A connection snapped to life between Alex and Glint and he sent power coursing down it. Roots shot out for Glint, the sea of writhing wood around the Treant growing larger by the second.
The mirrors covering Glint’s body rippled like sunlight reflecting off the surface of a gentle lake as Alex’s power flooded into him. Glint leapt out of the way of the roots and glass erupted from the back of his wing, more than doubling its length to the point where it almost looked like a long, flowing cloak.
Silvered glass protrusions grew over Glint’s shoulders and knees. They were perfectly smooth and glossy, like pieces of armor that had been polished to perfection. The Glasmir almost resembled the corpse of some long-dead hero.
He stood still for the briefest instant as the magic finished running the course of its changes on his body.
Roots rose up in a wave and crashed down toward him.
Glint exploded into motion. His enlarged wing screamed through the air, letting out a high-pitched whistle as it sliced through the roots before him as it unfurled into a what almost resembled a gossamer whip.
It was impossible to tell where any of the individual segments of the weapon started or ended. The whip was a river of reflective metal, impossible to properly lay eye on for more than an instant.
Glint snapped the whip and it sliced forward, twisting and churning as it swam through the air like an ocean current. The attack wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near the Treant in its previous form. Glint and the Treant were nearly twenty feet apart from each other.
But in the new form, the whip sliced through several roots and bit deep into the tree monster’s side. It let out a grating scream. The creature pitched to the side and the flow of magical roots from its mouth faltered.
Glint sprung forward. He slipped past the roots that reached up for him and the whip retraced, snapping back into its wing form with a loud crack — but he wasn’t done. No sooner than the whip had retracted did his wing shift forms once again, this time forming into a massive axe-blade.
He arrived before the Treant and twisted his entire body as he swung the newly formed blade. The huge axe sliced through the air and slammed into the Treant’s side with a loud crash — and then it continued through, ripping through wood like it was paper.
Splinters of wood flew up all around Glint as he spun like a ballerina. His axe had cut clean through the center of the Treant; its momentum so strong that the Glasmir had been forced to continue moving to avoid ripping its own arm off.
The sea of roots froze like they had all been trapped in ice. For a moment, the Mirrorlands seemed to stand still.
Then the roots crumbled away, transforming into motes of brownish-red mist and flowing into the air. Glint’s wing snapped back to its normal form. He turned back toward Alex and Claire, head tilted to the side in wait of his next command.
“Bleed me,” Claire muttered under her breath. “Your Initiate 1 monster can beat an Initiate 6 basically entirely on its own?”
A small river of energy trickled into Alex. The Treant had been worth far more power than the majority of the other monsters they’d fought, but the amount of energy he needed for every level grew the stronger he got. It was still quite a healthy amount of power. He would have been quite thrilled about it if he wasn’t so stunned by Glint’s performance.
Goddamn. I was expecting Glint to be stronger, but this is something else entirely. Overloading his magic was absolutely the right idea. Now that I think about it, the equivalent energy in Glint is probably something around Initiate 3 or 4 even though he’s only shown as Initiate 1.
What would he be capable of if I was to use Qi while summoning him or together with Rift Flood?
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Alex shook his head in disbelief. “That was a lot more than what I was expecting. He’s becoming a bit of a menace, isn’t he?”
“Menace isn’t the word I’d use,” Claire said, squinting at Glint before blowing out a huff of air. “Why don’t your evolutions make your monsters cuter? That’s just… unsettling. I don’t like looking at him.”
“I suppose this answers a question. Dhampirs are just as scared of other things that go bump in the night as people are of them,” Alex said with a chuckle. “And don’t be mean to Glint. He’s got feelings.”
“He does?”
Alex glanced back at his monster and scratched at the back of his head. “Well… no. I don’t think so. But he might! You never know. He’s a perfectly normal and healthy looking Glasmir. I won’t stand for any criticisms of things he can’t change.”
“What are you, his mom?” Claire asked through a snort. “I think Glint is more than powerful enough to inform anyone when they’re doing something that he dislikes.”
“Do you want him to go around telling people what he doesn’t like?”
Claire’s amusement fell away. She looked back over to the Glasmir. It was somehow even more impossible to tell what Glint was thinking now than it had been before. The glossy silver mask covering the top half of his face gave absolutely nothing to read — which meant everything was left to the imagination.
“You know what?” Claire asked. “Maybe you have a point. I’m sure he’s perfect just the way he is. Just… keep pointing him at the people we don’t like, would you?”
Alex chuckled. He walked over to the dead Treant, where a greenish-black Soul Flame sputtered above where it had fallen. He grabbed the flame and placed it within his mirror, then pulled the Harvester that Finley had given him out of his pocket.
The small orb was empty and devoid of a monster core now that he’d sold the previous one to the Great Tide Family. It was in need of a new core — and Alex had the perfect target for it.
He flicked the ball at the dead Treant. It struck with a violent shearing whirr. The smell of burnt wood filled the air as the marble split apart and it lifted into the air, hovering in place. There was a flash of brilliant purple light and energy carved through the center of the Treant.
The marble snapped back together, purple energy humming gently within it. It fell to the ground and Alex knelt, picking it up and tucking it into a pocket.
“You going to sell that to the Great Tide again?” Claire asked.
Alex scratched at the side of his neck. “Maybe. I’m honestly not sure how much a Riftwarped Core would go for — nor do I know if I want to reveal that we can access the Mirrorlands. I think we should try to use Orchid to fish for some information. I don’t suppose I can leave that to—”
Claire’s lips split apart in a grin. “Don’t worry. I’ve got it covered.”
“Great,” Alex said. He glanced over to the portal that led back to Earth, then hesitated for a moment. He craned his neck to study the warped version of Valley Ford behind them. His eyes lifted to trace up the massive tree that stretched out above the city, and to the Disruptor that was lodged within it.
This area of the Mirrorlands had been… strange.
That wasn’t saying much. Every single area of the Mirrorlands was strange. But something about this location felt different. The perfect recreation of the city, even though it had been destroyed and warped in typical Mirrorlands fashion, felt like it meant something more than just coincidence.
“Something up?” Claire asked, noticing the expression on his face.
“I was just trying to figure out what was going on with… all of that.” Alex gestured vaguely in the direction of the city. “This area just felt a little odd. There weren’t as many monsters as there were in other locations, and there weren’t any City-Eater Centipedes either. And then there was the Cracked Steps. Why could we see the Disruptor and the rest of the Mirrorlands through another portal? It didn’t seem like people normally enter the area through the Mirrorlands.”
“It’s too bad we couldn’t get a better look at it,” Claire agreed with a frown. “I really want to know what a Disruptor is. Maybe that’s something else we can fish for information from Orchid about, but it might be a bit harder. We’ll have to figure out how important the Mirrorlands are first.”
“You don’t know what they are?” Alex asked. “I was kind of wondering if your… uh, unique background let you figure any of that out.”
“The Nightmarch didn’t have any information about Disruptors that I saw,” Claire said with a shake of her head. “Not that I’d be able to share it if they did. Not yet. I’ve got a lot that I want to talk about… but until I complete my Trial, it’s impossible.”
“I know,” Alex said. “But I’m going to hold you to that. Complete the trial soon, would you?”
“Working on it,” Claire replied wryly. “I’d tell you what I need to do, but…”
“Yeah.” Alex rolled his eyes. “Figured. Let’s just get back to Valley Ford, shall we? I’ve got some energy to cash in, and it’s just about time to figure out just what we can do with our Credits.”
Claire nodded, and the two of them stepped through the portal back to Earth as one.