Savior! Redemption in Another World! - Chapter 85

After three years of hopping from city to city, taking on job after job to earn money for myself and the party, since apparently it would be frowned upon for Teresa to tap into any of her royal wealth, the members of Ice and Fire finally arrived at the capital of the Magic Kingdom.

Flare and I have repaired our relationship in these last three years, whilst Ivy, Teresa, and I have all grown inexplicably closer. When you’re constantly having to be vigilant, constantly having to rely on one another against different groups out to harm your client, it was bound to happen.

Even from a distance, the capital gave off an absolutely overwhelming feeling. Mostly due to the fact, that even from hundreds of kilometers away, the capital was visible. Through thick trees, and even in the darkness of night, the capital could be seen looming in the distance.

This was mostly due to the fact, that the city was in fact floating.

The city seemed to come straight out of a fantasy world, which in this case, it does. Jutting out of the bottom of a large, most likely artificial, island, was a large luminescent crystal, forever glowing with a dull grey.

There were multiple small dots floating around the artificial island, most likely government buildings, or those belonging to people of extreme wealth.

There were also multiple shapes dotting the sky beneath the capital, serving a purpose I can’t even imagine.

Most interestingly were the method in which you could see people traveling up to the capital off in the distance, as well as what was described to me by Teresa.

“There are two ways up to the capital,” Teresa explained, holding up two fingers. “The first is the way royalty and ambassadors usually take, which is what we’ll be doing. Once we reach the entry point to the capital, I’ll show my royal badge and present my blood for inspection. After we’ve been cleared, we’ll be warped up to the city.” She explained, putting one finger down.

“The second is the method the rest of the people entering the capital take, a pathway made of solidified mana. Usually, the track up to the capital can take over six hours due to its height and the fact that there’s no convenient way to walk up, but in order to circumvent any troubles, different accommodating businesses have been permitted to establish themselves on the path.” She said, putting down the last finger.

“Uh, teacher, question,” Flare said, putting her hand up slightly before asking. “What do you mean by solidified mana? Also, teleportation is real?”

“I was also wondering that,” I said, looking inquisitively at Teresa.

I know teleportation has to be possible since I was teleported away from my home when I was a kid, but I guess I never really looked into it.

“At this point, the existence of teleportation gates is an open secret within upper society. Most royal and high-end nobles of most countries have some access to technology, which is how most of them access areas of high security. The Magic Kingdom, whose leader is decided simply by being the most qualified mage along with a few other things, decided to turn this open secret to the public, introducing the technology to the public and cementing them as the first ‘teleport capable’ nation. Teleportation gates are expensive to set up, so to my knowledge the one we’ll be heading to is one of two accessible to the public.” Teresa explained, answering a few of my silent questions.

Based on all available information, teleportation is magic that can only be used via items or these large gates. It makes sense, if a person were capable of teleporting, we certainly would have seen, heard, or even been attacked by a person capable of such a feat.

But that does suck. It’s the shared dream of every nerd to be able to teleport, especially to use it in a fight. It would also completely negate my weak defense since I could just warp away from any hits.

“About the solidified mana, it’s a technique used and developed by the current King of the Magic Kingdom, His Majesty Luciano Edwardo Silkenhood. He’s a rare genius of mana that was able to invent a new field of magic, a field of pure mana solidification, simple yet ingenious. He’s trying to coin it as ‘barrier magic’, but it’s not making much progress.” Teresa continued to explain the identity of the King of magic, an important topic given we’d be meeting him along with Teresa, but I couldn’t hear her.

Not over the ringing in my ears, heavy breaths, and rising blood pressure.

Luciano, the bane of my old life. The man who ruined my future, my family, my relationship, and eventually my life. Luciano Ricci. Just why did it have to be that name.

“Antonio? Antonio?” Teresa said, snapping me back to reality by shaking me on the shoulder.

“Sorry sorry, I must not have slept too well. I’m feeling a bit under the weather and spaced out there.” I say, sighing and giving off a bit of nervous laughter.

“Ha! So you do have a weakness.” Ivy teased, her voice oozing sarcasm.

“Shut up, just because you can’t beat me in a fight doesn’t mean I’m immortal,” I say, pointing a teasing finger in her direction.

“Oh? How about you stop hiding behind your little barriers and cloak theft spell and fight me fairly? We both know how that went down last time~” She said, lightly rubbing on her shoulder where she shot me when she was still an enemy.

“If you’re so confident in yourself, then you should be able to shoot around a little barrier. Or what? Are you so reliant on a cloak that your little arrows can’t fly straight without them~” I say, instinctively rubbing my shoulder in a mirrored motion to Ivy.

“Oh shut up, both Iv and I could beat you if you didn’t rely on that stupid golden magic,” Flare interjected, as I’ve hit a landmine I nearly forgot about.

It’s been over a year since Flare and I had last sparred, but that sore spot had yet to heal. I still couldn’t explain the ability or how I gained and used it, but otherwise, Flare had just accepted it as a talent I had.

In fact, the rest of the party stopped really questioning my use of Divinity after a while, most likely due to the fact I didn’t really give them much to hang on to.

As the day quickly turned into night, the city still a good few hours away, we decided to hunker down and rough out one more night.

We were almost at our destination, meaning one thing was for certain.

This was the last possible day that any attempts could be silently made on Teresa’s life. The rest would be in the public eye of the entire magic capital if they were planning on attacking with any major force that is.

Pulling the cart off to the side of the road, we constructed our usual campsite just in time. As soon as the walls were being erected, a silent yet deadly arrow flew through the night and landed directly between the eyes of our sixth horse. This obviously wasn’t the first time our ride has been targeted, but being so close to the objective, it’s most certainly the most annoying.

Forgoing the normal campsite, I slammed mana into the ground, forming a dome around the cart and Teresa, whilst Flare, Ivy, and I stayed outside of the dome, preparing to engage the assassins.

Not letting them make any more moves, I slammed my staff into the ground and cast what has become my bread and butter spell in the last few months, Frozen Prison.

Frozen Prison is a spell similar to the spell Ice Age, but with a few effects that utilize my innate sense for mana.

It’s primary benefit is that it’s impossible to see until it’s too late, as nothing on the surface is frozen. Instead, it seeps magic into the ground at a radius, and freezing anything above a certain amount of mana.

It takes leagues more mana than Ice Age, but the effects are well worth the cost. It works both as an offense and defense, and will stay active as long as I supply it with mana. The only downside, is if a person has a powerful enough cloak, or dispells the mana with fire magic, it has little to no effect.

In essence, its a spell that takes out all the small fries, limiting the enemies numbers and moves to only those of considerable strength.

As I sent two waves of Frozen Prison out from our position, I could hear, and more importantly feel, the spell draining my mana to ruthlessly freeze the animals and enemies within the vicinity with reckless abandon.

With this many frozen, the attackers must have realized what we were capable of and brought out their full fighting force. Not that it matters of course, but it feels nice to be considered strong enough to warrant fifty mooks and approximately five actual opponents.

Seeing that their advantage was lost, I could feel the five strong members of the strike team begin to bum rush our location, and they would be arriving in less than thirty seconds. Dispelling Frozen Prison and calling back all the unspent mana, not that I need it, I just hate to be wasteful.

The real battle of this ambush was about to begin.