The floor shook as Zeke stepped forward.

“You will halt!” screamed the gnomish leader.

Zeke paid him no mind. Instead, he embraced [Eye of Recknoing]. A beam of pure destruction erupted from his forehead, and a second later, tore through a hastily erected shield before completely obliterating the gnome. When [Eye of Reckoning] winked out, there was nothing left.

Not even ash.

For a long few seconds, silence reigned, and Zeke took that opportunity to glare at the Circle of Mages, each in turn. That’s when they fled. A few simply disappeared, teleporting away, but most of them simply turned and ran toward the exits.

“No,” he growled.

Then, he used [Storm of Hammers]. A tornado swirled into being, picking up speed over the course of only a couple of seconds. Hammers of every sort, almost transparent, manifested, riding the wind and slamming into mages, walls, and seating alike. Dozens died, then and there, but not enough to satisfy Zeke’s fury.

So, he used his twin domains. [Burden of Sovereignty] and [Aura of Desolation] took hold, turning the chambers into a hellish landscape of burning wood and stone. Corruption swirled in the air, and at the center of it all, Zeke stood like a metallic statue of singular purpose.

Trembling with anger, he lashed out with [Titanic Smash], tearing through a group of fleeing mages. At the same time, the wall burst from the applied force. Sunlight streamed in, but Zeke paid it no heed. Instead, he stomped his foot, ripping a line through the floor that ended at another group of panicked gnomes. The ground erupted into [Hell Geyser], practically disintegrating the little creatures.

Because mages, while being known for the power they could wield, were not known for their defenses. Rage swept through Zeke’s mind as he used [Colossal Army], opening a portal from which stepped ten powerful, spear-wielding golems.

“Kill them all,” he growled.

The automatons didn’t hesitate to make his order a reality. The scattering mages finally mustered a defense, and one manifested a powerful shield of pure mana in an effort to protect her colleagues. Zeke shattered it with another [Titanic Smash] that he’d laced with his Will. She collapsed as the plane of mana broke into a thousand pieces, and Zeke’s golems swept forward, dispassionately stabbing the suddenly defenseless mages.

“Watch out!” shouted Eveline, mentally indicating a direction.

Zeke whipped his head to the side, locking onto a newcomer. From a visual perspective, this gnome was no different than all the rest. However, Zeke could feel the little figure’s power. Everyone in the room – save for Zeke and Adara – was at the peak of the realm. But this gnome was a cut above the rest.

An elite among elites.

He raised his staff, and a great, blue dome bloomed into being. It crackled with roiling power, but what’s more, it shielded the other gnomes from Zeke’s wrath. So he aimed another [Titanic Smash] at the shield. It rippled, but it did not shatter.

“You dare?” demanded the gnome.

“I dare?” echoed Zeke. “You attacked me. I came in peace. I would have left everyone in this city alone. And yet, you came for me. I won’t let that stand.”

“You have no choice. You are incapable of –”

Zeke swung again, but this time, he let loose the power of a thousand swings. [Unleash Momentum] was not his most powerful skill. Not anymore. But it had the advantage of scaling with his strength. So did [Wrath of Annihilation], but not nearly as well. In short, when he used the skill, it set free a truly terrifying amount of power.

The room exploded into a cloud of flying debris. Stones, tiles, dust, and everything else that had once been part of the building flew away from Zeke’s momentous swing. A series of runes flashed with power, draining some of the force, not unlike a system of magical breakers. They tripped, one after another, for hundreds of yards. Each instance siphoned some of the power until, after a quarter of a mile, the skill petered out.

And yet, the damage was done.

Clouds of dust hid the effects of Zeke’s skill, but he knew better than anyone else just how much destruction he’d wrought. He could feel it hanging in the air like a fog, and his path drank it in.

But when the dust settled, the gnome remained upright. His shield was gone, and his robes had been ripped to shreds. Many of the other mages he’d been protecting had fallen. A few were dead. Still, he stood with his back straight, with his staff pointing accusingly at Zeke.

Mana swirled around its tip, then lashed out, forming into a huge block of force that tore across the ruined chambers in Zeke’s direction. That skill contained truly terrifying amounts of power, but Zeke merely stood his ground. He adjusted his weight, making himself as heavy as he could manage, and lowered his shoulder just in time to take the hit.

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It smashed into him with unimaginable force, and despite the fact that he weighed many dozens of tons, he was pushed backward.

Ten whole feet.

More importantly, he’d activated [Flames of Reprisal].

Corrupted fire erupted from him like a spear, tearing across the chambers to skewer the shocked gnome. A brief spray of boiling blood misted into the air before it evaporated under the intense heat of [Flames of Reprisal].

Then, the golems finally recovered enough to throw their spears. They sailed through the air like javelins, hitting the gnome in ten separate places. The mana that had been swirling around him winked out, and he would have collapsed if it wasn’t for the ephemeral bands of energy connecting the spears to the golems. They held him up, and he screamed in agony.

At that, the few remaining gnomes – the survivors, at least – managed to crawl away. Zeke ignored them. At the moment, he only had eyes for the most powerful among them. He intended to make an example.

But first, he glanced back to ensure that Adara was unharmed. She was not. Clearly, she had many broken bones, and half of her face was covered blood. But she gave him a thumbs up, verifying that she would be okay. Still, the sight of her injuries reignited the fires of his Zeke’s rage.

So, when he stepped toward the gnome, the very air blistered with his fury. He didn’t make any efforts to contain his power. His Will surged through him, begging to be used, while his combination of attunements – corruption, earth, and death – billowed off of him in a fog of diffuse mana.

He rolled his shoulders as he beheld the broken gnome.

“Why?” he demanded. “I came in peace.”

“You know nothing of politics,” the gnome spat, coughing up phlegm and blood.

Zeke shrugged. “Maybe not. But politics don’t matter next to power.”

The gnome laughed, which turned into another hacking cough. “You can’t be that naïve. The Imperium is coming for you. Even now. Your companions are doomed. You will be stripped of everything. It is what they do. It is who they are. So, kill me if you –”

Zeke did just that, stomping on the gnome with his massive foot. Because of his high level and undeniable power, the gnome had decent endurance. Yet, he was still a mage, and he succumbed to Zeke’s strength the same as any other specialized caster.

“You heard him, right?” Eveline asked.

“I did,” Zeke responded, already turning away from the gruesome scene. He wanted nothing more than to use [Wrath of Annihilation] and wipe the whole gnomish city off the face of the world. Yet, he held back. Too many innocents would perish if he gave in to those urges. Including Tucker and the crew of the Mercury.

With that, he strode toward Adara and asked if she could travel. She revealed that she could not, so he summoned a gate right there in the center of the room. There was some resistance as a plateau-wide runic formation attempted to stop the activation of the skill, but the Crimson Tower was too powerful to be denied. The gate manifested after only a few seconds of mental strain, and a kobold exited a moment later.

“Take her to the Crimson Spring,” he told the legionnaire. Then, he gave the order to muster a sufficient force to take the plateau.

“Are you sure about this, Ezekiel? We’re already fighting one war,” Eveline said.

“I’m sure,” he grunted. They’d attacked him unprovoked, and while he could live with that, he couldn’t ignore the reality that in doing so, they’d declared their allegiance. Any ally of the Imperium was Zeke’s enemy, and not just from a practical standpoint. It signified Westport’s tacit approval of the Imperium’s practices, including slavery and other forms of oppression.

Zeke couldn’t abide that.

So, from every perspective, he’d uncovered an enemy force that needed to be dealt with. Did it matter that they expected to never be included in a war? No. They clearly thought they could simply take care of Zeke, and everything would go back to normal. But in doing so, they’d bitten off far more than they were prepared to chew.

Especially when they’d threatened Zeke’s friends.

Once there were enough kobolds to hold the gate, Zeke took a squad of the Inashi with him as he tore across the plateau. The trip didn’t take long, and when he reached the edge, he didn’t stop for even a moment. Instead, he decreased his weight as much as possible, then, at a full sprint, leaped from the cliff. He sailed across the city, covering more than a mile as he drew closer to the airdock.

Even with his strength, he couldn’t quite jump that far, though.

So, he crashed into a building, collapsing the roof and nearly tearing the entire structure down. The only reason the walls remained standing was because they were enchanted. Otherwise, they would have crumbled under the impact.

Zeke didn’t care about that. He burst through the wall and raced down the street. As he did so, the Inashi – who’d had no means of keeping up with him – continued to cling to his body. However, when a bunch of guards tried to stop him, they leaped away and slaughtered the obstacles.

Were the guards true enemies? Did they have any idea what was going on? Zeke had no idea, but in his mind, the entirety of Westport had just established itself as his enemy. He was at war, and he couldn’t afford to stop and consider each enemy. If they attacked him, he intended to put them down without even a hint of mercy or hesitation.

Because anything else would get people he did care about killed.

With that in mind, he raced across Westport. Most of the guards saw enough to recognize the futility of barring his way, but there were a few would-be heroes who attempted to stop him. They died unceremoniously, either by Zeke’s hand or Inashi claws.

Then, finally, he reached the airdock.

There, he found Tucker standing over a bunch of guards who’d been stripped of their armor and weapons. Their hands and feet were bound, and they each wore suppression collars around their necks.

Tossing a small globe up and down on his palm, the alchemist called to Zeke, saying, “I was wondering when you’d show up. Do you know anything about why these guys tried to take my ship?”

“Ahem.”

Tucker looked back at Iris, then said, “Correction. Her ship. I’m just a lowly alchemist she allows to tag along.”

Iris rolled her eyes, which Tucker ignored.

Zeke answered, “The gnomes attacked me. Westport seems to have thrown in their lot with the Imperium.”

“Not surprising,” Tucker admitted. “They go where the money is, and there’s a lot of wealth in the Imperium. Centuries of conquest will do that for you, especially when you don’t have to pay your labor force.”

“Probably would have been nice to know that.”

Tucker shrugged. “Seems to have worked out okay for you,” he said. “What do you want to do now?”

“Isn’t it obvious? We’re going to take Westport.”