Zane found himself being carried on the back of a Rhino stampede.

  It was a victory parade full of stomping and bellowing and tail-swishing. They made two wide loops around the Plains.

  Then they chucked him in the mud pools, and jumped in.

  ***

  “Let it be known,” rumbled Nog. “The Rhinos will mark this day in history! Up there with the time the First Ancestor took that chunk of the Titans for his own. Today we Rhinos had our tails to the sinkhole, on the brink of falling in. These past few years’ve been hard on us, no doubt. I, Old Nog, have seen better days. And we lost some of our best after the beast wars…”

  He coughed. “It was looking damned bleak, I tell you. But the Rhino never forgets—and when we asked old friends for help, they answered the call, and then some.”

  Old Nog barreled into the Barbarian Sage, who gave him a big ol’ hug, laughing.

  “Seems the two of us geezers’ve still got something to give, eh?” said the Sage.

  “Every Rhino here fought their heart out—it’s a proud day to be a Rhino.”

  Then Nog charged into Zane, and gave him a horn-bump.

  “‘Specially this damned meteor of a lad!”

  Zane quite liked that the way Rhinos showed approval was by charging at you.

  “Hear, hear!” said the Sage proudly.

  After that, it was time to celebrate.

  The Rhinos ate well that night. They got out bowls of grub stew with special seasoning—all those Princes dropped quite a few hooves and horns and fangs, which Guri ground up into surprisingly tasty stuff. Bit spicy. She even turned Monstrous Bones into bone broth—good for another Level.

  Level up!

  Essence Level 495 -> 496

  He was reminded just how close he was to Minor God. All the groundwork was done—all he had left were three Concepts to make the Great Circle of Heavenly Solar Flare.

  Already he was looking forward to feeling what it’d be like. He wondered how long it’d take. Noughtfire told him it could be a while, with the spark of Destruction in his powers—but the old fellow always seemed to have a plan for those sorts of things, tricks and shortcuts from just how much he knew. Burnwater once told him Noughtfire had forgotten more than all the rest of the Elders ever knew, put together.

  Then the Rhinos broke out some long-buried Spirit Wines and got quite drunk.

  It was the best rest Zane had gotten in weeks.

  For the first time since he’d come, the Wilds were quiet that night.

  ***

  That was the end of his journey. But there was one last piece of news before he left.

  The next morning the Shaman swept the skies and found splotches of Corruption in the Everfrost Glacier.

  Then all the Rhinos gathered in silence, tails drooped.

  They’d done their best. They’d driven the Monsters away, just when they’d been pushed to the brink.

  But if the Everfrost was tainted, so were the rivers, and the grasses. And all the riches here, of the lands, and air, and waters—the splendor of essence—would wither.

  The Corruption had run too deep. It was growing in the Galaxy itself; it would only grow worse.

  It’d only stop when the last Monster was gone.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Old Nog called a council; it wasn't long before they came to a decision.

  They decided it was time to go.

  They would journey across the stars and join their fellow Rhinos in the Western Wilds.

  “This won’t be the last of it,” vowed Nog. The old Rhino summoned up that fire again. “We’ll be back, once this war’s done with and we’ve got all that damned Corruption out of the land—we’ll graze these Plains again. Horns up, now!”

  After that, it was time for Zane to go. He bumped horns with nearly the whole herd on his way. Mook bit at his shorts and wouldn’t let him go.

  It was rather bittersweet for him too.

  It wouldn’t be his last time here either. He gazed into that hazy purple sunset, at the pale blue of the glacier, streaked lines of searing white. The Everfrost was a stark, savage thing come dawn, like the rest of the Plains. You couldn’t see the poison from here—not yet.

  He wasn’t sure when he’d be back, with the war looming. Could be in the far future—might be he’d visit the other Wilderness, the Western one, and find Mook again. One day.

  A few Rhinos blew handkerchiefs as he set off. He wasn’t sure how they managed it, with no hands, but they did.

  ***

  After all that, forging through the outskirts felt like a stroll.

  It was a bit of a shock coming back to the Steelheart Conclave—the most technology he’d seen out there these past few weeks was a giant bowl.

  The moment he stepped into the Plaza of Titans, he was steeped in bustle and clamor. The ringing of steel, sparks flying, hammers slamming, needles scribing runes onto helms, breast-plates, shipped off to the corners of the Galaxy. Some marked with Thousand Seas crests, others the cracked stone of the Deep Earth Hall.

  He saw warriors milling in the square as he came through, humming a marching song.

  He got a chorus of cheers as they went by.

  “Hey, look! Zane’s back—so’s the Sage!”

  “‘Lo there!”

  “Ate good out there in those Wilds, champ? Looking strong!”

  The Sage took a good long whiff of forge-smoke, took a gander at all the clanging and sparking, and sighed. “It’s good to be back, eh?”

  Zane nodded.

  “Right!” the Sage said, rubbing his hands. “I’ve got some traps to check up on, see if they’ve snagged anything juicy. Shouldn’t be long. You stay put—I'll be back before you know it. Then we’ll go feed Fluffy! She loves her Monster Bones, that one.”

  “Sure.”

  A crew of muscle bound folk went by, holding up a shipment of star core ore. The biggest of them perked up when they saw him, and waved.

  It was Orin Thunderfist. He was doing heavy construction work, and still had on his little wire glasses.

  The fellow had gotten a lot stronger since they’d last met. He was closing in on peak Minor God now.

  He made to come over, shrugging off the load—his fellow workers let out yelps.

  “Oh! Um. Sorry,” said Orin, blinking. He went back and helped.

  After he finished it off he found Zane again.

  He wanted to hear all about his time in the Wilds. They caught up a little over salted lamb-chops bought off a stall.

  He nodded, wonder in his eyes, as Zane told him about the last few weeks.

  Orin wasn’t a big fan of fighting, though Zane gathered from his dungeon-crawling he was quite good at it. He liked lifting far more. He was happy to push hard, but there was something extra you needed to love fighting, something more than intensity.

  Still, Orin was dumbstruck when he heard about the giraffes.

  He decided he’d go have a look one day.

  As they spoke a huge procession of warriors went by, chuckling and bumping fists. It seemed they’d just finished a huge battle— they were all blood and dented gear. They hummed a cheerful fight song as they passed, on the way to the beer hall.

  “That’s Team Platinum,” said Orin. “One of our best Inner Faction raiding teams. They just got spun up, while you were out in Azure Flame.”

  Team Platinum had just come from a big raid. A Tier-3 dungeon broke just on the edge of Steelheart territory—the third-most dangerous dungeon tier in all of Dragonspire. It took a full force of True Gods to bring it down.

  One True God—a bald, burly giant—sported burn scars down his chest, scars that stayed in the Astral Plane. They could only come from certain True God-level attacks, attacks inflicted with a strong Distortion Field. Those things hit in body and soul; Leveling wouldn’t heal them. A little like what happened with the Barbarian Sage.

  For a while, folks thought those scars could never heal.

  Then the fellow pulled out an elixir that looked like bottled moonlight, and drank it.

  Zane blinked—he seemed to remember Reina saying something about this. She’d been working on a new elixir. She must’ve gotten it out already—that was fast.

  He watched as the scars healed over.

  The fellow noticed him, and waved, grinning toothily. “Thank your lady for us, champ!” he yelled. He marveled at the bottle. “She’s a damned wonder, that one.”

  Zane nodded proudly. He was glad more folk were catching on.

  ***

  “Huh,” said the Barbarian Sage, who’d just ambled on back. He scratched his chin.

  “I could get you some,” said Zane.

  The Sage chuckled. “Oh, I’ll be just fine as I am, lad. Always had a problem with the System—heals you too fast. If I had a say in it, I’d keep every scar I ever got.”

  He looked down at his chest with pride.

  “Wouldn’t know who I am without ‘em, would I?”

  Then they headed off to visit Fluffy, who was quite ecstatic they were back. She kept going around them in circles, flattening mountains as she did. Zane gave her a few scratches behind her many ears, and said goodbye to the Sage.

  “You’re off to get those last few Concepts, eh? And you’ll break through while you’re at it.”

  “That’s the plan,” said Zane.

  “S’pose it’ll be a little while, then.” The Sage gave him a once-over, all proud-like. “I remember when you were just a wee Core. Now look at you!”

  The Sage was getting a bit emotional.

  Zane gave the old fellow one last hug.

  Then he was off—back to the World Tree and his friends.