“… and after Master caught the filthy light elemental in the [Forbidden Zone], she banished it with [Darkness],” Nyx sat on the child’s lap, recounting the events that had gone down at Bori’s tower.

Mylah in response opened her mouth in an O shape, her eyes gleaming with admiration. “Mistress is amazing.”

“Right?” the cat followed up.

Sage, who was sitting next to them, stifled the urge to sneer. Amazing? The her from back then might have been stronger than a common mage, but she had been a long way from being a force to recon with. Back then she had not even entered the higher Orders. The child’s great- great- great- however many fucking generations- grandmother would have easily folded the her from back then.

The desire to never find herself in an unwinnable, unavoidable fight; that was why she continued to improve her strength.

Currently in her lap resided the Cryptmaker’s open spellbook. After carrying the item for so many months, she had finally reached its last pages. When excluding the monstrous spells at Ultra Order, magic of the 9th Order was the most powerful. There were not many sorcerers with the aptitude to reach the height of mortality, which was why it came as no surprise that the models for the level were extremely rare. The fact that the departed necromancer’s book contained six such spells was already an accomplishment as is, especially considering the fact that Kezan could only learn four of them.

The spells recorded at the end of the book were [Death], [Gate], [Summon Undead III], [Raise Dead IX], [Spirit Projection] and [Earthquake]. For a necromancer, all these spells look useful but if she had to guess, the four that the Cryptmaker had bothered to learn were [Gate], [Raise Undead IX], and [Earthquake] for certain. As for the spell to fill the last slot, it was a tossup between [Death] and [Spirit Projection]; though, considering the personality of the Cryptmaker and his ability to evade the Mercenary Guild and churches, it had likely been the latter.

Although she had embarked on a similar arcane path, Sage did not share his limits. She planned to learn all the 9th Order spells in the book… except [Raise Undead IX]; raising random corpses was not on her to-do-list.

[Death] had already been ingrained. Among all the senior spells she had learned, it had been the easiest. When she was channelling the spell, it had almost been as if instead of her trying to cast it, it had been trying to force her to cast it. That moment had felt righter than anything, she had been overcome with an exhilaration would have been the highlight of her transition if not for the hell that followed after.

Flipping back and forth between the last pages, she wondered which spell to ingrain next. Honestly, it was not a big deal which she would learn first. With the hellhurst playing the part of a slightly above average destrier, she would have enough time learn them all before they got to Io. Even so, her eagerness towards some spells was more than others.

Of the four remaining spells, her choices had been narrowed down to [Gate] and [Spirit Projection]. The first spell was capable of opening a portal to anywhere, one which could be stretched wide enough and kept open long enough for armies to pass through. Not that Sage ever intended to have an army, but the spell’s unrestricted teleportation and the fact that she herself would not have to [Teleport] with anyone she planned to send off made it an attractive prospect as the next spell to learn. The downside of the spell was that the conjured [Gate] could be used by unintended and unwanted folk.

[Sprit Projection] on the other hand, was a spell that allowed one’s consciousness to leave their body in the form of a spiritual apparition. In this form, one was intangible like a ghost, with an added bonus of being invulnerable to magic. Not even a Transcendent mage could do a thing to a spiritual projection. Because of this, the spell was often used by apex sorcerers to scout certain areas, especially when they planned to visit the place and were uncertain of the level of danger in its surroundings. However, just because nothing could be done to your [Spirit Projection], did not mean it could not be used to track down your body. Also, a [Spirit Projection] could not cast spells, meaning just like it could not be attacked, it too could not attack.

But I’m a phantom, she thought after some contemplation. Even if the Sheans managed to stumble upon her spiritual manifestation, they would be unable to track her actual form down due to her nature of being untraceable.

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With that in mind, her choice was made.

The next couple of hours passed with her peering intensely into the book, trying to ignore the conversation between the child and the cat. The fact that Nyx was chatting up Mylah was a good thing for Sage; it saved her from being annoyed by the cat in his eternal bid for attention. But, it would be appreciated if they tuned it down. If she was not too preoccupied trying to grasp the final parts of the spell, she would have shouted at them to can it.

Despite the noise in the carriage, she eventually figured out the pattern and did not wait to simulate it with her mana. However, before getting on with it, she first closed the book and let it keep resting on her lap. Crossing both hands on top of the spellbook, she leaned back into her cushioned seat and closed her eyes. Only when she was adequately relaxed, when she was certain leaving her physical form would not result in her body toppling over, did she cast the spell.

Everything went black the instant the spell was completed. It did not take long to return, at least that was how it felt to her. Looking around, she noted that the inside of the carriage still looked the same and the girl and the cat remained in the position she had last seen them in, a confirmation that not much time had passed. Of course, the first detail she actually noticed was the resting form of a youthful leather-clad woman with facial scars. Another thing she noticed was that she was submerged in the carriage floor up to the knees; not that she could feel it.

Suddenly, a scream sounded from her side. Turning to the source, she saw the half-orc child had fled to the corner, a shift of less than thirty centimetres. Mylah was wide-eyed as she covered her mouth with one hand while pointing with the other. No words came from her though.

The cat in her lap had a different reaction. He took one look in Sage’s direction before turning back to the child. “It’s just Master’s new spell,” there was a blasé-ness to his voice as his rested his head on his paws. “Nothing to freak out about. This happens all the time.”

From his front seat steering the wagon, Isaac had pulled back the curtain to gauge the situation inside the carriage. After seeing her and hearing Nyx words though, he frowned, groaned and pushed back the curtain; returning to what he had been doing.

After the short-lived commotion died down, Sage decided to take a look at herself. The most noticeable difference between her spiritual manifestation and her actual form was that her projection was in a dress, the black one she had worn after robbing the Tiih shops. Unlike back then however, the gown’s accompanying elbow length gloves were not present to hide the stitches on her arm. Her hand moved to the top of her head to determine if the sunhat was there but only touched emptiness; that meant it too was missing… or maybe not; because she could not touch other parts of her body either.

Bring out the mirror Nyx, she turned to the cat and wanted to say. However, she stopped the words from leaving her mouth when she realised how stupid the idea was. An item that could hold her entire reflection would not be able to fit in the tiny space of the coach. That left her with the next best option, going into the Space. The moment she wished for it she was suddenly inside Nyx {Void Space}, in front of the mirror. This was the biggest advantage of being a [Spirit Projection]; one only needed to hold a clear picture of where they wanted to go- or who they wanted to see- and their incorporeal form would appear there.

A small worry she had when she decided to take a look at herself in the mirror was that there would be no reflection, similar to spectres and vampires; however, that worry ended up being unfounded.

Her full form was reflected in the mirror; her in a black dress that covered her to the feet. The hat was unsurprisingly missing, the turtle-neck sleeve was not hauled up to her nose and the diagonal stitch across her face was on full display; with the two supporting stitches running from the sides of her mouth to her jawline below the ears magnifying its impact.

According to the information written about the spell, one’s spiritual form was not a manifestation of their actual appearance but a perception of themselves. The fact that she appeared almost no different from her actual form meant that this was how she perceived herself; a girl with scars so hideous they made whoever looked at her recoil. She hated looking like this; how she wished the Elixir of Rejuvenation would appear in front of her at that moment

She closed her eyes and tried to sigh, only to find herself unable to draw breath. Disgruntled she uttered a growl before leaving the Space. She appeared at the front of the carriage, materialising on the very edge. If she were in her physical form, she would no doubt have tumbled off the wagon. Fortunately, as a projection she had more freedom than spectres. When her rump could not find space on the seat in front, she settled for sitting on air.

The pale knight, seeing this, simply sneered before going back to tugging his reigns.

Such a reaction had no effect on her. She did not materialise in front of him to strike up a conversation, but merely to give him a heads-up.

“I’m off to see a friend,” she said to him. “Continue on the road to Io; I’ll be back soon.”

If he ever responded, she never found out; she was not with the carriage anymore.