Chapter 96: Lost Minds
My head breaks the surface of the water, and I gasp for air. The tsunami has carried us far, but by the looks of it, most of us have survived; however, about a dozen people are trapped in the landslide and four of them are already dead.
We Runalymo can survive without air, but it will eat into our mana generation. The longer we go without basic needs, the more it'll take. Mages with high mana regeneration can probably survive for weeks or even months, but people with less mana generation will only be able to survive for a few days.
Regardless, no one will want to be stuck under all of that earth. Fortunately, three of them have earth bonds that they are using to dig themselves out. I swim back to them, using a water spell to propel myself. Mom yells something after me, but with my speed-enhanced body, I am already long gone. I use earth spells to help dig out the earth mages, then together we rescue the rest who are buried alive.
Just as the last is freed, a large wave sweeps us up and crashes us against the mountain. My head hits a large house-sized boulder, and the world turns black.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Safyr whips her tail, smashing into the cursed being and knocking it towards Erandur, who whips his flaming tail at it and then breathes his unmatched flames onto it. The world burns from the heat of his breath; the very air combusts and turns into plasma.
The mana vanishes around them and suddenly chunks of meat with red and blue scales are falling from the sky. Safyr regenerates again, her Ultimate Class keeping her alive and regenerating her body. Erandur reforms from his flames and the two dragons charge back, not letting up their attack.
Cracks run deeper throughout the cursed being, its form slowly repairing as it sucks in the mana around it. Safyr won't let it have a chance to heal. They will slay this greater cursed being and prevent it from obtaining its true form.
Safyr claws and bites the cursed being, but each time it summons barriers to block her attacks. Erandur's flames are endured with an impenetrable shell, and then it retaliates with its magic. Gore fills the sky once again as the two dragons ceaselessly regenerate and continue attacking as if nothing happened.
Shock waves rock the world from each blow and counterattack. Each magic conjured unleashes a blast powerful enough to annihilate cities, but also thins the mana in the air faster than the currents can bring in more.
Safyr flies under the cursed being and breathes a jet of water like a powerful beam. The cursed being, as expected, conjures a barrier, but is blasted high in the air, above the mana currents where the mana is thin. Erandur whips his tail at the cursed being, smacking it further up, only for Safyr to tackle it, flying higher and higher where the mana thins to a mere fraction of what it was below. But Safyr finds herself flying alone as the mana disappears.
Below her, the cursed being teleports back into the ley lines to continue eating mana to heal itself, only to be ambushed by Erandur with a full blast of his fire breath. The unworldly humming turns into a mind-shattering scream.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I wake up on the rocky beach with people over me. Someone is healing me with a spell, someone I rescued from the landslide. My perception remains where I left it, and I watch as each blow the dragons land upon the cursed being sends out a shockwave strong enough to topple towers.
Each punch and tailwhip is like a nuke, and the magic the cursed being conjures surpasses even that, powerful enough to devastate the entire Nexus with the shockwaves alone.
I sit up, scanning the area around me. Large waves are crashing onto the beach; we can't swim out without being caught up in the waves and washed back onshore. Above us, stray pieces of rock tumble off the mountain, threatening to unleash another landslide; all it will take is a powerful enough nudge from one of those shockwaves to bring another island’s worth of earth into our heads.
"We need to get off this beach somehow," the healer says.
Out of nine people, not one is a water mage or even has a water Bond; I suppose that makes sense as all of them would have used their spells to get away. Fortunately, I can use water spells; I get up and jog over to the shoreline, casting a spell to split the waves and give us an opportunity to swim out to the rest of the villagers.
Just then, another powerful shockwave hits, knocking loose another huge piece of the mountain. The ten of us swim as fast as we can; I cast speed buffs onto everyone, using my minds to simultaneously cast it on half of us, and then I use a water spell to create a wave to carry us further out of danger.
The second landslide hits the water, splashing another huge wave, washing us even further out to sea. We manage to swim back to the rest of the villagers, and I swim to my family.
"Alysara! Don't you ever swim away like that! We were so worried about you!" Mom briefly hugs me while Dad is making sure the twins are unhurt. They are crying, but from the fear essence I see emanating from them, it's probably due to terror rather than injury.
"Sorry, I had to rescue the people who were trapped in that landslide," I say, watching the other dragon unleash his fire breath. The very air around him seems to break down; a flame so hot even matter itself seems to break down into mana. The only condition that I know of that can produce such temperature is at the beginning of the Big Bang, where it was so hot that even matter could not form. But it's further than that; it's almost like reality itself seems to burn from his flame.
Just then, the humming stops, and, for a split second that seems to drag for an eternity, a deafening, eerie silence rules the world. The next thing I know, all of my minds feel like they’re being torn to shreds, like daggers being driven into my head, everything I am put into a wood chipper only to be burned to ashes. I can't even scream as the world ceases to exist.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Safyr awakens, half-submerged in the water, her mind having regenerated. She hopes her poor pets will have survived that; many will have suffered from it, but unfortunately there is nothing she can do to help them for now.
Safyr gets up, seeing the cursed being engaged with another dragon... not just one dragon, but two more. Erandur is still unconscious, and her mind is still clearing up. After shaking her head she charges back into the fray.
"Even with your Title, you are still having trouble with this one, Safyr?" Ithronon teases. "You've grown complacent and weak."
"Shut up, Ithronon, this is a greater cursed being inside a Nexus!" Safyr retorts.
Suddenly the air stops and everything slows, reality itself seeming to freeze as an unmatched coldness seeps into the very fabric.
"Use your flow Safyr; with it stopped, we can destroy it," Xerithro says, the ice dragon calm and collected.
Safyr focuses on her Bond, the fluidity and momentum, the concepts that govern the element of water. Time starts flowing normally again for the dragons, while the cursed being remains a frozen statue; suddenly she is falling again. She regenerates just in time to see Erandur rush past, engulfing the cursed being in reality-burning flames again.
The other two dragons regenerate and attack, bending the realm to their whims. Lightning flashes past, striking the cursed being and energizing the world in its wake. Colors brighten to blinding intensity, fires burn hotter, the freezing cold stills even time itself, and keeping everything moving is Safyr. She blitzes up at the frozen being, the roaring of sound as the air blazes around her. She draws her hand back and, with a final rending strike, cleaves the cursed being entirely in two. It doesn't have time to heal; Xerithro won't let it. Safyr returns the flow of time to only the cursed being's wounds and, with its regeneration still frozen, it finally perishes.
Ting! Your party has killed a Fallen Legacy Fragment; extra experience has been rewarded for being in an enemy-empowering environment.
Ting! The Guardian of the East Nexus, Safyr, the dragon, has slain a Fallen Legacy Fragment!
"Thank you," Safyr says, bowing to the other dragons as mana is consumed to turn the remains of the cursed being into magical materials.
"You can consider my favor paid," Xerithro says, returning the bow.
"And you owe me one," Ithronon says, bowing as well.
"I will call on you should I need it, Mother," Erandur says, also returning Safyr’s bow.
Now, how are my pets doing? Did any of them survive?
Safyr is certain at least one of them will recover from that scream, but the others? Well, Safyr may have to find a soul mage to help.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I groan, the world seeming to spin as I realise I’m lying on grass and try to sit up. I turn on my [Sense Magic] only to find myself near Safyr, on Temple Island.
"What..." I stop myself, my heart plummeting as I see rows and rows of bodies, all laid out on their backs. Thousands, tens of thousands, everyone. Mom, Dad, my sisters, Esofy, Chyzu, Tana too. They aren't dead; thankfully, they still have vitality and souls, but... something's wrong. Their souls are missing a component: the mind.
I check my messages, looking to see what had happened.
Ting! Pain Tolerance has met the requirements for a breakthrough and will continue leveling past level 60!
5th Breakthrough: You've had your soul damaged; this will help you tolerate pain of the soul.6th Breakthrough: You've had a soul component destroyed; this will help you tolerate this pain.
Ting! Pain Tolerance has obtained levels 24-27!
Ting! Mental Fortitude has met the requirements for a breakthrough and will continue leveling past level 70!
6th Breakthrough: You've resisted mind destruction; this will help you resist total mind destruction again.7th Breakthrough: You've fought against overwhelming power; this will help you resist attacks from beings beyond your imagination
Ting! Mental Fortitude has obtained levels 27-32!
Ting! You have gained the Soul Damage Reduction general skill!
Ting! You have too many general skills; would you like to remove one or keep what you have?
"You are awake; it seems a primordial soul will recover quickly enough," Safyr says, raising her head. "Before you ask, you were recovering for three weeks."
"W-What about everyone else?" I ask, my voice filled with worry.
"Unfortunately, their souls are not like yours; they can't regenerate. Unless I can find a skilled soul mage willing to heal them, which is unlikely, they will remain like that."
It's like the world is suddenly falling away from me. That can't be! Everyone's just braindead?! Just like that? There has to be a way to save them!
"Please! There has to be some other way! The dwarves! Perhaps there are soul mages among them!"
"... Little one, there are not many willing to save lesser races that aren't subjugated by them. I can intimidate them, sure... but they'll come looking for revenge, Peace will be disrupted, not just for me but for you little ones as well. Your people won't die as they are, not with me here to help sustain them. I also don't know how long it will take to find a skilled enough soul mage; me leaving here could put your people at risk."
"Then let me find the soul mage!" I plead.
"No. You are too young, too weak. Now's not the time." Safyr replies coldly. "All they lack is the mind; everything else is functioning. Calm yourself, little one; there is time."
I can't help but clench my fist in anger. Not quite at the Guardian, but just at the situation as a whole. That's when [Inquisitive Perfection] nudges on my mind, trying to tell me something. What is it? The mind is missing, destroyed; it can be healed, but that requires a soul mage who not only is willing but also capable. But... there is something else, isn't there?
"What..." I say slowly, trying to figure out what it is [Inquisitive Perfection] is trying to point me towards, "What about donating my mind component? Will that work? Will it be safe?"
Safyr is silent for a minute.
"Technically, yes, they will return to normal, but it will take years to restore everybody; you will only be able to heal one person every month, assuming that we can find a soul mage willing to transfer soul components. But that isn't the core of the problem; we'd need to find a soul mage regardless," Safyr says with a kind and soft tone, one that someone would use for someone in a lot of pain.
"My [Twin Minds] can split my mind component, and my cursed skill, [Astral Projection], can transfer it." I look up at Safyr, determination filling my heart and soul.