Achemiss will think he’s exploiting my one vulnerability–you–but in reality, when he tries to attack my soul through our connection, we’ll close it off.

Realization dawned on her face. Like we did when I went to the Sere Compound?

Yes. Pulling this off is going to take some acting on my part, though, Ian said. We have to make Achemiss think he’s not just going to win, but that he’s already won. If they made it too easy for Achemiss to supposedly exploit the connection between Maria and Ian, their foe would naturally wonder why.

Maria crossed her arms. Assuming the Regret practitioner is somehow receiving information from Achemiss, their intel will be limited to what enters the rift–or what Achemiss encounters in the immediate vicinity, should he send his constructs out. If we keep our distance, it will be difficult for Achemiss to find us.

Ian considered the point. If he can’t find us–me, specifically–he won’t be sure of his victory. If I were him, I’d send out as many constructs as possible to track down my foe.

How many constructs do you think he has?

Ian wasn’t certain. Euryphel said that the rift armies were numerous, thousands strong. But Achemiss was a Dark practitioner and could make his own void storages. He might have many thousands more constructs on his person.

Enough to be a nuisance, Ian replied. He flexed his hands. We’ve already wasted too much time discussing. Let’s go for the plan.

So... I should enter the rift?

The mannequins will enter first and do what damage they can. Then, you should go in and flush Achemiss out. When it comes time to mute the bond, I’ll make sure you know. After that, you’ll be on your own. Use your best judgment, as always.

He held out a hand. When she grabbed it, he pulled her in for a hug, tight against his chest. Then, he reached back out to Euryphel over quantum channel. “I assume you already know the plan?”

“Yep.”

“Y’jeni, it’s so convenient having you in my head to coordinate,” Ian thought. “I’ll miss it.”

With that, he kissed the top of Maria’s head, her diadem brushing against his cheek as he withdrew. Then, with a solemn nod, Maria began sprinting across the water, ascendant energy flaring around her legs.

“So, Eury,” Ian thought. “What happens when we send both mannequins in and kick things off?”

“Achemiss still doesn’t reveal himself, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Ian huffed. “That would obviously be too easy. Still, I think we should do it anyway.”

“Why?”

“Whatever Achemiss is doing to keep himself hidden, I doubt he can hold it indefinitely. He’s like a seal hiding under ice while a bear waits on the surface. He’ll have to come up for air eventually. I can’t relent based on the futility I see in a minute’s worth of time in a Regret scenario.”

“When you enter with both mannequins, you’ll unleash the horde, Euryphel cautioned. I’d tell you to make a barrier around the rift entrance, but Achemiss’s army will push past it. There’s nothing you can do to stem the tide.”

“Let them come,” he replied. “I hope he shows me the peak of his craft.” He smiled humorlessly. “I’m sure there’s much more for me to learn.”

—

Maria was surprised by how satisfying running over the water’s surface was. It was meditative to let her ascendant energy free, bolstering her physical power rather than just enhancing her fire.

You’re almost there, Maria, Ian said.

That was good, since she’d been running for over twenty seconds, nearly an eternity as far as she was concerned. She covered a lot of ground–water?–with each stride, but it was slower than flying. All she had was a direction since she couldn’t see the rift from the surface.

What’s the mannequin situation?

I sent them in just now.

Maria blinked. Oh. What’s happening?

Well, things are proceeding as we’d predicted, Ian said. We kicked the nest. Get ready for the hornets. Or in this case, worms.

Almost as soon as his words registered, a geyser erupted in the distance. Intermixing with the dark gray of the inanimate water were thin, black splotches. A swarm of Death-fueled darkness, propelled to the surface with such power that even the water rose with them, exploding outward.

As she drew closer to the fading geyser, the silent swarm came into better focus. It had only been a second or two and their dark forms carpeted the sky, flying at variable elevations over the water. Many skimmed the surface, and below, Maria caught faint signatures of Death all around her.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Most appeared serpentine, swimming through sea and sky with soul gems embedded haphazardly. Tentacles of dark energy writhed from some of them, questing for nonexistent prey. They were alien, yet uniform. She pegged them as reanimated riftbeasts rather than original creations.

Maria moved so swiftly that the swarming constructs couldn’t react to her. The ones that happened to be in her way she either dodged or dispatched with quiet efficiency, destroying them with sharp kicks or slashes.

Soon, she reached the site of the geyser’s eruption. Receiving no further guidance, she dove into the water. She stared, almost uncomprehending, at the volume of constructs spewing forth from the rift. Only her rapid speed allowed her to cut through the din and approach the rift, but she stopped fifty feet out, the density of constructs preventing her from swimming further.

She’d come as far as she could without using her practice.

Might as well give it my best, she thought. They didn’t know if Achemiss would take the Maria-bait; it was possible they’d need to simply defeat him in an all-out confrontation. Maria would be lying if she said she wasn’t hoping for the latter. The one time she’d encountered Achemiss, she’d flown away as fast as she could. It hadn’t been cowardice–they had agreed on that plan to cover the situation where Ian lost.

While Ian had the satisfaction of tearing apart Achemiss with his own hands, Maria still had nothing to show for her anger. While she found it more likely that Ian would deliver the final nail in the coffin, she’d love the chance to kill him with her own hands.

Maria, Ian suddenly said, don’t let them grab you. They’ll explode.

Is it a problem if I burn them up first?

Not at all.

Maria grinned. As the swarm of Death constructs began to coil around her, she flared her elementalism, powerful flames materializing around her. Ascendant energy let them burn despite the lack of air, fueled instead by her power.

The constructs crumbled.

Maria clapped her hands together, then spread them apart, fingers curling as she drew a new array into existence. Her fire scorched the bedrock as it scribed a circle and sigils around its length. She invested it with every bit of power she could muster from End.

The array she’d drawn took advantage of her own nature as a lich, creating a field where Death energy perception was inverted. Decemantic constructs were capable of executing complex commands, but they were limited by their perception of the world. To them, all open water should now seem like a black wall of impassable Death, while only the space where their brethren swam appeared vacant.

Maria smiled grimly as all the constructs near the rift entrance turned toward one another, smashing together into a veritable ball of Death energy. They constricted their brothers, seeing Life in place of Death. Several explosions broke out as the constructs detonated.

Maria darted forward, pulled back her arm, then punched out, ascendant energy empowering the blow. The ball of constructs broke apart, clearing a path for Maria to enter the rift. She found herself in a shallow pool, perhaps an oasis, for the surrounding land–that visible behind the horde of constructs–was a dusty yellow desert. Instead of a sun, a bright blue light filled the sky. Streaks of soft white energy pulsed to a slow tempo, almost like wispy clouds.

The sky’s appearance marked this as a textbook ethereal rift, which meant the riftbeasts would be predisposed to Light, Life, Mountain, Sun, Beginning, or Regret. It was often possible to guess based on the riftbeasts, but all she saw were their reanimated corpses. The ethereal nature of the rift made it almost certain that the murky energy extending from the worms’ backs was Achemiss’s work.

It was hard to tell how large the rift was since her perception was tied to vitality, and everything faded to gray after a few miles. Still, it seemed bigger than the norm. Larger rifts were often valued higher because they produced more powerful riftbeasts, but they were worthless if the beasts were too dangerous to defeat. For a large rift like this one to be unknown and unused... It made her wonder what hid within.

Maria kept her momentum, bounding out of the oasis to skate across the sand. Flames redoubled around her, her elementalism much more suited to the dry environment. Wherever she glided over the sand turned to glass. She’d practiced drawing End arrays this way countless times; it was practically muscle memory.

Soon she’d drawn out a vine of arrays, each connected to the other. They were based on the arrays she’d used around Selejo. They would debilitate whatever ensouled beings entered.

If Achemiss crossed them, he’d find himself in a world of pain.

She still didn’t sense any End arrow belonging to Achemiss, and had no idea where the ascendant might hide himself. A pang of doubt stirred in her mind–what if Achemiss wasn’t here after all? But she quashed it down.

While Achemiss’s location remained an enigma, she could sense Ian’s mannequins. As necromantic constructs tied to Ian’s soul, their arrows also connected to her. They had split up, one arrow headed left, the other directly behind her.

My constructs are fighting off some more powerful creations of Achemiss, Ian said over the bond. The one to your left could use some firepower.

Maria changed her heading, continuing her looping path over the sand.

A handful of seconds later, an enormous form came into view. She slowed down and skated around it, pivoting right. It had a long segmented body with inky, semi-corporeal tentacles extending from its back. A single tentacle was over fifty feet long, and they moved with impossible agility, unhindered by biological constraints.

It was clearly a riftbeast, one similar to the smaller ones that spilled out from the rift. A powerful specimen–the kind that attained mastery over an affinity and could be harvested for powerful soul gems.

But it doesn’t have fate, Maria thought, frowning. It must not have a soul. Must not be a practitioner. Those were the most dangerous kind of riftbeasts, the ones who were almost like Crystal, possessing sapience. If that was the case, why was Ian’s construct having trouble with it?

Her first instinct was to say it was a reanimated corpse, like the other worms. However, unlike the weaker riftbeasts, which all shone pitch black to her vital perception, the monster appeared a slate gray. It was the same color sick people appeared. It seemed to be alive. But that didn’t make sense–it was clearly producing sinister energy on its back.

She’d assumed it was Death energy, which–given the rift’s ethereal nature–all but guaranteed Achemiss’s involvement. Maria circled for another half turn, perplexed.

I’m supposed to help Ian’s mannequin, not analyze the riftbeast, she rebuked herself. Speaking of... where even is it?

The mannequin’s arrow disappeared into the massive riftbeast’s girth where it writhed on the sand. The beast’s tentacles savagely churned the dunes. It gave the impression that either Ian’s construct was inside it, or underneath.

Where she’d originally thought the beast’s tentacles were lashing the ground in an attempt to score a lucky blow, she realized the monster was actually hitting itself–or at least, the sand beneath it.

Both possibilities worked fine for her. Ian had made his constructs fire resistant, to survive a few blasts from Maria’s flames. She doubted the sickly riftbeast had such immunity.

Maria condensed a ball of tight energy, tightening her fingers as she prepared to release her attack. Then, she let it rip.

What should have been a fiery explosion fizzled against the beast’s hide, and it continued striking itself, seemingly immune to Maria’s attack.

She blinked.

Just what kind of rift was this?