Ray

Ray moved closer, ready to attack, but the man moved too fast. The sword had collided with Norman before Ray could do anything. The skill of someone far more powerful than Ray. And then the sword broke. Or rather, crumbled to pieces as if the attack had injured the sword rather than Norman.

'What are you doing, you pipsqueaks! I knew I shouldn't have trusted you Humans, but you had such tasty cookies…do you still have them? I can tell you how to build better swords than that one if you give them to me. No, wait, I shouldn't help you. Why shouldn't I help you?' Norman said, making Ray want to slam his face into a wall somewhere. Norman, could you stop obsessing over cookies for a minute!

'Wait, Ray, is that you? Have you been here too? Tell these people to get me cookies!' Norman said.

'Norman, you need to get out of there! Do whatever you did to get to the forest, run!' Ray said.

'Wait, what forest? Does it have cookies?'

Wha- Just why was Norman thinking about cookies so much? Was it some Fae thing he was unaware of? No, this wasn't the time to think about this, he could figure it out later.

'Norman, what Tier are the people around you?' Ray asked.

'The big guy is Tier 13, but the rest are even lower.' Norman said.

Tier 13, not as bad as Ray thought, but still more than he could handle.

'Norman, I am going to take you out and then come back with others to rescue everyone else.' Ray said, looking at the poor people in the cages. The cages were filthy, and its occupants clearly mistreated. Not that he would expect anything else from these people.

'I wouldn't suggest waiting any longer. I don't think these guys are going to stop anytime soon.' Norman said as the burly man slammed another sword on him. Ray winced, anticipating a gruesome scene, but to his surprise, the sword crumbled again.

'The swords in this building are too weak, I already checked. But the Elves in here aren't going to survive much longer. I would suggest getting help now. I am older than this paltry Empire Ray, I can survive these paltry attacks.' Norman said, showing a rare moment of clarity.

Ray was certainly shocked. But he was right, Ray couldn't handle this alone, he was too weak. But the rebellion wasn't. Ray had no idea if the Satyrs they wanted were here, but he was sure they would be happy about the ones there were.

Ray went back into the lab, looking for any way out. The search didn't take long, there was a collection of 'tokens' there, not quite unprotected in the middle of a lab full of Mages, but still something Ray could access. Ray poured mana into one of the tokens while he snatched the rest. A few seconds later, he was somewhere in the Commoner's district. The smell of the gutter was unmistakable after all.

Ray walked out, trying to find a way back, but to no recourse. But he did have that communication crystal Anita had left him.

"Ray?" Anita's drowsy voice said. "What happened?"

"Can you come help me, please?" Ray asked.

"What happened? Do you want me to kill someone?" Anita asked.

"… Yes, actually. The Xnarthan kidnapped Norman and are keeping him in some kind of secret base with a lot of other non-Humans. I think they are running experiments on them." Ray said.

"Well, that certainly sounds like the Xnarthan. What do you need me to do and how powerful are the enemies? I need to know if I have to call Momma." Anita said.

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"Tier 13, but I would suggest that you call the rebellion instead. The Shadow Princess should be in the market. I have no idea where I am, though…" Ray said.

"Just turn to your right, walk straight for a few kilometers, and you'll get to the main road. The market should be easy to get to." Anita said. Ray was speechless. "What? I just added a little tracking software in case you got into trouble. Now go, time to hurry."

Ray followed her instructions, running the whole way. The market was quieter than when he had left. Not to mention the dead bodies on the street. What the heck happened here?

"The Xnarthan decided to intervene. The Shadow Princess wasn't very polite. In fact, she killed them all without negotiating and declared that the rebellion took responsibility. The stall owners ran after that, and so did we. But as you can see, some of us came back." Rena said, giving him a quick run down. "So, I hear you found the place? An underground lab?"

"Do you have the location? I can get some people there quickly, though it will be a problem if they are Tier 13, I can't handle those." the Shadow Princess said, rushing her words. Ray started to reply, but was interrupted by Anita.

"I can. Do you have the place? I can get teleporters too." Anita said.

"I have teleporters, though just a few. Can you give that tracking thing to someone else so that they can track our location?" Ray asked.

"The place could be packed with Xnarthan, rushing in would be foolish. I suggest letting the rebellion handle it." Rena said.

"I am going in, you can stay here if you want. Norman is in there, and I am not leaving him alone." Ray said.

"Do we get anything if we go in?" Gordon asked.

"Yes, the peace of mind that you helped hundreds of sapient humanoids that our species is torturing to…do whatever the Xnarthan want to do. And I am sure the Satyrs will be happy to have their children back." the Shadow Princess said. "A reward might await, though I can't guarantee anything."

"Hmm, you could say that it would be counted in our upcoming negotiation."

"So, you are going to join us. " The Shadow Princess said, sounding happy.

"No, we're still considering it. But sweetening the deal wouldn't hurt. " Ray said.

"I can't assure anything, but sure, we'll count it. " The Shadow Princess said.

"I can take the tracker to Ray's Mom. I would be useless in the battle itself. " Marcus said.

"Well, we've no time to waste. How many teleporters do you have, Ray? " Anita asked.

Ray took out the teleporters, counting them. "Nine."

"Ok, that means me, the Shadow girl, you, Rena, Gordon, Torrin, hmm we're still missing three people. " Anita said.

"Dorrit, Rempe and Vortel can join us. Tier 10,9 and 7 respectively. " The Shadow Princess said.

"I see no problem with that. " Ray said, handing out the teleporters as Marcus ran off.

The nine of them poured mana into the teleporters, teleporting to the base. But this time, all was not what it seemed.

The corridor was different from Ray remembered. Not just darker, but also filled with a breezy pink mana.

"The defenses are on. " Ray warned.

"The Void dislikes them, '' Anita shouted, shooting Void into the space to no effect.

" Was that supposed to do anything? "The Shadow Princess asked.

"The last time I was here, they were able to detect that someone had teleported in. An attack is incoming" Ray said.

A rebellion member scoffed. Dorrit, was it? " As if you could see one coming. The place is clear, I already checked. Come on, we're not cowards like you revolution people. " Dorrit said as she walked forward.

And promptly disappeared.

"As I said, something is up. " Ray said.

" Do we have a choice in walking in? " The Shadow princess asked.

"Not really. " Ray said.

Well, here goes nothing then. " she said, walking in. Ray followed in, the rest following.

The second he stepped into the mana filled area, his surroundings changed into some kind of valley.

Ray was in the middle of dried trees now, staring at a bleak yellow landscape. An illusion, likely courtesy of Professor Revelia.

Ray traveled in, following the way he had traveled before. The only thing he could do now was travel deep enough to kill Professor Revelia and free others.

The landscape didn't change, the same area appearing, making Ray second guess himself. On a hunch, Ray put his hand on where the wall was supposed to be, and it passed right through.

Ray panicked, sending mana in, only then realizing that he couldn't see any mana at all. Wait, why did he realize it until now? What was going on?

The illusion, it was weird. Ray was unsure of everything he saw. The space around him seemed genuine. Was he teleported without knowing it? No... it couldn't be. But what other explanation was there?

Wait. An illusion would fool senses. The illusion could be fooling his tactile senses like it was his eyes. Ray hesitated as he followed the route, looking around nervously. The illusion didn't clear as he approached the lab, finally stepping through the barrier that would mark the change.

At first, nothing happened. And then Ray took a couple more steps in. The landscape disappeared, green replacing the yellow as Ray entered what looked like another illusion.