The thorns that pierced through the darkness.

It has been one nonsensical surprise after another. The wildest day of our lives, and perhaps the worst one as well.

We were brought to save a world from some random demon creatures, and before everything could be fully explained to us, a monster shows up.

Breaking through a wall of darkness with its bare hands, its humanoid body fully covered in a thick black fog, with the only noticeable feature being bright, shining blue eyes, much like sapphires after you point a flashlight at them. A blue shine so intense that it was able to break through the dark fog surrounding its body.

We believed the old man would do something about this creature, but we were wrong. His body slowly vanished into thin air, as if he had always been nothing but an illusion. As soon as his "body" vanished, the darkness around us vanished with him.

We found ourselves in a grassland, just outside what appeared to be a small town. There were two tall men, armed with spears, one of them surrounded by tiny red light orbs. They seemed to be there to deal with the fog creature, but they were afraid of it. They weren't moving at all.

With the walls of darkness gone, we tried to run away from the fog creature. Everyone was screaming. But of course, just like in movies, anime, and books, some idiot always trips and falls when a group is running away from danger. The problem is... this time the idiot was me.

While everyone was running away, Alejandro turned around and saw me on the ground.

Alejandro- GUYS, LEO FELL!

Everyone turned around, but they were just staring at the whole situation. The fog creature, moving at the speed of a Hollywood zombie, was getting closer and closer to me.

I tried to get up, and in doing so, I placed my right hand over the blue crystal sphere, which was now on the ground after the old man vanished. As soon as I touched it, the sphere started glowing white, and I felt a stream of energy, perhaps heat, flowing into my body through my arm. I heard a voice coming from the sphere. It pronounced a single word: "embers."

Suddenly, my brain was filled with relevant information regarding these "embers." The sphere was a tool that unlocked one's magic potential. It was designed to be used on humans from our world. Now my body was capable of accumulating a bit more mana, barely enough to use magic. Specifically, magic linked to my personality and events that defined my life. "Embers." Fire magic.

I could feel the flow of mana. I knew my body was still weak by this world's standards and barely capable of using magic, but I could at least use a little bit of fire to deal with this fog creature.

I began channeling mana from my body and from my surroundings into my right hand. My arm was now covered in flames, and a small fireball appeared in the palm of my hand. I just needed to keep channeling mana to increase the size of the fireball before I could defeat the monster in front of me.

The silent witnesses broke their silence and started cheering me on.

Agustin- "DO IT LEO! ROAST THAT FOG BASTARD!"

Anahí- "SET HIS BALLS ON FIRE! REDUCE HIM TO ASHES!"

Mateo- "LEO! YOU CAN DO IT!"

I was waiting for the fireball to become even larger before shooting at the monster, but that was no longer possible. This wasn't a game; this was real. The flames on my arm were burning my skin. I could see my skin literally bubbling. The pain was unbearable. I couldn't wait anymore; I had to attack before my own flames destroyed my arm.

The slow-moving monster was now less than one meter away from me. I could hear hundreds of simultaneous whispers coming from its body. It was impossible to understand any words; my brain could not process so many whispers at the same time. With the monster within my reach, shooting the fireball was not necessary. I just smashed the fireball in its face, causing the fireball to explode.

Needless to say, the explosion knocked him down. But it also damaged my arm even further and may have done something to my right knee. I was now screaming in pain.

The monster, however, did not seem to feel pain. It started to get up.

My classmates noticed it was moving again while I was busy screaming in pain like a soldier in a war movie. Anahí and Alejandro came rushing to help. Alejandro started dragging me away from the monster, but Anahí had different plans.

She had seen what happened. She knew how it worked. She touched the sphere on the ground, and we heard a voice coming out of it again. This time it was a different word: "Rose."

I tried warning Anahí.

Leonel- Anahí! Do not try to use magic, it's not like in video games, you might get hurt. Let's run away. That creature is slow, we can easily outrun it!

Alejandro- Leo is right! No need to take risks, let's run away and let those cowardly guards over there handle it.

Anahí had no reason to stop. She was wild, known for destroying stuff just for fun.

Anahí- I'm not leaving until I'm done crushing this thing! I'm going all out! "Rose," huh? Let's see what it turns into once I use all my mana on a single attack.

Leonel- WAIT! If you use all your mana at once, you might lose your arm! Just look at me!

Anahí- I'm not planning on being defeated by my own power! I will show you what I can do!

It was pointless. There was no chance of stopping her. I knew this was not going to end well. I hoped there was a doctor or some kind of healer in the nearby town. We were going to need one soon, not just for me, but for Anahí.

Anahí- Come here, monster! Get closer!

The monster got close enough to almost grab her with its foggy arms. But then, Anahí's body started shining. It was a subtle green light, with tiny green orbs of light coming out of her body and filling the air around her. She was going to end it in one strike.

Anahí- Take this!

Just as she finished saying those words, countless thorns came out of her body. Extremely large and pointy thorns. There were so many that you couldn't see her body anymore. It was like a weird fancy art piece you would see in a sculpture exhibition. The thorns pierced through the body of the fog monster, eventually causing the fog to dissipate, exposing a humanoid body with black and dark blue stains all over the place and not a single drop of blood coming out of its body. Its shiny blue eyes were no longer shining.

But there was one problem. Anahí's thorns never retracted. We still couldn't see her body. Just a dense clump of thorns. Then we saw it. Blood was slowly dripping from every single thorn. There were even tiny pieces of flesh and clothing at the tips.

We were horrified. We knew what happened.

Alejandro was next to me, but our other classmates were quite a few meters away after running away from the fog monster. They probably couldn't see the blood and flesh from that far.

This "magic"... it wasn't a blessing. It was a curse. We just witnessed a friend accidentally destroying her own body to defeat an enemy.

Coming from a country like Argentina and from a crappy city submerged in drug wars, most of us had seen dead bodies before. But I never expected to see a classmate dying right in front of me. I couldn't move. My brain just couldn't finish processing what happened.

And the rest of our classmates were now walking all the way here. They would figure it out once they got close enough.

Alejandro turned around and started walking towards them. He just took on the biggest and worst responsibility one could possibly take in this situation. I don't know how he planned to explain everything to them.

I tried to get up. My knee was in pain; it was hard to walk. But the biggest issue was my arm. Intense pain was radiating from my arm towards the rest of my body. It was burnt, and parts of the skin were probably blown away by the fireball explosion. I had played with fire many times, never once afraid of losing even a single finger. And now I wasn't sure my arm could fully recover.

There is no way we will save this world. With these dangerous and unreliable magic skills, we won't even be able to save ourselves.