Shadowbane

Shana looked me up and down, "Your armor is still tattered all over. You going to be okay?"

"I'm planning on sticking to the middle of the group as much as possible, so it should be fine." I looked back at Vi, "But just in case, you should be prepared. I'm sure I'll have to join the battle at some point."

Vi nodded, then looked over at the Tengu Lord who was waiting for us to give the go-ahead.

After that I helped Ishar strap Nisha to his back.

"Do we know which direction the enemy is approaching from?"

{I can say with sixty percent certainty that they are around twenty miles left of the digsite.}

"That's probably near the hole we saw them come out of before." A nearby ninja said.

"But that means we're the ones who will have to worry about being blown away..." Another ninja said with a sigh.

"Huh? Why is that?" Vi asked.

Shana looked at her and smiled, "Because we're going to the digsite, while the ninjas are going with their lord to jump down the closest hole they've found. If we over-enhance ourselves I'm sure we'll survive the fall, but then we'll have no mana left and have to deal with the rebound of taking massive damage while over-enhanced. It's just not worth it. The ninjas other than me, have a short floating spell they showed me. I never learned such a spell though, so I'm with you guys."

Vi's eyes looked like they were sparkling as Shana talked to her. Is all of this really that interesting to her? That part of her is reminding me of Aresa... She probably had a sheltered upbringing as well.

All of the ninjas jumped onto different parts of the Tengu Lord. When they were settled in, he turned around and began sprinting through the forest.

"ALRIGHT, WE'RE NEXT! LET'S GO!!" Markus yelled before he began running toward the digsite.

Everyone but one of Shana's clones chased after him. Her clone took off in the direction the Tengu Lord had run.

"Scouting the enemy out?"

"Yes. We need to know if they delay the Tengu, or worse, kill him." Shana replied.

Hmm... I don't think they'll be strong enough to kill the Tengu. He's a large target so they won't miss him, but I'm more worried about the ninjas.

"Where do we turn left, Rei?!" Markus yelled as we descended the steps into the city.

"The first left! The stairs are near the top layer of the city!"

We all pivoted to the left as we reached the first row of homes. We continued running forward for about five minutes unabated before a pair of casters appeared.

Lindon glanced over his shoulder at them, "Fucking cockroaches, I'm so sick of dealing with them!"

Shana and her clone threw daggers at the casters, forcing them to drop their flying spell in favor of the ethereal sphere. Another caster flew up from one level down but he was also forced to do the same when Albel began firing a barrage of mini-fireballs at him.

Ishar laughed, "We're used to dealing with them, as you can see. I and Greyson deal with the trees, while Markus, Keith, and Lindon deal with the Crotia."

"The casters only become a major problem when they're allowed to freely cast. So, we just make sure they aren't allowed to do that." Shana said as she tossed a couple of more electrified daggers behind her.

From far ahead of us I could see legions of plagued Crotia coalescing together at the next plaza. However, about a minute before we reached them, we could see the Tengu fall from the ceiling, landing right in the middle of the plaza. He immediately did one large sweeping blow, knocking all of the Crotia far into the city below. After the attack, he turned around and sprinted in the same direction we were running. Perfect... He'll find the stairs long before we do, and he'll be able to keep the area clear for us. But where is the force that was attacking Arkaios' temple?

As we ran, the number of casters behind us tripled, and while the group was still managing to lock them down, it was looking kind of dicey. The casters were apparently getting fed up with the situation and attempting to swap to offensive spells, only to eat a dagger or fireball for their efforts. One of these times a caster is just going to say 'Fuck it' and take the hit while blasting us. It might even influence the others to do the same. This situation looks really risky to me but nobody is saying anything so maybe they've dealt with this before...

Not willing to risk it, I whispered to Vi 'Hold on tight.' I then slowed down my pace, falling behind the others. All of the casters kept moving at the same rate, but they were all looking at me now, obviously wary of the lone person approaching them. When I was about two-thirds the way back toward the casters, I sped up enough to stay at that exact distance from both groups, and then I waited for my chance.

None of the casters swapped to offensive spells after that. They continued to swap from the barrier to the flying spell to keep up with us. But eventually, one of them became impatient, and as soon as he dropped onto a building to cast one of his offensive spheres, I activated my halo and leaped right at him. He panicked and attempted to swap back to his barrier, but I was already on top of him, kicking him right in his face. His whole face caved in and blood sprayed everywhere as he went flying into the city below. I turned and looked at the other casters but they were all backing off, clearly much more wary of me than they initially were.

I deactivated the halo and sprinted toward the group which was pretty far away at this point. Albel must have seen this as a chance to lock the casters down now that they had fallen behind, as I saw a barrage of fireballs arc through the air, all landing around the area the casters were occupying. They had no choice but to sit there with their barriers up, watching all of us disappear into the distance.

Albel looked at me and laughed when I caught up, "That took most of my mana, but damn did it feel good! We should be down the steps long before they can catch up now."

From what I've seen of their speed, I think he's right. Eventually they'll catch up to us in the Abyss realm, but the Tengu will be able to support us there.

Speaking of the Tengu, I could see his towering frame stop moving in the distance as he looked down at something. He's not attacking anything, so he must have found the stairs? Considering how far we've run, and how far ahead he is, it does look like he's in the right area.

"Rei, that was so cool!! You punted that monster like he was a toy!" Vi said.

Hah, she really is like Aresa...

"I realized what really pisses me off about this place," Greyson said.

"What's that?" Ishar asked.

"Nothing we do here matters. Something had clearly done a number on these people, and now the city is a ghost town that merely repels us like an ant hive. We're struggling to survive and these fucking ghosts from the past are only attacking us out of pure instinct. This place grates on my fucking soul."

We haven't talked about it much, as there really hasn't been time, but this place is definitely odd. Even putting aside the Abyss elements, the city's inhabitants are basically just zombified plague victims. Hell, even their pets were turned into giant monsters... Whatever happened here, it was done by beings who saw the citizens here as nothing. Mere objects for them to corrupt or kill. I wish I could have read the text in those books. Then I'd know which god could have unleashed this plague.

We caught up to the Tengu and both groups immediately ran down the steps. The ninjas are still clinging to him, and they're shimmering? Are they infusing him with mana? That's one way to make yourself useful I suppose.

The Tengu would run ahead of us until we could barely see him, and then he'd wait for us to catch up. This repeated for a while, with a few battles taking place that were quickly ended by the Tengu. Behind us, the casters, who were now double in number, were finally coming into view, but they were still far behind us. Just like I thought though. They'll catch up at some point in the middle of the Abyss. How annoying.

"Ugh, I already fucking hate this place..." Lindon said as he almost stumbled over his own feet.

Looking at the others I could see the descent toward the Abyss was doing a number on them as well. Even Markus looked like he wanted to sit down and take a nap. From there on out a small blue aura flicked on and off from the group(except me of course). Nisha is empowering them for a split second to push the Abyss's oppressive aura off them. Even if it's only for that short amount of time, it's clearly working. They're all running better already, albeit not as well as they were back in the city.

The exit came into sight, and only about a minute later we were leaving the stairs behind and entering the Abyss realm.

"Holy shit you weren't kidding! The fuck is all of this?! It feels like we're outside..." Lindon said, looking to and fro as we continued running forward.

"Rei! Which direction?!" Markus yelled back at me again.

I ran to the front and led the way until Markus was aligned with me, and then I slowed down until I was in the middle of the pack again.

The air to our left rippled as sand exploded everywhere, blocking everyone's view in the process. All I could see was the Tengu blocking something with his staff. It had hit him with such force that his upper body rocked backward enough to where he almost looked like he was going to tip over.

When the sand was out of the way I could see who the attacker was. It was the God of Casters, but surprisingly, he only had five casters with him. The number is going to skyrocket soon though. Now that we're not moving, the dozens of casters behind us are going to catch up to us fast.

"... Not bad. I'll take it." Greyson said from my right, holding up a sniper rifle before he continued, "Just so you know, this one drains my mana by a shitload, but I'll be able to pick off quite a few casters in the back. Someone, please infuse me."

I walked over and knelt down next to him as he was entering a prone position. I and Vi put our hands on him. He fired off a round soon after that, dropping one of the casters in the distance. The rest immediately spread out, and out of the corner of my eye I saw the God of Casters glance at Greyson, but he wasn't able to spare any more time past that, as the Tengu Lord was barreling down onto him.

The Tengu did a sweeping strike toward the God, and in response, the God clapped his hands near the sand at his feet. I was wondering what the hell he was doing when he suddenly whipped his hands in an arc toward the sky, and immediately I could see the Tengu's staff fly backward as if something powerful had just deflected it. Undisturbed by this, the Tengu kept attacking him, which resulted in his attacks being deflected in the same manner.

Albel and Shana were attacking the four casters near him, with Shana forcing three of them to retain their barriers while the fourth one was bombarded by Albel. It didn't take long for him to burst the caster's barrier and kill him, but he dropped to one knee after that, and the reason was obvious. He didn't have enough time to recover his mana. Nisha is supplying him, but it's going to take time for him to burn through the other three casters.

Greyson continued to pick the casters off one after another, as they were down to a dozen now, but I could see the same signs Albel was fighting off now assaulting Greyson, except he had already passed his infusion limit.

Markus and Keith were attempting to attack the God, but apparently, he did not have the same limits his spawn did, as he was able to maintain a powerful barrier while still dealing with the Tengu.

Hmm... There's no way in hell this is going to work, but it has just enough soul left for one more use, so might as well try.

I summoned the metal ball ability into my hand and threw it at the God. He didn't even spare it a glance until it hit his barrier. The sphere surrounding him began to vibrate until part of it was sucked into the ball. That's all the ball did before expiring, but it was more than enough to give Markus a moment to attack the God. His sword flashed a bright white as he slashed at the God, but his attack went through nothing, as the God had disappeared.

I saw the Tengu looking up, so I did the same and there he was. The God was floating high into the air, looking down at us. He clapped his hands again, but this time he began to do it over and over, to the point I began to wonder if he was quite literally clapping for us, but then he suddenly stopped and pointed both of his palms at an area in front of the Tengu. The air rippled again, leading to another shower of sand hitting us, and when it had passed, I saw the abomination from the lake sitting there. He summoned that thing here?!

The abomination began to wildly flail around, whipping a dozen massive tentacles at the Tengu. In response he leaped to the side, but the abomination was shockingly fast, it slid over the sand and continued its relentless assault on him as the God unleashed what looked like a shower of rain on top of him. However, when the 'Rain' landed on the Tengu or the ninjas, each little splash exploded. The explosions were by no means large, but when there were hundreds of them back to back, the damage was adding up fast, especially on the ninjas.

The God clapped a few more times. Chains made of hardened sand bursted out of the ground and wrapped around the Tengu's wrists. The Tengu dropped his staff. It began to glow a bright green and it whipped in a circle, smashing through the chains before returning to the Tengu's hands. Good thing he could break out of that, because not only would the ninjas have been dead if they were trapped under that rain, but the Tengu probably would have been too.

Unfortunately for the God, the abomination was apparently dumb as hell. The attempt to lock him down failed, so the Tengu retreated backward from the rain, and the abomination willingly walked into it. The Tengu then stood his ground and fought the abomination while the rain obliterated it. The God continued to cast spell after spell at the Tengu, but instead of leaping backward, he kept circling the abomination, so the mindless creature would just sit there in the exploding rain.

The casters on our side were finally in range to attack us, and as I was preparing to engage them, I saw Keith literally disappear. Markus was looking up so I did the same, and that's when I saw Keith slicing down at the God. Oh shit that's right, given enough time Nisha can warp others to specific points like how he finished off that one Tengu Lord.

The God raised his hands to deflect it, but he didn't make it in time. I thought Keith would hit a barrier, but surprisingly, the God didn't have one. Instead, his sword slammed right into the God's head, sending him barreling down toward the sand. In that split second I saw the God clapping his hands, either creating a barrier, planning to fly, or maybe even warp, but it was for nothing. The Tengu caught him mid-air with his staff, smashing him so hard I didn't even see the God after that.

"Fuuuck did you see that! He was moving so fast he didn't even leave a trail!" Lindon yelled while laughing.

But I'm more worried about the fact that I was right... The aura surrounding the temple was so much stronger between the Gods awakenings and when I left that hole. I was worried that meant their splinters were becoming stronger, and it looks like I was right. It might just takes them time to acclimate their new bodies to our realm, slowly absorbing ether as their souls expand. If the Elven gun had originally blown part of the God of Change apart, there's no reason that the Tengu's full-powered smash attack wouldn't turn the God of Casters into paste. But... It didn't. So that means they are already far more powerful than they were when I first saw them only a few days ago.

Lindon's barrier appeared over me and Vi. "Go on, you've already shown that you can kill them."

I turned toward the casters, but instead of the ethereal spheres I was used to seeing them cast, I saw a green flame appear in all of their palms. Shit, I haven't seen them use this since our second foray into the city. I don't know why they waited, but I know that none of us will survive a hit from that spell.

I activated the halo and infused it to the max. Markus was attacking the two casters on the right, preventing them from turning the flames into spears, and Greyson was finally able to pick off another caster in the middle, causing the other two to panic and put barriers back up. But the ones on the left were still channeling the green flames, so my future victims had been decided for me.

I bolted toward the middle of the three casters on the left side. He tried to cancel the flame but I quickly grabbed his wrist and pushed the flame into his face. The caster's scream reverberated in my head just like it did back during that second dive into the city. I shook it off and turned to my right while throwing a punch into the caster's face. He flew backward and began rolling head over ass through the sand. Markus simply cut the caster in two as it rolled by him before continuing his assault against the last caster on his side.

I heard Ishar finally release his shout, but the shockwave from it landed behind me. I turned around and saw the caster rolling around in the sand trying to put the green fire out that was engulfing him. Hah, that's actually kind of funny. I don't know what that spell is, but it must engulf them if they mess it up. Being stunned by Ishar would certainly ruin some spell caster's day if they were in the middle of channeling mana into a spell.

Behind me, I could see Markus rolling through the sand after destroying the last caster's barrier, but he had nothing to worry about, as Greyson backed him up by putting a bullet through the caster's head.

"Rei, let's go! That massive creature is dead, it's now or never!!" Markus yelled at me as he shook a bunch of sand off of his armor.

I looked over at the abomination, and sure enough, it had been reduced to a large pile of goo.

"You don't need to worry about me, you know?" Vi said as I deactivated the halo and ran after Markus.

"You're saying I shouldn't worry about you getting hurt?"

"It'll heal anyways..."

... I'm sure that's true, thanks to your artifact, but I'm carrying you so you're in a place where you won't be damaged like that again so soon. At least that's what I'm attempting to do.

"Shana, did your clone lose sight of them?"

Shana shook her head, "I never saw them. I couldn't find them anywhere."

Maybe they returned and waited for us when they saw us leave the temple? This would be the best place to ambush us after all. Although it didn't really work out for them.

Albel was lagging behind us, and just as I was about to say something, Ishar ran over and tossed him onto his back.

"Sorry... I need a quick break. Just give me five minutes back here."

"Think nothing of it, boy! I'm glad to be of use right now when all I have is my shout. But your sister isn't very pleased with you it seems..."

Albel grimaced before entering a meditative state.

To our right I spotted a large stone tablet.

"I know that stone tablet! Turn right a little, that should take us to the next landmark!"

Everyone did as I said, with the Tengu taking the lead again. I could see several ninjas on him with open wounds, but all of them looked alive at least.

"See? They were terrifying at first, but after battling them over and over, they became rather easy to deal with once we knew all of their spells and attack patterns." Greyson said.

A loud bang rang out as something slammed into the Tengu's left side. He fell toward the ground but caught himself before he crushed the ninjas clinging onto his right side.

The yellow-orangish fog had departed for a split second, but I couldn't see anything in that direction.

"His range increased with his spell power it seems! That means the fucker is going to be hitting us from very far away now."

Honestly, we're lucky that he's hitting the Tengu. He must be thinking if he slowly kills the giant raven Eldritch, he'll be able to finish the rest of us off up close.

One of the ninjas lost his arm completely in that attack, so I ran up to them and tied him to the back of another ninja. They were all clinging to the Tengu's legs now, which was rather silly looking, but much safer if the God was aiming at the Tengu's torso or head.

After that we continued running toward the temple. Every now and then a blast would smash into the Tengu. He always caught himself, but it was clearly taking its toll on him. He was moving slowly so we could keep up with him up until now, but he was now forcing us to move a little slower so we didn't outpace him.

"I assume not, but I'll ask just in case. You can't use your barrier on him, Lindon?"

"I wish, Rei. He's way too big. I can't alter the size of my ability shield, or I'd slim it down and put it near his left-side torso. But as it is, my barrier won't fit over that massive frame of his."

"This is so fucking annoying. I hate that we can't do anything about this." I paused for a moment then continued, "Actually..."

Markus looked back at me, "Whatever you're thinking entirely banks on the possibility that you can kill or at least maim him before he warps away. I'm sure you understand that, but it really needs to be emphasized just how risky a confrontation with that God will be."

"... Vi, can I hand you to Greyson?"

Vi poked her head over my shoulder and smiled at me, "Of course. Good luck, Rei!"

I was moving to place Vi on Greyson's back, but Ishar beat me to it by placing Nisha there. I looked at him as I placed Vi in Greyson's arms.

"You're coming with I take it?"

Ishar merely smiled at me as Keith walked up to us, "I'm ready, let's do this."

So Keith is coming as well. Now this is going to be interesting...

"Kill the fucker, please. I and Shana will make sure any casters that appear won't trouble us here." Albel, who was rested enough to run and cast again, said to us as we began to run toward the direction of the blasts.

"Rei, do you still have that uh, sonar ability?" Keith asked.

"Nope. I wish I did but I used the last charge on that spider fight in the prison." I continued as I split off from the two of them, "I'll look for an opening. Good luck you two."

I turned invisible and kept a good distance away from them while running toward the God. About a minute later the fog split as a blast shot over our heads. There you are fucker...

Surprisingly, there weren't any other enemies around him. He's certain that he doesn't need help it seems. I've seen enemies all over the place down here, so I know he could have brought several of them to his side by now, but he chose not to.

Once the God was close enough that the fog was no longer obscuring him, a blue aura wrapped around Keith as he leaped at the God. The God completely ignored him, focusing on charging his next blast. And for good reason too, as I could see a massive ethereal barrier around him.

However, the barrier disappeared the moment Ishar shouted at him. The god froze up for a split second and the barrier faltered, allowing Keith to slip inside. The barrier returned, but now Keith was inside it with the God and he was already attacking him in full force. The God narrowed his eye at him and begrudgingly began deflecting his attacks.

I can't believe that actually worked. I thought he'd deflect the shout like his spawn did when they weren't already preoccupied. Is that why it worked? He was channeling a spell after all...

The God went to deflect another one of Keith's attacks, but was forced to retreat backward and deflect Ishar's shout instead. However, his back was now against the barrier, leaving him no more room to run. Before Keith could attack again he clapped his hands hard, which led to the barrier disappearing. It looked like he was going to clap again after that, but he attempted to float to the left instead while whipping his head in my direction. Unfortunately for him, I had already jumped on his back and was using all of my strength to try and lock his arms down.

Did the barrier prevent him from sensing me? I figured he was ignoring me, but his reaction just now tells me otherwise.

He tried to clap his hands but with my halo ability at max strength, he was barely able to move his arms. So instead his head creepily turned all the way around. His single golden eye locked onto me as I could feel something in his soul grab onto mine. Shit! This is another problem with the halo! The veil is gone so my fucking core is exposed.

I lost all the strength in my grip almost immediately and fell off of him as a result. Keith was in mid-swing about to hit the God, but he clapped his hands and disappeared right before Keith's attack connected. Almost immediately I heard Ishar shout. Both Keith and I looked up in the same direction Ishar was, and we saw the God falling toward us. Did Ishar take him by surprise? It can't be just that though. This stun is lasting far longer than the first one.

Keith jumped up and brought his sword down onto the God, repeating the same attack as earlier. And just like before, the God shot down toward the ground, except no Tengu was here to attack him this time. He slammed into the sand hard. The sand obscured him for a split second, and by the time I could see him, he was clapping again. I managed to bring my heel down onto his chest before he disappeared again. In that small moment between my attack landing and his warping, I swore it looked like he was grimacing.

"Hey! I don't know why, but it didn't feel like I was hitting a brick wall, and I swear he looked like he was in pain."

Keith landed in the sand near me, "Strange... It felt like my blade was hitting a rock, so his enhancements were still there when I hit him. Maybe he's finally running out of mana? The Tengu hit him hard and he's been channeling attacks ever since then as well."

Maybe... The only way to find out is to keep attacking I suppose.

I looked up but the God wasn't there. That's when I heard Ishar shout again. Looking down, I saw Ishar trapped in a barrier with the God, and his shout must have been deflected because he was now creating a big green flame between his hands.

Both Keith and I knew what that meant so we charged the barrier and attacked it. Inside the barrier I could see Ishar charging the God, despite the large green flame growing in his hands. The God seemed startled by this brazen move, as he was slowly backing up. When Ishar was about twenty feet away from him, the God tossed the flame into the air and attempted to warp away, but that's when Ishar hit him with something I had never seen before. It was still a shout, but this one was more of a full-body one. It practically burst my eardrums and I could even see the barrier rippling.

What mattered the most though, was the fact that the God had been fully stunned. I could even see him face planting into the sand. The green fire overtook the inside of the barrier as both Keith and Ishar turned into blue balls that flew off toward our party. I removed my halo and turned invisible as I ran in the same direction the two balls had flown.

Behind me I could see the God stand up as his barrier dissipated. The cloth he wore over his whole body was mostly melted, and his dark purple skin continued to burn, but he just looked at it with a hint of mild annoyance. He cast something that made the fire disappear, and a few moments later he had completely disappeared. He must have warped somewhere else. Hopefully we did enough to forestall him for a little while, but I really have no way of knowing how much damage we just inflicted. Maybe it was nothing, maybe it was enough to force him to rest for a week.

"This is the home I talked about!" I said as I pointed at the rubble of the home.

"It's just a pile of wood at this point..." Greyson said.

Well yeah, the casters destroyed it trying to kill me.

I ran in the direction of the temple with the others trailing behind me. We haven't been attacked by the Caster God since then, but there's still a chance he's waiting for us up here.

The temple slowly came into view, but that wasn't the only thing we saw. To the left side of the temple there were at least a hundred Crotia and aliens lined up. They watched us approach but made no move to attack. They made no move to do anything actually. Even the emotions on their face were completely empty as we ran past them.

"What the hell was that?" Lindon asked.

No one's going to have an answer for that... All that really matters is that they didn't try and stop us.

I led the group forward until the Tengu jumped over the temple and landed somewhere in the middle of it. We must have arrived.

Soon after that I saw the entrance and ran through it, continuing forward until I reached the portal room. The others joined me and we all watched as the Tengu picked the Demon General up and threw him somewhere into the distance. Under normal circumstances that would have made me laugh, but at this point I was beyond exhausted.

Markus walked up to the two massive portals, "Alright... Which one we taking?"

"Flip a coin? I have the gold coins that Rei left back in the temple." Lindon asked.

His bandit instincts are still as strong as ever I see. But that's fine, I am the one who left them there after all. I can always make more money elsewhere. What matters most right now is getting away from this fucking place.

Markus pointed toward the left portal, "Heads."

Lindon flipped the coin, grabbed it, and smacked it onto the back of his left hand.

"Heads."

"Looks like we have our portal," Markus said. After he was done saying that he jumped right into the portal.

One by one the rest of us jumped through it as well, with I and the Tengu being the last ones. I landed on the other side and had to put a hand over my eyes to block the blinding white light aimed at my face.

"I REPEAT! DISARM YOURSELVES AND GET ON THE GROUND!! I WILL NOT ASK A THIRD TIME!!!" A voice yelled at us through a loudspeaker.

More panic and yelling could be heard after the Tengu Lord jumped through the portal.

While Markus yelled back and forth with a man in the distance, I slowly looked around and took in our surroundings now that the large spotlights were mostly aimed at the Tengu.

The land around us was littered with the dead. Plagued Crotia, casters, tree monsters, a couple of monstrous animals, and a half dozen other monsters I didn't see in the Abyss. Well, now I know why they're so on edge... The creatures of the Abyss have been attacking this place, or trying to anyway. Looks like they failed rather miserably so far.

About twenty yards in front of the party I could kind of see Markus talking with a man in power armor. The glare was still annoyingly strong.

The Tengu was sitting down in a relaxed posture behind the party, not showing an ounce of hostility. At one point I could even hear Markus say 'He's a righteous one, I swear on My Lord'. They must know of the Tengu Lords and are obviously wary of him as a result. He looks nothing like his evil brothers do though, so that should give some credence to what Markus is saying.

"What do you think?" Ishar asked after sitting down next to me. Vi dropped off of him and sat in front of us.

"So far so good. I've only been able to pick up pieces of dialogue thanks to how loud their machinery and alarms are, but it seems like they know of Arkaios. That man in power armor touched the artifact for about thirty seconds too, so you know what that means."

"Does that let you communicate with the god you guys follow?" Vi asked.

"We don't all 'follow' him, but... Ahh, never mind. I was going to say 'Maybe we should follow him', but he wants to leave for Gaia, and I won't be going there for a long time."

Ishar rubbed his chin, "I completely forgot about that. Keith told us outside that building you broke into, right?"

I nodded and Vi chuckled, "Were you stealing things, Rei?"

"Nah. Just breaking some allies out of prison." I laughed and pointed at Markus, "In fact, there's one of them right there. But he died soon after I freed him. Ironically, he actually would have lived longer if I had left him in that cell."

"Well, how the hell did you die? I had just killed one of those Xerath spiders when something hit me from behind. The next thing I knew I was strapped into a chair on some massive platform that was carrying me over the darklands." Ishar said.

"I uh, was shot out of the sky. Something slammed into me hard, knocking me through several buildings before one of those dark purple Xerath stomped me to death. But I really don't know what hit me out of the air." I continued, "And you must be referring to the entrance of Jericho. I rode that thing alone. It was surprisingly fun to ride."

Vi's eyes lit up, "You've been to Jericho?! Did you like it there? I love that place!"

I looked at Ishar and I could see the wheels turning in his head. Heh, he knows where she's from now, that's for sure.

"We weren't exactly there to sightsee Vi... But yeah, under normal circumstances and if I didn't know which faction the town belonged to, I would have loved that place."

Ishar chuckled, "I spent all of my time in a cell. So hell if I know whether the city was nice or not."

"Ahh..." Vi trailed off. "I'm sorry... I didn't know they treated you two like that. It's weird though. Dad said he liked you, Rei."

"I'm sure it's complicated. There were plenty of people in Xelba I liked, that I, uh..." Killed.

The man talking to Markus walked a little away from him and began talking into a handset. A radio huh... Now that's really bringing back memories.

"Looks like they'll either be letting us go or locking us up soon," Ishar said.

Most likely the latter. Then again we do have Arkaios with us, so it could go either way...