Sophie woke up, her entire body sore from the night’s sleep on the hard stone ground.

Previously while traveling they had used branches that they’d broken off of trees and bushes as padding, creating an acceptable mattress. Here in this gorge barely anything grew and that which did was more gnarled wood than leaves.

Stretching she rose and turned to Sam. Seriously! Did that guy never sleep?

She smiled at him “Morning”.

He ignored her and rose, walking out of the cave. She really couldn’t get a read on him.

First, he barely talks, then he initiates a conversation and now he wouldn’t even answer her. There had to be a bug in the program. There was no way someone as weird and messed up as him could exist in reality.

Squashing her irritation, she rose. One of the positives of being a [Prioress of Purity] was a passive cleanliness buff, meaning that she never had to brush her hair. Beyond really extreme situations, it stayed soft, clean and silky.

Outside of the cave Sam was already working his magic on the path, straightening and strengthening it. She’d once breached the topic, curious, but he’d just answered “Just do.” How do you ‘just do’ something that breaks common sense. It didn’t work that way!

She realised that she’d gotten annoyed again and regained her calm façade. She was a member of Holy Empire’s main team. It was not good to get worked up on something so trivial. Her management team would scold her again if she didn’t keep an elegant face in the game recordings. She felt her fingers clench. But he was so infuriating!

A rock clattering down from the top of the cliff caught her attention and it was quickly followed by another and then a second and a third.

A veritable rockslide was soon tumbling down the cliff, smashing bits of the path to pieces on their way down to the raging torrent below. Nothing lasts for ever and eventually, it stopped.

When the dust began to clear she saw a large boulder blocking their path forward. Half of the path in front of them had been worn smashed to nothingness. Sam was already working on repairing the path when she saw the boulder move.

Thinking that it was about to fall towards him, she called out and simultaneously pulled him backwards, where he landed with an undignified squawk. If it weren’t for the situation, she might have laughed. Instead, she jumped over him, landing between him and the boulder.

Using almost all of her remaining mana she conjured a strong wind to push it in the other direction. It toppled backwards. Before righting itself and standing up on two legs. She watched, unable to understand what was going on when Sam called out.

“Mountain Goat”

***

Azrael narrowly avoided the rockslide, jumping back and watching as it erased the path ahead of them. Eventually though it stopped and he went to repair the almost non-existent remains of the path.

All of a sudden Sophie called out, yanking him back. Caught off guard, he toppled backwards, landing on the ground, hard. Sophie ignored him, jumping over him and conjuring a massive gust of wind.

It pushed back the boulder… no, not boulder he realised as he used [Lord’s Insight] to identify the small-car sized object.

Mountain Goat

“Mountain Goat” he called out in warning. At the same time, it charged.

The goat cleared the gap in the path with ease, using the smallest of foot holds to propel its bulk forward. Azrael could only watch as it sped towards them. Sophie stood closest to it, visibly spent from the magic feat she had just performed. She was too far away and the goat too fast. Azrael made a decision.

Pushing his three highest levelled skills to the limit Azrael used [Mana Control], [Mana Manipulation] and [Stone Shaping] simultaneously to force a human sized hole to appear in the cliffside. He saw Sophie jump up, using a little wind to help propel her ascent.

She sailed up, aiming to land behind the mountain goat. It wasn’t enough.

One of the horns clipped her foot as she sailed by, sending her tumbling through the air, off course. He barely managed to squeeze out of the mountain goat’s way before it thundered past with all the speed of a juggernaut and about just as much finesse.

Letting the dust clear, he saw the mountain goat skid to a halt, jump to the other cliffside and somehow find a foot hold and rebound, before charging towards him again. In a single desperate move, he summoned a massive [Earth Spike]. The goat collided with the spike and he placed [Reinforcement] on it as it threatened to crack. The sheer force and mass of the car sized goat caused spiderweb cracks to continue down the reinforced [Stone Spike]. Azrael knew that it wouldn’t hold, but refused to let the goat go any further. This was where he stood and this was where he was going. To. STAY!

Forcing as much mana as he could, Azrael overcharged [Reinforcement] and the cracks stopped spiderwebbing their way down. A blue screen popped up.

Congratulations!

For increasing a skills’ output by increasing the mana you have gained the skill [Overcharge]

[Overcharge]

If power doesn’t solve a problem, add more.

By increasing the mana input you can increase a spell’s output. Mana to output efficiency decreases with increasing mana.

He ignored it.

In the end both Azrael and the goat slumped down, despite neither having moved in the last few moments. Azrael exhausted, the goat dead. It had impaled itself of the [Stone Spike], sealing its own demise.

Azrael felt his entire body relax and he began to laugh. He wasn’t sure why, but he just did. It was like it was the only thing that made sense. Laughing. At least nobody was here to hear… His laughter caught in his throat and he scrabbled up, looking for Sophie. The path was empty. She was nowhere to be seen.

Had she run off, leaving him to die? No. There was nowhere to go. She couldn’t have climbed up and the only other way to go was. He looked down.

Sophie hung dangling on an extended root. He knuckles were white from the strain and even as he watched she slipped a little bit further down the root. She hadn’t noticed him yet. She was looking down and flutily trying to find a foothold. He looked at her. It would be so easy to kill her now. Cut the root before she looked up and she would never know that he’d been there. It was so… so… so what the others in Holy Empire would do.

“Here” he called, offering her a hand. Sophie looked up, her face strained. She tried lifting her free arm up to reach him but was too low. Her hand slipped a little bit more.

With worry and exertion etched into her every feature she began to swing herself from side to side. Each swing caused her grip to slip perilously further, but she continued. With a final swing she used all of her force to simultaneously pull herself up the root and at the same time reach out. Their fingers touched.

And they slipped through. Azrael could only watch as Sophie fell and vanished into the raging torrents below. He stared at the spot where she had vanished. Well, that was unfortunate.

It really was.

He’d wanted to have a look at that artifact.