“Was that really necessary?” Caleb emotionlessly questioned me, while swiftly stepping to the side, avoiding the trunk-like leg of the spider.

“She attacked me,” I replied while swinging my mace against the beast’s carapace, cracking it.

Caleb took advantage of the opening created by my hit and thrusted his greatsword deep into the beast’s flesh. His aura had turned azure, enabling him to emulate Lily’s tidal ability. Unfortunately, due to the abysmally low mana density, the pulling force and its accumulated momentum were severely limited.

Nevertheless, it was strong enough to pull out a good chunk of the spider flesh, causing it to hiss in pain. He had to withdraw its leg once Lily arrived and started to grind into the wound with a barrage of slashes.

After a few hits, one of the blades broke in half, so that she was forced to back off and look around the glade for another weapon. This sight reminded me of a curiosity I had nurtured for some time.

“Oh, I never asked you before, but what are those?” I inquired.

He tried to ignore me. I kicked him in the shin. He sent me a hateful glare and limped for a while. I had to grab him by the collar to move him out of the way of the spider, saving him from becoming mush.

“You’re welcome. Now, answer my question. I’m not a patient man,” I reiterated.

“Moulded weapons,” he ultimately answered, although recalcitrant.

I blinked twice in quick succession. This didn’t make any sense. These weapons, although extremely sharp, were also extremely brittle. Moulded weapons should have been far more resilient, moreover there was an improbable amount.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” he replied testily.

“Why are they so flimsy?”

Moulded weapons, differently from etherized weapons, weren’t simply ether-infused, they were ether-casted. Although the exact procedure was beyond my understanding, I remembered moulded weapons were created by embedding ether-structures inside a material, which was casted in an appropriate mould.

The ether-structures, also called “glyphs”, took on extremely complex tridimensional topologies which were able to somehow embody a concept. This way it was possible to accurately control and change properties of the weapon such as toughness, tensile strength and strain limit, and even add a more peculiar one if desired, like particular aura or mana interaction.

On the other hand ether-infusion brought about a simple uncontrolled general enhancement of the material's physical properties.

“They were better in the original version. Now, moulding is mostly limited to producing sharp blades and aura-conductive arrows” he replied, seemingly hurt.

My tone lowered and became incredibly cold.

“Original version?”

“Yes, in the draft. I had to remove most of the technology, or things would have been too unbalanced. Anyway, come on, why are you asking all of this when you know everything?”

“And how should I know?”

“Well, because you’re a reader of course…”

My hand moved automatically. My fingers embraced his throat, while my feet brought us away from the beast. I pushed him to the ground and stood above him. It was the second time this abhorrent thing claimed I was a mere spectator of my own world.

“Who are you? Are you a “reader”?” I asked once again.

His eyes had turned serious. All the hate he had for me disappeared in an instant and only alarm remained. He swiftly understood I was barely holding back my instinct to reduce his head to a pulp.

“I’m not a reader, I’m the author of this story,” he answered without delay.

The air froze. The following second seemed to last for ages. My mind worked at an accelerated pace, trying to connect the dots.

He, an unknown element, had suddenly appeared one day and he had taken the rightful place of the hero of this world. Not only that, the two shared the same surname, which suggested that the two had most likely grown up together.

During that time, somehow, he had been chosen by the previous heir of the Legion of Candour as his successor, inheriting the Focus in the process. He had established a relationship with the most relevant people in the world, including an apparent sponsorship from the Sloan Matriarch.

And now, he was here, in a place lost to time and hidden in the depth of a territory no one dared to cross. There needed to be a reason for his action.

All of this pointed to a simple conclusion.

“You stole,” I whispered. He flinched at my words.

The man in front of me was the same as me, someone reborn into the new world. Like me, he knew about this world. Differently from me, he was a dirty thief, who somehow had gotten hold of information which belonged to me and had used it to write and publish under his name a book about my world.

“We’ll continue this later. But remember: this isn’t your world. It’s mine”

I turned around and threw myself against the beast. Although it had been less than a minute, my absence had given the spider room to breathe and push forward. Although Lily and Isaac, while guiding the others, had kept it somewhat occupied, they had no way to inflict more damage without me breaking his carapace.

“What happened?” Lily briefly asked.

“Something that shouldn’t have,” I replied with a stone face.

She didn’t inquire further. She quickly sent a worried glance towards Caleb and then looked at my face, trying to decipher my expression. She was probably trying to determine if Caleb would make it out alive today; and not because of the spider.

“Stay focussed,” I growled.

She immediately complied and followed me in the fray.

Suddenly, one of the people under Caleb’s command found himself out of position.

“Not there! Move!” Caleb’s panicked cry resounded, but it was too late.

The beast immediately moved towards the newfound target. He lowered its head and opened his mouth, ready to devour the unlucky fellow.

But I was already there, moved mostly by anger than by actual muscular strength. My mace moved at improbable speed, impacting with unprecedented momentum against the side of the beast’s head.

The shockwave travelling through the spider’s body blew around pieces of carapace . The impact moved him off-course as its jaws closed on the naked earth and not on their intended victim.

“Get back into position,” I uttered without even looking at the person I had just rescued.

The arm holding the mace was completely mangled, with the bones and flesh reduced to a fine paste. Even the rest of my body was severely damaged, as I had exerted far more strength than I should have. Fortunately I had enough energy stocks set aside.

I quickly burnt a large amount of them, closing the wounds and starting off the deep regeneration processes. It would take a while to go back to my pristine state, but I would be able to hold on until then. It would simply take longer to defeat the enemy. At least if we didn’t change our strategy.

Just while I heard a faint “Oh s**t, could he be…?” coming from behind me, I turned towards Isaac.

“Isaac, kindly cast your spell on me and the others. I want to end this quickly”