The last search query remained on Etzel’s communicator.
SEARCH QUERY: HOW TO SEVER A SUMMON FROM ITS MASTER WITHOUT DESTROYING THE SOUL
Nobody spoke.
Saeva’s fingers were still curled around Etzel’s sleeve. Her small, delicate frame—roughly the height of a young child, yet distinctly otherworldly with her folded wings and sharp, humanoid features—pressed close to his arm. She was F-Rank, physically fragile, but deeply anchored to him.
DK stared at the words for several seconds. Then he turned toward the Authority transport. “We return.”
Etzel didn’t move. “No.”
DK looked back. Halven did the same.
“Mireth is searching for a way to remove your summons from you,” DK said.
“I noticed.”
“Then we return to a defensible position.”
Etzel glanced toward the Ancient Tree. “No.”
Halven sighed. “I assume there’s a longer version of that answer.”
“There is.”
“Wonderful.”
Etzel looked toward the containment teams spreading through the forest. “If Mireth wants us, going back means taking what it wants straight into a building full of people.”
“Authority headquarters is considerably more secure than this forest.”
“Against monsters.” Halven’s expression tightened. Etzel continued. “Mireth doesn’t need to break down a wall. It needs one terminal. One person. One mistake.”
DK understood first. “You want to remain here.”
“I want to choose where it finds us.”
Renn’s voice came through the communicator. “Deymar.”
“Yes?”
“That is not a tactical plan.”
Etzel considered it. “Bait.”
“That is worse.”
“More accurate, though.”
“Etzel.”
He looked at Saeva. The pain from severing their Soul Link still lingered behind his eyes. A dull pressure. Every few breaths, it sharpened.
But the bond itself was stable. Saeva was there. Alive. Whole. And afraid.
Mireth had already touched the link once. If it wanted another attempt, Etzel preferred to know where that attempt happened.
“Evacuate everyone we don’t need,” he said.
Halven looked toward Edgar. Including him. Especially him.
“Keep a containment team outside the immediate area. No automated systems close enough for Mireth to exploit.”
Renn was silent. Then: “You’re deliberately exposing the Soul Links.”
“Yes.”
“To something that just tried to copy one.”
“Yes.”
Another pause. “I hate this plan.”
Etzel adjusted his spear. “That makes two of us.”
DK looked at him. “Three.”
Saeva raised her hand. “Four.”
Etzel stared at her. “You too?”
Saeva nodded seriously. “Bad plan.”
Etzel paused. Two words. Not just repeating his or DK's commands. She was combining concepts. Her cognitive grasp was expanding—whether from the sheer stress of Mireth's attack or her constant exposure to Etzel's mind through the link, he wasn't sure. But she was changing.
Halven laughed once.
Etzel looked around. “I’m surrounded by negativity.”
Edgar refused to leave. For almost thirty seconds.
“I came back for the Tree.”
“And you saw it.”
“I want to stay.”
“No.”
“You’re staying.”
Etzel pointed at himself. “I make poor decisions professionally.”
Edgar frowned. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“It will when you’re older.”
“I’m seventeen.”
“Exactly.”
Edgar folded his arms. “What if the Tree disappears?”
Etzel looked at the Ancient Tree. Its impossible lights continued moving beneath the bark. “Then it disappears.”
“You don’t know that it’ll still be here.”
“No.”
Edgar seemed surprised by the answer.
Etzel shrugged. “I don’t know lots of things.”
“You don’t act like it.”
“That’s a dangerous misunderstanding.”
One of the Authority scouts approached. Edgar didn’t move.
Etzel’s expression hardened. “You were rejected because you weren’t ready.”
Edgar looked toward the Tree. “I know.”
“Then prove you can hear the answer.”
That landed. Edgar’s jaw tightened. He finally turned toward the scout. Before leaving, he stopped. “Why are you staying?”
Etzel looked at DK. Then Saeva. “Because the thing coming here is coming for me.”
“That’s a terrible reason.”
Etzel smiled. “See? You’re learning already.”
Edgar almost smiled back. Then he left.
Night swallowed the Wild Belt quickly.
The Authority containment teams withdrew beyond the agreed perimeter. No vehicles nearby. No active terminals. No unnecessary electronics.
Only four people remained near the Ancient Tree. Etzel. DK. Saeva. Halven.
The Tree stood behind them. Its roots disappeared beneath the earth like the bones of something too large to bury.
Etzel sat on one of those roots. Waiting. He hated waiting. Saeva sat beside him. DK stood several meters away. Halven had taken position opposite them.
Minutes passed. Nothing. Then more minutes.
Etzel looked toward DK. He didn’t speak. He used the Soul Link.
Anything?
DK’s response came through the bond. No.
Etzel shifted. Very exciting.
You chose this.
I choose many things I later regret.
Saeva’s presence brushed against the link. Quiet.
Etzel looked at her. I am being quiet.
Saeva shook her head. Forest.
Etzel stopped. The night had changed. No wind. No insects. Nothing moving through the undergrowth.
Then Saeva lifted her head. Coming.
Etzel stood. His spear came into his hand. DK drew the Hellscript Greatblade.
Halven saw the movement and raised his weapon. “Where?”
Etzel listened. Nothing.
Then the soil near DK moved. A black filament emerged. Thin. Almost delicate. Another followed. Then another. They crawled across the ground. Not toward the Tree. Not toward Etzel.
Toward DK.
Etzel’s pulse quickened. “There.”
DK didn’t move. The first filament reached his boot. The Infernal Sovereign Set reacted immediately. Hellscript runes ignited across the armor.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
The filament recoiled. Smoke rose from its tip.
Then it returned. Slower. Testing.
Etzel watched. Mireth had learned. The filament avoided the brightest runes. It climbed along gaps between plates. Not attacking. Searching.
Etzel felt something through his connection to DK. Pressure. Cold. Foreign.
DK’s voice entered his mind. Now?
Not yet.
The filament climbed higher. Etzel gritted his teeth. It wasn’t interested in DK’s body. It was feeling for something behind it. The connection. The Soul Link.
Then—contact.
Pain stabbed through Etzel’s skull.
SYSTEM ALERT
[Foreign Soul Contact Detected.]