Valeria wasn’t quite sure how she ought to feel. Looking around, she took great comfort in the fact that, after their wanderings throughout… wherever they were, she and Cassandra had managed to find the rest of their people. Everyone save for Leon had been found and sprung from their cells.

However, while that, by itself, was great and worth celebrating, they hadn’t run into a single hostile in that time. The wards running through the walls remained static defenses, and those defenses were easily cut through by Sunlight. Nothing yet had appeared in their way to present a more active obstacle.

And that was something that had Valeria on edge, let alone the fact that Leon was still missing.

“Still thinking over the next steps?” Marcus asked as he came over and stood at her side. Now that everyone except Leon had been found, they were taking a bit of time get more organized in the narrow hallway. Cassandra was seeing to her warriors, while Valeria had taken charge of Leon’s retinue. For the most part, though, she didn’t have to do much except make sure that Anzu and Anna’s Attican Snapper weren’t going to get in their way. Given the size of the two war beasts, that wasn’t an easy thing to do.

In response to Marcus, Valeria nodded. Perhaps sensing her worry, Anzu brushed up against her from behind and quietly chirped. He sounded just as sad and worried as she did, and she couldn’t help but turn around and give him a few head pats in turn.

“I’ve been thinking,” Marcus said, “but I haven’t come to any conclusions. Why are we being attacked?”

“Can’t say,” Valeria replied. “It’s strange though, isn’t it?”

Marcus nodded. “If someone went to the trouble of imprisoning us, then why just let us escape without any effort to stop us?”

“Why would they bother?” Gaius called out from behind Anzu. “We’ve been wandering these halls for more than an hour! There doesn’t seem to be a way out, so why should they care?”

“There’s always a way out,” Cassandra shouted from farther behind Gaius. “If we got in here, then we can get back out! We just have to find a way!”

No one responded to the Princess—perhaps out of some measure of respect or awkwardness due to her rank—but Valeria knew that they were all aware that they’d been teleported, and that the only way to escape wherever they now found themselves was likely by being teleported out. After a considerable amount of time spent wandering in these halls, she could easily believe that there weren’t any physical ways out.

Related to that, over the course of freeing all of their comrades, she and Cassandra had essentially explored everywhere that they could reach. Short of trying to cut this entire place down, there were no more places left for them to explore.

During the next several seconds, an awkward silence fell upon their group. No one had any real ideas for how to get out of their dark, cramped prison, though it seemed that Cassandra had been waiting for someone to speak up and offer an idea. When none came, she finally siad, “Fine, then. I guess we’re going to have to do this the hard way.”

Without waiting another moment, Cassandra pushed her way past everyone, crawled up and over Anzu, and then strode out in front of Valeria. With a provocative smile, she brandished Sunlight and activated its blade of light enchantment again.

“The wards in the walls can’t stop me,” she said. “So, we cut through. I’ll allow you to pick the direction, Valeria.”

Valeria stared at her for a long moment, but since she had no other ideas, she pointed up. “The magic powering the wards is coming from above us,” she explained. “It stands to reason that there’s something above, then. Whether or not it’s something that humans can use I can’t say.”

There’s much above us… Maia whispered, taking Valeria by surprise. The river nymph had been beside herself with worry for Leon when they’d found her—she’d been fairly easy to find since she’d smashed her way out of her cell, and none-too-quietly—but in the hour or so since, she’d calmed down quite a bit. She hadn’t spoken much, but she’d provided Valeria with some relief by sharing that her connection with Leon still existed. She couldn’t sense his direction, but he was alive.

“How do you know that?” the only seventh-tier among the Evergolden mages asked, her tone much more professional than Cassandra’s.

I can sense the water, Maia explained. There’s a great deal flowing in patterns above that feel like more rooms.

“How clearly can you sense these rooms?” the Evergolden mage asked. “Can you lead us to the best place to come up?”

Maia nodded.

The seventh-tier Evergolden mage then looked to Cassandra and gave her an imploring look.

“Fine, then,” Cassandra said. “Naiad, where do we need to go?”

With Maia’s direction, they moved through the halls, passing by several places where Cassandra had carved holes into adjacent chambers. Several of them Valeria had been surprised to find empty, suggesting that this place hadn’t been built for them, but existed for some other purpose. What that purpose might be, she couldn’t say.

Only a few minutes later, Maia called them to a halt.

Here, she said. There’s a large space above where no water magic flows. It feels like a big room.

Valeria was about to suggest they get into a better formation just in case there was something dangerous above, but before she could, Cassandra said, “Sounds good,” and activated her light blade enchantment. With Sunlight and her eighth-tier power, she carved a huge fissure in the ceiling, burning away the leaves and cutting clean through the wood.

What lay beyond didn’t seem to have any natural light, but Cassandra’s blade was more than bright enough to show that there was a huge room above. With a few more swings, the hole above Cassandra widened, and the Princess leaped up through without hesitation.

“Your Highness!” the Evergolden squad leader called out in alarm. “After her!” she shouted to the rest of her squad, and everyone began practically pushing against Leon’s retinue to get them to move.

Annoyed but not wanting to leave the Princess to her own devices, Valeria jumped up, her sixth-tier strength easily allowing her to clear the hole and land in the chamber beyond. The rest of the retinue quickly followed, though Anna’s Attican Snapper required a little more time.

What awaited them was a large space big enough to assemble a battalion of Bull Kingdom soldiers within, with a ceiling about forty feet high. Other than that, it was hardly that remarkable compared to the hallways below them. The chamber was empty and dark.

When everyone managed to get out of the cramped halls, they all breathed a quick sigh of relief, though the seventh-tier Evergolden mage looked more livid than anything. Valeria took some vicarious thrill in seeing the older woman glare at the Princess and barely resist tearing into the Princess—not that Cassandra looked at all chastened, and seemed far more taken with examining the room they now found themselves in.

Before anyone could say anything more, however, a sudden welling of magic put them all on edge, and a light suddenly broke through the darkness as the wall split open. What spilled through was copious amounts of natural light, and a horde of plant giants.

“Form up!” Valeria shouted, and Leon’s retinue sprang into action, the Evergolden squad not too far behind.

“Let’s go!” Cassandra roared in glee, and charged. With her speed, only Leon could’ve moved quickly enough to hold her back, and he was gone.

A moment later, Cassandra was upon the plant giants, swinging Sunlight and cutting them to pieces. The plant giants wasted no time responding, swinging their enormous wooden limbs to try and stop the Princess’ rampage. A few of the bigger ones were covered in looser vines and thick coats of mushrooms, and Valeria had to suppress a smile when she saw one particularly thick vine catch the Princess and throw her against the ground.

The plant giant responsible was unable to capitalize as the Evergolden mages caught up to their Princess and laid into them. They cut the giants down to size, but more kept spilling in through the huge crack in the wall. Valeria was unfortunately unable to see how many could be out there.

However, that didn’t stop her from leading Leon’s retinue in reinforcing the Evergolden mages. As much as she was put off by Cassandra, she knew that they weren’t going to get out of this mess without each other.

Emphasizing that point, the screams of an Evergolden mage pierced through the din of battle as a pair of vines wrapped themselves around her torso and hips, and then tore her in half with seeming ease.

A moment later, another Evergolden mage was knocked to the floor and stomped on, leaving her bloodied and motionless before the giant responsible was cut in half.

Valeria herself swung her glaive, conjuring a wave of ice that impaled the nearest giant on a dozen icy spikes, but another replaced it as it fell to the floor. She swung again, sending an ice spear piercing clean through the giant’s midsection, not killing it but at least slowing it down.

Maia and Cassandra were having the most luck, which was hardly surprising, but Valeria was dismayed to see that they were being slowly pushed back, and casualties were mounting. Marcus was hit by a swift punch from one of the giants and flew about thirty feet back, hitting the ground with a cry of pain. Helen was picked up and squeezed nearly to death before Anna leaped off the back of her snapper and cut right through the giant’s arm holding her sister. Helen was released, but it looked like at least one of her arms, and who knew what else, was broken.

They didn’t have the time to apply healing spells as more and more plant giants spilled into the chamber.

Finally, the massive water dragon that Maia was using reared back, mostly solidified into ice, and then crashed down into the opening. Massive spikes and blades erupted from its body, cutting and stabbing the giants in its way.

“Follow the dragon!” Cassandra shouted. However, as she made to do so, a plant giant that she’d sliced in half proved itself not quite dead as it grabbed her by the leg and swung her into the air. The seventh-tier Evergolden mage sprang forward and cut the giant’s arm off, and Cassandra hit the ground so hard that she cried out in pain.

“Your Highness!” the squad leader called out in concern as she rushed to her Princess’ side, but just as she reached her charge, the floor split open and a root thicker than Valeria was tall impaled the woman right through the chest as if her armor wasn’t even there.

The woman gasped in surprise, and then went limp. Cassandra just stared at her subordinate, only moving again when another root erupted from the ground and pierced through Alcander’s midsection, causing him to scream in pain.

“Al!” Alix shouted, and she ran forward, golden lightning dancing over her body. She reached Alcander, grabbed his dropped ax, and then swung its head into the root, cutting right through it and catching Alcander as he fell.

He wasn’t dead, but that probably wasn’t going to last for very long.

“Move!” Valeria screamed. “Get outside! Follow the dragon!”

Anzu was suddenly there with her, and with a determined chirp, he snaked beneath her legs and practically flipped her up onto his back. Several of Maia’s water dragons did likewise with the fallen, pulling their bodies into their watery forms and slithering toward the opening that Maia’s ice dragon was maintaining.

However, as they ran towards the opening, the crack in the wall began to close. In response, Maia conjured a wave of water that slammed into the crack, which then froze, forcing it to remain open with a gap near the bottom. They just had to get over a small hill of ice that kept the floor from rising or allowing another root through.

Throughout all of this, Valeria kept her eye on Cassandra. The Princess had gotten moving again, fortunately, but she kept pace with the dragon that held the body of the seventh-tier mage instead of running forward.

When their group emerged on the other side of the crack, they found themselves standing at the base of an enormous tree reaching thousands of feet into the air. However, it was dwarfed in size by another tree not too far away, around which several more ‘smaller’ trees were arranged. Nestled within the tangled roots of these gargantuan trees were huts filled with plant giants and goat men, most of whom were now turning their attention in the group’s direction.

Luckily, they found themselves close to the edge of the forest proper.

“Get to the tree line!” Valeria shouted, and she directed Anzu to start running away from the titanic ethereal trees. Everyone, including the remaining members of the Evergolden squad that could move, followed. They were all weighed down by injury and carrying their dead and incapacitated companions, but they made good time, and though the entire village of goat men and plant giants were starting to move in their direction, they didn’t seem to be moving nearly fast enough.

However, the slight glimmer of hope that Valeria allowed herself to begin feeling was immediately dashed when the ground opened up beneath their group and vines thicker than her hips whipped out, slamming into Gaius and an Evergolden mage hard enough to knock them down and keep them down.

Maia’s ice dragon reared back and prepared to strike, but, roaring in rage, Cassandra moved first. With a flash of white light, she appeared in the small crater where the vines continued whipping around, trying to strike at their party. Valeria was barely able to see what happened next as Cassandra’s power spiked and drowned out all visible light around her. It was like a star had fallen to the earth for a moment, and when her light magic died down, the vines had severed at the base and burned. At the center of the small crater, the eye of a bulbous vine poked through the dirt—or, at least, the remains of an eye, having been thoroughly burned by Cassandra’s furious power.

“Anshu!” Valeria shouted, and when the Indradian looked to her, she pointed at Gaius, who appeared unconscious and bled profusely from his nose and mouth. Understanding her order, Anshu, with only the slightest of scowls, complied, leaping over to Gaius and slung the younger man over his shoulder. Another Evergolden mage did likewise for their group’s wounded member, who was in a similar state as Gaius.

They began to frantically move again, while Maia conjured a few more small water dragons that she dedicated specifically to carrying their wounded and dead. They’d barely managed to get the dragons loaded up, however, when half a dozen plant giants supported by more than a hundred goat men suddenly erupted from the ground all around them. At the same time a pair of large, gnarled trees just beyond the group at the tree line began to shudder, and Valeria immediately knew that they were possessed by tree sprites. As if to prove that things could always get just a little bit worse, deafening avian cries filled the air as thousands of eagles flooded the sky, preventing them from even trying to fly away.

They were surrounded, and without even an order, they closed ranks. Maia’s ice dragon and smaller water dragons surrounded them, acting as their first line. Then came everyone who could still stand, protecting their wounded and dead in the center of their formation.

And they stood there, staring back at these monsters, as more and more plant giants and goat men emerged from the ground, thickening the line of enemies between them and escape. They were completely boxed in, and even with the strength of two eighth-tier mages on their side, Valeria wasn’t certain they’d be able to fight their way out of this.

And yet… she noticed that they weren’t attacking. They simply stood against the party, preventing them from continuing their escape. They seemed to just be staring at them.

For a moment, Valeria wondered if, maybe, just maybe, there could be some arrangement made, some negotiation that could be attempted that might extricate themselves from this predicament. Even with all of this power, she couldn’t sense anything from any of them, so their numbers were all she had to go with, but she assumed that the party was at least matched in strength, if not exceeded given just how many enemies they were now surrounded by.

Before she could float that possibility, Cassandra sprang into the air, her body radiating such an aura of killing intent that the air dropped in temperature. She swung Sunlight in a vertical slash, and a wave of light washed out from her and crashed down upon a third of their foes. Goat men dropped dead, their bodies torn to pieces. Plant giants fared better, but most in her range were still struck hard.

Cassandra didn’t wait for them to respond, though, and struck again, hitting their enemies behind them, and then conjuring half a dozen orbs of light the size of her torso around her, which began firing off dazzling beams of light into the air, cutting dozens of eagles to pieces.

And like that, any potential truce between their groups was shattered. The plant giants charged, the eagles dove, and the goat men started launching crude arrows, spears, and even themselves at their party. Maia’s dragons snapped and whipped around, but they were worn down by the onrushing tide of bodies. The ice dragon was the first to fall, crumbling under the sheer weight of all their foes. The water dragons were next, though all of Maia’s constructs took hundreds of their foes with them.

Once the way was clear, the survivors of the party started fighting again, using magic and steel with all the skill they could call upon. Cassandra was forced to the ground, bloodied by the eagles even though she still wore her armor. Anshu fell when a plant giant exploited an opening after the Indradian had struck down a larger giant; he was slammed into the ground like a child’s toy, and held there by the weight and power of the giant. Whether or not he survived, Valeria couldn’t tell.

Helen fell next, followed by Anna and her snapper when the beastmaster cried out in anguished anger.

The few remaining Evergolden mages didn’t fare much better, succumbing to the endless hordes that infested the Prota Forest, which continued to hurl themselves at the expedition, heedless of the mountain of bodies they had to crawl over to do so.

It seemed like this was the end. Valeria couldn’t see any way out of this, but she fought with all she had. If she was going to die, she was going to do so with glaive in hand and magic upon her fingers.

And, as she remembered gold eyes and strong hands upon her, with the face of the man she loved in her mind.

She heard Alix cry out in pain beside her, and Anzu shuddered and collapsed. As she fell from the griffin’s back, she swung her glaive, cleaving three goat men around her in half at the waist. But at the same time, a plant giant just ahead of her threw its wooden fist forward. Valeria, still righting herself from Anzu’s fall, couldn’t respond in time.

This was the end. The fight was over. They’d lost.