“How?” Stade asked. “How’d they find us, and this quickly?”

“How far away did you even send the crows?” Morel asked back.

“I didn’t get enough time! That bastard was burning us with a literal scream. Besides, you know the crows can’t get beyond half-a-league from my location.”

Rieren shook her head. She should have known they wouldn’t be so easy to shake. Maybe she’d been too naive to think she could make it through the entire first round without needing to display her true strength. If those three were serious about battling them to the death, then she might just need to pull out all the stops.

A part of her realized she could try to get away now. Use her Domain Summons to rush away from her current predicament as fast as possible.

That didn’t feel right, though. For one, she would be abandoning the recruits to their fate. She was certain they couldn’t get away with anything as fast as she could, even with these strange crows of theirs. After all, they had very recent evidence that those three were determined to track them down, no matter how far they went.

Plus, the recruits hadn’t abandoned Rieren. They had come to assist her, against foes who were significantly stronger than them. How could she leave them after they had proven themselves?

Rieren was tempted to curse the Shatterlands for yoking her with this strange, deadly sense of responsibility.

“What do we do?” Morel asked, facing Rieren.

She eyed the knife he was gripping tightly. Water she had splashed upon him dripped down his face like tears, but his face was resolute. Behind him, his companions were standing ready with the same determination etched onto their faces and postures.

Rieren sighed. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“You will do nothing,” she said. “Stand back, stay out of my way, and watch.”

Morel gawked at her. “What in the Abyss are you going to do?”

“Take care of them, as it appears I should have from the beginning. You three have done your fair share. I shan’t demand anything further from you. So stand back and wait till I have ended our pursuers for good.”

She didn’t wait for their comments or arguments or anything else they might have had to say. Ledorne—for Rieren’s senses were certain it was the woman—was almost upon them.

Rieren headed out to meet her relentless enemy. She only reached the clearing when Ledorne appeared on the forest path heading to where Rieren had resolved to make a stand. But it wasn’t just the fact Ledorne was coming that had made her pause. No, the sight of Ledorne’s appearance had as much to do with it.

The woman had… transformed somehow. There was no other way to think of it.

Ledorne’s hair had turned into filaments of fire the same consistency as the flames Falvain used. Her body was cloaked with the same bits and pieces of glinting darkness that formed the core of Astosind’s gravity-manipulating powers. Most striking of all, her rocky sword had melted.

Where it had been a blade covered with rocks, now it looked like it was constructed from lava. A core of black, igneous rock covered in burning magma.

“I have seen many strange things,” Rieren said. “But I have never seen three different cultivators combining and inhabiting one body like that.”

Ledorne grinned at her. “You think too crudely. I only share the powers of my companions. Nothing more than that.”

“How? A strange technique, if that is what it is.”

“Ever heard of Enchantments?”

Rieren blinked. “I see…”

Ledorne looked past her. “Where are the rest of your little maggots? I was hoping I would end you all in one strike.”

“If you can defeat me, they should be easy pickings. I would worry about what stands before you, were I you.”

“I have nothing to worry about. You’re strong, but not as strong as I am. We both know that.”

Rieren sighed. “Are you not here to fight?” She waved her sword at the other woman’s hair, then the magma-wreathed blade. “Or is that all just bluster and bluffing?”

Ledorne growled. Just as she launched herself at Rieren, who brought her sword up and held it at the ready, the ground shook violently. A hundred cracks preceded a strange, large appendage bursting free with an explosion of dust and rocky shrapnel. Rieren and Ledorne broth threw themselves back.

“What now?” Ledorne asked.

Rieren didn’t answer. This newcomer… it was familiar. It looked like some kind of giant tree root combined with a healthy dose of earth and debris, offshoot tendrils poking out here and there. She had seen this before. First at the peak of Lionshard mountain, then within the dungeon.

This was a piece of the powerful Anachron that used to call Lionshard’s peak home.

The root seemed to twist and turn in on itself, as though seeking its target. There was no sign of any eyes, but some senses brought it unerringly around to point at Ledorne. The woman tensed, sensing that she was the strange appendage’s target.

They collided together. The appendage hammered into Ledorne like a battering ram, but she used her pure strength to withstand the blow. She was pushed back along the ground, but the root eventually slowed to a stop.

All the while, Ledorne’s magma was burning right through the root. At one point, it even caught fire.

“Get back!” a familiar voice shouted.

Rieren, eyes wide, turned just in time to see Serace bursting out from a different, distant path to crash at Ledorne. He slashed his shorter sword at his opponent, but Ledorne was quick on her feet, dodging backwards with ease. Nevertheless, she was still winded by the slice of compressed air bursting free from the arc of Serace’s sword.

Her three recruits reappeared around the same time. Before Ledorne could regain her posture and put Serace through his paces, they attacked the woman as one.

Morel threw a hurricane of knives to keep Ledorne’s sword busy, Forys tried to entangle their target in his blood-red threads, and Stade kept trying to find an opportunity to burn her to ash. She blocked or evaded every attempt on her life without breaking a sweat, a testament to her great prowess. But she was on the backfoot the entire time.

They gave Ledorne no space to use her overwhelming power to attack any of them.

That was when the others tried to appear. Falvain charged in with his firebirds at his tail, while Astosind had a flotilla of floating rocks at his back.

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Not on Rieren’s watch.

Even as she moved to intercept them, she was joined by another familiar face. Felorith’s chakrams of golden light rushed in, peppering Falvain and Astosind with a barrage of auric explosions.

This allowed Rieren to summon her Domain and send several waves crashing into her opponents. Falvain’s fires were quickly quenched away. Astosind was fine, having decided to take shelter behind the rocks he was carrying, but he was pinned down all the same. In other words, all three of them were well and truly neutralized.

“Enough,” Falvain shouted. “Ledorne, retreat.”

“What?” Ledorne kicked back Morel and slashed away a fireball Stade had chucked in her direction. “After all the effort I went through? We can kill them all and get three tokens instead of just the original one. Come on, Fal.”

“I said enough.”

Ledorne, it appeared, had no intention of listening. For all that she seemed to be on the verge of being overwhelmed, she had even more depths she hadn’t reached into just yet. Her fury went up yet another notch.

She turned so fast, even Rieren’s Essence-enhanced eyes with their high Mind was lagging behind by just a fraction. With that increase in speed had come a significant boost in pure strength as well. How in the world was she even more powerful now? Where was she drawing such strength from?

Morel’s knives were shattered as he was sent flying with a single blow. All the wires trying to entrap her were burned away by the magma floating off her blade. None of the fireballs striking her had any effect whatsoever. This woman had turned invincible and unstoppable.

With the three of them dealt with, Ledorne turned her attention to Serace. Rieren considered jumping back to assist him, but that proved unnecessary.

Just as Ledorne launched herself at Serace, he transformed.

Rieren had thought that his appearance alone had been shocking enough. But to see him literally turn into the same gigantic Anachron root that he had been controlling, was something else.

He crashed into Ledorne so fast, she had no time to react. There was no thwarting him this time. Apparently, summoning extra speed and attacking power had reduced her defensive capabilities at the same time. As such, Serace not only pushed her back, he managed to send her flying straight into her two companions under Felorith’s continuous barrage.

All three were sent hurtling back to a point where Rieren could barely make out what was going on with them.

“This isn’t the last of us, you hear?” Ledorne shouted. Some slight scuffling seemed to suggest her two companions desperately trying to contain her and keep her away from joining the battle again. “You’re going to pay. You’re going to fall. And it’ll be by my blade. Mark my words.”

“I’ll mark my star chart too, if you’d be so Abyss-cursed kind,” Serace yelled back.

Ledorne simply dissolved into far too many curses as she was hauled away by her companions. Rieren couldn’t immediately relax, of course. For all she knew, this could be a trick. A way to get them to lower their guards before a surprise assault landed among them.

Thankfully, after a while, nothing of the sort came. They had finally fended off that accursed team.

“Are you all alright?” Felorith was asking as strode into the little clearing.

Rieren turned around to face Serace, who was staring back at her with a wide grin on his face. Though, something about it looked a tiny bit forced.

“I can’t believe I finally found you, Rieren,” he said, shaking his head as he walked over. His eyes were filled with questions and wonder. “You have to tell me everything, you know.”

“Me?” Rieren almost laughed. “I have a thousand questions for you, Serace, and I doubt there is time enough for even a dozen.”

“Ask away, I dare you. Though for every question you ask, I want an answer of my own.”

Rieren glanced at Felorith who was attempting to assist her three recruits. They seemed skeptical of his behaviour, but they slowly gave in. “How did you finally manage to come free from… where you were stuck?”

Serace’s face fell. “No one told you the news?”

“I am afraid not. And that counts as one of your questions.”

“What?”

“Go on, Serace. You owe me an answer.”

Grumbling under his breath, he quickly explained how the Sect Leader had used new knowledge he had gained from being a Dungeon Core. Freeing Serace from his bind as an Anachron-under-construction was merely the least of Solmir’s accomplishments.

“You need to see what he’s done to the Sect,” Serace said with no small amount of excitement. “It’s amazing. I don’t think you’re going to recognize a thing.”

“Is that so?”

“We’ve changed and grown a lot. Well, as much as is possible under current circumstances, of course. We haven’t recovered everything we lost. Nor can we.”

Rieren nodded. It was impossible to recover the people who were gone. Aside from those like herself who had left for one reason or another, there were disciples like Nidelin, Auri, and Folend who would no longer grace the Sect’s grounds. That didn’t even include all the guards and other servants, and even some Elders like Imilem and Saygren, who were no longer with them.

“What about you?” Serace asked. He wiped sweat off his forehead. “You’re well through the Enlightened realm by now, aren’t you? To think you’d end up at this wild tournament too.” He shook his head, his eyes sparkling for a moment before the gravity of the situation reasserted itself. “How are Amalyse and Rollo? They went to the same region as you, right?”

Rieren nodded, briefly explaining their current situation. She hadn’t heard from Rollo since he had left to meet his clan, while Amalyse was of course a part of her team. “We’ve been quite… busy, running around all over the Shatterlands. Perhaps I will tell you of what we have been doing when we are less busy.”

“I’d like that.”

She looked at him critically, glancing briefly at Felorith again. There seemed to be some minor standoff between him and Rieren’s three recruits. Rieren frowned. Those three were being needlessly antagonistic. “I suppose I should not be surprised that Lionshard Sect decided to participate in the tournament.”

Serace nodded, then smiled. “I should be thanking you for that.”

“Me?”

“Well, thanking you for leaving. If you and Amalyse and Rollo hadn’t left the Sect, I doubt I’d have gotten the opportunity to come here and participate in the Trials of Ascendance.”

That was true enough. The Sect had—or, used to have—stronger representatives.

Though… Rieren observed Serace critically. He was strong in his own right, especially now. He had been using that Anachron’s powers so effortlessly. This was far from the Serace she had left behind. She wondered if he could even stand toe to toe against one of the three they had all sent packing not long ago.

“How is Elder Olg?” Serace asked.

Rieren grimaced. After her first meeting with Elder Olg outside of Lionshard mountain, when she had discovered that he was still alive within Foxwolf’s guts, she had sent a message to the Sect with the good news that he was still alive. Nothing after that, though. They had no idea that Elder Olg was now an Abyssal.

She doubted the Sect would appreciate one of its vaunted Elders turning into one of the strongest monsters in existence.

“He is alive still,” Rieren said shortly. “But we need to get moving. Can you tell me how my father is?”

“All the time for your questions, but no time for mine, is it?”

“Serace, we have no time. Have I not answered enough of your queries already? What more could you wish to know?”

He looked tense for a moment, but then sighed. “Then let’s get moving.”

Serace turned around to head away. Rieren considered hauling him back just so he was forced to tell her about Atelen, but he was right. She couldn’t act short and still expect him to comply with her demands. Still. They’d talked too long already. They had to move.

But then Serace turned around all of a sudden, before Rieren could even move. “Fine, fine.” He looked like he wanted to slap his forehead, then went on. “He’s alright. Cooking meals for the Sect Leader himself, last I heard.”

“Meals for the Sect Leader?”

“Apparently, the Dungeon Core side of him has a strong appetite, so he keeps a personal chef.”

Rieren blinked. She hadn’t foreseen such a drastic change in her father’s fortunes, going from a lowly fisherman to serving the Sect Leader himself, but she couldn’t help feel a little proud. Then again, Atelen was her father.

There was a sudden scuffle to their left. Rieren turned around to see all three of her recruits suddenly jumping away from Felorith.

She tried to see what exactly the issue was. Why were those three acting so on edge for no good reason? A crow screeched nearby. The sound was jarring, dragging Rieren’s attention away from the sudden motion of her companions to the black bird flapping towards her.

A second later, the bird hit something invisible, and Rieren’s robes rustled. What in the world was going on?

“A trap,” Stade shouted. “They set a trap.”

Rieren’s mind was unfortunately slow in the moment. A trap? Who? From where? They had just beaten off the dangerous trio with the help off—her eyes shot at Serace who had taken his cue and leapt backwards, a hooded look to his face.

The person the crow had spotted and collided with was blinking in and out of existence as though the crow had ruined his technique. He ran off in the same manner, almost like he was short-distance teleporting at a rapid pace.

“What?” Rieren shouted after the escapee, receiving no response. “Who are you? Stop!”

She froze. Rieren’s hand went to her robe, realization and dread warring to take possession of her mind. Her tokens were all there. Then what had happened? Her muscles clenched on their own. No. One of the tokens was missing. Gone. She glared at Serace, who had retreated even farther behind now. “What is the meaning of this, Serace?”

“I’m sorry, Rieren.” He looked and sounded genuinely apologetic. “We lost our token so we had to find another by any means necessary.”

“So you decided to steal your friend’s one?”

“We had no other choice.” Serace faded into the path behind him, then turned and hurried away. “Forgive us.”

With that, Serace ran, leaving behind nothing but the ashen taste of deceit and a broken friendship in Rieren’s mouth.