Cameraman Never Dies

Selena stood on a plateau, there was nothing but a hot desert as far as her eyes could see. Naturally formed stone monuments, both big and small, and the occasional dessert plants made the scenery breathtaking.

But no matter how good the scenery was, there was no way that a human could live here. It was so hot that a volcano trip seemed like a hike to Mount Everest... That was a bit too exaggerated, but oh well.

"Now," Seraphis spoke, stopping whatever Eleyn was about to say. "Show us your new principle, Selena."

Eleyn looked at Seraphis with dissatisfaction, but she decided to say the rest, "This is a dessert called 'Salora', the largest and the hottest. You can cast the largest of magics here, and not a soul would notice."

'Salora? Who even named it?' She laughed internally, 'At least try to be original'

"Alright, here goes nothing," She took a deep breath, it was not wrong to say that she was too excited for this, she should actually be nervous, but there was not even a small inkling of nervousness in her mind. This was a principle she had created on her own, and she had to show it off.

She took up her wand, a sleek and twisted brown wooden shaft with a red jewel attached handle. Her master had made that for her, it was brand new, she did not know how a catalyst was created, but this was impressive.

As it was new, there was barely any ether inside the red jewel catalyst, she had to make do with her own ether. She took a deep breath, guiding her ether slowly toward her wand.

Selena tried to remember what her master had told her— two things affected the casting of an ethercraft, one was ether, and the other was psyche.

A principle depends on how you perceive the ether and reality, and also the bond between the two. You can cast any ethercraft as long as you have a simple principle and enough ether.

But 'enough ether' was not always a solution, and the only way to ease up the ether consumption was with a more complicated and detailed principle that shows the path for ether to create the said ethercraft.

Psyche is something that keeps the complexity of principle in check, if the principle exceeds what your psyche can handle, then you will lose your mind and succumb to madness. There was one way to ease the usage of psyche, and that was chanting.

Chanting helps to keep the consumption of the psyche lower, at least to an extent. Now that all the basics were down, she closed her eyes and focused on chanting.@@novelbin@@

"From the skies, the servants rise,

Seraphim, with wings of fire,

Heed my call, O angels wise,

With your light, descend and sweep,

Reap their souls, may sinners be punished."

She opened her eyes, her crimson pupils were exuding crimson colored ether like a fog. "Trumpets of apocalypse!" She shouted. But nothing happened as she still stood there, waiting to see whether it had worked or not.

Seraphis caught her daughter as she fainted, a grand principle never worked the first time it was tried, it would only consume ether and nothing more, a grand principle was created through trial and error. Her daughter had fainted due to lack of ether, and this was a life lesson she needed to learn.

"Let's head back then," Eleyn suggested, "We need to help her polish her principle, it seemed grand since it consumed the whole of her ether reserve and even a lot from us." She was cheerful and had completely forgot about her son.

"Let's do just that." Seraphis finally gave up on keeping a stern face and laughed lightly "Do you remember the first time this happened to both of us? Thinking back, it was hilarious."

"Yeah, I agree. Now let's teleport back to—" She did not have enough time to finish her sentence as she heard something faint, but unmissable. It was the horn of a giant trumpet, the faint sound soon turned into a loud but distant horn.

The scene before them was magnificent, the clouds split as large meteors passed through. They showered down on the place like rain on a desert, literally and metaphorically.

The giant fire artillery made the desert into a sea of flames, the centuries-old tall stone monuments were razed to the ground in a matter of seconds, and many big and small craters formed on the ground as they quaked the place. The shower was only brief, but the destruction was enormous.

Both Eleyn and Seraphis could only look at it in awe. The ethercraft can still be polished, and they both can cast more destructive ethercrafts. But this was definitely not what anyone would consider as a 'beginner level'.

They stared at the desolate landscape that was once a beautiful desert for some time before deciding to head back.

But there was no need for them to head back as the 'time' decided to head back and take them with it.

———

Judge opened his eyes, laying on the familiar patch of grass, but this time, there was no déjà vu. He could still remember what all had happened, though not in detail.

He got up, his master was leaning in on a sword. She had knocked him out on that patch and was waiting for him to wake up. He did not want more sessions of spontaneous air travel, so he decided to turn the course of his lesson.

"Master!" Judge readied his wooden sword, hoping this would go the way he needed. "Why is it that all of your blows are heavy, even a light slash."

Seraphis stood up from her leaning position, "It is an ethercraft principle, but let's get down to the basics first shall we?"

"Master please tell me a bit about the principle," Judge bowed... for the first time. It felt really unfamiliar, "Maybe I can defend better."

His master did not seem convinced, she eyed Judge for a bit, as if she was deciding whether or not to feed her cattle today. "Alright," She let out an exasperated sigh, "Come on, follow me. Let's see if you can endure this then."

Yes! Judge celebrated internally, but he could not forget about Percival. So he quickly sent a mental message to Lucifer— No Hawthrone, since he was not wearing the mask.

'Hawthorne!' He called out, and continued without waiting for a reply. 'Your two targets for today, don't kill them. And definitely don't let them out of their house... Don't forget to wear your mask.'

There was no reply, but it came in just a bit. 'Yes! Recorder' Judge could sense the hesitation and surprise in his voice, which meant that he didn't remember events before time turning.