I sat on the boulder, my legs dangling down a foot over the rocks, and looked around. Everything around me felt peaceful and less heavy. Not by a lot. Maybe just a bit. The reason behind the change was simple. There was less mana in the air now. And what remained was not ice, wind, or death. Something told me that it would take years for the mana density to reach its former levels.

  I looked at the surroundings one more time. Beautiful and peaceful. That was the best way to describe the sight all around me. But if all that was true, then why was I feeling so twitchy?

  My hand opened and closed in the empty air. I looked at it. I wanted to grab onto something, and the sheathed sword on my belt didn’t seem like a good fit. With a thought and a green flash, I summoned my Reaper’s blade.

  I looked down at the blade. My eyes went from the strange pattern to the crystal green pommel on the blade. Its green glow breathed gently in the middle of the two blades. The glow began to throb, and the whole blade vibrated and tilted towards the door.

  “Hmm?”

  What was wrong with my blade? It had just turned in my hand. I looked at it with a growing frown on my lips. A blade was a weapon. And if it turned away from what I was aiming at, then what good was a weapon?

  I could feel anger rising in me. I had spilled out half of my soul to create this blade, and now it was turning away from me? My hand tightened on its hilt. The vibration from the blade stopped, and mana gathered around the blade. The mana latched onto me. I almost threw the blade far into the rocks, stopping at the last moment.

  “Wielder. Follow the marks.” The words were not spoken aloud. They were thoughts projected into my mind. They were odd. They had no intonation to them. Flat and impersonal.

  The green stone on the pommel blinked. My eyes went to it. Three dots appeared on the pommel. All aiming me towards the door on the cliff face. I tried rotating the blade. It was a task considering it had a horizontal scythe jutting from the bottom. The marks did not move. They kept pointing to something beyond the door.

  The blade had a will of its own? No. It had no soul. Then that meant this was a message from Gaia. The world itself wanted me to do its bidding.

  For a moment, I considered that fact. Had I enslaved myself to some unknown being? My soul said no. The cord tying me to Father was more of a tie than the stone on the blade. Moreover, I had given my vow to the world. I would be its enforcer. Its blade and its shield. There was no point second-guessing myself now.

  I began walking to the door. I opened it and walked in.

  The displacement magic carried me elsewhere. It had been strange exiting a door and entering a basin. And it was stranger not appearing back in the same spot.

  I looked to the side and saw the large doorway to the throne room, but then where were Ilya and the others? I began to walk where we had been chased from. After five minutes, I stopped. I didn’t see any sign of the statue of the horseman or the fountain that the punishers had taken cover behind.

  Instead, there was a strange statue in the middle. Carved from pink-white marble, it showed five rabbits playing a chess-like game where every pawn was created to resemble dogs. The rooks resembled humans, and the bishops resembled cats. There were no horses on the board. Instead, there was a monkey on a tree with its teeth bared.

  That meant I was on the other end of the arched passage.

  I raised my Reaper's blade horizontally and looked at the pommel connecting the two blades. Two dots had moved to the left. Towards the edge of the stone. The last dot was leading me to a door past the rabbits.

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  I kept my footsteps light and walked to the door. I opened it and found myself looking at a rocky cavern. Stalactites formed a carpet of needles on the ceiling above. Water dripping down with a plop-plop-like sound was the only noise in the cavern.

  Beyond the stalactites, hidden by all the mineral deposits, was an ethereal source of light. I took a step and walked past old rotting furniture and barrels. The dot told me to go straight, and I followed its guidance. What was this place? Where was the dot leading me? Did Gaia want me to fight spirits, or specters, or the wraith?

  A scrape against the rough stone on the ground made me look up from the pommel. I stopped.

  My Reaper's blade vibrated in my hand.

  “Prove your conviction. Eliminate the blighted.”

  A thought entered my head, and I looked on as first two, then five, and then more creatures lifted themselves from the ground. I started to count and stopped when the count passed twenty. Meanwhile, pale-faced, gray-eyed humanoids walked out of the darkness to my sides. I looked back and saw more creatures hemming me in.

  They all were strange. They had been humans and elves once. Now they were white-skinned, genderless beings with no hair anywhere on their naked bodies. Their emaciated bodies didn’t so much walk towards me; they shambled like zombies.

  But these weren’t zombies. They were Blighted. Creatures created not from death but curse magics. These were souls that were trapped in prisons made of their own bodies. And they all had mutations. Arms and legs resembled tentacles, cacti, and whips made of bone. Their heads were all faceless. No eyes, ears, or mouths. Instead, they all had crystalline growths all over their faces.

  If that wasn’t horrifying enough, one in every tenth Blighted had a face screaming in horror on its torso.

  I slowly began to understand why Gaia had brought me here. Blighted were one of the most dangerous creatures that a mage or mana-blessed could fight. They didn’t just kill people with mana seeds; they passed on their curse, converting creatures with mana into one of their own. And they were almost immune to spells and weapons created with mana. In fact, using mana around them was inadvisable. Their curse was known to travel back using the mana of the caster.

  My eyes moved from the approaching Blighted to the source of light illuminating the cavern. There wasn’t just one source. There were multiples. Lights like those on a lighthouse were mounted on towers inside an old castle. They flooded every inch of the cavern, lighting up the surroundings.

  The Reaper's blade in my hand buzzed, and a flat monotone voice spoke in my mind. “Prove yourself. Preserve lives and protect the ones in the fallen castle.”

  There were a dozen figures on the walls of the fortress lit up by the light from behind. I couldn’t make them out, but I didn’t have to. One female figure stood tall. She was twice as large as the figures surrounding her. The giantess felt me looking at her and turned. Her hands shot up to the sky above, clenched and unclenched. Her gaze turned back to me.

  I couldn’t hear her words over the distance, but knowing her, I could hear them perfectly in my mind: “By the stars, Voss. Why are you here?”

  I looked at my Reaper's blade and then back at the approaching Blighted. Unlike the figures on the castle walls, I had the perfect weapon to fight all these creatures.

  I waved my free hand at her and with a smile muttered, “Hello, sister.”

  Ilya glared down at me and shouted, “Voss, don’t use mana! And don’t let them hit you. You are Manaborn. One strike and you will be dead.”

  I nodded.

  “Hold on! We are gathering mundane weapons. We will get you out of there soon,” Ilya continued.

  I smiled and responded, “It's okay, Ilya. It's time for me to rescue you.”

  “Voss… please don’t do anything stupid,” Ilya pleaded.

  I gave Ilya a look. “When have I done anything stupid?”

  “That was a joke, right?” Ilya asked.

  I cracked my neck one way and the other. I lifted up my sword and spread my legs to get into a fighting stance.

  “Voss…” Ilya started and stopped. She looked at my Reaper's blade and asked, “What is that abomination in your hand?”

  “Oh, this?” I lifted my Reaper’s blade and replied, “This is my new weapon.”

  “Why does it have two blades at different angles?”

  I grinned. “Let me show you.”