Path of the Pioneers

A voice is calling out to me, I think. I can see perfectly fine, but it's like there's something obscuring my vision - some sort of sheet draped over my subconscious. Everything is just so incredibly fuzzy, and the details refuse to come together. My eyes flutter and my breath hitches, am I hyperventilating?

Something brushes away a bit at the blurriness distorting my vision - some sort of sharp sting on my back. It feels like I've been slapped.

"Sybil!" The voice says - and I'm fairly positive that it's Stella, "Sybil, are you alright?"

"Y-yeah..." I rasp out, licking my lips and releasing my tight grip on Tanascáil.

My body shakes from some meager attempts to control my breathing, they only slightly work. A hand rubs against my cheek, wiping away some of the drying tears still coating my face. It's warm, so very warm. "Sybil..." I hear my master say. Looking up, I can see her staring down at me. Lidded eyes just barely clinging onto life, and shaking fingers expending their last bit of energy. She's on her way out.

"Everything's alright, Sybil." She coos, "You've done it, you've succeeded." She brushes my hair back from my face, and it feels as if the tears may very well start up again. "Try to remember, if you can, that the me that you've slain is no more than a ghost- the.." She stops for a moment, taking a deep breath, "the very reason that I exist.. Is in order to carry you forward. I'm your teacher, after all."

"But, but.." I stammer, "I.."

"No buts," she interjects, "I don't want to hear it... You haven't killed a person today, my girl. But, gods." Her breathing is slowing, growing heavier by the second. "Gods, Sybil, I'm so very proud of you. For you to retain that gentle heart, even.. Even after everything. I-it's... It's unbelievable. And I will always be so, so proud of you for it - and everything else that you've accomplished..."

She stops for a moment, catching her breath. "Please," she says, holding my face in her hands, "this is a selfish request- an unbelievably selfish request, but... Please, Sybil, never cast away that gentleness. I let myself fall into the depths of violence early- let myself get lost in the ease of... Of killing someone who showed themselves to be an enemy."

My master moves a hand from my face, coughing wetly into it. I can't see what came out, but I already know what it was.

"It's so very easy... To trample through people like they're nothing more than monsters. So please, at the very least... Don't treat murder as- as your first option..." Another cough, her body seems to relax a bit - as if she's beginning to go limp. I hold her upright with my arms, just barely keeping her standing, "But I have faith in you - an unbelievable amount of faith in you. Y-you... You'll save her- Adeline, I mean. I'm only sad that I couldn't meet her..." She laughs weakly.

She opens her mouth as if more words will soon flow out. I watch intently, waiting for her lips to move - waiting for anything. My eyes refuse to blink, and my gaze doesn't part from her.

I hear a chime, and see blurry text pop into existence in front of me. The blue and white which were merged together appear in focus very suddenly, only long enough for me to read the text the window contains.

[Thou hast triumphed in thy final trial!]

I keep staring at her, keeping my focus locked on my master - nothing else matters in this moment. She doesn't move a muscle, she doesn't speak a word. There's nothing left behind her eyes, and her hands have fallen to her sides.

As much as I silently plead to anything that will listen, for so much as just another minute with her...She remains still. Perfectly still.

She's gone. No, loathe though I am to admit it, she'd been gone, even before all of this - but now my brief visit with her spirit has been put to an end.

Never again will I hear her voice, nor receive her advice, nor hear her crack jokes nor tell stories nor support me in a way that no other- I bite down hard on my tongue, the pressure behind my eyes subsiding. I can't let myself cry, not anymore. There's work to be done - and on a limited amount of time. I have to hurry.

"Are you ready?" Stella says from behind.

"Yeah. I'm ready."

A hand presses against my back, "See you soon, Sybil."

The world around me disentangles, as if it were painted on a canvas. That color washes away and disappears, leaving me standing once again in a pure, white void - empty of anything else. It's still, until I finally shift slightly. Ripples form in that void, and color begins to peek through it.

[Child of magic, thy long struggle is at an end]

[Thou hath earned thy place and path]

Those ripples slowly shift and sway, moving until they come to rest at a singular point - all overlapping one another. They're directly in front of me, so close that it feels as if I can just reach out and touch them. At the same time, it looks like they may be infinitely far away. As they grow in intensity, the colors inside begin to fly out as ribbons and streaks.

[Claim thy right]

All at once, the ripples turn into vast tears in the surface of the void, streams of color spilling outward. They wind around one another like a ball of yarn, settling before me - hovering, as if waiting for me to grasp at them.

A shaky hand reaches out toward that wellspring of power, barely even a conscious movement. It sinks inside, the individual threads intangible to my body.

Like when I had the Slumbering removed, my hand feels searing hot and freezing cold. Pins and needles run from my fingers all the way up to my elbow, and the tingling very nearly sends a shudder down my spine. As if magnetized toward me, the energy coalesces on my hand. A moment later, it sinks inside.

I suppress a scream as I feel it explode out inside of me - that vast amount of magic just about sending me to my knees. There's nothing I can do, nothing to be done. I simply have to endure. Static gathers across the surface of my skin, magma courses through my veins, and stars clash within my skull.

[Congratulations! You have defeated the Pioneer of Sorcery (Echo)]

[Additional rewards are being factored...]

I swear I can feel shards of glass and twisted nails working their way through my insides. The pain might just make me sick to my stomach.

[Class transfer attempt succeeded...]

[Congratulations! You have become the Pioneer of Sorcery]

[Discarding previous class: Apprentice...]

I think that I'm laying down on my stomach, arms splayed out in front of me. I must have collapsed at some point. Fortunately, I haven't quite spilled my guts out onto the void yet.

A stream of boxes and windows pan through my vision, a new one inevitably sending another scrolling upward. The chimes start to feel as if someone is tolling a massive bell inside of my head, sending a hot flash through the entirety of my body. I think that the worst of it is over, though.

If it's anything like before, I may be bedridden for weeks. An unacceptable fate, considering how little time Adeline has left - if she's been left with anything at all.

The pain subsides after a while, and my body soon feels hollow. Just an aching, empty mess. It feels like I can't move a limb, and I'm unwilling to try. For some reason, the floor of this place just feels so, so comfortable.

My breathing is coming to a crawl, and my eyelids are growing so unbelievably heavy. The mana consumption, the class transfer, everything that has happened before has finally collected into a singular bout of exhaustion - and I am unable to stop it. But perhaps... Perhaps if I were to just sleep for a little while, I'll be okay.

I'll save her, of course. I won't waste a moment in order to save her. So for now, it can only be a little while.

Just a little while, okay?