Chapter 27: Year 6 Begins P6
~27.6~
*****
Kye sighed. "Stand up. Listen, I'm no go- well nevermind that. Kneeling is not necessary. In fact, I'd rather you join us for tea instead of this." Each looked up at her as if they had heard something unbelievable. Kye only gestured at them to take a seat in response. Once they were seated, Kye gestured at the tea and said, "What happened when Lady Vera Erendell and Lord Zalo Valen hit you lot with their magic? I saw that unfold in a vision about a year ago."
"I see," Alex said. She looked between her companions before explaining. "One was teleportation magic, and the other was a regular blast of mana. They collided and the mana blast caused the teleportation spell to go awry, at least that's my best guess. Apparently we ended up in Realm 7. We've traveled Elea since then until earlier today when we visited the Church of Elysium. Lady Luma overheard us speaking to a bishop and recognized the name of my hometown. And now here we are."
Kye raised a hand to her chin and made a classic thinking face. "I see. That's quite the journey. Do you wish to return to Realm 9? I can send you there."
Their eyes beamed. "You can do that?"
Kye nodded. "Yeah, sure. I'll just need a few days to recover first."
"Recover?" Hannah asked. "Excuse me?"
"Yeah, excuse her?" Layla added with a slight smirk, but serious eyes.
Kye felt a cold sweat go down her neck. "Uh..." She suddenly felt other glares bearing down on her and found her pink-haired partner was giving her an angry smile. "Look..."
"Yes?" Alethea said, her smile unchanging. "Shi-chan, what did you do to require a few days to recover?"
Kye looked away, unable to meet her lover's gaze. "I may or may not have used a command over the threshold..."
"WHAT?" Hannah shot up and rushed over. She immediately began analyzing Kye's body with magic. "Kye, you've got to be careful. Your creation powers are far and away too much for your body in this state! We set that threshold for a reason!"
"What did you do, exactly?" Layla asked, struggling to hold back her own frustration. Kye explained what she did for her class, and Layla glared at Liliana and Aliana next, though neither were fazed. Layla simply sighed and exchanged a worried glance with Hannah.
"She's perfectly fine," Hannah said with a sigh of relief. "But Kye, what in the world were you thinking?"
"I wished to show my students what I showed them. So I did."
"...that's your reason?"
Alethea giggled. "Same old."
"Wait, what?"
The pink-haired girl shrugged. "Our dear King of Elysium has a penchant for impulsively using her power to either entertain or help people."
Kye shrugged. "Anyway, enough of these death glares. I'm well aware of my limits, including the rate those limits increase daily. That command was a bit above what I should've done, but I supplemented it with mana directly so that the system wouldn't draw it automatically. As you should remember, if I use commands, the system draws mana from my soul. However, if I channel mana ahead of time and ready it for the command, I can avoid having it draw from my soul."
"Fine." Hannah shook her head and returned to her seat. "I'll let it slide, but you have to-"
"I'm the one that feels the soul-rending pain when I mess up." Kye cut her off. "I have ample motivation to not overdo it."
"Yes... well... okay."
Kye smiled. "Thank you for worrying about me." Hannah returned her smile and then sipped her tea. Kye glanced back at Alex. "Picking back up where we left off, I'll need a few days, but I can return you to Realm 9. I haven't actually been there myself so I can't open a regular portal to there like I can Realms 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7. The boundary isn't an issue anymore, but I need to know my destination."
"I understand," Alex replied. "Thank you, Lady Elysia. Or is it Lady Kye?"
Kye smiled. "You may drop the lady entirely and call me whichever you like." She looked around at everyone in the room and came up with an idea. "Say, Miss Alex, would you and your group like to come to the academy for combat classes while you're here? I'd love to see what you can do. Perhaps I could even train you some?"
Excited, Alex quickly exchanged glances with Lita. "I would love that! I'm very curious what people here are capable of."
Kye stood up and opened a portal to the top of the mountains outside the city. One that wasn't bisected by Allison in the battle against the giant demon beast. "I can show you right quick a small taste if you'd like."
Alex and Lita all but sprinted through the portal, leaving Jaiden and Elasha sighing behind them. The entire party stepped through the portal. Alethea prepared a barrier while Kye stepped forward.
"You're using a shield?" Lita asked.
Alethea gave her a hesitant smile. "Just wait." Alex's group exchanged confused glances and watched.
Kye began channeling mana and held her left hand up over her head and formed four mana orbs and soon they pulsated. Next, she held her right hand forward. "<<Search>>." She released a thin wave of mana forward that moved as fast as light. "Alright, nobody is there. It's safe."
"Safe?" Elasha asked.
"What are you even doing?" Jaiden asked.
Kye turned around and smiled at them for a moment before loosing her spell. "<<Detonation>>!"
The four catalysts that were hovering near her suddenly rocketed forward.
"What are those?" Lita asked as they disappeared into the distance. She soon had her answer. The four catalysts collided and triggered a world-shaking explosion.
Alethea sighed as she strengthened her barrier and pulled Kye behind it. The explosion reached high into the sky and horizontally as far as the mountain top they were standing on.
As the explosion reached them, small cracks formed in Alethea's barrier, prompting her to pour far more into it than she had originally expected. Liliana and Aliana helped as well.
Once the flames died down and the shaking stopped, Alex, who had been more curious than cautious, excitedly asked, "That was awesome! Can you teach me that? I don't think I could do it that well, but I have a lot of mana!"
Kye didn't answer. She was looking down at the hand that had launched the catalysts forward in shock. Alethea noticed and covered the hand with her own. "Love, what's the matter?"
Kye looked up and met her pink-haired lover's eyes. Alethea could clearly see the surprised look in her eyes. "I..."
She fumbled her words, but before she could formulate them properly, Allison appeared in front of them. "What just happened? That was far more mana than you normally use." She quickly saw the surprise on Kye's face and figured out the problem. "Are you okay? Do you feel any pain?"
Kye shook her head. "No. It's just..."
"Love?" Alethea asked again.
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Revision: 2024-9-1