Return of the Fallen Volume 8 Chapter 18
“ANOTHER ONE! QUICKLY MAKE ANOTHER GATE!”
Tsura screamed at the top of her lungs.
The moment Bozek and Mei were teleported away, the magic circle inscribed into the ground cracked apart and broke. Tsura imagined Mei away from her side in the world of man, and she thought of all the countless dangers. Her heart began to beat wildly as she panicked.
The Golem, on the other hand, knew of none of this and simply interpreted her command as it did earlier.
Its eyes shifted in color from purple to green, and the ground started to change once more. Lamia, though, understood the consequences. Just as Tsura stopped her from panicking over Nunully, she too would help her friend at this time and try to calm her down.
“Don’t make another circle!”
The golem was just setting the groundwork when this new command rolled out. It stopped right there and then and stood idle.
Tsura looked at Lamia as if she were crazy, but Lamia grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her dead in the eye.
“You stopped me before, and it was the right thing to do. Outside of here is the Rin Mountain Range. If you go out there, you won’t survive even a minute of the cold. You would be going to your own death.”
“But but! Mei, she’s out there. How can I just leave her all alone? I mean, if we hurry, then this golem can open a gate right where Mei and Bozek were teleported to. If we hurry, I can be there right away.”
“She’s not alone; Bozek is with her. Plus, there’s no guarantee Bozek would simply wait around there. That cold, he may be capable of handling it just fine, but Mei won’t be. His first instinct should be to take her out of the mountains. They must be long gone already. If you go out there, you will be alone and in the middle of a frozen storm. There’s no way you can survive.”
Tsura collapsed to the ground.
“How could I have let this happen? She should have been right by my side, and now she’s out there. How will she eat? How will she sleep without me? I…I have to go to her.”
Tears began to stream down Tsura’s cheeks, and Lamia hugged her tightly.
“No, this was an accident; you’re not to blame. Don’t do that to yourself; just don’t. Bozek is strong; he’ll protect her. Not only that, he knows Glacious treats little Mei like family. He wouldn’t dare put her in harm’s way. All he needs to do is send a message to King Brian. After he sends it out, he can wait this war out someplace far away from it all. Once big brother finishes things, he’ll end the war and come back. When he knows she’s out there, he’ll be able to find her right away and bring her back. They’ll all come back, and everything will be okay. Just trust in big brother. Glacious will solve it.”
“You say that like it’s so simple. This war, though, has been going on for over a year now. How can it just end?”
Hearing this, even Lamia found no answer. In her mind, her big brother was the strongest being in the entire world. He was a dragon. He could go toe to toe with a Titan and make the other party retreat. He could lift mountains and sink the entirety of the Feya continent into the ocean if he truly desired. She knew this and understood it fully, so why then was the war taking so long?
Lamia could only hug Tsura even tighter in silence. She could say nothing. Inside, she prayed for Glacious to hurry and end things. She prayed for her daughter’s and everyone else’s safe return.
(Please, please come back safe and sound.)
—————————————————————————-
Landing far away from the mountain, Mei was feeling nice and cozy right now. Bozek had used a little magic and surrounded her with a barrier of warmth. As long as she stayed by his side, no cold could touch her. Even picking up a bit of snow was warm in her hand, and in this barrier, it swiftly melted away. This was surprisingly fun, and she continued to grab handfuls of snow and watch them melt away in seconds before throwing the small amount of water in the air.
As soon as the water was thrown out of the barrier, to her delight, it refroze and turned into powdered snow.
Mei was now no longer concerned with being outside of the tiny world and was repeatedly having fun.
Bozek, on the other hand, couldn’t grasp a child’s simple mind.
Ignoring Mei’s playing, Bozek grabbed the odd mirror and poured some of his power into it. The embedded crystal lining the edge of this mirror all began to shine, and its reflective surface started to display something.
It was at this moment that King Brian’s face appeared as a holographic image. King Brian was completely shocked, and the first word out of his mouth was…
“How?”
Bozek ignored that question for now.
“Forget that. Garn betrayed me and tried to murder me because I wouldn’t follow his orders to burn an entire city of people.”
Brian knew it. He knew something was wrong and knew Bozek wouldn’t simply go crazy, as Garn reported. The fact that Garn had said that he killed Bozek after Bozek burned a city, yet Bozek was still alive, proved that Garn had lied.
“Tell me everything!”
“I will later. First, I have a message. Since you know how Garn is, this is a warning. I want you to relay this message to Nunul
Bozek made it to here before several of the crystals in his mirror cracked and the communication instantly shut off.
“What!?!?!?!?”
Bozek couldn’t understand why this was happening to him. For the power source to actually fail at such a critical time. The mirror completely shut off, and he didn’t get the message out.
Bozek tried to circulate his own power in place of the crystals, but this device required the element of space and light. Neither one was something he used. The crystals along the mirror could convert the user’s own magic into the magic it needed to work. Without these crystals, this magic device would not work.
“SHIT!!!!”
Bozek wished to smash this device here and now, but he knew that would not help.
(To deliver the message, I’ll have to go to Mountain Headquarters, but Garn has eyes all over the front. He’ll see me coming from hundreds of miles away. He’ll intercept me the moment I’m in range, plus there’s the kid. I’d like to say Garn wouldn’t kill kids, but he’s completely unhinged. Not only that, Tsura said that Garn is enemies with them. He’ll surely kill her. I can’t even defend myself from his floating palace, let alone protect this child at the same time. What do I do? This message has to get out. They have to be warned before Garn turns on them!)
Mei grabbed Bozek’s sleeve and gently pulled it a few times.
“Old mister, what’s wrong?”
*Haa*
Bozek released a heavy sigh before pointing to his mirror.
“These crystals broke. Without them, this device won’t work. Without this device, I can’t warn King Brian nor your friend Nunully. Garn is insane; he’ll do anything if it means achieving his goal, and with Glacious and Etora busy, there will be no one to stop him from harming Nunully and the rest.”
Mei looked at the mirror and grabbed one of the broken crystals from it.
Bozek was a little worried, but the crystals were already broken. She could do no further damage to it.
Mei held the crystal up above her and looked through it. With the light from the sun shining down through it, it reflected some light and shone in her eye.
Mei slammed her eyes shut.
“Ow! That stings!”
Bozek was completely worried at this moment, but seeing Mei fooling around even now, he couldn’t help but chuckle slightly.
“This kid. You sure know how to go through life, don’t you?”
Mei rubbed her stinging eye before pouting.
“Mei is not a kid! Mei is a big big bird!”
Bozek didn’t wish to argue and just nodded along.
“Right, Mei is a big bird.”
“No, a big big bird. Get it right old mister.”
Being called an old mister, again and again, Bozek sighed inwardly.
“Fine. Big big bird who’s not a kid, do you have any ideas? No, I didn’t think so. Let me think for a bit. I need to figure out my next move.”
Before Bozek could even begin to think, Mei spoke up.
“If It’s just those crystals, why don’t you just replace them?”
Bozek looked at Mei with a fed-up expression.
(This is why kids are…whatever.)
“Mei, these crystals are not something one can just find in any random shop. Most craftsmen and merchants don’t deal with these. Only experts or the filthy rich would even keep them. I can’t just go and replace them.”
Mei shook her head.
“Old mister you give up way too easy. I know exactly where we can get more of those…um…crystal things.”
“You don’t even know what they’re called, but you think you know where to get them. Do tell.”
“I don’t know the name of them, but I have definitely seen them before, a good amount too. They were in an old mister’s shop. He was kind of grumpy and short, but at the same time, he was always joking. He was really weird, but he helped my mom get rid of her bad limiter tattoos.”
Bozek heard this and was surprised.
“Wait what? Are you serious? Are you sure they are the same kind of crystals, just like these?”
Bozek held the crystals out for Mei to look at once more, and Mei nodded repeatedly.
“Yep. Old man Sid’s shop. He has all kinds of interesting and rare things. I was there a long, long time ago, but he definitely had some. If you don’t believe me, just ask my mama; she was there too.”
The two went quiet for a moment as Mei realized her mom couldn’t verify anything since she wasn’t there.
A slight blush of embarrassment appeared on Mei’s face, but she didn’t change her stance and continued.
“Believe me or not, but it’s really really the truth.”
Bozek didn’t know whether this little girl in front of him really understood the situation, but the choices he had weren’t many.
(I can’t take this child to the front no matter what. If she says she knows where I can get these crystals, I’ll put my faith in her.)
“Ok, I believe you, young miss. Do you recall where this man’s shop is?”
Mei nodded.
“It’s in a town called Ed…ed…ed something.”
Bozek’s heart began to sink.
“You don’t know the name?”
Mei thought for a moment before smiling.
“I can’t remember, but I definitely know it’s in a town that starts with those letters. I can show you.”
“Wait, you know the direction?”
“Of course, I’ve been there before with Mama and the others.”
Bozek had nothing else to rely on. He had already chosen to put his faith in Mei. Swallowing hard, he gulped and said a few words he hoped he wouldn’t regret.
“Please…Lead the way.”
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