ALL NOVEL Loop 254 - Part 116
“Ignore the cascading mana collapses. You need to get to the center of the realm and embed me into the land,” Excalibur said. They had just entered into Ethel’s realm only to find it had grown exponentially worse in the last hours. The mana cascades that the sword had just described looked like purple lightning storms, each blast crashing into the ground, sending terrain flying into the air. The few of Ethel’s animals remaining in the realm were scurrying quickly from building to building, gathering up supplies and precious belongings.
The most pressing damage was to the control room near the entrance. What had once been connected to a mighty tree, the lifeblood of the realm had collapsed into itself as the tree withered. The raw mana that flowed through the root network had violently exploded out of it during Ethel’s gambit to rescue Cal, and now her greatest work was in danger of total collapse.
Cal couldn’t believe the level of destruction she had risked just to save him. They had to find a way to fix this.
“Is there anything we can do about the root network?” Cal asked, suspecting the answer. Alongside him, his father, Melissa, Onelder, and Captain Lightspeed all had similar looks of horror, the worst on Lightspeed. This has been the horse’s home. He understood why Frank hadn’t been able to face this disaster and chose to stay with Ethel.
“Nothing that would withstand the hurricane, in fact, as brilliant as the design and creation of that network is; I suspect if we do not stabilize this realm, it will create a whole new problem for us. Once this is over, I must discuss with Ethel how she managed to establish and maintain such a dedicated level of transportation systems across universal thresholds. Even in an age of magic, this would have been considered a marvel, more the reason we must persevere and save her creation,” Excalibur answered.
“Then let’s go. This is a nightmare I want out of as soon as possible,” Lightspeed said as he trotted ahead, pulling the cart of fruit behind him.
“Agreed. Excalibur any way to protect us from the lightning?” Stan asked as the group walked after Lightspeed.
“Yes, but I cannot risk the energy use until we are much closer to the center of the collapse. If we begin drawing the blasts before then, it could cause further ruptures in the fabric that makes up this realm. Now, I suggest less talking and more running. You cannot see it yet, but things are getting worse rapidly,” Excalibur answered, and as if on cue, a fissure opened in the ground only feet away from them. It was accompanied by a loud rending sound as the dirt and rock was torn apart.
It ran through the grove, and Cal watched as several trees toppled over into the crack, likely lost forever. He guessed somewhere at the bottom of the fissure was a quickly growing opening into the abyss. Excalibur was right; time was ticking down faster and faster. He decided to risk a little mana use of his own and channeled a tiny bit of friction mana into each of them. Risky or not, they needed the speed.
The chaos of what used to be a beautiful garden flew by them as they ran on. The closer they came to their destination, the worse the destruction became. The lightning blasts were now hitting the ground inches away. The grass was entirely gone; only lightning-scared rock and muddy dirt remained of the area.
Cal looked up and started to scream. One of the mana lightning bolts was arcing directly down towards them, but before he had the chance to vocalize any warning, a bright beam of light shot from Excalibur and formed a protective dome around them. Cal instantly understood why the sword had wanted to wait until the last possible moment, though, as it was now drawing in the blasts like a moth to a flame. He doubted Excalibur could keep the energy needed for this shield going very long.
“Stan, stab me as deep into the stone as you can roughly thirty feet ahead of you. Melissa, Cal, and Onelder start eating the fruit. Do your best to ignore the pain. It will not be pleasant,” The sword ordered.
Cal knew from experience that Excalibur was downplaying just how badly this was likely to hurt, but he grabbed two apple-shaped fruits from Lightspeed and took several bites, forcing the mana-infused pulp and juice down his throat. The others followed his lead. The second Excalibur was stabbed into the rock, the intensity of the lightning strikes against their shield increased.
“Cal, grab my pommel now. Stan keep feeding him the fruit, Melissa stand behind Onelder and get ready to heal him. You should know the moment to start healing him better than I will. Do not pull me from the stone once this is done; I will need to continue stabilizing the realm until Ethel herself is able to do it once more,” Everyone once again did as the sword ordered.
The moment Cal grabbed on, he felt a discharge of energy nearly glue him to the sword. He wasn’t sure he could let go if he tried. He had never been able to push so much mana through his core before, and beyond that, he felt the sword drawing out energy from his world seed. Briefly, he wondered what that would do to Ethel’s realm as it regrew, but he couldn’t hold the focus on that train of thought as the pain started.
Through a haze, he managed to take in the rest of the events around him. The energy he was losing was firing back out through Excalibur into Onelder, as well as flowing into the ground out from the sword. He heard Onelder scream as the energy entered him through one arm a bright white and exited the other a deep green. Its signature had been entirely changed into something more like Frank's.
It was getting harder to see, but he was pretty sure Onelder had started to fade and that Melissa’s healing was all that was holding him solid. Cal’s eye drooped further. He pushed them back open and saw the sky start to turn back into a beautiful blue. Again, his eyes closed, and he couldn’t force them open again.
Distantly, he heard the sword’s voice. “Good, keep going, hold yourself together, Onelder. Stan stop feeding Cal; his part is done. Get the fruit into Onelder and Melissa,”