The crystal knight dashed at the pair, and Vin confidently received them. He stepped before Maeve, raising his outstretched hand at the metal-plated man. Vin felt the sizzling, thrilled mana circulating his veins and channeled its ferocity to his palm. The Elven warrior arrived within arms reach of Vin and quickly ducked below the line of sight of his tensed fingers, sensing he was preparing some kind of attack.

Vin pivoted his aim at the last second to his target, drew a deep breath, and propelled the energy in his veins outward to discharge flames.

He'd hoped to see his foe scorched, but there was nothing.

Not even a tiny flicker.

There was heat, but it was the extreme adrenaline flowing from his body as his heart thumped out of control. He didn't base his entire plan on the possibility of his power working. Still, he was tense now that death was so close that he could preemptively recall its grotesquerie.

Once the knight registered his inability, they took a wide swing to cull the round-ear intruder. Even though Vin saw it coming, it was too quick to dodge, so he instinctively raised his club to block the attack. Stone was no better than paper against that powerful quartz saber, but that was the most his body could do against someone so fast.

There was a power gust as the crystal blade sliced Vin's weapon in half, grazing the surface of his face as well. He immediately threw himself forward onto the hard ground to avoid the next attack. The knight traced him with their eyes, ready to pursue him, but a stone blade clanked against the back of their metal armor and shattered.

Vin, conditioned to work alone, had forgotten to factor in Maeve, the prodigy princess. He quickly flung the remaining half of his stone club at the knight, hoping they'd give him their undivided attention again, though it was too late. A vicious, diagonal swing fired at the young royal, and she narrowly evaded. Before she could regain her footing, an even faster strike came speeding toward her head.

Vin was already up and stomped the rear of the Elven man's knees to make them buckle, adjusting the course of the swing so it missed Maeve. He then grabbed the knight's crystal helmet and began to channel the Shape spell to distort the gear and expose more of their sheltered body. During his attempt, a sharp, electric jolt forced his hand away from the equipment. Unfortunately for him, it also enraged the knight.

Infuriated at having their armor magically tampered with, the pointed-eared man stabbed their quartz sword into the ground and shouted something in Elven. Prismatic light blinded the scene, building more and more. Vin discerned something dangerous was coming. He could resurrect, but Maeve-

A filthy thought wormed its way from the dark prison of his mind and suggested, 'Just let her die.'

Vin's eyes flared open in revulsion; he grunted in strain, scrambled a step forward, and put all his strength into tackling Maeve onto the ground and covering her body with his own.

'I won't!' he responded to himself. Yes, converting Maeve into a conditional immortal would save him and the guards the hassle of protecting her. However, anyone would be better off never experiencing death. Fear of dying is what made life appreciatable. What made it precious...

He gazed into the shocked, ruby eyes of the royal and shouted her name, "Maeve!"

"I'm going to die. But as soon as the attack clears, run over to where Tristen and Gideon's bodies are. Alright!"

Her silent, awestricken countenance wasn't reassuring. He repeated himself louder, then yelled, "Nod your head if you understand!" A second later, before he could get confirmation, that chromatic light detonated around the mana-infused sword. It surged outward, damaging the surroundings and shredding Vin's flesh.

He wanted to avoid dying again... But it was done. Soon, the light faded, and Maeve, breathing uncontrollably beneath her savior's remains, shakily rose and erupted in a frantic sprint.

Vin had previously snuffed out all the flames to give the illusion it was safe to return to the collapsed building. He would have led the Elf there and trapped them himself, but not all plans were meant to succeed, so now it was up to Maeve.

The Elven man withdrew his saber from the ground and then gave chase to her. When Maeve passed Gideon's and Tristen's remains and was a safe distance away, they flashed back to life, splashing deadly flames every which way. That gallant individual, who was chasing behind her, was caught in the trap. His already exposed feet were the first to succumb to the intense heat, scorching and ruining his mobility.

The knight fell to their knees, landing closer to the ground and the densest part of the blaze. The crystal defense held up better than the elves' other metals, so he lived long enough to crawl out using his armored hands. They prevented the worst of it, but their feet were destroyed, and the rest of their equipment was ignited.

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Enemy or not, Vin respected those Elves for their conviction. They all fought and behaved like the world weighed on their back. As if their death would affect that fictional world in some impactful way. Instead of panicking, the knight began to pull off every inch of armor that had caught fire.

Not wanting to drag things out, Vin resurrected himself and employed those flames. Every pinch of fire on the equipment the Elf took off reacted to his command. They seeped off the armor and traveled to the man, rising up his now exposed body like water to the shore of a beach.

He was seconds away from reducing that person to simple coal when he heard an anguished outcry from a woman far away. Shortly after, a heavy arrow struck his center chest, nearly destroying his heart.

Vin heard Maeve inhale sharply, and Tristen and Gideon ran to him, but it was too late. Before Vin passed, he tried to quell the purple fire to salvage the armor that seemed to have slight fire resistance. He'd already burnt through three sets of clothing and was getting so goddamn sick of running around naked.

The Ravenour trio zipped and weaved, evading a sudden, vengeful barrage of arrows while waiting for the human to return. By the time Vin regained life, the crystal knight had lost their own.

Vin hurried to claim the spoils, but most of the loot was ruined, and only the sword remained mostly intact. He grabbed the grip of the crystal saber that efficiently cut through stone, but it was so heavy that just dragging it was arduous. With time slipping away, Gideon seized the hilt from him, only to realize he also couldn't lift the blade. It seemed like a lost cause, but then Meave suddenly prevailed where they failed. The one-winged woman gripped the handle with both hands and growled, power-lifting it off the ground and onto her shoulder. "We're leaving!"

An assembly of various Elven fighters across the canal had been watching them for quite some time. Before, there were only mages and knights that used swords or rapiers. Now, there were archers, warriors with shields, and troops on horseback. One man, a dazzling paladin with a bright red cloak, was on his knees at the edge of the channel. His arms were limped woefully at his side, staring not at the four intruders but at the deceased. This valiant man whose face writhed with affliction yelled out with tremendous heartache.

Nothing was fair about the Archival Dimension. The enemies were too strong, but even worse; they felt too real... They sensed fear and pain and even grieved their fellows' loss. And all for what? What did the entity that quoted human literature gain by sending mortals there? If anything?

The heartbroken knight stood, raised a large rune-covered golden blade, and slammed it down with bestial intensity. The slash was so powerful that it parted the waterway in half, revealing its stone bottom. That deadly gale assault traveled all the way to the invaders like a storm surge, blasting the party off their feet dozens of steps away, where they crashed into harsh rubble.

Vin slowly rose from the ground, lifted his sight to the irate cavalryman, and scowled, water from the pummeled canal raining down onto his body like an unexpected shower. 'We have to retreat.'

By then, the reinforcements Maeve predicted had already arrived and began to wreak havoc on the main force of Ravenours. She tried to return; however, Gideon pulled her, proclaiming, "You already gave the order for them to flee; there's nothing else you can do!"

Maeve flushed with dread. Her intense eyes scrutinized her objective as she defied his control, yelling, "I can do more! I am responsible for our people; no one else can save them!"

The mighty royal snapped her arm free and ran toward the battle. Before she got far, Gideon plunged at her from behind and locked his arms around her abdomen. She continued to stride as if he, a grown man, wasn't pulling her back, so Tristen joined the scrabble, aiding, "We know! But you have to live to guide the survivors out of this place!"

Vin remembered Kane saying something similar. In fact, all those terrible things were happening because their King wanted to temper his daughter. It felt unjust and cruel to make her shoulder that weight.

Covering himself with his Journal, Vin peered at the grimacing Maeve; he was willing to try and convince her to flee, but she immediately hauled the heavy crystal sword up to his face, yelling, "Not a word from you, human! I know you've never cared about our race!"

Her harsh ruby eyes gazed into his for a mere second, then intensified, "Even now, you are only thinking about saving the three of us; damned be the rest of the innocent!"

"If you had just complied with my orders at the start, none of this would have happened!"

Vin's brows furrowed as he glared at her, watching her struggle against her guards. He still found it unnerving how she read him with just her eyes, but that was fine; he was never good at being fake and empathetic. He grabbed the saber held up to his face and questioned, "Did you care about what happened to the billions of humans who were being slaughtered?"

"No, right?"

He was usually careful about what he said around those brutes, but his lips arranged independently, and he unwittingly admitted, "You're right, I don't care about all Ravenours. I just don't want any of you ."

"Then fight with us, use your power to protect me!" She rebutted. Just as the words left her mouth, another arrow rained down and struck Tristen in the back. The pink-haired young man groaned, losing his hold on Maeve, but luckily, it was nonlethal.

Vin snapped around, tracing the trajectory of another arrow and pushing Gideon out of the way before it hit its mark. He glared at Maeve, who pacified while pulling the arrow from the guard's back and told her, "There's no question that we'll all die if we don't leave now; I'll be able to come back, but you'll be gone forever."

His voice softened, urgent but pleading: "Don't make me search for a way out of this dimension alone."

Maeve's gaze wavered, torn between her duty to her people and the hard truth Vin was speaking. She was the future queen, their strength. But what use would she be dead? The royal looked toward the horrid sounds of her many allies being slain, then at the desperate, battered faces of her guards.

With a heart weighed down by impossible choices, Maeve stood, turned away from the battle, her voice barely a whisper as she said, "We retreat."