‘So this is the place?’
The both of them were currently standing in front of the house which looked relatively normal.
That was until he fully focused on it, only then did Michael notice the mana surrounding it.
“Are you chaps here for a drink?” An old man walked out of the house with a bottle of beer in both of his hands.
‘I see.. there have been people who came here before but left since they thought the man was just crazy.’
“Are you the owner and the one behind the request?” Michael asked just to make sure, maybe this was some kind of an inn type house where people waddle in to get drunk.
The man seemed a bit shocked to hear his words as his eyes widened slightly, putting away the alcohol gently onto the ground.
“It’s been 3 years since the last person came, glad they didn’t take down the request” The man laughed out loud and walked over to Michael, extending his hand.
“Please fix my fucking house this time.”
‘..What a spirited old man’ Michael put on a small smile and shook his hand.
He did the same with Astraea and told the both of them to come inside.
It looked pretty modest on the inside, no one would be able to tell that this man was likely an alcoholic.
He took them to the living room and Michael noticed that it was the only room in which the mana was concentrated.
Even without focusing, it was pretty obvious, after all, some of the items on the shelves were shaking heavily.
“See what I got to deal with? And those guild fuckers keep telling me I got bugs in my house” The old man complained and took down a vase from the very top shelf.
“Look” He showed Michael and Astraea the inside, besides the plant, there were indeed no bugs.
“Anyway, you kiddos want tea or something? I got alcohol too but I am low on it right now.. yeah pick between tea and water” The man said shamelessly and awaited their response.
“Tea” Michael and Astraea said at the same time.
The man nodded with a thumbs up and headed to the kitchen to prepare the tea, leaving the two of them alone in the living room.
“Do you feel it?” Michael asked her as he extended his mana into the air, interacting with the disturbance.
Though it simply swatted away his mana, either dissipating it or completely ignoring it.
Astraea tried using her threads to cut through whatever this mana was, however, she wasn’t able to either.
‘Should I just solidify it..? Though this looks a bit different..’ Michael paid more attention to it, the concentration of mana seemed similar to the outside, it was just much larger.
And at the same time, it did not have a form, most of it was floating in the air and only a small part was interacting with the surrounding items.
I am not sure if you should, it might or might not destroy this man’s entire house and that’s only the best possible outcome.
‘What’s the worst?’
You open a miniature rift in this area, destroying much more than the house.
Michael’s eyes widened ‘But isn’t this going to open some time in the future anyway?’
Precisely, the chaotic mana can’t be dispelled no matter what anyone tries, it has been forming for many years, possibly even decades.
‘That’s not very reassuring, is there any way I can just close it before it, you know, destroys half the city?’ Michael asked, this is where he would leave Orin, he didn’t want any lethal loose ends.
Suddenly, his Halo lit up the entire room, enclosing both him and Astraea in a ball of light.
‘What the fuck is happening?’ He asked as he could feel the mana growing wild right outside the ball of light.
It wasn’t see through so he wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, but he assumed it was the worst case scenario, he was just being protected by the Halo.
Well, I have good news and bad news.
Michael recalled the last time the system said something like that and a shiver went down his spine.
‘Tell me the ba- good news first.’
Certainly, the city is fine.
Michael expected a bit of a lengthier response, but now that meant that the bad news heavily outweighed the good news.
The bad news is… well.. you got sucked into the rift.
‘Fuck.’
Michael tried stretching out his mana to somehow bypass the light barrier, however, it seemed to be futile.
Don’t try, it’s the only thing protecting you from being ripped apart.
‘Am I still not on the other side?’
No, though you are close, just wait a few more minutes and the barrier will probably dispel itself.
Michael couldn’t help but facepalm, while he was sort of considering attempting to go inside the rift, he was not going to go through with it.
Yet here he was, probably traveling to his death, with Astraea.
“..Michael?” She called out, confusion was clearly visible on her face.
‘Well…’ Michael decided to tell her everything he knew about the rifts and what was happening to them right now.
And as he finished, a frown formed on her face.
“Do you know how we can get out?”
‘System?’ He quickly asked.
There should be a small rift in the area where you will appear, all you have to do is go through it and you will be back where you just were.
Michael relayed what he just heard and all of a sudden the ball of light shook with cracks slowly appearing on it.
‘That doesn’t sound too difficult… why do people not have much information regarding the rifts?’
Oh, right, the small rift only lasts for 5 days, if you can’t find it until then, you will be stuck here forever.
‘Do you mind starting off with that next time!?’ Michael exclaimed as the last of the cracks finally came together before breaking apart and revealing an area covered in snow.
They couldn’t see far, even with their senses and mana spread out, it was a dud, the fog surrounding seemed like it was blocking anything and everything.
As Michael was pondering his next move, he suddenly sensed a wave of mana approaching him, however, before he had time to react, Astraea cut it apart and sent it all around them.
It was a fireball, odd to see despite the current weather they were in.
However, what was the most strange was that the fire did not melt the snow, instead, it got put out upon impact.
“Focus!” Astraea tapped his shoulder and blocked another attack coming for them, it was beyond the fog and they couldn’t accurately tell the direction as whoever was doing this, kept moving around.
Nimbly at that, it almost seemed like there were multiple people, however, the attack always contained the same amount of strength, not changing in the least.
Michael sighed at his terrible luck and cast Aegis of Light on both of them, shielding them from the incoming hits.
‘System, go parry them for Astraea as well’ He instructed and summoned hundreds of Swords of Light, all of them circling around the two of them.
“Come out, last chance” Michael said calmly and for a moment, the attacks stopped.
However, it seemed like all it was trying to do was charge up an even stronger attack, sending a massive ball of fire straight at them.
‘So be it…’
