I considered it for a few seconds and came to the smartest possible decision in the current situation. As much as I think there is to gain from meeting more replicas and killing them to improve the quest's rewards, I still keep coming to the same conclusion.

How the hell could that even compare to getting my grubby little hands on the Fragment below?

Do these elves think I’m the sort of dumb fool who’ll just run straight at them after they spent seven days straight preparing to kill me?

I mean… I still want to… but maybe next time.

So as the base splits into two, the piece I am on starts falling toward the planet. I checked it properly, and I’m pretty sure I’m alone here, leaving the rest of my colleagues back on the other half.

I watch as the other piece uses its thrusters to keep itself in orbit. At the same moment, more of that metal melts, covering the holes I’ve created and blocking my view into the base.

There is no question that I would love to have a face-to-face talk with Io and find out how much I’d need to twist his neck before it snapped, if he’s still alive. I would also like to see the face of that gray asshole, if he’s managed to survive. But damn, I’m just too curious about the Fragment to pay them much attention. I just separate a small part of my mind that I lovingly name Assholethaniel to do the mental trash talking, which makes me feel better right away.

While the base around me shakes, I keep checking the timer tracking the end of the quest, and my bearing through the panel in front of me.

I can’t really do much except rely on the calculations the last elf made and watch the trajectory while feeling the vibrations as the base tries to hold on. I could probably try to absorb the kinetic energy of the entire base, but at the speed it’s falling and with all the mass it contains, something in the back of my mind tells me that would be a bad idea.

Though something else keeps nudging me to try it. I bet it is Assholethaniel.

At least this plan seems to be working well, as expected of the most smelly elf in existence. Even with only half of the base, it manages to change trajectory, deal with missing parts, force out propulsion, and follow the protocols that guide it to the Fragment’s location.

This is going suspiciously well...

I surround myself with as many layers of mana barriers as possible, infusing them with thermal and kinetic energy to absorb the heat and the impact.

The base explodes around me, breaking apart into dozens of massive chunks and hundreds of pieces the size of cars and buses. All of that, along with myself, continues its fall to the surface.

Two golden suits nearly the same as the one I saw before appear among the debris and charge to attack me, one of them riding a lizard-like gilded monster with six legs and two heads. Unlike the last time, these suits also have glowing blue inscriptions peaking out through the gold plating.

Either the replicas triggered a self-destruct protocol from the section of the base still in orbit, or it’s been set off by the two replicas on this section that I’ve somehow missed.

How petty of him to destroy it, and with it an aid that would’ve helped me collect the Fragment.

Using kinetic energy, I move behind one of the huge chunks of debris, which explodes as the two heads of the lizard both shoot orange lasers at the same time, one from each eye.

I absorb the momentum of the debris in front of me to hold them in place, then send bursts of kinetic energy their way, launching them like shotgun pellets toward the lizard and the elf in golden armor riding it.

The lizard darts forward, leaping from one piece of debris to the next with incredible agility.

Even now, we continue to fall toward the surface, speeding up the closer we get to the burning planet.

My body moves, almost on its own, as I sense mana building up, while the place where I stood is struck by a barrage of nearly invisible cutting attacks. They carve deep holes into the side of one of the larger pieces. So I continue to zip around, flying here and there, moving between bigger and smaller pieces, using them as footholds and launching them at my opponents.

At this point, I’m not even taking the fight seriously because I have a much bigger problem. Most of my mind is focused on modifying one of the arrays I’ve been keeping stored in the back of my mind.

To keep the replicas from getting too cocky, I fire an [Empyrean Lance] or two in their direction while making sure I still have the Low Pristine cage on me. As much as it might not actually help, and despite the fact that it’ll probably end up being unable to hold the awakened Fragment without the base and its protocols supporting it, I still have a plan.

The planet below us fills more of my view, and the falling debris starts creating bright streaks of flames as it plunges downward. Smaller pieces start breaking apart under the stress of the heat, splitting into even smaller fragments.

I dedicate a part of my mind to creating and maintaining a lightly pointed barrier in front of me, absorbing the heat being generated around it. Gradually, the air resistance builds back up, and the sense of weightlessness disappears. And the entire time, I continue to burn through the healing marks Lily left me, still having plenty of them left.

Out of nowhere, intense shockwaves surge through the air, created by the explosion of one of the larger chunks of the base, pushing the smaller pieces farther out of the way, while creating an even bigger field of debris. The pieces with weird shapes start twisting, spinning, and changing direction as they tumble unpredictably. One of them crashes into the piece where the lizard and the elf are standing, and both of them are sent flying through the air.

The lizard is already burned to a crisp, but the elf in the golden suit seems completely fine. Before they can reposition properly, my lance pierces both of them.

[You have defeated Gilded Scintilizard - lvl 381]

[You have defeated Replica of the Last Elf - lvl 102]

[Lvl 333 Lvl 334]

The remaining elf tries to use that distraction, but the chunk of the base he’s been standing on explodes as I teleport one of my tricolored orbs there through a [Ley Line], and he finds himself being hurled through the air, spinning wildly as he shoots off in another direction, moving faster than I toward the planet.

I give it a few moments to see if he uses some sort of propulsion or item to head back toward me, but nothing like that happens. He spins, continuing to plunge downward uncontrollably.

The remaining pieces around me start glowing even more, and tails of the superheated material trail behind them, something I probably should have learned about in school.

I push myself toward the piece I was on when it all started. The panel where I was watching the trajectory and reaction is still here, though of course it’s not working. A burst of kinetic energy I create pushes it away from me. I continue strengthening the barrier around me while slowing myself down.

The debris beneath me streaks toward the planet like a rain of fire, crashing into each other and breaking into more fragments that almost instantly evaporate.

I halt my movement once I decide I am low enough, then float in place.

A new suit of armor I’ve been working on forms around me. It is not much different from the one I usually use, but it is bulkier and at least partially inspired by what the last elf was doing. Of course, the effect of my subclass still refuses to allow it to be ugly, so some shapes change automatically to make it more visually pleasing while retaining the simple design.

The timer tells me there’s only five minutes remaining when I finally boost myself toward the area I sense emitting the highest concentration of heat.

Somewhere below me, the first pieces of debris slam into the planet and send another shockwave roaring through the air, in a blast I can feel even up here. The temperature keeps climbing, and when I pass beneath the clouds of smoke, lit from below by the flames burning on the surface, I finally see the planet itself.

A molten wasteland stretches as far as I can see, with patches of solidified stone that only wait to be melted. The air itself feels like it is burning, and something like a powerful wind coming from the Fragment’s location keeps sending twisting lines of flame spiraling through the air. It is just like one of those close-up videos from the surface of the sun.

I head straight toward it with complete confidence that I should be able to endure it for a few minutes at least.

[You have defeated Replica of the Last Elf - lvl 104]

Getting the notification surprises me. I would’ve expected him to survive longer with that suit on.

The wind-like pressure keeps pushing against me, forcing me to use more strength. It becomes so unstable, and there are so many wisps of flame cutting through my armor, that I’m eventually forced to land. And as I get closer, I continue forward on foot.

The armor around me expands to create larger buffer zones as the heat rises. I keep channeling that heat, absorbing it, moving it through my body and armor, then releasing it out of my back to shed and use it as propulsion to move faster.

Barely a minute remains, and I attempt to speed up.

[Redistribution - lvl 67 Redistribution - lvl 68]

I let my mana manifest to create a pale blue hexagonal shining barrier segment in front of me, but it starts melting immediately, even as I keep remanifesting it, attempting to stack more layers. Whips of flame lash against it, cutting through and melting it, but I keep pushing through.

[Manifestation - lvl 9 Manifestation - lvl 10]

[Focus - lvl 68 Focus - lvl 69]

A bigger flare explodes toward me. My fragmented minds all connect and go into overdrive, trying to absorb as much heat as I can. I take it all into my body, where it swirls, trying to free itself from my control, bouncing inside until it can destroy me. My heart, even without me doing anything, speeds up. I can hear it pounding in my ears.

Ba dum. Ba dum. Ba dum.

A constant rhythm of heartbeats, strong enough to shake the world, is nearly drowned out by the screaming flames around me. Then I realize I am screaming too, from the pain and the pure thermal energy flooding my body. My passive healing struggles to keep up and feels ready to fail at any moment. Thermal energy keeps combusting under my skin, restoring the bits that burn away, but there’s far too much of it. I grab some of the energy I gather, gather it, and move to push it out.

[Redistribution - lvl 68 Redistribution - lvl 69]

I take all that bouncing energy inside my body and channel it through me, detonating it behind my back.

Congratulations, you have acquired a new skill!

[Accumulation]

[Accumulation - Level 0 Accumulation - Level 9]

[Redistribution - lvl 69 Redistribution - lvl 70]

It launches me forward through flames. Even with all my defenses, the heat melts the skin from my body and chews into my flesh. The sheer magnitude of the temperatures here makes my passive combust constantly, sending healing bursts through me. I start using two healing marks from Lily at a time whenever the flames begin to damage anything important.

Then I see it.

The Fragment of the First Star.

Not floating in the air or lying on the ground, but glowing, just behind the forehead of the velnar’s kneeling body. His form barely resembles a living being, having been reduced to a charred statue.

When I lift the Pristine item, I notice its surface is already starting to melt. I open the cage and shove my hand into what remains of the velnar to grab the Fragment. The charred figure crumbles. As I draw my arm back to place the Fragment in the cage, I realize my hand is gone, burned away, and disintegrated up to the elbow.

The Fragment lies on the ground. It looks like a pinkie-long transparent pale orange crystal with orange and white flames dancing inside it, surrounding a core hotter than anything I’ve ever seen.

I collapse weakly to my knees, my movements sluggish and awkward. I press the cage into the dirt and scrape earth over the Fragment to force it inside. It takes a few tries, but once it is in, I slam it shut.

As if someone flipped a switch, the heat from the Fragment vanishes everywhere except my immediate surroundings. It is still enough to turn me to ash in minutes, but after what just happened, it feels like a cool breeze in summer.

Then the cage starts melting from the inside.

I watch it and glance at the timer, morbidly curious about which will happen first: the fragment melting through and killing me, or the quest duration running out.

In the end, I’m lucky. The timer ticks just as the cage begins to break, and I feel myself pulled away, reappearing in my handler’s room. The pristine cage floats in the air near me, but the Fragment inside is calm, unmoving, almost as if it were afraid of upsetting the being in this room.

My handler sits behind her table, red hair, yellow eyes, not bothering with pretending to be someone else.

I stand while turning my back to her, activating my last few healing marks to restore my body, and using my passive too. It takes a few long minutes, during which neither of us speaks, but slowly my body repairs itself. It is far too quick for the wounds I had, so I’m pretty sure she’s helping somehow, though I don’t say it out loud.

Only then do I slowly realize I’m butt naked.

Before turning around, I weave a rough pair of mana pants, just enough for now. Then I make a manabloc chair and weakly sink into it, sitting across from her. I can’t remember the last time I felt this drained. My head throbs with a dull ringing, but at the same time, I’m calm. As if every emotion had already burned itself out.

"Hello, my dear, favourite handler. My most favourite, even."

"What in the unholy fuck is your problem?"