A lonely elf chapter 5

We had spent several days in Eridu.

Just how many tests did they need to run on her? 

Everlyne herself didn’t seem to care and was simply buddying around with every elf in the palace including  “my mother”–Althaea who despised humans the most.

Speaking of the devil I decided to pay her a visit to let her know we would be leaving soon.

On broomstick, the trip from the academy to Eridu was pretty long, so I’d like to leave ASAP.

Her response was less than ideal.

“Tuilë!” the Queen half shouted as she dismounted from her thrown. “You cannot leave yet; we still have more tests to run on your student! We need at least a thousand more years.”

“Uh, Alth—mother you can’t be serious?” I couldn’t help but point out.

“What are you talking about? Your student needs all the help she can get! I thought you would be happier!”

“I appreciate the help but we really must be going now.”

“No you will not leave!” The queen shouted.

“Althea, you sound insane. What is this really about?”

“I can’t let you leave not again! I need you to stay with me! You’re still just a child!”

So that’s what this is about. I hated it when Althaea gave me that appalling look.

Who did she think she was?

She had the look of a mother trying to connect to her rebellious child.

The problem was I’m not a child. I’m not her child.

Maybe I should grab Everlyne and leave already.

“Thanks for all the help however, I’ll be on my way now.”

“Wait!”

Her hands were trembling.

“You’ve been gone for so long…why don’t we just sit and chat a bit more?”

I don’t have time to waste chatting it up with her. And if I’m being honest, I don’t want to. She might be the person who gave birth to me in this world, but she would never be my mother, to me, she’s just—

“You see me as more of a nuisance than anything else, don’t you?” She asked.

What kind of question was that? I hate people who never listen to anyone but themselves. Just because I’m your “child” you think you get to police my decisions?

“It doesn’t matter if you see me as a nuisance Tuilë. If I have to use force to get you to stay I will.” Althea said calmly

As soon as I heard those words, I materialized my wand and fired the first attack.

“Llab Erif!” I shouted.

A fire spell.

Fire ball.

The attack bounced off her like a harmless ball of cotton.

Tch! She covered herself in a barrier.

A defensive skill all witches worth their salt know. I knew it wouldn’t be easy to beat her but to see one of my strongest attacks blocked with no effort was demoralizing.

But then again, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t expect her to easily stop it.

“Tuilë?” Althea sounded like she was surprised by my outburst. “have you grown so foolish living amongst the human’s that you believe yourself strong enough to beat me?”

I sighed, “Not at all.”

There wasn’t a chance in hell I could beat an S grade witch, for her to even ask such a question mother must have been an idiot herself. The strongest living witch of the current era is my opponent, so of course I can’t win.

The battle began.

XXX

The royal guards simply watched our fight with pity in their eyes.

I was already exhausted and it hadn’t even been that long.

“Hmm…is there a point to this Tuilë?”

Was there a point to this fight? I sure as hell didn’t see it.

I sighed for the umpteenth time.

“I suppose not?”

She hadn’t attacked me once, simply tanking every spell I threw at her. It wasn’t like I was out of magic I still had plenty left.

“How long will your tantrum last, Tuilë?” She teased.

Silently I began to prepare the formulae for a lightning-based attack.

“Oooh, trying a lightning based attack next Tuilë? So, you can at least write decent formulae? I thought living with those pests the humans had made you weak! Mommy is super proud of you!”

GROSS.

I couldn’t win. Maybe if I landed a hit with her guard down. Reaction speed aside setting up a barrier was reflexive for a witch. I could string together a sort of plan if I had some help that’s about it. Althea the S grade witch, made the desert sand snake seem like a walk in the park.

“You still haven’t mastered silent spell casting,” she continued, “is that how weak you really are? It’s such a basic skill yet you struggle so hard with it?”

“You know I met a human witch in the North who could cast silent spells with relative ease, yet my own daughter cannot?”

She made it sound so easy. Either she’s too dumb to realize how hard it is, or she was trying to provoke me? Maybe both.

And besides I knew how to do it, but I didn’t want to do it, silent casting works well for people with a good imagination, it’s too risky for someone like me with poor a imagination to use practically.

“Don’t underestimate me, Ekirts gninthil!” I said as I fired multiple bolts of lightning at her. The gloves were off; there was no need to hold back.

Lightning magic was powerful but hard for me.

“Impressive! With that much control and skill you could take on a C or B grade witch for sure, but…well against me it won’t do you any good.”

She swatted away the blast injuring a guard.

The queen of the elves Althea seemed to enjoy toying with her opponents quite a lot.

“Mm? I was hoping you would stop after seeing how outclassed you are? but…” She paused.

Silence.

Awkward silence.

Then…

In one-hundredth of a second the ground beneath me sprang up like a spike and threatened to pierce through my skull.

Earth magic.

Silent spell casting

Was she trying to kill me or stop me from leaving?

Reflexively I protected myself with a thick layer of magic. The force of the massive earth spike was enough to send me flying and rolling across the ground. It was a total surprise attack, timed in such a manner that if I hadn’t defended myself, it would have skewered my brains out.

“That was close great work!” She cheered.

With a sly smirk, she nearly killed her own daughter.

“Are you trying to kill me too?” If I was the only one going for a fatality that would be fine but if she was serious too then…

“Heavens no!” She shook her head like she was surprised I would even think that.

“I just want to keep you here nice and safe~.”

“Even if I have to beat you half to death to get you to listen that’s fine too~”

“That’s perfect I was hoping you’d give me incentive to kill you anyway.” I replied back.

The strongest living witch I know of and I stared at each other wordlessly. Just as we were about to jump in for round two:

A blade of wind slashed at Althea’s head.

“Leave Teach Alone!!”

With a silent but deadly attack, Everlyne slashed at the queen of elves. She had used silent spell casting? After only a few months of practice with her wand she was already at that level? I had no time to be impressed.

“YOU IDIOT!” my voice shook the room.

All the guards that had been silently watching our battle jumped Everlyne.

A human attacking their queen would be grounds for death.

It was too late.

I watched on in fear as they, as they… pinned her down gently?

Something strange was going on, instead of brutally attacking Everlyne they had restrained her?

No. NO freaking way!

I knew Everlyne was a social butterfly but there was no way she could befriend every royal guard, was they?

“Y-you, should think more Blake?!” one guard stammered.

First name basis?

“Blake!? Have you taken leave of your senses?! Attacking the queen like that could get you killed!?” Another parroted in a whisper that could be clearly heard.

Ugh, she attacked your queen! you should be a bit more serious about your jobs!

It wasn’t like I wanted them to do anything to Everlyne, but it was such a nonsensical sight that I had to complain.

Althea seemed to enjoy the cozy atmosphere the most, she motioned for the guards restraining Everlyne to stop.

“If the human child wishes to fight alongside my daughter let her! This fight will decide her fate as well.”

“Be warned human I won’t hold back on you!”

If Everlyne answered yes to that, she was doomed.

Althea might hold back against me, but against a human I doubt.

“Of course! I’ll fight with Teach!”

I sighed.

All the guards sighed.

Althea seemed more than overjoyed.

“I got your back teach!”

“We people of urth gotta stick together.” She winked.

It’s earth but now wasn’t the time to correct her.

“Can you sense the difference in power between Althea and the both of us?” I asked.

“I can. It’s overwhelming.” She replied.

YOU IDIOT.

She didn’t look like the kind to have much brains but still she was stupid, extraordinarily stupid. If you gathered all the idiots in the world in one village she would be crowned their chief

She might be an idiot but in exchange it made you want to look out for her, that and she was a prodigy with witchcraft. There wasn’t much merit in scolding her right now, besides with the two of us we might have a chance.

“I’ll attack her with explosion magic, meanwhile I need you to wait for an opening to use wind magic to catch her off guard.”

She can use silent spell casting and the size of her previous attack looked more than decent.

This can work.

We can do this!

We can win!

Everlyne gave me a thumbs up. “Great plan Teach but I’m out of magic.”

I HATE IDIOTS.

Now I could see it for myself. This was a catastrophe.

“Aha ha! I used every ounce of magic I had on my first attack. It’s what Flamm would do.” She said with a massive grin.

What kind of idiot would do something so stupid!

“A brilliant idea!” The elf queen Althea gave Everlyne a thumb up, beckoning Everlyne to return the favor.

The two of them were at this moment grinning at each other like idiots.

Either way, though, we needed to figure out what to do next, I had taken into account Everlyne was F grade but I hadn’t expected her to deplete her magic in one go. Guess that left her blessing as her only form of combat.

The fight began.

A flash of light descended down upon us. Everlyne blocked it with her blessing telekinesis.

She had created a wall like shield around the above us.

“Teacher, you prepare a spell to end this! I’ll handle the fighting and defense!”

A witch can’t keep her defensive barrier up and fight at the same time.

In other words, she’ll act as a hit and run decoy while I prep a spell to finish Althea.

Not a bad idea. The only problem was it put my student in harm’s way. A good teacher would have absolutely hated this plan, fortunately I have no such problems!

Althea appeared right in front of us. By the time I could tell it was too late she was there, she completely ignored me heading straight for seemingly unaware girl beside me.

Althea was treating Everlyne as the threat and ignoring me!?

“Human child, the magic coating around my body can be used as more than just a shield.”

She grabbed Everlyne by the face and smashed her into the ground.

It was a very bizarre sight given Althea’s small stature and build.

The two of them caved deep into the palace lower floors leaving me dumbfounded up above.

Was Althea seriously going kill her?

I jumped down into the hole created by the two of them.

Althea was standing over her body a smirk on her face.

“Impressive, had you been a second slower you’d have been crushed.” Althea praised.

“Everlyne.”

She was alive.

She had used a similar technique to the one Althea and I were using except instead of coating her body in magic she had coated herself in telekinesis?

“Hey now! Don’t look down on us humans!” She said with a gleeful grin.

PUNCH!

A punch sent Althea flying up into the sky.

“gnilaeh!” without hesitation I used healing on the injured Everlyne.

The next attack rained down mercilessly before I could complete the healing.

Althea instantly closed the gap between us. The earlier hit she had received had done no damage despite sending her several feet into the sky.

Everlyne set up a barrier but it was easily destroyed like thin paper.

I was caught off guard and panicked, setting up a barrier to protect myself as well.

Electric current ran through my entire body rendering me numb.

Dammit!

Using Dnib a binding spell Althea had restrained Everlyne, taking to the sky’s intending to drop Everlyne to her death.

It was a merciless attack; one made with full knowledge that she outclassed us both.

She had barely put any energy into the spell yet my defenses were useless her.

I imagined the difference between us was wide but something like this was hopeless.

However even more surprising was…

“Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha!! That really hurt! I’m not sure that I can feel anything below the neck! Lightning based magic is dangerous!!” Everlyne cheered.

The electric attack had worked on her as well but that didn’t matter.

Blessings were a sort of imaginary force that worked outside of the body, you could consider it a type of imaginary muscle, so even if her real muscles were down the blessing could function fine.

Rather than falling to her death, she was using her blessing to stay afloat in the air. More than that she was using her blessing to move her now numb body? That blessing really is broken.

“I’m done holding back!” Everlyne yelled.

That seemed to surprise Althea and not just her but me too.

The idea that she was holding back on arguably the strongest living witch of our time was a little hard to believe.

With renewed vigor the fight went on even more intense than before.

Spell after spell, each one more destructive than the last. Fire balls. Lightning strikes. Tsunami’s. Wind blades. Earth pillars. Explosions.

Everlyne talked a big game earlier which was probably a bluff.

It did not look like a fight anymore; it took everything she had just to keep up and evade.

“Noisolpxe!”

As soon as I could move again, I provided as much backup as I could but her ability to switch between offense and defense made our combined efforts look like child’s play.

                                                                         XXX

“Why?”

Everlyne tilted her head to the side quizzically.

“Why what?”

Althaea—Mother smirked.

“You are clearly tired; we’ve been fighting for nearly five hours; you can barely keep standing. You have no means to heal your injuries. And I’m not even the least bit tired or hurt. And if by some chance I were to kill you, your death would be for nothing. You must understand how pointless it is to face off against me. You have no reason—.”

“Heh-heh-heh…Aha-ha-ha-ha! Are you stupid, your highness?”

“…pardon?”

There was a boisterous laugh coming from her blood-stained face.

She was missing a tooth.

Her left arm was twisted pretty badly.

And I wasn’t sure how long she could stay on her feet.

If I try to cast healing, Althea gets in the way. It was obvious she was targeting her more than me because our defence was based around her Telekinesis.

We’re at a clear disadvantage.

And yet Everlyne had the audacity to laugh in her face and call her an idiot!

She’s insane.

“So long as Teacher is fighting, I’m not going anywhere.”

I knew full well, that nothing we could do would win this. Thanks to her being S grade her, defensive barriers were near unbreakable, the only way to get passed a witches’ barrier without breaking it was to wait for them to attack. But the way she switches from offense to defense in such a short time made the tiny window pointless…

Everlyne was still rearing to go, if nothing else that made me want to fight too.

“As thanks for entertaining me I’ll show you the very pinnacle of magic!” Althea declared.

Her magic began to rapidly spread out. Then, a shock wave, as if the earth itself had just reacted on the spot, this was the pinnacle of magic, a spell to end all spells the very highest only very few could reach a—

“Welcome to Garden of memory’s my ultimate spell the highest of all magic—a territory.” Althea had already won at this point.

After being in the territory for only a mere moment Althea dispersed it as quickly as she created it.

Even the usual energetic Everlyne was awestruck in silence muttering to herself like she was possessed.

Althea had unleashed a spell beyond comprehension only a select few had ever seen or mastered the territory spell. She did not even use it to attack us merely to show us a glance at her power.

“Y-you have made your point mother but we will not surrender…” The only thing left for us now was to give up yet I could not bring myself to backdown now.

“You used to be such a sensible girl has hanging around the humans made you foolish as well? There’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

She was right and yet—

“Teacher I am going to write a spell formula and I want you to cast it with everything you have!”

Everlyne suddenly jumped in an announced to me like she had just come up with something that could compare to the awesome power of a territory.

Althea laughed, “Whatever it is …It won’t work on meeee!”

I still had a relatively large amount of my magic left since I hadn’t contributed much to this fight, but what was the point? I say I had a lot left but it was still relatively small considering my magic grade was F.

Plus, Althea could tank every spell I had, and even if Everlyne had figured out a miracle why announce it where the enemy could hear us? The only way an attack from me would work was by surprise.

“Trust me Teach!”

Well, one’s magic grade wasn’t everything. Accepting her offer and putting my faith in whatever Everlyne had planned was all I could do.

“Ready when you are.” I spoke as if I had absolute faith in her ability.

For some reason Althea didn’t intervene she let Everlyne write the formulae for the spell.

Strange…

When the spell was complete, I supplied it with all the magic I had left.

I could hardly believe my eyes.

The spell I had cast.

It was the very pinnacle of magic.

But that was impossible for a lot of reasons.

One. I simply lacked the magic for something of this magnitude.

Two. It was an ancient spell very few had ever seen.

Three. Common sense dictated this could not be real.

A surprise number emerged.

Four. It was real. I knew in my soul this was real.

Althea shuddered, “H-how? What… What is this…?!”

“It’s a territory, you didn’t notice?” Everlyne replied innocently.

“To be more precise it’s Teach’s territory!” She beamed.

The queen of elves was surprised yes, but more than that she was furious “Don’t get cocky! This makes no difference I’ll just smash it up and—”

Before Althea could say any more using the territory I transported Everlyne and Myself back to the academy.

“Teacher why’d you do that! Your mom was about to tell me something important!” Everlyne whined.

Strangely all her wounds had mysteriously healed? No, I could ask her about that later, the most pressing issue was how!?

“H-How did you learn to write the formulae for a territory! And how was I able to cast it!?”

“E-eh?” Everlyne suddenly looked very sleepy.

“Can’t I tell you how tomorrow? We just got back from a long journey and I’m pretty tired—”

“No! You will explain yourself now!”

“Mmm… basically when I saw your mom use it, I figured out how it works…” she skipped most of the details of how she actually did it.

“E-even if that was hypothetically possible, it doesn’t explain how I could use it? I don’t have nearly enough magic for a spell that powerful.” The mere fact that I could do it would make me one the most powerful witches not just in the association but the world!

Everlyne tilted her head to the side quizzically, “You used it so you should understand how it works now? Just think. But ok, I can explain it. The territory is a little different from the average spell.”

“With a normal spell there’s a specific amount of magic required to cast, but the territory spell is fundamentally different it uses exactly half of the casters existing magic and supplements the rest with a bunch of other stuff I don’t know. The only factor is with more magic you can keep the territory open for a longer period of time.”

“That makes zero sense.”

“Magic.” She shrugged with a smirk.

“Bullshit!”