{Enki | Ocean Landing}

Nox never felt the confines of his second life as constricting as in this moment. The shade swimming alongside Rayne as she ran could only be one of Enki’s famed leviathan, and there wasn’t a damned thing he could do to help her.

Not that Rayne needed it. The capable warrior whose mind housed him ran thousands of miles an hour with immense strength in those powerful legs and arms. Her unshaken core laid the foundation for a perfect battle against an epic creature.

Nox wanted a piece of the action.

“Do you think it’s under Remorse’s command?”

Rayne asked intelligent questions.

Nox didn’t need to consider it. There was only one correct answer. “Absolutely.”

A little sigh escaped from her. Between the Overseer which chased them all the way from the Pantheon and the sea monster along her stride, Nox understood Rayne’s growing frustration.

They could both do with some violence.

“Nox.”

What could make her voice sound so—Oh, this looked promising.

Rayne stopped and faced a small army. At least a hundred men and women from all over the Vast Collective were dressed in black and brandishing weapons. Guns, swords, axes, electric prods—An entire arsenal.

In front of them stood Abresson.

The sniveling waste of skin boomed, “Where do you think you’re going?”

Rayne straightened her ponytail and loosened her neck muscles while quipping, “Oh, you know? Taking in the sights.” She finished limbering up with a balanced stance and without reaching for the rifle.

Abresson jeered in a smug smirk. “I must confess. I’ve looked forward to your waking.” He turned toward the ocean.

Rayne looked in the same direction and muttered aloud, “Those are some big bubbles.”

Foam roiled and splashed until a massive thing surged to the surface. Ocean water sluiced away to reveal a giant serpentine monster rising and rising. A white dragon with six sets of long whiskers lined back toward its ears. Sharpened quills marked its mouth in rows like a shark. Nacres glistened where they nestled in its pale scales.

Not that Nox needed more reason to love Rayne, but the strongest warrior in the galaxy took a step toward the creature with a few breathless words. “It’s beautiful.”

“It is a ‘he,’ and he has a name. This is Squilly.” The leviathan spoke the words himself with the familiar tone of one always in power. “Squilly’s monitoring your flight across Enki while I tend to other affairs.”

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Six million years of pure venomous hatred slammed into Nox. He spat, “Primary,” through his teeth.

Aloud, Rayne ground out, “Primary Rem.”

Abresson ordered, “Return to the Martyr Complex, King Rayne. Don’t force us to put you in it.”

Inside her head, she looked up at Nox. He scanned the line of soldiers. “Assuming the Primary keeps his pet out of the fight, subdue the projectiles first. You can take them easily. Shoot Abresson with the rifle, then engage the others in hand-to-hand.”

Target engaged.

Combat initiated.

Calculated duration: Thirteen minutes.

Rayne’s voice changed inside her head to the extreme three pitches. Her eyes danced with anticipation. “This should fill me up for a while.”

Nox folded his arms, eager to watch Rayne repay Imminent for locking her in that box and hurting her people. His people. To stand at the edge of retribution beside its emissary was glorious.

Rayne took a step forward.

The army took a step back, frightened of the sleeping King.

Nox peered down at Rayne, wondering at her composure. Her eyes glittered with excitement, staring out at her enemies, and her lips moved as she quietly computed who to attack first and what move to make. Fast, so fast that Nox barely made out Rayne’s strategy. Imminent made her into a machine of death, and she was here to repay them.

Within the work of a second, Rayne crossed the platform, kicked one sniper hard enough to shatter his arm, and ripped the throat out of the next one. Shots were fired from the others, but she moved faster than their nacre-disabling rounds. Rayne jumped over one sniper, rolled him across her back, and threw him into another. Their bones made audible cracks when they collided. An axe swung from the side, and she fell into a backflip, kicking the assailant’s jaw into pieces along the way.

More came. Rayne took them all out with ease. Her agility impressed Nox. It was something he had worked toward, but which came naturally to her slighter frame. She sidestepped to avoid a round while simultaneously launching a retrieved sword at the sniper. Someone grabbed her from behind, and she opened her wings with a battle cry. Their gossamer silk threw the fighter off her back. Rayne buffeted her wings, pushing back her enemies in a circle around her. Taking advantage of the break, she closed her eyes and opened them in Atramentous. The light from them spread in a white, searing wall which swallowed the platform.

When Rayne next closed and opened her eyes, they’d returned to Li’s surface—A red giant blazing in her eyes. The surrounding soldiers cried out in agony and rubbed their empty sockets. They were blind, and their nacres wouldn’t heal it. Most weren’t upgraded high enough to survive at all, but a few remained.

They circled Rayne. She ignored them, storming across the battlefield to the spineless Tritan only meters away.

Desperate, Abresson ordered, “Stop her! Kill her!”

Maybe three dozen soldiers remained upright. Nox gained so much satisfaction when Rayne punched through the chest of the closest one and threw their useless nacre at the one behind her, hard enough to go through their skull. She flipped back from the next one, who swung a sword. Mid one-handed cartwheel, she shot the nacre-disabling rifle and hit Abresson, using the remaining rounds to take out her nearest opponents.

Restabilizing.

Warning: Seventy-two hours until maximum destabilization.

There was some good news.

While Rayne decimated an entire army, Nox kept a lookout on her peripheral vision for the Primary’s pet. A weakened Abresson shouted at the beast, “We must retreat!”

The nacre-studded leviathan spoke his master’s words. “Go, and empty the depositories. I’ll deal with her myself.”

Squilly lifted its great heft out of the water and onto the platform. Eight sets of clawed feet carried the leviathan on land impossibly fast and right for Rayne.

“Rayne!” Nox shouted in her head, only to find her elbow deep in a dozen assailants.

No. This was not happening.

When the shade of the sea demon fell on Rayne as it opened its jaws, Nox could take no more.