Chapter 79

“No!” Desire screamed, but Wil was too far gone to understand her. His world was filled with white light, and power flowed into his core. Mana, foreign but familiar, swept through his body like liquid fire. His injuries worsened, his bones cracked and his flesh split as he fought to contain the Shard’s energy.

The Shard pierced his skin, sinking below muscles, bone, and sinew to reach the Core within him. The glittering diamond core, usually filled with bright, silverly mana, was empty and dark, his power completely drained.

The pinprick of light floated within him, falling gently towards the diamond like a piece of falling snow. The power it exuded threatened to tear his body apart, and cracks formed on his Mana Core as the Shard of Divinity gradually approached it.

Like a flake of metal drawn to a magnet, the Shard penetrated the Core with ease, the puncture wound causing the cracks in Wil’s Core to widen, and the entire gemstone structure nearly collapsed.

Floating in the center of his core, The Shard filled the space within with an influx of intense heat and golden mana. Wil’s Core, desolate and empty, filled to the brim in an instant, and the pressure within caused the cracked gem to explode. Wil’s body was flooded with golden mana.

His veins were on fire, and to Desire, it appeared as if a golden sun were burning in Wil’s chest. His veins protruded through his flushed and reddened skin. He screamed in agony as the mana burned within him, the power it contained threatened to destroy him.

With effort, he looked within himself, searching for the Shard and his shattered core. The golden mana raged throughout his body, and it felt like he would be consumed from within by the inferno of mana the Shard was releasing.

And through it all, he sensed a familiar presence. His mind was filled with nothing but agony, and the desperate fight to control the power of the Shard. But in a small corner of his psyche, he could feel the soul of the Patriarch, a small part of his spirit contained within the Shard.

When the pain reached a crescendo, it suddenly stopped, and Wil opened his eyes to a memory that was not his.

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Before him was a boy, youthful and energic, dressed in the finest silk robes. The youth was practicing magic in an open field, the Tier 2 spell matrix floating in the air in front of him was complicated and beautiful, and Wil recognized that it belonged to The School of Evocation.

“Scorching Ray!” The youth cried, and the Matrix burned with mana. Pointing his finger, he launched a ray of flame against a nearby boulder. The grey stone heated a deep red almost instantly, before shattering. The youth formed a shield of mana around his body to protect himself from the debris, a pleased look on his face.

“Control isn’t the answer, Wil. You cannot fight against the tide, you move with it, letting it carry you forward. The Shard is a part of me, how could it ever harm you?” The youth said, turning to Wil and smiling widely.

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Amora and the other Guild observers could feel a massive power suddenly emerge from the ruins around them. Dark and corrupt, it felt oily on their skin. But despite their best attempts, they couldn’t locate the source.

“Anything, Rose?” Amora asked, turning to look at her friend. The only diviner in their group, Rose was well suited to pathfinding, and had been responsible for planning their adventures when they were still active.

Now that they had semi-retired to higher positions in the guild, joining the recruitment team, she used her skills for planning the tests, like the journey across the Midnight Desert. It had been her who had divined the portal’s imminent opening.

“It’s difficult to lock onto the source of the corruption or the Shard that the Illyrian was holding. Something is interfering. To block my vision, it would have to be a higher Rank than myself.” Rose responded, her eyes shining brightly in the darkness with the light of divination.

Her magic spell granted her ‘True Seeing’, and the ability to see through all illusions or deceit. She could even pierce the barrier between the realms, looking beyond their reality, as long as she was familiar with her target.

“That woman is the source, and but she didn’t seem powerful enough to block your Sight.” Amora said, confused. She continued to scan the landscape for any sign of the crimson haired woman or the young Illyrian and his companions.

The Guild Observers had been unable to stop her from tampering with the Portal, and they had all been unwillingly pulled into the ruins. After ensuring the safety of the test takers, the Observers had launched their attacks against the Wyrm, but it simply shrugged off everything they could throw at it.

Amora was a Rank 15, so was Rose, while Abelardo was a Rank 16. Amongst the Observers, they were the strongest, but even they were nearly useless against the monster they faced here. They had held for as long as they could, while the red-haired woman used their distraction to summon a small pinprick of light from the center of the ruins.

Amora instantly knew what it was, the Shard of Divinity that she sought, but they were unable to stop her. Even worse, they had been driven back by a burst of blue fire from the Wyrm, the searing heat leaving them unable to close the distance and prevent the woman from reaching the Shard.

The distance was enough to keep them from stopping her, but it was short enough that they could clearly witness what happened next.

Just as the woman reached the Shard, a young man, wearing azure blue armor and a white cloak appeared in the air behind her. Snatching the Shard, he reappeared on the ground underneath, a bone white sword in his right hand. Amora could feel the power within, violent and domineering, easily the equivalent of a demigod.

In a single attack, he had destroyed the Wyrm, and driven the woman back, but the backlash rendered him too injured to continue fighting. The observers were about to step in and help when they disappeared. Wil and his companions were gone, the red-haired woman hiding them from sight.

No matter what spells they used, or how the searched, they couldn’t find them. They could vaguely sense their presence, the stifling feeling of corrupted mana from the woman was overwhelming, but they couldn’t see them.

“Whatever she’s doing, I’m not able to find her. Maybe if we -” Rose was suddenly interrupted by a man appearing on the ground next to her. His chest was covered in blood, and black lines of corruption were spreading from a stab wound.

“Archibald!” Rose screamed, rushing to the bard, and grabbing hold of him. Running her hands over his wounded chest, she was assessing the damage, before pulling out a red potion. Not bothering to feed it to him, she splashed it over the wound, before looking to Amora for help.

“Hurry! He needs a cleric!” Rose shouted. Amora quickly locked onto the mana of the Guild’s cleric. In a flash of light, she was gone, reappearing almost instantly with a confused cleric, his yellow robe clasped tightly in her hand.

“Desire…too powerful!” Anwir gasped, before a coughing fit left him almost unable to breathe. The cleric stepped forward to begin treatment, when they all felt a colossal amount of mana erupt from where they had last seen Wil and the others.

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A tidal wave of golden mana swept through the remains of his core, cycling through his body in an endless, destructive loop. All around him, a vortex of golden mana churned, strong enough that even Desire was driven back.

Shielding her face with her hand, she stared in shock as the power around Wil nearly reached the Demigod Rank. The mana within him was uncontrolled, turbulent, and violent, and she could see that he was on the edge of bursting.

“Impossible. A mortal wielding a Shard of Divinity is insanity! Wilhelm, my love, you’re killing yourself!” Desire shouted, and her black and crimson mana rose to protect her, shielding her from the power Wil was radiating.

With a deafening roar, an explosion of power disrupted the illusion Desire had cast, the white void wavering, ripples spread across the black water beneath their feet. The illusion held for a moment longer, before collapsing.

All around the trio, the eyes of Guild Observers locked onto their location. Desire could feel over a dozen high ranking adventurer’s approaching, their mana clear to her. It didn’t surprise her, Wil was glowing like the sun, and the power of the Shard could be felt for hundreds of miles.

“Tch, nuisances. Don’t worry my love, I’ll deal with these insects, and then I will assist you in extracting the Shard. I won’t allow anyone to ruin our future together.” Desire whispered, her eyes looking at Wil, before she gathered her mana around her to assault the newcomers.