“You’re lucky Eury isn’t here. She’d have torn your tongue out.”

Dallion had seen Eury in lots of different lights, but this didn’t sound like her at all. He had heard talk, mostly from Hannah, that the gorgon had been extremely flirty and a slacker back when she used to work at the Gremlin’s Timepiece. There were a few occasions in which she had heard hints there might have been a violent side, though he thought that to be her standard hunter attitude. By the sound of things, it went a lot further.

“I’m just interested in one of his missions.” Dallion decided to avoid the conversation, at least until he could have it with someone he liked better. “Not the person.”

“Which mission?”

“I’m not sure. The mission that got him to find Jiroh’s sister.”

There was a noticeable sign of relief on the fury’s face. The emotions emanating from him, though, indicated that the fury felt as if he’d dogged a bullet. Somehow, Dallion doubted that was just because of Eury. There was something more hidden there, probably the cause of the hunter’s name erasure.

“I think he might have found a phoenix feather around that time,” Dallion added.

You can’t think that he put the feather in Di, Nil said, shocked at the suggestion. Phoenix feathers don’t work that way.

You said magic could have caused her to turn into what she did.

Let me say it again. Feathers don’t work that way. I could accept him finding a feather. I can even accept him putting it into the fury to hide it. What’s utterly impossible, though, is for it to have the effect we’ve seen. The feathers turn a non-awakened into an awakened. That’s all they do.

There was no point in arguing, but Dallion had seen enough instances of things not doing what they were expected. Although even he was inclined to agree with Nil. Whatever had changed, Di had to be something else.

“He did take part in a phoenix hunt,” the fury hunter began. “Several of den did.”

“When?” Dallion glanced at the tome of records.

“You won’t find anything useful there. Special hunts aren’t marked as such. It’ll probably say chainling hunt or have some other generic description. The people involved don’t want any mention of the event.”

Unless when they do, Dallion thought. It was clear that the countess had made a political play by announcing his hunt to the entire world. No wonder the cult and everyone else were onto him. That said, she had also unsuspectingly done him a favor. If it hadn’t been for that, the gorgons wouldn’t have tipped their hand.

“So, I look for chainling hunts?” There were a lot of those.

“It’s just an example. It could be dragon hunting or anything that a hunter thinks of. I put in half a dozen cloud catching jobs. They weren’t that.”

Clearly, that information wasn’t going to be very helpful. However, Dallion had one more way to find out.

“Can you give me an approximate time? Will I find it here?” he lifted the last tome of the series. “Or do I need to go further back?”

“The one before. A lot of things happened in the last ten years. Results of the fury wars. No one talks about it, but the wars leave scars in the world and a lot fewer people to deal with them.”

Dallion looked through the books on the table, then grabbed the respective tome.

ITEM AWAKENING

Reality changed.

The BOOK is level 7

Level seven was quite a high level for a book. Most of the scrolls and tomes Dallion had ventured in were level two at most. Looking around, he expected to find himself in a library. Instead, the place was a gallery with rows of paintings covering every inch of the walls. All the paintings were the same—large, rectangular frames with white canvases and some black scribbles on top. One was tempted to call them modern art, but they seemed too stylistic.

You are in a large paper hall.

Defeat the guardian to change the BOOK’s destiny!

“Nice to be in a paper hall,” Dallion muttered.

Suddenly, green markers surrounded him.

COMBAT INITIATED

Splitting into a dozen of instances, Dallion spread out in all directions. That didn’t help much. Nine of the instances were destroyed on the spot before he could figure out what was going on. Of the remaining three, two got major injuries—as illustrated by the red rectangles. Only the last remained unscathed.

Not taking his escape for granted, Dallion split again, this time in thrice as many instances. The results were shockingly similar. Only a handful managed to survive.

Lux, Nox! Dallion said as he split again.

The crackling panther leaped out of him, landing on the floor of the, while Dallion was surrounded by blue flames that rose him in the air. When he split on this occasion, nothing happened. Combining layer vision with his music skills, Dallion looked about. It was at that point that he saw them: echoes, dozens of them, standing invisible throughout the entire space. There was no way to tell if they were armed, but each of them had blobs of anger and determination floating within them.

“I see you!” Dallion said.

There was no reaction.

“You’re standing against the walls.” He moved to the center of the room. Even in a multitude of instances, this was a risky move. However, it turned out his hunch was correct. None of the echoes attacked, standing like invisible sentinels that protected the paintings. He summoned his dartblade and pointed it in the direction of the nearest one. “Right there.”

The blobs of emotion moved a bit, as if to test whether Dallion was telling the truth. He followed them with the tip of his dartbow. After a while, the echo appeared.

“Vela,” Dallion said, surprised. However, it wasn’t Vela, at least not exactly. The echo looked like what Vela would have been a decade ago. The stranger thing was that as the other echoes became visible, there were several more of her.

“You shouldn’t be here,” another echo said. It belonged to the gorgon, who was second in command.

“Neither should you.” Dallion added understanding in his voice using his music skills. “I came here searching for something that wasn’t written in the book.”

“Nothing is written in the book,” a Vela smirked. “The important things are written here.”

“We make sure that the secrets remain,” the gorgon said.

“Or that they never find what’s here,” another echo added, one that Dallion hadn’t seen.

All in all, there were about eight different “types” of echoes. Three Dallion recognized. The rest were complete unknowns. Dallion could only assume that these belonged to hunters still alive. As Eury had told him, some hunters tended to retire to move on to more important cities, potentially the imperial capital itself.

“I’m not interested in your missions,” Dallion kept on pressing. “Just one that—” he paused for a moment. “No, I’m interested in all missions dealing with phoenix hunts.”

The comment made several of the echoes stir. Even so, they didn’t move from their spots, or release the weapon they were holding—Dallion wasn’t the only one with a ranged weapon.

There was no telling what all this was. Dallion had hoped that the guardian of the book would be able to give him a few answers. If he were to guess, the hunters must have left their echoes here to protect the information. That would mean there was a lot more in the tomes. Judging by the echoes he knew, only the top tier hunters were present. The unknown probably had held a similar position as either here or in some other city. If Vela ever decided to check on the old tomes, Dallion would probably get in trouble. The transition back to the real world would have to be perfect so that the fury didn’t suspect anything. On the plus side, it didn’t seem that any of the echoes recognized him.

Nil, didn’t one need magic to create an autonomous echo? Dallion asked.

Indeed, one did. However, that’s not to say that the magic has to be theirs. There are devices to do this.

Magic quills?

In a crude, oversimplified way, yes. Granted, you might be the first to question guardians, but their point here is different. The echoes aren’t here just to protect the details; they are the details.

A living snipped of information. Dallion looked at the echoes again. It was quite clever in a somewhat ominous way.

Now you understand why kaleidervistos were so difficult to get. Every noble and important organization wants one. Even during the artifact flood a few years back, there’s always more demand than availability.

“Why?” one of the echoes asked.

“Don’t you know who I am?” Dallion asked, just to check whether his theory was true.

“The new prime hunter?” someone asked.

“No,” Dallion replied, despite the temptation. “I’m—”

The echoes raised their dartbows at Dallion. Bolts filled the air as the attack resumed. Dallion burst into a hundred of instances.

Shield! he ordered.

The armadil shield extended, blocking several of the bolts. Red rectangles appeared in front of several instances.

Dallion fired a bolt of his own. For a moment, he regretted doing so. When the bold was deflected by the echo he was aiming at, he felt both relief and regret. According to his judgment, the level of the echoes present wasn’t too far off from his own. Killing them, though, would also remove the information he required.

“Nox, don’t attack!” Dallion shouted.

With a snarl, the crackling leapt into the air, disappearing in the process.

“Lux, let me down.”

Are you sure, boss? The firebird asked. Bolts were flying left and right, striking more and more instances.

“Lux!” Dallion ordered.

The blue flames disappeared, allowing Dallion to land on the floor. That was a bad tactical decision, but the only one in which he could guarantee achieving what was needed. Aided by instances, he danced through the first bout of bolts, managing to complete a full guard sequence, even if he had to force split in order to do so. From there on, things became easier. The attacks became slower and slower until at one point they stopped altogether.

ESCAPE TRIGGERED

If you wish to escape combat, smash the window.

A green rectangle appeared. It had been a while since Dallion had resorted to that. Seeing it felt almost nostalgic.

“Nox, challenge the guardian,” he said.

Have you made up your mind? The crackling didn’t sound pleasant at all pleased.

“We need the echoes alive.”

GUARDIAN CHALLENGE

Nox has challenged the guardian of BOOK on your behalf.

The guardian has no choice but to respond to the challenge.

Looking at the new blue rectangle, Dallion unsummoned his dartblade, switching it for his harpsisword instead. He had never fought a level seven book guardian, but something told him it might be a bit trickier than he thought.

For several moments, nothing happened. Then, the floor a foot away from Dallian rose up, forming a caterpillar composed of thousands of pages of paper.

BOOK GUARDIAN

Species: MILLIPAGE

Class: Paper

Health: 100%

Traits:

- Body 10

- Mind 25

- Perception 15

- Reaction 30

Skills:

- Attack

- Guard

- Split (Species unique)

- Cut (Species unique)

That was it? Dallion wondered.

Based on the traits, the battle was virtually over. There was no way such a weak guardian would stand a chance. On the other hand, the same had been said about him on numerous occasions and he had ended up winning.

“Do you have dominion over the echoes?” Dallion asked.

“No.” The guardian ruffled its pages.

Dallion didn’t have to see the emotions within the creature to know it was lying. Whoever defeated the guardian became the owner of the item, and while the echoes were added separately, they were linked to the realm. They weren’t going to like it, but at least would be obliged to respond to his inquiries. At least that was the hope.

“Do you surrender?”

COMBAT INITIATED