If they couldn’t find help, Orthos was certain Kelsa would try to slip into the Heaven’s Glory school with or without him, which would end in disaster. Even if she could slip in unnoticed with her illusion techniques, it would be much harder to leave with her mother in tow. They didn’t even know where Wei Shi Seisha was being kept, or what condition she was in. The best they could tell was that the Soulsmith was alive.

Kelsa would be sneaking off to her death, which frustrated Orthos to no end. He couldn’t watch her all day, every day.

While he demanded that she listen to reason and she appealed to his sympathy, he felt something growing in the air.

It felt like a distant wave approaching from the west.

Then the ground started to shake, and he shouted to Kelsa. “Pull your spirit back!”

Though she didn’t understand, she had trained under him for a long time now. She obeyed immediately, reeling her perception back.

Just in time for the spiritual pressure of the Dreadgod to crash over the Valley.

The impression was weakened by the same curse that limited Orthos’ power, but still the air shook and the ground quaked. Earth aura brightened in golden veins beneath his feet, leaves fell from shaken trees, and startled birds took wing.

The symptoms passed quickly, but Orthos cycled his madra in panic, ready to defend Kelsa. He’d never sensed the Wandering Titan before, but it could be nothing else.

The Titan had awakened, and it was close.

Kelsa patted him on the neck. “It’s just an earthquake.”

Orthos didn’t have the words to explain how wrong she was. “We’re out of time. Anyone who can feel that is too close.”

Cautiously, he extended his spiritual perception, ready to withdraw it again if the power in the air was too strong.

And he felt someone else doing the same. Someone on a sword and light Path.

Kelsa asked him another question, but a black-and-red haze had already sprung up over his body as he used his Enforcer technique.

He’d found his prey.

The invader’s presence vanished as he put his veil back into place, but it was too late. Orthos had his location.

He blasted into the trees, leaving Kelsa behind. With her Skyhunter Iron body, she should be able to follow him with her eyes, but she would never catch up. His every step was a leap, and he even withdrew his head into his shell to crash through trees when he didn’t feel like dodging out of the way.

In less than a minute, he arrived at the last location where he’d sensed the Stellar Spear madra.

It was an unremarkable nook near a stream, nestled between some foothills behind a thicket of trees. If he hadn’t been drawn here, he would have passed it without thought.

Only when he scanned the ground thoroughly did he find the buried script-circle.

He crossed it easily, though it pressed against his spirit. It was a simple repelling script, meant to keep out weak Remnants.

“Stop hiding!” Orthos shouted. “It’s beneath you.”

No one responded, so Orthos slowly began cycling madra into dragon’s breath. His prey would feel it and respond, he was sure.

If not, Orthos could always smoke him out.

A cold voice echoed through the trees. “You would chase us this far?”

Orthos snorted. “You think too much of yourself.”

A lean man stepped into view. He wore simple brown clothes and carried a long, ornate spear with a blue haft. His head was wrapped in red, scripted bandages so that nothing was visible of his face except gleaming eyes.

“Did Underlord Arelius send you to find me?” Jai Long asked.

“He doesn’t need me to do his hunting for him. I’m here for my own reasons.” Orthos glanced west. “And it doesn’t look like I’ll be staying much longer.”

“Then we should travel separate paths.”

Jai Long was still holding his spear ready, his madra cycling steadily. It wasn’t a threatening posture, but it wasn’t quite friendly either.

Orthos let his own madra settle. He didn’t feel a threat from this pup.

“I have one last thing to do before I leave. And here you are to help me.”

Yerin finally pried herself away from the questions of the Sages, only to find Lindon and Eithan on the cloudship dock.

Lindon wore a wintersteel badge with his old Unsouled symbol on it. She wondered what that was about.

But that thought fled from her when she truly saw him. Now that they weren’t in danger, the fact of his presence really sank in.

He was safe. So was she.

Everything was okay.

She remembered running up to him as Ruby, throwing her arms and legs around him, and she braced herself for embarrassment.

It never came. Why did she care what a bunch of outsiders thought?

By the time she realized where her thoughts had gone, she was standing against him, looking up, her chin on his chest.

He looked down on her, eyes clouded. “Ruby?”

“Only a little,” she responded.

He thought about that, and his expression grew complicated. She understood; she didn’t know how she’d feel about it either, if she were in his position.

Eithan’s head slowly slid up over Lindon’s shoulder.

“The Ninecloud Soul is quite busy,” he said brightly, “but I know we’re in a situation of some urgency, so I took the liberty of having your first-round prizes delivered…now.”

He grabbed Lindon and turned him to look to the side of the dock, where a cloudship was coming to a halt.

It was the size of two homes together, and only half of it was covered in a two-story house with dark blue tiles. The cloud base was dark blue as well, which she guessed represented the Arelius family.

As that house covered the right side of the cloud, the left half was covered by a pond, a lone tree, and a miniature mountain. It spewed dark fire from the top, and within a cave she could sense dense sword aura.

Just as they’d requested after the first round of the tournament, this would be a perfect home for her.

Not just her home. Their home.

A comforting warmth settled into her stomach.

Then another cloudship descended from the sky.

This one was a perfect rectangle, as though it was made to fill out exactly the maximum amount of space allowed. Its cloud base was the same dark blue as theirs, and as it settled into the back, its plot of land slid exactly into place.

As though it had been designed to fit there all along.

Three-quarters of the space was covered in what looked like a garden, or maybe a section of farmland. The remaining quarter was taken up by a tiny hut.

Yerin knew who the owner was without even asking.

“It’s a meager living space,” Eithan said, “but I was excited to maximize the amount of land to grow crops.”

Lindon glared at him. “You could have flown alongside us. You didn’t have to attach yourself.”

“As you can see, mine only makes up half the size of yours. We have a whole quarter of our floating island left to fill in.”

Yet a third cloudship descended.

This one didn’t lock into place as Eithan’s had. It drifted alongside the others, and it was the exact image that came to Yerin’s mind when she heard the words “cloud fortress”: a blank stone fort sitting on a cloud. It looked as though its owner hadn’t bothered to make any customization requests of their own.