Music, Dallion thought as he slashed at a chainling ten feet away.

The harpsisword vibrated during the attack, sending strands of sound at its target. There was no longer the need for Dallion to hold it like a guitar—once he had freed his mind to the possibilities, the number of options had exploded.

The strands barely made contact with the void matter that composed the entity, but during that moment, the spark was able to cause significant damage. From the side, it seemed as if the sword was sending out bolts of lightning.

CRITICAL STRIKE

Damage has been increased by 200%

A purple rectangle popped up for a moment before swiftly fading away.

Keeping up his momentum, Dallion twisted in the air, slashing the space with his aura sword. Spell circles emerged as he did, sending a rain of projectiles at the already stunned target.

Jets of void matter shot out from the chainling, in a desperate attempt to form a protective bubble of blackness around it. While some of the aether projectiles were swallowed by the sticky surface, the rest ripped through, causing holes in the creature behind.

Shrieks filled the air. No longer aiming to attack, the being pulled back in its attempt to flee. However, it was already too late. Combining a slight spell with a speed symbol, Dallion thrusted towards his enemy, slicing him in two with a spark infused line strike.

CONTRADICTION

(+2 Body, +2 Mind)

Spark and magic generally don’t mix. That’s why using them both in battle is such a sight.

The achievement bled through into reality thanks to Dallion’s magic trait. It remained slightly concerning seeing awakened elements in the real world, though the rush of adrenaline drowned that fear, making him ready for more.

“Are you the new Star candidates?” Dallion asked, twisting around in the air, avoiding the multitude of tentacles that shot at him.

The attackers’ initial attempt had been to surround him on all sides, then tighten the loop, leaving him to defend against attacks from every direction. There were a few moments during which the distance between them had been uneven, and that proved more than enough for Dallion to focus and destroy one of the trio. The unfortunate creature had mistakenly believed that the otherworlder was attempting to escape, and moved further forward to prevent him from doing so. As was evident, that had turned out to be a mistake.

Swords danced in front of Dallion, combining spark and magic. The harpsisword slashed through the black tentacles, while the aura sword cast dozens of spells—in this case, aether barriers—behind it.

“Are you even hopefuls?” Dallion added some music threads to his voice as he spoke. After all, it wasn’t only objects that could be imbued with spark. His entire body overflowed with it. “Or are you just hired help sent by Grym to stop me?”

Bolts of lightning flew out of his mouth, zapping at the chainling pair. These two were a lot better prepared, easily topping his attacks with their shifting void matter.

A bolt wrapped in blue flames split the air, hitting one of the chainlings straight in the back of the head. Although far less efficient than Dallion, Lux, too, had joined in the fight. Following its master’s orders, the guardian would keep its distance, shooting its single bolt at the entities. Usually, the blue flame had allowed the bolt to pierce through void matter, then fly back. Not this time, though.

“Careful, Lux.” Dallion immediately severed the link between the bladebow bolt and his realm. “We don’t want a realm invasion.”

Sorry, the firebird let out a sad chirped and flew away from the fight. The real world wasn’t his battlefield.

Clusters of black tendrils shot out from the two chainlings. Unlike all the previous times, though, they weren’t aimed at Dallion, but at each other. Black lines formed, creating a large and intricate pattern.

“No, you don’t!” Dallion let out a series of line attacks with his harpsisword. He knew perfectly well what the creatures were planning to do.

As a rule, void matter and magic didn’t mix. Each had the power to annihilate the other, and in normal circumstances, it did. When it came to magic, though, there always were exceptions. The chaining in Dallion’s first hunt had been capable of spellcasting. Most likely, the unfortunate human the void matter had consumed had been a rogue mage or apprentice of some sort. While it wasn’t clear whether any of the ones he was fighting now were, they had the means to cast spells and were doing so by creating a seven-circle pattern using their void tendrils.

Waves of pitch-black projectiles poured out of the spell circle before Dallion’s line attack could reach it. Knowing that he couldn’t take on the hit directly, the battle apprentice burst into fifty instances, all flying in different directions. Even with the vast number of speed boost and aether barriers his aura sword let him cast, over three quarters of his instances were obliterated.

Damned magic Gatling gun, Dallion thought.

If this were an awakened realm, he could have Lux return the attack in kind. Here, he had to be clever about it.

The spells he was casting with the sword changed. Barriers were useless now, so he reverted to indirect attacks. Keeping ahead of the chainlings’ torrent of blades, Dallion sent out dozens of magic blades into the sky. The aether weapons flew up, then changed course, targeting the void creatures along a wide arc.

The battle shifted to an artillery clash. Both sides were using magic to bombard the other while simultaneously shielding themselves from getting hit. In the case of Dallion, he relied on speed and agility to evade the void projectiles, although that made it impossible to near the chainlings themselves.

That’s wicked! Onda said in Dallion’s realm. Why don’t you do more stuff like that?

Because I’m in no hurry to get killed, Dallion replied. Still, he couldn’t deny he enjoyed it. Breaking loose felt as if he’s torn the first few layers of his cocoon and was finally starting to stretch his wings.

Layers of void matter poured upwards from the chainlings, forming a protective semi-sphere. Similar to the “gatling gun” it moved in the direction of the greatest threat, absorbing all aether blades that attempted to disrupt their spell. Clearly, this wasn’t an approach that would bring him victory.

Concentrate, Dallion told himself.

The strength of the chainlings lied in the amount of void matter. If the third one was still alive, it would have made things even more difficult, potentially maintaining three void spells, along with the other two. For Dallion to win, he had to do one of two things: either kill off one of the remaining creatures, or break the link between them. So far, he had focused on using strength and sneakiness, to no avail. Another option was to use strength and strength.

“Here goes,” Dallion said beneath his breath, and used the aura sword to increase his speed further.

The black projectiles trailed slightly behind, giving him a moment of pause. This was precisely what he wanted. Gripping both blades tightly, he let out a double line attack aimed at the chainlings.

Two lines of destruction, one white and one purple, flew forward, crossing the space between enemies within seconds. It was at this point that the lack of experience in the chainlings showed.

The proper approach would have been for them to evade the attack. Instead, a thick wall of black substance rose in front of them. The nature of the void matter allowed the projectiles to pass through unimpeded, but it also made the pair a lot less maneuverable. Eyes emerged all over its surface, maintaining visual contact with Dallion… just in time to see him follow up with dozens of point attack with both swords.

How do you like this?

Spark and magic filled the air, melting away the void projectiles. The void wall trembled, unprepared to meet such devastating force. At first, the wall managed to take on the blows, devouring them, as they hit. Gradually, cracks formed, quickly filled up by thousands of small tendrils. Even that proved unsustainable, though, leading to the entire wall being torn apart like a block of wet clay. The points of force continued on, slicing through the magic pattern, and a large part of the ground itself, forming large craters.

“Got you!” Dallion darted forward. Now that he was no longer targeted, nothing stopped him from focusing on one specific enemy.

From all his time spent as a hunter, Dallion knew to always focus on the most scared prey. There was a time when he thought that to be counterintuitive, but as he had seen when it came to real life, time was always of greatest importance.

Coating his sword with spark, Dallion thrust it into the black form of the chainling. Eyes appeared all over the creature’s surface, moving wildly in pain.

“Vibrate,” Dallion whispered. The blade of his harpsisword reacted. The spark protecting it from the effects of the void, it ate through the entity within a fraction of a second, causing it to burst like a water balloon. Blotches of void matter splashed onto Dallion, attempting one final attack. The protective coating of magic threads quickly incinerated them before they could do any harm. It was one-on-one now.

Briskly, Dallion turned around. He expected an attack to greet him, but that didn’t happen. In fact, there was no trace of the last creature.

“Lux, any idea where the last one went?” Dallion split into instances.

If this were a forest or even a hilly area, he could accept the chainling dashing out of view. In the probably flattest place in the world, that seemed exceedingly unlikely.

It’s nowhere, boss, the firebird replied.

“It can’t be nowhere.” Flying higher up, Dallion used his magic layer vision to examine the ground for magic threads. Like in most of the wilderness, they were pretty much non-existent. It was quite possible for the chainling to have gone underground. For all Dallion knew, it could be running away right now. If that were the case, he would be rather pleased. Unfortunately, something told him that it wasn’t over.

Waving his aura blade along a circular arc, he cast thirty aether blade circles, each raining dozens of purple weapons onto the ground below. Such weak attacks were by no means capable of doing any damage whatsoever, but with a bit of luck they could stir things up, causing the chainling to react.

Seconds passed. Dallion waited for the spells to end, then examined the ground again.

“Any advice you can give me, Harp?” he asked.

Don’t leave yourself unguarded, the nymph replied. She sounded slightly taken aback by the fashion in which the chainlings had approached as well. One of the key principles of the world was that while in an awakened realm, time in the real world remained still. Having an exception changed everything to its core.

“Have you seen anything of the sort before?”

No. Never.

A chill passed down Dallion’s spine. Could it be that he was too late and Adzorg had already completed his device? If that were the case, there was nothing anyone could do. At best, all existing mages could gather together and establish a city in the sky. Once again, the cloud forts would become the only places of civilization, while the land was overrun by Starspawn and cultists.

You’re not too late, Harp said in a calming fashion. If the void had broken through, there would be no sky.

“That’s a relief.” And yet, if three creatures had managed to achieve what they had, others would as well. Maybe it was safe to avoid entering realms for a while, at least until he figured out what was going on.

Suddenly, a cone of void matter burst up from the ground. It was no more than fifty feet high—nowhere near to reaching Dallion. Alas, it didn’t emerge alone. A hand of stone, the size of a town, followed, breaking through the ground as if it was the crust of a pie.

Bursting into Instances, Dallion flew further up, observing the scene from sixty different perspectives.

A second hand shot out some half a mile from the first. Both extended upwards, then slammed down, grabbing hold of the barren earth.

“Oh crap,” Dallion whispered. Before his very eyes, a colossus was pulling itself out of the soil, and not the human-sized variety either. The only times Dallion had seen anything similar were during his awakened trials. The difference was that in this fight, he wouldn’t be getting any assistance from the Moons.