Chapter 5

Moments earlier.

Marie and I arrived at the destination of where the hidden Secular camp was said to be. We received intel from Marie’s contact, whom was someone she used to work with before she joined me on my crusade. They didn’t share the specifics on how they got it, but either way, if this got us one step closer to our goal, I didn’t mind. Marie got off the back of my motorcycle and I followed suit. She then opened the side compartment and took out an armoured briefcase. She cracked it open, and inside was a disassembled antimaterial rifle, the same one she used on our last mission, and the same one she always used. It was bolt action and fired the highest possible caliber ammo currently produced. In a swift few motions, she put the rifle together and slung the strap connected to it around her shoulder before holstering a handgun on her side. She nodded to me, telling me she was ready.

I stretched my arms out, cracked my fingers and neck before raising both my hands. If we were in the correct spot, then the training compound would be right here in front of us, covered in a layer of concealing magic that hid them from the outside world entirely. Even stumbling across it as a civilian, you would simply walk right through it without even noticing it. In my one hand, I formed a small fireball. I increased the intensity by pouring more magic into it. Eventually, it became a deep blue. The flame was hot enough that I could feel the heat even through my mana shield. The air rippled above with heat waves as I continued to pour more mana into the flame, keeping it scorching hot. Then, I stretched out my other hand and formed a small gravel of rocks in it, swirling them through the air, until they formed a loose-fitting sphere. Slowly, more and more rocks formed in my hand and I brought the sphere over to the flame, encapsulating it. I continued to pour magic into both of these balls of elements, keeping them alive and growing. The rocks started to tightly form around the flame, constricting onto it. The flame, however, kept its shape and pushed outward against the stone prison. Soon the orb started to rattle and shake, the pressures of both the flame and the rocks were fighting against each other, until the rock started to deform. With a low grunt, I forced my hands forward, causing a massive gust of air to force the ball forward, sending it hurtling through the air as if it was shot out of a cannon.

In the next instant, I held my hand up and covered Marie in a mana shield, fortifying it and protecting her from what was about to happen. The ball flew forward with intense speed, until suddenly stopping in the air, as if it collided with something. Then, the air around it rippled as the stone boulder exploded outward in a large eruption of stone and flame. Marie stood steadfast, trusting in the shield on her. The explosion destroyed the ground and left a crater, kicking up the dirt into a cloud of dust. Around the cloud, however, was the strange and ethereal visual of the sky glitching, creating green and blue artifacts like it was a computer screen. I then pressed my hands together and pointed out two fingers, controlling the swirling of dust and dirt, keeping it in a sphere shape.

“Alright, you know the plan. Keep an eye on me.” I said to Marie as I started to walk toward the cloud. Marie crouched down and shouldered her rifle, pulling the charging lever back and taking aim. I entered the cloud and through magic, made everyone on the other side visible through detecting their mana. I heard them shouting various things, before noticing that one launched a fireball. Then the others followed their lead and launched their own. I held out my hand, creating a wall of mana and blocking the flame, and also catching it. I then absorbed the flames into my hand, paused for a moment and snapped my fingers. The fire shot out like a flame wall of an explosion and impacted the mages, causing several of them to go flying.

I formed my manifestation, quickly shot at two of the mages that were readying another spell, and watched as they collapsed instantly from the magic bullets. One of the mages, a tall and muscular man, manifested his own weapon and charged at me. To be honest, his speed took me by surprise as he managed to dodge several shots from my manifestation handgun, but at no point did this man cause me to panic.

“You all seem to fall for the same thing.” I said.

I heard the shot from Marie’s rifle ring out the moment the man appeared next to me. I watched, as if time had slowed, the large caliber bullet colliding directly into his right shoulder and disintegrating on impact with the mana shield. The force of the shot caused the mage to fly backward and land on the ground. His mana shield was still rather intact, indicating to me that he had a powerful amount of magical talent. I motioned quickly to shoot him and kill him, but I noticed several other mages starting to head toward me and instead simply stomped on his head, knocking him out as I raised my gun and started to fire at the incoming enemies.

The mages dodged as best as they could, my shots barely missing the target. As powerful as my manifestation was, the projectile worked like any other spell. Once a spell was launched from a mage, it will lose power in some capacity. A fireball loses volume, air magic loses intensity, lightning loses accuracy, and so on. It all varied on how you use the spell, the element, and what kind of shape you are forming the spell into. For my manifestation, the bullets never lost their force, but they lost their speed the farther they went.

I shot several more times, finally hitting the new mages in their legs, causing them to collapse and writhe in agony. Again, I had no time to finish them off as more mages seemed to swarm in as if spawning from the ground.

“They must have one here...” I muttered to myself.

As if on cue, a circular crest formed on the ground near the other mages. It was large, green, and had intricate detailing in it. My eyes narrowed as I watched the crests glow increase in intensity, until the light of it shot up into the sky like a beam. The light faded away in an instant, and in the middle of where the crest was now stood a mage. This mage, however, was not dressed like the others. It had robes that billowed in the absent wind, metal shoulder plates that shined in an impossible glow, and a hood that shrouded the face of the wearer in an impervious shadow. The front of the robes had a crest in the shape of a biblical cross with a swirl of vines wrapped around it, backed by a magical crest.

“An Apostle.”

“Do you need my assistance?” Marie’s monotone voice chimed in through the earpiece.

“I think I might.”