The realm of the item was a closed system, as was expected. Polished steel corridors continued forward into darkness. That meant that no one had cleared even a single level of the sword. According to the initial rectangle, the item had seven levels—a bit more that Dallion was used to, though not by far. In that aspect, it was a huge relief that the item was a sphere item—having to fight special metal guardians was more than Dallion could handle, even with his current gear.

Light, Lux, Dallion thought.

The firebird poofed in, increasing in size to the point that all of Dallion’s surroundings were clearly visible. The area starting was flawless. Even with his forging skills, Dallion couldn’t find a single crack or flaw.

“Not bad.” Gleam appeared. The shardfly reflected a lot of Lux’s light, making it seem her wings glowed blue. “Flawless and reflective. It’ll do fine.”

“You know that I still have to win this before it becomes yours,” Dallion said. Not to mention that he had to win several arena fights.

“Shouldn’t be a problem for you,” the familiar said dismissively as it landed on the wall. “I like this place. Lots of open space and air. It’s almost like being out there.”

“Open space?” Dallion asked. “You sure we’re looking at the same thing?”

“There’s lots of air,” Gleam sounded amused. “You just can’t see it yet. That’s the problem with you—your perception is really low.”

Eury would like her, Dallion thought. For a moment, he almost considered giving the weapon to her as a gift. There was no doubt the gorgon could use the weapon, but that was going to create all sorts of complications; mostly he wasn’t sure how Eury would feel about the idea of her spying on her all the time. With a familiar linked to the item, Gleam would be aware of everything that happened in the weapon’s surroundings. That raised an interesting question—before Dallion had obtained the armadil shield, had the general been able to spy on him as well? The weasel claimed not to be an awakened, but it wouldn’t be the first thing he had lied about.

“Well then, let’s find out.” Dallion summoned his armadil shield and walked down the corridor.

After less than a minute, Dallion found what the shardfly had known all along—a vast open space with a bridge of gold passing through.

You don’t see that every day, Nil said.

They don’t make them as they used to? Dallion asked. It would be a lie to say that he wasn’t impressed.

That would be difficult to say, dear boy, considering I have personally seen only one other weapon of this nature. Of course, that’s not my area of expertise.

“What’s out there?” Dallion asked, looking at the darkness beyond the bridge.

“Space,” the shardfly replied.

Nil?

It depends on what you link the artifact to, dear boy. At the moment, there’s nothing out there. Not even light.

The realization made Dallion’s head spin. As a child, he had wondered what it would be like to stare at infinity. At the moment, he was doing just that and still his mind rejected it. The closest link he could make was with the International Space Station—a series of interconnected chambers floating through the endlessness of space. Of course, there were no stars here, not to mention that the ISS didn’t have golden bridges connecting the various modules.

“Stay close,” Dallion said. “Both of you. I don’t want anything to happen.”

So far, Dallion hadn’t spotted any blocker creatures within the realm. That in itself was peculiar, though not outright strange. Even so, Dallion didn’t want to risk it.

Walking across the bridge was a surreal experience. With the level uncleared, the tunnel he had come from soon disappeared. Dallion ended up walking on a stretch of bridge connecting nothing to nothing. It was when he reached the other side, after a few minutes, that he let out a sigh of relief.

“Gleam, can you sense any guardians?” Dallion asked in the doorway of the new section.

“You’re at the first one,” the shardfly replied. “It’s a blade spider, if you’re curious.”

At first glance, that was good. Blade spiders were relatively easy to deal with as far as guardians were concerned. In fact, one of the very first guardians Dallion had faced was an ivory blade spider. Back then, his mother had given him her hairpin so that he could gain valuable experience as an awakened. It seemed like an eternity ago—Dallion had barely become a level one, and his mother had all her power sealed. However, facing such a guardian here seemed far too easy.

“Are you sure?” Dallion asked.

“It’s obvious,” Gleam replied, almost in scorn. “Walk in and you’ll see.”

“Anything special about it?” Dallion summoned his harpsisword.

“I can only tell you what it is, not what it does…”

“In that case, time to find out. Nox, be ready to pop out.”

The second section of the blade whip was virtually the same as the first—straight walls, sharp angles, and a floor that was as polished as a fine mirror. Suspiciously, there was no sign of the guardian.

“Feel free to warn me if the guardian attacks,” Dallion said.

The shardfly fluttered about ignoring him. At one point she stopped, flapping on the same spot five feet in the air.

“Anything?” Dallion asked. Similar to before, there was no response. This time, though, there was more to it; the familiar appeared to have been frozen in a loop of reality. The emotions she had were blank, the flapping pattern was identical following a two second loop, not to mention she wasn’t able to register or respond to anything.

Music! Dallion thought, focusing on the room itself. Soon enough, he spotted the issue. Barely visible threads crisscrossed the room.

COMBAT INITIATED

Immediately Dallion split into instances. It was a good thing too, for before the defence markers could even appear, the blade spider leapt from the walls, piercing two of his instances full of holes. At no time did Dallion see the moment at which the guardian emerged. Its camouflage was perfect to the degree that it was a seamless part of the perfectly smooth wall. Only when it attacked did its true shape emerge.

Six hits in rapid succession proved enough to deplete the health of Dallion’s instances. Even the ones that got away suffered a few hits, reducing their health to three quarters.

Shield, Nox! Dallion thought.

The crackling appeared, leaping directly onto the guardian while the armadil shield extended, providing as much cover as it could. Nox’s claws, otherwise merciless, this time failed even to scar the surface of the spider, sliding off it as if it were made of oil.

Indestructible, Nil said.

“I noticed,” Dallion hissed, playing a chord. Fighting an indestructible enemy was a first. To make it worse, the guardian’s speed was considerable. “Lux, wings!”

The firebird merged with Dallion, lifting him into the air. Sadly, that did little to affect the blade spider’s capabilities. Leaping along the invisible threads, the guardian attacked once again.

Nox, cut the threads! Dallion thought as he played a chord of weight directed at the guardian. A seven-instance split was necessary for Dallion to evade another serious attack. Finishing a few more cords, he managed to establish a link. The effect of the melody took hold, pulling the spider down. At first, little happened.

Slightly confused by the sudden weight of its body, the guardian paused. Nox took advantage to leap and claw the thread that held Gleam in a time loop.

A loud snap filled the air, more like a stick breaking than a thread being cut. Finding herself free, the shardfly flashed through the air, far faster than Dallion had ever seen her go. All his perception was needed for him to observe as she flew through several dozen threads, slicing each one as she passed. The trap she had been caught in had infuriated her quite a bit—Dallion was able to see the anger glowing bright throughout her entire body.

It took less than a blink of the eye for all the threads keeping the spider aloft to be sliced. The guardian, still experiencing the effects of the weight melody, fell down to the ground.

MINOR CRASH!

Damage dealt is increased by 10%

SHOCKED!

The BLADE SPIDER will be unable to move for 5 seconds.

Finally, a red rectangle appeared. As Dallion suspected, invulnerability wasn’t the same as immortality. Music clearly was able to affect the creature, just as gravity was.

Lux, put me down and smash it in the ceiling!

With a chirp the firebird flew down. After it released Dallion, a few feet from the ground, it attached to the stunned guardian, then thrust up.

MEDIUM CRASH!

Damage dealt is increased by 50%

SHOCKED!

The BLADE SPIDER will be unable to move for 5 seconds.

Now down, Dallion thought.

A split second later, a loud bashing sound filled the air, making the entire space tremble. The firebird had smashed the blade spider into the ground, and already was on its way up towards the ceiling once more.

Red rectangle after red rectangle appeared, increasing in severity with each smash.

Gleam, Nox, keep cutting the threads! Dallion didn’t want to leave anything to chance. He even continued playing the harpsisword to further increase the guardian’s weight. Mere moments later, the first blue rectangle since the fight emerged.

WHIP BLADE Level 1 has been cleared!

Continue to fulfill the WHIP BLADE’s destiny.

The guardian evaporated in a cloud of pixelated dust, leaving a very confused Lux flying towards the floor. Along with the guardian, all threads were gone as well. The best part, though, was that the level one part of the realm finally lit up.

“You can stop now,” Dallion said, unsummoning the harpsisword. “You won.”

The firebird zoomed to Dallion’s shoulder, followed closely by Nox, who landed at his owner’s feet. Both weren’t terribly pleased with the way the battle had gone, even if they had ended up winning. Several seconds later, the shardfly arrived as well. Unlike the rest, she didn’t aim to impress anyone, fluttering casually to Dallion.

“I’ll need some healing, Lux,” Dallion said.

“That was unexpected,” Gleam said.

“That it was invincible?”

“That it was able to freeze me,” the shardfly said with a note of annoyance. “It shouldn’t be able to do that.”

“Well, if it was too easy it wouldn’t have been challenging,” Dallion said, only later realizing how stupid he sounded. Thankfully, no one pointed it out.

Nil, any idea what happened there? I thought guardians weren’t capable of magic.

Guardians and creatures in the wild are very capable of magic, Nil said in the tone of a professor who had caught his favorite pupil cheating off someone else’s exam.

Even a blade spider?

Well… strictly speaking, a blade spider isn’t capable of magic, but moon gold has rather particular qualities. I’m now aware of that particular ability, but—

Does that mean that the whip blade can do the same? Dallion interrupted.

The echo didn’t reply straight away. There was a long moment of silence. Three rectangles gradually appeared, informing Dallion that lux had restored fifteen percent of his health.

It’s possible, the old echo said. It’s uncertain whether you’ll be able to use that, though. Magic items have a lot of prerequisites. Most often, the wielder also needs to have a magic attribute in order to do anything. That’s not certain, though. Maybe you’ll get lucky.

Sure, Dallion replied. While he would love to have a magic weapon, lately he had been getting too lucky, and as everyone born on Earth, that made him slightly nervous.

“One down, six to go,” Dallion said loudly. “You guys think you can follow the same strategy with the next ones?”

“I believe I can,” Gleam said. “You’ll have to spot the threads. I can’t see them.”

“You can’t see magic?” Dallion asked.

“I can’t see this magic. Not until you do. Use those fancy skills of yours and everything will be fine.”