Archie carefully unscrewed his recently created Runic Mana Engine’s top and placed it aside. Reaching down into the center of the engine, Archie snaked his hands into the internals, careful not to unplug a cord or wire.

  Archie’s eyes narrowed as he caught sight of a few grains of sand within. He’d already brought his bike into the Explorer’s Tent to get away from the dust storm, but as per the divine laws of sand, if sand exists it will get in everything and everywhere just to piss you off.

  Carefully coating the Runic Mana Engine’s internals with his mana, Archie collected the grains of sand and compressed them into a small marble that he then hovered to the side and destroyed with Forgesmith’s Flame

  Looking back down to the internals, Archie took out the Power Core he’d received from the System Aspect from his spatial storage. Carefully, he placed it within a bisected Blacksteel spherical shell he had crafted hours earlier, its surface lined with various small openings large enough for a number of cables to fit in.

  Blacksteel was a mana insulator of sorts; it was perfect for containing mana within it, making it ideal for shielding the other internal components of the Runic Mana Engine from the Power Core. The System Aspect described the Power Core as containing a vast amount of energy, and letting that energy bounce around unchecked sounded like a disaster waiting to happen.

  The thought of smelting Blacksteel into his armor had crossed his mind. However, after a quick test with a Blacksteel Steel plate, he decided that ultimately it wasn’t worth it. Not only did it partially stop a manabolt he fired at it, but it also dampened the mana he constantly circulated within his body when he placed it against his chest. On top of that, maintaining Adrenaline Rush

  But oddly enough when he molded the plate into a half sphere and placed the Power Core within it while connecting it to his Runic Mana Engine with one of the cables connected to its mana container, the flow was smooth and Gaze of the Forgefather

  It was perfect.

  , Archie mused as he twisted the Blacksteel shell shut with the Power Core inside.

  Letting the shelled Power Core hover just above the Runic Mana Engine, Archie grabbed all the cables and wiring he’d hooked up to the mana container and carefully plugged them into the thin holes he created in the Power Core’s Blacksteel shelling.

  Once all twenty-six cables were plugged in, Archie held onto the outer shelling and released a long exhale before activating the numerous runic scripts and mana pathway channels he’d etched on every inch of the shelling.

  The numerous runic scripts and mana pathway channels pulsed a light blue as Archie kept channeling his own mana into the Power Core, not stopping until the pulsing cables gained a green tint.

  , Archie confirmed, moving onto the next step, Spirit Link

  Taking out the Sigil Ridden Chair from his spatial storage, Archie held the connected and shelled Power Core in his hands before closing his eyes and activating Spirit Link

  Archie opened his eyes to be greeted once more with the sight of thousands of small colorful spirits rhythmically moving around, some even intertwining with others and merging to create slightly larger spirits.

  , Archie mused before focusing back on the connected Power Core he held between his hands. Releasing another deep exhale, Archie expanded his senses, filtering through the thousands of lesser and low spirits around him.

  Filtering through the many elemental spirits, Archie methodically dragged Low and Lesser Nature Spirits en masse and funneled them towards the shelled Power Core.

  After the three hundredth or so, Nature Spirit was channeled into the shelled Power Core, Archie only felt a faint change in the Power Core’s mana signature.

  , Archie sighed before focusing back on filtering and collecting Lower and Lesser Nature Spirits.

  Archie’s eyes shot open before immediately closing them and he turned his head to the side before rubbing his eyes with his hands.

  Archie complained as he blinked away the sudden flashbang he got from the twin suns peeking just under the doorframe.

  Sighing, Archie looked down and found the shelled Power Core and the twenty-six cables connected to it now glowing bright green.

  Rising from his chair, Archie loomed over the Runic Mana Engine and let out another sigh—though this time, it was not one of contentment, but annoyance. The tangled mess of cables and wires inside barely left any room to fit the shelled Power Core.

  “Fuck night patrol,” Aurius groaned as he crossed his arms behind his head, trailing behind two of his groupmates, an archer and a frontliner. “Mari and I were just about to start watching the best episode of Synthcore’s Blind Romance 5.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Best episode? Episode 2 just aired. How can it be the best episode? You didn’t even watch it,” the archer, Fae’linti, a short-haired female elf, chuckled, glancing at him from over her shoulder. “Besides, Juniper and Mathias make a way better pair than Letrin and Schritt.”

  “How dare you!” Aurius squawked, kicking a clump of dirt at Fae’linti’s faded green cloak. He clicked his tongue in frustration as she effortlessly dodged the clump of dirt and stuck out her tongue, mockingly.

  “Calm down, children,” the heavily armored frontliner, Zugther, a bald male troll, chided at the two, eyes focused on the forest around them. “We’re almost back to camp… Besides, the both of you are wrong, Horg and Yoth are the best pair-”

  “Hold up a damn minute,” both Aurius and Fae’linti interjected, halting their squabbling and staring at their heavily armored friend in shock before turning to the other.

  “First of all, they’ve lost four leagues now,” Aurius pointed out, uncrossing his cybernetic arms behind his back and catching up to Zugther. “The maze one, the survival one, the underwater one, and the tournament one,” he pointed out, raising a finger for each league and shaking them in front of Zugther’s face.

  “Not to mention they’re fucking brothers!” Fae’linti shouted in disbelief, poking at his full-cast cybernetic arms.

  “Bah!” their heavily armored friend dismissed their points with a growing smirk. “You humans and elves are so narrow-minded.”

  “So, you’re not gonna mind if your brother takes you by the waist,” Fae’linti asked, before clearing her throat and flooding it with her mana to mimic a gruff voice. “Oh, Zugther! Me want you now! Come, let us become one!”

  “HAHAHA!” Aurius bellowed with laughter, almost collapsing onto the ground.

  “How else do you think we trolls stay warm during the Subchill?” Zugther questioned, confusion evident on his face.

  Looking at the wide-eyed human and elf who stared at each other in shock, they looked up to see a wide smile on Zugther’s face as he bellowed with laughter. “You fall for the simplest of things, yet your races consider themselves superior.”

  “Come now, we're near camp,” Zugther chuckled, picking up his pace towards camp. “I have to finish Conditioning

  “He got us,” Aurius sighed, a small smirk on his face as he picked up his own pace to keep up with Zugther, the wind blowing back his hood, revealing his short, brown crew cut hair and cybernetics that ran across his ear and his cheekbones.

  Catching up to Zugther, Aurius’s smirk slowly fell as a snap of mana echoed in his head. His jog slowly came to a stop as he turned his right quarter-cast cybernetic arm over to see an intricately designed knotted rope tattoo that ran across his inner forearm slowly start to flake off.

  “Ugh,” Fae’linti groaned as she bumped into Aurius’ back and smacked her forehead into his cybernetic weaved back. “What’s your problem?” She complained, but after receiving no quip from Aurius, she looked at Zugther, who stared at Aurius in shock before turning to his side and clicking his tongue.

  “Fuck…” Zugther spat as he looked back at the camp in front of them. “I didn’t think they would… Fuck.”

  “What’s wrong?” Fae’linti asked, curious as to why their resident complainer was now suddenly so silent and why Zugther was upset. “Aurius?”

  Zugther turned away from the camp and spat on the ground below before walking back toward the stone-faced Aurius and the confused elf.

  Placing his arm on Aurius’s shoulder, he paused for a moment. “I-I did not know of this, my friend. I would have said something if I did, you have my word.”

  Aurius’ eyes looked up into Zugther’s own before dipping his chin slightly in acknowledgement, his fists clenched. “…I trust you.”

  “What’s going on?” Fae’linti pushed, grabbing Aurius’ shoulder, but was stopped by Zugther, who softly placed his hand on her shoulder.

  “Fae, there is still a section of the forest we forgot to check,” Zugther said calmly. Fae’linti was about to retort, but Zugther cut her off, “Please.”

  Fae’linti looked back at Aurius with concerned confusion before slowly nodding and walking with Zugther back into the forest, looking at the stone-faced Aurius who walked toward their camp, looking as though he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

  Walking through the camp’s barrier, Aurius felt the stares of the thirty other members of his group look at him, their faces grim, and the sounds of moaning flooded the camp.

  Aurius’s face hardened as he pointed with his thumb over his shoulder, his eyes locked onto the large tent that stood in the middle of the camp.

  Aurius waited until his groupmates passed by him, not uttering a word.

  Once he was left alone, Aurius’s right quarter-cast cybernetic arm started to shift, hundreds of tiny plates and gears moving atop his forearm to and from, consolidating together to form a crowbar which his right hand wrapped around.

  Aurius flooded his body with mana and started to activate every buffing spell he knew atop his person as he pushed aside the large tent’s closed flaps and was greeted by the two people, whom he trusted more than life itself, with their limbs locked together and moaning.

  His wife and brother.

  He wasn’t sure what happened afterwards; all he remembered was dragging his heavily bruised and bleeding brother out of the tent by his matted hair, leaving a smeared trail of blood in the dirt.

  The naked, battered man gurgled something incoherent, spitting out blood and broken teeth. “Listen, little br—”

  Aurius let go, dumping him beside the roaring campfire.

  No hesitation. No mercy.

  He drove his muddied boot into his brother’s face, the impact snapping his head back into the ground. A roar filled with rage ripped from his throat as he swung the crowbar down, the steel biting into metal and flesh alike, shattering his cybernetic jaw.

  He didn’t stop.

  He brought it down again.

  And again.

  And again.

  Each strike cracked bone, caved in steel, turned flesh to pulp. The embers spat and hissed as blood splattered across the fire. By the time Aurius stopped, there was nothing left but flesh paste and metal shrapnel.

  Turning around, he saw his wife staring at him from within the tent, her body now covered by a stained sheet, eyes wide as tears fell across her face.

  “Auri!” his wife cried out, rushing out of the tent and towards him. “Thank the gods you were here! I-I was-”

  Aurius flicked his blood and flesh-covered crowbar to the side, showing off the intricate knotted rope tattoo that ran across his inner forearm, turning her soft pink skin pale white as her words died in her throat. Said tattoo now appearing around her throat.

  “I didn’t want to believe it at first,” Aurius croaked. “Thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me… But the signs were all there, in front of me…”

  “Y-You marked us?” his wife choked out, her eyes filling with betrayal as she took a step back. “H-How c-could you?”

  

  “How could I?” Aurius mocked. “How could I!”

  “How could you cheat on me with my fucking brother!” he shouted, his grip tightening on his crowbar. “How could you do this to me? How could you do this to our children!”

  Suddenly, Aurius became still as a thought came to him,

  “Since when…” Aurius whispered as he stared at his wife, whose cybernetic hands shifted into twin daggers. “…Since when did this betrayal start?”

  “Auri-” she attempted to plead, but it fell on deaf ears.

  “Answer me!” Aurius roared, his face covered in the blood and flesh of his own brother. “Are they even mine?”

  “Yes,” she muttered as she attempted to shroud her body with her mana, but the knotted rope around her throat tightened once more, snapping her connection to mana.

  Healer’s Truth

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