“You said it was perfectly safe!” exclaimed Phobos through gritted teeth.

Karim raised his hands in surrender.

“I did! And it was supposed to be. The Network hasn’t caused any problems in the past hundred years. How was I supposed to know it would act up just as we went through it?”

Phobos forcibly calmed herself.

“I don’t want excuses,” she said, her voice cold. “I want to know where he is now.”

Karim took a deep breath.

“Look. Calm down. You might not feel like trusting me now, but I am just as invested in your husband’s well-being as you are. You all are my responsibility while you are here. If anything happens to you, I’ll be the one that the higher-ups will charge… And the situation isn’t as bad as you are thinking.”

“If you hadn’t noticed, I’m a shadow mage. I know the consequences of a failed Shadow Walk. And this Dimension Gate of yours is just that – an amplified version of Shadow Walk. The consequences of failure would also be amplified. So, tell me, please, how exactly is the situation not as bad as I am thinking?”

“There are safety protocols! Do you think the ancients were ignorant of the dangers of a failed Walk? Even when starting out, the worst that happened was that someone ended up at a Gate other than the one they aimed for.”

Phobos relaxed slightly.

“So, you mean he is just at some other city?”

“Right. So, just be patient. I’ve already asked the admins here to contact with the rest of the Gate towers. We’ll know which tower he’s at soon.”

She nodded. “Hurry then.”

The only reason Phobos wasn’t hysterical right now was because her bond mark at the back of her hand was still a dark red, unaffected by Mars’ disappearance. It meant that he was alive at the very least. The worst hadn’t happened.

Still, the bond didn’t tell her anything about his physical health. He might be injured and bleeding out right now and she wouldn't know. That thought made her clench her fists and grit her teeth. Damn it all.

Turning away from their flustered guide, she walked over to where the rest of their group was crowded around Ceres and Hei Lian.

The two of them were sitting cross-legged facing each other with their eyes closed. Hei Lian had her right hand on Ceres’ head with the thumb resting on the centre of her forehead and the rest of the fingers splayed out on top of her head.

They were trying to trace Mars using Ceres’ marital bond.

Phobos felt a pang of irrational jealousy that it wasn’t her bond that was being used for the tracing, but she immediately shook the thought away.

It had to be Ceres due to a combination of factors. Among Mars’ wives, at Tier 4, Artemis had the strongest soul, but as the newest addition to their family, her bond was slightly weaker than any of theirs. Deimos had a strong bond and the next highest cultivation base, but her wind mana wasn’t compatible with Hei Lian’s. Phobos’ own mana was compatible, her bond was strong, but her cultivation base was the weakest.

Ceres not only had the highest compatibility with Hei Lian’s mana, her soul was nearly as strong as Artemis’ due to her higher mastery of her Aspects. And her bond with Mars was just as strong hers or Deimos’.

Phobos watched as thin tendrils of dark smoke emanated from Hei Lian’s body and intertwined with similar tendrils of Ceres’ purple smoke. The dark red marking on top of Ceres’ foot began to glow as their combined mana touched it.

The Demigod doppelganger was using her vast soul to amplify Ceres’ sensation so she could get a better lock on Mars’ position.

Phobos couldn't wait till Mars and someone among them promoted to Tier 5. Then they would be linked seamlessly like paired mind crystals, able to talk to him directly through the link without having to go through all this hassle.

After a tense silence that seemed to drag on and on, Hei Lian and Ceres finally stopped feeding mana to the mark. Hei Lian removed her hand from Ceres’ head and the two of them opened their eyes.

Noticing their inquiring looks, Ceres shook her head.

“We failed. We couldn't locate him.”

“What do you mean you couldn't locate him? Wasn’t he able to receive your mana?” asked Artemis with a concerned frown. “His situation is that bad?”

“No, no. It’s not that,” Ceres reassured her. “I could send him the mana just fine… It’s just that…” she looked at Hei Lian, who shook her head indicating her helplessness in this matter. “It’s just that instead of pointing north, south, east or west, my bond is pointing straight down at the ground.”

“At the ground?” asked Deimos, surprised. “Are you sure?”

“As much as I can be,” affirmed Ceres. “So, either our link’s effectiveness has somehow expired, or what it is telling us is actually right.”

Phobos thought about what that would mean for a while before it hit her.

“A marital bond points directly at the other partner… so if you were to stand on the top of a mountain and Mars at the foot, it would point down at him. So, either our husband is somewhere underground…”

“Or he is on the other side of the world,” finished Ceres. “If it’s the first case, then we need to hurry. He might be trapped under several miles of rock, waiting for us to get him free. He’ll be fine for a short while due to his magic, but if the time drags on his situation won’t be very optimistic.”

She paused.

“And as for the second case…”

***

Sitting cross-legged in the crook of a branch high up along the trunk of one of the giant trees, I let the orb of black and purple smoke in my palm dissipate.

“So,” I sighed. “This really is the Forbidden Continent.”