Shards of Old

Oh. It was easier than expected.

I could hear him no problem. Should I talk to him?

Is that a good idea? How do I go about it without scaring the ever-loving shit out of him?

-Doesn’t matter. I am done with this…

He’s already done?

Didn’t he just arrive here? I swear it only has been a couple of minutes since we’ve teleported here.

-About an hour is enough… This leyline is still going strong…

Hour?

We’ve been here a whole hour?

My perception of time had to really be messed up for me to not realize that.

I could’ve sworn that I’ve only been here for a few minutes, that is at most even! How does that even work?

-Let’s just end this and be done with it…

Whoah, what are we ending? Calm down there, we don’t…

But, since I didn’t even attempt to communicate with him yet, I was essentially talking to myself.

And it would’ve been too late anyway. The moment I managed to understand what he was thinking about, I felt a large mana release and rip through the area.

It was so sudden I didn’t realize what was going on.

I didn’t even notice him gathering mana, which was absolutely insane, considering the amount of power he released.

At first, I just thought that my current circumstances, as in the body that didn’t belong to me and the fact that I was barely even able to sense my surroundings, were to blame, but that was not it.

It was the spell itself, if I could even call it a spell.

Instead of gathering mana, like it’s supposed to be done, he straight up was using magic that was in front of him.

And, in front of him was the leyline from which he just moments ago had been regenerating his own mana reserves.

That was an immediate red flag.

Even for a genius mage using mana from a leyline would be a daunting task, and on top of that very dangerous.

The amount of pure power that was available right away, plus the fact that it was a steady supply, not just a flat amount, made it incredibly risky. If you were to make a mistake, just canceling a spell wouldn’t help if you were to fuck up. You’d be stuck with an immensely more powerful version of it that was going to run for a long time, if not forever.

If not contained, that is.

Of course that would be another endeavor on its own, but that’s besides the point.

Mike, as someone who’s had a front row seat of the exact described scenario, should know the best out of anyone that doing this was a bad idea.

And yet, that’s exactly what he was doing.

I was glad that I didn’t speak up when I was able to.

I honestly was scared.

Not him, no.

I was scared of him failing.

If I was to suddenly pop up in his mind and started talking, he’d fuck up for sure.

But what was he trying to accomplish here anyway?

I tried focusing on the spell in front of us, but that was pointless.

While my senses were working, whatever he was just now making was completely alien to me.

Sure, I could feel some parts of it, but those were just so out there that I had to assume that I was straight up wrong.

One of the main thingsI felt was portal magic.

While that was the least unexpected thing that I thought I noticed, it didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous.

If I assume that he was indeed trying to break the barrier, because that was what immediately came to my mind, that kind of magic was obvious.

From the earlier memories and overall everything I’ve heard and seen, it was certain that we were trapped inside of some kind of a barrier.

Teleporting was an obvious answer, but why use that much mana was a question I didn’t know how to answer.

Was he trying to make a hole in it maybe…? But if it was just him it could be a lot smaller…

Scratch that.

If that was just it, how do I explain the rest of what I felt?

The more weird part was just further ahead.

The next type of magic was illusion.

Again, why?

It’s not like he wanted to hide, at least not here. And even then, the target was not him, it was going somewhere else.

The only way I could think of a barrier being connected somehow to an illusion was my own attempt, albeit accidental, at modifying the barrier that covered the old “orphanage”.

But even then, it was an accident, and it wasn’t in any shape or form connected to breaking it.

Hell, it was the opposite.

I ended up enhancing it.

You could infuse the illusion into the barrier itself to hide it from peering eyes…

While a bit pointless against mages, it would work well against more mundane folk…

But what’s the point here…?

The third magic type was even more confusing.

And, well, I say type, it was more an urge than anything.

How do you combine an urge and magical spell, though?

Well, the first thing that comes to mind is the contract magic, but why here and why combine it with this weird barrier?

If it was even to combine it?

Those were the main parts I’ve felt in the mana shooting out from between his hands…

And speaking of a target.

While the spell, or more rather the whole ritual, considering how powerful and complex this thing seemed to be, was indubitably originating from him, the mana was not.

It was going straight from the earth, from the leyling, sneaking around his torso and arms, just to shoot away from him, combining into one stream in between his arms, which he was holding together in a gesture similar to a prayer.

Fingers, pointing upwards, were guiding the stream of magic right towards the sky.

To where the sky was.

And, more importantly where the cracked barrier was.

The stream of mana was so thick and condensed, it was hard to look at.

I didn’t know it back then, but if I was able to look at it with a regular, fleshy eyes, I would’ve seen it just as bright and just as pronounced.

That shouldn’t be possible, considering the fact that there was no physical element that could be attributed towards this spell. By all means, it should be just pure mana that was invisible to a naked eye.

And yet, the bright white beam was shooting towards the sky, in whatever perspective you’d ever like to use.

The beam of light was fast.

It reached the sky in a blink of an eye, and in another one it managed to touch the shattered barrier above our heads.

How did I know it reached?

Well, it split.

I never checked how exactly the barrier worked, nor really had I any means or reasons to try, but I now could clearly see that it was similar to glass.

Not only in looks, but also in ability to refract light. Or, in this case, mana.

From the point it connected, the light started breaking into different rays, refracting all over the place.

I sort of thought it was going to shoot right back at us, or at least one of the rays was going to, but nope. It refracted inside the glassy layer of the dome, making the cracks even more pronounced and a lot brighter.

It sort of looked like someone had been pouring white-hot liquid metal into it, flooding the cracks.

The cracks were getting larger and larger, started spreading further and further, and soon the whole sky was covered in this white-hot mess of a spiderweb.

The white lines started getting thicker and thicker, and soon the whole sky was white.

I couldn’t look at it, and at the same time I couldn’t avoid it, since it was the only thing I was able to see.

And then…

The loudest noise I have ever heard in my entire life.

And that is to say something.

First off, I was not sure how I was even able to hear it, since I had no ears and the senses I’ve had were overloaded by mana anyway.

Hell, it was probably why I was able to hear it: its source being essentially some strange mana anomaly.

About the volume though…

Have you ever been to a concert, standing next to a speaker? When the bass hits, you can feel it in your bones, in your whole body sometimes if the rhythm is right.

Here, I felt it in my own soul. In my own mana.

My whole being was being shaken to a core.

It made my whole mind white out for a split second there.

And there, it was done.

Everything was gone. The mana, the cracks, the light. Everything.

If you didn’t know beforehand, you’d swear that nothing had changed. And yet, it couldn’t be further from the truth.

If I was to look from somewhere far above, I’d have seen a massive wave suddenly forming on the sea.

The magic that was regulating the flow of water between the barrier and the outside of it had disappeared suddenly, meaning the water got displaced.

Sure, the barrier was thin, but the sudden shift in the flow that had been stagnant for tens or even more years, was enough.

That, and of course the mana that was holding all of it together didn’t just disappear without any force.

A miniature tsunami that appeared from this phenomenon swept through the whole continent. The multitude of small islands that were often barely even peeking out from the water were flooded completely, disappearing, never to be seen again.

But, even though the flood was massive, there was no one to see it.

People were already gone and the only ones who would be able to see were either animals or… well, we.

Neither would care.

Animals, because they would not even notice until it was too late.

Us?

We wouldn’t be there to witness that anyway.

I didn’t know, because how could I?

I was sitting oblivious in the head of the person responsible for the next catastrophe that would hit a rather heavily populated part of the globe.

Good thing that it managed to affect mostly the places that were used to those kinds of phenomena. With plenty of warning and plenty of preparation.

Speaking of preparation, his were seemingly done.

The moment the spell released and the mana vanished he stood up and tossed a spell right at the sky.

Again with that?

I didn’t know what to expect, but for sure not just a plain stone.

Yeah. He just tossed a stone right at the horizon.

I am not sure what he wanted to accomplish with that… I mean until I realized that the rock was flying at mach speed towards the sky, curving slowly up.

It was a very primitive way of seeing if the spell was broken. I think.

Because the moment it crossed the spot where not so long ago a set of cracks was formed, and just flew right past it, he suddenly jumped, excited.

-I did it… I… We are free!

We?

As far as I was aware there weren't many people that were left.

None, to be exact, because I was not counting myself. Hell, I wasn’t sure if I even was alive and not just in some kind of purgatory. Or hell, more likely.

I didn’t have much time to ponder about that, because he immediately opened a portal right after.

Of course he was not going to stay here. That was his whole reason for doing that. I think at least.

So, where to, then? Back to the MIRE?