“… so these are the places we have to check,” Leon said, marking down half a dozen spots on the map of the Prota Forest that he’d identified.

With Nestor’s help, he’d used an ad-hoc enchantment to project his magic senses and used his paltry command of earth magic to pull a rock out of the ground to use as a guide. Even with the enchantment, he couldn’t penetrate that far into the ground, but he was still able to identify six different sites within the forest that possessed significant amounts of local stone above the ground. Unfortunately, when scanning those sites with his magic senses as normal, Leon was unable to see much beside overgrown forest, but he supposed that just meant that the stone he’d detected was close to the surface.

“How are we going to get there?” Gaius asked, immediately jumping into problem-solving mode.

“I was thinking we could fly,” Leon replied. “I haven’t been able to see any reason why we couldn’t, though I think it’ll still be prudent to proceed with all caution. Just because I can’t sense any crazy monsters in the forest doesn’t mean they don’t exist; the Sacred Golden Empire has been unable to settle the forest in eighty-thousand years for a reason.”

The rest of his retinue looked a little unsure, but nodded in acknowledgment. The most hesitant among them was Anna, and for that he could understand: her Attican Snapper could barely fly, and most certainly couldn’t fight in the air. If they were attacked en route, then she’d have no choice but to retreat to the ground if she wanted to contribute at all to their response.

As they were all processing what they had to do and studying the points on the map—the Sacred Golden Empire may not have been able to settle these lands, but they’d certainly done a good job mapping the region out—Valeria asked, “And what will the Imperials be doing?”

Leon sighed and thought about it for a moment. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I assume they’ll be coming with since I doubt they’d ever let us out of their sight…”

“Let me get this straight, then,” Alcander began with a confused look on his face. “We’re here looking for some secret research thing your family left here in ancient times, and we’re just going to lead the Imperials right to it? Won’t they try to take possession of it?”

Leon frowned slightly. It was a problem he’d thought about many times before, but fortunately, he’d been reassured many times by Nestor. “It is something operated by my Clan long ago,” Leon replied. “However, their mastery of enchantments was far greater than mine. They had ways to secure their property with blood. Even if our escorts were to follow us, and they probably will, that won’t mean they’ll have access to whatever is being stored there. Assuming anything’s left, that is.”

“Ehh, I still don’t like it,” Alcander whispered. “I’d prefer if we tried to ditch them somewhere.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Marcus responded. “We’re in their lands. Even if they don’t control the forest completely, they’re not going to just sit back and wait for us to show back up if we were to slip away. They’ve deemed us people worth following, and they’ll follow us no matter where we go. Best to get used to their presence.”

“It is what it is,” Leon said. With a quick glance at the closest window—really just a light enchantment projecting what would’ve been seen on the outside since Leon didn’t want any holes in his fortified portable villa—he saw that it was getting quite late. The sun was about down, and he still had some studying he wanted to see to. “Get some rest,” he commanded his retinue. “We have a long flight ahead of us tomorrow, and probably more in the days after that. And who knows what else we’re going to find out there, so be ready for a fight.”

With that, his short meeting came to an end, and everyone left to spend the night as they would. Leon, for his part, spent some time fulfilling his promise to Sid and practiced his earth magic for a little while, and then finally spent the rest of the night with his lovers.

—

“This is a bold choice, I have to say,” Cassandra said as Leon and his retinue assembled, his portable villa safely ensconced within his soul realm once more.

The tree that the Princess had spent the night in was the Sacred Golden Empire’s version of a portable villa. This specific one wasn’t moved, acting as a ready camp for any official Evergolden business within the forest, but Cassandra’s escorts had brought with them a seed for a palace-tree, and some of those with her could their mastery of nature magic to cause it to grow in less than an hour into a tree more than large enough to accommodate the entire escort unit.

Now that they were getting ready to move, Leon had, up until this moment when Cassandra had come up to him and his retainers, been watching the Evergolden camp being packed up. The mages who’d activated this tree were busy essentially mothballing it. It wouldn’t be torn down, but left in the same state that it had been found, looking not much different from the other trees not too far away.

Any other palace-trees they’d build for their camps would be destroyed when they left, as far as Leon knew. The tree would be killed by the mages who’d so rapidly grown it, the original seed would be retrieved to be used again, and the dead tree would, with a little magical encouragement, rapidly decompose and feed the local ecosystem.

It was efficient, Leon had to admit. Nothing was left behind for anyone to squat in, and since the tree was grown with magic rather than sunlight and the nutrients in the ground, nothing was taken from the surroundings.

But with the Princess standing before him, Leon couldn’t dwell on such thoughts. “What do you mean ‘bold’? Are we missing something, is there some reason we shouldn’t be flying?”

“Maybe,” Cassandra coyly responded. “Besides, if your intention here was really to go hunting and experience the forest, I’d have figured that you’d rather proceed on foot.”

Valeria was right next to Leon, and her eyes narrowed in displeasure. “You’re being needlessly obtuse, Your Highness,” she said, being firm in her tone, though quiet enough that the Princess’ retainers nearby wouldn’t hear and be offended.

Cassandra glared at Valeria. “I’m being—”

Before the Princess could continue, Valeria interjected a little louder, “Ancestors know that if I were aware of any threats within this forest that might prevent us from flying there, I certainly wouldn’t be keeping that a mystery. I’m sure that everyone else would do the same, don’t you think, Leon?”

Leon chuckled softly as he gave his silver-haired lover a loving look. Then, his eyes turned back toward Cassandra, and he quietly said, “Yes, I think if anyone were to know about any threats, they should probably speak up.”

The Princess stared back at them, looking not at all amused. She then tossed her braided hair around a bit and eventually said, “We’ve encountered various powerful creatures in this forest. Some of them can fly.”

Leon waited a moment for her to elaborate. That moment stretched out an uncomfortably long time, as it seemed obvious to him that she wanted him to ask her for more information, and he refused to do so.

But not everyone’s willpower held out. Elise, perhaps a little nervous about heading further into the forest, asked, “What kind of flying monsters?”

Leon immediately felt terrible—he shouldn’t be putting his pride over getting information that his people would need to survive.

Cassandra replied with a smug smile, “This far out? Strange eagles, as far as I’ve been told. They shouldn’t be too big a deal, though, not with three eighth-tier mages here protecting the group.”

Elise didn’t look all that comforted, and Leon swallowed his pride and asked, “How strong are these eagles?”

“I couldn’t tell you, because I don’t know,” Cassandra dismissively answered. “Anyway, we’ll follow you from here on out, but I’d prefer if you got going soon. We’re burning daylight here.”

Leon thinly smiled and said, “We’ll head out when we’re ready.”

Cassandra raised her eyebrows at him for a moment, then turned and walked back toward her people, who’d finished breaking down their camp.

As Cassandra walked away, Valeria just barely audibly muttered, “Bitch.”

Cassandra’s stride didn’t break, but Leon was fairly sure she heard Valeria’s comment as her head cocked slightly.

Leon glanced at Valeria, who shrugged at him, and Maia said into their heads, Valeria isn’t wrong, that one infuriates.

Leon grinned in agreement, and then forced himself to refocus on the task at hand. At the very least, he was going to take Cassandra’s warning about flying creatures down in the forest seriously. Their first stop wasn’t that far, relatively speaking, only about thirty miles into the forest. But that was still a long way into the forest, and given how unwieldy Anna’s Attican Snapper was in the air, he wanted everyone to move safely and not exhaust themselves on a longer-than-usual flight.

To that end, he had everyone get into a defensive formation as they took off. Helen, Marcus, and Alix, as his best marksmen, would fly above, protecting the formation from any attacks from the sky as they flew. Talal and Elise, the latter riding Anzu instead of using her flight gear, would be in the center, surrounded by Marcus, Gaius, Alcander, and Anshu. Anna would bring up the rear on her snapper, while Leon and Maia would fly below the formation, between the group and the forest.

With a fairly strong formation, Leon wasn’t too concerned that they would be attacked. Besides, in his experience, wild animals rarely attacked humans, especially in large numbers. There were just too many unknowns and dangers for them to try. But he couldn’t be sure what wild animals would do in a place where humans didn’t live, so caution was for the best.

Once all of that was sorted out, Leon had them set off. Cassandra and the Evergolden escort had already gotten into the air by then and been waiting with varying levels of patience for Leon and his people to get into their formation, and they followed closely behind, not quite riding their ass but not so far away that they couldn’t catch up in a matter of seconds if violence were to break out.

Like that, they traveled fairly quickly, making good time. Leon found himself relaxing as he directed his people’s movement with his mental communication technique, the great green expanse beneath him filling his mind with thoughts of home, while the wind in his hair and the freedom of flight elevating his mood close to ecstasy.

All of that was why, when Cassandra began shouting behind them, he was quite upset. Not with her, of course, but with the eagles erupting from the green leafy canopy of the dense primeval forest beneath them that she’d noticed.

The eagles were much larger than normal, being not too much smaller than a full grown woman by Leon’s estimation. Based on their body shapes and similar-looking light brown feathers, Leon guessed they were all of the same species. Their talons looked sharp, their beaks deadly, and their eyes were completely black—unnerving on its own, but Leon was far more disturbed to realize that they didn’t emit any kind of magical aura. But still they rose into the air, killing intent pouring from their bodies, their black eyes locked on his group, mad screeching resounding from their beaks.

An animal was usually blessed with some magical strength as it grew up. Only newborns would be equivalent to a human mortal. For what seemed to be fully grown birds as these to not have even a first-tier aura was greatly confusing, and all the more concerning as dozens and dozens of the birds poured out of the trees.

Eyes down! Leon roared into his retinue’s minds. To his three lookouts at the top of his formation, he ordered, You three, keep an eye out! To everyone else, he directed, Use bows and arrows if you can! Conserve your magic as much as possible!

With that, Leon plummeted from the sky, his magic accelerating him quickly to meet the rapidly rising horde of eagles before they could directly attack his people. Lightning blazed through his body, and as he fell, he outstretched his hand and let his lightning flow through him. Silver-blue bolts began streaming from his fingers and raked across the eagles as they rose. Just behind him, Maia did likewise, conjuring twelve smaller-than-usual water dragons and sending ten of them diving toward the raving, screeching eagles. Behind them, Cassandra had done likewise, diving toward the birds as her followers closed ranks. The Princess drew Sunlight and began sweeping it through the air, projecting her magic through the blade and launching bright beams of light from it.

Leon expecting all of this force to cut clean through the eagles, rending them asunder so completely that they’d die in an instant. And to an extent, he was right; every eagle that his lightning touched fell from the sky, but they weren’t burned and blackened, their bodies weren’t destroyed. Likewise, Maia’s water dragons made short work of their opponents, and Cassandra’s light sliced through them like half-melted cheese, but the eagles’ remains weren’t completely destroyed, as Leon might’ve expected from creatures without magic power. And the rest of their concerningly massive congregation kept rising without the slightest heed paid to their fallen comrades, their screeching only growing more and more incessant as they drew closer.

More and more eagles emerged from the treetops until hundreds, and then thousands were in the air, filling the sky with their deafening calls, and as they drew close, Leon opened up even more with his magic power. He let loose with an enormous wave of lightning, slaughtering dozens of eagles below and around him, while Maia conjured another, much larger water dragon, and Cassandra conjured hundreds of beads of light that hovered around her for a moment before firing themselves unerringly through many eagles.

The beasts fell from the sky in the hundreds, and yet more kept flying up through the trees, seemingly not at all concerned about the fates of their fellows.

Leon, as he fried dozens more in another lightning strike, was greatly alarmed to notice several hundred more eagles flying around their group, even as the rest of his retinue filled in a few gaps here and there with well-placed arrow fire. It was almost as if the eagles were throwing themselves at their group, killing themselves in great numbers so that a comparative few could fly around them while they were distracted.

But Leon noticed, and he stopped holding anything back. These eagles, while much stronger than he would’ve thought otherwise, weren’t much of a threat on the whole, so he’d been holding some of his power back in reserve. But now, his magic exploded out of him, and in a matter of seconds, a storm cloud formed over their traveling group, covering not only his people, but the Evergolden escort, as well. And from that storm cloud came dozens of lightning bolts, each one striking an eagle and forking out to others nearby.

Hundreds more of the incessantly screeching birds fell from the sky, but at the same time, a few, in their dying moments, flapped their wings and sent deadly wind blades careening towards his group. Leon watched as most of these wind blades did absolutely nothing to his armor-clad retinue, but for one that seemed to snake right through their group and strike Elise in the face.

She cried out in surprise and pain, and Leon saw red. Power erupted from him as a drop of red dripped out from behind Elise’s helmet. The deadliest wrath became his world, and he was barely aware of his actions beyond that point. All he knew was the greatest expression of his fury: his magic.

Lightning erupted from his storm cloud, and then, as it dissipated, the lightning in his body was replaced with fire. And then after a few bursts of fire, it was back to lightning. The smell of blood filled the air as the screeching of hundreds and hundreds of eagles was replaced with fiery explosions and booming thunder. The sky itself seemed to almost be set ablaze in Leon’s fury.

When he started coming back down from his rage high, the eagles had stopped screeching, though that was because they were all dead. Leon hovered above the ground barely more than five stories up, the land beneath him scorched black and nothing but blackened dirt and husks of trees could be seen for almost a hundred feet. Eagle corpses in numbers beyond counting littered the ground beneath him.

He glanced back up, and seeing that his retainers weren’t in danger anymore, relaxed. Only then did he notice that he’d been holding his breath and his muscles were so tense that they’d practically hardened into stone. It took some conscious effort to relax, and as he did, Maia drifted down toward him.

Leon, she whispered. It’s over…

“Yeah,” he awkwardly responded aloud.

He glanced back up again, and while he saw some concern in the faces of his family and retainers, it wasn’t all that serious. Alix, seeing that he was back in control, even shook with nervous laughter.

The Evergolden escort, on the other hand, stared at him with nothing short of surprise and great wariness. He was most amused to see Cassandra now staring at him with shock and even a little bit of fear.

Leon looked back to Elise. Her helmet was off, showing that any injury she’d sustained by the eagle’s attack had been healed. But now her eyes swam with concern for him, and he clamped down hard on any lingering rage. He’d seen her bleed, even if only a drop, and he’d lost himself completely.

He quickly flew back up, Maia at his side, and he shouted to his people, “Everyone alright? Any injuries to report?”

Everyone was silent for a moment, and Gaius responded, “I… think we’re good here, boss!”

From behind, Cassandra came barreling over, her eyes wide, her body shaking with… Leon couldn’t say. Excitement, anxiety, dread, she seemed to feel all and yet none at the same time. “What in the Ashen Fields was that?!” she shouted, sounding much the same as she did following their first attack on the black wyvern months ago. “That black fire looked like you called it from the Ashen Fields themselves! How did you do that?!”