Savior! Redemption in Another World! - Chapter 76

I don’t think I’ve ever been this confused in my life. At least, in this life that is.

Not only did my adoptive father find me, just to tell me I’m not human and then instantly leave again, but he also seemed depressed about it?

If it pains you to leave, why leave!

But if you had to leave after only one night, why come in the first place? Why not meet me at the capital, or find another way to contact me?

Another thing, why give me a page of blinktree paper? I already told you I was working for Teresa and we were headed towards the capital, so it’s not like you won’t be able to find me. Isn’t blinktree paper super expensive as well?

I couldn’t find a normal-sized piece for less than the price of a closed cart…

God, there’s just too much I don’t understand and that Gust didn’t explain to me. Slumping back into my stone chair, I gave a deep sigh before resuming the idle chat I was having with Teresa.

It was still pretty early in the morning, and the other two were still asleep, so there wasn’t much we could do aside from making some mindless chatter and waiting for them to wake up.

“I really think you ought to reconsider. Becoming a kni-” Teresa was saying, yet instantly the camp became eerily quiet.

Looking dead in each other’s eyes, all Teresa and I needed to give was a simple nod to signal a mutual understanding.

Malicious mana, which is also referred to as Murderous Intent. It’s a phenomenon that occurs when a powerful fighter comes into contact with something they wish to do harm to. Some people are able to use and release it on command, whilst for others, it simply happens naturally.

No matter which one it may be, huge waves of murderous intent were emanating from the forest around the campsite.

Grabbing my staff and slamming it into the ground, I can’t let the ambushers get the first move. Those who make a preemptive strike are more likely to win than those who hesitate after all.

Funneling mana into the ground, I force two things to occur at once. First and foremost, I expand the walls around the campsite into a dome of thick stone, allowing us to be protected from all sides whilst simultaneously blinding the enemy from our movements.

Secondly, is the offense. Switching my output from earth magic to water, I quickly raise my staff and once again slam it into the ground.

“Frozen Wave!” I call out, forcing a wave of ice magic to spread from the circumference of the dome, hopefully freezing anything in a twenty-meter radius of the campsite. However, I’m not finished just yet.

Frozen Wave is a dux tier ice spell that I developed specifically for this type of situation. Faced with an unknown enemy of an unknown amount at an unknown distance, what’s the best thing you can do?

Bunker down, and fire off long-range spells at where you believe the enemy to be of course, so that’s exactly what the spell is designed to do.

Slamming my staff into the ground once more, I send out another cast of Frozen Wave, however, this time something interesting happens. Instead of refreezing or shattering the area already affected, the ice magic that I had leftover simply carries the spell to its edge, further expanding the range and freezing more of the forest.

This way, every cast of Frozen Wave not only affects those moving over the frozen terrain it makes but also it’s a spell of ever-increasing range, at the cost of only a bit more mana each time.

Whilst I sent out around four more waves of Frozen Wave, Teresa had finished a long chat, causing a ring of light to surround the interior of the campsite. As it slowly faded, I could feel as if  something was different, but I couldn’t place what.

“What was that spell?” I asked, wiping the sweat from my brow and funneling more mana into my staff, preparing for my next attack.

“Light Speed, it’s a light magic spell that increases both reaction speed and healing abilities, it was time I started using some magic to help the party outside of being just a healer,” Teresa said, placing her hands at her sides as the magic circle fully faded away.

Something’s wrong.

Looking all around, and expanding my mana perception to its absolute limit, it was gone.  There was no more malicious mana, not even any leftover in the air.

Stopping the maintenance of Frozen Wave, I focused everything I could on my mana perception, expanding my senses to just outside of the dome, just in time for me to leap and push Teresa out of the way.

Piercing through the top of the dome was a long silver piece of metal, almost like a needle. Unfortunately for me, the needle pierced right through the back of my right hand. If I had been a mere second later, or my reaction a fraction slower, that would have pierced Teresa’s head.

Yet, before I was able to grab the two-foot-long silver needle, it ripped itself out of my hand and flew back towards the ceiling. Of course, not before the ceiling blew open with the force of a hand grenade, and the needle returned to its owner’s hand.

Floating menacingly above the hole was a beautiful woman. Wheat-blonde hair, a slightly mint green skin, and sharp eyes shot down towards me with a careful, yet wonderfully warm smile.

I feel as if I’ve seen this woman somewhere before…

As the woman began to open her mouth, now was my chance. Pointing my staff to the sky, I used all of the mana I had accumulated into my staff and launched two rays of Absolute Zero, hoping to freeze the witch right out of the sky.

Yet, as delicately as it pierced the stone dome, the needle shot through the air, slicing into my condensed beams of magic. As the needle lodged into the spell, I could feel it weaken substantially, but it appears I’ve been underestimated.

The two casts of absolute zero, now unfortunately only at around half-strength, landed cleanly onto the torso and head respectively of the floating mage, causing her to stagger and falter in the air.

However, in a horrific manner, she witch was able to stabilize herself, once again staring down at Teresa and me, having taken nearly zero exterior damage from two blasts of my most concentrated magic.

Shockingly, she didn’t even seem angry. Instead, in a much more alarming fashion, a manically large grin spread across her face.

“Simply wonderful! It appears I made the wrong assumption, you’re not a captive of her, you’re protecting her! What a little heartthrob you’ve become.” She said, her voice and tone filled with nothing but, admiration? Pride?

What?

“Identify yourself!” I yell towards the still floating threat, as she slowly lowered herself into the campsite.

“Awww, you really don’t remember me?” She said, a bit of genuine sadness in her voice.

“Why would I remember an assassin? Let alone a dead one.” I say, a small smile forming on my face. God that line was so cool, and also she fell almost entirely into our trap.

Once again, right before the woman was about to start talking, she was attacked. Not only by me this time, but also by Flare, who was patiently biding her time in the shadows of the dome, waiting for a golden opportunity like this one.

I say it’s a golden opportunity, since as soon as I caught a glimpse of Flare dashing towards the assassin, I launched as much Divinity at the witch as fast as possible, about half of which connected, stripping her of most of her defensive cloak.

As Flare’s sword slammed right into her neck, it made only a small incision before Flare was blasted away with a strong gust of wind.

“Enough! I came to test the abilities of my son, not get jumped by strangers!” The woman yelled, her face flush with both pride and anger as she looked towards me. Only then was my memory finally jogged.

Son? Of course. This was my birth mother, Stephaine.

“Mom?” I say, dropping out of my defensive stance and putting my hand to my side, signaling to the rest of the party that this was, in fact, my family.

I could feel warm tears slowly starting to build up.

Why are you here? How are you here? Is this what Gust was talking about?

Why come looking for me?

Before I’m able to choke anything out, Stephaine appears in front of me and brings me into a nice warm hug.

Oh, so this isn’t a dream.

Gust  and my birth parents were  both looking for me?

“It’s okay baby, I’m here now. You’re safe now.” Stephaine said, confusing my reaction with one born out of fear.

I don’t think I want to correct her, partly because this hug feels very nice after the last one knocked me out, and partly because I have no idea what to say right now.

For the first time in both my lives, I truly have nothing to say, aside from pulling my mother in for a deeper hug.