The sea was choppy as Ezekiel’s fleet made it through the final stretch before meeting with the rest of the ships that were to meet them outside Morathi’s ocean borders. The island that was to be their final gathering point was just on the horizon. If things went well, they would arrive by midday.

Besides the less than smooth sailings, the air was warm, and there was a pleasant breeze that kept him cool as he stood in a set of simple light clothing. His armor and gear stored away in his Void Pouch. Yet even with the nice weather, he found that he couldn’t relax.

A sense of anticipation filled him as he looked out over the water.

“Just a few more days...” His words were quiet, but nearly everyone on the ship heard him.

‘Hopefully nothing catches us unprepared.’ Shine chimed in with their own worries.

‘Agreed. But things have gone well for us so far. Given our track record, we should probably be even more prepared.’ Ezekiel tugged at his sleeve, suddenly feeling far too unprotected.

The journey had started out with a daunting sense of seriousness that filled all those that were accompanying him. However, the fleet slowly relaxed during their days at sea. Readiness and focus were mixed together with the small amount of inactivity for those not directly working to ensure the ship was operating properly. It had allowed the Mages, Scholars, and Hunters to all relax for a time.

But now, with their penultimate destination in sight, the various occupants of these vessels were once more feeling the weight of their upcoming battle.

Ezekiel looked down at his hand. They were shaking.

Last night he had focused almost entirely on self-reflecting, and finding out what made him, as a Mage, special. Then, he tried to connect himself to different [Understandings] all in the hopes that he would be able to make a breakthrough before their arrival.

Clearly, this step was far harder than any he had taken before, because he felt like he had made no progress, and was simply exhausted from his prior efforts.

Worse yet, his danger sense had flared up in the middle of the night, and he had been anxious ever since. Something was going to happen today.

“Keep me posted for any changes. I need to speak with Wolken.” He exchanged a look with Riley. She nodded in response and took his place near the head of the ship. “Get your armor on as well.”

Seeing her nod again, this time with a more narrowed gaze, Ezekiel moved on. However, before he leapt to Wolken’s vessel, he saw Wendy practicing on the other side of the ship. She had recently taken up using the spear, since that was the weapon that Riley was most well-versed in.

Neither Ezekiel nor Riley could teach his sister anything about her magic, but they could at least help her in learning more about fighting itself. This had led to the young Obscure Hunter taking up the spear, as she found she liked the enhanced reach.

“Wendy!” He called across the deck. She turned to face him. Kare Landed on her shoulder once more. “Stop practicing for now. Stick with Riley and put your stuff in your void pouch. Get your armor on as well. That goes for all of you!”

He turned to address the rest of the ship toward the end. Several people looked confused, since they weren’t at the gathering point yet. Let alone near Morathi. He could tell that they didn’t want to put on their armor when they could be relaxing one last time before they entered enemy territory.

Others, however, fully understood what Ezekiel was implying, and moved to prepare themselves. Most of these ones dragged a few others along with them, despite mumbled protests.

“I’ll be gone for an hour or so. Make sure you’re ready before I return.” This time he addressed Wendy once more. “Stick with Riley, understood?”

“Yes!”

Ezekiel nodded at her response. It seemed like she understood the seriousness that he was projecting. With that said, he turned toward Wolken’s ship and leapt into the air. Removing his own armor and battle gear as he did.

It wouldn’t be good to have himself unprepared for whatever was coming for them.

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There was a solemn mood in the room as Ezekiel finished informing Wolken of his premonition. While he wasn’t able to explain what, exactly, was going to happen, he could confirm that something was going to happen. Something that would ultimately hamper their progress toward Morathi.

“How likely is it that whatever is coming is on the island?” Wolken asked after a bit of thought.

Ezekiel took a moment to expand his senses, sinking into an almost meditative state. His directed his focus to the island, feeling a slight rise in the daunting sensation he was feeling. He then turned his focus to the sea and sky, with no response from either of them.

Then, to be safe, he focused on the fleet he was currently a part of. A massive flash of warning filled his mind, and he snapped out of his partial meditation with a gasp.

“It’s here... It’s in the fleet. I think it’s one of the Cult of Light’s bombs. The carrier must’ve been on one of the ships we met up with on the way here. They’re probably waiting to set it off once we’re at the island. Even if they can’t kill all the members of the fleet, they can wipe out all our ships.”

Ezekiel moved to a nearby chair to sit down. “I... I don’t think I can narrow it down much more than that. The ships are too close together for me to differentiate all of them. I can’t even get an accurate direction. So, we must be in the blast radius even now.”

He thought about what he had ordered on his ship before coming here. It was likely that, if his orders had already spread, the person holding whatever it was that was setting off his danger sense had already been alerted.

Hopefully, whoever it was would just think of it as Ezekiel being overly cautious, since they were so close to their destination.

“... There’s roughly fifty ships in the current fleet, correct?” Wolken had remained calm, much to Ezekiel’s surprise. But he nodded all the same. “Then there’s not too many for me to deal with. The explosives have a range of a kilometer or so of destruction, with an expansive shockwave that levels most of what is present beyond that, correct?”

“Yeah. That’s right. What do you mean too many to deal with? How the hell can we deal with this?” Ezekiel was on the verge of panicking. If things went wrong, then it was fully possible that his fight would end before it began.

There was no possibility of him fighting the Kindled family alone. He needed this fleet, and all the people that had joined up with it.

“Come with me. We’ll deal with this right now.” Wolken stood up and strode out of the room.

Forcing himself to calm down, Ezekiel moved to follow.

‘Are you going to be okay?’ Shine was filled with concern as he watched Ezekiel’s plans come crumbling down.

‘I don’t know... All I can do right now is trust that Wolken knows what he’s doing.’ Shaking off his doubts, Ezekiel started focusing everything he had on the ships around him.

There was still too much interference, and he wasn’t able to sense anything new, but he couldn’t stop. Not until this was sorted out.

Then, as he was about to reach the deck, he felt the air grow heavy, and Wolken’s presence filled the world.

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The world had turned upside down for a few people as Wolken, clad in his Spirit Armor, flexed his mana, forcing the many ships in their fleet to rise above the water.

Just as Ezekiel reached the top of the deck, Ezekiel heard Wolken address every one of the ships with his magic. The wind literally carried the Exalt’s words to each and every person there.

“Attention, attention! Brace yourselves!” With no other warning, Wolken threw all the ships away from one another, ensuring that they were all at least a full kilometer away from each other.

“Can you sense which one it is now?” The Exalt’s voice was now much quieter, and Ezekiel was certain only he could hear it.

Ignoring the shocked looks from the ship’s crew, Ezekiel spread his senses outward, focusing on different directions, separating the different boats into smaller sections, he managed to figure out the general direction of the danger.

“That way!” Ezekiel pointed to several ships that were off their starboard side. “I’ll need to move to narrow it down further.”

All he saw was Wolken nodding, and the next thing he knew he was high in the air and looking down at the different ships that were still violently rocking from their sudden displacement.

Wolken held him by the back of his collar. He immediately donned his own Spirit Armor and began flying under his own power.

Seeing the ships so spread out, Ezekiel was able to much more easily determine where the danger he was sensing was coming from. It was coming from a singular ship that had met up with them just a couple days ago. It had been the sole source of support provided by its island. The rest had been sent off to fight against the Rot at one of the neighboring islands.

Wolken waved a hand, and the ship was surrounded by a sphere of wind that cut it off from the outside world. Softer, but still powerful, winds pulled the other ships back together.

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To be safe, Ezekiel focused on the rest of the fleet, but nothing set him off as an ill omen of any sort. It seemed as though they managed to isolate the ship.

“Hey...” Ezekiel turned to Wolken when the Exalt spoke up again. “Are you sure that it’s the cult that’s the problem? It’s fairly obvious that they’ve been caught, so wouldn’t they have set off whatever explosive they have now that there’s no way of hiding it?”

Ezekiel didn’t reply right away. Instead, he thought about it, and realized that Wolken was right.

‘But if it’s not the Cult, then why is our danger sense acting up so much?’ Shine didn’t quite get it, but Ezekiel figured he had a guess.

‘The cult isn’t the only dangerous thing in the world that could kill us. For all we know, the Rot managed to infest something on that ship before it left its island.’ It wasn’t any better than the cult’s explosives, but it would certainly explain why the occupants of the ship hadn’t done anything yet.

Before he could say anything, several presences approached from where the fleet was still moving toward the island. He idly noticed that the island itself also no longer registered as dangerous to his senses.

“Exalt Wolken! What just happened? Why is that ship being locked down?” A woman in gray Spirit Armor asked upon reaching the floating Mythic and Void Hunters.

“Our young leader caught a whiff of something dangerous. I needed to spread the ships out to isolate the potential catastrophe. Though, now we need to figure out how to deal with this problem.” Wolken’s voice was calm and held a hint of the authority that made the now gathered Legendaries fall quiet. “Ezekiel, do you know what the problem is?”

“... There’s a hidden weapon somewhere on that ship. Whether the occupants know about it or not, I’m unsure, but it’ll cause massive damage to the area around it within the next few hours. Not long after we land at the island.” Many of the Legendaries looked doubtful, as Ezekiel hadn’t provided any proof. But they weren’t willing to speak out against Wolken, who was obviously taking this seriously.

Wolken grunted in annoyance. Ezekiel couldn’t hear anything, but from the apparent panic on the ship, it was likely that he had sent a message to them and was awaiting a reply.

“Hmm... It seems like one of the Scholars is hiding something.” Wolken’s sigh of exasperation blew the wind around the ship into a frenzy. “Well, you started this. So, you get to go down there and finish it. See what’s wrong. I know you can escape fast enough.”

Ezekiel didn’t say anything, and just descended into the massive sphere of wind that Wolken was still maintaining. The air didn’t so much as brush against him as he fell down onto the ship.

“You the captain here?” He asked the man who seemed to be standing above a cowering Scholar. “I don’t suppose you know why my danger sense has been going off non-stop since I got here?”

He didn’t bother hiding the existence of his danger sense. Many people already knew about it, so there was no point in trying to hide it. It was highly likely that his enemies at least suspected something like it. If they hadn’t already confirmed it.

“I’ve checked all my Guild members. They’ve confirmed that they don’t have anything dangerous with them. As have most of the other Scholars. Except this one. I don’t know what he has, but it’s apparent that he’s hiding something. Little bastard hasn’t done anything but curl over his Void Pouch.” The man looked like he was going to pop a blood vessel with how angry he looked. “He’s also threatened to destroy it if we try to take it from him. If it’s as dangerous as you’ve said, then it’s highly likely that such an occurrence is the last thing we want to have happening.”

Ezekiel frowned. His expression now grim and concerned.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about! I don’t have anything dangerous on my person. You’re just trying to steal my work like all the other bastards at the Church!” The Scholar looked panicked as he glared at Ezekiel and the rest of the crew members.

‘This guy’s definitely got it on him.’

Ezekiel nodded along with Shine’s assessment. Their combined danger senses were blaring like sirens at this point. Though it hadn’t reached critical mass just yet. ‘Let’s just get it away from him. For now, we’ll have the rest of the ship evacuated.’

“Captain, can you take your crew away from the ship? This is going to get dangerous.”

The captain looked concerned, but waved to the rest of the crew, who immediately moved to evacuate the ship. The Scholar looked even more panicked at this point.

“What are you doing? Hey! Get back here!” The crew ignored the man and just continued to flee. Something that Wolken helped with. It wasn’t more than a minute before everyone was out of the blast radius. “What are you going to do to me?”

Ezekiel didn’t say anything. The Scholar just blustered himself into a stupor, screaming about how if Ezekiel took even one step toward him, he’d destroy the pouch.

“I’m warning you! I’ll--”

There was a small pop, and the Void Pouch disappeared from the man’s grasp. It repeated in Ezekiel’s hands as the Scholar started screaming.

“Give that back!” The man waved his hand, and a wave of fire flew toward Ezekiel, but he didn’t even look as he let Shine handle it.

‘You got this?’ He asked his partner.

‘Yeah. No biggie.’ Shine then pinned the man to the deck.

Spreading his senses into the Void Pouch, he immediately saw the problem.

“You tried to alter the plans for my explosive Artifact!” His exclamation was met with a cry of despair as the Scholar started babbling about how he had made improvements, and that he was finally going to prove the Grand Scholars wrong.

It reminded him of the Scholars that had betrayed the Church for the Cult when they failed to make progress with their research. It was obvious that the man had done a lot of research to make it work, but he was missing several key points in his Artifact that were now failing.

Primarily in the housing units that kept the elements from interacting with one another. The enchantments were clearly not etched precisely, and the material was also starting to erode.

“You idiot! There was a reason for the elements of this Artifacts design! The changes you’ve made have turned it into an unstable mess. Given a few more hours, the damned thing would’ve literally fallen apart, and it would’ve exploded in our faces!”

Tearing into the Void Pouch, he removed the volatile Artifact and carefully performed some last-minute alteration to it to ensure that they could safely dispose of it later.

As he did this, the barrier of wind around the boat dispelled. The gathered Hunters and Mages all descended. Wolke took the lead and approached Ezekiel.

“So, have you figured things out?” The Exalt asked. “How do you want to dispose of it?”

“... I’m not sure we need to.” Ezekiel grinned as he looked at Wolken after finishing his alterations. The Artifact now glowed with opalescent light. His mana now supported the containment magic that kept it safe, for now. “This thing was originally built for use against the Cult, so why don't we use it as intended?”

Wolken’s grin matched his own. But it was far less nice.

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After the mess with the Scholar, the ships finally made their way to the island at full speed. Wolken actually pushed them along so that they could get there faster.

The actual gathering didn’t result in anything exciting, and many of the crew members that Ezekiel had told to get ready were somewhat resentful of their unneeded preparations, but they at least had proof that Ezekiel’s senses were accurate, so none of them did more than a little bit of grumbling. All of them were less opposed to following orders as well, so Ezekiel considered it a win.

Yet, even so, the next day was filled with an anxious air, as well over two hundred ships set out to the north. The sheer number of sails that filled his vision was awe inspiring. The countless symbols denoting the different Guilds and factions were amazing.

Many were concerned by what was to come, but even more were galvanized at the possibility of fighting alongside Exalt Wolken, the leader of the Prime Guild. The Guild that had enforced all the laws that the various Guilds were to follow.

Ultimately, the time at sea was well spent, and the last few days spent sailing toward the southern shores of Morathi were somewhat peaceful. At least until they saw ships on the horizon.

“That’s a lot more ships that I thought the Empire would be able to put together.” Ezekiel muttered as he gazed at the horizon. “I think they actually match us in number.”

This was an impressive show of force, as the Empire was a primarily land-based military power. But from what little he could see of the flags and sails in the enemy fleet, it was clear that there was a large number of ships from Tarquessa.

‘The Cult isn’t even trying to hide their interference this time.’ Shine grumbled as Ezekiel continued to look over the Empire’s ships. ‘Do you think that Wolken will get a chance to use that Artifact? It looks like things are going to be worse than expected.’

‘Honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m pretty sure there’s a Mythic hidden somewhere, I’d almost say that he could take out this army by himself.’ Ezekiel knew that such a thing would be difficult in reality, since there was the possibility that the other ships would flee underwater. ‘For now, we’ll just wait for the opening shots. There’s a reason our ship moved to the front once the enemy came into sight.’

Looking over the edge of the ship, Ezekiel examined the sections that had been created for the use of his new cannons. Mana cannons deployed by the Church of Ten were massive objects that devastated the landscape. These ones were much smaller and were meant for destroying individual vessels. This was already an advantage that the Empire wouldn’t have.

“Ready yourselves!” Ezekiel called out to the closest ships. Each one was from Sanafalls, and they were all equipped with the same cannons as his own ship. “Prepare the cannons and wait for the signal!”

High in the sky, unseen by all, Wolken had made his way to the midpoint between the two fleets. Any closer, and he risked being spotted by the enemy Tempest Mages. Usually, he could fly higher than them, but doing so would mean that he’d be too far away to react to any changes in the battle.

Once more, Ezekiel’s danger sense flared up, and he directed his attention downward. A shadow seemed to be rising from below. Directly beneath his ship.

“Ancients be damned!” He immediately grabbed a small Com-Slate and tapped out a sequence of signals. He could only hope that Wolken got the message in time. “Brace yourselves!”

His voice rolled over the whole fleet, and in the process, everyone grabbed onto something, and the defensive enchantments on the ships all flared to life. Just a massive tree lifted them all into the sky.

‘This was not in the plan!’ Shine started panicking as they screamed in Ezekiel’s mind. ‘How did that crazy bitch even make a tree grow this big!’

It wasn’t hard for them to understand that this tree was the result of the Mythic Life Mage that was working for the Cult of Light. After being driven out of Quintessa, it only made sense that she would be placed in the force that was dedicated to hunting Ezekiel down.

“The bitch must’ve been hidden underwater by the Cult’s Glacial Mages. We need... to...” He trailed off as he realized what color the leaves on the tree were.

It wasn’t a sea of green leaves that filled his vision. Instead, it was a sea of gold.

“She’s not alone...” A sudden flare from his danger sense made him do a bling [Slingshot] to get away from his ship as fast as possible. Narrowly avoiding a wooden spike that nearly skewered him through the deck below him.

A moment later, he slammed into a wall of ice that hadn’t been there a moment ago. The force behind him nearly knocked him out, even as the wall cracked from the impact, but he managed to continue moving. This time he [Jumped] outside the box of ice that had formed around him.

“You missed.” A light and angry voice called out as Ezekiel continued to run. “I guess even with the enhancement, growing a tree this size from the ocean floor was a bit much. Even if this area is relatively shallow.”

Blue tinted weapon constructs formed around the fully covered blue clad figure. Each one was aimed at Ezekiel. Who was still trying to get further away, but his opponents continued to chase him.

“Oh, shut up! I’ll kill the Anathema now!” The maddened voice of the Mythic Life Hunter filled Ezekiel’s ears. A storm of leaves and vines reached out to him from the Verdant Spirit Armored figure that was bearing down on him.

Stuck between a sea of frozen weapons, and a wave of razor-sharp leaves, Ezekiel knew he was in a tough spot. [Jumping] out of this would be easy enough, but he would quickly drain his mana.

Suddenly, it was as if the sky itself had fallen on both waves of weapons. The ice fell quickly, obviously weaker, and closer to Ezekiel’s level of power. While the leaves dispersed and fluttered about. Though they nearly managed to fly back up and strike Ezekiel down.

“Take the Glacier Hunter. I have a score to settle with this one.” Wolken’s words flowed into Ezekiel’s ears. He nodded in agreement, and descended toward the Glacier Hunter, who had formed a platform of ice on the sea.

‘You sure that this is okay? You won’t be able to get support from Riley or the rest.’ Shine voiced their worries as Ezekiel readied his spells.

‘I know, but we don’t have time to lose focus right now.’ Ezekiel began to glow with opalescent light. ‘We’ll just have to finish this quickly.’

A moment later, Shine’s blade swung with Ezekiel’s full might, struck the shield of Ice that the Glacial Hunter had hastily brought up.

Light burst outward, and the ice on the ocean shattered from the force.

In the distance, the sound of cannon fire filled the air. The plan for a signal had been tossed aside with the sudden changes in the battle. But even so, the war had begun, and both sides were locked in a life and death struggle.