I’m in a field of swaying, violet grass, the smoking corpses of the three scorpios I just brought down splayed out to my sides, a purple forest beyond. A black-haired teenage girl with Mage features stands before me, her sickly, violet-hued, point-eared mother and young sister to her back. There’s a blade in the teenage girl’s hand, and their eyes are wide with horror as a swoosh sounds behind me, along with a rasping hiss.

I whip around. Four huge wraith bats, big as men, are soaring down into the clearing on leathery wings. Baring sickle-sharp fangs, they zoom toward me, the lead bat rapidly enlarging as it fills my vision, an incoming nightmare of teeth...

I roll to the side, dodging its attack, before springing up. A wing blow smacks my side and I’m hurled back to the ground, grunting from the collision, dry grass scraping my face as a visceral rush of fright streaks through me.

Lukas’s voice overtakes my mind. Suppress your fear! They feed on it!

Teeth gritted, I pull hard on my fire power like Lukas trained me to, incinerating my emotions. I roll upright just as a clawed grip digs into my waist and hoists my body skyward, the air punched from my lungs as I’m buckled into a V. The world below swings away and I kick and flail, scrabbling for my rune blades, panic rising as the other three wraith bats fan out their wings and take flight.

The teen girl runs toward me, her heart-shaped face a mask of feral determination as she hurls her weapon, an incoming silver streak.

Her knife finds its mark above me with a dull thwick.

The bat lets out a furious hiss and I’m suddenly released, a wall of lavender grass flying toward my face. I reflexively bend my limbs as I crash into the ground with bone-jarring force and roll into the fall over the rough grass.

The Wand of Myth tingles against my calf and I reach for it, heart thundering, its spiraling form still sheathed in the side of my boot.

I still have perfect aim.

A vicious warrior resolve taking hold, I spring to my feet and unsheathe the two runic blades at my sides, the powerful Ash’rion blade Valasca gave me in my wand hand. Eyes narrowing, I track the bat that seized me as it lands in a snarling, jerking mass, bucking and straining as it attempts to dislodge the knife. The other three touch down behind it, their black lizard-slit eyes set on me.

Lukas, Valasca, and Chi Nam’s training snaps into place and I take swift notice of the single Shadow rune marking the lower chest of each bat. They’re not deflection runes, I coldly note as another realization strikes home in one harsh blow...

I’m at full-on war with Marcus Vogel.

A war to control my own gods-damned power.