Chapter 196: Time Lagged

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AN: Got some editing suggestions? Suggest it on the Google docs here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ouaTwyKBYLXJ_FyIRk9Nf1lP7q2vHnMtCM1B9qJ2Nb8/edit?usp=sharing

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Kayafe wakes up with a jolt as pressure builds up around her, squeezing and crushing her as if trying to shove her through a too-small hole. Panic rises inside her as the pressure increases, but at the same time, it feels as if she has more freedom, like she’s being pushed out of a well she had fallen into.

Could have given me some warning! Kayafe complains, realizing what is going on.

Suddenly the world around comes into view through her [Sense Mana]. She doesn’t have a body, so right now, she doesn’t have eyes, but now, after so long, her [Sense mana] is working again!

She is in a cloud of vitality, holding tight to keep her soul attached to the mortal world.

At least she thought ahead.

Kayafe usurps control of the vitality, quickly gathering more around her and shaping a body for her soul to reside in, imbuing trace magic into the vitality to serve as a body. She shaped muscle fibers and stiff bones, a heart and veins for which liquid vitality will flow, and finally wrapping her new body in a skin of light mana to appear like her old body to mundane eyes. Then she wraps her body in mana silk clothes, a long flowing dress.

With her body finally made, she examines her surroundings, missing her mundane sight to take normal light.

In front of her is a young adult with three very long tails and large fluffy ears. Her body is well endowed and seems to be growing into a very attractive motherly figure with large breasts and wide hips. But the feature that gives her identity away, aside from her fluffy tails, is her eyewraps.

Her clothes are expertly made from mana silk, with much more expertise than the ones Kayafe had just made. Alysara had not talked about the style of clothes, but they are much different than she had imagined, showing so much skin but had obvious care and consideration with the decoration. The ornate diadem Alysara had talked about rests on her head naturally like she was a queen.

“A-Alysara?” Kayafe stammers, admiring the beautiful young woman in front of her.

However, her attention is quickly drawn to the Mana Arc, which begins a magical transformation, quickly becoming the Mana Arc of the Saintess’.

Ting! The Saintess of Mana and Magic, Alysara, the Runalymo, has freed the Saintess of the Runalymo, Kayafe, the Runalymo, and completed the Mana Arc!

When did I get a title? When did Alysara get one too? Kayafe did not have a title when she made the Mana Arc, and Alysara never mentioned anything about gaining one, so hers must have been recent.

Alysara seems to be surprised by the world announcement, too, but after recovering, she asks for my help.

“Kayafe, I need your help!”

She can tell Alysara is going through some sort of emotional turmoil, that her being freed is out of necessity, not because she wanted to. It hurt a little seeing that, but she doesn’t know the circumstances; perhaps it was risky or had some sort of drawback.

“What is it?” Kayafe asks.

With Safyr guarding the place, it must be something that the dragon can’t solve, and only she can.

“You’ll understand better If I show it to you,” Alysara says, wings sprouting from her back.

She casts a flying spell and follows the young woman to a large jetty village built next to an island. Alysara had mentioned that the Nexus was flooded, so this was to be expected, but it wasn’t quite what she had imagined.

Alysara leads her to an overcrowded house with people that had a strange kind of mana inflicting them, from which she suddenly got a breakthrough in [Sense Mana].

“I can explain it later, but the being that caused this has a magical effect on the mana, so I can’t remove it; if it’s not removed, it will spread and kill them” Alysara walks over to a pair of twins who looks very similar to her, patting them on the head. Next to the girls are two adults, one of which has a deep infection of this strange mana; they are probably Alysara’s parents.

Now understanding the situation, and gaining a new breakthrough in [Sense Mana], Kayafe pulls out the alien mana from everyone, which instantly destabilizes just like her experiments when trying to discover more elements.

“Is there anyone else?” Kayafe asks.

“Yes, a lot more in the other villages,” Alysara says before turning to her family. “We’re going to heal everyone else; we’ll be back.”

Alysara group hugs her family before walking out of the house. Kayafe goes to join her, but her parents stop her.

“Thank you for healing us.”

“It’s the least I could do.”

Kayafe leaves the building and follows Alysara to the next village, then the next, and the next one after that.

“We were attacked,” Alysara explains as they travel. She retells the battle that had happened earlier this day. Safyr and her granddaughter defended the Nexus, but they aren’t capable of solving all problems, no matter how powerful they are.

So Erandur fathered a child. Kayafe remembers Safyr’s adoptive child, an adolescent fire dragon.

She’s missed out on so much during her time in the Mana Arc. It feels almost like a dream, and in the next moment, she’ll wake back up in the Mana Arc.

It’s difficult to process everything; the world has left her behind; everything’s different.

I hope the others are still alive. It’s not likely, after ten thousand years, but she’d like the opportunity to catch up with at least one of her companions.

After going around to all the villages that had the infected, they returned to Alysara’s home, a large two-story house.

“You can stay here,” Alysara offers, opening the door for her.

“Thank you”

Right now, she has nothing, no wealth, no home, no family. She can’t even see the world as she used to since she lacks her old body’s eyes.

Well, I have something in common with Alysara now. An amusing thought enters her mind.

They share an awkward moment in front of the door, not knowing how to say what’s on their mind. Everything happened so suddenly that it doesn’t feel right. There was no celebration of figuring out how to complete the Mana Arc; there was no exciting news to prepare her for this.

Then there’s the dour mood Alysara seems to be in. Alysara brings a hand up to her chest as if to feel for something but soon drops her hand.

“Thank you,” Alysara breaks the silence. “For saving my family.”

Her freedom had come at a cost to Alysara, a significant one. The information from the completed Mana Arc mentioned she had sacrificed something, and from the looks of things, whatever it was, meant a lot to Alysara.

Kayafe steps closers and pulls Alysara into an embrace, comforting the young woman.

“Thank you, Alysara. Thank you for freeing me.”

There’s nothing she can do to bring back what was lost, so the least she can do is show her gratitude.

Alysara sniffs, her eyes watering behind her eyewraps, as she tries to hold back her tears.

“It’s alright,” Kayafe soothes her with a purr. “Just let it all out.”

Like a dam breaking, Alysara cries at her loss, Kayafe holding her tightly and patting her head. They stand there for several minutes until Alysara’s tears dry up.

“Let's go inside,” Alysara finally says, leading the way and showing her the rooms.

Her house is quite spacious, with many having clear purposes, from a workshop to her experimentation rooms where several inscriptions lay, probably for some sort of test.

Alysara had told her about inscriptions, but now she finally has a picture to go along with Alysara’s explanations.

“So, what are you testing here?” Kayafe asks. Not knowing what to talk about, she resorts to their common interests.

“I’m testing the long-term erosion that the Mana gathering inscription has of mana-based structures,” Alysara explains.

She goes into the details, explaining that she needs to find the best form of inscription for each stage of solid and super-solid mana as well as for mana silk cloth. Naturally, the more solid the mana, the better the inscription that can be used.

Kayafe takes a look at Alysara’s notes, a book filled with detail recording the erosion rate, if there is any, the efficiency of the inscription, and much more, even going into detail as to where erosion occurs the most.

Afterward, Alysara lets her look at her Library, the magic item that records her knowledge. Kayafe had to wear Alysara’s Eyewraps but finds her book a treasure trove of knowledge of everything mana and magical. Since inscriptions are sort of both, Alysara’s experimentation notes are also in her library.

“Aly… This is something that Kings would war over.”

Less, even. Just knowledge of [Sense Mana] and the breakthroughs to take it all the way to [Sense Magic] is enough to spark wars and divide close allies.

“They don’t need to know it’s here, and even if it’s stolen, they can’t read it,” Alysara replies.

“I’m just expressing how impressive this is, Alysara, that you accomplished all of this,” Kayafe motions to the book.

She has to admit that she is envious of Alysara. To have accomplished so much at such a young age, even if she’s a legacy soul, and she’s not even a legendary being yet. The old belief that only legendary beings can accomplish world-changing things is shattered by this girl.

After showing her house and experiment, Alysara leads Kayafe to a ship made entirely of mana. Looking inside with her perceptive field, she sees that the inside of the ship is much larger than the outside, but the most impressive thing is what’s inside the walls of the ship. What looks to be small pipes for mana to flow through that Alysara calls ‘mana wiring’. They flow all through the airship powering lights and other ship functions, such as climate control systems that pump fire or ice mana in the air.

Everything about the ship is evident that it was made by someone who really studied mana. She had done several tests on mana herself, but her journey wasn’t conducive to researching technology; she was much more preoccupied with learning how to cast better and stronger spells.

Would she have been able to do all of this if given the chance? What about over the course of ten thousand years?

There’s no point in regretting her decisions now; she made the choices she thought were best at the time, given her situation then.

After showing her the Entylamo, they go to the Lojyo, which Alysara explains while they walk. However, Kayafe’s mind wanders to other things, things that she didn’t have time to ponder earlier.

Why do they speak the same language still? The language should have drifted over the thousands of years, yet it hasn’t. The only explanation she can come up with is that it is a consequence of her being in the Mana Arc; perhaps there was an unknown psychic effect. After all, people in items are not common; she is the only example.

The second is the hermaphrodity of these people. She hadn’t considered the possibility that her minor shapeshifting spell she used to father children would pass on such a trait.

She had kept a distant heart when it came to romantic relations, whether man or woman, since she would outlive her partners, but at the same time, she wanted a family. She had considered carrying her own children, but she couldn’t afford to, with the circumstances at the time.

Unfortunately, she never had the opportunity to see the birth of her children, but in hindsight, that may have been a blessing in disguise, less attachment to grieve for.

Her musings are interrupted when Alysara nudges her.

“We’re here,” the three-tailed girl says.

Music is played, and people dance around a bonfire; on the edge of this gathering place, couples court each other. Groups gather to talk and vent while children play at a nearby playground. It is as if all worries are gone, and they are only living in the moment.

“Let’s introduce you to everyone,” Alysara says, leading the way.

Kayafe is a little apprehensive, though, most people treat legendaries differently, with suspicion or reverence, and she’s a stranger to these people. Her tail isn’t as long, nor are her ears as large; many will have reason to distrust her.

However, when Alysara introduces her to a group of people, she doesn’t receive any strange looks or animosity. Instead, she receives friendly introductions, although a few people did ask if she really was the Kayafe, the one from the stories. She didn’t really know what to say to that but noticing her hesitation, Alysara answers for her with a simple yes.

More and more people gather around her after that, with many asking for stories of her adventure, not out of reverence but more like a child asking their grandfather about his stories.

This isn’t so bad. Kayafe smiles before telling everyone about the time she had climbed a mountain so high it went beyond the air.