Both of us reappear in the summer house. The Housekeeper and Butler are gone, and only the Gardener remains. His expression is anything but nice, and it sours even more as he notices the beating heart in my duplicate's hand. The one my duplicate is keeping beating with kinetic energy and careful manipulation of his mana.

“This will be the third time I’ve had to speak with you guys, so how about you call the other two and the Armorer here.”

The Gardener is quick to understand, and it’s barely ten seconds before the Butler and the Housekeeper return.

Both of them seem ready to jump us, but they stop when the Gardener gestures for them to. “Mister Gwyn, I really hope you realize what…”

I gesture to him with a finger over my lips, and he quickly shuts up.

That almost makes me want to smile, “So, I have had enough of you guys acting like dicks. Sure, at least my friend over here deserved that, and I might sound like a hypocrite, but whatever, right?”

The three of them remain quiet.

Oh boy, this is getting fun. They acted so high and mighty, so prideful, and now?

“Anyway, we have around 15 minutes during which my buddy will keep the heart beating. So after the Armorer joins us, I will ask a few questions, and you guys will answer. If you lie or hide anything, the heart goes boom; if you take too long, the heart goes boom; if you attack us…” I gesture to them.

“...The heart goes boom,” The Butler answers.

“That’s my guy. Anyway, Housekeeper. I like your sword, will you gift it to me?” I look at her.

She stares at me for a short moment, and then on her face, a smile blossoms, “Sure, Mister Gwyn,” she says and takes a few steps closer and carefully hands me her rapier, like a knight offering the rapier to his lord.

Quickly, I examine the weapon.

Voidsteel Rapier (Epic): Echoing the qualities of the Voidsteel Slicer, this rapier is crafted from the vibration-absorbing Voidsteel, ensuring extreme sharpness and precision. The durability and cutting capability of the Voidsteel make the Rapier nearly indestructible, allowing it to effortlessly penetrate almost any defense.

The weapon is beautiful, made of the same metal mine as those my duplicate and I wield, yet unlike our rough blades which lack handles, the rapier has been delicately made, entirely from Voidsteel, right down to the handle and guard.

“Thanks,” I fix the rapier to my belt while the Housekeeper smiles even more and quietly sits back in her spot. "Butler, my friend, why don't you go to the city and bring me as much mana conductive paint and metals as you can? You can add some mana stones too. Nothing too unreasonable, but don't be cheap."

Without a word, the Butler disappears through his rift, and everyone is quiet until the Armorer appears. An extremely thin, yet tall man with messy hair. I sense from him multiple items that seem to be connected to the defensive mechanism of the Bastion, even now they are working.

“Before you start, I hate to tell you that the amount of mana within the defensive system is still enough to kill both of you a dozen times over,” he says. His voice is quiet, almost a whisper.

“Wouldn’t that destroy the heart?”

“It’s probably more durable than the two of you,” the Armorer says in his quiet voice.

“Why don’t you try?”

“...”

“I thought so. Anyway, we have what, twelve minutes?” I turn to the duplicate, and he nods. “So let’s start. I don’t care who tells me, but what is the cause of the high mana levels in the Valley? And please, don't lie to me this time,” I ask after reading one of the Side quests.

The Armorer answers in his whispering voice, “It’s the location of one of the facilities that kickstarted the Veil. A high-ranking member of the Enchanter’s Guild used to own it. The mana levels are being caused by the broken core radiating mana.”

“Even after over 100 years?” I ask, unable to help but feel shocked.

“Yes,” the thin tall man nods. “The Veil required exceptional amounts of mana to start. Three most important facilities were powered by our Absolute, while some of our Champions powered the less important ones.”

The notification pops up.

Congratulations. You have completed a side quest. You can now pick one from the offered mid-epic grade items!

“Are your Absolute and Champions dead?” I ask.

“Our Absolute is surely dead. There might be some Champions somewhere, but we don’t know.”

That's when the Butler returns with a bag full of the items I required. With a nod, I take it from him, unable to take my eyes off the missing section of his mustache.

“How about the enemy? Their Absolute and Champions?” I ask.

“I do not know, and neither do the others.”

I turn to my duplicate, “What do you think?”

“He is not lying.”

“I agree,” I nod and turn back to them. “What is the Gaiathra doing in the Valley?”

“We do not know.”

“What do you know about the tutorial?”

The moment I ask that question, their faces become blank. Even more surprisingly, it seems to affect my duplicate slightly. It's just the shortest moment, but I notice him blank out before returning to normal and watching the frozen group in front of us.

Interesting. So asking about the Pairing is fine, but the tutorial is still taboo.

“What did you ask?” the Gardener questions, slightly confused.

“Nothing, anyway, so what happened to this world,” I ask a question for the quest that would give me 5 thousand shards, “what happened to the Veil?”

Three of them turn to the Gardener, who shakes his head. “Even the Lord didn't know much. We were in one of his retreats, celebrating the start of the Veil when our connection was cut off. Since then, we haven’t received any messages from the court or guilds. The areas we tried to move to were too dangerous—constant explosions, immense mana radiation, etc.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

His eyes cloud over, a memory flashing behind them. “Then the Veil Guardians, Veilshriekers, and even stronger monsters started hunting every human they could. One after another, Skyhold Bastions and the cities within the Lord’s territory fell, and people hid in the Sanctuaries we had built long ago. We were attacked as well, and found ourselves fighting a group of Veil Guardians, our Bastion crashed to the ground. We’ve stayed here ever since. Thankfully, the Veil has turned its attention elsewhere.”

“Ask him what happened to their boss,” my duplicate jumps into the conversation before focusing back on keeping the heart beating.

“Someone killed him,” the Butler says simply. “The day before that happened, the Lord wanted to evict most people from the Bastion as the core was getting weaker and wasn’t able to support everyone.”

“He could supply the mana on his own, couldn’t he?” I ask.

“Our Lord did that for a week and then said it was too annoying a chore and that we should send people away instead.” The Housekeeper snorts.

What a guy.

“Housekeeper, please avoid talking about the Lord in such a tone,” the Butler warns her.

“He asked me if it was possible to use people to power the core so he could make the Bastion float again. He said he missed the view.” The Armorer adds.

“He told me to stop planting plants that made food for everyone and instead asked to turn the garden into a forest where he could read there once in a while.” Says the Gardener piling on.

Oh boy, “So who killed him?” I ask.

“We do not know,” the Butler says as he shakes his head, “but it was probably one of us, Mister Gwyn.” He then pauses and adds, “He also asked me to reduce the amount of people in the city so he could use the extra water for fountains.”

“We should go,” I tell the clone.

He probably hears my tone and immediately throws the heart at the Housekeeper, and both of us teleport upwards. The defensive mechanism that was about to tear us apart misses, and we appear on top of the city.

Immediately, the barrier starts shrinking, the pressure increasing, and barriers forming around us. My eyes activate, and [Resonance] as well, but when I try to teleport or move, I'm unable to.

Armor forms around my body, and short sharp pulses of mana crash against my barrier while I try to get away.

I slash with the Voidsteel rapier against it, but it passes through, the pressure increasing even more.

Who could know that the systems still had so much energy?

A mana projectile buries itself in my side, piercing through the barrier I’ve made, and even though it breaks in the process, the remaining piece still pierces me.

Flames flare up around me, filled with disrupting mana, melting the grip their skills had on me while healing me, and for a moment, I pierce through with my domain. I make a short teleport towards my duplicate, and then I once more find myself under their restrictions.

“Heh, maybe we were too cocky. It's good we left, fighting four of them while under this much pressure could be dangerous,” the duplicate reads my thoughts.

“Dangerous, but possible. You could’ve taken the heart with you. We could learn a thing or two,” I complain as our mana flows around us.

“It would’ve died soon, and then it would just be a piece of flesh. That's something for Lily, not us,” he snorts.

Our mana surrounds us, working in tandem, our skills working together. [Resonance] activates, powered by both of us this time, and our Mana Wavelength Iris has been activated. Our combined effort tears apart the restrictions that have been placed on us and pushes against the Bastion’s defenses. My duplicate maintains the opening, while I place an anchor far away.

[Tether] activates, and I teleport us away.

[Tether - lvl 29 > Tether - lvl 30]

[Resonance - lvl 42 > Resonance - lvl 43]

We repeat the process a few more times and stop only when we are far away from the Bastion and there is no one to be seen.

Then, while we are healing our bodies, I empty my Vortex core throwing the store of kinetic energy at my duplicate.

The energy tears a huge chunk out of the forest. I hear the system notify me of the deaths of several monsters that happened to be in the area, stones as big as cars are flung into the distance, trees break under the pressure, and the earth is rent, leaving us standing on the edge of a crater.

Even through all of that, my duplicate is merely pushed back by a few steps. Deep wounds cover his body, blood flows, and a smile appears in the corners of his mouth. His eyes are activated and putting a strain on him. But he endures it all through the skills both of us share.

Then, while looking at me, he asks, “For the attempt with the collar?”

“For the attempt with the collar,” I confirm.

“Before this floor ends, we will talk,” he smiles, the effect of his [Focus] lowering for a moment.

“Yes,” I confirm.

I can't wait.

----------------------------------------

POV Aaron Dalton

When I reach Dennis, he is sitting on a stone, an empty expression on his face.

"Dennis," I call to him, and he doesn't answer.

He’s cut off our [Connection], and I can't feel his mind. I can't feel our connection.

"Dennis," I try to say as gently as I can and put my hand on his shoulder. My brother, who is usually so brave and cheerful, looks up at me with tears in his eyes.

"She is dead, Aaron, she died just like that. It's all my fault, I shouldn't..."

I don't let him finish and just hug him, "It will be ok, I'm here."

"It's all my fault," he repeats between sobs, "I'm fucking useless. Trash. I..."

"It's ok," I repeat.

It breaks my heart to see him like this, but I have no choice but to let it happen. Still, I have to keep an eye on our surroundings. Just from reading the floor quest, the 6th floor seems to be dangerous.

"Aaron. You left your disciple. You shouldn't have, you shouldn't…"

To that, I grab his shoulder and force him to look at me. "Did you forget our promise?"

"I..."

"Did you?!" I raise my voice.

"I did not," he shakes his head.

"Then tell me, who is the most important?"

"I don't have to say that."

"Tell me!" I scream. My disciple returned to his world, and even though everyone from our group decided to stay behind and wait for our disciples to return, I couldn't. I don't like it, but it was an easy decision.

"You and I are more important, Aaron."

At that, I hug him again. "Yes, you and me, brother. No one else matters as much. Not Kim, not Tess, Maya, or Isabella. You and I are all that matters and we’ll take care of each other. Like we always did, it doesn't matter if we’re on Earth or in the tutorial."

"You and I."

"Yes, you and I. Together. Now allow me to connect to you before I punch you."

It feels weird seeing him so down, but when we finally connect, I tear through his weak mental defenses and connect to him. His emotions and flashes of his memories flow to me, restoring the connection we’ve grown so accustomed to.

I feel tears roll from my eyes as I feel what he felt when his disciple died, but I refuse to shy away and I will help him shoulder the burden. I share his feelings, and between us, his pain lessens.

(Together,) I squeeze his shoulder.

(Together,) he repeats, returning to a more normal state as I share in his emotions.