Greldo clasped his ears as a thundering, wordless roar of unimaginable fury blasted across the shadowrealm. It lasted for a moment, but the echoes seemed to continue for a while before they finally faded, leaving him with ringing ears.

Gelwin's balls, Irwin, Greldo thought as he looked up.

The mountain to the side was cracked, with new, fresh fissures running through it as if it had been battered by a massive hammer. The soundwave had blown back the pale ship while the two figures that had hovered beside the Chaos Whales were slumped on the ground, far below, unmoving. Both Chaos Whales were flying away, their figures shrinking as they fled up and into the massive mountain range.

Greldo felt a relieved shiver as he imagined having been out of the shadowrealm at the time of the shout. He might have become permanently deaf. As it was, his ears were ringing, and he couldn't hear anything but a soft beep.

Irwin stood atop the barrier of the ship with two massive hammers, striking down ever faster, the air around him blurry and his eyes burning pits of rage. The snarl on his face wasn't like any Greldo had seen before. The only reason he knew there was something conscious within his friend was that he hadn't started growing yet.

'Let's take out those two before they regain themselves,' he messaged Coal. 'Also, send one with the Chaos Whales.'

Coal sent his agreement, and Greldo felt him create six shadow clones. A moment later, four massive, shadowy beings appeared beside the fallen figures, pressing them down with their paws and hovering over them threateningly. Coal moved closer, ready to act more if they tried to resist. The other two were rushing after the Chaos Whales and would remain with them for as long as they were within range.

Alright, now to figure out how to calm down Irwin, Greldo thought as he moved closer to the ship. It was hovering in the shadows, a minor blessing.

As he appeared a few feet from his friend, his hearing started returning as he heard the dull, distant booming of the hammers. The barrier was weakening at an insane rate, the glow fading while cracks appeared on the points of impact. Below, a dozen pale, purple, and blue-haired figures were looking up in abject terror.

These are like the ones Irwin told me about, The Watchers, Greldo thought as he scanned the figures and noticed a few with bandages from wounds, purple blood leaking through. What did that make them? Guidar lackeys at worst, people who'd fled from the same part of the Portal Gallery at best.

The only one that seemed calm was a woman with long blue hair and gleaming purple eyes, currently narrowed as she looked up. Her lips were moving, and Greldo guessed she was singing again- likely trying whatever card or skill she'd used on the whales on Irwin.

Yeah, not going to work, he thought as he glanced at a shadow near her before inspecting the shield. He felt no shadowy quality from it, and with a wicked grin, he teleported to the shadows behind the singing woman, bypassing the shield.

As soon as he was inside the barrier, the booming from Irwin above seemed to be magnified.

This must be what it's like inside a drum, he thought, shivering as his still-recovering ears complained.

Greldo hovered behind the woman, and he was about to grab her around the throat when he sensed a minute movement in the shadow realm. He dashed sideways, and a shadowy blur he'd not noticed before passed through the spot he'd just been. It moved fast, but not nearly as fast as he could, and the amount of power it radiated in the shadowrealm was lacking. So much so that Greldo grunted as he shot at the blur, reaching it before it could move away. He reached out, using his control over the shadows and using something he'd practiced while on Eluathar. It was like grabbing a fish in the water- slippery as the other shadow walker tried to flee from him. Sadly, the size of Greldo's shadow enveloped the other shadowwalker before it could slip free.

Now, stay put! Greldo growled, squeezing tightly while he felt Coal appear behind him.

'Keep this one in line,' he sent to his summon, getting a rather amused response with a question. 'No, you can't eat it.'

Greldo heard something crack and, looking up, saw the barrier start to disintegrate. Moving as fast as he could, he appeared behind the still-singing figure. Appearing with his hands around her neck and mouth, he grabbed her, silencing her so fast he only caught a single syllable of a strange song. Even that had made him shiver, and he was glad when her words turned into a muffled and startled cry. She began flailing back, using far more strength than he'd expected, and he quickly triggered his bond with Coal. He felt his form grow, his strengths doubling, then tripling, and he dragged her close to his chest.

"One more move and I will tear out your throat," he growled, pressing his razor-sharp nails against her skin. He planned to slice it, but only managed to drill the tips inside.

Still, it seemed enough, as the figure stopped resisting.

A shout of surprised panic came from the crew, and Greldo growled deep in his chest, letting it carry as much threat and danger as he could.

"Move, and she's dead," he snarled.

As he did, the barrier above his head failed, and he looked up to see Irwin fall down. His eyes burned bright like the sun while flames flickered along his gleaming body and hammers. He slammed into the deck so hard that the entire ship sank a few feet, and the deck he landed on cracked like the barrier had. Wood splinters shot everywhere, but Irwin didn't seem to care as he stepped forward.

"Snap out of it," Greldo shouted as he saw Irwin's eyes almost burn the person he was holding. "I've got her secure."

A deep, bestial growl came as a response as Irwin stalked forward, the tips of his hammers dragging across the ground. His left hand was pulsing with a golden glow. Greldo swallowed. He wanted to shout at Irwin to snap out of it, but using that name meant they would likely have to kill everyone aboard… though he wasn't sure if they shouldn't anyway. That was for later. Besides, perhaps these Watchers weren't working together with the Deadpact Mercenaries.

"Roddington! Wake up!" he roared, using Irwin's last name, something that shouldn't be known… he hoped.

This time, a shiver ran through Irwin's body, but he continued ahead. Greldo readied himself to jump into the shadows, not sure what his friend was going to do.

"Think of Zan," he tried, but that only caused another growl of rage.

A shuffle made him look to the side and see a few of the blue and purple-haired Watchers move closer.

"Don't move, or you're all dead," Greldo snapped. At the same time, dozens of Coal's shadow clones began appearing around the ship, corralling the crew to stand in a circle on the deck.

Irwin spun around, glaring at the moving crew and raising his hammers, the flames around them growing larger and more brilliant.

"Dammit, Roddington!" Greldo shouted. "We need answers, not blood!"

Irwin shivered, and as he turned again, Greldo saw a semblance of normalcy in his eyes. The fire in them withdrew slightly, but the burning rage remained.

"They… killed… the Chaos… Whales…"

The deep, growling voice reminded Greldo of a rumbling volcano, and he felt the figure in his arms fidget. He squeezed her throat more, and she stopped.

"Yes, and we need to find out why!" Greldo said quickly. "Why did they do this? Who they are, where they are from, who the Guidar are, and how to stop them?" as he snapped off question after question, he saw Irwin's rage slowly die down.

Finally, Irwin's eyes widened, and he blinked a few times.

"You back?" Greldo asked, feeling a deep worry he'd barely noticed before fading.

"Yeah…" Irwin grunted.

Thank Yilda, Greldo thought.

--

Irwin felt the embers of his fury slowly die down as his otherself retreated back into his soulscape. As it did, he sensed Ambraz's worry mixed with relief. He felt them chat, but he focused on the situation at hand.

Greldo was looking at him with such relief that Irwin felt bad. He fully remembered the rage that had governed every moment of the last few minutes. He'd wanted to rip the ship and everyone aboard apart, crush them, and burn their remains to ashes, and he shivered at it.

I wonder what would have happened to someone without my soulcards, he thought as he recalled the resonance from both his flame and his soulstrum guitar. Those had been what had held back the desire of his new card to grow. To rip free of the bonds Irwin had imposed on it. Without them and the little he'd sensed Ambraz do within his soulscape, he'd have unleashed the card. The problem was that which held it back was also what had fueled his blinding rage…

He glanced at the card in his left hand, sensing its angry thrumming. It had wanted to rip free, and when denied, it had somehow created a feedback loop with his already existing anger and fury that was left over from when the Deadpact Mercenary had taken Glow.

"Captain?"

Irwin looked up, seeing Greldo's eyes narrow with worry. The pale, blue-haired woman was held motionless, a trickle of purple blood dribbling along her throat.

"I'm alright, just trying to figure out what happened," Irwin said as he looked around.

There were around fourteen blue and purple-haired people standing there, looking at him. At a glance, they resembled Zender's people, the Yuurindi, but a closer inspection showed a host of differences. Just like Zazir, the first one to call himself a Watcher and the one who'd been taken over by one of the purple mist beings, they had purple blood and purple eyes. The pupils weren't the square ones the Yuurindi had, but large and round, seeming to dominate their eyes. Their faces were more narrow, and many had slightly pointy ears.

They were also heavily wounded, with many bandages wrapped around their arms, heads, and legs, while their unfamiliar armor was in tatters.

Their leader, or atleast the one who had been singing, was one of the few with long hair, tied together by a silvery clasp that was shaped like a hand. Irwin had a dozen questions for her, but there was one he needed to get out of the way.

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"Why were you hunting the Chaos Whales?" he asked, his voice turning to a lower growl.

"Answer him in words, no singing," Greldo hissed as he leaned closer. "If you make a single wrong move or let out a single wrong squeak, I'll rip out your throat, and we will make do with your crew."

There was a minute nod against his hand, and Greldo slowly let up the hand covering her mouth, leaving it hovering a few inches away.

"To pay off the Guidar," a beautiful, almost singing voice said. As beautiful as it was, it sounded cold enough to make a Frozir proud.

"Pay off what?" Irwin asked.

"They hold control over my people, forcing us to come here. They said… to gather a thousand large cards. If we did that, they would allow my tribe to go free."

Irwin frowned. Large cards? Did she mean heartcards?

"What do they want those cards for?"

The eyes narrowed and focused on the others of her kind, still surrounded by Coal's shadow clones.

"Answer me," Irwin snarled, feeling the burning embers threaten to ignite. Something must have shown because the cold purple eyes widened and stared straight into his.

"Nobody knows for sure," the purple-eyed Watcher whispered. "All we know is that it is the more likely of ways to buy our freedom."

"What are the others?" Irwin asked, though he had a strong sense he knew what it was.

"We are to gather an equal number of those called Cardsmiths," the woman said. She licked her lips with a pale purple tongue, and from the way she looked at him, Irwin had a sense she had already guessed what he was.

"You are far from them," he rumbled. "Why not just declare yourself free and hide in a hidden world?"

The Watcher's eyes remained emotionless for a while. Then, a slight sadness crept up. Greldo's hand had lowered enough for Irwin to see her mouth, though he didn't doubt his friend would snap her neck if she tried anything.

"We tried, but they have bound us," she said. "We had hoped that hiding in a world, closing the world-portal, would break their hold. But it didn't work."

Bound? Irwin thought, watching her.

The talk slowly calmed him, and a few worrisome ideas popped into his mind. He focused on his Soulforce sight and hearing, listening to the resonance projected from her and the others. After a few moments, he felt a slight relief. There was none of the odd, disjointed quality that Zarzir had, which he'd come to associate with the Wizteriaz.

"Who are you?" he finally asked. "We spoke to another of your kind, who called himself Zarzir The Watcher before he was subsumed by a Wizteriaz."

The words caused a shocked whisper among the crew, and the bound woman's eyes widened at the mention of the name until she heard what had happened.

"I see… There were rumors," she muttered.

"Are you Watchers? Is that the name of your species?" Irwin asked, deciding he didn't care about rumors among her people.

The woman's lips quirked in a sad smile.

"No. The Watchers are a group among my people that were searching for a way out from under the Guidar's thumb," she said. "We call ourselves the Acenti, and my name is Lajija. My tribe and I split off from the others to find more cards."

Irwin tried to ignore the rage bubbling up at that and hummed.

"How did you come here?" he asked. "And why are you answering so readily? Zarzir refused to answer anything until I proved we weren't soul stealers, as he kept calling us."

Lajija's eyes grew confused, and she frowned. "I am not one of the Watchers, and I am responsible for this part of my tribe," she said. "I was not told to guard any secrets, so if words can keep us alive, I will use them. But…"

She didn't continue, but Irwin could guess what she wanted to ask.

"I showed him how we get our abilities," Irwin said as he raised his hand, showing the single card in it. "We take cards and slot them in our hands to gain access to their abilities. Not unlike how you apparently eat them…"

Lajija didn't respond right away, but a mutter of disbelief came from her crew.

"Depending on how this conversation goes, I might be able to prove my claim," Irwin said, thinking about Klatzi, the Ignitzian who still didn't have a full hand. He didn't have cards for her now, but Lajija did, and he definitely wasn't letting her keep the Chaos Whale cards.

"I… would be very curious to see such a thing," Lajija said. "But we don't eat the cards. We consume them."

"What's the difference?" Greldo asked.

Lajija's eyes rolled to the side as if she tried to look at him, then frowned with some annoyance.

"We don't actually ingest them," she said. "But we can take the soulforce in the cards and draw it out and into ourselves."

Irwin watched her for a bit; the calm conversation and her willingness to answer his questions helped him calm down even more.

"How many Acenti came to our part of the Portal Gallery?" he asked.

"I don't know. Many of those who still live… When the Guidar sent out the message that those who would do their bidding willingly could gain their freedom, many Acenti tribes rushed at the chance. We don't take to being controlled well… not like some of the others."

"How many other species are out there, and why haven't we seen them?" Greldo asked.

"How many? I don't know exactly. Dozens of species fought for dominance in the Zaidol branch," Lajija said. "But I know why there are none yet. The storm that comes from breaking through the branches prevents many from reaching you. The soulforce void between and the deadly cold is not something many species can handle."

Irwin ignored the pride in her voice as he leaned forward.

"Breaking through the branches?" he asked. "What do you mean?"

Lajija seemed confused. "You don't do this here? If not, how do you cross to other prime-branches?"

"No," Irwin said, wondering if prime-branches were what they called main-branches. "How did they do that, and what does this have to do with the storm?"

Lajija seemed to gather her thoughts before answering.

"To gain access from one prime-branch to another, a new corridor must be created between them. The Guidar are the only ones we know who are capable of that, and this is how they reached many origin branches," Lajija said. "Creating this corridor causes an intense disturbance in the primal soulforce beyond the corridor network. An enormous storm, like the one happening now, batters the many corridors as the two prime-branches slowly reach an equilibrium."

If they can do this, why didn't they come earlier? Irwin thought as he wished, not for the first time, that he could talk with Daubutim or Gelwin.

"How long does the storm last?" he asked.

"It depends on the size of the prime-branch, but usually a few years," Lajija said.

"So, that means it could stop at any moment," Greldo said, sounding happy.

"Yes," Lajija agreed, a powerful fear in her voice.

"This worries you. Why?" Irwin asked.

"Unlike you, we are not powerful enough to resist the Guidar," Lajija said. "They will come here with their forces and take control over this prime-branch as they have with all those they did before. If they come before we have gathered what they require, we will lose this one chance to become free."

"How can you even trust they would let you free?" Greldo asked, sounding angry.

"It has occurred before," Lajija said. "A few hundred years ago, a smaller prime-branch was discovered, and two of the races that went there were freed of their bonds. They are now among the Unshackled, a collaboration of species that have created a sprawling empire of beautiful worlds, free from Guidar control," she continued with a look of desire and hope.

"They just freed them?" Greldo asked, and Irwin agreed. That sounded way too easy.

"Yes," Lajija said, nodding. "They are still to do as the Guidar say, but their bindings were released."

Irwin frowned, sharing a quick look with Greldo. Lajija has said bonds and chains a few times now, and he'd thought she meant it metaphorically. Then again, at the start, she'd said something about them trying to lose their bond and failing.

"Explain to me what this bond, this chaining, is?" he asked.

Lajija sighed, a sadness exuding from that one breath of air that made Irwin feel a smidgen of sympathy for her.

"It would be easier if I showed you," she muttered. "May I raise my hand?"

"What will you do?" Greldo asked.

"On my life, nothing to harm you. I will summon my soulskill and show you what it means to be shackled."

Irwin nodded at Greldo.

"Fine. Don't make any wrong move."

Lajija slowly raised her hand, and the other Irwin noticed she closed her eyes. A very faint soulforce resonance began sounding out, so soft that Irwin barely heard it. A glow appeared above her hand, and very slowly, a card formed there. It was like a heartcard, though the resonance was a clustered mess of tangled bits and pieces that left Irwin slightly sick. Still, it was nothing compared to the gray, dull chain of resonance that literally bound part of the card, wrapping around it was real.

One look at it made Irwin's skin crawl, and he felt the desire to rip it apart. Everything about it was wrong, even more so than the resonance the Wizteriaz created. But there was also something else…

I could break that, Irwin thought as he looked at the chain in distaste. Although his practice with manipulating and condensing soulforce hadn't gotten anywhere close to being useful in creating a card from ambient soulforce, he knew instinctively that he could use it to rip that chain apart. It would be hard, and he'd need to be careful that the likely backlash wouldn't rip apart the odd soulskill heartcard, but he knew he could do it.

After a few moments, the card vanished, and Lajija looked weary, her form slumping slightly.

"And all your people are bound like this?" Irwin asked.

"All my people, and most of those in Guidarian space," Lajija said, her voice duller than it had been.

"What would you do if you were freed of your bonds?"

"Hide," Lajija said as her gaze drifted to the rest of the people. "We have found a world, and although it is only rank two, it would sustain us for thousands of years until shattering. Perhaps a few of mine could even become powerful enough to gain a worldskill, so we could close the worldportal and be left alone and in peace."

"..."

Irwin looked at Greldo, seeing the same stunned surprise there.

"What is a worldskill?" Irwin asked.

"You… how can you not know?" Lajija asked in surprise. "You both have the beginnings of a seed, with yours being among the strongest I have ever seen! Wait, perhaps you call it a worldcard?"

Irwin stared at her, trying to understand what she meant.

"You mean our soulcards?" he finally asked, instinctively focusing on his first and pulling its resonance forward together with some of its flames.

"We call them a worldskill seed, and usually someone only has one," Lajija said. "You having multiple is why everyone thinks you steal our souls…"

Irwin frowned as he thought about Ambraz and the other Ganvils becoming worldanvils. Was this what they did? Become strong enough to gain a worldskill? Also… why had he never heard of a worldcard? Did they not exist? Perhaps it was impossible to combine soulskills like that… or did nobody know how to?"

A tiny part of him wondered if Lajija wasn't just lying, but he ignored it. If she wanted to lie, this seemed an odd choice to pick.

"How do you grow a worldskill seed into a worldcard?" he asked.

"After the seed grows strong enough, someone must remain on a single world for a long time, letting their own soulforce and soulscape grow in tune with the ambient soulforce of that world," Lajija said. "It can take years, but eventually, when their worldskill seed is fully intune, a ceremony can be held to finalize it."

"What kind of ceremony?" Irwin asked, curious.

Lajija hesitated, and Irwin realized the rest of her people had gone very quiet. He looked up to see them look at Lajija with worry and, in some cases, anger.

"The exact way is a secret to my people, and only the Guidar know beyond us," Lajija finally said, smiling ruefully. "They took it with force…"

There was a question in her words, and Irwin realized she was expecting him to force her to tell. He hesitated, then shook his head.

"I don't need details. Explain the general idea of it. Do you need some type of special card for it? A single-use one? Or is there a process?"

Lajija hesitated for a few more moments before she continued. "It takes a lot of other soulseeded, and together they focus their resonance on a single one," Lajija said. "There are a few things required, but that's the general idea."

"What does it do? A worldca- worldskill?" Greldo asked.

"It will increase the person's power beyond anything they had before but limit it to that world," Lajija said with a wistful glance. "They will be able to close and open the worldportal as they see fit, and their mere presence will stabilize the world. Still, they aren't unbeatable…" At this, her face turned sad.

Irwin had started passing along all the information she was giving Ambraz, and the Ganvil had become ever more curious. Not surprising, Irwin thought, as it sounded an awful lot like Ganvil worldanvils.

"I see…" Irwin said. "Tell me something. If you were unbound, could you stop the rest of your people from hunting the Chaos Whales?"

"The Neamhnathair, you mean?" Lajija asked, seeming confused. "Yes. There would be no reason for us to do so anymore… but we have nothing to give the Guidar in exchange."

Irwin hummed, sharing a look with Greldo before focusing on Laijja.

"Tell me a bit about your people. How do you live, and how did you live before you were enslaved?"

Lajija seemed confused, but for the next twenty minutes, she told Irwin about her people.

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