"Turn back! We need to take Arman and Elliot with us!"
But Lycan wouldn't listen. He didn't even slow down.
"Turn back! We can't leave without the rest of our friends!"
Lycan refused to respond.
He just kept running.
His large bulking body moved so fast while carrying three people with ease seemed impossible, but run he did, and he kept running until we left Nigellus' earsplitting screams behind us.
"Where are we going?!" I asked, catching my breath, my chest heaving with anger and frustration. "How could you just leave our friends behind?!"
"W-we can come back for them next time," Lycan finally stammered in reply.
"Nigellus will kill Arman!"
"H-he's a mage... t-the I-Ivory Tower won't let him."
"What a bout Elliot?! We must preserve his body!"
"Too late..."
"But..."
I clammed up.
He was right.
It was already too late for Elliot.
Too late to do anything but run, if we wanted to leave the academy alive. The rest of the guards were still after us, and they were gaining on us fast.
"W-what do we do now?" Lycan asked as we neared the gilded gates of the academy.
"Put me down, Lycan."
Lycan stopped right in front of the closed gates.
I know it was enchanted with layers and layers of protective spells to keep intruders out and the students trapped in. I don't think I could disarm it, though I could still try.
"Stop your futile resistance, you're surrounded now!"
I glare at the grand knight Lucifer, his armor, dented, his cloak, burnt. He seething with rage, aura sword aimed at us.
"I can't believe a sickly looking maggot like you could cause us so much trouble!" he muttered under his breath. "Surrender at the count of three, or so be it, I will cut you down right here and now!"
Lycan touched my shoulder
"One."
"Take Cat with you," he asked of me.
"Two."
"There's no need to leave anyone else," I assured him.
"Three!"
Grand Knight Lucifer charged at us as I chanted.
'Disarm'
Several weapons flew up into the air, but only those in front of us were disarmed of their weapons, and Grand Knight Lucifer was not even one of them.
"I will buy you time!" Lycan shouted at me, picking one of the swords the guards had dropped. "Take Cat and escape!"
"Not without you!" I shouted back as he charged at the grand knight. I spread both arms and my fingers apart and begin to chant once more.
'Puncture'
Air slugs the size of a fist punctured the armor of the guards surrounding us, but it was not enough.
'Slice'
But a slash from Grand Knight Lucifer's aura blade made even this attack useless. It merely removed the helmet off a couple of guards beside him
"Look out!"
Lycan shoved me aside as a guard aimed to stab me. I fell sprawling to the ground next to Cat and Darius' body.
"L-leave this to me, Pat," he insisted. "T-take Cat and go!"
But there was nowhere else to go.
I watch as Lycan grabbed hold of another sword, and with both arms stretched at opposite directions, sent his aura to his weapons and charged at Grand Knight Lucifer.
The guards are down to only six now, and Lycan kept them from reaching us, hoping that I might have something else up my sleeve.
But there was nothing left, except...
I close my eyes and sighed deeply.
It is said that the skin is an extension of the lungs, it also breaths and absorbs substances from your surroundings. With this thought in mind, I opened my body and calibrated my spell one more time.
'Let the absorption rate be set to 99 percent... let my enemies be my target'
I opened my eyes and took a deep breath.
The mana hit me like a brick wall.
My head snapped up, my sight went dark as my eyes rolled back into my head. I could feel power seeping inside me, through the very pores of my skin. My heart palpitated as my cores fill up with mana, making me gasp for breath even more, until my third mana core starts to overflow.
I force my eyes open before it could explode.
'Shield!'
Coating myself three times with a protective cover, I braced myself just in time before a new coreerupted.
I could feel energy overflow from my body.
The eruption was channeled up into the air where I left my shield open. It exploded into the heavens like a fountain – a beacon of light that visibly shattered the magic dome that kept us imprisoned inside the academy.
"Patric!" I heared Lycan's worried voice calling me.
"It's a core eruption!" I heard the guards yell around me. "Stab him while his core is still manifesting!"
But they cannot break through the barrier I placed around me.
"Get rid of that swordsman first!"
I forced my eyes to stay open and looked around.
Thereare three guards around me.
They have separated Lycan, isolating him. I could see a sword stuck on his side. They have left Cat and Darius unattended, thankfully. The dead can no longer retaliate, after all.
I am starting to lose consciousness due to the sudden mana influx and the manifestation's explosion, but our fight isn't over yet.
I need more time to save Lycan. More timeto retrieve my friends' bodies. I need to save Arman as well. And to do all that, I would need more power.
'But I am already at 99%...' I racked my brain. 'Can I go any further?'
And the answer I came up with was 'yes'.
'Let the absorption rate be set to a hundred percent.'
I chanted.
'Let me take all the mana of my enemies.'
I heard something crack inside of me.
It made a tinkling sound, like fragile glass falling on a marble floor.
My surroundings went dark then, and I saw images of light – sketches of human figures flickering like lightning, moving around me, pulsating with life and flowing with mana. The flickering lights gathered towards me, golden, blue and green. Then I saw these lights moving in a spiral towards me, turning likea pool of dark water going down a drain.
Suddenly, I wasn't feeling so weak anymore.
I pry my eyes open and see the people around me fallen on the ground, their hands and faces, wrinkled and pale as if drained of all vitality.
"It's a forbidden spell!" I heard someone scream.
"Subdue him!"
More guards came towards me. They tried breaking my shield once more, banging it with swords. A grand knight I haven't seen before came forward, and brandishing a long sword imbued with aura, slashed at me vertically, breaking the shield and severing my left arm.
'Rewind'
I chanted on my wound and watched my arm re-attach itself.
"W-what's happening?!" a guard cried out as he watched his hand shrivel up.
"Get away from him! He's using a forbidden spell!"
I look at my hands and noticed that my knuckles are not as prominent as it was before.
"Call the Grand Magister! Contact the ivory tower!" they yelled around me.
"We have a warlock in the academy!"
A warlock?
Where?
I look around and saw Lycan kneeling in a ring of guards.
Two more grand knights had joined the now fallen Lucifer and are overpowering him.
'Rewind'
I pointed a finger at Lycan and watch the cut on his side close up.
With a spin, he slashed his enemies, cutting them down before he rushed beside me.
"A-are you okay, Partic?" he asked with concern. "Y-you were cut by that knight!"
"I am fine."
"...L-looks like it..." he frowned, tilting his head and staring at me.
I walk back towards the bodies of our friends and placed a hand on both of them.
'Revert to a time more favorable and bring past back to present'
Sinews recovered, reconnecting muscles. Torn up skin closed over wounds. Veins and blood vessels flowed with blood once more, giving color to their pallid faces.
I cried out in joy as Darwin opened his eyes with a gasp.
"My Goddess, Patric, what have you done?"
I turn around to see Prof. Novil standing at a distance. Behind him stood Grand Magister Shalem and the high priest, Holy Sage Prunus Rosales, our principal.
They all stared at me in horror.
"This is the work of a warlock!" the holy sage shouted, pointing at me.
"What have you done, child?" the grand magister asked. "You had so much potential!"
"Look what you have done to my friends," I coldly replied. "How dare you question my actions."
"Patric, we need to go!" urged Lycan, kneeling beside me with a wide-eyed Cat gasping in his embrace.
"Don't let them escape!" the Holy Sage barked out commands. "Kill the warlock!"
A battalion of Holy knights approached us. They have sent reinforcements, and I knew that we wouldn't last long until we –
My thoughts were broken when a flash of silver and gold went past me. My jaw dropped as I saw Darwin charge at the incoming knights with a sword in hand, his blond hair, flowing in the wind, and wearing nothing but his soiled undershirt.
He started slashing as soon as he reached them, moving fluidly in a deadly dance that mesmerized me, as well as the unsuspecting knights who seemed to be caught in his eerie beauty.
"Darius!" I called to him after regaining my senses.
"We'll back him up!" said Lycan with Cat who also ran over to the knights with a sword in each hand."
"No!" I cried out after them, "The revert spell only works once!"
"What?!" Lycan looked at me in horror.
"Cathan! Darius! Come back!"
Cat stopped where he stood.
Darius looked back at me while parrying a sword aimed at his neck.
"Come back to me!" I cried out once more.
"Surround them!" Holy Sage Rosales commanded the holy knights. "The Goddess shall shield you from the warlock's spells!"
"W-we need to leave now, P-Patric!" Lycan was starting to panic.
"Darius!" I reach my hand out as Darius ran towards me, three knights trailing close behind him.
Cat was suddenly on his feet, swerving around Darius and cutting the knights down with no hesitation, before bounding back to our side.
"Wait, Patrick!" Grand Magister Shalem called out desperately. "It's not too late! Surrender now and we can still negotiate with the high priest!" he insisted. "The Ivory Tower can give you immunity! We can even extend sanctuary for your friends, as long as you surrender and cooperate!"
I glared at him in reply and looked at the holy knights who were about to attack us. They have all been blessed by the temple's high priest. I am not sure if my spells could work on them.
I then glanced at Prof. Novil.
At the hard look upon his face.
He closed his eyes, and I somehow knew that I could not, should not trust these people.
"Thank you, Grand Magister," I told him with a slight bow.
Grand Magister Shalem gave a sigh of relief.
"P-Patric?" Lycan softly whispered by my side, holding on to Cat.
I took hold of his hand, as well as Darius' and began to chant.
'Open the path that leads to my haven of choice...'
"They're trying to escape!" shouted the Holy Sage who seemed to have exceptional hearing.
'Let heaven's light guide me and bring me and mine to my true sanctuary'
The blue sky opened up – a beam of light from a dark crack in the filament engulfed us.
I close my eyes as our enemies faded out of existence.