Reynard had lost his inherited skill and power over Air Magic some time ago, completely replaced by the Light Magic that was drawn to him with incredible speed by the Celestial Power that streamed constantly into him whenever Fae was not otherwise using it.

He was nearly as powerful as his own Father, only his Will somewhat lacking! The speed at which he had risen in power was unrivaled by any other Fox, and had driven the whole Nine-Tails Tribe into a tizzy after seeing how fast he grew and how his Bloodline had changed and evolved. Healer Fae’s reputation in the Beast World had not suffered by Contracting a once-lesser Fox at all. His Bloodline now was a match for even the noblest of the Silver Nine-Tails!

Nay, greater, for did he not have wings and horns, as well as Tails? Reynard strutted proudly at the thought.

His combination of Light, Psychic, and Void Magic was massively invested in his Will, and so he had received incredible amounts of practice and insight into such things, not the least because Fae insisted his skills be wide and varied instead of concentrated. While he didn’t have the true experience of his elders, he had seen many things, wielded and faced off against many different kinds of magic, and his elders might well be shocked at how well he handled himself, for all that he seemed like a big golden target now...

He winged his way past countless nests, only the most minor effort of Will needed to keep him aloft and moving. The Cloudstepping Sandals Tattoos under the silvery-white of his paws kept him aloft without effort, and he could run on air and add to his speed and maneuverability with great ease and no expense of power. Fae liked to make mid-air mazes and tunnels for the flying Contracted Beasts, helping them test their maneuverability and hone their skills, as well as sending them around race courses in the air and out over Lake Huron to test their pure speed. Reynard was well aware of how to stack his speed, and while he couldn’t truly beat a powerful Bird a-wing, his ability to Blink, Teleport, and Ride the Light clear to the horizon meant not even the fastest Bird was going to be able to catch him if he decided to flee.

That was how he had come here, after all, Riding the Light from miles in the air, past the horizon to another high point, only his Void Magic allowing him to breathe as he skipped past hundreds of miles of territory at a time.

Even so, it had taken many days to travel the distance. The Beast Realm was not small, and Sun Phoenix Emperor lived far, far away from the Emperors who had once been bedeviled by the Netherworld.

A shame, really. The Sun Phoenixes would have been terribly effective foes of the Netherworld!

There were now Birds flying parallel to him, the least of them being Nobles, eying him and the softly burning Feather he carried, wondering who he was and why he had come. None of them were going to stop him, however, and he should receive no interference until he had climbed higher on the Central Spire and an Imperial Bird might finally dare to confront him.

Running around calling on Emperors, just like his Contractor was! Reynard felt very proud of himself.

There it was on the horizon, the center of this Kingdom of pillar-like mountains, long having risen past the level of the clouds, although he could not fly any higher here.

The top was not a palace as Humans would call it, but all Beasts would, the carving of the stone and many fun layers to bounce about on, the Plants there brimming with life and vitality despite living many miles above the snow layer, thousand-foot trees and miles-long vines sometimes extending to neighboring pillars in fantastic bridges of sorts, festooned with all manner of flowers and blooms, even nests and communities of the smaller Avians or other creatures who dared live this high up on the mountains.

The Avians were far less strict about Bloodline and Ranking for non-fliers, seeing them as much less important, as it were. Reynard wondered what they would think of his Contractor spinning up a Stillflight Field and dropping them all to flop frantically about on the ground, unable to get back into the sky, prey for any land-bound predator of equal size who wandered by...

Mmm, yes, they would be terrified of her!

Nodding to himself, Reynard closed in on the Central Spire. It would take him most of a day to make the winding trek up to the top levels where Sun Phoenix Emperor and the other Imperial Phoenixes lived, but that was fine.

They would be watching him coming all the way!

He chuckled furthermore as he regarded the thousands of people paying attention to the grand showing of the Heart of the Sun Phoenix Kingdom, something likely never seen before by Mortals on their much less magnificent homeworld. What would the Sun Phoenixes think, were they to know the grandeur of their Kingdom, the sight of it only truly open to those who could fly, was being shown to so many Mortals in their isolated, bereft little world?

Reynard had shown many, many landscapes to the Markspace as he Lightjumped his way across the Beast World. There was already a rolling view of it available in The Map, a special one adding onto everything Contractor Fae had seen in the Beast Realm, and Reynard had happily expanded on since.

Yes, it was a very big place, much bigger than the little Mortal Realm’s small ball sitting in space out there. He chose not to think about how the Beast Realm actually ended at its atmosphere, while the little rock of the Mortal Realm was just that, with a solar system of other planets and suns and stars and galaxies and so, so much emptiness...

The Mortal Realm had Humans, though, and because of that, seemed so much busier than the Beast Realm, with things found there without anything similar anywhere in the Beast Realm, and so many species living so close together, often in conflict!

Especially with the Humans! So aggressive for their size!

Only three High Emperors! And no Beast Lord! No wonder the place was so messy and confused! But that only made it more fun for an up-and-coming Fox, being fed energy straight from Heaven and so becoming nothing like any other Fox, ever!

Reynard, the Golden Ghost, messenger, courier, and ambassador extraordinaire! His Tails, the seventh one nearly grown, swished and swayed as he swooped towards the Spire, and the final leg of his long, long trip.

----------------

Dinosaurs, just like the rumors said.

The first one I saw was actually a ‘normal’-sized sauropod along the banks of a river, eating reeds with its long neck, probably twenty tons or more in mass. It was basically a baby of sorts, and the numbers of prehistoric creatures rapidly rose as I flew on.

There were plenty of ‘modern’ Beasts and Mammals, but the holdovers from an early epoch magnified as I continued onwards and inwards. There were few Birds in the sky, instead occupied by pteranodons and pterodactyls that grew rapidly in size as I continued. The number of Mammals decreased rapidly, replaced by their reptilian predecessors in all niches in the ecology, and even the plant life and insects echoed an earlier time and age, as if all the extinction events and Ice Ages and similar things had not happened to cull them.

Deepest, Darkest Africa was like walking into a part of history that had not been affected by the meteors and resulting volcanic activity that had decimated so many lines of Great Beasts, leaving only the rare Emperors from their lineages alive as the younger and more vigorous mammals grew and adapted with amazing speed into the niches they’d left behind.

I flew over plains occupied by various orniths and sauropods, hunted by theropods and great lizards. There was even a great inland sea here, marked on no maps, and likely not even present on the planet, if what I was reading in the Veil was to be believed. Much of this ecology was self-supporting and recycling, a timeless epoch and preservation zone separate from the rest of the world.

No Humans came here unless they wanted to be food, so this view I was putting out there for my Visual File and those watching was definitely a first-time thing. Sages coming into this place without an Emperor’s Will would have long been set upon by the cold and ferocious attention of the Emperors I could feel, although I’d only seen one... a sauropod Brachiosaur at least a thousand feet long, a living skyscraper and hill on the move, managing to loom over many of the trees that grew to improbable heights in the sprawling savanna below.

I actually wondered why Thunderbird had sent me here. This Emperor should be quite distant from the rest of the world, even if He stayed aware of things. The unseen heart of Africa like this should be isolated from the effects of The Great Flood, and so uncaring of what happened.

Then again, a conscientious Emperor had wider concerns, so who was I to judge?

I was definitely being followed by Noble Pterosaurs and the like, all too willing to swoop in and pluck me up if I did anything out of sorts... but, no. I was coming for Auric Tyrant Emperor, and that was all.

Finding Him wasn’t hard, all told. He occupied the island at the middle of the Sequestered Sea that should not exist here, and tolerated no challengers to His authority there. Thus, there were other Noble creatures there, but no Emperors laired upon the place, so finding Him there wasn’t too difficult, as He didn’t contract His Aura. Nobody was going to get close to the place unless they wanted a fight.

Or, for some other reason.

---

The lake on the island was calm and serene, nothing daring to live where the Auric Tyrant slept. Even my ‘escort’ of eager passenger-jet sized Pteranodons peeled away before they could possibly get close enough to offend the Tyrant.

I felt the shift in His Aura as I landed upon the Shore. He was not one to ignore the presence of an Emperor, and He was always ready to fight to defend His position. While Infinite Sands Emperor might be stronger, He did not rule here.

Here was the Demesne of the Auric Tyrant!

The water began to churn as something bigbigbig rose from below. I began the Song of the Sublime Chord as I knelt, charging up the air with welcome and deference in gentle harmony to meet the literal King of the Dinosaurs.

His head was first, a massive crested skull of a theropod done large, bringing with it a massive wash of Water, Earth, and Lightning Magic, and a sense of timelessness that indicated a very, very old fellow, indeed.

He didn’t resemble Godzilla all that much, being somewhere between a Drake and a T-Rex in appearance. His scaled hide was indeed golden, the patterns on it forming some kind of natural Formation that cracked and popped with Lightning the instant He broke the surface, dancing over His scales and cleaning them off.

Huh, He was probably a rival to Thunderbird in the understanding of Lightning, but from the Earth side. My using the Earth to extend Thunderbird’s Domain probably reminded him directly of this old fellow.

His Roar of challenge shook the lands and the stone as He stepped forth from the lake, yet the waves were subdued and barely passed the shoreline, simply parting around Him as He stepped forwards. Lightning crackled down His frill as He looked about slowly, but found nothing there, save for a tiny little Human going where She shouldn’t, bearing Tokens from multiple Emperors on a little stick.

Also, some pleasant elevator Music was playing, making the Manafield spark and dance delightfully as it did so.

Alert and powerful eyes considered the Manafield around, and how it was responding to my Song, even in the mighty Domain He had effortlessly raised and established. Indeed, His own Domain seemed even stronger and surer in the Song, meaning this little Monkey wasn’t challenging Him at all, she was making Him stronger!

His breath huffed out in a cloud of charged particles, considering me there while enjoying the Song.

I wove my introduction into the Song patiently, not hurrying things. “Healer Fae, Envoy of Thunderbird Emperor, Fire Phoenix Emperor, Luan Emperors, and Father Tree Emperor, greets Auric Tyrant Emperor!”

His eyes narrowed as He understood every word I spoke for what it was. He matched Names to Wills, discerned I was speaking the truth, and considered what that might mean.

It seemed, however, that He was not going to need to fight!

“A HUMAN.” They were a very young species, very aggressive, like many of the Apes, and so not native to His Realm. “WHAT DO THE EMPERORS WANT, HUMAN?” He asked simply, taking my status of being an ant whose entire species had come into existence during one of His naps into account.