“What did you do to them?! I will kill you!”

The same Martial who had been so distrustful of Larek, Balent (if he remembered the name correctly), shouted and then sprinted toward Nedira, who was now looking at Larek. Just as the man swung his sword at her, the Fusionist created a Pattern construct in front of his betrothed, which prevented the sword from doing anything but creating a *thunk* as it slammed into the barrier.

The angry Martial was only deterred for a moment before he attacked again, but by that time the others were reacting; 20 additional Martials, which were essentially those who hadn’t been previously injured, swarmed not only toward Nedira, but toward Larek, as well. While he created another construct that acted more as a dome than as a single barrier over Nedira, the Fusionist caught the look she gave him as she glanced back toward Larek’s two unconscious former bodyguards. Sighing, he nodded even as an arrow powered by a Battle Art attempted to hit him in the chest, only to be largely stopped by his Automatic Ice Repulsion Field. The force behind the attack was surprisingly enough to pierce through the ice and impact his shirt, but the Multi-Resistance Fusion on it, as well as the toughness of his own skin, meant that the projectile didn’t do more than press sharply on his rib.

Jumping over the heads of the half-dozen melee-oriented Martials who surrounded him, he used another Pattern construct under his feet to take him toward Penelope and Vivienne. He acted fast enough that his attackers couldn’t recover from his sudden escape to stop him, as he scooped the two of his friends up in his arms, before lifting them into the air. With a thought, he manipulated the dome of Pattern Cohesion surrounding Nedira and turned it into a sphere, which he then brought upwards, joining him nearly 150 feet above the surface. A third, larger Pattern construct in the shape of a rectangular box appeared just below them, straining his focus a bit with its size and with the fact that he was maintaining his other constructs, before he canceled those keeping him and Nedira aloft, dropping everyone inside the box.

“Uh, so, what exactly was your plan here?” Larek asked even as he quickly extended the sides of the construct when an arrow launched by one of the Martials down below exploded along the side, threatening to injure one of them.

Nedira appeared calm, despite the situation they had found themselves in, which had deteriorated quickly as additional Battle Art-powered projectiles slammed into the bottom of the Pattern box. He lifted it further into the air to avoid any more attacks, which was a little bit of a strain on his focus, but it wasn’t too bad.

“This, essentially,” she finally said. “I just knew that we needed to fix their memories as soon as possible, before they began to look into you too far,” Nedira explained further. “I still remember what happened to Kimble when he began to figure out who you were, and I wanted to prevent that.”

He looked at her closely. “Are you sure it wasn’t because you wanted to smack a certain someone upside the head?”

Her innocent look didn’t fool him as she said nothing in response. Sighing, he looked down at the two unconscious Martials at his feet. “How long do you think they’ll be out?”

“Hopefully not long; Bartholomew wasn’t out particularly long when he had his Fusion added to him, after all. Kimble and Verne were different because there were other extenuating circumstances going on, as you no doubt remember.”

He agreed, as that was absolutely true. Kimble had been trying to kill Larek and possibly himself as his mind was nearly torn apart from what Chinli had done to him with Dominion magic, and Verne had been suffering from the destruction of his unique spell that was innately connected to him.

“Alright. Then what are we going to do about them?” he asked, pointing below the Pattern box construct. “They’re understandably angry at us right now. I don’t think it would go over well with the people trying to contain the Calamity if we were to take off with them.”

“I honestly didn’t really think that far in advance,” Nedira admitted. “I guess we can try to convince them—from afar—that we mean no harm and that what we did is for their own good?”

“Sure, you can certainly try that, but it might be better to wait until they wake up.”

Larek’s betrothed decided to try her hand in convincing those below that what she had done was for the best, explaining that Penelope and Vivienne had traces of Dominion magic from a Gergasi in their heads. Of course, as soon as they descended a little so that they could hear her, the Pattern box was fired upon without hesitation, only allowing her to get a few words out as she leaned over the side before she had to pull her head out of the way of the barrage. Thankfully, it appeared as though the three Mages down below weren’t getting involved, either because they didn’t have the Mana to do so or they had decided against it, so they didn’t have to worry about any spells coming their way.

In the end, as essentially every Martial screamed obscenities and threats at them from the ground, they ended up simply waiting until the two former bodyguards woke up. Unluckily for the group down below, the Calamity wasn’t so patient, as dozens of monsters – many of whom came from Apertures that Larek and Nedira had attacked before they arrived to help – attacked them as reinforcements were spawned. It helped to tone down the rate of threats sent toward Larek and Nedira, as they were forced to fight the monsters off, but it didn’t get rid of those threats entirely.

It was when the sun was in danger of falling below the horizon that an unexpected decision was apparently made among the members of the group.

In other words, they left.

“They’re going?” Larek asked, confused. For some reason, he had expected them to keep trying to get their people back, or at least harass them until Larek or Nedira did something about it.

“I can only assume that they don’t want to be around here at night. Something about that is familiar, but I can’t remember why.”

Without being harassed by a massive horde of Felis Stalkers and with everyone healed up, the group could move quite fast. The three Mages were literally carried by the Martials as they ran at their max speed, which was surprisingly quick, showing that most of them had high Agility stats and also had a speed-enhancing Battle Art to increase it even further. Rather than leave them behind – as he did want to return Penelope and Vivienne to them, if only to explain what they had done – Larek followed them overhead.

The group avoided any other Apertures on their path toward the border, and they were moving fast enough that no other monsters caught up to them. Despite this fact, Larek sent the Pattern box lower and was able to see the worried and stressed faces among those who had just been threatening to kill them, and an unsubstantiated worry began to invade his thoughts.

Why do they look scared?

He even attempted to get low enough to ask the fleeing Martials and the few Mages of the group, but none of them even seemed to notice him anymore; they were wholly intent on running as fast as their abilities could carry them.

“You don’t remember hearing what this is about?” the Fusionist asked his only other conscious passenger, but she simply shook her head.

“I may have heard something in passing, but most of my information about this Calamity came from before it had grown to its current size,” she revealed. “If there’s something new about the night here in the Calamity, then it’s knowledge that I don’t possess.”

Larek thought about it for a moment. “Should we help? I probably have enough Boosts in my bag for all of them.” He wasn’t necessarily inclined to help them, given their attitude toward him and reaction upon Nedira’s “assault” upon Penelope and Vivienne, but he also didn’t necessarily want them harmed. Sure, their prejudice against his height sucked, but he understood it; even their demand for blood from Nedira was understandable, even if he thought they were blowing the whole thing out of proportion – especially since they wouldn’t listen to a reasonable explanation.

Neither of those things deserved death, however.

Nedira hesitated for a few seconds before she shook her head. “No, I think it would be better to wait and see what they are running from. Giving them the Boosts might make them a bit more dangerous to you and me, and I don’t particularly want to be blasted out of the sky.”

She had a point. Arming their current foes with much stronger stats wouldn’t necessarily be conducive to safe interactions between them, but he would try it if it became necessary. Besides, if there was some sort of danger after nightfall, Larek was confident he could handle it. He’d killed a Gergasi, after all—even if his success had only been by the skin of his teeth.

The sun descended beneath the horizon a short time later, leaving the group below at least five miles away from the border. They were moving quickly, but it was going to be another fifteen minutes or so before they reached it, but Larek didn’t really think it would matter. He had been keeping watch all around the environment, and other than some small, random groups of Bone Wraiths scattered around the area, there didn’t appear to be much threat to worry about.

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The Martials below seemed to think otherwise, as they somehow dug deep and increased their speed even more, the terrifying panic they were experiencing clear in their movements. It didn’t make any sense to Larek, and he even looked at Nedira to see if she had any clue to what was going on, but she just shrugged.

It was at that moment, only seconds after the sun fell beneath the horizon, that Penelope woke up. “That stupid bitch! I’m going to kill her!” she screamed as she sat up abruptly, her eyes wide as what appeared to be memories flowed through her mind. He could only assume that she now remembered what Chinli had done to her to suppress her memories, erasing all knowledge of Larek and what he was – and she was obviously angry about it.

“Welcome back,” he said, squatting down and offering his hand. She quickly took it and he pulled her to her feet, though she had already turned to Vivienne, who was just starting to stir on the floor of the Pattern box.

Seeing that Vivienne seemed to be fine and just needed to regain full consciousness, Penelope turned to Larek and smiled. “Ooh boy, I missed you,” she said, before her look turned murderous. “I’m going to kill that bi—”

“Larek already killed her,” Nedira interrupted with a smirk, causing the blue-haired Martial to turn toward her.

“Nedira! You sneaky little—” Penelope began, before she seemed to freeze in place. “Uh… where are we? Please don’t tell me we’re still in the Calamity.”

Larek exchanged a confused glance with Nedira. “Well, yes, we’re following your group as they’re leaving. See, we had to take you away while you were unconscious, because they really didn’t like what Nedira had to do to you to get rid of the Do—”

“We need to leave, right now!” she shouted. Before anyone could do anything, though, an unnatural darkness fell over the territory of the Calamity like a wave, originating from the center and pushing outwards. It was as if full night had fallen within a matter of seconds, but there was no moon or stars to illuminate even a portion of the area around them. “Too late,” Penelope said into the sudden silence that accompanied the darkness, her resigned tone causing the hairs on the back of his neck to raise.

They were accompanied by the rest of the hair on his body sticking straight up when terrifying screams seemed to echo through the void of light, with no discernable source; it simply washed over them from all sides, as if they had suddenly found them in some sort of torture room where thousands of people were being tortured simultaneously.

Larek was just covering his ears when the screams abruptly stopped, and everyone in the box – including Vivienne who had pulled herself to her feet – stared at each other in mounting horror. The glow from his Pattern box was the only thing that allowed them to see each other, and he could see the unsubstantiated terror in all their eyes. He felt it too, but he ignored it for the most part, as he had no idea where it was coming from; it almost felt like some sort of raw, primal effect related to Dominion magic, but it wasn’t focused and was more like a generalized fear than anything else.

“Penelope… what is this?” he finally asked.

He didn’t think she would answer, as she appeared to be frozen in fright, but she thawed enough to choppily say, “Don’t know. Started after last expansion. Causes overwhelming fright for a short time. Resurrects all dead monsters from the day. Makes them twice as strong. Fast. Disappear at daylight.”

He thought he understood what she was saying, even all broken up like that. Whatever this darkness thing was, it started after the last expansion of the Calamity’s territory, and would cause everyone to be afraid for a short interval of time. After that, or perhaps while everyone was consumed with fear, it would resurrect every slain monster within the territory, boost them so that they were extra powerful and fast, and they would hunt down any invaders – such as the group down below them. Thankfully, it seemed as though the resurrected monsters disappeared at daylight, but that wasn’t for many hours yet.

Larek pulled one of his Graduated Illumination Strong Fusions out of his Void Pocket sack and placed it on a small Pattern construct platform he created for just that purpose, before sending it out ahead of them. The light it provided was bright, and it cut through the darkness without too many problems; he was just glad that it wasn’t like his experience down in the tunnels of Lowenthal with the Umbral Demons, as that unnatural darkness had been thick and fought against any source of light with determination.

As the others were still locked up in fright, Larek didn’t ask anything else as he sped ahead, continuing on his path out of the Calamity. He couldn’t see too far into the distance, only about 500 feet, in fact, so he couldn’t visually see the border, but he was able to direct himself using his awareness of the central Aperture as a means of orientation.

Only about 15 seconds into the flight, he came upon the group of Martials that had come with Penelope and Vivienne, all of them sprawled out on the ground, frozen stiff as the fear caught them in mid-step. “I’m assuming you want me to save them?” he asked, looking at both Penelope and Vivienne. There was no hesitation as they forced themselves to nod.

With a sigh, Larek swooped his Pattern box down to the ground, absorbing it a moment later. Closing his eyes, he visualized what he wanted, and wincing at the upcoming strain to his focus that he was about to incur, he pulled a large chunk of his Pattern Cohesion out of his body and constructed a much larger box than he’d ever created before. It was a relatively simple 30-foot by 30-foot square box with 4-foot-tall sides, and he was amazed at how easy it had been to construct it; there was no strain like he expected, which he attributed to all of his Skills and Specializations making it much easier.

Of course, he wasn’t moving it with more than 30 bodies on board, so he figured the stress was yet to come.

A real quick lifting of the upright Nedira, Penelope, and Vivienne into his new creation was all it took to get them on board. Then, using his speed and strength, he quickly picked up and tossed all the Martials into the box, bringing it with him as he went through the group; he didn’t bother being gentle with them because he knew that even the weakest Martial could handle being thrown a dozen feet or so without harm. He was getting to the last 10 or so, including the Mages, when he felt a magical disturbance heading his way. Knowing he only had seconds, he picked up and threw another three of the Martials on the ground, before pulling his staff out of his bag where he’d stored it earlier.

It was just in time, as out of the darkness came a dozen mangled-looking, white-colored bears, dried blood and missing limbs clearly showing that these monsters had been dead not so long ago, but apparently even missing a head wasn’t enough to deter them. A quick glance at them made him realize that, unless they were missing so many limbs that they couldn’t move, the dark, magical power surrounding them would force them to obey whatever orders it gave them to carry out.

Larek, of course, was in a hurry and wasn’t going to wait for them to get close, so he shot an explosive detonation right in the middle of the pack with his Variable Elemental Destruction staff at Magnitude 10. They were right on the edge of the Fusion’s range, but he could still feel the shockwave as the bears were sent flying from the explosion, a few of them practically torn apart, while others were missing even more limbs than before. Without looking to see the final results of his attack, he grabbed the rest of the Martials and flung them inside, before picking up all three Mages in both arms and jumping into the Pattern box himself, his left foot landing right on the crotch of a particularly annoying Martial in the process.

He liked to think that it was a happy accident that Balent inadvertently got a taste of his displeasure over his conduct.

Taking them up once everyone was on board, he looked around to see two groups of Bone Wraiths converging together, moving at least twice as fast as they had before. Dropping the Mages in his arms, who coincidentally fell on top of Balent, cushioning their fall, he whipped his staff out again and shattered a boulder in the middle of the group, tearing their formation apart.

Without waiting any more, Larek urged the box forward, straining his focus to move as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, it was only a fraction of the speed he could normally obtain, moving only about 20 miles per hour, but at least they were moving.

Looking on the ground, he saw that the bears he had blown up had largely been damaged so much that they weren’t moving anymore, but for those who still had the ability of locomotion, they pursued the Pattern box with a relentlessness that was a bit disturbing. They weren’t the only ones, either, as even more resurrected monsters joined the pursuit, keeping up with their relatively slow speed easily; the only saving grace was that most of them were landbound and couldn’t reach them.

But not all. More Bone Wraiths were joined by something that resembled a flying, 3-foot-wide, pebbly skin-covered sphere with teeth, and it was all he could do to blast them out of the sky before they could get too close. He felt even more magical signatures closing in from nearly all directions other than the one he was heading, and he began to think about ditching the majority of the people in the box so that they could move faster.

Fortunately, before he had to make that sort of decision, there was a sudden cessation of the fear that had been trying to affect him but he’d ignored; at the same time, it seemed to free the others, as well.

“Hurry! To the sides of the box – we need to fend off the incoming monsters!” he shouted as they began to stir. Larek pulled out two bundles of staves from his sack and handed them to the still-recovering Penelope, who took them with a quick training of how they worked. Fortunately, she was familiar with the general concept already, thanks to seeing them before when they traveled together, so she was able to pass them out to the Martials, who were looking out into the darkness with trepidation. Penelope snapped at them until they focused on what was important, which was defending their ride out of the Calamity, and they shuffled to the sides, ready to blast whatever got close.

It was just in time, as monsters came in waves, both the flying variety and those that could jump high, as Larek was only able to maintain a height of about 30 feet above the ground because of the strain. While their defense was a bit sporadic at first, Nedira moved quickly around to everyone with a new staff in their hands and helped them use them at least semi-effectively against the resurrected monsters coming to take their lives, and they started to get the upper hand.

Without having to devote any attention to defense, Larek was able to speed them up a little more, until they were moving at about 30 miles per hour. It still wasn’t blisteringly fast, but he knew that every little bit would help them in their escape.

Their freedom from the darkness happened so fast that it shocked him, as one moment they were in enveloped in a dead void where they were fighting to stay alive, and the next they broke through to a living, vivid world that was just now starting to darken as the last of the light from the day disappeared. Moving another thousand feet or so away from the edge of the Calamity, Larek set the Pattern box down and let it collapse while exuding a sigh of relief. A quick check of the area – and into the distance – revealed no sign of the Gergasi, which elicited yet another sigh of relief.

At least until he looked to see a little more than 30 angry faces staring at both Nedira and him, most of them armed with his VREP Fusion staves – and they looked like they were prepared to use them.