“Let’s bury them,” I said, then walked to the edge of the open plaza and extracted my Earthshaker Maul. With a heavy swing, I slammed it into the ground nearby, triggering its Tremor Strike ability.

  A channel 3 feet deep and 3 yards long ripped open in the stony ground. A pyre would work better anywhere else, but there in rain-drenched Ruin, it would be extremely challenging. I expanded the haft and as soon as the 1-minute cooldown expired, I struck again, deepening the channel to 6 feet.

  “We’ve got this,” Steve said as clones began reverently moving corpses into the trench. “I think you need to go check on Ed.”

  I gripped his shoulder in thanks and headed over. Ed was sitting up, muscle-bound torso still bare as he hugged Jane and wept into her shoulder. Ruby stood next to Tomas, and they turned as I approached. Only then did I realize Tomas’s arm was still sheathed in metal.

  “You couldn’t regrow it?”

  Tomas extended the gleaming silver limb, rotating the hand and flexing the fingers. He watched the movement with a look of wonder. “We did better than that.”

  “It’s amazing,” Ruby said, stepping around Tomas to my side. “I applied my limb regrowth potion at the same time he used his cyborg class.”

  Tomas’s smile widened. “The 2 melded beautifully. My Deus Ex Machina spell, along with my Biomancer and Cyborg abilities and that regeneration potion combined to make an even better arm.

  Whoa. I studied the metallic arm that honestly kind of resembled the boss metal arm of the Winter Soldier. Surprisingly, Identify triggered.

  Cyborg arm. Rare. Crafted by a talented surgeon with a creative mind, this melding of aethersteel and flesh resulted in a biomechanical construct that exceeds the sum of its parts. As the first cyborg limb crafted by anyone from Earth, strength, durability, and regeneration doubled.

  I whistled softly. “That sounds amazing.”

  “Got a cool loot box and a title that boosts my cyborg abilities,” Tomas added.

  “How does it feel?”

  He laughed. “Totally natural. Can you believe it?” He slid his other hand down the smooth metal. I can feel the touch, but it’s super tough and has self-heal!”

  “That’s totally boss. I’m glad you’re okay.”

  The limb was super cool, but was it good to transform into a biomechanical person? Tomas looked so thrilled, I forced aside my concern. Arasha was making us all do mind-boggling things. Tomas becoming part cyborg was no weirder than me being able to regenerate after having most of my body destroyed time after time.

  “Saved my life too,” Ed said, heaving himself to his feet, wiping away tears, although rain was already pouring down his face. His bare chest still bore a small, golden metallic plate directly over his heart. He tapped it and gave Tomas a weak smile. “This thing is a miracle.”

  “Is that permanent?” I asked.

  He nodded and Tomas explained. “I activated my Deus Ex Machina spell to help save his life by fusing a manavine alloy chest plate I designed yesterday to his body. It increases regeneration and adds a huge defense boost.”

  “Just in time to keep that lightning bolt from blowing me to bloody bits.” Ed shook his head in wonder. “I was just waking up when that thing hit. I felt it ripping me apart, but that manavine chest plate deflected a lot of the hit at the cost of the mana I can’t even use right now instead of health points.”

  I’d never heard of manavine or aethersteel, hadn’t even realized they were in that bundle of rare metals I’d shared with Tomas. Good thing he’d been doing his homework and preparing for emergencies.

  I pulled Ed into a hug. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  “Thanks to all of you.” His voice cracked with emotion. He might have a broken class, but he was still immensely strong for a tier-0 baby human. He squeezed me hard and new tears glistened in his eyes when he released me.

  “We’re just glad we got here in time to save at least one of you,” Jane said.

  Ed sighed and turned to look over the murdered remains of his companions that Steve’s clones were still moving to the mass grave, most of our group gathered around him, sharing quiet comfort.

  Ruby stepped to my side, placed a hand on my arm, and studied my face. “Are you okay?”

  “Probably not, but I’m not hurt. This was such a mess. I still don’t understand what happened to Burns.”

  She sighed and stepped closer, wrapping her arms around my waist and pressing her face to my shoulder. I looped an arm around her back and we held each other for a moment.

  “Thanks for helping save Ed and Tomas.”

  She nodded silently, then whispered, “Even if we win, I worry this game is going to destroy us all.”

  “Not if we remember what’s important,” I said softly back, squeezing her just a bit closer. “Family, friends, and as you like to remind me all the time, our humanity.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Steve joined us, but for once did not comment on me and Ruby comforting each other. Instead, he announced, “Finished the burial as best I can.”

  We moved to stand in a somber line over the mounded earth grave for a moment of silence.

  “I feel like we should say something,” Jane said.

  Everyone looked to Tomas. I don’t think I could have come up with anything, but he was so good at empathy. He stood silently for several seconds, staring down at the grave.

  Finally he said, “These friends fell today because some people forgot compassion, forgot that our greatest strength lies in our unity and teamwork. No one person is going to save Earth, but all of us working together, united in purpose, trusting each other to fight and sacrifice together. Today we failed to protect our own, but we will use this painful lesson as motivation to try harder and do better and never give up, no matter the sacrifice.”

  That was a good speech, and exactly the right words. I would have butchered the moment, but Tomas had captured it, acknowledged the pain of the moment, and gently redirected our focus to a better future. Sometimes having such a talented older brother was just what the world needed.

  Together, we cheered, and Andy even raised his sword high and shouted, “Here here!”

  Jane floated off the ground to give Tomas a deep kiss. When she let him go, she cupped his face with one hand and said, “God, I love you!”

  “Can’t be married soon enough,” he agreed.

  She nodded, but sighed. “Not today, though. Not after all this.”

  “We could use a party,” Steve countered.

  Tomas shook his head, slipping his arm around Jane’s shoulder. “Jane is right. We don’t want our special day tied to this disaster for the rest of our lives. We’ll push it out another day or two.”

  “That’s becoming a bad habit,” Steve pointed out.

  Tomas shrugged. “We’ll find the time, don’t worry.

  Ruby took my hand in hers and I gave it a gentle squeeze. That was enough for now. Neither of us said anything, but held the grip for a few seconds before parting.

  I summoned my floating patio for the trip back to town, raising a rain canopy over the entire thing. I added cheery, glowing heat lamps on each corner and a large fire pit with a crackling fire in the middle, surrounded by comfortable lounge chairs. Instead of using Switchblade to tow us, Jane used her Mind Flight spell to push the patio south.

  I also raised a small table with stacks of dessert plates and tiny forks, then extracted one of the many giant gourmet desserts I’d taken from Velexis’s boss lair. I chose a large, round cake a full 3 feet across, coated with shiny chocolate and with small flower petals sprinkled across the top that glowed faintly yellow.

  Gloompetal Torte. Rare. A decadent layered cake with thin sheets of dark sponge alternating with creamy midnight ganache. Each slice imbues Velvet Resolve.

  Velvet Resolve. Temporarily soothes emotional distress, while boosting Mental Resistance and Fear Resistance by 50% for 45 minutes.

  “That looks good,” Steve said, appearing beside me instantly, followed half a second later by Nigel landing lightly on my shoulder.

  I explained where I got the dessert and shared the description for those like Ruby who hadn’t gotten the Linguasight utility spell.

  “Well, cut it already,” Jane urged, a large kitchen cleaver appearing in her hands, which she proffered to me.

  In seconds, everyone held small plates overflowing with giant pieces of the huge cake. The first bite confirmed I’d made a good choice. The layers of sweet and dark chocolate, separated by silky ganache with a strong black cherry taste, melted in the mouth, while a sense of contented peace spread through me.

  I sighed and settled back into my seat, eating slowly, enjoying the mental relief as much as the dessert. We’d saved Ed, but so many others had died, and we’d been forced to kill a man who had been a friend. The town would suffer for his loss, and we couldn’t afford to lose more people. While eating the cake, all those worries and the emotional trauma of the last hour faded a little.

  Ed returned to the table for a second piece, but Steve beat him to it. Three clones appeared in line behind Steve too. Could they get buffs to help expand the benefits for him, or did they actually like cake?

  “Nice play, Steve,” Ruby said, clearly making an effort to tease. “Can you redirect all the new belly fat you’ll be acquiring from eating so much cake to your clones too?”

  He slapped his rock-hard stomach. “It’ll take more than cake to make me flabby now.”

  Ed saluted me with his second piece. “I needed this more than I realized, Lucas. Thanks.”

  We ate in silence as we drifted slowly south. As I sat back in my soft chair after finishing my own third piece, I forced myself to check the loot I got from Liz and Adam, although I was tempted to just tell Jeeves to sell it all sight-unseen. I couldn’t ignore the fact that they might have something one of us could use, though.

  “What the . . . ?” I whispered as I scanned the long list of single-use temporary spells.

  Right. Liz’s class was all about creating spell scrolls. Why hadn’t she attacked us with more of them? It wouldn’t have saved her, but might have hurt someone. Most of the spells were fairly basic. I wouldn’t use them, but I could drop them off at the town store.

  I didn’t want to discuss loot aloud, so I sent a message to the team, listing some of the available scrolls. That got me some questioning looks. Everyone wanted to relax and enjoy that comforting peace the cake had helped us find, so they messaged back instead of talking.

  Jane asked for a couple Dazzle Burst spells that acted like flash-bang grenades, while Steve asked for every elemental-focused basic spell to split among his clones. Ruby took 1 to boost defense by 25%, and Lana asked for a couple basic shield spells.

  Neither Liz nor Adam had a last chance life-saving item. Burns had hoarded all those for himself. One final item from Liz did intrigue me. It was a heavy, leather tome, and when I pulled it out of my inventory to inspect, it looked just like those wizard tomes featured in D&D books, or fantasy movies. The pages were empty. For now.

  Tome of the Callback. Rare. A customized adaptation of Elizabeth Stevenson’s unique spell-creation tome. Will record each unique, synergized spell created by your class as a single-use temporary spell that can be cast without draining more uses of the original temporary spells.

  Note: Tome is limited to 3 recorded spells.

  Note: With great benefits come some sacrifices. You are now limited to a maximum of 7 temporary spells in addition to the recorded spells in the Tome of Callback.

  That was . . . Impressive. Despite how much I wanted to wash my hands of Burns and his followers and anything they might have once owned, I couldn’t ignore the power of that tome. My unique, synergized spells were the strongest aspect of my rare class. They unlocked entire magnitudes more power, but most I only got to use once or maybe twice before I ran out of the temporary spells needed to create them.

  Now I’d get another use for each one. That added another important component to my stable of temporary spells. I was acquiring a very diverse list, and I’d need every last one to defeat Queen Marisara.

  The new limitation on the number of temporary spells was an onerous limitation, though. I currently had 8 temporary spells, including that most recent Bands of Despair. Was it worth dropping one of those to have additional uses of mighty synergized spells?

  I considered it for a moment and sighed. It totally was. Those synergized spells were usually entire magnitudes more powerful than the temporary spells I used to create them. So I briefly scanned my list of temporary spells. Most of them were great, and I didn’t want to lose them, but my gaze fell on Knock Knock.

  The silly joke spell had actually helped, but it wasn’t vital. So with a sigh, I cast the last two remaining uses of Knock Knock down into the ruins beneath us. The overly enthusiastic voices called up from broke buildings.

  “Knock Knock!”