The Butterfly Effect: I Refuse This Ending

Chapter 64: Training

Hiratsuka walked into class without her cup.

The cup was a constant act; she held it, set it down, occasionally drank from it at moments. Without it she looked like a different version of herself.

She looked at the twelve of us.

"Outside," she said. "Now. Leave your bags."

We were silent for a moment before moving.

She took us to the courtyard behind the eastern wing and stopped in the center of it. The morning air was cold and several people were still pulling on outer layers when she raised one hand and a spatial formation seal activated under our feet.

I had seen Caelum use spatial magic. He had a texture where you felt the transition.

Hiratsuka’s had no texture.

One moment: courtyard, the academy buildings visible.

Next moment: Lava.

***

The heat arrived before the visual did.

Like walking into something solid.

It pressed against the face and hands immediately, less like temperature and more like a presence that had claimed the mountain long before we arrived.

Then the visual caught up.

Volcanic terrain. Not metaphorically actual volcanic terrain, black stone and cooled lava flows and the particular barren quality of land that had been reshaped by something catastrophic and was still in the process of settling.

Steam rising from cracks in the ground to the left. The smell of sulfur was immediate. And ahead, rising from the landscape at an angle that looked steeper than it had any right to be, the volcano.

Large. Dormant for the moment, though the heat rising from it suggested it was far from inactive.

We stood at the base.

Twelve of us. Hiratsuka standing slightly apart, holding nothing, looking at the peak with the expression of someone who had been here before and found it adequate.

"The peak," she said. "All twelve of you. First one there gets a priority choice in team formation."

"Finally."

"There are no rules," Hiratsuka said. "There is the bottom and there is the top and there is the distance between them. How you cover it is your concern." She looked at us

"Also."

She paused.

"The hot spring at the summit is real. I am not inventing that as motivation. It is there. It is very good. It has been here for approximately four hundred years and the mana density in the water is sufficient to accelerate recovery from whatever state you arrive in."

"Whatever state," someone behind me repeated.

"Yes," Hiratsuka said. "I chose my words carefully and use of flying or healing magic."

She stepped back.

"Begin when you are ready."

Caelum said: "What counts as ready?"

"You’ll know," she said.

***

Caelum moved first.

He moved up the slope at a pace that communicated he had looked at the terrain, assessed it as a problem with a straightforward solution, and implemented the solution.

No hesitation, no tactical evaluation, no consultation with anyone. Just up.

I watched him go for approximately two seconds and then looked at the terrain properly.

The slope was not uniform. The lower section was a loose black grave, that shifted under weight, that made each step cost twice what flat ground would cost,

That punished anything resembling a running pace because running on gravel that size just meant falling on gravel that size.

The mid section was where the heat intensified, visible as a shimmer in the air above the stone. And the upper section, from roughly two thirds of the way up, was where the steam vents were.

Visible from here as white columns rising from the rock face at irregular intervals.

The direct route was the obvious route.

The direct route was also the route everyone was going to take.

Lina was beside me.

"Sylph," I said.

"She is already looking," Lina said. "The northern face. Less gravel, more solid stone. Cooler on approach because the wind comes from the east." A pause. "Steeper."

"Steeper is fine," I said. "Steeper is consistent. Gravel is not consistent."

Lina looked at me.

"You want to go together,".

"I want to go north," I said. "What you do is your choice."

"North," she said.

We went north

***

The northern face was steeper than the front face by a margin that became clear approximately thirty seconds into the climb.

It was also, as Sylph had indicated, cooler. The wind came off it steadily, carrying the heat away rather than trapping it.

The stone was solid basalt, old and settled.

I moved up it with the mana reinforcement running steady through my legs.

The heat was still significant.

By the first hundred meters of elevation it had moved from significant to personal.

It was not abstract anymore.

It was a specific pressure against the face, a specific quality to each breath, the air thinner and hotter simultaneously in a way the body registered as mildly unreasonable.

"This is fine," I said, to nobody.

"You are doing the thing," Lina said, slightly behind me.

"What thing?"

"The thing where you say something is fine when it is not fine but you have decided it does not matter."

"It does not matter," I said. "That part is accurate."

She made a sound that was not quite disagreement and kept climbing.

***

The eastern face had fewer of them than the main approach,

Sylph’s assessment had been accurate, but fewer was not none.

The first one I encountered was a crack in the rock approximately the width of a hand, releasing steam.

I stepped over it.

The second one was less cooperative. It occupied a section of the only viable route up a particular rock face, active and consistent, steam rising in a column that blocked the path completely.

I stood in front of it.

"Gale Vortex," Lina said, from behind me.

I cast Gale Vortex at about a quarter output, directed horizontally across the steam column. The wind shear cut through it, deflecting the steam to the right long enough to move through.

I moved through.

"Thank you," I said.

"You were going to do it anyway,"

"Yes. But slower."

She smiled. I felt it in the bond more than I saw it.

The upper section was where the real heat started.

It came directly from the rock, still holding residual volcanic energy and releasing it steadily into the air and into anyone touching the surface.

The mana reinforcement that was sufficient below was now under heavier load, drawing more from the Core to maintain output.

Lina’s breathing had changed.

It stayed controlled, but she was now cycling mana deliberately through her channels with each breath, using her Wind Spirit Bond to draw in cooler air and regulate body heat.

It suited her cultivation type better than mine.

We were close to the summit. The final ridge was visible ahead.

***

A voice came from above.

"Oh thank the gods."

Someone was already there.

I came over the ridge.

The summit was wider than expected.

Black stone surrounded the spring in a rough circle. freewebnøvel.com

Beyond it, the academy was visible in the distance.

Steam drifted lazily across the water.

Caelum was sitting at the edge of the hot spring with his legs in the water.

"Spatial step," he said. "Forty-meter range. The summit was forty-two meters from the last usable point. I extended it."

"So," I said.

"It worked," he said. "I arrived about eight minutes ago."

He looked at the water. "Hiratsuka was correct. The spring is four hundred years old."

I sat down on the opposite side of the spring. Lina sat beside me.

The water was warm, dense with mana, and recovery was immediate after the climb.

From below the ridge, the rest of us were still climbing.

A wind technique activated somewhere below. Other voices were cut off by distance.

Caelum watched the ridge.

"First arrival gets priority in team formation," he said.

"Yes," I said.

"I arrived first."

"Yes."

"So I have priority."

"Yes."

He looked at me.

"I want Lina and you," he said. "Lina is certain. You are conditional."

"I have no prior commitment," I said.

"Good."

He continued watching the ridge.

"I expect the next arrivals will be annoyed," he said.

Aria came up forty seconds later, breathing heavily.

She looked at Caelum.

"Spatial step," she said.

"Yes," Caelum said.

"That’s inconvenient."

"Yes."

She sat down and looked at the sky.

"Is the spring good?"

"Yes," I said.

"Ladies section there!" Hiratsuka said behind us.

The remaining students arrived over the next twenty minutes in small groups.

Others followed standard recovery patterns.

Sylvaine arrived near the end, unhurried. She assessed the area, then chose a position at the spring and sat down.

She looked at Caelum.

"Spatial step," she said.

"Yes," he said.

"Range issue?"

"Resolved."

She did not respond further and turned her attention to the environment.

Hiratsuka took out a cup, dipped it into the water, and drank.

"Three days," she said. "Team formation."

She looked at Caelum.

She drank again.

Below, the volcanic terrain remained active and stable.

Three days remained.

I leaned back and stayed in the water.