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

  A large group of nearly two thousand people was rushing north for two days without stopping. The Tidebreakers and Explorer’s Gate had merged into a single force, joined by random, smaller groups of Swordpeak kingdom’s survivors.

  Dandelion had told them to scatter just before the attack had started, some of them finding their allies, but most of their rank and file remained unaccounted for.

  Events flowed naturally, but in a different direction than Dandelion expected. As a result, Newt had failed to collect Dandelion’s spatial pouch. He promised himself he would do it one day, once the dust settled. Probably the next time Magminion brought him to meet Magmin’s dragon exalt daughter.

  As for everything else, the retreat was proceeding without a problem, with the two nearest gatherings of cultists annihilated, saurians posed the only remaining threat. And with so many high realm mageknights in one place, they were no threat at all.

  Suddenly, the world shook. A wave of mana fountained from the depths of the Summersweald, spreading like an invisible wave through the world.

  “Run!” Newt and a dozen others shouted at the same time.

  The source of mana was far behind them, hundreds of miles away, but whatever had happened would attract the true powers of the weald. Exalts would move personally to investigate, and if the tenth realm manabeasts came to blows, it would spell doom for all life in a thousand-mile radius.

  Worse, the human invaders might catch the saurians’ attention, guaranteeing horrible deaths of everyone involved.

  Newt scanned the crowd. Rexheart and Emeraldstreak seemed like they were also searching, so he grabbed Chaplain Longfang’s great-grandson and a fourth realm mage Flameax had asked him to keep an eye on, then he took to the air.

  Down below, it only took a handful of panic-filled seconds, but the mages were already behind the mageknights, third realm trailing behind the fourth. And in a matter of breaths, the previously unified force was split into strata, based not on status, but the only thing that ever mattered - power.

  They had a few hours before the exalts started arriving, and everyone was suddenly running or flying for their lives. A seventh realm Swordpeak retainer dove down and grabbed his fourth realm prince, then flew with his liege in arms.

  The panic subsided a few minutes later, but everyone kept fleeing. Newt examined himself, the suddenly pure mana he was drawing into his body, and realized it could compare to his solar baptisms.

  Maelstrom approached him, slowing down. She, as a princess, didn’t have to carry anyone.

  “Do you think—?” she started without ever finishing the sentence.

  Newt nodded. Dandelion was dead, and he was certain he had brought the outer god down with him. Somehow, for some reason, the world seemed more stable than it did just a few minutes ago. He felt more relaxed too, like some invisible pressure that had been there since Newt’s birth had suddenly disappeared.

  An hour passed, and nothing seemed to have happened. The higher realm mageknights had used the time to open up more distance, the seventh realm escorts carrying people they found important and keeping pace with those at the sixth realm.

  Most noticeably, a group had formed around Newt, Maelstrom, and the two Swordpeak princes.

  “Does anyone have any idea what that was?” Passingcloud, the peak seventh realm exemplar from the Swordpeak expedition and the strongest combatant present, asked, but nobody offered an answer.

  “It felt like someone had crushed several tenth realm manarium crystals and unleashed all their energy at the same time. Assuming manarium of such purity even exists,” he continued.

  “It was a surge of incredibly pure mana.” Maelstrom’s guardian agreed, carrying a young man and a young woman. “But right now I don’t care what it was. My duty is to deliver the princess to safety.”

  Darksong agreed without saying a word, and the group just kept going, the sixth realm valiants focusing on maintaining their top speed, the seventh realm exemplars watching over them.

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  Over the two days before the change, they had covered two hundred and fifty miles. After the sudden blast of mana, the lead group had nearly covered the same distance within an hour, but they were still some fifteen thousand miles away from the human lands. Even if they managed to maintain their maximum speed, burning mana like crazy, they would need two and a half days to leave the jungle.

  Unfortunately, they couldn’t maintain their maximum speed for hours on end. The group gradually slowed, running rather than wasting mana on flight. They kept running for another four hours, covering nearly eight hundred miles since their flight began, when the ground shook.

  A roar spread through the jungle, and the trees swayed as if struck by a hurricane. Ripped leaves fell like snow, but Newt focused on the roar.

  “Mine!” A single word bellowed by a familiar voice. Magmin’s daughter had staked her claim.

  While he wasn’t surprised she was the first to arrive, considering the incident had happened inside her territory, Newt was stunned by how quickly she had arrived.

  She was several times faster than Magminion, but it was possible that the ninth realm dragon wasn’t giving it his all when flying Newt.

  “We need to hurry,” he shouted. “One exalt mana beast has arrived. Once the others come here, they’ll level the area if they fight.”

  While it looked like nobody needed a reminder, and that they were running as fast as they could, just about everyone found extra strength, knowing that a tenth realm manabeast was a thousand miles away.

  Five hours and another eight hundred miles later, a second roar split the jungle.

  “Mine!” Magmin’s daughter shouted, but to no avail.

  The other exalt manabeast answered her cry with its own, one Newt didn’t understand, but the following explosion made the meaning crystal clear. The world turned orange of fire, the land shook, and the boom made everyone land-bound stumble, despite being more than fifteen hundred miles away from the point of impact.

  “Underground!” Newt shouted, slamming his foot against the ground, and opening a tunnel leading into the depths.

  Everyone understood his meaning, and they jumped in. The earth rumbled from the fierce blows exchanged by the exalts, but Newt and other earth-attributed mageknights focused on digging down and hardening the surrounding soil.

  A minute after the battle had begun, the group was in an underground bunker, half a mile beneath the surface, reinforcing and tempering the walls of their shelter while several others kept generating fresh air and making the underground atmosphere breathable for those who needed it.

  Ten minutes later, the bunker was as safe as it could be. The tremors shook them, but the shelter was reinforced and nearly unbreakable. It would hold out against the shockwaves of the distant battle. It could even stand if an eighth realm awakened or manabeast attacked directly several times.

  “What of our retainers?” Prince Swordpeak asked.

  “They are dead, Your Highness. We had no way of protecting them. Had we stayed with them, we too would have perished. When exalts fight, the world changes.”

  Damn. Newt sat, covering that he had nearly stumbled on his ass. Dandelion had left books for me in that spatial pouch in that conspicuous rock. What in heaven’s name happened with it? Did the monsters vaporize it?

  When Dandelion had spent two days telling him the gist of everything he found important, Newt thought he was being silly. The man had said that he would leave everything in writing, thoroughly explained.

  Apparently, even perfectly planned contingencies were prone to mishaps and miscalculations.

  “You all right?” Maelstrom sat next to Newt.

  He hugged her around her shoulder. “No. A very dear friend of mine died, and his death possibly triggered another onslaught. One far more serious than the previous one.”

  Maelstrom glared at him, and Newt shut up. He stood, then drew Dandelion’s privacy screen before sitting back down.

  “Do you know what that thing was?” he asked her.

  “He called it an outer god. Dandelion pretended to have kidnapped me and used me as a hostage against her. She didn’t care about a royal princess hostage. But that creature seemed wrong. Twisted.”

  Newt nodded. He had seen the outer god for the amount of time a sixth realm needed to say a handful of words. A flash in non-awakened eyes, but it was enough to get the feel for the evil, unfamiliar presence.

  She was many times stronger than Newt. And while he could fight seventh realm mageknights and mostly hold his own, she was on a completely different level. Dandelion somehow knew she was at the seventh realm, but to Newt she posed no less threat than Magminion.

  “Did you see her fight?” Newt asked, but Maelstrom shook her head.

  “No. Dandelion exchanged a couple of words with her, then exploded us with some magical device.”

  Newt nodded.

  “I saw you.” Newt hesitated. “I mean, I saw what would happen if the cultists caught you. It was disturbing. I don’t want any harm to befall you. Ever.”

  A brief smile flashed on Maelstrom’s face, but a serious expression replaced it almost immediately. At that moment, the earth shook, and the privacy screen flickered out, stopping Maelstrom from saying whatever it was she wanted to say.

  The barrier popped back into being, and Newt took the risk. He kissed Maelstrom on the lips, then quickly pulled back.

  “Promise me you’ll stay safe.”

  Maelstrom just stared at him. “You pumpkin.”

  She grabbed the back of his head and planted a deep kiss as the world shook around them.