A crack of thunder sounded from outside, echoing around the inside of the dome— a great rumbling that crashed through Addie’s chest.

Fluffy yipped at the sound and put her head underneath Christena’s hair. In reaction, Christena nudged Fluffy’s head out and back over to the side.

The tell-tale pitter-patter sound of rain sounded against the dome, the roof surprisingly not that tall. The dome was only just barely tall enough to reach over the top of the dilapidated building Black Cloak was hiding in— Maybe three meters taller than it at the highest peak in the center.

Addie watched as the ghostly flames making up the floor undulated and crested. Some peaks licked up into the air much like a campfire would. In fact, the solid flames underneath Addie’s feet seemed like one giant fire, stretched out to be wide and long instead of tall and rising in the way fire would want to do naturally. Even though it wasn’t a lot, enough of the pale purple light made it onto the dome’s ceiling that Addie could tell the entire thing was made of stone. Addie wondered if Mr. Owlcharge had completely encased Auntie’s original wooden dome with stone, even on the inside.

Squishy tried to take a tentative step forward, testing the moving ground with his front left paw. He tapped at it quickly, as if it might burn him, then rested his paw down on the ground. His shoulders and hips moved up and down with the waves of solid flame, as his leg muscles flexed beneath his black scales to accommodate his constantly shifting weight.c

“This is certainly unideal,” Squishy observed. “Where is the ground? The mud of the swamp?”

Despite not being able to hear him, Christena explained her earlier comment, “This is the ground, or at least, what the ground has been forced to turn into. Remember well, Addie, never let a cascaded soul infect the earth with their rot of madness. This is what happens when those who fight under the sword of greed begin down the path of an Area Lord. This entire area is a man-made natural disaster. You and I are protected with our magic and our transcendent layers. If a common person walked here, their soul would be destroyed in seconds. Even now, I can feel the flames licking at our protections. Don’t lose your hood.”

Addie pinched the red magical fabric between her fingers. The hood and cloak pair gifted to her by Christena still held strong, protecting Addie from the worst of the flames. It’s a good thing Squishy had figured out how to protect his body from the flames already, or else Christena would have had to give him a hood too.

“Last time, Black Cloak was really weak and I beat him right away,” Addie said aloud. “Now he’s an Area Lord? Can we beat him?”

“My father is outside preventing Black Cloak’s domain from spreading. An Area Lord still in the infancy stages with such a small amount of land won’t be too different than a normal bonded. Let’s continue with our plan.” Christena decided.

Addie tried to take a step forward, and she could do it, but it felt strange. She had almost gotten used to the ground roiling underneath her feet while standing, but walking was another thing entirely. Her steps had precarious footing, and she constantly had to bend her knees just to keep steady. It was like walking up and down the stairs but only if they were alive and trying to make you slip by moving around the entire time.

Somehow, Addie managed to let go of Christena’s hand and walk on her own regardless. They walked closer to the dilapidated building, with Squishy walking in the lead. Christena trailed just a bit behind Addie, but still close enough that Addie could reach her with her hand.

A few times, Squishy moved his nose around to sniff at the air, and each time Addie felt his displeasure through the bond. “The air feels sickeningly stale, all of the scents of nature have been purged. If I did not know better, I would say I lost my sense of smell, but I know it is just a consequence of these strange flames.”

The dilapidated building didn’t seem far away at all, and that made sense since Auntie should have only made the original dome cover up the building with a small amount of room to spare. Though that should have been the case, Addie noticed that no matter how much she walked forward, they never got any closer to the building.

After roughly a minute of this, Addie looked behind herself to see Christena’s scrunched-up face. Maybe she noticed it too. Regardless, Addie kept walking a little longer since she didn’t seem to be saying anything yet. After another minute though, Addie knew this wouldn’t work.

Before Addie could say anything, Squishy spoke up across their soulbond, “It’s the flames.” Squishy observed. “The floor itself is keeping us in place.”

Addie looked down to watch her footsteps, and she realized Squishy was right. The waves were pushing them back. She glanced back over at Christena’s face, and she looked really frustrated too. But, Addie wondered why she wasn’t saying anything, yet.

“Squishy says the floor is pushing us back,” Addie relayed.

Christena sighed with frustration, “He’s right. Fluffy and I have been trying to figure out what to do.”

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“It’s easy. We can just all walk through Realmspace,” Addie offered.

“I know, but we need to conserve as much of your magic as possible.”

Well, that was true, but Addie didn’t think it would use much just to walk a handful of meters.

“Alright,” Addie glanced back at Christena who seemed to have an idea, “I’ll use my magic to make us some platforms.”

With a flash of red, Christena’s eyes glowed for just a moment, then, some square panes of red light appeared in the air, each one big enough for two people to stand on with plenty of room.

Since he was still in the front, Squishy jumped up onto the platform first, and then Addie took a really big step up to get on the platform herself. Christena followed behind them with a look of concentration.

Addie knew that Christena had to put in extra effort when she made illusions that actually interacted with the physical world. It must have been hard for her to make them so solid.

Almost the exact moment after Christena got onto the first platform, the floor of flames started rising up— looking more like actual fire instead of a surface. They licked up against the bottom of the illusory platform, and Christena gasped in surprise as the flames started attacking it.

Addie quickly jumped up onto the next platform which had been placed about another meter up in the air.

The flames kept steadily rising and attaching themselves to the lower platform where Christena still stood. Before she could make it onto the next platform, the first one shattered, dropping her back onto the ground.

Christena gasped loud enough for Addie to hear over the background noise, and Fluffy padded at Christena’s shoulders nervously. At some point, the flames started making a low hum. It had started off so slight Addie didn’t even realize it until Christena tried to talk and had to nearly shout to talk over the noise.

“Go! I’ll concentrate on making you enough platforms!”

“We’re supposed to fight him together!” Addie shouted back. Now that he was an Area Lord, Addie didn’t know if she could win alone.

“Just go! Before the flames reach your platform!”

Addie looked down, underneath the slightly transparent red illusion, and saw exactly what Christena was worried about. The flames were steadily rising, a few of the peaks starting to lick up against the bottom of the platform.

Squishy jumped to the next platform and Addie followed behind him without complaint.

Addie took one last look back at Christena. Her eyes were glowing that strong ruby red, and she was single-mindedly focused on putting platform after platform in the air for Addie and Squishy.

Turning around, Addie shouted back, “What about you!”

Christena didn’t respond. She was too focused. The flames had started rising up around Christena too, no longer just rising up to get the platforms.

Fluffy was running around near Christena’s feet, putting up illusory barriers of her own, keeping the flames at bay while Christena focused on making the platforms for Addie.

With the sound of breaking glass, the platform underneath Addie’s feet cracked right down the middle. Addie jumped off as fast as she could and reached the next barrier, just as the one behind her fell apart into shards of light, before disappearing completely.

She didn’t even have time to get her bearings before the flames roared up against the new platform. Squishy opened his eyes wide and jumped to the next platform immediately, and so did Addie right behind him. With a mind of their own, the flames destroyed the old platform and quickly spread to the new platform.

Not waiting this time, Addie ran forward and jumped onto the next platform, the flames following her closely from underneath. Addie had no time to sit on the platform, or to glance back at Christena. The flames were already damaging the platform she had just jumped to!

She started at a run, with Squishy just a bit ahead of her. They ran from platform to platform. The flames became more incessant as they got closer to the building, more dangerous. Addie jumped onto the next platform, but the flames had already spread to it, cracks like broken glass already marring its surface even before Addie jumped onto it. She landed on the platform and the surface under her right foot finished cracking and snapped off.

Her right foot dropped down into the hole. Surprised, she couldn’t quite recover in time, and Addie felt the hard edges of the platform scrape up her leg drawing blood. She landed with an ‘oomph, some of the weight on her left foot, but her right leg tripped her since it got trapped in the hole. She landed on her hands and knees, but she didn’t have time to worry about the superficial gashes running down her leg. At least they were just minor scrapes. Some of the flames started tickling up against her exposed leg, but her red cloak gifted from Christena twisted with an intelligence of its own and wrapped around her leg.

Quickly, she scrambled to get up, Squishy looking at her from ahead with worry bleeding over to her from across their bond. She pulled her leg out of the crack and ran forward to the edge of the next platform, the cloak going back to a neutral position.

Addie jumped off the platform, and her legs were still swinging through the air when the platform behind her shattered into motes of red light.

The next platform was already being attacked by the flames. Addie landed hard once again, not being able to keep her balance too well in all of her haste. The platform shattered the moment she landed, and her stomach dropped and she and Squishy were thrown into free-fall.

More out of reaction than true intent, Squishy activated their magic and sent the two of them into Realmspace, directing their momentum upward and forward. They reentered reality and Addie used the entrance to push their momentum even further forward and upward. They pushed through the air just barely enough to make it to the roof of the building.

Addie landed in an uncontrolled tumble, banging up her arms a bit as she protected her head. Christena’s cloak tightened around her body, keeping her otherwise unbruised.

She stood up slowly after coming to a stop and looked out over the edge of the roof. The roiling flames stood four or five meters tall now, completely enclosing the building within their walls. At some unseen command, the flames spread no further, perhaps not daring to touch the building itself that Black Cloak was hiding in. The flames danced and feinted at Addie, but none of them fully crossed into the building’s territory.

“Are you ok, my lady?”

Addie didn’t answer him right away because she only barely heard him at the edge of her awareness. She was too busy looking for Christena. But, Addie couldn’t see her through the walls of flames.

Squishy walked over and rubbed his scaly head up against the back of Addie’s uninjured leg. “She allowed us this chance to defeat this nascent Area Lord. We’ve beaten him before. Let us beat him again.”