?


    Stopping for a moment as she clutched her staff, she closed her eyes for a moment, whispering incantations to herself before calling upon the desired magecraft: "Sphere of Life Protection."


    Around her body, a spherical barrier made out of translucent, cyan light was created, guarding her as she now felt confident to continue traversing the rocky bridge.


    In order to maintain the tforms that were suspended on nothing but her own mana, she had to concentrate despite the boiling geysers appearing closer-and-closer.


    Reaching thest tform, she took a slow step over before–


    "Ghh!"


    A burst of steaming waterunched up, brushing directly against the barrier that protected her, causing her to stumble somewhat as she leaned over the tform, nearly falling from the side of it. Even with the shield she had around herself, plunging into the depths of the boilingke wouldn''t be something she dared to do.


    She managed to catch herself by creating molds of stone around her boots, nted against the tform and forcing her to stay anchored to it as she straightened herself out.


    "...Phew…" She breathed out, releasing the stone molds.


    Finally, she reached the end of the troublesomeke, hopping off of the tform andnding on the other side, free from the charred region ofnd.


    As she nced back, the stone tforms fell from their mystical suspension, falling into the boiling stretch of water with a "plop". She brushed her skirt before fixing her hat, looking at the environment before her.


    A plethora of hills d in luscious, emerald grass stretched out before her, blooming with delicate flowers and healthy trees that seemed to lead to a forest area.


    ''It''s like an entirely different ce. This is really the samend?'' She thought.


    Free from the high-temperature area, she took a moment to sit down against the grass in an attempt to get her bearings. It was all still a mystery to her–being suddenly transported to the ind.


    ''I know I saw Sirius'' lightning earlier. I doubt there''s anybody else in this entire world that possessed that unique, purple lightning of his. I felt Emilio''s mana, too. That man…Bastian, he''s capable of teleportation magic–did he send us all here? I doubt that, for some reason,'' she thought.


    It wasn''t enough though; the uncertainty of it all left her ufortable in her current predicament. Fortunately, the experienced archmage had an arsenal of her own to call upon.


    Deciding to venture in an understanding further than her own deductions, she sat herself on the grass before holding her pale hands together above the grass. A small conjuration of water rippled into form between her palms, forming into a circr, t disk of the clear element.


    "Divination of The Melodic Sea," she whispered the invocation, keeping her eyes on the gathering of water.


    The unique spell required an immense amount of focus, making the quiet, unmoving nature of the hill range necessary as she watched the water begin forming into a shape just above the grass. Trickles of aqua stretched, containing itself to a square canvas that formed three dimensions, with tiny constructs of water representing hills, trees, and otherndscapes.


    This was the nature of the divination spell; it used the mystical water to sketch out a map of the foreignnd she found herself on, soon revealing the scope of the mysterious ind. As she maintained the spell as the map of water was woven before her, she began to sweat, finding it difficult to hold it.


    ''...It''s still hard for me to maintain this one, but…since I know the mana of Sirius and Emilio, I might be able to pinpoint them with this,'' she thought, hoping for it to work.


    Slowly inhaling and exhaling, she focused again, this time picturing the unique sensation of both peoples'' mana signature. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    ''Remember the erratic, but brilliant power of Sirius'' mana; like lightning caught in a bottle–unable to be tamed. Remember Emilio''s aura–that overwhelming reservoir of mana, flowing like a boundless waterfall within him, but maintained by his kind nature,'' she thought.


    It was through recalling the intricate sensations of each unique mana did she manage to infuse that sense into the divined map itself, causing a magenta and azure glow to be etched into the map.


    "Pah…!" She gasped out, having to hold her breath the entire time she focused.


    As she looked at the map, she found what she was looking for: two marks were imprinted on it, with the azure mark representing Emilio ced near the west shore of the ind, and the magenta mark of Sirius on the northern shore.


    ''There! I knew they were here, too. They''re both near the shore? Though Sirius is a fair distance away–where I''m at inparison, let''s see…'' She thought.


    It was easy enough to imprint her own mana mark onto the map, marking her southeast on the map–making her quite a ways from the two men. Still, this was a victory for the archmage as she smiled to herself, now having a clear destination to follow.


    As she returned to her feet, she kept the map conjured, not having to focus as much now that everything was in ce on the aquatic chart.


    ''Alright, let''s–''


    Before she could even take one step forth towards reuniting with her friends, the silver-haired woman sensed something amiss in that split-second, turning just as something was piercing through the wind.


    It came swiftly, heading straight towards her as she instinctively used her staff to raise a wall of mud-and-stone behind her.


    "Rise!" She invoked, unknowing of what had beenunched towards her.


    Piercing straight through the natural defense, a copper arrowhead was mere inches from her forehead, bringing her wordless as she felt her life was only still intact by mere milliseconds of reaction time.


    ''What was that?...An arrow? Who else is on this ind?'' She questioned.


    Unable to find any confirmation yet as she stood alone and alert in the field, another arrow nearly reached her, forcing her to conjure another wall, using simply mud this time to engulf it. After blocking the arrow, she quickly looked around, scanning the tree line in the near distance, but seeing nothing.


    "Who''s there?!" She called out, "I''ll give you one chance to stand down!"


    She didn''t show any weakness in her words, standing with her staff held and prepared to unleash magecraft as mana swirled around its tip.


    In truth, she knew that in a battle of attrition, a mage held the disadvantage unless properly prepared.


    There was no response from her yell, only another arrows that was primed for her stomach. Reacting with milliseconds to spare, she pointed her staff forward, using a long block of water to catch the arrow within before letting it drop.


    ''If they keep shooting arrows, I''m just going to end up wasting mana needlessly. Is that their n? Do I have time to use a scouting spell?'' She questioned.