I woke up and panicked a bit because I didn''t mean to take a nap. I didn''t sleep for long luckily. It has been 50 minutes since I froze Cygnus. I need to get out of here and get to the 8th layer. I managed to get up there easily. I looked around and spotted a burning forest. The fire had spread to the nearby cells and it seemed to have created quite some chaos. I cast the illusion also on this area and the prisoners got freed from the influence of the drugs. My mana was at a level now that I had to be very careful. My physical fatigue was also building up. A night''s rest wouldn''t do anymore, I would probably need a day or 2 days of sleep.


    This layer was enormous. For some reason, it seemed that the androids had left the candy shops. I hope they aren''t all chasing my buddies. The burning forest must be their doing. Either a strategic idea of Gregory or Raishin did something funny. I couldn''t find them though. Strange. Are my eyes getting tired? I tried to look for my blood clone but I couldn’t find him. I moved my fully regenerated right arm around. It felt weird. I wouldn''t say my left arm is unresponsive but my new right arm feels way more responsive than my left arm. I was still wondering where my buddies were. Did they get lucky and picked a teleporter that worked? There weren''t any teleporters close by that worked. So, does this mean this forest fire isn''t their doing? I made 3 shadow clones and sent them to test out nearby teleporters. Maybe they found one that worked or fixed one.


    I started looking for my buddies close to the burning forest when I saw a burst of frost in the distance and an angry yell from afar. 71 minutes, it took 71 minutes for Cygnus to break out. I changed my body temperature to match the ambient temperature and continued looking for them. Where could they be? I took some cake out of my dimensional pocket and scanned the area. I looked for 20 minutes but I couldn''t find them, did they get to the next layer? Or are they in a different section? Both of them seem unlikely.


    The ground trembled and an enormous earth pillar rose out of the ground and it launched something. Is that a person? I focused on the person that was getting launched and it was Geminga. I might have found my buddies. I saw them emerge from underground near the pillar. Gregory seemed exhausted. I’m glad that they are ok but… I looked back. Cygnus certainly noticed it. Luckily, I got rid of his wings so he needed to run. I headed over to my buddies. Geminga was throwing weapons made out of rubies and other gems around. Gregory had a hard time dealing with them but oddly enough he couldn''t manage to break them. I inspected the weapons. They were made with ancient technology.


    He swung his ruby axe and Gregory blocked it with an [Earth wall], the axe was slowly but surely cutting through the wall. Raishin and Ted were dealing with wannabe Bunai’s. I wonder if this guy’s magic is based on the Corund dungeon I found in Boshi town, if so… this is going to suck. I got in range and created a [Frost wall] to protect Gregory because the axe sliced through the [Earth wall], the axe didn''t seem to care that I placed a [Frost wall] but it gave Gregory enough time to launch himself away. I guess weapons made out of ancient technology don''t care about frost magic.


    “Cygnus! Stop messin’ around! Why did ye block me axe?!” I used [Frozen Ground] to cause him to slip. Hope I’m not late, are you alright Gregory? You look beat up. Gregory had some cuts and bruises and it seemed like he needed some rest.


    Thanks, you came at the right moment, I got close to losing another life. You didn''t lose any, did you? It was hard but I still have all my lives, how many did you lose?


    Only 3, none of my defensive skills work well against him. It also seems your [Frost wall] is relatively ineffective. I ordered the golems to aim at Geminga and shoot their lasers in the Corund language. Most resisted but the others obeyed.


    “Ahh, so it’s not Cygnus, yer that fella that pissed ‘im off! I thought I killed ya not too long ago” Ah so that’s what happened to my bloodclone. Anyways fighting this guy is pointless, Cygnus is coming over here we need to run!


    “I’ll use me special diamond-edged axe fer ye fellas.” He took out a different axe, the blade was made out of ruby but the edges were made out of diamond. The ruby seemed to smoothly transition into diamond. The only reason this impossibility is made possible must be ancient technology. Guys, this is bad! That''s a magical weapon of ancient origin! If we weren''t planning to run, we surely should now! Ted punched some ruby golems aside and we started to run. We fled to an area that had cells and we hid in a corridor.


    Did we lose him? I don’t know. He is talking to Cygnus. Agnis are you alright? The mana flowing to our time rings continues to drop.


    I’m exhausted. I don’t think I can stall them anymore. We need to get out of here now! But I need to rest. Sorry for being so slow… must have been rough for you to carry me in this state. The reason we were resting was because I had to carry Gregory and Raishin carried Ted.


    I’ll make some energy for you guys. At some point, their physical fatigue is going to get to them. Unfortunately, the closest teleport point is quite far.


    How about I distract them a bit? Do you want to fight against frost magic?


    Uhh, never mind. Geminga is also a problem he just outclasses us in everything, with experience being the biggest contributor. Yeah, I feel like I got lucky freezing Cygnus. Unfortunately, he is angrier than ever and I don’t think I can stall him anymore. How about teleports?


    5 meters on this layer, but I do have the teleport ready to get out when we reach layer 9. It might require a stupid amount of energy though… We will deal with that after getting out of this situation. Speaking of which… They launched themselves to us. What?! How did they find us?!


    Cygnus probably found us because of your body temperature. I changed mine to ambient temperature, I forgot to give you guys a [Frost cloak]. We heard a big crash.


    “I know where you are brat! Give up you''re trapped, Quack!” The area started to freeze and we had to run again. Gemstones started growing out of the ground and walls.


    “Hide and seek is ov’r” Geminga was blocking our path.


    I have to say, you look cool and I admire your beard but how about this? We will give you some fish and you let us go? Geminga roared and swung his axe, sending out a shockwave that caused crystals to grow out of the ground.


    This looks nasty! Gregory blocked the shockwave in the front while I shot down [Frost swans] in the back.


    Ted roared and got his beat avatar out. Agnis, which direction do we need to go? I pointed southwest while shooting the swans down and creating [Frost walls] Starbolt tried to assist but he was too weakened to do anything.


    It’s ok Starbolt, you were a great help, you can go now, any longer and all this frost magic might send you back to the spirit world. Ted picked all of us up, including himself with the bear avatar, and threw us in the direction I pointed at.


    Agnis is too busy shooting attacks down, can you take care of the landing Ted? Raishin and I were trying to block and deflect attacks by blasting whatever we could at them. Gregory was defending us with [Shadow walls] and [Shadow cloaks] but these were quite ineffective against frost magic and whatever Geminga does. Cygnus made wings out of frost so he could fly again although he was way slower with these wings. Ted’s bear avatar caught us and threw us again.


    Ooh, how about we call this the Bear Express? It’s a good thing Ted’s aim isn''t as bad as yours, we’d never reach our destination if that was the case. Gregory’s arm got frozen but it wasn’t so bad so I could reverse it. Both of us had cuts of sharp weapons made of ancient technology slicing through our defenses and grazing us. I started throwing water attacks around because I could receive [Frozen Skin] layers now.


    One upside of these weapons he keeps throwing, getting hit by them would probably one-shot you and be painless. Not very reassuring… Geminga tried to cut Ted’s arm off. Ted’s bear avatar would throw us with its right arm so he cut off Ted’s right arm but it fully regrew after 7 seconds and he could still throw us.


    Ted’s regeneration is slowing down, how much damage did you guys take? More than we’d like to admit.


    Did you at least keep it subtle that you have multiple lives? Yeah. Raishin got one shot and lost a life.


    I guess the subtlety is gone now… Hey Raishin, stop messing around and be more careful! You only have 2 lives left now… I’m sorry! I body-blocked an axe going for Gregory and lost a layer of [Frozen skin].


    Thanks, don''t make this a habit, you can only do this 4 more times. Unless it''s a laser.


    Ah right, your archnemesis. Speaking of lasers, what''s that? Oh, that’s [X-I] a frost laser.


    You know how to counter it right? You wouldn''t be alive if you didn’t, right?


    Well, here’s the funny thing, you see I lost my arm and replaced it with an arm made of frost which allowed me to swap it, hold it, and send it back. And now you have regrown your arm and you can''t do that?


    Pretty much… Raishin used [Tornado] and caused enough turbulence to cause Cygnus to miss his laser.


    Thanks, Raishin. Ted, you’re a bit off, we need to go a bit more that way! I pointed and Ted prepared to throw us in that direction. I created a 4 layered illusion that made it look like we would continue straight ahead.


    Your illusion seems to work. Oh, the illusions got wiped out… Holy shit what were those attacks? Well, that could''ve been us if not for the illusions. Well, at least now we know they could destroy us the moment they catch us…


    How much longer? I’m getting tired… 1507 meters. Maaan, why did you put this so far?! Judging by the size of this layer that is actually very close.


    It sucks but Greg is right… Hey Starbolt! That’s enough! You can go back! You can barely maintain your form! Starbolt made a shoddy lightning clone. I think it was supposed to resemble me but it was quite transparent, it was clear that it was made out of lightning and it didn''t look like me.


    The spirits really like you, eh? I created a water bubble around Starbolt.


    Raishin, can you send energy to that water bubble? Maybe it will help Starbolt. Ok! A lot of energy got wasted but it strengthened Starbolt a little bit. The shoddy clone got a bit better and dashed at Cygnus. It smashed into him breaking his frost armor and zapping him. It didn''t do much damage but it did paralyze him.


    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    “Motherducker! I will get you! Just wait, Quack!” He’s a sitting duck! Blast him Raishin! Raishin threw a [Supernova Blast] at him but an enormous ruby wall appeared and blocked it.


    I started to become dizzy. Are you alright? Still aftereffects from blood loss. Gregory chugged an anti-nausea potion.


    Seems you’re not doing so great either. Ted’s bear avatar is getting smaller and smaller, we might have to run the last bits. I body-blocked a great sword made out of diamond flying at Gregory and used it to send slashes at them.


    Holy shit this sword is heavy! Was that your last [Frozen skin] stack? I nodded. Unfortunately, most of my [Frozen Skin] stacks got eaten up by getting grazed by attacks. I blocked another attack with the diamond sword but it sent me flying.


    Agnis! Don’t worry about me! I got separated from my buddies because I got sent flying. Cygnus seemed to be going after me while Geminga continued to go after my buddies. This is the first time I have had to engage in an aerial battle. The problem is… I can’t fly… I got an idea and used [Lightning Umbrella], I tied myself to the bottom of the umbrella with wires. The umbrella was slowly ascending while sending electric bolts to the side while spinning. Cygnus seemed to not care about these and flew at me. I left a string with 12 ice cubes on the umbrella and jumped off the umbrella and shot frost arrows at him and then threw the diamond sword at him.


    “Challenging a bird in aerial combat while you are unable to fly is suicide but I admire your courage, Quack!’ Cygnus tried to cut me with his sword or smack me with his baseball bat. I created an ice cube and swapped the falling diamond sword with it to block his strike. It sent me flying again. I swapped myself with one of the ice cubes I attached to the ascending umbrella and jumped off again.


    “I see, so that’s how you’re going to do this, Quack!” He flew after the umbrella. I pointed the diamond sword forward and swapped myself with the umbrella. “Whoa!” Cygnus almost flew into the tip of the sword; he narrowly evaded it but got a cut on his cheek. Shit almost had you. I swapped with an umbrella ice cube to dodge a wide frost attack and jumped off the umbrella again.


    “So annoying! You can’t even fly, Quack!” We were quite high up. I shot some frost arrows to harass Geminga. Cygnus rushed at me and I threw the sword at him. Because I wasn''t weighed down by the sword anymore, I started falling like I normally do, quite slowly and gravity-defying. “What the?!“ I used this opportunity to zap him and cut a deep gash in his frost wing with a sword I made with frost magic. “What the fuck are you? Quack! I am convinced that you aren''t a human!” Cygnus was still flying but he was slowly using altitude because his wing was damaged.


    I threw a dagger at him which he dodged. I swapped the dagger, which was now below him, with the [Lightning Umbrella] and he got hit by the tip of the umbrella and got continually zapped and comboed by the [Lightning Umbrella]. I swapped with an umbrella ice cube and rested a bit and threw Cnidaria seeds at him. I looked at how Cygnus was getting chain CCed by the [Lightning Umbrella] and got screwed over by the jellyfish teargas seeds. I almost fell off the umbrella because of the dizziness.


    Cygnus started to build frost magic and sap the mana out of my [Lightning Umbrella] so I threw another dagger and swapped him with it. He fell a bit before he realized he was free. I fed the [Lightning Umbrella] more lightning because it was descending because of the lack of mana. “That’s one crafty skill you have there, I''m honestly impressed, I like a good fight and this makes it hard to stay pissed at you, Quack. Surrender, I won’t have to kill you if you do” I’m sorry but I’m leaving this place, preferably alive.


    “I see, Quack!” Cygnus spread his wings and he was not casting 1 [X-I] but 6. Oh shit. I looked down. Ted ran out of juice so they had to run away from Geminga. Greg was quite bloodied and Ted was limping a bit.


    -Ted, I know I’m asking a lot from you but can you catch me in a bit? - Ted looked up and around and I made a [flare] to show where I was. I had to chug an anti-nausea potion.


    - I can’t promise anything but I will do my best, just make sure I won’t be catching a corpse. - I made some calculations of how to plan my fall trajectory and wrote the details of this. Also how and what to do to teleport out of here on a paper and tied it in my hair and covered it with frost magic so it wouldn''t burn up or anything.


    Alright, cya! I continued to throw daggers and swap myself to them to create distance and to get to a certain point in the sky where I would be safe to fall down and land on a spot where Ted could catch me.


    “Oy! Come here, coward! Quack!” What I was planning to do was extremely risky but I had no choice. I’m going to overload my Elgards eyes, it will allow me to create near-infinite layers of illusions and control reality for 8 minutes. It sounds strong but there are only 2 short windows in those 8 minutes where I truly can control reality and it also depends on my proficiency with my Elgards eyes.


    The rest of those 8 minutes are preparation for those 2 windows and getting rid of all potential negative effects it will have on me. Like for example using a lot of frost magic will cause me to freeze over, and I will be assigning quite some time to kick that fact out of reality. This skill doesn''t have many downsides, it’s just energy draining and after using it I won’t be able to use my Elgards eyes. 10 minutes of normal sight for every minute I use this overload. It is risky because this can cause me to die after I use it. After all, I’m quite reliant on my eyes, however. I looked at Cygnus who was covered in frost magic and making my Elgards eyes quite useless. In this case, it might be less risky.


    My left pupil gained 3 more pupils and my right pupil gained 4 more. Near infinite illusion layers started to form and the first thing I did was to get rid of those [X-I] x6 Cygnus was charging up.


    “What the quack?” I compressed the air around him and attempted to crush him but he released a [Frozen Burst] and broke out of it and flew at me while I was in freefall. I flared up and chucked [Foxfire: summer heats] at him I also shot a [Fire beam] at him. He evaded it but some hits grazed him caused some parts of his body to freeze. My window of unlimited mana use disappeared and I had to get rid of all the negative effects it would bring. I had to kick out multiple instances of nausea, running out of mana, etc. I was still throwing attacks at Cygnus but their intensity and power dropped considerably.


    I temporarily turned him into a real duck to get some breathing room. I read the note I tied into my hair and corrected my fall trajectory a bit. I tied it back in and tried to fry him while he was a real duck but he turned back to normal. I had to find something that would be a real threat, nothing I threw at him did enough. The strength of this [Elgard Overload] is my imagination. What would defeat him? Azu would. I tried to make preparations to create Azu but my proficiency didn''t allow for it, someone who is strong but not as strong? How about my sisters? Xelia seemed to also need a higher proficiency, how about Yuna? It would be rough but I could go for Yuna.


    I''ll show you the kings and queens of the sky! I was reaching the 7-minute mark so I had to wrap this up. I folded most of the layers together and created an image of Yuna. Yuna flared and created an enormous [steam explosion]. Cygnus got sent flying and Yuna used [Phoenix Rush] and [Eternal Flame]. Cygnus got blasted out of the sky and Yuna’s [Steam Pillar] sent him flying downward and made him crash into the ground.


    My eyes started to bleed and the layers folded into themselves and Yuna disappeared as the overload was getting to an end. All my filters shut down. I was back to normal vision, although a bit bloodied. I would get my Elgards eyes back in 79 minutes but I hope we would have escaped by then. I don''t think that killed Cygnus but that certainly put him out of commission.


    <hr>


    That was marvellous! Ted caught me several minutes later.


    You’re not going to die now, are you? This thing locked me out of my Elgards eyes for 80 minutes, I will get it back in 72 minutes. Let’s hope we can escape before that. I lost more lives than I feel comfortable with. I threw a bottle of liquid shadow vodka at Greg who was getting carried by Raishin. I missed and it fell on the floor.


    Ha! I’m not the only one that misses! Have you seen how his eyes look? It wouldn''t be surprising if he couldn''t see anything at all and still, his accuracy was higher than yours!


    “What did ye do to my best Friend!” An enormous ruby axe with diamond edges flew at us. I used a [Frost wall] and Gregory used an [Earth Wall].


    Agnis, can you melt some patches on the ground? [Magma Wall] works a bit better against those axes. I think he’s running low on mana and stamina. I got this. I dropped some [Fireballs] on the floor and vomited. The axe that cut through the walls like they were made out of butter returned to Geminga and he threw it again together with other weapons made out of hard gemstones. I think this guy might be richer than me. Gregory made a [Magma wall] and it seemed to work better indeed but it only slowed the axe down a bit. Gregory asked Raishin to drop him, he covered himself in magma and physically blocked it.


    Greg! He managed to deflect it, got his hammer out, and smacked the other weapons back. I was running low on almost anything that was needed to have a battle. It seemed like Geminga was getting faster but that was because I was slowly losing grip on the [time rings]. I used [Frozen Ground] to slow him down. Raishin grabbed Gregory and made sloppy 4-meter teleports away from Geminga.


    How much further?! I took the note out of my hair and asked Ted to throw it at Gregory.


    He read it. That pillar over there, this note has instructions on the coordinates and energy requirements for the teleport, Raishin if you would? It seems it’s corrected for the slight disturbances this place forces on teleporters. Hmm, ok, oh that is a lot of energy, I’m not sure if I can make that much in time but I will do my best. We got surrounded by crystal formations and Gregory created a path but this seemed to push him far enough to where his anti-gravity anklets fell off.


    Ugh, we’re so close! Ted drop me, I’m not affected by this gravity.


    Stop this bullshit and you’re so light that there is no guarantee that I can move much faster than this after I drop you. If you can get within 5 meters of that pillar, I can teleport us to it.


    I will do my best. Ted went into big bear mode and this boosted his speed a bit. An enormous frost pillar rose in the distance.


    Really? That didn''t knock him out? Ted started to knock flying crystals and flying weapons away while Gregory was making sure our path didn''t get blocked, he also had to counter an [Earthquake].


    Guys! What is that? An enormous wave of cold seemed to be rushing at us at a high speed.


    It seems Agnis couldn''t fully knock him out. What a pain in the ass. I made a weak 2 layered illusion. But I couldn''t see what it exactly did or if it was effective because I didn''t have access to my Elgards eyes.


    Come on Ted! Gregory and Raishin were already 5 meters away from the pillar. Ted and I were 10 meters away from it.


    “Not so fast yer fekkers!” He used [Gravity] on all of us which caused everyone to slow down beside me, but I was in no state to move around. His special axe grew in size and he threw it at us. I created an extra thick [Frost wall].


    Raishin Catch! Hey, what?! Ted threw me to Raishin.


    Ted watch out! I’m coming, I’m going to use [Bear Rush] But I need all fours for it.


    No not that! Ted! The axe! I tried to hold the axe back with my [Frost wall] but it went through it and cleaved Ted in half.


    Ted! Noo! Regenerate and come! It… it cut through his heart and separated his head from his body…


    Shit, I can''t control my illusions that well, Please shatter! Ted’s body glowed and it went [Berserk] and grew in size. The increased gravity made it hard for Greg to interfere and help out and I was trying my best to create a proper illusion to undo what just happened but without my Elgards eyes and my current state, I kept failing.


    I’m sorry guys, I think this is it for me, thank you for trying Agnis, My vitality will give me 2 more minutes, I can’t control my body this well without a head but I can send it to stop them, Greg make sure to get them out alive. Stop with this bullshit! You can''t be brought back when you die! Let me hold them off, we might be able to get you fixed up… I knew that there was no way we could fix him up within 2 minutes. I regretted using [Elgard Overload].


    Raishin started to cry.


    This is my fault, if I had just listened to you guys, it should''ve been me! Ted’s body was assaulting Geminga and it kept being cut but it kept regenerating and it physically pushed Geminga back. Cygnus caught up and the huge bear body slammed Geminga into Cygnus.


    “What the quack?!” Greg, Please… I can’t hold… much longer… Gregory wiped his tears.


    Agnis, Please. I wiped my tears and looked one more time at Ted.


    Thank you, Ted, for being a brother to us. I mustered all my strength and teleported us to the pillar which brought us to the 9th layer. I felt as if i was losing consciousness.


    Raishin, please… Raishin wiped his tears.


    One day we will avenge you, Brother. Do you have enough energy?


    No, but since this is all my fault, I will use one life in exchange for the required energy. Raishin briefly released all his tails, glowed, and teleported to our destination. We fell to the floor at a familiar place. It was the hut we stumbled upon in the Cnidaria forest. I was struggling to stay conscious. Gregory was trying his best to tend to his wounds to prevent him from dying of blood loss and Raishin looked quite depressed.


    I... I’m sorry, I’ve failed all of you… This is my fault, none of this would have happened if I had listened to you all... We all failed, nobody specific has the blame, we all have failed, let’s just agree on that…


    But! That sounds good, we all suck… An awkward silence fell. The only sounds that could be heard were the wind, the rain, and the forest animals outside. I tried to stay conscious but I passed out shortly after.


    <hr>


    Meanwhile. An ice block in a certain freezer started to shake and it shattered.


    “That stupid brat, he got lucky that I’m weak to the cold. I will hunt him down and kill him, nobody messes with the Silent Night!”


    Ted Barrington