Alex stopped and stared in awe. Even though he’d seen the destruction through other eyes shortly before, it was still hard to come to grips with the change to Tianluo. From just outside the entrance to the city, he could see the Grand Pagoda and its shattered sections of once beautiful and sloping roof.

“Hey, it’s the funny hat guy! Didn’t I see you come through here already?” A Hunter lounged in the doorway of a partially collapsed teahouse. There was a fire on the floor of the building behind him, the smoke rising from the hole in the roof.

White stone buildings lay in various states of ruin, and some of their curved rooftops were caved in or missing entirely. Cherry trees that once lined the road were now blackened and twisted from the corruption of The Night.

Alex tugged at the brim of his hat and kept moving with his friends close behind.

“These guys look tough, brat. What are you doing around here? Shouldn’t you be focused on killing more of those beasties for your friends?” The spirit’s voice seemed to grate on Alex’s nerves.

He sighed.

That backseat commentary really makes me want to cancel my illusion and make the other part of my mind deal with you. It’s a shame I have to pick one or the other.

“Well, if you’d made a real clone, you could put my amulet around its neck.” The spirit grumbled on about how things were different in his day, and Alex ignored him.

“He saw you already?” Mark whispered while falling in step beside him.

“Shh. I’ll tell you later,” Alex muttered.

“Oooh,” Mark said as realization dawned on him.

The group walked further into Tianluo and began walking down the central road. It had once been immaculate white stone, lined with blossoming cherry trees, but now the stone was shattered and separated. Some sections were entirely missing or covered in rubble from rooftops.

Various Hunter groups moved through the area. Some were taking notes or stuffing items into bags, while others were setting up camps or using the city as a resting place and temporary area of safety.

Alex glanced up to see a flash of blue overhead.

Not too high, Val. Stay close. Someone might mistake you for a monster.

The amphiptere flew higher and did a playful loop. “Val careful! Val can fly good!”

“That’s what worries me,” Alex said as he sent along feelings of stern seriousness through their bond. “You’re enjoying this too much.”

Mark had dried sweat on his forehead from jogging this way with his armor on. It wasn’t a full set of plate armor, but the chest piece and the half-greaves were adding weight to the large man. Other than the dent in the side, the armor looked to be in great condition, and its steely gray made Mark look tough and definitely at a higher level than he was.

Sarah walked behind Alex and next to Sam. They both wore more modern clothes but carried their weapons. Sarah held her bow, but it didn’t have an arrow nocked. Her hair was pulled back into a bun, and she looked on with a sort of calm that Alex felt it hard to mirror. He knew she trusted the Hunters here, but for some reason, he didn’t have the same faith that people would follow the rules set out at the camp. She would nod occasionally as they passed the others who wore armbands.

“I love the class I got. I can’t believe that it took me so long to get to level seven, and then I jumped to level 12 after killing a single monster,” she said to no one in particular.

“What was it called again?” Sam asked while looking around.

“Empath. But I really like the skills. They—”

“Sarah,” Alex said. “Can we save that talk for when we’re all alone?”

She rolled her eyes a bit but nodded and didn’t say anything else.

He looked over his shoulder at the young healer, who walked with an unsettling calmness in his eyes, surveying the city. “You’re taking this well,” Alex said.

Sam shrugged. “It looks different, broken.” Alex saw his hand tense around his staff as he walked, using it as a walking stick. With each step, the totem that he’d re-tied around its twisted head, swung and would occasionally clatter with the sound of wood on wood.

Alex turned down a narrow street and made for the space he’d scouted earlier. He didn’t want to miss their chance. A few moments later, they came out on the next street, and no one was around, he answered Mark’s earlier question.

“Yes, they saw my clone. I sent it ahead to scout, and part of me wanted to see if Hunters like this could tell the difference. I think the only way they’ll notice it is if they have a mana sight skill, since it lights up like a beacon to my Heavenly Eye. But to my right eye, it looks totally normal.”

“Aura sight, too,” Sarah chimed in. “Everyone has a colored aura around them in my vision but your skill just looks like a cardboard cutout. There’s no aura there.”

Alex nodded and made a mental note.

“I’m telling you. Crude.” Maelis picked up with his earlier criticisms. “The eastern provinces of Torus had rune mages that specialized in the creation of runic automatons that were far more—”

Is there anything that you won’t criticize? Give it a rest. I thought we were past this kind of stuff. When do you go back to sleep?

“Your hat,” Maelis said simply. **

What?

“I won’t criticize your hat. It’s appropriately dignified for a practitioner of the magical arts.”

Alex tugged the brim of his hat self-consciously. “Great. The one thing you approve of is the thing that makes me look ridiculous,” he said under his breath.

“How far can it separate from you?” Mark asked.

“It’s hard to tell. I can’t tell where it is like a bond, but I can tell what it’s thinking or seeing. It’s a bit overwhelming to parse the senses at the same time. But, there doesn’t seem to be a range limit yet. It got to the city much earlier than we did. There are some other limitations. I can’t pick things up or interact with stuff… it has no physicality at all.”

“Where is it now?” Sarah asked, looking up at the roofs as if it were hiding up there.

“Hiding in a building near the edge of the city, practicing mana shaping.” Alex couldn’t help the smile that formed.

“It can use magic?” Sam asked excitedly, bouncing closer to the front of the group.

“That’s the weird part. It can use mana since it takes half of all of my magical stats, but it can’t use any of my Skills.”

Mark straightened. “Wait, so your clone could cast spells? Your circles are unstructured, right?”

“That’s the hope,” Alex said, his grin growing wider. “I normally create them with [Mana Thread] though, so I need to try and get closer to those thin strands with just my raw mana shaping skills. That’s why he’s practicing. Good thing is, if there’s one thing I’m really good at, it’s magical control. The best part is, it doesn’t hurt my mana channels at all when the clone is using mana.”

Sarah’s eyes widened as she thought through the information. His damaged mana channels had been a big limitation in the last few days since returning from the Sun Elf mission.

“That’s…” she began.

“A game changer,” Mark finished with a shake of his head.

They crossed another empty alleyway into a wider street with a direct line of sight to the pagoda. Alex stopped again. “We’re going to wait here for a bit. You can get comfortable if you want, but keep an eye out.” Alex took off his pack and set it on the ground before sitting on the stairs turning his eyes to the entrance to the main building.

“What are we waiting for?” Sarah asked, removing her pack as well.

“There should be a group coming out of the pagoda soon. I think they’re going to come this way.”

She gave him an odd look, and Alex ignored it.

“Sam, can you heal me a bit? I don’t know if it’s going to help… but this is going to hurt.”

“What’re you doing now, dude?” Mark asked. “You can’t be trying to train. Your channels need to heal, right?”

“More like preparing?” Alex answered, and Sam cast [Rejuvenation] on him. Alex didn’t waste time and pulled on the mana from his core and braced against the pain. He tried to move the threads of mana as quickly as he could.

The spell circle for the lightning bolt formed quickly, but when it came to forming the rune, maintaining concentration, and controlling the mana pattern to set the rune the spell shattered. The entire time, Alex gritted his teeth and held his breath to brace against the pain.

He did it a second time, with the same result. Sam and Sarah were looking at him with concerned glances as he grunted and sagged. He told them he’d try once more, and on the third try, he managed a successful cast.

An arching bolt of lightning cracked across the stone ground and struck the stairs on the other side of the road before disappearing. The sound was loud in the quiet section of the town. However, Alex only needed one cast to work.

“Okay,” Mark said while drawing out the word. “What was the point of all that?”

“I just needed it to work once to put it in my [Spell Storage].”

“But why does that matter if you can barely cast it?” Sarah asked.

Alex gave her a tired smile and decided to test his theory. He named the spell in the System’s pop-up and then activated the skill while bracing himself. The spell went off perfectly. It formed faster and cost less mana than when he’d done it himself.

“It's about time you started using the System. I don’t understand this obsession you have with doing things without it,” Maelis chimed in.

You would if you’d listen to me. I’ve told you this like three times already.

“I know… I-I’m sorry, kid.”

The apology stunned Alex into silence for a moment.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

It’s fine… just, why are you being so critical all of a sudden?

“I haven’t been awake for this long in a long, long time. I have no idea what to do with myself if I can’t teach.”

Why don’t you just give me advice on the situation or teach me more about the System. Just being grumpy as hell isn’t helping either of us.

“Well, it is entertaining… Don’t worry, I can feel the energy beginning to ebb away. I’ll be asleep soon.”

The thought saddened Alex, despite the frustration he felt with the grumpy spirit.

After the bolt disappeared, he rubbed his neck and wondered if the pain was worse when they System took over casting. “Well, I figured this would work. I’m glad to see that wasn’t a waste. When I form the spell circle with unstructured magic, it’s a lot harder, takes more mana, and is slower to form. These were some downsides Eura told me about. But, with structured magic, the System is actually taking over and doing the magic for me, with my mana. So, while it still hurts like hell… the System isn’t going to fail the cast like I might when trying to do it and push through the pain at the same time.”

“That doesn’t sound—”

“There they are,” Alex nodded as a group of Hunters emerged onto the steps, escorting a group of white-robed figures. “The mirage saw them earlier. They’re bringing out survivors of the sect.”

“Are we going to talk to them?” Sam asked, and this time Alex could hear the hitch in his voice.

He nodded nonetheless. “Yes. They’re moving the sect’s people to the camp for processing.” Rising as the Hunters approached, Alex noticed their tight formation around the white-robed sect members. The group moved with an efficiency that reminded him of Jonathan’s group, and most of them carried standard Rift weapons. Some had knives, swords, and even a spear, but Alex had seen a scout of some kind on the roofs with his clone before. He didn’t see the man now, but he knew he was out there with an oversized modern sniper rifle of some sort.

“That’s far enough,” called their leader. She had short black hair and a thin scar across her ear and jawline. Her eyes narrowed at Alex and lingered on his white and gold robes.

He held up his hands to show they were empty and turned so that the clearly shown HA armband was easily visible.

“Where did you get that armband?”

“We’re contractors with the Hunters Association. Just passing through the city,” Alex answered.

Her gaze flicked to his brown wizard’s hat and then again to his robes. “Those robes look like theirs. Where did you find them? Did you get here early enough to loot some buildings?” Alex shook his head but didn’t answer. Her hand rested casually on a sword. “Well, we’ve got first claim on these ones. Just like the loot— we saw them first, their bounty is ours to collect.”

Behind her, two of the sect members stared openly at Alex. One of the older pair suddenly widened his eyes as Alex glanced at them, and he noticed his left eye. He whispered something to the woman beside him, who gasped.

The Hunter turned to glance at them. Sarah stepped forward, then. “Sergeant Lambert? Sarah Lee. We met at the Christmas function a few months ago.”

The tension eased. “Lee? Didn’t know you were in the field.” She glanced at Alex once more before stepping forward and shaking her hand. “Wasn’t your specialty… what? Psychological assessments or something?”

“It still is. I’m with this team as support.” Sarah smiled and was happy to see most of the Hunters relax as well. “Mind if we speak with the survivors? We’re tracking someone who got separated from our team and might have come through here.”

Lieutenant Lambert shrugged. “Sure, you can have five minutes. We need to get them processed for the bounty.” She looked at Alex. “Sorry for the rude welcome. There are rules here, and most are our people, but some people know just how to bend the rules in their favor. Can’t hurt to be careful.”

Alex nodded. “I can understand that. No harm done. Do you mind?” He gestured at the group and she waved him on.

As the hunters fell back a bit and began chatting with Sarah, Mark, and Sam, the elder sect member stepped forward to greet Alex. He bowed deeply to Alex. “Honored Guest, this humble one did not expect to see the Sect Head’s blessing upon another.”

Alex kept his voice low. “I’m looking for information about what happened to him and about a woman who might have passed through recently.”

The man glanced at the Hunters nervously. “First… you must know: What remains of the Sage awaits the one with his gaze. In the wilds, the path below the structured growth reveals itself to those who know where to look.”

Alex frowned and nodded, deciding to think through the message in a few minutes. “What about the woman? She has dark hair, about yay tall, looks dangerous, and carries some knives.”

“The warrior woman,” nodded the female sect member. “She arrived when the aspect was weakening. After the sect head’s sacrifice, Rakshasi split into seven parts. One aspect was here until the warrior woman drove it away. She left about seven days ago to the east, deeper into the Night.”

“Drove it away? Or killed it?” Alex frowned as he remembered the count being at one of seven when he entered the Rift.

The woman gestured uncertainly. “I suppose she could have killed it, though, alone as she was, that would be a mighty feat.”

Alex asked a few more questions about Olivia and how the Celestials had lost. He wanted to hear more about the last battle between the two B Ranks that had led to Eura’s death, but their conversation was interrupted.

“Time’s up. We need to keep moving,” Lambert said.

“Will you be all right?” Alex asked the sect members.

“They have been… correct in their treatment,” the old man answered carefully.

“The bounty is for unharmed extraction,” Sarah said as she joined Alex.

“We’re taking them to the camp. If you have more questions, you can join us or meet them there.”

“I’ll check on them later,” Alex said, looking at the woman carefully.

She met his gaze steadily. “What happens to them after we turn them over isn’t my business.” She turned to her team. “Let’s move out.”

The group of Hunters left and Alex turned to his friends before motioning them to the west side of the city. He deflected their questions as they hurried toward the western edge. After they cleared the rubble of the far wall and entered the dead cherry tree forest beyond, Alex created space and hunkered down for a few minutes.

“Stay low,” he said. “Just watch. Before we start moving, we need to make sure we weren’t followed.”

Val, fly a bit lower while we’re out here, and keep an eye out for anyone moving from the city to follow us.

He felt the confirmation come through their bond and settled in to watch their surroundings.

Fifteen minutes went by, and he was pleased to see his friends taking the situation seriously. Even if that group of Hunters knew Sarah and seemed like decent people, Alex still wasn’t sure about the others. When he was sure they weren’t followed, he got the group moving further west, away from the chasm and city.

“What was that about?” Mark asked after they’d been moving for another five minutes.

“They told me some cryptic message about the Sage leaving something behind. It wasn’t really a code, but it was definitely vague.”

“Sage?”

“Eura was known as the Celestial Sage. The rest of the message made it sound like he left something behind for someone who ‘had his gaze,’ which I’m guessing means me.” He pointed at his left eye. “I was thinking about the rest of the message, and I think it’s referring to the garden Eura kept.”

“I remember that,” Sam said. “He taught us the difference between structured and unstructured magic there.”

Alex nodded in response and kept them moving along the trail. He allowed his mind to open to the other half of his consciousness and make sure that it was following their group at a distance to catch any signs of pursuit.

He felt a tightening in his chest as they entered the meadow after another ten minutes of walking, and he saw the small square plot of garden. It was completely dead, with all the plants picked clean or withered and blackened.

The wind blew through the dead garden and stirred the stems. Alex knelt at the edge of the plot and gently touched what had once been a beautiful flower. He activated his Heavenly Eye and couldn’t get a read on a single one of the plants.

“Spread out a bit, see if you can’t find anything. Don’t get too far and call out if you see or hear anything at all,” He said, finding an odd catch in his voice.

He moved along the trail, further toward a steep drop in the forest. He looked around and felt an odd swirling of emotions as he felt sadness for the once beautiful garden that had caused him to shield his eyes from the overwhelming amount of mana, reduced to such a state. Now, whatever in the Night drained mana and life from what it infected, leaving the trees completely dead. They showed no signs of mana in them, instead serving as towering panels of black in his vision.

That wasn’t to say that there was no mana, just startlingly little for being in a Rift. He looked around and was happy for his natural mana sight. He saw a bit of mana that seemed to stand out from the rest. He found a worn stone disk at the base of an enormous tree.

He looked at it and saw several symbols carved into it, though the fallen cherry leaves around it were already moved as if they had been found. He felt anger begin to overtake his sadness at the thought of someone taking what Eura had left for him.

Alex pressed his palm against it and used [Mana Infusion]. Despite the pain, he could flush the item with enough mana to activate it and called his friends over in short order. Valtherion dove from the sky at his rise in emotions and hovered nearby, watching as a section of the tree slid down into the ground.

When the group joined him, they removed several lanterns that were much nicer than the original antique lantern that Alex had come in with. They were designed with reflective backs on one side to reflect light in a specific direction.

As they began to descend, the space was quite dusty, other than a fresh set of footprints that went down ahead of Alex. “Someone’s been here.”

Mark tightened the grip on his hammer. “Want me up front?”

“Not yet,” Alex declined, knowing Mark was still too low-level to act as a tank in this environment.

The stairway plunged deep under Tianluo and occasionally turned into a hallway for about 20 meters before turning into more stairs. They moved slowly and cautiously, and Alex made sure that his Mirage was watching the area around the garden while continuing to practice natural mana manipulation.

The lower they got, the shorter hallways began to depict carvings in stone walls, and they widened to allow for more space. Some murals depicted a many-armed goddess with stars in her hair, binding a great charcoal serpent in chains.

Alex knew this to be Rakshasi and wondered who the woman was.

The air grew heavier as they went deeper, and at some point, Valtherion hissed and darted ahead at full speed, leaving the group stunned.

Val! No. Come here!

Alex called after him, desperately attempting to communicate the urgent need to be safe.

They followed more quickly, sacrificing some caution for speed, and after what seemed like an eternity of attempting to recall Val, the passage at the bottom of a set of stairs widened into a vast circular chamber. At its center, raised on a stone dais that was covered with still burning candles, sat a figure in meditation.

Eura’s transformed body was massive even in his death. His four top arms extended outward in perfect balance and clearly in a meditative pose. His lower pair of arms were resting in his lap, clutching an ornate wooden chest. His gold-tinged skin still radiated a faint aura, even though no breath stirred in his chest.

Alex’s eyes traced the damage that told the story of how Eura had died. The once pristine white robes were marred with jagged tears and black, inky marks. Dried blood stained the fabric in patterns that spoke of a great struggle. The mix of black and red liquid created a gruesome scene of violence on the white canvas. From a tear in his chest, Alex could see puncture wounds that sprouted dark veins like a winter forest. They spread like roots through the golden skin and crept toward his face.

Alex knew that the only thing to had been able to fight Eura to the death in such a way was Rakshasi, and the poison must have slowly gotten to him in the end.

Yet Eura’s face remained peaceful. Even after his death, he looked like he had all the answers to Alex’s questions. He looked as though he might open his eyes at any moment.

But the Celestial Sage was gone. His mentor was gone.

Alex felt grief rise like a tidal wave in his chest, and he met it with a brutal efficiency of his own, channeling all of his currently available Willpower to dam the emotions up. He deliberately turned away from the scene and scanned the rest of the chamber for exits, threats, and truly anything other than the still form before him.

The feeling of Maelis’s spirit could be felt welling up from the item as well. There was a silence, and Alex almost dared the cantankerous old runemaster to say something critical at this moment. Having something to take the anger out on would be nice.

“He chose his own way at the end. A proper death,” the spirit said quietly.

Alex tried to think of something to quip back with, but couldn’t bring himself to care.

“I recognize the sacrifice. I’ve … been where he is. Choosing to leave something behind for those who come after as a last gesture. The difference is, he chose his fate knowing what it meant.”

The spirit’s vulnerability caught Alex off guard, and for a moment, he glimpsed the weight of centuries that Maelis carried with him. The ancient spirit never spoke of his past or how he died, despite the frequent attempts to pry at him.

Val flitted around the dais, whining softly as he sniffed at Eura’s body. The amphiptere’s confusion and genuine sorrow struck Alex harder than his own suppressed grief. He clenched his jaw and refused to allow the tears to build in his eyes.

“Alex,” Sam said tentatively as he placed a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s all right. We don’t have time,” Alex replied in a tight voice. He approached the dais cautiously and looked around it, though it seemed to be the only thing in the chamber; behind Eura’s body, there was a large opening in the wall.

As his gaze swept the wall behind the celestial, he saw a tunneled opening. The dark passage extended beyond the reach of their lantern light, but he could feel a gentle breeze flowing through it, carrying an earthy scent.

“There’s a way out,” he said quietly.

Mark followed his gaze. “Think it’s safe?”

“We’ll check it out after,” he replied as he turned back to the raised platform and his eyes fixed on the wooden chest.

The box was ornate and carved with symbols that seemed to glow the same golden energy as the celestial himself. Alex reached for it, but the Sage’s fingers remained firmly clasped around it, unable to be moved even after death.

“I can’t get it open,” Alex muttered. He felt worry creeping into his mind.

Was it not left for me?

“Should we… try to move his hands?” Mark asked.

The suggestion felt wrong and Alex just shook his head. He stepped back to look at the box again, this time activating his Heavenly Eye to attempt to scan it for any hint of a mechanism or System readout.

The chest responded immediately. They heard a soft click through the chamber as hidden locks disengaged. More startling was how Eura’s lower hands smoothly shifted aside, the joints moving naturally to the side as if he were still alive.

Sarah yipped and jumped back, and Mark called out in alarm, looking around wildly as if the ceiling would begin to fall.

Alex took a half step back and looked up at Eura’s face. The last of the golden energy that seemed to cling to his body dissipated into the surrounding air, and Alex felt something tremble inside.

The chest lay open now, revealing a single item in its open maw.