119, 1/2

Gleaming crystal towers dominated the horizon in every distant direction, some of those towers only a dozen kilometers away, others, over 50. If this were any other part of the world and if those towers were of normal size, then Erick wouldn’t have been able to see them past the curvature of Veird. But Erick was in the Brightwater, at least 20 kilometers below the surface of the planet, and yet he was only halfway down to the bottom of this place. The Brightwater District was a massive bowl, where bright white light hovered at the bottom like a perpetual cloud, hiding sight of the civilization that existed on the coasts of the lake at the center of it all.

This was a land where Shades had played at civilization for over 900 years.

But no longer.

Erick stepped through the sky, evading the woman chasing him, not exactly sure how to defuse the situation.

Caizoa, some last name, had been a member of a Wasteland-led party that had completed an artifact run of Ar’Kendrithyst’s Armory. She and her people had won the Black Star; a greater artifact of Koyabez that provided total immunity to everything, as well as allowed the user to find their target across entire worlds. Erick had understood the Black Star was supposed to go to someone else, but Caizoa now wore the Black Star upon her blue armor, like a burnt brooch, as she continued to follow Erick through the sky, crying some of the way. It was hard to tell. Her body and blue armor was like billowing sand, that moved as she moved like a demon possessed.

Technically, she was a demon. All incani were demons. Or, at least she would be, when she finally died her final death, and her soul slipped away to the pink moon in the sky known as Hell. Caizoa wouldn’t be dying for a long time, though. Not with that Black Star on her chest.

And that part frustrated Erick. She had that Black Star because she was going to use it to kill the Converter Angel out there, threatening the rest of the incani on Glaquin. Erick wasn’t quite sure what was going on here, and why she was gunning for him, but even if she managed to kill him, then she would die, wouldn’t she? According to what Quilatalap said, the Black Star decides the wearer’s fate for each life they take. If she killed Erick, then wouldn’t she be killed in return?

Erick knew he was not some beacon of purity, or innocence, or anything like that. But he highly doubted that as an Avowed Pacifist, already vetted by the same god that empowered the Black Star, that Koyabez would be okay with his Black Star being used to kill him. Especially when Erick had already promised to use his power to hunt down the Converter Angel, himself.

So how had this happened? What sort of chain of events had led to Caizoa rushing at Erick with murder in her eyes and hatred in every swing of her three-meter long blue sword? Maybe Erick would never know. He certainly wasn’t going to find out right now, at least.

Caizoa screamed murder and stepped through the sky, trailing sand as she moved through the wind, coming just close enough to be too close. Erick stepped away, well before she could latch onto him with her tether. She screamed again, more frustrated than angry, this time.

Erick decided: Tania must have something to do with all of this nonsense.

Erick spoke through the light of the sky, his voice easily sounding over the hundreds of meters to Caizoa for he was not willing to get close, “Hey, Caizoa. What’s wrong?”

She screamed, “You killed my friends!”

“I did no such thing.” Erick thought for a moment, then asked, “Did Fallopolis do something?”

Caizoa yelled, “Of course she did! All you humans work together! All of you deserve to die!”

Erick decided there was only one way this was going to go.

He let her get close to him a dozen times. He let her attach her tether, several times. Each time, he moved his sunform self and the tethered part of him into Caizoa’s attack, and let her sever her own tether. Instead of telling her that her attacks were useless, he showed her.

She screamed obscenities. She recounted a dozen atrocities that Erick had never heard of. She spoke of the ‘weak-willed’ nobles who they had to kill to get their hands on the Black Star, to do what needed to be done.

“We had a plan!” Caizoa said, completely unfazed by how hard she had been fighting. She probably used some healing spells to keep her Health high, or maybe the Black Star negated the need for such resources, or maybe she had some Dexterity, cutting down on the Health costs of all her physical [Strike]s. “Then those pigfuckers wanted to get in bed with you! All because you promised them a [Gate] Network! But you’re a lying human!” She attacked. Erick let her, and then extricated himself from her attack as easy as a lizard leaving behind a tail. She screamed. She yelled, “As soon as you figure out that [Gate], you’re going to open portals to Celes! And then we’re all going to die!”

Erick had been silent up till then, but he couldn’t let those words stand unchallenged. “I would never do such a thing.”

“LIAR!”

“I would no—”

She yelled at him, drowning out his words as she continued to attack.

So Erick flickered the light next to her, ensuring that his voice could be heard and she could not drown him out, “Melemizargo wants a [Gate] to the moons as a part of his plan to destroy and harm the Script and Veird. Therefore, I would never make a [Gate] to the moons. To any of them.”

She stopped, her feet swirling sand as she hovered. With a crazed smile on her face and hate in her eyes, she happily said, “Then I guess I don’t need to fight you and kill you, do I! Okay! Nice! Why don’t you come closer so I can give you a hug.”

“… Take off the Black Star, first.”

She laughed out hate, and yelled, “I can’t! It’s a part of me until I die or displease it! You’ll just have to trust me that everything is fine, now!”

“I think I preferred when you were actively hunting me.” Erick said, “At least that felt more honest.”

She roared, and advanced, quickly covering the distance between them. Erick let it happen.

She attached her ethereal tether to his sunform and proceeded to swing her blue greatsword. Erick evaded without moving, having grown used to her simple attack style. She would attack and Erick would flow his sunform around her attack. Sometimes, she would attack, and then [Strike] in a different direction, rapidly shifting the arc of her sword, but even that much damage was not much of a threat.

He messed up a few times, and according to his mana sense and the density of his [Personal Ward], Caizoa was knocking off at least 50,000 defensive power with each [Strike]. It was a good thing his [Personal Ward] was worth 280,000 effective-Health, as Jane had called it once. But 50,000 wasn’t too much of a hit, and that only happened four times. Besides, it seemed that for all the Black Star’s power, even Caizoa wasn’t exempt from the Script’s 1 second global cooldown. Most of her attacks were normal sword swings.

Erick disengaged again, having Caizoa [Strike] her own tether to break her from him. She nearly didn’t hit her tether, this time, for she, too, was gaining some measure of acclimation to Erick’s flowing defense. But she did hit her tether, and then she roared again; inarticulate and angry.

Erick got far enough away to spend 17,000 mana to recast his [Personal Ward]. That much mana would come back over 13 minutes, but regenerating 200,000 defense would take about 2.5 hours. Erick did not have time for that. He did, however, have time to talk more to Caizoa, and to help her come to her senses.

… He probably had time.

Erick was up to 10 Ophiel, and he had eyes on a great deal of the Brightwater. Shades were killing Shades, all over, and none of them were currently coming after him, though he knew that would certainly change in the near future.

Over there, by the Palace District, Fallopolis was still fighting Queen. Fallopolis sent black beams thick as towers and black lightning fast as thinking at Queen, while Queen retaliated with kilometer-wide elemental roils and bounced black beams back at Fallopolis with elemental shields. It looked exactly as Erick figured an archmage duel would look. Way too flashy. Way too deadly. The Palace District was already burning down below, while bodies laid where they had fallen, and people tried to escape. Most of them rushed into the crystal towers outside of the Palace District, but it was not truly safe there, either.

A shade made of blood, who Erick now recognized as Crimsonair, the human Shade of Blood, stalked those clear-crystal districts, blood slashing through crystal towers like a storm of blades, searching for the opponent who had fled and destroying much of the land in the process. As a tower fell like some great tree, it fell toward the Brightwater, falling like a slow moving bomb, and then speeding up as it finally fell forward enough to fall free, into the Brightwater. Cascades of glowing water showered into the sky, as a great thwap sounded across the greater district.

Erick did not see where Crimsonair’s target, Cludolphis, the incani Shade of Mending, went. She was the one responsible for repairing the destruction of the larger battlefields. Erick could only wonder at what she was thinking right now, as Shade fought Shade, openly, and with all their might. Only a few crystal towers were falling forward, and into the brightwater. Some were collapsing where they broke, and then further breaking as they fell straight down, smashing and crashing and breaking as they went. Erick watched, momentarily, as he saw three parts of the bowl of the Brightwater District fall right then, in three very separate parts of the area. He held his breath, as some of those broken towers stopped falling.

The broken crystal just hovered there, like the levitating mountains in Truedark.

An explosion rocked the land to the north; the Temple District. Erick watched as a citadel tower of the Temple District began to teeter, as shadowflames licked up its length. And then that sight went out of sight, as Caizoa forced him further west.

Erick found himself on the shores of Truedark Arcanaeum. Just beyond Erick laid a land where mountains floated on nothing and the majority of Brightwater’s people lived. He had no real population numbers, but from his investigations just yesterday…

There were hundreds of thousands of people down there, and with a glance, Erick saw that the fight had progressed to this place, too. Castles made of stone were on fire. Mountains had been turned half-liquid, to fall upon the communities below and bury people under a billion tons of rock. Here and there amid the destruction, were giant balls of stone, literally half the size of the melted mountains.

Erick watched as Farix fought someone else; another incani, actually. Erick took a moment to pin down who the other guy was, and came up blank. No distinguishing magics, so far; many different Shades used stone magics. No distinguishing features, and it wasn’t like Killzone offered pictures of the Clergy.

Farix threw arcing [Force Bombs] that exploded the sky in various colors. The other guy picked up 500 meters of a mudslide, turned it into a giant ball, and hurled it at Farix, all in one smooth, fast motion. Ah. That was a recognizable spell. Erick knew the second guy, now. He was Mallor, the Shade of Granite. According to Killzone, he oversaw the Bottom Wall of Ar’Kendrithyst, down in the deep dark of the Lower Reaches. He was tied with Salvolanche, the human Shade of Stone, for weakest Shade in the city.

Mallor’s ball missed, because Farix dodged that shit as easily as stepping to the side. And then the ball hit the side of a mountain a kilometer away, obliterating several houses as it buried halfway into the dirt.

That was bad.

Erick decided to get involved.

He stepped toward the battlefield, leaving Caizoa far behind. Her fading roar of hatred vanished into the background as Erick stepped to the air a good distance from the fighting Shades. Farix and Mallor both noticed, right away. How could they not? Erick was a giant ball of sunshine right now, after all.

Erick asked, “What’s happening, guys?”

Farix yelled, “Tania has gone fucking insane! She’s killing everyone!”

“She has every right to kill whoever she wants!” Mallor yelled, “Lay down and die, Farix! If you don’t fight with us, you’re against us!”

Farix added, “And this fucker thinks she won’t kill him in the coming purge!”

Erick avoided Caizoa attacking from behind. Farix and Mallor paused their own fight to watch Erick’s and Caizoa’s, as the blue incani sliced through thin air, and Erick stepped back down onto the light of the sky, a good two hundred meters from where he was before. Caizoa screamed in impotence.

Erick thumbed at Caizoa. “Happen to know why she thinks I don’t want to help kill the Converter Angel?”

“Anopix didn’t trust you, and Tania doesn’t either!” Caizoa yelled, “Now hold still and die!”

“Yes.” Mallor sneered and spoke with wild glee, “Yes! Kill the Angel-fucker!”

Mallor acted faster than Caizoa. He magically gripped a good hundred meters of mud below, wrapped it into a ball, and hurtled it at Erick, all in under a second, breaking the sound barrier with the ball of rock as it rocketed his way. Erick dodged, of course—

… That ball wouldn’t hit a home somewhere, would it? … No. Probably not. Erick had been at the wrong angle. The ball continued on into the sky, arcing upward and… Shit. It probably would hit something.

Erick stepped a bit higher into the sky, just in time for the next stone orb to come his way. An Ophiel shot off a [Prismatic Breaker] at the spell, which, of course, did nothing. It was stone moving at a very, very high speed, after all. But Erick didn’t stop there. Another Ophiel attempted to grab the passing boulder with [Stoneshape], and that, surprisingly, also still did nothing. Must have been Domain-empowered? That was the most obvious answer.

Erick stepped closer to Mallor, evading another orb, as Mallor ripped rocks from the ground and flattened them into rough blades. With a twist of his hands, Mallor sent the blades spinning around him like he was the center of the world’s largest blender—

As an Ophiel stepped into the blades, behind the Shade, sacrificing itself to cast a [Luminous Trap], while a second Ophiel, far out of the range of the blades, cast his entire self into the Variable cost to summon an ethereal blood ooze. That red goo gleefully slithered through the sky, slipping through spinning stone with the barest of resistance to strike Mallor right as the black orb sucked him into its dark depths.

Erick summoned another Ophiel, in preparation for something else to happen.

A black orb locked around Mallor. The blood ooze theoretically locked down his spell work. The swirling spikes fell to the ground. The mud below turned solid; maybe Mallor had been actively controlling it? Erick didn’t test his trap too thoroughly. He just stepped to the side, keeping well out of Mallor’s range but repositioning at the same time. As a second of no response turned into five, Erick noticed that while no part of Mallor stuck out of the black orb, the blood ooze did. The pokey parts of the red ooze moved around the void-black globe like suddenly raised and lowered islands of red gelatin. Mallor must have been struggling inside.

Erick was struggling outside, too, but only with the fact that his plan had actually worked. He still didn’t believe that [Luminous Trap] actually did what it looked to be doing. It was too useful against the Shades. But then again, maybe [Luminous Trap] was just the Shade-equivalent of a vampire’s weakness to sunlight?

… Did vampires exist on Veird?

Ah. Not now.

Erick let [Hunter’s Instincts] carry him right back to the moment; right back to the fight.

Because Caizoa looked to fuck up Erick’s [Luminous Trap] by sand-stepping right at the black void, with her sword raised, and then cleaving down with shadows licking the blade’s edge. A [Dispelling Strike]? Perhaps.

Farix, not one to miss an opportunity, had been preparing his own strike ever since Mallor was locked to the black orb. The Shade’s was a bit more magical than the warrior’s. About fifty coruscating [Force Bomb]s launched from Farix, to impact the black orb, right as Caizoa slashed through that void with her sword. Mallor’s rebirth into the world was cut short, as that part of the world briefly turned to burning reality.

Caizoa came out of that event completely unharmed.

Mallor did not.

As the pulsing, burning bombs finally dissipated, a burned corpse fell through the sky, further igniting as it did, turning to ash and dust, well before it could reach the solid land below. Mallor had died. Erick got a Participation Box for the kill. 70%. It wasn’t enough for a level. But…

He… He didn’t know how he felt about that.

In the process of thinking about Mallor’s death, Erick had accidentally let Caizoa get close enough to reapply her tether. Erick dodged a little, not making much of an effort to actually escape the attack and yet still doing so, as he wondered, again, how he felt about unintentionally killing a Shade. Caizoa roared, again. And as a matter of fact, now that her roar happened again, he noticed that it had been a rather constant roar, every minute and a half or thereabouts.

He asked, “Is that a [Roar] buff, or something you keep applying to yourself? I can’t really see anything that you do under all that divine fire.”

She did not answer, except to stare, as she attempted to cut him down. Again.

Farix noticed, and from a safe distance, asked, “What’s up with little miss Black Star and you?”

Erick moved himself out of the way of another [Strike]. “I have no idea.”

Caizoa attacked a dozen times before she could release another proper [Strike], which Erick also evaded. He was getting better at this, and Caizoa was only marginally improving. Her [Strike], characterized by the rapid directional shift of her sword, was her only truly dangerous attack, and that was on a 20 second timer.

Farix asked, “She does know that you’re obligated to help with the Converter Angel, right?”

Erick said, “I’m thinking that Tania wiped her memory selectively, or something. Maybe Quilatalap did it, for whatever reason. Obligations, perhaps? He did mention that memory wipes were necessary when giving out items like the Black Star.”

“No one touched my memory!” Caizoa roared, “You’re just the enemy in front of me and none of us are getting out of here for another six days!”

Farix crossed his arms, and said, “You could theoretically kill Tania and break the Feast Barrier, little girl, if you could actually manage to hit true occasionally.” He lifted one hand up, as if wondering what the fuck Caizoa was even thinking, as he said, “But then again, what the fuck are you even thinking, attacking any one of us at your level of mediocrity?”

“EVERYONE ELSE IS DEAD.”

Farix laughed. “So? Quilatalap can resurrect them.”

Caizoa swung her sword, empowering the 3 meter blue blade with a [Strike]. Erick flexed his sunform, and had her hit her own tether, releasing him from her grasp. He stepped away, getting well out of her range. Maybe, in a normal situation with normal 1-second global cooldowns, Caizoa would have been more of a threat. She could have almost instantly reapplied her tether. But in here, where it was 20 seconds between Skill use, Caizoa was rather mediocre.

Caizoa stared bloody murder at Erick, as she stood there, in the sky, her extremities and blue armor swirling away like sand off of a sandcastle, only to come back to her body to replace what had been blown away. Erick studied those sandy movements for a moment. She must have been running a [Stone Body] and [Air Body] at the same time. Erick had heard of Jane’s experience with a guy that ran [Air Body] and [Water Body] at the same time; that guy had looked like a seafoam wave in the shape of a person. Stone and Air, though, combined to make Sand, so that was normal enough.

Erick wondered, if he got [Greater Shadowalk], could he make himself an [Illusionwalk]? He probably could. But… Eh. He liked his sunform. If he went for an illusion form, then he’d need to make a [Domain of Illusion], too.

It was something to consider for the future, anyway.

Caizoa faced Farix. “Help me kill him and I won’t kill you.”

Erick watched as Farix burst into laughter.

“Ha!” The Shade shook his head at Caizoa, saying, “No wonder Tania gave you that Black Star. You’re an idiot.”

“And you’re a disgrace to incani and demons everywhere.”

Farix blinked a few times, then mumbled, “Like every stupid kid on their first day at Truedark—” He spoke louder, asking, “When you look at Erick, what do you see?”

“A human that will betray his oath to kill the Converter Angel the first chance he gets!” Caizoa said, “And it won’t be because he won’t try. He’ll fail because he will get too close to the Angel and fall under their sway, like all the others who had done so! Therefore, he must die before he gets too close to the bastard and becomes a threat unlike any other.”

Erick paused in thought. But only for a second. He said, “You have to get near them, right? That won’t happen.”

Caizoa glared at him from a hundred meters away. “You are an arrogant asshole. You would try to talk to the Angels, and they would turn you, and then use you against the rest of us.” She hefted her sword. “If you truly wish to assist our cause, please stand still, so that I can end a threat before it becomes one.”

“Ah. Interesting.” Farix said, “You have thought this out, if only a little.”

Caizoa’s glare shifted toward Farix, who was also a hundred meters from her. The three of them formed a sort-of triangle in the air, at the moment. She said, “You should die, too. But as a respect toward my late Uncle Anopix, I will let you live, if you help me kill Erick.”

“I repeat: you have only thought this out a little. You don’t actually know what the fuck you’re talking about, at all, and that includes your assessment of your ability to hurt me.” Farix waved. “Bye!”

He vanished in a flashing, black step.

Caizoa screamed at the sky, “Coward!”

Erick interrupted her, “Is there a way to protect against the Converter Angel’s conversion?”

Erick had been told and knew from a few different sources how Breach Demons worked. Once summoned to Veird through a ritual [Gate], a Breach Demon would go on a rampage, killing people with a gesture, and simultaneously replacing their souls with those of demons, or rather, the souls of dead incani, which would then begin to transform the body into a stronger vessel for their needs. Breach Demons were the stuff of nightmares released, and always summoned where a lot of humans had died. The summoning of a Breach Demon was a historical event that almost always happened once they were started. Erick’s high-profile, public prevention of the last Breach Demon was a historical first.

Converter Angels, however, were spies that dealt in subterfuge and the toppling of kingdoms. Erick had heard that a Converter Angel was responsible for the fall of the Lori Dukedom and the chain of events that caused the Wasteland Kingdoms. Where Breach Demons breached the body and reinstated a demon inside, a Converter Angels did exactly as their name implied. They transformed the soul of a target into one of the Heavenly Host of Celes, letting them keep everything about themselves, but firmly converting them to the side of the Angels. The only saving grace here, was that Converter Angels did not convert everyone in sight. They supposedly had limits, though Erick suspected those ‘limits’ were more practical than actual. The demons liked to rampage, but the angels liked to topple kingdoms with as little expenditure as possible.

Erick was just going to avoid the whole problem of subjecting himself to the angel by killing the creature from a good 12,000 kilometers away, or whatever.

Caizoa glared at Erick. “There is a way to protect against falling to the Angel. Let me kill you.”

“Ah. Well.” Erick sighed. “That’s not going to work for me.” He stepped far, far away, leaving the blue woman behind as he moved on. She would catch up soon enough. But whatever. Erick had some concerns at the moment, and Caizoa didn’t rank amongst any of them.

– – – –

Erick had three primary concerns.

The first, was that he needed to know why Fallopolis had been fighting Queen. He couldn’t quite tell why, but he had the distinct impression that Fallopolis would be better served elsewhere, wouldn’t she? Like, on the side of her fellow human Shades, fighting the incani, as they worked for Tania? Wasn’t she better served fighting Tania? Wasn’t that what Fallopolis had been planning on? Fallopolis had never told him her plans, but Erick got the distinct impression that her plans involved rounding up some idiots to fight with her, and then killing them all after she had won.

Erick’s second concern was more nebulous, but linked to the first. Where was Tania, anyway?

Erick sent a sunform Ophiel high, high into the sky, way above the Brightwater, where he could see out along the tops of the crystal spires all around, and into the red-purple crystals out in the normal part of Ar’Kendrithyst. With a cast, Ophiel launched a [Cascade Imaging] into the illusion-filled sky, and mapped the dead city, searching for Tania. Maybe something would show up? Maybe not.

Erick’s third, and largest concern, was for all the people caught in the crossfire. He wondered, perhaps, if he would have focused more on the people if he weren’t running [Hunter’s Instincts]. But he was running [Hunter’s Instincts], and a large part of him kept thinking of how resilient the people of this land must be, if they could live under the rules of the Shades. Most of them were probably fine, and hiding out in their own hiding space—

A telepathic connection tickled at his mind. It felt like it was from Fallopolis, but he was aware of how someone skilled enough could fool a telepathic connection. It had happened to him before, back when he was going up against the Daydropper Queen. So Erick ignored the call.

Thirty seconds later, while Erick was still deciding where to go next, the Ophiel beside his map, nearly 25 kilometers straight up, sent a concerned feeling. Erick glanced through that Ophiel, and saw Fallopolis standing in the air beside his white map, looking down at the blue dot that was near the Spire. Ah? What was she doing there?

It was nice to see that the map was able to find Tania, though.

But… Hmm.

Fallopolis smirked at Ophiel, and Erick felt another telepathic ping from the Shade in front of Ophiel, to Erick. He still didn’t pick up, but he did change his direction to straight up. Ten steps later, Erick stood a hundred meters from his map, and from ‘Fallopolis’. He kept a straight face, and gave away nothing, but this was not the woman who had walked beside him all the way to the Palace District. And now that he was closer, with more than a few Ophiel running more than a few different Sights all around, he could see the frayed edges of the lie in front of him.

‘Fallopolis’ noticed the distance between Erick and her, and scoffed, saying, “What’s all this! You don’t want to be allies anymore? A girl could get a bad idea in her head, Erick.”

Erick would have frowned, but he did not. Apparently, it was time for illusions.

Admittedly, they were good illusions. If he were on his own, or in some sort of compromised position, perhaps he would see this person as ‘Fallopolis’. But he was not on his own, and he was very much not compromised at all.

So he said, “You’re not Fallopolis.” And then he listed some problems, but not all of them, “Your aura is wrong. Your soul doesn’t fit your body. Your smell is wrong.” That last one came from [Hunter’s Instincts] activated on the nearest Ophiel. Erick returned her question, “So what’s all this?”

Erick felt something brush through the air not a meter from his sunform, touching upon his glowing self like a gasoline stain on water. The spell managed to occlude some of his glowing globe, before he peeled himself out of whatever the hell that was, while an Ophiel on his shoulder shot a 10,000 point [Grand Dispel] at it, and another shot a [Prismatic Breaker]. Peeling the spell away from his main self did more to rid him of the near-invisible magic than either [Grand Dispel] or [Prismatic Breaker].

At the same time he felt the first inklings of magic arrayed against him, he had the Ophiel near ‘Fallopolis’ throw a black void upon her body.

Erick had managed to avoid Not-Fallopolis’s attack. Not-Fallopolis did not manage to evade Erick’s counter.

And then something struck the black bubble from outside the encounter; some sort of hidden attacker, or something. The black bubble popped, releasing a frowning orcol woman who wore rags and yet still managed to look pretty. The only thing that truly stood out about her was that her skin was the greyest Erick had ever seen on an orcol. She was practically the color of ash.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

She narrowed her grey, normal-ish eyes at Erick.

Erick kept his eyes out for the person outside of the encounter as he instantly put up a few more defenses, most notably, he had a lightform Ophiel surround and hold onto the exterior of his sunform, covering his back and most of his front like the shell of a turtle, as that Ophiel then turned on [Pure Reflection Ward]. Erick’s rapid defense might not stand up to Domain-infused magic, but it was better than nothing.

The grey orcol sighed. “It would have been easier if you’d have let me win.”

She stepped away.

Three seconds later, when nothing else happened, Erick found himself asking, “Who the fuck was that?”

Whatever had happened, the woman was gone.

Erick stepped backward in time with his mana sense, just a bit, quickly rifling through the last few moments over and over again, three times. When he came back to himself, thirty seconds had passed, and he had recognized something weird. Whoever that was, had very much been sucked into his [Luminous Trap]. But she had also gotten out, due to a [Dispel] that came out of nowhere, about twenty meters away. In that space, Erick found a mana construct that had detonated itself in order to [Dispel] the [Luminous Trap].

So. Not a secondary person. The orcol woman was just prepared in case Erick trapped her.

That made sense. Erick had displayed his trapping spell twice; once days before, too. Someone would have had to have made a counter by now, and this grey orcol had. Pretty simple counter, too.

Erick would need to add a reflective Ophiel around the bubble, along with a counterspelling blood ooze, and maybe that would be enough.

But who was that lady! Erick had never heard of a ‘grey orcol’ from Killzone. The woman had normal eyes, too, so either she was a Shade hiding her white eyes, or someone else getting involved for the fun of it, or some shit.

And then there was the fact that she had noticed the [Cascade Imaging] almost instantly, and then had a plan set up to take advantage of Erick’s willingness to parlay. Shades were always watching, so that sort of made sense.

Whatever. This was a war-zone. No time to pursue all of that right now, and Erick had never heard of a grey orcol shade who wore rags and dealt in illusions. Considering that there was an illusion, who he had just met could be almost anyone.

So. Moving right along.

Erick had an Ophiel reset the [Cascade Imaging] to search for [Shades].

He waited a full minute before giving up on that pursuit. ‘Shades’ didn’t show in the search. He switched the search to ‘Fallopolis’, and found the woman. She was now in the Spire, near where Erick had searched for and found Tania. Huh.

The implications were… Something.

A possible-Shade had found his map and used that map to try to get to him by impersonating Fallopolis, while Fallopolis had simultaneously found and used the map to find Tania? Or. No. Fallopolis had been fighting Tania this whole time.

Then who the fuck was fighting Queen back there?!

Erick did a quick check back in time, back to when he set up the map, itself. He came back to himself, right away. In the near past, this not-Fallopolis had shown up almost instantly, after Erick had put up the map. And she had remained. She was still there, and had not done much, when Erick had walked into the scene. Good illusions? Or something else? Because right now, Fallopolis’s blue marker was over in the Spire—

Erick switched the imaging to ‘Tania’.

A blue dot appeared in the Spire, near where Fallopolis was.

Okay. So. There was something fucky going on over here.

Erick glanced to the Spire.

He was not walking into that shit show. He needed a plan to survive and thrive in this warzone, and he needed it now.