I needed to make a decision, and I needed to make it fast, because the panic I could feel from Cornelia and Helga was getting more and more intense with each second. The problem, I didn’t even know whether they were being targeted intentionally to pull me away, or that it was just another part of the undead strategy trying to shatter the towns around Silver Spires, and they were being targeted accidentally.
Ultimately, however, it didn’t matter much. I could either summon an air elemental and dash away, hoping to arrive in time, but leaving Titania alone and vulnerable, or I would sacrifice the girls. Each option was worse than the other…
Or do I, I thought, suddenly remembering a particular unique perk I had received, the one I hadn’t dared to experiment with because of the side effects of the Empowerment perk I had observed when trying to enhance Cornelia’s power.
Teleportation.
I couldn’t help but touch that perk, testing yet not activating. The presence of Helga and Cornelia intensified, like they were just a step away, but it was a dangerous step.
What was a touch of danger to face when it came to protecting my lovers?
That still left one problem, however. The defense of the town with Titania. “Stop acting, and retreat next to Marianne, and be ready to protect yourself,” I ordered Titania immediately as I started putting together a strategy that I hoped would be useful, at least enough to delay them a moment. “There’s an emergency and I’ll be going away in seconds.”
With a flick of my hand, a pair of wings appeared on my back, the kind that I based on the looks of the headmistress, but made from air, but surrounded by a thick layer of light. Another layer of light appeared above my skin, radiating as bright as the sun.
[-149 Mana]
“Enough!” I commanded, the full weight of my charisma behind my words, sufficient even to stagger the actual mindless undead for a moment.
That moment was all I needed for me to mold enough mana to meld my biomancy-based life energy with light magic, essentially creating the same unique energy I had used to detect the presence of the undead, only different in intensity, the same way candlelight would compare to a roaring forest fire, threatening to devour everything in its path.
[-4293 Mana]
I breathed hard even as the spell left my hands as a cone, one targeting the sky, toward the large division of bone dragons, the other aiming down, decimating the hidden undead army underground, trying to reach the town in a surprise attack, both decimated completely, though not without leaving me breathing in exhaustion. Even with my reserves, spending over four thousand mana in one spell was not a simple thing.
The posturing wasn’t completely useless, however, as I immediately connected the soul pieces that occurred after the destruction, funneling them toward Titania. Each barely gave her a few points of experience at maximum, but with the numbers, the army was displaying, they still helped her to cover a significant distance toward the next level.
Sometimes, it was easier to catch the opportunities than trying to hunt them.
“Zokras, I’m getting bored of your pathetic attempts. You’re barely fit to fight against my minions, but I’ll give you more respect more than you deserve and kill you with my own hands!” I shouted, my magically-enhanced voice echoing toward the plains.
That posturing was not pointless. Even as I shouted, I cast another spell, connecting the light wings and armor I was using to disguise myself so that it continued to glow in the sky even without my presence.
[-93 Mana]
“I’ll be leaving now, be careful,” I said to Titania through another magical message, before taking a deep breath and activating my teleport perk…
[-319 Mana]
And just like that, the world disappeared completely.
More accurately, I found myself out of the world, swimming in some kind of endless aether ocean, which was what mana was in its natural state. Or more accurately, the energy that we converted into mana through processing with our soul space.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t something that could be described as safe. Not even close.
[-251 HP]
The pain radiated as the surface of my skin tried to disintegrate, something that was forcibly arrested with my power, despite my own impressive power trying to push the aether away. I had no doubt that, if I tried to do that ten levels ago, I would have disintegrated in an instant…
Even now, I barely had seconds with aether flowing wilder than the worst ocean storm, trying to disintegrate my being completely, both in body and in the soul.
[-217 HP]
I tried to heal myself reflexively, only for my mana to flew away hopelessly, dragged by the aether flow. With the chaotic flow, it was impossible to properly shape the mana outside my body.
[-192 Mana]
[-288 HP]
Luckily, the teleportation perk was buried safely into my soul space, allowing me to still operate that safely, without the interference of the aether storm. Without that factor, I would have died completely.
I ignored the pain —which was certainly not a simple achievement with all of my skin trying to disintegrate simultaneously— as I tried to focus on the direction. My stomach started to churn, because the distance wasn’t exactly a linear vector in aether space I found myself in. I could feel the distance getting shorter and longer with each second, and not by small percentages. No, what might be inches away one second might get a thousand miles away the next…
[-319 HP]
I did notice one interesting thing, however. The chaotic distance was only happening in a limited area, which was surrounded by a complicated energy shield that was hard even to properly understand. It was pushing back and forth, fluctuating, but I was sure that one touch was enough to earn a deadly backlash from it.
[-217 HP]
No matter how fascinating such a structure was, however, I didn’t have time to focus on that. Literally, not when I had less than ten seconds to save myself from the dangerous situation I found myself in. And to do that, I needed to find my way.
Luckily, even from the chaotic dimension I found myself in, I could feel the Companion nodes of the girls, Cornelia’s and Helga’s nodes particularly bright, both due to their strength and the distress that was radiating from them.
[-241 HP]
However, detecting them was one thing, aiming toward them without overshooting was another thing. Even knowing that the distance between in the material world was limited, actually targeting them was difficult. Because, the distance between the different points wasn’t just shuffling in terms of linear distance, but also in terms of angular combination.
A second passed, my mind filled with formula after formula, trying to make sense of the chaos.
[-273 HP]
Then another…
[-216 HP]
And another…
[-230 HP]
And another…
Then, either I managed to make a subconscious connection about the formula thanks to my monumental intelligence, or I happened to be extremely lucky, and I managed to get a momentary understanding of the distance between me and the girls.
I pushed myself toward it hopelessly. I didn’t know whether it would work, or whether I would somehow find myself merged with a wall or something else. But considering my life was literally counted in seconds if I stayed in the aether dimension, it wasn’t a hard choice to make.
Covering the great distance between me and the girls took less than a blink, but the same didn’t apply to the physical cost of actually traveling through the aether. Even as I was standing still —or at least, what I could describe as standing still, which didn’t have a direct equivalent in the surreal location I was occupying— was sufficiently damaging, and it was even worse when moving —for a warped definition of it— toward the unintentional beacon created by Cornelia and Helga.
[-1893 HP]
[-1395 Mana]
The two notification that popped in my sight wasn’t exactly helping me to feel more confident, but as I pushed through the barrier that separated Aether dimension and the material plane, it was a cost that I paid willingly.
Even if it left me very drained.
[HP: 2179 / 6324]
[Mana: 1294 / 7595]
My status was rather accurate, considering I was completely naked if one discounted the deadly glow of the chaotic energy still trying to worm into what remained from my skin, the touch of the wind enough to trigger agonizing pain on nerves, exposed into the air. The complete loss of my weapons, auxiliary items, and clothes was another problem.
Still, my status didn’t scare me. After all, I barely needed several minutes to actually put myself together.
But, then, I managed to get a glimpse of my surroundings. The first thing that caught my attention was the huge fireball that surrounded us, radiating from the familiar figure of Cornelia, her robe in tethers. I looked around to find Helga, only to find her collapsed on the floor, several feet behind me, unconscious and bleeding, not too away from actual death.
Around us, there were only smoldering ruins, but it wasn’t dangerous.
Certainly not compared to the familiar figure of the death knight, trying to push through the flames, forcing Cornelia to retreat despite her aggressive casting, forcing her to deplete the last of her mana. Through our connection, I could feel her inches away from collapsing.
Apparently, I arrived just in time.
Now, all I needed was to survive a death knight —maybe even more, as I was yet to use detection— with no weapons, a lot of wounds, and barely a sixth of my mana, while trying to keep two girls, one unconscious, the other inches away from the same state.
Definitely trivial.
Right?
[Level: 31 Experience: 489893 / 496000
Strength: 46 Charisma: 58
Precision: 40 Perception: 42
Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45
Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49
Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51
HP: 2179 / 6324 Mana: 1342 / 7595 ]
SKILLS
Master Melee [100/100]
Master Tantric [100/100]
Master Biomancy [100/100]
Master Elemental [100/100]
Master Arcana [100/100]
Master Subterfuge [100/100]
Expert Speech [75/75]
Expert Craft [75/75]
PERKS
Mana Regeneration
Skill Share
Empowerment (1/1)
Teleportation
COMPANIONS
[Cornelia - Level 21/25]
[Helga - Level 17/21]
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