"Try not to get caught up asking things of him, Lari, just bring him back!" one of them told me, but, I guess it didn't matter who. So, I stopped and turned to them. Smiling at them while they smiled at me before I then ran off again.
"You better be easy to find, Nin!" I stated to the open sky and approaching city. Picking up my pace until I was partially gliding across the barren land with the help of magic. A trail of explosions followed me all the way there until I slowed down. The words of the others are cleanly etched into my head for now.
I may have not been able to see it either at the moment. But, I could tell with some predictable foresight that they could see me. At the very least, they could see the destruction my magic caused this land. If it wasn't already such a barren place, I might have regretted my actions.
Then, when I got close enough to the city, even if I was still a grand distance off. I began to feel different explosions around me that were not magical. The people of Nin's city had started firing on me. Their explosions, however, were all being swallowed up by mine.
None of them would hit me directly either, they would all go around me. And, as I was using my magic right now, I got a unique perspective of it all. My power made my senses better and body stronger. As such, I saw brass cylinders of all kinds fly past me very slowly even if they were not actually slow.
The explosions they created worked in a similar manner. They expanded slowly and were consumed before they blossomed fully. And, as I got closer and closer, more and more munitions began to go near me. Thousands of small little ones and some even arced down from the sky. Most, however, would continue to be these large ones.
Yet, there was also a few odd ones coming straight at me. Devices that seemed to scream as they came down by the dozen. And as I finally reached the wall, I felt it crumble under my feet as my magic erupted over it. Like a drowning tide lashing out at the coast.
"Have any of you seen my friend?" I asked cheerfully as the run here was very fun. My answer was not words, though. It was all of these guns being directly shot at me. Each bullet, shell and so on harmlessly hitting me and doing whatever. It was a very interesting experience if I was, to be honest.
I don't think many can claim they stood before a firing army and survived its anger. They were even nice enough to halt their attack and let all this smoke clear up. And what I saw bothered me as I could see some men suddenly run away in terror. Some stayed, however, and they resumed their attacks with desperate fury.
Something I had to ignore while being mindful of how little magic I could use. So, I started running again, not as fast as before, though. I ran and ran until they became concerned for their own safety while others were suicidal. Their recklessness pointless as it was ineffective.
But I did not scoff at their attempts. I had no idea how to conceptualise the terror they must have been feeling. My life has always involved magic, its strength was something I knew. The people of Nin's home, though?
They knew nothing about this power and it showed. I did not even have to fight and many were already running away in fear. It even got to the point the ones in the vehicles began to back up while the goldhands took charge. People whose magic was so weak I could barely sense them...
And I was very good and sensing magic as it played a lot into my dancing hobby. But this was something else. They were moving about as if they were frozen and there was no aura. No external-magic flow that I could sense.
Even the blows I let the goldhands land did not nudge me from my spot. They wailed away at me with unrelenting determination and nothing came of it. I was not here, however, to fear for their safety around me. I was here for Nin, so I began to nudge them aside, at least, that is what I tried to do.
But they just flew away and broke apart whatever they hit. Some were even unlucky enough to just splatter across the mountain. And as that happened, I became a lot more worried about my magic control. So I tried to stay calm and just walk through it all.
At least, until I needed to climb over the wall a lot of the normal soldiers had rallied behind. And as I got over the wall and landed in the city. The panic and terror these people felt became so very clear to me. They were savagely going at each other in their attempts to run.
People were crushed under stampedes and children were left abandoned. Those who stayed broke down and begged for their lives as I walked by. And even though I had no reason to be scared, seeing all this made me terrified. I did not like any of this, I was not here to attack them yet the response was chaos.
So I tried to be quick about this, I tried to find my way out of the city and into the lands beyond it. The countryside to Nin's homeland, the fields he once ran in as a youngster. I needed to get to them and move on to find him. I both wanted and needed to escape this place.
To at least free the city of this unintentional fear I sent through them. And I somehow managed to find it through the crowds of terrified citizens. I found the other gate and its accompanying wall... But, it was all the way up at least a few dozen floors...
"Climb rocks? Climb stairs?" I began to loop out as I turned around and glanced around. Nervously moving on to a quieter spot that my presence had helped make. This nervousness would continue to stay with me as well until I was up and away. I could only hope, though, that my use of magic had not devastated the city.
Nin would never forgive me if he found out about it... He would never come back with us. He would not believe us if we tried to explain it to him. The only story he would hear is how we tried to destroy his home!
Yet, at the rate they were going, these soldiers might destroy it as well. It got to the point where I was actively having to seek all these projectiles. So many have been fired off by the uncalm with so much more going all over the place. Slamming straight into those great towers that defined this city.
I needed to both mitigate the destruction my presence was causing and direct it elsewhere. What was required of me was to reach this gate so I could get out of it. A gate they had left open as the terrified people of this city tried to run through it. Me being here, though, made it worse, I just bottlenecked it.
"Move, please move!" I begged of them before deciding to run to the wall's edge. And once I was there, I vaulted over as quickly as I could. Running like a madwoman into the farms surrounding this side of the city. Going on and on until I found a great river that seemed to take me far enough away from them.
And I then collapsed against the body of flowing water, not because I was tired... But because me just going through that city had made it a warzone. Just running and walking and climbing had devastated it so much... I just needed a moment to breathe, to get the screams out of my head so I could focus on why I was here.
As I calmed down, I moved into the water with my eyes shut. Fingers slid just across its surface while my mind focused on something. Nin. That was what I thought about.
My friend who has been living an unlucky life, yet, despite it all, he keeps his human heart. My friend who has gone through so much cruelty and apathy. The one I found crying in the basement of our dorm building with a broken knife. The one I tried to make strong again by being there for him as much as I could.
I then opened my eyes, with water going down them because I was crying, "Where are you Nin?" I asked. My magic gently pulsated about in a contradictorily destructive manner while my mind stayed focused. Even with my body being so deep in that which my magic takes inspiration from, I could not find him. I could not feel him at any point along this mighty river, past or now...
Yet, I did not lose hope and instead found myself thinking of my sister. Of the way the mountains behaved back in the land of the Jhermon. How the snow stayed in a certain spot and wrapped around some of the mountains. These mountains had none of that, there was no snow.
So perhaps I could make some? I may have not learned ice magic as my sister had, but I had been around her enough. I had watched Omb teach her how his fire magic worked enough. So maybe, if I just sprayed a fine mist, I could let my frozen magic blanket the mountains?
I could make snow and find Nin that way if he is still in the mountains? But would I still find him if he had taken shelter? Letting my magic spread itself like that was not as helpful as this river was. I could feel farm animals drink from it at the far end of it, just before it went to a lake.
"I can feel the water in a lake is pumped away somewhere... Hot..." I then said as I scrapped my last plan. This heat I was feeling, there was something magical about it. It was a weak signature, admittedly, be it my fault or theirs. But, I could perhaps follow it?
Nin doesn't use fire magic, yes, but, maybe they might know? Nin does stick out as he is quite tall, so maybe they have at least caught a glance? A sound at the very least? I know Nin can be a bit noisy on his own, he doesn't like the quiet...
I wasn't going to find him by lounging about in a river, though! So I started moving along it, swimming with the currents and using gentle bursts of magic to speed through it. Even if those gentle magic blasts sent water flying out the river, draining it very briefly. At this point, one might even be sceptical of why I thought of them as soft magic usage.
It clearly was not reacting softly with this land yet this was as low as I could reasonably make it. I know others can do better than me, but this was the best I could do. All I could do for now until we got out of this land. A land we had no place in because we were such a danger to it.
And, then, as I thought about that, I intentionally crashed into a rock, "I guess it makes sense as to why Nin flushed his magic out like he did." I comment with a sigh before going back along the water. Watching all the different kinds of river fish swim out of my way before they likely were killed by my magic. I wasn't even trying to be fast, I was just sensing my way down the river.
And soon, I was feeling rubble bang against me as I went along the river's path. Was I now damaging ships and boats? Or were these pieces of various bridges I had destroyed? I hoped it was neither, but it seemed unavoidable.
This land was so fragile compared to all the other places I have been. And me and my sister have gone to many newly established colonies! Ones where their magic is slowly being inserted over time. And, as such, you'd think you stepped onto an island of glass!
"Please be okay, Nin." I then said after I leapt out onto the river's sides. Digging into the land harshly before I came to a stop in the mud. My eyes lingered on the way I came before I looked away with a shiver. That rubble I had been encountering was fishing villages I so carelessly zoomed past...
I just wanted to get out of here with my friend...