The bells rung as Luna's voice was heard in the distance, the megaphone system of the guild was active. "Destroyer alert, Destroyer alert. All citizens must evacuate immediately. Adventurers equip yourself and report to the guild."
Svetislav opened his eyes groggily, he didn't get a good sleep tonight... Was his spell preventing him from resting fully? Probably... He stood up and dressed, he materialized his cane to help him move in this deprived state.
His friends were nowhere to be seen in their home, so he had to go solo... Oh how nice it would have been if he had made the car in the real world... "But it's complex and will take time." One thoughts said. "Complex is another way to say easy with extra steps..." Another emerged.
He quiet his mind and tried to focus on waking himself up. The real battle was him trying to stay awake. Soon he reached the guild, and went next to his friends, Chris was there also.
One of the employees of the guild began explaining, holding a crystal ball showing the back of the destroyer. "Ok everyone, our intel shows the mobile fortress Destroyer is approaching from the north-west. Our town stands directly in it's path. It will be at our walls within one hour."
"Question. I heard it was made a long time ago with advanced magical technology. Can't we ask it's creators how to neutralize it, or how to break it's magic barrier?" - One of the girls in the crowd asked.
"When the Destroyer switched on, it's creators were the first to die." - Luna replied.
Svetislav was thinking of if the Destroyer would go through his farm, which it would... Instantly he wanted to protect town, because that's more beneficial.
"Face it, we should get out of here while we can." - Chris said.
"We cannot - it's our duty to protect the homes of the townspeople."
"I swear, Darkness, you could be so stubborn." She then turned to Svetislav. "Svet. Any ideas."
"I could try and overload it. But that would be pretty difficult, there is a tick by which my power is limited, might be little, but if it's not big enough i will just be throwing energy away... I could try to make a death laser, but i would need to build something first(At least that's what i think i would need to do... It's only logical.)..."
"You are saying you could break it's magical barrier?"
"Yes, but just in case let's have another plan. If my plan fails we need a backup. Kazuma, any ideas?" Svetislav asked, nodding towards him.
Kazuma turned to Aqua. "Aqua, do you think you can bust through it's magic barrier?"
"I have no way to know unless i try."
"That's great, now we need to have priority. Aqua, is your attack ranged?"
"I can make it be."
"Great, because my plan was punching the barrier. Do not question me. Aqua's attempt will be first, because it would take me some time to get away, if her fails i will go in myself." Svetislav said with passion, bringing hope in the hearts of the weary.
"But we still need the fire power to kill it." Luna said.
Svetislav gestured towards Megumin. "I mean, Megumin's gonna bomb the thing. Right?"
"As powerful as it is... I doubt that it would be able to take it out in on blow."
The hope once again began to fade.
"Excuse me, I'm sorry I'm late." A girl in the crowd raised her pale hands. "I'm Wiz, owner of the magic item show. I also happen to be certified adventurer and i have come to help however i can."
People began cheering her, calling her broke, but that she's no joke, and dirt poor shop keeper.
"So that's the Wiz Kazuma was talking about" - Svetislav thought to himself, looking at the brown haired, purple dress, pale woman. He didn't look at her... Proportions though.
After this Luna initiated the emergency quest.
He slowly began walking while everyone rushed ahead, Chris immediately matched his pace, while being at his side. "What do you mean punch it?"
"I need to be there to compress the energy that comes out. If the point of contact and the energy are sharp enough the barrier won't stand. It'll shatter like glass."
"That will tear you apart!"
"Maybe. But better me in pieces than the whole town."
Her face twisted in a complete denial, she held a hand to her chest as if she was hurt. "Why do you always talk like your life doesn't matter? You-you shared all these plans with me, you gave me hope, and now you'd just throw yourself away?"
He stopped in his track and met her gaze. "Chris... I don't want to die... Not when I've got someone who's scared for me."
His words struck her like a blade. Her breath caught. For a moment, her heart screamed to tell him everything, to spill the truth about who she really was. But fear wrapped around her throat - fear that he'd reject her if he knew.
Her lips trembled. And before she could think, she surged forward connecting her lips to his.
It was brief, desperate, stolen. A kiss born from panic. From the ache of seeing him so worn and yet still ready to throw himself against death.
When she pulled back, her voice broke out into a whisper. "...Then promise me you'll live. No matter what. Promise me."
"Fear not." He said calmly, his smile once again serene, loving. "I won't die. Now go, my dear." He brushed a bit off hair away from her face.
And so they depart.
It was only a matter of time for the Destroyer to come, Svetislav sat there and took a power nap on the wall of the town.
He didn't wake up until there was a very loud sound, the Destroyer crushed a mountain. Svetislav stretched and yawned. "Now that's better."
He simply had to let everyone do their thing and stuff will be alright. The first was Aqua, who shot big ass lasers at the Destroyer, who was approaching rapidly. "Sacred Dispel!" She yelled, activating the five giant magic circles in the air, from which came the lasers.
The Destroyer's speed was considerably hindered, but it's shield wasn't breaking. She had to go all out, the lasers expanding nearly triple their normal size. The barrier broke. Now it was Wiz and Megumin's turn, Wiz was ready, but Megumin was trembling, so much so that Kazuma had to motivate her the way he usually motivates people, by telling them that they aren't good and that they should prove themselves. In this case he compared her to Wiz.
They both began chanting in sync, before shooting the spell. The two's attacks merged and hit the Destroyer, causing a giant explosion, destroying it's legs.
Without legs it fell, no longer capable of movement.
Everyone began cheering, but the cheers were short lived as the Destroyer made a weird alarm sound, before an announcement began to play: "Critical damage detected! All crew members evacuate immediately. Self-destruct sequence engaged. Self-destruct sequence engaged."
As fast as they began cheering, they began screaming and running. Svetislav knew what he had to do, he had to go in, and find it's power source transforming it into information for his astral storage. So he rushed in, unlike everyone else. Kazuma, who was carrying Megumin, was trying to convince Darkness to run with them.
Svetislav passed them by and Kazuma yelled after him. "HEY!"
"No time, i have got a power source to extinguish."
Darkness ran after him, but for all the wrong reasons, laughing like a maniac with a blush.
Svetislav jumped high, giving himself extra power by converting mana into kinetic.
He broke the wall and barged in, after them came many others, until they found a room... The room in which the creator of this machine had died, seated.
Svetislav looked at the skeletal figure and then at the notebook that he had under his right hand. Svetislav reached out and began reading it out loud. "N-N-N-N-N. Something rare, coronitite..."
He looked in complete shock, he was flabbergasted of how shit this builder was. "How the fuck are there people this STUPID!?" He yelled throwing the diary away. Svetislav was annoyed by the fact that this man wanted random rare materials in hopes of not having to do the order, then he forgot to make an off switch leading to everyone dying.
The others left, now it was only him, Kazuma, Aqua and Wiz. Svetislav looked up at the coronitite, which glowed brightly like a miniature sun. He reached out in an attempt to turn it into information, but it didn't work... "What?!" he murmured to himself in complete disbelief... He then had a revelation... Each time he transforms something he loses a very little percentage of the cost(in energy) of that item, being a light mana tax... If this thing glows like a sun, produces heat like a sun and looks like a sun - it's probably a sun. No wonder he can't transform it into information it's too much for him to transform it, so he did the next best thing.
"While yall are planning i will keep the sun from exploding." - He climbed focusing on transforming warmth, because if he got hit with who knows how many degrees in temperature - he would die.
He reached his hands out and the coronitite's energy began to syphon into information...
"I am a force to be reckoned with, for i control the fundamental aspects of the world."
"So, now what we do?" - Kazuma asked.
The coronitite stayed stable, because of Svetislav's interference.
"Either, you do something or i'm making an infinite battery out of this thing."
"Yeah do that."
"Problem - I can't touch the lil sun, i would burn my hands..."
Kazuma looked at him weirdly before turning to Aqua. "Can't you do something? You being goddess and all."
"What gave you the idea that i could deal with this?" Aqua replied, annoyed at him, before looking at Wiz. "But i bet you can do something, can't you Wiz?" Aqua said that in a half begrudging way.
After a moment of thinking, Wiz came up with an idea. "I can try and teleport it."
"Then do that!" Kazuma said.
"I can't i don't have enough magic left. Actually... Kazuma... I have a request." Wiz said, moving closer to Kazuma.
"Would you please let me suck it out?"
"NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR BLOWJOB REFERENCES! Unless you are planning to stroke him at five bijilion strokes a second."
"NO! I didn't mean that."
"THEN WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT WORDING! DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO!" Svetislav said, annoyed. "I am not holding this thing from blowing up for you guys to mess around. I need no word play."
"Kazuma."
"Just do it."
She nodded and used Drain Touch on him. So much so, that he got pale and skinny.
"Stop, that's enough!" - Aqua said, her voice seemingly worried for Kazuma, that's a first.
"I think i have enough to use my teleportation spell. Now where to send it... There are only a few places where i can."
"Well send it somewhere."
"I can send it away immediately if i did a random teleport."
"Yeah, do that!"
"I don't know. What if it ends up going to a place where there are lots of people?"
"Whateves! It's a big world. I will take full responsibility for this. I'm maxed out with luck so i'm not worried."
Svetislav's brows furrowed at how dismissive Kazuma is to the idea. Why gamble?
"If you say so." Wiz said with a smile. "I'm counting on your luck, Kazuma... Teleport!"
And so Svetislav was finally able to move away again, they got out of the Destroyer and on top of it. Darkness stood there.
"Oh, there you are. It's over." Kazuma said, but Darkness didn't took that. She turned to him with a serious expression.
"Hardly. I can smell an opponent from a mile away. The scent of danger still lingers in the air here. This is far from over."
"Damn, didn't think you are this poetic when it comes to battles-" Just as he finished the sentence the Destroyer began to shake slightly, before heating up rapidly.
Everyone fled out and away from the Destroyer. Svetislav was able to walk on it, because he was capable of transforming the heat under his feet and around himself, but that didn't mean that he can deal with this whole thing alone.
"Oh no, it has become so hot inside the pressure has ruptured the hull. If it explodes, the fire threatens to destroy the town."
"Then why bother with the coronitite?!" Kazuma asked. "Use your explosion spell."
"I don't have enough magic left."
"Hang on, let me thing here."
"You can take mine, I am the one with near infinite supply of energy." Svetislav said, standing tall before everyone else. He gave a hand to Wiz.
"Are you sure?" She asked gently.
"Yes." Svetislav replied, his expression unwavering. "Get this over with, i want to go sleep."
"A-Alright." And so she did, the experience were very unpleasant, Svetislav had to grit his teeth to not give away noises of struggle.
And so after this unpleasant experience, Svetislav pulled his hand away and shook it a bit, at least he lasted longer than Kazuma, if that was something to be proud of.
He went away, knowing that they will deal with it. Literally every action movie, walk slowly away from an explosion.
He returned to the mansion, bathed and went back to sleep. Woke up an hour later, ate, went back to hibernation.
The time flied by, and Svetislav finally woke up, getting dressed, cleaning his teeth, and going out for a walk. He occasionally looked up, and one of those times he spot Chris. She sat there, looking up. Her expression wasn't normal, she was biting her lips, her eyes moving in contemplation.
"Morning."
"Morning." - She replied, fidgeting quite a lot.
"You seem restless today."
"That's rich, coming from you."
"Fair. But i did something unusual today."
"What's that?"
"I slept. Properly." He stretched with a groan, rolling his shoulders. "Didn't build a damn thing in my sleep."
She blinked, then smiled softly. "That's good. You needed it."
He studied her for a moment, before saying. "So... Out with it."
She immediately froze as she heard what he said. "Out with what?"
"That thing gnawing at you. You've been chewing your lip raw since we started talking. Also you are fidgeting."
Her heart lurched. She looked away quickly, staring at the city below. "You make it sound so simple."
"It usually is. People complicate it."
Chris hugged her knees, resting her chin against them. Her voice came quiet, almost brittle. "...I can't excuse myself anymore. I've been hiding something from you. Something important."
"And you are scared telling me will change how I see you."
She nodded slowly.
"...Maybe even make you hate me," she whispered.
"I do not hate easily, Chris. I get angry, sure. But hate? That takes betrayal. And from you..." He shook his head. "You'd have to try pretty damn hard."
Her throat tightened. She wanted to say the truth so badly, but the worlds caught like a knot in her chest.
"You don't understand," she said, voice trembling. "If you knew who i really was, you'd look at me differently. Everything we've shared - it wouldn't be the same..."
"Then let me decide that. I'm not asking for perfection. I'm asking for honesty."
"I... I can't. Not yet."
"Then don't. I won't drag it out of you. If your heart wavers, don't shoot."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that. If it's something worth hiding, then you'll tell me when you're ready. Till then i will be waiting for you. I already made my promise to you..."
Her heart pounded, once again with that promise... The one which had her hooked onto him. Even with this mist between them, he still offered her patience.
She turned her gaze away from him, blinking quickly to stop the sting in her eyes.
Just in that moment, Kazuma was getting taken away by knights, a stern looking woman followed with them. "What the hell happened?!" Svetislav stood up and yelled down.
"They are blaming me for treason, help!"
Svetislav looked at him, eye brows raised, wide eyes.
"Do not interfere or you will also be joining him." The woman said.
Svetislav shook his head. "Well, See you in court, Kazuma."
"Svetislav, don't leave me here. Svetislav. SVETISLAV! Help me!" - Svetislav tried really hard not to laugh, because this reminded him of something.
After this whole situation, Svetislav sat back down next to Chris. "Anyways..."