In his past life, Theo had experienced attacks that began with demons clawing their way into a world through cracks in reality, but nothing dramatic announced the start of this one.

Just a few cries in the distance that could have been mistaken for a celebration until they saw the fires. He'd barely even noticed, focusing on his own thoughts, but then all the Farmguards began to move. When he looked up and saw something rustling through the fields, he knew that it was an attack before he saw the first demon leap out.

Though demons manifested differently in each world, this one was familiar enough: a squat body with four muscular arms that it used to race across the ground. Those arms could also grab their prey and draw them to the creature's large mouth. It leaped into the air toward the refugees with a mindless cry.

One of the Farmguards stepped into the way, striking the demon aside with her staff. It flopped into the field, but soon levered itself back to its feet. That was a bad sign: the weakest stage of demons should have been easily destroyed by soulcrafters. They were tougher and faster than most normal people, but not really a threat except in numbers.

Though he instinctively prepared his spear, Theo didn't move into battle. Base demons could sometimes be defeated by trained fighters without soulhomes, but it was a senseless risk. In his years back on Earth, he'd learned the hard way just how fragile the human body could be. Used to leaping effortlessly, he'd broken a bone in a bad landing. It could have been even worse, a wrong bump on the head potentially being fatal.

So going up against an increasing number of rabid demons? Not unless there wasn't another choice. He kept his spear ready as another demon rushed from between the bright stalks.

"The village is under attack!" A tall Tatian man leapt from one of the wagons and stomped on the demon just it emerged, splattering dark blood over the soil. "You and you, guard our guests. Farmguards and soulcrafters, with me!"

It was a sensible enough strategy, and the Farmguards hastened to act now that they had someone to follow. Theo wasn't sure how he felt about leaving only two soulcrafters to guard all the refugees, however. Base demons had nothing but mindless bloodlust, but they were scattering from the battle in all directions.

Indeed, no sooner had the Farmguards fought their way toward the village than more demons began to rustle through the fields from the side. Not overwhelming numbers, but the two Farmguards couldn't deal with them all. This could get ugly.

Taking action might be the right choice, but it could draw attention and start a panic. Before Theo could decide what to do, he saw Magnafor and a couple of others sprint away from the wagons. Their movements looked purposeful, but a few others cried out and began to retreat. It seemed like he was headed for the village, so Theo decided to keep the situation by the wagons under control.

"Stay in a group!" he called out. "We're safest if we stick together!"

Not everyone listened to him, but enough did. He saw that Fiyu was standing beside one of the wagons, shielding her eyes even though she was wearing her mask. She was the only person he knew was a soulcrafter with a useful ability, so he closed the gap to reach her even as more demons reached the Farmguards and began to attack.

"Fiyu, can you feel the difference between refugees and demons?"

"I only feel shapes, so I can discern the difference so long as the demons stay small." Her lips pressed together tightly, but not in fear. Growing up in Ichil, she would have faced worse than this. "But... my control is not very precise. I'm afraid I'll strike the others."

"Then get up high and pick them off while they're at a distance." Theo nearly patted her on the shoulder before remembering himself. Instead he gave a sharp whistle used by allies coordinating their locations. Fiyu nodded seriously and climbed up onto the highest wagon.

Meanwhile, the situation had gotten worse. The two Farmguards were drawing the majority of the demons, but not eliminating them very effectively. It seemed as though they had fully soulcrafted their first floors, which made them much stronger and faster than these lowly demons. But what they lacked was combat experience, so even if they were in little danger themselves, they failed to keep the demons away from the refugee caravan.

Growling to Theo's left drew his attention and he saw that a small pack of demons had broken away from the burning village. They had arced around the Farmguards, meaning that they were heading directly toward the wagons. He readied his spear, but knew that it wouldn't be enough...

A torrent of bolts of light seared into the group of demons, eerily silent as they tore apart flesh and bone. Fiyu had both hands raised, sending out a stream of the bolts until all the demons - and a large circle of crops around them - were annihilated. He saw that she had been right about her control: her technique appeared to trade power for accuracy.

Then suddenly there was no more time for calm strategy: there was a demon leaping at him with a snarl.

He jerked his spear like it was a sword, his old instincts failing him. The side of the stone shaft hit the demon and pushed it aside, but failed to injure it. Staggering, Theo struggled even to raise his spear again in the time that the demon flipped itself back to its feet and rushed at him.

Somehow he threw his spear up in time and the beast impaled itself on the end. Theo's fingers ached from gripping the spear and he realized that he couldn't have killed it with his own strength. Only the demon's strength combined with...

The demon reached up and clawed his arm. Theo fell back with a cry of pain, barely avoiding the next swipes of its claws. Though impaled through the center of its body, the demon wasn't dead: one blow from someone who wasn't a soulcrafter just wouldn't be enough.

There was no time to think, he just grabbed his spear and twisted it. That made the demon hiss, more anger than pain, and he felt another claw strike his leg. But he managed to jerk out the spear and then brought it down, over and over, until the demon finally stopped moving.

For a time Theo just panted for breath. His injuries burned at him now that the adrenaline had worn off, but they weren't deep enough to keep him from fighting. Or at least, as close to fighting as he could manage in this state.

With a moment to breathe, he examined the battlefield again. Fiyu still rained destruction down on demons at the periphery, but her bursts of light slowed each time, as if she was already exhausting herself. The Farmguards had dropped back to defend the caravan, but began to falter. A few of the refugees tried to fight, but only Navim was effective. Though he didn't move like a fighter, he was made of stone and the demons didn't seem capable of injuring him, at least not before he smashed them in between part of his body and the ground.

In the distance, he saw that there was no longer any fire or smoke from the village, so the situation must be under control... but there were three more demons rushing through the field toward him.

Fighting them together was suicide, but everyone else was occupied and he was all that stood between them and one flank of refugees. Theo gripped his spear tighter, fingers running over the inscription there. If he used the spear as a soulcrafter armament, it would launch forward with explosive force, but it might tear him apart as well unless he executed it perfectly. No, that was insanity. It was a cynical choice, but he needed to retreat, even if it cost the lives of other refugees.

Before he could back away, bolts of light flashed over his shoulder and smashed into the charging demons. Theo tried to move, but he was too late, feeling a bolt sear through his shoulder before he saw any sign of it. He crashed to the ground, losing his grip on the spear.

At first he just stared at the channel that had been burned out of his shoulder, the wound instantly cauterized. It had torn through him so easily... a similar bolt striking his head or chest could have killed him. Yet despite the pain, he was able to lever himself up. Fiyu had destroyed the three demons approaching, but there could be more.

"I am sorry!" Fiyu called over the battle, and when he turned to her, he saw the dismay plain on her face. His throat hurt too much to yell, so he just pointed toward the Farmguards.

Unfortunately, with the demons swarming over them, Fiyu couldn't fire indiscriminately. Her fingers twitched, as if looking for her chance, but there were no openings. The Farmguards might endure her bolts better than him, but they would still be injured, especially in their current state. Both were bleeding from multiple wounds, and his instincts wanted to help, yet he'd just gotten a good demonstration as to why jumping in was a bad idea.

When one of the Farmguards went down and a demon leapt at his face, Theo knew that he didn't have a choice. He ran in, skewering the demon in midair. Two of the remaining demons shifted to focus on him and he simply swung the skewered body into them, just trying to buy a little more time.

One of the surviving Farmguards whirled to his feet, cantae sweeping around him. In a series of vicious blows he crushed several of the demons and sent the others scattering back, tumbling over one another into a devastated section of the fields. After that, he dropped down to one knee, but the attack had finally been broken. Theo saw only one other demon, and Navim crushed it by dropping onto his back.

"You... you aren't even a soulcrafter?" The Farmguard he had saved rose to his feet, staring at him. "This bravery is madness..."

"I..." Theo still struggled to catch his breath, but smiled as he came up with a good line. "I couldn't stand by and do nothing while everyone else was fighting."

"Your bravery will not be forgotten, young traveler. We..."

Whatever else he started to say, Theo didn't hear it, because at that moment he saw something much worse. The surviving demons had gathered together, and a few more stragglers emerged from the field, but that wasn't the horrifying part. They gathered in a circle and one of them stepped forward, then suddenly crumpled up like a dying spider. Power pulsed between the demons, then a second sacrificed itself.

They were trying to summon a second stage demon.

Though the weakest of demons were creatures of mindless violence, they had another instinct: when they started to lose a battle, they began sacrificing themselves. It only took six sacrifices for them to summon a second stage demon, and a single one of those would kill all of them. Even a fully trained first-tier soulcrafter couldn't win that fight, and none of them had reached that state.

"Stop the summoning!" Theo grabbed the Farmguard's arm and jabbed a finger at the ring, where even now a third demon crumpled. "They're sacrificing themselves!"

"What? Just what... are they doing?" The Farmguard stared as if he hadn't seen it before, and there was no time even to get angry. Theo just whirled to the others and gave an urgent whistle.

"Fiyu, look!"

She noticed and understood instantly, shredding the group of demons with a hail of light. But the stream faltered out midway and, finally having emptied her soulhome, Fiyu collapsed into the wagon. Many of the demons had been killed, but a few remained. Too many.

How many sacrifices had there been? At least four, but could it be five? As the Farmguards stared in surprise, Theo realized that there was no time for anything else.

He hefted his spear one more time and ran toward the last demons. Another curled up and died... and he saw all their bodies begin to dissolve into dust. The sacrifice was complete, which meant he had only moments before the demon fully manifested. Even as he got closer, he saw it begin to form, a creature taller than most men...

Theo squeezed the inscription on the spear and thrust.

The power crafted within shot forward, exploding the forming demon's chest in a shower of ichor. But it struck his unprepared soul just as hard. Even as the dark blood struck him, Theo found himself torn away from the battle and cast deep into himself.

Darkness, but a familiar darkness.

Slowly he realized that he wasn't dead or unconscious. Theo drew hard on old instincts and opened his eyes: not his physical eyes, but those in his soul. He lay on the ground in the center of his soulhome.

It was almost nothing at this early stage, just a circle of brown grass that faded into nothingness in all directions. In his last life, the grass inside his soul had been green. Overhead, clouds roiled so close he could have jumped to touch them. Those embodied the limits of his current tier, which also meant that he'd become a soulcrafter.

Use of a soulcrafter armament was one of the methods of awakening as a soulcrafter, though not an advised one. Theo wanted to examine his soulhome for any potential injuries or begin all his plans, but as his disorientation faded, he realized that there was no time. Outside his inner world, his body would be a form of glowing light, and demons loved to feed on soulcrafters in the middle of their work.

Once, stepping in and out of his soulhome had been effortless, but he was out of practice. Theo threw his mind against it, hating how utterly blind he was to the threat. Eventually he began to sink into the ground, leaving his own soul and returning his consciousness to the real world.

Theo woke up and immediately blinded himself staring into the sun overhead. He groaned and reached up to shield his eyes, but his arm ached when he tried to move. Immediately several hands kept him pinned down - normal, Tatian hands.

His panic faded as he realized that he was safe. It must have taken more time than he thought to return, because he lay in the center of a village. The battle was clearly over, and though he saw some destroyed buildings, the villagers moving between them were already beginning to sing songs of rebuilding. If there were no songs of mourning, then the loss of life must have been limited.

When he tried to look around, however, the sun continued to glare directly into his eyes. Theo grimaced and opened his mouth to ask for water... and a dark cloth suddenly dropped over his face. He had a glimpse of Fiyu before it completely covered his vision.

"What are you doing?" a Tatian man demanded.

"The light was hurting him," Fiyu said somberly. "It's too bright."

"Am I the healer here, or are you? I'll care for this brave one, don't you worry."

Brave one? Theo thought it was more like stupidity, but he supposed that his actions would have looked brave to them. In a world like Tatian, that counted for something. He heard Fiyu trying to say something to him, and the healer was tending to the burn on his shoulder, but he was tired and sleep seemed too tempting to resist.

This time, he would fall asleep a soulcrafter. It hadn't been how he intended to awaken, but it would do. As unconsciousness claimed him, he reached out and touched his soulhome one more time.