-Terrin Von Leoia-

Watching as my half-brother neared me with the aid of Editon, his gazebo nowhere in sight but his cloak and floating crystal still active, I knew things were taking a turn: it didn’t take the relayed message from Pattissoria over the Glyirian comms to retreat to make that apparent. Not like it exactly a bad turn though, the influx of unnatural golem creations wasn’t great for us but the Lion of Von Leoia had already told me they were temporary at best and sweet tooths were all fighting all had protections in place: despite never stepping foot in Witch Synthia proper, Robert was keen on making sure we get ourselves some connections to local dungeon and revival insurance companies. Having a pair of revivalists on call from the Glyirian military also helped.

“Seems your brother is having some difficulties,” noted Isabella with a half-tease as she fired off a series of icicles to put down another unnatural golem: they were incredibly fragile but whatever destructive magic animated them meant she couldn’t get near them.

“Indeed…” simply put Leocardo, the Lion of Von Leoia, as he circled around me, Minerva, Wes, and Sous to guard us from any golem conjuration that Sous wasn’t controlling. It was so nice to actually have a patron contract with the Lion of Von Leoia and actually get to know his name and refer to him as such, even if it was primarily only through telepathy or to others in possession of the herit crest.

“Well then, let’s support him. Isabella, throw up a fog bank. Leocardo, escort them if you please,” I telepathically replied, feeding them mana through my spirit ring of a conjuration. As my spirit and summoned patron went to work, I looked back at Minerva, Wes, and Sous, “You three should probably fall back now.”

“What about you? And Jezebel and Ras?” asked Minerva between volleys of magic missiles.

“I’m fine. Jezebel is definitely fine. And I should be able to take care of Ras, plus he is in his simulated body, not his actual one.”

“Jezebel is more than fine, she has already rendezvoused with the Glyirian military and is attempting to rout the retreating Soldiers of Clay,” followed up the Lion of Von Leoia as he brought his claw down on the sword arm of a golem conjuration with a resounding crunch. They were retreating also? That was good to know, plus explained why they pulled out these weird golems with their destructive magics and fragile half-lives.

“See? I’ll hold the ground with the Lion and Isabella and make sure Ras doesn’t get ambushed.”

“Yeah, Minerva, we should fall back. You’re in your real body, you can’t risk things. I can’t risk things also with how I’m set up,” pointed out Wes as he placed his hand on her shoulder: he wasn’t wrong, she was in her real body and his simulated body merely was being overlaid his real body, they both were prime targets for the Soldiers of Clay.

“I’ll secure us a route. It would be better for me to leave this skirmish anyway, the other fights are done and reinforcements need to be delegated along with addressing Robert’s situation,” commented Sous as he went to control a set of hijacked golem conjurations to help clear a path back up the hill to the conquest. So we’re in the tail end of the last fight, that’s good to know. And something is wrong with Robert? Honestly… not surprising, I thought to myself, watching the three of them leave while Editon and Ras neared.

There wasn’t too much I could do personally, I didn’t have access to my Bow of Glyiria and my only conjuration was the spirit ring of my lilacs. All there was for me to do was avoid being hit, throw out a few defensive and boon spells, and direct Isabella and Leocardo while feeding them mana. After all of this was said and done, I was definitely going to invest in getting another conjuration… and more empowerments to let me make use of my other spirits.

“Terrin, we need to retreat and regroup,” called out my half-brother as he got near enough to shout at me and actually hear my response.

“I know, I already heard,” I replied, already moving to help Editon keep Ras upright. “Although we might not need to regroup.”

“Why is that?”

“We’re getting reinforcements. We can leave this to the others to clean up.” Besides, I don’t want to stick around all the unnatural magic and longer than I have to. No reason to put Isabella at risk like that.”

“Okay… Let’s fall back for now so we can get out of these simulated bodies,” replied Ras a bit too loudly for my comfort. Not even bothering to nod back since I couldn’t tell if he would notice right now, I had Leocardo come over to carry Editon and Ras while Isabella went to move her fogbank to give us cover back to the hill. As I continued to funnel mana into my sprite-spirit’s fogbank of mist and magical miasma, I noticed that for some reason none of the unnatural golem creations were able to survive it. I could feel how much of mana drain it was whenever one of them entered it and started to rapidly erode, but I wasn’t going to complain at this point.

A quick jog up the hill, the two of us entered the semi-safety of System Assistant’s Caketopia: almost instantly Ras went to dispelling his simulated body. I couldn’t blame him, it was pretty much worthless with that flying gazebo of his. Following suit, I turned around to see how the fight was going: it was an all out brawl between the Soldier of Clay with their golems and our side with all our reinforcements, but with the Enigma’s monsters along with Jezebel leading the Glyirian military, it was a sure win on our part. Collapsing into a sitting position on the ground, I asked my half-brother,

“Any idea of magic that that giant golem was using?”

“No, just that it was dangerous and suicidal… and from the looks of it it was just a ploy to cover their retreat.”

“Yeah, I don’t think even Jezebel will be able to track down most of them at this point.”

“I can’t wait to see how many she gets those, bet she is already tallying them up,” chimed Isabella as she went to sit down on my shoulder while Leocardo stood aloofly guard, probably focusing more on controlling his other replica that Jezebel was riding.

“Let’s hope she doesn’t go overboard again,” sighed Ras before sitting down next to me to catch his breath: translucent screens starting to appear around him.

“What’s the damage report?” I asked, getting a look at some of the translucent screens that were displaying information that I could actually decypher.

“Both the SteelStar Supremacist and Glory Daze have been repelled. Two dungeon cores were destroyed but already remade. Minimal casualties, insurances and revival magics are already being used. And well… Robert got himself in a situation that would probably make the saintesses faint, but he is safe right now.”

“Saintess Von Helmsim, what did he do?” I gasped as my half-brother directed me to look at a translucent screen that listed the damage that Robert took: beyond the various hexes of sentience that were now mandala inscribed and ravaging his mandalas, his connections were damaged, his primary sapience split between his mind and soul was somewhere between insane and comatose, and his body and outer genomes were unresponsive. Managing to take lasting damage to his connections was disturbing enough, that piece of a being wasn’t easy to mend with magic. But to think the only reason why he was still technically conscious was because of a single facsimile just showed how royally screwed he was.

“Got cursed and then inscribed himself with an entire mirroring Grand Key before manalogically recovering from the last one. But he is still alive and kicking somehow, which is relief,” answered Ras with a look of worry on his face. Mulling it over a few seconds, I suggested the two of us fell back to where Robert was to check on him: it wasn’t like we were needed to finish the fight here and seeing if we could help at all would probably help calm Ras’s nerves. If there was anything to help get my half-brother to stop stressing, it was giving him another task to focus on.

Arriving at RV Dazzling Desserts via teleportation pad, we quickly made our way up to Louella’s penthouse to find the spellman noble along with Robert, technically unconscious and currently laying on a plush couch, and Sous, already in his real body and out of his own penthouse for us. Pausing for a second as I neared Robert, I realized he felt like a spirit to me, but only barely.

“Ras, you’re here, and you brought Terrin. That’s actually useful,” commented Louella, looking at me and Isabella intently. 

“Why is it good that he brought me?” I questioned, still trying to wrap my head around why Robert felt like a spirit to me.

“Because we need someone we can trust to make a spirit contract with Robert, and you are our resident expert on spirits,” answered Sous before pulling out a crystalline disc with a mandala inscription carved into it. “Myself and Umi already have spirit contracts with him… along with Harvey Brandle.”

“Wait, that’s three different contracts, four if you include me,” I pointed out as I looked at the disc. Was he a superior-spirit?

“Three actually, Umi and I share a contract with Robert himself because of mirroring Grand Key. He, along with me and Umi, are now emperor-spirits. And with his current state, one of the few ways we can communicate with him is by summoning him as a spirit.”

“Couldn’t you just tell us what he is saying? You are his system assistant.”

“I’d rather not be a glorified messenger for the foreseeable future.”

“Foreseeable future huh,” I muttered, accepting the mandala inscription and using it. As I felt it slide into place, I noted that it was modified from whatever attunement mandala inscription was originally used for Robert’s spirit contracts to make it more suitable for me, swapping out a mana source connection of elemental fey for wellspring mirage. To think that Robert was an emperor-spirit now ontop of being the head blackzone manager for Historie Pastoria Sweets. Just how many types of pinnacle of mages are you know? I absentmindedly mused as I went to summoning Robert as a spirit.

“Can we please not pass out contracts with me like candy?” complained Robert almost instantly after I summoned him in spirit form. Turning around and scratching his mask for a face, he continued, “Also its six types now. I know it’s fucking insane.”

“Oh yeah, you’re a spirit now… you can read my thoughts,” I commented, realizing my mistake and quickly throwing up my mental guards.

“Barely, honestly all of this feels really weird. Also I’m just going to say this now, I hate the feeling of being summoned. I have no clue how Umi deals with it.”

“Well, at least you’re still you,” pointed out Louella with a teasing smile to obviously mask her relief, something that I could feel everyone was feeling right now.

“Yeah… I guess… sort of…”

“What do you mean ‘sort of?’” asked my half-brother, raising his brow in confusion.

“That’s a fucking long story.”