A few moments before, Hikaru spotted Phi and Shindo.
After spending that brief moment deducing what Pride's true ability actually was, Shindo and Phi began to rush as quickly as they could towards the tower that was sitting atop the magic academy.
With only one goal, free the headmaster and turn the tides of this battle for good. They didn't know how much time they had before Pride would make his return, so they just assumed they only had a brief window to complete everything.
As they jumped from skywalk to skywalk and from rooftop to rooftop, Shindo was deep in thought. He still hadn't given up on trying to figure out how this entire attack was launched. How these 5 managed to break into the impenetrable barrier, cut off communications, kidnap nearly all of the teachers, and assassinate the magic knights from the mage's association.
Everything about what had happened within the barrier of the Theta Magic Academy should have been impossible, and yet it still happened. And despite being completely blindsided by everything that occurred, the students had managed to pull through and fight back.
Still, Shindo could not shake the uneasy feeling inside of him that there was something missing. They had pretty much managed to push back on all front's. Four of the five intruders had been pushed back, and he could only assume they were gaining ground on the frontlines.
Still, a part of him felt that something was off. But he couldn't provide any rational reasoning for it, so he decided to cast it aside for the time being. As he ascended the tower, he caught a flash of white in his peripherals.
As soon as he turned to face it, it was gone.
Confused, he turned to face forward once more, and the same thing happened again.
A flash of white and blue.
He turned to face it again, but just like before, it was gone.
However, Shindo was sure of what he had seen. There was a person following them.
Turning forward once again, he continued to follow Phi's lead, all the while looking at this person through his peripheral vision.
He couldn't tell much, aside from the fact that they were dressed in white, with blue ribbons. Shindo could feel a pair of eyes staring at him. He could feel a presence that made him shiver, and his blood ran cold.
Now Shindo was 100%. They were being trailed.
All the while facing forward, Shindo began to use a magic sequence.
Because magic sequences worked like code, as they were being processed through your brain, you could alter the lines of code that ran through and give the spell different effects.
You could change the line of code for a flame spell, for example, to make it so that the flames didn't actually burn anything, but they still flashed brightly.
There was a rumor that you could even combine lines of code from different spells in certain ways to create hybrid spells; however, that was still a relatively unexplored facet of magic.
In this case, Shindo processed a lightning spell and removed the line of code that made the spell shock or burn anything. With that, he would essentially just be dropping a flash of light that resembled a lightning spell but wouldn't do any damage.
As he prepared to fire this spell as a feint to catch their pursuer off guard, he was stopped when he crashed into Phi, who had stopped right in front of him.
Crashing into each other, they fell to the floor before beginning to roll down the slanted roof and coming to a stop at the ledge.
Shindo found himself being pinned down under Phi's body. The sun above was blocked out by her curtain of blonde hair that fell over his face. Phi's hands and legs were placed in such a way that even if he wanted to, Shindo would have to put some struggle into breaking free.
They locked eyes with each other for a long moment. Shindo was about to apologize, but Phi spoke first, cutting him off. "You zoned out. That's unlike you. At least, for the good hour I've known you." She flashed a slight smile. Her blue eyes were shining.
Shindo stumbled over his words for longer than he would have liked before finally managing to get out,
"We're being followed."
Skepticism flitted over Phi's expression for a moment.
"Are you sure?" She began to look around. "Maybe your mind's playing tricks on you. I haven't seen or sensed anybody."
Shindo nodded. "I'm sure of what I saw." Still, he also began to become a bit skeptical when Phi pointed out that if somebody was following them, they would have been able to sense something wrong, even if it was only a slight disturbance.
"Weren't you the one pressuring me about how we needed to hurry and that we didn't have the time to waste? Even if there is someone trailing us, we shouldn't get distracted from the much more important thing we need to do. Free the headmaster."
Shindo nodded at Phi's reasoning. He shouldn't have been so focused on something like that when their victory was only a few meters away.
However, there was a glaring problem in the fact that Phi was still pinning Shindo to the ground on the ledge of the rooftop.
Once again, they spent a few moments with their eyes locked together.
"Uhhh, Phi?" Shindo tried his best to tell her without actually telling her.
"Shindo, have you ever been in love?"
The sudden question caught Shindo so off guard that he couldn't stop his face from turning red and his eyes from widening.
"W-what? What's with the sudden—"
"I mean what I said." Have you ever found yourself so absolutely infatuated with someone that you can't help but want to spend every waking moment of the rest of your entire life with them and no one else?" Phi cut him off.
Her going even more in-depth into her question did nothing to help the messy state that Shindo's mind was in. Being caught completely off guard by such a personal question while being in an awkward position where they were so close together induced very odd feelings inside of Shindo.
"W-well, I...I guess I have?" Shindo finally managed to get out an answer after bumbling like an idiot.
Phi stared at him for a little bit longer before nodding and asking, "How did you know?"
Shindo's expression froze once more. "What do you mean? There's just a feeling..."
Phi nodded; however, her expression told Shindo that she didn't really get what he was saying.
Pulling herself off of him and back onto her feet, she helped Shindo up before turning around and beginning to once again move towards their destination.
Shindo and she spent a brief moment in silence as they began their ascent once more.
"It's always been like that for me. I always found myself asking what love is. I've spent my whole life searching for the answer. Not just love, but affection in general. What it felt to care and be cared for."
"How so?" Shindo asked.
Phi flashed a sad smile that Shindo didn't see, "Parents never cared much. Neither did relatives. It wasn't until I met Aura that I got a slight bit closer to finding the answer to my questions."
"Still, the void remained. It wouldn't go away until I could truly feel and know the answer. The curse that robbed me wouldn't be overcome that easily."
"This is the second time you've mentioned it. That curse. The scar on your stomach, is it a direct product of that curse?" Shindo asked.
Phi nodded. "My first memory was of when I received that curse. I can remember the girl in the black dress. I can remember the pain. I won't ever be able to forget."
"You think that curse is what took your ability to..." Shindo didn't finish his question.
"What sort of parent would be able to love a cursed child? I couldn't feel anything for anybody else, so I drew the conclusion that it was a curse."
Silence ensued as Shindo processed that information. "And you said you think Raiden has the same curse?"
"I know he has the same curse." Phi had a mysterious tone in her voice as she said that. It sent slight shivers down Shindo's spine.
"But that's beside the point." They jumped up onto the wall of the magic academy and began to climb up. That's when they saw what was going on to the right of them.
A massive battle was being waged in the sky. Lights flashed, and massive amounts of magic clashed against each other in the air.
The force of the blows shattered the air around them like glass.
"That lightning. It's the same as the massive beam that shot up into the sky and cleared away the rain."
Shindo's eyes widened. "Yep. It's Raiden..." He then let himself a brief smirk. "And the second mana signature that I can't recognize, it must be Pride."
He turned to Phi with a hopeful expression. "If Raiden's keeping Pride held up, then we'll have more time to free the headmaster than we originally thought."
Phi stared at the fight going on with interest and shock. "..."
"Phi?" Shindo waved his hand in front of her face.
Shaking her head, Phi nodded. "Then let's be quick."
With only one more section to traverse before they reached the tower and the good news that Pride was being held up in a battle, Shindo and Phi began to dash up the wall.
Moving quickly, they made their way to the very top, landing on the roof of the highest peak of the magic academy.
The tower stood a few meters away from them, standing like a lone pillar at the very top.
They rushed towards the tower, and that's when they encountered their very first problem.
There was a magic barrier surrounding it. Using his spear, Shindo first tried to destroy the barrier with force, but it was made with mana nullifying magic.
Shindo then tried to cancel the spell; however, spell cancelling could only work when you could directly disrupt the active processing of a spell or sequence. When a spell had already been processed and created, canceling could not work.
"Damn!" Smashing his spear against the magic barrier repeatedly, Shindo shouted in frustration.
Meanwhile, Phi studied the barrier. "Shindo, calm down."
Shindo turned to face Phi, his agitation clear.
"How can I calm down when we're so close?"
Phi pointed at the barrier. "I mean, stop letting your emotions get the better of you and use your brain. Think. The barrier can't be as strong as Theta's; therefore, it must have a weakness."
Shindo didn't need Phi to explain any further for him to figure out what he had to do.
Activating his ability, Shindo began to analyze the barrier. After a few moments, he said,
"The barrier is meant to absorb mana and disperse force equally. Therefore, we shatter it by giving it more mana than it could hold." Shindo made the flawless deduction in seconds.
Phi nodded happily. "Mind-blowing what keeping a clear mind can do to you, right?" She teased.
Shindo just shook his head, embarrassed that he let his emotions get the better of him in such a way.
Placing his hands against the barrier, Shindo and Phi began to pump mana into it.
Shindo had already done the calculations, and he knew just how much mana he'd need to pour into the barrier to make it shatter. And yet, he found himself pumping much more into the barrier than should have been necessary.
Frustrated and not wanting to waste time, he just poured more mana into the barrier.
Finally, it cracked and shattered, sending the mana flying into the air.
Sighing in a bit of exhaustion, Shindo stepped inside, and Phi followed.
As they ran towards the building, they broke through the wall. Once again, they had found themselves standing within a room that had been stripped completely bare. There was no furniture nor decoration.
Just a staircase. However, they didn't have time to waste wondering why.
They just began to run. Rushing up the steps. Their urgency increased with each flight that they climbed, to the point that they were at a dead sprint the entire time. As they ran, they heard the sounds of two other people rushing up the steps as well.
Looking at each other, Shindo and Phi devised a quick plan to catch their pursuers off guard.
"I'll go up to the top and set a trap." Phi said to him as they rounded the corner and began to climb the next flight. "You'll stay here and confront them. If they are enemies, lead them up to the top floor, and we will ensnare them there."
"And if they're allies?" Shindo asked.
"Be quick. We don't have time to waste."
Shindo nodded, and as they made it to the next floor, Shindo stopped and Phi ran on ahead.
Setting up an entanglement spell beforehand, Shindo stood at the top of the steps, waiting for the two to run up. He concealed his aura, and up the stairs, Phi amplified hers to give the illusion that Shindo was still right next to Phi.
In that moment, two girls burst up the steps, triggering the spell.
Strings of mana wrapped around their limbs instantly and trapped them mid-air.
Shindo stared at the two girls in shock.
Hikaru and Aura were the two girls who were caught in the trap. Their faces were filled with brief shock before they turned to look at Shindo.
"You guys?..." He muttered, more than just a bit shocked.
However, Hikaru and Aura were just annoyed. In fact, they seemed more than annoyed. They were angry.
"This is the second time I've been tied up like this in one day. Do me a favor and cut me down, will you, Prince?"
Moving quickly, Shindo released the spell before bowing his head.
"I'm so sorry! I thought both of you were enemies!"
Looking down at Shindo, who had prostrated himself, the two girls couldn't find it in themselves to remain angry at him.
"It's fine." Hikaru said, dusting off her trench coat. "More importantly, is Phi with you?"
Shindo nodded.
"Is she in good condition?" Aura asked. Her expression was filled with hurt and confusion.
Shindo nodded once again. "Yeah....Why?"
Hikaru sighed as if that was the answer she wanted to hear the least. "Well, she's supposed to be suffering from a fatal injury right now."