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And for him, there was yet another aspect to it. Over the course of his long life, traveling all over this realm, he'd seeded the lands of Eleg with crystals--and on top of that, learned to sense naturally occurring ones.

With a deep breath and strong concentration, he had access to a tidal wave of information. This was where the extra thought processes proved helpful. And Tenebrach, too, of course. Parsing through it all would have been significantly more difficult, otherwise.

Let's see now. What could the realm tell him from up here?

The flooded lands below were indeed troubled. Fear and anger running rampant. Agony. Pain. Bloodthirst, too.

But it was funneling into the northwest. Was that Abolish? The trail felt familiar enough. He'd sensed the like so many times before.

Hmm. Any major players in there?

Possibly. He sensed Chaos in there, masking specific presences. An unlikely coincidence. Had they developed a direct link to it? Irritating, if so. Fools playing with forces they could not possibly comprehend.

But that was nothing new, now was it? Standard behavior for Abolish.

Where was everyone? Who could he sense? Dozer? Morgunov? Sai-hee? Bah. Concealing themselves, no doubt. As per usual. They'd all learned long ago to despise his habit of dropping on them unannounced. Would've been nice to catch one of them off guard, though. He did love to surprise them.

Anyone else? Hmm. No Gohvis, Jercash, Gunther, Ivan, or Dunhouser, either. The Kubi, too, were all either hiding or too far away to sense.

And his own men?

Same story, apparently. Well, at least they were being diligent. Someone should have left signs for him, though. Something they knew that only he would be able to sense, in case he wanted to find them.

Yes. He sensed them now. Markers. Invitations. Ready to receive him at any mome--

What was that?

A presence of immense power. Not attempting to conceal itself in the slightest. All but daring anyone and everyone to approach it. And there was a whiff of familiarity to it, too. Something he'd sensed before, though perhaps not in quite the same way.

...Was that the Prime Hunter?

Oh no.

If he was loose, then Jonah...

Sermung searched. His senses stretched across the land. Farther, farther, farther. Where was he? Not on the continent?

He frowned, not wanting to acknowledge what was almost certain to be the truth. He shut his eyes and took a breath, still searching but not with much hope.