Ning Xin groaned while pushing herself up from the nice and comfy chilled floor of the ice tree.

Yawning, she stretched her back since the cushions got lost somewhere at some point in her sleep.

‘Ebony’s already awake? What time is it?’

“Heh, why are both of you pushed to the corner?” As usual, her first course of action was to get her two swords.

“Ow, why are you burning up? Huh? You don’t want me to touch you? What’s wrong?” Ning Xin looked at her scalded skin, a bit of her flesh melted.

Her pain resistance was far more attuned to heat injury than physical pain.

‘This is odd, they’ve never burnt me before. I can’t sense their feelings either, they’re not born yet and I’m just fooling myself. But this reaction…they don’t want me to hold them?’

The twin swords started to melt the room which got Dusk pissed and tossed the swords out. The swordswoman pulled her shirt to cover her shoulder again and made sure they didn’t burn the garden outside. She didn’t blame the tree which was simply following built-in instructions.

“Weird…” Forcefully grabbing the sword hilts she extracted the fire mana they were using against her.

‘They feel thinner than usual but they’re the same size. Must be the alcohol.’

“Calm down, I’ll wipe you down right away. It’s been a while since I sharpened the two of you anyway.” Talking to swords as if she were talking to people, she went and got ready the materials to pamper her two swords.

“Still not happy? Well, just don’t burn anything, I'm gonna make some grub.” She placed the twins at the entrance where Icicle usually sat and hoped they weren’t so disobedient they burned their beds. “Yeah, both of you feel weird in my hand today. Hey!” She put the fire out before the wooden sword rest charred.

“Hmph, and I even used good oil for you. No blood for you two today. So naughty.”

She watched her peel skin and decided she might as well take a bath to wash the scent of alcohol and Ebony away from her.

‘Gah, stupid book. But Mallory says it’s normal so I guess it is.’ Flushed, her blood rushed to her hands and healed the burns before she reached the bathroom.

“Finally awake? Hurry up and make me some grub, I’m hungry.” Kong Jing’s head popped up in the air in front of her in a jumpscare, there was no body and she maintained a spatial compression with only her head popping through.

“Sister, give me a moment.” She took a step back in surprise, almost forgetting another person’s presence in the house.

Despite what she said, she took her own sweet time. By the time she was done washing up and preparing breakfast, Ebony was back as predicted.

“You’re scorched…good fight?” Ning Xin detected some excitement from the man who returned with torn pants. Although he had no physical injury she recognised the smell.

“My lightning resistance levelled 7 times, pretty good. I got a hang of how a real mage fights, if only it wasn’t a casual spar I could learn a lot more. Spars with other people are troublesome, I can only bubble Augmentation or I’ll kill them by accident. You know, it's the older lady I told you about. I underestimated her but I don't think she’s the right opponent for you. It’ll end instantly.”

“Clean up, you smell like electrocuted flesh. We’ll wait.” The chef grabbed onto the space mage’s hand and dragged her up instead of letting her steal the food away.

“I-I’m hungry.”

“Go ahead and eat.”

“We’ll wait.”

Ning Xin slapped the hand again, within the range of the dining table she was far faster than the space mage now and could easily react to a plate falling or a hand appearing on the other side of the table.

‘He’s being shifty…wait, he’s trying to avoid me? Why? Hmm, is that how he felt when I did the same to him? I should apologize again. Thinking back…I’m quite the bother. Why does he like me…forget it, doesn’t matter why I shouldn’t bother him with such silly questions when I can feel it. When is he going to ask?’

Kicking her feet back and forth, she let the scent of food tempt her while waiting.

❅❅❅

‘I guess she doesn’t know what she did in her sleep. Good, that would be awkward and she’ll probably be all cranky again.’ Ebony had a late breakfast with the two ladies when he felt a sudden drain on his mana.

“Do you feel that?” He asked the masked women.

“Feel what?” Kong Jing sipped on her soup to warm her stomach up.

“They’re in the city, somewhere. Are they in your range?” Ning Xin continued eating, she didn’t look like she’d be fainting any time soon.

“Let me check. No. So this stealth skill can sense them from further than my current mental range of 4km.” With a radius of over 4km, he can technically control his mana within an 8km diameter sphere with himself as the centre.

“How much is that in gors again?”

“Four-fifths of a gor. Hurry up and get used to the superior metric system.”

“Four-fifths? It increased so much?”

“Yeah, it's still increasing by the day. The soft cap for grandmasters is a lot higher than master despite my stats remaining constant.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I can understand your lingo. But I can feel my magic body’s range increase.”

“Let me try…oh yeah, I can’t conjure anything within forty metres of your body. That’s a lot stronger than I expected.” Ebony was more than a little surprised but it didn’t show on his face.

Stolen story; please report.

“Oh, that’s me. Try again.” Kong Jing cut in.

“Twelve, that’s great too.” Ebony felt cheated, it meant less safety for her.

“More than enough for me to react to any projectiles.”

“Fair enough. It’s dipping into your mana pool already.”

“I know, my mask was almost empty to begin with so I’m not surprised.”

“So this is that weird magic you were talking about? Mandates huh, I don’t know much about that but the effects are…strong. This turned the swords I made flimsy?”

“A different spell, mandate by another caster but yes,” she answered, this was a sore spot for the swordswoman and maybe even more so for the crafter.

“Are you in any trouble? Need me to hide you?”

“Do you feel us disappearing from sight or anything of the sort?”

“Yeah, creepy. It’s actually amazing, I’m doing my best to focus on you but something is tugging at my mind to make me forget you, more specifically, forget that you’re standing in front of me. Don’t worry though, I can still lock onto you my mask has greater mental defences than most. That’s why I’m amazed it’s working on me.”

‘The mandate guys are really strong then. How annoying. I had second thoughts about killing the ants for experience because I got tired of all the killing.’

Ebony might have gotten swept by the flow of things but he was constantly reminded of the battle with the Trolls.

He was 100% okay with hunting for food and sustenance. That was the nature of things and the cycle of life. He made it a point to make the most out of dead animals. Since they ate all their hunts nowadays, there were no bodies to bury.

He had re-lived his entire life within his memories a few times in the past few years. Memories of all of the humans he killed surfaced every time. He felt no guilt for every single one of them. Every kill felt no different from hunting prey for sustenance.

Ebony did not see killing humans any different from killing animals. They were both living things and thinking creatures. The senseless war that felt like a big training ground opened his eyes to how much of a waste those deaths were. He didn’t see anything wrong with the trolls killing humans for food and he certainly didn’t think the humans were wrong to kill the trolls in self-defense. But whatever that battle at Fifth Tide was, it wasn’t for the preservation of life. On both sides.

The ants that were supposedly attacking the Empire sound like monsters that devour and destroy everything in their path but Ebony only saw that as a natural happening. He was okay with killing them for food, they were trying to eat humans after all.

His moral reluctance was skewed because of the Jetfins. The ants wouldn’t be trying to eat him until he showed himself to them, so how is it any of his business? His mind couldn’t reconcile with this.

‘Let’s put this emotion thing aside again. Logic, ants eating us, we fight back. Ants get killed whether or not it’s done by me. So I might as well join and benefit from it. I can’t concile…this Tranquility Spring is not helping. Fine, let’s use emotion. If I don’t kill the ants, they would kill a lot of people. Billions. People die, so what if I know about it. It’s not like I don’t know people are dying right this instant somewhere but I’m not doing anything about it. Hmm, I don’t seem to care. How about this, if I don’t kill them they might destroy everything including the frost elves village? Oh, now I care. I guess that’s just how I am. Good, I think I’m regaining motivation. If this removal of urgency to get stronger is from Tranquility Spring, I need to fix it fast.’

Ebony chuckled at his mental realization of how little he cared about lives unrelated to him. He wondered if this was because of how he was brought up but decided it wasn’t his upbringing’s fault.

“Hide Xin, I can support the mana usage of this mandate.” He told the space mage before putting his robe on and getting Icicle.

“Hey! Where are you going?”

“Relax, they couldn’t spot me when I was right under their nose the previous time. I’m not sure if it’s the same group of people but I’ll try looking for them. Too bad there’s no marking to show where or how far away they are. Hurry up Sister Jing, you’re already looking around to find me don’t wait till you forget we’re still here.”

At his request, Ning Xin was swallowed up somewhere with the space mage disappearing too.

‘I got to thank these mandate people even more now. They keep helping me realize things. Of course, I should hurry and make the most use of any available resource to get stronger. The pests need to be removed anyway, following my own logic of the natural cycle of life, it’s only natural I hunt to eat. The only difference is the type of sustenance. If I see it that way, then this is a gold mine we’re sitting on. So that’s how other people are seeing the situation. Finally, I believe I am normal now.’

Ebony Flickered out of the house. He had no idea where to search so he spiralled away from his house with the edge of his senses scouring through the city.

‘I can recognise them if it’s the same people but my search would be fruitless if this Entity Evanesce was alarmed by a different group of people.’

Without complaining, he continued to spiral further and further away in attempts to find oddly dressed people.

It took two hours before he found his target, it was within the Capital’s central district but closer to the north.

‘It’s them. The possible Emperor space magic user, two bodyguards and the one in charge. They’re not looking my way. Should I try my luck and push how effective Entity Evanesce is?’ Ebony spotted them from the air.

‘Eye for an eye. Cage for a cage. I’ll drop a cage on him and see if he notices me. If he doesn’t even look at me, I’ll try something more. If he looks and turns away, I’ll stop. If he attacks back…this might not be such a great idea. We’re in a city and there are people. The barrier’s healing isn’t absolute.’

Elevated over a kilometre above the ground, Ebony scanned the area around Ning Xin’s captors. Despite his second thoughts, an invisible cage had already formed beside him.

Right before he slammed it down, his gut feeling stopped him and he looked to his left.

‘There’s nothing there…I see. It’s the mandate caster, he’s outside Tidal watching me, isn’t he? I guess it’s time to go home.’

Unwilling to test his luck and the Mandate user’s willingness to enter Tidal, Ebony turned around and made his way to a random cafe. It might be pointless but he wasn’t going to expose his home on the miniscule chance that it wasn’t already exposed.

He wasn’t able to see anyone but instinct went a long way. He might not have Ning Xin’s Intuition however, high Perception did a lot more than most would think.

“Ah, the waitress can’t see me. I guess no tea for me.”

Disappointed, Ebony took a slow and random route home.

“Leave the barrier.”

A fading voice entered his mind. Ebony looked down to see his feet changing directions.

‘Hot damn…he or she’s making me go out. This guy’s obviously the one who cast Entity Evanescence on me and not those weak civilians.’ Ebony punched both his knees and planted his legs into the stone ground. He went somewhere less crowded so that he didn’t drag people in but was still in the middle of a busy city. No one so much as blinked as he crushed the floor.

‘I shouldn’t have gotten curious or tested my luck. Let’s hope she’ll pick up…and of course, the callstone doesn’t work’ Ebony’s body control was slowly making him walk out but his mental control over the mana in his body fought back. It was a struggle but it was a good sign that told him he could resist.

The struggle barely meant anything if he didn’t have any help. He should’ve listened and hid with Kong Jing. Weak Flicker by Flicker, he was getting closer to the inner wall’s gate. It was only a matter of time before he went through all the gates and exited the Capital.

“You see, be a good boy and don’t get kidnapped in front of me again.” His body felt the force of another individual’s mana and it ripped him away from the space he occupied.

“Hello, Sister Jing.” He didn’t question how she found or even noticed him and greeted her.

“Hello. No need to thank this awesome sister of yours, this is just redemption. Ah, sorry about this privacy screen, all you’ll be seeing is white and each other here.”

“I hope there’s enough ants.” Ebony put the sleeping swordswoman who had her mana forcefully drained's head on his lap and muttered to himself.