As the door slammed shut behind Synthia, Iggy tried yanking it open again. It remained closed.

“That idiot!”

Livian turned to Rynne. “Anything you can do to get us back together again? How about your teleporting trick from before?”

The elf remained pensive. “I could try to locate her based off the mana signature she gives off, which is quite potent, but it will be exceedingly difficult. Inside this space, that mana overlaps with the memories that Rell has extracted from his victims. In essence, when I try to push my sensory perception outward, I am immediately met with white noise. If this were a dimension I created, I would have no trouble, but this place is foreign to me.”

Iggy began trying to bash the door open with her full weight. She drew back from it with a wince, rubbing her shoulder. “I saw some crazy battle happening on the other side of that door. We need to find her ASAP.”

“Best we can do is continue exploring then,” Evarius said. “If we can’t meet up, we can’t put our plan into full effect, so we need to work fast. Now that we’re separated, he’ll likely be going after her first.”

“But if he does, the resulting exchange in mana should help me locate them,” Rynne said. “For now, we have to wait. Although for how long, I cannot say.”

Walking down the front steps, Iggy stumbled as her foot slipped off it. Managing to catch her, Livian set her up straight again and told her to be less clumsy.

“I could’ve sworn there was an extra step,” Iggy said. She glanced at the small column of steps. Blinking, she tried to discern if what she was seeing was another illusion or not.

“That’s odd.”

“Huh?”

“That extra step. It’s gone.”

Looking to where Iggy was indicating, the others saw that there was, indeed, one less step.

“That’s odd,” Livian commented. Evarius drew his sword at the ready, eyes further down the street.

“No. That’s odd.”

Looking ahead, they saw that the row of houses were rapidly dissolving. A massive wave of erasure headed straight for them. Rynne automatically threw up a barrier around the group, and their surroundings vanished completely. They were surrounded by nothingness once more, standing on an isolated patch of ground that Rynne had managed to protect.

“What happens if we fall out?” Iggy asked.

“We fall into a new dimension and our means of escape become exceedingly more difficult,” Rynne said. “But this is odd. If he could simply trap us this way, which is quite effective, then why would he—"

Her voice caught in her throat as a rush of colours whirled around them like before. In the blink of an eye, they were standing in a field of ashes. White flakes fell to the ground like petals, the dead husks of trees littering the scene before them. Rynne seemed uncharacteristically rattled. While still somewhat subdued, she seemed to be going over rather unpleasant thoughts.

“Hey, elf girl.” Livian snapped her fingers to Rynne’s pointed ear, bringing hr out of her reverie. “You space out on us now, I kick your ass myself.”

“Liv,” Evarius said in exasperation, but Rynne bowed her head in apology.

“You are correct. I should not have lost myself.” She surveyed their surroundings with newfound focus, analyzing every inch of it she could.

“If I’m not mistaken, this is one of the forests of Dùbailte. A region of our homeland. A lot of it burned down, some fifteen years ago. I visited it in my younger years. Wasn’t able to properly appreciate it, fool I was, but seeing this devastation... It’s heart wrenching.”

“That is correct. This is Dùbailte,” Rynne said. She turned to face forward again, scrutinizing a shadow past all the falling ash. They were a small figure, standing all alone in the aftermath of this destruction.

“It’s been a long time,” she whispered. She let the barrier fall, reforming small bubbles around everybody’s heads to ward off inhaling the ash. They walked toward the small figure. “I think I understand what’s happening here.”

“Care to enlighten us, then?”

“These are more memories, as I’m sure you can guess. But not memories of any of the victims.” Rynne was drawing close to the small figure. As the others walked beside her, boots crunching on the dead undergrowth, they could see it was an elven child. Their ears poked out beneath their flaming red hair, matching Rynne’s own.

“Specifically, they are memories that stoke certain emotions in the one possessing them. Mental anchors of sorts. Remembering them provokes certain emotions.”

She reached out a hand for the child. “Did you know that there are six primary emotions? Revulsion, sadness, surprise, fear, happiness, and anger. Your most significant memories will be tied to one of those. And the more you go over a particular aspect, the less you will remember about others.”

The child walked away. Rynne’s hands grasped nothing but a few motes of ash. Disappearing into the dusty gloom of the burned forest, the child quickly vanished from sight.

CRSHK!

An unnerving noise filled the air. Something akin to the static on radios, and when the group blinked, they saw it was now nighttime. A crescent moon hung in the sky, and swirling masses of shadow had taken to prowling around them in a circle. Each took different forms, from a wolf, to a boar, and even a few shreddermoles. They were the warped forms of common animals, twisted from their natural origins into something explicitly wicked.

“Demons!” Evarius readied his electric lasso. “Between the dimension hopping and these different illusions he’s creating, just how powerful is this man!?”

“I don’t think these are illusions,” Rynne said. Focusing her mana, she created another tear to slip through. She moved through the whirl of colours before appearing on the other side of one of the demons, slashing at it’s neck with an arrow. It’s eight foot frame rippled as the magic imbued arrowhead sliced through it. As it collapsed to the ground in a spire of fleeing shadow, Rynne fired the arrow at another monster and hit it square between it’s glowing yellow eyes. Gurgling, it slumped forward and disappeared along with it’s comrade.

“These are real!?” Iggy fired up her wind magic, blasting away at one of that came running toward her. “This guy’s got demons under his command!? Seriously?”

“Not exactly,” Rynne shouted, reappearing behind another demon, punching cleanly through it. “This is the result of a stutter! They’re gaps in his power that allow things like this to creep through.”

“Things like this?” Iggy groaned as she blew a demon high into the air. “You mean there’s more where these came from?”

“These are but ghouls and shades, resting in the shadowy breaks between reality,” Rynne said as she dispatched with another creature as if swatting a fly. “We find a revenant or worse, then that makes joining up with Synthia again that much more difficult.”

“Then we’ve just gotta kick ass that much faster!” Livian shouted, a trail of ice shooting out from her palm touching the ground. She shook it off after. “Yeesh, that spell...”

CRSHK!

Suddenly, a whole section of the forest ahead was wiped away. “More stutters,” Rynne assessed. Iggy flew over to her.

“Uh, what do we do?”

“Huddle close unless you wish to be lost for what seems like a lifetime.”

Once everybody got together, Rynne formed the barrier again. The demons bounced off it, jaws trying to break through. The next moment, the ‘stutter’, as Rynne called it, washed over their group. A rush of colours followed once again, and the group found themselves in the middle of a paved street.

Looking up, Iggy saw a towering mass of impossibly tall buildings everywhere she turned. Further ahead, there was one structure that stood taller than the rest. A grand fortress of steel and high towers, it appeared to press down on the city below past the high walls surrounding it. A symbol of power meant both to inspire awe and deter dissidents. It’s grandeur was practically offensive.

“What...?” Iggy saw vehicles lined up on the street that she had never seen before, shaped somewhat similarly to the ones she was familiar with but not quite the same. More advanced models. Different shops and signs lined the sidewalks, but there were no people around. Just like the areas from before, it was as if upon stepping through whatever rift had landed them here, the occupants had suddenly stepped through a different one and left.

“It seems the demons are gone for now,” Evarius said. “We need a better explanation though. What exactly is happening here?”

Rynne didn’t answer. She was looking around with an exceptionally critical eye.

“He’s talking to you, girly,” Livian prodded.

Eyes lighting up, Rynne focused on something further ahead. Following her gaze once more, they saw the same redheaded child from the burned forest staring up at the fortress.

“What do you know of the world beyond Edretica?” Rynne asked as she walked forward. The others trailed after her.

“A little bit,” Iggy answered.

“There are supposed to be countries so advanced with zeit technology, it’s like they’re living fifty or so years in the future,” Evarius said. “I haven’t explored enough to verify for myself. So you’re saying that this city--?”

“Belongs to one of those nations,” Rynne replied. “It is called Grail, and it is the capital of Yucrest.”

“Yucrest,” Iggy repeated. “That’s where Dexogon has it’s headquarters. Is that building it up there?”

Nodding, Rynne affirmed her statement. “It doubles as the royal palace. Yucrest’s system of governance is remarkably maligned, even compared to other empires. Are you beginning to understand the gravity of my task? The means by which it must be undertaken.”

“But what does that have to do with you specifically?” Livian kept her eyes focused on the child the entire time. “There’s another half to this story you’re not telling us. Don’t bother lying.”

The child stopped once again. Rynne walked toward them. “Like I said. These memories are tied to strong emotions. These are emotions that Rell is still experiencing even when he is not entirely aware of it. I recognize what emotion this memory is tied to because I felt it myself.”

Before their eyes, the child grew to the size of a man. Where his shoulders were once soft and delicate, they were now broad and defined. He stood a foot over Rynne, but still she adopted to hug him close. If he noticed her, then he chose not to react. He remained deathly still.

“You may be wondering why I seem so emotionless. So cold. I can tell you it is not by discipline on my part. I willingly gave them up to another.”

“You gave them up?” Evarius asked. “That’s dabbling into a very dangerous branch of magic.”

The man vanished out of Rynne’s arm, fading away until she was clutching air. She looked at the arms that had held him with a strange, unfeeling curiosity. “You were wondering why Rell was so powerful. I’ve had theories myself these past few years as I’ve pursued him, but I think I’ve discerned an answer.”

“I thought you were pursuing the Mioja,” Livian cut in sharply. Rynne nodded.

“You are correct, but my tasks are not just that. And not so simple, unfortunately. As I’ve tried to track him down, I’ve realized that Rell’s powers are not entirely his own. They are merely an echo of ones even more vast and mighty. This is why the stutters occur and we explore his own memories. He can only focus on controlling so much of this illusionary space at a time.”

“What did you say?”

“Rell’s abilities are an oddity born from a magical accident,” Rynne said. “A reflection of a terrible man with no soul. One of those rulers from the sea I mentioned. His name is Yahvow the Immortal. Even if I restore my people’s independence, he stands as a graver threat than any of you can possibly imagine.”

Livian blinked as she took in this information. “I’m sorry, what? And who is he?”

“The shadow ruler of Yucrest and it’s empire.”

CRSHK!

Another stutter occurred, depositing more demons. Everybody grew ready to fight them.

“I feel like we’ve kicked a hornet’s nest and a half here, but we can wait for that later,” Livian said. “Because between this Rell dude, Drea supposedly knowing him and shadow emperor dude, I don’t know what to think.”

“Does it matter?” Iggy said. “What matters here and now is kicking ass and reaching Synthia, yeah?”

Growing a little surprised, Livian grinned. “Yeah. Exactly. That’s something I know plenty about already.”

“Very well then,” Rynne said. “Let’s go!”