Greater Good

"Krieg!"

With the knight fallen on the semi-melted snow, Leona was trying to turn him over on his back but weakened as she was, there was no way she could muster enough strength to help him.

"Allow me Princess."

Phoebe grabbed a nearby tree branch and stabbed the snow beneath the knight while placing one of the wooden boxes of supplies from the vehicle underneath it.

"Come let's push."

The high elf motioned to the other end of the branch to Leona. The Princess grabbed it firmly and tried to push the branch down but they could barely flip him over.

"More strength come on!"

Phoebe encouraged while also clenching her teeth behind the cloth mask while bending her knees in order to get the most out of her own body weight.

"Nnnngh!"

Seeing what the high elf was doing, Leona jumped for a brief moment and used her own weight as leverage before the branch snapped where it was being supported by the wooden box. Krieg rolled one time, almost falling face down again before tumbling back with both mouth and nose finally unobstructed. Leona on the other hand fell with her back against the snow and a sharp pain in the lower back went up her spine.

"Urk!"

It was much like pouring boiling water against her lower back, her eyes squinted shut while her teeth clenched in pain and her back arched.

"Hey are you alright?!"

Phoebe let go of the snapped branch and kneeled beside the Princess, who seemed in agony while holding on her lower back. She could barely speak from the pain, but at least managed to utter some words.

"My back… I can't-"

"Let me see what I can do about it."

The high elf quickly circled around and gently rolled the Princess' body on her right side so she could see her back more clearly. Near the end of the lower back, there was a slight bump as if the muscles in that region were inflamed.

"Princess, I need you to breathe deeply."

"Nngh…!"

Even though in great pain. Leona nodded firmly and started to take a deep breath, meanwhile Phoebe seemed to be getting ready, placing the Princess's right hand over the left scapula and holding her lower back with the open left palm.

"Exhale now."

The moment Phoebe said it, Leona started to empty her lungs and at the point where she had no more air to breathe out, the high elf's hands moved firmly and swiftly. With the left palm she forced the side of the lumpy muscle while the other hand held the Princess's hands firmly.

With a gasp, Leona could feel something snapping back into place, albeit it wasn't a painless process, after a loud crack, she felt almost an instant relief on her back muscles.

"Nngh!"

Her eyes went wide with flashing lights in her vision, it felt like part of her body was finally inserted back in the right place. She finally felt like she could move normally, it was as if the sensation of relief spread out to her entire body.

"Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah… thanks a lot Phoebe."

The Princess stood up with minimal effort, of course not all the discomfort went away but at that point it became just a mild inconvenience rather than unbearable pain.

However she didn't waste any time checking on the unconscious knight beside her. With Phoebe's help, she managed to lift Krieg's upper body just enough so the high elf could slide his torn military garb under his back. Upon realizing he was breathing but with no apparent signs of waking up, Leona turned at Phoebe.

"We need some wood for fire."

"Right, I'll work on it."

The high elf swiftly made her way through the snow apparently using some sort of wind magic to keep her feet from sinking in the fluff ground. Using her ability to sense magic, Leona started to check the knight's mana circuits by holding his right wrist.

Her eyes were glittering with a light blue tint as she peered into the roots of his being, a myriad of tangled circuits forming a much larger structure that served as a conduit to magic. Through using a small quantity of her own mana, she began to discover and map out his anatomy much like a dolphin using echolocation.

Normally, when a person first uses magic, they need to send a signal from the brain to the core of the soul in order to convert said mana into something usable once it exits the body through the circuit gates like elemental magic.

However in Krieg's case it was as if there were no gates to begin with, instead of open ends of mana circuits, it was an entire closed system with instead much more capillaries extending from the main pathways especially around his forearms and back.

"This is… impossible…"

Without means of releasing mana most people would collapse from mana fever, an illness that is common throughout children whose gates aren't fully developed yet. But in that case, there were gates to begin with, which puzzled the Princess even more.

"But then, how can I help you?"

She noticed the temperature of his wrist was rapidly rising again which prompted her to perform another mana reading, but the second she poured her own mana into his wrist she felt a jolt of electricity run through the tip of her fingers, as if she had touched an unprotected power cable.

"Gah!"

Stumbling back and falling on her butt, she held her right hand out with the left as to shake off the numbness from the shock.

'Mana overload…?!'

Her eyes darted back towards the knight, his body started to heat up once again and melt the snow around him. She stood up as fast as she could and while running towards the knight, she summoned a blade of fire with a quick chant.

"Searing Blade!"

Strings of mana spun around her right forearm towards her palm before erupting into violent flames around her closing fingers, upon holding both hands over her right shoulder, the blade grew in size as she released a wave of fire towards the sky.

"It's my turn to help you Krieg!"

The moment she swung the blade, there was a split second where her mind almost blacked out from the lack of mana, but her determination kept her body going towards him and the moment her left foot touched the knight's right wrist, she could feel a burst of energy course through her body and much like electricity, it felt like her muscles were burning with the overload of mana.

With her teeth clenched, she aimed her open palm towards the night sky. By controlling the mana that was running through her body, she managed to condensate most of it into a small flaming azure sphere the size of a glass marble. Time seemed to stop for that split second where she aimed the deadly spell up.

"Leona, do you remember the first lesson I taught you to cast magic?"

Her mother's voice echoed in her mind. She was just a kid at the time, unknowingly learning the most important aspect of spellcasting.

"Always coat yourself with mana prior to casting any spells, right?"

A young Leona answered happily.

"Yes, now why do we do that?"

"So we don't get hurt by our own powers."

"Exactly. For our next lessons I'll need you to remember this, do you promise me to always put your safety first?"

"Yeah! I promise!"

But there was not enough time, any extra second she could shave off casting her most powerful spells was important for the knight's survival as it was only a matter of time before mana burn would happen.

'I'm sorry mom, but I'll have to break that promise…!'

The air crackled around her extended hand as the mana coursing from her left foot rapidly amassed in the singular azure sphere of fire floating just a few centimeters from her open palm and as it grew in size, so did the heat gathered at that one point. Her fingertips felt like they were melting and with the increased weight of the spell it was becoming harder to maintain it afloat.

"Grrrrh!"

By winding back her right arm, she focused on strengthening her limbs with violent wind vortexes around her forearm, shredding her long sleeve and cutting her skin as she arched her back with the left arm extending out. In conjunction with the wind spell and a wide throw arc, she managed to lob the small sphere high towards the night sky, where it remained afloat for about half a second before erupting in a blinding flash of light.

Somewhat far away from where they were, Phoebe was still grabbing a few dry twigs she could break off easily from the lower trees.

"I should've learned fire magic, this would've been much easier if I-"

Her muttering halted the moment an unusual bright light caught her attention. As she turned towards it, she only caught the end of it as a darkened cloud started to form in the bright night sky.

'That is near where they are-!'

A second later she took a step forward and a powerful gust of wind blew against her body, knocking her off her feet.

"Ngh!"

All twigs she had gathered scattered across the snow as her vision tried to adjust through the white fine snow floating around her. She decided to get up and head towards the direction of where the snow sledge was, but after standing up, she noticed a glint of blue in the sky and shortly after, another explosion went off.

A blinding white flash made the high elf avert her gaze and prepare her footing as another shockwave swept through the ground, lifting up more snow and scattering the twigs she had gathered, but firewood was the least of her problems now as she started to run towards where the explosions were happening.

"I will save you no matter what!"

Leona screamed each time she lobbed another sphere of fire, there was only so much protective mana coating could do in face of such destructive spells. She started to release those powerful magics with both hands, but that meant even more strain in her body as the heat became unbearable and started to slowly burn the skin of her fingertips.

Her delicate skin began melting away, revealing the crimson flesh underneath it as she struggled to keep the spells going as mana kept surging from the knight's body without showing any signs of diminishing.

She clasped her hands together and the moment she separated them, a large quantity of mana gathered into an orb of pulsating azure fire the size of an apple. At that point even with most of her fingers burnt, she mustered enough strength to once again cast the spell towards the sky, where at first it pulsed once before erupting into a bright cross shaped explosion that took out almost all of the treetops around them.

A few seconds before the shockwave hit them, Leona was able to make a dome of ice to protect them from the wind and deafening sound of the explosion, but it was instantly shattered right after it was hit. Showing just how powerful and deadly those spells really were.

"Flames of destruction heed my call, bring upon my foes the fires of justice, Great Flame Sword!"

Once the normal sized flame sword, it changed shape to a massive greatsword-like blade with half of her arm's length for a guard. She swung the fiery weapon down and it exploded in a blue fire line that crossed the forest until her eyes couldn't see.

'I won't be able to sustain this for much longer…!'

Mana overload was an easy thing to achieve with catalysts such as mana crystals or from a strong source like a mana fissure, but normally even with it, a mage would need to be exceptionally attuned to absorption in order to overload themselves, but in Leona's case, it was simply because she allowed her body to be a conduit for the magic overflowing from the knight's body.

It was terrifying, most common mages wouldn't be able to sustain that large output of mana in so little time, but she didn't have a choice, it was either risking her own life to save his, or outright forsaking everything she fought for right there on the spot.

She clenched her teeth as she decided to take the chance while still casting spells through her right foot, creating what seemed to be spikes of ice that erupted continuously from the ground in straight lines.

"By the blessings of my creator, I order it to halt, time and space, Diamond Frost!"

The air around both of her arms started to coalesce into fine particles of frozen water and in a matter of seconds, they were covered in a thick gauntlet of ice. She extended both arms out and shouted.

"Violent gale and roaring flames, surge as one!"

The entirety of her ice gauntlets burst into blue flames that rapidly started to grow out in a vortex. She joined both hands together towards the sky and the vicious flames grew in size, turning itself into a fiery tornado with both of her arms as the starting point. The heat was immense but at least that way she didn't have to worry about shockwaves nor the deafening sound of explosions.

"Nnngh!"

However, wielding such a tremendous spell was much more taxing physically rather than mentally, the fire tornado felt like it was crushing her limbs and the violent updraft around her made it very difficult to breathe.

She was beginning to lose control over the tornado, but letting it fall now would mean setting the whole forest on fire or worse, killing them through the extreme heat.

"I won't let it fall!"

She clenched her teeth and raised the output of the wind magic in order to contain the blazing tornado straight up but that also meant the azure flames were continuously getting heavier as time went on.

In a desperate attempt to keep the tornado straight up, she decided to use wind magic to reinforce her gauntlets but without any mana to coat them, the wind began to chip away the ice from her armor until it shattered in glistering shards. At first the heat didn't seem to do anything to her, but after the numbness from the cold went away she started to feel her skin melt from the extreme heat.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!"

She dropped on her right knee, still trying to keep the spell from obliterating them both. The edges of her blonde hair started to curl around itself from the heat.

"Tsk, tsk. I thought you were called Princess Tactician for a reason. Apparently I was wrong."

A familiar male voice came from behind her, but before she could turn her head to look, she felt an outburst of mana that sent chills down her spine.

"Wha-!"

"Major Dispel!"

One short chant was all that it took for the tornado to fizzle out of existence as well as destroying the sharp pillars of ice around her. It felt like her body was frozen from the sudden shock, dispelling spells by nature cancels out mana conversion that is found on mana gates, meaning the person afflicted by it will feel a slight discomfort around those parts of the soul which can potentially transmit towards the physical body as a result if the dispelled spell is strong enough.

From the left corner of her vision, she noticed an unusual footwear, it seemed like a leather boot of sorts but it was soot black with an unnatural gleam to it. Even kneeling, he was tall enough to just allow his hand to be seen touching Krieg's wrist and as much as Leona wanted to see who this person was, her body was just too weak to comply with her will.

"My, my… what do we have here."

A dark red miasma started to seep out of his pale right hand and it seemed to drain mana out from the knight's body, as the darkened crimson fog began to brighten to a blood-like coloration, he stood up as the fine red mist was absorbed through his palm.

"Alright, we are done here. Take better care of your comrades, Leona. After all, tomorrow's not promised for anyone."

She noticed the same blood red miasma coil around her, seemingly invigorating her after being in contact with her body. However, she was still shaking off the numbness and the mysterious person was already walking away when she asked.

"Wait, who are you?"

"I'll wait until you become stronger. Just know that I am on your side, for now."

She managed to catch a glimpse of him just before he vanished with a blinding flash, wearing a jet black leather jacket and baggy pants, the short black hair caught her attention as it didn't seem like someone from the kingdoms she had visited before.

Her gaze seemed aimless for a split second before she glanced over at the knight. She crawled through the snow and grasped his wrist with the left hand and upon making another mana reading, she noticed its flow returned to normal.

She let out a sigh of relief, plopping the side of her face on the snow. Upon bringing her right hand near her head she noticed it glow with a faint crimson miasma.

"What is this…?"

'I finally have you now.'

The familiar voice of the void assaulted her head with an unbearable headache before she passed out cold on the snow.