In a flash of inspiration, this time it was more direct, the mild atmosphere overflowed the world, I finally returned to my soul Zack, I like the demeanor of men, I have died a thousand times people are men, brothers, I am back again, haha.

Now back in the tunnels beneath Kooria, Zach saw Zorian sitting cross-legged, eyes closed, trying to perceive with his own thoughts. Let's practice mana induction.

The only way the matriarch could really help at the moment was to become an experienced practitioner, which was very valuable when fiddling with things like psychic magic. I haven't seen you for a long time, so let's observe it first. I saw a matriarch again, the same spider sister from before? Ha ha.

。。。。。。 Elian's perspective。。。。。。

[This, and a small fact is that than those...... Non-psychic people are more likely to perceive and be exposed to open minds,] said the matriarch.

Zorian frowned. Can't he even master infant telepathic skills? That's great.

Taking a deep breath and calming himself, he struggled to think about the task at hand, and how to solve it. Yes, having psychic abilities means being a natural psychic mage. Even though the matriarch constantly brings her strange Alanya spirituality into it, that's what it all comes down to.

Psychics can interpret thoughts and emotions, search people's memories, hijack their senses and motor control, communicate with them through telepathy, God knows what else, but all of this has to do with the mind. Even the matriarch admits that Alanya has used improved human magic, such as her verbal spells and other non-psychic magic arsenals.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration crossed Zorian's mind. Judging from the books he had read about mental art in the academy library, it was not too difficult to read the spells of the human heart in principle. Human mind spells are very much like a form of divination, attempting to simply dump its output into the caster's mind...... This is not something that most mages are capable of handling.

To sum up, for Zorian, one of the defining powers of psychics is their ability to understand direct access to the brain – perhaps he should stop trying to push his power outward and focus inward. He took a deep breath, imagining the result as particles of light around him, and ...... It opened his mind.

The blazing sun erupted around him, and quite a few spiders appeared. Obviously, the matriarch brought more guards than last time.

[Your first success,] said the matriarch, her telepathic probe shattering his attention, causing his entire vision to crack like a dream. [Well done.] Things should move faster from now on. I would congratulate you on your rapid progress, but I must be honest and admit that I don't know how quickly humans are generally progressing in this regard. ]

"If you really tell me I'm doing something wrong, maybe things will go faster," Zorian said annoyedly. "Why didn't you tell me that I should be focused instead of going outward?"

Double-sex Wow, stupid! Because you're a human and I'm a spider, two completely different species, with completely different body structures,

"Well, so language and species do matter to psychics," Zorian commented.

The matriarch said. [As long as two creatures speak the same language, they are free to engage in telepathic conversation, and psychics may communicate with completely unfamiliar thoughts.]

"So you can talk to me so easily, not just because you're stronger?" Zorian asked.

[Nope.] I spend time learning about human language, mentality, and culture. Just like many other spiders that occasionally interact with humans.

"That is, it is easier to attack mentally than to communicate?" Zorian asked curiously. "I mean, if botched telepathic communication is actually a mental attack, it's not a hassle to simply blow up a creature's brain?."

[This is called "psychic shock," which is the simplest telepathic attack," said the matriarch. [It's also the easiest way to defend yourself.] You really shouldn't worry about me attacking you anymore. Isn't the explosives you always carry in your pocket enough to reassure you? Hah]

"They can help me," Zorian said. "There is still a possibility of hostilities between us. I'm just curious. ”

Zach didn't understand, because he couldn't do it easy... The child king "escaped there, haha." He is now addicted to fighting.

I'm eager to go to a summer festival party

Yes, it would make his distance from another time traveler uncomfortable at night, but he was curious to see how his empathetic inhibitions would behave in a live situation, and Zach's complex weirdness, what it would look like from the inside of him. In addition, he also wants to get to know his classmates better, which is a great opportunity,

"Can I go with you?" Tevin asked, walking beside him.

"For the last time, yes. Zach made it clear that the more people we invite, the better," Zorian said. If you know what Zach wants to achieve, it's no surprise. "Listen, if you don't want to come—"

"Oh no, I totally believe it. It's not every day that you get the opportunity to attend a party. It's just that I think it's a little weird, that's all. I'm a little surprised that you agreed to come, though—isn't that a disgust to you? ”

"It's either this or attending the official prom organized by the Academy," Zorian said. "My only real choice is poison."

"Ah, I see." Tevin nodded. "I guess in this case, it's really a better option."

Zorian glanced at Tevin with his peripheral eyes, feeling a little guilty in his heart. In fact, the main reason he invited her to come with him was to see for himself how she fought against the invaders. She's a lot better than him in combat magic, and he wants to make some ridiculous comparisons with Zach!

Then again, it's Thai – she probably fights the intruder on every reboot anyway, just not where he can see her. At least this time she'll be fighting alongside a strong fighter like Zach.

As soon as they knocked on the door, Zach came and led them in.

"I'm glad you're here," Zach told him as he led them towards the dining room, where the party was obviously supposed to take place.

In this particular reboot, Zach didn't even bother him too much. Is the other time traveler trying to lure him into revealing himself, or is he just going through too many legends in this time loop? So much so that he can't sort events according to the time loop in which they occurred? Hum!

"Uh, what's going on?" Thaiwen looked at them quizzically

Zach glanced at her, then turned to Zorian and gave him a thumbs up. "New girl, huh? Man, every time I see you, you'll have a new one. You're not going to be that kind of person. ”

"What?" Zorian and Tevin asked at the same time.

Momentarily confused, but then realized that Zach was confusing his reboot again. Zach has seen him with all three of them in various restarting games. But that ...... That's not the same at all! They weren't interested in him at all!

"Zorian is a prostitute?" Thaiwen asked in a calm, worrying voice.

"I'm not!" Zorian vehemently denied it, then focused his anger on Zach, who had a wicked smile on his face.

"What about you! Stop spreading rumors! I know the fact that you haven't seen me with a girl until tonight! You wonder why I've been avoiding you all month......"

Zach frowned. "I'm sorry, I was just kidding you. Don't worry, I'm sure your girlfriend won't leave you because of a few stupid words from you, haha"

"Oh, really?" Thaivin said. "Don't you think he'll regret it so much for losing such a powerful, smart, sexy girlfriend—"

Zorian sighed. "Zach, she's not my girlfriend. She's just a friend. And you used to be a girl? So like to say! ”

"Who happens to be a woman," Zach said, shaking his eyebrows.

"You," Zorien said, gritting his teeth in exasperation.

"Ah, well, at least you've got a girl to dance the night away," Zach whispered.

Thaiwen is a very attractive girl with a beautiful athletic figure and an angelic face, and she likes men who are equally gifted in terms of appearance.

"When I was a little kid, most of the servants were fired by my guardians," Zach said. Zorian wasn't surprised to hear her - Thaiwen wasn't very good at whispering. “

Since my parents died when I was a baby, he was free to do what he thought was necessary"

"Let's just say he and I have a disagreement, so be it," Zach said.

Thai said. How did you become the last member of your family? ”

"She was frank about her curiosity," Zach said. Somehow, he knew what was going on, even though he had his back to them when it happened. "To be honest, I kind of like her attitude."

"Numbers," Zorian muttered. Now that I think about it, both Tevin and Zach have the same desperate attitude towards things, so maybe it's not the best idea to let them meet......

In this way, Zach began a lengthy ...... of the previous time travel story

While Zach's story is tragic, it is by no means unique and can be attributed to two main causes: dividing the war and crying.

Firearms were already available in the war at that time, and they were gradually improved over time. However, even after the naval powers began to arm their ships with cannons, and even after several mercenary groups began to successfully use rifles, hand-held firearms were still ultimately considered a dead end. There is nothing that a rifleman can do, we are used to training archers, which are easier to enhance with magic than rifles and their ammunition. The advantage of a rifle is that it can be used without much training.

Until the war of secession. With the disintegration of the old alliance, each nation suddenly scrambles to arm itself, and the smaller nations are inherently unable to compete with the likes of Edelmar in terms of magical power, so a lot of money is invested in firearms as an alternative to combat magic. Eldemar was one of the few countries with a fully functioning traditional army and felt the need to play with these "civilian toys."

But guns are devastating. The assembled riflemen completely destroyed the traditional army and caught the existing powers by surprise. The great powers did not annex every small country around them, the great powers weakened themselves, often splitting into small parts, and the internal enemy smelled weak.

The war of division took a heavy toll on the mage family. The reason is simple – battle mages are a profession of great prestige, and many families use military involvement to gather influence and reputation, which they then use as a lever to promote political and commercial interests. With the advent of the Divided Wars, the demand for battle mages increased, leading more mages to join various armies in search of glory and wealth. As the number of casualties began to mount, this backfired. Unfamiliar with the merits of firearms, and often completely dismissive of them, many mages fall prey to snipers, artillery fire, and concentrated rifle fire.

When Eldelmar launches a massive, multi-pronged attack on its smaller neighbor! The war of division began, and members of Zach and his family of Novita were at the forefront of the attack.

They paid dearly for it.

Sadly, it was then that the crying came and ruined everything.

No one knows where the crying comes from. They spread among soldiers, a deadly, incurable disease, and everyone who infects it dies, regardless of age, health, or even magic. Once a person is infected with the virus, death is almost certain – first fever, delirium, then blindness, then bleeding eyes, and finally death.

Ordinary healers are useless, no magic can heal it, and even the mystical powers of the gods have not been able to stop its spread. In the end, there is nothing to do but wait for the disease to subside on its own. But they finally did. As mysterious as it was when it appeared, the cry slowly disappeared across the continent.

10% of Artazia's population died from the epidemic. Some groups suffered more, while others were completely unharmed and seemed to be irregular. For example, Zorrian's family was completely unaffected - his parents and all siblings survived the pandemic unscathed, very lucky.

Instead, Zach lost everyone because of that. The few Novidans who survived the war of secession contracted the disease and died, leaving behind a shell family whose only surviving member was a small child who was too young to even take care of himself.

“…… That's how the whole sad story ends," Zach concluded. "If nothing else, the cry finally ended the war of secession. But enough of these depressing topics. We're here! ”

Indeed, Zorian was pleased with his basic control over empathy – Zach had chosen a much smaller chamber than the House Ballroom, and after talking to a few acquaintances, Zorian turned to those who didn't seem to mind being interrupted.

"Well, who else do you know?" Thaiwen asked.

"Well, that tall green-haired girl who was arguing fiercely with those two guys is Reed."

"Wait, she's that Reed?" Thaiwen asked. "One of those thugs is in the same class as you?"

… Well, gangster style. A small group of girls looking towards him suddenly caught his attention.

"See those five girls over there?" He said to Thai. "That's Jed, Neolu, Maya, Kiana, and Elsie."

"They look ...... Chuckle. Taiwen said with a sour expression.

"Oh, it's too late now," Zorian said. "See how they look in our direction? They have noticed us and are discussing how best to approach us. Hah"

"Don't challenge fate, Zorian," Tevin warned him.

"It's not about tempting fate, it's about knowing your enemies." They just saw a classmate walking around with a girl they didn't know anything about - there was no way the five would let it go without investigating. Zorian said, though the group of girls he spoke of nodded and strode over.

"Look, what did I tell you? They're already coming this way. ”

Thaiwen squealed softly, but with a happy look on his face as the girls approached. Zorian understood exactly what she meant - he didn't think any of the five were third travelers.

It's going to be a long night.

。。。。。 (Take a break, there's a mess, I'll go with it, ha.) ）。。。。

The real dance began, and Erian didn't like to dance in the first place. Find a secluded corner where no one disturbs him. He soon discovers that he is not the only one with this idea. Tinami seems to have found such a corner, and ...... It does look awkward. Hum. Somehow, he suspected that she really wanted to be left alone, with a freckled face.

"Hello, Tinami," he greeted, causing her to twitch in shock as she was called.

"Hmm......" she stammered. Zorian, right? ”

"That's me," Zorian confirmed. "Want to dance?"

"Oh. Oh! But didn't you already bring your girlfriend with you? Wouldn't she mind? Tinami asked.

Zorian pointed to where Thaiwen and his dance partner were dancing. "Also, Thaiwen is just a friend, not a girlfriend."

"Ah," she said, fidgeting uneasily. Zorian wordlessly held out his hand to her. "Well, well......" she said, grabbing Zorian's outstretched hand with amazing force and dutifully following him onto the dance floor.

For the next 30 minutes, Zorian tried to talk to Timi, but with only slight success, and he suspected that it was only because of these very specific circumstances that she was willing to open up to him, even a little. She was indeed a very shy girl, and he somehow suspected that she was the third time traveler? Her embarrassment seems real, and a time traveler the size of Zach must have gotten rid of that embarrassment by now, right?

"You raise ...... Spider? Zorian asked curiously.

"Tarantula," she insisted. "But, well, I'm kind of into all kinds of spiders. I know it's weird, but ......"

"Nonsense," Zorian retorted naturally. What's so strange about a shy, delicate-looking girl raising a large, fluffy spider the size of a human hand? "Spiders are truly a very amazing creature. Although I myself prefer jumping spiders - those two huge eyes in front of me somehow make them more human-like. ”

Tinami gave him a look of disbelief, then frowned. "You're making fun of me," she accused.

"No," Zorian retorted. "In fact, I often visit a particularly large colony of jumping spiders. You can learn amazing things by observing the natural world. ”

Tinami squinted at him and asked a series of increasingly esoteric questions about spiders, not only did she know more about spider-type monsters than he did, but she also knew a lot about the types of spider monsters (such as various spider demons) and monsters with spider attributes.

"I found out it didn't take you long to find a new girl," Zach said behind him, causing him to twitch in surprise. He glared at the boy,

He usually always ...... Oh.

"Why are you here, Zach?" Zorian sighed.

"I'm the host," Zach said. "My job is to check on customers, but this time I'm just wondering if you want to see the fireworks."

Oh yes, Zorian would definitely love to see the fireworks.

He and Tinami join a large group of people in the garden, where they can get an unobstructed view of the sky.

Zorian focuses more on Zach than on the sky, though. If the matriarch goes according to plan, Zach is sure to react in an interesting way. He's wearing it everywhere, and he's probably forgotten who he is, ha.

Three days ago, he had discussed the plan of action with the old lady. Over the past few restarts, Zorian has observed the progress of the invasion from various locations, and he is convinced that the best and easiest way to stop it is to attack with artillery fire. Especially so, he knew where they were shooting from -

The fireworks began...... But it was not accompanied by any artillery fire spells. Zach's face grew more and more confused.

"What's wrong, Zach?" Zorian asked innocently. "You're acting like you've never seen fireworks."

"Uh, no, I mean I did, just...... It's okay," Zach sighed.

Zorian shrugged and turned to Tinami, offering her a helping hand. "How about going back and dancing again?"

"Well, yes!" She enthusiastically agreed. "Let's!"

Slowly, people grew tired of the flashes of explosions in the sky and rushed back into the house, leaving a frowning Zack staring at the sky alone.

- While it is true that the invaders were hit hard by the lack of our original artillery, the invasion was not canceled and Zack's mansion became one of their main targets, probably because that was where Zach was, and they targeted him specifically. Maybe if the students witnessed the artillery fire hitting the city, Zach could use it to control and organize some kind of proper defense,

But the fact that the offensive began, caught them completely off guard. Even if Zach had powerful magic, he couldn't stop the intruders from flooding into the mansion, and several groups of students were isolated from Zack's main force. Zorian is one of them.

He, Timi, Teving, Brian, and four other students end up locking themselves in a few unspoiled rooms in the mansion, desperately trying to stop the invading forces.

Four unknown students are almost useless, but the other three are invaluable. Elion summoned the fire dragon to his side, and Tevon knew how to cast some kind of extremely destructive vortex of fire that would make the intruder unable to continue attacking for a full ten minutes, and Tinami ...... She is no stranger to combat, and behaves completely differently in battle. She didn't know any fire-type spells, but she did know how to shoot some sort of purple beam that would make even the biggest war trolls scream and fall to the ground. These beams didn't deal noticeable damage, they were presumably just pain spells, and that was enough - Tinami fired these beams in a series of attacks, sabotage charges, and interrupting enemy spellcasters.

"Zorian can finish it as soon as possible, this position will soon be lost," Tevin shouted.

Zorian ignored her, carefully carving the last set of explosive runes into the wall of the hallway behind them. Don't rush, unless you want to blow yourself up before the enemy finds you. A minute later, he completed the set and stood up, his knees making painful noises from the long squat.

"Done!" He shouted. "Everyone, retreat from the corridor!"

He had been covering them as they fled into the depths of the mansion. Thankfully, an unknown boy helped him with this, but he wasn't very good at it - his only offensive spell was magic missiles, and he fired them at the war trolls, but he didn't have enough mana, so he raised the magic wand he had smuggled into the mansion and shot a faint disintegrating beam at them. Instead of aiming at the mages themselves—that didn't do much—he aimed at the floor in front of them, as the floor had no spell resistance to protect it.

The beam drew a jagged line across the floor, and billowing clouds of dust rose in the air. This will at least disturb them.

Rapidly approaching war trolls. He decided to simply sacrifice most of his mana reserves and attack them with super-powerful fire charges.

Zorian's fire missiles weren't strong enough, and these particular war trolls seemed to be particularly difficult, and Tevin cast a fire vortex spell that broke their charge with a powerful fiery vortex, and Zorian summoned another cloud of dust with his staff before fleeing down the hallway behind the other students. The other boy ran away, this useless coward,

He hoped that the chaos would last long enough for him to be able to pull some distance. He's not fast enough to overtake the war trolls.

There was a scream of rage, and a war troll was rapidly closing in on him. Damn it.

Suddenly, an evil pillar of purple light suddenly sliced through the air above his head, striking the troll behind him. The monster screamed again, this time in pain, and collapsed to the floor. Zorian dug another line in the floor with his spell stick, dusting the hallway even more, and he made his way into their newest shelter. It's so thrilling!

"Thanks," he gasped.

"Well, you're welcome," Tinami said, fiddling with the silver amulet she was wearing, observing the cloud of dust covering the hallway for any movement.

The amulet appears to be the spell recipe she uses to cast the purple pillar of light.

"They're here again," Brim said.

Thai said. "Let them all enter the hallway, and then trigger the explosive rune."

"What if they find a trap?" A girl asked.

"Then at least they'll hesitate for a moment," Tevin said.

They don't bother to close the door - that would only cause the mages to force their way through the door, and they will be hit by wood splinters and shrapnel. They had already lost two students before they could learn their lesson.

Sure enough, before the War Troll Charge, a barrage of concussive beams and battering rams appeared. Crackling and booming, the mages entered the hallway to offer support, and they sensed victory near.

At this moment, Zorian unleashed a mana pulse at the nearest explosive rune group, and the entire corridor collapsed in a deafening explosion...

Huge amounts of dust and rubble rushed into their tiny room, but Thaiwen was ready and, with a snort, created a large bubble to prevent them from suffocating.

"Alright," Tevon coughed, he was too slow to block out all the dust.

"This should stop the attack for a while. The scary thing is that this room is a dead end. The only exit is from this hallway and the windows outside. ”

"There are enemies everywhere outside, what to do?" Zorian said.

"But we don't have many options, do we?" Brian asked rhetorically. "We can't stay here."

"How do you go down?" An unknown girl asked. "We're on the second floor and can't jump out of the window."

"Hmm...... Okay, you're going to cast the Float Charm? Thaiwen asked, holding up his hand.

Zorian was the only one who raised his hand to show cooperation.

"Ahh Well, a must. Zorian, I'll go and put these four weights down first, and you will follow me with those two. ”

"Hey!" One of the heavyweights complained.

"I'm sorry, but that's what I call it, as I see it." Thai said ruthlessly. "Let's go, lest more bastards gather in our place to watch the explosion."

So Zorian made a huge floating disc outside the window and jumped on it, with Tinami following close behind. At first, it seemed that everything would be perfect - there was nothing waiting for the enemy at the bottom, screaming.

Tevin had landed successfully, and his disc showed no signs of failure under the combined weight of the man standing on it. Then a group of iron beaks suddenly appeared around the corner, and Zorian cursed angrily.

There's really nothing he can do against a bunch of Ironbeaks, and they're not much better. There were about fifty of them, and it didn't make much sense to snipe two out of the sky. Tinami probably can't shoot her family's beam of pain at her target, and the Ironbeak Bird is a very agile flyer.

Brian's fiery dragon rained down on them from a distance with iron feathers.

He still fired a self-guided puncture missile, and out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Thaiwen had fired a swarm of magic missiles with a cruise. Eight iron beaks fell, but it was just a drop in the bucket, and then it was the turn of the iron beaks.

The air ahead blurred, and a cloud of glittering feathers shot at them.

Hundreds of magic iron feathers screamed, and Zorian immediately scattered the floating discs, and the three of them immediately fell to the ground.

He managed to avoid the deadly feathers! His gaze briefly met the fire dragon's gaze as he rolled in the air, and he couldn't help but feel that it was glaring at him.

Suddenly, just as they were about to hit the ground, their fall stopped and landed gently on the ground like feathers. Before Zolian could ask what was going on, a swarm of flaming missiles erupted from somewhere behind him, wiping out the entire ironbeak swarm.

"You know, Zorrian," Zach said behind him, "sometimes I wonder if you want to die. Putting yourself in such a situation? You're almost as bad as I am! ”

"I don't know what you're talking about," Zorian muttered, getting up and helping Brian and Tinami to their feet as well. Oddly enough, they don't seem to be mad at what he did. Shocked, but not angry. Maybe they didn't know that he deliberately dropped the disk?

"Well, I'm excited to see another group of survivors, but we really should go," Zach said. "It's not safe to be outdoors like this. Come on, I know a safer place. ”

Zorian looked around. A surprising number of students survived the attack and dutifully followed Zach. In fact, it is likely that they survived because of following Zack. Regardless, Zorian and his team had to join the team – they couldn't have had a better idea anyway.

They didn't go far before the attackers returned in a big way. Zorian scoffed at Zach cursing at Doom. It was a bit of luck - the attackers were apparently tracking him and were aiming directly at him. Did Zach take any precautions to prevent him from being found? Knowing Zach, probably not.

While Zach is handling another swarm of iron beaks, a large brown worm bursts out of the ground and begins to wreak havoc among the student crowd.

So far, Zorian has only encountered these things four times in various reboots, and he already hates them - they can move almost like water on the earth, and their skin is completely impervious to physical forces. They are also not affected by fire.

Zorian watched helplessly, and the worm single-handedly shattered the students' formation, causing them to flee in panic before being eliminated one by one by the winter wolves who were surrounding the crowd.

Tinami clearly didn't want to sit idly by. She fired a purple beam at the worm, causing the worm to scream in pain, then immediately swung its teeth in her direction, its killing attention now firmly focused on her. Uh-oh.

The worm let out a vengeful roar and dived back underground. Zorian immediately closed his eyes, trying to isolate the sound of the battle, concentrating his mental perception, trying to track its movements. It's not too difficult – even if the worm doesn't have psychic abilities, it's the only mind that sits underground, so it's easy to distinguish from other worms. He opened his mind, tracking the thoughts of the worm as it swam underground. Tinami seemed to stay where she was, realizing that she couldn't get too far away from the crowd lest she get caught like the other students who made this mistake...... So there is no way to really escape the worm.

Just as the worm was about to surface, Zorian jerked Tinami aside and quickly dropped an exploding cube.

In less than a second, the worm erupted from its place, its teeth biting down violently on the clod...... As well as the Exploding Cube. It was awesome, and just as it turned its head in their direction, Zorian activated the cube and the worm trembled and began to scream and writhe wildly before violently spitting out some pulpy entrails. Approaching, Tinami was hit by her tail in the tumbling and was thrown to the outskirts of the battlefield, where she lay motionless.

Zorian quickly ran to her side, still breathing, and there were no obvious wounds, and then he was relieved. He turned his attention back to the bug, but before he was looking, it was dying.

The worm swayed in the air like drunk, and for a moment, Zorian thought he had won...... But then, the worm waved its fangy mouth directly at him, roaring in challenge. This time, instead of bothering to dive underground, it stretched to an impressive length at a much faster rate than a creature of this size should have.

He didn't die. The insect stopped at a hair's length from his face, broke free from some invisible restraints, and suddenly turned sideways and bit the winter wolf that took advantage of his distraction.

[I see, I came at the right time,] the matriarch's voice entered his head, and then her body appeared, jumping out of the shadows of a nearby tree, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Thank you," Zorian said. "But I'm not sure why you're here. I think there should be as little contact between us as possible during the invasion. ”

[I decided it would be more important to update your memory pack with the information we found today.] ]

Zorian sighed and looked around. Everyone was so busy saving their lives that they didn't have time to pay attention to them, and spiders weren't so easy to spot in the night.

"Hurry," Zorian said, and the matriarch immediately got to work. Anything that tries to sneak up on them is disposed of by the giant worm, which is clearly under the control of the matriarch.

Then, five minutes later, she disappeared again, and Zorian picked up Tinami and tried to rendezvous with Zach again, but no sooner had he taken five steps than a jagged red beam filled his field of vision, plunging his world into darkness again.