“Your fading,” Kal said, as he watched the flickering light of Fyborh’s soul. It was a pale red-white candle amongst the almost blinding light of the room around them, “We don’t have much time do we?”

“I’m afraid not. I had hoped to remain for the whole timeout period but it appears that won’t be the case,” He stood,” But even the short time I did get was worth it. It was an honor to see you forge Kal,” He bowed deeply, “May you shatter the ties that bind,” Fyborh’s tone was serious but as he exited the bow his cheerful expression returned,“ I would have granted you my blessing but I am far too weak for that now. But I know you well enough to know you don't need it.”

Fyborh gestured, “Come if we move towards the burial stone I will last a few minutes more. We have to discuss the assaults on your mind before I go.”

As they entered the hall Fyborh grumbled, “I’d much rather be sharing a wine with you Kal but luck has been against us from the start… Anyway as I mentioned before I’m sure you have noticed your returning memories have drastically slowed since entering this place. I have protected you from our enemy during your time here but once you leave that protection will be gone. They will try to twist your memories into a bad light to twist you with them. Don’t let them.”

They stopped outside of a large door that was a little different to the rest. It was covered in engravings like the rest but it had a combination of all of the three colors he had seen throughout the place. Kal used his mana sight to inspect it but he was instead practically blinded by the runes. He could see the mana within them but had no idea what it meant.

Fyborh leaned against the door, “I can’t give you anything to protect you from eyes of gods but I wish I could,” he slapped the door as he kept walking, ”Something like that would both prevent the enemy from manipulating you and stop any other scryers, both mortal and divine,” He shrugged, “But like I said I can’t give you anything like that.”

Kal tried not to stare at the door while he memorized his location. This had been the most obvious hint so clearly Fyborh wanted to make sure he got what was in that room but to change topic he nodded, “I understand. Rules are rules. But what about this ring?” Kal showed him, Soul Maw.

Fyborh frowned, “Under normal circumstances, I could simply remove it for you but now that's beyond me. I also know who it is you must kill. That will be a true, near impossible challenge Kal. He is a tier two being and first true marker along the paths of ascension. You are powerful Kal but still only level sixty-three. Lumixet Vorayx is level one hundred and five.”

“Are you saying I should find another way?” Kal said. He didn’t like the idea of wearing the ring for even another second.

“No, not at all. I was hoping you would face him anyway. Both for your own advancement and as a personal request.”

“Ok but why do you want me to fight him?” Kal asked confused.

Fyborh’s cheerful expression cracked for an instant and Kal saw true grief in his eyes far greater than what he had seen earlier when they had been speaking about his death. Before Fyborh answered they had arrived back in the memorial chamber and a tiny modicum of strength had returned to Fyborh’s flickering soul.

Fyborh turned back to Kal, his soul already visibly weakening, “He has captured a friend of mine in the hopes of gaining information about you, ”He has Mira. I want you to get her back. She has suffered from my loss and she didn’t deserve that.”

Kal’s soul fired up for the first time since his visions faded at that. Kal barely knew Mira but she had been nothing but kind and helpful to him. Any idea of somehow avoiding the fight vanished, “Then I will. But how was she captured? Isn’t she some kind of mana construct or something?”

Fyborh nodded, “Yes but she has a core like any other. She is as much a person as you or I. Voraxy holds her personality core at this very moment. He has built it into the arm of a macabre throne.”

“Then there is no avoiding it. Not that I wanted to in the first place,” Kal said with a slight grin appearing on his face against his will. The expression surprised him. His core had been more than enough to smother the stray emotions before but something had obviously changed. But he didn’t have time to worry about that now. He had two more questions.

“How can I return to my world?”

“That is not a simple task I’m afraid,” Fyborh replied, his expression grim, “It’s not impossible by any means but as a being below tier four easy traversal between the worlds is difficult and it's even worse when you are stuck in the abyssal horizon.”

Kal’s heart sank a little but Fyborh continued, “But it appears some lunatics are walking my old paths. Apparently, my craftsmanship was good enough to keep them in place even after all this time,” Fyborh looked off into the distance, his face flickering from interest, confused, then disturbed, “Astral Falls! It’s them!”

“What? Who’s them?” Kal said, surprised by the sudden outburst.

“The Order of the Crimson Dawn, or at least some of them… Wait, you said someone called Melisia divined your core?”

“Yeah-”

“Never mind you will need to see,” Then Fyborh’s hand was over his eyes and once again Kal was thrown into a world of blinding cascading light. This time he was wrenched through the space all around him until his eyes focused on a gray plane.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

His view was far less clear than when he was shown his Lillian and his father but he concentrated his perception on a strange path that seemed to hang in the open air. Looking anywhere else was horribly disorientating but even so he could not help but notice some strange fluctuations.

Twisting purple threads seemed to pop into existence before bursting into an array of fading lights. It was space mana well if that was what it was actually called. Something was wrong with this place. It felt unstable, fractured, almost like it was only barely held together by sheer will.

Kal filtered out the space mana to get a better look at the path and it was only then that he made out the people walking atop it.

Dalen, Melisia, and Leo all walked near the front of a large line of people. Kal almost laughed when he saw them alive, “I’m glad you made it.” Kal had worried that his friends had failed to escape the madness back at the empire’s camp.

The question was why were they with the order? The group of psychos who went around kidnapping children for who knows what. Kal seethed as he looked around the people of the order spotting even the ones who had attacked the camp moments before the tear appeared.

The memory of the prophet's head exploding came to mind. “Ok, Maybe they aren’t all bad,” But that didn’t excuse the kidnappings.

Like when he saw his old home time seemed to pass differently for the people on the path, though this time it wasn’t just running slow it was all over the place. At times they appeared to be speeding along the path and at others they barely moved at all.

“What is this place Fyborh?”

Fyborh's voice took a moment to reach him but eventually, he replied, “It is one of my old travel paths. I won't get into the details but it allowed me and my disciples to move between my old academies.”

“Wait, you had academies?”

“Sort of? They were mostly put in place by people who insisted on worshiping me. But that doesn’t matter right now. Do you care about these people?” Fyborh asked.

“What do you mean?”

“If you want any of them to survive their journey you're going to need to help them, they are too close to the-”, Fyborh grunted and Kal's perception twisted savagely making his head burn, “Arhg fucking system! I can say exactly, Dammit. Look harder, you can see for yourself.”

Kal’s mind still burned but he turned to look around the strange gray plane, its disorientating properties only making the burning worse. Then he saw what he had been missing before. The location he was seeing the path from was different from his experience at his manor. Here he was viewing it through some kind of storm, a storm he recognized immediately.

It was like the mana storm above the event. But how? They weren’t in the abyss, were they? No, Fyborh said they were too close. Were they somehow in between worlds?

“The storm, is it somehow connected-”, Kal stopped himself as he spotted several strands of twisting purple mana snap as a bolt from the storm struck it before the storm released another wave of insane detonations, “No it’s the same storm isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

Kal was suddenly wrenched away from the storm and his friends as his perception was returned to his body followed by the same overwhelming disorientation as before.

Fyborh stepped back to place his hand on the burial stone. His form was now completely transparent and had lost all of its color becoming a dull gray like the plane he had just seen.

Kal forced himself to ignore the disorientation, resisting the urge to fall to the ground and instead lock eyes with Fyborh who only smiled in response, “What is going to happen?”

“The enemy will break through but worse yet so will the ambient abyssal mana of this layer. No matter how strong those people are, their cores will shatter under the assault of the abyssal horizon.” Fyborh said, his voice now an eerie whisper that seemed to come from all around him.

The disorientation vanished as his anger rose, this time his soul rising with it, “How do I stop it then?”

Fyborh frowned, “You can’t. You may be able to delay it but if you want any chance at that you must leave now.”

“How am I supposed to delay that? It’s a fucking storm!” Kal said. He had no idea how the storm even got there let alone know how to get rid of the damned thing. The scion had been blasted half to death by a mostly spent bolt generated by it. He would be dust if he tried to do anything with it.

Fyborh smiled as his body dulled even further and his voice faded with it, “You will find a way. You're stubborn enough for the both of us. I’m sorry Kal my time is up. Once again I won't be with you in your time of need… But I hope what I have done will be enough,” Fyborh reached out and put a hand on Kal’s shoulder, “Trust your instincts… But don't be ruled by them.”

Kal felt the whole temple warp as Fyborh was dealt more system-enforced punishment but the hand on his shoulder held firm, “I know you have more questions still but I trust that they will soon be answered. Just not by me,” His body began to fray, tiny threads of light falling away before vanishing, “May you find the Astral Falls Kalum Lesta. And may you know the unity you deserve…”

Then he was gone. A sudden feeling of distant sadness welled up in him and his raging soul quieted as Fyborh spoke his last words. He didn’t know him, not really. Kal had so few memories of the man or god that he couldn’t justify the feelings he felt but still they came.

A notification appeared in front of him drawing him away from his thoughts and the suddenly empty feeling room.

Warning: The resident of this resting place has faded from this plane. Planar Cohesion is at risk.

Due to the assurance of safety from a system-sanctioned timeout you will be returned to the place of entry in 10 minutes.

Recall in 9:59

9:58

9:57

Kal started running. He didn’t have time to think about his feelings. He had divine loot to steal.