It took most of them nearly a week to recover. But as soon as they did, they were brought back to stand before the eldritch. Time and time again. It felt like years.

It was the single most taxing thing that Trillia had ever done. It felt like her mind was being ripped apart from the inside. Sometimes, she saw loved ones other times, she saw people she had battled.

The latest time, it felt as if someone had stuck their hands under her skin and were pulling at her muscles and tendons.

The group of friends hadn't met up in nearly two months. Only the four of them were left. The Professor told them to take this week off. Don't study, don't train. Just rest and talk to one another.

Blossom seemed the most haggard. Followed by Trillia and then Tempest. Titan, for his part, seemed to have come to an understanding of it. "Is there some skill you have? That makes you so...resistant?" Blossom whispered the words as if she were terrified of making too much sound.

Titan kept his voice low for the sake of the table. "Probably. I have thousands of years of battle experience. I've fought hundreds of thousands of enemies. That's not to say it isn't unnerving. But I understand that this is my future. I must steel myself for what is to come."

Trillia pushed some vegetables around on a plate, chasing them with a fork. Her appetite had been at an all-time low. "I'm worried about how I will react when the Professor isn't around. How am I supposed to save my realm? How is anyone ever supposed to fight these things?"

Tempest also spoke quietly. "I've read that it is easier to fight them in groups. That the mind-altering effects are significantly lower. I guess that's how it is done? Either you are individually strong enough to withstand it. Or you are in a large enough group you can manage. It makes far more sense now why they are such a terrifying enemy."

The group sat in silence for a few hours, just happy to be in good company. As they slowly picked away at their food, the Professor stopped at their table and set a small book down in the middle of it. Offering them a faint smile before she walked away without a word.

Titan looked to the others before lifting it. "Huh...this is written in a very old Infernal dialect." As he lifted the book, he ran his fingertips along the cover as if remembering how to read and speak it. As realization dawned on him, his eyes grew, and he hurriedly flipped the cover open. "The Mad Planner. Zymeth Ocrey Darktone." It was his father's book. A journal? How did the Professor have it? The title and author caught the table's attention.

Taking a deep breath, he flipped to the first page. "It is with a heavy mind that I lay my beloved to rest. My previous journal was lost in the Aether. I fear Kain's plans are too heavy for us to burden." Titan read and re-read that passage. "I fear that Kain's plans are too heavy a burden for us to carry. He seeks to change the very laws of the universe. The very nature of how things have been done for millennia. But I find myself hopeful, even now, as I sit next to her grave. All of the training in the universe could have never prepared us to fight a hive of Eldritch. It was only supposed to be a few dozen. I had seen them from afar. I thought I had gotten used to it."

Titan felt chills running down his spine. The others stared at him, waiting for him to continue. "There were thousands. Some were larger than any dragon I had ever seen. Morigane and I were overrun. Nearly a hundred of the damned creatures. We fought the best we could...but it is an impossible task for creatures so weak as we. As I made peace with my death, I felt a strong hand grasp my shoulder and yank me from the eternal sea of ink that is the hereafter. Kain was kind enough to pull Morigane's body from it as well."

"He so casually tossed us to lay next to Mathias, who had also nearly died. I watched his brilliance shine as he slowly fought back the swarm. He shattered his own soul whenever the corruption and warping grew too severe to keep fighting. It was second nature to him. To slice away parts of himself and throw them into the Aether. He calls those shards of himself echoes. Little pieces of himself that wander eternally in the Aether, ready to come to his aid when needed."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"I fear Mathias and I are too weak to see the campaign through to the end. More so now that I have lost you, my beloved Morigane. The rumours about him were true. You tried to warn me. You tried to tell me to listen to the whispers that he was mad. But his ideals are appealing. No longer will mortals have to be under the heel of immortals and deities? No longer would we lose our families and loved ones to the whims of some ancient creature. I know not what the catalyst for his mad planning is, but I understand why the gods themselves shudder at the sight of him."

"Our last fight gave me a deep understanding of the terrors that we fight. When Kain is near them, it is as if they are lesser. As if his divinity draws them into his light. Mathias is close to ascending. I must train to ensure I can ascend. We are heading to the first axle. Lady Gaia has granted Kain permission to return. It is his hope that we can create an area he refers to as the Infernal Bands. A place that locks the chaotic energies of the universe into a fixed pattern. I must ascend before we approach that theatre. There is a type of mana that I know can be utilized to eat away at the power of the terrors. I must learn it before we go there."

The next few lines were smudged. "I cannot lose anyone else, dear Morigane. I am not strong enough. I only pray that joining the Darktone clan will not be my undoing. May you find your eternal rest."

Titan closed the journal and stared at the cover. "How did she get this?"

Blossom spoke softly. "Is there more? Written down?"

Titan took a deep breath and opened the book back up to a new page. As he tried to read it, his eyes kept slipping off the page. "There is...but she has enchanted the pages so that it can't be read."

Tempest leaned back and pulled her knees up to her chest. "A lesson. This power that Uncle Zymeth speaks of. That must be what she wants us to find. Didn't she tell us to take a week off? To not study?"

Trillia smirked. "Sure. That doesn't mean we have to listen. She told us that we would need to want this. That we might die. We can take it easy and suffer through more exposure. Or we can start looking through books to figure out what it is that she wants us to learn."

The days rolled by, then a week. Then another. The Professor hadn't interrupted them, which Trillia took as a sign that they were on the right track. The four of them had poured through a dozen books each.

Trillia sat the first answer she had found down. "So, Universal mana manipulation is the closest related to divine energy. I guess that's why people like me are here."

Tempest nodded and shuffled through her notes. "The power they are scared of has something to do with creation. I just don't know what we're meant to be creating. The raw creation of something is an incredible tax on our mana reserves and would far exceed the limitations the Professor has saddled us with."

Blossom chewed her bottom lip as she looked over all their research. Titan sat off in the corner of the room, slowly cycling his power up and trying to expand it outward. Trillia had given them all a crash course in free-form spell casting. To her surprise, Titan had grasped it almost immediately. The others were still struggling. "Maybe it's not actual creation?" Blossom spoke softly, unsure of herself. The others turned their gazes to her.

"How familiar are all of you with auras?" Seeing them all nod, she continued. "Maybe it's a matter of projection? Think about Lord Zymeth's words. -His Shining Brilliance- I don't think he was being fanciful with his words. I think Lord Darktone literally had an aura up that made him shine."

Titan snapped his fingers. "That's it!" The gazes shifted from Blossom to Titan as the infernal stood up and walked over to the table. "They are mostly mindless beasts, right?" The man didn't wait for an answer before continuing. "Lord Darktone was using a sort of camouflage! Think of insects whose body makes up a pattern. Something that looks like giant eyes or the pattern of a dangerous predator."

The thought process was dawning on the others now. "In other words, he was appearing larger and more terrifying to the Eldritch. It made them hesitate when attacking him. You're telling me the secret to beating these things is to bluff them?"

Trillia rubbed her chin as she spoke. "That makes sense though, right? Lord Darktone is notorious for being super careful with wording. The Professor says that he is a terrifyingly clever person. It would make sense that he is tricking the eldritch to more easily fight them."

Blossom nodded. "Now we just have to figure out how to do the same thing. I have a few auras I utilize to help speed up the growth of plants near me in my own realm. We can try to use that as a basis?"

Tempest spoke up with a nod. "I have a bunch of auras that are used to buff the physical status of nearby worshippers. Maybe something combining the two?"

The four of them settled in and began planning how to create and utilize an aura that made them appear divine. Or at least more scary.