II-6 Access

Mana gates are the lifeblood of empires and the reason for their downfall.

We understand that these passageways are created by the system to bridge dimensions and worlds. The goal, usually, is to further conflict—this has been observed when resource-rich gates open along the borders between great nations or a gate connected to an extremely warlike world is unleashed upon Integrated Earth.

Because of this—and the assortment of quests that are issued in relation to the gates, the terms “Dungeon Rush,” “Gate Raider,” and “Gate War” have become mainstays in most societies. For some Pathbearers, their claim to strength and ascension to Master was solely because of their success raiding gates. Entire societies, warbands, and even nations have been created for the end of better challenging, capturing, or closing gates. In certain cases, Pathbearers argue the title of “Gate Lord” is more valuable than being the ruler of a village, town, city, or even kingdom for the sheer amount of resources they can obtain.

Due to gates being conduits and “mana veins” between world, even the weakest gate’s power far exceeds the mana contained within a singular Pathbearer’s soul, for the most part. As such, the designation for gates shares naming conventions with mana storms, starting from Category 1 and upward. 

So far, the highest rated gate is a Category 15 gate located in the Kingdom of Lone Star, and can be spotted easily from even beyond the planet’s atmosphere. Most of Lone Star’s people have not so affectionately dubbed the gate “Perdition’s Anvil,” with it supplying over 92.44% of Lone Star’s economy while its monsters remain the highest cause of mortality for its people…

-Gates: Worlds Between Worlds

II-6

Access

Shiv attacked the vampire from several vectors at once.

His Vitality Drain hit first. The high vampire let out a vicious hiss as he stumbled in agony. What followed were several brutal blows striking all at once. Shiv’s Biomancy was his strongest magical skill, but it paled in comparison to the vampire’s own Biomancy. But surprise was a potent weapon for the weaker party, and Shiv had a lot more than just one surprise to offer. He drove his Biomancy field into the high vampire immediately. Now, the bloodsucker’s hiss turned into a gagging rasping. To its credit, it responded damned fast—Shiv only managed to briefly touch the high vampire’s heart before he felt its Biomancy respond, clamping down on his field.

Now it was Shiv that gave a silent hiss. A shuddering pain rushed straight to the very roots of his being. The feeling of using a weaker mana field to struggle against a stronger one was like getting your limb slowly ripped out of its socket—except the limb was both Shiv’s mind and soul. An aura of deepest red exploded out from the vampire as a complex series of weaving spells danced around him. Towering mushrooms and other organisms nearby began to melt into blood. Shiv could feel the grinding power of the high vampire crashing against him like waves—and do nothing.

This was why Shiv chose to begin his magical offensive: He had no physical body right then, so there was nothing to lose. Despite this, his Biomancy was absolutely pinned in place. He was a lake being crushed by a sea, and despite all his effort, the high vampire’s field pushed through his own in practically a heartbeat. 

And it still did nothing, to the high vampire’s building fury.

“Show yourself! Coward!” the high vampire spat.

Shiv pushed through his spiritual agony and turned to his other mana attunements. It took him a colossal effort to focus his intent enough to shape the simplest spell—and Pyromancy was far easier to direct than Psychomancy. 

How the hells did Uva even last at all against Harkness… A burst of flame splashed across the high vampire’s eyes, causing the bloodspawn’s eyelashes to catch fire. It clawed out at all angles. Practically everything organic for around a hundred meters was splashing down into a puddle of blood at this point as the vampire struck out blind with his magic. And now Shiv’s resurrective husk was condensing around him. He didn’t have long before he got an immediate sampling of another—

Shiv resurrected. And then Shiv died immediately. He barely managed a single breathe before he felt himself come apart into rivers of blood. Broken Moon, magic is bullshit… Great. Now, I know the first high vampire I fought was little more than an Adept-Tier weakling at most. Shiv paused briefly. And now he was experiencing power inflation. Tran and most of the Slayers were awed by Adam hitting Adept-Tier while he was still in the academy. But compared to the actual monsters that walked Integrated Earth, Adept-Tiers were but lambs to the slaughter.

Tragically for the bloodspawn, Shiv was a lamb that grew a wolf’s teeth once he got his neck torn open enough times.

Biomancy > 47

Pyromancy > 9

Psychomancy > 8

The high vampire turned, slashing out with clawed hands and cleaving through the dissolving spill of blood where Shiv once stood. Once again, he started draining the vampire. Once again, the vampire threw his head back and howled in agony. The monster’s focus shattered. All the dancing spells orbiting around his body dissolved and vanished, and the world darkened once more. But rather than trying to burst the high vampire’s heart with his already strained Biomancy field, Shiv unleashed his Psychomancy instead. Focusing his intent, he tried to rip and tear at the vampire’s mind, but the spells he shaped seemed to have no effect. The high vampire staggered, gathering its bearings, and Shiv cursed. He adapted. He focused his will and poured his deepest desire into the vampire: “Stay distracted!”

This time, the high vampire’s eyes widened and Shiv felt the bloodspawn’s mind lose focus. The mind’s not like the body, Shiv realized. I can’t attack it the same way. I need to think mentally… attack him as I was attacked mentally… The vampire started recovering again. Shiv drew on the closest experience he had, and come up with a plan.

A plan that was probably going to make Uva pretty pissed at him later.

Once more, he shaped a spell—but this wasn’t a spell meant to strike at another’s mind. At least not immediately. No, this was the spell Shiv was the most familiar with right now, because he did it practically every time he got intimate with Uva. Shiv tethered his thoughts and feelings to the vampire, and the damn monster immediately started spasming and shrieking in torment. Shiv frowned. Come one, asshole, mana strain doesn’t feel that bad…  Does it? It’s like a three out of ten next to getting burned alive in the teleportation anchor. Oh, wait! Shiv drew on his teleportation anchor memories and dumped them all into the high vampire. The shrieking stopped, and the vampire promptly blacked out.

Psychomancy > 9

That didn’t mean Shiv was done. He kept dumping more of his recently experienced pain into the vampire, until the enemy was just twitching and jerking on the ground. Just as Shiv sensed no more brain activity in the blank-eyed monster, he resurrected once more—and immediately extracted the vampire’s heart before tossing the organ down into his cloak. Using his Biomancy hurt bad, but Shiv wasn’t messing around with this monster. Without Psychomancy, Shiv really wasn’t sure how this fight could have gone.

Thank the system most mages have a hard time developing Magical Resistance. If this bastard had 811’s Magical Resistance, I would have probably experienced a good ten deaths or more… Not that it sounded too bad in retrospect. He was close to his Skill Evolution for Biomancy now. Maybe a few more would have pushed him over the edge. Good thing I kept my Perfect Semblance up, too. If I just dropped the guise and started fighting, they would all probably be on alert right now. With the vampire dead, I got a chance to keep this infiltration run going. I just need a new face.

“Not bad, Master Shiv,” a voice came from behind.

Shiv spun—only to see Still Water staring at him from behind a tree with a single dagger drawn. “Still Water,” Shiv greeted, bidding his racing heart to calm. “A warning could have been good.”

“That defeats the purpose. Remember, Master Shiv: This is a sneaking mission. And right now, I think the mission’s got a new lease on life.”

Shiv grunted as he pulled his own severed head out from his cloak. “Good thing I managed to decapitate myself. And that the damned orc swung so hard it covered this entire place with dust and debris.” As if the world was agreeing with his statement, another falling chunk of land impacted and made the ground shake. “Things could’ve gone pretty bad if my body dropped into the fissure. Or if they noticed me casting my spells.”

“Yeah,” Still Water said, looking around. “That, and if one of their patrolling Adepts didn’t go missing in the forest due to no one in particular, they might have come running to help their friend just now.”

Oh, she’s here to boast, Shiv realized. He chuckled. “Thanks, no one in particular.”

The Weaveress gave her own silent laugh. “Don’t worry about it, high vampire. Now. Let’s see what that mask can do.”

Shiv took the Mask of False Paths off his original severed head. He then tossed the head on the ground, and pulled out five more of his own stored corpses from his cloak.

“I… am not sure what you’re doing, Master Shiv?” Still Water said. She discovered the answer a second later as Shiv harvested all biomass unrelated to bone from his corpses and used it to assemble an even bigger, denser exoskeleton.

“I’m going to need a thicker shell around me for my next round with the orc,” Shiv said as he ripped off the vampire’s mask and studied their face. Hmm, not too ugly. Other than the teeth…

“The point is to not have a next round with the orc,” Still Water said, somewhat sarcastically.

“There’s going to be a next round,” Shiv insisted. He hesitated before confirming the vampire as his new Perfect Semblance. Kneeling down, he asked Still Water to keep watch as he looted his kill. To his disappointment, the high vampire didn’t have much worth taking, other than a pouch filled with gems, some kind of overly decorated nightglass dagger, and a diary of all things. Shiv took all those—but in the process, felt a strange hardness hidden along both the vampire’s arm sleeves. As he pulled off the vampire’s gloves, a grin spread across his face.

“Well, I was just looking for something like this.” Shiv didn’t manage to find the focus staff that one of the slavers was using yesterday, but what the vampire had on him might just be better. A set of focus crystal bracelets were Shiv’s true reward, and he fastened them to his own arms. Immediately, his mind cleared—the feeling was uncanny. It was like it drank away the drift and distractions from Shiv’s thoughts. I got to ask someone about these crystals when I get the chance…

“Someone’s coming down the road. Five hundred meters.” Still Water called out. Shiv grunted his acknowledgement and assembled his new exoskeleton over himself. He was now two skeletons denser than normal, and it was starting to feel awkward to move in. Shiv made some final adjustments to the armor so it didn’t feel that unbalanced. As he solidified a cluster of five skulls to become his new helmet, he stared down at the vampire’s face and chose them as his new Perfect Semblance.

Just like with the slaver, the body of the slain combusted, and the fire and ash fused around Shiv to create a new identity he could wear. He examined his hands, now shrouded in a thick shawl of shadowy fabric. He then wrapped his head like the high vampire used to, leaving on his eyes showing.

Giving his Perfect Semblance status sheet a brief look, Shiv took in a few of the essential details and gawked at just how many Adept-Tier Skills the vampire had. That’s a damn wall of skills… And he’s 145 years old? Well, the system must’ve hated him, since it set us on a course to collide.

“Well, that’s not something you see every day,” Still Water breathed. She peeked past the tree again and hummed. “Three hundred meters. They’re coming into sight. I’m going dark. I’ll let the others know the operation is still on—and that you got a new face.”

“Yeah,” Shiv said. “Don’t engage, though. This group’s tough. Between the ork and all the others, I don’t we can achieve a clean ambush with what we got.”

Still Water vanished into her cloak, but kept speaking. “I’m inclined to agree. So best tag that weapon so we got something to track in the worst case. Best, we’ll find an opening, and we can pick more and more of them off along the way. Oh, and one more thing: what was the vampire’s Awareness?”

Shiv checked the high vampire’s status sheet and chuckled. “Advanced.”

The Trapdoor Weaveress sighed. “Paranoia. Looks like it got to me.”

“Better to have it than not,” Shiv said.

He stepped out of the woods and proceeded back along the wide ebony path. He tried to remember what the vampire’s personality was like to get into character. Shiv needed to be impatient and agitated. Develop a short fuse, maybe. That, and keep to himself most of the time. Except the orc seemed pretty friendly with the high vampire. But the vampire was pretty mad at the orc… Isaiah. Isaiah Galtadore is the vampire’s name… What kind of name is that?

And then there was another thing that drew his notice. A notification lingered before him, asking him if he wanted to steal an Advanced Skill from the high vampire. Or maybe replace his Adept-Tier Skill. And with the buffet the vampire offered, he wasn’t short on options.

“Isaiah!” A female voice snarled from afar. “Bloodspawn! Where are you? I told you to watch the damned orc! I told you he was your burden. Does that mean something to a spawn of the Court? Was that the reason why they cast you out?”

Shiv bit back a groan of annoyance. And already more personal lore was flying at him. He didn’t have time to dig through this status sheet in detail, and Blade Whirlwind was… not that effective. Momentum Core already gave Shiv a pretty extreme option for dealing physical damage, but what he needed right now was more flexibility, more subtlety, more subterfuge.

And that’s why he found a choice that went perfectly with his mask.

Replace Stolen Adept-Tier Skill [Blade Whirlwind] with [Umbral Shadowalker]?

Shiv agreed.

A second later, he held back a gasp as all the memories associated with Blade Whirlwind were torn out of his mind and replaced with Umbral Shadowalker. As the furious woman kept calling out to him, Shiv remembered stalking through darkness as other vampires hunted him. They wailed in sorrowful outrage, demanding he return to let them take and stake his heart, that he doesn’t deserve his gifted blood for the patricide he committed…

In desperation came struggle, and from struggle was an Adept forged. Isaiah learned how to melt into the darkness that day, to let the shadows hide his footsteps and turn him invisible.

Now, this is a sneaking mission, Shiv grinned to himself. Also explains why I could hear him at all when he was following me. I wonder if this skill can counter Adam’s Awareness… Let’s give this a field test.

Shiv darted among the trees and bled into the shadows. At once, the dense fabric covering his body dissolved into smoke and blanketed him entirely. Shiv could see through the shifting darkness, but from the outside, it must’ve just looked like a trick of the light. To his surprise, the darkness also blunted his footsteps, so he made no noise when the environment was pitch black.

This is proving to be a good choice already.

“Isaiah!” The woman sounded like she was on the verge of exploding in rage. There were two other mercenaries flanking her. After a moment’s observation, Shiv realized she was the short, heavily armored Umbral standing at the back of the group from earlier. He also distinctly remembered the high vampire calling her a bitch.

Well, time to start a toxic relationship on the wrong foot. Let’s see if all my practice bullying Adam is going to pay off.

Shiv crept along the edges of the darkness until he was behind the small group looking for him. Then, just as the Umbral was about to call out again, he burst out of the woods and strained his feeble acting as hard as he could. “Stop. I’ve heard enough of your voice. It’s enough to make someone want to get staked.”

The mercenaries jumped. One of them turned and fired a crossbow at Shiv. He angled his head and let it fly past him. “I didn’t mean that literally, you bastard,” he answered with a sneer.

“You bloodsucking shit,” the Umbral stomped toward him. Her castle-gate like helmet was closed this time, leaving only three slots for him to gaze down at her face. Shiv quickly judged the Umbral to be extremely angry, but also lack the features to make that rage intimidating. “What did I tell you about keeping your orc pet on a leash? What did I say? That you get to feed if you keep him on point and focused. Was any of what just happened on point or focused?”

“For an orc?” Shiv asked, half-insultingly, half-honestly.

“You…” the Umbral seethed. “Get to the back. Rear guard. You’re pushing the cart with your damned orc. The guild will hear of your conduct. I will make sure you never get assigned to a single protection detail along the Midnight Route or any other routes within Compact territory.”

Shiv just sneered, scoffed, and turned away. This was what he wanted anyway—a means of getting close to the transport again. This was already working out better than me pretending to be a slaver.

Acting > 5

And the system seemed to agree.

By the time he was back with the transport again, he found 811 humming a jaunty tune about smashing humans into dust. Shiv hated to admit it, but the orc had a pretty good singing voice, and the lyrical composition wasn’t half bad. I’m going to kill the big bastard, but I think I’m going to end up remembering him, ironically enough.

As he passed the front of the cart, he saw a tall and thin man was tugging the chain that 811 used to pull while the orc was pushing from behind. Shiv let out a loud theatrical sigh before he joined the orc in the back. As he approached, the orc grinned at him, flashing rows of pearly white teeth. “So. How did it go? Did you find a speck of blood to lick off the ground.”

Shiv just glared at the orc. He wasn’t acting. These feelings were genuine. And in a strange way, that made what he was doing the best kind of acting. The orc tossed his head back and laughed. “Ah. I have made you mad again. I tell you, Isaiah, that you might prey on these races like me, but you are so like them. So human yourself. Does it ever bother you?”

“What bothers me is when a bloody Master can’t kill some Adept-Tier vermin.”

“Ah, but in his final bone, he laid bare his heart for once and the system breathed strength into him. He fought with strength and beauty. I believe this to be a message. From the system. A vision of what he could have truly been if he weren’t a slaver in dire circumstance. And it was so tragically beautiful.”

Another trickle of yellow ran down the orcs face and he sniffled. The large, murderous monster was genuinely emotional. These tears were real.

What the hells, Shiv thought. He shook himself out of his stupor and looked at the cargo. The Animacy Core was right here, bundled tight by cords and ropes and—well, it felt strangely exposed. Under-defended, even with so many powerful mercenaries guarding it. Something was off here. It wasn’t the same kind of off Shiv felt when the orc took him out into the woods to be killed, but there was a piece of the picture that didn’t make any sense.

I still better tag this thing. Like I told Still Water earlier, better to have paranoia than not. Using his new Stealth Skill as best he could, Shiv reached into his cloak—hidden to others by Perfect Semblance—and pulled out a magical tracker. He pretended to stumble and slapped the tracker under the cart. Then he cursed himself because that was probably the wrong place to put it. He suspected the mercenaries would see the core switched from one transport to another at some point. Shit. Well. I have another tracker. I can just…

“Isaiah? Are you alright?” 811 asked, frowning. “I’ve never watched you stumble on an even surface before? And your posture… you feel heavier than you did before. You walk like you’re much bigger you are as well—the gait is all wrong. What has happened.”

He can tell that just by observing me? Why did the system put me up against the world’s most observant orc? Shiv cursed. Mustering his own frustration, he managed to snarl out: “Piss off! I’m like this because I’m bloody hungry, too.”

811 blinked. And then laughed. “Oh, dear. Oh, dear. I am so sorry, my little friend. You must be feeling worse than I do, considering your lacking Physicality? What was it again? Adept? My, to only endure a single month without food or rest.” But the orc’s eyes glinted with affable cruelty. “But that’s not the thing, is it? You don’t need food. You carve it. Crave it worse than I do. Poor, poor little ape-eater. So close in nature to your prey, yet damned to eat them. One wonders if it was truly a blessing to take that parasite into your heart.”

Acting > 6

And Shiv thanked the system for putting him next to the most overly intellectual orc in existence. As much as 811 noticed, he quickly lost due to tangents and musings. Small mercies.

“I’ll admit to you, I disappointed,” 811 sniffled. “I hoped someone might attack us on the way. To force a proper and bloody bout over this… thing.” To Shiv’s astonishment, the orc casually knocked on the densely bundled Animancy Core with a massive fist. But what Shiv heard wasn’t the ringing of bone against steel but bone against wood.

What?

“You genuinely wish for that? For us to be ambushed?” Shiv poured disdain into his voice but kept things vague.

811 smirked. “Of course. I even have a small hope that we all lose and fall. Just to see the expressions on their faces before I perish and carry over into my 812nd iteration. Just for them to realize that the actual prize isn’t even with us. That it is likely being moved by a more trustworthy and reliable group than a few mercenaries…”

Shiv’s thoughts ground to a halt. He stared at what he assumed to be the core all this time and blinked. The orc laughed again. “Oh, Isaiah, please use that mind of yours. I know you have one since you managed to reconstruct my entire arm in the span of seconds. A brilliant mind. One soured on the flavor of bitterness and drowning in a depressed ego. Think. Think, deep. Why hire us? Mercenaries are loud. Effective sometimes, yes, but loud. And their honor and professionalism have a price. Imagine how easy it would be for someone of your original Faith to simply buy one of us for information. And think of what that is worth across the Abyss—whisper and threats of a new war.”

811 drew in a deep breath and sighed. “You smell that? It is the stretch of building chaos. Building and building as opportunities and doubt bleed over every crevice in this vast and lovely darkness. Imagine the shockwaves going from chasm to Penumbra. Now imagine you were to think we have a device of such a nature, but be revealed to be moving some more meager treasure in the end. Disappointment and false information is a vaccine against proactivity. A potent one at that.”

The orc smirked proudly. Shiv blinked.

This was the consequence of rushing into an operation. Of not having enough intelligence. Shiv was beginning to see that clearly now.

Okay. I need to kill him the first chance I get. Because this thing… I hope he’s wrong, but a thing this size and of this nature shouldn’t be allowed to get that smart. Dammit. Shit. I hope Adam heard all of that—or maybe the brooch in my cloak managed to catch some of that. But if this convoy is just a decoy, then… where the hells is the real Animancy Core?

The question plagued Shiv. All the way until they started closing in on the gate.

***

“Shit!,” Adam spat as soon as the orc finished speaking. He slammed a fist down on the shroom cap he was hiding on. “Godsdammit all!” His insides tightened. His heart began to race. If this group was just a decoy, then maybe the bomb was already across—maybe this entire thing was a ruse. Maybe—

No. Focus. We solve the problems we can. Think. The hiring of a decoy group means the real core is still out there. That means that it must pass through the gate… Or already has recently. No one hires a decoy early. Or late. Decoys are meant to split focus and attention. So… So the best chance we have is getting Shiv inside the gate as soon as we can. We have to get him inside the gate—and the transport crew is the best way to do it.

The Young Lord mastered himself, and conveyed what he learned to the others. Uva really didn’t like his new plan. The Weaveresses didn’t sound sold either. Adam couldn’t wait. He just couldn’t. They wanted to call this entire thing off since the tracker was pinned, but Adam couldn’t accept this. Not with Blackedge at risk, not when—

“Adept,” Valor said. Adam blinked and regarded the skull. Valor was watching him, the flames inside his sockets dancing. “Think. You were thinking just now, but you plunged into worry again. Think about the process. Think.”

“I—I am thinking,” Adam said, frustration leaking through. “I’m thinking that we don’t know anything, that this entire thing was a waste of time—aside from getting Shiv a better false identity he could use. And I think… I think…” Adam genuinely started to think. “This Animancy Core… it’s pretty volatile, isn’t it? You said it… this is part of a Soulbreaking weapon. The… Soulbreaker Engine. Why would the Compact allow someone to move that inside their gate?”

“Not without substantial protection. More than some tarp and a few wards. And the assembling of the engine will take time as well. And cannot be done inside a gate due to the structure damage it might inflict on the gate itself. You have more time than you think. And, more importantly, I suspect that the real transport team will cross paths with the decoy within the gate at the end. Just to muddy the waters further and perhaps swap carts or even members.”

“Right. Right.” Adam swallowed. “Should… Should I end this? Should I end the operation and find a way to get Shiv out?”

Valor didn’t reply immediately. Instead, the skull just studied Adam. “Would it please you if he died for good? Would it mend what is poisoning you?”

“What, no, I…” Adam thought about Shiv being dead. Being truly dead. And… he didn’t like the feeling. “No. No. Absolutely not. I… he’s a freak. A monster. He’s… I know what you’re trying to do here—you’re trying to make me understand my responsibility, but… he can’t die, he’s too… he has that skill! And it wouldn’t be right.”

“What wouldn’t be right?’

“His death. I don’t… he… he still needs to save Blackedge. He needs to save Blackedge with me.” The Young Lord felt something harden inside him. “That’s the only way I’ll ever forgive him. I’ll hate him more if he dies. I’ll hate myself more…”

“So. What do you think is the right thing to do?”

Adam paused. “I…” And the something occurred to him. “What does Shiv think?”

Valor laughed. “Oh, that’s simple. He has an opening to the gate now. So, I think he’s going to try to walk right in and start adapting and planning from the other end if nothing else occurs. He is practical that way. Though the Jealousy… The Greater Demon… I am not sure if his mask can survive it’s direct scrutiny.”

Once again, the Young Lord started thinking, and eventually, he drew his Spellstring with a sigh. “Well. Let’s see if one reckless deed can create an opening for another. Uva might just kill me…”

“And I will mourn you as a brave disciple if she does.”

“I don’t care for you much, Valor. I hope you know that.”

“And I am primarily using you as a subcontractor to deal with the tedious parts of Shiv’s training. So. I think that leaves things plain between us.”

The Young Lord and the skull shared a glance. Then they both snorted.

“Don’t die, Adam.”

“I’ll try not to, skull.” Adam took a deep breath. And spoke into his brooch. “Uva. Prepare to get your sisters out of the area. I’m going to take a few shots at the Jealousy when Shiv gets close to the gate.”

“What? Adam? Adam!”

It was hard to hear her over the crackles of his burning wings.

***

Shiv watched the watch towers, expecting them to blast him at any moment. So far, he passed through another layer of defenses alive, but at any moment, everything might go to hell. The grinding sounds his mask made as the Jealousy’s Psychomancy pressed against him added to his worry.

“You seem stressed, Isaiah?” 811 said. “Odd to be such a thing near the end of a journey than the start.”

“I need to drain someone,” Shiv muttered, peeking up into the sky. He could see a lot of the wyvern riders doing passovers. A lot of them had mana fields too. Powerful mana fields. A good few were Masters in Psychomancy, Biomancy, Pyromacy, and more. And then there was the Jealousy. A dense layer of cumulus curled around its octopus-like body as its damn eye glared down at the Abyss below like some kind of twisted mockery of the sun. The Greater Demon was well beyond Master. It was probably Heroic at the very least. Shiv hoped it was Low-Heroic, because the way his mask was sounding made him worry that it was going to break apart around his face. 

Ahead, the archway was activated, the gate was bright with spatial mana, and Shiv could see a vast bridge extending out toward a distant structure. It looked like some kind of metallic pyramid and a grand chain connected it to the withered sun within the gate. Again, he wondered if it would have been wiser to try and break off and wait, but the 811 was watching his every move, and they still needed to find the core.

Shiv didn’t know what was waiting ahead of him, or how he was going to find the actual core, or if his brooch would still work—

A loud crackling sound made him stop thinking. A system notification made him start again.

Equipment: [Mask of False Paths]

Condition: Moderately Damaged

Shit, Shiv growled internally. Guess the damn Jealousy isn’t a Low Heroic after all. He chanced a glimpse upward and looked away when he saw the demon was glaring hard at him. In fact, it was really, really focused on him. He prepared himself for what was to come. He didn’t want to lose the mask, but it might be his only chance to get out of here with his mind intact. His escape strategy was simple: Hit the orc as much as he could, avoid making contact with the earth, and launch himself out of this place using Momentum Core. If he did all that just right, he might be able to—

A whistling noise sounded from someplace behind him. Shiv frowned as he turned—and the pressure stopped. The Jealousy wasn’t looking at him anymore, instead, it was staring at a streaming trail of projectiles blasting toward it from the distance. Shiv blinked. The other mercenaries didn’t stop at all—811 pushed the cart faster and laughed. Everyone was sprinting for the gate as it began to flicker.

“Oh, fools! To strike this late! Come on, blood sipper. Look away. They are the demon’s quarry now. You will not get to have a taste.

Adam, what the hells are you… Shiv’s thought trailed off as he realized the Young Lord’s intentions. They all know the Jealousy was the greatest risk to Shiv’s cover. So Adam must’ve been watching from afar, waiting until Shiv got close to the gate before he fired his arrows. This was a distraction. Nothing more. It was a distraction that came with its own risks.

Wyvern riders shot off into the distance. One turned into a bolt of lightning, crossing the span of kilometers in a flash.

Shiv winced. He hoped Adam didn’t put himself and the others in more trouble just to help him get across. Frankly, he couldn’t see Uva or the others agreeing to this plan so… Well, don’t let the riders get you. And don’t let Uva kill you either.

Uva liked planning and certainty. This was reckless and desperate. She was going to hate this.

“Isaiah!” 811 cried. “Come on. Stop looking. There will be plenty of things to taste once we offload. The slaves are on me, this time.”

Shiv grunted and doubled his pace. Nothing to do but go forward. These were cards he picked, and so he was going to go forward, and he was going to play.

For the first time in his life, Shiv crossed through a mana gate.