Kazu didn't smile, but he did feel a calm irritation settle into focus. "Good attempt. Try again if you want."
A second presence drifted in from the right. The woman. Pale hair, neutral expression, hands folded politely behind her back. She didn't speak, but her lips parted—the start of a curse-tone.
Kazu didn't even give her a second glance.
The barrier prevented her sound from reaching within it.
Her eyes tightened a fraction. She had expected this.
Kazu's tone stayed level. "You two are really predictable."
The chain mage barked a laugh. "Predictable? Kid, last time you—"
Kazu flicked his fingers and fired. Magic bullets—dense, narrow, fast shot towards them.
They struck as hammer blows.
The man jerked back, arms crossing as chains flooded up from the floor to block.
The woman tried to sidestep, dancing lightly across the broken mosaic, but Kazu shifted his aim without hesitation. Bullets clipped stone at her feet, cutting her off and forcing her to retreat up the stairs behind her partner.
Levy whispered, "Whoa, you are actually countering them."
"Not after last time," he murmured.
He advanced, forcing them to keep moving. The chain mage summoned more constructs, trying to stall the barrage. Useless—they vanished before they even finished forming.
The woman attempted another curse-spell, shaping her tone toward a sensory cut, this time transmitting it in a tangible form, not through air. The barrier around Kazu flickered, absorbing it with the same detached efficiency.
Their plan clearly hadn't taken into account such brutal countermeasures.
The man clicked his tongue and grabbed the woman's arm. "We're leaving. Move."
They turned to sprint deeper into the temple.
Kazu didn't even think twice. "Levy. Sorry in advance."
"What—HEY—"
He grabbed her under one arm like a badly-behaved cat and bolted forward.
"Kazu! I— put me down! I can run!"
"I know. This is faster."
"You could at least warn me first!"
"Consider this as my warning to you for next time."
Her protests were mostly indignation, not panic. This wasn't the first time something like this has happened. He increased speed, feet slamming across the stone in controlled bursts. The two ahead were quick, but they weren't faster than him.
Turns, side chambers, narrow corridors—they kept weaving, always staying just a few steps ahead. 'Are they leading me somewhere?' Kazu's instincts were sharp. He knew that something troublesome was up ahead. But not too troublesome.
He tracked every turn, mapping the structure in his head. 'If they're stalling this hard, there's a room they want us in.'
He didn't stop.
They jumped a broken staircase, crossed a bridge of cracked stone suspended over what looked like a bottomless pit, and burst into a long corridor lined with pillars. The glowstones here flickered, weaker than before.
Levy squinted. "This place feels… I don't know. Thin?"
"Because it is."
The duo reached the end of the corridor and slipped through a narrow archway. A faint shimmer ran across the stone the moment they passed through.
Kazu recognised that shimmer. That was why he threw Levy.
Not violently—just enough force to send her sliding across the floor into safety outside the room. She yelped but stayed conscious, rolling to a stop with her hands instinctively flaring with script magic.
"Kazu?!"
A large magic circle was on the ground, restricting Kazu's movements.
A circular pattern snapped awake beneath him, runes igniting with sharp red light. Lines crawled up from the floor to his legs, clamping down with a draining pull.
Ethernano siphon. A strong one.
The door to the room started closing rapidly.
Levy scrambled to her knees and slammed her hands out. "SOLID SCRIPT: BARRIER!"
A translucent block formed between the gate and the floor. Her instincts were telling her that the array was bad news, and she couldn't let Kazu alone. However, her efforts were useless.
The wall sealed itself with a heavy, grinding thud, separating Levy.
Inside the room, the two mages stood at opposite ends of the circle. The man leaned against a half-broken pillar, breathing hard but grinning like a wolf. "Told you he'd chase."
The woman's expression stayed unreadable, but her voice—when she finally used it—was calm. "Begin."
The runes on the floor brightened. Kazu felt the drain intensify, tunnelling straight into his core. Not just his surface mana. Not just his active reserves.
His actual ethernano capacity.
'So this is what the merfolk meant by offerings. I fucked up!'
He tested his limbs—movement was possible but sluggish. His barriers were still up, but his internal reserves were being pulled downward like sand draining through fingers.
'This drain...it's not temporary, but permanent. It's directly taking up my Ethernano capacity.' Kazu's instincts warned him. Despite such an effect, his mind was calm, which was not what he had expected from himself.
He tried pushing back against the circle. It didn't budge. The runes reinforced each other—one layer taking over as another weakened. Like a feedback net.
The chain mage crossed his arms, still catching his breath. "You're tough, kid. Scary tough. Which is why we need a chunk of your mana. Ritual won't start otherwise."
Kazu didn't respond at first. He looked at the symbols crawling up his legs. Calculating. The drain wasn't linear. It had stages—trigger thresholds.
Above fifty per cent would kill him.
Thirty per cent might knock him out.
Ten per cent…
He didn't like such a design of the spell.
The runes climbed higher, crawling past Kazu's knees. The drain sharpened. His vision wavered slightly at the edges.
'Ten per cent. Safepoint. I break it after ten.' Kazu's mind went into overdrive. His speed of analysis increased with each per cent siphoned.
He braced.
The circle hit its first threshold. The room shook. The red glow turned harsh, reflecting off the woman's pale features. She finally spoke again, softly, almost kindly:
"Do not resist. The more you struggle, the more it hurts. It's pointless."
Kazu breathed out slowly. "You say that like it's a selling point."
Then the circle reached the ten per cent mark.
It hurt. Not physically, but in a way that made physical pain seem polite. A tearing, hollowing sensation—like something was scooping out a piece that wasn't meant to be touched. His barrier flickered, but he forced it stable. If he got hit by that crazy woman's curse magic at this point, everything would be over.
He had had enough.
Kazu clenched his fists, pulled every remaining strand of unanchored mana inward, and forced it through a single point—his right heel.
He stomped.
The floor cracked.
'Destructive Interference'
The siphon line under his foot snapped, and the entire array destabilised with a violent shudder. The glow stuttered, broke into scattered pulses, and overloaded.
A blast of raw mana shot upward, throwing him backwards.
The siphon circle flickered like a dying ember, then collapsed entirely into darkened lines on stone.
Urdan swore. "You didn't say he could do that."
The woman's tone didn't change. "You didn't ask." 'So, he could neutralise ritual spells. Such an unfair power.'
They moved fast—retreating instantly, slipping out through a secondary passage as the chamber ceiling groaned. Their retreat wasn't a triumph. It was a calculation. They'd gotten what they needed. Anything further would get them killed.
Kazu pushed himself upright. His breathing was rough, but stable. He felt… lighter. In a way that wasn't good.
Ten per cent gone. Permanently. He knew it with the same certainty he knew his own heartbeat.
The door suddenly opened, and Levy rushed in.
She reached him and grabbed his arm, checking him over. "Are you—are you okay? You don't look—"
"I'm fine." His tone wasn't defensive. It was simply the truth he needed to impose on reality for the next few minutes. He hadn't completely processed the fact and wasn't really in the mood for doing that. "We're finishing this."
The chamber's far exit still echoed with the fading footsteps of their pursuers.
Kazu stood slowly.
Levy swallowed. "You sure you can fight?"
"Yeah." He rolled his shoulder, forcing his body back into readiness. "They only took Ethernano. They didn't take my irritation."
She let out a shaky, half-laugh. "That's… not comforting." 'Took his Ethernano?...'
"It wasn't meant to be."
They stepped toward the exit.
A barrier appeared beneath them, which started floating before rushing forward.
Kazu released a sigh. 'I relied too much on my instincts again. The assessment of the danger level of their luring me was way incorrect.' Even in such a time, Kazu didn't stop analysing.
'Luckily, most of my techniques aren't Ethernano intensive, so this won't reduce my overall combat power much. Only the stamina.
Moreover, it's not like I can't gain my Ethernano back. This reduction is only relative to my age. In 4 years, the 10 per cent I lost today would be less than 1 per cent of my total capacity then. It's not that much.' Kazu started comforting himself.
Despite such thoughts, his heart wasn't calm. 10 per cent was a big number. Future or not, the loss left a bitter feeling.
'I hope it was worth it...' Kazu glanced at the silhouette of those two. They were definitely rushing at the centre of the temple, where the sealed being was.
Kazu wanted to unseal the being. His instincts now told him that it was key for Kazu to bring himself to the next level.
He can now only make the most of the situation.
***
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