Y/N POV
"Hm? Is something wrong, Omega?"
We retreated back to my capsule since the wind started to pick up, and the desert sand isn't really something we would like in our eyes. During this time, however, Omega seemed to be troubled.
"Nothing, really. But the mana signatures are picking up for some reasons. I thought it was just the sandstorms, but now I feel like it's not natural."
"Y/N!" Sphinx came down from the cockpit on top of our capsule, and reported an eccentric observation. "There's a really, really large mabeast horde coming our way, and they look pretty angry to me..."
"I'll go out and see what how Meili can help. You guys go to the stations just in case something bad happens."
With a nod from my battalion, I propelled myself out of the capsule using Zarestia's wind magic. Landing at the front of the carriage, I saw Meili with her arms crossed as she gave me a pouting face.
"Took you so long to get here, huh, Y/N onii-san. Was Sphinx or Capella holding you up?"
"No, no! I was just talking with Subaru and the others. Anyways, there's a large mabeast horde heading our way, and we need your help." I said as I pointed to the place in the distance, where the dust cloud was growing by the minute.
"Oh, that? That's my horde, onii-san."
"Your... horde?" I muttered as the pieces suddenly clicked. Wait... oh. I'm so stupid. The horde that delivered us to Priestella's vicinities back then! I thought Meili... no way, she has been keeping them under her control this whole time? Or is it some sort of link that they can establish after Meili's Divine Protection does its work?
"So... no congrats from you, really?" Meili gave me another huff before I embraced her in a hug.
"Of course not, Meili. You've grown so much! I'll buy something for you once we get back to Lugnica, okay? How about a plushie doll- "
"Shush. SHUSH. Onii-san, if you speak of that again, I'll set the horde on you." Meili said with a wicked smile before placing herself on my lap.
"Heh... anyways, to the Watchtower we go!"
Welp, so much for that promised smooth journey.
The first night came and although our first obstacles, the mabeasts, are conquered, it did not help in the slightest when night fell. Dusk signalled the start of a new phenomenon known as Sand Time, and the winds picked up. Emilia helped erect an ice wall to keep the sand out, and Sphinx and Omega helped to form a dome of sorts while Zarestia's barrier spell kept the violent winds out.
We're relatively safe, but I'm not exactly happy with our progress. Don't get me wrong, everyone tried their best, and it's honestly not bad, but I feel like we could've done better.
While we waited out the night, I finally began working out the basics of the power I developed at the Water Gate City, Priestella. During my battle with Capella, the ninth power of the Authority of Deceit burst forth to aid me, but I haven't been able to recall it until now and tinker with the power itself.
Today I made sure that the seal was removed by all means.
Stepping into the bluish portal, I entered a realm that resembled Frakinedottir's void plane. Interestingly, there was nothing here, but as I walked along the edges of the space, I eventually found out it was around the size of a mansion. I guess I could fit a mansion in here?
Then again, the power itself is a Dimensional Storage. Quite a large one, in fact. Usually you'll see these ones in anime that are rings in their physical forms, but mine just opens up a portal that leads you directly into the place. How interesting.
This place could provide a hefty storage space for me and my battalion, and others included. Using the right conditions, I can probably modify it to keep things fresh, including food. It will also make quite the addition to my battle techniques, considering I can lock people in here as well as making a quick escape when I need it. I figured out that I can open the portal again after entering the pocket dimension within a 5 meter radius from the place I entered.
I was going to explore more, but Omega's voice connected through our pendants, and told me that Subaru had something to discuss with me. I stepped out of the portal and into the capsule, before exiting the capsule quickly to meet Subaru, who was fuming a little.
"Is there something wrong, bro?" I asked, concerned.
"These two over there," Subaru pointed at Anastasia and Julius, who were both giving me a harmless shrug that obviously meant that they did not mean to piss of Subaru, but somehow did either way. "Decided that it was a good idea to not tell me that we were already affected by Sand Time!"
"Wait, what? Already? I didn't expect it to be so soon?!"
"Y/N, you're not focusing on the right point here! They didn't want to tell me because they thought it would worry me! But we're supposed to share everything so we can work as a team-argh, I am mentally tangled, please help me..."
I gave Julius a look, and he eventually gave in and apologized. "Subaru, I know what they did wasn't exactly optimal, but you have to realize that they did it out of care for your well-being."
"My well-being? It doesn't matter what mine is right now! The people who have fallen to Gluttony's curse are still suffering!"
"But you still have to take care of yourself. So how about we all talk on a solution together?"
"You seriously somehow manage to mediate every single situation..." Subaru muttered before we sat down in a circle on a tarp that I laid out.
"So we aren't approaching the watchtower? And we keep on moving towards it but it's only getting farther away?"
"That's basically the situation." Julius confirmed. "I'm afraid some extreme degree of magic is at work here. If i remember correctly, this phenomenon is exactly why Reinhard failed his attempt at going to the Watchtower all those years ago."
"It's true, since Sand Time isn't something that can be simply overcome through Divine Protections and strength alone."
"I'm suspecting a very high level magic barrier." Anastasia stated as she looked in the direction of the tower. "It probably is at the level of space bending. This will be extremely difficult."
"And how exactly are we supposed defeat that?" Subaru asked, while Anastasia thought up an answer.
"...Aren't you kinda missing the point by asking about defeating and not defeating it? This is a trap of nature created by the miasma. There's no type of unnatural power going on here."
"THIS is a trap made by nature?" Subaru exclaimed in utter surprise, and I was taken aback as well. I always thought it was the sage who created the barrier, considering the bending of space was unknown to most people in the world.
"Well, the Pleiades watchtower was built at a place where the phenomenon happens. If you think about it that way, it's not unnatural. Also, it makes sense." Julius commented while he gazed into the distance.
"It makes sense? In what way?"
"You cannot forget. Yes, the sand dunes lead to the watchtower, but you can't forget that the thing is not just a tower that is ahead of the sand dunes. Why do you think the watchtower is there in the first place?"
The Witch's Shrine. Where Satella is sealed. Subaru and I exchanged looks before coming to the same realization. I feel like I should've known this, but it was probably due to the fact that I did not completely reread Arc 6 like I did with Arc 5. The details from now on are going to get vaguer and vaguer, with only the occasional hints of the Book of Wisdom helping me through this journey.
So the sage chose to construct it here instead of creating a defensive system himself... I have my doubts, but I suppose we have to go along with the current story for now.
"Let's wait until morning." Anastasia suggested. "The Sand Time's passage might open up by then. Right now, there are no gates without its influence."
Nodding to each other, we began to rest while I entered the realm of the Castle of Dreams. Echidna sat at the table alone, and the rest of the witches seemed to not be here for the time being.
"The Book of Wisdom is now completely functional, Y/N."
"Huh? I thought it was already functional since the end of the battle at Priestella?"
"Not really. Remember the greek letters that someone tried to send through earlier? They have been bugging me every time I read the book, and I finally managed to block whoever it was out."
"Interesting..." I sat down across Echidna. "So, any topics of discussion tonight, Chid-chan?"
"There's always a topic for us to discuss." Echidna gave a hearty laugh before taking out pen and paper out of thin air. "I want you to teach me the art of chemistry. You have been doing incredible things with it, things that magic could accomplish but with the knowledge, even normal people could use it to their advantage. Science is perhaps the greatest thing that your world has ever invented."
"Well, give them another 500 to 1000 years, maybe they'll figure it out too..."
After giving a basic lecture on high school chemistry, I headed to the Necropolis and requested a sparring session with Theresia and Kurgan, which they accepted quite willingly. Valgren also acted as a boss from a video game later on, and we had quite the time during the training. Before I knew it, I woke up from the dream and it turned out to be morning already.
"Y/N! Y/N!" Two tiny hands cupped my cheeks as I woke up, startled, before my eyes came in view with the blue eyes of Sphinx, who looked like something incredibly bad or good just happened.
"What is it... Sphinx?"
"The sandstorm! It's here!"
"Sand..storm?"
"Ugh! Wake up and stop dozing off!" She gave me a slap before I winced in pain, but at least I'm awake now.
"When a sandstorm occurs near the barrier, Sand Time will temporarily open a gate that will allow us to pass through! Anastasia needs your help in determining where that gate is, because the mana signals are a little distorted right now!"
"Ok, let's go then." Allowing Sphinx to latch onto my shoulders, I dashed out of the capsule to the front of the group, where Subaru rode on top of Patrasche along with Beatrice while Julius and Meili were on the carriage in front.
"Y/N." Julius gave me a slight nod when I approached. "The sandstorm has begun. Lady Anastasia has informed me of your above-average level of mana perception, so if you will please assist us in the search for the gate."
"No problem, Juli." I activated a series of runes, drawn from pure mana. They acted like a rover and began going down each side of the barrier. After a few minutes, I heard a signal coming from the right, and alerted our team to head in its direction. We started to move, but I noticed that the sandstorm wouldn't last exactly last long enough, considering that we do have an entire mabeast horde with us at this point.
"Zarestia!" I yelled to the Great Spirit of Wind. "Lift us off! Comet Arrangement!"
"Copy that." She replied before everyone seemed to be stepping on green glass, including the mabeasts. They huddled closer, but we were still quite a large group. Meili took notice of this and ordered them to form a thinner line as Zarestia's wind comet tail enclosed the rest of them in her barrier.
"Omega and Sphinx, support Zarestia! Everyone else, hang on tight and be ready!" I gave out the order before we picked up momentum, and rushed towards the spot that the mana signatures were shown to be stable.
"Come on... come on..." Subaru chanted while Beatrice used her Yin Magic to mildly part the sandstorm ahead for a better view. Our ground dragons stopped running as they looked at our barrier as if a miracle, but had no argument against it as all ground dragons have some kind of divine protection of wind that allows them to part the air in front of them, neglecting air resistance as they run. Resonating with the same type of magic they're imbued with, they started to just let the magic do its job.
We eventually arrived and started to squeeze through, and Subaru's excitement erupted into a cheer. "We broke through! We did it! We d-"
"God! You're always, always being so loud right in my ears――!" Beatrice immediately cut off Subaru's chant, but I'm concerned for another reason. Our mabeast horde was only a quarter through at this point, since we have been forced to squeeze them into a smaller area but a lengthier line.
And what's more, is that the gate is almost closing.
"Zarestia, can this thing go any faster?" I yelled over the roaring storm.
"If we go any faster than this, my mana power can't hold! I already exhausted more than 50% of my stored power during our fight, you know?!"
"What?" She wasn't even full power back then? "Anyways, I'm going to have to do something incredibly stupid yet awesome at the same time then."
"Sphinx, help me. We only need hold it for 10 seconds, after all." She nodded before flying over, and I briefed her over on what I was going to do. This is something crazy and purely experimental. Sand Time was a bending of space. I do not have control over space-time at all, but...
If neutron stars and black holes can bend space by being heavy and dense, then...
"This is the heaviest element I can produce right now, Barium. This is going to take a whole lot of stamina."
While Sphinx created an extremely strong magic circle using pure mana runes just like I did earlier, I shoved loads and loads of barium around the barrier. Sphinx's wind barrier is now pushing against the gravity created by the densest ring of barium you could ever see in the multiverse, and by some miracle, it was working. The sheer gravity from that dense pile of alkaline metal was bending space by a miniscule amount along the margin, and when the last of the mabeasts went through, the gate closed and the barium ring exploded, launching us forward a few hundred meters before stopping. Zarestia's Wind Barrier deactivated, and I fell on the sand as I waited for my stamina to replenish itself.
Meili walked over after seeing me exhausted and Subaru's second round of excitement. "Y/N onii-chan, you really are a crazy bastard. But don't celebrate too soon like onii-san over there, or else we'll all be in trouble. Speaking of onii-san..." She turned to Subaru. "You ought to be quiet. Hush."
Subaru and I looked at Meili in slight confusion before we followed her line of sight and finally landed on a patch of colourful flower beds were spread in front of us, filling the sandy soil that continued to the watchtower.
"Oh..." I murmured in realization.
"Oirangumas."