Thankfully, the footprints that Fade had created weren’t a continuous line. If they had actually been something like that, I’m sure whoever we were tracking would have freaked out about how their trail was now visible and glowing. No, instead they were appearing in front of us as we navigated our way through the underbrush.

However, I think Finch and I were both surprised when the trail led out of the forest. At least, the main part of it. We’d been traveling for at least thirty minutes now, following the glowing trail. A few seconds ago, it had broken through into a plain that lay on the other side of the treeline.

Finch, Fade, and I were standing just inside of it, looking warily out at the wide-open space. There was no way we’d been able to hide out there. There wasn’t an ounce of cover to be seen as it was nothing but grass and hills for miles around. If we had to crest one of those hills, we’d be seen for certain.

I, though, was concerned with something else as well. I frowned, looking back the way we came. “We’ve gone pretty far,” I murmured, catching Finch’s attention. At his head tilt, I elaborated. “This is the farthest I’ve ranged out since I was posted out here.” By now we might be at least ten miles out from the army of the Uprising.

Finch shook his head. “We don’t have a choice,” He said. “We have to look into this. But, we can’t do it as we are.” Finch did something then that surprised me.

He reached up and removed his mask.

My eyebrows shooting up in shock, I took in his now-revealed features.

Surprisingly, Finch looked younger than I was.

I’d peg the man at around twenty-one or so, with youthful features sporting not even the slightest amount of facial hair. Not like the near-constant five o’clock shadow that I was spouting these days, though. I’d already seen them through his mask, but Finch had chocolatey brown eyes that paired well with his shaggy blonde hair. He shook it out of the way, as he took a bandana out of his pouch and tied it around his forehead to keep the strands out of his eyes. When he was done, the almost pretty boy gave me a roguish grin and stuck his hand out. “Johann Morris, pleased ta meet ’cha.”

I blinked at the introduction, but shrugged. I’d never been told we couldn’t unmask to another Agent, so why the hell not? I reached up and removed my own mask, taking his hand after stowing it in my pouch. “Nate Hart, ditto.” I said, clasping arms with him.

“Nice, nice,” Johann said, nodding easily. “We should take off the cloaks too. They'll stick out too much out there.” He unclasped and removed the grey cloth when he finished speaking, revealing a mostly unremarkable set of leather armor.

I snorted. “I’m not sure I should take the cloak off if I wanted to remain undetected,” I said, spreading said cloak as I did. “I’ve got my Order armor on under this, and I don’t have a change of clothes on me.”

“I’m not wearing mine, so…” Johann shrugged, as he folded and stowed his cloak. “Not a problem. You don’t look too much bigger than me, and I have some clothes you can take with you. Just remember to bring some next time, yeah?”

Ah…yeah, that sounded like it would have been good. I’d kinda just…set off as soon as I’d gotten my Orders. As Johann slung off a small pack from his back, I was able to see the bow that he’d killed the Ripper with, as well as a capped quiver. The weapon looked surprisingly mundane for the amount of mana I could feel hiding within it.

I accepted a similar set of leathers from the man, walking out of sight to get changed. When I was done, I tugged at the clothes uncomfortably. I was used to wearing leathers like this, but this particular set fit oddly. I was practically bulging out of them. I couldn’t even fasten the top button on the vest it was so skin-tight. I shook it off and wandered back over to Finch. He thankfully stowed my cloak and uniform in his pack, and then we rejoined an impatiently waiting Fade next to the footprints.

We followed him out onto the plains, traveling slower and making sure to keep our heads on a swivel.

We didn’t have to go far to find something.

As we began to crest a nearby hill, we began to hear an odd sound. There was a bizarre humming note to the air that only intensified as we grew closer to it. Not only that, but I started to hear something else that made my heartbeat pick up.

Roars and growls and screams and chirping. None of it sounded human. Exchanging a glance with Johann, we both got down on our bellies and began to crawl to the top of the hill. When we reached it and looked over the top, I felt my mouth drop open in shock as Johann cursed.

We’d found the missing monsters.

And then some.

On the other side of the hill was a small valley surrounded by more hills, forming a kind of bowl shape. The entire thing was filled to the brim with monsters scrabbling and clawing to get to something in the center. The noise we had been hearing was them fighting desperately to get through a dome shield of some kind, glowing faintly with the blue of Mana. Their claws and fangs simply slid off of the surface for some reason. All of the monsters below us looked mad with fury trying to pierce the shield.

There must have been thousands of them in that valley, roiling over themselves in a nearly indistinguishable mass.

The humming sound overlaying the roars of the monsters was coming from inside the dome.

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“What?” I breathed in shock. “What is…?”

“A monster lure of some kind,” Johann murmured, his eyes narrowing. “But why is it out here? It has to have been set by the Loyalists. If they were planning to direct all of that to attack the Army, why…?”

“Wait,” I said sharply, shading my eyes. Just barely visible through the dome, I thought I saw something. “Take a closer look at the center.” I heard Johann agree before the both of us tried to take a closer look at the center of the dome. It was lucky we were so far above the roiling mass below, or else I don’t think I’d be able to see.

But I could.

Someone was in the dome.

A nervous and fidgety Loyalist soldier had set up a camp inside the dome shield that was protecting him. I could see his tent and the remains of a campfire, which he was sitting next to and watching the monsters from on top of a log. But what caught my attention the most was the other thing that was inside the dome as well.

I hadn’t seen one in months, not since I’d escaped Addersfield. But I don’t think I would ever forget it.

It was a luminous blue Ward Stone, floating over a stone plinth. Through my squint, and thanks to my levels in Perception, I watched as the crystal slowly spun in place.

“What is going on here?” Johann said, baffled. “Did he get caught out here, and set up a whole damned ward scheme to protect himself? Why are the monsters going so damn feral over one soldier? I’ve never seen so many monsters care so much about just one person.”

“I don’t think that’s what’s happening here,” I said slowly, drawing Johann’s attention. I focused harder on the Ward Stone, trying to decipher the runes carved on the plinth. Thankfully, my Perception was high enough that I could just barely make out some of them. I frowned at what I was seeing. I looked asway and at Johann with a grave look on my face. “I’ve seen what a monster-repelling ward looks like before,” I said grimly. “And what’s on that looks like the inverse of one. That’s a monster-attracting ward, like you said.”

I didn’t say it, but that wasn’t the only thing I saw on the bizarre Ward-Stone. There were some extremely odd runic arrays that I had never seen before etched on the surface of the plinth. Something about absorption and expelling? I didn’t understand it, but I had a bad feeling.

“That makes no sense,” Johann pointed out. “If this is some kind of Loyalist scheme, then they’re just helping us by drawing the monsters from our path.”

I frowned, a suspicion starting to grow in the depths of my rings. Looking up again and focusing back on the dome, I froze.

The soldier had noticed us, despite our prone positions on top of the hill. He must have been scanning the ridgeline instead of watching the monsters as I’d thought. Bizarrely, I watched as the man’s face fell as he stood up. Not only that, but it looked like he was starting to…sob to himself?

What the fuck?

My blood ran cold at what happened next, absolute dread blossoming inside me.

The soldier reached down and picked up something that had been hidden behind the log he had been sitting on. The familiar form of an oversized fork.

A Ward Breaker.

I scrambled to my feet, uncaring about Johann’s yelp as I seemingly gave away our position. “Don’t you fucking do it,” I breathed. “DON’T’ YOU DARE!” Tearing my eyes away from the soldier and casting a wild gaze down Johann, I gave up all pretenses. I reached down and yanked him to his feet, uncaring about how rough I was.

“Can you break that shield?” I said desperately, almost shaking the man.

Johann must have seen the panic on my face. “No…not something that can take so many hits from so many monsters,” He said slowly. “Hart, what’s going on? What the hell is that thing that has you-”

I let go of him abruptly, looking down at Fade. “That thing you did at Caer Drarrow!” I said, my panic only growing. “Can you dispel that shield?!”

“What?” Johann said, startled. “He can do that? But those monsters would tear that guy apart!”

“That’s the idea,” I said, not looking at him.

Fade looked as baffled as I’d ever seen him, but I saw the young wolf look down the hill at the shield. Slowly, his gaze drifted across the distance back to mine. I got the impression he was judging the distance from our position to the shield.

He shook his head.

I sagged. “Fuck,” I said quietly. Suspecting what I would find, I looked at the soldier once again.

Below me, it looked like he had been gathering his nerve while I’d interrogated my companions. But now it looked like he was ready. Sure enough, the soldier was approaching the Ward Stone with the Breaker held tightly between his hands, tears still falling from his eyes.

He was going to do it.

Panicked, I turned to Johann. “We need to get out of here now,” I said quickly. “Or we’re both fucking dead.”

I didn’t wait for his reply before sprinting down the hill, Fade quick on my heels. I ratcheted Sylvan Vigor up as far as I dared to keep my pace as quickly as possible. I heard Johann curse as he caught up to me once we were down the hill and halfway to the tree line.

“What the hells-” Johann didn’t get the chance to interrogate me any longer.

Behind us, a bright blue light began to outshine the sun, casting shadows ahead of our position. Suddenly shocked, I turned around to watch with Johann, my blood curdling in my veins at what I saw.

Rising out of the small valley was what looked like a bright blue sun, casting the world in its ethereal light. It was nearly as big as Grey's tower had been, back in Hollow Hil.

It was concentrated Mana. No…

This was a spell. An enormously powerful one.

Although it looked like nothing more than a mass of pure power, I could feel the intent roiling inside of the mass. The effect of so much pure energy gathered in one place was causing a localized storm in the immediate area, with fierce winds beginning to howl and swirl about it. Luminescent blue lightning crackled off of the miniature star, scorching the grass on the surrounding hills with rainbow fire from the strikes.

Through the cacophony, I couldn’t hear anything else but the sizzle of Mana and the rushing of wind.

The monsters had abruptly gone silent.

With jaws hanging open wide, Johann and I watched as the spell floated into the sky. It must have gone nearly ten miles up, boiling furiously all the while.

Until it burst.

In a massive explosion that I was sure the Army must be able to see, the spell exploded in a cascading river of mana. Johann and I were knocked off our feet from the shockwave. Luckily, I was able to catch Fade in time before he was blown away.

The energy roiled about us, nearly burning me from the sheer intensity. I was stunned, but not stunned enough that I wasn’t able to see what happened next.

Hundreds, thousands. No…

Dozens and dozens of thousands of Monster Cores started to form in midair all around us, slowly condensing. They blanketed the hills and forest as far as the eye could see, shining with malevolent rainbow light.

My heart stuttered in my chest as I turned around and sprinted through the forest in the direction of the Uprising host. “Too fast, too fast, too fast,” I chanted to myself madly, as I ran.

As pseudo-flesh started to form around the Monster Cores all around us, Johann caught up to me, looking as panicked as I’m sure I did. “What the fuck is this?” He said wildly, panting in fear.

“A Ward Break,” I managed to get out in between breaths of exertion, pushing myself as hard as I could.

“The Loyalists have set off some kind of super Ward Break.”