She cast a removal spell, etching away at the enchantment layer that isolated her soul from the anti-spirit element of the array. Her intention was clear.

You would try that? Only death awaits...

Mirayoung thought of what felt like thousands of termites biting at her soul when she slowly removed it but as she did, she could make herself the array rather than being the heart that sustained it. This would do irreconcilable harm on the wraith and herself, and the question would be, who would falter first.

You overestimate yourself, wraith. Mirayoung thought back.

You're a fool. This desperation...will kill you.

You're afraid, wraith. I feel your fear.

You won't see through it.

Don't see through it. That was a third voice. A familiar voice.

Jerius?

This sudden intrusion disoriented the wraith a little, ceasing its assault.

Jerius could feel the weight of the titanic struggle in the minds of an archmagus and a sinister creature at the highest evolution.

He knew he had to join the fray when he woke up in cold sweat while a translucent barrier surrounded Mirayoung and the wraith that was also imprisoned within a multi-elemental prison. It became clear that the battle was far from over, and Mirayoung merely ousted him as a participant to protect him.

But he could not pass through the array. Any attempt only hurt him too in the process. But suddenly he felt a tug on his consciousness as if his entirety were beginning to be drawn into it. He linked that to the moment the wraith touched the array, suspecting it had done something. Mirayoung froze at the same time, confirming his suspicion.

He would almost disengage his mind from the array a second after figuring out how to first connect with it from the sheer pressure of joining a mental battle between the giants.

But he steeled himself, forging on. He was the disciple of Lyvia and the Prime Sorcerer of Nox, and he would shame neither.

He pulled out the sum of his life, the memories of his past as he begged from street to street. The friends he grew close to in Nox. The comrades he fought shoulder to shoulder with in countless battles. He engulfed himself within that, remembering everything and letting that be his everything. He let it paint over the canvas in his mind, allowing it to overlap with Mirayoung's mind.

The wraith was a consequence of Aderis's plan, and he would not let the betrayer of Nox get away.

Don't be an idiot. Be selective. The memories you use will be gone forever. Mirayoung shouted in her mind to Jerius, as a stream of his memories played out around her as a bulwark.

As their minds merged through the array, Jerius saw the memories Mirayoung put out to block the wraith. Of the many memories, he found one regarding her illegitimate birth to Lord Mi-Hwan of Ohai. He was surprised for a moment that she would give up information regarding her father so readily when he remembered Mirayoung was several centuries old. That piece of information mattered as little to her as the orbs of light hanging above them in the Dome.

The memory of the illegitimate birth was quickly consumed as Mirayoung replaced it with the memory of the hidden trip she and Lyvia took to the Icesia North, where they almost succumbed to an ambush by the Barbarians of the North. It was a trip to find Frost Jasmine, a mystical flower that bloomed in the coldest of the world; a flower once rumoured to be able to alter a single thread of fate. A half-truth buried in myths, of course.

Including Jerius in her thought process, Mirayoung had yet another idea. Shield me with your memories. She broke free from the mental trance as the wraith fed on his memories that guarded both their minds.

"Trust me!" Mirayoung shouted as she ran to Jerius, permeating him into the array, and pressed her lips down on his. Even in his trance, the younger mage realised and pulled back slightly then leaned forward to receive. The forceful kiss erupted with sorcery as he felt time dilating so much into infinity that the reality around them had frozen.

This is necessary to speak privately between us. Mirayoung thought. Listen very carefully. I'll guard both your and my minds with my memories. You focus on destroying it with Empyrean flame. Put your all into it. I know sealing it is for the better, but we'll both perish here if you do not seize this opportunity now.

Let's destroy it. Jerius thought back.

Shield me a little longer till I muster my memories in our defence.

When Mirayoung returned to her mind, she happened to see the memory Jerius used for the both of them. For a fraction of a second, she was drawn into it as she saw an eight-year-old Jerius lying face down in dirt, in a village off Valdi, where Lyvia once undertook a few missions for. He had long forgotten the village's name, but he still remembered this moment, which was replayed to the lady-magician.

Two older rugged men, who looked no more than twenty, came into sight. The first scratched his crooked nose, bent his knees and pulled Jerius by his shaggy, mud-soaked hair. His grip was firm, but it wasn't harsh.

"It ain't me to bully kids. Take the easy way, Jeri," said the man, his accent thick. "Please."

The other man bent his knees too and reached into the young Jerius's tattered garment, seemingly looking for something.

But Mirayoung, having full view of his memories, knew he was looking for the packet of arsenic and that he would find nothing.

"I threw it away," he looked up, tears running down his scrawny face. "I won't poison Sis Soph. She cared for us, you and me."

"Why waste time on this swine," the other man said. "Let's stab the priestess in the temple. We've no time to waste."

"It ain't that simple. The temple has supporters."

Then the memory faded away, consumed fully by the wraith. Jerius pulled another memory, which Mirayoung reacted with shock.

Jerius thought. Every shortcut comes with consequences. The Maker Ritual is no exception. My change to my appearance was my consequence. What you saw now was hers.

The memory of the past revealed Lyvia's bedchamber, perched at the top of a tower, by the end of the Common Market in Nox. Mistress and disciple were in bed, bare as the day they were born. The wanton act unravelled to Lyvia's disbelief, for physical intimacy within master-disciple relationships was frowned upon even by the long-lived and liberal magicians.

I do not want to forget how she was gone but I wish to be unshackled from this. Jerius thought, returning to reality just as the wraith began to bellow something incomprehensible and utterly sinister.

This is no fault of your own, young Jerius. Mirayoung simply thought, her own memories protectively cocooning around her consciousness. She returned her full attention to the wraith once more. This is for Ludger. Mirayoung said, remembering the friend as someone important to her.

Her form in her mind flickered like an aftershadow as she revealed she had etched off a small part of the enchantment that isolated her soul, permitting slight contact with the anti-spirit array. While certain that it would not scar her permanently, which would have ramifications from spell casting to lifespan, it would take a while for her to recover.

But this was what she would need to take to go on the offence. Mirayoung weaponised herself such that she could counter the wraith; she could hold onto its mental essence without losing her mind to it. She caught the manifestation of the wraith's mind in hers with prodigious effort, feeling the black, brooding shadow that was imprinted in her soul like a cankerous lesion.

It will take more than this to defeat me. The wraith's voice echoed in her mind. Wait...

I'm only holding you back from returning.

Its survival instinct flaring, the wraith pulled from her mind but her consciousness latched on, fencing it in with the anti-spirit properties that now flowed in it like a stormy undercurrent that hurt them both. It shrieked in her head, sending painful reverberations deep into her soul but Mirayoung held strong, against her own instincts that screamed at her to let go of the blighted existence.

But she knew she was giving Jerius a fighting chance.

Jerius stared down at the frozen wraith. It was a golden opportunity indeed, for a wraith would normally be too fast to be caught by the comparative slow-moving Empyrean flame. The air heated up as a white column of flame wrapped around Jerius's now-outstretched arms. The flame grew dense and bright with murderous energies.

The flame unique to the Lyvia's bloodline was one that could obliterate souls, making it an effective anti-spirit spell. But the need for lengthy incantation and just-in-time casting, which meant it could not be precast first, meant it was not especially efficient without support from other mages.

He let loose the white-hot flame, scorching everything in its path as it blazed towards the wraith with a deafening howl of judgment. In the last second just before the Empyrean flame crashed in, Mirayoung split her attention now that the wraith was attempting to flee rather than assail her, allowing her to dissolve the cage of ice and light. She spun her wrists and the daggers revolved around herself and Jerius.

The soul-searing flame smashed against the wraith's incorporeal body, cocooning it in waves of destruction. Its body, ravaged by the flame, turned twisted and diseased as the wraith's mind remained entangled within Mirayoung's.

You will submit to me.

Mirayoung heard the wraith's thought but she already anticipated it, revising an incantation that both re-established the isolation spell that guarded her soul from the sealing array, and expelling the array from her in a way that forced the wraith out of her mind. She would not let it anchor in hers, while its incorporeal body perished in the flame.

There was no need for their wills to wrestle for her mindspace. It was merely finding the right timing for her to dislodge the cancerous presence of the wraith. The wraith's mind returned to the sea of flame within which it found itself being engulfed.

Jerius felt a titanic struggle within the flame, but that only renewed his ferocity and effort. He channelled more arcane, not relenting till the wraith was incinerated. He imagined it was Aderis, the betrayer. He hated how destroying the wraith might very well be part of Aderis's plot, but he trusted that Zenvix would succeed where he failed. And he planned to head to the Strange Village next and take his head.

"Allow me." Holz sped in like a blur so much that Jerius thought he could match the wraith's speed. Mirayoung had enhanced her sight with magic, letting her track him. She cut off the arcane supply to the array, prompting the translucent sphere around them to fall away.

With a snap of both armoured hands, Holz placed four hexagrammic mirrors around the dying wraith. He chanted in the arcane language, which lit up the mirrors.

"Cease the flame, Jerius of Nox. I'll take over," Holz said. Thick, viscous black ink spilled out of the mirrors, just as the flame trailed off to reveal a barely-moving body with scarred flesh and smoked bones. Even the dark aura was but a faint wisp of smoke.

Mirayoung collapsed to the ground as she watched, feeling extreme fatigue as the first backlash. She bit her lips, knowing this was but the teaser to the real side effects of her reckless moves that some might coin as valorous while others audacious. Jerius went to her side, holding her up in her half-kneeled position so she would not fall further.

The black-ink magic fully shrouded the wraith, which still struggled against the sealing. Holz exerted an unknown force to arrest its movement that even the two other mages could sense. The heavily weakened wraith posed no threat to the strong archmagus in the Guild, who collected the four mirrors once again when the sealing was completed.

"Caqur finally reached you," Mirayoung said.

Holz replied after a short while. "Glad I reached in time."

"The Mirrors of Grimsan?" Mirayoung said, eyeing the four mirrors in Holz's hands. "I didn't think they could be used to seal a wraith...or to be used to seal anything."

"You're an amazing mage but I would like to think even you do not know everything under the sun," Holz said. "You did well, Mirayoung and Jerius. It's over."

Mirayoung slumped further, prodding herself up with both arms. Her consciousness was phasing between reality and the deep trenches within the depths of her mind.

"We need to bring her to the infirmary." She heard Jerius's voice reverberating further and further away into the distance.