Thirty minutes later, Korsha skulked through the ruins of the laboratory. Small isolated flames danced, casting shifting shadows along the walls that unnerved her. She groaned as she nudged a charred hunk of half melted hyperplastic. The label was illegible. In her haste to get away from the spirit, she had inadvertently, and literally, burned her only chance of containing the spirit.

The acrena had explained that Karkortus was a shadowmancer. A mage with the ability to bend shadows to his will. It was just as the ecclesiarchy and technomancers had warned her. The corruption of the magic had become so much that it had irrevocably stained his soul. So much that after he'd died, he had become the embodiment of his sin.

Now she was sure that he'd been watching her from the moment she had set foot inside the plant's grounds. The spire shadows were a manifestation of him. If that was the case, why hadn't he attacked her?

The acrena had confirmed that Karkortus had dragged every worker he came across into the shadows. Their screams cut off as they slid inside. One by one. It was a horrifying thought. Like drowning in an endless dark sea, being drug down into the black depths where no one could hear you or would ever see you again.

She shook her head. She had to focus. There was another, more concerning, question she needed to figure out. What did he do with them after that? As far as she could tell, he wasn't able to store mass within the shadows. Only control them. Though he was now a living shadow, she suspected that the limitations he'd been born with persisted.

Thirty-six dead.

Thirty-six bodies.

He was racking up quiet the kill count tonight.

Korsha thought back to the last thing Hypierus had told her. Fire. That had been the answer for when he was alive, but was it still a valid option? Korsha had a suspicion it was. Why else had he not followed her? Right after the encounter, she'd been knocked unconscious. After questioning the spirit within the seeker, she had learned that she'd struck a wall as it rounded a corner. It had continued, despite this. Mostly in fear of the spirit who had been pursuing them. For that, she was thankful.

For her part, a deep loathsome anger knotted her stomach. It had been a rookie mistake. She hadn't been paying attention and so she didn't compensate for the turn. How many times had she crashed in training? Hundreds of times. She huffed through flared nostrils.

Yet her training had never consisted of shadows tearing the world apart in the eager anticipation of sucking the flesh from her bones.

“Come on,” she whispered, “there has to be something here?”

She crossed the room, flinging open one cabinet. The insides of the cabinets were free from the sooty dust that now coated everything else -her legacy's stain upon the lab.

Standing on her tiptoes, she reached in. Her gloved fingers brushing against the jagged edges of broken glass. She scowled, pulling her hand back. She eyed the table that was on its side next to her. Could she risk making a loud noise? Did the spirit know where she was? Would he come back?

She couldn't help but gaze at the doorway she'd first entered. Its frame was bent and empty, like a broken toothless maw. The shadows outside seem to swell like a throat preparing to swallow her up. She marveled at the deep gashes the spirit had inflicted upon the metal walls. Was he there watching her right now?

In the end she gave up, unwilling to risk it. There had to be another way. She'd found her lasher on the way back, but with Karkortus being able to manifest himself with many hands, it was useless. It would stop one hand only for a dozen more to grab her. Replacing it on her hip, she contemplated if she could find a safe place where she could drop into Keshkigal- the underworld. There she could get guidance. Such a journey would require hours, hours she'd be left vulnerable.

“Think. Think. Think.”

Fire was still her best and only option. Though how was she going to use that advantage... that was the life saving question. She could leave, go find wood in the nearby forest. Again, that would take too long. Her eyes widened. Her arm shot up, and she tapped frantically into her omnivice. She gazed at the list of spire prisoners. Two would be far more detrimental than helpful. It was the last one that caught her attention.

A primordial.

The spirit had been captured due to it, causing rogue storms to develop on some distant planet. Korsha smiled, feeling relief for the first time since she'd started this mission.

“That will work! Now all I have to do is free it, bind it and hope its lightning will work.”

With a plan in hand, Korsha marched out of the laboratory and down the hall. She continued, keeping a watchful eye on the shadows, until she found an exit. The cold greeted her with an eager hug. Its icy touch stealing the breath from her lungs. Her chalice armor's engines flared, once more working overtime to protect her. She lifted her hood up, allowing its shielding to protect her face and keeping the fat flakes of ash and snow from touching her.

She trekked across the paved courtyard, heading straight for the spires. The shadows shifted, following her journey. What was he waiting for? Irritation spiked within her as a new thought struck her. She didn't even know if that was him or just a byproduct of his magic running rampant through the area.

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The lack of knowledge made her all the more nervous. Yet she smothered it in her righteous fury. She was going to bind this spirit and force it into submission, even if it was the last thing she ever did.

She reached the edge of the spires, their dark forms towering over her like the curved blades of the second son, the Lord Justikar. They were arranged around the perimeter of a centralized pit that had been excavated. The pit itself seemed as though it went on forever, and it made Korsha shiver as she stared down into its abysmal depths. Yet she knew it wasn't too deep, as the construction wasn't focused on puncturing through the mantle. Instead, its purpose had been to lay the necessary equipment to harness the world's ley-line.

Following the curve of the walkway, she withdrew her nail from its sheath. The long, slender blade glowed with the iridescent red glow of the imperial goddess. The forge priests of the ecclesiarchy had somehow imparted a sliver of the imperial goddess's wrath into the blade. Any spirit struck would feel her infinitely sharp edge of her displeasure.

If Karkortus was going to take her, she was at least going to take a little of him with her. Though that was not the kind of equivalent exchange she wanted to make. Her boots pounded out a steady rhythm that matched her heavy pants as she raced toward her destination.

Overhead, a beam of moonlight broke through the storm, bathing the world around her in a pale glow. Her boots struck a rock, sending it souring through the air before hitting the side of the pit. She slowed, watching it tumble down until she lost sight of it. The moonlight swept across, exposing more and more of the trench until she could see the glint of the white rock that made up the bottom. The blood drained from her face and she sucked in a breath.

There at the bottom of the pit were bodies littered across the ground. As the tear in the sky widened, more and more light illuminated the bodies. With every passing minute, a new horrifying realization settled within her. Karkortus hadn't thrown the bodies in haphazardly. There was a dark symmetry to it. Her skin crawled as she saw the graceful lines of an arcane circle formed from the butchered remains of his victims.

Without another thought, she took off. This time, fear propelling her forward. She had to reach the spire. She now knew the reason he hadn't pursued her. It was a trap, and she’d stepped into it.A witless fly who had thrown herself willingly into his web.

Her hand shot down into her pouch, where she pulled a coin out. She hurled it, tethered herself, and used the momentum to shoot into the air. The wind shot past her, threatening to pry her hood back. The world blurred and her mind raced. That was a full arcane circle below. A full one. Its intricacies were beyond her understanding, but its dangers weren't.

In that moment, she knew her master had made a mistake. She was going to fail and, what was worse; she was going to let him down. A prayer escaped her lips. A commendation to the goddess for everything he’d done for her. She’d go into the afterlife singing his praises.

Her momentum slowed as the coin descended. She plucked it from the air and threw it once more. She had to do this several times, each time making sure she didn't throw the coin in such a way as to have her flying over the pit.

Spire three rose up, becoming more giant with each thrown. As she approached, she could make out a litany of bots working to fix it. Their arc welders sparking in the night. Hope shot up within her. Perhaps she could use that. She snatched the coin from the air and allowed herself to fall.

Making a split second decision, she threw the coin. She had a plan. It was a good one. She couldn't know if the bot's welders were fixed to them or if they would even listen to her. She could override their programming, but she wasn't a technomancer. Utilizing them at their full capacity was also beyond her.

The bots' various chirps and whistles called out to her. Several swiveled their flat heads, their photoreceptors fixed upon her as she jetted past.

She was within the shadow of spire three. She grabbed the coin again and threw it will all her might. She didn't know whether or not he could use such a thin shadow, but she wasn't willing to chance it. She was closing in on spire four. All she had to do was reach it, deactivate the lockdown protocol. She hoped her master's codes would be enough.

With one final throw, she launched herself forward. That threw had been off and so she untethered herself from the coin, watching as the coin sailed down into the crater below, its use to her having been spent. She tucked her body and rolled as she landed. Her armor absorbed the kinetic force of her landing and allowed her to use her momentum to jump up to her feet.

Korsha realized her well of mana was nearly spent. Groaning, she grabbed the railing and took the stairs two at a time. She cursed as she raced into the shadows. The control panel's display glowed only meters away.

“Hello, little girl. Are you lost?” A shrill voice called behind her. There was an oiliness to its that seemed to wash over her.

Her muscles burned, screaming in fatigue as she made the last several steps.

“What do you think you're doing?”

A wheeze rushed out of her as her torso was constricted. Her pace decelerated, as if she struggling through water. Her armor vibrated as symbols, sacred and empowered with the goddess's might, pierced the darkness. Karkortus screamed in agony.

“Pesky chalice armor. I'll be taking that.”

A large scythe like arm appeared from the shadows before her. As it rose, she tethered herself to it and jumped. She watched as its edge came down mere centimeters from her face. She reached the zenith of the movement. Her fingers desperately fumbled in her pouch for another coin. That moment of stillness, of equilibrium, was gone, replaced by that horrible, dreadful sense of falling.

She tossed the coin into the air and latched onto it. Another arm reached for her, but she swung her nail. The blade slid through the mass of darkness with a terrible hiss.

Korsha watched as she was propelled away from the control console. The railing of the building flew past her. She cursed and tore the lasher from her side. She brought her arm back and flicked it out. This tether flung her. Her arms and legs flailed, each seeking to find their own balance. Her body jerked and spun forward. She wasn't going to make it.

She screamed as her arm stretched, but all she caught was air. She smashed into the ground with a thud. Blood welled in her mouth, hot and thick. She spit it out as she pushed herself up. The console was just above her. She lifted her hand and activated her omnivice. Her master's emblem appeared.

The connection symbol was flashing.

Something wrapped around her foot. Her head shot up. She gazed up at the display but couldn't make out the message as she was drug away. She screamed. She tried to break herself from the iron grip of the spirit but it was useless. A second later, she was hauled over the edge and into the pit below.