Chapter 5: The Goddess of Light (3)

~5.3~

*****

The rift was enormous, and the demon beasts pouring out were beyond counting. Kye and company were watching from outside the food court. Most of the group had never seen a demon beast before, but Kye and Alethea both had trained long enough in Daemonheim to know how big of a threat the sight in the sky posed.

“Shi-chan, what do we do?” Alethea asked.

Kye shook her head. “I’ll contact my mother.” A moment later, Kye could hear Layla’s voice.

“Kye, I can’t talk right now. Something big came up.”

“Are you talking about the rift in the sky?”

“You’re still in Arslade?”

“Yes.”

“Allison is on the way. I have to stay here and fight. There’s a rift over Atlantis, Drachen City, and New Tokyo. I’m at the one above New Tokyo.”

“What is going on? Four rifts nearly simultaneously?”

“It’s out of nowhere. Unprecedented. We got the call shortly after you left the training grounds and had to leave without telling you. Kye, use your true power. This is no time to hold back.”

“I’ll use white aether if I have to, but I’m going to stick with light aether otherwise. But don’t worry, any aether is-”

“I know. Listen, the battle is getting intense here. I have to focus. Be safe!”

The call ended, and Kye turned to Alethea. “There’s a rift above each capitol city. It seems the adult royals here had already gone to fight elsewhere before this one appeared. It’s just us for now. Allison is coming, so we just need to hold out until then.”

“Okay. I’ll handle the announcement,” Alethea said. She quickly pulled up a window on her NeuraPhone labled “PSA” and started speaking. “I am Alethea Atlantis and this is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill. All citizens, students, or otherwise non-combatants are ordered to take shelter indoors. All combatants prepare for battle and follow the chain of command.” Alethea repeated the message once, then turned off the PSA function and took a deep breath. “Shi-chan, I’m sensing some really powerful mana signatures up there.”

“Yeah. Definitely a bunch of A-ranks leading the charge.” Kye squinted, focusing on one particular spot in the sky. “I see a mass of mana dense enough to be S-rank.”

“Can we even fight that?”

“I’d rather not...” She turned to the Venturi sisters. “Escort Louise and Isabel to the dorm and stay there. That’s an order.”

“But-”

“No. This is an emergency. Go!”

Liliana grabbed Louise’s wrist and Aliana took Isabel’s hand, and they teleported.

“We’re up.”

“How long do you think we have to hold out?”

“I could win a war of attrition against a hoard of A-ranks, but that S is the problem. Worst case scenario, I’ll take it on.”

“What will you do?”

“I’ll explain later. Let’s go.”

*****

A short while earlier...

“Lord Apollyon, urgent news! Atlantis, Drachen City, and New Tokyo are under attack. A rift as large as each city appeared and demon beasts are pouring out!”

“Impossible! There are no rifts open on Daemonheim!”

“I can’t explain that.”

“Where are they coming from? No, that’s not important right now. Mobilize our elites. I want every location backed up immediately! We’ll lead the forces ourselves!”

*****

“This is terrible,” Astarte said. She and her sisters were floating in mid-air above the palace in Atlantis.

“Daemonheim is sending backup. Lord Apollyon and two of his generals are leading their forces to each rift.”

“Good,” Atalante said. “Let’s begin. The three of us must isolate and seal the rift or this will never end. The others can handle the fighting.”

*****

Kye was first to meet the beasts. She sliced through several with her light aether until she found one powerful enough to take a hit. Alethea wasn’t far away doing the same thing. Several instructors were flying up from the academy. Mana and magic filled the sky as the beasts were met by Arslade’s defenders.

“What do you make of this?” Kye asked. She and Alethea were keeping a channel open on their phones to stay in constant contact.

“Not good, to say the least,” she replied as she launched a massive blast of mana at the nearest beast. “The very instant that man appeared I had a bad feeling. His... aura was all wrong. And then he said that name.”

“Yes. I think he may have something to do with our mission.”

“This is intense.”

“Teamwork is our best bet.”

“Right, let’s group up.”

Kye and Alethea met up and started fighting, watching each other’s back and using combination attacks. Kye clapped her hands together and started channeling aether. “<<Rune of Replication>>.” A magic circle appeared underneath her and fifty just like it appeared around her. She flung her arms outward and the duplicates quickly flew away. She brought her hands back together and channeled for her next spell. She placed her right hand on the magic circle that remained and continued, “<<Rune of Amplification>>.”

Alethea followed up, knowing what Kye was doing. She placed her hand on the double-layered magic circle and casted her spell, “<<Flare>>!” An explosive ball of white fire suddenly launched from every duplicate magic circle and virtually lit the sky on fire. Alethea continuously cast the spell for as long as Kye allowed her. The instructors were astounded at the combination.

What in the world?. This sort of tactic isn’t taught at the academy, Line thought after witnessing the spectacle. Kye noticed Line was watching and added her to the channel.

“Line, how are you holding up?” Kye asked.

“I’m fine. Just a little taken aback by you two...”

“Apologies, but we need to keep at it. Do your best. We’ll take on the brunt of it. Allison is on the way, but we don’t have an ETA.”

“I see. Can you add Jane to this channel?”

“Sure.” Kye quickly added Instructor Howitts to the call. “Jane, how are you holding up?”

“I’m okay. What was that spell you just used?”

“I’ll explain later. Don’t be afraid to back off to rest if you have to. Alethea and I can cover for you.”

“I appreciate the concern, but isn’t that a little backwards? We instructors should be the ones taking care of you students.”

“Maybe so, but there’s no time to worry about that sort of thing.

Suddenly, the S-rank beast appeared in front of Kye. It was humanoid shaped, and appeared to be sizing Kye up. It raised a hand, and Kye reacted. She quickly channeled a mass of aether and prepared a spell. “<<True Binding>>! <<Gravity Collapse>>!” Chains of light aether wrapped around the beast and a purple sphere surrounded it, inside an intense gravity. But that only served to slow it down.

Mana is nowhere near as potent as Aether, yet this thing is only slowed down by my aether-enhanced spells?

Alethea followed up Kye’s restricting spells with her own. “<<Blades of Light>>.” She condensed aether into swords and threw them at the beast. Each exploded on contact and helped slow it down.

Kye ran her fingers over her sword and charged it with several runes. She condensed her aether and met the beast in an enormous clash. The shockwave was powerful enough that the other combatants nearby had to brace themselves to keep from getting pushed away.

“Everyone, leave the S-rank to me,” Kye ordered. “Keep the A-ranks busy!”

“You can’t be serious!” Line replied, almost hysterically.

Kye released her aether at full power and pulled it in so tightly that it appeared as no more than a thin film of golden light around her skin. She made it clear with the display that she meant to fight alone.

“She’s serious. Trust her,” Alethea said. The instructors were reluctant, but understood that Kye was formiddable even by their standards.

“Shi-chan, you know the magic Aliana uses? Like when she made your fries untouchable. What do you know about it?”

“We don’t really understand it yet. It’s currently called Shadow Magic, but there’s a lot to it. She can make things invisible, intangible, part of either, or any combination.

“I think I just had an epiphany about it.”

Kye smirked as she traded blows with the S-rank. So we’re using this scenario to make Void Magic known.

“What are you thinking?”

“We can go over details with her afterward, but I think I can replicate it with white mana.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m gonna try it.”

Alethea had encountered void magic an RPG-like world long ago, and knew what Aliana’s magic was. She had to word it in a way that Kye would understand without giving away information about their past lives to people who were not in the know.

Alethea formed a ball of aether and focused on her memories of void magic. The ball shrunk but left an outline of its original size. She threw it at a beast, and it passed right through it. The space that it passed through was completely erased. The ball kept going and pierced or grazed other beasts until it fizzled out. The first beast she hit had a large hole through most of its body and fell from the sky.

“Wow, that was effective,” Kye said. “You’re gonna have to teach me how to do that.”

Alethea ran her fingers across her sword to enchant it with void magic. Every beast she slashed simply lost whatever part of its body that she slashed through. Her sword didn’t cut, it erased.

As they continued fighting, Kye noticed some students were watching in the courtyard outside the training grounds. What are they doing? “There are students below. They’re just standing there watching!”

The S-Class beast noticed the moment of distraction when Kye looked and capitolized. Kye anticipated the attack, but it was more powerful than she could handle. Despite the amount of aether she used to block the attack, she was still launched downward, landing in the courtyard mere seconds later.

“SHI-CHAN!!!”

*****

Revision: 12-18-2023