Think, Adion. Think!

  Adion banged his head on the wall, trying desperately to spark some inspiration before the guards caught him.

  That’s it! Can’t I just freeze the space around me?

  Adion immediately put it into practice. He once again teleported a chunk of sand away, but this time, he kept control over the pocket of air that had formed outside, freezing the space around it.

  Damn!

  Adion let go of his control. The pressure from the surrounding sand was too great. He would exhaust himself completely if he tried to hold on.

  But it should give me enough time. At least I’d be able to check my surroundings. Even if I’m deep below ground, if I can reach the end of the blocked space with my mana, I should be able to work around the blocked space and teleport back inside the building on the floor above.

  Adion noticed that even if he had been restricted for two months, his control over mana had actually increased. It wasn’t very surprising, as he sharpened his Will a lot during that time.

  He could now control space mana at a distance of around 400 feet before it became impossible to keep hold of.

  That should be more than enough. I don’t believe they have surrounded the floor more than that.

  Adion focused on the space in the sand about 200 feet away from him. He didn’t want to push himself in a situation like this. He froze the space there using his Authority, and part of it, he changed place with himself, teleporting outside.

  “Gh!” Adion let out a grunt as he arrived in the pocket of air. The space around him was still frozen, but the pressure from the tons of sand above was making it troublesome to hold. Even if the sand didn’t have a Will of its own, it followed the Will of the world, wanting to fall down and collapse. When nature operated on large enough scales, it felt harder to contend against than a mage with an active Will.

  Adion quickly spread his space mana upwards and away. Directly above him, space was still blocked, but as he pushed it further out, Adion finally managed to reach an area where he could freely move up again.

  That’s it!

  Adion teleported back to the hallway again. When he arrived, he fell down to the floor, his Will somewhat exhausted, and his body still unused to the dynamic movements.

  It should work! I just need to keep freezing space above me and teleporting over along with my pocket of air. I should be able to handle a few teleports even as I am now.

  Adion took a few deep breaths. At the same time, he tried to sense if anyone was closing in on him. Fortunately, the hallway was still quiet, and Adion couldn’t sense anyone nearby.

  Okay, let’s go for it.

  Adion once again teleported outside. As he arrived, the sand over him was pressing down hard on his frozen space. Adion quickly found a space further out and teleported over, making sure to freeze the space around him.

  I should be far enough now.

  Adion focused on going up. He could now feel the space clearly above him.

  I need to make sure to have enough of my Will left to get back to the building. But surely I should be able to reach the surface like this?

  Adion grabbed hold of a pocket of space about 200 feet above him and teleported once again. When he arrived, he could feel the pressure from the sand above him had lessened somewhat. But it was still a struggle to hold on.

  Continue!

  He once again teleported 200 feet up. But as he spread out his mana with his exhausted Will, he still couldn’t feel the surface.

  Just how deep did they keep me? What is this place?

  Adion had a quick bout of panic as he realized he couldn’t keep it up much longer.

  One more time!

  Adion teleported another 200 feet up.

  Yes! Finally.

  Adion was heaving heavily as he finally felt how the space around 300 feet up was free from sand.

  One last push.

  Adion focused on the space above the surface. It was almost the extreme of what he could manage to teleport, but the gravity of the situation gave him the push he needed, and he managed to reach the surface.

  “Haaah,” Adion breathed out in exhaustion as he fell down on the dune of sand high above where he had been kept. He almost broke out in tears as he felt the familiar sun caressing his tired body.

  No time to rest. I can enjoy it later.

  Adion looked around and noticed a few buildings down to the right of the sand dune.

  That has to be where Heavenly Light kept me. I can’t let them see me.

  He could feel several strong auras from those buildings, so he immediately started running in the opposite direction.

  The sand made it hard to run, especially as Adion hadn’t moved a muscle for two months. But his Will was even more exhausted than his body, and he didn’t have it in him to teleport any further.

  Where the hell am I? The desert? The Saba Desert?

  Adion stumbled forward as fast as his body managed. He had hoped he would be close to some sort of town, but as far as the desert landscape let him see, there was nothing but sand.

  I can’t just run without a direction. But where should I go? I came on a ship, right? So maybe we are close to the sea, and I should head east.

  He had been blindfolded when he was brought from the ship, but he didn’t feel like they traveled very long before he arrived in his prison.

  To the east, it is then. I don’t think there are particularly many towns around there, but it must be better than going in blind to the depths of the desert.

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  Adion first continued to travel north for a while, as the Heavenly Light base was to his south, and he needed to get away from there as soon as possible.

  After a few minutes of intense running, Adion found himself more exhausted than he expected.

  Am I really this out of shape? They’ll have no problem catching up to me like this.

  And what’s with this heat?

  Adion squinted his eyes as he looked around, the sweat from his forehead was coming down into his eyes.

  I don’t think I’ve ever felt heat like this. I’ll be dehydrated if I don’t find a source of water.

  He knew it was a bad idea to make use of his sweat to drink. His mother had told him stories of the desert, and she told him that sweat was used to cool the body down. If you removed it to drink before it evaporated, you would slowly cook yourself alive.

  So Adion stopped and conjured some water from the pure mana in the surroundings. Unfortunately, it only came out to a pitiful few drops.

  This is far from enough. And I don’t have the Will to keep conjuring water.

  Even if he had some practice conjuring water, it was far from his ability to conjure fire. Water was also much harder in general to conjure. It took a lot more water mana to conjure water than fire mana to conjure fire. Even all the water mana in the core of a Gold water mage only amounted to half a gallon.

  I have been running for at least 10 minutes now, and there is still no sign of anyone following. Were they so sure that I couldn’t get around the spatial artifact that they didn’t prepare any countermeasures? Well, it’s good news for me.

  Anyway, I should be careful. I need to keep some Will for now to hide my aura as much as I can. I don’t know how strong those mages back at the base were. If there are Soul mages there, I can still be easily found without much effort. I need to get as far away as possible.

  Adion changed direction after a couple more minutes of running and started heading east. Now that water appeared as a much bigger problem than he had initially thought, he was even more certain that he needed to get to the ocean.

  After 10 more minutes of struggling, Adion stumbled down into the sand from exhaustion.

  Damn, I can’t continue like this.

  I need to get in under some shade, and get some water and rest.

  Is there a way to take shelter underground?

  Probably not. I would exhaust my Will way too quickly keeping the sand away.

  Adion laid down to rest for a moment, he felt he was far away enough to rest for a few minutes.

  He put his arm over his face to shield it from the sun. It gave him some relief from the intense heat.

  Could I use shadow magic somehow?

  Adion decided to experiment with it, but he first conjured some droplets of water to ease his thirst.

  Damn, that was tougher than it should be. Can I really waste time and effort on conjuring shadows when I need it for water?

  It should be worthwhile. I have some Authority over shadow, so it won’t drain me much keeping it up.

  Adion Willed the pure mana around him into shadow mana and tried to conjure a shadow to block the sunlight.

  It’s weak, but it’s a lot better.

  It was far from a pitch-dark shadow, Adion had only conjured a thin veil around him, and the sunlight still managed to get through, although greatly weakened.

  It’s definitely an improvement, but the heat from the surrounding sand and air is still a problem.

  I can’t keep this up for much longer. It’s still not even noon. There is no way I can make it through the day in this condition. I need to find shelter.

  There should be solid rocks if I dig deep enough, but I don’t have the Will to get back down below the ground. And cutting out a dwelling in the rock would require a lot of effort and time.

  Guess I’ll just have to hope for the best.

  Adion got up on his feet again, his legs shaking from strain.

  He kept the shadow around him, valuing the shelter from the sun more than the small effort it took to keep it up. He continued heading east at a much slower pace than earlier. He didn’t have it in him to run anymore. And if he ended up being stuck outside in the desert the entire day, he would probably drop dead if he continued to run.

  He kept an eye on his sphere of space mana, hoping to come across a plateau of stone that would allow him to hide both from his pursuers and the heat.

  An hour passed, and Adion felt his eyelids drooping. His body screamed for water, but his mind screamed to let him sleep and not have to conjure anymore.

  This…what should I do?

  Adion knew he needed to think of something, and he needed to think of it soon. But his mind was a foggy mess, and he couldn’t gather his thoughts.

  Adion didn’t know how much more time passed, but he suddenly found himself with his face in the sand.

  Did I…pass out?

  Adion knew he had to get up, but his body had already been pushed to its limit. The sun was bearing down on him now, he had lost control over the shadow, and it felt like he was being cooked alive on the scorching sand beneath him.

  I’m…not going to die, am I?

  I need to go down underground. I can’t stay in the sand like this. If I pass out, I’ll die.

  But if I pass out beneath the ground, I’ll be buried alive all the same.

  I should have just hidden below the ground right away. If I stayed close to the surface I should have been able to hold on until nightfall.

  Damn, I’m an idiot.

  Adion forced himself to get off the ground. He didn’t know where the energy came from. He just knew he couldn’t die here.

  One slow step at a time, he continued walking. The heat felt suffocating. Adion felt he could give anything for a breath of fresh, cold air. The thirst was getting worse, and he knew how important it was to get water, no matter how little.

  The wish for survival pushed Adion to conjure a few more drops of water to drink. He had no idea where he found the Will, he could have sworn he was spent hours ago.

  I guess this is a good way to sharpen your Will besides fighting in the Outskirts.

  I would prefer fighting dangerous beasts any day, though. At least I’d have water.

  Adion lost all concept of time as he just focused on taking the next step. Then the next. When he felt himself close to collapsing, he would somehow find the Will to conjure a few more drops of water. But he knew he couldn’t tap into his survival instinct forever. He would collapse soon, and when he did, he wouldn’t get up again.

  Is this…it? I’m going to…die? Like this?

  Adion’s sluggish thoughts tried to grasp the severity of the situation. But he couldn’t find a way to solve the predicament. All he could do was push himself to take one more step.

  Is that water?

  Adion thought that he could suddenly see the ocean ahead of him. But as soon as the thought appeared, the ocean disappeared, and there was only sand ahead of him once again.

  I’m hallucinating.

  I’m still far, far away.

  But somehow…I can feel it? Am I imagining?

  Adion stopped walking, trying to grasp that sweet fantasy.

  I know it’s there. It’s ahead of me. Shouldn’t I be able to…

  “By Ganta, why would you head out into the desert all by yourself without any water or protection?”

  What?

  Adion turned his tired head to the side, where he suddenly heard a voice.

  Narvar?

  The old man was standing right next to him, Adion hadn’t even felt him approach. Behind him was some kind of wooden ‘ship’ where a few more people were standing.

  Narvar looked worried as he brought out a flask of water that he handed to Adion.

  “You need to drink something, son,” Narvar said.

  Adion didn’t even need to think. His body moved on its own as he grabbed the flask and gulped down the cold and refreshing water.

  “That’s better,” Narvar said with a smile, “Now, why don’t we…”

  That was the final thing Adion heard as his body finally gave up, and he passed out.