Still nothing, eh?

-Well, in any case, since we still have time and our minds mostly working for now, let’s focus on what’s in front of us. And I mean… up!

The “drone” jumped up again.

This time, I gave it a lot less mana, so it barely left my hand, but I definitely caught his attention.

-If this thing is to fly for a longer distance, I need to modify this a little bit. Maybe…

-You don’t need to - he finally said. - Just loop the command.

-Well, that would work… a bit wasteful, though.

-Why do you care? It’s not like it’s going to run out of mana.

-Well, true… Still, it’s inefficient.

-So what?

-...fine.

I quickly scribbled a few words into the wood and launched it again.

-Up.

It took me a couple more attempts to actually make it usable.

And by “usable” I definitely do not mean stable.

What I created was essentially a pulse propelled projectile. Barely able to change direction, but flying nonetheless: a burst of wind magic firing every couple seconds from the crystal, while at the same time absorbing mana from the environment to fuel itself and hopefully reach its intended target.

-I hate how sketchy this thing is - I said to Mike after one of the tests - I barely am able to control it.

-Well, in these conditions, it’s not like we need to do any better. But yeah, I agree, this thing is definitely nauseating.

As another function, we added the ability to see through its “exhaust”. I mean, that was its primary job: to give us a visual over whatever else we were going to find. The fact that we were only able to see it’s behind was an issue, though.

-I am more worried about something catching it - I commented. - It would be a waste if after a long flight we’d just get knocked out of the sky.

-You can then just increase the output, right? - said Mike. - It’s not like we're going to have mana deficiency.

-True. If the whole magic battery was to be released, I doubt anything would catch us…

-And even if it did, there would be nothing to catch.

-Eh… still, it’s wasteful… Fly that much to blow yourself up?

-It’s hardly an explosion - he shrugged. - Just destruction of evidence.

True.

To be honest, it wouldn’t be the first time that it would’ve happened.

We’ve tested the “battery” on this thing and the amount of mana it could release, and multiple times managed to go overboard.

Luckily, in each case, the object in question didn’t “explode” explode, only destroyed its outer layer while burning all of its mana: the writing it made. If we were to do it deliberately when caught, then we’d just be giving whoever a piece of wood with slightly charred exterior and an empty mana crystal.

-Well, sure - I agreed. - There shouldn’t be any more issues.

-So, we’re launching this thing or what?

-I just hope it won’t fail…

-Eh, if it does, so what? Not like it matters.

-Okay, yeah. If it happens, you’re the one who’s going to be cutting your fingers for a new battery.

He flinched.

Sure, it wasn’t really painful to me, but it was still unsettling.

-Everything will work, come on.

-I sure do hope so. Up.

For a moment, nothing happened.

But just as I was to think that the damn thing had failed, I felt a gust of wind and the blast had launched our little drone up.

-Now for it to repeat…

A moment of uncertainty and…

Poof.

-Great! It works! - said Mike with his nose pointing towards the sky. - Now, try aiming it a bit to the left…

He was talking more to himself than to me. Or to the drone itself, maybe. After all, this thing was preprogrammed, I didn’t have to do shit. Well, mostly.

-Let’s take a peek…

I focused on the small crystal we launched and almost immediately I felt my sight travel up and attach itself to the flying pyramid.

For a moment, I could see myself and Mike next to me, just for the scenery to shift a bit and see more of a horizon away from us. Then back again to us…

Yep, it was flying alright. The makeshift pulse engine was working well enough and slowly was stabilizing.

-It’s as irritating as it was… - I said out loud. - But it seems to be working well enough.

-Nice! Now it needs to reach somewhere.

-Ha. Wonder how long it’s going to take.

He shrugged.

-We have time. I mean, if it works as it should, it will speed up and shouldn’t be THAT long…

-Well, true… looks like that part works at least… Want to take a look?

-What? No. I’d rather wait.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

-For what? It’s not like you have anything to do here…

-True… but I’d rather not get motion sickness. With that thing…

-Fair enough. With that oscillation…

-Yeah. If it calms down a bit, then let me know, I’ll join in.

-Okay.

I sat down next to him and closed my eyes.

I didn’t have to do that to keep attention on the actual image being sent to me, but it was annoying to see two at once. That way at least I wouldn’t get a headache.

Could I even get a headache? I don’t know…

It also gave me an opportunity to pretend to be oblivious. So I could watch him.

The control over the drone wasn’t that much of a hassle for me to not be able to multitask and actually pay attention.

I was worried about him.

Not in the sense that I was scared of him betraying me, no. That was pretty low on my list of priorities. Not because I didn’t think it was possible, more that I didn’t think it would matter at this point.

What was wrong with him?

While he was pretending to be fine, he slipped once or twice. It was obvious to me that he had more on his mind.

Probably the assimilation.

I guess only now it finally sank in for him: that he was not immune to that.

I have already got used to the inevitable, or rather never cared much about it in the first place.

Wait, was that even me thinking that? I couldn’t be so sure… My whole personality was all over the place since the start, so I didn’t know any better.

But to him it was a new feeling. A wake-up slap.

What he’s been doing to countless people has finally caught up to him. At least in some way. And there was no way of escaping it. At least none that either of us could see.

I am not sure if he knew that I was observing him, but he didn’t change his behaviour. Still, was as “normal” as he usually was, or at least as much as before.

Pacing next to me and watching the surroundings, he was just waiting. I could tell he was also probing the nearby area for changes in mana, probably as a precaution against any sudden teleports. Sure, we’d be able to feel them either way, but this way he would be able to react faster.

Not like it mattered.

I doubt we were being pursued any more.

And I also doubt they would’ve been able to do any harm to us, even if we were to be surprised.

Not like either of that would happen.

After about half an hour of flight, I finally could say that our drone was flying smoothly.

It was most likely because it managed to grow in power.

Sure, I did fuel it quite a bit, but not to the point of overcharging it with mana. I didn’t want it to spontaneously explode or fly away.

-Should be smooth by now - I heard next to me.

I only nodded.

He sat down next to me and I felt a hand placed on my shoulder, followed by a small jolt of mana.

-Any interference? - he asked.

-We are good.

He nodded.

It was smooth sailing up till now. Well, flying rather. Good for us, but the further we got from the Edge, the bigger chance would be for us to actually run into something or someone.

I don’t think it would be any issue, though.

Besides the fact that it would be hard to spot us, since the thing that we were “piloting” was pretty small, the mana signature was pretty apparent if someone was to be monitoring the area.

Then again, why and who would be doing that?

It’s not like commercial flights and ships would be equipped with something like that. Hell, even the military was not that advanced. It was not cheap to actually use that equipment on large scale/

Wait.

“Was”.

That’s the problem.

I didn’t know how much had changed since I had my last “update” so to speak.

How much have people progressed?

Sure, the MIRE was not on top any more, supposedly, but that doesn’t mean that there wouldn’t be any other organisation that picked up the slack.

I was going to find out eventually, right?

But, despite my worries, nothing was interrupting our flight.

Hell, we didn’t even feel any other mana signature in the area.

Sure, we weren’t using it in full, constrained by the limits of our “host” and also being careful, but it was weird. I expected to at least see a singular thing. A boat, a plane, something?

The closer we were getting to the shore, the better the chances, right?

But, there was nothing.

-At this point I would’ve thought we'd stumbled on something already… - I heard Mike say next to me.

I guess he came to a similar conclusion.

-Same. But I guess we are flying low and there’s not too many ships…

-That too, but I meant actual land.

-Oh.

I actually wasn’t paying that much attention to that. How far did we fly?

-You think the continent was that close?

-That close? Look below. Look how fast we are.

It was hard to judge by just the moving sea, so I just shrugged.

-Dunno. How can you tell?

-By smoothness of the ride. Compared to the start, we are pretty much releasing wind constantly. It has to be nearby, right?

-Fair point…

Right. I suppose he was also just guessing here.

-We just have to wait.

-Pretty much.

But, after an hour long flight, we still were not any closer to land.

I was starting to be worried.

After the second hour passed and we were in the middle of the third, I officially realized that something had gone wrong.

-This makes no sense - agreed Mike. - By now we should’ve at least passed near an island or something! This part of the ocean should have plenty of those.

-Tell me about it. Maybe we mistook the direction…?

-Just look at the sky. We are clearly going north.

He was right. One look at the horizon and the setting sun was enough to tell where we were pointed towards. Unless the Earth has shifted its axis, there was no way we were wrong.

-Then what? Are we trapped again?

-We would’ve felt the change. No matter how perfect the teleport is, we would’ve noticed.

-I am out of ideas then.

-I honestly am, too… - he said, sighing.

-And there’s another thing worrying me - I said. - Since we are already having issues, I found a new one that’s been bothering me.

-I wonder… What now?

-We are absorbing mana from the environment, right? And if we were to be closer to civilization, wouldn’t mana get a bit thinner?

-I suppose…

-And especially here. This continent would have the densest population. I mean, we shouldn’t be that close to the city centers, but still. That should at least make some difference.

-Yeah… And…

-And that would mean that our “battery” would not be able to keep up with the speed we are going. Hell, I am pretty sure that we are still accelerating. Not that much, but still. Should be the opposite!

-I… uh… Right…. You’re right… - he said, fidgeting in place. - Even with the two of us, at the start the atmosphere was thinner… And we charged that thing…

-Well, to be fair, the two of us aren’t exactly “mana positive” on the environment. At least not me.

-True… You especially, are one kind of an anomaly.

-Yep. And the place isn’t either. Mana was weird here. So I assume the mainland with people and actual progress would bring a noticeable change, right?

-Mh… I don’t like this.

-Me neither.

But, despite our worries, there was nothing we could do.

We could change directions, but what would that do? If the world looked as we assumed it did, we had the best chances to find land by just going north. If it was somehow different, it’s not like changing our flight plan would give us a better shot at finding something.

The best we could do was to fly as far as we could.

He knew that as well, so with more worries on our mind we continued monitoring our flight, well into the night.