Do not trust Holz. That statement from Master Arish echoed in Mirayoung's head, reverberating with the loudness of a heavy swaying pendulum. Her eyes fixed on Holz as Mirayoung took a few subtle steps backward to keep a distance from Holz.

Everything about him dripped with suspicion. Was he with Aderis, and if so, why? Did he deliberately come only after the wrath was overcome? Why did he use the Mirrors of Grimsan, which she remembered from her personal reading that they were not used for sealing but for housing of spirits that had previously left their spirit marks within?

The fact he did not bother to hide the use of the Mirrors of Grimsan, knowing the enormous knowledge that Mirayoung held, did not bode well. A cold dread ran down her spine as she felt fear that eluded her even during the fight with the Mind Wraith. Her instinct screamed for her to find an escape route. She was in no position to fight him if Arish's words rang true.

Her arcane reserve had dwindled significantly, with heavy shadows clouding her mind as one of the consequences. This impeded her thinking, and for the first in a long time, Mirayoung did not know what to do except to step away from the lightly dressed archmagus with heraldry sigils tattooed on his body.

She was ready to speak with a concocted narrative in her head, hoping that would let her and Jerius slip out of Holz's discerning eyes, but a thought struck her mind. It was common knowledge that the Mirrors of Grimsan were an artifact housed in the Cabal Hall, and Holz said it was loaned to him by them.

Does that mean the Cabal was involved? Were they the masterminds? Was that why Arish came to her? He was an individual in the hive-mind of five archmagi who dissented to the plan. Perhaps more truths were hidden in the Helixseal, which she could only, with some luck and a lot of hard work, divulge after a journey to Arish's old home in the Strange Village.

Then she gasped like her throat was choking on something. She felt thick, stifling chains around her mind, locking away her ability to convey a word or a series of words that would associate the Cabal with the malicious plot of the Ritual of Keys, to anyone. It was the Thrall Arish spoke about, the ancient-contract spell that bound her because she had rightly deduced the truth. She resisted it with every fibre of her being, but the contract simply bound tighter, denying her till she surrendered.

As the herculean struggle raged in her head, confounded by her realisation, Mirayoung's and Holz's gazes met.

"You found out," Holz said, observing her facial expression and discerning the nuances that crossed over it in the last few moments. "You're too clever, Mirayoung."

There were traces of admiration intermixed with...perhaps, sadness in his voice. Mirayoung could not fully tell. From the corner of her eyes, Jerius began to shift a little, his wariness peaking at the peculiarity of the situation.

"...has calculated everything very finely, haven't they?" Mirayoung said. "In their eyes, the Guild was never in danger from the wraiths. It was a controlled release to feed and hunt. When the time is right, you will swoon in with the Mirrors of Grimsan to recapture them back to where they are first housed and cultivated. Then you will kill me?"

Jerius lightly gasped but had no apparent show of fear. Mirayoung recognised his mind was assembling the puzzles, drawing conclusions in the right direction. He might not correctly identify the roots of the infestation deep down to the core of the Guild but enough to align with her on an escape plan.

She intentionally left Jerius out of her conversations with Holz to diminish his presence, hoping it could facilitate an exit for Lyvia's disciple. She could keep the Master of War's attention on her so long as she did not reveal any weakness or how tremendously weak she was now after the battle with the Mind Wraith, and the Void. But she knew deep down in her heart how much she could hide from Holz's war-honed senses and keen intuition.

"Archmagi are far and few between. Even they find it a pity to kill you and do not seek such an outcome," Holz said. "More than that, you're a friend, Mirayoung. I do not wish to see you die. I opposed them when they were contemplating such an option. There was a better alternative."

"What about Ludger? He was an archmagus," Mirayoung said. "It is notoriously difficult for a purist Tallis mage to become an archmagus. Why did the Cabal kill a rare talent like him? Don't they prioritise talent over all else?"

They could reveal the identity of the masterminds to each other, not because the Thrall no longer bound them but because those who were in earshot, had guessed the identity. This meant Jerius too, was bound by the Thrall, having drawn the right connections.

"And they deemed it a necessary sacrifice. Besides Fermand, he was single-handedly the most spiritually dense individual in the Guild," Holz said. "Without his sacrifice, they would have to kill many more to achieve much of the same. Too many that it would destabilise the Guild."

"A necessary sacrifice? Touch your heart and tell me you are alright with it, Holz," Mirayoung said.

"I opposed that too," Holz said. "You're not a criminal to be abused and interrogated. Imprisonment is unneeded torture."

Dread coiled within her like a slithering python. He did not refute the second statement she made. But what could she do in this situation? She was stalling for time, knowing that while his allegiance was now bare for all to see, he did not enjoy any moment of it. She considered whether he was forced into servitude but dismissed that. This was Holz the Warper, the unconquerable Master of War. He was both brawn and brain, too strong to be subdued and too smart to be outwitted. If she considered it, the only rational explanation was a common goal or a promise of something deemed too valuable to him

There was the faintest hint of a warrior's bloodlust, a beckoning of a frightening assault that was soon to come. Mirayoung felt it.

So did Jerius.

He reached for the simplest of spells, quick yet with enough force to constrain even a phenomenally strong human. He whispered the spell, and the air from Holz's waist down tightened like a restraining cloak, stifling his movement. Then Jerius called out another incantation, but midcharge, Holz had descended on him. In the blink of an eye, the archmagus appeared on his left as if he had teleported. But Jerius caught no such trace of the spell.

Mirayoung attempted a wind spell to separate Jerius from Holz. She did not even think about attacking him, knowing the futility of it. She only hoped to increase the distance between them.

Holz held on to Jerius, using his sheer strength to overcome the pelting wind that sought to divide them. Flowing with the wind, Jerius pirouetted, drawing from his experience in sparring with Zenvix and Sir Dylas, but Holz easily anticipated the move. The warrior-mage caught Jerius by his neck and lifted him off the ground, choking off an incantation he planned to cast.

His legs fluttered above the ground as he struggled to come loose. He could not speak but his eyes flared with a fiery white as white-as-snow flame began to wrap around his arms before engulfing Holz's. His previous incantation to summon the Empyrean flame to the abrupt cessation led to a remnant of that boiling, albeit harmlessly, within him that he was slowly attempting to dissipate. He took advantage of that, reconsolidating it wordlessly to strike. It was weaker than a full-blown Empyrean assault, but enough to burn a normal man and his soul alive.

But Holz was no normal man, unfazed by the flame. He did not move, his fingers around Jerius's neck like those of a snake handler around a python's. The Empyrean flame scorched over Holz's left shoulder, neck and face.

But Holz merely observed with slight curiosity as the flame danced over his tattooed skin. The sigils pulsed with mystic energy, defending him.

Wide-eyed, Jerius exerted hard to speak. "Y-you..."

"These are not all heraldry sigils," Holz explained. "Some are anti-magic sigils."

Insane. Jerius managed a thought. No mages would engrave anti-magic sigils on their bare skins as those would prick them and continuously sap their arcane reserve, even if they protected them from spells.

The air became pine scented, of which Holz caught a whiff, anticipating Mirayoung's next spell. Holz effortlessly threw Jerius to the ground, knocking the wind out of him. His body twitched as he wriggled on the soil, with short, ragged breaths. He attempted to speak but managed only a gurgle.

Quicker than the Mind Wraith, he reached where Mirayoung was, pushing her down onto a long marble seat with one hand coiled around her neck. He started the incantation in the arcane language. Mirayoung understood enough of the syllables and enunciations to know the spell he weaved was non-lethal but exceedingly dangerous.

She struggled, opposing it with the remnants of her arcane might. Physically, she clawed at him, growing desperate.

Lances formed from raw arcane shot from the ground, interrupting Holz. He dodged backward then skipped to the right to avoid the growing attack, while his hand remained around Mirayoung's neck, and his mouth never stopped intoning, putting one terrifying word of power over another.

With his freed hand, he sent a knife chop through the arcane lances that would have seared any other mage's flesh and bone on contact. This broke all six lances. Swiftly, he grabbed a falling one from midair and launched it at Jerius, spearing him at his shoulder. His expression turned tortured as a hot bolt of pain seared through him.

The arcane lance that stabbed Jerius had a trailing thread that Holz had appended when he grabbed it the first time round. Through it, he directed his immense mystic energy, causing the lance to first lengthen then distort into coils that snaked around Jerius's body, holding him in place.

Jerius screamed from the searing pain on contact.

"Manipulating raw arcane is a smart trick. Just good control to make an effective weapon. No incantation. No complexity," Holz said. "Lyvia taught you well, but not enough. In any battle, always know the strength difference between you and your opponent. Never overreach. Has Mirayoung not warned you that I'm the strongest archmagus in the entire history of the Guild?"

"L-let h-him...g-o," Mirayoung said, between her suffocations.

"Stay still, Mirayoung. I can tell you're in no condition to fight." Holz took another lance from the ground before Jerius could disperse them, and imbued his own energy within. He launched it in the air, stabbing through Jerius's right calf with it.

Jerius screamed again but a part of his mind resisted the pain, dispersing the lances to prevent Holz from using another. Instead, Holz wordlessly conjured his own lance, launched it with a flick of his shoulder that speared Jerius's left calf.

Jerius screamed again, but this time he bit down to forcibly stop it. This blatant display of weakness was humiliating to him. His lips bled from the sudden clenching of his jaws as he hid the shame and impotent fury.

"They cauterise well. You won't bleed to death," Holz made a passing remark. "I had also struck your main arcane vessels, arresting the flow. Can't have you interrupting me with another spell."

Jerius wanted to shout at him to stop but it died halfway in his strained throat as he collapsed onto his knees, in a fitful cough. In the blur of agony, Jerius forced himself to look up again to match Holz's passing gaze. He saw within him a great torrent of energy and power, might and vigor that culminated into what seemed like an insurmountable mountain, or an immense force of nature.

Holz returned to Mirayoung, who blasted him with surprisingly potent energy that caused all the sigils on his body to flare. She knew he felt it and took damage. But even then, he resumed the original incantation, forcing Mirayoung into the defensive as she guarded her mind from the encroaching nature of the spell.

Did my attempt amount to no more than a roadside pebble blocking a heavy wagon? No, that cannot be. With all his will, Jerius muttered a spell that sent a soothing sensation through his body, numbing the pain signals that bombarded his brain. Regaining a modicum of control, Jerius shouted defiantly. "Let her go."

Mirayoung could not fully describe the feeling. She felt a living darkness eating away at her mind, going from chamber to chamber to lock up memories. In some ways, it was similar to the now-forgotten memories she fetched to block the wraith's advancement. Yet in other ways, it was different. The memories were not gone, just blocked from her consciousness. Even her identity was slowly eroded as the untethered shadows gathered speed.

Mirayoung's long but ultimately futile tussle with Holz allowed her close enough proximity to sense that Holz was not casting the spell alone. No, this spell was done with the full might of the Cabal Source, which had activated the regional sigils and symbols of unspoken power in the Dome. They had been hidden well, too well and by the configurations that were now blatantly obvious to her, Mirayoung realised why Caqur secretly modified his array design.

All the configurations were meant to link together. They were to be used as much against her as they were against the wraith. Holz's suggestion of the Dome was intentional, for an array targeted at her had long been set up and the trap she was setting up for the wraith was in truth, a trap for herself.

A thin smile went over her lips as a lone tear fell from the corner of her eyes. She forgot how it was like to be scared, to feel so very alone, and to face the inevitability and consequence of such a defeat. The infestation had run deep within the Guild, pulling in people like Holz and Caqur. Earlier, the Sen Guard came to the Dome, revealing the shocked news that Liralla left the Administrator's Hall on her own volition and was ambushed by the wraith; the Gatekeeper's soul facilitated its evolution. But the truth was, Liralla had never been safe, guarded by the very man whose shadowy allegiance was with the masterminds who cultivated the wraith and oversaw the plan to initiate the Ritual of Keys.

All the while, she heard the distant shouts and cries from Jerius that grew increasingly anguished. She heard him call Holz a barbarous man. She heard profanities. She heard the voice of a desperate man looking to fight with all his heart, but whose strength sorely lacked before the Master of War.

For her pride as an archmagus, she was utterly crushed. As she looked at Holz's eyes, which betrayed nothing, her face morphed into a look of defeat and hopelessness.

Holz finished the incantation, staring at her as a cascading surge of energy coursed through her towards a foregone conclusion. He then said, "You will forget but you will live, Mirayoung."

This is how it ends for me. She felt her mind vanishing, as a rush of mixed emotions flooded her senses. That rush was the only thing that she remembered as her memories withered away.

⧪⧪⧪

"Will you listen to me, Jerius of Nox?" Holz said, holding the unconscious Mirayoung over her shoulder.

The deed was done, whatever that was.

He continued, "Agree to what I say and I will free and heal you. The other option is imprisonment. While I convince them not to lock Mirayoung in a cell to rot away, they have no qualms doing that to you."

"I will agree," Jerius could not help but say. His voice still trembled a little from the strain and rage.

Holz did as promised, dispelling the lances with a wave of his hand. And with another wave, the lacerated muscles, bones and nerves on Jerius's wounds started reforming. Quickly, what was left of the wounds were slight dark marks. Jerius stood up, but he still looked up to the tall, sinewy warrior-mage that towered over him. "I do not understand you at all. What do you seek?"

Holz said, "I seek the success of the Ritual of Keys to fulfil a promise on the far side of the world, aligning with Cabal's plan. But I do not agree with what the Cabal did, and I do not trust that they will not harm Mirayoung."

Calming down, Jerius said, "What have you inflicted on her?"

"What I have taken from her instead," Holz said, his bitter voice signifying that he hated this as much as Jerius. "That is a retrograde spell that has locked away much of her memories and power. It is what I agree to inflict on Mirayoung. What remains is a harmless her from centuries ago, a young spellweaver or even an apprentice of the academy. I don't truly know how far the spell goes. It is necessary because otherwise she will go to no end to oppose the ritual, and with her prowess and wits, she just might succeed."

Jerius's chest turned cold. "She will never forgive you."

"The wraith was a trap for her just as she set the trap in the Dome for it, allowing me to strike when she was most severely weakened. It is a warrior's shame.. So I don't expect her to forgive me. Nor will I forgive myself, no matter how necessary I see it."

"All for a promise?" Jerius looked at Holz, still wary but he did better hiding his impotent fury.

Nodding his head, Holz continued. "Take her with you and leave the Guild. I doubt the Cabal will abide by contractless words to leave her alone. And while I am complicit with the strategy to date to actualise the Ritual of Keys, I disagree on any more harm falling on those who do not deserve it. Go out there and seek your own fate. Do not come back again."

"How do I reverse the Retrograde spell?" Jerius said.

"I do not know a way, but it does not mean such a way is absent in this world," Holz said, hanging over the limp body of Mirayoung. "The Ritual of Keys will have been completed by then, but I hope you find it."

Jerius received Mirayoung, slinging her over his shoulders.

Mirayoung was light in weight, and without her power and centuries of memories as a powerful mage, she suddenly felt like an ordinary maiden to Jerius.

"Mirayoung is highly gifted. Given time, she'll regain her glory as an archmagus once more," Holz said.

"You would help Aderis and those who manipulated him to activate the Ritual of Keys and plunge this world into chaos?" Jerius said.

Measuring his next response, Holz said, "For a promise I made, yes. And whether the world will be in chaos after that, I do not know. I will face it when it comes."

"You're a foolish man."

"Do you seek to fight me?"

"No, I cannot win against you," Jerius said. But by letting me go, you hurt the plan you seek to succeed because I will not stop here. He arrested the rest of the words, letting them flow in his mind instead, because he did not seek to provoke Holz. He did not know if he would reverse his decision to let them go.

"The hands of men toil but the winds of fate decide. Do what you must," Holz said, seemingly able to read his mind. Then he raised a hand and channelled the Cabal Source. "This spell will eject you from the Guild. From there, chart your own path."

A spherical light sizzled around Jerius, rousing with power with every passing second.