I don’t think he was trying to lie to me…

But I had a different theory.

Portals had nothing to do with it.

There was one thing that was linking every single person that had more resistance to her influence.

And that was MY crystal.

Not just Origin Crystal, not some weird mana. It was just me.

But why the hell would that be the case?

It’s not like I had some weird power or some crap. I was just a regular person… Well, used to be, I am not talking about the changes I went through during my “holiday” here.

Was it the connection to ILMA? Or, well, the Iloa rather…

That was one possibility.

That would also explain why Mike was so resistant too. But… No. That was not it.

After all, he was the first one to be converted, right?

Yeah.

There was no mistaking it.

The whole act… I was not buying it. I felt like something was off the moment he appeared on that island.

Sure, that… creature that was in front of me had to have something similar to Mike, but that was not him. Some pieces that remained…

But why was SHE doing that?

Didn’t she have me in the palm of her hand?

What was this charade all for?

Also, if it was really her, or at least part of her, why was I not just staying in one place? I should teleport right next to her, right?

It could be the case that the other one was the main body, and this one had a very loose connection, so…

Wait.

I think I get it…

And just as I finally figured it out, he… yeah, “he” spoke up, confirming my thoughts.

-You know, let’s stop trying this. It’s clear that your teleports are more problematic than helpful. Let me try something.

-Hm… well, you’re not wrong… - I said, trying to not let my thoughts slip out. - But what do you have in mind?

-I’ll try teleporting the two of us myself.

-I thought you didn’t want to risk more time dilations?

-I don’t, that’s true. But it’s either this or letting your randomness delay us any more.

-Like your randomness is better.

-I think yes, at least it will be a lot less time wasted.

-Mhm… and the target? You want to target what?

-Er… of course, still her? - he replied, shrugging. - We still are going to need your contract to work as an anchor.

-Okay… Sure…

-If you think that’s going to work, why weren’t we doing that in the first place, though? - I asked as he nodded in acknowledgement after my agreement. - Wouldn’t that be better?

-I am not sure if it’s going to work. I would never try this, but our circumstances are kind of forcing my hand right now.

-Right…

He was straight up talking bullshit.

While it was probably true that he would have a good chance at teleporting us, and also that it was a risky endeavor, I don’t think that’s what he was planning at all.

I mean she.

And the next request I heard confirmed my worries.

-I need to focus for a while. Give me a moment.

-What, not used to portal magic…?

-It’s not… I mean, this is a bit different than regular portal magic, we are not using regular anchors.

-What, my contract is not regular enough…?

-Oh, of course not - he shook his head. - The staggering amount of failures is not enough of a sign for you?

-I still don’t think those were failures.

-But those never got us closer to the target. Only made us lose time.

He was not wrong.

-Doesn’t matter. Just give me a moment. Meanwhile, you can summon your contract, please? When I am ready, I’ll use it to try and hook onto her signature.

-Er…? Now? Don’t want me to wait when you’re ready? - I asked, not hiding my surprise.

-If I am going to have to ask you, there’s a good chance that I am going to lose concentration on my mana. And I need a lot of it.

-Not like you don’t have enough to do this hundreds of times over…

-Of course. But I’d rather do it once and be done with it instead of constant repeats, you know?

-Hmgh…

The request caught me off guard.

I honestly was thinking that he didn’t want to even use that portal. Just wanted to waste time to let main ILMA do her job, maybe get us into another time anomaly inside of my portal.

Or, to get me to waste more mana.

Maybe they’d say that he’s lacking energy and told me to share some of mine, to make me weaker.

But, it seemed like they actually wanted to teleport again.

What was bothering me, though, was the unusual request about my pact.

Okay, sure, that it was supposed to work as an anchor was a theory as good as you can get in our situation…

It’s not like weirder shit didn’t work for me before.

But to make me show it before…? I kind of didn’t get it.

We all were powerful. I am not going to buy the argument that gathering mana is so hard that they’re scared of suddenly losing focus on it and wasting energy.

After all, we were surrounded by infinite amounts of that. Mana was everywhere, especially with our abilities to drain magic.

Was that… actually the truth…?

Should I trust this spell…?

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I decided to at least play along.

For now.

-Okay, just get the contract, that’s it…?

-Yep. How long can you hold it?

-It doesn’t need much mana… at all, really, so pretty much indefinitely, so…

-Okay…Good. What, you never used it?

-Not in this form, no.

-In this form…?

-Well, I just never kept the contract open for so long. This magic is not very reliable.

-Huh.

-Okay. I am starting.

-Let’s go…

Just like asked, I summoned the contract and waited.

At first, there was nothing happening with it, Mike… or not-Mike just started gathering mana around himself, just like he said he’ll need to.

But… soon I started finding it strange…

I mean, I was suspicious beforehand and already was almost sure that they’re going to try something, so it wasn’t a surprise, but still…

That amount of mana was definitely NOT for a portal.

Hell, the magic they were covered with was so massive, they looked almost like a leyline.

And not only that, the magic they were pulling was gathering from everywhere in eyeshot and beyond, including a couple interesting things.

First of, not really concerning while tapping into the leyline himself.

Before, I didn’t even notice that we were on one, but knowing the place it was not that surprising.

Maybe because they pulled so hard, the hidden vein just got brought above the ground?

That would do it.

That was giving the image of looking like a leyline another layer…

The second observation, and the source they were trying to tap into was more concerning…

And that was me and my contract.

What was he… scratch that, what were they doing?

I didn’t have a problem with them trying to absorb my own mana: I knew it was futile, as long as I was crystal, I’d be fine. I could lend them some, and I actually did, knowing as they fed me before, it was common courtesy.

But the contract… I was not going to let them try and mess with that.

-Don’t be so hungry, or you’ll absorb the contract, too.

-Then protect it! It’s hard to control that much at once!

Where did the “need to focus” go?

They were talking fine, and definitely didn’t need to.

-Fine, fine…

I feigned ignorance, and just pulled the contract closer to myself, focusing on it.

Even though I said it was fine, I was not sure how exactly to protect it.

I mean, the obvious would be to retract it back into myself, but that would be completely against what they said they “needed”.

With lack of better ideas, I just tried supplying it with more mana.

Didn’t work, it only made it glow a bit more and I still felt them drain bits off it.

Maybe a different approach…

Wait, since they were absorbing everything…

I covered it with my own mana, hoping that it was targeting the area not the spell directly, and…

It worked.

Well, somewhat.

I still felt them drain magic from the area of the contract, but just as I thought, it was not going directly for it, just absorbing what was in the area.

The layer of mana I created managed to ward the spell from being interfered with directly at least.

For now.

I still was losing magic. It wasn’t much and I would probably be able to sustain it for a very long time, but soon it started intensifying.

Did they realize that I was successfully protecting it and tried pulling harder?

It… actually might be possible.

They were expecting me to fail. Or at least waver.

But I was not going to let them.

And, I think they were fine with that.

After all, I was just supplying them with magic.

It seemed like we were stuck in a war of attrition.

One that would clearly end with my loss if that would go for too long. There was no way that my passive regeneration would be able to catch up to their hungering drain. I would have to drain something soon, especially since they were also absorbing mana from the immediate surroundings, making the rejuvenation harder and harder.

-Calm down, I said! - I tried bartering with them. - I am not going to be able to sustain this for long! Don’t you have enough mana?

But, there was no response.

I want to say because they were so focused on keeping up the drain…

But I know better.

I was just getting ignored.

So, we finally came to that? We stopped pretending?

Well, at least partially.

Whatever. I was not going to just do nothing.

I had plenty of mana still, and was not going to let them absorb all of it.

Still keeping up the act, I didn’t unsummon the contract, instead focused twice as hard on covering it with my mana.

On top of that, I kneeled down and placed my hand on the ground.

Focus.

They weren’t the only ones who were able to drain mana.

At first, I started absorbing just the magic from the ground. There wasn’t much of it, but that was not the point: the idea was to extend my reach further, just as they were doing.

It wasn’t that hard: especially because all the heavy lifting was done. Their pull had already gathered massive amounts and pulling more, the mana had to come near me to get to them. I could just intercept it.

That was just the first step.

While it was keeping me mostly in equilibrium, I thought it was better to be on top of things and also have a bit in reserve, just to be safe.

And I was going to do that by tapping into the leyline myself.

While leyline wasn’t exactly next to me, it was getting pulled towards them, and I knew better not to directly try and gather from it: I’d be connecting to them, and I’d like to avoid it, for now at least.

I could, however, absorb the magic that it was leaking. Get close enough so I would gather it, but not approach so near that I’d be connected fully.

It’d be easier if I was able to move.

Well, I could, but it’d clearly show my intentions: for now I wanted to be at least vague enough to leave them with enough uncertainties so they wouldn’t act immediately.

I had to extend my own mana and my pull, trying to control it very carefully.

I never tried doing that remotely without any assistance, so I was surprised that it came to me so easily.

The moment I made up my mind, my own mana replied in kind, effortlessly executing whatever I wished.

Damn.

I really was changing.

Whatever, that was not the time for that! I had to keep focused.

Strangely, though, I didn’t have to keep it up for much longer.

Only a half minute later or so, the gravitational force of his mana suddenly stopped increasing. Same with the magic amount: it stabilized.

I prepared for the worst: with that much mana, whatever spell would he cast, it’d be massive. Both in size and in power.

Hell, even a small spark would’ve been problematic: igniting that mana would’ve been equal to a rather large bomb exploding right in my face.

While it was the least efficient way to spend it and with just physical damage I’d for sure be able to recover sooner or later, it would’ve still been problematic.

But, nothing happened.

I am unsure what they were planning, because they were just standing there, covered in magic, waiting.

Should I call them out…?

-What are you doing? Where’s the portal? - I asked, feigning ignorance. - Do I still need to keep up the contract?

No reply.

Of course, still pretending that they were “busy” or whatever.

Okay, sure.

-Do I need to get closer?

Keeping up the act, I slowly started walking towards them.

I knew that was the last thing they wanted: if I was to walk a step more, I’d be in range to absorb a part of the whole blob that they were keeping gathered now.

But… They didn’t stop me.

Calling my bluff? Hell no.

I took a step.

Mana surged into me.

The blob was not yet part of them, so I was still able to absorb it: just like a loose orb I often was making prior to casting a spell.

Another step.

Still having contract up and in front of me, I still was trying to sell the act of “helping” in the spell, albeit poorly.

To be honest, I was surprised that they weren’t calling me out on it.

But, it was not like there was no reaction to my actions.

They did start to manipulate that massive amount of mana, finally. Not really in a way that would scream “I am opening the portal”, but also not “I am being hostile”.

Honestly, I couldn’t tell what they were exactly planning. From my perspective it just looked like they started making the mana more dense, trying to compress it a bit more.

Were they trying to pull it into themselves…?

No, that was not it. The spot where the mana was gathering was not their body, it was just outside of it, nearby.

I mean, that could’ve meant any spell in the world, so I just had to be careful and observe carefully…

But, that was not what caught my full attention a moment later.

Something was approaching.