I should have bought weapons with the money I don’t have.

I managed to instinctively defend myself from whatever tried to have a piece of me using the grimoire but it wasn’t pretty.

The pastor just looked on in dismay. I showed him the finger.

Raynard has been right, the zombies actually have been infused with a spell. We tried fighting back, but were only mildly successful.

The spell used appeared to be the same one, used before they were awake. And no-one has been able to break it, so, yeah. This sucks.

“I think it’s time for plan B!” I shouted through the sounds of zombies hissing.

Raynard and Aurelia were basically jumping around the room, evading the attacking horde. I couldn’t do more than smacking them with my grimoire. It wouldn’t be able to actually hurt them, but at least we could get some space.

“And how are we gonna do that?” Raynard asked.

“I don’t know, Aurelia can’t you just punch that gate open?”

“I’ll try.”

She jumped into the air, probably doing so by using magic and then flipped backwards midair. Her feet hit a wall behind her and she kicked herself towards the gate.

The pastor ducked away towards the side, when she soared towards the gate next to him, not making an attempt at stopping her.

She landed on both of her feet, sliding over the floor and using the momentum to ram both of her fists into the stone.

Only a loud bang and repressed curses.

The gate didn’t budge.

“If you really thought you could remove one of the gates of the gods by sheer force, I’m sorry, but how reckless can you be?” The pastor mocked her, which maybe was a bad idea.

Aurelia clenched her fists.

“Look, if you think I’m pissed, you’re right. If you think, you’re what’s pissing me off, that’s also right. So please stop that mockery, it’s getting you nowhere, only near my fists,” she said and broke his nose.

How very sexy of her.

He backed off, somehow still retaining his balance, but bending over to let the blood drop onto the floor.

“Fuck! Ahh! What was that for?” He screamed.

“Wha- Excuse me?!” The princess now also was shouting. “What could this possibly be for, you poor excuse of a priest?” She was livid and ready for another punch.

She extended her right fist. He caught her midair.

He squeezed her fist and began pushing her back.

“You caught me off guard, I’ll give you that.” In a swift motion he extended his other palm forward, pushing her off using magic and then jumping back himself to get some distance between them.

They were now exchanging punches, windy blows and other sweet magical nothings, all in front of my escape plan.

“Nathan,” Raynard who was busy fending of the zombies called out to me.

“Huh?” I sort of snapped back and looked at him.

“You need to open the gate,” he said.

“But I can’t!” I exclaimed. “I already tried.”

“Yes, but that was just because you did not pronounce the spell quite right, wasn’t it?”

I just looked at him with a blank expression, shoving another zombie aside.

“Just, please, try it. If you try it as often as possible, maybe you’ll get lucky. Please, it’s the only way!”

I gave him a determined nod.

“Adora, god of matter, hear our prayers and open thy gate, open thy gate to hear our prayers.” I began chanting.

“Adora, god of matter, hear our prayers and open thy gate, open thy gate to hear our prayers.”

This drew the pastor’s attention towards me.

“You,” his fight with Aurelia came to a sudden halt. “You speak the ancient language?”

I tried not to be irritated, and just continued chanting, trying to use various possible pronunciations.

“Adora, god of matter, hear our prayers and open thy gate, open thy gate to hear our prayers.”

[>> Adora, god of matter, hear our prayers and open thy gate, open thy gate to hear our prayers.

What?

[Try to mimic it.]

Now that’s something, the grimoire actually tried to help me with the spell.

It was helpful, but also really overwhelming. I chanted, mimicked the grimoire and fought off the zombies at the same time. My head hurt.

Suddenly the pastor tore towards me. I stumbled backwards, breaking of the chanting in the process.

“Shit.”

“Oh no, you won’t!”

Aurelia launched herself against the pastor, taking him down and pinning him against the floor.

“Adora, god of matter, hear our prayers and open thy gate, open thy gate to hear our prayers.”

I kept chanting.

Adora, god of matter, hear our prayers and open thy gate, open thy gate to hear our prayers.

Adora, god of matter, hear our prayers and open thy gate, open thy gate to hear our prayers.

Adora, god of matter, hear our prayers and open thy gate, open thy gate to hear our prayers.

Adora, god of matter, hear our prayers and open thy gate, open thy gate to hear our prayers.

Until finally ...

A light seemed to erupt from the tip of my tongue, breaking the horde apart and piercing the gate on the opposite side of the room. It disappeared into particles of light.

That was it.

I shoved the zombie in front of me out of the way, and sprinted toward the gate.

I had to warn the villagers.

I glanced behind and saw a few zombies following me in my path one after another and I tried to speed up.

I reached the gate and broke into the fresh air. The sun was already setting, but that did not matter at the moment.

I looked back again and saw a few zombies having followed me outside.

Suddenly Raynard appeared in front of the gate, spreading his arms, as if to shield it from something.

“Raynard,” I shouted, because I was pretty sure, just standing in front of the gate wouldn’t work.

Until I saw the other zombies crashing against an invisible wall.

Raynard tilted his head a bit toward the side and gave me a thumbs-up.

“Hopefully this’ll buy us time,” I muttered out loud for some reason. The only ones that could hear me were the five zombies that were slowly closing in on me, while I left the clearing, and dashed through the bushes.

I tried to speed up.

Everything hurt.

My head, my legs, my back.

If this was what dying felt like, it wasn’t very pleasant. Though definitely better than being torn apart by one of those things.

If I could I’d let my legs rotate like a wheel to get some speed, but I was already at my limit.

So, are there any strategies to escape this situation?

[None.]

Don’t give me that crap! There’s gotta be something.

[Nothing.]

What?! There’s gotta be a speed spell or anything!

[...]

So there is something!

[You wouldn’t be able to use the spell without depleting all of your mana.]

Is there a chance I could reach the village in time?!

[Yes.]

How?!

[The most efficient method would be to use an aerial spell-]

Show me!

The spells information was immediately loaded into my brain.

I had only one shot at this.

The zombies were closing in.

I stretched my hand out behind me. I could feel fingers reaching out for, not-so-gently grazing my skin, probably wounding me slightly. I didn’t notice.

I gathered every inch of magic my body could provide me with into my open palm, concentrating on replicating that exact sensation th grimoire showed me.

And a burst of air left my hand, blowing away a zombie yanking my hand into the air. Not only was this spell using lots of mana it seemed to also be physically taxing, as I tried to control the stream of air.

It took a lot of effort, but after a few seconds I pushed more of my mana into blowing air from my palm, and pushed myself high into the air. When I actually surpassed the trees, I cancelled the spell, flying another dozen meters at insane speed. The headwind made my vision blurry.

[Your mana is reaching critical levels.]

I tried looking behind me to find the zombies, but my vision was so bad, I only recognized the trees and grass below me as a dark green blur.

Just after I began sinking, I concentrated on that spell again to give me another boost.

I think I could see the village and the river in the distance.

The next moments were an obscure blur. After the second boost my nose started bleeding and the grimoire notified me, that I have used up all of my mana. I think. I couldn’t concentrate on the message, really, yet I somehow managed to repeatedly boost myself into the air, and each time it felt like someone stabbed my brain through the nose.

It was a steady up and down and it made me sick honestly.

That’s when I spotted a commotion in the center of the village and I decided it was best to just let myself fall onto the ground.

I crash-landed on the dry earth, near the commotion that was seemingly cause by Shelly and Misha. Somehow no-one has noticed me flying towards the village, but when I landed I immediately drew all the attention to me.

“Guys, the pastor... he has... done the spell. He’s coming for the village.”

I tried standing up, but I realized the feeling in most of my body was gone. Honestly, I wasn’t quite sure, if what I said was any more than just a weird slurring.

I saw Shelly running towards me and my vision twisted and tilted until I couldn’t hold my eyes open any longer.