Four Moons remained in the sky as the sun came up. Even in the bright light, none lost their glow, observing the world like hawks on a mountain peak. Interestingly enough, it was the Moons of Awakening and Perception that weren’t present. There was a time when this would be seen as a bad omen, especially for hunters. Even after all this time, however, Dallion hadn’t quite accepted the local superstitions, possibly because he still held to the ones from Earth. Either way, he felt a dull ache in his stomach, as if he’d eaten shardflies for breakfast.

“There’s every chance the person carrying the sword will be expecting us,” March said, as if last night hadn’t occurred. “If anyone spots something remotely strange, we attack. Understood, Dal?”

Dallion didn’t respond right away.

“Dal?” March repeated.

“Got it,” he said, snapping to reality. “Got it.”

“Were you trying to level up?”

“No.” It was the truth. Considering how often he’d resorted to such action before an important battle, it was unsure whether March would believe him. “I was just thinking about something. Do you think he’ll be alone?”

“Impossible to say. All we know is the location of the sword. The mage was very clear about it.”

That sounded suspiciously convenient. The mage claimed she could see the location of the sword, yet couldn’t tell how many people were there? Either magic was a lot less straightforward that logic suggested, or the mage was lying. Given that Nil refused to provide a straight answer, it could well be either.

“Eury will keep an eye out for trouble. You focus on sensing emotions. I’ll be ready to react.”

They passed by another imperial watch tower. The imperial soldiers performed a quick check before letting the group continue on their way. From there on, it was just walking through the wilderness with brief breaks for water.

Soon it became obvious that whoever had said that the village was half a day away had lied. Evening slowly approached, and there still wasn’t any trace of any settlement. One thing that became immediately noticeable, though, was the changes in vegetation. The further the group went, the more patches of distorted plants they came across. It was agreed that none would eat or drink anything until the mission was over, one way or another.

Around sunset, Euryale spotted the first sign of concern: the remains of a large corpse in the middle of a meadow of wild wheat that was so deformed it looked as if it had gone through a microwave.

“It’s a cutling,” the gorgon said as they approached it. “It’s been dead for a few months, at least.”

Dallion looked around. There was no sign of the grass being harmed. And yet that was impossible. Unless it specifically wanted to conceal itself, a cutling would slice every blade of grass on contact.

“Maybe the plants surrounded it after it had died?” Dallion suggested. “The plants are all around it.”

“See if you can cut them,” Eury said.

“Ruby,” Dallion said to the shardfly fluttering next to him. “Just wind. Don’t touch them directly.”

The creature went a short distance away, then flapped its wings violently several times. Slashes were released from the tips of its wings, slicing through the plant stalks like a blade through twigs.

“Guess that proves it,” the gorgon said. “Body was first, plants came after.”

“It doesn’t explain what killed it.” March drew her rapier. “A cutling this size isn’t an easy target.”

“It’s not that tough either. Even I can handle one of those now.” Dallion concentrated, focusing on the remains. “I can’t sense any residual emotions. It could have gotten poisoned. Cutlings are also awakened creatures of sorts. Maybe it had ingested a few spores somehow. They killed it, then went on to grow in the surrounding area until this was formed.”

“Is there anything you know that grows in void?”

The answer was supposed to be obvious—a resounding no, proving that Dallion was mistaken. However, after all his experiences so far, the apprentice hunter was no longer sure. He had witnessed items guardians be corrupted, changing into large octopus-like creatures. He had seen furniture created entirely of semi-sentient void. Why shouldn’t plants be able to grow in it as well? If that were the case, all their conclusions so far had been completely wrong.

Nox. Dallion took out the crackling dagger. Do you feel any of them?

Difficult to say, the puma yawned within his realm. There might be something faint.

What about now? Dallion took a step forward, approaching the knife to the ground.

Doesn’t help. There’s a faint sense everywhere.

“Dal, what’s the matter?” Eury asked.

Slowly, Dallion stood up, then looked around again.

“The plants aren’t growing despite the cutling, they are growing because of it. They are spreading it. They are the cracks infesting the world.”

The thought seemed too large to contemplate. Even now, Dallion’s mind rejected it. That was outright impossible. Having plants become affected by the void that leaked through was normal. That wasn’t the issue. Having the entire world not notice—that was terrifying. Certainly, someone somewhere would have found out about this and spread the news. The Order, the Academy, even someone in the service of the archduke himself should have noticed. Since none of them had, no one considered the possibility valid.

The circle of denial reinforcement, Dallion thought.

“That’s one of the first things that was checked,” March said, calmly.

“It would explain why awakened are mostly affected, especially nobles. They are no longer under the Moons’ protection.”

“Corruption wouldn’t poison them.”

No, it wouldn’t. Not unless that was what the Star wanted. Dallion was just about to share his thoughts, when a red rectangle appeared in the real world itself.

COMBAT INITIATED

“Watch out!” Dallion shouted. He had no idea whether anyone else had seen the rectangle, and at this point, he didn’t care. His only concern was to avoid the vertical line attack that flew by, determined to slice him in half.

Eury instantly jumped into action, snakes looking in all directions. Only March remained as she was, completely unphased by the attack.

“Where did it come from?” Dallion asked. “Ruby, stay close. Gleam, look about.”

“I can’t see anyone,” the gorgon replied. “It just appeared out of nowhere.”

Dallion swallowed. If it wasn’t for the rectangle, he would have lost a limb at the very least.

“Move apart,” March ordered. “Whatever’s attacking is us using ranged attacks. As long as we’re clustered together, we’re easy targets.”

I know that! I’m not a newbie anymore! Dallion wanted to shout back.

Barely had he made three steps, when another line attack followed, this one horizontal. All three party members jumped into the air. Instinctively, Dallion burst into instances. It was a good thing too, for two more line attacks followed. Both were aimed to take advantage of the fact that the people were in the air, and thus unable to evade the threat of destruction. However, that was a mistake only a sheltered would make. Thanks to his combat splitting, Dallion easily chose a reality in which the attacks missed him; Euryale simply twisted mid jump gracefully passing between the two line attacks; as for March—all she did was block both attacks with her rapier. The threads of the line attacks broke in two each continuing on either side of the woman.

He’s using illusions, Gleam shouted. The execution is sloppy, but he’s fast enough to constantly replace them, so I can’t tell where he is exactly.

“Illusions!” Dallion shouted. “He’s somewhere—”

The force of a point attack ploughed through the field coming from March. The Icepicker captain wasted no time in doing a counterattack against the invisible enemy. Unfortunately, there was no indication that she had hit the target.

“The attacks are coming from a single person,” she said. “There still might be more, so watch out.”

Is anyone out there? Dallion asked, addressing any items in the area.

An empath? a surprised guardian responded.

Got you! Dallion thought.

He still didn’t know exactly where the enemy was, but he knew that he was there.

Didn’t know there were more than one.

The comment, however, sent chills down Dallion’s spine. A second empath? So, someone had managed to claim another skill gem after all. The bigger question was who that person was. It didn’t feel like the Star—the Star wouldn’t need to hide. But then, who was it?

Who are you? Dallion asked. Who’s your owner?

Flames emerged on the ground. Starting from the cutling corpse, they twisted and winded through the plants, forming strange runes and symbols. There was something mesmerizing about them, almost as if—

A line attack cut through the grass, extinguishing the symbols as it did.

“Close your eyes!” Eury shouted.

Dallion burst into instances again. In some of them, he closed his eyes. In all of them, he grabbed the kaleidervisto. Black symbols appeared in the sky, draining all colors from the immediate area.

What the heck? Dallion wondered and instructively did a point attack through the symbols. The blast of force passed through, though nothing changed.

“Guardian, what’s going on?” Dallion asked.

There was no response.

Guardian!

Everyone stood ready for the next surprise attack, but none occurred. To be on the safe side, Dallion kept on making dozens of instances, having them dash in all directions constantly, in a final attempt to locate the culprit. The effort proved unsuccessful.

Several minutes later, colors slowly returned to the scene.

“Stay where you are,” March said, remaining about fifty feet from both Eury and Dallion. “They might return.”

“I didn’t see anything,” Eury said, her face-eyes closed once more. “What do you think it was?”

“It was human,” Dallion replied. “It had a guardian.” There was a moment of hesitation. Sharing that the person was another empath was quite important in order for the rest to know what they were facing. At the same time, he still had to keep the secret. In the end, Dallion decided to risk it. “It was also an empath.”

“An empath?” a cluster of snakes turned Dallion’s direction. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

The ground had become a battlefield, utterly destroyed by fire, line and point attacks. The cutling remains were all but gone, as was half of the poison plant patch.

I fear I have a bit of bad news, dear boy, Nil said.

“It’s a mage,” March said before the echo could tell Dallion. Apparently, even in such circumstances, the woman was faster. “A rogue, by the looks of it. We were lucky that he ran off.”

“What’s a mage doing here? Do you think someone else sent him after the sword?”

“It’s possible. Nobles make it their business to learn secrets that others keep hidden. Gaining the sword would definitely grant a lot of power to a family or even a single individual.”

The whip blade descended from the sky, making its way into Dallion’s sheath.

“At least that means we’re on the right track,” Dallion tried to find a silver lining in the situation.

“Possibly. “March didn’t sound certain. “We’ll have to be more careful going forward. He attacked us directly. He’ll do so again.”

I’ve just one thing to add, dear boy. March might be correct about the danger, but she’s wrong about your adversary. The thing you fought wasn’t a mage. It was an echo of one.

Echo in the real world? Dallion asked. Wasn’t that impossible?

You’ve seen the Moons do it.

You’re telling me that I’m facing someone as strong as the Moons?

Of course not, Nil grumbled, as if being mocked. I’m just saying that it’s possible. And if it’s possible, magic has a way to achieve it. More likely than not, what you encountered is a scout echo. It did what its original would have done, with the limited amount of skills it had, then ran off to warn the person. Now the real mage will be prepared, and trust me, the next fight won’t be limited to simple parlor tricks.