Bright rays of sunlight shone through the large billowing clouds that tried to hide the early morning sun. From those same clouds, an ever-increasing amount of snow fell covering everything. Children took advantage of the snow by making snowmen and having snowball fights. It was somewhat amusing to see that even when things were all falling apart, the children were still capable of having fun with each other while their parents or guardians looked on deathly afraid.

However, this small bit of joy the children could experience wavered as the city bells began to toll.

Everyone gathered outside the sorcerer’s tower began to grow even more uneasy. Whenever the bells tolled, they always foretold of trouble. Kiran pushed his way through the massive crowd who were all eager to enter the tower as they heard the bells continually bellowing aloud.

Many of the men and women waiting outside the tower’s entrance tried to rush in only for the light blue warded barrier at the entrance to keep them from entering. As he neared the barrier, the sorcerer behind it lifted it briefly allowing him to go inside the tower.

Everyone outside knew that their lives were dependent on Yorais successfully creating a portal. It was truly the key to their survival. However, the people gathered outside needed to be patient to receive such a blessing for it hadn’t fully stabilized yet. The portal she had been working on since early in the night had indeed grown from a tiny sliver of aura to a frighteningly large amount of aura.

Due to the expansive ceiling, there was plenty of room to allow the portal to reach far up and spread out wide. The edges of the portal were still chaotic but the center parts began to appear stable allowing for a black mirror-like surface to take shape and reflect his image and all the others gathered inside as well.

Yorais held up her hands and continued to motion her fingers and wrists. She then suddenly spread out her arms like wings and then the chaotic parts of the portal lay still like the rest of it. The blackish aura and warping colors finally appeared to fully stabilize by all appearances.

Yorais let out a pained moan and put a hand on her abdomen. Robed figures approached her to lend a hand, but she instead shot out her hand as if to suggest that she needed no assistance. “I’m fine. I don’t need any help.” The other robed sorcerers and sorceresses nodded their heads and backed away as Yorais held her head up high appearing satisfied that she accomplished this feat. “Unfortunately, I am not yet done,” she said furthermore. “I must travel to the other side and make sure that it is safe.”

“Shouldn’t—” A gray-robed sorcerer chose to go silent as she gave him a nasty glare.

“I will return in several minutes after making sure the other side is safe.”

Yorais disappeared into the enlarged portal unimpeded. It took the entire night for her to create the portal. How she could still be standing after that fierce amount of focus and effort astonished him. She had managed it somehow. And he was quite thankful for it as were everyone else knowing that if she was not capable of this grand feat, they would all surely meet their ends within the next day or two or possibly even sooner than that.

Waiting for her to return became excruciating, however. Kiran could tell others were feeling what he was feeling as well. He stood nearby many other members of the coalition including Rinas and all the other faction leaders.

Even Laphy was there with Aini although he had chosen to keep a distance from Laphy considering their history. The only one missing amongst them was Juna who had gone to gather Fred from her place a while ago. He felt worried about her and thought about going out to find her, but at this point, it wasn’t safe for anyone to leave this sector of the city as more and more of it became occupied by monsters.

Lar who was still not fully well chose to sit atop his shoulder in their cat form since that concoction she took earlier had begun to wear off leaving her weaker and overwhelmingly tired. He brushed his palm along her white furry head as she breathed in and out calmly.

Knights and soldiers who once served the dead queen were also there in the tower in great numbers. Even though under any other circumstance, they and the coalition would be eagerly killing each other, they chose to set aside their squabbles to focus on making sure the people of Liall made it to safety before the monsters had their way with them.

After waiting for several minutes, everyone grew antsy for Yorais’s return from the other side. It was as if everyone held their breath as they stared into the eerily calm reflective portal. But then suddenly, Yorais appeared with sighs of relief from many within the tower.

“It’s time,” she announced.

The sorcerers and sorceresses near the entrance to the tower removed the blue-warded barrier. People began to rush towards the portal in some semblance of a line. Many dozens at a time went in to reach the other side every second.

“You did good Yorais,” Rinas said gripping her shoulder. “You deserve a good long rest after all that you’ve done today.”

“I really could use a bit of rest.” She let out a little yawn. “I’ll be sure to rest once everyone is through and we’re settled over in the fourth domain.”

“I am curious though,” Abigail began to say, “what did you see on the other side?”

“There wasn’t much. It was quite barren and dark but I imagine once day breaks on the other side, we’ll have a better idea of things.”

Nobody really knew what to expect from the fourth domain. Yorais and Lar were the only ones that he knew of who had visited it before. Their journey to the fourth domain from what he knew and understood, was that it was just for a brief moment and it happened a long enough time ago, that their knowledge of that domain wasn’t all that reliable necessarily.

Regardless of the dangers that they may encounter in the fourth domain, they had their backs put up against a wall forcing them to go there.

While they were going to save lots of people, the logistics of this mass migration would have a whole range of issues to deal with. Sure, many of these people would live to see another day, but they had to figure out where to find water and secure or supply food. Carts full of supplies were passing through the portal as well as people, but would it be enough to keep people from dying of thirst or hunger? Kiran doubted that it would last long enough for a population of this size. Once everyone made it over, they would have to quickly settle in and begin working hard to secure food and water to keep such a population alive.

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Our troubles are far from over. That is without a doubt.

Cold bitter air hit up against Kiran as he went back outside while people kept entering the tower. The morning sunlight helped fight a little bit against the cold, but it was far from sufficient in combating it in the grand scheme of things.

He found Abigail along with Fredreck and Hoghdar close to the entrance of the tower. They stood around with their backs turned to him.

“Have any of you seen our dear sorcerer friend trying to sneak their way in?” he said causing Abigail to turn around.

“I’m afraid not,” Abigail said. “If any of us do though, we’ll certainly gut them.”

“I wouldn’t expect to spot him,” Frederek said. He gazed out towards the mass of people who kept disappearing into the tower. “If he’s capable of taking on the face of another person, we’re unlikely to find him amongst all of these people.”

“We should at least try,” Hoghdar said.

“I agree but we also must confront the truth and the reality that we’re unlikely to.”

Noreko was one tricky sorcerer. He didn’t think keeping a lookout would really do anything. He couldn’t at all keep track of the hundreds of faces that kept walking by them after all. Finding one person who wore another’s face was for all intents and purposes, an impossible problem for them to solve.

While their minds would think of that nasty fellow and continue to keep a lookout, all of their eyes were forced towards the northeast as an entire part of the city’s walls came crashing down.

A violent and overpowering scream erupted from far away. It pierced through his ears causing him to put his hands over them in a flurry to dampen whatever damage this horrific sound would try to cause towards him and everyone else’s eardrums.

They could not entirely see the giant monster that had created this horrifying noise as dust from the crushed wall hid it but he could somewhat make out a silhouette of them as it started to enter the city.

“That thing…” Hoghdar muttered aloud, “it’s as tall as the wall!”

The movement of the crowd quickened. Panic set in, and the desire to flee became the only thought on their many minds. As a result of this, people began to become trampled and chaos ensued.

A barrier was quickly erected at the entrance and a loud piercing noise reverberated out as the Arch Sorceress herself slammed the end of her staff against the ground. The crowd became more silent as they waited to hear what she had to say. “Stay calm. It would do none of us good if people start being trampled. Continue into the tower and the portal at a steady pace.” The barrier became lifted allowing passage once more.

Despite the panic that had immediately set in, the sorceress had managed to calm them enough so that everyone went at a more steady pace. Some of the people who became trampled were lent a hand and assisted back up. Had the sorceress not done something, it could’ve gotten way out of hand real quick.

Unfortunately, more trouble began to occur within the crowd. People were forced out of the relatively straight line as people on horseback began paving their way through. One plate-armored person lifted their visor as they neared the entrance.

“Grand Master Harold,” the sorceress said.

“Arch Sorceress Junavel,” he said in a low coarse tone.

A whole large group of armored people stood behind Grand Master Harold. His armor appeared somewhat different than the rest of the green-cloaked knights behind him although it was mostly similar looking to the rest of them.

“Shouldn’t you still be defending the city?” she said inquisitively.

“Aye, and we have defended the city and this particular sector as well as we can. However, the numbers of our enemy have grown too great. As a result, I have ordered a complete retreat to allow us to go to the fourth domain as you all are.”

“Coward!” People began to yell out from the crowd. “You’re all cowards for abandoning your duty! Coward! Coward! Coward!”

“If we are so cowardly,” he said turning himself and his horse towards the crowd, “then why not offer yourselves as sacrifices? Go and be the ones who shall confront the abominations that have begun to overrun our city and tear down the walls. Oh, none of you wish to do that do you? You’d rather flee through the portal and allow others to sacrifice themselves instead. Well, I am unsurprised that none of you are willing to take on this responsibility. You’d gladly see us all dead so that your own worthless lives can live.”

“It is your sworn duty to protect us!”

“Then please, offer yourself up as the honorable lad who would lay down their life for another. As for us, we will be leaving.”

They had come to expect his forces to defend the city, but it appeared obvious that he had abandoned that role. He forced his way into the tower along with dozens upon dozens of armored knights mounted and dismounted. Even a large swath of the blue-cloaked city guards came with them paving their way through the crowd choosing to flee rather than ensure more people could make it out. The green and blue cloaks had proved where their true loyalties were. They cared for themselves and certainly not others even if their duty was to in fact protect the people.

Lar brushed their furry palms against his shoulder as they lay on top of it. “What a sad sight to see,” she said.

Sad indeed.

There wasn’t much to be done or do for pushing back against this decision. All everyone could do was watch as the last defenses of the city fled for themselves. He thought the Arch Sorceress Junavel could’ve had a barrier put over the entrance to maybe force them to defend but he quickly thought against that thought. It would only cause possible bouts of fighting to occur amongst the knights, guards, and crowd worsening everything.

Rinas approached them with his two children behind. “It appears we will have to do the rest of the defending ourselves. Rorge, please take good care of my children while I remain here on this side.”

“Of course sir.” The butler bowed and took his children’s hands leading them inward into the tower. Both Reginald and Regina appeared sad to leave their father behind.

Rinas began to put on white gloves with black runic symbols on the palms. “I will not ask all of you to necessarily sacrifice yourselves. But some of us can at least try to defend this tower within reason. If it ever becomes too much to handle head straight for the portal.”

“Understood,” several muttered aloud including Kiran.

Kiran sat down Lar. “I’ll take care of this. Go inside where it’s safe.” Lar was still not fully healed yet so he wasn’t about to force them to fight even if they might otherwise want to.

Kiran summoned a sword and prepared. They were to try their best to defend the tower and its immediate surroundings for however long they reasonably could. Much of the coalition had already gone through the portal, however, particularly the members who weren’t quite as highly ranked within it. Many of the families who were related to its members had passed through as well.

Most of the faction leaders stayed behind and positioned themselves around the open circular perimeter of the tower.

Thankfully the crowd lessened dramatically after a bit more time. The more people who got through the portal, the faster they themselves could flee into it without worrying whether they left a ton of people behind. However, there were still enough people making up a line that they couldn’t just leave yet.

They especially couldn’t leave when a swarm of monsters began to approach.