Chapter 2: Desert (1/2)
”I'm alive!” It was the first thought that Layn had when his body formed once more. The emotions behind it were so strong, that he even end up screaming this sentence out loud…
Only to realise that due to the roaring of the wind, no one could hear him at all.
”Huh?” Under the immense force of the winds, Layn wasn't even able to turn his body around. According to the plan, he should reappear roughly twenty years in the past, above the lake near the capital city. Taking the slight miscalculations in the formula of the gran arcana into account, there was a chance he would end up to five miles away from the casting place.
But that was location difference, not heigh change. Appearing so high in the air wasn't a part of Layn's plan by any means!
”Shit, I need to do it after all…” Tightening his jaws, Layn felt the magic coursing through his only partially formed body. Right now, every single bit of magical energy was precious. If he recklessly used his formative magic energy, his future potential would be wasted!
But there was no point in having huge potential as a corpse. Making up his mind, Layn used the fundamental magic to force his body around.
”Wha…” Gazing down into the land far below, Layn felt his mind suffering from a shock. No matter how much he screwed the formulas, he shouldn't appear so high in the skies! And what was the deal with the desert below him stretching as far as he could see? Royal capital laid on a vast plain, not this kind of barren land!
'Heck, I will think about that later. For now, safety first.' Reprimanding himself in his thoughts, Layn focused on crafting magic. Slowing down his descent was beyond the scope of simplistic fundamental magic. Thankfully, doing so wasn't all that costly in terms of mana usage.
”Hernloc.” Chanting this single word in his mind, Layn forced the image of a relatively complex magical formula to appear in his mental vision. Pouring a small bit of the mana that still gathered to reconstruct his body properly into this mental image, the archmage allowed nature to do the rest.
With the magic flowing through the multi-dimensional labyrinth of runes and geometrical formations, Layn felt the spell coming to effect only when half of the distance from the merciless surface was already gone.
As if falling into a huge, soft pillow, Layn's body stopped accelerating towards the ground. Soon, his hectic fall turned into a gentle glide through the air. Using the moment high in the air, Layn looked around. Before he would lose this advantage, scouting his position had almost absolute priority.
'Something went wrong with the gran arcana… Too many things don't add up…' That was the only logical conclusion that Layn could create on the spot. Rather than arguing with the facts, the archmage preferred to make the most out of the situation he was in.