173, 2/2

The white city stretched out into the first three islands of a five-island archipelago chain. The first, largest island, held the kingdom castle. The second, the Grand Wizard’s Tower. The third, a small cathedral dedicated to many lost gods. The fourth was a simple forested island, but the fifth was little more than twenty meters of barren, half-jagged rock sticking out of the gentle surf.

It was in the jagged rocks that the wrought settled down. They had blipped nearby, and then flew the remaining dozen kilometers to come down atop this island and position themselves on the flattish, open space to one side. Each of them had changed from yesterday. All of them were fully healed, but beyond that, they had ‘dressed’ up for the occasion.

Kromolok had shifted his white incani form to include official-looking robes with badges of office pinned to his chest that shimmered with divine fire. He shimmered with divine fire, too, but that golden glow was only visible inside his white eyes. Tasar looked the most plain of them all, with her ‘clothing’ looking like simple black robes upon her human-shaped self, while she held her crystal staff in her offhand. Sitnakov was resplendent in leather-like-looking armor with embroidered finery everywhere upon those ‘leathers’. Was he showing off, for some reason? Or was that normal attire for him? Whatever the case, it made Erick feel angry for some reason which he chose not to investigate too deeply.

None of them were wearing actual clothes, though. All were wearing their flesh like it was fabric, as wrought usually did.

Whatever!

An Ophiel settled down on the other side of the small island, wrapped in protective spellwork. With a flicker of light, Erick’s hologram appeared before Ophiel.

Sitnakov frowned, saying, “You do us a disservice to not appear in person.”

“We did ourselves a disservice, Prince Sitnakov.” Kromolok turned back toward Erick’s form, saying, “Thank you for giving us the opportunity to pull back and reassess our battlefield diplomacy.”

Sitnakov rolled his eyes, but said nothing.

Erick said, “Thank you for accepting. It must have been difficult to be harried by Melemizargo like that. Anyone would be low on wits after such an event.”

“You have every right to be angry with us,” Kromolok said, “I would like to move past that, or at least try to begin to move past that.”

Erick decided to follow the obvious script Kromolok was setting down, asking, “How could I move past this, when you all attacked without warning, even after I revealed important strategic information in the form of [Duplicate] in order to ensure that none of you died? You even worked together, all three of you, attempting to attack from every angle in order to give Sitnakov an opportunity to murder me.”

Sitnakov scowled, saying, “It is always better to argue from a position of power and so that is what we sought to do, but I was never going to kill you. Not yet; not at this juncture.”

The man wasn’t lying as far as Erick could tell.

Kromolok calmly said, “Historically, Sitnakov is correct. We have both dealt with this exact scenario hundreds of times before. This would have been better for us to converse from a position where we are in power, since that is how it actually is, despite your personal strength. When these talks get like this, right here, this talking as equals when we very much are not equals, that’s when the escalation to actual injury and death occurs. I need you to understand: I am not being needlessly antagonistic. It would have been easier on all of us —and especially you— if you would have taken the loss, Archmage Flatt.”

Erick said, “All y’all are down here in the Underworld, keeping yourselves completely separate from the Surface world, until it’s time to come out and murder whatever or whoever threatens to upset everything, and I very much intend to upset everything.” He calmed himself, asking, “Why the fuck would I allow myself to be vulnerable around you? You should have come with an army, and you would have, if you actually held the full force of your society behind you. No. What you appear to be are vigilantes who wish for me to drop my guard, so that you can kill me at your leisure.”

Kromolok frowned a bit, then he wiped that away, saying, “We assumed that we would be enough. This was obviously a miscalculation, leading to this unfortunate state of affairs.”

“You know.” Sitnakov said, “We’re okay with the vast majority of those changes—”

“I don’t care if you’re okay with my changes or not.” Erick said to the large man, “You have no right to determine anything about my life, or my future. You have never been here for any of it, at all, and now that the danger has passed and the world is getting better because of my specific efforts you want to be a part of it? You want to decide how any of it goes down? At all? You want control with no investment? Fuck you.”

Tasar said, “Kirginatharp is willing to put in that investment, and he has been there from the beginning.”

For a long moment, no one said anything, for Erick was trying to process the complicated series of emotions displayed on the faces of everyone. From what Erick gathered, Tasar was a part of Stratagold, but a near-outcast.

Sitnakov gave a small frown at Tasar, then said to Erick, “Stratagold is willing to put forth an investment but you’ve problems in your foundation, and we must remove those problems before what you’re building is allowed to turn into yet another monster.” He added, “We’ve seen it happen too many times to count and we always have to come in and clean it up when it eventually turns bad.” He scowled, incredulous, and said, “And besides! You want to change everything! Of course we’re involved now! And it’s only been 6 months since your time in Ar’Kendrithyst! Have a little courtesy for the movements of entrenched immortals, please. And have a little more courtesy when it comes to tromping around in our Holy Land! Of course we’re involved when you come in here and defile our sacred spaces, while also threatening the security of the entire world. You are in the wrong, Erick. Admit that much and we can move on to actually solving the problems you have created.”

Erick swallowed his pride, and said, “I came in here wishing to learn of many great things, and I did. But I was not aware that this was a ‘holy land’ for your people. For that, I apologize—” He cut himself off there, for he had a lot more words besides an apology. Actually saying those words, though, would have been counterproductive no matter how true they were.

Sitnakov was prepared for Erick to say more but he had to pull his own response when Erick didn’t fight back. He didn’t lord his minor victory, though, which boded well. He even seemed to settle down; as though his world was starting to once again make sense. That part boded less well. Erick did not like this man thinking he was in control.

Kromolok remained impassive, saying, “Thank you. We also apologize for failing to approach you with a proper diplomatic response before your Worldly Path could take you this far into Veird, so that we could meet on better terms. That was an oversight on our part. We have had many oversights recently. Oftentimes, events on the Surface happen at a speed considerably quicker than we anticipate, and many of the usual threats against we wrought are not happening like they should. If it weren’t for this event right here, then I would likely be locked in a debate with any number of groups, discussing this missing attack or that cavern that is empty of monsters where it had once been filled to bursting. The world is changing, Erick, and you have made it happen, sending everything into an uncontrolled descent.”

Another silent moment passed as words sunk in.

Erick said, “I heard Melemizargo wasn’t attacking like usual.”

“Correct.” Kromolok said, “And the usual Dark Ancients are nowhere to be found, either.”

“Then it looks like I might actually be on the way to solving that second Ultimate Quest to make Melemizargo sane again. I’m already on my way toward the third; to open new worlds.” With a heavy seriousness, Erick asked, “So what is with these pathetic ultimatums?” He glanced toward Tasar, saying, “Hers is the only one close to being reasonable.”

Sitnakov readily said, “Good! Then you have chosen Tasar’s option, which is my option since Tasar agreed to that yesterday. In return, Tasar is to be elevated to Heavy at the end of this upset.” He declared, “And with that, we’re done with this tiresome talk. Let us leave this place to the ghosts.”

“… What?” Erick asked, looking toward Tasar.

This was moving too quickly. Everything was happening so fast. It had to be a trick and Erick didn’t like it.

Tasar stood strong, saying, “I have allied with Stratagold’s Heavies and they have agreed to some adjustments in their plans. To make a long agreement short: You keep your memories of this land, since Stratagold’s Heavies have the power to stand up to the Church of Rozeta, and you will not be forced off the Path, but you will be guided to end it as quickly as possible, and—”

“To make it even shorter:” Sitnakov said, “Tasar is now your keeper. She will accompany you on your Path and as soon as you get [Gate] from whatever non-Dark Wizard you happen to find, she’s getting elevated to Heavy. And, you’re replanting Yggdrasil outside of Stratagold. AND! You will come take Bright Tea at the Palace of the Eternal Light, inside Stratagold, before anything else happens.” Sitnakov said, “You will be introduced to wrought society and then we can be done with this silly notion that we mean you personal harm. We only mean harm for those who threaten to upset the world in bad ways, and while you threaten that path, we feel you can be pulled back from the edge. You are not beyond hope, Erick. You’re only beyond hope if you fail to choose the paths we control.”

Kromolok kept his frown off of his face, but with Erick’s various Sights and high Perception, the man was saddened by this decision happening in front of him. And then he shared that displeasure, by saying, “My offer is adjusted to this, Archmage Flatt—”

Sitnakov scowled. “Now Sight this, Krom—”

Kromolok spoke over the larger man, “I erase your memories of this place and you go back home, and nothing else changes. You can remain on your Path, and you can find your own way.”

Sitnakov pulled back his sudden anger—

Because Erick’s response to Kromolok’s ‘new offer’ was already set in stone, perhaps more than all the other possible options. Erick declared, “No. I am keeping my memories, and you can fuck right off.” He turned to Sitnakov, saying, “We have a deal.”

Sitnakov exalted, “Excellent! You’re to leave behind everything you copied or took and take down Yggdrasil right now. Let us leave this place.”

Before Erick could get mad—

Kromolok let his disappointment go, saying, “How about we put it this way, instead: If you take things from here, then other people will know you have [Duplicate]. We three will remain silent on that strategic truth of yours, but our silence means nothing if we allow you to bring forth mementos of your invasion.”

“I’m not protecting you and your loot on our way out of here,” Sitnakov said.

Erick calmly said, “If anything, I would be protecting you, for I can blast through every single one of those monsters out there. How long did it take you three to get this far? Oh, yeah. Would have taken you four more days, until Melemizargo decided to screw with me by chasing you into this land, messing up my Holy Communion with Rozeta.” Erick said, “I already said that once, but I feel you didn’t actually get how much you fucked up.”

Sitnakov laughed. “Fine! Let’s see how much you can actually do! You will lead the way and when you falter in the tunnels I will be there to rescue you.”

Tasar turned Erick’s anger away from Sitnakov, explaining, “All the stuff here is all decoration, Erick. All of it is holy but none of it is useful.”

Kromolok glared at Tasar, saying, “It’s—!” And then he stopped himself. He turned back to Erick’s hologram, saying, “Are you coming out from Yggdrasil? I would prefer to hurry and leave.” He added, “Also, to go back to an earlier point you made: we have had dealings before. Not directly, and not in any official capacity, but I am a Mind Mage, and I have already spoken with your man, Poi, before coming down here. None of these violent confrontations needed to have happened. There will be no Forgotten Campaign today, or tomorrow, due to your actions. We came in peace, Erick. But Prince Sitnakov was too eager to test you by far.”

“It would have been a lot easier to drag him out of here bloody and bruised; yes,” Sitnakov said.

Erick came back to himself, standing on Yggdrasil branches. He had a lot of quick thoughts, then he landed firmly on the idea that if Kromolok was a Mind Mage, which he appeared to be based on the thought tendrils around his head, the fact that he called himself as such, and Sitnakov called him one, too, then that meant certain things. One of which was that the man wouldn’t out him as a Wizard…

Probably.

Oh. Gods. Was he actually agreeing to work with these fuckers?

… Was he really doing this?

Yeah.

His decision came down to this fact: This fight didn’t end here, and it was possible for something good to come of this event. Erick had no idea what that ‘good thing’ looked like, but it was possible! It had to be. And besides that, these three wrought seemed perfectly at ease, even though they were well within his sphere of power. They weren’t worried about him killing them, and it made Erick feel kind of inadequate to need to use Ophiel to speak to them.

It was possible that this was a feint; a trap to lure him out where they could kill him…

And so, he said, “Okay. I’m coming out. And I’m taking a few things with me, but nothing culturally significant.”

Kromolok tensed, but nodded. Tasar relaxed.

Sitnakov gave a soft smile, as he said, “When we leave, I want to have a competition to kill the most monsters.”

“You will lose,” Erick said, as he grabbed his backpack. It was already filled with his necessities, like some of his platinum that he took from the platinum elemental from out in the tunnels, and a bit of the white metal that he scraped off off the white king’s scepter. He didn’t know what it was, yet, but he wanted to find out. He kept some Wizardry books, but he left behind a second bag that was carrying nothing but books, as he rhetorically asked, “How do you think I got in here? Stealth?”

“I admit,” Sitnakov said, “I don’t know how you got past the guardians. I would prefer to know that one before we get back to Stratagold. Was it a lucky guess? Or did you have help? One man cannot break them; of that, I am sure.” He asked the dark question on his mind, “Did the Dark God help you?”

Erick grabbed his baskets of copied metals and, fully dressed for war, he lightstepped into the air next to his hologram on the island; ten meters from the wrought. Kromolok, Tasar, and Sitnakov stared at him, then each relaxed in their own ways, judging him for how he appeared and for what he carried, sizing him up in case there was another confrontation.

He was dressed in a [Conjure Armor] set of lightweight armor that was similar to Jane’s, with overlapping plates of Force that covered his whole body, along with a full helmet, but done in white. He had forgone his usual robes because he didn’t want these people to see him bleed when he was inevitably forced to cooperative cast his [Physical Domain] with Ophiel, to escape this place. A spiky silver shield held on his left forearm, floating just above his gauntlets. His backpack was tight against his body while his sunform Ophiel hovered behind him and Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye held on his left shoulder pad.

“No,” Erick said, “Melemizargo did not help me, you pompous ass.” And then manually blipped the three baskets of metal onto the ground in front of their recipients, saying, “A gift of metals in case they were needed.”

Tasar leaned down and with a gesture began turning the knives into liquid adamantium, saying, “Thank you, Erick. I gratefully accept.” The dark metal flowed into her arm and she gave a soft sigh as it absorbed into her body. “And thank you for the assistance with surviving the Dark.”

Kromolok left his basket on the ground. “Unnecessary. And please take the shards of white metal out of your bag and set them on the ground. And the books need to go, too.”

Sitnakov twisted his hand through the air above the basket, ripping the adamantium knives into floating streams of metal that flowed into his chest. He sighed, and said, “Your tribute is accepted.” He said to Kromolok, “Let him keep his small trinkets.”

In that moment, Erick realized one thing above all others: These people absolutely did not give a shit about all of his accomplishments or his power. To them, he was an inconvenience to be solved using any number of methods, but he could not be left to his own devices; his accomplishments so far had decided that much for them, at least. But to make sure he was reading this correctly, he looked to Kromolok, the only one who truly knew everything that had happened in here because he was probably reading Erick’s mind right now.

Erick asked, “Are we going to have a problem, Mind Mage?”

Kromolok said, “That’s up to you. If you prove to be a danger to this world, then yes. If not, then no. That’s really all there is to it, and only time can tell either way.”

Sitnakov said, “It would have been great if you had accepted our offer to visit the embassy, Erick. We could have avoided all of this with proper introductions long before you got this far.”

Erick decided that he was going to do a few things from here until his visits ended with the wrought: not care too much about what any of these people said, get through this with as few further incidents as possible, and move on as fast as he could to get away from them. So, he looked around, asking, “Which cloudgate are we going through?”

Sitnakov frowned a little, miffed that his barb hadn’t drawn blood—

Erick had a realization. This guy got off on making people mad. Ah. Yes. That made sense.

Sitnakov, now firmly in Erick’s category of ‘idiots to keep at a distance’, said, “Take your pick, archmage. Let’s see what you can really do.”

Kromolok, gestured back the way they had initially come into the Outer Core, up past the curve of the blue Inner Core above, saying, “Any of the ones where we came in will lead to Stratagold.”

“Great!” Erick asked, “Are all the tunnels the same?”

Sitnakov narrowed his eyes a bit, saying, “More or less.”

“Then I’m going to go first. Don’t follow until I get a few hundred kilometers down the tunnel, because I’m going to blast my way out, killing all the guardians, too.”

Sitnakov scoffed—

Kromolok rapidly exclaimed, “We can walk past the guardians with the passwords so we would prefer to leave them intact.” A bit slower, he added, “And then we can avoid most of the major fights by sticking to the air, until we get to the smaller tunnels.”

… That was fine, too. Ah. Was Erick’s anger getting the better of him, again? Was he going to have anger issues from here on out? That seemed… Less than optimal. But, anyway. Perhaps it was for the best that Sitnakov would never find out exactly what Erick could do with a cooperative cast [Physical Domain]. In fact, was the large man’s goad an attempt to find out that sort of information? Or was the man simply a battle junkie?

Maybe a lot of column A, and a little of B.

Erick said, “Fine. I’m in your care. Lead the way to Stratagold.”

“I expect you to pull some of your weight,” Sitnakov said, with a smirk.

Erick narrowed his eyes. “You do know that I’m the one that invented the [Luminous Beam]s that your guardians use, right?” With his own nasty smirk, Erick said, “If you think about it, I’m the one that’s protecting all of the Core. Not you.”

Sitnakov blanked, unsure how to combat Erick’s sudden, aggressive idiocy.

Kromolok held a hand to his head, wincing in pain, saying, “That’s… That’s not how that works.”

Tasar just smirked, then said, “Of course it does! He made the spell. Therefore he’s protecting this land more than either of you.”

“Ah!” Erick said, “My overseer gets my humor! Fantastic!”

Tasar lost her smirk.

No one was happy.

Good.

Erick almost told them all off again, but he held that back, and said, “Lead the way. Someone.”

Sitnakov windstepped away first, followed by Kromolok doing the same.

Tasar stayed behind for a brief second, saying, “I’m sorry, Erick.”

“You have too much power over me right now for me to accept that apology.” Erick said, “I might accept it when we’re not at war.”

Tasar nodded, slowly and with understanding. “Then I look forward to that time, for I will certainly be trying to ensure good relations between everyone involved.” She stepped away.

Erick took a deep breath, and then he followed.

– – – –

Erick stepped down onto the same rocky land where the wrought had popped out of the cloudgate. Kromolok stood at the edge of the misty vale, waiting, while Sitnakov was already a meter into the white fog. Tasar stood to the side, waiting for Erick.

Erick asked, “How’s this going to work?”

Kromolok explained, “Sitnakov will go first, opening the path to the land behind the guardians. We walk onto the other side, then Sitnakov will close the cloudwall, and have the guardians clear a few kilometers into the path beyond. We follow behind the guardians and remain in the tunnel while they pull back to their normal positions. Then we make our way through the tunnel of monsters and eventually to a garrison with a t-station.” He asked, “Could you dismiss Yggdrasil once it looks safe enough for us to cross the cloudwall? Before Sitnakov closes the wall with us on the other side. A spell dismissal command has a high chance of failure as soon as the wall shuts.”

“I’ll dismiss him now.” Erick had already talked to Yggdrasil about this, and so, the big guy’s [Scry] eye flickered around to his front, as he said, “See you soon, Yggdrasil.”

Yggdrasil’s eye bounced, and twirled.

And then, in the far distance, Yggdrasil began to break apart, slowly at first, like a bright light dimming, and then the erasure sped up. The massive tree revealed himself as an illusion made of light and air and breaking stone. Green leaves turned to green wind. White bark turned to motes of shattering mana. In three short seconds Yggdrasil was gone, and Erick felt exposed.

He looked to his ‘captors’, daring them to do something.

Sitnakov did nothing except look at Erick with a bit more respect in his eyes, or in his body language; Erick wasn’t quite sure. Wrought eyes were solid metal unless they made an effort to make pupils and irises.

Without preamble, Sitnakov said, “One minute,” and then walked down into the clouds.

It was a short minute before something else happened; maybe only 23 seconds. But who was counting? Erick was counting. He was worried of treachery—

The misty vale swirled directly where Sitnakov had vanished. That swirl opened up into a hole, that dilated to a ten meter wide tunnel through the clouds, revealing the beveled edge of the cloudgate on the other side and the guardians in the near distance. Their Domain flooded out of them and Erick felt a bit of a pushback on his own Domain, wrapped tight around his body. That wave of power flowed across the nine sunform Ophiel hovering behind him, sweeping them away briefly before they compensated. The little guy on Erick’s shoulder ruffled up in response.

Kromolok gestured forward. “Would you like to send some Ophiel through, first? To see there is no treachery?”

Erick sent three sunform Ophiel through. He inspected the other side, while asking, “Why not leave a t-station on that side, for easier access to the Core? Security issues?”

“The Core is not meant for easy access,” Kromolok said with a bit of force, as he started walking into the tunnel of clouds.

Well okay then.

Tasar followed Kromolok.

Erick touched the straps of his backpack and clenched his fists tight, and then he followed, back into the depths, back into the danger, not wanting to go yet but needing to anyway. He spared a glance backward at the Outer Core, and said, “Parted too soon.” Then he faced forward, and walked.

Tasar stood in the cloud tunnel in front of him, saying, “You can come back once you get proper permissions. Then you won’t have to blast your way inside.”

Kromolok said, “It will be almost impossibly difficult to do that, but coming peaceably does gain you some certain forgiveness.” He sighed out, and looked forward, seeming to relax with every passing second as they got further and further from the Core. “A great deal of forgiveness with the church and we Inquisitors, as well. If you choose to go through the proper paperwork and channels to return to the Core, then I will vote for you to be allowed to return. Your communion did appear to be true, and we interrupted something which we likely should not have interrupted. For that, I apologize.”

Erick wasn’t sure how he felt about the ‘apology’, but he’d figure out some words in response soon enough. He stepped out onto the other side of the cloudwall with the others. Ophiels spread out, but not too far, as the cloudgate closed behind them. Gravity was back to being weird, with Erick’s feet firmly planted on what would have been a vertical wall, if they were going by the shape of the Outer Core, a mere ten meters backward.

‘Up’, directly in the center of the 20 kilometer wide tunnel, was a kilometer wide streamer of thick rainbow air, passing out of the cavern, through the wall, into the Outer Core behind, to fall straight ‘down’ into the inner blue Core of Veird.

All that was behind Erick, now.

He looked forward and saw that the land was completely filled with monsters.

Erick gazed upon his tribulations, and said to Kromolok, “I’ll tell you what I told Tasar: You have too much power over me right now for me to accept any apology. I might accept it when we’re not at war.”

Sitnakov laughed. “You’d know if we were at—”

Kromolok snipped at the man, “Sitnakov. Stop.”

Sitnakov glared at Kromolok. “I’m not a bad guy, here.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“Well I don’t know that, Sitnakov.” Erick said, “I literally have no idea who you are, or who—” He stopped there, before he got on a roll.

“Fine.” Sitnakov said, “You know what? You might be right. I haven’t been on the world scene in…” He looked around, searching for something in his memory— He froze. “Ah. It’s been 45 years. Oh. That’s been too long.”

Tasar tried some diplomacy, saying, “Everything is going to change soon enough, Sitnakov. Now is as good a time to get involved with the world as any. My long-term plans are to take back Quintlan from the oozes.”

Sitnakov frowned, disgust shaping his features briefly, before he dropped that expression and looked thoughtful. “Oozes aren’t that interesting. All the undead in the Fractured Citadels might be good to fight.” He scrunched his face a bit as he turned away and started walking toward the line of guardians, half a kilometer away, at the ridge where the cavern leveled out onto the main monster floor. He said to himself, “I could fight undead.” Then he called out, “GUARDIANS! ADVANCE!”

Erick’s heart did a jump in his chest as the hundred guardians encircling the entirety of the massive cavern all took a single step forward, all at the same time. Monsters started screaming. [Luminous Beam]s ripped out across the land alongside hundreds of other spells. Lightning and fire. Piercing Domains of shadow or ice. With his ten Ophiel, Erick saw as precise Domainwork flowed around the circumference of the cavern, like death prowling for weakness, breaking monstrous Domains like they were shattering glass with particularly large hammers, killing everything that didn’t get away fast enough.

Sitnakov, Tasar, and Kromolok walked forward, following in the wake of destruction, but keeping well distant from the front line. Erick had his Ophiel hug close to him as he kept up. Five Ophiel had their [Greater Lightwalk] switched out for [Physical Domain] and Erick prepared to switch too, if necessary to cooperative cast with all of them, but hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

In a very short timeframe, faster than Erick was comfortable, the guardians had reached their kilometer forward distance and everyone in the group had cast their own spellwork, readying for the actual fight to get back to civilization.

Kromolok was wrapped in shimmering white-gold light, as he took second position in the middle alongside Tasar, who had summoned a collection of void-motes onto the head of her staff, turning it into something resembling a very large sparkler. Sitnakov took the forward position; he was wrapped in air with two swords in his hands and ready for war.

Kromolok asked, “Erick. I would like to include you in the party link. Will you accept?”

“Yes,” Erick added, “If only so we’re not overlapping on spellwork or accidentally hitting each other.”

‘Thank you.’ Kromolok sent, ‘And with that, we’re all here.’

Sitnakov sent, ‘Aw! Now we can’t slag-talk him behind his back!’

Kromolok sent, ‘Eyes front. The guardians are done.’

The ten meter tall, white spiky guardians all stopped advancing at once. Then, they slowly took a foot backward as one, the single white eye at the tops of their chests never leaving the sight of the monsters they had chased off, or killed. Most of the monsters had managed to get away, for they were smarter than the average sort and they knew what the wall of advancing guardians meant. Some of those monsters tried to swarm forward, to occupy the land the guardians were about to leave behind, to swarm directly at Erick and everyone else—

‘The transition is the hardest part.’ Kromolok said, ‘We need to hold our ground and not attack the guardians at all. They’ll forgive smaller spellwork, but Domain magics will be retaliated against. Let them wash behind us while focusing spellwork forward.’

Erick was on edge, again, so it was good to hear a man with a plan.

A large part of him knew that he would be a lot better off surviving and thriving in this monster tunnel if these other people weren’t here, but another part of him was grateful not to have to go through this alone. One trip alone through darkness was enough, for sure.

The guardians stepped backward, while Erick and the rest waited for them to pass by on either side. Their white eyes flicked to Sitnakov, then Kromolok, then Tasar in turn, judging them for their power, and then they came to Erick and did the same. He waited for them to attack, but the attack never came.

And then the guardians were ten meters behind, taking their collective Domain with them. The monsters were in front, their Domains washing toward Erick and the others, falling upon them with too many mouths and claws and ripping, tearing spells.