Athanius laughed as he spun through the air, his translucent wings overpowering the torrent of wind slicing against him without much effort, flying in quick bursts that none of the pathetic Spawn could keep up with. Back on the ground, his fellow Blessed had already got to work clearing the worst of the second wave, approaching the epicentre on their own terms. This sort of storm was nothing to them.

  Pretending to be a mere Peer had been rubbing on his nerves. The disguise had left him with a few bruises, concealing the true extent of his Talents, until all their sacrifices were completely out from view. He still did not understand why the Sect had given him that specific order.

  But it did not matter.

  A little indignity would be worth it. If everything went according to plan, the Spirit had promised them its help. He would finally be able to ascend and break through to Paragon. Be free of a small burden that would no longer be able to devour him.

  First would come one of the hardest battles that he would probably ever face. This was his warmup.

  The centre of the storm emerged in a spire of violet light in the far distance, guarded by several Ravagers that made up the front line of its defence. Each one was its own abomination, made from the twisted flesh that tainted the very ground it stood on. But behind them, lay the true challenge.

  An Aberration. It was not large like any of its subordinates. Instead, Athanius approached a miniature, emaciated apparition that had ghostly streaks ribboning off its disproportionately long arms. Four dark wings protruded from its back, each made entirely from bleak dusk that barely seemed to move. Worst of all, it appeared to possess a Presence. An intelligent scarlet blaze peered out and examined the humans approaching. Completely unlike the usual Gatekeepers.

  Even at this distance, he could feel his soul feel ever so slightly unsettled. This sort of creature was the most unpredictable, and could probably slay the vast majority of Scions if caught off guard.

  But he was not one of the Great Houses’ many worthless soldiers.

  Athanius drew from his second Talent, letting the noise of the thunder that he had captured trickle around his scimitar. Then he lifted his fingers. A pressurised blast of sound darted towards the creature from afar. His air was perfect, piercing into its side, but seemed to do almost nothing to the thick exoskeleton that covered its very being.

  The only thing it did do was the one thing he intended; get its attention.

  Yet, instead of flying towards him, it dropped like a stone.

  Shit.

  He plummeted downwards, knowing full well that the people with him already had their hands full with the Ravagers. Luckily, the awakening of his wings had granted him practically unparalleled speed. Athanius streaked towards his opponent, unleashing a far larger portion of the vibrations stored within him in a shockwave that pulsed outwards and knocked the Aberration off-course. Inadvertently, one of his subordinates let out a yelp as she was shoved into her foe, barely salvaging the situation by plunging her weapon into its eye.

  Muttering an apology she would never hear, Athanius descended into a flurry of echoing steel. The first slice was parried by a swing of its arms with enough force that the echo of the attack completely missed. But it carried into his next lunge, twisting out of the way of a blow that could have sliced off his head.

  Then the strangest sensation came over him. It twisted its body in such an angle that the tip only grazed its side, but that was plenty enough for the echo to take effect. Instead, the entire movement went unhalted, as if he had completely missed.

  Some form of intangibility. He cursed as he shifted in front of an onslaught. Falling back into the air, Athanius opened his Fount, the very core of his soul, where his Flow was kept. It sensed the odd gesture and leapt like a wolf smelling fresh meat, hunger overwhelming its senses. At the same time, all the chaos fed him whole. The Flow stifled the little fear that it had managed to instil within him, stopping the slight trembling that had weakened his movements.

  That had been quite a pathetic display. Athanius would not allow himself to be embarrassed like that. Still keeping his soul open, he met the aberration in a clash that revitalised his own bloodlust. His heart thrummed, feeding a flourish of pure skill that matched the hungry creature with ease. Contempt settled in the smirk that had never left his face.

  Even with its primitive intelligence, once it saw an opportunity to devour untempered Flow, creatures such as this one lost all its tactics. Fuelled only by desperation, its movements grew more and more unhinged, with enough power to effortlessly shatter the steel in his hand if his Talent did not protect it. But eventually, it was enough. Athanius brought forth all of the sound in one swing that left him open. Its fingers raked his lovely coat in two, the rest of him saved only by his wings but the razor tip made contact and shattered the entire thing into pieces.

  Shadow enveloped its remains, leaving all but a small, purple-coloured stone, which he picked up before diving towards the Rift.

  The Rift was the reason why Fellstorms existed, as far as they knew. It opened a gap into something else, a forbidden realm that released vast quantities of corruption that took over the clouds and formed the epicentre of the storm.

  But one of the creatures that left it, often but not always the strongest, held a keystone. And with that, it would close.

  No-one knew why. The best explanation was the religious one, which he knew to be false. That the gods had mercy on them.

  Annoying flying fiends pelted his path, torn to pieces with a single flick of his wrist, but none of them could stop him from brushing the stone against the spire of light.

  It glowed, and he watched a rune etch itself upon it before the storm and all its creatures dissipated in the same faltering black.

  He landed next to Lilian, who nodded towards him. She looked practically untouched, apart from a few grazes here and there. The rest of them remained respectfully silent. At least the old wench had trained them well.

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  “You owe me a new set of these.” he complained half-heartedly.

  It still felt like salt in the wound to him how she was the leader in this mission. He was far stronger, and superior in almost every way. She wasn’t even a Ruby, for god’s sake!

  “Perhaps when you stop acting like a little child.”

  Her insults weren’t much better. No matter, he would not let such petty things affect him anyways.

  “Are they close by?”

  “All seven of them have just passed through the valley. Their leader appears to be Paragon Feid. And since you forgot to ask, only five out of the thirty sacrifices made it into the mist.”

  “Are you kidding me?” he scoffed.

  They had fought off almost all of their forces. Only the very weakest would have gotten through, perhaps a single Ravager, but all they had to do was keep running. How idiotic could these fools be?

  Even worse, there was a Paragon with them. Feid, nonetheless! One of the war heroes that had taken part in the Class Five raid. The only chance they had was with the spirit augmenting them. With only a mere five sacrifices, he hoped that it was enough. Either that, or he would succumb to his own nightmare.

  “This is why I told you that we should have kept them inside the convoy, and warped it away after we were past the Veil. Disobedience affects even the mighty, Athanius. I will have the elders notified of this.”He was tempted to kill her right then and there. But her Talent was crucial for the next part of the mission. And she could probably feel his intent anyways.

  For now, it was time to enter the spirit’s domain.

  After a long time searching, they finally accepted that their way home was well and truly gone. So they had decided to take a break, to decide what to do next.

  That was how Jude found himself sitting around a pile of logs, the scarred man on his left and the silent girl on his right. She had proven herself to have more conviction than he first thought, because the tears had well and truly dried, replaced with a cold, determined glare.

  The man had spoken first, introducing himself as Dharn and handing out a bottle of water to each of them from his bag. He did not say much else about himself, and Jude did not dare to ask. He doubted that was his actual name anyways. Jude considered also wearing a fake name, considering that this man could be completely untrustworthy, but he had nothing to lose regardless.

  When it was the girl’s turn, she remained silent. Tough crowd.

  “Well, brats, as the responsible adult, we’re in a little bit of a pickle here. Our ride’s gone, we have no idea where we’re going, I’ve only got this much water so you’ll have to drink it slowly, and this forest is teeming with things that can kill us in an instant.” he laid out their reality in bare, unfiltered words, “I’m gonna guess that you all still want to reach the city instead of dying here.”

  “Our ‘guards’. The Blessed. We can’t go looking for them.”

  The silent girl’s eyes widened, speaking for the first time, “Why not? They’re the only people we have left. We paid for them to bring us there!”“Cause they want us dead. Or at least, I don’t think they ever wanted us to reach Zola. Isn’t that right, boy?”How does he know that?

  There was way more to this guy at first glance, clearly. He had known that ever since he saw the scars, and it had been only proven when he pulled out a gun. But Jude had never expected that he also knew the truth about what was going to happen.

  “When did you figure that out?”

  “I always knew.”

  Very vague and mysterious. And raised a lot of questions too. He was not only crazy enough to smile when he saw a Fellstorm, like he was some Blessed on a hunt, but chose to join them knowing that they intended for them to die.

  Jude seriously considered leaving this man behind.

  “But why? And how do you know this?” she said again.

  He told them of what he’d discovered, and what the Crescent Pass had to do with it.

  Saying that, the place was far too calm for its reputation. Even though he could only see things near him through the fog, there did not seem to be a single creature in sight.

  “Those Spawn back there, they let us go. I’m sure that’s not normal behaviour. The reason why they pushed us in there probably has something to do with that.” Dharn looked at them grimly, “That means there’s something in here trying to keep us alive.”

  They could all infer the hidden question behind his words. For what purpose? Jude shivered. He had a lot of things to reassess, but none of that helped him make a decision. It once again reminded him of his helplessness. Even with this mysterious man’s help, they were nothing. All they could do was keep going through the forest, or go try placate those who wanted them dead.

  That was the reality of all normal humans that were caught in the war between the Blessed and the Spawn. The only reason they had barely survived against the Ravager was a combination of luck and sacrifice. Avoiding conflict was impossible without power.

  He had already learned that lesson long ago. But it did not feel great to be reminded of it again.

  “I guess all we can do is keep walking.” the girl reiterated his bleak thoughts.

  So, they got up, and continued to trek deeper into the mist-flooded woods. The eerie silence was louder than thunder, permeating like the fog through pores in the mud-painted ground. It was just one of the many strange things that stood out in this forest. Another was how the very end of some of the tallest branches faded as Jude walked past them.

  The entire place felt more like a surreal dream than a terror inside one of the forbidden territories.

  And nothing changed. They continued to walk for what felt like hours, occasionally pausing to regain breath and take a measured sip of the water they had. It did not help his parched throat, but at least kept his voice intact. Jude’s arm also stopped bleeding after a while on its own, and yet it felt like they were making almost no progress.

  Like they were walking in front of the same trees, time and time again. The only difference between any of them anyways was their shape. Some stooped, others curled into knots, spindly twigs broke off into even more tiny pieces. The fungus was slathered all over most of them, a blotch of colour in an otherwise pale world swallowed by the mist.

  Jude found himself lost in thought once more. So much had happened, and so quickly that none of them had time to process. Only Dharn seemed to be doing fine, which made him question how much the scarred man actually knew.

  Other than that, he had so many questions. Why had those human-like attacked all the other people and not them? That was not something that they’d discussed. If the Chrysalis Sect knew that this was going to happen, then did that mean they were working with the Spawn? Such an idea was preposterous, but he was forced to consider it.

  But the most curious of all was the lingering feeling of tranquillity he felt. Both of his companions also appeared to share in it. There was so much to worry about, yet they were walking through with seemingly no care at all. It could just be that they had nothing to lose, but he doubted that.

  “I’m going to climb that tree to try get a better view.” Dharn eventually broke the silence.

  They had stopped by one of the stalks of wood that had a large enough trunk that it looked like it could support his weight, and the least traces of fungus. He jumped, quite easily grabbing onto the lowest-hanging branch before pulling himself onto it and reaching for the next.

  It also left him alone with the girl, which wasn’t the best situation. Oh, well. Watching Dharn climb was actually quite entertaining. He seemed quite experienced with that sort of thing. But then he heard a whisper, so quiet that he would have almost dismissed it at a breeze.

  “Something’s following us.”

  As Dharn reached the top of tree, Jude tried to spot what she was talking about. And then he saw it. When their heads were perfectly turned, a shadow leapt from one branch to another, landing in a spot out of his vision’s reach. It was moving towards Dharn. He froze.

  “Should we tell him?” she asked.

  Her voice clearly suggested that they should, but wanted some sort of confirmation to be safe. Jude was less sure.

  The peace remained within him, keeping him calm and logical. If he shouted, then it would attract the thing’s attention. But the odds were that it would attack them anyways. They needed Dharn, considering he had their only water. And his knife was probably the only thing that could kill it.

  So, he nodded, before yelling at the top of his breath, “There’s something coming towards you!”

  The scarred man quickly leapt off the branch he was sitting on, eyes scanning his surrounding wildly. At the same time, the shadow revealed itself, and charged off its spot at the end of a branch as if to tackle him in mid-air. It looked like an ape, fur-covered arms reaching towards Dharn before he veered out of the way, rebounding off the tree and twisting the entire trunk backwards. And fell towards them instead.

  Embarrassingly, the girl reacted before he did, pulling him to the side and trying to run. But they both ended up tripping over a crevice, and tumbled into the soil.

  Yet before it could land and pummel them, a blur moved and cleaved the creature into two.

  Its remains landed on the ground, with a thump.