Realm awakening? Dallion wondered.

It was the first time the rectangles were so vague. Given that there was no telling what the realm was, it was as good a description as any.

You are in the realm of MAGIC.

Defeat the guardian of the REALM to keep its destiny.

“Cute,” Dallion muttered. Even the rectangles were magenta, unlike all the rest he had seen before. Two things were clear about magic: it was the embodiment and vanity.

There was no indication of level, but looking around, there was no need for any. The real itself was similar to a combination of a sphere item, a paradox cube trial, and possibly something else as well. The surroundings constantly shifted between plans, forests, deserts, lakes, and mountains. Looking up in the sky there was no sun or stars, just a single moon—the Purple Moon.

“Is it unusual?” a voice asked.

Splitting into instances to look behind him, Dallion saw that the mage was with him, or rather an echo of the mage. He could see faint blobs of emotion within her—eagerness, enthusiasm, and unease for the most part.

“Wouldn’t an in-person visit have been better?” Dallion took a step forward with one of his instances. The ground seemed solid enough.

“Probably, but it wasn’t worth the risk. While causing all sorts of exceptions, the feathers really don’t like them. I tried to enter this realm for fifty years, before I gave up.”

“How long did you give up for?” Dallion’s curiosity got the better of him.

“A few decades,” she replied in a vague fashion that suggested that it might well have been more than that. “From what I have read, the guardian is an identical copy of the bird itself.”

“So, once we find it, it’ll tell us everything we’d like to know?”

“You. It will tell you. I’m not capable of talking to guardians. You, however, are a different matter entirely.”

Lux, Dallion said.

Several moments passed, but the firebird didn’t appear. Dallion tried and failed a few more times, after which he attempted to summon any of his gear. None of the items appeared.

“I can’t summon weapons,” he said.

Nil, can you hear me? Dallion asked.

There was no response.

“Did you give me a blocker item?” Dallion looked at the mage.

“It’s for your own protection,” the woman didn’t even feel she had done anything wrong. “There’s no telling how the aetherbird would have reacted, especially given that half your gear has guardian familiars.”

“I could have used them…”

“Do all of them have the empathy trait?” The mage looked at him as if he had been the one who had messed up. “At best, things would be no different from what they are now. At worst, you would have been thrown out of the domain. Now, we can keep arguing about nonsense, or we can go ahead with what we came for.”

There were many things that Dallion wanted to say, none of which were polite. Considering the number of enemies he had made since earning his hunter’s emblem, he chose not to. Maybe it was good to have at least someone at the Academy owe him one. Not that he thought that Eleria would even think she was indebted to him. In her mind, she probably honestly thought that she was doing him a generous favor. Hopefully, he’ll still get to talk to her once this is over.

It was a relief that instances worked in this world, as Dallion soon found out. Spreading out in all directions—more out of habit than anything else—one of his instances suddenly found itself falling down a gorge that suddenly had materialized on the spot where the ground used to be. Another found itself impaled in a sudden forest. Given that Dallion didn’t have Lux to help him fly about, this place was just as dangerous as facing a wilderness creature or a powerful item guardian. The mage, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have any such problems. There was no telling how he managed to keep in sync with all the changes, but there was no sign that she was using magic or combat splitting to do so.

It took close to fifteen minutes for Dallion to get used to the local sensation of travel. There didn’t seem to be any pattern or logic to the changes, just complete randomness. The worst part of all, none of the awakening markers seemed to appear.

Music didn’t have any effect, either. Other than the echo of the mage, Dallion could see no emotions of any sort, and any singing failed to do anything either.

Time dragged on and on with them going seemingly nowhere. Without any point of reference, there wasn’t even any certainty they were going in a straight line. It all seemed like walking on the inside of a bubble. After a while, Dallion stopped as much as the changing environment would allow him.

“Why did you stop?” the mage asked. “We must continue further.”

“Further where? If there’s a path you can see, just let me know. In fact, it’ll be best if you lead the way.”

“Hardly.” The woman frowned. “I’m still an echo. And yes, there is a path. Rather, there is a thread continuing forward. I suppose only people with the magic trait are able to see it.”

That was definitely one possibility, as was Dallion being lied to. It was obvious that she was keeping secrets from him, but there was no telling whether they were related to the realm or not. Her curiosity seemed genuine, but her ability to survive with no effort was highly improbable.

“What do you see?” Dallion looked at her.

“It’s impossible to describe and you know it. The magic trait changes everything to the point there’s no basis for comparison.”

“I can describe music easily,” Dallion said.

“Only because you’re anotherworlder and, more importantly, you didn’t obtain it during your first trial, did you? Mages enter their awakening with the trait already there. Everything we see is different. I know that there are at least four colors of rectangles. Upon entering a realm, the rectangles are green, and in combat they are red. To all like me, everything is purple.”

“Purple… just like the rectangles here.”

“I only have your word for that. To me, it’s the same as all the rest. You see the realm changing, I trust?”

“It would be difficult not to.”

“But you don’t see the threads along it?”

“Are they some kind of strings that hold the place together?” The only thing that Dallion could think of was the string theory that had been popular back when he was on Earth. He had no idea what it meant, of course, but from what I could remember, it had something to do with everything being based on vibrations.

“No.” The mage shook her head. A ball of annoyance appeared in her left shoulder. “Imagine a world in which everything has a sign on it. The sign is the thing, and the thing is the sign.”

“Okay,” Dallion said, even if he had no idea what she was talking about.

“Now imagine that the words on the signs are constantly changing, but not immediately. I can see what’s going to happen and depending on the thread of what has been. I also know when there are certain letters on the signs that aren’t supposed to be there, like a trail of breadcrumbs.”

“You’re seeing all that?” Dallion looked about with several of his instances. No matter how hard he tried using his layer vision, no such things were to be seen. Apparently, mages were as different the same way empaths were. While Dallion could explain what it meant constantly hearing items talking to him, there was no way he could convey the feeling.

“In a way, yes. I know where we need to go as well as how, but I wasn’t the one invited here. If I try to interfere, I’ll change the threads and that would make things more complicated.”

Dallion opened his mouth to ask something, then closed up back again. Trying to figure out magic based on what Eleria was saying was the same as trying to visualize quantum physics. The best thing he could do now was take her word for it and keep on going.

If you’ve found a loophole to talk to me, I can really use some advice, Nil, Dallion said.

The chance of that happening was one in a million, which is why it didn’t happen. Ultimately, Dallion had to keep on walking, hoping that he was heading in the right direction.

Hours passed. The Moon disappeared from the sky, although the light remained. All of a sudden, Eleria stopped in place. Moments later, so did the surrounding environment.

Scrolls saying what would happen, eh? Dallion thought.

“What’s wrong?” Several of his instances walked to the mage.

“Nothing. We’re at a convergence point,” the woman explained.

“What does that mean?”

Hello, an unknown voice said. It was the same that Dallion had heard upon touching the feather. Now that it was clearer, it sounded a lot stranger than he remembered. It was slightly high-pitched, but also hoarse, passing for both male and female, and—unlike the combination of sounds that Harp used to compose words—sounded quite natural.

Hello, Dallion responded. Who are you?

That’s my question. No one else can hear me, but you can.

Is that why you let me here? Because you’re curious?

You’re a curiosity. The woman tried breaking her way through my threads for so long that it became amusing. Even then, she couldn’t hear me. You did it from the first try.

That’s because I’m not using magic, Dallion allowed himself a smirk. I’m using something else to talk to you.

The language was unlike anything Dallion had used before, and yet it came naturally to him, as if he’d heard it somewhere before. In a way, it sounded somewhat similar to dragon.

Why don’t you show yourself? Dallion used a dozen instances to look around. Sadly, even with so many, he had no idea where the sound was coming from. Somehow, it always sounded like coming from the side, no matter in which direction Dallion turned.

Why?

So I can see you as well. Dallion split into thirty instances.

You want to catch me.

The question surprised Dallion. It was only a momentary hesitation, but it turned out to be enough. The entire ground rose up. Soil rose up in long patches, turning into feathers of wings so large that they could barely be seen. The horizon itself shifted, breaking up into chunks.

“Crap!” Dallion’s hand reached for his whip blade, only to find the spot empty.

This was what the mage meant when she said that the realm was the feather. In truth, the realm was also the guardian. All this time Dallion had been walking through the realm, he was in fact walking on the aetherbird itself, going straight towards its head. The mage had probably known this—or at the very least suspected—and she had still not said a thing. Quite likely, this was her plan all along.

Dozens of instances dashed in all directions, trying to get off the giant bird. Before he could, all of them fell through, as if they were standing on air.

COMBAT INITIATED

A purple rectangle emerged. The instances faded away, leaving one single Dallion. At first, it felt like he was falling into oblivion. Moments later, the direction of the fall shifted, moving him back towards the massive creature.

Just great, Dallion said to himself.

Not only was he about to fight a guardian as large as the realm itself, but one that came with its own gravity. The bigger questions, though, were how exactly the creature was planning to attack and what his weak spots would be. Unfortunately, something told Dallion that no matter where they were, he wouldn’t be able to see them.