Infinite Mana (8)
The plane carrying Nar'el, the leader of the Wolha Association, was naturally no ordinary aircraft. The Association itself was an organization that placed the utmost importance on secrecy. It was equipped not only with scientific stealth technology but also with magical wards that evaded every kind of detection while possessing durability that could shrug off most attacks. However, no matter how sturdy it was, if the controls inside became inoperable, it was nothing more than a solid stake.
“W-what do we do?! Doesn’t anyone here know how to fly a plane?! Elliot, didn’t you say you got your private pilot’s license last time?!”
“You think flying a private plane is the same as this?! There’s nothing left of the controls to begin with! It’s impossible!”
Even the attendants, who had been trained to handle almost any situation, were helpless here. Getting the plane back on course was out of the question. Instead, they decided to prioritize their duty as attendants.
“Leader, the parachutes are fortunately intact. We should evacuate immediately!”
“…No.”
“Leader!”
“Look over there.”
“Over there? …Oh no…!!”
The attendants who had been trying to persuade Nar'el looked in the direction she pointed and were horrified. There was a city. Blinded by the fact that the plane was crashing, they hadn’t noticed it before. The leader’s plane was small compared to a passenger jet, but it was still a plane. If it collided, demolishing an entire building would be child’s play. With defensive magic potentially acting as a poison, it might even take down two or three buildings and keep going. At least if it were just buildings collapsing, it would be better. It was the middle of the night, so everyone should have gone home. But if it crashed into an apartment complex… the thought alone was too terrifying.
This was a problem that came before magical concealment. It was a matter involving the lives of hundreds, even thousands of people.
“B-but what can we possibly do?”
The attendant spoke, trying to persuade her. His words were reasonable. There was nothing they could do. No matter how powerful a mage, instantly manipulating several tons of weight at will was impossible. For them, it was beyond their limits.
“Leave it to me.”
Nar'el pulled out her staff. Unlike ordinary staves that had a processed magic stone embedded at the tip to increase mana efficiency, this one was made purely of wood. It was long enough to reach her shoulder. From a magical studies perspective, it looked at least two generations behind. Yet no one doubted the staff’s performance. It had already proven itself over the past several centuries.
- Tap.
She struck the floor of the plane with her staff. From that point, she channeled her mana and invoked a spell. The magic she used was—
“Flight.”
- Clunk.
The plane shook along with the flow of mana. The falling speed noticeably slowed. The spell was gradually altering the plane’s trajectory. And yet, the attendants beside her could only sense an extremely small amount of mana. It was an admirable level of mana manipulation that minimized waste to the absolute limit.
But the situation was still dire. They were changing the direction to avoid hitting the city, but the adjustment was far too slow. Could they avoid it? It seemed possible. It was hard to say for certain. And betting hundreds or thousands of lives on such uncertain odds was far too heavy a burden.
Nar'el made her decision.
“All of you, escape using the parachutes. I’ll handle things here somehow.”
“What are you saying?! If we’re going, we should all go together!”
“No. I’m the only one here who can change this plane’s course.”
“But… Yes, understood.”
“Then quickly…”
“No. How could we abandon the leader and escape by ourselves?! We’ll help!”
The attendant raised his mana. He tried to layer his own magic onto the spell Nar'el was maintaining, hoping to contribute even a little.
“Ugh.”
His face turned pale. He had only lent the tiniest bit of assistance, yet his mana was draining away like the tide. Still, he had to endure it now. Gritting his teeth, he chanted and poured every effort into being even slightly more helpful. The other attendants did the same. Fortunately, none of them had earned their positions as the leader’s attendants through political maneuvering. They were all at least Rank 3 mages, with some Rank 2 mixed in.
Their desperate assistance was clearly helpful to Nar'el as well. The breathing room created by their magic allowed her to buy time to prepare a much larger spell.
“…Thank you. I’ll do my best so that your help isn’t wasted. Hold on tight!”
Upon hearing Nar'el’s warning, the attendants grabbed onto whatever nearby objects they could to brace themselves. Once she confirmed this, Nar'el activated the spell she had prepared.
“Rotation!”
The magic enveloped the plane. In the next instant, just as the name suggested, the plane spun. As if a giant hand had grabbed the aircraft and twisted its head, the plane’s direction veered roughly sixty degrees to the side in a moment shorter than a blink. It was a violent rotation that completely ignored inertia.
Chaos erupted inside the plane.
“Guh…!”
Magic was the art of turning the impossible into the possible. The degree of that impossibility determined the spell’s difficulty and mana consumption. Changing the course of a several-ton mass of metal hurtling at several times the speed of sound in an instant—the mana required for that instantly drained the attendants’ faces of color. And they had only assisted with mana without touching the spell’s structure at all.
Yet the one who had actually led the magic, Nar'el, still looked like she could keep going. There was still work to be done before she could collapse.
“…We’re crashing!”
One of the attendants screamed. Just as he said, the ground was rapidly approaching. It was possible the rotation spell had caused some adverse effect. Since none of them had specialized knowledge, they couldn’t tell what the problem was. What was certain, however, was that the crash was imminent.
“Parachutes! Where are the parachutes?!”
“It’s too late! We’ll crash before we can even put them on! Damn it. Still, just in case… at least the leader…!”
“It’s fine. We can survive.”
Nar'el gathered everyone close to her. Then she began layering defensive and protective spells one after another. Was it really going to be okay? The attendants felt a bit anxious, but… there was no time to hesitate. They scraped together every last drop of their remaining mana and cast defensive magic.
And then, finally—
- KWAaaaaang!!!
With a tremendous roar, the plane crashed. The dizzying impact that blurred their vision, the horrific sound of the fuselage grinding against the ground, the bodies flung forward by inertia. What on earth had just happened? After several long seconds of utter chaos that even those who experienced it couldn’t clearly recall…
They had survived. All of them.
Nar'el, along with every single attendant, was still breathing.
“Are we… alive?”
“We made it! We’re alive!”
In truth, only Nar'el was completely unharmed. The others had broken bones somewhere or were bleeding profusely from being stabbed by plane debris. Still, considering the fatality rate of plane crashes, simply surviving was nothing short of a miracle. It truly was a magical feat. Even to the eyes of mages, it was.
This was the moment the title of the strongest mage struck deep into their bones.
Of course, it hadn’t been easy for Nar'el either. If she had tried to survive alone, it would have been somewhat easier than this. But she had protected the attendants as well. Pressing a hand to her dizzy head from the sudden massive mana expenditure, Nar'el checked her condition.
‘Remaining mana… about thirty percent.’
Tonight was a dark night with the moon less than half full. The lunar mana that aided mana recovery was extremely scarce. Still, she was trying to gather even that small amount to recover when—
“Found them! It’s the leader!”
A mage emerging from the dark forest spotted Nar'el’s group and shouted. He immediately put the whistle hanging around his neck to his lips.
“Huuup… Kugh!”
Nar'el reflexively launched a spell. A blade of wind flew with perfect accuracy and sent the mage’s head flying into the air. Thud. As the sound of the whistle-biting head rolling across the ground rang out, Nar'el remembered something she had momentarily forgotten.
The plane crash had been an act of terrorism. It meant someone had done this with malicious intent. Naturally… they would want to confirm the outcome. The outcome of Nar'el’s death.
Grinding her teeth, Nar'el spoke to the attendants.
“We move immediately. James, erase our traces. Elliot, check if you can contact the Association.”
“…Contact is impossible. Both electronic devices and magic are the same.”
“As expected. After going this far, they wouldn’t have left any way for us to call for help. May, where is the nearest gate leading into Shinsi?”
“It’s about 150 kilometers to the west. Once my mana recovers, I’ll check more precisely.”
It was far. But even if they couldn’t reach Shinsi, if they could just escape the communication jamming spread throughout the surrounding area, they should be able to make contact somehow. It wouldn’t be easy, though.
“If I had known this would happen, I would have used long-distance teleportation.”
Nar'el muttered quietly. It was too late to say that now. Besides, there had been a clear reason why long-distance teleportation had been difficult to use.
“Just a moment. …Alright. Let’s move now.”
Nar'el fired a spell toward the western sky. It was insurance in case things didn’t go well. And… the situation had reached this point.
…….
“Leader! Leader!”
Feeling her body being shaken, Nar'el opened her eyes. The attendants were looking at her with worried eyes.
“…Ah. I must have dozed off. Thank you for waking me.”
“Are you alright? It seems like you could rest a little longer. Fortunately, we haven’t been discovered yet.”
“No. If I were the opponent, I would have made sure to include werewolves or canine beastmen in the pursuit team by any means necessary. We can’t let our guard down just because we haven’t been found yet.”
Nar'el stood up, using her staff for support. Her mana had recovered a little. It wasn’t a satisfying amount, but right now even that was precious.
“Let’s go.”
Nar'el took a short breath and left the cave together with the attendants. In the far distance behind them, she thought she could hear the howl of a wolf.