Waking up was weird. The world looked different, felt different. Not like she was seeing it for the first time, but like the way she was seeing it was strange. Before, she had sensed from throughout her entire body. But now she sensed it from only her brain.

Althea knew what had changed almost immediately. There was only one meridian in her body now. A single one from her brain to her core. The rest of her body had none. That must have caused the change. In theory, a lot had changed. In practice, not so much.

If she had been a martial artist, she would have been rendered incapable of using her battle manuals. But she was a mage. The only difference was the discomfort she was experiencing. And even that would probably pass in time.

There was still that strange mental knocking she hadn’t accounted for, but it was probably just a weird headache from the weird shit she kept doing. Even that would pass…probably. The pounding in her head increased its tempo as if to prove her wrong.

But even then, it would have to pass. At least, Althea hoped it would pass. Living with it would be painful. The feeling of unbalance would drive her insane.

Shaking her head, she turned her attention towards the other things begging for her attention. The glowing blue boxes she hadn't seen for a while.

Class change initiated.

Druid class lost: Error!

Druid class cannot be lost due to inherited nature.

Computing… Error!

Computing… Error!

…

Computing… Error!

The messages continued for hundreds of lines, and as she watched, they continued to grow. With every second, another line was added. Like the knocking that was growing more insistent, it intensified her headache, making it even harder to think. What was happening? Were they related?

This was far too much to deal with in the morning. If it even was morning. The blue boxes were in her way, not letting her see the sun.

Althea didn't even dismiss the box, there was no point. The message would only come back. The System itself was stuck on a loop. A loop. The fucking world spanning System was stuck on a loop.

'I wish I could just stop computing and try something else. But of course, that isn’t how this works.'

The way to solve a problem like this was to go into the source code and remove whatever was causing it, but did the System even have one? This was a problem. Perhaps there was something else that worked for ais, but the heck did she know about that.

The blue box was covering most of her vision. With her mana sense she still had some sense of her surroundings, even with this fucking pounding trying to kill her, but it would be problematic if-

Error resolution subsystem activated.

Computing…error!

Com-intervention launched!

System resolution pending.

System resolution deemed unacceptable.

Calculating alternatives…

System alternatives unavailable.

System resolution proceeding...

Althea saw the blue box transform before her, into a yellow thing with red lettering.

System requests the host to provide aid.

Althea waited, wondering who the host was. A part of her wondered if it was her, and felt like it would end up being her. But another really, really wanted it to be someone else. And why would the System ask only her anyway? The Great Mother probably knew a lot more. The System should go ask the tree for help.

The Great Mother has been deemed a hostile entity. The host refers to the one currently accessing this subsystem.

So it was her. What did this subsystem need from her exactly? What was a subsystem anyway?

The System is experiencing an acute power shortage, making it unable to perform any anomalous functions. The subsystem expects that in approximately three months, four days and seventeen minutes the local System shall seize all class functionality.

The subsystem is an error solving entity under the System running on emergency power reserves. The allocated reserves are expected to keep the subsystem operational for seventeen thousand years. The host is requested to find a solution within the stipulated time frame.

Althea blinked. Of course. This was her life. How could she avoid falling into a fire? But either way, the System failing was important. Even if it was just class functionality. That was a significant part of the System, especially for her. The county depended on it.

Perhaps it could try using the reserves? That seemed necessary.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

The reserves are required for keeping the planet habitable. Does the host still support her suggestion?

Althea blinked, and then stared at the blue box. The knocking was still growing more insistent, the knocks coming every few seconds. A proper headache was growing behind her eyes, and she really didn’t want to deal with the System stuff. There was too much stuff going on in her brain for her to properly think, let alone solve something as crucial as this.

Why couldn’t someone else do it for once?

The knocking came again, and this time she lashed out, sending a vaguely large amount of mana towards it. To be honest, she wasn’t sure how much it was exactly, her new senses seemed to lack perspective. Perhaps the way her single meridian channeled mana was different from how the hundred druid ones did?

Another thing for her to worry about. How nice.

The mana went towards the knock, and then went…somewhere. For a second, Althea panicked as she watched it transform and strengthen the bond. Then she realized why. The mana from the other side of it, that she had not been able to sense before, told her.

This was her familiar bond, just strengthened and stretched across continents. Had her path breakthrough strengthened it somehow, allowing it to reach here? As it was, its timing was great. Althea opened herself to it, and found herself reading… Nathan’s thoughts?

What the heck was Nathan doing on the other side of the familiar bond? Did he become her familiar somehow? With the way her family was, it wouldn’t even be that weird.

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Nathan wasn’t sure what he was doing. Pulsie was sure about it, but he was starting to doubt the plant. A familiar connection stretching across continents. At the Master stage. The Empress might not think that was much, but he knew how hard it was.

Mind magic was subtle, hard to detect, but it would also lose coherence easily. The farther it went from your mind, the more likely it would just transform into the nearby mana. That was why Mind mages couldn’t just control an entire country.

Even if they had enough mana, they had a limited range. Nathan had a hard time controlling anyone beyond the palace walls, at least, horizontally, and even then it was difficult past the same floor.

There was no way for him to even sense someone on the fiftieth floor while he was on the second. Just about any other mage had a better range. Now Pulsie was talking about a connection across continents. The familiar bond wasn’t quite mind magic, but it was close enough. The restrictions should apply, even if they were loosened.

There was something strange going on.

But he didn’t have a choice either way. The Empress of the Night wanted it to happen, and he wasn’t about to refuse to even try. There were Sects and Kingdoms stronger than the county that did not survive such foolishness. The Solerian Empire wasn’t important just because of its history, after all. But If he tried and failed anyway, it wouldn’t be his fault.

This wasn’t supposed to be possible anyway.

Mana left him, traveling through a thin cylinder at rapid speeds. The travel was claustrophobic, and much faster than it should have been. Mind magic was also slow. This wasn’t mind magic. Emotion? Pulsie had mentioned something about it. What did the element do anyway?

The destination arrived before him before he could start puking. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t puke. Nathan was sure that he would be doing that while coming back. Or when he moved. The queasiness in his mind was causing his body to react in weird ways.

The human body didn’t like it when the mind was feeling things that the body wasn’t. The Fae body did not have the problem, but he still suffered from the condition anyway. What part of him was Fae, and what part human, he had no idea.

Nathan knocked at the Countess’ mind, trying to gesture that he was trying to contact her. Why Pulsie couldn't just establish the connection was strange. That was how a familiar bond worked in the first place. Perhaps the Silverbirch trees he was using to boost his mental presence had something to do with that?

But either way, the plant had far too little mana control to do something like this. Just holding the connection took too much out of him. The Countess did not answer his knocks, making him knock again. And again.

Nathan continued his knocking, growing more insistent as the connection wavered. A feeling of pull began to drag him back. If the Countess did not connect, then the connection would fail. The passage needed both the members to support it, it wasn’t stable enough to exist one-sided.

The Countess could feel him knocking, he was sure. Well, unless the connection was mixing that up somehow. Nathan started knocking even more, several times a minute now, as he felt himself being pulled back.

The feeling of pull increased as he felt the connection collapse around him. Pulsie fundamentally lacked the mana to keep it up by himself. Nathan had no way to support it, he did not have Emotion mana.

Knocking even more in a desperate attempt to merit a response, he began to retreat. If he got caught here when the passageway collapsed, then he might end up in a comatose state. Letting your mind wander around was more dangerous than most people knew.

Mind magic might be strange, but it still followed the laws of distance. If his mind was stranded a hundred miles from Diery, it would remain there until he found his way back. And he would have to do it before he lost the mind mana he had brought with him. For without it, he would die.

With the mind mana he had now, he would die within a day. No, he was going back before it got that far. Contacting the Countess was important, but they could try again. If he was lost here, he would die.

Knocking for the last minute, he finally felt a response. A burst of mana, far more forceful than he remembered it being, burst towards him, nearly destroying his consciousness. Thankfully it wasn't pure mana or mind mana, else it might have even succeeded. As it was, he found himself thrown back through the corridor, towards his own mind.

The Countess followed him. Nathan could sense her consciousness, traveling through the path, though he doubted she knew what was happening. Perhaps the Emotion mana gave her that sense. But he doubted it.

This was complicated, advanced mind magic using mana that wasn't familiar to him that went against everything he knew about it. Combining the familiar bond with Pulsie's mental network was a reckless endeavor, considering they didn't understand either of those things.

The fact that the plant had not only found her but also succeeded was so improbable that he was beginning to wonder if there was something else involved.

Nathan's consciousness collapsed back into his mind, the Countess following him in. For a second, he considered kicking her out and closing the connection. The corridor was crumbli-not anymore.

Narrowing his eyes he observed the strange thing, suddenly very stable, like it hadn't been on the verge of collapse. There was none of the turbulence that he had experienced. The Countess had probably had a very peaceful journey.

Yes, strange indeed.

"Hello?" he finally sent mentally, hoping that the connection would not collapse. The Countess would have to travel back to properly-

"Why am I here?"

The reply surprised him. No, surprise was too small a word. The reply sent so many warning bells ringing that their sound would have collapsed buildings. The reaction was too fast. The Countess had to be sending messages from her brain directly through the corridor.

But that couldn't be, her consciousness was here, in his mind.

Not even in Pulsie's, as it should be. The plan had been for him to send messages using mind magic. Mind mana could support remote thinking, not any other. The Countess couldn't do that.

That is, unless someone set up a remote consciousness simulator for her.

Nathan had only read it in old records the Emperor made him read, but it was a real thing. The Butcher of Continents, his grandfather, had used it in the War of Continents. But it was also very advanced mind magic. Magic that he had not cast.

How was it that the Countess had done it then? Did she suddenly gain an expertise in mind magic?

Or…was someone interfering the entire time? Oh, who was he kidding.

The question wasn’t an if, it was a who.