We surfaced and we were met with a relatively clean Boshi town. Not all shades got cleaned up by the echoes but the majority did. I saw several weak attacks getting echoed left and right. I guess that it might have been wise to tell the townspeople to limit their offensive magic but there is no way that we could tell this to the whole town and make them listen.


    I forgot that this is also a possibility… I missed this as well. I think it’s fine, this doesn''t look as bad as when you guys start wiping out shades. We dodged some random attacks flying around and headed home. At least my buddies did. I needed to do some more setup. I made 5 clones and spread them out in Boshi town. I was drawing a magic circle that covered the whole of Boshi town. I would have to conceal it well because people might notice it and erase it. It isn''t malicious but it would suck if someone messed with it before it got completed. This is the first time I set up a magic circle of this size.


    I have to be extra careful to make no mistakes because the result would be messy if I do. I recalled one of the many magic circles Paula showed me in the chat I had with her and Paul in the last timeline and made sure I made no mistakes. I covered it properly with some illusions to make them undetectable.


    It was a lot of work but after 2 hours I finished it. I left some spots open else it would activate. I placed some random items on the open spots. I would swap them with slabs of frost that have the missing pieces on the huge circle when I need to activate the circle. It would be like placing the last puzzle pieces to complete the puzzle. I have 5 empty puzzle pieces and I need to complete them in a certain order to give the magic enough time to flow throughout the whole circle to make sure everything activates properly.


    It takes time to set this up but personally, I find this quite fun. I could do something like this in battle since I can put clones in stealth and make them do stuff like this. It was 21:37 and I stood on top of my roof looking at my hidden magic circle with my Elgards eyes.


    Perfect! I should actually check how the dimensional fabric was doing but I didn''t feel like it. It will be fine if I just make sure I deal with that tomorrow. I went inside and chatted with Philip. It really doesn''t seem like he remembers anything from the last timeline. I think I will have to find Gianni and ask him about it tomorrow.


    I scanned Gianni’s house and he was home. I guess he is still a postman in this timeline… The clones that I left in the underground city also finished what they were tasked to do. I decided to leave them down there. In theory, I should be able to swap places with my clones. I don’t know if I can do this with [Turning leaf] but there should be a shadow skill that can do this. I think it’s called [Shadow swap]. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to do this. I looked down and tried to use [Turning leaf] on my clones to make them swap places with each other but it seems they are out of range. I locked my door and sat down on my bed. I took out all my tails and started to brush them.


    So, did you figure out how the dimensional anchor works? I asked one tail. No response and no result.


    How about you, did you figure out what is going on here? Also, no results.


    How about you? This tail unloaded an ungodly amount of frost marbles.


    Look guys use tail 4 as an example this one is working hard! I stashed the frost marbles in my dimensional pocket but my other tails didn''t seem to care.


    I will not brush you if you keep this up! Oh, I got something. Did I request my tail to try and figure this out? Hmm, let''s see Raishin’s lost magic could possibly be the lost element of Harmony. Aha, so what does it do? Hmm pretty much what we speculated but if this is what it does then we know for sure now. It just makes close allies harmonize so no friendly fire and special traits get borrowed. It is strong but isn''t offensive, it seems extremely strong in support. Hah, what would you know our glass cannon has one of the best support elements.


    Although it seems it doesn''t have many special effects. If you fight alone, it seems relatively useless. It can make allies share some experiences the user has had. Is this what is happening? I went through my archive. Charlize, Kanna, Cecilia, and Leah seemed to have touched that Harmony skill last timeline while Hera and Philip didn''t. Is this why they remember? If Gianni doesn''t remember I guess this will be more or less confirmed. It is odd for them to suddenly remember after all. I brushed the tail that came up with this a bit extra.


    See guys, if you are useful, you get rewarded! No response. I expected this. Maybe I should let these rebel tails fight. Hmm, they can act like my limbs so why shouldn''t they? The only problem is they also act kind of like extra brains so it would suck if they get damaged a lot. I take a sword out of my dimensional pocket and hand it over to one of my tails. I try to handle it as I do with my hands but it is quite clumsy. I cut my nightstand in half.


    Woops. I guess I need to buy a new one now. I could fix it by undoing this but this nightstand was old and shitty, it wouldn''t hurt to buy a new one, I''m swimming in gold anyways. I tried something less dangerous and tried some more delicate wire control with my tails. I ended up getting myself and my tails tangled up quite badly. It took me 2 hours to untangle myself.


    Wow, this is hard. For now, I can make them do basic big movements but something more precise and delicate is impossible for now. I also have to brush my tails again. I was quite exhausted from all of this and went to sleep after I brushed my tails again.


    <hr>


    Day 2: I woke up and felt quite nauseous. I circulated nature energy through my system. After 5 minutes the nausea subsided. This isn''t a good sign. I looked outside. Everything seemed fine besides the shades getting launched by echoes and getting transported to the shade trashcan. I should check out the dimensional fabric but I was afraid. If I can feel the nausea without having the filter on it will certainly incapacitate me when I turn it on. I decided to do this at the end of the day when I didn''t have other things to do.


    My internal clock said that it was 12:41 I normally don''t sleep this long. Is exhaustion catching up to me again? I climb on my roof. There are shades on the streets but it is still possible to avoid them and walk over the streets. It would be difficult though. I saw strong magic being used on the town square. There was a crowd in the town square and people were fighting. Wait they aren''t fighting the shades but each other? Ugh. Hell is breaking loose but humans being humans can’t help and turn against each other. I rushed to the town square and heard a scream.


    “Nooo! Gianni!” As I arrive, I see a small flame pillar and someone collapsing inside it.


    “That will teach you! The strong will decide the fate of the weak! If you want to protect these weaklings go ahead but don''t drag us down!” Monkey and some of what I assume and his followers were opposing another group of people. I saw Gregory healing up Cecilia and Charlize who have severe burn wounds. Ted is holding back Raishin who seems pissed off. Gianni’s girlfriend, I mean sister rushes at a charred silhouette that collapsed and is still burning. “He got what he deserved if he was strong, he could control his fate better.” I jumped off the roof and approached what I identified as Gianni’s charred body. I removed the fire with a simple swipe and inspected him. He is dead but it didn''t seem like he died instantly. Even though his body is charred I could make out the injuries he got shortly before being burnt to death. Hey Agnis listen you need to calm down! What happened here, aren''t you supposed to fight off the shades and not other townspeople?


    “What would a kid like you know! He wanted that we would waste our energy putting in the effort to protect everyone from these things even to the point of opposing us directly. Hah! What a joke if they are too weak to fend for themselves that is none of our business, survival of the fittest.” I slowly walked toward Monkey. You might not realize this but you are too weak to even understand what is happening here, if what you say is true then you would have died 5 times over.


    “Nonsense! Or do you want to join that pile of ash there?” He pointed at Gianni. Be my guest. Ted let me go! I want to beat him up!


    “Have it your way!” He sent a [Flame wave] at me but it didn''t do anything. You know normally I would never listen to you but for this one, maybe you are right. The strong will decide the fate of the weak. I took a sword out of my dimensional pocket.


    “Hah bringing a sword to a magic fight? See this is why kids should just say out of this!” He shot a [flame spear] at me and formed his [Fire Gorilla]. I caught his flame spear and ignored his fire gorilla. His followers started shooting magic at me. I don''t need any fancy speed augmentation against these people, just my normal speed would do. I dodge all the non-fire attacks and swing my sword. Everyone looks on in shock as Monkey''s head flies through the air. His head and body drop to the floor at the same moment. Blood sputtered from the neck that got liberated from its head. The head was empty anyways so not a big loss. His followers start becoming more serious but I evade every attack, close the distance, and lop off their heads one by one. This whole exchange only took about 30 seconds.


    Don’t think you got away with this easily. I snapped my fingers and shattered 5 illusion layers making sure that the experience of their lopped-off heads remained but that they were back to life. They felt their necks and looked surprised.


    “Wh... what are you!” Just an angry fox, I hope you are ready for round 2.


    “I will turn you into ash!” Monkey seemed to become serious and he made his fire gorilla but it looked way stronger and it seemed like he put in a lot of effort to get to this point. I don''t care. I let him blast me with various fire magic. While I approach them yet again. I will show you a demonstration of how to really use fire.


    Oh shit! Everyone back off! Ted and Gregory pulled everyone back with their [bear avatar] and shadows and made [earth walls] to protect the crowd. I swapped Gianni and his girlfriend ehh sister to behind the walls and used [Fire ball] on a random follower. The smell of burnt flesh started to permeate the air. A scream of agony that swiftly died. The faces of the followers that were close to the one that I hit started to melt a bit.


    “Hothothot, what is this fire!” I saw some water walls getting erected and blew everyone away by shooting more [fireballs] and causing steam explosions. All of their followers were sweating heavily except for Monkey.


    “I thought you were a water user!” Monkey roared and made the fire gorilla punch me. Now, this is a problem, the fire isn''t a big issue but I think the blunt force is enough to give me problems. I was fine with their earlier flame waves but this might hurt. I canceled the [Flame Gorilla punch] with a [fireball]. I blurred and appeared behind Monkey. Here have a taste. I put my finger on his back, briefly heated my finger to a million degrees, and transferred all the heat into Monkey. [Vaporize]. Monkey disappeared.


    “Wh,..wha!” Yet again his followers came at me and I kept using [Blindside] and [Vaporize] until there was no trace to be found of my enemies. Yet again I snapped my fingers and undid all this and my opponent appeared but they seemed to be extremely terrified now. Hey, shouldn''t we stop Agnis? How do you want to stop him? But if you have an idea good luck with that, I’ll just wait till he calmed down. Greg, is there anything you can do for Johnny?


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    I’m sorry, I can''t heal people who have passed away. This time I felt like playing with frost magic. My opponents seemed to want to escape though. Too bad they need to be faster than me to escape. I used [Frozen ground] but they didn''t seem to be able to get far since they kept slipping. Monkey was directing fire at the floor to melt it but tough luck, frost magic doesn''t care. They still tried to use magic but I kept sucking the mana out so that they couldn''t even form magic spells.


    Right, Ted, you see this? It started to snow.


    This is the skill Raishin and I were so afraid of inside the cave when we were fighting against Nayani. The snow sucked up any mana my opponents wanted to form and the moment it hit their bodies it froze that part and slowly started to form ice crystals all over their body.


    “I... I apologize! I was wrong! Let us go!” I am sure that nothing Gianni would have said would prevent you from murdering him, why do you think I’m the same? The strong decide for the weak right? I flashed a malicious smile and the snowfall turned into a blizzard. They were all encased in ice. I clapped and the ice shattered filling the area with red vapor.


    I snapped my fingers again and they were back again. They instantly ran away. I took off my shoes and used [accel step] and easily caught up to them. I kicked them all into the air with a lightning-augmented kick while creating shadow clones that threw daggers with wires attached to them. They were all bunched up in the air and I completed the setup for [Lightning Umbrella] They all got stuck in the attack and got zapped while the umbrella spun and ascended. [Fold] The umbrella increased its spin and folded turning it into basically a lance and shot through Monkey and his friends, killing them and creating purple and red fireworks, the chunks were a bit disturbing though.


    I snapped my fingers again and instantly froze them into balls with normal ice. I made my [Steam cannon v2.0] and shot all the balls into space.


    Good riddance. I suppressed my welling nausea with more nature energy. Are you done? Yeah. I turned around and the crowd seemed to be afraid of me.


    Boo! The townspeople scattered and fled.


    I already know the answer but is there anything you can do for Gianni Greg? I’m sorry, he is already dead… I... I think this is my fault, I shouldn''t have held Raishin and Greg back… I patted Ted on his shoulder.


    None of this is your fault, it''s their fault. I said as I looked up.


    I assume you two got hurt standing up for Gianni. I looked at Charlize and Cecilia who still looked a bit beat up but at least didn''t have any burn wounds anymore.


    “Yes, we’re sorry, unfortunately, we got outmatched…” You did your best, I appreciate that. Poor Gianni… Raishin turned around and I think he started to cry a bit. I sat down and put my hand on my forehead.


    Ugh, how could this have happened? Gregory explained that a lot of townspeople were having trouble dealing with the shades and that some went to ask the stronger townspeople for help. Charlize and Cecilia had their hands full so they asked Monkey and their group for help. But as I noticed earlier, they didn’t feel like it and even demanded compensation if they wanted protection so badly. Gianni and his sense of justice spoke up for the people in need which resulted in the situation I encountered here.


    I assume you can''t undo his death since you weren''t here when it happened… I’m sorry I can’t unless it happens to you guys...


    “Thank you for healing us, Greg, your potions stink though." Cecilia got up and brushed the dirt off her half-burnt clothes. “And this outfit was new…” She went to Gianni’s sister and started to talk to her.


    “We will take care of Gianni and Tara, I guess you guys have more important things to do.” Charlize also got up and said this while brushing off her clothes. What is going to happen now? When is the funeral?


    “I... I don’t know but with how things are like this there might be none and more people might die as well…” She walked over to Gianni, Cecilia, and Gianni’s sister and carefully transported them away with water and wind magic. Ted followed them. I expected people to die but expecting it and experiencing it are 2 different things. I wanted to reply to Gregory but I got hit by a severe wave of nausea and started to vomit.


    Are you alright? It didn''t seem like you overdid it with magic just now. After I finished vomiting, I looked at Gregory.


    I didn''t overdo it I’ve been nauseous since this morning; I’m pushing it away but I''m honestly afraid to see what’s going on with the dimensional fabric. I heard footsteps.


    “You! You killed my father!” Ugh, I don''t feel like dealing with these clowns. I saw Raishin get up in the corner of my eye. He wiped off some tears.


    Do you mind if I get some petty revenge? I don''t care, go for it. I won’t stop you. Raishin walked over to Donkey and his friends.


    I know that you might not know the answer but what do you think will happen if I ignore that dimensional fabric? The only thing I can think of is that that thing we saw behind it will get through. I heard battle sounds in the background.


    What would that thing even do when it gets here? I don’t know but I don''t think it will be anything good.


    Ugh, I''m not sure I can even deal with all this. Well, Isi did say that you are way too young to deal with this. Gregory helped me stand up but I fell to the floor and vomited again.


    This seems like a difficult situation If you don''t fix this you will keep vomiting but if you fix this it might even get worse because I can’t imagine how disgusting it might look now. I got some water out of my dimensional pocket and drank some. It mixed with the sour aftertaste in my mouth and didn''t help me feel better. Gregory handed me some anti-nausea potions and I drank them too while pinching my nose.


    Ugh, it’s not helping much. I managed to stand up this time.


    Hey Greg, give your honest opinion, do you think I will die before we make it out of here? I won’t let that happen come on! He put my arm over his shoulder and started walking to his house.


    You already have enough stuff to deal with just let me deal with any troublesome things that pop up. Ugh, ok. I linked my vision with Gregory.


    I made this magic circle yesterday and my clones made a similar one in the underground city yesterday. Is... is this a giant teleportation circle? Is this what you meant when you asked about the evacuation? Where did you even learn this magic circle?


    Paul and Paula have a lot of cool magic tricks you know. I suppressed another wave of nausea with nature magic.


    I’m planning to activate this when shit goes down and send everyone down to the spirit city, my clones already talked to Isi and the spirits down there and they are ok with it as long as it''s temporary. You really don''t sit still.


    Hehe, sorry. Can you take over the activation of this circle? And also talk to Paul, Paula, and Uraya so that they can help the villagers after they get teleported? I gave Gregory instructions on how to activate the magic circle.


    So, I need to send clones down there to also activate the circle down there? Yeah, to make sure everything arrives safely at their destination. Gregory opened his door and we stepped inside.


    I will take care of that, anything else? That''s it for now.


    I thought you didn''t care for the townspeople. Maybe I do a little but I need to practice this so I don''t mess up in the final timeline.


    Makes sense. Stay here for a bit I will go craft an extra strong anti-nausea potion. It will be extra stinky though… Ugh, it''s not that I can run away in this state. I waited till Gregory returned and told him what my tail came up with about Raishin’s Harmony element.


    Hmm, that would explain a lot, also why they suddenly remember. Drink this. Gregory gave me a flask and backed off. I could smell the stink through the bottle. I could hardly control my nausea. I looked at Gregory and he nodded and gave a thumbs-up while standing 5 meters away from me and pinching his nose with his other hand.


    How about you give a demonstration? I tried to hand back the potion.


    I’m fine you need it! Why can I smell it through the flask?


    You can? Must be your imagination. I will save this for emergencies, I will see what Uraya is up to! I got up and tried to leave.


    Oh no, you don''t! Test this potion! I knew it! I''m a guinea pig! I''m not drinking this stinky potion! If I open this I will probably pass out before I could drink it!


    Just one sip! How about I give you a bottle of liquid shadow vodka and I don''t have to drink this.


    Deal! You''re such an addict! I took a bottle out of my dimensional pocket and Gregory pounced at me. He didn''t go for the vodka though he grabbed the potion, took off the lid, and tried to force it down my throat.


    Greg! You bastard, you want to make me drink this and take the vodka! Glad that you catch on quickly, come on for science!


    I like science but this goes too far! I try to push the potion away but its stinkiness is weakening me.


    Ugh, this smells foul, did you use Raishin’s sweaty sock extract? How rude, I’m not trying to poison you only to fix your nausea now here drink up and hand over that vodka! I was doing my best to keep the stinky potion away from me and to prevent Gregory from stealing the vodka with my other hand.


    Don''t make me get serious! Ha! Do your worst I''m confident I can tank whatever you throw at me! We both got our tails out. I tried to zap Gregory but it didn’t do much. He was throwing shadow skills around but I undid them with my illusion layers. We went at it for 15 minutes and both of us started to get nauseous from the stinky potion which at this point made the whole room smell foul.


    Ugh, give up Greg! At this point, we will both lose! Just be a nice cat and let the fox win! How about you listen to those older than you and be a nice fox and drink the stinky potion!


    You’re only older in shadowcat! We’re the same age in Kaledonian! Hah but even in Kaledonian I’m older I will turn 13 in June while you will turn 13 in December!


    So, what? Just drink this potion yourself and return the vodka! Never! Gregory formed multiple shadow tendrils to make up for the lack of tails and tried to wrestle the vodka out of my hand and push the potion in my mouth. I was starting to lose this battle.


    Yes! Be a nice fox and drink this for science! Ugh, I guess it is time for my trump card! I linked my vision with Gregory and opened the filter that allowed me to see the dimensional fabric. It looked even more disgusting as before the dimensional maggots were infesting the dimensional fabric and pulsating. We both vomited and passed out.