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Rainer looked at the rings being prepared as a gift for all VIP auction attendees. They were the mimic [Rings of the Nalmar Knighthood] he had created. They only improved Strength and Constitution, but a +2 bonus for a ring designed to work seamlessly with other enchanted items was significant. Especially since both those attributes had a quality of life effect for non-warriors, but of course few Mages would waste attribute points just to feel a bit less pain or feel a bit healthier.

"I thought you said, and I quote, 'That is the most moronic idea I have ever heard. If you ignore my council on this I don't care how powerful you are, I'll find a way shave that stupidly silky hair off your head and shove it in your mouth. Then you can make 'Baa' noises just like that damn goat-chimera stupid shadow of yours."

Elelaria had the good grace to blush for a moment, remembering the one time she managed to lose her temper with this infuriating man. She happened to be a little tipsy as well. Though she was blushing more so over his high-pitched rendition of her voice along with the hand-on-hip posture. Several of the servants she had hired - with a promise at a chance at a permanent position - gave their best efforts not to laugh at them. They, of course, were not aware whether such a thing would get them killed by their new master. Laws tended to bend around the powerful.

Someone so young and immature shouldn't be so strong… Of course he would also remember word for word what she had said.

"That was before I knew your true aims of the Guild. Now, such a show of enchanting skill is exactly the thing we need to attract Enchanters to our side. Yes it'll lessen the price of everything we show after, but that is not a concern anymore. Also I'll need a few more."

"What? I thought I already counted all the VIPs? There should even be-"

Elelaria shook her head, "VIPs? That's the wrong way of looking at this. We are here to recruit Enchanters. And attract future recruits. What are these pitiful rings to us? Anyone who is attending will get one, and we will not make a show of it. We'll hand it out with the first drink. We won't even announce it. Perhaps some will be careless and not even notice it's value. Lucky for whichever servant or mistress they gift it to."

Ele's own face cringed when she said 'pitiful'. The idea of handing out so much potential gold for free… After all, while relatively weaker to a Tier 2 warrior, 4 total attribute points could make all the difference for a Tier 1 Trial Taker. And that was ignoring the general benefits a non-conflicting ring would have for anyone.

But the prestige it would bring overrode any of the greed in her mind - If she only cared about money she could just ask her grandfather for handouts. And it was now inline with her Lord's goals.

Rainer ran a hand through his 'stupidly silky hair'. It looked like he'd need to work overtime with his Avatar to get them ready for tonight. Maybe he should head to the Abyssal Planes to take advantage of the time difference? But he was in far too good of a mood to care about some boring work.

Francis looked over the destroyed battlefield, the marred field already being fixed with magic as non-combatants cast spells over it. Ashes scattered with the wind as magic burnt corpses down past the capabilities of a normal flame.

Soon the evidence of thousands of lives lost would only exist in memories.

His grandfather and the three leading Mages of the army fought in an aerial duel. The Wind and Lightning Mage acted with a variety of spells, using his wind to deflect and block strikes while he attacked with lightning. He was joined by a Fire and an Ice Mage - a pair of twins who managed to somehow combine their elements in an explosive way. But they lost ground slowly but surely.

Every few seconds Frederick would form yet another tendril of Arcane to lash out as his opponents. Dozens of them reached out from behind him as they swatted and cut through magic easily. His grandfather looked more bored than anything else, yet he had told Francis not to interfere.

A show needed to made, he said. And it couldn't be a boring show of his grandson knocking the three of them on their heads after a teleport - there were millions of ways for clueless, magic-less generals to reason that such strength was only superficial and could be easily countered.

The rest of the enslaved Mages had either been killed or freed by now. Unlike Mages of other worlds, these ones had next to no knowledge or experience in dealing with a teleporter. It might not have even helped with how silent - magicically at least - [Void-walking] was. Most didn't even notice him before it was too late. It barely took any effort to knock them unconscious and then free them once things were over. As only the most powerful Mages used Domain-type magic, it likely wouldn't have mattered even if he had used a regular space-related teleport.

They talked animatedly with their fellows, too excited about their freedom to care about anything else. Though Francis grimly noticed that all the former enemy Mages were all male. He sincerely doubted the other half was missing due some chivalrous notion of women not participating in war. Suddenly the guilt he felt for helping in the killing of so many faded a bit. It was hard not to blame the so-called innocent soldiers for supporting a regime of slavery.

He, for once, felt a bit bad for how Rainer would react to a memory. War was not a pleasant thing. Though he wondered if he should use his Void-deadened self to go a bit further. The more ruthless he made Rainer, wouldn't the safer Kara and Luna be? That was assuming his entire self wouldn't just be flavourless memories when he rejoined with Rainer. Then any efforts would be pointless as it would as laughable as Rainer growing less moral from any video game he played or movies he watched.

Francis let out a long breath as he blew his bangs out of his eyes. Someone with as little time left as him shouldn't be bothering with depressing things like this. It was time to go hunt some Divine followers for entertainment.

Sitting in his reserved balcony seat, The Tideborne Guildmaster spun a thin silver ring in his hand.

He wasn't sure what to be more impressed with. The company in attendance, the enchantment that was so self-contained the chances of interference bordered on impossible, or the Fae wine in his glass. He had no regrets over rushing here.

It wasn't as if heading across the ocean was particularly difficult for him. Like all the higher-ups of the strongest Mage's Guilds, he had an inheritance related to the Northern Empire. They all sought to become Magic-touched, which was why on occasion they discussed killing the Fire-Touched Goblin in the North, making up all sort of reasons to hide their envy.

While the exact methods differed, there was considered to be four steps to it. Changing one's Mana with an element, changing one's Soul, using one's Soul to change one's body, and using one's body to change the Soul in turn - repeating step three and four until their race completely changed.

As far as he was aware, no one alive had gone past the second step - apart from that infernal Goblin - which is why he skipped it all together and focused on his body, though he became unable to affect his Soul. He lost out on the extra life-span and Talent, but was able to use one of his Guild's highest spells, [Crossing Oceans], which let him teleport across bodies of water as well as let him partially teleport as water vapor, among other water innate abilities.

"To think, they wouldn't even clear a balcony for me." A girl who looked like she just turned 13 sat at his table, completely disregarding his subordinate who she pushed aside with a manipulation of chilled wind. She dressed like a young girl trying, and failing, to look mature.

"Seraphine, a pleasure," he answered, doing his best to keep a smirk off of his face. How this 600-year-old granny thought it was appropriate to act and look like a spoiled brat was beyond him. "And it was you who did not even send your Guild to reserve a spot."

"Some upstart hosts an auction and expects me to reserve a spot? How is this my fault?"

He pursued his lips as he felt it was quite funny to call the man who fought a descended Divinity and killed Yazir an 'upstart'. Just the fact that the Frostborne Guildmaster didn't force another guest out of their seats proved that Seraphine was just as cautious about this Enchanter's Guildmaster as he was.

She didn't show restraint when dealing with almost anyone after all. Himself clearly included. He doubted anyone but the Fireborne and Farseers would be willing to directly challenge this newly risen Magus. They were the only two that had any real defenses against truly powerful teleporters due to inhabiting both the old Imperial Palace and old Imperial Mage's Tower, respectively. That, and they were the two strongest Mage Guilds.

"It is not your fault at all," he placated, "I'm sure the waiters can bring you a glass."

She gave him a weird look before sniffing the wine and snatching the ring from his hand, using that distraction to float his glass over to her as well.

"They better, or you'll be out of a drink."

He only chuckled as his hand disappeared into vapor and grabbed the glass back, "I'm afraid you are too young for this, my dear." As if he would risk not getting to taste Fae wine. He'd trade half his wealth for a jug of it if he could.

He planned on breaching the topic if he got a chance to meet the mysterious - supposed Archon - Nvos. Only years of self-restraint kept him from bribing the people in the lower seats for their glasses. And their rings for that matter. These rings alone had him doubting the Archon title far, far less.

Stupid old men and their greed for Fairy Dust denying him such a pleasure. What was the point of living even another thousand years if you accomplished nothing more of merit?

He cringed and looked away as Seraphine pouted at him over the stolen wine. It would have been cute... if he didn't know that there was an ancient old calculating woman underneath it. He was only saved from further discomfort by another ring and drink arriving, and the auction starting.

The Tideborne Guildmaster froze in shock. Continually rising bids echoed in the background. A shining suit of steel armor stood displayed in the center of the auction floor, the Enchanter's Vice-Guildmaster barely managed to get the description out before being drowned out by increasingly large bids.

[Helmet of Might: An enchanted Steel Helm that increases the power of the wearer. +7.5 Strength, +5 Dexterity.]

[Item Appraisal], while technically rarer than regular [Appraisal] - considering an entire race had access to the latter - existed outside of the Fae population, in either the form of an inborn Talent or the ridiculously complicated spell from the old Northern Empire.

The other four pieces of the set were not much different. Everyone in this room knew what such a set represented, and were more than willing to pay out the nose for it he noted as the bid reached 2,000 Gold Imperial Standards. So long as the class wasn't too rare and the Trial taker not too incompetent, such a set almost guaranteed Trial success.

Every Guild of note had a set or two of this kind of armor, but because they had it was exactly why they had to be careful with it. After all, if they loaned it out and the Trial taker failed, it would massively decrease the future power of a Guild. Not only that, having a personal set meant you could help a family member pass their Trial. Something they couldn't really do with their one or two Guild sets unless they qualified on their own. And many of their Guild sets were showing signs of age, as it had been centuries since an Enchanter was good enough to make them.

Even just one more could provide a dozen Tier 2 warriors to serve the Guild.

For it to be sold in auction...

As he saw the Fireborne Guildmaster competing, he lost the desire to win it. At most he'd raise the price. There was no point comparing wealth with the Guild that headed the northern slave trade.

He didn't even need to goad the fiery-tempered Mage, as the price easily ended up at 77,000 without his help. It might have gone higher if people weren't a bit cautious at dealing with the Fireborne.

That was close to the gross amount his own guild made over 20 years. Holding an auction with Neutral City merchants and clan leaders in attendance was a smart decision. Strangely enough, they didn't seem disappointed over losing…

If this guild continued this way, the price would of course start dropping quickly. He personally hoped for that, if they could then start making and selling items that would be useful for even someone like him… he couldn't help but look forward to a society that advanced towards the 3rd Tier.

Did Archon Nvos not realize how much he had just strengthened the Fireborne by selling such a thing, or worse, did he not have a reason to care? Perhaps mortals were not as scary to deal with after you fought off a descended Divinity, imperfect host or not. He really wished he could have seen the battle, he didn't know a spell or skill that could get through their Divine defenses that could be cast without a group of mages.

Maybe he should consider talking to Archon Nvos about his Dungeon Team...

His eyes boggled as a slightly better set of armor was put out right after. He chuckled as he could practically see the heat radiating off the vibrating Fireborne Guildmaster. Looks like his earlier wish might be coming true after all.

"Rainer, Luna wants it, let's bid for it."

"Luna… " he said, looking over the Fairy currently glamouring herself as a Moon Elf - the closer to the original form the better the Glamour worked - and sighed, "I can make you anything here, but better."

"But it's not the same."

Luna pouted and leaned on his shoulder as he looked out from his secluded balcony. He had been a bit wary when Ele spent so much of her own money, and borrowed from her grandfather, to set up for this auction hall in time, but they were already far beyond having the means to pay it back. And no doubt they'd be holding plenty more auctions in the future.

"Don't worry Luna, as soon as the auction is over we can go somewhere and just buy random things."

"Really?"

"Of course."

Luna hummed happily and was no doubt thinking over what to go and purchase.

He glanced over at Sarah practically bouncing in her seat. The greedy little thing. What did she even plan on buying? Her own city? But he really couldn't have gotten even close to this far without her simplified enchantments and he would have given her even more than 5% of all profits related to enchantments if she asked.

Rainer returned his focus to [Void Detection] as he kept an eye on the auction and its host. No reason not to take precautions. No doubt he'd be meeting many people tomorrow after tonight's auction, so all the more reason to make sure nothing happened here and now.

Kneeling next to his Avatar in the white void, Rainer tried, and failed, yet again to contain both Arcane and Void in the same body. He got through merging them closer to his Soul easy enough, but they destroyed his body too quickly for him to try and figure out a solution, which echoed to his pools and caused them to go out of control. The impossible black light that formed when the energies and his soul collided still gave him a shiver every time.

The only thing he gained in the last attempts was he felt he was getting closer and closer to level 6 of [Avatar Control]. If he reached level 8, Amer had told him that it was equivalent to having two brains. And two of himself in battle.

Too quickly…

He thought and then laughed. How did he forget about it? Especially when it was half reason he learned new enchantments so quickly?

With Talvara's help he set up the next attempt and got started. Maybe [Arcane Awakening] could help control the energies when they flooded into his body through his Soul...

"Are you manipulating time?" she asked, incredulous.

"If it makes you feel better it's far too expensive to be useful outside of here."

"It does, thank you."

His attempt was quickly interrupted by someone sending a message to his Soul. What did Francis need from him when he couldn't even reach his former Avatar?

The better question was how could Francis contact him?

Francis floated above an encampment. It had taken seventeen kidnappings, but he had finally found out who the Chosen of this particular Divinity was. Rather than a Mage or the Head of the Church as he expected, it was an unassuming Knight-Captain in charge of punishing rogue Mages. Unassuming if you ignored the sheer amount of Divine Power in her that made it seem like her Divinity had already descended. Perhaps even more than that.

A perfect gift for Talvara.

He waited a few hours until they headed to sleep. Even though the Divine Power made her stronger than most, this was still a system-free world. He Void-walked into her tent and sent a lightning-infused fist at her stomach, only to stare in shock as a shield of Divine Power covered her.

Her eyes snapped awake, but it was a pointless gesture as a [Blade of the Void] stabbed through her hastily made shield and made way for a lightning covered hand, sending her into unconsciousness.

Francis frowned and took out his [Blade of the Void]. He swung it where he felt the distortion and felt something 'snap'.

No Divinity would be descending here. He glanced at the frayed connection with [Arcane Revelation]; the abrupt stoppage of a Divinity descending into her body had created a strange frayed line of connection. After staring at it for a few moments, he used [Void Detection] to check if the Divinity was attempting to descend again. The energy tickled the edge of his detection range, like it existed both in and out of reality.

A powerful sense of power entered his mind as his [Archon] class kicked in.

[Skill Gained: Divine Detection lvl 1/10]

He felt a ringing in his head when he tried to directly detect the energy in her body, but it was easy enough to feel another connection trying to enter her body. With how clearly he could feel it, it was plenty to just counter it with [Soul Manipulation] and a little help from [Devil's Soul Language]. He got the understanding that her being unconscious was the only reason he could stop this so easily. Her Soul seemed to resist against the foreign connection automatically.

He Void-walked her away, and then Void-traveled to an empty stretch of land, dropping the injured woman on the ground. The ritual to sacrifice her to Talvara called for blood, and the wound he caused offered plenty.

He paused for a moment, staring at his hand that reached into her stomach wound for some blood, wondering if he should be doing this before shaking his head. There was no way she became Chosen without killing at least one innocent Mage, especially with her current role hunting rogue ones. And he was never one for sexism when it came to showing no mercy to his enemies. Powers that transcended biology removed any real gender differences. Her being a pretty blonde was inconsequential.

Drawing the ritual circle was easy enough; most of the leg-work was done from Talvara's side, the ritual itself only enhanced her and acted as a signal for her. Even someone with no skill in rituals could manage this.

Half-way done, a voice echoing behind him caused Francis to jump to his feet.

"Slave of the Void, to think you've found your way to a place beyond the system. How is it you have kept your strength?"

Francis stared at the hovering face of Divine Power, which looked like it was trying to guess where he was standing rather than actually seeing him.

"Do not think, Defier, that your silence will keep me from finding you. Looks like one of the abomination's incompetent slaves has finally stepped beyond his mortal station. But it is for naught."

"What do you want?" Francis said, stepping away from the Chosen and using [Flesh Manipulation] to continue drawing the ritual. If his prior experiences were any judge, Divine Sight didn't work against his magic either.

"So the slave speaks? How you have found yourself on this planet and were not torn apart on entry is beyond me. I have hidden this Chosen here and she is of great importance to me."

Francis raised an eyebrow. Why was he revealing that?

"If you are willing to let things go, I can free you from your servitude with no loss of power."

Francis knew that Talvara had no control over her followers, but he wasn't sure if she could indiscriminately take back her Void Will.

"If you tell me how you traveled here through the ambient Mana I can gift even more… Hmm… you… how do you have Mana and the Void within you?"

The floating face's eyes were now staring directly at him.

"Magic."

"Ha. That much is obvious. You grow more interesting. I am a Divinity of Magic, why not cooperate with me instead of that abomination who calls itself a goddess?"

"A Divinity of Magic who enslaves Mages? That's hardly a ringing endorsement."

"Ringing endorsement? Ah, you are using translation magic. How my followers choose to interpret my creed is up to them. I need only their faith."

In other words, you couldn't care less about your followers except what they can do for you. Not a surprise.

Francis wasn't done with the ritual and decided to keep talking. He was wearing a hooded cloak so it wasn't as if he needed to hide himself.

"What can you offer?"

"A sensible man. I can connect you with my followers within the Imperial Magiocracy. Reaching the 3rd Tier and extending your life countless times would be within your reach. Disconnecting you from that abomination would be simple."

Francis gritted his teeth as this thing kept calling Talvara an abomination. He may have thought it himself, and it was likely true, but that doesn't mean he had to be okay with others calling her that. He wouldn't be a man in love if he was rational.

A man in love…

Shit.

"Well?" the Divinity asked after a long period of silence.

"Just thinking over how I can pull a Divinity from their realm and rip out their spine. Do you even have spines? Maybe I should just feed you to my pet instead," Francis said with a deep grin as he completed the ritual. Talvara reached out from the Void moments later, taking the Chosen with her.

"You dare?!"

"All the time-" was all Francis could say before being blasted away by a wave of power. He tumbled head over heels several times before he managed to grip the ground. Even then he slid several dozen feet before stopping.

He didn't even have time to consider [Void-walking] away as he stared at the figure appearing in a storm of Divine Power.

Its figure was entirely covered in the blue of Mana with Runes - that made his head feel like it was splitting open - swimming across its skin. Francis even feared that trying to escape through the Void would be fatal with the sheer amount of power entering the air, a mix of Divine and Mana spreading out for miles.

"Did you think I wouldn't descend an Avatar!? I will show you, and all your people the consequences of your actions!"

Francis didn't even have a second to think as magic covered him and a damaging voice entered his mind.

"[Void Lock]!"

His vision doubled as the voice echoed, bouncing around his head as he lost his connection to the Void. Before a spear of Mana could punch through him he disappeared with a Void-walk.

It was a spell under the Space-Time spellbook, after all.

He Void-walked dozens of times as he sought to escape, hoping his invisibility to Divine Sight would hide him.

"Do you think you can escape from me simply by obscuring my senses?"

"[Spatial Lock], [Void Lock]!"

The words echoed in Francis head again as he collapsed, a foot crashing into his back as he was slammed onto the ground, breaking part of his spine. His struggles were useless under the sheer strength of it.

"Others would have cursed me for my temper. To descend an Avatar simply because I lost a Chosen. But it was worth it. Worth it. Beyond worth it. It was worth it to descend even a hundred Avatars to witness a magic that could cross the Void.

"Now," The Divine Avatar said, prying Francis' bloody face from the ground, "How shall I extract such an accomplishment from you?" He asked before slamming the 'Void slave's' head back into the ground. The Divinity then grabbed Francis by the head and threw him several feet away.

Francis coughed up blood and gasped for breath, grimacing in pain. He did his best to avoid using anything Arcane related in case he implicated Rainer. But he wondered if he had to choose death or revealing himself. It wasn't Rainer he was concerned about so much as it was Kara and Luna.

"I'll need something to write on," Francis said, trying to think his way out of this. Both his connection to the Void and the Space around him was disrupted. He had never felt so powerless before, especially with the missing Arcane from his body. He used [Water's Gentle Touch] to sooth his back and tried to regain some feeling in his legs.

"Do you think I'll believe your words so simply?" the Divine Avatar said, walking slowly over to him.

"You were stupid enough to chat me up while I sacrificed your Chosen," Francis said with a chuckle, before a fist impacted his face. He laughed in between gasps as he felt his teeth leave his mouth with every hit. All the while he thought of a way to get out of this situation. He could feel the sheer power of the Divinity blocking his Mana Pool as well, and dissipating the healing spell he used earlier. Did he have nothing left?

"It seems you are unrepentant.

"[Pain]."

The word echoed in his mind as every nerve in his body lit up. But that only furthered his chuckling as he writhed on the ground. To a man who could write a book on dying one thousand different ways, could this even be considered painful?

"Is t-this y-your s-sad at-tempt at t-t-torturing me for information? But y-you didn't even ask anything yet," Francis said, his voice sounding distorted through his missing teeth and gasping breaths.

While the Divine Avatar looked down at him with barely concealed rage, Francis stared at the runes dancing across his blue body. Every look incurred pain, but could it compare to how he already felt?

Ah, how he wanted to kill this Divinity. To see the impotent rage on his face as a 'mortal' ended his existence. But for now, he was left to endure several repeats of the [Pain] spell. He wasn't sure how much time passed before another voice entered his mind,

"[Obey]."

The words filled his weakened mind as Francis crawled over to the Divine Avatar's feet. He stuck his finger into the grass as he thought of runes involved in [Void-walking].

As if the pain he felt weakened him enough to be controlled like this.

A small [Arcane Blade] extended from his finger, ripping apart the Domain-like spells preventing him from accessing either Spatial Magic or the Void.

[Blade of the Void].

Francis jumped to his feet as he attacked with a black blade, tearing apart the Divine Avatar from the center. Sending out a [Void Seer], he tried to find somewhere to go, and realized the cut reality provided a perfect leaping off point for any Void-walks.

He couldn't head to Rainer, nor could he go to the Abyssal Planes. The Divinity could clearly follow him. Then Earth?

His thoughts existed within a single second as he cycled through his Soul Marks on Earth. He quickly saw all were in medically induced comas within a single warehouse.

A trap? All the better to lead a God into.

He disappeared through the tear in reality with a Void-walk.

Francis dodged as several magically-created chains reached out towards him. He Void-walked to the edge of the barrier surrounding the warehouse. Using his Arcane Aura to heal most of the damage to his spine, he tested the strength of the barrier. No amount of power behind [Void-walking] would get through.

Marveling for a brief moment at the sheer strength of it, he used his Void Will to cut through it with a [Blade of the Void], before [Void-walking] away and sprinting with all his strength. He only gave the Mages that had surrounded him a brief glance.

Both he and they had a larger problem to worry about than each other.

"You mortals dare. Do you think this is the limit of my strength!"

He heard the roars of a God behind him and merely smirked at Earth's Mages stepping into his pile of shit. Using the last of his Void Will, he Void-traveled across Earth, landing in the Amazon. Paying not a single mind to his surroundings, he broke into a dead sprint. It wasn't hard to figure out the Divine Avatar somehow tracked him by his entry and exit points, so he needed to move away from them as fast as possible.

Once the Divinity dealt with the trap meant for Rainer, how would he escape him? Francis simply ran and ran, using the full limits of his enhanced self.

Francis panted with a ragged breath, a hot desert sun beating down on him. He lost track how many times he Void-traveled. Finally, he felt safe enough to leave a trail of magic and could heal the damage to his face.

"Thatsss unplessant," He muttered to himself as [Arcane Invigoration] regrew his missing teeth and snapped his nose back in place. It was like a million ants were crawling across his gums. The experience proved far worse than what caused the missing teeth in the first place.

He never really thought about it before, but he imagined that he was extremely resistant to torture. Being able to regrow anything and having so much experience with pain removed most of the negative possibilities. There was no psychological fear of having fingers removed when everything but your brain was considered easily replaceable. Probably Sarah slowly stripping away pieces of his Mana Pool was the only thing that would really work on him. His - or rather Rainer's - Arcane Power and Mana Pool were intimately connected, so she'd probably take both if she ever tried.

He briefly wondered if a slightly toothless him with a broken nose would still be unreasonably attractive. For some reason, the idea frightened him too much.

Francis snapped back to focus as he thought over his options. He figured the best route was to head to the Abyssal Planes; there was no doubt in his mind that they'd have contingencies for descended Divine Avatars. But he wasn't going to invite a calamity to them if that wasn't the case. He needed to fall asleep and contact Talvara.

But without a handy Fairy, there was no way, even in his current exhaustion, he'd fall asleep easily.

Raiding a pharmacy it is.

"Y-you don't have to do this, you can get help," the 50-year-old pharmacist mumbled as Francis held him against a wall. With a Divine Avatar likely on his trail, he wasn't in a patient mood.

The man started screaming as a small charge of lightning ran through him.

"Where. Are. The. Tranquilizers?"

Francis punucated his words with a crackle of lightning over his hand, holding it in front of the frightened man's eyes.

Seeing something unexplainable seemed to cow the man as he led Francis towards the drugs. Having nothing else to do, his hand reached out and started swiping random things into his Spatial Ring. Who knew what else could be useful?

Francis Void-traveled to a deserted island but froze midway as he was about to down some pills. Was there any guarantee Talvara would pull him into her space instantly? He might lay here for hours, easily captured by the Divine Avatar or the Mages, before she even knew he fell asleep. And without entering the space, he couldn't force himself awake either.

"Fuck."

He tossed the bottle back into his ring. Not knowing what to do, he continued his global tour, taking time to use his enhanced body to run and distance himself from any teleportation exit point. He luckily remembered about altitude sickness and healed himself with [Arcane Invigoration] after a Void-travel from a deep point in the ocean.

Left to his thoughts, he couldn't understand why the Divine Avatar descended. It seemed like such a pointless gesture and everything he learned about Divinities thus far suggested they viewed even the most troublesome mortals as nothing more than bugs. They might get pissed in the moment when bit, but that was it.

Didn't that mean this Divine Avatar was the equivalent of a man who got bit by a bug and decided to become an exterminator solely for revenge on that one fly? Or was that Chosen more important than even the Divinity claimed? Thinking about it, what if he intentionally hid her on a world that was assumed impossible to safely teleport to?

Francis knew it would be stupid arrogance to assume only he and the Void Lords could cross worlds. There could even be countries that existed on more than one planet. Who knows what that Divinity was hiding his Chosen from?

He slapped his forehead while falling from mid-air. Why hadn't he thought of that earlier? He had Void-traveled some couple miles above New York and was now in freefall. Moments later, he vanished to an empty desert, his message sent to Rainer, asking him to contact Talvara with a brief explanation that a Divine Avatar was after him.

Standing in an open African desert, Francis looked at Rainer in shock. What had happened in their short-time apart that could cause Rainer to not only approve of his actions in sacrificing a random Chosen but grin menacingly as they prepared to ambush the Divine Avatar? Talvara had told him that, if they had no choice, they could flee to her realm, but he didn't seem to be interested in that.

Aurora stood off to the side; Rainer had asked Talvara for support. He didn't know why she didn't offer one of her Tier 3 Void Lords. Either she didn't have control over them or they had something else to do so they couldn't be spared. That contrasted with what the Divinity claimed, but he could have been lying about Talvara being able to steal back Void Will, especially from her more powerful followers.

Rainer slapped his two hands together, a condensed packet of Mana and Arcane Power forming slowly. They were far enough away from anything that there shouldn't be any damage to bystanders.

"You two will use all your strength to use [Void Hold] on him and I'll cast [Absolute Frost]. If he's still struggling we'll disable him enough afterwards for Jor to eat."

Said serpent was flying between the two twins, looking at them with confusion. It seemed like it couldn't decide whose shoulders to rest on.

"Is it wise bringing your main body here?" Francis asked.

"It's the only way. If Jor needs to retreat, my Avatar doesn't have the weird rune on his shoulder."

"What is that?" Aurora finally said, having been staring in a mixture of shock and confusion at the glowing transparent serpent rather than paying attention to anything else.

"It's Jor, short for Jormungandr," Francis answered, scratching under its chin as the serpent settled around him.

Aurora got angry at that obvious non-answer, but then again, she was almost permanently angry when around them. He wondered what she would be like without Void Will.

She'd probably die early from an aneurysm.

Rainer frowned for some reason before speaking, "How come Void Lords don't travel in pairs?"

Francis' eyes widened as he stared at Aurora. "How could anyone fight against a combination of [Void Hold] and [Void Call]?"

"You can't use both in the same space. And anyone we'd need to resort to that against has methods to deal with [Void Hold]."

"Still… wouldn't it make sense to travel with a partner to take advantage of you holding someone?"

Aurora shrugged. She supposed it did make sense.

"We don't have any combat slaves."

Further rumination was interrupted by a massive presence appearing in front of them. Teleporting before them instead of attacking at a distance, Francis was sure his arrogance would be his undoing. Just as planned.

"Did you think-"

"Absolute Frost."

The distorted face of Mana widened in horror as he tried to teleport away. The sheer amount of magic from [Absolute Frost] prevented him from going anywhere along with the two [Void Hold]s. In moments he was covered by a wave of magic that went on for miles, focusing on him.

Both Rainer and Francis manipulated the frost, focusing and empowering it further and further onto the Avatar. Aurora continued her [Void Hold], her face straining as the Divine Avatar seemed to vibrate, heat rapidly melting even the deadly frost around him.

Francis charged forward, a [Blade of the Void] swinging down on the Divine Avatar, slicing horizontally and then vertically, consuming the last of Francis' 103 Void Will. The attempt at defending against the blade only consumed a large portion of the Avatar's power. Francis frowned as he lept backwards, knowing if it wasn't for this they might have failed. He was just too strong.

Jor charged forward moments later, consuming the left half of the Divine Avatar before he could reform the reality-cut parts.

The Divinity managed to escape backwards, but the [Void Hold] prevented him from teleporting even if it couldn't stop his movements. Both Francis and Rainer continued manipulating the frost to grasp at his half-body, Jor consuming the leaking power as fast as he could. Bit by bit the Avatar lost hold and disappeared into the serpent's maw.

Jor looked blankly at the empty space and opened his mouth wide, consuming more energy from somewhere. With [Divine Detection], Francis could feel that the remainder of the Divine Avatar was connected to the original, and Jor was abusing that connection. But it was fading.

"Rainer, use [Soul Manipulation] on whatever Jor's consuming. Keep the connection open!" Francis yelled, laughing as he did the same.

He could feel his twin helping him rather than doing anything himself. That was good enough.

Jor grew in size, his scales solidifying to the point where he lost his see-through quality, though the violet serpent still seemed to be something beyond physical.

Francis could almost detect the anger that formed on the other side of the connection. As if it was a tangible rage. If it wasn't for the [One who Defies Divinity] title, Francis was sure this Divinity would pay any cost to kill them. This was a yellow fever bug bite.

Too bad he couldn't find them. And now that Francis knew he could use his [Blade of the Void] to make [Void-walking] far easier, it was time to take his parents into the system. His grandfather would eventually be enough to protect their interests on that planet, even if the Divine Avatar connects him to the new group of rebel mages.

The connection finally broke and Jor let out a loud hiss of joy before shrinking and returning into Rainer's shoulder.

"Before Earth's Mages get here, let's vanish."

Rainer frowned, and Francis guessed what he was doing. Francis did the same as he used [Void Seer] on 'his' Earth [Soul Mark]s. No response.

Instead, with his new knowledge of [Void-traveling], Francis managed to use [Void Seer] on the warehouse.

The warehouse itself was gone, nothing left at all except charred ground. Clearly the Divine Avatar expended quite a bit of strength on escaping the trap. No wonder he seemed weaker.

Rainer closed his eyes and sighed. He may not be able to see them like Francis could, but the lack of the marks made it obvious what happened.

"It wasn't as if you are to blame," Francis said sinking a bit into his Void Will. The joy of killing and devouring a Divine Avatar quickly vanished from him. They didn't even know who they'd marked, so they couldn't even try to alleviate their guilt with some token restitutions.

He knew that it was both the Council's and Divine Avatar's fault, but the original him was still the one who set the dominos up by marking random people to use as connections to Earth. And then leading a rampaging monster straight to them. How did a bit of fun turn into this?

"We can use mom's blood to get a connection back here, she has plenty of close blood relatives who cut ties with her when she married dad," Francis said; he had asked about them during his time with her. Or rather, asked if any existed. Apparently, they faked a big public blow up and distanced themselves so that they couldn't be used as hostages. She wanted to bring them to the system as well.

Rainer nodded before turning to Aurora, who seemed to be staring off into space.

"Jump us around randomly until we recover enough Mana to head back." Rainer had put everything into the [Absolute Frost], and Francis was no less out; manipulating the frost was harder for him than its caster, despite their connection.

A split-off consciousness of the Divinity, Augost, used Divine Sight around Earth in a rage. The Divinity did all he could to try to find them and descend another Avatar, but he could not. He couldn't even use sight on that Elf as she seemed to have disappeared from his vision for her given aid. Not that it mattered as he remembered nothing about her due to the closeness to the magic of the Defiers.

The accursed system! At least his Avatar shouldn't have provided them experience; having descended in a systemless world, it would be [Classless]. Sending three people to Tier 2 level 25 would have been more than he could handle.

When had he ever suffered so much? Not only had he spent much on his Avatar, but that impossible creature stole so much from him. And then his carefully raised Chosen… a true godling! An eventual permanent body for him to exist in the physical world. He had hidden her so well from the others, yet such a random event took her from him?

He decided to finish off the Mages who had trapped him; maybe he'd find a clue there. Having already spent so much Divine Power, what was a bit more? However, before he descended, he overheard a conversation.

Just when he thought his rage had reached his limit, he was proven wrong. He wasn't the target of the trap?! The barrier that trapped him was beyond impressive, far stronger than anything he'd ever seen when considering the power it took to form it. Had it not been for that fight, how could he have lost to that ice spell?

Though that blade… was it both a skill and a spell? Breaking through his barrier was one thing, how did it just ignore it? And to use magic to cross the Void… why did that abomination get such a treasure?

He scanned the planet several more times with his Divine Sight, looking for any signs of another Divinity. Other than the ancient thing protecting against the encroaching of the system in this corner of the universe, there was nothing else.

There seemed to be many followers of the ancient aspect, or at least their versions of it, but there was no way it encouraged or cared about the faith sent its way. It was too powerful to bother with such things.

An entire world of advanced Magi for the taking.

It was time for them to follow a new Lord.