Chapter 109: A Day Worth Remembering

Chapter 109: Chapter 109: A Day Worth Remembering

The amusement park rose out of the city a few minutes later, and Felix eased off the accelerator as the entrance came into view.

"Whoa..." Liora breathed.

Seraphina leaned toward the windshield. The park was far bigger than the ones Felix remembered from his childhood.

Rides towered over the skyline, some of them hundreds of meters tall, loops of reinforced alloy twisting around each other like sculptures.

A circular platform turned slowly in the distance, ringed with glowing blue mana stones. Farther off, a coaster dove into a tunnel and came out hundreds of meters away on a completely different track.

Liora pressed both hands against the window.

"Felix. I want to go on that one."

He followed her finger and found a metal spear aimed straight at the sky, its track climbing almost vertically before it plunged back down.

"Absolutely not."

Her smile dropped. "Why?"

"I like having a spine."

Seraphina covered her mouth, and a small laugh slipped out anyway. Liora spun around. "You think that’s funny?"

"Yeah."

"You haven’t even seen the ride up close."

Felix chuckled. Liora puffed out her cheeks. "I can handle a ride, you know."

Seraphina was smiling out the side window. Felix watched the pair of them from the corner of his eye.

He parked, and Liora shot out of the car the second the door clicked open.

?"Don’t run," he called out.

?She stopped, spun around on her heel, and started walking backward with an angelic smile. "I wasn’t running. I was walking enthusiastically."

?"Right. Childish enthusiasm," Seraphina said, stepping out beside him with an unimpressed look.

?Liora stuck out her tongue.

?Seraphina merely arched an eyebrow in return.

?Felix pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "We haven’t even stepped through the doors yet," he muttered.

Neither of them heard him. Or they pretended not to.

The entrance gate was enormous. Two statues of ancient heroes flanked it, weapons raised to the sky, and between them stood an archway crusted with glowing mana crystals. A sign floated overhead:

VALEMONT GRAND ADVENTURE PARK.

Beneath it, a second line of text scrolled past in slow, glowing letters.

NO REFUNDS FOR INJURIES CAUSED BY IGNORING SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS.

"That’s reassuring," Liora said.

"That one’s new," Felix said. "They added it after someone tried to stand up in the middle of a gravity ride."

"Did he survive?" Seraphina asked.

"Yes."

"Then why the warning?"

Felix pointed at a smaller sign by the turnstiles.

THE PARK IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR STUPIDITY.

Liora burst out laughing. Even Seraphina’s lips curved. Felix shook his head. "Come on."

The noise hit him first: music, children laughing, people shrieking, machinery humming, mana engines roaring under it all. The whole park felt alive.

Mana stones were set into the walkways, the buildings, the rides and the decorations, glowing blue, green, purple, gold and red, and mana ran through clear conduits under the paving to power everything from the food stalls to the biggest attractions.

Liora looked around like she’d stepped into another world. She had seen parks like this in games and in videos, but it wasn’t the same.

She could smell fried dough and sugar. She could feel the rides rumbling through the ground, and hear people screaming as they fell from impossible heights.

"Where first?" Felix asked.

She pointed without hesitating. "The coaster."

Seraphina studied it. The track ran along the ground for a few hundred meters, then shot skyward. Three loops, two corkscrews, a vertical drop, and, for reasons unknown, a stretch where the rails simply vanished.

"Where does that part go?" Felix asked a passing employee.

"Underground."

"Of course it does."

Liora tugged firmly on his arm. "Let’s go, let’s go!"

?"It’s a high-mana coaster," Seraphina chimed in smoothly. "Heavily reinforced just to withstand the g-force acceleration."

?"I know!" Liora’s eyes sparkled with mischief. "That’s what makes it fun!"

?Felix glanced at Seraphina, who was very clearly fighting back a smirk. "Don’t encourage her."

?"I’m not."

?Felix raised an eyebrow.

?"...Only a little," she admitted.

?Felix sighed, defeated. "Fine."

?They moved to the middle row, placing Felix squarely in the center. Liora claimed the right side before he had even fully sat down, while Seraphina settled gracefully into the seat on his left.

?Felix looked between them. "You know there are dozens of empty seats, right? Why are you both boxing me in?"

?"Because we came together," Seraphina replied coolly, smoothing her coat.

?"And it’s way better this way!" Liora beamed, leaning slightly into his shoulder.

?Felix gave an exasperated shrug. "Fair enough."

?A heavy mechanical click echoed, and the safety restraints locked down over their shoulders.

< Mana stabilization active > a mechanical voice announced, and the crystal cores under the train began to glow.

< Core synchronization complete. >

The train crept upward, higher and higher. Liora looked down at the city spreading out beneath them.

"Still confident?" Felix asked.

"Of course."

"We’re rather high," Seraphina said.

"That’s the point of it."

The train crested the top and stopped. For one full second the world went silent, and Liora’s smile turned a little nervous.

"You okay?"

"I’m fine."

The train dropped.

Liora screamed. Seraphina’s eyes went wide. Felix laughed. The acceleration crushed them into their seats while mana barriers flickered around the passengers to soften the worst of it.

The track whipped sideways, flipped them upside down, and flung them into a glowing tunnel where the whole world went black.

Then, with a boom, they burst out the other end.

The track had changed. Instead of following the ground, it tilted straight up, and the train climbed the sky vertically.

Liora’s hair streamed violently behind her.

"WHAT IS THIS?!" she screamed.

"YOU’RE THE ONE WHO WANTED THE COASTER!" Felix shouted back over the rushing wind.

?"I DIDN’T KNOW IT WAS THIS INSANE!"

Seraphina was laughing. It was the first time Felix had ever heard her laugh like that, with no hesitation and no restraint, just a bright, open sound.

They hurtled through another loop, then another, and finally dove into a straight plunge toward the ground. At the last instant the mana stones flared and the train stopped almost dead, smooth as glass.

The other passengers broke into cheers. Liora sat frozen.

?"Still feeling bold?" Felix asked dryly.

?A single shaky hand rose up. "...Give me five minutes to locate my soul."

?Seraphina snorted softly.

After unbuckling, Liora managed five stiff steps away from the ride before freezing in place.

Felix watched her closely, ready to catch her if her legs gave out. "Dizzy?"

?"No."

?"Then what?"

?Liora spun around, her eyes glowing with absolute mania. She pointed right back up at the vertical drop. "Again."

Felix blinked.

Seraphina folded her arms, thoroughly amused. "Are you certain?"

?"I have never been more certain of anything."

?Felix dragged a hand down his face. "...Of course. Fine."

They went again, and then a third time. By the third ride Liora was screaming with pure delight, and Seraphina’s white-knuckled grip on the restraint had loosened.

Felix noticed something he hadn’t expected: Seraphina loved roller coasters. She just wasn’t about to admit it.

---

Next, Liora spotted a giant circular platform.

Felix checked the sign. "The Gravity Hammer."

"Passengers are rotated through controlled gravitational inversion," Seraphina read.

"That sounds amazing," Liora said.

"I’m worried about your survival instincts." Felix signed.

"They’re working perfectly." She towed him toward the line.

Passengers sat in a ring around the platform, and once the restraints locked it began to spin, then tilted, and mana stones under the seats shifted the gravity itself.

Felix went weightless. Liora whooped. Seraphina looked genuinely fascinated. Then gravity slammed back down, the platform turned again, and the world went up, down, sideways, light, heavy, light.

He glanced at Liora. She was laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes. Seraphina was laughing too. Felix tried to hold it in and failed, and he laughed along with them.

When it finally stopped, Liora stumbled off and jabbed a finger at him.

?"I won this round!"

?"How, exactly?" Felix asked, stepping off beside her.

?"You were terrified at the start!"

?"Nope," Felix said flatly. "Completely calm."

?"It’s true," Seraphina said, nodding with total composure. "Your knuckles were white."

?Felix looked at her with pure disappointment. "Even you, Sera? Et tu? I will remember this betrayal."

---

Picture.