Shadow bursts from the collapsed walls, amplified by the prepared ritual inside the thick stone structure. The ominous energy rushes through the forest, crossing over the river, and claims most of the lake. Our fortress, mostly rubble, is now protected in the darkest fog of shadow. Unlike darkness that blots out your entire vision, shadow allows you to see within the midst ahead for a few yards. Everything past that small range might as well be nonexistent. And what you can see is distorted.

In the thick fog, the risen army of Bones advances on the demons that can no longer retreat or even move. Inside Gene's domain, she's queen. She holds all the power. In an instant, half of the demons locked down are claimed. Energy pours into the dungeon core. More monsters are slain, and then some more. The minions of Bones take care of the rest. Unable to fight, the remaining demons are defeated in an anti-climactic fashion. All the energy of the dead is absorbed by the dungeon core halfway to its next rank.

The ragged remains of the demon army, not caught in shadow, flea into the thick of the forest. Strangely, their retreat isn't chaotic like we experienced before. Instead, they collectively flee south. It even seems they are more running toward something rather than running away.

Bones continues to direct his minions to clear the battlefield. Guided by the lingering hungry mana, the minions can find the dead quickly and collect the cores and gear. The cores and equipment are gathered and placed inside our impromptu vault in the academy, where the rest is stored.

Gene takes her time turning her shadow domain into a barrier of sorts. Her barrier won't affect Demons and awakened beings if they are strong enough. Everyone else will struggle to find their way through the thickness. Impressively, Gene directs the shadow through our fortress, dissolving the rubble into mana that's added to her barrier.

Hungry violent energy fills the vacancy left by the soothing nature of shadow. My body repulses as the hungry mana dances around me. My soul is torn between cultivating the energy and expelling it. Death and I aren't on the best of terms. However, it would be foolish to let the power go to waste.

I find a secluded spot in some rubble and absorb the hollow energy. As the pale mana enters my channels, it's quickly stripped of its essence by my shadow mana and turned into pure energy. I take in as much energy as possible, pushing the pure energy into my soul. I find no restriction as the energy flows into my fourth core. Unlike shadow and death energy, where my cores resist more mana, my pure core always has room, not hungry like death but open for more.

The more familiar I become with pure energy, the more it feels like nothing is there. Emptiness is the best description I have for it. Yet it is a comfortable emptiness, not hungry and driven for more like death or slothful like shadow. Pure energy is content and calm. It's being faced with nothing and being at ease with it, being comforted by it.

I continue to cycle my pure mana, letting it flow through my channels and linger in my mind. Since attuning the mana to my mind, the energy feels most at ease when it cycles through my upper channels. Usually, when I push the energy into my soul, I focus on my chest. However, my core is more all of me than just a small part of me. Or something like that. Anyway, I stop focusing on pushing the energy into my chest and let it accumulate inside my upper channels.

Inside my upper channels, my mind and pure energy become more one. I already bound my mind with pure energy, but perhaps my initial attempt wasn't as complete as I thought. The energy was quick as a thought to respond to my will, and I could read into thoughts, so I believed it was complete. Now, I'm not so sure. The mana becomes much more nuanced, like a comfortable nothing, with a side of lackadaisical desires.

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Oh crap, I'm tainting my pure energy. The thought breaks me from my cycling. I don't want to corrupt my pure power. I need to talk to Annette before I corrupt my peaceful mana entirely. I might have already gone too far. Out of panic, I reach for Nette's connection.

Li. The instant response catches me off guard. Sure, I was trying to start a conversation. I thought I would be the one to engage first; I wasn't expecting Nette to start. Also, I changed my name already. Hearing the name of my former self is strangely off-putting.

Nette, we need to talk. I think I'm corrupting myself… No, I corrupted my pure — my pure core is trying to become like me, and that doesn't feel right.

That's not why I'm reaching out to you, but we can certainly talk about your corrupted thoughts later.

You're reaching out to me? I thought I initiated this talk.

I said your name first. That makes me the initiator, which means I decide our discussion. It's telepathy basics. Cutting off the conversation veering in the wrong direction, Nette sends me her thoughts in a complete picture.

The demons found a new power source and are preparing for a feast. Cru, my goblin buddy I met in my old home, comes to mind. If he accepted my offer, he could be heading here. I invited my friend over to a land full of demons. Instantly, feelings of being the worst host take over. Rational thoughts flee, and my legs follow.

I don't know who they are targeting, but it seems like a sizable group. Gene is headed your way to pick you up. Bones says to summon him when you get there. The rest of us will rebuild the fortress.

It's nice having Nette as part of our team. While I'm running like a fool, she's organizing plans and giving directions. I keep my pace until I sense a surge of shadow from behind. I slow down enough to time my ability to jump onto Gene's back. The shadow shaman swoops down from the sky in her hawk form and gracefully lands as a large shadow wolf. As soon as I'm secure, Gene shifts us into her shadow realm, and we blitz through the forest.

We follow the river that runs south, cutting through the trees at a frightening pace. Time is a little faster in the shadow realm than in the primary realm. Gene's power over shadow makes the time dilation even more significant. Not even the rocky, uneven terrain slows us down. Gene darts through every obstacle without hesitation.

Ten miles later, we start passing the slower demons. Though they present easy targets, we don't stop. We pass every demon unnoticed except for the spirit-adept demons. Even then, when they realize we are nearby, we've long left them in the dust.

Like us, the demons are content with following the river as they make their way to their new target. The horde of monsters is massive. What we defeated at our fortress is only a third of the number of demons we've passed.

I don't think we are looking for your goblin friend. Gene sends her thoughts to me as we pass another column of demons marching south. We are far too south for where he would have crossed the mountains. I think we are headed to the coast.

To the coast? Do you think it's the horde?

There is a chance it could be, but it does not make sense for them to travel this far south. They have a much easier access point on the island's north side, where their stronghold used to be. I think this could be settlers from Agoria or maybe islanders. I think we might have humans here.