Watcher

Zach watched the battle in the distance, the fires spreading through the forest below. The fight was intense, and the Cultivators were firing their techniques in waves of power. Even at such a large distance, Zack could tell that they were powerful.

With Zach's stats his eyes were sharp enough that he could see clearly across that distance. He watched patiently, Bera at his side. The battle was quickly turning the entire area into a chaos obscured by smoke. Too much was happening, but with his skill perk, Analysis he was keeping track of everything that he had seen, sorting it inside his mind and sifting through it at a pace that was so fast that the chaos in front of his eyes turned into an orderly display.

He knew the danger before it even occurred.

"Alert everyone," he spoke. "The forest beyond the dome is compromised, everyone should get ready to fight."

It happened quickly, he saw the ripple of it happening. He didn't know the details, the reasons, but his mind made the connection. The Dome's influence had expanded beyond its boundary, and the Sect fighting hadn't noticed yet, so preoccupied with fighting the enemy directly beneath them.

Bera used her powers, reached out to the fleet surrounding the territory and warned them of the danger.

Below them, the Wardens and the Twilight Melody Sect warriors that had come with him readied themselves as well. And then the forest in front of them rippled. Zach saw as trees pulled themselves out of the ground and started to move, as mutant growths started to appear over their bark and spit attacks in their way.

He evaluated the danger with his |I Analyze and Predict| and decided that the danger was not high enough for him to involve himself. He watched as a tree was frozen solid by Kri, then splintered in pieces by Hiro's techniques. Okim covered and watched over them, and Zach was confident in his ability to keep them from too much danger.

He turned his eyes back to the fight in the distance as Bera coordinated the fleet by passing messages all around the territory. Every now and then she would ask him a question, and he would give his opinion on what had to be done.

The fight in the distance escalated quickly as the Golden Phoenix joined the battle, and his vision was obscured further. Even with his eyes and skills, he was unable to get the full picture from the interference. He caught only glimpses of attacks that were powerful enough to shine through the thick smoke curtain.

Down below him, a large tree ripped itself from the ground, its branches twisting as they mutated into something else. He analyzed and realized the threat. Before it could do anything, he stepped close to the edge of the airship he was standing on and raised his hand turned into a Greater Windsong Aspect Blade.

With Wind's Mark and Wind Master, he focused the wind around his blade and then swiped, unleashing an empowered Shattering Song. A whistling song filled the air as a blade of Wind Essence flew out, carrying his attack across space. It intercepted the threat before it could reach the pass and endanger the people there. It struck the tree, and it splintered in pieces with the effect spreading on the smaller trees around it.

Zach turned his eyes back to the battle in the distance, and then narrowed them. Knowledge seeped through the barriers he had raised in his mind. Using his soul weapon always made it harder to push out, even when he wasn't using the blade of Knowledge. He grimaced, but before he could push it back behind the wall his mind started spinning.

The nature around the territory had been changed, it was infused with the power from the Dome, the knowledge of how such a thing could occur flashed through his mind, pulled from memories of the things he had learned from the Castle of Knowledge's repository.

Knowledge alone wasn't much, but his Analysis perk put it in perspective.

He knew what was about to happen a moment before it did. He turned to Bera and opened his mouth just as a massive suction of Essence happened all around him. All the nature in the territory died and withered, its Essence pulled back to the Dome area. The ground shook and rippled.

Zach turned his head back and saw shadows moving behind the smoke curtain. Thousands of tendrils reaching for the sky. The fire burned, flames obscuring everything. And then an Ideal.

"Alert everyone, they are to remain here," Zach said as he gathered the wind around him and took to the sky.

The Wind Essence flowed over his armor, and with his will he pushed it into his spiritual tool, the Armor of the Aspect Foundation. He purged the accumulated random Essences and let the Wind slowly fill the core.

He flew across the sky, getting closer to the Dome area. Then the world in front of his eyes faded away in an instant. He felt the world bend with his Ripples of Time and Space, except that it was unlike any sensation he had felt before. He paused, holding himself high in the air and looked ahead at... nothing.

It was as if a curtain of nothingness was in front of him, something so strange that it was even playing tricks on his eyes. The Dome area, the battle, it was gone. He frowned, his skills not finding any purchase in front of him. There was... a will that shrouded the entire place, that pushed his attempts to see inside away.

Then the notification came, the Dome was defeated and he sighed in relief. Yet, the area around where the Dome used to be remained obscured.

He flew closer to the edge of the boundary, all the time trying to push his will through, with no success. He reached for his Far-link Orb and used it, but heard no response.

He frowned, then focused his will and looked for the flaws in the boundary. There were none immediately apparent, but as time passed he saw some slight appearing. It didn't take long for him to realize that the boundary was weakening, and that its degradation was accelerating. Soon, it would disperse fully.

Its presence alone worried him, but not enough to actually force his way through it, especially not now that he got the notification that the Dome was defeated. He knew that people cared a lot about keeping their power a secret.

For all he knew this was just that, a way to prevent others from looking in and seeing what had been used against the Dome.

And then the boundary broke apart, the sky above shattered and Zach flew back, raising his hand and halting the powerful blast of wind that expanded in all directions. Void spilled from beyond the sky, and a line of darkness reached the ground, destroying everything in its way.

He felt the boundaries of Space crack, and he used his [Aspect True Sight]. The area was filled with weak points in the Real Plane, and more were appearing by the minute all around.

Before Zach could even take in what was happening, the world was transformed by black fire. The heat of it made him raise his hand to his face even with his armor. He could feel it even through the spiritual tool. He spun wind around him, trying to carry the heat away. Immediately, he activated his strongest perks, boosting his stats far above.

He didn't know what was happening, but somehow he was certain that people would need his help.

As his stats soared, and a faint song of spirits echoed in his mind, several things clicked into place. The Aspect of Knowledge that had been creeping through his Soul with every moment that passed seemed to bleed into his meaning. It sifted through the song that the spirits of Terra whispered, and coalesced it into a single thought. They helped him make sense of what had happened, feeding of his own Analysis perk.

The Dome was defeated, this was a battle between people. He didn't know the sides, he didn't know who or what, but he knew that he had to stop it.

With his will the wind roared up around him like a tornado, and he flew closer.

Just as he approached the pillar of fire, his senses screamed at him. A fluctuation in space, a familiar sensation. He focused and used Grand Step Upon the River, the perk to step through Time and Space. He stepped and the space pushed back against him, his perk shattered and he was frozen in Space, unable to move.

A person stood in front of him, no sign of his arrival, as if he had always been there. Zach raised his eyes, and recognized the minotaur.

"You," Zach said.

"Me," the minotaur responded, his will holding Zach in place.