The rhythmic pounding of boots against the floor amplified as they rapidly approached. Tia's thoughts spiraled in a frantic whirlpool of various scenarios, none of them ideal, 'I'm alone in the office with the dead mage. This is not going to end peacefully.'
The possibility of escaping through the window crossed her mind, but the streets were packed, and cameras were on each corner—there was no chance someone wouldn't notice a flying girl, potentially bringing even more trouble.
With a kind of cold finality, she came to the sobering conclusion, 'In that case, it looks like I will have to fight.'
Her attention snapped back as the steps halted at her threshold, and a series of booming knocks reverberated through the office. Tia didn't utter a word in response; instead, she silently seated herself with deliberate poise atop the imposing mahogany desk, her gaze fixing on the door.
'Who can it be? Police, someone random, or the murderer?'
The command pierced the heavy silence, "We are going in!"
Immediately, the doors flung open, and with thundering bangs, a duo of men in slightly old-fashioned, grey suits burst in, the wands in their hands glowing and pointing into the room.
Tia leaned against the table with a dead body, 'Let's hear what they have to say. Maybe I can get some useful information out of them.'
Their gazes zeroed in on her, magnetically drawn to the platinum halo of her hair. Almost instinctively, wands pointed at her, the mystical glow at their tips pulsating ominously in the darkness.
"Do not move!"
Methodically, they commenced a cautious advance, fanning out with trained precision. Their eyes darted nervously, incessantly flickering between the bloody writing on the wall , the eerie stillness of the corpse, and the young woman who sat on the table, smiling at them.
Accusations tore through the thick air, a formal declaration heavy with authority, "You are under arrest for murder, affiliation with a criminal syndicate, and threatening the confidentiality of the magical realm."
"Who are you supposed to be?" Tia leaned slightly back, her feet kicking in the air as she squirmed in her seat.
Simultaneously, both of them yelled, shouting over each other.
"Don't play dumb. We are enforcers!"
"Cooperate, or we will stun you, dark witch bitch!"
'Did he just rhyme? The question is, How did they get here so fast? Did the murderer summon them, or maybe they have some way to detect the use of magic?' While cautious, Tia's mind already started to analyze the situation, 'Hmm, it looks like those two factions are openly hostile.'
An imperative shout pulled her from her thoughts. "Your choice!"
In an instant, a sudden flare of crimson burst from the tip of one man's wand, mana vibrating palpably in the atmosphere.
Simultaneously, he spoke, each syllable radiating with magic power. "Proimbuo—Stup—"
With lightning-fast reflexes, Tia leaped off the desk like a dark blur, her eyes shining as she waved her hands.
With an eloquent sweep of his wand, a scarlet orb sliced through the air, flying straight toward the table, its eerie glow casting ghastly shadows on the dimly lit surroundings.
The invisible tendrils of telekinetic force extended out, smashing and reaching toward the glowing red orb. Yet the orb continued in its flight, Tia's mind already calculating with it as she darted to the side, propelled with inhuman speed, causing a flurry of papers to take flight in her wake.
'I can't stop this spell with telekinesis—it isn't even physical; they are just magic concepts of projectiles with some effect imbued into them.'
The orb struck the polished surface of the desk she previously sat on, exploding in a small firework of red and scarlet sparks, leaving no trace of their existence save for the transient scarlet glow that flickered momentarily before succumbing to nothingness.
'I saw enough.'
A smile appeared on her lips; she had seen their system of magic, so there was no longer any need to keep the play going. With the mental stretch of her mind, the two waves of raw kinetic energy launched across the room and struck with relentless force, picking up the duo of mages and hurtling them through the air like ragdolls caught in a tempest.
"Wha—!"
With horror and surprise in their eyes, they smashed against the wooden bookshelf, crushing the luxurious furniture and sending splinters flying in every direction.
With a mere thought, the two wands were wrenched from their grip and soared directly into Tia's waiting hand, joining her own wand.
"Thank you. Maybe I will learn something interesting out of them."
Desperation and fear surged within them as they attempted to move and scream, but under the girl's unwavering gaze and pointed hands, they were immobilized, pinned to the wall like helpless insects by an invisible force.
With her eyes aglow and her hair swirling around her, Tia took a deliberate step forward, closing in on one of the mages.
'So they aren't using runic magic, but instead they are using vocal casting.' In the same way that the runes could represent magic effects and concepts, sounds could also do the same, allowing one to use their voice to cast magic.
'This is quite a curious system, but I hate it.' No matter how intrigued she was, she felt like the runic magic was superior, 'It is bottlenecked by the speed of someone's speech, while runes are only limited by the speed of one's imagination and rate of their mana flow.'