It was night.

The sun was already set, the clouds were dense, and these dense clouds were accompanied with... silence.

An unnerving silence that... made people feel that something was... wrong.

Kael was sitting on Igni’s back, the expression on his face was... unreadable.

The Primordial Fire Dragon flew low under the dense, stormy clouds, his wings beating in a slow and controlled motion so that the wind would not scream around them.

The air around was bitter.

Snow dusted Igni’s scales and melted in thin lines before freezing again.

Above them, dark clouds felt like a solid, living ceiling. Lightning flashed far away, silent for a small second before—

THUNDER

The strong thunder accompanied it.

The weblike lightning, accompanied with strong thunder, all behind the dense, stormy clouds—

It was... a fantasy-like sight.

Something any being would be awed by.

But Kael...

He didn’t react.

He kept his face still, his cloak fluttering with the wind, and his eyes... his eyes, just like his face, showed no expression—

That is, if you ignore the tinge of red he had been trying to hide all this while. After all, hours may have passed, but his eyes still remembered. For his eyes, all that was... recent, something that happened just a few seconds ago.

The memory was... very fresh.

Soon however, Kael closed his eyes for the nth time, then he opened them, and the last bit of red that was left... disappeared.

His focus then shifted to the crystal in his palm. He pressed his thumb against it, and the crystal started glowing.

As if it was activated.

Kael nodded, he lifted his hand, and the crystal began floating on its own. Then, he looked ahead, towards the mountain.

Yes.

He was here.

The Stormcaller Mountain.

The peak looked like a dagger stabbing into the very sky. The Stormcaller settlement was wrapped around the cliff, layered terraces were carved into stone, rope bridges were stretched between platforms, shelters were created inside half-caves and half-huts, feather cloaks were hanging on lines.

The entire place felt... alive.

And for Kael, it was his first time seeing this place.

But that didn’t mean he didn’t know his way around. For the entire day, Cirri and Lavinia’s spirits had been keeping an eye on this place, investigating and noting every single thing and reporting it back to Kael.

So while this place looked... strong, like a place built by people who, in desperate times, had learned to fight the mountain and call the place most would call a terror zone a home, a place Kael might have respected if it was some other time—but today—

It was a target.

Kael’s eyes flashed, those strong memories—

Memories of children screaming, a mother with a torn arm, his crushed Ants still dragging themselves to report to their queen, Imperia’s heavy and shaking silence and...

Igni’s words about his sister crying, mourning for his children.

He recalled every single thing and his eyes hardened completely, the last bit of emotion fading away—

"Igni."

He whispered in a cold, detached tone.

"Father."

The Dragon answered, prepared to listen.

"Keep low. Don’t make any sounds."

Kael ordered.

The Dragon nodded, his wings shifted as he increased his speed and changed the angle, dropping even further.

Kael’s gaze moved to the side, the storm there was thick—

That was Cirri’s doing.

The Sky Dragon had begun moving as well, controlling the clouds and storms around her, making sure she hid her and her father’s presence.

Kael nodded at her, then turned back to the settlement again and began counting.

Paths, bridges, the thick rope anchors that held their terraces together—

He counted everything, making sure it matched the information he had and finding the targets Cirri and the spirits gave him.

"Now."

Kael spoke in a low voice.

And Cirri moved the surroundings.

It began.

Whoosh

The wind changed direction, a complete 180. The hanging feather-cloaks and ropes stopped fluttering one way and snapped the other.

Flutter

The settlement’s flames bent low, struggling to survive.

And with that, the very sound of the mountain—the constant whistling of the wind through the stone gaps—changed its pitch.

A change that the Stormcallers felt in an instant.

A watchman on a high platform lifted his head, his eyes narrowed at the wind, looking into the storm. Cirri made sure he didn’t see anything, only the dense clouds coming towards him, a common sight in the place where people lived together with the clouds.

But even then—

Even when Cirri made it look natural, the Stormcaller narrowed his eyes even further, as if... something was suspicious.

Kael didn’t know, but the Stormcallers recognized winds. They had memorized its patterns for generations, so a sudden change in the wind’s direction was always suspicious—

Suspicious enough for the watchman to reach out for his horn to alert the others.

"Father, he is moving."

Cirri warned.

Kael nodded, he raised his hand, and Cirri answered with an action—

WHOOSH

A gust slammed into the watch platform from the side. It wasn’t enough to tear it off, but it was enough to make the man suddenly lose his balance, and together with it—

Make the horn slip from his hand and—

Drop down.

Falling and vanishing into the fog below.

The watchman’s eyes widened. He grabbed the post and saw his horn falling down. He tried to shout, but—

WHOOSH

Strong wind moved again, swallowing his voice completely.

The man did not know what happened. He did not know whether his people had heard him or not. He just turned back towards the dense clouds in front of him and he... he realized it.

Something was wrong.

And that was when everything fell apart—

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH

The wind increased. The slow, building pressure turned the heavy snow on the terraces into a crawling, sharp mist, and the ropes between the platforms...

They began to strain.

Of course, these ropes didn’t snap in an instant—

They were thick, treated well, and wrapped tight. These ropes were made to survive storms; simple wind couldn’t do anything to them—

Or at least that’s what Stormcallers always thought, but today—

Today was different.

"Igni."

Kael called out without any change in his expression. Igni changed his angle even further, dropping down, and Kael slowly pointed again—

"The main anchors.

The ones with rune posts."

Igni moved, his wings folding slightly as he dropped through the fog and landed on the terrace land with a controlled thud.

Once again, the wind around made sure no one heard anything.

The stone cracked under Igni’s weight, the snow jumped, a nearby hut door slammed inward. For a second, because of the suppressed sound, no one reacted. The terrace felt... empty.

But then—

A figure burst out of the hut, his dark feather cloak snapping, his storm tattoos visible on his arms. His hair was black, wet with snow. His eyes widened when he saw Igni’s massive head right in front of him.

And for a second, he froze in horror, his mouth remained open. He tried to scream, to alert others that they were being attacked—

But once again—

WHOOSH

The winds moved again, swallowing his voice, and Igni—

His tail moved like a whip, and with sheer force, he attacked, sending the man’s body flying and hitting a stone wall with a plop.

No, he wasn’t dead.

At least not yet.

But it was clear he wouldn’t be standing up anytime soon.

That was when Kael jumped down from Igni’s back, his boots crushing the snow under him. His sword was already in his hand, and he walked forward without any sudden movements.

The first anchor post stood at the edge of the terrace, thick rope tied around it, stretched across to another platform.

It was the Stormcallers’ lifeline, their road, their... ’escape.’

Kael placed his palm on the rope. He felt the tension, he felt the vibration of the storm moving through it like a nerve.

Then he looked at Igni. The Primordial Fire Dragon stepped forward and grabbed the anchor post with both claws.

The post was thick stone reinforced with iron bands. It had old runes carved into it to strengthen it even further.

To a Stormcaller, this place was nothing short of sacred.

But to Igni?

It didn’t matter.

Igni pulled the stone. There was some level of resistance, even with Igni’s strength, but the Dragon did not give in. He continued pulling until the rope began to snap.

"Father, they are here."

Before Igni could completely remove the stone, Kael heard a warning. He turned around and through the dense fog, he saw a few figures running towards him.

Kael didn’t panic.

He just stepped in front of Igni while the Dragon continued pulling the stone.

"Kra... Kra’veth Ankhor-sha!"

"Vora’tu zarh!"

"Kraa’vak tul-sha!?"

"Garraas ven’ra-sha!?"

"Tuh’ren nahr-vek!"

Their muffled voices were heard, something that Kael did not understand. He still hadn’t studied the Stormcaller tongue, and at this moment, he didn’t care.

He just stared at the Stormcaller men rushing towards him. One of them lifted his hands and shouted something. Storm symbols on his arms flashed faintly, as if preparing a type of magic Kael did not recognize.

But before anything could happen—

CRACK

Igni tore the anchor post free from its socket. The stone was crushed into pieces and the ropes holding everything together—

They loosened.

"AAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!"