Twisted Wonderland 2

Oddly Reassuring

Everyone stares at Malleus in shock.

"Are you all right, sir?" Sebek asks.

"I'm not under any great strain," Malleus assures. "but it will take longer than usual for me to cast spells. When we fell into the waterway, I tried to safeguard Y/N, as my friend can't use magic."

"You did that for me?" You ask.

Malleus smiles to you. "Of course. I didn't want any harm to come to you."

You smile appreciatively. "Thank you, Malleus."

Malleus nods. "But I couldn't control my magic as normal, I couldn't even levitate as I usually can. It will take some time for me to recover. My power alone won't be enough to eliminate the firelotuses in the city as things stand."

"Makes sense." Idia shrugs. "Those flowers aggroed Malleus right away in the lecture hall."

Azul nods. "Yes. It's only because he's Malleus that he's still standing right now. Any other mage would've long since been sucked dry if that many flowers had got them at once."

Sebek growls. "Those wretched plants' impertinence knows no bounds...!"

Silver hums in thought. "It might not be feasible with just Malleus, but what if we all combined our magic?"

Idia scoffs. "Who, us? Are you ours? Okay, uh, lemme give you a metaphor. If Malleus's magical power is a twenty five meter pool, each of ours would be a water bottle-no, not even that. We'd be a bottle cap's worth. The rest of us combined couldn't reach half his power. Pooling our magic for some fancy combo attack? Please. We're a drop in the bucket compared to him."

Malleus chuckles. "I wouldn't describe my power THAT generously."

"No, he's right!" Sebek exclaims. "You possess immense power, Malleus. We could never hold a candle to you!"

Riddle rolls his eyes. "This isn't a competition, but the point does stand."

"Then I guess we gotta stick to weeding 'em the old-fashioned way." Epel says.

Jamil shakes his head. "Out of the question. It was hard enough to clear the ones around here. We couldn't cover the whole city. We'd never be able to keep up with how fast they spread that way. The flowers would swarm us in a second. It'd be like laying out a banquet for them."

"Then what else can we do?" Epel asks.

Deuce's eyes light up with an idea. "Oh, what if we burn them without using magic? That'd take care of 'em fast, right?"

Ruggie quirks an eye. "Deuce, you know how far they've spread throughout the town. If we set them on fire, the flames will spread and burn down the whole city. That'd be just as bad."

"Oh, right..." Deuce's shoulders slump.

You place a hand to his arm reassuringly. "It was a good effort."

Deuce chuckles, scratching his neck. "Thanks, Y/N."

"Can't we ask Night Raven College and others outside the city for help?" Silver suggests.

Trein shakes his head. "There are still unconscious students in the lecture hall, you know. Their magic is being sapped as we speak. If we don't act fast, the flowers will drain them of their magic completely and they'll never regain it. Judging by how rapidly I could feel my own power being drained, we have hours at most. We can't afford to wait for help. We cannot allow one man's nonsense to deprive those young students of their futures. We have to do something."