2.6: The Unstoppable March of Time

I threw up as powerful of a barrier as I could muster in the second before the rubble fell on me.

As soon as the barrier appeared, I realized that I had no idea if my magic had been restored or not since I had been put in the lower dream.

I left the barrier in place and prepped a parry as well, just in case my barrier wouldn’t hold.

I remember staring up into the dark sky, mesmerized by how surreal it was that a building was falling toward me. When the debris was close enough, I was able to pick out individual steel beams and bits of bent rebar among the monolith-sized chunks of concrete. I even saw a bookshelf full of paperbound books caught into the deluge of destruction.

I heard what sounded like a thousand ocean waves just about to crash over my head, roaring like a den of hungry lions, loud enough to drown out the incessant lullaby of the Night Terror.

I fired off the parry as the thundering became unbearable.

As I did, I heard Eleanor’s voice calling out my name just before the rubble landed.

Slam!

Complete darkness.

The roaring continued as tons upon tons of steel, concrete, and plaster piled on top of me in a makeshift tomb. The entire ground shook as if with a violent earthquake.

My barrier sizzled and crackled under the immense weight of the debris, but it held firm.

My magic ran cool, meaning the barrier was nowhere near its breaking point.

Someone had restored my magic, at least to about twenty percent of its original power despite my curse.

I wasn’t sure how that was possible given the nature of curses in this particular nightmare, but I wasn’t complaining about the help.

When the rubble came to a standstill, I stood absolutely still for a few moments. I wanted to make sure my barrier would hold now that no more weight was being added to it.

But when the barrier held firm, I laughed maniacally.

“My magic’s back!” I shouted. “Whoo!”

“Queen’s lover!” Gordon cried out miserably. “I can’t see anything!”

“We’re fine!” I replied. “I just got everything I needed.”

My barriers had a unique property that allowed them to convert any kinetic force they absorbed into magic I could use.

If I used the magic right away, I wouldn’t have to worry about manaburn since the magic was still outside of my body, the coveted free magic many mages dedicated entire careers to utilizing. If I was low on magic, I could simply absorb the magic to replenish depleted reserves, much like a quick-acting elixir did.

Since I was very low on magic, I greedily absorbed all of the kinetic energy I had converted into magic. Soothing relief flooded into my body, quickly erasing any discomfort I felt from my manaburn. It was like stepping into a cold shower on a hot, humid day.

When the transfer was complete, I felt good.

My magic was back to forty percent of its normal capacity, at least for the moment. Magic acquired through absorption always dissipated within a day, so it was definitely a use it or lose it kind of deal.

Not that it would be a problem.

I summoned Kairos.

The blade illuminated the cavern my barrier had created with a brilliant blue light.

“Gordon, where’s the weakest point of the rubble?” I asked.

“How am I supposed to know?” he replied.

“You’re a magical cat, you’re supposed to know these things.”

“I can see magical things. All I see now is a man with a sharp blade and a big pile of rubble about to collapse on us.”

"It's not going to collapse."

I felt a huge surge of magic enter my body through my right wrist. I looked down at my Lifelink and realized that Priscilla was channeling magic to me.

I was baffled as to why she would channel magic to me.

Then it hit me.

She must have thought I was crushed by the rubble.

I’m fine! I thought. Save your magic!

Three, whip-like cracks filled the air, followed by the deafening boom of thunder.

Priscilla had just fired the steel spikes from her lightning sleeve.

The fight had already begun.

Not again, I groaned.

I held Kairos to my waist before fastening it in place with a sheath alteration, a simple kinetic application that surrounded the entire length of the blade. Then I looked for the thinnest section of the rubble that surrounded us. A quick scan revealed a segment of the debris to my immediate right that had some light shining through the cracks.

There, I thought.

I took both hands and prepared a door alteration to create an opening in the rubble for Gordon and me to escape through. Using door could be dangerous depending on the quantity and quality of the material I was trying to create a door in since I was essentially cutting through a large amount of material in a short period of time. While the shockwave produced from door wasn’t as dangerous as some of my other alterations were, the debris flying away from the door was.

Thankfully, flying debris was neither a problem nor a danger to Priscilla.

Once the alteration was ready, I pressed my hands against the rubble and ignited my magic.

There was a loud crack! as my kinetic magic cut the rubble like a high-quality hole puncher, loosening a door-shaped chunk of debris from the rest dogpiled around my barrier.

Perfect, I thought with a smile.

I shifted my hand to the center-mass of the rubble I had loosened and prepared a broad push alteration, one just strong enough to tip the door up and away from us. As soon as I ignited it, the door rose into the air, tipped over its edge, and landed flat on its back with a satisfying thud!

I created a circular opening in the first barrier I had made and channeled a few seconds worth of magic into the alteration so it could continue to hold the rubble up as I made my escape. The last thing I wanted was for the rubble to collapse around me as I tried to exit the door.

I applied a jump alteration around my body before I leaped out of the cavern and landed on the outside of the rubble pile.

I quickly made my way down to the bottom of the rubble before it collapsed under my feet. When I was back on solid ground, the pile caved in on itself, just as I hoped it would.

“We made it!” Gordon yelped.

“Course we did,” I replied. “I’m a Densus Knight!”

But as I scanned the Dawn Sanctuary for Priscilla, a huge cloud of dust rose into the air from the rubble. I immediately shaped a razor-thin barrier around the cloud of dust and tried to contain it as best as I could. There was still a good amount of dust that managed to make it past the barrier, but I was able to keep most of it from spreading and obscuring our vision.

“Where’s my lord?” I asked Gordon.

“Right there!” he replied.

Priscilla was no longer perched on the crimson lamppost but standing on the cobblestone street in full battle regalia. The rose emblazoned onto the back her crimson duster was aglow with magic, something I had not noticed before. The rose seemed to be burning with crimson fire, though what purpose the fire served I did not know. Her wing was raised in front of her like a warrior’s shield, her black feathers spread out like a deadly fan. She kept several feathers raised pointed at the Night Terror, which stood off to our left, no more than a hundred feet away. All but a single spike on her lightning sleeve was missing.

The remaining three were embedded deep into the Night Terror’s skull, yet it gazed at Priscilla without flinching, its glowing orange eyes as soulless as the lights that lined the streets. I was convinced that the Night Terror wasn’t even remotely human, or if it was, it no longer felt pain as humans did.

“Why won’t you die?” Priscilla cried.

She made a fist with her right hand. A second lightning bolt fell from the sky, connecting squarely with one of the spikes on the Night Terror’s face.

The haunting lullaby that emanated from the Night Terror’s vocal cords had all but ceased, bringing with it welcome relief. But in its place, terse silence filled the streets of the Dawn.

For a moment, it seemed as if the lightning bolt had finished off the Night Terror. Its burnt leather duster had now caught on fire, and its head tilted back as if the lightning had knocked it unconscious.

But it wasn’t long before the lullaby returned, angrier and louder than before.

The Night Terror snapped back to attention and began to hobble toward us again, rapidly, enraged by the pain it felt.

The gap between us quickly began to vanish.

Priscilla fired a third lightning strike, illuminating the entire area around us with blinding light. But when the light cleared, the Night Terror was still marching toward us. Its duster was now a walking inferno of fire. It let out a terrible, inhuman screech as it moved even faster toward us, its broken leg twisting uncomfortably out of shape with every step it took.

Wait, a broken leg, I thought, breathing in sharply.

“Titus!” Priscilla screamed. “Titus, do something!”

I raised my blade, more than ready to kill the imposter that stood before us.

That has to be the phantasm pretending to be me.