POV Tess Hansen

Have I ever been this angry in my life? Have I ever hated another being this much? If Nathaniel hadn't stopped me, I would already be in the middle of the room, fighting those four ants and probably risking the lives of my three precious friends in the process. The lives of my comrades.

Can I trust you to save them? I want to ask, but our eyes meet for a second and I know I don't have to.

Right now, Nathaniel wears an expression I had yet to see on his otherwise emotionless face.

“Fuck them up,” Lily spits out, and his mana crashes in waves inside the room.

Nathaniel disappears, teleporting, and reappears on top of the biggest ant, the Arcane Juggernaut. Mana radiates from Nathaniel in a torrent that I'm sure would tear my body apart, and armor manifests around him, armor that continues growing until Nathaniel is three times taller and surrounded by all that mana condensed into the form of the armor.

A few fire-based attacks crash against it, followed by some invisible ones that leave deep gouges in the ground behind him. He just shrugs off any that land and stays on top of the comparatively slow, yet from the look of it, extremely durable ant.

Lily groans, falling to her knees, and a few of her fingers disappear as she continues to stare at the crown on top of his head.

Then more mana radiates from him, the armor turning dark blue and speeding up its movement. The hands of the armor become bigger, and he grabs the head of the ant he’s mounted as it tries to shake him off.

With sheer shock, I watch as he tears the head off an ant, twice the size of a bus. The barriers around the ant just vanish the moment Nathaniel's armor touches them. The Juggernaut's body isn't able to endure, and the head just comes off.

Nat throws it at the Inferno ant who summons a wall of flame in response, turning the head to dust in the blink of an eye.

The massive body of the dead Juggernaut ant falls to the ground and I notice that Lily barely has any mana left as Nat continues to bleed from the wounds he’s sustained all over his body.

Lily's left leg disappears and I feel movement behind us.

[Storm Crown] activates and my lightning surrounds us, clashing against a few attacks directed at us.

Then one of Nathaniel's anchors activates nearby and his disrupting mana hits the Rift Shifter ant before he can disappear.

Immediately I boost my javelins as much as possible and a few of them strike its body, sending lightning coursing through it.

The ant tries to create another rift, but another anchor near him explodes, Nathaniel's kinetic energy destroying a few of the ant's legs and that's when I increase the weight of my spear as much as possible until it gets hard to move.

The spear pierces the ant's carapace, the sheer momentum behind it allowing it to do so, but the ant disappears again, appearing near Lily.

Before it touches her, a few gray threads spin around her and pass through the ant's body while another of her legs disappears. For a moment the ant looks almost confused and then his body falls into two pieces that continue to move.

My javelins stab through it while I push against it with my [Psychokinesis] at full power.

It uses another rift-like attack that crashes against my lightning, forcing me to use more of my mana until they cancel out each other and my spear finishes it off.

When I look up, Nathaniel floats in the air, standing against two remaining ants. He has no wings and uses no mana, lightning, or anything. He just floats there and I can’t feel anything. It's almost eerie.

A small ant jumps on the Inferno ant's back and golden flames burst forth from them at the same time as it feels like they are sucking the heat from the room.

Just an arm's reach in front of Nathaniel they stop, like there is some invisible barrier, and I hear a sound that reminds me of a heartbeat.

One heartbeat later I feel an immense amount of mana radiate from Nathaniel.

The second heartbeat and some of the flames move and swirl around Nathaniel as he takes them under his control.

Third heartbeat and Nathaniel's legs twist and break as if under immense pressure.

Fourth heartbeat and Lily's right hand disappears. I grab her and hold her against my chest.

Nathaniel's face is calm and I can see that he is careful to not allow any of this to touch our friends. Roaring like a terrifying animal, the flames around Nathaniel burst forth, extremely concentrated.

There is no heat filling the room, his thermal energy just becomes more concentrated, focused into a single beam as thin as my finger at speeds impossible to track. It strikes the Inferno Ant in the middle of its body and then moves diagonally, cutting him in half like some sort of laser.

The small Ability Leech Ant tries to run, but Nathaniel does something, and the ant freezes in the air, unable to move.

“No… don't kill him,” someone says, and it takes me a few moments to realize it's Sophie.

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I stop right before killing the small ant and turn to Sophie.

After I create several threads of dark blue mana to bind the ant, I place an anchor near it through which I constantly channel disrupting mana. Then, I float towards her.

“Get me out,” she hisses through clenched teeth, and I tear the things from her and the twins while creating mana arms to gently bring them down.

My body burns and hurts, and I'm barely able to keep myself from fainting, but I take off the crown to save Lily's mana.

“They wanted to get my [Manipulation] and the twins' [Connection] to improve their [Hive Mind],” she explains.

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“Just rest for now, we will take care of the rest. Izzy and others are safe,” I tell her before she asks.

For a moment, she closes her eyes, tears appearing and flowing down her cheeks, “I'm so glad.”

She opens them right after, “You won't be able to escape,” she says, “the First One, the first ant the lynthari Champion created, knew that you would be coming and he’s already trapped others. He and most of the colony are creating a barrier around us so that you can't return through the rift.”

I watch as Lily sacrifices three of her fingers to slightly heal Sophie, Aaron, and Dennis, and I don’t stop her. She is still unable to sacrifice items, unfortunately.

“We will find a way out,” I tell Sophie.

She shakes her head, “They know about most of your skills, you won't be able to break the barrier, especially if the First One intervenes.”

I don't like it; it's almost as if she underestimates me. Sure, my body hurts, my mana is low, and they know my skills, but that doesn't mean they can stop me.

“I will help, so please, Nathaniel, take care of Izzy in case it goes to shit,” the smile that appears on her face is sad.

Then, before I can do anything, her [Manipulation] activates, and she uses the twins' [Connection] to connect to the Ability Leech Ant and then to the entire colony.

The little ant starts flailing and twitching, and I stop Tess from killing it, “You will hurt Sophie if you touch it,” I warn her, decoding the web Sophie starts creating. I can't even disrupt it for fear of hurting her, nor can I observe it any closer.

Instead, I expand the range of my [Perception], and then for the first time, I see the sheer terror her [Manipulation] can cause, and understand why the Colony and the matriarch are so scared of her.

Sophie connects to and manipulates the ants’ [Hive Mind], and in the process, she takes over the ants in it, fighting the First One for control while it’s busy with Myrra and others.

Like a virus, her influence spreads, and the ants closest to us stop moving, and slowly, further ones too. Soon, I'm unable to feel how far it reaches because of my limited [Perception]. Her subclass greed must somehow help her because otherwise, I can't imagine how she can do it with as little mana as she has.

The ants start moving again, jumping against each other, mandibles clacking, and skills activating as the members of the colony fight each other in silence.

“So fucking dumb,” Lily groans, and the remainder of her fingers disappear, as well as a piece of her arm, and Sophie's face becomes a bit less pale.

“We are leaving,” I pick up the twins and Sophie with my mana arms. As the leader, ignoring the way we came, I take a different path, reluctant to meet the black mana orb again. I move the little ant as well.

I continue to use [Perception] and track the mana stone Myrra left for me, and we pass through the tunnels. None of the ants notice us, all of them too busy murdering each other. Members of the Colony, whose immense power came from cooperation, are tearing each other's legs off and biting their heads.

All because of Sophie’s skill.

Rushing through, we finally reach the tunnels near the room we started in, and there we find Myrra and the rest of the group. Some of them are missing, others are wounded, and no one looks untouched.

"We failed," Myrra hisses, "they waited for us." She pulls out a stone from the matriarch and a rift similar to Eris's appears in front of us, "Let's leave and…"

That's when one of the humans moves and burrows his dagger covered in yellow mana into Myrra's chest, barely missing her heart as Myrra shifts her body.

One of the lynthari dashes, too quickly for me to follow, his body breaking in the process. He passes by me and when I turn around, I only see Sophie's severed head falling to the ground.

What?

Another human dashes at me, but before he even reaches me, an extremely concentrated burst of kinetic energy hits his head. At the same time, a few of the enforcers jump and literally tear apart the human that attacked Myrra and the lynthari that attacked Sophie.

Sophie's head rolls on the ground, her eyes open. Panic is about to take over me. A feeling of desperation. A broken promise given to a child.

[Focus]

Have I given up already? This much is fine. I can do it. Deep breath in. Breathe out.

Immediately I scan the rest of our group, but no one shares the mark in their brain the three who attacked us had.

Good.

"Through the rift," I say calmly and grab Sophie's head, ignoring Lily and Tess.

When I pass through it, I wait until everyone is here and watch as wounded Myrra closes it.

"I will be alright," Myrra says, blood on her lips.

I put the twins on the ground and then put Sophie's head next to her neck.

It's fine, we have a few minutes. We can heal it.

"Nathaniel, I don't have enough mana," Lily cries knowing what I'm thinking, "even if I sacrifice most of what I have left, I won't be able to heal it and restart her..." The petite brunette sobs.

"Items?"

"I don't know how! I tried, I tried so hard!"

"I see," I nod and look around.

There is no other healer.

For a few precious seconds, I stare at Sophie's body and then get on my knees and settle in front of Lily, "Sacrifice my body parts," I tell her.

"I won't be able to, it would be even harder than…"

"I know," I tell her and then, creating a resonating mana along my hand. I cut off my entire left arm and burn the wound closed with thermal energy.

I put the arm in front of Lily, "This is the arm you restored for me. You sacrificed your arm to restore it. It's made by you and strengthened by me. You have a connection to it."

Slowly, her eyes open wider, and with shaking remains of her left arm, she touches it, "If I fail..."

"You won't," I say.

With her eyes wide open, she points what remains of her arm towards my severed limb. Her brow furrows and a few seconds pass, feeling impossibly long.

Then my arm disappears and the mana that flows through Lily is grander than ever before. The arm she sacrificed came from someone of a much higher level than her. With constructs etched into it, the arm is filled with mana and came from a body bearing two epic passives. It's a good arm.

Her healing skill activates, and I watch as the two pieces of Sophie's body connect.

It happened just a few seconds ago. The brain didn't have time to die. Lily can restart the body.

It will be fine.

Lily uses more mana, and it keeps flowing through Sophie, restoring her, circulating around her heart, and her brain.

Sophie isn't a normal human either; she has stats, levels, skills, and passives. Something like this should be possible even with a normal human, but Sophie is more akin to a superhuman like all of us.

It will be fine.

Sophie's heart starts beating a few times, and some color returns to her face. More warm mana radiates from Lily, and Sophie's chest starts moving.

I don't want to break a promise I made to a little kid. A promise I made to a friend.

Sophie breathes out and in, and her eyelids move a bit, and she opens her eyes, immediately closing them because of the light.

I look at Lily, Tess, Sophie, Aaron, and Dennis.

All of them are fine.