The Virtues' Magecraft

Page 46: A Prank of Fate

"It seems you were too slow, Alexander Lane. Too weak," the meddlesome Titan said, the portal whirling around him as it began to shut. With the shield of shadow, it disappeared, leaving nothing other than a ripple of darkness and the remnants of his energy.

Alexander was still on his knees as he stared out at that specific spot. The last dredge of magic energy still floating in the air. His eyes widened as he finally dropped his arms, leaving them to impact onto the forest ground.

'They have the crystal,' he thought to himself. 'We lost.' That was the only thing he could tell himself.

And that was all. The only sound to leave his lips was a frustrated shriek into the forest.

'We lost.'

"Dammit..." Alexander mumbled, finally letting out a breath.

His gaze finally fell towards his bloodied hands. He clenched his fist, only to slam it into the ground.

"Dammit," he repeated, louder this time, pounding his hand into the dirt. "We lost!" he cried, still repeating those motions, still crashing his clenched fist onto the forest floor. "Dammit, dammit, dammit!"

And with that, the ground shook.

"We lost," he repeated to himself, his voice now softening. Still on his knees, Alexander spat out a sigh before forcing himself to stand up.

He looked up at the golden sunlight that cascaded down the treetops and onto him. "Well, what the hell am I supposed to do now?" he asked himself.

A moment of silence to himself was all he had before a voice pierced through to him.

"Alexander?" that voice asked.

Alexander spun to its source. And standing shielded by a tree to the side, Morgana stared at him as he stood at the epicenter of the cracked ground. Confusion stained her face.

"How did you get here?" he asked her, rushing towards the tree where she stood.

She had no response for him. Because she didn't know the answer either.

'Right. Spatial magic,' Alexander reminded himself. Just like what she used against Eve, just like how she arrived on this realm in the first place, her erratic spatial magic teleportation was the root cause.

Her entire presence, entire magic, entire existence was out of her own hands. And because of that... it made her a prank of fate.

Even from the distance between them, she noticed the blood that practically leaked from Alexander. "Are you okay?" she asked, still standing beside the tree.

He had already lost a bit of blood, but he was fine. Fine, he told himself. Not necessarily good, but a tolerable level of bad. Alexander was already minimizing his blood loss by controlling his own magic energy.

Ever since he used White Light, his capacity for energy control increased. By now, he was barely bleeding. And as much as he wanted to stop and think about how the hell he had just subconsciously used White Light against Hector, he couldn't. He had problems to deal with.

And as Alexander rushed towards Morgana, he noticed the white cloak hidden in the bushes. His eyes widened.

Alexander thrust out his hand. 'Stay back,' he motioned. He took in a sharp breath and slowly began turning to the fallen enemy. He wasn't moving. He wasn't hiding or waiting to attack. Among the chaos and combat, he was forgotten. Barely conscious and left behind. Alexander swallowed his dry saliva as he reached out to him.