Ian walked over and sat beside them. "You forced the closure," he said, taking the stone and hovering it again. "Let it complete on its own next time. You had it right up until the end."
Myrra frowned but nodded.
Ian guided Myrra's hand gently. "Try again. Let it flow."
She focused again, more stable this time.
While this was happening, somewhere deep in the dense jungles of Relt, Kolvar was still on the run, badly injured, barely holding on.
Tarred hadn't given him any chances.
The very next day after the ruin incident, he secured permission from the Station Commander and initiated a full encirclement. The security forces fanned out using advanced tracking systems, abilities and powers, closing in with methodical precision. The jungle was dense, but their method worked through it, and Kolvar's options were shrinking fast.
He was limping now. Blood trailed from his side. His breath came in short, sharp bursts. Plasma burns scorched across one arm, and his foot dragged slightly through the undergrowth.
Swoosh—
Out of nowhere, something massive landed. A gaping set of jaws lunged forward and bit down on Kolvar's torso, crushing him into the mud with a single violent snap.
But before the creature could even growl, the body beneath its jaws melted into shadows, vanishing into smoke and vapor.
"...Another clone, huh..." the beast muttered.
It stood tall, taller than a persons height ,canine in frame, but wrong in proportions. Its shoulders were too wide, spine arched unnaturally, and dark translucent plating covered parts of its ribcage and limbs like fractured glass. Its face, angular and elongated, had too many teeth and faint glowing lines ran down its flanks like tethered circuits.
Tarred stepped through the brush beside it, his armor scratched but clean. He didn't even glance at the fading remnants of the clone.
"This won't go on much longer."
They hadn't taken risks this time. Four Second Orders were deployed - Tarred and the houndish creature leading the biggest squad, while the other two flanked from different sides, gradually circling in.
The hound creature said nothing and kept walking. He was one of the Draveths and his name was Rhaal. A second order. The Draveths were one of the few non-elven intelligent species that lived in Idilia. Like Tarred, he held the rank of mini-captain in the security forces.
The Draveths were rare, exclusively found in Flaudron territory. One would hardly find them outside. They could sense the faintest trace of movement by reading residual energy, smelling the trail of what had passed through an area hours or even days ago.
Some distance away, Kolvar was moving. From the outside, he looked steady, but his face was tense. Every now and then, small wisps of shadow flickered and vanished from his legs.
"Shit... they've encircled everything..." His voice was low, breath uneven.
He'd been sending shadows in every direction, hoping to find a gap. Nothing. All of them destroyed.
"Seems like I'll have to make a hard push..." he muttered.
Then he turned, moving toward a certain direction. He had already gauged which team was farthest out. It was a narrow window, but maybe he could break through before the other teams closed in.
On the northwest side, one team had been advancing steadily, their formation tight. All were equipped with standard arc-armor reinforced with soft plating and tracking systems. Energy weapons of different shapes and sizes hung at their sides, and shoulder-mounted sensors pulsed softly, marking motion and residual energy trails in the air. A floating drone hovered a few meters ahead, scanning with a quiet hum.
Suddenly, the drone flashed red. One of the soldiers didn't hesitate, he turned and fired a shaped burst. It hit the ground and exploded, sending dust and air scattering. He stepped forward to confirm.
But before he could even lower his hand, a shadow slithered beneath his feet and rose sharply cleanly slicing him in half.
"Ambush! He's here!"
The rest of the team raised their weapons and unleashed a series of directed strikes. Pulse arcs, binding glyphs, and tracking chains flew into the space between trees, lighting up the jungle.
But Kolvar was already gone from that spot.
He slipped between the gaps, cutting through two more soldiers before leaping up into the trees. A glyph net tried to block him, but he forced through it, taking a glancing burn across his left arm.
He'd expected this. He just needed to break one side.
But suddenly - swoosh - a sharp whistling sound tore through the air. A single arrow had been loosed, but mid-flight, it split into a dozen smaller ones, fanning out and raining down on Kolvar's path.
"He's here after all…" Kolvar muttered, skidding sideways and melting into the shadows just in time to avoid the volley. The arrows hit the ground where he had stood, tearing craters through stone and soil.
From the trees ahead, an elven man stepped into view.
Tall, lean, wrapped in a dark silver cloak that barely moved, his armor was polished wood and scaled plating layered like bark. His short hair was ash-gray. He held a longbow that shimmered faintly, one of those ancient types, runed from tip to string.
Kolvar knew that he couldn't wait anymore. The shadows around him twisted, and four copies stepped out, each one moving in a different direction. One lunged straight at the archer.
The elf didn't even blink. One arrow - notched, drawn, and released faster than a blink - shot through the head of the clone. The second arrow was already in the air, curving mid-flight and catching another shadow as it vaulted toward him. The third one dispersed before it could even reach.
Kolvar was already behind him.
A blade formed from pure shadow appeared in Kolvar's hand. He slashed low, but the archer pivoted sharply, cloak whipping, catching the blow on his vambrace. The runes lit up, absorbing the impact.
They exchanged three blows in less than a second, Kolvar weaving through shadows, striking from angles that shouldn't exist. The archer moved with efficient control, using narrow spaces and micro-movements to parry.
Then something changed.
A piercing sound cut through the air. Kolvar froze. His instincts screamed.
A blur streaked in from the left, so fast it was almost invisible, then boom.
Blue fire detonated through the trees, a wide arc of heat and energy that burned through roots, ash, and branches alike. Even Kolvar's shadow melted under it. He jumped back, barely avoiding being caught at the edge. The flames died as quickly as they came, but they left no trace, no smoke, no heat, just empty scorched ground.
From the center of the blast, a figure stepped out.
An elven woman, tall and angular, her armor tight-fitting and scorched at the edges. Her skin was a pale, dull blue, and a long brand-like mark ran diagonally from her cheek to her collarbone, glowing faintly. Her hair was tied high and rigid like braided wire, and in her hand she held a glaive burning faintly with the same blue fire.
Just a few seconds later, Tarred and Rhaal arrived, stepping through the broken trees, encircled him.
The woman didn't even glance at the others before speaking. "Obediently surrender, and you may have a chance to live. Otherwise..."
Kolvar gritted his teeth. He was breathing hard, shadows barely clinging to him now. He was ready to fight, desperate and cornered.
But before he could move, something cracked.
A ripple tore through the air just behind him, like a sheet of glass flexing. The matrix split, warped, and folded in on itself. Then a figure appeared. A man stepped out as if from nothing.
Kolvar turned in shock. His eyes widened. "Lord Kailu…"
But the man didn't even glance at him.
"Gentlemen," the man said casually, as if addressing an afternoon audience. Then his gaze slid over to the woman and Rhaal. "And... everyone else. If you don't mind, could you assist me by handing this person over?"
His tone was calm, almost polite. But there was something deeply off. Kolvar stared at him. This wasn't right. That voice, the posture, it was too loose, too casual. It looked like Lord Kailu, but it didn't feel like him.
Still, none of that mattered. If this was a chance to get out, Kolvar was going to take it.
Tarred narrowed his eyes. "You're the primary instigator behind the structure incident. You will also be taken in. Unfortunately, we can't simply let you go."
Vulas gave a small sigh and tilted his head. "Well then… you leave me no choice."
In the next instant, the woman lunged forward, blue flames erupting from her glaive as she swung in a clean horizontal arc. At the same time, Rhaal darted in from the side, silent and swift, his claws glowing faintly with red sigils. Tarred's body flared as the compressed light blades started forming around him as he moved forward. The fourth elven man appeared from behind, bow drawn, loosing three arrows with lines of compressed light trailing behind them.
But none of them reached.
Vulas didn't move. Not in the conventional sense.
He leaned back slightly, almost like stretching, and the air folded around him. The glaive struck only haze, Rhaal's claws passed through nothing, Tarred's Tarred's blades carved straight through Vulas' form - but like the others, it wasn't really there.
The woman whirled around, sweeping her glaive upward in a burst of spiraling flame - but Vulas tilted his head and stepped backward, his movement so minimal it almost looked like he hadn't moved at all. The flame curled past him harmlessly, pulled into the empty space where his foot had been a second ago.
The archer's arrows shrieked as it flew - only for Vulas to lazily flick a hand toward it. The arrow disintegrated mid-flight into motes of harmless light.
All of it, their precision, their speed, their power, might as well have been shadows cast on a wall. Vulas danced between them without even drawing a weapon, like someone brushing away dust.
Then, he stopped.
Vulas paused mid-step, his expression shifting slightly, just enough to show that he'd sensed something beyond the immediate fight. His eyes narrowed, not in threat, but amusement.
"I would have liked to play with you more," he said softly, his voice calm and perfectly clear despite the distance, "but well…"
His fingers curled, and space cracked.
It wasn't loud, just a delicate fracture in the world, a ripple of soft white splitting outward like spiderwebbed glass.
Kolvar vanished first, his body yanked backward as if pulled through a veil. His eyes were still wide in disbelief.
Vulas gave them all a two-fingered wave and a faint grin. "See you later, everyone."
And then, with a gentle shimmer, he too was gone. The crack sealed behind him like it had never been there.
Woosh…
A sharp, sudden pressure swept through the trees, the wind briefly stilled, leaves hanging in suspension. The four turned their heads upward almost in unison, senses prickling.
Above them, was an oval-shaped object, silver, smooth, gleaming faintly like metal polished under moonlight. It hovered effortlessly, turning slightly to catch the light. Its form was slender, egg-like, but slightly elongated, and runes pulsed in a quiet ring along its equator.
Then, a voice echoed from above.
"Ran away", a cold female voice.
The four stood straight. No one spoke for a moment.
Tarred stepped forward, speaking toward the air. "Yes, Commander. His colleague appeared and extracted him. We were unable to intercept."
There was a pause again.
Then the voice returned. "Set the security forces to Level Four alert."
All four of them stiffened. Their bodies broke into a cold sweat. They understood exactly what that meant, the threat they were dealing with possessed power that could potentially rival a Fourth Order lifeform.
"Yes, Commander," they said in unison, before vanishing from the scene.