Dominic moved through the door with a pistol in each hand.

There was no motion in the house. No sign that there was anything alive at all. But Dominic had felt that same sensation before he passed through the barrier over the property.

A quick check of the second floor showed a more natural distribution of dust, and Dominic was sure that nobody had come up here in years.

Which left the basement.

Dominic made his way to the door, which swung open silently, on freshly oiled hinges.

At the bottom of the stairs, Dominic saw that the room had been immaculately cleaned, with portals open on the three visible walls.

It was a shame that he used all his mortars.

In front of him, a portal opened to the view of a large stone room, lined with bunks filled with sleeping mages in Skiple Academy robes. That would be the priority target, unless the other portals revealed something unexpected.

Moving to the bottom step, Dominic looked into the other two portals, and found them full of ragged looking prisoners.

Now he knew where the mages in the first portal were getting the sacrifices from. He made a shushing gesture when the prisoners saw him, and then lined up on the portal to the bunk room.

There was a panicked silence, as all the prisoners were too afraid to breathe loudly. Then, Dominic unleashed Dragon Flames on the bunk room, the cone of fire cleansing everything it touched, shattering barriers, and sucking the oxygen from the enclosed space as the stone room turned into an oven.

The screams of the dying joined the horrified screams of the prisoners, and Dominic sensed movement behind him, coming from one of the portals full of prisoners as he finished his work.

Quickly, he raised an [Area Barrier], just in time to stop a [Firebolt].

"Lower your weapons and drop your mana crystals." A male voice demanded as Dominic turned.

"Ah, an Elder of the Skiple Royal Academy. Such a pleasure to meet you here today. I had a most wonderful conversation with some of your members earlier.

Unfortunately, I am not carrying any mana crystals to drop. Now, would you like to release that prisoner? It will be messy if I have to shoot through them." Dominic replied.

The mage’s face went pale as he saw the horns on Dominic’s head, only visible from the front with his hood up.

"You. I know you." The Elder began.

"Everyone knows me. And you should know that human shields will not deter me. Especially when I have no idea who they are." Dominic agreed.

"Why are you here? What do you want with us?" The mage asked.

"That really should be my question. You’re on my territory. I came because your people were becoming a nuisance to the local troll population, and then they had the audacity to attack me. ME! The nerve."

The prisoners looked horrified by the conversation as they were forgotten. But the mage seemed to be understanding something.

"You’re the new Duke of Wistover aren’t you? The one that Prince Kaizon demands we eliminate for the sake of Dagos." He asked.

"That would be correct. He has been quite the thorn in my side since he lost the official battle for the throne. Are you open to advice?" Dominic replied casually.

The mage nodded, and Dominic continued. "He has no idea what he has brought down on himself. If you want to survive, I would suggest breaking ties and running. Go as fast as you can, as far as you can, and never look back.

If you don’t then every nation on the eastern side of the continent will hunt you until you have nowhere left to go.

The Prince is finished, and everyone is simply waiting to split up the spoils."

"That’s not true, it can’t be. Our Sect is strong, and the armies we’ve built..."

Dominic cut him off. "The armies you built have been dismantled by magi tech artillery and mercenary adventurers promised extra pay on top of their loot. Pay that is being taken from sacking the cities loyal to the Prince."

The mage frowned, then lowered his dagger and let the prisoner fall to the floor.

Then, he opened a portal, but the other side was nothing except grey stone rubble.

"No. It can’t be." He stammered.

"Going home? I am pretty sure that we hit that tower earlier today. Go, find your comrades and tell them the news. Lord Wistover is willing to give them a head start. If they can make it out of my territory fast enough, I will save them for last."

The mage opened another portal, this time to a city with Dagos flags flying in the background, and ran.

From the floor, the prisoner looked up in awe. "I can’t believe that you bluffed him like that. And it worked, he left. We’re free, we can leave this place."

Dominic smiled. "It wasn’t a bluff. I am Dominic Wavemates, Duke of Wistover. I have come here to scout for the armies eliminating the monster hordes that the mages have amassed. The last of their reserves will be gone by the end of the day."

Upstairs, Dominic could hear cautious footsteps.

"Amie, bring the others inside. If the spells fell, then it should be safe to enter. I took care of things here." He shouted.

"Got it, boss. The barrier on the others fell a few minutes ago, but we didn’t want to enter and put you in danger trying to save them. They’ve got a bunch more injured." She called back.

That pretty much settled it, then. They would set the beacon, give their report to the armies, and then return home to recover.

It was a shame to lose out on the loot, but they couldn’t keep fighting when they had wounded to protect. They really should have insisted that there was someone with a healing spell with them, as the Alchemist could only do so much. But without a church in Wistover, the number of healers was extremely limited.