Blade Over Magic

Chapter 87: Chaos III

Chaos III

Aubrey stared at the tip of the bladed limbs that was just centimeters away from her forehead, blood dripping from it and to the floor.

Blood that wasn’t hers.

She looked up, and a broad back was reflected in her eyes. For a moment, her brain went blank, and she could only subconsciously.

"C-Captain...?"

Standing in front of her, the captain had taken the ant’s attack in her place. The bladed limbs treating his armor like paper and passing straight through his chest.

He coughed and held unto the limb, blood leaking from the corner of his lip.

’It tore a chunk of my heart of... I’m not surviving this.’ That was the first thought that went through his mind when he inspected his condition.

Indeed, the limb had stabbed through a sizeable portion of his heart, and he could already feel himself slipping away. He had some seconds at best.

Receiving a lethal wound and knowing that you were going to die shortly was... daunting, to say the least.

And yet, weirdly enough, he wasn’t scared or terrified.

In fact, if he was being honest, he’d sort of expected this day to come eventually. He’d been the military captain of Landor for over a decade, and he’d witnessed countless deaths while brushing it multiple times himself. It wasn’t anything strange to him.

No, he believed the scary thing was to die without having any impact whatsoever. Like say a soldier who got a projectile to the neck, and it didn’t happen while putting their body on the line for another teammate. It just... happened. No impact. No addition to the bigger picture. Just gone like that.

He’d seen too many deaths like that, and that terrified him.

He’d long made peace with the idea of death. What scared him was how he got there.

Hence, when he moved to protect Aubrey, there hadn’t been any hesitation in his mind, because he knew that Aubrey’s importance could bot be understated. He had a feeling it even surpassed his. But most importantly, he felt like someone with such talent dying now would be a terrible waste.

His life was a small price to pay in comparison.

So, in the face of death, he didn’t cower. Nor did he lament.

Instead, he grinned, his teeth smeared with his own blood.

Sparrow ran and pulled away a screaming Aubrey, and the Captain pressed his hand against the head of the ant that was staring at him with that same detached curiosity it had been regarding everything with thus far.

"My name... is Andrew Rockwell." His mana suddenly surged, and his gauntlets released a blinding light as he roared.

"And I will fulfill my duty!" Countless windblades suddenly erupted around the two of them, but it didn’t explode.

Rather, they compressed even though the number continued to increase, and the result was a sphere of countless windblades moving at insane speeds 5 meters in diameter, utterly shredding apart anything in its vicinity. The roar of it was deafening, and it went on for what seemed like forever before finally subsiding.

What remained was a crater exactly the size of the sphere...

And the ant.

Only this time, it wasn’t unscathed like the previous times.

Its chittin was covered in slash marks, with some even drawing dark blood from it, and one of its eyes was also gone, one of its mandibles chipped.

All things considered, the damage was discouraging, considering one of the strongest people in Landor had sacrificed himself to deal it. But rather than despair, the onlookers felt like it was a lifeline.

The ant could be damaged. It could bleed.

So it could also die.

"... Are you alright?" Sparrow asked Aubrey, her expression impassive, but there was a flash of grief in her gaze, one she grabbed by the neck, forced into the deepest reaches of her heart, locked down and threw away the key.

"... Yeah." Aubrey wiped her face, her perception catching the reactions of the others.

It was evident that Sparrow’s squad was used to things like this, as other than a brief fluctuation, none of them showed any reactions, at least outwardly.

Falael was the only one whose tears flowed freely, but the veins covering their neck indicated that sadness was not the only thing plaguing them.

Aubrey stood straight, her face dark.

"... The only person here with the output to kill that thing is Falael. So we need to buy them time to cast the corresponding spell." Hearing this, Sparrow nodded.

"I, Benita Mwansa hereby seize authority of Landor’s 23rd Battalion." She aimed her swords at the ant, which seemed to be reeling from the sensation of pain, something that was no doubt new to it.

She leaned forward, her voice reverberating throughout the area. The soldiers would know what that meant, and they would also react accordingly.

So she gave the order.

"Begin the subjugation operation."

***

Meanwhile, in a location that technically wasn’t far from where everything was happening, hidden beneath layers of space-time.

A table with two chairs could be seen, and two figured sat opposite each other.

On one side sat a handsome man with dirty blonde hair and eerie green eyes, his features sharp and angular. He had a lean build and appeared young, but he was, in reality, much older. He wore a simple set of linen pants and a dark shirt.

On the other side of the table, there was a girl whose frame was so small that her head was barely visible over the table, even while on a chair. She wore a classical magic attire with a witch hat that sat on her white hair, her amethyst-like purple eyes regarded everything with a sense of boredom, and she looked like she was about to fall asleep.

Xavier Lowell regarded the girl before him, then he turned his head to the side, looking at something.

After a moment, he spoke in a careful voice.

"Things are devolving quite a bit. You still don’t intend for me to make my presence known? I thought the whole reason you sent me Xander’s letter was because they knew they wouldn’t be able to handle the full extent of the situation." Hearing thus, Mia didn’t immediately respond. Rather, she reached forward and grabbed at something on the table, then a cup of tea appeared from thin air in her grasp.

She brought it to her lips and took a sip, completely at ease, as opposed to the chaos that was happening outside.

After she dropped the cup, she stared straight at Xavier and said.

"That was originally my intention. However, I severely underestimated his rate of growth. After coming to this place and repeatedly enduring difficult situations, saying he’s improved by leaps and bounds would be an understatement. Even as his teammates progress in ways that most wouldn’t even be able to properly comprehend, he still manages to keep up with them and even surpass them in numerous aspects with moderate effort.

That being said, he appears to have reached a precipice. And while I’m fairly certain he can overcome it with some time and effort..." Her amethyst eyes seemed to deepen.

"... I am impatient. I want him to progress even faster than he’s doing now." Naturally, Mia was talking about Xander.

Xavier listened without interrupting. It was a bit funny, seeing the powerful archmage listening attentively, like a student and their lecturer.

When she finished, he nodded slightly, also gripping a cup of tea out of thin air and taking a sip.

"... I suppose I should be thankful that he managed to catch your eye. I won’t pretend like I knew he had such potential within him. So it’s good he has someone to guide him." Hearing that, Mia glanced at him, then she scoffed.

"You say that, yet you still chose to send the child of an ■■■■■■■■■■ as his maid. And correct me if I’m wrong, but the water from the Spring of Life you gave him was tampered with to a degree. He shouldn’t have been able to so freely switch between his mana affinities in the early stages." To that, Xavier didn’t deny or admit it. Rather, he asked.

"Speaking of, how is their ’training’ going?" The change in topic was blatant, but Mia didn’t bother trying to pull him back on track.

"Unsurprisingly, their are progressing by a significant amount. The dragon especially. His control over his Source Concept is among some of the highest I’ve seen among hatchlings, and Mary is slowly coming to terms with her ’origin’." She leaned into her chair.

"But believe it or not, their progress is still slower than Xander." Xavier paused at that, then he let out a small laugh.

"Interesting. With the amount of talented beings he’s pulling to him, do you think that perhaps...?" He trailed off, his meaning clear only to those at their level, those who could understand the depths of certain things. Whose scope of comprehension far exceeded human limits.

"It’s not impossible. But now isn’t the time to guess. But for now, let’s just enjoy the show." With that, both of them continued to watch.