Zachary had only one desire, to leave for the sanctuary.
Without waiting, he snapped his fingers and disappeared in a new flash just as the office doors opened to let in a dozen soldiers in golden armor.
Seeing the last hints of the flash and the astonished eyes of the Commander, the royal guards quickly understood.
- "Shit! We missed him! Where is he?" one of them asked Yves.
The latter still in shock took some time to recover before looking at them without knowing what to say.
"What do I know ?! He came and went blinding me," he thought silently.
- "I… I don't know" he answered.
The soldiers wasted no more time and left the office. They had to find the group and ask the mages there to perform a localization spell as quickly as possible.
Zachary as for him suddenly appeared above the cloud which was on the castle in a flash. For a moment, the Archmage dropped slightly before stopping and floating in the air without moving.
He was captivated by the strange formation that was on the cloud. On the latter, lines were drawn, regularly absorbing natural energy and surrounding mana.
"An ancient rune ?!" he thought in surprise, widening his eyes slightly.
The Archmage immediately pointed his left index finger at the cloud below him and inhaled deeply. His eyes then took on a bluish tint as his mana circuit extended around his body and began to rake the air with every elemental particle of fire. Quickly, a small red dot appeared on the tip of his finger.
The elemental particles around him began to condense and focus on this point and after a few seconds the concentration stopped.
Then abruptly, the concentrated energy was released forward forming a ray of heat hitting the cloud below.
Moments later, the two spells made contact, creating a sudden burst of mana and vapor all around. The shock waves emitted from hot steam swept through the air and forced Zachary to pull back further.
For its part, the cloud did not seem to be affected. Although the rune seemed to weaken little by little at the point of impact, the rest seemed intact and regenerated much faster which greatly surprised Zachary.
"A Class 8 spell isn't enough ?!" he thought before removing his spell. "If I try a more powerful spell, the city may suffer."
Zachary had been able to confirm it. His opponent was competent. The complexity of the rune and its magical power were out of this world. Even he probably wouldn't be able to summon one without a little preparation beforehand.
He thought for a moment before making up his mind then looked away at the great royal group in the distance and disappeared in a flash of light.
Several seconds passed before the bluish rune below began to spin slowly. Moments later, a new white rune appeared before a spherical rock formed.
- "Mana interference confirmed"
- "Sensory data collected"
- "Returning to home location to report"
Then, without waiting, the stone took off in the air, exceeding the altitude of the surrounding clouds before taking the direction of the sanctuary very very quickly.
---
Back at the shrine, Isaac was standing with Rebecca and Rita and reflecting on the implications that his guess had. If he could copy the transmitted energy signature, it would theoretically be possible for him to clone anything or anyone.
But this was only theoretical. After all, he didn't know what would happen if he had to clone a body.
From what he had noticed when he arrived, Isaac had a psychic field that seemed to be connected from body to body during his resurrection.
Is he the only one to have a psychic field? Or does everyone have one? If so, if it clones a body, does it also clone its psychic field? Or perhaps would he clone the psychic link between the two?
The sole fact of successfully cloning someone is based on the fact that the mind is physical. Maybe it was true in his old world, but here he wasn't sure.
He had to test it.
Rebecca suddenly shuddered as she saw Isaac lift his face up to her and Rita. Something in his gaze was terrifying.
- "Isaac?" she asked to break the silence a bit.
Isaac's grimoire suddenly opened beside him before he suddenly came to turn to Rita with a huge smile. He then looked at the shadow portals still present. Without waiting a moment, Isaac came to take a small pebble and approached the portal before dropping it inside.
As soon as the pebble made contact with the portal, intense energy surrounded the group of three, creating a heavy and silent atmosphere.
The two women stopped all movement so as not to disturb Isaac, looking intently at the shadow that had absorbed the rock.
Rita was still waiting to see the rock come out on the other side, but didn't seem to happen which surprised her.
Normally, once something entered its portal, it would appear almost immediately in the other. What had happened?
She came to look at Isaac who was still motionless before inscriptions started to inscrib themselves on the pages of the book.
Then, the next moment, the pebble appeared in the other shadow, causing immense relief. Rita didn't know what was going on and she was afraid the elf might have destroyed her shadows. This technique had been taught to her a long time ago by her master, she did not want to lose it.
As she watched the stone with interest, Isaac suddenly came and leaned forward slightly, starting to massage his temples, as if he had a headache.
- "Isaac? Are you all right?" Rebecca asked worriedly.
She had never seen her master like this. It was the first time he seemed hurt. She had seen him disgusted, disappointed, interested, but she had never seen him sad or in pain.
The young woman slowly approached, her face worried just as Isaac stood up slightly with a small smile.
- "Everything is fine, I did not expect it to be so difficult" he announced finally.
"Difficult? Something is difficult for him?" Rebecca thought in dread. If something is difficult for him, it is certainly impossible for her! What did he do ?!
She was deep in thought. What did the word "clone" mean? Copy, replicate? She didn't really know. Was that the kind of magic trick mages do to amuse children?
She decided not to ask more questions and remained silent until her master could continue.
For his part, Isaac was perplexed. When the stone entered the shadows, it was indeed transformed into energy. More particularly in manicule that seemed to hold a certain signature.
Immediately, the manicles began to be transported from one shadow to another before he came to stop them. What he hadn't foreseen was the effort required to analyze them, copy them and contain the copied manicles.
He had never tried to copy a manicule in its entirety. It had an intensity and a frequency, but it also seemed to have special properties that he did not know.
Not a full-fledged property, but like strange slight differences. Each manicule seemed different from the other.
As a pebble did not look like another pebble in shape, color, or size, the same comparison could be made of these manicles.
He had to copy each of its properties to another maniculum to store it in his spellbook in a very short time.
It couldn't take too long or the manicles being carried would start to lose information. As a bubble forced to take the shape of a rectangle would incessantly attempt to resume a spherical shape, the same thing happened with the manicles.
The principle of entropy which led them to equalize energy with the surrounding space forced them to change.
Having said that, Isaac wondered how Rita managed to maintain the manicles over long distances, but that was a question for another time.
To overcome this entropy problem, Isaac had been forced to create a containment field around to isolate the manicles which did not make it easy for him.
Having to work on something that was on the other side of a window was difficult. He was relatively limited and worked hard, trying to both confine the manicles and leave a few openings for his aura.
When the process was complete, Isaac turned to an empty spot in front of him then looked at the page of his spellbook emanating a faint golden tint.
He came to place his hand, palm open, forward and then breathed mana into the grimoire, triggering the inscribed page to activate.
Moments later, a stone identical to the one he had thrown appeared. Its size, shape, weight, outline. Everything seemed exactly the same.
Isaac looked at the stone for a long time, looking for any difference but didn't seem to find any. He sighed in satisfaction.
The experience was in some ways a success. Still, testing on humans or animals would probably have to wait. He had to find a way to create a rune that could automate this process.
But for now, he had the information he needed. Just as he was about to ask Rita the question about long-range teleportation, a blue window suddenly appeared in front of Isaac.
[System] Priority report sent from ERIVIA
[System] Sensory data received
[System] Would you like to read? [Y / N]
Immediately Isaac smiled and pressed Y before his eyes took on a bluish tint and stood still.
Rebecca watched carefully what was happening before suddenly taking Rita by the shoulder and inviting her to step back. The old one didn't seem to understand but complied anyway.
- "What is happening ?" Rita asked.
- "No idea, but the last time he was like that, Erivia's riders arrived" replied the young woman.
Rita then got on her guard and dispelled the two shadow portals. Rebecca on her side turned to the camp where the three men were.
- "I'm going to warn Art--" she started to say before Isaac got out of his trance.
So she remained motionless, awaiting orders. Isaac on his side then began to smile before turning to Rita and Rebecca. He started to open his mouth when a shrill sound resounded everywhere on the garden.
Red lines began to appear all over the plain, causing everyone to be startled before they began to draw their swords or daggers.
Then, the next moment, a voice rang out.
- "Scouting squad GELOM 006 retrieved priority report"
- "Archmage-level entity detected in extended security perimeter"
- "Transferring sensory data ..."
Again, Isaac's eyes began to glow which did not reassure the group of people at all. Artiel, Kiril, and Iracuz were already on their way back when Isaac opened his eyes again before opening them wide.
"Too fast…"
- "Isaac? What's going on?" suddenly asked Artiel.
- "Too fast… Way too fast. How did he make the distance between Erivia and the shrine so quickly ?! He is as fast as the recall report !"
A red window appeared again in front of Isaac.
[System] Unidentified entities on approach
[System] Distance before arrival: 3km
[System] Estimated destination: Garden of Origins
[System] Location: Azimuth 70 ° W
Then another window.
[System] Unidentified entities on approach
[System] Distance before arrival: 2km
[System] Estimated destination: Garden of Origins
[System] Location: Azimuth 70 ° W
Isaac suddenly widened his eyes and then started to panic. How does a human manage to cross 1 kilometer in a second ?!
- "System command! Activate protection rune NOW"
[System] Command confirmed