– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 219, Season of the Setting Sun, Day 41 –

"What's going on, Terry?!" demanded Ying with confused anger in his voice.

"Whatever you do, don't hand over the lynchpin core to that man!" ordered Terry while spreading his mana bubble.

"Terry, we don't have much time, and that's Syn's Progenitor," said Ying. "If anyone can help, it's—"

"That man is a monster!" growled Terry while pointing at Anand.

"Ying, my friend, we don't have time for this," pleaded Anand. "They're already closing in on us." He was targeting a teleportation spell on the crystal. "We have to destroy the—"

"Piss off!" growled Terry and broke down Anand's teleportation spell before it could activate.

"If my help isn't wanted, I can go," spat Anand. "But then there's no way you're going to escape from the Lich Kingdoms."

"Terry, he's right. We don't have a way to destroy the lynchpin core on our own before they catch up." Ying threw the crystal towards Anand, but it was immediately pulled sideways.

Terry had used his bidirectional attraction glove to intercept the throw. "We're better off fleeing towards allies that are trustworthy." He practically hissed the last word at Anand.

"This isn't your decision!" shouted Ying. "Siyu is my daughter! I have to—"

"Not just yours! She's Daiyu's daughter, too. She's Siling's sister!" Terry shouted back. "I won't let you trust that monster."

"A monster, am I?" Anand scoffed. "Everything I am doing is to protect this realm to the best of my abilities. If that makes me a monster, then I guess I am." He looked at Ying. "When we founded Syn City, I warned you that there would be those that don't understand what we are doing. The ignorant will look at progress and call it monstrous."

Ying furrowed his brow and glanced at Terry. He trusted the Progenitor, but Terry had risked his life to fight for Syn City without a second thought. Just like the Divine Hammer had done, only Terry had barely been more than a child back then and with a lot less power than the famous dwarf.

The character the boy had displayed clashed with the insinuations by the Progenitor.

True, Ying hadn't seen Terry for years, but the invasion led by the Unholy Duchesses had nearly caused the man's death and despite that, Terry had volunteered to join Ying in an infiltration behind enemy lines to save Siyu from her fate as the Spirited Duchess.

"You had a child possessed by elementals," growled Terry accusingly.

"And now that child is the first demon in control of himself, and already helping others with similar afflictions to inverse their demonic relationships as well," retorted Anand. "Soon, Matteo won't be the only one summoning entire armies of elementals with a single thought. That's what I call progress. Progress that's of paramount importance if this realm is to survive the coming tribulations. I'll do what is necessary for that."

"And was Siyu's fate necessary, too?!" demanded Terry.

"What…?" Ying narrowed his eyes.

"I had my suspicions before, because it was too much of a coincidence." Terry continued before Anand had a chance to talk himself out of it. "Ying believed he had failed, and before he had any chance to learn otherwise, you showed up to help him 'escape' to the other side of the realm, where he would never learn about his unexpected success, about the fate of his daughter."

"Ying, my friend, you don't really believe that nonsense, do you?" asked Anand in a tone of being hurt.

"Why wouldn't he?!" demanded Terry, whose eyes never left Anand's. "You've just admitted to experimenting on a child! To do what's 'necessary' for progress, even if it means sacrificing others! Her powers are unique, just like Matteo's have become. Do you dare deny what you've just proudly proclaimed?!"

Ying felt like his head was spinning.

"We don't have time for this!" Anand stepped forward, which caused Terry to step closer to Ying.

Phrasing…

Terry recognized the emphasis on time pressure from the Warlord's Inquiries on influence. He scoffed. "Don't we?" Wait a second. He narrowed his eyes. "We've already been talking longer than we've spent time at our previous stops." He glanced at Ying. "Isn't that just another strange coincidence? He's within our sights and suddenly there is no dimensional mage pursuing us anymore?"

Terry could see in his companion's face that Ying's doubt was growing. "Take the lynchpin core to someone trustworthy." He looked at Anand. "I'll try to prevent him from pursuing you."

Anand snorted and rolled his eyes. "I believe it's too late for that. We've wasted too much time. I can feel a spatial lock forming."

"Funny," hissed Terry and burst his mana. "I could feel you setting it up." He hadn't needed additional confirmation that he was right, but his mana touch had revealed it even so.

The enemy's skilled dimensional mage was none other than Anand.

Terry tore down the spatial lock with a shattering burst.

Ying stared at the lynchpin core in his hands and looked between the Progenitor and Terry, unsure of whom to trust.

Anand furrowed his brow. "Nonsense." He prided himself on his cloaked casting. There was no way for anyone to sense his cloaked spells.

The sensation of Terry's bursts interacting with space brought back memories. Anand narrowed his eyes. "You were there in the Libra Outpost. I remember you now." Even though it was hard to believe that the mere boy of back then was really the man standing in front of him now.

Terry circled his mana into his communication talisman. He wasn't surprised to discover it being obstructed. "They cut off our communication."

"I warned you that they're nearly here," stressed Anand. "I can sense them closing in. They've locked down the space. Of course, they would lock down communication talismans."

"There is no 'they'," growled Terry. "Only you."

"Don't project your own lacking mana sense onto me," sneered Anand. "Just because you can't sense them doesn't mean they're not there."

That statement by the Progenitor caused Ying's brows to crease.

The boy's mana sense had already been impressive the first time they had met. Since then, the man had learned a way to pierce mana cloaking with his perception and even gained a soulsight ability.

During Ying's travel to the Freedom Cooperative, Terry had sensed him from more than a transfer away.

Ying couldn't help but look at the Progenitor of Syn with budding suspicion. "Anand…"

"Cut the crap," barked Terry. He burst his mana to destroy the renewed spatial lock. "You won't prevent us from leaving."

"Why would I ever want to do that?" Anand failed to completely hide the discontent from his face. He was among the most skilled dimensional mages of his generation, and he didn't understand what was going on in this contest over space.

"Interesting…" Anand subconsciously muttered to himself. An ability like that could prove incredibly useful. Reproducing it would represent tremendous progress. The way he looked at Terry changed…

…but so had the way that Ying looked at Anand. "Let's do as you say, Terry. I'll go."

"Foolish." Anand shook his head, but he showed no outward intention of stopping Ying.

Ying hesitated and looked at Terry again. "I'll send a message to everyone as soon as I'm beyond the range of the talisman obstruction."

"You would announce my presence to those that want me dead, my friend?!" Anand spoke with the resentment of a betrayed benefactor. "After I risked my life to get you out of the Lich Kingdoms and protect you from your enemies? After I've dropped all my duties to rush here and help you once more? You don't trust me after everything I've done for you?"

Anand closed his eyes and assumed the posture of an elder being disappointed by a child. "Fine. Do as you wish, but don't expect me to look at you with the same eyes again. Perhaps there will be a day when I won't be able to come and help you. That's what the people you would call over want, after all. They want me dead and they would sacrifice our realm to achieve their selfish desires."

Terry ignored Anand's self-righteous accusations. He was too busy setting up his disruption domain while leaving space for Ying.

Something isn't right…

Terry had faced thick-faced opponents before, but something about Anand made him uneasy. The monster looked as if he had no concern in the world. Completely assured of getting his way.

Just like in the Libra Outpost.

Terry would never forget the self-satisfied grin when the necromancer had disappeared from the battlefield after achieving his objectives.

His enemy's confidence caused Terry's own self-doubts to grow. He wondered if sending Ying ahead would be a mistake. Ying was a capable dimensional mage, but Anand was better.

Terry's oscillating mana type was the only reason they had been able to break the spatial locks placed on them.

If Ying teleports and I fail to pin down Anand, then they would both be away and I wouldn't be able to do anything anymore.

Is that what he's counting on?

Just when Terry was about to stop Ying, the vampire cried out: "It's not working! I can feel that I could teleport without the lynchpin core, but my spell cannot include it!"

Terry created a disruption field around the lynchpin core. "Do you still feel the obstruction?" He allowed it to vanish again.

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"No!" Ying's expression brightened, but only briefly. "Now it's back."

Terry glared at Anand. He felt the spell being cast and targeted. "What did you do?"

"I'm tiring of these accusations," sighed Anand.

"Ying, is there a spell that can lock the space for a single item?" Terry asked without moving his eyes away from Anand.

Ying stepped next to Terry. "Yes." He looked at Anand as if he was seeing him for the first time. He couldn't say when exactly he had lost his trust in the Progenitor. It wasn't just a single thing, but more the entirety of everything that had happened in the past minutes.

Then we're at a stalemate.

Terry cursed himself for failing to consider such an outcome. They had considered a situation where the two of them had to flee, and for that, his oscillating bursts were the perfect match-up with Ying's teleportations.

Unfortunately, Anand had evidently discovered a vulnerability in their setup. If the spatial lock could be applied quicker than Ying could teleport, then they would be forced into repeating the process until one of them slipped up or ran out of mana.

Locking down a larger space took more time, even for a dimensional mage that was more skilled, but the tiny space around a single item was another topic.

And I can't maintain my disruption field while Ying teleports because that would obstruct the item teleportation, just like Anand's lock.

Terry sensed a mana distortion. "Incoming! Lock the space again, Ying!" He placed himself between the mana distortion and Ying.

Before Terry could do anything to the new arrival, the vampiress had already been cleaved apart by a storm of tiny spatial blades from Anand.

"I warned you, they were coming," said Anand. "Ying, my friend, you should really learn whom to trust."

Terry stepped closer to Anand and growled: "Don't think I didn't sense your spell activating!"

Ying was once more confused and at a loss. He couldn't sense anything from the Progenitor. No casting. Nothing. All he had was Terry's word.

"Believe what you wish, but I will not let you doom my friend's daughter," said Anand. "Ying, let me destroy the karmic coalescence crystal. They're coming—"

"Oh no, you don't!" Terry contracted his disruption domain around Anand, which canceled the monster's long-distance transfers. Anand might be able to quickly and remotely cast the item-lock, but pulling in enemies from outside Terry's sensor range would not be achieved without a casting close to the mage's body.

To Terry's surprise, Anand suddenly began screaming. "ARGHH! Ying, help! He's attacking me!"

Dumbfounded, Terry stared at Anand and then at Ying. "What…?"

Ying almost put his faith in his old benefactor again, but Terry's face was such an honest display of utter bewilderment that he couldn't bring himself to remotely trust Anand this time.

Anand continued screaming. "Arrgh. He's— Someone is! They're attacking! It hurts! The blood is rushing to my head! Help! We have to leave quickly! They're coming! Let me destroy the crystal and let's go!"

Ying had seen the effect of Terry's disruption domain before, and it was hard to believe that any enemy spell could target through it. Anand's story seemed increasingly unlikely, which meant…

"I have an idea!" Terry darted to Ying without dropping his disruption domain centered on Anand. He emptied a spare storage bracelet that he had received from the Freedom Cooperative's crafters and rushed to naturalize an oscillating container.

Seeing Anand pretend to be hurt by his disruption domain was a ridiculous sight, but it reminded Terry that the unstoppable shift was not the only combination of oscillating mana he had discovered.

It was simply the only one which Terry really understood, and for which he had a frequent use.

The other one Terry had never explored. Honestly, he wasn't even sure if it was really destructive or not. All he knew was that during the battle against the first invading horde led by the Lich Kingdoms, his storage bracelet had been destroyed.

The items contained inside had spilled out of the dimensional storage upon destruction.

All except his oscillating items.

Anand's self-confident smile had reminded Terry that he was doomed to lose when it came to experience. This was the monster that had infiltrated empires, plotted undetected, and brought about massacres. This was the monster that Sigille, Matteo, and countless others had hunted for over a decade.

This was not a monster whom Terry had confidence to defeat on his own. He didn't trust himself to beat the monster. He didn't trust himself to predict Anand's plans. He didn't trust himself to outwit his enemy.

But perhaps I don't have to.

I can't predict him, but can he predict me? All about me?

Terry erased the lock on the lynchpin core with a touch of bursting mana. He closed the oscillating container around it and swiftly entered the container with the core into the storage bracelet.

No matter how capable a dimensional mage Anand was, his speed for casting the item-lock could not rival Terry's item use.

"What are you doing?" asked Ying concernedly.

Something.

Something surprising.

Terry didn't really know what happened to oscillating items when their surrounding dimension collapsed, but he did know they would not simply be thrown back into the regular plane.

He also knew Anand didn't even have a chance of knowing that much.

No one did.

No one besides Terry.

Terry sensed that Anand targeted his storage bracelet with another spell to prevent it from being teleported away.

Good. Keep thinking you're in control.

"How are you so certain that you could destroy the— What did you call it?" Terry asked with honest curiosity. He was still not sure if his plan would work, so he might as well ask.

"I have my means," said Anand. "Even Ying could destroy the karmic coalescence crystal with sufficient time, but we don't have that time."

"Yeah, I noticed the dead vampire," said Terry in a flat tone. Nice show.

"Terry, what's going on?" Ying whispered to him.

Terry retrieved another spare storage bracelet that looked identical to the first. He emptied the new bracelet as well. "If you're so capable, couldn't you prevent our enemies from locking down the item, Anand?"

"I said I have my means, but that doesn't mean I'm all-powerful," spat Anand. He turned to Ying. "We've locked down the space from our side, but they're already on their way using other means than unanchored transfers. We're wasting time we don't have!"

Terry flipped the bracelets and did a quick shuffle through other storage items. He took both bracelets out of his dimensional bag at the same time. Despite his efforts, Anand correctly targeted the bracelet with the lynchpin core.

"If you believe some childish sleight-of-hand is going to trick our enemies, then you're truly ignorant of their true capabilities," scoffed Anand smugly.

Keep bragging…

As long as it keeps you occupied and buys me time…

Terry continuously checked the ongoing decay in his oscillating container. When the threshold had reached a level that even he himself wouldn't be able to retrieve the container without renaturalization, the time had come.

Terry handed the storage bracelet to Ying. "Destroy it!"

Ying didn't hesitate.

Under everyone's eyes, a spatial blade destroyed the dimensional storage…

…and nothing happened.

Nothing emerged from the collapsed space.

Nothing.

Ying's confused gaze moved to Terry, who was grinning like a madman.

Terry caught a mana distortion – something pierced the active spatial lock. "Ying, back!" He pulled his friend away from Anand's position. He could sense the distortion connecting with an item carried by Anand.

A vampire with the mask of a Hound appeared next to a scowling Anand, who instantly prepared a spatial blade. "You—"

"The signal is lost!" The Hound hurriedly shouted and raised his hands. "We were not to intervene unless the backup signal was lost. It has happened, my prince!"

'Prince'?

Terry narrowed his eyes.

Anand stopped all his previous acting and glared at Terry. "What have you done?!"

"So, it's true?!" demanded Ying in an almost guttural growl. "You led me away from my daughter?! You had me unknowingly abandon my little Siyu?!"

"You're a wasted prince of the Lich Kingdoms," stated Terry matter-of-factly.

"I don't know how you erased the signal, but I'm going to need the karmic coalescence crystal back," growled Anand. "You have no idea what you're doing. I will not permit you to spoil everything."

"Terry was right," growled Ying. "You're a monster!"

"I am a proud protector of this realm," barked Anand. "Just like the First Lich King. Without him, this realm would still be enslaved to the False Gods and their cults. I'm just doing what's necessary to ensure our realm remains free."

Terry snorted. "Yeah, I think I've seen some of this 'freedom' in the Lich Kingdoms. You're so wasted full of it!"

"Ignorant brat! You want to talk about things we've seen? Well, I've seen what's beyond the Wastes!" shouted Anand with indignant eyes. "Do you know why the mana corruptions and aspect being appearances keep increasing cycle by cycle?"

Anand looked at Terry with contempt. "Because I do! There are transient gate manifestations of archon realms and their cursed mana is infecting us! That's not all! Not by a long shot! The Abyss and the avatars of the False Gods are already walking the Hells behind these gates! The hellspawn hives are spawning more champions and eating away at the veil! And that's not even mentioning the rot of cults growing in our own realm!

"This realm is falling apart!" Anand howled frantically. "I'll do whatever is necessary to protect it!" He looked at them coldly. "Hand over the karmic coalescence crystal!"

"You stole my daughter from me," growled Ying.

"The Spirited Duchess is a necessary step towards progress," hissed Anand. "Understanding and replicating her powers may one day save this realm from the Abyss! Her ability to empower the souls of allies may one day turn the tide of the battlefield and allow us to defeat forces that outnumber ours. Her—"

"You stole my daughter!" Ying shouted with bloodshot eyes, and he downed more of the power-enhancing consumables they had prepared.

Anand sighed. "If you allow us to place a geas for you to continue your work, then, my friend, I might be able to let your daughter go. We need a Spirited Duchess, but it doesn't have to be her. However, the karmic coalescence crystal is non-negotiable. That stone is a miracle of magic!"

A sparkle entered Anand's eyes. "A mutually beneficial relationship. Siyu empowering the souls of those under the ritual's influence not only strengthens them, but it also grows this crystal by absorbing tiny amounts of everyone's souls. Her temporary empowerment allows the affected souls to heal quickly and regrow even stronger.

"The coalescence crystal is practically for free! No downsides for any of the parties involved in growing it!" Anand sounded intensely proud. "Even the current size would allow someone to permanently strengthen their soul beyond anything ever achieved with mortal magic! This is the level of magic usually reserved to the False Gods! Without permanently marking the affected and without enslaving—"

"Without enslaving people? Then what do you call the binding of my daughter?!" demanded Ying.

"One temporary conscription compared to how many soul anchors?" retorted Anand. "If we have to defend ourselves from the False Gods, then we better find ways to match their magic before the veil gives way to their return!"

Anand held out his hand. "Now hand me the karmic coalescence crystal! The growth effect is non-linear, so it would be a waste to use it now. It would be a waste and I won't permit it. Hand it over. I won't ask again. Be reasonable and—"

Terry interrupted Anand with mad laughter. He had been slightly curious about Anand's explanation of the magic. It reminded him of the time that Siling had said she did not want to use medicine to treat her soul wound, because it would regrow stronger without it. After the explanation, however, Terry couldn't contain himself any longer.

Terry laughed and quickly downed his own consumables to prepare for a fight. "No matter what happens today, you've already lost, little monster." He grinned, fully knowing it to be true. "Your precious crystal is already gone."

For the first time in Terry's life, his own ignorance about his mana type felt unimaginably reassuring. If Terry didn't know how to get his oscillating container back, then Anand had no chance whatsoever.

Even if Anand was as capable as the lich kings themselves, the crystal would remain beyond his reach.

Even if the prince summoned the entire Lich Kingdoms, nothing would change.

Even if they would lose the battle against the monster, they had already won today's war. They had succeeded in their objective.

Siyu was finally free!

The Lich Kingdoms' control over her was gone.

Perhaps we can give you a few more surprises…

Terry's mind raced while considering their options. With Anand's true face exposed, Ying would fight without reservations, and with the lynchpin core taken care of, they had largely shifted the balance back to their favor.

Anand was taken aback by Terry's self-satisfied grin. Even though he kept his mana signature cloaking active, he dropped his attempts to cloak his spells. It had proven useless against his opponent before and he would not waste concentration on something useless. He walked forward with rapidly charging mana. "I hope that's not true…"

Anand didn't know what the man's relation was to the Divine Hammer, but just like that troublesome woman, this man was getting in the way of this realm's evolution.

The prince would not permit it.

If this man had played a sleight-of-hand, Anand would unravel it, and then he would do what was necessary to discover the means behind the man's effortless breaking of spatial locks. If the man did not hand over the crystal or his secrets willingly, then Anand felt compelled to employ the necessary force. "For your sake."

***

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