Chaos in Ostland (3)
A few minutes in time, perhaps? The pain all over my body disappeared. I seem to have succeeded. My body was so light that it caused me to think that I have died again. Rather, I’m floating. Well, it’s not surprising. I’ve never seen a spirit standing on the ground. They are basically floating, and crashing on rare occasions.
it was somewhat quiet around me. The place was full of agonizing cries just a little earlier, yet it’s silent… even the knights and soldiers were staring at me for some reason.
“An angel?”
“An angel has descended!!”
Hm? I look behind me… but all I saw was Alicia’s stunned face. That’s not an angel. That’s my depressed maid. You are not allowed to treat her as an angel without permission.
“Hey Alice, look at yourself.”
“Hm? I’m busy now. I can’t save Sharon if I don’t deploy the forbidden arts right away. Sing, inhabitants of the shadows, Moonlit Chorus.”
My shadow rose from the floor and multiplied. And then they began chanting in a prayer-like pose. This is called resonance chanting, which is used to deploy some large-scale spells. Basically, multiple living people chant together, but this time, they would be at a risk of death, since it was a resuscitation of the dead.
Basically, the reaction to the forbidden arts is death. Death is usually caused by the repercussions of changing the principles of the world too much. You can’t kill me in this world, though.
This barrier is my world. The principles of the world cannot enter here either. The rebound of the world is like a wave, so if you can take refuge temporarily, you will not be targeted again. I have been informed that if I do not stay in this world and escape the tremors, I will surely die. But if I can escape the backlash, what happens next is just a tickle.
“Convert this place into a sanctuary. Leave death, leave all absurdity, leave the principles of the world, become a sanctuary. A place that cannot be violated, Sanctuary.”
As the chanting continued, the chorus behind me faded away in reaction to the forbidden arts. The Moonlit Chorus can be used to assist in resonance chanting, but it is fragile. And the more cracks appear in this world that contains a vast amount of magic power, the more magic power gets consumed and depleted. But the barrier is not broken. All the magic power that was in this space got used up, and now it was being taken from me. If the barrier gets broken, the souls start escaping, and the dead cannot be resurrected. If the soul is detached, it will return to heaven. I will not be able to touch them. Therefore, I have to resuscitate the dead while devoting my consciousness to maintaining the barrier. And even if the resurrection was successful, they would die if the barrier got broken. They were dead to begin with. Naturally, they will be returned to the dead due to the rebound. So they will be living within the barrier for a while with me.
One by one, the choir members disappear, but I continue to sing. I will surely save them. So no matter how much magic power I consume, I will not let this barrier be broken, and I will not quit chanting.
My sense of time became blurred again, and I felt as if time was passing slowly. I still chant while looking at the fallen people.
They don’t get up, but the wounds on their bodies started to disappear. It’s not like they were being healed, but as if their wounds never existed in the first place.
Light gathered on the shredded arms, and little by little, the arms became visible. The hole in their stomach disappeared. I was almost there. This was the preparation stage. Even if I bring them back to life like that, they will only die again. So I have to eliminate the injuries first. But you can’t use healing magic on dead people. So I have to overwrite their injuries as if they weren’t there to begin with. It’s a falsification of events. Of course, if you do that in a normal way, neither the magician nor the person being healed will be able to get away with it. It’s terribly difficult to escape from the world’s principles.
Then, after more time passed, a miracle occurred. People who had fallen down and stopped moving opened their eyes. And they got up. But I kept chanting. It’s not over yet, there are still quite a few dead here… The dead outside the barrier are impossible to bring back. I’m not the only one working on the resurrection of the dead here, I’m just the one who gets all the magic power I can, passed on from all five remaining spirits. I have no choice but to give up on them. It hurts my heart, but I can’t do what is impossible. Right now, I don’t think about anything else but saving Sharon. In the worst case, even if all the others fail, I will revive Sharon no matter what.
“Come back.”
And the forbidden arts ended. All those whose souls have not been detached are no longer scarred, and life returned to them, though still tentatively. Sharon was among them. The number of people who have been revived is roughly, but not quite, 100. To be honest, this is a scary number of people to have to deal with the repercussions of the forbidden arts. I have only enough magic power left to maintain the barrier, so when all is said and done, they will be in severe pain again. I’ve drained too much magic power at once. I’m sure I won’t pass out anytime soon though, since I’ve even attached the magic circuit externally to myself, so I just barely survived.
All that’s left is to maintain this barrier for three days and there should be no problem… as long as I don’t fall asleep. Three nights. It’s rather difficult that way. I’ll ask Alicia to help me. She’s just frozen behind me. I mean, we will all die immediately if my consciousness fades. Dying the normal way is much better. I have to explain to the people around me, so they don’t try to put me to sleep.
“… Huh, Alice? Everyone… why are you crying?”
“Don’t die all by yourself!! If Alice hadn’t run away from home and come back to save you, you wouldn’t have made it.”
Sharon was… or rather, almost everyone who was resuscitated was staring in wonder. Anon hugged Sharon, who didn’t understand anything, and a little later, Keena hugged her too. I didn’t hug her, because I couldn’t move even a single step. I can’t even move my fingers, even though I didn’t use my physical body. I dropped my dragon wand, though I was floating, so I naturally wouldn’t fall down. I heard a frustrated cry from my feet.
“Are you happy now? Princess.”
“I am. I somehow managed to do it.”
Alicia hugged me from behind. I quit levitating and just let her hold me. I’m not accustomed to it, and although floating doesn’t consume any magic power when I’m deploying the spirit magic equipment, it’s more comfortable to have my feet on the ground.
“What are we going to do now? Doing something this outrageous will surely bring troubles… though I don’t care anymore, you do these unbelievable things all the time, so your safety is enough for me.”
“I have to stay three more days like this, though. If I don’t withstand the aftershock, everyone will return to the dead. So don’t put me to sleep, okay? If my consciousness fades, both they and I will die.”
The people around looked at me. Of course, the barrier itself is by far the most magic-intensive form of defensive magic. If everything went well, this burden would be lifted immediately.
“I will do my best not to let you fall asleep. You will meet His Majesty and the others alive.”
Oh, there’s that one left too, isn’t there? I’m sure that this time, it won’t end just with a house arrest. Imprisonment in the castle tower? Well, it can’t be helped. I have no regrets. I’ll accept my punishment meekly… if I can survive this.
I mean, the outside of the barrier is full of monsters, and I don’t have the strength to deal with them. By law, monsters that are not recognized by me cannot enter the barrier, but I will eventually run out of magic power. The situation is still desperate.