Exploration- Interlude 2

I'm sorry all of these pieces are necessary and I think now really is the best place. This interlude ended up being as long as 3 chapters. I'm sitting at 9500 words right now for the day.

I'm definitely going to start the next chapter, and it's still fairly early so hopefully I finish it.

I am however also experimenting and trying to be mindful about how much I can write one day without being unable to write or feeling drained the next day.

I guess we learn about this together.

Interlude 2- Moving Pieces

The air on the Australian coast tasted wrong, sharp with mana and heat even before anything moved. Jiang stood at the front of the formation, spear grounded lightly in one hand. His dragon, Veracian was far enough away to not take the focus off of the lesson he intended to teach today but close enough to intervene in the worst case scenario. Although, Jiang worried a bit that Veracian might not see the need to intervene to save any of their guests. Not for a single instant did he doubt the bond the two of them shared, but dragons had their own way seeing things.

The politicians clustered behind layered shields and armored transports, appeared  to be trying very hard not to stare at the wilderness stretching out before them. Australia had always been dangerous, but this was something else entirely. Of course, the council had representatives from each of the races that were native to Earth. For the Rigellians and Galenians this was old hat. For the Crembori it was new, but they were objective enough to take it in stride. It was the human leaders who were still having to be drug kicking and screaming into the future.

Some were better than others, but too many still thought that as things stabilized they could return to the life they’d known before. The success that Earth had under Silas’ guidance didn’t help on that front. There were now many cities even outside of the safe zone where people could live their lives without encountering monsters. Out of sight was often out of mind, and the night broadcasts tended to all be about other places.

Yet, Jiang had chosen this place deliberately.

The land ahead was broken and feral, trees twisted into unnatural shapes, the ground scarred by massive tracks that no normal animal should have been able to leave behind. Mana rolled through the environment in visible currents, bending light and sound in subtle ways. It was almost like the environment itself was a monster being evolved by the growing mana concentration on Earth. Jiang felt it pressing against his senses, familiar and unwelcome. This wasn’t a controlled zone, but that was the point.

The sense of mana did raise another question that he didn’t want to consider. Namely, what happened when Earth’s mana concentration reached legendary tier and some of the remaining incursions occurred, or other travelers simply found a way to reach Earth before the probationary period was up. With Silas gone, Jiang felt more exposed than ever.

One of the council members muttered that the area looked abandoned. Jiang didn’t turn his head when he answered. “It isn’t,” he said calmly. “You just aren’t welcome here. The things out there have claimed this land as their own.”

The first tremor hit a second later.

The ground shuddered hard enough to rattle teeth, and then the wildlife announced itself. A massive shape burst from the tree line in a spray of dirt and splintered roots, resolving into a kangaroo that stood taller than an armored truck. Its hind legs were thick with corded muscle, hide reinforced by mana into something closer to stone than flesh. It landed, crouched, and launched again, covering fifty meters in a single bound.

“Contact,” Jiang said, his voice carrying without effort. “Vanguard, engage.”

They moved as one.

The first kangaroo came down in the middle of the formation, forelimbs slamming into a shield with explosive force. The barrier cracked, light flaring, and Jiang was already there. His spear flashed out, driving through the creature’s chest and out its back, mana discharging in a violent pulse that dropped it mid-kick. He twisted the shaft and wrenched it free as the body collapsed, the impact shaking the ground. He had intended to let the Vanguard bear more of the burden but most of them were rare tier and that first monster had already been epic tier. This wasn’t starting out very well.

There was no time to linger. More followed.

Three, then five, bounding in erratic arcs that would have shattered conventional formations. Vanguard members broke into practiced pairs, drawing the creatures away from the civilians. One kangaroo kicked a transport hard enough to dent reinforced plating, only to be brought down by a coordinated strike that severed its spine. Blood sprayed hot and bright, hissing as it hit mana-scorched earth. At least these were weaker than the first.

The sky screamed.

Oversized birds dove from above, wingspans stretching impossibly wide, feathers hardened into bladed shapes that cut the air itself. One clipped a Vanguard soldier across the shoulder, ripping armor and flesh in the same motion. Jiang leapt with the wind wrapped around him, spear spinning as he met the next dive head-on. He drove the weapon through the bird’s skull and rode it down, tearing free just before it hit the ground.

Then the pressure changed.

A deep, rolling presence pushed outward from the swamp beyond the trees, heavy enough that several of the politicians cried out and staggered. Jiang felt it immediately, an apex aura that didn’t care who noticed it. Water surged as something massive hauled itself forward, scales the size of shields scraping against mud and stone. The crocodile was enormous, easily four times the size of anything that should have existed, its eyes glowing with a cold, predatory intelligence.

“Hold your line,” Jiang ordered. “Focus fire. Don’t let it reach the transports.”

Jiang assessed the threat and decided that this might work. It was well into epic tier but rather than jumping in to help the Vanguard, he let them take the first wave of attacks. Their healers were pushed to their limits as they healed all the frontliners who were bearing the brunt.

The croc pushed forward and the Vanguard line had to back up to keep from collapsing. Soon they were fighting with their backs to the armored vehicles and the thrashing of the monster had toppled one of those same vehicles over. The politicians, even those accustomed to monsters had all backed up. Their guards were eying the beast warily.

Hopefully that had made his point so Jiang could act now.

The creature lunged again, jaws snapping shut where a Vanguard member had stood a heartbeat earlier. Jiang slammed into its flank, spear biting deep between reinforced scales. Mana exploded outward, but the beast barely slowed, tail whipping around and sending two soldiers flying. Shields flared. One failed.

Jiang rose higher on wings of air, then drove straight down. The spear plunged through the creature’s skull, pinning it to the ground as he poured everything he had into the strike. The crocodile convulsed, jaws snapping uselessly, then went still, its aura collapsing in on itself like a dying star.

Silence followed, broken only by heavy breathing and the crackle of fading mana. A few more healing spells still had to be cast and more than one member downed a potion to be ready as quickly as possible.

Jiang landed and pulled his spear free, blood and mud sliding off the weapon in thick sheets. He turned slowly, taking in the damage, the fallen monsters, the Vanguard already reforming without being told. Then he faced the political leaders.

“This,” he said evenly, “was not a worst-case scenario. Not even close.”

No one spoke.

“This was manageable,” Jiang continued. “A routine response. We chose this location because it’s one of dozens where things like this happen regularly. There are places worse than this. Places we can’t afford to lose.”

One of the council members swallowed and asked if this was truly necessary to show them. Jiang met his gaze without anger or pity. “You wanted proof,” he said. “You wanted reassurance that Earth is under control. It isn’t. It’s being held and without Silas that grasp has slipped just a little bit.”

He turned back toward the wild. For a brief moment, his thoughts drifted to Silas, wherever in the multiverse he was fighting his own impossible battles. Jiang hoped he was alive. He hoped he was getting stronger. In his gut, Jiang knew they were going to need all that strength.

Then Councilman Chen Guoqiang spoke. “I think I speak for not only myself, but all of the council when I tell you that we will do all we can to ensure that you have the resources that you need.”

Jiang nodded. It wasn’t what he was really after from them, but it was a start.

_____________________

The training ground rang with the dull thud of impact and the hiss of scorched air. Lana stood with her arms folded, eyes fixed on Cece as the younger woman ran through another set of spear forms. Cece’s phoenix blood made her movements fast and explosive, fire licking along the blade as she struck, but there was sloppiness in the transitions that grated on Lana’s nerves. Nearby, Cece’s dragon lay coiled in the shade of a reinforced berm, chest rising and falling in a slow, thunderous rhythm, utterly unconcerned.

“Again,” Lana said, her voice flat.

Cece bit back a groan and reset her stance. She drove forward, spear thrusting, flames flaring brighter as she poured mana into the strike. Lana stepped in at the last instant, fingers flicking as a thin ribbon of metal mana hardened the air just enough to catch the spearhead. The impact jarred Cece’s arms and sent a shock up her shoulders.

“That’s not control,” Lana said. “That’s momentum doing the thinking for you.”

Cece pulled back, breathing hard. “I’m doing what you asked,” she snapped. “I’m hitting harder and faster.”

“You’re burning fuel, not learning,” Lana replied. She shifted her weight and the world seemed to stutter for half a heartbeat, time mana compressing the moment. Cece blinked, off-balance, and Lana was suddenly inside her guard, tapping two fingers against Cece’s ribs. “You’d be dead.”

Cece’s jaw tightened. “You didn’t have to freeze me.”

“I didn’t freeze you,” Lana said. “I slowed you. There’s a difference, and you need to feel it.”

They moved again, sweat and heat building as Cece cycled through strikes and counters. Lana corrected every error with ruthless precision, redirecting blows with metal-hardened palms or stepping aside at angles that made Cece’s fire splash harmlessly past. Minutes stretched into an hour, and the complaints finally broke free.

“This is ridiculous,” Cece said, lowering her spear. “Selena didn’t train like this. Silas didn’t train like this.”

Lana’s eyes narrowed, but her voice stayed calm. “Selena was too worried about upsetting Silas. Trust me, she had is far worse than this. Her tutors would have done everything short of killing her to make her stronger and it started before she was even old enough to have the system. As for Silas, what works for him doesn’t work for the rest of us. I trust him implicitly, but I wouldn’t ask him for training. He’d ask me.” had tutors who tried to kill her. Silas was thrown into wars. House Kalestian doesn’t do gentle.”

Cece laughed bitterly. “Easy for you to say. You grew up with this.”

“And it nearly broke me,” Lana said. She stepped closer, close enough that Cece could see the old scars along her knuckles. “I hated every day of it. I complained too. I thought it was unfair. Then I understood why.”

Cece looked away, shoulders slumping. “I just wanted to help him. I thought being strong would be enough. Sure you aren’t just taking it out on me because he didn’t pick you?”

Lana’s nostrils flare but her expression didn’t change otherwise. “I’m going to forget you asked that and move on, this one time. Just because I see why Silas did what he did, doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t have been happy to be chosen. But I’m content to be his friend. When he gets back he’s going to need all the friends he can get.

“That’s all the more reason for you to train. Strength won’t be enough by itself,” Lana said quietly. “Not where Silas is going. Legendary tier isn’t a trophy. It’s the minimum price of admission.” She paused, letting the words sink in. “You need to reach it before he comes back.”

That snapped Cece’s attention back. “We don’t even know where he is?”

“No, but the search is narrowing,” Lana said. “Besides if you don’t, you’ll always be the one he’s protecting and I know how much that would annoy you.”

Silence hung between them, broken only by the crackle of dying flames around Cece’s spear. The dragon shifted in its sleep, a low rumble vibrating the ground, but did not wake.

Cece straightened, lifting the spear again. The fire along the blade dimmed, condensing into a tighter, hotter glow. “Show me where I’m weak.”

Lana nodded once. “Good. Start with footwork. Without balance your flames will just burn themselves out.”

They moved together then, slower and cleaner. Lana wove metal mana into the ground to change traction without warning, forcing Cece to adjust. She stretched seconds into long, punishing moments so Cece had to hold perfect form under strain. The complaints stopped, replaced by gritted teeth and focused eyes.

As the sun dipped lower, Lana watched Cece drive the spear forward again, flames controlled and precise this time. It wasn’t perfect, but it was better. That was how the system worked. Each bit of growth built upon what came before. Lana allowed herself a single, small nod of approval. Pain was coming, more of it than Cece could imagine, but this path worked. It always had.

____________________

Terrel Nissun, head Inquisitor in Basetown, at least for the next few minutes stood sweating. Normally, he was the man who caused others to sweat, but today was different. Today, he would be called to task for his failures. Yesterday a pair of Dreadnoughts simply disappeared along with three Lawspeakers and a squad of Lawkeepers. The latter wasn’t really much of a loss. All the people on this world were so weak, but even lower level Dreadnoughts represented a significant investment of divine resources.

He'd been taught long ago never to waste those resources. Yet, all of them had disappeared and no amount of scrying or searching told them why. Faint traces of Order magic in the warehouse district was as close as he had gotten in his search. It just didn’t make any sense. No one on this world should be able to defeat even one of those Dreadnought. Supposedly, the cursed fey didn’t have any awakened on Aerth.

Once he was sure he couldn’t find them though, Terrel did his duty. The results might be unpleasant but he was sworn to his god and he would always obey. It was then that the portal opened.

The portal stabilized with a sound like a bubble popping. White-gold geometry unfolded in precise angles across the floor of the keep’s inner sanctum, runes flaring as law asserted itself over space. Terrel felt the pressure immediately, a familiar weight magnified to the point that breathing required conscious effort. He straightened anyway, spine rigid, hands clasped behind his back.

They came through in disciplined order. Inquisitors first, twenty of them. Their black leather armor mirrored his, but it wasn’t lost upon him that their leader was the famed Drivnor Kalen. He must already be level 450 and alone was more powerful that the rest of the Order’s forces on Aerth prior to this moment.  

Then the Dreadnoughts followed, sixty massive figures whose reinforced forms bent the air around them, divine power anchored deep into their frames. Each footfall rang with finality, as though the floor itself acknowledged their authority. As an Inquisitor, Terrell was good at rapidly assessing others. He immediately felt the weight of their unified aura. Not a single one of them was under level 250 and most of them were probably closer to 350 with a couple leaders over 400.

Light Seers emerged next, two hooded figures wreathed in a constant radiance that hurt to look at directly. Their eyes glowed with steady intensity, sweeping the chamber and cataloging everything within it. The were both level 400, but also half-mad as were all Light Seers. What could one expect though when their minds communed directly with the Lawgiver to see visions of the future.

Behind them came the Law Wardens, eight living bulwarks etched with sigils meant to anchor and enforce Order magic. Dreadnoughts were far more common and were always thought of as the unbreakable part of the Order, the raw physical might of their forces, but the Law Wardens showed the myth of that. They might lack in offensive capability but each was wrapped in armor that moved with them like flesh and made them impervious to almost any weapons.  

Last drifted the Truth Flames, ten men and women suspended in the air by weaves of holy fire. They were mages like the Lawspeakers, but specialized in detecting the truth and the use of elemental powers, especially flames. Fire was good for burning away the chafe and they were the spark that created it.

This was far too much. Even as the count completed itself in his mind, shock cut through his discipline. Aerth did not warrant this kind of response. Not for a handful of vanished operatives. Not for a world this weak.

Then the portal flared once more.

Arbiter Kalix stepped through alone, and the portal sealed behind him as though it had never existed. He was not enormous, nor grotesque, nor overtly monstrous. He was simply perfect, a figure shaped by authority rather than flesh, every line of him suggesting inevitability. His aura washed over the chamber in a crushing wave, and Terrel’s knees nearly buckled before he forced them to lock.

He'd been in front of Kalix before. Everyone always thought that they could adapt to being in the presence of an Ascendant, and perhaps if he were not imbued with the direct blessing of the Lawgiver that might be true, but he was an Ascendant of the Order that meant he was the hand of god.

Suddenly, Terrel realized what was happening. It was going to be as bad as he imagined. This force wasn’t hear for an inspection. He was about to be judged and then… well then he didn’t know.

“Report,” Kalix said.

The word carried no volume, yet it filled the chamber completely. Terrel spoke immediately, voice precise, measured, and utterly devoid of embellishment. He detailed the disappearance of the Dreadnoughts, the Lawspeakers, the Lawkeepers. He spoke of the warehouse district, of faint traces of Order magic, of the complete lack of evidence pointing toward betrayal. He did not speculate beyond what he knew.

As he spoke, the Truth Flames ignited.

Holy fire engulfed him, not consuming flesh but scouring it, burning away pretense and resistance alike. Pain lanced through every nerve, white-hot and absolute, and Terrel clenched his jaw to keep from crying out. Light Seers stepped closer, their radiance piercing into memory and intent, tearing through thought after thought with merciless clarity. Inquisitors watched without movement, witnesses rather than participants.

Terrel endured. He didn’t lie. He couldn’t.

Time lost meaning in the flames, each second stretching into agony. Finally, movement broke the stillness. “He speaks the full truth as he knows it,” Drivnor said. “No treachery detected.”

Kalix raised a hand.

The flames vanished instantly. The pain ceased as though it had never existed, leaving Terrel gasping on the stone, body shaking, armor scorched and spirit laid bare. He forced himself upright and dropped to one knee, head bowed.

“So only incompetent,” Kalix said calmly, “not treacherous.”

The words cut deeper than the fire had.

“You will be given one more chance to prove you deserve the spark within you,” Kalix continued. “Do not waste it.”

Terrel pressed his forehead to the floor in acknowledgment. Above him, Kalix turned his gaze outward, beyond the walls of the keep, toward a world that had just become far more interesting.

          __________________

          Back on the main human continent, a woman sat at a table in one of the finest restaurants in this hovel of a world. It was barely palatable to one such as her, but then again, she wasn’t really a human woman. She was a fey and not just any fey, but a princess of the Summer Court. Her eyes widened slightly as she felt the shift of pressure on Aerth.

Her thoughts raced. “An ascendant.”

Suddenly her task to bring back her nephew became so much more real. No longer was it a game. There was now someone on Aerth who might be able to harm her. She doubted whichever Arbiter it was who had been sent was as powerful as she was, but Allanna preferred to think of herself as a lover not a fighter.

This changed everything. She would have to be so much more careful.

__________________

Selena didn’t linger after Silas and Samvek left, even if she had acted like she was still sleepy. She felt the shift the moment they were gone, the absence of their combined presence like a pressure release that left too much space behind. She rolled her shoulders once, grounding herself, then went looking for Fara. She found her exactly where she expected, watching, waiting, already thinking three moves ahead. Selena found herself liking the lizard woman. She of course could see through the illusions but new the value of blending in.

“I’m heading to the dungeon,” Selena said without preamble. “You need levels, and I don’t feel like waiting around.” There was no challenge in her tone, just statement of fact. Fara studied her for a heartbeat, golden eyes narrowing, then nodded. “Good, I can’t protect Tad if I fall too far behind. I know he’s always going to be ahead of me, but I don’t want to be helpless.”

Selena nodded in silence. She understood the sentiment.

The guild was awake and busy, but they passed through it with minimal friction. Selena felt the eyes on her as they approached the counter. Those who were already up this morning wanted to know who she was. Newcomers were always examined. It was the same back home. They secured a stone keyed to the lower nineties and Selena’s new silver tag. The special marking from the guild master apparently opened doors for them.

They didn’t bother hiding themselves when the dungeon took them. Selena stood tall, purple skin faintly luminous in the low light, dark hair pulled back so it wouldn’t interfere. Fara moved with practiced ease beside her, scaled armor fitted close, daggers resting where her hands could find them without thought. There was no fear in either of them, only anticipation.

“I know that I’m still me whether hiding or not, but I still feel better inside my own skin.”

Fara sniffed at the air as though unsure. Selena realized it must have been a bold step for her to follow a stranger this deep into the dungeon. Fara wasn’t quite level 100 yet after all. “Agreed. You aren’t bothered by what I am?”

“Not if you aren’t bothered by me. Have you ever seen purple people before?”

“Can’t say that I have, but before Tad came to my world, I’d only ever seen my own kind. I don’t know if you purple skin is like my white scales or not, but I was an outcast back home until Tad made a place for me.”

“Where I was born my entire planet was filled with people who look like me, but I understand what it is to be on the outside. I can tell that you love Tad.”

“Yes, but not as you might imagine it. He’s that little brother who is precious to me and who I want to protect, but there’s nothing romantic between the two of us. There hasn’t been time. For such things. I gather that you and Silas are mates though.”

“Something like that, but it’s brand new. We’re both learning how it works.”

As the floor resolved around them, Fara glanced sideways. “So,” she said lightly, “Silas really is as ridiculous as Tad says?” Selena’s lips curved despite herself. “Yes,” she replied. “And before you ask, he’s worse when he’s trying to be helpful.”

Fara huffed a quiet laugh and adjusted her grip. “Figures. Tad’s the same. Does impossible things, then acts surprised when the world breaks a little.” Selena felt that familiar pull of protectiveness tighten in her chest, sharp and instinctive. “They mean well,” she said. “That doesn’t stop them from being dangerous.”

The dungeon stirred ahead of them, monsters already moving. Selena let reality mana slip loose just enough to feel the shape of the space, bending angles and distances until the path forward was exactly what she wanted it to be. She glanced at Fara one last time. “Stay close,” she said. “I’ll make you openings. You take them.”

Fara’s grin was all teeth. “Always.”

The first wave hit hard and fast, monsters boiling out of shadowed corridors in a rush of claws, chitin, and too many eyes. Selena stepped forward and the space between her and the enemy folded, angles bending until the lead creature overextended by a full stride. Fara was already moving, daggers flashing as she slid into the opening Selena had created, blades punching into joints and soft seams with lethal precision. The kill was clean, fast, and efficient, exactly what Selena had intended.

This was definitely intended to help Fara out and by extension Tad. She knew Silas well enough to know that was what he wanted. But Selena had grown up in House Turga. She didn’t believe in help without connection or strings. So if she was going to work with these people it would be because she trusted them and there was no better way to see who a person really was than in the middle of battle.

She didn’t attack directly after that. Instead, she warped the battlefield, shortening distances for Fara while stretching them for everything else. Enemies stumbled mid-charge as the ground betrayed them, feet landing a fraction too far or too short. Fara flowed through the chaos like water through cracks, every illusion and feint amplified by the environment itself conspiring in her favor.

They cleared the first chamber in under a minute. The XP came pouring in for Fara. Clay had had to share XP with three legendary tiers, but she only had to split it with Selena. The killing might not be quite as fast, but it was fast enough and it was giving her a chance to gauge what Fara was capable of. So far, Selena was impressed.

The next few floors blurred together, each one a variation on the last. Packs of scaled predators, insectile horrors, and mana-warped beasts rushed them in predictable patterns. Selena read the flows of the dungeon and adjusted reality just enough to turn those patterns against themselves. Walls narrowed, ceilings dipped, and lines of attack collapsed into fatal funnels. Fara took every opening, striking harder and faster as confidence built with each kill.

Selena watched the change happen in real time. Fara’s movements sharpened, hesitation burning away as her instincts caught up with her growing strength. Her illusions grew more convincing, shadows clinging to her form as if eager to help. When a heavier monster lunged at her, Fara didn’t retreat. She stepped inside its reach, daggers crossing as she severed tendons and slid past the collapsing bulk without breaking stride.

“That one felt different,” Fara said between breaths, eyes bright.

Selena smiled faintly. “You’re getting stronger.”

They pushed deeper, floors peeling away beneath their feet as Selena accelerated the pace. Boss chambers fell just as quickly, Selena pinning massive threats in distorted pockets of space while Fara dismantled them piece by piece. The dungeon tried to adapt, throwing mixed packs and layered ambushes, but it wasn’t enough. Selena wasn’t here to be tested. She was here to teach.

Somewhere past the hundredth floor, Fara paused mid-fight, surprise flashing across her face as another enemy dropped. “I just crossed it,” she said. “Level one hundred.”

Selena frowned slightly, still shaping the field. “Did you solo a boss?”

“No,” Fara said slowly. “I didn’t have to.”

That made Selena hesitate for half a heartbeat. It was enough for a monster to almost land a blow, but reality twisted and the strike slid past harmlessly. Selena dispatched it with a sharp distortion that left the creature exposed, and Fara finished it without comment.

“That wasn’t how it worked with Clay,” Selena said after the room fell silent.

Fara shrugged, wiping a blade clean. “What do you mean?”

“He told us he’d been stuck at level 100 for a couple of decades because he couldn’t advance without soloing a level 101 or higher monster. So why don’t you have to?”

“Maybe because I’m not from this world. From what I’ve seen so far, the people on this world are very weak. The elders of our cities could wipe most of them out and that’s not even to say anything about our champions.”

Selena filed that away, another assumption quietly dismantled.

They didn’t slow after that. If anything, they moved faster, clearing floor after floor in a relentless rhythm. Thirty levels passed in a blur of blood, mana, and shattered monsters. Fara’s aura deepened, her presence carrying more weight with every engagement. By the time they finally paused, the dungeon around them had gone quiet, as if deciding whether it wanted to continue offering resistance.

Throughout it all they talked and felt one another out. Selena was savvy enough to know that she was being interrogated at the same time. That was fine. Allies needed to know one another and for it being such a short time, Selena found herself liking Fara, enough so that they spent the entire day inside the dungeon, until the lizard folk reached level 150. At that point she too reached a hard cap just like Clay had. It would be interested to see if Tad could figure out how to awaken his allies. If not, she expected that Silas would find a way to help.

__________________

Far across the multiverse in an entirely different system, not quite to the frontier but closer than the Fey system, was another of Silas’ allies. One with a growing need for help.

The camp never slept. It only breathed more quietly when the children finally did, the wilderness around them settling into a tense, watchful stillness that Ryan had learned not to trust. He stood at the edge of the perimeter, axe resting against his shoulder, eyes scanning a tree line that had already betrayed them twice in the last three days. The Divided Realms were vast, beautiful in places, and utterly unforgiving when they sensed weakness, or rather then Primus was hunting for you.

They’d chosen this place because it offered cover without trapping them in and still had fresh water. The A rank and above cultivators could ignore physical needs entirely, but all of his planning was first and foremost over what would protect the children. A few of them were his, but his growing clan had many young families. Besides the children he had to consider the needs and limitations of both the lesser cultivators and the People of the Land who were amongst them. That was the cultivator term for any humans who couldn’t cultivate. Many cultivators would have abandoned them, but to Ryan they were part of the clan as much as any.

Jagged stone outcroppings rose like broken teeth, and thick-rooted trees twisted together overhead, their canopies woven with glyph work Amaya had laid down with tireless precision. He thought of his only wife who had come from the People of the Land. She could cultivate now thanks to his gift to her, but she and her people were the key reason that they had any comforts let alone luxuries out in this wilderness.

Those glyphs hummed softly now, a layered lattice of warning, concealment, and reinforcement that turned the clearing into something just shy of a fortress. Eluanshi’s work anchored it all, magma and earth mana sunk deep into the ground so the land itself would resist intrusion. Just thinking about it brought a smile to Ryan’s face. The way his wives worked together made him proud.

At the center of the camp, life went on despite everything. Infants and toddlers slept wrapped in layers of warded cloth, tiny chests rising and falling in rhythms Ryan found himself counting without realizing it. Lumina sat near them, wings folded tight, her presence a constant well of calm that soothed frayed nerves and restless dreams alike. Her light was more than physical. Even now, with exhaustion etched into every line of her posture, that light never dimmed.

Ryan felt the strain in his own bones. Not injury, not fatigue in the way battles brought it, but something deeper. A constant readiness that never fully shut off, a pressure that built with every new world they fled to and every new portal that followed them there. It was one thing to have to fight for his life. Since a disease stole his childhood from him, he’d been fighting for his life, but having to protect others, especially his wives and children was a different level of emotional drain.

Primus wasn’t relentless in the way a beast was relentless. He was methodical. Corrective. Each attack was calibrated to test, to probe, to adjust. The only good news was that according to his sources, Primus was unable to leave the source pool at the center of the Modron Peak.

Lianhua moved past him without a sound, sword at her hip, eyes sharp as she took over his watch. She was the most skilled among them in pure combat, and Ryan trusted her judgment without reservation. Fera was farther out, heat shimmering faintly around her as she patrolled the outer edge, dragon fire coiled tight beneath her skin. Whatever strange draconic bloodline that she possessed or which he’d awoken within her was growing stronger. Shikumo was nowhere to be seen, which meant she was exactly where she needed to be, shadows bending around her like old friends.

Nekita sat apart, back against a stone slab, blood mana drifting lazily around her fingers as she watched the dark between the trees. Ryan could feel her restraint like a held breath. She didn’t like being hunted any more than he did, but she understood the cost of giving in too easily. Control mattered. Balance mattered.

Amaya knelt near one of the larger glyph arrays, hands stained with ink and mana residue, already repairing stress fractures from the last engagement. She looked up when Ryan passed and offered a tired smile. “They’ll hold,” she said quietly. “For a while.”

“For a while,” Ryan echoed, not as agreement but acknowledgment.

He’d tried to leave the Divided Realms. He’d crossed worlds within it, slipped through cracks that should have been unreachable, bent space and reality until lesser beings would have shattered. Walking the void was possible, at least until he tried to take his family from the Divided Realms. Every time, Primus adjusted. The Void was vast, infinite perhaps, but somehow in a way only a god could, Primus had blocked his ability to leave this system.

Somewhere beyond the boundaries of this realm, Silas was moving, growing, breaking systems in ways Ryan could barely imagine. The thought was a thin thread of hope, but it was enough. Ryan tightened his grip on the axe and turned back to the dark.

As long as Primus continued to hunt him, then he’d have to keep paying the price, all while hoping that Silas would bring help.

____________________

          Back on Earth’s moon which was now a dungeon, Cami stood watch over an ancient blue. Azuria was going to try to evolve her wings to gain the ability to cross the void and follow after her bonded rider. Something had happened to him earlier in the day which had nearly driven her into a frenzy.

Cami would have advised caution, but dragons for all their ancient lives, could be as impetuous as a humming bird. She also knew that it would be good to have more dragons who could cross the void. Nico was twisted up inside over killing Tiamat. It was strange because he’d never shown this type of remorse before.

The evolution was dangerous and needed to be handled in a safe place. Strangely, Cami felt safer on this dungeon moon than she did on Earth. There were too many variables there. Here it was just the dungeon and this level of threat was exactly no threat to a demi-goddess. With a mere wave of her hand she had removed soul from body for every monster for a mile in every direction. They would know to avoid this place. And so she began her watch as Azuria began to evolve.