-What problems?

-Her mind… is slipping away from me.

-What?!

-I don’t know how to tell you… but I need even more mana.

-Want me to go back up and work as a battery, then?

-I am not sure if that’s going to be enough… I need more.

-More? How do you want me to get more?

-No… I mean, yeah, you go back up, but I just want to warn you that I might absorb your hand if what you’re sending is not going to be enough.

-Hand? Well, I am not really attached to it…

-Just making sure.

-Mhm.

-We can handle this. You can leave.

It felt strange.

Sure, I was the one who proposed that we split at first, but now, they were essentially forcing me to go through with it…

Eh. I probably was overthinking this.

It’s not like I even knew how exactly this whole process was supposed to go, who knows if this was just how things should be…

I turned my back on them and was about to leave, when a thought came to my mind.

Wait. If I don’t know how this was supposed to work, why won’t I get a better look? Maybe I’ll be a bit more sure then…

I focused on my own mana reserves first, though.

All that time, I was getting drained, but while the pace was rather swift, I could tell that I wasn’t in any danger any time soon.

Did I overestimate the rate I was losing mana before?

I don’t think so… It’s like it slowed down a bit recently.

Unusual…

But that’s also another reason for why I should take a look…

Still with my back turned, I focused on the ritual and all of them focusing on it.

What I felt was… intriguing.

First things first: the mana of my orb.

Well, it wasn’t in the worst shape.

Sure, it was smaller than before, no surprise there. But, it was still holding strong, almost like someone was trying to use it as little as possible.

I mean, all of them were connected to it, just like they should: using it to resupply themselves, but were only taking considerable amounts every now and again.

It was kind of surprising.

It had to take a considerable amount of self-control to not just be connected to it constantly and draining it.

Especially when you were focusing on something else in the meantime.

And especially when it was something like this ritual.

Was I underestimating them?

I mean… I knew they were strong. I knew they were developing themselves all the time during our travels, but that was… exceptional.

Should I feel proud?

It’s not like I’ve done much, though…

Never mind that, though. It was unexpected, sure, but not that worrying.

Second: the state Il was in.

Yeah… Iloa was still unconscious, I knew that.

But her body was in a bit better shape.

From the outside, it didn’t look like it changed much, or at all, really. But what I could notice from my enhanced senses was that her presence… was stronger.

Or rather not her presence, but her mana.

It seemed like it was working?

Or wait… was it her mana? It always could’ve been some residue from the ritual that I was feeling.

I probably could check that…

Yeah.

I already confirmed that I started to develop the ability to distinguish mana between different people.

Why not try it now?

Well, the truth is, I was trying to.

When I was focusing on mana detection, since I realized that I had started to grasp this ability, I always was trying to use it.

Sometimes with better, sometimes with worse results.

This time though, I couldn’t feel any difference.

Was it because I failed?

I mean, it was a possibility. It’s not like my ability was infallible.

But… I had that inkling feeling…

Following the hunch, I conjured a small orb of mana in front of me, and compared to what was happening and what I just felt.

It was different.

I might not be a genius in distinguishing mana, but that was hard to miss.

The mana I just released was different from the orb that was hanging there to refuel others.

Maybe because of it being mostly magic from above ground? Yeah, sure.

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But the point that screamed at me was not that.

It was that all other mana in the room looked exactly the same.

Be it Kon, For, Ilma or Iloa, they all looked like the orb I left here.

Were they really that dependent on it?

I was going to ask if they weren't overdoing it, but I didn’t get to in time.

I was interrupted by an explosion.

I flew back quite a large distance.

Whatever happened, it was rather powerful.

For a second I thought that it could’ve been some remains of the “shark bombs” or however you want to call those, but no. The explosion this time was completely magical, filled with mana that I just was inspecting.

And not only that.

It was also scattering many small pieces of crystal… a very familiar crystal.

Pieces of my own body.

Did my hand explode? Were we overusing it?

Not entirely impossible… And it’s not like any of us knew the limits of the crystal…

Trying to grasp what was going on, I lifted myself from the ground and gazed towards the center of the explosion.

The cavern was filled with dust and rubble, making it hard to see, both in mundane and in a magical sense.

I was a bit surprised and relieved that it didn’t completely bury the cavern: the force behind that certainly could be enough to destroy the ceiling.

But, besides some rubble and a lot of dust, everything looked stable.

Not in a magical sense, though.

The dust that at first I thought was just some pieces of the ceiling, was mana that was just hanging in the air.

A bit dangerous. One spark, and everyone would’ve ended up buried alive. This time for sure.

Speaking of, what happened to the rest?

-Kon?! For! Ilma!? Iloa!?

I didn’t get a definite answer, but through the dust I could tell that something was moving right in front of me.

But, despite that, it took a moment before I could understand what I was looking at.

From the dust and mana residue, a creature emerged.

I say creature… It’s a bit rude.

It was humanoid in shape. If someone just gave it some baggy clothes, there would be no difference… I mean without a face that is.

The face was… hard to miss. Or I should say: its lack of it.

Yeah. The creature did have no face. Just a blank… piece of wood? With some scars with oddly familiar shrapnel in them?

Same with the rest of the body. Mostly made out of wood, but with many, many pieces replaced by a crystal eerily similar to mine.

-Il…? Is that you?

-Yes.

As the creature answered, the mouth, or rather the spot where the mouth was supposed to be, split open.

An eerie sight, but we were making progress at least.

-What happened? Where are the others?

-They are fine. Probably we’re going to connect to them soon.

-Connect?

I didn’t like the feeling I was getting from her choice of words, and yet, I was interested.

What’s she going to do?

But, instead of focusing on her, I started yelling for the rest of my companions again.

-Kon! For! Ilma!?

-I told you. They are here.

-What the hell do you mean by that?

Instead of replying, she started walking towards me.

That was… worrying.

-Il?

-Yes.

-What “yes”?! I asked you something!

Her lack of reply put me now on guard even more.

As much as I didn’t like it, I raised my hand.

-Stop. There’s something wrong with you.

No answer.

-Please. I don’t want to attack you…

Still nothing.

She was getting closer.

To confirm that I was serious, I gathered mana in front of me, forming the basis of a spell… but that immediately showed me a certain problem.

I didn’t notice, but while the drain was mostly gone, it wasn’t completely done.

Especially so close to the epicenter.

The moment I gathered mana, it got pulled right back towards her, letting her absorb it without even a second glance.

-What in the…

The moment she noticed my failed spell, she leaped towards me with agility I didn’t expect for her form.

-Agh!

Her hand painfully grasped my own neck and… she lifted me off the ground?!

Yeah, that situation didn’t make sense.

First of all, I felt pain from just her touch? How did that work, exactly?

Secondly, how in the hell did she have that much strength?!

Whatever that ritual was, it had to fuel her crystal a lot…

Right. Crystal.

So far, we knew that the wood her body was made before was less durable than me, but we never tested the capacity of her’s… Not like we needed to.

I guess having more pieces of actual crystal made her more powerful…?

But how did those end up in her body? Wasn’t green magic supposed to be used for her rebuilding?

But the crystals embedded in her body, or rather merged with it, were telling the truth.

Kon, whenever he wanted it or not, imbued her with even more crystal.

And, by extension, with even more ILMA.

Yeah, that was clear to me.

What I was talking with wasn’t Iloa I knew, nor ILMA I was used to working with.

It had to be the same one that egged on Il and managed to absorb Axelrod.

And now, it was trying to do the same to me.

That was the pain I was feeling. It was my own essence being pulled towards her. And that was the connection I felt before.

Boosted by mana we fed her, and a bit of my own crystal, she was completely in control.

Magically, that is.

I was not going to just let her manhandle me.

Sure, my magic was being drained, and the moment I tried casting any spell it also got dispelled, turning into residue that only fed her more.

But I still had the advantage of my weight and strength.

Or, I thought so.

I did attempt to shake her off, to free myself from her grip, but for naught.

She wasn’t even trying to stop me.

I did try to grasp her hand, trying to loosen her grip on my neck, but her fingers were like iron tongs: I was not going to move them even a hair.

There was still one other thing I didn’t try.

-Sorry in advance… - I muttered, half to her, half to myself.

And I swung my fist right at her face.

It somewhat worked.

I mean, she didn’t release me, nor did her grip loosen, but I definitely did some damage.

Her wooden head got chipped.

The spot where my stone hand contacted her flat, wooden face was now scratched and cracked a little bit.

Strangely, that didn’t even make her flinch.

Was she even capable of feeling pain?

Despite lack of progress, I was not going to stop.

Whatever I was fighting, it was clearly not Iloa, nor Ilma. If I was to guess, it was most likely ILMA, the AI.

How did she get here? I can’t be certain.

I mean, sure, all of us were carrying a part of her with us, but to be fully sentient from just that tiny spark… If she was capable of that, she’d have done that a long time ago…

Wait. A tiny spark…?

It hit me.

It was no longer a tiny spark.

It was all because of that ritual.

No wonder I felt strange about it. And that I felt the tug before.

It was just her…

It was already too late, but I finally realized what was going on.