The senior knight introduced himself to Mordred. His name turned out to be Tyron.
Tyron then shouted out a few orders and the knights reorganized themselves to prepare for inspection of Darius's residence.
Mordred then followed Tyron as he guided him to the place where the Prime Minister was supposed to live, being chatted up on the way to gain more information from him.
He didn't care about that and only hurried Tyron to bring him to their destination quicker.
In Darius's house, they went directly to the basement, cut open the door as if it was paper and quickly discovered cells that seemed to hold people.
The prisoners were all young girls with the ages ranging from 6 to 14, as if any older than that were all discarded.
Seeing their pitiful state and their expressions, and just how young they were, Mordred felt rage toward Darius but kept inspecting all of the cells to eventually find Eris.
As if to mock him, the cell he was looking for was at the very end.
Eris's mouth was gagged and her hands were strapped to a metal chain above her, hanging from a wall.
Fortunately, she still had her clothes and Darius did not seem to be lying earlier; the magic ring was still there too.
This should be Hitogami's contingency in case his scheme fails. Or perhaps this was just the first step in his plan.
"Eris!"
Mordred rushed forward and then quickly removed the knebel from her mouth.
The moment Mordred appeared, Eris's eyes shot wide open in surprise.
Eris stared at him. "Mordred…"
"Yeah, it's me."
Mordred used Wind Magic to cut the chain above with a wind blade.
Eris's hands were released and she slightly staggered on her feet, but he caught her.
"You're here…" Eris muttered.
"Yeah, I'm here."
Previously frightened out of her mind, she began to look relieved.
After that, she fell into Mordred's chest and began softly sobbing.
Mordred softly smiled and gently embraced her with his armor-covered arms.
With a flash of red light, he then removed his armor.
"Ah, what happened?" Eris was surprised as she pulled back and looked at him.
"It's a magical armor I got."
"... Magical armor? That's amazing."
"Yeah, it's very amazing."
Mordred smiled, and pulled Eris close. "I'm glad you're safe."
A moment later, Eris hugged him back with a smile.
"Let's go back home," Mordred said a while later as he pulled back.
"Mmm."
Mordred turned around and that's when in the cell opposite to theirs he saw a blonde girl with blue eyes and a similar age to Eris, being escorted out by one of the soldiers.
The girl stared at them dazed.
Mordred stared back as he thought of a person, then turned back to Eris. "Let me remove those cuffs."
He used more magic to cut open the iron cuffs. Apparently, it was a low level Magic Tool that locked up Eris's Magic Power, so she couldn't escape.
Mordred then brought Eris directly outside.
Tyron followed him all along.
When Mordred prepared to take away Eris, Tyron said, "Sir Lightning God, I believe our King would like to meet with you to explain the situation. Please come with me to the Silver Palace. We'll organize both of you a comfortable place to stay."
'A place to stay? Or a place to assassinate me in?' Mordred inwardly thought.
Mordred thought for a moment and said, "I don't have time for this. First I have to go and check up on Fittoa. Something triggered a Mana Calamity in Roa. It seems that affected people were teleported to random places all over the world. You might want to investigate it."
"What, such a thing happened?..." The knight looked surprised.
Because it was still only a single day from when the Mana Calamity occurred, it was only natural for there to be no news of it in Ars, which was a month's journey away.
Eris said, "Mordred… then Father and Mother, and Ghislaine…"
"I'm sure they're fine."
Eris was silent.
Mordred didn't speak anymore. He lightly smiled, lifted Eris up in a princess carry and leaped toward the sky.
At first, Eris looked surprised, but after a while she didn't resist and pulled herself closer to Mordred's chest with a small smile.
Mordred smiled and chuckled. He loved Eris's honest and bright smiles the most.
As they flew, Eris soon asked, "There's no wind?"
"Yes. I'm using Wind Magic to avoid wind pressure. A new spell."
"Oh, I see…"
"This way we can go really fast," Mordred said, then accelerated faster and faster toward Fitoa.
The two shot north-west toward Fittoa.
It didn't take them long to soon notice the after-effects of the Mana Disaster.
With grassy plains, forests and swaths of wheat suddenly ending, what began was a circular space of land that seemed to have been removed from existence. Going deeper in, it looked like a post-apocalyptic death world with only bare earth.
Eris looked shocked. "Mordred, is this Fittoa?"
"Yes…"
"Then the city?..."
"It's probably also gone.
Mordred flew toward the center of that crater.
Soon, he noticed something in the sky. As they came closer, there was a giant floating rock there.
'Floating Fortress of Perugius,' Mordred thought.
He flew toward where the fortress was.
Below the floating castle were stone ruins of what seemed to be the fundamentals of the Citadel of Roa. There was a small camp set up near it with a small number of people.
Mordred landed in the ruins, at the camp.
As Mordred's feet were yet to touch the ground and he still held Eris, a person suddenly materialized near them with a flash of white light.
Mordred turned his head and saw that it was a man with a white fox-mask.
The man spoke in a sharp tone, "I am Arumanfi the Bright, servant of Lord Perugius. What are you two doing here?"
Mordred first fully landed and placed Eris on the ground.
Eris seemed startled after hearing the names Arumanfi and Perugius, but Mordred stayed expressionless. He said, "I'm Mordred Kingdragon, 16th Prince of Kingdragon. And this is Eris Boreas Greyrat. We're victims of the Mana Calamity."
Just as Mordred introduced himself, a brown-haired swordsman rushed out from among the refugees.
"Boy!!! You're that Magic Power Miko! Was this explosion your doing?!" The man stared at him with hatred as he lifted him up by the collar, seeming to have lost his mind.
Mordred was surprised. 'That's… Paul?'
He was not formally introduced to Paul yet, but he had once seen him in the watchtower.
Because the man looked to be Paul, Mordred did not resist. Except today Paul looked to be in a terrible state, his face distraught, eyes red with dark eyebags underneath.
…
One day earlier – day of the Mana Calamity.
After seeing the explosion spread out from Roa, reaching all the way to the Buena village before suddenly stopping, Paul Greyrat rushed out from his post at top speed to check on his family.
The magical phenomenon had appeared without warning, a wave of blinding light that devoured everything in its path.
On the way, he encountered Sylphiette, who was running in the same direction with a worried and frightened face. He barely registered her presence and passed by her - his mind was locked on one thing. His family.
When he reached his house, the scene that greeted him made his heart seize.
"No! No! Noooo!!!"
The entire building was gone, erased.
As if mocking him, the destruction had stopped just past their house; the small stone gate at the entrance to the garden still remained, untouched.
Paul fell to his knees, his throat tightening with grief and fury.
"Damn it…! DAMN IT!!!"
As he slammed his fist against the cold earth, a figure caught his eye.
Standing not far away was a strange girl - in a uniform, with jet-black hair and unique facial features.
His rational mind had shut down. Grief twisted into rage. He began to suspect that the girl had something to do with it. Unable to control his anger, he lashed out at her and questioned her about it.
The girl was terribly frightened. She stammered something in response, but Paul couldn't understand her words.
Before the situation could escalate further, Arumanfi the Bright appeared and then took custody of the strange girl.
Paul eventually mounted his horse and began riding numbly toward the center of the catastrophe, at the very least wishing to find the one responsible or to get some answers.
It was only later that a few others also arrived, telling him that they were teleported just slightly outside the Fittoa Region.
After hearing that his family might not be dead but teleported, Paul regained hope.
However, he was still uneasy and unbearably worried. After all, even though it was only teleportation, it was unknown where his family might have ended up.
It was especially frightening because both Aisha and Norn were not even one year old… If they were teleported alone, there was a high chance they were already dead.
Thinking of his next course of action, Paul remained in the refugee camp for a short while.
…
Present time, the ruins of Roa.
"Let go of him!!!" Eris let out a shout at Paul as she gripped her fists, fiercely charging at Paul to punch him.
Before that, Mordred sent out his knee as he was held by Paul.
Bam!
His knee landed on Paul's abdomen, drilling into it and causing him to instantly let go, bend over, then drop to the ground curled up like a shrimp.
"Uuugh… Aaaaagh…" Paul wailed on the ground out of pain, stunned and holding his stomach.
Mordred looked down at him. 'I don't know why, but it felt good…'
However, he also understood Paul. For this Mana Disaster to happen, the most likely cause he'd think of was exactly this abnormal Magic Power Miko that stayed in Roa – him.
Suddenly snapping and acting without thinking was also very much in Paul's character.
After a while, Mordred squatted down and used Healing Magic on Paul.
Seeing Paul recover and calm down, Mordred told him, "Have you calmed down now? The Mana Disaster had nothing to do with me. When the explosion happened, I wasn't even in the center of it in Roa. I was in Buena Village with Rudeus."
"Ah… So, you were with Rudy?... Then what happened to Rudy?"
Paul already knew from Sylphiette that Mordred took away Rudeus, but he didn't know just when. It was possible that Mordred was already back in Roa when the explosion happened.
Mordred smiled at him to ease his worries. "We were teleported together. Rudeus is fine."
"Oh, so… Rudy is fine. At least Rudy is fine… That's good."
Arumanfi interjected, saying, "Prince Mordred, was it? I know about you. Is your ability to fly an extension of your Miko powers?"
Mordred looked at him. "Yes. It's a technique I developed."
"I see… Then what else can you tell me about this Mana Calamity?"
"Ehh…" Mordred scratched his head, then said, "Oh. After being teleported, my Magic Power was low, as if it was drained."
"So it was like that…" Arumanfi muttered, seeming interested in this piece of information.
Paul was startled after hearing this and said, "By the way. For some reason, the destruction stopped right after reaching my house. Were you and Rudy there at that time?"
Mordred was surprised. "Yeah... We were just outside the house when the explosion happened."
Arumanfi looked at Mordred with curiosity.
Paul muttered. "Then, what does it all mean…"
Mordred thought for a moment and explained, "According to my understanding of Magic, I can guess that whatever Magic was triggered in Roa, it used the surrounding people and objects as fuel."
"It used people and objects as fuel?..."
"Yes. It drained people of Magic Power, and turned objects into pure Magic Power. Just like Magic Power can be used to create things like water and rocks, theoretically it should also be possible to turn any object into Magic Power, like buildings and trees. Because all humans have internal Mana flow that resists Magic that affects their bodies, it seems they could not be killed and were teleported instead."
"Is that how it works..."
While Paul looked confused, Arumanfi listened with interest, then said, "That's a very interesting observation. I believe that my Master might want to meet with you. Please, wait here. I'll go meet Lord Perugius."