#Marcus Laurier#
A sword slices into my left shoulder. Its coldness seeping into my body. I scream in pain as the cultists continues to put more force behind his attack. I could see the sword inside my shoulder, its metal tip poking out, soaked in my blood. It goes further and further. The pain gets more and more painful.
Wallace gets up close with the cultist and pushes his palm to the cultist's body, firing a mana bullet straight into the centre of his chest, causing him to fly away at high speed.
Wallace removes the sword, and the pain increases tenfold.
He casts some healing magic, and the pain goes away. That didn't stop the bleeding though.
*I was careless. * I reflected as I tried to move my shoulder, but the overwhelming pain stops my body's command.
*I want to rest. * I thought as I sat with a burning shoulder. With this injury, I'm as good as dead. *I should report to Isla. *
What was I thinking? There is no time to worry about this wound. Our priority is to stop the bombing, and I couldn't leave Wallace alone, lest he could get injured, or worse: die.
*Right, we still must stop the bomb. *
I get up, the pain erupts again but I grit my teeth, "Wallace could you cast that healing again?"
"It only subdues pain," Wallace says, "you should rest, you can't go like that."
"I'll go."
Wallace shoots me a surprised look, but it didn't seem like he is against it. He casts it once more and I move my shoulders. One non-functional limb should serve as a good handicap for practice.
From then, I was more careful. I was mentally prepared for each encounter. With me at the front and Wallace supporting at the back, we were unstoppable. At least to these cultists who didn't even know how to hold a weapon. I was curious, why were these people willing to give up their lives? If they could not fight, why do it? I could never understand their intentions.
Finally, at the final level of the basement, we reach a massive laboratory full of cultists gathered around a glass container.
It was a room mad of brick and stone, something like an abandoned research station.
Inside was a ball of mana convulsing from its constant compression as the density of mana gets larger and larger. The cultists pour their mana inside the container and the ball of mana gets more and more violent. The usually blue hue of mana turns green, its former round shape becomes sharp and rigid. You didn't have to be a mage to know that mana bomb was dangerous, amount enough to destroy the city whole.
Two cultists walk towards the door, ready to exit the lab. I pull Wallace, who was staring at the bomb, around the corner, barely moving out of their sight. They open the door and walk in the opposite direction.
I sigh in relief.
"Marcus that bomb," Wallace asks, "if they explode that."
"The whole city will fall," I end his sentence.
My heart feels heavy. As silence drags on, the weight on our shoulders gets heavier and heavier. My injured shoulder no longer feels pain under the immense pressure. I've already resolved myself.
Our strategy included the use of Wallace's teleportation, utilizing the fact that the production of the bomb left majority of the illusive magic to populate. The closer we were, the less physical and kinetic mana.
"With this amount of mana, I should be able to hide us for a few seconds," Wallace says as he plays around with the illusive mana, "The invisibility's not perfect and I can't cast a sound spell though."
"That's more than enough."
There was a singular hallway that led to multiple rooms. We needed a disguise that would let us in the laboratory. Wallace teleports and casts an illusive spell on us. The door was closed, it was risky to open it.
"Can you teleport us through?" I whisper while making sure nobody was around us.
"Yes."
Another teleport. I am so going to throw up after this.
Inside the room were five cultists. They were different from the ones we've seen so far. They wore white robes, and their weapons were of better quality. I don't think we can take them all at once.
I tap Wallace's shoulder to signal a retreat. He teleports out and the queasy feeling comes back like a wave. This time, we teleport to a room with three cultists. It was a bathroom. Two were in cubicles and the other out in the open.
Wallace immediately teleports us out.
"Why? They were the perfect targets!"
"I don't want to be wearing a disguise with someone's urine."
That's not important.
The next room we teleported to had two people. Both were on the table playing cards with each other. The sight of that somehow infuriated me. They're playing cards when they're about to blow up a whole city?
I go towards them, and I throw a punch straight to a cultist's neck. He falls and collapses without resistance. The other cultist who just saw his friend faint, ran to check up on his fallen ally and suddenly faints. Wallace undoes the spell and pants from exhaustion. To be able to cast these spells is already a huge feat in of itself. The toll on his mana must be tremendous.
I barricade the door with furniture. That should be enough.
We start stripping. No misconceptions, we start stripping the cultist's outer garments. Being in these clothes disgust me but I put up with it for the sake of saving the town. We hide the bodies in a cabinet and walk out disguised.
"Just act natural, natural," Wallace mutters next to me.
"Shut up," I hiss at Wallace, "you'll give it away."
Wallace shuts up.
We reach the laboratory. I put my hand on the door handle. I hope they don't notice. Here goes nothing!
I open the door and walk in the room with Wallace behind. A couple of cultists stare at us. Did they notice?
They resume their operation, and the cultists filling the mana bomb don't bat an eye towards us.
We investigate the room, full of books, tomes. Some alchemy equipment was also present. The most salient of all, the mana bomb. Looking closer, its already shocking how they managed to compress that amount of mana into a small area. I could only hope they don't mess up, or else it would end everyone in this town, including themselves.
How would we do this? There must be some instructions or manuals in these books.
I search the mass of books, inconspicuous in front of the enemy.
A few minutes pass and I don't see anything that is mentioned in any book related to the bomb.
Wallace comes later with a scroll in his hand, under the shadow his hood covered him with, I could see a smirk on his face that tells me, I win.
He passes it to me and I read it. Impossible.
I skim through the book, its contents hardly comprehendible. The reason they were able to create the bomb wasn't because of magic.
"It says it was something else than magic, but we don't know," Wallace adds in, feeding my curiosity. Something other than magic… My curiosity hungers but I refrain myself. Our task at hand is to stop the bomb.
"Isla's trying to talk, I'll go to a bathroom," Wallace says as he gets up, "I'll be back."
Wallace leaves and I'm by myself, looking for clues to reverse the creation of this mana bomb.
It wasn't as simple as just breaking the container or neutralize the cultists. It doesn't change the fact that the mana bomb was still active. It could blow up if not constantly kept in check, and to do that; we needed to keep these cultists alive. At least before I find the solution.
This time, three white robed cultists entered the room followed by a black robed cultist. All their faces concealed by their shadows doesn't help to make their figures more enigmatic.
The black robe looks around the room and I keep my head down to reduce suspicions. I eavesdrop.
"Where is Amada?" the black robe man thunders over the sparkling sounds of mana.
"We have not seen him sir!" The red robes responded in subordination, their lower their bodies in respect. The rest of the cultists give their respects. I imitate their actions, holding my breath in.
He doesn't notice and I go back to where I was.
Then at the worst moment, Wallace opens the door to the laboratory. Everyone stares at him. The white robes and the black robe faces him, waiting for a sign of greeting or respect. Wallace returns none and walks towards me.
If he keeps doing this, we'll get caught!
What can I do??
I realized and I imagined I was holding a bow. I pulled its arrow back and let it go, showing off my charade to Wallace.
Wallace, after seeing my charade, sharply turns around and bows towards the unimpressed cultists. He comes and speaks in my ear, "thanks for the save."
"No problem, what did Isla say?"
"We got bad news."