To his disappointment, he never saw the stewardess again before it was time to disembark.
As Wayland stepped onto the platform, the old green train slowly pulled away, its rhythmic clatter fading into the distance.
He blinked, certain his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. A short distance away, the train simply vanished into thin air.
'Was it a train dedicated specifically to Magi?'
He hadn't sensed any magical fluctuations, perhaps because they were too far away, or perhaps because his own rank simply wasn't high enough to detect them.
Wayland didn't dwell on it. He walked out of the platform area and into the station.
Compared to the bustling hubs of London, Oxenholme was desolate. Only two or three people were at the ticket windows, and a handful of others were scattered across the waiting room benches.
Wayland found an empty seat and pulled out his phone. "Hey, Pascal?"
"Wayland, have you arrived in Oxenholme?"
"I'm here."
"Good. Wait for us there. We should be with you in about ten or fifteen minutes."
"Understood."
Wayland hung up, a bit surprised by the long wait. His gaze drifted to a young man sitting at the base of a pillar across the hall. His hair was a tangled mess that obscured his face, looking as though it hadn't been brushed in months. He seemed to be running a small street stall, with a few grey, stone-like objects laid out on a piece of ash-colored cloth.
Wayland retracted his gaze and closed his eyes, intending to rest.
An instant later, his eyes snapped open.
He felt it,a violent surge of magical energy.
'Who would be bold enough to use magecraft here?'
He opened his eyes and was met with a terrifying sight.
Fire.
A scorching wave of heat roared through the station's main entrance, followed instantly by a torrent of hungry flames. The light of the midday sun was swallowed by the brilliant, destructive orange glow visible through the glass doors.
CRACK!
The glass shattered under the force of the blast, shards lancing into the station like a volley of crystalline arrows.
There was no hesitation, no attempt at concealment.
The glass fragments, riding the crest of the fire, formed a gargantuan web of destruction that threatened to engulf and incinerate everything within the hall.
"Dammit!"
The attacker clearly didn't care about the civilians in the station. At this rate, he'd have to worry about memory-wiping survivors later,assuming there were any.
Wayland made his decision in a heartbeat.
Before the panicked, confused crowd could even process what was happening, Wayland blurred into motion. He intercepted the path of the flames, raising his hand as a magical circle expanded before him.
A pale yellow light erupted from the circle, spreading outward in an instant to form a ten-centimeter-thick anchor in the air. With a sharp upward motion of his hand, a massive, heavy stone wall erupted from the floor.
BOOM!
Wayland braced his shoulders against the earth wall. The impact skidded him back half a meter, the sheer force of the blast splintering the stone. A searing heat lashed at his face, and sweat began to pour down his forehead.
He didn't blink. Massive amounts of magical elements were coalescing around him, the wind howling in a cyclonic vortex as it centered on his position.
Unseen magical energy rapidly took on a physical form.
Ice.
Modern Rune: 'Isa.' Sequence 2-3. Its meaning was 'Ice' or 'Constraint,' representing the freezing of activity and the imposition of a seal.
***
A series of faint blue Runes flickered within the cyclonic wind.
Lines of frost began to spread across the wall's surface. Even as the embers of the shattered earth wall were still glowing in the air, the blue magical energy,infused with the power of the Runes,fell like a flurry of snow, coating the ruins in a layer of absolute cold.
The lines of ice suddenly surged forward like a waterfall breaking its bounds. In a fraction of a second, they crystallized into a smooth, massive sheet of ice,a crystalline barrier that stood before Wayland like the blade of a gargantuan sword piercing the earth.
The station shuddered under the persistent impact.
The flowing ice continued to expand, like water instantly freezing at sub-zero temperatures. It surged forward, encasing the fiery magical energy in a tomb of frost.
The collision of ice and fire produced a violent hiss of steam, the hall instantly filling with a thick, white mist that sounded like a steam engine reaching its limit.
Wayland took a quick glance over his shoulder. No casualties yet.
A dozen or so people were huddled behind the ticket counter, the reinforced glass having held up because they were further from the impact zone.
Noticing Wayland's gaze, several of them looked both terrified and strangely electrified. Some had even pulled out their phones and were recording the scene.
'Should I strike a pose for the camera?'
'Even in a situation like this, they're more concerned with social media than their own lives. No wonder the population density here is so low.'
"Troublesome."
Wayland could feel his magical energy draining away. Casting the spell was only the beginning; maintaining it under this kind of pressure was the true challenge.
'From the look of it, the person outside is at least a rank higher than me. Competing in a war of attrition is a loser's game. I have to find a way to close the distance.'
Wayland's mind raced through his options in a heartbeat.
Without looking back, he bellowed, "Everyone, get to the platform! Follow the ticket gates and get as far away from here as possible!"
While they were currently out of the direct line of fire, the only reason they were safe was because Wayland was absorbing the brunt of the attack.
Once they were clear of the waiting room, Wayland would be able to fight without restriction.
As for the photos and videos... it didn't matter. Once Pascal and the others arrived, everyone would have their memories thoroughly scrubbed.
Wayland's arms, already aching from the strain, tensed with a sudden, localized burst of power. Three magical circles manifested in quick succession, nested within one another like concentric rings that divided his arms into three distinct sections.
Reinforcement!
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]