“The night sky is blocked by raining thunderclouds, the winds are strong and loud, and the thunder is even louder. All as the Ionians promised.” Major Amset said under her breath.

“Listen, all of you. In five minutes, we move. Stick to the plan, escort your charges, strike like lightning, and escape from the port aboard the Tyrian delegation’s ship like phantoms in the waves. And most importantly, do not kill anyone unless your or your charges’ lives are in grave danger. Are we clear?”

“Yes, Ma’am!” we saluted.

The diplomats and non-combatants were somewhat nervous, but we, the members of the two teams and the Major’s aides, were thoroughly on edge.

“Are you ready, cousin?” I asked Durreg.

We were both in our quadrupedal dragon forms, and we both had saddles attached to our backs; this way, we could carry a few non-combatants at once and maintain full speed. There were no guarantees to the quality of the trip, however.

Durreg scoffed.

“I was born ready. A few mundane human guards can’t hope to get through my armor or my scales, let alone stop me.”

“You may have nothing to fear from them, Lord Dragon, but I do! Please do not be reckless!” the old woman attached to his saddle pleaded.

“Trust me, the safest place in all of Romellus tonight will be atop my saddle.” He said.

I looked around to see how the rest of the party faired; all the elderly and disabled were atop my and Durreg’s saddles, while the few remaining non-combatants were held in a princess carry by physical classers. Everyone was accounted for, and we were more than ready to move.

“It’s time! Tor, Aptera, take down the guards!” the Major commanded.

“Aye, aye, Ma’am!” the nobleman saluted with a lazy smile, while Tor, the commoner team rogue, nodded silently and vanished into thin air.

As the rest of us hid deeper within the inn, Aptera boldly strode up to the door stepped out of the inn. He then openly walked up to the guards patrolling the inn.

“Guards! Can I get a hand?!” he yelled.

The two guards at the gate looked to each other and approached while the other left to fetch the guard captain.

“What is it, honoured guest?” she said.

“I’ve decided to leave. Thank you for your hospitality, but I’ll be on my way now.” He said.

The guard frowned.

“I am sorry, honoured guest, but we are under orders to keep you in protective custody. I understand your concerns, but your safety is our responsibility. Please be patient for further notice from the Senate.”

Aptera’s smile grew wider.

“You see, friend, I don’t care what you or your senate think your responsibility is, but I am leaving whether you like it or not.”

The guard’s trepidation visibly grew, and she subconsciously placed a hand on the pommel of her sword as she began speaking carefully.

“Forgive me, honoured guest, but I have been ordered to keep you in protective custody by any means necessary. I will be compelled to restrain you if you attempt to resist. Please be aware that countermeasures for your charm magic have been prepared in advance.”

Aptera nodded sagely.

“Oh, I know. It’s been obvious for a long time that anyone who can prepare for my magic can deal with it. The problem, you see, is that it’s not my magic that’ll put you to sleep.”

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The guard’s eyes widened before she tried to turn around. It was too late. A shrouded young man moved to hold the guard in a headlock and covered the guard’s mouth and nose with a laced cloth. In mere seconds, the guard ceased resisting and fell into a deep sleep.

The Major stepped out of the inn after that, and the rest of us quickly followed.

“Good work, you two. Put the guards inside the inn and make your way to the port. Everyone else, split up! Rendevouz at the port within twenty minutes or you’ll be left behind!”

She didn’t need to say it twice. Mere seconds later, the entire inn’s grounds were empty.

***

As I dashed through alleys and side streets, I realized that hardly anyone walked outside. With a curfew in place, horrendous weather, and being so late in the morning, it was obvious why all the city’s residents were staying in doors.

Some guards were patrolling the streets, but with the sheer size of the city compared to the patrolling guards, as well as the fact that mundane humans in this weather had no chance of detecting an expert sneak like me, I managed to make progress rapidly on my way to the port with time to spare.

I used my mana sight to detect any anomalies through walls and over long distances, and found nothing worthy of note; at least, until I was more than halfway through.

“Come! There’s fighting in the north of the city!” one guard yelled to the next as he ran.

The first guard was taken off guard but quickly followed.

“Hmm.”

The members of the provincial teams, like us were also being detained, but their conditions were allegedly a lot worse. According to Spartacus, they were all tossed into a dungeon to prevent them from helping their embattled homelands against Romellus. They were currently leading a jailbreak, if the panic in the guards’ words were anything to go by.

“…Are we almost there yet?” asked the dizzy old man on my saddle.

“Almost. Hang on just a little more.”

As I ran, faint sounds of fighting could be heard in the distance whenever the thunder and the winds both occasionally quieted for a moment at the same time.

***

As I arrived at the port in the southeast of the city, I found the guards already sleeping on the ground. Spartacus and Nisos had already taken over the port it seemed. Before I actually stepped out of the shadows to approach the port’s gate, however, I stopped and shook my passenger awake.

“We made it, old man.” I said.

“What about you, young dragon?” He asked, seemingly doing his very best to keep his dinner in his stomach.

“Step inside the gate without me. I am going on a short detour.” I said as I left without waiting for an answer.

‘This is quite the interesting anomaly, isn’t it?’

As I’d approached the port, a unique, faint mana signature caught my eye. It didn’t resemble any of the basic attributes or hold the properties of an atypical mana type. Instead, it was a unique variant of arcane mana, and one that I recognized. It also happened to glow from deep beneath the ground.

‘Furialis’s somewhere down there – I am sure of it.’ I thought.

There were too many parallels between me and the rank S drake to ignore. I could have easily been in his place instead of my own; and it wasn’t fair for the poor thing to be enslaved by yet another human for the rest of its life. I just couldn’t ignore him.

I passed mana through my core, creating earth mana. I then used it to sink underground, swimming through dirt and rock like the waters of an ocean. Slowly but surely, the faint mana signature grew closer and ever brighter before I reached a concrete wall nearly a hundred meters below the earth.

‘What the abyss is a room doing so far beneath the surface…?’ I wondered.

With my mana sight, I saw one other signature. Judging by how weak it was, it likely signified a single mundane human standing guard over Furialis’s prison. That suited me just fine.

I swam around the concrete block until I was directly beneath the guard’s feet. With a wave of my hand, the guard sank into the ground, chair and all, until nothing but his neck remained overhead.

“Whuh?! What’s going on?! Show yourself!” he yelled as he struggled in vain against the earth.

With one more flick of the wrist, more earth appeared to cover his eyes, his ears, and his mouth, without blocking his nose.

“MMMM! MMM MMM MMMMMMM!” he mumbled in fury, at which point I stopped paying him attention.

I emerged from the ground, only to find myself in a minimalist concrete building with winding stairs on one end, a torch on the ceiling, and a cage on the other end. Within that cage, was the bound and chained demon lord seed I’d faced before.

Furialis’s body was riddled with wounds, and he was muzzled and chained to the ground by the torso. He was locked so thoroughly that he couldn’t even move a limb, yet his eyes showed no sign of subjugation. Instead, defiance and fury were all that could be discerned from him.

The beast met my eyes, and recognition appeared within his own. He still remembered me.

“Good morning, ol’ chap. I am here to free you. Well, not here, since I don’t want you to just go on a bloody rampage, but I’m here to free you anyway.” I said.

Furialis just roared into his muzzle.

“Very succinct point, my good drake. The problem now is how I am actually going to pull it off without anyone noticing. What to do, what to do…” I said, tapping my chin in thought.