Max woke to someone persistently calling his name.

  “Maaax! Oh, you’re awake!” Julia appeared beside him, as usual, out of thin air. “Remember I told you about the monster attacks? It’s starting again. It feels like something is pulling those giants toward this fortress. Come on, you have to see this!”

  Max shot her an annoyed look. She had a habit of appearing without warning at any hour. At that moment, a siren wailed outside, followed by a single explosion. The walls trembled slightly, and a dull boom rolled through the building.

  Night – perfect timing to finally see everything with his own eyes.

  Max stepped out of his body and drifted after Julia.

  Beyond the fortress walls, the darkness was so thick it almost felt solid. But the flashes and the noise made it clear: another giant was approaching the base. This happened several times a month. For the soldiers, it was routine.

  Max slid along the wall just in time to see a launcher belch a missile toward the forest. About twenty seconds later, a bright flash lit up the distance, and a heavy explosion rolled back toward the base. Trees at the forest edge swayed from the shockwave.

  A minute later, two more missiles launched – larger ones this time. The blasts were stronger, but the enemy did not seem eager to fall. Max caught himself wondering what kind of creature could survive hits like that.

  Then, with a deep hum, an energy beam shot upward from the center of the base and spread outward, forming a transparent dome over the fortress. Just in time – a massive fireball burst out of the forest and slammed into the shield. Flames spread across the surface of the dome, turning the sky above into a blazing inferno. The sight was mesmerizing, but Max had only one thought: hold.

  The shield held. The flames died down, the dome retracted, and several more missiles flew in response.

  The soldiers seemed to be testing the enemy, adjusting caliber and ammunition. The creature answered only with fireballs of varying size.

  Max decided to get a closer look at this living artillery. Following Julia, he rose higher in spirit form and drifted toward the source of the attack.

  Even from a distance, he saw the massive shape towering above the trees. Its armor, like an insect’s shell, reflected dark glints. On its chest, a round cavity opened, and inside it fire swirled as the monster gathered energy for another shot.

  How much mana does it have to do that? Max wondered. It was strange that the scientists chose to destroy something like this instead of trying to capture it – even at the cost of lives.

  The creature functioned like mobile artillery. First it bombarded its target from afar, then, supported by dozens of legs, it slowly crawled forward to crush its prey with its jaws. It looked less like a beetle and more like a giant armored snail.

  “Small one this time,” Julia said dismissively as she flew past.

  And she called that small?

  Missiles kept slamming into its shell, leaving deep scars and tearing away layers of bark and dirt stuck to its surface. But when the monster opened its chest cavity again to fire, a missile flew straight into the opening. The explosion was powerful – they had added a magical charge to the warhead this time. It broke through the inner defenses and damaged the creature’s energy core.

  The monster froze. A wave of energy burst into the air. Its soul did not remain after death, but the collapse of its energy body released an enormous surge of power. Smaller creatures that had not managed to flee died instantly. Others experienced a sudden burst of growth.

  “So? What do you think?” Julia appeared beside him again. “Imagine this happens every week!”

  “Impressive,” Max replied.

  But his thoughts were elsewhere. Something had to be attracting these monsters. Maybe the portal? There had been attacks before, but why were they increasing instead of stopping?

  “What was that dome over the base?” he asked.

  “A magical shield,” Julia explained. “The military powers it with an artifact found in the ruins. There are plenty of those around here. Domes aren’t rare among the local races either. We even have spare ones at the base. So don’t worry about defense. Better tell me what you think about the monster. You felt that energy release, didn’t you?”

  “I did,” Max said quietly.

  And what if the deaths of creatures like that were exactly what attracted more of them?

  Julia visited the scientist’s office every day. The jerk resisted her magic better than most. His mind felt locked, sealed off from manipulation. But she did not give up. She knew her power could influence the world of the living; she just needed to find the right key. When she had been alive, she must have wielded strong magic. She was certain of it. And she was just as certain she would remember how to use it.

  Today, as always, she hovered above the scientist while he focused on a report on his laptop. Leaning close to his ear, she whispered in a sweet yet commanding voice,

  “You love your friend Boris, the head of the artifact research department. Boris lit a fire in your heart. You lose your mind whenever you discover something new with him. Your heart trembles when he’s near. The smell of his cigarettes drives you crazy.”

  Julia grimaced at the image she was planting in his head, but she kept going. The task was simple: bring two rusty hearts together. Things were progressing much better with Boris. He had already begun lingering over a group photo from the fifth expedition. In it, besides their core team, several foreign scientists and a military reconnaissance squad stood beside the wall of an old fortress.

  After finishing another round of “treatment,” Julia went to see what the scouts had brought in this time. Sometimes it was strange local creatures, many of which were sent to Earth for study or sale. Often it was artifacts. There was always something interesting. A few times, she had even convinced Max to come along and see the new arrivals.

  Sometimes her path led her to the basements – or, as she called them, the torture labs – where energy was drained from living beings.

  There was one room where she lingered the longest.

  The first time she entered it, she froze.

  They kept the same pale elf there – the one with almost gray skin. Beautiful. Graceful, with perfect features marked by only a few scars: one near her collarbone, another along her long ear. She was far too thin, as if she had been starved for a long time. Julia only hoped that had not happened here. A metal collar circled her neck, blocking her magic.

  They rarely brought the elf in fully conscious. When they did, she seemed like a doll. She reacted weakly to the scientists’ tests, spoke only in whispers, and in a language Julia did not understand. It made Julia’s chest tighten. She wanted so badly to help, but neither she nor Max had found a way. Max could not affect the living world directly, and he refused even to consider killing someone, even in thought.

  In the next room, they kept a dark-haired girl. A human. Julia did not know why she had not been released. Maybe she had tried to escape.

  Another of Julia’s favorite places was the underground greenhouse. Everything bloomed there, even though spring had long passed. The reason was a strange prisoner who looked almost human, except his skin was covered in bark and leaves grew from his head. He moved slowly, wandering along the walls as if searching for an exit. They did not drain energy from him, but he produced something else. The plants here grew huge, heavy with flowers and fruit. Julia had never seen such beauty. She wished she could smell it. Everything grown here was sent to Earth.

  Other rooms were darker.

  In one, they extracted energy from a living orc. Not an ordinary one. Judging by the tattoos and the strange braided hairstyle, he was a shaman or druid. Max, watching through Julia’s eyes, saw the same lifeless body. From time to time, fragments of a ghostly form tore free from him – a transparent hand appeared at his side, or a leg dragged itself out from his shoulder. It looked as if the soul was trying to escape but could not.

  Then a phantom face emerged from his chest – the shaman’s face. Hideous, made even more terrifying by the way the physical and spirit faces overlapped. His eyes fixed on Julia with despair and pleading.

  “You! Please, help! Kill me!” The voice was hoarse, almost a whisper, yet every word was clear. Julia did not understand, but Max did.

  “Kill me before they destroy my soul! I can’t endure this any longer!”

  Suddenly, the equipment activated. Threads of glowing energy crawled through glass tubes from the orc’s body. A scream filled the room – low and drawn out, chilling to the bone. It felt as though he experienced his soul’s suffering far more vividly than the others. Unlike most, he seemed fully aware of the ghostly realm.

  The phantom head snapped back into the body, but the scream did not stop.

  “Let’s talk to him,” Max said.

  Julia, hovering nearby, shrieked and dropped straight through the floor in shock, then quickly popped back up. She had not even realized Max was there.

  Was he following her all the time? Like some kind of creep, honestly.

  “Maxim?!” she blurted out, half frightened, half indignant. “Where are you?”

  “I think I’m inside your ghost body right now,” Max’s voice replied calmly in her head. “Go closer to him. Let’s try to help.”

  “No way! What if he eats me? I haven’t had enough fun being a ghost yet. It’s actually pretty cool, you know!”

  “I’m sure it’ll be fine. You saw how bad he is. And if something happens, I think I can stop him.”

  “With your powers? And what powers do you even have?” Julia narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

  “I know no more than you do.”

  She pressed her lips together. In truth, she knew – and suspected – far more than he realized. But why tell him now? She had no idea how he would react if he learned who she really was.

  “I can hear your thoughts, Julia,” Max’s voice echoed in her mind.

  Damn it. Then she would have to avoid thinking about certain things.

  “Fine. Let’s try to help him.”

  She cautiously floated closer to the shaman’s convulsing body.

  “Just touch him,” Max said.

  Julia’s hand trembled as she slowly reached toward the orc. At last, her fingers brushed his chest. Nothing happened.

  “And now what?” she whispered.

  “Pull,” Max replied.

  She jerked her hand back. A thin glowing mist followed her, stretching like fog. As Julia slowly retreated, more and more of that mist poured out of the shaman’s body, filling half the room. Then it suddenly contracted, gathering into a single point and shaping itself into a figure.

  It was the shaman.

  He looked confused, his gaze darting around as if trying to grasp where he was. For a brief moment, white fire flared in his eyes. He looked at Julia and spoke hoarsely,

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I am grateful to you. I would not have helped, but you… you would have helped with your heart. And your flesh, I would have fed to my children.”

  “Uh… what did he say?” she asked Max, but the orc cut her off.

  “Tell him I owe him my life.”

  He pulled out a knife – from where, no one could tell – and sliced his own wrist. There was no blood, but a white line appeared on his skin like a strange mark.

  “Now open the door for me.”

  Max saw no reason to stop him. With a simple act of will, he opened a door. The shaman walked through with steady steps.

  Julia blinked in confusion. What had just happened? And since when could Max open doors to the other side so easily?

  Kristina did not come to dinner.

  At first, it caused only mild concern for Max and Ruslan, but every time they asked about her, they got the same answer: “She isn’t feeling well.”

  Strange. Just yesterday she had been fine.

  A bad feeling settled in Max’s chest. His first thought was that her magic had awakened and they had taken her to the Procedure. That suspicion only grew stronger when even direct questions were met with the same reply: “She’s sick.”

  “We have to do something!” Ruslan paced the room after dinner. Oddly, he had barely eaten. When they were escorted back to their room and denied permission to visit their sister, his anxiety only increased.

  “Maybe the old plan? One distracts them, the other runs?” he suggested nervously.

  Max assessed the situation calmly. There was no getting past the guard. Every door required a pass. Cameras were everywhere. No chance.

  “I found her!” Julia slipped through the wall, visibly shaken. “Max, you have to come with me!”

  He did not hesitate. Even if, in ghost form, he could only affect other spirits, he needed to know what was happening.

  “I’ll go take a look,” Max said, lying down on the bed.

  Ruslan looked at him uncertainly. He still was not sure whether these “ghost adventures” were not just strange dreams. But the world around them had already shattered everything they once believed.

  “Can you take me with you?” he asked.

  Max had not considered that before. But even if he could, he would not risk his brother’s body.

  Would Ruslan wake up if his soul left his body? Max did not know. He was not even sure whether he himself could return if his own body died after being left too long without a soul.

  “I can’t risk you until I’m sure this works. I’ll go and come back right away to tell you everything,” Max said.

  “That’s my decision to make! She’s my sister!”

  Max looked at Julia, but she only shrugged, as if to say it was up to him. He made his choice. He would not risk his brother.

  It was painful to look at Kristina.

  Her chest was tightly wrapped in bandages, and when the doctors changed them, Max saw deep burns. He could not tell whether they were from raw magical energy or fire magic – he did not understand that yet. But one thing was clear: Kristina’s magic had awakened, and something had gone wrong.

  She was connected to a ventilator. Max felt that she was alive, but both her physical and energy bodies were badly damaged.

  He wondered if his power could bring her back to consciousness. But how? Kristina was not dead, and so far Max could only affect the dead.

  He stepped closer to the bed. An open medical file lay near her feet. Max read that she had fallen into a coma during her first Procedure. That meant her magic core had awakened, and they had immediately sent her to have the energy drained. Most likely, the energy had burst out during awakening, and then the scientists had made a mistake while trying to extract it. Bastards.

  “I’m really sorry…” Julia said quietly, glancing at the file. “She’ll probably wake up.”

  “Kristina,” Max called softly.

  There was no response. Her soul remained inside her body, locked in place, while her brain lay dormant. She was not under anesthesia, was she? Probably not – but Max was not certain.

  He could try to pull her soul out for a moment, just to speak with her and calm her down. But he was afraid that might kill her for good.

  He was pulled from his thoughts by a familiar, unpleasant voice from the doorway.

  “Any changes?”

  The long-nosed scientist Zhukov – the same one who had personally taken Max for his magic test – had appeared again.

  “None. Still in a coma,” another man in a white coat replied, stepping toward the machines. Probably a doctor.

  “If she doesn’t wake up by tomorrow, transfer her to our wing. We’ll connect her to the slow Procedure.”

  “Vyacheslav Leonidovich!” the doctor protested. “That could kill her. Her magic is the only thing keeping her alive right now!”

  Zhukov looked at him over his glasses with a stare that could freeze even a confident graduate student.

  “Do you object?” Zhukov asked coldly, leaning closer.

  “N-no, sir…” the doctor answered automatically, like a soldier responding to a commander. Inside, everything tightened.

  “I expect a report tomorrow,” Zhukov said and left the room.

  Rage tore through Max. He stared after him, wishing he could burn a hole in his back. But could he affect a living person? He had no idea.

  Instead, Max opened a door and stepped through into Marvin’s world.

  Marvin sat on the damp sand, staring at the still horizon of the lake. The water here always looked frozen, as if the air itself held it in place and refused to let waves form. Every stone he threw created ripples that slowly faded into silence, and that silence felt heavy.

  Just a few days ago, he had been full of energy and determination. He believed he could make this plane perfect. Now that confidence was gone.

  The first blow came when half of the Messengers disappeared without explanation. Later he learned they had gone to the second plane – to the elf Vialon. And although Marvin did not truly resent the elf for taking some of the souls – he had even felt relief at the reduced chaos – deep down, anxiety gnawed at him.

  Vialon knew how to keep order. Even the Keepers listened to him.

  No one listened to Marvin.

  The remaining Keepers behaved as if their commander had vanished – and with him, all responsibility. No one monitored the borders. No one maintained the defenses. Souls drifted aimlessly, forming chaotic currents that sometimes grew into soul-storms. The space itself began to destabilize. Barriers weakened. Dangerous cracks appeared between subspaces. Given enough time, this plane would collapse into a single vast, shapeless hall where souls wandered without any control.

  Marvin’s friends – the ones strong enough to take form – had started leaving as well. They went to Vialon. There was calm there. There was order.

  Old dwarf Humkun, whom Marvin had known even before his death, had described that plane to him. Endless forests. Quiet lakes. Mountains touching the clouds. Every territory under the care of its own Keeper. Few souls, but peaceful and protected. Vialon built everything from scratch, knowing exactly what space needed to breathe in harmony.

  And Marvin sat here on the shore, feeling everything slip through his fingers.

  The lake before him had once held its own inhabitants – the souls of underwater races. Now the water was empty. They had gone to mingle with others, and Marvin already knew how that would end. More conflict. More chaos.

  He picked up another stone but did not throw it. Instead, he turned it slowly in his fingers. It was perfectly smooth – like the surface of the plane Vialon had built. Marvin felt he would never be able to create something like that.

  “Doesn’t look like things are going well,” a voice said behind him.

  Marvin flinched. It was not a voice in his head. Someone was actually there.

  He turned and saw Max.

  “Yeah…” Marvin said quietly. “Why is everything so complicated? Keeper Merv Hun told me I’m nobody here.”

  “Sitting here won’t change anything. What’s the real problem, Marvin?”

  “No one respects me. It’s your plane. Do something!”

  Max studied him carefully. Marvin looked exhausted, uncertain – and too cautious. He feared his own power. He feared stepping beyond what felt safe.

  “You’re the one in charge of this plane now,” Max said. “Show them that. Bring order.”

  “The Keepers won’t listen to me.”

  “Because they aren’t yours. Find new ones.”

  “But these Guardians have served for thousands of years…”

  “And for thousands of years they’ve changed nothing. With new ones, you can build things your way.”

  “If I replace the Keepers, the entire structure of space will change. We’ll have to rebuild everything – beacons, zones, fortresses… No one will manage it like the Ancients.”

  Max gave a faint smile. He knew he could.

  “I’ll return in a few days. By then, choose new Keepers. Then we’ll begin.”

  Marvin looked down at the water. For a moment, he thought he saw a different reflection staring back – confident, determined. But he knew he was not there yet.

  Max was certain Marvin was the right executor. Loyal. Ready to give everything for the cause. He just needed direction.

  The plane Max had entrusted to Vialon functioned differently. The elf was an ancient soul who understood how to build and maintain order. Once given permission, he created as the Ancients once had. Not perfect, in Max’s view – but under Max’s supervision. And that had helped Max understand what true order required.

  One day, Max would rebuild Vialon’s plane as well. For Marvin, it seemed ideal. For Max, it was still far from perfect. So he chose to start here, with this plane.

  “New Custodians… new Keepers!” Marvin suddenly exclaimed, forgetting about Max entirely. “We’ll strip the old ones of their power and give it to the new! Oh, they’ll be furious… but that doesn’t matter! This will be something!”

  His eyes lit up with excitement. Marvin jumped to his feet and plunged into the informational field of the plane. He had full administrative access. Within moments, thousands of Keepers felt the command – two days from now, their duties would end. All of them. At the same time.

  For now, Marvin could appoint only seven angels as new Keepers. The plane itself allowed no more. But those seven had allies of their own. They did not yet know how to maintain order or guard souls properly – but Marvin was certain of one thing.

  At least they would try.

  And that was already more than the current ones ever did.

  True, the new Keepers still had to be informed of their appointment and taught how to recruit other angels for reinforcement. Marvin was already preparing to go to them when he suddenly remembered Max.

  “By the way, why did you come here?” he asked.

  “I need your help. My sister, Kristina, was hurt in the real world. I have to find a way to heal her.”

  “I still can’t get used to that…” Marvin said thoughtfully. “In the real world? You’re really still alive? So that’s how you move between the world of the living and here… Probably. Anyway, I understand. We govern the afterlife. We can’t directly affect the living. But I know what you need!”

  “And what’s that?” Max asked calmly.

  “Healing magic!”

  Max counted to five in his head. Of course he had already thought of that.

  “More specifically? And how do I get it?”

  “I can look for a healer’s soul. This used to be a war plane, but there were combat medics too. I’ll find someone willing to give you a fragment of their element. Then you awaken your magical ring, learn to control the energy, weave a few healing patterns…” The blond boy spoke without pause. “Life magic would suit you. Maybe a bit of Light. There are also water healers, plant healers, alchemical rings… even beast tamers have healing techniques. For animals, yes – but are we worse than animals? I’ll find someone willing to share. Wait here!”

  Before Max could respond, Marvin vanished. The process he described sounded long, and Max did not have time.

  Marvin returned about thirty minutes later, accompanied by the orc shaman – the same one Max and Julia had freed from the base.

  “I found someone willing to give you a fragment of an element capable of forming a ring that can heal your sister,” Marvin began, though doubt lingered in his voice. “But you might not like it.”

  “If it saves her, I’ll take it,” Max said firmly.

  “You might want to think again.”

  The orc said nothing more. He drew a phantom dagger and sliced off one of his spectral fingers. It transformed into a small pearl glowing with cold blue light.

  “After death, I have nothing left to lose. This is the core of one of my rings,” he said.

  “What is it?” Max nodded toward the pearl.

  “A fragment of a god’s gift,” the orc replied with a heavy sigh. Inside the pearl, a sealed pattern pulsed with power. Max could feel it clearly.

  “Is this your god’s magic?”

  “God… mine, not mine… There is no such thing as ‘my’ god. They exist on their own. He was the god of my people, but not mine. I could not accept the one who killed my son to empower another.”

  “Why are you giving it to me?”

  “I do not know for certain. Instinct. Intuition. The whisper of spirits. This magic was never my path. I never used it. Perhaps it was waiting for someone who truly needed it.”

  “What kind of magic is it?”

  “They call it life magic. It can grant immortality. It heals diseases.”

  “More specifically?”

  The orc studied Max carefully.

  “Flesh magic.”

  He said it quietly, as if watching for Max’s reaction. Max only raised an eyebrow.

  “If you are not afraid, accept it. It will help you heal your sister.”

  Max grimaced. Flesh magic did not sound pleasant. It suggested manipulation of body and blood.

  “Maybe we should look for regular healing magic?” he asked Marvin.

  Marvin shrugged.

  “No one else agreed to give up a piece of their soul. They’re stubborn. Unlike him.” He nodded toward the orc.

  “Then why is he giving it?” Max asked.

  The orc answered himself.

  “I hate it. This ring is my curse. I fought my whole life for my people, and one day it was granted to me by the Lord himself. My younger son was wounded, and I used the ring’s magic to save him. I did not know the pattern the priests had given me. I used it for the first time…”

  The orc fell silent for a moment, as if forcing himself to continue.

  “The ring took my younger son’s life and gave it to the elder. He survived. He became stronger, more savage… and still died in battle for the glory of his Lord. I do not hide it – I did this myself, and I have never forgiven myself. After that, I hid the ring so it would never create monsters again. Otherwise, they would have forced me to use it on other children. Yes, they would have become powerful, but they would never have carried on their bloodline.”

  He gave a bitter smile.

  “I offered prayers to the Lord, but did I consider him my god? No. He swore to destroy the world and all the children who live in it. I stand with my family, with my people… but I hate the Lord. And only now can I say it.”

  The shaman spoke for a long time about his life. Max listened. The stories of the local races were interesting – but how did this help? The more he heard, the more he doubted whether he truly needed this ring. Would it really heal Kristina? Or would it only cause more damage?

  His gaze shifted to Marvin. It was clear Marvin understood healing magic no better than he did.

  Maybe it would be wiser to ask the old elf instead.