72.3. The Viceroy - Part 3

"How is he?" Liana quietly enters the infirmary, even though there's no way she would wake His Majesty up. That would actually be a good thing in this case.

"Certainly not better, but stable at least," Erik answers. He's lying next to his Royal partner and keeps caressing his hair. Gotrid is doing the same with his feathers. Liana hopes Aefener subconsciously feels their comforting presence.

"I'm sorry, Your Excellency, but I don't think I can keep this up much longer. I need you to find someone to take over," Noage informs the Viceroy wearily.

"I heard there's a young Earthborn prodigy healer in the research division," Julia recalls. "Is it okay with Your Excellency to send for him?"

"What about Ingri?" Liana tilts her head. She wants to avoid involving more people unless absolutely necessary.

"We need an experienced healer," Noages breathes out and looks on the verge of collapsing. "I know Ingri is very proficient, but she focuses on botany rather than healing."

"Okay, bring Danaheim," Liana allows and sends one of the guards to fetch him.

She sits next to the Emperor and gently pets his snow-white wings. If he wasn't so pale, he would look like he's just taking a nap. But when she touches him, she doesn't feel the presence of his powerful mind as she normally would. She feels his mana pouring out, though.

"He's still protecting us," she shakes her head in disbelief. "He's doing everything in his power to protect us despite the fact that it's hurting him."

"Those who did it deserve no mercy, Viceroy," Gotrid hisses. "When we uncover the culprit, we should mobilise our warriors and go annihilate them."

"Annihilate?" Erik shudders. "You can't be serious, Gotrid. Sure, justice has to be served, but there should be a proper investigation, then a trial and..."

"You want to bring to court someone who nuked us?" Gotrid doesn't believe his ears.

"It's up to our Emperor to decide," Liana interrupts them, even though she sides with Gotrid.

Obviously, the human perspective on the matter and the Celestial perspective differ greatly and that's understandable, but she hates to see them arguing. Sure, they are bickering all the time, but this time the tension was too much. Aefener wouldn't want to see his beloved partners like that.

"Danaheim is here, Your Excellency," Vermiel lets the Earthborn scientist in.

Under normal circumstances, Dahaneim would need to be thoroughly briefed by either Julia or Noage and ideally approved by the Council before taking care of His Majesty's health, but these aren't normal circumstances and they need a first-class healer now, not later.

"You called for me, Your Excellency?" Dahaneim slips from behind the curtain and freezes.

Aefener looks as beautiful as ever, but his skin is pale and his breath shallow. It might be a shock to see the mighty Celestial Emperor like that and this is only the second time Danaheim is meeting him in person.

"Danaheim, can you take over?" Noage asks wearily. "I've been feeding His Majesty non-stop for three hours now and I'm reaching my limit."

"Intravenously?" Danaheim gets the gist immediately after one glance at Noage's tentacles stuck to His Majesty's arm and a bunch of empty smoothie cups.

"That's right, can you do it?" Noage makes sure.

"Of course, it would be an honour," Danaheim nods, his expression perfectly calm. Liana appreciates it, there are a lot of panicking Celestials as it is. To have someone who can remain calm under all circumstances is a huge asset.

Noage releases his tentacles with a relieved sigh and Danaheim replaces him in an instant with precision nobody would expect from still a high schooler. He drinks his first smoothie and assures everyone that there's no problem.

"Your Excellency, the Minister of Magic Research calls for you," Luviael announces with evident hope. "She says they have something."

*****

"Tell me you have good news," Liana says while staring at several tables covered with huge piles of quartz crystals.

"We do," Rina nods with a hint of a careful smile. "Fortunately, the shield let the Clawfangs out and back in, so they managed to procure us a decent amount of quartz. We think it should be enough."

"The shield let them out?" Liana is surprised. "They didn't need to use the underground passage?"

"It turns out Draconians have no problem passing the shield, but humans can only get out, not back in," Nestelle explains. "For obvious reasons, we didn't have time to examine it further."

"Can crystals absorb our mana in the same way it worked in the game?" Liana is curious and takes one of the smaller crystals into her hands. "Oh, it's warm!"

"They can," Rina confirms. "And these have been charged already, we distributed them to all Celestials in the building who were free and everyone was more than eager to contribute with their mana."

"Did crystals always have these properties and we just didn't know?" Luviael asks and examines one of the quartz herself.

"People interested in esoteric stuff were claiming crystals had these properties for centuries," Nestelle sets the record straight. "The only problem was that humans don't produce mana, so there was no way they could prove it and harness its true power."

"Charging the crystals was easier than we expected, now the actual hard part," Rina bites her lip. "Is there someone who actually succeeded in casting the Shield spell besides His Majesty? We need to attune the crystals or we would just have a huge battery we can't plug in."

"Taranah almost did once during our training sessions," Liana recalls. "Normally, he would be here, but he's still on cleaning duty as a punishment I gave him."

"Unless you can do it yourself, Your Excellency, we need him," Rina insists. "We tried several times already, but, unfortunately, we haven't succeeded. I'm sure we would eventually, but time is of the essence right now."

"It would also be a great chance for Taranah to redeem himself," Liana admits and tells Luviael to call him.

It doesn't take even five minutes and Taranah storms into the lab. He's wearing a simple and more practical version of a Celestial robe and he forgot to take off his rubber gloves for cleaning, but his eyes are glowing with eagerness.

"Your Excellency, I'd do anything for His Majesty," he blurts out enthusiastically and his wings are shaking with anticipation.

"Any Celestial would, but we need your magical proficiency in particular," Liana explains. "We need you to imbue these crystals with the Shield spell."

"All of them?" Taranah widens his eyes. "I'll do my best, but..."

"Just one successful spell should do," Rina calms him down. "We don't need to imbue each individual crystal, but vibrate them with the right frequency. We're going to back you up and try to link the crystals to the shield outside. Focus only on the spell itself and leave the rest to us."

"O-okay," Taranah gulps, steps closer to the huge pile and starts casting.

A respective transfiguration symbol does appear and the scientists almost start celebrating, but it's too faint and breaks after a few seconds.

"I guess I'm nervous," Taranah mumbles and flutters his wings anxiously. "I know His Majesty depends on me right now, but..."

"Taranah," Liana approaches him and puts her hand on his shoulder. "You're the third-best caster after Aefener and me and I don't have nearly as much time to train as you. If anyone can do it, it's you."

"I heard His Majesty won't wake up unless we make this work," he starts to panic.

"Taranah," Liana repeats his name, this time with more tenderness. "Aefener trusts you. I made you clean toilets because you threatened that trust, but you realised your error and you can fully redeem yourself. We didn't name you a minister only because Aefener felt you wouldn't want it."

"I know," he nods. "I'm an Imperial battle mage, not a politician."

"So do what you do best, you were always a great caster," Liana encourages him.

Taranah looks at her gratefully, takes a deep breath and tries again. He doesn't rush this time and devotes a minute to precise mana channelling and then another full minute to materialising a transfiguration symbol. The scientists stay quiet until he fixates the symbol so that it won't dissolve.

"The crystals are reacting!" Nestelle shouts excitedly. "Can you feel it? They started vibrating."

Rina jumps to the pile and joins her assistant in their combined effort to link the crystals to the shields outside. At first, nothing happens, but they continue channelling the energy because failure is not an option. Finally, the crystals start glowing like lightbulbs.

"Are they connected to the shield now?" Liana is almost afraid to jinx it, but the crystals keep glowing without any fluctuation.

"Yes, I can feel the mana in them flowing outside," Rina says victoriously and Nestelle is nodding furiously in confirmation.

Liana's phone starts ringing at that very moment. She picks it up immediately because the name on the screen reveals that it's Erik.

"Ryuuto woke up!" Erik screams into the receiver happily. "Just for a few seconds, but Danaheim assured us that he's sleeping normally now."

"The shield is holding," Luviael quickly checks the outside and everyone in the room starts celebrating.

"We did it," Liana whispers and collapses in the nearest chair.

She feels relieved as if a huge boulder has been lifted from her chest. However, at the same time, she knows that saving Aefener is just the beginning. Race rulers all over the world were attacked and unless a miracle happens, a war between Draconians and humans is imminent.

Liana clutches her hands into fists and looks out of the window. The shield is beautiful and the only thing protecting them from another missile. If it wasn't for their divine embodiment of magic, all of them would be dead by now. She can't help it—there's a part of her that wishes her Emperor would call for a conquest.