Hayla turned back to me, her face ripe with encouragement and expectation. She made a rational decision and assumed that others would go with it as well because it made sense. It was a reasonable enough assumption to make, though you would inevitably run into walls with that kind of attitude, and Berla was strictly opposed to leaving Alarna.

“What about it?” Berla repeated, irritated. “They don’t know what they’re dealing with! What if there’s another cat ten just waiting to take over? What about the moderators? The black stones! The dungeons! Or whatever else might happen! We came here to save the people, right, Miles? We won’t just abandon them.”

“We’ll have to discuss this later,” I said, keeping a watchful eye on the king, who gave quiet instructions to the guards.

They started spreading out slowly, preparing for an attack. I frowned. Hayla hinted at her uncle acting strange, and I had to agree. Attempting a frontal attack was dangerous, and based on everything I knew about him, this didn’t seem like the kind of risk he would take. For the moment though, we just had to deal with it.

There were a little over two-hundred Fighters left in Alarna that morning, before the Rulers’ stunt. That was the maximum force they had to command. I was certain there would be those who opposed the resistance movement, however, like our guards, Bren, Brie, and Garn. They had to dedicate people to watch them, and you also couldn’t leave the town without protection. Someone always needed to be on lookout, just in case. The bells not ringing until it was too late might have meant that a few guards at the wall had been killed as well though. Given the thirty-one Fighters who were with us in the main square, I estimated that we might be dealing with a hundred or so guards against us in total. If they called for reinforcements, it would become difficult to get away without killing anyone, and I did have reservations about leaving the town with little to no Fighters. Then again, running away would send the wrong message. There was a lot to consider.

The easiest solution would be...

“I want to propose a deal,” I told Hertar. “Fighting each other right now is in nobody’s best interest. Here’s my offer: We’ll leave Alarna unhindered, walking right out the gate, and your forces won’t take any more hits.”

“What?” Hertar seemed outraged. “You want me to just let you go after everything you did? And with members of my family?”

I raised an eyebrow. “The alternative to letting me go would be to keep me here by force, and I hope you understand how badly this would end for your men. Even if you succeeded in the end, you would lose enough Fighters that the town would be in trouble. As for your family members... I believe it should be up to them. I’ll take whoever wants to go with me.”

Hayla smiled at me purposefully, but I was starting to worry about Berla. She seemed uncertain about my decision. After a moment, she did nod at me though.

“You’ve got some nerve...” Hertar said through gritted teeth.

A moment passed as the king looked between us and his men, but also the citizens around us. He would need to justify letting us go. If our time in Alarna taught us anything about its people, it was how easily public opinion could change. And if you got your citizens against you, you were in for a bad time. Most of the Rulers understood this. As such, the way he chose to handle this was interesting, but not surprising.

“Tomar Remor!” he announced, his voice traveling to everyone around us. “You’re suspected to have murdered Miss Lilana Firela and to have manipulated the people of Alarna, both with the goal of establishing yourself as a false hero. You’re also guilty of attempting a coup against the town’s leadership, as well as endangering and taking lives, and destroying property within the town walls, together with Miss Riala Fera. However! It is my belief that you acted with good intentions in this case, and that you have done your best. You did rid the world of dangerous beasts who would have undoubtedly killed many to sate their hunger. As such, I declare that you and your group are hereby banished from this town forever. Should you survive out there in the Wildlands, you will hopefully change your ways and use your powers for the good of humanity.”

Hertar was a decent diplomat. He saw reason, he found a way not to admit that we were too strong for them, and he branded us as criminals once more—all while letting us go. This solution he came up with on the spot was a good one.

“Hertar! You can’t—” Grom complained, but one glare from his king shut him up immediately, regardless of how unhappy he looked.

I scanned our surroundings, and some others seemed uncertain about this as well, but nobody else said anything, and the king continued.

“Guards! Escort them to the southern gate! Should they attempt anything, they are to be executed on the spot!”

And for the finale, he acts as if he’s in full control. Bravo.

Two thirds of the guards quickly surrounded us and started leading us towards the main street. We passed dozens of citizens who looked at us with disdain. I was briefly reminded of the time Tomar and Riala were escorted to the prison, but not only were we going in the opposite direction, there were also a few faces who appeared sad to see us go.

With a feeling that our time here hadn’t been a complete loss, we started our track towards the gate and the Wildlands behind it.

***

Ten peeked into the main square from behind a corner as Shadi hurried back and slid behind him with quick steps, joining him and Ari.

“Hm. That didn’t quite go as planned,” he said.

“What? Did someone see me?” Shadi asked, disappointed.

“No, no. You did great.” Ten briefly looked in her direction and put a hand on her shoulder encouragingly, before focusing on the Rulers once more. “I did not expect King Hertar to just let them go like that, nor that Tomar wouldn’t attack them seriously. They were manhandling his fiance after all.”

“Told you,” Ari chirped.

“Yes, you did. That one is on me.”

“Ah. You wanted them to fight each other. That’s why you had me heal him,” Shadi concluded.

“Correct,” Ten said. Seeing the Rulers starting to move, he turned away and faced the other two, a smile on his face. “I have to say, your powers really are spectacular, Shadi.”

She blushed slightly at the high praise from this man she was idolizing so much, unaware that he knew exactly which buttons to press with her, or how the woman next to her was rolling her eyes.

“Are we continuing with Plan 4B?” Ari asked.

“Under these circumstances we should go with 3E,” Ten said with a thoughtful expression. “We do have enough, right?”

“Yeah, no worries. It will rip a decent hole into the infrastructure.”

“Perfect.”

Sandwiched between the two, Shadi peered left and right. She didn’t know all the details of Ten’s dozens of plans, but she had been there for the conclusion of one of his more ambitious ones. It didn’t end quite as he had hoped, but that didn’t matter. She was thoroughly impressed. He had managed to oust Lilly’s people in a matter of weeks, despite all their good deeds and their promises to the people. He also used the opportunities that opened up during this time to further undermine the Rulers’ position, supporting his original plans, from before he had to pivot.

What was more, he did all this without any physical strength of his own and without ever having gotten a Calling. Ten Serril, also known as “The Boss,” started out as even less than a nobody on the streets of Alarna after faking his death. Three years later, his organization was on the verge of overturning the town’s established rules and structures.

Shadi marveled at how the things Ten had spoken of years ago, back at the Rising Site, were now coming true. It was as if he had seen the future, and she was happy to be there to witness it.

***

The closer we got to the southern gate, the more confused and concerned the people’s looks became. Not all of them had been at the announcement, and seeing us get escorted down the nearly empty main street surely looked weird to them. Some attempted to ask what was going on, but they were quickly scared away by the guards. That was until we met a familiar face.

“T-Tomar!?” Aelene said, flabbergasted, standing to the side a few meters down the street.

“Please move along!” a guard commanded, but he was thoroughly ignored by her.

“What’s going on?” Aelene continued.

“We’re being kicked out,” I said with a frown.

The guards ushered us along, but she started walking next to the procession, as if not even noticing the armed men and women around us. A panicked expression washed over her face as she realized how close we were to the southern gate already.

“Now? But I— You—... What about your promise!?” she stammered.

Only a day had passed since I told Aelene I would help her and her unborn in whatever way I could. Technically, I never said the word “promise,” but I did mean what I said.

“I’m sorry. I do intend to keep my word, but... you might have to come with us to allow me to do that.”

“Nobody else is leaving the town!” a guard said, irritated. “As per official Alarna law! And now silence!”

I slowed my walk and everybody else followed my example. It only took a few meters until we were standing still, though the guards kept waving their spears around, trying to get us to move.

“Hey!”

“Go on!”

While they had official orders to execute us if anything happened, they seemed to understand that this order was only for show. Not one of them actually tried to attack us. Instead they glanced around, worrying about the onlookers.

“Unfortunately, you’ll have to decide quickly,” I said to Aelene, and looked at the gate, just a couple dozen meters away.

She followed my eyes, uttering, “The Wildlands...” in wonder. She quickly made up her mind, nodded, and faced me once more. “I will come with you.”

The guard piped up again. “I said nobody else is leaving the town!”

“Yea... I’m afraid that’s not up to you. And one more thing, it would be bad for our image if you kicked us out like this, so we’ll have to do something about that.”

The others all understood immediately when I raised my arm, preparing to snap my fingers. Everyone, including Aelene, crouched down as I activated a refined mana wave script that shot out in a ring around me, instead of going uncontrolled in all directions. Passing over the others, the wave only hit the guards, catapulting them back several meters.

“Let’s go!” I said.

Taking the lead, I walked towards the gate with quick steps. Not quite jogging, but fast enough that we got very close to the gate in the time it took the guards to recover. As expected, I didn’t see anyone on top of the wall. The only ones around were the guards accompanying us and a few citizens.

The moment we came up on the gate, I raised my arms and activated a water stream script. It was simple, but its effect would hopefully burn itself into the minds of the ones seeing it, as a good one-fourth of the large gate disappeared in the swirl of water from one moment to the next. With a path opened for us, we stepped out into the Wildlands.

I paused momentarily and took a deep breath, my field of view filled with green fields and lush woods in the distance. There were no responsibilities in sight. Well, except for the ones I’m bringing with me, I thought as I glanced at Hayla and Aelene, who took in the scenery unfamiliar to them.

Behind us, the guards looked at us uncertainly. Their task was done—we were outside—but this wasn’t how it was supposed to go. In the end, we left Alarna on our own terms. Nobody was forcing us. This was an important fact I wanted to leave behind. If anyone thought they had the power to make us leave, they might also think they could come after us again. I didn’t think the chances for that were very high, but I didn’t think that last time either. Regardless, freedom laid before us.

“And now?” Berla asked, still sounding dejected.

“Hm... I’d say...” I considered the question for a moment, not having thought this far ahead yet. Then I pointed in a vaguely south-western direction. “That way.”

With a spring in my step, I started walking again. I wasn’t without worries, and I regularly checked on Riala’s mana to see if she was okay, but I felt like I could breathe again for the first time in a long while.

Suddenly, warning bells started ringing behind us. Everyone spun around and saw a black pillar stretching into the sky. Another black stone incident, and based on the size of the pillar, it might have been the largest one yet. The thought of going back did cross my mind, but not only didn’t we have anything to contribute to this issue yet, we were finally out.

“Nope. Not our problem anymore,” I said as I turned back around and walked on.

This is going to be great.

***

Two architects stepped out of a rift in the air, arriving on a grassy field close to a forest. Not far away stood a table with an array of neatly arranged white stones on it, and a black cube with blue characters painted onto it was behind them, next to an empty river bed.

One of them walked ahead and looked around, searching. “Hello?” he shouted. “Miles!” He kept calling out, but no matter how many times he repeated it, no response came. They appeared to be all alone. “He should be here...”

The architect had taken a little bit longer than expected to check in on this problem child he was responsible for, but this was the last place he had seen Miles, and there were no records of him leaving this world. He should be here.

The other figure peered around curiously, his gaze resting on the white stones and the black cube in particular. “This is it, Dave,” he said. “No doubt.”

“That’s something at least,” Dave said.

He waved his hand around and a screen appeared in mid-air. After tapping on it a few times, a seemingly never-ending list of entries appeared that he proceeded to scroll through.

“This world is definitely active...” he mumbled. “No surprise that we have souls originating here then. Hm...” Dave stopped scrolling abruptly, pointing out a specific entry. “There. It was locked in. Thousands of years have already passed in this world. But then where is Miles?”

“Is there no way to bypass the records?”

“There shouldn’t be... but this guy appeared in the hub room once before without a record of him leaving this space. Something isn’t right here.” Dave sighed. “He manages to make me feel tired for the first time during this phase of my existence.”

The other architect chuckled. “Must be quite the character.”

“You don’t know the half of it. What he attempted here... Well, you might know better than I do. And it doesn’t matter really. I guess the world does function now. The only question left then is where—”

Suddenly, a bad feeling came over Dave and his head snapped upwards. The sky started to distort in places, as colorful flakes shot down and into the ground in seemingly endless streams.

Dave’s face twisted in anger. “Miles, what have you done!? I told you to remove this!”

The other architect looked surprised, but not overly concerned. “Oh.”

The two monitored the situation for a moment, but when the distortions didn’t disappear and instead started to grow, Dave jumped into action.

“I need to make sure this doesn’t cross over into the Outer Realm! Can you try to find a way to stop this?”

“I will do my best!” his colleague said eagerly.

A rift opened in the air in front of Dave. Before stepping through all the way, he said, “This is going to be an eventful first day for you.” Then he was gone.

Now alone, the new architect relaxed. Glancing up at the flakes again, he smiled despite himself. He didn’t think he’d find himself reconnected to this world so soon.

“Let’s see...” he whispered, as he attempted to write a script into mid-air with his finger.