It took a minute to gather the war council, consisting of me, Eleanor, Maria, Harold, Terry, and Rosie.

I started speaking. “We have an emergency,” I said.

“What’s that spell?” Terry asked, pointing at the sky. “It feels … ominous.”

“Because it is,” I responded. “Whatever that spell is, the mysterious energy density in the environment has risen significantly since it was cast, and it’s rising even more.”

“Should I fly and interrupt it?” Maria asked.

I paused a second, doing my best to examine the mana, including the way it moved and dispersed. “No, we’re too late,” I said. “Whatever that attack was, it has already done its job. What we see is just the dispersing mana.”

Terry’s eyes widened. “The spell?” he asked. “Is it that powerful?”

I continued examining it, taking note of the dispersal rate and other variables. “Not exceedingly so,” I determined. “The problem is the nature of the mana. It has been transformed into some kind of volatile energy, which leaves a strong sign of its presence. It has already finished its job.”

“What’s the aim?” Rosie asked.

“There is a chance that it was similar to the crystal attack of Drakka, some kind of energy container.”

“You don’t seem to believe that.”

“Because I don’t. I fear that whatever he did increase the corruption energy the area receives long term.”

“Long-term meaning?”

A sigh escaped my mouth. “I have no idea. Days, weeks … permanently. Either way, it adds a troubling new equation to our situation. Every second, I could feel the mysterious energy intake of the dungeon going up.”

“Is it bad?”

“Not as bad as it would have been without the fire dungeon and the mana spring under its entrance,” I replied. “With that, containing shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Unless it increases far more than we expect,” Maria responded.

“Yes, there’s that. I would need a few hours to model the increase rate to understand the situation, so that we could have a better idea. Maria, I need you to be ready for incursions. Rosie, I need you to scout the perimeter to see if there’s a follow-up attack. Harold, you will deal with emergency mobilization. Eleanor, you have the dungeon once again. Terry, you are responsible for the civilians, especially the new arrivals. Make sure we have no nasty surprises. Does anyone have any comment about the assignments?”

“I don’t like how we’re dispersing our forces,” Eleanor said. “It leaves us vulnerable to a follow-up attack. What if it’s their plan?”

“True, but there’s not much we can do about it. Some tactics are difficult to counter no matter how transparent they are.” I paused for a moment. “Still, try not to push yourselves too much, and don’t skip rest. If I were them, I would attack in a day or two. Assuming the energy levels rise enough to pressure us, it would be the ideal time to attack.”

“Why?” Terry asked.

“Enough to tire us, but not enough to level us significantly,” Harold explained. “It’s a good balance.”

“Assuming, of course, they have an accurate understanding of our situation. If they are underestimating us, they’ll only make us stronger.”

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“There’s that,” I said. “Their actions are surprisingly underwhelming so far, considering their otherworldly nature. I don’t like it.”

“Why? Isn’t it better for us?” Terry asked.

Rosie chose to explain. “On the face value, that’s certainly the case. But, things get more complicated considering their power. What if it was similar to Portugal traders finding their way around Africa to visit India. Just a few harmless trade ships. Then, several ships. Skip a few decades, and they are replaced by the East Indian Company, enough to devastate the land completely. It looks an awful lot like the situation with that damned Horizon and the city lords. They are just the first wave.”

“Why would they deploy a limited force?”

“Maybe they have just learned. We have no idea how they communicate between worlds, or how they travel through them. There’s a high possibility that the travel takes too long, or there are restrictions.”

“Like it requires a way to travel

Terry shivered. “Are you saying that the Cataclysm had been just the opening salvo?”

“An effective one, considering Horizon decapitated every single organization that could have controlled the situation. Still, it’s just an opening salvo..”

I cut in. “As much as I enjoy those discussions, we don’t have the time for it. We all have our tasks.”

“As you wish, your Majesty,” Maria said, her tone injecting some much-needed levity into the situation before they dispersed, leaving me alone … and with my thoughts leading me to a dark place. An alternative scenario.

What if the reason the other worlds were not here en masse was because they were afraid? I had my dreams from two dungeons, each presenting a planet that had been lost under the weight of the corrupted creatures of darkness. Creatures that I suspected to be linked to the mysterious energy that fell from the sky every single night, transforming the creatures under its control.

What would happen if there came a day it wasn’t just the invisible weak energy that was spilling from the sky, but those creatures strong enough to devastate a civilization of dragons? Did we have the power to counter it? Would having an army of fighters and mages would be enough. Would we need to ascend everyone?

Or, maybe our world was nothing more than a sinking ship, and the people of the other worlds were just to pick people with special classes before leaving the rest to disappear under the dark wave of creatures.

“I want to say it’s impossible…” I muttered to myself, but I knew that it would be a lie. History has shown us that no humanitarian crisis was stronger than humanity’s greed, and hoping for compassion was a fool’s errand.

I focused on the present. My pen danced, taking measurements of the increasing mysterious energy, and comparing it with the earlier measurements. On that, the large number of gates had been very helpful. I could feel the energy passing through them individually, giving me not only the changes in the energy density but also the approximate shape of it.

With those data points, putting a rudimentary model of energy increase had been simple. The results, however, were mixed.

Naturally, data collection and modeling weren’t the only things I had done for those three hours. I had started to experiment with the mysterious dark energy, hoping to find a way to interact with it … but it proved to be annoyingly inert. There had been no significant assistance from the other material, so I focused on analyzing the results.

The increase in the flow had finally come to a stop in two hours, at least relative to the past data. Data in hand had shown that the initial flow started with sunset, rising rapidly for an hour, peaking at midnight. But, that didn’t prevent the accumulation of energy.

That historical data allowed me to pinpoint the situation well enough. The sharpest increase had come in the first half hour, crawling to a glacial pace around the hour mark, and stopping the increase at the three-hour mark.

“Unfortunately, that’s the only good news,” I said. While three hours had marked the point where the increase had stopped, there was no sign of a decrease, at least not enough to be worthy of statistical significance. I had to hope that things would change during the day, but I had to assume it would not.

Worse, the peak energy intake was around fourteen times higher than the Drakka attack. Without the Fire Dungeon and the leyline, the situation would have been even more of a disaster.

Just as I was hoping that it would be the end of it, I felt the rush of the same energy to another gate. The only one that had been left untouched. The gate at the swamp, belonging to the fire dungeon, marking the dark officially a disaster. Not because of the direct impact, as the amount of the fire dungeon, with only one gate, was too limited to have a significant impact.

However, it meant the secrecy was gone, which was a much bigger problem.

“That means an attack is not too far away,” I decided. “All that remains is whether it would be the heretics that attack, or it’s another collaboration with Drakka. Or, worse, a pincer attack with heretics attacking the fire dungeon while Drakka attacks here.”

And, there was nothing I could do but wait.