Sandskar told him her name. The old woman was the Hanged Witch. They are powerful, so much so that they don’t have to flex their auras like the others did.

If you are sensitive to the way of the mana space like Thaedric was, you can sense the way mana thickened and bent around them. They are the real powerhouses.

The Hanged Witch laughed, and Thaedric almost expected dust to come out of her mouth because of how old she sounded, even though her two eyes were shining brightly in her wrinkled face.

"I don’t expect to find you here, you crafty Dragon!" she said, pointing her walking stick at him.

Lightning Dragon shrugged. "This is exactly the kind of place I expect to find you, and I wasn’t disappointed."

The woman laughed again, and then she walked over to the Lightning Dragon.

"Are they going to fight?" Thaedric whispered. He didn’t want to be caught up in a fight between these two. Not even with the protection of Sandskar.

"I think not...." Sandskar replied.

And yet it was another person who echoed Thaedric’s question out loud. "Are you two here to fight?" The man was tall, taller than anyone that Thaedric had ever seen before. He had three eyes, one between the other two on his forehead. All blazed bright red.

The man looked at Thaedric, and he flinched. ’This man looked familiar. I mean, his red eyes look familiar.’ He had never seen a red that deep before.

Sandskar jerked back. "Yama," he hissed.

Thaedric remembered what the sand Ancient said a while ago, that Yama was Malak’s contractor. He studied the man again. He stood apart, his three eyes on the two, a small smirk on his lips.

Lightning Dragon glanced at him. "You are here, Yama of the Wild Hunt."

"I always go where the battle is the thickest," Yama replied.

The Hanged Witch tapped her stick on the ground. "Ah! Battle! But we are not here to battle. Why should we? We are not the strongest. We won’t get the boy."

Lightning Dragon nodded. And Yama chuckled.

Thaedric shivered. ’Okay, okay. Maybe I might have been just over my head by shouting that challenge. Even seeing Orso’s face might be preferable to this.’

The three ignored Thaedric and began talking among themselves. Most of what they were talking about washed over him as he thought of the trouble he might have unwillingly put himself into.

Then the three stopped talking. They tilted their heads up as if listening to a far-off sound.

Sandskar and then Thaedric understood seconds later—something impossibly big was swimming through the mana space, disturbing it for thousands of miles around them.

The Hanged Witch groaned. "Really? Who let him out?" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Lightning Dragon looked at the silver ball by his side and sighed. "I don’t want to fight."

"I came for the drama," Yama said.

A small portal appeared in the sky, growing bigger by the second, and soon it was so big it would allow the biggest airplane on Earth through, and still, it was growing.

The air grew tight, and off in the distance, the sound of something cracking could be heard sharply in the air. Sandskar mentioned something about the thing affecting all other portals in the area.

Thaedric didn’t want to see what was coming out of that. And fortunately, he didn’t. Something in grey armor came streaking from the sky and hovered in front of the portal. They held a sword in their hand and pointed it at the portal.

Something echoed in the mana space, and whatever was coming through flinched, sending mana splashing. Then it withdrew, slowly turning, and the portal shrank.

The three Ancients looked at the grey armor as it made its way toward them.

"Interesting. Even she came?" Yama said.

"Who?" Thaedric asked.

Sandskar answered. "That is the Risen Star. She serves the Beyonder." There was fear and awe in his voice.

Thaedric was getting tired of learning about new people so fast. He was about to ask who the Beyonder was when the Risen Star touched down in front of him.

Her armor was grey, with lines of silver, and she held a sword bigger than herself in her right hand. Her helmet melted away, and Thaedric was greeted by green eyes of uncut jewels.

It made his heart ache because Thaedric was suddenly reminded of his friend who was currently in the palace in Xandros. He had eyes as green as the ones looking at him up and down.

The Lightning Dragon shared a look with the Hanged Witch. Yama was looking at them with anticipation.

The Risen Star rested her sword on the ground in front of her. "Rashaka of Maledicta, Thaedric of the Great Clan of Hydraeus. My master, the Beyonder, heard your challenge and said this to you, Champion of the Storm God—I alone am the strongest. I will make a contract with you."

Thaedric stood strong. His blood buzzed, and purple light poured out of the black of his eyes. He smiled his lazy smile and tilted his head to look at her in the face. "I have seen power here that I haven’t seen before. And if this Beyonder says he is the strongest, then so be it!"

Risen Star opened her mouth to speak, but something like lightning, black as tar, struck her. The green in her eyes turned black, and something else looked through them. When she spoke, it was with a different voice. "It has been a while since I have been this entertained. Very well. I will make this contract with you. I will stretch my wings once more. It is done."

The mana space erupted, and everyone flinched. Black magic symbols manifested around them, bigger than mountains, and energy slammed into Thaedric, directly into his core, and turned his world into blinding pain.

This was more than mana; the energy of the Beyonder itself was pouring into him, mixing into his blood and adding memories of the technique into his brain.

The black of his eyes peeled away, and his eyes glowed like twin stars. His hair shone as if it were on fire. Purple light covered him and lit him from within. He felt pain as he had never felt before, and just as it began, it stopped, and he collapsed.