Book 3: Chapter 109 (1/2)

“Why are we running back?” Mary asked. She was walking alongside Tafel, a plate of food in her hands. With every step she took, the ground underneath her shrank, her walking pace keeping up with the sprinting demon beside her. “Can’t we teleport?”

“If these sheep things are anything like those blood chimeras that I fought in a dungeon, which they seem to be, then they have some anti-magic properties built in,” Tafel said. She took in a deep breath through her nose before continuing to speak, her feet thumping against the ground. A fireball floating ahead of her illuminated her path. “If we enter a portal, and they cancel it before we fully exit the portal, what do you think will happen to us?”

Mary’s brow furrowed. “Our body ends up in two places at once?”

“That’s right,” Tafel said. “And that’s why we’re running.”

“Oh.” Mary munched on her food and swallowed. “Why can’t you use that offensively then? Have something partly enter the portal and then cancel it. Won’t you be able to cut off anyone’s limb like that?”

“It doesn’t work,” Tafel said. She ducked to avoid a branch and brushed aside a few vines with Chi’Rururp.

“Why not?”

Tafel turned her head towards Mary and frowned. “If I told you, would you be able to understand?”

“There’s no harm in trying,” Mary said. She swallowed and took another bite.

“I’m in the middle of a sprint! I’ll run out of breath,” Tafel said and took in another deep breath.

“You need to exercise more,” Mary said with a nod. “So, why can’t you cut off limbs by closing portals? Have you tried?”

“I have,” Tafel said and grimaced, ignoring the stabbing pain in her side. Why did Mary have to travel so far away from the group? “And it doesn’t work.”

“But why not?” Mary finished her meal and blinked at the empty plate. “Where do I put this?”

“Give it here,” Tafel said and grabbed the plate. She opened a portal beside herself and tossed it inside. “You see how slowly the portal closes? If you grabbed the edge of it and pulled, then it’d be open for even longer. It can’t cut anything.”

Mary furrowed her brow. “Then why don’t we teleport?”

“Because when you and other anti-magic-loving freaks break my portal, it shatters,” Tafel said. “Space doesn’t slowly mend itself, it destroys the portal completely as if it never opened in the first place.”

“Then if you create a portal, and I break it, won’t we be able to cut anything?” Mary asked, her eyes lighting up.

Tafel rolled her eyes. “You can already cut everything.” Her footsteps slowed down until she came to a halt in front of a clearing. Hoofprints covered the muddy ground, the undergrowth having been trampled and uprooted until the forest floor was just a layer of brown. A few trees had fallen, their roots exposed above gaping holes in the earth. Tafel increased the strength of her flames to cast light on a greater portion of the field. “What happened here?”

“It looks like hundreds of horses ran through,” Mary said and squatted, putting her finger on the ground. “See? Hoofprints.”