Amanda and I made our way slowly down the street as we kept an eye on the buildings around us. The attacks so far had come from the biggest building in the city, but Berlia had teammates and we had no idea where they were. It was as tall as a mountain and was centered straight in the middle of the complex. Every major street led to it and it offered a perfect vantage point to spy on us.

"What are we going into here?” Amanda asked.

"I don't know.” I replied.

She lifted her hand into the air and Agni swooped down from the sky. Gold followed quickly after and I parted the earthen wall I'd created to allow him to land on my shoulder.

There were several disadvantages to fighting a scriber.

They had no set fighting style. Or rather, they weren't limited to fighting in a single way. One day they could inscribe violent sun symbols to detonate a house, and the next they could place enough water symbols to drown a target while they slept. I wasn't under any illusions that my cousin had shown me everything in her repertoire doing our spars.

That didn't mean I couldn't prepare Amanda for some of what she would encounter.

“Her dress tends to alternate between summoning four elements to empower her attacks. Ice, fire, wind, and water. None of them are as potent as a magician's control, but she's tough to handle up front.” I said. “I try to gain a bit of distance before going for the kill.”

That was my fancy way of saying that I ran away from her until I could stab her with a spear.

“Didn’t you tell me that she makes her own clothes?” She asked. “Remind me to ask her if she does commissions.”

The thought of Amanda running through the battlefield with one of Berlia’s dresses followed by waves of fire crossed my mind. It was a terrifying image.

I resolved to ask my cousin about it as soon as possible.

My eyes were partially blocked by the dirt and fire protecting me, so I used my connection to the earth to make up the difference, projecting my senses across the ground for kilometres.

Tap.

A single footstep radiated across my mind.

“[Earthen Spear].”

A spear formed quicker than lightning and shot off toward the source of the sound. A dozen more formed in the time that it took to fly to its target, but they paused in midair as it hit a wall.

Then the wall exploded.

Flames cascaded through the air from the building and decimated my spear. Before I could react Amanda was already there, her hands raised toward the incoming fireball.

The explosion split up into four quarters as though cut by a knife. Four separate streams of fire fluttered through the air and wove around Amanda as she took control of the flames. In seconds they turned from deadly to playful as they danced across her robes and joined the walls of flame she'd already created.

A single marble rolled out from the eruption, streaks of fire blazing across its surface.

“She did that to show off.” I said.

I could hear Berlia's mocking laughter bouncing across the air and it wasn't in my imagination. There was sound coming out of the Marvel, and I could see an intricate symbol array carved into it. It was clear to me now that I hadn't heard real footsteps.

She'd fooled my senses with a marble.

“How is she doing that?” Amanda asked.

I could see her surprise and I didn't blame her. Even though texting regents existed, phones didn't. It was uncommon to find recordings of voices unless they came with video that was recorded by regents that were almost too expensive to exist.

“She has a low range regent that can transmit her voice.” I said. “I've only seen her use it a couple of times.”

One of my earliest memories was being at William's birthday party and seeing Berlia use the communicator for the first time. It had shocked me because it was the first sign of phones existing that I'd seen. Though I'd later found out the reception was terrible.

“She has to be close by.” I said.

"What are the chances that she's found something valuable?” Amanda asked. “If she's got nothing then this is a waste of time for us.”

I paused and thought about the question seriously. My cousin and I had gotten closer over the semester, but that also means that I’d gotten a glimpse into the battle maniac that she was. I wouldn't put it past her to start a fight just for the sake of it.

Then I considered the attacks that she had sent against us so far. The knife had been a warning, and Berlia had used the ice-element marble to show us that she could pierce both of our defenses.

Which made the last attack nonsensical in comparison.

“That last trap used the fire element, which you're obviously a master of. There's no reason for her to do that after her first ones targeted our weaknesses so precisely. I'd say that she set it a while ago and didn't know what kind of people would stumble across it. In fact, I wager that she spent a fair amount of time setting that and probably others as well.

“There’s something here. And it's taking them a lot of time to extract it or they'd have run already.”

Amanda nodded and her flames spread out into the nearby houses. They pawed around the rooms like limbs as they searched for people hiding from us and I raised the wall of dirt until it lifted off the ground and covered the sky.

Within moments a thin sheet of dirt formed an umbrella blocking us and half the street from sight. I couldn't trust any of the buildings nearby. Each and every one of them could have been rigged with a trap of some kind.

"Run." I said. “I'll bring us up.”

Amanda and I dove forward and the floor burst as stone steps appeared in front of us. Without pause we rushed up the stairway and I dismissed the stones that we passed. The dirt umbrella covered our movements from the building we knew Berlia was in, but I still kept an eye out on the nearby houses and shops.

"Gold. Left.” Amanda said. “Agni. Right.”

A small figure dipped from above the dirt umbrella as Gold broke through and made his way toward the left of the street. He'd been watching from above, and he knew not to touch any of the buildings for fear of explosions. He held a shielding regent in his hand just in case.

To my right I could see Agni as she moved in and out of the buildings, searching them for signs of recent arrivals.

"Up.” I said.

The steps we were moving on split in half and separated as I felt a presence arrive from above us. It tapped against the dirt and then a bang reverberated across the surroundings as contact was made.

Something was trying to break through the dirt umbrella.

"[Stone Grasp].”

Three stone hands appeared around me as I pinpointed the location of the intruder. This time I was sure that it was a person kneeling on the umbrella I'd created. The stone hands roared through the air and three holes appeared the moment they approached the dirt.

Each of them was obliterated in an instant.

"That's just rude.” I said. "I think that's a warrior.”

Amanda nodded and five claws of flame smashed through the air. I let them through the dirt and a moment later three different explosions rocked through the air. It took all of my concentration not to lose control of the earth around us.

"I'm going up there.” Amanda said.

Agni appeared the moment she spoke, and waves of golden flames reverberated through the air as the phoenix transformed into a pair of golden wings that merged with Amanda's back.

Then she went flying happened to the umbrella, and I opened up the sky to let her through. I caught a quick glimpse of the battle above as claws of flame clashed against a girl wearing gauntlets before the dirt closed up and I was alone.

In front of me was the building that Berlia was hiding in.

"This better not be another trap." I muttered

I wasn't sure where the third member of Berlia’s squad was, so I kept an eye out on my surroundings. This time when I approached the wall I saw what I couldn't through the earthen spear I'd shot out.

Various symbols were inscribed on small plates that Berlia had stuck onto the entrance of the building. Barely visible, closer to paper than anything else. She'd also made sure to hide them with paint, which told me that she'd been here for a while.

Fire. Explosion. Water. Spikes. Tar. Stick.

They were barely connected symbols but they would work perfectly to stop any intruders that didn't know how to spot symbols.

I disable them all in seconds.

There was a shout from above me and I saw a figure jump over the edge of the umbrella. She made it two feet before Amanda's claws caught her shoulder and started dragging her across the sky. A pillar of flames followed them, but the warrior’s tunic flickered and Amanda’s attack died a moment later

“[Stone Grasp].” I said.

Stone hand after stone hand appeared and shot toward the warrior. At the same time two of the claws exploded, and I could see the target was stunned. It was the perfect opportunity.

A moment later Berlia’s teammate was flying across the holy land, a stream of hands dragging her through the air.

I directed them to squeeze her until her shielding regent broke, but I lost sight of her the moment I stepped through the door to the main building. I turned toward the room I entered and found myself standing in a massive foyer.

It was time to focus on my side of the battle.

I took a single step inside the foyer and paused as I beheld my cousin's handiwork. There were hidden symbols everywhere, most of them disguised by the natural shadows and uneven angles inside the room.

She'd put traps on the walls, the floor, and even a couple on the ceiling. The entire foyer was a death trap.

Silver streamed out of my inventory and I directed it to every symbol I saw. Each blade struck the plates in a different way and sharp lines destroyed each of the tablets before they could activate. It was something that was impossible to do unless the attacker knew the symbols at play and could disable them with precise strikes.

It was a pity for my cousin that I was also an inscriber.

The sound of flapping wings came from behind me as a bird entered the building and I frowned as I heard its entrance.

“[Earthen Spear].”

Without turning back to look at it, I summoned half a dozen spears and sent them without hesitation straight toward the bird.

Then I turned around and saw a white dove behind me.

It exploded the moment the spears touched it, and green liquid spilled onto the floor. Some of it coated my metal and I felt my control of the element temporarily weaken for an instant. Then it returned.

I looked at the corpse of the bird regent and bent down to examine it.

“The Jâl specialty.” I said.

I’d last seen these birds in Gesti sky. They were the one of the main creations of my family. The only reason I'd attacked first and asked questions later was because their wings didn't make the same sounds as real bird wings. That was because the regents used symbol arrays to fly and the wings were only aesthetic.

The sound of flapping wings hit my ears again and I raised my head to see Gold shooting straight through the doorway followed by half a dozen doves.

I waved my hand and the doves smashed head first into the stone wall that appeared in thin air. An explosion rocked through the entrance of the building, but the only thing that reacted was the stones.

The sanctuary walls were tougher than I thought they'd be, but they'd also been designed to defend against the monsters that followed humanity through the rift.

“Solid work, buddy.” I said.

Gold landed on my shoulder chirped happily.

Fake bird with no ice cream. This time.

We made our way through the foyer and up a flight of stairs, disabling traps as we went along. Now that Gold was here with me he scouted ahead and spotted the symbol plates before I could reach them. Most of them were disabled with a quick swipe of his talons, and the ones he couldn't cut were swiftly destroyed with my [Heart Silver] blade.

The stairs lead to a massive corridor with what seemed like an infinite amount of rooms attached to it. The corridor itself stretched out for miles and I could see several other big branches deeper within.

It would take hours to search each room individually. I would have to take a risk instead.

“[Mana Sense].”

The room blazed with colour and to my relief the fire mana was less dense inside, although not completely gone. A pang of pain crawled up my temple as the fire mana flooded over me but I ignored it and tried focusing on anything that looked different.

Even if I couldn't see my cousin, if she was standing near a magical item then I'd be able to see it.

“There she is.” I smiled.

I shot down the corridor and the traps began to lessen in number until they dwindled down to nothing. Berlia hadn't had time to place anything else down.

Good chirped as we neared the location. The door to the room my cousin was inside had a giant symbol plastered onto it. Instead of exploding it was designed to make me look another way whenever I turned toward the room.

With my [Mana Sense] active it was easy to spot. Oubliez's symbol was dozens of times harder to see.

A single cut later I was opening the door to reveal a glowing blue room. Embedded in the centre of the room was a giant crystal the size of my head. My mother's lessons rattled in my head as I spotted familiar identifiers, but then I spotted a figure standing next to it, trying to pry it loose with an inscriber tool.

“I made it.” I said.

Berlia’s head shot up, her red dress looked purple as the blue light of the crystal illuminated her body. She moved in front of the item immediately, a challenging smile on her face.

“Hey cuz.”