It took all seven of the harpies to lift Maggie, the massive magma serpent far heavier than even a creature her size should be. Cen and Centoo were easier; though Levi and Gordon would have struggled to lift either of the stone centipedes between them, with a pair of harpies each the task proved simple enough.

The problem came when Pierce was fully loaded with their many deceased minions, and Levi noticed the strain in his gait. He'd be able to carry them, barely, and not quickly.

Stunner scooped up the limp remnants of Lash and Iris, Skarm and Two were walking, and Gordon put several of the smaller minions' bodies in Levi's backpack, but even just between Maggie, Cen, and Centoo it would be too much for Pierce to run with at full speed.

"You run on ahead," Gordon offered. "I'll come behind with them."

Levi only hesitated a moment. He wasn't comfortable leaving Gordon behind alone, but he trusted Pierce and Jayke and Silvie could handle anything short of an Essence break.

"I'll be fine. Go."

Levi needed no further prompting. With a gesture, he called his surviving minions. Skarm and Two hitched rides on two of the harpies, Stunner pranced along eagerly at Levi's side, and Storm and his entourage flapped overhead in a flurry of bladed wings.

Out of the dungeon, Levi stood still and focused, searching for his minion connections. He felt only two, aside from those with him, and from two different directions. Frowning, he slowed to check the minion table, only to discover what he should have realized sooner.

Minions Name Lvl Type Str Psy Spirit Health Mana Stamina Ward 7 Horned Gremlin + 20 0 15 0/350

(--/min) 0/0

(--/min) 0/400

(--/min) Drok 8 Cave Ogre + 7 0 1 0/500

(--/min) 0/20

(--/min) 0/120

(--/min) Becca 9 Rift Cat + 4 5 0 440/440

(+18/min) 2/250

(+12/min) 1/70

(+2/min) Crackle 7 Rust Scarab + 0 6 1 50/50

(+2/min) 10/160

(+16/min) 0/55

(+3/min)

Drok was dead. Ward was dead.

Becca and Crackle had their stamina bottomed out, but they were still alive. They were who he was sensing: Crackle to the south, Becca to the west.

Levi cursed himself for not checking sooner. He'd been losing so many minions during the long fight with the harpies, he'd grown used to a long list of greyed out names, eyes slipping past the specifics.

Peter should have been able to revive one of them, but maybe he'd prioritized his own minions. Why would they have lost so many? Had a dungeon run gone wrong? He'd have expected Drok to survive just about anything at his level.

Odds were that everyone was fine. The fact that the minions' bodies had been moved out of tether range while Levi was stationary meant they were being transported, and that meant there were survivors. In all likelihood, Levi was overreacting.

But something deep in his chest told him otherwise.

Levi pulled out a stamina restorative and swallowed it in one gulp, then took off running.

It was probably overreacting. Very likely, everyone was fine. But the weight of anxiety gripping his chest did not abate, however hard he tried to reason himself out of it. The dread suffusing him only grew by the minute. A familiar dread. It was the same thing he'd felt just before the demon portal opened over Alturas. The same suffocating feeling of nebulous impending doom as when he'd stood on the walls of a doomed city, waiting for the final call to fight the unwinnable battle.

Something was wrong.

Not for the first time, Levi wished he could see stats for his family like he could for his minions. If he could just check to be sure they were alright... but that was impossible. The only way to see someone's status was to be staring right at them.

Why had he thought it would be okay to leave his family behind? To separate them all over again? Just because he wasn't comfortable in crowds? Because seeing so many happy oblivious people made him want to scream at them to wake up, and he couldn't do that and couldn't handle knowing they would all die if he didn't?

Because he'd rather fight monsters than talk to strangers?

This was all his fault, whatever 'this' was. He should have been there. He'd promised himself he'd be there! He'd promised them he'd be there. And yet, where was he? Half a country away when they could be dying in a dungeon somewhere, or an Essence had gotten out and seen them as a nice high-level meal.

And whatever was happening, he couldn't do anything about it. It would be most of a day before he reached the end of his tether range, and he didn't even know which direction he should be heading. Crackle felt nearer, so he'd pick the scarab up first.

The fact that Crackle was growing ever nearer only accentuated his worry. He'd said to send the scarab if there was a problem and they needed him, and now Crackle had been sent.

Levi's gut hadn't been wrong. Everything was not fine.

He wasn't sure how clearly the little bug could communicate, but Skarm and Two were pretty good at interpreting for the other minions. If Crackle had seen what happened, maybe he could convey it through them.

He ran until his recovery potion ran out and his stamina depleted, then drank another and kept going. Stunner kept up with him effortlessly, but the harpy swarm had fallen behind. Storm lasted almost until he left Kansas, before admitting defeat. Levy slowed only long enough to transfer Skarm and Two to his own backpack, ordered Storm to catch up when he could and ran on.

Two more stamina restoratives later, Levi crossed Oklahoma and entered Texas. Crackle finally reached him a half hour before he entered New Mexico, allowing him to shift his southward arc and head straight for Becca.

By now, he was sure of her location. It had been uncertain for the first leg of the trip, but by now it was steady. Nevada.

There were no conventions on their itinerary in Nevada.

Crackle had been left behind in an entirely different direction.

Whatever was going on, it wasn't part of their plan. Maybe Cassandra had another wild idea and dragged Irene into it. Levi wouldn't put it past her. But the churning dread only grew stronger, and he knew he was only trying to convince himself.

He couldn't afford to make excuses. This was his failing. He'd abandoned his family. It didn't matter the reasoning, didn't matter the rationalizations.

Night fell as he crossed New Mexico. He drank another restorative and kept running. He sensed countless dungeons as he ran, some stronger than others, but none close to as strong as those he'd been looping through for the past weeks.

When his revive cooldown ended, he revived Lash. "Hold on tight," he ordered the soul-seeker, and Lash for once didn't try to do things his own way, clinging to Stunner's back with all eight tendrils. While large, he was light enough not to slow the eqralne's progress.

Levi cut across the corner of Colorado and into Utah. Halfway through, he ran into a canyon too wide to jump, and was forced to change course until he could find a bridge or narrow point. If he'd still had the harpies with him, they could have flown him across, but it wasn't worth the delay to slow down enough for them to stay with him.

He'd used nearly all his stamina restoratives as he finally began to slow his headlong rush, sensing he was very close.

Minor injuries had accumulated in his haste, from simple scrapes to bleeding gashes caused by brushing against rocks or plowing through tree branches. Anything could be dangerous moving at his speed, and with his recovery all diverted into stamina his health hadn't been able to recover. He wasn't going to stop just to wait out his stamina restorative, but now that he was close he should at least make some effort not to run blindly into whatever awaited him.

It was still dark as he topped the final hill, and a massive black cat teleported in front of him, another copy of Crackle flying up a moment later.

Levi slowed to a stop, his breathing regulated and steady as he stared down at the brightly-lit village before him.

"Alright, everyone. What can you tell me?"