The invasion of my soul comes full bore through the openings I allow. The black corruption halts just inside the outer domains of my soul for a moment, but it quickly gathers its momentum back and makes its way to the main mass of my will standing on my protective island.

Tendrils of my consciousness reach outside the little patch of land, but my core is protected. Though I may not be enthusiastic about wielding Aether, it is within my capabilities. So while this is a dangerous contraption, destroying it shouldn’t pose much of a challenge if I put my mind to it.

More and more of the stringy restrictions stream in from the outside until it’s all marshaled against me in a single thrust.

My attrition is only on my soul and there is nothing to distract me. Even the Titan has stopped its advance and I let loose all my capabilities.

The tendrils of the black goo can shape themselves almost like my roots but at a much greater speed. Brushing against the few of my own tendrils outside my island of protection, a cold and numb touch spreads out. I lose control of my limbs for a few moments, but as I cycle them back inside, they return to my control and I lash out against the black mass.

Each of my hits does as much damage as a foam noodle, but even that brief contact often is enough to loosen the control of my limb entirely.

Still, even if my physical capability to influence the outside world is minimal, this is still my soul and I feel the influences all around. I absorb what this being is and figure out how to fight this creation by an Aether wielding Shaman back in their world to make a product they could empower and wield against me. Luckily I understood souls well enough to interact not only with the Titan’s soul.

Still, even as I learn, more of the corruption streams in from the others overwhelming me. I can lash out in any direction and hit multiple layers of this black goo, but it’s the punches of a toddler against a fully grown adult.

I can almost feel the Shamans each with different leanings and the desperation to eliminate their enemy: myself,and while they are helpless against my defenses, I’m neutralised. The mass stops growing as hundreds of pools of will backing the invasive Aether ‘mind control’ surrounds me.

I try to push out, but nothing I do works. While in the first few seconds I could at least build momentum with each of my blows, now they become 1 inch punches. Darkness threatens to overwhelm me and suck all the hope away, even as I stand in the mixed volume of my soul now so different than my first impression of it while the spaces were separate. But if I’m feeling frustrated at my failures to develop, I can only imagine the shaman’s reactions as they batter against the edges of my island.

A puny single newly integrated being standing against hundreds of experiencd shamans.

The image of protection from my island firmly settles on my mind. A small patch of refuge in the insanity of a storm in the middle of the ocean. This means something to me. It was my gamble that they won’t be able to overcome it and it paid off.

I gather a larger tendril of my will with that image firmly ingrained and push it out, not trying to damage anyone, but to just escape the encirclement even if only for a moment with a fraction of my will.

The cold isn’t instantaneous like I was dunking on a frozen lake. Reality needs a moment to catch up, but even before I get a good glimpse out of this encirclement, the entire tendril but its base is gone from my control. So I pull it back and repeat the exercise.

I do that over and over, relying on my steadfast will and everything I learned even from so little time exploring my soul after all the changes.

With each step, I learn and it all comes naturally to me. The danger is just inches away, but I stay on my island KNOWING I’m protected.

I don’t know how or where that knowledge comes from, but it is all around and unmistakable for someone like me that has followed his gut more than once. Or I’m just self deluding myself, but at this point, it makes little difference.

Their efforts get more desperate and insistent, but the attempts of the enemy are like rain falling on a tin roof.

Loud and scary, but impotent to cross even that thin barrier.

I keep at it, getting used to the enemy outside and start experimenting even more voraciously.

Compacting my will into a sturdier and smaller space achieves some progress. Although I succeed the alteration is barely perceptible the first few times.

Pull, kick, push and shove.

Repeating everything I learn over and over the effect grows ever so slightly.

So I keep at it, again and again and again counting to infinity as time becomes unimportant.

Each second that passes is another inch forward and when I feel confident of a chance, I will the small openings all around the edge of my soul to close. A few of the enemies try to flee, abandoning the black mass and I allow straw thin tubes for them to pour out, but most are single minded and simply ignore the danger they are in.

I punch out once again and get ready to grind all the enemy's devices down to dust and maybe even permanently.

****************

Merlin’s POV a few minutes earlier

I watch Nash from the corner of my eye, sitting in his place. And just 300 meters away the Titan standing still.

He…. The Titan follows different rules. Nash warned me that he was going to attempt something and while it still seems under the shaman’s control, it is relatively still. Ahjrahh said that ten or twenty at most would be enough to keep it under complete control but Nash’s actions seemed to have changed that equation.

Nearly 600 shamans are distracted, which is over half of all the magic users in the enemy army.

I shake my head given I can’t help him, except by eliminating the enemy. Though unlike most other times, this attack stopped being aimed at causing damage, it seems to have shifted into only delaying their defeat while the shamans keep up their work.

We can’t have that.

I push mana into a ball and try to emulate my last attack that nearly took down the Titan. A few people help me keep him in control, but this is a much lesser form and even without Nash and his Qi or Ahjarhh’s help, a pinprick of light forms before me. I aim forward and shoot it out.

It canons at the enemy some 500 meters back.

As it leaves my control range, some 150 meters away, the pinprick starts expanding like a slow motion explosion. A moment later it batters the shaman’s shields and a bit of the light breaks through, searing their lungs and cooking their skin but they are barely distracted.

I gather all I’m and repeat the effort one more time.

The minutes pass and Nash seems even more strained, but soon the main group of shamans that is not protecting the troops starts dropping. One by one, they fall to the ground, not dead, but without the power to get up.

That changes their outlook in moments. Their goal now seems impossible and the eyes of the remaining few shamans all turn to the Titan.

The few powering the different portals in its chest change it slightly.

Confusion sweeps over me as to why they would start this now, but the hesitant and strange moves of the Titan now come into sharp focus, as the will of the giant blasts outward.

The few goblins near it fall to the ground, but the enemy is inside its head and doesn't leave from something so simple.

The Titan bends its neck to the sky and tries to let out a bellow, but something stops it. Their control stops even this simple action. But he tries again and again, until with a monumental effort of will, it scapes the leashes and something both natural and unnatural hits me in my bones. A wave sound and pressure freezes everyone. But it isn’t magic powered by mana, but the simple understanding of the power of a predator bellowing. Our lizard brains and deeply rooted instincts. I can do nothing but halt mid-stride before a being that I can’t comprehend holding my life at the tips of my fingers.

But then space turns against it. The core in its chest regenerated its flesh consuming the Titan’s flesh and at the same time its body turns slightly transparent.

Its will pushes the teleportation back, but the hollow space that moments before made its heart becomes a growing hole.

Ideas come and are discarded.

I feel the faux inner world in my chest and the seed that can open portals there.

It won’t be able to make anything large enough for the entire body of the Titan, but….

Adrenaline shoots down my veins and I take a running leap as I send a message. A hundred runes come together around me as I take full flight. An impossible feat for anyone else that is simply routine for me.

The enemies, realize my move but nobody is in a position to stop me. I look at it and try to impart my intent to help with my eyes and I see a flicker there.

It has enough brain left to recognize that and something warm spills in my heart, but I just focus on my goal. I pull my nature magic, spin Aether around and then I call to the Network underground.

The seeds in Nash’s inner world who are already prepared take note of my call and open the portal faster than I thought possible for plant beings. A 4 meters wide portal shows up before me and my efforts are no longer needed.

The Titan pushes its head inside, bypassing the mental restrictions and physical pull as a single task remains for me to focus on.

Survival.

Or rather surviving near the Titan.

Attacks from the dozen Shamans running my way stream in, even as they fully ignore the defense of their troops.

But even if they have numerical superiority and their skills are all very developed, I pull on my Level 105 mana manipulation and reach deep within. I get more out of my stats. My intelligence makes a little bit more damage, my willpower lets me pack a bit more punch in a small area and it all packs into the densest mana shield I can conceive of.

Mana builds from the tap to my little inner world into my best strategy. There is not much left, as dozens of attacks hit me, but they start varying. Fire, lightning, air and a whole range of mixed and more exoteric attacks. I start summoning either the counters for the attacks or trying to track and disrupt the leftover mana inside the attacks. All around me, roots keep growing without my prompting and I can almost feel Aspen’s presence thick in the air, as a fully formed shield becomes another layer in my defense. Melding my own mana and will into it, both shields become a bastion capable of standing against anything… for a time and that gives me a moment to think.

Behind me, the Titan’s shoulders cross the inner world boundaries and he pushes against the ground while grabbing the roots inside, but the shamans are relentless in pulling him back. Each moment he gains an inch and gets more secure they make the next advance harder. Though I try to drive all my will to the shield, I also need to pay attention to my surroundings to feel the faint mana fluctuations that the shaman is are sending over.

Something that I may not have noticed altogether in this cacophony if the effect of pulling the Titan back wasn’t so pronounced.

A second, two, three and I get a better grasp of what is happening, but with the shamans, hundreds of meters back and their fading their connection to the Titan seems to change their minds and a stronger pulse comes our way.

Closing my eyes there is only one chance for me to stop whatever they are trying to pull. I reach into the fabric of space, not as Nash might do, because I can’t directly warp it, but instead to command all mana surrounding me.

Aether overflows from my stores, nearly unguided and heading to where it wants, as I seize control of the mana around the Titan. It takes only an instant for the pain to build from my raw will fighting against the very universe and the whole efforts of dozens of magic users, but with that sliver of freedom is everything I want. The Titan pushes another 3 feet getting most of his torso inside my corner of the inner world before a severing of the world arrives, space warps beyond anyone’s control and anything below his stomach is taken away even as I try to remain conscious and return to the village.

The portal to the faux inner world closes while I’m sprinting back to safety with hordes of enemies at my back.

I just need to survive for a few more seconds after throwing a big nice wrench into the enemy's plans.