Chapter 617 - Two steps ahead

With all of their senses amplified to the extreme, the group could feel each other’s unease. Through the sounds of the sudden outside storm and rain as well as the singer’s voice and music, they could hear faint, distant laughter, muted conversations, the sounds of footsteps and the clinking of glasses. It was as if the city and the playhouse had suddenly come alive, yet there was nothing to see through Sofia’s mana senses. All there was were the countless creatures of the deep, stalkers and parasites but also stranger, smaller and bigger creatures that she could only begin to comprehend, observing the manaless holes they left in her vision.

The larger creature right outside of the playhouse was particularly worrying, as Sofia almost got the impression that it was looking back at her.

After a long silence, the large creature vanished, the disappearance of its glimmering light leaving the room in a cold darkness. Alith hurriedly gave the others a sign to move. Sofia and Pareth left the room and closed the door behind them, stepping into a long and narrow corridor, when the group heard a sonorous low-pitched growl coming from outside, drowning out the singer’s voice for an instant. Where the sound came from exactly was hard to determine, but its effects were easy for all to see.

“Shit! Run!”

Sofia grabbed Bookie by the arm and ran down one side of the corridor. The group all heard the sound of broken glass from behind them and from their right side in general.

The hundreds of stalkers which had stayed put on the playhouse’s roof until now were swarming in. Sofia could feel them all getting in, breaking through the external doors and windows like a tidal wave. No matter where the stalkers entered from, they were undoubtedly coming for them, all collapsing onto their location. They quickly blocked both sides of the long corridor, a swarm of colorful spider-like creatures, crawling along the floor, ceiling and walls like a moving wall.

Pareth punched a wall to his left and the group ran in.

“This way!" Sofia said as soon as they entered that room, pointing at the opposite wall.

Running after Pareth, she gave directions, as her focus was on keeping track of the stalkers and the other creatures already dwelling within the playhouses’ walls.

“Parasite in two rooms, turn left!”

The group ran through the playhouse, breaking wall after wall as it was just faster than going through doors, they avoided the flow of stalkers closing-in as best they could.

Battle was inevitable, though the group was faster, the stalkers were coming from all directions. Since a single direct contact could mean becoming a tethered like the avian lady, the group fought back with their weapons as they ran. Pareth batted away several stalkers with his shields of light, Alith had the occasion to blow away a few of them with magically charged kicks, using a skill that Sofia didn't even know she had, and Sofia herself had to swat a few with a hastily-cast piercing bolt. The ‘battle’ was a blur as they desperately fled. Sofia tried to lead them toward the singer, as this was the only direction the monsters were not coming from anyway. But the group was cut off before that could happen, surrounded.

“What now?!” Alith asked, kicking away a small stalker jumping at Bookie’s face.

“Up!” Sofia answered, getting ready to jump. Since the creatures were on all sides, the only ‘safe’ option was the roof, which was now devoid of the stalker which were all inside. Pareth jumped first and the others followed through his upwards path of destruction.

This turned out to be a mistake.

As the entire group was midair, Sofia saw the massive creature which had been blocking the windows before appearing out of nowhere. It was a small Dragon. An iridescent, deep-tainted dragon, perched on top of a tall building’s spire. It roared, opening its maw, and Sofia could see the deep’s parasite honeycomb structure patterns inside. A ray of shimmering light escaped the dragon’s maw, almost too fast for the group to react.

Sofia tried activating [Heat Death] the only thing she had enough time to do, but even that failed. The attack was not made of mana. Pareth, Sofia, Bookie, Alith, and Pestle the fairy were all engulfed by the deep’s multicolored light.

Sofia opened her eyes to the sound of pouring rain hitting a closed window. She was on an unknown bed in an unknown room.

Wh- Where?

Abruptly sitting up, she instinctively pulled on her mana senses–finding nothing but a sudden violent headache, she reeled back, groaning in pain.

No mana?!

She heard hurried footsteps, and someone pried open the partition curtains isolating Sofia’s small corner of the room. It was a blur-faced short lady in a white uniform, with bandages in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other.

“Goodness you’re awake!” the lady reacted, seeing Sofia holding her head. She put down her things on the bedside table and came closer, putting a hand on Sofia’s forehead. “The fever is down. Don’t move, I’m fetching you some water!” she said, leaving as fast as she had come. Sofia tried saying something, realising that her throat was so dry that her voice was no more than a whisper.

Her entire body was sore, her head was hurting in waves, and she felt a sensation she had thought she would never feel again in her life: a pressing need to pee. Aside from that, she could not feel her mana heart at all, nor anything else outside of the mortal senses, not her soul link with Pareth nor anyone else, there were not even any traces of mana anywhere.

Her mind full of questions, she felt something move between her breasts. In surprise, she looked down, and was greeted by the best news since she woke up: Pestle’s head popping out of the collar of her dirty linen shirt.

The fairy’s head turned around, as if checking if someone was coming, before entirely crawling out of the shirt. Sofia was about to open her mouth, but the fairy shushed her with her clawed fingers, shaking her head. The hurried sound of the nurse lady’s footsteps came back, and the fairy, hearing this, jumped off Sofia and quickly hid under the bedsheets.

You can’t fly? Wait… Can you hear me?

The fairy was unresponsive, hiding under the sheets while the nurse filled a glass with water from a pitcher she had just brought, and put it up to Sofia’s mouth.

“Drink slowly. Don’t choke. You were out for almost two days.”

This comment was what made Sofia almost choke, coughing on the water. She was so thirsty she ended up drinking three full glasses, and her first words, in this ridiculous situation, were to ask for the toilet.

Walking past five other partitions in the nursing room was surprisingly hard, with how sore Sofia’s entire body was, but she made it to the toilets in time, with the fairy hiding inside of her pants, clinging to her leg.

With her primary needs taken care of, Sofia stayed in the toilets for a bit, trying to organise her thoughts.

We were hit by the dragon breath… And I don’t remember anything else.

“Are the others here as well?” Sofia asked the fairy in a whisper, as she decidedly could no longer hear her thoughts.

“No,” Pestle answered, whispering back and shaking her tiny head.

“Wait, you can speak?!” Sofia blurted out, barely maintaining her voice low enough not to be heard by the nurse outside.

“Little,” Pestle answered, “learn. Other no.”

Shit. “Have you seen them at all?”

“No.”

“Since when are you awake?” Sofia asked next, but Pestle seemed literally lost for words, struggling to try to express an answer but managing to say nothing. Sofia gently patted the fairy’s head with a finger. “It’s alright. You did great already. Let’s go before she gets suspicious.”

“Are you alright in there?” the nurse asked from outside, knocking on the toilet’s door.

“I- I’m fine… Coming out,” Sofia answered, leaving the small room.

The lady’s first reflex was to look down at Sofia’s hand as she came out. “You washed your hands, good. You must have not hurt your head as badly as I feared… How do you feel? Let me get you back to your bed.”

“Ah- Thank you, but no need, I’m alright, just a bit sore… With a small headache.”

“Really? You fell down three floors, you know? It’s a miracle you didn’t break anything.”

“I fell? Was anyone with me?” Sofia asked while the nurse helped her sit back down on her bed.

“Poor thing, your memory must be a bit blurry… You fell from one of the bell towers and crashed through someone’s roof before landing on their dining table! No recollections of any of it?”

“None at all…” Sofia answered.

“Do you at least remember your name? No one recognized you either, so the repair funds for the damage you caused are still pending…”

“I… I don’t,” Sofia lied. Of course she remembered her name, but it was probably better for her to be nameless in this city, assuming it was even the same city. Whatever the case, this was not the regular light world, she did not even have Aphenoreth’s glove with her, which was truly a sign things had gone very wrong this time. If not for Pestle still hiding under her clothes, she might have even started to doubt whether her entire life prior to this point was not a figment of her imagination, made up by her scrambled brain after her fall.

“That is unfortunate… Hopefully all you need is some rest and it will come back to you. It’s the middle of the afternoon right now. You can stay here another night if you want, but that will be another two Orms on your tab for the bed and meal.”