Damn it, old man! Dallion moved his fingers, summoning his armadil shield.

The piece of gear instantly emerged next to Dallion, pushing the air currents away from his body. Without wasting a moment, he took advantage of the modicum of freedom to draw his thread splitter and Nox dagger, then slash his constraints in one action. The air threads vanished, destroyed by the lethal edges of the blades, but it was already too late. Adzorg had gone, leaving Dallion with a simple binary choice: follow or not.

“Nil!” Dallion shouted out of habit, but the echo within his realm had gone as well.

Making the best of his mind trait, Dallion mentally went through the options. If he were to go into the tunnel, there was a high chance that he’d catch up to the old mage. That would grant him an explanation, if nothing else. Could he afford the risks, though? Dallion knew nothing about the timepiece. The archmage had spent his entire life gathering information from the fallen south to gradually get it to the state it was now. Before that, the first Star had created something similar, be it at a higher price. If Dallion were to walk through, there was no telling what he could expect. Would he end up back on Earth? Would he be lost in the void somewhere? As his only case of world travel had indicated, splitting wasn’t ideal for finding out, either.

Staying, on the other hand, meant he had to rely entirely on the mage… and when it came to the device, he didn’t have the best record.

“Harp, shield, will you get hurt if I go after him?” Dallion asked.

Even before their answer, he concentrated on the space in front of him. There remained a minute chance that Adzorg maintained a link to his ring library. If that was the case, he’d be able to follow it even out of this world.

Millions of threads too minuscule to be seen by the naked eye emerged. The effort caused Dallion’s eyes to sting, yet it was a price worth paying. Within the otherworldly glow, entire ecosystems of magic threads existed throughout the entire timepiece, like corals within a giant reef. Each contained information, explaining how certain elements worked, what would happen seconds away, where the energy came from… He could even see multiple cases of otherworldly threads, shimmering in the same fashion everything from another world did. Smaller than anything else in existence, they contained information that was completely illegible—possibly the secret of traveling between worlds?

Dull pain quickly appeared in Dallion’s temples, spreading along the sides of his head. The lure of knowledge hadn’t enticed him as much as it had Adzorg, but if he could learn a bit more about the way the device functioned, maybe he would—

Don’t! The harpsisword moved on its own accord, causing Dallion to take a step back.

The action was so sudden and unexpected that it caused Dallion to drop his thread splitter to the ground. Never before had the nymph acted in such a fashion, openly using magic in the real world.

Don’t leave the world! The guardian’s vibrations formed words.

“What will happen to me?”

The nymph didn’t respond, but Dallion could sense her desperation. She didn’t want to say the words, but was asking him to remain where he was and let everything play out.

I think you should go, Vihrogon joined in reluctantly. Even if he knows what he’s doing, there’s no guarantee Adzorg will be able to finish it. He failed once before.

“You want me to go?” Dallion looked down at the shield.

It’s your choice, as always. There’s no telling whether it’s right or wrong. As a companion guardian, I just know you well enough to say that if you don’t go, you’ll hate yourself for the rest of your life, no matter the outcome.

There was a bit of that. With the exception of the first few moments in his awakened room, Dallion had never felt any urge to go back home. The few instances he’d even considered it were as a result of external factors: Jiroh’s desire to go home, Eury’s mention of her world, even a few of his awakening trials. Logically, there was no reason for him to change his mind now… and yet, seeing the rectangular portal a few steps away made him wonder.

“Why don’t you want me to go, Harp?” he asked.

The guardian remained silent.

“Harp?”

Still undecided, Dallion bent down, reaching for his thread cutter. No matter her answer, he still felt better having his gear close at hand. To his surprise, upon doing so, he saw a small black thread emerging from his hand. Almost invisible in the current light, the thread resembled a stray hair that had stuck to his hand at some point. Unfortunately, it was no hair; it continued onward, making its way to the armadil shield on the floor.

As the realization hit Dallion, many things occurred at once. Splitting into instances, the otherworlder scattered in all directions. The fingers of his left hand moved to cast a protection spell, while he also reached for his Aura sword. Water covered the harpsisword, as it also prepared to engage in combat. At the same time, black roots and vines exploded from the armadil shield, mercilessly entangling both swords as well as the thread cutter. Several clusters even tried to do the same with Dallion himself. It was only thanks to the vast number of instances and Dallion’s quick reactions that he managed to remain free.

“I’m sorry, Dal,” the armadil changed form, transforming into Vihrogon. He no longer had the causal appearance of a companion guardian, though. Clad in armor of black wood and void matter, he was a warrior now—a field marshal. “I couldn’t allow you to destroy the device.”

Void matter? “You’re a cultist?” Dallion asked, summoning the only large weapon he had at his disposal—his hammer. Lux! He ordered mentally.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“No. I serve the void,” he said.

“You’re the new Star?” Lux, come on!

“No. You’re the new Star. You always were intended to be. The reason Arthurows was so insistent that you join him was because he was told to.” A cluster of vines shot at the timepiece. Before they could touch it, though, the light of the portal increased, causing them to wither into smoke. “It was also why he wanted to kill you. There could only be one Star at a time, and he dreaded that you’d take his place. Sadly, for him, he was right.”

The void in Arthurows’ memory fragment—that had to be the void’s doing. Dallion always suspected that the change was only partially voluntary. Now there could be no doubt. Of all the entities, he never expected Vihrogon to turn out to be a voidling.

Splitting, Dallion imbued his hammer with spark and threw it at the dryad. Several clusters of vines emerged, merging together into a shield. It wasn’t enough to stop the weapon outright, but bit by bit it slowed it down, more emerging behind, until it remained completely still.

Not this reality, Dallion thought, shifting to another instance. Instead, he focused on what was within his power—to sever the connection between the shield and his realm.

LINK CANNOT BE SEVERED

A purple rectangle emerged.

“It’s no use. I’m in too deep. I’ve had millennia to slowly grow to the point that I am part of your realm.” A wooden cycle appeared in his left hand. “It was painful, but it had to be done.”

“You’re saying it hurt you more than it hurt me?” Dallion put away his Nox dagger, then attempted to cast one of Adzorg’s destructive spells. It was only at the very end that he stopped. As much as such a spell would help him, he was no longer in a vortex.

“In more than one way. Acquiring magic and having the Moonstone in your realm caused constant physical pain. That wasn’t the worst of it, though.” The dryad glanced at the timepiece. He was closer to it than Dallion, but it had shown to be capable of dealing significant damage. Also, there was still the matter of Adzorg—there was no telling when exactly the mage might return. “It was having to corrupt someone who didn't deserve it.”

Lux, Gem, Ruby! Dallion kept calling out for his familiars, but none of them responded. Not even his echoes replied.

“When?” he asked. “When did you start?”

“Ever since you linked me to your realm.”

All that time ago?

“You’re lying.” Aether shards flew from Dallion’s hand, targeting the vines that kept the harpsisword captive. While they did manage to destroy part of the void matter, it proved not enough to break free to Harp.

“I was subtle. I didn’t have void back then, remaining nothing but a conduit. A hint here, a hint there…” he gestured with his sickle as he spoke. “On a few occasions, you put me in a position to do more… and I did. The herbology gem, for example.”

“What about it?”

“There really wasn’t much you could see,” the dryad sighed, shaking your head. “So reckless, lacking magic, and an otherworlder. There was no way the void wouldn’t want you.”

“What about the herbology gem?”

“I gave it to Arthurows.”

Dallion thought back.

“The twi-crown had both gems when you found it.”

“The guardian lied to me.” Dallion gritted his teeth.

“He didn’t have any choice. Even now, after all this time, the realm remains mine. Even without the void, I could control the guardians forcibly if needed.” He threw his sickle at the dial of the device. A flash surrounded the weapon, though not enough to vaporize it. Instead, the tip of the wooden blade hit the metal surface, then bounced off. “The rest of your accomplishments were your own, though. The void wanted you to grow and develop naturally.”

“That’s the reason you were always protecting me, isn’t it?” Dallion infused his hammer with spark. As he did, he kept on splitting, constantly attacking the dryad while the conversation continued. In turn, the former guardian did the same, countering every potential attack.

“I wasn’t the only one protecting you for selfish reasons. Although, I did like you.”

“You’re the voice that has been guiding me, aren’t you?”

“No.” Deep sadness emanated from the being. “I was never the voice, just someone who listened to it.”

Another sickle materialized.

“Please don’t resist,” Vihrogon said. “Despite all the lies, there’s one truth that Arthurows said: it’s a lot less painful if you don’t struggle.”

“Yeah, right.”

“I was once like you. I believed in what I was doing—helping my emperor conquer the world. He was the one to heal the world after the copyette and nymph wars. I told myself that it was worth sacrifices, even questionable alliances. Then, at one point, I saw what I had become—a jailor that had imprisoned millions of his own race within a sword in the name of that goal. It was at that point that I knew I had gone too far.”

Seventy of Dallion’s instances charged at the dryad, attacking with the hammer. A few of them even managed to strike the ground with a point attack strong enough to create a hole to the lower layer. Alas, that hadn’t helped; Vihrogon merely shot out enough vines to keep himself and Adzorg’s device in their present location, while entire buildings tumbled to the floor below.

Not that reality, Dallion thought.

“Realizing that you’ve become the greatest horror takes its toll,” the dryad continued. “You went through something like it and you still haven’t fully recovered. I took it worse. That’s when the void made me an offer: remove all the pain and memories of my past. The price was to serve as its eyes and ears, and do any task it requests as long as it doesn’t involve killing.” He let out a bitter laugh. “I never expected that I’d become banished so soon after, but even as an item guardian, the deal held true. At least until the time you forced me to defeat the birch dryad and regain my memories.”

Vihrogon tossed his wooden sickle at the device. This time, it managed to hit one of the large metal sections, piercing it partially.

“That’s what this is about?” Thousands of magic symbols were dancing in Dallion’s mind, assembling to create a wholly new spell. He had never read or seen that spell cast before, he just knew it was possible, just as he knew that it held the greatest chance of him doing any actual damage to the guardian. Rather, damage was not the correct world. At this point, all he aimed to do was break the link to the void.

Vihrogon had been right when he said Dallion had been blind. The otherworld hadn’t figured out Adzorg’s obsession before the Academy incident. He hadn’t even noticed the darkness the dryad had bought into his realm. If it wasn’t for the boost of his magic trait, he’d still remain clueless. However, if there was one thing he could tell it was when he was facing a puppet.

“Is that what the void used to get you to corrupt me?”

“No, Dal.” A sword of void matter emerged in the dryad’s hand. It held a remarkable resemblance to the first aura sword Dallion had ventured into. “My task is to activate the device. The void will take care of everything else once it floods this world.”