Leo and Heidi

Alea’s cabin, Germany

The walls shook around them. Heidi thought for a second that the cabin would collapse right then and there. She could see through the windows an inferno had engulfed them, casting yellow-red light inside, though she could not feel any heat reach them and noticed a domed barrier surrounding the cabin.

“Fucking hell!” Seb yelled. “Evan! Show Leo the spatial bag. Get all of our stuff from downstairs! Leo, inject some mana, and the bag will do all the work.” Evan nodded, his training kicking in, and dragged Leo downstairs.

Meanwhile, Heidi observed the barrier as it started to crack, as the fire slowly ate it. “That is a tier-five spell. Heaven’s judgment by the looks of it,” Seb said. “Must mean that those damn fuckers found us and brought a bishop. Any chance you can tell me how many of them are there?”

“No. There is too much mana surrounding us in the fire. Sorry, uncle,” Heidi answered and shook her head, unable to perceive the mana signatures outside. “What do we do? We must buy some time for them to finish getting our things. We cannot allow the Church to have all of what is below.”

“That is what we will do. Let’s not wait for the shield to collapse. Time to go on the offensive. Remind me, how far did you manage to develop your core?” Seb asked.

“Only brown, uncle.”

He frowned and said, “Will make do with what we have. Keep at the back. I will cast a wind wall and then a barrage of air missiles. Support me with any spells you have, and stay clear,” Seb instructed and started the gestures for the wind wall.

Since Seb developed his blue core, everyone in the clan knew him as the best duelist. His brother, Viktor, was the only one who overshadowed him. Outside of clan? Only a few people knew of his capabilities. Seb was quick with his cast and finished the wall in a few seconds. He multicast a barrage of simple, but effective air missiles, delaying their launch.

As Seb had his few fights with the Inpes brats, he knew how brittle fire was before air and cast a vacuum, sucking the air out from around the torrent of fire, extinguishing it. He walked outside, through the door, and saw a lone figure next to his pickup. Seb immediately recognized the bishop.

“Well, well. Is it not the long-lost mad Aer? The brother returns from the dead?” the figure mocked and looked behind Seb. “And little Heidi! What luck do I have? I missed you by the inch back in Berlin, by the way.”

“Leonard,” Seb spat, recognizing the bishop before him. “The pope treating you well? Still whoring for the church?”

“Who? Me? Of course, he is treating me well. And he will be glad to have you visit him. In a box,” Leonard said and started to cast a ray of light from his finger, pointing it at Sebastian. Seb did not wait and released the barrage of missiles, seeing Leonard’s cast.

All hell broke loose. The ray of light cut through the cabin's shield like it was made of paper, narrowly missing Seb and destroying the porch where he was standing. Meanwhile, the air missiles laid waste all around the bishop, breaking the ground apart and blowing up the pickup. The Bishop fell back toward the treeline.

“Came alone, eh? Since when do such bastards as yourself know an honorable duel?” Seb asked, evaluating his options, seeing that there were no more priests around them. At least the ones he could see.

“Oh, do not worry. I need no help when dealing with thrash. Viktor must be devastated when you could not save your family,” Leonard called out from the trees. A vein on Seb's forehead bulged, and him barely not losing his focus for the next spell - air cage. It was a spell designed to trap a single target in a sphere of air.

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“Watch your mouth, you piece of shit. All your sins will catch up to you. Sooner or later!” Seb yelled and activated the cage, casting it approximately where he thought the bishop was.

Not waiting to see if his attack worked, Seb rushed out of the cabin toward what was left of the pickup. He made it ten meters out when a sword of fire, aimed at his neck, narrowly missed him and cut into the ground.

Bishop cast haste, increasing his speed two-fold, and pressed onward with his attack, flicking the sword upward. “No, dear Sebastian. I am without sin. Cleansing the world is my duty. Always has been!” The bishop yelled and swung, his flaming sword meeting a sword made of simmering air, spewing flames in all directions, causing small fires around them.

Heidi saw that she was useless in a fight between two blue cores and ran down to the basement to speed up Leo and Evan packed their things. As strong as Seb was, he would not hold back a bishop for long, especially when he received reinforcements. They had to get away from here before that happened.

Arriving in the basement, she could see that only a few boxes were left. Leo and Evan were throwing stuff in the bag without stopping, not caring to be careful. “What the hell is going on up there?” Leo asked, sweaty as if he had run a marathon.

“We were found by the bishop who tried to capture us back in Berlin. Seb is fighting him off now. Buying us time.”

“God dammit! Give us a hand,” Leo said as Heidi grabbed the leftover boxes. “How long do we have? There is still the grimoire upstairs!”

“Not much. Evan, run back up and bring the boxes with the crystals!” Heidi instructed and saw that he already ran through the door.

Continuing to throw stuff in, now twice as fast as there were two of them able to operate the bag, Leo asked, panting, “What is the plan? Where do we even run?”

“I do not know! We did not discuss that with Seb. He is quite busy, as you can imagine,” Heidi said, and the basement shook as a blast went off above.

“Holy shit! What are they doing up there? Throwing grandees?” Leo exclaimed.

“Almost so, yes,” Heidi confirmed. “A battle between mages is a messy one and loud. They are going easy on each other. To avoid detection.”

“That is them going easy?” Leo asked in disbelief, grabbing yet another pack of scrolls.

“Yes, Leo. A fight between blue cores can easily level a town the size of Speyer. It would be hard to explain that. The bishop is here to capture you anyway.”

They were interrupted by a panting Evan who stumbled in, carrying boxes of crystals, “This is all of them. Hurry up and pack them in.” Leo obliged and stuffed them inside the bag.

“That looks like all of them. Let’s go back upstairs and grab what we can,” Heidi urged and ran back up to the first floor. Seeing that the fight was going on further in the forest, Heidi rushed through the rubble and started throwing into one corner all the food and clothes she could find.

In a second, Evan joined her and repeated after her. Leo continued to load everything into the bag. They gathered all they could find in a minute as explosions rocked the surrounding forest.

“Finish up here and get ready to run,” she said and snuck toward where the fight was.

“The hell are you doing?” Leo asked and pulled her back.

“I will try and make a distraction to give uncle the upper hand,” she said and snuck away. Leo shook his head but did not argue, watching her go.

Heidi charged the most powerful spell her brown core could muster, air lance, and made her way toward her uncle and the bishop. They were facing off with their swords. Seeing an opportunity, when the bishop was distracted, she threw her lance, narrowly missing his face. That was enough for Seb to counter Leonard’s sword and cut off his wrist.

Roaring in pain, the bishop discharged a wave of fire. Seb barely cast a wind wall in time, yelling, “Run!” Both took off, hasting themselves toward where Leo and Evan were.

Seb did not lose the precious seconds and grabbed Evan, throwing him on his shoulder, while Heidi moved to grab Leo by the hand and apply the hasting spell on him. Done in a few seconds, they started making their way toward the forest at full speed, Leo at the rear.

At the last second, Leo noticed a light in the corner of his eye and narrowly avoided a bright ray aimed at his head. He saw an enraged bishop run up to him, swinging a flaming sword at his face. Without thinking, Leo acted on instinct. He cast his intent and willed the mana in his core to move him out of harm's way. He blinked and saw that he was a meter away from the bishop.

To his credit, the bishop did not lose his motion and adjusted his swing toward where Leo teleported to. Leo’s mind went blank as the sword approached him. He froze, his life flashing before his eyes.

Before he could say or do anything, a torrent of mana exploded from his core. It shot through his chest, disintegrating the flaming sword in a wave of black and white chaotic lightning. Unable to do anything, the resulting shockwave threw the bishop back as Leo slumped down and passed out.