2449 Stargazer (Part 1)

"Everything is in order." The Captain of the wall guards of Nestamaath said after checking the papers and the IDs to confirm the number and identity of the tourists that requested to leave the city by flight.

He was a man in his mid-fifties with thick mustaches and an otherwise clean-shaved face.

"It's just the two of you, right? Tista Verhen and Nyka Dragonborn."

"Yes." Tista gave him her best smile, instinctively hiding Solus' ring with her other hand. "Is anyone else leaving? You know, my brother has many enemies and I'm afraid that someone might try to ambush us the moment we leave the safety of your guard, Captain."

"Don't fret, milady." The man clicked his heels while puffing his chest out with pride as he checked the list of who would leave the city and when. "I can assure you that if anyone tries to follow you, I'll deny them permission to leave.

"If someone is so crazy to defy my authority, the control towers will make it their last mistake."

'Good move, Tista.' Solus used her ring form to save as much energy as he could while her breathing technique restored her strength to its peak, just to be safe. 'If push comes to shove, this will buy us time.'

'Keep telling yourself that.' Dawn snorted, not sharing their optimism one bit.

The Captain gave the silent signal to lower the arrays and tapped on the girls' shoulders so that no one could predict what was about to happen.

Tista used her Demon Eyes to grasp the dimensional coordinates of the farthest point she could see and opened a Warp Steps. The moment they crossed it, they activated their best flight spell and bolted away while the Captain restored the elemental sealing arrays.

"That was smart, but also naïve wishful thinking. Let's go." Windfell gestured his two companions as he opened a Spirit Steps to the position where the girls would be.

Unlike them, he knew that region like the back of his hand and didn't need to see far away to open a dimensional corridor. Just by looking at the timing of their departure and the direction they had taken, Windfell could already guess their destination.

'Three people have Warped right after we left and they are following us!' Tista activated air Domination to make the Steps collapse, realizing its real nature when it was too late.

'Then let's Warp again!' Dawn took the wheel, grabbing Tista and moving as far as the Vampire's eyes could see.

'Dammit! If only I had let my life forces merge, I would have opened my sixth eye. According to Lith, a hybrid body can't handle more than five. Also, if I've mastered Spirit Magic enough, the seventh eye would have opened as well and those fuckers would be cut in h-'

Her train of grievances was interrupted when the guard towers of Nestamaath detected the unauthorized travelers. The Captain had marked everyone but the girls as hostile and the city's defensive system had a wide area of effect.

Three guard towers, one for each alleged invader, sent bursts of mana to the car-sized mana crystals at their upper and lower extremity. The power was stored in the crystals, focused, and then amplified by the arrays surrounding the city into beams of pure energy in barely a split second.

Windfell and his companions had just walked out of the Steps when they were blasted into oblivion. The energy beam vaporized their bodies and melted their equipment, yet it wasn't over.

The excess magic enveloped the targeted aura and then detonated with a strength on par with a Tower Tier spell. It was a safety measure in case a hostile managed to Blink away from the beam.

The three explosions covered a wide area, making anything less than a long-range Warp Steps useless. The cursed objects hadn't planned so far and alas, they had no need to.

The three living legacies reformed their own bodies and those of their hosts the moment the shockwaves dispersed. Davross had not only amazing durability but also outstanding self-repair properties.

Even in its non-enchanted and raw form, the metal had to be destroyed several times for the slightest damage to be permanent. Every cursed object, however, was a masterpiece of Forbidden Magic and Forgemastery skill both performed after purifying the Davross to perfection.

The living legacies Warped after Dawn before the control towers could recharge, flying at a breakneck speed that would soon bring them out Nestamaath's range. The capitol of the Gorgon Empire kept flying away so when the hostiles disappeared from the radar, the Captain assumed they were dead.

'Mom, they are onto us. Where are you?' Dawn contacted Baba Yaga, her thoughts filled with worry.

She was ready to fight Windfell to a standstill to buy either the time for her companions to escape or for her mother to arrive but three cursed objects at the same time were beyond her abilities.

All three of them had nurtured their host to the bright violet whereas Tista with her bright blue was the strongest in their group. Yet it wasn't the magical prowess of the cursed objects' hosts or their ability to employ body casting that worried her.

Dawn knew how old the average living legacy was and even the youngest among them was bound to have centuries if not even millennia of experience over the Horseman.

This wasn't about fighting some arrogant Awakened but single-minded creatures who had spent their lives studying their own limits and trying to overcome them. Without her steed and her Davross equipment, Dawn could take on by herself only one of them, and only because the enchantments of her crystal were state-of-the-art.

Against three cursed objects she couldn't ensure the safety of her own host, let alone Nyka's companions.

'Mom?' Dawn could feel that something was wrong.

Her link with the Red Mother was still intact but for some reason, there was no answer.

'There will be no mommy in shining armor to save you today, traitor.' A foreign male voice resounded in the Horseman's mind through the channel that was supposed the be exclusive.

'How did you do this and who are you?' Dawn asked, trying and failing to open a Warp and then a Spirit Steps now that the three living legacies were dangerously close.

'I'll be glad to introduce myself and explain everything to you. Just stop running away and we'll have a friendly chat.' The voice's every word oozed malice and mockery.

The Horseman activated Life Vision, discovering that she and Tista were under the effects of a huge array that originated from one of their pursuers. It was nothing like she had ever seen before but she recognized enough dimensional runes to get the gist of it.

Dawn took out her communication amulet pressing runes at random and noticing that the stream of mana that was supposed to connect to the receiver spun aimlessly in the air.

The connection was open but due to countless microscopic distortions in space, the signal was trapped inside the array in a loop.

'This is a dimensional spell and you are a dimensional mage!'

'Nailed it in one.' The voice laughed.