From the beginning of the monster attack, Lan was as everpresent as ever, dispersing his attention to monitor the situation on multiple fronts, going as far as to dispatch additional thought channels to the task.

However, he dedicated one thought channel specifically to monitor a single person. Matilda. With the vague feeling of familiarity towards her and the various hints about her identity, he couldn't help but do so. After all, to cross the line from speculation to confirmation, only a single push was needed, and Lan hoped to gain it in this battle, protecting the woman in the process.

When Matilda started to 'duel' with the scarred tiger, Lan tensed up in anxiousness, focusing on her even more. When she lost the exchange and had to reinforce her shields to reduce the incoming damage, Lan almost acted, but he saw that she would be fine. Additionally, he remembered that interfering with mana close to her, to reinforce her shield, for example, would be nigh impossible or extremely taxing to himself.

Lan's worry grew evermore when he saw her sorry state afterward, so he tried to help in some way, as it would be too late no matter what her identity was if she died in battle... Though there was an option to attempt to resurrect her, Lan had never tried resurrecting a human before, and neither did he know how 'naming' would work on them, as all humans already had a name.

He thought intensely at his full capacity, searching for a solution, arriving at a fairly obvious answer.

'I can't interfere directly with a living being's mana, but why not indirectly?'

Lan had unconsciously locked himself into a box by directly crossing out the possibility of interference with human mana due to the result of his initial experiments. But he now realized that he failed to account for two things. One, why not change the environment if you can't change the individual? And two, he was far more powerful than before, opening the possibility of brute force, albeit with possible side effects on those afflicted.

Although Lan's processing speed was far beyond that of a human, the search for a solution had nevertheless taken him a good few seconds. When he returned he paid close attention to the battle once again, he witnessed the moment when the tiger lunged at Matilda with his blazing claws.

The woman had jumped back with all her might to dodge the attack, but Lan had calculated and predicted that the jump with her meager strength would not be enough, she would be cleaved in half midair if nothing was done.

So Lan, with his newfound knowledge about mana, did the best thing he could to save her.

He used Air Mana to propel the air in order to blast the woman further, but with the mere moments that he had, Lan managed to gather enough to barely boost Matilda. He succeeded somewhat.

The Mage moved backward more than she should have and avoided certain death. Instead, she got a searing wound on her torso, clearly not a pleasant thing either. None of the two combatants seemed to have noticed the interference, instead focusing on each other.

Matilda, being weakened further, seemed to think that surviving would be near impossible in her current state, and Lan saw the Mana gather around her, circulating rapidly through her circuits. Such a technique seemed familiar to Lan, and it had taken him only a moment since he had seen it before.

'...It was used by Ian during the first exploration! Thanks to it he easily repelled Tag back then.'

But Lan also remembered that such a powerful skill also left him in a crippled state. And though the version that Matilda was using was far more refined, possibly lessening the aftereffects, Lan believed that she would be unable to fight or even stand after using it.

The Core soon stopped thinking and theorizing about that, however. And this was caused by the four words Matilda spoke as she was overloading her circuits.

"See you soon, Lanny."

Once he heard that, Lan felt as if the world had come to a stop. The flow of mana slowed to a snail's pace, the shouts of the dying and the wounded turned to silence. The snarling wolf, and the shouting Warrior, all came to a halt as the entirety of Lan's consciousness went into overdrive.

Every thought channel, even those previously dedicated to the surveillance of the Dungeon, turned to that single word, the five letters. A name. His name.

The memories that were previously shrouded in fog came flooding back as he remembered the only person who would call him that way.

A starry sky, a calming night.

"Look at the stars, Lanny! Aren't they pretty?"

Hair the color of a raven's feather eyes the color of verdant grass.

"Yes, they are! Just like you!"

A warm embrace, a calming smile.

"Oh, you little flatterer! Come to mommy, or else you'll get a cold!"

The days, the nights, of joy and happiness. The ever supportive, ever-loving.

'Mother.'

Lan remembered many things that he had seemingly forgotten. He remembered the days when She held his hands as they walked in the streets, the warm smells that came from the kitchen where She cooked her delicious meals. He remembered her face, her smile.

And now that face stood before him, more aged than he remembered, but there nonetheless.

In addition to that, blood now flowed down from a cut on her forehead, burns covered her skin, and dust was tangled in her hair.

And yet she was still smiling. She wore that very smile when she watched as he walked to school, when she went away to work and she waved at him as he got onto the bus that delivered him to college.

He knew that smile well. This was the smile when she was saying goodbye.

Along with the memories, the previously forgotten feelings and emotions came crashing back like a tide. Upon looking at the situation, his wounded mother, and the Beast that wanted to kill her, they got even more violent.

The Blame at the notion of not reaching out to her for so long, the Sadness at what she must have felt during these years... And the burning, seething Rage at the one who drove her to her current state.

However, Lan was no longer human. His very being, his soul, was interwoven with Mana, the very essence of the world around him. And when he raged, the world was raging alongside him.

The time gradually returned to its normal flow in Lan's perception, and along with it, Mana churned and gathered at the target of the Core's attention. It was such a massive amount that even those not very sensitive to Mana managed to sense it.

Beasts halted their frenzied assault, and humans felt shivers run down their spines. All fighting came to a stop as each living being turned their head in one direction simultaneously.

As for those closer to Mana, they could only shiver at the power they felt, understanding that they would be crushed if such a force was directed at them.

Khan, the scarred tiger, who was previously advancing to finish off his prey, halted as well. He too felt the tide of Mana, and unlike the others, he understood that he was the target.

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Matilda, standing opposite of him, was no exception. She realized that she couldn't gather mana to execute 'Mana Overcharge', as all mana she tried to gather was instead sucked away by the overwhelming will of the unknown party.

But she soon recognized the perpetrator, realizing that it was the same invisible observer as the one who watched her during her exploration. This time though, he made no effort to conceal himself.

If the previous times the attention was like a pinprick on the back of her neck, then this time it was a searing, burning gaze as if the skies themselves were watching.

Meanwhile Khan, in those mere moments since he felt this pressure, was already in the process of jumping away from his current spot.

And just then, the gathering of Mana reached a crescendo, and it was as if it had fallen silent. Tranquil.

It did not last for long though. A wordless shout then rang out within his and Matilda's mind, like a hammer striking a gong.

"YOU WILL NOT TOUCH HER!"

Mana crashed down like a rollercoaster.

Khan's decision to jump away proved lifesaving, as the ground where he previously stood cracked. A giant spike made of dirt and stone then emerged, reaching into the sky. Had the tiger been standing there, he would have been skewered like a kebab.

This was just the beginning, however.

The ground began to rumble as if it were an earthquake, followed by many more cracks appearing all around.

As the tiger looked around, it saw no place that was free from them, forcing him to resign himself to his instinct and perception of danger.

He wasn't given time to ponder though, as the ground began to split all around him, many more spikes emerging all around him.

Khan was forced to dash and jump in various directions to avoid getting skewered, all the while cracks and small ravines formed around him as if waiting for him to fall in, eager to bury him underground.

Despite his efforts, he did not manage to avoid each and every one of them, there were simply too many. Some broke off against his tough hide, some left behind shallow scratches, and some left behind noticeable wounds.

And while he was fighting for survival, Matilda tried to quickly move away, though strangely every disaster seemed to avoid her, forming a safe zone, while the five words she had heard kept ringing within her head.

She was not given much time to think though, as Khan noticed the phenomenon, or lack of any, in her vicinity. The result of simple logic caused him to run in her direction, to save himself, maybe killing her in the process.

Just a few strides were what stood between him and her if only one didn't count the crumbling ground that wanted to kill him.

He deftly maneuvered around these obstacles, taking more hits in the process, but ultimately his powerful form was in the range of the leap towards the 'safe zone'...

'YOU WILL NOT!'

The powerful shout once again rang within his mind, which was then followed by a blast of wind that came from seemingly out of nowhere. Khan was sent tumbling backward, rolling across the ground, away from the goal he was about to reach.

The predator quickly stabilized himself, leaving deep gashes in the ground with his claws as he got back on his feet. He then had to immediately avoid an earthen spike from underneath him, being only partially successful, receiving a deep gash into his side.

The tiger growled in pain and frustration, searching for the culprit, the invisible threat that kept trying to kill him. A brief glance around the battlefield which now looked nothing like a part of a human camp, instead being like a stone forest that was full of crevices one could fall into, revealed no such opponent.

Just then, the ground opened its mouth as if to swallow him once again. This time though, due to not being fully recovered from the most recent impalement attempt, he didn't manage to get away in time.

Khan's hind legs slid into the opening, and he desperately scratched and roared against the ground, trying to get out. Just as he was about to succeed, something new happened.

Various roots and plants emerged from the ground, growing rapidly before beginning to twist around his limbs, constraining and tightening around his body.

Khan felt that his bones would be squeezed to nothing if he did nothing, so he resorted to using his ability, to manipulate the flames. He would only use this ability to kill his foes, and this was the first time he used it to trim vegetation.

His claws then reddened and ignited, allowing him to cut away the vines that tightened around his limbs. Despite the plants being strengthened with mana, they were no match for the claws enveloped with flame.

Khan then crawled out of the crevice he was about to fall and get dragged into and roared out.

"Now I know where you are, you coward!"

The tiger turned his head along the faint thread of mana that he felt when he was enveloped by the plants that were enhanced by it. Despite the mana being mainly gathered from the surrounding environment, there was a single point from where the 'command' was given. And Khan, against all odds, felt that.

"I'm coming for you!"

The Tiger then began to charge in a completely different direction than where Matilda went. The Mage went to the north, where the Western Gates were being defended, while the Beast charged with all its might to the east.

Matilda looked behind her, despite having moved away, she could still see the Beast due to how massive he was. At the same time, she was a bit absentminded, still thinking about the shout that she heard. A shout in a voice that was all too familiar...

"...Tower Master!.."

Vague scenes and recollections that she still dearly cherished replayed within her mind.

"...Tower Master! Snap out of it!"

The owner of the voice, someone she held dearly, someone she thought gone...

"Madam Matilda!"

She was snapped out of her thoughts by a shout that seemed to come from right next to her. As her eyes regained focus, what appeared in front of her was a man with a gun on his back, frantically shaking her shoulder.

The Mage recognized the man as Rob, the Ranger of the 'Cloaks' party. The rest of his partymates stood not far away, also looking at her with concern, but not coming close, seemingly being apprehensive.

It was only then that Matilda realized that she released the hold on her Mana amidst her emotions, thus unconsciously exerting pressure on everyone around her. She then quickly undid this, causing those who stayed away to immediately come closer.

As a Healer of the party, Beatrice began to treat her burns, Rob let go of her shoulder but still had a worried look on his face.

"Tower Master, are you alright?"

Matilda answered this time.

"Yes... Yes, I am fine."

"You don't look fine though... We were worried we came too late."

Matilda stayed silent, her burns gradually receding as if on an accelerated timelapse, though the Healer that was treating her was sweating and out of breath, soon stumbling away, already exhausted.

Suddenly Leo, the usually silent leader of the 'Cloaks' spoke up.

"We would have been too late. If not for that."

He gestured towards a forest made of stone spikes stretching upwards, some of them having plants grow from underneath and wrapping around them.

This comment caused Matilda to turn her head to the East, and speak out, starting to quickly move in that direction at the same time.

"...Damn it, there's no time to waste, we have to go!"

Rob expressed everyone's confusion.

"What? Where? Madam, where are you going?"

Matilda stopped briefly and looked back, saying only a few words before breaking into a sprint once again, at the same time seemingly having the very wind boost her.

"There's no time to explain, follow!"

Leopold, the leader of the party, then disappeared into the shadows, following after the woman without question.

The bow master who was armed with a gun scratched his head, before quickly following after his leader.

"...Sometimes I hate this job."

----------------------------------------------------

A minute ago.

Khan, the scarred tiger who had many bleeding wounds, was frantically sprinting through the camp, ignoring any human he came across. Any tent that stood in his way would get torn to shreds, and any structure before him would get blasted apart. As for any resident that may have been within... He cared even less.

The tiger seemed to be a walking calamity, which was true given his strength, but this time it was also amplified because wherever he went, the very ground seemed to split and the wind would blast him out of balance.

Still, such attacks didn't have as much effect when he was on the move compared to when he could not gather any momentum. Lan, who directed these, and Khan, who avoided them, both knew it.

Lan eventually gave up on this, as not much effect was achieved compared to the effort expended.

One may wonder how making a few rock spikes and making a few plants grow could be considered an effort to a Core who could create whole underground miniature worlds with functioning ecosystems. Well, the answer was quite simple.

Despite influencing only the environment, whenever his newly created mana-influenced objects such as stone spikes came into contact with the tiger, he lost significantly more Mental Mana than he would if he used it for creation purposes. As such, although the workaround existed, it was rather costly.

And now, after 'venting' his emotions, Lan was feeling a bit lightheaded. As such, he decided that flinging around and wasting mana would be rather detrimental.

Meanwhile, Khan had reached the Eastern wall of the camp, not bothering to destroy it, easily jumping over it instead. The tiger then ran across the field to the east of the camp, before entering the dense forest that came after.

At this point Lan clearly understood the new target, which, to be fair, the tiger declared not long before. Himself, or rather, his Core.

'This son of a tiger bi-'

As he was cursing and thinking of plans to halt the soon-to-be invader, something unexpected happened.

As Khan got closer to the heart of the forest, which was the entrance to the Dungeon, the various branches that previously whipped at his skin instead seemed to coil around him or try to pierce the Beast.

Khan continued to charge, breaking away from any restraints. Then, the roots emerged from the ground, causing the Beast to tumble out of balance and roar in anger.

As the enraged tiger slashed away at the constant obstacles, Lan only stared in wonder. And the reason for this was...

He did not command for any of this to happen.