Crimsoncrest: Chapters 36-37

Oh wow, Patreon took away the scroll bar. This is lovely for long posts. -_- They wanted to get everything on one page, but they accomplished this by hiding various features in sub-menus, including tags and the parts they like to change randomly.

Anyway, we are barreling straight toward the end of the book, but there's no reason to slow down. As before, I am not sufficiently far ahead to promise the next book, so there's going to be a gap without chapters.

-

Chapter 36

Nauda could feel the battle outside, but the waiting was almost worse. It felt like cowardice to remain underneath the barrier while everyone else fought, no matter how many times she told herself that this role was necessary.

She glanced over her shoulder toward the crest. Homez and other Asplundat soulcrafters were monitoring it, apparently pleased. The support soulcrafters lower on the mountain would soon begin the infusion process and then they would win the first victory, at least.

That didn't seem much comfort when the impacts from the battle made the earth shake.

To keep herself calm, Nauda returned to her soulhome. There was nothing else to do, as she had already prepared it for combat. Every powerful material that fit was packed into her fourth floor, for whatever enhancement they could offer. All sublime plants had been harvested, even the strange Siatan growths. The crestflower petals and other fragile materials had been packed away so they couldn't be damaged. Nonetheless, just dwelling in her own soul seemed to sharpen her mind.

"You don't have to worry." Homez walked up beside her and gave a confident smile. "The battle might be rough, but they've barely damaged our barrier. The infusion just started so the hourglass is turning in our favor now."

"Really?" Nauda emerged from her soulhome to look at the giant marble slab, which sat silent. "Do we know how it's supposed to look? This is a once-in-a-lifetime event, after all."

"We don't know precisely how long the infusion will take, but we have a system to track it." Homez bent down to point out lines of dark stone that ran from the slab down into the mountain, which throbbed with yellow light. "You see the light flowing through these? That's the indicator that the soulcrafters below are infusing the slab. So it's just a matter of time."

That seemed well and good, but it left Nauda unsettled. Her eyes told her that yellow light was coursing up into the stone, even forming a positive glow that felt like the Asplundat Movement. Yet something else she couldn't put her finger on... why didn't she feel any cantae, for one? Surely the technique had to come down to cantae in the end, even if it worked through these lights.

Amid all the tension, Nauda had mostly forgotten about her life sense. Yet all her training with Fiyu must have done her some good, because when she felt something shift, it broke her concentration.

"Where did you say all the soulcrafters were?" she asked.

"In caves within the mountain," Homez told her. "We wanted them to be defended, in case some attacks breached the defenses. Nobody on the other side of the barrier can get to them in time to stop the infusion."

"Well, I'm sensing lives ending below." Nauda leapt to her feet. "Show me the caves."

"Wait." Homez grabbed her shoulder, then looked back. "This could be some sort of trick to get us to abandon the crest."

"I'm telling you that people are dying. Stay here if you want, but I'm going."

She broke away and rushed down the mountain pass, hoping to find the cave entrances. Homez followed her not long after, angry but not fighting her over it. He directed her to a side path she might have missed and they passed through a smaller barrier into a cave that led them deeper into the mountain.

Before she had enough light to see, Nauda felt more lives going out. Like fireflies disappearing into the night. There was a large chamber ahead of them with a central column of dark stone, presumably leading up to the crest.

But the soulcrafters around it were dead or dying.

A man wearing an Asplundat robe kicked over one of the last bodies and turned just in time to see them. Nothing about his appearance stood out - just another Asplundat Authority - yet his stone-armored fists were covered in blood.

"What are you doing?" Homez demanded.

"Stay out of the way," the Authority growled. "It's already too late."

As the Authority began to grow his full armor, Homez let out a cry of rage and leapt across the distance between them. It was an immensely fast attack, and he could have ended his opponent, but instead he tried to pin the man to the wall. Homez grabbed at his face, as if trying to pull a disguise away.

That was punished: the Authority dealt a stone punch to his chest and knocked him to the ground. He raised an armored foot and intended to stomp down, but by that point Nauda had closed the distance.

She caught the blow on her shoulder and pushed back, knocking the Authority a few steps away. While he was off balance, she created a line of wards between them and managed to pull Homez to his feet. He was less injured than stunned, staring at his opponent.

The armored Authority was hammering at her wards, slowly breaking them down with raw Asplundat force. Nauda dove through her own wards in a flying kick, hitting his chest with both legs. That impact knocked him across the entire chamber, shattering much of his armor. She wanted to pursue, but Homez was still reeling, so she shifted back to him.

"He's not a fleshmasker." Homez couldn't stop staring and his hands trembled as he used her arm to pull himself up. "I thought for sure they'd infiltrated..."

"If anything, the real risk is House Crimson," Nauda said. "We know they-"

"You don't recognize me?" The Asplundat Authority pushed off the wall, laughing bitterly as his armor slowly repaired itself. "I guess I'm beneath the attention of the mighty Homez. We're all equal in the Movement, but some of us are more equal than others, huh?"

"Why are you doing this?" Homez demanded.

"You have no idea how insignificant we are, just bugs that stumbled across real power. The Eternal Spectrum doesn't want an infused crest, they want the pure thing... and the one who gives it to them can finally leave this wretched place."

Nauda winced as she recognized their mistake: they'd underestimated just how low the Eternal Spectrum was willing to go. While it pretended only to contact organizations, its corruption had pushed deep into the Movement. Most of the Asplundat soulcrafters might be ideologues, but some of them were apparently vulnerable to bribery. Homez was fuming as if this was a personal feud, but she thought the truth of the matter was more important.

"What about the lights?" she asked. "The slab isn't being infused?"

The man waved it aside. "Just a trick. They overcame all our security with a little bauble, something that will keep everyone thinking that the infusion is progressing until it's too late. To turn it off, you'd have to get through me."

That seemed entirely possible, but as Nauda got ready to fight, Homez grabbed her shoulder.

"Let me handle him," he said. "Take the shadowlamp and do what you have to do."

For the first time their opponent looked uncertain, but he only had a moment before Homez leapt at him with a snarl. Nauda decided to trust Homez and burst in the opposite direction, climbing the mountain in leaps and bounds. Flying was nearly impossible under the pressure of the barrier, but she bet she could outpace any of the other Authorities.

"Out of the way!" Nauda leapt past the Asplundat officials and pulled the shadowlamp out of her soul. "We've been betrayed, this is the only way!"

When she jumped on top of the great stone slab, her audacity stunned everyone. But when Nauda bent down and set the shadowlamp against it, they began to object. They could feel the cantae flooding out of the lamp, surging against the stone and trying to infuse it by force. This was their desperate bet... hopefully the training from Tythes had been enough for it to work.

Except it couldn't be that easy. Nauda had her hands full trying to infuse the crest, and she saw the Asplundat citizens around her getting ready to fight.

~

Theo hadn't expected to hold off all of Tymetron on his own, but there had been more close calls than he had expected. Every single one of their Strongholds was dangerous, and more than that, they all seemed battle-hardened. Even when he caught them off guard, he could only exploit it for a brief moment before they would seek to overwhelm him with their numbers.

With only part of his Stronghold floor built, Theo couldn't take on this many alone. All that saved him was tactics and support. Some of it came from the Asplundat soulcrafters, who had rallied and used his distractions to launch assaults against the enemy. A lot more of it came from Krikree, who darted through the battlefield wildly, hurling spears or flailing weapons wherever possible. He worried about what one solid hit would do to her, but she had evaded them all so far.

So far he and Jazin had yet to meet, not even once. Jazin was also focused on the overall strategy, trying to drive the Tymetronese forces deeper. He was skilled, too - if all the other Strongholds had been under his command, Theo might have had a problem.

Despite Theo's best efforts, the Asplundat Movement was falling back toward the mountain and leaving the battle between Dominions behind. When he got a chance he looked over his shoulder and saw that the mountaintop was glowing yellow... did that mean the slab was transforming into the Asplundatcrest? Then Tymetron was already too late to infuse it, but that didn't mean they couldn't seize it afterward.

In a hectic battle like this, there hadn't been any chance to use his singularity, plus he wanted to keep that as a trump card against Jazin. Theo relied on brute force as he had before, with all his Corporeal chambers keeping him going against the enemy. He was beginning to wear down, though...

Abruptly the enemy seemed to retreat, gathering together once more. One Asplundat Stronghold went after them, ignoring Theo's warning. Soon after the Tymetronese soulcrafters merged their cantae into a black and red storm and surged forward, sweeping aside all attempts to stop them.

Even Theo couldn't stand up to an assault like that, so he dodged overhead. He'd planned to turn back and attack the enemy's flank as they passed, but the group actually halted. Instead of charging on to the mountain, they hurled their cantae storm ahead of them, intending an assault directly on the barrier.

Wiltur of House Crimson rose to intercept it, hurling one of his crimson spheres... but it wasn't enough. The Stronghold looked shocked and retreated just before his sphere was overwhelmed, battered backward until it all exploded. Cantae washed over the barrier, making it shudder violently. Somehow it held, but the defenders couldn't keep enduring attacks like that.

If he was overwhelmed, Wiltur was likely to be completely useless. Theo didn't see any good ways through this... and then he saw something gleam in the distance. Gold gleaming against the mountaintop's yellow, resolving into chariots that thundered across the skies.

"For Asplundat!" A soulcrafter at the head of the chariots yelled out the battle cry, but the soulcrafters were clearly from House of Coin. They streaked in over the anti-weirkey region, hurling cantae ahead of them.

As they charged past, Theo caught a glimpse of Kathina as she began spinning. Fire and water surged from her swords, forming a whirlwind of steam that collided with the enemy Strongholds and drove them back.

Now that they had reinforcements, Theo thought they had a good chance of holding the line. Yet to his surprise, when Jazin attacked again, he wasn't targeting the mountain. Instead he hurled one of his geodes down, outside the barrier. It hit the ground, apparently damaging nothing... but the implosion consumed a huge section of the earth.

"What are they doing?" Kathina flew up beside him, her swords building up for another whirlwind.

"Trying to take out the anti-weirkey foundations!" Theo shouted back. "If they gain a toehold here, they can weirkey in reinforcements behind our lines!"

"We'll do what we can, but we don't have Strongholds to spare." Kathina grimaced as the Tymetronese soulcrafters began to attack the chariots and then threw herself into battle.

Others were following the same strategy now, bombarding the ground and destroying a larger and larger area. Theo didn't know exactly where the anti-weirkey stones were, but they seemed to have a good guess. Sooner or later, they'd create enough of a hole, and this was harder to stop because the defenders risked damaging the ground themselves. Had this been the Tymetronese strategy all along, or were they merely adapting now that they faced greater opposition?

Theo stepped through a portal closer to the ground, putting him underneath the attackers. He got off one surprise hit, but a second later the ground imploded behind him and the edge of the shockwave drained his armament coat. Had Jazin left one of his geodes behind, ready to activate at that moment? How many more did he have left?

Theo hastily rose from the ground, but realized he was too slow: there were other Strongholds closing on him. One attacked with cantae blasts that Theo knocked aside while another lunged in close, wielding a massive spear armament. This was bad, he had a very narrow window to dodge...

[Theo-sister!] Krikree hurtled in from the side, aiming to attack the Stronghold with the spear. Too late, Theo saw him shift.

The man dropped his longer spear and drew another, plunging it directly toward Krikree's chest. It slammed into her carapace, even as Theo leapt after them. The blow should have torn straight through her - without the armorstone, such a blow from a Stronghold might have killed her. Even through her defenses, it dealt a grievous wound to her torso.

"Squash the bug!" one of the Strongholds shouted.

Theo landed a torsion punch to her face a second later, then leapt after Krikree with all the speed he could muster. He managed to catch her before she hit the ground and was relieved when he felt her claws grip his coat. There was no time to slow his momentum, so he cast another portal just above the ground and instead shot into the sky some distance away.

[Krikree injured,] she emitted. [Can fly... cannot fight. Not against big princes.]

[You've done enough,] he told her. [Here, take these and get ready to distribute them.]

As he unloaded several of his own anti-weirkey stones from his soulhome, Krikree's antennae shot up. [Trick?] she asked, even as she took them herself.

[Right, but we need to wait for our moment. Hide somewhere safe.]

She obeyed, dropping down to disappear into the Asplundat hills. Theo worried that there might be more of those geodes, but no implosions struck her. When he looked up, he saw that Jazin was looking at him from across the battlefield. All the other Strongholds were crashing overhead, leaving the two of them locking eyes in a strangely empty space between heaven and earth.

"Ready for a rematch?" Theo asked.

"No," Jazin said.

Theo narrowed his eyes and checked his back, just in case there was some sort of ambush. Nothing he could sense. "No?"

"You seem too confident for my taste. You aren't stupid, so you must have a reason for your confidence. Combined with the fact that you seemed to trigger that orbital bombardment, it stands to reason that you believe you have the advantage. So a duel between us seems unwise."

"You're running?" Theo did his best to bluster, but he didn't think it worked. "It could be a bluff."

"If so, then this is a mistake, but I doubt it." Jazin smiled and then a weirkey twisted him out of reality.

Leaving Theo hanging in the air, facing an entirely different battle than he'd expected. But if Jazin had gotten out, then the damage had already spread substantially. It was only a matter of time before other forces could push their way in.

-

Chapter 37

There was a Fithan Authority clad in a ghostly cloak, rushing over the hills toward the mountain. Fiyu kept pace with him, entirely invisible, making final confirmations. His cloak was possibly meant as a stealth technique, and if so it was not remotely adequate, because she could easily peer into his soulhome.

She saw demonic materials and the golden sigil of Tymetron. A second later her blade went through his heart.

Fiyu changed direction, sweeping over the land and expanding her senses again. So far, there had only been a few enemies attempting to sneak into the mountain. This concerned her, because she knew they were up against opponents who were dangerous and competent. These weak attempts could not possibly be all they had to offer, so what else was she missing? Stealth techniques that could escape even her? Betrayers among the Asplundat Movement? Attacks from so far overhead even the anti-weirkey barrier would not stop them?

With no immediate actions required of her, Fiyu took another arc around the mountain to monitor the primary battle. What she saw dismayed her.

Yellow light burst from the mountaintop, signaling the infusion, but it seemed inevitable that Tymetron would seize the crest. The battle among the Strongholds seemed to be going in their favor, despite the best efforts of Friend Theo and the House of Coin. Worse than that, on the other side of the Dominions' barrier, she saw Relative Guchiro fighting against the enemy and struggling.

Strong as he was, he couldn't fight three Dominions on his own. As she watched, Citizen Dominion provided support, but the man seemed to use relatively ordinary techniques: spires of rock made from Dominion-tier cantae were powerful, but unremarkable against opponents with the same strength. Two of the enemy Dominions seemed to have a basement as well, able to match her relative blow for blow. Despite all his skill, he inevitably gave up ground.

And Fiyu could do nothing. She might be able to injure one of the Strongholds to help Friend Theo, but it would not be enough against so many. The battle between the Dominions was even further beyond her, even if she could find a way through the immense barrier. Somehow she still ended up flying toward it, desperately trying to follow her relative's every movement.

The battle was almost too fast for her, with so many techniques flying at once. All she knew was that somehow Citizen Dominion was knocked backward, hitting the barrier so hard that it was partially extinguished. He was left lying on the ground, smoking from the attack.

Relative Guchiro leapt in to defend him, since he needed an ally to guard his back. Yet that required him to hold a position: he generated a great shell of darkness, but the enemy Dominions began assaulting it with technique after technique, battering his defenses, draining his soulhome.

She realized that it was entirely possible that she could watch her oldest relative die here, while she watched helplessly. Even if she flew in now, it would accomplish nothing.

Once she would have panicked or wept... instead, Fiyu crossed her legs in the air and entered her soulhome. This hadn't been what she intended, but new emotions were surging against her like never before. She rushed to her eternal chamber and extended her willpower to seize the entire Immortality Conduit.

Before that point, she had been trying to ignite it by imagining her beautiful future, or trying to construct artificial passion with Associate Senka. As Fiyu gripped the eternaldark, she knew that was wrong. The emotion that filled her now was dread: the idea of living forever without her companions, without her dear relative, was too terrible to bear.

And she would not allow that future.

Just as she had been promised, her cantae ignited all at once, a rush that made her soulhome tremble. Dark fire blazed through the channels, lighting up her soul and fusing the Conduit's structure in place. Fiyu's concentrated power exceeded her expectations and exploded onward, crashing against the heavens and triggering a vicious onslaught of pressure and snow.

It didn't matter. Fiyu's mind was so filled with bleak determination that she didn't even realize that her foundation was shaking until she stood up. Her Conduit had been proven... Friend Nauda's petal had been fused into her base. The rush might consume it unless she acted now, pursuing the ascension.

First she struck the darkegg, and to her surprise it exploded at a touch, pieces scattering across her floor and basement. But there was no more time for that, not when she had no idea how long was passing in the physical world.

Fiyu had never begun an ascension on her first floor before, but she didn't care. Instead of flying she ran up one of her spiral staircases, feeling the bricks beneath her feet urging her on, as if the incipient Immortality Conduit was pushing her upward. Her entire core was lined with kinmetal, linking her to her relative and entire family. She drew on their speed until she reached her fourth floor and then leaped upward, ghosting through the ceiling and directly into the heavens.

The snow struck her like a physical wall, slamming her back down, and she barely caught her grip on the icy pyramid atop her soulhome. For a moment the pressure threatened to overwhelm her, filling her with fears of the earthquake tearing apart her soulhome. She forced the thoughts out of her mind, trusting in all her past work, and began running again.

When she reached the top she didn't merely break the heavens, she speared through them, driving higher than ever before. Fiyu felt the rush of cantae flow through her, filling her soulhome, but she had no time to enjoy it. Instead she gathered all of her new power and emerged.

Even the Dominions were distracted by an ascension on the battlefield, and even more so by a new Stronghold charging at them. Most remained focused on Citizen Dominion and Relative Guchiro, who had taken an injury and dropped to one knee.

Then Fiyu arrived, spreading her arms wide and unleashing the largest lightstorm of her life. She drew on everything, from her newly expanded basement to her Immortality Conduit to the vicious demon court gem, and then she unleashed it all.

For several seconds, three Dominions were driven back by an apocalyptic lightstorm unleashed by a single Stronghold.

At last the power ebbed away and Fiyu was left gasping, scarcely able to believe what she had done. She had knocked the enemy back, but none of them had been defeated, and now they were looking at her with merciless eyes. Below, she saw that Relative Guchiro had helped Citizen Dominion to his feet, but she could not stand in for one of them in a battle like this.

And if that was not enough, from across the battlefield she heard a whistle calling for help.

~

Unopposed by Jazin, Theo retreated a short distance and began to build a singularity between his hands. He expected to be attacked or interrupted, but to his surprise none of the Tymetronese soulcrafters treated him like the threat he was. They'd all pay for that.

This needed to be more than the singularity he had used for the first three tiers of his soulcrafting: Theo drew on the new mass and anti-mass chambers, spinning cantae through the geminipaths, building up the potency. Gravitational waves began emanating from him as the power grew, getting closer and closer to collapsing into a singularity.

One of the enemy finally noticed him, a woman wearing a demonic skull. She hurled a massive column of fire in his direction.

Theo brought his hands together and at last unleashed the singularity.

When the fire struck, the cantae was immediately consumed. Stronghold-tier cantae that might once have been able to break apart his technique was now only drawn into it, feeding the spiritual mass. The woman who had cast the flame broke it off, eyes widening in shock. Soon the gravity was drawing her in and she turned to flee, using her full strength to try to escape the pull.

From the other side of the battlefield Kathina saw the struggle and swung both swords, unleashing a cross of red and blue cantae. It collided with the Stronghold, knocking her back... both she and the attacks reached the event horizon and were instantly consumed.

Absorbing a Stronghold made the singularity explode in power, sending a shockwave across the battlefield as the gravity leapt to catch up to its new mass. Now every single Stronghold on the battlefield had to stare, whether in hope or horror. Some of the Asplundat Strongholds were being pulled in and Theo had to hope they could maintain their positions, because he couldn't afford to back down, not here.

A few of the enemy tried to attack the singularity and quickly learned that only fed it. Kathina and the others from the House of Coin set up a new front, using ranged attacks to try to batter the Tymetronese soulcrafters into the singularity. Even when they dodged, the cantae only passed on into the black hole, which grew in strength.

Theo struggled to keep his hands open to control the singularity, as if he was trying to ride a wild beast. The singularity he'd unleashed had so much power that it took his full attention to control it, keep it moving toward the enemy instead of his allies. He'd managed to push the Strongholds away from the damaged area and he hoped to move the singularity all the way to the Dominion barrier to absorb that too, but it took so much concentration...

Without warning a Stronghold leapt at him from behind and Theo barely dodged. He instinctively raised an arm and his opponent's blade slashed through his sleeve. His armament coat was sliced open and without it he might have lost the arm, then the Stronghold was past him.

The reckless attack had thrown his opponent directly toward the singularity, so Theo returned to trying to guide its gravity. Except his opponent didn't fall in... the man flashed just past the singularity and whipped around it, shooting at him even faster.

This time Theo dodged, but the Tymetronese Stronghold gave a savage grin and shouted as he passed. "Gravity, huh?"

It had been inevitable that he'd run into an opponent who actually understood the concept: gravity bent space-time, drawing mass toward it, but it wasn't a simple sucking force. Someone with enough momentum would instead orbit the singularity, or in this case, perform a slingshot maneuver around it. When the Stronghold came back at him again he was even faster, his blade whistling just past Theo's face and cutting a line through his cheek.

If he'd fully constructed his Stronghold floor, maybe Theo could have controlled the singularity better and fought directly. But in a battle like this, wrestling against a singularity that had grown more powerful than he'd anticipated, he struggled to stay ahead of his opponent.

Theo called for support in every way he knew how, even as he realized that it was probably too late. In his ambition he had advanced away from the Asplundat lines, so the singularity was still supporting them while he was beyond their range.

[Help?] Krikree's pheromones reached him despite the chaos and he saw her hiding below, staring at him intensely.

[No, get back,] he ordered. In her current condition, the chance of her dying was just too high.

But his opponent was getting faster. The next time he flashed past, Theo misjudged his dodge and the blade cut through his side. He heard the laughter pass him by, peak, then flash in the other direction for another arc. His opponent wasn't orbiting like a planet, he was more like a rocket with an immense amount of thrust, capable of nudging his velocity as he saw fit.

If it came down to it, Theo could collapse the singularity. But now that everyone was focused on him he wasn't sure he could form another one before being attacked, and he needed it to keep this battle in check. He'd hoped that he could move it all the way to the barrier and fight back the enemy Dominions as well...

"Just a matter of time!" The enemy Stronghold passed him further away, but his arcs were getting closer to the singularity as his confidence increased. Theo's body was holding together, but how many injuries could he endure before his control faltered?

Then Fiyu stepped out of the singularity and thrust her cantae blade into his opponent's chest.

It happened so quickly that the man was impaled before he knew anything had happened. Even Theo took a moment to catch up: using the protective power they had soulcrafted together, Fiyu was now immune to his singularity. She must have crept up to it and intercepted his opponent when he was in the middle of his slingshot maneuver.

Remarkably, the Stronghold survived the stab through the heart... but his path had been altered. Instead of a slingshot maneuver he plunged beyond the event horizon and into the singularity, which exploded in size again. Theo gritted his teeth, struggling to move it further toward the edge of the battlefield. He'd been concerned for Fiyu, standing so close, but the felinesolar held and she slipped away unaffected.

At first the remaining Tymetronese Strongholds looked relieved, grateful the singularity wasn't threatening them anymore. Then they saw that it was nearing the great barrier their Dominions had erected... and consuming it as well.

The runaway process was almost beyond Theo's power now: the only control he could manage was collapsing it. But he'd pushed far enough, because the barrier was being drained. Some of the cantae had enough momentum to orbit, forming a corona like he'd never seen before, the barrier becoming nothing but a ring for the consuming darkness within.

It seemed that Guchiro had gotten Citizen Dominion away, but the enemy wasn't so cautious. They knew it was a Stronghold-tier technique and one of them scornfully sent out a piercing ray of cantae.

Which vanished into the black hole.

When the Dominions realized that they couldn't stop this technique, they hesitated. As the mass continued to increase, the singularity began affecting a larger and larger area. The woman who had transformed into a giant saw the essence of her Ethereal body began to trail away, sucked into the black hole. It was as if the giant's body was turned into dust and swirling into the abyss.

That was what finally broke the Tymetronese. The Strongholds realized that the odds had turned against them and scattered, losing all cohesion and fighting for their own survival. Some managed to weirkey out, others crashed into the Asplundat lines, and a few even fled over physical space.

With their support gone, the three Tymetronese Dominions were no longer the dominant force on the battlefield. The giant fixated on Theo, but Guchiro moved to intercept her before she could even get close. Theo didn't back down as he saw the realizations on their faces.

[Krikree, now,] he emitted. [Get around them.]

[Yes!] She had already retreated to a safe distance but now sprinted along the ground in an arc that would put her behind the Dominions.

A single Authority trying to intercept Dominions seemed suicidal, and in fact they barely noticed her as she ran ahead of them. But as she ran, Krikree hurled the anti-weirkey stones from her soulhome, expanding the area beyond the initial region. Realizing the danger, the Dominions bolted in separate directions.

One twisted away via weirkey before Krikree could fully expand the barrier. The woman who had created the giant burst out of its chest, flashing past Krikree and vanishing. But the third didn't get far enough before a rope of darkness wrapped around his ankle.

As the Dominion was pulled backward, Guchiro and Fiyu fell on him, blades flashing.

Was the battle over? Theo's mind felt stretched to the limit, unable to focus on tactics while it wrestled with the incredible power he had summoned. There was no one being threatened by his singularity at the moment, since it hovered at the edge of the battlefield, but it was stripping the ground beneath it. Theo knew that he should collapse the singularity now and found himself staring instead, admiring the surreal dark beauty of what he'd created.

Then a new figure appeared on the battlefield. Twice the height of a man, clad in twisted golden armor, radiating power greater than Theo had ever felt before.

It could only be Plutalgion, Emperor of Tymetron.

Whatever he was, he regarded the singularity with curiosity. Plutalgion extended a hand and a vast golden hand rose from his body, reaching out in unison as if to grasp the darkness. The golden power broke apart, sucked into the black hole, and Theo dropped to one knee as he felt the surge of new power. That single technique had been so much stronger than anything else he'd previously faced...

Plutalgion himself stood as if nothing could move his feet, but a few fragments of his armor tore off and flew into the black hole. Theo saw a fell light appear in his eyes, then Plutalgion struck. A blade of liquid gold appeared in his hand and cantae lashed out, utterly solid compared to Theo's liquid.

After it struck, the singularity was gone.