"So what do we do?" Rabyn asked as we walked across the bridge that led to his platform.

This was the first time I had done this with someone in tow to their own reflection. Not counting myself, of course. I actually had no idea if that would change anything or not. It was entirely possible that the both of us being here together meant this might not work at all.

"When I did this alone, I generally had to work out some meaning tied to the soul reflection. It was a bit different when I did it on my own, so I'm not entirely sure what it will be like with both of us," I replied, stepping off the bridge behind Rabyn.

The figure of Rabyn floating before us suddenly split into two. Each of them manifested a cleaver in both of their hands, and let out a strange growling sound advancing. Apparently, we had to fight twin dual-wielding Rabyn soul reflections. I already preferred the strange ways I had to do this before.

Beside me, Rabyn's knife appeared in his hand, while I placed soul-reinforced shields around us. Rabyn stabbed out hard, catching the soul creature in the shoulder. In return, both of its cleavers cut straight through the shield and deep into his arm. He winced as they were ripped free.

I hadn't even felt the weapons hit the shield, let alone absorbed anything from the attack. That didn't bode well for the fight. I magically stitched up Rabyn's arm, while somewhere behind us, Chip's manic excitement rang out. At least someone was having a good time with this.

Rabyn slashed out with his knife, this time hitting air. "Dave, what specifically did you need to do to your own soul reflection?" he asked as a giant smile crossed his face.

"I ended up hitting it, while it ranted at me about my own personal failings, or what it considered them at least. Why?" I asked in return. What was he thinking?

"Good. I know what we need to do then," he replied, dropping to the ground, sitting cross-legged. "Gentlemen, my resources for a meal aren't what they would be outside of this place. But I believe I have something that may interest you both."

As he said this, the knives vanished from both of the figures' hands, and they joined him, sitting on the ground. Each of them looked at the Orc longingly. I didn't know exactly what Rabyn was plotting, but I thought I understood the gist of it now. This was another test of what truly made someone, and Rabyn, while he was good at it, hated fighting.

A large crusty loaf of bread appeared in Rabyn's hands. He snapped it in half, offering a piece to each of the soul reflections. "The breaking of bread. A traditional that somehow spans cultures and is older than time itself. I offer you both this. It is a symbol of the peace we all wish we could have."

I had no idea how the breaking of bread could be older than time itself, but I wasn't about to ask. For all I knew, it was some mantra or saying he had learned. It wasn't remotely important enough to interrupt him at the moment.

Each of the soul Orcs brought the bread up to their mouths and devoured their halves. Crumbs fell to the ground as their forms vanished, flickering away with smiles on both of their faces. The platform beneath us sprung to life, brighter than any save my own. I assumed that had to do with Rabyn being here in person.

"It seems in my soul I still hunger for peace. That alone makes this trip worth it. Again, I find myself deeply in your debt. Thank you, Dave," Rabyn said as he stood back up.

"We won't count this one," I replied, meaning it completely. The man already had a soul knot from working with me, and I still needed to get rid of that for good.

He had been forced into working with the invading Orc faction against his will. And the first chance he had been given, he jumped ship to join us. While I had originally been worried about how to handle that problem long term, I had long since come to the decision that he wasn't to blame for the invasion, nor could I consider him to have been truly a part of it.

Where the soul reflection had been floating when we first encountered it, a new image shimmered into view. This one almost looked like a road map. Thousands of lines, all in different sizes, made up the figure. We were looking at a projection of Rabyn's channels, and with how many there were, it had to be both soul and mana.

"I assume that's me?" he asked, walking up to and poking a finger through the image.

"I believe so. There's the channel that confused me the most when I tried to bond you," I said, pointing to one of the lines that trailed beyond what should have been the border of his body before ending midair.

"That would make this little cluster here the soul knot, then. So what do we do about it?" he asked.

His finger was hovering over a small section directly center of the form. Several lines met, wrapped around each other, and formed a strong knot as they emerged back out from the tangle. It looked like there were a few different colored lines underneath the bulk of it, but they were obscured.

"I think so. Let's see what I can do," I replied, taking a step closer to the image. At what level did it represent Rabyn's soul? Would my alterations to it instantly be mirrored across his own? There was one way to find out.

I reached forward into it, carefully probing the bundle with just a bit of soul mana. I wasn't sure how this would react, and I certainly didn't want to risk burning out any of his channels. Interestingly, most of the nearest lines to the central mass moved slightly away as I approached it. It seemed there was some sort of defensive mechanism at play.

"Can you feel anything as I do this?" I asked, curious if the movements were happening beyond the image itself.

"Yes, it's like there are worms moving under my skin. It is not something I'm enjoying," Rabyn answered.

"Sorry, but I don't really know what I'm doing just yet. So you're gonna have to tough it out," I replied.

He didn't say anything else, so I took that as a sign to continue. This time I traced the lines that went into the knot, looking for the first tangle I could find. While I could follow the soul channels, even with my improved eyesight, I couldn't follow what was happening once they started to tie together. I needed to enlarge what I was looking at somehow.

I focused on the image and in front of us, channeling soul mana into the area as I did so. Focusing hard on the idea of zooming in on what we were seeing, I reached out with both of my hands and grabbed the sides of it. Slowly, I released more soul mana as I pulled, keeping my mind locked on the task at hand. As the knot enlarged, all of the smaller strings that were part of it became visible as their own piece of the puzzle.

Feeling some of the strain already, I released my hands, not wanting to drain myself too early. Even that little bit had caused me to take several deep breaths, but what I needed to see was now clear as day. I shouldn't need to enlarge it any further.

"So that's their little monster inside of me, is it? Does it look like it's smiling to you, too?" Rabyn asked, interrupting my thoughts.

He was right. The knot had that same creepy smile the jesters all had. "It does," I replied, suddenly wondering exactly how they made these knots. What would happen to someone who ignored one of these long-term?

New suspicions filled my head, ones I didn't like at all. How did jesters reproduce? Were they some sort of alien parasitic creature similar? What were they planning to do with William? None of these thoughts mattered at the moment, but they were something that had to be discussed later, as they had created a new, deep worry about what the jesters were doing.

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On a whim, I tried placing a soul-reinforced shield around both the image and Rabyn. There was an immediate backlash. Something inside Rabyn suddenly struggled hard against what I had done. The Orc dropped to his knees, clutching his head with a grimace.

Dammit, that meant I couldn't take this as slow as I had hoped. But it also meant I was right in my earlier fears. There was an actual intelligence tied to this soul knot. It explained why it was so hard to remove. It could actively learn and adapt to anything that was tried.

But here in this space, I had far more control over reality than I would in any other situation. That was the only thing helping us, and hopefully it would be enough.

The smile in the image had changed. It now looked like a mirror of a jester's entire face. It was screaming. I reached my hands through my shield, keeping it sealed to the edges of my wrists. I didn't want this thing escaping if I made any mistakes.

Strengthening the soul mana flowing through my hands, I started working at the tangle. As every loop came loose, the face struggled to take a chunk out of my hand. Luckily, it didn't seem to truly exist in this representation. It was that or it couldn't actually fight back on that level, despite appearances otherwise.

The first clump of the knot fell away as my fingers burned from the energy. Revealed behind it was a deep red line that pulsated with life. I quickly scanned it with medical telemetry, and to my surprise, it actually gave a reading this time.

Parasitic Infection Detected

Embryonic jester

That confirmed the worst of my fears. The soul knots weren't just an altering to the soul of their victim. They were an implantation. It was like some sort of parasitic wasp, but even more insidious. They used their infected to bring down their enemies. But then, what were the core babies for? How were the other types of jesters made?

Again, I feared I knew the answer, and hated it all the more. I was going to have to find a way to warn the others. It was entirely possible that saving William would only be the first step.

That worry and anger pushed me even harder in what I needed to do now. The infection was in front of me. It was revealed for what it was. I had to burn it out of Rabyn. Sadly, I had no other choice. The only soul healing magic I possessed was limited to just myself.

I grabbed the red line, clamping down with my left hand as my right hand worked the knot further away. The entire parasite came into view. Several smaller red lines connected from the knot into a small translucent sack, inside of which what looked like a grub with the face of a jester was growing. It was using Rabyn as an incubator.

Channeling even more soul mana, I squeezed all the harder, igniting the mana with a touch of my own fire elemental mana orb. In hindsight, I wished I had unlocked more of my path of the soul abilities, and that would be something I did before we repeated this, but it was far too late to worry now.

Behind me, I heard Rabyn wince in pain. I ignored it, ramping up my own actions. I had to kill this thing now. With it revealed like this, I doubted it would let Rabyn live otherwise.

Each of the small vein-like lines melted away under my assault. I had to be careful as I directed each flare, avoiding the rest of Rabyn's mana channels. How much harder would this be if it were older?

Taking another deep breath, I surged my soul mana directly into the parasite. I had finished with the red tendrils. Now I had to remove the source. For the first time since this had started, it truly attacked me in return. A dark black bit of mana came back across my own lines of soul mana, trying to get into my channels.

I felt Corey fight back from inside of me, destroying any attempt it made. It had been the parasite's last-ditch effort, it seemed, as what was left of it finally incinerated with the force of my soul channeling. Rabyn's pained noises stopped.

That last bit had hurt a lot. Not only was I running on soul fumes, what Corey had to do to keep the final attack out of me had singed dozens of tiny mana channels and the surrounding nerves. Worse, I was too weak to trigger my own regeneration. I was going to need help to recover from this one.

Rabyn gasped as I turned to look at him. "I am free."

The platform that belonged to Chip was alight in a rainbow of colors, with Chip resting in the central hub. It looked as though he had also conquered his reflection. Rabyn and I managed to support each other as we hobbled back toward the pumakey, who was now sporting a small patch of purple fur on his back.

"You two okay?" Karlinovo called.

"Yes, but we both need rest, very badly," I replied. Rabyn mumbled something similar next to me.

With Karlinovo's help, we were able to get back to the central hub, and just as we vanished from the soul realm, a message popped into view.

Mana Orb Rank Increase Mana Orb Rank Increase

The next several days passed in a blur as I slowly rebuilt the energy within me. Pryte forced me to spend the time resting, while Rabyn personally brought me several meals a day as part of his gratitude. His recovery had only taken a day.

While I couldn't complain about the food, I was getting restless. Even with Elody's healing, I had to slowly recharge my soul to let my body take the energies back in. It felt far too much like recovery before I had access to my own magical abilities.

It didn't help that we still had three more people to do this for, and if I was going to be forced to spend a week recovering each time, I preferred to get to it as soon as possible. The competition and the paladin gathering alone were two giant reasons we needed the other three soul knots gone. The third was my fear of what would happen if they festered too long. Still, I did relish in the fact that we had finally dealt with one of them.

Soon, we'd have Connie, Cecile, and Elicec all back to full strength, and once William was rescued and cured, if needed, we'd hopefully be done with the jesters for the time being. I wasn't naive enough to think their threat would be entirely ended, but I was willing to peg my hopes on a long reprieve. I doubted we had the resources to wage open war with them, so I had to go with the option of making us not worth the fight. I fully believed Alex and John would find a way to hammer that point home.

With that all in mind, I finished off my breakfast, intent on taking a nice walk. Depths of an Alaskan winter or not, I needed to feel the sun on my skin. Besides, it wasn't like the cold was enough to truly affect me anymore. Trudging through the snow would be the harder part.

Chip leaped onto my shoulder from a nearby bookshelf as I laced up my boots. It seemed the little guy had the same idea. Then again, considering how much the experience in the soul realm had taken out of him as well, I shouldn't be surprised he'd want to feel the sun too.

His old coloring had continued to shift since the experience, more spots of purple showing up in his fur by the day. I was sure Maud would love to see it when she finally returned. As the pumakey chirped happily from his perch, we made our first snow-crunching steps outside in daylight.

Once we walked past the last of the greenhouses, Chip leaped off my shoulder, a small worried chirp escaping his lips as he hit the ground. In front of us, near the edge of the forest, was the hoary marmot. His even appearing like this was strange. The fact that he was waving his front paws and throwing his head side to side was even stranger. Something was wrong. Just as Chip reached him, he turned and dashed into the woods.

Chip immediately gave chase, and I followed. What the hell had those two so worked up? Was there another Deepscale hunting primal mana beasts? I pulled up a chat window, worried about that possibility as a voice called my name.

It was a voice I knew. It belonged to a man who should not be here. I turned toward the source, ready for a fight, as it spoke again.

"Dave, help me," the voice of Korl coughed out, slumped against a tree. He was covered in blood. "Nowhere else to go, need sanctuary…"

It was already getting harder to remember the changes. That meant those monsters had done it. The little men who fashioned themselves god kings had enacted their plan. It was far too late for her to fight them, at least not directly. While she wouldn't live through this, she would plant the seeds that would end their tyranny.

The old world would not be forgotten forever. Even as she faced the reality that it was ending now, she knew what she was doing here would help begin it anew. These were her main thoughts as she buried the time capsule so many had lost their lives to secure. There was no time to mourn their loss.

Her only regret was that she wouldn't be able to see the kings suffer when their time came.

The final thoughts of Lillith, Last Knight of Anarchism, First of the Upheaval

End of Book 4.

Book 5: Network Principles starts on the 24th on RR or sometime in the next 24 hours on Patreon. See the top author's note for the free month. Link below as well

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Soul Realm Map below. Assume the secondary hub and Core's hub are the same size. The first hub is the biggest, and that all other platforms are currently the same size. The lines are my poor attempts at bridges.

Soul Realm Map

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