Chương 11: Living Mana

"Young master, you really don't need to join us," the conductor said. Poor fellow looked like he was regretting coming to their room to tell them about the Living Mana Incursion. Viren was sorry for making him feel awful, but at the same time, not so sorry that he was revising his decision to head out. Also, he had never been called young master in his life before. Saying it made him feel odd was the understatement. And it was all because he was associated with Ryland.

"I'm a second-semester student at Arcoryx Academy," Viren said, clenching his hands into fists to stop them from shaking.

"I'm also a member of the Excursion Club. I've been trained for this."

"But young master…" The conductor looked warily at Ryland, still sitting practically insensate to the world. Now that Viren looked closer, he could see little motes of darkness seeping out from under his eyelids. Creepy. Maybe it was a blessing that Ryland either couldn't hear or just didn't care about an Incursion. Why would he? From everything Viren had seen, he wouldn't have been surprised if Ryland ate attacks by Living Mana for breakfast.

His breaths were coming faster and his legs were threatening to quiver too. He refused to hesitate for real, though. No. He was not allowing his fear to rule his mind. This wasn't the same as the dungeon, where he wouldn't even have gone in if he hadn't been so desperate to find Tallow. Here, he'd be fighting alongside others. Here, he'd have a bulwark between him and outright danger. Here, he'd be assisting an endeavour instead of selfishly seeking his own goal. Viren couldn't let his failure in the dungeon stand.

He needed to prove to himself that he was capable.

"Stay here with Ryland," Viren told Tallow. The kitten mewed back up at him. Its little arms tried to reach for him, but Viren stepped back.

"No, you can't come with me. It's not safe out there. Stay here." Tallow looked dreadfully disappointed, but after what had happened in the dungeon, Viren would take disappointed over dead any day.

"If you must accompany us, young master," the conductor said as they left the room.

"Then I insist that you remain by my side."

"Sure." Viren glanced back one last time, waving a short farewell to Tallow—and Ryland too, but he was kind of out of it—before closing the door behind him.

"But I'm Iron [62]. You said it's only a Silver-ranked Incursion, right?"

"Indeed. It's why I'm allowing you to come along, young master. I am Silver [20]. You will be safe with us, I promise." They weren't the only ones rousing themselves. The guards were warning the other nobles in their various rooms, several of whom were emerging to see just how much of an issue the Incursion was going to present.

"What do you think you're doing, Ophelia?" Viren was unable to hide his scowl as Stowen Kohn berated the Heartshield Knight. Just as he had suspected. From everything that had happened in their room, Viren had figured Mage Knight Ophelia was working under the arrogant lord for some reason. The tall woman in pristine scarlet armour and close-cropped hair was bowing her head at her superior. Viren hated seeing that sort of subservience to Bastard Kohn.

"I will remain here if you insist, Lord Kohn. It is my duty to guard you, of course. However, I'd like to point out that I'd be better prepared to guard you if I could survey what we're facing myself."

"The staff are warning us already. What more do you need?" Another lord, a young, blond one, emerged from his room with a sneer.

"What's this Kohn? Can't let your little guard get away from you for even a second? You know you can't hold on to Mage Knight's apron forever." Viren felt so tremendously vindicated to see it wasn't just him. Other nobles detested the odious man too. Like father, like son, as if he needed more proof.

"Mind your tongue, Ulmoren!" Kohn barked.

"Lord Umoren." Ophelia placed a hand on the hilt of her blade.

"I cannot have you insulting my lord in my presence."

"I know!" Ulmoren said with a grin.

"That's why I'm trying to help you get out of here so I can insult Kohn freely." Somewhat amusing though a couple of nobles bickering was, the only reason Viren was even spectating it was because of Colm. The conductor was refusing to move until he was sure things weren't going to devolve into chaos. Yet he couldn't actually intervene yet because of his terribly lower station. Viren wanted to shake the fellow. Wasn't he the conductor of this train? He had to be better about exercising at least some of his power.

The train shook violently. Several of the lights overhead blinked out, plunging the whole carriage into the dimness of the oncoming evening. They returned quickly as the train reasserted itself, but that little incident had left a mark. Everyone in the carriage had tensed.

"My lord," said the Heartshield Knight.

"I must insist on checking the Incursion. Preparation is paramount for victory." Ulmoren was carefully closing his room's door behind him.

"Yes, Kohn, let the poor woman go. We all know we're going to be pretty safe inside the first-class carriage."

"Yes, you really will," Ophelia insisted. She turned, her piercing eyes landing on Viren. It made his already-hammering heart pulse even faster, but then he realized he wasn't the subject of her gaze. She was looking at his room's door. At where Ryland was. Viren swallowed. Crapping Calamities. Had the Heartshield Knight come up with some approximation of the kinds of things Ryland was capable of after just that one meeting? A strange sense of excited calm tried to settle over Viren.

People who hardly knew Ryland appeared assured that the Living Mana Incursion paled against him. If even an Exalted-ranked Mage Knight was approximating Ryland to be that strong, then there was nothing to worry about, was there? He cursed silently. No. No, damn it. Ryland wasn't going to be there at every point in Viren's life. He wouldn't be there to snatch Viren's soul from Fate like he had done with Tallow. Viren needed to be strong in his own right. He needed to take care of his own problems.

Better yet, he needed to learn which problems he could tackle. And the only remedy to that issue was experience.

"What are we waiting for?" Viren asked the conductor as the train shook yet again.

"Let's go." Viren had to admit that the people running the train had guts. They hadn't slowed down yet, despite establishing contact with the Incursion. A sea of ruby-red energy was assaulting the train from all sides, a flood miring the tracks and turning the countryside into an infernal field of bloody light. Fleshy monstrosities emerged from the crimson murk to attack the train. Monstrous arms, tendrils with bony spikes, even entire shambling and misshapen creatures came at them.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. For the time being, the carriages' defences were holding. Inscribed Glyphs and spell circles shone luminescent on the train's exterior, repulsing every attack from the Living Mana. The problem was that it seemed to be growing stronger. Even as Viren stared through the window, the frequency of attacks emerging from the red sea rose rapidly.

If he had been outside the train for even a second, he was pretty sure he'd have been killed a dozen times in a second.

"Silver-ranked, you said?" That was Ophelia. She was the only reason no one seemed to be outright panicking just yet. The Incursion had grown well past Silver by this point, but it surely couldn't hold a candle to an Exalted-ranked Mage Knight like her.

"Our estimation may already be outdated," the conductor finally admitted. To be fair, determining an Incursion's rank was more art than science. That said, this rapid growth was worrying.

"I don't think there's much of a may about it," Viren said. He was glad to see the train staff were diligent about keeping everyone safe. The passengers in more sparsely populated carriages were being moved into others where everyone could be defended more easily if there was a breach. Train staff were running all over the place, handing out emergency potions and supplies. Viren was glad to see that the protocols the Excursion Club drilled into their members were being followed diligently.

This train was definitely filled with professionals.

"You think Twin Craters will really protect us?" Ophelia asked. Colm nodded.

"I'm positive, my lady." Viren could see it too. They had passed through Twin Craters on the way to Sunstile. It was essentially a long bridge spanning the site of a very old battle that had left gargantuan craters in the land. The probable hope was that the lay of the land itself would finally force the strange form this Living Mana had taken to abate. After all, they wouldn't be able to continue attacking if they fell into fathomless pits sparking with ancient, residual magic. Wait.

Hadn't Ryland mentioned being present here too? Ophelia pulled out her longsword, one edge rippling with golden mana.

"So we only need to hold them off till we hit the bridge. Doable."

"Our defences are managing for now," the conductor said.

"But we're carefully observing where we'll need to step in and seal the breach." Viren shot his hand up, almost jumping where he stood.

"I can help! My Soul Glyph of Burning is at Tier [3] already." He opted to leave out his actual rank in the presence of a Calamity-kissing Heartshield Knight.

"Careful with the revelations," Ophelia said.

"Has the academy stopped telling its students to hold their secrets close to their chest?"

"It hasn't at all. But the Excursion Club has a different tenet—we can only work together if we know what we're all capable of properly." She chuckled, taking him in with renewed interest.

"I suppose that's fair." She turned back to the conductor.

"I'll keep the boy safe since he's desperate to contribute. You and your staff keep an eye out for breaches along the train while I make sure the Living Mana doesn't impede our progress."

"Understood, my lady. But the boy…" Viren tried not to scowl at the fellow.

"I'm right here, you know."

"You are, but you'd have been better off back in your room," the Knight said.

"But if you follow along, you will obey me to the letter. No questions. Is that understood?"

"Alright."

"At least you have enough sense not to argue." The conductor was tremendously reluctant to let Viren leave with the Heartshield Knight but there wasn't much he could do. They got going. Viren knew his association with Ryland was the only reason he was getting the kind of treatment he'd been receiving so far. Otherwise, why would they have paid attention to some random, no-name child?

An Iron-ranked boy with a Tier [3] Soul Glyph might have been impressive compared to other Iron-ranked students, but next to an Exalted? Pathetic.

"My name's Viren," he said as they reached the hatch in a carriage farther along the train where they were supposed to climb up.

"Viren," Ophelia said.

"Nice name. Now, please stick right by me and try not to fall off the train." With how wide the carriages were, that probably wasn't going to be an issue. Nevertheless, Viren remained cautious as he climbed to the roof after the Mage Knight. His breath stuttered as he looked around, his hair and robes whipping around in tandem. Things appeared a lot grimmer outside. Everywhere Viren looked, his eyes beheld livid red. His ears cringed at the warbling, shrieking noise of the surging energy.

The combination of the hammering blows from the Living Mana and the train's rumbling made him tremble all over. Viren kept his cool by trying to remember everything the academy and his club had informed him about dealing with Living Mana. It was the leftovers of a devastating Calamity, an unfathomable force that defied any strict definitions save one—it sought to overcome and consume all practitioners of mana.

Way back during the Realmbreaker Wars, a confluence of new Calamities and other horrific atrocities and experiments had eventually caused an incident commonly referred to as the First Manabreak. It was the first noted and documented instance of mana evolving to act on its own, rather than just existing as a static resource in the spiritual environment. And it had acted violently.

It was practically drilled into everyone's head on the very first day of certain classes at the academy and in the Excursion Club that the first casualty report numbered in the hundreds of thousands. And that was after a day.

"I'm going to focus on the front," Ophelia said as she slammed down her blade.

"Alright." Viren had to speak up over the ripping wind.

"I'll keep an eye out on the sides." It was comical that an Iron-ranked like him was assisting an Exalted-ranked Heartshield Knight, but—"Heroes aren't born in a day," Ophelia said almost like she had read his mind.

"Stand strong." Viren did so. Screw his fears. He had a job to do. Ophelia's blade tip slammed down, a wave of golden bolts spearing outwards ahead of her to keep the tracks clear. Viren was supposed to keep an eye out on their flanks, but he kept getting distracted by the Knight's spell circle, wondering what that golden Soul Glyph was in the centre. The black-red tint suggested at least Tier [12] magic.

The Living Mana cried out with unearthly shrieks that made Viren's eardrums cringe, fleshy monstrosities falling by the wayside. More magic surged from the Mage Knight, tiny golden stars countering the frothing crimson aura. But it didn't last long. Another Glyph glowed on the Knight's vambrace, and this time, Viren recognized it. A high-tier Glyph of Communication.

"Knight Brigmont!" Stowen Kohn's voice blared through the Glyph." Return at once!" Credit to the Mage Knight, she didn't flinch. Viren had nearly jumped when he had heard how loud the stupid noble was.

"My lord, I am in front of the carriage, tackling the Living Mana from the exterior." She had spoken quickly in an effort to reassure him, but Stowen Kohn was determined to be belligerent.

"You will return this instant."

"But my lord, the train will be stopped if we don't—""Do not test my patience. Return to the post you've been hired to protect. Immediately." The last bit had been screamed out, but despite the seeming loss of control in his voice, that damn lord knew exactly where to apply the pressure. Ophelia's judgment clearly came second to her orders. Her spell circle died, as did the golden sparks keeping the Incursion at bay. Immediately afterwards, the ruddy light intensified.

Monstrous tendrils and limbs hammered away at their defences with unrestrained abandon. The Glyphs protecting the train died one by one under the relentless assault. The crimson energy around them shrieked in victory. Viren's heart warbled.

"We can't just leave." He stared through the ruddy light turning everything hellish.

"We're not far! I can see the bridge. Just another league or so." And then the train shook heavily. Viren would have fallen if not for the Knight's powerful grip on his shoulder. A storm of fiery sparks were breaking out under the locomotive at the head as the train screeched to a halt. Cursed Calamities, the Living Mana was messing with the engine. Viren's heart clenched as the fleshy abominations breached into other carriages. This close, his nostrils were plugged up with their horrid stench.

"Come, Viren." The Knight began pushing back to the ladder.

"We will hold our ground in our carriage."

"But we can't!" he protested.

"We're almost there!"

"We're all beholden to something." Ophelia's face was fierce.

"Heroes, Knights, even Archmages, it doesn't matter. That's just the way of the world. No matter how high you go, how far you climb, you can never just do what you want. Besides…" Her voice grew quiet.

"This thing is well past Silver now, past Gold too. Even now, it's burning through Adamantine. It'll hit Mithril soon at this rate." And then Exalted. Viren gritted his teeth to stop himself from arguing. How was the Incursion growing stronger so quickly? He hadn't heard of a phenomenon like this before. Did it matter, though? Hadn't he technically achieved what he had set out to do? Sure, he hadn't succeeded in repelling the Living Mana Incursion since it hadn't been repelled yet.

But Viren had helped defend the train, even if it was only by keeping an eye out for a few minutes. He had faced off against danger. He had contributed in his own small way. He hadn't been paralyzed by— A ravenous, glassy maw yawned wide. Sharp claws raked down to crush him. He felt himself breaking, shattering. For a few moments, Viren couldn't breathe.

"What in the…" Ophelia's voice sounded distant, even though she was right next to him.

"What is that?" Familiar cracks pushed down the bile climbing up his throat. Far off from the train, in the distant fields covered in red energy, rents— rifts —were ripping through reality. And from each rift emerged a metallic green crystal. They pierced through the Incursion, their surfaces glowing as they dragged in the crimson energy like a sink in a basin. The Living Mana shrieked, the land now coated in a forest of green, crystalline growths carpeting the land on either side of the train.

"What's happening?" Ophelia murmured. The flabbergasted look on her face would have made Viren laugh if memories of the dungeon hadn't been assaulting him moments ago. A smaller crack made him turn. This one was tiny and right next to his head too. An amber eye peered out from within the dark depths. One sporting a thinner than average dark pupil.

"Ryland," Viren murmured.

"That's what's happening."