Thud! Thud! Thud!

Liara's boots dug deep footprints in the ground as she ran forward with all her strength and jumped above a crevasse filled with lava. The movement shook the passenger she was carrying on her back but failed to wake him up.

'The illusion Milena used on Glenn is really efficient,' thought Liara. 'I should try to never bother her unless I want to be in the same situation. A perpetual nightmare or dream...' She shook these ideas out as Nelg suddenly appeared out of thin air running next to her.

"I can take him off your hands," proposed Glenn's doppelganger. Liara jumped above another crevasse before politely shaking her head. Nelg moistened his lips and shrugged.

"As you wish. Just call up to me...or something, if you need me." He disappeared in a myriad of blue particles, returning inside Glenn's soul.

"How far are we from these damned Horizon Gates?" Milena shouted, following Liara closely.

"Let's hope not too far," replied Lucian.

A strong hand pushed them forward. "Keep steady! We don't want the masked Rulers to catch up to us!" Sahro shouted as he glanced suspiciously behind them. He had expected the Owl and Snake to be onto them already and had even prepared himself mentally to stall for time for the others. But against all odds, the Rulers didn't seem to be anywhere close. Worse, they didn't even try to run after them.

'This is weird. We're too lucky. Something is wrong.' Sahro rubbed his stump as he ran, grimacing. He was already starting to miss the familiar weight of his mechanical arm. A stop by their base in the Bourgeoisie seemed mandatory by now. With some chance, maybe that engineer kid Liam will be able to come up with an even better prosthetic. Something tougher would certainly be welcomed.

"I can see it!" Milena exclaimed. The Horizon Gates stretched out in the distance, a hole into reality that doubled as a passage between two worlds. The Limbo shimmered behind the unstable rift, waiting for them. The sky there would be empty of these damned eyes following them at their every step in the Beyond.

None of them hesitated to throw themselves into the Horizon Gates. Sahro clenched the hilt of his sword tightly, fighting back against the urge to puke his insides out and some more. Like the first time, it felt like his guts were twisted into a knot, ripped, and blended into an unhealthy mixture. Right when he thought he was going to be forced to spit out his bowels, his feet returned to solid ground.

"Target locked!" exclaimed a voice as if to welcome them. It took a second for Sahro's sight to return to working conditions, and it took another for him to unsheathe his sword and cover himself in crimson lightning. An opaque magical barrier was locking them alongside the Horizon Gates, blocking them there.

"Shit, incoming!" Sahro shouted a warning before dashing forward, his sword cutting an opening through the barrier. A slit appeared in the spell, letting him jump out of the barrier. A dozen horrified mages watched as a monster of red lightning forced through the product of their cooperation single-handedly. A sword met right away with Sahro, wielded by an officer bearing the crest of the Wolves Order.

Count Mortelli's face contorted as he slid back, pushed back by Sahro's strength. The Black Heir stood with all his might, a pure limb of crimson lightning replacing his missing arm.

"You fucker are dead!" Sahro spat as he launched himself at the Count.

Milena and Lucian only recovered then, followed by Liara. The Black Heiress struggled with metaphysical transportation, and it showed. She took a moment to breathe in and out before looking up at their surroundings. Milena dashed through the slit Sahro created and went to help him.

"Ultima Onerariam Excipio!" chanted a choir of voices beyond the magic barrier. Lucian was about to follow behind Milena when he heard the incantation. His eyes widened as he quickly comprehended the spell.

'What is this? Ultima Onerariam Excipio... Ultima is the focus for group casting, Excipio should be a targeting component, so...Onerariam, Onerariam...' He stopped dead in his tracks and turned to Liara and Glenn at the same time as white particles covered them. "No! It's a teleportation component! Shit, Liara—!"

The words barely left his mouth and both of them disappeared into thin air. Lucian's heart missed a beat. The sound of fighting beyond the magic barrier dulled in his ears as he felt his rage rise. The blood in his veins turned to ice. He clenched his fists tightly as a golden crown appeared above his head, brimming with the power of his six Circles.

He was Lucian Magnus, the First Prince of Munirp, someone who had access to countless resources and teachers. His mentor, his father, stood at the highest point of the alimentary chain. Lucian was one of the youngest Archmagis in history. And yet, despite all the support he received, and the knowledge of the most powerful spells, he was still weaker than Glenn, an Expert Magi.

He didn't feel jealous or spiteful because he was weaker than someone else. No, Lucian was happy. He was glad to find that a talent such as Glenn blossomed in his kingdom, in Munirp. Glenn had the talent to reach beyond the stars, and his comrades were more than capable of doing the same. Glenn could have become the leading hero that would lead Munirp to a new golden age, surpassing his father's strength to reach new heights.

But no. Some...scheming, worm-like bastard had decided to take one of the most promising talents in Munirp's history and teleport him somewhere unknown when he was incapable of fighting.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"Scheming is the hallmark of the aristocrats and the vicious..." Lucian clenched his teeth tightly as he extracted himself from the magical barrier. His eyes met with Count Mortelli, who was under the combined assault of both Sahro and Milena. The Count's eyes widened and he froze from the shock. Milena and Sahro didn't miss the opportunity. The lady's knife poked his chest as the Black Heir's blade pressed against his neck.

"Count Mortelli..." Lucian walked up to him, each of his steps sending explosions of light in the sky. "I, Munirp's Crown Prince, command you!" He disregarded both Sahro and Milena and grabbed Mortelli by the collar to slam him on the ground, his eyes brimming with hatred.

"Tell me where you sent Glenn and Liara!"

Sahro and Melina flinched and glanced back the way they came from. They could see through the magic barrier from here, and Glenn and Liara were nowhere to be seen.

"I- I...!" Mortelli's face drained out of colors as he stuttered to find the words to reply.

"I! COMMAND YOU! REPLY!" Lucian slammed him against the ground once more, his face red with anger. The ground shattered as orange and magenta light mixed up to create a horrifying twilight looming over the Count. The Wolves Order's knights stood in terror, unable to stop the Prince due to their loyalty to the kingdom, but also torn because they vowed fealty to the Commander of the Wolves Order.

"Y- Your Highness!" Mortelli seemed to recover his cool slightly, his face covered in blood after the Prince's violent treatment. "This spell was a rescue spell! It was intended for you, but something went wrong in the casting!"

The Prince looked down before laughing broadly. "Hahaha! Hahahaha!" He suddenly stopped laughing and withdrew a sword from a dimensional pouch. "Utter another lie, and I shall declare you a traitor to the kingdom. I know you've been working with the Occult Wanderers!"

Count Mortelli lost the little calm he had recovered and suddenly exploded with Aura. His hand shot into a dimensional pouch, retrieving a small pearl. Lucian conjured all of his strength to create the most powerful spell he could, but the Count shattered the pearl and phased out of reality, teleported out. Lucian cursed as he stopped his casting and looked at Mortelli's followers.

"I, Lucian Magnus, hereby declare!" His voice thundered for kilometers, powered with special magic. "Count Mortelli is to be considered a traitor to the nation! He shall be stripped of his title, his assets seized, and his name written in our annals as one who dared oppose the Crown!"

He pointed his finger at those who bore the Wolves Order emblem, unfinished. "To those who followed the Count! Comply to my orders, or be considered traitors and die!"

Instantly, all of them fell to their knees, their heads bowed in the Prince's direction. Sahro and Milena stared, their jaws hanging slightly, but they quickly recovered from their shock. Something was more important than that impressive show of power.

"Where did they go? Shit, Glenn can't fight right now!" Sahro shouted as he grabbed the closest mage, questioning him. Milena's face darkened and she pressed her thumb on one of the mages' forehead, capturing his mind with her magic.

"T- The s- spell was m- meant to recover his Highness from the g- group holding him h- hostage," revealed the mage under the mind-controlling magic. Milena panted as she released the mage, turning to Sahro and Lucian fearfully.

"I felt how they manipulated the Mana. Something went wrong during the casting because of the Horizon Gates. The coordinates got shambled and they got teleported somewhere else than the intended destination!"

Lucian took a deep breath as the gleam of his crown faded away slightly.

"...What do you mean? Was Mortelli not lying, then? Why did he flee then?"

Sahro scoffed. "Probably the accusation about the Occult Wanderers." He turned to Milena and hurriedly asked. "Where did the original coordinates lead to?"

Milena closed her eyes, retrieving the memory she pilfered mercilessly.

"It's...not far from here. Wait..." She rubbed her temples. "...The spell was meant to be a short-range teleportation, but the influence of the Horizon Gates somehow messed up the Mana input. They..." She paled. "They could be as far as the other side of the world."

Sahro collapsed on the ground, exhausted and depressed. Lucian held his head in awe and disbelief, his princely presence crumbling.

"H- How are we supposed to find them then?"

He looked at the sky and sighed with a nervous laugh. "I don't give a shit anymore. I'm calling Father."

***

In the meanwhile, somewhere very far away.

Liara rolled on the ground, protecting Glenn from the fall the best she could. They rolled in the dust for a while, Glenn tightly hugged in the Black Heiress's arms until they eventually stopped. Pebble suddenly phased into reality, worriedly biting at his master's hair to try and wake him up. Liara coughed heavily, her senses numbed and her Mana strangely jumbled up.

She pushed herself up, glancing at their surroundings carefully. Her weapons had disappeared in the transport, but she knew how to defend herself without them anyway. Thankfully, that didn't look like it was going to be a problem.

Nelg appeared out of thin air, his eyes bulging out and his jaw hanging slackly. "What the hell was that? Where are we? Liara, are you okay? No, don't worry about this idiot, he has a monster's regeneration now. No, no, what we should be truly worried about is your face. Are you okay?"

Liara pushed away the overtly worried Nelg and wiped the soot off her face. They were standing in a sort of dead land, dried-up trees and thorny bushes the only thing in sight. The ground was muddy and wet, with patches of gray moss here and there.

Slap!

"Hey, fucking bastard, why don't you wake up now?"

Slap!

"Come on, Glenn, time to get out of your nap! We're in a fucking foreign land, we don't need a deadweight loser!"

Liara stopped Nelg from slapping Glenn a third time. The harder she looked, the less she was understanding what she was seeing. This looked nothing like Munirp, but on the other hand, the only thing she knew of Munirp was King's Rise and the Dark Wall, back when it was still there. Also, it certainly wasn't the Ink Dunes. Too wet.

The sky was obscured by a thick layer of dark clouds, making their surroundings even harder to recognize. Nelg picked Glenn up and threw him on his shoulders.

"So, uh, what do we do Boss?"

Liara turned to Nelg and raised an eyebrow. 'Boss?'

Nelg shrugged at her confused expression. "This idiot is unconscious, and I have to admit that the only things I know are the things he knows. Which means, not a lot. I can only trust you to go forward."

Liara smiled weakly and nodded. She looked once more at the sky and shook her head.

First, they needed to get out of there, find shelter, and rest properly. Finding their way back to Munirp will have to come later.