The Way Back (3)

"Durendal!" Ben screamed.

A shining sword appeared out of thin air from his desperate call. Its blade glowed as it formed a barrier around us like a shield. I stared at the beautiful pink and red peonies that bloomed around the diamond handles as if it was freshly plucked.

It was truly like I was in a fantasy world when the arrows dropped into the snow few meters away. When the sword dropped down, Ben placed the weapon inside a leather belt on his hip. He continued to lift me on his back as he sped up with Charles.

"I think we're safe now," Ben wiped his forehead.

"Do you think you can walk now?" He squatted down.

I nodded my head and slid off his back. According to the map, we were more than halfway along the way to the next cave. Ben passed me the two long sticks he had picked up when I had thrown them away.

We continued to hike until I found the cave few miles away. Instead of conserving my energy, I sprinted towards the cave with my mana. I teared up in happiness when I stepped on the teleportation circle that was drawn on the ground.

Both Ben and Charles were surprised to find me already pouring my mana into the ground to activate the circle. They ran to where I stood before the circle activated to transport me to a foreign place alone. After hopping from each cave to another, I looked up to see the entrance of the facility.

The modern glass walls reminded me of home. I jumped up and down with my last remaining bits of energy. I couldn't help myself when I collapsed near the lobby after knowing it was the end of the excruciating long tortuous walks I had to suffer to get here.

"Yess!" I shouted, clutching my arms in a victory pose on the floor.

"Now let's use the teleportation gates!" I faced Ben with glittering eyes.

Ben sighed before he helped pull me back up before walking to the glowing teleportation gate. The menu projected into the air as Ben tapped onto the hallow screen to set the destination to the location to the entrance of our school in the first district.

I did the honors of pressing the button to activate the gate. But, nothing happened. It hummed in dull silence with no change from when we first entered the facility.

I kept on pressing the button in disbelief repeatedly until Charles grabbed onto my hand when the button appeared as if it was going to break.

"No way. Why isn't it working Ben? Ben!" I shouted.

Ben and Charles walked around the teleportation gate to see what was wrong.

"It needs more power to teleport three people. It looks like it needs to restore some of its power and it seems it'll take a few days with the lack of mana here," Ben answered after looking at its battery levels.

I instantly checked the amount of mana I currently possessed to see if I could reboot the gate. When my mana faintly started to hum, I discovered I had about a quarter of mana supplied within me from my usual levels.

Normally, my mana would recover faster, but with the severe lack of sleep and exercise and not enough nutrients to supplement my body, my mana was recovering very slowly. It was frustrating to have unlimited mana, but at the same time to not have it. My childlike body was not able to handle unlimited mana like my potential adult form.

I was stuck with possessing as much mana my vessel could handle without going haywire. I looked at the battery levels and discovered it would only take half of the mana I had right now. "I'll charge it," I volunteered.

Before Charles and Ben could stop me, I started pouring a great amount of mana into the gate.

As more of my mana left me, I felt my vision wavering and blacking out more often. Huh? Why was this happening? A similar thing happened when I felt drained from pouring mana into Charles.

"Stop Rika! Stop!" Charles screamed while pulling my hand.

When Ben held onto my other hand, I couldn't feed my mana into the gate anymore.

"Why? How?" I asked to Ben in confusion and panic.

"I'm stopping you from being able to use your mana with my mana." Ben sleekly answered.

"Your body can't handle the mass amount of mana leaving your body. That's why you felt like your vision was wavering and your body about to go limp. Charles noticed so he tried to stop you." Ben continued.

"Because when someone leaves less than an eighth of their mana left, there's a chance they'll go into a deep sleep to recover their mana for a very long time with a chance of never waking up." Ben grimly finished his warning.

"Well the teacher said it was like I had unlimited amount of mana. So, the amount of mana I have even though I have only one eighth of my mana left would be above the average person in the first district." I whined as I tried to defend myself.

"Well it's those types of people that never wake up," Charles quietly mumbled with worry in his voice.

'Vampire?' The thought quickly came across my head. In some folktales, in my past life, vampires went to sleep to recover from over exerting their powers. I wondered why I suddenly remembered this concept rather than when I felt tired over practicing my mana.

"I get it, I'll stop," I resigned.

Still not convinced, both Ben and Charles held onto my hands and Ben poured out mana into the gate with his other spare hand. Few minutes later, the gate flashed to indicate it had enough power to teleport us to our destination.

"I'll walk into the gate first," Ben didn't stop grabbing my hand and stepped in the gate filled with light.