The only thing I could do because I had no mana left... was to run with my body that was standing thanks to caora.
And so I ran.
Street by street, I explored everywhere I hadn’t been.
And finally... after a while, I ca across a large piece of ice in a street.
I slowly stopped running, realized that the mana in the ice was newly assembled and looked around.
’Walk a little further and you will find him.’
Sith... was a wonderful guide in situations like this.
With a smile on my face, I made my way to where he said, and then... I saw soone trying to pull soone out of the rubble of a fallen building.
And he did. Using a lever of ice that he created using his mana, he pushed the debris aside without using much muscle power and managed to rescue the person trapped underneath.
"You can reach the city center if you take this road and go straight ahead! Be careful!"
Then, he did not look again at the people he had saved. He didn’t have ti to look anyway. There were more people to save.
But then, as he looked around, his eyes turned in my direction and he paused. His ocean blue eyes widened and his lips involuntarily curled upward.
"Aiden! You’re alive!"
"Of course I’m alive, was I supposed to die?"
Seeing that he was okay... was definitely a relief.
"Adrian, Celine, and Alice are in the city center. The soldiers and others have most of the city under control, so you’d better go there too."
Julian sighed at my words, nodding his head. But then he paused, his brow furrowed.
"Where is Sue...? You didn’t tell where she is."
The smile on my face quickly disappeared. And Julian... noticed the change in my expression, but said nothing.
Still, I felt the need to answer.
"I don’t know. I was still wandering the streets looking for you and her, actually."
"I see..."
He looked around one last ti, made sure there was no one nearby to help... and then turned in the direction of the city center.
"If you still haven’t found her after I stop by the center... I’ll start looking for her too."
I couldn’t help smiling involuntarily. Everyone in the group was aware of my relationship with Sue, so they knew how... important it was for to find her.
"Thank you. And watch out on the road, so places are still blowing up."
Julian nodded, then started running briskly in the opposite direction from where I had co.
"All right!"
And that’s how we parted ways.
After him... I started to run again.
Every now and then, I could feel the caora rippling through my body, I was getting closer and closer to my limit. But I didn’t stop, I couldn’t stop, not until I found Sue.
So I kept going.
I turned down streets, entered the ruins of so buildings, moving forward and forward as Sith scanned the whole place with my mana, which filled up from ti to ti.
About five minutes after eting Julian... I suddenly realized that I had entered a rather quiet street and paused.
My brow furrowed quickly. I glanced behind out of the corner of my eye, checking the debris around , above and even below .
But... no one was there.
So... why was it so quiet here?
I soon got my answer.
As soon as I realized a large portion of mana gathering around , I tried to move aside to change position, but... I was too late.
Or rather... I had to stop, bumping into sothing invisible.
I squinted, tried to keep my composure, put my hand on the invisible wall, and started moving forward. Soon I realized... that I was trapped inside a tiny cube.
"I don’t know what’s going on, but... whoever’s responsible for this better co out fast."
There was no response. No one erged from the shadows or from the ruins.
Just... nothingness.
’Aiden, wait.’
At Sith’s warning, I quickly stopped where I was, and then... seeing his eyes suddenly widen, I knew sothing was very wrong.
’We’re... above a rune! Watch out!’
My eyes quickly shifted to my feet, or rather to the ground beneath my feet.
As I looked, there was nothing there. It was simply... asphalt with cracks appearing on it.
But then, all of a sudden, this ’normal’ ground began to glow. A white-colored line began to elongate and rge with others, forming a shape on the ground in the middle of all this glow.
At first, I thought it was a tiny one.
But then it kept getting bigger, the size of a car.
Then it grew even bigger... as big as a bus.
But it still didn’t stop.
"What… the hell is this?!"
It grew and grew, it kept getting bigger and bigger.
I quickly ran my eyes over the shapes, trying to figure out what the rune was, trying to distort the rune by creating dozens, hundreds of different formations in my mind... and suddenly, I froze in place.
A familiar noun caught my attention in the rune. A noun... similar to the one I used on the man who is now in my dinsional inventory.
"Soul..."
This thing... whatever it was, it was going to do sothing with my soul.
"Sith, retreat into my soul and protect !"
But I didn’t even have to say that. Because Sith, the mont that thought crossed my mind, floated into my chest and retreated back into my soul.
He knew exactly what to do.
’Huh? What the fuck?’
I was going to ask him what happened. But... before I could ask, I suddenly felt my whole body trembling. It wasn’t from pain or fatigue. It was sothing inside , because of what had been done to my soul.
The rune suddenly shimred with a brilliant glow. Every inch of the street was covered in as much light as possible.
But then... it disappeared.
Montarily, there was another wave of light, but it was so fast that it was like... a photograph had been taken.
The rune disappeared beneath my feet, the invisible walls that had imprisoned disappeared.
I found myself... standing in the middle of the street as if nothing had happened.
"What... happened?"
I didn’t understand anything. Literally nothing.
’They didn’t do any harm.’
And the only person who might have had an answer to my confusion, Sith, erged from my chest and appeared in front of . He had an uneasy, yet thoughtful expression on his face.
"What did they do then...?"
Sith turned his green eyes on , then...
’They simply... mirrored your soul.’
They... mirrored my soul?
’Wait, are you trying to tell they... copied my soul?’
Sith shook his head from side to side.
’Not copied. They mapped the inverse of your soul’s projection in spiritual space.’
Oh...
I didn’t... understand anything?
Though…
It doesn’t seem much different than copying my soul.
"So... what kind of things can they do with it?"
I don’t rember such a trick being used in the ga...
I keep thinking of voodoo dolls for so reason...
’They can’t... do much. It’s not your soul that is mirrored, it’s just a map of the image of its inverse. So whatever they do, it won’t have any effect on you.’
That’s a bit of a relief, I guess?
’If they did it, they must have had a purpose. But... I’m not sure what it is. I’m sorry, Aiden. I couldn’t stop the process, it happened too fast.’
I took a deep breath in and out. I had a very unpleasant feeling. Having no idea what they were going to do with the ’image’ of my soul... It was a bit scary.
Still, it wasn’t sothing I needed to think about right now, no matter how serious it was or wasn’t.
Because first... I had to find Sue.
But just then the slight purple on my vision suddenly disappeared, a very sharp and distinct pain spread through my whole body... and a trendous tiredness ca over .
"Ah, n- no..."
As caora left , refusing to stay in my body any longer, the last thing that kept standing started to disappear.
I didn’t have a wound, I didn’t even have a scratch on my body.
Yet it was no simple thing to use two ascension skills at maximum power at the sa ti. And this was exactly its backlash.
I gritted my teeth, tried to resist and... I realized that I could do it a little bit.
I just... had to move carefully, even more so than usual.
So I gritted my teeth and started moving forward again. This ti with very slow steps, deliberately supporting myself with my cane.
I passed through streets where no people were to be seen, and after a while, I even started to leave the residential area of the city. I was heading toward the industrial zone. And this was... the only place in the whole city where Sue hadn’t been searched.
"-mn it!"
And after a short while, I suddenly heard an angry voice shouting and paused.
I squinted, pricked up my ears, and tried to listen to the person speaking.
"The stupid girl mixed her blood into the jewel. We’re going to have to try hard to get the result we want."
It’s... talking... to soone?
My brow furrowed. With slow steps, a little hidden, I made my way to where the voice ca from. When I leaned back against a building and peeked down the street, I saw... a woman standing in the middle of the road.
Her face was hidden, the black clothes she wore seed to disappear in the darkness of the night.
"Understood, I’m coming."
After her words, she disappeared for real as if she had never been there.
I slowly ca out of my hiding place and started walking toward where she had just stood.
As I was trying to figure out what she was talking about... I paused.
Right in the middle of the street, at the spot where the woman had just stood, sothing caught my attention. As I got closer... I noticed a few different details.
The stench of blood and rust was the first. Then... the trail of blood behind it, as if it was crawling for a long ti, was the second.
’Stop... Aiden, wait a second.’
"Hmm? What happened?"
Sith, who had been hovering beside until now, narrowed his eyes and looked specifically at the person on the ground. Then... his eyes gradually widened.
"Sith, did sothing happen?"
But Sith... said nothing. He just... continued to stare blankly ahead of him, stiffening.
My brow furrowed, I turned my attention away from him and back to the figure on the ground. I took a few more steps toward it. And... in the darkness of the night, more and more details were revealed before my eyes.
When I saw what kind of dress the figure was wearing and what color it was... I froze in place just like Sith.
"H- huh...?"
My eyes widened, my lips parted.
I took a step in fear.
"Wait... n- no..."
And then another one.
Finally... I got right in front of her.
"Sue...?"
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