We came crashing down towards the earth at bone splintering speeds. At the last second, merely a few meters from the ground, I noticed a force pressing upwards to slow my descent. I experienced a brief sensation of weightlessness before touching down as softly and quietly as a feather. The instant my feet became firmly planted on the ground gravity returned to normal, and for a second, I felt like I might lose my balance when my own weight caught me off guard.

I shook off a feeling of vertigo and looked around. The five of us stood atop the crumbled remains of a building that barely peaked above the earth that had risen up to consume it. In front of us stood a line of short, narrow trees being slowly strangled by thin green creepers. The vines twisted and dug into scarred trunks, drawing forth green sap that they eagerly absorbed as a leech does blood.

It was darker here, this close to the barrier of the dome, but flashes of crimson light would briefly illuminate everything around us like bright red flashes of exploding fireworks. To the north and south the growth of trees was much thicker and towered above us like looming titans. These trees cast brief and dancing shadows that swayed in time to the sporadic flickers of light.

Wind buffeted us from every direction. It twirled around us at hurricane speeds that grew stronger with each rotation until reaching such herculean strength that each gust tore against gravity, threatening to pull us into the sky. After a few moments the wind would die, before quickly picking up again from a new direction. I could hear the tiny clinks of pebbles and bits of sand as they bounced off my armor. If it wasn’t for the translucent face shield I would have been unable to see through the thick cloud of bombarding sediments.

It was like setting foot on some strange and inhospitable world. My childhood dreams of alien exploration came true only miles from where I had grown up.

Looking beyond the line of sad and dying trees that lay ahead, I could see the spot I had identified as one of the places supplying power to the dome shaped formation of eldritch energy. It was no more than fifty feet, or roughly fifteen meters, away from me.

To the naked eye it looked no different than any other random spot along the twisting vortex that was slowly devouring the land beneath it. To my senses, however, it was like a tesla coil giving off long and twisting sparks of black and red lightning.

“I’m going to need you to point out the exact area,” said Telvy. At that exact moment she released the chains that still bound me, and they retracted and wound back around her torso. I nearly jumped but was able to hold back my startled reaction with the exception a sharp intake of breath.

“It’s right there,” I said while pointing forward.

“You have the ability to manipulate mana in its raw form, correct?” Telvy asked.

“Yeah, you want me to paint the area for you? I can do that.”

There was no ambient mana in the area, but the eldritch energy was thick and viscous. As I expended my own mana, drawing it out in a thin disk in front of me, the energy in the air started to flow into me as it slowly began to restore my lost mana. I couldn’t see the exact mechanism the system used, but I could witness the violent energy go in and a thin trickle of pristine blue-white take its place.

I walked forward, Telvy and her guards close at my heel, before stopping halfway to the edge of the dome. That was the limit at which I could manipulate mana. My disk of mana was large enough now to completely cover the area containing the explosive and turbulent energy.

In addition to the sparks and branching bolts of lighting, thick streams of eldritch energy burst upwards from the small area. Each of these streams of energy contained thick golden symbols linking together in long, complex chains vaguely reminiscent of mathematical formulas.

The energy quickly tore apart my disk of mana, but it seemed to have been enough for Telvy to identify her target. She lunged in front of me and stretched out her arms. The chains that had been wound around her forearms quickly uncoiled and dozens of tendrils made of steel links began to strike at the dome. Each strike would tear out thick gouges of energy, but these wounds were filled more quickly than they could be inflicted.

Rather than give up the archmage changed tactics. This time the she unwound the chains from her torso, which joined the others in attacking. Once each chain was unraveled they began to spin around in a circle, like the blade of a blender, shaving thick layers away from the wall of energy.

I watched, transfixed, trying to gain insight into how she used her mana to manipulate the chains. It would be a valuable skill to emulate. Before that train of thought even had time to leave the station my ruminations were interrupted by a crunching sound and a soft, voiceless groan.

I spun to look behind me and saw one of the black clad Peacekeepers being hauled into the sky. A pillar of sharpened earth had grown up from the ground and pierced the soldier’s chest. The spike protruded from her back, but she still seemed to be alive. She kicked and struggled to pull the spike from her chest, but she let out no scream.

Her black armor seemed to be attempting to aid her. It had slid away, revealing her naked form beneath, and was surrounding the wound in her chest as it attacked and sawed at the pillar that pierced her.

My increased perception gave me a clear view of the look of agony and fear that was stamped upon her features in cold pallid flesh. I could see a thick stream of blood, and even smell its coppery tang, as it ran slowly down the pillar of stone.

“Shill,” yelled Telvy. She called off her assault on the dome and began to fly into the air dragging her lifeless chains behind her. The stone pillar immediately vaporized and began to fall as powder – soft and fine as snow.

Telvy caught the falling soldier and held her in her arms as they gently glided back towards the earth. As the mage set the woman down she turned to look at the rest of us. Her eyes seemed to be full of fire and her teeth were bared.

“They won’t use that trick again,” she said. “The earth obeys me.” As she spoke her face tightened into a snarl, and her voice had grown deeper, and lacked emotion. I could see a thin layer of mana spread out from her before diffusing into the ground beneath us.

“Find them,” she howled, and the remaining Peacekeepers immediately fled to the north.

“I’m no healer, but I have to try and save her.” She looked up at me as she finished her words. “Please, Finn, you have no reason to help me, but I can’t let her die.”

“What do you expect me to do?” I asked. “I’m no healer either, and your body guards could shoot me down in an instant, so I doubt I’m much help to them. Besides, I’m not even sure where the attack came from.”

“Each of my sisters is a capable tracker and fighter,” she shook her head as she spoke. “What I need you to do is protect me as I work, and while my sisters kill. Build a space of empty energy around Shill and I. Fight off any attackers as they come. I need three… roughly four point two minutes.”

“One condition.”

“Speak, but quickly,” her words were a faint whisper that barely rose above the cacophony of the wind.

“When this is done, I’m escaping. There is no fucking way I’m going back. All I need you to do is not try to stop me when the time comes, and I need you make sure that my friend Tiller gets back home safely.”

I held eye contact with her for a moment, but she quickly nodded her head in assent. “Fine, now hold up your end.”

The Peacekeeper mage surrounded herself in a thick haze of bright blue mana, a much darker shade then my own I noted. As she worked I summoned my Dark Gemini, my companion the Fisher.

It began immediately. Our connection had grown to the point that I didn’t need to communicate my intentions. With almost no time passing a thin egg-shaped barrier made of eldritch energy surrounded Telvy and the injured soldier. A small black kingfisher perched atop the egg, its eyes closed in concentration.

The two Peacekeepers had both darted towards the north, no doubt in pursuit of whatever had attacked their sister. I cast my own eyes to the south, hoping that I would hear anything coming from the north.

Nearly two minutes elapsed without any problems, and I was just beginning to become optimistic that things might work out well for a change, or at least well for me. It was then that I heard a mighty boom from the north followed by the incessant sounds of gunfire at full auto.

I spun in that direction, but the combat was too far away and beyond the cover of trees. I saw nothing and had only the sounds of fighting and the occasional scream of pain to illustrate what was happening.

It took a force of will, but I broke away and turned my vigil towards the south. Any monsters fleeing from the north would just be scraps, I still felt that the likely, and more dangerous, sneak attack would come from the opposite direction.

I was wrong.

The attack was not even close to being stealthy. The ground began to shake strongly enough that small pebbles and finely ground sand jumped dozens of inches into the air. At first, I thought it was an earthquake, but as I looked south I realized the truth.

The first thing I saw were mighty trees being toppled, each falling towards me as if a giant blade was cutting through the forest. I began to hear roars that shook my bones and sense of primal fear rose up in my gut. Whatever was coming would not be dealt with lightly.

Soon the many-horned heads of terrible behemoths broke through the line of trees to my south as fiery eyes locked upon me.