There were two that Zoe recognized in the group she was set to escort to the capital. Diana — the first royal guard that Foizo had was there acting as a leader of the group. And Andrew, the light mage she learned from a number of years earlier was standing in the group with sweat beading down his brow. Anxiety and fear were the prevalent emotions Zoe felt from the group, each person almost shivering at the thought of what they were about to be thrust into.

  Diana was the first to notice Zoe, looking up as Zoe appeared in the sky and then back at the group. She spoke some words that Zoe couldn’t hear as she fell down to the ground and the group seemed to be overcome with a stiffness as she spoke, with even more anxiety washing over them.

  “Good,” Diana said as Zoe landed on the ground next to them. “This is Zoe, she will be escorting us to the capital. When we arrive, you’ll each be handed off to different groups for your respective duties and should listen to your leaders. If we do our jobs properly, I’m told this will be dealt with in no time.” Diana looked to Zoe. “You may take us to the capital.”

  “I’ll need you all to be touching me. Can’t teleport things I’m not touching, unfortunately.” Zoe chuckled nervously as she summoned an earthen platform below her and lifted it about a foot off the ground and held out her arms. “Just uh, grab on. And hold tight, if you let go you’ll fall and it’ll probably hurt.”

  The group stepped up onto the platform and huddled around her, reaching out to grab on to her arms and shoulders. It was quite packed, but with a little help from some earth that rose up around them to squish the group in, they all managed to grab onto Zoe and she Cosmic Leaped them as far as she could into the sky, and then towards the capital.

  She had expected it to take much longer, before she took her Arcane Watch class. The penalty of teleporting so many people was enormous, but with all of the increased mana and regeneration that she had even a group of a dozen people only took a few minutes to get to the outside of the capital.

  And as soon as they did, Zoe felt her stomach knot as fear raced through her body. The situation in the capital looked far more bleak than when she left. The barrier blocking the darkness was nowhere to be seen, with the undulating mass creeping past the south east walls and consuming the buildings on the outskirts of the town. Almost the entire forest south of the city was gone, nothing but an undulating sea of darkness filling in what once was lush greenery. The rest of the southern wall was barely holding on against the assault, with the western front of the darkness left entirely unimpeded as it continued expanding.

  “To the southern gate, Zoe.” Diana said, her voice somewhat slurred from the other people squished up against her face as they all tried to hold on to Zoe.

  Zoe nodded and Cosmic Leaped the group towards the southern gate. Just inside the wall were dozens of different coloured tents with hundreds of people rushing about on the ground carrying vats of liquid and glowing crystals. Several of the people looked up at Zoe’s earthen mass before they continued on with their duties, but one individual vanished and appeared in front of them.

  “Announce yourself.” The woman said, her armour glinting in the sun that shone down and a hint of golden light radiating from the sheath holding a large sword at her hip. Zoe’s Identify showed her as a dark blue level four hundred twenty nine warrior. Surprisingly high for not having her sixth class yet — and for a royal guard who was likely used to looping, Zoe found that somewhat interesting. Did she just have all the classes she needs already?

  “We’re…” Diana paused. “Zoe, if you could release us?”

  “Oh, sorry.” Zoe pulled away the earth that was shoving the group into her, letting them stretch out on the large earthen platform beneath them and leaving Diana free to talk without slurred speech.

  Diana summoned an unassuming golden square without any markings on it and handed it to the woman. “I’m Diana Mayloo, royal guard of Foizo. We’re here to be of assistance.”

  The woman took Diana’s golden token and pulsed a tiny bit of mana through it before she handed it back to Diana. “Excellent. Please make your way to the red tent.” She pointed down at a red tent near the back of the commotion down below in the city before she vanished again.

  “Zoe?" Diana asked.

  Zoe nodded, and Cosmic Leaped the group down further towards the red tent they were directed to. The last few dozen feet Zoe separated the earthen platform below them and moved them all down individually to the ground one at a time start with Diana first. With the horde of people rushing about on the ground below them, Zoe couldn’t see any way to move the entire earthen platform down at once. And moving all of them at the same time separately was a task Zoe wasn’t sure she could accomplish.

  Diana waited on the ground, directing people into the red tent as Zoe brought them down to her. Zoe was the last to make her way down to the ground, and Diana vanished after wishing her good luck.

  On the ground, the commotion seemed even more intense. While from up above she could see the organization implicit in the chaos, the routes people took through from tent to tent and the messages being brought from place to place, on the ground none of that was visible. All she could see was frantic, panic ridden people rushing around her and everybody else nearby watching with a mix of fear or oftentimes even a subdued acceptance in their eye.

  Would the people feel better if they could see the organization within the chaos from up above? If they could see the leadership standing their ground, proud and powerful. Or would they fall deeper into their fears as they saw glimpses of the destruction wrought on the surrounding forests?

  Zoe looked to the red tent she was ushered over towards and saw several wrought iron tables clearly formed from somebody’s magic spread throughout it, each with a royal guard standing behind it and many with the other people of Zoe’s group standing opposite them. A royal guard near the entrance of the tent waved Zoe over.

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  “You’re here to help?" She asked.

  Zoe nodded. “I am.”

  “Get to one of the empty tables, somebody will help you figure out where you can go.” She said.

  “Okay.” Zoe said, walking in to the tent and up to the first empty table she saw. On the other side was a younger man looking to be in his early twenties by his appearance with slight wisps of wind rushing around his shoulders.

  “Combatant or non combatant?” He asked when Zoe arrived.

  “I’m not sure, honestly. I can do either, I guess. What do you need?" Zoe asked.

  The man summoned a sheet of paper that he glanced through. “Can you heal?"

  Zoe nodded. “I can. I’m not the best at it but I can.”

  “Make your way to the seafoam tent, then.” He said.

  “Seafoam?" Zoe asked.

  The man summoned another sheet of solid light green paper and handed it to Zoe. “This colour.”

  “No I know, but you’re that precise right now?” Zoe took the paper. “Never mind. Okay, I’ll make my way to the seafoam tent then.”

  “Thank you.” The man said.

  Zoe left through the back of the tent and wandered through the chaos until she saw the seafoam coloured tent. The layout inside was identical to the previous tent Zoe was just inside, with the royal guard outside ushering Zoe in to the first free table she could see.

  “Describe your healing ability, please.” The woman at the other side of the iron table asked Zoe as she approached.

  “I have very powerful healing if I can touch somebody, and less powerful healing in a radius around me that also empowers anybody at full health.” Zoe explained.

  “Extent of the empowering?” The woman asked.

  “I’m not sure, I never had the chance to test it like this. I know it can speed them up but I don’t know by how much.” Zoe said.

  “Can your healing deal with this corrupting darkness?” The woman asked.

  Zoe pursed her lips for a moment thinking about her different healing skills. Death’s Master might not do much against it if it was a physical corruption that would attack people, but Seasoned Persistence’s Restoration had a decent chance of healing against anything as long as it was recent.

  “I haven’t tested it but if I touch them, I probably can.” Zoe said.

  “Are you willing to test it?" The woman asked.

  Zoe nodded. “Sure, if there’s a safe way to do so.”

  The woman summoned a small glass jar with some of the oozing darkness at the bottom. It crept along the walls and withered, falling back down to the bottom of the jar in a clump of dust that was absorbed back into the rest of the darkness in the jar as it continued to try and cling its way out. Something about the darkness felt oddly familiar, like a long lost friend she’d been reunited with but she couldn’t put her finger on why. Maybe something down in the valleys? Her encounter with the wanderer?

  Was this darkness related to the lengthy nights down in the valleys? Would even the peaks be trapped under the rule of the demons of the night after this attack was done? Zoe wasn’t sure if many would survive that. Life in the valleys wasn’t impossible, but to go from a life full of light to being afraid of the light for most of your life? Few could handle the pressure it would put them under, Zoe imagined. At least for very long.

  A green barrier shot up around Zoe and the woman as she opened the jar. The darkness leapt up the jar as soon as it was opened, but a pulse of green magic filled the jar, pushing the darkness back.

  “If you’re willing, place your hand in the jar.” The woman held the open jar out to Zoe. “If you can’t handle the corruption, remove your hand and my magic will remove the corruption.”

  Zoe nodded and bit her lip as she put her hand into the jar. The green magic at the top felt incredible, filling her with life and power. Just the slightest touch of it and she felt like she could handle anything the world threw at her.

  And then she passed through to the darkness on the other side which couldn’t be any less similar. The darkness clung to her fingers, tearing into her finger nails and every follicle of hair she didn’t even know she had with what felt like millions of needles jabbing into her. Her mind was filled with fear and anxiety and her vision began to darken as she felt something deep within her ripping apart.

  Her soul, she realized a moment later amid the pain and misery the darkness was inflicting on her. It was attacking her soul, the very essence of her being. Ripping her apart from the inside, destroying what she held dear. The dim green magic around her forearm fought back against the assault, mending the damage that was done, but not helping with the pain.

  Tears streamed down Zoe’s face as she pushed as much mana into her Restoration skill as she could. The pain began to subside with most of the damage being mended before the darkness could even reach into her soul. Zoe wiped her face with her other hand as she felt her sanity restored and took a deep breath.

  “I think I can heal it. What the hell is this, though?” Zoe asked.

  The woman shook her head. “We don’t know. It came from the southeast and there are so few of us that can even help those who have been infected.”

  “What’s to the south east?” Zoe asked.

  The woman shrugged. “Lots of stuff. Some research facilities, alchemy labs. A couple of dungeons. Could be anything. If the higher ups know, they’re not telling us. You can handle the darkness?”

  Zoe nodded, pulling her hand from the jar. “Yeah, I think so. The pain went away as soon as I put mana into my healing skill, so I think I was doing alright with it at least.”

  “Okay, you can join the next crew headed to the front lines then. Do you have any other abilities that could help?” The woman asked, screwing the lid back on the jar and storing it away in her storage item again. Zoe felt more than a little uncomfortable about any of the darkness being kept, but supposed it was necessary for testing their healers before they were sent off somewhere more important to find out they couldn’t be of help.

  “Uh, I have some powerful enchantments I can use if there’s something physical to fight. I don’t know how well I’d do against fighting back this stuff though.” Zoe said.

  “Light skills are useful, if you have any. Any kind of magic you have to push this back is good. Do you have much mana regeneration? We have some enchanters who could use the additional mana.” The woman said.

  “I have very good mana regeneration, send me anywhere you need mana.” Zoe said.

  The woman summoned a silver plate and handed it to Zoe. “When you’re brought out, hand this to the leader. They’ll take you to where you need to go. For now, go wait at the back of the tent. We have a few more people to sort through and then you’ll be taken out to where you need to go, alright?”

  Zoe took the plate and nodded as she made her way to the back of the tent, feeling a sense of unease rising within her. Something felt off about the darkness to her, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it yet.

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