“Uhhh.”

Over the next hour, they stood near Hector and Welser who received report after report.

‘Now that’s more like a necromancer, and it answers how she will take multiple targets…’

The Empire’s imagination had been limited. It made him wonder why he also assumed that the Saintess of Necrochitins only had Emperor-ranked revived soldiers.

Because a second, third, fourth creature showed themselves from the portal and was appraised to all be Saints. There were no signs of stopping. Before, they were all limited by eyesight and their Appraise. Word has been sent down that the seers confirmed those 'Saints' were not the Necrochitin Saintess but revived bodies of that rank.

From the odd and even parts, many were unknown body parts.

‘Did she mix and match her sister's body parts? And is that a complete body that was revived? I don’t recognise that subspecies. So far, there are no body parts of other races altogether. Does her necromancy only work on Tetramyths?’ Ebony looked at the memory light screening the battlefield. The video technology was far better than he imagined.

“We should move now, any longer and there would be too many on our tails. Yvette might want to reconsider going past the barrier.” Ning Xin grabbed him and Hector by the collar and tore through the streets. The layered barrier opening cycles were timed so they could only exit as fast as they cycled.

By now, more than half of the troops outside the fortress had returned. The rest was too far out; a vanguard was still required to prevent pounding on the barrier, reducing mana consumption.

Welser should be following them, Hector would say something if the old man wasn’t fast enough.

“Step into this.” Ebony patted the divided wardrobe he conjured. It resembles a coffin but he didn’t care. It was the best way to carry a dozen people with spatial storage in the form of crates. They were young soldiers but proper Grandmasters.

If he had to guess, they might be children of Nobles. This was the most number of people Welser was confident of keeping hidden on the move.

“Do you want to be able to see, or not?” He asked the soldiers. As much as visual awareness might save them, they may not be able to see at the speeds they planned to move. They were rather obedient when Hector prodded them to get on. He placed two rows of 6 back to back and Hector sat on top, together with Ning Xin.

Staying afloat, they didn’t have to squeeze through the horde to get through the gates.

‘So the old man can fly too,’

“Can you keep up?” He asked the elite guard and butler just in case. If the old man didn’t know his speed, then he might be a terrible guard when Ebony had been around Hector and Mallory for so long.

“There won’t be an issue. Please do use your invisibility spell over us, I will ward us with darkness after we’re out of sight.” when they were under the thick gate borders, he did as asked. Darkness fell upon them for an instant but his sight returned right after, “we should not be seen or sensed.”

“Xin, which exit should we use?” There were only 2 exits, both led to the same defended elevator shaft but were very far from each other. He was actively using sound magic.

“The closer one.”

“Welser is it? Can your darkness magic hide gravitation spells? If I want to shoot ourselves forward-”

“You would consume an entire region of gravity to use a spell of that proportion, that exceeds my capabilities.”

“Got it.”

Despite all the caution, no death reaper fell upon their necks when they finally got past the last fortress gate and barrier. Flickering through the noisy skies without anyone noticing. The three-hour-long augmented Flicker to the closest exit was silent.

Not even a single stray spell or ant limb flew close to them.

They didn’t let their guard down even after getting through the heavily defended exits. The guards were already informed of their passage but it still took way too long for the jumpy fire swordswoman.

At least the Tetramyths couldn’t transform and act human which made passage relatively straightforward.

“Stay safe young master.” Welser bowed to his Prince and bid farewell before dispersing into darkness.

“How are you feeling?” He probed his dangermeter.

“Better. Let’s keep going.”

Hector continued to sit on the rows of coffins while Ebony checked the location of the moving platform to be underneath them before he Flickered upwards. He opened a private speech thread, “Xin, what’s the plan?”

“Run me through the possibilities you have thought of.”

“One, remain in Tidal.” He sensed her reaction before continuing.

“It may prevent the Mandate users from coming in. We might be able to resist being called out now. What other dangers other than the steampunk people who may not even be in Tidal? Even if they are--never mind they have an amazing space mage, the entire city might be within his range.

Two, stay and ask for help. Possibly Vent, the Frost Elves. Though Vent is my strongest bet after Gen and Ful.

Three, leave. We would be exposed, and our chances of outrunning Emperors and a space mage are low but we are better at using the wilds and random variables to our advantage. But we don’t know if the danger you are feeling is from either of these two groups. If it's neither, staying in Tidal and hunkering down in Dusk might not be a bad idea.”

Ebony had a feeling the Mandate user after him was not merely a King and even if they were, he just assumed they were stronger. The issue was that in either scenario, the space mage was the biggest obstacle. He didn’t think he could hide or run from a space mage.

Fighting was a choice, but neither of them could touch Kong Jing when they tried. Space magic was not fun to go against.

Hunkering down, as nice and advantageous it was for him, wasn't a solution. If something could endanger them, it could tear through his mana reserves.

“Four. You stay, I’ll leave. Quiet. I’m the attraction aren’t I? As long as you don’t show up, we have one less trouble. That’s why you’re keeping quiet.” He might not have the same top speed as she did but he was much better at running.

“Don’t make me angry, I can’t control myself well now.”

“Don’t make things difficult for me. In all cases where I’m a target, they want me for my mana. I’m not that unaware. No need to put yourself at unnecessary risk. If I’m caught, I’ll just escape later. Or you can even come save me like a damsel in distress. But if we’re both caught or you get killed, then that’s the end.” Ebony did a 90 degree turn without missing a beat and left the first elevator shaft and started going through the long tunnel upwards.

“I know that logically, but I won’t follow that. Just say that I’m not in control of my actions. Next plan!” She crossed her arms and turned her back on him.

“Five. Following your danger senses, hunt.” Ebony didn’t hesitate from the lack of killing intent towards them currently. Actively hunting down people and not monsters without provocation was a first, especially for his 'eye for an eye' mindset but, he was willing to take that step. He was pushed under for long enough.

“Go towards the danger?” She turned towards him again in surprise.

“Did that feel better?” Sensitive to her obvious reactions, he noticed the positive feedback straight away.

“I-I think it does.”

“I suppose it suits us far better. Then we hit hard, fast.” Ebony had Dusk spit out a few plums. He used Will to encase the spell maintenance. “3% power bombs, any more and they can’t sustain themselves.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

It was a weakened version but it should do. He produced over a dozen and passed them to her, empty. She could fill them up when she wanted to use them. He already mixed his magic with them to help with gravitational expulsion and the usual mixture of ice and sound spells. 3% didn’t sound like much, but their combined spell was just that much more powerful compared to their individual spells.

“Should I give you a few full-powered versions?”

“It’s not worth the mana upkeep from me.”

“How about one? At least have a backup, you lack explosive power.”

“Let me compute…it’s not worth it unless I have to use them immediately. If it’s 5%, I can keep it for a month at the risk of drying my reserves completely.” He thought hard about it and ran through dozens of simulations in parallel considering his mana reserves in Dusk and its power source. A full-powered bomb was too obvious to the surroundings and also consumed too much mana. Keeping one without letting it explode for more than a few minutes wouldn’t be worth it already.

“WAIT! I had those!” She screamed in realisation and slipped the bag out from under her mantle.

Ebony held her steady with ice magic while Flickering towards the surface.

“...oh, I’m glad you remembered.” He didn’t get mad at her for forgetting. It was her personal compressed mana ores, using Kong Jing’s industrial mana compressor. He noticed the moment she took it out but he didn’t know she had them. Her mask had a few of his that provided healing.

“Give me a moment, I’ll charge them with blood and fire. When you want an explosive, just crush these within your gravity and everything will spill out. Maybe not as powerful, but these are still Purples so they can contain quite a lot of energy. Sorry…I only made 2 since I never thought they would be useful.”

“Thank you.” Ebony took them and stared at them for a bit. His mind was getting hot from the thousands of short simulations he was running. After a moment, he sealed them in ice and manipulated them through his nostrils, into his lungs along with his supply of frozen air capsules that he refreshed during the wait time in the fortress.

‘My seal can hide vitality and mana, and if I get caught or cut apart I’ll still have them unless they dig it out of my lungs.’

The swordswoman didn’t say anything about his actions.

It took 20 hours before they reached the second shaft. He set the soldiers down and took a break.

“After we get moving, we’ll be surfacing in less than 5 hours so long as no obstacles come our way. Hector, did you manage to contact Navin?”

“Two hours ago. He’s tying loose ends, and getting the resupply so that we can move back down as soon as possible.”

‘So these people aren’t going back down for sure.’ He didn’t look at the shivering soldiers. If it’s just the crates, Navin could bring it along without an issue. He could lift a mountain-sized centipede with no issue, supply crates aren’t a problem.

Once again, they restarted their trip up in surprising uneventfulness. Nothing sprung up on them in the heavily used routes for the army.

Navin was quietly waiting at the entrance, patting the young soldiers back before taking over.

“Navin.” Ebony knew they were in a rush and spilt their issues in hopes of a helping hand with accelerated sound magic. Obviously, he asked the greatest barrier mage on the continent for a defensive spell.

And fortunately, it didn’t take Navin any effort to cast a spell on them. “There is no time limit for this spell, a form of mana skin that reduces all damage except soul or mental damage taken by 99% until my mana runs out, it only takes damage that exceeds your defensive capabilities. Anything that can’t put a dent in your health will not activate my spell so it can last longer. Those ‘steampunk’ people, I do not recognise their description. They must be illegal immigrants, be careful. Your close ally…the Frost Elf is looking or rather, waiting for you at your house. I have to go now. Hector, this is the list of jobs I need you to complete. I’ll leave Tidal to you and your cousins, no need to bend to the other Nobles and do as you wish.”

“Frost Elf? Koawe-no, then you would just tell me it's him.” Ebony contemplated, this was out of his expectations. He didn’t even need to call or run back to Arcta this way.

“Someone more intimidating, I didn’t know they had someone like that.” Navin hurried the soldiers to pack their supply crates up and zipped away. They were in dire need of spatial technology.

‘Vent then. Are things looking good?’ Ebony looked at his danger detector but he couldn’t spot any difference. Nothing seemed urgent but her Intuition couldn’t be trusted fully.

In the end, he surfaced and walked into a noisy city without any attacks. As if Ning Xin was imagining things, things were as peaceful as could be. When he voted to go to the market and wholesaler for food, she routed him back home instead.

Ebony decided to let the clones on the surface do as they wished. Only 4 were bodyguards and academic students at the same time. The rest, such as Clone Number One who did jobs for the mage association to get access to books were out doing other quests or a casual hunt. He would gather them to reorganise priorities if he had time but the swordswoman’s nervous reaction told him he didn’t have the time.

The bodyguards were likely how the Frost Elf was supposedly in his house.

Getting home at top speed, he was right on the mark as Vent was feeding his cute orcas out in the yard.

Ebony checked that three of his clones were present, reading or sculpting new runic formulation. He immediately updated each other with the knowledge and memories each of them had. Vent arrived two days ago and his clones welcomed him in.

As for the reason, the strongest hunter of the Frost Elves was doing what he did best. Hunt.

“Those debtors are the remainders of the race called Nebulian. They led a monster horde upon Arcta and robbed Tuctra at the same time. They are preparing for their rise back to power. Where you are, they will come hence, I’m here.” Vent’s pressure on his clones' body was absolute but the superior mage didn't force his clones to do anything and the Will in his clones was unblemished.

It was clear that Vent and the combatant Kings were still present at Arcta and the monster horde had not been an issue but to successfully rob their main village, Tuctra was unexpected. Ebony didn’t even know the location of Tuctra. That didn’t matter, what mattered was that Vent was here to take the Mandate users, Nebulian, out of the equation.

‘These three Chilblain Orcas are a force to be reckoned with. Is her Intuition just going coo coos?’ Although he was confident he wouldn’t be instantly killed by these Orcas, Ebony might not even be able to harm or handle one of them. Now that he didn’t have to ask for help, and help arrived by itself he truly didn’t know what was causing her to be on edge.

“Don’t you have work to do?” Ebony asked Hector who followed them home.

“I was told to do as I wished. Now my friends are hiding something from me, do you think I’ll sit around?”

“There is a problem.” Vent clapped and brushed his hands off the orca snacks.

The tall blue-skinned elven hunter’s words and presence demanded attention. It was an intense sensation and completely opposite when he stood there in silence without a presence or leaking aura.

“Scarlet, am I right? Sixth-sense, I have something similar. Tell me about it.”

It felt like they repeated the same story for the umpteenth time but aloud this time, for Hector to hear the rest of the story.

“So you have decided to hunt. I’ll join in, and you don’t have to worry about the Nebulian. They have 3, proper level 812, 820 and 880 Emperors. They’ve hidden and gained power for a long time. I don’t know what gave them the confidence to strike now, but they must think Elva is full of herbivores.

“Uhm, I know this is rude but may I know your esteemed level?” Hector seemed to tip-toe around the tall Frost Elf with a scar on his neck.

“625. These boys and girls are the same. You can ride them, I will be enough for all of the Nebulian.” Vent rubbed the Orca’s chin.

Hector’s face was saying ‘what gave you the guts!’ in return but Ebony and Ning Xin only thought it was natural. Their instincts told them Vent would have no problem backing his words up.

“Boy, Barrier King’s descendant…you will be crucial.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m no seer. Just do whatever feels right when the moment comes. Ready kids?” The hunter withdrew his awesome bow from his back which sent chills down their backs just standing next to the man.

“Mmm.”

They followed where Ning Xin felt the most uncomfortable going.

Unexpectedly, they found themselves in the market. One outside the central district.

“What are we looking at? No public destruction please, and these people are innocent.” Hector stared down. They were extremely far away from the market when the elven hunter stopped them.

“Spatial node, Barrier King’s descendant. Your chaotic elements can destroy it, but a few things can happen. The caster will find out. You might be forcefully transported. Or an entire region may be transported. If we’re unlucky, this is an offensive trap that tears space around when it gets destroyed. Hostile intent’s blaring off from it, I suggest evacuating people as quietly as possible.” Vent had them retreat further after sensing that it was a probing node that was scanning people.

“Heheh there you are my student!” A young girl's voice made Ning Xin jump and slash out but Vent held her blow by the sword grip.

“You’re trying to kill me! Wahh!” Muse ran and hid behind Ebony.

“How did you find us?” Hector took a hard biscuit out to feed the girl that he was familiar with but she disdained the treat and took a cookie out of her cute pouch.

“I heard your souls and came over at your distress. Did you want to evacuate people? I can do that.” Muse landed on a roof from her flight. She cleared her throat and released a harmonic chime. No human vocal chords could produce such a pitch and rhythm.

‘I’m still as clueless as to what she’s saying. More and more people are gathering around us but my gut is feeling worse.’ Ebony kept up with the confusing ongoings but it only made him more irritated by the lack of knowledge. He noticed Muse coming towards them minutes ago.

Ning Xin wasn’t the only one who felt something happening. Vent and this music teacher of his seemed to sense something too.

They watched as everyone in a 100km radius suddenly got up, looked away from the market centre and rushed away while dancing and shouting happily.

People were walking out from within buildings, soundproof or not and even sick elderly people were being carried out by others.

Chefs clinked their ladles and pans, exclaiming about an ingredient running away from them or wanting to get a new batch of ingredients. Smiths hammered on their anvils, carrying both out as they cheerfully evacuated in search of iron. Merchants packed up their wares and listened to their pouches of mana ores when they shook it beside their ears while gathering their crew to start exploring a new source of income.

“What sorcery is this?” Hector’s jaw dropped.

Four of them eyed the little girl warily. She was more terrifying than anything they’ve seen today.