Everyone stopped as the blue dome captured them. The light blue mana wrapped around them seem to be constantly shimmering as though it contained glitter.
All stopped except Nier, who still pulsating a little silver aura looked at everyone who seemed to have frozen at their stopped. It was a though time had stopped.
'What is happening? Is this real?'
Nier turned around and looked at the claws of shadows so near him yet unmoving. He realised that he had stepped inside the compound passing by the hole in the wall during his struggle to break the bindings. His eyes suddenly turned up as looked above the walls.
There sat a man with his legs crossed looking down at him. The man had a handsome face with very light blue hair which were split in long bangs. His hair were tied in a high ponytail- smooth and elegant. He was wearing a black overcoat with wider sleeves and grey patterns all over it, on the right chest, there was a large medal that had an image of twillight. A white long scarf was wrapped around the man's neck that seemed timeless. The most catching thing to Nier however was the fact that he was rapidly blinking. It was weird to someone blink so fast and it made Nier raise an eyebrow even though he had lost his memories. The man's eyes suddenly widened and it shook Nier to see a person shot open his eyes so quickly.
Suddenly, the blue aura surrounding him specifically began to move leaving a bubble free of aura around Nier. Nier looked at his hands and found no notable difference and looked again at the man. The man was now blinking normally.
'How strange' The man narrowed his eyes.
"Interesting..." The man muttered as a smile formed on his face.
"You are weird" Nier suddenly said plainly as he looked at the guy.
The man almost tripped hearing Nier but regained composure with a smile.
"I know that. You did not have to be so open about it. I am sure you'll grow up to be a witty brat. It reminds me of a friend honestly" The man said as he shrugged remembering the blondie.
"What is happening here...why is everyone not moving. How could I move even before?" Nier suddenly asked as he looked around. The creep was still frozen, Len was also not moving with the bone sword gripped in hands like dagger. Far away, Renley was tending to Kyber and both both were unmoving
"I wrapped them in chronofreeze or to be very simple, I surrounded them with frozen time"
"Eh? What does wrapping someone in frozen time mean? Can't you say that you stopped time. And wait! Time? That's an element?" Nier asked with his eyebrows raised. One could see that he was still mentally debating the meaning of what happened.
"They aren't the same but sure enough, and yes- time is my element " The main said with a smile.
'He is quite intelligent for a child but to understand the mechanics of my abilities is just different'
"How? Explain!" Nier suddenly asked with a frown.
'A curious kid...huh. To think I'll find a kid so much like Janus and 'him'.'
The man's smile widened as stopped reminiscing and sighed.
"I was wrong kid, you are right" The man calmly said accepting defeat.
'Best way to end an argument' He thought. Nier grunted as he also realised that the man gave him victory. He wanted answers! Nier opened his mouth to shout but closed it as he observed.
"Why was I not affected?" Nier asked.
"I'd say it was the silver aura around you. It seems to repel...no, annihilate the mana around it. Though, you weren't completely unaffected. You could move but were extremely slow in my eyes. I suppose the effect of your aura isn't too strong right now"
'What he has might not even be mana. What have they done?'
"Is that why you looked like a maniac? Blinking your eyes so crazily?" Nier asked genuinely curious.
'He has the ability to spit venom so casually, it might surpass all his talents' The man sitting on the wall determined and answered twitching.
"Yes..."
"Then do you know what the silver aura is? Is it magic? It surely is but I was told that magic could not be used before I reached nine or ten"
"Your situation is clearly different than most so I cannot judge. I mean, it's not unprecedented for someone to use mana early on as a child though It's my first time seeing mana like yours...if it is mana at all. I might have speculations but nothing concrete. Anyway brat, it's not something to worry about for you"
"I see...so, who are you? What do you want?" Nier asked acting cautious finally after being so casual.
"Who am I...huh? Don't worry, you'll learn who I am someday. But if you really want...you can call me Saturn.
And I apologise. I was too late. I do not know what exactly happened to you but I've learned enough about the Unworldly to imagine what you might have gone through. Words cannot describe how sorry I am for those who died. I was too late...again." The man said the last line like a whisper. A sorrowful sigh escaping his mouth.
Nier didn't reply and kept observing.
"I would have liked to talk more or take you under my wing but I have some duties to attend. I'll be leaving but we will meet again someday. Until then, grow strong. Cherish what you have and do not let your loss weigh you down." The man said with a smile before turning towards the creeping shadow frozen in time.
"Oh right..." He said before waving his right hand.
Nier saw in shock as the shadow began receding backwards as though rewinding.
"What..." Nier muttered as he saw the strange phenomenon. Following that, the man stood up and patted his coat. His feet left the wall as he began floating. Suddenly, he almost vanished from Nier's eyes and flew near Renley. The man took the file in Renley's hand and quickly read It. Nodding, he turned to look at Nier one more time before vanishing.
The blue dome surrounding them vanished as everyone that had stopped continued from where they had been frozen. Asghan whose claw was reaching out suddenly stopped on track due to shock as he realised that Nier suddenly shifted his position as though moving instantaneously. Not only that, the creeping shadow had vanished suddenly.
Len who was focusing on his spell didn't yet realise the situation as he continued his attack. The sword gripped like a dagger touched the ground as a large magic circle was manifested with Len as the centre and a radius that left Nier but included Asghan. The sound of a drop falling in water echoed as a ripple left from the point of contact between the sword and the broken ground.
With that, hundreds of points suddenly shone on the circle and pure white pillars of mana erupted from them impaling Asghan at multiple points. As Asghan registered what happened, a white bone sword came out of chest as Len stood behind him silently with the sword in his hands having punctured through Asghan's chest. At the same time, A vine of pure white mana wrapped around Asghan.
"Checkmate" Len said calmly.
"Huh... I'll give you one for those spells. You truly have hidden all your abilities. I wonder what more you have up your sleeve. But maybe that has binded you from the simple fact that I can absorb your mana." Right as Asghan said it, the chains wrapping him began to sink in his body. It was then that Len smiled and unloaded all of his liquid mana in the white bone sword and used his mastery of mana manipulation to condensed all that to a point.
Asghan looked back at Len with his skully eyes as he began to shake.
"You are a fool Asghan. You mentioned before that you absorbed energy to the limit. That means you cannot absorb unlimited energy. Since you are so filled, I thought I should break the cap. If you do not take in what I give, then my mana is going to explode inside you. You'll turn into pieces. Or you can absorb it and break your limit. I wonder what happens then?" Len said calmly with a cold smirk.
"Hehe....Hahahaha...You are right. Truly foolish of me. The ability unfortunately messes up my mind. Oh well...Go on" Asghan said simply.
*Swooop
Len left the sword in Asghan's back and
dashed towards Nier grabbing him. As Len left the sword handle. The mana he was supressing in Asghan churned chaotically and exploded.
*BOOM
Len shifted his position to keep Nier away from the explosion shielding the boy with his body. Len's mask was broken revealing a handsome face with a clean mustache. He seemed to be someone who was shifting towards being middle-aged
Thousands of pieces of flesh and bones splashed in all directions as a sphere light floated above the rubble.
'The soul!'
Len ascertained looking back as he slid on the ground. Immediately checking Nier's safety, he put the boy down and pulled out a knife, throwing it at the shining sphere. The knife passed through the sphere leaving it unharmed.
The soul was something that could only be targeted by soul magic but Len still tried just in case as souls weren't things that could be usually be seen as they never left the body.
A lich's soul was different and special in that regard as they could be attached to different bodies with enough preparation and were materialized in reality.
'Is the anchor his whole flesh?'
Seeing that the light was unmoving, Len hypothesised as he saw all the body pieces wriggling towards the soul like worms.
While Lichs could attach their souls to different object, moving the soul around as willed was unseen even for them. As such, what they did was to make a base point where the soul would return in case the body it inhabited or the anchor was destroyed.
Asghan's whole body had been obliterated yet the soul wasn't returning.
'Or is it that there is no return point?'
Len narrowed his eyes as the gloves in his hands disappeared. Len felt a little headache and nauseated as he had used all his liquid mana and almost all the gaseous mana he had.
but-
*pop
Pulling out a tube from his pockets, Len opened the cap and spread the liquid inside all over the place surrounding the brilliant ball of light.
Following that, Len crouched and put his finger on the ground
*Chshe
A candle sized flame lit at the tip of the finger and began spreading all over the liquid. The crawling pieces of Asghan's body all began to burn in the fire completely turning to ashes
"I thought you could not use any element" Nier asked with his brows raised at the display.
"Well, it isn't an elemental flame. I just rubbed highly condensed mana together and...you saw it. It's an extremely advance application of pure mana"
Len said calmly but realised he was talking to a child so he vaguely explained
"If you rub things enough, a fire can be born"
Nier nodded as he looked at the burning flesh. It was a hectic day, he had just woke up wondering who he was and yet he had gone through so much.
But he didn't feel tired. Nier could not understand his own feelings but he thought it wasn't fear. He was a little anxious, sure. But he felt a new world open in front of him.
Without his memories- magic felt new, everything did. But the intensity of sorcery he had seen today was something different. That wasn't all.
Nier looked up at the sky. The three moons hung there like jeweller. There bright lights covered the black canvas illuminating in his eyes.
"Beautiful..." slipped from his tongue.
Just how many such sites were out there?
How much more was there to see?
A wish soon formed in his heart.
To see the everything the world held. To learn everything about sorcery. To reach farthest he can. Uncover all the mysteries of the world.