"Let me through!"

I run to the king as fast as I can, pushing aside everyone in my way. It takes me less than 2 seconds to reach the king, I can only hope I was fast enough...

'Mana sense'

As I thought, it's the same magic as before, the wind mana has entered his heart, and this time it turned into air and exploded immediately, the actual stabbing barely did any damage compared to this... it's already beyond repair.

The only option I have now is to use 'flesh shaping' to make a replacement heart, but this won't be as simple as when I do this to myself. This new organ is partially made from my mana, which means that his mana will reject it.  I need to make his body sleep to gain enough time for his own mana to replace mine. That will leave him in a coma for quite some time and I'm not even sure if it's going to work. This is another one of those things I've never tried to do before but, in theory, he should survive.

"Aaaaah, you cheated again."

The fake Nera is looking at me with an annoyed expression.

"What are you talking about?"

"People are supposed to die when their hearts explode you know. If that ridiculous magic of yours is not cheating, I don't know what it is."

I cannot believe this, she just tried to kill Nera's dad while making everyone think that Nera is the one who did it, and now she's just standing there without a care in the world. What is her deal? Does she think that I'm going to let her get away with this?

"You... you're Cureva, correct? Just who exactly do you think you are!?"

"Hahaha! You're as scary as always."

My intimidation is not affecting her at all, it cannot be simply that she doesn't think I'll hurt her since Nera and Arana have both been affected before, but she's just standing there smiling...

"Why didn't you escape when I was attending the king?"

"I just wanted to give you a chance."

"A chance of what?"

"A chance to kill me, of course! You just saw me attempt to kill someone, and let me tell you that I've succeeded in the past and will probably do it again in the future. You really should kill me now that you have the chance. Let me warn you, you won't be able to stop me with any other method."

What is she talking about? There's no way I could just kill someone in cold blood, not even her, but I cannot let her escape either. Just using 'shadow chain' will probably not work, she seems to be confident in her ability to escape... Ranna was able to get away the first time I met her by turning into water, could it be that Cureva can turn into wind? That would explain her confidence, but I already know the way to counter it.

'Mana corrosion'

My spell takes away all of her mana in an instant; even if there are some other unusual spells that she can use to escape she won't be able to do it now.

"Bad choice."

"What!?"

A very thick smoke comes out from her mouth and blinds me for a moment. How can she still use magic?

'Shadow bind'

Even if I can't see her I should be able to catch her if I send the ropes in all directions around me.

When I finally see the smoke off my face I see that a total of five people have been tied up by my spell. None of them look like Nera but Cureva might have changed her appearance when I couldn't see. Is she one of them?

"Out of my way!"

"What is happening!?"

"That's the queen of darkness!"

Everyone else is trying to run away in a panic, I was not paying attention earlier but the room is in complete chaos, people are screaming and running into each other everywhere, and a lot of crows are flying around, where did they come from? However, nobody is able to leave as all the exits have been sealed by large spiderwebs.

'White lightning'

Arana is here, she's attacking a man with an expression of hatred on her face that I had never seen before.

"Arana! Long time no see!"

'Light spear'

'Air cannon'

So that man is Cureva? How is she using magic? I took away all of her mana...

'Mana sense'

What in the world is this? Those crows are somehow draining the wind mana from the people around us and giving it to her, so the crows are working for her...

Whatever, I need to go help Arana. Wait, what is that crow doing? It's opening its beak and inside there is... a metal tube? It seems to be aiming it at me.

*Bang*

It just shot me! There's a gun inside of the crow? It didn't hurt but now it's aiming at a woman to my left, I need to stop it!

'Shadow knife'

That was close... and the other crows also seem to be about to attack other people. I just realized, all the guards who were in the room have fallen unconscious, which means that I'm the only one who can do something about all these crows.

In this room full of people I cannot use any large scale attacks, so I have to hunt down the crows one at a time, and with all this chaos ranged attacks would also be far too risky, so I need to get close to each of them wasting even more time. Even as I keep killing the crows more of them keep coming, at this rate I won't be able to help Arana at all...

"Luna! Forget about the crows! You just have to kill Cureva and they will stop!"

"What!?"

What is she saying? There has to be a way to catch her without killing her.

"Hahaha! Do you really think that there's any chance of her killing me!? If she's your friend you should know her better!"

"Please! Luna! I'm begging you! We cannot let her get away!"

No, even if you beg me, I cannot do it...

"Oh, Arana, it seems like you think that you have become some kind of 'master manipulator' or some other nonsense like that, but it's clear that you are still the same clueless child you have always been."

Uh, I need to do something.

'Mind void'

Of course, she resisted it by biting her finger; that spell is useless against anyone who knows how to deal with it...

And I have my hands full dealing with all of these crows, their numbers and speed are at the level where I can only barely stop all of them, if Cureva added to their number just a bit faster, someone could actually die...

Wait, don't tell me that she's doing this intentionally? After all, killing Cureva would stop any number of crows. Even if I don't want to kill anyone, if I truly was forced to choose between killing her or letting innocent people die there's no way of knowing what I would do, so she's making the attacks intense enough to keep me busy, but tame enough to avoid forcing my hand...

She really has me dancing to her tune, I don't like this at all...

'Air bomb'

"Ugh."

"Ara!"

Arana just got sent flying by a powerful spell, I hope that she's alright...

"Well, it was nice to see the two of you, but I have to leave now."

'Wind cutter'

She got rid of the spiderweb blocking the door. The crows were now aiming their guns at Arana so I couldn't chase after Cureva...

'Shadow chain'

As a last attempt to stop her I bind her with a chain. For a moment it looked like she'd been caught, but the chain just fell through her. Another weird spell...

I kill the last of the crows just after she gets out of sight.

"Luna... how long will my father stay asleep?"

"At least a month, probably much longer, this is the first time I've done anything like that so I don't know. Nera... I'm sorry."

"No, I'm just glad that you at least saved his life. I don't know how I will be able to repay you for everything you've done for me, but now everyone will think that I tried to kill my father. I wonder if even he will believe that."

Nera looks like she's doing all she can to hold back her tears, I'm impressed that she's able to do it at all.

"This is all my fault. If I had killed Cureva as Arana told me to we might have been able to prove that she's the one who did it."

"No, Luna, killing a person is just impossible for you, I'm the one who's at fault here. What Cureva said is true; I'm just the same as a clueless child. I was acting so sure of myself when I thought that everything was under control, but as soon as things started to get out of hand I couldn't do anything at all..."

"Ara... there's one thing I want to ask you."

"Luna..."

By the expression on her face, I think that she already knows what I'm going to say next.

"Is this what will happen each time I try to go against the prophecy? Am I going to be punished whenever I attempt to become a normal person? Is that why you wanted me to just follow it?"

"No, I... I don't know."

That's almost the same as saying yes.

"In any case, let's go find the dragon and the fairies, we cannot stay in this city much longer."

"I guess I'll have to go with you. Everyone here probably thinks that I'm a traitor..."

Things went really bad this time, but at least nobody died. As long as we're alive, we can always try again, I'm not going to give up so easily.

forli

I had trouble deciding if the king should die or not, in the end, I kept him alive because in a couple of chapters I want to get back to the usual light-hearted comedy, and having Nera grieving over her father's death would have made it more difficult, so I just put him in a coma which should have the same impact on the plot. Also, I'm going to make this part one chapter shorter than planned so we can move on a bit faster.