The countless arrays of glowing white swords began to fall from the night sky, as if the stars themselves were raining down from the heavens.
“I must say, your gravity magecraft is really useful,” Soren spoke casually. “When you suggested carrying me to the battlefield, I was kind of skeptical.”
Cassia’s claws dug deeper into the man’s chest as the coated flames seared into his skin. She rolled her eyes at Soren. “When have you not been skeptical of everything we do.”
“True,” he chuckled. “Still, I am glad it worked out. To think Violet Mirage could work like this—I didn’t expect it at all. How did you get this idea?”
“It was simple,” she said. “You told us that the spell only works on yourself at the moment. But if we were to hold each other closely, wouldn’t the illusion extend to whoever you are holding as well? The trick was simply reframing what the ‘You’ is in this context.”
Soren nodded—his hands fidgeting slightly. “How genius of you. Anyway, can you take us back to the ground please?.. I don’t think my grip is going to last for long…”
Cassia glanced down—her face warping into a mischievous smile.
A chill ran down Soren’s spine. “Just because I put the enemy to sleep, doesn’t mean we should relax yet… His allies could be nearby.”
Cassia kept her silence for a moment longer before chuckling. “Don’t worry, I am not that evil. Let’s deal with this guy quickly.”
Soren sighed in relief. “By the way, what circle is this guy? He was able to keep up with both Myrin and Tina at the same time…”
She stayed silent for a moment before answering, “Probably high 3rd Circle… He also seems to be a battlemage too.”
“Battlemage?” Soren frowned. He had never heard of that term before.
Cassia nodded. “I’m not surprised you’re unaware, since it's a rare breed of magi. Battlemages specialize in highly offensive spells and are trained in countless tactics, from Soul Realm zone manipulation to spell-timings and anima suppression techniques. We say they are rare because their focus is never academic when it comes to magecraft.
“Simply put—magecraft is nothing more than a tool for them to kill. They are no different from trained soldiers or assassins… In fact, that’s exactly what they are—special agents trained in offensive magecraft by different organizations. Even the Aelloran government has a few squadrons like them.”
Soren glanced back at the hooded figure and frowned. “If that’s the case, then it's likely that this person was put up to do this by some organization.”
“Right.” She turned around and flew back toward the open terrace. “That’s why It’s great I brought you with me. It made capturing him alive a lot easier…”
But just as she had finished that sentence, the unexpected happened.
“Shit…” Cassia glanced down—a knife had made its way through her stomach.
The veiled figure… He had somehow managed to escape Soren’s spell.
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Seeing this, Soren grit his teeth and commanded his anima through his channels once more.
However, it was too late.
The figure was much faster than him at casting magecraft. A wave of light escaped from his body, pushing both Cassia and Soren away. But just before her grip fully ceased, Cassia channeled her own spell, spewing her dragon flames at his face.
The veil… was undone.
Soren’s eyes widened. What he saw beneath the covers was not something he ever expected to see…
“What… the fuck?...” Soren resisted the urge to puke.
The figure… It was humanoid. That was all he could use to describe it. No, it was more accurate to say that it was wearing the skin of a human.
Cassia held onto her stomach—making sure not to move the dagger out of fear of making the wound worse than it already was… Her pupils shifted into vertical slits as she primed her focus on the enemy. More and more scales grew above her skin.
“Soren… Be careful. The knife he used was enchanted with some kind of Mystery. I can’t heal my wounds…”
He glanced at her in shock. Cassia’s Soul Weapon grants her supernatural vitality that allows her to recover from most injuries fairly easily. So for her to say this… means that the dagger had a higher level Mystery compared to their Tier 1 Soul Weapons.
“Shit…” He finished channeling the anima and casted Violet Mirage once again. Both of them turned invisible to the enemy.
“What the hell is that… thing?” He glanced over at the creature once more. The urge to throw up had not ceased in the slightest.
“A Vynasian.” Her words shook him beyond belief. “He’s one of the Fallen.”
“W-what?!” His eyes focused more on the veiled figure. The humanoid skin it was wearing… He could see it bulging and writhing, as if an army of insects were crawling just beneath the surface.
But stranger still was the figure itself. Not the shape, not even the grotesque motions of its flesh… It was the descriptor.
Every time his mind tried to process it, nausea struck like a wave. He could feel the chaos brewing within his Echo of Mind.
It wasn’t just wrong—it felt forbidden. Looking at it was akin to brushing up against something reality was trying its best to erase. The Beyond seemed to quiver at their presence.
“Gods…” Not even glancing at the Crimson Eye elicited this much of a response from him. He could feel it—the terror was so profound, it was triggering the beginning of total mental collapse.
He immediately stopped looking at it.
“Soren, don’t even try to activate [Eyes of the Fairy] here. You will kill yourself.”
He flinched. “I might be crazy, but I am not fucking suicidal!” He shook his head then channeled his anima once more to activate another spell.
“Fairy Barrier.” The anima raced out just as quickly as he spoke it. Cassia watched as a glass-like bubble began to form around them. From within, she could see countless reflections of both herself and the environment. The closer she looked, the more confused she became.
“What is this? When did you come up with this spell?” She frowned. “How many secrets are you hiding from me…”
Soren shook his head, “I’ll explain everything later, let's just focus on surviving for now.”
“Fine,” Cassia channeled her thoughts and casted the gravity magecraft on the bubble itself. With that, both of them were finally able to land on a solid surface.
“Nice.” He complimented her but her gaze remained locked on the target. The enemy seemed to be calculating his odds of winning just like they were.
“As I said before,” she held tightly to her wound. “This guy is something known as a Fallen. Vynasians you see—they don’t have actual physical bodies like we do. Instead, they form pacts with living beings that they possess. This guy is one such case.”
Soren frowned. “Then those ships we see entering from the Rift…”
“Those ships are living vessels for the Vynasians to enter our world. Without them, they can’t survive in Yarian.”
Her words finally connected the dots for him. For the longest time, Soren had wondered what the true purpose of the VoidStar Voyager schematic was. Yes, it contained countless wards and other defences against threats within the Rift itself—his Fairy Barrier spell was in fact based on many of those axioms and without it, he would not have been able to successfully return to Yarian after the one week promise.
But that was not the only thing the schematic contained. There were numerous material runes and axioms of unidentifiable origin. Even after numerous attempts at probing their meanings, Soren was left with only a list of failures in his experiment logs…
But Cassia’s words finally shed some light on everything. That schematic… it was nothing more than a single subsection of a much larger magecraft formation.
One that was being used to preserve the lives of the Vynasians on board who have yet to possess a living vessel…
Suddenly, the dragon flames on Cassia’s scaled claws burned with never before seen fervor. Her eyes flickered with both hatred and desire.
“Ready yourself,” she said. “We will be hunting Riftspawn for the mistress’ return party.”
Soren smiled nervously. “I didn’t know the mistress was that extravagant with her demands.”