If there was one thing his escapades in Alluria had given Nick, it was perspective. Not everyone was as dangerous as their level suggested, but a few others could hit very hard in the right circumstances.

  Some of that was preparation. Knowing in advance that an enemy would attack, especially with reliable data on their capabilities, made even seemingly unfair fights possible.

  For example, Nick had been able to kill Changer because the man had unknowingly led him into the ideal environment to use his occult knowledge. If it had been a fair fight without any setup time, Nick would have been the one to die in the underground chamber.

  Fighting a fire mage in the middle of a forest fire was a bit like that, but in reverse. Nick had to use much more mana to put out the endless flames, only to have to do it all over again when the man started pulling from somewhere else.

  Given his cackles of delight, his opponent seemed to sense his frustration, “Your struggle is useless! No one can defeat me here!”

  If Nick had been limited to elemental magic, that might have been the truth. He suspected he outleveled the man somewhat, but that didn’t mean much since he had to use five times the mana the other did.

  However, he wasn’t so limited. First, his skill with non-elemental magic was nothing to scoff at, as shown by how much effort the other had to use to keep the surrounding blaze alive, since [Territory] was not only suppressing the physical fires but also their mystical manifestation.

  Then there was the spiritual magic he was subtly layering over the battlefield. Since the town was a lost cause from the moment they arrived, he felt no remorse in tainting the local ether a little more, using the powerful fear and despair that surrounded them to fuel the man’s recklessness.

  And finally, the Shard he channeled his magic through allowed him to sustain his output without tiring himself, giving him more time to work the subtler magics.

  If his opponent had been in his right mind, he might have realized that Nick was not actually surrendering ground but instead luring him away from where the others were assisting the locals to evacuate. And he definitely would have recognized that his being on the ropes was just an illusion.

  “Why? Why would you do this?” he howled, his voice echoing with despair where there was none.

  Having a high Cha is very helpful in situations like these. I doubt I could have projected this much raw emotion without it.

  The mage gasped for breath, sweat streaming down his forehead before turning to steam as it hit the hot ground. He was surprisingly resistant to the effects of his own magic, but then again, he was a professional for a reason.

  For a moment, the mage seemed to realize that something was wrong as they stopped in the middle of the charred grounds that had once been a market plaza, but the muddying effects of the emotions Nick had layered so thickly overwhelmed him, and he was back under his spell.

  “There is no greater reason,” the man said, panting. “The world doesn’t work like that. We all struggle to survive, from the greatest of kings to the weakest gnats. We move only when benefits can be realized. This is just another example of the kind of world we live in.”

  Mmh, I shouldn’t ask the same question again; he’s figured out that I really want to know something specific. But he still hasn’t given me a name, and I can’t kill him without knowing exactly who ordered the hit.

  It was a more coherent answer than Nick had expected, and he raised his internal assessment of his skills. Oh, he was still planning to kill the bastard, but he could recognize a seasoned professional at work.

  The man felt no remorse at all and simultaneously saw the slaughter he had carried out as nothing to boast about. He had also pretended to laugh maniacally to scare and threaten Nick, but now that he had overwhelmed him enough, the true personality beneath the mask was starting to show.

  There was a brief lull in the fighting. Fire crackled all around them, the only sound now that the village had been evacuated successfully, giving the moment a strange kind of gravitas.

  Even through the layers of emotions he’d smothered the man with, Nick could see a realization emerge that he might not get out of this alive.

  It wasn't from the rational mind, which had long been overwhelmed, but an instinctive feeling that went against what his eyes told him. Still, for a professional, listening to such a feeling could be the difference between life and death.

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  “Tell me,” Nick ordered, his voice losing its desperate edge now that the cards were being revealed. “I will let you go if you are satisfactorily thorough.”

  That was the final blow to his performance, and the mage spat on the ground, eyes still cloudy but more composed now.

  “I don’t know who sent you, kid, but you should get out of here as soon as you can. Things will get more violent as the prize becomes clearer, and you’ll be killed if you get caught up in it. Everyone’s coming out of the woodwork for this, even those you’d least expect.”

  Of course, Nick didn’t for a moment believe there was any real concern. This was another way to buy time and refocus, to try and clear his mind of the foreign influence he’d placed, but Nick could see the light at the end of the tunnel. He needed to push just a little more, and he’d get his answer.

  “So it wasn’t the Hones, was it?” he asked, not giving the other time to rebut. “It wouldn’t make sense for it to be them. I’ve seen their hand elsewhere, and this is too blunt. A minor house that wants to gain their favor by ridding them of a thorn in the side?”

  The mage’s face contorted, and the air around him shimmered as more fire mana gathered. This time, however, it didn’t form another great burst aimed at burning him to a crisp, but instead flowed inward, cleansing the man’s channels of the filth Nick had introduced.

  That, however, was a mistake. The moment he acknowledged the taint, Nick slammed the Shard down, and the ether churned as he seized the leftover resentment and helpless anger, giving it purpose.

  The [Spiritual Hurricane] that emerged formed much faster than any before it and quickly overpowered any other active mana in the plaza, stripping the flames of their caster’s control and leaving them in the storm's eye.

  It was a much more involved application of the spell than he’d ever tried before, but with the help of the Shard, a new world had opened for him, and Nick could now cast even his most complicated spells with great accuracy.

  The mage groaned as he felt his control over his element slip, and only whatever mana he’d summoned to purge himself remained his.

  He watched the subtle, almost imperceptible movement swirling around them, and a sense of resignation washed over him.

  “Who was it?” Nick asked again, and the man smiled bitterly.

  “I have standards, you know? Once signed, a contract can't be broken without due cause.”

  “Well, that was a waste of time, then,” Nick sighed. He swung the Shard forward and let the spiritual winds collapse upon his enemy, who tried to release all the stored mana remaining under his control in a fiery explosion but was far too slow.

  “I guess I can find something out by following his trail. He should be a pretty well-known figure, considering how easily he slaughtered everyone here,” he muttered, not bothering to give the shredded corpse a second look. He’d already spent enough time studying him to know he carried nothing of value, as a professional should. If Barron was willing to die rather than break the contract, he wouldn’t be foolish enough to leave incriminating evidence on his body.

  Hmm. But then again, his body itself could help me.

  There was more than one divination method that used the remains of slain enemies to determine their origin or at least where they had spent the last few days. Unless the House he opposed had protections equal to those of House Alluria, which he sincerely doubted, since he believed it was a minor one, he would get some information.

  So he turned around and floated back to where Barron was lying, then began setting up the ritual.

  “It would have been nice to think of that before I pasted his head,” he grumbled to himself. Both the Scythians and the Celts had very powerful spells they could cast using the skulls of their enemies, but that was no longer an option given its poor condition.

  The second most effective method would have been reading his organs, but those were also a mess, and while he could have used the blood as a guide, there was too much spiritual residue in the ether for that to be reliable.

  “I guess scapulimancy will have to do.”

  Several cultures had independently developed a method for reading the cracks in an enemy's scorched shoulder blades to predict both the future and the past.

  Nick wasn’t very interested in the future, as it was constantly changing, and being so close to the dungeon—a massive source of natural mana—meant it wouldn't be very dependable. However, the past was fixed and much easier to explore, so he summoned thin wind blades and carved the shoulder blades from the bloody remains.

  Tapping the Shard on the ground, he created a wind funnel that drew the remaining heat from the burned buildings toward him, using it to scorch the bones.

  Since the heat’s source was Barron himself, he didn’t worry that the emotions he’d layered around them would distort the reading. He took a deep breath and released a resonant, echoing sound from his throat, causing his bones to vibrate in response.

  Ancient Mongol traditions often depended on sounds, and while he wasn’t particularly skilled in the art, he now had enough power and finesse to make up for it. He concentrated on letting the resonance grow until the bone shattered into ash, and within the cloud, he began to see flashes of images.

  They were disjointed and sometimes confusing, but he recognized enough distinctive places to know where to go next.

  By the time Monte returned to look for him, clearly unsure of what he’d find but brave enough to risk his life to do so, Nick had already buried his enemy’s remains and those of every other villager who had been caught in the rampage.

  “You won?” Monte asked, eyeing the eerily silent village.

  There wasn’t much to see since the buildings had either burned down or been destroyed to stop the fires from spreading, but Nick figured it wouldn’t take long to rebuild, given that plenty of timber was available. Once it’s all over and they can come back, at least. I doubt they’d feel safe staying here for a while.

  “I did,” he answered. “Everyone else okay?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, they’re good. Just worried about you. That guy was insane,” Monte awkwardly explained, subtly hinting that a few of the people they’d rescued thought it wouldn’t be worth it to come back and look for him.

  Nick shrugged. This wouldn’t be the last time he was underestimated. “Well, if they are good enough to speculate, they are good enough to make their way to the closest village on their own. We have a trail to follow.”

  A light appeared in Monte’s eyes as he realized Nick hadn’t just killed the man but also managed to extract enough information to find whoever issued the order. He grinned, and it wasn’t a friendly expression.

  “Let’s go.”

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