Bloodcrete: Chapters 21-22 (The Weirkey Chronicles) (Patreon)

Welcome to some new patrons! It's unusual to get such a run of new people at the end of the month... was TWC promoted somewhere or something? Regardless, glad to have you here!

More chapters this week. We are entering the final section of the book, which means that you guys will have a lot of bouncing around and cliffhangers. I think these sequences are generally successful climaxes when read together in the books, but in the meantime please endure it. ^-^'

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Chapter 21

With the House of the Lost missing, the balance had shifted, and Theo thought it was permanently unstable. New forces from Norro Yorthin arrived every day, each representing a new House, which would only make the Asplundat Movement increasingly uncomfortable. It was only a matter of time until they would feel the need to strike back.

While training with Fiyu and Guchiro, they all sensed that hidden reserves of bloodcrete were beginning to be moved out for use. Apparently he'd only stopped one of the later shipments. When the Norro Yorthin forces noticed this, they would be pushed to attack before their opponent was ready. 

Theo considered whether there was an advantage to telling them, but he kept silent, because House Blacksilver was working to shield the local Fithans. There was no time for a full evacuation, especially because all Authorities were preserving their strength. Instead a circular defensive field was built around one of the largest farms, which would protect them only until a Stronghold decided to flatten the entire thing.

There was only time for brute soulcrafting work, but he had excellent materials: the House of the Lost had left him with sublime materials well-suited to abstract designs. The mass of flesh now occupied one of his enhancement chambers, intertwining his body and soul - not a Corporeal Floor, but the next best thing. He'd been puzzled by the powerful but distorting shape until he realized that it would be perfect for an acclimatization chamber. It could help his body adapt to lethal circumstances, from the arid wastes of Arbai to mind-melting hellscapes.

Placing those materials meant that his soulhome was finally completely filled with sublime materials. Unfortunately, the new strength they added made it even more difficult to harness the true power of his singularity. When he tried to bring out its full potential, it resonated so strongly with everything else that it threatened to shake his soulhome apart.

In a sense he was a victim of his own success. To wield this much power, it wasn't enough to throw materials together like in his first life - every detail needed to be perfect. Theo feverishly worked on his outer gates until they didn't rattle even slightly under his full power. But the corner pieces still struggled to maintain his spherical flow, so they needed even more polish...

All of the work only emphasized what he already knew: this wasn't enough for Authority. His strength was probably near the absolute peak he could reach at Ruler, especially if he could harness his full singularity, but he wasn't ready to ascend. Reaching Authority in time for the battle would be impossible unless something unbelievable happened...

No matter how Theo thought about the upcoming conflict, there were too many variables to control. So, even though he wanted to spend more time polishing his new chambers, he decided that he needed to venture out to the House of Coin camp. They had retreated even further, because they could see the writing on the wall as well as he could.

He approached in the air to let them see him, and Kathina emerged from their camp to intercept.

"Unless you're here to join us," she said, "you're wasting your time. This situation is a disaster waiting to happen."

"That's exactly why you need to invest in it," Theo argued as he landed in front of her. "The Dustwind Plateaus offer a buffer between the Ruling Cities and the Asplundat Movement, but they could be more. Your House is still upset about the trade you lost in Asplundat territory, right? What if you had a neutral party to conduct it through?"

"That would be great, but my superiors have already written it off." Kathina crossed her arms and scowled at him. "The entire region, I mean. There won't be any plateaus left by the time this is done."

"You think there's so little chance of a peaceful resolution?"

"They probably won't go to war over this, but the battle will do enough damage. And there are other factors."

Theo stepped closer and raised his eyebrows. "You said that as a prelude to explaining, right? Your House was trying to recruit me before, and you have to see that I'm going to be ascending to Authority soon."

"We believe this is House Crimson's final gambit." Kathina stepped beside him and inclined her head toward the small vessel where Wiltur waited. "Wiltur had already pushed the House of the Lost out of Norro Yorthin, and now he seems to have gotten rid of them entirely."

"They left for their own reasons."

"It doesn't matter. Whatever reason they're gone, it means that he's unopposed. He's been campaigning hard across the Ruling Cities, and if this works out for him, he'll have too much political capital. If we try to oppose him in Norro Yorthin, he can cut us off entirely. The House of Coin prefers a provisional foothold in such an important city to being cast out, so we'll be withdrawing."

House Crimson having complete control of Norro Yorthin was another unacceptable outcome, but her words inspired a different idea in Theo. "You might not be the ranking officer here, but I'm guessing you have the Authority's ear, don't you?"

"My star has been waning since I missed the Wargames, but I still have that."

"Then make a small investment in potential other outcomes. You have access to all kinds of Fithan sublime materials that won't do the slightest thing to help you oppose Wiltur's political power. But give those materials to me, and I can give you everything you want. A risk, but the potential upside will be worth it."

Kathina snorted. "You have a high opinion of yourself, don't you?"

"No, listen." Theo explained what he intended and saw Kathina's expression shift from open disregard to curiosity. He wanted to push the deal home but stayed silent and let her think about it. Eventually Kathina sighed and gave a weary shrug.

"I suppose if I'm running out of chips, I might as well gamble big. We can negotiate for the materials."

"Thanks for this, Kathina."

"You want to thank me, make the gamble pay off."

~ ~ ~

Though Friend Theo seemed obsessed with many soulcrafting projects, for the most part he was very diligent in his work on a gravity sense. Fiyu enjoyed working with him a great deal, in part because their senses would be complementary once his was mature. An even more enjoyable aspect was speaking to him about her own design: he might not be able to make major improvements to her relative's blueprint, but he had significant advice for individual rooms of her third floor.

Eventually she would develop new techniques there, and the Siatan feathers were already in place on her Corporeal Floor to create living darkness just like Relative Guchiro. But given the scope of the battle ahead of them, Fiyu focused all of her work on enhancement chambers. She already had many of the sublime materials she needed, so she focused on getting them in place to strengthen herself.

Her most substantial improvement was using the subliminalsteel to form a casing on her third floor chamber. It had been carried with her ever since the Chasm of Lamentations, too intense to fully install, but now she had a strong basis for her third floor room. Once she found the proper central material, it would immensely strengthen her ability to use her storms of light. She also moved all her sublime foods from their temporary place in her warmth chamber to the room that would become her full Nine Worlds Feast on the third floor.

It was difficult to work so hastily instead of taking each step carefully, but everyone acknowledged it was the correct decision. She found herself eager to test her new strength sparring, though that was too great a risk. If only Friend Nauda had been there as well, they could have all prepared a joint strategy for any potential battle.

The Strongholds remained still, watching one another for a weakness. At times it felt like they could attack at any moment, while at others it seemed they would stay in place forever. Some in the Blacksilver camp began to speak about opening negotiations again and talking down the entire conflict.

Random chance intervened, and the battle began.

Fiyu actually felt the inciting incident, and it was almost silly. An Asplundat soulcrafter had been trying to ascend to Ruler to prepare for the battle, and the ascension went wrong. When the cantae flooding from above cracked their soulhome walls, the soulcrafter panicked and ended up releasing a beam into the physical world.

Unfocused cantae wasn't immensely dangerous, and it would have been harmless if it had only gone skyward. But by sheer chance, the beam clipped one of the new arrivals' chariots, which crashed into the plateau. Anxious soulcrafters all over the battlefield assumed the worst and began to move. Faction leaders saw that it was too late to contain the chaos, so they began to give orders before their enemies could take advantage.

House Blacksilver at least avoided complete panic, readying themselves near the large defensive circle around the local farms. Fiyu thought this was quite sensible, since they could defend local allies while also using the circle to their advantage. She saw Friend Theo breaking apart boulders and sending them into the air, preparing to drop them on the first attackers.

"Just where is Dhan?" Associate Karchibol floated by her, yelling at everyone in range. "Is he going to abandon us at every opportunity?"

Extending her senses, Fiyu eventually discovered Associate Dhan meditating within a shielding circle in the Blacksilver camp. She opened her mouth to tell Associate Karchibol not to worry, but he had already rushed onward, yelling at younger soulcrafters who weren't repairing the defenses quickly enough for his liking.

While she was scanning the battlefield, Fiyu checked on the others. Her relative stood oddly still beside one of the plateau's edges, so she went to check on him. Otherwise she found everyone she expected except for Associate Krikree. Had she crawled down into the canyons for some reason? Fiyu extended her senses in that direction and couldn't find her nearby.

Meanwhile, she had arrived beside her relative. His eyes were closed and he spoke to her in a whisper. "Fiyu. Do you feel the same thing?"

"I will try." She did her best to follow his sensory technique and was led deep into the plateaus. Eventually she found a location with very strange perturbations. Almost like an minor tremor in the earth, yet localized... Fiyu gasped. "Is that the demonic artifact?"

"I am uncertain, but I think it must be in that region." Relative Guchiro placed a hand on her shoulder without opening his eyes. "Finding it would be one of the most significant actions we could take to prevent this conflict. You need to buy me time."

Fiyu hastily nodded to him and rushed back to join the others. In her brief absence, the violence had already escalated: bolts of cantae passed through the sky overhead. A storm was rolling in from the unseen ocean to the west, so quickly that Fiyu suspected it must be manipulation by the depths Stronghold. By the time she had reached her other allies, all the battles overhead were lit up against dark clouds.

On the ground, a group of Asplundat soulcrafters was advancing toward the Blacksilver camp. It seemed they were ignoring the defensive circle protecting the farmers, but they might betray such standards later in the battle. Fiyu located Friend Theo as quickly as possible and caught his attention before he focused on the battle.

"Theo! My relative believes he may have found the artifact!"

"Where?" Friend Theo gave her almost all his attention, but he also watched the Asplundat advance. "It might be too late to stop this, even with proof."

"But the demons will be increasing while everyone ignores them. If we destroy the artifact, at least they cannot grow beyond anyone's ability to stop."

He nodded and listened as she described the location her relative was testing. She saw his frown and knew he was likely examining it as well, but his senses would never pinpoint something that deceived even her relative.

One of the Asplundat leaders called for an attack and the enemy forces leapt to close the distance. At that moment, Friend Theo released his technique and the boulders began plummeting to the earth. Several Asplundat soulcrafters were crushed and others thrown back by the shattering impacts. 

"There are even more above," Friend Theo called as he rose into the air. "Take your battle away from the civilians."

"You think that will stop us?" One of the enemy Rulers raised a fist and a shield of gray rock began to form over his head. The next boulder to fall struck it and was repelled, and the Ruler laughed. "I saw this technique when you fought for the other Ruling Cities. You thought we wouldn't adapt?"

"But will it be enough?" Friend Theo dropped another boulder, beside the shield instead of on top of it. The broad gray stone swung down, intercepting the fragments. Not only that, it repelled them toward the Blacksilver forces. If Friend Theo continued dropping rocks, he would soon be devastating his own forces.

Fiyu was the first to feel something shift behind the Asplundat shield: a form detached from the boulders that had fallen behind the enemy forces. Associate Krikree exploded from her hiding place, all four limbs wheeling around her. Enemy soulcrafters fell on all sides, and her spear pierced the Ruler's stomach.

As the gray stone began to crumble, the other Blacksilver soulcrafters let out a cheer and began unleashing cantae bolts into the enemy force. Fiyu raised her hands to join the attack, but she was concerned about Associate Krikree. So far she was dodging around the cantae bolts, but at any moment she might be struck by her own allies.

"Wait..." Friend Theo raised a hand beside his head, held it for several seconds, then clenched it. "Now!"

Fiyu unleashed a full storm of light and was relieved to see Associate Krikree fall up into the air just before it arrived. Her attack couldn't pierce the armor of Rulers, but it sent them staggering back, making them a greater target for all the others. It seemed that the first encounter had ended in a total victory.

The next one wouldn't be so clean. Associate Karchibol was currently fighting with an Asplundat Authority overhead, Associate Janne had tried to help before being intercepted by another attacker, and Associate Dhan wasn't even within her range. There were more Asplundat forces arriving, just as large as the first, and these spread out to engulf the Blacksilver forces.

No forces had moved near Relative Guchiro, who was still searching for the demonic artifact. That almost made Fiyu feel hopeful... until she sensed a new force floating toward them.

Over a dozen blue-robed soulcrafters flew atop a circle of blue metal: there was no question they represented the Order of the Deepest Blue. At the front stood an enormous Authority with blue metal bands wrapped all around his body: bands around his head, his biceps, his legs, even his stomach beneath his robes.

Fiyu felt all his muscles clench at once. She tried to call out a warning, but it was too late: a fault line opened in the earth, blue cantae exploded heavenward, and the plateau cracked in half.

-

Chapter 22

Theo had been aware of a concentration of mass overhead, but awareness hadn't given him any real warning. His sense of gravity had been nearly overwhelmed by all of the Authorities swooping overhead and it was a struggle just to keep track of the Strongholds. Aside from the enormous sphere of stone containing the Asplundat leader, he'd begun to lose them.

Then the rift erupted and the battle exploded in all directions. Many of the forces on the ground had been thrown into the air and scattered into other fights, and even the Authorities had been knocked away by the shockwave. The instant the Order of the Deepest Blue had arrived, they had scattered all of the defensive formations he'd planned.

His coat mostly dissipated the impact before it harmed his body, but the force had still knocked him into the air. Theo hurtled back over one of the canyons as he struggled to use an anchoring point and gravitational fields to eliminate his momentum. By the time he stopped his flight, the battle was scattered beyond recovery.

It looked like the ring around the local farms had been undamaged. Some Blacksilver soulcrafters retreated to it while others tried to set up new positions. The only consolation was that the attack seemed to have disrupted the Asplundat movement nearly as much.

He pinpointed those who mattered: Fiyu was retreating from the chaos to join up with her relative and Krikree was fighting her way through the press in his direction. 

Mass flickered toward him and Theo turned just in time for the stone golem to smash into him.

His coat protected him from the impact, but they were sailing backward toward another plateau and the golem was trying to crush him in a bear hug. Theo managed to push it back just enough to free one arm and unleashed a cantae bolt, blowing off part of the stone arm. He prepared a second and placed his hand against the golem's face.

"Wait." It was Homez's voice, and the arms loosened as he spoke. "I just needed to get you clear to talk."

Theo didn't release the bolt. "Then talk."

"Our Stronghold is a reasonable woman. She hasn't given permission for anyone to use the bloodcrete on site, in the hope that the battle can be ended peacefully. But I need some sort of proof."

"Give us more time." Theo pushed away and cast a gravitational field to suspend them both in the air. "Right now, two of my allies are tracking down what is likely the demonic device. If you let them show it to your leader, that might be the only thing that could work."

"Promises aren't enough." Homez wasn't taking any offensive actions, but he was repairing the damage to his stone armor while they spoke. "Let me know where they are. If we find the artifact together, it would be an even better token of peace."

Even if Homez meant well, his superiors might not. Theo didn't want to expose Fiyu to more risk and was considering alternate lines of negotiation when his hand was forced.

The Deepest Blue Authority leapt from the primary battle, flying after Fiyu and her relative. Janne rose from the canyon and closed a hand of dust and cantae around him, but the Authority burst free with such force that the hand shattered and Janne was sent tumbling backwards. He was going to catch up soon and the others likely couldn't stop him.

From a distance Theo couldn't discern anything about the man's soulhome, but he didn't need rigorous analysis to see that he was stronger than average. All of the blue metal bands around his body appeared to reinforce him with both strength and cantae. It was an armament-heavy blueprint, but cleverly designed: all the bands were basically copies of the same armament, so they didn't consume all of his available space.

If Theo had ascended, he could think of counter-strategies, but given the gap and the lack of time...

"That Authority is chasing my allies," Theo told Homez. "They're moving directly toward the device, but they won't arrive if he catches up. You want more trust, offer some."

"We stop him and get the artifact together." Homez released a flood of cantae through his feet that propelled him down to a nearby plateau.

There was no time to check him: Theo needed to stop the Deepest Blue soulcrafter from catching up. He hurled a series of torsion bolts with one hand while generating a singularity ahead of his target with the other. As he'd feared, the torsion bolts splashed off harmlessly: a few of the bands glowed briefly as they deflected the cantae, and that was all.

His singularity could have done some damage, but he didn't get a chance. Before he could fully form it, the Authority hurled a blue lance. The denser cantae tore through his before the singularity could generate any effects... and the Authority spun toward him.

"Outsider!" The man clenched a fist, his arm flexing and making the bands around it glow. "All the bodies from this battle lie at your feet!"

Another lance tore toward him and Theo barely dodged aside. He might have struggled to dodge the next, but at that moment Homez leapt up and landed on the metal disc carrying the Authority. Before the man could strike him, Homez grabbed his wrists and began to squeeze the bands.

Even strengthened by his stone armor, Homez was losing. The Deepest Blue Authority grinned at him savagely and began a retaliatory technique, which was when Theo struck. He anchored Homez and cast a reversed field at his opponent. Homez caught on to the movement and used that moment to hurl him off his platform and down into the dust storm.

Clearly, that hadn't killed the cult Authority, and probably hadn't even caused a significant injury. Krikree was still too far away to be much help, and Guchiro had traveled on. Theo didn't see an easy win...

And that was when an enormous hand reached out of the dust. He briefly hoped it was Janne again, but this one was made of flesh and intensely demonic. The demon titan pulled its way out of the storm of dust, hatred in its eyes, and began to lurch toward the battle.

He'd been concerned the demons would be ignored for too long during the battle, but he had been too optimistic. They had already reached critical mass. Beneath the dust, he could feel hundreds of demons rushing to the sacrifice.

~ ~ ~

"It wasn't luck." Relative Guchiro had been carrying her silently while they focused on their target, so his abrupt words alarmed Fiyu.

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't happen to locate the artifact when the battle started. It revealed itself when it began working more intensely."

"Oh." Fiyu knew that meant the demons were preparing to enter the battle, and she could imagine the terrible insectoid leader making plans. When she reached backwards, she could sense a titan climbing out of the dust.

That was already bad enough. An Authority was usually more than a match for a demon titan, but they could still be threatened by one, especially in the middle of a battle. Worse, based on the sheer number of demonic bodies she could sense, that was unlikely to be the last titan to enter the fighting.

Four plateaus had extended corners that met in a sea of dust. Her relative flew lower toward it, and Fiyu could finally sense what he did: there was a pulsating source of power there. It didn't feel like a demon itself, but the demons were crawling into reality all around it. She understood what he meant: it had been buried to hide itself and only become obvious when it began operating at full power.

But they had found it now. All they needed to do was destroy it, and then...

And then another titan rose out of the dust storm. It was so tall that just straightening its back meant that its head broke free. Even worse, the demon leader rode on its shoulder. Its fractured eyes had been fixed on the battle, but now it turned toward them and Fiyu held her breath.

Her relative didn't hesitate, of course. He launched a concentrated wedge of light bolts, both stronger and more focused than her own. It tore through the demons along the path to the titan... but the largest demon drew an enormous club from out of the smoke. The weapon was formed from the same unnatural matter as the demons, and it weathered even her relative's attack without meaningful damage.

Then that club swung around, faster than anything that size had any right to. Fiyu's heart leapt up into her throat as she was jerked back and out of range. The club continued on, plowing through the edge of a nearby plateau just as easily as through the smoke.

"I could defeat it," Relative Guchiro said, "but it will cost time."

Fiyu searched behind her, trying to comprehend the battlefield in an instant. They had moved some distance from the Blacksilver defenses, so the titan wouldn't be threatening the civilians immediately. Eliminating a titan from the battlefield would have an impact, but the other demons and the artifact might summon even more in that time. She knew too little, it was impossible to make a decision...

"Pass it." Fiyu surprised herself when she spoke, but perhaps her friends had rubbed off on her. Yet it hadn't been just an impulse: capturing the artifact could potentially stop all the soulcrafters as well, and unifying them against the demons would be the ideal conclusion.

Yet when Relative Guchiro attempted to fly over the titan, he was forced to dodge around several sharp spikes. The insect was still watching them, releasing attacks and directing the titan. Soon the club came up again, sweeping a broad arc designed to intercept their paths forward...

And it stopped. Fiyu stared at the frozen club for a moment, only to feel a familiar presence behind her.

A colossal acorn flew over the top of the plateaus, like Fiyu hadn't seen since Tatian. Friend Nauda stood atop it, her staff thrust forward. From such a distance, she had only been able to bind the titan's club for a moment, but it was enough.

Relative Guchiro swept forward with Fiyu, flashing underneath the giant's arm. She instinctively unleashed a lightstorm against the insectoid demon, but it skittered away to the other side of the titan's head. Fortunately, at such close range her bolts burned deep into the demon's unnatural flesh. As she flashed on with her relative, she caught a glimpse of it staggering to the side.

Even though their true target was drawing closer and closer, Fiyu couldn't help but look back to her companion. Fiyu was afraid for her, flying directly toward the titan like that. There was something unusual about the density of the acorn, but she knew it was only a weak sublime material with levitation effects.

The titan swept its club, the acorn smashed apart, and a liquid exploded from the hollow core. It splashed over all the demons and even the titan staggered back as the acid ate into its skin.

Better yet, Friend Nauda had leapt just before the club struck. From her position in the air, she used her staff to bind the insectoid demon as it skittered away. She leapt off the titan's shoulder and backflipped into the air, whipping the smaller demon around to smash into the titan's chest. Even from a great distance, Fiyu could feel its body collapse.

She desperately wanted to go back and greet Friend Nauda, but her relative pulled her forward. He was correct, of course. They were nearing the demonic artifact, but a third titan was rising and there were more demons in their path. Her companions had taken her this far, so she needed to fight alongside them.

~ ~ ~

If Nauda had been able to fly, she would have been really proud of herself. As it was, she flailed backward from the impact and only barely hit the side of one of the plateaus. She managed to pull herself up one-handed and sprang back to her feet, bringing her staff into a defensive position.

The Slescan acid had burned away much of the titan's chest, and she'd delivered enough force to the weakest point to knock it over. That wouldn't be enough. A demon titan was typically considered stronger than a Ruler could handle, and given how they relied on brute force, she was a terrible match-up for one. But whatever Fiyu had been doing, it had clearly been important.

Despite the battle, Nauda couldn't help but think about how happy Fiyu had been when the smaller demon died. Nauda hadn't really thought about targeting it, she just wanted to kill the slippery demon before it could escape. Given the expression on Fiyu's face, she wished there was another one.

Instead, all she had was the titan rising back out of the dust. Dark ichor dripped from its chest, but there was nothing like a heart there, only knotted flesh. Without any other demons to guide it, the being focused on the nearest threat, and that was her.

The club rose overhead, Nauda braced herself... and a stone hammered down into the demon's skull with terrible force.

Theo flew in beside her with Krikree riding his back. She launched herself forward and the little Slescan landed on the titan's arm, just beside its club. Her weapons dug in when it tried to shake her off, but its other hand was coming around to grasp her...

Nauda thrust out her staff again, binding the titan's arm in place. This time it focused on her, and it broke through her control even more swiftly. But in that time, Krikree managed to hack deep into its other hand and the club fell heavily to earth.

Even with all three of them working together, it was closer than Nauda would have wanted. Several times the titan nearly caught hold of her or Krikree. But in the end, after the demon had been bombarded and cut from all sides, it staggered and fell. All of them needed a moment to catch their breath, but they hadn't been injured.

"How did you get here?" Theo asked. 

"I couldn't use the Fithan weirkey, but Nanjuma could take me to someone who could. I'd have been back before the battle if I hadn't had to fly all the way here." Nauda quickly brushed aside all future questions and pointed out into the dust. "What is Fiyu doing?"

Theo rapidly explained the stakes of the battle to her as they watched for further attacks from the main body of the fighting. There were some demons reaching the battlefield now, but they were largely being annihilated by Rulers. Only a single titan had attempted to attack any of the soulcrafters there, which she thought boded ill given how many they could summon.

It seemed their best hope was to buy time for Fiyu and her relative to find the artifact summoning the demons. Theo suspected that the Order of the Deepest Blue knew about it and was trying to prevent its destruction, which struck her as plausible. The only soulcrafters to leave the battle to come toward them were all blue-robed, but the three of them combined could fight them off.

"Their leader is tougher," Theo said during a brief lull. "You can't miss him; he wears blue metal bands. I don't suggest fighting him directly: Homez tried to go hand-to-hand and was overpowered."

"Homez is here too?"

"We got separated while fighting that Authority."

Nauda hoped that Homez was alright, but really she should have been concerned for herself. Multiple Strongholds were clashing within the storm clouds overhead, their power lighting them up in a lurid storm. Most of their power was focused on one another, but at one point a crimson sphere escaped and obliterated one of the plateaus, consuming an entire company of Asplundat soulcrafters.

If even one of them had come to eliminate the titans, they could have ended the demon threat immediately... but of course none of them would be willing to give an inch for the common good.

The primary battle was between Wiltur and the Asplundat Stronghold hidden within an enormous stone sphere. It seemed impervious to all blasts, but as Nauda watched, crimson hooks bit deep into the sides and pushed it down beneath the clouds.

When the Asplundat Stronghold retaliated, her blasts tore apart the clouds and briefly revealed the sky. Wiltur hovered in the gap, far smaller than the stone sphere but surrounded by more cantae. He continued dodging the blasts, firing more bright hooks into the stone sphere. They seemed to do little good, yet they must be leading toward something.

Then he clenched a fist and the hooks began straining in opposite directions. The stone sphere shuddered, its retaliation briefly stopping as it tried to resist. Wiltur swung his other hand overhead, sweeping one finger like a blade. A crimson beam struck the stone sphere, and this time it gave way. The sphere broke into two halves and the beam sliced directly through the center. Nauda felt a dense core of cantae within flicker out.

As the fragments of stone rained down, the battle below was entirely transformed. Authorities needed to weave around the falling pieces, and some used them as projectiles. Soulcrafters limited to the land either fled or retreated to allies who could put up defenses. Many among the Ruling Cities let out cheers even as the fragments threatened them.

Too soon. Another sphere of stone rose from the Asplundat side.

It flew with startling speed and smashed into Wiltur. Even though he put a Stronghold's full power into stopping it, he was pushed backward, streaking into the clouds surrounded by smoke. Nauda's mind only engaged after it was over: neither sphere had ever contained the Asplundat Stronghold, she was only controlling them.

Apparently Wiltur had reached the same conclusion, because he next summoned a crimson orb to strike the Asplundat base camp indiscriminately. But now the sphere moved defensively, and when he attempted to use the crimson hooks again, it spun to deflect them.

There were more soulcrafters from the Order ready to attack them, but they never got the chance. Power exploded from the dust behind Nauda and she turned just in time to see Fiyu and Guchiro streak skyward. They rose unusually high, almost to the level of the Strongholds.

"This battle began under false pretexts." Guchiro couldn't enhance his voice enough to drown out the entire battle, but it reached many of those fighting. "This artifact was planted to raise demons in the region."

Fiyu floated beside him, holding what appeared to be a metal and glass cylinder overhead. Something malicious pulsed within it, a twisted heart that slammed against the walls with each moment. That should have been their moment of victory, yet Fiyu appeared desperate.

Theo was looking backwards too, and though Nauda didn't have his senses, she did the same. Deeper within the rivers of dust between canyons, she saw multiple titans. Not marching toward the battle, but turning toward one another.

No, not multiple titans: exactly six. Their bodies began dissolving as they sacrificed themselves to summon something even worse.