Saiya stepped in front of Dazien before he reached Tanner, who was still sitting stunned on his knees in the center of the campsite. She pced both of her furred hands on his armored chest and said, “Dazien, stop. It’s not like you think!”

  His angry gaze never left Tanner as he retorted, “He left her! Abandoned her! I bet he took one look at the enemy and tore that scroll without a single ounce of remorse for leaving her to die!”

  “That’s why I know you’re wrong!” she yelled back over him, which actually managed to get him to look at her. She never yelled, but between the waves of rage coming off Dazien and the roiling mixture of grief, surprise, and regret radiating off Tanner, she knew there was more to the story than what everyone else believed.

  “She… Why would she do that?” Tanner asked them in utter confusion.

  “Do what?” Dazien practically growled at him, and Saiya was grateful she was Sapphire Caste and could actually hold him at bay.

  “She made me rip the scroll,” he replied, looking at the halves of parchment he held, the magic that had once been in them now depleted. “She could have taken it from me… I didn’t think of it until she mentioned it. Why would she sacrifice herself for me after everything I did to her? Everything I accused her of?”

  Saiya breathed a sigh of relief as she felt Dazien’s anger melt away, and she found herself seeking his hand for comfort. She could have guessed the next words her Defender spoke aloud because it was something that all of their party had already concluded, “Because she has a hero complex. She probably wouldn’t have been chosen by Hero otherwise.”

  That was when Saiya fell to her knees to scoop up Tanner in another hug reinforced by all three tails as she felt his hate snap and he began to weep; the sheer weight of his emotions no longer held at bay.

  She watched with a sad smile as Dazien turned away and kicked at the snow in his own frustration of not being able to sh out at the man and still missing his party member.

  Saiya knew her leader struggled the most when things spiraled beyond his control, but she knew he was working on getting better about managing it. Paul had surprisingly seemed to be a good influence in this area, and she was happy that the two men had seemed to find quite a few things to bond over.

  She gnced over at Rayna, who was pacing between them and the portal area. They would probably need to talk ter about everything, but Rayna had always been resilient, never holding onto her negative emotions for long. Then she gnced over at her bigger concern: the Cataclysm Mage silently holding himself away from everyone else, probably out of habit more than safety since he still had his Silencer on.

  Uriel was on a whole different level of concern compared to the others—even Phoenix with her terrible sense of self-worth—but it wasn’t like she could just walk up to him and smack the secrets out of him like her sister might attempt. She was the responsible one, the calming presence, the Tranquil Healer that kept the group from completely falling apart.

  When she realized that fact, it made Lord Waynd’s reasoning behind including the twin strangers with the trio much more obvious. She hadn’t been upset by that realization, however; if anything, it made her feel even more essential and secure about her pcement within the party. She wasn’t just a Role slot to check off, or a pocket healer to drag around.

  “She’ll be here in a few minutes, Daze,” Saiya told him, “We should show her the trust she’s pced in us.”

  Dazien seemed to rex slightly at her words, and he didn’t need to say ‘thank you’ for her to notice the thread of gratitude directed towards her through her senses.

  Another few minutes, and she was proven correct as a portal appeared.

  Phoenix stumbled through and gave a nonsensical cheer to the relief of everyone. That was until their panic all spiked once more when a giant red machina followed the Caster through to nd on the slight woman, blood spraying and staining the snow.

  Rayna reacted first, using [Blink Step] to close the distance in an instant as she spun around to sm her tails against the monster. It was just enough to detach the mecha-cat from the downed Supporter before another cat lunged through the portal as well. Its arrival caused the portal to colpse and sent Rayna flying from the unexpected impact.

  “To the Retreat!” Dazien called out, and Saiya reacted.

  She cast her long cooldown ability as quickly as possible to give them a chance to breathe and formute a pn, “May the weary find rest in the soce of the tranquil retreat.”

  Ability: Restful Retreat

  Type: Spell (summon, magical, dimension, life)

  Cost: High mana.

  Cooldown: 1 hour.

  Current Caste: Sapphire 1 (Locked)

  Crystal Effect: Summon nearby allies into a dimensional garden for a moderate duration. The inhabitants have greatly increased health regeneration and are periodically cleansed of Elemental Banes.

  Sapphire Effect: (Locked)

  All nine Adventurers along with their remaining Familiars were instantly transported into the pocket dimension. She knew it appeared like a massive white lotus from the outside, but inside it was like a tranquil zen garden, and they all rexed a bit. Both Rayna and Phoenix groaned as the healing energy washed through them, mending the savage puncture wounds.

  Phoenix managed to open her eyes and obviously notice the worried looks of the team staring at her anxiously but gave them a lopsided grin, “I know I’m not much of an animal person, especially compared to Uriel, and that supposedly all cats are jerks, but those particur cats act like I personally offended them somehow.”

  “Maybe the Soul Reapers have some kind of grudge against Wayfarers,” Uriel specuted with a calm gaze on Phoenix.

  Saiya frowned slightly at the sensation the magic of the earrings had on Uriel, suppressing his emotions before they could get too strong. She disliked the magical jewelry, not just because it often made it harder for her to sense how he was doing, but because it suppressed every strong emotion he even attempted to have. It felt… wrong to her.

  “Aren’t they supposedly some advanced interdimensional civilization bent on destroying other pnets?” Rayna asked with a skeptical look, “They looked pretty advanced to me in that weird armor. Why would they care about Wayfarers, let alone one in particur like those seemed to?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Dazien redirected, “We have a pair of angry Sapphire Caste monsters waiting for us out there. We need to be prepared for when Lady Saiya’s Spell ends.”

  “How long do we have?” Polissa asked, her concern centered on Tanner, who was sitting beside her, rubbing his eyes and trying to calm himself. Saiya was grateful that her aura was everywhere within this space and could provide everyone with its comfort.

  “It sts about five minutes or until I cancel it,” she offered them, “Magic isn’t always an exact science.”

  “Like those Sapphire monsters coming through Phoenix’s portal?” Dazien asked since they all thought that would have been impossible considering its level.

  “Exactly like that,” Saiya replied, “Depending on the environment and the different magical makeup of each person or creature going through, it can potentially affect how much the portal can handle before it colpses, same goes for this space.”

  “While interesting, that doesn’t help us figure out what to do next. Can we wait inside here for as long as we can? Someone called for the other teams, right? They might be here soon enough,” Polissa said to the group.

  Dazien frowned, a ripple of concern, doubt, and failure reaching her senses, and he said, “I let them know there was trouble, and they’re all returning, but I don’t know how far out they are. I failed to warn them about the enemies being on this side of the portal before ending up in here.”

  She watched him carefully and double checked, “And we can’t use the communication power in this dimensional space, can we?”

  He shook his head, “No. I can try again once we’re out, but I don’t think those cats will wait for me to have a nice chat.”

  “Actually, they might,” Uriel said, surprising them as they all turned questioning eyes his way. “They’re fixated on Phoenix, right? She can have them chase her around while you call in backup, and we can try damaging it.”

  Phoenix chuckled but it was filled with disbelief, “You want me to fill Dazien’s Role now as the tank and kite them?” She shook her head, “I’m not fast enough. I barely sted a few minutes and it caught me in the end, remember?”

  He gave her a shrug, “I can try to slow it down with [Frost Touched], but if you have a better pn…”

  They all frowned, and no one voiced an alternative.

  “I don’t like it,” Dazien stated, crossing his arms over his armored chest. The feeling of protectiveness was almost stifling to the empathic Healer. She had only felt it reach that level a few times before, usually when he voiced his certainty that one of them would die.

  “None of us do,” Rayna pointed out, “But it’s all we’ve got, so let’s give Phoenix the best support we can until backup arrives.”

  Their party leader nodded and leveled his stern gaze at Tanner, asking calmly, “Are you going to go along, or are you set on trying to lead people who don’t trust you to think clearly?”

  Tanner returned Dazien’s gaze with watery eyes and gave a submissive nod of his head as he said, “I… I recuse myself from leadership and delegate authority to Mister Smithson.”

  Saiya could feel the disappointment and worry in each of the Chaos Summoners that had taken seats around their broken companion. While she could understand their trepidation at what would await them in Tulimeir for the obvious mark against their performance, Saiya was grateful that the conflict between the two leaders would be set aside for the moment.

  Now she just needed to make sure everyone survived to get back to the city.

  With the pn decided, Phoenix tried to keep herself focused on what she would need to do. The group began buffing themselves with Boons and they each prepared to py their new Roles. Saiya’s own group Boon had been upgraded by the Bolster Spirit Gem and was seeing a lot of usage already, but it was nice to have time to prepare with it. “Be sure of foot and strong of heart.”

  Ability: Boon of the Banced

  Type: Boon (magical, covenant)

  Cost: Moderate mana.

  Cooldown: 10 minutes.

  Current caste: Sapphire 1 (13%)

  Crystal Effect: Bless nearby allies with increased bance and reflexes for a short amount of time, making them less likely to falter, and Magical abilities are less likely to be resisted.

  Sapphire Effect: Also greatly increases the lowest level attribute of each blessed ally.

  When Saiya’s dimensional spell ended, it was like a starting pistol went off as Phoenix noted where the cats were. They both instantly lunged towards her, and she pushed herself in the opposite direction. Gaining momentum and a direction, she began circling around the area while trying to take as little damage as possible from the sharp cws that always seemed to be right behind her.

  Dazien did them all a favor and spoke over the combined channel to Officer Wysmont as he informed her, “Update: Two peak Sapphire enemies in the camp. We’ve lost a bonded Familiar. Neired has recused himself to Smithson. Request for immediate support.”

  “We’re almost there,” Chriss Stratford replied through the echoing communication power.

  When it seemed like Phoenix finally got into a rhythm of being able to avoid the creatures, thanks to the group’s combined efforts to slow the machina down, there seemed to be a shift in the enemies’ behavior patterns.

  The rger green one seemed to behave more tactfully as it jumped away to pce itself near the grouped-up backliners. It quickly began spewing out clouds of green gas that began to dissolve the snow and stone all around them and caused the Casters to quickly disperse and flee the corrosive Elemental attack.

  The red cat, on the other hand, went berserk. The metal ptes glowing like a sword pulled straight from a forge’s fire and melted the snow around it as it also changed its attack tactics.

  It let out a deafening metallic screech, causing everyone in the area to cover their ears reflexively. Then spikes seemed to form on its back only to explode out of the creature like missiles on a mission.

  Phoenix’s eyes went wide as the projectiles went everywhere, whistling through the air like obnoxious fireworks. When the one coming towards her was knocked off course by her [Starlight Companion], she thought she had been saved, only to have the mortar explode as it struck the ground. The bst knocked her backward a dozen meters into a snowbank and utterly annihited the aural companion.

  She heard more explosions around the area, and shouts rang out through the camp. Another moment ter, she felt more of the aura fairies flicker out of existence followed by a thunderous roar from above, but it was hard for her to regain her bearings and see what else was happening.

  When her vision cleared, it was just enough to see the rge metal fangs of the molten feline reappear before her, and it gave a growl of victory as it charged her.

  Phoenix thought she heard Dazien’s voice nearby incant, “You have been weighed, measured, and found wanting,” but when she thought she would die once more, something odd happened: an unstoppable force and an immovable object both met each other from either side of the machina monster.

  As Dazien’s sword glowed with the swirling rainbow light of Radiant damage from triggering his [Royal Executioner] ability, he stabbed into the beast just as Rayna activated her own execute ability, [Shatter].

  The Sapphire Caste mecha-cat exploded, sending all three of them flying further away while getting impaled with forge-hot metal shrapnel as it self-destructed upon death.

  Phoenix didn’t begrudge Saiya for going to her sister first to heal the bard. Despite being Sapphire Caste, the Striker was the least likely of the three to survive considering the ck of defensive armor and cheating resurrection Talent.

  Uriel was beside his partner a few moments ter, grabbing one of the healing potions off the leader’s belt and shoving it down Dazien’s throat. It appeared that the warrior’s armor had helped deflect much of the bst, but he was still only Crystal Caste while the magically infused explosion was much higher.

  Phoenix, however, had her gut and left lung impaled by rge chunks of burning metal ptes, and she found herself wishing that she didn’t actually need to breathe to survive. The pain in her chest and back was the strongest, and she couldn’t feel anything below her waist that seemed almost severed by the searing shrapnel embedded there.

  She didn’t remember the other parties arriving, but Acolyte Barrett eventually appeared beside her. She was having trouble focusing on his face or hearing what he was saying, and she wondered if the bst had also ruptured her eardrums. Maybe the pain was just overriding her other senses. She knew extreme pain could do that sometimes if the person managed not to simply pass out.

  Phoenix idly wished she would hurry and ascend to the higher Castes just to be rid of the annoying reliance on Mundane things… like organs.

  The scream she was actually able to hear.

  At least, she thought she had heard it, but it turned out just to be from the vibrations of her own voice. Acolyte Barrett had pulled the chunk of metal from her chest, leaving a rge cavity, and she desperately gasped for breath.

  With the brief bit of healing energy he poured through his soft touch on her shoulder, knitting that part of her back together, she was able to breathe again. Sounds began to return and she tried focusing on his face once more.

  Her mind was still swimming, but she realized that the Acolyte was trembling as he touched her stomach directly above the wound. She thought the behavior odd until she noticed his eyes locked on the holy symbols embzoned under the ripped armor that left her Soul Mark uncovered.

  Phoenix internally groaned, hoping the priest’s nervousness at failing to save someone Chosen by the gods, one of whom he served, wouldn’t in turn be what killed her.

  She didn’t get to find out, though, when she heard him whisper, “Forgive me, Chosen One,” then yanked the shrapnel from her abdomen, and she completely bcked out from the excruciating pain.