20th of Season of Fire, 160th year of the 32nd cycle

  Startled, New looked around, but everyone was there, even Veilridge and Bluesky, who had perished in the cultists’ attack, navigated the canopy, escorting the students and watching out for dangers from the rear.

  Dandelion could really do this whenever he wanted? Just rewind time two weeks back?

  He was quietly putting his thoughts in order when the students down below came across a fourth realm spiketail. The beast and the fight weren’t memorable, just a drop in the ocean of encounters the group had had over the past moons, but Newt still recognized the team fighting.

  They repeated the same mistakes as last time, but the opponent was too inferior to capitalize on them.

  So, everything will repeat itself. What if I intervene or do something to change things? What if I go over to the Swordpeaks and have a chat with Dandelion?

  No, he couldn’t do that. Dandelion specifically told him to act the way he did the first time, to go through the same motions and make the same decisions. Otherwise, the cultists might attack earlier, or send a different group, or a storm-making butterfly might make a storm.

  Newt was pretty sure Dandelion was joking with the last one, but he did present him with real potential problems. Such as the cultists summoning the outer god sooner, or the outer god wiping out survivors first, and only then hounding Dandelion.

  So, Newt played along. Even if he hadn’t tried to memorize everything the last time, he found himself living in a constant state of déjà vu. The only change he had made was practicing scribing Dreadfire seals in the ground whenever they made camp and then wiping them away so as not to alert the cultists.

  On the night before the attack, he started working for real. Carving the seals into the trees the cultists would pass while flying towards them.

  Should I make a cluster and detonate them all at once, or spread them out and hope the cultists run into them?

  Newt decided on the former. He estimated he only had one chance, after which the cultists would take higher to the air, avoiding his traps.

  The night passed in a flurry of activity, and in the morning, the red pinprick once more appeared in the sky.

  “Get ready for battle!” Lord Darksong shouted, just like last time, and the higher realm cultists attacked just like last time, using the same formations and same flight paths. A group of four seventh realm mageknights entered the cluster of mines Newt had left behind.

  Veilridge shot the signal flare, its whistle drowned by the detonation of Newt’s seals. The explosion blasted the trees into ashes and turned the four seventh realm exemplars into a shower of char, gore, and bones.

  The sudden burst of fire stunned both sides, momentarily blinding ally and enemy alike, but as the only one in the know, Newt used the chance. He flew straight into the cultists’ midst, spearing an exemplar through her eye, frying her brain before she recovered.

  He attacked another, but while the man kept his eyes squeezed shut, he blocked the attack with his saber, his mana sense having recovered enough to help him.

  He shifted his saber, sliding it down the shaft, to sever Newt’s fingers. Newt pulled back, but the man slashed at him again.

  The cultist shifted his saber, and Newt let go of his spear. A short-sword appeared in his hand as the cultist lost the purchase Newt had offered up until a moment ago. He stumbled forward, Newt’s short-sword, piercing his forehead. Fire erupted from his eyes, nose, and screaming mouth before he toppled down, smoke rising from his corpse.

  Newt used most of his surprise. His order’s exemplars joined the battle, and Newt let them fight three against two, while he snatched his falling spear and moved on to the sixth realm battle. He positioned himself close to Veilridge and Bluesky, who had died last time when help had come too late.

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  Newt could fight the seventh realm exemplars on a more or less even footing even without the advantage of surprise. The sixth realm, while his nominal peers, fell easily, especially since Newt jumped from battle to battle, slaying one enemy to even the odds. His focus wasn’t on exterminating the cultists, but on keeping his people alive.

  He also didn’t move randomly. His third target was fighting just beneath the seventh realm three-on-two battle. Newt stabbed the woman in the back before kicking up from her corpse, heading straight for the seventh realm fighters.

  The elderly man he targeted turned and blocked his backstab, only to die from leaving himself open to his opponent.

  In the next moment, the four of them slaughtered the final seventh realm cultist, and the battle turned into a clean-up.

  Knowing who to look out for, Newt helped Bluesky, which in turn saved Veilridge from getting overwhelmed four-on-one once the cultists had slain Bluesky.

  “When did you set up the traps?” Darksong approached Newt once the battle had ended.

  “Last night, sir. We should move to meet up with the Tidebreakers and the Swordpeaks. They are our closest allies, and they might need help.”

  Darksong’s face flickered. The moment of angry indecision of those faced with all bad choices appeared on his face for such a brief moment no non-awakened would have caught it, but it did appear.

  He could ignore their allies, send the most powerful members of the group to help, send Newt alone because he had to see his fiancee, or split his forces so that the main group has some protection, but Newt’s safety isn’t as certain.

  “Fifth realm mages will stay behind with the students and lead them west towards our allies. The rest of us will clear the path, and go to their aid. We’re leaving now.”

  The group moved at the fifth realm mageknights’ sprinting speed and covered the two hundred miles in a little over an hour and a half when Maelstrom entered Newt’s mana sense.

  She flew towards him, and they both barely stopped themselves from bodily slamming into each other.

  “Thank heavens you’re all right.” She hugged him fiercely. “Dandelion said you would be safe, but I was still worried.”

  “It’s good to see you’re safe too. Did the Swordpeaks come to help you?”

  She stared at him before her eyes went wide with realization. “He showed you, too?”

  Newt nodded. “But I think we should have this conversation in private. Once we’re out of the jungle. Should we head for the Swordpeaks?”

  Maelstrom shook her head as the rest of her retinue arrived, along with the seventh realm representatives of the Swordpeak household and their princes.

  The groups merged and started discussing what to do, when the feeling of doom crept into their souls. All of the gathered mageknights turned towards the north. They couldn’t see it from where they stood, but they knew. They all knew something unnatural was happening in the north.

  The rest flew up, leaving only Newt and Maelstrom on the ground. They exchanged a look, and at the same time squeezed each other’s hand in reassurance.

  “I’m glad you’re all right,” they said nearly at the same time, then just stared at each other and smiled.

  “What about D—”

  Newt shook his head, making a shushing motion as the dread built up in his heart and slid down his spine. Dandelion had speculated that the outer god could see and hear everything as she transitioned between worlds. That was the only conclusion he could draw that made sense, since the outer god had found him without error.

  Just as suddenly as it had started, the profane feeling vanished, and the world was whole once more.

  “What do we do now?” Maelstrom asked. “The Swordpeaks told us Dandelion sent them, and that we should immediately evacuate from the jungle.”

  “Our group will need a whole day to come here, even if the aspirants we left behind push them for all they are worth. I don’t feel comfortable leaving people behind. Right, how bad were your losses?”

  “The Swordpeaks jumped the cultists just as they attacked us. We slaughtered their high realm mageknights before they realized what was happening, then decimated their weaker troops. They didn’t even reach our camp. You?”

  “Not quite as impressive, but we suffered several injuries and no fatalities.” The Dreadfire seals had shocked the cultists and made them advance more slowly, buying Newt and the exemplars more than enough time to end everything with nobody dying.

  Darksong and the rest of the senior mageknights descended from the canopy, pale and visibly shaken.

  Murmurs of, “What was that thing?” reached Newt’s and Maelstrom’s ears, but they remained quiet. Sharing the actual knowledge could shatter everyone’s morale, not to mention paint them suspicious. How could the two of them recognize such a phenomenon? Based on what experience?

  No. Newt and Maelstrom held hands and kept their mouths shut, letting the seniors reach the only sensible conclusion.

  It was time to flee.