-Heavy as the Deep Sea
Without even a moment to consider what magic I should use, I activated wind magic.
For now, I had to scatter the whirlwinds, so I opposed wind with wind.
I raised a powerful gale and stretched it out in a long horizontal line.
My plan was to neutralize the whirlwinds lined up into tornado funnels, as if cutting through their waists.
But it did not go as I intended.
The whirlwinds were solid, as if they were clad in a hard outer shell.
They did not scatter under the wind I had summoned. Rather, the wind I had summoned vanished instead.
‘Why? Is it because it’s a red wind formed by condensing gray energy, so its nature is different? Or is it not wind magic to begin with?’
It was an urgent situation, but precisely at times like this, I had to focus with the weight of the deep sea. I took a slow, deep breath and examined the whirlwinds closely.
Only then did I realize that the vortex of red wind was being protected by spatial magic.
And also that, while it had indeed been raised with wind magic, it behaved differently because of the material of the gray energy.
In the first place, the gray energy did not belong to this world, so there were aspects of it that were unaffected by this world’s atmosphere and wind force.
Like antimatter, it was canceling out my wind.
While the wind magic I had raised dissolved away without exerting any power at all, the mages were already riding the tornado funnels and being sucked into the red spatial rift.
My heart grew urgent again.
My molars clenched on their own.
“Ah, no!”
“They’re being sucked into the rift!”
Cheon Danbi and Ren cried out, stamping their feet.
Gil, seemingly unable to just stand there and watch, was sending out concentric waves.
I quickly warned Gil first.
“Gil! Stop. If you’re not careful, your waves could get caught in the whirlwind. You absolutely must not be swept away!”
I had to prevent Gil from being sucked into the rift while trying to save people.
There was nothing I could do about those who had already been sucked into the red spatial rift. They had already vanished into the void. Perished. Just as I had annihilated the sandstorm and dust earlier.
Since I knew better than anyone the power of a spatial rift, I did not cling to useless hope or regret.
There was no way to save them.
“Then what do we do?”
Gil looked back at me and asked. His face was filled with anguish.
“Oudin, hurry and do something! People keep getting sucked in. At this rate, it feels like the rift will swallow them all!”
“The elves and dwarves have been caught up in the whirlwinds!”
“Ah! The zombies over there are being swept away too!”
My team members urged me on.
Even as they staggered beneath the whirlwinds sucking in the air, they worried about others first.
But I was first forming a spatial pocket around my team members.
My team members absolutely could not be swept into the whirlwinds. To me, that was the most important and urgent thing.
A barrier alone was not enough.
Just as the vortexes of red wind were being protected by spatial magic, I intended to protect us with spatial magic as well.
Just as Samir had copied my spatial magic to open a spatial rift, I borrowed his idea in return.
Now it was done. I had completed a spatial pocket around myself and my team members.
Nothing could infringe upon us.
It was similar to a barrier, but far more solid. A spatial pocket could never be pierced unless its spatial magic was dismantled.
Mana and life force could pass in and out of the pocket, but gray energy could not enter.
“Gil! Don’t send out the concentric circles yourself. Send your mana to me. Cheon Danbi and Ren, cover the fleeing people with barriers made of life force.”
“Understood.”
“Ah! Barriers? Got it!”
We had to save the living.
Once they were swept up by the whirlwinds, carried upward on the tornado funnels, and sucked into the spatial rift, there would be no answer. But we had to save those who were still fleeing through the streets.
After giving my team their roles, I immediately began creating another magic circuit.
It would be best if I could dismantle the spatial magic protecting those red whirlwinds, but that would take time.
And even if I dismantled the spatial magic, the red wind had been raised from gray energy within the void of the rift, so I could not oppose it with wind magic.
‘Samir……!’
To think he would copy my magic circuit right in front of me and carry out terrorism, exterminating mages and civilians alike.
On top of that, by using gray energy, he had twisted and advanced my spatial magic, making it unleash an even more brutal power.
Even so, I was the owner of the circuit for the spatial rift. I should be able to close it somehow.
If I could first stop those red whirlwinds. If I could just reach the rift.
I felt the mana Gil sent me wrap around me like a warm heat. After gathering that mana, I guided it through my heart and let it flow to my fingertips.
This time, I planned to use freezing magic.
If I could not cut off the whirlwinds, I would freeze the surrounding space through which the wind was flowing and bring it to a halt.
I stretched out my hand, aimed at the rows of tornado funnels, and raised my intent.
‘Freeze the path the red wind travels, the space through which the whirlwinds flow!’
Even at this moment, I could see people riding the tornado funnels up into the sky.
Urgency rose in me once more.
I did not know why the time it took to create the magic circuit, draw up mana, raise my intent, and activate the spell felt so long.
The waves of freezing power extending from my fingertips felt so unbearably slow that it nearly made me furious.
In that instant, I realized that my impatience was actually interfering with the magic, and I immediately calmed my heart.
I had to be heavy as the deep sea. I had to be silent as the universe.
I filled my mind with a vast light.
When my entire body was filled with pure white light, only then did the freezing magic become as vast as a snowy mountain range.
Shaaaaaaaaaaa!
Freezing energy spread out with enough force to freeze the entire area.
But of course, the waves of freezing power precisely burrowed only into the surrounding space where the whirlwinds were moving.
They froze. The vortexes of red wind froze in an instant.
The tornado funnels that had risen like pillars of flame turned pure white, becoming pillars of ice.
They stopped. The wind stopped, the whirlwinds stopped, the tornado funnels stopped, and everything came to a halt as it was.
The people who had been swept into the whirlwinds and were rising into the sky also remained suspended in midair.
As if time itself had stopped, the scene before my eyes froze abruptly.
“Ah, it worked! They finally stopped!”
“Everything’s frozen!”
“Then is it all right now? How do we save the people frozen over there?”
It was not over yet.
The people frozen while being sucked upward were one thing, but above all, we had to block the spatial rift.
For now, we had merely bought time.
“It’s not over. From now on, I have to seal the rift with spatial magic. Gil, save the people frozen in midair. Use fire magic delicately to melt the ice and lower them carefully to the ground.”
“Understood.”
“Ah! Then we’ll try protecting the people with life force.”
“Good. They’re spread across five tornado funnels, so distribute your strength carefully.”
I immediately created a circuit for spatial magic.
Since it was not a spatial rift I had created, closing it might not be easy, but the circuit was mine anyway, so activating the magic did not take long.
The circuit creation and the magic activation both proceeded quickly.
‘Close the red spatial rift!’
I hurried so as not to give Samir an opening to counterattack, but I did not act out of impatience. I executed the spatial magic properly.
Pure white light spread out from me.
It was a wave of radiance so brilliant that even the midday sun paled before it.
Then the gray energy spread across the sky, along with the red wind, whirlwinds, and tornado funnels formed from it, gradually began to burst apart.
They were not bursting because they had frozen from the ice.
They were melting and dying away under the pure white light.
A soundless scream spread in every direction.
At last, the crack healed. The red spatial rift closed, and the gray energy around it vanished as if being erased.
I had finally blocked it. Now it was over.
I looked around.
Gil, Cheon Danbi, and Ren were carrying out a cooperative operation and rescuing people. The people drifted down to the ground, swaying as lightly as feathers in the air.
Perhaps because they had been given plenty of life force, they even regained consciousness quickly.
“Ahh! I’m alive!”
“What happened? Who saved us?”
“I don’t know who it was, but thank you for saving us!”
“This isn’t the time. Let’s get out of here.”
“Right. Let’s hurry and flee. That wind was truly terrifying.”
Among those who had returned alive, some immediately dropped to their knees and prayed, while others looked around for the owner of the magic that had saved them.
But most were intent on leaving the scene in a hurry.
That was especially true for the other races, since they were not mages.
The elves and dwarves quickly entered the nearby buildings, but the zombies’ situation was different.
Knowing full well that no one would let zombies inside the buildings, they simply staggered and hurried toward the back alleys.
“It’s all right now. It’s over! But get far away from here!”
Gil shouted to the zombies.
The zombies waved their hands in response to Gil.
But hearing Gil shout, there were also mages who had been hiding inside buildings and now came outside.
A few spotted our team and approached us.
“It’s over?”
“What happened?”
Before declaring the raid over, I made one final check.
I confirmed whether the spatial rift had closed properly. It had closed cleanly, without even a trace remaining.
Now the only thing left was to release the freezing magic.
It seemed my team members had saved all the people who had been frozen while suspended in midair. However, remnants of the red wind still remained, trapped in the freezing magic and unable to vanish completely.
I aimed at that place and stretched out my hand.
Pure white light flowed from my fingertips in waves.
This time, the light did not spread out so immensely or brilliantly that it would blind the eyes. Instead, it moved along its path with laser-like precision.
By now, the pure white light was being controlled as easily as if it had always been mine.
The traces of the red wind, the remnants of gray energy, even the broken magic circuits in the shape of infinite pentagons drifting in the air, were all erased and disappeared as if washed away by the pure white light.
After I finally released the freezing magic, the blue sky and the surrounding scenery returned in vivid clarity.
I felt utterly relieved.
After gritting my teeth because things had not gone as I intended, then realizing my impatience and calming my heart, after gathering my entire mind to execute the magic, seeing the result left my chest feeling light.
It was not the exhaustion of having consumed a great amount of mana, but rather a refreshingly liberating sensation.
I also felt a little wonder.
At the pure white light that now flowed freely, as if it had become a part of my body and mind.
But just as I turned toward my team members and the mages to announce that the raid was over, an explosion suddenly rang out from the sky.
I quickly looked up and saw crimson flames erupting in the sky that had been washed clean just moments ago.
Then a rain of fire came pouring down.