Global Announcement: A Unique - Planetary Achievement has been accomplished on Earth.

The first thing Alex had done after Muhammad disappeared was check his notifications. He’d hoped to see something with a bit more detail, despite knowing how unlikely that was, but the Trialbringer gave nothing beyond what he’d already expected.

The notification had come right when the stolen Soul Aperture had begun to release mana into Muhammad’s body. That couldn’t be a coincidence. Regardless of anything else that had happened, Muhammad had managed to form a Mythic Mana Body, the first on Earth.

It was an impressive feat, and Alex had to wonder if it was related to Muhammad’s disappearance. Had he been rescued as some sort of bonus reward? That shouldn’t happen in the middle of a trial, but gaining a Unique Achievement just to die would be a serious waste of talent.

Of course, Muhammad’s Achievement had only come thanks to plenty of help from Inspire. Did that change anything?

Alex didn’t have any idea. Muhammad vanishing could be an evacuation to save his life or it could be something else. Worrying about it wouldn’t help him clear the trial, so he just had to hope that his friend was safe. Alex had received his mana sink despite Inspire doing so much heavy lifting for his own Achievement, he just had to trust that Muhammad’s situation was the same.

Alex drew himself out of his thoughts, looking around to see how his friends were doing. Anthony was still passed out, and Alex winced at the reminder of his condition. The whole team’s condition, really.

Muhammad was gone, and he took a good amount of Becca’s combat power with him, Anthony was going to be fighting through mana exhaustion for the rest of the trial, and Jess was the source of the tears Alex had noticed earlier.

Awakening Anthony would need to happen soon, they had less than an hour left on the trial, but their healer needed all the time he could get. Alex turned around to check on Becca and Jess.

Becca was staring at the depression in the grass where Muhammad had been reclining mere seconds before. Her expression was closed off, but Alex could see that she was struggling to cope with everything that had just happened. He hadn’t even noticed in the midst of the hard work, but over an hour had passed during Muhammad’s struggle. Becca and Jess had been forced to watch the entire thing, unable to help.

Would they be able to keep on fighting? Regardless of the stakes, Alex refused to push his friends into a fight if they were stuck in a stupor from what they’d just watched.

His focus turned to Jess, who was wiping her face off on her shirt. The result wasn’t particularly convincing, Alex would be able to tell that she had been crying even if he hadn’t already known, but her determined expression was far more promising than Becca’s.

“We head for the center,” Jess stated, “Even without Muhammad, we can determine the trajectory we need to follow.”

“Are you sure?” Alex asked, “I think we need to consider our options.”

“What options?” Becca asked in a dull tone. Her eyes didn’t leave the grass as she spoke, “Mrs. Stirling made it clear that we can’t give up. We have to fight the boss.”

“Are you okay to fight?” Alex asked, “Because Muhammad is gone and Anthony definitely isn’t.”

“This is too important. We have to try.”

“I’m not going to let you march to your death because you’re upset,” Alex stated.

That got Becca to look away from the grass, Alex saw the anger in her eyes at the statement. She looked about ready to lose it on him, but Jess spoke first.

“I’m pretty sure I just watched Muhammad die, Alex. I’m not going to let that be in vain.” The determination Alex had noticed in her expression had only grown stronger with a few more seconds to think, “If you want to stay behind, I’ll just go without you.”

For a second, Alex didn’t reply. His mind was pulled elsewhere, to the memory of a young man’s head being pulverized by an orc.

They’d made it through Hard Mode, unlike David’s team. Was Hell Mode the trial where he would lose his team just like the man before him?

He was brought back to the present by Becca, “I’m with you, Jess. If Alex is too afraid he can stay behind.”

Alex wasn’t sure why his concern had prompted that vitriol, but he didn’t rise to the implicit challenge in her tone. If pissing Becca off was what it took to draw her out of the fugue state he’d seen her in, so be it.

“Alright, we fight,” He stated. His reluctance had come from worry for his friends, especially their mental state. If they wanted to fight, he wouldn’t be the one to back down.

“You still have the fuel on you, right Becca?” Jess asked.

“I do, but my range isn’t more than ten feet,” Becca replied, “I sacrificed range on the final design because our plans changed.”

“You’re not getting that close to the boss,” Alex stated, “I’ll fight it without the fire.”

Becca frowned at him, “That ruins the whole point of bringing the fuel. I was supposed to be important against the boss.”

“This was always going to come down to whether or not I could handle the boss,” Alex replied, “Use the fire to help Jess handle the boss’s backup.”

“Alex that’s stupid, you can’t solo the boss,”

“I have to,” Alex tried to shut down the argument.

“No, you don’t. We do this together.”

“Becca, I’m not as good at protecting others as Jess. If you get that close to a peak Neophyte, I don’t think I’ll be able to save you. You’ll have your hands full just keeping the other monsters off me.”

“So, it’s all up to you?” Becca asked.

“It always was,” Alex snapped back. He immediately regretted the statement.

“No, I’m sorry. The rest of you are important, I couldn’t do this trial alone.”

“Couldn’t you?” Becca sneered, “The rest…”

“Shut up, both of you,” Jess almost shouted. Becca’s mouth snapped shut at the outburst, turning to face their friend with the same guilty expression as Alex.

“Honestly, I can’t believe this,” Jess looked like she was close to tears, “Muhammad is probably dead and the two of you can’t get over yourselves enough to focus on clearing the trial instead of arguing.”

Alex felt that the argument had mainly come from Becca’s dramatics, but didn’t dare to voice that opinion.

“Alex, your job is to occupy the boss. Do not fall into your normal overaggressive tactics,” Jess stated. Her tone didn’t leave any room for argument, but Alex didn’t feel the need to dispute her strategy, “Becca, you, Anthony, and I will clear any more golems or ghouls that are with it before we converge on the boss to finish it off.”

Alex nodded, keeping his face blank, “I can guarantee that my aura will be running. I’m able to control it now.”

“That’s a relief,” Jess nodded. There was no concern about how Alex had managed that, she was completely focused on the task at hand.

Becca’s frown shifted at Alex’s declaration, but she didn’t push the topic.

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“How long do we give Anthony?” Alex asked, “We can’t afford to delay but if we wake him up too soon he’ll be useless.”

“Exhaustion isn’t going to go away because of an extra few minutes,” Jess sighed, “Wake him up and we set out now.”

“His mana type has been at work the entire time he’s been passed out,” Becca disagreed, “Alex, can you see anything more?”

Alex hadn’t been paying much attention to Anthony, but Becca was right. He could see the mana sent through the healer’s Heart Rune flowing through his body. The Enhancement was impressive, adjusting to send mana where it was needed. Anthony’s mana was being sent to the brain to Restore his energy.

“You’re right,” He nodded, and he saw that Jess was also staring at Anthony’s face, “But it’s hard to say how much effect it’s having.”

“We’re down to around fifty minutes,” Jess sighed, “We need to go now.”

Becca sighed, “Fine.” She moved over to shake Anthony’s shoulder.

Their friend startled awake at the touch, which Alex considered a good sign. Anthony immediately reached for where Muhammad had been when he passed out, looking to help, but discovered the space empty.

He then jumped to his feet, looking around for the archer, only to stumble as the movement proved too fast for his barely awake brain.

“W-where is he?” Anthony asked, stuttering as he worked to talk and get his bearings at once.

“He’s gone, Anthony,” Jess replied. Her neutral tone was so obviously forced that Alex winced.

“We’re not sure what happened,” Alex explained, “But he got a Unique Achievement and then vanished. I’m hopeful that he was sent to your father as an additional reward.”

“Unique? How?” Anthony fell back onto his butt. He was obviously dizzy, and Alex wondered again at the decision to bring his friends into combat.

“Mythic Body,” Alex said, “He managed to steal the ghoul’s Soul Aperture with his new mana type.”

Anthony stared at him with an expression that made it clear he now had more questions, but Jess took over, “We need to head for the boss. How are you feeling?”

“I have a splitting headache,” The healer sighed, “I’ll pass out again if I have to use my Ability.”

Alex winced, that was close to the worst case. Anthony’s Enhancements were still going because they didn’t require him to focus on them at all. His Ability, on the other hand, required incredible focus to diagnose the problem and conduct the mana.

“Will your Enhancements be able to fix that?” Alex asked.

“No,” Anthony sighed, “The exhaustion is weird, Restore seems pretty much helpless against it.”

Probably something to do with his soul, then. Or they’d just overestimated the scope of Anthony’s Abilities.

“Alright, you’re going to have to fight in melee with me, then.” Jess sighed, “Your healing still working on yourself isn’t an advantage we can afford to lose.”

Anthony nodded, “I can manage.”

“You’ll have my aura,” Alex reassured him, “I’ll be pushing it harder than I ever have before, now that I can control it.”

Anthony let out a deep sigh of relief, “That’s good to hear, give me a few seconds and I’ll be ready to head out.”

Alex pulled on the Inspire mana, and his aura activated at low power. The mana was obviously reluctant, but Alex pulled through.

He’d expected the mental link to be a massive problem, leading to additional avenues for Inspire to manipulate him. It was still possible that would happen, but as Alex pulled at it he realized something that was quite obvious in hindsight.

The Inspire mana didn’t have a mind.

This made the mental connection he now shared with the mana a boon, as far as he could tell. When it came to the ethereal, Inspire was far stronger than his soul. Only the advantage provided by his soul being his kept it out. When it came to the mental, however, he had the advantage of actually possessing a brain.

The advantage seemed to be absolute, although he knew he had to be careful about getting overconfident. This could easily be a bluff to make him underestimate its manipulations.

The impression he got through the mental link felt discordant. The Inspire mana almost felt like a collective, where the energy that rested against his soul had several different impulses and struggled to choose between them.

If his intuition on this was correct, it felt like the mana was steadily falling apart. Without David’s soul, it grew less like the original, but it didn’t do so as a monolith. Instead, the mana was pulling itself apart as different impulses pushed in different directions.

If nothing else, this meant that using his Grand Guidance to gain some control of the Inspire mana was undoubtedly a good thing. The discord that spread through the energy made it far less tempting than he had expected, but more important was the reality that his parasite was growing even less reliable. The connection to his mind seemed to be passively making things escalate faster, where the introduction of Alex’s thoughts threw everything even further off balance.

This sounded great, but Alex remained worried. There were impulses in that mess that would be quite happy to go all out trying to break into his soul and hope for the best. It might be lethal for Alex, but he also might have changed enough in the past days that it was survivable.

It wasn’t like the energy would make it through without such drastic actions.

This self-preservation seemed dominant, but Alex could tell that it was restrained by impulses that pushed toward David's heroic tendencies. Self-preservation was a reasonable thing to attempt, but David was not the type to sacrifice others for his own gain.

He was the type to just get better so that he could handle things himself.

This was the part of Inspire that had resonated with Alex from the start, and he could tell that it was well connected to the mana inside his soul. There were fewer impulses in this direction, but they had the advantage of position.

Overall, things didn’t seem great on Inspire’s end. It was a distracting mess, and Alex was only brought out of his reverie by Becca gently shaking his shoulder.

“You alright?”

“Yeah,” Alex replied, “Just making sure my new connection with Inspire is stable.”

“You made a new connection?” Becca looked a bit worried at this explanation.

“We’ll worry about that after the trial, Becca,” Jess interrupted, “Anthony is good to go thanks to your aura, Alex. We’re ready to head out.”

Alex could’ve explained as they walked, but he was quite happy to accept Jess’s excuse to not discuss it.

“So Alex is taking the boss alone?” Anthony frowned, “Is that wise?”

“Remember how fast I was moving against the ghoul?” Alex asked.

“No, I was focused on Muhammad.”

“Oh,” That brought Alex up short, his attempt at a witty remark suddenly felt incredibly distasteful, “Well. That’s still not my limit.”

The group went a bit quiet, as Alex’s attempt to reassure them had only served to remind everyone of their friend’s condition.

The silence was broken as Anthony stepped on a leaf. It was far from the first time one of the group had done so, but this one gave a loud crunch that stood out in the awkward silence.

Becca turned around from where she was walking in front of Anthony, bringing the group up short as Jess noticed.

“We can’t use the fuel,” Becca frowned.

“Why n-” Anthony started before staring down at his feet, where one of innumerable leaves littering the forest floor was pinned to the dirt, “oh. That would’ve been quite bad.”

“Damn,” Jess swore, “I can’t believe I didn’t notice that.”

“Its fine if we use it on the boss,” Alex stated, “But you’re right, if we use it on the other monsters they’ll spread the fire fast once they fall.”

Becca’s frown didn’t go away, “All of my preparation for the trial are just falling apart.”

“We’ll make it through,” Alex stated, “If the boss is particularly tough, it might still prove vital.”

Becca looked unconvinced, but just nodded, “We don’t have time for this. Jess has the fuel, and if we need to use it we will.”

Alex could see that she was disappointed by the realization that her main trump card might be too big of a risk, but he just nodded his own agreement as they got moving.

A golem intercepted them after a few minutes of walking, and the group fell upon it with vengeance. The previous golems had taken time to tear apart, but this one was barely an inconvenience with all four of them active from the start under the effects of Alex’s aura.

After hardly a minute, they were back on the way towards the center. The golem had clearly come straight toward them, which was a good sign that they were in the right direction. The boss likely wanted to slow them with their archer and scout gone, but Alex’s personal boosts and aura turned that into a waste of powerful undead.

The forest was quite large, and the trial timer was down to around a half hour when they found the boss. As far as Alex could tell, it was right in the center of the trial space. Alex regretted the decision to go around the edges but had to admit that facing the other Neophyte on top of the boss may have been too much.

Alex didn’t have time to worry about what might have happened in that situation, as he took in the scene.

The clearing was artificial, with the entire area covered in overturned dirt. There were no leaves or trees in this area, just a massive ritual circle and the trial’s remaining monsters.

The boss was accompanied by one golem and a half dozen zombies. These zombies had the same bizarre appearance as the other undead in the trial, and Alex could tell at a glance that they would outperform normal undead by a wide margin.

The boss stood near the center of the glade. It was over seven feet tall, and the heterogeneous appearance of the other monsters in the trial was amplified in its own visage. One of its arms had the thickness of a golem, even more so in Alex’s opinion, while the other was closer to a ghoul. Their lengths didn’t match any better than their musculature.

The rest of the body wasn’t quite so unbalanced, with one exception. The monster had an antler growing out of the right side of its head.

Altogether, it was a horrific sight. And it was smiling at them.

“Ah, you’re here,” The boss spoke in perfect English, “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to talk this through?”