Chapter 94: Traitor (Second Part)
“How much do you need?”
I stared at him blankly for a few seconds before answering awkwardly.
“Nine silvers.”
Paul looked at me with serious eyes before turning his head toward his daughter. As if coming to a mutual understanding, they both nodded.
“I can lend you this sum.”
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“You can live with us if you want! Right, dad?”
“Of course. You’re welcome to stay here as long as you want!” he declared with a gentle smile, not understanding what his warmth meant for someone like me, devoid of any kindness for so long.
“Thanks a lot… Truly…” were the only words I was able to mutter.
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“Why are you acting as if she’s already dead, Paul?” I screamed while releasing the rage that was threatening to overwhelm me.
Paul slowly raised his head in disbelief after my words, but he stayed on his knees nonetheless.
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Memories of past times assailed me as I watched powerlessly as Ilan disappeared from my sight to fulfill his revenge.
Paul was going to die.
This cruel realization that hit me like a punch in the gut prevented me from immediately reacting. The Vrapy were fast, but certainly not fast enough to outrun this kind of speed unless Ilan became unable to sustain it. Unfortunately, the carriage wasn’t gone for long enough to have this kind of unrealistic hope.
For long seconds, I stayed completely petrified, unable to properly react to the situation.
For weeks, Paul was so difficult to live with that I almost forgot what he did for me.
Confronted with his impending death, everything came back all at once. He offered me money and a roof when I had nothing. He offered me laughter and warmth when everything was just pain, fear, and coldness before. He and Alianelle became in a way, part of a family I abandoned as Thomas and craved to have in this new life.
I have already repaid this debt a hundredfold.
I have already put my life and future on the line for their safety.
I had done enough.
However, despite his betrayal, I never wanted him to die.
I couldn’t accept it.
As if waking up from my previous stupor, I clenched my fists, gritted my teeth, and tried to stand up. My weakened limbs were barely able to support my weight and certainly not enough for what I needed. However, I could wait no more.
I had to save him.
With all the determination burning in my heart that I could muster, I ignored the pain coursing through my entire body and concentrated my mana as fast as possible. With barely any result at first as my mana was more sluggish than ever in my condition. Each failure to properly summon it, made me want to scream in frustration and anguish.
“Come on!” I screamed at myself, unable to contain myself any longer.
The power was there, just beneath the surface. I could touch it and even use the few strands I had gathered, as I had done before to slowly try to dissipate the poison with the healing aspect of the water element. However, I knew it would never be enough. For a moment desperately long in my situation, my power stayed out of my reach. When finally, my mana became more responsive and my magic usable once again, I had the disturbing impression that it was too late.
I shook my head violently to disperse this thought.
With more mana at my disposal, I could try to seriously dissipate the poison shackling me. However, I had already used the healing aspect of the water element during my conversation with Paul and was only able to soften the worst effects of the poison.
I could use less mana at that time, but this didn’t change the fact that this wasn’t the solution. Because of this poison, my mana was difficult to shape which was especially detrimental for this magic, but more than that, it was simply my inexperience with this aspect of the water element to heal this kind of trouble that held me back.
That’s why, I knew that no matter how much mana I gathered, it would never be enough to completely get rid of the poison in time.
The mana currently usable to me couldn’t be wasted for something like that.
There was only a single thing left for me to do.
With a movement similar to Ilan’s, I bent my legs and concentrated as much of my mana into them as I could. Although I intended to use the same element as him, it wasn’t the same magic and maybe not even the same aspect that was involved. As a result, whereas Ilan was pure strength and violence, my departure was softer and my path different.
Unlike him, I used my magic to directly aim for the sky.
My first assisted jump took me a couple of meters above the ground, and each new burst of wind brought me higher. With my feet walking on the air itself, I ignored the discomfort and weakness coursing throughout my body and threatening to disrupt my efforts to continue my rise as fast as I could.
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When my line of sight wasn’t obstructed by trees anymore, I was quickly able to locate my target, but the scene opening before my eyes nearly made me lose control of my magic.
The carriage was already under attack.
I tightened my muscles, and with my gaze fixed on the distant carriage making impressive turns to avoid Ilan’s attacks, I released the densest burst of mana I could to fly toward them.
Ilan was trying to force the carriage to stop because, although his speed was at least slightly faster, his stamina was totally inferior to that of the Vrapy. If Paul could hold on long enough, Ilan would definitely be the first one to tire out.
However, if this possibility was a slightly optimistic hope to have before, it was pure fantasy now.
Like a raging beast, his water and wind magics were sent one after the other without any regard for the integrity of the carriage. Their chase lasted a few minutes, long enough for me to only cross around half the distance separating us when one of Ilan’s attacks finally had the desired effect.
I assisted powerless as the carriage was propelled to the side by his wind magic making the Vrapy stumble at the same time. Paul knew how to drive this carriage, how to direct the Vrapy, but he was far less experienced than Walmir.
Not properly directed, the Vrapy weren’t able to correct their posture and immediately resume their course. They entangled themselves with the cords and harnesses linking them to the carriage and ended up collapsing heavily, accompanying their fall with roars of anger and outrage.
Paul’s furious whistles or Himara’s desperate screams weren’t able to change anything.
Like an unstoppable tornado, Ilan finally reached the carriage. Having learned his lesson, Ilan’s attack didn’t try to spare the children this time. The wall of wind swirling around him dispersed in a violent gust that immediately pushed away anyone still standing on what was left of our carriage.
Paul was sent crashing several meters away from the children. Like dolls, Seth, Himara, and Alianelle were also sent flying. If not for Seth’s hair wrapped protectively around them to keep them together and somewhat cushion them, this kind of fall could have easily resulted in a serious injury.
The sight of these children landing so heavily and being unable to stand up afterward was difficult to bear even from so far away.
However, I couldn’t care about them for now.
Ilan, visibly shaken by his previous magic, had nevertheless still drawn his sword. The glint of his trusted weapon, reflecting the sunlight like a faraway beacon, gave my body shivers impossible to attribute to the cold wind beating against my body.
I won’t make it.
Ilan was already just in front of Paul, weapon ready without anything to stop him this time.
Was Paul begging for mercy or simply cursing him in his last moment?
From so far away, I wasn’t able to hear what any of them were saying.
However, I could feel something.
We were all able to.
Alianelle's mana had awakened once again.
The fall had apparently wounded her more than I initially thought and immediately triggered her uncontrolled healing ability capable of dooming us all, especially if the monster from the camp was still around waiting for an opportunity.
Ilan, just as surprised as I was by her sudden awakening, momentarily stopped his motion to look back at her unconscious body lying next to Seth and Himara, also unconscious. This momentary respite didn’t relieve me, as I knew this respite would never be long enough for me to arrive.
We were so close to the salvation of the first Advanced town, our journey was almost over, but I was forced to watch helplessly as everything collapsed around me, one after the other.
Soon, everything I did, everything I fought for will disappear.
This unbearable thought, this dread haunting my nights that had forced me to overcome my limits time and time again against more enemies than I could remember made me push back the doubts I had in my mind.
If I continued like that, I would never make it.
I was too slow.
Walking on the air wasn’t enough anymore.
This certitude was enough for me to risk everything.
More mana wasn’t the answer as it made me fall like a brick each time I had tried it along our journey. How many brushes with death did I have to try to improve this magic? I didn’t know, but today it was time to see if my efforts would be rewarded or if, once again, I would fail.
I exhaled a long breath, focused my mind, and released my magic with a grunt of mixed pain and determination.
Walk of the wind: Second step.
When it was time for my left foot to land on the wind I summoned, I created another thin layer of wind just beneath and activated my new magic. The shockwave along with the whistling wind deafening me and the enormous pressure on my body I immediately had trouble bearing made me realize that I had succeeded.
I created a magic to fly and now I evolved it, like a true mage, carried by the aspects of the elements he understood himself.
This peculiar magic, tricky to execute correctly, allowed me to fly faster than ever before.
However, with renewed anger, Ilan didn’t stay stunned for long by Alianelle’s sudden outburst. As if time had suspended itself, I watched helplessly as Ilan’s sword glowed again and realized with horror that this time he had turned his blade toward Alianelle. He intended to terminate her crisis in the most brutal and definitive way before any animal could be attracted, while finally putting an end to the suffering of a girl he had long since considered dead.
More than anything before, this realization made my entire body turn cold and my mana skyrocket in response.
Emotions weren't the key to control and develop magic.
In the same way, understanding the aspects of the elements was much more important than pure experience.
I understood the errors in Amanda’s teaching a long time ago.
However, in that instant, when my fear and desire to protect her overwhelmed me, I finally realized that her words probably had more truth in them than I initially thought.
Mana turned sluggish and irresponsive by the poison suddenly awakened and finally unleashed itself like a monster of magic freed to accomplish its dearest desire.
Faster than ever before, faster than I could have ever imagined, I crossed the distance separating us in a few seconds. Just in time to see Ilan’s magic leaving his sword to end my friend’s life. Eyes barely opened because of the pressure of the wind, my mind, clouded by the poison and effort, wasn’t able to think properly. I simply stretched out my hand with despair in my heart and watched, just as surprised as everyone around, as the deadly attack hit an invisible wall just in front of Alianelle’s head.
Paul, only able to scream in horror in front of this scene, stood petrified by this sudden development, while Ilan finally noticed my presence. Mouth agape and sword hanging powerlessly by his side after his last strike, he watched me with his eyes wide open as I descended from the sky like an unstoppable meteor.
A last burst of wind put an abrupt end to my flight and allowed me to land unharmed on the ground despite my previous speed. The blast of wind of my landing lifted a large circle of the ground around me, but it was probably the associated blast of mana that made Ilan take a couple of hurried steps back.
Out of breath, with shaking limbs and sweat dripping from my forehead, I confronted Ilan after he finished fixing his posture.
“Sillath…” simply lamented Paul on my left with a crying voice literally dripping with relief and premature gratitude.
“You’re really something else…” Ilan muttered in complete disbelief on the other side.
This compliment from such a powerful mage would have been more than appreciated any other day, but we both knew what was going to happen. He was surprised, shocked even, by my intervention and arrival, but Ilan wasn’t the kind of man to back down.
He had faced worse than me and always emerged victorious.
My timely arrival was nothing short of a miracle for everyone around, me included.
However, everyone knows miracles never happen twice.