Fly Away

“Mana!” I shouted immediately. “Can you get us out of here?”

“Eh? Ah…” Mana stepped back in shock. At her feet there were countless shards, gleaming by the torchlight. The remnants of her mogage cage.

Meaning—she was now free to use her magic.

“I…” mumbled Mana, looking around her, still shocked by what just happened. Then, she looked down to her hands.

I reached forward with a hand—almost as if telling Mana to grab mine, despite the fact there was an almost entire room of distance between us.

Distance that was occupied by a very angry-looking Three in the middle.

“Do you have any idea,” he spat, “how hard it was to build a cage from the stuff? Alright, I’ve had it, it’s time to shut you up a bit! I’ll just fix that pretty face of yours later!”

This was do or die. And I was fully prepared to die.

However, a moment before Three invoked whatever magic he was going to use, there was a sudden glow.

“What…?” he said, turning in shock toward the cage—where a door appeared.

It was white and pure and seemed to be even glowing in the partial darkness. It appeared in front of Mana, obscuring her—and then slowly creaked open.

When that happened, the door immediately vanished. At the same moment, the same kind of door appeared right near me.

From within it a very thin hand appeared, accompanied by a soft voice. “G-grab my hand!” Recognizing it as Mana’s, I didn’t hesitate for a second as I reached out and took her hand in mine.

“Shit, I won’t let you—”

Three started raging, but it was already too late. The moment I grabbed Mana’s hand, she pulled me inside the door. Despite the fact I was still entangled in the bars.

There was a strange sensation not unlike the one I felt when we first came into this world.

On the other side of the door there was the background of a beautiful, blue sky. Evidence that we were freed from that horrible dungeon.

…No, it wasn’t just the background.

We were in the actual sky.

As the door popped out of existence, Mana and I found ourselves in empty air.

“Hah?” I couldn’t help but mutter as gravity took hold of me.

Glancing toward the girl, her eyes were closed and despite still holding onto me, she looked motionless; she might have lost consciousness.

My mind operated at speeds it never needed to before, surveying our surroundings.

We were somewhere above the city—no, above the castle with its towering spires. In fact, we were hurtling toward exactly one such spire.

I pulled Mana toward me with one hand, resummoning Tarisha with the other.

This definitely wasn’t going to be as smooth as when I went down that clock tower…

Thinking this, I thrust Tarisha at a nearby crack in the stone, stopping our descent for a split second.

Any normal sword would have probably not withstood the impact, but Tarisha was completely indestructible as far as I could tell. Though this meant that it was my body that received some of that shock instead.

Tarisha was blown away from my grasp, but I summoned her yet again and used the exact same technique to stab at an errand brick, kicking it as well to try and reduce our momentum as much as possible.

This act somewhat hurt my leg but I timed it well enough for it to not matter.

After another similar maneuver we both crashed on some low roof. It was no longer the castle proper, but some sort of building, perhaps used by the staff.

I groaned in pain; I probably didn’t break anything in the fall, but it sure hurt a lot, especially since I made sure to absorb the shock for the sake of the girl in my arms as well.

Presently, that very same girl was groaning and opening her eyes.

“Eh…? Ah…” she mumbled, her green eyes meeting mine. Now that she was out here in daylight, I could see just how dirty and gaunt she looked; she must have had a horrible time down there.

“Mana?” I asked. “Are you alright?”

“Ah… y-yes, I think I am… ah! Wait, are we…” She seemed to finally come into full consciousness and noticed our surroundings for the first time. “Oh no, did I bring us here? I’m sorry, I just tried getting us as far away as… ugh.”

Saying this, she suddenly lurched forward.

Surprised, I caught her again. “Are you fine?”

“Sorry, this spell took a lot from me,” the girl mumbled, sagging further.

“Just don’t drop us into the sky next time,” I said.

It was meant as a light joke, but my tone and face were as cold as usual, so the girl probably wouldn’t be able to understand it.

“I’m sorry… err, Saga, was it?” Mana asked her. Her eyes were barely even focused on me.

“Yes.”

I looked to the side—a small crowd of people began forming down below. This included a few armed guards.

Our presence here was sure to attract undue attention. Not to mention that Three would surely come rushing out of the dungeon to look for us any moment now.

Was there any chance at all they’d simply regard him as another invader, now that the Emperor was dead? I couldn’t count on it.

We just narrowly escaped, I was hurt, tired and even Mana was barely holding on to her consciousness while we were surrounded by enemies on all sides.

Despite this, however, I didn’t feel desperate in the least.

It wasn’t just the lust for battle born within me that kept sustaining me like this. I was pretty sure there was another thing at play here.

Elated feelings that would nonetheless never ever allow me to form a smile urged me forward.

“Don’t worry, Mana,” I said, taking the girl’s hand and standing up with the sword in my other hand. “No matter what happens… I’ll get us out of here.”