Rescuing Time

✧ ✦ ✧

We found ourselves under attack right away as we approached the alleyway in Ember’s marketplace. Rotting corpses leaked out into the street and crossed paths with us.

“Zombies here too??” I groaned. “These bastards sure know how to ruin an evening, that’s for damn sure.”​

It was well after regular shopping hours, and there was nobody around save for the dead.​

“Naturally, the cult is going to throw all their pawns at us, so we should expect even more to crawl out of the woodwork.” Shion pulled a grimoire out of her satchel. “Let’s fight forward to the cellar little by little.”​

Shion, Zero, and I pursued closely behind the others. With Milton’s wind elemental affinity and the twins’ beast blood, they were a touch faster than we three, so they headed the formation.​

“Avoid getting bitten or scratched by the undead; there’s a chance you might be afflicted with a curse,” Milton warned as he beheaded a zombie with a wave of his staff. “Do you two have any combat experience?”​

“Don’t worry about us, we’ll be just fine,” Nana assured him, pacing along. “Time to go full tilt, Hachi!”​

The young woman growled as her arm suddenly became covered with grey fur, and her nails sharpened into a point. Her running form changed into something more animalistic as she alternated between running on two legs and all fours.​

I had never seen a beast transformation in action before, but it was pretty impressive to witness hers, even though it was only a partial one. Demi-humans were rarely capable of a full transformation like most beastmen were, their ability being dictated by the purity of their blood.​

“ARRRRGH!” In a display equal parts frightening and impressive, Nana’s claws tore into one zombie—and then several more—turning them into minced meat before our very eyes.​

Though they were once living, breathing people, we couldn’t very well afford to be hesitant. Lives were on the line, as they often were in situations like this. Though he didn’t transform along with Nana, Hachi wasn’t one to be shown up by his kin as he pulled out some sort of shining thread from his pocket and started waving his arms around like the lead composer of an orchestra.​

“—!” As he pulled his threads inward, a whole line of zombies to the front and sides of us were reduced to pieces, having been sliced to shreds by his razor wire.​

Holy shit, that was cool!​

“….Mercurial Cutter!” Milton cast a spell as the wedge of our formation, cleaning up a few more undead with a slash of wind. Blood splattered every which way as we pressed on like an unstoppable battering ram.​

“We’ve got company behind us!” Zero warned as several bogeys emerged from the direction we came from. Rather than the shambling, drooling humanoid zombies we had been fighting, they were dog-like and ran towards us on all fours. “Hellhounds!”​

I’m not too fond of dogs…​

I flashed an exasperated look. If you found yourself chased by a pack of strays or two in Redrook’s streets like I had, you might come to think the same thing. The fact that they were also undead monstrosities only added to my aversion.​

“Ren-kun, Zero, aim for their heads, it’s their weak spot!” Shion said as we turned away from our allies. While they handled what poured out of the alley, we focused on our pursuers. “I’ll work on speeding things up…”​

“Richter scale: six-point-zero! Earth spear!” Zero plunged his sword into the dirt, and rocky spines shot out of the ground, impaling a few of the hounds. However, they easily numbered in the dozens.​

“Here comes more, get ready, partner!” Zero pulled his sword out of the ground. “Remember, you’re invisible to these freaks as long as you have that dagger with you since they’ve been reanimated with magic...”​

“Hear you loud and clear!” I pulled out the Ashen Fang, readying myself for them to break our line. My priority was to keep Shion as safe as possible as long as she was in the field. “Orrraaaa!”​

As a hound swerved around Zero and jumped at Shion, I contorted my body to grab it by the scruff and stabbed it in the back of the head.​

The dagger went in much easier than expected, the sensation of which grossed me out, but it paid me back by nearly knocking me off balance with its death throes. I punched another hound on the snout, which it didn’t take too kindly to.​

“Down, fido!” Zero followed up my closed-fist strike by bringing down his mighty sword on the monster, crushing its spine and the ground beneath it.​

Though we were doing some serious damage to their numbers, I couldn’t help but feel like for every zombie and hellhound we put down, another two or three emerged to take their place from god-knows-where. At the rate we were going, the hordes threatened to overtake us on both sides with sheer numbers.​

”Everyone, it’s ready!” Shion gave us the heads-up that we were waiting for. “Top speed!”​

The world around us suddenly slowed to a crawl, or that’s what it honestly felt like.​

“Whoa, Shion, what’s going on??”​

“Hurry, let’s finish this and then head inside!” Shion said. “We don’t have much time before it wears off, and the Governor could be getting drawn and quartered as we speak!”​

The truth was that the six of us were now moving inhumanly fast for what amounted to ten real-world seconds. A toothy smile swept over my lips, realizing the advantage we now possessed.​

“Time to turn the tables on these bastards.”​

In those measly ten seconds, we wreaked havoc on our undead attackers, unleashing strike and spell against them, and leaving the battlefield awash in their putrid entrails. It was almost unfair, in a way, and yet wholly satisfying.​

Time returned to normal in due course as we finally reached the cellar’s entrance, the waves of enemies having screeched to a halt. Either they had run out of decomposing bodies to throw at us like fodder, or they grew tired of the approach altogether.​

“It’s even darker than it was earlier. What should we do for visibility?” As we descended into the darkness of the cellar, I suddenly remembered that I had lost the torch in my mad scramble to get out, but I didn’t mention that to my companions.​

“Are you ready to try using your first light spell, Ren-kun?” Shion asked. “None of the others possess light or fire affinities, unless I’m mistaken.”​

“Nope, Hachi and I both have an affinity for water,” Nana confirmed.​

“And Zero and Milton are Earth and Wind, respectively. Like I said, this is an opportune time for you to hone your skills.”​

“You want me to cast a spell without the Tome of Light? I’ve never used magic before...”​

I didn’t truly know whether I was even capable of it on my own, but Shion seemed to think otherwise. Ever since I placed my hand on the Orb of Discovery, I could feel a power within me that was trying to escape. Perhaps it was all my unused mana, having lain dormant since I arrived, but I couldn’t tell for sure.​

“The spell I have in mind isn’t complicated enough to require a grimoire to cast; rest assured, you just need to focus and let your imagination do the hardest work for you.” Shion reasoned. “You needn’t even utter an incantation.”​

“If you say so… just tell me what to do.”​

We stopped at the bottom of the stairs.​

“Right, now hold out your non-dominant hand and imagine you are the light cutting a path through the darkness.” Shion grabbed my left hand, lifting it up into an outstretched position. “If you’re having trouble, try imagining the brightest thing you can think of, literally or figuratively. It could even be a memory…”​

The brightest thing…​

The first thing that popped into my mind was my late mother’s smile, a memory from a time when I was younger. I came home early from school one day after getting into a fight, but she didn’t even get mad. She simply cooked my favorite meal, her omurice, for dinner and let me talk it through on my own. I grew to miss those times when it was just my father and me in that big, empty house.​

I felt a nostalgic warmth in my chest that spread through my shoulder and into my outstretched hand. Everyone gasped in awe as the cavern lit up with tiny orbs of light, surrounding us in a swirling pattern like fireflies. I myself was equally shocked.​

“Well done, dear boy!” Milton offered a thumbs-up. “I still remember the thrill of my first spell. Why, it must’ve been seven hundred years ago now, but… err, well, I’ll save you the tale for another time.”​

I nodded. My boss’s stories of the olden days were interesting enough on their own, but they had a tendency to run a bit too long. Hours too long.​

“We knew you had it in you, partner!” Zero echoed, slapping me on the back. “Magic is all about visualization, or that’s what my teachers and Shion-tan always seem to drill me about. Practice makes perfect, and all that jazz.”​

“You ain’t kidding…” I couldn’t help but smile as Shion nodded at me, a knowing yet proud look on her face.​

Following the product of my magic through the cave system for a time, we finally passed by the cells that contained the torched bodies from before. The rats had all fled, having got their fill of flesh. The sight of it still left the same pit in my stomach, even though I wasn’t alone this time.​

“How awful…” Nana uttered.​

“Quite,” Milton said. “This is the Black Sacrament’s handiwork, alright. I have had guild members meet their end to these villains on occasion, many of whom had families. Should we come across any of them, we should show them no mercy.”​

“Kill or be killed…”​

These people were just innocent civilians by the looks of them, caught up in the dark machinations of those nutjobs. My boss is right, there’s no forgiving this…​

Why anyone would go through the trouble of kidnapping and skinning people alive, I would have preferred never to find out, but we had already ventured this far. Despite his towering build and physique, Zero seemed the most shaken by the sight to the point of uncharacteristic silence.​

If there were any positives to glean from the situation, however, it was that the Governor’s body wasn’t among the fallen that we could clearly see. Which meant our rescue march continued onward.​

“The Guildmaster is right, we should be prepared to defend ourselves to the last, the cult certainly won’t hesitate to cut us down.” Shion finally agreed. “I think it’s about time we settled this, don’t you all?”​

“Right!” We all agreed in unison.

We worked our way through winding caverns and a decommissioned sewer system en route to an arena-like space surrounded by a moat at the end of the branching path. I released more orbs that slowly began to light the huge space, and as I did, a figure in the center of the massive circular room became clear.​

“Master!” Nana called out.​

Governor Starkraven sat tied to a chair in the middle of the arena with a rope, in rough shape from the looks of it. The whole thing clearly reeked of a set-up, and thankfully, we were all intelligent enough to pick up on that fact, despite at least half of us being new to this sort of thing.​

“Zero, can you bring him over here to the exit with your earth magic?” Shion asked.​

There’s a novel idea!​

Unfortunately, however, things wouldn’t go exactly how we were hoping they would.​

“Richter scale: four-point—ACK!” Zero cried out in pain, holding his head. “No, don’t—Ah, AH, AHHHHHHH!”​

“Zero!?” Shion knelt down immediately at his side as he dropped to the ground. “Zero, answer me, what on earth is the matter!?”​

Our friend writhed in a truly bizarre fashion, his eyes widened in horror, but before we could further question what had happened, the others began dropping to the ground, similarly holding their heads and screaming in agony. All except… me.​

“What in the—!?” I swiveled my head around until my gaze happened across a shadowy presence.​

“—What a delicious array! An earth elemental, a wind elemental, twin water elementals, a time keeper, and… oho, what’s this?” I heard an old woman’s voice echoing as someone emerged from the other side of the arena. “Sisters, sisters, can it be??”​

The light tapping of her cane echoed as she approached from the other side of Governor Starkraven.​

“A boy, a lone, adorable boy who resists our charms. It can, sister, it can! Could it be that this boy also possesses an affinity for darkness as well as the light?” A second woman appeared beside her, eyeing me curiously. “Just like the great one, how very, very intriguing.”​

The old crones wore cloaks made from crow feathers and orc-skull masks that covered their faces. Could these be the skinwalkers that Shion and Milton seemed to know about? I had a mind to ask them, but they weren’t in their right minds at the moment.​

“It could, sister, it could! The boy shows potential; he shares many characteristics of the great one himself, and yet he opposes us. Though I must ask why??” A third and final enemy sprang up. “Oh, how I’d like to crawl underneath that fair skin of his and find out for myself, yes, I most certainly would…”​

She held a purple orb not dissimilar in size and texture to the Orb of Discovery. It was pulsing with a weird energy that gave me a slight headache, and I’d have bet anything that it had something to do with what happened to Zero and the others. For every pulse from the orb, my friends reacted with shock.​

“You’re the ones that took the Governor, and killed all those other innocent folks too, aren’t you??” I had seen enough to know that they were trouble, and when they didn’t reply, I got even more pissed off. “Tell me what the hell you did to my friends, you witches!”​

Their necks twisted toward me, away from one another, crackling as they did. The abrupt nature of their focused stares surprised me more than a bit.​

“Witches… you say?”​

“Witches, the boy said.”​

“Which is the best wine to have him for dinner with, I wonder…”​

They’re… They’re insane!​

“Answer me!” My hand hovered over my dagger.​

“If it’s an introduction you desire… I’m Gertie, and my sister is—”​

“—Gertrude, and my other sister is—”​

“—Gertilda!”​

I was too stunned to move as they all bowed and proceeded to speak in unison.​

“Now… Won’t you go ahead and die for us, dearie?”