Mercy had already landed, staff whirling.

Two Jade elders went to the ground in the first instant, one clipped across the head and the other with her feet swept out from under her. An Iron Enforcer went over the edge of the roof, and she webbed a second guard to the floor with Strings of Shadow.

A Forged arrowhead of venomous madra crashed into her chest, shattering on her bloodline armor. She broke the wrist of the Jade who had used that technique and buckled the knees of another.

The Matriarch had begun a Ruler and Striker technique at the same time, venom aura condensing over her shoulder as green light twisted in her hand.

Mercy’s staff came up as a bow, the violet-eyed dragon’s head glaring at the Matriarch. Her arrow’s point gleamed black.

“Drop your technique,” Mercy commanded.

The Matriarch’s eyes shifted as she took in the situation.

Mercy released her bowstring.

The arrow pinned the Jade’s wrist to the wall behind her. She grunted in pain, and her two techniques puffed to nothing as her madra was overwhelmed by shadow.

When the arrow was removed, there would be no wound in the woman’s flesh, but as long as it was embedded here, it would still hurt.

Mercy leaned closer, tapping into her bloodline legacy just enough to make sure her eyes were shining. “When I give you an instruction, you do not hesitate to obey. Do you understand?”

Behind her, one of the Jades started forming another technique.

She shot Strings of Shadow out blindly, and the technique stopped.

“Answer me.”

“I understand,” the Matriarch said quickly. “You have defeated me, but it will take more than you alone to conquer the Li clan.”

“No, it won’t.” Mercy triggered a communication construct inside her pocket in a prearranged signal. “But why would I waste so much time?”

Only a second later, the first Akura rose into the sky outside the Li clan walls. The other fifty followed suit a moment afterwards, spreading out in the sky.

The Matriarch inclined her head. “You are very strong. But we in the Li clan are not without our own—”

Mercy used her communication construct again, and this time she spoke a command. “Unveil.”

It took a moment for the message to reach the others, but when it did, the Akura Golds revealed the full extent of their power immediately.

The Li Jades gasped, and the Matriarch’s eyes bulged in their sockets. “Jades? All of them?”

“Scan me,” Mercy ordered.

When the Matriarch hesitated, Mercy lifted her bow again.

Immediately, a scan shivered through Mercy’s spirit. This time, the older woman’s breath caught. Color drained from her skin, and she dropped to her knees. Awkwardly, as her wrist was still pinned to the wall behind her. “Gold,” she breathed.

The others on the roof were face-down in moments.

“No,” Mercy corrected. “Gold is what they are.”

“Forgiveness, please. This one has offended you. If only you had revealed yourselves, we would have given you our entire clan at a moment’s notice.”

“We’re not here to take your clan. We’re here to save your clan.”

The Matriarch trembled. “Then…there’s really…”

“I would not tarnish my own soul by lying to a Jade. Now, how fast can you evacuate your clan?”

“We can have nine out of ten at Heaven’s Glory by the setting of the sun, honored…Sage.” Mercy made a face at the title, but the Matriarch took it as displeasure and hurried on. “Apologies, but that is truly the fastest that our lacking abilities will allow.”

“No, that is faster than I expected of you,” Mercy allowed, still holding on to her impression of Malice. “Do not overestimate your own abilities because you think it will please me. If you say you can reach Heaven’s Glory by sunset, that is the standard to which I will hold you.”

“It is the pride of the Li clan that we have the greatest number of clouds and flying chariots in Sacred Valley, outside the Holy Wind School. As we had been preparing for an attack since we first began feeling the unnatural earthquakes, we are ready to mobilize as soon as this one gives the signal. With your permission, of course.”

Mercy reached out and touched the arrow, which dissolved into motes of black essence rising into the air. The others on the roof murmured when they saw that it had left no wound, which almost made Mercy roll her eyes. Even they had seen more impressive feats of sacred arts than this one, they were only trying to flatter her with a show of awe.

“You have more than my permission,” Mercy said. “It is my command. My soldiers wear black and violet. Let those who cannot reach Heaven’s Glory by sunset tonight report to them, and they will be carried. Everyone else is to travel for Heaven’s Glory at all speed.”

The Matriarch bowed deeply. “This one will comply. And this one thanks you once again for you—”

“Go. You all are no exceptions.”

The roof cleared as though Mercy had pushed them. The old man covered in jewelry actually leaped down to the streets.

Only seconds later, a horn signaled all throughout the Li clan. A moment later, the Matriarch’s words echoed out, repeating Mercy’s orders.

Once Mercy was alone, she collapsed.

She leaned up against the low wall around the rooftop, pulling up her legs and hugging her knees to herself.

All along, she had known this would work. In most places in the world, sacred artists were used to taking orders from the stronger. Even those like the Matriarch who were accustomed to power had spent their Iron years bowing before Jades, and their Copper years bowing before Irons. It was behavior ingrained so deep that it was practically instinct.

Malice wielded that instinct like a club, which Mercy hated. She had always tried to avoid it, whenever she could.

But this time she couldn’t. She’d had no choice, and this was for their own good.

Which was exactly what her mother always said.

When the sky turned gold, Ziel and the Kazan clan were caught off-guard. The change in color had been accompanied by one last, great heave of the earth, and their group had already been making their way across the uncertain footing of rocky foothills.

The Kazan clan stretched off in sinuous lines, and at the shaking of the earth, Ziel couldn’t count the number of people who fell.

From carriages losing their grip on the edge of a gravel road to rocks falling out from under marching feet, people slipped or slid or tumbled in a dozen different ways.

Some of the Akura Golds reacted, diving on their clouds to catch those nearby, but none of them were faster than Ziel.

A ring of green runes appeared beneath the first carriage he saw, catching it on a gentle plane of force, but he was already throwing out another. And another.

He didn’t have time to evaluate who was in the most danger, or even who was closer. He just Forged rings as fast as he could, straining himself to the limit in only a handful of seconds.

Then the quake was over. Anyone who was going to fall had already done so.

He hadn’t caught everyone. He hadn’t even been able to see everyone. But at least a dozen people were climbing out of his rings and back to safety.

“We don’t have time for a head count,” Ziel said, his eyes on the western sky. “Grab anyone who fell, but we have to keep moving.” Some of those who’d fallen would be safe, thanks to an Iron body or simply the luck of the fall.