Feeling as hollow as the trees surrounding him, Dan simply tried to keep pace. At every moment, he was touching his core with gentle, timid brushes. Each time, it was like prodding a broken bone. His core was fractured. Even his soul badge had cracked. Dan had slipped it around on his wrist so he could not see the stone.

The others were quiet around him. Everything was quieter around him right now though. That was partially due to the continued delve into the most dark heart of the forest, though for Dan specifically it was the silence of his mana. There was no swell, no churn, no storm of chaos or control within.

“You really should just leave.” Guan Fa Lian had no compassion for what Dan had done. Dan glared at her with an actual hate beginning to burn in his heart.

“This happened because I helped you.”

“Which no one asked you to do. Especially if it left you useless.”

“Trust me, I would happily leave you to die next time.”

“Enough.” Xiaomei was angry, but the fire in her eyes was directed at Lian, not Dan. “No one is dying here, and no one is useless.” With her last word she poked Guan Fa Lian with a solid finger. “You. He saved you, however he did it.” Xiaomei seemed to have more to say, but noticed that everyone was looking at her now and her throat seemed to lock up. The important words were said, and now hung in the air.

Had he? Dan had to wonder. What had he done? He had pressed his mana into Guan Fa Lian’s, and now it was huddled inside of him, limp, still with fear. It had done something… hadn’t it? Dan allowed his eyes to focus out of the haze, using them properly. Guan Fa Lian didn’t have a scratch on her, and though Dan couldn’t see it, he wondered whether her core had been likewise removed of blemish. “It’s like I took your pain.” Dan had meant to say it in his head, but it came out as a pained whisper.

“Do you want to explain that, Guan Ah Dan?” Suddenly the daughter of the Guan family seemed a hundred feet tall. Stature, purely born of birth, reinforced by stressing the part of his name that signalled him an orphan. “How exactly did you help me? What did you do?” Dan didn’t know, and the words caught in his throat. If there was an answer to how, Dan would love to be enlightened.

“Can we just go?” Hyun Soon was looking around like a confused puppy. In truth, the forest itself was probably getting a lot of them. “We’re close to the puppet master right? Let’s just smash it and go.”

“I will fight the creature, you can all leave now if you like.”

“You really are insufferable.” Xiaomei bit back at Lian’s swagger.

“Why are you talking to me? I thought you were just one of those quiet, ugly girls.”

“Hey!” Hyun Soon’s shout made everyone flinch, the previous icy barbs exchanged in whispers. He was shivering, though it was consistently humid in the sticky, swampy forest. “Enough. It’s the forest. It’s like the trees are encouraging you to be nasty.” Dan didn’t think that Guan Fa Lian needed any encouragement, but he did think that Xiaomei was different. Maybe it was also the reason that Dan couldn’t shake the stormcloud in his head.

“Just stay behind me.” Guan Fa Lian pointedly increased her walking speed until she was about twenty paces from their trio. However when her pace decreased, it was clear that she wasn’t actually intending to leave them behind.

“Thank you,” Xiaomei said, her voice small again. She had grabbed Hyun Soon’s sleeve and didn’t look in any hurry to let it go. “I think you’re right. I can’t think straight for some reason.”

At this point, Dan didn’t need his mana to tell him that they were within striking distance of the lead monster. It was clear in the decay of the trees, the silence of the area and the stink of death in the air. “We’re definitely close. It could be anywhere. Sorry I can’t help.”

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“You’re the only reason I still have both of my eyes, probably.” Hyun Soon winced, touching a scratch on his temple that Dan had pushed him away from just in time earlier. “You’ll be alright, Dan. Maybe you’re just tired.”

Dan doubted that it was so simple, but he gave as much of a smile as he could manage and nodded. “Maybe.”

“You said this thing was weak, right?”

“I said it was probably weak.” As though on cue, there was a yell from Lian. All eyes shot towards her just in time to see her dragged away, as though invisible ropes had grabbed her legs and pulled them. “Go!” Xiaomei and Hyun Soon had hesitated, which might prove fatal. Dan would join them, but if they slowed down because of him someone might get really hurt. “Go!” He shouted, more forceful, when they hadn’t moved.

The ground in front of Dan exploded as they both sprang into action. Dan hadn’t been that impressed with their movements before, but now that he was seeing it through his natural eyes rather than the magical ones he was so used to, they were incredible. Without the mana running through his core and into his mana channels, Dan’s strength, dexterity and speed were all massively reduced. He hoped they wouldn’t need his help, he was nearly getting winded by the time his slow sprint let him reach the battle.

They definitely need help, Dan didn’t need his magical awareness to show him that there was no plan here. Hyun Soon and Xiaomei were haphazardly chasing a screaming Lian who was being spun around the large, rotten clearing like a ball on a string. There was a creature at the centre of the decrepit grove, the puppetmaster, moving many, many, spindly arms around in seemingly random directions. Those arms, Dan knew, were controlling the threads of invisible mana that had controlled the skeletons previously.

Xiaomei was incredible to behold. Her ribbon danced behind her like a trail of light, so desperate to stay near her that it sprinted around in the air after her. Where she moved, the trail of luminous ribbon stayed, impossibly long within seconds. Then she tightened the cords, pulling it taut with a spin so forceful it made Dan dizzy just to watch. The incredibly strong ribbon constricted instantly around the skeleton of a warrior, complete with a deadly fast spear. As it bound the bones, it didn’t stop and the creature was sliced to fragments and dust.

Hyun Soon was likewise occupied, a small swarm of tiny skeletons assaulting him. Rodents, small birds, cats and dogs were piling up in a small army. The creature was worried, it seemed. Using everything it had left at its disposal. Guan Fa Lian had easily destroyed the bulk of the creature’s forces before. Which left the puppetmaster with a tidal wave of small animals to throw at the combatants still on the ground. Hyun Soon’s fists thrummed with energy, now using his mae in tandem with the ability. Against Bok, destruction had not been necessary, but it was now, and Hyun Soon was gifted at causing it. Whole chunks of earth and rock were thrown away along with the now useless remnants of attacking rodentia.

Dan… couldn’t help feeling useless. The battle was raging at an insane pace. It was only possible for Dan to understand what was happening because he had seen it previously with more capable eyes. It felt like a hurricane was happening in this small area. All the while, there was silence in his core. A void.

A void? That… couldn’t be right. If he’d shattered his core, truly shattered it, then he would be a huddled mess far worse off than Guan Fa Lian had been. He wouldn’t be standing on the edge of this cataclysm of combat right now. No amount of pushing could stir the mana within, but Dan could feel it there. His core was intact but it felt alien somehow.

Dan was still watching in horror as Guan Fa Lian was tossed around like a toy was about to collide with a tree. Right as Dan was sure she would smash upon it, her body bent and she narrowly whistled past it. The puppetmaster in the middle roared a ragged, wailing howl that made even the trees shudder with the force of it. He began to creep forward.

The three of Xiaomei, Hyun Soon and Guan Fa Lian were holding their own impressively. The only thing stopping them from overwhelming the puppetmaster were the haunted-looking monster’s mana threads. Just as they would overcome the horde of skeletal attackers, Hyun Soon’s foot would be caught, or Xiaomei would have her arm pulled, and their momentum would be broken.

It was because they couldn’t see them. When Dan had been able to watch them, they had been strong, certainly, but they had also been slow moving. Dan had seen one thread worm its way through the air before connecting to Bok while they had been walking earlier. Before he broke himself.

He had formulated a plan, but if it didn’t work - if the creature captured him like it had Guan Fa Lian - he would not fare so well. She had been bashed against the floor and looked worse for wear, but not torn to shreds like Dan would be without his mana to harden his skin and bones.

It didn’t matter though. He was broken, so what difference would it make if this creature destroyed him? At this point, Dan just hoped to be a distraction as his feet carried him across the dark and dangerous grove. It had been mostly useless against the skeletons, so he had opted for his hands and feet, but Dan drew his dagger as he closed in on the puppetmaster.

It looked like a bizarre spider. A squat, flabby humanoid body wriggled as it manipulated over a dozen spindly arms, each as long as Dan was tall. It had no eyes that Dan could see, and it became clear as Dan moved closer that it used mana to see in a similar way to Dan himself. He hated that thought with a fierceness that surprised himself. He wasn’t like this creature.

He was Guan Ah Dan. He had overcome an inherent adversity and was able to stand beside people like Hyun Soon and Guan Xiaomei. He had helped Guan Fa Lian, the daughter of the Guan patriarch. He had not just been trained by Park Man-Shik, he had been raised. He had been forged. He would not let a simple, new adversity cause him to throw all of that away. There was more for him to do. More than he could do now.

All of these thoughts were moving like lightning through Dan’s head as he approached the grotesque creature. It didn’t seem to notice him at all. Was that because of the state of his mana? Maybe holding Guan Fa Lian and the others off was taking more control than Dan thought and it could spare none for the approaching threat. Or did it just not consider him a threat?

Allow me to show you the error of your ways. Dan had been ignored because of his power, or lack thereof, for far too long for this thing to get away with it. The reason why didn’t matter, it would pay for its lack of attention. As Dan brought his hand back to stab forward, Guan Fa Lian used her mana.

Which caused the world to explode.