Chapter 222: A Bold Proposal
To provoke a powerful elven mage... it was not a wise move. And the aura she was radiating... he had only ever seen such an aura from one other person, the legendary elven saint.
Under his watchful and complex gaze, Flamme silently carried Frieren from the grand temple.
They walked aimlessly, and several times, Ela had opened her mouth to speak, but seeing the look on her friend's face, she had held her tongue.
Frieren's life was a slipping hourglass. And for some reason, the thought of it filled her with a deep and bitter frustration. She had only just met the girl, so why... why did she care so much? She didn't know. All she knew was that she couldn't save her. Even the most powerful of human priests could not.
"Flamme," she said finally, her own voice a hesitant and uncertain sound, "maybe we should just... let her go."
She didn't understand. Why was she so fixated on saving a stranger, especially now that she was beyond saving? The best thing to do... was to just let her find peace.
"No," she shook her head, her voice a firm and unyielding sound. "I will save her." She herself didn't know why.
"..."
She said no more. Humans, she thought, are a strange race. To care so much for a stranger... She wondered how her own teachers had managed to stay together for a thousand years.
And then, a thought came to her, the very same thought that had been in her senior's own mind just a moment before.
"Teacher," she said, and her own steps now faltered. "Teacher Rhodes! Teacher Serie!" Her own voice was now trembling with a new and desperate hope. "They can do it! They're so strong... they've even killed a god. Surely, they can find a way to purify the corruption within her!"
"But where are they?" the other asked, her own voice a cold and unforgiving sound. "They've left the forest. We don't know where they are."
"We can use the magical letters..." she said. They had a tracking function, after all.
"It's too far. From the last letter... they must be thousands of miles away. And she only has three days. Even with our fastest flight spell... we'll never make it in time. And besides..." she looked at the girl on her back, at her pale and still form, "...she can't take such a long journey."
She was right. It was too far. Were they to just watch her die?
Just then, her own gaze fell on the massive, shimmering barrier that covered the city, a barrier that was a nexus of a thousand different magical circles, a reservoir of a vast and unimaginable power. And a bold and daring thought came to her.
"Flamme, has Teacher Serie taught you the teleportation spell?"
"Yes, and the advanced version, the directed teleportation. But it's almost useless. The mana cost is too great. A single mage could never..."
"Look," she said, and pointed to the sky.
She followed her gaze and saw the massive barrier, and in a flash, she understood. "You mean... we use its power?" she said, her own voice now a disbelieving whisper.
"Yes," she said with a firm nod. She herself didn't know where the idea had come from. Perhaps it had been her friend's own desperate hope that had infected her. "The power in that barrier... it is immense. If we can just draw on a fraction of it, it will be more than enough to power a long-range directed teleportation spell, to send her directly to our teachers."
The directed teleportation spell was a modified version of the ordinary kind, a spell that he, her own teacher, had invented in a fit of a pique, when he had wanted to be able to summon his sword from anywhere. But the mana cost... it had been too great, and he had only ever used it once, in a controlled experiment. To teleport a living being... he had never tried it.
But now... she would.
It was insane. To be able to tap into a guarded power source like that, to be able to construct a teleportation circle of such a complexity, to be able to pinpoint a target that was a thousand miles away... she had learned the spell, yes, but she was not confident she could do it. And if the spell were to fail... the girl would be torn to pieces by the forces of space.
"No! It's too dangerous!" she said. "To say nothing of the consequences of stealing from their power source... if we fail, she will be ripped to shreds."
"And if we do nothing, she will die anyway," she said coldly. "She has no time left. She will die in three days, and she will die if we fail. Other than our two teachers, who else in this world can save her? The choice is yours, Flamme. And whatever you decide, I will not object."
She did not answer.
She looked down at the girl, at her pale and peaceful face, at her shallow, barely-perceptible breathing. And she remembered the look in her eyes, when she had asked her, 'Why are you so strong?' This girl, who had just lost everything, just as she herself had... was she to be denied even this last, small sliver of a hope?
She did not speak for a long, long time.
"Sister Ela," she said finally, her own voice now a firm and resolute sound, her own eyes now a burning fire of a new resolve, "we'll do it."
(End of chapter)
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