The pair had been missing long enough to draw suspicion. So, Vin helped Maeve onto her feet and exited the sanctuary together. The royal fled the room before either could digest what had happened, but Vin knew he wouldn't have any regrets. His only concern was about what would become of their partnership.

  It was late afternoon, so there wasn't much time before the operation. While Maeve returned to work, Vin stayed behind. He recalled seeing a few nostalgic items lying around the Galaxy house and wanted to archive them. He picked up his favorite shoes, which were too small for his adult self. He looked at sports magazines and stickers and held his first mobile device, wishing it turned on so he could use the headphones for music.

  While there, Vin also archived several short-lived objects, such as pillows, blankets, and furniture. His mind strained to absorb all the memories, but it would be worth it if he could one day create powerful shades without blackouts. Having a personal army could be even more valuable than his flames.

  When Vin was done, he returned to the elven bedroom and dismissed the book. 'The power of memory and creation, huh...'

  'May not be strong, but, there's a lot of potential,' he thought, walking to the living room. He already deduced that the goth historian was once a mortal Elf who ascended to godhood. If that were the case, he, too, could become so strong that creating a new Earth would be possible.

  'Thinking about it, the bird probably only wanted me because it knew I was connected with the librarian.'

  'But, if that's the case, why didn't it just tell me its goal was to re-create their planet, Vulcorath?' he considered, placing a hand on his chin. 'There's still so many pieces missing...'

  Fixating on the subject wouldn't provide answers. Right now, he needed to focus on what was ahead of him because going into the city without focus could be disastrous.

  Vin entered the living room and spotted Maeve, beautiful yet assertive, as she delivered a motivational address to her people. In less than an hour, they would be entering the guarded market. Vin tucked a hand into his cultist hoodie, leaned against the wall, and listened. While doing so, he wondered if he could be convinced to die for someone else's mission.

  'Definitely not.' He believed a powerful cause was one that no one had to convince you of; it was an innate feeling your heart wanted to follow without question. And right now, he certainly wasn't motivated to die before finding his family.

  Vin eyed Gideon, who was at the front of the audience. He hoped their supply run went smoothly so they could learn to play the clarinet together. Vin glanced at Tristen next, who had an antsy sway as they listened. Vin was personally looking forward to skating with the youthful fellow once this undertaking was over.

  Finally, he gazed at the mighty Maeve, her expression calm yet fierce as she uplifted her people. Whenever he looked at her, he couldn't avoid recalling her touch and hoped to find moments like that again.

  "Maeve," he muttered quietly, knowing the half-elf would hear him. Vin pulled his hood over his head and whispered, "I'm off."

  He tapped the day-old longboard Casty left against a wall, archived it, and headed for the door. The royal's speaking cadence shifted, becoming slower and more temperate as she said, "Be careful."

  Vin looked back and met her gaze momentarily. Then, she resumed her usual authority and addressed her people as if the message was intended for them. Vin opened the door quietly, whispering, "I will."

  He snuck out of the house into the calm daylight. The others wouldn't depart for around another hour, but he had a lot to do in a short amount of time. First, he had to find his Shade and then locate as many of the missing Ravenours as possible. Those who he missed would simply be left behind.

  Vin took off on his longboard, moving at absurd speeds down the street of the city of Canals, which resembled a fairy tale like Venice. As brisk winds cut across his face, he weighed everywhere his Shade could be. It was a large city, so they had to have accounted for something like this, but where?

  Actually, one place came to mind. Without wasting any time, Vin navigated to the location of his first death, a small shopping strip, where he was shredded by the earth mage's light spell.

  His soul sense had a broader range from frequent use, so he made several detours along the way to communicate with Ravenours. The interactions were short, only telling them when and where to flee the city.

  After his final stop, he stepped outside and hopped onto his longboard as usual- until a sharp sting jolted through his mind. Vin halted, gripping his head as a cold chill crept over him, his gaze darkening as he scowled at the ground.

  The voices were starting again, so it wouldn't be long before the undead assaulted the city. He just hoped its defenses lasted. Vin persisted, rolling around patrols with his silent enchanted skateboard; even if spotted, he had too much momentum to be caught on foot.

  He eventually returned to where he'd died and spotted glowing, purple words on the wall written in Earthian, "Keep South. There's a small wreck yard by the water. Signal for me."

  He followed the canal further and saw tall fences surrounding a small enclosure. The Sphere of Silence was already cast around it, so he knew that was the right spot. Even more, several souls were active on the other side of the wall.

  There was a door-sized entrance that Vin peeked into and saw the compound. There were dozens of mounds of wood surrounding a dock where the Elves had repaired or built ships. Now, his Shade had taken over, utilizing the yard's resources and several Ravenours to create something.

  Chucky, the stout carpenter from their town, was leading the endeavor. Judging by the attire of those gathered, it was clear that most of the men and women there were skilled Artisans. As Vin surveyed their project, he couldn't help but let out a dry chuckle.

  The Shade had conjured up a monstrosity. He combined Ravenour and Human knowledge to create what looked like a hybrid between a fantasy horse-drawn carriage and a modern four-door SUV. It had a simple rectangular body with window cut-outs and wide wheels. It had a front hood, but he knew it was strictly aesthetics. It was likely that the Shade intended to use the spell Rotate to make the wheels spin while the driver steered inside the vehicle.

  Vin looked at his doppelganger and whispered, "Lucky." He wanted to craft a vehicle himself, but his Shade, who shared the same mind, was the one who had the time for the project. Evidently, Chucky and the other Artisans were enjoying themselves too. They all moved enthusiastically, grinning as they sawed and hammered away.

  Tapping into the mind of his Shade was easy, and he told the mirror to come outside. The duplicate finished shaping a flat plane of lumber and told the Ravenours he was stepping away. Chucky released a hearty chuckle, wiped the sweat from his head, and yelled, "Don't take long; we're going to need everyone fully committed if we're going to have this beast finished by nightfall!"

  The excited bunch cheered for some reason and put their sweat-drenched bodies back to work. Well, it wasn't like Vin couldn't understand since he found creating skateboards exciting. Truthfully, if he assimilated as a regular Human, he may have chosen Artisan as his profession instead of Adventurer. Perhaps there was a timeline where he, Maeve, Tristen, and Gideon could have lived in peace and been the people they wanted to instead of what fate dictated.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Vin's doppelganger, still dressed in elven garments, exited the side door with a sack of items. Neither version looked at each other long, getting straight to business. First, Vin shared the updated plan to escape the city and the four new spell scrolls. They had the same mastery of essence manipulation, so it was just a matter of whether a shade with an artificial soul could use that magic.

  Next, the mirror version dropped the satchel of objects, informing Vin of what it had done in the past few hours. First, it helped scout missing Ravenours while skating to inspect the kingdom's defenses. The good news was that he found roughly eighty people, including Hughton and Less. The bad news was the stone walls were on the verge of crumbling. The Elves were fixing it, but it was battered with scorch marks and dents. Because of the nature of the damage, they inferred the undead could use magic, making them all the more dangerous.

  After the survey, the Shade returned to an area he was sure his counterpart would find. Because that place was so close to where everyone landed, finding Ravenours to help build the vehicle was easy.

  As for the stuff in the bag, the mirror emptied the sack on the floor, revealing a steel sword, dagger, leather gloves, and shoes. "A patrolman wandered into the yard while we were working."

  The consequences were obvious. Judging by the equipment, the patrolmen were lightly dressed in leather. That was good because an armored knight would have caused a lot of trouble.

  Vin archived all the items, and since most of them were in the range of four years old, he began suffering a moderate headache. While adding more items to his collection, his Shade said they would draw a map of where the eighty survivors he uncovered were and send the warriors in the yard to debrief them on the escape plan.

  As the number of survivors rose, traveling across the continent to the demon kingdom would become more challenging. But Vin wouldn't ease up- for Maeve's sake. He told his shade he would return after scouring the city more and left.

  <>

  Vin hit five locations in an hour. Each, like the music store, was packed with Ravenours. He instructed the inhabitants to prepare to vacate and moved on to the next one. Standing outside the sixth, a tiny home, something was odd. He sensed one soul that was unlike the rest. Its pulse was almost alien in comparison, not to mention feeble for a brute.

  He entered the building and scanned the cautious brutes. He couldn't demonstrate his flames, but they listened long enough to discover he was there on Maeve's behalf. His eyes bounced around the room as he informed them of the mass evacuation, looking for the odd man out. When it proved fruitless, he searched the building, finding two souls behind a door.

  He had recognized both, one toxic in color and the other a bleak, trembling blue.

  The doorknob didn't turn. Locked.

  He was strong enough to break it open but didn't want to fall into the habit of brute forcing everything. Not when his destructive powers were sealed. So, Vin gripped the handle and utilized a new spell to increase his proficiency with it. He channeled his essence into the knob, and it wiggled in a joyous greeting of life. Vin then commanded the thing, "Open."

  The lock unhatched, the handle turned, and the door hastily swung open of its own accord. The moment Vin walked into the room, it closed behind him and latched itself shut, awaiting further order.

  Vespa, the Ravenour with light gray skin, toxic green eyes, and lipstick, bucked in front of the dirty Human she'd jailed and growled. Her left arm grasped a serious injury on her gut, while the right was held out as if in security of the anxious male behind her.

  'They'd been together the entire time…' Even when plunged into a deadly realm with relentless enemies, she didn't free them. Vin's eyes narrowed, and his emotions numbed. It was easier to kill like this.

  He used his power of archive to hail the sword he recently obtained and raised it. The woman, dressed in a white, bloody top and black leather high-waisted bottoms, grabbed her whip to resist, but her injury caused her to kneel over with a pained grunt.

  She was defenseless, and Vin was ready to end her, but then the malnourished, dark-eyed, brown hair male behind her yelled in Earthian, "W-wait!"

  "D-dont…" His voice was faint-hearted and hesitant, but he stood and continued, "She saved me…"

  Vin scowled, responding harshly in their native language, "You're joking."

  "N-no, I…" The prisoner stuttered, their dirt-streaked face looking at the ground in trained obedience. Their features were soft, once belonging to someone with aspirations, perhaps a scholar in another life. But now, they were merely a captive. The young man fidgeted with his hands, murmuring, "I would have died. She was injured protecting me from the knights."

  A flicker of fire reflected in Vin's eyes as he squeezed his fist and snarled. He stormed forward, roughly grabbed the passive man by the jaw, and forced his head up. Watching a fellow Human cower and squirm like that before the enemy ignited a deep, seething rage within him. "She subjugated you! You were only saved so she could torture you more!"

  Vespa struggled to her feet and grabbed Vin's cruel hand, shouting in Vulcan, "Let him go!"

  Vin did just that, releasing the battered Human, balling up his fist, and punching the woman in her injured gut, causing her to reel over in pain. She fell to her knees, and he swung the sword at Vespa, though the young man bucked before her and halted the attack.

  "I know!" the weak-willed man exclaimed in a slightly higher tone. Still, the fact he couldn't scream or even look Vin in the eyes was proof he was broken. "They did terrible things to me, but I'm also alive because of her…"

  "I'm glad I didn't die before seeing more of the new world. There is so much to discover, to research… So I owe her this much."

  Vin scrutinized the man, the only other Human he'd known to be in the Vulcorath region. The words discovery and research triggered his powerful mind to put together the coincidences. "You're the plant guy."

  "Q.Q. right?" He recalled reading a journal entry from a person by those initials the day Humans arrived in Auroraan.

  The young man nodded shakily, and Bonely pulled up one of their records at his request.

  [Discovered By:] Q.Q.

  [Discovered On:] Date: 1/1/300 A.D.

  [Name:] Pirana Plant

  [Notes:] This plant seems to disguise itself in its surroundings. It clipped my leg when it snapped shut, but luckily, I only have a small cut.

  Interesting, my leg is now beginning to go numb. The skin around the wound is quickly turning colors, which may be an infection.

  YES, this plant is definitely poisonous. Oh, lord, VERY POISIONOUS.

  I can't feel my leg anymore!

  [End]

  Vin remembered thinking he had to have been a strange person to document a discovery while their life was in danger. An oddball like him. Someone he wanted to meet. Unfortunately, the man before him was not the same individual. Ravenours dimmed their flame and made them submissive and dreary.

  'Then he wasn't kidnapped during the raid on Human settlements. He entered a lesser bridge and got stranded like me.' Not that it mattered; he was still a victim. That poisonous woman had a dreadful hold on them. As gratifying as it would be to kill her, that idiot wouldn't stop getting in the way.

  "Fine." There was a subtle flash as the steel sword was dismissed back to its archives. Vin backed off, adding, "I won't kill her, but you're coming with me."

  Q.Q nodded softly and followed, but Vespa, still on her knees from the strike, wrapped her arms around the male's waist, her noxious green eyes peering violently at the Eternal. Vin looked down at her in disgust, then at the malnourished, short-haired Human, "If I have to remove her I won't hold back."

  "I understand," Q.Q weakly replied. He pulled on the woman's arms, but there was no way a Human could overpower a Ranvenour. A moment later, he laid his hand on her head and said some of the few words he'd picked up in Vulcan during the past week, something she probably said to him often. "See you soon."

  For one reason or another, her eyes widened when hearing him speak the brutish language. Vin believed such gentle words were wasted on the savage and snarled, "He's safer with me, you know that."

  Vespa went still for a contemplative moment, then released her hold and scanned her bleeding injury, knowing she was too weak to protect anyone else. She peered at Vin and promised, "I will come for him."

  Q.Q asked what she had said, but Vin ignored him and angrily marched to the door, which opened automatically. "It doesn't matter. Let's go."