Stones crunched beneath Kael's boots as he walked along the dried riverbed.
He stepped into a shallow depression and paused, glancing around.
Fallen trees lay scattered across the forest floor, their splintered remains spread like a blanket of debris beneath his feet.
Kael kicked a loose stone and watched it bounce a few times across the footprint before coming to a stop.
'It shouldn't be too hard to find the king mountain troll, considering it's a closed space.'
His gaze followed the line of the dried river, stopping at the next depression carved out by the heavy giant. He walked to it, then to the next, tracing each mark in turn.
Like this, Kael followed footprint after footprint, slowly closing the distance.
In theory it was simple, but the reality was far from it. With the mountain troll trapped inside the hollow mountain, boredom had clearly taken hold. Five hundred years of pacing back and forth had left the ground covered in overlapping prints.
Kael stopped, crouched, and picked up a handful of grass pushing through the soil.
'If not for the new growth, I wouldn't be able to track it at all.'
He slipped it into his pocket and moved on.
After almost two hours of walking, Kael finally reached the far side of the hollow mountain.
"This is it, huh?"
A wide gap opened in the mountain wall ahead of him, stretching upward until it vanished into darkness. He approached it and glanced to both sides before stepping inside.
The opening must have stretched a hundred meters from end to end, easily wide enough for a giant to pass through. Vegetation disappeared the moment he crossed the threshold, replaced by bare rock and dust.
Kael reached into his pocket and pulled out the faintly glowing grass, holding it like a makeshift torch.
After moving through the dark for a while, he took out a few mindstones and crushed them in his hand, letting the fragments soak into him and refill his Thoughts.
'Can't afford to be greedy now.'
He activated the Titanwood Stalker mote, letting his presence fade completely.
Kael tucked the grass away when a dim light began to shimmer faintly in the distance. He walked toward it, hands in his pockets.
'This must be where the river water pooled.'
After following the dried river downward for so long, there had to be either an exit or a pool of luminescent water. It had to end somewhere. Thankfully, it was the latter.
Kael's gaze settled on the lake resting inside the cave. At its center, something rose from the water's surface, shaped like a small mountain emerging from the glowing depths.
He walked to the shore and summoned the golden rod, letting it carry him over the lake.
Kael slowed his approach, eyes fixed on the massive shadow ahead.
The closer he drifted, the more he focused on his breathing, forcing each inhale to stay silent.
When he reached an arm's length from the mountain troll sleeping in the lake, Kael finally stopped.
'It's as I expected…'
He scanned the face the size of a house. The mountain troll lay there, taking deep, heavy breaths, its wide eyes staring straight at him. Or at least that was how it appeared.
'Since it has lived in darkness its entire life, its brain never received enough light. The visual cortex never developed, leaving it almost completely blind.'
Kael sighed inwardly.
He had only made it this far by betting everything on a single assumption: that the troll was born here.
If the giant had grown up like a normal mountain troll, it would have developed like one. And even though mountain trolls lacked intelligence, they were infamous for their heightened senses. Kael could reduce his presence to almost nothing, but the truth remained that he still existed.
If it had proper vision, the chance of detection would have skyrocketed.
'It's sleeping… Is my luck finally turning?'
His jaw tightened for a moment when the memory of the weeping eye flashed through his mind.
He raised his hand and summoned a mote.
A small pine-cone shaped mote appeared in his palm.
'Lure mote…'
He had stolen it from Elara during his last mission, but never had the chance to use it properly.
Kael let the golden rod glide him to the side of the mountain troll's head. He climbed up onto the rod, settling into a seated position. With his free hand, he grasped a handful of coarse hair, careful not to make any sudden movements. He began to braid it, weaving strand over strand. When the braid finally formed, Kael tucked the Lure mote into it and tightened a few knots to secure it.
He shifted lightly on the rod, then raised his hand.
Streams of red Will seeped from his fingers, gathering in his palm. Slowly, the Will condensed into a dense, floating orb. A refinement orb.
'It should work… right?'
He paused to think.
He had built this theory only in his mind while walking to the hollow mountain. He had never tested it. But no matter how many thought experiments he went through, the conclusion remained the same.
Running through the process again, his eyes narrowed. He brought the orb closer, then pulled out the dim glowing grass and held it next to the sphere.
A faint snicker escaped him, sharp with displeasure. He flicked his hand to the side, throwing the orb away from the troll.
The moment it left his palm, it shattered into countless red particles that drifted down into the lake.
Kael lifted his hand again to form a new orb of Will.
'Tsk… fucking bastard.'
He had seen it clearly. Thin white tendrils were slithering inside the orb.
'The weeping eye can even affect my Will outside my body?'
With each passing moment, Kael understood more and more how deeply he had underestimated the eye. And every realization stung like pouring salt water into an open wound.
After scanning the new refinement orb in his palm and confirming no white tendrils nested inside it, Kael reached into his inner pocket and pulled out the bag of remaining mindstones.
'I have around sixty-two mindstones left.'
He weighed the bag in his hand.
'It'll take fifty mindstones…'
After a few mental calculations, he settled on the number without hesitation.
'So be it.'
He reached into the pouch, grabbed a handful of mindstones, and crushed them. Instead of absorbing the Thoughts himself, he let the orb drink them in. Then he took another handful and repeated the process, again and again, until fifty mindstones had been used.
The crimson orb resting in his hand, which had previously looked like blood-tinted water, now resembled a star-filled sky. Countless Thoughts drifted inside it like tiny sparks, swirling and shimmering.
It was a bit of a disappointment, honestly. The only reason Kael had bothered with most of his recent actions was to gather mindstones for the Golden Horned mote, and now he hadn't been able to use a single one for that purpose thanks to all the predicaments he kept stumbling into.
He moved his hand toward the Lure mote and let his Will flow outward, wrapping around it like water floating in space.
'It must work.'
Simply put, activating a mote required controlling one's Will and forcing the mote to burn Thoughts on command, overriding its instincts and its own internal Will. Kael had no idea why it worked on a theoretical level, but theory didn't change the reality of it.
His idea was simple, and it all came from a single question.
Why were motes never used outside one's body?
Yes, revealing a mote's true form came with risks, but there were undeniably situations where external use would have clear advantages. For example, it should be possible to create a trap or distraction far beyond the usual range by keeping the mote outside the body.
But even though it made sense in theory, he had never read or heard about anyone doing it.
'I've placed enough Will and Thoughts for the mote to last quite a while…'
His eyes narrowed as the mote began to shine with a faint glow.
'Good. It activated.'
Kael signaled the golden rod, making it drift back toward the shoreline.
'I'll just have to come back for it if it doesn't go as planned.'
Since this was the first time he had ever attempted something like this, he was unsure exactly how the mote would react once his Thoughts and Will ran dry. But it was safe to assume it would start absorbing Will from the surrounding area, turning back into a wild mote.
Only once the dim, glowing trees surrounded him again did he let out a long breath.
'That fixes the declining Thoughts.'
He let his head fall back and stared into the darkness high above as he walked.
His initial plan, after discovering the mountain troll, had always been to plant the Lure mote. That was also why, when he noticed he was holding too many motes in his inner realm, he never panicked or destroyed any of them. He knew he had enough mindstones to last until he rid himself of the Lure mote, allowing his Thoughts to recover naturally again.
He could feel it now. His Thoughts reserves were refilling.
"Hope the mountain troll doesn't discover my Will."
He murmured the words under his breath.
Kael gathered grass, branches, leaves, and some of the river water in the Stone Coffin mote before leaving the hollow mountain the same way he had entered.
As he stepped out of the cave opening, a wave of cold, fresh air washed over him.
He summoned the golden rod and let it carry him back to the top of the mountain.
A thin layer of powdered snow puffed into the air as he landed.
"This is the famous drop, Threnfall, the one the dreadborne Smolten used around three hundred million years ago to sacrifice humans—"
Kael froze at the sound of voices.
'Humans?'
His mind sharpened.
In front of him, a group of twenty stood inside a yellow bubble, shielding them from the wind and snow. The moment they noticed Kael, a woman and two men rushed to the front, forming a protective stance around the children and young adults behind them.
'A guide? And guards?' Kael studied the three adults. 'Why are they here?'
The children in the back tried to push forward to see, while the young adults paled and slowly retreated, distancing themselves from Kael.
The adults spread their arms to stop the children from stepping closer.
"Don't move."
One of them said.
'A rank two and one rank one Luminaire.'
Kael stood perfectly still, unmoving like a statue.
"Urghhh."
One of the children managed to squeeze through the group, wearing a wide grin.
"Let me see! Let me see!"
His smile faltered the moment his eyes landed on Kael. It twisted into something close to horror.
In front of the child stood a man in a black coat, stained and darkened with blood. His hair was matted with dirt and who knew what else. His figure looked human enough, unaffected by the harsh wind and snow. His face was human too, but smeared with dried blood, and one of his eyes was sewn shut.
The child fell onto his bottom, tears immediately welling up. He scrambled backward with panicked, jerking movements, unable to tear his gaze away from Kael.
The woman gritted her teeth and turned to the man at her right.
"Grab the children and run."
The moment those words left her mouth, whatever confusion the mortals behind her had worn shifted into something else.
Fear.
This was not a drill.
Kael's eyes drifted to the woman's shoulder.
A crest was sewn into the fabric, two lions tangled in thorns, locked in combat.
'The Valthorne?'
Kael's hand moved to his inner pocket. He wrapped his fingers around his remaining mindstones and crushed them without a second thought.
'So these are all noble members of Valthorne they're… neutering?'
The instant he saw the crest, he understood.
The group in front of him was a class from Valthorne, out on a field lesson, studying history. They had come to the ritual site of Smolten as part of their education. That also explained the barrier.
"We want no harm. We are only here to study the significance of this location."
The woman's voice trembled despite her attempt to sound composed.
Kael didn't even look at her.
He stretched his hand backward, snapped his fingers, then whipped his arm forward.
The golden rod shot out like a meteor.
It punched through the barrier with a sound like shattering glass, then ripped through the group behind her. The impact tore bodies apart, limbs thrown sideways, blood spraying across the inside of the barrier like smeared paint. The rod exited on the far side, leaving a clean, gaping line of ruin through the formation.
"NO!"
The woman's scream cracked the air as the bodies behind her collapsed.
She lunged at Kael in an instant, fingers aligned and aimed for his throat.
Kael shifted to the side with minimal effort, letting her attack slice through empty space. She stumbled past him, boots skidding in the snow before she turned and charged again.
Kael reached for his knife with his left hand and thrust it toward her wrist.
Her eyes widened.
She clicked her tongue.
Kael froze mid-strike. It felt as if mountains slammed down on him from every direction, crushing his limbs in place. His bones groaned under the sudden pressure, his breath locking in his chest.
Then, just as abruptly, the force vanished.
The knife lurched forward again, finishing its motion, slicing cleanly through the air without finding flesh.
The momentary pause had been enough.
The woman had already slipped aside, resetting her stance, eyes burning with panic and fury.
Kael turned to the side, knife raised, meeting her stare with an empty expression. His right arm stayed stretched away from her, kept just out of her reach… but his fingers twitched.
The moment they did, the golden rod blasted forward again.
It tore through what remained of the group, punching into the skull of the rank one Luminaire who had been trying to lead the students to safety. His head snapped back violently, the rod exiting in a spray of red before the body collapsed like a severed puppet. Four more bodies dropped almost at the same time, folded into twisted heaps.
The woman's eyes went wide, glistening with raw horror as Kael's fingers shifted once more.
Every twitch was a death sentence.
"STOP!"
Her scream tore from her throat.
She hurled herself at him again, desperate, frantic, terrified of seeing those fingers move another inch.
Kael slipped past each strike with ease. His movements were calm, almost lazy, even as her attacks grew more desperate. He flicked his fingers between dodges, sending silent commands to the invisible weapon circling behind her. At the same time he thrust his dagger forward whenever an opening appeared.
Only for her to click her tongue again and again, freezing him for fractions of a second and ruining each attempt.
"Please… stop!"
This time her voice cracked. It sounded less like a warrior and more like a mother watching her children burn.
She saw his hand move again—
And then she heard it.
The wet, ripping sound of bodies being torn open behind her.
The rod ripped through the group once more, carving another line through the cluster of youths. Screams cut short. Blood sprayed in thin arcs across the snow.
"AARGHH!"
Her voice broke into a vicious, guttural roar. She clicked her tongue twice in rapid succession and lunged, fist drawn back.
Kael froze longer this time. The pressure crushed down on him like stone walls closing in.
Then her fist connected.
A sickening crunch echoed across the mountaintop.
Her hand exploded against his face like fruit hitting stone. Blood sprayed outward in a red burst, droplets scattering across the snow. The impact peeled the flesh from her knuckles, exposing white bone beneath. Her fingers bent backward at impossible angles, some dangling by strips of skin.
"Ahh—!"
A hoarse, broken scream ripped from her lips.
Kael remained unfazed.
Point Aegis had activated in time, the invisible shield taking the true force of the blow.
Only her hand had suffered for it.
The third and final Luminaire was in a trance, completely oblivious to the woman fighting for her life only meters away.
He had fallen to his knees, staring at the pile of mangled youth.
"No…"
Tears streamed down his cheeks, dripping onto the snow.
"No…"
"Snap out of it!" the woman screamed, beads of sweat dripping from her forhead.
She saw Kael's fingers flick again.
A sound like wet cloth tearing echoed through the snowfield.
The last Luminaire's body jerked once, then slumped forward into the red-stained snow, blood pooling around his face.
She barely had time to inhale before something tightened around her throat.
"Ugh—"
Her eyes bulged as a force constricted her windpipe.
Kael's jaw tightened as he clenched his fist.
'A defensive mote?'
Her boots left the ground.
He lifted her effortlessly, like a child's toy, and began walking toward the cliff's edge.
She clawed at him, swinging her arms in blind panic. Her fists slammed against something immovable, again and again, only to shatter further with each strike. Skin tore. Bones cracked. Blood dripped from her fingertips like melting wax.
By the time they reached the edge, her hands were nothing but mangled flesh, a tangle of broken fingers and torn skin hanging in strips.
She glared at Kael one last time.
All the fear had drained from her eyes, replaced by pure, concentrated disgust.
"The world should have drowned you at birth," she rasped, blood bubbling in her throat, running down her chin and staining her collar.
Kael met her gaze with empty, icy eyes.
He tensed his back and arm muscles, swung once, and hurled her into the open air.
Her body twisted as it fell, clothes rippling violently in the wind, before she was consumed by the sea of clouds below.