The Watcher looked on from afar as arrowheads glinted and muzzle flashed off the walls of Everwind. Projectiles disappeared before the light of the day while the Titan Rangers closed in from behind. Splotches of dust blotched off the golems that approached the walls with the same effect as a speck of dust hitting a person. He watched as a lone pair of riders circled the Hulvarks at full speed, moving between the golems and the wall, likely Luce in an impassioned plea to Everwind for a ceasefire so as to allow them to handle the situation.

“She's got this,” Miguel said to him from his side.

“I know,” The Watcher replied. “But...”

“You want me to stay here? Just in case Light comes out for a personal visit?”

“Am I that annoying when I do smart mind reading things?”

Miguel shrugged. “No idea. I don't know you well enough yet.”

The Watcher patted the hume in the back wordlessly. He left the Enhancer to watch over the Titan Rangers from the edge of the forest. Explosions echoed from across the landscape as they rangers engaged their targets

He joined his two elven companions at the northern edge. Nadier was taking a check of his utility belt while Adelaide sharpened an arrow. They turned as he walked over and Nadier asked, “Are you ready?”

“Let's go.”

Adelaide chimed, “Where to?” She sheathed her arrow back into its quiver.

Nadier pointed across the field to a third of a way from the edge of the eastern wall. “There's a gated sewage outlet in that general area.”

They watched as Adelaide did a quick mental calculation before she said, “It's quite far. It's going to take me at least two teleports to reach.” She glanced to the two men with her with a smile of joking disgust. “Especially since I'm carrying you two dead weights.”

The Watcher confidently placed a hand on her right shoulder. “I have full faith in your ability.”

Nadier set his on her right. He added, “Try to aim for somewhere we can hide from The Tower.”

She looked to the dark elf in annoyance, her expression universal in teenagers for not wanting people to tell them what to do. Turning back to the plains, she scanned the landscape. Her head stopped at a gentle slope slightly left of the line to their destination. When the reappeared, they would be visible for just a moment, but even with the angled hiding spot, there was a chance The Tower would spot them. They could only hope that the distraction by the Titan Rangers bought them the opening. With a nod of her head, they teleported across the plains, reappearing right before a mount just tall enough to barely block out the line of sight to half of The Tower.

Nadier quickly wrapped his arm under Adelaide's shoulder, gently lowering the girl onto the ground as she wobbled from the stress of long distance teleportation.

“I'm fine,” she waved him away. “Just give me a minute.”

The Watcher took a prone position and crawled his way to the side of the slope, careful not to give away his location to The Tower. Peeking over the mount, he watched as the Titan Rangers, now off their horses, encircle the two golems. Earth spikes shot out of the ground to the right underside of the nearest golem as explosions from fireballs and grenades flashed at the opposite feet. Iron chains sparkled as they were fired from launchers, snaking through and over the air, strapping across the golems. Another earth spike shot out from the front, and the Hulvark stopped it its tracks against the dirt pillar. Slowly, near a passing minute of yank, pull, and push, the first golem fell over to its sides, smashing up a cloud of dust.

The Watcher whistled at the sight. It was like watching a pack of mice take down a rhinoceros. People scampered around the creature nearly ten times their size, working in rehearsed unison at disarmament.

“Watcher.” He turned to Nadier's voice. Adelaide was back on her feet slightly worn, and Nadier called to him from beside her. “We're ready to go.”

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He nodded back and went to them. He took Adelaide by the hand and she stood up to get a look at her destination. With another blink of the eye, they reappeared at the wall of the city. A short walk east, they arrived at a grilled hole in the wall that leaked brown sludge down the side of the mossy brick into a puddle of black. The trio went to it.

As they approached, they could see a little girl pressing her face against the dirtied grill. The girl attempted to turn to the corner of her sight.

“Nads?” the girl called out.

“Tinarya,” he replied sternly. “I thought I told you to just leave the cover open?”

Unscrewing the cover from the inside, she replied smugly, “As if you could find your way around the city sewers without me.” The cover slid open and hung by the side.

“You've got a point,” Nadier said. The dark elf ruffled her hair to her giggle as he climbed into the cold damp darkness of the sewage tunnel.

Adelaide followed with a brow ticked questioningly at the young elven girl. “Who's the lika?”

“Great question,” Tina replied. “Who's this walking broomstick?”

“Walking broomstick?”

“Yeah! You look like you have leaves on your hair.”

The Watcher chuckled as he entered last, greeting the girl with, “Hello! I'm The Watcher.” To the annoyance of Adelaide, who was calmed by Nadier after her vulgarity filled reply was ignored.

“Hi!” She greeted back happily. “I'm Tinarya Twinrae, leader of the Gutter Rats!”

“Gutter Rats?”

Nadier replied back, “Their play group.”

Tina pouted back, “We are rebels!” She said so as she closed the cover behind them.

The Watcher laughed and said, “Alright, my little rebel. Lead the way home.” The trio parted way to allow her to pass them.

The group of three adults with a combined age of over a thousand and five hundred years followed the little girl no older than nine. Light shone in stripes through the sparse bars of drainage from the streets above. Shadows of pedestrians crossed over occasionally like eclipses. While the two grown men and woman had to duck their heads to travel down the tight steel pipes, careful to avoid the puddles of grime and slippery moss, the little girl zipped from one end of the tunnel to the next effortlessly, patiently waiting for the trio at each junction and turn.

Left, right, left, a curve, and a long straight path. Cross a bridge over a torrential sludge and around a bend that split, skipping a forked tunnel that led deep down into the earth.

Tinarya suddenly stopped at a cross under a set of foggy skylight. She held her hand up and the trio ceased moving. A finger to her lips told them to stay quiet. Shadows swayed to-and-fro the grate above.

“I thought the dark elves were attacking,” came the voice of a female guard, echoing into their space from the world above. “Where is their army?”

“No idea,” came a gruff male. “But the Titan Rangers are dealing with the golems at the walls right now.”

“Lucky us, eh?”

Tinarya's met eyes with the trio. She patted the air slowly, signalling for them to thread lightly for the moment. Gently, they moved past the section as the guards continued their chat towards after hour plans. Once the guards were out of earshot, they returned to their speed of a fast crawl. The Watcher thought he might be hallucinating again when he saw shadows darting off the corner of his eyes. However, at a bent, a young boy stood below the light from a drain above. Tina hugged the boy before moving forward, and Nadier gave him a high-five before the kid scampered off into the dark of the tunnels.

Continuing through the underground, he caught more glimpses of the Tunnel Rats kids, either from the soft echoes of light steps, faint giggles, long shadows on walls, or the blink of the corner of his eyes. They reached a large main tunnel where sludge torrented through the middle of the sewage pipe sided by dirtied maintenance walkways. He pinched his nose from the stench of raw sewage which he made a snide comparison to the smell of rotting corpses bloated with spoilt milk.

The Watcher asked, “How are we crossing this?”

Adelaide smirked and simply teleported to the other side. She turned back to the ones left behind and grinned playfully.

Tinarya smiled back and clapped once. The clap echoed down through the tunnel and the clunking of wood and metal rang back. A moment latter, from the darker depth of the tunnel, a wooden platform floating on empty barrels bobbed down the sludge, a rope tied to its back. The rope taut and the barge stopped just before them.

With a practised jump, Tina took two hops onto the barge and stepped out the other side. The girl stuck a tongue out at Adelaide, and like a child, the latter returned the gesture. Nadier sighed and The Watcher laughed before crossing the barge after them. With another clap, the rope to the barge shook and tightened before being slowly pulled back to the darkness it came from.

With another turn into a smaller tunnel, they ended at a dead end with a ladder leading up to a closed manhole cover. Tina climbed up and knocked against the copper. After a few seconds, the manhole popped opened and light shone into the tunnel blindingly.

“Come on!” The girl finally spoke excitedly as she climbed out.

The dark elf followed Tina up the steps.

Adelaide, with visible distress on her face from the confinements of the tunnels, immediately teleported out to the top the moment she was able to see light. An act which brought about a short but shocked yell and an immediate berating rail from Nadier above.

The silhouette of a figure leaned over the manhole and a familiar voice greeted The Watcher as the latter took the first step on the ladder. “Hello.” A hand reached down towards him. “Welcome to The End of the World.”