Ep 72. Who Are You? (2)

  Magic was a sce: its formutions aions, bined with necessary affinities and aptitudes, made it more difficult than most other academic disciplines known to man. One small calistake, and some spells could take the caster’s life in a heartbeat.

  Teleport was one such spell; hes usage ated obsessive levels of preparation to guarantee safety…for a normal mage, that is.

  Dragons never learned magic quite the same. In fact, to state magic as a sce was ridiculous for the demon tribe. There were no formus or equations; to them, instinct overruled their mana’s flow.

  Serenis was no exception. Even though her memories as Zion and her days at the institute had allowed her to bee quite versed with human ways of casting spells, she still rgely depended on her instind intuition rather than calcution – especially when she had so little time to think and prepare.

  The dragonlord mused at the situation at hand.

  It might’ve been foolish to risk her life in saving a city of humans. Some may frown at the sight of a demoing such lengths to save meager human lives; others may simply ugh at her stupidity.

  But even if everyone else mocked this decision, her daughter would be smiling back at her. Eden would, without a doubt, nod their head in approval.

  She wouldn’t have hesitated to risk her life in saving those she could.

  ‘…Aher will I.’

  ? ? ?

  The blinding light shrunk into a trail of mana fragments befio’s eyes. When he followed the fading trail, a white-haired woman had appeared at its end.

  ‘…A teleport spell? But her arm-‘

  “Hff….”

  Serenis immediately opened her eyes as soon as she felt her body whole again; the surrounding sery of the marketpdicated that the teleport had carried her to the approximate area she’d wanted. However, she could also see that her ck of preparation and practice, bined with her haste areme distance, had takeoll on the spell.

  The dragonlord bit her lips, holding back a pained groan within. Her right arm had overpped into the rubbles of a fallen building up to her shoulder, crushed amidst its broken pieces.

  But even now, the meteor above was fast approag.

  ‘…There’s no time.’

  Serenis’ left hand held a firm grip over her right shoulder. After a deep breath, she jerked her body outwards, tearing it away from the fallen rubbles.

  A hideous squelg noise apahe jerk. After tearing off her own limb by force, Serenis quickly mehe wound with a thin crystal surface to at least stop the bleeding. The throbbing pain, she could ignore.

  She raised her gaze upwards, and her remaining arm followed suit. Serenis could feel the risihrough her skin now; if she were to destroy the meteor whole, no doubt that its pieces would fall and wreak havoc just the same.

  Destroying the spell was not enough; it had to be erased. pletely.

  And in the heat of the moment, Serenis fell ba her most intuitive form of magic.

  ‘…I know this is selfish.’

  The blue of the skies dimmed away, fading into the dark. Only scattered stars remained glowing above, beaming their brilliaowards the city below.

  ‘But with this, I hope…at the very least…’

  As if in respohe grouh Serenis’ feet began to burn in a soft, prismatic brilliance.

  ‘…That you’ll look at me.’

  A circur pit soundlessly crumbled open before the dragonlord. A pilr of light burst forth from within to meet the approag disaster, spreading itself thin to ehe burning mass of stone in its f glow.

  ‘Just like before…’

  It wasn’t long until the meteor pletely stopped its dest, held just above the city by a yer of dim starlight.

  When Serenis gripped her raised hand into a fist, the shrouding light burned into a blinding radiance. A low rumbling noise echoed from within, as if the entire mass would burst any moment.

  However, the rumbling instead began to die down, the light gradually dimming away. The massive sphere of starlight grew smaller and smaller.

  And soon, it would vanish altogether – as if the approag disaster had only been a dream.

  Serenis lowered her arm. The dragonlord stood alone, her figure alit by the starlight shining down from the unnatural night sky.

  ‘…And allow me to apologize.’

  ? ? ?

  “…What the hell…was that?”

  “…”

  Both Felicir and Clyus unfortably shifted their gazes away from Gio. A lone woman was standing some distance away from the archmage, her figure brightly lit by the stars above.

  The death deity’s expression torted in distaste.

  It wasn’t Felicis – of that, he had no doubt. Of all the things his sister would disguise herself as, a dragon was not one of them. Nor would she ever rid herself of an arm from a miscalcution in using a spell.

  But then, who was that?

  A white-haired dragon had seemingly appeared out of nowhere – which was already against their tendency to seclude. Furthermore, this dragon had all too easily destroyed the archmage’s meteor in a matter of seds using the stra spell Felicir had ever seen.

  ‘…No, she didn’t just destroy it. She erased it.’

  With an affinity that clearly didn’t belong to basic elements. What transpired just now was nothing alike magic, even in the Reaper’s eyes.

  No. If he were to describe it with a single word, it was more like…

  ? ? ?

  A small boy sloppily wiped the tears off his mother’s face.

  After witnessing the numerous victims that were sughtered by those influenced by Felicir, the woman had ran away with her son as far as she could. She’d ighe deathly screams stantly ringing from behind, desperate to save her son and herself.

  And soon after, she’d despaired at the shadow of the fallieor cast over her city. Her legs had given away, hope lost in the darkness of the ing doom.

  Even now, her shaking eyes still remained fixed ohe burnieor had been. But despair wasn’t what filled her heart anymore.

  Nothing was there anymore. Nothing at all.

  Silence filled the numerous crowds that had been frantically fleeting from the approag disaster. Some had struggled in vain to leave the city; some had given up hope. Some had fled as much as they could, while some, like the boy’s mother, had fallen to her ko pray. She’d pleaded for someone – ao save their city from the desding disaster.

  And, as if in respohe sky had fallen dark. A pilr of light had swallowed the onieor, and when the light disappeared from sight, so had the spell within it.

  The world still remained dim, but it wasn’t the meteor’s shadow that was cast over them anymore. In its pce was a f night sky, alit by hundreds of glimmering stars.

  It couldn’t have been the work of a mage.

  It couldn’t have been magic.

  No. It was more like…

  “…A miracle.”

  A lone voice echoed from somewhere amongst the crowds. The speaker’s feelings spread like disease amongst the people, their voices gradually rising to a unified opinion.

  The woman, too, softly muttered the same word under her breath.

  That was it. That’s what it was like.

  What she’d witnessed was nothing short of a miracle.