Wrath of the Empire

IX. Does Anyone Sense a Pattern?

"Ooh," Maddie spoke, rubbing her hands together. "The attack on the Outlands, now."

"That's right," I replied, counting on my fingers to make sure I actually was. "Infernas has moved on to the final Land on our entire continent."

"And after that, we --" Maddie begins to say, but I cut her off. 

"No spoiling the plot, Maddie," I chastised. "Everyone knows that."

Maddie sticks her tongue out at me in a show of anger and rudeness. I return the gesture.

"Alright, alright," Isabel said before we got too off track. "Lion, you want to continue, right? So why don't you continue, how about that?"

I nodded. "It was the dawn after the attack on the Highlands, just like it had been with the previous Lands."

~Lion~

Infernas rose and shone like the sun, and everyone who was in the Outlands at the time was awoken to the sounds of shouting and the brilliance of the light that shone from Infernas.

The shouting was from three different people that were running as quickly as they could. They reached the center of the Outlands, the city with the Ranger Headquarters, and fell on their knees as all the Outland Rangers, fully clothed in Ranger gear, stood around them and looked upon them, knowing that they had come to deliver a message.

"Infernas has destroyed the Badlands!" one shouted.

"And the Woodlands!" another added.

"And the Highlands!" the third completed. 

"We see that," Oculus, our wise and tactful leader, replied to their cries. He pointed to the horizon behind the messengers, and they turned to look, as did every other person that was around them. Everyone saw the same thing: nothing but a burnt wasteland past the two borders of the Outlands. The messengers turned back to look at Oculus.

"You're the Chronomancer," the one from the Woodlands spoke. "You can stop him, can't you?"

"Perhaps you could go back in time and kill Infernas before he comes into power," the one from the Highlands suggested.

"That sounds like a terrible idea," Oculus replied. "I only travel back in time if I can make sure I can resolve any repercussions that occur from me changing the timeline. Plus, time-traveling is a lot more difficult than just doing it."

The messengers understood. They slowly stood up. 

"You can stop him, though, can't you?" the one from the Badlands asked.

"Maybe," Oculus replied. He turned and walked away, and that was that. 

After the messengers left, everyone looked at the sky and saw that Infernas was slowly moving over our Land. Luckily, everything in the Outlands was far away from everything else, so if he stopped to attack each village, we would have the advantage on him, and Oculus had a plan for if Infernas rained power on all of us at once. 

"I say that since Infernas is going to bring death upon us all," Oculus told all the Outland Rangers after he gathered us all together, "we should take action immediately. I have organized you all into groups, and those groups each have a different task to complete..."

I was put in the smaller group that was to go to the Wizarding Guild and retrieve the Grand Wizardess, which made me quite glad.

I ran up the dozens of flights of stairs and reached Isabel's room. After I knocked once, Isabel opened the door.

"I've been getting glimpses into the future recently," Isabel told me. "I knew you were coming, so I'm already ready to go." 

I grinned and nodded as she took all the things she needed -- likely magical instruments and some mana cakes, since she was going to be in the middle of combat -- and left. I followed quickly after.