Chapter 229: A Forty-Year Reunion, and a Frieren Falls from the Sky
New Moon City, the most powerful of all the human cities in the far north.
For years, it had been protected by its great barrier, a barrier that had withstood countless monster tides. But now, it was on the verge of collapse. The magical alarm, the highest level of a disaster warning, was blaring, a piercing and deafening sound that echoed through the city. Outside the walls, a black tide of a monstrous and terrible creatures was battering against the barrier, their numbers so great that they had blotted out the very sun.
"Quickly! All mages, to the core nodes! Pour in all of your mana! Now!"
The commander's roar was a desperate and futile thing, lost in the din of the battle. Before, they would have opened a small gap in the barrier, lured them in, and then unleashed a torrent of a fire and a death upon them. But now, the barrier's own power was too low; to open it and then close it would just drain the last of its reserves. They had no choice but to hunker down and hope that it would hold.
In the temple, all the mages of the city, both high and low, were gathered, pouring their own power into the great and hungry machine. But it was a futile gesture, a single drop of a water in a vast and thirsty desert. The amount of a mana that the two girls had drawn... it had been too great, a hole that they could not possibly fill. And the cracks were now beginning to appear, a spiderweb of a despair that was spreading across the sky.
In the dungeons, they both felt it, the trembling of the earth, the roar of the monsters, the dying scream of the great barrier.
"What's happening!?" she said, her own voice a new and terrible sound.
"The... the monster tide... it's come early," a young guard said, his own face a pale and ashen thing. "And it's bigger than ever before. The barrier... it won't hold."
It was us.
The thought was a sharp and piercing pain, a dagger in their hearts. To save one life, they had doomed a whole city.
"Let us out," the girl said, her own voice now a desperate and pleading sound. "We are mages. We can help!"
"Go and tell the duke, and the bishop," the other said, and her own voice, it was a command. "We must atone for what we have done."
"It's madness! What can they do!?" the duke had said. But the bishop... he had seen it, in the spell they had cast, a power that was not of this age. And so he had agreed. "Let them out."
And now, they were in the heart of the great and terrible machine, a place where a score of mages were all desperately trying to hold back the inevitable.
"It's no use," one of them cried, a note of a pure and utter despair in his own voice. "The rate of a consumption... we cannot keep up!"
"Then what are we to do!?" the duke asked.
"We have to go outside," the girl said. "We have to fight them."
"No!" he had cried. To open a hole now... and to send them out, into that black and terrible sea... it was a suicide.
"It is the only way," she had said, and in her own eyes, a new and terrible resolve.
"Open it," the bishop had said. "Let them go."
And a small hole had appeared in the great and terrible wall, a hole just big enough for two, and they had shot through it like a streak of a light. And now, they were in the midst of it, a small and fragile thing, in a vast and terrible sea.
"I will take the ones on the ground," the girl said.
"And I, the ones in the sky."
And with a wave of her hand, a thousand golden arrows now rained down from the heavens, and the beasts below were consumed in a storm of a holy fire. And she, the elf, with a single, elegant gesture, a thousand green vines now shot up from the earth and, like a series of a great and terrible snakes, they crushed the flying creatures in their grasp, and a rain of a blood and a gore now fell upon the ground.
And the guards, on the walls, they saw it, and a new and terrible hope, a hope they had not dared to feel, now bloomed in their hearts. And the duke, and the bishop, they, too, saw it, and were stunned. The power of these two... it was beyond anything they had ever seen. "She... she really is her apprentice," the duke had murmured.
But there were too many of them. They were an endless, teeming tide of a pure and unadulterated evil. And her own mana was now a fading and a flickering thing. And the great barrier, the last and final hope of the city, was now a pale and a translucent thing.
And with a final, terrible scream of a dying magic, it shattered.
"The barrier is broken!!!"
And the black and terrible tide, it now rushed forward, a wave of a pure and unadulterated death. "Prepare for a close-quarters battle," the duke said, his own sword now in his hand.
And the girl, in the sky above, she saw it, and a new and terrible despair now washed over her. It was us, she thought, and a tear, a single, solitary tear, now rolled down her cheek.
And just then... the very air in the center of the battlefield began to twist and to warp. And a magic circle, a circle of a power so great, so vast, so beyond anything she had ever seen, now appeared in the sky.
And three figures, in a brilliant and a dazzling light, now emerged.
A blonde-haired elven woman, a cold and a terrible rage in her eyes. And beside her, a young, black-haired man. And on his back... a young, white-haired elven girl, her own arms wrapped tightly around his neck.
"Oh? Quite a party," he said, and looked down at the black and teeming tide below.
"Teacher Rhodes! Teacher Serie!" the two cried out, their own voices a mixture of a pure and utter relief, and a deep and abiding shame. "Teacher! Frieren..."
"The little one is fine. Just a little afraid of heights," he said, and gave her a little bounce, and a small, startled cry now came from the girl on his back. "Don't... don't move," she whispered. "And I'm not a child. I'm almost a hundred years old."
"Then you are a child," he said, and then, he tried to dislodge her from his back, but her own grip was a surprisingly strong one. "Alright, that's enough now."
He finally managed to get her off, and handed her to her new master.
"And now, to deal with this mess," he said. "It seems we've arrived just in time."
"I'm sorry," she said, her own voice now a low and quiet sound, a sound of a deep and abiding shame. "It's all our fault."
"Alright, alright," he said, and ruffled her hair. "No need to look so sad. Since my own, dear apprentice has asked for my help, how could I refuse?"
He looked at her, at the other, and with a smile, he raised his own hand, a gesture of a pure and simple power. And in the empty air, a portal opened, a portal of a shimmering and a swirling light. And from it... two swords emerged.
The Divine Right Sword, Org, and the Holy Right Sword, Athos.
He handed one to her. "Put up a barrier. Keep them from getting into the city."
She took it and, with a new and terrible power now at her own command, a massive, green barrier, a barrier of a pure and unadulterated life, now surrounded the entire city. And a few of the beasts, the ones that had been too close, were now a cloud of a fine and a holy dust.
And he, he now held Org.
And with a casual and an almost-indifferent gesture, he pointed it at the black and teeming tide below. "It's been a while," he murmured. "Full release."
And a pillar of a white and a holy light, a pillar of a power so great, so vast, so beyond all comprehension, now shot from its tip, a beam of a pure and unadulterated destruction that was now a silent and a terrible thing, a thing that was now consuming all that it touched. And the black and teeming tide, the endless and despairing horde of a pure and unadulterated evil, it was now... gone.
A deep and a terrible chasm was now where it had once been, and a dead and a terrible silence now fell upon the battlefield.
And the demons, the few that had remained on the periphery... they were now a fleeing and a terrified mob.
The girl, and her senior... they were now in a state of a pure and utter shock, their own minds now a blank and a terrible void.
"Job done," he said, and sheathed his sword, and yawned. "Good control. I didn't even pierce the leyline."
"Show-off," she said, and her own barrier now faded away. She looked at her two stunned and speechless apprentices. "What are you two just standing there for? You've caused all this trouble, and we have to clean it up. We'll have a talk about this later," she said, her own voice a cold and a level sound, but with no real anger in it.
"Alright," he said. "I'm a little hungry. Let's eat first. We can talk about their punishment later."
The duke and the bishop, they, too, were now a picture of a pure and utter shock, and a new and terrible gratitude. So they really are her apprentices... and that other one... who is he? And with a new and terrible reverence, they now hurried to greet the beings who had just saved their city, beings whose power was beyond all mortal comprehension. At the very least, their city was safe.
(End of chapter)
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