Page 74 of I Ran Away to Evil #3

Illegal Use of the Crystal Cast

Gerda

Two Days Later

“Julian, when we cross that drawbridge, I’m going back home, and I’m not bringing you with me,” I told the handsome fiend riding beside me. Berry-Berry’s gentle pace was the only thing keeping me on her back after two solid days of riding.

I sent a silent apology to fiends everywhere for cursing him in their name, but I needed something to grumble about when I felt this sore.

The sun was setting on the Northern Fortress in the distance, our not-so-final destination. And since it was the height of summer, that meant we’d gotten up at six in the morning and traveled with an unreasonable number of stops for fifteen hours not straight.

Every hour for two days, give or take three minutes, Julian would sound the alert, and everyone would fly into action.

To get us used to working as a team yesterday, Julian had taken it upon himself to act as our attacker, his new armor making him an outright menace.

The battle ended when I successfully escaped, or when Julian reached me.

The first time he’d slipped through our defenses, he’d flicked me in the forehead. The second time, he’d kissed my cheek. The third time, he’d wrapped his arms around me from behind and whispered, “Got you,” so low and seductive that I’d wanted to melt.

All before lunch.

Then that evening, my companions had realized we could teleport everyone back to Fell in time for meals and a warm bed.

Sir Tully had almost cried.

After an entire day of being chased and teased, I’d dropped everyone else off in Fell then dragged Julian back to my cottage to have a turn driving him wild.

Today, we’d added extra hurdles. Pram would create icy terrain that we had to navigate, while John lent Julian two shadows so he could attack in groups.

The whole time, my job was to jump off Berry-Berry, pull out my makeshift bridge, and find somewhere the system would allow me to put it down as a functioning bridge.

And I had to fully capture the bridge every time , because I couldn’t just teleport that many people and horses with my own personal [World Bridge] power unless I was touching all of them and wanted to chance mana burn.

Too risky.

Even now, it took about four minutes to set up the bridge transport and get everyone onto it before Julian reached me.

His smug smile was starting to get to me, and I had already given into my desire and tugged his cheeks once.

“How long?” he asked innocently.

“I’m not coming back until tomorrow,” I told him.

“Alright.” There was the barest hint of a pout from my impressively outfitted half elf.

Gods, that Valarian Royal Set looked spectacular.

It was a dusky silver orichalcum finish with moon and sun engravings on the chest plate, and dragon-head pauldrons on the shoulders.

The matching ornate dragon’s face helm was straight-up stunning, and the deep-purple mantle looked obnoxiously regal.

Julian glanced at the fortress. “I’ll be busy settling in and checking over things as it is.”

“Have fun,” I said dryly.

We were ten minutes from the fortress when the sun finally set. Usually, the night sky was awash with familiar stars; a connection to my old world, since we shared the same constellations.

Tonight was different for two reasons. A beautiful aurora borealis stretched across the sky, and I held my breath while admiring the natural phenomenon.

There were ribbons of green light blocking out the stars.

It was like someone had hung curtains of light over the night sky; gently wafting curtains.

“What is that?” Sir Tully pointed at the eastern horizon, where the second thing had captured everyone’s attention. A too-large star shone unnaturally bright in the dark. With my perception, I could even make out the beginnings of a comet tail.

“Nothing for us to worry about, though I should probably let everyone know anyway.” I juggled my reins so that I had a free hand to summon the Master Crystal out of my storage ring. To my travel companions, I said, “Give me a second.”

Everyone stared at the large, awkward crystal I was holding. “If we are stopping, let’s clear the road,” Visha ordered, guiding her own horse off the path. There was a scramble to follow her.

“Didn’t you just get fined for illegal use of the Crystal Cast Network?” Julian asked, sounding concerned but intrigued.

“Yes, which is why I’m only telling North Sumbria, Peldeep, and Nilheim. Everyone else can hear it the old-fashioned way.” I closed my eyes, not because I needed to in order to activate the crystal but because I was thinking about all the things I might want to add to this particular Cast.

My first since being discovered.