Beyond?

“Life is an endless, unavoidable up and down. Once you are the one who is standing on top of the hill it doesn't matter which direction you take, all paths lead you downwards.”

-Serenzar, the God-King.

***Free City States of Nict, Tri***

***Stella***

Finally, I can see my children again. I enter the big garden area around the Zait's main house with Azir at my side. He is a little grumpy since Serenzar escaped us, but I've no doubt that it'll get better with time.

It took us a day to clean up the huge mess which was left behind by Serenzar's attack. Unfortunately his girlfriend managed to save him from our hands.

I wonder who she is. When I fought her she was perfectly able to stand up to my new technique. The hardened scales which I created on my body deflected my opponent's magic and physical attacks didn't do any harm to me. Still, I've yet to learn how to deal with troublesome opponents.

The black haired woman was able to turn herself immaterial and avoided all my attacks by doing so. Whenever one of my attacks was about to hit her, she simply dove into a shadow and reappeared somewhere else.

In the end I even resorted to rune magic, but my spells weren't able to harm her either. The stalemate between us was only broken when the dragon used his unbelievable aura to subdue the fighting parties.

Thankfully Azir is a very strong mind mage. He wasn't bothered at all by the dragon's power. Maybe I should finally ask him to teach me few strong spells to cover my weak points?

When we returned to the surface the battle was already over. A few dozen of Serenzar's warships managed to escape our fortresses, but we used the drones which we held in reserve and satellites to take them down.

The palace is in ruins though. It will also take a lot of work to repair the city, even if it wasn't the target of the attack. Having a thousand ships come crashing down all over the city is akin to being the target of long range artillery spells. At least the two fortresses which were taken down managed to get clear of the city and fly over the fields on the outskirts of the city before they crashed.

We find Yoran lying on a bench. Azir's father has a book in his hands and is reading it to the three youngsters. Upon seeing us he stops reading and stands up, smiling with a forced expression. “I am so glad that you are back.”

Sariel jumps up and runs over to us, hugging Azir's leg. “You are back! It was so boring without you! Grandfather isn't teaching us anything. He knows almost nothing about high tier magic.” Her eyes wander back to Yoran, looking at him as if he is really pathetic. “Grandfather can't even properly calculate the numbers on his tax report!”

I see pearls of sweat appearing on Yoran's forehead. Azir's father seems to have a problem in dealing with his grandchildren. “Why don't we go and play with the kittens? Each of you can choose one.”

“Can I have a nightmare?” Zadkiel looks up to Yoran with hope in his face.

Yoran avoids a straight answer. “M... Maybe a little later. Those are a little big for you and they have a bad temper. Why don't you try it with a kitten first. Once they get attached to someone they are really easy to handle.”

Now it is Zana's turn to get up and hug me. She looks distressed and clings to my robe. “Do I have to stay here now? But I want to be with you.”

Yoran sighs. “I am sorry. Valda asked her if she wants to stay with us from now on. The repairs on the city are going well and there isn't as much to do as before. Now she's asking me every full hour if she can't stay with the twins.”

I pat her head. “Who said that? You can stay wherever you want. And does it really matter? With the stepper disc it's just ten metres from our house to here.”

Zana's eyes light up and she hurries to hug Azir too, but freezes upon looking up to him. “Dad, are you sick? There are many red dots on your face. And your horn is missing, did you lose it?”

Azir shakes his head. “No, I just learned that some things can't be treated with magic.”

Instead of being satisfied with the answer she keeps looking up to him with question marks above her head.

After a moment he sighs and scratches himself. “It's nothing, I just got exposed to a little too much mana. They had to treat me against the side effects. It's just itching and will be gone in a few days.”

“A little?” I ask, looking up and down his body. “You jumped into a spiralling energy vortex which was formed by no less than six mana streams. Be glad that the only thing which started to grow on you are a few scales! Not to speak about your eyes! I don't think that they will turn back to grey.”

The healers had to cut the scales out of Azir's skin and heal him while using an old artefact to stop the changes from becoming permanent. It took them three hours, but they couldn't do anything about his iris, which changed its colour from grey to silver.

Yoran raises his eyebrows. “It seems like it's worth to tell a tale about the battle at the capital. Do you have time to share the entire story with me?”

“Of course.” Azir continues to scratch himself. “But do you think that we could talk about this while I get to bath in a pool? The itching is killing me.”

Azir's father shakes his head. “I am afraid that we don't have a pool. There is nobody in the family who would have a use for such a thing.”

Azir turns to me with pleading eyes. “Please? I know you can do it.”

Rolling my eyes I ask Yoran for an appropriate place to create a pool for Azir. I am no expert in creation magic, which is the name for the magical branch to build structures and buildings. But making a hole in the ground and backing it with marble is within my capabilities.

A few minutes later we are joined by Valda, Quarma and Valeria who were organizing something to eat and drink for the kids.

While we talk about the state of the capital the children discover that they can't swim, so Azir has to start teaching them. He is the one who requested the pool after all.

It turned out that our fortresses are more than a match for Serenzar's ships. The first encounter we fought with the invaders involved unfinished, hastily assembled weapon platforms. I refuse to call them fortresses since they obviously were much weaker than the properly built ones. A real fortress takes several weeks to be finished after all.

Our military came forth with a plan to shift most of our fortresses over to the second continent and leave just the ones in Nict which are absolutely necessary for defense.

They believe that Serenzar used almost all of his forces for the invasion on the main continent. That belief is strongly supported by the intelligence which we got from our agents on the second continent.

After months of slowly sneaking their way into the second continent's society they are fairly sure that Serenzar's grip on his subjects is strong, but not without flaw. He is feared as a ruler and treated akin to a god by his subjects.

But that's only because he can control the minds of people with his amulet. Our agents reported that there are many of Serenzar's subjects who are unhappy with his regime of absolute control.

Their reports hint at the possibility that striking directly at Serenzar yields a high possibility of ending the war. Without their iconic god-king, the second continent's war efforts would plummet into nothingness since various groups would start to struggle for power. There is their military, their priests, and the merchant guild to say the least.

A strong and decisive reaction from our side should force Serenza's empire into a defensive position and if we can get our hands on him the war should be as good as over.

After taking a look at all the evidence even Lucas came to the opinion that we are able to outperform Serenzar's war machinery by utilizing the powers of the Gejene.

Originally the huge invasion fleet should have been our end, but the trap which was laid by Nict, Dwem and Quinn worked so well that the tide was turned in our favour.

Listening to the military's report was a hideous task.

Especially since Louise was holding hands with the military analyst, whose name was George after all.

She finally acknowledged his feelings when he showed up in the Emperor's Vault while we were treating our wounded. Admittedly, he arrived after everything was over, but he fought on the surface until everything was settled there. Then he descended alone into the catacombs, avoiding the traps and dealing with the guardians on his own. Just to find out if Louise is okay.

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