It was chaos on the streets. But not the kind that descends into madness or anarchy. It was an organised chaos. It reminded Adelle of the dark elves, so used to fighting that war blinked by their lives without turning heads. The island that crushed the market district had kicked up enough dust to clog the air even though they were far enough to not see any direct damage. No doubt part of the atmosphere was now made of the pulverised particles of people killed there. Those brave enough to wander the streets for supplies were greeted with rubble churned right in the middle of the roadway. An arm stuck out from under the stone pile of a collapsed side of a house yet no one bothered to stop. They would have time to retrieve the bodies later, after things had settled down.

Adelle staggered through the streets, one arm around Josh for support. The wound where she was stabbed ached with each step. Yet no one turned to look. Why would they? They passed by over a dozen injured in their short 10 minutes of travel from the fort. Even that short distance, away, the damages were wrenching, and they could only imagine the destruction closer to the sites that were hit by the falling landmasses thrown as easily as pebbles across water.

An old human man sat on a crate, cradling a crying elf baby.

The sound of cart wheels followed a call to hand out supplies.

Somewhere out there, a long, painful scream cut the atmosphere.

They continued walking, ignoring the cries for help. A few times, Josh hesitated to continue, turning halfway to any sound of distress. But Adelle physically nudged him on. This was bigger than the city in flame, literally. A swarm the size of a continent was flying towards Citi, ready to pulverise anything smaller than a mountain. As much as they didn't like to think about it, the two of them, a powerless human and an injured, non-magical elf, were perhaps part of what's left of those capable of stopping it. But they needed information first, a way to contact Eca's network.

The clattering of horses' hoofs echoed behind them. "Josh!"

"Adelle!"

They turned to the familiar voices. Arnold and Talia rode to them on two grey steeds. Civilians parted way for the beasts to trample through. The two "whoa"ed their rides to a stop.

A relieved Arnold proclaimed, "You're alive!"

"Yeah," Adelle replied. "But we failed."

Talia admitted, "We didn't do so well either." She looked around sadly at the devastation.

Josh asked, "What now?"

Talia instructed, "Eca's running search and rescue. He'll have something for us to do."

"No," Adelle insisted. "What do we do to stop Exodus?"

Arnold looked down. "I want to stop that thing as much as you guys. But it's moving too fast for us to catch up. The best thing we can do is organise a rescue party from here and just hope Shou's side can do something."

Adelle huffed. She hated how right he sounded. With Josh's help, she climbed onto Talia's horse while Josh rode with Arnold.

At the forefront of her mind, Adelle was already thinking of ways to catch-up to Exodus. "Take us to Eca."

The four of them rode for half an hour towards the destroyed market district at full gallop. The closer they were to the area, the worse the devastation got. The weaker structured buildings - especially those made of clay - were blown apart from the sheer displacement of wind from the dropped landmass. The grown had cracked in many places, swallowing streets whole, with the fracture only widening the nearer they got. They had to circle a few sinkholes that had formed and fires continued to break out, spitting balls of flames into the air as sparks and heat caught the dust and exploded. As the mount came over the city line, Adelle finally got a clearer estimation of its size.

The earth was easily twice the size of the market district, a klick across in diameter and nearly 200 meters in height. At first, Adelle thought it looked just like a giant pebble until they approached the outskirt of the disaster zone where not a single building was left standing. A crater had formed deep enough that light vanished before reaching the end of the edges of the cracks.

The wind still howled loudly, as if the explosive impact had echoed through space itself and was still erupting. Soon though, Adelle realised the sound was not of the wind. They were screams and moans from underneath the rubble. Living beings, trapped, with likely no escape, slowly bleeding, suffocating, starving, dying alone.

It struck her. When she oversaw the battle from their perch at the fortress, it was akin to make belief fights children had with their toys. A model replica of a soldier kicking over building made of blocks with ease. Standing at ground zero, she understood the devastation, the sheer power of a sentient Titan controlled for nothing but destruction.

48 seconds. All the deaths and ruination they stood at took 48 seconds.

And Adelle held the same power to control the same Titans. If she wanted to, she could pilot Leviathan and end the world. Superweapons at her beck and call.

They approached an area filled with dozens of large tents. At the front of the makeshift medical centre, surrounded by aid workers and leaning against a large round table balancing precariously on 3 legs was Eca. The mage's white robe had stains of dirt and splashes of blood, though none looked to be his. With a wave of his hand, the workers dispersed to their duties as the man sighed over an area map marked with multiple circles of blood-red ink, most of them crossed out with black.

He looked up at the approaching party. "Ah. Good. You're alive. Your teleportation will be very helpful in the rescues."

Adelle teleported before him and those around not familiar with her gasped in surprise. She ignored the shocked whispers. Her wound sharply ached, but she stood tall and straight to face the man.

"We're going after Exodus."

"You're not," he simply replied. "Be pragmatic. It's already halfway across the continent, and we don't have anything to match its speed." Light flashed from his right hand as he summoned his staff. Using it as a walking stick, he limped to her, obviously injured himself underneath the garbs of leadership. "Word has been sent across the Helm. The best thing we can do now is to organise a defence here and save as many lives as possible. Lachesis' plan is to destroy civilisations. She'll definitely be making her way back here."

"And Dogon? We just let them die?"

There was a paused between them as Talia, Josh, and Arnold got off their horses.

Josh approached them. "My daughter's on the other side," he begged Eca. "Please. Something. Anything."

Eca sighed. "We don't have the firepower. The army's recalling golems left and right to defend the capitol. Even then, we might not be able to take down Exodus."

"We don't need to," Adelle said. "Lachesis is the only one in control. We take her out, we win."

"And how do you expect to catch up to her?" he was willing, at least, to listen.

"The giant light bird in the battle earlier. It moved fast. If we can find its summoner, maybe it can fly us to Exodus."

"Vayngue is my bird," Eca admitted. "But I can't summon it again. It takes a lot of seither to bring a summon to bare, and one large and powerful enough to punch Exodus in the face took all out from me." He gestured to the staff he was walking with. "Even if I could summon it again, who would be willing to fly on a bird that could disappear and drop them from the sky at any moment?"

"I'll go," she volunteered immediately. "Falling is nothing to me. And I'm the only other one who can get into Exodus anyway. I'm the... last sentinel."

She could see his face softening at the idea - and the hope - at stopping the coming catastrophe. "Doesn't solve my seither problem."

Adelle had been thinking about it. Mages required seither to cast their spells. They could draw upon it from their surroundings, especially crystals, but that concentration must be high. Seither to spell conversion rate comes at a high cost, and to fly such long-distance required hundreds of crystals and a seither concentration heavy enough to basically grow them.

There was just one such place she could think of that could provide such power. And in doing so, could help end the suffering of countless people living in a state of tortured undead.

She suggested with just one word. "Harverstfall."

Eca closed his eyes and took a deep breath and a minute to think. "Okay," he finally said, opening his eyes with clarity. "We go."