Chapter 16 A Hero's sacrifice.

Pov Clarissa

As soon as she grabbed her daughter's hand, she realized four things instantly.

First, she was traveling through a void and saw countless tunnels. All interconnecting at countless points with almost no rhyme or reason, each with a portal at various points in the tunnels. All of this was housed in what she could only describe as a void. 

Second, she and her daughter were not in a tunnel; they were traveling in the void devoid of spacetime, even though it made no sense. They were completely enwrapped in energy that felt primordial and transcendental in its very nature.

Third, her daughter was still somehow mediating and circling her mana. But she could tell that instead of controlling her mana like she was before, it was now a torrential tidal wave consuming her.

Fourth, her daughter was circling magic through her as well, and it felt wrong. Something old and powerful was running its way through her body. 

Clarissa had never felt this energized before. This magic seemed not to care about attribute, form, or even function, as if it defied their very nature of order and sense itself. The magic bound her to Trish with no hope of escape; the force was too great.

That same energy that made her feel more powerful than she ever had before had started to cause a sharp agony in every cell of her body as if it were set ablaze.

 Before the rampaging magical energies overtake her, Clarissa has one choice: save herself and Trish. Giving her all to help her daughter tame the beast inside her once again. 

Getting into her meditation pose, she sat, as she was already holding one of her daughter's hands. She touched her daughter's cheek and closed her eyes.

Her sweat-drenched brow furrowed into total concentration as a mother tried to save her daughter from the brink. 

She opened her mind in totality to the energies and started to control the unruly energy. 

The mana was not the same as the one she had touched when she first started helping her daughter control her mana a few days ago.

While she could tell, it wasn't exactly foreign to Trish. She felt it also didn't belong at the same time.

Time may not have been flowing in the abyss they were traveling in. The magic that entrapped and protected them was experiencing a time dilation of 1/108th of what would be felt in the world she came from.

Months passed with little change. She had now barely started to at least control it to the extent of making it nonfatal for her and Trish. 

The mana was still wild and fighting her control; if she lost concentration for even a single picosecond, they would be consumed.

A few years passed, and she had made a bit more noticeable progress this time; the wild energy only went wild every few nanoseconds now. 

Around forty years later, the outbursts were every few milliseconds. This allowed her a bit of time to notice more about the energy she had been controlling. She felt small bits of her daughter's mana going in six streams toward a few different points, but unsure of where they were exactly, she refocused on helping her daughter.

After eighty years total had passed, the outburst only happened every few minutes. She was finally able to open one of her eyes to look in the direction of one of the mana trails she had been studying. 

She saw a crimson beam that extended out of one portal, only for it to be consumed by another. She decided she was going to aim at that target.

Ten years later, she had finally managed it. She had directed them towards the target; now it would only be a few days. The mana was finally calm, and her daughter was now circling her mana with no problem.

She was finally able to remove her hands from her daughter; the strong force that had claimed her was no more, she wrapped her arms around Trish in a tight hug.

Looking at her daughter, who looked so fragile even though she hadn't aged a bit since entering the trance, it was as if time didn't exist for her. 

While her mother, who had complete mastery of her mana, should never age, her daughter had not, so she should be an old woman by now but somehow wasn't.

 While this confused her greatly, she was at least happy her daughter's youth wasn't stolen from her.

"I'm starving," she said to no one, in particular. Sure, her mana would keep her alive, but she was still ravenous. Her stomach made her think of the wondrous meat dishes her husband made.

 "Your father is going to be pissed at being left out for so long." She told her daughter while stroking her hair.

Her thoughts drifted back to her husband; she still felt the connection to him that she always did, but felt an inaccessible gap separated them. Her mana could not connect her to him fully.

She had missed him these past ninety years, and while sure, for her, one could consider them nothing but a blip compared to the years she journeyed with him, she still felt the agony of the distance.

Thud

The magic had collided with the tunnel, pushing against it with great force until the magic bubble slipped inside. Now the bubble was being pulled to the closest portal.

She felt drained; she had not used so much magic in all of her years. "Motherhood is hard," she whispered as a small tear escaped her wizened, wrinkled face. 

A sigh escaped her lips. "I'm sorry, my sweet child; it looks like I won't see you grow up."

Raising her finger with all her strength, she spent two days writing a magic binding seal on her daughter's cheek. Transferring the soul-binding contract of her husband to her daughter.

"Your father will protect you, my love; he is a good man. Even if he is the demon king, I was fated to vanquish him." 

The seal started glowing, and she said, "Ullr, protect your daughter with the authority of the Hero I give you this one last task."

The seal vanished before her eyes, and her daughter's eyes glowed a deep crimson before vanishing. 

A small smile enriched her face as her eyes grew heavy.

"Just a few more hours," Clarissa thought wistfully. Closing her eyes, she decided that after ninety years, she deserved a nap. Losing consciousness, the last thing she saw was her daughter jarring herself awake, screaming at her in a panic.

Lub dub lu b du b lu… 

Her heart had stopped.

A final breath escaped her lips.

The hero of another world died in her daughter's arms.