"Try it." I might be overdoing it with the taunting right now, but nothing will change about the fact that the Old Human on the sun will use her power to attack us now.

But to my surprise, silence is my only answer. Then a realization hits me, and I draw together my eyebrows in skepticism. How could Areteniha, being near the surface of the sun, even react to anything down here in real-time? Light, the fastest medium in existence, takes more than eight minutes to reach Earth from the sun, so we should have double that much of a delay between every exchange.

"Exla, she's somewhere near here!" I call out to the cloud lens above, which quickly consolidates into a humanoid form. With a nod, she disperses her body across the sky in a hurricane-like cloud pattern.

No matter what Areteniha does, the power of the sun can't be immediate. Solar winds take much longer to reach Earth than light, so we have to find her and make her call them back. In the worst-case scenario, Exla or I will have to head to the sun and tap into the Imagination Engine directly.

"Tokomaha, get ready." I point at the massive moon in the sky. Even though it should still be several hours away, it's the more immediate threat right now - according to Areteniha herself. "Flann, bring us to the approximate impact point."

With a silent nod, the little goddess comes toward me just as Flann warps in out of nowhere. She seems to be observing me from another dimension or through telepathy at all times, so no matter how quietly I call for her, she always hears it.

Once we're somewhere around the Ogely mountains, I'll leave Tokomaha alone to do her thing and head for the dark side of the moon to meet Mataku. I'm sure that the moment Chaos-Juzual is out of the picture, he's going to take the opportunity to attack me. For that reason, I'll be bringing Aurelia with me - the only other person here who can survive in the vacuum of space.

"I'll be right back. Stay here with the others." With these words directed at Kerry, I hand them back their helmet. They look at me with the gaze of a lost puppy but finally nod silently in assent. Petting their head once last time, I glance at Flann to signal that I'm ready.

In the next instant, my vision warps, and we teleport.

Other side

"Where's Runa?" Rolan looks around when Chaos disappears with Tokomaha and Flann. He used Roshanee's ability to rush here and save Aurelia while leaving the others behind, but they arrived a short while later. But the half-elf is nowhere to be seen.

"She was right behind us." Gram, using his height to his advantage, peers across the plaza with a worried expression. She couldn't have been blindsided by one of the devils attacking the city without any of them noticing. Her not following them must mean that something out of the ordinary happened.

"Let's backtrack." The leader decides while looking toward the street they came from. Then he glances at the golden queen, whose body has returned to gold. She's standing at the edge of the crater and is looking down at the remains of Alverost. The onyx-skinned boy named Kerry has climbed out from the hole and is standing beside her now.

"I'll stay with them." Svanhild states with a wave of her hand while leaning on her broken lance. She sounds tired from the earlier physical exertion, even though the inhibitor has been switched off, and her training as a Chosen Knight should make her immune to fatigue. But it seems that fighting one of the Old Humans, a being she had still considered a god barely half a year ago, has taken a mental toll on her.

Rolan understands well; he had been in a similar situation before. To have one's worldview shattered by the bleakness of reality can make one forget even the best training. This was Svanhild's first engagement against one of the Old Humans, and she performed admirably.

With one last look back at the two women and the meteor child, the leader follows Gram and Halthor, who already went ahead. He has a bad feeling about Runa's sudden disappearance. Many possible explanations rise into Rolan's mind, but he hopes none of them are true.

"This is where I last saw her next to me." Halthor states while looking around. They're in the alleyway they took as a detour to pass by Tokomaha's clone army that was clogging the main street.

"Same." Gram scratches his bald head and looks up at the walls as if expecting to see footprints on them. Despite being a narrow path between two rows of houses, it's relatively clean. The Prichet district is quite affluent, so it makes sense for there to be back alley cleaning. "She wouldn't stop without telling us."

"I think it may have been Shelnir." Rolan finally comes out with his dark premonition. The two taller men look at him with grim expressions, understanding what he's implying.

"Indeed, that does sound like her." Suddenly, Aurelia's voice comes from behind them, and they turn to face her in surprise. The golden queen has approached them in complete silence despite wearing a suit of plate armor. It's a testament to her control over the gold, making the segments float without touching each other. "Knowing her, she is most likely already gone."

"Where could they have gone?" Scratching his head, Halthor looks up into the sky again. The moon is so close now that one can see it even from this narrow alleyway. If the upside-down city were there, the answer would have been obvious.

"Maybe Shelnir took Runa to Areteniha as a hostage." Aurelia suggests while glancing up.

"Is that so?" Rolan mutters while looking down at his mechanical left arm. In the next instant, he draws Roshanee with blinding speed and bridges the distance between himself and the golden queen. Swinging the glowing sword at her neck, he aims to decapitate her before she can react. But Aurelia raises a hand and blocks his blade with her wrist guard.

"Wha-?" Gram and Halthor make in surprise at their leader's sudden attack. They ready themselves to join the battle but have no idea whose side they should stand on. Rolan rushed to save the golden queen's life earlier, so why would he try to strike her down now?