Kaden and Nosran moved with great speed, ignoring any stealth. It was no longer problem to Kaden. His healing process was nearly complete. One could say he only had minor wounds left and probably could be ignored as long as he didn't try to push his luck with something.

Nosran's zombies and constructs were too slow, but some incorporeal wraiths flickered behind and around them. Nosran was ready for a fight.

Kaden was also prepared, but he would refrain from attacking, if it wasn't absolutely neccessary.

The distance wasn't that long, if they were going at their highest speed. Still, Kaden was feeling something was already strange even before they reached their destination, but he couldn't really place it.

That is to say in addition to the messed up mana as far as Kaden could sense. Whatever Sacronan had done, it was probably sensed far away. Saints were probably coming too eventually.

"The elves are going to act. They know this too", Kaden thought. "Hmmm... do what? What was it." At that moment Kaden realized something was indeed wrong. He had difficulties remembering things that he should have. "A remnant? Thats what Emina and I found to be here. That was it, but I barely have any memory of the actual remnant. I remember scouting the area and small amount of Sacronan's forces around it. There didn't apear to be anything visible."

With some logic and basing his reasoning on other known facts. As such he could remember there was a remnant, but not much else.

"Nosran", Kaden said with concerned voice. "Something is wrong. I have difficulties remembering anything about the remnant and what that small group of Sacronan's people were doing there."

"What? A remnant?" Nosran questioned Kaden.

With slight shock Kaden turned to look at Nosran.

"It seems we are both affected", Kaden pointed out and decided to tell Nosran whatever he knew.

Nosran didn't seem to remember anything else but the soldiers.

"Unusual", Nosran replied. "We will see soon. We are nearly there."

Indeed, after a while Kaden and Nosran reached a hill near the remnant with open visibility.

The entire place was a mess.

Kaden watched as the area was in full chaos as mana creatures were attacking Sacronan's people. The air was suffused with mana. Small motes of simple lights that were in fact minor mana creatures floated about. Sometimes they combined into larger ones that then went forth to collect more mana. That is to say they attacked Sacronan's soldiers since they had higher amount of mana than most things in the surroundings. The soldiers were barely in control of the situation.

"There are too many of them for us to rush in and kill everyone", Kaden said to Nosran. "Nor do I want to deal with the mana creatures. I'd rather wait until mana settles down and no more of them simply pop into existence."

Nosran said nothing as he looked around.

"You were right", Nosran said then. "There are too few people and corpses in total. Too many tents and too many supplies for such small group of people. Also... something is just past my senses. Something is there, but my sight seems to just pass over it as if there is nothing."

Kaden noted Nosran's remarks. There were indeed far too many things around. Sacronan basically had set up for a far larger group, but what he saw and remembered was a small group. There was also another concern. What had caused everything?

With quick look Kaden was only able to see the fight, but just like Nosran said, he felt he was missing something. He observed for a moment and then he noticed it. Kaden then started to stare at the place and suddenly he was able to see... something.

It escaped his senses and thoughts. There was no describing it. No color. No shape. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Even if you looked at it, there was no shape, size or any atribute you could say. In fact, Kaden was starting to have headache from simply trying to look.

"There", Kaden pointed. "Look at the edges of the middle area carefully. See the line. You will then start to see it."

Nosran did as suggested and then after a moment he frowned.

"I cannot say what that is", Nosran said. "I assume this is the remnant you spoke of, but I have never seen or heard of something like this. Its like... there is nothing in there. Absence of anything."

Indeed, Nosran was pretty good at making quick observations. His words of absence of anything was perfect fit what Kaden was seeing. There was nothing in there. Absolutely nothing. It seemed even nothingness did not exists.

"Something broke concepts in that area", Nosran continued. "Mana is gone. Pushed out. Unwound. Broken. Along with it, all concepts are gone. That place simply does not exists. At least not right now. In time concepts will flow back, but until then nothing will exist there. Anything inside has likely been erased. Which is why we forgot about it all. The remnant never existed. Its gone from the moment, but its erasure or anything else does not remove the past. Sacronan likely had large group here, but many of them were consumed as this... void burst out. Those soldiers never existed, but whatever they did before their erasure is not gone."

Their things, tents, supplies brought for them. Its all still left since it wasn't next to the remnant. The soldiers just are gone.

"Then why did I remember the remnant existed. With difficulty, but I was able", Kaden though to himself. "If it didn't exist to begin with, I and Emina would never have been led here. Did the elves know? Emina and I spoke about the remnant. The remnant was hidden and probably no one had found it before. The elves would have at best had vague idea of it, but would that be enough?"

Kaden considered for a moment.

"Or... does part of what is inside still remain? Perhaps not everything was erased and thus still exists and I was able to find out about it?"

The more Kaden thought about it, the more certain he felt. Whatever he wanted still existed. He was able to remember the memories. He still remembered how he came to know about the remnant. Was there still some way to enter? Some way for the information escape from within the void?

Kaden smiled.

"I will go have a closer look", Kaden told Nosran. "Perhaps I can collect large amount of mana from those mana creatures."

"Thats a lie", Nosran muttered casually.

"There are benefits to be gained", Kaden pointed out. "I would guess you too may be able to find something. It is merely respect that I don't drag you to my personal matters."

Nosran said nothing, but kept watching everything unfold. Kaden assumed Nosran would at least get a lot of bodies. He could wait and watch and snatch a few people away with his wraiths or perhaps he was merely watching an event occur that was in all likelyhood extremely rare. Nosran was a reasearcher after all.

Kaden left Nosran behind and decided to circle around the area while avoiding all the chaos within. He wanted to see, if there was some way to enter that was merely difficult to see. Considering the void, it wouldn't be surprising, if some way in existed and no one had noticed it.

He was well aware his assumptions were based on his and Nosran's rough idea on what had happened and what kind of effects it caused. At any rate, Kaden felt there was very little to lose by checking, if it was the case.

There were some problems, though. Whatever Sacronan had done, the remnant had basically burst open. How and why the empty void came to exist, if it technically existed at all, was not something Kaden was really interested in. It was just that the explosion had cracked open the earth around it. A lot of mana creatures were appearing from the cracks.

The remnant had probably been like an egg with extremely tough shell. Within, it had probably contained enormous emount of mana. Then a hole was punched in the shell and it simply imploded and emptied itself of, well, anything and everything.

"Perhaps there is a crack that leads inside", Kaden thought.

The cracks were his best bet. It was possible that, if something still did exist inside, its link to outside might be tiny or otherwise impassable.

As Kaden was going around looking for safer cracks the check, he noticed a few elves hiding nearby. They were supposed to be good at hiding. Perhaps they relied on magic to hide and their skill was lower grade now that the mana was in chaos and many spells were hard or impossible to cast.

The elves noticed they had been seen by Kaden. They clearly did not want to be seen and prepared to attack.

Kaden snorted and figured, if the elves were going to attack, he would kill them and put the blame on them. He had no absolute need for them so managing good relations was pointless, as far as Kaden cared.

"Wait! Stop!" A familiar voice shouted. "This is the contact I have talked about."

It was Emina.

"This is sloppy", Kaden told Emina. There was no anger or anything. Just pointing out the facts. "Describing me to your people shouldn't be difficult. I'm very unique in appearance, yes? Understand that I would have killed those fools without any second thoughts had you not stopped them."

"I'm sure you would have", Emina gritted her teeth.

"Hmmm, whatever", Kaden shrugged. "It seems to me that whatever it is that you elves wanted from here blew up and was probably erased from existence after Sacronan messed up."

Emina looked towards the chaos while rest of the elves were scowling at Kaden.

"Did you just arrive or have you had chance to observe?" Kaden continued with a few questions.

Emina nor the elves answered anything and seemed to be intending to continuing roughly same what Kaden had been doing. Examining the area. What were they looking for?

"Or is it that you have reason to believe something can still be found?" Kaden continued. His voice this time included some ridicule. Perhaps their plans had became a mess too and didn't know what they were supposed to hide, but Kaden could tell they had their own plans. "In fact, Emina, do you still remember what was supposed to be here?"

Emina stopped this time.

"You do remember", Kaden took the act as an answer. "That means you elves know too. If you can make the same logical conclusions as I do, I believe we are looking for the same thing."

"We no longer require your help", Emina told Kaden and intended to leave.

"Ah, I see", Kaden said with a nod. "This event has been noticed by saints for sure. The mana blastwave will have been felt on the mainland too. I can only make a report to my superiors once they arive so that I can gain some contributions."

Emina looked at Kaden angrily and so did the elves. Kaden grinned.

"Of course, I'm far more interested what both Sacronan and saints inteded to find here", Kaden continued. "There are too many coincidences. Strange remnants. Churches are involved. The thing is, if I can find what I want, I will not report anything relevant. Such as that elves are involved." He smiled after that.

The elves were preparing their spells, but Emina was still angrily listening to Kaden.

"Like it or not, I'm already part of this secret", Kaden continued. He was prepared to unleash himself completely. It had been a while, but his wounds were healed. Emina might be a problem, but the elves didn't know him. He would kill them quickly and then deal with Emina. "Share your secrets with me. You can also just walk away and I will make my report. See what happens. Now, if you were to attempt to kill and silence me, you will have to deal with me first. Know that should you fail, I will report everything fully. Perhaps even anonymous note to Sacronan. I can merely watch as they come purge your people. Your men, women and childred eviscerated on their beds. Your homes torched. I will feel nothing. You were only obstacles. You mean nothing to me."

Kaden smiled again. The elves were enraged, but Emina was telling them to wait. Was she high on their society? Even if she was only a half elf. Maybe that was viewed a desirable trait or perhaps it was irrelevant. Kaden didn't know that much about elves.

"But if you were to aid me, things can go the opposite way. It is in your best interest to not try to shut me out now", Kaden pointed out and pushed rest of the side thoughts away. "So how is it?"

"You are a monster", Emina said.

"That doesn't matter", Kaden replied. "Monsters are often predictable. Make this deal with me and I have no reason to do what monsters do. Both sides will benefit."

"You aren't going to trust this ... creature?" One of the elves said to Emina.

"I won't trust him, but we have a mission", Emina replied and then explained her reasoning. "What he says makes sense. He will not talk. It won't 'benefit' him. Not if he gets something out of this that is. There are still too many unknowns in this matter. We can't take the risk and create more problems."

The elves quieted.

"Then come", Emina said. "Maybe you will fall into that void and disapear from existence somewhere along the way and I can forget you ever existed."

"Hehe", Kaden chuckled. "I can assume then that you came to same conclusion that something still exists in there because you haven't forgot about it?"

"That and better", Emina said and pulled out an odd device from her pockets. Kaden had not seen thing like it before. It seemed old.

"Is that ancient tech?" Kaden asked.

Emina nodded.

"We have had it for a long time", Emina explained. "We have managed to repair it and found it still functioned. From it we have found leads to more matters related to ancients. Its still connected to what is in there."

Emina pointed towards the void. "We are using it to lead us in and then get what we want", Emina said.

So this was why elves knew things about ancients. They likely knew things the churches would kill for. Kaden considered for a moment, if he should attack anyway and the device for himself, but he decided not to risk it. Even with his threats, he wasn't certain of victory. It was best to go along with them.