Clara walked over to the portraits, gently taking one of them off the wall
The portraits in question, were covered with dust and rust, the once colourful paint was now dull and muddy, some parts were completely black or yellow; scars from the battle with time, showing it was still not willing to be discarded even after centuries
The portrait the pink haired girl had taken was of a woman, it was hard to tell her features as her face, surprisingly, was completely blacked out but Clara likes to think she was probably a beautiful woman
Mei watched as Clara carefully held the portrait and turned it around, being very gentle, as if afraid even a sneeze will break it
But to their misfortune, there was nothing behind the portrait, deciding to be optimistic, Clara put it down gently on the wooden floor before grabbing the second one but still nothing and then the last one
There was nothing "behind" the portraits but the pink haired girl wasn't disappointed or embarrassed, no, she was rather intrigued, the violet witch knew something like this would happen and made sure there was nothing to be found
Clara turned towards Mei, who was silently watching everything
"This one is a fail"
The raven nodded at her words before speaking
"But we still have another one to test out"
Mei wasn't sure if Clara would be able to handle this, the fact that one of the solutions she had come up with was wrong especially since the person with her was one of her teachers and a part of the bestest academy in the continent, she decided to try to remind the pink haired girl they still had another plan
But seeing as she was more than okay, if anything more energetic about the whole situation than before, the raven thought Clara didn't need it either that or she was trying to appear strong
Truth be told, Mei didn't know, she was very at reading ones expression and sometimes even the mood thus why she stayed quiet most of the time
Clara nodded and spoke very energetically, loving the thrill of the situation
"So, for this one, like I had said previously, we are really just stuck in an illusion, which follows us so we can't break out but we can try to out run it thus breaking the illusion"
The pink haired girl went over her previous analysis again and Mei nodded, understanding where she was coming from and what exactly she planned to do
"Normally speaking, even if we go in different directions, we can't possibly break the illusion, after all, a well known witch is bound to be strong enough to resist that, but there still is a chance to out run it"
Clara further explained, the raven made a mental note to give her a lot of presentation work, she would do a great job
'maybe she can explain why each move needs to be perfect during practice...'
There was always that one student who will always ask why they have to practice over and over again until they get only one move "right" and Mei would have to explain the importance of the move being "perfect" so having someone else to do it with such ease...
The raven snapped out of her thoughts as the wood beneath their feet creaked with Clara shifting as she spoke
"So what we will basically do is, both of us will run as fast as we can, using hacks of course- and if we are fast enough, the illusion will break"
Clara said with great confidence, she was positive it will work, the pink haired girl didn't know why she felt this confident in her analysis but it was a good thing nonetheless
Mei nodded, standing up right before speaking
"So, will we do it now or..?"
"Yes, now"
_____________
"Well.. that didn't work.."
Mei huffed, slightly out of breath from all the running, they had run for a while now, probably five times? But it was still a failure, despite trying, in the end it didn't work, one of them either tripped or they didn't run long enough
'this is bad..'
Clara thought as she sat on the floor, would this not work as well..? No! That can't be! She will make it work, no matter what!
The raven looked at her silently
'is she okay..?'
The pink haired girl looked a little.. crazy..? That was the nicest way to put it
She had a crazy glen in her eyes, it was like she was not herself-
'wait- not herself..?'
Mei frowned, she hoped she was just overthinking and nothing else
"Let's do it just once more, please"
Clara pleaded, the raven nodded, she too had wanted to try one last time before completely giving up
And it started, both ran in the opposite direction, the pink haired girl used flight magic to make herself faster while Mei basically ran without any magic and yet she was still faster than Clara, both were giving it there all this time around, they were going so fast it was hard to see them
They circled once the twice and thrice and then- it happened, they went so fast they had out run the illusion
The ground beneath their feet became unstable and a bright light flashed before their eyes, temporarily blinding the duo
After slowly opening her eyes and getting her vision to clear, Clara realised they were no longer stuck in a endless hallway, they had made it out!
Mei too noticed it, she was happy, truly, not only because she managed to escape but also because of the pure joy that was on Clara's face
As two rejoiced in victory albeit without breath, they noticed a person laying on the floor at the bottom of the stairs, it was Aradia
Clara instantly went towards her
"Hey.. what happened? Are you okay?!"
Lir, who was in his pixy form, left, flying away to who knows where in a flash
The red head on the other hand finally sat up, but before she could actually reply everyone present heard a blood curdling scream
Aradia and Clara looked at each other, finding the voice familiar..
Just then two figures fell from.. the sky?!
Bonus:
Author: ah, no exams this year-
Exams: yeah no, get back to studying like there's no tomorrow
Author: ಥ‿ಥ
Ahm-
To be continued...
If you can't tell by the bonus scene already, I'm dying, I still haven't started studying like crazy but I'm already dying from the work load for the upcoming final exams
And so updates will be late and unpredictable, god forbid, I might have to drop this story next year because of work load
But just know I'll still try my best to post no matter what, I've fallen in love with writing and want to finish this story and maybe post another one once I'm done with this one
It's kinda crazy to think, that, I, a person who used to absolutely loathe reading, let alone ever think about becoming a writer, even if it's for a hobby, now writes and is sad that she might have to quit
Crazy, really, but with my situation now it can't be helped, after all I'm a student, studying should be my top priority so even if I slack off normally I can't do that during exams, especially when it's unannounced and comes with a hug work load
It seems the violet witch arc will drag on for longer than I expected, but it's not like I can do something about it
Anyway, I hope you can forgive this lowly author for all this, I wanted to not be one of those writers that abandon their works but who knows what will happen now, also do forgive me for any grammatical mistakes
Have a good day, afternoon, evening or night
Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I loved writing it
And hopefully, I'll see you all soon, in the next chapter
Bye.
Words: 1,370