Chapter 77: A New Era (2)
The sun had started to set. All lines of ’stealth’ had left our minds.
An explosion big enough to destroy not just the city, but possibly everything around it as well.
With the Gnome in my hand, we ran.
"It would probably stretch all the way here," said Weiss. We ran toward the city with all we had. No wyverns were around, and the members of the CEF started to turn to us.
"We break through them?"
"It’ll slow us down," I said. "Head to the same path as before, it’s the shortest."
Though it wasn’t a straight line, getting stuck in between soldiers of the CEF would increase the delay.
Without hesitation, without even thinking twice about it, Nea and Arlene struck down everyone in their path.
Spears and spells came rushing at us. Nea sliced the magic down with her sword aura, and as soon as she moved below the line of action, Arlene sent out a barrage of icicles at the ones in the way.
I was betting on Weiss entirely to get us out of here in some way. Anything would work, really, anything.
Should we just leave? Who knew where it would stop. Maybe a teleportation spell, but it was limited and short ranged. All the teleportation I had heard of was always that way.
What could we do? My mind raced as we neared the city walls again.
"[Burst]" Weiss murmured and a large section of the wall itself blasted open.
The people on the top had noticed us. Adam Reinvelt, seeing the hole in the wall, figured something was wrong.
He let the others handle the battle in the north and came closer to the South Gate where we were entering from. On top of the walls, he screamed at us.
"What is going on!? They’ll come inside now!"
We immediately ran through.
As soon as we passed by the walls, I stopped. Weiss and the other three were still running. In the back, I could hear Adam’s voice, calling for someone. They would float up to the wall’s top.
Weiss noticed me and stopped as well.
Both of our eyes were stuck on the city. People, the ones who couldn’t fight, were at this end of the city.
Children, the sickly, young mothers, elderly, everyone else had climbed the walls to fight.
My sight went up there next.
All of these people, would die.
Weiss and I looked at each other. Should we run away? Should we go out of here?
Arlene and Nea hadn’t stopped. They reached the top and explained everything to Adam. We soon heard another voice.
"OUT!" He screamed. "All the people! We get out of Serenia!!"
At the ground, the ones who heard him started to shuffle around. Like wildfire, people’s gazes went wide.
We felt it at that very moment. As the stars started to finally show in the night sky. A streak of blue making its way toward us.
The war continued.
Wyverns attacked.
People screamed.
It was a clear sense of oppression. People turned back, the ones who could feel mana.
It was the first time. The only time I couldn’t feel mana and felt it was a loss. What, could it be, that could make even the babies cry and parents sink to the ground?
What, could it be, that would stop the wyverns and the CEF and all the battles all around.
"Maybe I can slow it down," Weiss said. Her eyes were sharp as she met mine. Both of us had thought it, and both of us discarded it right away.
That we run. It was too cheap, we didn’t want to, and now, that option was gone too.
Things changed. Her purple eyes sharpened again, and in the next moment, another burst of mana came from her. Immense, oppressive, all encompassing.
For a second it felt as if everything had turned black and white. If the world was a chalkboard then mana was all she controlled.
She was using magic that did not work on any elements, it did not use mana to do anything, it was magic of mana against mana.
To control and manipulate that itself. Weiss started to float up into the sky.
Her hand stretched out, and she pointed ahead.
"Escape," she said. All the beings around could feel it directly into their bones, into the veins that moved mana for them. Everyone except I.
That was why my eyes were focused on her.
The streak of blue approaching closer started to slow down, it clearly did.
But that wasn’t enough. I could see her struggling.
"RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!!"
Adam screamed. Spells started to wrap people while others tried their best to leave.
Anything.
Was anything at all possible?
My mind raced. Time slowed down. As it always did.
I had to think, it was best to have some extra seconds, so I sped up my thinking. Every second stretched, open for dozens of minutes.
All the books I had read in my life ran through my mind. As if playing a thousand different movies, all memories, all knowledge of magic started to flow within me.
I knew I was like a container for mana, not owning any of it.
In that case...
It came in front of me, at that very moment.
The words on it started to change.
[Do you wish to save Weiss? And the people here?]
Wish to save people? It didn’t matter.
If we were all to die, then we would die.
But like this?
The legacy of the Queen of Witches, the times and moments. I was ready for my existence to end at any second, but all of the people here.
Was this really the death they deserved?
Words clicked in my mind on their own.
Butterflies. The book we had seen recently, a tome many had tried to keep over the ages. The reason there were books on everything related to teleportation in the Grim Palace.
If it was not to build a new spell, what if it was to bring back a lost one?
Immediately, I grabbed the Grimoire.
[CORRECT ANSWER]
It flashed with those words. With my other hand, I pulled out the Mercury I had purchased and smashed it on the ground.
"Grimoire of Lilith! You..."
It kept all the magic and all the spells that she had created, waiting for her successor.
The Queen of Mana heard my feeble voice, somehow her eyes turned to me. Her lips were bleeding and her nose was light, if she stopped her attention for even a second, the streak of light would hit us. As if she was saying goodbye.
Fuck that shit.
We were not dying here.
All the training I had done and all the mana I had stored, I pushed it all out.
The Mercury spread around the ground, and hundreds, no hundreds of thousands of blue mana butterflies started to fly around. The sensitive mercury stretched and expanded to form a real, tangible magic circle as far as it could go.
It covered the city of Serenia, and the butterflies touched every part of the circle and every person around.
All the people. The gnome, the books, even small snails and cats on the ground, on the walls, the knights and guards, Adam, Nea, the entire city was connected to the butterflies.
Weiss’ hold finally dropped.
And a single butterfly touched her as well.
[Space-Time Magic: Teleport]
