Didn’t Think We’d Get This Far
"That thing is a bomb." Lady Haggai said with such unbotheredness that it was disturbing.
"... aning?" The Citadel Lord asked with narrowed eyes, his gaze fixed on the large do.
"Its size has grown by approximately 7 inches since its inception. But not due to growing, but straining. It’s struggling to contain whatever is inside of it. Which I assu is corrupt Mana." She gestured to the surroundings.
"Moreover, the weight of the pure Mana in the surroundings is constantly pressing down on it. Think of a balloon that’s being inflated hundreds of ters underwater. If the dium being inflated and pressed down at the sa ti isn’t durable enough, I’ll eventually rupture." She then gestured to the crowd of people and beyond that had sowhat cald down, but was still panicking as many people in the crowd had their kids in the do.
"If the do—which is the taphorical balloon—pops, the corrupt Mana will be diffused into the surroundings for miles, infecting everyone here with corrupt Mana, and anyone who can’t reasonably protect themselves will die from the initial wave alone." She explained with a detached look in her eyes.
"... That much corrupt Mana, the students..." Mrs Jane trailed off.
"We can’t think about that right now." Principal Timothy shook his head.
"Right now, our priority is to protect the civilians." However, Simon frowned.
"Even if that’s the case, we can’t ascertain if there is anyone in the crowd who’s responsible for what just happened. If we allow the people to evacuate, the perpetrators will get away and beco an issue in the future." He stated.
"But we’ve gone around several tis and we weren’t able to find anything wrong with anybody." Stephen, Ellie’s father pointed out.
"Yeah, but I went past so of those technicians multiple tis before the exam started with my Mana sense active and I didn’t notice anything. Chances are that if there is anyone, they have a way to evade our senses." Fredrick chid in.
Mrs Jocelyn watched from the sidelines, a crease forming on her already wrinkled brows.
They were about to discuss more when several screams suddenly caught their attention. Not the simple screams of panic, but screams of pain and agony.
They saw several people fall to the ground with their Mana sense, their bodies convulsing with a black substance leaking from their orifices.
Lady Haggai summoned several vines and pulled them to them in an instant.
The unconscious people landed at their feet, and they inspected them closely. They looked pale with a black tar-like substance coming from their orifices, but it wasn’t blood.
"There are so remnants of corruption, but it’s fading quickly." Mrs Jane squatted as she swiped so of the substance off one of the unconscious people with a confused expression.
"None of them are injured." Lady Haggai mumbled, and they all looked at her.
"There is no internal damage anywhere. A ntal attack, perhaps?" She mumbled to herself.
"What do you—
CRACK
A resounding crack that sounded like soone had just split apart the sky thundered through the area, montarily stunning most of the people there.
Except the experts, of course.
Their attention snapped to the do which now had a massive rupture within it that was rapidly growing.
Through their Mana sense, they could see massive swathes of Corrupt Mana beginning to erge rapidly.
"Shit! Everyone, use your Mana to redirect it... upwards?" The Citadel Lord trailed off as they noticed sothing strange start to happen.
The Corrupt Mana... started to recede.
___
"Do you guys trust ?" When Osho asked the question, everyone was silent for a mont, the Kurt sighed.
"What crazy plan do you have now?" Kurt asked with a shake of his head, making Osho let out a slightly relieved sigh.
He spared a look at Ellie who had stopped crying, and she nodded, gesturing for him to continue.
He took a deep breath before starting.
"Gale has total control of anything within his domain. Moreover, rember when I said that no form of Mana can enter unless he lets it? Well, it goes a step beyond that," He glanced at the bird who chirped confidently. "He can also actively suck Mana in, like a vacuum. So, I was thinking. Could Gale suck a bunch of the corrupt Mana into his domain and press it into a compressed point, like what we did with Clyde’s sound attack, but on a larger scale, and then... send it into the air?" Everyone blinked at the suggestion, and an objection ca almost imdiately.
"Osho, you’re comparing compressing the attack of a novice-ranked beast to compressing Corrupt Mana spanning across several kiloters worth of land. Those are NOT the sa thing at all." Ellie said with narrowed eyes.
"I know." Osho nodded calmly.
"And you’re assuming that Gake can control such a thing when he has never done it before, and that’s if his domain could even withstand that much pressure?" Irene asked, exasperated.
"Yup." Osho nodded again.
"... You’re gonna do it even if we disagree, won’t you?" Kurt rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"I an, I’d prefer you agreed since your help would be appreciated, but yeah," He tilted his head. "But if I realize it’s too much, I’d rather we just get as many of the students as possible into Gale’s domain to protect them from the corrupt Mana before the do pops."
Everyone stared at him, then Ellie sighed before leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek.
"You’re an idiot." She sighed and looked at him with determination.
"How confident are you?" She asked.
He blinked at looked at Gale.
’Are you confident?’ He asked through their bond and the bird puffed up his chest.
’Absolutely!’ He replied with immutable confidence.
’Love the determination. Whether or not you can do it remains to be seen.’ He chuckled.
"Gale says he can do it, so I’ll believe him." He relayed.
"Ugh, fine, whatever." Kurt huffed.
"Might as well."
"Yeah, sure." Irene and Sam concurred.
As soon as they said that, a loud crack suddenly caught their attention.
They looked up, and most of them paled. A large fissure appeared in the do, revealing the sky, which would have been a nice sight if the group didn’t know the implications of such a thing.
Moreover, the fissure was rapidly growing.
"Gale!" Osho yelled and the bird screeched as he spread his wings and expanded his domain to its maximum range.
As soon as he did, everyone with Mana sense felt a shift, and those without it still felt sothing change.
Osho watched as the domain pulsed, and the surrounding corrupt Mana that was about to start rushing towards the fissure paused, then started surging into the domain.
Corrupt Mana was pulled in from all directions and began to coalesce in front of Gale, the domain working to prevent it from dispersing.
Osho helped in keeping the Mana stable as he controlled the domain along with Gale, his hands aid at the bird, or rather, in front of him as he strained to keep the sudden influx of corrupt Mana in a single shape.
"What should we do?!" Ellie asked quickly.
"Help in creating a container!" Osho yelled as he felt Gale increase the speed of the suction. He would have marveled at how quick it was if he weren’t already beginning to strain.
He felt the others quickly help him, their Mana coming together to try and help keep the dense corrupt Mana from erupting.
Slowly, from the edges of the do beca less and less saturated with corrupt Mana as it was pulled inwards.
Osho grit his teeth as he felt like he was physically straining, his mind feeling like a large weight was pressing on it.
’... Heavy.’ He thought as he focused on the task ahead of him.
The corrupt Mana soon beca so compressed that one didn’t even need a Mana sense to see it. A black orb of vile energy about 5 ters in diater pulsed and crackled with volatile energy.
’Gale... how is... the domain...?’ Osho asked with so effort.
’Still strong...’ Gale replied, his voice noticeably more relaxed than Osho, but it was clear the bird was straining as well.
Osho noticed the others struggling just to keep their Mana output to help maintain the container within the domain. As for the beasts that had now all lost consciousness after the Abyssal Scrounger died and the unconscious students, the corrupt Mana was getting sucked out of their bodies and being pulled into the orb which got denser and denser.
Osho lost track of ti as he focused all his attention on maintaining the orb.
Admittedly, Gale was doing about 80% of the work. The difference between the bird and himself was just that big, but that didn’t make it any less difficult.
For every second that passed, the orb got denser and denser, to the point that simply staring at it made Osho’s head swim. But he pushed on.
’Co... on...!’ He groaned as he felt himself begin to reach his limit, and then, then...
It stopped.
He froze as he realized that no more corrupt Mana was coming in.
’Done!’ Gale exclaid happily, but there was an obvious note of exhaustion seeping through their bond.
"F-Fuck... did we do it?" Sam cursed and looked up, her eyes red with strain.
"Y-Yeah... that was everything." Osho managed a weak smile.
"Great... so... what now?" Ellie rasped, and everyone looked at Osho who smiled wryly.
"Well, that’s a good question....the thing is... I didn’t think we’d get this far..."
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