The gaping hollow in space snapped shut as the chain vanished through it, cutting off the flow of black; this close, it was touching me and I could feel it entering me everywhere it touched, and where it touched Praxis vanished; even the lightning arcing from my body faded and vanished as it pulsed from the strange substance. The sudden loss of power, and the visible manifestation of it, almost panicked me, but what I held in my hand made me grin, countering the effect somewhat; the egg, whole and burning bright sat within my remaining palm. I had snatched it from the thieving chain’s embrace, hoping desperately that it was small enough to fit within the mysterious limits of my compressed time. Luckily, with my hand roughly at its middle, it did seem to extend far enough to not cut the egg as my sword had been. Or living things just interacted differently? I should experiment, though I was not sure how ethical such tests could be.

After half a moment, still caught somewhere between panic at my creeping loss and exultation at me last millisecond win, I saw the draining fog move, and seeing the dark mist eddying towards the unborn phoenix, I held it above my head and backed away as quickly as I could, though that was slower than I would have liked, as the energy in my channels was being consumed as fast as it could cycle through me.

“Don’t touch the black stuff! And why does everything eat me?” I shouted as I finally backed out of its reach.

There came a subdued boom and Flame Ever Dancing appeared next to me, their solid gold eyes boring into my own. Without a word, I handed the egg back, and with a grateful nod, they once more vanished.

Looking around, I saw my friends stood where I had left them, though they now seemed clad for battle, with both Reff and Darina clad once more in their respective protective layers. Half a dozen massive sand puppets clustered around Riffa, their exquisitely detailed faces swivelling about. Cad merely stood with his long-hammer cantered back over his shoulder, looking around with a vicious grin on his face.

I looked around for the Elder; not seeing them immediately in the clearing, I looked up at the rock spire and finally found them sitting atop it, arms wrapped around their egg protectively. Looking down, I saw the crater in which Crownman still lay and grew worried; the Elder had seemed to deal with it easily enough, but if it was anything like McCreepy, it was going to get back up, and anything that could survive, however briefly, against the phoenix would probably make short work of me and my companions.

As I gazed at the hole, my fears came true and with a snapping sound like cracking ice, the dead-looking thing was suddenly on its feet. The frigid armour that had so thickly coated it was but a slick, still shrinking brushing of cool water by then, with even the spiders-web of fractures having faded as a result of the melting.

I dropped into a crouch, ready to defend myself – for what it was worth – but rather than attack, a medallic, buzzing voice rang out in the clearing, Crownman as its source.

“We must say, we are no longer amused by your interference, Little Snack. We will see you again, once I am back. When next we meet, we hope you will appreciate our mercy.”

The cold, metallic voice sounded furious, or as furious as a sound with so little expression could sound. A shiver ran through me as I thought about fighting Shadow Faced Guy, or any of his corpse-ical friends.

Turning my attention back to the frightful creature, as the last echoes of the voice faded, a patch of ice near one shoulder finally faded completely, and the flesh beneath was immediately reduced to drifting motes of ash; unlike the unfortunates we had come across earlier, this wound was not healed. It seemed Flame Ever Dancing just wanted to be done with the thing.

Without a sound at the destroyed shoulder, and without warning, the thing vanished through the hole in creation, which snapped shut behind it, leaving the still falling arm to disintegrate and scatter.

With the doorways closed and the black no longer being fed, the reaching tendrils quickly faded; they did not burn up, but rather simply seemed to cease existing. With a grimace, I turned my attention inwards to focus on my Core and was shocked at what I found; my Core thrummed fast enough to seem a drone, as if I was almost dry. I had used a lot of Praxis in my first fight, but nowhere near this much. Thinking back to the mist consuming my energy, it had been so brief that while it had obviously not been desirable, I had not thought it a massive threat, and yet it had seemingly drained far more than I had suspected. A few more moments in that stuff may have actually killed me, draining me beyond empty.

I had no idea how I could possibly fight such a thing; it could just be a natural property of whatever world they had come from – the trees from the Black back on Sigil World had drained energy – but it lined up too well with how the madman was always talking about eating people. I had plans for my points, but I knew that once I had my second, I could be spending time trying to find something that could prevent that particular scenario. Passive murder-mist was a hell of an advantage to have in a fight, and if I could not find a way to counter it, I would need to spend all my time around Apexes, and while I had nothing specifically against that idea, I was not sure the jobs Xiournal had in store for me would allow it.

“Honoured Elder Flame Ever Dancing, if I may ask, why did you allow that... thing to escape?”

I looked around to see that Darina had retracted her flesh-shaped armour and was staring up at where the Elder in question sat, a look of respectful curiosity on her face. I had to admit, it was a good question; the Elder was clearly fast enough to have prevented it, and while Crownman had survived the brief altercation, it had very clearly been on the losing side of the conflict.

Another boom sounded and the Elder was once again before us, the egg still held protectively close. With a sniff and a look of disdain, Flame Ever Dancing spoke, her gaze directed at the diminutive apprentice.

“Normally, I would not deign to explain myself, however you and your flock have done me two great services, and two lesser ones. So, I shall sate your curiosity, this time. Once the strange portal opened, my perceptions were blocked, as they were before, and I allowed myself to be distracted by the merely mundane. The ice-thing shone darkly within my sight, and the clear resistance to my Domain angered me. Despite the fact that it was clearly a temporary circumstance, I allowed my rage to take control.”

I nodded along as they spoke; I knew if I suddenly lost a sense and was challenged so openly, I would probably also overreact, though I expected a little more from an Elder, though perhaps I should not, given that despite all their power, they were still just people.

“When my egg was snatched, I realised it had all been a distraction, a deliberate provocation that I had fallen for.” The elder paused, a note of self-reproach entering their voice. “Luckily, you are apparently far faster than you should be, Hunter. Thank you for returning my egg, again.”

I smiled at her and offered a thumbs up, and spoke when she did not seem to get it.

“You’re welcome, Elder Flame Ever Dancing. Just glad I was in the right place at the right time.”

“Ye do seem to be a lucky one, Sparky. We should have a talk once we’re done.”

I looked at Cad questioningly, but shrugged after a second, turning my attention back to the phoenix, indicating an apology for interrupting, and for them to go on.

“Yes. Well. The shock of losing my egg snapped me out of my rage, and I realised that my Domain would swiftly crumple the pathetic thing to ash without my physical intervention, and so I left it in favour of protecting that which is important. And when it left, the same. I would not - will not – be so distracted again.”

“I’m sorry if this is rude, but, how did that thing keep up with you as much as it did? As an Apex – sorry, Elder, shouldn't your first punch just have... exploded it?”

The Elder looked at me, their delicate eyebrows raised in question. It was actually Reff who answered me, though he seemed hesitant to speak on behalf of the phoenix.

“With the requisite understanding, an Apex is physically as powerful as a Peak Pinnacle stage cultivator, Hunter. While their abilities are far more powerful, on a merely physical level, they are equal. Though there are perhaps some – like the Apex of the Unfettered Frame, or perhaps the Crystal Drake, for whom this may not apply.” That was definitely something to think about – I had been thinking of an Apex, or an Elder, as the stage after Pinnacle, but I supposed that did not make sense, if you Ascended after Pinnacle. I thought back to the uncountable number of swords Walker had summoned, and at the scale of the power of lesser cultivators I had met; I did not know that I had met any at the Pinnacle, except maybe Ro, but those at the Foundation stage had certainly not been even a tenth as powerful. I would need to ask Walker the next time I saw him.

“Hunter, wherever you are from, it’s weird that you know so little about the world.”

“Why, where be Sparky from, lass?”

“Very far away. You won’t have heard of it.” I interrupted before the conversation could progress too far; Darina was curious enough on her own, I did not need her to start a club dedicated to ferreting out my secrets.

“It is as your large friend says, Hunter. The thing did not seem to be at the Pinnacle, but it was something close to it. Perhaps a thing from another world?”

“Wow, that makes sense, your Elderness. I visited another world a couple of months ago, and they had Apex analogues, but using a completely different system. I wonder what sort of system produced these things?”

“You visited another world? Didn’t you say you weren’t a blasted Apex, Sparky? I mean, Hunter...”

“Indeed, it is most curious that you say you have visited another world; I knew you speak truly, and yet you are neither an Apex or an Elder. Perhaps you are from another world yourself, and user of a parallel system?”

Slapping myself mentally, I spoke quickly, trying to cover.

“I jumped through one of those hole things. I didn’t get myself there. This is the only system I have; I swear.”

The Elder accepted my words with a sniff, seeming to dismiss it; they knew, obviously, as they could apparently discern truth from fiction, and while I had not supplied all of the truth, it was still truth. Cad was a little more leery, his grey eyes narrowed in consideration as he rubbed at his almost-neat beard. Darina was giving me her, ‘I’ll figure it out’ look, but I was used to that, though I knew I would have to stop handing her ammunition.

“With sudden recollection, you said you were being eaten, Hunter; by what?”

I looked over at Reff, his still armoured form looking like a glowing orange Batman with the hole he had made for his mouth. I gave him a smile, grateful that he had interrupted before either Cad or Darina could think of another question.

“That black stuff, it just sort of... cancelled out my Praxis. I’m almost empty, and I was only in there for a second.”

“Praxis? You’re damned fast for a Path stage, Sparky.”

“Yeah, I lost some weight recently. Really sped me up.”

I waved my stump at him. He chuckled, once more leaning on his hammer.

“That’s the spirit, Sparky. Judging by the torn sleeve, that was fairly recent. Good for you, not letting it get to ye.”

“Thanks, but at the moment I’m more concerned with that black stuff. How are we supposed to fight that?”

“In theoretical extrapolation, the cloud did not seem to grow once it was exposed to the Elder’s flames; the movement of the blackness suggested a great deal of it was passing through the hole, but its size remained constant.”

“I don’t know, Riffa. It came after the egg, and definitely latched onto me.”

“Perhaps the energy an Elder – or Apex – makes use of is too much for it to consume. If, as... Riffa suggests, it was being expended to exist within my Domain, it sought out... lower orders of power.”

“The Shadow – Shade did seem keen on not meeting an Apex – or Elder – both times I’ve met him. I had thought that just a sensible precaution, but maybe – despite being able to cloud your senses – his powers, whatever they are, don’t really work on Apexes?”

“Now wait a minute, if this Shady fella can make doors between worlds, as ye said, doesn’t that make him an Apex his own self?”

“No, Apex portals are different. They’re not holes, they’re more like... glowing tunnels.”

“Oh, you’ve seen those too? Void and violate, should I be expecting a god or two to show up next? Is Weilou or Dalle behind one of these trees?!”

“Uh, haven’t met any gods, but those two are the Apex of the Mountain’s Seed’s brother and sister, this is the Apex of the Mending Flesh’s apprentice and I’m sort of the apprentice for the Apex of the Infinite Blades. Just to provide some transparency.”

“You barely qualify, Hunter.”

“I just said-”

“You guys are a blasted strange lot. What’ve I got meself into? I bet me Ma’d be havin’ a right laugh at me expense, if she could see me now.”

Ignoring the Hammer wielder, who seemed to be trying to waft his own breath back onto his face, but grateful for the interruption, I turned back to the matter at hand.

“So our only way of combatting whatever that was directly, at the moment, is with an Apex. The Risen Throne also apparently has access to hard-to-kill almost-Pinnacle things. Anything else?”

“He opened a door directly here; why? We based our plan on him not being able to, and it seemed to be correct based on the fact he was sending in other parties. So, if he could do what he did, why waste the manpower?”

It was a good question and I nodded along as the apprentice spoke. Why had they sent all those parties, if they could do what they did? And if the Shadow Faced Guy could target an area so easily, why had he not taken the egg back before we reached the Elder in the first place? Sure, we moved a lot, but the mooks had found us, and surely if they could locate us, and know where we were going, he could have simply made a portal, step through, and wait?

“We were right, but something changed. Something allowed him to pinpoint this location from another world: What?”