Sophie
Sophie was going to have to get stronger. If she was going to continue on this path—on any path that had to do with helping Ethan was would have to up her culviation and fighting game. She intended to be by his side and so she couldn't be a burden. They had barely made it out.
Getting around the Red Orcs had been terrifying enough, and they weren’t out of danger yet. Not even close.
As they ran, Sophie noticed something else—something that made her stomach drop.
Emily and Elise were favoring their left sides.
And Emily’s arm—
Sophie blinked hard. Maybe it was the darkness and the running and the chaos, but she could have sworn Emily’s forearm was blackened, like the skin itself was decaying.
There was no time to check.
They didn’t know how aggressively the Red Orcs or Green Orcs would pursue them if at all. They only knew that if they did pursue and catch them they were very dead so the they could not stop moving.
Elise caught up beside her, breath sharp. “With all of them following us—what are our odds of actually getting away?”
Sophie shook her head, cycling mana through her limbs to keep up the pace. “I don’t know. If they decide to pursue us aggressively, I don’t know how far we’ll get. If we can reach Edinspyr, we have a shot at holding out—but if we’re only as strong as our weakest link…”
She gave a humorless laugh.
“Which, unfortunately is probably me. I’m not exactly high in cultivation. High in theory, yes—but I’m barely Level 3, and my mana control is poor. So if anyone is going to be holding us back its. That is the bad news. The good news is as long as they don't try too hard, we should reach Edinspyr. And once we’re far enough north for a MageNet signal, I’ll send a distress call across every channel we have.”
She dragged in a cold breath.
“If the northern cities are paying attention, someone could dispatch a rapid-response team within a few hours.”
“And if not?” Elise asked.
“Then we pray that we get to the fortress and that they don't want us THAT bad..” Sophie muttered, “If we survive this, I swear I’m going back to my mother and rebuilding our entire communications infrastructure from the ground up. If I could just send a message I could have every culiivator within 100 leaguages here with a vew hours.”
“You know… Brother Ethan could help with that,” Emily said weakly. “You saw his lecture at the Imperial Academy, right? He was talking about—head’s up!”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Her voice snapped into a shout, amplified with mana.
Six Red Orcs burst from the darkness.
Vivian and Anmei were already in front.
Vivian’s blade flashed as she thrust forward—her sword flaring with frost-aspected mana that froze the air itself. Anmei unleashed an exploding torrent of fire, the spell blooming out in a cascade of heat and golden sparks.
Three Orcs hit the ground before they reached the group—two burned, one impaled by a razor-thin icicle spear Vivian had conjured without breaking stride.
The last three fell in four moves. Two under Vivian’s blade; one under a brutal palm strike from Anmei that cracked bone like pottery.
They kept running.
Sophie glanced back and felt panic spike—Emily was falling behind.
Chiron saw it too. With one fluid, powerful motion he doubled back, scooped Emily into a bridal carry, and surged forward again.
They ran for another mile—maybe two—along the ridge.
Behind them, far down the slope of the valley, dozens of distant lights flickered and swayed like embers.
Sophie didn’t need to be told—they were Orcs carrying mage-torches or demonic fire-lamps. They were tracking them.
“If we get in range of those MageNet transmission links,” Sophie gasped, “we’ll connect. But we have to keep moving.”
Leiden caught up. “If they catch us before the fortress—can we hold?”
"Depends on how agressive they are. We cannot fight an army out in the open it doesn't matter how powerufl Vivian and
Sophie grimaced. “I don’t know. It’s a gamble. The Imperial Architects should have left warding arrays—sustained mana shields, resonance anchors, maybe a few one-use defensive spells. But we don’t know how intact they are.”
Chiron pointed ahead. “Princess Sophie—take a look.”
He handed her a spyglass.
Sophie steadied her breath, raised it, and froze.
At the southern exit of the ravine—where they had fled from—the slope crawled with Red Orcs.
Dozens. No—hundreds.
They were coming straight up the path.
Sophie snapped the spyglass shut. “We have to go. Now.”
“If we keep this pace,” Leiden said grimly, “we might reach Edinspyr in four hours.”
Sophie nodded. “Then everyone listen carefully. Cycle mana to your ankles, hips, and lungs. Those three will give you the best long-distance gains. If you have movement spells, use them sparingly to surge ahead and recover.”
She turned sharply.
“Retainers—send signal flares backward. Use slowing glyphs. Hamper the line behind us.”
She faced Elise. “Do you have any more of those… gifts you made?”
Elise shook her head hard. “No. Making those two nearly shattered us. And I don’t think we could do it again—not in this state.”
Sophie frowned. “What do you mean, ‘this state’?”
Emily lifted her left arm.
The skin was blackened.
Rotting? Was it mana rot?
No its not exactly mana rot what th ehell is this?
Vivian intercepted instantly, grabbing Emily’s wrist. “What did you do?”
Emily winced. “It’s a theoretical mana displacement technique. It’s supposed to invert mana frequency—create disruption in anything with a mana structure.”
Sophie’s eyes widened. “Mana invertion? How can Mana invert? Mana can harmonizes; but i have never heard a theory where it says it can "invert" and what do you mean, ‘frequency’? Mana doesn’t operate on frequency—what are you talking about?”
Elise spoke quickly, breath uneven. “We don’t know exactly. It was something Brother Ethan showed us. The results were… interesting. We create packing Anything that used a steady current of mana—it disrupted it. Badly. It’s especially destructive to impure mana sources. Or… corrupted ones.”
Emily swallowed. “Like the ones the Red Orcs and Sword Demons use.”
Sophie exhaled hard.
“We’ll deal with your arm once we’re safe. For now—we move.”
Ahead of them, the path narrowed into a dark ascent.
Behind them, war drums echoed across the Highlands.
The chase was just beginning.