As the group had approached Wyndaos, it had been increasingly obvious that the reports of its impenetrability had been greatly exaggerated. They had not been harried even once during their advance. All the energy they poured into stealth suddenly seemed pointless.

Yet Elhume had difficulty navigating through his emotions. Perhaps it was the bleak statements made by the Cult of the Savior and then Nether King Hungry Eye’s refusal to assist, but he was beginning to feel slightly desperate. He could almost feel himself unraveling, the harsh Nether environment sizzling against his skin.

Duo, the massive segmented centipede companion that the Patron of the Borrowed had asked for assistance, clicked its teeth together and called for the group to halt. Its beady black eyes swept across the gathered individuals as they crouched in a small depression. “Chicheh. I must remind all that our foes are as numerous as this blank silver expanse is wide. Do not hesitate. If we will have any hope of reaching the Arbiter, we must carve a path through flesh.”

“You know,” Mae Myrna had made her extreme dislike of Duo extremely clear in the two weeks of the journey through the Nether Lands it had taken them to get here. Now, she glowered at the five-meter-long creature. “You sound less like you offer a friendly reminder and more like you are trying to normalize your own cruelty.”

“Cheh, think what you wish, girl.” Between its speaking, Duo’s jaws continued their metronome-like clicking. “If you do not possess the requisite spine, leave. Dead weight will doom us in the attack on Wyndaos. Mercy requires time and power, of which we have a finite amount.”

Click. Click. Click.

Elhume pressed his eyes shut. Before they made it out onto the Hollow Plains, the group had encountered several Nether patrols. Duo’s… hungry response to the dead’s still-warm flesh had lingered in his mind. He had a near-constant headache knocking behind his eyes, but he was also closer to saving Pine than he had been in a hundred years.

He just it hadn’t started to sound so hollow when he reminded himself of that fact.

So close. I’m so close. Elhume forced his eyes open. I know the Cult of the Savior cannot be trusted… but I haven’t been able to accomplish anything on my own. Maybe I can finally be a worthy father.

…much more than I ever was a proper husband…

Mae opened her mouth to snap back at Duo, but Elhume gave her a pleading look; as difficult as it was to swallow, they required its power in order to survive this deep in Nether territory. Even if the journey had been uneventful so far, that surely couldn’t continue. Mae’s glower shifted to Elhume, but she did twist and stomp away from the centipede creature. Around her body, her new swirling image lashed out at the air, barely restrained by the loose envelope Nether King Hungry Eye had sewn for her.

Looking at the image’s sloshing force, Elhume couldn’t help but wonder if his Patron of Truth had become more powerful than him. He looked away, suppressing the poisonous thought. Just one more emotion he needed to ignore, tossed into the growing pile. Around them, the other Patrons shifted uneasily.

They continued their advance toward Wyndaos, tirelessly gliding across the vast Hollow Plains.

On the night before the attack, they rested in one of the strange, spherical hollows scooped out of the ground. No one felt at enough ease to sleep, but all made a show of it, closing their eyes and forcing their muscles to relax. Elhume, affecting the same languid ease on the gentle slope of the sphere with the rest of his body, squeezed his fists until every knuckle in his hands popped. How long have you waited for me to make good on my promise to protect you, Pine? I used you to create this universe, hoping it would shield you, but you’ve been dispersing through this slightly smaller area. If this continues in the way that the Cult of the Savior warned…

Even if that group of bastards is clearly one of those meddling forces from the main universe…!

Eventually, the time to ‘rest’ came to an end. Mae Myrna tried to catch his gaze, but Elhume kept his eyes down. He needed to stay focused right now. She released a huff and threw her hands into the air, but didn’t push the issue.

The group gathered itself, prepared its weapons, and then accelerated toward Wyndaos. Silver dust glittered in their wake, although clinging close enough to the ground so as to not reveal their passage. From some nook of its chitinous armor, Duo produced three sets of thin, insectoid wings. For now they remained entirely still, but Elhume remembered how the air hummed with their supersonic vibrations. It felt like a breath against the back of the neck, the approach of a hungry horror.

“That pillar is the edge of the claimed land of Wyndaos,” The Patron of Blades pointed toward a tall, carved pillar of pale stone that had been inserted into the ground. The air currents picked up silver dust and lent an ethereal aura to the work. Strange whorling patterns had been carved across the pillar length and inlaid with black wicker, turning it into a beautiful work of art. “Beyond that should be their parade grounds. It is almost guaranteed we will meet high-tier Nether Warriors.”

Elhume felt a strange sense of relief, to finally be approaching an enemy. But his skin itched as he scanned the horizon; he couldn’t detect even the slightest hint of a threat in front of them.

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“Blades up. Stow away your weakness and focus on our goals,” Duo shot a pointed glance at Mae, who ignored it. Even her looks at Elhume had ceased. Its constant, jittery clicking felt more annoying than usual, but it was difficult for Elhume to tell. The group focused on their images, bringing them into readiness within their bodies.

Elhume still remembered the wild horrors of the early Nexus, when Nether Kings swept like the black-water froth of malevolence across the land, destroying entire swaths of Aether settlements. Now that they had centralized their power beneath a single Arbiter, he couldn’t imagine the power and solidity of their central stronghold.

He hadn’t believed it would be possible, but he found the grit to clench his hands even harder. More than anything else, he wanted the fighting to start so he could throw his punches and rid himself of the strange uneasiness in his chest.

They accelerated into a dash, moving past the Nether pillar. Even Duo pressed his long body low to the ground, its many legs twitching as they ran. Everyone hummed with tension, just as ready for the fight to begin as Elhume.

But when they finally encountered their first Nether Warrior, it was only a child.

A young beastkin girl with her hair sticking up in every direction scampered across the ground, silver dust on her hands and knees demonstrating she had recently fallen. Her face twisted into a concentrated frown as she chased after a tattered cube of brightly colored paper and cloth, being pushed around by the constant wind.

Duo’s wings began to buzz. The giant centipede practically teleported next to the child, its bulk blocking all vision of the small Nether being. The only constant was the movement of its jaws, although the sound changed.

Squelch. Squelch. Squelch.

“She was just a child-” Mae whispered. The energy swirling around her grew more violent. Elhume kept himself from examining its force too closely, even though he could feel its pressing against his skin like heat from a bonfire.

Duo whipped its head around, blood still dripping from its jaws. “Hurry. We have much luck, not being noticed by their patrols. But luck does not hold. Not against the Nether.”

Above them, the wind rose across the Hollow Plains. It sensed their incursion and rose in warning to the Nether Warriors waiting within. While keeping himself from looking too closely at the gore on the ground and the crumpled cloth toy next to it, Elhume lengthened his stride. His breaths came heavy and hot. He felt so close now. All he had to do was focus and this task would be over quickly.

Besides, Elhume bit his lip. The Nether’s aggression has brought this on themselves. The recent attack by Bleak Sky is just the last in a long line of vicious expansionist tendencies. They chose this Path for themselves.

Time began to grow runny almost exactly when they spotted the high wall of carved black wicker that marked the edge of their main settlement. Faces peeked out behind fixtures of twisted jet, all rams’ horns and the devils’ claws. Finally, Nether Warriors raised a call of alarm and there was a flurry of movement. Huge axes, spears, and greatswords could be seen popping up along the defensive perimeters. Only a score now, but if they had time to gather more assistance-

Elhume’s mouth settled into a grim line. As the group accelerated, he licked his lips.

The Patron of Blade led the way, with the Patron of the Sun on his heels. He hopped up and released a powerful slash, grinding and cracking the powerful black wicker in a single strike. Then came a blast of concentrated sunlight, wedging itself into the flaw and prying open the defenses. Small bits of the material sprayed in every direction and the Nether Warriors fell backward off the wall.

With an opening created, Duo skittered and hummed forward, a train of death with long, lashing legs.

Elhume followed up quickly, hurdling over the top of the wall and landing next to a Nether warrior with two short spears. He tried not to notice how young the Nether Warrior looked as he shifted his weight back into his heel, settled his stance, then punched. So long prepared and kept under wraps so as not to alert the Nether forces to their approach, his image of power and potency exploded.

He punched and ripped through the Nether Warrior’s hasty defense, caving in his chest. The Nether Warrior was obviously weak, but the problem was not this foe, but those that would arrive if they were delayed too long-

Elhume shifted his left foot sideways, knocking the feet out from under another Nether Warrior that pounced up onto the wall. With the other Patrons streaming over the black wicker wall around him, he smashed his fist down into the back of the off-balanced warrior’s head. Then he moved past that crumpled form and scanned the area for approaching threats.

…but he saw nothing but the backs of young or elderly Nether Warriors as they fled from the offensive. Even now, with shouts of alarm spreading out, no powerful Nether auras revealed themselves in the surroundings.

“There are other defensive layers,” Duo hissed and as one the whole group charged forward. Small flickers of power came from deeper within the Wyndaos complex, so the Patrons held nothing back. The fluttering tents in front of them were steamrolled in the charge.

Sweat dribbled down Elhume’s forehead, more from adrenaline than any sort of forceful exertion. His fists splattered several more weak Nether Warriors across the ground and then they reached the next black wicker barrier. This one was smaller, more like a series of carved saplings lashed together into a two-meter fence, but when they jumped over, a series of Nether Rituals exploded upward at their feet.

Pain flared in Elhume’s side as a rod of pure force shattered one of his left ribs and finally, his distractions were truly driven away. He fell upon the Nether forces as a righteous god of vengeance, his powerful punches methodically hammering back the defenses. The wind, the droning of Duo, and the cries of his Patrons created a chaotic battlefield.

All of it was for Pine. And if this was the only way to save his son, so be it.

His resolve lasted only a short while. Because his image ran roughshod over the Nether Rituals and his fist ended the lives of several ancient-looking Nether Heralds, leaving the group quite unopposed in their passage to the central areas.

When the stiffest resistance they met was the sound of begging and sobbing as Duo ate its way through the Nether Warriors, Elhume stood frozen over the corpses. His numb mind gradually pieced together what had just happened.

Until they found the Arbiter, he dared not turn around; he couldn’t handle any evidence of what his mind began to suspect happened here.