There was a flash of pain behind Sera’s sternum for a moment; a feeling almost akin to having something stuck in her esophagus as peristalsis tried to force it down. A pressure settled over her heart and lungs as if they were being shoved aside before rapidly fading- no, that wasn’t quite right. The pressure remained, but it was as if her body had suddenly remembered that was actually how she was meant to feel, allowing it to fade into the background.

  Pushing the odd sensations from her mind, Sera attempted to return to what she was doing, but now, when she pulled at the mana around her it flowed into place with a fluidity she could barely control. Something inside her thrummed with power that she felt not physically but within her mind. The closest thing Sera could think of to compare it to was the trembling of muscles strained to their limits, except for her ability to control mana instead.

  Suddenly, that spell she’d been attempting to conjure didn’t seem so impossible after all. Sera cast her thoughts back to a time when she was a student, plumbing the depths of her memories for the equations that described light and reflections, leaving those details to her subconscious while her conscious mind began to assemble an image to work off of.

  And then, the next time Sera tried to dodge the nachzehrer leaper, nothing happened. At least, not visibly. But when the leaper brought its fist down for another punch, it nearly lost its balance as it passed straight through where Sera had been, her image fading away. Unseen, Sera backpedaled further away while the nachzehrer searched for its foe.

  The instant it caught sight of her, the leaper kicked off the ground and vanished, reappearing a moment later when it bounced off a wall. What it had thought was Sera and Tiriana was another illusion that disappeared when touched, replaced by another meters away that was no more real than its predecessors. This was what Sera had been working towards all along, every single time she surrounded Layla with blurry doppelgangers: mirror images that were a perfect copy of the originals. On top of that, with she and Tiriana rendered invisible, the nachzehrer leaper had no way of finding them.

  Even if it knew the images were all fakes, it had no way of narrowing down their actual location…so long as Sera could maintain it. This was her first advanced magic spell ever, and the strain was already incredible. After less than a minute, Sera felt like she’d been performing strenuous mental exercises for hours. But every second she held out was one more second of uninterrupted preparation Tiriana had.

  As she grew more exhausted, Sera found her steps slowing. Her range diminished gradually, forcing her to craft mirror images closer to her real location. Soon she was barely able to keep them from fading before the leaper reached them, and finally, after an amount of time she couldn’t put a number to, the cloak of invisibility hiding she and Tiriana began to flicker. Noticing the discrepancy, the nachzehrer stopped itself just before it could conduct its next leap. Sera’s simulacrum became less and less distinct until it faded entirely, and the nachzehrer tilted its head, on the verge of realizing what it was looking at.

  Unfortunately for the leaper, its perception proved to be its undoing. As it bents its knees, preparing to jump, Tiriana’s spell reached completion. A bolt of raw electricity jumped from Tiriana to the leaper before it could move, never having seen that Tiriana was about to slay it.

  After the last nachzehrer fell to the ground, the only sound filling the hallway was that of heavy breathing. Sera felt her shirt clinging to her skin, which was slick with sweat. Tiriana seemed just as tired, lacking even the presence of mind to draw her eyes away from the enemy she’d just killed.

  “You can…put me down now,” the elf told Sera once she’d recovered the ability to speak.

  “Oh, um, right,” Sera muttered, immediately moving to do as she was asked. When she tried let Tiriana down, though, the strength fled from her body, and she only barely managed to set the elf down instead of dumping her to the ground.

  “That wasn’t basic magic,” Tiriana noted curiously. “How long…?”

  “Have I had a core? Since a couple of seconds before I cast that last illusion,” Sera admitted frankly, letting herself tip over backwards so that her back was pressed against the cool stone floor.

  “Huh,” Tiriana grunted absently, staring off into space. “It usually takes a few more months than that. I wonder if it was because adults have better focus or because of the life-or-death situation…”

  Behind them, the door ground open. Tiriana turned to look, but Sera was too drained to bother. She didn’t need to wait long to find out who it was, though.

  “Is Sera alright!?” Vivi shouted as she ran towards them. Somehow, Sera managed to find enough energy inside her to raise one arm, giving a thumbs up.

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  “I could use a nap, but I’m alive,” Sera groaned as Vivi skidded to a stop.

  “Oh, thank Adventure. When I saw her on the ground, I…” the cleric babbled before snapping her mouth shut. “Well, anyway, I’m glad you’re both okay.”

  “How did you know it was safe to come out?” Tiriana asked slowly.

  “There’s a terminal in there that’s supposed to have a view of the hallway…with the conduit cut it’s not working, but some of the detectors still are. There were only two living things out here, and if they were the nachzehrer, I figured they’d be moving,” Vivi explained.

  “That was incredibly irresponsible! What if you were wrong?” scolded Tiriana, causing Vivi to hop back a bit in shock.

  “I’m sorry! I just thought you might be injured!” Vivi said in her own defense, waving her hands frantically.

  “Is now really the time?” Sera sighed, covering her eyes with an arm to reduce the throbbing in her head.

  “Just be more careful next time,” Tiriana acceded. “Vivi, do you know how the repairs are progressing?”

  “The engineers had to pause while we were under attack, but they said they’ll be finished in more than a minute and less than an hour,” Vivi related, sounding abashed. She had no reason to be, so Sera assumed she knew how ridiculous that sounded.

  “That’s incredibly vague,” Sera pointed out even though she knew it was unnecessary.

  “Apparently it depends on how compatible their patch will be with the existing conduit…they might need to alter it until it works. Or…something like that,” Vivi replied. Although Sera couldn’t see her with her own eyes covered, she could imagine the cleric shrugging as she said that.

  “Then we might need to buy some more time…” Tiriana concluded, sounding resigned. “I probably won’t be able to last long, but I can buy at least a few minutes. I’ll make my stand in the hallway closest to the elevator- that way the engineers don’t get caught in the crossfire.”

  “I’ll come with you!” declared Vivi in response. Sera heard Tiriana stand up and uncovered her eyes, deciding to follow suit. It was a struggle.

  “No…you said yourself that the injured adventurers are still in danger. You should stay here and focus on keeping them alive,” Tiriana denied.

  “Don’t even think of leaving me behind,” Sera cut in irritably.

  “Can you even use magic right now…?” questioned the elf suspiciously as she eyes Sera up and down. Although she tried to hide it, Sera knew Tiriana could tell she was barely standing.

  “You’re the closest thing to a friend I’ve got here. At the very least I can buy you a few seconds.” Judging by the look Tiriana gave her, Sera wasn’t going to get away with dodging the question so easily.

  “I thought we were friends…” Vivi pouted with a hurt look on her face. Both Tiriana and Sera looked at the cleric with exasperation.

  “Well, I guess I stand corrected,” Sera admitted with a huff, much to Vivi’s delight. “Just didn’t want to presume. Anyway, I’m sure I’ll be able to pull off something by the time another fight comes along.”

  “Tch.” Clicking her tongue, Tiriana turned away. “Fine. If you can walk there yourself, you can come along. But Vivi, you’ll regret it if you follow us and one of your patients die. Go back.”

  “…come back safely,” Vivi said sadly, unable to argue. Having said her piece, Tiriana started walking away at a brisk pace, leaving Sera behind. Far too stubborn to stay put, Sera willed herself to take a step forward, then another. Soon she was trotting along behind Tiriana. They exited the hall into the large room beyond, but Tiriana stopped after entering the next hallway and turned to the wall.

  “What are you doing?” inquired Sera as Tiriana started erasing something.

  “After we came through the first time, the next team- or maybe the engineers- put up wards to block the trap spells. Like what I was doing, but more permanent. I’m going to remove them and force the nachzehrer to deal with the traps,” Tiriana explained. “Stay ahead of me and look for the physical traps Rinnie disarmed- the ones where she just shoved something in to jam the pressure plates. May as well rearm those as well.”

  On the way in, they’d been in such a hurry that Sera hadn’t thought about it, but it had been strange that none of those traps had triggered on them. Given that Tiriana had needed to spot and interfere with each of them on their first visit before passing those traps, it shouldn’t have been possible to simply run through. Leaving Tiriana to that, Sera scanned the floor for the bricks Rinnie had left out of place and started removing the stones beneath.

  “Hold on,” Tiriana called out when they were about halfway through. Sera turned to find her floating a brick from the floor up to the ceiling. “Do you think you can still make this brick invisible?”

  “It’s relatively small…” Sera assessed, taking a good look at the piece of stonework. “I think I can, as long as you hold it still. I’ve recovered a bit since the last fight, but I doubt I’ll be able to do anything else. Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. Keep it hidden no matter what. Even if you get thrown across the room, if you’re still conscious, keep that brick invisible,” Tiriana instructed with the utmost severity. Nodding, Sera did as she asked and then returned to her task, not asking any questions. She could guess what was going on, and Tiriana probably wasn’t explaining further because of the risk there was a nachzehrer scout listening.

  Neither rearming the magic traps or the physical ones was particularly time consuming, so the two of them were able to finish in just a few more minutes. There was no sign of the power returning, so they could only assume the engineers were still working on the repairs when they reached the elevator room.

  They were unnerved to discover that the elevator platform was gone. It might have signaled the arrival of allies, but neither Sera nor Tiriana thought that was the more likely option. Although they probably could have checked by getting closer and looking into the shaft, that would be risky for very little benefit. Best to just assume enemies were on the way.

  “Are you ready?” Tiriana asked as she stared at the empty elevator shaft from across the room.

  “I think it’s a little too late to worry about that,” Sera shot back wryly.