We had Valytheria.

A trio of notifications rang in my ears, shared experience with Auri leveling both [Sage of Tomes] and [Seraph of the Dawn]. Far better than the kill notifications - the System was overly generous sometimes, considering us part of the same party. Then again, to be fair, we had been the distraction while Auri went raiding, so perhaps it was more clever than I gave it credit for.

There had probably been quite a few more casualties than I would’ve liked securing it, and part of me felt guilt over the whole thing.

I did my best not to order deaths, nor to tolerate them. To save and succor wherever I could. Yet, here and now, I’d known if Valytheria wasn’t secured, that it would cause far more damage and harm than handling the elves would. At the same time, that sort of thinking tended to end poorly, to say the least.

I hadn’t told Auri to go. I’d worked on the plans, tried to find a better way, and this was the best we’d found. I knew the scale and scope of Loremaster threats, but it didn’t mean it sat well with me.

Fenrir was flying high and to the east, disguising the direction we were going. The skies were bright red as the sunset tried to filter through the ashes. Columns of smoke came from a dozen small burning fires, slowly strangling and choking all life. Iona pointed to a rumbling cloudbank, and the mighty wyvern twisted to head in that direction.

“Brrrpt…” Auri complained about the clouds we were about to go through, then shook her head. With a pair of her [Mage Hands] she slapped her cheeks, then went bright pink.

“Brrpt.” She muttered to herself. Something about young Auri being a complete idiot, too embarrassing to think about? I patted my phoenix companion.

“Yeah, I get hit with random memories of dumb things I did back when I was a kid too.” I said.

Like dramatically cutting off my hair in front of the Rangers.

Maximum. Cringe.

Auri was nodding a little too hard in agreement with all that, but I let it pass.

In the meantime, the sword was passed to Iona, who grimaced.

“This is going to suck.” She muttered, right before flicking it upright.

When it had been point-down, it had been carving a massive furrow through the earth. As Iona flicked it up, a new furrow, dozens of miles long, was made, and we made a mirrored face at the notifications.

[*ding!* Your party has slain a [Rabbit (Wind - 18)]]

…

[*ding!* Your party has slain a [Troodon (Metal - 61)]]

…

[*ding!* Your party has slain a [Kelpie (Water - 101)]]

Nothing sentient this time, thank the goddesses and Iona’s sharp flick. Now we were ‘only’ slicing through the clouds.

“I’d heard why we needed to take care of this. I’d known why. But it’s something else entirely to wield it myself. I’d throw it straight into the Mare if I could, this thing’s way too dangerous.” Iona said.

Even Fenrir was uneasily eyeing the sword.

It was a simple thing. A khopesh, one of the curious curved swords of Ankhelt, it was plain in a beautiful way. There was nothing extra about it, no flourish, no ornamentation, nothing. By the same terrifying token, there were no blemishes. No dents, no nicks, nothing but an inviolate blade, the bare essence of a weapon boiled down to sharp, lethal intent.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to try and [Identify] it, as inanimate objects didn’t play nicely with [Identify]. I was sure there were other skills that let the person know what they were dealing with - a [Pawnstore Owner] would probably have something that let them know what the heck someone came in with - but [Identify] didn’t, and a century of habits and ingrained knowledge did take a moment to overcome.

[Artisan - 3072].

Wow.

It really was a transformed person.

“Can you still read all of their skills?” I wondered.

“Oh! Yeah, good question.”

Iona’s eyes started to flicker against invisible words, her face softening at what she read, the answer to my question self-evident.

“Pakhet. Her name was Pakhet.” Iona said.

The [Paladin] put both hands on the sword and lifted it up, over her head, and closed her eyes. She started to silently pray to her patrons. Fenrir stopped flying east, went north, and started circling over the great lake.

Iona tended to be relatively discreet when talking with her goddesses. A quiet murmured word, a startled laugh, a brief dedication of a great victory to their name. When things were happening, she was here and present, able to talk and laugh.

A conversation of this length was a rarity, at least when we were in the field. The ashes fell on her like snow, turning her blonde hair grey.

Iona’s eyes snapped open, and she looked speculatively at the sword.

“Sorry that took so long. Pakhet accepted the offer to become an angel. Mefdet blessed her in life, and would be happy to have them return to the fold. Most of the time just then was the gods haggling over what the Moon Goddesses would get for facilitating.”

She rolled her eyes and leaned in to whisper.

“Just between you and me, I think they might’ve been [Fishmongers] in their prior life.”

My jaw dropped open at the sheer blasphemy. Iona belly laughed at the look on my face, Valytheria wavering and drawing a pattern in the clouds.

“Isn’t that a tad blasphemous?” I suggested.

Iona winked at me.

“Yup, but after helping them out like this, I’m their favorite right now. I’d ask if you’d want to say goodbye or anything, but Valytheria can’t hear us or even be conscious right now, so…”

Without further ado, Iona raised her arms up again, then balanced the sword on the palm of her hands.

“By possession, by willingness, by divine favor, Valytheria, I send you to the realm of the gods. May Mefdet tenderly embrace you. May your soul find peace.”

With a sparkle of different divine power - I’d seen Iona pull off enough stunts with Selene and Lunaris to know their ‘flavor’ so to speak - Valytheria vanished in a twinkle of lights.

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She opened her eyes, and settled back down.

“What’s the plan now?” She asked.

“Auri’s after-action report, tour of the region. Given how quickly things are happening, I want to check on Ephesus and Belum, circle back to the Sixth’s convoy, then hit as many other cities as we can. Thoughts?”

“I like it. Fenrir, can you get us to Belum?” Iona asked. The wyvern tried to grunt his acknowledgement, but had a hacking coughing fit instead as he breathed in too much of the ever-falling ashes. There were just too many of them, and I whipped out a quill and a blank piece of paper, quickly sketching out a charm for Fenrir to breathe, all while berating myself for not thinking of it earlier.

[Reality, Writ as You Will] got the job done in moments, and I was pleased at the lack of minor corrections the skill made on my spell. There was no obvious impact, but the edges of the spell could be seen by the ashen flakes vanishing or being pushed aside. I cast two more charms in the same vein for Iona and I, but Auri liked the warm flakes.

Auri regaled us with her tale of retrieving Valytheria, to hoots of laughter from Iona and I, and deep chuckles from Fenrir.

“I… I have no idea where to begin analyzing this.” I was slowly regaining control over myself. “That was a disaster, start to finish, but you accomplished the mission just fine, so…”

I wish I could’ve added ‘with minimal casualties’, but we’d all gotten the notifications. Auri had been stealthy, then killed eight mages in seconds, followed by collapsing the entire mine on everyone else still inside. I shrugged helplessly and turned to Iona. She coughed to clear her throat, then tried to arrange her face into a serene visage, filled with gravitas.

“Far be it for me to wander into the mind of a phoenix. Such noble thoughts I can’t imagin- HEY!” She protested as both Auri and Fenrir ganged up on her, the first viciously pecking her while Fenrir flicked her nose with Ice.

We flew north to Belum.

A Gale blade came silently streaking out of the clouds, heading right for us. Iona and I moved in perfect unison together, the Valkyrie already swinging her empty hands by the time I [Teleported] her glaive into them. She bashed aside the blade, and there was nothing more. We stayed tense and on the edge of our seat for ages, before finally relaxing a hair. Whatever it had been, it had simply taken an opportunistic shot and left.

At first we were vaguely encouraged at the lack of smokey pillars coming from the area, but we grew silent as we got closer.

The city was gone.

Where the proud city of nearly fifty thousand people used to be, there was now a gleaming crater two dozen meters deep. The rocks had been melted and fused before cooling again, giving the entire place a glassy look. Water was trickling into the crater, promising the formation of a new lake. Blackened grass and charcoal trees for miles around suggested raging wildfires that had since died out.

None of us said a word. Iona flicked the reins on Fenrir, and we turned towards Ephesus.

We skimmed the shores of Lake Mare, dipping by the occasional small town along the way. We’d done a healing run the last time we made this trip, but the way my mana flickered for a moment as we got near a few of the towns suggested additional aid was welcome. It was also a good chance to measure my new healing range.

Over 20 kilometers. A bit short of sixteen miles. I’d need more time to narrow it down, preferably by walking, but it was one heck of a range. It would only go up as I leveled, and possibly jump even more as I classed up.

The travel time was a good opportunity to play with my new skills. For the most part, they were pure upgrades of well-worn skills, with no need to plumb their depths further. The grooves had gotten deeper, the skills more potent, but it wasn’t like there were terribly many new tricks.

Except for [The Mantle of Dawn and Dusk].

I started to play with it, conjuring starry matter in one hand, then flipping my focus and making a ball of darkness in the other. It was a pure cheat of a skill, effectively two skills rolled into one, the history of my shield brought full circle.

It was [Event Horizon] combined with [Mantle of the Stars], with upgrades! I could now make the devouring void in any shape I wanted, and that was going to be a whole new Thing in my kit.

I warmed up with the basics, some old skills and usages revisited. I made myself a cape of stars, then went way back to when the skill was [Privacy] and bubbled myself in darkness.

I decided to call ‘star’ usage, or solid shields that took mana to absorb blows, the ‘dawn’ aspect of [Mantle], and the ‘black hole’ usage, or devouring darkness that destroyed material, the ‘dusk’ aspect.

All manner of defensive shields and configurations were tried, with one particularly neat trick I rapidly developed for myself. A ‘two-layered’ shield, with dusk on the outside and dawn on the inside. Any blow that I could absorb would be destroyed by the dusk aspect, and any blow I had to tank was tested by the dawn.

I debated trying out ‘sandwiched’ configurations where I had layers upon layers of dusk alternating with dawn, but the math didn’t quite make sense.

Well… probably didn’t. I had a quick test to confirm.

“Hey Iona, I’m testing out a new skill.” I said. “Can you punch this really hard?”

I conjured up two panes of dawn, layered one on top of another. A third panel of dusk was off to the side, confirming multiple theories at once.

Iona hopped up, impossibly well balanced and firm on Fenrir’s back. Her companion skill at work.

“Sure, what am I trying to do?” She asked.

“Break both in one hit.” I said. “Try to not be so fast I can’t see what’s going on.”

Iona wound up a huge haymaker, an impractical punch against anyone with eyes and half a brain cell. She punched the shields, and I was able to confirm what I suspected.

The second layer shattered at the exact same time as the first layer, and the third layer simply vanished. The skill was overloaded. More layers would simply be vanity, they wouldn’t actually do anything.

“Got what you needed?” Iona asked as Auri hopped forward, curious what we were up to, and probably wanting to get involved herself.

“Yup!” I said. “Hey Auri, wanna try burning new things?”

Music to her little ears.

“Brrrpt!”

We flew as I practiced, hitting town after town. [Luminary Mind] was a blessing, letting me split my attention and focus on everything going on. Some of the towns were ghosts, nary a soul between the homes. Simply… ghost towns. None of my senses saw bodies in those towns, but I didn’t see footprints of a great migration out either. It was like they’d all been scooped up.

Other villages had been put to the torch, smoking and blackened beams the only traces of the town that had been.

Many were surviving, not quite as reliant on the greater world as cities were, eking out a continued existence. The Mare was a great source of life… and the ash would be a challenge, but not quite as lethal to the denizens of the lake as it was to the animals who walked on land.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [The Elaine] has leveled up to level 1266->1267 +200 Strength, +200 Dexterity, +800 Speed, +800 Vitality, +2000 Mana, +10000 Mana Regen, +4000 Magic Power, +4000 Magic Control from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid)! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element per level!]

It was bound to happen eventually. The portfolio for [The Elaine] included everything I’d done so far, which naturally encompassed being a Sentinel. This was a mission of mercy, a mission as a Sentinel, and it deeply struck at the heart of who I was.

Frankly, I’d been a little disappointed that Auri’s mission had resulted in no levels for me at all. Then again, the math on balancing our respective levels got a little funky - it was possible for me to ‘overlevel’ slightly, then funnel more experience her way, and when that happened we’d noticed things got a little unusual.

Or we’d just been at the start of a level, and slicing people up with an ancient divine artifact wasn’t part of Auri’s experience profile, so she didn’t get much from it. ‘Wielding weapons’ was pretty far outside of what phoenix classes wanted to do.

“That town could be a good place to throw some seeds and farming equipment at.” I pointed to the most-preserved town I’d seen so far.

“Sure, but do they need them or us?” Iona asked. “No offense to you or them, it just feels like you’d be giving the farmer his third plow, or fattening up his stores, not providing coal in the winter. As much as it looks like it’s snowing right now.”

Iona had a point, and we carried on.

Two unusual towns stuck out in my mind.

The first was simply gone, a scar in the earth suggesting it’d been swallowed whole. Entirely possible, and I briefly mourned for the lost souls.

The second had tripled in size, and fifty bodies swung from the gallows, a grim reminder of something.

“I want to circle back there when we can.” Iona noted the spot on her map, and I agreed with her.

“There’s no chance the Ephesus Ranger team is free enough to check it out.” It was a shame - it was exactly the sort of thing they were for.

With the speed we were going, Ephesus was in our sights a few minutes later.

“BrrrRRRPTTT????” Auri asked as she studied the city. She turned to me with a hopeful gleam in her eye.

“Brrrpt?” She asked.

“Well… if it’s hostile, sure, you seem to be the best bird for the case.” I confirmed.

The city had been overtaken by a plant, best I could tell. Thick vines snaked through the city, lifting buildings up. Large leaves kept the ashes off, and flowers were blooming along its length. Branches - don’t ask me how vines and branches were on the same tree, I’d focused on flesh and blood [Biomancy] back in the day - hung heavy with fruits. They looked like oversized red pears, and the smell was amazing.

My sharp eyes picked out a number of people moving through the city. They looked happy enough, plucking bright red head-sized fruits and eating them. Houses were shored up by the vines, and it wasn’t like there were large thorns coming off all of them.

“What do we think?” I asked Iona as she pulled on the reins, Fenrir turning into a wide glide around the city. She squinted and shaded her eyes as she looked.

I cast a little spell to improve her vision, magical binoculars.

“I think the city looks fine, there’s a powerful Classer involved, and flying overhead or even close is a bad, bad idea. Nobody shows off something that strong without being able to protect it, and I doubt there’s a guiding intelligence. Plus… put yourself in their shoes for a moment. What’s more likely, a friendly wyvern or a ferocious one?”

Fenrir snorted his protest. Iona patted the armor over his neck.

“Yes, you’re friendly and ferocious.”

“Brrrpt.” Auri and plants went together about as well as fire and kindling. We could spend a few hours trying to figure things out, but I wasn’t sure that was the best use of our time. A note to Katerina, a few scouts, and that would take care of it.

We were the big hammer. It was nice to see other people helping, other Classers doing what they could, and poking around their business wasn’t the best use of our time.

“Let’s report back to Katerina, then sweep back out.” I suggested.

There was a good use of our time, and I prayed to Ciriel. A belated whoops thought had me praying and dedicating some of my excess mana to the Goddess of Healing… something I should’ve done before. Couldn’t do it with [Persistent Casting], it was something [Prayer] could pull off.

Heya!

You mentioned I was the miracle!

Well… some of the fires over here are out. Metaphorically speaking. Is there anywhere you need a miracle on wings?

I instantly got a reply.

Elaine!

Yes!

Iridellis could use your aid.

I nodded, before my heart skipped a beat as I placed where it was.

That was an elf city.