Blade of Ruin- Aspiration to the Heavens: Becoming the Supreme Mage Vol 3

Episode 101: Reprimand

*Lithdia*

"What were you thinking?" Gavin said as he sat down an unconscious Bernard and a half awake Delphine once we were far away from the others.

I averted my gaze.

"She obviously wasn't. That bone head never thinks with her head," Delphine mumbled. "Stupid girl ruined my coat."

"That's what you care about?" I snapped. "You can just go and buy a new one later, brainless!"

Delphine scoffed. "You think you can call me that after what you pulled? If I'm brainless, then you're worse."

I gritted my teeth.

Gavin sighed. "Stop arguing. Now's not the time. Lithdia, can you sense where the other two are?"

He was right. Our priority was finding Ana and Ethan.

"They aren't around here. Maybe they're closer to where the lake used to be. That's where they had been fighting the Seranese and the interlopers."

"What lake?" Delphine said, pushing herself up. She spread her arms out. "Look around you, sweetheart. Your little stunt changed the landscape of this place! There are lakes where there surely weren't any before and lakes that are now gone. The forest itself looks like a giant threw together a bunch of sticks for a fire and threw dirt on top of them without starting the freaking fire!"

I narrowed my eyes at her. It sucked that she had a point...

Gavin laughed. "What an imagination you have there, Delphine. A giant starting a fire..." He snorted. "There's no giant that big."

Delphine narrowed her eyes at him. "This is no laughing matter, Gavin."

He wiped his smile from his face. "I know." He picked Bernard back up and slung him over his shoulder like a sack of flour. "Let's proceed. General Boheart would like to speak with us."

"Oh? Did he contact you?"

He nodded. "Yes, as I was going to get you, I received a text from him. He wants to see who did this."

Delphine formed a cat-like smile and leered at me. "Oh, you're in trouble now, Lith-lith!"

"Don't call me that! We aren't friend, Del-Del!"

Gavin simply shook his head and went on ahead of us.

"Hey, wait up!" Delphine said, running after him.

"Yes, you're going to get lost," I said. Right now I was the only one who could get us out of this literal mess.

"I rather get lost than to hear you two girls continue your cat fight," Gavin said, looking back at us with a slight smile.

He didn't mean that, did he?

Delphine crossed her arms and followed quietly behind him. I did as well. It helped me get a sense of what laid beneath us. Though, the soil didn't make things easier, nor did all the trees buried beneath its surface. There were also pockets of what seemed to be water.

"Hey, Gavin, be careful," I said. As if on cue, steaming water burst out in front of us.

"What? Is there volcanic activity here?" Delphine yelled, jumping back.

"No, it's because of the pressure. Ana told me that if one applies too much, things can start to heat up. It's one of the reasons why the mantle is melted. A pressure cooker works along those same lines. It traps steam which increases the pressure which in turn increases the temperature and so on."