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“Brigid! Wake up!” Vincent shook the girl’s shoulder.
“Ouch! Don’t yell so loud. My head huuurts,” she complained. “Do you have a coffee?”
“No, I don’t have a—”
“Here’s coffee,” Irene gave the princess a thermos.
“Thank you so much!”
“You can finish it,” Irene said.
“What’s up?” Brigid asked a minute later. “Why are we in the dark?”
“See that fleet there? They were going to attack Stellarterra, but Elkandaros Warped the ships far away from the main planets. They fried our electronics while at that.”
“Are we stuck here?”
“No, we can jump back if we want,” Vincent said. “There’s another problem… The pretenders’ army has entered Orleans.”
“Are my grand grandparents in danger?”
“They’re safe for now, barricaded underground with your father. The enemy has lost its forcefield breaching equipment.”
“Safe for now. If the war is lost, the core will try to break a deal with the winners and surrender my folks to them.”
“That means there are two scenarios to be considered:
“Option one, we extract your father and grand grandparents and retreat to Krivoburg. The war grinds to a halt. There will be a compromise: either peace or a frozen conflict. They don’t have the tech, and we don’t have the manpower to fight a decisive battle.
Option two… There’s a window of opportunity to strike the root of evil. The new System.”
“What do you mean?”
“It lowered its defenses moments ago, and Elkandaros could port us to its exact location.”
“We might not have another chance at taking it down,” Irene said. “The new System will probably use the fleet to defend itself.”
“The new System is here?”
“On Frostvaven, the ice planet on the left.”
“Really?” Brigid gasped. “Of course, it lowered its defenses to negotiate with the fleet! Why did you bring the dwarves here?”
“It was the only location far enough from Stellarterra I could use, sorry,” Elkandaros said.
“Let’s cut to the chase,” Vincent said. “We must decide if we attack the new System before the place crawls with armored moles or dwarves.”
“I say we run,” Bella said immediately.
“I say we fight,” Elkandaros said.
“I say the same,” Irene said. “We worked hard for this world, and it deserves a chance at a better System.”
“I’m undecided,” Vincent said. “Attacking could win us the war, but jeopardizing your folks' lives.”
“Let’s fight,” Brigid said. “I’m sure my folks will die happy if we save the world. Royals put duty first and sentiments second.”
“So be it,” Vincent nodded.”
“So, when do we start?”
“I’ll warp the ship there as soon you equip your armor,” Elkandaros said.
“But not before we make a battle plan,” Vincent hissed.
“OK, make a battle plan,” the robot gestured, rolling his mechanical eyes.
“If any hostiles are in sight, you and I jump out of the Bug as soon we land and shoot suppressive fire. I will also throw grenades. Then, we cover each other and advance in turns, eliminating the opposition. Irene heals if necessary and provides CC, and Brigid keeps the Bug, Irene, and Bella safe.”
“Why don’t you stay back and keep them safe?” Brigid suggested. “I’m a frontline fighter.”
“And what if you get shot or something? How will I explain it to your old folks? Look, miss, there’s a thing called chain of command, and I have seniority. Honey, please dress in your armor,” Vincent told Irene, more to shut Brigid’s protests off.
Five minutes later, the whirl of the Warp brought them in the middle of a giant cave. They couldn’t see its end, and as for the height, it was hundreds of yards. Fifty feet from them, there was a pedestal, like the old System had, but it was empty. On the platform around, twenty pods were spaced about twenty to thirty yards from each other. Light came in from holes in the walls and ceiling, as well as bioluminescent lichens.
An unexpected and unwelcomed surprise, Fenros was twenty yards away from the Bug. He had no mask this time and looked on the young adult side, but his hair was a grayish blue. “Alert!” he yelled. They could only read his lips, as sound didn’t enter the Bug.
Vincent tried to Stride away, but it didn’t work. Activating the Refuge was the only thing he could do.
“How did he arrive here so fast?” Vincent facepalmed.
“Maybe that’s an FTL,” the Archetype pointed to a small spaceship parked nearby.
“A space scooter!” Irene exclaimed. “He was on the fleet… That’s why they lowered the defenses, to let him in.”
“C’mon,” Brigid sighed. “It’s one guy. Let me out, and I’ll deal with him.”
“That’s Fenros, nickname Silent Hunter,” Vincent said in a teacherly manner. “He can freeze his enemies in time, for about eighteen seconds… only twice, true, but that’s plenty enough.”
“And now we’re trapped. Multiple pocket universes have emerged all around us,” Elkandaros said. “I can’t engage my Warp…”
“And my Stride is not working…” Vincent said. “Our skills won’t activate as long the trip is dangerous. It’s hard to pass through multiple barriers in one jump. We could end up disintegrating. We’re trapped…”
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“I just said that seconds ago. That’s what traps do,” Elkandaros said. “They trap people.”
“You talk too much,” Brigid growled. “There’s only one Archetype in each given force field. We go out and take them out by one, problem solved."
“Not on that guy’s watch. He’ll freeze and kill us the second we leave the Refuge,” Vincent said. “There’s only one way out of this. I’ll put my hand through our forcefield and keep throwing explosives into theirs. The Archetypes will move the pocket universes farther to protect themselves. We run as soon as we’re they do that… Maybe we can find the other mainframe and install our System on Emberweld… and take it from there.”
“Now I see why you’re a great war chief,” Brigid nodded. “Let’s go for it.”
As a good omen, the lights inside the Bug switched back on. Vincent opened his door and exited the ship, preparing a few grenades. The temperature outside was fresh but not cold. “What are you doing?” he asked Brigid, who had followed three feet behind.
“Watching the pro work,” she said in a deadpanned tone. “Maybe I’ll learn a thing or two.”
“Good!” She’s a good kid, after all, Vincent thought.
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Brigid accompanied the Guildcher out of the ship, rotating her shoulders and selecting the Kinetic Warden Class.
“I’ll throw the first grenade,” Vincent warned. “Stay behind me at all times.” He pushed his arm through the forcefield, letting the object fall outside their pocket universe. The reaction of their enemy, or better said, the lack of it, told Brigid all it was to know. Even Valaška began to understand, his shoulders sagging before the bang.
The Archetypes had built an elaborate cake of protections, with multiple layers, or more accurately, a clew of intertwined pocket universes, like those balloon figurines made by clowns at fairs. The explosion hit such a secondary wall, leaving the Fenros guy unharmed. He sneered and opened his mouth to taunt and insult the Guildcher when Brigid unsheathed a secondary weapon she seldom used, a crowbar made of pure Mithril.
Activating her Preemptive Stance, she hit Vincent in the head. The Refuge vanished once the Guildcher fell unconscious, and she darted forward. Now, that was a surprised expression on Fenros’ face. The man sketched a movement toward his sword, then changed his mind. It meant he was going to activate his skill. She dodged laterally.
The same invisible wall that protected Fenros from the explosion helped her against him. And now she knew exactly the extent of his ability: it created a circle ten yards in diameter, inside which only Fenros could move. However, once set, changing the field’s location was impossible.
“Somewhere, over the rainbow…” she began singing.
That annoyed Fenros, and he advanced, ready to repeat the skill as soon as the first application ended. His eagerness put a pang of his clothes outside the time-freezing area. Grabbing it with the curved part of the crowbar, Brigid pulled violently, turning and throwing the man behind her. It was clear when the spell ceased from how the air started to flow around.
She ran onward, aiming for the closest pod, slammed the lid open, and raised the crowbar with both hands.
“Stop, or I'll kill your friends!” Fenros yelled. He was too far to activate his skill.
“Sure, go ahead,” Brigid shrugged without turning her head and plunged the crowbar into the skull of the Archetype inside the pod. The man was conscious; his eyes opened wide, following the descending object with terror. Then he died. A forcefield flickered and disappeared a little further, and the young woman plunged ahead. Brigid escaped the brunt of the second time freeze spell, but her left foot got caught up to the ankle, throwing her on the ground.
Fenros’s expression changed to satisfaction. He rushed forward, sword at the ready, intending to run her through from the safety of the frozen field. But weapons and bodies move in predictable ways. Brigid let the crowbar go, unsheathed her sword, and thrust it upward. The man’s weapon got deflected an inch from her head. At the same time, hers became an unmovable object by entering the area’s effect.
Fenros's arm was cut at in length, from the intersection between the middle and ring fingers to the elbow, getting his wrist slit in the process. The man now had two right forearms flailing freely, and the katana fell from his hand, freezing in the air alongside the spray of blood.
“C’mon, it can’t hurt so much,” Brigid sneered. Fenros was screaming like no tomorrow. The frozen area ceased. She took her weapons, proceeded to the next pod, opened it with the crowbar, and smashed the second archetype’s head.
The third Archetype had left his pod and was raising a pump shotgun at her. Brigid charged and beheaded the man before he pressed the trigger, snatching the gun from his dead hands. Behind, Fenros was approaching, heaving. He had switched his sword to the left. Brigid pointed the shotgun at his groin.
“Throw your sword away and get on the floor, or you’d wish you’d be dead,” she said, as cold as a cube of ice in a Martini.
Another voice called, a woman advancing, hands raised. “Please, I surr—”
Brigid shot her in the head. All the remaining Archetypes exited their pods, getting together inside a single pocket universe, and she found her way forward blocked by a forcefield. She returned to Vincent, who was returning to his senses, helped by Irene, who massaged his head, and the warg, who liked his face, looking with a reprobatory frown at the princess yet without making any hostile moves.
“That was for using my grand grandparents to ambush me at the talent show,” Brigid said, giving a mild finger flicker on Vincent’ss forehead.
“You monster! How could you hit my husband?” the Nekojin yelled at her. “What if you killed him?”
“He has a Rezz, doesn’t he? Anyway, he asked for it. He didn’t listen to anything I said.”
“Oh… Yeah… he does that a lot…”
“Hey!” Vincent protested.
“Here,” Brigid offered the crowbar to Irene. “A gift. When he gets stubborn, you know what to do. Give me that,” she yelled at Elkandaros, who was struggling to figure out how to shoot his machine gun. She extracted the bullet belt and threw it away. “Are you feeling well enough to finish the job?” Brigid asked Vincent. “They’re grouped together. Go kill them.”
“G-guys, w-we c-can r-run n-now,” Bella suggested.
The surviving Archetypes realized the maze strategy had failed—obliging them to stay and fight one-on-one with someone vastly more powerful—and were planning a counterattack, her intentions obvious from the weapons that appeared in their hands. Vincent Strode in the middle of the group, killing half and maiming the rest, except two, who tried to run, and he shot them in the back using his revolver. The ones still breathing on the floor, in the head. Brigid had to recognize the man was a good warrior.
Ultimately, there were no more forcefields. Brigid and the rest approached Fenros, who was sitting on the ground, crying, his head hidden in the elbow of his left arm. His right one was starting to heal, but the skin was closing over the two separate pieces, looking horrible.
“Do you surrender?” Brigid asked. It was a moot question, as the man could not fight nor unleash his freezing field—his mana being under five percent. Since he didn’t commit suicide, Fenros had accepted his fate.
“How?” Fenros looked at Brigid. “My Body is now a hundred and twenty-five…”
Brigid snorted. “Not all stats are equal, peasant. A mouse can’t compare with a lion. I’m a princess.”
“We don’t do blue blood supremacism on my watch,” Vincent said.
“Why don’t you interrogate him instead of scolding your betters,” Brigid sneered, inviting him to speak to the prisoner through a hand gesture.
“Where’s the System?” Vincent asked.
“What do you mean, where’s the System?” Fenros replied, wobbling under pain. “On the pedestal.”
“There’s nothing there,” Vincent said.
“It’s there,” Fenros repeated. “Look better.”
Growling at the unproductive dialogue, Brigid walked to the pedestal at a brisk pace. Indeed, there was a diamond on the support, only a tiny one. “HAHAHA!” she roared. “That’s the System? Not even a karat in size?”
“We don’t mock poor people while on my watch,” Vincent yelled at her. “Let it be. I’ll take care of it. It might be dangerous. Booby-trapped or something.”
“How could twenty Archetypes interact with such a small stone?” Elkandaros asked.
“The new System doesn’t use Archetypes as personality imprints,” Fenros said. “It takes a little from every user.”
“Hm… it’s like Bee’s idea,” Vincent said.
“The Cursed King wrote the spell for that. He was behind the plan to replace the System from the beginning.”
“Where is he?” Brigid asked. It had been a good morning, and she rooted for more fighting.
“You killed him… He was in the first pod you open… He was supposed to be unkillable, and the Archetypes feared him.”
“If it’s the same man my original knew, he could place curses that fed on you and healed him,” Elkandaros said, going and taking a look at the pod. “Can’t say his face rings a bell… maybe because he doesn’t have a face anymore… Ew! I had no idea a crowbar could do that…”
“OK, let’s wrap it up here,” Vincent said. “Good job, Brigid… but don’t do it again… I meant the part about smacking me in the head.”
“As long you don’t talk nonsense and think you’re smarter than I, we’re OK,” Brigid said, crossing her arms.
“What are we going to do?” Irene asked.
“Reinstall our System, of course,” Vincent said. Just give me a second. My Karmic Charges are full, I’ll go to Earth to leave this guy in prison. We don’t want him to freeze us when his Mana’s back up, right?”