Leith immediately barraged the dark Wizard with the dazzling fires of Omen Lucem. Florence shielded herself from the wall across the room. His aunt did not seem to be holding a wand. No, she leaned back while hugging her dearest deer mask.
Donar brought the tip of the wand closer to his mouth as he began to whisper an incantation.
"Angustia Vocant!"
A flash of light sprinkled from the tip of Donar's wand, and he threw it into the flat wilderness right away. Apparently, The flare was not meant for the dark wizard gang and their mad aunt, the owner of the deer's head. Instead, it flew straight up and swooped down to find a large window on the left to penetrate. Donar imagined the flare would explode into a huge firework, then the burnt remnants of it straight reached any nearby civil guard units or Magisterium mages. However, the beacon did not work according to the father's expectations. A thousand unfortunates, after breaking a particular window—which was just replaced thanks to the winged undead's attack at the incident a few days ago—the magical flare slowly flew down and went out like a dead beacon.
"What was that just now, Papa?" Leith muttered in a loud tone.
"How could I know?" replied the father, "That magic should have given the signal to the authorities."
Florence could only chuckle from behind the wall. "Donar, it's useless. We've jammed the mana signal for two blocks. Although we can't create a restricted magic area due to the threat of our exposure, at least we can prevent you from contacting outsiders!"
Florence's words earlier gave father and son each a brilliant idea. They had not yet expressed their ideas to each other, for the father had immediately stepped out of cover and chanted another spell.
"Anima-dator!"
All of a sudden, those in the room felt a quake. All the inanimate objects throughout the room began to behave strangely, some vibrating until they floated.
A strange noise came from Donar's work room. Turned out, all of his bookshelves were alive. Hands and feet emerged from their "body", in the form of a cupboard that broke itself. One of the shelves even joined with a number of sets of telescopes, globes, magic orb, and several tool poles, forming a humanoid bookcase! The cupboard went straight through the wall of the room where Florence was, and rammed into everything in it, followed by the invasion of cupboards and other office equipment!
Other home furnishings were not to be outdone. Skinny chairs straightened their front legs and backrest by force, making them the martial art seat puppets. Plates and glasses flew out of cupboards and attacked the mages. The sofa Donar and Leith were sheltering on was turned into a weapon by the automaton—the result of a combination of dozens of furniture imaginable. And so the whole house fell apart, but banded together to attack the alien occupants inside—Florence Crimsonmane and her masked outlaws.
"They are diverted. Let's run, quickly!" Donar exclaimed.
The two of them immediately rushed towards the door which opened on its own, helping them escape.
Florence, who was furious at being the butt of hundreds of inanimate objects, put on her reindeer mask. Terrible things occurred. Little by little, her legs and arms lengthened, her posture turned a little hunched.
The other wizards tried to open the door, but it locked itself on purpose. Florence—or whatever she was now—seemed to have that solution.
Crackling sounds continued to be heard no matter how far Donar and Leith ran. But it was not an unusual sound, until a deafening brattle caught Leith's attention and made him turn back. His father's apartment room collapsed, leaving a giant aperture and a humanoid wardrobe thrown out in dismemberment. Magic contact occurred again as Donar and Leith exchanged magic shots with the masked magicians who had just come out of that hole.
Almost forgot that Leith had an idea as well.
"Mus Insidias!" he cried.
A veil of magic instantly enveloped the apartment. Everyone in the apartment immediately felt nauseous, including Donar who almost fell down. Understanding his son's thoughts, he surrendered his intention to scold him. Leith embraced him, "Sorry, Papa. The effects will be gone when we leave the flat. C'mon, move your feet!"
They decided to take the emergency stairs. At first glance, the mages did not chase them because they could not stand the state of their entrails being shaken. When they were far enough down, Leith freed Donar from the barrier magic's influence. He sat down relieved right away.
"Oh come on, don't sit around just yet!" Leith scolded his father, "We have to get out first, then you can sit as much as you want."
"A moment, Leith. I am still gathering strength," answered Donar, gasping for air.
While they were talking, all the lights on the emergency stairs suddenly went out. Due to the absence of windows, the room seemed like a night without light, even from the sparkling stars.
"Haw, you must be joking, flat building!" lamented Leith. He summoned a small spotlight from his wand, and surprised he was when the light caught a deer-headed monster that appeared out of nowhere and squealed in front of them! Leith could not see clearly the monstrous stature other than the hideous deer face with white eyes, a collection of irregular teeth as sharp as a knife, smeared with dripping spittle. Leith who almost lost his obstinacy prevented Donar from being assaulted by the monster, but the strange deer immediately threw the poor boy down the stairs! Donar immediately rolled down the stairs and found Leith wincing in pain with part of his body scratched by the monster's claws. Leith suspected that the forked horn monster was actually aunt Florence, somehow unaffected by the nauseating barrier spell, and for some reason also, preferred to appear as a creature, uglier than her original, yet blazing awry countenance.
"Darn, your wound is quite wide!" said Donar as he approached Leith. Now it was the father's turn to carry his son. "It's all right, son. Keep the light on your wand. You'll be fine!"
This creature often screamed and crawled over the walls with the hope to nail their flesh and rip them apart. The atmosphere became very tense. Unlike his blood-soaked son, Donar was dripping with sweat, shooting Omen Lucem blindly behind him. He did not know where the creature was, all he knew was the figure was disguised in the dark, the figure was behind him, and the figure was chasing them, fast!
As the circle of stairs seemed endless, and the monsters were getting closer to his nape hairs, Donar came back with another brilliant idea.
Correction, a beyond insane thought—a sign of desperation.
"Leith, drop your glowing wand down!"
"W-why would I do that—"
"Just do it!"
Leith did as his father ordered.
"Hold tight!"
"W-wait wha—Oh, shite! No!"
In the absence of the magic broom, the wizard desperately chose to jump off the stairs.
Donar, still carrying his son in his embrace, made a leap of faith with the light from Leith's stick as a ground marker. As soon as they were in midair, Donar had to immediately cast a spell. This action was very risky. Should he miss a whit of momentum, their bones would crush against the concrete ground in an instant!
"Aer Currentis!
The light on Leith's wand slowly dissipated, as the air above it began to circle around forming a fluffy cloud. Donar and Leith fell on top of the cloud and bounced off the other side of the floor. Leith screamed from the stinging agony in the scratch wound, still oozing fresh blood.
Finally, They reached the ground floor. Donar was about to reach for the exit, which unfortunately was locked. Worse yet, the deer monster continued to hysterically howl like a man in torment, making them shudder even more and leaving their focus astray. The monster then leapt over the stair edge and darted along with its long arms towards Donar and Leith, ready to tear the two wizards apart.
Using his uninjured hand, Leith tried to reach something from his trouser pocket. "Too bad I have to use this. Oh well, I'll just ask my sister for more."
A small vial of pure Arcane energy, the result of him blackmailing his sister.
"Oh, wonderful! Quick, use it now!" urged his panicking father.
The pure Arcane instantly enveloped Leith's wand by itself. At this moment between life and death, the deer's unusual hooves had touched Leith's nose. Fortunately, Leith's chant was slightly faster than its being.
"Lux Pulsus!"
The tiny light at the base of the wand suddenly enlarged and created waves of shimmering light, touching the entire room to the top floor! The monster's shriek was louder than before as its entire body full of fur burned and bounced back upwards. The Crimsonmane family was yet again outsmarted death.
Donar helped his son up. "Are you all right, son?"
"A-apart from having my body part clawed and numb? Yeah, I guess… never felt better."
"So you had pure Arcane essence all along? Why didn't you use it earlier?"
"How could I easily throw this magical energy away, Papa!" Leith replied to the father. "If yon boot hadn't jumped from the thirtieth floor, I probably wouldn't have used it as a last resort."
"Fair enough. I might have to ask Alicia as well next time."
The exit exploded, revealing people who were already curled up on the carpeted floor, thanks to the influence Mus Insidias. The residents outside and the authorities appeared to have been on standby at the entrance.
"We must immediately inform the Magisterium of this. Alicia is definitely not safe here," uttered Leith.
"Great idea. But first, maybe you can cancel your barrier magic?" asked Donar who walked with his arms around his son. []