Soundburst

The Mana Fog swirled like a whirlpool before Altair. It pulled all of the Mana from the air around her like it was being siphoned towards its center. The center was also getting smaller and smaller as the Mana compressed more and more in on itself. The breeze that Altair felt stopped coming as well.

Altair just tilted her head as she stared at it. Her own Mana was not yet depleting due to using the extra Mana within her body instead to keep the limp threads around. With every breath she took more Mana flooded into her body. She wasn't burning it anywhere near fast enough. A single breath seemed to contain more Mana than she thought possible, but that was because of how dense it still was even though all the Mana was getting sucked up before her.

'This place would be unsurpassable for Magical training,' she found herself thinking. Though she immediately discarded the idea as completely pointless in the next second. Sure, it would have been nice to have such a place in the past but she no longer needed it. She just wanted to relax and enjoy herself, free from any burdens and responsibilities, to have a normal life.

It really appealed to her. Altair doubted that any other offer or combination of words would have managed to convince her to come here. Serius and Marissa didn't appear to be smart enough to see through her in a few hours, so she chalked it up to fate that those particular words were said in that order.

Even the allure of using Magic at will without any restrictions didn't affect her as much as being free of all things. To be able to learn more about the power Mecha hold got her more excited than toying around with her Magic and learning new Magic. That was basically what took up all of her time in the Coalition, so it was more of a job to her now. She had long lost the passion she once had for it.

Altair's gaze shifted to her surroundings that she could finally see, ignoring the mass of Mana gathering before her. It didn't' seem dangerous to her and she couldn't think of a way Mana would be able to harm her. The situation she was in was just too odd. It was like watching an apply fall into the sky instead of on the ground when dropped from the hand when someone didn't know anything about gravity or how it worked. It just didn't make any sense to her, so there wasn't a reason to be worried about it.

Around her were shiny cobblestones that reflected the morning light. The pristine white table with an umbrella was bare of any objects on it and had two chairs next to it. The pond before her was quite large, in her opinion, easily large enough for someone to swim in if the fancy took them.

There was a garden around the other side of the pond. It was filled with flowers and plants Altair had never seen before. However, when they were mixed together as they were, it created a painting of some stoic figure that seemed to stand taller than life. It caused Altair to gawk at it for a long moment.

While Altair was staring at the garden, the people within the building all noticed something odd. There was an energy in the air that caused them all to subconsciously become alert. Their instincts were warning them that something potentially dangerous was happening and none of them could put their finger on what it was. They just felt a prickly sensation run over their bodies like they were being lightly clawed at.

The sensors of the Empire went off through planetary surveillance at the next moment. It detected an unknown energy signature on the planet. It wasn't that large of a spike but the source was unknown. The scientists immediately began analyzing it hastily. Someone sent word to have it investigated, but also noted the location as being potentially hindering considering who owned the property. They would need to take it slow if they wanted to get any headway because it could be a top secret thing that isn't meant to be known by anyone.

All of this was unknown to Altair at the moment. After all, she was busy staring at the mostly cloudless sky with her ears ringing. She didn't even know what just happened. Since she cut off the feeling of her body from herself, she didn't feel any of what just happened.

The last thing she remembered was her vision getting clouded as a rush of Mana burst forth before her. She then tumbled an unknown distance to herself and closed her eyes upon noticing that. Her ears had starting ringing in the next moment so she was completely disoriented.

She checked her body with her Mana, which was still overly plentiful, and found that the back of her head was wounded, along with the back of her brain wound up being bruised. Her ribs had slight cracks in them that were so minor they probably wouldn't take ten minutes to heal. Both of her arms had been dislocated from her shoulders and the muscles on the back of her shoulders were completely ruined.

The rest of her was fine.

Altair blinked and hastily burned her Mana to use Healing Magic on her skull, ribs, and shoulder muscles. At the same time she used Regeneration Magic on her brain. She also used her threads to attempt to reset her arms back into their sockets.

Even though she couldn't feel her body, she could still imagine the feeling of her threads wriggling around in her arms. It caused a shiver to run down her spine as she reconnected her body's senses to her brain.

She immediately felt all of the pain all at once. It was like it flooded into her mind desperately seeking to tell her about injuries she already knew about. It caused her to grimace as she felt her arms reconnect with herself.

She groaned and started to sit up. Before her was the rest of the house. She was on the opposite side of it from the pond. On the side of the house was a person shaped hole, about the size of Altair, that she could see through all the way to the other end of the building. The hole changed slightly with each passing wall, but overall Altair could tell what happened.

She narrowed her eyes, 'So condensing Mana has such an effect.' She wasn't that badly hurt and didn't know the condition of the rest of the building, but she did see Din come running around from a door with a worried look on her face. Altair just gave her blank glance before she attempted to stand up.

However, Altair's legs were jelly and refused to support her so she fell back onto her rump. This caused her brow to rise slightly.

Din kneeled down and said something that sounded muffled to Altair. This caused Altair to put a finger in her ear to try and clean whatever was blocking her hearing out. She felt a wetness on her finger and pulled her hand away to look at it.

It was covered in blood that caused Altair to tilt her head in confusion.

'What?' Altair did not have any knowledge of eardrums or the workings of the ear yet. She didn't know what was wrong with her.

Din frowned slightly as she tried to look confident when she said, "Dear Guest, please remain calm. I do not know what just happened, but LEO services are on the way to investigate." She wrapped Altair in her arms and lifted her up. She then rushed to return to the building.

In the moment that energy signature was discovered by the sensors, a loud explosion sounded from the direction of the pond. Immediately after, some glass shattered and several walls were broken through. However, strangely, the building was undamaged beyond Altair getting tossed through the building. She was actually surprised that Altair appeared mostly unhurt. She only looked like she had damaged ear's, which is understandable given how loud the sound was.

But everything else was fine. The house merely shook for the briefest moment.

Din had already sent two people to attempt to figure out what happened. Their lady had placed this young guest in their hands to look after. She had only just woken up and something had already happened. That something was also very bizarre and she couldn't fathom the cause for it.

Altair was carried back into the house and her vision was assaulted once more by the Mana Fog. It was just as thick as before and unmoving. It caused Altair's brow to furrow, 'Just how much Mana is even here?'

To Altair, logically speaking, what she saw just now didn't make any sense to her. If the condensed Mana had exploded due to there being too much of it in one area, then why was the building filled back up with so much of it? Shouldn't it have scattered most of the Mana to the surroundings due to the location of the whirlpool? Furthermore, why hadn't she been able to see the Mana when she was looking through the building from the holes she made?

It was like the Mana had appeared in the building in between her looking through the hole she made and when she was carried in.

But that made even less sense to Altair. Mana was a natural phenomena to her, like the wind or rain. It came from a person's body, sure, but ultimately it dispersed into nothing when it permeated the air after a battle had ended.

How could it intentionally choose to hide around her view, only to flood the place she had just turned away from the moment she wasn't looking? The thought caused Altair to feel uneasy. It felt like she was starting to learn that the clothes she wore and trusted to protect her modesty had a mind of their own. The very thought it was creepy and disturbing.