"...No... Way..."
Aamon was in disbelief of my strength before his life seeped out of his body and dropped backwards onto the ground.
'Dhung!' A loud sound of heavy metal dropping on the ground.
Had he known of my strength, he wouldn't have dared to challenge me... Whatever, the job's done, and now I can go back to my afternoon tea and writing my research paper. Hmm?
Wait, why is his body releasing more and more heat?... Oh shit, I think I remembered something about 'Fire Wraiths explode upon death', and this guy here is a super strong fire wraith that possesed a suit of armor....
If the wraith's flames is made entirely out of Mana and this dude's Mana is so huge... then scaling a normal fire wraith's death explosion to this guy, he can most likely blow up an entire city....
....oh shit. I didn't prepare any magic items with barrier strong enough to contain an explosion like this! I mean I could cast a barrier without magic items but that is too slow because I can't do them chantlessly!
Oh shit oh shit oh shit what should I do. I will be fine from the blast itself but the people here won't be fine... they will be burned into fried chickens! What else do I have on me that I could use?...
Oh wait, that could work. I have my lucky amulet here that has a Teleport magic embedded in it.... If I use this to teleport away Aamon's corpse towards maybe the sea or the sky somewhere else then I could prevent this explosion from happening!
I ripped my amulet from my neck, and then I poured enough Mana into it just to teleport away the body to a destination far far away from collateral damage. I'm sure that Kentwood wouldn't mind me using it this time right?
The crest at the back of the amulet glowed, and I threw the amulet at the body which is growing ever more unstable each moment. I have to do it fast or else he'll explode.
Hmm? The crest on the amulet is glowing a bit too brightly, that is a sign that it's taking in too much Mana... I didn't give it that much mana!
I expanded my Mana Aura to find out what is going on, I finally sensed where the source of the Mana that is feeding into the amulet came from.
I turned around and yelled at the girl behind me, who's uncontrolled Mana and intense aura is being fed into the amulet.
"Hey you! Stop pouring so much Mana out into the air or else every creature here will be-"
The amulet suddenly flashed so brightly as if it's the sun, and afterwards I lost all recollections....
.....
When I opened my eyes again, I was in an entirely different place. Somewhere strange, and unrecognizeable, but also really nostlagic. It is a desert.
The hot winds blew, dust from the winds settled on my face, a sorching sun, and heat that rivalled no where else on this world.... Yep, it is a desert. The time is most likely.... 5pm? It took about 3 hours for us to materialize here after the teleport was casted.
"....Great...."
I looked behind me and saw that dragonkin girl.
"Ah jeez... This time I have fucked up real bad.... Hey you, are you alrig- "
"Rggraahh! "
She groaned like a beast and immediately lunged after me, grabbing onto my arm, before biting it. This little girl who's only barely reaching my chest's height is really aggressive! Though it didn't hurt because it's not even close to being strong enough of a bite to break my Mana Shield.
"Oi, what the hell is with you?! Stop it! Nooo, don't bite on my sleeve! It is my favorite robe dress and it costs a lot! Oh wait, my Mana Shield also coats the dress, so it is really tough... Oh well."
"Gggraaah!" She bites even harder.
"Easy there girl! Now let go!"
I swung my arm up and down repeatedly to get her to drop, but she shows no signs of letting up.
"Come on, little girl! I said let go!"
I beat her head with my fist repeatedly, but she didn't feel anything at all. I was just too weak physically huh?... After all, without using any gravity magic my physical ability is just like a petite girl's...
"Ah what the hell... What should I do... let her hang like this and fly back home?... Hmm?"
I looked closely at her body, her wounds had mostly healed up by itself. It was incredible because she has a healing factor, even if it's really slow when compared to mine. But now I'm sure that she could take some damage without dying because her healing factor automatically uses her Reserve Mana to heal her wounds.
"Hehehe.... I guess this means I can be a bit more forceful then. "
I used gravity magic on my arm to increase my strength, then I grabbed her on the face, lifted her entire body up and slammed her on to the ground, creating a small crater in the process.
'Boom!'
She finally released her bite because she was stunned by my attack.
"Rrggraaah...!" After making a groan, she fainted from that slam.
Sigh... I can't take this monster with me if it continues like this... I'll just have to hope that the girl's soul is still intact then, or else I'll really have to kill her.
"....Binding Vow."
I sealed away the dragon's soul. Normally you can only do this to weak creatures like animals and monsters, but once they are knocked out, their mental defense would freeze as well making the vulnerable. This is what I did here.
Now now, what shall I do? Sigh... I'll just start a fire first.
[Kyrielle's POV]
I woke up in a really really dark room, where I can't see my hands at all.
Ember...
I lighted a really small fire so that I could see in the dark. To my surprise, I found that this isn't in fact a room, but somewhere really really dark with floor that is just as dark as the abyss.
"Is this... hell?"
I looked around my surroundings and up on the sky I saw a huge window. A window that made me realize where exactly I am right now... I am in fact, inside my body's consciousness. What was seen through the window was through the eyes of someone fighting the demon that I had almost died to.
Yep, that person is indeed me. But I wasn't the one in control.
I watched the entire fight unfold before my very eyes, but some how nothing catches my attention at all... well, nothing except two things...
Spark, Ember, Fire, Flame, Blaze, and finally Inferno. That was the only thing I remembered hearing.
Fire itself isn't a concept stranger to me. No, I am quite well versed with it in fact. That's why I could understand exactly what concept that the person who said that had tried to convey... what that demon had tried to convey.
This was the chant for the saint ranked fire spell, Fire Storm.
Aside from that, I knew that I was involved in some magic accident involving the item that the Magic God used on the demon. But aside from those, my memory was kind of fuzzy... soon, I fell asleep from fatigue again.
....
When I came to, I was lying next to a warm bonfire, and inside a cozy crater in the sands. The surroundings were really dark, but no where as dark as the void that I was in, and it seems that it is night time already.
I sat up from my place and looked around... sitting directly next to me is the Magic God Lynn, who's writing something on a piece of paper.
I inspected my body. Somehow, I've not even a single wound on my body, that must be because of the dragon's healing power huh?
My shirt and shorts are all torn up, exposing skin underneath and barely covering up my sensitive parts and my underwear. And mom's hand sewn winter coat was ripped to shreds, which is a shame. But it's still use able for now.
"Oh, you are finally awake. "
"...Where... am I?... "
"Honestly, I don't know. You and I were involved in a teleport accident and was transported to some place in this world that only God knows where."
"...I see." My voice sounded coarse and rough, that must be because I haven't had any water at all for the past few hours.
Oh Water heed me, bring forth the beginning of rivers, and of seas, Water ball.
Silently chanting, I summoned up a water ball and then drank the water from it.
"You are quite skillful with magic I see."
"Yeah.... "
"...do you remember anything at all? About what happened back at the city?"
"....a little bit."
"I see... I'll just give you some time to rest and settle your thoughts alright?"
She brought up Klada city... that's right... my home... My home is now gone.... the city is destroyed. Gondur is dead... a place precious to all my fond memories with my friends... it's gone. I can't believe it...
I can only hope that Gerd... Mike... Richard... Ghyse... Marielle and Mom made it out of the city safe and sound.
I was too weak to protect anyone there... I thought I was someone strong in this world, but who am I kidding? I was powerless against such an overwhelming monster...
Dad.... is dead. He is really dead. I saw him be cleanly cleaved in half because he tried to protect me.... He died because of me....
My dad who was really nice... That dad who trained me in swordsmanship... That dad who was a charismatic man... That dad who had already saved me once from death's door... that Thomas who was as good of a husband as he was as good of a father... He's dead because of me....
I... I can no longer see him... and I still haven't registered this as a fact....
I'm confused.... I feel angry and sad at the same time.... but I don't even know who to blame other than myself!
I... I don't know what to do now... I can't accept that he is dead... I just can't... If only I had been stronger... this wouldn't have happened...
Tears started to form on my eyes and dripped down like a current. I curled my knees towards my body and hugged it because I feel as defenseless as a toddler...
Uncontrollable amount of emotions starts rising up from within, I could feel my throat being pushed out and was unable to hold back what's about to pour out...
The lady next to me then removed her coat and put it on my back... Then she sat down next to me and embeaced me to her chest without saying anything.
...this feels really comforting... but it completely broke me...
"Sob!... Sob!... Sob!... "
I started sobbing uncontrollably as I cried even harder.... Then gradually, it gets increasingly more painful until I wailed out completely and cried myself to sleep.
...
[Lynn's POV]
After what felt like forever, she cried herself to sleep while lying my lap and being gently massaged on the head.
I felt really bad for her, she was fighting a demon so strong entirely by herself, and then she had another monster take over her body. She most likely watched people die in front of her, and saw her very own relatives being murdered by that Aamon.
And then, when one would expect a hero's welcome for being so brave to fight that thing, what she got instead was being teleported to a completely foreign land, which just adds insult to the injury.
Now, she is left alone in an entirely different environment from one that she had knew of for so long, and with only a stranger like me to boot. A big slap to the face from reality.
She has basically lost everything now, unlike me who is strong enough to just walk back home and didn't have to even care about my loved ones because I have no family at all. She must have felt like a hole had been torn through her heart.
Well, maybe I do care about that hot guy that I had met recently, but... this is not the time for something like that... not when someone here is suffering so badly.
At least I'm a woman... I'm sure this girl would feel way more unsafe if I was a man instead. If I was crying, I'd cry even harder if an ugly fat dude were to suddenly hug me and I was unable to fight back.
Despite that though, I couldn't say anything comforting at all though because I don't even know who she is. For now the best I could do is just this huh?...
I carefully lifted her head up and then placed her head on makeshift pillow that I made out of leaves nearby, and escaped from my fate as a pillow.
...What now?... Oh yea I should catch some food for when she wakes up.
I can take care of myself because I'm immortal, I didn't have to eat, drink, or even sleep at all. But unlike me, this little girl here is a normal human, I need to find food for her at least.
I poured mana into my eyes to enhance my eye's intake of light. This sort of creates a night vision effect.
I used gravity magic and flew up into the sky to scan around the area. After scouring the desert for a minute, I spotted 2 bunnies walking in pairs in this barren desert.
I conjured up two small Rock Sling out of my hand and then adjusted it's size, speed and power until the rock bullet is just enough to knock the rabbit out.
I quietly flew closer towards them, and then as I got close enough I shot the two of them on the head. They aren't dead yet, but they are knocked out for now, and this is done that so that they won't rot before you eat them and can be kept fresh.
Planning to slaughter them a bit later to bleed out the blood from the meat, I grabbed some fibers from the plants nearby and vaguely made a rope out of them. It is essential to learn how to make ropes if you plan to travel or to adventure.
With the rope, I tied the two bunnies by the leg and then brought them back to the bonfire. I should also bring water as well but she or even I can just cast some water magic and drink it instead.
I hanged the tied up bunnies upside down on the dead tree at the side and then sat myself back down.
Sigh... I got her into this big mess, and it's also my fault for not getting to the city soon enough to defend everyone. Now I have a responsibility to bring her back home safely at least, as a way to repay my debt. Worst part is I don't even know her name. If when she wakes up again and is calm, then I'll do the introduction I guess.
I stared up the lonely night skies... It was a sky with a crescent moon that glowed gold, a shade of the galaxy brushes across the night and a canvas full of beautiful stars. The sky here is exactly as I had remembered it from like 60 years ago. I have always looked up at the night sky since when I was but a child.
When was the last time I had cared for a human like this?... That was almost 30 years ago now I think... I still remember my days as an adventurer who fought in the Demonic War like it was just days ago.
Ironically enough, if you ask the Master ranked mage me back then, she'd never have expected to turn into the Magic God of this world.
Back then I had an adventure party. But aside from me and one of my close friend, our entire party was wiped out. He was also the one who gave me that teleportation amulet. I don't know if he is even alive right now though.
After that, our party disbanded and I started to research into magic more and more.
With my new found power, I challenged and killed countless Arch Demons/Devils as vengeance. But soon I found myself lost when I was facing the fact that I cared more about killing the demons than about protecting my people. I was but a killing machine, reenacting my own trauma onto my victims.
That was when I was given a call by the Supreme Demon King, Magic God Baal, who challenged me to face him in a 1 on 1.
With the creation of golems which helped revolutionized warfare and led humans to fight back the demons, we pushed into their homeland, towards their capital city, Creimland.
I stormed into the Supreme Demon King's castle, and challenged Baal to a duel. I won the fight using all three of my God ranked magic, and the collateral damage was enough to destroy nearly the entire city.
We had won a decisive battle, and killed the enemy leader, and so they had requested a truce with us Allied force which is called the Eastern Powers at the time. I made a request to completely abolish slavery in this world towards not just the demons but the humans as well, and they all complied in fear of my spells.
I won't give them the luxury to choose though, not when the kings or those in power have never been a slave. They won't understand the pain of us commoners, and if they don't listen I'll have to force them to listen.
After the Truce, I have finally found peace after fighting for 20 years from when I was born to when I am already an adult. However, I didn't come out of the war as a human.... but as an immortal creature known as a 'Manager Wraith'.
With my prolonged life, the most painful part is watching my loved ones dying while I survive indefinitely... for the past few decades I don't think I have been 'enjoying' life as much.... That is why I learned to enjoy the small happiness in this world like owning a cute dress or sipping tea, or maybe potentially finding a lover in the future haha!
Wasting away my time like that, I finished off what remnants of the Great War there is, and the final loose ends? Aamon, the Arch Devil of Inferno.
And that's how I got myself to live in the Ataraxia Holy Kingdom, right outside the city of Klada. Enjoying my life as a commoner and living near a mountainous area where hunters frequented, it was a peaceful life where I reviewed magic items, wrote and researched magic, occasionally helping travelling mages, and even helped fight off a few dangerous monster.
I have finally finished all the remnants of the war now that Aamon is dead. All I need to do now is to just enjoy life as I see fit, and I don't even need to head back to Ataraxia now.
But I chooses to do that simply because I can't leave this girl here to fend for herself can I? I brought this upon her after all...
With this relaxing crackling of the fire and dead quiet of the night, a little girl sleeps peacefully next to me. It's not that bad of a feeling actually, because I feel heartwarming when seeing her like this.
[Kyrielle's POV]
(The next morning. )
'Crackling...'
...Its warm.... But there's fire... Fire is everywhere...
'Yeeekkk!' A girl with a familiar twin tail screams loudly as she was slammed on the head by a large, flaming great sword.
'Clank!' She was crushed to bits.
Why... it's Aamon, the fire devil.
He turned around and walked away despite seeing me.... how weird, he is not making the very earth shake with each step...
I walked closer to the corpse of the girl who was crushed to death by the burning great sword... it was....
It was me.
"Hah!...."
I scared myself up from my dream... I quickly checked my surroundings, and found that I wasn't in the burning city but the desert and right next to a fire.
"Phew..." I lied back down on the sand ground.
After the panic attack that came from the nightmare I calmed down. But, I feel empty. As if there is a big gaping hole inside my heart. I had never experienced this before....
I took a better look around. I had slept so long that the sky had started to grow slightly brighter now. The lady was sitting next to fire and leaned on a rock. She didn't sleep at all, she was just absorbed in her thoughts.
"Umm..." I called out to her.
"...oh. So, how are you feeling now?"
"...a bit better. "
"Mmm, good to hear. You must be hungry right? I have caught two bunnies, shall I cook them then?"
"Yeah... I'm starving..."
"I thought so. "
She walked towards a dead tree to the side and pulled out two dead bunnies tied to a rope. Their head was cut off and their skin peeled off to allow blood to drain. Normally I'd feel bad for them but now, I couldn't care less now if they were slaughtered or not... I just don't feel anything at all.
The Magic God used some sort of abyss-element magic to make a small knife and killed the two bunnies with it. Using the very same knife she cut up the rabbit into pieces on top of a slab of rock as if it's a cutting board.
Finally, she grabbed a stick from the side and stabbed the meat slices through it then held it on top of the bonfire to cook it, like a meat skewer.
"Since we haven't introduced ourselves yet, how about we do that now? We should get to know each other at least." The white lady talked as if she didn't knew me.
"...I'm Kyrielle Buffet..."
"That name, I think I have heard it before.... Ah well, I can't remember. I'm Lynn. The current Magic God."
"I knew much... Besides, only someone of your caliber would be able to kill that demon after all."
"Thank you... Now, I'll explain exactly what situation we are in now. "
As the crackling of the fire goes on, Lynn explained to me on what exactly happened during the entire fight and why we were brought here.
"-Aamon was going to blow up the entire city, I used an magic item and set it to teleport him somewhere really far away, and somewhere that isn't close to any settlements."
"...and since a large amount of Mana was poured into the spell, it's effective range became way bigger than it should've been and teleported us away while fitting under the condition that you have set..." I guessed the next half of her explanation.
"Correct. You are rather knowledgeable about magic items I see. "
"Mmm... How large would the effective range be? You would know exactly how large the spell's range would be with a certain amount of accuracy... right?"
"Honestly I don't know. Theorically though, the teleport accident would maybe involve almost half of the city. "
"No way.... Is there anyone else besides us that got teleported?"
"I can't be sure because I can't cast the miracle 'Detect Life'. The best we can do now is to save ourselves, you are really selfless if the first person you worry about is not yourself."
"I.... I have family members in the city. The reason I fought that demon... is so that I could buy them time to escape. If they were to be caught up in the teleport spell then..."
"...I'm sorry. But it's not entirely impossible that they escaped out of the walls of the city right? You should hope for the best at times like th-"
"Hope for the best my ass! How could I be positive when-....."
Ah... what the hell am I saying? The lady's face looks surprised at what I said.
"...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you.... I understand your point..."
"It's fine, I get your feelings. Really. "
"...thank you. "
"So, now we are facing three problems. The first problem is to ensure your safety. I brought you into this mess of being teleported to god knows where, so I have a responsibility to protect you and bring you back home."
"Yes..."
"And then, the second problem is that we don't know exactly where we are. There's only two deserts in this world, it's either we are still on Central Continent, to the west coast, or we are on the Demon Continent to the west most... also known as Bostnia Continent."
"The demon continent...?"
"Yes. I can't eliminate the possibility of this happening. If we are truly in the demon continent then it might be really dangerous for you. I can take care of myself, but I must make sure that you can take care of yourself in combat as well. Can you do that?"
"...I am as good as an Adept ranked Mage I think."
"Good enough. Whenever we encounter enemies, be them demons or monsters, if you see me attacking them then you should immediately attack them as well. Also, you need to be next to me so that I can see whatever threats coming.... Understood? There is no negotiation for this, you do or you die."
"...yes. But won't you be the one in danger of being stabbed in the back then?"
"Yeah, but that won't be a problem at all because there's a reason that Aamon wasn't even able to scratch me. You see this layer of Mana on my body?"
I took a closer look at Lynn. On her body was a slightly transparent layer of Mana. When touching it lightly, it flex and bends as if it is like normal skin.
"That is a layer Mana coating my entire body which protects me from taking damage, and it's called a Mana Shield. As it stands right now, almost nothing in this world short of God ranked spells can actually harm me."
"That's so powerful.... If possible I would want to learn it as well.... "
"Obviously I can teach you, I'm the Magic God after all. Everyone naturally has the ability to wear a Mana Shield just by practising, that is why you can see humans having enough strength to chop up beasts the size of a building. However it takes a lot of practise to be able to apply it onto your body... Its something you learn with time."
"I see... "
"So, I already flew up to the sky and surveyed our environment. We are no where close to any settlements at all. But that might be a good thing in itself because you'd have time to adapt to the environment before we meet anyone."
"Mmn...."
"We should just walk to the east, towards the direction of the sunrise because no matter where we are, if we walk to the east it will always be the right way. "
"Mmm...."
"Here, the food is ready. It won't taste great, but it's still good enough. "
"Thank you..."
I received the meat skewer that is grilled just hot enough to eat.
[Lynn's POV]
She took a small first bite. After swallowing it, she started to eat it with a big appetite. That is a good sign, because it shows that at least she wants to live and won't kill herself. Seeing a little girl eating like that made me smiled a bit, at least I know that I provided some comfort for her.
"Since the sun is already starting to come out, shall we starts walking east after you have eaten?"
"Alright...." She sounded really gloomy. It seems that she is indeed very distressed about her situation right now.
I took a small rest and let her eat the second serving of bunny meat in peace. After eating, she casted a water ball and drank it. Finally, she stood up.
"I'm ready... Let's go..."
"Right. If you are tired, then it's fine to rest up a bit because there is a really long journey ahead of you. "
"It's okay, I can walk now..."
"Right. Take my hooded care and wear it once the sun shines. It'd be troublesome if you were to get a stroke in this heat, and the sun would scorch your skin like a grill as well. "
"Thank you..."
[Kyrielle's POV]
I received the coat from Lynn, then I took off my torn up red coat that was hand sewn by mom. I wanted to throw it away but.... right now, this meant a lot to me.
One side of my twin tail is loose from my fighting and I lost the hair band that Gondur bought for me... I unbinded my other tail, and tied it back into a ponytail.
"I'm ready now..."
"Alright, let's start heading west then."
(Chapter 37, end)