TBATE | King Grey

-CHAPTER 21- Mysteries of Mana Arts II

Author Notes: Exams can suck my D, 'cause I fucked it up!

No matter how many times I watched Sylvia manipulate space—which, she hasn't taught me how—it still made me feel awe-struck.

As the space stopped distorting, an oval-shaped...stone, with multiple colours inside it, sat on Sylvia's palm. I looked from it, to the surroundings, to see if anyone's going to join us. "Sylvia, you said someone else will join us. When will they come?"

Sylvia who was looking down at the stone on her palm, slightly shook as my words reached her. Dragging her gaze away from it, she looked at me with a sullen face.

"What's wrong?"

Over the past few weeks, I had started to understand this mysterious woman to some vague degree. So it wasn't natural to see Sylvia with such a reaction.

It felt odd.

"Do not worry about me, Grey. You should prepare yourself for our final ordeal. Clear yourself off lingering and frivolous thoughts and relax your body."

Saying that, Sylvia cupped the stone between her palms and intertwined her fingers around it. Closing her eyes, a familiar glow soon started to appear from her body. It increased in intensity as the golden light became brighter and brighter, enveloping Sylvia in a golden-white cocoon.

*pop*

The golden light burst out, multiplied and washed over the mossy grounds, the green lake and the rocky cave ceiling, turning everything into a glorious sight.

As the lights slowly died down, I saw Sylvia with those celestial symbols—or rather, mana spell-forms that assists and enhances a mage's mana utility to incomprehensible levels—appear on her skin again.

Then her eyes shot open, as they burned in an amethyst light. She wasn't even staring directly at me, yet I could feel her domineering pressure weigh down on my very soul. It felt uncomfortable and made me feel very insignificant. I could hear my whole body screaming and begging at me to run far away from her sight.

Trembling meekly, I sat firm on the ground and tried to do what Sylvia had said: Clear my mind, relax my body. Simple, right? Only, I needed to be relaxed when a deadly beast has its bloody maw snapped open next to my pulsing throat.

Cursing at myself and everything, I watched as the multi-coloured stone that was sitting quietly in Sylvia's hand, suddenly start to float. Bright, purple coloured cone of light manifested in thin air, matching Sylvia's eye colour, oddly, before it enveloped the stone.

I watched with baited breath as the mana around the space started to warp visibly, to the naked eye, and the amount used in it made me feel sick and my stomach roll.

Sweat formed all over my forehead, neck and my back as I started to shiver uncontrollably. What the heck is happening?

Then, an explosion came.

*BOOM*

Mana surged outward. Red, blue, green, brown, purple; all sorts of colours shot out of that bloody stone, making the entire mountain shake. Ground trembled and the ceiling cracked.

*CRASH*

Lumps and lumps of broken rocks and chips fell down upon us, sizes ranging from humans to small mana beasts; crashing and breaking the ground, waking up mushroom clouds of dusts. Some fell into the still lake, finally breaking its peaceful surface, causing ripples and waves to form, followed by the drowning noises.

I gasped as my eyes moved themselves to where the stone is—was—supposed to be. Only, now there stood a figure in the shape of a small human.

What the—