A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing-Chapter 804 - New spatial spell

As soon as the barrier came down Gabriel, his expression twisted in fury and hatred, rushed out in the direction of the portal. In his left hand, he once again held his walking stick, and the sword in his right. "You’re lucky this time, mutt..." he snarled softly under his breath, unwilling to let Erik hear and pinpoint his location.

Yet, he almost immediately halted in his steps, face twisting even further. Ahead, he saw Astrid and Emma, with the latter standing a little behind the former, in the place where previously the portal stood. Astrid, grinning with excitement, practically begging him to engage her; Emma, calm and focused, golden disc floating above her head, hands folded in front of her stomach.

Fortunately, Elora had had plenty of time to both study and close the portal.

He cursed hatefully in his mind. Knowing at least that vampire woman was Erik’s wife, he felt a powerful urge to kill her... but his rational mind stopped him. He could feel the power radiating off her, and while she’d likely lose in a fair fight, he knew there was no way for him to kill her in a short time. And that wasn’t even considering the other woman behind her, who didn’t feel as threatening, but still dangerous.

Unfortunately, he had no time. "I’ve already stayed for too long... my aetherium is running out," he muttered with frustration.

Silently swearing vengeance, he turned towards the city walls instead. The fact that his portal was gone wouldn’t stop him from simply vaulting the wall and running. Sheathing his sword back into the walking stick, he surged forward with all the speed his legs could manage.

Unlike Emma, he couldn’t fly on his midnight plates. First of all, they were too small, but the main problem was that he couldn’t get them to stop spinning. This made their destructive power quite awesome, but also hindered his ability to ride on them.

Behind him, a disappointed Astrid pouted. Still, she quickly turned around and hopped onto Emma’s disk together with her, then zoomed after him. Unfortunately, Emma wasn’t fast enough to catch up to him; she could only match his speed.

Still, it wasn’t their job to catch him, anyway—only to keep their eyes on him—and that was also why Astrid wasn’t trying to catch him on foot, as then she’d probably be faster than him. Though she preferred fighting, her current job was keeping Emma safe and keeping an eye on things.

While all this happened, Erik rushed over in Gabriel’s direction. The dark fog still surrounded him, but despite the man’s attempts at staying silent, Erik knew exactly where he was now. Previously, the midnight domain blocked his wives’ vision, but now they could use the bond to share their sight with him.

It was a little disorienting to move like this, but this wasn’t the first time he’d used a distant, third-person perspective like this. As his wives zoomed after Gabriel, they made sure to keep an eye on both the confessor and the dark cloud representing Erik.

Inside the cloud, Erik had his eyes closed in deep focus, even as his powerful legs propelled him forward. He’d stashed his hammer in his storage and held his transformed hands in front of his chest, cupping a large, dark-blue magic circle between them.

The magic circle was pulsing with light and spatial vibrations as power gathered inside it. An actual drop of sweat trickled down Erik’s furry brow. He’d not remembered the last time he had to focus this much, as he not only needed to use his wives’ vision for this, but also cast this incredibly complicated spell for the first time.

And it truly was complicated. Unlike his other spells, this one definitely wasn’t fit for true combat, as it not only cost him an astronomical amount of aetherium, but also took most of his focus, and a long time to cast.

But that didn’t mean it didn’t have some amazing other uses.

Although Erik moved faster than Gabriel, it wasn’t his intention to catch up to him. Rather, when he was finally ready, panting from the effort of staying focused, he suddenly spread his hands wide and cast his spell with a relieved shout.

Spatial power thrummed around him... then fell quiet, as if nothing had happened.

Yet, Erik didn’t seem worried. He opened his eyes again, and a smug grin spread across his wolfish lips. At the same time, his sprinting speed slowed down to a casual trodding until he and his dark cloud came to a stop just under Emma’s golden disc. Here he stood still, arms crossed in front of his chest as he enjoyed the sight in front of him through his wives’ eyes.

Astrid, Emma, and Elora, now sitting on Emma’s shoulder, also watched the display gleefully. In front of them, a seething Gabriel was running as fast as he could... yet didn’t move an inch. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

At least, not to their perspectives. Gabriel, on the other hand, still felt like he was moving forward at breakneck speed. Yet, it didn’t take him long to notice something wrong.

With confused blinking, he slowly came to a halt and looked around. "What the..." he muttered softly.

His surroundings were still essentially the same, yet... not. He’d been running on a wide, sandstone street, and that’s still where he was, but everything else around him had disappeared. The buildings around him were nowhere to be seen, and neither were the large city walls that’d previously dominated his frontal vision.

He blinked a few more times... then started raging helplessly.

Astrid smirked down at the strange sight gleefully. She could see vague spatial trembling in a kind of dome around Gabriel, and Emma floated just outside of it.

"That’s amazing, Erik," she chuckled, talking out loud, knowing he could hear her even from inside the cloud. "How long does it last?"

"As long as I provide it with the aetherium it needs to maintain itself," Erik chuckled along with her from inside the cloud. "I suspect getting this particular spell was heavily influenced by the insights I gathered during Naeku’s trial, as it basically does the same as that spatial sigil did back then by elongating space."

His tone and expression then turned a little wry. "That said, it’s draining aetherium at a rate even my Elorium can’t replenish... It truly has a monstrous cost."

From Emma’s shoulder, Elora nodded with equal wryness. As she shared her aetherium storage with Erik, she could feel what he meant. "Even I’ve never felt a drain like this... It’s truly ridiculous."

"Well, let’s hope it lasts long enough for him to tire himself out," Erik shrugged with a frown.

Inside the spell, Gabriel raged. With no idea what was truly happening, he rapidly drained what little aetherium he had left on trying to escape.