[Protocol JE-85]: Unknown

[Protocol JE-86]: Unknown

[Protocol JE-87]: A gift from the Weaver, profane be her name. Access to this protocol allows users to corrupt Hidden Quests with enough karmic interference. The subversion of these quests is a dangerous precedent enabling users to siphon rewards from your Faith intended for your citizens. Users are flagged with a [Target] designation allowing them to be isolated and eliminated with other [Targets].

[Protocol JE-88]: Unknown

[Protocol JE-89]: A Pendulum shop purchase. Access to this protocol allows users to split consciousness to eliminate the weakness of melds (i.e., forced meld assassination). Partial meld functionality is enabled.

– Pendulum didactic, Known Protocols

Chapter 34 – Karma

“Edgar never had the guile for Folly. Where is Edgar?”

Toki stood defiantly before Kristina. Alpha took the confrontation as an opportunity to cross into the library. Within the reach of Kristina’s chain he shrunk himself down for stealth, his form partially obscured by the tomes of knowledge that ascended towards the ceiling.

“Why, I don’t know what you mean, love.” Kristina’s face settled into a smile.

“I’m leaving and I need him. Is the game even fun if you’re just playing with yourself?”

The silence stretched on before Toki shattered it with action. She dropped her bag and with a swift, fluid motion, hefting her hammer, she launched herself toward Kristina.

Kristina shifted her gaze momentarily, noting the Alpha's ascent amidst the bookshelves. Her attention returned to Toki, an acknowledgment of the ploy, a silent commendation for the misdirection.

"Where! Is! Edgar!" Toki's voice was a loud growl.

The hammer was not merely a feint; it swung precisely towards Kristina’s legs attempting to knock the giant-ass spider to the ground.

The counterattack from Kristina was swift — her legs stomping like pikes into the ground. Toki twisted away from the first strike, a hairsbreadth from being caught in the follow-up. She felt the rush of displaced air that followed the near misses. Her hammer connected with the third. It gave the feeling of hammering adamant with steel. Her hands quivered in the connection.

"Your tenacity is... quaint. Can your path hold?" Kristina's voice resonated with the timbre of a philosopher musing over a particularly interesting theorem, even as she readied her next assault. She’s playing with me. Fine by me.

Toki infused one of her shadows with [Phantom Spears] transforming a claw into a floating spear. She still held her shadow shield in her left hand. 40% manadraw spear, 30% for each shield. The spear enchantment would create multi-hits on strike, morphing a single shadow into multiple ethereal spears that would brace against the legs of Kristina.

Unfortunately, Kristina moved with ease around the shadows, rendering the spear hits harmless, passing through her. Unperturbed by Toki's display of power, the ancient entity before her began attacking in earnest, spinning her own web of attacks. She’s playing with the pacing of the battle. I can’t adjust quick enough.

Each movement of Kristina was a study in precision, a lesson in the art of combat. Her strikes were relentless, a storm of blows that rained down upon Toki, leaving trails of red on her skin — not deep, but enough to remind the novice of the vast chasm that lay between them. The few that hit her shield passed enough momentum through Toki to create an opening for the follow-up.

"Is this all you have? You will not save Aris like this. It is better if I save you for later." Behind her, her back legs started spinning a spool of web into a cocoon.

As Kristina's onslaught continued, as the Mercy Queen of Spiders wove her intricate patterns of attack, the air around her began to shimmer with the gathering of mana. It was a subtle hum at first, a vibration foretelling that she was accumulating power, of an impending cataclysm.

Toki could only let it happen, hopeful that the Alpha would find both Edgar and the dragon core quickly and that this wouldn’t be a mortal strike.

The world around Toki twisted and contorted, reality bending at the whims of Kristina. The once endearing library with its towering shelves and ancient tomes dissolved into a nebulous void, leaving Toki adrift in a sea of her own fractured memories. She gasped as Dutch Eternal loomed before her, her hungry eyes, a frightening sight. Toki shivered, drawn into the moment once more. The dragon’s maw was open. The punctuated darkness threatened to surround her completely.

"Save me, Toki," Oberon Twice's voice echoed, his form shrinking before the dragon as had Susie Q before him. His figure bowed in supplication to the terror that was the dragon.

Dutch Eternal sucked in.

“No!”

A visceral pull dragged her forward, arms outstretched towards her brother, only to be engulfed by the jaws of the beast. The eerie sensation of falling enveloped her, the illusion wrapping its tendrils tightly around her psyche, swirling with surreal imagery that clawed at her sanity. She looked up and saw the broken shards of glass falling with her. Scenes of battle flashed like lightning in her memory—Zeppo's merciless mercenaries, the scuttling horror of rats, and the ominous black robed warriors, each vision left her reeling and confused.

"Is this your fear, child?" Kristina's voice slithered through the illusion, her eyes glinting with the cold light of distant stars, beckoning Toki further down the gullet of the ancient beast.

Panic flared within Toki, a primal urge to flee, to escape the deluge of horrors that assailed her. She felt a moment of relief when she let herself fall. Let herself be taken along the path before her. Looking down, she saw a glass floor ready to break.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Deep within, the embers of defiance sparked to life. No, she would not yield to this path. She couldn’t afford to. That would be cheap. It would defeat her triumph to follow an arranged road. Toki reached for shadows to command but found none in this bizarre realm where darkness held no dominion.

Desperation fueled innovation, and Toki invoked the improved [Bindings of Tyndall] and pulled it into existence using [Lessons]. From the nothingness, she summoned forth a mote—a paradox shadow—and clung to it, a lifeline amidst the tempest.

[Paradox Shadow: A shadow exists where it should not.]

It was like the light in the Prime council. It existed only for itself.

With the mote as her anchor, Toki drew upon [Lessons] once more. A shadow claw emerged from the paradox shadow, ethereal, a brilliant white, and trembling with potential. The shadow itself was strange and illuminated nothing.

She summoned her fire and used [First Burn] infusing the emergent claw with [Dragon Flies Free] and watched as the claw metamorphosed into a dragonfly, its wings gleaming with a dull luminescence. With a decisive motion, she released the mote allowing herself to fall further, allowing the blade to crash back into the mote, the impact creating another dragonfly.

“Petty attempts. You will be consumed by fate at this rate.”

Toki looked below as she approached the glass. Another blade formed, then another, until she wielded five of these paradoxical armaments. Each blade was an extension of her will, a testament to her indomitable spirit in the face of overwhelming dread. They vibrated, disappearing and appearing around her.

Within the illusion, Toki perceived the glimmer of revelation. There was no descent—only the illusion of it. The maw she believed to be consuming her was but a fabrication of her own making, a dark chasm where fear and doubt resonated with hollow echoes. She was not the victim in this twisted realm. She was not the victim in the real world.

"I will be the architect of my fate! I will be the maw!" Toki screamed. Other people might tread paths laid before them, but Tokyo Twice would carve her own.

A surge of indomitable will coursed through her veins as the five dragonfly blades spiraled around her, their iridescent wings catching nonexistent light. They were paradoxes given form—her will made manifest.

"Shatter," she commanded.

The blades obeyed, arcing outward in a graceful symphony of destruction. They carved through the illusion like ripples across a still pond, fracturing the oppressive maw into a myriad of dissipating shards. The surreal landscape crumbled, revealing once more the grandiose library, the towering shelves, the scent of ancient parchment.

With the illusion broken, so too was the cocoon forming around her. Toki landed lightly on her feet, eyes alight with purpose. The webbing fell at her feet, and she brandished her hammer. The paradox blades hovered at the ready.

Kristina stood before her smiling.

Their clash resumed. Toki's movements were more fluid now. Less restrained. She felt a weight that she did not know she was carrying disappear. She swung her hammer while her paradox blades weaved through the air, darting in and out of existence, striking from angles that defied reason. Toki had a hard time controlling the blades and they threatened to disappear. They were solid and real within the unreal illusion, but entering this real world, they felt unreal and fleeting.

Kristina met her assault with an elegance befitting her celestial nature. Yet even the primordial spider could not deny the awe-inspiring display of Toki breaking the illusion and the danger of these reality bending blades.

In the midst of this turmoil, Toki caught Alpha's blurred form move into action, seizing the sliver of distraction as his opening gambit. His charcoal and silver fur melded with the shadows as he fixed upon Edgar wrapped still in a cocoon, the avian figure suspended perilously from the chandelier where she left him.

Alpha leapt.

“Not enough, love.”

Toki's awareness snapped to the peripheral danger as Kristina's focus shifted like the tides towards her vulnerable companions. Toki summoned her ace. She channeled mana into the chain by her feet activating [So Susie Shall Bind Purple]. Her movements, counterattacks, and positioning had all been for this moment.

With a flourish, she brought the first paradox blade close and launched it by smashing it with her hammer. The first dragonfly careened towards Kristina missing her and landing behind her to the left. Toki swung again sending the second dragonfly behind her to the right.

Kristina caught on, but it was too late.

The third, fourth, and fifth dragonfly blades cut through the air to encircle Kristina in a carousel. Toki called on [First Burn] and the blades transformed into dull luminescent chains.

[And Tokyo Shall Bind Black] - Auxiliary enchantment to enhance the durability of binding for [So Susie Shall Bind Purple].

In her experiments, Toki had understood the futility of fixating upon the chromatic deities who painted the firmament. Life, she realized, was an intricate mosaic composed of more than just the vibrant hues of Purple, Red, Green, and Orange. It was a spectrum where shadows danced with light, and all existed within the delicate balance of greys.

"Today," she murmured, her voice steadfast, "I shall bind black."

She watched as the paradox shadow congealed and contorted, a tangible force of her indomitable will. Kristina studied the manifestation with an appraising eye, seemingly recognizing the convergence of raw talent and uncharted potential.

Toki's gaze followed the frantic scramble of limbs as Kristina, the Spider Queen, attempted to extricate herself from the cocoon of chains that now held her bound. The ethereal spider, usually so composed and otherworldly, displayed a rare moment of disarray, her cosmic eyes flashing with urgency.

"Your magic has indeed taken a turn towards the... unorthodox," the Spider Queen conceded, her smile rekindling.

Above, Alpha's embrace enveloped Edgar, plucking him from the chandelier. Together, they descended. Alpha grew to a monstrous size and landed on the ground crashing through a bookshelf. Toki's heart swelled with a tide of relief and gratitude so profound it threatened to capsize her.

The boundary between real and unreal shimmered around Kristina, a thin veil that held chaos in a leash. As Kristina's ethereal shackles splintered, dissolving back into the Aether from which they were conjured, the spider-like entity flexed, an ancient being shrugging off the constraints of lesser magic.

Freeing herself with a sudden burst of dust, Kristina's frown was fleeting, a mere ripple on the surface of her usually tranquil demeanor. It gave way to a smile that held within it the depths of nebulae—a knowing twist of her lips that spoke volumes more than words could convey.

For a fleeting moment, the library stood still. Alpha had reached the threshold.

Toki too, launched herself towards the same invisible line that promised respite. Her boots skidded across the floor. With one final, desperate lunge, she breached the threshold, collapsing onto the cool stone just beyond. "Our karma is severed."

As the dust of battle began to settle, Toki lifted her gaze. Through locks of white hair, matted with sweat, she met the eyes of Kristina.

"The threads may unravel here," her voice was the whisper of a secret. "But you have pleased the Weaver. You will find me once more when the time is right."

The scene before them bore the marks of their quick but furious struggle: books lay strewn like fallen soldiers, their pages fluttering in the aftershock. Amidst this landscape of ruin, Toki's chest heaved with the labor of survival.

Kristina's many-faceted eyes betrayed nothing of effort or exertion. Instead, they held a calculating stillness, an observer at the edge of eternity assessing the unfolding patterns before her. There was no scorn in her demeanor, nor triumph—only the inexorable turning of her thoughts.

Toki's response was a ragged inhalation, her body too spent for words, yet her eyes—a mirror to her indomitable will—burned with an unspoken vow. She would not be deterred, not by fear, not by pain, not by Kristina’s words and not by Golgheim’s actions.

As Toki stepped beyond the doorway, the chill of the corridor embraced her, a reminder of the vast and unknowable universe that sprawled beyond these walls. She contemplated the enigmatic smile that had graced Kristina's lips, a harbinger of mysteries yet to unfold.