Nar pulled his crimson sword out and stepped forward to protect the aethermancer.

  “Mach will be safe. Nothing will touch him. Consider it a mercy.”

  Nar glanced back, and indeed Mach and the egg were protected by a swirling vortex of wind that obscured them.

  “I’ll hold you to that,” Nar said.

  His aura flared and he swung an [Aura Blade] at the giant, intent on pushing him off the tree there and then. But the beast dropped low and skittered around the massive tree, his ponderous detour shaking the whole thing.

  Did it mask the gorilla with the wind? Nar wondered, tracking the beast's movements with his [Hearing] until it crashed inwards through the canopy on the other side. Dammit!

  “The beast is here! The spirit wants him dead before it helps us,” he said into the chat.

  “I thought that was going to be the case,” Leon said.

  “Kur and Row’s party stayed behind to deal with the gorilla matriarchs. We’re rushing over! Just hang in there!” Calli said.

  “Unless you fancy soloing him,” Leon said. “Should be at about twenty percent HP.”

  “Nar, don’t!” Calli warned.

  Two million HP.

  Not that long ago, he had struggled and been incapable of killing that skull ripper with Eum’s help. That party killer, as Sej had called the beast, had sixty-four thousand HP…

  Silver Fists landed with a tree shaking thud, its shadow covering Nar.

  Two million HP…

  Nar held the beats’ gaze, and his racing heart slowed.

  Aura flooded his pathways and his hungry sword.

  Two million HP.

  The last obstacle of their three and a half month long delve.

  And the only hope that Mach had.

  Sixteen thousand aura. Two thirds stamina. Three quarters HP.

  “Hurry up, or there won’t be any left for you,” Nar spoke into the party chat.

  Leon’s laughter filled his mind, silencing the shouts for caution and to not do this.

  But Nar was already on the move, powered by his [Aura Quickening].

  He flung [Aura Blade]s at the giant, allowing them to explode in the air for coverage. The big beast barely registered them, and his fists came down in a fury, pounding the grass to dirt and raising a flurry of dirt.

  There was no holding back now, and Nar’s aura came alive within him.

  Two million HP. Against 2190.

  Silver Fists may be pockmarked by strange, molten burns, green blood running down his dense fur, and the party was sure to have exhausted him, driving him to his last twenty percent HP. But this was still the Lord of the Canopy of Giants, and if anything, the beast before him radiated nothing but the desire to obliterate his challenger.

  As the Teacher of Slaying had once said, sometimes beats only grew stronger the more damage they took, rallying behind an indomitable spirit to crush all before them.

  Nar grinned as he dodged around those giant legs, thrusting [Sword Aura] at the creature’s ankles.

  A giant was just like any other enemy. Bring it down to his level, and he could end it just as well. Plus, if there was one thing Nar wasn’t lacking, it was in aura. And right now, with Mach’s safety assured by his spirit, and Leon and Eum not there yet, that meant there was nobody else around.

  Nobody else he could hurt by mistake.

  He was alone.

  Just him and Silver Fists.

  Nar’s grin grew wider as a longer, thicker blade of aura formed around his sword.

  “Come on,” Nar told the beast as he poured aura to the limit of his [Mastery] into the blade. “Help me gain a new skill, will you?”

  The green and silver gorilla roared at him, its eyes a blaze of emerald. He leaped at Nar, intending to crush him with his two feet thrust forward.

  Nar blurred, triggering his [Aura Quickening], and unleashed a thick, screeching [Aura Blade] at the beast’s exposed flanks.

  The giant twisted mid-air, testament to his insane [Agility], and Nar let go of his skill. The explosion rocked the entire tree, a blooming of aura that looked as though it was a second canopy.

  Nar and Silver Fists leaped at each other with nothing but the death of their opponents in their minds.

  Nar unleashed his aura in great, tree shaking explosions, and the gorilla, relying on nothing but pure, sheer [Strength], threatened to shatter the tree to smithereens with each of his ponderous blows.

  Aura and dirt, grass and leaves and branches snapped and roared in a vortex of destruction as the two opponents went at each other across the clearing at the center of the tree. Nar was at a disadvantage, as even just one of the beast’s fists or kicks would be enough to reduce him to gore, and its two million HP still stood as an effective barrier against his attacks. But that HP was at twenty-percent, and much of Nar’s rage and searing aura filtered through.

  [Aura Blade], [Sword Aura], explosions, it all compounded against that already battered shield, and grinning, Nar never let on.

  What was death to him anyways, now that the way back to his dad was blocked by the very Gods and the Nexus itself? He should fight with abandon! He should let go and surrender to the battle craze he still pulled back from, worried and scared of what that said of him… But why not just embrace it? Why not simply become destruction incarnate, ready to eradicate everything in his way?

  What greater affinity could there be for a delver? For a warrior?

  And yet… Something held him back from the brink.

  Something greater.

  Something unvoiced.

  Unspoken, yet true.

  He held onto himself, unsure of why there was such a raging vortex within him, as though another battle raged within against some unseen enemy. An invader he wasn’t even aware of, but which his aura and will revolted against.

  But a great darkness shifted within him, and it was forgotten, and Nar was back facing crushing death.

  However, the feeling, the call to not give up echoed within his mind, and so Nar gripped his sense of self with all that he had, keeping his head above the darkness.

  In his hands, the blade that had threatened to turn to pitch darkness gained an edge of blinding light for a split second, and then the whole thing returned to its usual shifting grays, with his bottomless blacks, and its searing whites.

  And Nar fought, holding onto to himself, but unworried of any friendly fire.

  Between them, they ravaged the Altar of Winds, two monsters unleashing their fury, rage and despair at one another. One, fighting to secure his domain over his territory, and the other fighting for the life of a new, but already dear friend.

  Fist. Blade. Fist. Kick. Blade. Explosion.

  The beast had been forged as a challenge to delvers.

  Nar had been forged in the bowels of the B-Nex as an Unclean.

  Plus, he was a hybrid DPS/tank.

  He dodged in between the beasts legs, unleashing an [Aura Blade] at its chest and letting go of it, allowing his other self to take over and hold in place, and as he came out the other side, his pathways searing from the sudden influx of two consecutive max-[Mastery] [Aura Blade]s, he unleashed a second [Aura Blade] and he held it against the creatures back.

  The front and the back, the creature’s most protected areas, with both its enormous HP and what had to be a mind-numbing [Constitution] as well, but Nar didn’t care. Two [Aura Blades] screeching on either side rendered the gorilla helpless, flailing his arms and held in place by Nar’s skills.

  Blood run down his nose, and his ears, and reality spun, threatening to take him under one final time as his self-healing was overwhelmed by the damage done to his mind across so many [Aura Quickening]s and now holding that [Aura Blade] as his still unexplained second self held the first.

  Damn it… he thought, as the blade he commanded slipped through his grasp, becoming a roaring, towering explosion that seared his face, leaving his eyes watering.

  Silver Fists leaped away from the other [Aura Blade], and it pushed onwards, exploding out the side of the canopy.

  The two fighters eyed each other in the dust, panting as leaves fluttered, chests rising and falling. Nar didn’t have an implant to tell him how much HP Silver Fists still had, but it had to be nearing zero. As for himself, his aura was approaching two thousand points. Soon, he wouldn’t have enough to even maintain his healing.

  The gorilla eyed the altar… No, the canopy behind it, and Nar forced his body in between them.

  “No can do,” he breathed. “I need you dead.”

  The beast grunted at him, his muscles tensing for—

  “Nar!”

  Golden aether hit the beast’s head, and it forgot all about Nar. Blood-dripping crimson claws slashed through the dust and exploded against the beast’s flank.

  Help had arrived.

  However, Nar eyed the two aethermancers fighting, transfixed as a loose thought whispered from the back of his mind.

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  With them here, you can’t really fight. Not the way you are meant to. Not the way that fully shows all your might.

  Alone.

  Meant to survive alone.

  Meant to fight alone.

  Against all odds.

  All obstacles.

  Surpass.

  Alone.

  Is that what I am?

  “Come on, Nar! Let’s finish this!” Leon called.

  Nar drove the thought from his mind and ran back into the fight. But truly, he couldn’t call upon his [Aura Blade]s anymore, and he had to be careful with his larger aura edge, which he promptly retracted back into his sword.

  Alone.

  He shook his head.

  Kur’s party would always be his home, and they would always find a way, no matter what.

  Together, the trio of exhausted delvers beat back the drained gorilla until at long last, Nar severed through its ankle, toppling the beast. Eum leaped at its throat with his crimson claws, roaring in his upgraded bestial form…

  A gentle breeze blew away the dust, clearing the air, and revealed three gasping delvers standing. A champion auramancer, a paladin of the light, and a bloodlust bestial path.

  “It’s done!” Nar shouted at the air. “We killed him! Now save him!”

  The gentle breeze shifted to a roaring gale, pushing him back, and then it doubled into a howling storm.

  “Nar!” Leon shouted as sharp, shredding winds separated them.

  The air grew so thick with deadly intent that they were obscured from each other. Nar panted for air in that vortex, his lungs screaming… and then, there was calm. Silence.

  He was not alone.

  “Well done. You have my gratitude.”

  Nar opened his eyes to find himself in the eye of the storm, with Mach and the egg visible once again.

  The two of them were suspended in the air, with stormy blue aether holding them in a raging vortex of lightning and wind.

  “Gratitude? But you—”

  At his side, stood Mach.

  No, it was something borrowing Mach’s shape, its eyes blazing with blue and crackling with lightning.

  “My little one was supposed to fail. This was meant to be a lesson that sometimes, no matter how well you do, how well you prepare, fight or struggle… that you still lose. That you fail. And that no matter how your family judges you, or your standing falls amongst your peers, you need to rise again and try again,” the spirit said. “I would’ve given him a new challenge, eventually. To redeem himself, and earn his prize once more. It would have been tough, but doable, and I would’ve given him an egg. It would’ve been earned then. Valued. Treasured and built upon an important lesson.”

  The spirit shook Mach’s, his, head.

  “He was supposed to arrive at the nest and realize that his quest was not possible. No [Stealth]? Carry the egg out himself? How was he supposed to get it done? It was ridiculous!” the spirit said. “Instead, a bunch of trash followed his party into the Brightnight, killed their guide, and then they fell in with you guys. And now, my child stands here with its prized egg, my plans shredded by the winds.”

  “Wait! You know someone is after them? Then why didn’t you do some—”

  A gust of wind buffeted Nar’s face.

  “I kept hoping that Kur and Row would come to their senses, but you guys are a different breed, aren’t you? And your guides are too caught up in their love-stricken tragedy to think properly, and whoosh! Here we are now. A three-party domain slayed a Brightnight lord, and Mach got his egg.”

  “Is that why you tried to stop us?” Nar asked. “So we would fail? Even after we torched the whole tree and drew the lord to us?”

  The spirit sighed, and using Mach’s face, it actually looked like a mortal.

  “Stop you? No. I was doing what I had to. I had no other choice. I was helping us all.”

  “What? We almost died because of you. Mach almost died because of you!”

  The spirit frowned at him. “A parent always wants to dote on their child, but it’s complicated. This was supposed to be a stern moment, but hey, I didn’t climb to where I am today by being inflexible. I pivoted. If Mach was going to succeed, then we might as well go all the way and reap a whole lot from this situation.”

  “What?” Nar asked. He was getting more and more confused.

  The spirit sighed again.

  “There are rules, Nar. Doting is not allowed. The rewards I promised today are outrageous because I wanted them to be impossible to resist. And that’s okay because I wasn’t actually going to fulfill them,” it explained. “But now I had to. A quest fulfilled is a quest rewarded. But it was a smidge too easy. Just a teensy-bit off. The reward had to be commensurate with the challenge. Otherwise, it, and I, would come under scrutiny... And nobody wants that, right?”

  Nar passed a hand over his face. He was talking to a spirit. Face to damned face. He should be more respectful, and grovely and all that, but Pile, he was just so damned tired and broken.

  “So, you tried to kill us to help us?”

  “If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead,” the spirit said. “But you’re not. You’re welcome. Rewards for all!”

  “Why didn’t you just stop him? Actually, you didn’t answer my question earlier! Why didn’t you help the party, when you knew that someone was after th—”

  A stray gust of wind hit Nar in the face. And this time he stumbled backwards.

  “So, let’s discuss rewards, shall we?” the spirit continued, as though nothing had happened.

  Why is— Wait. Don’t tell me that he’s not allowed to intervene. Or even to acknowledge it?

  Was something else at play here?

  “You contributed the most, didn't you? So, I say something special is due, hmm?” the spirit said, smiling at him. “However, I need to be careful, as I can't just reach into someone else's cookie jar…”

  “What? What did you say?” Nar asked. The spirit’s words had been nothing but wind.

  “Oh, so that’s how it is…” the spirit said, holding his chin. Then he eyed Nar up and down. “Say, would you like to become an aethermancer?”

  “What?”

  There was no footing to be found in that conversation. The gales just kept buffeting Nar, keeping him from steadying himself.

  “Lots of perks, you know. Aethertech, no discrimination, and you’d get me as your patron! And trust me, they’re all lining up to get someone like me. Besides, I think that a storm aspected path would suit you just fine. Like a glove even… Ah, but you’re going to say no, aren’t you?”

  Nar nodded, still frowning at the spirit-Mach.

  “And so, we have to do this the hard way. If you were an aethermancer I’d just slap you with an epic skill or something and call it a day, instead… I will give you two gifts!” he said, raising two fingers. “The first one is a promise.”

  “A promise?”

  “Yes. A promise. Twice I will intercede at the crossroads of your fate. I cannot knock a bullet off course, nor can I push a blade off your back, but I can guide you down the best path. But only twice! More than that, and I will be smitten down. The spirits are not eternal, and the disobedient are culled, you know?”

  The wind slapped Nar again.

  “I didn’t say anything!”

  “You thought about it. That much [Ego] is not enough to shield your mind. Not yet, and I strongly encourage you to visit the priestess when you return,” the spirit said.

  “How do you… Wait! Wait! I won’t ask!”

  “You’re learning!” spirit-Mach said, laughing. “But this brings me to my second reward. I will give it to you now, so open your ears, and open them well... That’s it, lean in closer…”

  The spirit took hold of his head with a vice-like grip, as though to crush his skull between his hands, his blazing, electrifying blue eyes growing to engulf the whole dungeon.

  The wind took a deep breath in…

  “REMEMBER YOUR WHY!”

  Nar unhinged his jaw to let out his agony, but instead, the wind blew into him, pushing down into his chest, seeking his core, where it morphed into a vortex of wind blades and lightning strikes.

  Within him, his aura seethed, but, not at the invading storm… Again, Nar’s thoughts blurred, but his aura chased after the raging vortex, taking advantage of the openings it made against… What?

  “You are close now, so very close. Just hang in there, Nar,” the spirit whispered, as it withdrew its aether. “I hate this kind of stuff the most, and technically this doesn’t really count as me interfering since you were already close. I just sped it up a bit. But it will be soon now, and when the time comes, remember your why. Don’t forget this! It’s crucial to you and your path!”

  Nar dropped to one knee. He tried to speak but found that he couldn’t. Half the words coming out of the spirits mouth were being blotted out of reality, and the other half made absolutely no sense. What in Gods’ names was going on?

  “But, I’m afraid our time’s up and the scales are now even, so I’ll take my leave,” it said. “You have my gratitude for helping Mach and me, and the wind always remembers... And now, I have an opportunity to take advantage of, and for you, the main event is about to begin. Good luck, auramancer. If you survive this, may we meet again where fate calls. Oh, and please, don’t tell anyone we met! Or I’d get in trouble and you and your party would lose all your rewards!”

  Silence descended as the winds departed.

  “Mach!” Eum shouted.

  A blur ran past Nar, and he followed it in a daze.

  “I-I did it!” Mach shouted, standing up on dazed legs.

  A length of shimmering, dark cerulean scales coiled around his neck. It was much smaller than any of the youth aelix they’d faced in the nest, and it rubbed its triangular face against Mach’s cheek with obvious affection.

  “Th-this is Liliannae,” Mach declared, streams of silver running down his cheeks. “And I… I love her so much!”

  Eum enveloped the vanore and his new bond in a fierce hug, both laughing and crying.

  A hand fell over Nar’s shoulder, squeezing hard.

  “Thank you… Thank you so Gods damned much,” Leon whispered, his voice strangled. “I… I will never forget this. Never.”

  Nar snorted. “Between brothers, it’s nothing, eh?”

  Leon sniffled and whipped at his glowing eyes.

  “Yeah.”

  “Go on and get in there,” Nar said.

  “I… Yeah.”

  Nar sat down with a sigh, grinning so widely it almost hurt. The sight of the three of them, and the little wind serpent, Liliannae, filled him with such joy that it was a thought his heart was going to explode.

  You did it… Damn it, Nar! You did it! You got the egg. You kept them alive. And you even soloed a Lord of the Jungle!

  He burst out laughing.

  If we’re this strong already, imagine what will be after we get all the gains for this fight and quest!

  It was done. It was over, and they were all alive.

  “Everyone! It’s over!” he shouted into the party chat, from where he still heard the others bringing the fight to an end against the last silver fist matriarch. “Mach is alive, and he’s bonded!”

  The party chat erupted in cheers and shouts of congratulations, and Nar lay back on the destroyed grass. He and Silver Fists had erased the canopy of the giant tree, and there was only an seemingly endless stretch of purple twilight above his head now.

  Pile, but he was wrecked. But his battered mind drifted to the spirit.

  He raised a hand to his chest. Something was different inside… He took a deep breath, and it somehow felt lighter.

  What did it do to me? Nar wondered. And what was it trying to say? Its words kept getting blocked.

  The spirit had spoken of rules, smiting and even culling, and Nar had been left with the distinct impression that the spirit had skirted around what it actually wanted to say. Perhaps to warn him?

  “Ugh,” he groaned, a pain squeezing his mind.

  Something is going on… I just don’t know what, but it’s important to my path, he realized. The spirit said I was close, so maybe I’ll know soon. But, wait! It also said that the main event was about to start. What did the spirit mean by—

  DUN! DU-DUN! DUN!

  Nar jolted upright, snapping his eyes towards the gigantic gorilla… But Silver Fists lay dead and defeated where they had left him, a fountain of green blood pouring down his great throat.

  DUN!

  DUN!

  DUN!

  “What in Pile?” Nar asked, searching around himself.

  He rose to his feet and stumbled to the others.

  “The fuck is that?” Eum muttered.

  Leon’s face dropped. “Wait… You don’t think that’s—”

  A beam of green punctured the skies in the distance, lighting up the entire Brightnight in emerald.

  “No,” Mach whispered.

  DUN! DUN! DUN! DUN! DUN!

  “The Drums of War,” Eum mumbled. “But how?”

  The main event… Nar thought, his heart dropping. Of course. There was only one thing the spirit could’ve been alluding to.

  In the distance, the beam of emerald shifted, as though stuck in a tug of war, but it broke free and moved westward. Nar pulled on his [Sight] in time to catch a chaos of metal flashing emerald before the green beam continued westwards, setting the clouds in the distance into a blaze of emeralds.

  “The Gate of Golden Skulls has closed,” Nar whispered.

  “And so begins the War for the Heart,” Leon said.

  There were sudden flashes of green and their weapons were kicked out from storage.

  “Gods… Dammit,” Leon whispered, eyeing his sword and shield on the floor at his feet.

  “Gods fucking dammit,” Leon said again.

  At his side, Nar sighed.

  I should’ve known… Damn it all.