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From the look of it, though, she wasn't quite there yet. She was keeping pace with the group well enough, but Zeff could see her wobbling to and fro quite often. From what he'd heard of the girl, she'd experienced much difficulty learning to control her power in its nascent form--a common problem for servants but especially for alteration users.

But if they could keep her alive along enough, Isela might just become one of their strongest warriors.

That was nine-tenths of his job, Zeff knew. Buying time for the next generation.

A year ago, Zeff would've argued adamantly against bringing such promising youths with them on such a dangerous mission like this. Now, though? It pained him to admit, but... shielding them too greatly from these battles would not do them any favor in the long-term. They needed their opportunities to grow. And not just from emergence, either. The experience was just as important, if not more so.

He felt like he'd forgotten that, at some point. Perhaps because it was so easy to. As an immortal servant, the feeling that he would always be around to help and protect the young ones was quite strong. Servants never really expected to die, after all. And this centuries-long stalemate between Sermung, Dozer, Morgunov, and Sai-hee was probably also a contributing factor.

But he was a Rainlord. That type of thinking was particularly foolish for his kin. Their blood-soaked history was one of generational change. Even their most triumphant tales were often accompanied by the death of one or more of their greatest warriors from that era.

Sacrifice was what it meant to serve, after all.

Soon, the enormous towers of Ridgemark came into view, and Zeff could all but sense the tension heightening among his kin. Dimas took them higher, and as they drew closer, they began to see the battleground at the city limits in the distance. The RPMP vs the VMP and Abolish.