Ondun, Sylphie, Hiro, Aenora, and all their Mons finally broke free of the forest. In their wake were many, many knocked out wild Mons. The four were all severly winded from several hours of moving, fighting, and avoiding the biggest and scariest of Mons.

  Sylphie and Aenora sank to their knees. Hiro began spraying potion on one of Katori's newer wounds. Ondun, Strudel, Zephanie, and Joyeuse just paused as they eyed the scene before them.

  Liangjian City was on the coast. The moonlight was glimmering off the not-so-distant ocean, as twilit clouds wrapped around distant mesas. The city itself was far less peaceful. Fires roared from ruined homes and some of the taller buildings. People and their Mons either fled, or fought other, much larger Mons. Ondun narrowed his eyes as the odd energy that radiated off of them, as well as some of the larger fissures in the city, reminded him of a certain Gloomwolf he'd fought late in the first day he'd arrived on Monastria.

  He looked back to his comrades. Aenora, Hiro, and Sylphie had all impressed him with their teeth-gritted teamwork. Sylphie and Maggie had locked down enemies, while Venus thrashed them. Aenora and Ariel's spellwork had made short work of larger groups of Mons. Hiro's team was more individually-focused than either of theirs, but every foe his Mons went up against tended to go down in one to two attacks.

  As for Ondun? Between his shouken, the might Lohengrim, and the relatively weak beam spells from his Spelliths, he'd mostly acted as support. On the one hand, I'm a little disappointed. On the other, had I truly let loose, there would be a lot more corpses in our wake. Ondun shuddered at the thought.

  He knelt and switched to his Medicus powers. Their Mons circled around him, and he took turns healing each one. The entire experience had made him think of a few new uses for his powers. That was also not an experience isolated to him. Sylphie had improvised a few new attacks during their frenzied march, including a gloomed blink forward she'd began to call 'Ashstep'. Hiro had refined his approach to battling in the short time he'd known the Yamato lad - while his judgement was impeccable, he'd seen the wisdom of issuing broader orderes to his Mons based on prior experiences.

  Experience is the greatest teacher, he mused.

  Eventually the party got up, and Sylphie was at his side, a tear running down one side of her face. Ondun quickly produced a handkerchief, that she took. "Sylphie. We'll go down there and help out. We're all with you," Ondun reminded her. She just blankly nodded her head as she tried to process the sheer scale of the tragedy that had struck her home. She reached for his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. He squeezed back.

  "Also, may I see my phone?" the adventurer asked. Sylphie nodded and returned his smartphone. While he doubted there was much data that Dr. Wusiji would find useful, he had a different idea in mind now. He quickly changed to the modified photo app, and began scanning the entire city. When he was satisfied, he sent the entire log of what little Sylphie had been able to record, as well as the readings from the half-ruined Liangjian, to the eccentric doctor.

  Aenora raised an eyebrow. "Sylphie told me you had a sponsor here, an eccentric scholar. I take it what you did was a lot like the masks we in the Knowing Circle use?"

  Ondun nodded. "The sciences aren't my forte, but it's close enough. I hope that the data..." he was interrupted as his phone rang.

  "ONDUN. What in the name of Alice's thigh-highs were those readings? The last ones?" the doctor asked without preamble. Ondun sighed as Hiro went red and Sylphie giggled.

  "We rushed to Liangjian from Cheng; we became aware of a dire threat that seems to be related to the odd energy you originally wanted me to study. Liangjian, for whatever reason, has fissures that have partially ruined the city, and there seem to be a number of Mons afflicted with that same power."

  Over the speaker call, they could hear the man thumping his lip in curiosity and vexation.

  "Get more readings, if you can. I've been following your adventures - does trouble always find you like this?"

  Aenora sighed. "Trouble always finds Ondun like this. One more point, if it helps, doctor. My...sight...is a little bit different from most people's as a result of an injury I sustained. I can see the anima. Liangjian is still cloaked in Light, but...it's negatively aligned Light. Usually, Light is a positive expression of anima. As a spellcaster, it's possible for one to force an unnatural polarity onto an element, and is essential in some spellcasting schools. This is different, though - natural anima nearly always has a more conventional polarization. Worse, the energy around here seems to be trying to infect everything."

  Hiro had a panicked look. "Then, why the hell are we trying to go down there?"

  Sylphie answered. "People need saving, and survivors need evacuation. I think Ondun and I will be fine. Aenora can probably shield herself and Hiro."

  I can help evacuate the injured, Ariel added. Lady Alice trained me primarily as a teleportation specialist, and as a battler second.

  Ondun relayed what the Mon had said, as it had been spoken telepathically.

  "Alright. Save who you can. I'll inform the Guardian and the other City Leaders." He immediately hung up without any of his usual goofiness. When Dr. Wusiji is worried, it makes everything that much scarier, Ondun realized.

  Ondun swapped back to his Shinobi powers. "I can scout ahead. Sylphie, Aenora, keep Hiro and our Mons safe. Strudel, why don't you return for now? If this is negatively-aligned Light, I worry it could mess with your physicality."

  "Aquehound..." the canine Mon agreed. He quickly returned his Mon to the capture capsule. Zephanie fluttered over one shoulder. She was very, very big now. "Zephanie, this may be a case where the affinity for Dark that you have could protect you. I know that aspect of you scares you, but you see Sylphie? You remember City Leader Ying?"

  "Galebul." I do.

  Ondun nodded. "Darkness doesn't mean you will become terrible. Think of Sylphie's dark. She protects and loves. Your gloom can become a comforting shroud that protects the weak. What happened to you doesn't need to happen again to anyone. We can stop it and save more lives."

  "Galebul!"

  Ondun patted his bird gently. Even I can feel the power brimming in her. Definitely going to evolve soon. "Then..." he turned back to everyone. "Let's get down there, save who we can, and figure out how to end this tragedy."

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  There were no enthusiastic shouts, only grim nods, set jaws, and everyone's mind working feverishly. The impromptu team of tamers set foot down the hills that lead to Liangjian and the ocean, preparing themselves for the worst as they went.

  Guardian Alice Xunlongshi narrowed her eyes. "I'm sorry, I misunderstood. Did you say you're withholding aid to Liangjian City?"

  The man in front of her nodded. "Yes, we are. Liangjian is extremely well-off, and the other fissures across Kongming have hit far worse-off communities that don't benefit from having hordes of young monster coaches flood to their communities during the yearly Circuit. We've been calling people who've retired back to service using the legal loopholes we convinced you to keep when you took power twenty years ago, because the situation is so dire."

  Alice groaned. Don't remind me of my predecessor's Gloomwolf-crap, she thought wearily.

  "Also, your otherworldly pets seem to have made it to Liangjian. Let's let this Ondun prove he's a hero, if he is one. That monstrosity he summoned in Cheng might have solved their crisis, but already the rest of Monastria is treating him specifically as your pet superweapon. Brittonia has called for the International Police to investigate whatever you've done to him. Allemand is trying to spin the whole thing into a case for strengthening their position in the Grand Union, and Mericaria's idiot 'Premier' is trying to get their Congress to pass a spying bill that would make them basically the information broker of the modern age."

  The Guardian thought for a moment, then pulled out her phone. On a secure messaging service, Dr. Eugene Wusiji had sent a few very interesting text messages that she hadn't had a proper opportunity to read. The phrases, "Negative-polarity Light" and "Actively infecting beings at the site of the phenomena" particularly worried Alice.

  My job is to lead from the back, she reminded herself. I'm not a free-ranging monster coach like I was back during my second Circuit. I can't just go out there and throw my Mons at the problem until they stop being problems...as much as I want to. Besides, getting Ariel to help Aenora out was a favor and a half. Even Mons aren't immune to the realities of politics.

  She immediately switched to Lee Lee's account details. The man was still not answering any messages. This wasn't exactly odd; while he liked to portray himself as a serene master of the Light, and Light Mons, she knew exactly what shadows his wounded heart was nursing. The man was undoubtedly competent, but for the past few years, since his wife had died, his heart really hadn't been into anything.

  Then Ondun had encountered his daughter. Their battle on Route 41 had been all over the Internet. Their spat in Xinling had made the rounds through the gossip, and sometimes fanfiction, circles dominated by young women. Conversely, young men had evenly split themselves on if Aquepup was the manliest starter Mon, or the wussiest. Some schoolyard fights and bullying cases had been reported, and quickly dealt with.

  Ondun's encounter with the two Yamato criminals who'd accosted his party on the way to Cheng was also captured on camera. Alice had remembered coming this close to having a heart attack when she saw Ondun truly let loose after Alice had been taken down by the Dreadvine's toxin. Not hours later, the zombie attack on Cheng had happened. After a tense battle, Ondun's summoned 'Astral', as City Leader Ying had called it, Alice had decided enough was enough.

  She'd sought out Lord Shenlong; the path to his lair was shrouded in freezing mists and high winds. His "Do Not Disturb" sign was clearly turned on, and up to its maximum setting. Even Alice wasn't dumb enough to risk the wrath of the Silver Dragon. So, she'd instead tried to appeal to the Lake Lords. They simply remained silent. This only fueled her frustration.

  Only after Ondun had left Cheng, and flushed out that 'Dark One', did City Leader Ying approach her in private and tell her what her grandfather had heard during the Yamato Invasion during the war eighty years earlier. She'd of course rejected the words out of hand - if they played their cards right, the artifact in the Yongqi Wood would literally be a doorway to a whole other world, a world of people who weren't monster coaches. New resources, new power sources...all of it was basically at her, and by extension Monastria's fingertips.

  The heartfelt plea to disable the Yongqi Gate was sincere, but not something she could risk doing, especially not after Ondun had proven himself to her as exactly the hero he said he was.

  Even so, Alice was starting to doubt her own convictions. This is exactly why I need to talk to the Legendaries! She fumed.

  Outwardly, Alice put on her blandest possible smile. As body language went, it meant precisely nothing, but that was also a reality of politics. "Then, I suppose, I'll just have to get creative, within the letter of the law. We have a crisis on our hands; doing things the way we've always done them won't serve us well in a situation that's nothing like before."

  The man gave a bland smile of his own. "About that. Over the past few years, you've made a number of beneficial reforms. Your peace initiatives with our neighbors, to say nothing of the legendaries and colonies of the more highly-intelligent Mons have been recognized as the masterstrokes of diplomacy that they are. That's why we can't risk anything that would make you lose face."

  A jet-black hand pinned her arms to her sides. A cowled head leaned forward from one of her shoulders.

  "Guardian Alice! A real pleasure to meet you. I can see that you're just the kind of leader I was, once, so long ago. Believe me, I do know what you're going through. I understand all too well what it is to be in charge in what could, very conceivably, be your world's final days! The reason I'm here, and have decided to make a somewhat avant garde entrance of my own, is because I don't want what happened to our world, to happen to yours. Sure, Ondun is a very capable warrior, and Aenora...well, she's as good of a scholar as her limited exposure to magical materials lets her be." He paused for effect. "However, there's a lot no one knows, and we do. I'm sure you've got all sorts of questions. I'm going to lower my hand. Perhaps we can have an amicable talk about how you doing nothing is literally the best outcome for multiple worlds...including two that have already been completely destroyed."

  The black-garbed hand lowered. Alice wasted no time in socking the man in the face, and bringing Amethyst out, who instantly encased the man in shining crystals. She turned to the civil servant who'd confronted her, her eyes narrowed.

  "Was this your doing?" she asked. He gave that infuriating, simpering smile.

  "You'll find a majority of the Assembly's signatures here. Thanks to input from our friend..." he gestured to the crystal, only for the man to shrug off Amethyst's most powerful controlling attack, "...we think that a more tempered allocation of resources is what this crisis calls for. With his knowledge, we think this crisis will be over soon!"

  So, he gave you so much money that you're willing to toe his line or die trying, she completed for the man silently. The golden rule of politics: Those who have the gold, make the rules. Also, the loudest, most confident voice, in the room tends to win 'debates'.

  She sighed. "Mr. Du She, I'm sincerely disappointed in you. We've worked together for years to bring this country into the modern age. I remember when you challenged me during your Circuit. Were you always this stupid?"

  The black-robed man simply stepped in front of the two. "Please, please! Such discord is utterly beneath people of your exalted stations. As you can see, these people who you've all tested in the crucible of..." he sniffed, "monster battles, they all agree that the best, and fastest resolution to this gravest of crises, is to let me give you all a helping hand. I can have this over in a matter of a few more days. All you need to do, Guardian Alice, is let me. All you have to do...is nothing."

  Alice frowned, and returned Amethyst, but drew out another capsule. This one released Garamond. "I see. Well, since this is a battle I can't win, I suppose I can only negotiate..." she took Garamond's hand, and instantly his eyes glowed violet.

  "...That being said, I also know when I'm being played. Better still, Aenora gave me some background on your situation back on Arcanis. I may not be the best politician on Monastria, but I know when to find a different way forward."

  In a blink she was gone. The black-robed figure shrugged.

  "Well, Mr. Du She, I suppose we'll just have to go with Plan 'B', then. It seems that Ondun's party, and Guardian Alice, need to be brought in for questioning on their role in all this. That will keep them busy enough, I suppose."