“Can you sense anything, cat?” Rieren asked as the slope grew steeper.

The cat only murmured sleepily. That ought to be a good sign. Batcat was normally quite animated when they were in the vicinity of monsters.

It was rather curious, though. An Anachron that wasn’t powerful but still couldn’t be killed by anyone? That sounded implausible. Even seemingly immortal monsters with impossibly quick regenerative properties could be overwhelmed with enough power.

Well, if it was true, she would find out soon enough. Maybe Rieren wouldn’t even meet the Anachron. Maybe she would be able to bypass it on her way to the Enlightenment Locale.

Though, the idea of obtaining another Beast Core that Batcat could eat was quite alluring.

Rieren focused on the climb. The woods were thick, but the trees weren’t too big. All the paths within it were clean and were marked clearly. Signs of being well-maintained by the Archnoble clan.

She crossed through the woods without trouble. There were no sounds or signs of other creatures, and no winds blew through the area and rustled the leaves. That was not a good sign. Not even when Rieren made it through and arrived at a stretch of the mountainside that was shaped more like a cliffside that she had to straddle the edge of.

Rieren climbed past that point before finally arriving at a stretch of flat ground, where the Anachron had made its home.

She wasn’t sure what she was seeing at first. It seemed like a ghostly wisp, somewhat humanoid-shaped. She couldn’t tell. It almost looked like it was made of fog. Nothing about it informed Rieren why everyone else was having so much trouble dealing with it. The monster wasn’t even giving off any sense of great power.

Batcat had roused itself on Rieren’s head. As she approached the Anachron, it leaped off and landed lightly on the ground. Then it hissed.

“Yes, I am aware, cat,” she said. “This is uncanny, but not troubling. So far. We shall see.”

Strange details about the monster became apparent as Rieren closed the distance between them. It looked like it was adorned in a misty version of tattered robes. While humanoid, the figure grew more disturbing the closer she got. The head was misshapen, the limbs overlong and multi-jointed, the torso sinuous like a snake.

Rieren summoned her Domain. Water burst into being around her, waves rising and falling. She pointed her sword at the Anachron. “Prepare to die, monster.”

“Death does not exist for one such as me.” Its voice was a trill that shivered in the chill air. “If you do not retreat, it will claim you instead.”

“You do not possess what it takes to kill me.”

“Do I not? Come see!”

The monster rushed at her. Its movement was ghostly too. Instead of running, it floated at her directly like it was some sort of phantom. At least it looked the part.

Rieren activated Tidal Summons and sent waves crashing against her onrushing opponent. The monster simply floated higher, evading them with ease. When it continued rushing at her, she didn’t attack. She had to wait. Soon… soon… and then it was in position.

While it was charging towards her, Rieren had turned much of her Domain to steam beneath the watery surface. As soon as the monster appeared close enough, she released the pent-up pressure. A gout of steam and overheated water burst upwards. The monster screamed as it was struck, never reaching Rieren.

It should work well. She had observed the creature enough to deduce that it really was a water-Aspected Anachron made of mist or fog. Something along those lines. Things like steam and heated water would make the fog dissipate, dealing tremendous damage to the creature.

As the geyser cleared, Rieren used Water Dancer Blade to wrap her Receptor sword in a tight sheathe of steam. As soon as the monster reappeared, she would slice it in two.

Though, the Anachron had other ideas. It reformed almost two dozen paces high in the air. Apparently, Rieren’s geyser had destroyed its form entirely, though it was clearly able to regenerate rather quickly.

Though, that couldn’t be the real issue giving the Stannerig clan problems. As much as the Anachron was clearly using the fog it had sprung around the battlefield to regenerate, that was by no means an overpowered ability. The mist around her was copious, but not indestructible. Rieren could destroy it too, in time.

But the Anachron’s actions pulled her thoughts away from considering what the monster’s actual power was. The mist was thickening around it, turning into strange, deadly shapes.

Ropy tentacles made of condensed water swing in the air, spiky icicles floating by themselves here and there. Higher above them, the mist was turning into dark clouds that were no doubt about to lash down with rain, or perhaps with hailstones. Rieren was amused that it was almost like facing herself.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

She paused. Was she facing herself? Was that the monster’s power—copying others?

No, that couldn’t be right. Icicles and hail had never been Rieren’s forte, though she was capable of channelling ice Aspect later on in her growth. She also never used water or any of her other Aspects to form those strange living tendrils.

She shook her head. The fact that the Anachron used the same or similar Aspects as her was likely just a coincidence.

Rieren held her sword ready, trying to note the positions of all the monsters’ various capabilities. The icicles, the tentacles, all the other bits and pieces. It would be easy to get hit by them if she wasn’t careful.

“You have stolen my Aspects, I see,” the Anachron said from far above. “I have heard thieves get their hands taken for stealing. I will make sure to cut yours off from your corpse.”

The Anachron’s attacks came barrelling at Rieren. First came the tentacles. Rieren was able to dodge them without too much trouble thanks to Fray Passage. Quick little bursts of the skill took her through the little gaps in between the series of attacks. With the skill at A-Grade, it was a simple matter.

Of course, the monster had been anticipating her dodge. As soon as Rieren was past the array of tentacles trying to gut her, the icicles came crashing down.

There was no point trying to deflect them with Earthfall Blade. Too many came in at the same time. If Rieren stopped one, she would no doubt be struck by ones she missed. Instead, she continued using Fray Passage as her Domain around her was perforated by the spikes of ice.

As Rieren kept moving, she summoned up steam and eventually made the water burst into another geyser around her. She made sure to make the gout of water as powerful as she could, letting it take her with it. More Fray Passage boosted her momentum even further.

Rieren shot past the area of the Anachron’s attacks without difficulty. In fact, she shot into and climbed past the clouds too. Her ascent was too fast for the Anachron to react.

She didn’t land down, however. Rieren had aimed the jet of water to shoot her directly at the mountainside, which she had thankfully reached. She clung to the rocks there, staying well above the monster.

The clouds were beginning to break apart. Rieren would be spotted soon. But before that happened, she resummoned her Domain again. She pulled up as much water as she could, extending her Domain to its furthest limits. By the time she was done, there was a veritable avalanche of water held back only due to Rieren’s will.

Just as the clouds dissipated, Rieren released it all. A waterfall crashed through the cloud cover and struck the floating monster directly. It was heavy enough that it had taken a great deal of the rocks from the mountainside with it, though they weren’t likely to have much effect against a ghostly being like this Anachron.

But her water certainly did. Rieren had overheated it before releasing it all. As it had struck the Anachron, much of it converted to scalding steam.

The monster’s resulting shriek threatened to set off another avalanche.

Rieren scrabbled down the mountainside until she was closer to the battlefield. She observed the area quickly. Waterlogged and steam-ridden though the whole area was, she should have been able to spot or at least sense the Anachron’s Beast Core. But there was no sign of it.

Of course, the monster wasn’t keeping the core upon its body. That form was too ghostly, too immaterial to keep it secured. But knowledge of how such creatures worked ensured her that the Beast Core had to be nearby somewhere. Anachrons, Abyssals, Aetherians, or even regular Spirit Beasts couldn’t exist without their Beast Cores in proximity.

So where in the world was it? Rieren even dropped down with a splash onto the remainder of her dissipating Domain. Nothing. It was as if the Beast Core didn’t truly exist.

“Batcat,” she said. Calm though her voice was, the tension was still palpable. “Can you find the Anachron’s Beast Core? I hear it is quite scrumptious.”

Batcat swooped in on its wings from wherever it had flown to. It stayed off the water, though. By the lazy motion of its flight around her, Rieren understood that it had failed.

The little Spirit Beast couldn’t tell where the Beast Core was either.

Now this was troubling. Rieren was beginning to suspect that this strange phenomenon had to be related to the oddity the Stannerig clan had faced when trying to kill this Anachron. Whatever was the case with its Beast Core, that was what had to be helping with its seeming immortality.

“That was quite tricksy.”

The monster’s voice was even chillier than before, threatening to send a shiver coursing down Rieren’s spine. Mist was gathering again, thick and fast. There it was. The dreaded ability that the Clanmistress had mentioned.

For all intents and purposes, Rieren’s last move should have killed the Anachron. It had strong offensive capabilities, but its defence was nonexistent. Her attack should have—

Rieren’s eyes widened as she caught a strange shimmer at the exact spot where the Anachron was reforming. It was barely there, would easily have gone unnoticed if she hadn’t been paying so much direct attention. That little light within the Anachron’s body twisted within it and seemed to be trying to escape.

She had seen that before. Now she knew what was going on with this strange Anachron. But how was she going to deal with it?

The answer arrived when Batcat meowed right next to her.

“Kitten,” Rieren said quickly as the monster arose. “I need your assistance.”

The little Spirit Beast meowed again, this time more intently than before. Rieren decided to take it as a sign that it was prepared to do what she needed it to perform.

“Take my memory,” she said. “Then find—”

“Enough with your babbling,” the Anachron said. “I did warn you that death does not apply to me. I am no mere mortal. You will never be able to kill me.”

The monster wasn’t wrong. Rieren wouldn’t be able to kill that thing on her own. Not because she wasn’t strong enough, which was patently untrue. But because this monster’s immortality, such as it was, depended on another mechanic entirely, one that couldn’t be overcome with strength alone.

As the Anachron rose higher into the air again, summoning the various elements to strike Rieren down, she looked down at the cat.

“Hurry, kitten!” She stomped a foot down beside the cat, making it flinch a little. “Take a bite and take my memories. Warn the others that they need to kill the corresponding Anachron on the other mountain. Only when the two monsters die at the same time can they be permanently killed. I will deal with this one, but I need someone else to handle the other.”

Batcat wasted no time tearing its little teeth through her robes and taking a good, strong bite out of her leg. As the Anachron’s storm started up, it managed to hurry out of the area, wings flapping hard as it zipped out of the area.

Rieren smiled, then turned to the monster. It was time to see how long she could keep up the cycle of killing it only for it to arise again.