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The town\'s barrier shimmered inches from Ike\'s nose. A vast cliff spread before him. Ike staggered and barely caught himself before he fell into it. They stood on the wall at the edge of the city, gazing out into the forest.

How the hell—oh, right. Wizard\'s Tower. He can move any of us anywhere he likes.

Down below, a man with shocking green hair and a broad-brimmed blue cap gazed up at them. A small army of men in black robes stood around him, the same ones who had chased Ike and Wisp into Shopkeep\'s town.

The black-robed mages are with Llewyn? It figures.

But then… wait. What were they trying to do with Shawn? He thought back to all the things he knew Llewyn and the black-robed mages had done, and his brows lifted. Turn him into a puppet? A puppet mountain… now that\'s an enemy I don\'t want to face. That\'s scary levels of powerful. Shawn\'s already admitted he doesn\'t know how to kill himself, and Mont was powerful enough he couldn\'t launch a smaller attack than a landslide. A puppet mountain, on Llewyn\'s side? He didn\'t know how he\'d defeat such a thing. Good thing I rescued Shawn.

Overhead, a faint flash of white caught his eye. Ike glanced up. High overhead, the white-feathered beast from Clarina\'s village soared high overhead.

He frowned. He hadn\'t gotten a good feeling for what she and the plump, foppish man were doing, back in Clarina\'s village. And once he\'d freed Clarina\'s parents, he hadn\'t seen either of them at the banquet hall. That wasn\'t surprising, if they were supporters of the New Republic, but it was strange to see her show up here. Are she and her master with Llewyn as well?

Something about that felt off. He stared at her for another moment, then tore his eyes away. He didn\'t have the time to worry about things like that right now. If she attacked, he\'d kill her, and that was all there was to it. He could figure out the details after Llewyn was vanquished.

If we can vanquish him.

He swept his senses over Llewyn and the black-robed mages. Unlike the previous set of black-robed mages, these mages weren\'t Rank 2, with a few scattered Rank 3s. These were all Rank 3s, with one or two on the brink of Rank 4. Llewyn\'s strength was beyond his ability to gauge. The man might as well have been a black hole, for all that Ike could sense him. He could have had infinite power, or no strength at all. There was nothing there but an empty pit in Ike\'s senses.

He snorted. I\'d wonder where they\'re getting all the mages from, but it\'s pretty clear that Llewyn and Lord Brightbriar, my old City Lord, are allied. If Llewyn\'s black-robed mages die out, he can simply ask Lord Brightbriar for more.

As for Lord Brightbriar\'s goal… He turned, gazing past their city at the huge city atop the mountain in the distance. It wasn\'t even a question, was it? He wanted to destroy the king. More than that, become the king. Right now, there were several strong bastions between himself and that king. But by overtaking each one in secret, replacing its citizens with puppets, or simply overwhelming them with his puppet armies, he converted each of those bastions into strongholds of his own.

Facing the opposite way, Ike looked at the city they\'d left behind, Clarina\'s city. If they\'d arrived there any later, it would have been completely overrun. As it was, they\'d showed up just in time to destroy the puppet-making machinery before Llewyn could complete the conversion. If we\'d showed up any later, it would be part of the puppet army already.

He turned forward at last, facing Llewyn again. This time, he frowned. He searched the battlefield, only for his eyes to return to the same figures again: Llewyn and the black-robed mages. Where were the puppets? Llewyn loved nothing more than to deploy his puppet soldiers whenever he could. So where were they now? He\'d seen so many forms of them, and seen them in so many places, that he was starting to expect puppets when he saw Llewyn. But here they were now, about to fight, and not a single puppet in sight.

"Isn\'t it strange?" he asked, turning to Wisp.

"What, that we\'re just standing here and staring at each other? Yeah. Is this some human thing? Just fight already," Wisp complained.

"No, not that," Ike said, waving his hand. "I mean Llewyn."

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"He\'s pretty strange, yeah."

"Not that either. He is, though."

"Right? Did someone stuff broccoli in his hat? Why\'s his hair look like that?"

Ike stifled a laugh. Forcing his way back to a sober expression, he gestured at the field. "No puppets."

Wisp opened her mouth to quip again, then shut it. She turned back to the battlefield. Squinted down at it. Lifted her hand to her eyes. "Huh."

"Isn\'t that weird? Llewyn usually doesn\'t show up anywhere there aren\'t puppets. Or rather, wherever he goes, he brings puppets with him. But here, now, we\'re about to battle, and he didn\'t bring one."

"That is weird. Why leave them at home? Unless he had a good reason to," Wisp mused.

Ike glanced up at the owl beast circling overhead. A second later, he shook his head. Even if she was some kind of surveillance, she\'d been there, in Clarina\'s village. She\'d seen all the puppets of the New Republic. There was no reason to hide the puppets from her.

He peered over his shoulder at the opposite wall. Nothing… yet. Should I tell Shopkeep? No—I definitely should. He edged over to Shopkeep\'s side. "Llewyn usually fights with a puppet army. I\'m worried he might be sending them to attack us from the rear, or—"

"Oh, he\'s trying," Shopkeep chuckled. "I might\'ve ruined my future progression with a Wizard\'s Tower, but it does make a near-unassailable fortress. They\'re trying to dig under my walls right now. I\'m letting them think they\'re digging up, but in fact, they\'re digging their way back out of my territory."

Ike opened his mouth, then shut it. He nodded. Shopkeep has it handled. "Can you keep doing that while you fight?"

"If I\'m not putting my all into the fight, yes." Shopkeep gazed down, his eyes locked on Llewyn.

Ike followed his gaze. He\'s not sure he can take Llewyn. I\'m not surprised. I\'m not sure he can take Llewyn, either. After all, I could almost take Shopkeep—or rather, Lord Nors, but they are fundamentally the same person. If Llewyn is half as strong as he seems to be, I can\'t even dream of fighting him. "Is there anything we can do to help?"

He laughed. "I\'m just happy to have allies at my side." Reaching into his coat, Shopkeep drew out a pair of blue potions. He handed one to Ike and tossed the other to Wisp. "Here. Mana potions. They work on monsters just the same."

Good to know. Ike took his. He sent a pulse of aether into it, searching it for poisons. He didn\'t distrust Shopkeep too much—after all, they both wanted Llewyn dead—but he didn\'t fully trust the man, either.

His aether pulse returned clean, and invigorated at that, as though he\'d sent it into a sea of aether. Across from him, Wisp downed the potion. Ike hesitated one moment longer, then downed his as well.

Instantly, aether swirled into his core. It warmed him from fingertip to toetip, head to foot. He breathed deep, circulating the aether around his body. He\'d been drained after the previous fight, but now, he felt almost full on aether, and full of power.

As the aether settled inside him, the other half of Shopkeep\'s statement finally hit him. Happy to have allies. He frowned, thinking. Something about that tickled his brain. Something…

Ike\'s eyes widened. Allies. That\'s right. There\'s other people who hate Llewyn! Other people, like Clarina! We didn\'t part on the best of terms, but her family already lived through a puppet invasion. I\'m sure they\'d fight against Llewyn again, given the chance. "Speaking of allies, I might be able to rustle up a few more. Do you have anything we could use to send a message?"

"Hmm? Sure. Here." He reached into his robes and drew out a slip of paper. It didn\'t look particularly extraordinary, but it radiated mana.

"What is this?" Ike asked, taking it.

"A message talisman. We used to use them for confidential financial discussions. Write your message on it, then burn it while holding the image and mana signature of the person you wish to contact in your mind. It will materialize at their side if there\'s nothing blocking mana near them. We used to use ordinary shikigami to send messages, but they\'re quite troublesome things. They can be intercepted, falsified… in the end, I developed this new message technique myself. Since it burns and flows to the receiver as ash, then reforms at their side, it is easily overlooked, impossible to intercept, and near-impossible to falsify." Shopkeep coughed. He rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. "That might be a little too much information for you. I\'m proud of my creation, as you can tell."

"No, no. It\'s fascinating. What\'s a shikigami?" Ike asked.

"Ah, it\'s a technique from a far-off land, one that\'s permeated even here. You fold paper into the shape of a man or a bird and send it flying off, using the same technique I described, and it flies to the person you\'re thinking of. But since it\'s a piece of paper flying away, it\'s not particularly well suited to this kind of mission. It\'s easy to destroy mid-flight, or even catch."

"That sounds awesome," Ike murmured. This is the world of mages. This is the world I will never fully enter. I\'m an outsider. Too far beyond the pale to ever fit in with other mages. Someone other mages, born and raised in magehood, could never imagine.

Pushing his thoughts away, he borrowed a pen from Shopkeep and quickly scribbled a message on the paper. Lord Nors\' city. Urgent. Llewyn attacking with puppet army. Please help. He held the paper out in front of him and ran a jolt of lightning through it. The paper caught on fire. As it burned up, the ash flew away, coursing on the wind toward Clarina\'s city.

Ike watched it go, quietly praying in his heart. He wasn\'t a religious man, but now seemed as good a time to call on the divine as any. Reach her. Please, let her find it in her heart to send help in our time of need, as we sent help in hers.

The last of the ash flew away. He took a deep breath. Quietly, he wracked his brains, but nothing else came to mind. No one else he could call on. No other forces on his side. The citizens of the Abyss… or at least Ket and Tana, would probably come, but they\'re too far. Even if I called them now, it would take them several days to reach here at top speed. And… I hate to say it, but Tana\'s Rank 1 and Ket is… Rank 3? Ket could help, but Tana is… And both of them need lunam, anyways. It\'s not feasible.

He sighed out. Cracked his fingers. "Let\'s get this show on the road."

Down below, right on signal, Llewyn stepped forward.