Chapter 266: Chapter 266: He’s My Lifeline

But before Cecilia could ask anything else, Adrian approached briskly.

"Mika..." He said, slightly out of breath. "The spears are going to be ready soon. We’ve tied all the ropes like you said and set the readied ones to the side. What do we do next?"

"Good timing." Mika nodded.

He lifted his hand, and from thin air, a large wooden barrel appeared before him with a heavy thud.

Adrian blinked, startled, as Mika pried open the lid. Inside was a golden, viscous liquid that gleamed thickly in the light, slow to move like honey.

"This..." Mika said. "...is resin from the Apalachee Tree. It’s extremely sticky. Once it touches your skin, it’s nearly impossible to remove without a fight."

He dipped his finger in the resin and showed its thick stretch.

"I want this poured carefully over the knots—right where the ropes are tied to the spears. Make sure every single one gets a coat."

Adrian frowned slightly.

"With all due respect, sir, that might not be necessary. I checked all the knots myself, they’re sturdy. They’ll hold."

Mika gave a small chuckle.

"Oh, I don’t doubt that. But this isn’t just about securing the knots. There’s another reason."

Adrian opened his mouth to ask, but Mika simply gestured for him to move.

"Go on. You’ll see soon enough."

Though curious, Adrian didn’t argue. He grabbed the barrel easily, his blessed strength lifting it as though it weighed nothing, and began giving instructions.

Volunteers followed his lead, carefully dipping ski poles and pouring small amounts of resin onto each tied section.

"Don’t touch it with your hands!" Mika called out. "If you get any on you, you’ll regret it—it sticks worse than tar and itches like hell!"

A few nervous laughs went around, but everyone followed his warning diligently.

He then scanned the group, before Mika’s gaze locked on a young woman working at the far end—a Blessed with brown hair tied back in a braid.

"Hey, you! The girl with the brown hair—come here for a second."

The woman froze, startled by being singled out.

"M-Me?"

"Yes, you." Mika said, waving her over. "You’ve got some kind of levitation ability, right? The kind that lets you lift or move things around?"

She didn’t understand how he found that out since she hadn’t shown off her blessing yet, but she still nodded hesitantly.

"Yes, sir. That’s why I’m here. I usually help transport injured people or equipment. But...with the Anti-Mana, my abilities are pretty much useless right now."

Mika smiled faintly.

"Well, it’s not useless anymore." He pointed toward the rows of spears and ropes laid out in the snow. "Right now, I want you to lift them. All of them."

"Make sure none of the spears touch each other—keep them floating freely in the air, evenly spaced."

The young woman blinked in confusion.

"Float them...all of them? At once?"

"Exactly." Mika said. "You can manage that, right?"

Her eyes flickered with uncertainty, but she nodded resolutely. "Yes, sir. I can do it."

She ran toward the spears, raising her hands. A faint bluish aura surrounded her palms as one by one, the enormous weapons began to rise, slowly at first, then all at once, suspended high in the air.

Dozens of gleaming spears floated weightlessly, their ropes trailing down like golden threads, swaying gently in the mountain breeze.

The crowd stared in amazement as the scene took shape—rows upon rows of ancient weapons, arranged like soldiers awaiting orders.

Even Fauna smiled softly, murmuring under her breath. "Now that’s a sight..."

Cecilia, though, was more anxious. She leaned closer to Fauna and whispered,

"Lady Fauna...aren’t you even a little worried about what he’s doing? You’re just letting him improvise freely, without knowing what the outcome will be?"

Fauna tilted her head and shrugged, completely unfazed. "Worried? Not at all."

"Not at all!?" Cecilia blinked. "You don’t even know what his plan is! What if it doesn’t work? What if it goes wrong?"

Fauna laughed gently, waving her hand dismissively.

"If it were anyone else, I’d be pacing around and barking orders right now. But this is Mika. When he’s in charge, I don’t need to worry. It’s my golden rule—if Mika’s leading, nothing can ever go wrong."

Cecilia looked at her in disbelief. "You trust him that much?"

Fauna turned her gaze toward Mika—and her smile softened.

"It’s not trust." She said. "It’s certainty. He’s my insurance policy against any disaster. My lifeline basically."

Hearing this absolute statement, Cecilia followed her gaze.

Mika was speaking to the levitating Blessed now, adjusting the positioning of the spears with a few simple hand gestures. The crowd obeyed every word he said without question.

And though Cecilia didn’t understand what he was planning...watching him, she found herself feeling the same way as Fauna.

That quiet certainty.

That unshakable confidence.

As long as Mika was there, it felt like nothing could ever truly go wrong.

But just as Cecilia found herself lost in thought, she suddenly heard Mika’s voice echo across the snowy field.

"Cecilia, come here for a second!"

She blinked, startled at the sound of his voice.

"Mika?"

She called, turning her head. But he wasn’t beside her anymore.

Her eyes darted around until she finally spotted him standing beneath one of the temporary tents that had been set up nearby.

He was half-hidden behind a table, surrounded by scattered tools and wires, his expression calm and focused as his hands worked on a strange device.

Fauna noticed too and tilted her head curiously.

"What’s that little rascal doing now?" She murmured, before walking over.

Cecilia followed close behind.

When they reached him, Cecilia realized that the machine in front of Mika looked like some sort of communication unit—with a small satellite dish fixed to the top and a dense panel of switches, knobs, and cables.

Mika had already opened up the metal casing, his fingers busy adjusting the circuits inside.

"What are you doing right now, Mika?" Cecilia frowned.

Fauna chimed in playfully, resting her chin on her hand.

"Don’t tell me you’re trying to play some music in this situation. I have a great playlist, you know! Something uplifting—’Morning Rays,’ or maybe ’Fly High.’ It’d really help morale right now!"

Mika let out a quiet sigh without even looking up.

"No, Fauna. Not everything with a speaker-shaped part is a music player."

"Then what is it?" Cecilia asked.

He snapped one wire into place and shut the back panel.

"This..." He said, gesturing at the machine. "...is a satellite communication system. Standard issue for emergency response teams—used to link with nearby bases if regular phone lines go down."

"And lucky for us, they brought one here."

Before either of them could respond, he suddenly tossed something in Cecilia’s direction.

"Catch."

She barely managed to catch it, stumbling slightly as the heavy object dropped into her hands.

"What is this—?"

She looked down and found it was the spearhead, one of the metallic tips from the spears they had prepared earlier.

"Put it next to your ear." Mika said simply.

She blinked. "Next to my ear? Why?"

"Just do it."

Still confused, Cecilia lifted the cold metal to her ear. It felt smooth and lifeless, not something that could possibly make a sound. But then—

Bzzzzz!

A faint screeching noise crackled through, like distant radio static.

She gasped softly. "I can hear something! Mika—I can hear something from it!"

Mika’s lips curved into a small smile.

"Good. Tell me when the sound becomes smoother, when it’s clear and not distorted."

He turned back to the machine and started flipping switches, rotating dials, and connecting different colored wires.

Each adjustment made the static change in tone. Sometimes it warped into an unbearable screech, sometimes it faded away completely, but then—

"There!" Cecilia said quickly, excitement in her voice. "Right there! It’s smooth now! There’s this low hum, almost like...like it’s vibrating."

"Nice." Mika said. "Now listen carefully."

He picked up a microphone connected to the machine and pressed a button.

"Cecilia, can you hear my voice now?"

A second later, she jumped slightly as his voice echoed from the spearhead—slightly muffled, but unmistakable.

"Yes, Mika! I can hear you! It’s clear...well, a little distorted, but still clear enough!"

He leaned back, satisfied.

"Good. That means this part’s working perfectly." He exhaled and added quietly. "Once the spears are finished, we can finally start pulling the people underneath out."

Cecilia blinked, confused.

"Pulling them out? Wait, Mika, what is this for? Why do you want the spearheads to make sound—and how are you using the radio with them?"

But Mika only smirked, a small, mysterious curve of his lips that instantly reminded her of how infuriatingly cryptic he could be.

"You’ll see." He said, gathering up the machine. "Just be patient a little longer."

Before she could press further, he stood, hefting the entire communication unit in one arm as if it weighed nothing, and strode out of the tent.

Fauna giggled beside her, watching him go.

"Don’t mind him, Cecilia." She said with a teasing tone. "He’s always like that. Acts all calm and mysterious, makes everyone wait just to show off at the perfect moment. He’s been doing that since he was little."

Cecilia sighed, half-amused, half-exasperated.

"He really likes to keep everyone guessing, doesn’t he?"

"Oh, absolutely." Fauna said proudly, puffing her chest. "My little show-off."

The two women followed him out of the tent and what they saw outside made Cecilia stop in her tracks.

The sky had dimmed slightly, and the entire clearing was now filled with an ethereal glow.

Dozens of spears hovered in the air, perfectly arranged in rows, each one gleaming faintly from the reflection of the snow and resin coating their ropes.

Mika stood right beneath them, the communication device set at his feet, checking each connection carefully while the golden ropes fluttered slightly in the cold wind.

The whole scene looked like a ritual—ancient and technical at the same time—as if science and magic were merging right before her eyes.

Cecilia felt her breath catch.

Whatever Mika was about to do...it was far beyond anything she had ever witnessed before.