The still images kept repeating over my visor, showing me the same scene over and over again as I tried to take in what had happened. Somehow Scalovera knew what our plans were. Whether that meant a mole, surveillance, or someone with an invisibility or wiretapping function, I didn’t know. Okeria’s communications might not be safe, since Scalovera had a core that did something to electronics.

“Fucking hell.” I crossed my arms and shot a glance at the tree Thorn had done something to, but it had completely gone back to normal. No trail left for me. Not one easily visible, at least. “Okay. So I can’t contact anyone, and people might already know I’m here. Hell, they probably already know I’m here. Which means they probably know where Jun and Ambus are, so they could be in even worse danger than I am.”

I hoped that wasn’t true, but I had to plan for the worst. I sent the drone Thorn had protected with stone into my inventory, thanking the man for what little he’d left me on Scalovera’s guide. Actually, if someone had a guide that could disturb electrical signals, what if they could hijack them as well? No; there was no way Okeria and his friends didn’t know what Scalovera’s core did, so they had to have planned for that. But Scalovera could have always grown stronger.

It had been years since Okeria took over Rainbow Basin. And if Scalovera had been holding a grudge for the entire time, it would make sense for him to try and develop a function that countered Okeria’s. Yeah. If this was Scalovera himself tapping into our communications, he could’ve used the guard’s training exercise as bait to lure out Thorn. That’s why he kept civilians in the barracks; he didn’t want to give up a powerful prisoner in exchange for Thorn. I walked in small circles as my mind raced.

“Okay. That’s one option.” I held my hands out in front of me, resting my spear against my shoulder as I stemmed the flow of assumptions. “If it’s pure wiretapping, that’s the most likely reason. But Ambus or Gloriosa could still be a mole. And the mercenary we beat could’ve left behind some kind of listening device. Don’t go with the first thing you logicked out.”

I needed more evidence, and I needed to look at everything Thorn had recorded for me. The first image had simply shown him being made aware of the human’s presence. Nothing there, except for showing that he’d been where I was now standing for the entire time. I was still in the right place. And I could do what Thorn had been planning–as long as the human hadn’t immediately turned around when Scalovera confronted Thorn.

No. Jun would’ve contacted me if something went belly-up. And Okeria would contact me if he lost contact with Jun and Ambus. For now, I put that option out of my mind. I swiped through the other pictures, memorized exactly what Scalovera looked like, and eventually found myself stuck on one image. The last one. Thorn had buried the drone in stone, yet I’d found it lying in plain sight.

He’d done something to get it back out. And he’d specifically included another picture of him using his core on one of the trees. That had to be intentional. I opened the picture in question and set it to be slightly transparent, then scanned the forest to find the exact tree Thorn had used his core on. It took a few passes, since most of the trees looked extremely similar, but eventually I got a near perfect match.

The tree didn’t look like anything had been done to it. I gently ran my hand over it, feeling for any kind of unnatural ding or bump, but found nothing. The gentle burbling of water running through stone set an unnerving backdrop to my search, and after a handful of minutes of fondling one specific tree, I had to admit that there was nothing there.

“Maybe Thorn switched plans when he saw Scalovera.” I shook my hands and shifted my spear, staring at the tree as I puzzled out my next move. Maybe Thorn had done something to the inside of the tree. Or maybe the subtitled pictures were Thorn’s backup plan. To tell us what happened to him, but not how to save him.

Frustration rose in my throat like ice-cold bile. Scalovera massively screwed everything up. We should’ve been out there quelling Endra’s forces, and squashing any sympathy she might’ve garnered from the other Staura. Or questing out to find the rest of humanity to take care of Endra once and for all.

I pressed my hand to the tree and opened my interface. There was only one true sure-fire way to know exactly what was inside of it. I activated my core, let the petals grind away at the tree until only a small fountain spilling out onto the stone was left.

//CONSUMED MATERIALS ARE UNFIT FOR CORRUPTION.

//CONVERTED TO (2) POTENTIAL INSTEAD.

Absolutely nothing. No errors from trying to use someone else’s materials, no warning from trying to take in an active function; nothing. Thorn had completely abandoned the tree thanks to Scalovera. He’d left me with an explanation and nothing more.

I closed my interface with a swipe of my hand. Thorn was gone for now, and I had a feeling everyone else would go one-by-one until Scalovera had all of Okeria’s old leadership in prison.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

{Hey.} I said to my interface, ensuring my words didn’t leave my helmet. {Have any of the other Embodiments disappeared from wherever they live?}

A few moments passed before I got my answer. The End was becoming less and less punctual as time went on, and that terrified me. That meant it was actively doing other things.

//NOT AS OF YET, THOUGH I HAVE HEARD RUMBLINGS OF SUPPORT.

//WHETHER THOSE RUMBLINGS TURN TO ACTION OR REMAIN SHAMEFUL DESIRES WILL DECIDE THE COURSE OF ACTION WE MUST TAKE.

I sighed and nodded, even though The End definitely couldn’t see me. {That’s about what we could hope for, I guess. Anything else that might be able to help us?}

//THERE IS CURRENTLY NOTHING I CAN DO TO AID YOU.

//FLUX AND STAGNATION HAVE BEGUN THEIR OWN EFFORTS, HOWEVER.

//THEY MAY INDIRECTLY AID YOU, THOUGH THEIR INFLUENCE IS NOT WITHIN THE STAURA PORTION OF THE ALL-WORLD.

//IF SUCCESSFUL, YOU MAY HAVE MORE TIME TO DEAL WITH ENDRA.

//OF COURSE… THAT ALSO LEAVES ROOM FOR ENDRA TO BE PANICKED AND PREMATURELY FORCE WHATEVER HER PLANS MAY BE TO FRUITION.

{Well, that’s what happens if we do nothing, so why not try something?} I said, turning to focus on the distant procession of guards. Still led by the human. They could obviously see me, but weren’t showing even a modicum of hurry. {Keep me informed on what’s going on with Flux and Stagnation. Especially if it looks like it's going to send ripples through the world.}

//OF COURSE.

//GOOD LUCK, SEBASTIAN.

I chuckled darkly, letting my spear fall down my arm until I grabbed it near the head. As long as the other human hadn’t been put through the rigors I’d experienced since I got here, I wouldn’t need luck.

The tirade of expletives quieted down as the procession approached. The human’s air of absolute moronic confidence shrunk ever so slightly, but when they held up a hand for the Staura following them to stop, I knew they were a fucking idiot. They had the numbers advantage. They knew they had enemies in this city.

But they thought I was a Staura. They’d pay for that assumption.

“What are you doing out here, greenie? And with that oh-so-dangerous weapon, too! Ooh, I’m shaking!” The human laughed cruelly, crossing their arms and puffing out their chest as much as they could from within their armor. “Stand down, rotten vegetable. Unless you want your everything tossed away like yesterday’s leftovers.”

I leveled my spear at the human’s chest. If I said a word, there was a chance they’d recognize that I wasn’t a Staura. I wasn’t risking that. A quick flick up, the universal motion for ‘try it’, got another deep laugh.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you! I’m not like you freaks; I’m better! Flesh and blood!” The human boasted as they thumped their chest. Honestly, it was kind of pathetic. The same hatred from Earth, just repackaged with different words.

Instead of wasting any time, I gestured with my left hand and sent four of my slashes at the human. I hid behind them and ran at them, prepping a thrust for the second the human broke through the attack. My attack broke on a massive shield that the human pulled out of nowhere, an off-green slab with black veins that began to glow purple when my slashes struck it. The outermost parts of the veins started first, traveling about a tenth of the way to the black square at the center from those impacts.

Anything that glowed more when you struck it was bad news. It usually meant the thing was storing the energy for some kind of attack, but it could also mean it gave the person wielding it bonus stats. I didn’t let that deter me from one testing stab, my spear impacting the shield with as much force as I could put behind it. Which was one hell of a lot for my level.

The human grunted as I pushed them back a step, then two, and three before I broke away and called my slashes back to me. The shield’s glowing veins advanced to a quarter of the way to the center, and I hadn’t felt the human resist me any more as the glow advanced.

Not a stat boosting glow, then. I made space with a few light steps, pulling my slashes in close so I could react to whatever surprise attacks the guards behind the human made. I’d have to contend with a mass of different cores, and different methods of attack, but I had to hope they weren’t used to fighting other people. And that they didn’t have guns I hadn’t noticed before.

Stone cracked under the human’s shield, and I saw them gesture for one of the guards to step up. “One of you salad freaks! Get over here!”

Every single guard froze up. A worried murmur spread through the entirety of the platoon, and they took a worried step back. I saw helmets turn to look at me for a fleeting second, and that was enough to tell me what I needed to know.

“Hey! I’m talking to you fuckers! Get the fuck over here!” The human hatefully screamed, eliciting a collective flinch that spread through the platoon like a wave. “Jesus fucking Christ, you grassholes are useless! You! At the front! Get over here or I’ll wipe your fucking brain!”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Drown me, you’re a strange one.” I said in my best Staura impression. Which was, unfortunately, also an Okeria impression. “Ya don’t got a lotta trust from those… fellows… behind ya.”

I shook my spear at the guards and cringed internally. That was, quite possibly, the least intimidating motion I could’ve made. “Ain’t no way ya can wipe someone’s mind as easy as that.”

“Watch me!” The human spat, abandoning their shield and lunging for the closest guard.