Book 3, chapter 28

An immense creature moved through the void around her, its presence enough to chill her far worse than the icy tundra did. Its bloodlust was palpable, a burning desire to kill that washed through the void.

Terrified, Zee frantically tried to fold space around her, to leave the Null.

Her attempts failed one after another, her mental energy draining at a frightening pace. She was trying to replicate what she had done to get to the tundra, and it wasn't working.

Panic blossomed in her mind, as that overwhelming presence drew closer, approaching at a frightening pace. Zee railed at the unfairness of it all. She had been so close to getting back.

Why wouldn't a portal open? Her frantic mind flitted through and discarded ideas, as she kept trying and failing to fold space around her.

On the edge of hysteria, she reached for the one thing that had once saved her from a situation just like this.

She grasped the cracked and broken medallion her grandpa gave her. Please, please work, I'm begging you!

Her frantic thoughts went un unanswered, the medallion cold and lifeless, devoid of energy. Wait! Devoid of energy? Desperate, she clung to that strand of hope, flooding all of her energy into the medallion.

Much to her surprise and delight, the medallion hummed to life, radiating spatial energy through the cracks. With her spatial ripple skill, she watched on intently as the medallion expertly smoothed space around her, making her efforts look like child's play.

Like a sponge, it drained her dry, forming a shell of energy in front of her. Zee's elation rose, and then fell, as she ran out of energy.

A wave of dizziness hit her like a brick to the face, the portal incomplete.

Zee pushed back the splitting headache brought on by energy starvation and forced more energy into the medallion. All she needed was a bit more!

"Come on little flame, please!" Zee urged coaxing the flame to give her some of its energy.

The heart of fire beat like a war drum, flooding her body with waves of heat.

Her energy channels felt like they were on fire, her body stuffed full of vibrant energy. She let out a shout of pain, as she crammed the fire in her Veins into the medallion.

Her cry of pain echoed through the null, and her stomach leapt into her throat, as the creature's attention focused on her.

She desperately urged the medallion to hurry, as light blossomed in the darkness, a portal forming in front of her. She fell into the portal and collapsed onto her hands and knees on the rough stone. The hot, and humid air of the planar space made her numb skin tingle.

Zee looked up and couldn't help but laugh. She clenched the partially melted and cracked medallion in her hand, gazing up at the spire looming high above. Her chest heaving, she grinned, overjoyed to be alive.

That was an experience she did not wish to repeat anytime soon, if ever. Zee ran a hand through her still-frozen strands of hair, shaken from the awful experiences. Zee glanced around, hoping to spot one of her friends or Pikar.

Her elation slowly faded, as she glanced around the silent streets. The ancient city was deathly quiet, with no signs of life. Not only that, but the buildings lay in ruin.

It wasn't the decay of time, but the more recent ravages of a battle.

It was startling, to say the least. She had only been gone for maybe a day, or two, and yet the city was in destroyed. Had she really only been gone for two days? Zee pushed aside that mystery for the moment, realizing she was kneeling out in the open, a prime target for any opportunist.

Both physically and mentally exhausted, she walked over and collapsed behind a damaged wall, using it for cover. Using the wall for a backrest, she looked inward, concern filling her.

Something felt horribly wrong, her connection to Dern was so faint she could hardly feel it.

With a mental tug, she tried to recall him, like she had while on the tundra.

And just like back on the tundra it failed. Zee cocked her head, confused. She could feel their connection far better than on the tundra, but it was still so faint like he was on the edge of death.

The thought was troubling. Sitting up, she pushed down her exhaustion.

Tugging at their connection, she felt it. A wave of overwhelming hunger assaulted her mind. Her eyes widen, the flood of sensations like getting hit over the head by a mallet.

Her concern turned to fear. She closed her eyes, feeling for the tether that usually fed energy between them. In only a few moments, it snapped into focus. It was wispy thin, with only a trickle flowing along it.

She followed the tether with her inner sight, getting a sense of where it led.

After a few seconds, she opened her eyes. Ignored her aches and fatigue, she stood and followed the tether.

Zee travelled through the streets of the inner city, following the base of the tower. All the while, her eyes flitted over the silent ruins, the broken buildings illuminated by the swirling yellow smoke above. What was going on? The ancient city hadn't been pristine before, but now it looked worse than the city of Porten after the war.

Doubts clawed at her mind, her anxiety pushing her to move with the utmost caution, jumping at the sounds of birds and insects. How long had she been gone?

There was no way this much damage could have happened in a day, right?

As she traversed the city, the true scope of the damage grew. A day or two in the tundra shouldn't have been enough time for the city to be destroyed.

Not unless someone at the D grade or higher showed up to wreak Havac.

That might explain things, though she was hoping that wasn't the case.

Having a few big shots show up and start killing each other might have gotten her friends killed.

Zee pushed aside the unhelpful thoughts. Maybe the rift walkers were still around and could give her some idea as to what had happened.

It was in the general direction that her tether was leading, so it shouldn't be too much of a detour to check it out.

Zee really wished she hadn't taken that detour. The three buildings that made up the nest lay in shattered ruin, bodies laying scattered amidst the buildings.

Rift walkers were the majority of the dead, but a few human corpses lay in the mix. Even after what must have been weeks of rot, the uniforms were plain to see. They were the brown and black trim of ducal.

She paused. Wait, how were these corpses this decayed? Even in the humid climate of the planar space, things didn't decay this quickly. She checked multiple bodies, of both human and rift walker, just in case it might have been a skill that caused the unnatural decay.

A few of the human corpses were burned to a crisp, which was odd, but they too showed at least a week of decay.

Zee slowly made her way through the wreckage and was startled. She finds tale tell signs of her team. Greg's goose fletched arrows, and the small craters made by Yukna's explosives.

Zee also found bodies cut in half from either a glaive or halberd, as well as bodies pummelled to death.

The last one was clearly bastions work. Zee was surprised. She hadn't expected her team to help the rift walkers without her there.

And judging by the dismembered bodies, even Dern had helped out. Still, even if her team fought for the rift walkers against Ducale soldiers, it didn't explain the unnatural decay.

Picking her way out of the messy rubble, she refocused on her tether. Hopefully, she would find her team, along with Dern. The thought spurred her on.

Following the tether lead her around the base of the tower.

After two days of carefully navigating the city, she found him. Dern was alone, wandering the streets, his armour cracked in a dozen places, his ominous aura flickering in and out.

Upon seeing him lumbering down the street, his glaive in one gauntleted fist, she paused, sensing the bloodlust leaking from his aura. Instead of approaching, she decided to stay hidden, at least until she figured out what was going on.

Crouched atop the rubble of a shattered building, she tried to reach out and talk to him. A wave of overwhelming hunger bombarded her mind, staggering her.

Feeling a little woozy, she clutched at her head, crouching low, and staying hidden as Dern paused, scanning the street for threats.

Zee wasn't sure what to do. After a few seconds of scanning the area, Dern continued on, trudging slowly down the street, his armoured boots clanking loudly on the street. Communicating out of the way, she tried to call him back, using her summon skill.

It failed, and nothing happened. Zee hadn't realized Dern could even do that until now. She was drawing a blank. Zee was thinking of approaching him but that hunger radiating from him made her unsettled.

Uncertain of what to do, she followed him for a few hours.

It wasn't hard to follow unnoticed. He was like a mindless undead, trudging aimlessly through the ancient, war-torn streets. His thoughtless wandering made fear and doubt claw at her mind.

Not wanting to give up, she reached out to him again with her mind. And received nothing but unbridled hunger.

For the dozenth time, she also tried to call him back. Much like her attempts to contact him, they failed miserably. She could feel the connection, yet, he was somehow refusing her command to come back.

Her heart broke at the thought of Dern turning into nothing more than a hunger-driven monster. This was what Dern's clan had wanted when they banished him to the null. What kind of monsters were they, to turn one of their own people, into this?

She bit her lip hard, shaking her head and wiping unbidden tears from her eyes. No! She refused to believe that Dern was gone, replaced by this, this thing.

He had to be in there somewhere.

Maybe if she brought him back inside her mind, he could recover.

All she had to do, was shatter his conjured form and force him to come back.

The course of action decided, Zee drew her sword, and leapt from her hiding spot, out onto the street.

Dern's lumbering form paused. He looked around, noting her immediately, gripping his glaive tightly. His aura flared outward, drenched with menace. Dern screeched like a banshee, and charged her, his armoured boots clanking loudly.

His long stride ate up the distance between them, his frame towering over her. Zee waited calmly, sensing his blind hunger and desire to kill. He didn't recognize her at all, his only thought being that burning hunger.

She gritted her teeth and prepared to dismantle her friend. His first attack was a massive overhead blow, intent on cutting her in half from shoulder to hip. Undaunted, she sidestepped the blow, the tip of her sword biting into his outstretched forearm.

Cracks spread from the deep gouge, leaking blue and silver energy from his armour. Dern had never been a graceful fighter, always relying on brute strength to overwhelm opponents.

She had tried to curtail that and teach him some techniques over the last year. It had worked to some extent, and his style had improved immensely. Most of that was gone now, replaced by blind animalistic savagery. It filled her with a sense of heartfelt loss, that she forcibly pushed to the back of her mind.

Each swing of his glaive was strong enough to cut her in half, yet they were ineffective. His weapon cut through the air with a loud whoosh, cracking the stones with each missed blow. Zee danced between his clumsy swings, her sword drawing thin cracks across his armour with each precise cut.

He was strong, but that strength lacked skill or training, just raw aggression.

Zee took him apart with a focused determination, intent on destroying his armour so he would come back to her.

Streamers of silver and blue leaked from two dozen cuts in the metal of his armour, the cracks spreading.

With one final screech of rage, Dern crumbled, his armour falling apart. She watched on with nervous anticipation, as a ball of energy coalesced above Dern's shattered form.

Cautious, she reached out and recalled him. There was a brief moment of resistance before he was dragged into her body. Elation filled her, as a missing part of her returned.

"Dern, are you alright?" Zee asked. Her anxious voice echoed through her mind.

Nothing. The only sound was her heavy breathing. She probed his splinter with her mind. The blue engravings etched into her obsidian splinter were a mere shade of their former glory.

Zee's heart skipped a beat. His presence was so faint, like a candle close to burning out. It was so weak. Zee swallowed hard. Fear and indecision gripping her. How could she fix this? Closing her eyes she focused on her splinter, noting the widened cracks.

It was looking dire, not only for Dern but for herself as well. She stood there with some helplessness. She had no idea where to even start looking for her team.

She needed to find her team, but she needed to find a way to help Dern recover.

The only way to do that she could think of was to form a fragment.

Zee let out a long, shaky breath. She was exhausted, both physically and mentally, and need some time to destress. But she couldn't. Even after nearly freezing to death, and then almost getting eaten in the Null realm, she couldn't relax.

Dern was in trouble and might die if she didn't do something, and quickly. Zee paced on the street, her eyes flitting over the shattered and crumbling buildings around her. Her eyes rested on the pitch-black tower, looming above. Uncertain, she pulled out the astrolabe that Petrie gave her, noting it was still pointed right towards the tower.

Without a direction to head, she walked toward the tower, arriving at its wide base in only an hour. There was still no sign of any people, only the occasional monster, which she avoided.

Zee wandered around its base, searching for any sign of where her team went. She felt lost, the spreading cracks on her splinter a constant in the back of her mind. With each passing hour, the cracks were getting worse. With no help and no idea how to form a fragment, Zee could only wait for her inevitable end. Or, she could go into that ominous spire and hope that a solution lies within.

Zee really didn't like that idea, but it was looking like her only course of action.

Despair threatened to consume her, the urge to just give up overwhelming.

Everyone was gone. She was alone, had no family, or friends was separated from her team, and worst of all, she may have killed Dern.

Her rash actions could have cost her everything. For all she knew, her teammates were dead, or captured. She let out a shuddering breath, squashing the flood of depressing emotions.

Straightening her back, she pushed down her fear and strode towards the tower. She doubted there was actually a way to fix her worsening condition in that tower, but who knew?

She owed it to Dern to go in there and check. Besides, if she didn't do something soon, her splinter would crumble, and they would both die.