Chronicles of the True Wizard

“This is the entrance to The Realms of Annihilation?” Felix looked around in disbelief at the completely normal looking flat and barren dry land field before him. Where they stood, there was nothing to indicate there was an entrance to another Realm at all.

“One of them.” Peace answered as he stepped forwards and vanished.

Huh, guess he is allowed in.

“This is probably the least popular entrance.” Melody added before stepping forwards and vanishing as well.

Nova bounded in after her, excited about disappearing into thin air. For the last few hours, she had been incessantly pestering Felix about how he Spatially Translocated himself in the fight against Thakrogan. She wanted Felix to teach her and kept insisting no matter how many times he tried to convey the complexity of what he had done and how she didn’t have enough Mana.

That didn’t seem to deter her in the slightest though.

Felix followed a moment later, stepping forwards where the three of them had vanished and instantly felt a very similar bubble to the one he passed through when entering and leaving The Abyss except this one, was much stronger. Passing through it felt physical to Felix, like he was literally stepping through a thick bubble of some viscous liquid.

On the other side, everything was different.

Not only was it filled with flora and fauna forming a colorful and dense forest, but the Aether and Anima were completely different as well. Not only were they denser, which Felix expected, but they felt completely different.

The Aether was active and fluid but even more than that, it was like it was almost structured. Where normally he could identify flows in the Aether, groupings of specific Attunements, like dye poured into a liquid, here he could sense much more complex structures. It wasn’t just groupings of similar Mana but almost fragments of Spells and echoes of Rituals from long ago.

The Anima was similar. It was denser and more lively, on the same scale as his Spark of Life but on top of that, it felt much richer. Like it contained more experiences and the experiences themselves were clearer. Like the difference between a significant memory and the memory of a dream from years ago.

Melody, Peace and Nova were already weaving their way through the jungle before them and Felix quickly caught up and followed them through.

“This is why it isn’t the most popular entrance. Especially for those that can’t fly.” Melody said as she gestured around them.

It took almost a half hour for them to clear the forest which meant the entire Realm, was much bigger than Felix had expected.

When he saw what was on the other side of the jungle, that feeling was only exacerbated as he flew out into a full blown city. There were tall towers in the distance, large flat buildings and architectural marvels all interspersed amongst each-other. In the middle of the buildings, was a large bubble that towered above everything else. It was just the top half of the bubble and it was white with prismatic patterns that shifted like life forms all over it. It looked to Felix like a video trying to show something specific happening that had been screwed up in processing to the point of being just completely unrecognizable rainbow patterns.

“Was this city just… always here?” Felix asked as he marveled at the buildings around him.

“Nope.” Melody skipped along just a step ahead of him, “This city shifts and changes all the time as new people pop in.”

“Are you saying people hang out here? Is there a limit to how long you can stay in this outer area?”

Peace shook his head, “Only once you’ve actually entered The Realms. You can prepare as long as you’d like here then once you leave, you have about a day before you’re kicked out entirely.”

“So some people just come in here and… stall?”

Peace nodded but Melody shook her head, “Some people are hiding from the real world and anyone stronger than them. You can only get in if you’re C grade or below, right?”

Felix nodded slowly in understanding, “So someone who’s top shit of their grade comes here and is basically a God with no one to stand against them.”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

Felix turned to look at Peace, finally voicing a question he had been wondering for a little while, “So it just didn’t care about you then?”

Peace shrugged, “Spirit things?”

Looking at Melody, she shrugged too.

“Lucky I guess. You going to push The Realms then?”

Peace shrugged half heartedly, “Meh. I’ll go in and see what’s going on but I don’t see myself pushing very hard. I think…”

Melody slowed a step to listen and Felix patiently waited for Peace to continue.

“I think I don’t really care about being strong.”

Felix nodded, “Makes sense if you don’t have a reason to be strong.”

Melody nodded, “I’ve been trying to get people to enjoy life since I was born and realized I could feel how stuck up they all were.”

Peace chuckled, “Yeah. I’ve just never needed strength for anything really. I’m having fun experiencing what a beast feels or what a storm feels like… what a weird statement.”

Felix smirked, “Still sounds awesome.”

He nodded quickly, “It is. I don’t know that I want to remember, like The Reaper does, but I do want to experience… things. Maybe even everything…” He turned to Felix, “Since you’re the only one that seems to really care about being strong, why do you care?”

Melody scoffed, “Isn’t it obvious? He’s just trying to start a har-”

As soon as Felix realized what she was about to say, he surrounded her mouth with a Force Bubble Spell and interrupted her, “I care about knowledge. I want to learn everything about… well everything but Mana and Magic are the most interesting right now. I want to know how the universe works, why it works the way it does. I want to understand how Mana interacts with the universe, how Spells work. I want to uncover every arcane secret there is to uncover.”

Peace smirked, “Figured it was something like that.”

Melody put a fist on her hip and Felix dropped the Force Bubble, causing her to mockingly gasp before speaking, “Not quite as noble as being strong to protect your friends and loved ones or even to pursue freedom…”

Felix scoffed, “Who cares about being noble? What a monumental waste of energy. Just do what makes you the happiest and deal with the consequences.”

She laughed and shook her head in disapproval but Felix sped up a few steps and was already gone by the time she looked up.

“Okay so, is there anything to this city or is it just a vanity project from people clinging onto their sense of power in the C grade?”

“Well, even though you only have a day or so in here after coming out, plenty of people sell their shit here. The economy here is actually booming, if you think about it, this is the last place you can buy something before heading into The Realms.”

“So there’s plenty of annoying sales tactics around urgency, instilling fear and exaggerating the contents of The Realms?”

Peace smirked, “Yeah. Pretty much.”

Melody gasped for a breath as she caught up, “It’s not all bad, there’s also plenty of people just selling items they found in The Realms.”

Peace nodded along, “As you can imagine, there’s a very different economy in here. Consumables and items that can save you in a pinch are worth way more in here.”

“Yeah, those standout but everything is marked up in here.” Melody pointed over at the front display of a shop to their right showing off suits of armor that looked particularly flashy.

Felix didn’t see a price on display, but he got the idea, “So you’re saying it isn’t worth looking for last minute equipment in here?”

“Unless you’ve got an in with Lilian, not really.”

Felix’s eyes widened a little, “Who?”

“Lilian The Twisted Trinity.” Peace answered, “A C grade who stepped in here then never stepped back out.”

“She was a prodigy and she’s set up a kind of… syndicate in here.”

Felix cocked a brow, “I kind of assumed that would never happen but I guess in here… Why don’t Zeraxes or Romar just take her out?”

“She’s not weak.” Melody responded.

“In fact, I think she was considered one of the strongest people ever in the C grade.” Peace looked at Melody for confirmation.

She nodded, “Yeah, think Zeraxes, Romar when they were C grade but… smarter and stronger.”

“Is she going to try and tax me on the way out or something? Should I worry?”

“I don’t think so… Probably not?” Melody looked at Peace.

Peace shrugged, “Not that I’ve heard. She mostly just taxes trade and buys up the best treasures to hoard for herself.”

“So… can we just head in then?” Felix looked at both of them for confirmation.

“Seriously? We can literally never come back in here and you want to just skip right to the main event?”

Felix rolled his eyes, “Fine. What do you want to do before heading in?”

She shrugged, “Shopping of course. There isn’t much to do here anyways.”

“Wouldn’t we be better off waiting till we’re through The Realms so we can barter everything we get?”

Peace nodded along.

“I mean… yeah, you shouldn’t buy anything unless you really need it, like new robes or a wand or any equipment at all in your case but-” She spun around with her arms outstretched, gesturing to the city around them, “-look at how massive this place is. We’ve got to at least find out where the good stuff is in advance.”

As it turned out, there wasn’t nearly as much ‘good stuff’ as Felix was expecting.

For some reason he had thought things would be a little different in the city outside The Realms, with more equipment and items but as they walked through the city, entering various buildings along the way, he was inundated with consumables. It wasn’t just most of the items they saw, but almost every single one of the items they saw.

Luckily, that wasn’t the only thing they found in the city. As they explored over a period of 4 days or so, they stayed in some pretty lavish accommodations and visited a new restaurant for every meal, and a few times between.

They still hadn’t explored the entire Realm city at that point but they didn’t intend to. Melody had used her talents to direct them exactly where they needed to go and so there was no where else worth exploring except for the Allinus Idridor Auction. An auction started by and named after Radleus, the Merchant God’s, first child.

It’s been handed down from child to child and is seen as somewhat of a right of passage for them. They run the auction up until the next child finally enters The Realms and takes it over from them at which point they can finally attempt The Realms themselves and leave.

The child currently running the auction was one of his daughters, Carilla Idridor, a real bitch according to Melody.

On the morning of the auction, Felix, Melody and Peace headed out towards the building itself, bought tickets, then quickly found a restaurant nearby to serve them breakfast while they waited.

“Should I expect anything interesting at this auction? I know you said it would be worth waiting for but our interests don’t always… align.”

She rolled her eyes, “When have I ever dragged you to do something that you didn’t end up enjoying or benefit from?”

“Sa-”

“Don’t answer that.” She immediately cut him off.

“Well, there will be equipment and loot from The Realms, the auction is where most of the good stuff ends up.” Peace answered before biting into his multiple foot tall pastry.

“The issue is whether or not you’ll be able to actually buy anything.” Melody stabbed the air with her fork.

Felix cocked a brow, “If you aren’t the one paying, then I can’t afford shit.”

She shook her head, “Not that. I mean that everything good will probably be bought by Lilian.” Melody swallowed her bite then dabbed at her mouth with a cloth, “Remember we said she taxes everything going through here?”

“So she’s got a lot of creds?”

Melody waited a moment before speaking, “and…”

Felix almost slapped himself, “She’s taxing the auction house so anything she buys, is at a huge discount. How much?”

“50% I think.” Melody looked at Peace.

He shrugged, “Last I heard it was 40 but you’re probably right.”

She shrugged, “Yeah so, something like that.”

Felix nodded, “I’ve been thinkin-”

“Excuse me?” An small elvish man stood a bit away from their table, far enough to be polite but close enough that it was obvious who he was talking to.

Peace spun in his chair and frowned at the man then turned back to his massive pastry a moment later when he decided he didn’t really care.

“Another?” Felix sighed and looked at Melody.

She smiled politely, “What can I do for you?”

“Oh… actually, I was looking for Felix Kade?”

Felix’s eyes widened and his brows furrowed simultaneously as he suddenly spun towards the man, “You what?”

He took that as permission to approach and stepped forwards next to their table, “My name is Cobalt, most people just call me Cob.”

Melody snickered as Felix resisted the urge to be too abrasive, “What’s up?”

“Well, I…” The man fidgeted with the ends of his robe’s sleeves, evidently a habit considering the fraying in the area. He took a moment to find his resolve, took a breath then nodded, “I want you to teach me.”

“No.” Felix turned back to the table.

“I…” His jaw hung slack as he looked around at Peace and Melody for any salvation whatsoever.

Peace was happily eating his pastry through a smirk and Melody was having the time of her life as she subtly used her body language to invite him in and give him enough confidence not to run away.

Cob stepped a little closer to the table, now impossible to ignore and looked slightly down at Felix from the height of his short stature, “I’ve been following you ever since you beat Tanryel in a Duel. I’m a Caster you see and for a long time, I thought Caster’s Duels were the pinnacle of a Caster’s power. That those competing were the fastest, most strategic, most intelligent, had the biggest Spell Lists and the best wands.”

Melody continued to use her body language, and her ability as a succubus to egg him on, leaning in slightly and opening her shoulders towards him to signal comfort and interest.

He didn’t seem to realize he was being manipulated but his confidence clearly grew as his chest puffed out slightly and he continued, “Then, you came along and destroyed Tanryel. You showed me how wrong I was. What was truly important as a Caster.”

Felix sighed, “What’s that?”

“Magic.”

Not a bad answer.

“Since then, you were almost entirely quiet and most people lost interest when you didn’t seem to do much in Bastorus One or really make a big name for yourself in your recruitments. As much as I was inspired by you… Anyways, as soon as I saw you were signed up for The Abyss alongside Melody, I didn’t think for even a second it was just because you were trying to sleep with her.”

Implying someone thought that. Felix side eyed Melody without physically moving and saw her snickering.

“At first, I was just happy to watch. To continue taking inspiration from you and to find my own way. I kept watching and you kept climbing and now you’re in contention to beat everyone. The more I saw, the more I realized I didn’t know so… I decided I would come find you.”

“How long have you been waiting here?”

He looked around slightly embarrassed, “Ah… a few dekads… I had to be sure I didn’t miss you.”

“Well, sorry you wasted your time. I can’t exactly just teach you anything outright. My Spells are custom and won’t work for anyone else, my Mana Pool is massive but that’s a part of me, there really isn’t anything I can outright teach you.”

He shook his head quickly, “That’s not true at all. You taught Mera.”

Felix looked at Melody, unsure how to respond to that. Peace also looked up in slight surprise but didn’t say anything.

“Mera’s a little different. She’s got a lot of the same uniqueness as Felix because she’s his daughter.” Melody offered.

Not… really at all, more like a clone physically and a construct spiritually… kind of but… I guess that’s not the worst lie.

Cob’s shoulders slumped a little, “I didn’t even… I didn’t even consider she could… It makes so much sense now.” He looked up a moment later and dropped to one knee, “Please. I’ll do anything. I just want the chance to learn. I’ll dedicate everything I have to you. My life, all my possessions, anything you want. I’ll do whatever you say, I’ll…”

Divine Disciple

Cobalt has offered to worship you as his Deity. This will cause his Soul to enter Mental World upon death. This is a binding Soul contract. Up until death, Cobalt has decided to serve you in whatever manner you decide in the hopes you teach him something.

Do you accept this offer?

Yes.

No.

NO! Please don’t tell me he saw something on his end too…

Looking down at the man, considering his lack of reaction in any way, Felix assumed he hadn’t seen anything. Looking over at Melody, because she was being annoying, he saw her leaning in and pressuring him to respond.

“I don’t want you to serve me and I’ve already told you, there’s nothing I can teach you.”

He shot to his feet, “What about how you instantly moved from one place to another in the fight against Thakrogan?”

Nova meowed in agreement.

Not you too.

“That wasn’t instant at all. I had been preparing that Spell for minutes before that.”

“I don’t care. Teach me that. Teach me how you prepare Spells. What does that mean? How do you cast so many at once? How big is your Spell List?”

Felix cocked a brow.

“Because I’ve been counting and so far, I’ve personally seen you cast somewhere in the neighborhood of-”

“Look, I’m sorry to have wasted your time but I can’t teach you any of the things I do.”

He shook his head, “How about this, just let me follow you around. Even if you’re right, let me see if I can pick anything up on my own.”

Felix opened his mouth to refuse but the sheer resolve on Cobalt’s face stopped him, “Fine. I’m not slowing down for you though and I’m not answering a thousand questions. Also, we aren’t staying in here very long and we’ll be heading right back to Eramith-”

He shook his head, “I’m also a contestant but… I haven’t made it quite as far as you have. Thank you.” He bowed all the way down.

Felix sighed then looked at his friends who were both smirking.

“So anyways, you were saying something Felix?” Melody said half serious.

“Right. Is any reason I couldn’t just make myself equipment in The Realms? Would anything stop me from doing so? Also, how hard is the first floor… realm, whatever?”

“First one is about level 2000 and they climb by about a level every realm.”

Felix’s eyes widened, “So the Dragon is level 4000?”

“Yes. He made Mera’s equipment.” Melody explained.

Felix looked at her in confusion for a moment before he realized she was answering the question Cob had swallowed and obediently not asked.

“Summoned her familiar too.” She quickly added to give Cob even more questions and ultimately tease Felix.

“They aren’t all combat floors though, right?”

Peace shook his head, “None of them are combat floors. You’re thinking of things from a System point of view. The Realms are more like entire… well, Realms. Each one has an entire world within it with cities, countries, continents sometimes even planets.”

“The goal, the thing you have to do to move on, isn’t always clear either. The System gives quests to guide you but they’ll start to get… weird, from what I’ve heard.” Melody added.

Felix didn’t even need an explanation as he already had a pretty good idea of what that meant.

People began to quickly stand and move around them.

“Looks like it’s auction time.” Melody rose to her feet and quickly downed the rest of her pastry.

Peace, amazingly, had already finished his massive pastry and he wiped his hands before standing as well.

Felix simply floated out of his seat to avoid the crowd and Melody and Peace joined him a moment later in the air. Looking down, he saw Cob hurrying his way through the crowd to try and keep up with them.

Flying through the large open doorway of the auction house, they flew all the way over to the booth Melody had paid for and found seats within. While it was nice, it was a much smaller venue than the only other auction Felix had ever been to, after the World Event. Though, the fact that C grades had made this place without help from anyone outside The Realms was impressive in its own right.

It took Cob a few minutes to finally make his way to their booth, though Felix had no idea how he knew where they were only suspecting Melody had something to do with it. He politely took a seat in the booth a few meters behind them and sat there silently waiting along with the rest of them for the auction to begin.

People filtered in and found their seats, the noise floor of the auction rising as they did until finally every seat in sight was filled by a body. Even then, they had to wait a few minutes for the auction to begin as everyone was early because seats outside of the booths were not guaranteed.

A blonde woman with hair that drifted in the wind, despite the complete lack of wind, and a suit like dress robe stepped out into the middle of the stage then bowed deeply to the crowd, her arms stretched out to either side of her.

“Good afternoon and welcome to my auction.” Carilla said in a slow and arrogant voice, like listening to her voice was the greatest privilege anyone could ask for.

“Today we have many items on offer from The Realms. Items you will have a great deal of difficulty finding anywhere else.”

She closed her eyes and lifted her chin to the sky as hundreds of people synchronously rolled podiums onto the stage, each one holding an item, “Let the auction begin.”

The auction was nothing like what Felix expected. He had been expecting an auctioneer to stand at the front and let people bid one by one on each item. Instead, the attendees simply verbally bid on an item and The System seemed to handle the rest. Despite the fact that there was no need to speak any louder than a whisper, the entire building instantly exploded in noise as everyone yelled out their bids in the hopes of snagging something.

It was chaos.

Above each item, the current bid along with the time until it was sold was displayed as hovering text and each item had just 2 seconds until it was sold when a bid was placed.

Given there wasn’t really any time to examine the items and discuss, Felix grabbed both Melody and Peace’s arms and pulled them into his Soul Garden. Grim had already created projections of the items themselves and Felix filled in their information from his own Identifications.

Melody snickered a little before walking forward and slowly walking amongst the pedestals, like she was in a museum, examining art or artifacts. Peace did the same except he was more childlike and spent much less time examining everything.

Given the fact that Felix had identified them all, he already knew which ones stood out to him.

[A - Ancient] Skull of the Enigma

[Ancient][Dark][Soulful][Spirit]

The skull of someone long dead that seems to contain a secret so tightly guarded, it never moved on. Some say it is the memory of a tragedy, others say it is the secret to the universe itself.

This item has no known uses although it is nearly indestructible. Any damage it does experience is quickly healed by the Soul embedded within.

Ignoring the weird secret thing, I can integrate strong bones into my body.

[B - Ancient] Mirage

[Ancient][Dark][Amulet][Soulful][Spirit]

Sometimes referred to as The Amulet of Infinite disguises, this amulet allows the wielder to completely disguise their presence, replicating the presence of anyone that has ever been in range of the amulet for sufficient time. This disguise is nearly perfect but relies on the user’s will power as it will not strengthen or weaken the users presence.

A weird item but I could totally just rip this thing apart and integrate it into my Soul to augment my Aura.

[S - Ancient] Cometfall

[Ancient][Dark][Wand][Soulful][Spirit]

A wand that is said to have been once used to pull a comet from space to destroy a nation.

This wand excels at the manipulation and control of Matter as well as the weaving of Spells into that control. With a strong enough bond and high enough will power, this wand can grant the wielder telekinesis strong enough to rival most magic.

Annoying I wasn’t close enough to get anything more on it. These stupid System descriptions are nearly useless without my manual additions. For example, these tags are all really similar…

Felix turned to Melody who was examining a set of dangly earrings, “Why are the tags so similar on these items? That’s just what comes out of The Realms?”

She nodded, “Yeah. As with The Abyss, mostly Ancient stuff from the past. The further back you go, the stronger the Souls and so, the more Soulful items you end up with. As for Dark, most of this stuff is so old, no one now could recreate them if they wanted to.”

“Magic and crafting methods are lost or forgotten so, Dark.” Peace added as he picked up a scale, the item Felix expected him to want.

He gave them a few moments to make up their minds but he already knew what they were most interested in, both because he knew them and because he could feel their emotions.

[A - Ancient] Dragon Scale

[Ancient][Spirit][Scale][Organic]

The scale of a Dragon.

Simple and potentially awesome if he can use it to transform.

[B - Ancient] Robes of the Silent Symphony

[Ancient][Dark][Spirit][Growth]

A set of robes said to have been crafted from sound itself. These robes grant the wearer control over sound. The robes can also store and later transmit any noise.

Classy, elegant and provocative. Seems perfect for Melody.

Once they had both decided on the exact items Felix had expected them to, he released them from his Soul Garden and Melody began bidding on the items they wanted.

For the Dragon Scale and the Robes, Melody placed very high bids right out of the gate but for the three items Felix had been looking at, she was more conservative. He had told her to see if she could get any of them but specifically the wand.

The bids on all the items had been increasing multiple times a second from the instant the auction opened but as soon as Melody had placed her massive bids, the bidding on those items nearly ceased. Felix had thought they had stopped until right at the last moment, she was beaten, by just a few credits.

She immediately bid again, increasing the price by 50% to try and scare off the other person but then it happened again.

Simultaneously, the bidding on the items Felix had been looking at was beginning to slow but they weren’t secured yet. There were still clearly a large number of people looking at those items as well.

Melody grunted through gritted teeth as she raised her bids once again.

“Lilian?” Felix asked.

“Who else.” She responded without looking away from the items at the front.

Peace nodded, “How much higher can you go?”

“Not much.”

“I’d offer to help but I don’t keep many credits on me.” Peace shrugged.

Felix nodded, “Me neither. Sorry.”

She shook her head, “We knew this might happen. I just didn’t…” She sighed, “I didn’t think I would find something so perfect.”

There wasn’t anything for Felix to say so he just nodded. He suddenly remembered Cob was in the booth with them and turned around to look at him.

He looked like he was almost in pain, trying to figure out if he should speak or not but when he saw Felix looking at him, he raised his hands in surrender, “Don’t look at me. I’m broke.”

“You wanted to ask something?”

“You said not to ask questions…”

Felix rolled his eyes, “What?”

“Where did Peace just go?”

“Invisible.” Felix lied easily, “Anything else?”

He shook his head, “Could I… Offer some advice?”

Peace smirked and Felix sighed, “You don’t have to ask permission, I just don’t want to be pestered with questions every other second.”

He nodded, “Right. Don’t bother bidding.”

Felix looked at him in confusion, along with Peace and even Melody spun to look at him, “What do you mean?”

“Lilian, she doesn’t get a 50% discount here anymore but instead, some of the items she doesn’t even have to pay for.”

“What?” Felix leaned out of his chair in surprise.

“Carilla made a deal with Lilian to lower the taxes on her auction to 15% but in return, Lilian can bid on up to 5 items every auction and no matter how much she bids, she gets them for free.”

Melody’s mouth gaped open, “That bitch.”

“Out of everything on offer though, she picked those five items? It’s not like we picked the best items by any means…”

Cob shook his head, “No point in my explaining now.”

Felix looked at him in confusion and was about to ask but Melody’s angered groaning interrupted him as the bidding on the Robes of the Silent Symphony ended. She watched, with clenched fists, as the bidding on the Dragon Scale and all the items Felix was interested in ended as well shortly thereafter.

They were the items with the highest final bids by far but not the last items to be bid on. Some of the others simply hadn’t risen as quickly so it took almost a minute for those to finally end before Carilla walked back out onto the stage.

“Wonderful. The auction is concluded.” Then she bowed deeply once again.

Felix turned back to Cob, “What do you mean ‘there’s no poi’-”

At that moment, the door to their booth opened and a tall stick of a man stepped inside, “Good afternoon. It is my pleasure to escort you all to The Triplex Palace.”

Escort not invite?

“No thanks.” Felix said immediately to clarify that he was being forced.

The man closed his eyes for a moment and sighed, “Unfortunately…”

That seemed to be the signal because at that moment, a couple dozen people stepped out into the hall, in view through the door. It wasn’t that bad of a threat because Felix was actually fairly confident he and Peace could either escape or kill them all but he had fully intended on following them anyways from the start.

“I see.” Felix stood.

“I take it you serve at the behest of The Trinity?” Melody spoke with annoyance and exasperation evident.

He bowed his head, “I do.”

Peace hopped out of his seat, “Well then, let’s go.”

The man nodded then stepped aside to allow them to walk through the door.

The three of them, along with Cobalt, all stepped out into the hall where they were surrounded by nearly three dozen guards which formed an unwieldy crowd. As they were escorted through the city, the group of guards made room when there wasn’t enough, sometimes by force, but despite that, they were still a crowd and so they still moved far slower than Felix would have liked.

Triplex Palace was one of the buildings closest to the bubble at the center of the outer realm and by far the biggest and most lavish building. It was an entire complex with gardens and parks contained within, all neatly manicured below a floating palace in the sky.

In the center of the garden, they were led to an arcane circle that Felix quickly scanned and realized was nothing more than a fanciful elevator as there was nothing more than Force and Light nodes within it. It wasn’t complicated at all and considering how carefully everything else had been laid out and attended to to advertise a specific look, the elevator stood out to him.

To most people it would have looked fine, fitting even. To him, it was little more than garbage who’s value was measured by the Mana it contained alone.

The group of guards who had escorted Felix’s group to the elevator all carefully surrounded it and beckoned them towards it. Once they were all on top of it, squishing in against each-other as it clearly wasn’t meant for so many people, it began to rise.

Looking up, Felix saw a hole open up in the bottom of the palace as they ascended.

Once they were above the floor, the hole vanished and they were all standing inside a massive hall with pillars on either side. Beyond the pillars though, there was no wall. It was simply completely open to the outside offering panoramic views of the outer realm, the city and the bubble containing the real Realms along with anyone who entered and exited from this half of it.

At the end of the carpet, was a large couch that curved around and given the number of pillows, looked more like a nest.

On it, sat Liilian. A normal looking human woman with light chestnut hair who appeared to be no more than twenty years old. She had large eyes and soft features that only added to her youthful appearance.

“Welcome. I have met one of you before, the rest of you I have heard so much about.” She smiled slightly and cocked her head from the edge of the nest couch, her knees pressed together and her hands on her knees.

Felix looked at Peace and Melody who both looked equally confused before he finally turned to Cob who, was clearly the one she was talking about.

Son of a… Is he working for her?

Cob nodded, “I was just… the-”

“I don’t particularly care.” She interrupted, “As for the rest of you, it has come to my attention that there were specific items in the auction you were interested in. Items that suit you. Items that perhaps, would help with your pushing through The Realms?”

Felix rolled his eyes a little and Melody just stared at the woman but Peace nodded.

She casually twirled her fingers around and produced a wand between her fingers, Cometfall.

“I would be happy to gift these items to you. To help you push further than you otherwise could within The Realms…”

Even if this was the best deal of my life, she talks so slowly I’m inclined to say no just based on how annoyed I am.

“Don’t do it.” Cobalt leaned forwards and whispered.

“Quiet!” Lilian rose to her feet in an instant and projected an Aura that rivaled Aro Zaki’s in strength which was shocking to Felix.

He countered with his own Aura, suppressing and pushing hers back around his group but the damage was already done as Cob was on one knee and seemed to be slowly recovering from excruciating pain.

“As I was saying…” Lilian’s dainty and noble posture returned as she held and pretended to examine a massive Dragon Scale.

“In exchange, you will give me one item of my choosing when you leave The Realms.”

What a shit deal. Not only does she get to look through our items but she gets to take whatever she wants? Even if I needed that wand, I wouldn’t take this garbage deal.

Melody seemed to be completely on board with and in agreement with Felix’s thoughts but Peace was slowly nodding, “I see. So we get the item we wanted and you get something for yourself afterwards….”

She smiled slightly as she stowed the scale, “Exactly. I’m glad you see that this is actually quite the generous offer.”

System Contract

A contract between Lilian and Felix Kade.

Lilian’s Terms:

Lilian is permitted to select one item from amongst the items you receive within The Realms of Annihilation.

Lilian’s terms will be enforced by The System. Any attempt to circumvent them will result in Lilian receiving all of your possessions.

Felix Kade’s Terms:

Felix receives Cometfall before he enters The Realms of Annihilation.

Felix Kade’s terms will be enforced by The System.

Felix mentally gaped at the contract, Holy shit, she even made the contract blatantly favor her.

Peace nodded, “Alright, I’m in but… is there any chance you could show me what else you have? I’m not that into that scale but if there’s something else that would suit me better and let me really push a few more realms, I-”

“Quiet, child of The Reaper. This is item I have deemed to be best suited to you.”

“Agh, well. That’s too bad.” Peace shrugged dramatically.

“Yeah… not interested.” Melody smiled widely.

She finally looked at Felix who was almost surprised she thought there was any chance he was accepting that deal, “Uh, No. Definitely not.” He frowned and allowed a bit of disgust to show on his face.

She sighed ever slightly through her nose, “Hmmmm. That is unfortunate. Well, I am eager to see how you all perform within The Realms. I take it you all intend on entering soon?”

Can we leave yet…

“Yeah, just after the auction.” Peace nodded.

“And how have your preparations gone?” She turned her head off to the side to look out at the bubble next to them.

“I’m ready.” Peace shrugged.

“I recently hosted the sons of Gods, Romar and Zeraxes?”

Peace nodded in recognition, “Our classmates.”

“While both strong, neither were quite as prepared as they could have been. For example, there is a flower that is said to be capable of curing nearly any known biological illness through its ability to encapsulate and consume harmful material. It is commonly referenced somewhere between the 100th and 150th floors.”

Gernamum’s Rose, a red flower with 17 petals arranged in a spiral that grows at the top of stalks ranging between 80 to 100 meters. Typically grows upon mountains, often in the soil deposits between large stones. Wade, a botanist in Felix’s Mind Palace answered.

“Or what about The Ethereal Conservatory, a building famous for the music that seems to exist within it, despite all it’s residents being dead. It is a common occurrence beyond the 700th floor, are you able to identify out of tune instruments within a symphony? If not, I hear the ghosts are particularly bothersome.”

Yes, trivially. It is something I do on a daily basis with the Royal Orchestra. Fugal, the Conductor of the Rakyt Royal Orchestra responded.

“Given a vein of Serene Hapomessene, can you extract it without it forming a single beyreen on its surface?”

Felix’s personal memories were completely blank and not even sure those were real words but the knowledge was in his library and there was a Geologist and Chemist named Beven who immediately responded, Beyreen are only formed if you give the ore a catalyst to begin the crystallization. The best way to extract it is to just remove the rock surrounding it then heat the entire thing in a forge, letting the rock melt away under the heat.

She sighed and smiled, “Hopefully your preparations are adequate, or you are simply strong enough that it does not matter. I wish you all luck and Cobalt, if you don’t enter The Realms proper and leave the outer realm within the day, I will personally extend your punishment to include your life.”

He nodded, “Of course. I’ll head right in.”

She slightly nodded then began walking back over to her nest as a hole appeared in the floor below them. No elevator appeared though so she simply let them fall from the palace.

Felix caught himself and had Nova retrieve Cob while the other two caught themselves and they all flew out of the palace grounds and towards the bubble. Around it, there was a large open area around the entire perimeter of the bubble where various people stood and watched or waited.

On the ground outside the bubble, Melody turned to Cob as soon as they landed, “What did you do?”

He hung his head slightly, “I tried to break into her… The Soul Vault. I was caught and she took everything I owned as punishment. Well,” He held up the frayed sleeves of his robe, “Almost everything.”

Melody squinted, “You’re lying.” She turned to Felix, “He’s lying.”

Felix erected a Force Bubble to block sound and light then filled the bubble with his Aura and manually fuzzed the System Static. As he did, he realized it was much easier to do so in the outer realm for some reason.

Cobalt, seeing Felix cast a Spell without moving at all, marveled at him but he was interrupted by Melody who poked him in the chest, “Talk.”

“I… None of that was a lie.”

“Yes it was. You didn’t fail at all.”

He raised his hands to protect himself, “I never said I did.”

“You implied it. Whatever you did, whatever actually happened, you got exactly what you wanted. Not only that,” She squinted, “Everything went exactly as you planned it…”

He shrugged innocently, “Your reputation precedes you. I uh… thought if I didn’t technically lie…” He turned to Felix, “You sure no one can see or hear us in here?”

“No.” Felix answered.

Cob nodded, apparently satisfied with Felix’s uncertainty, “Alright.” He turned to Melody, “You’re right. I broke in with the intention of stealing some… books.”

Felix’s eyes widened a little and Cob continued, “I didn’t need to steal them though, I just needed the information inside of them so… I broke in, copied them, then let myself get caught.”

Melody smirked, “You hid your real gear, equipped something believable and let her take that.”

He nodded, “Yeah, pretty much. It was the only way for me to get out safely once I had already used the Vendale Door to get in.”

She nodded, “So you made it seem like you hadn’t stolen anything yet and gambled on her not killing you outright?”

“Something… like that.”

“What books?” Felix finally asked.

“Records, of others who had gone through The Realms.”

“Wait…” Felix frowned, “Let me guess, Lilian confiscates those somehow?”

Cob nodded, “She doesn’t get everything but she has some items and Skills that make it hard to slip anything past her.”

“What did you manage to steal? How did she not realize?” Melody asked.

He fidgeted a little and looked at the ground, “All of it. I managed to copy all of it.”

“All… You got everything?” Felix’s eyes widened with greed.

He nodded, “I copied them into my Grimoire.” He reached into his robe and pulled a large tome out of his chest, “A Class Profession thing, I have a… combo Class and Profession.” He rushed to explain.

“What about your equipment? Where’d you stash it?” Peace smirked, thoroughly entertained.

“My real equipment is in my Grimoire. It’s also a Spatial Storage item.” He held the purplish leather bound book in his hand.

Peace smiled, “Then, in The Realms, you swap back into your real gear and you’re good to go.”

He nodded.

“So you got, everything…” Felix looked at him seriously, “Any chance I could get access to those records and everything?”

He quickly nodded, “My Grimoire isn’t… it’s useful but… it’s kind of like a child? So… It’s not exactly organized just yet.”

Felix nodded, “Not a problem. Just have it display all the information in any way. I’ll do the rest.”

Cob nodded quickly and opened his Grimoire to one of the middle pages where a torrent of ink began to shift around the page so fast, it looked like a blur.

Cobalt stammered, “Sorry, like I said, it’s not really intelligent so it doesn’t realize we ca-”

Felix shook his head and held up his hand but didn’t dare look away, “No, this is good.”

Cob’s jaw hung slightly open but he nodded and otherwise remained perfectly still as Felix and his mind copied down all of the information being displayed.

It took a few minutes for the Grimoire to get through all of it but once it did, Grim estimated they had something in the neighborhood of a few hundred thousand books worth of information, much of it journals.

“Cobalt, how does your Grimoire work?” Felix looked up at him for the first time since he had opened the book.

“I… it’s part of my Class and Profession. It’s kind of like my familiar, actually it is my familiar. Our… Well, it doesn’t have a mind but we’re linked and the information it stores are kind of like memories to me but not quite as clear, more like dreams?”

“How do you upgrade it?”

Cobalt hurried to answer, realizing he hadn’t answered Felix’s question fully, “It gets stronger as I do through our link and sometimes information I give it and… yeah.”

“Have you ever fed it anything other than knowledge?”

He nodded quickly and closed it, running his hand along the purple leather cover, “I feed it materials to upgrade it too. This is Wyvern leather for example.”

Felix nodded and produced a palm sized orb in his hand from his Soul Space, “Feed it this.”

Cobalt hesitated, not quite willing to just do whatever he said, especially when it came to something so personal to him, “What… is that?”

“It’s a Mana Computer bound to some Anima.”

His eyes widened, “You mean a Soul?”

“Nope. Not this one. This one is just Anima imbued with the instinct and experiences required to run the computer.”

“I… You want me to feed this to my Grimoire?” He looked surprised and confused.

“Yes. Hopefully it can use it as a brain and hopefully it becomes a little smarter.”

“That’s… You don’t think that’s a waste o-”

Felix cut him off, “No.”

Cobalt just stared at him incredulously then nodded and opened his Grimoire, holding out the blank pages towards him.

Felix unceremoniously tossed the orb towards the book and watched it fall into the pages.

Then, Felix produced another object, this one much smaller and surrounded by an icosahedron, “This one, don’t lose it and don’t feed it. Just keep it safe.”

Cobalt frowned, “What. What is it? Why? What are y-”

Felix tossed it to Cobalt then produced two more and handed them to Peace and Melody, “Same goes for you two. Neither of you have Soul Spaces yet but keep these safe.”

Melody cocked a brow, “I recognize the housing but… I take it you had Nova replicate it?”

He nodded.

“What is it?” Peace looked at it strangely.

“All the knowledge I managed to collect to get through The Realms.”

Peace nodded then wrapped it with a knuckle, “How do I get at it?”

Felix produced six tiny orbs, each one no bigger than a ball bearing, “Put these in your ears. If you lose them, just press the computer against a solid and flat surface.”

Melody squinted at Felix for a second mockingly then shrugged and popped two of the balls in her ears. Once they were in, she jumped back, “Woah. Uh… Hi?”

Peace smirked and grabbed two himself, placing them in his ears.

“They’re Asphellum, you should be able to keep them in when you transform.” Felix said to Peace specifically.

Peace nodded and smiled wide, “What’s 9,872 times 4,893…. squared… factorial… wait, that number’s way too big.”

Felix shook his head then looked at Cob who was still hesitant, “Why…”

It didn’t seem like he was going to finish so Felix responded best he could, “I was going to give these to them anyways. I was wrong about you. You are competent. I might not be able to directly teach you but I can at least help you now and I have some ideas for things you can do in the future, if you’re still willing?”

He nodded quickly then took the balls and placed them in his ears, “So wh- Oh, hello.”

“I updated all of them with the information you stole-” Felix pointed to Cobalt, “They also let us communicate with each-other but I have a feeling that won’t work in The Realms.”

I’m blocking out everything she just tried to send you. Grim sighed.

Thanks.

Felix nodded to them, “So, I guess there’s nothing left for us to do here then?” He dropped his bubble and turned towards the bubble in front of them.

It was massive standing a few kilometers in radius. As he looked towards it, Felix saw a number of people walk into it, various levels of resolve and confidence as well as a few people walk out of the bubble.

Each person that stepped out of it, was announced by a burst of color and light on the bubble before they stepped through it. They ranged from red to purple to blue to green to yellow, a dozen colors or shades in total.

Almost everyone who stepped out had a burst of light just a few meters tall, barely surrounding them.

There were a few however with much larger bursts of light, dozens of meters tall behind them who had clearly made it much further through The Realms than the others.

“Who wants to go first?” Melody smiled and looked around at them.

Felix shrugged uncaring and Cob looked nervous.

Peace raised his hand, “Me. Pick me!” Then he ran towards the bubble.

Just before he got there though, a man jumped in front of him and grabbed Peace’s robes on both sleeves, “Please, I beg you, spare the lives. I know many believe them to be projections, puppets but I assure you, the lives in the realms are just as real as yours and mine. Spare them. LET THEM LIVE.”

Peace tugged himself free but the man ran at him again, “Listen to me! They don’t deserve to be treated lik-”

Having enough of it, Peace grabbed the man and easily lifted him over his head then tossed him back a few meters into a pile on the ground. Before the man could recover, Peace shook his head, turned back to them and winked then vanished into the bubble.

“You want to wait a minute to see if he pops out?” Melody offered.

“No point. Then he’d have to wait even longer for us.” Felix answered.

“Do you think… they’re really alive?” Cobalt asked, clearly more disturbed by the zealot than Felix or Melody were.

“No one really knows.” Melody shrugged.

“I’d have to meet one to find out.” Felix answered.

Cobalt looked up at him, his eyes showing he took a lot more meaning out of that than Felix had intended.

He took a breath then turned and walked right into the bubble, the zealot having moved on to someone else off to their left.

Melody stepped towards the bubble as well and raised her hand in a half salute half wave, “See you on the other side.”

Then she vanished.

Now that he was alone, as he had intended, Felix turned around and walked away from the bubble.

Alright. Time to cause some mayhem.

While they had been shopping over the last few days, Felix had also been scouting out the area around him and he had identified several fairly secluded locations. He approached the one closest his target then shifted into his Persona and drew Eretheas from his Soul Space.

Then, he walked down the street in broad daylight, with a posture that stated he was willing to fight anyone who dared challenge him, and he was confident he would win.

There were only a few blocks between him and his destination and he wasn’t actually stopped a single time, though many of the people who saw him gasped, screamed or asked someone nearby who he was. No one challenged him, though quite a few ran away most though, were just curious so, by the time he stood outside the gate to The Triplex Palace, there was a small crowd behind him.

Reaching forwards, he grabbed the gate and tore it open with what looked like raw Strength. In a body with more muscle, thicker bones and longer limbs, Felix’s Mana Channels, Reaper Buffs and Soul Suffusal all did even more for him, pushing his Strength much higher than was possible in his real body.

His use of Force Spells through his Attuned Cores and the fact that they were so much simpler without Attunement Nodes, meant he could liberally and instinctively cast Spells that helped augment each and every movement of his limbs.

Even then though, with all of that, he wasn’t strong enough to rip the gate open all on his own. Luckily, he trivially disabled the enchantment and reversed it, softening instead of hardening the gate. He was pretty sure no one would be able to tell the difference and even though he could have easily leapt over the gate, it was worth his time for the effect it had on the crowd, and the rumors it started.

Once it was open, he casually walked inside and panned his head around to see hundreds of guards Lilian had either enslaved or promised some item rushing towards him.

He continued to walk casually forwards, letting them approach so he could make a scene. Once a few were in range, he summoned two Shades mid swing and flashed forwards, beheading four people at once. Then he swapped positions with a Shade and grabbed a Caster’s neck before they could finish casting a Spell. He snapped their neck then tossed their body at a sword wielder who was rushing him, covering their face and stopping them in their tracks.

He played with the guards a little longer, making sure the crowd outside saw how indiscriminate and merciless he was before he finally leapt straight up into the air. He couldn’t play with them too long because he didn’t want to give her time to prepare for his arrival.

While Arthur’s Strength was monstrous, it wasn’t nearly enough for him to jump from the ground straight into The Palace in the air but he didn’t need it to be. He just needed to make it look like it was which was trivial with a simple Force Spell, he just had to match the acceleration of a real jump and make sure he didn’t seem to float.

Once he was just a few meters from colliding with the bottom of the palace, Felix used his Matter Control and Mana Senses to summon a Shade within the palace and immediately swapped with it.

He didn’t have to look around because he knew the exact room he was targeting already and looking across the long carpet towards a nest like couch, he was happy to find his target exactly where he expected her to be.

[C - Arcane] Lillian The Twisted Trinity (Lvl 1997)

Fighting Lilian outright, was idiotic. Felix knew that. Whether or not he was stronger than her didn’t really matter and even that was up for debate. She was a prodigy amongst prodigies and apparently stronger than Romar and Zeraxes. On top of that, she had a whole vault full of items Felix couldn’t really expect or counter easily because they broke all the norms he was used to with normal System items.

However, Lilian was the exact kind of person Arthur would fight and in a realm that was restricted to those in the C grade, there was a much lower risk when he showed himself.

Worst case scenario, he could run away into the bubble.

Best case scenario, he managed to loot a vault full of items from The Realms.

Using his Persona also meant that when he left The Realms, he didn’t have to worry about what floor he ended up on and what kind of attention that brought. Instead, he could pop out and whatever scene he made, benefited Tekragoraxius in whatever she was doing. All he really needed to do for that though was to leave in his Persona, making a scene before entering, was just to create a believable story.

“I was not expecting you.”

Arthur grunted and summoned a Shade next to her but she immediately snapped her fingers causing an explosion to appear right on top of it and the Shade to instantly vanish.

“I have heard about you. The rumors are nearly unbelievable.”

Felix Grunted and threw Eretheas at her but she summoned a dark blue shield in front of her without even moving, something he hadn’t seen anyone but him do without a Skill. It was definitely a Spell though given the Mana and Spell Structure she had used.

Eretheas bounced off of it harmlessly.

“Is it true. Are you Rhonan’s son?”

Teleporting himself to the axe, Felix summoned two shades on either side of the shield and swapped with one of them at random then threw out a thick Blade Spell as he swung his axe.

This time, it actually hit her, almost entirely severing her right arm except for a small inch of skin and a few strands of muscle that hung on.

“I guess not.”

She looked down at her arm and as she did, the severed portion folded upwards and the severed muscle fibers snaked themselves back together, her arm healing over completely a moment later.

“I hear your backer is scaring The Dragons.” She casually stepped towards him, without even an ounce of fear, “Here, you must be alone. So, should I fear you?”

The way she asked it made it sound like a genuine question but Arthur didn’t respond. Instead, he leapt towards her, summoning a Shade behind her simultaneously.

She casually stepped backwards and summoned an explosion on Felix’s position so he swapped with the Shade but it didn’t work. He was struck by the explosion and thrown backwards, forced to plant Eretheas into a pillar to stop himself from flying out of the room.

Once he was sure he wouldn’t, he activated The Blood Ring to heal himself, replacing his arm, half his leg, a chunk of his torso and most of his flesh. The explosion was also hot enough that it burned and charred all the resulting blood so there was none for him to make armor out of. It also meant his Crimson Rage, while functional, wasn’t giving him nearly as much Strength as it normally would have given the amount of damage he had taken.

“You’re alive.” She stated in slight surprise.

She killed the Shade the instant I tried to switch with it. Her timing is either unbelievable or she can cast her explosions faster than I can switch, which already feels instant.

Swapping with a Shade, he put himself back in the center of the room but Lilian deftly maintained her distance.

He activated his Devouring Aura and his Soul Cloak, just in case she had some Soul Attack, likely through an item. As his Aura of Bloodlust spread out and surrounded Lilian, she happily let it wash over her then responded in kind with her own Aura.

When she had used it to silence Cobalt earlier, she had clearly been holding back because her Aura was much stronger now. It was stronger and bigger than Aro Zaki’s though much less controlled. It was more similar to his own Devouring Aura, a sea of uncontrolled Anima washing out of her.

Where his was mostly Bloodlust, hers was a combination of Dominion, Destruction and Impermeability.

Neither of their Auras affected the other but Felix was hoping it would exhaust her faster than it would him as he leapt towards her and threw his axe. She summoned a blue barrier in its path but Felix had already swapped with a Shade and was breathing a solid beam of Fire in her direction from behind the shield.

She didn’t see it coming until it was too late, or so Felix thought.

As he closed his mouth, it took him a minute to adjust as he realized there were now three Lilians.

[C - Arcane] Lillian The Twisted Trinity (Lvl 1997)

[C - Arcane] Lillian The Twisted Trinity (Lvl 1997)

[C - Arcane] Lillian The Twisted Trinity (Lvl 1997)

They all seemed identical in every way, the only difference being the amount of charring on their skin but before they even landed, the two with the charring had healed and they became completely indistinguishable.

He teleported back to Eretheas that was still fluttering through the air then immediately swapped with a Shade to avoid another explosion at the destination of his entirely predictable movement.

Choosing the one closest to the nest couch, Felix swapped with a Shade to close the distance and slammed Eretheas into the ground, destroying a huge chunk of the floor and releasing a wave of Force in every direction. He leapt out of the hole he had created and back into the palace and noticed another barrier had been cast, but not for the one he had been targeting.

She had instead taken the hit and was rotating her arm back into its socket and realigning all her joints, simply healing the damage.

He tried to stop her but she was fast and a barrier surrounded him before he made it there as this time, it was cupped around him instead of around her. He realized it wasn’t perfectly aligned though, with either him or his target. Instead it was aligned with the Liilian that had previously cast a barrier.

To prove his theory, he leapt at the other one, the one that wasn’t healing and hadn’t cast the barriers and began pressuring her as much as he could. As he expected, she retaliated solely with spontaneous detonations while the other two healed and shielded her.

The Twisted Trinity. There are three of them. One shields things, one explodes things, and one heals things. A Tank, Damage and Healer. I wonder if…

To prove another theory, Felix leapt at the most defenseless one, the healer, and pressured her as far from the other two as he could. His only goal to gain distance. As soon as he was far enough, which ended up being outside and half way to the ground below the palace, he immediately felt the difference in her Aura. One of the reasons it was so strong, was that there were three of them.

He wasn’t sure if they were entirely separate beings or not, but judging solely from their will power, they seemed to be.

He still had a Shade up in the palace hiding behind a pillar so he swapped with it and left the Healing Lilian to plummet the rest of the way to the ground as he threw his axe at the Detonation Lilian and ran at the Barrier Lilian.

When he inevitably found a barrier right in front of him, he was already ready and immediately tore through it with his bare hands, at least visually. Most of the work was really from his Mana Control destroying and consuming the Spell. That trick shocked the barrier Lilian, her eyes widening as her face expressed more than he had ever seen up to that moment.

It was enough for him to finally close the distance and as he did, he teleported Eretheas into his hands, buffed his own swing with a Force Spell, Resisted her movements with another and held her in place with one final Force Spell. Then, he sunk Eretheas into her neck and nearly all the way through it.

Her resisting the Force Spells and the detonation on his body was enough for her to slip out and move with the axe, causing her head to remain attached by quarter of her neck. Without attention though, there was a chance she would die.

“NOOOO!”

The detonation Lilian launched herself towards them with an explosion and simultaneously cast a dozen explosions between them. Felix was launched back and so was the Barrier Lilian who began plummeting over the edge of the palace. The Detonating Lilian was satisfied with that and immediately turned to deal with Arthur but he used her launching him back to fly back towards the hole he had created in the floor earlier.

Looking through it, he spotted the Barrier Lilian falling and the Healing Lilian looking up at her and cast Crimson Slaughter, summoning hundreds of spikes from Barrier Lilian’s blood, finishing her off.

Ding You have slain [C - Arcane] Lillian The Twisted Trinity (Lvl 1997)

The Detonation Lilian screeched out into the air and summoned hundreds of explosions all around her.

Felix didn’t even try to dodge them as he knew it wasn’t possible and just coated himself in his Mana Skin, not willing to take the damage without any form of protection. As he did, he navigated himself with Shades as much as he could onto a specific side of the Lilian and towards the nest couch.

Using the explosions as thrust, he rocketed towards the couch and beyond it, towards the empty wall at the back of the room.

She wasn’t really trying to hide the location of the Soul Vault, it was obvious to anyone where it was and apparently she had shown it on multiple occasions to guests, usually to entice them into accepting her deals. Still, she didn’t make it too obvious and so it wasn’t on display.

Luckily, something as powerful as The Soul Vault was easy enough to sense and so Felix released over a billion Mana worth of Force Spells into the wall and exploded it in every direction. Using a Shade, he moved himself instantly to the weird looking grey cube, stowed it in his Soul Space, then dove downwards.

Healing Lilian had clearly spotted him because Detonation Lilian suddenly stopped raging out and used her explosions to simultaneously launch herself towards him and destroy half of her body.

She was far too late though as Felix turned back towards her and smirked before vanishing into the bubble of The Realms of Annihilation.