While the first batch of mechanical equipment bound for the Source-Devouring Time-Space was still being loaded, new information arrived from the Evil Swamp Time-Space.
Saine set aside the delivery checklist in his hands for the moment and looked toward the other side of the laboratory.
Within the gray-green screen of light that had already opened, Yilan's enormous rules body was slowly moving.
Compared with the last time Saine had seen him in person, some of the surrounding source power had been cleared away. The observation devices previously scattered throughout the area had also been moved farther out, leaving only a few probes in areas where they could function normally.
The Lord of Evil Swamp was nearby.
His sharp, gray-white hair rose gently with the tides of source power. He raised his right hand and slowly drew a channel that had originally led straight to his own rule true body toward Yilan.
This time, Saine had not gone to the site himself.
The data collected earlier and the subsequent supplementary records had given him some understanding of Yilan's current condition. With the Lord of Evil Swamp personally controlling this initial, small-scale diversion, Saine did not need to keep his actual body beside it at all times.
But mechanical devices Saine had adjusted in advance had been left at several important locations.
Now, the images transmitted by those devices appeared before him one after another.
"You can begin," Saine said.
A moment later, the Lord of Evil Swamp closed his hand within the screen of light.
The gray-green ripples that had still been surging outward were immediately forced deeper inside. Then a force far heavier than ordinary fel energy traveled along the channel that had been drawn over and entered Yilan's body.
Yilan made no sound.
Only the plague rules covering his