Noah only remembered fragments of the events that followed the shattering of the barrier. The sound of the Night’s Shadow’s tentacle destroying the magic encircling the Arbalest Empire. A hilly, grass-covered field that had been hidden behind the illusion of the barrier took shape behind the falling shards of magic.

His feet pounded against the ground as they all ran.

It wasn’t that running would do much. The Night’s Shadow was so massive and advanced so quickly that any ground they could cover was largely inconsequential. But standing around and waiting for death, especially with the barrier destroyed, wasn’t an acceptable answer.

Garina had brought the barrier down to buy them a chance to survive. Whether she’d died for that chance or not was impossible to say — but there was no way they could just sit around and wait to be saved when the faintest flicker of hope still remained before them.

Noah’s thoughts spun through his mind like they were visions playing across the surface of a cracked kaleidoscope. Shards of memory spun behind his eyes in a glittering dance, passing in and out of focus between every hurried step he took.

He could feel the cracks in his soul weeping even through the thick clouds of fog within his mind. There was no need for him to take a visit into his mindspace to know that the damage he’d suffered was, without a doubt, the worst he’d ever had.

It was a minor miracle that his soul hadn’t completely shattered into a thousand little pieces like a piece of dropped sugar glass. The damage he’d taken back when he’d first arrived in the Scorched Acres was nothing compared to this.

A distant part of his mind noted that he was probably only still coherent because his soul was far stronger now than it had been then. An even more distant part of it was mildly surprised that he could think at all.

The darkness lurking at the edges of his vision and encroaching upon his thoughts with every passing second told him that his thoughts probably weren’t long for this world. All the adrenaline pumping through his veins was the only thing keeping him from collapsing on the spot.

Sound faded into a muted buzz at the back of his head. Even the screaming song of the Night’s Shadow slipped into the background. Every single scrap of attention and energy that Noah had to call upon was focused on putting one foot front of the other as fast as he possibly could — and making sure they didn’t lose any students during the escape.

Lee had grabbed several of the slower ones and slung them over her shoulders like sacks of potatoes. Even with the added burden, she was at the front of the group and probably could have moved faster if she’d wanted to.

Noah couldn’t quite tell which students she’d grabbed. That level of processing was a bit too much for his mind to handle. The subconscious was all that remained — and it told him that the count was right.

For now, at least, they were all still with him.

And so they ran.

Shadows passed through the air overhead. They were little more than streaks through the distant sea of blue sky, but something dragged Noah’s attention toward them regardless. His eyes flicked back in the direction of the Night’s Shadow behind them as the shadows slammed to a halt.

They were mages.

Dozens of them.

Noah didn’t need access to his magic to see their power. To feel their power. Even from where he ran on the ground, his skin prickled and his hair stood on end. These weren’t just mages. They weren’t even ‘just’ Rank 7s.

The power he felt now wasn’t too far from the magic that Garina herself had called upon when she was fighting Father. It was immense. Above him were the monsters that existed outside the sheltered Arbalest Empire. This was the real potential that mages could reach.

A concentrated beam of pure white magic tore out from one mage’s hands. It cut through the air like a knife to slam into one of the Night’s Shadow’s tentacles. The magic seared into the stone, hissing and melting a small section of it away.

An enormous thundercrack tore out. Gray lightning forked through the air in a branching wave to slam into the same tentacle with a brilliant crash. Spells lit the sky, sending booming crashes tearing through existence and making Noah’s teeth vibrate in his head.

And the Night’s Shadow flinched. It pulled its tentacles back, halting its advance for the first time. The Rank 8 monster had actually been hurt.

And, in that instant, Noah knew there was only one way mages could get this powerful. He’d known before, of course. Garina had told him. But there was a vast difference between knowing and seeing.

He was finally outside the walls of the Arbalest Empire — and he was no longer the only one with Flawless runes.

***

“Let me be the first to tell you,” Jalen said, plopping Garina’s broken body down on a hilltop. “You look like shit.”

A laugh slipped from Garina’s lips. It hurt in about a hundred different places. Even thinking hurt at this point — but she could feel the electric streams of magic trickling through her veins and slowly pulling her damaged body back into shape.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Jalen had carried her out of the range of the Night’s Shadow. Its influence wasn’t grinding away at her existence anymore. And, while the damage to her soul was definitely going to take a hell of a lot longer to heal than her body, at least she could breathe again.

“Couldn’t someone less insufferable have saved me?” Garina asked. “Prop my head up. I want to watch.”

“You know, I’ve said that exact same line a few times, but the couples always kick me out of their bedroom,” Jalen said. He grabbed a large stone and slid it behind Garina’s head so it was angled up at the enormous monster crawling through the sky in the distance. “Where’s Noah and the others?”

“They should be alive. The Night’s Shadow hadn’t reached them yet. The rest of the kingdom is ruined, though,” Garina said, her voice going flat.

“Hm. Unfortunate,” Jalen said. “I’m no expert on politics outside of the Arbalest Empire… but something tells me that won’t go over too well. Oh well. I really don’t give much of a shit about that place. So long as the interesting ones lived, I’ll call that even. Say, you didn’t even ask how I knew where you were. I had a whole cool speech prepared.”

“You were waiting for Noah,” Garina said. “That much was clear.”

“Incorrect,” Jalen said. “I was waiting for a dirty little liar to fulfill a promise. I was guaranteed dart games, Garina. Dart games. You think I'm letting him off the hook that easily? That’s not happening. That weasel has a debt to pay. And you do too.”

Magic screamed through the sky. Brilliant swathes of color destroyed the clouds as spells slammed into the Night’s Shadow — but the Rank 8 wasn’t falling back. It had only been slowed. Even the combined might of all the mages that had arrived wasn’t enough to completely stop it.

“Do you really have nothing better to do with your time?” Garina asked. Her fingers twitched as feeling returned to them. “Or are you just completely full of it?”

“The answer to two opposing questions can sometimes be the one and the same,” Jalen said. “I’ve been busy. I just had a feeling that everything would go to shit soon enough and stuck around just in case. Now… where’s Father?”

Garina’s lips thinned. “On a leave of absence.”

“He escaped?” Jalen asked. “You can’t be serious. How many more times is he going to get away with this shit?”

“None,” Garina replied. Her lips peeled back into a snarl. She paused as a thunderous explosion tore through the air. A Rank 7 plummeted from the sky, his domain crumpled like wet paper and his body warped into stone before he hit the ground.

“None?” Jalen repeated. “What, did you cripple his soul?”

“Not yet,” Garina growled. “But I have his scent. He’ll never escape me again, and all his plans are ruined. He wasted every second of time he spent within Arbalest. The moment I can move again, I’m going for him.”

Jalen nodded. “Good. I’m coming… right after I make sure Noah and those fascinating students of his are still in one piece.”

“You don’t seem very concerned about the bigger problem at hand,” Garina said through a grimace. A muted crunch rang out as her femur ground back together. “The Night’s Shadow hasn’t been stopped. It’s only just woken up. That thing will get stronger with every passing minute.”

“Well, the good news is there’s no empire left to protect,” Jalen said. “So no need to think about sealing it away again. Damage is already done. Gods, what idiot thought that was the right move in the first place? It just gave the Shadow a chance to regenerate from all the damage it took. Suppose it was some arrogant prick hoping to harvest its runes or something… but we’ll never know.”

“The Night’s Shadow isn’t the only problem,” Garina said. “With all the damage it’s caused, the other sealed monsters—”

“Doubt they’ll be too big of a problem since they haven’t awoken yet,” Jalen said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Relax.”

“Relax?” Garina exclaimed. “Are you an idiot? Do you not realize—”

“Garina,” Jalen said, his eyes narrowing. “There isn’t a single Apostle anywhere near the Arbalest Empire right now. Why do you think that is?”

That was an odd question. Garina blinked. Her magic wasn’t in anywhere good enough shape to sweep the surroundings, but she really couldn’t feel any of the other Apostles anywhere nearby. It really was quite odd. At least some of them should have shown up the moment the barrier fell.

“You can’t be serious,” Garina breathed. “Are you sure?”

Jalen turned to look back up at the Night’s Shadow. “Trust me. It was hard to miss. I don’t think that woman knows the meaning of the word subtlety. The funny thing is… it almost seemed like she knew what was going to happen before anyone else.”

A thrumming note rang through the air like the crash of an enormous gong. It ripped all the magic from the sky and snuffed it without mercy. Even the screaming song of the Night’s Shadow was silenced for an instant, thrown away by a wave of burning pink light.

A massive flower of pearly energy bloomed to fill the horizon before the Night’s Shadow. And standing upon its center was a woman.

Even from where she laid, Garina could make out the ring of gently sparkling pink gemstones behind her. The sheer power radiating out from her presence was practically incomprehensible.

Garina’s skin prickled with a wave of goosebumps. There was only one reason that every single Apostle would have avoided the area.

The Prophet of Repose. She’s here? Herself?

Screaming song tore through the air as the Night’s Shadow registered what it was faced with. Its tendrils flinched away like they’d been burned and it pulled back.

That wasn’t sufficient.

The woman lifted a single hand toward the Night’s Shadow.

Then a single word rang out through the air with such intensity that it felt like a command of the gods themselves.

“Kneel.”

A scream filled the air as the Night’s Shadow blurred.

Garina only had an instant to brace before the Night’s Shadow slammed down into what had once been Arbalest. There was an explosion the likes of which Garina had never even felt before. The ground bucked, launching both her and Jalen a dozen feet into the air as an enormous earthquake tore through what must have been everything within a thousand leagues.

Jalen clapped his hands together, summoning a shimmering green dome around himself and Garina an instant before a huge wall of pressure and dust slammed into it with a howl. It tore through the air around them with a booming crash — and then there was nothing but clouds and smoke rushing past them, blotting out the sky and leaving nothing but shadows in their wake.

Cold sweat prickled against Garina’s back.

The Prophet had torn an Empire-ending Rank 8 from the sky with a single word, and the fight had only just begun.

We need get Noah and his students get out of here. Now. By the time this battle is over… forget the Arbalest Empire. This entire portion of the continent will be nothing but rubble.