As I ran across the desiccated soil, buffeted by winds that would send any regular human into orbit, or at least tumbling towards the hole in reality, I only had one thing on my mind.

Holy shit, what the fuck is that. We're all going to die, aren't we?

"Ellie, it's okay, that's just how they dig a hole through the Planar barriers to establish a foothold. We still have time," Autumn said, the connection sending their voice directly through my sound processing circuits, allowing me to hear it over the sound of the wind.

"Wait, did I say that through the remote connection?" I asked, that would be a first, speaking without intending to, through a spatial connection stored within my Core. Usually, I just accidentally speak out loud with my mouth.

"No, you're just easy to read," Autumn replied, their words radiating smugness.

"I'm wearing a full facial covering."

"Exactly," Autumn said, which actually made a lot of sense. People back on Earth always said I was hard to read, but this was mostly because I didn't really do the whole 'facial expressions' thing. Not intentionally, or anything like that. It was more the fact that I frequently forgot to do the things people were supposed to do during conversations.

That was just to say, being able to read me without even looking at my face was probably the easiest way to read me. I wonder if that 'absolute loyalty' thing that the system message said Autumn had for me had anything to do with their ability to do that? Or maybe it was the [Friend of the Forest] Skill?

Oh, wait, that's why they said that. I needed a distraction to reorient myself.

It had taken my mind off the fact that hundreds of thousands of those faceless beings had surrounded the crater that was being filled in with writhing tentacle-covered Wretchlings. The faceless anthropoids were conducting some kind of ritual, not the Symbolic Encoding kind but like an actual ritual. Their thousands of hands were extended towards the centre of the crater, and I was fairly certain I could feel the fluctuations in their Authority from here.

The corrosive mists that had blanketed the area were moving in some kind of patterned movement. The patterns they created left burns in my Mana sight that sort of looked like afterimages. Those spots you'd see when you stared at the sun for too long, or someone pointed a laser in your eye.

I remembered then that I actually had a way to see what they were doing. My senses, when opened to the roots of the world, revealed that within the centre of the patterning, the roots were being eaten away, leaving a growing hole in reality itself. I didn't even know that it was possible to damage the root structure of a Plane. I guess this is what Autumn was talking about.

That's how they were going to establish a foothold on this world, by burning a hole in the Planar wall itself so that energy no longer needed to be expended to hold the roots apart anymore. There would just be a permanent hole that would allow their kind to pass through.

This meant I needed to find a way to repair that burn, or at least patch the hole if I couldn't replace the destroyed root structure itself. The fact that the admins thickened the Planar wall when I fucked up that ritual summon was actually doing us a favour right now. They'd have to dig a lot further to get through it. We might even have more than an hour and a half to fix this, though I wouldn't bet my life on it.

Actually thinking about it, how would this not make it incredibly easy for whoever wanted to access the Plane to do so? I knew that reverse summoning yourself was incredibly difficult. Still, if you had a target, it was technically possible to avoid slamming into the Planar wall, atomizing yourself against an impenetrable outer surface… Oh, right, you needed a target.

I looked over the empty, barren plains, noticing a distinct lack of things to target, besides the massive pile of eldritch abominations that is. But I thought you'd have to be a little off in the head to target those. Also, it would be whoever included this Zone's fault, not mine, so I don't have to worry about it even if someone does get in.

I nodded to myself, having thoroughly covered my bases. Nobody could yell at me for fucking everything up now.

"Pull yourself together?" Autumn asked, confirming my theory about their intent earlier.

"Yeah, thanks. We're arriving at the entrance in forty seconds. How do you want to descend—gracefully use the ladder, or rapid, uncontrolled fall?"

"Rapid uncontrolled fall?"

"Sounds good, that's what I wanted to do too," I confirmed just as we reached the emergency exit. I threw myself down into it, Autumn still in my arms.

"I feel like you knew that isn't what I meant, but did it anyway."

"Genuinely have no idea what you're talking about." I lied through my teeth. After a moment, I realized I actually had something I wanted to bring up: "You know, I noticed that while running, I wasn't leaving the kind of footprints that would make sense if I was obeying the laws of physics."

"Did you take into account your Soul Refinement?" Autumn asked, which I was delighted to hear because I actually wanted to know more about what Stats actually were.

"Nope, no idea what that really means, but I assume that term refers to Might, Grace, Fortitude, Spirit, Arcane, and Wit," I replied, excited to finally hear a little bit about what that term even meant.

"Uhh, sort of. You could break it down like that." Autumn paused for a moment, "Like those terms could cover every Refinement subcate—"

They were cut off by us slamming into the ground, which didn't break my legs this time, interestingly. But then I was made out of much sturdier material than before. Material that was also affected by Soul Refinement, unlike Runaspriggan Flesh.

Unfortunately, the sight at the bottom of the ladder ruined whatever joy I felt about surviving the trip down intact.

"Ugh, fuck, this is what I was worried about." I groaned, pulling the uncomfortable suit off.

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Well, it wasn't technically uncomfortable because I don't think I could actually experience discomfort unless someone was rough with my Core. It was just that wearing the suit meant I couldn't wear my cloak, and what's even the point of living in a fantasy world if you're not wearing a cloak?

As soon as I was out of the plasticky foil, I began growing my cloak back over my body, and even pondered for a moment whether I should add it to my ring as a saved design. Eventually, I decided against doing that. Despite the advantages of rapid application of clothing, I thought I'd be fine without it. However, it was taking noticeably longer to grow than if it were part of my body.

The importance of cloaks aside, all of the Mana-based lighting was casting that grey glow that I recognized immediately from the ritual room at the other site. This meant we would have to deal with an infestation here as well. Whatever, we'll deal with what we come across when we come across it.

"You were saying something about the subcategorization of Soul Refinement?" I asked Autumn. They hadn't even started taking their suit off yet.

They sighed and began pulling themselves out of the hazdim suit, "Well, the nitty gritty details aren't really all that important, so let's just answer the first question you had. 'Why aren't my steps leaving footprints in the dirt?' Well, I figured you're probably still relying on Non-Magical Physics, where when two objects interact, they apply equal but opposite forces to each other.

"The Soul Kinetics category allows you to tip the scales in one direction or another depending on intent, which I figure is what confused you. Grace sounds like it would be causing the specific interaction you mentioned, while also allowing you to do things like remove the Hazardous Environment Suit without damaging it in a single leaf fall. Just a completely random example, don't mind me." They said, as they struggled to peel off the plastic-like suit material that was clinging to their skin.

When Stats come into effect, physics stops working normally? So logically, Grace would be the Stat that reduced the amount of force I applied to other objects, which meant that eventually, I would be able to live my ninja dream of running across the surface of a lake on a completely windless night, with the moonlight, a scarf covering my face—the only evidence of my passing being tiny ripples across the surface of the water. I can see myself there now.

"Alright, let's finish dealing with all of this so I can go live my chuunibyou dream life."

I really hoped the keyplate from the old facility would work here. Maybe we could finish this up in like thirty minutes.

"Your old species has an entire development stage devoted to melodramatic delusions of grandeur?" Autumn asked, an expression of incredulity on their face as they tossed the suit over to me.

I let out a chuckle. I hadn't used the fact that I could just dump entire concepts into Autumn's head with Rootspeech until now. They'd also spared me by not doing the same thing, though, so maybe I shouldn't push my luck and abuse that power.

"No, not really, I think? I don't know if the whole term was a joke or not." I said, then dumped both suits into my Inventory as a bundle and took out the facility map. "Anyway, follow along now. We have a bit of a walk."

I pushed open the emergency exit door and began heading down the hallway.

"So, before we were so rudely interrupted by the mountain of tentacles, you were saying something about Sylvan Queens uniting your society together under a single banner. Their power pushed back the undergrowth and built a place for your people to live in the Verdant Veil without worrying about the threat of megafauna. Their powers are only used whenever the greatest threats to your people come around. And so like that, millions to billions of years went by, your people living in some kind of golden era." I said, going back to the story they were telling before their retelling was so rudely interrupted. "You still never got to how the Maleficarum got involved."

"I didn't explain any of that. How did you garner any of that?" Autumn asked.

"Genre conventions mostly. Mythology and oral traditions are fairly consistent once you learn the tropes." I replied, even though the time scales were a little bit larger than those present on Earth. I wasn't surprised their mythology worked the same as ours. "All you'd need to seal the deal is some kind of fall or collapse of the golden age, either through hubris, a betrayal, or some kind of encroaching 'darkness'."

"Why even ask me about it if you already knew?" Autumn said, crossing their arms and pouting. They look like I just refused to let them eat a vitality-rich animal.

"Aww, no go on. I'm just guessing here. Which of the three was it?" I asked, then took a moment and rustled the leaves on their head.

They sighed, "Nobody really knows how it happened. One day, Sylvan patrols at the border of our territory just started to disappear. Parts of the forest showed signs of being completely drained of life. Eventually, it got bad enough that one of the Queens and her personal guard stepped in to find the source of the wilt.

"She ended up being the first Queen we ever lost. The only report of what happened came from a member of her guard. She was somehow infested by the influence growing in the forest. Whatever it was has taken root inside her now, puppeting her body. Her own hand used to slaughter those who followed her. Though she was probably gone before she even had the opportunity to realize what was happening."

Wait, wasn't the thing that I was supposed to stop from entering this Zone called a Queen?

"Did she retain the power she previously held as a Sylvan?"

"Oh, that and more. The lone survivor's warning was the last chance we had before the outer forests were laid siege to. The furthest towns and villages were subsumed in less than an hour by the all-consuming Maleficarum. By the end of the first day, we lost four more Queens, by the end of the first week… Dozens fell. Their corpses claimed by the enemy." Autumn's expression looked distant. Yeah, the thing on the other side of the portal is definitely an ex-Sylvan Queen. Hopefully, we never have to see it. Otherwise, I should start writing a will.

"So, how did your people survive? Besieged on all sides by an extradimensional threat that was poking holes in the fabric of reality to allow an endless army through," I asked, and almost immediately regretted it when I saw Autumn's expression brighten. I should have guessed.

"The Lady! She arrived at the nick of time, our final city on its last legs. She couldn't bear to see the loss of a Primal Plane to such a monstrous threat. Our people signed away the right to the Plane itself and all of our souls, now and in the future, along with it, to her. With the Plane now under her dominion, all it took was a sweep of her hand, and every Planar rift was forcefully closed. The Maleficarum, cut off from their home Plane and the foul energies that expelled from it, died mere moments later. From that point on, she was our mistress, our saviour," Autumn explained reverently. I held back my urge to gag at their fawning devotion.

"So she was definitely the one who initially caused the rifts to open, right?" I asked. She was the only one who made sense.

Autumn made a noise that sounded like somebody opening a squeaky wooden door extremely slowly. "No, she would never!"

"Like, doing that would go against her Mythos, and therefore she can't. Or you don't think she would do that."

"I will not tolerate my mistress being besmirched!" Autumn said, their voice coming out like a tree collapsing in a forest. Disbelief and anger filled the meanings of their words.

"Geez fine, okay, it was just a question," I said, and added that to the list of things not to speak of around Autumn.

She definitely caused the initial infestation, though. Whatever, she's dead now, so it doesn't matter.

I held the keyplate up to the first door we had to bypass to get to the ritual room and hoped that it would work.

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