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Doubtless, there was much to catch up on. And to his surprise, he noticed that neither Xander nor anyone else was already here waiting for him.

Had Xander not been the one to send the signal? It was a very short list of people who could have done that--unless some kind of great shift had taken place, of course.

That was always the fear, wasn't it? That he would return to an annihilated Vanguard. A successful Abolish.

A destroyed planet.

Historically, that had always been their outward objective. But over time, Sermung had come to know that Morgunov and Dozer were a bit different in that regard. Not like most of their predecessors. Sure, they still paid lip service to the idea, especially in front of their men; and sure, they still gave refuge to plenty of truly omnicidal monsters within their ranks. But they did not actively pursue that agenda like in days long past.

Unless, again, something had changed.

He stepped to the edge of the cliff and took in the view of the Waress Mountains.

The center of the Eloan continent. The high winds were frigid and punishing, but they didn't bother him in the slightest. From this high up, he could see so far into the distance that the curvature of the planet was made obvious on the horizon. And near the edge of the surrounding mountain range, a sea of clouds was visible, rarely broken by holes that allowed him to see the flooded land beneath.

This peak that he was so close to belonged to the second tallest mountain in the world, Mt. Ninora. The tallest, Mt. Vinayoaka, was also in this same mountain range, though it was several hundred miles to the north.

That location would have served just as well as this one, but there were not many others. For the purpose of these rocky cocoons, geography was key. Both resonance and altitude were important, along with other minutiae. Xander had explained it all to him in excruciating detail, of course, but in the end, Sermung had only been able to wrap his head around eighty percent of it or so.

Close enough, he'd figured.

He did know that these peaks were quite good for one other thing, though.

Observation of souls and aura. They flowed, too, all around the planet. And from places like this, if one knew how, one could see a lot more than just the physical aspects of this middle realm.