The deafening alarm continued its loop as Simon kept pulling out the heavy stone tablets and dropping them into the magma chamber below. Each weighed nearly fifty pounds, and there were thirteen to take care of in all in order for the Guard’s immunity to cease existing.

  Aside from the alarm, there seemed to be no other presence after them just yet. But the pressure was rising. The heavy iron hatch above could open any moment, as could the two service doors on either side of the room. By the time Simon began on the next to last tablet, he had already formulated a plan on how to seal the room—for a while, at least.

  “Lechi, I’ll need you for the next part,” he groaned as he shoved the stone block across the floor. “After I activate the magma system again, use your powers to keep the above hatch closed tightly. In fact, bend and twist the metal if you can so it gets stuck. Got that?”

  “Yeah, but…”

  “And also keep the tunnel gates closed. What I’m thinking of doing is letting the magma flood the room completely. It should stop flowing and cool off. The entire room will be covered in rock. And even when they do eventually get through it, they’ll still have to replace these things.”

  “There’s enough metal here to manipulate this place into a solid steel chamber, but I’m not strong enough to do it. I’m only a level one…”

  “Lechi…” Temki spoke up, “you can channel your powers through me. I can amplify any alignment. I’ve done it before.”

  “You could really do that?”

  “Sometimes staff let me help them with metal maintenance work because of what I can do.”

  “I don’t know that much about paradigms, but I guess it’d make sense that a mind one could pull off such a thing. How do we do it?”

  “Just hold my hand and channel all of your alchemagi through me. It should become much stronger.”

  “Okay. Got it.”

  Lechi grasped Temki’s free hand firmly and directed her alchemagi through his. He went into a mild trance, as if letting her take over. In a very natural way, she immediately had little difficulty bending the surrounding metal into whatever shapes she needed. It was no wonder the suppression files were so well guarded; with no way of protecting the room in alchemagi sealant, as it would block what came from the device itself, the Guard had to rely on hiding it deep below the surface and even under magma. But now that they had full access, everything appeared to be going fairly easily.

  “Lechi, do something about that alarm, would you? It’s giving me a migraine,” Simon shouted out as he pushed a tablet down into the magma below and went back for the last one, already removed and waiting for him.

  She bent each of the alarms out of shape to please Simon, and the room became silent aside from the bubbling molten rock and the faint murmurings of the suppression system. She then got to work on the hatch and two doors to protect them from any oncoming security.

  The surrounding metal was torn and twisted out of shape with a powerful, invisible energy. Focusing intensely, Lechi began melding the material into a solid shell. For the hatch above, she compressed the sides tightly and covered the bottom in liquid metal, which then resolidified.

  She could feel that Temki was under a good deal of stress, and that they were both running low on alchemagi. Rearranging metal into a liquid state was something only an advanced level three could normally manage.

  “Okay, good,” Simon huffed as the last tablet fell off the edge. “We’d better get out of here. Take a moment to rest, this will take a minute.”

  Simon rejoined the two at the top and activated the system again to seal the chamber, for perhaps the last time if it was damaged enough. The large black containers that protected the archives slowly descended back into the floor, and the sliding hatches that protected them began to close.

  “As soon as the shelves are back in, jam the two gates and seal them as tightly as you can,” Simon said as he took out the demirriage scroll.

  Just before all the service lights in the room turned off, the carriage appeared. It was a healthier looking transport than Jeryn’s, but Simon didn’t know how long it’d stay active in the dull standby lighting. He didn’t want to have to try using his flashlights to keep it going until they could escape.

  The magma began filling up the reservoir below again, and Lechi focused her remaining energy on the two gates now trying to drop and let the magma flow out. With several grinds and pops, she forced the gates to remain up and slammed them into the tunnel ceilings above, where they became firmly planted. She then continued to mold the walls in an attempt to utilize her remaining energy. Below, the magma was already covering the shelves again, and showed no sign of stopping as it rose in height.

  “That’s about all I can do…” Lechi gasped for air and let go of Temki’s hand. “We’re both spent…”

  “You did fine. We all did everything we could.”

  “I just hope this will keep them out long enough.”

  “Even with their alchemagi, this place will be such a mess that it should take them, I dunno, at least a month to get through, clear it, and repair. And then they’ve still got to replace the missing tablets. No idea what that involves, but by then, maybe we can figure something else out.”

  “We should go. I sense people coming…” Temki noted. “Angry and fearful people… A lot of them.”

  “What direction are they coming from?”

  “All of them.”

  “Simon, there’s nothing more we can do here,” Lechi urged him. “We’ll talk to the others about it when we get back.”

  “Okay, okay… Everyone in,” Simon said and gathered the scoll.

  The magma began to overrun the basin and would soon fill the room. Simon knew from all he had seen that the Administration or Guard would get back in eventually to fix the damages, but perhaps even a week’s time would be enough for the rebellion to move ahead with its plans.

  The stolen demirriage disappeared just before it would have faded or been submerged. Upon reaching Pangs’ office, Tanesh ran out of the carriage and scampered away in fear.

  “He’ll have stress for days after that,” Lechi sighed and stepped out.

  It was midday at City C, and inside of Pang’s office, it was much cooler than the magma chamber they had just left—it was an instant relief.

  “You guys!” Garder called out from the large dining table in the room. “We were just about to come after you!”

  “We found a demirriage scroll down there…” Simon said and nearly collapsed onto a nearby chair. “We were lucky…”

  Milla stood from her spot. “I’m so relieved. We were waiting to hear anything at all. But we also needed to rest after what we had been through.”

  “We were about to try and pull a daring rescue attempt,” Garder added. “You certainly cut our workload. Tell us all about what you saw down there, and we’ll tell you how things went on our end.”

  “Did we make it in time?” Temki asked. “Who won the battle?”

  “We did, by far. The Guard didn’t take it seriously.”

  Osk explained, “We’re still waiting for some kind of further confirmation so we can start the uprising, but I did manage to mangle the king himself a little bit. I don’t quite believe it, but somehow, you definitely succeeded. Rivia’s idea may see fruition yet.”

  “Where’s Jeryn, Shin… and Verim?” Lechi asked.

  “The Holdians gave it their all and returned there…” Milla replied. “As you might imagine, there’s probably a flurry of activity in Hold. Jeryn is at the camp. Something happened to him. I think he needs to be alone for a while. But he’ll be glad when he hears the good news.”

  “Captain, now that we’ve succeeded wonderfully on our end, what’s going to happen next?” Pangs asked.

  “I’m going to mobilize my men back to Aurra and set up a base, after which I’ll begin broadcasting the message the rebels are supposedly waiting for. Who knows how many there are, but I’ll follow Rivia’s given orders.”

  “You guys look like you’ve been around fire or something,” Garder noticed. “What’d you do, go into some kind of forge?”

  “Magma chamber, actually,” Simon replied. “It was crazy down there. Hot. Heart racing the whole time. I’m glad it’s over.”

  “Shall I have a meal brought up?” Pangs asked. “You are deserving of far more things, but a good meal is all I can provide at the moment.”

  “A real dinner at a real table again…” Garder said with a small laugh.

  Simon, Lechi and Temki gathered with their friends as if there hadn’t been a large battle just prior. The meal that arrived was barely tasted among a mixture of theories, explanations, and questions without answers.

  “You sent this… rairer to City I?” Garder was the first to ask after Simon finished telling his side of the story.

  “Yes, with Temki’s scarf tied to its neck. I figured that’d be a clear enough sign that it was friendly,” Lechi replied.

  “They’ll probably just think it ate him.”

  “Yeah, we were kinda worried about that, too.”

  Milla chuckled. “I think it was a wise move. They could use the help, I’m sure. Maybe it’ll make it easier for us when we go back and try again.”

  “I’m worried about that chamber,” Simon said. “It could be as little as a week before it’s operational again. No longer than a month, for sure.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about that at the moment,” Osk replied. “You’re forgetting one thing, Simon—you can now warp yourself directly into the chamber, or nearby it. They’ll find that out pretty soon, if they haven’t already. The entire chamber, the most important place for the Guard, has been compromised. They’ll have to move it slowly and carefully.”

  “It’s a good point,” Milla said. “If we could monitor all underground activities around City A… I wish I knew what the exact plans of the rebels are. But I’m sure Rivia will tell us more once we see him again.”

  Garder finished his drink and added, “We probably can’t do much but keep the Guard occupied until we free the Fragmented City and get those paradigms and other trained soldiers out. They’re not just powerful—they’re needed in the leadership roles the rebels will desperately need.”

  Milla smiled. “It’s starting to sound like you care about all this.”

  “Maybe I’m just along for the ride, you know? Of course, if I had to root for a side… you know which I’d pick.”

  “Captain, aren’t you one of Rivia’s subordinates?” Pangs asked.

  “I am, and my orders were to go to the City that needs me the most and direct the early uprising. I have yet to know which that will be, though.”

  “And these pretorians you met…” Pangs turned to the twins. “You’re quite lucky to have escaped them.”

  “We’ve seen all six now,” Milla replied. “And Drides… I don’t know how, but something told me he was different from the other ones.”

  “But there was this one who seemed different in another way,” Garder added. “She looked a lot like Queen Escellé. I think Lontonkon called her Kamsa. Do you know anything about her, Pangs?”

  “I’m afraid I know as little as most others do about the pretorians,” he replied. “But that sword you got from Viveri… let me take a look at it.”

  “Yeah.” He unstrapped it and put it on the table.

  “Oh, yes, that’s quite fine engineering. Alchemagi swords are rare—only the Guard has the alchemagi infusion synthids to make them, and they don’t pass them out to just anyone. I’d hold onto that if I were you.”

  “I almost got us blown up trying to get it, so I was planning to.”

  “Pangs, we haven’t gotten the chance to talk about the demon further,” Osk said. “I was curious about something…”

  “I’ve already told you everything I know about the datastone—”

  “I want to know how long ago it was when it was lost.”

  “Oh… Well, it’s probably been seven years now.”

  “And how long has the demon itself been around?”

  “About two now. Why is this important? Have you even seen the demon yet?”

  “No, but I am well aware of how life-capable datastones work. They need the more highly sophisticated synthesizers to be brought to life, and the animals don’t last long. I’d assume City C had some for their research.”

  “Of course…”

  “But don’t such synthids require a central connection? And after what Simon told us, I think the Administration facility under this City is either inoperable through neglect, or was manually shut down. And coincidentally, that happened two years ago. The Guard was set on taking down this demon themselves to harvest its claws. Obviously, they didn’t create it, or they’d already have many claws. The only reason they’d have trouble killing it would be because it’s been near this City the entire time, and if your underground is in ruins, it makes it very difficult to get here.”

  “Um… what are you getting at, Captain?” Garder questioned.

  “Unless the creature was feeling homesick, the likelihood of it finding this City again from the outside is probably remote. Even if the environment here suits it, there are twenty other Cities with synthesizers powerful enough to bring it to life. I find it doubtful that the datastone was ‘lost’ at all. More like hidden away at a place of your knowing, Pangs. And when you brought it to life, it destroyed the facility below the City.”

  “I… well…”

  “Is this true?” Milla asked. “You have to tell us.”

  “We didn’t bring that beast to life. And our Administration facility is in fine condition. We do have it cut off from outside connections—and it is self run, as well. But the Guard never seemed to mind much, until we sustained the damage that made us stop receiving souls.”

  “If you didn’t make the demon, then what did?”

  “I don’t know. I really don’t. But the truth is… We had the datastone disposed of. We realized the creature’s potential. It was too dangerous. But, for some reason, the material from the stone was indestructible.”

  “Come on, how can a simple piece of matter be indestructible in Aurra?” Garder asked.

  “We couldn’t even scratch it. It was like the stone had a providence spell put on it or something… Though I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

  “It was… alive?” Simon wondered.

  “More than that. It would have needed a human signature of some kind for us to not have the ability to harm it in any way.”

  “Maybe it was made out of human… bone?” Garder questioned.

  “That isn’t possible,” Milla reminded. “Separated organic matter, even attached to a conscious mind, still vanishes over time here, remember? If the datastone was organic… It really must’ve been alive somehow.”

  “This is starting to creep me out. And it doesn’t make sense, either.”

  “And as I told them before, I have not the slightest idea what the Guard forced us to use to inscribe the data,” Pangs continued. “It was supposedly some kind of higher density datastone… Something new.”

  “This is making me sick,” Osk said. “This would just be conjecture without further insight, but it’d be easy to say that the Guard was somehow turning humans into objects.”

  “No way…” Garder replied. “Come on, that’s not possible. They do a lot of twisted things, sure, but that…”

  “Rivia might know,” Milla said. “And he should have plenty more to tell us, as well. Let’s see him again before we make any more guesses.”

  “All the power of a soul compacted into a weapon or instrument…” Temki murmured suddenly. “Why does this sound familiar?”

  “What are you thinking about?” Simon asked.

  “I may have been part of something. You know how I can synthesize simple objects? If they could capture the power of a mind paradigm and…”

  “Does this have to do with ‘renascence’?” Garder questioned.

  “I don’t know… Maybe.”

  “So, you’re saying this ‘rebirth’ project you heard about when you were contained, might be something about converting souls into objects?”

  “It’s possible,” Pangs said. “We’ve achieved something before in our experiments that if evolved, could lead to such a thing. We’ve trapped the souls of animals, for a few seconds, inside containers. Think about it… the soul is the one part of us that is immortal. It can be moved, even trapped, but not destroyed. It’d give long-lasting energy to anything it was put into.”

  “Okay…” Garder sighed. “Really—if the Guard or Administration or whatever is really… that freaking demented…”

  “How did you trap animal souls?” Lechi asked.

  “It was a bit of a fluke, actually. We were wondering why animals are reborn again and again as they were in their previous lives. When a species goes extinct, their spirits seemingly switch naturally to a similar species. We discovered that way back, with the dodos,” Pangs said with a small laugh. “One of my great grandfathers from Earth discovered that process, in fact. We looked for a way to inject a spirit into another animal. We knew it wouldn’t be possible as our full-life law prevents us from intentionally doing a dual injection, but we wanted to see the results nevertheless. On accident, we put a chicken’s being into a loose screw on our device, for five seconds. We hadn’t even realized what we accomplished until hours later.”

  “You… put the soul of a chicken into a screw…” Garder stated in a deadpan tone. “Too bad Aurra doesn’t give out Nobel prizes, Pangs, because that would make you a shoo-in.”

  Pangs chuckled. “I know, I know… The point is, it is possible to do such a thing. Surely the Guard could expand on it, or already has. And it’s… worrisome. Trapping people inside objects…”

  “We’ll find out if that’s the case,” Osk said and stood. “Whatever the case, it seems like our rulers have been scheming as much as we have. And I’ll be sure to find out the truth, however long it takes.”

  “One more thing, Pangs…” Milla continued. “You said you had the datastone disposed of. Where was that?”

  “I didn’t want it anywhere near City C—to make it more difficult for the Guard to find it again. I had it brought to O. There is a small research facility there, who were studying micro portals at the time.”

  “Micro portals?”

  “Weak dimensional openings. Objects can pass through, but living things cannot. I figured it’d kill the stone if it really was alive in some way.”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “But the demon exists, so I guess it didn’t work.”

  “I thought that maybe it simply wouldn’t pass through. The process having the unexpected side effect of bringing the demon to life wasn’t even considered… That was seven years ago. When the report came back, it simply read that the stone had been ‘disposed of via dimensional transfer’. In other words, they tossed it through, and it was discarded somewhere on Earth. No longer our concern—that was the hope, anyway.”

  “City O…” Garder wondered. “That’d be in America’s northeast?”

  “Yes, yes—right in central Maine, in fact.”

  “Well, thank you for the meal and discussion,” Osk said. “We’ll certainly keep in touch, but for now, I really must tend to my men.”

  “I understand. And thank you, all of you, for being patient with me. I know I may sound a bit self-centered or rash, but I am merely fascinated in my research. I have hope that it will all eventually benefit humanity.”

  “Pangs, you’ve been nothing but a help to us,” Milla replied.

  “Thank you, Milla… And Lechi, take good care of Tanesh for us.”

  “I will…” she replied and picked up the tired canine from the floor.

  Osk called up the elevator, and within a minute, the group had boarded and left Pangs to ponder further on his lonesome. He had been holding back revealing the true nature of the odd datastone until he had trusted Rivia’s friends and judgment, and now that trust seemed to exist on both sides. He promised himself that if he found a way to capture a soul, he’d immediately work on a way to free it again.

  Back at the camp, Jeryn was working quietly but efficiently to get everything and everyone packed up. The majority of the men were waiting in the cool hangar. It was a perfectly clear Earth day, and the midday sun was covering the desert in a blinding light. The dunes were covered with fallen soldiers’ weaponry, shields, clothing, and blackened marks where rifle ammunition had exploded. The biggest mess of all was the wreckage of the Palm, now covered with soldiers trying to pick it apart so the desert would swallow the rest of it. The winds had already covered most of the superficial evidence, but Jeryn liked a thorough job. In time, someone on Earth might take notice of the odd objects in the middle of the Sahara. Anything Aurrian had to be removed or torn apart enough to hide its alien origin.

  “Jeryn,” Milla’s voice came from behind.

  He turned to see the twins, the captain, and the group sent to City A. He would have normally been relieved and congratulatory, but now he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be.

  “You all made it…” he replied. “I’m very glad it went well for you.”

  “How has it been going on your end?”

  “They’re taking care of themselves mostly. Seems the Guard has abandoned this campaign entirely. It’s like they were never here.”

  “We have a few things to talk about…”

  “I figured.”

  “First off, have you ever heard of a Project Renascence?” Osk asked.

  A jitter went through Jeryn. But he simply replied, “No. I haven’t.”

  “He has changed,” Garder whispered to Milla. “Maybe Temki can—”

  “No, Garder. No matter what, we can’t have him read the mind of a friend. It just wouldn’t be right…”

  “Your sense of morality is too strong sometimes.”

  “I’m okay,” Jeryn said suddenly and offered a weak smile. “Go ahead, say what all needs to be said. I’m listening.”

  The twins and Simon gave a brief summary of everything that had happened as the others wandered off in the camp and rested. Jeryn had few questions and seemed to perfectly understand everything that transpired.

  “They will indeed have to move the suppression archive once they dig it out,” Jeryn replied following the debriefing. “It sounds like you did some severe damage down there to a sensitive, important device.”

  “I was at the core of what governs Aurra, though,” Simon said. “Surely I could’ve done much more…”

  “You did what you were told to—which was exactly the right thing to do. Anything more would’ve probably compounded Rivia’s plans. Speaking of Rivia, we should probably get back to him immediately.”

  “We will,” Milla said. “But first we should help clean up here and make sure Osk and his men can get to wherever they need to go safely.”

  “We’ve also got two demirriage scrolls now,” Simon added. “Getting around and splitting up will be a lot easier.”

  “Jeryn, did you want yours back?” Milla reached for it at her side.

  He looked at it for a moment before replying, “No, Milla. You can hang onto it for now. You know how to use it just fine, and your City A access could still prove to be vital.”

  She would have asked why she couldn’t just bring Jeryn there herself, but decided not to try and force answers out at the moment. Something was still deeply troubling him.

  “Hey, guys,” Xavier greeted. “Happy to see you made it back safely.”

  “Oh… hi, Xavier…” Garder replied, unenthusiastically.

  “Um, I just got a message from the men at the crash site. They found something they’re trying to bring back to camp. Some weird device…”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “They requested some help. Whatever it is, it must be heavy. They also wanted someone else to look at it and see if they knew what it was.”

  “Sounds fun… Well, we’ve got nothing else to do, so why not?”

  “I’ll come with you,” Osk said, stopping in mid-step as he was walking by. “I was going to have a look at the wreckage anyway.”

  “Did they say anything about what it could be?” Milla asked.

  “Whatever it is, it’s a machine. That’s pretty much it,” Xavier replied.

  “I’ll have a look at it too, then,” Simon said.

  “Right. Here, take these transponders.” Xavier handed out the four he was carrying. “Keep in close contact, guys. We’re still in a bit of a high alert here—may need to leave at any moment.”

  “Got it, Xavier,” Milla said. “Uh, keep up the good work.”

  “Hope you don’t mind another walk in the desert,” he said with a small laugh and left for the radio tower.

  “That guy,” Garder grumbled. “is not as useful as they come…”

  “Let’s go,” Osk said and began to set off. “One last look around, and we’ll get out of this desert. Let’s make this fast, though—I’ve got prisoners to sort through.”

  Under a far less tense atmosphere than before, the group of five simply walked down the mesa instead of having Jeryn or Osk use a sand serpent for travel. The Palm’s wreckage was relatively contained, though a cache of alchemagi shields the ship had held were spread out a good distance from the impact area. Their reflective blue covers shimmered in the sunlight, and some were slowly being buried under windswept sand.

  There were four men remaining at the crash site, carefully hauling a large metallic dome-shaped object across the dunes. Upon seeing Osk and the others, they set it down so that the captain could look it over.

  “Any idea, Simon?” Osk asked once they had arrived. “It has electronic components, whatever it is.”

  “Yeah…” He knelt down to examine it further. “There’s a small control panel at the bottom… Mostly a bunch of dials.”

  “It hasn’t been damaged much in the crash,” Jeryn noted.

  “It might just be a black box. You know—a flight data recorder.”

  “Aurrian aircraft don’t have those,” Osk replied. “Even if they did, it wouldn’t find much use on a large airship like this. A standard investigation can easily reveal the reasons of its demise. So, it’s probably something else.”

  “I see display lights. It has power,” Simon added.

  “But still no idea what it does yet?” Garder asked.

  “No. Obviously, it’s different from anything on Earth, but it probably has the same function of something you’d find in this world.”

  “Maybe it’s a bomb waiting for someone stupid enough to trigger it.”

  “Wait—I’ve got an intensity dial here. I think this must be some kind of transmitter, but I don’t see a frequency dial at all.”

  “Then it probably runs on a set one,” Osk replied. “Or it was controlled by the ship’s system instead. Is it broadcasting?”

  “I don’t know. It’s got its own power source, so it might be.”

  “Yeah, there isn’t a switch anywhere that indicates if it’s on or anything…” Garder noted. “Just that intensity and external power supply dial, huh? Well, why don’t we turn it up and see what happens?”

  “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

  “But I’m curious. We’ll never know what it does unless we try. Osk?”

  “Well… we are pretty far from the camp.” The captain thought for a moment and looked at his surroundings. “Simon, why don’t you turn the intensity up? Just… do it very slowly.”

  “Ah… okay, Captain…”

  Simon took a deep breath and turned the dial up. After a minute of cautious adjustment, there was still no change, no audible sound, and the radio system still seemed to be working properly. Simon went ahead and turned the dial completely. Nothing at all. A quick check with Xavier also showed nothing being picked up.

  “Well, that was a bust,” Garder sighed. “We should probably just destroy this thing so our Earth brothers don’t confuse it for alien technology or something.”

  “It still might be broadcasting something,” Osk said. “It may be on an ultra-low frequency, though.”

  “Like what submarines use?” Simon replied.

  “Yes. But then what would be the point of bringing it along, unless it was a permanent piece of equipment on the Palm, I wonder…”

  A roar suddenly answered from high above. The distance from the source was enough that by the time the group looked up, the demon’s portal had already closed. It was now seemingly having a tantrum in the sky as it thrashed around, similar in appearance to a panicked snake.

  “The demon…” Milla murmured. “What is it doing here?”

  “Ah, it’s okay,” Garder replied. “It’s been sighted on Earth before, but it only stays at high altitude. It’s not like we can hit it from here, so we might as well just wait for it to leave.”

  It let out another angry bellow, and then several more. Then it wriggled and straightened itself into a vertical stance and began to grow in size—it was dive-bombing directly towards them.

  “It’s the radio!” Simon said. “They must’ve brought it along to lure it to a place they could properly fight it. And we just did the Guard’s task for them. I’ve got to shut this thing off.”

  “Simon, wait,” Garder stopped him. “This might be our chance to take it down. It’s at a disadvantage out here.”

  The four soldiers, after noticing the beast heading directly at them, quickly fled the area. Realizing it was the device the demon would go after first, the group fell back a few hundred feet and took shelter behind a dune.

  As the demon descended, thick black smoke began pouring off its body. It screeched in agony but still continued its drop.

  “That smoke came out of it when I injured it,” Garder explained.

  “Maybe this is why it remains at higher altitude, then,” Milla guessed. “Something about the Earth’s atmosphere hurts it.”

  “Then this really is our best chance,” Simon added. “I don’t know how, but that radio must broadcast a frequency across dimensions. And the demon really doesn’t seem to like it. It’s enduring pain just to get to it.”

  “Then we should protect the radio. If it destroys it, it may leave,” Garder replied. “Milla, try to hit it with a beam. If you can at least disable it enough, we may be able to take it down.”

  “Right,” Milla said and raised her hand.

  “It’s up to you, Milla…” Jeryn offered some encouragement. “I’m still recovering. I’ll use whatever energy I have left for defense.”

  Milla nodded and fired off a few strands of atomized lines. Each took a few moments to form completely, and every time they were thrown at the demon, it managed to evade just in time. She concentrated and began forming the more complex mandala pattern. She formed them in front of her and flung them out, while at the same time, creating some at a distance in effort to overwhelm the creature. But it was faster than a fighter jet, and far more maneuverable. Its wormy body dodged everything thrown at it.

  “It’s no good…” Milla said as she kept trying to land so much as a scratch. “It’s too fast. And its reaction time…”

  “It would have no difficulty dodging my earth-based attacks,” Osk explained. “Maybe a barrage of cannon fire from the Palm would’ve taken it down, but Milla’s lines are too slow and focused to work.”

  Milla gave up for the moment and sunk back behind the dune. “We’ll wait for it to stop moving, then.”

  “Remember, this thing is dangerous. It can even perform its own alchemagi spells,” Garder reminded. “We might be able to hit it when it attacks the transmitter.”

  The demon almost plowed into the wreckage of the Palm. It stopped just above, and then quickly found the device causing it some manner of pain. It slammed its two arms into it repeatedly, scattering pieces all across the sand. All the while, the black smoke pouring off of it thickened. Slowly being exposed under its thick outer skin was another, made up of a pure white. The group didn’t have time to ponder—Milla stood up once again and refocused her energy into further vector lines.

  She surrounded the beast with air-cutting shapes and then brought them into its range. But instead of dodging them, it merely roared and swept out its arms. A powerful gust of extremely hot wind was generated, blowing the lines away and even setting fire to the nearby wreckage. Though the transmitter was gone, the demon made no attempt at retreat. Instead, it found its attackers and glowered at them.

  “Crap…” Garder moaned. “This thing’s a menace.”

  “It’s looking right at us,” Simon replied. “Think it’s going to attack?”

  Osk readied himself to bring up an earthen wall if needed, but the demon remained still as the last of its protective skin’s outer layer faded into the air in a thick, hazy dark mist. It retained its shape, but now looked far sleeker. Etched into its white body were faint circular patterns. For a few more moments, it remained still, floating in the space ahead of the group.

  Then it roared more loudly than before—strong enough to generate another gale. It kept its mouth open after the outrage, and glowing energy began forming within its maw. At first it was only embers, until a revolving three-sided pyramid slowly formed around its teeth. As seconds passed, the pyramid began to glow more vibrantly until it took on a reflective quality.

  “What… what is that?” Garder stuttered.

  Jeryn gasped lightly as he was the first to realize what it was forming. “Can you feel it?” he asked Milla. “The alchemagi in my body is trembling.”

  “Now that you mention it… It feels like I’m being energized or something.”

  “You’re not—you’re being drained. It’s summoning raw alchemagi.”

  “How the hell could it be doing that?” Osk questioned. “Such a thing isn’t possible. We’ve never been able to extract raw alchemagi. It’s always full of impurities—the stuff that gives it an alignment.”

  “I don’t know, but that is what it’s doing.”

  “In theory, isn’t pure alchemagi supposed to form a golden pyramid?” Garder noted. “If so, then this demon can really…”

  “Do you think it’s going to fire that at us?” Simon wondered.

  “I wouldn’t stay to find out. I think we should get out of here.”

  “It’s probably already too late,” Jeryn replied and grabbed a nearby alchemagi shield. “I think all we can do now is take cover.”

  “Right. Get behind the shield, everyone—I’ll get my strongest wall up,” Osk ordered.

  He quickly formed a small, but very compressed and solid dome around the group. The shield remained in the front, acting as a window and a means of diffusing any forward attack. The demon seemed to be unable to move in the charging state it had entered, but it continued to add power to its attack without fear.

  Suddenly, the energy reached a peak, and a sound similar to a jet engine began to erupt in the surrounding area. The air itself began to change. The wind died completely, and the temperature dropped quickly. The pyramid’s revolving movement came to a sudden stop, and the demon let out a low, deep growl as it lingered within its jaws.

  “If it’s just alchemagi, this shield should nullify most of it,” Jeryn explained. “In fact, if it has no other elements at all which could damage the shield, we should be safe.”

  “Whatever is coming, it’ll probably need to recover from it,” Garder added. “Might be the perfect time to strike.”

  For a moment more, the demon remained still. Then it grasped onto the ground with its claws and took up an attack-ready stance. Like flowing ink, the etched patterns on its body filled with a black substance starting from its tail. Once the substance hit its jaws, it began leaking down from its teeth and directly into the powerful golden pyramid. Like a spreading poison, the black liquid quickly covered the raw alchemagi.

  “Now what is it doing?” Garder wondered.

  “I don’t know…” Jeryn murmured back. “It’s adding something. It’s mixing something else in, giving the alchemagi an alignment of sorts?”

  After the pyramid turned to a solid black, the demon slammed its jaws shut around the shape. It let out a hissing sound as steam poured from its nostrils and mouth, and its six eyes turned to a solid black. The sound of an explosion went off from inside the creature, and a shock wave of energy strong enough to part the surrounding sand emanated from its entire body.

  “Oh…” Osk said, now shaken. “That is… going to be really strong.”

  “God, we’ve gotta get out of here,” Garder replied. “Jeryn, Osk—do something. Make one of your sand snake things.”

  “Too late…” Jeryn replied. “Just hang on—it’s going to be bad. But it’s all we can do now. Just hang on…”

  It opened its mouth again. The pyramid was gone, but the buildup of energy remained throughout the beast. Starting from its tail, it launched a halo that traveled down the length of its body. As it moved forward, it went faster and absorbed the inky substance from the creature’s patterns.

  Once the halo hit the snout, it condensed into a single sphere of dark energy and fired out like a missile. The pitch of the sound was deafening. Just a thousand feet away, the sphere would hit the group within seconds.

  “Have to detonate it!” Jeryn shouted and raised his hand.

  He performed a quick spell and created two earthen spires ahead. The sphere passed through the first—vaporizing it in the process. Once it hit the second spire, the sphere unleashed its energy. There was a bright flash, and Jeryn raised the shield up in front of them and held it securely.

  All sound disappeared as the wave of energy covered them. A pure white, super penetrating wide ray of heat ignited around them—and they were just a couple hundred feet from its focal point. The blast lasted for an uncounted few terrifying seconds, during which Osk’s protective dome was chiseled away. Raw alchemagi, amplified and projected, tore apart a large swath of desert. And when it was over, the damage was easily apparent.

  After the vibrant light faded, Jeryn looked around at what was left of the dome. Only the very front of it near the shield was intact. The rear, top, and sides had been completely blasted away. Just a few yards behind them was flattened desert. Looking back, the group could see the full extent of the coverage. Several miles of dunes had been completely demolished. Only in the far distance did the region of the Sahara retain its famous hills.

  The shape of the attack from its center was triangular. Spreading outward from the demon, the affected area was large enough to cover a small city. It was more powerful than the king’s nova spell from earlier. If it were facing the other direction, it might have destroyed the mesa.

  Jeryn let the shield fall forward. It flipped around before it hit the ground, and he could see that the reflective blue alchemagi sealant that once covered it had been scorched away. All that remained was a thin slab of metal. Had the wall of energy persisted for another couple of seconds, the shield probably would have been obliterated—and the group along with it.

  “Well…” Garder coughed. “That’s the second time today we’ve nearly been blown up. Milla—the demon. Please, just kill it, would you?”

  They stood from their position, Osk’s remaining dome falling back into the desert as they did so. Upon noticing that its prey was still alive, the demon let out another angry roar and took to the air again. This time, it seemed to be set on escape rather than further confrontation. It began opening a portal a few hundred feet up, but it seemed to be in a weakened state—the portal was forming quite slowly, very unlike its previous efforts where it simply opened one and flew through a moment later.

  Milla fired off a few vector lines towards the beast, and it squirmed away. It was still too fast to be hit, but it didn’t have enough time to tear open a portal and escape completely.

  “We need something faster,” Simon said. “If I could do anything decent with my solar powers, I might be able to hit it…”

  “But you can’t yet, so we’ll have to settle for something else,” Garder replied and took out Viveri’s sword.

  “What are you thinking?” Milla asked.

  “I may not have a lot of talents, but no one can say I can’t wield a sword, Milla. I can move a blade faster than you can a vector line.”

  “I don’t think it wants to duel you, though,” Simon commented.

  “This is an alchemagi sword. Milla, fill it with vector energy, and I’ll do the rest. Get it?”

  “I do. Right—we’ll work together on this one.”

  Milla poured a small amount of energy into the sword to see if it’d actually work. And it did; a line of glowing green shot out from the sword a few feet. Garder gave it a test swing and discovered that would work just as he had hoped—the line acted as an extension of the sword. It would be just as fast, and all Milla had to do was maintain it.

  “We still need to surprise it,” he explained. “If it sees the line, it’ll still be able to dodge it. Put everything you’ve got into it at the last moment.”

  “Okay. Let’s do it.”

  “I’m going to make some space between us. Remember—wait for the right time. And use vector attacks to guide it to me. This might be our only chance to take it down, Milla… Let’s put some effort into it.”

  Garder ran up a nearby dune, half of which had been carved away by the demon’s attack. Above, it made circles blindly in its rage and efforts to escape. As soon as Garder was at the top, Milla again began firing vector lines at it while Osk prepared another defensive barrier if needed.

  Very carefully, Milla created and fired off her lines and shapes in a way to force the demon into a solitary escape route. Keeping it low to the ground and within range was most important. As Garder waited patiently with sword drawn, the demon’s rage quieted a bit as it instead concentrated on fleeing from Milla’s assault. Whenever it went off course, she’d block it again. It was like keeping the creature in an invisible, ever-shrinking cage.

  Then the moment arrived. The demon let out another angry growl, straightened itself, and made a rush in Garder’s direction. Milla focused on the sword and garnered her remaining energy. If she was too early, the demon might swerve in time and the process would have to start all over again. Too late, and it might be far enough away after the swing that it would have time to open a portal and return to its nest near C.

  “Milla!” Garder called out. “Vector the sword!”

  She held her ground. The demon was determined to escape and did not alter its course an inch. But she had to be sure Garder could land a hit.

  “Milla! Now!” he demanded.

  She waited a moment longer, teeth clenched and heart racing. And at the very last possible moment, she fired her vector energy into the sword at the same time that Garder performed a desperate, hard downward swing.

  Right before the demon would have passed over Garder—its shadow already on him—the sword ignited in a single, powerful beam of green light that towered over a hundred feet. The swing left behind a vibrant trail, and it sliced straight through the airborne leviathan in one blow.

  The demon was ripped completely in half, releasing blasts of energy and viscous plumes of black smoke in the process. It let out one last roar of pain as its two halves separated and flew freely into the air. Either segment then slammed into the ground just a few dozen yards apart. On impact, the remnants of the body exploded into more black smoke, while the white scales fluttered off like butterflies and vanished into the air. Within seconds, the demon was completely gone. At first glance, no trace of it remained.

  “Yeah!” Garder shouted and raised the sword into the air. “Yeah—we got him! We actually got the bastard!”

  Simon and Osk smiled as Milla went up the dune to get a look.

  The impact points were small craters, and all around them were markings where the claws had hit—some of which visibly glistened on the sand. Garder strapped the sword on his back and let out a big sigh of relief.

  “You know, I actually can’t believe that worked…”

  “Me neither, really,” Milla replied. “For some reason, I do feel a little bad about killing it, though. It was one of a kind.”

  “Not if that datastone still exists. I wouldn’t be surprised if another one came after us. At least C is freed from its reign, if only for a little bit.”

  “The claws?” Osk asked after he and the others joined the two.

  “Looks like they survived, yeah.”

  “We should collect them before they’re buried, then.”

  “That’s it, Captain? That’s all the congratulations we get?”

  “You did a good job. Twelve pairs of those claws will certainly aid our efforts. I know Rivia will be delighted—but this won’t mean much if we let the desert swallow our prize.”

  “We’ll help dig them out, but we should go after that,” Milla said tiredly. “We need to meet Shin and Verim back in City N, and… well, I would really like a nice, long bath first.”

  “Geez, sis, you too? It’s always business with serious people like you and the Captain…”

  “Garder—shut up and help us,” Simon added jokingly and went down the dune to assist in gathering the claws.

  Jeryn followed without a word. Garder groaned and joined them. He had just taken down a beast capable of unimaginable power, and there wasn’t so much as a handshake. But he was used to the kind of gratuity and went down himself ungrudgingly.

  The sun was setting again on the Saharan battlefield. With its conflict finally over, a feeling of relief had set into Osk’s men as they speedily took down the remaining camp. Temki, Lechi, and Tanesh were napping, and would have to be woken up soon so the group could move onto City N.

  Osk had eleven pairs of claws safely tucked away—giving one pair to the group as backup. He knew well enough that the Guard must never get their hands on them, and Milla and Garder trusted that he’d pass them out to the right people. Now they’d be parting ways for the time being, but they expected they’d see each other again soon.

  “Well, Captain, it’s, ah… been interesting,” Garder said and shook Osk’s hand. “Guess we’ll report back to Rivia and see what happens over the next few days.”

  “Thanks for letting me help out,” Xavier added.

  “You all did fine work,” Osk replied.

  “Are you sure you don’t need to borrow a demirriage?” Simon asked.

  “Yeah—you hold onto it. I’m going to arrange transport with Pangs after I get an idea of what is going on across Aurra. I’d wager that once you step out of that broken dimension again, the movement will be in full swing. We’ll try to get back together then.”

  “Understood,” Milla replied. “I hope you have a safe flight out of City C, Captain, and I’d be honored to fight under you once more.”

  “See you,” Osk added casually, and then left with a small group of commanding officers.

  “You know, we’re technically finished with Rivia’s mission, and his updated revision of it,” Garder said. “We could probably demand payment now, or maybe a nice vacation.”

  “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Milla replied. “But now we’ve really gone and started something. We have to finish it now, or at least try to.”

  “Think we’ll be recognized as heroes when all this is over with? Like, regardless of who wins? I don’t know if I’d like that or not.”

  “If anything, we’ve at least helped Pangs and his people,” Simon said. “Okay… I’ll wake the kids, and I guess we can be on our way.”

  “Simon, even after everything, you still have a chance to turn back and live a normal Earth life.”

  “And I’d live it regretting not sticking with you guys. If friendship and success is all that matters in life, then logically, I should keep at it.”

  “Wow. That’s so touching.” Garder chuckled.

  Simon smiled and left to get Lechi and Temki while Milla prepped a demirriage to take to London before the sun set completely.

  With the demon gone, the Guard off their back for a brief time, and Osk’s army departing and leaving just the group of traveling friends together, there seemed to a brief moment of normality again. But it was no doubt just a bit of calm before the true storm.