[What do you mean, you can't reach Anderstahl?] Misa asked, worried. The system still wasn't operating perfectly—it took more time than she would've liked for each message to go through, and even longer for the messages to come back through to her. There were a few other messages she had to go through, but the one from her mother had struck her with its immediate priority.

The Elyran refugees couldn't reach Anderstahl. As best as Charise and the rest of the Adventurers' Guild could tell, there was a massive wall of Void in the way—or alternatively, just some kind of reality-barrier that was blocking them. They weren't certain what it was, only that the barrier was miles wide and couldn't be trivially walked around.

Teleportation skills didn't get people across, either. Even Liz with her Platinum-ranked ability to manipulate space and interfere directly with Derivan's Shift-induced portals couldn't break through the barrier.

[It's like there's something in front of us that cuts off all possibilities,] Charise explained. [Leaving no possible reality where we get through.]

[Bullshit,] Misa replied automatically, and then, a little more apologetically, [uh, sorry. I just mean that it's bullshit that it's stopping you. And also that there's no way to get through.]

[I got what you meant.] Misa could almost feel her mother's brief amusement echoing through her message. [But I don't know what else to tell you. It's what it feels like to me. There are a few types of teleportation skills that still get through, like Max with her [Right Place, Right Time], but nothing that lets us get through on our own.]

[What about Xorak?] Misa asked. [He's got an [Astral Navigator] class of some kind, right? If there's a path at all...]

[That's who we're waiting on.] The reply was a little more grim than Misa would like. [We haven't seen him or the Guildmaster in a couple days now—not since they went into a dungeon together. Max says they're not dead and the dungeon itself is still running instead of falling apart, so we think something about the dungeon is preventing them from getting out.]

[Shit,] Misa replied. [Why does it feel like when things fall apart, it happens all at once?]

[Because we don't notice it when it happens one at a time,] Charise responded dryly. [Check your other messages. I have a feeling you'll have something important in at least one other chat.]

Misa blinked, then swapped back over to the list of chats. Sure enough, there was an older message from Vex, blinking away.

[I've managed to integrate the Grand Anchor,] Vex informed them. [I managed to bring back a whole dragon with it, too! But, um... it feels like it's strained something in me. Do you know anything about that? I'm about to try to bring back all of Enkiros—that's the third Prime Kingdom—so if there's anything I should know about this thing please let me know now.]

And then a few minutes later, another message: [Also, I'm kind of running low on time. The Void bubble Enkiros is supposed to be in is expanding, and the more I let it expand, the harder it's going to be to bring back the kingdom. As in I think it's just going to be impossible in a few more minutes. We kinda got here just in time. So, uh, I'm just gonna try it soon.]

Misa wondered briefly if she needed to expand her vocabulary when it came to cussing. It really felt like it sometimes; she didn't have the words to express how she felt about this situation. "Shit," she said again, which did the best job of summing up how she felt, and then she fired off a quick response. [Hang on. I'm going to get Sev.]

She didn't even see the message not sent text that flickered across the system screen.

"Welp, that's five minutes," Vex said. He stood up and stretched, wriggling a bit as the tingling sensation of that stretch spread through his muscles; Derivan gave him a warm smile as he did, placing a hand on his shoulder. It didn't escape Vex's notice that he chose to do so with the new arm, and he reached up to place his own hand on top of Derivan's, squeezing it lightly. "If I wait any longer, this Void's going to be too big for me to replace. So..."

"So you will try it now." Derivan studied him, and Vex saw the concern in his eyes. "You are healed?"

"Can't even feel the strain anymore," Vex said, which was true. He was as healed as he was going to be. "Ready?"

"If you need my strength," Derivan said. "I will be here."

"I know," Vex said. He smiled up. "Love you, Deri."

"I love you too." A gentle caress of a metal hand against the edge of his jaw. Derivan took a step back.

Exvhar and Novice gathered behind them as they saw Vex pulling out everything he needed; first the [Spelldisk], then the [Semerit of the First Library], then the magelight to draw the Primordial Glyph of Translation. Vex could already feel the magic beginning to build. Which was always the case, for powerful magic like this: it was almost like the mana knew that something big was going to happen. Something important.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

First came the [Spelldisk], to see the remnants of Enkiros. Then the [Semerit of the First Library], to make the spell a little easier to cast—to give reality a template for that which was supposed to exist here. The Primordial Glyph of Translation had been taught to him for the purposes of manipulating the system, but here he applied it in much the way the Roads translated the people going through them.

A physical change was necessary to bring something from unreality into reality. A translation, from a thing without substance into a thing that was.

And last but not least, Vex drew upon his connection to the Grand Anchor of Magic that resided within him.

He felt the floodgates open.

Though he couldn't see it himself, his eyes shone with a brilliant white—and where that light landed upon the Void, it illuminated a bustling city. A kingdom where there should have been none. That light began to show through not just his eyes but through his very scales, until his very body was like a beacon. A second sun whose light could touch a kingdom no one else could see.

The current of magic picked Vex up, lifted him from the ground, and drew him forward into the Void.

Around him, reality pieced itself back together.

"Vex is trying to what?!" Sev almost hit his head on the counter when he jerked up at Misa's words. He stood up straight. "Tell me I heard you wrong. Or, wait, no, tell me I heard you right. Shit. I don't know which option is worse."

"Explain," Misa said. Short and sweet. She wasn't angry at him, but she was trying to keep him focused. He could appreciate that. Sev could feel his mind running in a dozen different directions, picking up on a dozen stray memories he hadn't explicitly recalled before now.

It shouldn't have been possible to bring things back from the Void. Things that were erased were gone permanently—reality did its best to stitch things back together, but it was all still gone. The reality anchors had been built to preserve what remained, not to bring back what had already been erased. it was the whole reason they were slowly losing ground.

And yet...

Misa's family had been brought back from the dead.

No, the situation was a little different. J'rokksur hadn't been completely erased. When a dungeon failed and broke, the land it preserved would slowly be offloaded to nearby anchors; it would be forgotten, perhaps, as less power was now dedicated to preserving it, but it wasn't erased. Not erased the same way things were when they were lost to the Void, anyway.

No matter how he thought about it, there wasn't a way for things to be brought back from the Void. Reality anchors could Shift things in from different timelines, but there was a crucial something lost in the process when something was consumed by the Void.

"You said he already succeeded with it," Sev said. He got up and began to pace, briefly forgetting about the soulbloom potion still bubbling in the cauldron—it would be fine anyway, according to Tinsel. Soulblooms couldn't really be overcooked. "Did he explain how he did it?"

"He said something about integrating the Grand Anchor," Misa said. Sev stopped in his tracks. "And that it strained something in him. So he wants to know if it's safe for him to try to bring back the whole kingdom with it."

That made sense. That was what the Grand Anchors were designed to do, over the Prime Anchors and all the other lesser reality anchors. The Grand Anchors could create reality, not just maintain it.

The problem with that was what they'd just learned—soul exhaustion. Like most artifacts of the system, the Grand Anchor was a construct that attached to both system and soul using the same substance souls were made of. It was made of that soulstuff, for lack of a better word for it. There was a physical vessel to house it, yes, but that physical vessel wasn't exactly necessary. It just made transporting it easier.

With what they'd now learned coupled with Vex's testimony that he felt like he'd strained something...

It was the same sensation Sev had experienced himself when he'd mantled Aurum. The same sensation Misa had felt when using her block to repel the Soulblossom. With the levels of power they were using, channeling it all through their souls was no longer safe.

Not that he could think of an alternative. The Grand Anchors themselves were supposed to be a last resort.

"We have to stop him," Sev said. Misa's eyes narrowed—she didn't like that answer.

"He's in danger?" she asked.

"I don't know," Sev answered, and he raised his hands defensively when Misa opened her mouth to speak again. "I really don't. Grand Anchors were experimental, Misa—they were my last resort. They're also the only way we can fix Obreve, because everything else has failed, which means we do need to bring back Enkiros no matter what. But I don't know if it's safe for Vex to bring back a whole kingdom with it. I want to at least study the phenomenon of soul strain a bit first. And we have these soulbloom potions now. We can recover even if we do strain ourselves and our systems."

"I'm not sure we have the time," Misa said. She brought up her system screen and froze, her eyes narrowing a little as she read through the words—and then she cursed, typing rapidly. "Shit, I think he already started. I asked him to hold on but the system didn't get the damn message through, and he said it won't be possible to bring Enkiros back at all if he waits too long."

Sev winced, his heart sinking. "Fuck, that's not good."

"What's the worst case scenario here?" Misa demanded. She twirled her mace—Sev could almost see her mind ticking, could almost see what she was planning to do.

It wouldn't be the first time she'd used that blocking skill to teleport. This would be the farthest she'd ever tried to do it, though; the layers of reality she would be forced through to find a timeline where she'd gone with Vex and Derivan...

"The worst case scenario is that it strains Vex's soul to the point where it explodes," Sev said, because there wasn't any point in hiding it. The thought of it put a sick feeling into his gut, though. "But—but there are safety mechanisms in the system. It should prevent that from happening. The problem is that just preventing it doesn't mean it isn't going to do huge damage before the failsafes kick in—"

"Sev, stick to the facts," Misa interrupted, her jaw tense.

"Worst case, he dies. Most likely case, he takes a little longer to die, and we have time to get the soulbloom potions to him and try to heal him." Sev glanced back at the cauldron. It was... unbelievably lucky that they'd happened on this right when they needed it. Coincidence? Or related to his position as the Concept of [Fate]? "Best case scenario, he succeeds and will need the potions to recover anyway."

"Bottle it up," Misa instructed. She adjusted her belt, then fired off a quick message to Derivan. "Enough for both me and Vex. I'm going."

Her tone brooked no argument. Sev wasn't going to argue with her, either. He swallowed the knot of worry in his throat and nodded. "We've made enough potions for you both. Keep in contact. My system's back online now."

"Will do."