The hulking body of a massive beast crashed to the ground with a thunderous sound that radiated outwards from the impact. The shockwave flattened the trees even a kilometer away due to the force still within at such a distance. Struggling to rise onto its thick legs, it seemed to tremble for a moment before those same legs gave out and it finally stopped moving after falling again.

Tess alighted down to the ground from her position she had taken. She had been surprised to learn that a mountain tortoise was literally a massive tortoise when she had first seen it, expecting a more diminutive creature whose proportions had been wildly exaggerated by word-of-mouth stories. She gently poked at the eye socket with the naginata form of the Witchblade, which was just close enough to the ground so she could do so. The light of life was gone from within and her poking elicited no response.

She sat down with a sigh, leaning back against the head of the creature. Charles had been gone for several days at this point, meeting with his mysterious contact in Havenport. Since he had been taking so long, she had decided to travel around the nearby countryside. She had come across various small villages, all of whom had warned her about the ‘policies’ of Havenport which she now knew of. These villages were substantially less protected than the city, a fact that the villages acknowledged, but found that choice preferable to living within the procreative laws. They all had their own various issues at hand, which was where Tess had come in to provide assistance. Today, it was this wayward mountain tortoise.

Tess had been hoping that whatever skill it was she was searching for would be found during her little escapades, but she had not even found a single skill since Charles had left. Since arriving in Ubeta, she had gotten used to rapidly acquiring new skills, so the change was frustrating, especially since one was the key to escaping a life bound to the tyrannical rules of a deity. At least the increases to her levels and stats would be worth the effort as she would likely stop the crazed Viktor more easily.

She thought about how this powerful adversary even posed the threat he did. It was clear that somehow his power grew faster than Tess’s, but there was no skill that boosted growth in such a manner within the Tutorial. The only thing she could come up with was that he had altered the rules binding him to the System, something that she had only seen when her Counter skill was changed to work against Olivia’s deceptions. But that would mean there was a deity backing Viktor, which from what she had seen the man was unlikely to have submitted to. So with no deity backing him, he had managed to crack into the System and modify his own profile. That made Tess’s head spin. Who was as powerful as a deity without being one?

The other concerning factor was what her purpose was meant to be in Chariel’s plan. Defeating Viktor was the start, but Charles had managed to duel Viktor during their escape and come away apparently uninjured. To her, it meant that she was not actually necessary for that. Since Chariel was letting Charles and her get stronger, it meant that there was something worse out there. That only led to the same spiral of thoughts about what was a threat to a deity. It was clear to her that all the answers were tied together, but she still lacked the critical information to complete the picture.

Sighing, she stood and brushed the dust from her cloak. Turning back to the mountain tortoise, she frowned.

“What am I supposed to bring for proof? You’re too big!”

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Atho and Charles were looking at the display which showed a singular skill as the result.

“What is Chaos Energy Manipulation?” Charles asked, “Even I’ve never heard of it.”

Atho shrugged and used his input devices to bring up the entry for more details.

“Let’s see. Someone named Jex originally told me about it. No other entries, so it is very rare. According to them, it infuses other skills with Chaos Energy, which is… incapable of being contained by the System? Does that sound like something you remember from the mastermind’s memories?”

Charles focused inward, combing through the vast quantity of knowledge that had been imbued into his very being at the moment of his creation. Many of those memories were tainted by the pain he had endured at the time, so it was taxing to try and remember Chariel specific memories.

“No,” Charles finally gasped as he refocused on the present, “I’ve got no idea what Chaos Energy is.”

“Could he have kept it from you?”

Charles paused. It made sense that Chariel would not give him knowledge of the one thing that was a threat. After all, he was here to try and find that threat.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“How did this Jex get the skill?”

Atho read further.

“Learned it from someone, refused to give me a name. They lived… wow, near the Edge.”

“The Edge?”

“The edge of the world? You’ve traveled all over and you don’t know about the Edge?”

The world was round. Charles knew that Atho knew that too.

“You know that the edge of the world doesn’t exist, so what are you talking about?”

Atho smirked.

“Looks like I get to show you something for a change.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I’m taking you there. This is too important to leave to chance and I would love to add this rare skill to my set as well. I think Irla would like to take a trip too.”

“Weren’t you just freaking out about your scales getting harvested by Tess?”

“Tess? So that’s her name. Interesting. But you trust her and you’ll stop her if she does try. I’ll be fine.”

Charles felt the headache coming on that signified a difficult problem was about to occur.

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“... so this is my friend Atho and his wife Irla. They’re going to take us to the place where we should be able to learn the skill,” Charles said.

Tess glanced over at the two dragons, who were currently in their human guises and whispering to each other with the occasional glance at Tess and Charles.

“This Chaos Energy Manipulation? Will it work?” she asked.

“I don’t know actually. We’ll have to try it out once we get it.”

Charles led Tess over to the dragons, who immediately stopped their whispered conversation as they did so. Tess noticed the glint in both pairs of eyes, like they intended to do something mischievous, which had Tess a little nervous about their intentions. Introductions were made and before long, Charles was riding on the back of a very overweight looking dragon as she conversely rode on the back of a sleek, elegant dragon of the same color.

“So has the pervert defeated you in combat?” Irla asked at some point.

“What? Why would we fight?” Tess asked back.

“To determine if you are suitable mates.”

“What!” Tess shouted, blushing at the unexpected direction of this conversation with someone she barely knew.

Irla let out a huff.

“I see,” was all the dragon lady said, “Perhaps other conversation topics would be better for this journey?”

“Yes! Anything else!”

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The Edge was indeed not the edge of the world. Rather, it was a town which sat near the top of a mountain whose top had been a glacier. At some point, the glacier had slipped off, leaving a fairly flat area on top and a sheer cliff down one side. The mountain had been so tall that the cliff disappeared through the clouds, giving the illusion that the world just dropped off into nothingness.

Tess found herself short on breath due to the thin air. She marveled that the people here seemed to have little trouble with the thin air, but that was likely due to living in this extreme environment. She glanced over at Charles and was relieved to see that he was likewise struggling. If either was of a lesser fortitude, she felt that they would not have made it this far. Atho and Irla seemed unaffected, which made Tess wonder if these dragons were made of tougher stuff.

“Welcome to the Edge,” Atho said, gesturing at the cliff.

It was an impressive view, but that was not the reason they were here. A healthy tip to the barkeep of the tavern loosened his tongue about people who locally preferred an isolated existence.

“We all like the quiet here. But Rob is a special one. Lives over by the slope path.”

The slope path, it turned out, was the way the ancient glacier had cleared as it departed the mountaintop. Sitting right near the cliff was a small hut that barely looked occupied. The four members of their group seemed uncertain, but it was Irla who got fed up with the delay first and knocked on the door.

It was several moments before the door opened, revealing an elderly looking human man. Tess noticed there were several off-putting features about his appearance, like he felt inconsistent.

“Can I help you?” the man asked.

“Are you Rob?” Atho asked.

“I am.”

“Did you know of someone by the name of Jex?” Charles asked.

“Yes. A sweet girl.”

“Impossible,” Atho replied, “She came through my area about four hundred years ago.”

“He does not smell right,” Irla added.

“Who are you?” Atho demanded.

Clearly the others now felt the same off-putting nature which went with the features. The man going by Rob slowly raised his hand and, to everyone’s shock, began peeling off his own face. Underneath was not the muscle they expected but rather a face of metal.

“You have the aura of Chariel about you,” Rob said with a now somewhat echoing voice to Charles and Tess, “We have much to discuss.”

This Rob was eerily similar to the golem that stood at Viktor’s side.