Cate had been in love once in her life before this, and things had not ended well. After all, she ended up with her head missing. She was beheaded, and her name turned into a representation of evil and what "good" people should not do. She did not love this, and yet she had grown to cherish the calamity that had befallen her. From the suffering and agony, Cate had learned to survive. Her spirit had risen higher than ever before, and her will had been sharpened. All this would not have happened had she remained blind to the ways of the world.
After coming back to life, Cate had not planned on falling in love, since she believed that she had long forgotten the meaning of such a thing. She had shunned love and all it meant, and yet she had ended up falling for the first pretty smile she ran into. This was very concerning for Cate. Over the past two years, she had grown closer to the Mage Born, and things had been going well, except for the fact that Cate was actively working to slow down any progress on that front. She had not even told Mary about where she was actually living. Mary only knew about the mansion that Cate had been given as a reward for her many achievements in society. Only the Mage Born knew where Cate actually lived. This said a lot about the current situation of the relationship between Cate and Mary. Things were certainly strange, but Cate did not know how to address the issue. For now, she was content to live in the haze that surrounded this question.
Cate had recently brought her team back from a mission where they had succeeded in recovering a dragon scale that had fallen into human hands. The mission was a success, and the only difficult thing about it was when Cate learned that it was the year two thousand. She could not get used to the fact that humans had developed so rapidly in such a short time. They now had cars, aeroplanes, and many wondrous things that Cate did not know how to use. Mary was the one pulling Cate into this present, and Cate was going while kicking and screaming. From Mary, Cate had learned many things about the humans of today, and she was flabbergasted about how fast they were growing. In her eyes, this rate of growth seemed unnatural.
After this mission, Cate and her team were handed a new mission, and Cate was truly displeased. Over the past few years, she has proved her power and skill. She had made herself indispensable to the Avalon Society, but she did not expect to be given a mission such as this. Her team was given a mission to investigate events that led to the destruction of a human city. The humans lived their lives in blissful ignorance about the supernaturals that walked among them. They had a few pieces of information about the supernaturals, but even this was mixed with many more lies. For example, they believed that the gods of old were nothing more than stories they came up with to explain events that have now been explained by their science.
The humans had given up on the gods and embraced science. Cate did not blame them for this, but she nevertheless saw their chosen path as one fueled by their primal fear of what they still could not explain with their science. The gods were as real as day and night, and this fact could be a truly terrifying thing for the powerless to accept. The thing that rubbed Cate the wrong way about their new mission was that it had a connection to the Mage Born. It was his past.
The Mage Born was raised by human parents. He had two brothers and a girlfriend. He lived a completely normal human life, watching movies that mocked the supernatural and planning his future around joining the army to follow in his father's footsteps. This was his dream. He loved his life, and everything seemed to be working out exactly as he hoped. Life was good until he turned nineteen.
It was during his birthday party that everything changed for him. As he was about to blow out the candles on the cake, the cake exploded, covering him in cake. He was surrounded by his friends and family. The explosion of the cake was just another prank from his two younger brothers, who seemed addicted to pranking him and everyone else. The room was filled with laughter and joy when they saw him covered in cake. This was just another day in their lively lives, but the Mage Born, who back then used Connor Walsh, his actual name, made a mistake that he should not have made. Even though he knew that it was a prank, he still got angry for a second, but that was all it took to bring about the end of everything he loved and held dear.
The anger allowed him to cross the final barrier that separated him from his power as a mage. The moment he crossed this threshold, he awakened, and the uncontrolled release of magic from his body shook the entire continent with his home as the epicentre. The magic entered the earth and led to a powerful earthquake that swept over the city and the surrounding areas. The power he released was so powerful that his two brothers, parents, and girlfriend, who had been laughing just a second ago, were turned into blood mist that covered the walls before even those were turned to dust. The Mage Born was left all alone at the centre of this destruction. He could not believe what was happening. He could feel the power flowing through his blood, and yet he did not care. The images of everyone he loved being killed in such a terrible manner left him in a daze. He was speechless, and he could not even string a thought together after that. What he did not know was that what he was seeing was only the tip of the destruction he had brought to this world. He could still feel the earth shaking. Buildings collapsed all around him, and explosions could be heard every second. The wind was filled with smoke, screams, and the scent of death.