The four of us stood amidst a swirl of colors. The beadbiters disintegrated before our very eyes turning into multiple hues of brown. Lilandra and Douge both keeled over, holding their guts with one hand over their mouths. Both of them had bloody noses that dripped to the ground. Douge puked his breakfast all over the ground Sophia stood unaffected by the strange illness .Weird.I thought as I looked over Douge kneeling down and placing my hand on his back.

  “Sophia check on Lilandra while I try to figure out what's wrong with Douge..”

  “ This is mana poisoning. Don't you feel the immense amount of mana that's pushing down on us?” She paused looking dazed. Fuck is she feeling sick? The anger I was feeling for her just moments ago was still burning into me but watching her sway back and forth I couldn't help but feel remorseful for it.

  “Sophia? Can you check on Liliandra?” I said. She did not respond.

  “Shit. Okay think why are they getting mana poisoning. Whatever is going on is producing a lot of mana around us but my interface said that one of my skills was creating a mana stable environment.”

  I pulled up my interface. I had a few notifications but I filed them away for me to look at later. I had a new tab that wasn't there before the interface labeled as Aura. I mentally clicked on it and a window appeared showing me a list of sliders that were all grayed out with. Restricted layered over top of them in red text. That's not helpful. I thought. At the bottom was a description.

  [Aura: Mana stabilization. Due to skill magically inept interacting with restricted skill mark of the void an aura ability has manifested. You now create a mana stable environment around your person. Aura can be spread to authorized users .]

  I minimized the interface screen and started looking over Douge he was passed out blood slowly leaking from his nose and ears. I rolled him onto his side so he wouldn't drown in his own puke and blood and moved onto Liliandra. she was in a similar state however was slightly more conscious. I propped her up onto a rock that was only half formed behind it rainbow of colors continued to swirl.

  “Liliandra can you hear me?” I said. She let her tongue droop out of her mouth and made a nasally noise while nodding.

  “ Douge is unconscious and Sophia seems to be in some haze. She thinks you three have mana poisoning. Is there anything I can do to help?”

  Liliandra tilted her head to look at me and her eyes looked empty.

  “ Sh…Sh…Share….ma…ma…” she slowly lifted her hand up trying to take mine.

  “Share mana? I don't know how to do that.” Liliandra kept trying to take my hand into hers so I let her. A new notification popped up.

  [An attempt to transfer mana has been made. Attempt has failed due to skill magically inept.]

  Liliandra's grip tightened around my hand and more and more notifications saying the same thing started to appear overwhelming my vision.

  “Liliandra, this isn't going to work. I..I don't have a mana reservoir.” I said. Liliandra looked at me with a lethargically confused face. “ I think I know a way to help. I'm not sure if it will work since I've never tried this. If a window pops up just mentally accept it and say yes okay.” she continued to look at me confused.

  I pushed against Liliandra with my mind in the same way I did whenever I would try to use a magic tool that requires innate mana. A new set of windows appeared.

  [Skill: Interface has been temporarily shared with team member. Lilandria of the Xulun mountains.]

  [Aura: Mana stabilization has taken effect on authorized user Lilandria of the Xulun mountains.]

  [Authorized user:Lilandria of the Xulun mountains has been added to the team interface tab.]

  [ Warning: Authorized user: Lilandria of the Xulun mountains. Has :severe mana poisoning: Warning]

  [Aura: Mana stabilization has reduced status :Severe mana poisoning: to :Mild mana sickness:]

  [ Authorized user:Lilandria of the Xulun mountains has changed their user designation too. Lilandria.]

  “Rin? What is this?” Liliandra was staring into the distance a faint almost imperceptible interface screen was in front of her. Still holding my hand Liliandra tried to parse the information the interface was presumably dumping on her.

  “ It's my skill I can explain things later I need to move onto Douge and Sophia.” I said. Liliandra accidentally nodded as her eye shot back and forth across the screen in front of her. I pulled my hand away and moved back to Douge. The same series of notifications appeared in my face as I shared my interface skill with Douge. I was able to change his own user designation from Dougelee Vlounderparts to just Douge. He remained unconscious but the steady stream of blood seemed to stop.

  “Hey Sophia, I need to grant you access to my Interface skill. Give me your hand.” I said as I moved to stand next to her. She was still saying back and forth her head lulling side to side.

  [Skill: Interface has been temporarily shared with team member. Sophia Hunst]

  [Aura: Mana stabilization has taken effect on authorized user Sophia Hunst.]

  [Authorized user:Sophia Hunst has been added to the team interface tab.]

  [ Warning: Authorized user: Sophia Hunst. Has :Mild mana poisoning: Warning]

  [Aura: Mana stabilization has reduced status :Mild mana poisoning: to :Low mana sickness:]

  I was stunned to see Sophia's full name. I quickly changed her designation to Sophia only considering for a moment to change it to oatmeal girl. Her absolute trust in Valder seemed a lot more reasonable now that I knew he was most likely her grandfather. As soon as mana stabilization reduced her mana poisoning to mana sickness she regained her lucidity.

  “Rin? What is this?” She seemed stunned as she read the interface window.

  “ I will explain once whatever this is. Is finished.” I motioned around us. Liliandra had recovered enough to come stand by Sophia and me.

  “ How are we still alive?” She asked “ The mana is just so overwhelming it feels like an elephant is sitting on me.”

  “I might have an answer.” I said “ But it will need to wait for the rift to finish forming I think.”

  “ Shouldn't be much longer. What I wanna know is how this rift formed and so suddenly. I didn't feel any change in the natural mana while we were in that cave.” Sophia said.

  “ Those Beadbiters felt endless. Could this have been set up by someone?” Liliandra asked

  “ Set up? How?” I asked Douge, started groaning as he began to wake up.

  “ Rifts can be formed to farm out elemental crystals. There are Rift farms on the outside of Xulun Valley; they typically are restricted to one element.” Sophia said

  “ The process is usually pretty involved too, requiring at least one monster nest to be cultivated.” Liliandra added.

  “ No, in the past two years the planetary government of Tresh has found a way to create Rifts using a series of relays. They mimic the natural Mana accumulation of a monster's nest." Sophia said.

  “ So what you're saying is this whole mission could have possibly been a setup. And your faith in Valder was misplaced.” I regretted adding that last part. Sophia glared at me before continuing.

  “ The endless wave of Beadbiters could have been a possible result of someone setting up multiple arrays. Or this could all just be one huge coincidence.”

  “ That's just too convenient. Sophia.” Douge who had been just groaning on the ground sat up to regard all of us.

  “ You know just as well as I do. Nobles of our status. Don't just coincidentally fall into an event that should have killed us right away.”

  “ You keep saying nobles Douge but you're the only one I know about.” I said. It was a lie. Thanks to the interface I knew Sophia's was related to Valder and you don't just own an entire Academy without having some wealth. Douge grunted.

  “Sophia?” He said.

  “ Remember how you said you would share your secret with me if I shared one of equal value. Well I am a Hunst full name Sophia Hunst and I am the granddaughter and hair of the founder of he where to ever die. Liliandra is.” Sophia paused to look at the beastkin. Liliandra nodded her consent.

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  “ Liliandra is a Princess. Her family, The White tiger beastkin of Xulun mountains controls the passage from the valley to the rest of the planet without her father's permission nothing can enter or leave this Valley. Of course you could just use the spaceport but that is wildly expensive when it comes to transferring goods and supplies PlanetSide.” Sophia frowned as she looked out into the swirl mana. Holy shit. The importance of these three being on the same team Hit me like a brick Douge who was supposed to take over his parents business, Sophia who would take over the Hunst Academy and what ever else they did and then Liliandra was a gods damn honest to goodness princess. Like out of some fucking fairytale. The idea that this was a setup seemed laughable. But now.

  The four of us sat in silence as the space around us slowly transformed. The walls slowly started to form; they had a translucence to them with various veins of red, blue, green and brown all layered as if they were some sort of strata. With a pop the space around finished form leaving us in a large cavernous room. Green and blue lichens produced a faint glow producing enough light for us to see. The four of us looked around stunned at the beauty of the room around us. A deep and horrendous cackling came from just down a hallway leading out of the room. A man dressed in red and black robes walked in. He had a sword drawn and was dragging it on the floor. The metal made a tinkling nose as it slowly cut the crystal. Once the man came closer I could see horns leaking out from under the hood. A strange prickling sensation spread across my body.

  “So this was a set up?”I asked. The man didn't respond. I looked at my team mates. They seemed frozen in place. Liliandra , who was behind me, tugged on my duster like a scared child. She spoke however her voice was barely audible.

  “We need to run. Can we run?”

  The man spoke the guttural language of command, it shook the room. His words seemed to be directed towards Sophia.

  “No.no.no.no.no.no….” Sophia dropped to the floor, her hands on her ears, tears streaming down her face. “ Shut up shut up shut up!” She yelled at the man. What the fuck was going on so much was happening in such a short amount of time it felt like I was getting whip lashes.

  “Rin. This beast is too strong I doubt we can hurt it so grab Sophia and Liliandra and run while I keep it distracted.” Douge was breathing heavily. He had a look of determination however I could tell he was exhausted.

  “What? What are you saying?” I asked

  “That thing may look human but it's not. It's a lesser demon.” He paused watching the man shift its weight as he posed to strike. “Demons are born at City rank and only get stronger. We. Do. Not. Stand. A. Chance.” Douge punctuated his words. The tension in the air was palpable. A city ranked monster. This strange feeling I've been having was it this monster's own mana pressing against me? In a single moment the demon was across the room and right in front of us his blade was angled right for Sophia's head. Douge shouted as he moved his own body in the way. I drew malice and formed an obsidian blade. The demon's blade impaled Douge through the arm into his torso and out of his other arm. I stabbed at the neck, my blade stopping against something invisible.

  [ Your attack has encountered a mana density higher than you can pierce with your current spirit level.]

  I stared at the notification for a moment before quickly running though my stats sheet. My spirit was at four but thankfully I had gained a level during the prolonged fight with the horde of beadbiters and was now up to level eight. It was one of the many notifications I had yet to read. I dumped all four of my stat points into spirit as I pressed the blade harder into the demon neck. Douge was clenching every muscle he had to hold the demon's blade in place yet it still wasn't enough. The notification that my spirit was still too low flashed across my vision as the demon removed his blade, kicking Douge across the room and slashing at me. I managed to avoid a fatal blow however the attack cut my chest open leaving a wide open wound. This is hopeless. I thought to myself. Liliandra had fallen on her rear, her eyes filled with terror, Sophia was curled up in a ball crying and Douge was. Still moving! Douge despite his injury stood up, blood draining from his body as he stumbled forward trying to reach us. I need to take charge. I can't let them die yet.

  “ Liliandra!” I yelled it had startled her but I knew I had her attention. “Heal Douge's wounds as much as you can.Douge protect these two from any stray attack I'm going to keep this thing occupied.”

  I mentally activated Overclock not on Malice but on myself. My body felt reenergized as all my stats rose. The demon cocked its head while it looked at me. I could feel the gash in my chest start to slowly knit itself back together. I unloaded Malice of all its element shells. Digging through my inventory I pulled out five quad element shells and loaded each one into malice. The rainbow fluid inside swirled madly, the deep red and blue swirled together creating a vibrant purple, green and brown swirled about like a nebula in the purple space.

  “ Rin?” Liliandra's voice was soft, her eyes misted with tears. I gave her a reassuring smile that felt fake to me but hopefully she wouldn't notice. A beam of pure white light formed out of malice. Becoming solid the beam shaped itself into a long and thick spear pointed blade. I briefly considered that fighting this demon one on one was a stupid idea but. If I ran it would definitely kill these three. Then I would be alone in this strange place and still have this demon running around. I would need their help to get out of here. Liliandra's healing was a useful tool I could use to live and Douge's ability to take a hit and keep going would be nice to keep. I glanced over at Sophia who was still a sobbing mess on the floor. I knew she had a good amount of knowledge I could use and being Valders granddaughter I didn't want her to die even if I felt anger at her for being so useless right now. I felt myself frown, did I really just think these things? They were people not tools. I could feel my anger boiling up again not at Sophia, Douge, or Liliandra but at myself.

  The demon spoke again. It started out in the guttural words of command but slowly changed into a deep monotone that I could understand.

  “Child you need not fight me, you are blessed by him. I can taste the Malice coming off you now and I know it's not for me.” The demon licked the air, his tongue was forked and long.

  “ I don't know what in the gods' names you're talking about but I can't let you kill these three. I need them.” I found myself saying.

  “ Then so be it.” The demon charged he was slower than before and I could easily block his on coming attack. He unleashed the flurry of blows you immediately putting me on the defensive. I blocked, dodge, and side stepped any attack. The demon over extended an attack as I side stepped allowing me to slash upwards into its abdomen. I felt some resistance but my blade easily cut into the monster. My blade became stuck inside the demon and he smiled. His free hand glowed a deep violet almost black spears of pure darkness formed in the air around us like the rings on the planet that orbited us. Quickly I dismissed my blade and dodged the first spear blocking the next with Malice. The impact vibrated my whole body sending shivers down my arm. Two rapid shots with Malice took down the next ones. I quickly reformed my blade slashing into air, a wave of pure white light shot out like a wind blade. I continued slashing the air, sending an onslaught of wind blades at the demon. We danced like this for what felt like hours, spears of void black coming within inches of me but never hitting my blades of wind were about as effective. A notification appeared.

  [Skill: Overclock time remaining one minute.]

  Shit. I thought. I need to end this fast. A single spear launched from behind the demon as I dashed in to close the gap. I let it hit me knowing if I dodged I would lose any chance at even touching the demon with my next attack. My stacks of momentum had reached three the most I had ever seen and I did not want to lose them.

  [Momentum: stackable effect adds five percent damage to any attack. Stacks are multiplicative]

  copied one of Sophia’s attacks, her impaling thrust. Blinding white light shot forward as I stabbed out. An impaling thrust using all the mana left in the shell I quickly changed chamber not trusting a single attack and fired off another impaling thrust ,and another and another and another until that shell was drained as well. Overclock ended causing me to slump to the ground, the black spear heavy in my chest. I did not want to use these shells this way but it would be better than dying.

  The demon remained standing, its body filled with holes. The demon began cackling. Despite its damage the monster seemed confident that it had won. In the moment it smiled a pillar of white light engulfed. Like a waterfall the light poured down the scent of burnt ozone permeated the air. Once the pillar disappeared the demon's body was gone.

  “ I'm sorry all.” Sophia spoke her voice was weak and she sniffled.

  “ I should have been able to control my emotions better. We could have fought the beast better.”

  The spear in my chest slowly began to disintegrate as the source of its mana was gone. I shuffled my body to look at the women. Her face was red and puffy tears still streamed down her face. Behind her Douge was on his back still bleeding, Liliandra sat cross legged staring at the man.

  “Rin I'm sorry but you have some secrets you need to share.” Sophia said as she walked over to me she held out a hand and I took it. She led me over to Liliandra where she immediately started a ritual to heal my wound.

  “ Douge, why haven't you healed him?” I asked as she drew the circle out in the iron she had spilled on the floor earlier.

  “ I have. Healing magic isn't a cure all, fix all Rin. Like now I can't fully heal this wound but I can stop the bleeding and help your body start to heal itself. Same with the wound on your chest. If I tried to heal such a large wound the stress might kill you.” Liliandra explained her shoulders were slumped.

  “ Once Douge wakes up. We need to all have a discussion.” I simply nodded in response. I was tired and wanted to sleep. I knew I couldn't not yet but the idea was tempting. The gash and hole I have gotten started to close. The gash has already healed mostly on its own, closed up completely while the hole only shrunk the blood that seeped out stopped.

  “ I reconnected your veins so you should get normal blood flow but don't do anything extraneous while this is healing.” She paused for a moment. And laughed

  “ Who am I kidding you're gonna ruin all the work I just did the moment we get into another fight.” She frowned looking back down dejected. “I'm sorry for having been so useless during that fight. I honestly thought that was the end and I had given up before it even started. That demon. If I had gotten hit I think I would be dead just right out gone poof nothing left.”

  “ It's better you didn't fight. If that had happened both Douge and Rin would most likely be dead by now.” Sophia tried to comfort Liliandra but all it did was make the beastkin women curl up into her knees and nod.

  “ That isn't helping Sophia.” I said and placed a hand on Liliandra's shoulder.

  “ You weren't useless. Seeing you rely on me gave me the strength to fight. You weren't here. I probably would have given up, myself.” I said. A sniffle came from the curled woman before she looked up.

  “ You two suck at making people feel better.” Despite what she said Liliandra smiled a little. “ It does actually mean a lot to me. To hear that you have come to rely on the three of us. I know we haven't known each other for long. Only a couple of days really. But it's nice.”

  “ Like the founder says. When someone is faced with adversity they really show who they are. I'm sorry for being so standoffish towards you Rin. I thought. Well I thought you were.” I cut her off. “ A bastard child of Valder” Sophia nodded. “ I saw you as a threat. if you were a direct descendant of the founder… I mean my grandfather. Then you might be in direct competition to take over and that's something I've worked for my whole life.” Sophia finally sat down with the rest of us.

  “ I can assure you I am no bastard child of Valders.” I said

  “ Yes, I believe that now. After what you just did, even if you were, I would have no right to hold hatred for you.” Sophia said

  “ No no please keep hating me. It makes it easier for me to get angry at you when you act snobby. If I find out you're actually a decent person I'll have to stop calling you oatmeal girl in my head.” I went into the team tab of the Interface and renamed Sophia to oatmeal girl. Sophia just stared at me for a long moment then burst out laughing. I smiled. It felt empty to me just moments ago. I felt like these people were just tools to be used and now I was joking around after almost dying. I wanted to be friends with them but. Was that how I actually felt or just how I told myself I should feel.