Vess' head snapped up, swiveling toward the sound. "What was that?"
Evie, atop a branch, squinted into the fiery distance. "SomethingGet down!"
Vess saw it too, an orange-white brilliance that rushed toward them. She thrust all seven of her spears down into the earth and called out. "To me! Atar!"
The blonde mage shoved his partner into Vess' arms and called up a twisting spellform, Inscribing several quick-sigils into the air with the tip of his blazing finger. It completed, just as Harn snagged him by the collar of his robes and into their bulwark.
White-hot fire washed across them, so hot and fierce that the air became superheated instantly. Atar shouted something, but she couldn't make it out. The spellform he'd constructed flared to life, as orange as the fire outside, and created a bubble around them that deflected the worst of the heat.
Atar screamed as his Mana burned to fuel the shield.
The fire flowed like a river, chewing through trees and the land itself. It was hard to see beyond its intensity, but Vess could make out stone and soil burning up, melting, until only char remained.
Then it was gone.
Atar collapsed to the ground, spent and shaking. Alister crouched over him, lifting his head. "You stupid man, why would you risk that?"
"Firewould have suffocated us all," Atar said. His voice was thin and ragged. He'd pushed himself hard through their fights, and now this. "Had to..."
Alister just hugged him.
"Evie?" Vess shouted. The world around them was one of blackened earth and swirling embers. The immense trees around them had all been turned into vast torches, and the heat had not abated. It was hard to breath even still, but their Journeyman Bodies could handle it. "Evie!"
Dark wings sent a series of ice spears into the ground around them, and though they began to melt they carried a welcome chill. Vess looked up and saw Evie atop Pit's broad back. She waved.
"Pit says to get out, to the southern tunnel. I can see it," she said, swallowing. "The fire is out of control now. We gotta run."
"Wise," Harn grunted. "Reforged are down, so are the hounds. Pit?"
The tenku screeched, and it was filled with both anger and worry. She knew what he would do even before Evie hopped off his back. By the time the chain-fighter straightened, the chimera had taken off. Flying north.
Toward Felix.
Frost Spear is level 68!
Wingblade is level 64!
Cry is level 55!
Flight is level 49!
You Have Gained 3 Levels!
You Are Now Level 55!
The fire raged in the north.
Pit navigated powerful updrafts as the air and fire Mana mixed, spurred along by the destruction of earth and wood and water Mana down below. He felt as if he could fly into the stars, so strongly did the heat push upward, a thrilling idea that he nevertheless ignored.
Pit was searching.
His Companion was down there, hurt but alive. He could feel it.
But where?
A basin of black, acrid smoke and bubbling rock appeared below. It roiled, churned by the advent of whatever spell had caused that firestorm, and seemed just on the edge of spilling out over the land. Then, as Pit circled in the air, he saw the lava cool and calm as fiery orange Mana was pulled from it.
Felix!
Pit dropped, down into the bitter smoke and still-burning trees, until he could lay eyes on a half-burned man with brightly glowing eyes. Dozens of streams of Mana and Essence were funneling into him as Felix laid claim to the dead. The streams finished in time for Pit's landing atop the hot earth.
"Pit? What are you doing here? Are the other's okay?" Felix asked.
Pit nodded and sent a series of sense images. Their friends, all heading south. To the tunnel. Felix seemed relieved.
"Good. And everyone in the Arcid's party is dead," Felix looked around. "Best as I can tell. I just hope A'zek got out with the last of the Henaari."
Pit chirruped in agreement before extending a wing toward his Companion. Felix nodded, and made to climb onto his back, but froze half-way.
"Really," he said, and his Spirit spiked in surprise. The Unbound turned back toward a lumpy section of the ground, what Pit had taken for a series of burnt rocks. It was the Arcid, shattered and half-melted. "Huh."
Without asking, Felix shared the notification he was reading.
You Have Gained A Memory From Your Enemy!
Do You Wish To View Or Save?
Pit tilted his head, not quite understanding. He recalled the Memories Felix had gathered in the past, though their bond had never been strong enough to include him on those jaunts. What made this different?
"Never been able to save a Memory before," Felix explained. "That's handy. We'll have to check it out when we get outta here."
He climbed atop Pit's back, settling into the saddle.
"Let's ride."
Their flight was short and uneventful, much to Felix's relief. That battle hadn't gone exactly as he had planned, especially not the part at the end. The Arcid had released far more Mana than Felix could absorb, and not even his Crescian Blade could cut it all apart. Now, as they two of them flew over the burning remains of the valley, Felix regretted it.
I should have taken the fight right to Boilerplate. The Reforged weren't the real threat, after all. I wasted too much time on them.
If he had gone for the Arcid's throat, maybe the ancient ruins below him would have survived. He looked down. The valley had become a lake of fire and smoke. Boilerplate's white-hot fire had cooled to a still-excruciating yellow-orange as it combusted everything it could. The tower and tree at the center of it all were little more than a faint suggestion of carbonized rock.
Annoyed at himself and the Archon, Felix turned his attention instead to his notifications.
You Have Gained 2 Levels!
You Are Now Level 51!
You Gain:
+4 to PER! +4 to VIT! +8 to END! +10 to INT! +12 to WIL! +8 to AGL! +14 to DEX!
You Have 10 Unused Stat Points!
Hell yeah. Finally. His vision flickered again, and another window appeared, this one bordered in golden filigree. What's this?
Authority Recognized, Inheritor!
For Defending This Holding, You May Lay Claim To The City Of Naevis!
Do You Wish To Establish Your Authority?
Y/N