Marcus stood there. The smell of the burnt remains of his civilization made it nearly impossible to breath. People, animals, cars, buildings. Absolutely nothing was spared by these creatures that arrived some days ago, out of space. Before trying to kill anyone they started to destroy the infrastructure. Internet, power plants, water supplies and fuel depots burned down before the people started to realize what was going on. And then they became the target. Now, on the 7th of August 2018 Marcus was one of the few survivors that were able to flee or hide in underground bunkers. Nobody knew how many actually survived but Marcus was all alone with his dad, his little sister and his girlfriend. The three only got through the inferno by hiding in the small bunker his dad was building for decades. He told anyone that they were coming one day. “It’s written down, everything, in here!” he said now and then while pointing on a weird old book he got from his grandfather from Germany. It was such kind of book you may expect to see in fantasy of medieval themed movies. Written in Latin and with a lot of weird pictures of creatures, animals, the devil and so on. Marcus was interested in the book and his contents but learning new languages was never one of his strengths. Shortly after the alien attacks his dad went crazy, telling Marcus that his time finally came.

A walnut-sized blue, shiny ball, half transparent and looking like a large drop of water hovered in Marcus’ right hand while he was watching the huge alien spaceship heading in his direction. He was calm. He never felt more calm, stronger and self-confident than ever before. After a short glimpse at that blue ball in his hand his view turned to the right where his dad and his sister stood. Both were fixed on the spaceship. Both had this expression on their faces that could be literally translated to “Payback time, assholes!” Marcus took a look to his left, to his girlfriend Mina. He smiled at her as she turned her face towards him. She smiled back. Time slowed down. Space and time seemed to bend around the four, standing on that small hill. Marcus turned back to the spaceship, took a deep breath, raised his spread right hand above his head like the other three did and all four shouted the same weird sentence. “Ne quid in rerum natura mater opus”. Let mother nature do her work. And so she did. The blue ball in Marcus’ hand became bigger, like the size of a baseball, then a basket ball. Mina’s dark brown ball, looking like a pile of dirt did the same. His father held a ball of lava and his sisters hand was surrounded by a small cloud. The four elements. Earth, Water, Fire and Air. Mother Nature was alive and the mana running trough the bodies of the four was able to call her powers. Like it was written in the book. Magic. And this magic now turned against the foreign enemies. The four balls began to pulse. Slow, then faster, before glaring strings rose up to the clouds, where the four elements merged and became one, a thick white string, winding like a weak tree in a heavy storm. Just a second later Marcus was hit hard by something that felt like a shock wave, throwing him off his feet and knocking him out.

A cough, then light. Marcus opened his eyes. The clear sky and the bright sun were blinding him. His dad held his head, asking him if he was okay. After some seconds Marcus realized that fresh smell of grass and the slight breeze around him. “Is that a bird singing?” asked Marcus. His dad laughed. Mina kneed besides Marcus, with a lovingly smile on her face. “We did it honey. We did it.”