Allegra Dellacorte breathed hard and fast. Her eyes were wide. Her face numb, as though the blood had run from it. She must be white as a sheet.

She was staring at the spot where Justin had just been. The man had been invisible, of course, so she hadn’t been able to see where he was.

But she’d known.

She’d seen the commander take hold of him. Seen her grip tighten.

She’s only just met the guy. A guy who’d had actually seemed sweet and genuine, unlike most people she’d ever met in her life. It was a welcome change, and if it wasn’t for how powerful he clearly was, she would have worried that it would make him rather vulnerable in the Greater Universe. Justin, however, seemed anything but vulnerable.

The camp had become utter chaos. Heads falling off bodies left and right. Attacks coming down from above. It had even frightened her, and she knew he wasn’t going to attack her—knew he would keep her safe.

Plus, the guy could fly. She still couldn’t get over how awesome that was.

A part of her had wondered if she should feel guilty for setting him loose on her own people. She was betraying them, after all. But she felt no loyalty toward the First Army. There was some regret—these soldiers were simply following orders. If things had ended up just a little differently, she would have been one of them…

But her training had taught her not to have remorse, not to have guilt, not to consider the lives she took. That was how she was raised, how she was taught, how she was moulded.

­They just didn’t expect me to turn that around on them.

The assault hadn’t gone exactly as she’d planned. She’d hoped the soldiers would retreat back through the portal, and they had started to do that. Justin had gone after the captives—as she’d known he would.

Then he’d attacked Commander Valian. Allegra had to admit, she’d always kind of admired the woman. She was a rogue, and had a devious nature about her. It was unusual for a rogue to move high up in command—they tended to work alone. Allegra should have warned Justin that the woman might have something up her sleeve, but she hadn’t thought it would be an issue.

Allegra blinked. The blood rushed back to her cheeks. The cacophony of noise around her came back into focus. It had all been muffled, in the moment that Commander Valian and Justin had disappeared.

I need to get out of here. I never should have come back here in the first place.

She touched her finger. The ring wasn’t there. It felt strange. Wrong. Why in the hell had she given that ring to him? That had been a mistake. When she saw Justin, she should have just kept on walking! She should have kept her ring to herself! She could still have gotten away…

The camp was still in chaos. The second, third, and probably fourth in command of this camp were all lying dead on the grass. Everything was in disarray. But all these soldiers had years of training. The disorganisation would only last for so long.

She had to capitalise upon it while she could.

Allegra was a woman of many skills—or rather, many spells. One of her favourite spells was Telekinesis. It was one of the spells that she kept to herself, that she never let anyone know she actually possessed. Most people assumed her class couldn’t possess that kind of spell, so it was easy enough to hide.

That was something which she used to her advantage.

Looks like I can be devious too.

Allegra levitated a fallen sword. She made it slice into a man near the portal. She couldn’t strike with her Telekinesis near as hard as Justin could with any of his attacks—she was only half as powerful as everyone in this camp. That’s why she hadn’t joined in on the assault, and had only ever meant to be a distraction.

“The enemy! They’re still here!” Allegra shouted, catching people’s attention. “They’re after the captives!”

“Leave them behind!” one soldier yelled.

“Let’s get the hell out of here!” another chimed in.

Allegra blinked. Three soldiers slipped straight through the portal. She hadn’t expected her ruse to be so effective so fast. Maybe some of them had seen what happened to the commander. And some of them must have known it had worked. But they didn’t know how many invisible attackers there were.

This was easier than she’d thought it would be.

It wasn’t long before everyone in the camp was retreating through the portal. She levitated a few more swords and hounded them through. The captives had been pushed and shoved out of the way and were huddled by the side of the camp.

She had to make sure they survived if her long term plan were to work.

Allegra was just glad her people were clearly not thinking straight. If they were, they would quickly realise no one had died since the commander had disappeared, and they’d definitely notice the fact that swords hadn’t been randomly flying in the air before—Justin and his equipment had been completely invisible.

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In less than a minute, everyone of the camp’s soldiers had slipped through the portal. Every one of them but her. She walked up to the portal, reached a hand out, felt the energy radiating from it, making the hairs on her arm stick up. She didn’t have the ability to close it, but she also knew there were no reinforcements waiting on the other side.

“Four, three, two… one.”

She grinned as the portal disappeared, then she turned to the captives, scanning them—the highest level among them was only four. They shied away from her, fear in their eyes. Most of them were glancing around, clearly afraid of the invisible threat.

Allegra put on her serious face. As she did, the weight of the situation hit her. She knew what that item had been, she just hadn’t known the commander would possess it.

It would have teleported Justin straight back to her home world, likely into a prison cell to await interrogation—and judgement.

She wanted to save him. She didn’t know if it would be possible… but if it ­was she would need help. She frowned to herself, wondering why it was she felt more loyalty to a man she’d just met than to her own people.

Justin said his leader was stronger than him. Even so, strong on a newly integrated world will mean nothing back home…

Still, she had to try. And she needed something to bring to this leader. A peace offering.

Allegra faced the prisoners. She raised her hands in a placating gesture. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I’m not one of them.” She jutted her head toward the portal. “I’m here to help you get to safety.”

The captives looked dubious, but they changed their tone once she started breaking their bonds.

Now she just had to figure out where to take them.

~

Howard trudged through the forest, filled with a fierce determination. He had no idea if they were going the right way. They’d been running, much of the time since they’d left the camp, but he was able to run faster than Siobhan, so he had to slow down every now and then to let her catch up.

He felt a bit mean, pushing her this hard. He had wanted her to come along with him, after all.

My family are safe. There are in a Safe Zone. The System will have kept them safe.

These words kept repeating in his mind over and over. He’d always been worried about his family. Protective of them. In his line of work, he’d seen the worst that humanity had to offer. He had installed a state-of-the-art security system in their house. Built a tall gate with spikes on the top. Done everything he could to ensure their house would always be a safe place for his wife, daughter, and son.

I never should have left for the Tower of Champions. I should have remained by their side.

He gritted his teeth and started running again. Siobhan called down from behind him. He stopped, summoned his double-bearded axe to his hand. “What is it?”

Siobhan was breathing heavily, which was quite a feat considering how damned high both of their stats were. He must have been pushing the woman harder than he’d thought.

His shoulders sagged. “Am I moving too fast?”

She shook her head. “I only wish we could move faster.” She took a deep breath. “That’s not why I stopped you. Have you seen what just appeared on the mini-map?”

Howard blinked. He’d been staring at the map the whole time, waiting for something to appear—a city, a quest… something. He’d hoped the System would give him a quest to find his family, but it hadn’t yet. “Do you mean the dungeon? I marked the location on the map, but it isn’t important right now.”

Siobhan bit her lip. “I know how important finding our families is, Howard. But look at it again. Don’t you notice something strange?”

Howard sighed. He looked at the dungeon on his mini-map, focusing on it with his mind.

{Sandstorm Dungeon - In Progress}

“In progress?” Howard muttered.

“Exactly. That means there’s someone currently inside of it.” She titled her head to the side. “Whoever’s strong enough to be taking on a dungeon right now… well, it means there might be invaders nearby. And where there are invaders…”

“There might be captives from Earth,” Howard said, thinking, But that won’t help me find my family. He pushed that thought down. It wasn’t helpful right now. He had to remind himself that it wasn’t just his family who were at stake. That was the whole reason he’d gone to the Tower of Champions in the first place. The whole reason he’d wanted to sacrifice his life rather than let someone dangerous onto Earth… He wanted to do more than just keep his family safe.

It was the reason he’d become a cop. He could imagine what his wife might have said if he walked past someone who needed his help, when he had the ability to give it, and he’d done nothing.

That’s not the type of person he was—not the man she’d married. He couldn’t lose that in his pursuit of finding her.

“All right,” Howard said. “Let’s check it out.”

It turned out Siobhan had been right. Not that Howard had doubted her. There was an enemy camp nearby. Or, at least, there had been. The camp had been destroyed—and it was definitely invaders, not people from Earth, who’d held this camp, as elves didn’t come from Earth.

“What the hell happened here?” Howard asked. Most of them had single wounds. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say those wounds had been caused by a gun. When he found a discarded arrow, things began to make a bit more sense. He doubted a gun would have done anything to these people.

“Someone killed a lot of elves,” Siobhan said. “Someone strong.”

“They’re all arrow wounds. Either that means a whole party of bow wielders, or…”

“One badass archer.”

Howard grunted. “Whoever did this, they must be who’s in the dungeon right now.”

They looked at each other, looked at the carnage. There were no humans here—no one to save. There were tents, some still left standing, others that had fallen down. There were no weapons left on the dead elves. They must have been looted by whoever had slain them.

“There’s a trail here.” Howard pointed toward the edge of the camp. “Looks like it leads through the forest.”

They followed the trail. Howard’s curiosity was piqued. Whoever had done this, if they were from Earth, could become a valuable ally. And, as there was no way they’d be from the Tower of Champions with how ahead Howard’s party had been from everyone else, it might mean they had knowledge of what had been happening on Earth.

That was, of course, assuming they were friendly.

What they found were elves, stuck in a bog. Or rather, the corpses of elves. Howard wasn’t much of a tracker. There wasn’t much use for forest-tracking skills working in the city. But he could follow this trail well enough, and he’d been on his share of hunting trips with his dad when he was a boy.

“Someone led the elves into this. Killed some of them back in the camp, then drew them here, into a trap,” Howard said. “Then it was like…”

“Shooting fish in a barrel?” Siobhan offered.

Howard grunted. “That’s the one.”

“We sure we want to find whoever did this?”

“Whoever did this was doing Earth a favour.” Howard walked carefully around the bog. “And if they’re not a potential ally? Well… better to deal with someone this strong now, before they become a real problem.”

Siobhan didn’t reply, instead simply nodding. Though there was a worried expression on her face, Howard knew the woman would do what was necessary if the time came.

It didn’t take them long to find the dungeon, what with the mini-map leading the way.

All they needed to do was wait until whoever was inside came out.

Assuming they survive.

“I think it’s time you summon your guardian,” Howard said.