“I cannot agree with this,” said Hazi. “We are the roots of the All-Tree Order. If any of us falls, then the resistance against the gods falls also. If Alana falls, we cannot hide from the Shade with her magic any longer. If I fall, then our information into the Adventurer’s League falters. If Thorian falls, then our ties into the Sorcerer’s Order fall.”

Hazi pointed his staff to Saerish. “And if you, Saerish, fall, then what of New Zerul and its people? What will they do with their queen now lost to them? The stakes are far too high.”

“What else would you suggest?” said Saerish. “That we wait until the Selection begins, wiping us all out? It is only a matter of time before the gods find the Dawnbringer, and that is one half of the Apeiros Engine.

If may very well be that with it, they can retrieve the Duskfall from Zerul, and then, the engine is complete. Selection begins. But with the Duskfall, with but a sample of Krala’s royal blood, I may stand against the gods and personally make them pay for the suffering they have wrought upon my peoples.”

“I will go with her,” said Furio as he gripped his wrench tightly in his metal arm, the sound of metal creaking against metal echoing in the confines of the ship. “The All-Tree does not need me. I am just a disgraced adventurer.”

“Vengeance clouds you, Vampyr Queen,” said Hazi. “It makes your judgement dull. Same to you, young adventurer. What will you accomplish? You possess great talent, yes, and you have gone to great lengths to strengthen yourself, but you are still far weaker than us, and even we would struggle in the Rift and beyond.

There is no point throwing away our lives for no real benefit.”

“Futility. Undeath will find us all anyway. Even Alo’s waters rot and blacken now,” said Alana. “If too much of it becomes foul, then I fear my people may not be able to channel them.”

“Do you hear that?” said Saerish. “Her magic is on a timer, and we need that to go into Zerul without turning into Undead ourselves. If we wait now, our chance is lost forever.”

“Thorian, you are technically the leader of his order,” said Hazi as he nodded over to Thorian. “What do you make of this? I have voiced my opinion, and so have all others aboard this ship.”

Thorian grew silent for several seconds, pondering. He shook his head and spoke. “Hard decisions. So many to make. So many I have made over the past years.”

“And this one? What shall you make of this one? Choose carefully, old friend,” said Hazi. “For though I will accompany you anywhere you go, a waste of life, especially the lives of those as important as that on board this ship, is one I will be hard pressed to condone.

I will follow you, but know well the consequences your choices may have to bear upon not only us, but the entire world.”

“I know. I know well,” said Thorian. “And this is my decision: we press forwards. We are so close to taking back Krala, and with her, hope for all of us. It is now or never.”

“So be it, then,” said Hazi. “I suppose falling in battle is not so unpleasant a fate, though I did not believe that I, Hazi, ever so cautious, ever so careful, would be one to fall in conventional glory.”

“I understand your points too,” said Thorian. “And I do not wish to commit too strongly, for indeed, you are right: the lives aboard have too much at stake to risk so freely. Alana, how long are you capable of hiding us at maximum degree before your mana and this ship starts to falter?”

“Counting. Maybe ten days?” said Alana. “Provided I do not fight or spend mana on helping any of you fight.”

“Then for eight days, and eight days only, we search,” said Thorian. “The remaining two, we spend in escape back to Middir. These will be the most monumental eight days of our entire lives.”

“I will take it,” said Hazi. He looked around to the crew with his green eyes. “Take care not to die or throw yourselves into foolhardy situations worthy of death.”

==

The Collector peered at the female draconid specimen. Indeed, the Collector could tell now what Kui meant by auras that were pure and impure. This draconid specimen’s affinity was that of Unity, one calm and steady much like Flow, and yet it fluxed with the instability of Chaos.

“The emotions she taps into to generate her mana, to trigger her core, are uncontrolled,” said Kui. “Not to mention she harbors whatever Old God she has consumed within her as well, further tainting the essence of her mana.”

The Collector clicked its mandibles as it observed the draconid specimen surging her mana even further, easily rising to a level comparable to the Collector’s. However, this was in sheer quantity only. In terms of fine-tuned application and control, she fell far behind the Collector and even further behind Kui, for as Kui stated, she lacked any real control over her immense mana pool.

“He-he told me not to hunt you,” said the draconid, her voice rumbling the cavern. “But why!? Why can I not tear you apart!? To prove I am better than you!? Why has he chosen YOU to kill him and not me!?”

The draconid was scaled entirely in white, the same white shade as that of the glaciated serpent’s, and her body was sleeker and thinner than the males of her species, and yet, still powerfully armored and built. Her head and neck were longer and sleeker, more serpentine, and from all around her body, an intensely freezing aura emanated, wreathing the ground underneath her in frosty ice crystals.

The draconid hovered in the air, her tail writhing and curling in rage as her eyes, pale blue like ice, honed in on the Collector.

“I will assist you in this battle,” said Kui. “As I have promised.”

“Then we will make quick work of this hostile specimen,” said the Collector.