My name is Luo Tung-Mei. And I am a sorceress.

I also happen to be running behind on my duties to the emperor.

Said delay certainly has nothing to do with hating the man with a passion.

Not at all.

So, as I sprint through the street, robe billowing from the speed, I find myself contemplating which world the soul I’ll be forced into abducting will come from.

As the Grand Court Sorceress, I have far greater access to resources that cover extra planar realms, but I also know that seven out of ten of those resources are just theories written by people with little more than the baseline intellect of an average civilian.

Not to offend the citizens, of course.

But one enchanted scroll stood out, and so I acquired it through perfectly diplomatic means.

“Get back here you thieving witch-born!”

From a certain perspective.

In any case, I quickly I need this, so I cast [invisibility] and break off into a side alley, certain that I can lose the angry shopkeeper there. This scroll would tell me everything I needed to know about the trans-dimensional soul syphon ritual.

I hated myself for letting things get to the point where I needed to use another dimension. Things never went well in the long run when it came to anything involving other worlds, much less stealing a soul from one.

The truth of my situation is that I already knew what I was going to have to do. I found out in the first month, and lied to the emperor for more time, because I didn’t want to bear the weight of kidnapping a soul from across realms.

I shake it off and start running again. I reach the base of the imperial palace, dispelled [invisibility], and cast [teleportation] to save my lungs from the 2000 step climb.

“You’re late, Luo.”

I turned to the familiar voice. General Chang, grand commander of the Kitsumari Legions, was reduced to guard duty for the emperor.

“Chang, I’m only late because the emperor has me rushing. I have no time to refine anything.”

The general chuckled, “you magic users are really something else, using teleportation to avoid a simple climb. head on in.”

I scoffed. If I have the means I fully intend to use them, surely as a general, he’d understand that.

“Oh and Luo, if the emperor wants to see you,” Chang says, “from what I gather, he is not going to be happy whatsoever.”

I gave him a swift nod and headed inside the throne hall. I immediately regretted it.

Sitting on the throne, surrounded by various advisers and guards, was Emperor Quan Zhihao Kitsumari Fang Shin VII, and his aura was permeating the room, making me feel one hundred pounds heavier.

Not that I would let it show, as I quickly muttered [light step] and carried on towards the emperor.

“Sorceress Luo.” he spoke with the feintest hint of annoyance.

“My Emperor.”

In front of me sat a man who was thought to be untouchable. Jewelry and silks coated him and his throne of mithril, kitsumari iconography subtly stitched into every surface. From his ears hung gemstones as rare as albino trees, upon his fingers were rings worth more than generations of citizenry and woven into his beard was beads made from purified manarite, no doubt also functioning as storage items.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“I need more time, my emperor. Only a month.”

He shifted in his throne, a cascade of jingling mixing with a sigh that somehow came off as elegant despite its rude origin. “You, of course, know that won’t be possible.”

The heat in my voice rose up at his lack of care. “Perhaps you are forgetting that I have been working tirelessly for the last five months to find a solution to the Tide. All I’m asking for is one more month.”

“Insolent girl! You mean to tell me you have no way of stopping the Tide by now?” the emperor’s voice was loud, as his rage boiled over his usual calm persona.

“My Emperor! Please! You must understand, I have been trying ever since the last invasion to find something, but I swear all I need is a month more! These things take time!” I pleaded, angrily, once again, and every second I spoke I felt my fear rising as I glanced at His loyal guards.

I knew that it would only take a simple gesture and they’d turn me into so much viscera.

“Luo, I cannot allow you to waste my time, you must either get a solution now, or you will be sent to the Blood Plains upon the next Tide. These are your options, my precious Luo, and I cannot be persuaded otherwise.” The contrast of the emperor’s earlier outrage and his returning calmness was stark, but I could see in his eye the inferno of loathing and disappointment as he stared me down.

I had no choice but to do the ritual In the scroll I had grabbed, guilt be damned.

May whichever chosen soul be blessed in its endeavors. For the sake of my conscious.

“I… Very well,” I spoke, “on my authority as Grand Court Sorceress, I, Luo Tung-Mei, shall present you a solution that may quell your ire.” I began pulling regents and such from the various pouches of my robe and satchel, neatly organizing them into the components I required for each step of this ritual. Every visit to the emperor had the possibility of forcing me into this situation, so I always packed it all.

The emperor’s eyebrow rose at the number of materials I assembled, not out of confusion -the emperor himself certainly had enough spatial enchantments on his jewelry to store his wealth five times over, last I checked- but because of the potency radiating off the ingredients I brought forth.

He probably only knew half of what these things were.

“You claimed to need a month more? Then what do you happen to be doing in front of me? Certainly nothing you would regret, yes?”

“Nothing of the sort, my Emperor.” I lied.

In reality, I was preparing a soul transference ritual, one powerful enough to infuse jade and form a manmade Core. The process was intensive on the mind and body of the channeler, and the people outside the circle I was sketching were at risk of soul expulsion.

Including the emperor.

I finished laying the circle out with powdered skull, went over it again with clover for luck.

Then, pulling large iron spikes from my pouch, I placed them facing inwards at equal intervals, and tied them together with a string woven from hair of a virgin maiden.

I placed the perfectly carved jade core catalyst in the center of the formation and begun spreading oracle sand around the gem, using my finger to make basic channeling runes in the soft grains.

“What in the high realms…” muttered one of the guards, though not making a move to stop me.

“I am going to solve the beast tide once and for all. Unless the emperor thinks I am a danger?”

the emperor replied in his guard's stead. “You may continue, but you will be cut down if you threaten my life with this.”

I formed some clay figures and pressed small candles into their hands, lit them in a outwardly random manor, and then covered their faces with spring water, making them appear to weep. I sprinkled unrefined manarite ore around the central gem and painted another series of channeling runes, this time in the language of the giants.

Never hurts to be safe.

Well, most of the time, that is, as I prick my finger and drip blood exactly thrice on the tip of the jade catalyst.

I began chanting, using a tongue that still felt odd to speak despite my occupation, and pour some mana into the formation in front of me.

in potestate mea voco te, spiritus ultra, ad habitandum in hoc crystallo

Praecipio tibi hoc imperium totis viribus et omni furore defendere

ego praecipio tibi ut aedifices te et confirmes te inimicum

hoc regnum defende a bestiis monstra extra fines nostros

et in mensura retribuetur

I repeated the chant a second time upon not feeling a change in the gem, this time pouring more mana into the ritual.

The guards had their hands at their blades, but still waited for the signal from the emperor, which surprisingly still didn’t come.

The ritual failed again, and I repeated the chant once more, flooding the runes and patterns with my mana, and I felt something being drawn in.

I repeated the chant one last time, to ensure that the soul would be firmly withing the newly forming Core, and I poured the last ounces of my mana in, feeling some of my lifeforce tick down a few notches as I did so.

And then the manarite rocks exploded.

[you have been rendered unconscious]