The helicopter touched down on the landing pad with a gentle thud, pulling Alex from his thoughts. He followed Jonathan out of the chopper, guiding Sam while ducking his head. Wind whipped his hair in all directions, though his blue cloak remained unnaturally still on his shoulders. Several Hunters he recognized from the mission trailed behind or joined their group with urgent news for the director. The short ride through the Safe Zone to headquarters passed in silence, with everyone too exhausted for conversation.

Alex’s muscles ached on a level he never would have thought possible, and he imagined it went deeper than just the physical tissues. His mana channels had been stressed and burned beyond anything he could have imagined, and Maelis constantly clucked at him through their link while fretting over the state of his magic. It was an odd sensation to feel like he had a sunburn throughout his entire body while not actually being on his skin.

He glanced at Sam, whose eyes drooped despite his best efforts to appear alert. He’d proven capable and confident once again, and not for the first time, Alex realized he needed to stop thinking about Sam like a teenager. Not only was he not the same scared kid that he’d found in shock within the Rift, but he was more capable than most adults Alex knew, let alone 18-year-olds.

A short while later, the New Jersey Hunters Association building came into view. No fanfare greeted their arrival, though he did note a large number of people on their phones or tapping away on tablets. They entered the building, where Mark and Sarah waited.

Mark stood as they entered, and Sarah rubbed at her eyes and blinked away sleep. Her blonde hair was slightly tousled on one side, hinting that she’d likely dozed off some time ago.

“You guys made it.” Mark stepped forward and knuckle-bumped Alex. “How’d it go?”

He could see the tension in his friend’s posture and the greeting. “I have a lot to fill you guys in on. Let’s head home for now. Where’s Olivia?”

Mark winced. “She left a few hours ago. Said she needed some rest in an actual bed instead of these crappy chairs.” He scratched his head and shifted to the other foot. “She’s pretty pissed about being left out of the mission. I think she understood, but it doesn’t really ease the sting… ya know? She mentioned something about Nox being agitated, too.”

Alex nodded in response but felt some disappointment settling in his chest.

Sarah joined them with a yawn. “You look like hell.” Her tone was teasing, but she plucked at his singed robes. “All of you,” she added as she scanned Sam, Jonathan, and his team congregating at the far side of the room.

“The robes will fix themselves, but I’m afraid that the hand wraps are pretty messed up. Let’s grab our stuff and get out of here.”

As they gathered their few belongings, Alex looked toward the Director and motioned to speak with him. “Give me a second, guys.” He stepped aside, and Director Matthews pulled the bulletproof vest he’d been wearing during his time on the mission site over his head and handed it to someone before walking over to join Alex.

He met with the director a few meters away from everyone else, and the older man started the conversation. “Mr. Moore, I wanted to personally thank you for your assistance today. The operation would have been impossible without your help.” He paused and studied Alex’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“We did get through the wards and fought… but it didn’t change much in the end. We’re still facing a ridiculous threat, now we just have a bit more time.”

Matthews waved his hand. “Didn’t change much? I’m fairly certain you did so much that the System named you a champion of the planet, son. With as much magic as you pulled from the ritual, it could have been preparing to jump up several ranks for all we know, or maybe jump up and open at the same time. Either way, it was substantial. We also got valuable information on how they fight and effective methods to combat them, even in their enraged state. Time will serve us well to prepare, and if we can utilize the time-dilating effect to our advantage as well, I see a way to come out on the other side.” Alex nodded, and the director added, “Are you sure we can’t get you to reconsider joining us? We could use someone with your abilities and magical knowledge. Not to mention the credibility that someone with that Title could lend to the Hunters Association; I have a feeling that these next couple of months are going to be rough.”

“I appreciate the offer, Director, but no. I think I’m better suited to work independently. That way, I can focus on myself and my team.”

“I understand.” Matthews didn’t press further. “The offer remains open should you change your mind. We’re gladly willing to work with you.”

Alex puffed some air through his nose. “As long as we can have a good working relationship, then I think this is best.”

“Good. One more thing,” he said as he looked at Alex seriously. “If you need anything. You ask me. I owe you one, and I take that seriously. I would be happy to attempt to get a formal reward sent over for your team if you’d like, but I don’t want you to think we’re attempting to buy your favor. You’ve said no to joining us and have agreed to an agreeable work relationship. I respect that and am perfectly happy with that answer, but… You deserve something for that level of bravery and sacrifice. It’s no different than a soldier being injured in a battle. You put your life on the line and came out with grave injuries on the other side…”

Alex shifted to his other foot and wasn’t sure how to answer. “It wasn’t meant to be like that. It just needed to be done, and I knew the magic the best. I don’t want any kind of reward.”

Matthews nodded seriously and stuck his hand out for Alex to shake. “Anything you need,” he repeated as Jonathan approached the two of them.

“Mind if I join?”

The director gestured him into their small circle.

The berserker extended his hand as well. “I hope we’ll cross paths again soon. I could use some training against a mage like you if I’m going to take on more Sun Elves.”

Alex shook his hand firmly. “I’d like that,” he said. Though, for some reason, he couldn’t get the mental image out of his head of Jonathan in a raging state, beating the already defeated elf to a pulp. “Maybe… we just set some ground rules before we do,” Alex said with a smile.

Both of the other men laughed knowingly.

“We’ll be in touch in the next day or so,” the director said as an assistant waved him down from a short distance away. The area was beginning to bustle as more streamed in, and the next steps were being discussed. The volume of nearby conversation slowly rose.

As they walked back to rejoin the others, Alex could feel the gazes of others on him. Many were curious, and most were respectful. HA members whispered among themselves as he and Jonathan passed; their expressions ranged from admiring to awe. As Alex passed, he overheard snippets like “Integration Champion” and “Did you see that lightning spell?”

“Don’t mind them,” Jonathan said with a smile as he continued to walk with Alex. “Some are just trying to understand their place. They see your power and wonder what it takes to reach that level.”

“I don’t think I mind it… but it’s going to take some getting used to.” He smiled and nodded at someone as they pointed at their tablet and showed a video of his lightning spell reaching over a rise and into the sky. “Their opinion doesn’t change what happened or what needs to happen next.”

Jon began to peel away from him as they approached the group to follow the director. “Take care of yourself, Moore. And the kid, too. He reminds me of my son. David wants to be a healer like Sam more than anything. He’s got a good head on his shoulders.” He dipped his head toward Sam, who stood talking excitedly with Mark and Sarah.

Alex rejoined his team, feeling strangely lighter after the exchange. The admiration he received from some HA staff only reinforced what he already knew.

My path isn’t with a group like this. I need to make my own choices and push myself.

“Ready?” Mark asked.

“More than ready,” Alex replied. “Let’s go home.”

An agent guided the group out of the building and then took them to the checkpoint where Alex had left his car. The drive was quiet, with the agent only speaking to confirm directions. When they reached Alex’s car, still parked in the checkpoint lot, he thanked the man and slid into his driver’s seat.

There was an explosion of excitement as soon as the team was all alone.

“Dude, I knew it was you!”

“He did,” Sarah said, laughing. “As soon as it appeared in our faces, Mark was shouting that it was you doing something ridiculous.”

Alex couldn’t help but join in the laughter. “It really wasn’t—”

“Oooh, no,” Sam cut in. “It was. I got the video from one of the other people in the medic tent. Check this out!” He leaned forward so that both Mark and Sarah could see the video of his gigantic spell. They both wanted details on what had happened, and his large friend became subdued after hearing about the elven ambush and Rylan’s transformation.

Within minutes of settling in for the drive and conversation dying down, soft breathing and Mark’s snores filled the car. Mark was slumped against the passenger window with his mouth hanging slightly open, with Val curled up in a coil on his lap. Sarah’s head had fallen onto Sam’s shoulder in the back seat.

Alone with his thoughts and thankful for [Sleep Resistance], Alex drove through the dark and mostly abandoned outer city toward his house. The events of the past three days swirled in his mind, and he knew his friends had barely slept. It was mind-boggling to think that it had only been three days since the sun elves attacked his house to steal his notes. Things had moved at an insane pace, and he was still impressed that the government was able to mobilize forces so quickly, even with the secret Rare Rift that they had.

He’d barely even had time to celebrate his achievement, the Epic Rarity class, and a new title. The last one still felt strange, like it was supposed to truly mean something monumental, but it just came as a byproduct of something he’d been working toward for the last few months. It wasn’t intentional.

His hands tightened on the steering wheel as he kept thinking through the rushed events, and his mind fell on the fight with Rylan. It felt like an image burned into his mind of the shock, disbelief, and regret on his face in those final moments of the fight.

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And then there were the sun elves. The entire issue caused a huge knot of guilt and anxiety in his stomach. While the title of Integration Champion seemed to cause starbursts in everyone’s eyes when he walked past, he could understand the viewpoint of some who might blame him for the way everything had gone.

Am I any different from Elana? She had a responsibility to run the Guild, but she let Rylan run rampant. She could have controlled him and prevented much of this from happening. But… it was my magic used. Something I created was stolen because I was careless with guarding it. My own negligence and inaction led us here just as much as hers did.

He shifted in his seat and winced as his muscles protested. The thought of the elves and his involvement made him feel the need to push himself. He activated his [Parallel Mind] skill and hissed in pain. It felt like a fire burned in his core and spread out across his already sore mana channels. If he hadn’t been prepared for it, he may have gripped the steering wheel so tightly as to break it or swerve the car. Once the pain passed, he took several deep breaths and decided to leave the skill running so that he wouldn’t need to endure the pain repeatedly.

He looked at his status screen and applied the necessary Free Points from his level up. He hadn’t looked at all of his gains during the hectic events, so he was shocked to take in the changes since he last looked at it.

His eyes widened as part of his consciousness did the quick math and saw how much his stats had jumped in a single level. He’d gained almost thirty points of Willpower. Tallying up the other stats, he saw just how many points he was gaining from his new class.

So I’m gaining 4 points of Willpower from the class and three more from my Free Points. That’s 21 effective points of Willpower at every level… well, I guess that’ll only increase since I have the percentage titles. Damn…

I’m also getting three points in Intellect now, two in Mana and Wisdom, and a single point in Constitution.

He shook his head as he noticed that he’d passed the 500 Willpower stat benchmark. It was a marker where he’d been hoping to see an increase in his Control Freak title, but either it didn’t upgrade, or there wasn’t a title except for multiples of ten. Meaning he’d not get another one until he was at 1000 Willpower.

While all the current stat gains were great, as he thought about how long it would take him to reach 1,000 in the stat, the insane amount of Willpower he was soon to gain worried him. He’d seen some changes in his personality, but he knew that his body and mind were still adapting to having gained far more of the stat than he was meant to in a short window of time.

He had exercises or mental drills he could do to continue getting his body acclimated, and he’d naturally be able to adjust to more, now that he recently hit D Rank… but with his soon-to-be explosive growth in levels out of necessity to face the elves, and his new stat gains, Alex realized that even by the time he was level 50, he’d have already doubled his Willpower. By the time he was ready for his C Rank advancement, he’d have passed the 1,000 stat mark in Willpower.

He realized, with some horror, that he—they all needed to be past that mark in the next year if they had any hope of fighting against the sun elves.

Taking a deep breath, he swallowed the saliva that built in his mouth and made a mental note to talk with Maelis about this kind of growth and if there was any way to prepare. He felt it was a colossal waste to have such a singularly focused build but not even be able to utilize the stat as much as he should. It was an odd trade off where he wanted to be stronger and see the results of his growth and his trait, but was also nervous to see how the full effect of those gains would affect him.

He also wanted to talk to Olivia and share some of those fears and feelings and to hear her thoughts on the looming threat that they all faced.

She must have gotten the notification, too. I wonder what her reaction was.

His mind drifted further to Olivia, and he could remember her anger at being left behind. He remembered the set in her jaw and respected that fire in her. Their relationship had evolved so quickly from mutual interest and texting late at night about magical exploration into something deeper. The thought of seeing her and explaining everything crazy that had happened on the mission made him smile and look forward to the conversation despite his exhaustion.

Thoughts of Olivia naturally slipped back to the Guild, and he thought of the text earlier that morning on the helicopter that he’d gotten from John Riley. He made a mental note to text them back and get an update on the Guild and hear more about what they planned to do.

Another thing for tomorrow.

He felt more tiredness settle on his forehead as they pulled into the long driveway. The mansion’s lights glowed against the night, and Alex turned off the car as he pulled into the back end of the roundabout. Shaking Mark awake and letting the others know that they’d arrived, the four of them shuffled out of the car. Alex’s muscles protested in a different way, stiff from the ride, as he stood and stretched the small of his back.

Maybe I should look at some Vitality items or something…

Valtherion flew slowly out from Mark’s open door and wrapped around Alex’s shoulders as they approached the house. Val drooped slightly forward, and Alex had to catch his head as his slender body began to slide from its perch.

“I’m heading straight to bed,” Sarah announced, already starting toward the entrance. “Tell us everything in the morning?”

Sam nodded in agreement. “Sounds good to me. The world will still be here tomorrow. I think I could sleep for days.” He followed Sarah inside, dragging his feet as he went. Edwin was there at the door, waiting for them and accepting jackets and other loose gear as they passed.

Alex moved to follow, but Mark placed a hand on his arm. “Got a minute?” he asked. “I want to hear what happened. The real version.”

“You don’t want to wait until the morning?”

Mark shook his head. “I should have been there. I’ll be up all night if I don’t at least know what happened.”

Alex nodded. “Let’s go up to the study.”

They walked through the quiet house to Alex’s office and tried to be particularly quiet as he passed his own room and into the office, shutting the door softly. He had somehow forgotten that there was a giant hole in the wall, though the night air greeted them. Alex looked around and shrugged as he walked to a corner, away from where his desk normally sat, to two chairs that Edwin had left in the room. It was clear someone had been in the office straightening things to an extent. The carpet was still ruined, and there were some rubble pieces and burn marks around, but the pieces of his desk and bookshelves that had been littered about were cleared away, likely prepped for a construction crew.

Mark settled into his chair and studied Alex. “Fill me in on what happened?”

“Of course. Let’s see, after we separated, Sam and I jumped onto the helicopter and flew with their team to the forward staging camp…” Alex told him everything that happened. There was more detail there than anyone else since his fight against Rylan had largely been private.

Mark had been impressed and curious when he heard about the combination of his two skills and had been impressed to hear more details about the enormous lightning spell that Alex had cast to redirect the mana away from the ritual.

He cursed and sat back as Alex explained how things had turned out with the Rift, the military’s attempt to detain him, and their current situation with the Rift and the elves positioned to break as the System event.

“I’m a bit surprised you aren’t more interested in hearing the director out. He’d probably make you like the Head of Magic or something. Most people would kill for that kind of backing and resources. And it would probably feel more legit than the Guild.”

“It’s not worth the strings attached,” Alex said. “I need freedom to move how I want and train how I want. I don’t want the politics and scheming and others trying to position themselves one way or another.” He sighed and looked at his hands. “I want to be greedy. To just focus on myself, and to support you guys as much as I can. While some benefits come with joining someone like the HA, I think I got too comfortable in the Guild. I won’t let that happen again… hell… I can’t let that happen with what’s coming.”

Mark nodded, and even though Alex couldn’t see it, there was a hint of admiration in his eyes. “You know, more people are going to start looking at you now unless you’re willing to shut yourself away from the world. Your power and that title are going to attract people, especially since people know of you from the Guild. They’ll either want to follow you or challenge you.”

Maelis grunted in Alex’s mind, and the spirit chimed in for the first time in a while. “Your man is smart. That’s just how it works.”

Alex’s mind immediately went to John and Ian, who were reaching out to join him or see which way he was leaning.

“But… about Rylan…” Mark’s voice softened. “How are you handling that?”

Alex continued to stare at his hands. He thought about his answer. The honest answer and the one that he wanted to tell Mark. “I’ve killed before— in the Celestial Rift. But this felt different. I knew him, and I looked in his eyes as he died. It wasn’t really Rylan anymore, but I could see in his eyes that there was still a sliver of control under the madness…” The words hung in the air for a few moments, and Mark let him process the thoughts. “I should probably reach out to Elana.”

“That’s going to be a rough conversation. Even if she realized what he was doing in the end, she still loved him despite all of their issues.”

“Yeah,” Alex sighed. “But it’s necessary. And I was too hard on her and angry the last time we talked.”

Mark leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. “Well… what’s next?” His lip quirked up as he nodded past Alex’s shoulder. “Besides fixing that wall.”

“We need to quickly consolidate what power we have and work on becoming more self-sufficient. I need to hire some more people and start working on spending the resources we have to make more money to keep things moving. Once that’s set up to at least get going, we need to train— probably in an Epic Rift. That might be the Celestial Rift, or another one if we can find them or leverage the new connects with the Hunters Association… either way, we have to train. And I mean train harder than we probably think is possible.” Alex’s voice hardened. “Twelve months isn’t a lot of time to prepare for what’s coming. By the time the Rift opens, the elves will have had eight years to prepare and will probably be on the higher side of C-Rank.”

“I don’t want to be left behind again.” Mark’s tone was somber, and he held Alex’s gaze. “Next time something happens, I’m going to be there, not sitting in a waiting room wondering if my friends are coming back. I get why I couldn’t go this time, but…” He shook his head.

“You won’t be. None of us can afford to stay where we are.”

They both nodded and stared out of the gaping hole in the wall.

“Olivia was pretty pissed, you know,” Mark added. “Not just about being left behind, but worried about Nox too. Something about the bond feeling strained.”

Alex nodded. “I’ll talk to her tonight. She’s stubborn and just wants to help. I know her past with Emily drives a lot of that desire to fix things and just be stronger.” He tried not to think about how that conversation might go, but wanted to talk with her.

They spoke for a few more minutes before Mark stood, stretched, and gave Alex a serious smile. “I need sleep, and so do you.” He stuck out his fist, and when they made contact, Mark tipped his head again and left the office.

Alone, Alex turned in his chair to look out into the night. The hole seemed to represent all the changes in his life and status in the last three days, and he thought briefly about where he’d been before that. How slow they’d been taking things and how safe he’d been.

He wanted to begin laying out his next steps and go through his many System windows, but knew that he’d be better served to get some rest and do it tomorrow with a fresh mind.

Maelis, I’m going to need to keep going down the training path forwards. Mind giving me a long lesson tonight?

“Sure, kid.”

Sighing, Alex stood and left his second consciousness focused on a lesson with Maelis as he moved toward his bedroom and his waiting girlfriend.