The tall grass lashed Kanieta's legs and waist as she sprinted through the clear night. Positioned around her were the Shades, nothing more than dark spots in the night, acting as her bodyguards. A couple hundred yards in front of them was what was left of this section of the Northern Fort's wall, which was hardly more than a few blocks of stone stacked atop each other.

Kanieta was not particularly happy about the spell's results, though its success and execution were points of pride for her. As she drew closer to the walls, the hole of uncertainty that had formed in her gut was only deepening. While the stone was nearly entirely gone from this portion of the once mighty fortifications, that was not true for the bodies. The Kin warriors and legionaries covered the land until it was nearly blanketed… Already so many dead.

Straitening her spine in resolve, Kanieta shouldered the new weight pressing down on her… But it wasn't really new; she just didn't know how heavy the burden could become until now. Kanieta could not remember when it happened, but she had stopped moving in the middle of the corpses. Leaping forward, she danced between the dead, splashing her ankles with the pools of intermingled blood between the bodies while not looking down, only focusing on her objectives. The future.

Kanieta already had more than enough nightmares. She didn't need to add the faces of the dead she trod upon. When she arrived at the scorched and furrowed ground of the Northern Fort of the Triad, which marked where the wall used to stand, the sharp copper smell of blood unpleasantly twanged off the odor of ozone. But she continued to breathe it in, as standing in the center of the destruction she wrought was the least she could do.

Kanieta was with the Redtail mages when they cast the final part of the spells. There was nowhere else she would rather be. No matter how this all turns out, the Thunder Storm and Lightning Dragon's Descent spells they just cast would go down as some of the most incredible spells cast by her people. Our history is admittedly short compared to the Olimpians, but the amount of preparation involved will guarantee their placements for a while. Kanieta thought to herself with an upward curl of her lips.

Sure, there were spells that had a more significant impact on the Kin's culture and their magecraft, like the spell Calling to the Soul, which allowed them to enlighten the Lost. And then there were the discoveries of amplification and melding of mana circles, not to mention enchanting weapons, but those were different. All of them were a progression of branches of spellcraft already well established, a foundation that future generations will take for granted as they use it to propel themselves to new heights.

But what Kanieta's faction had just done was an unprecedented act. An act that the other clans and factions had scoffed at. They derided the Redtails, saying their focus on the more theoretical areas of external magecraft rather than the purely physical enhancements and enchantments of the body and items was idiotic.

They scorned Kanieta's ideas. Criticized the hard work of her faction and drive to improve the craft. Of course, those comments were led by the Crescent Moon Faction and those pandering to them. However, the main reason why the other factions went along with the Crescent Moon was because they were growing in power.

Who's growing in power now, you bunch of cowards, Kanieta thought, her mental voice filled with scorn. They all followed the wolves because the dogs were always baying the loudest… Never taking the time to think for themselves.

The one thing that the Redtail and Crescent Moon Factions could agree on was they needed to act now while they still could. If they decided to fight in their mountain strongholds and valleys like most of the other factions wanted, eventually, they would be overwhelmed by the Lost and their controllers sooner rather than later.

If there was one significant difference between mana and psy users, it was that psy users could perform at their optimal level nearly instantly and last until their energy ran out. Mana users took time to build up their power and could only last so long before having to restock on ingredients and broken or worn-out focuses. However, and this wasn't so theoretical after tonight, there were no upper limits to the height of their spells.

With time and the required focus to gather and concentrate mana, mages can reach a level far surpassing psy users, but it takes weeks, if not months, of planning before you can even begin to execute high-level spells. A perfect example was the spells just cast by her faction to batter and then rip open the Triad. They were the culmination of eight months of careful planning and spellcasting as they created the correct circumstances to be useful.

That didn't even count the development of spells such as Lightning Bolt, which acted as the foundation for creating the spell formations for the Lightning Dragon's Descent Spell. While gathering enough mages to bend raw power to your will was nice, most combat spells were cast with the aid of focuses, and those took regular maintenance. Even using simple spells like fireball or earth move would eventually wear out a focus if used enough, so proper preparation was always a question in the back of a good mage's mind, along with the struggle of casting and then containing the spell.

Her clan's, and the rest of the faction's, mages had been continuously holding back the last step of the spell for a week. It took time to gather the required electrical energy in the air. Then, after collecting the energy, they had to move it without an actual storm forming before they were ready.

It was… a struggle, to say the least. When taking all of that into consideration, the only way to describe the spell was grand. And I was a core part of it… The vixen thought with a grin.

Kanieta might have only given a slight amount of mana at the end and a few other times along the way, but she was the driving force behind the project. And the results of that project spoke for itself. Now everyone, the rest of the clans and factions, as well as the Olimpians, knew the power they wielded. All the Olimpians needed to know was that the Kin could destroy their fortresses at will. If nothing else, they had to respect and fear that fact.

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Other Kin factions would see the results of their spell and want that power for themselves, giving the Redtails political capital. More importantly, this battle would serve as the perfect demonstration of the different levels of success in the two plans, and thus, the two factions have achieved.

The Crescent Moon couldn't even take their wall, and their plan to take the Middle Fort utterly failed. No one needed to know that her intervention significantly — because the Olimpians would have underestimated us otherwise — increased the odds of the defenders' success.

Ultimately, all that mattered was the Crescent Moon Faction's attack failed, and the Redtails' attack succeeded. No, it more than succeeded. It shattered the legion's defenses. And the legion.

Kanieta looked at what was left of the Northern Fort. The thousands of bolts that fell onto the buildings and legionaries inside the walls had left havoc in their wake. While the lightning bolts were guided and controlled to a certain extent, they still acted within their nature. Which was just fine with those who cast the spell.

The bodies of more than a dozen legionaries lay just past the trench. No wounds marred their forms, but their steel helms had black fingers covering their tops, and the smell of charred flesh hung around them. Admittedly, some were different with the arcing on their chests, but it was usually on the head, and the difference didn't matter.

Hundreds of similar bodies lay beyond the first hundred yards past where the wall stood, some looking like they were frozen mid-run heading toward cover. As for those who made it into buildings, well, it could almost be said they were worse off.

The spells were, after all, meant to destroy a fortress. Every wall in sight was covered in cracks or had chunks blown out of them, undermining their stability and causing portions to collapse. It was almost every other building that you found a partially collapsed roof or wall. But it was surprising how many buildings were still mostly standing regardless of the damage.

"They sure know how to build," Kanieta said to herself as she looked around.

The sounds of fighting filled the fort, but it was distant, which made sense. As Kanieta was still approaching, the few legionaries manning the intact wall disappeared behind the battlements.

What more could they do? A quarter-mile section of the wall and its defenders were destroyed. Anyone could see the fort was lost to the legion. A portion of the warband was lightly pushing into the fortress, but their focus was setting up a line to herd the legionaries into one place while another group was rushing to cut off the bridge.

Some warriors might get a little wild as they succumb to blood lust, but it would not last long. The war leaders knew the plan and would keep their warriors in line. They were not here to make a mortal enemy of the legion but to get a better bargaining position.

Signaling the Shades, Kanieta lept forward, dark clouds spilling out from her body. As she hung in the air, portions of the shadows solidified and shot forward, latching onto the roof of a nearby building and pulling her to it. Though the moon's dim light was shining again, it could not get past the darkness concealing her form.

Landing on the stone roof, Kanieta felt it start to give way beneath her. Sprinting forward, she ran along the building as it collapsed behind her, leaping across one street to the next.

In such a way, leaving a few completely accidentally collapsed buildings and walls in her wake, she made her way into the heart of the fortress. To her sides, she saw the slightly darker outline of other Shades, helping her search while protecting her.

A few minutes later, as she was randomly running around, one of the Shades signaled her they had found a potential target. Moving to follow, Kanieta stopped. Kneeling in the middle of the road, looking at a collapsed building, was Green.

"How did he end up here?" She whispered, slightly amazed. Freezing for a moment as she looked at him, Kanieta made up her mind.

Forming a hand sign to the Shades to secure the area, she moved to the road ten feet from Green, strands of shadow peeling off her form like they were reluctant to leave it. Kanieta waited for a moment, seeing if he would notice her presence. When it became apparent he was lost in his own mental world, as he stared blankly at the intermingled rubble and bodies, she walked up next to him and spoke softly. "I am truly sorry for the loss of life. But this is necessary."

He slowly turned to her, like his neck was a rusted joint barely capable of moving. Green's face was stricken with despair before it twisted with burning fury. His forest green eyes erupted like a raging fire that consumed the previous indifference.

Kanieta half expected his wrath to be made manifest and engulf the world in flames, as the intensity of the look seemed to hold the weight of nature itself behind it. Her instincts screamed at her to flee, and she even took a half step back, but before she could bolt or her guards could make it more than a few steps forward, the pressure vanished, leaving her heart in her chest and slightly winded.

Like he was spitting out something fowl, he said, "How— is this… necessary? Your people obviously were content to remain hidden in your mountains for who knows how many generations. We didn't even know you existed. And now you have decided to invade our lands? To steal our souls to enhance your powers? Why?"

Kanieta flinched back at the accusation. She did not agree with and would have never allowed the practice of soul harvesting, but it did happen. And it was her kin that did it. As for the other points, they weren't wrong.

"…The dark elves are coming." Kanieta finally said in resignation. The weight of her people's survival was pressing down on her. The other factions could not see that making peace with the Olimpians was necessary because if they stood alone, they would be destroyed. It was a matter of when.

Green looked at her, his face twisted with resentment. He no doubt expected to hear some excuse about wanting to expand their territory or that her people thought the Olimpians were lesser beings. While that was true to some extent, that was not why they were here. As that was all Kanieta said, his face contorted to almost something normal with his confusion.

She spoke with honesty and conviction. He will feel my honesty and respon— "What?" Green asked in bewilderment. "Who are the dark elves?"

Kanieta blinked at Green, then slowly spoke, expecting him to laugh at her for saying the obvious. "Umm, purple-skinned elves with black or violet hair, same with their eyes. Don't like the light. Live underground. Can control the L— Ahh, they can control savage… beastkins…"

Green's eyes widened at the last comment, and he flinched back in fear. "What!? They can control you?"

"No!" Kanieta snapped, slashing her arm. "Ahh… They can control the mindless. Those who are still lost to their instincts. The beastkin you expected us to be."

Realization flashed on his face, and he nodded, "Ahh, the normal beastkin…" He trailed off, looking more embarrassed now than angry as he realized who he was talking to.

"…Yes," Kanieta said, her tone dry before moving on. "The dark elves — the Letairry — have battled my people for centuries as they sought our domination, but they are finally coming out of their holes in large unified numbers. They are gathering the hoards of savage beastkins to the size you speak of in your legends and are preparing to march through our lands and conquer yours."

"Umm, what?"

Sighing as she realized this would take a while, Kanieta said, "…Let me fully explain."

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