Chapter 35: I Made it… kind of?

After around fifteen more minutes of Laviel driving, we finally arrived at the front of Cyconis. The World tree was way larger than I ever anticipated… The double helix spiral looked supersized up close, and I finally realized the scale of this continent.

"So that's Cyconis, huh?"

"Yep, now let's go quickly. You're still wanted."

"Ah. Right…"

We walked hastily along the sidewalk before we came face to face with this metal door on the side of a root. Laviel swiped her card down next to the handle, a beeping noise emanating from the door before a few locks switched off. She pushed the door open and motioned me to come inside.

We quickly walked through the metallic white halls, I noticed cameras all around us. The most likely thing to happen right now, would be us getting caught in some form.

"Laviel."

"Hm?"

"Take this."

I formed a small red ring and threw it over to her, she caught it and looked at it.

"Are you maybe-"

"No. It's to track your location."

"Sure~"

She put the ring on and looked at it.

"All set~"

She then scanned us through another door, we entered this small white box. I felt my balance go off, so I can assume we were taking an elevator.

After around a minute or so the doors opened again.

We then climbed up to this altar-looking thing. We stood on top of it. It started glowing a light blue and I felt the space around us distort in a similar sense to teleportation. This circular entrance appeared, electricity sparking from surrounding pillars.

"This is a Nano-Gateway, in its core aspect it's just simple teleportation magic. Technology just loves cloning things…"

"I see…"

"Oh- it's a government secret though so no telling, okay~?"

She gave me a quick wink.

She triggered another door with her keycard and we started walking down this immensely long set of stairs… It felt like forever…

In a similar sense, it felt like climbing up a hundred floor skyscraper.

As soon as we got to the bottom, Laviel scanned a third door which opened up to another metallic hallway. On our left was this larger space that appeared to be some sort of aircraft carrier? There wasn't an exit though so… no idea~

We turned down the other path before reaching yet another door. Laviel triggered it and this pathway to a collection of… guess what? Even more doors.

How many doors can one place have?

"Cyn, what cell was Risible put in?"

"Huh? Uh… let me ask."

"Hey- Ode?"

<Hm? Yeah?>

"Could you get in contact with Risible and ask what cell he's in."

<Y'know I can just answer right?>

I paused for a second.

"Risible?"

<Yessir~ >

"Wait- but you were with Esther-"

<I only swapped my consciousness here, the body is still there. Second cell on your left by way.>

"Oh- thanks. He said the second cell on the left."

Laviel walked over and started typing out this long password before scanning her card.

The door did these three large clicks and pulls, I could hear pistons retracting and gears turning before it opened. She pushed the door in and we saw Risible's body laying on one of the beds lifeless.

I quickly looked around the room, but I only saw Risible's body.

"Wait… where's Esther?"

<The queen got her first. That was… around seven hours ago?>

"Really… you couldn't have said that first?!"

Laviel looked at me slightly confused.

"What? What did he say?"

"The queen got Esther."

<Cyn, I'm sending in backup.>

Risible's body glowed a light-blue before swapping into a pitch black. The body reshaped slightly into Six's human form, his eyes opened.

"Oh… Why me?"

I sighed heavily before a loud siren started going off, red lights flashing in the halls.

"Huh-"

"They found out, quick follow me."

Laviel started swiftly moving down the hall, Six and I kept up slightly behind her. A door on her left opened and this guard in a robotic suit walked out with some sort of electrical baton.

"Under Article twelve, Section seventeen, Clause five. General Laviel is to be arrested for treason against Chroterr."

The guard raised his baton and swung down. Six quickly intercepted with [Shadow Blade].

Shadows rose from beneath Six and started pulling the guard down as he tried to move, he was consumed. After a number of seconds a few bones were spit back out.

"Six… that's fucking gross…"

"You're no better."

At this point we were now running down the white metallic halls, we reached some sort of downward spiral and there were a few… floating boards?

"Get on one, keep your balance."

Laviel quickly jumped onto it and started moving forward slightly, gravity tugging her down the spiral. Six and I followed suit, we wobbled a little, trying to keep our balance.

It was similar to a skateboard… or maybe a snowboard?

These blue flashing lights switched on into some sort of ring shape. They were spaced periodically down the spiral, we started getting pulled down making our velocity greatly accelerate.

All three of us were moving down at a very quick speed, each time we passed a ring, it felt like we were getting faster and faster.

Suddenly an explosion went off behind us, metal scattering as a bunch of armored guards flew into the spiral. They had their own boards and they approached us at a relatively fast rate, electrical batons in their hands.

"Ready Six~!"

"Ready."

We kicked our boards around, we now raced down the spiral backwards. I smiled as a bright purple fireball appeared in my hand, it quickly dissipated though.

Huh-

||WARNING: A Mana Blocker has been set up within this zone!||

||NOTICE: Bending the blocker to not affect Variants…||

||NOTICE: Processing…||

||...||

||...||

||NOTICE: Processing Complete! All forms of magic are free now for Variant usage!||

Hoh?

"Well then, I think I might need something with a little more power if that's the case~"

Thank you for the wonderful excuse to experiment, System~!

||SPELL CREATION||

I copied [Fireball]'s data and started changing and shifting gears around. I took heavy inspiration off of the fireballs I used during my fight against Vorhees. 

"Shatter~"

I punched the gears with a heavy force making them crack and break. I changed how my hoverboard moved, making a giant lap as I looped up above everyone else. My board now racing on the spiral's ceiling.

"Form~"

The gear's broken pieces chased after me and reformed into a gold-white sigil on my palm, cyan rings of mana circling my arm. The sigil glowed brightly as an immense heat started building up in my hand, slight sparks forming.

"Fire Beam, Heavenly Flame Modification."

In that instant, time felt slowed down, or more accurately I felt like I sped up.

I saw an outline on where to aim my hand, as this gold and white sniper-like beam shot out of my palm. It did a quick slicing motion as I guided my hand in front of the guards.

Reality set back in, this explosion of pure white flames, mixed with golden bursts burned the guards and metal beyond ash and molten. They were sent off into oblivion. I felt my mana take a solid hit as I continued moving on my hoverboard.

"Phew…"

"That was awesome, Cyn!"

Six yelled up to me… I then felt a weird feeling.

"Heh-"

My hoverboard disconnected and I started free falling down toward Six and Laviel. I hastily stretched my arm out and grabbed the hoverboard, it regained power just as I hit the spiral's bottom panels. I felt wobbly for a second and lost balance.

My body was flung forward and slammed my head against the ground, I then flipped and rolled for a few seconds before I slid against the ground face first. Laviel came to a slow stop next to me.

"It's just a little further ahead."

"O-okay…"

⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱

"A-are we there yet…?"

"No."

…

"A-are we… there yet…?"

"Still no."

"D-Deadeye."

Deadeye turned around and faced Levin.

"Stop asking. We aren't going to be there for a bit longer."

Technically speaking, they could have used Levin's speed to get here quickly, but now that they were being monitored across the country they had to stay hidden.

They kept walking, a little further ahead they spotted this sign on the side of the road. They approached this sign, and took a look at its contents.

"Hm?"

"Wh-what is it…?"

"Air lift to anywhere within minutes…"

Deadeye looked at the map next to it and started checking the different locations. He went specifically to the Elven continent and looked at the different sectors.

"Alright, so it looks like we are in Sector Two… and we need to get to Sector Nineteen."

He touched the button next to this airship logo. Deadeye waited for a few seconds…

Nothing happened.

"Probably just a scam~ let's keep going."

An engine blare could be heard in the distance, it quickly approached before a small airship drifted around the corner of a skyscraper. It swiftly landed in front of Deadeye and this elf leaned out of the ship's side door.

He appeared to be more on the natural side, only his left leg being cybernetic. He had this sort of engineer-like outfit, and a couple devices wrapped around his arms. He had old rustic goggles on and his sharp elven ears perked up slightly. His hair was a short lime green and he was hanging onto a handle from inside his ship.

"Yo! I saw you guys rang me up, where to?"

"Uh… can you get us to Sector Nineteen?"

He paused for a second before gleefully replying.

"Yep!"

"How quickly?"

"Hm… maybe… ten minutes?"

"Th-that fast?!"

Deadeye was in a bit of shock while Levin stared at the elf.

"I'm Dev, what about you guys?"

"Deadeye-"

"Levin…"

Dev smiled at them happily.

"Glad to have you guys aboard!"

He jumped over to his seat , Deadeye and Levin boarded the ship, the door closed behind them as Dev flicked a few switches.

"Buckle up, the ride's a little bumpy."

The ship quickly propelled forward and did a swift turn, Levin was thrown against the wall while Deadeye got slammed against the seat belt's buckle. Dev started speeding the ship up as they raced toward a solid concrete wall.

"Now we just do this~"

Dev pressed a small red button at the top of his ship's handle, everything became slightly distorted, the colors around them almost glitchy-like. The ship was about to slam into the solid wall, Dev snapped his fingers together as they collided.

It disappeared with no traces of it ever being there.