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Others were scrambling now. Friend and foe alike, seemingly. All moving either away from the approaching wall or toward it in an attempt to impede its path.

To throw up defenses before it killed them all.

Because it very likely would. The reapers might’ve been able to escape underground, but every non-servant here would perish--and the non-servants who didn’t die could still end up trapped.

The thing about lava was that it very frequently came up from deep within the planet, where untold amounts of ardor--the so-called “planet force”--flowed freely, empowering it without the aid of any servant.

That was why even very old servants were known to fear volcanoes. Sure, one might get lucky if the erupting lava happened to not be infused with ardor, but in the event that it was, there was not much that could be done.

Because the ardor added strength. Weight. Impact. Resilience.

Could the lava be redirected? Could it be shielded against? Could it be slowed or cooled?

It all depended on the force behind the eruption. A sufficiently powerful one was a death sentence for all but the most powerful servants in the world--and even they might still have trouble.

If naturally occurring dangers could all be categorized, then volcanic eruptions would be in the same category as feldeaths.

Every servant here knew that, which was why the battle was suddenly forgotten, why everyone was suddenly on the same side, trying to stop that certain doom headed their way.

And Zeff was no different. As much as he’d been focused on getting the reapers out just now, he knew that he had to help, too. His power might’ve been the one best suited to saving them all, in fact.

That was no guarantee, though. Ardor was known to be more potent than soul power. Even an absolutely colossal amount of water might not do enough.

But he tried.

He bounded upward on a platform of ice, needing to get above the attacks and walls of all the other servants who were trying to help. He wanted to douse the entire oncoming wall in water, and he needed a clear path to do so.

He summoned all of his concentration to create a tidal wave. He even manipulated its pressure a bit so that he could lower its temperature without freezing it--a particularly difficult technique when involving such massive volume.