“Vwerr” Reylor opened a spatial gate to an island nearby. The other Seldin had given him the coordinates, which Reylor verified before preparing to go.

“Vrrruump” The space gate close as they exited.

“Grrr” “Shing!”

They we met with a welcoming party. Shade. A hoard of shade beasts came pouring out of the barren forest before them.

“Shadow slash!” “Magma domain!” “Light Bolt!” “Void Suppression!”

Everyone executed skills, one after another. Now that they didn’t have to worry about protecting anyone, they decided it would be best to use less intense spell, so as to be able to recover more quickly after the fight.

And so they fought. They slowly walked forward, slaughtering shade beasts like mosquitoes, or rather, roasting them like bags of marshmallows, was Lucy’s domain that was doing most of the work since most other skills couldn’t actually kill a shade beast.

“How many of these things are there?” Khes asked, echoing the thoughts of the rest.

“See that boundary line out there?” Reylor pointed. “For now we just need to get over there, then we can take a breather.”

“That… Isn’t that like the circle at Votran’s forest?” Elany asked.

“Yes, that is a field of spatial energy. Once we get there I’ll be able to take care of most of them.”

“Ok, we’ll keep going.”

“Shing! Shing!” “Sizzle Sizzle” “Shoof, Shoof” “Thunk”

Another Shade beheaded, another shade cremated, another step forward. Another step forward. Hour after painstaking hour they continued against the unending river of shade beasts, until finally…

“We are here!” Lucy cried out. Despite having a massive mana pool, maintaining a barrier for hours was not an easy feat, and she was nearing her limit.

“Stay right there. I’m going to lift you guys up,” Reylor said as he walked into the curtain of spatial energy and raised his hand to the sky.

“What do you mea—ahh!” Elany screamed out as a circle of earth below her and the other gave way and rose out of the ground like a pillar.

The black energy began to circulate around Reylor, as he absorbed more and more. “Click” Reylor eyes turned blood red as he spread his arms out and appeared to mumble something from a different language. “Kathump”

All the nearby shade fell over—tens of thousands dead, just like that.

Reylor’s eyes returned to normal, and he used a skill to jump up to where the rest of the group was.

No one bothered to comment on what had just happened. They were exhausted from the fight, and were still reeling from the knowledge of what was likely to come.

“Where did they all come from?” Khes absent-mindedly asked as he surveyed the ocean of beast corpses before him.

“He’s been collecting them.”

“Collecting them? For how long?”

“I don’t know exactly, but he has been working on it for years”

“Years.” Khes breathed out.

It was getting dark, so Eric, Aileen, Elany, and Lucy pulled out their tents for the night—not that any of them got much sleep…

Meanwhile, Reylor jumped back down and spent the night absorbing the energy and using it to form a couple of contraptions and inscribe runes on them.

*** *** ***

The next morning everyone was up by the time the sun could be seen on the horizon.

“Eric, take these,” Reylor said, handing him two orb-like devices.

When you are ready to go back, press this button and throw it on the ground. It will create a spatial gate that will take you to the Praefectii camp we just came from. It will last for 15 minutes.

Once you are ready there, do the same thing with the gold one to open a gate to the palace. That one will last for 42 minutes.

Eric nodded his head in understanding.

“If you are going to watch, take one of these” he said, Pulling out an armful of plain black jackets. “They’ll protect you from the side effects of the spatial energy. Just keep at least 200 yards back, or you will die.”

Each person solemnly took a jacket.

“Well, then. Let’s be off.”

Reylor lowered them all down, and they set off into the dark haze in front of them. They kept walking as a castle came into view, becoming clearer and clearer.

“This is it.” Reylor said, somewhat coldly. The spatial energy was once again having an effect on his personality.

“Go do it man.” Eric said emotionlessly.

Reylor gave each of the girls a quick hug and a nod to Khes and Eric before taking the long walk to the front of the castle.

“My, my. Is this… Reylor? A cold elegant voice called out from the entrance.

“Glistrel.” Reylor muttered.

“Oh, my my! Is this all I get? I even came all the way out to the entrance to welcome you! So cold!”

“Why have you done this?” Reylor asked.

“Why have I done this? Why, I should be asking that to you! After all, you destroyed my constructs—and you know how long those things take to make… Ahh, fine then. You know how booooring it was in the Spatial hall, right? Well, I got tired of that nonsense, you see, and so when I came time for me to “retire” I though ‘Hey, why not have a little fun first?’”

“You… You disobeyed the code?”

“Of course I did! And you did too, I see.”

“Actually, I didn’t.”

“Oh, but of course you did! The code says that at the end of your 1,000 years of service, you must walk through the aethergate, and we all know that means you cease to exist. You get turned back into aether! Oh… Unless… You are telling me it malfunctioned?”

“Yes, it did, which is why I am here.”

“Ahahaha! The irony! You tried to die and it didn’t even work, hahaha! Well, no matter then. You’ll get your wish here.”

Glistrel's eyes glowed red, and spatial energy began to circle around him. The same thing happened to Reylor.

More and more energy circulated around each of them, pulling from the vast reserves Glistrel had collected over the years.

Eventually there was so much energy moving around them, that they no longer looked like people, but merely black shadows, save for their red eyes. As a side-effect, the atmosphere became a bit lighter as the Seldins collected the energy.

And then—they disappeared

“eeeeeereeeeeekeeeeee.” A mind numbing screech assaulted the ears of Eric, Khes, Lucy, Aileen, and Elany—proof that the two had not actually left the place, but were simply moving so quickly that they couldn’t be seen, meanwhile generating a jarring noise from having broken the sound barrier many times over.

Aileen put up her barrier to absorb to of the impact from the showdown.

“The heck?” Khes said. “I can’t even see them…”

“I can’t either” Eric replied.

Ten minutes later:

“They are slowing down” Khes said.

“Yeah, I can see them at times. It’s so weird, I looks like they are trying to punch each other, but they are so in sync that it’s always their fists that collide at exactly the same place.

They stopped, floating in the sky.

“I see. So the rumors are true. A Seldin really cannot be stronger than his relative. And here I hoped to complete my subjugation. But alas, it seems it shall not be so.”

“That is right. You are no longer fit to rule over the mortals of this world. I shall put an end to your existence. This is goodbye.”

“Yes, we shall end it now.”

“Shuuuuunk.” All the remaining spatial energy covering the entire region was nearly instantly collected by Glisten and Reylor, who subsequently turned black—that is, instead of having black energy swirling around them, their skin, their hair, their eyes and nails, all turned pitch black as they raised they extended their palms toward each other

“Poof” “Kachink, Kachink, Kachunk”

Their features turned back to normal and a black ball was formed between the two. They just stood there, as if trying to push the black orb of energy away from themselves and toward each other, but they were at a standstill. Then it started happening:

Wisps of matter started flying off of each of them. They were literally decomposing in real time. Despite being able to use spatial energy to do all kinds of things, even Seldins had their limits. When in the face of pure, undiluted spatial energy, their bodies could not handle it, and would gradually decompose back into the aether.

While Eric, Lucy, Aileen, and Khes were staring in shock and grief—

“Mother of Aretor, laws of the aether

Listen to my plea”

“Elany?! What are you…” “Its too late to stop her, but what is she doing?” Lucy thought.

“Though the flesh be consumed, let the life remain.

Flesh for flesh, and a life for a life.

The cycle of sacrifice is true.

“Oh, no. No, not that! Elany, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

“I give my life, a recompense for the lost.

Let things that are be as they were.

Look down on this plane and bear witness:

Soul reversal…”

“No, Elany! You can’t do this! Don’t do it!”

“Holy Sacrifice, Tier…”

“Eight!”

Lucy’s face completely drained of color.

Prime spells were said to only have seven tiers, but there was one more that people seldom spoke of—the eighth tier. An eighth tier prime spell was akin to an archaic spell, meaning the one who cast it… Would die.

“Kathump” Just as the last bits of Reylor and Glisten were about to disappear, time once again froze. Elany slowly dematerialized, replaced with the full figure of Reylor.

“Kabam!” Time resumed with an explosion of the ball of spatial energy, washing over the island, and a bit further, before dispersing into the atmosphere.

“Crrrr. Pow!” Like a pane of glass breaking, the constructions that Glisten had used for channeling spatial energy all over Aretor shattered.

Reylor stood up and looked around.

“Huh? Eric. Khes. Aileen. Lucy. Ela—Elany?” He looked around, scanning the area.

“Elany?” “Wait, what happened to my vision? And I don’t sense any karma?”

He was in a daze, as he kept looking around.

“Void art: Presence…” “Woah, am I completely out of spatial energy? Wait… My core… I don’t have a spatial core—so that means…”

He looked around again, finally resting his gaze on Lucy.

“Did Elany…” Lucy nodded her head stiffly.

“Elany.” He breathed out, turning his gaze to the distance.

His features relaxed, though his eyes seemed glazed over.

“Let’s go.”

They returned to the Praefectii to pick up one as a representative. With the coordinates known, the permanent gate at the palace could be redirected to the temporary Praefectii camp.

“Vwerr”

“Vwump”

They arrived in front of the palace.

“I’ll take care of things here,” Eric said gently. “Take some time for yourself.”

Reylor nodded.

“Do you want to go back to your castle?” Reylor asked Lucy. Lucy shook her head.

“Ok.” He nodded.

“Vwerr” He opened another spatial gate and stepped through, but as he did, a hand firmly grasped onto his arm. Lucy was pulled through with him, to greet the scene together. There were a few plants sprouting here or there, but it was still obviously the same place—they were met with a scenery of blackness. Charcoal was everywhere, save for a few bits of metal or other things that fire was not able to completely burn through. It was Splendor

“You can’t do this alone.” Lucy whispered, and then paused. “And neither can I.”

She wrapped her arms around Reylor’s waist, and he returned the gesture.

“Drip. Drip drop.” And so for the first time in over a million years, Reylor cried.

“Why?” Reylor choked out. “Why would she do this?”

“I don’t know, I really don’t know!” Lucy cried. “I don’t know…”

They sat down on the ground, and stayed there without saying another word to each other, but only holding up because of they knew they were in this together. One night. Two nights. Three nights. They said nothing

Four nights.

“Vwerr”

A spatial gate opened and two people walked out. Reylor glanced over at them, but immediately lowered his head back down in grief and in shame.

“I thought I might find you here.” A cool voice drifted through the air, carrying no discernable emotion.

“Reylor, Lucy, get up.” A deep voice said, with an authoritative power.

They stood up without a word.

“Puh-pah”

Xendus and Queen pulled them both into a hug.

Queen spoke, with the softest, gentlest voice that either of them had heard uttered from her mouth.

“Reylor, it’s not your fault. It was her decision and hers alone. In fact, this is probably better. It would have been painful to lose yet another person after all she has gone through.

“And both of you, it’s time to come back. You have brought back what remains of my family, and I now know that I can trust you. You are our family, as well. Time to come back. Eric, Aileen, and Khes are worried about you guys, too, you know? Time to come home.”

And the gate closed as the four departed.