Chrysalis

After further hours of roaming back and forth, trying to get a sniff of our prey whilst fending off the endless tide of demons, we finally get another hint.

It’s Al who manages to catch a glimpse, and he lets us know with his usual even demeanour.

[I found something,] he says.

[Oh yeah? Like what?]

[I believe I have detected a trace of almost pure ash mana. It is… unusual.]

[Get at the point, man, enough of your waffling!]

[What are… waffles?]

[Argh! Damn your endless curiosity! What is so unusual about this ash mana?]

He glares at me, which is quite the intimidating glare, I might add, and I know that the question of breakfast foods has only been delayed, not resolved. Nevertheless, he continues.

[Its purity.]

I swear to gandalf, I’m about to flatten this damn eyeball into a pancake. Perhaps he senses my rising ire, because he elaborates without further prompting.

[I suspect it has come from Pyrixan. Only she, that I’m aware of, could manifest such a powerful and concentrated form of that mana.]

[Goody.]

Is it nice to know we got a hint of our enemies? Yes, of course, but I’d rather it didn’t come in the form of manifested destruction in the form of concentrated ash mana.

[Where are they?] I sigh.

[I found the trail at the edge of my awareness. Several kilometres that way.]

moly, you can sense that

[I can.]

see if you can sniff out anything as

[Agreed…. Now, waffles.]

[Oh for -... fine.]

the giant eyeball of flame about the joys of breakfast baking. I’ve been told that waffles are great with syrup; personally, I never had the chance to

careful travel,

[It’s them.]

almost a shock

[What? Are you sure?]

eyeball flares

[I am.]

We finally caught up to them! How

as he holds his little body aloft, glaring into the distance. That serves as a timely reminder that we aren’t in peak shape. Tiny might be eager to battle, but he’s been healed dozens of times over the last few days and isn’t exactly fresh in terms of stamina. None of us have properly rested for three days, which isn’t

that off, we’re almost certainly walking into a

the bowels of the third, away from my Colony, it had better be a trap. If they went to all this effort just to inconvenience me, that’d be annoying as heck. I fully expect, nay,

thought, is it a

He stares at me.

unsure

is the element of surprise an essential component of a trap, or is it a trap

confused, so I let the

the big ape can’t do it for himself. As we draw closer and closer to the spot Al has detected our fearsome

wanted to. Amongst the seething ocean of demons, we stick out like a sore thumb. I’m huge, for one, and we’re covered in a moving purple dome of

order

Will I?

We’d be swept away in a tidal wave of