259 Steps to take

Tim was spying on Asda from her attic when word reached him via long-range Psionic messaging.

[Remian WHAT?] Tim blinked at Mikai.

Far below them, Asda was crying and complaining to her kitchen staff. "But I haven't had cheese in MONTHS!"

"None of us have, your majesty. We're all very aggrieved about it." The chef said apologetically. "We keep ordering more and more, but the deliveries all just… disappear."

Tim shot Mikai an accusing look. Mikai only replied with a sheepish grin, half-guilty, half-sympathetic. Poor Asda. If anyone understood a hopeless yearning for cheese, a lynxmouse would. Mikai even looked sorry for her.

[Maybe we should go easy on raiding their cheese. Just once.] Tim scratched his head.

Meanwhile, there were the other concerns to consider. Tim thought it over, ran ideas of Spectres and Wilds in his head, pondered over how to stop a Tier 8 Spectre and then consulted the experts.

Turning to Mikai, he asked, [Why can't the Five Emperors handle the Spectres?]

[They can.] Mikai assured him. [They already did that in the last Great War! They suffered grevious injuries and now spend much of their time sleeping to recover, but they definitely have the power!]

[What about other Wilds? Are there any other Tier 8's who can match the Emperors in power?]

[There are, indeed! They are known among your kind as the Great Dragons! Your people swear on them. But they, too, are in recovery. Those who survived the last Great War paid a great price to seal up the Rift.]

[Those who survived?] Tim repeated, realizing something. [Then how many didn't survive?]

[The majority of them.] Mikai scratched one year. [More than those who survived, but we don't know how many, exactly. Nobody counted. Sorry.]

Tim ran a quick list of Great Dragons in his head and wondered, [Can we even count on the Dragons helping us humans out this time?]

[Don't know.] Mikai shrugged. [Actually, you can't count on the Emperors either.]

[Why not?]

[Because the Deep Emperor and the Wind Emperor hate humans. Very much.]

[But aren't they sworn to fight the Spectres?]

[Everybody is sworn to fight the Spectres. But nobody promised 'when'.]

[So they want to wait for the Spectres to wipe us out, THEN fight them?]

[If the thought could occur to me, it could occur to everyone.]

Tim sighed. [Fine. It looks like we have no choice. We need to make a trip to the deepest depths of the Underground. It's time to raid the Labyrinth.]

[The Labyrinth?] Mikai's ears folded back sorrowfully. [But there's no good food there!]

[We can get food anywhere.] Tim waved the objection aside dismissively. [The Labyrinth, though, is the only place to get what we need.]

[And what's that?]

[The secrets of Fal'Herim and its relationship to Khar'al-dras.] Tim answered. [I want to see if we can learn how to awaken a Great Dragon and get him to fight on our side without destroying the whole city in the process.]

To that grand, stirring statement, Mikai twitched a little, scratched his tailroot, and said, [Oh.]

Tim half-laughed sheepishly, seeing how unaffected Mikai was. [As for Remian and space magic, well… that's not something I know how to handle. I'll leave it to Mindy and the Magic Academy or some such. Hopefully they'll find a good expert who can seal the Rift and get Remian back. I'll just send them some money to help ease the process.]

[You're sending them your own money to help?] Mikai looked touched.

[Not mine.] Tim glanced at Asda. [Hers.]

[Ah.]

***

At the time, Remian was tied up by a girl and trussed like a turkey.

Suffice to say the chase did not last very long. It basically went like this;

"Light!" Remian threw up a hand instinctively.

Nothing happened.

[Good luck trying to cast magic in a world without mana.] Death gave him a shark's grin and a thumbs-up.

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The woman charged.

"I'm sorry! I'm lost! I needed help…!" Remian yelped while running for his life.

"Mongrel! Scum! Pervert!" the woman shrieked, slashing at him with her sword.

"I didn't mean any harm! I just want to go home and needed someone to point out the way!" Remian yelped, dodging and almost losing his fingers in the process. "Please! I'll compensate you somehow! But… I don't know what kind of money you use… I'll work for you! For a while!"

For a moment, the woman hesitated, her eyes narrowing. Then, she suddenly leapt forward at blurring speeds, her feet whirling. One foot slammed toward Remian, who ducked… and the other clipped Remian in the side of the head.

Remian went down, and the woman proceeded to beat the snot out of him.

At least she didn't use her sword. After pummeling him black-and-blue, she tied him up and then wrapped him in a net tied to a staff and slung that staff over her shoulder.

With Remian as added luggage, she went on her merry way while he sat in the net miserably with Death guffawing at him over the next couple of hours.

"Senior Sister! Have you succeeded in your breakthrough?" a younger girl asked, as the woman arrived at a campsite.

"No… and it's HIS fault!" She tossed Remian onto the ground. "He interrupted me during my cultivation and not only did I fail, I suffered internal injuries! I almost went into deviation!"

"You!!" the girl took it from there and beat even more snot out of him.

Then she trussed him up like a turkey, thus the current state of affairs.

Remian groaned in his pain. That little girl was about Mindy's age and strong, but thankfully not as strong as the older woman, much less Mindy. Still, another beating on top of the previous bruising was not something he was proud of or wanted to write home about. It was not funny, no matter how hard Death was laughing while holding on to his sides.

"Oh dear… that was priceless!" Death wiped tears of mirth from his eyes.

"Let's kill him." The girl said, tired out from her exertions.

Death brightened.

"No. I have plans for him." The woman said. "He must pay for what he's done."

"All I did was say 'hello'!" Remian groaned.

They completely ignored him. The girl perked up. "A slow death, then? Death by a thousand cuts?"

"Little Li, you shouldn't be so bloodthirsty. The pure pursuit of dao is free from mortal strife." The woman intoned seriously.

"I'll pursue dao later. Right now I want vengeance." Little Li decided.

The woman sighed. "More to the point, I want to use his special ability to disrupt Zhao Heng."

Little Li suddenly beamed. "That's right! In the upcoming Cloud Mountain Tournament, only he can pose any challenge for you! Now that you're injured, he would undoubtedly win, unless he is likewise injured or worse! Striking pre-emptively would level the playing field! That's fair!"

"I honestly question your concept of fairness." Remian coughed.

"You have no right to question anything! You swore to pay me back by working for me, remember?" the woman prodded him with her foot.

"That was before you beat me up, and you beat me anyway." Remian pointed out.

"That doesn't matter." She decided unilaterally. "You will do as I demand, or else!"

Remian cautiously refrained from asking details on what 'or else' meant.