I approached the crater, much to Abernathy’s dismay, and took a closer look. Twisted shards of metal broke through the debris in a circle at the base. It looked like a shaft of some kind had been destroyed. Blackened bits of glass, plastic, and other materials littered the crater.

  A set of footprints nearly twice as large as mine led from the center of the crater. They had not been disturbed as the wind had yet to return and were easily distinguishable as they sank more than an inch into the orange sand.

  “Whoa.” Katarina breathed beside me. “Someone did walk away from this. Holy shit.”

  I glanced toward her. She was breathing in a careful, intentful way that I recognized as her form of meditation. An idea occurred to me.

  “Does Radiant Winds restore your chi?”

  “Oh God I wish. No. I would have asked long ago if it did that. Just have to build it back up. It’s okay, I’ll be tip-top in an hour.”

  “But not before we see whatever it is that walked away from this.” I gestured towards the pit, then at the surrounding area.

  “Well whatever, or whoever, it is… they’re heading towards the Keep. Should we just do nothing?” She tilted her head slightly to the side. An errant lock of hair drifted down, framing her face. She smiled at my expression and nodded. “Exactly. We can’t do nothing. So let’s go. No time to rest. I’ll restore my chi as we go.”

  I sighed, nodding. We turned from the pit, evidence of some great destruction that was making its way towards a major city, and faced our companions.

  They were both still in their utes, watching us with mixed expressions of anticipation and fear. Abernathy looked ill.

  Chanter: Sorry guys, let’s head out. See if we can’t find this person, or thing, or whatever it is.

  Abernathy: Good. Almost got this damn cannister working. Don’t even know if I should bother, since the radiation levels have dropped so much.

  Katarina: You can do it while driving, right? Might as well finish it if you’re close.

  Abernathy: Good point, that.

  The rest of the ruins were much the same. Half-collapsed walls that had been helped along in their journey of degradation by the explosion. Bits of twisted metal and burnt plastic. I took several of them into my inventory. They were listed as Irradiated Scrap Metal and Irradiated Scrap Plastic. I figured Abe might be able to use it for something later.

  A small part of me worried about carrying the radioactive materials in my inventory, so I called for a brief stop as I tested out an idea. Everyone remained in place, Katarina closing one eye to focus more deeply on meditating but unable to resist curiosity at what I was doing. I jogged out of the influence of the pearl and felt a wave of sickness wash over me. I immediately dove back towards the aura, pulling up the status screen.

  My radiation levels had spiked up to 79% in the second I had stepped outside the radius of the pearl. I discarded the items I had stored as I relayed the information.

  Abernathy: That doesn’t make any sense though. It’s a dimensional storage. Means what we put in isn’t here with us. It’s why the food stays hot or cold and never spoils. It’s stasis locked, where ever it goes.

  Katarina: Oh Gods does that mean Chanter just irradi-whatevered his food supplies?

  Abernathy: No, it’s stasis locked, mate. That means time-locked.

  Chanter: Yeah, that’s why the countdown on Kinetic Overload stops ticking down when I put something I have enchanted with it in my inventory. But if that isn’t it, then why would that spike happen?

  Sebastian: Maybe test it? Try stepping back out of the radius now that those things are out of your inventory?

  Abernathy: Great idea! Need a control to see if it was the scraps.

  Katarina: I don’t really like this idea.

  “It’s okay,” I said as I eyed the status screen. The radiation status blinked away. “Just a step out and back in.”

  I took a few cautious steps, unsure of exactly where the radius ended, and was smacked with another wave of nausea. I stumbled back, radiation level spiking up to 67%.

  Chanter: Yeah, its not the scraps. Something out there is pumping out a lot of radiation.

  Sebastian: Maybe whatever caused that crater?

  Abernathy: Whatever it is, make sure you stay close enough to the pearl. I’m almost done with the device and it’ll power up the pearl by more than 500%.

  Chanter: Think it’ll be done by the time we get to the walking quest marker? What if that is the source of the radiation?

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  Abernathy: Almost there, mate. Should be finished before we get there, aye.

  Sebastian: I don’t want to be a cause for alarm, but that marker is moving faster.

  I cursed, looking at the mini-map. Sure enough, the blip was travelling slightly faster than it had been.

  Katarina: We need to go. Enough dilly-dallying.

  “Feeling better?” I asked as we resumed our light jog. I shifted back to my wood elf form, on the off-chance that it was a friendly irradiated moving quest marker.

  “I’m getting there. About a… fifth of the way? Just gotta be careful with my chi usage.”

  Encore: I am returning. There is a man moving along the road ahead. He is not natural and smells of death.

  Encore swooped out of the sky a few minutes later, after conveying what he had seen.

  A wide swath of the desert had been affected by the explosion, but it didn’t seem like the radiation had spread as we had worried. Encore was able to sense it somehow. He said it had a unique scent, but that he was able to sense it high in the sky and across a wide distance, so I had my doubts about it being derived from his sense of smell. The blast had reached Arid Spur, but the walls had largely protected the village against the blast. It seemed, based on what Encore had seen from high above, that a few damaged roofs were the extent of the damage.

  Encore finished providing his scouting report as a shining figure became visible on the road further ahead. The figure glowed with a faint greenish-yellow energy.

  We were moving faster and the figure’s details began to emerge as the distance between us steadily shrank.

  He floated a foot off the ground, his body glowing with a light that radiated from the center of his torso with such intensity that it was painful to look at directly.

  He wore no clothes, had no hair, carried no implements of any kind. He was nine feet tall, his skin smooth and glowing neon yellowish-green.

  The man stopped as we approached, languidly turning in the air to face us. His eyes were cold, tumultuous and contemptuous. They blazed with vibrant green energy. His entire being seemed to be constructed of some yellowish-green energy, but the structure of his body and face were human, albeit half again larger than they should have been.

  He spoke as we came to a stop about fifty feet from him. His voice was deep, and traveled across the distance as if he were standing right beside us.

  “Ah, it is well that I find you here. The first to be cleansed.”

  “Cleansed? I don’t like the sound of that.” Katarina shifted.

  “He stinks of the radiation.” Encore’s snout wrinkled up, exposing his front teeth.

  The glowing man continued. “The world is different, now. Bare witness to my rebirth. First I walked, now I ascend. And with me comes the endless night.”

  He raised his arms and a wave of energy surged towards us. It crashed against the pearl’s influence in a wave of flickering green light.

  “Hmm,” he boomed. “Curious.”

  Abernathy: Fuck. Mates, this isn’t good. I don’t know how many of those hits the pearl can take. Can you stall him for a minute? Or even half a minute?

  “Stall him? Seriously?” Katarina whispered. “How the hell…”

  She tapered off as I pulled out my lute and shifted its form to the biwa and bachi. “Encore, back me up. Let’s see if we can… distract this guy?”

  I began performing Phantasmal Foxfire, slapping the bachi against the string of the biwa and calling out. I don’t know why, but I decided to mimic his first line back. “Ah! It is well that we find you here. For we are not alone!”

  My fingers danced across the string of the biwa as the chaotic melody flowed across the desert. Encore assisted, boosting the strength of the illusions. I created golems of sand from either side of the man, hulking figures twenty feet tall. They had thick, basic humanoid physiology and reached for him with lethargic motions.

  The man, who was still too far for me to make out his nameplate, glanced at one golem and flicked his hand lazily. I continued the performance, shifting the illusion to match his gesture, dispersing it as he sent a wave of energy to the side, perpendicular to us.

  He nodded, turning his head the other direction and repeating the gesture. That illusion shifted as well, matching he gesture and dissipating into a pile of sand. I formed four more golems and shifted songs, transforming my lute in a second as the golems reached towards him. I angled the golems in a way that caused him to turn away from us and began performing Cahl’s Tatsu Pizzicato, cloaking us in a field of invisibility.

  Encore continued supporting the illusion song, maintaining it long enough for the Tatsu to cloak us in a field of invisibility.

  “What are these tricks?!” the man shouted, his voice a tangible force in my ears. “This ends NOW!”

  He sent another wave of force, spreading his arms wide and thrusting his chest outward. The energy once again crashed against the protective barrier of the pearl. There was a muffled sense of pressure in the air around us and thin tendrils of sickly green energy began breaking through the barrier, reaching towards us.

  Katarina shifted, grabbing me at the waist and pulling me away from one of the tendrils. It struck the ground and left a singed mark on the sandstone road, creating an acrid, burning smell.

  Abernathy: FUCK YES!

  The sense of slight pressure in the air abated as the pearl’s protection expanded in a forceful wave, shoving the energy back. It extended to the man, then beyond him. He fell to the ground, his glowing light diminishing considerably.

  “Fuck yes,” Katarina agreed, sprinting towards him.

  His eyes widened as he fell, then widened further still when Katarina emerged from the field of invisibility and kicked him in the face. I began performing Kinetic Overload. Encore shifted to his wisp form, established a mana link, and began performing his different rendition of Radiant Winds.

  The man didn’t stumble back as much as I had expected from Katarina’s kick, but she followed it up with three more that sent him reeling back. He lashed out with an arm, but she easily evaded his strike and sent two punches into his ribs.

  His face tightened in pain and a weight settled off of my chest. So he could be hurt. Good to know.

  Katarina ducked another blow, pivoting and grabbing the extended arm. She used the momentum of his punch to throw the man to the sandstones, which cracked under the momentum of his bulk.

  I poured a few magic points into Hasten Song, quickening both my performance and Encore’s as the man rolled and stood, glaring at Katarina with black eyes, the pupils of which now glowed with a fraction of the power they had once contained.

  Katarina smiled fiercely back at him, dancing back as he stood. She bounced from one leg to the other, shifting her stance, laughing.