One Last System

*Five minutes earlier*

Mia remained by the tree where Arthur left her to stay and rest.

She sat back when she heard a rustling followed by someone moving at an incredible speed.

She sat still when the movement suddenly ceased, stopped in a time frame smaller than she could perceive.

Because that was what Arthur requested of her.

'I need to trust him,' Mia thought. She tried to wash her worries away by gulping down a mouthful of her saliva.

Mia then lowered her eyes to her hands. They were ever-so-slightly trembling.

'That's weird,' Mia thought while an empty smile formed on her lips. All the emotions left her eyes, leaving them to just stare at the girl's hand. 'It's not cold, so why am I shivering?'

Mia continued to stare at her hands for a few more seconds.

Thump.

A silent noise reached Mia's ears and made her turn her head towards it. The noise itself balanced right on the edge of being too little for Mia to notice it.

However, there was something different about it.

For Mia, hidden behind a set of protective arrays, a silent sound like that didn't fit the noisy atmosphere that started the moment Arthur immersed himself deeper into the forest.

"What is..." Mia muttered and leaned forward. She prompted herself up with her hands as she crawled a few paces, only to stop when she felt she reached the border of Arthur's barriers.

Crack.

The time stopped. Mia's body froze. Her mind went into alert mode when the girl recognized the strange feeling that pushed her into this weird state.

A small spark of extremely bright, yellow light suddenly appeared from the depths of the forest. Its extreme brightness shoot right through the forest's foliage, allowing Mia to see it even with all the trees in the way.

The light moved down, following a strange, zig-zag pattern as it pulled down. And then, it touched the ground.

Brrrr...

A strange, guttural-like sound zapped past Mia's ears. And then, the entire path that the bright orb of light took to reach the ground suddenly lit up, only for black lighting to descend down from the skies and scorch said path.

'Impossible,' Mia thought. Her eyes opened wide to the point her eyeballs started to dry up.

Mia could recognize what was going on... Because it was the last thing that she could remember happening before she lost her consciousness before!

"Arthur!" Mia shouted, clawing at the ground to get a better grip and push her body forward.

'Back then, all the mana turned into the fuel for this strange force,' Mia thought, using all four of her limbs to propel herself even further in the direction she could sense her lover from.

And then, the black lighting struck again. And again. And again.

Mia's perception of time slowed down to a crawl, allowing her to see the individual fissures opening up in the very fabric of the space, only to instantly receive a powerful attack from the black lightning.

Yet, even with all the lighting leading Mia to her beloved, her accelerated perception of time didn't mean her body could move faster than usual. In the end, she could only watch the passing trees while rushing in to find Arthur.

"Arty!" Mia shouted when the body of her partner finally emerged from behind a line of trees.

And he was in an extremely battered state.

Blood marked the entire bottom of his face. He was on all fours, and yet his limbs continued to tremble, clearly struggling to keep Arthur's body up.

And then, there was a small pool of blood and filth right below Arthur's head.

The head that he then turned slightly to the side.

For a brief moment, their eyes met. And within this single frame of time flow, Mia could see Arthur's eyes twitching. Then, a fire of determination exploded behind his pupils, seemingly illuminating them from behind.

"RUN!"

Arthur opened his mouth and moved his lips... But not a single sound came out.

'Run,' Mia translated Arthur's words from the movements of his lips alone. And then, her face darkened.

'As if I could run when you are so hurt!' she thought, using all her might to get closer to her man.

'Since I survived an outburst like that, then maybe I can protect him from it!' Mia thought, grabbing a nearby branch only to pull herself on it while kicking the ground with her legs.

The mana in the area suddenly twitched. It was as if a small shock suddenly reverberated through its entire volume.

The mana in the air then rushed right into Arthur, feeding him the energy right as another fissure opened up directly above Arthur's back.

'No,' Mia protested. Her soul screamed out when she realized she wouldn't get there in time.

She could see the events happening in a slow-motion as if someone only served her a single frame of instant at a time. Yet, her body couldn't catch up anywhere near the speed of her perception.

'If he keeps going like that, his own mana will burn him from inside!' Mia thought, desperately reaching out toward Arthur...

Only for Arthur's eyes to twitch... and then for the young man to realize all the mana he managed to gather and then use it to push Mia away!

And then, just like all those times before, the black lighting came to strike down the fissure that appeared right above Arthur's black. And it went without saying that even once all the fissures ended up burned away, the lighting continued and struck Mia's beloved!

"Arty!" Mia shouted again just as the shockwave released by Arthur reached and then carried her away to the safety.

Then, the shockwave of the lighting followed right up, sweeping an entire area clean.

"Cough!" Mia desperately attempted to clear her throat once the disaster had concluded. She then managed to get back to her feet and looked in the direction where the lighting struck down.

'I need to get to him,' she thought, falling on her knees right as she attempted to make just a single step.

'What the...' Mia thought only for her body to start convulsing. Every last muscle in her body pulsated, constantly tensing up and relaxing and making it impossible for the girl to move at all.

The drawback of moving at her physically top speed hit the girl hard.

'I need to get to him,' Mia thought, grasping at the forest's undergrowth, trying to pull herself forward. It was a perfect measure of both her desperation and determination.

And then, as if to bury all Mia's hopes, the lightning struck the ground again.