Standing face to face with two options of eminence.

Either fall into a seemingly endless pit, or get caught by the guards.

I was thinking what option would be good, especially considering I needed to think of Laviel as well. I couldn’t just leave her here, after all I wouldn’t have gotten inside of the World tree without her. On top of that she’s-

Huh-?

Why am I…

Falling?

I looked down to see Laviel’s hand pressed against my chest.

She pushed me.

“Wait-”

“Save her, Cyn.”

“No- Laviel-”

I fell back into the abyss, the air began surrounding my ears as I sped up. Laviel turned back toward the guards and let out a heavy sigh.

“I can’t just leave Esther’s—!”

I fell out of her sight range, the ceiling disappearing into the dark clouds above.

“Esther’s… sister…”

Shit…

||SPELL CREATION||

That queen is beneath me right…?

Then I’ll just take my anger out of her instead, the chances are they’ll just lock Laviel into one of those prison cells. I can get back to her after saving Esther.

I started forming cyan mana gears as I imagined a fresh new spell. The queen had anti-magic, so nothing I had magic-wise would even do a scratch to her. So I’ll just do the most obvious answer when it comes to anti-magic.

I shattered the gears, they rapidly reformed around my arm as magic circles.

I looked down to see the queen pinned by Six and Risible, a slight purple glint around her… giant mechanical… arm? Body?

A slime sword formed in my left hand as I slid my right over the blade.

“Special Magic…”

The circles started lighting up as a few sigils surrounded my sword, a slight tint of cyan and purple started emitting from my blade.

“Con-Paradox.”

I dropped down from the sky, my blade slamming straight through the barrier and into the hard metallic body. The Elven Queen’s barrier cracked and shattered, her eyes widened in shock. I lost my footing slightly and grabbed at the giant black eye on her back for support.

A sudden overwhelming feeling entered my body.

Like a vision.

I could see, feel, and hear everything vividly.

My body felt absurdly large… larger than a continent.

My stomach growled a deeper unsatiated hunger.

I felt sharp rows of jagged teeth in my mouth, a mechanical feeling coursed around my body.

I didn’t feel like a human. Let alone a slime.

Power coursed my body as a giant land mass sparkling with “food” laid beneath me. I felt my jaw open wide, as reality broke its way back in.

The eye on the Elven Queen’s back suddenly lost its giant size and shrunk down to fit into my palm. I fell back, hitting my head against her body before landing on the ground with unsteady feet. 

“What did you just-”

“Huh-? Oh-... me?”

I laughed a little while rubbing the back of my neck lightly with my hand that held my sword.

“I heard you had some sort of anti-magic. So I did the reasonable thing and made anti-anti-magic~”

“Wh-what…?”

The queen looked absolutely appalled by what I had just said.

“Makes sense for you, Cyn~ your attribute is straight up just magic~”

I heard Risible laughing slightly before he snapped his fingers, he suddenly strengthened his wind completely crushing the Elven Queen’s arm into scrap metal and bolts.

I pushed the eye into my inner coat pocket and cracked my neck.

“Let’s make this easy now~”

My voice grew cold, my eyes glowed a deep red, my sword was leaning back on my shoulder… having slight sparks of white and gold wrapping around it, the heat rising around the blade…

“Where’s Esther.”

⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱

Laviel stood roughly a foot before the end of the ledge. She couldn’t go down the pit like me or Six since she wouldn’t survive the fall.

The guards swarmed around the entrance, electrical batons in hand. A few of them closed in on Laviel before one of them swung the baton behind her knee, an electrical discharge went off. She grit her teeth in pain, her knee buckling to the ground. Two of the guards held her down while another one of the guards stood in front of her. She looked up before he slammed his fist into her face.

“Treason is unforgivable.”

Laviel raised her head again, the guard punched the other side of her face now.

“General Laviel Adelaide. You’re sentenced to death.”

Laviel’s eyes shifted into a yellow color, the guard kept hitting her over and over. He then hit her stomach with one of the electrical batons causing her body to convulse, the guards held her firmly, a bit of blood dripping down the corner of her mouth. Her eyes changed to a red color, her body trembled slightly.

I-it’s fine… I can handle this. Cyn is saving Esther…

I’ll be fine… They’ll just lock me up, and try executing me afterward.

They have bigger problems right now… I-... I can handle this…

⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱

“You boys hanging in back there?”

Levin was pressed against the back wall of the ship, the space around them still distorted. Deadeye was wobbling around slightly while buckled into one of the seats.

“N-no…”

“Ah… it gets like that sometimes. We should be there in around ten seconds so… hold on tight!”

Dev flipped a few switches and with a snap the ship suddenly made a loud boom. The coloring around them went back to normal as the ship flew out from a cut off alleyway… The ship slowed down and he ‘parked’ on the side of the street, Dev turned back toward Levin and Deadeye.

“Welcome to Sector Nineteen~”

“Th-thank you…”

Levin fell, hitting the floor of the ship face first.

<Levin, I need you to run to a beacon I’m about to ping.>

“Huh… why…?”

<Cyn marked someone who helped him get into the World tree, just get there. Now.>

Levin jumped out of the airship with Deadeye following behind him slowly. Deadeye’s legs gave out and fell out of the ship, Dev caught him by his arm.

“Woah- you good?”

“Uh… maybe…?”

“Ah- what happened to the tree… I swear we were only gone for ten minutes.”

The World tree was coated in a mysterious shadowy black with these large tentacle things sprouting from it. They almost resembled monsters and animals.

“Hey… um… Dev… could you move your ship…”

Dev turned toward Levin and tilted his head slightly.

“To where?”

“U-uh… up. High up, s-so you’re not near the ground…”

“Okay… but I’m taking your friend as insurance, you guys haven’t paid yet.”

“That’s fine… I… need to rest anyway, I feel… dizzy.”

Deadeye interjected.

“Alright then~ catch you later, Levin!”

The ship’s door closed, it started flying up and away from Levin.

Alright. N-now to track what Cyn marked…

Levin’s eyes glowed white and light-blue as he looked toward the World tree. I-I’m not as good as everyone else, but I can at least see what’s happening.

Levin’s consciousness switched into a viewing format. He was looking through the ring on Laviel’s finger. She was being beaten by the guards… he turned his eyes to see one of the guards picking up what appeared to be a pistol.

What… wh-what am I witnessing-

N-no I need to stop it…

I need to be useful as a variant… b-but I can’t switch my body into this ring-

Levin switched his mind back to his body, and got into a stance. His body returned to its normal state, the streak in his hair returned to a mix of light-blue and white in its kind of lightning shape. His clothing shifted back to a racing-like suit with a vest over it, he had his goggles resting on his forehead and he also had his small cloak-like thing with a hood hanging from his back.

I have maybe thirty seconds before the guard pulls that trigger. In that time I need to run to the World tree, get into the World tree, find that exact location, and save her. I won’t have enough time… even at Mach Ten… shit…

Levin started running, the light-blue and white lightning coursing around him as he sped up. He started making these giant laps around the World tree. Mach One. Mach Two. Mach Three… Mach Ten… Mach Forty… Mach One Hundred. Up and up and up and up. 

⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱

Laviel’s head was hanging low, the guard grabbed her hair roughly and pulled her head up so their eyes met. He then firmly placed the muzzle of the gun against her forehead.

Huh…?

A- a gun…?

The guard’s finger rested gently on the trigger, Laviel’s eyes went wide. He was going to kill her right then and there. There was going to be no cell, there was going to be no time for someone to save her.

Wh-what…

Am I going to die?

Memories flooded into Laviel’s mind.

Her and Esther were playing what looked to be tag… Esther placing a small blue-green flower in Laviel’s hair. 

“Huh-?”

Laviel and Esther were cuddling together under a tree while Laviel read to her. Esther appeared to be younger by a number of years, they were laughing together lightly.

“What is this…?”

Laviel then saw herself making different meals for Esther.

“Is my life…”

She then saw herself talking through a dial post.

—————————————

“Hm? Hello?”

<Hey, Laviel…>

The voice on the other side sounded of sweet nostalgia.

“Esther…?”

<Mhm…>

“Wh-where have you-”

<Laviel… I’m making my way back to Chroterr. I should be there within a few days so… do you think you could help me out a bit?>

“Huh…? O-of course I can, I’m your big sister.”

—————————————

More scenes continued showing almost like they were playing back.

“Flashing before my eyes?”

Laviel’s eyes filled with unshed tears as a small sound was heard.

CLICK

⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱

Levin raised his speed, accelerating beyond his tested limits. He reached just under the speed of light. Mach Eight Hundred Seventy Four Thousand Twenty Nine.

His body was a light-blue and white blur as an absurd amount of electricity flowed rapidly around him. He was going so fast that it almost seemed like the halo-like shaped blur around the World tree was one solid object.

The buildings around Levin hadn’t registered the sonic booms yet, his eyes glowing brighter than they had before. He was lapping the World tree before he raced directly toward it with a sudden step. He shifted his body, making him slide between the tight seams of the metal before he zipped around each hallway. His body split and warped, fitting through the nearly air tight doors. He reached this metal circuit with destroyed glass and bullets through the walls, out in the central cylindrical gap was a small ledge with who he was looking for. Time was nearly stopped in Levin’s eyes, he was almost to the point where he never wanted to cross. At his current speed he was directly under the speed of light, going any faster would be completely unknown territory. If it went wrong, he could potentially be lost forever. Either in a frozen time space, or in complete and utter darkness. 

Levin jumped up onto one of the window’s ledges and leapt, his foot landed right next to Laviel in an instant. Blue and white lightning slowly trailed across the abyss, trying to catch up with his body. He quickly expanded his hand and made a protective light-blue and white slime barrier around her. He swiped the gun away, a small bullet floating off in the same direction as it left the muzzle. He grabbed the guard’s hand and released Laviel’s hair from it. Levin turned toward the guard who had been holding the gun, and made a light flicking motion.

Before time returned.