As soon as they were transported and she parted with Krylancelo, Isabella put a hand to her chest. She told herself: They were in the dark. They’d arrived at their final destination. There was no time. Things were bad. Her colleagues were undoubtedly fighting a hard fight.
So she knew what she had to do. She had to take whatever steps forward she could in order to make it to the best possible future awaiting her.
She raised her head and looked out at the dust storm on the other side of the darkness. The faint sounds of battle she could hear told her just how vast the battlefield of the sanctuary was. This was only the forest on top of it, not even the entrance to it yet.
“Are you going to look for the Thirteen Apostles, Assistant Professor Isabella?”
Isabella turned around, a little surprised that Majic was still there.
She nodded at the boy giving her an uncertain look. “Yes. I have to find Miss Maria and Master Pluto. Are you coming with me?” she asked him.
The boy shook his head. “No... Orphen said he was going to go look for Claiomh, so I’m going to go with him.”
“Shouldn’t you hurry up, then?”
“It’s fine. I can catch up to him later. If he knew I was going with him, I’d just get in his way, right?” Majic said, looking into the darkness where his teacher had run off.
Isabella didn’t pursue the matter.
The boy hesitantly started again, “I just wanted to, umm...thank you, Assistant Professor. Thank you for staying with me for the last few days. I won’t forget what you taught me.”
“I hope you won’t forget my warning either.” Isabella winked at the boy as he bowed to her and took off into the darkness without waiting for a response from him. All trained sorcerers could see fairly well in the dark, but the darkness of this forest was unnatural—after wading into it, she realized soon enough that she would have to make herself a light.
How many hours is it until dawn?
She created light with a spell and looked up into the sky as she let it float in front of her. The complex web of foliage created a canopy above her that pressed a bluish black shadow down to the earth underneath it. The small light only served to emphasize how vast the darkness was.
This is no time to succumb to primitive fear. She took a cord out from her pocket and tied her hair up securely, focusing her gaze forward. After that last attack, she had no food or weapons left, but her will to press forward still remained. She wasn’t afraid of the darkness—at least not that much. Nothing was as frightening to her anymore as the flames that had burned the tents of the wounded.
Damn the sanctuary. They won’t get away with this. With the light illuminating her path, she took a step forward, and...
She felt space warping with her whole body.
It felt almost like teleportation. A pressure against her skin and a compression of air around her she couldn’t fight against. She felt a faint sense of nausea and an impact, though it wasn’t clear to her where she’d been hit or how hard.
She fell to the ground. When she fell, she saw the tree behind her snapping like something had cut straight through it. There was a rupturing sound, loud but short. Was the impact she’d felt from that rupturing? The hole in the tree was a spiral. And...
Once she’d seen all that, she heard a sound from somewhere far away. A long clatter like a mop falling down in the corner of a hallway. The sound echoed and eventually faded.
Isabella tried to get up, hopefully just confused—and more likely concussed. She swayed to the right and left a few times before that same shock assaulted her. This time, it was at her feet. It dug into the ground, the earth bursting up around her. It was a small blast, but the power in it was incredible. She fell to the ground again without so much as a scream. A moment later, that same dry sound came.
Her eyes darted about in search of understanding before she realized with a start, They’re aiming at the light!
When she realized that, she snuffed it out. She didn’t know if she’d made it in time—her surroundings had returned to their original darkness, but Isabella was still collapsed on the ground, unable to move. She was lying where the impact on the ground had occurred a moment ago, unable to get away.
Wait a second... What’s even attacking me? She felt an indignant fury heating her body. She wasn’t sure if she could trust her emotions to get her back on her feet, but she would cling to anything she could at this point.
Would another attack come? She strained her ears and waited. And right into one of those ears, she heard...
“It’s a firearm.”
Isabella’s eyes snapped open at the voice next to her ear and saw a figure.
A man was looking down at her where she lay on the ground. His voice, calm and quiet, continued, “Sorry about this. It’s me they’re aiming at. I came here because I sensed the presence of the Razor-Sharp Successor, but...you’re not him.”
“Who are you...?” Isabella asked, coughing.
She ran the word he’d said through her memory at the same time. Firearm? Such a weapon was an open secret at the Tower—they were developing a prototype that could shoot accurately from several meters away.
But it was strange that she wouldn’t sense someone’s presence if they were close enough to shoot at her. Plus, the way that tree had been carved up wasn’t something a gun’s power could do.
The man held a hand up and touched her face—she had no idea why he would do so, but strangely it wasn’t unpleasant.
Then he explained, “The range and power of this weapon are nothing like those of the firearms at the Tower of Fangs. It utilizes rifling... Basically, the bullets and gun barrel are far more advanced, but knowing that doesn’t actually give you any way to counter the weapon... They’ve finally made a weapon that surpasses sorcery. It can shoot from several hundred meters away, and as the bullet rotates over that incredible distance, it packs quite a punch as well...as you can see.”
Isabella suddenly found her body growing lighter—she didn’t know what the man had done, but her injuries seemed healed. Maybe he was a white sorcerer or something of that nature. In any case, she sprang up, deciding to leave her questions until later.
The man seemed able to easily follow her movements even in this darkness. He turned to face her without expressing any surprise and continued, “If they have a weakness...I suppose it’s that there aren’t that many bullets. I didn’t even have a hundred of them made. It cost too much to produce them at the requisite quality.”
“You had them made?” Isabella asked, but the man ignored her question.
He stood up wearily and said, “Maybe there’s one more. It requires extreme concentration to fire it, so the shooter should be quite fatigued. Blink once and you could let your target escape. Normally, there would be a stabilizing drug required...”
“Are you...the lord of the Imminent Domain?” Isabella guessed with a chuckle, finally putting together the sound of the voice with the content of the conversation.
“That’s right. If you feel at all indebted to me, I hope you won’t mention that you saw me when you meet up with Pluto—I snuck over here without telling him.”
“Wait a second. If you made that weapon, then who’s shooting it at you?” Isabella reached out, trying to stop him, but...
He seemed to disappear as if fading into the darkness. Of course, maybe she’d just missed him.
She could vaguely see his shadow as he shook his head, but it was less a denial and more like he was making sure of something.
“The person shooting at me...is the one who’s trying to take me away,” he said, and, “Considering the distance he’s shooting from, he’s moving awfully quickly. Is he teleporting using the summoner? Say, could I trouble you to produce that light one more time on my signal?”
“Huh?”
“After that, I’d like you to rely on your own instincts. Do whatever you feel is right in the moment, and I’ll back you up.”
“Err, I...”
Before she could sort out what he was saying, the man clapped his hands. “Now!”
“Argh, fine!” Isabella cursed, releasing her spell at the same time. Her sorcerous light reappeared, illuminating the area with a bright flash.
Isabella doubted her own eyes at what she saw next. The light split the darkness except in one place where it remained—a shape like some kind of winged humanoid. The wings flapped, a single sharp claw at one end of each.
The strange creature with the black wings leaped up, headed straight for the lord, but the lord of the Imminent Domain was calm in the face of the monster attacking him.
The winged beast cried, “Almagest Betisletha!”
And the lord answered him, “Yuis Els Ito Egum Ed Colgon Swedenborge!”