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Half an hour ago, it looked like an easy victory, but now...

Erick watched as Ophiel targeted and annihilated group after group of red-armored soldiers. Kill Notifications scrolled past his sight, and Erick added each one to his running tally. He was up to four thousand, three hundred and nineteen, so far.

Occasionally, he spared a view toward the other powers scything through the red warriors, but not often enough, it seemed. The flying swords of that one guy were not flying around anywhere. Half an hour later, Erick came across those thousands of swords scattered across the land, inert and stabbed into the ground as if they had been tracking a target, and died along their flying path. Some swords stood upright in stone. Most were broken.

Sword guy was dead, for sure. Erick had no idea where he was, but he was dead, and the killer was still out there. In that instant, Erick wondered if Ari and Kaffi’s prediction of an ‘easy war against Terror Peaks’ was true, or if those words had been a boast, to cover their own gnawing doubt.

Erick conjured a [Cascade Imaging] in the sky over Eralis, targeting Raidu, and then he came back to himself and glanced over to Poi. “Their goal was to get Songli’s elites out on the field. Now they’re killing those elites. Right? Or am I reading that wrong?”

It was such a simple concept. Erick shouldn’t have been surprised that Terror Peaks would throw away soldiers to draw out the actual threats of Songli. But he was. Erick could never imagine throwing away lives like Terror Peaks had done.

With tendrils of thought around his head, Poi said, “The soldiers needed to be dealt with, or else Eralis would have fallen, but, yes, the soldiers barely mattered. Terror Peaks’ elites are out hunting now. Songli is still expecting a win, but they knew it was going to get worse.”

“If they have biological material from those elites then I can track them. Have Songli give me those samples; lay them out somewhere. Otherwise the target is on Raidu.” Erick said, “I’ll spend most of my time hunting the red army, but I will attempt to kill every target they give me.”

Poi nodded slowly as he spoke to other people. After a moment, he said, “Please cast your Imaging over Alaralti and Holorulo, as well. Your samples will be in Holorulo— No. They’ll be at Southern H— I’m getting conflicting desir— Your samples will be at the roof of the Sour House, in Darzallia. They’re coming through in a tiny [Gate].” Poi said, “I will be informed when more samples appear, as it is easier to gather samples than it is to actually hurt these people— No. Wait… There won’t be samples. They’re asking if pictures will do.”

That could work, too. Erick said, “Pictures, names, abilities. A short dossier. Defining items on the person. There might be false positives, but we can work through those.” Not exactly true, but Songli didn’t need to know his full capabilities right now.

“Understood,” Poi said, as he sent off instructions.

Ophiel was already over the Sour House, waiting.

Erick tried not to think too deeply about the state of the building.

The Sour House was half gone. The bodies of the proprietor and the wife laid half in the courtyard, and half spread out everywhere else, along with the bodies of others who had roomed there. Terror Peaks had struck this location; they had known Erick had been here.

Unbidden, the names of the proprietor and his wife came to Erick; Derix and Iyolza.

Erick had tried to keep his distance from them, but he recalled their names and remembered who they were, anyway. Nice people. Orderly. Proper. Worried for their future when a Scion came to live under their roof. Normal people. Perfectly normal people.

Dead.

Gone.

Erick did not wallow in misery. He focused.

The Sour House was half gone but a part of the roof remained.

Less than a minute later, a tiny purple-rimmed [Gate] appeared atop that remaining section. It discharged several wardlight images, cast onto the backs of paper, while the fronts held names and brief descriptions. Every single person was listed as a rank in Terror Peaks’ army, most of them as ‘Special Attachment’. Two were captains. Scion Raidu was one of the targets.

With dry eyes, Erick said to Poi, “Raidu is first.”

Poi nodded as he silently communicated with others, elsewhere.

Ophiels lightstepped over to Alaralti, and Holorulo, while another Ophiel went back to the map over Eralis to adjust that one so it wouldn’t interfere with the other two.

Erick briefly marveled at the other two cities of Songli, ignoring the fires and destruction and focusing on the beauty.

Alaralti was like Eralis; cosmopolitan and varied, with massive buildings and a large noble district. The Void Wall perfectly encircled the main city, but it was a hundred meters off of the ground, supported by stones the shape of clouds. The city itself spread out below the wall, like the wall was a tram running around the whole place. There were no demarcations that seemed to say ‘this is Alaralti’ and ‘this is some other city’. Everything ran into each other, and clan mountains sprouted wherever they felt like sprouting.

This second city of Songli was called the breadbasket of the Highlands, and while that moniker wasn’t wholly true, it was true enough. Outside of the main cosmopolitan area, the land was farmland, stretched out as far as Ophiel could see. Rice paddies. Wheat fields. Orchards and lands full of vegetables. Fish ponds that were attached to the Wanzhi River. Everything seemed attached to the Wanzhi River, with irrigation that went everywhere. Normally, it was a beautiful place.

But right now half of Alaralti was on fire and the Void Wall had been broken, its pieces crushing houses underneath.

Erick put up an Imaging for Raidu high above, then asked Poi, “Do they want rain to control the fires at Alaralti?”

“Yes,” Poi said, instantly. “Lighter rains everywhere else, too, if you could.”

Erick obliged. The sky turned dark over all of Songli, but especially over Alaralti’s farmlands as quick casts of [Call Lightning] sped up the process of cloud gathering. Rain began to fall. That Ophiel then moved on to start erasing the few red-armor soldiers he saw still in Alaralti’s streets.

Holorulo was less on-fire than both Eralis and Alaralti, but only because the city had less to burn. The place looked like China’s Forbidden City, but if those architects had had access to magic, effectively infinite manpower, and a penchant for white and gold.

The first thing Erick noticed were the massive, half-kilometer wide, half-kilometer tall towers all around the central space; they seemed like clan mountains, but different. They were scatters of gold buildings atop those clan mountains, with small golden nooks here and there all across that solid white expanse of the ‘mountainsides’. Those balconies and exposed courtyards betrayed the living spaces and hallway’d interior beyond, and the depth of architecture contained therein. From his brief examination, Erick saw individual rooms of some variation, with brown woods and greens and other colors, but the official exterior was dominated by white and gold.

Holorulo had a Void Wall that resembled Alaralti’s tram-like sculpture of Rozeta, which formed a hundred-kilometer ring, denoting the far exterior of the city. The clan mountain towers formed a smaller concentric ring at 50 kilometers wide.

But the inner 30 kilometer radius land was what truly looked like it belonged to emperors.

Those interior buildings seemed ritualistically organized, and ten times the size of what was necessary for normal living. They had exterior walls which were of white pillars, while the roofs were gold and shining. Gardens were sparse, but well maintained and architectural feats in their own right. Golden fire wardlights illuminated the white land from giant sconces, showing the stark beauty of it all, but the red and black ruined it all.

Red blood. Black soot. More soot than blood, for Holorulo was truly underpopulated. The fights which must have happened here were massive. Erick saw no soldiers, anywhere. He didn’t see any people. No doubt if any person showed, they would be targeted by one side or the other.

Erick set up a [Cascade Imaging] in the sky directly above the center of Holorulo, directly above what appeared to be a Void Temple-like space. To the north of that space was a massive building that seemed ceremonial because of its overly large size. Songli actually had a triumvirate, but if Songli had emperors, that’s where they would have lived.

If there were red soldiers here, Erick didn’t see them. Maybe they were inside the towers or the other scattered buildings? Maybe there were only assassins; Holorulo didn’t look like the sort of place that you assaulted with an army.

While the map populated, Erick focused on killing the red army in Alaralti and Eralis.

The maps populated. Raidu never appeared.

Erick informed Poi he was moving the map to the next target, and then he did so.

Almost instantly, a blue dot appeared in Holorulo, north-northwest, not thirty kilometers from the outside edge of the city’s Void Wall. It was close. Ophiel was available. The target maybe didn’t know they were pinged, yet. From what Erick was seeing, the target was inside one of the large, special clan mountains. Near the top.

The man’s name was unimportant.

He would soon be dead.

Erick informed Poi of what he was doing, and after confirmation, he went and did it. Ophiel lightstepped into the area where the blue dot had shown.

The room was empty. Boring. Small enchantments were here and there; upon the board game abandoned by the window, upon the light orbs up above, and in the walls, for silence. Aside from those small bits of the casual detritus of life, the small sunroom was empty.

Which meant, of course, that it wasn’t. The target was a man of illusion and assassination. But still. The room looked empty, to all of Erick’s Sights. Nothing there according to Erick’s mana sense. Nothing there on the [True Sight]. The walls were made of the same not-stone that other clan mountains were made of, so if this guy had an Elemental Body that allowed him to swim in that substance, then Erick might have been out of luck, but he doubted that.

A different Ophiel checked the map.

The target was still there.

Erick didn’t have time to search for the parts of the room that seemed off.

Ophiel abandoned [Greater Lightwalk]. [Fulmination Aura] was the preferred aura, now.

--

Fulmination Aura, instant, medium range, 26 mana per second

Rip and tear at the constituent particles of reality with a chaining bolt of lightning that surrounds you, dealing 25 + WIL damage and paralyzing all so touched. Deals more damage the more targets there are.

--

The original spell caused a ring of lightning to appear all around the caster. That lightning would then spark off of every single part of every target it affected, but since Lightning was apparently close enough to Light for [Lodestar] to work—

A mandala of lightning bloomed around Ophiel; layers upon layers of form and function that slowly twisted around the [Animadversion]-coated [Familiar] in the center of the ‘empty’ space. The room lit up like a power station short circuiting.

Something died, somewhere, as lightning touched upon legs and fingers and each individual rib—

Ah. Yup. There’s the target.

Currently fried into ash and crumbling to the ground.

He had been hiding under the gameboard, under the table, as [Air Body] or [Shadowalk]; hiding his own magical signature with that of the game board. Nice trick, but it didn’t save him from the lightning.

Erick checked for a notification— Yup. The assassin was dead. Erick switched Ophiel back to [Greater Lightwalk], and informed Poi of the success.

Erick moved on to the next target.

The assassin was in Alaralti, inside a clan mountain, running away from red soldiers, somewhere in a group of people also running from those same soldiers. From the sky, outside of the mountain, and blending into the destruction as best as Ophiel could, Erick tracked the man who was probably the assassin. The fidelity on his Imaging wasn’t the best at this distance, so he didn’t attack yet, but he needed to, soon.

What was the guy’s goal here? Why try to blend in with a crowd? Was the crowd headed somewhere in particular? Oh! They were headed toward a defensive line—

Ah.

Scion Caina Small Scare was inside that defensive line.

Ophiel moved in and plucked the assassin out of the group with [Teleport Other], slamming the guy directly into the waiting arms of a pair of Ophiel. One of those Ophiels instantly used [Harmonic Counterspell] to shut down a [Teleport] spell from the guy, while Erick cast his own 1000 point [Harmonic Blood Ooze] to ensure that the guy wouldn’t be getting away. Thick bloody ooze wrapped around the guy, cutting into him, preventing every use of magic.

Erick took a second to check on the map. The blue dot had moved when Erick moved the guy, so this was the guy.

[Luminous Beam] checked off another killer.

And then Ophiel went back and murdered the red soldiers and every other red army person attempting to surround Caina, giving the woman some breathing room.

Erick had Ophiel appear beyond their lines, glowing and still small. He called out, “Caina! Need an evacuation, somewhere?”

The dark skinned woman turned his way, her white full armor and twin violet swords shone in the light of nearby fires. She paused, wary, taking in the sight of Ophiel talking to her. Then she said, “We will defend our clan mountain. Thank you for your assistance, Archmage Flatt. Why did you take away one of our initiates?”

Erick almost asked if this really was Clan Small Scare’s clan mountain, but Caina’s last words made him focus. He said, “That man was an assassin. Songli gave me targets and I went after them.”

One of the survivors Erick had rescued yelled, “He was not! He was my everything!”

Before Erick could panic—

Caina silenced the woman with a wave of her hand. “What level was he?”

Erick rapidly checked the notification. “E-17— Level 73.”

The surviving woman startled, as though plunged into ice. Erick realized what she realized in that same moment.

Caina confirmed, “We would never have an initiate at that high a level. He was an impostor.” She said to Ophiel, “Thank you for your help, Archmage Flatt. We will take it from here.”

… Ophiel moved on.

The third person was a woman, slicing through initiates in a different clan mountain in Alaralti. Spells bounced off of her.

[Luminous Beam] cut through that nonsense.

The fourth and fifth targets were in Eralis, assaulting high-value targets in a high-class market. Erick murdered them most violently, for they were in the act of doing the same to merchants and others, as others had done to Spur, not too long ago. And he hated that. He hated it, all over again.

For he remembered how the people of Spur lost the Farms, all because of the evil of one man.

He remembered Caradogh Pogi of Portal, and the Hunters the man sent at Spur, and he remembered the people Caradogh murdered. Valok. Apogogh’s father. Carnelia, the lady who worked at Ruby’s Reds. Savral, Al’s son. And—

So many people, murdered to fuel the ambitions of a small-minded man who couldn’t stand the prosperity of Spur.

Rage filled Erick’s vision, as the next target was at the harbor, where so, so many goods and people came into the Highlands, and to the warehouses, which were currently on fire. People were trying to put out the fire, but flames spread harder when water touched the carmine conflagration.

Erick saw it now.

Terror Peaks was not just killing civilians. They were not just trying to end a civilization they didn’t like. They were doing the same thing to Eralis that those Hunters had done to Spur. They were ruining the chance at prosperity. They were destroying growth, and that which allowed more growth.

The sixth target was spreading more carmine flames, burning everything she could, jumping from warehouse to warehouse, trailing fire everywhere she walked, laughing and killing whoever got in her way. She was the flame, and Erick had no doubt she was in [Greater Fire Body].

Erick broke out a spell he had never used, and cast it himself for 850 mana; the cost reduction after Intelligence. He had never used it before, but it seemed appropriate here. If it worked, it would prolong the woman’s pain, and that seemed great.

--

Death Spiral Plasma, instant, close range, 17,009 MP

Wrap a target in fire, dealing WIL damage a second until the target dies.

--

Ribbons of white flame—

Bounced off of the target, because she had a reflective spell active. Of course she did. Well fuck.

“Fuck you!” Erick yelled, to no one in particular.

The woman briefly paused. She had recognized Erick’s spellwork as an attack as white flames spilled away from her and fell into the nearby inferno like so much splashed milk.

The woman looked up, just in time to catch Ophiel’s [Luminous Beam] to the face.

She died.

With their creator gone, the fires started to falter under the light rain already falling across the city.

The seventh target held a sword four times as large as she was, as she whirled and twirled through battle lines, dancing like she was the only power that mattered. She got a [Luminous Beam] to the face, too.

Erick said to Poi. “More targets.”

Poi spoke to someone else, then he turned to Erick, saying, “If you want, you can move on to Terror Peaks itself. The counteroffensive has not yet begun, but you would be a good tip of the spear.”

“Okay.” Erick said, “I will go do that. I won’t kill civilians, but anyone in armor is going to die.”

Poi weighed his own response, resigned himself, then said what he had to say, “They’re all in armor. They’re all soldiers.” Poi added, “If you break their cities, they’ll run. Then the hypervigilance will start, along with shadow warfare.” He said, “Songli desires your help for this clean-up, more than the battle, but by asking you to assault Terror Peaks directly, they are hoping to draw off the Elites currently inside Songli, by threatening them with the lives of their children. Not many would return home, but some would.”

Erick’s eyes went wide.

Ah. He should have realized what was going on. But Poi had needed to explain it to him.

And then…

He understood.

Ah.

Okay.

No.

He couldn’t.

But if he didn’t, then the war would continue, but in a different form.

Wait.

He could do…

Yes. He could do that. Sure. It would be annoying to [Teleport Other] all the kids away from the cities before he murdered everyone there, but that would be fine.

Poi looked at him, and said, “Or. Your [Sunlight Rift] would harm rather fast, too, and without needing to extricate the kids first. Kids can’t cast much magic.”

“… But they would see their mothers die.”

Teressa had listened, but now she said, “And those mothers are monsters. They deserve death, as quick as you can give it.”

After a moment of thinking, Erick decided that he was not going to make that decision. He was not going to fight near kids. Not yet… Hopefully not ever. He put off that whole problem.

Erick looked away from Poi, and said, “I’ve got to find those spears. If I can. I’m going to search for those.”

Poi nodded.

Erick switched the maps everywhere in Songli to those soul spears that had almost killed him—

A blue dot appeared.

And instantly, too?

What! He expected nothing! What the fu—

And then Erick realized something.

He had searched for a specific image of the spear that had matched his memories of both spears he had seen, but, in the same way that every rod of [Greater Treat Wounds] was not exactly the same, surely every one of these highly-magical soul spears were not the same. And yet… they were. Exactly the same.

Exactly.

That meant something.

Erick didn’t know what, for sure, but he would, soon enough.

Ophiels rushed out to collect the target. But then Erick paused, when he saw the target. The spear was sitting out in the open, in a secluded courtyard, outside of Eralis. The location had been made important because the spear was there, laying on the stone in the middle of open ground, but otherwise, the building was boring. The surroundings didn’t matter. This location was a normal, everyday location, that one could find anywhere on the outskirts of any of Songli’s city.

The spear was alone. It was the genuine article, too; to [Mana Sight], the spear glowed like a red sun, while to normal sight, it looked like a pitted piece of junk that would break at the slightest stress.

This reeked of a trap.

Well.

It could be that they were expecting him to touch the spear himself, or rather, with Ophiel. By extending Ophiel’s lightform past the protections of the [Animadversion], then the ‘invisible wielder still holding onto the artifact’, or whatever the trap was, would then activate the spear and target the exposed part of Ophiel.

Erick had ways around that vulnerability, though.

Ophiel moved in and molded the land under the spear with [Teleporting Platform]. The spear barely jostled as the disk of floating land appeared under it. This way, Ophiel could move the spear without actually touching it. Which he then did.

Blip. Blip. Blip.

While one Ophiel was doing that, others switched the maps to Xangu, thus hiding the spear’s new location.

Blip. Blip. Blip.

The spear went to the middle of nowhere, a field out in the sun, where another Ophiel instantly [Luminous Beam]’d everything around the spear, missing the platform but getting within a half-meter of the spear itself.

Blip. Blip. Blip.

And another [Luminous Beam].

… Okay. Maybe he was a bit paranoid at this point. But seeing that one assassin hide in the magical signature of that board game had messed him up. He didn’t even know that was possible. Some dude could even be hiding inside the spear, with [Air Body], or something like that, just waiting for the moment to strike.

—Oh yeah. He could check for that, actually, based on what it cost to [Teleport] the object, since [Teleport]’s cost was based on people transported. Even moving a [Familiar] like Ophiel cost base-250 extra mana. [Teleporting Platform] was of a similar nature.

--

Teleporting Platform, instant, 197 MP + Variable, 204 MP per person + Variable

Create a mobile, hovering platform of stone that moves quickly at your discretion. Supports a large amount of weight. Lasts 1 hour.

You and the people or objects on your Teleporting Platform appear in a known location, max 1000km distance.

---

Weight mattered for that spell, incurring additional mana costs as though extra people were being transported, but the spear weighed almost nothing. So Erick cast his own [Teleporting Platform] through Ophiel, lifting the spear with the cast onto the new platform, and triggered the platform through Ophiel.

Ophiel came along with the blip, costing Erick 10 mana. The spear came along, costing something negligible.

And another 10 mana was spent, as someone else was transported, too.

So.

How to solve this?

Answer:

Erick rapidly gathered his Ophiel and proceeded to cast eight spells in concert; [Stone Breaker], [Air Breaker], [Water Breaker], [Fire Breaker], [Light Breaker], [Shadow Breaker], [Prismatic Breaker], and [Force Breaker], targeting the space near the object. If any of his spells broke the object, then oh well. The hidden assassin was more important to kill.

And to ensure that the target didn’t just reapply whatever Elemental Body they were using, Erick queued up a [Harmonic Counterspell].

Light splashed against the spear.

Erick’s counterspell triggered.

A white-armored woman fell out of the spear, looking like a person from Songli.

Erick wasn’t going to fall for that, though. The woman had a red soul, the same color as the spear itself, which still glowed upon the manasphere with a red radiance strong enough to dim everything else.

The woman snarled in defeat, and Erick’s Ophiel began counterspelling her attempts to use magic. Erick rapidly enacted a few other spells around the space. A [Prismatic Ward], cast as a shell to lock the woman inside. A quick grapple of the spear with [Telekinesis] to take it away. An organization of [Harmonic Counterspell]s to keep her locked down.

And finally, a [Drain Ward], fueled by more hollowing hatred than Erick thought it was possible for anyone to experience at any one time. Erick had no time for emotions at the moment, though. He did, apparently, have time for a new spell, though.

A blue box appeared.

--

Draining Void, instant, close range, 500 mana

Drain WIL Health and Mana per second from every target in a large area. Lasts 24 hours. Lasts longer based on resources drained.

--

A shadowed space slipped around the woman inside the layer of dense air.

She didn’t scream, but it looked like it hurt, as blood and red glows flowed away from the woman like drops of light, to vanish into the consuming shadows all around. Still, it would take a while till she was out of Health and Mana, and she could still escape if given the opportunity, so Erick methodically canceled all of the woman’s spellwork with [Harmonic Counterspell]s, and layered on a few more [Draining Void]s for good measure. The dense air around the platform kept her in place. It was only a matter of time before she succumbed.

It was easy to tell when the [Draining Void] stopped working; the red glows flowing from the woman’s body instantly stopped flowing, and her pained face relaxed.

The draining had ended, for there were no more resources to strip away.

She might be able to [Second Wind] for more Health, or [Meditation] to Rest, and recover that way, but Resting would only grant her…

Erick did some quick math. 100 Focus, Scion of Focus as worst case scenario, double mana regen Class Ability, with Intelligence (doubtful), meant: 7 mana per second recovered from Rest.

If she was a Scion of Vitality and she had Blood Mana, or something like that, and since [Second Wind] transformed Health Recovery per day into per minute for a little while...

That meant she could hypothetically recover 400 Health per second.

[Draining Void] only erased 151 Mana and Health every second.

Taking into account Dexterity or Intelligence and—

Yeah. She could get away.

This would be annoying.

Erick filled the box with [Merciful Ether]. When his assassin was fully asleep, Erick left the woman where she was.

All of that had taken a few minutes. He could have simply killed her, as she was obviously an assassin, but Erick wanted some answers about that spear, and the assassin would have them. While she was sleeping, Erick handed over his Crystal Star to an Ophiel and Blessed the woman.

There. Good. He would get answers soon enough.

Erick shoved his hatred away.

Mostly.

Erick took back his Crystal Star, and finished taking care of the spear.

The spear went to a different, boring plot of prairie land. The weapon had lost a great deal of its mana light without the woman hiding inside, ready to release the weapon’s power as soon as she saw an opening. Now, the weapon looked like a spear from a distant age, corroded with time, and diminished from much of what it had once been. Still glowed to [Mana Sight] like a red wardlight, though.

Erick had an Ophiel [Stoneshape] the spear into the ground, entombing it in rock, while a [Sealed Privacy Ward] folded around the object to block the red mana signature, and a [Prismatic Ward] went around it to prevent easy theft.

Erick would deal with the spear later, too.

And then Erick had a most excellent idea.

See.

Erick had a problem.

He was angry at Terror Peaks. Logically, he wanted them all dead. But, he couldn’t bring himself to annihilate their cities, now that he was back in full power, and the forces of Songli were pushing out the invaders. He had killed many of their assassins and powers, and even captured a spear. He was on the rise and Terror Peaks was falling.

And so, even with all Erick had seen, he still couldn’t press that button, and kill all of the people who had wronged him, and who could potentially wrong him in the future. His anger was a fleeting thing when it came time to judge monstrous people in the way they deserved to be judged, especially when those monstrous people were in retreat.

After all, the people of Terror Peaks were indoctrinated to be that way. From the cradle, children were raised in tanks, cut off from the world, and made to harm each other and then eventually whoever their government deemed as enemies.

To kill such people would be as though killing children that didn’t know any better.

Killing soldiers in a war? Fine. Necessary, too.

Killing assassins? Sure! Mulch them all.

Killing high value-targets because if left on their own, they would kill more people? Absolutely.

But killing children and mothers and non-combatants?

Though his hatred seemed to be growing against certain targets, his anger was a fleeting thing.

Even if the mothers and otherwise were willingly enabling the system which produced the soldiers and assassins and high-value targets… Even if! Erick couldn’t kill them. They weren’t actual combatants themselves! They weren’t actual killers themselves.

And that counted for something, right?

So don’t kill the people who cause the system to exist. Just kill the people who participate in it. Words are fine. Actions are not.

Therefore...

What Erick could do, was find every single person who was at that meeting in the sky, who openly participated in the farce that led to Patriarch Xangu using that soul spear, and then kill them. They had tried to kill Erick with their specific actions. It was a grey area, though, wasn’t it?

Ah.

Erick was confusing himself.

It wasn’t a great split-the-difference plan, but it was one Erick felt comfortable with. There were just so many targets to Image for.

Patriarch Xangu! And Raidu! And that woman who was at his side in that broadcast where Xangu took credit for killing priests! And—

Okay.

Erick found his anger again. Hatred and anger. Good combination to keep going in the middle of a war.

Good.

Less thinking.

More doing.

Still not going to annihilate all of Terror Peaks with a few spells, though.

- - - -

A [Cascade Imaging] went up in the sky over a road that linked two of Terror Peaks’ cities, searching for Patriarch Xangu. While Erick waited for the map to populate, he watched the world below. The castle-like cities were ready for war, but no war had come to them. Yet.

Raidu appea—

Erick had Ophiel cast a [Harmonic Counterspell] to lock down any other spell casting, while Erick took a thousand mana of his own and cast [Harmonic Blood Ooze] upon the Scion of Terror Peaks. Raidu briefly stuttered as a splash of shadows canceled his next spell. The red ooze swarmed him, wrapping around his body like a net of constricting blood vessels, canceling his next three spells over the next three seconds. He probably would have gotten something else off, but Erick spent a thousand mana on a [Grand Dispel], and stripped the man of his Elemental Body and a good dozen other defenses he had cast upon himself.

Erick would have simply killed Raidu when he appeared, but the man came to the fight in underwear, with no visible weapons.

And now that the ooze was upon him, wrapping into his mouth and binding his arms and legs together, Erick cast several other spells, fast as needed and with Ophiel’s help, and the man ended up in the same sort of contraption that Erick had put that soul spear assassin under.

Raidu floated, struggling to stay awake, under a sphere of [Draining Void], atop a [Teleporting Platform], surrounded by a layer of Solid Ward, which was probably overkill… Erick replaced the [Prismatic Ward] with layers of [Quick Wall]s. There! No need to go wasting Ophiel’s [Prismatic Ward]s on this piddly stuff.

And in the four minutes it took for that to happen… no one attacked.

Erick was waiting for it! He had [Luminous Beam]s ready to go! Other Ophiel on standby!

So what was this all about, then? Raidu, appearing out of nowhere, looking like he wanted to talk? Yeah, sure. Like Erick believed that. He’d talk to Scion Terror Peaks when Raidu was Blessed by the Crystal Star. But in the meantime, Erick could start slaughtering the people down below.

No.

No no.

… There were still red-armor soldiers to kill over in Eralis. The war was still on, though it had devolved down to Songli cornering red-armored forces before those red soldiers could kill more civilians.

… What was Erick doing here? Planning on killing other civilians?

Erick came back to himself, feeling a profound disgust at himself and at everyone else. He instantly decided to pull back from the counteroffensive. He left the map up, though, searching for Xangu. Might as well, right? If that dude appeared, Erick would very much enact some swift justice. But as for the cities of Terror Peaks, and otherwise… He decided not to do that.

As for Raidu?

Raidu was still struggling to stay awake, and he would likely keep struggling for a little while. But the ooze wasn’t killing him too badly. Superficial wounds, really. And Erick had [Greater Treat Wounds]. The guy could stand to be humbled a bit, in Erick’s opinion.

Maybe… Cut off someth—

No.

No torture, Erick.

Thirty more seconds passed. Raidu collapsed, forced to sleep atop the [Teleporting Platform], never having been able to say a word. Erick still didn’t believe all of what he was seeing, though. He was surprised that all of these spells worked on the Scion. Nothing had been reflected. The [Draining Void] worked exactly as it should have, stripping the man of his resources, while the Blood Ooze kept him tied up, and prevented every spell he tried to cast.

This whole thing was probably some stupid attempt by Raidu to prey on Erick’s willingness to forgive.

Fuck that.

Anyway.

You couldn’t [Teleport] the unconscious. But you could [Teleport Other] the unconscious!

One Ophiel moved the platform and all of the accompanying spellwork. Another Ophiel moved Raidu.

Blip-blip. Blip-blip. Blip-blip. Blip-blip.

Along the way, another Ophiel introduced Raidu to the Crystal Star.

And then Erick left the guy where he was, in the middle of nowhere, under the care of an Ophiel, exactly how he had left the soul spear assassin. And now that he thought about it, he went over and switched out that assassin’s dense air shell for some good, old fashioned [Force Wall]s.

With that done, Erick added some [Sealed Privacy Ward]s over his new prisoners, to hide both war criminals from casual observers, while their platforms themselves were still mobile, if needed.

And then he switched the maps in Songli to ‘people in red armor’, just to be sure it didn’t work, and this next step became that much easier.

… Nope! ‘People in red armor’ was too non-real of a query.

As Erick reattached his Crystal Star to his chest, he asked Poi and Teressa, “Do Terror Peaks soldiers use anything that I hadn’t noticed, that I could search for? Badges, or otherwise? Rings or whatever? Something solid. ‘Red [Conjure Armor]’ doesn’t work.”

Teressa had been about to speak, but then she did not.

Poi shook his head. “Despite the war today, a lot of goods flow across much of Nelboor without care for borders, so anything that you see down there is likely used by people on both sides.” He added, “And everyone who isn’t openly fighting won’t be wearing any incriminating items.”

Erick nodded, saying, “I didn’t think so, but I needed to ask—” His eyes went wide in sudden panic. He asked Poi, “Is Candlepoint or Spur under attack from these guys?”

“No.” Poi said, “I already checked and I have them set up to warn me if that changes. They have been warned, though.”

Erick felt a sudden wave of relief. “Ah. Okay. Good. Then… Let’s keep going.”

He turned his attention back to Ophiel.

- - - -

Every time a red-armor soldier stepped into the light they met the business end of a [Luminous Beam]. Every place anyone fought, Ophiel investigated. Most of the time the solution to the fight was a [Luminous Beam] upon certain red targets. Other times, when the target was surrounded by friendlies, the solution was to check for reflections first and then implement other solutions.

Checking was simple enough. [Purge Water] was a great spell for this. It instantly struck a person with white mana light, and if they were vulnerable, the light stuck, and the person temporarily halted their killing to puke out water. Then came the [Death Spiral Plasma]s. Erick ended three killers that way. Felt pretty good about it, too.

Sometimes, the white mana glow of [Purge Water] reflected against Ophiel, but since Ophiel didn’t have water, nothing happened. For these enemies, Erick had to get creative.

One man in particular was a terror on the battlefield, slicing apart people with impunity. Erick was reminded of that time outside of Odaali, when that one man who would become the Breach Demon was cutting through Odaali’s troops, and no one could touch the man.

This guy in red armor was the same. Not a single enemy weapon touched him, as he slipped around the broken first floor of a multi-story building, wielding his thin sword, stabbing people through their armor, into their hearts with quick, sudden sword thrusts. He downed three soldiers in white in the three seconds Erick found the guy. He would have killed more, but he noticed Ophiel, and immediately moved like air around the battlefield, wrapping a hapless low-level soldier with his [Air Body], to continue to stab at other people while he was himself protected from retaliation.

[Purge Water] splashed away from the killer.

Erick couldn’t just [Luminous Beam], though.

He tried [Air Shape], since that was the best way to kill those in [Air Body]. The guy’s reflection caused Ophiel’s spellwork to flash into impotent turbulence.

The red soldier turned his blade inward, to point at the heart of the Songli soldier he surrounded, daring Erick to attack, saying nothing as the Songli soldier began to panic.

Erick had his Ophiels cast a [Draining Void] along with a dozen [Quick Wall]s, to ensure the guy couldn’t get away, and then he [Teleport Other]’d the Songli soldier out of there.

The air man began to leak green Health and Mana, even through his Reflection. In three seconds, after one [Harmonic Counterspell] to shut down the enemy’s [Teleport], the leaking stopped. The guy was out of resources.

The guy might have been running on fumes, and yet he could still maintain his [Air Body], and his reflection. Even inside the [Draining Void], the man was still air and violence, attempting to slash at his cage to get away. Perhaps he specialized in [Air Body]? And with the Class Ability to reduce the cost of his [Air Body]? It wouldn’t be the strangest thing Erick had ever seen.

But he was essentially trapped now, so Erick introduced him to the Crystal Star, and watched as the man turned back into a man, and started bawling inside of the [Draining Void]. And since he was a person now… Erick wrapped him up in spellwork, and sent the sleeping killer off to be with others like him.

Erick would ask the man how he was able to keep [Air Body] up without paying the costs, but it was probably some silly reason that anyone would know if he asked the right people. Eh. This was fine.

Erick moved on.

Mostly, soldiers died. But when Erick found someone who could do more than routine murder, he turned them empathic. It went against his whole person to only subject the elites to his Blessing, for everyone deserved redemption, but Erick did not have that luxury at the moment. The war was still raging.

Well…

Not raging. Not really.

The sun turned in the sky. People died.

Most of Terror Peak’s elites got dead, due to the efforts of Songli’s elites, but a quarter of the ones Erick dealt with got locked behind [Draining Void]s, and made Empathic. Erick had lots of questions for them, but not yet.

Alaralti desired its rain shut off, so Erick did that.

Holorulo desired more targets to be found, so Erick did that, and let Holorulo deal with those targets.

Eralis needed help. The battle was over, the enemy in full retreat, but they would no doubt strike back with terror campaigns and more assassinations as soon as they got some room to recover. But that would come later, for now, Erick sent out Ophiels, armed with [Greater Treat Wounds], and began healing everyone he saw that needed healing. He was one tiny man in a massive empire, but one man could make a difference, and so he helped as much as he could, but without exposing himself to a possible soul spearing.

That soul spear was simply an awful weapon.

Erick found himself hating it.

Actual hate.

Felt a lot of hatred at the moment, now that he had some time to think of what had happened.

The last time he felt this sort of genuine hate was back when he wanted to murder all the Shades.

That this soul spear was able to elicit that much hate, surprised even him. He didn’t hate it for what it could do to him, physically, or to his soul. That was just part of life here on Veird; death came in many flavors. No. He hated it because if that damned thing didn’t exist, then he could have Ophiels flying around in full sunforms, touching off [Greater Treat Wounds] upon everyone who needed it. Instead, Ophiel were tiny, and they had to get close to their targets in order to heal, but even that was a vulnerability. Erick had to make himself vulnerable, extending his light outside of the [Animadversion] shell, to cast that touch-based spell. Every single time Erick had Ophiel heal someone, he imagined that some [Gate] would open up and Xangu would step through and spear Ophiel in that exact moment of vulnerability.

That thought right there, the fact that Erick was thinking such things, that was why he hated the soul spear. A fucking inanimate object! Drawing as much ire as the Shades!

How comical!

How hilarious that Erick had to make himself vulnerable to help others!

Oh, sure, he had been making himself vulnerable his whole life in order to help others, so that was not a problem for him, except… He had thought that Ophiel’s existence had divorced him from much of the actual threat that was vulnerability, but no! Here was new weaponry, made specifically to stab at how he chose to help others—

Ah. Well.

The soul spear was made to be able to stab at anyone who primarily interacted with the world through a [Familiar]’s eyes, instead of their own. That spear was a true archmage killer. Many people over the last year had said that archmages were never as untouchable as they seemed to be. This new soul spear was just one example of that truth.

And Erick hated it. He hated the spear, and what the existence of such an object was doing to him. With that thought, he flowed into the next, that he hated Terror Peaks for causing this war in the first place. He hated the loss of life, and the disruption to the world. He hated the small-minded culture of Terror Peaks that allowed this war to happen in the first place. He hated being called a Wizard.

He hated that all events conspired to make him a hermit. He hated that he, personally, would be better off if he was alone, and people came to him if they needed help. He hated that by choosing to become a part of the world, he subjected people to death and terror, because people subjected him to death and terror.

And then he thought of the Worldly Path.

He felt his hatred falter, as though overshadowed by something else.

Was this war a result of Fate and Ritual causing reactions that otherwise wouldn’t have happened?

Erick’s instinct was to say ‘no’.

Koyabez had it right; Ar’Kendrithyst’s destruction left a massive power vacuum in the world. It was as though The United States had fallen overnight. Of course there would be people wanting to fill that void with their own power.

But everywhere Erick went, war followed.

But not massive wars, actually, now that he thought about it. The beginning steps of wars. The parts where the most good could be done most quickly.

So, in that light, what had actually happened here?

Erick came to town, and proceeded to help the people here solve their Elixir problem. When that news broke at the gathering a few days ago, Erick stood up and proclaimed Songli as violating its own usual operations by speaking of war instead of peace. Maybe, by speaking up, he had brought some sense to those people—

Nope. That was being naive. He didn’t bring sense to them, but at least he had spoken sensible words and made his mind shown.

There had been a distinct desire for war, for they knew war was going to happen. They had known all along, didn’t they.

Erick felt he had curbed that war, maybe not in that room of the gathering, but maybe later, when he revealed who he was to Zalindi and Ari and Tadashi.

Eh.

Maybe the pressure of the void of Ar’Kendrithyst, and the proximity of the success of Eralis’s chelation treatment, had simply caused that war to erupt in a different way than how it was always going to erupt.

War was always going to happen, wasn’t it?

Raidu had spoken of Goldie and Queen orchestrating something in the background...

But maybe… Maybe, though, Erick’s ‘talk’ with Raidu, before Xangu appeared with his soul spear, had caused a lot of others to not join this war. There had been no sign of the Rain Mage or the Fulmination Spear, yet. And that was good, wasn’t it?

Erick realized:

There was only one real choice he had when it came to this war.

He could choose to mitigate, or he could choose to inflame the atrocities of war even higher.

Back when he had little power in this Worldly Path, Erick had shut down the war between the Shades in Last Shadow’s Feast, by letting it run its course until he had to act, to ensure the right people survived. He needed godly help to survive that himself, too, but he had survived, and, it could be argued, the outcome of that Feast was the best possible outcome for the world, considering the possible outcomes.

And then he went to Treehome, and did the same thing on a much easier scale. He ended a minor battle between shadelings and orcols through a show of force, then he took the survivors back to Candlepoint, and then he pointed Treehome to the Forest, to give them a new target. A new conquest.

Looking back on his time with Tenebrae, the archmage had almost introduced him to a civilization of dragons, which was at constant war with itself… But he had chosen to step down a different part of the Path, taking him away from that confrontation, for Tenebrae would have died if Erick would have continued.

And now he was here, in Songli, perhaps the most stable nation of this land of Nelboor, where everyone warred all the time. Erick had helped to mitigate some of the battle, but he could have done more.

Everything was connected by war and conquest and the fate of the world, for the first step on this Worldly Path had inadvertently been to end the largest Evil that had ever existed on this Veird.

With a dawning horror, Erick saw the Path stretch out before him.

He saw the wars yet to come.

And he knew he needed to find another way. Some different Path he could take. Something more peaceful. Something less high-stakes than the fate of the world.

Something smaller.

But a dark thought made him think of this in another way.

If he acted fast enough, and decisively enough, along every step of his path, he could end wars before they began. He could save thousands upon thousands of lives. He could end horrors before they had a chance to show. That’s what he had done in Treehome, wasn’t it? He helped the orcols to kill hundreds of thousands of monsters, for the good of everyone else.

If he had made that ‘Kill Everyone’ spell that Jane had brought up…

If he had cast that over at Terror Peaks, targeting ‘people’.

A few hundred thousand people would be dead. But millions would have survived.

Like Silverite once said:

It was simple math.

- - - -

As the sun touched the western horizon, Erick had an Ophiel skip around to renew the spellwork on his new Blessed, and he thought. These people were likely destined to die for crimes committed, but Erick would have a few answers first, for sure, and he would speak to Songli to let them go, or something… Erick wasn’t still sure about all that.

But anyway!

He needed answers about the soul spear, and the necessity of this war, and above all, Terror Peaks’ endgame.

The outcome of today’s terrorism was never in question.

Terror Peaks had lost.

So why did they fight?

Why did they continue to fight?

Even now, new pockets of war erupted every few minutes, as hidden forces came out of hiding here and there, detonating brilliant and deadly spells in more attempts to murder the most people they possibly could, before moving on again. It was a horrific tactic, because it worked, and it was hard to find those who did it after they moved on. Sometimes the terrorists moved too slowly and were caught.

And Erick didn’t understand them!

What drove these people to this?

Fanaticism? On the surface, that’s what it looked like, but was that truly the reason for this war?

Erick wanted to believe that there was something more going on, that even a nation like Terror Peaks was capable of rational thought and action, and that something else was going on behind the scenes to drive them to this suicide. But… Maybe there wasn’t.

Maybe the reasons Raidu had given in that ‘argument’ with Hangzi were the real deal.

Whatever the reason for the war, at least Jane was doing okay. Erick had checked in on her several times during the fighting, to make sure. He had no idea where she was at the moment, but she was fine.

She was fine.

She was fine.

She was fine.

- - - -

Jane had reached a transcendental level of anger that she had never known possible.

And her anger had changed.

Instead of a sharp radiation boiling her brain and blood, where she was offhandedly worried that she might break a tooth one of these days if she clenched her jaw any tighter, she was calm; the anger had simply become a part of her.

She stood amid a squadron of dead terror troops, their red armor dissipating with their deaths, leaving them in peasant clothing that anyone could have bought anywhere in Eralis. They bought their clothes over here. Which made sense, since these people knew where to hit to do the most damage; they had effectively been scouting this place for their entire lives.

[Teleport] made entry and exit into Eralis rather simple, after all. Maybe not into the city proper, but in these outskirts? Completely undefended.

Gore glistened on Jane’s white armor. The colors of Songli were marred with blood, shit, and hair. She had killed a lot of people in this recent push, and she would kill more before the day’s end. She was tempted to spend a little mana on a [Cleanse], but this battle was not a sprint. Those who had made the mistake of going low Mana, or low Health, laid dead all around her.

She took a moment, forcing herself to Rest with Meditation. She had recovered a lot more Mana and Health than was healthy, even with Scion of Balance allowing her to mitigate Health Fatigue and Mana Exhaustion. Her movements were starting to slow, while her mind was starting to fray, but she dared not stop, for everywhere she went, there were people in need of her sword.

She looked up, and watched Ophiel in the sunset sky, in the distance. The [Familiar] was practically invisible against the orange of the setting sun, but [Luminous Beam] was the most visible thing for kilometers around. That line of white light danced downward, swiping this way and that, and then Ophiel moved on.

Jane had noticed a change in the fighting ever since her father took to the skies. White-armored forces walked openly, hunting for terror troops, who had themselves hidden inside buildings or turned to guerrilla tactics. Rare was the red-armored soldier caught under the open sky, for those who were out in the open, were soon killed by the roaming [Familiar]s of one of the strongest archmages to ever exist.

That’s what Elder Mirizo was telling her through their telepathic connection, anyway.

She had linked up with Clan Star Song after—

Jane discarded that thought, and let her anger flow through her mind, telling her who to hurt, and who to help.

She hefted her sword. It was not her usual sword. It was a simple steel weapon she had picked up off of the corpse of a commoner several hours ago, back when the fighting was heaviest, and an enemy captain had ripped apart her usual conjured sword with uncommon ease. That man likely had a skill like her own [Force Weaver], or maybe he had a style that was good at [Dispel]ing Force constructs. After she dispatched that one threat, and moved on, Jane hadn’t switched back to her usual sword.

She barely understood why she held onto this metal thing in her hands. Part of her liked the heft and the craftsmanship. Part of her wanted to honor the commoner who had held onto it in his one remaining hand, even after he had been bisected from shoulder to groin. That man had been gripped by the corpses of two children, who had only become corpses due to a bladed weapon strike from behind, while they were hugging their father. The story on display in that small scene was easy to put together, and it was only one scene out of hundreds of thousands happening all around Jane, all the time.

Perhaps Jane liked this sword because it was the perfect tool with which to wield her anger. It was just a simple sword, taken from a man who failed to defend his children, so Jane had picked it up, and killed every terror troop that she could.

Speaking of which.

The lull was over.

The elites had found her again.

While she hunted them in the ruins of Darzallia, they hunted her in return. They had found her in the middle of a burned out mansion that seemed built more for parties and less for simple living. Bodies floated in the pool, and hung over the railings, while the remnants of fine wine bottles laid broken, all around. The air stank of shit and alcohol, but at least the fires hadn’t reached here yet.

A gentle breeze flowed from the north, rustling the trees.

The enemy arrived in a whisper, standing suddenly right beside Jane. A slash scraped across her neck. She narrowly avoided decapitation with the application of [Force Weaver], disintegrating the weapon before it could complete the [Strike]. It was a sloppy parry; [Force Weaver] didn’t always work, and it didn’t work that well when the enemy had well-made spell reflections. Jane had been out of position. She would curse at herself for being out of position some other time.

She slashed upward, shadows trailing her sword, protecting the metal and extending her reach.

The red enemy danced away, briefly turning to water to escape her counter—

[Watershape].

Jane twisted the man’s insides to the outside. Intestines and organs exploded out into the field, shredding apart. The red man turned into even more water, in an attempt to control his death. The second [Watershape] encountered heavy resistance, likely a reflection, but enough damage had already been done. He died, while Jane’s metal sword met the water sword of the second elite, deflecting the sudden blow into something ignorable.

The second man picked up red water in his own slashing attacks —A blood/water hybrid warrior?— to extend his reach, too, hoping to force an opening, but Jane parried with shadows as she disengaged, wary for the next attacker. These people liked to work in threes, unless they were really strong. Jane didn’t want to test herself against anymore of the really strong ones since they tended to have as many tricks as her, but since there were probably three people here—

Noxious green air filled Jane’s vision, succeeding in both blinding her, and then dissolving her eyes into sudden, bloody holes. Any normal person would have died right then, to the coordinated attack of both assailants, as the decay mage struck from behind with a spear made of her specialty.

But Jane had Surround Sight. She didn’t actually need her eyes. Jane deflected the two elites with a dozen sudden slashes of shadow, from every angle, getting herself out of their flank by digging deep into her mana as she sought to turn the battle. It worked. Their offense suddenly became a defense, as Jane locked in the reversal with her own [Pure Reflection Ward]. The green cloud that had grabbed onto her body suddenly flexed away, unable to touch her through her reflection. Her eyes stopped dissolving, but the damage had already been done.

In three short seconds, Jane spent a thousand mana, causing tiny cuts against both the water warrior and the decay mage. Neither of them looked worried, and they shouldn’t be. Jane couldn’t keep up this level of attack for long. They were drawing her out.

Jane wasn’t going to let that happen.

[Blood Weaver].

The decay mage looked weaker than her compatriot, so after Jane’s shadow slashes shaved off enough of the woman’s Health, there wasn’t even a delay as the Queen Blood Weaver’s power took hold. Blood controlled blood. Power swelled inward. The decay mage suddenly panicked, but she was between Script Seconds; there was no escape.

The decay mage died, and broke inward, becoming a hovering sphere of blood and resources, as the rest of her unwanted gore sprayed away. Jane only needed the blood, after all.

True to form as the excellent soldier he was, the water warrior did not panic. His sword strikes became more wary, but it was too late for him, too. With sudden swiftness, Jane moved the floating blood orb to flank the warrior. Her hatred flowed as she turned her new resources into cutting beams of power, exactly like the Queen Blood Weaver had shown her, exactly how she already knew how to do with [Greater Shadowalk]. Beams cut into the warrior’s back and legs, and a little reflected, and he dodged some, but some got through. Enough got through. The water warrior no doubt was built for Health, so 50,000 Health would not be uncommon.

Jane ate through enough of that Health, though, and faster than the warrior thought she could, enabling her to use the same [Blood Weaver] on the man.

Jane turned the water warrior into a second sphere of blood.

The fight was over. It had only taken a minute. A few mistakes here, some overconfidence there, and Jane’s monster tricks had overcome what had likely been three decades of training, taking into account all three elites. Jane ended her [Pure Reflection Ward] and then replaced her lost eyes with shadow spider eyes. [Mana Sight] without needing to spend the mana was a great boon in this situation.

Polymage was literally the best Class, because monsters were so varied, and deadly. Jane had a little bit of trouble deciding which of her abilities she liked the most. One ability that had stood out far and above most others, though, was the Queen Blood Weaver’s [Perfect Body].

With [Perfect Body], all healing at all seemed to act as [Greater Treat Wounds], giving Jane what orcols seemed to naturally possess.

Detrimental status effects seemed cut in half. Duration, power, everything. When an elite had showered Jane in fire, everything around her had burned, while she was only slightly hurt. When a frost mage had caught her in a Stop effect, Jane had managed to throw it off seconds sooner than the frost mage had expected, according to the wide eyes of the frost mage’s corpse. Jane’s body was ‘perfect’, and nothing affected her for very long.

But those were small potatoes compared to what else she had experienced today.

She was immune to Blood Magic.

Immune.

Her father’s [Sanguine Charm] still wrapped around her wrist; it had never been used. Made sense, though, for a ‘Queen’ Blood Weaver would need to be immune to the Blood Magic of other spiders, considering what Blood Weavers did to each other when they were hungry, or when they just felt like it.

Which came first, though? [Perfect Body], or queenliness? A question for an academic, for sure.

Jane was still very much not immune to soul attacks, though. A good reflection could take care of those, as Ophiel had shown. Jane was sure that her Nacreous Weaver’s [Radiant Presence] could be used in her human form, and thus make her naturally reflective, but she had tried to do that for a day back when she was hunting monsters, and she still couldn’t figure it out. She likely needed to have chitinous skin in her human form… Or she needed another monster that had really fine scales. Then she could incorporate [Radiant Presence] into those scales, and then those scales onto her body.

She also needed to find some monster that would make her immune to soul attacks.

If [Perfect Body] existed, then surely [Perfect Soul] must also exist.

Immunity to soul attacks would have been nice, before today, and before the reveal of that soul spear that had almost killed her father. When that spear had failed to kill him, they came for Jane, with another spear.

Jane shuddered, remembering the sight of a million soul spears suddenly appearing all around her, each aimed for her soul. If she had had her own reflective powers, up and active, then she would have been fine. She was still fine, though, but not because of anything she did.

The Darkness had saved her.

The Darkness still watched her from nearby shadows, too.

Jane didn’t know what to make of that.

She probably wouldn’t be telling her father; not about Melemizargo, nor about the soul spear.

Or maybe she would, if he had lost his anger. That was one sure thing that Jane knew about her father: Erick could not maintain his anger while he was winning. But! She could be wrong. Her father had certainly killed a lot more terror troops than she had. He kept up the battle. He didn’t falter. As long as one red-armored soldier was on the streets of Songli, he would keep going. That made sense, for he had always fought with all of his strength for those who were in pain.

But when the fighting was over, and the time came to cleanse Terror Peaks from this world...

Her father would falter.

Jane sighed out into the putrid air as she checked her Status. She had recovered enough mana to continue, and continue she would. Terror Peaks seemed to be retreating, and she had not killed nearly enough of them.

She sent out her shadows to see—

Ah. Shit.

The world turned to white fire—

Jane reappeared in the plains east of Eralis; an emergency [Teleport] having saved her ass once again. Her right arm was still on fire but— Yup. There it goes; extinguished all on its own, taking her arm with it, and the sword, too. Even metal burned away into nothing. Jane was lucky for her [Perfect Body], though; other people just burned away into nothing.

White Bitch’s fire was painful and destructive as all fuck, and that fact made her practically unassailable. [Fireshape] didn’t even work against that white flame. Jane had made the mistake of trying to use [Fireshape] and [Fire Body] to attack that woman, and she had lost her legs for that impudence.

Maybe the fire was actually Decay that just looked like fire? Possible.

… Highly likely, now that Jane had seen the fire up close for the third time.

Jane flicked her stump in the air, breaking off the remnants of her former arm. Okay. It was time for a larger break than normal. Her ring was gone. She was down 30 stats in every category.

“And the sword is gone, too.” Jane let her anger flow, as she gently cursed, “Dammit.”

It was time to regroup with her father.

- - - -

For all of his power and his ability to affect the world, Erick felt small.

Ten Ophiel could do a lot. His own power was enormous.

But Eralis and the surrounding thousand kilometers were home to 24 million people. 24 million lives, each going their own way, most in sync with each other, but many divergent. Paths untold and never known. Each trying to live, to fight against the enemy. The ‘enemy’ changed occasionally for each one of those people, and most of the time their problems were comparatively small when contrasted against now, but right now, the enemy wore red armor, and fought to exterminate, and when it couldn’t exterminate, it went full scorched earth.

With ten Ophiel, Erick saw commoners giving their lives to fight red soldiers they had no hope of winning against. Every time, Erick came in halfway through the fight, to end it decisively in Songli’s favor. Every single place that the forces of Songli had yet to retake, and most of what he had retaken, was a charnel ground.

While the rain helped against the natural fires, the magical fires raged unchecked. Those fires cornered people too low level with too few resources to [Teleport] away, and all too often, Erick arrived on the scene too late.

Erick briefly made the mistake of thinking that those who did escape had found safety in a field like the one around himself. But he was only safe because he had put a [Sealed Privacy Ward] mostly around himself, leaving just a hand outside of the invisible space in order to communicate with his Ophiel.

The grasslands directly outside of Eralis were filled with bodies, for the prowling Hunters and killers outside the cities still existed. They hadn’t gone anywhere, and they wore varied clothes, so identification wasn’t easy like it was with the red troops inside the city.

Erick could have spent precious minutes helping those outside the cities, but...

Everywhere Ophiel went, there were targets, but if he flew over the prairie, the targets only came every thirty seconds, instead of constantly, always. It was simple math to stay in the cities and help there.

Erick’s heart broke for those he could not help.

Ophiel was practically on auto-pilot already, automatically [Luminous Beam]ing everyone that wore red armor after having learned what needed to be done. And yet, every three seconds, Ophiel asked him if the person they were seeing was a target, for ‘people in red armor’ wasn’t always easy to determine. There was a lot of blood upon Songli’s white troops, and on everyone else.

And then, as the sun set in the west, a change took place.

Erick only noticed the change because Ophiel was taking ten seconds to ask him to confirm a target, and then, a whole minute rolled by with no new Terror Peaks sightings.

Poi spoke up, “Terror Peaks is withdrawing.”

Erick looked at the man, unsure.

“And Jane is coming here,” Poi added.

Erick’s face cracked into a half smile. “Ah. Good.”

Jane appeared a hundred meters away, standing atop the prairie grasses. Her white armor was immaculate, though she held no swords or shields. Her head was on a swivel, looking out—

She spotted the [Sealed Privacy Ward] and pulled her helmet back, exposing black eyes. Her Shadow Spider eyes, no doubt.

Erick’s heart swelled with joy, flaking away a little bit of the baked-in horror that had soaked into his very being for the last ten hours. He stepped out into the open, saying, “Hey, Jane.”

Jane smiled. “Hey, dad.”

He ran to her, and she walked to him. They met in a hug. Her armor was solid under Erick’s grip, while her arms were loose around his chest. The two of them stood like that for a minute; she, letting him hold onto her, and him, holding onto her for his own sanity.

Erick whispered, “I’ve seen some shit today.”

“Me too.” Jane pulled back, saying, “I need another ring; mine was consumed in white fire. I also need to give you a description of several elites so that you can hunt them down.”

Erick instantly said, “Right, right, right.” He almost took the ring off of his own finger, but he stopped; that ring was truly All Stat. Instead, he stepped backward into his [Sealed Privacy Ward], which was also filled with dense air, and cast a [Duplicate] on his ring. A brand new, unenchanted ring appeared in his hand. He cast a lightmask into the air outside of the bubble, scratched an opening in the silver surface of the new ring, put the ring in, and channeled mana through Strength, Vitality, Willpower, and Focus. [Mend] sealed the manalight in. He took off his own ring and checked the new one. +32 to the four original Stats. He put his own ring back on and handed the new one to Jane, saying, “There you go.”

“Thank you.” Jane’s armor briefly turned translucent and ephemeral, allowing her to put her new ring onto her hand. And then she turned her armor back to solid. She looked to her father, saying, “There are four Elites I saw that need killing, for I barely escaped them with my life.”

Erick felt his hatred coalesce behind his eyes and in the clench of his jaw. He forced his jaw to relax, as he said, “Right. That. Please tell me about them.”

As they moved back under the [Sealed Privacy Ward], Jane informed her father of who had tried and almost succeeded in killing her. She left a lot out, but she gave succinct descriptions of form and items on the people, as seen through the [Life Sense] of her hidebound sneakeyes form, and through the [Magic Sight] of her shadow spider, and her own normal sight. She provided lightward images of all of the people she saw, and that helped, too.

As she talked, Erick felt his hatred go frozen-tundra cold. Jane left a lot out of her encounters, but she had told him enough. He hadn’t even noticed the white fire woman. The clans of Songli didn’t tell him about that one. Did they not know of that one?

Poi quickly confirmed, “I’m getting a ‘no’ on that. None of the people Jane saw are known to Songli. This is not that surprising, Erick. Much of the people in charge of the Highlands are dead. The usual communication network is in tatters.”

“I…” Erick said, “I know it’s not surprising. I’m still surprised.”

Poi nodded.

Teressa glanced their way, but kept a lookout on their surroundings. Jane sat in a chair, and for a little while she had tried to stay awake, but she had failed.

Maps switched all across Eralis.

And the targets weren’t there.

They had pulled out as the sun set. Did they not fight in the dark? Even with all the fires all around? How… Comical?

Erick almost opened up maps all across Nelboor, but…

For one, he would be going off on his own, and new talks with the High Clans were underway. Poi kept Erick abreast of the situation, but there was more than enough work to be done inside Eralis. He was putting out fires left and right with [Fireshape], rescuing people from downed buildings and roaming Hunters, and healing as much as he could. He restricted his actions to Eralis and the surrounding lands, for affecting the whole of the Songli Highlands was far, far beyond him.

Everywhere, there was work to be done. Everywhere, there were lives to be saved.

And though he was helping, and though he saw Songli soldiers and clansmen helping as much as they could, too...

Erick had never felt smaller in his entire life.

- - - -

As night came on in full, the talks with the High Clans ended outside of Erick’s purview, with them fully supporting everything he needed to do. They even managed to give him more targets.

So Erick decided to expand his net of Imaging. As the stars came out, maps populated across Songli, over the Tribulations, and even over Terror Peaks. Erick had expected some random red soldier to stop him from Imaging their cities, but all he got was some [Scry] eyes to view the maps he made.

Erick found the white fire woman in a normal house in Terror Peaks, surrounded by her children. He almost faltered at that, but he did not. A [Teleport Other] removed her from her human shields, placing her in the direct path of a [Luminous Beam].

Then there was the metal mage. That man had been immune to Jane’s attacks, and able to hurt her with impunity. Erick found him resting in a burned out mansion of Alaralti, having returned sometime when Erick wasn’t watching. He managed to get three blips away, directly into the Imaging of other maps, before Ophiel tagged him with a counterspelling Blood Ooze. That man died under [Luminous Beam]s, too.

Finding the first Blood Mage of several had been easy. That one had been in the Tribulations. He and his entire squadron of soldiers had died before they had a chance to get away.

The second and third Blood Mage were caught assaulting shelters in Eralis, in a last ditch effort to kill as many civilians as possible.

An Air Mage of some sort, Jane didn’t know exactly, was found crying upon the open ground in the center of nowhere, between the Tribulations and Eralis. He didn’t put up a fight, so Erick gave him the same Crystal Star treatment he had given Raidu and a few others. He sent that man into a [Sealed Privacy Ward] into the middle of nowhere, to be dealt with later.

With those major elites dealt with, Erick went back to helping the people of Eralis.

Eventually, sometime around midnight, and after the High Clans started asking what he was doing with his new prisoners, Erick decided to talk to Raidu.

- - - -

The three moons hung high in the sky, while Erick stood outside of Raidu’s temporary prison.

The [Force Wall]s and [Draining Void] and even a [Merciful Ether] continued to suppress Scion Raidu Terror Peaks, while the ‘merciful’ part of the last magic kept the ethyl ether from killing him. Raidu still wore nothing more than a loincloth, but they were a copy of the clothes he had arrived in. Just like all the others he had contained, Erick stripped the man, copied his clothes, and then redressed him; he wasn’t about to let something like magical underwear into his temporary prisons.

Such a precaution had been rewarded on the last man Erick had imprisoned like this. That crying man in the center of the field had a minimally enchanted wire in his own loincloth. Erick didn’t know what it was, but he only noticed it after it had been removed from the man’s body. Perhaps a beacon of some sort? Something truly simple. Several people had potions in their underclothes, or even inside their skin. All of those were removed.

Even if one of these people managed to get a beacon off, they were all in different areas.

Erick spent another minute ensuring that all his prisoners were alive and safe, and then he turned to Raidu. With a casual dismissal, the [Merciful Ether] went away. A [Cleanse] stripped the remaining ether out of the man. A [Greater Treat Wounds], enacted by a very careful Ophiel who then instantly retracted back into his [Animadversion], was enough to rouse the killer.

Raidu grogged awake in a stumbling second. He slammed into the [Force Wall] containing him, then looked around and reflexively punched the invisible wall with enough force to break the first of several layered spells.

“Stop resisting, or your containment will become more violent,” Erick said.

Raidu startled then seemed to recall where he was, and what had happened to him. He looked around, and saw Erick, and then he sighed. He stepped away from the [Force Wall], to the center of his cell, where he sat down upon his knees and turned his eyes up toward Erick. He waited.

After a moment, Erick asked, “Terror Peaks has lost. They were always going to lose. Why fight?”

Raidu’s eyes focused upon Erick, as though he was seeing the man for the first time. Weeping came next. Raidu cried with more restraint than anyone else Erick had ever subjected to the Crystal Star. But he still cried.

Erick waited.

After a short while Raidu collected himself, and then he spoke with what might have been honesty, “Shades inhabit Songli, bending the people here to their Dark Purpose. To not fight would be to allow Shadows to spread. We died for the Great Goal; to rid the world of Darkness.”

Erick would address those words later. For now, he said, “The same feeling coursing through your body, that same Empathy you are now experiencing, was forced upon Queen and Goldie.” Erick asked, “Do you still believe that Goldie and Queen are filled with Dark Purpose, when they are no doubt feeling similar to how you are, right now?”

“Of course they are.” Raidu said, “They are bending your Curse into—”

“It’s a Blessing. Not a Curse.”

“They are bending your CURSE into their own Dark Purposes.” Raidu said, “For one, they are spreading the weakness of Songli upon the world. The prosperity of Songli? It looks like a good thing, but it is the furthest thing from Good! Songli is nothing more than the strong preying upon the weak in order to further their own selfish goals and keep the people weak. Their elites gain Stats from their initiates, and thus they are able to exert greater pressure on those below them, while those below lose parts of their souls in order to be allowed into the Clans of Songli!” He stared, saying, “Gain this Sight to see: if Songli is allowed to continue swallowing up Nelboor the monsters will overwhelm us all, for all it takes is one Grand Abomination or Dragon Fight or Wizard to expose the true weakness that Songli breeds in its people. 45 million people in all of Songli, and only 50,000 are worth their mana. 200,000 people in Terror Peaks, and we have laid Songli low by targeting those 50,000 and killing half of everyone who mattered in the first hour of combat.” With dry eyes, Raidu glared, saying, “If we had someone like you, we would have killed millions in the first hour of combat, and proven Songli as weak. We would have culled this destructive society from this world, and we would all have been better off for it!” He spat, “Wizard.”

“A compelling argument.” Erick said, “But the only part I can’t fault is the idea that this world will always need people to fight the monsters.”

“Then release me and help Terror Peaks to end the existential threat that is Songli!” Raidu said, “You could do it! Bring your light to this land of Darkness and destroy them all. Strengthen the world with the culling of a few million weaklings!”

Tears streamed from Raidu’s eyes as he spoke, but his voice never wavered, and he never devolved into voiceless crying. He was handling this Blessing rather well.

“We need people to fight monsters.” Erick said, “But not specifically you.”

“Then the Darkness truly has you.” Raidu said, “There truly is no talking to Wizards.”

Erick sighed, then he asked, “Why did Terror Peaks start this war?”

“For all the reasons previously stated,” Raidu answered, not missing a beat. “But mostly because Songli was going to start using antirhine against us all. Thus, we answered their existential threat with a coalition of powers.”

“Are those powers still backing you?”

Raidu said, “Of course they are!”

Obvious lie was obvious. For one, the Rain Mage and his wife were not on the battlefield. Erick wondered what had changed, exactly. Did his words have a real effect on that situation?

Erick moved right along, asking, “Where did that soul spear come from?”

“Gifted to us by nameless benefactors once they heard about us ending Songli’s existential threat.”

Not wholly a lie.

“Who?”

“I don’t know.”

Lie.

Eh. Moving right along.

Erick asked, “Why do you think I’m a Wizard?”

Raidu blinked, as though he had been asked a very stupid question. And then he said, “Because you are.”

“I don’t produce excess mana. I don’t have a core. I still use the Script.” Erick said, “By all the measures of Wizardry, I am not a Wizard.”

Raidu narrowed his eyes in disbelief, saying, “You brought a new magic to the world! You’re a Wizard!”

“Every single Basic Spell was made by someone at the start of the Script. The only ones the gods gave us are [Cleanse] and Healing Magic.” Erick said, “Your argument is flawed because all I did was follow in the steps of the first people to make magic on this world.”

“Lies.” Raidu said, “Magic was given to us by the gods in order to fight the Darkness. It is through strength of character and proven worthiness that we are allowed to unlock the higher tiers of spellwork. But you tricked your way forward, because you are a Wizard.”

Erick frowned. “… People make magic, and then Script formalizes it. This is how the Script works.”

“Were you hit on your head as a child? That is not how the Script works.”

Erick felt a terrible interest in derailing this conversation into whatever tangents Raidu felt like exploring, but he did not. He asked, “How do you see this war ending for your side?”

“With all of Songli dead!”

Erick already knew the man was delusional; this just confirmed it.

“And you’re comfortable killing these millions of people?”

Tears streamed as Raidu said, “It’s simple math! [Cleanse] the infection and work on regrowing the lost flesh after the poison is no longer killing the body!”

Erick was dumbfounded in multiple ways.

‘It was simple math’.

Erick had to pretend to be okay in the face of this awful man, because he was going to kill him if the man sensed weakness, or so much as sneered at him.

After a moment, Erick put his thoughts back on track.

Mostly.

Raidu was currently Blessed into Empathy, and he was obviously feeling bad about what he was doing, but he still thought it best to kill all of Songli. According to what Koyabez had said, Raidu wouldn’t be capable of killing anyone himself. He was therefore a perfect figurehead to delude others into killing for him.

Which is what he was already doing.

Raidu was the Scion of Terror Peaks. He might be an archwarrior, maybe, but he was more a public figure than anything else, wielding political power as much as his sword. Erick had no idea how their society actually worked over there, but this man would one day be the leader, or the taskmaster, or the guide to his whole society. If this man took over, then he would do what he said he wanted to do, and kill all of the people of Songli.

Erick felt even more dumbfounded.

Raidu was far past delusion. He believed the words he said.

There were more than a few implications here.

Erick went off on a tangent, to try and understand Raidu, at least a little. He asked, “How do you feel about your own people? If there were things you could change at home, what would you change?”

“I would change nothing. Terror Peaks will lead this world into a new age of power and light.” Raidu said, “We only have a short opportunity to capitalize on the mistake Melemizargo has made by killing his own Shades, and we are taking it, no matter the cost.”

“I saw a mother slice off her son’s hand when he reached for an apple on a cart. Is this the kind of society you think will truly lead the way into a new age of prosperity?”

“Prosperity!” Raidu spat. “Only fools and tyrants work toward prosperity. The Grand Goal has always been safety. Safety for the children, security in the walls, and power to the individual.”

“So you have nothing to say about the sliced hand I saw?”

“How about we speak instead of Songli’s hauling of the decrepit and the low-leveled to war. How about we speak of poverty in a world of plenty. How about we speak of clansmen routinely devouring the souls of those who look up to them, in order to increase their Stats!” Raidu said, “Whatever you saw was nothing compared to what Songli does all day, every day. And I know that kid got healed right after! Didn’t he! Yes, your face tells me he did. He learned a lesson in pain, and that lesson will serve him well while he grows up in an environment that will make him strong.”

… And now Erick was starting to believe the man about some of his points. Not all of them! No. Terror Peaks had a deep dogma to them, and those beliefs swung them against Songli. But in another life, Erick could see himself aligned with them.

And yet… Raidu seemed deeply dishonest. The lies sprinkled throughout his speech were proof enough of that dishonesty, but Erick could see himself falling for those comfortable lies, in another life. Especially if the man had been actively working against the Shades this whole time.

But Raidu was still a murderer.

And yet… all nations were killers when it came to war.

Erick decided: He was not going to judge this guy.

He cast a [Merciful Ether] into the prison.

Raidu’s eyes went wide as he saw the spell take hold, and then he relaxed. He breathed deep, as thick air flowed from his body. The ether started to build up, slowly at first, but increasingly fast as moments went on. Raidu resigned himself to his fate, and softly said, “There’s still time for you to pull back from this foolish alliance with Songli, for make no mistake: You are walking Dark paths, Erick.” He breathed deep, then again, and again. He blinked long, and then his eyes closed. He remained seated, with his hands on his thighs and his head slightly bowed; he did not fall over.

Erick pulled back from the lightform Ophiel he sent to oversee his talk with Raidu, and stood under a night sky a few thousand kilometers away. He had prepared for the man to have some trick, or some unknown skill, or power that would negate his capture. He had prepared to be attacked by the man.

But that didn’t happen.

Erick turned to Poi. “Tell them where Raidu is, and inform them that I believe he has a block on his soul, or something, that prevents the Blessing from fully taking hold. He might be feigning weakness for some unknown reason. But other than that…” Erick steeled himself, and said, “I’m ready to hear the end result of the main battle. What about Tadashi and his brother and the other Alchemists… And… Xue and Ari and all the rest.”

Jane woke up at the sudden noise of Erick’s voice; she had been exhausted, but she had also gotten enough sleep to be easily roused. Teressa turned her head Erick’s way, but said nothing.

Poi nodded, as he sent off messages. He asked, “What about the other people you captured?”

Erick had tried to speak to the rest of the people he Blessed, but Raidu was the only one who had been able to talk. All the rest just cried, openly and without restraint; weeping to the heavens. Even the assassin who was inside the spear, waiting to strike Erick down as soon as she found an opening, had just cried. He discovered more about her according to a [Witness] on the scene, than from her, herself. She had been waiting on that spear, in that courtyard, for an hour, before Erick found her. As for who put her there with the spear, or if she had put herself there, the [Witness] had been unclear; the power of the spear had erased that portion of the past from the manasphere.

“Inform Songli where those other people are, and tell them that those soldiers are Blessed into Empathy, just like the Shades were. They are unable to do much but weep, so I believe that their Blessing has fully taken hold.” Erick said, “I will not take their lives, and I suggest that Songli lets them go to repent as they are wont.” He stood straighter, and added, “Also inform them that I want to speak to Goldie or Queen, if they are in Songli.”

Poi involuntarily straightened, too, then he slowly nodded. He wordlessly sent off his messages.

Jane spoke up, “How are you doing, dad?”

“Horrible.” Erick sighed, then said, “[Hunter’s Instincts] is doing some heavy lifting, but Intelligence seems to be a soft counter to that usual sharpness and ruthlessness. I was close to blowing up their cities. I am thankful I did not.”

“You should have pulled that trigger.”

“Perhaps.” Erick said, “It would have been the rational thing to do. If the rest of this battle doesn’t go well, I will have zealots searching me out, trying to kill me. In ten years, the kids of today will become adults, and some of them will be raised on stories of Songli, and the archmage who— Ah. They’d call me a Wizard. Right.”

Jane said, “Which is why you should have pulled that trigger.”

Moments passed. Small bugs in the prairie chirped under the lights of the moons.

Erick tried a different tactic for countering his daughter’s ruthlessness, “That would be playing into their narrative.”

“Yes. So what?” Jane said, “This ‘high road’ bullshit is only good in a functioning civilization, and this shit here does not function.”

Erick calmly asked, “So I should kill children?”

“They killed children when they came over here to Songli.”

And there it was.

A truth Erick didn’t want to see, and yet he had seen all too often in the past 16 hours, and which he continued to see, as Ophiels still flitted about Eralis, helping out wherever they could. Erick spared a glance to an Ophiel currently excavating Redflood; he counted three small bodies and two larger ones. A family that had been killed by cutting magics similar to [Hermetic Shredder].

Erick tore his sight back to his own eyes. Tears fell, as he said, “I can’t do that, Jane.”

Jane looked to him, and said, “Okay.” She got up from her chair, stretched a little, and said, “They—” She stopped herself, as though pausing before she pressed a button she could not unpress. She looked away, then she turned back.

She said, “They killed Sikali. She was dead before I could do a thing to stop it, in our second encounter in the Alluvial District. She was sliced in half by that metal mage you already killed. Her, and half of the other people who went with us to hunt monsters. Just last night, I was around a campfire with all of those people, sharing stories about monster fights. And now they’re all dead. In the following encounters, our entire group was fully hunted down and murdered by the elites. I barely escaped with my life. But I went back into the fight, because to not fight against people who want nothing more than extermination is to accept that extermination.”

Erick felt ice on his skin, and cold death in his heart.

Jane continued, “Wabi is dead; Tadashi’s brother. He died defending Tadashi. Tadashi might not survive the night. Yorza Devouring Nightmare is dead. Hangzi’s mother is dead. I learned this when I went back to Clan Star Song, to reconnect with those who I had been working with. That whole command structure is fucked. I was working under Sikali, under their Elder of Enforcement, Mirizo, but when they killed Sikali I was rapidly handed off to someone else because Mirizo needed to step up to the top position. Patriarch Zalindi is dead.

“The half-orcols are dead; their entire clan is gone. And you remember that nice guy I stabbed with the knife at the gathering? Name of Xorii. Dead. His whole family, gone, too. A lot of highly placed people are dead.”

Erick’s breath stopped.

Teressa whispered, “Jane.”

Jane ignored her, and continued, “Scion Red Ledger, the next in line for the Healing Houses of Songli? Dead. Entire clan was focus-fired first, or second. Hard to know. People are dying on the streets for lack of healing because there are no more organized Healers. Barely any of them survived. Loremaster Riri was the only one of her spidery who survived. All of her employees and spiders are gone. I saved her life while she was busy weeping over her dead friends and that dead spider of hers, Pearlchan.”

Erick’s skin hurt, like ice knives had been driven up and down his arms and chest.

Jane continued, “And Terror Peaks tried to kill me when they couldn’t get to you. An assassin appeared with one of those soul spears. I only survived that attack because Melemizargo intervened.”

Erick’s ears stopped working. An emotional pain flowed through him, as though his heart had been ripped out, and everything connected to it had died, in that same instant.

Jane said, “Right this moment, you are treating your power as a luxury, when it is an obligation. Right now, these fake-zealots are coming at you, and me, and everyone here. I call them fake-zealots because if they wanted to, they would have assaulted Candlepoint and other Dark places of the world. They have [Gate] capabilities, so they could actually fight the Darkness. But no! Their actions betray their desires. They want all of Nelboor. They want the High Clans of Songli dead and they’re going to do everything it takes to get it. That ‘everything’ starts with the conquest and murder of 40 million highlanders.

“Make the gods-damned spell we talked about. Blow up Terror Peaks before they scatter and escape.

“End the threat.”

Moments passed in terrible, blessed silence.

Erick said, “I can’t.”

Jane breathed in. She exhaled. She said, “Okay. Then I am going to get together with the High Clans and offer my services on a more permanent basis. I cannot watch you harm yourself like this, so I will stay behind while you walk your Path. I will help cull that which needs culling, so we don’t have elites hunting us while we sleep.”

Erick’s eyes went wide. “Jane—”

“I am very angry, dad. You are who you are and I love you. But I need—”

“Just stop. Please. Stop. Let me speak, too. You had your turn.”

Jane waited.

Erick said, “I’m not going anywhere. Not until the fight is actually over. I am expecting there to be a lot of terrorist-like attacks after today is done, for many red soldiers have escaped, and they’re going to come back. At that time, I am expecting the High Clans and whoever to alert me of threats so that I can help end them. I won’t leave this land like this. I won’t leave these millions of people to die, just because—” Erick had so many thoughts, he had no idea where to go with them all, so he ignored them and skipped ahead to the end of the discussion. “Just because I won’t murder our shared enemies all in one spell does not mean that I’ll let enemies live. I recognize the threat.” He said to her, “Do not ever ask me to kill two hundred thousand people with a single action ever again.” Now, he was angry, too. “Never, ever ask that of me. This is too much, even for you.”

Jane raised her head a fraction and looked her father in the eyes. She said, “Okay.”

“… Okay? Just ‘okay’?”

“I’m sorry, dad. I didn’t mean for my words to be that harsh.” Jane said, “I’m just— I’m very angry right now, and I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”

“I get that… I get that anger.”

Words trailed off. No one said anything.

Teressa was pointedly looking away. So was Poi. Jane sat back down in her chair, and turned to face the night. And Erick’s heart hurt, but there was no time for sadness right now. There would be time later, but not now.

He asked Poi, “What about Goldie and Queen?”

Poi startled all over again, then said, “They’re not here, according to the people I’m talking to.”

“And what about according to the Mind Mages?”

“They’re not here.” Poi said, “If those Shades are here, then we don’t know about them, which is possible, but highly unlikely.”

Erick felt a tiny weight drop off of his chest. He said, “Okay. Good. I will be searching for them later, but until then...” He decided he didn’t need to hear the full account of deaths, yet; Jane had spoken enough and it had broken him to hear it. He couldn’t be broken right now, not when the red soldiers were surely coming back in the day. Erick switched to the next topic, “How can I help Songli? Have them place me somewhere, or on some task.”

Poi explained how Songli wished for Erick to help.

Erick did so.

- - - -

The day dawned with a sky full of smoke and dark clouds. The heavy rains were over, but the light rain had never stopped, for it still helped to put out fires here and there.

The Wanzhi River glowed with red lights as tiny fish swam up the river. It was a pretty sight, but no children appreciated the view today, and Erick barely paid any attention to the procession. The white bridge where Erick had first watched the red glows laid broken in the river.

Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye came back to Erick, and Erick had a rough moment almost crying for having lost the big guy. Erick had no idea why the emotions hit him so hard at that specific moment, but they did. He kept Yggdrasil’s eye on his other shoulder, instead of trailing behind him, from then on. He’d have to recast Yggdrasil’s second body back into Spur’s lake, later, but for now, there was work to be done here, in Songli.

Ophiels were but the smallest of helpers, carrying the largest of loads. [Cascade Imaging]s went up everywhere they could. The initial hunt for red soldiers was over. Now it was time to hunt for varied threats, and thanks to the close cooperation of Songli, Erick found them rather well.

They had set up a system. Soldiers supplied intel to higher-ups. When the higher-ups collected enough intel on a target, it was deemed ‘good to go’, and was then sent to Erick. Erick then populated the maps around Songli, and the South Central Tribulations, and even in the skies over Terror Peaks. Maps went down south, too, to the pirate-infested waters of Eralis Bay, and then further.

Erick lightly warned, “Some of these targets are around others who are not targets.”

The new Matriarch of High Clan Void Song, the former Grand Elder Lingxing, spoke with restrained anger in her voice, “Do as you see fit, Erick. I believe that all the pirates should die for their predations upon our shipping fleets and coastlines in this trying time, for they have taken advantage of the confusion of this war to strike at us directly. And besides that, you might not have noticed them with the war going on, but these reports are clear: Terror Peaks is working with pirates.”

“… The targets are where they are on the maps. Do as you will.”

“We shall. Thank you for your assistance, Erick. Please come to Holorulo for a proper visit when this all quiets down.”

Maps appeared above the scattered Warlord Clans north of Songli, in the headwaters of the Wanzhi River.

Erick said, “It appears these warlords are working against Songli, too.”

The surviving Matriarch of High Clan Severing Crescent, the dragonkin Tipanri, said, “Not all of them, but some are, for sure; they always have. We can do surgical strikes, but if you could help with [Teleport Other], it would save us a lot of trouble, for we would prefer to keep our relations with the scattered tribes intact. We must look to the future, always.”

“… Acceptable. Done.”

“Please come to Alaralti when this is over. I wish to thank you for your assistance, and would appreciate a talk in person. [Viewing Screen]s are proper, but they are too impersonal.”

Maps extended all the way into the Dry Prairie east of the Highlands, then into the South East Tribulation Mountains.

Erick said, “Easy targets. All of them are pockets of soldiers.”

The new Patriarch of High Clan Devouring Nightmare, Hangzi, said, “Please eliminate them for me, Erick. I am trying to hold together my Clan at the moment.”

“Done.”

The day ended with another three thousand kills to Erick’s count. His new total was 17,000. A far cry from the two hundred thousand it could have been. For all of his feelings of smallness, he had some of the greatest impact in this fight of any one person.

The counteroffensive began that night.

Songli hunted in Terror Peaks territory, but Terror Peaks ran for the mountains, and to the prairie, and to the Underworld, to hold up in hidden locations all over. Children were left behind in the care of those too old to fight. Searching the Underworld was a nigh-impossibility, so for now, Songli focused on the lowest hanging fruit.

The destruction of all of the resources of Terror Peaks.

In the Tribulations, and in the open spaces, Erick searched for ‘people’, and found them all. A quick [Scry] was all it took to check on those targets, to see if they were enemies. Half the time they were. The other half, Songli sent out missionaries to see what was going on there.

Specific tracking requests came in all the time, but less so than on the previous day. Erick found most of those targets. Most of the time, after they had been found, those targets went right back to Eralis, or Alaralti, in order to use their death to kill as many people of Songli as possible. They usually succeeded, for about four seconds, and then Erick, or someone else tasked with looking at his Imagings, found the target again and put an end to their wanton destruction.

The third day eventually ended.

Erick’s new total was 21,000 kills.

He had never stopped running [Hunter’s Instincts]. In the back of his mind, he worried over what would happen when he turned off that Skill, but in the forefront, he saw enemies, and he ended them. Three times, Jane brought back food. Erick [Duplicate]d it to get more, for there was not a lot to go around. This war had disrupted everything, and that included food supplies.

Day four and five were much the same as the previous two days, except Erick added some platinum rains to farmlands around Alaralti.

The second city of Songli was the breadbasket of the Highlands, and they had been hit hard. Nobles and merchants opened up the granaries that hadn’t been exploded or desecrated in order to supply food enough for everyone to at least live, but it was not enough. Platinum rain, both from Erick, and from the Church of Atunir, helped to bridge the gap.

People got fed.

The world turned.

When Poi was awake, he helped Erick coordinate. But when Poi slept, Erick worked instead with the Mind Mages of Eralis, directly. He didn’t know any of these new people except by their strange names and the feelings of their connections as somehow more solid than normal. There was Blue 81, and White 13, and Orange 108, and a host of other people, but while Poi slept, Blue, White, and Orange were the main voices inside Erick’s head.

Early on, when it appeared this would go on for a while, Erick made a bunker.

Their original bunker had been compromised almost immediately. When Jane went to get food she came back accidentally wearing a tracker, but Erick had noticed and was ready for the enemy. When that was taken care of, Erick moved them all to another location, and set up his defenses again. This second location remained strong.

In the five days following the dirty bomb attacks at Eralis’s Aluvial District, Songli had lost an estimated three million, four hundred thousand people. On day five, though, no one died, for there were no more attacks. The cities of Terror Peaks and a dozen smaller allies were broken and gone, and many of their hidden locations had been scoured from Veird.

Erick watched as children were spared, but only a few of those children went along with the [Teleport]s back to Songli. Songli left some people behind to care for the kids, but after the seventh carer was stabbed in the neck by the seventh nine year old, and that particular pattern looked to continue, most of those people pulled back.

Two more days passed. Two days filled with putting out fires, and healing people who needed healing, and rescuing those who needed rescuing. Two days of stomping out the final remnants of a culture that had invaded Songli and fought to the last man and child standing.

Erick had not yet slept.

Two more days passed, nine days total from the start of the conflict. Erick still hadn’t gotten a chance to look at the soul spear, but all his prisoners had been taken and questioned and then imprisoned.

One odd thing to come out of that: Raidu did indeed have some sort of prepared block on his soul to prevent the Crystal Star’s Empathy from taking hold. Elder Arilitilo removed that block. With Erick’s Blessing able to fully take hold, Raidu collapsed into a weeping mess, and then he took his own life inside his cell. Right in front of his interrogators, too. Erick reviewed the [Witness] of that himself.

Raidu had simply reached into his own rib cage and ripped out his own heart.

Patriarch Xangu was still missing. The Mind Mages believed he escaped to the Underworld, but there was no way to know for sure.

Erick found four more soul spears. Each one looked the same. Exactly the same. He suspected they were all [Duplicate]s.

There were only a few possible explanations. Either an artifact that copied artifacts, which was on one end of the extreme, or there was an original soul spear out there that was capable of creating lesser copies of itself, which seemed more reasonable.

Or, someone made a base, unenchanted spear, and then they copied the unenchanted object to then enchant the copies. This was the most likely possibility, but that would mean that there was a rogue duplicator running around out there. If that were true, the Headmaster would have something to say about that.

The facility where they built those dirty bombs was uncovered and plundered.

The books of Terror Peaks were burned and the ashes scattered to the winds. That culture might survive in the minds of those who didn’t fight, for those were the only ones spared, but the base of the culture had been broken beyond repair. Whatever arose from the graveyard of Terror Peaks would not be Terror Peaks.

Erick had not slept yet, for there was always something more to do.

On day ten, with the sun shining overhead and half an hour between emergencies, Erick collapsed from overwork.

- - - -

The sky was blue, the clouds were white.

Rozeta, in her human form, sat on a nearby cloud, faced to the side, typing at a laptop that floated on another tiny cloud.

Erick blinked, then startled, and said, “I have work to do! I can’t be here! Put me back!”

“You brought yourself here, Erick. I did no such thing, this time.” Rozeta said, “You’re delirious in a very dangerous way, and that has kicked your mind into odd spaces. Used to be, when a person did what you have done, that person went to higher realms, or odder realms. This was the one surefire way that a mortal could contact the divine whenever they wanted. Usually, people only did this to themselves because they had no other choice, and they needed answers, for there are so many risks to what you did that no one in their right mind would choose this path.”

“… I didn’t mean to come here.” Erick said, “Or to do this. Please send me back.”

“I can’t do that.” Rozeta said, “Not because I don’t want to, but because your body is desperately trying to heal itself, and thus, we are both forced to be here for a little while. This was one of the reasons that people would contact the higher realms in this way; the gods so contacted can’t simply send you back.” She said, “So sit back and relax, or, if you want to talk, I’m working but I can multitask.”

For a brief moment, Erick watched as Rozeta was both a human in a pantsuit, and also an impossibly long, sky-spanning dragon. And then she was back to being a human, sitting on a cloud, and typing on her laptop.

Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.

Erick closed his eyes, feeling like shit. The sound of fingers striking computer keys was oddly soothing. It was just so… normal, compared to last week. Normal in an odd way that Erick hadn’t experienced in a long time, too. For a while, all Erick did was listen.

Rozeta didn’t interrupt his rest.

After several minutes, Erick asked, “Is that Jane’s laptop?”

The typing stopped.

Erick opened his eyes. The laptop was still there, and so was Rozeta, but she looked surprised at the laptop in front of her.

“Huh.” With a curious voice, Rozeta said, “I’m not sure where this thing came from. Is this how you see me?”

“… Aren’t we in your realm?”

“Technically, both yes, and no.” Rozeta looked at her fingers then started playfully poking at the laptop in front of her. Before, she had been expertly typing away, now she hunted and pecked. She was experimenting as though she had a new toy. “This is a dreamscape. You’ve overlapped your mind with my realm, and in doing so, you have control and influence over this space in ways normally impossible. It’s one of the marked benefits to this sort of technique. People usually die doing this, though, so extensive use of this technique is not advised.”

Erick hummed, noncommittal.

“Yes, you’re right. Likely not more dangerous than your usual activities. It’s barely worse than making a new Basic Tier sp— OH!” Rozeta had been poking at the computer, but she suddenly stopped as the screen changed. A cat meowed on the screen. The meows then shifted to something more choral, more music-like. Erick recognized the song. It was cats meowing to the tune of ‘Sound of Silence’. “Cat videos!” She smiled at Erick, then said, “Much more entertaining seeing cat videos in person, for sure.”

“Got any thoughts on this Songli mess?”

Rozeta turned to Erick. “Quite a few, but I won’t be influencing you with my thoughts. Mortals must as mortals must, and I must remain impartial to most uses of magic and all decisions made by others. The Script would not survive otherwise.”

Erick narrowed his eyes and frowned. “Are you actually Rozeta? You seem to be speaking a lot more openly than usual.”

“This dreaming technique does draw out some answers that would otherwise be hidden, but I can still obfuscate if I wish.” Rozeta said, “I haven’t yet felt the need to obfuscate.”

Erick asked, “Are Goldie and Queen working with Songli?”

Rozeta paused for a second. The ‘Meowing of Silence’ continued to play in the background, soft and ambient. Rozeta said, “Are they coordinating efforts with Songli in order to empower Songli? No. The people of Songli are not stupid. I will admit, though, that in a society that large there will always be dissenters and the foolish, so there are cultists in there. But they’re very rare. I wouldn’t have ordained the Void Walls if the Songli Highlands were a shadow upon Veird. But! Are Queen and Goldie conspiring for various outcomes all across Nelboor, of which Songli is a part of that conspiracy? Very much yes.” Rozeta said, “Shades rarely work directly upon the people or societies they wish to influence.”

“Okay. Well…” Erick filed that information away for later, asking, “Got any ideas how to solve this Nelboor problem?”

Rozeta had already turned back to her laptop, saying, “This one is poignant. There’s a similar song that still plays in certain establishments in Nelboor, but it's about 400 years old and a lot less punchy.” She clicked the video.

Cats started meowing to the tune of ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’.

- - - -

Erick woke up.

The sun shone outside the window.

This was not their underground base.

Jane was suddenly there by his side, softly saying, “Morning, dad.”

Erick didn’t panic right away; he was too worn out for that, and when he sat up, he saw that the room seemed like a nice place. Much nicer than the underground bunker. This suite was practically palatial, with white marble-like flooring and vast ceilings and warm wooden furniture and gold accents—

“We’re in Holorulo?” Erick connected to his Ophiel, one of whom was sitting on his headboard, chirping and watching over him. Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye was sitting on the headboard, beside Ophiel. For a moment, Erick saw the world, and it was almost exactly as he left it, and yes, they were in Holorulo. Erick came back to himself and noticed the dense air all around them. He glanced at Ophiel again, and smiled as he said, “Putting up [Prismatic Ward]s on your own, now?”

Ophiel chirped in triumphant violin sounds.

Jane said, “Ophiel has been doing a lot while you were asleep. Very protective.”

Erick turned on a few of his spells he had let lapse… except for [Hunter’s Instincts]. He left that one off.

He sent to Jane, ‘Are we okay?’

‘We’ve been safe for a few days now, but you refused to rest.’ Jane said, “I’m glad to see that you’ve rested now. Doctors say you’re good to go; those that could get near enough to you, anyway. You’re still going to take it easy, for a day, though; Daughter’s orders.”

“How did I get here?”

“I talked Ophiel into it.”

“That would do it.”

Moments passed, with Erick feeling comfortable in his bed, but also needing to move and to work. And yet… He couldn’t. He didn’t want to face the horror right yet. Soon, though…

Soon.

Jane said, “They confirmed Elder Mirizo as the next Patriarch of Star Song while you were sleeping. Xue moved from the Loremasters back to the Enforcers, to take Mirizo’s place.”

Erick felt tears well, but he fought them off. “So it’s all official, then.” He asked, “Did Xue set a date for Sikali’s funeral, yet?”

“He said in a few days, but nothing solid.” Jane said, “So how about you get up, and we get some good food in you. A lot of people want to talk to you in person. I do want you to take it easy for a little while, dad. I… I was too hard on you back in that field. You did more than anyone. I’m sorry I spoke to you like that.”

“It’s fine, Jane.”

“It’s not fine. I should have… I should have trusted you more.”

Erick smiled, but it was a broken thing. “Yes you should have. Look at me: I trusted you to be safe out there, and you were!”

Jane snorted a laugh. “Yeah right. I wasn’t that safe, either. I had to be rescued.”

“Well. We all have things to work on.”

Moments passed.

Jane asked, “Are you going to get up?”

“… I just… I need a moment. The [Hunter’s Instincts] is done and the backlash is… Is still here.”

That was a minor lie. There was no backlash, Erick had slept through that, but he felt the need to retreat into himself for a little while longer.

Jane nodded. And then she reached over and hugged him.

Erick held on to his daughter for dear life.