36

1-2

Ahead was a sanctuary resembling the area in which Rian had fought the memory of Goam, but there were no statues, and the floors and walls were plated with etched bronze and interlocking squares that were ubiquitous through Gorgheit. The room was gigantic and circular as if they were standing inside a cylinder. Floating, cubic lamps lit the area.

Stationed around the center of the room were dozens of four-foot pillars with energetic blue lines spiraling up and down their lengths. They lit up then dimmed as Rian and the rest of the party walked in.

A single walkway rested between the pillars and led to the center of the room. There, a pedestal rising from the floor converged with a structure like a massive stalactite descending from the ceiling. A space remained between them as if something was meant to fit there.

Standing around the structure was another squadron of Pyceian soldiers. Among them was a taller version—the towering, intimidating Runeknight. It was just as Rian remembered it from Elmguard, but its armor was polished and new. Where before there had been a hollow space within its head and chest, its innards were filled with ticking, breathing machinery encased in glass. Its face was full of gears and leaking steam surrounding the glowing blue light of its eye.

In its hand was a red tesseract.

TEMPORAL RIFT (GORGHEIT) 1-2

Goal: Retrieve the tesseract!

The Temporal Rift will close if Decha or a party member dies.

Escort Decha to stage 3 to progress into deeper rifts!

Stage 1-2 time limit: 20 minutes remaining.

The Runeknight crushed the tesseract in its hand. A red halo surrounded its figure as it faced Rian and gestured for the squadron to advance. The soldiers approached.

Hurrying over, Kat pulled Rian aside, and they huddled their backs against one of the short, stone pillars. Decha followed and knelt.

“Here’s the plan,” Kat said. “They’re going to approach us down the center aisle. The Runeknight—with the tesseract—isn’t going to leave the inner circle, so one of us has to get there and fight him while someone else distracts his lackeys. Otherwise you’re gonna have to dodge both him and lasers from every direction.”

“Why don’t we just take care of the other soldiers first?”

“The Runeknight gets stronger over time, due to the tesseract’s energy. If we leave him alone, he’ll start drawing even more energy into himself until he’s unbeatable.” She moved her bangs out of her face as she looked up at Rian. “You’re tankier than I am, so it’s probably best if you and Decha run interference while I stick to 1v1-ing. If my fight looks like it’s going badly, make sure to step in even if you haven’t finished off the soldiers. At this point, the game tends to ramp up if it senses things are going too smoothly.”

Rian nodded. He remembered that had happened during his first quest: the sudden spike in difficulty after he’d gotten complacent.

He glanced at Decha. “Guess it’s you and me, bud. Are you gonna drop another nuke on them?”

“I’m afraid I can’t,” Decha said, adjusting the massive brim of his pointed hat. “My power diminishes the further we go, and even jumping through one rift is enough to make it nearly impossible to cast a full, long-range Summon anymore. Too much temporal interference for anything besides local summonings.” He tilted his staff toward the center of the room. “That’s why we need the tesseract here, to open the next rift. I can pry it from the Runeknight once he’s dead, and that’ll let me regain some power as well—about enough for one more full-power Summon.”

The footsteps of the soldiers grew louder as they approached.

“All right,” Kat said, drawing her dirk. “You distract them, and I’ll head for the Runeknight. Let’s go!”

Rian stood and stepped out from behind the pillar, and the soldiers took aim. He almost dashed to the side through the field of pillars, but then realized Decha was following after him. He wasn’t sure how defenseless the kid was now that they were beyond the first stage, so running off without him was probably a bad idea now.

In that instant of hesitation, the soldiers fired.

The lasers were traveling faster than before—just slightly. The combined light of the converging beams cast shadows throughout the sanctuary, and Kat vanished into one of them. A moment later, having Shadow Walked across almost half the length of the room, she reappeared in the Runeknight’s shadow.

Out of time, Rian ducked behind one of the marked stone pillars, hoping it would act as cover. Decha caught up and knelt beside him. Most of the beams overshot them, but as the pillar took the brunt of a laser, the blue lines within the pillar ignited. Like an oversized tuning fork, a deep rumbling emerged as a wave shot out from the pillar and struck both Rian and Decha before continuing to the surrounding pillars, which broke the wave and began to glow with lesser brilliance.

You have taken 63 damage! (HP: 564/627)

It felt like a painless wave of electricity zapping across his body.

Decha groaned, clutching his chest. His HP bar was visible above his head: it had depleted by almost 10%.

Rian flinched at Decha’s reaction. He hadn’t even thought about it: that NPCs—the Miracian natives—could feel pain. All he’d fought so far were random forest creatures, other players, and androids. It should’ve been so obvious, but it hadn’t occurred to him until now: it was just the players who couldn’t feel pain.

He silently swore to himself for letting Decha get hurt. It wasn’t as simple as using the pillars for cover. A few seconds after the beams struck them, it seemed they dispersed the energy in a wave that, though diminishing, was capable of triggering the other pillars as well. If enough of the beams struck the ones nearby, it would probably create an explosive chain reaction over an area large enough that they couldn’t escape.

What the hell are these pillars doing here, anyway?

Frustrated, he wound up and punched the pillar they were beside. To his surprise, it lit up but didn’t explode. The blue lines faded.

Wincing, Decha raised his staff. A gust surrounded them, their bodies gaining a faint green halo.

Decha has healed you for 100 HP! (627/627)

It was instant compared to Rian’s Heal skill, and it had healed Decha as well, restoring both of them to full. As the wind and encompassing light settled, Rian said, “Thanks,” and then blinked in thought. “I didn’t know you were a healer, too.”

Relieved, Decha let his shoulders drop. “Just another summoning trick. Entropic redistribution—restoring health by taking it from elsewhere.”

When Rian peeked around the pillar, the approaching soldiers were about halfway to them. One had lost nearly 20% of its health, Decha having somehow stolen its HP and had given it to them instead. It was more like Kat’s Life-Steal than a direct healing spell.

“You can do that even if they’re not technically ‘living?’” Rian said.

Decha nodded. “They are alive, in a way. More alive than rock or stone, at least. Continuity dictates that everything has a set form, which can be rewound or restored across its timeline. Like I said, it’s entropy—but reversible, thanks to the temporal energy you brought with you from the future. Highly entropic systems are just easier to draw from.”

Rian had basically no idea what the hell any of that meant, but it sure sounded cool. Surface-level quantum mechanics he could deal with, but anything deeper and he kind of just clocked out.

It’s just magic, he thought. Got it.

At the sound of distant commotion, he spotted Kat facing down the Runeknight, who had drawn a curved sword, a saber. As it gripped the hilt, the glass orb within the Runeknight’s palm glowed blue, and the saber’s blade ignited with the same azure light of the beam weaponry the Pyceians used.

The Runeknight approached and swung at Kat, who dodged at first with grace, then only managed to get nicked by the radiant blade as she went in, plunging her dirk into the spaces between the armor plating. She hadn’t taken much damage, but Rian was still worried. With the soldiers nearby, he wasn’t in any position to get near or assist her without drawing their fire. At their current speed, dodging the beams wasn’t a problem—it was fighting the Runeknight while also trying to dodge them.

Rian glanced at Decha, who was merely watching Kat’s fight as well.

“Dude, what are you waiting for?” Rian said. “Heal her.”

“Sorry,” Decha said. “I only had enough for one heal spell. It takes time—literally—before I can redistribute other forms of energy using the time I’ve built up. I believe you understand it as a ‘cooldown.’”

Rian straightened up. There was even an in-universe explanation for why cooldowns existed? “So that’s why you can’t just ‘summon’ away those energy beams they’re firing at us?”

“Correct,” Decha said. “On the order of seconds, I can perform smaller spells like a protective barrier, but nothing major. It would only last for an instant, and I can only cast it once every minute or so. I won’t be able to heal anyone again for a while. I can’t do much until we get that tesseract from the Runeknight.”

Particle effects surrounded Kat and the blade of her dirk as she cast Life-Steal, having found a moment between attack patterns. Rian watched her health bar replenish in fragments with each successive stab she landed. The Runeknight’s HP was down to almost two-thirds.

“Well,” Rian said, standing to face the soldiers again, “I guess I’ll buy us some time, then.”

The squadron was nearly upon them—another dozen mechanical soldiers, faceless, clanking with hefty armor. With all of them approaching from one direction, Rian dashed forward to close the remaining distance as they took aim.

He let loose. Armor crumpled against his fists. A hooking kick with all his momentum behind it severed one of the soldier’s legs, downing it. He hardly needed to think, instead letting his mind parse the flow of combat and guide his body. It felt amazing, the power of his hands and limbs tearing through metal like it was paper.

He punched one soldier entirely through the chest, rupturing something that caused it to explode in his face.

You have taken 126 damage! (HP: 501/627)

Rian stood there for a moment, enveloped in smoke.

As the smoke cleared, twin rifle beams made their way up to him between the pillars. The light struck and dissipated against a translucent barrier. Rian turned, and Decha was aiming his staff at him.

Just in time. Rian gave him a thumbs-up, then noticed Corvis sitting atop the pillar, looking entertained.

Rian dashed toward the soldiers that had just fired at him. With only rifles, none of them were equipped for close-range combat. They tried to aim at him up close, and he swatted the rifle away and triggered a parry, guaranteeing the soldier’s death a moment later as his bare knuckles crushed their armor.

The chain-kill timer ended as he saw there was no one else nearby. He stood for a moment to let his stamina recharge, then spotted the remaining three soldiers ahead in the field of pillars. They were huddling together as if to protect each other. As Rian sprinted toward them, one of them lobbed something at him. At first he thought it was a piece of their armor—beige, round, and with intersecting blue lines—before he realized it was a grenade.

He planted his feet into the ground, slid to a halt, and dashed backward just as it landed in front of him.

A shock wave spread in a flash, activating the pillars around it in a circle. As each one resonated with the ones beside it, a towering wall of light formed between them, creating an enclosure.

Close, Rian thought. If he hadn’t evaded, he would’ve been trapped in that circle of energy—if he survived the absurd amount of damage he’d have taken.

“Careful!” Decha shouted from behind. “You’re out of my range now!”

Rian sprinted around the humming walls and headed toward the last remaining soldiers, who opened fire simultaneously. He watched the trajectories carefully as he ran. Only one of the Pyceians was firing at him now. The others were firing at the pillars in front of him.

Feet sliding against the ground, Rian sidestepped the incoming beam and heard its impact behind him. As the other two beams hit the pillars ahead, they lit up and formed a wall directly in his path.

Still running, pushing his stamina to its limit, he ducked lower and dashed toward the wall. As he came up to it, he canceled the dash, crouched, and leaped, catapulting himself over it in a slow somersault. He’d given himself just enough momentum for the flip to end with his ankle hooking down onto one of the soldiers’ heads, crushing it instantly.

Landing, Rian made short work of the other two, as they hesitated before beginning their attack patterns. Rian thought he could almost see it in their faceless expressions—fear, turning to aggression.

“Need some help here!”

Kat.

Rian turned toward the center of the room. The Runeknight was at half health. And Kat was at a third.

Dammit, she was doing fine just a moment ago.

No, it’s my fault. I should’ve been paying more attention.

As the Runeknight reengaged Kat, Rian started sprinting toward them, hoping it wasn’t too late.