Corrin decided that he was officially jealous of Luscien's bond abilities.

They wove through the city streets, taking a winding, irregular path on their way to Eryndor's estate, passing destruction wherever they went. Entire streets had been cracked open, like something had burst up from the ground below, and the buildings bore the signs of battle.

The cost clearly hadn't been paid in just destruction either. Bodies littered the streets—corpses of beast and man, some dressed in deep purple robes, but most not.

Streets over, Corrin could still hear the roaring and stomping of monsters as they continued their rampage, but the discordant ringing notes had finally ceased. He wasn't sure if that was good or bad, but a part of him took relief in not having to listen to them anymore.

Periodically, Luscien would pick up a scent, and they'd change their path accordingly, avoiding danger as best they could. They encountered a few small monsters along the way, but nothing that could threaten them, even wounded as they were. Between his hearing, smell, and even night vision, they were able to avoid almost everything.

"What happened here?" Corrin whispered as they stepped through a ruined plaza. A chunk of an overhead aqueduct had broken free, and a deluge of water spilled endlessly from the breach, splashing against a wall and running down into puddles on the street. The puddles were stained red, and the entire place stank of death.

Luscien bent down to examine one of the fissures in the ground. The air was heavy with mana, gushing up from within them. "The dungeon," he concluded. "It must have flooded."

Corrin shivered, sucking in more mana to push back the chill. "Then, they made it flood."

"Yes, almost certainly. If they weakened the tree enough, it might have happened on its own. But the timing is suspect—at the very least, the cult understands the inner workings of the dungeon better than myself."

It was more familiar to Corrin than he was comfortable with, though he still knew basically nothing about Azoth. A terrifying thought occurred to him for a moment—the idea that there might be more demons than just him, that maybe every dungeon in Aeora housed something similar, and the cultists were able to harness it for their own gain.

He rejected the idea out of necessity. Even if it was true, there wasn't anything he could do about it now. Azoth was so far beyond him, he felt he'd have better luck trying to pull a star down from the heavens instead.

A flickering green light pulled him out of his thoughts, and he turned his head to see another of the glowing butterflies approaching them. He slowed, then halted, Luscien reacting a second later as the shikigami gently bobbed ever closer.

"Again?" The bond-user muttered.

Corrin eyed it, wondering what they should do. "Do you think it's the same one?"

"I doubt it," Luscien shook his head. "I can't see the merit in only creating one of them. There's probably dozens roaming the city. The question is, why?"

"The cult?"

"I'm not sure who else it could be," Luscien admitted. "Though once more, I don't see the merit for them. If it heals us, then we only benefit in the end."

"Should we let it?"

Luscien's single flaming tail lashed out, evaporating the butterfly on contact. "Considering we don't understand it, I think the best thing would be to not let it run its course. Master Eryndor took a risk letting it draw from him because he was healthy and underestimated our enemies—I don't have the confidence to do the same."

Corrin frowned, but wasn't able to say anything more as Luscien suddenly spun and pulled them into an alleyway, pressing against the wall.

A cabal of cultists walked into the square, their footsteps quieter than Corrin felt they should be, like something was dampening them. He strained his neck to sneak a better look, even as Luscien tried to pull him back. Of the six, two carried illustrious staffs, topped with small orange, glowing gemstones. Though the rest seemed unarmed, he was sure there were weapons hidden within their cloaks.

Mages, channelers, monsters. This was the third group they'd seen since entering the city proper. One of the groups had walked straight past a pack of monsters without so much as flinching. Just the same, this group seemed to have no fear either.

Were they controlling them directly? Or were they just not being attacked? And in either case, how was it possible?

"Have you ever heard of monsters getting controlled by people?" he whispered to Luscien.

"No." The older boy shook his head. "Animals and spirit beasts sure, but never monsters. Look at those staffs though. The last two groups had similar ones—maybe those magic stones have something to do with it."

"We need to ambush one of the groups," Corrin said.

Luscien's grip tightened on his shoulder. "Are you insane? You almost died just fighting one of them with my help. Taking on a whole group—with mages? It'd be suicide, especially in our condition."

"I'm not saying right now, I agree we need to regroup first. But we also can't just do nothing."

"Of course not. But we shouldn't rush out either. If we can get Sir Eryndor back to the estate, then we can treat him. We shouldn't do anything until he's awake again."

"The solstice is the day after tomorrow, Luscien."

"He'll be up before then."

"And what if he's not?"

Luscien didn't say anything in response, and their eyes met through the spiderweb of cracks in his lenses. After a while, Kita let out a soft whine, and Luscien looked away, back into the plaza.

"Let's go." He walked out of the alley, leading them down the street the cultists had come from.

Corrin watched for a moment, hefting Eryndor further up on his shoulders, then he followed after him.

***

The Kaelburn family estate in Liresil was still standing amidst the ruins of the city, its stone walls—once a well-kept, yet dull gray—were now polished a shining white, embedded with glowing runes of gold that swirled along its length.

The area surrounding it was actually clear of monsters as well, though Corrin noticed plenty of charred corpses around.

Luscien let out a sigh of relief. "The wards are still active, thank the kings. Let's head to the front."

"Couldn't we just scale the walls?" Corrin asked, looking up the side as they walked. They were high enough to stop monsters from getting over, at least without climbing, but other than that, he didn't see what the big deal was.

"Scale them? Not a chance. Any half decent warding scheme is going to prevent that from happening. If I had to guess, any monster or channeler that touches them is going to get very hot, very fast."

Corrin pressed a finger against the wall, and sure enough, fire mana began to build where he was touching. After it got uncomfortably hot, only a few seconds later, he pulled it away.

Luscien gave him a look. "That was stupid."

"What about going over without touching it?"

Luscien shrugged. "I wouldn't recommend it. Enclosed places tend to rely on pretty simple defensive wards, because there's only so much you can do to get through a solid wall besides smashing it down. Open spaces like this have to get more… creative. And that usually means they're more aggressive too."

A terrifying image popped into Corrin's head of him trying to jump over the wall, only to burst into flames as soon as he crossed the threshold. But surely they weren't so immediately deadly, right?

As they approached the front gate, a familiar voice rang out.

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"Young Genevisc! Young Corrin! And—" Venish's voice cut out on the other side of the gate, which was already sliding open.

"Venish," Luscien spoke into the break. "Master Eryndor needs medical attention, does the estate have any kind of infirmary?"

"Of—of course. But it's only equipped for injuries that might be sustained in the training yard. I'm not sure if—no, just follow me."

The gates clanged shut behind them, sealing off the nightmarish city beyond. And finally, Corrin thought he could breathe again.

The lawn stretched out like an oasis before him, lanterns burning across the ground, throwing light over clusters of people scattered on the grass. Families huddled close together, the Kaelburn staff ferrying water and blankets where they could. Just inside the gate, they passed two groups of adventurers who'd set up some sort of watch—hard-eyed, armored figures, keeping their weapons ready in case anything got over the walls.

Even still, compared to the streets, it felt like an entirely different world.

"I activated the wards as soon as I heard the alarms in the distance," Venish said as they walked the path to the manor. "Thankfully, none of the spawn reached here in time. Most of the staff were present already, and the rest fled here rather than the city's flood shelters. I'm relieved to say we're all accounted for here."

"You heard the alarms in the distance?" Luscien asked. "Not the ones nearby?"

"The ones outside started going off eventually, but I believe the first I heard was from the northwest, followed by the east."

Luscien frowned, pinching the bridge of his nose as he thought about something.

Not following his train of thought, Corrin instead looked out to the yard, watching the staff laboring tirelessly in the dim light. "I'm shocked they're all still working."

Venish puffed his chest slightly, some pride clearly left in the older man. "We supposed that Master Eryndor would be out fighting as best he could. It would be unbefitting for us to rest before him. Many of us have known him since he was only a boy, and I personally hold him in the highest regard. I know several of the staff care not for the rest of the family—but we will not betray his expectations for us." His voice was tight as he finished, and they reached the steps.

The servants ahead of them threw open the doors, leading into the halls of the manor. Venish led them down a corridor near the front, cluttered with cots and mats laid against the walls, preserving a narrow walking space between them. Dozens of injured civilians and adventurers lay there, groaning in pain, the scent of blood and herbs thick.

Corrin's heart twisted as he noticed dozens of the butterfly shikigami amidst them, some green and approaching them to draw on blood, as others, crimson red, drifted out the windows or back out of the halls.

Again? He stared at one, as though he could discern the intentions of its user if he just looked hard enough.

"Later," Luscien whispered, seemingly thinking the same thing. Corrin took a breath and ignored them for the time being—at the very least, they seemed to be helping more than harming.

At the end of the hall, one of the doors was open, light spilling out from within. The room was crowded, and a little chaotic, as the few healers present tried their best to tend to the excess of patients.

Corrin laid Eryndor down gently on one of the few empty tables as Venish spoke with the healers, explaining the situation. Within a minute, one of them came over, a woman with auburn hair tied back tight.

"Tree rot…" she muttered a curse as she cut through the remnants of his clothes, then peeled them away from his bloodied skin.

"What do you think?"

The woman looked between Corrin and Venish, grimacing. "Frankly, I'm amazed he's alive. Channelers are tough, so if he's breathing, I have to imagine he'll pull through. It will take some time to assess the severity of any internal injuries, but I'll let you know as soon as I'm able."

"We understand," Venish bowed. "On behalf of house Kaelburn, I thank you again."

The healer nodded, then returned to her work. Venish ushered Corrin and Luscien out of the room. Corrin kept his eyes down as they made their way back out, clenching his fists at his sides as the frustration bubbled up again.

As Venish hurried off to handle more tasks, he and Luscien stepped back into the warm night air.

"Corrin!"

His head snapped up. Kei was running towards him across the grass, Aria close behind. Bruno hobbled after both of them on a crude crutch, one leg in a makeshift splint. Relief hit him like a physical blow.

"You made it," Corrin blurted, the words tumbling out.

Kei pulled him into a brief, tight hug, before holding him back out at arms-length. Some of the tension in her shoulders visibly eased as she took him in, a tired smile on her face."Barely. We were in one of the upper plazas when the cult showed up."

"Not monsters?" Luscien asked.

"Only once we got down from the platforms."

Corrin glanced over at Bruno. "Are you alright man?"

"Just a sprain," Bruno assured him. "I wish I could say it was a heroic injury, but the truth is, I stepped into one of those fissures while I was running and tripped."

"You were leading that thing away from us," Aria protested. "If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have made it!"

"That makes it a heroic trip," Kei added firmly.

Bruno grinned sheepishly. "Make sure to put 'tripped heroically' on my gravestone."

Despite everything, Corrin laughed. It was short and shaky, but it forced its way out of his chest all the same. The warmth of seeing them safe helped to dull the worry that had been building, and he felt just a little less overwhelmed.

Aria's eyes narrowed. "What about you two though? You look like you were attacked by wolves. You shouldn't be worried about us."

Corrin touched a half-healed gash along his arm, suddenly aware of how the dried blood had stiffened the fabric of his sleeve. Beside him, Luscien shifted slightly, his hand still pressed near his ribs.

"We're fine," Corrin said quickly. "Thanks to Eryndor. These wounds are just from a small skirmish."

"We'll live," Luscien said simply, though his eyes had seemed to catch on something else.

"And how is he?" Kei asked, her eyes glancing towards the manor. "We only spotted you as you were entering the house, so we didn't get a good look. Is he…?"

"He's alive," Corrin nodded. "The healers say he'll probably pull through. They just don't know how long it will be."

"I see."

A strange feeling seemed to settle over them. Eryndor's state was a reminder of the situation they were facing, and yet they'd found some small comfort in the fact that everyone had made it.

Wait… Corrin frowned. He glanced around the lantern-lit lawn, scanning the clusters of civilians, the adventurers by the gate, and the staff ferrying supplies.

"Where's Wyn?"

The question seemed to freeze the others. Kei's brow furrowed. "We… thought he was with you."

Silence pressed in, broken only by the distant groans of the injured. Corrin swallowed hard, forcing a thin smile.

"Well, Wyn can take care of himself. And he's even better than I am at killing monsters. I'm sure he's fine. He's probably busy saving people right now… yeah, that sounds like him."

But as he glanced out towards the top of the walls and into the moonless sky above, Corrin felt the knot of worry in his chest grow a little larger.

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