Chapter 317 Last Job Before The Collapse [1]
Pulling out the sword from the beast's corpse, Auciel exhaled and wiped the sweat off her forehead. She instantly deactivated her magiken since on the second form it was eating up a lot of her mana.
"That looked smooth. I can't help but praise how pleasing your moments are to the eye," Ryfin said as he walked near her.
"It's not as fun to control though," she said, swaying her sword in the air to shake the blood off it. "And it's tiring to use the second form." She placed the sword back in its sheath.
"How are the things outside?" Ryfin asked.
"Chaotic might be the right word for the question," she replied.
"It's a mess. These monsters are everywhere, and they are much stranger than we had anticipated. Even us teachers are barely able to handle them in one on one, and the fact that they are constantly coming in thousands just makes it worse."
"Well well we can't save everyone, can we? We should follow the plan that was prepared, or else we will have many more casualties," he said while he gazed toward the gate that had been destroyed.
"You are right, but saving just the royalty doesn't seem like the right plan for me. Millions of innocent people are going to die—women and children involved," she said.
"You know, if I could then I would have saved each and every soul in this world. But I'm afraid even if I did save them this time, I won't be there to save even a handful from the next wave."
Saving everyone was simply not possible. Ryfin was right about that. It was the harsh reality they had to face. And not saving the people around them even when they had the power to do so, was a hard burden to carry.
But they had to do it, they were professionals after all.
Auciel sighed as she looked down at the ground. She knew this day would come, she had prepared for it. But right now when the moment of truth was upon her, it was proving to be hard on her.
"Come on, let's go," Ryfin said, patting her on the back.
There wasn't much she could do about it now other than go along with the plan. After all, it was always better to save a few than save none.
"Are you gonna teleport us there?" she asked. Exiting out of the main gate through all of those beasts was completely out of the question.
"That's the plan," he replied. And then offered his hand to Auciel.
"Oh? Quite the gentleman, aren't you?" she said, holding his arm and standing close to him.
"Well of course. I have to be as respectful as possible to you right now," he mumbled.
"Right now?"
"Hmmm. I don't know how to explain it. But you'll know once we get there," he said. "Now, hold on tight."
Auciel snuck close to him, and he put his left arm around her.
"Let's go then," he said, and a magic circle appeared below their feet.
It was big enough to cover both of them and had ruins similar to the circle that had teleported the students out. Ryfin raised his right hand, and the circle started spinning in anticlockwise and clockwise motion just like before.
Then a bright, blinding light emerged from the magic circle and swallowed both the teachers within itself. Auciel closed her eyes for a second, thinking that the light might be painful.
But it wasn't. In fact, it was just like how normal light is supposed to be. Though it was not just normal light after all.
Auciel felt her consciousness fading away. She tried to get a hold of it by focusing and trying not to black out but it didn't work. It was just for a split second, but during that time period, she lost all control over her body. As if she was dead.
However, right after that when she opened her eyes the view before her had completely changed. They were no longer in the basement but in a dimly lit room with stone walls.
Rather than magic lights, there were fire torches placed on the walls to illuminate the area, and they were painting the room in a tinge of gold.
Below their feet on the ground was carved the same magic circle that had stopped glowing just now. This was a different place. They had teleported here.
It was Auciel's first time experiencing it. Ryfin removed his arm and let Auciel stand on her own. She took a step forward and was about to say something when her vision turned hazy and she felt her head spinning around.
At the same time, she sensed some activity in her stomach that slowly rose up to her throat, and then just as it was about to come into her mouth, Auciel stumbled and rushed toward a corner of the room and let those fluids spill out of her mouth.
The "stuff" wasn't much, thus she was done soon. Coughing, she turned toward Ryfin while wiping her mouth with a handkerchief.
"Is THIS what you were referring to?" she asked in an exasperated tone.
Ryfin didn't reply to that, rather a wide grin appeared on his face. He looked at Auciel like a totally innocent person who was being falsely accused.
"...Truly," she sighed, and then walked back to where he was standing.
After all, they weren't the only ones in this room. Due to all the commotion, it had been ignored but right there at the entrance of the room stood a group of knights clad in shining metal armor armed with spears and swords.
"You are late," a guy among the knights said as he stepped forward.
He wasn't wearing his helmet, revealing his slightly long blond hair. There were wrinkles on his face and he seemed to be in his mid-forties. He was Zoendoln Jumiaci, the man who was first in command of the royal army after the king. (Character image in paragraph comments.)
"Those monsters are already everywhere," he said, his voice heavy.
"Well, well, I apologize for the delay. But my students are my first priority," Ryfin replied casually.
"Are you trying to say that those students are more important than the royal family?" Zoendoln interrogated.
"Certainly not~ What I'm trying to say is that if we are already late then we shouldn't waste the time any further," Ryfin replied.
"I agree, there's no saying when those demons might take down the castle," Auciel added.
True, right now they were inside the royal castle at the center of Sofrora city. It was the castle where the royal family resided, and their job was to take them out of there to the safe zone.
But as if Auciel's words had come true, right after she said that the ground shook rapidly and the castle's walls trembled.