January 26, 2019, 5:29 pm.

The giant millipede doesn't notice either of its invisible watchers, continuing on its path straight towards Ivicka's compound at a speed that is frankly terrifying.

Wait a second. Is this the System's answer to my overpowered weapon request?

Note to self, request less slimy secret weapon next time.

Shortly before the massive millipede reaches the compound, it twists upwards, ascending several stories above the ground as if climbing an invisible wall. It teeters there for a second before crashing down, slamming the ground with such force I can see the shockwave distort the air, flattening the nearby trees. Luckily, Beth's nowhere near it. By the time the shockwave reaches her, it's just an extremely loud noise, the wind barely ruffling her hair.

"Did it just assault their base?" Beth asks in party chat. I love that invisibility mutes our sound yet we're still able to talk freely. Total cheat.

There's a pause as we all stare at where the millipede is twisting on the ground. A second later, two of the squidified-dragons fly from behind the low walls of rough stone (which seem to act more as an indication of the invisible forcefield than an actual deterrent.) At this distance, I'm only able to tell that one dragon is red and the other a blue so dark it almost seems purple.

Genitha's soft laughter precedes her answer as they resume flying towards the compound, "I… I think it did. I'll admit, I didn't expect that. Vothborean are generally less aggressive than that."

When they're only a kilometre from the compound, the millipede is running away with the dragons strafing it. The blue dragon is surrounded by a thick mist which it reshapes into whip-like tendrils, reinforcing the squid theme they're going with. The red dragon is thankfully just breathing regular old dragonfire. Which isn't so great for the Vothborean judging from the way it melts under each volley of fire, but there's something wrong about a dragon using their magic to form tentacles.

Apparently, the appearance of a giant millipede isn't enough to justify much of a response beyond the dragons. As Genitha and Beth close in on the wall, the Fallen stationed atop it barely register the fight between the behemoths to the north. They're no more cognizant of Genitha and Beth's attempt to bypass the warding scheme.

After three minutes, Beth's patience seems to run out. "What's taking so long? You said this should be easy."

"It should've been easy. But it's being powered by a type of mana I've never seen before that's hard to focus on. Which is making it interesting to bypass without setting off the alarm." Genitha doesn't sound upset. In fact, I think she might be enjoying herself.

It takes another two minutes for her to finish. As she works, the sounds of fighting dies out until I can barely hear the Vothborean thumping against the ground.

When Genitha completes whatever she was doing, a crack forms in the wall. The jagged stone opening doesn't look comfortable, but neither complain as they make their way through. Once inside, they head straight for the holding pen, keeping close to the ground under most of the flying Fallen traffic. There's so much flight in use that they run into several dead ends, having to carefully cross over before making it to the pens.

The crudely assembled structure causes me to wonder if the Fallen are incapable of using their stone magic for construction. I've seen at least two Fallen with stone floating over their heads, so I know they're available. As it is, the walls of the pen are composed of loosely stacked blocks, each the size of a refrigerator with the top open to the weather. Though rain seems to be kept away by the invisible barrier overhead.

When they reach the back of the barricade, Genitha starts laughing softly. "I thought they were idiots for using these. But if I try to reshape the stone, they'll know someone was here. It's a low magic tracking system. Someone is probably feeling incredibly clever. They may have even noticed our passage through the outer wall."

"We assumed we were on a clock. Best we keep moving."

"Wait. There's something else."

"What?" Beth demands.

"I'm not certain, something about the mana is off."

Beth manages to wait patiently for thirty seconds before she asks, "Anything?"

"Hmmm." Genitha hums to herself, which seems like a strange use of party chat, before responding, "It's some sort of illusion magic. Not twilight."

"Wait, why would there be illusion magic over the holding pens?"

"An excellent question child. Now hush, I need to concentrate."

The fact that they're both invisible makes me feel more tense instead of relaxed. My IFF only cares about where people are in relation to me, not where my perception of myself is. Which is to say, I have no idea what Genitha's doing, and only a vague idea of where she is.

So, I have no idea what she did to trigger the stone blocks to start reforming, but I'm hoping it was intentional. The cursing kind of indicates otherwise though. At first I'm unable to comprehend exactly what's happening, the downside to Beth being right next to it.

Well, that and the potential for being crushed by that massive foot that's forming from the stone blocks. Beth's view reorients so quickly, it takes me a moment to realize she dove back the way they came, peeking back around the corner at the rising golem.

"What the hell is that?" Beth screams into party chat.

"Unexpected." Genitha sounds amused.

"Yeah, no shit."

"Don't worry, it would appear our invisibility is sufficient to fool its senses. I'm more concerned with the lack of prisoners."

"What are you…" As Beth trails off it becomes apparent that the holding pen blocks that didn't go into forming the first massive golem went into a second slightly larger golem. Both golems are just standing there, as though waiting for orders. Or more likely a target.

As we're staring at the empty field, Beth's eyes narrow in on a barely raised section of dirt. "There, do you see that section? Just in front of number two's foot."

"Ah, yes. Good eye. An underground area."

Even as Genitha confirms Beth's suspicions, Beth jumps into motion, dashing straight for the covered hatch while ignoring the golems. "Straight in?" she asks as she skids to a stop above a hatch made of a wood the same colour as the surrounding earth.

"Go ahead. I'll provide cover. You investigate."

"Fine." With that, Beth twists the handle, only opening the hatch wide enough to peek through. Even as Beth is lifting the cover, there's a roar from above. In addition to the golems, Ivicka is flying in on Asterix. Unlike the golems, Ivicka doesn't wait until she can see the threat. She starts tossing fireballs, blanketing the area. Beth's attention returns to the hatch. When she sees an empty shaft that drops roughly five metres, she slips through, bracing against the wall then sliding along before killing her momentum with a roll at the bottom. I'm not sure if she remembers I'm tagging along, but I'm pretty sure she didn't need to be so fancy.

Pressing against the wall next to the only doorway leading out of the shaft, she pokes far enough I can determine there's an empty hallway with heavy wooden doors blocking five doorways.

"Kid, you seeing this? I think it's a good spot for you to port to."

"Yeah. On it." I've already established my anchors, so I'm able to appear next to her a second later. The moment I appear, I feel as though there's a cloying pull on my skin. The mana here feels… wrong. Like motor oil poured over pancakes.

Shaking it off, Beth confirms I'm here then begins checking the first door on the left. Immediately, she comes across a group of shackled K'tharn who meet us with suspicious stares. Each of them have masks over their heads, inhibiting speech. Genitha warned us this might happen. It can be challenging to keep a user contained without the use of special restraints to disrupt their mana.

The restraints could be removed, if the user who put them in place disables them. Since, it's unlikely Ivicka will comply with such a request, that leaves us with breaking the enchantment. Which can be done, but each set would take Genitha several minutes. Rufka and Tipan would take even longer. Which means it's a later priority. Ergo, teleport everyone to safety first, break them free later.

It takes some convincing to get the prisoners to come with us, but once they do, I start organizing them to ensure we don't bring any of the wall with us. When Beth opens the second room, I'm still trying to get the first group out. There's a bit of a scuffle as several K'tharn from the second group want to leave first. We manage to get things sorted out thanks to some understanding K'tharn in the first group, but we decide to finish each room before opening the other doors.

While I escort the prisoners out, Beth keeps a watch over the unopened doors from the access shaft. Before I know it, the first three rooms have all been cleared out. Tipan and Rufka are even attempting to break the enchantments binding them. I'm opening the door to the fourth when we're interrupted by Fallen entering the prison.

They don't tell me to stop or give a word of warning.

They never got the chance.

Beth was waiting for them. The moment they flew into the hallway, she calmly dispatched their entire squad.

Sneak attack with an armour ignoring automatic weapon. Nasty.

Deciding it'd be best if the prisoners don't see the bodies, I quickly use my AOE looting ability, revealing another Soulstone. It disappears, likely into Beth's hand, while I turn my attention back to the prisoners, teleporting the next group out. By the time I make it back, Beth's defeated another group of Fallen. I was only away for a minute.

They're coming faster.

"Hate to hurry you, kid, but they know we're here."

"Kinda guessed that. Only one room left."

Room at the end of the hall. Cause if any room isn't going to be full of holding cells, this would be it. With that in mind, I advance in accelerated time with invisibility up. Popping open the door, I glance through, before ducking back.

There are three unshackled K'tharn in the room, playing a game of Astra's stride. If it wasn't for recognizing Cristha, I almost wouldn't have noticed they were Fallen. She's had work done. The ripped throat and other damage has been filled in with a rough patchwork. The dark green patches stand out against her grey and black fur. They don't seem to have noticed me. Taking another quick peek, I confirm all three are intensely focused on the game. I also notice a faint set of glowing runes inscribed along the floor and walls between the door and their table.

Huh, wonder what that's about.

While I'm staring at the runes, one of the gaming Fallen pauses partway through their turn, glaring at me. Or more likely the open door I'm leaning through.

They straighten slightly before calling out, "Ivicka, we already told you. It doesn't matter what you do to us. We're not going to help you."

Uhh. Okay.

This seems like a Beth thing.

"I've got Awoken Fallen who are… uhm, rebels, I guess," I tell Beth through party chat. "They think I'm Ivicka. Telling me they're not going to help. Oh, now they've started insulting her parentage. That doesn't seem fair to Tipan's mom."

"Kinda busy. Did you get all the prisoners out?"

"Everyone except them."

Our conversation is interrupted when everything shakes. One of the heavy wooden doors splits and cracks, splinters flying everywhere. In the shaft I hear lightning crackle.

"Kay. Your call kid, but decide quick."

My call?

I never make decisions like this. This is way too important.

Another shake of the everything and I'm already stepping into the room, dropping my invisibility again to a barrage of insults that cuts out when they realize I'm not Ivicka.

"Hey, I know you! You're one of Roberts's friends," Cristha exclaims. Her voice no longer has the smooth dulcet tones that she once apologized to a bemused Roberts with. Now it's as though she's scraping steel-wool cloth on a chalkboard with the resulting noise forming words.

Clearly, the patch to her throat is not entirely effective.

"Uh, yeah. I'm Alexis. Look, we don't have a lot of time. I can get you out of here."

"Are you going to kill Ivicka?" The Awoken who first noticed me open the door asks.

I shrug as I start laying anchors on their side of the glowing glyphs. "Probably, though that's not really my department. I'm just the ride."

Even as I speak, I send Rufka a message asking her to move away from the others. No reason to bring them to a group of helpless prisoners. Not yet.

"You're going to need the…" Cristha starts but trails off when I appear on their side of the glowing runes. Which is when it occurs to me that I might not be able to get out. But my connection to Rufka is still strong. "Nevermind."

"Yeah, I know. Now keep your arms and legs inside the circle. Anything outside the glowing ring won't be coming with us."

They gather closer than strictly necessary before I teleport back to where Rufka's hiding out. Giving Rufka a quick half-hug, I let Beth know they're out.

"Great. Ivicka's beat feet but she's got heavy support. Bring the others."

Right. I have no idea what Beth means by beat feet, but the prisoners are safely extracted. Time to take the fight to Ivicka.

"Time to go," I tell Rufka, who glances at the unbound Awoken who I only now notice are watching us. But we don't have time to deal with them, so I take a step back, pulling Rufka with me before teleporting us to Tipan and Roberts. I don't need to say anything as we gather away from the prisoners. It's with a bit of guilt I realize if we fail, they're stuck in the middle of nowhere stuck in bindings that keep them from accessing their powers.

Still, better than being forcefully converted to a Fallen, right?

We appear just outside of the prison where Beth is taking pot shots at Asterix while dodging his breath weapon and tentacles. Genitha is currently flying around duking it out with another Fallen who's countering her every attack. One such block sends a shockwave strong enough to knock a couple points off my health.

Damn, getting the prisoners out was a good call.

There's a fraction of a second where we all take in the situation, picking targets. I don't see Ivicka but there are several Fallen attempting to flank Beth. Elemental energies are flying everywhere. If I wasn't able to slow down my perception of the battlefield with Accelerated-Time I'd be completely lost. But with it, Smoulder and I start blasting our way through the Fallen before they realize reinforcements have arrived.

Roberts moves to support Beth, his shields allowing her to focus on offence. Which results in Asterix retreating.

Scanning the battlefield for Ivicka, I find her trading fire with Tipan and Rufka. Looks like they found her before I did. I tell Roberts her location then move to support Tipan who was just sent tumbling by Ivicka. Rufka manages to draw Ivicka's attention before she can attack Tipan further.

I start slinging elemental discs, torrents and arrows at Ivicka. She hardly seems to notice. After more than thirty seconds of her barely dodging our attacks, I realize she's just playing with us. The grin on her face should have clued me in earlier.

And why shouldn't she play with us? Clearly she's stronger than we are.

But at least I've taken down more Fallen. I thought about looting them, but that can wait until later. It's not like I need to keep the ground clear with everyone and their dragon flying everywhere. In fact it works to our advantage, making it harder for the treants to reach us. They hit anything that gets close with enough force it's worse than getting hit by half a dozen Fallen at once. Not that they're surviving Smoulder's blazing attacks any better. She's not technically capable of flight, but you wouldn't know it with the way she's smashing her way through the treant ranks.

The greatest hazard the Fallen pose is hiding the much more dangerous attacks from Ivicka amongst their own spells. I've nearly taken three hits from Ivicka, only dodging because I'm moving in accelerated time.

Ivicka's been calling out for most of the fight, mostly insults about Tipan, but occasionally she'll try to include Rufka and me as well. Most of them are lost in the general roar of dozens of high powered spells. But she seems to be focused on insulting our lineage by referring to the fact we're descended from males.

I'm not sure if insults just aren't her forte, or if she thinks that having a male parent is truly that bad.

Doesn't matter, since she's keeping us from doing anything to her, so it's not like we can get her to stop. The best I've achieved is to knock her back slightly with a well-aimed Water Torrent. But most of the time, I can't even land one.

Then Genitha spares a single crimson bolt of energy in her direction before returning her attention to her opponent.

That single crimson bolt of energy strikes Ivicka's shoulder sending her spiralling into a nearby Fallen. She continues falling, eventually landing behind the broken body of one of the golems, itself reduced to a pile of rubble. We're unable to follow her, held back when a surge of Fallen arrives from the direction of her Sanctum. Fallen wouldn't have been enough on their own, but the pair of powerful Awoken accompanying them send us running for cover.

At least until Beth puts a hole in the one with the giant metal shield. It's easy for me to take out the other one after that, teleporting in close then unloading several Piercing Flame Arrows. They're exceptionally effective against the Fallen's Wind Shield.

I'm trying to find Ivicka again when she announces her presence in a way I never would have expected.

She shoots Genitha out of the sky.

A dark purple beam with sparks of crackling blue lightning spears straight through the massive steel block Genitha was using for a shield. It doesn't just cut through her shield, the beam pierces through Genitha's shoulder, tearing up towards her head as she collapses.

"MUM!"

Ivicka doesn't stop there. She's already turning the strange cannon in our direction when I pause time.

The beam is sweeping across the sky, splitting everything it passes through. Tipan barely dodges above the beam. Ivicka doesn't stop to focus on her sister though. Instead she continues sweeping the weapon towards Beth and Roberts.

Even with time paused I'm reminded how fast Ivicka is. It's only going to be a few paused seconds before she reaches them.

No time to hesitate.

So, I teleport next to her, meeting her gaze as I appear before her, fully visible.

Then I unleash a water torrent.

But that's all just a distraction to buy the precious seconds I need to teleport away. Using the simpler version of my area teleport, I bisect her energy cannon, the glowing rings guiding my aim. I might get her arm, but that's better than her killing the others.

Ivicka's distorted scream of rage as she swings the rifle towards me is cut off as I teleport away.

When I reappear, I realize I misjudged. A simple but critical mistake. I forgot I added a safety margin to the rings.

Instead of her arm, I've brought half her head and torso with me.

Time is flowing normally but for that moment it feels as though it stretches into eternity. I stare at her left eyes. She seems to have just enough time to process what happened before her eyes lose focus. My mind can't help but note how 'clean' the cut is. Then her face collapses to the ground with a barely audible squelch.

A sound I'll never forget.

Unable to help myself, I turn away, vomiting.

When I recover, I make the mistake of glancing over, only to start heaving again. It's only the thought that Genitha needs help that lets me stand, fighting my gagging.

Despite Ivicka being down, the Fallen haven't stopped fighting. In fact, the Fallen Genitha was fighting is keeping the rest of the team away.

Damn.

I've teleported to Genitha's side before I've had time to process the spell, fumbling to retrieve the healing feather I received from Beth after our mad dash from the tower. When I see the gash where her heart should be, I don't see Genitha.

I see papa, staring up with glazed eyes.

I gasp, dropping the feather into the torn earth. The vision of papa disappears, but the brown of the feather blends in, making me waste a precious second as I almost look past it.

With feather in hand, I lay it on Genitha then start channelling all the mana I can into it.

"Please, please let this work."