Effie disappeared into her pocket reality without a trace.

In such a cramped space, there was nowhere to run, especially with the catacomb walls protected by Universal Law.

Rolynd gathered air from around him, drawing it into the Aegis. But, there was something unusual being drawn into the Aegis along with the air: white fumes that he hadn’t noticed, hanging in the air, immune to Universal Law.

Living poison gas?!

It was likely some kind of deadly bacteria. Rolynd needed to be careful about how he manipulated the flow of air, lest he breathe it in. He dragged the poison into the weapon he was making, pressuring the air to a hot orange glow.

There was a lot to consider, and not much time to think.

A multitude of glowing eyes appeared in the darkness, lit by a periodically placed torch.

Rolynd fired a bullet of superheated compressed air at the shape. The sphere spread out as it travelled, forming a cloud of glowing orange energy that cast light onto its surroundings.

An indescribable horror tore its way towards Rolynd on four legs. A wet, fleshy, gaping maw that filled the entire tunnel, dripping saliva, lined with hundreds of needle-like teeth, and a circle of beady eyes around it.

For all of Rolynd’s time on Apolaphia, he had never seen such a creature as this.

Rolynd’s attack tore great chunks of flesh off the creature, spraying black blood across the walls, floor and ceiling of the tunnel, but it did little to stop the momentum of the hulking mass.

If he couldn’t stop it while it was still protected by Universal Law, he would have to expel most of the air inside his Aegis in a last-ditch effort to stop its momentum. That would leave him vulnerable to the poison gas, and to the second creature that was coming from behind.

There was a good chance he was going to be crushed to death, or suffocate.

There was one last trick he knew, vibrating the air within his Aegis at a certain frequency to create a resonant wave. The size and shape of the tunnel would be ideal for this technique. With time and space running out, Rolynd put it to use. A harmonic high-pitched ringing sound emanated from the sphere of Rolynd’s influence. The entire fleshy tunnel began to undulate with instability, bursting open in certain places with wet noises.

At once, the creatures to either side of Rolynd skidded to a stop, barely five meters away from the King. They howled up at the air and pawed at their heads in agony. Some of their eyeballs exploded and blood began to pour out of their various orifices.

But they weren’t dead.

Driven mad, they leapt at Rolynd. His attack was greatly damaging, rupturing blood vessels and internal organs, but it lacked the brute force to stop them. He had been relying on the monsters’ sense of self-preservation to protect him.

Rolynd hastily fired a marble at the wall beside him and leapt after it. His attack exploded a sizeable section of the fleshy wall open. Enough space for him to stand.

Behind him, the two creatures bumped into each other head first, falling to the ground in a scrabbling heap.

A silver sword briefly materialised in the head of the beast on the left, appearing with a wet thunk. It disappeared, only to reappear in the head of the other one. The rest of Effie’s body followed, standing atop the creature with the hilt of her weapon clasped in her hand.

Rolynd’s heart pounded in his chest. He had nearly died. Him. Of all people.

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“Yeah. You’re welcome.” Effie said haughtily. “That’s the second time I’ve saved you now, isn’t it?”

Rolynd ignored her, reducing the lifeless creatures’ bodies to wet mush with his Aegis, smearing them into the sides of the tunnel to make space. Effie reacted by phasing her legs so as not to get them dirty.

“Hey. Not cool.” She protested.

“I had it under control.”

“Barely.”

A slow clapping sound echoed down the soiled corridor that looked like a scene straight out of a nightmare. Someone stepped into the orange light of the torch. The Chimaera.

“Bravo.”

The Chimaera began to pull something from behind him.

A weapon?!

Effie disappeared once again.

Without delay, Rolynd fired a cloud of sharp teeth he had removed from the monsters’ corpses.

The teeth were fired at such speed that they left a trail of glowing, ionised air. The fleshy walls rippled with the power of the shockwave the teeth left in their wake

Any human’s body would’ve been reduced to a bloody mist and a pair of boots.

But from the Chimaera’s outstretched hands holding what looked to be a block of metal, a plant with metal leaves sprouted in an instant, only to shatter into a cloud of dust as Rolynd’s projectiles struck it. The mysterious Chimaera deflected what he could into the walls, and slowed the rest of the debris to a crawl with his telekinesis.

“You’ll need to try harder than that.”

Rolynd didn’t reply to his enemy’s taunting. He was thinking. What was his power? How might they exploit its weaknesses?

At that moment, a silver sword materialised in the space of the mysterious Chimaera’s chest.

“You’ve never had to kill one of your own, have you Ephemeral?” he asked Effie, who looked at him, stunned. There was a hole where Effie’s sword should have run him through. The enemy Chimaera’s body had shifted in shape. His head impossibly turned right around to face Effie, but it did not break his neck. “Our gemstones all have similar reaction speeds. They can sense disturbances in probability.”

Effie disappeared once more.

The Chimaera’s head spun to face Rolynd again.

“As you can see, I’ve made many sacrifices to be here. I’ve had to change myself… tell me, was it worth it?”

Rolynd didn’t reply, instead choosing to respond with a disgusted glare.

He had figured the Chimaera’s power figured out. His opponent could transmute matter. It seemed that he specialised in living matter, almost as if the Incandestine had trained him to be a threat to control Rolynd, whose greatest weakness was Universal Law.

Rolynd decided to dub the Chimaera ‘Midas’ after the King of ancient folklore who transmuted everything he touched into gold.

Midas could evidently change the structure of his own body as he pleased.

Midas reached behind him once again. Another chunk of metal appeared in his hands. Where had it come from?

That was his weakness, Rolynd decided. Just like Rolynd, Midas’ powers could only affect non-living things, with the exception of himself. That meant that once Midas had transmuted matter and given it life, he couldn’t change it again.

So, remove Midas’ supply of non-living matter, and the Chimaera would be powerless.

“Why did you kill him?” Rolynd asked. He was buying time. Hoping that Effie was deducing their enemies’ weaknesses just as Rolynd had.

“Kill him? Who? Oh, you mean that boy scurrying through the palace. He just seemed a little too weak to deserve living any longer. That’s how this world is, the strong devour the weak.”

“So, do you see yourself as a force of nature, then? Benevolently enacting its wishes?”

“Wow, you really get me. It’s a shame that the Empress wants you dead. I think we could really get along! I give life, and so, I deserve to take it. That’s another aspect of how the Universe is; everything has to have a balance.”

“Yes. Let me teach you another natural law: those that let the power get to their head never see it coming.”

At that moment, a magic circle complete with reagents appeared beneath Midas’ feet, materialising from Effie’s pocket dimension.

“Huh?”

A portal to a volcanic hellscape opened up beneath Midas’ feet. He immediately sprouted wings to keep himself from falling through, but a swarm of flaming, bat-like creatures flew through the portal from below and latched onto the Chimaera, biting, tearing, and burning him all over. The sound of sizzling flesh and screams rang out and echoed through the catacombs as Midas struggled. One could now see that the Chimaera had something strapped to his back; a cylindrical Incandestine teleporter that must’ve been the source of the boy’s raw material.

Rolynd saw his opportunity, and with one last blade of wind, sliced Midas’ hands clean off, pulling the gemstone hives towards him with a vacuum of air.

“NOOOO!” Midas screamed as he fell through the portal moments before it closed after him.

Effie soon reappeared beside Rolynd.

“Nice job,” Rolynd said to Effie. He indirectly compressed Midas’ hands into one ball of solid gemstone with his Aegis. “Do you mind putting these away for me?”

“Ugh. Alright. I better not catch anything.” Effie said, obliging.

She phased her hand into the sphere of Midas’ gemstones, and while it was superimposed with her body, she sent it into her pocket dimension where it would be stored safely.

“So where did you send him? Mount Zagros?”

“Mount Zagros.”

“No sign of the Heartseeker despite all of that commotion… Let’s get out of here.”