223 – So, the Apocalypse Happened. Are You Free Enough To Save the Day?
Translator:Insignia | Editor: Insignia /EndlessFantasy Translation
As soon as Baiyi’s chant ended, the tidal waves that had been surging towards the city began to shatter like crumbling walls.
Outside the city, petals of white frosts soared up towards the sky from the sea, tracing the outline of the tidal waves until most of the waves turned into icy pillars. The capital city looked as though it was covered in brambles made of ice crystals.
The speed at which the waves were getting frozen did not match the speed with which the waves rushed towards the city. The top of the waves, which was saved by its slower, lower halves, which were getting frozen, managed to stay liquid and struck on the water resisting barrier surrounding the city.
Fortunately, from the sound of the impact, one could tell that they, too, had lost much of their momentum.
“Hmph. We’re lucky there was still some distance between these waves and the island, or else…” Baiyi did not even have to finish his own monologue.
Laeticia’s presence as the second Elect had greatly increased his power output — else he would not be able to perform ice magic on such a ma.s.sive scale or release it in such a timely fas.h.i.+on. Had his speed been slower by even a fraction — and the waves had reached the city sky or even the waterproof barrier undeterred — freezing the water would have changed no one’s fate.
His voice had barely faded when the frozen waves succ.u.mbed to gravity and started crumbling down into a gigantic avalanche — towards the island he was on.
“Hmph. Looks like I gotta try harder,” Baiyi chided himself in a low voice.
He descended to the crust of the island and crouched down so that his hands touched the earth.
He started feeding the island his mana.
When island that had the capital city began to fall, the empire’s own band of protectors were just as alert as the Fifth Walker had been, and they had all, without haste, engaged with the sudden crisis. They all knew the price that would be paid if the island sank deep into the ocean.
The Princ.i.p.al Sorcerer of the empire threw himself into the rescue of his beloved city.
Every orifice on his head was bleeding out of tension, and his mana circuit began to crack from the pressure. He persevered, dismissing the signs that made evident his body’s suffering. At that moment, a huge burst of mana erupted out of the man, and it was able to lift the island a bit; It had managed to slow down the frightening fall — in the nick of time.
He died on the spot.
However, at the cost of his life, he bought time. Thus, the other sorcerers had the time to organize, and most importantly, repeat his action. In the dark, glowing runes of levitation spells blinked like fireflies trying to save their home.
The strength of a levitation spell was never intended to support the astronomical size of the capital city island. However, the speed at which the island fell had reduced by a little, and a little time had been bought. As the ma.s.sive combination of levitation spells fired up at once, the c.u.mulative forces of mana allowed the combined formations to work; however, it was a struggle.
The speed of the fall had reached a safer level. When the floating island had almost reached the sea level, it shuddered to a stop — but it did not crack and shatter.
It was at that moment that Baiyi finished his Forbidden Spell, freezing the tidal waves that were on course for the city. In retrospect, that was a pretty amazing team-up, right?
However, misfortune still had plans for the city, and at that moment — it was the avalanche.
“f.u.c.k. You gotta fly higher…” Baiyi muttered in a low breath.
He had already injected in his best output into the combined formation. Without the time to use his Specialized Encas.e.m.e.nt Spell to form a durable body — as well as himself being wary of using the other two deadlier powers — his sorcerer armor was starting to fall apart as it had approached its limit.
Sounds of metals cracking rang out all around his body.
“Mr. Hope!”
A cry of anguish shredded through the the air behind him.
He did not need to turn his head. With a loud thud, Aya landed next to him in a readied stance. She poured her mana into the formation just as she had seen the man do.
Baiyi stole a glance at her. Trails of tears were still visible under her reddened eyes; even then, the sorrow of being rejected had not left her. The complicated bun that she had spent her effort in making had already unraveled into a single horsetail. Her hair flowed like a ribbon in the gale brought by the avalanche.
For some reasons — Baiyi thought she was even more beautiful now than ever.
“Whoa, I did not expect them to really craft this formation!” Baiyi said casually.
This planetary formation was Baiyi’s idea back at their very first meeting when an Armageddon was being expected. Back then, everyone feared for the worst that nature could offer, so many contingency plans had been made. As Baiyi suggested the possibility of the island losing its levitation, the formation to give it a manual lift was suggested as a solution.
No one expected the power of the formation to be perfectly capable of lifting the island — unlike the Sorcerer a.s.sociations’ very own formations that they had used for their own cities hovering within the clouds — but the setup was much less complicated, much more convenient, and faster. When the worst hit, and there was not enough time, humans could even serve as the battery, displacing mana crystals.
After Baiyi made the suggestion back then — he did not really put any more thought into it. He had not expected the situation to ever be dire enough to need it. Plus, after everyone believed that Baiyi’s suspicions were all just cases of paranoia, most of the contingency plans were abandoned.
Baiyi himself had forgotten about the formation. He would not have guessed that an idea aimed to ingratiate on public opinion would be so essential right now.
From the looks of it, the ruling cla.s.s of the Empire must have realized the danger of a floating island losing its levitation, so this particular plan was singled out and put in place as a nominal contingency plan. It was fortunate that they had prepared something like that and had conducted a drill on it quite recently.
Without that, there would not have been any organized help, and a lot would have died.
“If I knew that this was gonna happen, I would have designed it better,” Baiyi said, feeling quite guilty.
“Clang!” Came the metallic sound of something fallen to the ground. Baiyi saw that his left arm had come off from the pressure of a sudden output.
“Nooooo!” Aya howled in agony when she saw what happened.
“What ‘nooo’?” Baiyi retorted in annoyance. “I’m a G.o.dd.a.m.ned Soul Armature!”
A Soul Armature could always have their limbs st.i.tched back up again…
Realizing that, Aya stopped screaming. She eventually turned back to her task, concentrating on outputting mana to the formation.
Meanwhile, as the city was trembling, cacophony struck out across every corner. The buildings and towers that marked the urban landscape were suddenly, forcefully broken off from their base by gusts of relentless combat chi.
What used to be buildings had been reduced to rubble and tumbled off into the ocean below. The city looked like it had been slapped by a giant, as the buildings had collapsed completely.
The physical fighters found their callings in this battle. They knew that the island needed to retain a certain level of height, so they helped in the only ungraceful way they knew to reduce the collective weight the island had to withstand.
The truth was — their air had only been minimal. It had only managed to help the island move slightly higher.
It was enough to decide if the entire island lived or died.
What they had to deal with was the avalanche that was rus.h.i.+ng down from the frozen tidal frame. The icy surface of the frozen tidal waves had long since cracked under the force, and the debris sank to the bottom of the sea. Meanwhile, as the island regained its upward force, the frozen waves — which were now more like icebergs — were crumbling on their own below the island. The top of the taller mountains crashed down into the city, eliciting screams of horror from its populace.
“Phew, should be over… for now.” Baiyi let out a sigh of relief.
When they chose an island as the location for their new capital city, one of their main concerns was the superst.i.tion that no habitable locations should exist above the king’s home, so when they were seeking for a location to build the capital city, they had deliberately chosen an island that had no islands floating above it; and at moment, however, this superst.i.tion had saved the island from being hit by other falling islands.
Baiyi picked up his left arm and stood up again. He reattached the arm back to his joint, freezing close the seams. It could still be used — sort of.
He checked all over his body for any other new damage, repairing them all with quick ice magic fixes. In a matter of seconds, he looked like someone who had just emerged from the bottom of the avalanche.
Beside him, Aya also stood up from her crouching position.
She had intended to use this opportunity — of people surviving what they did not expect to — to run into Baiyi’s embrace, but just as she was approaching him, she saw that the man had been glued with pieces of ice cubes.
Her little wish fluttered away, and she stood there, gawking at him.
The girls, who had just been released from Baiyi’s levitation spell, descended from the sky — and none of them had looked very good, either. After all, as Baiyi’s last spell lowered the temperature around the island quickly, followed closely by the avalanche, the air became too cold for the girls. Without Baiyi’s thermal spells, they were pale, and their arms hugged their bodies as they curled into a fetal position.
Only Aya and Mordred were in better states. Dragons could tolerate the cold much better than humans could1.
“Ha! Look at all the good those short skirts had done for all of you. I wonder if you girls learned anything important about them?” Baiyi remarked a bit sarcastically. He encased the girls in his thermal barriers after that.
The warmth was welcoming, and soon, colors returned to their faces.
“Bring me to your father and the rest,” Baiyi turned to Aya and said.
She nodded, leading them in the direction of the palace.
On their way back, they were forced to watch the desolation of caused by the chaos. Everywhere they looked, they saw devastated houses, collapsed buildings and debris, and people running around aimlessly, disoriented and lost.
Some were diving deep into the rubbles, and their hands scooped and sc.r.a.pped, digging into the pile of rubble as if whatever was buried inside mattered to them. Some were kneeling, as they blankly watched other islands higher in the sky at the sky tear through the air and crumble into the sea.
It was the Apocalypse. Or at least, it looked like one — no one could tell the difference.
Laeticia had, in multiple times, attempted to throw herself at the suffering people. However, Baiyi cra.s.sly stopped her each time.
Outside the palace, the royal square was in a snafu. Aristocrats were still garbed in their opulent outfit for the party; the commoners were drowning fear and desperation; the soldiers were gripping their weapons hard; the sorcerers were still spewing mana into the earth, and some men crisscrossed the square carrying supplies and supplies of mana crystals within their wagons.
Every element was thrown into a singular scene. Every note, every sound, every scream, cry, and curse — garishly scarred the air to form a suffocating cacophony.
Not a single trait of civilization seemed to have lingered at that moment: it was a mess, chaotic, and a naked dissection on the violence and terror that the city had been thrown into.
Baiyi led the girls and waved the royal guards away, striding towards the palace.
His travel was unopposed. Perhaps they were intimidated by his cobbled-by-ice-cubes appearance…