They found the other three at the park house and Zalia gave Ember another long hug.

“Did you annoy him?”

Zalia smiled and squeezed a little tighter.

“Just for you,” she whispered.

She let go of the embrace and turned to Aylie, fixing up her messy hair.

“And how are you doing?”

Aylie grumbled a little at the treatment but didn’t push her hands away.

“Okay.”

Zalia nodded. Okay was… okay.

“We might be leaving town soon, depending how things go. Are you alright with that?”

Aylie nodded her assent, but Tristan looked concerned.

“So soon? We really could use you here for longer. Obviously if you can’t then that is that but…”

“I might have… some bad news.”

Tristan’s already stressed face looked as if it aged a further ten years.

“Bad news. Out with it then.”

Zalia swallowed, collecting her thoughts.

“Right. Well, one of the dying demons said something about the right of preference, which had been lost with this fight? I don’t know exactly what that meant but it seemed convinced that we were doomed.”

A little of the tension left Tristan’s face.

“Well, that could have just been some final breath bravado or a tactic to make us panic.”

Zalia nodded a few times, though she didn’t agree at all.

“Maybe. Don’t you find it weird that nothing stronger has attacked Ostoss though? We have seen a Silver rank demon flying around aimlessly not a few days east of here. Why wouldn’t they have come here?”

Tristan looked a little disturbed and Zalia didn’t blame him. The thought of a Silver or even Gold rank demon coming to Ostoss and slaughtering everyone was a horrific one. She wasn’t certain if the Enchanter would be able to win a one on one fight against a Silver rank demon, let alone anything higher.

“What if these shapechangers had dibs on the town and we just inadvertently opened it up for any of them.”

“Then… why would you leave us after finding this out?”

Zalia looked to the sky.

“I don’t know that we would be able to defeat a Silver ranked demon. Whatever is left of the Morning’s Shade though… well, they might be able to.”

She had actually killed a Silver rank creature before but it had been one of the undead in the Bathar city of Hetheir. Those had been significantly weaker than your usual Silver rank creature and lacked any abilities whatsoever. The truth of the matter was, if she went up against one of these Silver demons by herself she would die. With Boreal and Ember, they might stand a chance but even Delphi and the collective hadn’t been able to take one down.

“So you would be going for help then?”

“Yes Tristan. We aren’t just going to leave you all to die. The army needs us but not nearly as dearly as you do. Hopefully, the Enchanter will be able to get something out of my ritual to improve the barrier you have. Hopefully, you’ll be able to survive until we can get back with help.”

Ostoss was a week's journey from Endelbyrn, the city that held the organisation known as the Morning’s Shade. While such a journey might take Zalia and Boreal less time, she didn’t like the idea of splitting up with Ember and Aylie. She was certainly not going to leave them in Ostoss by themselves.

Stolen story; please report.

Tristan and his guards would need to hold out for a little over two weeks for her to make the journey and back, assuming she even found any help in Endelbyrn at all. She hoped it still stood, as it had been the centre of a lot of Endaria’s powerful people.

Tristan heaved a long sigh.

“I guess we can try. I don’t see that there is any other option really.”

Zalia chewed at her lips a little, trying to figure out what else they could try. Getting help from the army was out of the question as they were even further away and less likely to come. The Heat and Stone denizens would not leave their mountain to help but would take refugees. Could they walk the entire population of Ostoss a week's journey to the mountain?

The logistics and danger of such a task took that idea away from her quickly.

“I don’t see any other way either.”

Ember looked like she was deep in thought as well, yet said nothing. She was probably having most of the same thoughts Zalia was. Boreal, of course, didn’t even seem to be paying attention.

“When will you leave?” Tristan asked.

Zalia looked at Ember who shrugged.

“Tomorrow after Ember uses her ability to feed the people?”

Tristan nodded in agreement and they fell into silence. There wasn’t much else to be said. She would help grow the plants and would even set up a living ritual to accomplish that same task but then there wasn’t much else they could do but get help. If both Hildebrandt and Matthias, the two who lead the Morning’s Shade alongside Hidey, were still in Endelbyrn, their help would be invaluable. She just hoped she could convince them to come.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Essen sat in a gutter, many hours after having run from the park where the interloper had slaughtered his clanmates. It had all gone so horribly. What had that dome of oppressive power been? How could someone so low as Bronze rank create something so powerful?

There would be hell to pay for this, he knew that. The elders would take his life for providing them with such wrong information. He couldn’t go back, not after leaving so many of his clanmates to die for a mistake he had made.

He didn’t understand. Had the interloper known they were coming all along? Had she sensed his real form when he had been talking to her?

There was nothing for it now. He was doomed, there was no way he could survive what was to come. The right of preference was lost now. There would be no feast or celebration, no capture of the city. The others would come pick over the spoils and their clan would fade back into the background once again.

Perhaps…

He had been hoping this would go well so that he could finally ascend. He would be on the same level as many of the stronger members of the clan, the same level even as the interloper. Though she would have killed many that were of her same rank despite the odds by now. Such strength… strength that could be his

Well, he didn’t have to wait for permission now, did he? Usually, ascending without permission from the elders would be the end for him but they would already kill him for this, so why not?

Essen slipped through a few alleys, getting lost amongst the desperate of this horrible little town. His hidden form had reestablished itself not long after leaving the oppressive power of the interloper thankfully. No, he didn’t have to wait for anyone to tell him he could advance his own power. The message was asking him if he wanted to ascend after all. Why did some elder get to tell him what to do?

He summoned the message back and it sat there in his sight, a goal just out of reach yet always within it.

Would you like to ascend?

"Yes."

He felt the power flow through him. It was nothing so different to the last ascension yet it was so, so much more. All of his powers were already Bronze ranked, yet they felt much more solid now.

Once he adapted to the new sensory input of being Bronze, he looked about at the cowering filth that had hidden themselves away in the alleys with him. Had they always looked so drab and depressed?

Well, even if they had, they would still bleed just as well. He jumped forwards and grabbed a man, tearing into him with claws, teeth and all.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Zalia was sitting with Ember watching the plants grow. Tristan had left some time ago to check on things in the city yet the farmers remained, looking confused but overjoyed at the speed of growth the plants had obtained.

It hadn’t really occurred to Zalia but her powerset would actually work quite well if she were to be a farmer. Not only could she grow plants at very quick speeds but she could also harvest a crop extremely efficiently. All the plants she harvested would even provide more nutrition as well.

It was slightly amusing to consider, a life where she used her powerful druidic abilities to run a little farm.

Her deep reverie was shattered as the sounds of screaming began to fill the air. She couldn’t discern where it was coming from at first but it started growing louder and louder. Before she knew it, there were shouts as people from the city began fleeing across the park.

She looked at Ember and both of them jumped up to investigate. Boreal and Aylie were somewhere in the house, probably within the vault. Zalia knew she could leave the protection of Aylie to Boreal and so wasn’t worried about the two of them at all.

They ran past fleeing refugees and eventually found the source of the commotion. One of the escaped shapechangers had apparently dropped its guise entirely as it leaned over the corpse of a man whose eyes stared sightlessly into the sky above. Ember immediately dashed forwards and interrupted the disgusting sounds of chewing with a savagely delivered shield to the head.