We prepared ourselves for my grand plan and got into position. I didn't want Ophelia to be doing too much, so I had Code take care of Havoc for now until we got into position.
"You good?" I asked him.
"Worry about yourself," Code replied, adjusting Havoc over his shoulder. "Besides, I'm only gonna need one swing if your genius plan works."
"No promises," I said with cheer on my face, eyes closed, and giving him a thumbs up.
Code simply held the bill of his cap with two fingers and sighed.
Ophelia was behind us, ready to go. "You boys ready?" she said sweetly as she skipped her way to us.
We both nodded.
"Then let's get going, shall we!" she said as she laid her hands on both our shoulders, and we sank into the sand seamlessly.
At high speeds, we flew through the sand dunes all the way to the edge of the hourglass. Once we got close enough, she jetted us from underground to up in the air.
"This is it!" Ophelia shouted through the high winds.
"Throw me over there!" I pointed straight to the glass.
**Earlier**
Code was speaking at this time, "This hourglass is a type of magic item, so that means the glass itself is the barrier. Nullifying magic items are rare magic tools. The thing with them is that they have two layers. The nullifying magic barrier and the physical barrier. It's meant so nothing on the outside can retrieve the contents on the inside, even if they break the outer layer. However, since it's the opposite way around in our situation and we have Greed..." he trailed off, turning to face me and nodding. "This should work… In theory."
"Well, let's test out that theory. We won't know until we try, right, Greedy?" Ophelia faced me cheerfully.
"Right," my only response.
**Back to present**
Ophelia threw her feet back behind herself, and as if pushing off an invisible wall, she jetted us toward the barrier. There were small particles of sand everywhere, so as we flew through the air and got closer, Code readied his hand, and at the right moment…
Snap…
Switched himself, Havoc, and Ophelia with a grain of sand a few yards behind where we were just flying. The only one that didn't get teleported—was me.
I was left flying alone, using the momentum that Ophelia had used to jet us as they reappeared from behind.
In the air, I repositioned my body with both my feet facing the glass wall ahead of me. Racing faster and faster into the barrier until the final collision.
SLAM!
My feet made contact first, which caused a huge ripple in the barrier. I was sideways and stayed that way from the impact. In position, I threw my right fist up and my left hand forward to aim, then threw my fist down onto it as hard as I could, causing another huge ripple.
BANG!
This one shattered the barrier from where I hit it first, then made its way all the way around the bottom area we were at in the hourglass.
"Ha! It worked." Just like that time with the Grade 3 monster at LeHarla. In the end, Nullifying magic or not—magic is still magic. And if that's the case, I can break it.
"CODE, YOU'RE UP!" I yelled, falling from where I was just after shattering the nullifying magic barrier.
I fell just below where they were headed, with Code and the rest of them behind me, flying in my direction just overhead.
"I GOT IT," he yelled back in agreement.
Ophelia now put her hand on Havoc to let Code move. Code stuck his foot out, and from below, it unleashed a pentagram-like symbol that expanded quickly around the entire layer of the hourglass parallel to him. The pentagram spread horizontally, then faded just as quickly as he looked like he was standing atop it in mid-air. He unsheathed his long sword from his side slowly, forming finger symbols as he did so, still holding onto the hilt of it all the while. It gleamed with light as he drew his blade. Then, with one quick slash…
"Space Manipulation Magic: Overworld Slash."
SWISH!
His long sword made a drawn-out clanging sound as he completed his slash and held the position in mid-air, Ophelia keeping him positioned there. From the area where I had broken the nullifying magic barrier, the second physical glass barrier was cut in half horizontally around the entire area.
Another part of Code's magic ability is being able to expand the area of contact by matching its size with the pentagram he summons. By doing so, he's able to combine the size of his target with even the smallest form of contact into one. Because of this, slicing the whole gigantic glass barrier was equivalent to him using scissors to cut a piece of paper.
Code sheathed his long sword and grabbed Havoc back from Ophelia, so she had a free hand to catch me as I was still falling. She swooped in, grabbed me, and just like that, we were out.
***
Having dispelled the nullifying magic barrier and physical barrier of the magic tool that held us, the magic that made us shrink also dispelled, and we returned to normal size.
We flopped, merely a few inches away from the ground. And there was a hooded mage with us, stepping back, shocked as we appeared out of nowhere from the broken hourglass.
"How did you—" he said, surprised, not even finishing his sentence.
We couldn't see his face because he had his hood on, and the place we ended up was extremely dimly lit. It appeared to be an abandoned church, crumbling and ravaged with weeds and vines all over it. The light from outside barely peeked in throughout the place.
The mage's attire seemed familiar somehow.
"The hell?" I grumbled, pushing the others off me.
Ophelia got up and started dusting herself off, then took a look at the mage who was there. She blinked twice.
"Umm… So, who are you? And what's with your uniform—"
The mage, startled, stuck out his hand, palm facing her, and looked as if he was going to use magic. I bolted toward him and grabbed him by the wrist, twisting it as he winced.
"I wouldn't," I said in a low tone, looking at him with intimidating, wide-open eyes.
He scrambled and slipped as I firmly held him in place with one arm.
Then, from the shadows, other mages in the same attire emerged from all angles. Some were on the ground with us, and some up above on pillars and on the second level of this abandoned church. They prepped their magic in an attempt to subdue us. Sigils in the air, glowing in the dark all around us.
"Fuck, we're surrounded," Code said as he whipped around.
I released the mage, and he scurried to his peers, who were drawing near us slowly. As he did, I noticed the logo on the back of his jacket.
The only light in the place was coming from the old dusty-colored windows from the back of the church and a hole directly above us in the ceiling. It made it seem like we were in the spotlight.
As the mages drew closer and stepped into spots of light on the ground, I started to take note of the clothes they were wearing.
Charcoal dark hooded jackets, black fur trim on the hoods, black pants, boots… and that logo…
We were in fake Black Wolves territory.