Now it is time to deal with the army of Rykers. I felt oddly calm once the alarm sounded, bordering on feeling relieved. Why? Was I just anxious waiting for it all to begin? Or was it because now the only way to the end of the day was through? I took a few composing breaths, getting ready for the battle even if I wasn't entirely sure what it would look like. I felt Krahinn wrap around me as he dissolved his physical form before I felt that I now possessed access to his immense <Mana Reserve>. He had yet to form the armor, but his eyes were all around me now, giving me the visual feedback of all the angles around me. I need to get used to seeing that more. Work on it. Krahinn engaged my <Arcane Eye>, which likely was going to be active until the fighting was over, before using <Warp> to bring me up high in the sky to view the attacking forces. I failed that many times? Hearing how much I struggled against the Void King was one thing, but the visual feedback of seeing just how many Rykers there were cut deep. I could see several flags of Speranza flying high, showing the Crowthorne family crest, a kind of two headed bird coated in spikes with massive wings, in red over a green X and a black backdrop.

Did I seriously fail that many times? I wondered to myself, reeling from the number of copies I saw.

Focus Nil. Yes, you have indeed reset the clock that many times. I am frankly surprised it took that many attempts for the Void King to force the <Geas>. Krahinn snapped at me mentally.

It's just different seeing just how many Ryker's there are. I confessed while I summoned my sword.

I understand you are likely feeling something in response to that, but now is not the time to think about it. Instead, let us gently say hello. Krahinn quipped with glee in his voice.

He likely wanted to see what the <Arcane Eye> was truly capable of knowing him. I began using it to manifest an event to zero out Ryker's <Astral Scale>, seeing the various possible rends I could turn into reality for the copies. With Krahinn's assistance, the amount I was able to form at once was well beyond what I expected. Lords above this is so much stronger than when it is just me. Obviously it is going to be. I used my <Lord's Eye> to bring them all into reality, eviscerating a solid cluster of two hundred Ryker's in an instant. Several moments later, I immediately began creating more on the surviving Ryker's, annihilating another section as the <Veil> condensed into ripping apart another two hundred. It needs to be more than two hundred or I'll have to do this thousands of times. Then push it further, you are getting essentially zero <Backlash> from this. Ryker seemed caught off guard as I suddenly ripped apart a good grouping of his copies, but I did not slow down as I pushed it from two hundred to four hundred, using Krahinn's <Mana> to fuel doubling the number of them. To my surprise, with Krahinn bolstering my abilities I felt completely fine using it to destroy four hundred <Homunculi>. Come on Nil, try a thousand. Do you think that's a good idea? I wouldn't recommend it otherwise.

Fine, time to push it further. It should be fine, right? It took a bit more effort to expand the number of instances to one thousand, because Ryker realized he needed to break line of sight with me, so the copies started diving behind buildings for cover. Once I had roughly a thousand, I made all the events occur at once to deal with the cluster I targeted. Fountains of <Ichor> erupted from them as most Rykers on that side broke line of sight. I rotated around, seeing the next section where the Rykers had not seen my <Arcane Eye> in action. My <Lord's Eye> could be used about three times before the Rykers realized they needed to break line of sight with me atop the castle and manage to get behind cover. Once I managed to rotate in each direction back to the start, I wasn't sure what to do next. We're down just over ten thousand Ryker copies. Unfortunately, that wasn't even a tenth; it wasn't even a twentieth of the total Ryker copies swarming Umbra, which were now weaving in between the buildings to avoid me using my <Arcane Eye> to slaughter what I could see. I kind of wish that I could take out more. What were you expecting? The requirement of line of sight is pretty obvious, but luckily for you I can do this. Krahinn's floating eyes shot out as I realized how far he could extend his eyes away from his actual body, allowing me to see the Ryker copies hiding behind buildings, maneuvering against the guards that were going to confront them.

Through the viewing portal of Krahinn's eyes I tried using my <Arcane Eye>; to my surprise, it worked but was a bit more challenging than when it was right from my eyes. Another cluster imploded from the event violently zeroing out the <Astral Scale> and coated the surrounding with <Ichor> that burst from their bodies. One of the <Homunculi> tried launching a <Spell> at Krahinn's projected eye, but Krahinn maneuvered his eye to safety to dodge the <Spell> while I used my <Lord's Eye> to quickly remove the next few copies that were right there. It was a bit disorienting switching between the point of views of Krahinn's various eyes to rapidly start taking down Rykers left and right. Whenever I killed some copies of Ryker, more just took their place while swarming in with their numbers to engage the guards. The Ryker horde surged forth like cockroaches against the guards as I repeatedly used my <Arcane Eye> to try and mow them back, but it did little against just so many copies of him. The guards were in a solid formation to defend against the army; however, Ryker was unfortunately an adept fighter who rapidly assaulted the eye of Krahinn and the guards. Despite my best efforts, Ryker quickly snaked a spear into one of their throats. No, I.. I wasn't fast enough. I felt this awful sensation begin to well up inside me. Do not falter Nil; cry once this is over. They just died because of me! Tough shiza, that'll be everyone if you fold here.

It did not take long for the next several guards to fall to the Ryker swarm even while I kept using my <Arcane Eye> to lessen the amount of them; <Ichor> and blood was beginning to flow into the street as the battle truly began. Whatever dark, horrible emotion began bubbling up Krahinn due to our connection either through his irritation or snapping at me to focus suppressed it for now. Multiple Rykers kept putting pressure on Krahinn's projected eye which forced him to bring it away from that particular group of Rykers. I focused on the next eye of Krahinn, seeing several guards being utterly overwhelmed by the numerous Rykers. Died because of this fight. The <Lord's Eye> could only slightly lessen the sheer waves of Ryker at each eye before they blasted <Spells> of various <Affinities> towards whichever one of Krahinn's eyes I was seeing through. This had been three minutes, twenty-six seconds of fighting so far, but how many already died? Just how many were there? How many are dying because of me? Focus Nil. Do not think about that, there are plenty of more Rykers to get rid of. Krahinn tightened up how far away from him he kept his eyes projected, giving me more angles to try and attack from. Unfortunately, the army of Ryker rapidly reacted to my line of sight-based slaughter to try and break the line of sight as much as possible while continuing their attack. Krahinn was great at maneuvering his eyes to new orientations to restart the assault against them, allowing for a consistent pressure against the number to be applied.

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Ryker decided that he needed a better solution to deal with the projected eyes than trying to attack them in the air, so he began using <Fire Magic>. Oh, that forling buknarl. Can we do something about that? I doubt it, we have <Space Magic>, not something suited to putting out flames. Once one cluster of Rykers began using fire, several others saw the fire and began igniting nearby buildings. From around the castle, two massive walls of <Darkness Magic> sectioned off on the sides to keep the other Rykers from seeing the fire idea. Thanks Uncle Nez. Good thinking from him. I heard city shaking drum beats as I saw the Excalbrius floating down the river swathed in flames, seeing the water begin to swirl and surge as Nautilus's <Magic> began to lift the entire river out of the channel to spray water outwards. Several copies of Rykers began assaulting Nautilus and her ship as I began using my <Lord's Eye> to help her out, but Nautilus motioned for me to go somewhere else. Should we help her? No, she likely is going to be fine. I saw her do some palm strike, projecting it with a wave of <Mana>, killing several Rykers with each swing as Nautilus effortlessly controlled the water to lift her entire ship easily fifty feet into the air, starting to combat the blaze. Nil, we need to focus somewhere else. You're right.

I turned to see where the support was the weakest, seeing a section to the west where my family was not. Krahinn quickly projected his eyes that way in order to continue our assault on the Rykers; I was starting to see several guard corpses as the swarm of Rykers charged forward undeterred by the casualties of his side. Is he just banking on how many copies he possesses? Likely, as each copy can easily deal with a few guards, his army scales quite well into assaulting with this strategy. Each copy of Ryker still thought like Ryker, as they rapidly came up with the idea of using smoke to obscure my ability to see them and began lighting fire in this section as well. Forling dilwaul has a one-track mind. Can we deter him from doing that somehow? Keep killing them and there won't be any to light a fire. Four minutes and fifty-seven seconds of Rykers attack, and we still had countless copies of Rykers to go. This was going to take so much effort in order to start making a noticeable dent in the army of him. Even after repeatedly applying my <Lord's Eye> to them was not getting the job done fast enough to save the guards.

Stop thinking about the lives of the guards, it is tragic but focus on what you can save. We can mourn and lament the ones lost once we are through this ordeal. Krahinn lectured me sternly, as I could feel his irritation while we were currently bonded.

I am trying, it is hard when I'm seeing them die. I told him, trying to steel myself enough to keep going.

This is barely just begun, do not even think of feeling guilty and sad until this is comfortably over. Mourning is for the surviving victors. Krahinn snapped at me.

We kept up the assault, trying to kill as many clones of Ryker as I could with each use of my <Arcane Eye>. Ryker at this point began torching numerous buildings to try and engulf the entire sky with smoke. Uncle Nez used more <Darkness Magic> to attempt to section off the different portions of Ryker's forces, but soon there was a small sea of flames beginning to consume Umbra. The fire in the section I was paying attention to began spreading towards a clock tower with a small plaza that had one of our flags flying proudly in middle of it. Throughout Umbra I noticed even more fires were beginning to erupt as all of the Rykers deduced that Krahinn nor I could not easily see through smoke as a precaution against me assisting from afar. Six minutes and twenty-seven seconds to reach this point, seeing what was about to be a sea of burning buildings as the Rykers adjusted their assault plan. How many were left? Just how many Rykers did we have to go?

Do not think of that Nil, just keep fighting. Krahinn instructed me while I was trying to gauge just how many we needed to go through.

How do we deal with this fire? I inquired back, wondering what to do with the starting to obscure the sky smoke. How much of Umbra would even survive this?

Get closer to the ground. Just be ready to get swarmed by Ryker as he is truly going to want to murder you. Krahinn informed me. Not exactly what I asked but I knew our <Magic> was not well suited to removing the flames without destroying the building as well.

Is that really the best course of action? I checked, wondering how I'd survive on the ground.

Don't forget I am augmenting you substantially right now. My <Magic> can keep you safe as I use my eyes to keep Ryker off you. Krahinn assured me.

With a heavy sigh, I began making my way towards the plaza, knowing the copies Ryker would rush me. I landed in the plaza by the flag, raising my sword for the wave of Rykers marching towards this place. The guards definitely did not want to be in his range, so it would be cowardly and pathetic of me not to take a similar risk. Remember you need to smile. I'll try. I forced myself to smile as I steeled myself for the Rykers to charge me. Just by the buildings, slightly obscured by smoke, I could sense the wave trying to figure out how to get near me without risking my <Arcane Eye> as they rapidly tried dispersing into the side alleys. What I could see was getting a healthy dose of <Lord's Eye> applied to them but the Ryker clones rapidly were able to hide behind buildings. Krahinn fully formed the armor around me at this point, keeping his nine eyes surrounding me to give a full field of view around me to stop any sucker punches from Ryker.

"Come on Ryker, face me like the man you pretend to be!" I challenged them, raising my sword to fight them. Ryker began using <Spells> to create a smoke screen as the group rushed me from the buildings.

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