I have no idea how long I was out.

What I remember though is that when I woke up, I was still in the same spot, but now got moved by someone a bit further away and every plant in the vicinity was already drained to dust.

Nearby, next to a tree, was sitting, or rather was propped up, For. She looked as out if it as it gets.

Same with Kon, who was a bit further away.

I couldn’t see Il. Either of them.

I groaned and tried sitting up, just to realize something sliding off of my chest.

A rock?

Just as I reached for it and looked down, it crumbled to ash and left only a bit of dust behind. I absorbed it…?

I think so…?

I still felt drained, though, and not completely conscious, but I managed to stand up and finally wake up my other, magical sense.

Yeah, as expected: For and Kon were barely able to be perceived: their mana almost non-existent. Funnily, the same thing could’ve been said about the forest.

Before, it was absolutely teeming with mana, now it was just a regular forest.

Probably my fault, if I was to guess.

But, that was not the only change.

I also noticed two other presences a bit further away and behind me, one of them a lot more powerful than the other.

That had to be Iloa, right?

Without much hesitation, I started dragging myself towards them, on my way trying to absorb as much mana as I could from nearby bushes and grass, but avoiding trees, so I wouldn’t accidentally make one collapse onto someone.

I was right.

The two presences were indeed the two women, but… they looked a lot different than I remembered.

Two Il’s were sitting under a tree where mana was already a lot denser than where we were resting.

One Il, with her wooden body, was sitting cross-legged, eerily similar to the way we found her at first. Her eyes were gone and the face was blank again, turned into a single flat piece of wood once more, same as the rest of her body.

She… was weak.

It took me by surprise, because I wasn’t expecting the fact that the one who was shining with enormous amounts of mana would be her daughter.

She looked great. Especially if you knew what happened during the “operation” that we… well, forced onto her.

Even though it was just to save her own life, it still was stinging me a bit.

Besides her mana being overwhelmingly larger, she also looked… cleaner I want to say? And not just like she took a bath or something, it was just like all imperfections on her skin were gone.

I guess that had something to do with Kon? He probably overdid it a bit during “fixing her wounds” part of that ordeal.

I wasn’t really trying to hide my presence, yet neither of them turned towards me when I approached. They both were still, staring at each other.

Well, I didn’t really think that it was the worst of the outcomes so far, so I decided to not interrupt whatever they were doing, just sat a bit further away, and waited.

I was going to take that moment of respite to get a bit more mana back and maybe a better read on the situation, so I focused.

I felt that, besides being drained, I didn’t really lose much. Hell, my arm was again back in one piece and healed to full…

That’s probably why I fainted in the first place.

The rest probably was out just because we were sharing mana, so they most likely just shared the brunt of the “regeneration” with me. The same operation on her spine was surely taxing for Kon, so no wonder that they were still out of it. If not for my ability to absorb, I probably would be out as well.

Judging by the speed they were regaining their flames, I could tell that both of them should be awake in a matter of less than an hour.

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Pretty quick, to be honest. At least for a regular person…

But, they, of course, weren’t regular people any more. The crystals inside their bodies were promptly speeding up the regeneration process, absorbing mana from the area.

It wasn’t as pronounced as my own touch, but still, I guess it was the reason why the part of the forest was so normal near us.

If it was just me that had that kind of deficit, it would’ve most likely ended up in yet another area completely void of mana.

Just like Arbo and that shed…

It took them a good couple minutes before one of them finally broke the stillness.

It was Iloa. She moved slightly, breaking eye contact with her daughter, and turned to look at me.

If she had a face, I’d say that she looked distressed, because that was the feeling I was getting from her mana.

Not an unreasonable reaction. We’ve been through a lot lately, but I was more worried about the other one.

Sure, Ilma looked fine, but only from the outside.

The second I took a moment to look at her mana, I could tell that something was obviously not right. And I don’t mean the change in her mana capacity.

While sure, that was a rather large change in itself, it was probably just because of the crystal. To be honest, the other change was also because of it, most likely.

I could tell that inside her was more than one type of mana surging.

Before, I was able to tell multiple times with different people that something was not okay with them. Despite being unable to differentiate people via their magic, I was seeing “something hanging on”.

I was always wondering where that was coming from.

Usually, I was just either giving it to the fact that I was just seeing my own mana, or the Origin Crystal inside people, but now I could tell that it was not only it.

I wasn’t actually seeing the Crystal. I was seeing ILMA. The artificial ILMA.

Usually, the manas would be mixed and twisted with each other… but not in this case.

I could clearly tell that one was different from another. It was like two people sitting in front of me in one body.

Hell, maybe even more, I couldn’t say for sure.

-Mor.

It was Iloa. Her voice was weaker than before, but still reached me without a problem, even without touching.

After that much of a mana expenditure, I expected that she’d be too weak for that, but I guess not.

-I am here.

-I am here.

Wait.

Did I repeat myself?

I swear I heard myself twice.

An echo?

-Ah. So I was right…

-Are you alright? You look a bit different…

-So do you.

I looked myself over, but for the life of me I couldn’t see a change.

-What do you mean?

-Nothing. How are you feeling?

-A bit weakened. But it should be fine. More importantly, how is Il? Is she conscious?

-Not at the moment. At least not fully. She is… coping.

-Ah… Well, that was a bit of an unplanned result… But will she be fine?

-Look at her yourself. You should be able to tell.

-I feel another you inside her. I mean, that’s to be expected. But it is a bit unusual…

-Only her?

I gazed at her.

What did she mean by “only”?

Sure, I felt that her mana was fragmented, but…

I focused more on her…

I still was sensing the original Il. The child that I remembered. But I also felt the other one. The same one which was made in an image of her mother… Or… wait… it was a bit different…

Was it a piece of her mother?

Nah, I couldn’t… She…

-I don’t know, I can’t really differentiate…

-Get a closer look. Are you sure that’s who you are seeing?

-Stop trying to make me see. It’s not like I can do that reliably…

-Stop trying to make me see. It’s not like I can do that reliably…

Again with the echo.

I shook my head like a wet dog, trying to get my head straight.

-I guess I should explain. But why can’t you do it yourself?

-What do you mean? - I asked.

But at the same time, my own voice also answered.

-You really want to break my mind more than it is broken.

I blinked.

It was definitely my own voice.

But it didn’t come from me, I could tell that it was coming from outside…

From someone next to me…

From Ilma?

-What’s going on… what…

-Think clearly. What do you think could happen?

The first thought that came to my mind was as stupid as it gets, so I immediately purged it from my thoughts, but…

-Yeah, you bet. Hell, we really are…

-...one and the same…

I was talking to myself.