Wovan had to teleport thrice to reach Nepal, stopping once somewhere over the ocean, then on the outskirts of Cambodia, before they finally arrived in the Mahabarat mountain range. Marakesh had merely shown him an image of a place, but being a dimensional mage, his Soul Splinter had clearly learned more from it than him.It took Arthur seventeen seconds to reach the rocky foothills he’d witnessed, less than a third of a minute, but the sight that greeted him when he arrived had him cursing his lack of speed. It was a scene of devastation—overturned earth, shattered rock and dozens of corpses littering the ground. There was a stark brutality to it, a level of violence that spoke of sadism; bodies had been butchered, limbs systematically removed, skin flayed open in a grotesque mockery of artistry. The perpetrators had dismissed efficiency in the pursuit of personal enjoyment. They wanted to send a message. Arthur registered all this information in the time it took him to drop the three dozen feet from Wovan’s portal down onto the ground.Up close, things were worse; the stench of blood and excrement soaked every breath he took, the stale scent of fear staining mining overalls that would never be worn again. He felt a sick sense of relief that Ayesha wasn’t among the dead bodies. Arthur pulled up his System logs and sent a message for the first time. It was short and to the point.Ayesha’s been attacked. I need you back on Earth ASAP.He didn’t wait for a reply; instead, he rushed towards the epicentre of the violence. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened. The miners had tried and failed to defend against an attack, setting up a defensive perimeter around the entrance of the mine, a glowing portal of black and purple where he presumed a mundane entrance had once been. Arthur was starting to understand why Ayesha was so interested in this place. Arthur rushed into the mine, Wovan’s 44 bodies (...)