The thing about using was that it had to be a conscience decision for the most part. Usually, the split second of pain or flash of immediate danger was enough for my lucid brain to trigger the reaction even when attacked by surprise. Exhausted, manic, and beside the one I loved, I wasn’t exactly physically on high alert.

I doubted that the woman standing over my corpse knew the nuance of this skill, yet she looked just as surprised when I appeared from invisibility with a smile on my face.

“How?” she asked through clenched teeth, stepping away from my faux-corpse to branding her axe at the ready. “I knew I had you charmed.”

“Even though my skill removes most maladies, part of me still believes that you are Ren. Are you?” I raised an eyebrow, and my right hand. “No, that’s a silly question. To answer your question, I have three points.”

The woman who might not be Ren bared her teeth, a red sheen blooming around the head of her axe - something that matched the red handprint on her forehead. An odd fashion accessory that didn’t really suit her, or perhaps that was my own personal preference.

“First off,” I began, “you cannot see this, but I have a very specific debuff on me right now.” I pointed my hand in the air where it would be if she could see it.

[Mild Trauma]

“You see, faux-Ren, it is only fitting that the greatest showman in the world would also have the most powerful imposter syndrome. So much so that I could traumatize myself with it. It makes sense, don’t you agree?”

“No.” She should probably attack me now, if she wasn’t Ren. Clearly tense, she had expected her potential ruse to work, and now her options were limited. I knew this.

The real Ren would protect me from Trauma - a known fact. My brief panic about being successful or competent wasn’t particularly damning, but in my current state, it had affected me in a very real sense - even if current events had washed away my self-doubt.

“Second, as I told you, I am a master of illusion. You really didn’t think I would notice you weren’t Ren?” She might still be Ren, and I’d feel about silly about the rest of this conversation. “So before you decide whether to attack or teleport away - your only real options - let me present you my third and final point.”

Teleportation was probably her safest bet. They’d tried this thing before and knew of the success rate. Perhaps knowing my lack of sleep would have me exhausted, and that I was alone, I could be taken advantage of. Normally I’d allow that from Ren, although I couldn’t remember the bite of an axe being part of that. The puzzle pieces were misaligned.

Still, it didn’t really matter anymore.

Every spear, sword, and sharp object dropped from my inventory at once, agony flooding my eyes as my tired brain ran roughshod over my current limits. Almost immediately after, my demonic ace used [Wind Blast Scroll] at the exact same time as my wrist-mounted holder fired off exactly the same spell.

Even with the flicker of her defensive abilities, the faux-Ren couldn’t fight back against it. The double gust blew the collection of weaponry like a dandelion losing its seeds. A few were dodged or blocked, but the sheer number made it an inevitability. As most of the items thudded and slid along the grass behind her, the woman slumped over, pierced like a pincushion.

She wasn’t Ren.

I knew that for certain now. Even with her skill no longer affecting my mind, I was also sure as my heart wouldn’t have survived me killing the real Ren. For this Crimson Shadow assassin, I felt… nothing. Not even anger or disgust. Disappointed, maybe. Another life thrown away, their souls spent like currency to try to buy me out. I was consistently outside the scope of the Lady’s budget, but that didn’t stop her from trying to haggle for my demise.

Just something that left me with blood on my hands and a sore need for a sandwich.

Now I only had half of one. Doomed to only being partially satiated.

I sighed and rolled out my neck.

If there was a lesson to be learned here, it was that the Crimson Shadows were incapable of learning lessons. Maybe the Lady was a little more lax with letting her Players get murdered now that she was able to create functioning System-created.

Neither was truly a threat to me… and yet she now had more pawns to waste. As long as she stayed out of reach, she would be safe. Her minions would only need to get lucky once to be rid of me. It would almost be negligent for her to not constantly send minor threats our way. Even if we flattened them time and time again, our resources were being drained. We would tire.

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The chance of us catching up on a good sleep was now slim. Maybe if we set up watches throughout the night… but even then I’d be paranoid. As much as we felt as though we were backing our prey into a corner she couldn’t escape from, the Lady was also playing to the tune of something sly. Drawing us into her lair and flipping to showing her strongest hand whilst we were still recovering.

I stooped down beside the impaled woman as I idly recovered all my weapons strewn about. Double-casting a scroll alongside my demonic ace was probably not intended. Then again, I was sure the System had long given up trying to put me in a reasonable box.

The gear on the woman was boring at best, but I took everything magical for Percius to destroy later. Four Power Tokens, which I assumed she must have found along the way, as the Crimson Shadow seemed to pool important resources rather than leave them on the soon-to-be-corpses sent my way.

I huffed to myself as I stood, taking the last of my exploded Inventory with me. The thought of the first time I used circled around my mind. How pleased I had been that it had erased my Trauma until Ren shattered that illusion by telling me it was her new aura. Not that I should complain… but since that day, we had barely spent any time apart. I had grown used to my sanity being shackled together, even with corruption pulling on the chains.

Now I had Trauma. Sleep would fix it, but I couldn’t sleep. Instead, I just pulled a grim smile and started back off toward the tower. My tired brain ran through the checklist of things I’d need to do.

Kill the spellcaster. Teleport back to Ren. Sleep in hell.

Whatever came after that wasn’t as important. Sticking with three simple steps would keep me from stumbling before I could accomplish anything worthwhile. My skull was already on a collision course with a hard object. All I had to do was delay the inevitable until I was back around people who could put me back together after the fact.

My eyes cycled through my Inventory as I walked, trying to put things back in order. The elephant in the room was that this spellcaster might be the puppet-master with Guardian powers. It was the reason we had been unable to sleep even before the spell went off. It was partially likely that they were also just escorting the person who cast the magic. I would find out when I got closer to the tower.

The thought of becoming even more powerful was… sickening to some degree. What could a second Guardian ability even grant me? If it was wish based, would it just decide on what was second best? I didn’t even know what my other wish would be, aside from saving this world… I had pretty much all that I could ask for.

Everything else would come naturally, surely.

I paused at a stream running through the woodlands, briefly enamored with the sound of it. Calming. My eyes drifted back and forth over how the flow of the clear water picked up the morning sunlight. It relaxed me in the worst way. Reminded me of the cottage and Ren. Drew me closer to taking a fateful nap. I blinked slowly before switching positions with my demonic ace on the other side of the embankment.

It felt… sad to leave it behind. Even as I stepped away, toward my goal, part of me wanted to stay and rest.

To keep my mind sharp, I spun out a card of purple energy and swirled it around my hand. I wasn’t too happy to have gotten myself into this situation. Bravado had convinced me I could just go off on my lonesome to solve this problem.

With a clearer mind, we could have arranged something a little safer. I had tipped the balance too close to the rest of the Guild being the priority - the truth being I would not forgive myself if anything happened to any of them. Even if the three of us—Ren, Wolf, and I—went off to do this mission with enough teleportation to come back to Ruby should anything dangerous arise… it still left too much potential for things go wrong.

It still could. For as powerful as we three had become, we worked best together. Our bluff had been called and the Lady now knew I was still awake and on my way to break the curse. The Crimson Shadow didn’t know who else had avoided the sleeping spell, but would find out as soon as they got within sniper rifle range.

I hummed to myself as the magic card danced in the air in front of me. Maintaining a basic one had become something that barely dented my mana these days. The only reason I didn’t have two of the things circling around me constantly was it took a little too much of my concentration, even if minimal.

It was much different to summoning one of my demons when…

I paused as my card vanished away. How strange. I hadn’t allowed it to dissipate. Perhaps my tired mind wasn’t focused enough to keep it in check—that seemed a reasonable deduction. My hand raised, and I attempted to bring out a new one.

Nothing happened.

Confused, I looked around, half expecting to find someone else sent by the Lady to mess with me. However, unless they had excellent stealth capabilities, I was still alone. Working my jaw, I tried to bring out one of my faithful Hellhounds to the floor beside me.

Nothing happened.

The part of my mind that was suffering the most started to wonder if the System had finally caught up with the paperwork I had been creating and decided to cut me off from all of the undue power. With slight panic in my eyes, I brought up my STAR menus and went to my skill page. Everything was still there.

I frowned at my hands, glaring at my outstretched palms as if they could be the cause of this new malady. No. Despite everything I had been through, they looked the same as the day I had arrived here. Just… now sporting the ring that signaled I was married to Ren.

She wasn’t the likely culprit, however. Nor did I feel there was anything specifically wrong with me. As I continued to walk and fail at summoning cards, I looked over at where my demonic ace should be. It had vanished as well.

With a raised eyebrow, I opened up my Map.

Exhaustion made the travel take no time at all. Without realizing it, I was very close to the tower now. Even without knowing the exact details, the puzzle picture was clear enough.

They had some manner of anti-magic field over the area.

I smiled and flexed my fingers out. This would be a difficult show to perform.

Time to do some magic the old-fashioned way.