Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Chapter 87 - Escape Above

The air in front of her began to shiver slightly before turning into a glorious wave of fire, engulfing everything inside the room, including the creature that they were holding at bay. Seeing this, Evin dashed away from the fire and ran towards the corridor that connected the room on fire and another room.

The roar of the flames and the screeches of the creature made it hard for him to listen, but he could make out a few words as he stood in the corridor.

"Run quickly!"

"Tell the rest to stop the search and gather here! I'll keep the fire burning!" the girl replied.

Evin then saw the boy running past the girl and disappearing beyond a corner.

He hoped for them to act dumbly and attack him by themselves, but sadly, those two knew exactly what Evin was capable of, so they weren't going to try anything against him. Instead, they blocked off Evin's path outside and decided to gather the rest of the group before committing to the fight. They've definitely thought very deeply about how they would act under certain circumstances, showing how seriously they took this mission of capturing him.

<We should try and go past the flames before they can regroup!> Evin said when he heard what the other side was planning. 

<How are we supposed to dash through that fire? Can you see what's happening to that creature that's stuck there?>

Evin knew that some fires just looked impressive but weren't actually that hot in reality, but seeing the creature's blood boiling inside the inferno, Evin definitely knew that the fire wasn't something to scoff at.

<Just… do something!>

<Then absorb some World of Water energies!>

Evin did as it asked and only a few moments later, it saw the Voice creating an array of large icicles in the air. They immediately set course towards the girl's abdomen, and Evin was sure that she would be forced to focus on them, which would weaken her focus on the fire. Not many mages were like Evin, who could freely move around while casting spells. 

But his hopes were dashed when the floor in front of the girl rose sharply and blocked the icicles.

"Reinforcements are coming! Thankfully, I came across them just around the corner!" the boy that ran away first appeared next to the girl.

The sight made Evin curse his luck, and he was stuck between the choice of running through the fire, or standing his ground and perhaps negotiating his way out of the underground… though he really wasn't confident in Decatur being willing to negotiate with him. Evin also noticed that the other students also looked much more dangerous compared to normal. He supposed that it was inevitable for them to feel on edge, because they needed to kill these creatures so similar to humans to survive in the Temple.

'Since they're all in such a dangerous mood now, it wouldn't be weird if Decatur suddenly decides to kill me.' 

When the thought appeared in his mind, Evin found it hard to get rid of it so easily. He knew how impulsive Decatur could be, so it wouldn't be so weird for his worries to be true.

<What do we do now?> it was hard to hide the fear in his heart.

<I've got an idea. Go stand behind that door and cover your head,> it ordered. <I'll be borrowing your mana-core for the time being.>

Evin jumped behind the door and grasped at the lodestones in his bag. The Voice quickly started to absorb as much Seyethe's energy as possible, with a sizable amount of Irratas's energy alongside it.

<Are you trying to wrest control of the fire she's created?> Evin asked. 

The reason the Voice decided to create icicles of water to shoot at the girl, instead of using his other methods, like the Hard Air swords and the air bullets, was because they were 100% going to disappear inside the giant fire that the girl was controlling. After all, even though the swords were solid things, they were still made of particles of air.

And the bumbling mess of Fire energies that the girl required to keep the fire going would make it extremely hard for Evin or the Voice to maintain control of the swords in the first place. 

To put it simply, controlling spells using World energies were similar to control puppets using thin lines of strings. Evin could very easily control spells from a distance if there was nothing happening between him and the spell. But if Evin tried to control a spell beyond an existing spell of another mage, especially such a wide area spell like the fire in front of him, his strings would inevitably get tangled up in the mess.

The reason why the icicles didn't meet the same fate was because after they were created and sent flying towards the enemies, it was out of Evin's control. He didn't need to direct them anymore and instead of Hard Air, that would only feed the fire, it would surely not melt fast enough to not reach the enemies.

One way to solve this problem was to wrest control of the existing spell by exerting willpower on the World energies that maintained an enemy's spell. He learned this method from Bella, who wanted to teach something back to Evin for all the times he helped her out with her spell-casting. But Evin couldn't really be sure about the effects of this method, because it usually took an unreasonable amount of time to work.

But the Voice reassured him that he wasn't planning on doing that. 

<Just watch.>

The Voice began creating a large amount of oxygen in a spot close to the ceiling, instead of gathering it from the surroundings. This took more mana in general, but it was needed, because the underground area lacked air in general. 

It was also careful not to let this bundle of oxygen catch fire from the heat the girl's spell emitted by holing the bundled oxygen inside a construct of Hard Air shaped like a conus. From this, Evin could only guess that it was trying to create an explosion of some sorts… though why would that be needed in this situation, he couldn't tell.

Evin stole a glance towards the fire, and saw three more students appearing beside the original two. He recognized one of them to Theundel, who wore a dark and gloomy expression, as opposed to his usual cheerful smile.

<Put your head away and keep your ears closed!> the Voice warned.

'So it is an explosion,' Evin thought, closed the door just enough to leave a gap for the Voice to control the World energies and walked further away.

Judging to have moved away a safe enough distance, he put his head between his knees and covered his ears. 

'…'

A brief silence later, Evin felt a powerful force vibrating through the wall he was leaning on, but the sound of the explosion he was anticipating wasn't as loud as he expected. Instead of a deafening boom, it sounded more like the plank falling flat on a floor.

<Get up and run towards where the explosion happened!> the Voice ordered. 

His body jolted into action, and Evin quickly reappeared in front of the students. He looked up the ceiling and finally understood what the Voice was attempting to do. By creating an explosion right under the ceiling, they would be able to create a hole they could crawl through and find their way out of this sticky situation.

"You idiot! Are you trying to bury us all in this Temple?" Theundel roared from beyond the fire.

Evin could understand the boy's concerns… but the building was not going to collapse from such an explosion. The cone-shaped Hard Air made sure to minimize the area that the explosion affected and it wasn't like that part of the ceiling was near anything important. At worst, the adjacent stones would crumble onto the floor, but that wasn't enough to have the entire Temple collapse on itself.

And Evin really wasn't in the mood to care about such things or reply to the boy, as freedom was only a few steps away from him. But when he blew away the dust blocking his vision, he didn't find a hole like he expected… instead, finding another layer of a dark-grey stone, emitting an oppressive aura already familiar to Evin's senses.

<The builders of this Island try way too hard to do their jobs!> the Voice complained when he saw the scene in front of him.