An ominous cackle arose over the screams of pain and the heat from above. All around, those who couldn’t find or make shelter quick enough were dying. The area had turned from pristine grasslands to craterous desolate wilds almost instantly. Massive chunks of ice were embedded deep and splattered with blood. Torrents of wind blotted the air with fresh snow and loose grass. Visibility was low, like kicking up the settled mud at the bottom of a pond.

Vel pushed through, ignoring the overhead halo. She moved to the nearest in need, melting small comets and using them to heal. She knew the woman she was healing, a Drake from the far west. A [Warrior] and [Scholar]. She didn’t make it, her body being too malformed.

“Vel! Vel!” Max’s words broke the old lady from her thoughts. “Look up! What is that?”

Above was hot. Very hot. Summer days in the peak of the Locan Desert was nothing compared to the heat radiating out of the halo of mana. Vel had to shade her eyes, as they felt like they would combust of she stared to long. The halo transformed the sky. Once blue with sparse clouds now the sky was twisted and expanded. A rocky wasteland of flowing lavafalls and spiked mountains hovered above the failing Coalition.

“That’s… Whatever it is, it’s not good.” The words weren’t Vel’s. Max spun, [King] Tobyn Salae stood tall. He was missing an arm. Following the trail of blood, it laid beside his daughter who was unconscious and a sheet of ice. Water whipped forward, healing the stump in such a way Regrowth would be possible. “I thank you, Veline, but save your mana. It should be returning to me momentarily.”

Vel snorted. “It’s not me.” She pushed her thumb towards Max, who looked on in a familiar horror.

Tobyn looked curiously at the Lost Lord, some of his original thoughts about the young man drifted away. “You don’t have to heal me, son, it will come back. Can you check her over?”

“I-I don’t-“ Max stopped himself as the [King]’s stump glowed royal gold. Moments later his arm appeared reattached and sleeveless. A far-off scream sounded.

“Part of the job, I’m afraid. Please, check over my daughter.”

Vel nudged the perplexed Max, pulling his attention from the King to his daughter. Emi stood beside him, and the two worked together. They pulled water from the surroundings, pooling and distributing it evenly around the young lady. She was fine, just unconscious. Max told the King as much. The son was a different story, however. His insides were pummeled, but he remained awake. Water began to embrace him, treating his wounds as the King and Veline spoke.

“The Empire?” Veline asked, her eyes looking to the sky. The portal was clear of monsters.

“Has to be. But how did they know the meeting place? A [Spy]?” Tobyn watched the Lost Lord and his bond help his children.

“It’s possible. Nix had infiltrated Lesterwood for who knows how long. Something similar is very possible.”

The King nodded, changing his focus above. “We have to leave. Can your apprentice teleport others?”

“No-“

“Yes.” Max cut off, “But my magic is being blocked since the ring opened.” His eyes didn’t move from the son, but he could feel Vel staring.

“A space-lock, then. If we find it, you should be able to use your magic.”

“A what?” Max asked.

Tobyn turned to Vel, tilting his head in confusion. “Have you not told him about space-locks?”

Rolling her shoulders, Vel spoke, “It never came up. Kind of an obscure item, don’t you think?”

“But he is a [Space Mage], a lock renders him useless.”

Max still had his back turned to the pair, but he could feel Vel roll her eyes. “Discuss my mentor’s teaching style later. What is a space-lock?”

“Simply put, they lock space. Rendering it impossible to manipulate.”

“Does space revert back to its original formation, or does the lock maintain manipulations?”

“I would say it locks space as to how it is when the device is deployed. Otherwise, the Gate above would close.” Vel said.

“Correct.” Tobyn turned to Vel, ignoring the far-off cries of pain. “We destroy the lock, force the portal closed, and then the Lost Lord can teleport us all.”

Max and Emi both looked up. “Easier said than done, monsters are coming. Your son is going to live. He probably shouldn’t eat solids for a while, however.”

Eden’s eyes drifted to his savior, scornfully. “Father, where are the guards?”

“Most are dead. I feel two alive, one dying-“

Above, the first of the monsters appeared. It was made entirely of fire and took the form of a four-legged beast. Plumes of flame licked the ground as it walked, scorching the volcanic rock. It sniffed the air, each inhale less hesitant than the last. It jumped through the portal, a perfectly normal lunge to it but gravity and orientation shifted. It plummeted to the ground where it destroyed itself and its surroundings.

“Not the smartest.” Vel laughed, “Did anyone manage to Inspect it?”

“Too far.” Max said, the King shook his head.

“I did.” Emi passed the box around, inwardly smiling at her newfound system.

Flame Beast of Lost Isonyos:

Level 51

“Oh right, Vel, Emi got a system.” Max replicated Emi’s smile, “I guess her eyes are a lot stronger than ours.”

Vel shook her head, trying to ignore the implications of what was just said, “Anyone know where Isonyos is?” Her question was primarily directed at the King but knew that for some reason she wouldn’t be surprised if Max pulled that information out of his ass.

As Tobyn shook his head, Max felt a stirring inside himself. Tiodepth shifted a single fin, which caused a tidal wave to crash into the beach. Max hesitated but accepted that the Leviathan finally wanted to speak, he dipped his consciousness to the infinite beach.

“Dimension of Fire.” The words echoed off the swirling waters with a growl, “These children use devices they do not understand. I shall have words with their Goddess, but for now, close the portal.”

“How?” Max’s words sounded feeble and weak compared to the ire Tiodepth spoke with.

“Exactly as the [King] besides you speculated. Be quick, for there are monsters in that Dimension that even I would have trouble fighting.”

In the real world, Emi nudged her partner. She felt his blood run cold, as well as understood they were working with a limited time frame. Max regained his composure and spoke to the others.

“The Dimension of Fire,” He began with, answering Vel’s original question. “We need to destroy the lock. We need to find who threw the cube.”

Above, more monsters found the edge connecting the two worlds. The first few fell as their predecessor did, ending in various explosions of flame. The next few were smarter, forming magic wings or falling in such way to limit the damage. It was apparent that the portal was supposed to have been opened on the ground.

“No.” The [King] said. “You two need to find the lock. I need to get my family to safety.”

Vel started to say something, but Max spoke first. “I understand.” He held an arm out to Eden, lifting him from the ground. The [King] shuffled to his knee, scooping his daughter into his arms.

“Tell… Tell Bella I regret how things happened. Tell her I want to speak with her. If that means traveling to Lesterwood, so be it.”

Tobyn Salae caught the Lost Lord’s eyes. Aged regret shone through, failures of a father. “I will.” Max said.

With that, the King and his son moved through the rubble, the daughter strung between their shoulders. Max didn’t miss the last look of envy Eden cast his way.

“Alright, boy, if you were a space-lock, where would you-“

A beam of lava cut Vel’s words. She reacted by blasting a black wave of water towards the attacker. Steam rose, along with four shards of nearby melting ice. As the ice traveled, they hardened and reinforced into an iron-like spike. The monster died moments later.

A massive vibration from the ground pulled their attention. A monster, head of a snake body of a goat, had just dropped from the portal. Its massive stature broke the ground, sending miniature quakes to the surrounding areas. Heat radiated off its bleak fur, charring the air and causing sweat to pour. It turned its back, finding interest in something nearby.

“Let’s start looking away from that thing.” Vel said as the three [Water Mages] Inspected the beast.

Great Inferno Magma Ram:

Level 104

“Agreed.” Max and Emi both nodded, “I heard laughter earlier. Uhh… That way.” He pointed to a particularly healthy area. A few tents stood but what caught his interest was the influx of proper life. Centauri and other races had set up a barricade of broken wood and repurposed spikes. Some were defending as others dragged wounded to safety.

As they approached, they helped dispatch multiple Winged Birds of the Volcano and Pigbeasts of Lost Isonyos. The defenders looked thankful and the wounded even more. Healing was something of short supply in these parts, especially after the Healer delegate had already returned home. The whole ordeal was different than Esmel, but Max couldn’t figure out why. Both had plenty of death and destruction, but for some reason he felt calmer now than before.

Nothing looked out of the ordinary, they continued the search. As they walked, Vel gave tips and impromptu lessons about specific encounters. Enemies that could fly had to either be surprised attacked, corralled with multiple spells, or attacked during predictable flight patterns. Using a combined twelve orbs of highly pressurized water, Max and Emi were easily able to guide monsters into crossing streams. They didn’t have to communicate, their bond filtering enough of their intention.

Three aflame eyeballs drifted around the battlefield; a single monster fought below. Vel took the monster’s attention, skipping backwards off puddles of water. She danced across the broken land, sneaking in weak strikes. The monster had no eyes, but she suspected the eyes above were related in some capacity. Mana drained from Emi as she manipulated all twelve orbs at the same time. She pulled the streams in, enclosing the eyes in a cage.

Max sat on the outside, fueling his own spell. He lashed out, sending needles of ice at the impossibly small targets. As they flew, they broke down changing and refreezing into a net. The eyes were trapped from all sides and were quickly destroyed. The monster yelled with rage, blindly swiping at the ground. It died as the three mages peppered it with ice from afar.

Without rest, a pack of Flame Beasts leaped into the fray. Flames barked from their throats, skewering the air with heat and deadly force. The air turned moist as water flash evaporated, Max and Emi fought against the heat allowing Vel time to attack. She landed with a splash, her armor morphing into weapons. She moved with her flow, dancing with her attacks extinguishing the beasts.

They had been fighting in the same spot for nearly twenty minutes at this point. All three were frustrated with the endless waves of enemies. They had a job to do, and they couldn’t be stopping every few moments. A silent agreement was reached between the three of them. As the next monsters came in, they simply ignored them. They ran. It was cowardly, but necessary.

They bypassed last defenses and packs of monsters eating the remains of the dead. They threw in attacks where they could, but they couldn’t stop. The plains were burning, which gave them a solid time limit. Vel speculated they only had a few hours before the heat became too much, and they would be forced to evacuate. That, however, had some good news. It means the tents and high grasses would be leveled, allowing for more visibility. Max only wished he could stand in the air.

He hadn’t realized just how much he relied on space magic. There were a few times already where he tried to teleport to dodge and attack, only to stumble in place as his magic snapped closed. Most of those incidents Emi had to quickly erect defenses, otherwise they would have been melted.

Vel was helping where she could, but even she noticed his water spells were not at the level they should be. Both his and Emi’s attacks did little damage. It was partially a level difference, but also the fact that Max never truly learned to harden his spells. Vel made a note to force the young man to sit still long enough to make the technique second nature.

Streaks of ice drowned through the air, melting before hitting their target. Max and Emi tried to quickly refreeze the hurtling projectiles but failed. Shadows elongated, twisting with mana. They shot forward, ignorant of the heat. A formation of hands broke through the black lines, grasping at the monster. A bolt of black ice finished it.

“Don’t worry about that one.” Vel said, trying to cheer up her apprentices. “It was very high level.”

Max was sweating and Emi was having trouble regulating her temperature. She had to keep the water connected to her gills chilled, which took conscious effort. “We need to get out of here.”

Vel agreed. Their search progress had gone nowhere. They didn’t really know what they were looking for. “Maybe we are thinking about this wrong. Maybe we should leave. Most have already evacuated. The man who threw the cube has most likely already left.”

Max digested the idea. “I’m not really sold he would leave. Since when is the Empire worried about dying during their attacks? Wouldn’t they want to make sure everything went smoothly?”

Vel cursed. “You’re right. Until they were sure no one could remain, they would stay. But where?”

“I’ve been thinking about that.” Max explained. “The space-lock is supposed to disrupt space magic, right? Shouldn’t it be a space spell that achieves that effect?”

“And you think you can find it?”

Max shrugged, “Worth a shot.”

The question floated in Max’s mind. How did the space-lock work? The obvious answer was it blocked space mana from interacting with space. But that wasn’t necessarily true. If he tried to manipulate space, he could briefly move it. That got him thinking. What if a set of rules were in place, like the Space Puzzles Xylem had given him? Only the lock broadcasted the puzzle in a massive area.

He saw two avenues of potential solutions. First, solve the puzzle. With enough time and resources, maybe. But the limited time frame caused more to be desired. Second, brute force. He thought through his college cybersecurity class. Brute forcing passwords took time, a lot of time. But magic wasn’t a program. At least, he didn’t think so. Runes had parallels, but not the spells that fueled them. With enough power any spell should be breakable.

He probed his surroundings with mana, touching but not manipulating space. He could feel everything, similar to his Faye Racial, but using mana. Space that was occupied felt firm, while space that was nothing but air was soft. He slowly folded a small area, it snapped back almost instantly. He tried with more power, finding the time it took to snap back had increased.

He tapped into the droplets of Divine energy he had slowly came to cultivate. He had added Divine to water and aura before, but not space. The small fold took a moment to revert. Before he could try again, a new challenger approached. It was a humanoid man, at least what was left of him.

With each step, footprints of fire trailed behind the man. His skin was charred black, with patches of bone jutting out. He was on fire but that didn’t seem to slow him down.

Smokeling:

Level 44

“C-ol-d.” The words sounded like nails on a chalkboard. Each syllable echoed pain, each step fear. A black Ice Spear ended its life.

Max stared at the corpse, it dwindled like cooling coals. He was looking at sentient life from the Fire Dimension. “It was cold.” He said, translating its words to the others.

“Best close the door then.” Vel thrust her thumb into the air.

“Yeah…” Space shifted, fueled by Divine mana. It bolstered his normal mana, extending the potency several fold. He misted his influence over the area, similar to the lessons Head Priestess Burk gave him for aura control. A clear cascade of spatial mana poured from a single location. The lock. Tendrils of power flicked around the area, twisting in a maze of impenetrable ever moving constructs. Max’s body recoiled with the relapse of the Divine. He was growing accustomed to the pain, but the ache lingered deep in his bones.

“Find it?” Vel asked.

“It was like a spotlight.” Max relayed the information to Emi, who gaped in exclamation.

When are you going to learn to do that? She asked.

Later. He replied, stepping over the corpse of the Smokeling.

King Tobyn Salae sat with his daughter. Eden stood off to the side talking with the two remaining knights. Rather, the only remaining knight. Two were a live but one was in no state to move or help. He sat motionless, his arm missing. It was bandaged in blood-soaked wrappings and dowsed with healing potions. It was bleeding slightly, occasional drips falling. It was the best they could do for him.

Tobyn hated seeing his men like this. It was his arm that was dismembered, not the poor soul who pledged to protect him. Sometimes the [King] felt his classes abilities were a curse. Was he really worth it? Does his title and position reflect lives sacrificed? He made a note to explain to Eden the effects of such magic. Would Eden see the harm in it?

They were surrounded by other survivors. A few dozen. Most were Centauri but leaders and their entourage from all over had survived. The able kept the hordes out while others sought transportation. Some were trying to send long-distance Mana Messages, making use of special items or rare potions, but it seemed like all were failing. The whole point of the Coalition was to remain isolated so events such as this didn’t happen.

Tobyn chewed his lip. Who could be the spy? He could clear himself, his kids, Vel, and the rest of Lesterwood. If Bella had any semblance of love for Salae and if she could see the future, the King believed she would have informed him in some way. Max’s arrival help solidified that idea. Lesterwood was not an enemy.

The one most likely to profit from such events would be The Mountain. If the Prophet foresaw events, he could easily make deals for things to go his way. But the King was hesitant with this line of thinking. The Mountain and Salae had very good relations. Both had helped each other out over the years, it would be a stretch for the Profit to easily turn traitor.

Renloc? It’s possible. Most of their leaders were corrupted by Vast Empire in the past. Who to say they weren’t waiting for an opening? A few decades are nothing in grand scheme to things. The tortured captain could have been a diversion, a good one at that. There was always the Assassins Guild. They would do anything for money. The Gnomes wouldn’t mind a payday also. As would the Hunlun Isles. Rumors had surfaced that after the death of their patriarch, Veline’s father, the Isles had been in a decline. Maybe this was their chance back into the limelight. A war would do that for a clan of healing mercenaries.

An explosion broke the King out of his thoughts. The battle ahead looked to be contained, just… Explosive. The portal was still producing monsters and the fires were continuing to blaze. They needed to leave, but Alia’s state dampened things. The King scanned around, most of the wagons or mountable beasts were dead or destroyed. The few that remained were stuck behind debris or had fallen into craters. They would walk if they had to, but that was only if Alia woke up soon.

The ground shook. That was the real worry, the King knew. The Inferno Magma Ram slowly paced around the area, sniffing items, or boiling other monsters alive. As it moved, a clear path of destruction followed. Since waiting with the other survivors, the Ram had gotten progressively closer. They would need to move soon as it would take a few raids to slay a beast of that caliber.

The King sighed, standing, and moving to his armless knight. The man was weak, pale, and in pain. He sat with the proud stature of a [Royal Knight], however. Even given the circumstances, he saluted and bowed the best he could. The [King] cringed, this was his doing.

“How are you feeling?”

“N-never better.” The knight’s voice cracked like a dry desert.

“We’re going to get out of here, we’ll find you the best prosthetic Salae makes.”

“Thank you, sir, but that is not necessary. It is my fault I lost it. I didn’t even see the attack.”

The King grimaced at his subjects misunderstanding. Maybe that was for the best, “Regardless-“

Briefly, out of the corner of his eye, Tobyn saw the small pool of blood beneath the knight’s stump shimmer. A spell he had seen before, and an omen for the true battle of the Coalition. Without hesitating, the King grabbed the man, ignoring his cries of pain. They moved away from the blood, as it vibrated and morphed.

“MAGES!” Tobyn yelled, alerting everyone nearby. Eden and the other [Royal Knight] moved to help. A few were old enough to recognize the spell currently taking place within the pool of blood. They yelled for their defenders, pointing, and shouting to attack. Very little could disperse the magic happening before their eyes, but they had to try.

Magic destroyed the area where the Knight once sat. Trails of smoke and clouds of dust filtered through the air, obscuring all hope. In reality, the leaders knew all hope had disappeared the moment the blood moved, as it could only mean one thing. A falling drop from the knight’s stump confirmed the barrage of attacks did nothing. As the drop fell, it pulled like metal shavings to a magnet. It landed softly and scurried through the rocks and dirt, finding a larger source like a lost wolf finding a scent of its pack.

The dust settled; small streams of blood were all draining together. As two shoeless feet began to form, purely of blood, the Inferno Magma Ram sniffed the air, turning in the direction of the survivors. The Blood [Queen] was coming.