"By the gods!" That was all almost everyone managed to say.

Until that moment, Nalrond had always believed that the ritual allowed people to seek an audience with Mogar like a believer does with their god. That the blood spilled and world energy from the circle were an offering from the weak to the strong.

Yet Quylla's circle had proved centuries of history wrong. A mind link meant to meet Mogar as an equal and the great number of circles served as a shield to protect the caster's sanity.

"See? What are a few centuries of research in front of a true genius?" Everyone but Morok, of course.

He exploited the moment of amazement to praise Quylla and gave her a congratulatory hug that was returned instead of being rejected as usual.

'All according to plan.' Morok thought while sniffing her hair but being careful not to be noticed.

"Pervert!" Friya broke the moment and pushed him away.

"What do you mean?" Quylla looked at her sister as if she had gone mad. NiceNovel.com

Morok had been a true gentleman ever since the trip had started.

"Look at that!" Friya pointed above his head, where his Soul Projection gave him the thumbs up and gestured Morok suggestions to grope her.

"Dude, too soon!" Morok snarled to the Projection before turning to Nalrond. "When we got here you said those things are no mind-reading. Then how do you explain that?"

"My only guess is that since you're usually true to yourself, your soul has no message to express but the urges you're currently repressing." He replied

"Couldn't you tell me that earlier?" Morok's Projection gave Nalrond the fingers and disappeared again.

"Don't worry, I'm not angry. You can't control your thoughts more than I can control mine." Quylla said while pointing at her own Projection.

"Thank the gods! I-"

"The important is that you don't put them into action. Besides, there's no time to waste. Shut up and let Nalrond concentrate. The earliest circles are starting to fade again." Quylla cut him short.

Nalrond looked at the emerald green circle and regretted not having the time or opportunity to redraw them all.

'To do that, I would have not only to waste another two days, but it would also mean to use so much life force that I might not have the strength left to perform the finishing step.' He thought while sitting cross-legged inside Quylla's improved circle.

The rest was easy. Nalrond only had to practice the same meditation technique he used to draw upon the world energy and hasten the recovery of his twin cores. With each breath, he could feel the Spirit Magic of the circle and the world energy mixing inside his body.

With his mind now clear from stray thoughts, Nalrond could see a blinding light shining above him through his closed eyes. He extended his consciousness toward the light just like he had done to cross over the Fringe's barrier.

Once again, countless voices, sufferings, and experiences that comprised Mogar's mind assaulted his consciousness, but thanks to the circles Nalrond only needed a thought to push the mental pressure aside while waiting for his host.

At first, the light was distant, like the sun on a winter day, but soon Mogar noticed him. Suddenly, Nalrond found himself surrounded by a white space that extended as far as the eye could see.

He was standing up with his eyes opened, yet he realized immediately that none of that took place in the real world. There was no trace of his companions, he now wore the same clothes he had before Dawn's escape, and what he saw could only be explained with Mogar playing tricks on his mind.

The person in front of him looked exactly like Nalrond. The only difference between them was that the hair of the doppelganger was of the six colors of the elements.

"What do you want?" Mogar asked with a voice that sounded as if a man and a woman had spoken in unison.

"Greetings, Great Mother." Nalrond gave them a bow, unable to stand even the weight of such powerful gaze. "My name is-"

"I know exactly who you are. A human who came looking for answers. Don't waste my time with formalities because they hold no meaning to me. All the good manners in the world wouldn't have kept me from destroying you if you didn't pique my curiosity." Mogar cut him short.

"I'm no human. I'm a hybrid!" Nalrond found the strength to look up to the doppelganger thanks to the rage such words stirred up.

"Are you really trying to correct me?" Mogar laughed. "Do you know that the few who manage to meet me, always give me the semblance of the person or the thing they care the most about?

"Now tell me, who else but a human can be so arrogant to perceive me as themselves? Tyris saw me like the mother she never met. Baba Yaga as the slave she failed to save. The Horseman of Dawn as her mother.

"Only humans can't think further than their own skin." The spite in Mogar's words and the horror that assailed his mind made Nalrond fall to his knees.

"Did you give an audience to Dawn as well? Did you help her to escape?" He asked.

"Are those your questions?" Seeing such a cruel smirk on his own face almost broke Nalrond's focus.

Cracks appeared in the space around them and the air became too heavy to breathe. The fissures let in more of Mogar's essence than he could bear, slowly pushing him toward madness.

"No. They are not." Nalrond gritted his teeth and put his rage aside.

As his mind became more stable so did the space around them until all the cracks and the mental pressure that they caused disappeared.

'I've already wasted too much time and I don't know how much longer I can hold. Right now, my revenge is not a priority. It would only compromise my focus.'

"Why shouldn't I receive the Bright Day?" Mogar said as if she had just read his mind.

"Do you remember what did your smart friend say? Our communion has nothing to do with superstition. Dawn opened a mind link with me just like you did and since she didn't give me any reason to dispose of her, I listened to her ramblings. Just like I'm doing now."

"As for Dawn's escape, she didn't need my help for that. She knew that it was only a matter of time before someone stupid enough would break her out. She was more interested in things like overcoming the undead's weakness to sunlight."

"What did you tell her?" Nalrond tried to shapeshift out of rage, fighting the temptation of ripping the head of his double. Yet nothing happened.

"Is that your question?" Mogar repeated.

"Why do you keep asking me that if you're going to answer me anyway?" The stress of that conversation made the space crack again until he managed to calm down.

'Mogar is doing it on purpose. They want me to either end the link or die and so far, I took the bait like a moron.' Nalrond noticed that the pressure on his mind grew with each passing second.

The longer Mogar focused on him, the less the magic circles his companions had prepared managed to ward off the flood of world energy and with it the full brunt of the planet's consciousness.