Alice stepped into the torchlit cave, her domain prickling as it brushed across the final resident of her hideaway. Even all her years of experience weren’t enough to keep unease from prickling against the underside of her skin.

The floor of the cave was covered with thick greenery. Flowers of white and red and black bloomed along the walls, sprouting from jagged, thorn-covered vines. Not a single patch of bare stone remained within the room. Everything from the ground to the ceiling was completely covered.

A thick, heady scent lingered in the air. It was equal parts sweet and sickly, and it lingered in Alice’s nostrils with an insistence that not even magic could purge. Many of the flowers glistened with beads of shimmering liquids in various colors.

Alice took extra care to avoid getting too close to any of them.

She’d gotten firsthand experience of exactly what a number of those liquids did, and she had no desire to experience it again. Not if she didn’t have to.

A part of her still couldn’t believe that this magic belonged to a freshly made Rank 5. And it wasn’t just magic. Not, at least, in the way that most considered magic. No runes were currently active. There wasn’t a single imbuement in this room that Alice hadn’t placed there herself.

The plants covering every surface were just that.

Plants.

They were entirely natural. The magic that had been used to form them had already run its course. And that, more than anything else, unnerved Alice. Runes could do a lot. They were capable of things that even she still didn’t understand.

But they had limits. Magic was magic. Runes were runes. They followed rules. Runic energy, for example, was entirely incapable of penetrating the domain that possessed greater concentrations of that same energy.

An infinitely powerful mage was, in theory, entirely impervious to any magical attacks. The pressure from their runes made all other runes completely worthless. But a single rock, when dropped from high enough, could theoretically kill them without even triggering their domain.

Magical and physical defenses were almost always separate. And, ironically enough, defending against magical attacks was often considerably easier than blocking physical ones. Magic could often be overwhelmed through sheer might. But physical attacks were far from the superior form of combat.

They were simply a different option. There were a number of ways to block non-magical blows, either through using magic to manipulate non-magical materials or with Shields or a great number of other techniques.

Certain kinds of mages tended to use more physical techniques than others. Those who leaned toward utilizing nature and earth generally utilized their surroundings far more than others. Nature mages often worked best by scattering plants throughout the combat area and using them to overwhelm their opponents.

That, at least, was nothing new.

Alice’s problem with this particular Rank 5 mage was that she wasn’t just using her magic to grow plants. Those were easy enough to deal with. Nature mages were far from the most effective when it came to combat. There were so many ways to defeat them that she didn’t even have time to go through them all in her head.

No, Alice’s problem was that this mage was making new plants. Ones that she was quite certain didn’t exist anywhere outside of this room. Ones with poisons that Alice was fairly certain to which there was no cure because the poisons shouldn’t have even existed.

Alice stepped past a tight cocoon of thorned vines. Her lips thinned. The faint remains of a monster lingered within them. It was a snake from the jungle above the cave network. The monster wasn’t a particularly threatening one, but it was known for its paralytic properties and bright blue color. A bright blue that was suspiciously similar to the icy flowers covering the cocoon.

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It was far from the first monster that had gotten lured here. The dried remains of dozens of cocoons littered the ground. Many more had already been consumed by the sea of plant matter, absorbed into the mass and turned to fuel for more creations.

Alice’s mouth prickled. She wasn’t entirely sure if that was because of her unease or if there was some kind of invisible poison lingering in the air. Both options were equally likely.

Every single part of this room served a purpose. It was all intentional. This was no mere mess of plants. It was closer to a Formation. A Formation made entirely from the lives and deaths of the monsters that had been lured here and the plants consuming and dying in a seemingly endless cycle in the pursuit of evolution.

This was using magic to create something physical — but it was rapidly outstripping the potential that any individual spell could have achieved. The results were permanent. New species of plants, structured specifically to kill and consume, and the one at the heart of it all sat in the center of the room, a huge book open before her as she wrote upon its pages with a vine that leaked black sap like a self-refilling quill.

“You’ve been busy,” Alice said, coming to a stop several healthy paces away from Moxie.

Moxie didn’t even look up from her page. She just kept writing. “Where are the others?”

“Gone,” Alice said. “They all passed. Todd and Isabel finally tried to kill me several months ago. Turned out, they were holding out to prepare a sneak attack instead of revealing their abilities early. It almost worked.”

“That would have been embarrassing,” Moxie said. She finished writing the line she was working on, then held out her hand. A large white flower blooming beside her shriveled. Its petals curled in on themselves before the head of the flower dropped from its stem, landing in her outstretched palm.

The petals withered and fell away to reveal a dozen small seeds. She slipped them into her clothes, then finally looked up from the massive book. Something dark lingered within her eyes.

And, even though she was still just a Rank 5, the hair on the back of Alice’s neck stood on end. Her eyes reminded her of Sievan’s.

“Quite embarrassing,” Alice said. “You know, when I said you were welcome to use my resources, this isn’t what I meant.”

Moxie gave her a one-shouldered shrug. “You should have been more specific. Where are my students?”

“All across Obsidia,” Alice replied. “They were all ready. Can’t keep the birds in the nest forever. All were sent to areas out of the control of a major faction.”

Moxie studied Alice for several long seconds. “And you’re observing them?”

“No,” Alice said with a shake of her head. “I am not. My assistance to you is finished here. I did what I promised I would. Noah is gone. He’s no longer around to pay any debts that I’m incurring on your behalf. The traces of Arbalest should be fading by now. By the time all your students make it to Heaven’s Path — should they be able to — almost no hints of it should remain. So long as nobody looks too closely… they’ll be safe.”

“Noah is not gone,” Moxie said. “But I’m certainly not going to stop you now. They’ll make it. As will Noah. He is not killed so easily.”

“We have strikingly different definitions of the word easily,” Alice said. “Hold up your end of the deal, Moxie. Not a word of what transpired here. I have my own plans in motion. I will not risk them for you, no matter how interesting you are.”

“I have no interest in the Apostles or any of the games you’re playing,” Moxie said. She rose to her feet in a smooth motion, slinging the huge grimoire over her back like it was made from nothing but air. “Though I have to wonder if it’s all worth it. Don’t you think you could get farther if you were more honest about—”

Alice raised a hand. “Don’t. The discussions we’ve had are not to leave the past. You know your goals. I know mine. We don’t need to go back over them.”

Moxie raised her arms out to her sides, palms facing the ground. With a sharp motion, she twisted them upward.

The entire room shuddered. Vines raced across the ground, receding with a roaring hiss as all the foliage in the room was drawn into Moxie like a black hole had formed directly within her. The vines vanished within her clothes, disappearing without a trace, leaving behind nothing but cold stone and a faint cloying scent of flowers and rot.

Alice’s hair stood on end.

Her Domain hadn’t even reacted.

Whatever Moxie had just done… it hadn’t used any runic energy.

She’s controlling all those plants without using her runes? How?

“Then we’re done here,” Moxie said, letting her hands lower once more. “How long until the tournament?”

“Just about two months,” Alice said.

“Then we really are done here. Open me a portal, would you?” Moxie asked, her lips curling into a cold smile. “Somewhere green. A forest. One with some powerful monsters. There are a few more specimens I’d like to harvest before things get started.”