Atzi spent the next several days swapping between huddling in the tent, trying not to freeze, and receiving lessons from Terra on astral magic. Terra's lessons came in the form of lectures, followed up by interrogations of Atzi's understanding. Atzi wanted something practical, so she could cast spells. Terra said that practical lessons were useless without the corresponding rank, and that Atzi would be learning purely theory. And even then, only what she needed to help Terra's project.

  This made Atzi grumble.

  All that was inbetween Terra's own study of the supposed 'hole' in the sky. Atzi couldn't see anything until she looked through a device that Terra had brought - though she had used some complex name for it that Atzi immediately forgot. Then she was told it was 'basically a telescope'. She didn't know what that was, either, but it was easier to remember. And when Atzi took a look through it, she didn't know what she was seeing, only that it hurt her eyes.

  Terra had explained that all four of the sorcerous magics, unlike the elemental magics, were associated with different locations. Terra had actually called them 'planes of being' but Atzi didn't really see the distinction. They were just places. Nature magic was associated with the world as a whole, death magic was associated with the land of the dead, blood magic was associated with the hells, and astral magic was associated with heaven.

  Atzi thought that sounded good.

  According to Terra, the drain came from a connection to heaven, sucking magic out of the world and into that realm.

  Atzi thought that sounded less good.

  The 'hole' was apparently quite small, and had been around for a while, but a little over a month ago it had started getting bigger.

  "How much bigger?" Atzi had asked.

  "That's what I'm trying to measure," Terra replied. "The university has the statistics from the past two hundred years when it first appeared, so I want to compare the size and essence throughput rate to those."

  "Alright. Uh. Lemme know what the results are then," Atzi said. She shivered in her warm clothes. Even with them and her magically warming torch, Atzi still felt cold. It was merely deeply uncomfortable instead of absolutely debilitating.

  Terra went on to explain a little more to her about it, specifically how it's not all types of magic being absorbed, just elemental magic and astral magic. Heaven rejected the other sorcerous magics.

  It meant the presence of blood, death, and nature essences hadn't changed. But fire, air, water, earth, and astral essence were all waning in the area around the 'hole'. Slowly, but surely.

  Atzi thought that sounded very bad.

  All the while throughout these days, Marco and Hemm spent a lot of time cooking over a fire, using the ingredients in Hemm's ice box. Atzi was happy she had plenty of food to constantly snack on.

  Marco also read some of the books that Terra had brought along, with the sage's permission. Atzi felt the sympathetic pang of doing something boring because the alternative was doing nothing at all. Either that, or Atzi had heartburn.

  Nearing the date of the explosion, Terra gave Atzi a list with forty-something different numbers on it, apparently the measurements of the 'hole', and told her to memorize them all, plus their corresponding labels.

  Atzi groaned, but tried her best.

  —

  It was the day of the godscouncil. Of the explosion.

  Atzi gathered everyone together to look over the horizon towards Sostra. The lowland swamps were foggy, making any details of the city hard to make out. Atzi shivered as the sun began to set.

  "If you hear anything out of place, at all... there shouldn't be any undead up here, but just keep an ear and an eye out," Atzi said.

  "Okay," Hemm replied. She looked tense, glancing between Terra, Atzi, and Sostra.

  "Sostra'll be gone in a few minutes, I think. So it should happen soo-"

  An eruption of fire arose from the swamp. The mist surrounding the city seemed to flee, only to quickly be replaced with a wave of ash. The top of the mushroom-shaped explosion reached so high that Atzi was nearly level with its top.

  The colors drained from Marco and Hemm, and their faces went slack.

  She did not feel the fear from when she was in the city, but the pit of her stomach still dropped. She hissed, "Malus. She's the one casting it. I saw her do it."

  "That's eighth circle magic," Terra said. Her expression was one of fascination.

  "So she's that powerful?!"

  "Somehow, she knows eighth circle magic," Terra rambled. "The unbreakable barrier, never before seen. She broke it."

  "The problem is it's not enough," Atzi said bitterly. "The dead keep coming anyway. All over the empire. Artaxtia, Pomaria..."

  Terra closed her eyes. "Yes, I feel powerful death magic. The source is far away, but it's an incredibly large-scale effect. I can't even tell where its boundaries are."

  "You're all seeing... what I've been seeing over and over. Except, I guess I'm still alive right now. This is the second-longest I've made it yet."

  Hemm worked her jaw, opening and closing it, occasionally making noise as though to speak, only to stop immediately. Finally, she said "...I believe you now. Fully. I wish… this isn't what it took."

  "Yeah, it-" Atzi trailed off. "I wouldn't believe this if someone told me either."

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  "If Malus did this to Novae," Marco said with anger in his voice, "then she's a monster." His fists were clenched as his entire body shook.

  "Terra. Is this the same spell that blew up Novae? No-one else alive can cast this, right?" Atzi asked.

  "I'd need to study the explosion site at Novae, but it's similar enough that... Well, there is one other possibility."

  "A huge number of fire gems. Right." Atzi groaned. "So we don't even know if she-

  "Four hundred or so. Just exploded at once," Terra said.

  "Four hundred?!" Atzi shouted.

  "Yes. Roughly. Give or take one hundred."

  "I-Is there even that many in the world?"

  Terra hummed. "Likely. As for in a single location, estimates are hard to get. For how many we have at the academy, you'd need to ask the Vault Master, and get him to release that sensitive information to you. He should also either know the numbers we have in other holdings throughout the empire, or know who knows."

  Atzi thought about the vault. If I could break in there somehow, just imagine that.

  Hemm wiped tears from her eye.

  "As for other locations," Terra continued after more thought, "well, it's impossible to say. Branek, due to the environment of where they live, is flush with them. If anyone would have that many, it would be them."

  "Alright. So Branek, maybe. Malus, maybe. Wish we knew for sure," Atzi scratched her scales. "Could you get me gems, in a loop?"

  "No. Technically, yes. But I won't."

  "Why not? I'm the only one who knows this is gonna happen, isn't it better if I can do more?"

  "It's a matter of trust. I'd only trust you enough to entertain the idea after this evidence of the explosion. You see the conundrum?"

  "Yeah." Atzi thought about the problem. "Unless you showed me how I could get them myself, maybe?"

  "I could provide you a map of locations of suspected gems. We often give out partial maps to adventurers and offer to buy any gems they find at a high price. But it would be dangerous. Each and every one is life threatening. Gems don't come from safe places."

  "Pretty useless for eating ten of the things then," Atzi said. She shook her head several times to clear her head. "I think we should head to Cthargictha. It's... Sostra's gone."

  "That was the agreement," Terra said.

  "I wonder if the Sostrian soldiers are still inside. If they know. Or will before we get there," Hemm said. She sounded tired.

  "Everyone's gonna know soon," Atzi replied.

  Marco was silent.

  Everyone packed their things.

  —

  It was night by the time they approached the base of the mountain.

  Atzi was glad it was a little warmer again.

  As they wound their way through the craggy paths near the destroyed outpost, the horses went crazy, neighing out of control. Atzi scrambled to look out front just in time to see one of them fall in a spray of blood. An armored figure stood above the dying animal, and several more shambled towards them. One wore a dented bronze helmet.

  The dead soldiers had risen.

  "It's happening again. Fuck. Fuck! Even out here? How far does it go?" Atzi nearly cried.

  "I'll handle this," Terra said simply.

  The sage stepped out from the cart and waved her hand. Snow near her rose into the air and collected into her palm, where it quickly turned into a floating sphere of water.

  The undead soldiers approached her, weapons drawn.

  "Cleanse," she intoned.

  The water sprayed forward gently, sparkling in the dim lanternlight.

  As soon as the water touched the undead, whatever force animated them was rendered inert. They crumpled into unnatural positions, metal scraping against each other. Steam rose from their bodies.

  "We need to hurry into the caves," Terra declared.

  Atzi felt a small amount of relief, but only a small amount. "Yeah. There's gonna be more. Endless."

  Terra ordered them to walk alongside the cart to lighten the load for the single remaining horse. The dead one didn't rise. Everyone quickly got out. Marco looked afraid, while Hemm's eye was downcast as she muttered to herself.

  "Where's the nearest entrance?" Terra asked Hemm.

  "Ah?" Hemm looked up. "W-we should find it if we keep heading west along the mountain range." She looked down again and added quietly, "Please be okay…"

  They traveled as fast as they could. The next time they encountered the undead, Terra used the same spell. Even knowing they were safe beside the sage, Atzi couldn't help but constantly look around for danger. Marco and Hemm did the same.

  They were more frightened the third time as nearly twenty skeletons, bones iced over, creaked towards them. Again, Terra cleansed them. Their bones shattered when they fell.

  Every time they encountered the undead after, Terra used the spell. It looked effortless to Atzi, an impression added to by Terra's calm expression.

  Soon, they found a cave entrance and hurried inside.

  Under Terra's orders, they looked around the mouth of the cave and found nothing - no soldiers, living or undead. So they continued further in, down a wide tunnel Hemm insisted was the right direction.

  As they traveled through the dark cavern, echoes of their own movements became the primary noise, adding to the background of dripping water.

  Then they heard clacking.

  More undead shambled out of a branching tunnel - all Sostrian soldiers. Terra drew water from the cave ceiling this time, and banished them all the same.

  Even so, Atzi and the others remained on edge. The dead kept coming. There was no relief, just the quiet creeping dread that the attacks might never end.

  That Terra might reach her limit.

  Hemm had it the worst. She started muttering to herself again. Her half-words joined the echoes.

  Eventually they came across light sources. Glowing mushrooms grew from the walls, strumming between soft yellow and green.

  There were no more dead.

  "They aren't following." Atzi said. "I think we might be safe?"

  "That was-" Hemm made a nauseous noise. "If I vomit, I'm sorry."

  "Do you know the way to the city?" Terra asked Hemm.

  Hemm swallowed. "I-I do. If we take a left here. And at the next junction take a right. And..."

  They followed Hemm's directions through the tunnels.

  —

  Atzi didn't know what time it was without the sun, but the journey felt like hours. The mushroom-lit cavern paths all looked the same to her, but apparently Hemm could tell the difference. Atzi was exhausted, ready to collapse. They didn't see any more signs of the Sostrian army - and had seen nothing at all of Cthargictha's. Even tired as she was, Hemm guided them without pause or uncertainty through the winding, branching paths. After having been constantly on edge, the lack of danger made everyone but Terra feel the weight of the journey.

  Finally, they took one last turn and emerged into a staggeringly massive cavern.

  The ceiling was hundreds of feet up, from which giant crystals hung. They glowed with a heavy intensity, bathing everything in hues of red, green, and blue. There were no buildings as Atzi was used to them. Yet she could tell she was looking at a city, deep beneath the earth. Giant multicolored mushrooms, appearing to be hollow, were affixed with doors, people moving in and out of them. The stone floor was covered in a sheet of smaller mushrooms placed in winding lines, acting as a sort of road that the cyclopes residents walked over at a slow and steady pace. Most were Hemm's size, but some were taller still, a few reaching seven feet.

  Occasionally, a bat person - their arms spread out into wings - glided down from the ceiling onto the mushrooms down below.

  "Everyone's okay," Hemm said, relieved. She turned towards the group, smiling faintly. "Welcome to my home."