Rika drummed her fingers along the surface of her desk, deep in thought. After finding Clay’s remains and watching him revive, she set out to search for the location he and the spirit following him first teleported to. It took her a while, whoever was responsible had managed to mask the large concentration of spiritual energy, but once she got close it was easy to detect.

Going in unprepared would be risky though, so she returned to her office to prepare. She had plenty of lower-level spirits and a couple of stronger ones bound to her mana crystal, but the prospect of having to fight the same elf that killed Clay was daunting. And then there was whoever his accomplice was to worry about too.

She had intended to report her finding to the NDSA, but when she arrived at the local offices it was nearly empty. Apparently, an army of orcs had appeared at the border and was invading the region. Since the country was too small for a proper military, that left the NDSA as the only one that could respond to the threat. She could bring the information to Venetis and ask Brenner for help, they were on a warpath after one of their own was taken. They would surely be willing to join her, but…

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at her front door. Grabbing her staff she hurried to the front door, opening it to find a tall man wearing the signature NDSA outfit, several other NDSA members stood behind him.

“Hi, I’m looking for Rika Hoffman, the apprentice and daughter of Jimmy Hoffman,” the man said peering down at her.

“Daughter is technically correct, I was adopted, but he was my teacher,” She said plainly. Was this about Clay? It had taken them long enough to get to her.

“I see. My name is Cedric, I am with the NDSA and am investigating the disappearances that have been happening around the city. May we come in?”

So it wasn’t for Clay. Rika was hopeful now, maybe they would be willing to back her up. “Sure” She turned to lead them back toward her office. “I’m surprised there are still any NDSA agents left in the city. I thought everyone left to deal with the orcs.”

“Most of the NDSA is going to the border now, but my team was ordered to continue our investigation instead.” This was all true, but Cedric left out the part where his commanding officer expressed his concern about the total 180 of upper command, who were now committing almost all NDSA assets to fighting the orcs. It was a serious matter, of course, but considering how dysfunctional things had been the past few days the sudden clarity and focus of the upper ranks only added to the weirdness.

“Well anyways, what can I do for you?” Rika asked as she took a seat at her desk.

“We have been interviewing prominent mages to see if they had any information regarding the large number of disappearances lately. Has anyone you know gone missing, or have you encountered anything out of the ordinary?”

“I have been investigating this myself since my friend Gavin is missing.” Rika chose her next words carefully, not wanting to implicate a connection between herself and Clay. “I have had my summons surveying the town when they noticed someone being abducted by some sort of teleport spell. It managed to follow them through, and now I think I know where it went.”

Cedric blinked at her incredulously, she found them? She didn’t seem off-put by the teleport spell either, maybe it wasn't the same type Hoffman used afterall. Or maybe this was some kind of setup.

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“Would you be willing to take us there?”

Rika smiled broadly at him “I was hoping you would ask.”

…

“Why are the orcs attacking now? It's over a week too early.” Clay had seen the convoy of NDSA vehicles leaving Raleigh on his trip into the city, but he hadn’t realized where they were going until he heard people talking about it while staking out his motel room, making sure it wasn’t being watched. After he was sure, he hurried inside and flipped to the news where they were reporting on the fight happening on Mount Mitchell.

It must be because of how different things have played out in this timeline.

“But it still doesn’t make any sense, what could we have changed that caused the orcs to invade faster than they normally would’ve.” Sephtis didn’t have an answer.

Clay thought about his old team. In this timeline they probably didn’t even know who he was, but if things played out similar to before they would be out there fighting on the front. Last time the NDSA lost the battle for Asheville, but with everything different who knows how that could change. They probably don’t have a way to deal with that regenerator in this timeline either though

So are we running back to fight those orcs again?

“No, I think the path to bring me back to Uriana is here. This is where that elf is, and where I have spent most of my time since this new timeline began. Raleigh has to be the center of it. Plus with the entire NDSA focusing on the orc invasion, I don’t have to rush to get out of town now.”

Clay finished packing his things into his backpack, holstering his dual handguns in his belt. He silently snuck out of the motel room and into the night, specter leaping into the air to travel across the rooftops of the city.

…

It didn’t take long for Clay to be noticed, at this point Hoffman’s summons had spread out all across the city, awaiting orders to begin their attack. Hoffman wasn’t surprised to see him, he already knew about Clay’s specter, and recently learned of his immortality as well. The exact circumstances of his immortality were fascinating, but that could wait. For now, it would be far more amusing to rub in the failure of the elf, Luriel, standing next to him.

Hoffman constructed a barrier prison in the corner of the room, a portal opening inside it and dropping Clay inside. He watched as the kid grabbed his guns to try to shoot at them, laughing as the bullets ricocheted off the barrier and nearly hit Clay in the head.

He had debated on capturing Clay now or waiting until other matters had been resolved, but having him here gave him a certain amount of leverage. Plus he didn’t want him interfering in his plans. Worst case, if he got out the boy would target Luriel first, and if Hoffman was lucky might even kill him.

“How?” The elf was stunned to see Clay standing there alive. He knew he had killed him, burned him to a crisp. How could he be there? “Is this your doing Hoffman?”

“Not me, I didn’t learn of his immortality until after you killed him.”

“Immortality? What are you talking about?”

Hoffman held up his hand in a gesture to calm down “We can talk about that later. We are about to have some more guests join us.”

As if on cue, a forceful gust of air blew open the front doors of the warehouse he waited in, deep darkness spreading from the door and enveloping the room, one of Rika's spells meant to conceal movement.

“The door was unlocked you know” He called out. A barrier immediately formed around him as multiple people emerged from the darkness, moving to encircle him.

Hoffman yawned as he cast his own wind spell, overwhelming the barrier around him with his mana and pushing the inky darkness out of the building. His gaze drifted over the group that had blown down his front door before locking with Rika’s, her eyes widening as his lips curled into a smile.

“J-Jimmy” She said, not able to believe that the man standing across from her was her former teacher.

“Rika, it’s been so long. You’ve really grown up.”