The move was progressing smoothly. They had been jumping from city to city regularly. The Elders were using their servitors to distract any of the people from Daniel’s side. It worked well, and so far, there had been no opposition to the move. Mash hoped it would stay that way. Although, he didn’t have high hopes as they moved toward the towns with smaller populations. These were positioned on the outskirts, and while none were very close to the portals, they simply didn’t have any good way to monitor those areas. Despite going as fast as possible, it had still been several hours since they started, and would take several more hours yet.

Only one elder had stuck with them for the whole process. Elder SerJi was organizing the movement in every city or town they arrived at. They also had a method for long-distance communications and were keeping watch of cities. If Jeral and his people arrived, then they would know. Jill could easily go over there and end any fighting preemptively. She probably wouldn’t need help, but all of them could go with her for a little additional cost.

The bigger concern was the caravans that were ferrying people from town to town. Even now hundreds of people would be moving to consolidate in the bigger cities. The elders had designed a route to save everyone, even if it wasn’t possible. However, they didn’t know of anything beyond their own continent. It wasn’t that they hadn’t explored beyond their nation, rather they couldn’t find any sophisticated life beyond it. There may be wanderers or undiscovered natives, but it would be impossible to know or help them. Mash could understand, but he still wished he could check those lands too. Even if there were only beasts and monsters, he enjoyed exploring the unknown.

Time progressed, and they were met with monotony. Despite the grand name given to the event, little happened to obscure them. It seemed like the servitors were doing a good job at delaying any fights. Even with the relative ease, Mash was on edge. His change in his skill had been bothering him, but he was more worried about his surroundings. If he had learned anything from looking through his memories, it was to expect something dramatic to happen. He practically drew those kinds of events toward himself. When Elder SerJi started to panic, Mash was already on his way. He ran over to the elder, interposing himself immediately.

“What happened?”

His words synced with his friends who understood his anxiety. They had been privy to nearly every event and had probably developed the same conclusions as him. The elder seemed confused by their simultaneous question.

“There is a fight outside of Portest. It is the blue city on the river.”

The elder added the second bit with a slight delay. Jill hadn’t been very good at remembering the names of the towns and cities but could picture them if she was given a description. Thankfully, that was enough for her skill. Jill nodded once, before turning her attention to the west. She was probably focusing on the location of the city. The elder looked like he wanted to say more, but Jill spoke first.

“Be prepared for a fight!”

The elder must have noticed the urgency in her voice, as he tried to force his words out. Mash only caught a single word before the teleport had carried them away.

“Take-“

The world shifted around him. One second the elder was standing there, the next Mash was atop a wall looking over a distinctly blue city. The first thing to grab his attention was the blue grass that grew in between the buildings. He should probably get more used to seeing such thing. However, seeing something he was so familiar with being a different color was just odd. It was bad and gave the city a sense of camouflage as all the buildings were similarly blue. When he heard fighting, he turned his head quickly.

Away from the city, Mash could hear metal strike against metal. He would like to say that he recognized the sound of a fight, but that was not true. What he heard here was the occasional suppressed explosion, followed by sound screams. In his world, fights were usually more bombastic than this. He would have expected to see balls of fire. The noise itself made him certain of his world’s relative strength.

“Let’s go. Mash stay here and open a portal.”

Red spoke up, taking charge of the group and issuing some quick orders. Mash had been preparing to leap towards the fight but stopped and stumbled forward. He stopped himself from falling by grabbing onto the stone of the wall. The wall of the city had supports along the top to prevent people from falling, and it would provide protection to archers as well. Before he could make any protests, the others were gone. Only Jill remained long enough to give him a shit-eating grin before teleporting away. He glanced once more in the direction of the fight; a longing slowly filled his chest, but he turned away. It had already been decided that he would help evacuate people rather than fight.

Mash looked over the town, which seemed mostly unharmed at the moment. The typical lines had formed at one of the entrances. Even better was the fact that he could spot some elders by one of the gates. It would save him the trouble of trying to maintain the peace himself. He jumped toward what he assumed was the main gate. It was easily the largest one in the city and was blue like everything else. He honestly shouldn’t have been surprised, but still wondered how they had managed to get so much blue paint.

His jump wasn’t enough to carry him to the elder, but he managed to cover the needed distance with just his wind magic. He hadn’t even needed to form wings, though his landing was worse than it would’ve been with them. The ground cracked loudly as he landed beside the elder. This elder had reacted quickly though and easily turned to Mash. There was almost no worry as he bowed his head to Mash, who once again felt the need to stop him. Although, Mash was too slow, as he focused on his wind magic. He wanted to see how he could improve the landing, or if he could use it to help him in a fight.

“Hello, young savior. I am Elder Ver.”

Mash didn’t say anything immediately. He expected the elder to say more. After nothing was said, he realized that the name didn’t follow the pattern. He had just assumed that it would be the case. It was the same mistake he made before, and he discretely punched himself. It wasn’t very discrete as Mash wanted it to hurt. Plus, the sound of his hand slamming against his thigh was loud enough to get several in the lines to turn their heads.

“I’m sorry I assumed there would be…. You know what, never mind. Let me just make the portal.”

He felt like commenting on his name would be rude. The familiar archway of his portal started to form behind the elder. It was large enough to match the gate that the city had. Mash could’ve managed something bigger but wanted to save some energy for a fight. Even if hunt triggered, he wanted to make sure he could actually do something without relying on the skill. The elder started responding while Mash worked on the portal.

“It is no bother. I simply have not achieved a grand work and have not earned the moniker. I expect that I will need to restart it. “

Mash wanted to protest and insist that he could bring whatever it was. He never got the option to make his argument. The elder’s next words caused his own to vanish.

“Do not misunderstand, I chose this path myself. I expect a new start on the project would provide the insight that I am lacking. Perhaps, I will find something better in your world.”

The elder spoke with wisdom, and he carried the wrinkles that told Mash of great age. The older elders were extremely old, approaching the same age as some of the immortals back home. It seemed like the elders naturally had a long lifespan and had managed to maintain it with a special diet. Mash didn’t think it was their diet that was affecting them, but he didn’t say anything about it. He didn’t want to do anything that could change their decisions.

Honestly, it still felt like he was rushing most of his decisions. While he did need to do things quickly at the moment, it didn’t mean that he shouldn’t think about things more critically. He wasn’t completely hopeless as he had at least told the others beforehand. That was progress in his mind. He decided not to take the blame in this situation and take the elder’s words at face value. The portal finished, and Mash nodded towards it.

“It’s good to go.”

Mash didn’t know why he said it like that, but the elder understood. The elder started orchestrating the move. He was very involved, standing at the front and rushing the people through the portal. Even if he seemed relaxed, it was clear that he was worried about the sounds in the distance. It seemed like the fighting was continuing, and he wished to go and help. He would need to recover his energy first. Thankfully, he didn’t need to worry about the skill messing with his mind anymore. He may come to regret that decision, but for now, it was a huge relief.

His energy started to recover, and he tried to speed it up as much as he could. It obviously changed nothing, and he continued to restore energy at the same rate as before. The noises from the distance were both distracting and enticing. He wanted to partake in the fight and get a reprieve from the monotony of the Great Transfer. So far, it had not been great but just kind of dull. His hopes died as the noises died down. It seemed like he missed his opportunity and was sure of the fact when Jill teleported back.

“Fighting is over. Red and Luke are going to escort the people back through the portal. Told us to keep going. I’ll grab them later.”

Jill always started speaking a little too early. The teleports were natural to her, but not to anyone else. Even though he was the fastest at catching her because of his domain, it was still jarring to suddenly hear her voice from beside him. He was slowly getting used to it. The moment would be quite grand when he didn’t flinch at her arrival.

“Anything exciting happen?”

Mash asked the question hollowly, his voice carrying his regret. He noticed Jill shrug her shoulders before responding.

“Not really. Nobody there was strong enough to do any real damage. No masters as far as we could tell. Red thinks they're planning something big. She wanted to interrogate some of the people, but Luke stopped her.”

He was glad for the update, but she sounded more conflicted about the situation. Maybe, she felt strongly about the interrogation? He didn’t really care much either way. He doubted Red would do anything like torture after how guilty she had felt about her advancement. Just intimidating people sounded fine to him. He did similar things all the time. It was practically his way of introducing himself at this point. It was something else he should probably change about himself. He sighed and turned the conversation to something lighter, as he regarded the moving crowd. Jill always seemed the one most eager to engage in nonsensical conversation. Luke and Red always had this air of seriousness about them.

As the conversation progressed onto more mundane subjects, he noticed that the lines were dwindling. The people were moving quickly, and it seemed like they would be ready to move to the next city soon. In this case, it would be returning to the city where elder SerJi was at. Mash sighed, it was time to begin again.