"Think of those Grand Temple Knights as Tier 7 humans." Remian suggested. "That should give you an idea of how strong they were."

"That strong?" Mindy gaped.

"Don't look so surprised. You're not too far off, yourself." Remian pointed out.

"But I have a bond with the Flame Emperor, and we're rather close to her location right now. Also, she's currently awake, which means I'm more powerful now than ever. They… how did they get so strong?" Mindy asked.

"Darian should know better than me. He's as strong as you are, and he doesn't have any such special bond that I know of." Remian pointed out.

"How DOES he get so strong? Comparing Darian to the likes of Max and Marcus is like…" Mindy shook her head.

"Comparing Tier 6 to Tier 4 Wilds? Exactly." Remian nodded. "My little brother is growing up…"

"Your little brother is tying up a girl with ropes." Mindy pointed out.

Remian blinked, then turned to see Darian and Doom restraining d.a.m.naith.

"Kill me!" d.a.m.naith shrieked. "Just let me die! I'll be remembered as a hero! Or a heroine! Yes, heroine is better!"

"You seem to have an awfully light opinion of death." Darian growled.

"Temple Knight teachings include a rewarded afterlife. Judgment according to what you did in life and all that." Doom explained. "d.a.m.naith, in particular, seems to have a thing for death…"

[I like her, too.] Death chipped in, right on cue.

Remian glanced over his shoulder. It had been so long, he hardly noticed Death hanging around any more. [Can you give me a bit of s.p.a.ce? You're getting uncomfortably close.]

[But of course.] Death hobbled back a bit. [n.o.body wants death so close, right?]

Remian froze. [What is that supposed to mean?]

Death chuckled in a tone that made s.h.i.+vers run down Remian's back. [You're about to find out.]

[Breach! Intruder alert!] a Psionic broadcast flooded across the horizon from the south. [Spectral Beasts have entered our world! The Rift has been opened! They're coming through!]

[Stop them!] The Flame Emperor turned.

Psionic screams flitted through the air. [They're too strong!] [Call for reinforcements!] [Get back! We need to surround them…!]

The Flame Emperor raised her wings. [All of you, get clear!]

[RUN! The Flame Emperor is about to make a move! Everyone RUN!!]

A Psionic Blast shot out, a blast so powerful, Remian almost blanked out when it appeared. For a moment there, the whole world turned blurry and started to tilt around ever-so-slowly…

[We GOT IT!] a Psionic cry was jubilant.

[Great! Wait… what's that!]

[Oh, rabbit p.o.o.p, that's big! That's BIG!]

[Everyone, get out of there!] the Flame Emperor roared, and fire started to rain down from the sky all over the south. [Pull back to Nine Kings Range!]

[RUN!] thousands of Wilds immediately sprang into action. [It's coming through!]

There was a heavy tremor in the ground. Then another.

"Are those… footsteps?!" Mindy gulped. "What IS that?"

"That's the reason why we never wanted to open the Source of Magic wider." Darian grimaced.

"Not entirely." Doom refuted. "There's more where that came from. That there is just one of them."

Mindy's face paled. Meanwhile, the Flame Emperor went into full battle, but even then none of the Wilds fleeing slowed down for even a moment.

"We're all gonna DIE!" d.a.m.naith cackled.

This time, n.o.body shut her up.

***

They ran for it. George picked up Remian, Carrie and Mindy while Doom and Darian went with the dragons, hauling Fel and d.a.m.naith away as their prisoners.

Now in the lead corvette of a nine-corvette fleet headed north, Mindy turned to the south where fire and smoke covered an earth-shaking battle as the Flame Emperor battled an as-yet-unseen opponent, something that only showed up vaguely through the smoke in glimmers of yellow light towering high, easily matching the height of the Nine Kings mountains, if not the Flame Emperor's volcano.

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Something with a very large hand tipped with claws the size of a Tier 4 wolfcat. They knew, because it reached out towards the corvette out of the smoke, and made a grab at them from hundreds of meters away.

"Go! GO!" George was yelling as the airs.h.i.+ps poured on speed.

"We… can't! Mana…" the crew panted heavily.

"Here!" Mindy pounced on the conversion unit and poured mana into it.

"Light!" Meanwhile, Remian threw up a barrier.

Sparks erupted as the claw hit the barrier, light meeting light, and shook in mid-air.

[Get back here!] Fiery wings flapped, and the hand was jerked back into the smoke where more explosions and fire hammered at the vaguely-seen giant form.

Remian squinted, raised one hand.

"Don't use ice! Chirpy's powers are fire!" Mindy yelled a reminder.

Remian nodded. "Fireball!"

It shot out and…

Well, presumably it exploded, but there were so many explosions going on in there, it was hard to tell which one was the fireball.

"Something a little stronger, maybe?" George suggested. "You barely made a dent in there."

"There was a dent?" Mindy blinked.

"Fire lance!" This was a flame spike several feet long and easily a foot wide at its thickest. It soared out into the battle toward the vague yellow light-shape. Then it disappeared, just another one of a myriad of explosions.

"Bigger!" George encouraged.

[Quit using fire, yours is pathetic! Your light powers work better!] the Flame Emperor hinted.

In the eyes of the Flame Emperor, clearly his fire was lacking.

"Light!" Remian threw as much desperation as he could feel into the spell, trying to repeat the first ultrspell he'd ever cast, the one that scared away the first Beast Wave in the first battle he'd ever fought in the Wildlands so long ago.

A beam of light shot out, but while it was a lot more than just a little illumination, it still fell far short of that Soul-Boosted blast in the past.

Remian grimaced. "I'm going to need to work on attack spells. Something with a lot more firepower that doesn't use ice. Or fire."

"I'm not sure attack spells are going to be much help here." Mindy grunted, still pouring mana into the corvette's power supply. At this point, their corvette was already leaving the others behind. "Chirpy says that up till now, the Wilds have fought Spectres with Psionic power, not magic."

"Psionics? You mean, like the way Wilds talk to each other? The stuff Darian and Doom uses?" George perked up. "Hey, since we can talk to Wilds… doesn't that mean that we, too, use Psionic power?"

"Yes, we do." Mindy confirmed. "But probably not to the levels needed to fight the Spectres."

"Spectres? That's what they're called?" George eyed the yellow glimmers in the distance. "What about plain old arrows? Would Ballistae help? Runic bolts?"

"Who knows?" Mindy shook her head.

"I guess we'll find out soon enough." Remian said grimly. "If I'm not mistaken, those things down there are Spectres too."

He pointed. Other than the giant Spectral Beast fighting with the Flame Emperor, about a dozen or so smaller forms had run out from the south and were now scattering across the Wildlands.