Silenos didn’t need to shield his eyes- he’d long since hardened the visual organs of his combat form against so mundane an attack as bright light- and so he had a far clearer view of what was happening than most present.

  Granted, he’d have seen more regardless. Silenos was a master of magic, always and above all other things. And what was occurring before his eyes…Well, it was certainly magic.

  There were some in House Shaiagrazni whose magic specialised more into the realm of manipulating and mastering Entities than Silenos himself, and he had no doubt any of those phenoms might have gleaned more from the sight than he. Nonetheless, he recognised enough. Reality itself was beginning to surrender. Similar to the existential disturbance inherent to any Entity’s presence, Silenos thought, but…Different. Less compressed, more localised. More deliberate.

  Magic often caused bleed-over into more tangible forms. Light, most commonly, but heat or pressure too. Silenos found none of that here- instead he saw, with his arcane sight, that the complexity of arcane forces at work was such that it actually caused bleed into other forms of magic. Silenos did not see it, so much as extrapolate its presence through the magical disturbances emerging all around.

  And they were many.

  The ground trembled, crying. Literally crying, sobs and weeps escaping the cold dirt as though it were a living thing. Blood emerged instead of tears- all rather typical for manifestations of an Entity. But not a weak one.

  Silenos looked around, finding much of the Dark Lord’s army in ruins. Evidently, without the power of their master to galvanize and support them, the undead had been a poor match for so strong an assault as could be mustered by Galukar and Lilia at once. Let alone the skyship unleashing Silenos’ cannon upon them.

  They were still present, though, and undead did not halt their attack, not for anything. That so many still existed proved the Dark Lord was still alive. So Silenos turned back to the maelstrom of magic.

  Just in time for it to warp further.

  He recognised the warping of spacial fractals as it occurred, the schisming of a world. Then he caught the faintest glimpse of a silhouette. The Dark Lord’s.

  “Get back.” Silenos commanded, wth no particular urgency. The fight was won.

  “What is that?!” Baird snapped, bow already raised and body tense with adrenal activity. It seemed his default response to most things, though Silenos could hardly fault it given their past few months.

  “A closed isofractaline spatial-temporal schism.” Silenos informed him. Baird stared, incomprehension twisting his features. Silenos resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “It is a gateway through time and space. Doubtless, an escape route for our enemy. That he is using it only now, when the battle has already extended beyond its final stage, means we have won. If it were for reinforcements he’d have called on it much sooner.”

  There was more to it than that, though. In all his haste to establish a foothold in the New World, Silenos had yet to even consider the magics of dimensionalism. It was…An avenue. A potential one, to investigate further at a later date.

  “Where is the Dark Lord!?” Galukar cried, sounding somehow mournful to now be without the enemy who had come so close to killing him. Silenos stifled his irritation, the demanding cognition of his new situation making such things far too distracting to sustain, and replied.

  “He’s fleeing!?” The king snarled. Had Silenos been thinking clearly, he might have lied. Instead he just nodded.

  “Then it’s over.” Lilia noted, seeming more fatigued than relieved. Perhaps there was some emotion-blunting effect inherent to her condition like other undead.

  “Not until that fucker’s dead.” Baired scowled, though even he seemed content to leave that for the future, and oddly deflated at the end of the carnage.

  Silenos tuned out the bickering morons as they began hurling one inane remark after another at each other. His concerns went deeper and farther than the execution of a single wounded enemy, particularly now that he’d gained so much fuel for the designs of his new weaponry. He found himself strangely eager to begin work on them.

  “BASTARD!” Came a roar. “YOU WON’T ESCAPE ME THAT EASILY!”

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  Before Silenos could even consciously register king Galukar’s voice, the giant imbecile had already sprinted for the distortion and disappeared through it. A silence fell upon the scene, all present staring. None, quite yet, comprehending.

  “The absolute fucking twat!” Baird exclaimed, overcoming his shock first. “What the shit was that? Is he dead?”

  Silenos felt his temper threatening to boil, and cursed his newly constructed emotional centres for the thousandth time.

  “No.” He growled. “He will simply have been sent to wherever the Dark Lord vanished.”

  “And if the Dark Lord’s still there?!” The boy shot back, suddenly more fearful, not less, for the revelation. A curious one, Baird. His father’s son without a doubt, and inheritor of all his views on monarchs and empires. But still worried for the death of King Galukar. Silenos would have to examine his brain when he died. He imagined the insular anterior cortex would be rather more developed than was average among humanity.

  “Doubtless,” Silenos replied, “He will be killed.”

  Baird blanched, as did others. Lilia in particular- which was a surprise even to Silenos himself. He found himself talking quickly, almost surprised at the words from his own mouth.

  “But…” It was a new voice, and Silenos turned to see a new face attached to it. A female one, tall for her sex and…Yes, Galukar’s daughter if his cursory glimpse of her genetic structure was to be trusted. Almost certainly in fact. “He can’t.” Her tone was a tight whisper, as disbelieving as it was despairing. “How can anyone…Kill him?”

  Silenos saw the faces around him slowly curdle, and had to fight back a wave of amusement.

  “King Galukar will not be dying today.” He declared. “I shall save him. He is, after all, a useful asset, and the thought of having him owe a dark caster the debt of life is amusing beyond compare.”

  The eyes that hit him were not hateful, bitter or vitriolic. Rather…Amused? Silenos was rather unnerved, but had no time to inquire about it. He leapt through the distortion.

  Familiarly, the world twisted and churned like dyed water being spun about in a vortex. Silenos was accustomed to breaks in reality and kept his wits about him, remaining coherent as he fell through the nothingness until, at last, his feet came down upon solid ground once more.

  They were in a strange land which he did not exert the effort to analyze beyond its tactical significance; flat but rocky, with ample cover and steady ground. Silenos quickly found the Dark Lord standing over a beaten Galukar, Godblade to one side and new injuries worsening his fatigue.

  Silenos considered calling out, but decided instead to announce his presence with a cannon blast. The sound hit his enemy only after he had been blown from his feet by the solid projectile; sent spinning and flying backwards to crash against a rocky plataeu and leave deep fissures racing across its face. Silenos was beside Galukar the instant later.

  “Up.” He commanded. The king stared at Silenos blearily, eyes unfocused and vacant with concussion. Silenos touched the imbecile’s forehead. Healing a creature as potent as King Galukar was…Frustrating. The magics which made his body so invulnerable against blade and bludgeon were indiscriminate in halting his Fleshcrafting, but Silenos had no shortage of raw power to drive into the effort. Within moments Galukar’s wits had solidified as much as they might have in minutes or more by themselves. It was enough.

  “You came back for me.” The king gasped, seemingly disbelieving.

  “You are lucky I did not come back to ensure the quality of your torture, you babbling simpleton.” Silenos snapped. “Now up with you!”

  The shifting of stone told Silenos he had worn out his grace period, and he turned to fire again. The Dark Lord was moving already, leaping from the cannon’s path and leaving the great boulder at his back to break apart where supersonic matter met fragile stone. He disappeared behind cover. Silenos backed away, reloading, readying himself, not even risking a glance at Galukar as the man shambled along beside him.

  “Can you fight?” He asked.

  “Yes.” Galukar growled.

  “Can you!?” Silenos pressed, sharply. A hesitation followed, and then a more reluctant answer.

  “...No, damn it.”

  “Then look like you can.”

  The king took good advice when it was handed to him, at least, and they backed off for the distortion. Ten metres separated them from it. Silenos had closed it down to five when the Dark Lord finally moved.

  He’d been quick in encircling them, and even more subtle than fast. Silenos only saw him coming from one side by the flash of movement catching his eye. His cannon roared, the earth shivered, and the Dark Lord twisted from the shot’s path again.

  It was no use, because Silenos had aimed for the ground. His explosive-shot came apart in a great nitrous blast which engulfed the enemy and sent him staggering even with the near-miss. Galukar was already moving, as well he should have, but the Dark Lord was faster. Closing in before Silenos could reload again and swinging that great mace of his. It smashed into a shield of keratin, forcing him back as his heels split the stone underfoot.

  He saw his enemy’s wounds in the sluggishness of each attack, though the skill involved was still a step beyond his own. Silenos turned away another attack, another. He ceded ground despite his superior mass, waiting to see Galukar vanish through the distortion. Then he acted.

  Instantly Silenos reversed his retreat and thundered forth, driving the Dark Lord backwards with a lance thrust that sent sparks flying where keratin met steel. Weight was all at play, now, and Silenos had more of that by far. His enemy was still stumbling when he turned for the distortion and dashed through it.

  For the second time that day, the world fell in on itself around him. Silenos emerged at a stumble, coming two strides from the distortion before letting his head clear. He looked around, found all the faces of his allies tight with surprise and relaxing with relief. Opening his mouth to speak, he gasped as something wrapped around him from behind. A chain, dark metal and thrumming with magic. It went taut.

  Tearing him backwards into the distortion.