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Dunstan bounded through the fire and barreled into the burning servant. He expected to have to wrestle with the creature, but instead, the impact made its melting head pop off its shoulders and bounce into a line of bushes, igniting them.

Still largely without the use of his arms, Dunstan rolled over and flipped himself back onto his feet so that he could keep running. He and Reza pushed through the growing flames without regard. His coat or his pants would occasionally catch, but it was easy to suffocate such small fires with his krypton.

Oddly enough, the wildfire actually made circumstances easier for him, clearing his path of more broken servants who, unlike him, were not fireproof. Not to mention, it bought him the time he needed in order to fully regenerate.

Reza came to a sudden stop, and Dunstan phased through her and nearly fell over. He looked around for more threats but didn’t see any. ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.

Dennex flew through the wall of fire. Chunks of him were missing.

‘You got free,’ observed Reza.

‘Hello there,’ he said, quite calmly. ‘Would you mind terribly if I tagged along?’

‘Don’t wanna try flyin’ through this mess on your own, eh?’

‘No, I do not. I am guessing that those are Abolish soldiers that I sense above us.’

‘And below us? Do you know what that is?’

‘No, I don’t. I thought it was a soul net at first, but it’s not, is it?’

‘No. It’s moving, whatever it is. Like it’s alive.’

Dunstan wanted to speak aloud, but the crack and roar of burning wood was too loud, and there was almost as much smoke as there was breathable oxygen, anyway. ‘We’re wasting time,’ he told Reza.

‘Right,’ she said publicly. ‘Well, come on then.’

They proceeded on together, keeping within the relative safety of the fire, letting it make way for them. Dunstan kept hearing explosions go off in the sky above them. As trees fell over and opened up his line of sight, he began seeing people and low-flying aircraft there. It gave him little more than a glimpse of what was happening, but if Dennex didn’t want to brave that airspace, then it must have been pretty bad up there, he figured.

And then the ground heaved up in front of him, very nearly knocking him off his feet.