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Chapter 370  My Responsibility

“You bastard. You little bastard.” He faintly whispered.

The portal began to change. It turned from blue to a deeper shade of purple, tainted by the chaotic energy on Smiley’s boot.

“What’s the matter?” Sylvia said, but Norgrim was murmuring to himself.

“Blue, normal. Green, time reverse. Yellow, age reverse. Orange, locationless. Red, forward… purple… what the hell is purple. Blue and red?” Norgrim scratched his chin, rambling quietly to himself.

“Just wait outside, dear.” Evelynn said. Sylvia shrugged and left the room. She had experiments to finish and gather up.

Evelynn closed the door, “So? It’s purple?”

“It will send us into the future. Not too far, hopefully.” Norgrim said, frowning, “But we will lose so much time. All the students we could have gathered. The mage hunters will have new technology. I can’t. It’s too much.” Norgrim began to massage his temples, closing his eyes into hopeless grief. But Evelynn wouldn’t let him wallow in it.

“Stop that. You have a responsibility to these students. We need to leave. Purple, blue, green, it doesn’t matter. That’s our way out, and we’ll take it. And we’ll need you on the other side.” She said.

“Mm.” Norgrim said, slowly opening his eyes and nodding. He hadn’t only lost his academy, but the entire mirror reality in a single day. Not to mention all the loyal staff and teachers who had become like a family to him over the years. Then there was also the village living in the mirror reality, the natives; those who weren’t students but had no desire to fight. He couldn’t protect them, and there was no way they were making it to the academy. But he took a deep breath and composed himself.

“Sorry. Let’s get to safety. The students come first.” He said, marched out into the hallway and mobilized the students, guiding them all into his office and through the portal.

Sylvia was the last student to pass by Norgrim, but she was the only one with a smile.

“Don’t worry. You said I couldn’t harm him, but you said nothing about tracking him.” Sylvia winked, and both Evelynn and Norgrim gave up a soft laugh as the women both went into the portal, leaving Norgrim as the last soul to enter. But he paused.

He stepped away from the portal and approached his window, giving one last longing look across his beloved academy, and stroked his fingers across the windowsill. For a moment he wondered if he should leave. They wouldn’t know if he decided to stay or if he got caught here, and understood why captains went down with their ships—it was love. It was a part of them that couldn’t just be ripped out.

But he sighed and shook his head. The students were a part of it too, and his duty to them was not over.

“My responsibility.” He murmured. It was hard to turn away from the window, each step to the portal felt so slow and sluggish. But he composed himself, and with a final sigh, entered the purple portal.

~Great Wall of Fog, Rocky Plane, Astrata~

Three bounty hunters along with Lara and Lannister stopped at the edge of a thick fog. The thick gray curtain stretched into the skies and loomed over them like a fortified wall.

Estra looked over to the other group, “It’s that way.” She pointed into the fog. Linc glanced over too, locking eyes with Lara. There was still some tension but they both kept quiet.

“We don’t sense anything. Let’s keep moving.” Lannister said. The separate groups passed into the thick mist. The edge was like a thick membrane, blocking any vision from outside. The humid air made each of their eyes squint, and Estra coughed for a few moments.

“Stay closer together.” Lannister called, and the groups moved nearer until they could see each other’s shadowy silhouettes.

Linc didn’t like being closer to them, and kept his eyes peering towards Lara. The suspicion between them was still strong, but he didn’t think the other group members could sense it. Linc was suspicious of Lannister too, but couldn’t read him or his intentions, even after they walked for hours over the rocky moss-covered plane. He seemed as agreeable as Estra, and perhaps more innocent. Each step Lannister took seemed like a child walking through a garden, his eyes filled with wonder as he looked over the deep forests and lofty mountains. When he saw the smallest of the most insignificant flowers that were not even blooming, he would crouch down and take a closer look, and his awe and wonder renewed with each footprint he left behind. Yet Lannister wasn’t lost in his own world; he was always the one to talk and urge them forward, guiding them under Lara’s watchful eye, who was always nodded in agreement with him. Their connection even caused a string of jealousy to stir in Linc, and he wondered if he would ever have that trust with Vanderby and Estra, but after what happened during the last fight, he doubted it; they hadn’t even checked if he was injured from that giant bug.

Estra whispered, “We’re getting close.” But the quietness was short-lived.

“Down!” Lara called.

A blazing ball of flames waved past, hissing through the air, passing between both groups.

A dim illumination appeared in the fog. Only one orange glow, then more shifting lights appeared, spreading wider like they were guarding a wall.

“They’re trying to separate us.” Someone said.

Another fireball came, then another. One narrowly missed Estra, and another licked Vanderby’s shield as it passed by, hissing through the air.

“Linc?” Vanderby called.

“Not yet.” Linc sternly replied, hoping the others would keep their cool. He glanced at the silhouette of Lara and Lannister between barrages of fireballs. The two strangers were like shadows in the fog, and moved fast. A blazing ball shot towards them, which they dodged—but Linc wanted to see what they could truly do, so he stalled as long as possible.

After the barrage of fire got heavier, he finally saw something new. A flash of blue light appeared as quickly as the fireball came, then disappeared in the blink of an eye. As for the fireball, it also disappeared.

So I’m not the only one hiding something. Linc thought, and dodged more of them whizzing past.

“Dammit Linc can you just do it?” Estra murmured, trying to hide behind Vanderby. It wasn’t just Lara and Lannister who were feeling the brunt of the assault.

Wanted only when I’m needed. Linc thought, his eyes narrowing into a disdainful stare that landed on the back of Estra’s head.

“Just a little bit longer.” Linc said. He heard a whistle of rushing air resounded as large head-sized stones shot into the fog. Lara was attacking with her earth-magic. The illuminating lights responded, breaking apart and spreading out further to escape the high-speed stones, and the barrage of fireballs intensified with a vengeance.

Vanderby crouched lower, hiding behind his shield which he’d pushed into the dirt, with Estra hugging behind him. Fireballs burst across it and searing flames washed over the sides, barely sparing their skin from the heat. The shield was heating up.

Linc had high agility, enough to dodge them for now, but he wasn’t sure how long they could last behind that shield, especially since the lights were gradually moving to their flanks.

“Grh!” A grunt resounded from the silhouettes, causing Linc to smile. Lara was hit. Guiding a large number of stones to chase her targets had sapped her concentration. She was dodging them, but it was too much for her to handle.

More of the blue light flashed around them, but Linc couldn’t tell exactly what it did. The fireballs simply disappeared whenever it made contact; a peculiar skill, which he guessed was one of Lannister’s defensive ones.

With high dexterity, dodging the bright fireballs was easy enough, though if there weren’t other human targets to draw some of the attacks away, Linc doubted he would last long. However, in the thick fog, more lights were appearing. Lara’s stones cleared a few away but it wasn’t enough. They appeared faster than she could kill them.

Linc had to act—but the longer he waited, the more enemies he could take out in one flash of his sword. However if more appeared, he would be a sitting duck. His flash step was his only skill after all, and came with a long cooldown.

When the fireballs soaring through the fog began to sound like an endless screech, he decided it was time. He took a deep breath, and pushed his sword out by a thumb’s length.

“Lower your heads. And make sure you call out to me afterwards so I can find my way back to you.” Linc whispered, gripping his sword tightly. They were already lowering their heads and cowering behind the heavy shield like helpless children, so he merely said it to keep them quiet.

“Wait, what about the others?” Estra said.

“I’ll tell them.” Linc said, dashing toward Lara.

Estra frowned, but another fireball flew past. She tucked her head down and huddled closer to Vanderby, hoping to get closer behind his battered shield.

Linc dodged balls of fire and flames on the ground, which were effortlessly burning even in the damp dirt. Something about the flames caused his danger sense to heighten, but against his own intuition he continued.

Linc was about to get a closer look at that blue skill, and if Lara showed and signs of aggression, he would use his own secret weapon before they knew about it. If it was a harmless skill and Lara didn’t threaten him, then he would urge them to lower their heads, and use his flash step.

However, just before calling out, the darkened landscape began to brighten. At the beginning of the fight, the sun was like a dim white circle, barely visible as it hung above, but miraculously the fog thinned with little warning, and the sun shone through in full radiance.

The first shafts on sunlight began to kiss the ground, which had missed its warm light for quite some time. Without warning and without wind, the fog was clearing, disappearing as if it were an illusion, and Linc paused as he waited to see those strangers skills more clearly.