ShiningSector

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

After he and Felix to finally agreed to step back for a much needed R&R, Travis made his way back up stairs to his Quarters. With every step he took, he felt as if he as having to apply a little bit more mental effort to keep his balance. Having stayed up for several days without sleep and only caffeine to keep him going, he felt that the psychoactive stimulants that coursed through him were expiring far sooner than what he was used to perceive. Half up the stairs, he elected to use the railing to guide him up the next floor.

Upon reaching the next floor did Travis stumble upon an all to familiar sight and an annoying one at that; Nemo and Raiya arguing again. Travis rolled his eyes continued towards his room, disregarding the aggressive stance Raiya was assuming by lifting Nemo up by his shirt's collar. If he was more awake and in a caring mood, Travis would have been more startled about the scene. However, all he could really do was manifest his annoyance of the two's bickering. At least that what he thought they were doing anyway. The words that exited their mouths were inaudible and came off as drowned grumblings; another sign that fatigue's weakling grip gripping tighter.

Having reached the doorway to his room, he bothered to face both Raiya and Nemo one more time, finding that their feud was over as each returned to their own rooms. Travis sighed and shook his head before entering his quarters. Given the circumstances of hise declining mood and awareness, he disregarded the typical ritual of disrobing himself and instead lazily shifted any extra layers off before finally collapsing into his bead. It only took a minute after closing his eyes before passing out.

---

Travis eventfully came to after less than a day had passed. He gave a wide yawn and allowed his eyes linger around the room for a moment as while became more aware of his arousing. He concluded to an amusing notion that he eventually did undress and pulled the sheets over him, at some point in time he couldn't recall, only remembering just nonchalantly collapsing into the berth. A moment later, he could hear muffled sounds from downstairs and the faint smell of an unique. Having slept for such a long time, Travis could already feeling his stomaching aching for sustenance. Giving in the to feeling, he arose and made his way into his quarter's bathroom to bathe and clean up.

Before starting the shower, he prompted to look into the mirror there and gauge his appearance. After several days of not tiding himself, he could see tiny hairs forming around his chin and jawline; his body's persistent attempt to craft him a beard. Ironically, while he was against this, he couldn't say the same for the portion of his scalp having been saved off and still unnaturally failing to grow even one single long thread there. He frowned but proceeded into the shower to wash up and shave.

Minutes later, Travis exited his room with fresh attire proceeded downstairs. While still feeling like he could sleep for five more hours, he still felt fairly rejuvenated to move around on his own accord without any material assistance to keep him balanced. He arrived at the main floor found that everyone one had congregated for what appeared to be an Eastern cuisine compiled at the dinning table. Travis passed by and took his seat and proceeding to pour himself some coffee.

"Good afternoon, I take it? Gosh, I slept like a rock," Travis stated while working on his caffeinated beverage.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

"I honestly can't see why we couldn't imprint it onto that old thing of leather, assuming the final product isn't cumbersome. Everything seems promising thus far." Travis causally replied after finishing off the contents within his mug in one gulp, his focus still centered at his rough draft.

It was then Travis had taken notice of Felix assuming a comfortable posture with a rather satisfied expression on his face. Someone seemed pleased. As it turned out, his Talent counterpart was compelled to complement him on all of his work and contributions to them team, even going as far as stating his integral he was in getting them this far. Travis felt proud by the recognition though he didn't know how to verbally respond. Renown or prestige were pleasant once received though he found more sentiment with accomplishing the task at hand nd the greater good that came with it. His work and craftsmanship was what he strived for.

Travis produced an embarrassed chuckle but decided not to elaborate more once Zuri came into the conversation and reported on her training. It appeared she was also being the productive the best she could as well, "Splendid work, Zuri."

Upon her second advisory of calling it a day, Travis examined the time on his manadial before turning to face Felix, "I concur with Zuri. Now that we have finally something to work with, I think we would be more productive after getting some actual rest rather than topping off more caffeine shots."

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Apparently, Travis had struck a homerun with his alternative language application as Felix immediately latched onto the idea. For a moment, he was nearly suspecting Felix to show more doubt toward the concept, instead, Felix displayed intrigue and even further expanded upon his idea. Just has he listened to Felix give his input, Travis did as he offered and began producing a new pot of coffee, this time going with the standard roast as their other more alluring and colorful mixes were nearly exhausted in hopes of producing sooner results.
Just has he poured himself a cup of the latest batch, Felix briefly joined him and made his own cup, downing a portion, before continuing on. During the moment, Travis hadn’t even noticed Zuri arriving into the lab and taking the Fantasia Paragon to the backroom. Re-entering into the discussion, Felix simplified their new goal identified a few languages to consider. Hebrew was the initial one he described being notably efficient in some areas but he instead offered up his interests with the Japanese and Chinese languages, specifically Kanji and Hanzi.

Travis couldn’t help but grin upon learning Felix wasn’t adroit with oriental languages than previously anticipated, “Well, as a matter of fact, I do know quite a bit of both Kanji and Hanzi. It was a curricular subject for many Scholars at the Academia to learn the many languages and how they influence spellcraft...plus is pays to know and speak another language when you're on an expedition.”

After stating his case, Travis produced his manadial and began pulling a number structured shapes and templates from it's interface. The designs he recovered would then be projected into the air where he summoned his light projection spell once more, this time, he wrote a pair of runic sequences in the air, each representing a segment of Felix's stasis rune. However, they visually displayed completely different runic linguistics as Travis translated each segment into the respective written forms of Chinese and Japanese.

“Though I do see that the tricky part regarding any language being incorporated into a rune is understanding how their typography can be integrated as such," Travis advised as he applied the finishing touches to both runes. The resulting rune translated into Hanzi presented a orderly octagonal shape whereas the run written into Kanji gave a more circular appearance with a star-like shape at its center. To make his point clearer, he ensured each translation had an English translation for each noteworthy detail, "though another thing to know is how the scripting and circuits are designed and their correlation with verses and symbols used."

Upon finishing, stepped back and took a swig of his new cup coffee as he allowed Felix to examine his work. It was then Zuri returned from the backroom and queried, though came out as more of an advisement, when they would assume any sort of rest. Travis produced a sarcastic scoff, likely influenced from his conflicted fatigue and remedying caffeine, "how many times have we heard that line, Felix? I'm assuming its an unhealthy number."

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

"Um," Travis hesitated for a moment, not that he was unsure how to respond but more of a split-second reply he could muster before composing himself after burying his eyes into numerous tomes of rune-crafting and spell linguistics for the past several hours.

Like Felix, Travis was stretching himself beyond his physical and mental limitations and it was becoming difficult to fight back the fatigue that continued to plague him. It was perhaps his exhausted dedication and numerous cups of caffeine that kept him going for this long. Solving the personal ley-line/manawell predicament of his Talent counterpart was much more tedious and mind-numbing than he had previously anticipated. While is seemed that they were hardly closer to their objective, Travis nevertheless mused over their other successes involving their research.

Their initial studies within the first month gave them newer insight on how ley-lines worked and how they could be manipulated. This eventually lead to a breakthrough involving Travis' prototype runic spell where they had stumbled upon several of its key components that were responsible in severing the ley-lines on anything it was casted on, provided it held an aura. By reversing these components' programmed purpose and rewriting them, their newly reverse-engineered spell could promote the healing and reconstitution of ley-lines. The results were promising after they had tested it upon the disabled Paragons, Espial and Fantasia, and confirmed the spell could restore them back to their former glory. After the creation of this spell, Travis had on the side began his own project of compiling the results and effects of both his first prototype rune and this one in an effort to craft runic incantation what could undo any curse applied to a given person; namely Zuri in this case. Still, the new process created an issue of having to disable and renew the Paragons over and over again every time they wanted to use them, specifically Fantasia.

While their organization's purpose was to collect the Paragons and prevent them from following into the wrong hands, the Paragon Fantasia proved useful in many different ways they couldn't possibly pass up in utilizing. After diverting their attention to researching their recent bounty, Felix and Travis in due course figured out how they could implement Fantasia's dimensional field within a confined without bringing the entire mansion within its complex illusion. As such, a small room covered in perimeter-restricting runes was made in the back of the lab for the Paragon to create its worlds inside. Raiya had been one of Fantasia's recent users as of the past few days, doing what, Travis was unsure though he assumed it was training of sorts. During his and Felix’s conversation, Raiya had exited the small room and deposited the Paragon into the same receptacle they had used to hold and disable Espial, this time however, it used a newer spell.

After seeing his prototype rune in action several times, Travis proposed several revisions that would improve the rune and allow it to perform its original intended purpose. Through his testing, he identified a number of integrated redundancies within the original rune formula that were the main cause of any targeted ley-lines to be severed. Adjusting these elements took almost a day to complete but the result was exactly as he hoped for. Instead of completely terminating any ley-line connections the spell came in touch with, the new result would isolate and dampen the aura of anything it interfaced with, effectively suppressing the entity in question however only within its influencing circle.

With Raiya departing the lab to leave he and Felix be, Travis resumed his reply, “I would not say I’m having a better time at this than you are. Hell, I’m not even sure if what I have will cut it,”

“So, as we know, the main deal of this plan it to allow you to leave the mansion premises unharmed and without incurring any additional issues, at least for an acceptable duration at least,” he continued, “the problem of course is developing a more mobile runic spell efficient enough to keep your mana-well degradation in check during that time away. Quite honestly, at least with the current and typical methods at hand, the best I can could produce was re-writing the existing rune into a compressed form. However, the smaller rewrite is still too large and can’t be reduced any further without losing potency.”

Travis then casted his light projection and began writing several glyphs into the air, “With that said however, I think I have two responses to this dilemma,”

“One possible solution is to divide the spell into separate sections; micronized runes essentially, each with a defining purpose. I’ve done a few preliminary checks with the theory and it does seem plausible to have some of these runes coded to act as redundant auxiliaries in which, via referencing scripting, coincide with the main body rune responsible for keeping your – what was it called again? ‘Retrograde mana-well atrophy’? Yeah, keeping that in stasis, along with a few other smaller runes to recite its purpose,” Travis explained as he illustrated a central circle with about five other runic glyphs surrounding it and connected with lines of additional scripting.

“My worry though is, well, how awkward this with undoubtedly look. The design is rather specific and frankly may take up most of your body, like a weird tattoo. Of course, I could feasibly inscribe these runes via wearable objects, say like a bracelet for instance. Not sure if you’re into bling though."

Travis then began another set of drawings, this time a notably larger rune however its shape was unusual and didn't seem to match that of other runic frameworks or styles. The choice of works also seemed oddly positioned and seemingly didn't coincide with principle scripting, “My other solution is going to sound unorthodox at best. As mentioned before, the usual manner of how I would condense a spell is simply not enough to scale down the existing rune. That is of course if I change the rules a bit on how runes could be written. Bear with me as I try to explain this as it sounds like jumping down a rabbit hole.”

"Ever heard of the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis?" Travis began, "it’s a more of a popular way of saying linguistic relativity. Linguistic relativity, simply put, is the individual cognitive experience of the world through the language used. As you may know, some languages in the real world tend to lack certain aspects of other dialects and often have different ways to approach or describe base norms. For instance, the Pirahã language literally has no numbers or more specifically, no words to describe an exact quantity and instead only composes of approximates quantities like, literally, ‘small amount’ or relatively large amount’. Another example is Mandarin Chinese which utilizes a totally different tone and inflection structure compared to English in which can ultimately alter the meaning of a single word.”

Travis described this but writing several Chinese words, each displaying their own visual tones and inflections and beside them were their English translations, each with a different work or phrase, “Getting to the point, what I am seeking to do is to rewrite the existing rune using a different inflection structures in order to reduce its complexity and therefore its size, but retain effectiveness too. It’s a longshot though I don’t suppose it couldn’t hurt to try. However it may involve a ton of testing before, or if, a conceivable working miniature rune can be produced."

Travis then backed up and allowed to Felix to absorbed his proposed ideas. When he reached for his mug, he found that it was hollow and without its caffeinated substance, "Huh, I think I should make another pot..."

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Travis continued to listen on to Felix's elaboration concerning his more apparent condition inflicted by his meddling retraction from the Holy Grail. While the Arch-Magi had some possible clues, they were more or less uncertainties without any grounding evidence nor appraise. What was known for sure however was that the affliction started by aborting a segment of his mana-well to free himself from a binding oath fabricated by the catholic arcanocracy. With the case in mind, it seemed likely that reversing the process was the only way to null this mana-driven anomaly. But what in entailed was quite literally acquiring the Holy Grail; a task Travis quickly predicted and probably agreed upon as insane if not suicidal.

But before heading down that road, assuming everyone is still kicking up to that point, treating the problem seems like the only best and more productive solution currently available, "While even I can't begin to imagine what is eating you, it'll definitely be a challenge worth tackling. Heck, may even help out with our research with the Paragons too," said Travis, sound more confident than he was minutes before.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Just as Felix had asked how their mission went, Travis had opened his mouth to speak but instead of hearing his own voice, he heard Nemo volunteering to do the debriefing. The Untalent was initially surprised that Nemo would decide to give Felix the full run down on what had transpired in the past several hours. Travis wouldn't have thought his Talent counterpart would even go for such a seemingly mundane task of recollecting past events; that was until he learned Nemo had apparently came well prepared for this. A deadpanned expression quickly filled Travis' face just as he witnessed Nemo producing a title card gleefully written by various sharpie pens, Really?, he thought.

The moment seemed to dive into the realm of ridiculousness as Nemo revealed a small stage illustrating their initial landing, showcasing several puppets each resembling of the mission's participants. He's really going through this isn't he? Travis covered his face with his right hand, feeling briefly dumbfounded and embarrassed to continue watching from this point on. Eventually his hand dragged downward and ended up covering his mouth, allowing him to reluctantly witness the most unnecessary puppet show that seemingly ever existed. As he expected, Nemo began summarizing their experiences in the most oversimplified and vague method he can think of. Travis continued silently watch Nemo carry out his act the best he could though found himself questioning several scenes that were either poorly elaborated on or seemed inaccurately fabricated.

The awkwardness of the play suddenly and abruptly stopped momentarily as Nemo visual described Zoey's apparent demise by brutally slamming her puppet doppelganger into the table the performance took place on, smashing the tiny figure in the process and fragmenting it across the room. While he figured this was typical of Nemo's behavior, the act however pained the Untalent whom surmised that Zoey had died while protecting him from Siedon's attack, based on the display and through what he experienced. Travis looked away and tried his best to conceal his emotions from manifesting during Nemo's 'debrief'; once more he had lost another potential friend during one of these dangerous missions. Eventually, he was mostly successful in swallowing down his dismay and sorrow, only to being himself back into the fold where Nemo was reenacting their plight against Fathers Galvadon and Stockton. It wasn't long until the simulated conflict ended with the showcasing of Travis' unfortunate retrieval of the Paragon; an event he himself still felt quite livid of. To his surprise, Nemo didn't monopolize on that astounding scene with any antics he had previously covered before and quickly got to the point of them falling into the collapsing ocean where they were retrieved by Felix himself, thus concluding his play.

"I think I'll volunteer for now on with filling in the blanks for Felix," Travis sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose as he still fathomed of what he had just witnessed.

Apparently Raiya had similar contemptible words for the white-haired Talent but not the ones Travis had in mind. Instead, Raiya criticized him for either taking glory of kill that war rightfully hers; twice in fact with the case of killing Lori and being denied her revenge against Rutger. Travis frowned and rolled his eyes, already knowing where her criticism was leading to. He did his best to try and ignore it and stayed out in the event Nemo jumped in. Apparently however, he didn’t bite on and instead apologized. Travis mentally concluded he may never truly understand the ways in which Nemo’s mind worked.

It was finally Felix whom re-brought up the more important fact was that one of their number, Zoey, had been filled in battle; a fact Nemo and Raiya had both failed to properly emphasize on. Felix continued to build upon this new case he made and began to express his backgrounds in a way Travis had not anticipated. As he listened to Felix, he learned that their leader had decided to essentially withdraw his blood oath on the Holy Grail itself; an object in legend Travis himself wasn’t quite sure was actually legitimate or not. More or less, Felix had utilized a spell, similar to the one Travis had created and severed his connection with the artifact. However, the motion apparently triggered a failsafe of sorts; a curse that was now bound to him and threatened to devour his mana well and ultimately his life. He finally concluded that in suspending the curse, he had fabricated a rune that would keep in check but only within its vicinity, namely within the grounds of the mansion they resided in.

It quickly all made sense to Travis as to why Felix, with as much favorable power and skill he possessed, could not participate in any of their recent missions. Travis held back another urge, this time frustration, directed towards Felix for not detailing this fact that could have given everyone the context and understanding of what they were really fighting and dying for. Despite his rising contempt, Travis figured this was something Felix was likely all too aware of and likely was experiencing the guilt the problem had created too.

Travis thought hard about how he would respond next. Given the missions and the end goal of the ultimate objective, he knew that this quest was dangerous. The problem though was exactly how dangerous as they now had a couple of people that have died taking on a righteous task they were not familiar with nor hardly wanting of it. In retrospect, he didn’t need to be here; he could be back in Guatemala in an abandoned warehouse continuing his runic research while only worrying of either being found out or being chanced by two not-so-friendly factions that would want him dead for many reasons. While his original hideout was arguably less dangerous, that wasn’t anything much to it. Much of the research he had recently conducted likely could not had been duplicated or discovered where he previously resided.

Despite the dangers, he had owed it to Felix to giving him the opportunity for expanding his horizons tremendously, whether the ex-Arch Magi had passively intended it or not. However, that same notion was a can of worms that had opened for awhile; did he truly owe Felix anything? Considering recent events, he would have quick, maybe too quick to say no. When he truly poured thought into it, his actual answer was fuzzy at best and too many things to weigh to a finally conclusion. But what he knew for certain were his obligations he himself had vocally made and he intended on keeping them.

"...honestly, I - we, still have research to conduct with the Paragons," Travis reluctantly began, already beginning to sense regret forming in the back of his conscious, "and I did say that I would find a way to undo the effects of my spell and help Zuri regain her memories and abilities...so, yeah. I'm staying."

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Per Travis' suggestion, Nemo checked his manadial and confirmed that it was now usable. With a few finger presses and a minute later, Felix's signature portal materialized just above them, followed by Felix himself exiting the fabricated rift and gracefully approaching the group, "You're a sight for sore eyes!" Travis openly commented, feeling the stress he had gradually accrued during the entirety of this mission beginning to evaporate.

After Felix constructed a new portal for them to evacuate through, Travis caught Nemo passing a remark in a reply to Felix that ultimately poked hinted amusement toward his unfortunate interaction with the now fully-deceased Samuel, "'Skirmish' wouldn't be my choice of words," he retorted, not even bothering to hold back his distain for the comment before he himself passed through the portal.

Stepping back into Felix's mansion was certainly a warm and welcoming sensation due in part with its homely comforts and safety that it brought. Travis was to rushing upstairs and collapsing in his quarters for a well deserved respite. However duty reminded him that he still had Fantasia to be presented to Felix first, in addition with any debriefing that would follow suit as well. With a relaxing sigh, Travis stayed close by to the portal while awaiting for Zuri and Felix to come through. In the mean time, he summoned up a spell that could visually be described as a miniature sun and held it in his right hand while the Paragon rested in his left. The radiating orb illuminated a wave of localized heat and helped with drying his still damp clothes as seen with the evaporated steam seeping away from his coat and being absorbed into the spell.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

It was after Raiya having preached her gloomy take on the situation did Nemo respond by at least lightening it up. With a single word, a small portion of seawater near them rose the ocean they inhabited and shifted its shape and substance until it resembled a small raft. A transmutation spell? thought Travis as he followed Nemo along Raiya into the ebony-hued boat.

Travis eventually pulled himself from the ocean and nearly collapsed within their artificial watercraft, showing a brief sign of exhaustion afterwards. While tending to himself, Travis nearly became oblivious to Nemo's following statement, more of a request unto to Untalent, in addressing the issue with their Paragon hindering them from contacting Felix, "W-what? Oh, right. Gimme a minute," he replied, sounding somewhat dazed.

Once he had received his small crystalline case containing his experimental rune back from Zuri after she had used it against Rutger, he pulled the Paragon of Fantasia out from the confines of his trench coat. Unlike the rune's initial use on Espial in a more controlled environment, Travis figured that the application process was essentially the same without the need of a compartment of sorts to store the powerful mana crystal. Additionally, the blinding of this Paragon was temporary and a necessary means to an end. Travis took aim with his rune and pointed it at Fantasia, away from his teammate less they get caught within its aura-ripping influence.

"Heads up, this is gonna be loud. Better cover your ears," he warned as he began channeling his mana through the rune,

Such as the case with their battle with Rutger, his rune once more ejected a screaming pule upon its activation. The projected wave quickly collided with Fantasia's aura, causing an extremely high-pitched sound to resonate as if two large metallic objects grinded their durable surfaced against one another. As a result to this collision, the Paragon's emanating mana and aura were violently discharged through a surging ray of light that exited into the dying horizon. From what Travis could gather, the brilliance shown here was certainly more active than observed with Espial thought he difference was that this Paragon was not being visually hidden away. The processed eventually subsided immediately after a minute after the rune had successfully disabled the Paragon.

"Ow," Travis stated before trying to pop his jaw in a futile attempt to null the ringing in his ears, "yeah, that was loud."

After getting over the screeching results of the spell blinding their Paragon, Travis summoned up his manalysis and observed the now passive Fantasia. Just as how Espial was effected, Travis could certainly see that Fantasia's beaming aura had faded tremendously despite the still present signs of mana coursing through it. Just as Felix had noted with the same-effected Espial, Travis could also confirm that this Paragon was not even responding or attempting to interact with his own aura at all now, signaling to him that its ley-lines have been rendered useless. However, because the Paragon was no longer operable in its new blinded and restrained state, the effect of peering into it as he found no longer gave the typical overwhelming experience everyone would have usually felt, almost degrading the sensation of how one would look at a usually charged mana crystal.

"Well, Fantasia here seems pretty dormant now. I'm not seeing or sensing an aura," Travis replied while his focus still remained on the Paragon, "try your manadials; I don't think we should be bothered by that interference anymore."

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

For a short while, Travis only saw darkness and heard the faint resonating echoes of unfamiliar sounds all around him. He tried looking around, searching for Nemo and Zuri ahead of him and Rayia to his rear. Unfortunately, he had very little to go by and even questioned if he was being flung forwards or backwards as he felt the spell's tidal forces sent him hurdling through the empty space he was consumed by.

Eventually, a light penetrated the blackness, followed by a loud and abrupt noise that filled Travis' ears. The momentarily weightlessness he experienced soon faded back to the just control of gravity as he sensed his body taking a steep uncontrolled drop. His sight would quickly return seconds later, allowing him to see a wall of water fast approaching. Travis's couldn't help but let out a yelp as he frantically placed his hands in front of his face. Once more, the roar of the ocean died down into a muffled distortion as he involuntarily broke through the exterior of the water. He sank below the waves briefly but Travis soon regained control of his body and frantically swam back to the surface and gasped for air upon breaching the surface.

It didn't take long for Nemo, keeping Raiya afloat, along with Zuri to group back with him. Per Nemo's query, Travis looked over to him all the while ensuring he was able to keep himself suspended at the oceans surface, "I-I'm okay..."

After that, Nemo followed up by asking the condition of his weapon he trusted Travis with.

"Um," Travis began as he look over his shoulder and eyed the firearm, "drenched? Other than that, it looks fine."

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Travis glanced at Nemo with a scowling look, having caught his teammate emanating amusement at his unpleasant tribulation. He had a few unprofessional words in mind for the white haired Talent but as fate would have it, his attention would be drawn back to unwelcomed presence of Samuel Croft, apparently still filled life; whatever was left of it. Travis felt the instinctive urge to spin around and blast the skeleton away the moment he registered Samuel's voice. That desire however dissipated upon him registering Samuel decrying his action as a damning consequence.

Before Samuel could follow-up any further, his skeletal remains were suddenly engulfed by a rapidly growing sphere of darkness. Travis could immediately feel the vacuum-like effect of the unexpected anomaly and scrambled away from in before joining the rest of his team. As the sphere expanded and consumed more of its surrounding's like a micronized black hole, it was Nemo who had figured out its uncanny arrival. Just as he pointed out, the vegetation of the island was devoid of mana despite their normal and natural appearance. While Travis himself didn't notice that fact, it nevertheless seemed relevant given the structures on the island they ventured through were unnaturally untouched by time. And now that the Paragon removed from Samuel's influence, the spell that projected the entire island was now deconstructing and it was becoming harder to resist its pull.

However, it seemed the developing void before them may not be as life-threatening as was previously perceived. Raiya and Nemo concluded that the island was summoned out of the desires of the late Samuel Croft as an attempt to save himself from ultimately drowning. Drowning being the keyword, meaning that there would have been a body of water present for such a fate to occur. As evident by Raiya's worried deduction, the moment they or the island become overtaken by the ever-expanding void, whichever came first, they would be ejected back into ocean. It wasn't a thrilling thought given what they had endured hours ago but there was no alternative present and Travis could very much feel that the pull of the degrading spell was becoming too much to resist.

With that said, Nemo, unsurprisingly, volunteered to fall into the rift, but not after advising Travis to ensure the Paragon and his gun were fastened, alluding to the inevitable and fast approaching circumstance were the Untalent himself would need to succumb to the spell’s pull as well. For a moment, Travis was half-expecting a visually violent outro for Nemo being overtaken by the expending sphere though as with Rutger’s unsecured corpse, he un-climatically phased out of existence. After Nemo came Zuri taking her own plunge as well, leaving only Travis and Raiya remaining.

Per Nemo’s suggestion, Travis slid the Paragon into a secured compartment within his trench coat and held onto the shotgun tightly while wrapping its holder band around his upper body. As soon as he figured he was ready, he glanced back at Raiya with an unsure expression, “See ya on the side I suppose,” he said, giving the phrase, a duel meaning before forfeiting his balance and jumping into the collapsing spell.