Nikiphero men swarmed the grounds of the Mistech base, capturing any stranglers, and salvaging whatever they found of value. They were also attempting to break into the fortress where remnants of Mistech had barricaded themselves within.

Kayden stood off to the side of all this activity with Cassius. Sacha and Dvoral were with Lester who was being overlooked by the elf woman. That device she had used had driven away the malicious entity, but it had left significant damage to his aura.

Darris was off on his own, trying to look invisible, and avoiding looking at Kayden. Although, truth be told, she couldn’t be that angry at him for bringing in Nikiphero. Without them, Kayden and the others would most likely have been killed by Mistech.

“There are easier ways to commit suicide,” Cassius said.

Kayden avoided his gaze. It was still fresh in her mind how he had abruptly attacked her and forced her to the ground the last time they met. She still felt betrayed by him.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do,” she said.

“I promised your father I would keep you out of this business.”

He pulled out a pipe and pouch. He took out some eris moss and stuffed it in the pipe before lighting it up and taking in a lung full of dark smoke. They stood beside the river, the waters rushing toward the ledge where they would disappear into the abyss.

Her anger overcame her fear and she looked at him. He stared into the swirling waters of the river and didn’t meet her gaze.

“My father is dead. I’m going to find his killer.”

He glanced in her direction and then back at the water and spoke softly. “And you thought you would find him here?”

Kayden frowned. “He helped take down Mistech. They wanted to get revenge.”

“Mistech had nothing to do with your father’s death. They were barely managing to survive. Do you think they would risk that to come after him?”

“Then who killed him!?” she shouted. “What have you done to avenge your brother!?”

Her anger didn’t faze him. “Stay out of it, Kayden.”

“I won’t! I will find his killer!”

His face suddenly hardened and he whirled at her but this time she was ready. Her shadow dagger formed in her hand and she held it out in front of her so that he couldn’t touch her. They stood staring at each other.

He was the first to break away, turning back to the water like nothing had transpired between them. Kayden still stood frozen in the spot for a moment longer, breathing heavily with her heart racing. Once she was sure that she wasn’t in immediate danger, she let her arm drop to her side, but she kept a hold of her dagger.

“Why won’t you let it go?” Cassius asked.

“I can’t,” Kayden’s voice suddenly broke. “It’s my fault.” Tears pricked the back of her eyes but she refused to let them fall.

“You have a shadow dagger.”

She didn’t respond. She just tightened her grip on the dagger like he would try to take it from her.

“That is a forbidden focus for an Uptowner.”

There was a swirl of red, liquid that coalesced in Cassius’s hand that formed into a dagger of his own. He held it out for Kayden’s inspection. After a second, Kayden took it. The blade was a dark red and the hilt was black. It was larger than Kayden’s own and curved slightly.

“That is my blood dagger. It has the ability to create a blood oath.”

He grabbed Kadyen’s hand holding the blood dagger and brought it up to his cheek, the cheek with all of the thin, pale scars. He drew the blade across his cheek even as Kayden still held it. The blood began to glow and seeped into the blade.

“This I swear,” he said, holding her gaze, his eyes burning with passion. “Your father’s killer will be brought to justice.”

Kayden tore her hand free and took a step away. Then in an instant of a passion of her own, she slashed the dagger across her face. The cut was much deeper than the careful shallow cut Cassius had given himself. Pain seared across her cheek as the blade split a diagonal cut from her ear to her chin. It was messy and crude.

“What are you--”

He tried to stop her but she took a few steps back as she made a promise of her own. “This I swear, I will find and I will kill my father’s killer.”

The blade drank up her blood and she felt a heavy weight press down on her chest before fading away. Cassius tore the dagger from her hands and pooled the blade back into his body.

“What have you done?” For the first time, Cassius seemed to be taken off guard.

“Now you know that I am committed.”

“Now I know that you are a fool. You will die if you do not fulfill your promise.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“You’re not a killer.”

“Maybe not yet, but I know you can make me into one.” She held out her dagger so that he could see it. “This isn’t the tool of an Uptowner. I’m a Cliffsider like you.”

He looked at the dagger then at her. “I promised your father.”

“Was it a blood oath?”

He shook his head. “But that doesn’t mean it is any less unbreakable.”

“He’s dead. Your promise to him doesn’t matter anymore. And I’ll be dead too unless you help me.”

They stood in tense silence for a moment. Kayden would continue down this path with or without Cassius helping her. She tried to project that in her stance.

“This road you are taking, it will break you. Are you prepared for that?”

“Yes.”

“You will become something that you despise.”

“I don’t care.”

“Maybe not now, but you will. Once you start you can not stop. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“No you don’t, but you will. I will teach you.”

He resummoned his blood dagger and drew another line in his cheek below the other one. “This I swear, I will make you into someone capable of avenging your father.”

The blood glowed. The pact was made.

*****

“You're a member of Nikiphero,” Sacha said.

They sat in a bunk house that was connected to the Mistech factory. It was a big room lined with empty beds. The elf had brought Lester here to recover from her administration.

Kayden didn’t know what the elf had done, but Lester was sleeping soundly. She had checked on his aura and there had been not evidence of the presence of Tenebrex, but his aura had still been in a despicable state.

The elf was no longer here, but according to Sacha, the elf had said that his aura would heal but it would be a long and grueling process.

“I wasn’t a member before, but I think I am now,” Kayden said, reaching up to touch her cheek which was now bandaged.

Dvoral hadn’t said anything since Kayden arrived. He simply watched her suspiciously like she had just shed her skin to reveal that she was a viper underneath. He gripped his spear, and his shield was in his lap, ready for the first sign of battle.

“Well whatever you are, I suppose we should be grateful. Your friends pulled us out of a tough spot. So thank you.” Sacha spoke with a formality that had never been there before. She sat stiffly with her back straight like she didn’t want to risk offending Kayden in any way.

“What do you plan on doing now?” Kayden asked.

“Once Lester is up to it, we are going to get out of here,” she said. “If that’s okay with you and Nikiphero of course. We don’t want to cause any trouble.”

“What about the mining operation, don’t you want to get your cut for finding it?”

Sacha shook her head. “We’ve already spoken with that other man.”

She was talking about Rem. Kayden had passed him on her way to see Sacha and the others. They exchanged a look but said nothing to each other.

“He made us take a blood oath not to reveal anything about what happened here.” She showed her palm and a bandage was wrapped around the still bleeding wound. “We will stay true to our word. You have no need to worry we will reveal your secrets, miss.”

This wasn’t going how Kayden thought. After all they had been through in this short time together, it hurt that they were treating her suddenly like she was an enemy. “That’s not what I meant. I just wanted to make sure you got compensated for everything.”

“We’ve already been paid generously. Our contract is complete, you have no need to concern yourself over us. We will be out of your way soon enough.”

“It’s--” Kayden let the word die on her tongue.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

She realized that whatever camaraderie they had formed before was gone. There was no use making their life any more uncomfortable with her presence.

“Thank you,” she said instead and left them to watch over their fallen companion.

She ran into the elf on her way out. The elf had been waiting silently by the door. Kayden was once again struck by her beauty.

“I am glad to see you are doing better after our last meeting,” the elf said by way of greeting.

Kayden nodded shyly. It was intimidating being around someone with so much otherworldly grace. “I never got the chance to thank you. I’d be dead without you.”

The elf smiled. “There is no need to thank me. It was Cassius who sent me to you. It is him you should thank. I was only following orders.”

“Oh,” Kayden said awkwardly. She glanced back toward Lester. “Is he going to be okay?”

“He will be. It will take time for him to recover. His aura has been under serious strain from the artifact.”

“The artifact?”

“Tenebrex, it is an artifact from Sendolian, an artificial lifeform. It is what Mistech has been using to power their tech.”

“A Sendolian artifact? How did they get their hands on that?”

The Sendolian Empire was an ancient advanced civilization that had fallen hundreds of years ago. They had an understanding of magic on a level that modern times could not compare with. There were still remnants of their artifacts scattered across the world that wielded immense power. Many people spent lifetimes studying these artifacts in the hopes of uncovering how they functioned. Even the smallest discovery could propel the contemporary understanding of magic to new heights.

“Who knows. Maybe they uncovered it in one of the tunnels down here. We will interrogate the Mistech members and uncover more information.”

“How did you stop it?” Kayden had been wondering what the elf had done since she had seen the elf dispel Tenebrex’s presence with that device she had held aloft and it had lit up the entire cavern

“Ah, that is somewhat of a secret, but we had been aware of Mistech’s machinations for some time. We were preparing for something like this. It happened sooner than we thought, but it all seems to have worked out.”

“Sorry if this is pushy, but what are you doing with Nikiphero?”

“That is a long story I’m afraid. One that will have to wait for another time. I need to go check on Lester before he wakes up. He took a large dose of sor ontop of being corrupted by Tenebrex.” She held up a vial of misty white liquid. “This should help alleviate the intense hangover he is sure to experience.”

“Oh, sorry,” Kayden said hurriedly, stepping aside.

The elf smiled again. It was a thing that bards could write songs about. “Not at all Kayden. It is always a pleasure.”

The elf went to leave but Kayden stopped her with one more question. “What’s your name?” It was blurted out in a half rushed babble.

“Call me Ruth.” And then with that she walked away.

Kayden left the building, thinking about why Ruth had phrased it that way, like it wasn’t her actual name. She found herself more curious than ever about Ruth, but for now she put it in the back of her mind.

When she was back outside, she was met to the scene of Nikiphero still trying to force their way into the fortress. They had given up traditional approaches of breaking open the doors and were now collecting the mining explosives to blast their way in.

Kayden wanted to be there when they went in. She still wasn’t sure if Cassius was right and that Mistech had no involvement in her father’s death. She wanted to see for herself if they had any firearms.

In the meantime, she made her way over to Darris who was still off on his own, trying to appear inconspicuous. He looked very out of place and uncomfortable.

“Kayden,” he said when he saw her approach. “It’s good to see you alive.”

“I guess I have you to thank for that,” she said even though she felt a slight tinge of annoyance that he had gone to Nikiphero.

He looked slightly relieved to see that she wasn’t angry at him. “Your welcome.”

“I thought you didn’t like to get yourself involved in things like this.”

“It’s different going into battle alone than it is with a whole army at your back. I didn’t even need to do any fighting.”

“What are you still doing sticking around here? I would have thought you would have been gone the moment you could.”

“They won’t let me leave,” he said nervously, pointing at the men Cassius had left to guard the exit. “They told me Cassius wants to speak to me. I don’t like the sound of that one bit.”

“Did they say why?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think I’ve done anything to antagonize Nikiphero, but I do have a lot of enemies. What have you gotten me into girl? This is why I like to keep a low profile. At least if Nikiphero kills me, I won’t have to worry about Sally hunting me down. What she would do is far worse than what they could do.”

“Their not going to kill you,” Kayden said even though she wasn’t sure about that. “They probably want to reward you. And it’s not like this is my fault. You're the one who came back.”

“Ugh, I wish it was in my nature to ignore it when I see a girl in need.” He ran a hand through his messy hair. “You girls are always more trouble than your worth.”

She punched him in the arm with the aid of her aura and he flinched back with a yelp. “I’m not some damsel in distress.”

“Yes you are,” he said, rubbing his arm. “I’ve never seen a more classic case of damsel in distress syndrome than you’ve displayed today. I mean, you were captured by a hoard of evil men in a castle and everything. The last thing there needs to be is a dragon.”

As if the world took his words as a challenge, there was a huge explosion, but it wasn’t from the charges that Nikiphero had set off to force their way into the fortress. The back half of the fortress had exploded and a giant mechanized creature was crawling out of the rubble.

It wasn’t a dragon, but it looked just as deadly. It was a huge humanoid construction with four long arms and legs each like a spider. Each of the hands wielded a hulking sword. At the center of its head was a single red mass of swirling energy like an eye, and floating within that energy was a rune engraved octagon that was like its pupil.

“Cassius!” The voice of Pascal boomed out. “Your measly attack can not stop me!”

He heaved a piece of the rubble around him at a group of Nikiphero men, pulverizing them in an instant. Men scattered all around the place.

“This is the power of Tenebrex! This is the power of Mistech! We can not be stopped by you or by Uptown!”

“You just had to say it,” Kayden said to Darris more in shock than anything.

“This isn’t my fault!” he said.

The monstrous contraption pulled itself from the rubble. To Nikiphero’s credit, the men weren’t fleeing. They were rallying together to stop Pascal from reaching Cassius. A few of them pulled out wands and began to blast the monster with fireballs and lightning strikes, but nothing even left a mark on the black metal.

Pascal reached the front lines and tore through them like they didn’t even exist. Nothing they could do could slow down, let alone stop, him. Pascal had only one thing on his mind, killing Cassius.

Cassius called for his men to fall back, but Pascal cut through them mercilessly. The few who were still alive ran and hid among the mining equipment, but the Mistech men who were still alive and hiding in the fortress came out and started attacking them. There once dysfunctional body augmentations were working again.

Pascal left his men to finish off the stragglers and made a straight line toward Cassius who was with Rem. The two men dived out of the way of Pascal’s charge. Pascal was like a natural disaster because of the damage he caused to the earth in his wake.

Luckily his attack had kicked up a lot of dust, allowing Cassius and Rem to hid. Pascal swung around, searching for his prey. That was when an arrow flew out of the dust and struck Pascal in his eye, directly at the rune carved pupil. Pascal flinched back, but seemed relatively unharmed.

Another arrow flew out of the dust. This time there was something tied to it, a stick of dynamite. It exploded, sending Pascal stumbling back. He swept out blindly, destroying everything in his path, but this only worked to create more dust.

Kayden saw the source of the attacks. It was Sacha. She was with Dvoral, Lester, and Ruth. Lester was awake but he had to be helped by Dvoral and Ruth. They were retreating from the bunk house which had been destroyed in Pascal’s blind tantrum. They were obviously struggling to get away as they were practically at the epicenter of Pascal’s attack.

Dvoral tossed another stick of dynamite to Sacha who tied it around an arrow before sending it at the face of Pascal. But Pascal had learned from his mistake and had paused to ready himself when the next attack came. He hit it aside and it blew up harmlessly in the air.

His eye tracked to where he had seen it originate, although from his vantage point he couldn’t make out exactly where. Still, he began destroying things in that direction.

Kayden lost sight of her once companions as buildings collapsed around them.

“We have to help them!” Kayden yelled at Darris. She took off in their direction without another thought.

Darris cursed and followed behind her. His longer legs allowed him to easily catch up. He drew his scimitar. The blade glowed with a pure white light.

They were hit by a gust of dust that Pascal blew up around them. Kayden ran in the direction she had last seen the others, but it was so disorienting that she had a hard time telling where anything was and she began to get disoriented.

Pascal’s legs clambered around them and Darris pulled her out of the way at the last second before she was crushed. He swung out his sword and to Kayden’s surprise it actually dug deeply into the metal. Not all the way through, but it was by far the most damage she had seen inflicted on him so far.

Then the legs stomped wildly past them. Pascal didn’t seem to have noticed the damage, which made sense because he didn’t have any nerves. That was a flaw in the design if you asked Kayden.

They rushed onward until they noticed shadows that resembled people lurking in the chaos. They came upon them and found Lester had collapsed with Ruth administering to him while Sacha and Dvoral were trying to find a way out of this. The two of them swung their weapons in Kayden and Darris’s direction, but when they saw who it was, they calmed down.

“Help us get Lester out of here!” Sacha said over the successive booms that came with Pascal’s attacks.

Kayden nodded and rushed over to help, but Darris pushed her aside and he and Dvoral lifted Lester between them. That left Kayden the responsibility of leading them out of this mess.

She clutched her dagger in her hand but it felt extremely inadequate for this situation. For about the hundredth time she wished she had taken more of an opportunity to discover its capabilities, but everything had been moving so fast that she hadn’t had much of a chance. She promised herself that once they got out of this, she would learn what her focus could do beyond making clouds of darkness.

“Can’t you dispel it again!?” she shouted at Ruth.

Ruth shook her head. “I had only a single charge! It will take months for it to be ready again!”

As they hobbled as a group through the battlefield a Mistech soldier rose up before them and tried to attack but an arrow sprouted out of his eye and he fell to the ground. Sacha lowered her bow. They kept going.

“Pascal!” Cassius’s voice called out. “Are you trying to bring this whole cavern down on top of us!?”

Pascal’s mad offensive suddenly ceased and the dust began to settle. Kayden looked around and saw Cassius standing alone atop the rubble of the fortress. The remainder of his men had retreated to the edges of the cavern around the tunnels. Were they abandoning their leader? Even Rem had left Cassius to stand alone.

“Finally decided to crawl out from under your rock, worm!” Pascal’s booming voice called out as he made his way over to Cassius. “I don’t know what you are planning but you can not defeat me! I know about your blood magic! I have no blood!”

He laughed maniacally and Kayden was beginning to think that whatever process had led to Pascal inhabiting this body had done some damage to his mind.

“You can not win! I have ascended! Tenebrex will bring about a new era to Mitros! You should have joined forces with me while you had the chance!”

“Oh, shut up!”

Cassius shot a ray of red energy at Pascal, but it was drawn to Pascal’s eye. The octagon object swirled in a frenzy as Cassius’s power was absorbed into it. Another voice that wasn’t Pascal’s rang out. It was genderless and without inflection.

Current power levels at 43.55%. Tenebrex directive failed. More power is required.

“Do you hear that!? Soon Tenebrex will be initiated and none will be able to stand in my way!”

“Didn’t I tell you to shut up!”

With a screech of pure rage, Pascal charged toward the defenseless Cassius. Cassius sneered at the approaching metallic monstrosity as if it were nothing but a cockroach. Just as Pascal was about to reach him, he jumped off the side of the cliff and into the abyss. Then the earth where he had been standing, and where Pascal now clutched at empty air, exploded and the whole side of the cliff sank into the abyss with Cassius.