Ilugei smiled as the scorching flames washed over him. Eyes closed, he swung his heavy scimitar in a downward slash. The pressure released from the curved sword pushed against the heat, splitting the curtain of flames apart. Weapon held in front of him, Ilugei calmly emerged from the fire.

“You can not stop me, Oktai. I will unite our people.”

Oktai sneered. Almost every part of the Tujid’s chieftains body was covered with long-healed burn marks, his face distorted by them.

“The Restless will never follow you, boy. Do you really believe to succeed where even Bataar himself has failed, all those years ago?”

Ilugei’s blue eyes shone with fervor as he gazed at the Tujid's chieftain.

“After your defeat, the remaining tribes will soon follow. So my answer is yes, Oktai. I will fulfill the prophecy.”

The chieftain scoffed. Hands held before him, the heat in the air flowed to gather in a small space between them.

“Your arrogance will be your downfall, boy.”

“On that at least, we can agree,” Ilugei replied, smirking.

By now the heat had condensed into a blue orb of writhing flames, held between Oktai’s hands. The two adversaries locked eyes for a heartbeat. Among the hundreds of bystanders, no one did so much as breathe.

Oktai’s fingers twitched.

A thin thread of blue flame shot toward Ilugei’s chest. The sand whirled under his feet as Ilugei dodged the attack, stepping forward.

But Oktai had not been wanting to hit Ilugei in the first place. With a surge of heat, three separate threads of flame launched themselves at Ilugei.

They all came at him from different directions, cutting off his ways of escape. While he might be able to cut through one of them and dodge the remaining two, Ilugei was tired of being on the defensive. Shifting his body, Ilugei stepped right into one of the threads, letting it penetrate his shoulder. He attacked in the same movement and stabbed his scimitar forward.

The curved weapon stopped mere feet before Oktai, whose eyes widened. Deep red blood dripped onto the sandy ground of the arena. Almost invisible to the naked eye, a blue projection released from Ilugei's weapon had short forth, piercing the chieftain's stomach.

Yet Oktai reacted instantly, dispelling the projection with a quick flash of flame.

“I have to admit that you surprise me, Ilugei. But then again, neither did I expect you to be dumb enough to challenge me,” Oktai said with a cruel smile.

The blue orb in Oktai’s hands suddenly started to grow, emitting flashes of heat like a heartbeat. With every heartbeat more flames emerged from the orb, forming a humanoid body of flame around it. Four orange appendages could be seen growing out of the mass of flames, their tips tasting the air with hunger.

A few gasps could be heard by the bystanders. The heat intensified so much the air started to shimmer. Spreading his arms wide, the avatar followed Oktai’s movements. Ten strings of fire shot out of Oktai's avatar, each one encircling Ilugei.

They left no room to escape.

Swinging twice with his heavy scimitar, Ilugei tried to break one of the strings and put some distance between him and the avatar. The second swing barely destroyed the string he had been targeting, creating a minuscule gap for him to escape through.

But the moment Ilugei stepped out of the circle of flame a sharp pain radiated from his back, making him grunt in pain. He did not need to turn his head to know his leather armor was smoldering. The stench of his own burnt flesh filled his nostrils.

He had barely turned around when the remaining strings lashed at him. Oktai laughed maniacally when Ilugei was again struck by one of them, causing him to stumble. Standing hunched over, he beheld the avatar in front of him. It still had not lost any of its power. Ilugei grimaced.

His eyes flickered to one of the spectators. An elderly woman dressed in a silvery robe stood there, head held high. She looked at him with a bored expression, cocking an eyebrow.

‘Not yet’, he thought through gritted teeth.

Once more, the strings lashed at him. One managed to wrap itself around his left leg, almost causing him to fall. Ilugei hissed in pain as he cut the thread apart, the flames evaporating into the air.

He would not be able to continue for much longer.

Scorch marks were visible on large parts of his body, and his armor was bound to fall apart at any given moment. Eyes glancing at the bored-looking woman in the crowd, he made a decision.

Locking eyes with Oktai, Ilugei reached deep into his Inner Landscape, the source of his power.

“Welcome to my domain!”

All of a sudden, an unfathomable amount of power exploded out of him. Ilugei radiated a pressure so intense some of the bystanders were forced to their knees. While the air previously was hot enough to scorch your skin, it now held a sharpness to it that threatened to cut you with every step you took.

The chieftain of the Tujid stumbled, taken aback. This should not be possible. Having control over one’s domain while still being at the stage of an Aspect? Oktai’s face was scrunched up in disbelief. Countless scimitars formed themselves out of seemingly thin air, each one as real as the one in Ilugei’s hand.

Standing in the center of it all, Ilugei calmly looked at his adversary. Scimitar raised, every floating weapon turned to point at Oktai and his avatar.

“Die.”

As one, the weapons surged forward. The first few weapons to reach the avatar were still repelled, the strings weaving through the air to block the incoming weapons. But Ilugei’s assault was relentless.

With every scimitar the avatar was forced to block, it became a bit more insubstantial. A few heartbeats later the blue orb broke under the pressure, the flames dissipating into the air. Oktai stumbled, falling to his knees.

Weapon held by his side, Ilugei walked toward his defeated opponent.

“I respect your strength, but we both know the prophecy will never be fulfilled as long as you live.”

The chieftain looked up at Ilugei, the hate in his eyes intensifying his grotesque visage.

“Delusional boy!" Oktai spat. "The Restless will never settle down, it’s against our very nature."

Ilugei shook his head. “You’re wrong, old man. No need to put up with something you can change.”

Oktai’s nostrils flared as he opened his mouth to respond. However, he did not get to utter a single word. With a flick of Ilugei’s wrist, the remaining weapons all shot towards Oktai. Little was left of the Tujid’s chieftain as Ilugei left the arena, his soft footsteps the only thing audible amidst the hundreds of spectators.

Like bees in a honeycomb, workers entered and left the large tunnel in front of Ilugei. Standing on a wooden platform, Ilugei oversaw the progress.

His hands were clasped behind him, his back ramrod straight. Hazel brown eyes shone with anticipation. After having united the tribes and defeated Oktai, Ilugei had sworn to himself he would fulfill the prophecy and bring his people to the promised lands.

At first, the chieftains had still laughed at him behind his back, calling him a hotheaded youth. Now, a few years later, they sent their best Gifted to help dig out the tunnels.

Most of the Gifted working in the tunnels had stone-related affinities, using their Arts to bend rock. Others simply hacked at the hard rocks with pickaxes, chipping away pieces of stone each time their enhanced strikes hit the wall.

Ilugei smiled. He would succeed where their ancestor Bataar had failed, hundreds of years ago.

'They deserve as much, after everything they have been through' Ilugei thought to himself.

The Steppes were a harsh land. The six tribes clashed almost constantly for resources. Farmable land was scarce, often monopolized by the tribe currently owning it. Under Ilugei’s rule, at least starvation stopped being a threat for his people, having regulated the distribution of food for large parts of The Steppes.

Coming out of his musing, Ilugei brought his attention to the overseer patiently waiting in front of him.

“Report,” Ilugei demanded in a commanding voice.

Not daring to meet Ilugei’s eyes, the overseer began to speak. “We made steady progress during the last two moons, great leader. By our estimations, it should only take us around one moon to come through.”

“Good. Have there been any complications?” Ilugei asked him.

“None worthy of your attention, great leader,” he responded reverently.

Ilugei nodded slightly, not being surprised at the tone in the overseer’s voice. Ilugei had grown accustomed to it by now. However, he didn’t want his people to look at him like he was some kind of redeemer. Some people seemed to forget he himself came from a family of nomads, having grown up poor like almost all of them had. Ilugei hoped to change that.

Ilugei dismissed the man with a gesture of his hand, idly looking up at the sky.

‘Ah mother, if only you could see me now’ he mused to himself. ‘You always had such faith in me, but did you expect me to come this far?’

A sudden scream interrupted Ilugei’s thoughts.

“I told you, I’m sorry! It was just an accident!”

The scream belonged to a young girl. One of the warriors guarding the tunnel dragged her away, heedless of her desperate cries. Judging by her clothes she belonged to the Gifted who helped the workers carve out the tunnel.

Her long auburn black hair was braided into pigtails which fell over her shoulders. Eyes darting back and forth, the girl looked around frantically for anyone who could help her. Her gaze eventually landed on Ilugei who frowned as he observed the scene.

“Great leader, please have mercy! The miner touched me, and I lost control!” the young girl sobbed.

The guard’s eyes widened with fury “Insolence! How dare you speak to the great leader without being addressed to?” The guard raised his free hand, intending to strike the girl in his grip.

With a small gesture of his right hand, Ilugei commanded the guard to stop.

“What happened in there?” he asked the guard calmly.

Placing two fingers on his forehead as a sign of respect, the man began to speak.

“Great leader, this Gifted killed one of our miners. She claims it was an accident, but murder can not be tolerated,” the guard explained.

Taking a look at the girl squirming in the man’s grip, Ilugei collected his thoughts before answering. Tradition demanded the girl to either be executed or given to the offended tribe as compensation. The laws didn’t differentiate between Gifted and regular folk, even if some of the chieftains would like to change that.

Judging by the sheer desperation in the girl’s emerald-green eyes, Ilugei felt certain she did not kill the man in cold blood. Even so, murder could not go unpunished.

And although Ilugei didn’t approve of executions, even he could not just break traditions that had existed for centuries. Trying to come up with an alternative, Ilugei thought of a way to prevent another useless death without further angering the chieftains.

“Instead of executing her she will receive the brand of a renegade, exiling her from her tribe,” he declared.

This was unusual, but the girl was still young. Besides, Ilugei didn’t think she would come very far as a Gifted without a tribe guiding her along the way. After hearing his declaration, the young girl fell to her knees and thanked Ilugei profusely.

Ilugei smiled sadly at the girl groveling before him. Her gratitude left a bitter taste in his mouth. He had just condemned her to a life of solitude, yet she could not stop thanking him for sparing her life.

Not many traded or traveled with a renegade. In the harsh Steppes, where surviving by itself was not an easy feat, being alone made you an easy target for predators and humans alike.

Ilugei watched the girl walking away, trying to dismiss the situation from his thoughts. He knew he shouldn’t get involved in these kinds of issues. The laws were there for a reason. Sighing, he returned his attention to the workers entering and leaving the tunnel.

He was quite pleased by how far they had come during these past few moons. The tunnel he was standing in front of now was not even the biggest one. The main tunnel was further to the north, wide enough for more than twenty warriors to pass through walking side by side.

Uniting the different tribes had not been an easy task. He had shed more blood and made more sacrifices than he ever believed himself to be capable of. However, all that would not matter if he achieved his goal. Hundreds of years ago, Bataar the Mighty had invaded the promised lands. He was revered by his people to this day. Instead of an invasion, Ilugei had an even more ambitious goal:

To conquer the promised lands.

The tunnels through which his people would enter the promised lands were not solely made for their warriors and Gifted. He would bring the entirety of the six tribes. Tens of thousands would pass through the mountains. Farmers, horse tamers, architects, teachers, children, Ilugei would bring all of them.

This was not an invasion. It was a mass exodus.