The Root of Magic

Chapter 30

"Us three? How?" said Destan, gaping at his grandfather.

"I need them all to stop fighting so I can have their attention. You," he explained to Keara, "will use your power to build a metal wall between them. In the meantime, you two will levitate the guns from their hands and get rid of them. While most of them are incapacitated, I will draw the attention to me and make them stop."

Destan nodded, glad to see there was an actual plan. That things didn't depend on him anymore. His granddad would fix things. Everything would be alright.

"M-me?" Julia squealed. "I don't even know how I did that!"

"You'll be okay, Julia," said Destan. "Just follow my lead. We know you have it in you, just let it come out. Don't worry, we'll do it together."

Julia hesitated, but nodded.

"Let's do this," said Keara. She pointed her palms at the metal shield behind them and it lifted up, moving it across the stream towards the Inops. It pushed people aside, creating a barrier between the two sides. Destan watched in horror as a few people got stuck on the wrong side of the blockade and immediately became the target of people's wrath. His stomach turned as the amount of people lying motionless on the ground, grew.

"Now, Julia! Lift up as many as you can!"

Destan scanned the area for the right kind of molecules, locking onto them. All at once, dozens of guns levitated up into the air. In their bewilderment, the Inops momentarily stopped trying to get back into the fight. The screams and shouts of battle changed into frightful ones when Inops suddenly found themselves disarmed and defenceless.

"I'm doing it!" came Julia's voice from next to him. "Look, I'm doing it!"

People were so busy with their own misfortune, that nobody noticed their Chief step forward beside them, in full view of both the tribe and the Inops. Before Remus had the chance to speak, someone tore Keara's metal shield down with their own powers, and fire, water, lightning and all other kinds of magic already shot off to their enemies again. With the Inops defenceless, it quickly turned into a massacre.

"They're not stopping!" Destan shouted to his granddad. "What now?"

Julia screamed in terror as people dropped to the ground, one after the other.

With the guns now gone, Destan knew he had to do something. Anything, to put an end to this.

Without thinking, he drew as much power as he could to his atraments, let them glow brighter and brighter, before letting go of it all. One by one, tribers levitated up into the air. Never before had he lifted up something so heavy as dozens of people. He strained to levitate as many as he could, but some inevitably got left behind. Still, it caused enough confusion to stop them from fighting for a while. Frightful screams pierced the air when the tribers found themselves dangling in the sky.

Keara's metal sheet immediately built itself back up between the two small armies.

If possible, the tribers' voices only got louder, as they protested and screamed for the shield to be removed. When a woman spotted Keara and grabbed her arm to stop her, Destan was ready to drop everyone to the ground like stones and help his friend, but it turned out unnecessary. A fire erupted in front of Keara, chasing the woman away.

What is...? Destan searched the crowd to find Elias still balancing in the air, his hands outstretched and all his attention on his best friend. Is he helping us?

"Don't you dare!" he growled at the woman.

"We have a war to finish!"

Elias glanced at Keara, who nodded back. "Well, maybe it's over already."