Phoenix followed a step behind the two men who had stood up abruptly and asked, “What’s happening?”

  “A monster spawning inside the walls,” Dazien promptly answered, the joviality from a moment ago now gone, “Near to us, too, if we can hear the arms. We need to go out and help.”

  She and Uriel nodded to him in understanding and followed as he led the way out of the cafe and to where the arms were indicating. The fortress city had a detection system in pce to respond and evacuate people as needed in the event of a monster breach, bypassing their external defenses. It wasn’t an extremely common occurrence, but the Moderate spawn rate of the zone made it an inevitability in the city.

  Dazien seemed particurly unhappy when they discovered the location of the spawning monster. He frowned at the Monster Seed that was currently floating in the air near the southern entrance to the Temple District.

  The location could have been worse. The buildings were sparser here, which meant less potential for structural damage, but there were a lot of people out in the open going about their pious duties, worshiping both inside and outside of the temples, which meant colteral damage was going to be likely.

  Many of the clergy were helping to direct people away, and other nearby Adventurers had appeared around the Seed, which was currently glowing white and getting brighter with each passing second as they awaited for it to bloom.

  “Is that the monster?” she asked with uncertainty.

  “One in the process of spawning,” Dazien crified for her, “It’s rare to witness them in this form, but first, the Seed appears, and then the monster forms around it.”

  “Can we just stop it? Take or break the Seed?”

  “It’s not really there yet,” Uriel spoke up, surprising her slightly, “It’s in a transitional state; basically a mirage of what the magic is creating. It normally only takes a few minutes for it to fully form and then bloom into a monster,” he expined in that soft smooth voice.

  Dazien nodded slowly, “We’re lucky the blood moon hasn’t actually started yet, or the chance for a Sapphire would be higher, and people would likely die. There are too many civilians here to protect all of them from the damage a Sapphire could do before we could take it down.”

  Phoenix looked at them and asked nervously, “Should we focus on helping the evacuation then?”

  The gemite shook his head, “The clergy know the routes to the bunkers better than we do. We can help protect them by distracting the monster. Depending on what it is, we may be useful or unneeded. We won’t know until it shows itself.”

  He looked around at the other Adventurers and guards that had gathered and asked, “Phoenix, can you sense what Caste the others are with your aura?”

  She raised an eyebrow and asked in surprise, “You want me to expand my aura over everyone?”

  He met her gaze firmly, “We are about to enter combat with an unknown force that could be stronger than us. At the very least, your auras can help others who might be better suited to combat it. The others will welcome it rather than see it as rude in this situation.”

  She nodded and carefully released the restraint she held on her aura, feeling it expand and wash over the area. The others were a bit startled by the appearance of tiny [Starlight Companions] floating next to them in a variety of colors, glittering shells surrounding them, the shadows that blurred their forms, and the less visual effect of increased mana regeneration; however, most turned to look at her with a nod of appreciation. She focused a bit on taking inventory of their Castes and reported, “There are six other Crystals.”

  Dazien frowned again, and she heard murmuring begin among the gathered city defenders who were forming a loose circle around the bright glow that was now three Seeds. Phoenix blinked and squinted her eyes as she asked, “Um, did those just multiply?”

  “Yes…” the amethyst warrior answered slowly, “And they don’t appear to be done.”

  As she watched, more Seeds seemed to phase into existence, floating near the first one and glowing with their own white light.

  “I wouldn’t normally be so worried about a monster spawn if we weren’t so close to a blood moon, especially this one, but I wasn’t expecting something like that to appear so early,” the gemite said warily as the numbers continued increasing.

  With a breath and a shimmer of golden sparkles, Dazien was suddenly wearing the armor and steel shield she had seen him wear during their trials, and another dazzle of golden lights had him holding his diamond sword as well.

  “Swarms are not unheard of outside a blood moon,” Uriel calmly pointed out, “The more plentiful the numbers, the less individually powerful. This might be a good thing for us,” the cinderen added but moved back from them. He removed the gold band from his neck and experimentally reached out a hand towards his [Starlight Companion] and frowned as it shied away from him.

  Phoenix had never seen one of the squishy companions do that before, usually allowing their protectee to py with their malleable forms, but her confusion was distracted by finally sensing Uriel’s aura, which she hadn’t realized was a bnk spot to her senses before since she had been more focused on restraining her aura around others and not poking around theirs.

  His aura felt like he would destroy the world.

  She asked Dazien in a concerned whisper, “Why does he stay away from everyone? And what’s with that choker?”

  He frowned and expined with a tinge of frustration, though she didn’t feel it was directed at her, “They’re Chains of Silence, also called Silencers. His aura causes damage to everything around him, including allies, so he uses the Silencers to help keep it restrained. I’m sure you can feel it now.”

  He was right; she could definitely feel it now that the Silencer wasn’t hiding it, and it was cutting away at anything that came in range. Dust and dirt, the snowfkes that fell around them, and everything in the small area near him were slowly being annihited.

  She nodded in confirmation to Dazien, and he finished expining, “That’s why he stands away from everyone when he takes it off to use his abilities. It’s simply for their safety. We should focus up, though. It’s about to spawn.”

  It was only a few moments ter when thirteen ghost-like creatures began taking shape around the Seeds and became much more solid but still seemed slightly incorporeal. Phoenix only had a second to read the book that popped up in front of her before dismissing it and preparing to fight.

  New Quest: Call to Arms: Temple Threat

  Monsters have spawned within the city walls. Help defend the Temple District.

  Objective: Help defeat the Wailing Wights.

  Reward: Rare Crystal Caste fabric.

  If Phoenix had to picture what a banshee mixed with a dementor would look like, these phantoms would have been it. Their formless shapes were made up of semi-transparent cloaks that seemed ripped towards the top to create a gaping mouth with crooked shards for teeth. The eyes were brightly glowing circles that appeared under the shadowy cloth. The only solid-looking part of them was the curved cws that made up their whole finger.

  Her heart sank at the sight of them, and she looked at her daggers, suspecting that they would be useless for this ethereal enemy.

  Chaos ensued a moment ter as the other Casters sprang into action, some moving forward to engage in melee while others began chanting incantations. She was close enough to hear Uriel’s words again.

  “Wind stings. Ice bites. Snow freezes. The blizzard cims life.”

  A flurry of freezing ice and snow erupted, centered on where the seeds had bloomed into monsters. The ghostly creatures let out deafening wails and began to visibly slow as frost appeared on them. Some turned to Uriel in their anger and moved towards their little trio.

  Dazien firmly stood in front of Uriel and Phoenix as he asked over his shoulder at her, “Can your telekinesis power pull them in front of me?”

  “Telekinesis? I don’t– oh! Uh, maybe? I can try,” Phoenix replied as she realized what he wanted, “I’ll have to use you as a brace. Can you do that thing that makes you unmoveable?”

  He nodded, shifting his stance slightly, “It’ll eat through a chunk of mana, and I can’t move again without canceling it,” he warned.

  She moved directly behind him and said, “I’ll try to be quick then. How many? They are all Crystal themselves, and we don’t know their level within the Caste.”

  “Caste and levels don’t matter when they’re threatening Uriel. Bring any going for him or the civilians,” he replied resolutely.

  She looked around him and saw two going for Uriel standing behind them and one going for a civilian who hadn’t been intercepted by one of the other Casters.

  “Three targets, first one incoming,” she said as she braced herself against his back and triggered [Ruler of Retivity] on the first phantom that was about to take a swipe out of the unguarded Mundane.

  Dazien triggered his ability as soon as she felt her power push her against him, and they stopped moving forward as the wight seemed to be dragged towards them. Phoenix gasped loudly, feeling crushed by the force trying to pull her toward the higher-level monster.

  “Are you okay?” the warrior called back to her as the phantom came closer.

  “Caste level… way stronger,” she managed to croak out, “Kill it… fast.”

  During her numerous monster fights, Phoenix had come to realize that the terms of Low, Mid, High, and Peak, when referring to the levels within a Caste, actually made a noticeable difference in a creature’s power. Low referred to the first three levels, Mid was levels four through six, High the three after that, while Peak referred to the top when a creature was either maxed out for their species or about to ascend to the next Caste.

  Paul was at the peak of Emerald, with only a couple of abilities remaining at level nine, according to him, while Phoenix was still low Crystal and would struggle against anything in the higher ranges on her own, which these wights were proving to be. She wasn’t great at sensing the ranges of others yet, but she really hoped her two new companions weren’t at the bottom like she was.

  Her fear was slightly abated when Dazien raised an arm towards the first monster and incanted, “Bow before your king!”

  The phantoms only had glowing hollows for eyes, but if Phoenix could have seen the creature, she would have sworn it gred at Dazien before moving in front of him in what could be considered a kneel despite not having legs.

  The amethyst warrior swung his sword down on the creature. It caught the bde in one of its ethereal cws as the other cw swiped up to rend him in two. The [Sun Shell] shattered, but the cw barely scratched the warrior’s armor, and the wight wailed from the blinding effect of her aura’s shield.

  Phoenix had to wait to resummon the effect, but she took advantage of the moment and swung around the defender to swing her daggers into the cloaked figure. She had not expected them to go through the monster, however, and she lost her bance at the dissonance between her actions and the result.

  The miscalcution cost her own shield as the monster swiped at her stumbling form instead and shattered her shell into shards of light, but it didn’t seem as affected by the blinding Bane this time as its cw proceeded to dig into her back. The reaction made her wonder if Banes had some sort of diminishing returns built in where they became less effective the more often they triggered on a target.

  “I challenge your honor!” Dazien cried out, and the cws halted their movement towards her spine. The monster turned to face the warrior with another sound that reminded her of nails on a chalkboard in movies.

  Dazien pulled his sword back and pushed the bde through the center of the monster’s chest with a clean thrust. The glittering diamond sword caused the creature to scream loudly before it went silent and almost seemed to explode into white ash.

  Phoenix tried to reach her back and muttered, “You will see the dawn of tomorrow,” activating the moderate-cost version of the Spell. She stood as the pain subsided and looked between the dust drifting in the air, the amethyst warrior, and her own daggers before asking incredulously, “How?”

  He lifted the tip of the bde and stated with a raised brow, “Magic sword?”

  “Magic dagger!” she excimed, lifting her own [Night Bde] for him to see.

  The would-be king gave a smug smirk and asked, “Yes, but is yours a Divine bde of Radiance capable of affecting incorporeal beings?”

  “That is such bull–” her retort was cut off by the sound of Uriel’s own incantation reaching her, reminding her that there were still enemies to fight.

  “Let fire rain upon my enemies that they may burn before my will.”

  Phoenix heard Uriel cast as she took another look around the area to find the next phantom to pull and witnessed fmes raining from the sky, intermixing with the blizzard to burn the other wights still trapped within the area from the valiant efforts of the other fighters.

  “Are you ready for the next?” she asked. It was more of a warning than an actual question, as she triggered her gravity ability once more. She grunted in pain as she was pushed against Dazien again, who quickly retriggered the ability he had to keep them in pce.

  As the next one started jerkily moving towards them, Dazien raised a hand towards the st of the three that would reach Uriel before they would be ready to intercept it and said in a cold voice, “You have forsaken my rule and thus forfeit your freedom!”

  A rune-etched metal cage surrounded the phantom, halting its movement. Then he shouted, “To arms!” and Phoenix felt strength flood her body and realized the battle cry was more than just for motivation as he swung his sword once more at the creature.

  This phantom, however, was not being forced to kneel and, instead of fighting her gravitational pull, used it to move forward faster, past his bde. Instead of smming against his shield, it became even more translucent and went through the pair of them.

  As Phoenix turned to put her daggers between her and the enemy, she found out she wasn’t fast enough for their difference in speed levels. The creature raked its long cws down her front, ripping through her cloak, shirt, and flesh. The force of the blow alone sent her crashing straight into the ground as she gasped for air, feeling the warmth of her body quickly escape her.

  She thought she heard Uriel’s voice say, “A touch of frost and your death follows,” and she gnced up at Dazien as numbness quickly started to creep into her. She barely managed to finish resummoning a [Sun Shell] around the warrior –cursing that her heal was still stuck on cooldown– before darkness consumed her senses.