"What do you mean you didn't?" I groaned. "I'm literally looking at you."

Sereza gave the both of us a weird look but kept silent, content to watch the drama unfold. She did, however, keep her grip on her daggers and had them pointing in Isaac's direction.

"Stop being so literal," Isaac complained. "You've seen me use this skill before. Come on, think."

I paused, "Wait. Are you using a clone? That can breach a goddess's barrier?"

"Ding. Ding. Ding." Isaac announced sarcastically. "And no, that would be ridiculous. I'm only tier two. There's no way anything I can do would even scratch a tier five."

"Then how? Spill."

"I said it would be ridiculous. Luckily, the barrier is physical. Not dimensional."

I stopped. And as if a lightbulb went off in my head, I realized what he meant. My mouth fell open, and I couldn't help but stare. "What the fuck? Wait, then why is this a clone."

"Because I can't actually cross the barrier. The barrier isn't entirely physical; most of the spatial distortions are being blocked, and nobody could teleport into the city if they tried. I could only squeeze a clone in here because it's not my real body, and I dived through the shadowplane."

"Hold on a second. How long have you been maintaining this? And are you why the building is untouched."

Isaac frowned and sighed in exasperation as Magnus kept trying to swat his leg. I called Magnus back and picked him up to rest between my arms.

"One moment."

Isaac did something, and the shadows retracted. The room started to reveal itself, and light began to enter through the windows, illuminating the space. When the shadows continued to be drawn into the clone, he took a few steps back until he was in the shaded part of the room where the light didn't reach.

"There, now you can see me better," he sighed. "I'm able to keep the skill up because my real body is hidden underground with the others. You can't tell because of the barrier, but it's insane out here. The gods are fighting with their avatars, and Melza-whatever's cult is too busy summoning monsters to give us peace. Be happy you are in there where it's safe."

I snorted. "Relatively so, the monsters come alive at night, and something massive was destroying the city. I don't know where it's fucked off too but it has to be resting somewhere."

"Not the same, and you know it. And moving on, I'm not sure why this building is untouched. I noticed it the first morning when you didn't contact me. My senses are nonexistent in clone form, but there's something happening on the second floor. Big enough that I could feel the spatial distortion near the bottom of the stairs."

That comment set us on edge. I turned to Magnus, who had somehow fallen asleep in my arms.

While adorable as fuck, it's not the time for this.

I firmly but gently shook the cat awake. I felt Magnus' discomfort through the link, so I ramped it up.

"Maaaasteeerrr."

I ignored him and kept rocking him. Zharia let out an angry chirp and landed on his head. She started pecking at his fur, the crystal covering having faded in his sleep, so she was able to pull at clumps of hair.

Eventually, Magnus roared his complaint and complied. There was a mixture of grumpiness and a touch of fear from Zharia's pecks, but he was up and awake.

"Can you feel anything from down here? Beside Isaac's shadow."

I waited, and Isaac and Sereza were content to let Magnus do his thing. It took nearly a minute, but he was able to lock on to what Isaac was talking about.

He wasn't close enough to absorb any mana, but that was fine. I only wanted him to confirm if Isaac was right about the spatial mana, and it turned out he was.

"Looks like you're right. Magnus could detect it from down here. Not that it helps us knowing something so dangerous could be waiting above our heads."

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Isaac shrugged. "Better than going in there blind. Personally, I prefer living rather than dying."

This time, I narrowed my eyes. "Why are you bantering with me? This is more words than you've said the entire month. What's going on?"

There was a moment when the shadows around Isaac flickered, and I could see his eye twitch. Isaac stayed silent as I stared at him.

Eventually, he crossed his arms and looked away. "Stop the staring. Your eyes look creepy glowing like that."

"I'm pretty sure you just insulted our race," Sereza quipped.

"And that's pretty ridiculous hearing that, considering it's coming from a man made of living shadows," I added.

"Woah, woah, fuck off with that," Isaac said hastily. "I didn't mean to... whatever, listen, I have to go because keeping this skill up prevents me from sleeping. If this place is still around, I'll be here tomorrow."

I nodded. "I'll try to be here."

"Good, then I'm off." The shadows maintaining his form began to fade, and he started to sink into the floor. Before his head could disappear from view, he stopped and looked up. "Cyrus... Don't get yourself killed. The others wouldn't be happy, alright? So don't be stupid and stay alive."

With that, he sunk into the floor, and he was gone. On a whim, I had Magnus try to sense if his mana was still there, but he shook his head. Shadows were already hard to sense, and now that Isaac's clone was gone, it was well and truly impossible.

Sereza leaned against the wall behind her, smirking as she looked to where Isaac had been. "Is it me, or was he trying to be sincere at the end? It almost felt like he really cared."

I chuckled and let Magnus drop to the floor. "I think you're right. Not sure, though. Isaac has always been weird whenever we interacted. I don't think he's being malicious, but he does have some kind of problem with me. Just not sure what."

"Sounds like a pain. But whatever, so upstairs?"

"Yeah, we might as well. Worst case scenario, we retreat and find a new place before tonight."

She agreed, and we decided to take a quick break. I shared food and water before we readied our weapons and pushed past the entrance. The first floor was an open room connected to a kitchen and a dining room. The furniture was of decent quality but definitely not something you'd see in a fancier house.

I did happen to notice there was a coldbox in the kitchen. It was smaller than the one Poltor's family-owned, but food was food. I'd just have to remember to store it inside Chomperz if the house stayed standing.

Together, we moved as a pair until we reached the stairs' base. Magnus confirmed it, and even I could sense the amount of mana being used.

It was a lot.

Still, we proceeded up the steps one at a time. Magnus constantly sniffed the air. I wanted to dive through our link and check his memories to figure out what he was sensing, but I didn't want to risk the distraction it would cause.

And when Magnus paused and started to hiss, I took that as a sign to stop. We were just below the dip in the stairs, so the second floor was still hidden from view.

"Magnus, what's wrong?"

"It's everywhere," he replied.

I gritted my teeth and told him to proceed. There was a sense of annoyance and anger coming from Magnus, and it was feeding into my own emotions. My rage took to the connection like a dying man to a hose, and I began to feel hot.

Zharia smashed her head against my ear, forcing my focus away from Magnus' thoughts. "Master, stop. Magnus, too."

I attempted a smile but gave up and focused back on the tiger cub, albeit without the building anger. "Right, sorry. Magnus, don't activate your skill unless something happens. There is too much mana for you to absorb."

Magnus sent a mental nod in acknowledgment and took the last steps up to the second floor. He started walking away from the stairs, and I growled. Not wanting to lose sight of my familiar, I had to sprint to catch up, regretting every bit of sound my steps made.

Then, as my head reached past the lip of the stairs, I could finally see what awaited us on the second floor. And Magnus was only a meter away from the stairwell, where he remained completely still, his back arched.

I approached slowly and stepped in behind my familiar. The strange stomach-twisting feeling that had been growing stronger the further up the steps we got, was now in assaulting my senses. My nose itched, and my eyes were constantly blurring along with the feeling of my body in motion despite being perfectly still.

Sereza slinked into view, and her face was twisted into an uncomfortable frown. "This is crazy."

"Agreed."

"I don't think we want to pop this one. There's too much."

There was no reply to give. She was right, and what we stared at was headache-inducing.

The entire second floor was empty. It was an extended room with nothing in it—no walls, no furniture, not even a bathroom.

And in the middle of the room, glowing with a strange grey and purple light, was what looked like a collage of images pieced together. And to make it worse, the glowing illusion would glitch and flicker in and out. Sometimes, it would melt then reset, followed by the images playing for a few seconds only to pause and reset once more.

It was a strange sight made all the more creepy by the constant pressure of the spatial mana bombarding our bodies. And the images that played, the ones that were whole enough to look at, showed constant snippets of faces. Some screamed, and others were laughing. The entire thing was an eldritch madhouse of an illusion.

As the mana started to physically hurt, I took a step back. The feeling the spatial distortion gave off was enough to make my bones itch. Then, all of a sudden, the pressure skyrocketed, and my head started to pound.

Magnus hissed and launched himself into the illusion. I tried to grab him, but it was too late, and I felt our connection burn.

"Magnus!"

Then reality twisted, and my sight was split into two halves. And before I could yell in alarm, a long white tentacle shot out and wrapped around our waists. I had only a second to suck in a breath as I was yanked through the illusion.

All I could see before the world became a kaleidoscope of colours was Zharia's flaming feathers flowing behind me.