No. I wasn’t going to let her get away. Not like this. Not again.

I gathered my energy, ignoring the dust working its way into my lungs and assaulting my eyes. I let my chest burn, my eyes water, and focused solely on several spells all cast simultaneously. Air to blow away the dust, earth to gather the largest clumps and push them to the side, magic hands to dig through it all midair, and motion magic to help me weave through the debris like I was swimming. I spared a little magic to protect my head, but I was still coughing like crazy when my hand broke through the remains of the stage.

Through my blurry vision I could see Noel’s figure, apparently taken aback by my persistence. She quickly tried to make the cloud of earth close back up again, but my magic was stronger, more versatile, and I broke through despite her attempts to stop me.

She fired a fireball, I extinguished it with water. She made groundwater burst through from under me, I vaporized it with intense flames, creating a veil of steam around us, which melded into the dust and debris to cover Noel’s body as well as mine, giving me enough time to wash my eyes with some water. At the same time, I cast a bunch of magic hands all around Noel and tried to grab onto her. Apparently, she’d had the same idea, since our magic hands clashed against each other.

Her elemental spells were not comparable to mine. She must not have been practicing them as much. But her magic hands were strange. They weren’t exactly like mine, so I wasn’t sure if they were even based on motion like mine were.

Our magic hands canceled each other out, and we were submerged in the steam, the rocks, the dirt and the dust. I shielded my head but let my body take the brunt of it. The steam was hot, very hot. I could feel it searing my skin, leaving nasty marks in places, and making my clothes rub abrasively on my body. Rocks chipped away at me, opening up a few gashes and wounds, which were quickly covered in dust. The dust made pain shoot through my body, both from where it had gotten into my wounds, and where it had rubbed on my now sensitive skin. I cast a burst of air magic to clear the scene, and doused myself in water magic as well, which actually made the pain worse for a moment but eventually the pain died down.

As my vision cleared, I saw that Noel wasn’t faring much better. Her hair was full of rocky debris, and there were several very nasty gashes on her skin. Her skin was also rubbed ragged by the steam, the dust, and the debris. Even her face was marred by wounds and dust, which almost made me wince. That had to hurt.

But Noel had allowed herself get hurt like this on purpose. In exchange, she’d moved several steps farther, and was already preparing another spell. Her hands had gotten free at some point, which meant she had canceled out my magic hands with her own after all. Silver bubbles appeared in front of her, shooting towards me like cannonballs.

Noel had said that these bubbles weren’t lethal, but even if I had believed her, I knew I couldn’t let her send me into the future. The mission that she had been mentioning sounded like bad news. The Immortal of Desire sent me back in time for a reason. I had a feeling I had to stop Noel. I couldn’t let her complete her mission!

I cast the spells that I had already prepared. Almost all of the bubbles popped. I missed one of them, and had to scramble to cast another spell. The silver bubble grew larger in my vision, rendering a warped version of my face on its soapy surface. It popped right in front of my face. If it had been a real soap bubble, I probably would have gotten something on my lips.

Noel turned towards the gate. I shot out a long flame at an angle from my body. Noel was going to run right into the flames, but then she jerked sharply to the side. The flames licked the tip of her clothes, before fizzling out. My eyes widened. She was using the same trick I had used in our first fight; she was using magic hands to make sharp movements. She hadn’t even seen me use it yet, so that meant she had come up with it herself! I grit my teeth and sent out a burst of different spells, but Noel zigzagged across the field, dodging every spell like she had eyes in the back of her head. Her erratic motion did slow her down a little. I moved ahead in a straight line, keeping my eyes open for any more of her bubbles.

My ears pricked up.

I jumped to the side as the ground underneath me gave way. A geyser of hot water burst through the earth. Even though I had avoided the actual burst of hot, pressurized water, I still managed to get doused in the uncomfortably hot water, although I alleviated the worst of it by protecting myself with a sheet of colder water.

The ground beneath Noel’s feet turned to mud. She stepped right into it before suddenly blasting it with a burst of cold air and jumping up. More mud stretched out in a circle around her, waiting to slow her down as soon as she touched ground. Instead, Noel slingshot through the air off of what I assumed were magic hands. Her speed in the air wasn’t very impressive, which made sense because this was probably the first time she had tried it. She really was using magic just as creatively as I did.

Noel was almost out of reach. Most of the spells I had prepared in the surroundings already couldn’t reach her. And now that she’d revealed her ability to neutralize my magic hands, I was quickly running out of options. I frantically summoned some energy and shot rocks and pebbles after her while rushing forward. Thankfully, I was still just a little faster than her. Noel had definitely learned how to increase her speed with air and motion magic, but I was better at both of them and would catch up to her before she entered the city gates.

A silver glow appeared around Noel’s body. I pursed my lips. She weathered the projectiles I had shot at her, although she did flinch a little. Her skin was still sensitive, and the silver glow clearly couldn’t protect her completely. I yelled at her to stop, but she kept going. I cast a long magic hand and used it to begin shutting the gates.

Noel saw the slowly closing gates and put her head down. I cursed under my breath as I ran forward. I had to stop closing the gates. Judging by our speeds and distance, I’d calculated that Noel would either just squeak through, or she’d get crushed by the gates. If she got through like that, I might just shut the gates on myself. And I didn’t want her to get crushed either.

Instead, I redoubled my efforts. I could hear the clamor of soldiers recovering their formations. The human mages had finally begun clearing the air behind me, which might help the others get into the fray. Kelser didn’t get involved, which was fine by me. I’d told him to keep an eye on Alek no matter what. Judging by how Alek had killed not controlled Kelser in the first battle, I had a feeling Alek’s mind control magic didn’t work very well on the headstrong young human.

“Noel!” I cried out as we passed through the gate. I used magic hands to bring the magnetic rail gun with me from a distance. Noel hadn’t seen this weapon, not in this fight at least. “Don’t make me take you down!”

Clouds passed over the sun once again. Thunder rumbled overhead. The light, the sounds, all of this felt familiar. A gray darkness descended across the open fields. No, it was darker than gray. Pitch black. Darker than a moonless night.

I frowned.

It wasn’t supposed to be this dark.

From the sides, I could still hear soldiers from different races all reacting to Noel bursting through the gate, followed closely by me and a trail of chaos and spells. Yet, the soldiers faded into the darkness. The walls, the ground around me. Eventually, even Noel.

And yet I could hear them. I could smell the dust in the air. I could feel the earth beneath my feet. I could even sense all of the spells I was casting. A burst of fire left my hands, but when it should have illuminated the area in front of me, it instead shot right into the darkness and out of my sight.

I knew instinctively this wasn’t the work of an Immortal. An Immortal would have transported me away, cut off all of my senses, or done something far more complete, far more dangerous. No, I knew exactly what was going on, because it was a possibility I had already long since considered.

Noel had cast a spell I did not know.