Just like that, they spent the rest of their days peacefully, Sabrina spent her time playing with Samantha, whilst Alan did a variety of things.
He would always go around the city and check multiple structures with a paranoid look on his face. He was very focused on his excursions as well. If he wasn’t doing this, he was mostly meditating in the lotus position in the garden of the castle.
Sabrina wondered what he was quite doing, she knew he wasn’t practicing his mana breathing technique, but rather something else. Whatever it was, she couldn’t find out, no matter how much she tried to.
Maybe he was just doing it to calm his mind… Sabrina finally came to that conclusion and waited for the days to pass. The bedding and furniture of this place was exquisite, although it may not look like it, so she didn’t have a problem in staying.
Alan’s actions were mysterious, he had stayed in the same exact spot, in the same exact position for two days, not moving even a single inch. She even started to guess how long it would take him to finally move.
Her expectations were broken when she witnessed a resilience and patience that was rare for him, finally, on the third day, he twitched and opened his eyes. He possessed a dejected look on his face and stared blankly at the ground. She felt sad for him, but then again she didn’t know the reason he was doing this, so left him alone.
Alan, for the past few ‘months’ was stuck in this state, trying to meditate and recreate what Alexander and Lucas did on Terra Damnum, the feeling of sensing their aura and cultivating it. The sword saint had taught them this, and Alan looked listlessly at them when they did this.
He had tried to replicate the feeling, when he heard the sword saint say that aura always existed, just asleep. He heard those words so many times, yet was unable to find any application of them.
All he found within himself, was a sea of mana, and nothing else. No matter how hard he tried or how much he tried to he could never find what Lucas and Alex described as a small ball filled with the energy of life, filled with the energy of themselves, their vitality.
“Sigh…”
He sighed, lay on the crystal floor and looked at the ground. He was incredibly sad that he couldn’t cultivate aura, no matter what he tried.
Hell, he was on the verge of giving up, having crossed with one foot already. He judged that it was a dragon and perhaps his body was incapable of having aura, since everything of a dragon was based on mana.
It was just a hunch, however he considered multiple times to stop holding his advance back and advance into the next rank, growing stronger. That decision would also help in getting past this troublesome area. It would be tremendous even.
But still, he heeded the words of his master, no matter how bleak they seemed and held on.
“Just a little bit more…maybe.”
But how long would it take until he was forced into such a situation, or perhaps even consider doing it when his patience expired? He had a feeling it wasn’t long.
He trusted his feelings, his instinct which always seemed to be correct, and had been proven correct many times as well. Holding his advancement for so long, and disobeying his instincts was having an effect on him.
He decided to sleep, and try another time. He was woken up by Sabrina two days after, Her figure stood by his own, and he looked up at her, having a hard time seeing her face due to two things. She changed her posture and looked at him with expectant eyes.
Sighing to himself, he rubbed his tired eyes and asked.
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
He asked once more, and she simply smiled in response. He knew what the smile meant and got up, after dusting off his clothes, he got his armor out from his inventory.
It was…in a pitiful state that could not be described in words, Sabrina grimaced as she saw it, even performing a little prayer for it, a prayer that expressed her wish for it to escape from Alan’s grasp.
Alan, saddened by the state of his armor, sighed and caused his scales to appear. He didn’t undergo a full transformation into a Draconian in order to conserve his mana, He wielded the Ame-No-Sakahoko in one hand, and grabbed Sabrina’s shoulder by the other and warned.
“Get ready.”
She was already in the middle of casting a spell, in case things went awry the moment they exited.
Alan’s mana flowed through her, and she could feel her body seemingly lose sensation of touch, and she closed her eyes.
And then, they were outside.
*******
Her feet sank into the snow, and a shield made of Alan’s mana shielded her from the cold, his eyes were sharp and scanned the surroundings, Sabrina released her mana everywhere and gasped in relief as she found nothing threatening in the area.
The only anomaly were the huge footsteps of a beast, presumably the mammoth that had left after losing its patience.
She scanned the area once more, and looked at the endless expanse of white snow. Her breath released cold mist even though she was shielded by Alan’s mana.
“I told you, we were safe!”
She had a proud look on her face as she turned her face, only to have that look turn into something else as she looked at Alan.
Alan, after he activated his mana once again in this area to put a shield on Sabrina, noticed something. Shocked, he raised his hands and ordered a specific type of mana deep in his body to weave a course through his veins and emerge.
“… What?”
Sabrina looked at his hands, as a black mist, that had stars in its midst appeared within his palms, and covered his forearms.
“Spatial Mana? But you said you couldn’t use it.”
She wasn’t dumb, it didn’t take long for her to notice the look of shock on Alan’s face and realize this was a sudden occurrence. Nonetheless, she was happy, as she said.
“We can make a portal now! Hurry!”
She was anxious to go back, however, Alan was still stuck in his disarray.
“But… I couldn’t even feel it… Why do i-”
But his words were cut off, the sky darkened, and he looked at the far distance, towards the mountains he escaped from. Sabrina noticed it a little bit later than him and a fearful look appeared on her face.
“That…mana.”
She almost vomited at the sheer release of mana, that threw the snow away and caused a blizzard to occur.
“No!”
Alan screamed, as he realized his control of his mana was disappearing, he hurriedly opened a portal behind Sabrina and pushed her inside. She grabbed his hand instinctively, and Alan hurried to go inside the portal as well.
But he couldn’t, with half his right arm already inside, the mana that was the foundation of the portal flickered out into existence. The portal disappeared, taking half his arm with it.
“Agh!”
He let out a painful yell, as blood oozed uncontrollably from his severed arm, and with a look of genuine fear saw what had caused everything.
The surroundings became dark, the sky dark, and it was not the ordinary darkness, it was something else. Something much more profound and without a doubt more sinister.
His face paled as he saw the ‘thing’ emerge from the dark fog, which circled the area like a whirl of wind.
“It was you…”
He remembered what he saw, and also cursed at his stupidity and inability to accurately guess it’s strength.
He cursed, as he regenerated his arm and struggled to get back on his feet, his spear aimed at the demonic creature.
********
The moment the portal was opened, Sabrina felt Alan push her and instinctively reached out to grab his hand, she saw how he also hurried to get inside the portal, but failed.
She fell to the ground, her clothes dirtied. She was inside the base camp, where everyone had exited their abodes when they sensed a foreign mana appear. The members of the wellington family quickly realized it was her and rushed over to support her.
Yet she stood in a daze, as blood leaked out from the severed arm that she held and seeped into her clothing. She was helped by one of her own people, she struggled to get back on her feet.
Her entire body still trembled, the memory of that burst of mana devouring the endless field of snow was still vivid in her mind, in the end, she couldn’t hold it and vomited whatever was in her stomach. .𝒎
It wasn’t much, and only acid escaped. She quickly regained her calm and realized how much of a danger Alan was in. She grabbed the collar of the Wellington knight near her and asked.
“Where is grandfather?! And the leader of Twilight?! We need to go now or else he’ll die!”
The people, confused, told her that both her grandfather and Richard had rushed back to Earth to find more reinforcements for their rescue. A horrified look appeared on her face as she hurriedly dashed inside the portal, going to Earth..
𝘦𝑎.𝒸ℴ