Once Cordan and Jack got back to the room, they found Raina picking at a stone bowl of root-like vegetables and mushrooms while Alindal stared intently at another bowl containing two medium-sized fish with luminescent scales. From the dissatisfied look on Raina’s face, Jack guessed the contents of the first bowl were about as appetizing as they looked. He also saw a jug filled with clear water on the floor near the window. Upon their arrival, Raina promptly disregarded her bowl and jumped up to greet them.

“You’re back! How’d the negotiations go?” she asked excitedly. Her enthusiasm waned a notch when she saw the severe expressions of the two men. “That bad…?”

Jack grimaced. “Well, the good news is that he’s willing to help, but the bad news—.”

“Is that we have to venture into unknown territory, disable a dozen enemies without killing them, hope that Jack is able to destroy the magical lanterns controlling those enemies, and escort them back here; all while fending off any enemies in our way and praying that the Pope of the Church of the Eternal Light, an enemy able to contend with the Twilight King, doesn’t notice our expedition and kill us all,” explained Cordan interrupting Jack, his face dead-pan. Raina blinked twice as she took in all that information.

“Oh,” she said, clearly a bit lost for words.

Alindal finally looked up from his fascinating fish bowl and commented, “Is that even possible? I mean for something to challenge the Twilight King. He’s the World Boss of this Remnant Gate is he not?”

“It’s possible,” Cordan responded dourly as he sat down on the bed nearest to the entrance. He reached over to Raina’s bowl and picked out a fleshy-looking mushroom with a moss-green cap. “I’ve run a couple of raids where there’ve been more than one boss. It pretty rare which is just about our luck. First, the Gate Ruptures to S-rank, now we’re potentially dealing with two World Bosses.”

Clearly exasperated, Cordan took a deep breath and ran both hands down his face. Jack made his way over to Alindal picking up a dark vegetable in the process and popping it into his mouth as he did so. It wasn’t particularly hard to chew, but it released a foul pungent taste the moment that he bit into it. Alindal chuckled when his face contorted in disgust. Despite his displeasure, Jack powered through the taste and finished it glaring at the elf all the while.

“Ugh, that was worse than your tea” he grumbled. He picked up one of the luminescent fish by its tail to take a closer look. While he was assessing the best way to eat it, he addressed Raina who appeared a bit disheartened at Cordan’s explanation. “Don’t worry about the Eternal Light’s Pope, he’s the Twilight King’s problem and if we do our jobs right, we won’t need to worry about him. Our goal is just to finish the Twilight King’s mission, so listen up.”

With Raina and Alindal’s attention, he set about explaining the details of the mission after giving up on the fish. At the end, Raina asked a particularly relevant question. “Can we even succeed in this mission?” The room was silent for a moment before she continued, “I’ve actually been wondering about something since we woke up here. This is an S-rank Remnant Gate, but those undead in the courtyard below our window look really weak. Maybe it’s just my inexperience and I’m misreading them, but if I’m not, isn’t that, uh, kind of weird? If this is an S-rank Remnant Gate, shouldn’t all the enemies be S-rank or at least, shouldn’t the general level be around there?”

Jack had to admit it was a good question; one he had actually wondered about himself. Since he had only ever participated in E-rank or D-rank raids, he had never run into such a stark disparity. Based on his knowledge and experience, generally Remnant Gates could contain creatures on or two ranks lower than the rank of the Remnant Gate, but as Raina guessed, the general strength of the enemies within typically averaged out to the appropriate level. He did have a theory, however. Since this particular Remnant Gate had Ruptured, he hypothesized that the general strength of the enemies was still around D-rank and the appearance of the Twilight King and his cohorts was enough to raise the Remnant Gate’s threat level to S-rank. If he was right, the remaining question would be: why hadn’t the guild’s equipment pick up the Twilight King and company or Pope Bohum for that matter? He pondered the matter while Cordan answered Raina’s, and simultaneously Jack’s, question.

“You’ve got a good eye for a newbie,” Cordan said pushing himself off the bed and walking over to the window. “Those undead and the undead inside of the outpost your team would’ve raided once the Gate was open are about D-rank from what I can tell. Unlike the rest of you, I was awake when the Twilight King captured me and took us through the Remnant Gate. Had the raid team tackled the outpost, it would’ve been a routine D-rank raid. The issue is the Twilight King. You see, the way Ruptures work is a bit complicated, but the simple version is that a Rupture occurs when the guild’s scanners detect a sudden increase in the Logos density of the Remnant beyond a rift. All you need to know is that Logos density roughly equates to the relative strength of creatures within a Remnant Gate. So, you’re right, Raina. Because of the Rupture, the average level of the enemies in this Gate should be around S-rank. That said, even an S-rank Rupture isn’t catastrophic as long as the Remnant Gate isn’t open and the area around the rift is evacuated, but the Twilight King was able to open the Remnant Gate before I could even react. In the fifteen years I’ve been in Fracture, I’ve never seen nor heard of a creature being able to open and close Remnant Gates the way he can. In truth, I think we might not be dealing with a true Rupture here. I think the Twilight King is some kind of anomaly that freaked out the guild’s instruments; although, after finding out about the Church of the Eternal Light’s Pope, I’m admittedly a bit stumped. If he’s truly on the Twilight King’s level, I can’t help but wonder what the hell is going on here.”

The worn look on Cordan’s face told everyone who saw it how much he appreciated the mystery of Terras’s Remnant Gate. Although Jack understood Cordan’s frustration, he didn’t share the relic hunter’s outlook on their current situation. To the contrary, Jack felt eager to find out more about the Twilight King and Terras in the hopes that he might discover more about himself. He’d received more answers in the last half-day than he had in last five years. In fact, after hearing Cordan talk about Logos density, Jack came to another revelation.

World Cores required Logos in order to advance their maturation level. Assuming that Logos didn’t disappear and was instead conserved within the World Core, the Twilight Key, a World Core with a maturation level of six, would contain an incredibly high density of Logos meaning the Relic Hunter guild’s equipment might’ve simply freaked out because of the Twilight Key. Additionally, Jack considered the possibility that World Cores might eventually gain the ability to manipulate Logos in some way; if true, then the Twilight King could’ve hidden the signature of the Twilight Key in a way that misdirected the guild’s equipment until he chose to make an appearance. Lastly, since the wall could stop the Twilight King’s attack, he wondered if it was powerful enough to block the guild’s probing waves of Logos coming through the rift. As he mulled over the possibilities, he kept his suppositions and conclusions to himself because he wasn’t keen on telling Raina or Cordan, even indirectly, the capabilities of World Cores. He’d catch Alindal up later once they had some privacy.

Everyone was silent for a few moments after Cordan finished his explanation as they digested the information in their own ways. Alindal eventually spoke up to ask, “So, we have a chance then? I don’t suppose the Twilight King told you how difficult these lightweavers would be to subdue, did he?”

“As a matter of fact, he did,” Jack said, smirking. “He said that even someone as weak as me should be able to take them down. Cordan also asked about the other creatures we might run into at the temple and we got good news there too. According to the Twilight King, the only enemies our group needs to avoid are Pope Bohum himself and his three Justiciars, each of which is about as strong as one of his elite guard’s aka Rovena and the other three undead that follow him around. Thankfully, the pope and his top goons almost never leave their floating castle stronghold, so we should be fine as long as we don’t draw too much attention to ourselves.”

Alindal and Raina reacted differently to his assurance. Raina looked nervous and, strangely, excited which Jack attributed to the fact that she was very clearly bored with their current situation; therefore, the idea of going into the unknown probably sounded appealing to her, especially now that she had been assured of the chances. Alindal, on the other hand, had donned a familiar somber expression that Jack was used to seeing whenever his friend realized he would have to use his magic for violence.

In the hopes of distracting Alindal, Jack gestured at the fish. “Any idea how we can prep and cook these things? I’d prefer not to fill up on underground veggies and shrooms if I can help it.”

Alindal shrugged dashing Jack’s hopes. As he was cursing the stupidity of whoever decided to give them uncooked fish, Cordan sighed and walked over to the bowl.

“Out of the way, I’ll handle the fish,” he said. He pushed his way between the two friends and picked up one of the fish. Before either of them could complain or ask a question, the fish’s luminous scales began to peel off of its flesh seemingly of their own accord. Cordan simply held the fish in his hands and stared at it intently while its scales fell into the bowl below. The other three occupants of the room watched him skin both fish this way in silence.

“Is that telekinesis?” Jack asked.

“Mhm,” Cordan answered as he dumped the scales and other bits onto the floor, sweeping them into a neat pile with the edge of his foot. Next, he laid both fish in the stone bowl with one hand hovering over each and closed his eyes. The palms of his hands glowed red with sudden heat. A few minutes later, the smell of cooked fish filled the rooms making everyone realize just how hungry they were.

Cordan pulled his hands away looking somewhat satisfied with the results though he scowled after a moment. “All of you better appreciate the meal. I had to blow most of my mana to do that.”

Unceremoniously, he tore one of the fish in half and began eating it as he went to sit back down. With that, Jack, Raina, and Alindal each grabbed their own halves and dug in.

***

After the group ate and rested while waiting for Cordan’s mana to recharge, they informed their watchdog, the imposing death knight this time, that they were ready to depart for their journey. Their equipment was returned without any fuss which said something about how unthreatening the Twilight King found them.

Once they were all outfitted, Rovena escorted them into a large circular chamber located in the depths of the castle. The sole feature of the room, aside from the same blue-fire torches that lit most of the castle’s interior, was a circle of glowing symbols drawn onto the ground with some kind of green substance. The inside of the circle was large enough to fit nearly a dozen people by Jack’s estimate.

Rovena, ever the charmer, pushed Jack forward as he stopped to analyze the symbols making up the circle. “Hurry up and get into the circle.”

Not wanting to incur the undead woman’s ire, Jack stepped onto the circle along with the rest of his companions. Rovena did so as well then nodded to the cowled man who began a low chant that increased slowly in volume over time. Steadily, the glow of the symbols below them grew brighter and brighter until Jack was forced to close his eyes. The chant reached a crescendo before ending abruptly. Jack felt his insides shift and nearly lost his meal as the cool air of the castle underground was replaced by an oppressive wave of heat.

Opening his eyes, he saw his companions looking around in a daze. He had fallen over at some point but his view was dominated by the great wall separating the Twilight King’s domain from Pope Bohum’s area of influence. He shakily got to his feet and glanced behind him. In the distance, the Twilight King’s castle sat atop a rocky hill overlooking a ruined, yet sprawling, city that extended until a short distance away from their current location. Jack noted the presence of structural debris all around them. Unlike the remains of the city, the debris was fragmented at best; for example, Jack saw a few columns embedded in the earth, piles of scattered rubbles, and broken pieces of what looked like statues among other things, but nothing whole enough to piece together a complete picture.

Rovena spoke snapping Jack and the others out of their various thoughts. “Listen closely, I do not enjoy repeating myself. In order to give you the best chance of success, my king will provide a distraction by attacking the opposite end of the wall which should draw attention away from your location. However, once you step beyond the wall, we will be unable to render assistance, so don’t do anything foolish and complete the assignment he has given you. Do you understand?”

“Understood,” Cordan said. Everyone nodded in agreement,

“Then, for the sake of my king, I wish you luck.”