The chamber deep beh the capital’s pace was dimly lit, its walls lined with intricate ruhat pulsed faintly with magical energy. Razen stood at the ter of the ritual circle, his hands csped behind his back as he observed the preparations. Around him, thirty sorcerers moved with precise coordination, ting intations and inscribing sigils on the cold stone floor.

  The air was thick with power, the oppressive weight of the summoning ritual pressing down on everyone present. At the far end of the chamber, thirty prisoners k in a liheir expressions a mixture of terror and resignation. Shackles bound their hands a, glowing faintly with entments desigo suppress aance.

  Razen’s gaze flicked over them briefly, his face devoid of emotion. They were tools, nothing more, vessels for the energy required te the gap between worlds.

  “Ehe tai wards remain stable,” he said, his voice cutting through the low hum of ting. “I won’t tolerate any failure.”

  “Yes, Master Razen,” one of the sorcerers replied, bowing deeply before returning to his task.

  Razen turned his attention to the tral glyph, a massive symbol etched into the floor with painstaking precision. Its lines shimmered with a dark, otherworldly light, pulsating in time with the ts. Everything rogressing as it should, but Razen’s mind was far from at ease.

  This summoning was critical to Falmuth’s pns. However, the king was clouded in his judgement in wanting to summon more otherworlders just a year after the previous summons. Then there was that struct. Something was in the kingdom and he didn't know what. 'A predit indeed.'

  As he reviewed the entments woven into the chamber, a flicker of disruption caught his attention. A faint tremor rippled through the magical field, so subtle that none of the other sorcerers seemed to notice.

  Razen narrowed his eyes, his focus sharpening. He extended a hand, his firag the threads of magicules that wove through the capital.

  There.

  One of the entments tied to the prison’s tai wards had suddenly vanished.

  “Stop,” Razen anded, his voice sharp and anding. The ting ceased immediately, the chamber falling into an uneasy silence as the sorcerers turo him in fusion.

  “Master Razen?” one of them ventured cautiously.

  Razen’s expression darkened, his brows furrowing as he delved deeper into the magicule field. The vanished entment wasn’t a fluctuation or a mistake, it was a deliberate disruption.

  “Something has promised the prison,” he said, his tone ced with irritation. “One of the suppression wards has beeroyed.”

  Murmurs rippled through the sorcerers, their unease palpable.

  “Is it sabotage?” one of them asked hesitantly.

  “Possibly,” Razen replied, his mind rag. He extended his senses further, searg for additional anomalies. The prison was heavily fortified, its wards yered to prevent any escape or external interference. For oo vanish so abruptly…

  Multiple ripples of disturbance fred through the magic field. Razen’s eyes widened slightly as he realized what it meant.

  "The prisoners." He called out. "Someone is attempting to free the prisoners-"

  BOOM!

  A sudden tremor apanied multiple explosions ahe various sorcerers into a panic. "We're utack!" "Is it the church?" "I knew we couldn't trust them!" "Lord Razen! "Master Razen what do we do?"

  ////

  Daren tightened his grip on his spear as he stood on the southern wall of Falmuth's capital, gazing out into the quiet night. It had been aful shift, the city sprawling peacefully behind him with its streets bathed in faint ntern light.

  The first sign of trouble came as a faint hum, carried on the breeze like an ominous whisper. Daren frowned, gng at the soldier o him.

  “Do you hear that?” he asked, his voice low.

  The younger soldier nodded, his eyes narrowing as he sed the dark forest beyond the city’s walls. “It’s probably just,"

  A blinding fsh tore across the sky, cutting him off mid-sentence. Daren stumbled back, shielding his eyes as a sed, and then a third explosion of light erupted, illuminating the capital as if it were midday.

  “Sound the arm!” Daren shouted, his voice crag with urgency. Around him, soldiers scrambled to a, their shouts of fusion blending with the bring horns that soon echoed through the city.

  From his vantage point, Daren could see fshes of strobe lights and clouds of thick, rolling smoke spilling over walls.

  “What in the hells is going on?” a sergeant bellowed as he joined Daren at the wall.

  Before Daren could respond, a deafening screech tore through the air, making him wince. He dropped to one knee, clutg his ears as the sound seemed to dig into his skull. Around him, soldiers fell, their ons cttering to the stone as they writhed in pain.

  The opped as abruptly as it had started, leaving an eerie silen its wake. Daren forced himself to his feet, his heart pounding. Below him, the streets were alive with chaos. Civilians stumbled out of their homes, their faces pale and fearful as they tried to make sense of the sudden attack.

  “Look!” someone shouted, pointing toward the tral district.

  Daren followed the gesture, his stomach dropping as he saw sleek, metallic birds unlike anything he’d ever entered swarming through the capital. They moved with terrifying precision, weaviween buildings as they unleashed bursts of blobs that crackled with unnatural light.

  One of the birds desded on the main barracks, releasing a pulse of energy that sent guards scrambling for cover. Aargeted the city’s magical unication tower, its light bsting through the ruhat powered the system.

  “What are those things!” the soldier barked, his face pale. "Where the hell are our sorcerers—”

  He was interrupted by a series of explosions in the mert district. Daren turned in time to see firelight bloom against the night sky, smoke billowing as the droargeted key supply depots.

  The city was falling apart, and Daren couldn’t evehe enemy.

  “What are we dealing with?” one of the recruits whispered, his voice trembling.

  Daren didn’t have an answer. His hands shook as he gripped his spear tighter, his eyes dartiween the chaos iy and the eerie calm of the forest beyond the walls.

  "They're headed this way!" A shout from a soldier, alerted Daren to the group of three metal birds a few meters away.

  "Scatter, don't form up or risk being taken out all at once!" He yelled at the already f group of guards. After hearing his words, they immediately scattered. "Explosion spells are powerful, but they cost just as much as they give, with so many targets, they're bound to run out eventually."

  BANG! BANG! BANG!

  Daren only saw a fsh of light before three soldiers to his right crumpled to the floor. His instincts bred and he ducked just in time as the ground behind him scattered from a sudden impact. On looking at the tiny crater on the floor, he saw, "A marble?"

  Daren gritted his teeth, staring at the marble embedded in the dirt. Its e glow fading into iness. Whatever it was, it was far beyond anything he had ever seen, and the thought sent a chill down his spine.

  A cry from one of the scattered soldiers nearby snapped him back to reality. He turo see a young man, barely older than a recruit, clutg his leg, blood poolih him where another marble had struck.

  “Hold on!” Daren shouted, crawling toward the injured soldier. He grabbed the man by the armor and began dragging him toward the cover of a crumbled se of the wall. The soldier groaned, his voice shaking. “What… what are those things?”

  “Stay quiet and stay low,” Daren hissed, sing the sky for the metallic birds. They hovered with a predatrace, their sleek flinting ominously in the moonlight. Ourned sharply, its underside glowing faintly as it unleashed another volley of projectiles.

  The impact sent shards of stone flying as the ground trembled. Daren ducked instinctively, shielding the injured soldier with his body. Dust filled the air, making it hard to breathe, and the acrid smell of burning wood stung his nose.

  “Get to the barracks!” someone yelled nearby. Daren looked up to see a group of three soldiers rushing down the cobbled street, their armor king with every step. Before they could make it far, a drone desded silently above them.

  The hum grew louder, and before Daren could shout a warning, it released a burst of what looked like wind but sounded like a banshee's screech. The soldiers colpsed mid-step, their bodies twitg.

  Daren’s stomach ed as he looked away, the sound of their groans and spasms cutting deep.

  ---

  A few streets over, a trio of sorcerers crouched behind aurned cart, their robes smudged with soot and ash. One of them, a grizzled man with a long scar running down his face, was frantically trag runes into the air with glowing fingers.

  “Did you start with the tai wards yet?” the you among them demanded, her voice high-pitched with panic.

  “Fet the wards!” the scarred man snapped. “We o deal with these things before they take the whole city apart!”

  He finished his intation, and a glowing barrier materialized above them just as a drone fired another volley of marbles. The projectiles struck the shield with a sharp ping, leaving cracks along its surface.

  “Barrier won’t hold for long,” the third sorcerer muttered, his hands shaking as he clutched a staff. “Should we call for reinforts?”

  The scarred man’s expression darkened. “Reinforts? From where? We're in the fug capital. Half the damn soldiers are either dead or running scared.”

  Before the younger sorcerer could respond, a drone swooped down, its thrusters whirring. It hovered just above their barrier, a thin beam of light emanating from its underside.

  “It’s analyzing the shield!” the you sorcerer screamed, scrambling backward.

  The scarred man cursed, his hands flying through a series of desperate gestures. “Not on my watch.” A bolt of fire erupted from his palm, arg toward the dro struck true, engulfing the mae in fmes.

  For a brief moment, the sorcerers dared to hope. But as the fire dissipated, the drone remained intact, its metallic shell scorched but unharmed. It tilted slightly, almost mogly, before retaliating with a blinding fsh of light.

  Blinded by the brightness, the sorcerer holding the barrier lost his focus and the barrier shattered with a deafening crabsp;

  A sonic pulse and the sorcerers were thrown back by the force. The scarred man hit the ground hard, the wind knocked from his lungs. He blinked up at the sky, his vision swimming, and saw the drourning its attention toward them once more.

  ---

  Daren flinched as another explosion rocked the city, this one closer than before. He pulled the injured soldier further into the shadows, his mind rag. 'We ’t fight these things. We don’t even know what they are.'

  The faint sound of footsteps caught his attention, auro see a figure darting toward him. It was one of the otherworlders he had seen training in the yard. "No freaking way! Is that what I think it is? Drones? Now someone's got style. So awesome!" He leaped into the air towards one of the birds that Daren hadn't yet noticed.

  BOOM!

  A single punch, and the bird was sent crashing down into an explosion.

  More footsteps had Daren turning, and the sight of the holy temprs brought an incredible amount of joy into his heart.

  "Spread out!" The one in charge yelled as she drew her sword while blog whizzing projectiles with a G! "We must purge these drone demons at on the name of our lord Luminous!" A resounding 'Yes ma'am' echoed ireets. "The rest of you, focus on rescue and healing the soldiers."

  Daren watched in awe as the otherworlder (his name eluded him, but his reputation did not) nded on the shattered cobblestones, surrounded by the wreckage of the fallen 'demon drone'. "Alright! I'm ied. Bet if I smash a lot of these tin s, I'll find the person behind them. Sounds like fun! [Berserker]"

  Daren, still crouched in the shadows with the injured soldier, felt a surge of hope as the otherworlder and the temprs began to push back against the demon droheir discipline and skill were a stark trast to the chaos that had ed the city just minutes earlier. But even as he watched their progress, he couldn’t shake the uhat g him.

  The recruit groaned in pain, pulling Daren’s attention back to the immediate crisis. “Hang on,” he said, tearing a strip of cloth from his tunic to create a makeshift tour. “Yoing to be okay.”

  Above them, another drone desded, its targeting beam log onto their position. Daren’s pulse quied as he reached for his spear, knowing he wouldn’t be fast enough to stop it.

  Before the drone could fire, a streak of light shot through the air, striking the mae dead ter. The drone exploded in a shower of sparks, and Daren turo see the leader of the temprs approag, her bde still glowing from the divine spell she had cast.

  “Are you hurt?” she asked, her voice calm but firm as she assessed the situation.

  “Just him,” Daren replied, nodding toward the recruit. “Thank you. If you hadn’t,"

  “No time fratitude,” the tempr interrupted, kneeling to examihe injured soldier. “We’ve got more of these demons ing. you fight?”

  Daren ightening his grip on his spear. “I’ll do what I .”

  ---

  Still crouched behind the prison walls, Kaede perked up at the sound of hurried footsteps. A relieved smile tugged at her lips as Kirara emerged from the structure, her expression a mix of pride and nervous energy.

  “You did it!” Kaede smiled.

  Kirara offered a sheepish grin, brushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Like, it wasn’t that hard. My skill started w again, though I’ve got no clue why.”

  Kaede’s smile faded slightly, her mind briefly flickering to earlier. “We’ll talk about it ter,” she said, dismissing the thought for now. “Right now, we o get these people to the sewers before—”

  A thunderous BOOM echoed through the air, cutting her off. The grouh them trembled faintly, the shockwave sending a faint ripple through the atmosphere.

  Kirara flinched, blinking at the distant plumes of smoke rising into the night sky. “Whoa, Kaede. Like, that is some distra.”

  Kaede gnced back toward the source of the explosion, her expression calm but focused. “It’ll buy us time, but not much,” she said, turnitention back to the group htened prisoners behind them. “The drones aren’t built for actual bat. They’ll only st a few minutes before someone figures out they're not that dangerous. Harmless”

  Kirara raised an eyebrow, skepticism evident in her voice. “You call that harmless?”

  Kaede began leading the group through a narrow, dimly lit street, her movements purposeful and effit. “Retively speaking, yes,” she replied. “Most of the drones are loaded with nohal gear, fshbangs, sound grenades, smoke bombs, and some harmless shrapnel for show. They’re meant to create chaos, not casualties.”

  Kirara cast a gnce back toward the chaos-filled skyline, where metallic drones darted between buildings, their fshes of light illuminating the destru below. Another explosio a fireball surging into the air, and she gave Kaede a sideways look. “Sure, Kaede,” she drawled, her tone dripping with disbelief. “Whatever you say.”

  Kaede allowed herself the briefest smirk but said nothing, her focus already returning to the path ahead.