Chapter 42 - The Price Of Power (1/2)

Hopping on the metal poles, I made my way to Leon, now standing on the platform in the middle. While doing so, I noticed the several holes that the students had created with ‘collapse’ slowly beginning to reform. The edges pushed into each other, crushing the small mounds of dirt and dust, moulding it to form back the shape it had been before the hole was formed. How it did so was beyond me.

However, I didn’t have time to ask. Even when I was only a single pole away from him, Leon did not move to acknowledge my presence. He was so focused on casting the spell that I didn’t even think he knew I was there.

“Leon.” I said gently, tapping his shoulder.

Without warning, he whipped around immediately, ready to backhand me in the face. Instinctively, I raised my arm to cover my head. It proved unnecessary, as the blow stopped centimetres from hitting me.

Leon stared up at me with those green, lifeless eyes.

He didn’t say anything and just turned around, ignoring me.

“Leon.” I said again, this time a little louder and less gentle. “Everyone has left.”

“Then leave.” He said coldly without turning back.

I sighed. Why was I even doing this? This was too much trouble. Since he wasn’t going to move, I moved to leave.

“Wow, Artie! That’s so cool!”

“Artie! Please teach me too!”

“I want to be someone like you when I grow up, Artie!”

“Fuck off, Winston. You’ll never be like me. Even if you’re a royal, all you’ll ever be is trash without magic.”

Shit.

Sighing, I stopped myself and approached Leon once more. I didn’t say anything, only activated xera vision and watched him.

His xera circuits seemed completely ordinary- at least, as far as I could tell- and his xera core wasn’t all that murky either. He had stood with us on the ‘xera capacity over a thousand’ side when the teacher called.

Of all students who had been on that side of the fence, Leon was the only one who hadn’t successfully performed the spell.

"Collapse. Collapse. Collapse." I heard him mutter over and over again.

The invisible line aiming for the floor flashed multiple times from the xera constantly emitting from his palm. But it was simply absorbed into the ground without cracking or damaging it at all.

I could see the problem now.

The effects of the spell weren’t showing because he wasn’t doing the spell. All he’d been doing was wasting his xera.

“Leon.” I said, grabbing his swollen hand. “You’re not doing it properly. You have to direct your xera through the ground to each earth particle, not just at it.”

He tried to wrench his hand away, but I held him tightly.

“Watch.”

I thrusted my hand out and waited for the xera to collect.

Then I remembered that Miss Kleo had taken back her ring. The ring that controlled my power.

‘I’m sure it’ll be fine, right?’ I said to myself.

All I had to do was try not to expend too much of my xera.

“Collapse.”

As usual, the grey, translucent lines pulsed as the xera travelled through them, filling the cracks in the ground and-

BOOM.

Without warning, a massive explosion rocked the platform, almost causing me to fall over. I felt something cling onto my left arm and turned to find Leon, bunched up, ready to cry.

But still, the rumbling and thundering continued. The ground, just regenerated, disintegrated around the platform, this time reaching more than two metres deep.

Yet, the xera continued to flow.

After bursting out of its guiding spell, it’d quickly dispersed through the rest of the earth, repeating the same spell again and again, branching off in several directions until there was simply no more earth left.

And then, once the entire earth section had collapsed, the noiess ceased.

[Warning: Your human body has been damaged beyond repair. Would you like to end the skill?]

Because of the shock, every feeling had been severely dampened. But now that the rush of adrenaline had left, those feelings returned.

Especially the feeling of pain.

It erupted in my right hand, the hand I’d used to cast the spell.

Or at least, what was left of it.

A white sap or pus like liquid leaked from the open hole in my wrist where my hand used to protrude from.

It took every fibre in my body to not scream.

“Mother… I’m scared…” A trembling voice cried from beside me.

Stuffing my leaking hand into my blazer pocket, I turned around to face Leon, who was curled up in a ball on the floor.

If this were a real human body, I might not have been able to bear the pain. But it wasn’t as bad as being roasted alive.

“Hey, Leon. Are you ok-”

“I might have guessed it was you.” Someone said from behind me.

A man with grey hair wearing an immaculate suit strode quickly in front of me.

Athreial.

“Help.” I croaked, flashing him my leaking stump.

He gave me a distasteful look before glancing at Leon. “Put that away. It’s disgusting.”

I shoved it back into my pocket.

Athreial lightly touched his hand to Leon’s head, and he disappeared without a sound.

“What did you do?”

“I sent him to the medical bay.” He replied, adjusting his white glove.

“Couldn’t you have sent me with him?”

He shook his head and put his hand on my head. “No. You are on a one way trip to the headmaster’s office.”

“How many times do you plan to get in trouble in a single day?” A very exasperated headmaster sighed.

“I was just trying to help!” I interjected, feeling wrongfully accused.

Cradling my injured arm, I leant against the doors of the headmaster’s office.

She sighed and gestured to my stump. “Are you alright, though?”

I shook my head. “It won’t regenerate.”

Leanea shuffled through one of the drawers below her desk. “I suppose you’ll have to return to your original form and won’t be able to attend classes for the rest of today?”

“H-how did you know?”

“Sir Corvus has informed me of your inability to use magic. And yet, you still have the ability to transform into a human and back. Obviously, some greater magic or supernatural influence is at play here…” Her voice grew quiet. “A power Sir Corvus himself seems to possess.”

Did I just hear that correctly?

Red, too, was a Gifted or L’Der?

But wasn’t he a great beast? An acolyte of God himself?

“Here.” Leanea said, snapping me out of my thoughts. Moments ago, she’d been at her desk. Now, she was right in front of me and I hadn’t even heard her move.

“Stick out your hand.”

I obeyed, and she wrapped a small bandage around the stump, drying up what was left of the white liquid.

“Athreial will send you home in a while. For now, have a rest.” She said as she returned to her desk.

“Ok…” I slowly walked forwards and took a seat on the couch I had awoken on this morning.

With nothing else to do, I decided to simply watch Leanea at work and examine the room.

Underneath the glass coffee table was what looked to be a hand-woven rug, depicting a nine-story building. On each floor were a few figures. One had wings and another had horns, but they weren’t detailed enough for me to tell exactly what they were.

All around her office were several precious looking artifacts, displayed in glass cabinets. But a certain one caught my eye. It was a small, gold necklace, connected to an oval shaped locket. It was old, the gold covered in dust and grime.

For some reason, I felt like I’d seen something exactly like that somewhere before, but couldn’t pinpoint where exactly. I brushed it off, assuming I must’ve had something like that in my treasure room before.

The last thing that seemed ‘off’ about this room to me was the clocks on the wall. There were eleven of them in total, all mounted on different columns except for two that hung directly behind her desk. Those two were the only ones that actually made a sound.

“Leanea…” I began.

She looked up. “June, you may not realize it, but I have a lot of work to do. If you want to stay here, please be silent.”

“Oh.” I said dumbly. “I just wanted to ask; ‘What’s with all the clocks in this room?’”

She put down her quill and raised an eyebrow. “I’m surprised someone like you is asking that question.”

And… what was that supposed to mean?

“These two clocks behind me count the time in Erobeus and Flurisburg. The Erobeus one counts every other second.” She continued. “The others are simply for decoration.”

Ah. No wonder why the ticking had sounded so strange.

Before I could ask any other questions, a loud knock sounded from the double doors.

“Come in.” Leanea called. “That must be Athreial.”

And indeed it was.

“My sincerest apologies for being late, my queen.” He said, bowing low enough for his nose to touch the floor.

“Arise, please. Is there any problem with the victim?” She asked.

At first, I assumed she was talking about Leon, but Athreial’s next words made me doubt myself.

“He is alive, but barely. What shall I do about Martin? His aggression was supposedly unwarranted.”

Martin? Wasn’t that the name of the boy from yesterday who was friends with Cle’de?

Leanea exhaled slowly and rubbed her temple. “No… it’s probably a side effect of what he has done to him. Leave him for now, but monitor him. And the others that he has influenced, too.”

Athreial nodded. “Of course, my queen. Shall I bring the troublesome child home now?”

She nodded. “Yes. Send him home. I have simply too much on my plate now to deal with.”

“Very well.”

I felt something rough rest on my head. ‘Here we go again.’ I thought.

“Transfer.”