Following his Mental Map, Vin and Shia fought against the seemingly endless stream of trogums as they forced their way back to the Rebel Queen’s chambers. Naturally, Alka chose to float overhead, not needing to bother with bumping elbows or shoving her way past anyone like those still bound to their mortal coils. They had no way of knowing if the Rebel Queen had evacuated just yet, but seeing as the tunnel system was a literal maze, they didn’t stand a chance of finding the divine warrior without the Rebel Queen’s help, even with Madam Trebella’s charm.

  The curse finder wasn’t very helpful when it just pointed directly at the tunnel wall after all.

  “Almost there!” Vin called out to Shia over the screaming. Having to fight against the tide of panicked people, it was taking them a lot longer to get back to the queen’s chambers than it had for Guardian to lead them to their room. By the time they finally made it, Vin’s heart sank as he finally spotted the door to her chambers.

  Without any guards on either side.

  “Crap, I think she’s already gone!” He shouted, nearly getting knocked off his feet by a surge in the crowd. It didn’t help that a few of the trogums were still carrying items he could only assume were associated with their chosen names, such as one trogum that was hefting what looked like a large rock poorly carved to look like a frog over its head.

  “What now?!” Shia shouted back, quite literally planting her staff into the ground and holding onto the miniaturized tree for dear life as the tide of people threatened to sweep her away.

  “Inside!” Vin shouted, managing to tear his eyes off the magic staff and point toward the queen’s chamber. Even if it was empty, at least they could escape the panicked crowd while they figured out their next move.

  Seeing Shia’s nod, the two of them fought their way over to the room, finally stumbling their way through the open door and all but collapsing once they’d made it inside. Closing the door behind them to block out at least a portion of the screaming, Vin wiped his brow, exhaling.

  “Well that was nuts.”

  “No kidding,” Shia frowned, breathing heavily. “I suppose even if she won’t take over the common caste completely, she’s willing to send them a blanket command in order to save their lives. I wonder what it even was.”

  “Probably a memory of The One With The Golden Sword cutting someone to pieces,” Alka said, poking her head briefly through the closed door. “Damn, it’s a literal stampede out there. I’m surprised they don’t lose half their people just from running if this is what they go through every day.”

  “No... Nobody would have been attacked just yet,” Shia said, closing her eyes as she concentrated on her new memories. “She has elites functioning as scouts at the edges of most of the tunnels… In fact, she saw us before we even made it twenty feet into the tunnel. But with the divine warrior rapidly whittling her people down, she realized she needed to take a risk, and she decided to let us through uncontested in the hopes that we could somehow help,” Shia explained, rubbing her head as she sifted through foreign memories. “Wow, seeing myself from another person’s memory is weird. Anyway, the scouts guarding the tunnels have orders not to engage the divine warrior until they absolutely have to. They are supposed to notify the queen and keep watch from a distance until he gets closer to the center, so they shouldn’t have attacked him yet.”

  “That’s good!” Vin said, realizing they’d almost missed their chance. “We have to engage the divine warrior before anyone else does. I’m willing to bet once he finishes his strange speech he doesn’t need to repeat it again until the battle is over.”

  “Well that brings us back to why we came to the Rebel Queen’s chambers in the first place,” Alka said, clearly itching for a fight. After being bound to her for a few weeks, Vin had eventually come to realize that the ghost’s form began flickering just a hair more violently whenever Alka was psyching herself up for a battle. “How do we find him within all these tunnels?”

  “I don’t know yet, but give me a minute,” Vin said, mentally going through his spells. Despite learning Stone Shot, Stone Wall, and Summon Stone, all courtesy of Eithan, he still had yet to learn anything that would allow him to easily go through any of the tunnel walls such as Stone Shape. He could shoot out his newest spell, Sense Curse, in a pulse with Runic Recalibration to pinpoint exactly where the divine warrior was, but that didn’t really do them any good. Sure, it would be better than the compass that only pointed toward him, but even if they had his precise location, they couldn’t get there through the maze of tunnels. Surely he had to have something…

  Realizing he was missing something obvious, he sighed, slapping a palm to his forehead.

  “I’m an idiot,” he declared, quickly imagining the runic formation of his very first spell and confirming it should function the way he hoped.

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  “Oh, we know. But do tell us why?” Alka asked, grinning.

  “My Sense Stone spell!” He said, already whipping the runic formation up inside his mana and adjusting it with his Capstone skill to do what he needed it to. “I can adjust it to fire out a pulse the same way I did with Sense Magic when I found your pouch of seeds back in the citadel! Once I know where all the stone is, I’ll also know where all the stone isn’t, which will give me a map of the tunnel network, and then we can just follow the compass where we need to go!”

  “Vin, these tunnels are massive,” Shia frowned, laying a protective hand on his arm. “Forget the question of if you even have enough mana for this, are you sure your mind can handle the feedback? From what you told me, it sounds like the Rebel Queen already put your brain through the wringer today.”

  “I should have more than enough thanks to Mana Well, and what’s the point of putting all those points into focus if I never use them,” Vin grinned, trying to put on a brave face. In reality, he had no idea how well he’d fare when he was inevitably hit with the feedback from the spell. The last time he’d tried something like this he’d aimed at only covering a few hundred feet to find Shia’s missing seed pouch, and he’d only been searching for signatures of magic items. And even then, the mental strain had been harmful enough to inadvertently level his Resistance skill.

  While his focus and Resistance had both grown quite a lot since then, this time he needed to cover far more than a few hundred feet.

  “Unless you can think of another way to find the divine warrior, we don’t have any other choice.” Pausing to see if Shia had any suggestions, he nodded. “Just get that rancidweed of yours ready. I have a feeling one way or another I’m probably not going to remain conscious.”

  Taking a deep breath, Vin triggered the adjusted runic formation, dumping three quarters of his entire mana pool into the spell to be safe. He felt the pulse of magic blast out of him as it shot through literal tons of dirt and stone, seeping through the ground around him in every direction. Eventually, the monstrous wave of mana reached its apex, before turning around and picking up speed as it soared back toward him. Vin steeled himself, preparing for the painful sensation of too much information being hammered into his head. His body shook as all the mana he shot out returned to him at the same time.

  And the world exploded in golden light.

  Vin’s head snapped back from whiplash as the golden aura blasted out of his skull, and he stumbled, barely managing to stay on his feet. Immediately, he realized the spell had worked. He knew the exact location of every rock and piece of stone within a few thousand feet, giving him a perfect mental map of the many tunnels.

  “Vin!” Shia said, her grip tightening on his arm as she helped him remain upright. “What the hell was that light?! Are you okay?” Even Alka was watching him carefully, as if afraid he would collapse at any moment.

  “I… I’m fine,” he stammered, discovering his heart was racing. Raising a hand to his head that felt oddly clear, he realized what must have happened. “I’m pretty certain I just… tripped my own divine boon.”

  His companions stared at him, struggling to understand what he was saying.

  “You mean you just… killed yourself?!” Shia finally asked, staring at him like he was crazy.

  “I think so,” he chuckled weakly, earning a frown from Alka as Shia’s grip only tightened further around his arm. “Hey, good to know I’m protected from the backlash of my own spells at least.”

  “Vin-”

  “Did it work?” Alka asked, cutting Shia’s tirade off. The elf turned to frown at her, but the Slayer shook her head. “We don’t have time to yell at him right now for his recklessness, every minute we waste talking is another one the divine warrior grows closer.” She looked at him, raising an eyebrow. “Did it work?”

  “Yes,” Vin said, taking a deep breath and steadying himself. He certainly hadn’t intended to risk his own life like that, but there was nothing to do about it now. “I have a map of the tunnels. Let’s go!”

  Shia looked like she wasn’t done talking, but she clearly understood the time limit they were on. Begrudgingly, she let go of his arm, following after him as he took off back into the tunnels.

  Now that he knew what tunnel went where, Vin was actually able to use Madam Trebella’s charm to slowly close the distance between them and the divine warrior. It still wasn’t a perfect science, and they had to backtrack more than once, but it wasn’t long before they left the screaming crowd behind them, and only a few minutes after that until they encountered one of the elites cautiously peering around a bend in the tunnel. As soon as it heard their approach, it spun around.

  “Halt!” It ordered, planting the butt of its spear and raising a hand to stop them. “The divine warrior approaches down this tunnel. Turn and flee if you value your life.”

  “We know, we’re here to fight him,” Vin said, taking a small amount of pleasure in the fact that he wasn’t even winded after sprinting down so many tunnels.

  “You are?” The elite said, blinking its large eyes. The trogum’s antennae turned slightly, indicating it was communicating with another of its kind, and Vin felt pretty confident he knew who. A few seconds later, he got confirmation.

  “The Rebel Queen has asked me to assist you,” the elite said, falling into step behind Vin and joining the small group. “I will follow whatever instructions you give. Please feel free to sacrifice me if you see an opening to take down the divine warrior.”

  “Thank you…” Vin said, only slightly disturbed by the trogum’s willingness to lay down its life just like that. Shaking his head, he turned to his companions. “I had to burn most my mana on that spell, but I’ll do my best to supply covering fire where I can. Shia, you try and pin him down, and Alka…”

  “Just because I don’t want to die anymore, doesn’t mean I’m about to stop fighting,” the ghost grinned, pulling their sword free and giving it a few practice swings. “I’m all about killing monsters, and I can’t think of a man who happily scythes his way through innocent people as anything but a monster.”

  “Okay,” Vin said, returning her grin. “In that case, the plan is simple. Pin him down and take him out. You guys ready?”

  Getting two nods and a minorly unnerving, “I am ready to die,” from the elite, Vin sucked in a deep breath, leading his team further into the tunnel.

  Directly into the path of the divine warrior.

  best time for Vin to accidentally trip his divine boon. Hopefully he doesn't need it!

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