Raul rushed after Emma, hitting a breakneck speed. It was hard to keep up, but he was immersed in what Emma was feeling—he couldn’t imagine what it was like for her. The mountain felt sinister, cold and corrupted, speaking to him, welcoming him inside, hoping to swallow him whole.

“Over there!” Emma yelled, pointing in the distance. There was a mouth that looked like it led to a cave.

“Coming!” Raul said, pulse throbbing, gripping his reins. Hang in there, Sara, he silently pleaded. We’re coming.

Sara churned her Twilight core, releasing a maelstrom of mana. Haligara recoiled, sliding its blood-spurting snout backward.

“You feel that, Haligara?” Sara asked.

Haligara hissed, snaking its head back and forth, looking for an opening. Yet it was hesitant. Far more hesitant than it ever was, even as it faced down Qualth in Jason’s hands.

“Do you know what that feeling is?” Sara asked, slowly lifting her sword. The ultra-dense mana from the mana vein swirled in the air, warping the environment like a mirage as her sword lit up. Haligara hissed and started uncoiling so it could move. “I’ll tell you,” Sara said, pausing with a malicious gaze. “Fear.”

Sara slashed down, sending a bright arc of mana crashing through the cavern. Haligara released a tidal wave of mana pressure to cancel out the attack, but the strike cut right through it, slicing its body in half. The basilisk screeched, thrashing against the wall, sending the weapons and armor in its bed flying in a rain of clangs.

The devastating attack came at a cost. Sara’s hand fractured again, and Edico’s sword exploded in a rain of shrapnel. Still, Sara didn’t even think about the pain. She just grinned as she looked at the jagged sword, which looked like a broken beer bottle.

“You’ve got some bad luck,” Sara said. “Cuz this thing’s fucked. A swift death is definitely out of the question.”

Haligara screeched, and it opened its mouth to spray more poison, but Sara moved faster. She threw the sword with inhuman speed, streaking across the cavern like a meteorite, cutting straight through its left fang and spraying blood everywhere. As it shrieked, Sara wrapped a soccer-sized rock with Aura, which was plentiful near the mana vein, and kicked it. The rock hit true, nailing it in the jaw with savage force, sending its head crashing into a nearby wall.

Raul was staring at the mouth of the “cave” when the first tremor happened. He was filled with hatred and helplessness when he realized that the cave-like opening was just an indent of a few feet. In frustration, he lifted his axe up, preparing to strike when Emma yelled, Don’t! What if it collapses on her? That was a good point, and he aimed to let up—

—but in a grim stroke of irony, the opposite happened as a booming explosion within the mountain caused a landslide to collapse on them.

“Move!” Raul grabbed Emma and jumped out of the way as a landslide slammed into the ground. Emma’s monta shot forward, using its calcified head to ram a rock that was falling on Raul and Emma.

The situation shook Raul to the core. What the hell is happening in there? he thought, mind racing. Yet any news was good news, and he wanted to believe that Sara was responsible for the terrifying blast. He wanted to believe. He wanted….

Brandon watched to make sure Emma was okay. Then he pulled on his cloak hood tighter, blending into the forest as he slipped past the two. He couldn’t believe his good luck. Sara was holding up her end of the bargain, and her Stans were in position. Aelia was busy dealing with the minor landslide, and the heroes were separated. It was time to move fast before anyone realized he was missing.

“Get up!” Sara screamed, rushing Haligara’s dazed body. She jumped onto its trunk and started running up its scales. “Fight me!” It lifted its head, but it wasn’t fast enough. Sara wrapped her left gauntlet in aura and hit its neck, sending scales flying everywhere.

Haligara thrashed, sending her flying into a wall. Sara bounced off it and landed on her hands and knees, getting up and rushing from a sprinter’s position. Within a second, she wrapped her right foot in aura and punted it, causing its entire body to ripple before blood shot out on the other side. “Or just die!” She tried to kick it again, but it whipped its body and hit Sara, sending her flying at high speed—right into Haligara’s nest of weapons and armor.

That’s when everything changed.

Swords, spears, and daggers pierced through Sara’s back when she hit the nest at high speed. The situation made her feel dirty as if she had just walked barefoot through a heroin den. Yet it was far more serious. The pain was excruciating, and she instantly suffered massive blood loss. She was lucky a blade didn’t hit her spinal cord.

“Lucky hit, you fucking….” Sara stood slowly, shaking off the weapons like porcupine quills. “Fuck.”

Haligara collected itself, staring down at her. Its eyes said that it knew it was going to die. Her slash had cut its body in half, and it was bleeding profusely. Its mouth was ripped apart, and its internal organs… if snakes had organs… must’ve been fucked from her kick. Now, it was just looking at Sara with rage in its eyes, looking to take her down with it.

“You know,” Sara said, grabbing a shield. Haligara shot venom from its good fang, and Sara blocked it with the shield. The metal instantly melted, but she didn’t need it. She was on a sea of shields, so she tossed it like used trash, picking up another and repeating the process as she hobbled to the center. “I could kill you without Qualth,” she said. Haligara’s eyes trembled when it saw where she was headed, and it shot forward to swallow Sara whole.

“Chiáste tou agápē kai misous!” Sara waved her hand, and a blunt gust of wind slammed into the serpent, sending it flying back into the wall. The beast was heavily injured, and her new core and mana amplification stone made her attacks more savage.

Sara grabbed Qualth from the center of the nest of weapons. Contrary to expectations, it wasn’t a flashy masterpiece of golden metalwork. Its hilt was white, and its blade was platinum with white arrays tattooed up the halt, hilt, and blade. The moment she felt it in her hands, she felt complete again. That blade hadn’t left her side for four years before she fought Agronus, and it was there when she almost died.

“But here’s the thing, Haligara,” Sara said, lifting it with her left hand. The white arrays on it turned a vibrant shade of blue as the mana in the cavern shot toward it like a magnet, creating a cyclone of raw aura. “My friend died for this sword—”

Haligara shot at Sara in one final attack that threatened to swallow her whole.

“—So I’m going to use it.”

Sara slashed the sword down, creating a blinding flash of light in the cavern.

Edico was searching for the source of the aura when the entire mountain exploded like a volcano, sending rocks shooting fifty feet in the air. “Barriers!” he screamed. Soldiers immediately started chanting around the heroes as massive rocks smashed down on them. The barriers cracked immediately and threatened to break, but Daniel lifted his hands, and a massive barrier suddenly enveloped the area, protecting Edico and the rest of the heroes.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Edico turned to Daniel in shock, and that’s when he saw it—

—Frustration.

Poor kid, Edico thought. Ever since Mary pushed Sara down that hole, he had been watching Mary with savage fury. Now, just when they heard the landslide and felt… no, knew Sara was alive, a devastating blast had ripped through the mountain, painting her death sentence again. It was frustrating.

Edico’s split-second of pity cost Daniel gravely. Since he wasn’t paying attention, he didn’t see the massive boulder rolling down the mountain.

“Edico!” Daniel yelled, rushing forward. Then Edico felt Daniel’s hand seize the back of his neck, sending him flying just as the boulder touched down.

The rock instantly shattered Daniel’s barrier—

—and smashed into his skull.

Edico sat on the ground, listening to the heroes screaming as Daniel bled out.

Sara collapsed onto the bed of weapons after the strike, not caring if they stabbed her. Her mind was hazy from blood loss, her hand was badly fractured, and she was suffering from mana deprivation. She needed rest, but she couldn’t.

Glowing stalagmites crashed down from the ceiling, and the cavern groaned, threatening to collapse. Fuuuuuuuuuck. I need to go….

Sara pushed herself up with shaky legs and looked at the aftermath. Haligara had been blown into chunks, and the wall now had a colossal crevasse so deep that it made its own pitch-black abyss. It seemed that the combination of the Sayon Twilight core mixed with the mana vein and amplification turned Qualth, a weapon that absorbed all the mana in the atmosphere and sharpened it—into a nuclear weapon.

Sara accounted for all those factors when she used it at one-third of its power (as Qualth could kill it without the power-ups), but she was still wildly off the mark. Even for someone who had used the sword for years, seeing the devastation was beyond her imagination. Fuck.

This place could collapse at any moment… Sara chuckled nervously.

Primal instincts instantly took over, and Sara got to work. She carefully pulled out her spatial rings. Activating her personal one, she threw Qualth inside it and then swallowed it. Then she pulled out the second ring she made and tucked it into the top of her bra. Lastly, she activated the one she got from Telskal and threw a few beautiful weapons into it.

Suddenly, the entire cavern gave way, and massive boulders dropped to the ground like hail.

“Fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck!” Sara said, stumbling over swords and spears and shields on her way to the mana miners’ shaft. It was an iron-supported tunnel from a time when Haligara wasn’t present, and mages charged their magical artifacts in the cavern. It was eerie to see it, knowing that the majority of the weapons came from adventurers and mercenaries who tried to reclaim the mana vein. Judging by Haligara’s nest, thousands tried before the Lemca elders placed hunting restrictions on the area and stopped warning people, letting its presence disappear from the pages of history. After all, when people knew of it, people tried to challenge it—and it always led to Haligara.

A boulder slammed into the ground in front of Sara, breaking her out of her reverie. It was time to enter the mine shaft and make her way out to greet her guest.

Sara had planned to meet the time traveler or his pawn here from the beginning. If He wanted Qualth, he’d meet her on the other side of the shaft. Unfortunately, she didn’t expect to be thrown into a nest of weapons like a ninety miles an hour fastball. Things could get dicey. After mentally preparing herself, she limped into the tunnel, preparing to meet her antagonists head-on.

Sara made it out alive, somehow. The shaft collapsed halfway through, and it crumbled in waves. But a combination of wind and gravity magic helped avoid the obstacles. It was a harrowing experience, but once she got out and confirmed her survival, she couldn’t help but rank killing Haligara with Qualth as the most satisfying thing she had ever done. Not only had she avenged Emma’s death and overcome her trauma, but she also did it in the most spectacularly dramatic way imaginable. Stupid, absolutely. But no one could claim that she didn’t make the most of her second chance.

Satisfying.

Naturally, she was rationalizing the situation. Her heart was pounding at max velocity from the near-death experience, which was terrible, considering that blood was spilling from a dozen wounds in her back. The situation was bad. She needed to get back to Emma immediately.

Unfortunately, things played out exactly as she expected they would. Sunlight flooded her vision, exposing a smooth granite temple-style platform surrounded by trees. It was the type of location that captivated countless people, instilling grand delusions of wealth, only for their investigation to lead to their deaths before they could tell others about it.

Brandon sat on a stone monument in the center, legs dangling over the side, grinning at her in a cloak. The arrogant prick was so confident in his victory that he didn’t even try to hide his identity. One glance at the granite platform let her know why—

—there was an elegant three-layer array subtly etched into it. It was thin, almost imperceptible. But she expected it to be there, so her eyes were fixed on the granite, making it clear as day.

“Wow, that thing fucked you up good,” he said, kicking his legs.

“Some of us work for a living,” Sara said dryly as she stepped onto the platform.

Brandon’s smile disappeared. “I work smart, not hard. I’m also not stupid enough to underestimate you.”

“Stealing isn’t work,” she said. “And you’re still underestimating me if you came here.”

Brandon snapped his fingers, and three basic paralysis arrays he drew in clear fluid lit up under her feet, which was pretty offensive, considering that he was ignoring the three-layer array that the real arraymaster took the time to create. It was clear Brandon wanted to prove how great he was, all while preparing to activate the key on his body at a moment’s notice if his plan didn’t work.

“Wow,” Sara said dryly.

Brandon frowned. “You understand I’m going to kill you, right?” he asked with equal listlessness.

Sara closed her eyes and chanted the Divine Eyes spell. It released an extremely thin mana pulse for miles. Brandon didn’t even notice, but she was certain that Aelia or Edico would. After all, if Brandon was here, so were they.

“Do you think I’m joking?” Brandon asked.

“I don’t know,” Sara said. “Do you have permission to kill me?”

Brandon snorted. “Permission? From who?”

“The person that drew that array on your body.”

Brandon’s eyes widened, and he looked at his forearm to see if it was exposed. It wasn’t. When he looked up at her, she was smirking, glad to have gotten all the information she needed. It made his face contort into a scowl.

“So who is it?” Sara taunted. “The mastermind?”

“Enough of this,” he said, striding forward. “Where is it?”

“It’s down that tunnel. Though I’ll warn you—“

Brandon slapped her. “We can do this one of two ways: you can give it to me and die painlessly, or I can torture it out of you. After everything you’ve done, I wouldn’t feel bad in the slightest.”

Sara furrowed her brow. “That I’ve done? Don’t tell me you’re Jason’s fan—“ He slapped her again. “—girl.”

“Not in this life, bitch.”

“Oh, right,” Sara chuckled. She was loopy from blood loss, and the situation felt funny. “You think you’re from the past. How does that work, exactly? I’ve been dying to know.”

Brandon’s hand clenched into a fist, and he prepared to hit her, but Sara could tell that the rational side of his brain—the one connected to Earth and its customs—told him not to. He wasn’t a terrible person. Not yet, at least.

“Look bitch,” he said, patting down her body, “I don’t know how you retained your memories, but it’s boring.” He inched closer to her breasts, covered only in leather. He looked conflicted. “But I had to earn mine back. Now tell me—where is it? If you don’t, I’ll have to strip-search you.”

“Oh, so that’s how he did it,” Sara laughed. “He convinced you that he was a Horcrux? And you actually bought that shit? Two people retained their memories, and the mastermind has to learn arraycraft from scratch agai—”

Brandon punched her in the face. “Just shut the fuck up.” He started patting her breasts with flat hands until he felt the lump. Then he carefully untied her leathers, looking away and fished out the ring. “I sacrificed my life to stop you. That’s why I trusted my pupil with my legacy.”

“Interesting. Who’s your pupil?”

“Enough of this,” Brandon said. “I have what I want. It’s time to say goodni—“

Suddenly, Emma’s voice called out in the distance. “She’s over here!”

Sara frowned when she heard Emma’s voice. I should just kill him, she thought. Paralysis spells didn’t stop silent casting, and she could torch him alive. Without her arms to direct the flow of mana, the fire would expand out of her chest and burn them both, but her body tempering would save her from serious injury.

While Sara had prepared for this day to come since the beginning and had prepared a gift for Brandon’s pupil, it wasn’t worth threatening Emma’s life. But just as she started chanting, Brandon’s eyes widened, and the situation changed.

“No… not Emma….” Brandon looked from Sara to Emma’s direction multiple times. “Fuck!” He pulled out his blade, but when he walked up to her, a heat spell activated, burning his hands. “What the fuck was… gah!” Brandon yelled, staring at her like she was a witch. “I’m not sure what you did, but—fuck!”

Emma was getting near, and the two sides of Brandon—the law-fearing teenager from Earth and the self-sacrificing Hero of Reemada—had an argument, and his rational brain won out. Brandon burst through the forest toward the mountain, curving off course to avoid Emma and Raul.

Once Sara used Divine Eyes to confirm that Brandon had passed by Emma and Raul without confrontation, she succumbed to her blood loss, drifting into sleep.