Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1794.01.13]

Zeph’s thoughts were still in complete disarray when Jaekandu landed – his mind struggling to process his situation and the sudden flood of emotions. The trauma, born partially from someone else’s memories, was still well and alive within him. He wasn’t ready for it to awaken so abruptly.

Even when the man started speaking—loud enough to be heard from a distance of almost 60 meters—he didn’t register a word. Or the fact that he could hear him clearly.

But the white tetrahedron didn’t materialize. There was no proof that what he heard was real.

That reasoning wasn’t enough to stop him from scanning every centimeter of the surrounding forest on a fool’s errand, though.

GRuuuum! his companion screamed into his mind, making him flinch.

He refocused. The countdown had started.

Oh, shit… In a slight panic, he mentally checked his constructs and the coolant. Thankfully, he managed to keep them together subconsciously. By now, those Spells and Mana Manipulation were ingrained in his mind, naturally becoming a part of his fight-or-flight response.

One of the reasons he ventured outside the city with Makani to train.

He focused and, with a healthy dose of Will, stabilized his mind forcefully. He didn’t have time to work out his emotions—or this whole situation, for that matter—so bending some of the self-imposed rules wasn’t a big deal. He was now in a Duel. A fight that could end his life or, most possibly, harm him for life.

While that allowed him to regain his calm, he still frowned. The effects weren’t as clean as he would have liked. He understood why, but it was still a hard pill to swallow. Mind stabilization merely forced his brain to return to a state balanced between his body, Will, and Soul. If all three were turbulent, if all three were influenced by the events playing out around, the technique could only do this much.

But it was enough to put him back in a fighting condition and that’s what mattered the most.

Should I surrender here and now? he considered. His eyes were still involuntarily moving around, looking for the hidden adversary. If that was a mind trick or an illusion… I would make a fool of myself, but…

He didn’t and couldn’t know if illusions were a thing on Corora. Mind-affecting Spells and abilities, he knew about – mostly thanks to Aisha. Those were rare and obvious, though. Not something allowed in the Tournament. Only Soul Arts could bypass the arbiters, but Gru hadn’t reported anything yet.

No… that leads nowhere. If illusions, or any kind of mental stirring for that matter, was in play, the arbiters or one of the two of us would notice… But if that’s the case…

He swallowed loudly.

It meant that he was out of order. Hearing voices in one’s head was never a good sign. Especially if there was a possibility of them being real…

He shook his head. It was not the time to think. The countdown was reaching zero, and he wasn’t prepared.

He finished constructing the last part of a Heat Beam in preparation while stiffening his Veil. His Will-Magicules inside would have to suffice as a defense and early-detection mechanism.

I will fight… until something similar happens again. Gru!

Grau?

Full shield on my Soul.

Grum?

Yes, use your Profession’s Skills. I don’t care about the side effects anymore.

Gra!

A cold shiver ran down his spine as Gru activated the main Skill of his Shepherd Profession. The Mana lash was already unpleasant, but together with the Soul counterpart, it made for a truly traumatizing experience. Thankfully, Zeph could mitigate it with mind stabilization. Sadly, Gru wasn’t able to use more than one major Skill at a time. He still didn’t have any real Mana capacity, so he had to game the system and use Veil invocation (as he liked to call the technique) and force the Skill’s construct outside of his body.

Zeph closed the newly-created gap of Mana near his chest. He could vividly feel where Gru’s Veil was stationed by now, and it just shrunk to the size of his fist. The release channel for Gru’s Mana would have to suffice – the thing was stemming from Gru’s eye stalk on Zeph’s shoulder and lead upwards to not interfere with Zeph’s AMC. Of course, AMC was disabled right now, but they decided to keep the channel going like that whether he was using it or not. Mostly because Zeph needed to activate AMC before using Mana Rupture, which could happen anytime. Not to mention other possible Veil shenanigans.

The match started, yet his opponent didn’t move. The arrogant Landlord probably wanted to show off. Zeph wasn’t going to attack with his main weapon just yet, though. It would be too obvious.

Zeph slotted the missing part into the Heat Beam construct. The stream of Magicules hit the target square in the chest, but the effect wasn’t right. Besides the explosion of air in the wake of the Beam and a second one at the target’s location, nothing else happened. The man didn’t even try to dodge; he was still standing where he was. Zeph could see that his eyes were smiling.

It dispersed? No… he analyzed, taking a step back. The explosion was too weak and the armor wasn’t affected… it broke apart…

He could tell from the feeling the Mana returned. It pushed through something dense before immediately disconnecting after making contact with that armor – as if hitting an impenetrable wall.

It took him a second, but he recognized the effect thanks to Ghrughah’s teachings and the glaring absence of the man’s Veil. The dense Mana surrounding him was no Mana-X, it was Ambient Mana. The material of that armor had to be, at least, of a class of stratum-two, and mostly saturated. Which meant that a Manasolid must have been in use to saturate it and make it stable. The resulting leakage—probably directed outwards by Mana-resistant padding—would form the dense Mana column around Jaekandu. Or rather, a Mana updraft.

Zeph’s Heat Beam would amount to a small breeze before such an enormous amount of Mana.

Or is he? Zeph asked himself, eyeing the compartments affixed to Jaekandu’s armor. If he has a Manasolid there… where is it?

It was impossible to keep it stable without the compression box. If the Landlord was keeping it as is in one of the compartments, it wouldn’t last. At best, his armor would eat up the slowly released Mana, but the rate would fluctuate wildly.

Either way, it would explain why the armor didn’t crumble from the explosion and didn’t rise in temperature from my Magicules, he thought, dispersing other Mana constructs he was preparing.

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The structure of the higher-stratum metal was different. The space between atoms was much more, as the internal structure adapted to accommodate a larger Mana flow that would naturally form pseudo-atomic bonding forces. Such material would be fragile in lower Mana densities… or dense enough to beat the tungsten. It depended on the nature of the material.

Jaekandu started walking forward. Slowly, deliberately, but with grace.

Zeph understood.

It’s light… Not good. why am I fighting with a guy decked in a stratum-two full armor? Isn’t it unfair? He thought before turning around and running.

As he ran, in his Veil, he started to construct Lesser Life Detection, Magnetic Scan, and Tremor Detection. All three possessed a similar component – a fold responsible for sending his Mana out. Thanks to that, he was able to start working on all three Spells at the same time by starting the manifold construction.

He was going to abuse the terrain to hide, but Gru brought bad news.

Grau?! It sent, concentrated.

What do you mean?

Gram Grrrou…

Zeph paled. Soul tracing? I thought it’s impossible for them! he thought to himself.

Did you manage to shield us? He asked in a slight panic.

Gra… it sent back begrudgingly.

Zeph sighed in relief. As much as the current situation irritated Gru, they were safe. Gru didn’t like the fact that he needed the help of his Skills to block the Soul tracing attack, but it didn’t matter for Zeph.

Soon, they lost their pursuer. A few dozen steps into the forest and the vegetation gave them cover. Zeph could hear the jetpack coming alive somewhere behind – the thing wasn’t silent at all when used with high output. It seemed that Jaekandu was late for the update and didn’t notice right away that his Soul tracing was rendered ineffective.

Moving in a wide circle, Zeph slowed down and started applying his detection Spells. His behavior may look cowardly, but he was no knight. And he wasn’t going to get anywhere near that unholy Mana spring of an armor.

Who knows what it’s enchanted with, he reasoned. I hope you get Mana poisoning from this, he cursed the man in his mind while applying Mana Masking. Thanks to that blasted armor, Zeph was theoretically safe from Mana-based detection—small mercies—but it was better to be prepared for everything. To be able to use the armor, Jaekandu had to give up on his Veil. It was a huge disadvantage, as now he could only use internal Skills and activate enchantments only by touch. Additionally, Magicules from a weak enchantment wouldn’t even cross the Mana updraft surrounding him.

Zeph applied a few vials of alchemical paint as he skulked through the woods. A few splashes of green and black were enough to camouflage him, complementing the natural coloration of his armor – the dark, patchy shades of brown dotted with streaks of gold. His armored backpack was already painted in the same colors, so he could paint everything in one go. After a short deliberation, he also discarded his spear. It wouldn’t be useful in those circumstances and was unwieldy. Although, he took the scabbard with him.

The game of hide-and-seek ensued. Zeph made sure to stay at a safe distance at all times, but because Jaekandu had better mobility with his jetpack, a few close calls happened.

Thankfully, Jaekandu was searching high and low, so despite passing him a few times, he didn’t notice his camouflaged form hugging the ground below the bushes.

Zeph’s Life-detection Spells were useless because of the wall of Mana radiating from the armor, but his Magnetic scan was returning a very strong and clear signal. It wasn’t a surprise, as the Spell depended more on interaction with magnetic fields than direct Mana contact. The Tremor Detection would be more useful if the man decided to descend to the ground, so he kept the stabilized, unfinished construct at the ready.

Finally, after a few minutes of unfruitful search, Jaekandu stopped flying blindly through the canopy. Instead, he spent around a minute in one location before moving to the next, roughly 20 meters away.

Zeph breathed out in relief. After observing the man for a minute, he started stalking him while trying to predict his movements and plot his route.

Zeph was cautious and kept his distance, especially at the beginning. If Jaekandu landed too close, he could only count on his Mana Masking hiding him from whatever detection method the man was using. Being found now would complicate things.

The area was rich in shrubbery and low branches, giving him better cover but impacting his movement speed. At least he didn’t have to try to be silent – the jetpack was covering for him on that front.

It took him a long 15 minutes to succeed and take a spot in advance – before the man reached his range.

Jaekandu landed 30 meters away. The canopy was thinner here, but Zeph was hidden behind dense vegetation and a slight decline of the land.

He reached for the tube on his back and pulled it into position above his shoulder. The flexible material easily unfurled along its length and bent under his guidance. Kneeling, he took aim at a steep angle – the contraption worked more like a mortar than a handheld rocket launcher.

He pulled the first trigger three times. He could hear the soft sound of glass balls landing in the chamber inside his backpack. Concentrating, he reached through his Veil and started activating the enchantments etched inside glass occupying a quarter of each sphere. The shells were already saturated with his Mana-L, so the stabilization effect would take place spontaneously. All he needed to do, was to add Mana flow to the enchanted traces and manually shape the resulting Telekinesis Spells inside; the rest worked automatically. It took maybe two seconds.

Then, he started fueling the backpack with his coolant through a special hole on the top. The device started whirring imperceptibly. It was compressing the coolant and the air before transferring them into the empty part of the glass shells. After three seconds, a silent click could be heard and the machine halted. The shells were primed.

Confirming Jaekandu’s position with the help of Magnetic Scan once again, he started adjusting the power by turning a ring on the tube. The black, thin thread in the sights started changing shape and direction slightly.

Finally, content with the settings, he took a deep breath.

And pulled the second trigger.

With a hollow sound of expanding air, the first glass sphere was fired. It flew soundlessly in a high, parabolic trajectory, disappearing behind the low branches of the nearby trees.

Not waiting for it to land, He pulled the trigger two more times in quick succession, making minimal adjustments to his aim.

Then, he started turning to run the hell out of here…

______________________

The later reports were describing what happened in excruciating detail.

The incendiary shells weren’t fully tested. They couldn’t, not inside the city and mere hours before the Tournament. It was the latest creation of the Sepia Familia Guild and Zeph could only train beforehand with the empty shells.

A quarter of each shell was filled with magnesium powder, along with a small compartment containing water. An ignition enchantment was prepared to activate half a second after the glass would lose integrity.

Burning magnesium. The fire with a temperature of over 3000 Celsius degrees, surrounded by the best, known thermal conductor – Zeph’s coolant – and further enhanced by the hydrogen-producing reaction with water… Exceptional incendiary effectiveness was expected.

Yet, in Mana environments, all high-energy reactions behaved unpredictably.

Half a second after the first bomb broke near Jaekandu, the surface of every object within a 5-meter radius evaporated and most of the Ambient Mana instantly destabilized and released its energy. The secondary, blazing explosion shook the forest to its roots.

The Mana coating Jaekandu’s form was destabilized and dispersed, but the armor held. Sadly, the chain reaction had already started.

Two more shells activated midair almost at the same time, triggered by the burst of the first one. This time, there wasn’t enough Mana in the vicinity to enhance the explosions, and the air was already superheated and expanding. Thus, enough coolant made contact with the airborne Jaekandu.

The exceptional incendiary properties took effect, just like the creators had planned. Before the man was thrown out of the range of the inferno, the surface of his armor was already melting away.

The blazing heat of the ball of fire formed a mushroom cloud of smoke and hot gases that rose to the stadium’s barrier-like roof, casting a deep shadow over the whole arena.

The devastation brought to Jaekandu’s body and the surroundings was so great, that the weapon was banned from use in the whole Lurona City.

But the reports also included another, important detail.

Jaekandu’s last-resort weapon activated automatically after he sustained this much damage and—as if possessing a mind of its own—consumed the Manasolid…

______________________

Zeph didn’t manage to even fully turn before the shockwave threw him at the nearby tree.

It wasn’t something he could expect. Even the most daring predictions they had made couldn’t prepare him for the scale of the effect.

But before his body fell back to the ground, a powerful wave of Mana rolled over him.

Gru vibrated in alarm, screaming at him to brace himself.

Still in a daze, he couldn’t react even if wanted to.

A moment later, something phased right through Gru’s protective layer shielding his Soul and embedded itself right inside his ethereal body.

His mind and Soul recoiled involuntarily as flecks of Nether energy flickered to live right inside of him. His Will was already surging to the place. To contain, purge, and protect. To help with the pain…

But there was no pain.

With a gentle touch of something frighteningly foreign, his mind dived straight into blackness…