The skies turned darker and darker as time passed as if to signify the impending tumult that was about to beset Erin and her companions.

“We are surrounded,” said Siv, who had also climbed on top of the carriage’s cart. “I smell the scent of hostiles from all sides.”

“Let them come,” Amyra scoffed with a grin. “We are the followers of the Dragon God. We should not be afraid of them. It is them who should be afraid of us.”

Nivia rolled her gaze upon hearing the Augur’s bold words but she did not make any remark, having gotten used to Amyra’s arrogance.

“The Dragon God is dead,” muttered Aedan, ironically, who was the heir to the dead god’s throne.

“A god is never truly dead as long as no one loses faith in them,” Amyra countered. “Your words, Your Grace, not mine.”

“...I must have been drunk when I said that.”

“When was the last time you got drunk, Your Grace?”

Aedan shrugged. “When I said those words, I suppose.”

“They’re coming!” Lyra shouted, bringing everyone’s attention in the direction she was gazing at.

To their right, from quite a distance away, a swarm of tiny flying creatures were heading towards them.

“What are those things?” Nivia asked with a ghastly frown.

“Jagged Wings,” Siv answered in a mumble that was barely audible. “Nasty creatures. Watch out for their wings. It can cut through wood like cheese.”

“The Skinwalkers again?”

“Skinwalkers or not, they will rue the day they turned us into their enemies.”

While the Elf and the Beastkin were bantering, the Jagged Wings came close enough for all to see their nasty appearances. There were hundreds of them. True to their name, the Jagged Wings had wings with edges resembling that of a saw.

While they were only as big as a toddler, they were thousands of times deadlier than one. As proof, their wings grazed the tree trunks and branches as they flew, easily cutting those wood down.

“Shall I just burn them all at once?” Amyra asked.

“No,” Nivia immediately rebuked. “You’ll cause a forest fire.”

“Allow me,” Erin said and unleashed bolts of lightning that easily struck down the Jagged Wings with deadly precision. However, Erin could only strike down so many at once.

The Jagged Wings still had more than half of their numbers when Erin’s spell barrage came to an end, but the group didn’t despair.

Aedan shot down as many as he could with his rifle. Nivia and Lyra brought down as many as they could with their arrows. Meanwhile, Amyra could only just watch as all of her means of ranged attacks would only result in burning down the whole forest.

Aera and Lilian had their hands full with the reins, so they couldn’t join in on the assault.

It was at that moment Lilian thought of something and spoke up. “Amyra, sweetheart, how about you take the reins and I’ll take your place in the assault. I can hurt the enemies without destroying the whole forest.”

“What? You mean to be on a passive duty while we are—”

“Listen to her,” Erin said, cutting the Augur off before she could complain any further.

Amyra immediately complied and switched with Lilian.

Without any help, Lilian climbed on top of the carriage with graceful movements as if the rushing winds did not affect her balance at all. Once there, she readied a few green stones in her hands, gripping them tightly as they glowed.

When the remaining Jagged Wings flew close enough to the two carriages, barbed vines emerged from the ground and impaled all of the remaining Jagged Wings.

“Should have let me intervene sooner, won’t you agree, Erin?” Lilian asked with a titter.

“Better late than never,” Erin responded. “We have more incoming.”

As soon as Erin warned her companions, a loud screech filled the air. Erin and Nivia winced in pain as the sharp noise resounded.

“Oh… shite,” Aedan cursed under his breath.

“What was that?!” Aera asked in a frightened tone.

“That, my dear, is the cry of a Wyvern,” Lilian answered with her usual ever-present smile but a faint hint of unease was present in her expression.

“Ah… that’s not good,” Amyra muttered as she looked to the sky and saw a great winged terror splitting the storm clouds.

“This is bad,” Siv said.

“Fucking false dragons,” Amyra growled. “They give our god a bad name.”

“I am still a Fae of Willowglade. Aeryo is not my god,” Nivia firmly asserted.

“Oh, come on. I wasn’t being specific.”

“It’s coming,” Erin said with a raised voice to reel everyone’s attention back on track.

“Huh? It’s armoured,” Lyra mused.

“Military grade,” Aedan added. “Forged with a proper smith.”

“Armours for a mount of that size are not something anyone can just make,” Siv explained. “Our opponents possess immense resources.”

As the Wyvern flew closer, the insignia on the headpiece of the Wyvern’s armour became clear to everyone’s eyes. The insignia was similar to the insignia of Aeryo but the serpent looked more ferocious and it was crushing its tail instead of simply gently biting on it.

Aedan widened his eyes and so did Amyra.

Erin noticed the two’s reactions. “What is it?”

“Unbelievable,” Amyra scoffed. “It lives on.”

“Isn’t that Aeryo’s insignia?” Lyra questioned.

Aedan sighed. “It’s complicated,” he said and began firing his rifle at the descending Wyvern.

An ethereal spherical barrier appeared around the Wyvern and the bullets bounced right off.

“The armour is enchanted,” Aedan muttered.

The rider of the Wyvern, a fully armoured individual in dark red, rose from their saddle and started walking their way across the Wyvern’s body. The armour of the person was painted with a series of joint tattoos.

“For Aerys!” the armoured individual shouted before breaking into a dash and jumping right off the Wyvern once he reached its head. They were falling towards the carriages.

“A fucking looney!” Lyra exclaimed and aimed her bow at the falling zealot. She released an arrow but the arrow broke against the zealot’s armour.

Aedan fired another shot but the bullet only dented against the armour.

Erin conjured a Lightning Spear and threw it at the zealot. The lightning projectile exploded once it hit its mark, but the zealot came out unscathed and continued falling towards them.

“Slow down the carriage!” Aedan shouted.

The carriages slowed and the zealot streaked over the carriages. They crashed into the ground and tumbled for some distance before hitting a large tree that stopped its crash.

The zealot spared no time writhing in agony over its harsh fall and leapt right back to its feet with light movements as if the armour wasn’t weighing it down in the slightest.

As the zealot began charging at the carriages that were picking up speed, Aedan fired shot after shot at the zealot but not a single bullet penetrated its armour.

Erin threw an Aura Shot at the charging zealot but it only slowed him down without even denting its armour.

Lyra shot an arrow that was aimed at the visor gap on the zealot’s helmet. The zealot dodged the arrow but the projectile came around and flew towards its mark again. The zealot grabbed the arrow before it could strike him.

Then, the arrowhead emitted a blinding flash of light that stunned the zealot. Taking the opportunity, Aedan fired a precise shot that struck the zealot’s head through the visor gap.

Just then, the Wyvern that was the zealot’s mount had gotten near to them. It bared the talons of its hind limbs and lunged at the carriages.

Vines erupted from the ground as the Wyvern drew near, grasping at its limbs. The Wyvern shrieked in terror and quickly made its ascent to avoid the vines’ grasp. However, Nivia slowed the Wyvern down by restraining it with Wind Magic, Air Hammer.

The Wyvern was pulled to the ground and immobilised as more vines coiled themselves around the massive winged terror, allowing the carriages to emerge from danger, albeit only temporarily.

Before any of them could catch their breath, cries of monsters could be heard from the forest around them, drawing closer to them.

“Drakes,” Amyra mused. “No doubt they are Aerysians.”

“Just who are they?” Nivia asked as her gaze darted around, wary of their approaching enemies.

“Like the Aeryons, they worship the Dragon God but they worship a different Dragon God.”

Erin’s interest was piqued. “There’s another Dragon God?”

“There’s only one Dragon God but many like to believe there’s two. In truth, there’s only one but a coin has two sides.”

Erin immediately understood Aedan’s implication. “This… Aerys… is the dark side of Aeryo?”

“That’s one way to look at it. It would be more apt to say Aerys is the physical manifestation of Aeryo’s darkness. The Aerysians are those that believe Aerys is the true Dragon God, the true side of Aeryo.”

“His Grace had taken the liberty to hunt all those bastards down to avoid Aeryo’s name from being tarnished.” Amyra nonchalantly said.

“But somehow, we are being pursued by Aerysians as we speak,” Nivia pointed out.

“Ideas are immortal,” Aedan retorted. “You can’t kill an idea. You can only replace it.”

Suddenly, a loud roar swept over the group.

“There’s a lot of them,” Erin said.

“This is getting annoying,” Amyra muttered.

“We’re nearing the cliffs!” Aera shouted as rows of hills came into sight.

“Things are about to get more than annoying,” Aedan remarked.

“What do we do?” Aera asked in a rush. “Slow down?”

A Drake emerged from the forest at that moment, nearly ramming into the carriages. There were three riders on top of the Drake, all wearing a similar kind of armour as the zealots Aedan had just eliminated.

The Drake began chasing the carriages down after its appearance and the riders readied themselves to leap onto the carriages at any moment.

Erin used Warp and moved herself to the back of the Drake but she nearly missed her timing and positioning. She quickly regained her poise and bearings before flourishing her swords at the armoured zealots.

Two of the zealots immediately fell victim to Erin’s graceful and deadly bladework but the third parried her slash and countered with his own.

Erin performed a counter riposte that ended with the tip of her sword through the zealot’s neck. The notification of her experience’s increment assured her of her enemies’ death but that wasn’t needed as the bodies simply fell off the Drake.

“Forgive me,” Erin said before stabbing her sword into the Drake’s head and quickly leaping towards the carriage afterwards with Lightning Rush.

“That was neat,” Lyra praised.

“And dangerous,” Erin replied. “One wrong step and everything could have ended very differently.”

“If you are so worried, maybe you should stop doing that sort of thing,” Aedan suggested.

Erin chuckled. “Not in a million years.”

Aedan was about to give a witty retort when suddenly ducked down, pulling Amyra and Nivia with him. Erin also ducked low, taking Lyra with her in her sudden deliberate fall. Siv did not duck down but merely took a few steps back.

A beam of red energy streaked overhead the carriage, barely missing the group.

“What was that!?” Aera screamed. Though she was the furthest away from the beam being the one in the coach seat, she did feel the intense deadly energy from the beam.

“I have not felt this energy in years but… it’s a Lindwurm, no?” Amyra ventured a guess as she picked herself up.

“Yes, it is a Lindwrum,” Aedan confirmed.

Erin stared in the direction where the beam came from. “What’s a Lindwurm?” she asked.

“A serpent dragon with a pair of front limbs but no hind limbs.”

“How is its tenacity?”

“It dies if you sever its head like most living things but its scaly hide is quite tough… I wager only your Mystic Blade can cut it but even then, it moves very quickly too. You’ll have to be faster if you want to cut its head.”

“Or strike its heart,” Amyra added.

“Good luck getting through its steel-like ribs that encaged its heart.”

In the middle of their discussion, Erin felt the first drop of rain. And then, an idea appeared in her head and she smiled. “Why didn’t I think of this sooner?”

“Thought of something good, Mistress?” Siv inquired after noticing Erin’s sudden smile.

“Yes,” Erin answered as her smile widened. “The storm would become our ally after all. Well, my ally, at least.”