Aether chains flew in all directions. This time, a mere three scarabisks were caught by the spell. It was outright scary how fast the creatures had found the spell’s weakness. While their initial attempts to destroy the chains had failed, the new approach of summoning chunks of stone in immediate proximity created more than an adequate decoy.

The summoning had reminded Dallion of the ingot bombardment he had done when fighting the guardian of his Vermillion ring. All that was needed for that was Lux and the ability to summon. Unfortunately, the realm didn’t allow Dallion to get ingots as he could in his own realm.

Next time Dallion would definitely consider recreating that effect with spells. For the moment, though, he had another idea.

“Hold tight, Ruby.” Dallion drew the symbol of multiplication on the creature. For a split second, shardfly copies erupted from him like confetti, fading away just as fast. It seemed that even here, a single symbol wasn’t enough. However, there were things that weren’t.

In Dallion’s mind, time froze. He visualized the outline of a spell: a simple magic circle within nothingness. Then he added the multiplication symbol to it. This was enough to duplicate everything within the circle. Since Dallion didn’t want to have his duplication spell duplicate itself, he moved the symbol outside, connecting it to the circle with a single magic thread. Instead, a copy symbol—every novice’s favorite—was placed within, along with a matter and a speed symbol.

The complete spell was sloppy. If he had tried to do that in spelling class, the mage would have shouted his head off. Despite that, everything seemed in order, suggesting that the spell should word. Naturally, Dallion wasn’t taking a chance with Ruby, so he split into instances to test it out.

A torrent of shardflies emerged and this time they lasted more than a minute.

This was the first time Dallion had successfully managed to clone a creature. Now all he had to do was order the flurry to attack.

“Go get them!” he ordered.

Waves of wind attacks flew in the direction of the scarabisks as the wave of shardflies went forward. Ruby was also among them; though he was quickly grabbed by Dallion and placed back in his usual spot.

“Not you,” Dallion whispered. I’ll need you for later.

“Nice,” Cheska said a short distance away. A ball of envy had appeared within her almost as large as the infatuation that followed.

“It’s just a distraction.” Dallion cast a few more copy spells, sending off the flurries to attack as well. “Follow me,” he changed direction slightly.

“Where are we going?”

“I need to test something.” Dallion gritted his teeth. So far, in all of his instances, only two had managed to reach the obelisk point. “Surround us with barriers. As many as you can make.”

Without argument, Cheska’s fingers danced in the air. A pair of glowing spheres appeared around them, followed by two more. The spell was considerably more advanced than Dallion’s. For one thing, it regulated the lower part of the spheres so as to constantly touch the ground, but without digging in.

Initially, the defense seemed a bit over-the-top. When getting within a hundred feet of their destination, though, lightning and aether projectiles rained from the sky upon them.

“More barriers!” Dallion shouted as the first two layers collapsed under the combined attack.

Cheska was already ahead of him, increasing the total number of barriers to eight. In all instances, the barriers collapsed almost as fast as they were created. Even with the shardflies distracting a large part of the creatures, the intensity of the attack kept on increasing. At this point, Dallion split again, striking the ground with his harpsisword.

In all but three of his instances, nothing happened. In the remaining three cases—a shock of magic current hit him, vaporizing the instances and all their gear. He had found the spot.

“Cheska,” Dallion turned to her. “I’ll crash through the barrier. When I do, I want you to cocoon yourself with as many shields as you can make. Keep them coming until it’s obvious you’re safe.”

“What? Why?”

“Juist do it!” Dallion used his music skills to add a sense of urgency to his words.

The girl nodded, starting the new set of spells. Once Dan happened, Dallion infused his harpsisword with spark and dashed towards the inside of the barrier. A few precise slashes and the glowing sphere shattered. Attacked from outside and within, the barriers shattered, leaving him completely vulnerable. Behind him, Cheska had already surrounded herself with so many new spheres that she was no longer visible.

Good, Dallion thought.

“Lux, higher,” he said, directing the firebird just above the theoretical weak spot. “Please still be there.” Dallion did a point attack straight down.

Dirt erupted like a geyser.

TERMINAL STRIKE

Damage dealt has been increased 1000%

A red rectangle emerged. The whole ground shook violently for several moments. Then, scarakisks began falling from the air, their magic glow gone.

For a fraction of a second Dallion thought that he saw threads of magic go from the creatures to the point in the ground he had struck, but it happened too fast to tell for certain. The only thing clear was that the group had survived their first challenge in this realm.

“Thank the Moons,” Dallion let out a sigh of relief. This had been a bit too close for his liking.

I think you did rather well, dear boy, Nil said. Mistakes were made, but at least you defeated it in the end.

I’m not even sure what I defeated.

The flaming blue wings faded away, letting Dallion fall to the ground. The first thing he did was go to the large crater that had formed in search of any clue as to the creature there. Even with all his skills and traits, there was nothing he could tell other than the being was rather large, though incapable of combat.

“That was some serious noise,” Cheska approached. “What spell did you use?”

“No spell,” Dallion said.

The girl didn’t believe him, but nodded nonetheless.

“The foundation of the obelisk must act like the brain. It’s controlling the swarm. Did you see any magic threads when it died?” he turned to the girl.

“I was a bit busy casting spells to see anything.” She crossed her arms. “So, no, I didn’t.”

Dallion tried to use his magic layer vision, but all he saw was the general magic of the realm and the many threads that composed the ground. There was no way to confirm his suspicion, and as logical as it seemed, it was dangerous to jump to conclusions.

After a while, the rest of the group joined in. Of the three of them, only Iksa seemed exhausted. Raven was back to being calm and collected, and just a bit pensive.

“Anything wrong?” Dallion asked. “We won.”

“That’s the problem,” the black-haired said. “We won and nothing happened.”

Thinking about it, that was true. Normally, a victory would be followed by a notification. The fact that there was none, not even a direct acknowledgement of the obelisk’s destruction, suggested that the event was insignificant when it came to the trial at hand. If so, one might expect more creatures of the sort and even stronger ones.

“Now you see why we must ignore obelisks.”

“I take it you’ll go with your original plan?” Dallion asked.

“I’m thinking about it.”

“Don’t. If we can’t defeat a creature in a controlled environment, what chance do we have to do anything in the banished realm.”

“That’s completely different! We’ll be protected.”

Another “omission” Dallion only learned of now.

Nil? Is that true?

Theoretically, the echo said. The Moons are the only ones that keep the banished from entering the real world or even the realms. If not, the powerful ones would have found a way long ago.

Unfortunately, that had already happened. Dallion knew of one who had managed to escape his banishment, although there was no telling whether it had been with the Moons’ knowledge or not. Aspan was supposed to be locked up in his realm and yet still had managed to somehow reach Hannah’s inn. It was possible that he’d received help; maybe even the Star had tried to use him for his own devices, but had messed up. Next time Dallion got back to Nerosal, he was going to make a point to ask.

Based on that principle, it is believed that every part of the real world is also protected from the beings in the banished realm, Nil went on. So, even if someone were to enter and be among the monsters of the past, they would remain safe due to the Moon’s protection.

Moonstones or no Moonstones, one the trial was over, Dallion had a pretty good idea who his next target would be. It was quite clever using children to get him involved. No doubt the people behind this saw Dallion as a useful tool. More importantly, they also saw him as someone who could be sacrificed. Even if everything Nil had theorized turned out to be true, that was valid only for the rest of the group. Dallion had passed the fourth gate, which meant he was no longer subject to the Moon’s protection. If they ever entered the banished realm, he was going to be a valid target, and there was nothing he could do about it.

“I’ll see this through,” he said firmly. “You can try to use the shortcut if you want to.”

The response sent shockwaves through the rest of the group. Dallion could see fear, anger, and panic flare up within each of them with a few seconds’ delay. No doubt the echoes had explained what was at stake and the degree to which Dallion was still necessary.

“Don’t be childish,” Raven hissed.

“I’m being practical.” Dallion put in a lot of effort to remain calm. “Each part of the trial is a hint of what to expect next. The first realm showed us how to travel to realms. The first obelisk showed us that all parts of the obelisk are connected to its roots by magic threads. And this victory just now showed us how to defeat the defense obelisks.”

“What about the direction?”

The question had the effect of an ice-cold shower. Raven was right. The first obelisk had shown them the way. This one might have done so if Dallion hadn’t destroyed its “brain.” That had to be the choice: defeat the insects and the brain would reveal the way, or destroy the brain and kill off all the insects.

“I guess we’ll do it the old-fashioned way?”

There was a long moment of silence. Everyone watched the silent confrontation between Raven and Dallion, unwilling to say a word. It was clear Raven was the leader of the group, but at the same time Dallion was the strongest beyond question.

“Ok, we do it your way,” Raven said at last. “For now.” He raised a finger. “If things get too difficult, we’re heading to the banished realm.”

Everyone was expecting Dallion to agree with the condition, but he chose not to respond. Already aware that he was important enough, he could afford to take on the role of a jerk.

“How do we find the direction?”

Taking a deep breath, Dallion released a bit of his magic through his fingers. Slowly he turned on the spot, observing the minuscule threads of magic, waiting for a slight tug upon facing the correct direction. No such thing happened.

“That way,” he lied, pointing in the direction they already were headed before the combat encounter.

“Are you sure?” Phoil scratched his eyebrow.

“As much as I can be.”

“We need to rest first,” Raven said. “The fight took a lot out of Iksa.”

“Sure, but why not rest while traveling?” Dallion cast a sound amplification spell and called out for the aetherfish.

Surely enough, the creature popped up in the sky right above them, then slowly descended to the ground. At least that was someone who Dallion could rely on.