Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

Rain, instinctively attuned to danger, remained vigilant, attempting to discern the source of these unexpected seismic disturbances. Despite his initial assumption, the absence of any immediate hostile presence perplexed him.

The unexplained nature of these seismic events left everyone on edge, grappling with the uncertainty of what might come next. The whole population of the capital began to move to the underground shelters, but Rain was starting to think that even those could collapse… the tremors kept going for a while, and they didn't show any signs of stopping.

Roan dashed toward his home with all his might while Rain decided to use his rain spell to check the whole country. Much to his surprise, he didn't find anything odd… not even in the dungeons.

"What is this? Is everyone around all right?" Terra asked since the tremors were still going even after half an hour.

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"... I don't know, but I don't sense anything weird or mana changes in the air," Rain said. "No dragons in the sky or suspicious auras."

"... Shouldn't you try to talk with Isa?" Seara asked. "I can only imagine that the dragons are up to something with this."

Rain nodded and grabbed his magic radio… It didn't take long for Isa to accept the call and by the look of things, something was happening there as well.

"I assume that you want to know what is going on," Isa said. "I am not sure, I heard that something like this happened during the time the dragons fought the giant beast, but it is only a rumor."

"Their fight made the whole world tremble?" Rain asked while frowning. "I imagine that such a thing should be possible for the dragon god."

"Not exactly, their fight changed the layout of the many areas, but that was only after the whole world trembled for six hours," Isa said. "This happened when the first conflicts started… apparently on the very first day between the dragons and the giant beasts. Regardless, thanks to those tremors, the war came to a half because a massive amount of dust covered the world for several weeks.

My Advice is that you should try to protect your crops and cattle."

Rain and his wives were completely astonished when they heard that, but they decided to alert everyone about it… in the end, the trembling lasted for ten hours straight and the capital got into total chaos as people thought that the world was ending…

"Where is Rain?" Branden asked when he showed up at Rain's house alongside Esmeralda, their kid, Lorene, Orcis and their daughter as well.

"He is preparing for what might come next…" Terra said.

Terra explained to them the Short conversation they had with Isa and in the meantime, Seara was looking after the kids in another room.

At first, Lorene and Orcis thought that something was truly going to happen as soon as they had their daughter, but soon they connected the dots… they were living in an era that would remembered in the future, just like the war against the giant beasts… something similar happened that made those tremors happen. Perhaps it was the increase of the mana levels in the world…

Rain swiftly mobilized, maneuvering through the aftermath of the quakes. Sensing the urgency to protect vital resources, he quickly worked to erect protective walls around the regions where the plantations flourished and where the cattle roamed.

As the tremors gradually subsided, a foreboding sight replaced the usual morning serenity. Instead of the anticipated rising sun, a thick veil of dust obscured the horizon, billowing and spreading in every direction. The hazy blanket of dust blotted out the usual brightness of the morning, casting an eerie pall over the landscape.

The unsettling sight of the dust cloud gave rise to a sense of foreboding and heightened concern among those witnessing this unprecedented phenomenon. Rain, standing amidst the gathering dust, sensed an impending challenge, the nature of which remained shrouded in uncertainty.

The unexpected turn of events left him and those around him on edge, anticipating the unknown and bracing for whatever might follow.

"We will have to use magic to keep the dust away," Rain said to his sisters. "Select those who can use wind magic to keep the dust away. We can't breathe it and the dust will be too dangerous for the crops as well."

"... Why now of all times?" Dana asked while clenching her teeth.

"It was just an unfortunate coincidence," Rain said. "This won't last forever… Once I am done finishing the walls in other areas, I will work on a solution to this."

"... Be careful," Leiah said. "We have things under control here now, so don't work too hard."

Rain nodded… he still wanted to comfort Dana a bit more, but she was already nineteen, she had to understand by herself that some things are just bound to happen.

In any case, Rain created an ice chamber and flew in the opposite direction. He figured out that Jori and Reca would have some help from the sea folk and they also had more mages from the academy there in case they had to fight against ocean monsters, they should be able to fight the dust for a while.

"I never thought that we would have to use the potions we just got like this," Liss said while she was helping Rain increase the walls of Teria and the few cultivation fields they had there. "This isn't something that the magic people had done, right?"

"I don't think that they did it… they have some obscure knowledge deeper than Isa's, but they shouldn't be able to replicate a natural disaster that happened thousands of years ago," Rain explained. "If they could, they had to use a lot of mana and they would have been able to use all that mana in a more efficient way to crush us.

Also, Artisia said that their magic barriers aren't protecting them from the dust, and that is the final confirmation that they were caught off guard as well."