Hearing Tobs' perspective on the whole thing caused Brance to fall into silent thought.
Knowing nothing he could say to his brother would be the "right" thing, he gave up thinking and shook his head before closing his eyes to absorb the ambient Light Mana to fill his tank.
On the other hand, outside the crater, Cynrik landed on the ground before Geralt and sniffled loud enough to rouse the Headmaster from his thoughts.
"You actually did it…holy shit." Speaking in a soft mumble, Geralt stared at the young man as if he were a total freak of nature.
"What happened with Viktor… I could somewhat understand, but you went toe to toe with a being pushing Tier-6 and came out in one piece as the winner." Feeling like his head was about to explode, Geralt realized he needed to reevaluate Cynrik and Brance's strength from the ground up.
To hold the two young men to the standards of normal society was an insane thing to do since they continuously pushed the boundaries of what was to be expected of them.
Never before had he heard of something so ludacris as a Tier-3 killing a Peak-Tier-5 being, let alone two. Yet he had witnessed that very thing occurring right before his eyes.
"Sigh, Geralt, you are overthinking things a bit too much. Sure, Brance and I killed those two assholes, but the scale was heavily tilted in our favor." Crossing his arms and looking up to the sky, Cynrik watched what he assumed to be the tail end of the fight between Haylon and the Governor while he spoke.
"From the get-go, the two of them were heavily injured and already knocking on death's door. I don't think you understand how banged up they were from the abuse they suffered at the hands of Haylon."
"Nevertheless, I also had the element of surprise on my side. When I abducted them, neither knew what was happening, only that they were suddenly in a strange land. Then, factoring in bringing them onto my turf, on my terms, it was a recipe for disaster for those two."
"All I needed at that point was time, the longer I could defend and keep them at bay, the more complicated their situation would become since neither could replenish their Elemental Mana."
"That…sigh, yeah, it still isn't something you should be so dismissive about. I don't even want to think about how their deaths will be explained; they are…er…were Headmasters of Top Academies." Looking away from Cynrik, Geralt watched as the Governor gained ground in the fight and zipped around the Mansion grounds while trading blows with Haylon.
"Uh, Geralt, how the hell can you be that dense at your age." Tearing his eyes away from the fight he could barely follow, even with [Mana Sight], Cynrik looked at the Headmaster with dead eyes while pointing his left thumb to the sky above.
"Huh…oh…that." In his confusion, Geralt looked from Cynrik to the sky several times before it clicked in his mind.
"Uhhuh, the last anyone saw of Viktor Opurn and Lithlen Jetlensr, they got the shit kicked out of them by Haylon and were left for dead. Who's to say that, since his beating practically paralyzed them during the battle, they didn't get hit by a stray blast and vaporized by Death Mana?"
"Either way, it has nothing to do with us, our focus now will be saving as many people above as we can, or at least that's what my brother is about to make us do, so for that, we need a solid plan. Hm, well, that's new." Looking over his shoulder and down into the hole, Cynrik noticed all the Light Mana swirling around Brance, who took long, deep breaths in an almost rhythmic pattern.
Brance finished absorbing all the Light Mana in less than two minutes and was back to full MP. When he opened his eyes, a gold ring glowed around in them before fading away, and he flew up to meet Cynrik and Geralt.
"So, little brother, what's your grand idea on how to save those people still alive?" Ignoring that his brother had somehow drawn all the Light Particles he had initially expended back into his Codex for filtration, Cynrik glanced at Brance as his brother landed beside him.
"Glad you asked Cyn since you are about to bus everyone to safety." Wearing a shit-eating grin, Brance slapped his brother's back twice before looking to the sky.
"I'm what now?" Flinching from the sudden impact of his physically stronger not so little brother, Cynrik frowned.
"Step one, we will require some help from the Headmaster." Turning to face Geralt, Brance began explaining the idea he had come up with, ignoring the annoyed expression his brother was exhibiting.
"I want you to open pocket-sized holes and allow the Headmaster to knock out anyone awake; then your task is to draw those people into the shadow realm to be deposited in a spatial cube."
"Once everyone is out of harm's way, we will move them through the Shadow Realm and to a safe location. It shouldn't be difficult, and although many lives have been lost, many can be saved."
Geralt nodded in approval after hearing the basic structure of the plan Brance had come up with and began manifesting small orbs of Space Mana.
Looking to the sky, he waited for one of the two brothers to give him an accurate number of people he needed to render unconscious while ignoring the petty argument happening nearby.
"Ugh, seriously, Brance, even I could have devised a better plan. At this rate, all you are making us do is waste time." Uncrossing his arms and raising both hands to the sky, Cynrik started targeting every living being he could and manipulated the barrier between Reality and the Shadow Realm.
"Quit your bitching; you got what you wanted and killed Viktor and Lithlen, now suck it up and play the good guy role for once in your life." Brance shot back as he smacked Cynrik in the back of his head, nearly knocking his brother over.
Then, he looked over at Geralt, who seemed to be waiting for him to say something. Brance was at a loss for a second, but then it registered that the Headmaster had no clue how many people he would be dealing with, so he took a quick headcount for the man.
"Headmaster, there are 86 people above that you need to deal with first; the remaining ones are already out cold, so my idiot brother can just pull them down for you.
"Got it," was all Geralt said before generating enough orbs and moving on to build a spatial cube large enough to hold around 300 people.
----
While all eyes were on the fight above, nearly a hundred golfball-sized holes began opening up in the ground, suspiciously close to any being injured or unconscious that wasn't a Ghoul.
Soon enough, slightly smaller orbs of Aqua-colored light flew out of these holes and merged with the horrified beings watching Haylon and the Governor fight.
In an instant, these Aqua-colored lights would render them unconscious before the holes in the ground would widen enough to accommodate the being swallowing them before closing as if nothing had happened.
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