Chapter 21 - the savior & the floor, the bunny & the cat

---Earlier, Yuna’s Perspective---

The figure disappeared up into the sky. I lost sight of it. 

We were kinda going too fast now for me to see anyway, if it wouldn’t have been for Lilith holding me in place I'd fall off Kiwi no doubt. 

I wasn't made to travel at this speed. I'm just a damn bunny. 

I cried internally. Oh, tears were running down my cheeks, they just flew off quick due to the speed. I guess I'm crying externally too. 

We arrived at the dome, Lilith drew her sword and sliced just as we were about to crash into it, making a hole in the dome for us to fly through. It healed up behind us. Wait, the teachers all said those couldn't be destroyed.. Right. And I've seen it break twice now in a short time. Well, it's still technically not broken since it just heals up. Maybe that's what they meant. But damn, she did it with just a sword? I didn't know you could slice up magic. 

Lilith interrupted my chain of thought. 

“What happened. A crater, go there Kiwi” Lilith said and pointed. 

We landed and Lilith jumped off. I kinda held on to Kiwi and laid down on her back, feeling a bit nauseous after the ride, that was way too fast for me. And It felt weird here. Like, some energy lingered. Bad mojo. 

“Emin, what, what happened here?” Lilith shouted, I looked over, she was walking over to Emin with steady steps, she looked pretty damn serious. Emin looked unconscious. As Lilith got to him she grabbed him, drew her blade and put it against Emin’s throat then she chanted a spell of sort which she seemed to channel through the hand at his throat, sounds like a simple “Wake up the target” spell.  

I slowly got off Kiwi and stood beside her, hugging her leg.

Emin woke up. She shouted again 

“What happened here Emin?”

Emin laughed a bit. Lilith let go and slapped him. She sure is impatient with him.. 

He stroked his cheek, but he showed no sign of pain. 

“It seems like Nana either is…” he just stopped and gazed up in the sky, like he forgot he was talking. 

“Is what?” Lilith yelled and grabbed him by his collar of the robe and shook him a bit.

He stared into Lilith's eyes a few seconds. Then looked over at me. 

“How long have you known her? Since you met that day, what was it, 14 years ago right here?” he said.

I looked around, like, was it me he talked to? 

Of course it was, but it felt.. weird. 

his tone.

“What the hell are you babbling about?” Lilith said annoyed.

“Have you never wondered.. or seen her doing something a bit, way too much for an ordinary person?” he had a calm and serious tone now. 

“Well.. all the time.. Nana is like her mom was, gifted, amazing..” I said, a bit confused as I hid behind Kiwi’s leg..

“Yes, well, are you sure her Mom was human? That power ain’t normal for a human to obtain!” he said and chuckled.

“What are you getting at Emin?” Lilith said in a now angry but still annoyed tone. 

"Lilith, he seems hurt.." I mumbled. She ignored me. 

“Well.. She might be a dark elf. Or a planted divine of some sort perhaps.” he said, looking at me, then looking at Lilith as he finished his sentence. "Nephilim maybe.." he mumbled and looked up into the sky. 

“Well, for fucks sake, out with it, what’s your point?” Lilith yelled and slapped him across his face. 

“Now you’re just annoying, who’s damn side are you on?! Where is she?” Lilith yelled. Damn she looked ticked off. 

Emin ignored her questions and went on. I know they have history but, this isn't the time, it's like he wants to taunt her into killing him or something. Because Lilith looked more ticked off than I've ever seen her before right now. 

“Well, it's possible some greater force wants her.. Maybe she is the greater force." he smiled, Lilith let go. Or, I mean, she threw him back on the ground. 

"For fucks sake Emin, what are you talking about?!" 

"Just a wild guess after seeing her power just now.." he mumbled quietly. 

"She took off anyway to take care of the sanctum, she grew wings and flew.." he said, paused and gazed at Kiwi for a bit.

"Kiwi should be able to track her" he said and pointed at Kiwi. 

"Well couldn't you have started with that, fucks sake you old weird wizard" she got up and ran back to Kiwi while angrily mumbling something inaudible. 

"Get back on Yuna, Kiwi, I need you to get us to Nana as fast as you can" Lilith yelled.

Lilith grabbed me, jumped up with me, holding me tight. 

"but, I'm still a bit…" I said as Lilith shouted. Fuck I'm gonna puke. 

"full speed Kiwi!" I was just thinking that I surely would throw up.. Fuuuuck. I hate high speed flight. Fuck. 

It went super fast as Kiwi took off, we ripped through the dome again as Lilith sliced it up, I'm not sure in what direction we were going. Lilith made sure I didn't fall off at least.. 

I had full focus on controlling what was in my stomach. 

---After we'd taken off, at the arena---

"I guess that should be enough time for her," Emin mumbled and smiled at a seemingly random location. He got up, patted off the dust from his robe and teleported away. 

Weird footprints started forming at the edge of the arena as something invisible started walking. They disappeared as they were made though as they headed southeast towards Lilith's peacekeeper base. 

The footprints resembled hooves. 

---Yuna’s perspective---

We went down into what looked like an alley, then into a tunnel or something leading underground, then Kiwi stopped… There were corpses, gore and blood everywhere. 

it looked like a church, but.. Way too creepy. My head was spinning. A church underground? Was my head spinning that much? I looked to my right, stared a bit.. A demon? No? ...That was Nana..

“Nana.. Are you?” Lilith stuttered and got off Kiwi.

I had to throw up. 

The traveling, now stench of blood on top of that. I got off and walked into the corner to the left of me and threw up. 

"it's me.." I heard Nana say, but it sounded weird.. Like there was this dark echo and a light whispering voice saying it at the same time, embedded into her words… 

---Nana’s perspective---

”They had 3 prisoners, they’re alive inside the barrier behind the altar, at the end of the room. 

I took one of the cultists alive here.” I said and threw him before Lilith and glanced at them, Lilith and, yes that's Yuna in the corner. Puking. Aw.. 

I looked over at Lilith. 

"he cut his own throat, I patched it up. 

All he's said so far is -she told us it was just a peacekeeper- when I asked him several times who sent them." I said, then I looked down. 

my voice had returned to normal. 

My eyes started to go back to normal as Kiwi came to me and leaned her head against my leg. 

We heard Yuna saying

"just gimme a minute.. I was not meant to travel that fast.." then throwing up again. 

Lilith put the cultists arms behind his back and tied them. 

The dark magic that had gathered on me dissipated slowly, the claws, armor, slowly disintegrated and disappeared into the air as ash that then faded away. 

"good that you caught one. We'll question the shit out of this one." Lilith said as she gave me a thumbs up while smiling. "Well done Nana." 

She paused and gazed at me, ignoring the cultist as he said over and over 

"just get me away from her, anywhere" and "please, please, away" 

"what was that just now.." she asked, sounding pretty serious. 

I was back to normal, petting Kiwi beside me. 

"sorry Kiwi" I mumbled, then looked up at Lilith. 

"Emin taught me how to make use of dark magical energy, how to bring it forth and some perks that came along.." I swallowed. 

"It seems that I.." I paused. Will she be afraid of me or dislike me? Will she think I'm some sort of demon now?.. Well I can't lie to Lilith. 

"It felt like the darkness sort of wanted me, before I knew it, it just started to gather on me without me even trying to bring up more.." I explained. 

We stood silent a moment gazing at each other. 

Lilith broke the silence by knocking out the Cultist.

"Well, clean up the mess and let's teleport back to base with the civilians" she yelled then smiled at me.

She got up close looking serious and said. 

"and don't fucking go in alone next time you dumbfuck or a fox" she was up close enough to my face to just go for a kiss now. She looked pretty damn angry. She sure can swap mode in a millisecond as they say. 

"y-yes, so-rry!" I answered anxiously as I took a step back, but she followed me.

"good" she said in a now happier tone and smiled again, then quickly gave me a kiss on my forehead somehow before walking back to the prisoner. 

Yuna stumbled on over and hugged me. 

"yay, no more Kiwi travel" she said sounding exhausted, smelling a bit.. 

I giggled a bit. 

"yeah, I'll teleport us, don't worry" I said and patted her on her head. 

Lilith took the Cultist on her shoulder. 

I closed my eyes and focused on removing all the corpses and remains.. 

Aiming with my thoughts alone.. 

I'll give it a go.. 

I sensed all that I wanted to remove, focused on drawing forth light energy to disintegrate it all. 

It all slowly disappeared, it looked like a light ate it up, starting at the top of the mess and eating its way down. 

Not a trace left. 

It worked! Sweet. 

-Summoning light magical power was sort of like imagining the feeling of having a blank relaxed mind as a pool you wanted to fetch water from. Sounds weird perhaps. 

But for some reason few were allowed access to the dark and light pools. Especially among humans. -

(Though It seems like I have a strong affinity for both somehow. I earlier used darkness magic energy enough to exhaust myself to the point of passing out 10 times over with no noticeable drain or exhaustion. That was just, impossible…) 

-It's like there's a gatekeeper to all the different pools to explain it simply, and they don't judge everyone worthy to access their pools. 

Sometimes you can find a work around, like a very rare spell fruit unlocking a spell in the element or an even rarer affinity fruit of the elemrnt, but it's very few that are allowed access to everything like me naturally. Like, almost none. 

The more common elements were accessible by a majority of people with some training. Like water and air for example. 

But everyone is born with a "potential max rank" sort of. Though it took a damn good magician to identify you or analyze you properly, giving you a real sheet of all your skills, ranks, affinities, blessing and schools. Maybe more. 

I was rare, born with unlimited potential so to speak. Which means they can't really tell what my max possible rank will be.

Right now I'm at rank 40 to 46 in all the different schools, except light which I'm at 58.

I'm not sure about darkness, but in cases like these where the "element" just attracts to you when you access the pool, it usually means you were born with a headstart, meaning I'm already a high rank because of my bloodline or something else. Some races got huge headstarts in specific elements and/or could use an element infinitely without any drain or exhaustion. Example being a pure fire elemental could use fire spells all day long with no drain. They are the element. 

And yes, some are born already ranked up to a certain degree. It ain't fair, life rarely is. Some just got a genetic advantage. 

They won't find it out if they never try though or go to someone who can tell them their rank.-

We walked up to the barrier I'd created, Yuna had clinged to my arm and stumbled forward leaning on me. I put my hand on the barrier and dispelled it. 

"there, you're safe as promised" I said and smiled. 

They all bowed, cried and said thank you repeatedly. 

"No worries, it's our job," I said, sounding awkward and a bit embarrassed, leaning my head to the left as I said it.

"If you could gather around so we can teleport to base first we can talk more when we're all in a safe location" Lilith said then glanced at me. I nodded at her as the others spoke over each other. 

 

"sure" 

"yes of course" 

"sounds smart" 

They said at the same time, nodding in agreement as they all got up close to us. 

I sighed and shook my head. I clapped my hands together. A circle appeared around me, well, a big circle we all could fit in easy. It looked sort of like a floating powder that glimmered in the color blue in a circle around us. 

I focused on the teleport room that was next to the mission room. We have the teleport room in the same building, it's own separate room connected to the mission room. The powder that made up the circle disappeared in a flash of light. 

"there we go" I said. 

And we were all back in the base. 

We had a room in our bases for teleporting to if we're in bigger groups. Because the more people you teleport, the higher the risk is you end up putting them inside an object if you're not careful or don't know the place. 

Which is one reason why you only teleport with magic to locations you've been and know. 

Hence, a whole room in each base for that purpose.

You might need to extract, retreat or just get to a base quick. 

Then those rooms come in handy, beecaause you know you won't put someone in a wall.

That's why I created a circle this time, that's the guaranteed safe space I got to work with in the room. 

And, each room is enchanted, so you can't be two parties teleporting at the same time, if that happens for any reason, one party is put in a queue of sorts, suspended safely in space until the room is clear. 

Me and Yuna worked together to come up with that one when I reached rank 20 in spatial magic which unlocked dimensional magic for me. 

It took a while and a few more rank ups before we got it though. 

Lilith went towards the door leading to the mission room. 

I guess to lock up the Cultist in the basement. 

She stopped by the door. 

"I'm just going to place this one somewhere safe. We'll talk about today another time." she smiled at me. 

"You can come with and tell everyone we've eliminated the threat for now, take the civilians with you, Bob will give them clothes and food." she said, then went into the other room with the prisoner on her shoulder. 

I sighed. 

"Well, let's go! It's just through the door she just entered. " I said as happily as I could. 

Yuna was still clinging to my arm. 

"thanks so much for saving us.." one of them started. Then looked sad before going on to say:

"Sorry if we thought.." I interrupted him, 

"No worries, I must've looked a bit scary," I said and smiled. 

They laughed a bit. Nervously. 

"Well, go on, ask for Bob and he'll fix you up with food, you must be starving!" I said and gestured at the door. 

They bowed before me. 

"thanks again" 

"thanks so much" 

"thanks, we'll repay you someday" 

Then they went on into the other room. 

When we were alone, Yuna asked 

"are you okay Nana?" 

I could hear the sadness in her voice. 

"I'm fine, don't worry Yuna." I said and hugged her. 

"I just.. Messed with something I wasn't ready for. I'm still me and I'm okay" I'm not sure I believe myself. But I think I'm okay. 

"good. You scared me there for a moment. I thought maybe.." she said and paused, then started to cry. 

"Maybe I'd lost you.. You.. Looked like something else.." she stuttered out as she was sobbing.

I hugged her harder. 

"You won't lose me, some magical power won't take over me, I'm stronger than that" I said, trying to sound positive. 

"don't worry. I just overdid it with some magic..

Like I've done sooo many times before!" I patted her head. 

"I'm still myself.. Its just, this time was a new element is all." I said, trying to sound super confident. 

I think I just sounded weird though. 

She looked up at me, all teary. I looked back at her.

"promise you won't disappear.. Or get corrupted by that.. Whatever it was.." she said in a teary voice, snivelling, sobbing. She still looked cute even though she had been crying pretty hard, that's just unfair. I have no clue how I look myself after I cry but, still. 

"I promise." I said calmly. 

Then she hugged me again, hiding her face between my boobs. I just hugged her back. 

I'll let you have this one. 

"My cute little perv." I mumbled. 

"ghat?" Yuna mumbled into my boobs. I patted her head and sighed deep. 

"Nothing!.. Nothing."