After several hours of arguments mixed with the occasional mental breakdown. Eliza convinced Orden to lay down. During their long arguments, they hashed out a plan.

The first step was to not completely panic. At this point, they were entirely unsure what might happen to the girl if she left the safe room. It was sealed in numerous layers of isolation wards that wouldn’t allow anyone but those who knew the specific dispelling techniques through, with the exception of Medea. To keep their resident church mouse out all they had to do was lock the door, despite her constant interference, a locked door was still a locked door.

In the case that the girl could leave the room and immediately drop dead, then they could continue as they originally meant to go on. Test some things, teach them basic techniques, learn about her world, and then throw her to any number of university wolves for a payout. The goal wasn’t the specific person they summoned, she wasn’t incredibly important. It was what she represented, proof. Once they had proof, they could sell the design and live like kings for the rest of time.

If they discovered the girl couldn’t leave the room for long, or worse, died instantly, then they had an extremely narrow time frame to act before things would get out of hand. The king was never a patient man and wouldn’t allow any more setbacks. For the last several months, he had been demanding almost daily updates on the project.

“What still needs to be done?”

“Who was working on what?”

“How much were the costs this week?”

Among many others. There was that, and there seemed to be an ever-increasing number of noble guests staying for extended periods of time while the king was there. It had gotten to a point where on two separate occasions the king executed someone for snooping on the project, and at least three people were exiled for talking back to the king. They spent the better part of 5 years never having to deal with anyone but the king or the occasional contractor.

All of this came to a head last night. Despite Orden and the rest of the team’s begging. The king insisted that the ritual be performed as quickly as possible. At this point, the ritual was close to 97% complete. At risk of their lives, they started it and ended with only one summoned individual of questionable condition and several failures in both of the outer rings, and one in the third as well. The ramifications of that would take months to figure out.

The last 3% of the project were mostly cosmetic, but still important features. The largest issue that arose during the ritual was the immense amount of light it produced. Even they couldn’t have predicted people as far away as the capital would see it. Thousands were blinded in the dead of night and a few were even injured due to various circumstances. This last bit of work would have eliminated the issue.

Something was pushing the king to get involved in the last few months. They weren’t sure what it was, but the generous estimate gave them less than a week before heads started rolling.

So that is what Plan B was for. A few of their number secretly left the estate early that morning and started establishing a temporary base far enough away that it would take a day or more for the king’s men to mobilize and search for them. If it all went to shit, they would mass transport there and scatter. They needed to buy as much time with testing and interviews as they could.

Once they were scattered, it shouldn’t be a major issue for anyone to survive. Even the lower members of the team were approaching mastery in their fields, so it was unlikely that anyone important would get caught. But it did mean that they would all need to go into hiding for the rest of their lives. The king employed mages in an official capacity as well, so they couldn’t sit pretty and depend on their prowess to save them.

Their next move was predicated on what they would do next. It was still early in the morning and Eliza assumed the visitor would be awake like Valotia thought she would be.

Eliza wanted to make a good first impression if she could. It was doubtless that this visitor from across the fabric of reality was going to be confused, and having a simple breakfast would help ease that at least a bit.

As Eliza turned the corner, she saw no one was standing at the door. Even worse, the door was wide open.

After last night, they posted two people at the door to make sure no one came or went. There was to be a constant rotation to make sure nothing happened to the visitor. Obviously, that didn’t work out.

“Hey!” Eliza yelled, hoping that the guards were in the room.

No response.

Eliza pushed some books to the side on a nearby table and set down the tray of food she had prepared. She waved her hand to lift the wards temporarily.

The air rippled in three different places, each getting closer to the door. These are where the three wards were supposed to be. But they didn’t lower for more than a moment.

The wards were designed to only stay up when receiving a constant flow of mana. Which they interrupted to allow passage through them without breaking them down all together. But these were being repaired almost instantly.

Eliza walked up to the first layer of the ward and pressed her hand against it. It felt just as it should. Invisible, yet completely solid.

She waved her hand again, applying a wave of mana directly to the wall. This should disrupt it more completely. But it just rippled violently in front of her before returning to its proper form.

Eliza was at a complete loss as to what was causing this. But it did not sit well with her.

She took a deep breath and reached forward with her hand, reached for something in her fist, and put her other hand flat against the ward for leverage.

Eliza jerked her fist hand back, as if ripping something out.

This sent an explosion of light barreling through the entire hall, the shockwave sent everything for several feet flying and shook the foundations of the building.

The first thing she noticed after destroying the first ward was that an incredible force of mana erupted from behind it. The mana was concentrated enough that it felt like a gust of hot air blasted her.

“Eliza!” She heard someone call out from behind her. Behind her were several of the junior mages, likely awoken surprised by the sudden shock wave.

“Stay back. Something is wrong, somebody wake Orden up and get him in here now.” She said. Instead of asking any questions, they turned and started heading toward the court wing of the king’s estate where Orden’s room was.

A ward is like a wall that runs on batteries. You could control what kind of thing the wall blocks, but otherwise it's very much just a wall. It shouldn’t be able to stay up without its batteries. The technique they used disrupted the wards and allowed them to pass, the act was similar to stuffing a wedge between the leads. But judging by the concentrated mana that came from out behind the first ward. Something on the other side was emitting enough mana to charge them through the equivalent of static electricity.

Eliza stepped forward and reached for the second ward’s invisible. She jerked her arm back once more, and the second ward shattered. Another shock wave threatened to tear the building down and kicked dust from the ceiling. After the second one, the foundation of the building started to groan from the sudden stress of being shaken like it was.

The mana that blasted her this time was at an entirely different level. It stuck her like a falling tree and threatened to take her off her feet. She saw a red drop splatter on her hand and instinctively wiped her nose. Her nose was bleeding. It was clear that the mana behind the first ward was just the remnants that had leaked through the second, and the same was likely true for this ward as well.

Things were starting to get seriously dangerous. The body had two limits on the amount of mana it could hold, the soft and hard limits. The soft limit was the natural amount the body wanted to store. This internal storage would be filled by the body’s natural mana generation. Once it was full, the reflant would vent the excess into the air around the subject. This threshold tended to be very low and is the reason not just everyone could perform magic.

A mage had the special ability to prevent this venting to store more in their body. This is what allowed them to gather enough energy to perform feats of magic. But just as covering the vent of a machine might lead to issues, this too will cause problems.

The hard limit of mana is based on size and weight, as well as other minor factors. It is achieved when every fiber of the user’s body is saturated. This isn’t inherently dangerous, but the issue comes from over-saturation. Normally this isn’t possible, but if the concentration of mana outside the body is higher than inside, it can’t vet the excess all and builds to dangerous levels.

This leads to the condition called “Mana Poisoning”.

Eliza lifted her hand and traced a circle in her palm. A small circle of light formed into the shape of a runic summoning circle in it. Then she made a motion above her palm like removing a lid from a jar, then slammed her hands together.

A shock of light radiated from her palm and she lifted her hand. A small black orb of darkness appeared in her hand. She created a mana void.

These are specially made wards that do one thing, and one thing only. They eat mana. The massive flood of mana was drawn to the orb and away from Eliza. It would remain near her if she moved.

She reached forward again and grabbed the invisible object from the air and threw it back. The explosive force threw her and everything around her back. The entire estate was shaken, people as far away as the town below were thrown to the ground. Alarms as far away as the western sea were triggered. A thundering shock wave shattered every window in the building.

Eliza rolled over on the floor, parts of the roof collapsed around her and dropped the remains on top of her.

She picked herself up and dragged herself to the doorway. The void she created was doing its best to absorb as much mana as it could, but the sheer force of mana that the room was exuding was like standing in an open flame. She reached just inside the room and looked toward the bed.

But it was empty.

Why is she not here?

Where is she?

Why is there so much mana?

Why wouldn’t the wards close?

Where are the guards?

Eliza’s head started spinning. Both from her body being poisoned in the crippling atmosphere of the room, and from the thousands of questions, worries, and fears that just manifested into reality all at once.

“Eliza!”

She heard a voice scream from behind her. It sounded familiar, but her mind was so shot that she couldn’t process anything at all. She fell to the ground, and it all went dark.