It was eerily quiet as Yoshika left the Sky Hall. Once the protective formations around the chamber were disengaged, she swept her domain outward to get a better picture of what was going on in the palace. Two things stood out right away.

“The barrier around the palace is down.”

Eunae gasped.

“What?! That’s—it’s never been lowered for as long as I’ve been alive. The only way in is through the gates.”

Yoshika shook her heads, speaking in Eui’s voice as she detected figures moving in their direction.

“Not anymore. The inner wards of the central castle are still active, but the palace grounds are wide open. We can’t sense any xiantian auras right now, but there’s fighting all over the palace—incoming!”

Everyone dropped into combat stances when they heard the urgency in Yoshika’s voice. The approaching figures had picked up the pace and she could sense the mana around them being channeled into spells—though strangely she didn’t sense any hostility. When they came into view, the figures weren’t quite what she had expected to see.

Half a dozen elementals came charging towards them—all of them third stage, but no xiantians that she could detect. No two looked alike, though they all resolved into vaguely humanoid shapes. A rolling ball of lightning, its extremities taking the form of bolts arcing out from the central mass and grounding themselves on anything nearby. A core that seemed entirely unguarded except for the swirling mass of debris orbiting it. And several simpler figures of mud, fire, mist, and metal.

Though Yoshika didn’t sense hostility, the aggression from the elementals was unmistakable. As soon as it came into sight, the gravity elemental began launching bits of debris at such speeds that the displaced air popped audibly behind them, and the lightning elemental rushed towards them with full-body motions that reminded Yoshika of her own lightning steps.

They were outnumbered, but only slightly. The bigger issue was that Yoshika and Rika were both exhausted from their trials. After suffering the Kumiho’s Soulfire and healing Rika, Yoshika was running dangerously low on expendable essence, except for the mass of Soulfire that she had tucked away inside of her soulscape for safekeeping. Rika was in even worse shape—Yoshika’s healing had gotten her back on her feet, but she was nowhere close to fighting fit after her tribulation.

Operating on old habits drilled into her from her time in the academy, Yoshika began barking orders in Jia’s voice.

“Eunae, focus on offense! Hyeong, Rika, support! We’ll take the front.”

For a moment, Rika looked like she was going to object to being put in a supporting role, but she had her own training and accepted the role without hesitation. Eunae and Hyeong Aecha began casting their own spells as quickly as they could—the only two members of the party that were completely fresh. Eunae launched spears of ice towards the slower and more vulnerable looking elementals while Hyeong Aecha slowed their advance with conjured walls of stone that would force their enemies into clouds of acidic mist.

The lightning elemental was far too fast to be stymied by Hyeong’s defenses, and Yoshika moved Jia’s body to intercept it before it could get into range to attack her other allies. The gravity elemental floated up above the defenses and continued to rain projectiles down on them, which Rika endeavored to deflect with her telekinetic attacks—the range of which had increased dramatically after her breakthrough.

As with most of Yoshika’s strategies, that left Eui’s body free to go where her superlative offensive power was most needed. Unfortunately, as exhausted as she was, that offensive power was nowhere near as superlative as usual as she tried her best to conserve power. She brought out a sword from Jia’s ring straight into Eui’s hands and moved to intercept the nearest unoccupied elemental—a vaguely human-shaped cloud.

The mist elemental had been able to flow mostly unhindered past the defensive spells and had been completely unharmed by Eunae’s ice lances. Yoshika clicked her tongue in irritation. Partially incorporeal elementals were an awful matchup while she was trying to avoid spending essence. Luckily, all elementals shared a weakness—the mana cores at the center of their being. If she could deal critical damage to their cores, it wouldn’t matter how incorporeal the rest of their bodies were—the elemental would die.

Yoshika focused mostly on martial techniques as she engaged the two elementals, trusting the rest of her allies to hold the others off long enough. While spiritual and arcane arts were flashy and powerful, martial arts techniques were by far the most essence-efficient of all the disciplines, and even on the last dregs of her expendable essence, Yoshika could fight using martial arts for hours on end.

The lightning elemental was forced back as Jia’s movements were enough to keep up with it, and she shrugged off or outright absorbed its strikes. Similarly, the mist elemental's attempts to confound Eui’s senses failed as Yoshika simply relied on what she could sense through Jia’s body and her domain, remaining steadfastly focused on striking at the elemental’s core. Still, with her limited means of attack, she couldn’t do much more than hold the creatures at bay while their allies closed in.

The equilibrium was broken when Eunae lobbed a muddy sphere of water over Jia’s head, splashing directly into the lightning elemental. The elemental was stunned as its body was briefly dispersed through the water and tried to ground itself in every direction at once. Yoshika didn’t hesitate to take advantage of the opportunity, her gloved hand darting forward to snatch the bluish purple sphere of living mana out of the air. With a tiny pulse of destruction essence and a tight squeeze, the lightning elemental’s core was crushed to powder.

The battle shifted in an instant. Without the swift lightning elemental applying pressure, Yoshika was able to focus both of her bodies on one elemental at a time while her allies held the rest at bay. The mist elemental flowed around Jia’s lightning fast spear-hand strikes, only to be caught by the tip of Eui’s sword—the resulting fissure being enough to render the elemental completely inert. By then the fire elemental had caught up, but Yoshika didn’t even have to engage it before a blast of high pressure water from Eunae eliminated it.

The remaining three elementals retreated without hesitation. The gravity elemental simply zipped away through the air, while the mud and metal elementals chased after it on the ground. Yoshika considered pursuing, but didn’t want to be led into a trap. She didn’t sense anything particularly dangerous in that direction, but as weakened as they were being drawn into more fighting would be a problem. Besides, she realized with a chill, the void elemental could be anywhere and she’d have no way of detecting it whatsoever. It was totally invisible to her.

“Yoshika, what’s going on? Your clairvoyance is the best of any of us, what do you see?”

Eunae’s face was twisted into panic now that the battle was over, and Yoshika tried to make sense of what she was seeing to the best of her ability. She kept her tone measured as she spoke in Jia’s voice.

“The palace guards are fighting the elementals. We don’t know where the xiantian mages have disappeared to, but the throne room barrier is still intact so it’s probably safe to assume that at least some of them are there. We can’t think of a reason for them not to be involved in the fight, though, except...we can’t sense any of the xiantian elementals either.”

“Do you think they’ve gained access to the throne room somehow?! Where is Haeun?!”

Yoshika grimaced, searching her domain before shaking her head.

“We can’t sense her aura anywhere. Either she’s gotten a lot better at that stealth technique of hers, she’s in the throne room, or she’s fled somewhere out of range...”

Or she could be dead. Yoshika left that unsaid, however. Eunae was beside herself with worry as it was.

“We have to find her! I need to make sure she’s safe—if anything happens to her—”

Yoshika started to nod, then paused, hesitating for a moment as she came to her own realization.

“Our family! We left that damned elemental with them—they might be in danger!”

Rika grimaced.

“Oh, shit. What do we do?”

For the first time Yoshika found herself utterly divided. Her family was in danger, but Eunae and Haeun were practically family too. How could she choose between one or the other? Or...did she have to?

“Eunae, Hyeong Aecha, and Jia will search the palace and try to find out what’s going on here. Rika, you go with Eui to check on our family.”

Rika cast a worried glance at Eunae.

“But Eun-eun...”

Eunae shook her head.

“No, Yoshika’s right. Aecha and I are the most fighting fit, and the greatest danger seems to be here in the palace. You two can rendezvous with Hayakawa and Ja Yun if something is happening back at the estate. Only...Yoshika, will you be able to stay connected at that distance?”

Yoshika frowned.

“It’s going to be close. We can stretch out the range of our domain between us to get some extra distance but...we’re not sure if it will be enough. We’ve never tried that kind of distance before.”

“That will have to do. Good luck!”

Rika ran off with Eui’s body as Eunae bid them farewell. Yoshika looked askance at her with Jia’s body.

“You realize we’re still right here, right?”

Eunae blushed.

“R-right. It’s easy to forget, I’m sorry.”

Yoshika shook her head.

“It’s fine—let’s find your family.”

Eunae nodded, and they began to make their way towards the most likely location—the throne room—while Rika and Eui’s body made haste back towards Yoshika’s new home. She prayed to whatever ancestors or gods might be listening that her family would be alright.

“By order of Her Highness Seong Misun, your orders have been rescinded. Ja Yun, you are to lower the barrier formation at once or we will use force and charge you with treason.”

Every word from her former commander was like a spear through Ja Yun’s gut. She felt like she was going to throw up...again. Kim Yongsun had corroborated what she had discovered from Muddy’s memories—that the elementals were planning some kind of coup against the government of Goryeo. Furthermore, they’d already gained control of the military and the mage colleges, and—according to Kim—subverted the high nobles with a preemptive strike, sealing their most powerful mages away with some kind of imprisonment spell.

Unfortunately, Kim Yongsun’s warning had come far too late. The coup was already underway, and even if they had tried to evacuate the very moment he’d arrived, they wouldn’t have made it far. Aside from Kim’s injuries, the mortal members of the Lee and An families simply had no chance—especially not Lee Jung, who’d taken ill again in the absence of An Eui’s regular treatments. Not enough to be life-threatening, but more than enough to keep her bedridden.

Ja Yun knew where her loyalties lay. She had no intention of submitting to Sagong So’s demands. However, the fact that he had real orders from an actual member of the royal family that was currently in the process of being toppled by the extradimensional invaders didn’t exactly bode well for her future prospects. Even if they won, would she be tried for treason for disobeying a direct order from the princess? Seong Misun seemed vindictive enough to do it.

It didn’t matter—she had more immediate problems. Sagong So had apparently taken her silence as an answer, and her barrier was already under assault from all sides by siege-breaking spells. Ja Yun and Kim Yongsun were working together to power the formation, but she doubted it was going to hold for long.

“There’s too many of them. Lady Hayakawa, what do we do?!”

Hayakawa Kaede was the one in charge, and everybody knew it. Ja Yun was thankful for it—she didn’t have the stomach to tell the An couple that their home was under siege by a small army of mages and elementals. They hadn’t even questioned it when Hayakawa ordered them to find somewhere safe to hide with Lee Narae and Lee Jung.

“The thunder has stopped. I have no doubt that Lee Jia and An Eui are on their way now. You only have to hold out a little longer.”

Ja Yun stared incredulously at the foreign princess, suddenly doubting her choice of allegiance.

“What?! What are they going to do? They’re strong, but they are still just two third-stage cultivators! This isn’t like that street gang—these are military warmages with backup from ancestors know how many elementals!”

Ja Yun regretted the outburst before she’d even finished speaking. Her face felt as if the blood was trying to boil its way out of her skin, and she couldn’t stand to look Hayakawa in the eye as the powerful woman glared down at her. While Ja Yun missed the look on Hayakawa Kaede’s face, she could hear the smile in her voice.

“I’ve long since learned not to underestimate them. Just hold on as long as you can—we’ll do the rest.”

With that, Hayakawa beckoned Hattori Koji and the two of them left to guard the entrance. Ja Yun shook her head in disbelief. Hayakawa was definitely strong—absurdly so if half the things Ja Yun had heard were true—but the old mortal? She wasn’t sure what to expect from the priest, even if he was stronger than he seemed.

She’d be finding out soon enough—she was already starting to buckle under the strain of maintaining her formation. She’d have already been overwhelmed without the dour, tiger-headed Kim Yongsun helping her, but he was still injured and there was only so much the two of them could do against a dedicated squadron of war mages. Ja Yun cried out in pain as the barrier shattered and the feedback brought her to her knees. Kim bore the backlash with little more than a grunt, but he still swayed unsteadily.

They’d held off as long as they could, but neither of the two mages would be fighting fit. It was up to Hayakawa and her priest now. Ja Yun shook her head. No. She couldn’t let herself be so complacent. She might be out of fight, but that didn’t mean she had nothing. She forced herself to her feet and began to shuffle off towards the central courtyard. Idly scooping up Muddy and holding the elemental to her chest. She’d been told to protect the family, and that was what she would do. Whatever it cost.