The city was in chaos; we had seen flashes of light, heard bursts of sound and felt the tremble of the earth beneath our feet as we had approached across the blackened grass. No watchers stood upon the wall, though inside the gates which stood cracked and broken, bodies lay in amongst the rubble.

The sounds of fighting could be heard in every direction, as could the cries of the wounded. The explosion, it seemed, while only affecting them for a short moment, had impacted the city to a much greater degree. Darina was already checking the bodies closest to us for survivors, and a few of them seemed to be alive, though they were universally unconscious.

“We have to get them off the streets, if this all happened in the time it took for us to get here, this place is going to be... destroyed soon. Do you think the City’s Edge will stand up? Or the Guard headquarters?”

“The City’s Edge may withstand a person who’s at less than the high Foundation stage, though I have not seen the Guard’s headquarters. But I can’t imagine it’s less durable than our inn. But how will we carry them? If there are this many here, there will be more, regardless of where we travel to.”

“With voluntary confirmation, I can carry many in my larger stone form, though I would be unable to fight, if carrying so many wounded.”

“In added agreement, my sculptures can also assist us, provided you three can defend.”

The risi, being much larger than the rest of us, we naturally more capable of carrying people, as evidenced by Reff’s help in getting me back; Reff’s mega-form, being at least thirty-feet tall could carry exponentially more, and of course Riffa being able to duplicate herself in sand could accomplish much the same.

“Unless we get attacked by Foundations, I think we should be fine. And Gan’s, I guess. Let’s hope there aren’t too many prodigies or freaks in the city known for being angry... But that still leaves the where. I think for now, maybe we don’t take them to the Guard; if they’re affected, they’re probably the people we want to avoid the most. And honestly, I think Tain is probably somebody we really want to stay away from...”

“So, we attempt to take them back to the inn? What if they wake, or recover and are still affected by whatever this is?”

Toria asked the question with a frown on her face, though her eyes were constantly flickering about the city around us, looking for threats.

“With confident confirmation, we are unlikely to find a Foundation stage in need of our assistance, so I should be sufficient to restrain them, or failing that, return them to their unconscious state.”

“Alright, sounds like a plan. We pick up these survivors – after Darina says its ok – and we head to the City’s Edge, and pick up anybody we find along the way? And then... take it as it comes, I guess?”

*

***

*

A short time later, we were making our way through the crumbling skeleton of Ouhl, heading as directly as we could towards our Inn, hoping it was still standing and collecting as many wounded as we could. Reff walked with us, his mega-form standing forty-five feet tall, dozens of wounded citizens festooned about his arms; Riffa had not needed to begin carrying yet, which was both a blessing and a curse. We had found far more dead than injured in the ruins, it appearing that only those completely disabled had been willing to cease fighting in the wake of the aura’s detonation. We had also come across many conscious people, though we had no need to defend ourselves; those capable of moving already seemed engaged in battle and unwilling to be distracted from the current opponents. They had most passed above us or dashed across our path. I had been tempted to intervene at first, but I did not want to risk getting lead too far away, and I was conscious of my limited ability to fight.

For once, the directionless rage of the aura was benefiting us; none of the inhabitants of Ouhl seemed to be cooperating, it was not like some super-powered zombie horde, but rather countless individuals each fighting on their own side. Not that it was all beneficial; we had found the bodies of children too young to actively cultivate in amongst the others. Children were rarities in the city, but clearly some people had been foolish enough to bring their kids into the psychic powder-keg.

Despite the sadness of locating the small bodies, we were forced to act practically in order to save the lives we could, and reluctantly left them behind. We hoped that the madness would be short lived, and we would be able to bury or burn their bodies properly.

Of course, dead children and insane individuals were not the only worries we had to contend with; before the explosion, there were several groups that had worked together despite the aura: The sects and the guards. I had no idea if they would continue to cooperate in the wake of the event, but in that at least we were lucky, having not yet had opportunity to find out.

We were all on high alert, tense from the situation and our discoveries. Our eyes constantly flickering about the blasted city as we moved, searching for danger but making no attempt at stealth; even without the molten glow of lava, Reff’s huge form would be impossible to hide, so instead we opted for vigilance.

Hearing a groan to one side, I held a hand up and called a stop, moving over to a collapsed building, trying to locate the source of the sound. Darina came to help me search, while Toria kept watch and Riffa stood with her puppets around Reff, making sure he could not be snuck up on.

It did not take us long to locate the source of the groaning under a large pile of stone and sharp metal; carefully, the two of us began to lift the rubble away until we could see the dust covered face of a woman, a ragged cut along one cheek and two already blackening eyes left behind as evidence of her fight.

It took only a few minutes to pull her free, making sure there were no more serious wounds that the apprentice healer would need to stabilise. Darina was just finishing her examination when I heard the distinct whir of displaced air, followed almost instantly by an impact to my left. Turning saw a hopefully unconscious man lying on and amid the stones, his blood and dust encrusted form incongruous given its sudden appearance.

Turning in the direction I had heard the whir from, I saw another figure stood on top of a mostly intact building across the street, two large stone fists hovering by their sides.

I was not too worried, given the lack of warning from Instinctive Precognition, even when the figure let out a scream of rage and catapulted themselves in my direction. I Focused, but dropped it almost immediately as the figure was intercepted in mid-air by the flame-propelled figure of Toria who delivered a spinning round-house to their face, knocking them of course. She followed after, leaving behind a solid trail of flame. We had agreed that if we did encounter any citizens, we would do our best to knock them out and take them with us, where that was possible. Most of these people were innocents, spurred to violence by the actions of the Risen Throne and by the aura’s implosion. And I did have a quest to save civilians, even without that impulse.

This all had made me wonder if Xiournal could see the future, or if she just had an accurate picture of what was going on in the world. All of her missions, to this point, had involved the Risen Throne, so it was possible she knew their entire plan but was somehow restricted from telling me directly. This latest mission had been super-vague, but it at least seemed to be coming to fruition.

I was distracted from my musings by a faint tickle of danger, and Focused once more as I turned, lightning careening alongside my veins. A metal shard the size of my finger was hurtling towards me, but while the electricity raged inside me, I was more than fast enough to simply reach out and catch it. Tracing its trajectory, I saw a woman between two buildings, already levitating more bits of broken metal to hurl our way; not wanting to wait for the attack, I sprinted off in her direction, covering the distance in an instant and smashing my fist into her jaw, pausing as her head rotated backwards and her eyes rolled back in slow motion as she flipped back to impact the building to her side. These people were not fighters, they were civilians with abilities geared less towards fighting and more towards skills and interests. They could usually be used to attack, but without training, they were relatively easy to overcome, in the absence of stage disparity.

I heard another angry scream as the woman’s body fell off the building to hit the stone paved ground, and I turned to see a man with a huge club running towards Reff; I was not worried, Riffa would take care of him, but I could see several more people coming around corners and over buildings, perhaps attracted by the shouts. Darina was getting the first person we had found in that place settled atop Reff’s arm, and Toria was still somewhere down the street so I took off, leaping up to take the one atop the roof. When I reached him, the man held a glowing orange ball in front of his face and between his hands that was giving off an intense heat; I had planned to punch him as I had the other but the hot ball between us prevented that. Instead, I dropped down into a crouch on the edge of the roof and rose, driving my flat palm up behind the ball and into his chin as hard as I could, lifting him off his feet to fly into the air, the ball dissipating as he lost concentration.

Leaving the man tumbling through mid-air, I tipped over the edge of the building and pushed off towards another attacker, rolling to redirect my momentum and into a straight punch to the side of their head, sending yet another person catapulting into the rubble. I was trying not to hit them too hard, but it was a delicate balance; on the one hand, I did not want them actually attacking me or my friends – or the wounded – but on the other, I did not want to do any permanent damage... if I could avoid it.

I turned to search for my next target, but saw Toria had returned and was in the process of kicking one of them in the face, flipping them over to smash legs first into the road.

With a glance, I made sure Riffa was fine and saw the man with the club flat on the ground, his club now a pile of loose rubble and one of the risi’s clones pinning him to the ground with one foot.

Catching movement, I turned to see the person I had just punched stumble out of the dust and I moved in to punch them again, driving them into the ground with first one and then another punch as they stayed conscious. The third blow managed to knock them out, and at a dash I placed them at Reff’s feet for Darina to check over, before moving off to retrieve the first. She too ended up at the giant’s feet. I was unable to locate the person I had sent skyward; I assumed they had landed elsewhere and become distracted with a new opponent. I considered going to find them, briefly, but disregarded the notion. There would be plenty of time to go looking for trouble after we got the wounded settled.

Returning to the group, I dropped my Focus again, mindful of my limited reserves. I might not have a complete grasp of the mechanics behind the way my arm works, but if the city was going to continue to provide attackers, I knew that I may have to take the risk of attempting to implement it with my limited knowledge. My reserves were simply not enough to fight continuously, and I doubted I would be given enough time between fights to recover completely.

As I walked back, still vigilant, Toria also jogged over, an unconscious body over each shoulder; she placed them on the ground and we waited for Darina to confirm all of our newly defeated patients would be ok, before setting them in place and continuing on towards the City’s Edge.

Despite the inn being our goal, we had not forgotten the fact that the place was staffed by guards, as well as Loneth, and that it was probable that they would be affected by the pulse in the same way as the others. We did not have a great deal of choice, however, if we were going to be of any help; we could not camp outside of the city, it would be too open to attack, and the only other defensible spot we were aware of would likely be occupied by the most dangerous foes. So, we were still headed to the inn, hoping at least to be able to subjugate the innkeeper and guards until the effects wore off and the city could return to some degree of sanity.

Of course, even if we managed to take the inn and settle in, we would need to find more spaces eventually as it was inevitable that we would accumulate more wounded, and as large as the City’s Edge was... it could not contain the entire city.