Huh. That was the reputation he had? As I tried to put this information together with my own impression of him, I realized I was finding it hard to concentrate. What was all that noise going on outside? It sounded like incessant clanging, maybe a bell.
Bee started, and I looked at her in confusion.
“That’s... not the bell for the hour...” she said. “They’re hammering it... Is there a fire or something?!”
“That sounds like the emergency bell, yes,” Tonio said.
Unrest started to spread around the temple. We rushed to our equipment and other stuff we’d stashed in the corner of the room. We heard the sound of footsteps rushing down the hallway, and then screaming.
“Wyvern! Wyvern! Everyone, RUUUUN!!”
Beyond the walls of the room and above the roof, a low rush of wind and a vast shadow passed overhead. The next instant, the force of an impact echoed throughout the temple.
“Hnnnggggggg!”
“Ow, oww, owwww!”
“Someone! Someone help! There are people being crushed under here!”
“What’s happening?!”
“Don’t shove, don’t shove!”
“My child, has anyone seen my child?!”
“Oh God...!”
The inside of the temple was in a state of panic. Still putting on my armor, I went out into the courtyard surrounded by walkways. Using the temple’s architectural decorations and pillars for traction, I jumped up the side of the building and, after only a few leaps, I made it to the roof.
The temple was comprised of numerous buildings, like the living quarters, assembly halls, and so on, and as I looked around I noticed that the roof of the main hall had fallen in.
I looked down inside. It was chaos down there; I guessed there were probably people under all that rubble. It was a disaster that the high-ranking priests were out right now; it looked like it was going to take some time to bring this situation under control. I furrowed my brow unconsciously.
But I couldn’t go down there to help them.
I turned my eyes away, and saw the gray silhouette circling the sky over Whitesails. It had a long tail and enormous wings made of stretched sheets of skin. Running down the spine of its back was a series of bladelike spikes, and it had a neck so thick it looked like you could only just barely get your arms around it. I could see occasional glimpses of fire from its mouth.
The circling, twisting movements of its slender silhouette were full of power and energy, and I was certain that the sight would send a shiver up the spine of anyone who witnessed it.
It was a wyvern.
It flew at one of the city’s steeples and grabbed hold of it with its legs. The force of the landing smashed the structure apart. As the stone walls of the steeple crumbled, the wyvern kicked off again, launching back into flight and circling the sky over the city once more.
Figures on the ground that seemed to be soldiers were firing occasional crossbow shots at it, but it didn’t seem to care. It was moving around too much. Those few soldiers holding crossbows could chase after the wyvern all they liked; they wouldn’t even be able to keep it within range. And if they did manage to get close enough, they would never land a single shot on a wyvern flying at such speeds; their quarrels would fly straight past.
Flames erupted from the wyvern’s mouth—it was breathing fire. From the area licked by those flames came screams and cries so loud I could hear them from the temple. Houses caught fire. People ran, pushing and shoving each other in the scramble to escape. And the wyvern cried out in excitement and dived straight in.
Roof tiles, blown off by the wind pressure, fell randomly and smashed on the streets. Some houses had collapsed. The panic was escalating. Several people fell over. I was sure there were others being trampled. I could hear buildings collapsing. The wyvern destroyed another one.
I had no idea what was going on. Why on earth was the wyvern doing this? But it didn’t change reality: the city was being destroyed before my eyes. Civilization—what those three had fought to protect—a place where people still lived like people should—was being destroyed.
The blood rushed to my head.
“Verba volant...” This was a slightly long incantation—not something I normally used. In parallel with my verbal incantation, I added another Word with a single movement of my finger to extend the range, and then—
“Tonitrus!!”
At that moment, there was an ear-splitting sound, like the sound of a broken bell being struck as hard as possible, or maybe the sound of a cannon. I smelled the air burning as a single bolt of lightning flew from where I stood on the temple roof directly towards the wyvern flying so proudly over the city.
But it didn’t connect! The distance was too great. Not only that, but a straight-line attack was far too inaccurate against the wyvern when it had total freedom to move around three-dimensional space. The range of ancient magic was not that great to begin with; that probably wasn’t helping, either. Words being Words, they attenuated with distance, having a smaller effect on further targets.
I prepared for a second shot. Of the Words I could use with a reasonable amount of stability, the Word of Lightning boasted the longest range. I could fire it as many times as necessary until I hit. That was the thought going through my head, and it came from a place of desperation, and anger, and zero composure—
“What the hell are you doing, you fig idiot?!” The back of my head suddenly stung. I turned around, and Menel was behind me. He must have followed me up onto the roof. “Don’t cast magic over and over again out of anger! You’re gonna blow yourself apart!” He looked angry. “And high-level magic like that?! Are you nuts?!”
“But—”
“But nothing!” Menel grabbed my collar. “You’re up against a wyvern! Do it efficiently is what I’m saying! For a guy with a brilliant brain, you’re as thick as pig shit, you know that?! You were given that brain, fecking use it first!”
Pierced by his jade eyes, I suddenly came to my senses.
— Just learn to use small amounts of magic, sensibly and precisely.
Gus’s teachings revived inside my mind. I could feel my head clearing. Gus wouldn’t lose his head in a situation like this. Be efficient. Be precise. Only use it when needed, and only as much as needed.
“Got it.”
“Good.”
I started thinking. With what I had available to me, how could I do something about that wyvern? Countless thoughts flashed through the circuitry of my mind like sparks, each being considered for a moment before fading away. “Okay.” I nodded. “Menel, I need your help and the help of your elementals.”
“Gotcha.” Menel nodded, too.
“And Bee, Tonio!” I called in the direction of the courtyard, where I could see those two standing. Thanks to that Word of Lightning, a lot of people’s attention was currently focused on us on the roof. “Get everybody around to help get people out of the temple’s front garden!” I waved my arm dramatically and shouted. “That’s where we’re gonna bring down the wyvern!”
“Here goes. ‘Sylphs, Sylphs, maidens of wind. Your steps are the wind’s steps, your songs are the wind’s songs.’”
His voice rang out clearly as he recited the words. The elementals gathered and danced.
“‘Sing in chorus, sing in rounds, cheer and shout applause. Thine harmonic tones spread the primordial Words in the ten directions—”
Ever since Menel started casting his spell, I’d started to see glimpses of tiny white maidens all over my vision, blurred by the flow of the wind and flickering from a while ago.