I looked at the man standing at my feet. The “Mother” he had named was the unknown entity I had come to understand to be responsible for my arrival into this world, and I had recognized it as hostile to me, as I was hostile to it.

Nevertheless, I didn’t know who or what it was, nor what its purpose was. The only new piece of information I had acquired was that the inhabitants of the Epsilon seemed to be somehow related to it.

Unfortunately, the one who could enlighten me about the subject had just killed himself. I wasn’t particularly amused by it, and I kicked his dead body out of the way, sending it flying far away into the distance.

I turned around and kicked the ground a couple of times, quickly reaching Isaac. His condition was dire and his life was hanging by a thread, but he was somehow stable and would almost certainly survive.

I didn’t disturb his body. I would leave his care to someone with a more developed medical background. I thought about removing the spear binding him to the ground but decided against it to avoid the risk of him passing away because of the blood loss. In his condition even something as minor as removing a foreign body could endanger him.

Moreover, I needed to take care of something else. Or better, someone else. I walked away from Isaac’s position before starting to run at full throttle. At the speed I was travelling it took less than a minute to reach the location I was headed for.

I stopped in the middle of seemingly nowhere and looked downwards, where the flow of mana was more consistent than it should normally be.

“Come out of hiding. Don’t make me dig you up,” I said loudly.

A few seconds later the ground in front of me started to part, slowly revealing an opening hidden several metres under the earth. There was enough space inside to accommodate a single person; and it was already occupied. Even more slowly than before the earth started to fill up the opening, raising the shivering individual until they were exposed to the rays of the sun.

The androgynous individual in front of me was in conditions comparable to Isaac’s. Their body was covered in scars and they were chained by cuffs too-strict for their wrists and ankles. Rows of nails were distributed around his body, connected by thin jet-black chains which departed from a thick jet-black thorny ring constricting their bald head. Few rags covered their scarred body, barely enough to preserve their dignity.

“I greet you, strong one,” they croaked weakly.

Strangely enough, there was no sign of fear in their eyes. They hadn’t even tried to conceal their presence; on the contrary, once the skirmish had ended, they had tried to attract my attention by acting on the flow of the ambient mana.

“Why did you call me?” I inquired.

A soft smile appeared on their face.

“I see you don’t hold any hostility towards my kind”

“Why should I? Now, answer the question”

In response to my words, the feeble figure waved their arms, stirring the chains covering their body. The sound produced was more glass than metal.

“I ask of you to put an end to my misery. I’m a loathed thing, born to be hunted and with no place in this world. And yet, I was doomed to suffer an even worse fate: captured, burdened by chains and enslaved, body and mind, to my jailers. I wish to return to nature, but I am impeded to strike myself down,” they finally explained.

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I looked at him, curious about their circumstances.

“Are you the only genai taken prisoner?”

“No, oh strong one. Since the start of the new age my kind has been enslaved by those you have felled and employed to forge instruments of war none other could emulate”

The genai was providing more information than explicitly requested. It was curious, as they had just revealed that they were used to produce moulded weaponry more advanced than the one used commonly.

I compared the weapons the enemies had used with the ones that had been employed long ago in the Garden against the large spider beast, and actually, they were much more effective. The spears I had kept in my hand had extremely intricate mana graphs, which both increased piercing capabilities and mechanical performance, while the weapons of long ago were prone to breaking easily.

They were revealing they possessed valuable capabilities, without showing any fear of being captured by others for their talents. After some reflection, I came to an explanation. Their bindings constrained them to obey their captors and their captors only, so it would be useless to take them in in their current conditions. Moreover, if I were to try and remove the shackles from their body, their life would come to an end.

It was a curious contraption which seemed not to belong to this world. Although it was almost completely drowned by the surrounding mana, I could feel a familiar “essence” contained within it.

“It was made by the Legion of The Black,” I observed.

I approached the genai. They flinched when I reached my hand towards them but brightened up when I grabbed the chains in my hand. The obsidian rings were not hot nor cold to the touch, as they didn’t seem capable of exchanging any form of heat through conduction. They were firm, far more solid than most materials I had come across, but with a little bit of effort they would most likely yield under my strength.

“Thank you for your grace,” the genai let out joyfully, closing their eyes and waiting for their end.

An end that would not come.

“You are not dying here today. After all, I made a promise,” I explained.

The genai reopened their eyes, looking at me anxiously.

“I beg of you… Have pity on me… Let me rest…” they uttered with trembling lips.

I didn’t pay any attention to their request and proceeded with the course of action I had chosen. I tugged on the chains, stretching them. I raised my free hand and closed my fist tightly, my nails slowly burrowing into my fingers. Slowly but surely blood began to trickle out, purple tints mixing with the now dark red colours.

Looking at the binded genai, three memories came to mind. The first one was about me, scurrying around a field, with a detached arm and a terrified genai in front of me. I had wanted to try out a theory about my lymph at the time, but unfortunately, my experimental subject had been blown up by a spear thrown by the Sloan Matriarch.

The second one was about the battle fought in the Garden of The Green, where my strength had flowed through Isaac to his companions and, even if for a brief moment, we had become like one.

The third one was about the revival of the Gamma Perimeter, where the Obsidian Pillars that surrounded it had fallen under the onslaught of the vegetation fed by the lymph gushing out from my body.

In all these scenarios my lymph had employed an important role, proving to be the means through which it would be possible to establish a connection or declare an authority. Its true nature, although still unclear, had to be related to these concepts.

With these thoughts in my heart and strong convictions in my actions, I spilled the lymph on top of the bindings constraining the genai, my intention and will being to suppress The Black’s authority instilled in the chains.

The purple fluid seeped into the obsidian surface and through the skin of the genai, changing their colour in the affected regions. Soon enough cracks started to appear on its surface. They expanded in all directions, creating a web of fragility all across the chains. The next moment the apparatus broke down into a fine dark powder.

The prisoner was unbound, but he wasn’t free yet. Their eyes slowly turned murky and a connection formed between the two of us. Their will was drowned by mine and they became a puppet under my control, as moving them around was almost as natural as moving my own limbs. The effect of the lymph in declaring my authority on what it had touched had been higher than expected.

“We’ll find a solution later,” I pronounced these words through their mouth.