"Is that really something I can do alone?" Lith asked in disbelief. "They may be just humans, but taking on a full city? Isn't it too much?"

"Negative. For unknown reasons all the humanoids inhabiting Kaduria are unable to use magic. Otherwise the army would never send a single Ranger instead of a battalion. As long as you keep your distance and avoid getting surrounded, it should be easy."

'Good to know. Even if I had to face a few weak magicians it wouldn't be a problem. The army has no need to know that, though.'

"Do I have to take down even the children?" This time the question was serious. In his mind gender, age, and race were irrelevant. There were only enemies and allies. Yet killing someone in cold blood for no reason felt wrong even to him.

Also, he remembered well Commander Berion's remark about his psychological evaluation. He needed to show to have a conscience beside Solus.

Kamila's voice paused for a second before answering.

"Affirmative. I know it's not an easy task, but consider this. Not a single Kadurian is really alive. Even if they were, you saw what the black rain does to them. If you slay them in both the human and shadow form, the cycle will be broken for a while.

"Consider it as a way to give peace to those poor souls. A short relief from pain is better than nothing." Kamila's words resounded with compassion, making Lith wonder what could have happened in her past to make her sympathise with the Shadows.

"Do Shadows have any known weaknesses?"

"Their human form is weak to light magic while their shadow form is weak to darkness magic."

"Healing magic kills them?" Lith found the idea absurd.

"Yes, but in such an excruciating way that more than one Ranger remained traumatized after the mission. My advice is to refrain to employ this method unless strictly necessary."

"Thanks, Lieutenant Yehval. I'll call back right before going in."

"Keep me posted." She said before ending the conversation.

'This is really interesting.' Lith thought while watching the army of Shadows wander at random along the ruins of Kaduria. Life Vision showed him that each one of them was tethered to the Black Star which was still drilling its way through the array.

'What do you think about this, Solus?'

'That it's a frigging nightmare!' She replied. She had remained silent during the conversation out of shock, not because she had nothing to say.

'Those poor people have been trapped for centuries into some kind of cycle of death and rebirth. The black rain doesn't just kill them, it's a torture to them. Their eyes in Shadow form are pure madness. Whoever did this to them is as cruel as crazy!'

'Agreed.' Lith nodded. 'You missed my point, though. If what you say is right, if they retain some form of memory, then it means their souls are bonded to this place. By exploring the city, we may find a clue to cure my condition.'

'Yeah, sure.' Solus didn't share his enthusiasm. 'Except they are not bonded to this place, otherwise the array would be useless. They are bonded to the Black Star. Do you remember how artifacts that steal and corrupt souls are called?'

Lith sighed at his own stupidity. The idea of being even one step closer to a solution had clouded his judgment.

'I guess a sealed item that endlessly tortures a whole city is the very definition of cursed object. I'm curious about how it works and how the cycle empowers it over time.'

'I'm not.' Solus had a disgusted tone. 'I can't wait to leave this place. Everything here feels wrong. How can you accept so easily the idea of slaughtering innocents?'

'What's the alternative? Politely ask the Black Star to not puncture the barrier and to not spread its curse? We don't know what happened here. Maybe they are innocent or maybe they made a deal with that thing that bit them in the a*s.

'We only have two alternatives. Wash our hands of the problem and let someone else deal with it, or do our job and maybe understand something about the Black Star that will help me. Either way the army can't allow the Black Star to escape and neither can I.'

They had to agree to disagree. They spent some time by watching the cracks on the dome getting bigger and studying the barrier. The golden dome was the sum of dozens of concentric arrays. Each one was cast so that those inside strengthened those outside and vice versa.

Their brilliant intricacy amazed Solus to no end. The arrays were woven one above the other, giving to the final result the appearance of an elaborate tapestry made of mana rather than a simple magic circle.

Such powerful formation needed a massive amount of mana to be sustained. Once Lith was certain the barrier would hold, he descended to the ground to study its power source. Kaduria was surrounded by equally spaced small buildings that somehow provided a constant flow of world energy.

'This is unbelievable!' Solus's excitement was so great she forgot being disappointed in Lith's lack of mercy.

'Do you mind explaining to me what's so great about a bunch of stones?' Life Vision only showed him a complex array protected inside what looked like an elaborate altar. Its design was much more refined than those Gadorf the Wyvern used.

On its surface there were drawings correlated with inscriptions he wasn't able to read. The pictures by themselves were too vague, depicting a lot of people carrying a stone to a temple.

'The city of Kaduria is built over a mana geyser. This explains a lot.'

'This explains nothing. Please, elaborate.'

'The reason why such a strong barrier can last without the use of a single crystal is that the altars are capable of redirecting the energy coming from the mana geyser under Kaduria. It draws the world energy away and uses it to fuel itself and all the arrays sealing the city.'

Lith felt a cold shiver running down his spine. Whoever had the mastery to redirect a mana geyser to the point that neither Life Vision or mana sense could detect it, had to be a real master of magic.

Yet not even them had been able to deal with the Black Star for good, leaving it in the care of posterities.

'It means they were either very trusting or so desperate they had no other choice. I think you are right, Solus. We'll stay here only long enough to make sure there's nothing valuable for us.'

'That wasn't my point at a… What's that?' Among the many lines leading from the altar to the dome, there was a thin red string. They followed it until the base of the mystical formation. It was part of a single array that had nothing to do with the sealing.

Lith called Kamila again. Something smelled fishy.

"Is the shadow phase already over? That's weird, it usually lasts more than an hour." Lith had called way sooner than she expected.

"No, it's not. I'm calling to report an anomaly. I just found a detector array that has no connection to the main structure and leeches energy from the altars. Is it one of the army safeguards?"