Before Phoenix or Dazien could utter another word, Kara appeared at their side, making both of them jump slightly in surprise, but the Padin spoke quickly. “We need to go on lockdown immediately. You are to retreat to the family’s underground bunker here.”

  Phoenix seemed to shake herself from her shock as she rebutted, “What? No. We’re not going to hide away while the city is being threatened.”

  She then pointed up at the ship, still slowly making its way through the air towards them, and expined, “We haven’t managed to establish an Emerald Caste force barrier around the city yet. If that thing can fly with the increased ambient magic that means more flying monsters are sure to follow. The city will need every Caster they have to protect the people as they evacuate to the shelters.”

  “No,” Kara said with an unexpected edge to her voice. “There’s an Obsidian Caster somewhere there. I can sense them aboard.”

  “How can you sense that from here?”

  Kara gave her a ft look.

  “Right, Obsidian Caste senses. Forget I asked,” Phoenix said with a flush of embarrassment.

  “This isn’t going to be a simple smash and burn like the st time,” Kara tried to expin. “You should either bunker down or portal back to the World Tree, where it’s safer.”

  “We can help though! I can portal others to the World Tree, and my party can help on the walls or—”

  “I am your champion, Phoenix,” Kara interrupted. The air seemed to go still as the Padin focused intently on her and said with complete seriousness, “My sole purpose at this moment is to fight on your behalf and keep you safe. I will not risk failing in my purpose because you want to py the hero.”

  Phoenix clenched her jaw and gathered her courage as she stared down the vastly more powerful woman. “I am not useless here, Padin Fairweather. I have been and will continue to fight when and where I can. I have my party to support me, and if things get too dangerous, we can portal to safety at that time, but that’s not now. Plus, my [Waypoint] is already at the World Tree if the worst happens to me. Saving others is worth the loss in progress.”

  Kara returned her gre, ears fttening and fangs bared as the voxen scowled at her. “Stubborn kit.” The Padin’s expression softened as she added, “I guess I wasn’t much better at your age. I should have expected this from someone my goddess chose… Alright, do what you can and retreat when your party leader orders it.” She gnced towards Dazien, who still stood beside her. “I trust him to value your life more than you do.”

  Phoenix nodded curtly as relief flooded through her. “I will,” she promised, then pointed towards the flying vessel. “Go explode that thing while my party heads toward the Port District to help evacuate people. I’ll tell Patricia to expect refugees.”

  The Sunlight Champion assessed her a moment longer before finally breaking into a grin. “As you command, Regent Waynd.”

  Phoenix gawked at the sudden shift in the golden voxen’s behavior as Kara vanished as suddenly as she had arrived, Phoenix’s senses unable to follow the movement.

  She turned to look at Dazien, who had been silent the entire time, and found him giving her a cheeky grin as he said, “You know, ever since Kara arrived in Tulimeir and you managed to handle that whirlwind of fur, I thought you could be a leader if you wanted to be.”

  Phoenix turned red in embarrassment as she stammered, “I… Th-that wasn’t… I didn’t—”

  Dazien continued speaking as he gestured toward her. “I mean, look at you now; ordering around an Obsidian Caster, giving commands to Ambassador Waynd, and determining the strategy of the entire party.”

  “I—um… it’s not—”

  He gave a dramatic sigh and shook his head, saying forlornly, “I might as well put in my resignation as party leader now before we meet up with everyone.”

  Phoenix finally caught on to his sarcasm and narrowed her eyes. “You’re teasing me.”

  He grinned. “I think you deserve a bit after that dispy. Would you rather I be silent or bow before you?”

  “No!” she replied immediately which made Dazien’s smile become brighter. She blushed further in her embarrassment, then said in a more controlled volume, “I don’t want to be in charge of the party. I like knowing that I’m not the only one people are relying on.”

  Dazien ruffled her hair. “That’s fine. You can still be the awesome Princess who goes to sy the dragons while the King protects everyone in the background.” He gnced back to the alien spaceship approaching from the north, and his smile fell. “But we have a war to keep fighting first.”

  Arms continued to bre across the city and the streets filled with people attempting to retreat to the shelters. Chaos erupted everywhere as the aerial threat became quickly apparent to everyone. Its size became ever more terrifying as it slowly approached, and more details could be made out.

  Aside from the giant wings that seemed to be sparkling with Fae dust, the actual body of it was more like a segmented caterpilr with that same fibrous green and brown flesh making up the majority of walls, but glossy bck spots indicated windows and doors. The bck bands dividing each segment weren’t glossy but seemed to have some kind of turret defenses mounted upon the rings.

  Phoenix felt calmer after meeting up with her teammates and letting Saiya hold her arm. As Dazien took the lead once more, she portaled them to the Port District. They didn’t often visit this particur district that was mostly used for trading—which had mostly been put on hold during the blood moon.

  The st time Phoenix had needed to be here was during the raid from the neighboring Berg Siren nation who had attempted to take advantage of the blood moon to attack with an Emerald Caste Gcier Giant that Paul had sin.

  Like then, Phoenix was using her portal ability to attempt to get as many civilians to safety as she could. First, she made a portal to the meadow outside the entrance to the World Tree’s vessel and quickly informed Presley about what was happening in Tulimeir and to pass on the information to everyone else in the newly forming city. Once the Emanation confirmed they would be ready, she returned through her portal to begin evacuating as many Mundane civilians as she could.

  The rest of her party stayed by her side this time. She assumed the knowledge that the st time they had left her alone here resulted in her murder was making them strangely on edge.

  “I don’t think anyone’s going to randomly attack me this time,” she mentioned over their mental voice chat as she opened another portal to let more Mundanes through.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Dazien replied adamantly. “We’re both Waynds now, which comes with risks, and you and Uriel have religious enemies to consider. Whether we’re aware of a plot or not, I’m not leaving any of our party members alone anymore.”

  “Are we going to the walls once this evacuation is done?” Rayna asked aloud curiously, bouncing on the pads of her furred feet as though getting ready for the fight.

  “That’s the pn for now, but I’m unsure if that will actually be the best pce for us,” Dazien responded. “Nothing is stopping them from flying right on top of us. In which case, it might be better to return to the city center to protect the more poputed areas.

  “However, while some of us might be able to handle aerial targets, we will mostly be at a disadvantage, and our position might not matter as much. I’m more concerned about Emerald Monsters raining from the sky at the moment and us being forced to flee as well.”

  A loud booming sound echoed around them. As they turned towards the enemy vessel, they saw Kara flying towards it and repeatedly striking against an invisible barrier. It sounded like thunder from this distance and the fact that the shield had held from the initial attack of an Obsidian Caster was a terrifying testimony to the strength of the enemy.

  “Is she going to be able to handle that alone?” Uriel asked, earrings already in pce and chains removed while he used the Crystal Spygss she had given to him earlier to take in the distant battle and warn of incoming monsters.

  Dazien frowned and she once more found herself slightly envious of his zoomable vision as he said, “It looks like she’s affecting it. I don’t think it will hold long, but she’ll be busy with the Obsidian Caster aboard. I’m not sure if she’ll have the time or leeway to stop the monsters within from reaching the city.”

  The shattering sound of gss filled the air, and they all looked on in wonder as the vessel’s magical shields buckled under Kara’s assault and a deluge of monsters began pouring out, not caring that they were still mostly above the sea instead of the city; though, another few minutes would likely change that fact.

  It seemed that Dazien was both right and wrong about Kara handling the other monsters. Many of them appeared to fsh-incinerate as the Sunlight Champion’s aura swept over them. However, the enemy’s Obsidian Caster had also appeared shortly afterward, using his own aura to push back Kara’s and protect the monsters falling into the sea or flying towards them.

  “Is it too naive of me to hope that the monsters that fell in the ocean will die from it?” Phoenix asked as she cast her [Lunar Dream] to create directional neon signs in the air to inform people where her portal led and where the other nearby bunkers were.

  An odd high-pitched whine rang out—interrupting Dazien’s response—followed by another deep boom as one of the new Emerald Caste defensive cannons on the northern wall let out a bst of Ice magic. The concussive force reverberated through their bodies and caused the wind to whip around them.

  “I’m assuming that since that wasn’t pointed at the distant vessel, the monsters survived the fall,” Dazien said grimly over the communication channel that was less hindered by the sound of the weapons and fresh wave of panicked screams that erupted around them.

  “We should go see if we can help on the walls with those,” Rayna urged. “I hate just sitting here doing nothing.”

  “We’re helping the evacuation, remember? There are only so many weapons on the wall and even fewer portalists,” Dazien pointed out. “Until people stop going through it, we should remain to protect them.”

  Another ear-piercing screech filled the air as the front of the distant vessel opened out, and a massive bird, seeming made from pure fire itself, soared out from it. Phoenix asked in awe, “Is that an actual phoenix? It’s huge!”

  “I think it’s actually a Firebird,” Uriel corrected, still using the Crystal Spygss to view things better. “Simir in appearance but phoenixes tend to have some regenerative powers whereas the Firebirds are all about damage.”

  “What Caste does the spygss show?” Dazien asked.

  “Ruby,” Uriel replied with a frown. “It’s like that dragon all over again… Wait, is that Everin?”

  “What?” the others all replied in unison. Phoenix once more wondered what she would have to do in order to make her passive [Moonlit Eyes] cultivate into the zoomable version.

  “It is,” Dazien confirmed, then surprised them by ughing. “I wish I had a Sense Stone over there right now just so you could see the absurdity of a rainbow-colored voxen spinning his tails to fly while carrying what looks like a garnet gemite in his arms.”

  “Garnet gemite?” Phoenix asked curiously. “Is that the Royal Knight Patricia mentioned was helping to guard your Noble Reveal? We never did get to actually meet them.”

  “I believe so,” Dazien replied. “Patricia suggested we keep our distance, but now I think we’ll need to thank them once this is all over.”

  “If they don’t die,” Rayna pointed out. “The st time a Ruby monster showed up was not great, and by the time I arrived, there was only a pile of dead bodies.”

  “Nobody died… well, stayed dead,” Saiya said, taking Phoenix’s hand. “Unlike Paul, Knight Thevaris is at the peak of Ruby Caste and well rested. I believe they will succeed with Avatar Everin’s support.”

  “I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” Phoenix replied, wishing she could do more to help.