As the invisible hand clenched around my throat tensed, I couldn’t help but curse myself. Why hadn’t I picked up on this guy’s mana signature? In fact, why was I still not picking up on it? Was he weaker than I thought?

To test my theory, I pushed against the wall to free myself while making some onyx chains distract my attacker. My chains reared up like snakes ready to strike, only to be doused like fire in rain when the new arrival waves his hand. My own efforts were similarly thwarted when I realised that no matter how hard I pushed, I wasn’t moving.

Four new hands gripped my limbs, locking my arms and legs in place as well, leaving me with even fewer options.

“Tut tut tut. None of that now, young man. We’re not done here yet…”

I released a shaky breath, my mind racing. I could just let him ‘kill’ me and play dead, since he wouldn’t know I could regenerate, but that would rely on him not being as thorough as possible. Option number two was to apparate away as quickly as possible, but that would mean losing the orb…

I felt the pressure on my neck increase bit by bit, until it became hard to breathe.

“Hmmm. Your constitution must be quite high for you to resist this long. I had hoped that your head would have ‘popped’ by now…” the stranger taunted, to which I replied with a raised middle finger. His sneer widened and the pressure increased further. I could feel and hear the bone start to crack and the flesh tear. Could I recover from losing my head? Again, I considered apparition.

I clenched my teeth, not willing to give up just yet.

I shot into action, making one of my chains attack the barrier, rather than the stranger. The barrier erupted with a violent green blast which destroyed my chain, but was also heading right for my target.

His eyes widened and the sneer permanently plastered on his face froze as a wave of cursed mana was about to wash over him. In a moment of panic, he released his hold on me, which I took further advantage of by manifesting my essence. A black dome spread out with me at its center, enveloping the room and, with some luck, blinding my opponent while he was protecting himself from the barrier’s retaliation.

After that, I hurriedly created more chains to repeat the initial attack, making the barrier shoot out three more waves of power right at my opponent. Unfortunately, he seemed to be holding on under the onslaught, if only barely. All of the green mana washed over him like water rushing past a wave breaker on the coast, but little seemed to take hold on him. Apart from a slight green glow that he was trying to expel, he seemed unmarred.

Seeing the barrier start to shimmer as it lost more and more of its stored mana, I continued my plan with renewed vigour. Now that the orb was no longer fuelling the array, the barrier would fall soon enough. That would be my time to escape…

For a tense thirty seconds, I forced the barrier to react over and over again, burying the intruder repeatedly. The barrier became dimmer and dimmer, until, eventually, it cracked and collapsed.

I knew I didn’t have much time and charged right through, putting my hands on the black orb that still hovered insider and storing it within my spatial pouch, which I had emptied as much as I could beforehand. It barely fit, but that was enough. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the intruder finally dispel all of the green mana that hung around him, freeing himself from its clutches. A feat that I knew only high-tiered classers could accomplish, which made it even weirder that I couldn’t sense him with my mana sense.

Instantly, I lost control of my body as invisible hands held me in place.

“Nice try, child. Now hand me that orb and I’ll let you die painlessly…”

I scoffed, but didn’t deign to reply as my body shimmered out of existence.

“Wha…!” was the last thing I heard before I reappeared in an alley down below, acutely aware that I had to get out of there as quickly as possible. That desire was reaffirmed as the top of the stalagmite spire twisted. A giant handprint appeared on the outside as the classer from before tore it down in a rage-fuelled rampage, unhampered by the spire’s magical reinforcement. Perhaps the magic had left it the moment the orb was taken?

Without further ado, I spent some more of the mana stored in my core to apparate to the edge of the village, where I did it again and again. I couldn’t teleport very far at once, but it was still the fastest and quietest way for me to traverse the area.

In the distance, the sound of destruction continued. When I looked back from a higher vantage point, I saw that huge handprints had flattened the village in various places, reducing the houses to less than rubble. Even now, things were being destroyed and thrown around. Something told me I didn’t want to be caught by that guy.

Eventually, I reached the edge of the cavern and saw the stairs leading back to the surface. I sprinted up them as fast as my stats could take me, but halted when I approached the corridor to the ruins. I climbed the rocky surface and hid behind a boulder, because I could hear voices nearby.

“Wonder what’s thrown the mayor into such a tizzy…” I heard a woman say.

“He’s really going at it, isn’t he?” a man replied, unfazed. “Must not have found what he was looking for…”

“That ball, you mean? Couldn’t he just find something else to use? I’m certain there are other artifacts that those boneheads up north would like.”

“As if he could get his hands on those without the church finding out… That’s the real issue here. Don’t forget what country we live in, Rata.”

“Yeah, yeah. But still, it isn’t like the church is all-knowing or all powerful. As long as we get some social standing with the continent’s newest tier 7, they won’t be able to continue treating us like servants…”

I held my breath, finally able to get an idea as to what was going on. The stranger that had attacked me was actually the mayor, and he was trying to get a gift of some kind for the dry man in some veiled power-play! Give it to guards to blabber about things when they thought no one was around to hear… Now I just had to sneak past them…

Suddenly, a new voice came from the corridor.

“I suppose I should thank you heathens for explaining the situation so concisely…” an elderly voice drawled, before a blast of golden fire roared out of the corridor and shot into the cavern, illuminating it with its bright light.

I held my breath, unwilling to make a sound as a single set of footsteps slowly entered the cavern.

I stayed hidden behind the nearby rock, hearing my own heartbeat pulse between my ears. Hopefully, this newcomer would just target the mayor and leave me alone…

“Well, well well. What do we have here?” I suddenly heard to my right. I looked up, and sure enough, someone from the church was staring back at me. He wore a red cloak over his white golden armor, but his face was hidden by a helmet.

“Who would have thought that this trip would allow me to kill two birds with one stone? I’m afraid I have to take you in for questioning…”

I tried to apparate, but didn’t make it in time, because that was the last thing I heard before I passed out.

Pov: The inquisitor.

“Two birds with one stone indeed…” I muttered as the young man slumped over, unconscious. I propped him up against the wall and force-fed him a sleeping potion, which would keep him quiet until I dealt with that blasted mayor.

Who could have guessed that I would find someone coated with black-affinity mana right as I was about to arrest the mayor for heresy… Was the statue-case connected to the mayor, and conversely, the between lands, somehow?

I shook my head. It didn’t matter, since I would soon have two people to question.

In the distance, the mayor was doing a terrific job, if his goal was to destroy anything that remained standing in this ancient settlement. I could only wonder why this young man had been hiding behind a rock, if he was an ally of the mayor somehow. This only continued to become more complicated.

For now, though, I would have to subdue that madman, on the orders of his holiness.

I jumped, using one of my skills to catapult me into the destroyed settlement, where I found an enraged mayor standing atop a stalagmite that had been fashioned into a tower of a kind.

For unknown reasons, he didn’t look quite so pleased to see me, though his rage-twisted visage froze when he finally abandoned his rampage and noticed me.

I landed atop of the tower, only a few meters in front of him.

“Inquisitor. To what do I owe the pleasure?” he grumbled.

“You know why I am here, mayor.” I shot back with a smile. I had never liked the slimeball, so this turn of events suited me just fine.

“I am afraid I do not. We followed a heretic into this ruined village, where I found him in the middle of stealing an artifact of dark power. I sought to defeat him and confiscate the object, but he managed to escape by using the tower’s defenses against me. By my estimates, he should still be in the vicinity, perhaps buried under the rubble.”

“Stop the pretense, mayor. Your communications with the between lands have been intercepted.”

His jaw clenched at my declaration. “I see… so there’s only one thing for it, then. You foul, corrupt beings continue to terrorize the people for your own benefit.”

“Don’t act as if you care for the common people, mayor. You wouldn’t have contacted this particular faction of madmen if you did.”

He scoffed, exhaling out of his nose. “Don’t think I’ll go down quietly, wayward inquisitor…” he threatened.

“I was hoping you would say that.” I shot back.

Then, in a mess of golden fire and invisible constructs, the cavern shook.