Eric expected to find a swarm of enemies ready to fight him when he finally broke out of the tunnels underneath the palace. The entire population of Infernals, led by the Primeval who would regroup them, and whatever manner of overwhelming magical attacks they could conjure would surely appear the instant he did. But what he found instead was a different kind of chaos.
Dozens of smaller groups were moving around the city below him as he stood at the crest of the hill looking down. He could count them not by sight, but by the pillars of smoke and individual explosions of spells that reverberated through the otherwise silent city. The Kabe Warriors noticed this as well. He could hear them discussing it amongst themselves behind him as he mulled the situation over, trying to decide what their next course of action should be.
He’d made it seem like he had a clear goal in mind when the Kabe Warriors had come to his rescue, of course. But as far as he’d known, his only job for this attack had been to use World Shift to get into the capital’s underground and destroy enough runes to allow the others to teleport in. Well, now he’d done that, and he realized that, in the event that he was successful, Ehran hadn’t shared with him the rest of the plan.
“Maybe he thought I’d fail,” he mused to himself. The thought, as grim as it was, brought a smile to his face. “Not like I had high hopes for the endeavor.”
“What was that, Master Breeden?” The Captain of the Kabe Warriors had stepped up. He was careful not to stand side by Eric, choosing instead to stay respectfully behind.
“Nothing,” Eric said. “Just getting a better understanding of the situation.”
The man nodded, though his expression showed that he didn’t quite understand his reply. “Right you are sir. So, where are we off to next?”
Eric considered that as he continued watching the fights in the city below. There were surprisingly few spots of conflict for how many people were enlisted in the attack. Maybe they were on the other side. He went over to check but found the other half of the city surprisingly peaceful. No fights there. It didn’t connect in his mind that nearly half of the runes still worked, and maintained a barrier over that portion of the city. He returned to his first perch, frowning thoughtfully.
“He doesn’t seem to be taking part in the fighting,” He muttered. “That’s surprising.”
“Who is that, Master Breeden?”
“The Primeval,” Eric answered him. He saw the confused look persist, and added, “I felt how powerful he was. As hard as you hit him, he’s nowhere near out of the fight.”
The Captain looked doubtful but withheld his disagreement. Such things weren’t seemly for a professional soldier, after all. He wasn’t the type to break ceremony and argue with an officer. “So shall we hunt him down?”
“That’s what we’re planning on doing.”
It was a familiar voice, and yet in a way, it was entirely different. The Kabe Warriors all tensed, prepared for an attack, but he turned to face the direction of the voice. “I’m surprised to hear from you. Thought you’d died in the original attack.”
“Not for a lack of trying,” Megan said, stepping out of thin air to land a few feet in front of him. A half-second later, Michael appeared too, standing at her side. The spellblade gave him a respectful, if perhaps not friendly nod, and left the conversation to Megan. She gave Eric a warm smile. “Alice got me out as quickly as she could.”
“So where have you been the past week?” He asked. His tone wasn’t accusatory, but he thought that her skills could have proven useful. “Did Master Ehran recruit you for the attack too?”
Her eyes widened slightly as he mentioned the time frame, and he was struck with the sudden thought that perhaps she hadn’t realized how much time had gone by. But she resolved her expression quickly and shook her head. “We didn’t know there would be an attack. We came back here to, err…”
She looked pointedly at the Kabe warriors, trailing off. Honorable warriors they might be, but she couldn’t be sure of anyone’s trustworthiness just then. Eric gave her a reassuring wave. “You can trust them. They’ve helped a lot with the crisis.”
“Right. Well, to put it simply, we’re here to kill the Primeval.”
He wasn’t sure exactly what he’d been expecting her to say, but it hadn’t been that. Megan was far from cowardly, but she was a big-picture kind of woman, more content to help as far as she could, rather than focusing on a single point. She wouldn’t be the type to decide on the assassination of an enemy leader. Which meant, to Eric, that the mission had come, not from her, but from her Infernal partner.
“What does Alice have against the Primeval?” He asked. He thought he knew, but the question served as a test. He should start trying to confirm Alices’ loyalties as soon as possible. “Does she have a grudge against him or something?”
“You could say that. He’s her father,” Megan answered. Then she caught Eric’s total lack of surprise at this revelation and frowned thoughtfully. “Which you already knew.”
“Just found out,” he said affably. “When I was fighting him.”
Alice had switched places with Megan in an instant. The speed with which they switched actually startled him. It was just as fast as the Primeval had switched with Averin. The Infernal girl stepped close, coming face-to-face with him. The Kabe Warriors reacted at once, reaching for their weapons, but Eric stopped them with a look. Alice poked him in the chest.
“You fought against my father?” She asked, looking incredulous. “And you survived, being so weak?”
“Thanks for your vote of confidence,” he said dryly. “Yes, I fought them. I didn’t win, but he was pushed away.”
“Which way did he go?” Michael asked, joining in on the conversation at last. “And how much damage were you able to do to him?”
“I don’t know which direction he went, as I met him underground. I was taking out the runes that prevented teleportation into Milagre by hostile forces. But I stabbed him through the stomach, Hunter messed the shoulder of his sword arm pretty badly, and the Kabe Warriors inflicted quite a bit of damage on him.”
“But no worryingly critical injuries,” Alice said with a scowl. “So in other news, he’s probably perfectly fine.”
There was nothing Eric could say to that, so he simply shrugged. “We’re still relatively fresh. I was just thinking that we should try again before you joined us.”
“Good,” Megan said, appearing faster than he could blink. He frowned in confusion at the sudden improvement in just a week since they’d last seen each other. She adjusted the silver bracelets on her wrist and met his eyes with a stern resolve. “That’s what we’re doing too. I had a feeling you’d play a part.”
“What is so different about you two?” Eric asked, deciding to broach the subject now. “You both seem… stronger.”
“We’ve spent a few months training,” she replied. “Alice and Damien-”
“Damien?” Eric asked, glancing around as if looking for this third person.
Michael’s form shifted, just as quickly as Megan had done, and in his place, there was another Infernal. Tall, and lean, but with the whipcord strength of a fellow swordsman. He grinned at Eric’s surprised face and gave a nod of greeting. “Pleased to meet you, Eric. I’ve heard a lot about you from Michael.”
“And I’m sure it was all positive,” Eric replied, getting over his shock quickly. It was remarkable how adaptable he’d become in such a short time. “Pleasure. So, you haven’t really answered my question. What’s so different about you?”
“They’re both High Infernals,” Hunter said. The wolf had been strangely silent until that moment as if he too had been trying to comprehend the change in the people he remembered from before.
“We’re High Infernals now,” Megan explained to him. Then she shifted a little and frowned. “Well, technically. We’ve reached the highest form our partnership allows, but Alice and Damien aren’t that powerful compared to the average High Infernal.”
“Three Makahans,” Hunter growled. Eric couldn’t tell how the wolf felt about that. “I never thought this would be possible.”
“You’re barely six years old,” Eric told him, then realized he’d spoken aloud and grimaced. “Sorry. Hunter’s just surprised.”
“So he can talk now?” Megan asked, her eyes lighting with that old interest whenever something undiscovered was put before her. “How did that come about?”
“I’ll tell you later,” he said, grinning in spite of himself as he caught the mildly irritated look on her face. “Any idea how we’ll track the Primeval down? When it was just me I stood no real chance, but he’s not likely to come if we have a shot at killing him.”
“My father’s not a coward,” Alice said, taking over again. “He’ll recognize that we’re a true challenge, and come to meet us.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because if he ignores us, then word will get out, and his followers will see him as weakening,” Alice said. Her smirk was no longer sarcastic. It was more… hungry. “He can’t risk that, as he rules on fear and power. So he’ll have to face us. We just have to get his attention.”
Eric considered that, seeing the, for lack of a better term, good sense of the statement. “Well, that’s certainly an option. And there’s really only one way we can show off enough power to get his attention.”
When Alice frowned, looking confused, he inclined his head meaningfully towards the city. “Master Ehran said that there were two attacks planned. What if we can make it so that there’s only one?”
Slowly, a grin spread over the Infernal girl’s face. Even Damien looked pleased at the idea. The easiest way to get an Infernal interested, he thought with a suppressed laugh. Promise them violence and chaos. In previous years, he might have thought that statement unfair. But after nearly a week of seeing their brutal nature, he didn’t have that misgiving anymore. In fact, that very brutal nature would come in handy for what was coming. The more ferociously Alice and Damien fought, the better their odds of success.
Megan and Michael switched back and gave their nods of agreement as well. Eric turned back to the Kabe Warriors. “I’ll understand if you’re not up to taking on the enemy’s leader with us. You're consigned to protect the innocent after all, so I won’t judge-”
He stopped short at the look of fierce determination on the men’s faces. They were all standing tall and proud, ready for the challenge. Even the two mages, who wouldn’t benefit from the protective enchantments of the warriors, look determined. He could see the light of challenge that had been lit in all of them and shook his head slowly. As if he’d ever had a reason to doubt their willingness to fight.
“Alright,” he said. “I’ll accept your resolve. But don’t forget the original mission. There are still some people to protect. If you have to choose between that and fighting, you know what to do.”
Something flashed overhead, catching their attention at once. They glanced up into the sky to see what it was, holding up arms to shield against the blinding sun in a clear blue sky. It looked like a dragon, Eric thought. Then he amended the thought. It was clearly a dragon-kin, with wings on its back. But even from here, he could detect the overwhelming power and chaos about the person, and, instinctively, they all could figure out who it was.
Bora Bora, the God of Dragons, Chaos, and Death, had descended to the mortal plane. Something was definitely off in the amount of chaos about him, but they couldn’t possibly guess what the reason for all that was. They were only aware of one thing, an unshakable thought that they didn’t speak, but knew to be true.
Someone, somewhere, had provoked his wrath, and though Eric could guess, it wasn’t absolutely certain who. It didn’t bode well for them, he thought.
