"Do you really need to show off so much?" Brina giggled while sweeping her golden hair behind the ear and exposing her slender neck. "Everyone knows that you're with the Verhens, that's just overkill."

She tapped on the insignia on his shoulder, making Nalrond inwardly curse at Rena again and at himself for his naivety. Communication amulets were common tools in any tribe of Werepeople, but in the rest of Mogar, they were the mark of big money.

"It's not about showing off." Even though his skin was bronze, Nalrond managed to blush.

"I left the Blood Desert after the death of my whole village. I'll never forget seeing their runes disappear one after the other until my amulet was back to be a clean slate. Ever since I got a new family, I've never put it away because it allows me to check on them."

He pointed at the various communication rune engraved on the silver.

"Oh, gods, I'm so sorry. I had no idea." Brina turned pale while realizing her blunder. "Was it because of Overlord Salaark? I've heard she's a heartless tyrant."

"No, she would never do such a thing. It was-" Nalrond's mouth became dry when almost all the runes on his amulet turned dim at the same time.

Only those belonging to Tista, Solus, Protector, and Faluel were still available, but he knew that all of them were out of Lutia. Protector was away on a mission, Faluel was gone with some of her friends, and the girls were having a night out.

He contacted them in a conference call while disabling the holograms to not draw any more attention.

"Oh, gods. It's my first day off in months and one of my kids calls me right when I was about to relax." Faluel groaned despite her masseuse's best efforts to alleviate the tension in her shoulders.

The Dragon Bath was one of the finest establishments in the Gorgon Empire and it accepted all races as long as the guests behaved. It had hot springs, thermal mud baths, and the best cooks of the Garlen continent.

"That's why I don't take apprentices nor do I want cubs for a while." Scarlett the Scorpicore laughed at the Hydra's misfortune. "Too much hassle. I prefer keeping things simple. Either I trust someone, or I eat them."

"Whatever. If she leaves, I call dibs on her snacks." Feela the Behemoth couldn't understand why human servings were so small. Every time she went to a spa, the leader of the Beast Council spent a small fortune on food.

"Then I'll take her drinks." Scarlett replied.

"Thanks for your concern, girls." Faluel snarled while answering. "Nalrond, what part of 'I don't want to be disturbed you didn't understand?"

"Master, can you please check what's wrong with Lutia?" Nalrond ignored her question and went straight to the point.

"What the fuck?" Faluel jumped up the massage table, making her friends' expression turn serious.

"I can't feel any of the protections I laid." She took a control crystal out of her dimensional amulet and discovered that its light was gone.

"Someone has not only disabled them all, but they also managed to not trigger any of the alarms. I'll be there in a- Oh, dammit! I can barely feel my lair as well. Someone has placed an air sealing array all around it to keep me from Warping straight home."

"Don't worry, I can-" Feela failed to contact her lair as well and so did Scarlett.

"Someone planned this carefully. They know where you are and with whom you are. I bet-" Scarlett attempted to say.

"Are you telling me that my children are in danger?" Protector cut her short. His tone felt even less respectful than Nalrond's. "Fuck the mission, I'm going back."

"Tista, I'd go check on Rena if I were you." Nalrond said while trying and failing to open a dimensional door near Selia's house. "Lith's house is protected by more arrays than I can count and by the Queen's corps whereas Selia has nothing but her hunting tools!"

In that moment, Nalrond couldn't care less about the customers of the Heavenly Wolf seeing him use magic. A Warp Steps leading to the Trawn woods opened right beside his table and it closed the moment he stepped through it.

He ended the call while shapeshifting into his Rezar form and flying at breakneck speed. The images of his burning village kept replaying in front of his eyes, making him unable to put away the communication amulet.

The contact runes were the only way Nalrond had to make sure that the few people who really knew who he was and who cared for him were still alive.

"Undead." Feela completed the phrase for Scarlett, ignoring the disrespect of a disciple toward their master for the first time in centuries. "They can't use dimensional magic much and they like to seal air magic to even the field."

"Can you help me to get back home?" Faluel asked while conjuring her clothes.

"I'll do more than that. Those leeches didn't just mess with one of your disciples, they dared to tamper with your home and even mine! I don't give a damn about humans, but if it's a war that the undead want, I'll gladly bring it to their doorstep."

Feela's amulet was covered with so many runes that their light made it impossible to see the Davross underneath. Yet it took but a wave of her hand to activate them all at the same time.

***

The only thing Lith hated about Lutia was that aside from the mana geyser located deep inside the Trawn woods, there wasn't another for almost a thousand kilometers.

It meant that, even if Solus was with him, he would have been forced to use a Gate to Derios, the capital of the Distar Marquisate, and then to go home. With his movements tracked by the Kingdom's system, going to Ynca's mana geyser with his family in mortal danger would raise too many questions.

Yet before giving his destination to the Gate's clerk, Lith tried to contact Faluel, finally noticing all the missed calls. Tista, Solus, and the Hydra quickly brought him up to speed.

"Derios, quickly!" He said the moment he learned that the mysterious aggressor had disabled even the Beasts' Gate network.

"Master Faluel, how long will it take you to get back to Lutia?"

"I'm in the Empire so my answer is: too long. I can use our network to get back to the Kingdom, but from there I'll have to reach Derios just like you." Faluel understood how dire the situation was when Lith called her 'master' instead of 'professor'.

He unconsciously buttered her up only when he was desperate.

"I'm going to Rena's home while Solus will wait for you at the usual spot." Tista said before closing the call.

Solus felt helpless for one time too many. Without a mana geyser to empower the tower, without Lith to fuel her broken core, she was no different from an average fake mage.

To make matters even worse, the Trawn Wood's geyser was too distant from Lith's home to even allow them to fight as they had done at the Feymar mines.

Lith inwardly cursed his own bad luck and the enemy's careful planning. They had waited for the precise moment when Faluel and all the most powerful beings of the Lustria county were away to strike.