Problems and more problems

I rested for a few seconds until I got myself together and stood up.
“Is everything okay with you?” Brigid said to me, trying to help me.
I stretched out my arm, preventing her approach and answering, “All right, I just needed to breathe a little bit.”
I looked around.
“To put it bluntly, I know it’s a lot to take in, but we have to come up with a strategy to survive. Before that, I need to know if you’ve mastered any Ability, Cian! Besides the Vital Force. Do you have another Ability?” I asked.

Vital Force (A physical Ability where the reaction speed, power, strength, and speed of the user is at its base 1.25x to that of a normal person, and can be much greater depending on the technique used).

“No,” he replied.

“Got it, I was expecting this actually,” I said, a little disappointed.

“Look how you talk, kiddo!” said Cian angrily.

“The point is that now it would be good to have an Ability of support or improvement of techniques in the group,” I justified.

“Megan,” I said, looking at her. “You only have a basic control of Air's Ability, right?”

She shook her head, agreeing.

“Right, does anyone else here have any basic control of any Ability?”

“I have some of the Vital Force…” said the man who appeared to be thirty.
After that, no one said anything else.

“Anyone else?” I asked.

“I don’t think there’s anyone else,” Brigid said.

“…That is not true!” replied Lady Winifred timorously.
“Huh?!”

“I also had training and developed abilities control based on Numen,” she concludes.

I was surprised. Her father, nor just anyone, had never told me anything about it. In that region, the number of Ability users was much smaller than normal.

Also, she mentioned the word Numen…

I had not yet heard that mentioned Numen in the kingdom of Uire.

Note: Numen was called the divine energy that allowed humans to use these special abilities and create their techniques.

“But lady, your father was always against you doing that!” said Brigid.

“I know,” she replied. “It’s just that my teachers said I was talented at school, so I trained this without him knowing…”

So she developed her abilities control… I get it… But…

“Why couldn’t she develop her abilities? Is there some taboo for it, like being a woman or something?” I asked.

“No, that’s not it,” said Brigid, who then bowed her head and continued. “It’s a secret.”

“Okay, I see, and what are your abilities, Lady Winifred?”
Brigid made an expression that made it seem like her eyes would jump at the question I asked.
Lady Winifred looked at me fearfully.

“Say the abilities… It’s just… Well…”

I understand. Her hesitation was obvious and logical. So I justified my question.

“I know one of the first things they must have taught you is that we shouldn’t say what kind of abilities we control, especially to strangers, but this situation is exceptional.”

“I know, it’s just…”

“Air,” I started to speak. “I have a current domain of 90% of this Ability, I can also use the Denial Ability, but only in contact with the enemy, I must not dominate more than 5%, so you cannot consider a domain for real, nor basic, besides that, being frank in the past I have already had a high domain of the Destruction Ability, but I lost the ability to use that Ability.”

“Lost the ability to use? How so?” asked Lady Winifred.

“Well, I got cursed, and so I couldn’t use it anymore,” I replied with a smile.

She was surprised.
“Were you cursed?” she repeated, confused.
“Well, the details of my past don’t come into play now. These are my abilities… As you have noticed, the technique I just performed is a small tornado that will keep us safe. It has a radius of 4 meters, and it will move as I move. That’s how we’re gonna move to a safe place.”

“So we’ll stay here until the enemy technique stops working? And when will that be?” asked Megan.

“Until the power of the user of the technique ends…” Cian replied.

“No, the technique out there was executed by a Magus, a new one, that reached its maximum potential. We have no idea who it is or why. But it is obvious that he wants to devastate this region and kill almost everything he can. This technique is self-sufficient and runs in cycles. It kills what it touches through pollen, which grows through any living thing it touches, sucking life and drying its body, immediately creating new black flowers that throw their pollen into the air, which continue the cycle indefinitely.”

I completed my explanation:

“This technique is beyond the ordinary level. Only a Magus, or perhaps users with great abilities who can override the effect, by acting together, can stop it.”

Everyone was scared.

“If the user is a Magus, then only the empire can help us… How long will that take…” asked Cian.

“If that’s the case, until one of them arrives, except the big protected cities, the whole country will be devastated,” concludes Megan.

“So, wouldn’t it be better to try to get into one of the big cities in the center of the country?” asked the other girl.

“No, that will take way longer,” replied Megan.

“Moreover, who ensures that the Magus himself, or his allies, won’t attempt to attack these cities, knowing that Mora can create ways to protect the cities,” Cian reflected.

“You’re right!” I said.

Then I said some more information:

“From what I could see, this technique moves on average 20 km per hour. In theory, it would take more than three days to reach that whole country,” I started talking. “But I think that the Empire will not take more than a day to act. In the worst case, we have to be safe for that time.”

“So where are we going?” asked Brigid.

“To the sea, it is the best and closest place…” I replied. “My technique only prevents its approach with the rotation of the tornado, but it will not last forever. I can make it last for a few hours. So, we need to go... My idea is to go to sea, where the effect of the Magus technique is minor or does not work.”

“What if this technique is already advancing quite a lot by the sea too? What will we do?” asked Cian.

Before I could answer, an unknown voice answered as a sword pierced Cian’s chest, showing the sword's pommel and went through his back.

“The mountains...” said the unknown voice.

Then Cian's body fell in front of us…

Revealing the enemy that was behind him...

Cian was already dead.

“…Is that what you were going to answer, am I right?” said a man with a transfigured, dry face, only skin and bone, as if he were a walking corpse. He was wearing a cloak.

We were all paralyzed and surprised. Someone dangerous and hostile had come directly to meet us.