Hearing the call for help from her brother, Leiko reacted with lightning speed, and taking advantage of her advantage in the form of surprise, decided to put everything on one attack.
[Superior Technique, Fire Element. Sphere of all-devouring flame. ]
The creatures that did not have time to react to the sudden attack fell into a kind of translucent spherical barrier, into which, under wild pressure, the power of Leiko's magic began to inject flames.
With every second, the pressure of the flame inside the barrier grew, and with it the temperature inside the sphere grew, which, at its peak, reached one hundred thousand degrees.
This technique was one of the strongest in the girl's arsenal and could easily kill the crowned heads themselves if they fell into such a trap.
Perhaps the only drawback of the technique was that it required a huge amount of mana to use it, but at the moment there was no choice.
These mysterious creatures were able to harm her brother, who was no weaker than Leiko herself, and if so, then their destruction was the highest priority.
As soon as the whirlwind of fire raging in the sphere subsided, the technique disappeared, not even leaving ashes from two unknown creatures.
— Sen! What did they do? Leiko asked worriedly and ran up to her brother, who was sitting on the stone floor, trembling, holding his head with both hands.
"Brother, what happened?" Are you injured? Does something hurt?
"They… They…" the elf breathed deeply, gasping for air, "they took my magic!!! Everything, to the last drop!
"They drained your mana reserves?"
- NO! It's not like they deprived me of the very ability to conjure, I just don't feel magical powers in myself. Communication with the earth and other elements is lost, it is no more!
- How is this possible? the girl asked aghast.
"I don't know, I've never heard of such a thing ..." Sen interrupted his speech, looked at the elf he had just killed, "no, it can't be ... Now I'm like this worm!"
Standing up, he grabbed his sister by the shoulders:
- Leiko kill me, I don't want to disgrace our family! If you kill me, then no one will know about my shame!
"Don't panic, what are you talking about!" We'll get your magic back, but before that, we need to get away from that stone, in case the enemy sends reinforcements. I need to restore mana, I spent a lot of money on this technique.
"Do whatever you want, there's absolutely no use from me now.
***
Kio, being in the so-called temple, to which he was brought by the forest dwellers, was thinking about everything that had happened, considering his further actions.
His direct task included three things.
First, to interrogate local residents and, based on the result of this interrogation, decide whether they live or die.
Since the surviving members of the council, as soon as he appeared, immediately rushed to tell him about what had happened, knowing him everything without concealment and lies. He decided that these insects were worthy to live, which he had already managed to report through the shadows.
His second goal was to find out exactly how Sen and Leiko disappeared by submitting a report on the magical mechanism of the teleportation jump and methods of counteracting such a thing in the future.
And the third, last but not least, was the point where Kyo was ordered to calculate the current location of the two missing elves.
Naturally, the last two points were tightly interconnected, and having found the answer to one, he would have found the answer to the second. But, everything was not so simple.
Reading over and over again the message on the tablet, which was written in ancient Elvish, which he knew well, Kyo could not understand what exactly from this hodgepodge of symbols was the key to spontaneous teleportation.
After some time, he came to the conclusion that there are only two solutions to this puzzle.
First - in order to activate the key - jump, you need to be a purebred elf.
And secondly, the tablet is valid only once, after which it becomes absolutely useless.
"One way or another, I will have to resort to my abilities," he thought to himself, "I don't feel like it, but, the order of the Lord is the law!"
***
Coming out of a small dungeon, in which the rune stone was located, Sen and Leiko found themselves in a forest densely planted with trees unknown to them.
- What are these plants? Their trunks, as if alive, something pulsates and shimmers in them.
"Everything seems to be one here. Mushrooms, flowers, grass, trees, they are all interconnected, by some kind of network of closed vessels, through which a certain liquid flows, perhaps plant sap. But why is it purple, and these swollen bulges on the trees ... I have never seen anything like it, although it is somewhat reminiscent of the great tree of Mr. Inmir, it also created entire forests on the surface, but their arrangement was still different.
"I don't care about this forest, let's find a place to rest, I'm very tired."
Glancing at her chalk-pale brother, the girl became more and more nervous about his health.
"Of course, I'll look for something now, but for now, sit down on this stone."
Sen sat down on a stone with a swing and softened, his body had never experienced such terrible fatigue, it was exhausted to the limit. Sometimes it even seemed to Sen that there was not enough air in his lungs, and he would suffocate. So bad was his physical condition.
Raising himself, the elf touched the earring in his left ear.
This radiant jewel was one of the relics that was passed down through the royal family, and was nothing more than a top-level sealed spell. The power of this spell was enormous, and certainly surpassed in its power any magic that the brother and sister were capable of. Even their joint techniques could not compete with this great magic that was sealed there.
And as many may have guessed, the relic could only be used once, after which it would become nothing more than an ornament.
"It's still too early for me to die, I must save Leiko, if she also dies or loses her strength, our family will be finished. I will not allow this, I will lay down my life to save our family."
"Brother, how are you?" I found a great place to relax, let's go," with a gentle voice and a smile on her face, Leiko literally glowed with good nature and care. Sen was horribly ashamed of the way he often behaved towards her. Even now, when he has become a nuisance, garbage, worthless insect, his sister is so kind to him, and clearly hiding her own fears, she tries her best to take care of him.
"Forgive me," he muttered under his breath as his sister helped him walk.
— What are you talking about? Everything is fine.