"JESSE!"

My smile immediately falls as my head snaps over to the door, already throwing my shirt back on. Not a second later before a fully armored Olivia pops through. Her eyes wide in terror and sweat dripping down her face.

"Olivia!" We jump to our feet, rushing up to her. "Olivia what's wrong?"

She runs up to me, death gripping my shoulder as undeniable horror blatantly radiating from every part of her being. "It's Redstonia! They've activated the emergency distress beacon!"

All those good feelings I had have completely died by now, leaving only the strength of the fire behind. My heart thumping determinedly as I run into the Treasure Hall, Olivia and Lukas right at my heels.

Axel and Petra are already in their armor, both with grim faces. Lukas runs past me towards his rooms, Axel wrapping Olivia up in bear hug as she trembles. My lips tighten as I activate my armor sets to rise. Distantly putting my suspenders back into place as I quickly begin to whip up a plan.

"Where's Ivor?" I immediately start putting on the Redstone Riot, it's the closest and most convenient at the moment.

Petra's voice is flat, her eyes hard, no joking around now. "At his house, said he needed to grab his emergency potions."

Nodding, I reach to grab my sword when I don't see it. I blink, not having the mental energy or time to devote any thought to it as fears seethe from my mind as my plan becomes more formed.

Shaking my head slightly, I turn back to my friends. "You guys sure you're ready?"

"Heck yeah!" Axel flexes his muscles. "I've been ready to throw some payback at those things for ages now!"

Lukas runs back into the Treasure Hall, tossing me my sword. I catch it and sheath it, my thoughts momentarily paused to peer at him. Just to make sure he is properly armed and armored, which he is. A quiver of arrows on his back.

With the brief second just to comprehend what's happening, I realize how much my fire is burning right now. It has practically replaced my blood at this point. Just heat and strength flowing all throughout me.

"Okay!" My loud snap breaks the tense silence, jolting us to the door. "Since we don't have any minecarts through the Nether to get us there, we'll use the next best thing. Horses, the fastest ones Beacontown has."

We bolt out of the door, and I nod to myself when I see Ivor jump down from his house and join us. But the bright red beam of light glares against the sky, before disappearing behind the buildings of Beacontown. Yet it's still there, a burning reminder that we're needed right now all the way at Redstonia.

"And uh..." I don't bother to glance at Petra as we weave through the streets, all the citizens scattering out of the way. "Where are we going to get these horses?"

"I know a guy." My eyes snap onto the stables, maybe not the best location for such a building now, but it used to be. "We'll get our horses."

Slowing down slightly, I fling the door open. Not caring about the crack that just came from it. The stable master, Paul I believe, jumps sky high, trembling slightly as he looks at all of us fully armored.

"O-Order of the St-stone... you're all-"

I wave my hand aside, walking deeper inside. "We're already out of time Paul, I need the six fastest horses you got."

His head bobbles as he scurries up and past me. We all follow him, as I clench and unclench my fists. We needed to be out riding to Redstonia five minutes ago. I can feel the rush of fire encircling me, the flames crackling with energy that needs to be let out.

Paul stops, gesturing to six lean horses that are miraculously already saddled. "I-It'll ta-take me a moment to armor th-"

I discard his words, opening up the black one's stall and jumping onto him. "No armor, it'll take too long and just slow these guys down."

Everyone else quickly follows my lead, Paul stuttering at me. "B-but these aren't warhorses! They can't take very many hits at all themselves."

I spot Lukas pocketing some leads and I thank my lucky stars for his foresight. "Redstonia's on an island, they won't get anywhere close to the danger."

Paul nods vigorously, but then recoils as he stares at me. "Is there-? Your eyes, they-they shouldn't be- I mean, glowing green."

I shield my eyes from him as I kick the horse's sides. The horse, I'm going call him Blacky, trots out of the stall and out into Beacontown. That's when I bring him into a gallop, and the pounding of his hoofs and the other horses thunder all around my ears. Nothing though compared to the roaring of my fire and my heartbeat.

Silently thanking Axel or Petra for leaving the gate open, I urge Blacky to go faster. It's quite a ways to Redstonia, but if this horse can truly sense my emotions, then think he'll be too panicked to realize how tired he's getting.

My eyes flicker up to the sky for less than a second for my attention is snapped back to steering Blacky through the trees. But that bright blue sky with clouds lazily passing high above us, the same sky I was under with Lukas not an hour ago, has bloody slash through it now.

Blacky seems to be a real smart horse though, he's dodging all the trees and animals himself. My mind drifting off with fears and questions. Multiple strategizes popping up for whatever we find.

I'm almost absolutely completely certain it's the demons. These are the greatest engineers in all the worlds, they are the citizens of Redstonia, they could even kill a wither without much problem. Besides, I have a vague and fuzzy memory of Olivia once telling me about how sophisticated the town's new defense is.

But how many is the question. I know we can at least handle four, but what if the entire city is overrun with these things? I couldn't possibly fight them all, and I have to keep a constant eye out for Lukas to make sure he doesn't die. And if I die it's game over for everyone else because the one that killed me will become buffed up by my fire.

Holy blazes! These things won't get buffed by killing any person, right? That's just what happens when they eat a Feuern's fire, it shouldn't apply to people without magical flames. Then again, the author of a legends book just may not have ever known about a Suare eating a regular person.

Gritting my teeth, I glide Blacky a bit to the left. It'll be easier to go through the terrain this way. Every second counts, every single second is precious. We have to get to Redstonia as fast as possible.

I glance back at my friends, a fluttering moment of relief to know that they're all with me. I turn back, and yet I still see their grim faces. All of them preparing themselves for a big fight.

Yet it's Olivia's terror shattered face that makes me urge Blacky faster. I've never seen her so pale, waves of terror and horror and fear glaring for all to see.

We pass behind the Old Order's temple, but I don't give it a second's glance. We need to move, we need to move as fast as possible. That hasn't changed, and if anyone gets hurt because we were too slow I'll be completely devastated. 

I take a deep breath, I need to be at the top of my game right now and not some nervous wreck. I'll do everything I can once I get there, I'll help the people of Redstonia as much as I can.

is that enough though?

Wildly shaking my head, Blacky neighing his annoyance at me. But those thoughts can't happen now, they just can't. They can plague my dreams or force me away from my friends, but they cannot interfere with me helping people. That comes first, that has always came first.

Pulling up my memory of the world map, somehow still crisp after all the time it has had to fade away, I try to calculate how long it'll take us to get there. We're pushing the horses as hard as we can, and there's still a forest and plains biome ahead of us. Once we're in the plains though, our horses can go even faster.

They will go faster, they don't get a choice about that.

But still, how many people are getting hurt every second we ride to them? What will be left of Redstonia when we get there? What shape will it be in? Will the great engineers be able to hold their own? Or have they fizzled out like water over redstone?

Grinding my teeth against the cloud of depression, I work through the various scenarios. Start with the worst case scenario, if Redstonia is completely overrun with the demons.

The primary focus would be on the-

Blacky rears and neighs, jotting me back to reality as I automatically try and stay on. Blacky bucks, but I manage to stay on him. Narrowing my eyes at the horse as I remain on his back, what's up with him?

"Jesse! Fire!" Gasping, Lukas's words get me to notice how everywhere my fire is right now. I quickly suck it back into me, all while trying to stay on this rearing horse of mine as well.

My heart feels as if it's about to explode any second with my mind ablaze with the swelled flames, but Blacky snorts and calms down. Without pause, I kick him back into a gallop. We need to get to Redstonia, those precious seconds lost.

Petra pushes her horses next to mine, or at least tries to. It's kind of hard in a forest where we're trying to ride at a gallop without running into any trees.

"What the heck was that?" Her voice sounds choppy as we blur past trees, but her meaning is loud and clear.

get a grip on yourself

"I suppose I just can't wait to kill the demons terrorizing Redstonia!" Sensing his glare, my eyes flicker over to Lukas. Where I see him shake his head, mouthing something. I can't really read lips, but it's not hard to figure out what he just said.

liar

We finally get into the plains, and almost in sync we all slam our heels into our horses' sides. Whether they're well trained or can feel our panic, they go faster. Soon, we'll be there soon.

I feel the flames trying to burst apart as my heart drums against my lungs. My breaths coming in short panicked gasps as I try to get a hold of myself. I can't be nervous. I can't scared if any of my friends are going to get hurt. I can't be anxiously running into battle against creatures designed to kill. I can't be paranoid that all of these genius engineers turned into idiots and have already been killed. No no, none of that.

Plan, I need a plan. If the demons are overflowing in the city then the citizens take priority. Since it's an island we can't exactly evacuate people. We wouldn't have enough time to get everyone off while trying to fend off multiple demons. It'd be too easy for just one demon to kill hundreds.

So we'll get all the citizens into the most fortifiable place there is. Olivia's Dome of Concentration, from what she's told me at least, can be completely sealed off from the outside.

Once the citizens are taken care of, one of two things has to happen. One, the preferred one, these beasts simply realize their prey can't be eaten and slink into the water. Two, and what's more likely, we'll have to kill each one.

Ivor has his potions though, I hope he has more buffer ones and healing rather than attacking ones. The buffer ones will help us kill more demons since last time their outer scales seemed to do a good job at protecting them from negative potions. 

Smelling the sea now, my heart flutters at how close we are. But that's good, it's a good thing. Terrifying, but good. Even though I can't see the coast yet, I know we're close. Closer to help the people of Redstonia, closer to killing the demons that shouldn't exist.

My eyes flicker over to Lukas, following the thought of wishing to talk to him. Not only is that impossible since I'm practically deaf due to the pounding of hoofs, the pounding of my heart, the roar of the fire, but I need to handle this myself. There's a good chance we'll be separated during the battle, I can't have him there ready by my side every second.

The coast rapidly comes into view and gets ever closer to us. The bridge to Redstonia standing strong, but something's wrong. I can feel my flames seethe at it

I pull the reins back as Blacky runs right up to the bridge, about to rocket across. Everyone else's horses neigh, rearing back at the sudden stop. As we all stand on the bridge leading to Redstonia, the city with a glaring red beam shooting up into the sky. A sight that makes my stomach churn.

"Why the heck have we stopped?" Petra growls at me, but I stare at the bridge, my fire raging inside of me when I spot the problem.

"Everyone, off your horses, we have to go in by foot."

"No!" Olivia's horse rears up, her face determined to help her town. "So what if the horses get hurt? My people come first!"

"Olivia! No!" She bolts forward, right as I thrust my hand forward. Fire exploding forth, the flames shooting forth and blocking her path, before she can get too far in.

"Jesse! Dude! What the-"

"There's acid all over the bridge!" I call my flames back, my body burning with effort to keep it in. "If we ride over it at gallop the horses will either buck us off or fall on top of us!"

Olivia doesn't hesitate to jump off her horse, the rest of us a second behind her. I spot Lukas place a fence, all the horses restless at our shouting and fear.

I quickly come up to Lukas and grab his shoulder. I slice off a chunk of my fire, enough for him to do the simpler tricks and buff himself, and send it into him. Lukas can't be with me all the time, so hopefully that'll help him out.

"Jesse-"

"Come on," I stare out to the city, thick smoke rising from buildings. "Let's go demon hunting."

****

Yep, I have officially destroyed a town now. You're welcome.

In all seriousness though, did any of you expect something so... grave to happen? I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't, but I hope you all understand how important it is. Because everything comes to a point after this scene. No more fluffiness.

So better get ready for next week's chapter! I'll see you then!