Early Afternoon - Early Winter : Western Siratha Space Rune

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*rumble* The muffled rumble of my thruster magic filled the air as Grandmother stared at me with a mix of concern and worry. "You can.. what?"

Her reaction wasn't what I expected at all. "I-I said I can just make a new space rune... I-isn't that what-"

*Bonk* She abruptly cut me off with a light tap on my nose. "Why would I worry about that in this situation?!"

"H-huh?" I was immediately taken aback. "T-then-"

"It's nothing, sweetie." Quickly calming down, she slowly looked back up toward the mountains and mumbled under her breath. "I.. just had to come to terms with something."

I raised an eyebrow, not quite understanding what she meant until she looked back at me.

"In any case..." Her expression darkened with guilt the moment she paused. "T..thank you for not getting yourself hurt to protect me..."

There was a short moment of silence that filled the air before I said anything. "You really are just like Mom..."

"Huh?" Her guilty look vanished in an instant as she looked up to see my slightly prideful smile.

"I'm glad you're worried about me, but even if that artifact blew up right next to me three years ago, I would have been fine. To me now, that might as well have been a firecracker." She stared at me with wide eyes as I spoke. "I've already had this talk with Mother and Father, but.. you shouldn't feel bad about standing behind me. I promise you I'm much stronger than you think."

Her shock slowly faded, but her guilt was still apparent. "I'm just.. not sure what I would do with myself if you got hurt while protecting me... I'm your grandmother... I should be the one protecting you..."

Slowly straightening up, I lightly nudged her off of me and used thruster magic to let her float. "Then think of it this way. If I took a blow to protect you and it really injured me.. what would it have done to you?" It was a dark thought, but I had to drive my point home. "I can always heal an injury, but I can't revive the dead... At least for Mother and Krystallo's sake.. don't feel bad about standing behind me."

She quickly fell silent and averted her eyes before eventually letting out a sigh. "Haah... I really do wonder how your personality is so similar to Father's sometimes..." She looked toward the ground with a reminiscing expression before finally turning back to me. "In any case, let's talk while we fly... We should get going..." Immediately changing to her humanoid form again, she used wind magic to land on my arm.

"Huh? Already?" -Why is she in such a rush?-

"We need to get back to Bahamut as fast as we can, and the longer we stay here, the more likely people are to come and check if I was killed or not."

-Oh.. I didn't think about that...- "But with the rune destroyed, won't communication with Bahamut be extremely delayed?"

"Only by a couple days. Once they figure out the rune is broken, they will go through the temple northwest of us."

-But wait...- "The only way they'd know it's broken is if someone on this side of the rune came to inspect it and went up to the temple."

"Hm? What makes you say that?" She gave me a confused look.

"The other space runes will still show this place as a destination, just the people that go into it will be eaten by the void... Wouldn't that delay it more?"

"Yes, but they would only send a few people into it that way before noticing something wrong. At most, we have half a week..."

Seeing her stressed expression, I had to ask. "That's more than enough time... Why do you look so worried?"

"I don't think we should take the rune at the temple..." She bit the tip of her thumb as she fell further into thought.

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"Why?"

"If they have enough power to get a hold of one of those artifacts, they will definitely have people waiting at the runes in Bahamut..."

-Ah...- I was immediately reminded that she knew something about the artifact and felt the urgent need to ask about it, but I had to hold myself back. -She won't make it to Bahamut if she flies herself...- "In that case, I can just carry you."

She jolted slightly as I suggested it. "I don't think that's a good idea..."

"Why not?"

She looked at me like I was crazy. "I know you are insanely fast, but what if you run out of mana before we get there? There's nowhere to land-"

Seeing her genuine concern, I wanted to laugh. "I promise you my mana is not a concern."

She still looked reluctant as she shifted around, but eventually, she found her way to my paw and sat down. "H..how fast can we get there?"

"A few hours max, but I need to do something before we go."

"Hm?" She immediately turned to look at me. "What is it?"

"Well, with the space rune destroyed, I need to go into the void and make sure people coming from places other than Bahamut won't be killed."

"Ah.. I didn't even think about that..."

"Here, Ilios, can you carry her for a moment?" Turning to look at Ilios, who was using space mana to stand on the fabric of space, I reached over and set Grandmother on his back. -Did he know he could do that before, or did he learn after seeing me use it to stop the recoil?- It was an odd feeling to once again be reminded that Ilios was technically a god, but unfortunately, I didn't have the time to really think about it. "I'll be back in a second." *Vwoop*

*Vwoop* Immediately popping into the void, I looked around at the usual web of tubes between the space runes, but this time, one of the large black spheres that existed where several tubes met up was gone, allowing space mana to freely flow into the tubes themselves. -My theory was right... Anyone who enters any of the runes leading here will just be eaten by the void...-

It was a grim thought, especially when considering that there was a very real chance that it could be someone I knew, but all I could do was hope no one had been fated to the void just yet. -In any case.. I should get to work.-

In total, there were five tubes filled with space mana, but I had to clean and repair them one at a time. -I guess I'm starting with this one...-

Quickly traveling down the tube to the temple by Captain Lassar's settlement, I got to the end and started to push out the space mana like liquid in a syringe, leaving just a bit of mana from my aura behind me to help ease the process. -Haah... I really hope this works...-

Eventually making it to the end, I rounded out the end of the tube and coated the inside with simple repulsion runes that would grow in strength as someone approached it, before eventually sending them back to the entrance of the space rune.

It was incredibly crude, but I was confident it would at least work well enough. -Now I have to do that three more times...-

Quickly getting to work, I patched up the tubes one by one, leaving only the northern Bahamut space rune open to the void. -Based on what is happening in Bahamut, the public can't use the rune to come in this direction right now anyway... I just need to make sure I come and fix it once things settle down...-

Looking around at my work and quickly making sure there weren't any obvious mistakes, I finally made my way back toward where I entered the void and popped out. *vwoop*

"Huh? Did something go wrong?" Grandmother gave me a slightly worried look as I appeared again.

"Hm? No, I just finished up."

As I extended my paw to her, her face washed with a mix of confusion and awe.

"I thought I already told you that time doesn't flow in the void..." I paused as I helped her and Ilios get situated. "I was in there for what felt like an hour... In any case, let's get going, shall we?"

"R..right." After finally getting herself situated, I increased the strength of the thruster magic I used to hover and took to the skies.

The next several minutes were wrapped in complete silence as I climbed in altitude as much as I could and further increased our speed.

But eventually, we got so high in the atmosphere that I could ease my vacuum magic and give us some air to talk in. -It's now or never...- "Grandmother..."

"What is it, sweetie?" She spoke while looking down toward the endless ocean below us.

"That artifact... What do you know about it? It sounded like you already had experience with something similar before..."

She tensed up the moment I mentioned it. "W..well.. that's a little difficult to explain..."

I wasn't willing to take no for an answer though. -Draconic science is far from even coming close to understanding how nuclear fission works, and based on how there was almost no radiation after it blew up.. it was probably fusion...- I was already almost certain I knew what the answer was, but I needed to hear it from her. "Does confidentiality really matter after what just happened?"

"Well..." She paused as she looked below us toward the still-glowing orange mountains that were slowly approaching the horizon. "I'm just not sure how to say it..."

"Say what?"

She paused before turning to look up at me. "That artifact, if it's what I think it is.. wasn't made by dragons..."

-Yeah, I already know that much...- But as I went to speak again, my thoughts got hung up. -Wait... she couldn't mean...-