[S2] Chapter 33: Time

While the short fights between the mages and demons today were usually over in a few seconds, the battle between Jora and Ayma is completely different because the two take their time and launch fewer but more precise attacks.

It seems as if the two are neutralizing each other and that the fight will be decided by the first mistake, whoever makes it. I can tell that the others would like to help, but even I realize that there is simply no moment that might not end unfavorably for Jora.

I know that I have to stay out of all of this and to be honest, I don't want Miko to get involved either. But I have to keep such thoughts to myself. The tension makes it hard for me to think, but I am aware of what is at stake here and how dangerous the situation is.

"Who is going to win?" I ask Miko quietly. I really can't tell, and somehow, I'm getting more and more nervous by the second. Before I get an answer, I hear a loud crash. From the place of the impact, my eyes wander to the area where the fighting was taking place, and I realize that Jora is nowhere to be found. It takes me a moment to realize that it was him who smashed into one of the buildings back there.

Ayma turns her attention to us and tilts her head slightly. With a smirk on her face, she invites us to continue entertaining her. Although I know I can't lay a finger on her, I feel like punching her in that pretty face.

"Buy me some time," Luna mutters and strikes a pose as if she were holding a bow. Out of nowhere, several magical circles appear, drawing mana from the environment and transforming it into fiery, warm magic that gathers around Luna. Kajsa positions herself in front of Luna while Miko, Wace, and Krystoff, together with the other members of the King's Guild, charge at Ayma. Maisy and I stay behind. However, the heat radiating from Luna slowly becomes unbearable, so we move even further away from the fighting.

Kajsa tirelessly acts as Luna's shield and keeps an eye on the battle between Ayma and the others. Without saying a word, Maisy suddenly starts running and heads straight for Jora before a lightning bolt flashes directly in front of her. For a moment, Ayma looks over and shakes an index finger at Maisy, signaling her not to interfere while she keeps fending off the attacks from the others.

For now, we are forced to simply watch. I concentrate mana in my eyes just to try to follow this fight to some extent. Suppose I try to break down what is happening. In that case, it can be summarized by saying that Ayma allows herself to be hit by pretty much all attacks but blocks them with a magical full-body barrier. Physical attacks bounce off, and magical ones dissipate.

At first glance, I don't see her doing any counterattacks. Still, I notice how the speed and intensity of our people are decreasing. What confuses me is that Ayma is leaving Luna alone and tries nothing to stop her from collecting mana for that spell.

"Kayla! Prepare for healing!" Miko yells, and immediately afterward, Krystoff comes flying towards me. Someone must have thrown him. I gasp for air when I see him up close and notice all his injuries. He is bleeding from his nose and ears. His face and arms are covered with bruises and swellings. Hitting Ayma's barriers must feel like slamming into concrete.

I am all the more worried about Miko, who continues to launch attack after attack at Ayma.

While I crouch over Krys and try to heal him with the little mana I have left, my gaze wanders towards Luna and Kajsa, with the latter suddenly dashing towards Ayma. The speed with which she does this is frightening for friend and foe alike, as is the impact of the blow she delivers to Ayma's body.

After that, everything happens in a flash. Spikes of stone shoot out of the ground around Ayma. While Wace and Miko manage to avoid them by jumping out of the way, the other mages are impaled. Masses of blood spill onto the ground, my breathing starts to get shallow, and my heart beats unevenly.

Wait, where is Kajsa? I look at the spikes, but my eyes are watering, and my vision is blurred. Before I can find her, Miko rushes to me and creates a magical barrier. I don't understand why until I am blinded by a vast, blazing beam of fire.

My eyes are darting around nervously. Luna collapses on the spot and remains lying on the ground, her body smoking as if she were as hot as fire. Wace makes his way over to her, dragging himself slowly. Krystoff has also lost consciousness.

Miko turns around and stares at the spot where Luna's spell struck. There is nothing left to see of the spikes or the corpses of the impaled mages. But Ayma is still standing in the exact same position. With the spikes now gone, I also discover Kajsa, who is clinging to Ayma's ankles with both hands.

Neither she nor her black dress seems to have been damaged, but the moment I finish this thought, she collapses to her knees and supports herself by placing both hands on the ground. I hear Miko clench the handle of her sword tightly. Her whole arm is shaking, but still, she starts to walk towards Ayma. Did we really win? I can't find a shred of relief inside me.

I can't take my eyes off Ayma, which is why I notice how her body quivers. For a moment it seems as if she is crying, but by the time she lifts her head and I see her smile, I realize that she was probably laughing. Her lips move, but I am too far away to understand a single word. But what is that expression on her face? No one on the verge of being killed should look like that.

Suddenly, bright glowing mana spreads out across the entire floor. I feel its scorching heat and try to lift Krystoff a little so that his face doesn't get burned. As I raise my head again, I realize the vast size of this magic circle. Hundreds of meters around us, houses dissolve, turn back into mana, and feed the spell, which looks frighteningly similar to what Luna fired at Ayma just a moment ago.

Miko has to hurry and kill her before it's too late for all of us, but instead of doing so, she just turns to me. Her face looks like she's trying to say sorry. I don't know whether she can't reach Ayma or doesn't want to.

Before I close my eyes to wait for the end, I see someone appearing behind Ayma. I had completely forgotten that he was still there after he had crashed into a house earlier. He must have just been waiting for the right moment to attack Ayma when she wasn't paying attention. In his right hand, he carries a knife, which he swings at her head with full force.

But it never reaches her.

Jora stands there frozen in his movement, the blade of the knife only a few centimeters above her skull. It feels as if my heart has stopped beating. I can't blink, but I also have no desire to do so. I can't move anymore. Usually, it's a reason to panic, but my body doesn't react.

Since I can't move my eyes, I see Miko only at the edge of my field of vision. She's not moving, either. What's going on right now? Ayma was about to copy Luna's spell and wipe us all out. If she had the power to make us stop moving, she would have done it earlier, right?

The absolute silence is finally interrupted by footsteps approaching from behind me. Until the moment the person appears before my eyes, I am unable to recognize them. But when I realize it is Lilith, I'm somehow not surprised.

A transparent clock-like-looking circle made of black mana floats around her wrist, and the needles seem to be standing still. It seems she is able to use her magic to stop time for everyone but herself.

Slowly but surely, she walks towards Ayma and Jora. She puts a hand on her sister's shoulder, causing her to regain her mobility. If my heart would beat, it would stop right now. I want to scream. I want to know what she is doing, but I am trapped in my mind.

The two talk to each other quietly. The only one who can listen now is probably Jora, standing right next to them. After a while, Ayma puts her hand on the ground, and the giant magic circle, which still covers the entire area below us, disappears.

Lilith walks over in our direction. She stops at Miko and puts her head on her shoulder. I can hear her saying something, but I can't understand a word. My sense of time is also slowly fading. But at some point, Lilith comes to me as well.

"Hello, Kayla. You must have been wondering where I've been all this time. To be honest, I've been watching you to see what kind of person my sister is. And I think now that Miko has you, I need to take care of that spoiled brat. I guess I owe it to her. Be there for Miko, will you? It's the first time she's experiencing love in this form, so don't hold it against her if she acts dumb from time to time. I hope we can talk to each other like we used to when we meet again. So long."

Miko didn't have much time to tell us everything earlier, and the story wasn't particularly easy to follow. But it seems that Lilith and Ayma are from the other world, the same world that Kajsa came from.

It's frustrating not being able to answer Lilith, even though I can't think of any words to say. She says we'll see each other again, but it feels like we're saying goodbye for good.

Without me being able to stop her, Lilith returns to Ayma. The two of them standing side by side make a surreal picture. While one of them can create worlds only from her mana, the other one is able to stop time with her magic. I can't imagine what pushed the two of them to become that powerful.

Lilith begins to draw a magic circle in the air with her finger. Ayma stands by her side and begins to add some elements, and as a result, a door out of mana appears. Lilith opens it, but Ayma does not seem ready to leave. Instead, she stares at Jora, who is still standing motionless in front of her.

One by one, she releases his fingers from the knife he was about to plunge into her head. I don't want to watch. I don't want to see what she's about to do. But I can't close my eyes. Lilith puts a hand on Ayma's shoulder and says something, then shakes her head and disappears through the portal first.

Suddenly and somewhat surprisingly, I blink. Everything goes dark, then light again, from pure black to glaring white. My body feels as if it is trying to make up for all the things it couldn't do during the time it was standing still. The rattling sound of Jora's knife as it falls to the ground acts as the final point of this sensation.

I sit on the floor. The sounds of the bustling city are deafening to me. My gaze wanders aimlessly, looking at everyone, everything. Kajsa, Krystoff, and Luna are lying on the floor, unconscious. Wace and Maisy are trying to get back on their feet, Miko is dropping to her knees, and Jora still seems to be unable to move a single muscle.

My legs feel numb. I don't even try to get up but start to crawl over to Miko. When I get to her, I put my arms around her from behind. I can't imagine what's going on in her head right now, so I'm going to do what Lilith told me to do.

Be there for Miko.

◇◆◇

"They will recover. The greatest damage suffered will probably be on the emotional level."

It is Wace who tries to comfort me as I sit on a sofa in the hotel lobby, wholly exhausted, while the others are being treated by the healers available.

"Where are your shoes, Kayla?"

"I must have dropped them somewhere." A lie.

On the way from the dungeon site back to the hotel, my feet just got so sore that I ended up walking the rest of the way in my socks. I couldn't care less.

"Would you like something to drink?" Eliza asks, armed with a bag full of small bottles from the hotel kiosk. It's frightening how selfless she is. Her reaction to Lilith's disappearance was not cold but overly understanding and accepting. I have no idea how much Eliza knows about Lilith's past, but maybe she expected something like this to happen at some point.

I am still far from processing today, let alone fully grasping what happened. For now, I am happy that most of us are doing well. I feel a little bad thinking that way while several members of Jora's guild, comrades of Wace and Krystoff, have died, three of them in the fight against Ayma.

More than ever before, she gave me the impression that, depending on the perspective, we are the villains of this story. That is, if you ignore the demons' plans, such as invading our world and murdering Kajsa. What I also realized is that there are more mages and witches like Ayma who are able to create dungeons. I can't tell if they are as strong as she is, but if it were up to me, I wouldn't have to meet any of them. Although I still want to ask the question of why these people created these worlds in the first place, what is the point besides being able to play God.

"Are you okay? You're so quiet." Eliza asks me.

"Am I usually loud?"

"You can hardly keep your mouth shut."

"That's not true."

Wace sighs and says goodbye with a brief wave.

Eliza chuckles, "We scared him off."

"Sit down," I suggest.

"Only if you drink something."

"Fine."

I take a half-liter bottle of water and try to chug it down in one go, which creates an awkward silence, apart from my greedy gulping noises, which is why I hurry even more, causing me to choke and spit out half of the drink I just swallowed onto the carpet in front of us.

A hotel employee leans over the reception desk in shock at the sound of my heavy cough, and I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. Eliza is sitting next to me and is not saying a word, but I see her trembling in a desperate attempt to suppress her laughter. It's nice that my near-death experience is cheering her up when I thought I was the one in a bad mood.

"Has something leaked here?" another voice asks.

"Your girlfriend."

Miko drops down next to me on the sofa so that I am now sandwiched between Eliza and her.

"And how are you?" I ask as I try to breathe properly again.

"The other healers aren't so bad, but not quite as good as you."

"You had to say that."

"That's right, but it is also the truth."

Miko lets her head fall gently onto my shoulder and leans against me. Pretty smooth, if you ask me.

"Everything will be okay, right?"

How should I answer Miko's question? We both don't know what's coming.

"I suppose only time will tell."