“Queen Nekova! The…the underground river had been blackened!”

When Mila woke up to that news brought forth by Ilia, her jaws dropped before she hurried to get dressed and rushed out to the land of stones on his special chariot. Despite how ridiculous that phrase sounded to her drowsy mind, it was an entirely accurate description.

All of the workers that worked overnight to put down the new batch of spherical Casts had all been knocked out cleanly without any recollection of what happened, and when they woke up the next day with booming headaches, the blood of Necrovia had already been turned into what seemed like ink fluids as it blackness splashed against the white backdrop of the river tunnel walls.

“Those bastards…” Mila clenched her fist and ground her teeth as veins protruded over her forehead.

“What should we do?!” Ilia asked, “Some workers had already tested the small spherical Cast against the water, and…nothing happened…”

“We will need to cut our losses.” Mila commanded, “This couldn’t have occurred all over Necrovia by now! Travel as far as you need to separate the clean parts of the river from the polluted parts! Now!”

With a unified salute, the workers and the guards got to work, led by Ilia. In the meanwhile, the PORA commanders that came to Necrovia with her emerged from the shadows and performed a regular greeting.

“Your majesty, what would you like us to do?” He asked, fixing his bald head.

“Spread the rumors of Tonya’s treachery through the capital. I want every low life in the bars talking about her sabotage by tomorrow.” Mila said, “Any news on our messengers at the Dune’s Diamond?”

“We have had infiltrators positioned in the city, but the leadership had proven more than stubborn to accept our invitation.” He said, lowering his voice despite no one else being around, “They appeared to be loyal to the old king as extensions of the Galza family, and will not submit without further persuasion. If we have more than a handful of squads, we can do more than operate in the dark or sending a messenger or two.”

“The capital and nearby regions take priority.” Mila shook her head, “We must stabilize one zone at a time. However, keep watch over it, as that’s the only place Tonya could go apart from leaving the country.”

“Wouldn’t that pose an issue?” The commander asked, looking at Mila’s eyes as she smiled coldly.

“They already have plenty of issues of their own to deal with.”

After their night raid in the land of stones that resulted in the poisoning of the underground rivers, Tonya had finally revealed their next destination as the group planned its next steps.

“You are telling us that you have an actual hometown all this time?” Augen threw his hands up, “Why haven’t you been heading there then? Why are we even sticking around the capital?!”

“Because that’s where the majority of Necrovia's population resided, and where I grew up…” Tonya said, lowering her head as she slowed her talking, “I have only ever been to the Dune's Diamond once, and…I didn’t like it…”

“You didn’t like it? Why?” Wu pursued further when Tonya swallowed nervously and looked back up at him.

“You will see.”

Another reason that Tonya didn’t even consider going back to the Dune’s Diamond was also due to its distance. From the Dune’s Eye, Necrovia’s capital, it would have been a whole week of travel on camelback before they get remotely close to the outer regions of the Dune’s Diamond. In comparison, it was far closer to get to the border had she not got lost and actually traveled eastward.

As opposed to the boiling hot and dry weather, the western part of Necrovia was cooler, though the dryness both in terms of water and the Wave persisted. Throughout most of their journey, they were alone. However, they occasionally came across colonies of bugs and snakes before taking a swift detour and leaving those alone.

Eventually, they found their way onto a dirt road as the sand underneath their feet gradually transitioned to cracked soil and rocky rubbles, and according to Tonya, it will be another day of travel until they reach the Dune’s Diamond.

They saw another human for the first time in days after twelve more hours of travel, however, it was a pair of coiled-up corpses by the road, and Tonya hurried to bury it before the group moved on.

“Everything is looking far worse than I remembered…” Tonya murmured, scraping her hands along the cracks in the ground and the sharpened edges between each tile before she scanned the road ahead, “There used to be fields of long grass and wheat…”

“All of this?” Wu asked, and Tonya nodded before turning around, “Endless fields of green, as far back as the dirt roads themselves, almost like a wall that stood in the way of the dessert and kept it back...”

Wu and Lera shared a glance before they continued heading forward.

Eventually, branches of other dirt roads joined the current one that they were traveling on as they spotted more and more people moving with baskets and tools in hand, each minding their own business. To them, groups of people riding a chariot was a rare sight to behold, though there was nothing more than a couple of lingering stares from them.

The outline of the Dune’s Diamond eventually emerged from behind the thin dusty haze floating overground, and compared to the towering Palace of a Thousand Steps and the countless townhouse and bustling markets of Necrovia's capital, the Dune’s Diamond's only got a short ugly brown wall to show for itself.

There were crowds of people lining up on the outside, each person holding a bucket and waiting patiently when every so often, one individual collapsed by the side of the road before their bodies were dragged into the shadows to cool down.

Along the side of the road, the ditches were filled with trash and bugs where water would have been.

Lera dispelled the chariot Cast not too long before they reached the outer regions of the Dune’s Diamond, and they traveled on foot, bypassing the lines of people and heading straight into the city.

“Halt!” Eventually, their progress was stopped by a set of guards carrying blades, “Don’t you see the line there? Go wait like everybody else!”

“We are simply trying to get into the city.” Tonya said, taking half a step forward.

“The city’s off-limits to outsiders.” The guard stood firmly, “Without a special pass, nobody’s allowed in.”

“Let us in.” A surge of Wave pooled over Tonya’s eyes, and the crowned patterns flashed briefly before the guard stood tall, nodded, and moved to the side with a half-bow.

As the group strolled into the city, Tonya turned around to Augen before giving him a little tap on the shoulder, “I…don’t remember any of this…Everything had changed so much...”

The lines outside stopped right by the city walls, where slightly muddy water from a single well was continuously being pumped to fill up the buckets of the people on the outside. As opposed to the desolate landscapes outside, the inner city streets were kept cleaner, and townspeople walked around in their fancier-looking casual clothes.

“So…what now? Who do we talk to?” Wu asked when Tonya pressed a finger into her temple and tried to bring back the memories from her past. She remembered her family’s mansion located in the center of the city, however, everything looked a little different than what she remembered.

First of all, she did not remember anything about all of these guards everywhere. There were ones stationed outside every storefront, and more just roaming the streets.

Secondly, she remembered the Dune’s Diamond being filled to the brim with greenery by the sides of the road, however…the sand pits spaced out at regular intervals by the roads were all that remained.

“The Glaza household should still be in control of my uncle still…” Tonya said, “I haven’t seen him in years…but he seemed to be in good health last time, and he wouldn’t have been replaced by the meat…puppets you talked about.”

“Though his allegiance is not known to us yet.” Wu reminded as Tonya nodded slowly in agreement.

“If anything, we are not seeing any PORA agents around here at all.” Augen said, “No Wave, from anybody. Seemed like PORA’s sphere of influence hadn’t reached here.”

“Or they are just great at hiding.” Wu added when Augen nodded his head and sighed.

The Glaza family mansion was the most heavily guarded place of them all, and the group had collectively decided to wait until nighttime before they sneak in to gather more information without revealing their arrival to many people. Taking refuge back behind a bar, they then waited patiently while restocking their supplies.

Then, as night came and the curfew began, the groups made their way into the night. With Ver’s Whirlpool Purple, they moved from one shadow to the next, bypassing the fences of the Glaza mansion when they came across another group of intruders.

They hid their presence expertly and were only spotted out by Augen’s incredible hearing plus Lera’s scouting eyes. Tonya kept the five hidden as they watched the other group move through the garden to the back with buckets in hand before they pumped away water from an additional well in the garden.

“No way…” Tonya clenched her fist, “This is ridiculous…How could they be hoarding water when a drought like that was happening outside…”

“Let’s get a move on.” Augen said, when he suddenly picked up sounds of scooting footsteps from all around them before torches were lit up from all around, illuminating the darkness and revealing both groups at the same time.

“Stop right there and put your hands up where I can see them!”

The groups of guards drew their blades and surrounded the garden, as the groups of thieves dressed in black immediately drew their blades and tried to make a run for it.

“Take what you can and run!” One of the thieves shouted behind before he drew his own long thin saber and held it in front of him as the rest dashed away.

“Stop right there!” A second squad of guards surrounded the exit paths, causing the groups of runners to rethink their escape routes. That was when the guards also noticed Ver’s group cowering in the corner in silence.

At that moment, Ver instantly warped everyone away with her Whirlpool Purple, except for Tonya who had leaped forward and stepped out of the range of the ability.

“Tonya!” Ver said through her suppressed shout, “What are you doing?!”

“Doing what’s right.” Tonya said, taking off her facial cover and stepping into the light as the thieves and the guards kept their weapons drawn while looking at her, “Stop! Right now!”

“Who the hell are you?” The guards asked when Tonya revealed her brown skin and looked at him with her light blue eyes.

“I am Tonya Glaza, the surviving member of the royal family."