I rushed to a tree by the edge of the clearing. The man said we could use anything in our vicinity, so this should be allowed.
Thankfully, the wind wasn't strong enough to send me or Penelope into the air.
Denis seemed to have already found a place to hide and protect himself, though I didn't know where.
I gripped the tree with all my strength, the wind still caused it to shake.
Suddenly, the wind started swirling violently in a circular area around me. It was to the point that the tree I was holding onto was getting uprooted. It wouldn't last a few minutes.
I noticed that the wind around Penelope wasn't as strong as around me. There was also a patch of wind blowing heavily above a small hole in the ground.
That should be where Denis was.
Considering everything, the man was adjusting the wind's strength depending on our ability and the methods we were using.
I let go of the tree, and the wind calmed down almost immediately. It didn't have enough force to blow me off of the ground now, but it was speeding up gradually. However, if I use mana to interfere with its flow, I should be able to endure for a few minutes.
Any longer than that would be impossible for me.
'Just when will this wind stop?'
"5 minutes." The blue-robed man said.
My mind shook. It was almost like he was answering me.
It was likely a coincidence, but it still felt real with his peering eyes looking into me.
His eyes drifted to Penelope. Her wind picked up speed.
While I did know that using mana would slow down the wind, my control was still too weak for me to even try that right now.
But my mana was special.
It could think.
If I could somehow force it to leave my core by itself, that might work out.
I put all my awareness into my mana core. My perception of the outside world stopped for a few seconds.
The mana in my core lay dormant, having stayed like that ever since the strange occurrence.
A path formed through my attempts in the core. The mana twitched as it sensed it.
It didn't seem to care much about my attention now, but it still remained curious about everything.
The mana followed the path, before-
*Snap*
I cut the path in the middle.
Normally, that would be the end of it.
The mana would recoil back into my core, and the spell would get cancelled.
But it lingered where the pathway should have collapsed.
Then it moved.
Slowly at first, before it sped up.
It moved through the frame of the already shattered mental path.
It quickly reached the end. The walls of my core.
But again, it didn't stop. It went past the walls, going out of my body.
A thin filament slipped past the edge of my core. Then another. And another.
In a few seconds, six strings started studying the air around me, interfering slightly with the strong wind.
My mana had no color, no scent, no clear image. It looked just like all the surrounding mana, non-existent.
The wind faltered a little before pulsing, growing strong enough to resist my mana.
I put my perception on the outside world and noticed the blue-robed man.
His smile hadn't changed a single bit, but his eyes had sharpened on me. His head was tilted a little, as if he couldn't understand what was happening.
*Woosh*
A strong gust of wind blew. Much stronger than the rest.
Its strength was more than enough to send me flying, but for some reason I stayed put on the ground.
My mana stopped being able to weaken the wind. It started getting blown away by it.
Mana couldn't maintain itself outside of the core without a formation, because it would blend with the surrounding mana in the air.
But my mana didn't assimilate into the mana in the air.
Sadly, I couldn't control it, and it was too weak to affect the wind now.
My breath suddenly caught as I watched the mana strands merge to form a single thick line of pure mana.
The line had about the same thickness as a pencil.
It started waving around in the air, resisting the flow of the air.
I observed its motion carefully.
The wind faltered wherever the mana swung.
I watched it get better slowly. It only attacked wildly at first, striking random places on each gust of wind. Quickly however, it learned to target the more crucial areas.
It started targeting only the middle of the gust. And when about half of most gusts of wind began splitting apart, it found a new way to resist it.
It no longer sought to attack the wind. It no longer moved toward it.
It studied where the wind was heading before going there and standing upright like a pillar. The wind smashed against it and got cut in half.
Even after many more gusts of wind were broken apart by the mana, the method didn't changed. It could now completely block the wind.
My mana had adapted to the wind.
But it didn't stop.
It kept going toward further and further gusts. It was no longer trying to protect itself from the wind, it was seeking something past it.
It went a few meters away from me before it suddenly stopped.
It stopped in a seemingly random place. No wind was blowing there, no one was even close.
I wasn't the only one taken by surprise, even the blue-robed man's smile faltered a bit.
The mana twitched a little.
"ARGHHHHH!" I screamed loudly as dozens of images flooded my brain.
'I have to move.
I have to move or I'll die.
I have to move or the blue-robed man will kill me.
I have to move NOW.
To my mana.
I have to go to my mana.
I have to follow it.
It will protect me.'
I took a shaky step in the direction my mana had went in.
It was completely still.
Before it twitched again.
'I HAVE TO MOVE NOW.
I HAVE TO RUN.'
My body started shaking violently.
I started sprinting toward my mana, not caring for the wind around me.
It had grown strong enough to cause injuries now.
But I didn't get flung into the air no matter what.
A cut formed below my elbow.
Another above my wrist, on my palm.
Blood started trickling slowly from the wounds.
But I didn't stop. I had to keep going. If I didn't, I would die.
More cuts formed all over my body. Pain followed closely behind.
But the pain seemed meaningless in front of the fear I felt.
It was only a few meters, but it felt much longer. The few seconds that had passed before I reached the halfway point to the mana's location felt unending.
I couldn't keep moving. I was littered with injuries all over.
Yet. My body moved. No matter how many cuts my skin suffered, my body moved on its own.
Soon, I reached the area.
And I saw it.
A huge fracture. Not a fracture in the ground, not in the air, but in reality itself.
The entire world seemed to bend around this fracture.
It was completely black, nothing inside of it.
But my body stopped the moment I noticed it.
Even my body that had seemed relentless in wanting to reach my mana wanted nothing to do with this.
The blue-robed man's grin disappeared, replaced by a frown. His eyes narrowed as he looked at me, but he didn't move from his spot.
My mana moved. It had already achieved its purpose of bringing me here.
A sense of extreme dread spread in my mind as I saw the mana get closer.
I didn't know what it wanted to do, but I had to stop it.
I swung my arms wildly in the air, hoping to somehow hinder it.
I pulled at it with my mind. I clawed at it with my awareness.
My core started shaking heavily as more mana left.
I put up a wall, a looping pathway, a spear-shaped pathway to stab the mana.
But the mana phased through all of it.
My attempts all ended in futility.
My mana had reached the fracture, and entered it.
*Crack*
The world went gray for a second, before all of it broke apart.
No. It wasn't the world, reality itself had shattered.
The blue-robed man, Penelope, and Denis all disappeared.
Time and space had broken into small pieces of mirrors, and darkness spread all around.
I stood on nothing, next to my foot lay all the shattered pieces of what had been the world.
In front of me, a massive book stood.
It had a red cover full of carved sigils and words. The title on a golden plaque at the top betrayed its identity.
The dragon fairy tale book.
My mana approached it hastily.
Despite the distance seeming to span hundreds of kilometers, my mana reached it in an instant. Space didn't matter here.
The mana opened the book slowly.
Pages flipped rapidly.
To a random page.
A sentence was plastered in blood on the book. When I looked at it, regret filled my mind.
"And the heroine died."
Then the line changed.
"And the heroine sacrificed herself."
Then it changed again.
"And the hero gave up."
All pages around it started getting torn.
Soon, nothing except that line remained in the book.
The book moved in my direction.
It reached me in an instant.
My right hand flew toward the book in the void.
*Crack*
My hand shattered. Then my elbow. Then my chest.
In the end, only my head remained.
The line started changing.
"And the her-"
*Crack*
My vision suddenly fractured.