With the impromptu agreement tacitly signed between the two of us, we spent the rest of the days of travel without speaking to each other, except for the occasional small talk prompted by my conversations with Faye or his with her.

With the unchanging horizon of stony hills as a background, me and Faye discussed our plans going forward. Her eyes shone when the recovery and restructuring of the Gamma came out, although they clouded when I talked about my business plans.

To ease her worries, we agreed I would limit myself to beast hunting for the foreseeable future as I had already gained some hands-on experience and it had been confirmed I had a clear advantage against mana-born entities.

Although initially reluctant, she later on promised me to continue her unorthodox medical training. I almost got yelled at when I told her she had to practice on me, but I was able to get her to settle down by showing her my newfound spellcasting capabilities.

I first moved my bones around, gaining a few centimetres in height, made my facial features more definite and my voice lower, reduced my fat mass and increased the lean mass. It was easy to pull off, as I took Isaac as reference and mixed it with the elegant and mature look of Tobias. After this, I simply asked her gently and she readily complied, although she did while being a bit distracted.

I omitted talking about Marnie or my future mercantile endeavours. There was no way to know if Marnie had survived for the past twenty years and even if she had, we may not be able to find her. Moreover, with all that I had discovered, I wasn’t even sure if she had actually existed.

All the time spent inside of the anomaly could have been a lie inside a fictitious land as I now knew there was someone else who had put his hand on my world, shifting things around and changing them. Faye could be considered to be a testament to the reality of the things I had experienced before reaching the Alpha, but it was to be kept in mind that she was currently here because I had directly brought her with me while traversing the barrier.

We finally reached our destination. The humongous dark towers dominated the landscape, but it was the high armoured city walls of the Delta Perimeter which set it apart from the others. Made of numerous layers of metal and reinforced concrete, it connected the pillars, covering the space between them and closing off the entire Perimeter. It made it impossible to see beyond it, hiding the inside from unadmitted gazes.

As we progressively got nearer and nearer to the walls, we could distinguish a series of openings in various points around the outer edge of the Delta, traversed by an almost continuous coming and going of carriers. Some carriers were alone or in small groups, pulled along by a small number of people and guarded by a few more, while others were part of actual caravans.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

After leaving the Obsidian Path we had been traversing rugged terrain which reminded those hit by artillery discharges. As a matter of fact, positioned at regular intervals on top of the walls, manned with the appropriate number of personnel, there were a series of cannons and artillery batteries, pointed towards the outside lands.

In the land in front of the Delta, in between where the Perimeter ended and the Obsidian Paths started, it was not unusual to see the occasional beast who had strayed too far away from the open wildlands, where they usually resided, making its way towards the travellers.

While caravans were usually capable of promptly disposing of the aggressors, independent couriers ran the risk of getting overwhelmed by the beasts. Before this could happen, a well placed artillery shot met its target.

Artillery could not completely kill off beasts, as they could regenerate from non-aura infused attacks, but the ensuing violent impact usually blew them to smithereens, incapacitating them long enough to enable the travellers to deliver the final blow.

The artillery hits were precise and timely, being unleashed long before a beast could approach a carrier and become an actual danger.

This was the strength of the Delta Perimeter, the richest, most populated and most technologically advanced of all. Being the only place where archs and normal humans regularly intermingled, old world technology, including military one, was still used.

The Delta may not have an arch of the calibre of the Miller or Sloan Household, but the city walls and the sheer quantity of weapons mounted on top of it and, most likely, spread around the inside of the Perimeter more than made up for it. There was no safer place than this one. I finally approved of Tobias' choice of sending Faye here.

Anyway, although the Delta could seem to be the dominant Perimeter due to its high firepower, this wasn’t actually the case. The Delta shined strictly in defensive battles, as its entire armament would prove useless in any other scenario. Moreover, it still relied on travellers from the outside to supply it with the natural resources necessary to its industrial complex.

The Delta provided the other Perimeters with well-made weapons and other commodities such as clothes and refined construction materials, but it imported from the outside what it needed to manufacture them. Ether from the Beta and independent hunters and food and raw materials from Merchants. It also relied on the Alpha and Epsilon for the elimination of special targets.

Thinking about this, I recognised how similar they appeared and yet how different the Delta and Gamma truly were. The former was technologically advanced, powerful and dependent on others, the latter was technologically advanced, weak and independent from others.

We finally reached one of the openings spread around the walls. A large metallic gate occupied my sight. After a rapid exchange with a guard standing on top of the wall directly above us, order was given to let us in.

Screeches and thumps could be heard as the closing mechanism was removed.

“Welcome to the Delta Perimeter,” Jonah said politely, while we crossed the border.