It turned out that the bastard wasn’t even truly there. Once Rieren properly saw the memory, she found that there was a lot of red lighting, but few appearances by the Banishedborn himself.

Batcat had collected the memory of another mountainside near the end of the mountain range. The exact location was a set of ruined structures that, despite their condition, still looked newer than the strange temple out of time she had encountered on the slopes of Lionshard mountain.

And upon this ruin, red lightning flickered all over the grounds. While it was spread out over the whole area, the greatest amount of the red sparks was concentrated atop the central tower, where a familiar creature was trapped.

Foxwolf was lying on her side, held down by a mesh of scarlet bolts crackling over her constantly. Several of the bolts had perforated through her body, leaving wounds that bled little but seemed grievous all the same. Too many wounds. Rieren couldn’t tell if the Spirit Beast was still alive at a glance.

Her chest wasn’t moving, her eyes weren’t open, and her flames were all extinguished to leave plain white fur. There were no overt signs of physiological activity anywhere upon the beast.

But the lightning. The Banishedborn was keeping Foxwolf trapped. No, keeping its corpse trapped. For what purpose, though?

Of course, it could be a trap. The possibility of it seemed small, but still. There was no way the Banishedborn knew that she might come in this direction, much less head out to try to grant freedom to a Spirit Beast that she didn’t even have any direct personal connection to.

Nevertheless, if Rieren went over there, she would have to be wary.

Once in a while, in the memory Batcat had brought for her, she found the Banishedborn watching the area from the periphery. Sometimes he floated high in the air, sometimes he observed from the distant edge of the mountainside outside the ruins. Always there, one way or another. Clearly waiting.

The question was whether he was waiting for her or for something or someone else.

“I cannot go just yet,” Rieren said.

Batcat looked up at her questioningly.

“Not enough Credits,” she explained. “I need enough to buy a Temporal Recollector, and that means waiting until there are monsters for me to kill from the dungeons. But I am not certain how long I have. There might not be a great deal of time for Foxwolf…”

She was speaking out loud mostly for her benefit, but the truth was that Batcat was intelligent enough to both understand and potentially come up with solutions. Call of the Past wasn’t effective.

For one, it didn’t empower to anywhere near a degree where she would feel safe against a Banishedborn. For another, the cooldown on it was too long. She would have to wait a few more days at least to see if it was available for her, and by that point, she might very well acquire enough Credits for another Temporal Recollector.

Eventually, they decided that the little Spirit Beast would keep watch over its larger counterpart while Rieren prepared for a potential confrontation as fast as she could.

“You will not ask me why I intend to try to get to Foxwolf?” Rieren asked the cat.

Batcat looked at her, then flapped its wings and flew off.

Rieren huffed. “Because of you! Foxwolf is dead. She was a Spirit Beast, which means she has a Beast Core that we can feed you, which further means that we can improve the ability of yours that lets me assume my past form!”

By the time she had finished, the rude kitten was already long gone. When Rieren had empowered it with whatever memory she had sacrificed, she had apparently made it a lot faster as well.

“And it is not wrong,” Rieren said, now mostly to herself. “Foxwolf has already passed away. We would be fools not to retrieve and use a powerful Beast Core if we can.”

To do so, Rieren would first need to prepare. She had grown stronger over the weeks she had left Lionshard mountain and the Sect, but a Banishedborn might as well just sneeze on her to eradicate her and the whole mountain she stood upon. That was what the difference in their powers amounted to.

But she could change that, if temporarily. All she needed for that was a great deal of Credits.

Thus, Rieren began hunting the monsters again. It took some time. Days passed. The Abyss Rents weren’t pushing out as many Abyssals as she would have preferred, especially not strong ones that gave her more powerful corrupted Beast Cores.

That said, she was grateful that she got to try out a few different strategies and techniques on the monsters. Using her steam in conjunction with Tidal Summons and Water Dancer Blade meant she could utilize new combinations of attacks. Since it had been a long while since she had to resort to them, it was good to get some practice.

Rieren wished she had access to her Enchantments. Now that she had one of the old sword relics, she would have been able to turn her blade into a sword of legend and imbue it with a new weapon art, effectively granting her an additional skill.

Ah well. She would get it eventually.

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Soon enough, eight days passed by before Rieren finally had enough Credits to purchase a Temporal Recollector with a decent pool of Credits left over. Batcat had brought in memories that the Banishedborn hadn’t left the location they had seen him in. Foxwolf, or more likely her corpse, was still trapped.

“Alright then,” Rieren said, setting out down the mountainside. “Let us go meet our friendly neighbourhood Banishedborn.”

It took several more hours for Rieren to reach the location they needed to head to. It would likely have taken her a lot longer but she had remembered that she had hit the Enlightened realm. That meant she now had access to her first Domain-summons.

[Summons Tree]

You can pick one summons from the available pool. Pick wisely.

Dawn Cloud [E]

* Summons a small cloud that can bear the summoner a great distance.

* Use: Once per Domain summon, lasts till destroyed or until Domain dissolution

* Aspects: [Cloud], [Water], [Steam]

* Special: Can summon storm when agitated

Serrating Swordfish [E]

* Summons sword-nearing fish that can cut through almost anything.

* Use: Once per Domain summon, lasts till destroyed or until Domain dissolution

* Aspects: [Water]

* Special: Is never not aggressive

Shoddy Warship [E]

* Summons a small, hastily made watercraft bearing a nautical armament.

* Use: Once per Domain summon, lasts till destroyed or until Domain dissolution

* Aspects: [Water], [Wood], [Metal]

* Special: Can be used for storage, transport, temporary residence, and so on

She had no memories of any of them. Very strange. She had to have done this in her past life. Her hand went to crinkled up piece of paper with the names of those in the Sect whose memories she had chosen to give up. Of course, this was another scenario where she had sacrificed some of her memories to raise Batcat’s power.

Something told Rieren that the proper choice was Dawn Cloud. Of course, it wasn’t that the others looked any less appealing.

Serrating Swordfish sounded like an excellent companion to have in battles where it could wreak havoc upon her enemies by utilizing the element of surprise very effectively. Shoddy Warship had a strange name, but that description suggested it had great room for growth and would be another excellent addition for battle.

But right now, she needed speed more than she needed anything else. She supposed that Shoddy Warship could provide the same kind of transportation ability that Dawn Cloud would provide, but a cloud could pass over terrain that a boat would struggle with.

After all, there were no barriers in the sky to evade.

It was a little strange to be floating on a cloud. Even as she took a step onto its fluffy but firm-enough surface, she felt as though there was something wrong on an integral level. As though there was something she should have remembered, or something she had gone through before but couldn’t recall. Had to be the lost memories.

Once she was seated, the cloud slowly floated away from where her Domain was situated on the ground and floated away. For a moment, she wondered how the white puff was going to sustain itself if it got too far away from her Domain, but then the water on the ground disappeared.

Instead, they rematerialized within the cloud. The puffy white ball expanded as it filled itself with all her Domain water, turning darker and heavier but never losing its position in the air.

Rieren was just thankful it didn’t turn her wet as well. She hadn’t been prepared for it. When she was using her Domain, it took a small amount of concentration to keep the water from affecting as much as it would have done anyone else caught in its vicinity. With the cloud’s sudden pull, she hadn’t been prepared. But it didn’t look like she was about to sink through.

Batcat let loose a happy yowl as they zipped through the sky. Rieren reached up a hand to pat its back. It was nice to see the little cat enjoying itself.

Batcat growled low in its throat as they began approaching their destination several hours later. The telltale red lighting could be heard as soon as Rieren spotted scarlet sparks floating in the air.

They landed farther away from the exact location they needed to be. No need to come down right on the Banishedborn’s lap. They had a different plan they needed to execute.

“May fortune favour your… wings,” Rieren said as Batcat took off.

She waited for a few moments, then headed up the mountainside as fast as she could. As soon as Batcat accosted the Banishedborn, Rieren would have to act, so she needed to be positioned correctly.

Once Rieren was next to the ruins, she summoned her Domain and immediately turned most of the water to steam. Powerful Essence swirled just on the other side of the ruins—the Banishedborn, Essastior, had been alerted that something was happening.

Batcat shot off. The kitten’s duty was keeping the Banishedborn occupied until Rieren had reached Foxwolf. Longer, if possible, though she wasn’t counting on it.

Rieren hurried into the ruins. The layout tugged at the back of her mind. Any Sect disciple would recognize the way the dormitories had been laid out at the lowest rung, the way more important buildings were strung out on top. Rieren’s target was the central tower, the one likely used by the Sect Leader and the Elders for important meetings and the like.

Lightning flashed bright and dangerous overhead. Rieren held her breath for a heartbeat. But the Banishedborn didn’t land next to her.

There was a slight commotion somewhere farther off. A sound like buildings crashing down rumbled through the ruins, then more thunder as lightning flashed and burst, throwing up twisted shadows against the relief of the fog banks rolling through the ruins.

Batcat was safe. She was sure of it. The little kitten was smart, and powerful in its own way to boot. Besides, Essastior had no reason to kill a little Spirit Beast on sight.

No time to waste. Rieren hurried again until she was at the foot of the tallest tower, broken like every other building in the run-down Sect. She flashed up the stairs quickly, heart thundering in her chest in tune with the lightning forking outside. She only stopped when she finally found Foxwolf at the top.

Just as she was about to try her best to free the Spirit Beast from its lightning-wrapped binds, or perhaps just pull out its core, something moved.

Rieren froze. No, her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her. The mist wouldn’t fool her. This wasn’t a play of the light and shadows. Something really had moved inside Foxwolf’s body.

Alright, that settled it. This Spirit Beast was no longer alive.

Then again, this could be part of Essastior’s trap for her. Rieren might attempt to free the Spirit Beast’s body only to have some sort of parasitic Spirit Beast or some other kind of summon burst out of Foxwolf and attack her.

There was only one way to be certain. She pulled out her Receptor sword, took one moment to aim, then stabbed it right into the spot she saw movement again.

“Ah!”

Rieren froze, her mind failing to catch up to her shock. That voice…

With a quick slice, and growing mortification and horror, she slashed open Foxwolf’s flank. That spilled a great deal of blood, the Spirit Beast’s Beast Core, and…

And Elder Olg’s living head.