Chapter 141

Owly was truly exhausted upon arriving at his destination. His normal majestic "floof" was done in with his ruffled feathers and surreal huffing of hoots.

He was almost at his limit considering the amount of mana he had been using throughout the fight. Additionally, he was not at all in the right state of mind knowing who their opponents were.

'What if they kil—hoot!'

Owly was trying to clear his head of dangerous thoughts. Afterall he needed to have faith in Naell to not stagger and lose any more focus.

Not to mention, the situation regarding his mom and friends' unknown fate; Owly could only trust Wilfred's words that they were alive, as their guardianships were apparently still unpassed to them, the pupils.

"Now what should I do, HOOT."

Although he managed to reach the barrier near the army of elves, he wasn't sure if he could actually pull it off; that is, breaking the barrier created by Ipar.

Further, although the bishop of Lucile was weaker than the queen's, it was apparent that Owly still paled in comparison to Ipar.

Not to mention, like Naell, he was worn out. Although in the case of the young master of Beryldot, it was his incredible mana causing him harm—while Owly's fatigue stemmed from his almost depleted mana.

The young owl could only breathe and stay still for a moment which allowed him to recover the slightest bit. Yet it was not to the point where Owly reached his normal state.

"Even with all my mana I can't defeat that bishop, hoot..."

Truth be told, Owly wanted to stay and fight with Naell, yet he knew he was being a nuisance and just like the case of his mom, he couldn't think of a way to help, hence he accepted the guardians' decision to leave them.

From the moment Ipar got serious, Owly knew he had become mere baggage to Naell. That was why he decided to comply and try to break the barrier.

Yet finally seeing it up close and feeling the absurd amount of mana swirling and caging all of them, Owly could only helplessly glare at his own reflection in the rippling void.

'Hoot.'

For a moment while staring, he noticed his own likeness to his mother; the great Guardian of Wisdom. He was reminded that had she been there, the barrier Ipar erected within seconds would long be gone. Afterall, his mother possessed an immense arsenal of dark magic he always aspired to learn.

Yet far from his imagination, in that moment, his mother was not there and the dark magic remained persistent.

"A guardian's pupil...with no strength to open a barrier, hoot..."

Meekly, he put his talon onto the surface. As dark magic fizzled from where he pressed, he sensed the intricate seal that made him hoot in vain.

'The son of Wisdom...lacking the knowledge to undo the seal...hoot.'

Even so, Owly desperately clung to his last remaining mana while also trying his hardest to understand the complexity of the barrier.

Yet as if mocking him, the barrier in its translucent darkness remained strong and began to even reflect the small tears dropping from Owly's eyes.

Crackles and ominous whispers rose from the dark magic as marks of the seal then began spreading onto his body. Owly knew it was a counter spell directed at those who were trying to break the dark barrier.

If he was in his normal condition, it would have not affected him as spells like those were counterable by elemental mages of the same type.

"That only means I'm out of mana, hoot."

All wielders of magic become vulnerable to even the most minor intrusive forces, upon depleting their mana.

It was a blunder on Owly's part to forget his studies for even a second, and in knowing this, Owly believed he now deserved what was to come. Accepting his fate, he held onto the magic until his body was devoured by the barrier itself.

.

.

.

Minutes that felt like hours passed when Owly finally regained his consciousness. It seemed his mother gave him a portion of her mana in the form of a spell that would be awakened in events such as that.

"Mom, hoot..."

Athena's mana was nurturing, and immensely soothing to Owly. However, that only caused more tears to flow from his closed eyes.

Owly remembered how he promised to save his mother. It was why he was there in the first place. And long before he always expected there would be troubles and obstacles he would need to overcome.

Yet now he was stuck in the void, slowly to be consumed by it. A pang of guilt slowly rose in his conscience, convincing him that it would be better if he would not awaken at all.

But then his thoughts shifted into worries about his friend,

"That noob..Naell, hoot..."

He was grateful to Naell for coming with him. Yet now it felt that his best friend, who stood by him even though he wanted no more than to laze around, would be subjected to uncertain outcomes because of his inability to do anything.

"I'm so useless, hoot..."

His mind was once again filled with hopelessness. Owly was never a pessimist since Athena always reminded him that Mundo was full of hope and wonder despite its flaws and dangers.

Yet ever since the day of his mother's disappearance, he felt like nothing but a useless kid.

Not to mention, all the times when Naell needed help, a lot of times, Owly did not help at all. Hence all his bottled insecurity finally caught onto him.

While the remaining mana of his mother's spell dwindled, so did his will to continue and live.

"I'm so useless, hoot..."

[ You're not useless. ]

And yet just when he was about to finally give up, glimmers of light shone around him. Suddenly, yellow and white mana embraced his body forming a mana shield against the void.

The mana was distinct and Owly immediately knew whose they were.

"Naell, Lily, HOOT?"

Without doubt, it came from his two friends. It was a dark elemental basic spell called [ token ], which sure enough was made by Lily.

It was a spell used by dark mages to infiltrate high security, or gain intelligence with indetectable sealed magic carried by their allies. It worked by having sealed magic stored into tokens.

Often the condition of its activation was that the caster activated it, or the person who possessed the token would run out of mana.

"But this is Naell's mana shield, HOOT."

That made Owly smile. Knowing Naell, he was sure it was him who came up with the idea to store another basic magic in Lily's [ Token ].

Combined with his mother's mana, Owly focused on revivifying his mana, allowing him to escape the void, wake up, and finally open his eyes to where he had been—facing the edge of the barrier.

Yet before the yellow and white mana truly disappeared, it seemed that the token also stored wind magic called [ passing ], a spell that casted a simple breeze.

It was often used in continents like Summer where the temperature was always on the warmer side. However, in Owly's case, what was stored was Lily's voice saying,

"You're not useless, you're Owly the greatest owl and the bestest friend of Lily, and brother Naell!"

Owly didn't know what happened but as the passing mana left his body, a bright light once again enveloped his body.

And with a smile, he said, "Yes...I'm...OWLY! HOOOOT!!"