Galatea could sense the affected area even before she went there. It was a bit like a hole in magic itself, although it wasn’t quite that bad. It reminded her a little of the ‘corrupted’ mana she’d encountered a little too intimately before, although it was qualitatively very different. Still, she had to overcome a sense of discomfort to teleport herself there.

The teleport was also not as smooth as she was accustomed to. She could sense rather quickly that this effect was not limited to psychic phenomena, if there was even a way to do that.

“Galatea!” Two surprised women greeted her, speaking almost at the same time. It would have been funny if the situation had been less serious.

She had scried on the area beforehand, of course, so it didn’t surprise her to see Madris with Janis. Although it was interesting they both appeared relieved to see her.

“I take it you offered your help, Madris,” Galatea turned to her. They didn’t have time to waste, after all.

The dark elf inclined her head respectfully. “Yes, Galatea. That is correct. This … psychic suppression field is dangerous. I intend to find out who is responsible for it and put a stop to their activity.”

“I can sense as much,” Galatea confirmed, keeping her tone calm. It would have surprised her if Madris hadn’t been able to tell, even if she wasn’t made up of mana like Galatea herself. “I’m sure the hive won’t object to your goals.” On the contrary, Regina would only want assurances that this weapon — and whatever else it might be, you could clearly call it a weapon — would not be turned against her.

“Can you help us lift this suppression?” Janis asked. The young woman was doing a remarkably good job of hiding her anxiety, but she could still see it in the set of her shoulders and the tight lines around her eyes.

Before Galatea answered, she took a moment to assess the situation and consider how to proceed.

The hive’s army was on the move, although it looked less like an army and more like a barely organized mob of monsters. Which it was, in contrast to the usual state of affairs. She could see a few human soldiers as well, Earl Whitor’s men, and the earl himself was around, talking to another drone at the moment, too. The Nerlians and Cernlians were not far away, and would probably catch up before the effect fully ended.

What I don’t do for Regina, Galatea sighed, keeping it quiet since she did not want to give Madris any more information about their relationship. Her loose tongue had already caused problems for her friend once, she was determined not to repeat it.

“I could try to break the ritual effect, but I’m afraid it might do more harm than good,” Galatea said out loud. “I would be willing to fight with you, although I’d prefer to keep my presence and involvement as low-key as possible. I could also teleport a few people at a time, although I would reserve that for when it’s critical, under the circumstances. Scrying should not be as much of a problem, at least.”

“We appreciate it,” Janis told her seriously. “Did Regina say anything else?”

Galatea quirked an eyebrow. “Nothing you don’t know already, I’m sure.”

Without waiting on them to ask more questions, Galatea turned and with a wave of her hand opened a scrying window, expending the effort to make it visible to them as well. She’d just as readily keep Madris out of it, but Janis clearly needed the strategic or tactical intelligence and they didn’t have time to screw around with it. Still, Galatea shot Madris a sideways glance as the dark elf focused intently on the display. She would give her the benefit of the doubt until she gave her a reason not to, for now, but she still wasn’t sure they should trust Madris. Certainly not entirely.

The situation quickly became clear, even without moving the anchor of the scrying on the other end very much. They were being chased by a sizeable force of the combined Nerlian-Cernlian armies with the rest of it not far behind, clearly angling to crush the hive’s own army while it was in chaos from having its communication disrupted. They might have other tricks prepared as well, although Galatea didn’t think so. She’d heard often enough that communication was essential in warfare, and seen the advantages the Hive’s coordination gave them. With good commanders, and that was something they would unfortunately have, the human allies probably could beat the Hive handily in such a situation. They still had the higher levels, too.

The Hive was gathering forces as well, but they probably weren’t large enough to be much of a factor, yet. At least not without something to tip the scales.

Janis turned after looking through it for a short time to shout orders to the drones. Apparently, she’d already set up some kind of relay system with sapient drones repeating her commands to organize the Swarm Drones. There were better solutions than that, though.

“I have a spell that can make your voice resound over a much larger area,” Galatea offered.

Janis looked at her and smiled. “That would be great, thanks. Can you cast it on a few other drones as well?”

They spent the next few minutes setting it up, and Galatea watched as Janis shouted an order to hurry up to test the spell. It worked pretty well, with her sounding quite loud from so close up, but not enough to damage anyone’s hearing, while even the drones further out heard her as well.

Unfortunately, that didn’t really help all that much in speeding up the drones’ march. It reminded her of another potential issue, though, so Galatea turned to Madris. “Where is your companion?” she asked.

“He’s gone to the enemy army and will see about slowing them down,” Madris said. She sounded calm, but Galatea noted the small frown flickering across her face.

Clearly, she was a bit more worried about him than she let on. Galatea also wasn’t sure about their relationship, but they had more important things to do than prying into it right now. Instead, she focused on her scrying again, but it was hard to catch any hints of the man.

“He seems to be a stealth focus of some kind, so I don’t think you’re going to have much luck finding him,” Janis commented in a low tone.

“He’s a shadow elementalist, actually,” Madris said matter-of-factly. “As in, both a caster and a bloodline descendant, like you are with air and fire, Janis.”

Janis blinked in obvious surprise, but Galatea recognized the excitement she felt after the initial surprise. “Really?”

There were no shadow elementals anywhere close by, definitely not among those on the eastern Alps, but Galatea had heard some lived in what used to be the Caucasus. It made as much sense as anything, she supposed.

If Madris’ companion was doing anything to slow down their pursuers, it wasn’t visible yet. Galatea mentally zoomed out and estimated their heading and speed. At this rate, they’d probably clash at a location close to the edge of this effect, although the hive’s army would have to turn and ready themselves to face the Nerlians at some point. It might be possible to slow them down enough to get most of it out with a rearguard taking the brunt of the fighting. She wasn’t sure that would be a good idea, though.

“The Hive is better at fighting using ambushes or taking advantage of air superiority, right?” Galatea asked quietly.

Janis nodded. “We’ve mostly avoided straight-up field battles so far, where possible,” she said. “This army is enough of a threat that we should probably deal with it decisively, though. But if we take too many losses here, we’ll be in a bad position regarding the Esemen.”

“Well, you’re the strategist here,” Galatea conceded. “How do we preserve most of the Hive’s forces without getting overwhelmed and chewed up?”

Janis rubbed the bridge of her nose, looking frustrated. “I need options, Galatea. Can you stabilize the mana in the area enough to make large-scale magic safe? What would happen without it? And do you know ways to speed up our communication?”

"We could send signals with Morse code, Regina should know it and I assume the knowledge can be easily shared with other drones,” Galatea responded, starting with the first idea she had. “We can’t guarantee it’d be safe, though, or fast enough. I’d rather not cast magic at too high a level here without getting the chance to study the phenomenon further, and I’m not sure we have time for that. I can use my own mana to a degree, though, so like I said, I should be able to safely do a few things.” She paused, frowning. “Regina was also going to come closer, and with her helping, as well as yours and Madris’ participation, we might be able to break through this ritual effect and try to purify the area.”

“Purify it?” Madris interjected. “Is that possible?”

Galatea closed her eyes for a moment, thinking back to a certain point in the past. “It might be,” she said. “It’s going to be risky, though.” She glanced at Janis and smiled sardonically. “Well, at least if we fail and probably die, there’s at least one entity who can definitely purify it using the System.”

The fact that Leian hadn’t already intervened could be concerning. On the other hand, it might also mean that things weren’t as bad as she feared they might be. That was a bit reassuring. Leianaleine was — besides being a goddess, although she clearly wasn’t a very powerful one — definitely the best mage she’d ever heard of. If some of the hints she’d dropped over the centuries meant what Galatea thought they did, she was about as far above mortal mages in this world as a dragon was above a lizard monster … or as Regina was compared to a contemporary human in knowledge of electronics. She’d wondered if that was part of the reason why Leian appeared to have taken a liking to the Hive Queen. Either way, she had designed and overseen the System almost by herself.

“What about your mana?” Janis asked hesitantly.

Galatea frowned. “It might be a little bit of an issue. I don’t think it’s anything I can’t handle, though.” A substantial portion of the mana making up her form was the ‘twisted’ mana she’d been immersed in since the Cataclysm, but it had been integrating pretty well. While the process wasn’t complete and she couldn’t honestly be sure it ever would be, she’d never had trouble with it since she was inducted into the System and left her former home and prison. “You yourself should have some resistance to it, anyhow,” she added, “along with Madris’ companion, given your elemental heritage.”

“What was that about your mana, Galatea?” Madris asked, but both of them ignored her. Galatea wasn’t going to reveal information this sensitive to her just like that.

“Give me a minute,” she said, then closed her eyes — not that it stopped her from sensing her surroundings — and focused on what her senses were telling her.

Unlike a flesh-and-blood human, Galatea didn’t need to expend much attention on the physical world, and after setting her avatar to drift along at the same pace as before and stay with Janis, she could fully focus on the interplay of mana.

It took her a minute to sense the psychic suppression effect. She wasn’t very familiar with psychic power, which might be a hindrance. It was clearly affecting more than just a psychic effect, though. Although, as a psychic phenomenon, it was also affecting all minds in the area. Even hers, which did not have a physical substrate. It didn’t attack them, as far as she could see, simply degraded the connections in this area … which essentially meant attacking the fabric of the mana permeating it. In fact, that should be the same structure the System was built on or at least used. There might actually be a chance that it was affected as well. Although no one had reported trouble with it yet, so she didn’t think so. She also saw Madris’ System description when she focused on it, so that appeared to work.

The next time Leian showed up, she was definitely going to ask a few questions. That should be an interesting discussion. For now, Galatea tentatively chalked it up as a good sign.

She hesitated for a moment, then started manipulating her mana, activating an Ability she had gotten from the System at the same time. Mana Spirit. The small portion of her mana she had split off organized itself into a proper form within a second, guided by the framework she had put in place, and the spirit hovered a short distance above the ground in front of her. She quickly repeated the process twice more.

Madris swore softly, and she could practically see the curiosity radiating off Janis. “What is that?” the dark elf asked.

Galatea opened her eyes again as she turned her attention to them, since it seemed like the polite thing to do. “A few minor sprites,” she said. “I’m going to send them out to help us assess the situation. It should also help us stay in contact.”

She was also watching the mana carefully, both ambient mana and the part invested into the constructs while more of the environmental mana flew back into her to make up for it. So far, she wouldn’t want to repeat this a dozen more times, but it seemed fine. Not that she had the mana for many more spirits.

She focused on the spirits as they faded from sight and started moving out in three directions. They were mostly autonomous, though of limited intelligence, but she could still sense their locations and they would be able to send basic messages using mana manipulation.

“Well,” she raised an eyebrow at the others, who were still staring after the spirits. She supposed it was kind of funny that neither of them actually needed visible forms to see them. “Janis, should we get started on trying what I suggested?”

Janis ripped her eyes away from the departing minor spirits and back to Galatea and Madris. She chewed on her lip as she clearly considered the matter, then shook her head.

“No,” she said. “Not yet.”

“You have a plan?” Galatea asked. Madris looked skeptical, but she didn’t let it bother her. Regina had put Janis in charge of this theater of operations and Galatea’s own skills didn’t include military command, so she was content to follow her lead.

“The basics of one, at least,” the young mage answered. “First, we need to pick our ground. Then I’m going to need to make use of your skills.”

Madris just nodded when she glanced at her. Galatea had to admit she was glad to have the psychic on their side, even if she didn’t entirely trust her.