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It remained exactly where it was. Alex\'s brow furrowed and he tried to concentrate harder, but nothing changed. The energy felt like it was trapped within his body. He carefully climbed back to his feet and shifted his weight from foot to foot to see if the Qi had caused any physical changes.

He could feel his body even more responsive than it had been before he\'d sat down to meditate — but that was because he\'d upgraded his Mind Palace. It didn\'t have anything to do with the Riftwarped Qi as far as he knew.

For that matter, is it even safe to have something called Riftwarped Qi inside myself?

He didn\'t feel any worse for the wear. The magic was just… there. Sitting inside him. Waiting for something. Alex chewed his lower lip as he thought. He lifted his hand back to his face. It was lit, both by the energy within and by the light starting to spill in through the window.

The sun had started to rise over the horizon, banishing the night and heralding the day.

Seconds ticked by. Alex squinted at his hand, trying to access the energy in every way he could imagine. His efforts were unsuccessful. The Qi started to pull away and drain back toward his core.

He fought to keep a hold of the power. It was like trying to scoop water with open hands. It slithered between his mental fingers and returned to its resting place, stubbornly refusing any attempts to re-collect it.

How do I use this stuff? It\'s got to need some sort of outlet, but it doesn\'t look like I can just shove it out as it is. Maybe I have to do something else at the same time?

It wasn\'t like he had many other options to test. If the Qi couldn\'t be used directly, then perhaps it was a way to empower his other skills. Something like an alternate energy source or an extra pool of power to draw from.

"Glint," Alex whispered, though there was little point to it. The silence in the room wasn\'t going to last long. "Come out."

Glass shattered. Twinkling shards of reality rained down as mirrored claws raked through space, ripping it apart and forming a portal.

Something lurched in Alex\'s stomach. His core tightened as if he\'d just been punched and he drew in a sharp breath. Power raced out of him in a river. Every droplet of Qi that he still had a hold of evaporated like a puddle in the desert.

A loud, buzzing crackle filled the air. The edges of Glint\'s shimmering portal crackled purple — not all too dissimilar from the ones that connected Earth and the Mirrorlands. The hair on Alex\'s neck stood on end and he tasted iron in his mouth.

A mirror-clawed foot hit the ground, slicing deep into the wooden planks beneath it. Stormy purple energy hummed within the shards of glass, lighting them up like precious gems. The rest of Glint\'s body followed after the foot.

Every single mirror that jutted from his body churned with energy. Crackles of purple magic arced across his skin and popped between his fingers. It raced across his teeth and vanished deep within his gullet. Glint raised his eyes to Alex.

The Shardwalker\'s eyes were silver no longer. They were two vortexes of swirling purple and black, twisting inward in an infinite spiral. The fragments of reality littering the ground at Glint\'s faded away as the portal sealed shut behind him once more.

Alex stared at Glint in surprise. His monster\'s actual proportions were normal, but the energy filling his body made it evident that he was anything but. Glint\'s fingers twitched at his sides in sharp, jerky movements.

Slow-moving arcs of energy wormed up from Glint, crawling through the air as they sought purchase on any other surface. The floorboards buzzed as the energy burned them and the air was filled with a thick, earthy scent that would have been comforting if not for an acrid undertone.

Pieces of Glint\'s body shifted in and out of reality like they couldn\'t decide which plane they resided in. His very position on the ground vibrated like a plucked guitar string.

"Whoa," Alex breathed in awe. He extended a hand toward Glint, then thought better of it at the last second. He didn\'t know what would happen if his finger touched a part of the monster as it was phased out when it was coming back into being — and he didn\'t want to find out.

"What is the Qi doing to you, Glint?" Alex took a step to the side to get a better look at his twitching monster.

It… kind of just looks like I just had him snort a bunch of magic cocaine. There are definitely some ethical concerns here. I hope OSHA didn\'t survive the end of the world.

"Can you control the whole… flickering thing?" Alex asked, squinting at Glint. It almost seemed as if his Shardwalker had one foot in the Mirrorlands and one foot on Earth. "Cement yourself fully in this plane if you are able to."

Glint\'s vortexed eyes bored into Alex\'s skull. The energy around him let out an angry crackle and scorched into the ground around him, raking across it like claws. A pungent stench filled the room as charred wood blackened.

The Shardwalker fully solidified.

"Can you do the opposite?" Alex asked.

Alex\'s ears popped. Glint vanished, disappearing from sight and leaving nothing but a buzzing, veiny outline of electric purple energy where he\'d been standing a moment ago.

So imbuing Glint with the Riftwarped Qi makes him slide in and out of this plane. Kind of like that ability I got offered a while ago, but for him instead of me. That\'s interesting. I wonder what it does to my other abilities. I\'ll have to find —

Claire yawned.

"I did—"

Glint snapped back into existence.

Claire launched herself nearly a foot into the air with a string of surprised curses. She nearly tripped over her own feet as she landed and gaped at the Shardwalker. "What the bleeding hell happened to Glint?"

"I imbued him with Qi," Alex replied. Parts of Glint started to buzz and flicker in and out of reality again, but he noted that the energy filling the mirror shards had started to recede. Where there had once been pure purple glass had become veiny and reflective. The Rift energy Alex had spent on his Shardwalker was running out.

This could be incredibly useful… but Qi has to do more than this. The silhouette back in the Nexus Point put way too much stress on the importance of Qi Energy for this to be it, and that\'s not even to mention the fact it\'s got something to do with my Domain.

Meiderly said I\'d unlock that at the third Soul Stage. I guess this is like an intermediatory.

"Qi?" Claire\'s head tilted to the side. "What\'s that?"

"Did you reach Initiate Stage?"

"No. I\'m Novice 9," Claire replied. She blew out a breath and held a hand up, flexing her fingers. "I think I could have reached Initiate if I hadn\'t spent the vast majority of my energy on advancing my Mind Palace like you suggested. I don\'t think I\'ve quite made it yet."

"How much do you have right now?"

"My big ass marble bowl thing with the slab behind it, a stairwell leading up to it, and one and a half giant pillars."

"You\'ve got a bit more to go, then. I had 3 of the pillar things. Also, if you keep shoving energy into them, you get some holes in them as well."

"Holes. Useful."

Alex shrugged. "Seemed like the right thing to do. I also got a gemstone thing from the rewards of reaching the top of the leaderboard. Did you get one as well?"

Claire shook her head. "Nothing like that. Just got a bunch of energy. Can\'t complain. It got me three levels in addition to the Mind Palace advances, and I was able to use that energy to upgrade Dhampir\'s Awakening. Now my wings will actually function like real wings as long as I get enough energy to work with."

"Wait. You can fly?" Alex\'s eyes widened.

"More like glide. They\'re not that strong yet," Claire admitted. "At least, I don\'t think they are. Haven\'t had a chance to test it yet. I also upgraded Energy Thief to let me drain a bit of Life Energy when I get a good bite on someone. It\'ll help me accelerate my healing mid-fight. Should be useful, considering I nearly got squished last time."

"Nearly?" Alex raised an eyebrow. "There was no nearly about it. You got sat on by a giant cat."

Claire grimaced. "I can pretend, okay? But you never told me what Qi was. Is it something I get at Initiate?"

"Yeah. I\'m not fully sure what it is yet, but it definitely magnified Glint somehow. I think I need to see him in an actual fight to figure out what Qi really does," Alex admitted. He and Claire both looked back to Glint. The power had almost completely drained out of the Shardwalker by now. Alex could feel it welling in his chest once more, but it would be some time before enough of the power had regenerated for it to be back to the amount he\'d initially had.

"To the Mirrorlands, then. I want to test out just how much stronger I am now, especially after the upgrades to my Mind Palace. Have you had a chance to eat?"

Alex blinked. He had not. As a matter of fact, he\'d completely forgotten about food. He tried to remember when the last time he\'d eaten was. It had been the pancakes at Dorriv\'s joint, which had to have been around a day ago.

I think I might be on a bit too much adrenaline.

But now that Claire had brought it up, his stomach panged in protest.

"No," Alex said. He reached for his back pocket, where the crumpled up water bottle waited to be used. "I should probably do that. We can get some water and food from Dorriv on the way."

Claire nodded. The two of them left the room and set out to find Dorriv.

Excitement welled in Alex\'s stomach. The Mirrorlands were practically calling his name. After all the boons he\'d just cashed in, it was about time to see just how much stronger he\'d gotten.