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If he hadn't recalibrated his visor and ocular replacements prior to escaping the Golden Fort, it would've been almost impossible for him to track the movement of Crowe's birds well enough to keep the civilians safe.

They were like giant tendrils, snaking and expanding through the air, scattering on a moment's notice and reconvening elsewhere just before striking again. And the collective power that their formations gave them was simply absurd. Abbas was probably the only one present who could hope to block or divert their assaults.

Which was saying quite a lot.

Much of Hahl Saqqaf was here with him, servant and non-servant alike. They had over two dozen fighters present, including his son Raheem, his grandson Amir, and even his great grandson Badat. As a result, their entourage was a hastily assembled mixture of ground-based vehicles, deployable helicopters, and people simply being carried by servants--either physically or with abilities.

In the better moments, the servants had been able to carry everyone, even the vehicles, but they couldn't keep doing that when faced with an attack; so now the pace was slowed again while clusters of Saqqaf warriors broke off to engage the enemy.

Abbas was under no illusions, though. It was all resting on his shoulders, right now. His sons and cousins were strong, but if he fell in battle here, Abolish would probably kill or capture everyone.

For that reason, it may have seemed unwise to have Worwal with him during this fight. But the unfortunate truth of the matter was that they simply didn't know where else to go.

The prevalence of invisible aberrations had changed the nature of this war. Too many times, the Golden Council had received reports of reapers who had separated from their servants for their own safety, only to get ambushed and captured or killed.

But most of all, it was those damn machines of the Mad Demon. Even when reapers tried to escape by themselves into the ground, far and deep into the earth, those machines were still a threat.

They could show up anywhere at any moment, it seemed.

Abbas had a rather strong feeling that at least one or two of them was still chasing him, though perhaps that was just paranoia getting the better of him.