The storm had calmed. And after hanging up the phone, Julius decided that the three would deal with the cloaked purple mage before heading back to Colemond.

  King Valtoris wiped his face. Green blood stained his fingers. Julius saw him a little annoyed by it.

  Tiny smoke emitted from his multiple facial wounds, activating his regeneration.

  “I ruined your face again?” Julius asked.

  “You’re lucky that I can heal.”

  “And you are lucky that you don’t leak.”

  “Probably for the better.” King Valtoris flew and dashed right to the scene.

  Julius and Solomon followed him.

  The three arrived at a new crater that was filled by purple plumes of smoke. It smelled like roses, and whether that was intentional or something unique, it was up to the cloaked mage. Julius, with one hand gesture, cleaned all the plumes of smoke. He saw her at the other side of the crater, dealing with more military men who were escaping or falling back.

  King Valtoris still had his sword drawn. And orange currents sparkled from Solomon’s eyes.

  The former wanted to know what to do with her. Julius wanted her alive, so he decided to take the lead. King Valtoris didn’t want to leave him alone after what happened. Solomon thought to head back first and let the rest know, which the other two agreed to. So, he departed first.

  Julius summoned his pistol and fired one shot to get the mage’s attention. Then, he and King Valtoris dashed towards her. They went for a strategy move, pulling their respective arms out. By the time she turned around, the two clamped her down. King Valtoris’ eyes glowed green the moment he came into contact. Julius exhaled smoke through his mouth and nose. He hissed like a dragon as he was leading the way.

  His forearm struck her neck while King Valtoris hit her abdomen. The two knocked her down to the ground. Any of the military personnel nearby took the opportunity to escape.

  King Valtoris summoned a spell while his hand was pressing on the mage’s abdomen. Chains made of Qi were summoned from his wrist, and Julius let go of his arm and rolled to the side.

  The chains wrapped around her before she had the opportunity to react. Julius got up and walked right up to her. He got a good look. Maybe the hoodie protected her because the impact was massive, catastrophic, and should’ve made a significant laceration.

  Julius tried speaking to her in Yue. “Who are you?”

  She didn’t look at him yet. Her grimaced face was focused on King Valtoris for restraining her. Clenching like a mindless beast, Julius heard the clattering with her teeth. His ears hated that and sent a shiver down his spine. Even if it was steel teeth, it still felt eerie.

  King Valtoris was amused by her trying to bite like an animal on the top of the food chain. “That’s enough, will you? Now, answer his question. Who are you?”

  “I don’t have much time to wait…And you’re not going home anyway.”

  The word home made her stop acting like a maniac, and she turned to Julius with the same grimaced face. “Not going home?”

  Julius leaned back briefly. “Oh, you didn’t know? Where do you think you’re at? Look around.”

  “This is home.”

  “No, it’s not. Raal is gone. Did you even know that you came through the portal?”

  Silence.

  In his mind, Julius was wondering if it was like Qiang Zhao’s scenario again. No recollection until free from control.

  He was expecting some dark qi or controlled energy to be expunged. But nothing. The mage was now calm, which was odd. Julius looked at King Valtoris, who was checking her internals.

  “Hmm…She’s stable. Nothing is going out of control,” King Valtoris said as he stood up. “It’s another victim of mind control.”

  “Just like Qiang Zhao…How much more could they have?”

  Julius kneeled to the mage. He hovered his hand over the chains. The metal reacted as if his palm were a magnet. The chains lifted her by a few inches.

  Shatter!

  King Valtoris was shocked. “What are you doing?!”

  Julius then placed his hand over her head. “Freeing her, but she is with us now. And she has nowhere else to go.”

  “I don’t think she is really free yet,” King Valtoris said, putting his hands under her and putting the mage on his left shoulder. “For the time being, she’ll be in custody. Once everything is clear, she can decide what to do from there. Let’s head back.”

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  Julius and King Valtoris flew away, heading back to Colemond.

  It has been two more times that the city looked like a warzone. How much longer could it deal with this?

  In Julius’ mind, he felt heavy. The sense of guilt came around when he realized this was all from his qi. That storm had arrived and left behind a message. Multiple blocks with plumes of smoke. The downtown skyline still stood high. That eased him a little because it was proof that magic involvement did save those buildings. However, every other district didn’t get that treatment in time. More people had to suffer again.

  As they flew back to the neighborhood, Julius summoned his sword and unleashed a horizontal slash of energy. He cast 水, turning the energy into water, and he let it descend across multiple blocks and districts. Afterward, King Valtoris and Julius sped up, zooming past downtown.

  Arriving back at the neighborhood, Julius went on a detour, heading to his residence. Lady Bian was waiting for him at the driveway. There were multiple police and emergency vehicles outside.

  “Joe? What are you doing here?” Julius asked.

  “We can’t contact you, so we came. Look, the city was in a zone for about ten seconds. The death toll numbers went up.”

  Julius nodded, turning to Lady Bian. “You said to me that the people need me. Did you send the mages already in advance?”

  “I did,” Lady Bian said. “And not only do the people want you to be there, but Joe and the departments wanted you to lead them through this crisis.”

  “Then what are we waiting for? Call some of the mages to help lift these vehicles…We are going to the districts around downtown.”

  Lady Bian put two fingers to her right temple. A few mages teleported to the scene. She turned to them. “Carry them to downtown.”

  She showed the mages and Julius the location where it was safe to send the vehicles. Julius got the location in his head quicker than the mages.

  He pointed to all the police vehicles, firetrucks, and ambulances. “Joe. Your life is about to change. Tell all the first responders to get in their vehicles.”

  Joe gestured for all of them to get in. “We ain’t going to make it in time.”

  “No, so we’re going to fly.”

  “Fly?”

  Julius told Joe to get in his police car as the mages prepared to lift all the present first responder vehicles into the air. He led the mages to downtown. One spot that used to be a building was now an empty flat land of concrete.

  He landed first and guided the mages to where they should lead the vehicles. After carefully watching them land on their wheels, Julius stood as Lady Bian arrived. The latter announced the process.

  “The mages who carried your vehicles will be working with you to help serve the people in need of help. Y’all will work together to get this operation going as quickly as possible. Despite the American Mage Federation already being deployed, any further assistance from locals or departments is greatly appreciated. So, off you go.”

  Julius knew Joe had more questions, but there was no time to. He stood and didn’t move as the vehicles drove out of the lot.

  After all the vehicles were gone, he then asked Lady Bian. “Where’s Lian?”

  “She’s out there. You can find her. Is something wrong?”

  “No, I just wanted to see her, that’s all.”

  Lady Bian put her phone away, and her clothes turned into a heavy-duty fit like a firefighter's. “I have to do my part in helping. I’ll see you in a bit.”

  Now alone, Julius sensed Lian’s qi. He teleported a few miles away, arriving at a street in a district that was miles south of downtown.

  He found Lian with multiple mages and first responders at a demolished lot. It had to be a strip market because across from it and nearby were more walkable strip malls. Apparently, this spot wasn’t cleared by the summoned gallons of water, so plumes of smoke continued to take over this block.

  Julius drew out his sword. Before he was going to cast, Lian saw him and told him not to. “Fire a propulsive blast instead.”

  “Everyone, clear the way!” He yelled to the first responders. Then, a circle-shaped qi was formed on his palm. With one gesture, Julius fired it at the source of the smoke. Effectively, it cleared it all, and not a trace of it remained. The smell disappeared.

  Julius walked to the rubble. “Wow, this is bad.”

  Lian, whose face was covered in soot, showed him the damage. “We already got like ten people out of the rubble. And that’s only the least of it, because these buildings are like three stories tall.”

  “Really?”

  “The officers said so. We might have a hundred still stuck in there.”

  Julius took a deep sigh. “Well, I guess I'd better join.”

  Lian pointed to the potential spots, and the one where she stood moments ago. Julius went with the latter. He joined with a few other mages and firefighters. Climbing up the pile of rubble, he activated his qi sense, opening a signal throughout the entire lot.

  Looking around, Julius found the police had closed the street. He analyzed multiple spots. It was messy, and there wasn’t that much open space. The zoning in this area was tight.

  Julius talked with the mages and first responders. He told them about the options to organize the trash temporarily. Lian offered the idea to put the trash on the street. The first responders thought it was fine, but it would risk longer closures of the street and maybe multiple blocks. Julius went with it. The mages would do the heavy lifting and prevent any of the debris from going beyond the restricted zone.

  More mages were then called to set a barrier around a two-mile radius. Once that was done, all gathered at the rubble. Everyone began digging through the pile.

  They spent the entire afternoon cleaning the mess. Julius went through multiple health attacks. And the medicine was getting less potent, which concerned Lian. She had to pull him to a break a few times to check his body hadn’t bled out of control.

  Like a car leak, he left behind a small trail of his blue blood on the pavement at almost every single break.

  By the time the cleanup was about to finish, the sun set. Mages disabled the barrier. Sirens continued to echo from neighboring districts. Helicopters swarmed left to right.

  Lian grabbed and put the passed-out lady in a hoodie on her shoulder. “I need to take her to the hospital. Annia should be at her office.”

  Why her out of the many rescued from the rubble? Julius has no clue. Lian didn’t give a clear answer either. It was like a cherry pick, and somehow, this lady in a hoodie got her attention.

  “Then, I’ll tag along. I’m still bleeding, and it annoys me that there is nothing to keep this out of my damn mind!” Julius lifted his arm, revealing a continuous drip of blood from his forearm.

  “I swear, you have the worst and most exhausting symptoms out of everyone else who got exposed to the runes. Come on! Let’s go!”