When they stopped, they'd gone well past the tree line and into the open field, livid moonlight shining down on them, a starry sky above them, and a cool night breeze on their skin.

Apart from the questions they'd asked him, he'd mostly been silent.

To him, a great opportunity had landed in his hands to enter the city with the marching army.

The walls were massive and therefore severely understaffed, but he'd stalled heading for them, unaware of any mystical properties they might have that would make him detectable.

He had come up with two plans, burrow beneath ground with Alia's elemental powers, or use the rodent vessels as bait and find birds of prey vessels.

He would then slingshot himself over the wall, and substitute places with his hawk vessels.

He was to do either of these along with investigating the map markings on the wall.

The first plan had obvious downsides, but, of course, he didn't get to test either, as he ran into the party.

He'd also learned that the rock walls that trapped him were actually Gurov's, who'd simply spotted him on the ground, which at least confirmed to him that the flying mage had indeed not noticed him.

In the vast field, to his far right and left, he saw the rest of the little army had also stopped.

Are they really all mages?

Last time he'd seen these many mages was when he'd been teleported onto the ceremony dais.

His eyes went up, searching for that flying mage, but he didn't see her.

"Why are we stopping?" Hadrian asked.

"Would you rather the battle happen in the city?" One of the rank two elemental mages, the woman who'd also pranked the space path mage, responded.

Eight small earth stumps rose, forming a circle around them.

Seeing the others sit on them, Hadrian and Alia did too.

His rodent vessels were on the furthest end of his control range, which had risen to a hundred and forty when he'd obtained Truston's cores.

It hadn't increased with the number of cores, however, but by the rank. For a next increase, he would have to accommodate a rank three core, it seemed.

A crackling scarlet flame formed in the middle of their sitting.

Next, the two space path mages summoned their meals, roasted meat.

Hadrian and Alia also got pieces.

"Why are you marching on Gritjor?" Alia asked Gurov, who seemed to be the most accommodating.

Gurov's eyes lingered on the flame as he chewed.

Looking up to Alia, he let out a light sigh.

"For one, I didn't like the idea of swearing an oath overseen by Sisteron witches. But, personally, I didn't want to work along Bagdona and Haldon."

Actually, Hadrian had asked "you" as in the whole army. Hearing Gurov give his personal reasons, he didn't clarify, as he felt it would be rude.

"They were stuck in the past…. " Gurov continued. "Using hatred and division, especially against the elemental path, while the rest of us were trying to make things work. And now they get to wash their hands and collaborate?" Gurov's voice had a tinge of bitterness.

His eyes closed for a moment and his head shook slightly.

Hey, aren't you also focusing on the past right now?

"It's good to see you two together," he said, "An elemental and space path mage."

They'd asked and Hadrian had told them.

"That's what it's all about. The future." He said.

Hadrian pondered for a moment.

"What about the past?" he asked, "Why the division?"

"You're indeed a recently awakened." Gurov spoke in a slightly deep voice.

"When pandemonium realms were still common, the elemental path had actually been in the group with the space and force path, but something changed, and well, they were forced to become enemies."

Hadrian's pupils shrunk.

He thought back to the first time he'd met Bagdona in his office.

Back then, Bagdona had told him, or Alia, that as an elemental mage, she would have enemies of the space and force path in the pandemonium realms.

"Of course, all that doesn't matter now." Gurov said as he threw a piece of bone away.

"It's been seven years since the last group entered a pandemonium realm."

Gurov paused, seemingly recollecting something, or someone.

Truston?

Hadrian wondered.

Even though truston's hair wasn't as fiery red as Gurov's, there was a resemblance.

A long moment passed in silence.

Pandemonium realms are that rare? Hadrian wondered.

He'd thought that they would serve as a way to raise his tier, but now, it seemed if he were to rely on them, it would take a long time.

Wishing to learn as much as he could, Hadrian turned to the rank one space path mage, who looked the easiest to spark a conversation with.

He was slightly older, seeming the same age as Baruch, black hair, black eyes and a regular face.

"What about you?" He asked.

The rank one space path mage, who'd gotten off the rock stamp sat on the grass, raised his left eyebrow.

Then, His eyes went from Haldon to the crackling fire in the air.

He thought for a moment.

"We used to work for Haldon." He said.

Hadrian could only guess the other person included in the "we" was the other rank one space path mage.

"He put us as guards in his metal workshop where he'd captured Truston, but one night, he went mad, slaughtering everyone."

Hadrian controlled his expression.

As he looked at the space path mage talking, Alia looked at the other, and his brow slightly pinched, remembering when he'd entered the metal workshop, he had indeed seen their faces even if it had only for a moment.

"Three of us managed to run and report what happened to Bagdona. Nothing happened." The mage said as he turned to face Hadrian. "It could have been us the next day…. "

"So, you all left Gritjor, now who is this you march with?"

Hadrian took the direct approach like a child would.

With his left arm, Gurov gestured to Krager's wild they'd left behind.

"On the other side of this thin arm of Krager's wild, is the city Sunmar .... " he said.

Thin arm? I was only in a thin arm of Krager's wild?

Hadrian noted, making sense of why there had not been as many corrupted creatures as he'd expected.

"Actually, we'd believed the proclaimed Princeps, Carmine Thorne, had truly taken over all the eastern free cities. But it seems he has an opposition force.

We'd planned to head west, when we ran into these forces. The decision was easy to make."

Hadrian nodded, getting a slight grasp of the situation, that there's another "Princeps" contending for the eastern free cities.

So, it's propaganda that I, and others in Gritjor, didn't hear of this before.

He supported his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward, still sat on the rock stump.

"And where are these Princeps?"

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