A Clash With Madness

⭑ · · ᯓ 𐃈 ᯓ · · ⭑

With the lantern to guide them, Felix and Kite effortlessly made their way through the woods that had previously been impassable. Instead of using mana to create light, it worked in reverse, drawing in mana from the trees that were intertwined as a defense mechanism for the eastern and western seals.

The latest tremor had buried the main path beneath a rockslide, forcing them into the woods. The shaking increased in frequency and duration, leaving them wondering whether the final seal had already been broken.

“Elevation is climbing; we’re coming back up on the main path!” Kite shouted, setting the pace with the lantern ahead of Felix.

Kite kept herself from pulling too far ahead. The trees closed behind the lantern almost as quickly as they opened, unlike Elora’s magic that could open or close them at will. A trick she’d used to get away.

“Let’s hurry!” Felix said. “It’s just a little further!”

The path came into view, but they heard a crumbling sound from up above, a huge boulder looming over them.

“—!”

It bounced down the side of the mountain, a piece of the summit that had loosened with the sudden volcanic activity. A ribbon of molten rock seeped through the fracture it had created, but only a narrow one.

“Veer left!”

Felix and Kite dodged just in time to avoid the boulder flattening the trees where they’d just been, but they had another problem.

“Lamp’s busted.” Kite groaned, holding the pieces. “We could hold the anti-magic crystal directly, but it might have the same effect on us as the trees. It’s risky.”

“We don’t have much choice; they’ll close in on us if we’re not next to the crystal. Let me do it.” Felix suggested. “If it comes to a fight with Elora and the Remnant, we’ll need your magic more than my healing.”

“Are you sure??”

Felix nodded.

“I’m sure.” He said. “It’ll just be until we reach the main trail up the mountain again.”

Not seeing a reason to object, Kite watched as Felix took hold of the anti-magic crystal. It was as black as a starless sky, possessing an ancient quality to it. She had never seen one before.

“Let’s go…” Felix winced as he took the lead, mana draining unnaturally fast into the crystal.

The elevation climbed again, and the main path was in reach. Felix was almost at his breaking point, not possessing a large pool of mana to begin with. He also wanted to save a little for something he had planned to do if he got the chance.

As they broke the treeline, Felix set the crystal beside the trail for Chief Andres to recover later. He was out of breath, hunched over his knees.

“Are you sure you’re good?” Kite asked. “You’re kind of looking like an old man right now.”

You’re the one who dropped the lantern!

“Never better…” Felix lied, pumping himself up. “It’s a straight shot now. We should be ready for anything.”

“And if we see the elf?”

“Let me handle her,” Felix said. “I have an idea.”

They ascended the mountain as quickly as Felix could manage, with the mana depletion fatigue taking its toll on his stamina. It wasn’t where you wanted to be entering a showdown against an unknown opponent, but it couldn’t be helped.

Twenty long minutes later, they rounded the last curve. They had seen several incapacitated miners on the way up, but Felix had to ignore every instinct to stop and render aid—per the guidance from the village chief.

The forge entrance was framed in steel, its rivets nearly as large as Kite. The heat radiating from the volcano had sweat rolling down Felix’s face as the summit’s rim stretched to their right and left above. Inside, Cloudspire’s mythril weapons had once been forged, the lifeblood of their economy until recently.

And in front of that entrance in a large stone courtyard sat a red obelisk much like the seal in the western forest. Somehow, it was still intact. However…

“Where the heck is the Remnant?” Kite scoffed. “I don’t see anyone.”

At least we got here in—

Just then, as Felix turned to scan the area, a stream of water like a bullet whizzed by his face at a downward angle, gashing open his cheek.

“Look alive!” Felix exclaimed. “We’ve got company!”

Elora dropped wordlessly from the crater rim, her cape fluttering as she did. Devoid of emotion, she stretched out her hand as several floating balls of water became projectiles. Her weapon remained fixed to her belt, however.

There she is!

Felix and Kite split apart, circling Elora as the water bullets pelted the ground between them. Running out of water, Elora didn’t waste any time extending her spear, shifting between her two opponents with her cloudy eyes.

“Stand down, Elora,” Felix said. “We’re here to help you.”

“…”

Something’s wrong…

“Now, what kind of fun would that be?”

A jovial voice called out as another figure dropped from the rim of the volcano, landing beside Elora with a flourish. A silver-haired fellow wearing a white tailcoat, slacks, and a top hat, which he removed, bowed to them cordially.

“There’s the bastard!” Kite growled.

“Oho?” The man hummed. “Are we acquainted? Why, I haven’t even had the chance to properly introduce myself, you see.”

That’s him alright…

The voice was unmistakably the same one Felix heard inside his head before Kite snapped him out of it. He narrowed his gaze as the man smiled uncannily. Though nothing obstructed them, Felix couldn’t make out the man’s eyes.

“I am a former general in the Mad God’s army, a Remnant of Madness.” The man introduced himself, leaning on his cane. “You may call me Nostalgia.”

“A little on the nose, don’t you think, Felix?” Kite taunted. “I don’t care who you are, freak, you're going down!”

“A feisty little friend you’ve got there, Hero.” Nostalgia laughed. “Not unlike a certain mage that used to travel with you, at least in stature. Wherever do you find these interesting characters?”

“Excuse me, but have we met before?” Felix drew his axe at last, the crystal in the center glowing purple. “I seem to have forgotten a lot lately, so you’ll have to forgive me.”

The smile vanished from Nostalgia’s face.

“Ah, that’s right. The amnesiac hero… how tragic.” Nostalgia mocked, waving a hand. “We have not met, no. I didn’t have the pleasure of crossing your warpath to the Seat of Sanity, where you landed the final blow on my master.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be, that self-proclaimed god was a fool. A jester reveling in his little fun and games.” Nostalgia spat. “He had no vision. If he reincarnates in this age, I pray someone smites him again. But you’ve not come here to speak of the past, have you?”

“…”

“A pity.” The man tapped his cane twice, and a golden magic circle appeared beneath him. “That is where all the happiness in the world yet lives. Isn’t that right, Miss Greenbriar?”

“Yes...” Elora replied, less lucid than before.

Felix grew angry. Where Elora had once argued and cried out, she simply moved around like a puppet on a string—at the mercy of the Remnant’s commands. Felix was convinced of something all of a sudden.

If we don’t do something soon, she might be lost forever.

“HAH!” Kite fired off a burst of wind with a wave of her arm, trying to land the first strike on Nostalgia before he could complete whatever spell he’d started.

But Elora swatted it away, spinning her spear like a fan to negate the wind.

“Tch.” Kite clicked her tongue.

The two women immediately engaged in hand-to-hand combat, going off to the side of the obelisk. Kite shot in the air, torpedoing downwards into the haft of Elora’s spear. The elf quickly backed away, wedging the butt of the spear between two bricks.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but…”

Swinging on the spear, Elora kicked the approaching Kite in the center of the chest to drive the harpy back as she winced hard.

“I liked the old you better!” Kite huffed.

Meanwhile, Felix charged in with an overhead swing of his axe, trying to slice Nostalgia clean through the center. His blade planted into the stone, instead, cracking the ground as the man in white disappeared.

An afterimage?

“But he was just—?!”

“Looking for me?”

Felix cast his gaze upwards, bewildered. Standing upon a floating magic circle was Nostalgia, smirking down at the battlefield.

“I show you things as they were, not as they are.” He reasoned, bizarrely. “My scan of your available memories is complete, however. How about something a little more familiar to liven the mood…?”

In a brilliant display that stole everyone’s attention away from the battlefield, Nostalgia transformed within a ray of light. His cane became a scepter, and his tailcoat burned away, revealing kingly robes upon the broad shoulders of a human mage. In a commanding voice, Nostalgia spoke.

“The youngest human mage to master Monarch Class light magic, and bridge the arcane gap between the long-lived races of the world and humanity.” He said. “The organizer of the campaign to save the world from the Mad God’s war, the discoverer of the Hero, and the Former Archmage King of the Human Magic Kingdom...”

Felix’s mouth hung agape. Kite and Elora in her half-conscious state had stopped fighting to look as well, similarly shocked.

“His Radiancy, Dynas Valerian III!”