Chapter 158 – Out of control

Sophia and Fen were playing around with magic. The two planned to combine their magic to create a gigantic fireball. To do this, the tiger was pouring her power into the wolf, who then wanted to activate his fire magic with all of their power. Something went wrong, though. He felt like the magic was going out of control and asked Sophia to stop supplying him with power. Unfortunately, she somehow wasn't able to stop transferring her magic. To make matters worse, something also seemed to prevent the wolf from dissipating the excess magic, and the two had no means to stop it from going out of control.

"W-What do we do now?!" Sophia was properly panicking after they noticed that they had no means of stopping their magic that seemed to be getting over their heads.

"I... don't know..." Fen was still desperately trying his best to keep the magic stable. "Can you get rid of your remaining magic before it also flows into me...?"

"That's a brilliant id- it doesn't work..." The tiger's expression was all over the place. "My detection's still running because I forgot to turn it off, but I can't seem to activate anything else."

"That's bad... That's really bad. Okay... detection magic... Is there a safe direction?"

"Safe?"

"As in no type of life you don't want to eradicate."

"O-Oh... There's no type of life above the powers of a kow in a 20km radius around us. We should be-"

"Not enough." Fen cut her off.

"E-Eh?! Well... behind us seems to be a village, but the massive plain in front looks empty. It goes further than my detection magic, and there only seem to be kows and below around, too."

"That has to be enough..."

"Do you have an idea?"

"I'm going to activate the fire magic, after all. That, at least, should still work. Or, more like, it should start on its own once it reaches its critical mass. If I manage to control it until then, that is... Just...

"J-Just...?" She didn't like the sound of that.

"I won't be able to control the output once it goes off. Everything in front of us, the entire plain, will be gone afterward. "

"Oh..."

"If we're lucky, that is."

"A-And if we're not...?" Sophia had a bad feeling.

"We'll be gone, too."

"A-Ah..."

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20 more minutes passed, in which Fen desperately tried to hold in the accumulated magic and did his best to not let it go out of control. He had a very pained expression, but a slight ray of hope seemed to be finally shining down on the two.

"Y-Your magic... Sophia, I can't feel it anymore... Have you found a way to stop it... flowing into me...?"

"N-Not quite... I'm empty."

"I... see. Actually, I'm... about to run out, too..."

"Is-, Is that good or bad...?"

"Nothing about... this is good..." Because the wolf was concentrating so hard, the mental strain hindered his ability to speak in coherent sentences.

"T-True..."

"I-It does feel like... whatever restriction was on me... is starting to subside, too. I might be able to let it go the... less dangerous way..."

"P-Please try it!" Sophia sounded slightly desperate.

"Okay..." Fen closed his eyes and concentrated like he never did before. Some minutes passed, and their surroundings slowly turned noisy.

"W-What is happening...?" Sophia wasn't sure how to describe the sound. It was slightly similar to thunder, but also not, and it made her feel uncomfortable with every fiber of her being. Even the fur on her tail, which was darting all over the place, was all puffed up as a response.

"The magic's leaving... We've made it- Ah." He jinxed it. The noise got even louder, and the air around them started to show some sort of black distortions that almost looked like something was breaking.

"F-Fen, I don't like this..."

"Y-Yes..." He, too, worriedly glanced around. A moment later, all those distortions fused together into a pitch-black ball right in front of them. The sphere was approximately 1 meter in diameter. It was shrouded in something that looked like lightning or electricity flowing around it. Immediately after, everything turned silent.

"F-Fen..."

"I have... Oh no." The silence lasted only three seconds. The eerie noise came back, and it was more ear-deafening than ever. Unfortunately, this was only the beginning. A moment later, their surroundings began to violently rumble and shake.

"I-I'm scared..." Sophia had experienced earthquakes before, but this felt different. The shaking got stronger with each passing second, and debris suddenly started flying towards the sphere in front of them. It didn't take long before a deep crater formed right below it that continued to grow at an alarming rate. Leaves, sticks, rocks, and much more also headed straight towards it, only to fully disappear upon contacting with the floating ball.

"This is bad... I can feel..." Even Fen's fur seemed to be pointing in the direction, and the wolf could feel being pulled towards the sphere with great force. "Oh no..." His expression looked equally terrified as he repeated himself. He instantly used his last bits of power to shoot the sphere away with air magic. It quickly floated through the open plain in front of them while carving an expanding fissure into the ground below and also sucking in everything in its path. "RUN!" Using his snout, he bit into the collar of Sophia's shirt and threw her onto his back while turning around. Faster than ever before, he then tried to get away from the sphere.

"Huh..." Sophia needed a moment to react and readjusted her position on top of the wolf. "Do... Do you think running away will work...?" She didn't dare to turn around and look at the plain that was shrouded in the ear-shuttering noise by now, which only kept getting louder, too. The earthquake-like vibrations also increased more and more, and Fen had real difficulties keeping his balance while running.

"Definitely not! Sophia, I need you to stop time immediately so we can find out what is going on and form a plan!"

"I-, I can't... Stopping time takes a ton of magic, and I'm still basically empty... It'll probably take 5 or 10 minutes before I can do that again..."

"We don't have that much time! If we don't- WOAH!" He didn't get the chance to finish his sentence. The two were suddenly hit by a powerful shockwave that swept the wolf off his feet. The duo crashed into the ground and continued to slide for a few seconds before they heard the sound of an explosion, unlike everything they heard before. The time where Sophia had blown up Canir's dungeon couldn't even be described as a light cough in comparison.

"W-What... just, eh?!" Confused and disoriented, Sophia looked around to understand what was going on, but looking at the plain they were fleeing from made everything much worse. "F-Fen..."

"Y-Yeah..." He needed a moment to get back on his legs, and his eyes then, too, fell on the plain. "Oh..."

The black sphere had grown considerably in size. It was easily a couple hundred meters in diameter now, and the electricity-like lightning shrouded around it also became much more violent. The plain, on the other hand, it was gone. It got replaced by a crater so deep and wide the duo couldn't even guess how big it was because they actually couldn't see the other side. Still, the hole easily spanned some tens of kilometers. Dead center in the middle of it, the sphere was floating, still sucking up debris, accompanied by a terrifying sound.

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Moments later, the noise became louder once again, and the sphere started to pulsate. It looked like it was growing in size. Suddenly, it began to get unstable, and it seemed like the ball would explode at any moment. It kept getting bigger and bigger, creeping closer to the duo at an alarming rate while increasing the crater around it even more. Everything around Sophia and Fen was so violently shaking that even thinking about running was impossible.

Bracing herself for the inevitable, Sophia inched closer to the wolf and tightly hugged him.

"Fen... I'm sorry... "

"Me... too..."

"..." They paused for a moment.

"Maya..."

"Aura..."

Mumbling those names, the two glanced at the creepy black sphere that continued to grow while getting closer to the duo. They could already feel being pulled towards it, and there seemed to be nothing they could do against it. The noise it was emitting while destroying everything around it had already long become unbearable, but it still kept getting louder.

Eventually, the two couldn't fight against the pulling effect of the sphere anymore. They lost contact with the ground and started flying towards it. Immediately after, everything was bathed in pure white, and nothing made a sound anymore.