"It's back", William cried out in relief, so that the attention of Julius Venlan, the king's second advisor, fell back on the youngest prince.

Together with the king, the three men watched the action from a safe distance. When the warning from Sylve reached them, they had barely 30 minutes before the first creatures appeared. For quite a while now, the soldiers had been busy destroying the enemies, while Loys of Freigoud, together with his men and his son, combed the area in search of the Thormods. Two dragons circled over the battlefield, but they attacked only the rear ranks of the masses, presumably out of deliberation to the humans who also could not withstand the flames.

"The Igrikum?", Julius inquired hopefully.

"Yes."

"Good, I was briefly worried about High-Magician Leuen", Julius Venlan admitted with relief, letting his gaze wander over the battle zone. The more time passed, the more clearly Julius could see the creatures continuing to fight their way forward. Even with the help of the dragons.

"Me too", the 3rd Prince confirmed slightly nervously, clutching his arm. You could tell he was tense. Understandable, when you thought about the fact that thousands just lost their lives.

, Julius announced impatiently, looking down at the black cat crouched on the wall in front of the two men, staring enviously at the sky. Julius knew that she would prefer to join her siblings, because besides Skarnim, Lofonus was also one of the dragons who were on their way to support Sylve. But she was forbidden to drop her cover early. Together with Prince William, she was the last hope of the inhabitants of Sylve.

, Julius muttered in fear. If even the High-Magicians were having trouble, how would they fare? They had to get close to the creatures to be able to fight, one or two High-Magicians could have made a big difference here in Sylve. On the other hand, he could understand why they were left completely on their own. The Magistrat needed all the support they could get to not get lost in the black masses themselves. Fengari hadn't explicitly told him, but Julius could figure out that their number of creatures was nothing compared to what was currently on the move in Altona.

He was annoyed that he had never taken the situation seriously, despite the circumstantial evidence. Even with the second attack on Kutum, he assumed that there would be no major consequences for the country. But at that time at the latest, he should have dealt with the danger more intensively. It had been naive, that much he was aware of today. Inwardly, therefore, he was very grateful that Loys had not turned his back on the threat and had encouraged the training of the soldiers, even if the real deciding factor had been Swordmaster An Penedran. Julius could not stand the woman, even if he would never openly admit it. She was far too chaotic and stubborn, and on top of that, she did not return a shred of respect, nor did she have any sense of honor. Her disobedient nature regularly drove him up the wall. This was probably one of the reasons why he had never taken the warnings to heart, since Madam Penedran was one of the biggest supporters of the expansion of her defenses. She had been a good deal more persistent than the Magistrat, yet Julius had become grateful for it.

, Fengari meekly spoke up and turned to Julius.

, Julius immediately interjected in fear that the creatures had breached the defenses. Paranoid, he clutched his weapon and stared at the people fighting in the distance while hiding behind the walls of the city.

, Fengari declared. Discomfort stirred within Julius and he looked back at the cat. The death of three of the most powerful mages in the world could only mean that the situation looked bad for them.

At the same time, Julius and Fengari looked over at the silent prince, who could not overhear their conversation. Julius only roughly knew that William had been traveling with High-Magician Thopas for quite a while and had become good friends during his time in Exarion. Also, the 3rd Seat was one of the few High-Magicians Julius had ever had the pleasure of meeting. The only thing he really knew about the man was that he was incredibly intelligent and had a close relationship with the Eldest himself.

, Fengari began, but stopped in an instant. Her eyes grew wide, reflecting disbelief as she received another message from the north.

, Julius came forward uncertainly.

Now the panic reached Julius completely. Unwillingly, he took a step back and stared at the sky, in which the movement of the dragons had come to a halt. The Thormods had killed a dragon. An existence that was considered not-killable among humans. Not for a moment had Julius expected a dragon to die. In his eyes, they were considered powerful beings who had nothing to fear. Even when he had learned the story behind their collaboration with the Magistrat, he had been undecided whether they could be trusted completely. Yet one of them had had to pay for it with his life? Despite all the preparations and planning, they were losing more and more important players who could influence the end of the war. Would they... would they even be able to win?

Julius didn't get so far as to give it much thought, or even comfort Fengari, because William's crystal announced itself. Instantly, the prince raised it in his hand, and a moment later, a man's deep voice could be heard.

"The defense line has fallen."

As if someone had hit him on the head, Julius reached for the communication crystal in William's hands, taking over as he recognized the voice.

"Pull back to the capital. Where is the Duke of Freigoud?"

"Ask me something easier", the man who had taken command of the defensive line threw back, annoyed. A moment later, his roar was heard and William also started to move. He reached his hand forward and began circulating mana.

The connection to the front broke, so Julius lowered his hand and looked incredulously at his soldiers. In shuffles, they ran back toward the city, followed by countless creatures. The dragons seemed to grasp the situation as well, for they began their swoop, incinerating everything below them without coming too close to the ground.

"Julius", the king's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Leonhardt was standing close to the wall, just talking to the shadow soldiers, when he turned to the back and addressed his advisor. "Try to make contact with Loys or with Benjamin. We need to order our soldiers back, or we'll be overrun."

Silently, Julius nodded and focused on the crystal in his hands as he could feel a flood of mana and looked at Prince William. A concentrated power completely surrounded William and seemed to grow larger with each passing second. Fascinated, Julius watched the spectacle as he steadily poured mana into the communication crystal on the side.

"Can you do it?", Julius cautiously brought up when he noticed the tense look on William's face. Neither Loys nor his son Benjamin came forward, so he could only assume two possible situations. They were engaged in a fight to the death, or they had already lost that fight.

"Yeah, it's not as exhausting as it might look," William coughed softly. The mana was getting bigger and bigger, so big that it eventually included the entire city. Just as Julius was about to speak up, a loud whistle sounded, drawing everyone's attention to the west. Like a rising star, a small, glaring dot shot up into the sky and shortly thereafter exploded with a loud bang in the sky. Wordlessly, William, Julius, King Leonhardt, and the soldiers looked at the golden flower drawn in the sky.

"Is that...", Julius stammered in confusion, clutching the crystal tightly. Some people from Sylve had brought this crystal from Altona and given it to the royal house.

"Sky fire", William confirmed with relief. It was Ben who was carrying that crystal. In case of a problem, this would be how they would tell people they had killed a leader. "Oh, thank the gods."

Julius declared instantly.

, Fengari threw back monotonously. She had her hands full keeping the information between the High-Magicians, the dragons and the events in Sylve on the same level. The fact that Ben was reporting in using the crystal had to mean that he was still alive and trying to tell the rest that a leader was still on the way.

The first creatures were in proximity to the capital and were crashing against the barriers. Many badly injured men, some missing entire limbs, made their way to safety inside and fought their way to the lake before finally falling to the ground, exhausted. It was amazing how many of them actually made it back, and foremost among them were the soldiers of the capital itself, who protected the men's safety as best they could.

"This is very different from Exarion back in the day", the 3rd Prince brought up wistfully, staring down at the masses of injured people receiving makeshift medical care. In contrast to Altona, only a few mages were present in Sylve, and even fewer of them were healers. They all concentrated primarily on the mage-city, because the chairman of the Thormods was expected there. They probably didn't expect to have a problem with Caleb's indestructible barriers again, which is why they split up like this, but in doing so the Thormods tripped themselves up. Furthermore, they just managed to get the upper hand, but now they faced the same problem as 4 months ago.

They acted rashly and recklessly.

"I'll take your word...", Julius muttered as he noticed something in the corner of his eye and turned to the side in irritation and fell silent. Leonhardt, William and Fengari did the same, but none of them uttered a word. A six-meter tall creature appeared out of nowhere, hitting the ground with its long, thin arms and killing dozens of fleeing people at the same moment. Screams hold from outside the barrier, while the men inside stared with horrified eyes at the unknown creature. "Great gods, what is that?"

"We must protect our men", the king returned.

"Against such a... thing? Prince William, do you know what it is?", Julius Venlan replied dryly to his superior's statement. He, too, at first thought of helping the fleeing ones, but the huge creature was impossible to kill with a few sword strokes.

"I don't know. This is also the first time I've seen it, and Cale would certainly have...", the prince began, but he was interrupted by the little cat.

"Stay back!", Fengari ordered loudly and jumped into the air. Surprised, Julius took a step back as the small, black figure flew into the sky next to him, growing in size in the next second.

"Fengari!", Julius shouted in surprise after her, but had to watch defenselessly as she distanced herself with energetic wing beats and flew through the barrier. The next thing that could be seen was a large fireball hurtling towards the unknown creature, blurring the view into black smoke.