Early Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

On my way to the vault, I started thinking of what I was going to have for a plan, but I didn't have many options.

The only real option I had was to catch them off guard and try to overpower them..

I was thinking as hard as I could but I ended up arriving at the vault before I could think of what I really wanted to do.

-Well, lets see if I remember the code..-

Looking at the vault, I couldn't actually see the buttons without the use of mana, but once I found the buttons, I opened up the door.

-Sweet, first try.- Although a dragon's memory is near perfect, if one does not actively try to remember something, they won't, making my memory of the code a little fuzzy.

Looking around the vault, I eyeballed the various weapons lining the walls.

-Maybe I could use one of these?-

They were all masterly crafted but they were a little big for me.

There was one weapon that really caught my eye though. It was a massive greatsword that looked like something from ‘Monster Hunter’.

It was far too big for my body, but I had the strength to wield it cleanly with two hands.

-But I have no experience with any of these weapons..- “Ugh..” Scratching my head, not sure what to do, Ilios brushed past my leg and picked up the sword.

He walked it over to me and set it down. “Woof.”

Although he just barked, I somehow knew what he meant, “You're right.. it couldn't hurt to bring..” I reached down and moved it to the outside of the vault.

Walking back over I picked up the huge core in the middle, "I guess it's time for this.."

As I walked out of the vault with it, I started to realize that I shouldn't just swallow the core.

Not only was it a little big to swallow, but it had an absurd amount of mana in it.

-Well I don't really have time to slowly absorb it either, so..-

Changing into my dragon form, I decided to go for it.

"Welp.. bottoms up.."

*Gulp*

It was incredibly uncomfortable to swallow but the core tasted incredible. It was unlike anything I had ever had, but it was delicious.

-Alright.. next I need to control the m..-

Before I could finish my sentence, my mana reserve overfilled too fast and exploded before I could react.

*VWOOOM*

The explosion ripped apart my organs and shattered near by bones, sending a ridiculous pain coursing through my body.

*Thud*

My body collapsed to the floor, but just before I blacked out, an unknown yet very familiar energy filled my body.

-

"Haah.." Oliver had a lot on his mind while he waited for Lawton and the academy Grandmaster to arrive at his office.

He had to not only figure out a way to save Vasilias, but also to save Kaelallan.

It was a sticky predicament because he wouldn't be able to get more than 1 or 2 Nation ranks from Frelinia, the closest allied nation just south, within 3 days. Legal issues prevented fast transfer of power between nations in the bay alliance without being in a war.

-Maybe it's finally time I give Lawton that sword.. I'm not sure how much it'll help though..-

*Click*

Dragging Oliver out of his thoughts, he looked up at the door.

"Ah, welcome."

Behind the door was Lawton standing next to an average height, mature looking elf woman.

"Sorry we are late my Lord."

"Please talk comfortably. I need you two to take a seat, we have something very important to discuss about."

Both nodding their heads, they started walking to the couch.

Before they could sit down though.

*VWOOOM*

Everyone in the palace paled, no matter how strong or weak, whether they understood what the cause of fear was or not.

The mana in the air was suffocating, it was easily dense enough to cause mana poisoning but.. it was moving, and quickly.

The suction of mana was ignoring the walls and flowing through the floor.

The first to move was Oliver. He realized where the mana was flowing to and panicked. -What did he do?!-

Although his body was screaming at him to run away, he instead got up and started running towards the source.

Seeing Oliver run out of the room snapped Lawton out of his panic and he followed suit.

The only one to not move was Eulia Coletti, the grandmaster.

Although she was frozen in fear like everyone else, she had more than one reason.

Something was very wrong about this suction of mana.

Mana doesn't just appear out of nowhere, so for mana this dense to appear so randomly, where did it come from?

Eulia was the only one to figure out what it was as she looked at her reserve. It was emptying.

Being unable to move out of the suction of mana in time, she collapsed on the couch, forced into a deep sleep by mana exhaustion.

On his way to the vault, Oliver and Lawtons reserves quickly drained.

The first to collapse was Oliver.

"My Lord!" Lost in the heat of the moment, Lawton failed to realize what the problem was, and collapsed not long after.

-

Nearby in the Upper District, Maria was sleeping.

She had nothing else to do after all.

But today she was woken up from her nap when she felt an unusual flow of mana.

Opening her eyes, she looked up at the palace and saw a 'bubble' of mana being sucked through the ground under the palace.

This was already horrifying as it was, such a ridiculous amount of mana for it to be visible on such a scale was enough to kill dragons, let alone people.

But the more horrifying aspect was that the bubble was growing.

Fear filled her heart as she realized what the only possibility was.

-..And we wanted to rebel against that?!-

As the bubble expanded, her reserve started to get pulled into it.

She was still pinned to the ground, but even if she wasn't, she wouldn't move.

She was far too terrified of whatever was causing the suction of mana to resist.

Her reserve steadily drained as the outside of the visible mana bubble enveloped the royal palace.

-

At the academy, Lucy was enjoying her lunch with Viviana when she noticed something odd.

People's auras were being pulled towards the palace.

"Is something wrong Lucy?" Viviana looked worried.

"N..no everything is f-"

"Hello students of the Academy, the school is going into lockdown." An old male voice resounded through the school using an announcement artifact.

-What the..-

"An anomaly has occurred within the royal palace causing people to collapse in the streets. Please stay calm, and stay indoors."

Lucy's heart dropped hearing the announcement. -People are collapsing in the streets.. and the source is the palace..-

Her mind immediately made assumptions as she quickly got up and ran outside, managing to get around any knights.

Looking up towards the palace she saw a gargantuan hemisphere of mana enveloping everything.

The mana bubble had stopped growing and even started to shrink, but the suction was still just as strong.

Lucy's legs went weak as her mind jumped to all the wrong places.

She started shaking violently until she collapsed and fell into Viviana's arms.

"Lucy!"

Lucy had passed out even though her reserve was mostly full.

Viviana's heart began to beat out of her chest, "GUARDS! PLEASE ANYONE!"

Hearing her call, a male knight came rushing over.

"What is it, miss?!"

"My friend! She started shaking a bunch, t..then collapsed!" She was crying incredibly heavily being unable to keep composure seeing Lucy pass out.

The knight quickly reached down and picked up Lucy, "please follow me miss, we need to bring her to the clinic."

Lucy shakily got up and ran after the man.