dead unless they were pushed into it. Just how have the necromancers managed to do so much damage to these people?

  As I am pondering this, we have been making our way through the crypt. Passing the corpses we have finally ended up in some kind of safehouse. I must say that the place is well planned, to put it in simple terms.

  I can see different rooms connected through a single tunnel. Every room has mayfires, either cultivating, sleeping or just staring at the wall in front of them. Most that I have seen till now have an injury of some kind of the other.

  Even the ones that don't seem to be particularly injured move with a kind of resolute energy. It feels as if they are steeling themselves before a fight. Alfred finally stops in front of a door. I don't even need to peek in to tell that the room is empty.

  "Captain, you and your troops can rest in here.", he speaks.

  "I was under the assumption that we would be meeting the patriarch of the mayfires right now.", I ask.

  Right now I just want to lay down and drift off. Sadly. I represent the black mountain here. Meeting the patriarch cannot be missed. If I were to just listen to them now, the head office would be out for my head.

  "Well, the patriarch is right now busy with other works. You have been fighting a pretty grueling battle with the dead. That is why the patriarch wishes you to rest now", he replies, "he will meet you at a more opportune time. Anyway, it would be wise for you to be a bit more presentable before you go to meet him. This will allow you to freshen up and rest before he calls for you."

  Well, this does allow me to rest without insulting the mayfires. I see that the Mayfires understand how the head office thinks. They truly are pretty good allies of ours.

  I don't even need to command it as the soldiers begin to filter Into the place one by one. I don't as I want to talk to the man. He is leaving the room right now.

  "What is the situation right now?", I ask, knowing more than well, I won't be getting any answer here. "What exactly is happening here?"

  The instant that I ask the question I can see the man stiffen up. While his expression doesn't change I can see his guard rise. I push him anymore and I will leave them hostile,

  "I am not sure what I am allowed to say.", he speaks. "The patriarch will brief you on the situation himself. I would advise that you don't get out of this room. With how high the tensions are, I cannot predict how the soldiers will react to your presence. Your sword can cause a lot of panic here."

  Saying that the man leaves, clearly intent not to speak anymore with me. The room that has been provided to us is pretty small, with barely enough place for two beds. The four of us will be able to somehow adjust to the bed, but it is not going to be easy.

  Well, one of us should stay up to act as a guard. That is the standard operation in enemy lands.

  None of us complain about this though, as we fall on the bed just like that. Even as my back hits the bed, I can feel exhaustion catch up as the dreams begin to take me.