#Marcus Laurier#
Wallace and I sneak into an empty classroom, both short of breath as we take some time to recuperate. We made it through many close calls and we're finally here. I hope Clara's doing well.
Wallace talks with Isla over the stone. As I pull out the layout of the school. Now where should we head next.
I hear footsteps from outside and I motion at Wallace to hide. Too busy to realize, I got ready my telekinesis and I waited for door to open. If we were to get caught here, I'll give it my all.
Anytime now.
Wallace looks at the window in shock. Did they see him? But he waves to the window instead. I get up from my hiding spot to see students from our class. Isona and Kaydn.
"We knew you were there already," Isona says and taunts us, "were you guys hiding here the whole time?"
"No," but before Wallace speaks, I give him the 'shut up' sign. Wallace shuts up.
"What he meant was that we've just changed classrooms," I bluff, "where were you guys?"
The two look at each other in surprise, "you don't know?"
"Follow us," Kaydn says while drawing his sword out, "we must be careful."
Kaydn steps forward slowly, on guard as if he could be attacked at any time. Isona readies her bow.
"You guys are one edge, what happened?" Wallace notices and speaks.
"You don't know?" Kaydn responds, "those people have taken over most of the academy."
He goes to the training gymnasium, and when he opens the door, I could see all the students at our school. A strong mana barrier prevented us from going through the gym door.
Kaydn uses some weird sign, and the mana barrier temporarily disables.
"Welcome back Kaydn," I see Teacher Bradford greet Kaydn and redeploys the barrier, he sees me and Wallace with surprise, "Marcus, Wallace! We thought you were dead!"
"Dead?" Wallace who sounds offended and confused, "why would you say that?"
"You guys went on an expedition a few days ago, saying you would survey the surroundings."
Something's not right.
"Anyways, glad you're back. I know it'll be hard, but if we make it through this, reinforcements will come!" But the tone of his voice hints doubts rather than certainty. I can understand, after all: it's been several days and reinforcements still haven't arrived
Teacher Bradford walks away, leaving Wallace and I in a state of complexion. Someone was impersonating us, but why? And how?
Wallace, also knowing the gravity of the situation, tells me, "Let's go talk to Isla."
In the toilets, Wallace and I wait for Isla's response. Her voice brings us home as she starts speaking, "Boys? How's it going?"
"We're in the gymnasium right now. The rest of the school is also in here," Wallace relays, "but something's come up," he hands the rock to me.
"Someone's been impersonating us. We don't know who but for now, they don't know we came from outside. They also think that you and Clara are dead."
Isla takes a while to think, "that means that one of them is an imposter. How's the quality of the illusive mana there?"
Wallace conjures his mana, "Surprisingly high. I could use teleport right now."
"The school defense mechanism, is it deactivated?"
"From the looks of it, yes. Otherwise, the teachers wouldn't need to put up a mana barrier."
"Has enough to cast a wide-scale barrier…" Isla speaks to herself over the stone, "Great, I'll explain." Wallace and I listen in, "Judging from the amount of illusive mana present, it's likely they are trying to produce the bomb near the academy. You guys need to stop the creation of the bomb. Clara and Vincent's working on the other half of the plan."
"Yes," we respond in unison.
"Try to be quick guys, we don't have much time," Isla ushers, "But still, safety first. Don't you dare die Wallace."
He laughs and dismisses Isla's comment. She cuts off and we're left to our own devices. At least Clara's fine.
We walk out the gymnasium but we get stopped by Isona, who looks eager to join in on our mission.
"Should we tell them?" Wallace contemplates.
"They don't seem like the doppelgangers," I respond.
"Marcus, Wallace. You two are always together, mind if you let us join?"
"Sure."
"Kaydn, you come as well."
"Me?" Kaydn looks surprised as he gets dragged by Isona.
Without words or questions, Kaydn follows us like a slave. How weird for a swords-master to act like that.
I take out the map Isla gave me. The route to the headmaster's office. Stop the mana, stop the bomb production. Simple, but not quite so. Because even if we stopped its production, it could still explode, and from Isla's judgement, the bomb could already kill all the people in the gymnasium. Someone's keeping them there, or else they all would have fled already.
It was a relief to see that nobody had died gruesomely like before.
We look around an intersection between passageways and hear footsteps approaching. Wallace, who I've never seen use his magic, gathers mana beneath his feet ready for a warp. He casts it and his body, in the blink of an eye, appears on the other side, leaving the circle he cast to disappear. We wait.
And we wait.
The footsteps get louder.
The thin fabric of clothing flies past the angle we held. Just a little more. Their feet make it into our view, yet he doesn't know we were silently waiting.
His body makes it into view and before the cultist could react, we have at him. Wallace charges and crashes into the cultist with the weight of his body. Frightened, a scream escapes the cultist's mouth and it echoes through numerous empty hallways. We're done for. I lift him up with my telekinesis and fling him to the side of the wall. It makes an uncomfortable noise and I grimace as his back bends at reflex angles.
Then a cultist creeps up behind Wallace and prepares a big swing with his mace. Before he could swipe Wallace, an arrow flies straight into his elbow. He cries with a grunt of pain. Now we're even more screwed.
"T-thanks," Wallace says as he looks at the cultist writhing in pain.
"Where do we have to go?"
"The headmaster's office. We need to reactivate the defence mechanisms," I reply.
"I have enough for a multi-warp," Wallace says as he starts absorbing the abundance of mana to the centre of his body. The mana particles which I had seen from Isla were all blue. Wallace's were purple, the first kind of illusive magic I've seen. He draws it close and drags it into his body, "I'm ready," he says as his hands glow purple and purple lightning crackles underneath him. We hold onto him, and he teleports. Suddenly, my body feel as if there was no weight. Rather, I had no body. And just as quick as it started, it ended.
"We're doing another…" Wallace states and I brace for the queasy feeling.
"And again…" Nausea catches up to me and I bend over, all while Wallace, Isona and Kaydn were unaffected. "Come on, last one," Wallace puts his hand on my shoulder and I come very close to passing out. A compulsion to throw up, yet I didn't want to, more like I couldn't decide as my body was experiencing an identity crisis of its own while it decides whether to let it all out or keep it all in. The latter being the more respectable option.
Who cares about respectable… I think to myself but I imagine Clara there. Immediately I shoot back up and pretend nothing happened.
We were at the headmaster's office. The last time we entered, the headmaster had told us he'd investigate. Clearly, he didn't do a thorough job with that.
I lift Wallace first, get the heavy one out the way. Then I lift Kaydn who was weirdly light, then Isona who was heavier than Kaydn??
Never mind that... I thought to myself as I levitate to the office.
We found nobody there. Strange... I wondered as we searched the office for the circles of magic.
"I wasn't expecting a bunch of brats to sneak in here..." a voice erupts behind us. We turn around but the sunlight blocks us from looking at his face, "now that you're here, why don't we have a little fun?"
The world starts to shake and cracks form in the air, the ground; everywhere. It peels to reveal a void. I look around, no longer able to see any colour. Where's Wallace?
I'm certain this is illusive magic. But how do I break out?
"Where are you going?" a voice close to me speaks and I look around. I can't see. He's everywhere.
He laughs in the background while I float helplessly in the endless ocean of black.