Chapter 28 - Lance Abyssale

“Abuabu!” I had made myself clear and had switched hand to go back to Noa, rubbing my face all over his stomach, both for my own pleasure and for the sake of his moral.

Vi took his place shortly, looking more than a bit nervous as she sat on the mat, fearing maybe to fail as her brother had failed.

“Good. Now follow my lead. Air in…” She softly said, helping her just like she had helped him. “...Air out.”

As even for a pro, it was quite the lengthy process, I settled comfortably between Noa’s legs, using his belly like a headrest, eyes focused on my big sister.

Am I the only one wanting to call her my little sister, or does it feel like that for you too?

Me too, mom, me too. It’s difficult to wrap your head around the fact that she’s our big sister since, ah, well. We’re older and all. Yeah?

Yup.

I had been ready for a long wait but, in under thirty minutes, Vi started breathing Green, a similar-coloured haze enveloping us more and more with each breath my sister took.

Ophelia had stopped talking since a while back, trying to let the girl focus on the exercise.

Vi’s face, however, wasn’t 100% serene. Her lips were closed with a tad more strength that she usually used, and my monitoring spell registered the sign of budding stress. Yet I did not worry, as Ophelia seemed confident.

Surrounded by rolling Green Shi, the air following Vi’s breath, I started dozing off, rocked by the soft, slow sound of my sister’s breathing, something I often associated with sleep as I was in bed with her.

Suddenly a slight cracking sound startled me. I turned my head and saw a tiny wisp of light, undecided about if it wanted to exist or not. It slowly stabilised, its existential back-and-forth ending by it choosing to be here.

“Good. Now, open your eyes.” Ophelia was making an effort to talk peacefully, as you could clearly see the excitation on her face.

Vi followed the order, revealing her strange eyes and gazing around her, as if we did not exist.

“Look at the wisp.”

Vi’s eyes fell on the diminutive Deep-Blue fragment and, as if in a trance (Ah, but she was in a trance, kind of?), she started moving her hand toward it, making her palm dance and her fingers cut the air in a strange manner, totally different from her teacher.

Yet, Ophelia was still smiling.

Stop worrying, you mother hen.

I can’t, I’m stressed, I just need to believe in Ophelia, that’s all.

Try to keep it down, though. It affects me too I remind you.

Sorry.

Vi was also moving her left arm, but without a hand, I did not know if it had any effect.

The Blue fragment sailed through the air, not in straight line like Ophelia’s did, but zigzagging like a lost vessel in a stormy sea. Yet it came at her, following her moves like a flimsy beacon, lighthouse in a dull space.

And when it entered her, she suddenly gritted her teeth and her hand shot toward her stump, grasping it with enough strength to make it turn white from lack of blood.

“Vi?!” Exclaimed Ophelia, her hand extending toward the girl, hand she took back violently when the Shi-imbued air aggressively attacked her. You could see acidic burn on the tips of her fingers, and she knitted her brow, as if berating herself for her dumb reaction.

“Vi! You can stop now!”

But the girl did not hear and, her eyes closed, a tear rolled over her cheek.

“Crkcrk.” Another fragment appeared, also a Deep-Blue one and, this time, it shot toward the girl like an arrow, piercing her body and making her grip somehow ever more powerful.

That’s not good! I looked at the data and couldn’t help but agree with Psaï.

What do we do?

I don’t know! I never saw that before, remember?

Fuck. Let’s see what Ophelia does.

“Vi! Snap out of it!” She screamed, but nothing did the trick, and other wisps started appearing, all of the same colour, the colour of sadness, bombarding her as if they were animated by a will to kill.

At the same time, the Shi-imbued air started rotating, spinning in the room with Vi at the centre.

My sister was now sobbing openly, over her stump it seemed, as if it was painful to her, very much so.

“Fuck. Nobody moves!” She said at the two others and, coating herself with Shi, she exited the protective bubble of the platform.

Right away her Shi started to get chipped away, like a haystack in a vortex of glass shards. She took a step and directly fell on the ground, flowers of blood appearing here and there on her body.

Breath ragged, she scrammed back in the bubble, catching her breath after the intense struggle.

“Fuck!” She re-applied the Shi coat and launched herself back in the storm, one time, two times, three times, more and more blood appearing all over her torn cloth.

And during all this time, Vi kept crying, of sorrow at first, with more and more pain in the voice, in the tears, in her grasp.

“Vi!” You could see Ophelia becoming desperate.

“If only I could knock her out, damn Shi!” She said in frustration.

Knock her out? Psaï!

I just tried! Magic can’t pierce the veil of Shi!

What?

I feel like attacking a dragon!

Fuck. Fuck-fuck-fuck! A dragon?

…

Psaï. If it’s like a dragon, then we can fight it the same way.

We can’t, your soul is too weak right now!

She’s suffering, Psaï! I won’t let my sister be wounded by my inaction again! I won’t let her live another trauma! I won’t Psaï!

But…

Yes, I know. How many, Psaï.

...Ten, minimum.

Then give me ten.

...Opening limiters, 7.7e-6%

Where? Where?

Where? Where?

Where? Where?

Where?

Where? Where? Where?

Shut up!

No! It hurt! No! I want!

No! Let me! No! Give me!

No! Destroyer! No! Savior!

No! Murderer!

No! Not you! No! Please! No! Alone!

It hurt. Badly. It always hurt badly, as if someone was dicing you alive, not your body, but your soul.

Shut up and Obey! Give me mana, NOW!

It hurts! I want to find him!

Let me go! Give me my daughter!

Destroyer of Hope! Savior of Everything!

Murderer of Everyone!

No! Not you! Please, my Wife! Leave me Alone!

NOOOOW! I screamed in my head. I NEED IT, FOR MY SISTER! I pleaded. Trying to actually talk to them never worked, yet I was desperate. I could dominate them, but it would cost me time, and time I had not, even as the world was moving so slowly around me.

Each fraction of a second was worsening Vivianne’s state.

Sister? Sister.

Sister! A Sister is a Daughter of Someone.

Saving Sister? Strength for the Savior!

Strength for the Murderer!

Strength for Sister! Sister is… Family. Family?

I couldn’t even stop them, as they started resonating. It had never happened before.

Sister is Family Family is Bad

Family is Good! A Family is Sacred!

A Family should be Saved! A Savior for their Family!

A Family shouldn’t be Murdered!

Strength for Family! Strength for Saving! Strength to Go Back! HOME!

!!!TAKE HER BACK HOME!!!

Their cries melted together.

Lightning coursed through my mind like never before.

It was the first time. The first time they heard, they talked.

First time they gave it to me, their strength, instead of me robbing them.

Unity of will.

Unity of action.

Unity of vision.

***

Why is it so powerful? The thought was flooding Ophelia, her mind running like a racing horse to search and find a solution to this disaster. Yet nothing came to her, as she had never seen, nay, never heard of such a thing happening. She knew things could go berserkr, but she should have had the power to stop it.

Besides, this was too violent. Those wisps seemed to have a mind on their own, and the winds of Shi shouldn’t have budged an inch. Heck, even masters can’t make natural winds of Shi do this!

She was going to try again when a surprised exclamation from Noa diverted her gaze from Vivianne.

W-what the heck?!

From between Noa’s legs, Elayna was slowly but surely floating up, a determined look on the face as her eyes were nailed at Vivianne. She approached the edge of the bubble… Not good!

“No! Don’t let her-” Ophelia scream was cut short.

Something had gone through the barrier, starting to create an empty space in the storm, as if Elayna was slowly pushing a spear of… of nothingness in the Wild Shi.

“HIIIIIIIII!” Wind came crashing down on nothing, screaming as it was cut in two, the void like a lense that inversed all light and colours going through it.

It’s… an old tale crashed in the mind of Ophelia. A tale about a non-existent spear that could even cut the gods. A chill ran along her spine.

Owari no Yari... La Lance Abyssale! Different language, yet same dread.

As the nothingness spear pierced the veil, Elayna went along protected by a sphere of the same non-matter, as if she was swimming in gelly, till finally she got to her sister, the void spear parting as to not wound her.

“PAT!” The sound echoed through the room, covering the screams of both Vivianne and the wind and, suddenly, the storm was no more.

Vi looked up, her gaze crossing Ayna’s, mix of surprise, pain and bewilderment.

“Abu.” The baby exclaimed, but without strength, without energy, as if she was drained. In fact, she was pale, even paler than usual, her skin contrasting ever more with her short black hair.

The baby fell, Vivianne jumping instinctively to catch her in her arms, hurting herself as she fell on the hard ground.

“Vi!” Once the Shi had disappeared, back in Vivianne’s lung, Noa sprang into action.

“Vi, Are you alright?”

Of course she isn’t.

Ophelia quickly went to Vi and Ayna’s side, checking their state, disregarding her own and the blood oozing out of her.

Nothing. They’re sleeping.

…

What the fuck just happened?

***

I opened my eyes slowly.

...Psaï.

It worked. I hadn’t even asked the question that she had already answered.

Reassured, I looked around me.

What the fuck is happening?

I don’t know.

I was in a bed, the trio sitting not far with their eyes anchored on me, as if I was gonna disappear if they stopped looking at me.

A bit on the left, Ophelia and Elody were talking, whispering really, but I could tell that their tone was worried.

“S-she’s awake.” Said Noa with a trembling voice. He was afraid, but… not of me. For me, I think.

Am I in trouble?

After openly using magic? And one used to kill dragons? Gee, who knows?

The two Shi fighters turned their head toward me in the same motion, worry in the eyes of Ophelia, curiosity and wariness in Elody’s.

The white-haired woman suddenly walked toward me and, cocking her head, locked gazes with me.

“Can you understand me, little one?”

Eh?

Eh?