-Good. We’re ready then?

-Almost. I still am unsure about one thing.

-What’s that?

-What about Rob?

Right. Our friendly neighborhood prisoner. So far he’s been on his best behavior. I still had him bound, not as tightly though. He’s not been betraying any signs of “insubordination”. Still on a leash, he was quiet and didn’t even need me to tug at it for him to follow wherever we wanted to.

-Yeah… I’ll have him with me.

-You sure? Won’t he be a distraction for you? - asked Kon.

-Probably a little bit. But what, we can’t just leave him anywhere, can we?

-I mean… Rubo’s place got destroyed… We do have the basement, though. But that’s probably flooded with ash, too.

-Yeah…

Wait a second.

-What did you just say?

-Eh?

For was visibly confused.

-What do you mean?

-Repeat the earlier sentence.

-Er… It’s flooded?

-No. Whose basement.

-Rubo’s…

She froze on a spot.

-Who’s Rubo? How do I know that?

Exactly.

Rubo. The guy who got caught by me and Melle a long time ago. How did she know him? And to know that it was his house?

I placed my hand on Il’s shoulder.

-Any idea, Il?

She also was speechless.

-I… I don’t know… I think that she learned that from me…?

-How? You know him?

-I guess…?

She was confused.

-It’s weird. I do have some memory of the guy… but I don’t know who he is! I don’t even remember his face.

-Hm.

-It’s just… like I remember… somehow I was here? I am so confused…

It was not completely surprising.

I used to have those flashes of memories belonging to others, but I blamed that on her, or rather on her copy.

In her case though?

It was definitely weird. Whose memory was that?

It was possible that it was just something Kon heard and that got leaked towards her, but that wouldn’t explain the feeling of “being here before”. Same if it was from me.

So what, was it just Axelrod somehow leaking information to her?

Why would he do that?

I mean, sure it was possible that he did that accidentally, it’s not like he’s incapable of making mistakes, and we did manage to peek on him already, but…

No matter.

-Any other memories that are surprisingly out of place?

-No! I didn’t even know I had this one in the first place! It was just as I knew about it all the time and only it surfaced when I thought about it.

-I guess the place was the “trigger”, huh?

-You expected that to happen? - asked For, joining in.

-Of course not. But I already learned to not be surprised by those things. If I was, I’d be stuck almost constantly thinking of why shit’s happening.

-...

-What? My recent life was full of happenstances and random shit that’s hard to explain.

-”Hard to explain”. Your past is chasing you, that’s all - she commented.

She wasn’t wrong.

-Okay, okay, I get it. Can we get back to containing this shit?

-Right…

I said “containing”, but I didn’t realize on what scale we were going to have to act.

Before, when we were thinking of the methods, the ash had already fallen on about a third of a city, spreading from the place of impact, where the castle used to be.

But it did not stop spreading.

All the buildings that were covered with ash during the first impact had already turned to dust, scattering on the wind, while about a half remaining was already black or some shade of gray. The wood was dried and manaless, the building almost ready to collapse.

-We need to hurry - I informed my companions pointlessly.

They all already knew. It wasn’t hard to notice, to be honest.

Especially when every once and again some building would collapse, leaving a cloud of ash, spreading the problem even further.

-Ready? If so, I am starting.

-Let’s go.

-Yeah.

-Ready.

-Okay… let’s have a go at it!

The first one to act was Il.

I could feel the winds suddenly shift and almost stop. What was left was just a very, very mild breeze, blowing towards us, towards the middle of the problem.

At the same time, I could tell For sit next to her and stop moving.

She spread all her senses around, just like I used to do.

It was a good idea, if she was proficient enough, she’d be able to increase her own awareness by a large degree.

And I could tell, she was good at it.

I don’t know if it was just her and Crystal's growth, but I knew that her range was a bit further than mine.

Good. It’s nice to have someone with senses good enough to detect small changes in magical nature. That’s how she was able to find us those anchors.

I was next in line.

I also didn’t even bother with a spell, just willed a small spark in my palm, and carefully placed it right on the dust.

The effect was immediate.

Unlike with Kon, my flame almost instantly started burning the dust down. Quite easy.

Meanwhile, Kon was watching me, but only with a corner of his eye, the rest of his attention was elsewhere.

He was monitoring my own flames and sometimes even trying to control them, ordering them to move away from the outer zones, instead just slowly started burning it down.

There was no wind spreading the flames the way we didn’t intend to. It also meant no explosions.

So far it was working flawlessly.

Of course, not for long.

After we managed to burn out most of the palace, or rather its remains, I started going through the rest of the city, burning the rest of the ash that was still there.

I was hoping we were going to at least save part of it from the decay, but we greatly underestimated the speed of spread.

The whole city was afflicted already.

Maybe not completely turned to ash, but definitely grayed out and had the mana sucked completely dry. I was wondering how it was able to spread so quickly, when I realized there was no time for thinking.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

The decay was already reaching trees that were already outside of the city premises, or at least what looked like it, because it was hard to tell where exactly the city ended.

I am unsure if it was like this last time, but now the outskirts of the city had quite a bit of newer and smaller houses, looking like they were newly built. Or rather grown.

But that was also our saving grace.

Or rather forest’s saving grace.

Since those were recent, they also had quite a bit more mana infused within them, in comparison to the old wood comprising other houses.

It was not going to stop the decay much, but I hoped it was enough.

I increased my fire output.

Before, I was just like Kon, only monitoring the flames, not bothering to add any more fuel to the fire, but seeing the state of the city changed my mind.

I immediately started pouring mana towards the fire.

That startled my companions, and they immediately started trying to contain the flames.

I was not in the mood for tug of war, nor I really had time to explain, so instead of talking I just focused on the image I just saw with my mind's eye: the spread of decay reaching the trees a lot further away.

Just like with my thoughts, I tried sending the image to the person closest to me.

Kon.

I could feel his spell waver, giving in to my flames, but that was just for a brief moment. He hesitated not because he understood the message, it was just because he got startled.

Well, I guess receiving that kind of message was unexpected and a bit taxing. Not the first time we had that problem…

At least this time no one collapsed.

It took him a few moments to acclimate and understand what was going on and actually adjust the spell.

I think he even managed to contact Il, because I also felt a shift in the wind.

Instead of just being a passive force that was only limiting me a tiny bit, it turned into a boosting force for me.

I feel like it was a bit overkill for the problem, but I was not complaining. As long as she wasn’t going to cause an explosion, we were good.

Our spell has quickly turned from a controlled burn to a frantic fire, spreading wildly to every point of the city.

It was what I intended after seeing the problem, but that also brought with itself another issue.

Would we be able to contain it when we’re done?

I certainly hoped so.

In the worst case scenario, we could just let the fire rage and let it go. I mean, sure, it would not be the best for the environment, but who cares at this point?

The more this was going on, the more concerned Kon’s face was.

I am pretty sure if I was able to see For’s, it would be the same. Rob was barely hanging on, trying to not lose it.

Why did we even let him live…

Having him only gave us problems. And it didn’t get us anything.

Hell, I think my thoughts might have leaked a bit, cause I’ve noticed him shudder. Or it was just from the general state of events…

In any case, we were already burning the trees that were right next to the newest ring of buildings in the city.

I thought that as soon as we were going to reach them, I’d want to lower the power of flames, since there would be more loose mana in the air from the fresher magic in those places and the spell would’ve powered up by itself, but it was quite the opposite: I felt like my spell weaken by the moment.

Was that For’s work? Or maybe Kon’s?

Nah, neither of them was interfering with my spell to that point. Sure, both of them were trying to limit the spread of flames, but the barriers were far enough that it was not the case for sure.

Maybe Il?

No, she was also aware of the problem and would definitely not impede me like that.

And she wasn’t.

That was definitely confusing. I had to go against my own instincts and give even more power to the flames.

For a good moment there was no change. The flames were constantly dissipating, while the remaining buildings were turning to gray shriveled wood. Same with the trees on the edges. Were already half-gray.

Not good.

Time to pour even more mana.

Aaand I went overboard.

Sure, it definitely broke through that “block” I felt, but it didn't stop there.

As soon as the last of the building was covered in flames, the pressure of the force that was blocking it suddenly vanished, and the flame spread like literal wildfire.

We did manage to destroy the ash.

Too bad we now had to contain the fire.

First step: stop my spell.

I say stop, but I already did all I could: cut the mana source off. I never expected for it to actually stop the fire, so I wasn’t surprised when the raging flames didn’t change even a tiny bit.

That didn’t escape my companion’s notice.

The second phase then.

All of them were supposed to stop whatever they were doing and instead we should focus on containing the fire.

Or rather trying to extinguish it.

-Kpogya xvuqsy Nus.

From the outside perspective, it looked like just a regular and pretty simple spell. Well, aside from the pronunciation, that is. But the truth was quite different.

It was a combination of ice magic and an old protection spell, straight from the MIRE.

The main issue was that the protective spell was not ever intended to be used that way. There wasn’t really a problem with the scale, like I thought before. rather the issue was combining the two.

As soon as I spoke the words, I could tell that the spell was not replying as it should: the mana it was sapping from me was infinitely more than it was supposed to. Still, that was not much of a problem for me: I was feeling quite invigorated lately, and since I was not the only one responsible for this magic today, I was also sharing the burden with the other three.

That proved to be problematic.

While Il was fine, I didn’t feel any struggle from her, the other two had more issues trying to control the mana escaping from their bodies.

It was a bit worrying.

To the point that I started regretting even letting them join on the “ritual”.

Nah, who am I kidding. There was no point in trying to fool myself.

Whenever I wanted or not, they would’ve joined in anyway. And I am not talking because of some kind of sense of duty or some shit, no. The reason was quite basic at this point: Origin Crystal.

The fact that they were connected to me was indisputable and definitely casting such a spell in their proximity would’ve instantly connected it to them.

Hell, even if we were trying to forcefully terminate the link with them as soon as we detected the changes in mana, I know the Crystal wouldn’t let me.

The pull was that strong.

But that was not all.

Sure, the two were waning and on the brink of collapse, but to the ritual there was also connected another person that I didn’t really plan on.

Rob.

In hindsight, it was possible for him to be connected only because of the Crystal inside his own body.

Even though I anticipated that something like this would be possible, I never expected that having him walk away about hundred meters away from me would not prevent him from connecting.

If the two that were with me were about to collapse from exhaustion, how bad was he doing then?

And the answer was, actually quite fine.

Unusual. Maybe not totally unexpected, but still.

He was part crystal after all, and lived for a long time, he had to have some decent mana capacity.

Although, when I saw him, I couldn’t really tell.

And not because it was hard to tell or he was hiding his potential or something stupid like that, no. I would’ve been able to notice something off. Same with others. If not me, one of them would notice something, right?

His mana was just… unremarkable.

Not small, but also not overwhelming.

Definitely on that front both For and Kon had him beat, that’s why I didn’t even consider him a threat.

And yet, here we were: he was still standing steady, while the other two were now collapsing from exhaustion.

Maybe it was just a problem with connection?

If he was so far from action, it was obvious that the spell would have a hard time draining the subject.

Nah… There was something else.

I took a closer look at the problem.

I wasn’t able to tell the difference, but even then, I could tell that it was not his mana that was being drained.

His mana was not diminishing at all.

His mana was sitting still. Not moving.

And yet, I could tell that something was giving mana to the spell we cast. And it was not with us here.

I bet if either Kon or For were still awake, they would be able to pinpoint or recognize the source of it, besides it being rooted in Rob’s soul.

But right now both of them were resting soundly after the exhausting work we assigned them.

Resting soundly: I mean drained and blacked out.

The only remaining people awake were me, him and Il.

Too bad I was busy containing this shit or I would’ve had so many questions for the guy…

I still had a bit to do.

My previous spell was maybe not the best, but it was working. I just had to pour a little bit of mana…

-Stop.

Huh?

-Why? What’s going on?

-Your spell is working. Just let me…

It was?

I honestly couldn’t tell. Sure, it was on, I could tell that some ice was forming, but was it enough to stop the fire.

-I mean, it probably won't stop it, but I do have an idea…

Ah.

-What idea?

-Let me…

I suddenly felt a mana surge.

It was not pointed directly to me, but I felt it nonetheless. I could feel it influence my spell and modify it. I didn’t hear the words, but I knew it was there…

My spell was supposed to be a very loose implementation of the old one I’ve heard from Jack, I think at least.

Spears of ice that were placed at the edges of fire that would connect to each other and spread the ice between themselves, creating a very large triangle.

When she started connecting herself to the spell, it was right when the spell was formed and already well on its way to extinguish the fire… or at least attempt to.

As soon as her mana connected, I felt a change.

Honestly, I was worried.

For two different people to control one spell… Well, it was risky, to say the least.

Of course, for naught. I should’ve expected that.

If we were just a bunch of regular people, who knows what would’ve happened.

But with those?

Of course nothing was going to go wrong. Who am I kidding? We were too good for anything to go wrong.

The spell started to change shape… or maybe not even that… it was getting more… fluid? Yeah, that’s the one.

Instead of a geometrical figure, it started moving, just like a living thing, an amoeba, covering the places where the fire was still raging.

With that kind of an active response, there had to be some kind of drawback, right?

Well, apparently not.

Just like that, the spell’s power didn’t decrease, quite the opposite, everything was more powerful than before.

I was about to compliment her on her efforts when I realized that it was not her job.

At least not the last part.

She also was surprised. But before we were able to exchange any words, we realized what was going on.

I was the one that supplied the spell.

The main part, created ice and the main core of the spell.

Il was the one making it responsive, working along with the fire, creating the areas that were equal to the ones consumed by the fire.

But with just the two, the power would be greatly diminished. After all, all the effort went to everything else.

But there was the third person with us.

And I don’t mean For or Kon.

Rob.