The High Peak of Brenn [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1794.01.08]

Zeph started to hear unintelligible whispers, nagging him to do things. But each one spoke about a different possibility. The meaning hidden in their words was heavy, reverberating in his skull in a chaotic, mad dance.

His vision started to swim. He had to drop to a knee to keep himself upright.

I know those, he realized while trying to regain control over his body. Willforce Morphon was working overtime to keep him sane. It’s the same as in that village… But we are far from the coast?

He shook his head to shove away the sudden resonance. What is going on?

His sight darkened and doubled. One of the visions was still showing him the Mana tendrils despite the darkness that ensued. He tried to lift himself up but his body just spasmed instead, sending him down into the dirt.

No, it’s not time for this! We are going to be found—

—FOUND!

An unspeakably terrifying premonition downed on him as he squirmed in the soil and fungi.

His Soul started deforming and squeezing ‘away’ from the newly identified threat.

Even if he wasn’t able to perceive the source consciously, he could still feel his eternal part reacting to it violently. It was a reflex. A reflex so deeply integrated into his being that he wouldn’t be able to even recognize it for what it was if not for Willforce Morphon magnifying the problem.

That feeling… He knew it well.

Zeph and Aisha had killed one of them in the past.

the Neth— gah! He gritted his teeth and forced his Soul to stabilize, spending much too much of his Will on the task.

What is happening to US?!

Two of his teeth shattered as his jaw clenched down involuntarily.

“What’s going on?!” Makani asked fearfully, looking at his twitching form with trepidation.

Zeph could hear him clearly… more clearly than ever before—

He snapped his eyes open just as he noticed that his consciousness was fading away.

Gru was vibrating madly in alarm while trying to support him, but he wasn’t even able to feel the effort.

If this continues, he thought, we… ARE… TO VANQUISH!

His body froze.

The world seemed to pause.

A small, white tetrahedron materialized between them and the enemy.

The object looked as if someone simply painted it nonchalantly directly on the canvas of reality. It was perfectly visible, slowly rotating even, despite the absolute darkness that dominated the forest.

And Zeph could feel the power emanating from it. An unspeakable potential that was absolutely alien to him.

“Fuc—” he managed to voice before his mind gave way; the dam broke and fell.

He could almost see as the stream of energy coming from his body and Soul to stabilize his mind started to dwindle…

The Willforce Morphon and Will were doing what they could to keep him intact… but in the end, they failed. After a couple of seconds of struggle, they submitted TO…

THE DESCENT OF THE NETHER—

========Adeptus Miu????val Vire???talo PoV========

=================[10 minutes ago]================

A chill ran down his spine, making him grimace.

He knew that going here was a bad idea.

Not because of the low Mana density, not at all.

Even if it was restricting their abilities profoundly, the environment wasn’t posing any real danger to them. Even if he had to constantly fight off the natural effect of Mana expansion to keep his Veil in a working condition, it wouldn’t be enough to stop him from devastating the area. Quite the opposite – it was the best place to train his external Mana manipulation and the best place to test his new, low-tier area Spells.

If he was allowed to use them, at least.

His stronger ones were enchanted onto his armor and weapons, at least. He would default to them if the need arose.

No, it was because of the Onji that ruled those lands.

No matter how many times the Towers tried to speak with it, there was not an ounce of logic in the mind of that Onji. It was, literally, a living tribute to the unintelligible and meaningless ‘balance’ that it was praying about. Stubborn and uncaring; the consequences of his actions be damned.

A higher mind that has gone wrong. Not from too much pride or self-assurance—this time—but definitely from overreaching with their specialization. A bad spot on the fabric of eternity. One that would be erased by other Onjis in the next few thousand years…

Was his hope.

He wondered how this being even managed to survive for more than the last thousand years. It was a farce.

And yet, he was forced to enter his territory.

Miraculously, the Onji didn’t stop them at the premises. But the act was so much against the ‘balance’ mindset, that he was sure that they were missing something vital.

Unfortunately, their team leader wasn’t going to listen to him. The prick.

He knew that this place wouldn’t be trivial. The situation spelled troubles.

What a disgrace. I shouldn’t have spoken up, just bribe others to convince him, he thought bitterly, remembering the humiliation. Just because he is so high above the locals doesn’t mean you can dive into the quicksand without preparation…

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Sadly, he couldn’t abandon the mission. It was do or don’t for his planned marriage proposal. Without the connections to the lower strata, his chances were bleak. In his social circle, he had only five prospects. And only one was… intellectually acceptable.

It was a pain in his spine ever since he moved to the higher stratum - looking for a worthy bride.

It was so much easier when I was younger, he sighed, reminiscing the good old times on the planet’s surface. Life is never merciful for those climbing the power ladder…

‘They are close. Scan the environment, if you please.’ He suddenly received a mechanically-sounding report from his teammate. The woman wasn’t the worst possible partner—sharing his fears about the Onji—but was acutely emotionless and untrustworthy.

He was sure she would find a way to live through a thousand of his deaths if a simulation of a life-threatening situation was made. Well, most of the possible perilous cases would bide him—the Manacaster Adept—an early demise, but that wasn’t the point. His ilk needs to prepare, but a little support would have gone a long way in increasing his chances.

On the other hand… I am more impressed that she even reached level 100… he thought while shaking his head. Auguring your life away is not something I would risk doing… he ruminated while reshaping his Veil.

The loss of Mana would be painful, but he could support the wide-area manual scan for an hour. Hours, if he wasn’t pressed to cover a vast range. But they didn’t have time for that – he had killed enough stray cats already; it was time to find their quarry.

Not even a few minutes into the task, he felt something strange. One of his tendrils almost dissipated on contact with… Well, something that was hard to describe. The feedback from the interaction was scarce, for one.

It was definitely something a unique species would develop. Maybe even something more.

Immediately, he redirected his Veil’s pseudopodia to the area where he felt the anomaly. He still wasn’t using Spells, fearing the reaction of their host.

If the damned Onji could even be called that… he spat in his mind.

Destroying the environment was a hard ‘no’ for that guy, after all.

A moment later, the Ambient Mana density fluctuated wildly.

His eyes widened.

It came… he realized.

The hidden threat he was looking for in all this time.

The thing that he feared. The ‘reason’ for the madman to let them into his turf.

But the situation was worse than he had thought.

For the Onjis’ sake! he screamed internally, his eyes widening even more as a tetrahedron replaced a part of space before him. A cold flood of wind pushed against his Veil, telling him enough about the anomaly.

“Sarnia!” he screamed… but he could tell that she was already running away. “You Jævla Bikk—"

—TO FEED! an intrusive Soulmental signal interrupted him.

Higher Ne— was all he managed to form in his mind before a wave of Nether barreled over him, flailing his condensed Veil around as if it was a candle flame in a hurricane.

The inanimate environment didn’t seem to even notice the blast, but the trees started to wither away instantly, showering the area with dead needles.

While activating all seven of his shielding enchantments, he pushed with his Willpower to gather his Mana near his body. A second later—in the accompaniment of exploding threes and cacophony of breaking wood—the first shell took form.

And instantly shattered, forced down by the forces produced by the being.

He could see it now. A white dot in the black overlay of a miniature humanoid form.

His eyes dilated ominously.

Fy faaAEN!

His Soul-bond medallion disintegrated, freeing him from the delusion.

He immediately fell to his knees, redirecting his sight to the ground. The first phase of his chain-Spell started to take form as two new shielding constructs sprung to life, decimating the ground around them.

He ejected his Veil out. In the blink of an eye, it traveled way behind the being, suffusing the area with his Mana. A technique only he knew how to execute safely.

His eyes narrowed as he glanced up at the Nether manifestation floating before him.

Let’s see how you fare after that…

In no time at all, all the Mana and Magicules in the radius of three boats imploded, downing the already damaged trees.

The forest started falling.

The being wavered. He could feel as it fed on the Souls connected to the matter around. But without Mana, there would be no connection.

He cursed the low density of Mana and the vast diversity of Magicules in the area. The move didn’t recover even half of his original Veil.

All of his shielding enchantment constructs were now formed, and his chain-Spell was nearing its finalization.

That’s when the first blast of pure Nether tried to penetrate his defenses. He sent his own, condensed pseudopod of Mana to redirect the attack. It was a waste, but no one had a direct counter for Nether.

I am not…—he sent another one, trying to redirect another attack—dying here! I will not, the words almost forced themselves into his mind, NOT… fall… no… to… YOUR SOUL! OUR …

The space itself bulged under an enormous wave of gravity-attuned Magicules.

The chain-Spell ignited. Powered by the quickly vaporizing Manasolid, it started expanding beyond its limits.

The ground rose all around; the remnants of the trees flew into the night sky, forming a dome; The crack of thunder made him aware that the snow vaporized instantly.

He could not see, but he could feel. The being lost its coherency.

But a second later, the time seemed to slow down for him. Wooden shrapnel, grains of dirt, the fog – everything paused midair as if waiting for something to happen…

Then, that very matter started to change and morph, forming the facsimiles of his past lovers, family, possible children…

The grotesque drawings scraped on his sanity.

I WILL NOT! he screamed in his mind as the ‘reality’ around him warped.

He sent Mana protrusions to ground itself, trying to feel the matter of the soil. Even if not literally, he was being removed from the physicality, so he had to retaliate fast.

He started to form another Spell that would use the last blast.

His position against his opponent was questionable from the start. In the first place, that was no being. It was an emanation.

The forest was no more. The giant trees fell, leaving the two floating participants in the middle of a devastated stage of their own doing.

Three more shields were left, so he started to construct an evacuation Spell while working on his final retribution. This wasn’t an opponent he could hope to defeat, it seemed.

To make the enemy busy, he formed six Mana protrusions and weaponized each with enchanted gear. Those were but simple crystals with Energy-reflecting properties, enchanted in a way that they could condense it into a blade-like form.

He pushed them physically through Mana, and Mana-wise through the enchantments. He didn’t use them for years, but he was scrambling for time right now.

While others he used for distraction, two blades of crystallized Mana flew towards the white dot on the entity’s body faster than any mundane projectile could ever achieve. The Spells propelling them were easy to form, but deadly efficient at the same time.

The being didn’t even try to deflect his blades – it just formed a simple shielding construct.

Made of Mana.

He blinked in confusion. Netherbeings shouldn’t be able to use Mana.

But there was no time for idle thoughts.

His simple weapons managed to penetrate the shielding and the white dot that he was aiming for, so he immediately sent along Beams of Concentrated Heat.

They easily traveled through his Veil protrusions moving the weapons, directed by the Stabilization Magicules inside of them.

The laser-like beams cut the living trees in the distance into pieces, leaving long, molted gashes on the ground. Though the energy was far too concentrated to put the wood on fire, it caused even more damage to the environment than the fire ever could.

The white tetrahedron changed shape after the assault, looking more like a two-dimensional triangle while losing its brightness.

The escape Spell was almost ready—

Without a warning, an impossibly intense pain plunged into the center of his consciousness.

His Spells started dissipating as his vision turned white.

He screamed like a madman as a part of his very Soul was being ripped awa-ayaaAaeaAAYYYEEESSS!@===

==#==##=######

Zeph woke up with a gasp. The scream wasn’t escaping his mouth no matter how much air he pumped out of his lungs. Fat droplets of sweat fell down as his torso rose from the bed.

In a panic, his eyes darted around.

Only to meet cold, snowy walls.

He gulped breath after breath with great difficulty. His mouth and larynx were dry as paper. He wanted to find his spear, or any weapon at all, but he couldn’t see clearly.

“Whoa, whoa! Calm down!” Makani exclaimed from his sitting position, raising his hands in a universal peace gesture. “We are safe! Safe, you hear me?!”

Zeph looked at him like the Manacaster was a madman. What he saw just a moment before was—

“We are way away from that disaster,” Makani continued. “Please stop looking at me like that. You are kind of scary…”

“Wha-“ Zeph tried, only to reflexively lick his dry mouth. His mind started to stabilize quickly. His body wasn’t. “What happened?” he wheezed.

If his arms weren’t supporting his semi-sitting pose, they would be already searching for his armor and weapons.

He was naked and lying in what could only be described as an earthly pit with soft soil inside.

At least it’s warm, he thought, trying hard to ignore the flashbacks from his death.

He paused.

From my… what? he thought with terror and confusion.

He slowly turned his eyes to Makani.

“What… What happened?”