I need to rest. This escape was based on luck. This cannot go on. I think I need to realize my very first plan and retreat to some wilderness until it is clear what the world will look like in a few years.

A core of anger blossoms in me. Even if I cannot enlarge my domain I will not yield what I already have. In fact it needs to be defended right now. I use a stamina potion and fly off. I don’t care about low reserves. A resource that is never used is useless.

--

This feels like home. I strongly suspect my claim won’t last when the transformation zone eventually drops. This is unacceptable. Tactically speaking we could just pretend to be from one of the factions searching this area for whatever they are searching. I cannot imagine a shortage of them in this case. Given the length this zone has been existing they must have started constructing temporary houses out there. But it is mine. And it is supposed to stay mine! Why are these assholes sending me into a fight nobody can win?

I walk towards the fringes of reality. This is unacceptable. I am going to give you a dose of your own medicine.

--

Chanting the incantation extra slowly is fun. The magical circle forms in front of me. I aim at the front of one of the traces. I give it the full dose. All colours, maximum mana. A mass of black tears in reality forms instead of the usually sphere. Anyway, the trace has stopped. Now I will feast on your corpse. I loot the thing.

Blackness.

--

I wake up being towed away from the fringe with a noose of rope tied about my leg. I’ve been lassoed like a wayward calf. My internal soreness prevents me from acting on the indignity.

On the other end of the rope I spot Lidija with a grin that should be taxable on her face. She also has [Astral Affinity].

L: What happened to you?

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P: Silver rank monster. Fled. Defeated it. Saw something on the other side. Fought it.

L: Silver rank monster?

P: Yes. Technically an anomaly I’d say. The next territory has silver rank anomalies.

L: So we are stuck?

P: Yes.

L: Shit.

P: You can stop dragging me through the dirt, by the way.

L: Can I?

P: Yes.

I get up. Everything hurts. My head feels clearer, though. One might think that such a state should include a splitting headache. It does not.

P: I think we will have to hunker down. And after that …

L: After that?

P: I think … . I was stupid by clinging to the vestiges of my old life. I’ll leave Europe.

She texts somebody, I suppose to call of further searches for me, and seems lost in contemplation. I am a fully occupied by not wincing from aches all over the body. And there is something I really don’t like. I’ve lost a slot of my storage space. To be precise, it is filled with something I cannot access. Though if I look at what else this has gotten me, the exchange was a good one.

--

We have covered about three quarters of the way back to the hotel as night falls.

L: What the .. ?

P: Something bad has happened. I have just lost my claim on this place.

L: Shit. We need to hurry. Can you fly?

The by now hated mental ping on on our phones saves me from an answer and her from telling me why exactly we need to hurry.

Jason Asano has reintegrated the majority of this transformation zone. The rest of the zone has thereby become detached, been ejected and will reimpact this world’s dimensional membrane after 43 hours. This impact will cause a major catastrophe possibly up to the destruction of the world. Your task is to perform a ritual to dissolve it into the astral.

Those of you who have [Teleport], [Astral Affinity] and [Unholy Affinity] have to activate the ritual by teleporting into the opening gap.

P: Do we still have to hurry?

--

We are not walking in the dark. The sun has vanished leaving in its stead a sky filled with faint rainbow light. It looks like an aurora borealis on steroids.

On our return we are met with a scene of three children running around nacked playing with a running garden hose already having turned a lot of the meadow next to the hotel to a wetland, while Zora is sitting on the raised platform we had our meals on with her unshod feet up on the fence and an open bottle of wine next to her on the table. She points at the children and shakes her head. We nod.

P: Where is our rescue case?

Z: Doing measurements. He said that he’ll be back in a few hours. Can you believe it?

She takes a swig.

Z: Lidija, care to join me?

Z: You watch the children.

They leave for her room.