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The boss, finally defeated by Seraphina, lay in the wreckage of what was once the Abyss Nest. Now, however, it was not more than a bunch of rubble and felled trees.
The boss was all but recognizable in its current form, smashed to fine bits of meat and puss as Seraphina walked away from its corpse. Toward the end of the battle, Aella subtly used her wind to make sure none of the gross entrails got onto Seraphina.
They were sharing a car home, after all.
“Finally done! I even got EXP this time! How did I do?”
Out of nowhere, Magnus pulled out a large sign that said seven on it. Following him shortly after, Aimi held an 8, Blair a 10, and Aella a 3. Where they got these signs was a mystery, even to Aella, who grabbed them out of her bag.
“What’s with the high scores? That was objectively awful.” Aella stated bluntly, causing Seraphina to frown deeply.
Her frown receded slightly quite quickly as she expected Aella to critique her heavily. Even when they played tag, Aella had a habit of being critical about how Seraphina could have moved better.
“Not everyone is a freak like you, little lass,” Magnus answered.
“I couldn’t defeat an E-rank boss alone until I was 13! She’s probably the youngest person in history to do so, actually.” Aimi followed.
“I am over seven times her age and still can’t do that. Even if I wasn’t biased, it’s still a 10.” Blair smiled, picking up her little girl.
“WAIT SEVEN? THAT’S HOW OLD YOU ARE?!” Aella’s eyes shot open as she realizes Blair’s actual age. This woman didn’t look older than 25. For that matter, neither did Anastasia.
‘Holy fuck… Mom is a minimum of 63 years old. These two women might be the first natural human immortals in existence…’
She was only half joking. Aella, in her past life, looked to be around her mid-20s to early 30s because she could shapeshift indefinitely. There are a lot of species that don’t age past their prime. Most practitioners of an Aetherstream can maintain their youth for several hundred years easily, but you can’t get that effect with technology or medicine.
Noticing that everyone, even Grayson, was staring at her, she gave a fake cough.
“Maybe… I’m a little overcritical. But that doesn’t change the fact that you have much to work on. That aside, good work, Seraphina. You did well.”
Seraphina initially nodded with a bitter smile, which suddenly became gleeful as she recalled what Aella said to her before this ordeal. However, before she could bring it up, the group was kicked out of the Abyss Nest and let back into the open field.
There, several vehicles awaited them, ready to take the foreigners back home.
“Aella! You said I’d have a favor from you if I beat the bug, right? Right?” Seraphina asked excitedly, freeing herself from the clutches of her mother.
Aella nodded rather quickly; she recalled saying something along those lines. However, how happy Seraphina was about worried her for some reason. To the point that she sensed something very odd in the area that she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. No, it was probably something else.
“Hmm… I want~.” Seraphina hummed, extending her words dramatically, “Nothing for now! Can I ask for the favor later?”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Aella shot Seraphina a suspicious glare. The feeling of something amiss grew, but she nodded eventually. It was normal for a child to be undecided; she wouldn’t take Seraphina’s reward away because of that.
Giggling like the supervillain from a children’s cartoon, Seraphina began hopping to their car. Curiously, Cid followed suit.
“Ah, right. You guys should take these.” Aella hummed, grabbing more booklets from her bag and tossing them to her three new allies.
At this point, she carried more books than a college student, just without the student debt!
“These are?” Aimi asked, opening the book to see a bunch of exercises and meditation instructions that she didn’t understand.
“Peak-grade Aetherstreams. In words you’ll understand,” Aella paused, releasing her aura just enough for the others to feel it. “The thing that made Seraphina and me so strong. I did promise to give you guys the power for revenge.” Aella explained, getting ready to head back to the car herself, when she noticed Blair looking at her.
“I thought you couldn’t make Peak-grade Aetherstreams for people?”
“I couldn’t.”
“Then how?”
“I figured it out.”
Aella and Blair looked at each other, neither breaking eye contact for a painfully long 3 minutes before Blair broke the silence.
“What?”
“I figured it out after entering Seraphina’s Inner World. Well, I mostly figured it out. After that, I had to do some testing. Speaking of, I need to teach Seraphina how to upgrade hers to a real Peak-grade one.”
“You’re too much.” Blair sighed.
“No such thing.” Aella happily responded.
Silence again reigned, but this time, Magnus broke it far faster by holding up the tiny book.
“That’s fine and all, but why me? I never agreed to join your cohorts.” He said, looking through the contents of the book.
He also didn’t understand what it was at first, but after examining the whole thing, he got a vague grasp of what it did. How fitting for the partner of the Knowledge Dragon.
“You saved me a lot of trouble back in Japan. Think of this as me returning the favor. Plus, whether you join us or not, you’re affiliated with us now. Regardless of the truth, the cult and other forces will see that you saved me and will have to plan around you being part of my group to be safe… Also, DOES ANYONE ELSE FEEL THAT?”
With her sudden question, Aella quickly placed her hand on the ground and let her wind fly throughout the area unrestrainedly, blowing the hair of everyone present along with Blair’s skirt, which she quickly caught crazy.
Through the wind, Aella projected her senses, and what she found caused her eyes to widen.
“Magnus! Grab them and run!” She shouted in a panic, rapidly blowing everyone away from her, including Stormy. Moments later, an unidentifiable magic energy took the form of a viscous light-like substance trying to strike her from above.
Dodging out of the way, Aella immediately awakened [Sylpheed’s Whisper] to its second verse as the solidified Mana began chasing after her.
While she ran away, she tried to blow the energy away, but her wind did nothing to it.
“Aella!” Seraphina shouted from a distance, only for Aella to scream back, urgency appearing in her voice for the first time.
“STAY BACK! ITS AFTER ME!”
‘That’s… Spatial Mana! How? Who? Is it the cult? Even if this planet has more than 1 Spatial Magic practitioner on it, nobody in this world should be old enough to know how to track spatial coordinates so accurately! How the hell did they manage to find me so fast?!’
Space, along with Time, and many other obscure elements like Crystal or Celestial existed as possible affinities one can align with when they have an Aetherstream, but they’re all very unique, rare, and often play by their own rules.
For the ones listed, for example, you cannot create an Aetherstream for them. Any Aetherstream you practice will turn into that element if you have a talent for one. Out of all of the affinities you can have, space is by far the strongest and weakest at the same time.
Everything to do with space requires exact coordinates known as [Spatial Coordinates]. If you don’t know how to read these, you’ll teleport yourself, whoever, or whatever you’re utilizing your magic on into the vacuums of space or a massive rock, effectively killing it without fail if they don’t have the means to survive.
Teleportation in itself is a very advanced application of Spatial Magic, but the principles remain for all of their abilities.
The oldest living being recorded on this planet is 161, while even the most talented spatial mages Aella had met couldn’t make something like this that could so accurately track her before the age of 300.
‘Nobodies around either. It’s definitely a long-range teleportation spell. But where will it take me? I can survive in the vacuums of space with the assistance of my [Whirlwind Maestra], but how long would it take me to return if it was sent into the sea of stars? Damn it!’
Aella tried several more things, from creating a sealing curse around it to stabbing it with her swords to running really far away. Nothing she tried worked on it. If she was stronger, she could destroy the Mana outright, but she didn’t have time to focus on an elaborate ritual to increase her tails.
Glancing over, Seraphina fought against Magnus’s powerful grip as she tried to run straight towards Aella.
Deciding in that instant, Aella smiled at Seraphina.
“I’ll be right back. I promise.”