Emery's POV
Sasha led us to the Student Council meeting room shortly after that encounter. I understood that it's free period for self-study but was it really okay to be out and about outside the classroom like this? I know I was the one who ran out of the classroom but I didn't expect our perfect President Sasha to be leading this operation.
Sasha shut the door and locked it before approaching me and Lucas, ushering us to sit down next to her, to which we followed.
"Emery, I require your assistance in Reverie Mirage," Sasha said seriously.
"RevMira?" I almost choked in surprise. "Like, help you clear a dungeon?"
I suppose it's not that surprising. Sasha was interested in the game. I just didn't expect Sasha to be influenced by the online hype especially since she did throw me a bone when I was having a nervous breakdown at the cafe last night.
"No, I meant I require you to access something for me from your real account. The CalvaryEmery one with the highest statistics," she clarified, placing her palm down on the desk in front of us.
"M-my original account?" I stuttered. "I don't let anyone use my handle."
Hell, I hadn't used it myself for a year! Didn't Sasha see the absolute chaos that went down when I was seen out there?
"I won't be using it." Sasha shook her head. "You will be."
I think my jaw dropped but the shock didn't really let me feel it. I had no idea if Sasha was just dense or insensitive because, from where she was standing earlier, I was a hundred percent sure she saw, or at least heard, Lucas crying over my mom's phonecall.
"Emery, there's something I need to check but my levels are too low and the mechanics are... arbitrary to say the least," she continued.
I just stared at her in disbelief. How was she not picking up my reluctance?
"It's rare for Sasha to ask for something like this, so I think it's worth a shot!" Lucas chimed in.
Okay great, now Lucas, who cried for me because of my CalvaryEmery identity, also forgot he did that. If I used this account, people on the server might see me roaming around. I literally just told my mother that I wouldn't be playing. It's class hours too! I was actually about to vomit from the pressure right now.
".... What is this for?" I sighed and rubbed my temples. It's hard to directly dismiss Lucas's puppy dog eyes but also I can't risk possibly losing the roof over my head.
"That's what I'm trying to find out." Sasha thought out loud. "Emery, you are the only person I can count on."
That's barely an answer. My impatience rose quickly and my irritation wasn't doing any better. There's too much at stake for me to just accept this as it was.
"Sasha, that's not an answer." I snapped quietly, even Lucas flinched.
Sasha's eyes stayed on me, unwavering. Of course, mine returned her gaze. While I was usually terrified of her, this was just too serious for me to back down.
She stared at me for a few seconds before sighing and speaking up.
"Fine. I'm only telling the two of you this because, I need to count on you."
For a second, I thought I had actually gotten through to her. Lucas nodded vigorously and leaned in closer, his chest resting on the table and his head practically covered Sasha from my point of view.
".... I think I'm related to this world." Sasha admitted.
What—
"What?!" Lucas yelled for the both of us. Sasha put a finger over her lip and gestured for Lucas to quiet down. Lucas clasped a hand over his mouth and sat up properly.
"I keep getting memories of this realm and for some reason, I know things that aren't in the lore...." Sasha admitted.
"Like what?" Lucas pried, leaning closer again.
"Panlias' hair is two colors because he dyes the top half mauve to look tough." She whispered.
"Oh my God.... That's the cutest piece of lore I've ever heard!" Lucas squealed, seemingly convinced.
"That could literally be made up, we have no way of confirming it." I retorted.
"Well, that's what I'm trying to find out.... I have a memory of a full prophecy that's not in the game files but... I can't confirm it on my own." Sasha answered, defeated. "I also can't give definite lore at the moment because, I genuinely cannot confirm anything unless you help me."
"It can only be you, Emery." Sasha pleaded. This time, she wasn't demanding. She's really asking me seriously.
I hated the idea of my mother possibly finding out I opened my account again, especially on a school day. I also absolutely hated that my defining quality was that I was a loser who's also attracting delusional players— only further proving my mother's concerns.
On the other hand, I was curious. Sasha possessed gaming skills that could rival even the greatest Faenikzha players on the leaderboard and she had progressed through the story really quickly. Suspiciously so.
Not only that, she's been uncharacteristically emotional ever since she was exposed to this game. Again, it could just be her being an overly attached Panlias fan but the way it quickly developed just didn't sit right with me from the start.
I didn't know if I believed her just yet, but there could be a different angle to this that I wasn't seeing. I also couldn't pretend that Sasha was normal anymore.
"Fine...." I said after a moment of a heated internal debate. "We're doing this quickly."
I logged out of my burner account and typed in my original username 'CalvaryEmery'. Just seeing that name on the log-in page gave me shivers, probably from my frozen hands. I stared at the site for a moment before taking in a deep breath to input my password.
Two hands started rubbing my shoulders, I glanced beside me and saw Lucas massaging me with a frown on his face.
Aah, if you're going to be worried about me, Lucas, then why did you support Sasha in convincing me....!
With every percentage that crawled across the loading bar, breathing felt just a little bit harder.
If I got kicked out of my house, Lucas would take me in right? He had to! He had a lot of rooms in his house— he had a lot of houses actually. I'd be fine with anything, even the dingiest place he owned.
Before I could even come to terms with what I was doing, the game loaded in and I was face to face with my traveler. I left him at a waypoint in the most obscure shrine ever, of course I did.
My traveler was named Emery before I was named Emery. I got his name from a flower in an RPG I used to play. That flower was the rarest of them all and gave you all sorts of buffs. I just wanted something else that rhymed with it, so I came up with Calvary.
He had short, messy black hair, with the bangs falling low enough to kind of cover his eyes. I gave him a dark purple scar that started on his right cheek and dragged down to his jawline. His eyes were just plain black, looking back at me with the same tired, neutral expression I probably had on my face.
For his body, I just kept it pretty standard—medium build, completely average height. Nothing bulky like a tank and nothing too tiny. Just a normal, balanced model so hitbox tracking and dodging wouldn't feel weird during fights.
He was still wearing the cosmetic set from the rogue event three years ago. It was pretty simple compared to newer stuff: a high-collared, dark charcoal tunic with some worn leather and utility straps across the chest. The sleeves tapered down into tight forearm wraps so his hands were free, and there was a short, slightly torn dark mantle over his left shoulder. It was just low-key, blended into the background, and didn't clutter up the screen when things got chaotic.
Hanging at his side was Zaperst, my main weapon. Even inside the scabbard, the blade gave off a faint, warm ember glow from all the stats I'd dumped into it.
I studied my load out gems and... Of course, all of my gems were maxed out. I had a fire and shadow build to really capitalize on Panlias but I added some radiance gems from Quadratus' build just so I can add some healing while using Panlias' sword. 0.8% of healing may not seem like a lot but it is when you're plowing through enemies without getting hit.
I remembered seeing forum threads last year complaining that the "CalvaryEmery build" was trash and impossible to play. Of course it was trash to them—if you missed a single light-attack weave or mistimed a dodge by four frames, the entire mana loop collapsed.
Seeing it all again, the emotion was confusing. It's a swirl of nostalgia, fear, pride, horror... To sum it up, what the hell was I doing with my life?
"Sorry before anything else, I need you to demonstrate your skill in front of me."
Sasha broke my thoughts. "Can you attempt and provoke the Celestial Mother in the Basement of the Old Zesseyel Palace?"
"Woah, Sasha! You know about that? How far into the game are you?" Lucas said bewildered. "You're even further ahead than me!"
"Well...." Sasha trailed off. "Not really, I just know it's there."
Again, that doesn't prove anything since, you can easily search that up.
Also, why was Sasha even testing me? Did she forget that she's the one making me do this? It wasn't like I volunteered and insisted I would check something for her or whatever! Why was she checking my credibility?
"Alright," I muttered, quickly initiating the warp to the Basement of the old palace.
The Old Zesseyel Palace looked a lot like the Roman Colosseum, just covered in fancy fantasy details. The entire structure was surrounded by water, with aquatic motifs carved into pretty much every surface.
Down in the basement, it was completely dark, save for the blue-flamed torches lighting up the path. The stone floors were slick and wet from the splashes coming off the decorative carved spouts along the walls, surrounded by stone reliefs of fish and sea creatures. Coral trims lined the masonry; you could tell the place used to be brightly colored once, but age and wear had washed the whole vibe out into a faded, dark turquoise.
At the far end of the hall stood the entrance to the Celestial Mother: a massive, arched iron portcullis set deep into the stonework, its heavy grate sealing off whatever dark, misty arena was waiting on the other side.
The entire threshold was framed in textbook boss-room red flags. Fraying nooses dangled silently from the overhead support beams, tangled in heavy cobwebs, while clusters of melting candles and wax-encrusted skulls lined the approach. It had that distinct, unmistakable look of a gate clearly designed to slam shut and lock behind you the second you triggered the encounter.
"Do I literally just... beat it?" I asked.
"Yes." Sasha gave a firm nod. "Just show me your strength. Can you defeat it alone?"
Can I beat it alone? I spent weeks grinding this boss 1v1 because it dropped Quadratus's healing gem. I literally needed that drop for this exact build.
"Should be fine," I answered. "I'm a bit rusty, but..."
I quickly scrolled through my inventory. The Celestial Mother was a shadow-element being like Panlias, and with my current shadow-and-fire build, on paper it looked like I was at a massive disadvantage. But...
I made a few quick adjustments to my socketed gems, stacking extra fire gems to boost my damage output against dark typing while keeping enough shadow affinity to use Panlias' shadow work to reposition efficiently.
"Wow, Emery. You seem so confident," Lucas said, a clear note of pride creeping into his tone.
"Well... this is pretty much all I can do," I answered in a flat, deadpan tone.
Once the loadout was locked in, I didn't overthink it. I pushed the virtual joystick forward and sent my character across the threshold into the battlefield.
The screen immediately transitioned into a brief, unskippable cutscene. The camera dipped low as the massive iron portcullis slammed shut behind my traveler with a heavy, echoing metallic crash, locking us inside the chamber.
As the camera panned across the arena, the layout made it obvious just how hostile the space was going to be. The room was cramped, littered with rusted chains and piles of old skeletons half-sunken into the stone floor. Shallow, stagnant water bordered the entire perimeter, and the only light came from a few torches mounted along the damp walls, casting harsh, flickering shadows. Overhead, fractured stone arches and loose debris hung precariously, looking fragile enough to collapse if an attack went wide.
Then, the darkness at the far end of the room condensed into a solid mass.
"This is the first time I'm seeing this room," Lucas gulped, leaning over my shoulder. "Good luck, Emery!"
"It's fine," I muttered, locking my focus onto the screen.
The Celestial Mother emerged. It was enormous, its form resembling a monstrous, spectral hound sculpted entirely out of roiling, ink-black smoke and shadowy tendrils. Long wisps of dark miasma trailed behind it like frayed cloth, and two piercing, fiery orange eyes burned through its shadowy face. It stalked forward on elongated, clawed limbs, letting out a guttural shriek that rattled through my phone's speakers—the exact visual cue that signaled it was about to summon a swarm of lesser Celestial Beasts into the cramped room.
A giant shadow-type predator in an arena packed with environmental hazards and add-spawns. Time to see if my muscle memory still held up.
The cutscene ended, and the Celestial Mother immediately lunged straight for my position.
Fights like this weren't about raw stats— they were all about spatial control.
To make Panlias' shadow work actually function, I needed high contrast, which meant cutting down the ambient lighting immediately.
My traveler darted along the perimeter of the room, using quick basic swipes to snuff out the torches until strictly one flame remained on each wall.
Next, I needed physical vantage points and reliable shadow paths across the center of the arena.
The ceiling arches are already fractured so if I brought them down, the fallen stone will cast long, jagged shadow lanes across the wet floor.
The traveler angled a sharp upward slash at the cracked masonry, sending heavy chunks of stone crashing down onto the flagstones.
A massive shadowy claw swiped across the screen.
Activating Shadow Warp, my traveler dissolved into the dark and blinked safely behind a newly fallen boulder.
"Emery? You've always told me that dodging like that uses up too much mana, though...!" Lucas said, his voice laced with concern.
"True, Shadow Warp burns through mana fast, so high-cost abilities and heavy finishers are completely out of the question," I answered, not taking my eyes off the display.
"Then why are you using it?" Lucas interrupted.
"Rolling will get me killed, Lucas. The animation for rolling takes 0.8 seconds, while teleporting only takes 0.4."
"Huh?"
"RevMira's combat is just a resource loop, Lucas. Light hits give back mana; heavy hits are what actually shift elements and break guard. If I stick to fast, light strings with Zaperst, my meter stays full so I can keep teleporting—and every time the flame sparks, it throws fresh shadows on the wall for me to jump to."
Lucas nodded along with my explanation, though I wasn't really sure if he actually understood. I couldn't properly check his face anyway since I was busy chaining these inputs on a flat glass phone screen, which was way more unforgiving than the physical controller buttons I was used to.
Every light slash kicked up a sharp burst of flame, throwing a brief flash of heat against the wet walls to carve instant, high-contrast shadows in the far corners that I could immediately warp into to evade incoming hits.
The traveler closed the distance, weaving inside the boss's reach to land a rhythmic flurry of light sword strikes, siphoning back steady ticks of blue mana while the sparks painted new shadows across the room.
"Woah! She's shaking!" Lucas gasped, practically jumping in his seat.
The Celestial Mother shrieked, summoning a swarm of lesser beasts to trap me on the ground. If I got surrounded, my hitboxes would get overwhelmed, so I needed to take the fight completely vertical and use the obstacles.
Vaulting onto the broken pillars and damp walls, the traveler bounced rapidly from surface to surface, staying completely out of reach while the pack snapped at empty air below.
Her poise bar finally broke. That's my cue to pop the ultimate and lock her down for a clean twenty-second stun window.
A massive tidal wave of ink-black shadow surged from the floor, completely engulfing the Celestial Mother in an immobilized state.
With the timer ticking down, I just need maximum height to maximize the damage multiplier on an aerial drop.
Channeling shadow work directly into his boots, the traveler sprinted straight up the vertical stone wall, launched off the top ledge into an inverted vault, and brought a roaring, full-flame Zaperst crashing down into the immobilized beast.
"Woah... I feel like I just witnessed something amazing." Lucas pressed a hand to his forehead and let out a breathless chuckle. "CalvaryEmery usually played PvP and didn't stream as much as the others, so I didn't realize how OP you were in exploration!"
"You praise me all the time—was that all a lie?" I teased, a faint smirk tugging at the corner of my mouth.
Well, I couldn't really blame him. It had been a long time since I'd played completely free like this. Sure, I played with Lucas all the time, but I hadn't invested even half the time or resources into that casual account compared to what was sitting on this one.
"No, no! I always knew you were great, but seeing it in action like this...." Lucas trailed off, shaking his head in absolute awe.
"Alright." Sasha gave a single, firm nod, keeping her arms crossed over her chest. "That should be fine."
She leaned closer to my screen, scanning the text on the display. Maybe she was checking my stats and mana reserves? My mana was still on the halfway mark of the bar.
I had that special Faenikzha gem from the Year 1 Tanabata event slotted in. If you surround it with eight gems of the same element, it triggers a set resonance that recovers mana for twenty seconds whenever you chain five or more kills.
"Please go to Mt. Fenin. There should be a waypoint near Slebek Ruins." Sasha reached over, tapping the map at the edge of the UI and scrolling down toward the ruins.
"...Sasha, what is this actually about?" I asked, my patience running thin. I literally just finished a whole boss fight.
"The prophecy is there. Something in me is telling me it is," she said, her voice dropping lower.
"I think it's pretty clear that something weird is going on, Emery," Lucas whimpered, grabbing onto my sleeve. "I mean, I still don't get it, but Sasha really seems convinced. I'm sure something is really there."
I hated it when Lucas looked at me like that. He knew I couldn't help but fold around that angelic aura he's always exuding. He's so blinding, I hate him.
Ugh, whatever. I'd already come this far. Might as well.
I clicked the warp to Slebek Ruins and ran my character straight toward the mountain. When the zone loaded, Mt. Fenin honestly just looked like a glorified desktop wallpaper.
It was all jagged dark rocks cutting through steep slopes of snow, with ninety-degree drops everywhere that'd instantly kill your character if you slipped. Up in the skybox, the devs slapped this ridiculously huge, detailed moon right over the peaks to make everything look dramatic. There was some ancient-looking stone building sticking out of the cliffside in the distance, but that was pretty much it.
No mob spawns on the radar, no loot nodes, zero quest markers. Just sheer rock, empty white space, and generic snow textures.
"Can you climb this?" Sasha said, sounding genuinely resigned.
"I don't think so." I shook my head, tapping the screen. "Sasha, look at the map. It's literally just mountain and empty white space up there. It's purely cosmetic filler—even the forums criticize it for having nothing."
"No.... The Temple of Yabbat sits here," Sasha insisted, her voice dead serious. "I'm completely certain."
"Hm?" I raised a brow.
"I tried climbing up this slope, but with the given limitations of the game, I couldn't use the powers of Faenikzha to climb up," Sasha explained. "As someone who uses... Panlias' weapon... I believe you'll be able to."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Your expertise with shadow work. Your agility is enough to attempt this."
I stared at Sasha, completely exasperated.
"Sasha...."
"Emery, please."
"Let's just try it, Emery! What could go wrong?" Lucas cheered, leaning over my shoulder with bright eyes.
Easy for you to say. I'm the only one actually doing anything!
I let out a heavy sigh and pulled my focus back to the screen.
Mt. Fenin was basically a ninety-degree wall of frozen rock and snow, so standard climbing animations won't even latch on. My only option was to chain Shadow Warps through the narrow patches of shade cast by the pine trees sticking out of the cliffside.
Vault. Shadow-step. Kick off.
The traveler leaped into the air, blinking from one dark sliver of canopy to the next straight up the vertical rock face.
The real problem wasn't the climb—it was the spacing. The higher up you go, the thinner the tree line gets. Panlias' Shadow Warp has a strict range limit; if there wasn't a valid patch of shade within radius, the skill wouldn't even register an anchor.
Blink. Dash. Stall.
Halfway up the frozen cliff, the targeting reticle fizzled out against the bare rock. The next cluster of pine shadows was sitting way too high up the ridge, easily doubling the maximum warp distance.
"Your mana!" Lucas cried.
"I know." I answered.
"It's almost empty!"
"Lucas, please stop narrating my impending death."
With no valid shadow in range to target, my upward route was a total dead end.
The traveler dropped out of the jump arc and caught a lower pine branch by the hands, left hanging precariously over the sheer drop.
I looked up from my screen and shook my head.
"Yeah, Sasha, I'm stuck. The next ledge is way too far—the engine literally won't let me make a jump that wide."
Sasha stared thoughtfully at the screen for a moment, her brow furrowing slightly.
"...Lucas, do you mind if I borrow your account?"
"No, no! Of course not!" Lucas pulled out his phone with immediate enthusiasm, practically shoving it into her hands. "Here!"
Sasha took the device and tapped through the menus with practiced, fluid speed, instantly executing a teleport to warp Lucas's Faenikzha avatar straight to my coordinates on the mountain.
Lucas leaned over her shoulder, watching her hands move. A faint, bewildered expression crossed his face—he was probably wondering if scaling a supposedly cosmetic mountain in a mobile game was genuinely worth this much effort.
No he isn't, that's Lucas.
He's always having fun. That's me projecting my own thoughts.
With total ease, Sasha triggered Faenikzha's wind magic. A tight updraft spiraled beneath her character's feet, neatly hoisting her from canopy to canopy along the cliffside until she landed smoothly on the branch right beside my traveler.
I stared at Lucas's screen, completely dumbfounded.
"Sasha, if you could do that this entire time, why did you even ask me for help?"
"I also struggled with this part," Sasha explained, letting out a small, quiet sigh. "Again... this game has its limitations."
A notification banner suddenly popped up across the top of my display:
[Player FayeLucas__ has requested to join your party.]
"Accept the team invite, Emery," she instructed, her tone leaving zero room for debate.
Without arguing, I quickly tapped the screen to confirm, linking our two avatars together.
"So what now?" I asked, looking between her character and mine hanging from the branch.
"I'll hoist you up," Sasha explained. "I will create a shadow large enough for you to teleport into, and then you can use that agility skill you've been using to bounce off the slopes and trees to reach the top."
"Sasha, that sounds cool and all, but..." I stared at the mountain on my screen, running the route through my head.
Okay, let's say I jump from this tree, bounce to that rock, and hit that tree again.
I'm going to need a double jump with a two-handed hoist animation to pull my character over the lip but I've been using the sword.
"The weapon recovery animation locks out my hands—I literally can't do that." I pointed out.
"Can't you retract your sword inside your hand with mana?"
"Huh?" I blinked.
"Panlias can do that."
"...Since when?!"
Sasha paused, looking thoughtful. "How do I explain this.... I'm not familiar with the game and Panlias' magic, so I hope you can understand this and interpret the technicalities on your own."
"Okay... go ahead."
Sasha closed her eyes for a second and moved her head side to side as she thought to herself.
"Panlias' sword is made from the blood of his ancestors, so it has an affinity to him."
"Right, yes."
That was revealed in the main story, episode 3.
"And Panlias uses shadow work to phase through things."
"Yes."
"So what he does is... he merges the blood in his palm?" Sasha gestured vaguely with her hand. "So it's technically inside of him, and he phases it through the shadow of his cloak? Does that make sense?"
What? I didn't think the game is that advanced. Was this another one of Sasha's delusions about Panlias? Should I even trust her on this? I was still not convinced she's actually connected to the game.
I looked at her face. Her eye brows burrowed and her eyes still had that sparkle of conviction. Maybe I should think about it more seriously.
"That sounds impossible, but... merge of blood?" I frowned, mentally translating her words into game mechanics.
Merge of blood... Shadow work into the cloak....
"So, the whole premise is he's able to make the sword disappear when he cancels out the flame, right? When he turns it into flames, the solid hitbox goes away. So you're talking about the state in between that sequence?"
I looked at both Lucas and Sasha for validation. Did I get the idea right?
"I'm not sure...." Sasha scratched her head.
"I'm sure you're right, Emery. That sounded right...." Lucas trailed off seeming unsure of what he said.
Too much for that. It's all up to me then.
That's the Sublimation skill.
In the game engine, when Panlias shifted Zaperst into pure flame, there's a split-second transition where the blade's solid physical hitbox completely despawned before the fire registers.
Usually, if you wanted to buffer that during a fight, you'd have to frame-link the combo: Up + A + B + Burst.
If you input the cancel right on frame four, the game registers the weapon as retracted without forcing you into an unequip animation.
I stared down at the flat glass display of my phone. The virtual touch controls were clustered together in a slippery mess—there was zero chance of pulling off frame-perfect directional inputs with just my bare thumbs.
"Wait. I can't do this on a touch screen. Hang on."
I reached deep into my pocket, my fingers finding the familiar, worn plastic. I pulled out my pocket-sized, clip-on micro-controller—low-latency, tactile switches, dual mini-sticks.
"Alright. Let me see if the timing window is still the same," I mumbled, settling my fingers onto the physical triggers and d-pad.
My thumbs blurred.
Up. A. B. Burst—Cancel.
Click-click-click-snap.
On the screen, my traveler's arm flashed in a brief swirl of heat and embers. The fiery length of Zaperst dissolved into thin air, leaving only the bare, glowing hilt resting in his right hand.
I tilted the phone slightly, inspecting the avatar model. "Okay. The weapon's physical length is gone, but the hand register is free. All that's left on the model is the hilt."
"That's halfway," Sasha said, leaning in so close I could hear the faint rustle of her uniform.
"Then... shadow work on other objects to phase through... So it's the Dark Resonance skill," I reasoned, tapping the d-pad.
I flicked the right analog stick down and tapped the bumper. On the screen, my traveler opened his fingers and let Zaperst drop flat against the wooden pine branch. I nudged the joystick back a step to test the tether range.
I clicked the secondary trigger. A thin wisp of dark mist snapped from my avatar's palm to the hilt, pulling the weapon instantly back into his grip with a sharp clack.
"You got it!" Sasha said, a faint smile breaking through her serious expression.
"Well, not completely," I muttered, thumbing the analog stick to reset my avatar's footing on the branch. "I still have the hilt, technically, but at least the game will let me grab the ledge now. The real catch is pulling that entire trick off mid-jump."
"You can do it, Emery!" Lucas cheered, leaning over so close his shoulder bumped against mine.
"I am deploying the shadow now," Sasha said, her thumbs moving steadily across Lucas's display.
High up the vertical rock wall, her traveler raised the Staff of the Stars, releasing a steep radiant flare against an overhead outcropping. The light carved a sharp, pitch-black shadow directly across the frozen stone face.
That was my window.
I took a breath and shoved the stick forward, sending my traveler leaping off the pine branch into empty air.
Mid-jump, my fingers flew across the controller switches.
Up. A. B. Burst—Cancel.
The flame vanished on frame four. I dropped the hilt, triggered Dark Resonance, snapped the tether back into his palm, and hit the d-pad to warp.
Blink.
Dissolving into black mist, the traveler materialized right inside the high-contrast shadow Sasha had cast on the cliff. With both hands registered as completely free from weapon lag, the physics engine kicked in. Reaching out with both arms, he snatched the frozen rock lip, kicked off the vertical stone, and hauled his entire weight cleanly over the ledge onto the summit of Mt. Fenin.
"I can't believe there's actually a collision box up here," I muttered, shaking out my cramped fingers. "That whole sequence completely emptied my mana gauge, too."
"Teleport me up," Sasha said, her gaze fixed entirely on Lucas's screen.
I tapped the co-op prompt on the UI, and a second later, Lucas's Faenikzha-esque traveler materialized on the snowy ridge right beside my traveler.
"Alright," I said, panning the in-game camera around the empty peak. "Now what?"
"...There should be a door here," Sasha murmured.
She nudged Lucas's virtual joystick forward, steering her character toward a flat, featureless block of solid white.
"Sasha, that's quite literally just a wall of snow," I pointed out, staring at the screen. "There's no interact prompt, no texture depth, nothing."
"Can you use the Staff of the Stars—" She cut herself off, letting out a quiet breath. "Actually, it's alright. I'm already here. I can do it myself."
Sasha squared her posture, holding Lucas's phone with practiced focus as she positioned her avatar directly in front of the snow barrier. Without pausing to read skill icons, her fingers moved across the screen naturally, cycling through the elemental affinities.
"As swift as the wind," she whispered.
Her traveler paced three strides north, the staff kicking up a swirling gale laced with burning embers that left a scorched trail across the frost.
"As silent as the forest."
She turned sharply and walked west, triggering a Wood-element cast that unfurled a sweep of emerald leaves and vines across the rock face.
"As fierce as fire."
Pacing south, she unleashed a bright flame burst, searing a dark ring into the frozen floor.
"As steady as a mountain."
Stepping east, she grounded an Earth spell, driving a solid stone pillar upward from the ice.
Completing the cardinal loop, Sasha moved her traveler back to the dead center of the formation.
"...Open."
She hit the burst command. The Staff of the Stars flared with blinding Divine Radiance, unleashing an intense shockwave of celestial light that washed across the entire summit.
The phone's haptics rattled in my hands. The flat, cosmetic snow wall violently fractured down the middle, dissolving into floating motes of mist to expose a towering, ancient stone gate hidden deep within the mountain.