Reunited with her sister, a new issue had appeared. The guild district was located on the opposite side of the town gate. If they could use the main streets it wouldn’t be that bad, however, with more and more high level individuals appearing, those as well as the central plaza were easily ruled out as paths.
Most of the contenders of the war were peaceful until now, though from time to time the clashing of weapons and the destruction of magic could be heard. Fortunately nothing on a similar scale to the first explosion
Though their luck did soon run out.
The sky shattered. Black cracks were suddenly visible in the otherwise still blue sky, some partially covered by clouds.
For a moment they could hear the deafening sound of shattering glass, followed by silence, pain and vertigo.
Clutching their bleeding ears, even before they had the time to assess their situation Eas offered an explanation.
[WARNING: A DEMIGOD HAS ENTERED THE FIRST MEADOW!]
[WARNING: A DEMIGOD HAS ENTERED THE FIRST MEADOW!]
…
Disregarding it’s usual rather discreet display practice this time it was quite annoying.
Their ruptured eardrums also didn’t help. Sarah was thankful that she hadn’t eaten anything, as she wasn’t sure whether she would have been able to keep it inside.
In the end Nia was the first to truly regain her composure. Sera had technically regained it a bit earlier and was locking for any dangers – or probably more for what interesting thing had caused their current predicament – however only their guide thought about getting potions out to cure their current status conditions and reduced health. Downing a flask herself, she quickly offered one to each of the twins.
Not waiting for them to fully regain their sense she pushed them forward towards the gate.
Once their deafness vanished Sera quickly used the opportunity to ask an important question. “Hey, how do we get rid of those annoying warning messages?”
“You don’t! You get out of the damn realm! We aren’t supposed to be at the same place as some demigod. And before you ask why they are here, why would i know that! Probably to assimilate the realm and ascend. Though even if not, i’m pretty sure whatever it is, we don’t want to be here when it happens. So run once your ears are healed!” Nia answered, annoyed and angry over how someone could ask such a question in the current situation.
With the twins still looking from time to time at the shattered sky, the three soon exited the town.
Now having a better view over the situation, a floating island surrounded by giant flying swords drew their attention.
Just as the twins were looking up, a person on top of the island also looked over the edge. Or at least something which looked like a person.
For a moment it seemed like the eyes of the entity and Sarah met.
[Aria of the Entwined Fates D-Lv ???]
Unfortunately with the distance it was hard for her to even make out any further details of the being. Though it couldn’t prevent a shiver running down her spine.
Having paused Nia grabbed the hands of the twins and started to pull them along. “I don’t care if you look, but come! I don’t want to die due to your stupidity!”
“And, found anything?” A certain lizard-like sworduser asked.
“Not really, aside from a small group of young girls.” Aria answered.
“Should i take care of them?” With a motion of his hand, a few of the swords started to move.
Not even thinking about it for a moment the demigod replied. “No. As if someone below level 100 would be dangerous to us. Also we aren’t here for a meaningless slaughter.” Though she had felt that at least one of them would be able to inflict damage onto her… But, before the thought could settle, she shook her head. It was irrational. Her time in hiding had most likely induced paranoia. Not that it was necessarily bad with the enemies they had.
“Fine. I would also prefer to get this over with. The low mana levels here are exhausting.” Shrugging the man accepted.
“Good. Is everyone ready?” Getting a nod from her conversation partner and the four other passengers of the island she declared, “then start! The time ha-“
“No! Speech!” Though she got interrupted by an angry looking Ena. At least the girl didn’t use force this time. The island probably wouldn’t have been able to withstand the abuse.
“Yes… yes…” Aria could only sigh.
In the next moment seven of the flying swords shot out, aligned themselves in the airspace around the town and then crushed down. Giant dust clouds were created as they hit the carefully maintained fields. Though as the dust settled no trace of the swords could be seen as they had easily penetrated the ground and bedrock.
Only seconds later a soft glowing barrier came into existence, covering the settlement and the island now over it. It looked similar to those found in dungeons or as defenses on structures in the town, however this time the barrier didn’t wait for an attack, but was just present, ready for whatever might attack, as if the expenditure of mana for it was not worth mentioning.
Walking to the edge of the island, a small part of it split off. On it Aria floated slowly down to the crystal in the center of the town. Arriving the demigod stepped on top of the glowing pillar, sat down and relaxed.
The time they had was limited, as someone might disturb them or specifically her, but she needed to be in top form. Becoming a god was easy in theory, once one had reached the highest level as a demigod and followed the instructions of Eas, but reality often differed.
Taking a deep breath, she removed her blindfold and took in the last moments of the city. She could perceive her environment through other abilities, yet she wanted to witness the last moments of the realm she was about to reshape.
Then she lightly struck the crystal. Lightly for a demigod. Someone who’s strength easily surpassed that of a mere level 100 citizen and even level 999 warrior multiple times, even though she wasn’t focused on physical attributes. One of the advantages an eons old virtually immortal being had.
Instantly countless cracks appeared on the crystal.
And then she was wrapped in light.
The three, Nia on her own while Sarah was again on her sisters back, were closing in on the spatial rift, when a giant pillar of blinding light appeared in the town and pierced the sky. Literally. The fragmented firmament seemed to disappear in its surroundings.
Stopping in awe at the sudden development, Nia again had to pull the twins with her. “Come on, keep moving. Giant pillars of light might look nice, but are usually quite deadly!”
Then the mana around them started to slowly vanish. Sarah was the first one to notice the change, thanks to her mana sense skill, though her sister and the guide also quickly perceived it.
Yet just as Sarah started to worry that someone did something similar to her a day before, a shining ring as if made from light appeared around the pillar. With it a mana fluctuation rippled through the realm, soon followed by a surge of mana, quickly reaching and then surpassing it’s previous density in the realm.
The scientist was already getting excited over having found even more mana, when she noticed that the grass around her started to create black smoke, similar to the dissipation of dead matter.
Moments later her sister and Nia also started to show similar signs. Mana poisoning, as a short look in the party status revealed, together with a slow decline of their health. The question, why she herself wasn’t poisoned yet, went through her mind. A relation to the soul or sanity attribute was likely, though she had to acknowledge that they weren’t in a situation where she could test her theories.
Searching for some way to protect them from their increasingly more dangerous becoming environment, the scientist tried to use her soul orrery skill. But as simply directing the mana into herself could cause or intensify her own poisoning, so she also cast a simple water creation spell. Not the most efficient way to simply waste mana, as it was optimized by her affinity, yet as she didn’t have the time to construct a more complex spell, it was the best she could create for the moment. At least the mental strain wasn’t an issue and just to be sure, she cast it over ten meters away from the group, burning a bit more mana from the distance.
Another look at the status page confirmed that her spell had at least some effect as the health decline had slowed a bit.
Could they have reached the rift without her help? Probably. Yet it didn’t sit right with Sarah to simply trust a chance.
Unfortunately before they could reach the safety of the end of the realm, Sarah got also affected by the poisoning. It started with a dull exhausting feeling, as if she had just finished a workout, yet it quickly intensified, easily surpassing the feeling of sore muscles. A clear indication of the internal destruction the mana caused.
At least her overmind skill did still allow her to ignore such minor annoyances as the still present headache and her slowly disintegrating body.
A glance at the pillar proved that whatever was going on in the city also wasn’t finished yet. Furthermore the pillar seemed to grow, now having consumed the ring of light as well as most of the town.
Their health further declined and it was still accelerating, indicating the still sharply rising mana levels. From Sarah’s earlier excitement over the additional mana was not much left, now painfully aware of the dangers the raw substance could also cause.
Reaching the bridge between realms nothing from the city or the fields around it could be seen. Everything had been swallowed by the ever increasing light.
Their health had also sunk below half. Though with one last jump they were in the blackness of the rift. It’s suffocating lack of mana was still uncomfortable, yet after nearly dying to too much of it, it was also nice and helped in getting the excess mana out of their bodies.
[Sarah Goldschmidt
Lv 8
Condition: Mindmelted
Hlth 35/ 90
Stmn 51/ 90
Snty 32/600
Mana 628/670
]
[Sera Goldschmidt
Lv 11
Condition: Okay
Hlth 223/510
Stmn 36/540
Snty 130/180
Mana 160/210
]
[Nia
Lv 17
Condition: Okay
Hlth 58/140
Stmn 59/140
Snty 190/190
Mana 190/190
]
Fortunately there were no apparent wounds, though their bodies felt extremely tired and hurt with each move. Turning her attention to her soul skill it didn’t seem to be damaged by the earlier load. Yet looking closer the souls seem to have changed…
[Your Soul Sense skill has reached Lv 2.]
“Tsk…” The level up came at the wrong moment. Now she couldn’t discern whether the souls had changed or only her perception. Though as maintaining the skill outside of her body in a mana depleted region wasn’t free, she quickly pulled it back into her body.
“So… where to-“
[The First Meadow has ceased to exist. The selection of the next owner has been canceled.]
[Aria, Goddess of Destiny has ascended; bound to the divine realm of the Spring of Destiny.]
Reading and dismissing the global message, Nia restarted her sentence after being interrupted by Eas. “Where to now?”
“Can we go back?” A question obviously coming from Sera, though Sarah had to admit that she would like to see a divine realm, assuming she wouldn’t just die to the mana.
