Ch. 2.24 | Temporal Magic’s Domain
PoV: Zahira
Zahira hunkered down behind a massive rotating gear, partially set into the ground. The floor beneath Zahira was made of a stiff metal that appeared woven like a basket, except full of a ton of holes because of a spacious weaving.
Beneath her, in the darkness, unlit by strange glowing orbs illuminating from the ceiling or stuck into posts, gears and mechanisms clanked and churned.
The whole place smelled like metal and stale air.
A seemingly endless building sheltered Zahira's group and possibly the rest of this realm from whatever sky enveloped from beyond. Or maybe they were just in one massive building. If so, what was the rest of this world like? What purpose did this building serve, with all its gears and everything? Why were these creations hostile? Pillars and walls stopped the vaulted roof from being structurally unsound. Well, the pillars were more like beams. Everything was either bronze or a dark gray, shimmering metallic or showing hints of rust and wear.
It hurt Zahira's eyes to figure out where the low and high parts of the roof started and ended. The whole place felt like something one would only see in a dream, the way it was built. To back that up, the realm had been flights of stairs and winding paths and a maze through hedges of gears and other utter nonsense.
The portal's node rested just beyond the gear Zahira hid behind, and then some. They were so close to leaving and putting . . . this all behind them. All of this just so save some amount of time no one knew the exact amount of.
A half dozen birds made of metal lay broken, scattered around her. They had been scary, chunky, and possessed massive eyes and an uncharacteristically flat face. Absolutely nothing like ravens or vultures. Their heads had turned nearly entirely on their necks when they had just been watching them, before they had attacked. When they did, it had been with time bubbles. It had all been very unsettling.
Now their sharp talons and rending beaks lay motionless.
The group's raven had been gutted by one of those birds some hours back. Hopefully Nadiyya would not be too upset at that development. Even under a time bubble, it had not escaped the birds birthed of temporal magic, or however these realms worked.
Zahira panted, blood trickling down her forehead from a trio of gashes. She had a wound wrapped in bandages around her thigh from some strange crossbow that had been shot at her by some kind of metal sentinel thing. The small, ball-like metal bolt that had shot from it was now embedded somewhere in her thigh. Her bone was probably broken.
Metal sentinels, of which six now stood on the other side of the gear and rotating metal. They were seven-foot tall humanoid creations. Each one held that strange crossbow-like weapon, and then a sword in a sheath. They had not taken the initiative to sally out and attack Zahira, staying content to defend the node. Why they were even here, and defending the node, Zahira had zero clue.
There was only one narrow walkway towards the area that held the node, otherwise blocked off by chains of gears like the ones Zahira and the other two hid behind. Though they would probably be overwhelmed by six enemies with Temporal magic if the enemies chose to rush towards them.
“How's your channeling?” Zahira asked Fajr. They had been in this place for nearly a day. Zahira did not know how much of that was sped up due to Fajr's time bubbles.
This place was the dominion of temporal magic, so it was safe to assume time shenanigans were at work. Zahira worried that they'd step out of the portal and emerge into a world a hundred years into the future, probably laid waste by eldritch entities.
“We should get this over with soon,” Fajr said. She was crouching next to Zahira and Esmat, one knee against the ground, both hands holding her staff diagonally. Her staff was most peculiar, having what appeared to be incense sticks poking from it, probably for the symbology of time—as a Temporal mage's staff. How she got those preserved and reinforced for her staff, Zahira also had no idea.
Zahira was sitting on her behind, legs stretched out in front of her. Esmat stood, although bent down so as not to peak over the top of the gears and get shot at by the metal sentinels.
“Fajr, please tell me that you have one more burst of a speed bubble ready,” Zahira said, gasping for breath. “And Esmat, I hope you can cloak behind a sentinel or two and kill them. Your dagger is sharp enough to pierce them—hopefully.
“If they're distracted, I'll hit as many as I can with [Material Consumption]. Hopefully we get them all. There are just six. Fajr can take the walkway and Esmat, you can teleport with either Spatial Mage or Assassin, yeah?”
Esmat nodded.
“Aye aye!” Fajr exclaimed.
“Give me a moment before we go. Bubble?” Zahira asked, peeking around the gear.
Yup, the sentinels were still facing their location with their weird crossbows pointed. They probably weren't crossbows, but, whatever.
Zahira felt the bubble around her warp.
“Ready,” Fajr said.
Zahira nodded. “Go!”
Fajr and Esmat vanished from her sight. Fajr ran down the path in the blink of an eye. Esmat went literally invisible and teleported over to their share of the sentinels.
Zahira took a quick peek over again and—
One sentinel collapsed, all the way to the right.
On the left, another took a smashing in from Fajr's staff. While Esmat still evaded Zahira’s eyes, she could at least see Fajr and make out her movements.
Then a sentinel turned on Fajr and Esmat each, noticing their fallen comrades, leaving two to continue watching Zahira's location.
Zahira cursed, just her luck!
She pointed behind one of the two. “[Organic Displacement].”
She turned on her heels and got ready to attack the sentinel. Her turn more sluggish than it should have been, with her hurt thigh. Blood dripped into her eye from the earlier bird wounds.
A bang ripped through the air. Pain shot through Zahira's torso, something flew out her back.
“[Material—],” Zahira faltered mid-cast, but only for a moment. She went back to putting her all into her attack. “[—Consumption]!”
A second boom made Zahira's ears ring. Then another made her seemingly go deaf for a moment.
Only one of those had been at her—the second sentinel had shot and missed.
The sentinel in front of Zahira had stepped out of her aim. Some poor gear across the mesh platforms disintegrated.
Zahira cursed again.
The one before Zahira suddenly swapped out its ranged weapon for a blade.
These things had some filthy time bubbles wrapped around them. Zahira hated them! She was so going to make them vanish! Well, this last one. She had already shown the other one what happened if anyone messed with her.
The sentinel had its sword drawn, then thrust in one smooth motion.
If this thing had emotion, Zahira bet it was definitely feeling smug. She was going to turn that upside-down. This sentinel would know disappointment, embarrassment, and failure in its last moments.
Zahira pointed again. “[Material Consump—]
Zahira found the sword in her gut. Pain shot through her body, completely overpowering. She almost forgot to complete her spell. It hurt, oh Heliux!
“[—tion],” Zahira finished the spell. Her aim proved true, and just like that, it was over.
The sentinel disintegrated. Two meters and some centimeters tall of moving metal flaked away into nothing. The sword went with it.
Zahira fell to her knees just as the last sentinel fell to the group's efforts—of course she had been last. Esmat had taken care of their two, and the same with Fajr.
“Zahira!” Esmat called out to her.
Her vision danced, then blurred. It was like a mirage out in the desert, as was common before the tempest fell. Zahira almost thought she was about to faint or get heatstroke or something.
Zahira dropped her staff and clutched her chest. Sticky red liquid flowed out from both the bolt wound and the sword wound, now that the sword was gone and there was nothing to staunch her bleeding.
Zahira looked up towards Esmat and smiled. She liked the way their dark bangs hung over their eyes, and the unkempt hair that went down to their shoulders. They wore shapeless, Spatial mage robes with style.
That was the quickest a smile had ever crossed her face, because as soon as it appeared, it inverted. Her eyes went wide.
Blood dripped from Esmat's right arm—or rather, where it ended. Red liquid splashed onto the mesh floor, some continuing into the endless contraptions below.
“Esmat!” Zahira cried out, sromach twisting. Eugh, did she even have a stomach right now? “Not again!”
Zahira peek around Esmat and—yup, there it was. Gross.
This was fine! Everything was fine! They could get back to Mai or another Fleshweaver and be in tip-top shape again! No worries.
Just ignore their tolerance to channel magic and the abysmal state they were all in.
Well, the state Zahira and Esmat were in—Fajr seemed fine.
She looked towards the both of them and cursed, then ran out of Zahira's vision, somewhere behind her. She was going to break the node, perhaps?
Esmat held their arm out to Zahira, depositing their staff into their [Pocket Repository]. “Come on, let's get going.”
Had Esmat always looked that gorgeous? Was there a divine light shining on them? . . . A headache stabbed Zahira. Ah, sorry for looking at the light, I guess.
Zahira picked up her staff and held onto Esmat with her other hand. With Esmat's help, got Zahira off the ground and limped towards the node, where Fajr worked to crack it open.
Fajr was the most able-bodied right now, could she not pitch in a dainty, uncalloused hand and help her . . . veterans? Superiors? Ugh, Zahira wasn't an old lady. If anything, Fajr was older than her.
Although, perhaps her being the most fine did equate to her being the one to shut down the node. In that case, good job, Fajr! Gold star!
The world rumbled, and a blinding light pulsed throughout the realm.
“I got the node!” Fajr called out. “Let's go!”
Zahira and Esmat reached the node. In one last flash of light, the three of them were deposited out back into their familiar reality.
Cold and fresh night air nipped at them, and the smell of grass and flowers beat back the impression of cold metal that had permeated their senses for a day.
The orange portal sputtered and died behind them. Its glow ended, plunging the group into darkness illuminated only by the moon and stars.
“Okay . . .” Zahira croaked out. “Since I'm the one with the staff out, teleportation magic, and two hands, link to me and I'll get us back to Calderae.”
Fajr nodded. She touched Zahira. She linked the three of them together and began her incantation.
“[Globetrot Anchor - Calderae].”
They did not appear in the guild hall.
The spell broke apart, Zahira and her ability to channel mana strained. So, the easy way wasn't an option. Hopefully she had enough mana to use another teleport spell—it was less taxing.
“Oh no. Okay, lesser spell time,” Zahira pointed off into the night. “[Organic Dis—]”
“Um, Zahira?” Fajr said. “That's the wrong way.”
Oh. Uhh, so where was the correct way?
Zahira cleared her throat. “Yep, I knew that.” She turned. Ignore that each direction seemed like the exact same to her. Just dark and darkness in each direction, maybe some grass on the ground too. “[Organic Displacement].”
Ouch. A headache split through Zahira again, vision wobbling, legs shaking.
“Um, Zahira? . . .” Fajr proceeded to curse. “Esmat! You'll have to do it.”
Zahira looked up into the night sky. Huh. Those stars were blinking out, and the world grew darker. Noooo . . . don't go away, you ungrateful dots. I need you egotistical things to light the way. Yeah, you think you're so awesome, sitting in the sky and looking down on us. You're probably laughing at our misery.
Uh. No, no misery here. We're having a great time. A party!
So . . . what was happening? Were we scolding Esmat?
“Yeah, Esmat,” Zahira said in a mocking tone. “Get us to Calderae.”
“[Pocket Repository],” Esmat retrieved their staff.
Zahira’s heart beat once.
Then twice.
“[Organic—],” Esmat glanced towards Zahira, a foul string of curses escaping from their perfect, lovely mouth. Too bad they were always so quiet.
“Mmm. Sleep,” Zahira mumbled. Sharing a bed with Esmat sounded perfect. And a nice bath? Ooh, maybe they could share it . . .
Then her heart stopped.
Her vision darkened out.