“No way,” Elise said. “That can’t be right.”
“It’s never killed a Mystic before,” Relia added. “It’s never even hurt one.”
“I don’t know,” Arturo replied. “Just tellin’ you guys what I heard.”
Akari’s heart raced as she processed these words. Mystics could live for centuries without aging, injuries, or disease. They were practically immortal by this world’s standards, and she’d never heard of one dying in her lifetime.
She’d assumed the Mystics would drive Storm’s Eye off, just as they’d done in the previous battles. But what would stop it from destroying the city now?
Suddenly, this whole idea seemed unspeakably stupid. The cultists had Masters among their ranks, so she hadn’t hesitated to reveal herself around them. But she’d been prepared for Valeria Antano and her minions. Not Storm’s Eye’s unstoppable blasts.
“Zeller!” Corbin shouted. “Get your squad back here. Bridge Street needs your help.”
“Cut through that building on the east side,” Arturo said through the comm channel. “You can flank ‘em that way.”
Right, they could discuss the collapse of modern civilization later. In the meantime, there was still work to do. Akari jogged toward a pair of glass double doors, then she let Zukan and Relia take point down the corridor. They approached the adjacent field with caution, refilling their mana as they went.
Apart of her hoped the others would suggest a retreat. With Akari’s portals, they could easily skip town and live to fight another day. They could even bring some civilians along and call it a good deed.
But no one said a word. And with that, a wave of unexpected relief washed over her. She hadn’t really wanted to stop fighting, after all. She believed her own words from the penthouse, and she would see this through to the end.
She would advance today, or die trying.
They emerged through a second set of doors onto the street beyond. Several buildings lay toppled over, and hundreds of spawn crawled out from the wreckage. That last blast was far closer than she’d thought.
Akari almost froze as the chaos washed over her. Mana flew across the battlefield, and even the rain fell harder than before. Deep puddles gathered on the street, reflecting the blur of bright colors.
But then Kalden’s aspect washed over her, and she saw the pieces and possibilities in her mind’s eye. The cultists had gathered near the courtyard on her right, taking cover behind piles of rubble and mana Constructs. They attacked the spawn from range, which was standard practice in most modern battles. Akari’s squad rarely fought from range, but they were the exception. Half their ranks were melee fighters.
Elise raised an illusion around the team, while Zukan and Relia made a perimeter. That gave Akari a few more precious seconds to think.
She almost sent Zukan and Relia behind the enemy lines again, but Nightfang’s warnings came back to her. When you fought with unfamiliar allies, it was better to give each other space. Anything else risked confusion or friendly fire.
Instead, she and Kalden mentally shifted their goals. The spawn were coming in too fast, and they couldn’t hope to clear Bridge Street like they had with Espirian Avenue. Better to keep their teammates and allies alive as long as they could.
“Relia,” Kalden said. “We’re sending you across the street. Guard the cultists’ right flank, and heal them if they need it.” Relia nodded, and Akari launched the dart across the field.
“We’ll focus on the main horde,” Kalden said to the others. “Stick to ranged techniques unless they get close.” His voice sounded far more alive than it had before. Even his thoughts felt sharper in her mind; less like a distant storm, and more like his blade techniques. Maybe he’d realized how much she needed him right now.
More mana blazed across the field as her teammates sprang into motion. At one point, the spawn tried to cluster together and raise a shield wall. When they did, Akari made a portal below their feet and sent them falling into another loop.
“We got bombers on your nine,’ Arturo said through the comm channel. “Gonna hit ‘em with an AMP.”
No sooner had he spoken than a swarm flew down from the clouds, painting the sky blue with the flaps of their wings. Some resembled insects, while others looked more like birds or dragons. All of them had floating shields that wrapped around the front of their bodies.
Arturo’s grenade flew through the center of the group, and the anti-mana pulse ripped through their shields like wet paper. Unfortunately, the pulse didn’t hurt the spawn themselves. Akari didn’t know why, but it made some intuitive sense. AMPs destroyed techniques, but they had no effect on liquid or crystal mana. Clearly, the spawn behaved more like the latter forms.
Akari took a deep breath and began forming a portal behind her. “Zukan, you’re on cleanup duty.”
“Cleanup for what?” Zukan shouted back.
“Bombs.” Kalden opened a spawn’s throat and gestured to the half-portal behind them. “Be ready to contain the blast.”
Zukan got in position, and Akari formed the second half of the technique in midair. The swarm had been flying faster than a train, and several unlucky ones soared straight into the portal, crashing into the wall beyond. The explosion shook the ground beneath her boots, shattering the bricks and windows behind her. Akari felt the heat of the flames on her neck, but she left that to Zukan.
The blast came back through the portal an instant later, filling the space above the street. The remaining swarm tried to dodge, but Akari shifted the portal’s position, catching as many as she could. Blue fireworks erupted in the sky, and the chain reaction caught several more spawn, including some of the ground assault.
Arturo laughed through the comm channel. “And that’s why bombers don’t travel in groups!”
Akari grinned. Storm’s Eye might have endless power, but not endless brains.
And so the fight continued, with casualties on both sides. Sometimes, Kalden would plant an idea in her head—a simple change that would turn the tide several moves ahead. Akari always made the move, even when neither of them understood why.
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Is this how Elend had felt, all those weeks ago when he’d made her the team captain? Had he glimpsed the end of this strand, knowing the why but not the how? Regardless, he’d been right all along. They were so close to victory now. So close to advancing and becoming Aeons.
A shadow fell over the street as a massive blue form crawled out from the nearby trench. Talek. How tall was that thing? Five stories? Ten? The ground shook as it wove between the buildings. Unlike the other spawn, this one was vaguely human-shaped with limited detail. Almost as if someone had made a giant wax doll and left it to melt in the sun.
But how strong was it? Akari relaxed into her Silver Sight, but Arturo beat her to the answer.
“Shit,” his voice echoed over the comm. “That’s a Master.”
Akari’s vision darkened, and the creature’s soul shone like a portal into the sun. Damnit, she should have known. No animal got that big without the mana to support it. It only made sense for the spawn to follow the same rules.
The creature strode forward with slow determination, crushing the cars and stoplights in its path. Its legs were thick tree trunks, and its feet spread out like roots. The asphalt cracked beneath its weight, and even the other spawn got caught in its footsteps. They let out screams of pain as their forms absorbed into its mass.
“The cultists are pulling back!” Relia said from across the street.
“Go with them,” Akari replied. “We’re right behind you.”
More spawn closed in around her remaining teammates. Zukan’s shield broke as a bear-shaped Artisan tackled him into the ground. He tried to wrestle free, but the creature drove its razor fangs through his forearms.
Akari whirled back toward the train terminal, aimed Zukan’s dart, and swapped him to safety. She followed that with a spacetime Missile from her other hand. Kalden and Elise gathered around her, and a portal formed beneath their boots.
They fell onto the terminal’s stairs, several hundred yards back from where they’d been fighting. Relia had already rushed over and begun healing the others’ wounds, but Akari kept her eyes on the Master. She was her team’s best defense if the worst were to happen.
The worst happened three seconds later when the Master fixed its gaze on her. It didn’t have eyes, or even a face, but its body language was clear as glass, and she knew what came next.
The creature gathered mana in its human-like hands and hurled a giant Missile toward her. The cultists scattered around the courtyard, leaving their injured behind. They were all Apprentices and Artisans, helpless against a Master’s technique.
Akari held her ground and formed a portal in front of her team. That Missile was as wide as a bus, but Akari matched its size as she stretched the Construct with all her might. Her hands shook, her vision blurred, and her channels felt ready to explode. Still, she gritted her teeth and cycled more mana. She cycled until it was larger than any technique she’d ever conjured.
The portal saved her team, catching most of the Missile and hurling it back at her opponent. But the terminal itself wasn’t so lucky. Glass and stone shattered around her, and she felt Kalden’s hands grab her by the shoulders. They landed a few paces away, and the clock tower collapsed like a tree over the courtyard.
When she looked up again, the Master was already preparing a second technique. She’d thrown everything into that portal, but it wasn’t enough. Not even close.
If Akari were smarter, she would have shot two displacement darts and escaped with Kalden. Better to save herself and one team member than to lose everyone. The thought crossed her mind several times, but she’d ignored it, determined to save them all.
More spawn poured out from the other streets, filling the courtyard and overwhelming the cultists. Kalden lay on the ground beside her, but she couldn’t see the others through the chaos. Even her mana was drained. She had more vials on her belt, but she couldn’t hope to refill her soul in time.
The Master threw its second technique, and Akari didn’t flinch. Neither did Kalden, by the looks of things. They both faced it head on, ready for a warrior’s death.
Time slowed to a crawl, and the world became a blur of blinding light. This time, Akari couldn’t help but close her eyes on pure instinct. She squeezed Kalden’s hand, and he squeezed back.
Then the moment passed.
Akari opened her eyes again and saw the Missile unraveling in midair. The mana moved like a whirlpool, vanishing into some unseen point in front of her.
Had Kalden done that? No . . . she couldn’t see his face from this angle, but she felt his thoughts.
Several bright green Missiles whistled through the air. Akari didn’t see their source, but they flew straight into the Master spawn’s face. No one had even tried attacking the creature until now, and she didn’t dare get her hopes up yet.
To her surprise, the Missiles tore straight through the spirit and emerged from the other side of its head. The creature’s melted and faded all at once, filling half the courtyard with its liquid remains.
The Missiles arched around the battlefield, bouncing and ripping through the horde of mana spawn. The creatures didn’t even defend themselves. In fact, they didn’t move at all. Something had frozen them in place, just like that day when Elend had regained his powers in Creta.
Had help finally arrived?
The Missiles slowed in midair before flying back toward Akari and Kalden. In that moment, she realized they weren’t Missiles at all. They looked more like green crystal projectiles. Each one was roughly two feet long, with a narrow shaft as wide as a pencil, and a sharpened head like a small dagger.
The light warped in front of Akari, and a young woman appeared out of thin air. She wore form-fitting black armor, with a long quiver strapped to her back.
The woman extended her left hand and caught all five crystal projectiles. Her other hand held a curved piece of metal with a string that connected both ends. She moved in a blur, pulling back the string and shooting the five projectiles across the courtyard. Once again, they arched around the field like unstoppable Missiles, killing several dozen spawn in a matter of seconds.
That’s a bow and arrow, Akari realized. Her world didn’t have these weapons, but she’d heard stories from beyond the Abyss. Bows had always sounded weaker than guns or Missile rods, but that clearly wasn’t true.
The woman caught her arrows again and tossed them into her quiver, then she spun on her heel to face them. Her features looked vaguely Shokenese, but not quite. Her face was too round, and her green eyes were soft. She was also far younger than Akari had expected—younger than most Artisans, even.
The cultists fell to their knees around the courtyard, and some pressed their foreheads to the stone. Lena Cavaco knelt among them. So did Corbin, the Artisan who’d been commanding the cultists’ forces.
The newcomer gave them all a friendly wave, then she stepped forward and extended a gloved hand. “Akari Zeller?” Her voice was as soft as her features, and she spoke with an accent Akari had never heard before.
Akari nodded as she accepted the hand. “Lady Solidor?”
The woman smiled, pulling Akari to her feet as if she weighed nothing. “You can call me ‘Relyn’. And you must be Kalden Trengsen?”
“That’s me,” Kalden said as she helped him up. “Storm’s Eye won’t be happy to you see here.”
“Don’t worry about the spirit,’ Relyn said. “My husband will deal with him.”
“Husband?” Akari looked around, waiting for another invisible person to pop out of thin air. How did that work, anyway? Was Relyn the Aeon equivalent of a dream artist? But she’d shot those arrows so quickly—almost as if she were moving inside a temporal bubble. Did Aeons even have aspects?
Relyn nodded toward the top of the train terminal, or what remained of it. There stood a tall figure in a black duster that might have been in fashion two centuries ago. Akari had half-expected a male version of Relyn, but this man looked nothing like her. Her had the bronze complexion of a Cadrian, but his eyes were too sharp, and his whole face had a narrow, hawk-like quality.
“Thane Solidor,” Relyn said. “We’ll do introductions later.”
Thane’s eyes remained fixed on the eastern horizon. Akari followed his gaze to where a blue light gathered in the clouds. She couldn’t see much from this low vantage, but she knew it was Storm’s Eye.
A wave of blinding light cut through the city a second later, but this beam grew smaller and darker as it closed in. Thane stretched out his hand, and the technique unraveled in front of him, flowing into his soul like water down a drain.
Holy shit in Talek’s beard. Did he just eat a Mystic technique?
Finally, Thane’s own palm glowed with pale blue light, and he hurled the beam back across the city.