Now ready to follow after Ela and get her back, Maven sent spikes of the purest divinity into the space scar the Apostle left behind.

With a solid grip on that small wrinkle in the fabric of reality and her newfound ability to interfere with space, Maven forcibly pried open the wall separating her location from another.

The way Maven did was a lot less elegant than the boy’s ability to smoothly open portals. It only worked in a weak spot in the fabric of space, but Maven still managed to open a shining, lavender-colored portal of her own.

“You’re amazing, miss!” Shayna marveled at the sight. Unlike the Apostle’s portals, which possessed a malevolent aura and a tainted violet flow, Maven’s portal’s exuded a sacred and awe inspiring atmosphere.

“Well don’t just sit there and stare at it!” Maven scolded her open-mouthed group. “If I did this right, then this should take right to Ela and that annoying

boy. I’m not entirely how it works, but there’s probably a portal visible over there too. Let’s not give those jerks any more time to prepare themselves.”

“She’s right!” Kannon proclaimed with an energetic shake of the first. “Let’s go show that naughty kid who’s boss!”

Spurred into action by Maven’s prodding, the group gave each other one last look of confirmation before jumping into the portal one after the other.

The sensation of traveling through the fabric of space itself was quite surreal. Though the journey lasted not even a single second in reality, it felt like it took an eternity. Maven lost all understanding of up or down, left or right, and even forward or reverse as the surroundings melted away into a directionless, chaotic void. All that remained in that dark world was the vague sense that they were moving, though it was impossible to sense their progress, continuing on and on and on - until everyone eventually just tumbled out into the world once they arrived at their destination.

“How’d you get here????” The Apostle shouted in a tone of genuine surprise, his young voice being the first thing to greet them once they tumbled out of the rift.

“You came!” Ela shouted in relief from her position off to the side, shackled to a large wooden pillar.

Collecting herself as best she could and giving Ela a reassuring smile, Maven spoke to the Apostle. “Perhaps it was because your spellcraft was too sloppy?”

With a vein twitching in his forehead, the boy replied, “Oho… is that so? Sounds like someone needs another lesson……”

Doing her best to mimic the mocking smile he had directed at her when he snatched Ela, Maven extended her hands before continuing, “I really do owe you my thanks. If it wasn’t for you, I never would have been able to do this.”

Pulling the exact same move the boy had not even twenty minutes earlier, Maven teleported Ela right out of her shackles and directly to her side.

Novice as she was in manipulating space, it would be impossible for Maven to teleport people around willy nilly. Luckily, the Apostle had already done most of the work for her. All Maven had to do was manipulate her own imitation space magic at the same frequency as the residual space attribute power around Ela and Ela appeared in her arms.

“Awawawa,” Ela said in a fluster, looking around and blinking rapidly in confusion.

“Wha-???” The Apostle exclaimed, even more befuddled than Ela. The Saintess, who had never manipulated space in her life, not only managed to follow him through a closed rift, but somehow even managed to snatch Ela out from under him.

“It’s okay,” Maven said as she pulled Ela in close, wrapping her up in a shield of divinity from head to toe - determined to protect her above all else. “We came for you, Ela. You’re safe now. I won’t let them hurt you.”

Burrowing her way deep into Maven’s arms, Ela just basked in the feeling of comfort and safety that Maven afforded her without saying a word.

“You meddling Saintess!” The boy screeched in rage, irritated by the warm atmosphere occurring between his enemy and his escaped capture target.

“What’s wrong?!”

“What happened?”

“There’s a problem in the warehouse!”

Multiple voices suddenly burst into the large room the portal had opened in, attracted by the boy’s loud yell. One shout drew another, causing more and more people to burst into the warehouse. Like a chain reaction, the Apostle’s single yell ended up attracting a small army. Once everything was said and done, Maven and company had to face not only the Apostle, but dozens of goons too.