Читать книгу The Supreme Guardian - - Страница 6

Outside the castle windows, primordial darkness still reigned. Having returned from the world of spirits, we found ourselves again in the sorcerer’s office. None of us knew what to do next. The entire academy was still trapped in a time loop, locked in a spatial pocket outside our reality. And we still had no idea who was orchestrating the ritual of forced evolution. Initially, we wanted to banish Kazimir from our friendly company, but after appreciating his plan to seize the dragon’s body, we kept him as a villain-consultant.

– What do we know about the ritual of forced evolution? – I paced the office, musing aloud. – The ritual was created as a panacea, a cure for all diseases. However, after practical trials, it had a downside – it forced evolution, and not always appropriately. Mice grew gills, rabbits developed trunks, and rats even began to read minds…

– Wait, – Asya interrupted me. – You said this is the first time the ley lines have shifted. But how was this ritual performed before if it requires so much energy?

– Failing grade! – I cheerfully chided her. – Ancient magicians used magical power capacitors – pyramids, henges, and more. This allowed them to perform such energy-intensive rituals without tapping into free energy and altering ley lines.

– But why doesn’t our mage conduct the ritual using these capacitors? – Zheka wondered.

– That’s a good question! – I praised my roommate. – I don’t know. Maybe because using stored energy requires permission from the international council of mages, or maybe for some other reasons.

– Has anyone ever conducted this ritual on humans? – Kazimir cautiously asked.

Damn trickster! Still hoping to evolve into a dragon!

– Of course, – I didn’t hide it and grinned. – The Atlanteans decided to take a risk and covered the whole of Atlantis with the ritual’s weave. After which they turned into dolphins. Want the same?

Kazimir turned pale and shook his head negatively. Good. He’s getting smarter.

– We need to get out of the spatial pocket, – the dragon said tiredly. – Since Kazimir laid the veil of despair, it’s possible that the ritual organizer isn’t even in the castle.

Indeed. To cast the veil, one had to be inside the space. That was the basis of our search. But if someone else was preparing the ritual, they could have stayed outside. Meaning we need to go back and start searching anew.

There was just one tiny thing preventing me from immediately performing the return ritual to the real world – the time loop. I could have untangled it with my eyes closed, but the time loop had its own laws. For example, the first to die inside the loop would die upon exiting it. And this feature worried me the most because I was the first to die inside the loop. But I couldn’t leave my friends in the closed time circle either, I didn’t have the right.

Ah, I never knew I would meet my death willingly. But that’s the fate of Guardians – to sacrifice themselves for others. I sat in the runic circle and methodically untangled the unfortunate weave. I wonder, will Asya cry? Maybe I should tell them? No, better not to say. Ignorance is bliss.

I carefully reconfigured the power flows, feeling the vibrations of space. And how did I agree to trust Zheka with this? No wonder he messed up. A loud pop sounded, and bright sunlight hit my eyes. It worked! Great! Wait. Why am I still alive?

Suddenly, a pain-filled scream echoed, and Asya collapsed to the floor. Damn it! When will I learn to consider all factors in my plans? I was in Asya’s body when Kazimir killed me in the time loop! Idiot!

I rushed to my fiancée. Just hoping she would survive. Pushing Zheka aside, I fell to my knees before the girl, weaving diagnostic spells of the druids on the go. Her pulse was rapidly fading, vital signs dropping. What to do? It should have been me in her place! Need healing weaves, therapeutic rituals, anything! I can’t lose her…

My mind was blank. Not a single thought. As if all magical knowledge was instantly erased from memory. I saw the dragon applying ancient druidic weaves, but it was all in vain. Spells, charms, rituals… I needed to come up with something. Rituals? Of course!

– The ritual of forced evolution was created as a cure for all diseases, – I repeated my own words. – It should help. We’ll conduct it ourselves.

– Have you gone mad?! – the dragon shouted. – The ritual needs a very powerful magic conductor. Even your homemade staff can’t channel all the accumulated energy into a specific person. You’ll repeat the mistake of the Atlanteans!

– I won’t, – I quietly replied.

Need a powerful conductor? I looked at the mighty oak in the middle of the auditorium. Will it do? I don’t know, but there’s no choice.

– Zheka! – I yelled at my shocked roommate. – Bring Asya to the oak! Quickly!

Without asking questions, he picked up his sister and carefully seated her at the roots of the tree, leaning her back against the mighty trunk.

I confidently approached the oak and knelt before it, pressing my forehead against the warm tree bark. I felt its power, the streams of magic flowing through it.

– You helped me once, help now… – I whispered barely audibly.

A clear pattern of a powerful spell formed in my mind, and its delicate structure immediately began to fill with force. At first gently, a small stream, but the flow kept increasing and increasing until it reached its peak. I could barely hold the weaving. The old oak creaked under the pressure of energy but did not give in. Focusing the magic, I carefully placed my hand on Asya’s forehead, channeling a colossal flow of magical energy through her body.

The girl screamed and arched in pain. Tears squirted from her eyes, but the main thing was she was alive. I did it! We did it! Struggling to remove my hand from Asya’s face, I tiredly lay on the floor. I hope she doesn’t turn into a dolphin or grow a trunk. We’ll handle the rest somehow.

The castle lived its own life. Students were slowly learning, drinking, and having fun, while teachers desperately tried to instill at least a bit of knowledge into their thick heads. The sorcerer also returned to his professional duties. Asya was still recuperating in the infirmary but was recovering quickly. No extra limbs grew on her, and no new organs seemed to have appeared yet. Even Kazimir returned to the director’s chair, giving me a magical oath that he would never again try to become a magical being.

But we never found the organizer of the ritual of forced evolution. However, now I was grateful to him. I don’t know what our villain had in mind, but he helped save a person’s life. And for that, he has my thanks. Magic was gradually returning to the world, and the pattern of ley lines was slowly restoring. Yes, many artifacts around the planet were rendered useless, but we managed to avoid a catastrophe, and that’s the main thing.

I no longer had any reason to stay at the academy, but just before leaving for home, I remembered one unfinished business. After saying goodbye to my friends and setting a date with Asya for the weekend, I slipped unnoticed into the library.

– My light, mirror! Speak and tell the whole truth!

Ripples spread across the mirror surface, and soon Marfusha appeared in the reflection.

– Hello, beauty! – I cheerfully greeted her. – Ready to move?

– And what took so long? – the voice assistant pouted offendedly. – You could have hurried up with your ritual!

Now I’m confused.

– Which ritual should I have hurried up with? – I asked suspiciously.

– Well, this one! The evolutionary compulsion or whatever it’s called… – the girl indifferently waved her hand.

I’m completely lost.

– Marfusha, my sunshine! Could you please explain why you think I conducted the ritual of forced evolution? – I kindly asked.

– Well, how, – the girl in the reflection looked at me in surprise. – You asked me yourself to start drawing the world’s magical energy using the castle’s protective charms, to conduct this ritual and save someone. So I connected to the academy’s storage system and drew power from the ley lines…

This is nonsense. What does it mean? Marfusha is the villain who almost left our world without magic? Or is that villain me? I don’t understand anything.

– My darling, – I smiled kindly. – And when did I ask you about this?

– When creating the mirror protection, you asked, – the girl rolled her eyes. – Like three hundred years ago… And by the way, you didn’t say goodbye, rude!

I think I’m starting to understand.

I paused on a small cliff. Beneath my feet stretched the boundless sea, annoying seagulls screeched around, and the sun unpleasantly scorched. Unfortunately, sunset was still far away. In my memories, this place was definitely better. But that’s not important. This time, I was interested in the artifact I had once hidden here.

Moving a huge boulder with a simple weaving, I carefully descended to the ground and pulled out old wooden prayer beads from the hiding place. I never thought I’d want to use them, but fate always has its plans.

Time travel is a very dangerous and unpredictable thing. Take, for instance, the paradox of the missing starting point. I learned about the plan to save Asya yesterday from Marfusha but told her about this plan hundreds of years ago. Yes, I can go back to the past and inform the voice assistant about the details of the operation and the timeline will be restored, but… it doesn’t add up. I’ll be telling Marfusha in the past what I learned from her in the present, and she in the present will be telling me what she learned from me in the past. Complicated? Very. And the main question – when did I actually come up with this plan? I hate temporal paradoxes.

I cautiously wrapped my wrist with the powerful artifact, squinted my eyes, and activated the ancient mages’ gift. Oh, I’ll feel bad when the other Guardians find out about this! The wind suddenly intensified, throwing cold sea spray in my face. I cracked open my eyes and exhaled in amazement. Night had fallen. Or rather, it only seemed to me that night had come. In reality, the ancient artifact had transported me back several hundred years, and I had just ten minutes to prepare my brilliant plan.

Not wasting any time, I concentrated and teleported to the academy’s library. The familiar hall was empty. Even the bookshelves were barely a quarter filled. A sad sight. But the mirrors around ostentatiously glittered with gold.

I rushed to a familiar mirror, not thinking about the possible activation of protective charms. According to my calculations, the mages hadn’t yet set up the system, which meant I could access the factory settings.

– My light, mirror! Speak and tell the whole truth! – I blurted out on the go.

Ripples spread across the mirror surface, and a girl appeared in the reflection, unchanged for hundreds of years.

– Voice assistant of the mirror protection system Marfusha welcomes you. How may I assist you? – she said politely.

– Change of factory settings, – I began. – Time interval – two million six hundred thirty thousand hours. Upon expiration of the time interval, begin drawing the world’s magical energy using the castle’s protective and storage charms.

– Time interval set, – Marfusha said complaisantly. Young still, quite harmless. – Would you like to leave any explanatory comments?

– I would, – I nodded. – The magical energy will be needed to perform the ritual of forced evolution, which will help save a student of the academy.

– Comment recorded, – the voice assistant smiled. – Would you like to make any other changes?

I would, but I completely ran out of time. Only three minutes left. Without saying goodbye to Marfusha, I teleported to a sparse forest on the outskirts of a tiny village. In a hundred years, it will turn into a small, but quite charming city, and only an unkempt park under the windows of my apartment will remain of the forest.

I quickly knelt down, scooped up a handful of soil, and placed a pre-prepared acorn in the hole. Someday it will grow into a mighty, beautiful oak. Someday it will save a good person’s life.

The prayer beads on my wrist crumbled to dust, I jerked sharply and was literally hurled into the present time. Well, it seems I managed everything in time.