Chương 9

It came as no surprise to me that the largest entrance to Asterra's dungeon was Keep Ellaris. There was a good reason why the keep had been built specifically here. Magical beasts were very real in this world. The deadly kind of monsters that lived underground. Most had never seen a real monster, outbreaks being rare, both because of good defenses and because the surface air contained a wrong type of mana for the monsters to breathe.

Monsters already had an underground utopia filled with mana, giving them no reason to expand to an inhabitable surface. Curious or desperate stray monsters still peeked up into the overworld every now and then, and their eradication was left to House Ellaris. Conveniently, Ellaris had built their keep right on top of the largest dungeon entrance in the city, placing it directly in their inner courtyard. None of that was visible from the outside.

The keep was an imposing structure of black bricks and red banners, and its walls spanned the entire block. If it was any more fortified, I could have called it a citadel. All yards were hidden inside the estate, the view blocked off by the outer walls of the mansion. That oppressive secrecy was yet another reason Ellaris was distrusted. The surrounding street had by far the worst atmosphere in Asterra. Nobody hung out here, and the closest businesses were cheap, run-down dive bars.

Not because Ellaris wanted the bars outside their home, but because nobody else wanted to run businesses here. Needless to say, the walk here hadn't been pleasant, and I needed to avoid the mana cores of mage officers multiple times. Sneaking through their dungeon entrance would also be impossible, as one could have guessed. I wanted to visit anyway in case the sight of the keep prompted any ideas to appear into Vora's head. Come to think of it, I thought, Ellaris has the only actual noble keep inside the city.

Other aristocrats lived three more miles south, in what was called the District Of Innovation, Asterra's most luxurious and exclusive suburb. I frowned at the useless thought. Anything more useful, perhaps, like where Vora had sneaked inside during the crime? Nothing came, and the next street was manned by more mage officers. It didn't look like this trip would unlock any memories like I'd hoped. Entering the dungeon would require some shady business.

I turned away from the keep, finding another less impressive street of Asterra's worst district. The stone buildings were from a few generations ago, and the pathway hadn't been freshly polished like on most other streets. The design philosophies themselves were different with fewer trees adding life to the street. Still, this was still far from a total slum. A drunkard had passed out on a bench, and a few others were openly drinking, but most traffic was still just people moving through their lives.

People still showed style wherever they could despite the cheaper outfits. For a district with a bad reputation, it really could have been much worse. The glances I received when passing by didn't come with serious threats to rob me. A strong surge of mana blew out of an alley to my left. I froze, the mana washing over my core like a gust of wind. My head flinched in the direction. A few seconds later, a woman came rushing out.

"Magic!" she shouted.

"The mages are fighting! Run!" A deep, audible rumble followed, and the feelings of mana intensified. Three mana cores were getting closer. Mana collided into them—it looked like they were blocking and taking attacks. A real fight. Flashes of red magic followed. Quickly, the shouts and running of ordinary citizens overpowered the echoes of magic, and the street cleared up, people running out or inside their apartments. Even the drunkard rose, adrenaline kicking him out of there.

I backed off and hid behind the tent of a parked carriage. Not ten seconds later, the three mages backed out onto the street. Four opponents chased them for a total of seven mages clashing it out. Two had evolved cores. One on the defending side, one on the attacking side. I cast Mana Shield and Mind Protection on myself, then peeked out to view the battle. Grey and red uniforms were involved, though to my surprise, Ellaris was on the losing side.

Two mage officers had backed off out of the ally first, holding their palms on the chokehold. The third person to appear on the street was a girl in a black and red uniform, her striking red hair roughed up by particles of blown dirt. Vaela Ellaris, and the person with the evolved core. The moment she got out of the alley, her accompanying mage officers fired their flamethrowers of purple flames into the alley, a spell I now knew was called Flame Burst —one of the easiest and most destructive spells to cast.

Vaela moved her fingers, and pink mana formed into a spell. Pink, I thought in surprise. That was the rare enhancement core, specializing in amplification and supportive effects. Purple, in turn, was the most destructive out of the colors, specializing in burning the most mana the fastest. The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Vaela added an amplification spell onto her allies' Flame Bursts, and the calm purple flames erupted into an inferno of bright magenta, engulfing the alley in flames three heads taller than me. The stone of the buildings turned ashen black. I would have probably died from that. My shields simply weren't powerful enough to deal with heat like that. The four pursuers couldn't have stood much of a chance. A shockwave of pure mana shot out from the alley. I felt it like a punch to the gut, and I hadn't been close.

Vaela flew back, hitting the ground, and the flames of the two mage officers dimmed like torches in the wind. A tall man appeared on the street. He wore a black cloak, face fully covered in a mask. The same type of gang mask I'd woken up in when I transmigrated. The man had a crimson core, just like me. He held out his palm, and attacked Vaela's mind. The woman had a thick barrier protecting her mind—a much thicker one than I ever formed, and it would be more than enough to stop any Mind Blasts I could form.

The man attacked it anyway. A sharp force hit the mind barrier hard, forming cracks. Vaela groaned from the force as she desperately added mana to her shield, repairing it. The presence of her mana core dwindled, seemingly running out of mana. In fact, both parties seemed to be running low. The cloaked man had a level two core, yet his reserves appeared less than mine. With each crack of mind magic, he spent more. The three other cloaked men appeared from the alley. Their boss kept blasting Vaela with mind magic.

Two gang members dealt with the mage officers, firing projectiles at their throats. The first the officer failed to block, dying. The last officer desperately repaired his Mana Barrier. Whose side am I on? I thought. Who do I defend? That needed to be answered immediately. Vora was obviously on the cloaked gang's side. Anything to do with Ellaris disgusted him to the core. He'd worked with this cloaked group. What about me? What did I believe in? The info desk librarian's words rung in my head."

Vaela might be a mage, but she's also a young girl who loves books." Then came my dad's words." The gang's goal isn't freedom. They're here solely to steal mana cores from officers." So who did I trust? Vora's intuition, or my own? If they kidnap Vaela, I decided, I'll reveal myself to the gang and go with them. If they try to kill her… Vaela pushed her palm to the ground with gritted teeth. Mana surged from her hands, onto the ground and through, traveling underground toward the gang member to the right.

He sensed it coming and jumped, yet that wasn't enough—Vaela's spell turned solid into a sharp ice-like structure, grabbing his foot and freezing the man in the air. That gave the mage officer a chance to run, which he took, abandoning the battlefield in a panic. He slipped into a nearby alley, disappearing. Only Vaela remained on the ground, out of mana and her mental barrier about to break. The tall man pointed his palm at her, a Mana Dart forming on his hand. Well, there's my answer.

The projectile shot out from his palm. I cast my first spell, Elemental Barrier, and a floating sheet of solid mana spawned in, like a red slab of glass. The Mana Dart clinked against it, cracking the barrier before both spells broke apart from the impact, dissipating into mana. The gang leader blinked in surprise. I used that moment to assess how much mana everyone had. Not a lot. They were thoroughly worn out, and caught off guard by my barrier. They still had more mana than me, though, and Vaela was out of mana.

I probably wouldn't beat them alone. An idea came. A memory from a long time ago, when I'd accidentally scared Trina with a spell hard enough to nearly make her wet herself. The spell was absolutely useless, but I'd named it Void Monster. I pushed mana into its pattern. A heavy burst of it, which the spell engulfed, and with a violent reaction, converted it into black smoke-like cloud of pure darkness. The effect fluttered violently around me, as if giving me an aura of void.

My presence in the sixth realm grew tenfold. To anyone who only had eyesight, I appeared like a literal void monster. I pointed my palm at my enemies and concentrated more void there, as if I was casting a spell of pure evil. The fear of the unknown. So many spells existed in this world, one could simply not identify them all. Clearly, nobody had seen anything as crazy as this. The gang members bolted off into the alley where they'd come. Any thoughts of attacking switched to reinforcing their barriers.

Heart racing, I watched after them for a solid five seconds, until I was sure they weren't coming back. Holy shit, it worked, I thought and stopped my spell. Two thirds of my mana reserves had already burned into nothingness. Literally. I waved my hand to push the cloud aside, and my vision cleared up. Vaela was staring at me in absolute shock. I ran up to her.

"That was a bluff," I told her.

"We need to escape. Where to?" Her red eyes watched back at me, lost for words.

"If they come back, we're dead," I said.

"Can you get up?" She blinked, and some sense returned into her look. She spotted the dead officers and winced. She tried pushing herself up, failing. I offered my hand. She took it, and I pulled her to her feet. She wobbled. This wouldn't be easy, would it?

"The estate," she said.

"We're safe there."

"Too far!" And I'm not going anywhere near that after casting magic! Vaela glanced around, until she spotted a building.

"There's a guard room." Across the intersection, the red banners of House Ellaris were hung on the front doors to the lowest floor of a commercial complex. I cast Strength Enhancement and ran there with Vaela struggling after me. She's a crazy mage girl according to Vora, I thought. Is that true? Who did I really just save? The door had no key holes. Instead, Vaela placed her hand on an interpreter of sorts. A magi-print reader.

Vora's memories were ready to explain how it worked, but I forced the intrusion of knowledge out of my head. What I cared about was the door opening as I got us inside and shut it after us. We entered a dark, unoccupied lobby. Quite a small one. It had a front desk and a waiting area. I walked past the dark furniture, to the door in the back, and led us into what looked like a break room for officers. There was an ice box to keep cold food and drinks, a large table and a couch, and a barrel with a faucet for water.

Vaela's heavy breathing filled the silence. She pressed a button with a click. Mana traveled up to the ceiling, and the lamps lit up with surprisingly clear light. Not quite as bright as modern LEDs, but still more than clear to light up Vaela's eyes facing me.

"Thank you." She took a deep, wavering breath.

"And I hope you're not also trying to kidnap me."