Adam and Evelyn headed north with purpose. They had to get back to the village to figure out if things really had progressed to the next step in the war. Two days out from Frieden, Adam and Evelyn had already passed a few kingdoms by. As they were heading ever northward, they detected sudden fluctuations of spirit essence!

The two looked at each other with some worry. Adam sent: “Let's check it out.”

Evelyn nodded in tacit agreement.

Both Adam and Evelyn generally knew what they were going to encounter; Some kind of war going on between two kingdoms. However, something seemed different to them. The fluctuations of spirit essence were different than that brought from spiritualists fighting one another... it was much closer to the summoning of a portal!

It didn't take long for the two to see a mass of people on the horizon. A war was clearly being waged on the ground and flashy lights were thrown across the battlefield as spiritualists supported their armies. There were even a few dragons roaring and fighting in the skies!

Shortly after spotting the scene, a bright column of red fire sprouted up from behind one of the armies! A moment later, an echoing boom reached Adam and Evelyn. It really was a portal summoning! Adam and Evelyn looked at each other with dread in their hearts. In a depressed voice, Adam sent: “Things really are getting worse...”

Before Evelyn could respond, a column of brown fire launched up from behind the second army as another echoing boom reached Adam and Evelyn. They put their attention back onto the ensuing war. The closer they got, the better they could see what was going on. A war was normally full of chaos, but it looked like the end of the world had erupted upon the two armies! Hordes of ghouls were streaming out of the portals and fighting their way into the armies creating more ghouls in the process! Adam also came to notice something. Hidden within the columns of flame, the focus for the portals were actually portal stones! These weren't simple man made portals, like at Frieden, these were full and stable connections the the spirit planes!

The dragons fighting above in the sky also paused for a moment in their battles as they saw the chaos on the ground. Commanders on the ground were running around to try and control the situation while yelling at their spiritualists: “Why aren't the ghouls under control!? We were promised you could control them!”

Adam turned to Evelyn: “They are using portal stones, I should destroy them both before we loose this chance!”

Evelyn was surprised by Adam's words. She wasn't nearly as familiar with portals as Adam was and hadn't noticed that portal stones were being used. This was a good opportunity to get rid of them, though! Evelyn nodded: “I can't be of much use to you in destroying the stones... I will work on the ghouls!”

Adam shot Evelyn a concerned gaze: “... Are you sure?”

Evelyn gave a shaky but firm nod: “I will not cower away from this! Let's go!”

Evelyn took the initiative to speed up while Adam closely followed after. They were still a small distance away from where the war was being fought, but it would not take them long to get there. Suddenly, though, the spirit essence all around them started whipping into a frenzy!

Adam quickly sent out: “Evelyn, stop!”

Evelyn had also felt the disturbance and had already come to a stop. Afterwards, a mass of fire exploded across the battlefield! The very air distorted from the shock wave as even the dragons up above were buffeted. The heat was so intense that vegetation all around spontaneously caught fire! At the same moment, the ground began to rumble and cracks spread all around. In many places, the ground buckled and split apart as rock was thrown everywhere! Now... the battlefield truly looked like the end of the world!

Both Adam and Evelyn numbly stared in shock at the scene. Adam then quickly closed his eyes and sent his elemental sight out. Most of what he saw was a chaotic mess, but he could tell spirit essence was flooding into two colliding points; spirits that were battering each other with brute force! They were smashing at one another with pure spirit essence in an attempt to whittle the other one away!

Adam also began to notice that the surge of spirit essence was causing the portals to destabilize. The spirits were trying to pull large amounts of spirit essence out from their plane to fuel their battle against one another! This intense surge of spirit essence was more demanding on the portals than sending ghouls through.

While the spirits were fighting, the ghouls still fought on the ground! The fire that raged could not harm the ghouls corrupted by fire essence, while the ghouls corrupted by earth essence had sturdy bodies that could withstand the impacts of the ground suddenly cracking and exploding.

The dragon's above had already stopped fighting and looked at this scene with horror. What was the point of continuing to fight if both armies had already been lost? The dragons started to retreat as Adam started to advance. There was likely a town or a village somewhere nearby and the fight between the spirits was only growing!

As Adam moved forward, the portals finally collapsed after the spirits drew too much spirit essence through them. After they were done with this, the spirits started drawing spirit essence directly from the ghouls! Slowly, the ghouls began to fall as all the spirit essence that corrupted their bodies was drawn out for the spirit's use!

Even as he saw this shocking scene, Adam continued forward. As soon as he could, Adam sent a lightning bolt out at the fire spirit! Rather than striking the fire spirit, the lightning bolt ended up striking a batch of spirit essence swirling around the spirit. The spirit essence that was hit exploded out ward from the force of the lightning bolt, escaping the fire spirit's control. Only a small amount of energy from the lightning bolt remained that simply crackled around the fire spirit without doing anything.

While the fire spirit was not directly effected it had paused in its assault. Rather, both the fire spirit and the earth spirit paused at Adam's sudden interference! Lightning was not specific to any one type of spirit essence and was quite deadly, even to spirits! Adam suddenly appeared in the middle of their fight, wielding such a deadly and unique power. Such a thing would give anyone a momentary pause.

But it was only for a moment. The earth spirit tried to capitalize on the fire spirit's brief surprise. The fire spirit was at a loss. It shouted at Adam: “Are you here to contend against me!?”

Adam responded with another lightning bolt! The gap previously made by his prior lightning bolt was already mostly filled by more spirit essence. It was only able to blow away this new spirit essence without really harming the fire spirit, but this was enough! The fire spirit's command of the fire essence around it was disturbed and it could no longer keep pace with the earth spirit!

The spirit wanted to flee, but it had no where to go! The portal had collapsed while Adam blocked it from one side and the earth spirit from another! Finally, Adam was able to score a direct hit on the fire spirit! The lightning tore into the spirit and blasted a part of it away. That fire essence that was blown away separated out, dissolving from its once uniform existence.

The fire spirit's power was instantly weakened and there was no longer anyway it could mount a proper defense. A few lightning bolts and attacks by the earth spirit later, the last vestiges of the fire spirit were completely blown away!

The earth spirit's defenses slightly lowered as it approached Adam: “Thank you for the help! Only, who are you? Why did a death dragon like you help me?”

Crackle, BOOM! Right as the spirit finished talking, Adam sent out another lightning bolt that was aimed directly at it! Even though it hadn't fully put its defenses down, it was unable to react in time. Adam had found an opening in the spirit essence swirling around it and directly hit the spirit! A large chunk was blown from the spirit, preventing it from reacting due to the severe injury. Before it could even come to its senses, Adam fire another bolt that completely wiped it away!

Adam then looked to Evelyn, who was not too far away. She was swooping down upon the ghouls, either rending them with her claws or burning them with her fire! She had been flying around the outskirts of the battlefield, making sure no ghouls could escape. It was the only way she could still be of assistance without interfering with the battle. Adam sent out to her: “The spirits are no more! I need to work restoring the balance of spirit essence here, are you good to continue?”

Evelyn merely nodded while concentrating on her task. She had found it far easier to deal with ghouls if she shredded them with her claws, versus burning them with fire. They had little to no chance to scream. It was far easier to deal with blood on her claws, than haunting screams echoing in her mind. She was putting forth her best effort to be efficient enough that she did not have to use much fire to help kill the ghouls.

Adam started by taking the swirling spirit essence that the spirits had pulled into the area and dispersing it out as much as he could. He tried to dilute it out so there wouldn't be pockets of concentrated spirit essence anywhere that something could stumble into and suddenly be consumed by the spirit essence to become a ghoul or demonic beast.

After doing the best he could there, Adam went to the two portal stones and destroyed them both! He then helped Evelyn finish up the remaining ghouls. The two looked around at the torn and burnt ground. Bodies of ghouls were littered across the land, burnt and mutilated. Adam and Evelyn had made sure to boil away the blood that stained the land and disperse any of the concentrated spirit essence remaining within the ghouls' bodies. There was nothing left that could taint the land or what remained of its inhabitants, besides the mere sight of the horrific scene.

Evelyn asked with doubt: “Why did the spirits do this?”

Evelyn wasn't certain Adam knew the answer, but she had to ask this question of someone. She couldn't just bottle this up without asking. Adam had to think for a while before forming an answer: “When humans go to war, do they think about the ground they trample upon? The animals they scare as they march? The animals they hunt to eat? The innocents they slaughter and pillage as they dominate their enemies? Humans are merely those small animals that the spirits don't think much about in this war. This whole world is created from spirit essence, but was that done or purpose or was it an accident? If it was an accident... then spirits would not feel a connection to or any responsibility for the lives that live within this world. We are merely small creatures to them that exist on the border of their lands. The border that they use to wage war against one another...”

Adam's answer did not alleviate any of Evelyn's worries. The two could only take off and head north once again, as fast as they could. The situation was truly turning dire. Not only were ghouls starting to be widely used, even spirits were joining in! Wherever a spirit fought, it would be like a natural disaster struck!

The further north they got, the fewer people that could live. They were able to make the rest of their journey without encountering another war. It was good that they did not have to witness such an event again, but it was bad because it was likely happening somewhere where they could not intervene and stop it...

As they got closer to the village, Adam and Evelyn started seeing other dragons brusquely flying about. It looked as though the war was hitting a high point causing many reports needing to fly in and out of the village, in addition to squads of dragons to join the various wars going on.

As they approached a dragon saw them and quickly approached. The dragon sent out: “Are you Adam?”

Adam was curious as to why the dragon started out with such a question. He replied: “Yes, I am.”

Before Adam could say anything more, the dragon quickly said: “Good! The chieftain is looking for you! You should go to him right now!”

This made Adam alarmed and slightly confused. He replied: “Sure.” before turning to Evelyn and saying: “Let's go meet the chieftain. That will be the fastest way to figure out what's going on!”

It didn't take them long to arrive at the chieftain's place. It was the focus point for all the dragons coming and going from the village during this time of war. Everyone went there to give reports or receive orders. As Adam and Evelyn approached, someone quickly came out and received him. He was in his Human-Form and said: “You're finally here! The chieftain has been expecting you for some time, follow me!”

So that their size didn't get in the way, Adam and Evelyn quickly Human-Formed and followed the attendant in. Everyone who was going in was actually Human-Forming first. The bustle was much greater than at any previous point and there wasn't any room for dragons to walk about.

Adam and Evelyn were led to the war room. There, information was being gathered upon a grand map about the forces for both sides of the war. There were so many pieces on the map, it was frankly quite frightening!

An old man with long white hair dressed in blazing white attire with gold accents was the focus of the room. This was the chieftain's Human-Form! The attendant carefully announced as he entered: “Adam has arrived!”

The chieftain looked up. He spoke: “Adam, you have returned! Welcome back.”

Adam didn't bother with too many pleasantries: “Hello, what did you call me for? Is it something to do with all the recent activity of ghouls and spirits coming through portals?”

The chieftain grimly nodded: “It's happening everywhere. There is no doubt to the words you spoke before. This is also all the proof needed for those who wished to investigate your words first! We're at a loss of what to do. The Church of Spirits is in command of many portal stones and they are using them recklessly! We have no control over the situation with the portals. You knew this was coming, have you made any head way in stopping this?”

Adam wasn't sure what he felt when he heard these words. Anger that they were only paying attention to what he said when it was too late? The helplessness he felt for the situation? In the end, only disappointment flashed across his face as he shook his head. “I did everything I could, but I had no support to stop this. The only way that this situation could have be stopped was to prevent it from happening!... it's too late now.”

Even Adam was surprised at the grimness of his own words. Until this point, he still had some hope to salvage the war. But now that the words were out... he truly believed that it was too late to stop this from happening!

The whole room was silent. The chieftain had long feared that these were the words Adam would speak when he finally arrived. Adam shook his head in further dismay as he continued to speak his thoughts: “There are only two things we can do now; we can fight the war out and no matter what side wins, we all loose! Or... we gather as many people as we can and hide them as best we can and hope that as many groups as possible survive the end...”

Adam once again shook his head and directly left. There was nothing else he could say or do. He was just one man. Any thoughts of going around to destroy all the portal stones and spirits that were coming through were just dreams. There was no way he could do that on his own. Even if he tried to lead others... there was only so much they could do to help. It was his ability to control lightning that made him so formidable against spirits and portal stones. He could only be in one place at a time. That wasn't nearly enough to end the war favorably.

Evelyn quickly followed after Adam. Worry assailed her heart. Was everything they did truly worthless? Was there no hope? The spirits were just too damn self centered! If only there was a way to make them see things their way. If only... With a sigh, a few words escaped her mouth: “If only we could control the spirits.”

As soon as those words hit his ears, Adam came to a dead stop.