《Tearha: Titan War》


 Prologue: Regalia

    "I believe there is no deep difference between what can be achieved by a biological brain and what can be achieved by a computer. It therefore follows that computers can, in theory, emulate human intelligence -- and exceed it." - Stephen Hawking


    It was an expanding space. The universe within his head stretched bigger, further, to the point where if he took a step forward, he felt that he would fall into the void. There was a tingle of electricity running down his back as the neural network reconnected and the universe pulled into his mind like the air of a balloon being sucked into his lungs.


    "Okay," he heard the swank voice echo as the network readjusted. "The new quantum processor is in. Give it a minute to form its neural pathways."


    "Thank''s Doc," he replied, his eyes readjusting to view light after reconnecting to his brain. Green and yellow came back first. "And the processor?"


    "Upgraded as per request." He heard the clink of tools settling down on the tray beside him as orange, red, and blue began returning to him. "Up you go."


    The chair behind him launched up as the rest of the colours flooded back. A rush of blood pumps into his head and the vertigo nearly sent him back to sleep.


    He rubbed his eyes clear for clarity. "Thanks. How much do I owe you?"


    Moving across his vision and to the desk, the good doctor pulled off her gloves and typed into the computer while speaking aloud. "One thousand kilq with a hundred and twelve service cost charged to Shou Kenta. Doctor Miura Hihwawn."


    "Right. Put it on my card."


    "Understood." Miura replied, clacking away at the keyboard.


    Shou sat up, stretching his body and setting his bones in cracks. They were in the cyberspace of his workshop; A small clean room for Shou to work on his cybernetics without fear of infections. He looked back down on the surgery seat while a small pool of his blood coagulated at the headrest from where the doctor had to open into his brain to connect the new neural network. He registered a mental schedule to clean up the chair and rubbed the back of his neck where the malleable metal panel shifted foreignly from his skin.


    Doctor Miura finished her work at the computer and stood to height. Her green surgeon''s gown was lightly speckled with his blood. Underneath her surgeon''s cap, a single speck of blood stuck onto the end of one of her short brown hair. Her elven ears prickled at the cold of the room.


    "What''s the occasion?" she asked. "You don''t usually ask me to do upgrades."


    He grinned widely as he swung his stump of a left thigh over the side of the seat. "I''ve done it, Doc."


    She looked to him quizzically. "Really?"


    He grinned playfully and nodded. "I think so. Haven''t tested it yet, but everything seems fine on virtualisation."


    "Wait, you need a quantum processor to..."


    He pointed to his head. "Yeah. Thanks for that, by the way."


    "Woah... wait a minute. I didn''t come here to facilitate your suicide."


    He laughed. "It''ll be fine. It''s only suicide if it fails."


    He picked up his cyberprosthetic leg and pulled the straps onto his stump. The power cell glowed a bright cyan and the motors whirred to life as it connected to his neural network. He took off his bloodied gown and tossed it unceremoniously on the ground to be cleaned later, leaving for the door, naked.


    "H-hey... Kenta! Are you serious?" Miura called out from behind.


    With a simple cheery wave, he entered the decontamination chamber where hot disinfectant sprayed his body from nozzles embedded in the wall. Shortly after, high pressured air blasted him from all sides, further ruffling his already messy onyx dark hair while drying him and clearing him of dust.


    Once the chamber depressurised, the glass door that led out slid opened and he skipped away, still naked.


    He was now in his workshop. A large old glider hangar that had half collapsed on the south side and patched with scraps to keep the air in. The further half had been shoved full of machineries and salvaged parts. The other half were filled with workbenches and heavy machineries. A metal ladder lead up to a walkway. Working on the second floor across a balcony was a young woman in a white singlet and blue overalls tied half worn at the waist. Her brown hair tied into a short bun protruded from a red cap.


    At his footsteps, she turned away from her workbench and immediately covered her eyes. "Shit! Shou! Put on some clothes."


    "Sorry, Miu." He doubled back and grabbed his white hoodie and black jeans off a rack. "In a rush."


    "Are you..." she leaned over the railings. "Are you doing it now?"


    "Yup," he replied, slipping on his jacket and hopping into his pants. "No time like this time."


    He rushed across the workshop towards the pressure door opposite that served as an exit.


    "Don''t you want to wait for Arnold? He should be back soon."The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Skipping the rest of the way, he ignored her continued pleas. "Get Reggie ready for me!"


    With the press of a wall button, the pressure door slid opened and Shou went through it. Compressed air blasted away particles and he pulled his hood up as the room was doused in red light and the entrance behind him closed. Tugging his lapels, a grey, translucent aeronium mask electrified across his face and he breathed in the processed oxygen as the light above turned from red to green and the gate that led out grilled opened.


    Outside, the world was on fire. That specific entrance of their workshop faced The Burning South head on. In the foreground, the lands were charred of barren stone, blackening in swaths the further the view. In the distance, random acres of ground ignited in flames as exposed ores and oil caught the heat. The background was of mountains, spewing lava every other minute in an ever changing landscape of red. The part of his skin exposed to the heat tickled and pricked as the rustic, Tainted air wrapped him. Far behind, the echoes of an explosion rocked the sky, signalling another battle in the war.


    Katoki, the continent of giants, symphonied by the Titan War that had raged on for hundreds of years in a land dystopia. That was where they lived.


    And it was in that baking heat he waited. A minute passed. Then two. Hot air was starting to seep into his mask and sweat into his sleeves.


    A rumble came from the right of the building as the giant sized garage door three stories high slowly swung opened outward on its hinges. From within, his partner lumbered out. Reggie, the Regalia mech.


    Mechs. One of the three Titan types, the others being ''sentient'' and ''golem''. Made of metal interior with hulking plates of armour, the mechs were the fastest but often smallest of the three, and the Regalia model was the fastest of them all. But unlike its combat ready brethren, Reggie lacked the heavy armour plating it once wore, torn off long ago in battle without means of replacement. Instead, it was scaled with scrap metal, its interior parts visible from certain gaps. At three stories tall, the Regalia model was a scout mech with multiple interchangeable parts. Its arms could be replaced with siegebreakers. Its legs with dragonhoofs. Its head could be installed with a thin wing shaped helmet, holding eight different cameras and sensors which was what Reggie wore; Though one of the wings were chipped out, revealing a broken thermo sensor beneath.


    Shou clapped loudly and Reggie turned its head. Its head gave small tilts of a wave, and with earth crunching under its feet, Reggie approached its partner.


    "Well," Shou began. "Ready to get going?"


    Reggie tilted its head in worry.


    Even though Shou had outfitted it with a speech generator and speakers, his friend hadnever used them. Instead relying on screen texts and physical gestures. He was sure it was not because Reggie didn''t understand language, as it understood their speech fine. Perhaps it was just a quirk, or a lack of the AI''s ability to formulate new conversations. The latter was unlikely, as the physical signs were a method of conversation. Shou would need to be a much smarter man to understand the complexity of an AI''s thought processes.


    "Don''t worry, buddy. I know what I''m doing," Shou reassured. "Bring me up!"


    Reggie knelt down on its knee and put his palm down. The hand was just large enough for Shou to stand comfortably on as the mech raised him off the land. The arm bent, gears and pistons shifting as the mechanical limb twisted unnaturally behind it, bringing Shou face to face with the Regalia''s spine.


    Years ago when Shou first found Reggie, the mech had its spinal corridor damaged, breaking its connection to its bio-cell and rendering some of its rear equipments useless. Over the years, he, Miu, and Arnold had managed to repair most of the damage but did not have the complicated industrial tools to fully reconnect the cell circuitries. They also could not afford a new bio-cell. Reggie could still move about, but anything too extraneous burns it out quickly. So they cobbled together a workaround which Shou was staring at.


    An empty custom pilot pod stood where the spine should be. The space was small and had two controller bars extending out from the back. On the floor were two metal shoe-like protrusions that opened like bottle cases.


    Gripping one of the edges of the outside of the pod, Shou pulled himself up and off Reggie''s hand. Stepping in, he turned his body about, facing away from the Titan as a thick aeronium glass windowed him off from the outside. After the pod depressurised with a stutter, he removed his hood and aeronium mask. He set his two legs into the protrusions in the ground which closed and locked him in. The right mechanism hissed as it connected to the bio-cell in Shou''s cyberprosthetic leg. The connection will give Reggie the energy needed for more complex motions, running Shou''s bio-cell in tandem with the Regalia''s own half efficient bio-cell. Though still not what it once was, it was an affordable repair that worked.


    He reached above to a taut wired helmet and pulled the headgear down over his head. A glass visor lowered over his eyes as the screen lit up, overlaying his field of vision with graphics. Stretched across the bottom was a feed of Reggie''s wide range 270 degree visual feed. The top left had graphs and bars showing various statistics.


    Shou then rested his arms on the metal controller bars and slipped his hands into the pneumatic gloves on each end, testing the fit with a grip


    Shou exclaimed excitedly, "Pilot ready!"


    The arm bars and leg clamps moved pneumatically and Shou shifted his body to match into Reggie''s kneeling position and slowly, they rose, getting on their feet. Their arms slipped to the sides as they fully stood upright.


    He did not pilot Reggie. He simply sat in its shell as the Titan moved and the pneumatic bars and clamps moved him. Occasionally, Shou will take the arms or the legs, allowing Reggie to focus its processing power on more critical manoeuvres. But it was an inefficient process. Sometimes they''d fight for control, both of them deciding different paths. It was these differing opinions between him and Reggie that convinced Shou of one often rejected opinion by the masses of scholars, engineers, and programmers.


    Titans were alive.


    And he was about to prove it.


    "Alright, partner," Shou grinned giddily. "Run neural connection executable!"


    There was a clapping sound behind his back as the magnetic cable connected to his new quantum processor. In a flash, his mind flooded with information. It wasn''t a screen of green binary like in the movies, or streams of memories flowing by. They were thoughts, ideas being created and destroyed. Some of them were his. Others felt foreign. He was thinking faster, processing more information with the same ease as before. He felt that if he took his school tests again, he could ace every single one without a hitch. His mind had never felt clearer nor more filled simultaneously.


    He raised his hand to look at his palm, and while he could see his gloved fingers clenching and opening with his own eyes, he could also visualise the giant Regalia mitts of Reggie doing the same in his mind.


    "Intruder alert," he said, only to look up confused. "Did I say that?"


    Approaching northwest.


    "Reggie?"


    Yes.


    It wasn''t a voice but more of a thought, like what one would do while thinking to themselves. It had no specific tone that identified gender or type, but was not a monotonous blend either.


    "What''s going on?" he asked


    We are interfaced.


    "So the warning was you?


    It is us.


    They looked towards the northern horizon as plumes of dust rose from an approaching vehicle.


    "Unidentified vehicle tracker."


    Engaging weapons systems.


    Shou unwittingly smirked and he wondered if Reggie could express emotions, and if it was feeling the same excitement as he at the chance to test out their new abilities.


    Exseed.


    "Exseed."

 Chapter One: Leviathan

    The waves crashed into the cliff side, sending sprays up unto the ledge that smelled of all the freshness of the Alavrian Ocean. The elven woman stood there next to her cohorts of classmates within the shelter of a cave exit in the wall, awaiting their final trial.


    A young human woman stood behind them, her blonde hair waving in the crushing wind. Her brown tunic, cloth pants, and sandals did not carry the same call to action as the rest in the cavern dressed, instead as if she had simply got out of bed. She pulled aside her faded red scarf and shouted over the stampeding waves.


    "Movement is key in subduing Titans. You won''t just be moving across flat plains or rocky terrains. Sometimes, you''ll have to move across the Titans themselves." She pointed across the small bay within the gulf of Titan Gate where another cave marked by flickering torches was visible on the cliff face opposite. "Reach the other side and you''ll be officially regarded as Titan Rangers."


    One of the students piped up, "Miss Lucinda,"


    "That''s Miss Baerrinska to you."


    "R-right. Miss Baerrinska. How are we going to do that? We don''t have anything to scale the walls with."


    "You''re not scaling the walls. You''re crossing a bridge." A hand shot up in the crowd and Lucinda sighed. "Yes, Adelaide?"


    The young elven woman had hair of forest green and eyes of blood red. Her face was tomboyish, with freckles of dust. A smirk proved her attitude, which matched the dirt stains on her green tunic and brown vest.


    "Ah! That''s Miss Wiltkins, to you."


    "No, Adelle. I am not calling you that."


    "Well, Luce, that''s kind of a double standard, isn''t it?"


    Luce sighed and mumbled, "I hate you."


    "What?" Adelle joked. "I can''t hear you over the waves. Speak up!"


    The rest of the cohort looked around nervously. Only Adelaide Wiltkins could get on Lucinda''s bad side and not find themselves on the bad end of a rifle butt.


    Luce cleared her throat. "I asked you what your question was."


    "Can''t I just teleport over?"


    "No, you cannot just teleport over. That defeats the whole purpose of the test. Like I said, you''ll be crossing a bridge."


    "What bri-"


    With dramatic timing, the cavern shook, dirt falling off the walls. They turned to look out as the water of the gulf began to churn haphazardly, crashing into the bay walls with all the symphony of battering rams.


    Water in the middle of the gulf began rising diagonally out, bulging out from the larger sea like a mountain being raised from the ocean. The water around it began to dip, pulling back and revealing the battered steep shoreline of hard stone and corals.


    As the bulging water fell aside the rising mass, raining down droplets and aquatic life, the giant creature began taking form. With each step forward into the bay, it displaced the water in tsunami sized splashes that rocked the cliff side.


    Double the height of the high walls of earth, the creature towered from cliff to cliff. Broad shouldered with navy stone armour smoothened by underwater currents, the giant creature''s bulbous arms slowed its swing as it decelerated, just the shin of its oblong legs still stood within the water. Its armour shifted as a clockwork piece of mail that fitted perfectly with each joint. It''s long shoulder pauldron protruded like an overhang, dripping water across it. Then, the creature stopped moving, standing up straight and proud towards the light of the Twins with a warrior''s stature.


    One of the younger student exclaimed, "What is that?"


    And an older student muttered, "It''s the sentient Titan. Leviathan."


    Luce began walking away towards the darkness of the cave and the exit. "That''s you bridge," she shouted back. "Bag of rope''s on the ground. Use them. You have an hour to cross it. This is a solo test. If someone else had set up a path, you are not allowed to use it, but you can copy. If you fail... well, better luck next year. I''ll see some of you on the other side."


    Adelaide looked over the edge of the cave as the water below slowed to a manageable wave. Small steam boats motored their way into the gulf, stopping all around the Titan, lining the cliff face in the crescent equidistantly apart.


    Someone behind said, "No way I''m doing this."


    Adelle informed, "Looks like they have people below to catch us."


    "Even so, if they make a single mistake, we''re done for."


    She unslung her bow. Spirale had eight green reijidium cable tied at various point along the spine of the bow. The dark caraco wood gave the bow an onyx glint as the cable ran down its spine into the gears within the grip. A rubber roller next to where arrows were notched helped give the projectiles fired an extra spin.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    She took a coil of rope - which was a hundred metres in length - and cut it to a pair of short and long halves. She tied two arrows together with the short rope and cut another rope in equal halves. She tied the new half to the two arrows, and finally those two to the longer cut rope to form a ''Y''. As she worked, her peers discussed their options. Those who were retaking the trial after the previous year''s failure were particularly less afraid. The year''s newcomers - herself excluded - felt the fear of the jump.


    "Well, you''re all free to be cowards here, but I''m going over there," she jested while tightening her line.


    "Easy for you to say. If you fall, you can just teleport."


    She stuck her tongue out as she tightened the longer rope to her waist. "You heard the boss lady. No teleporting."


    Raising her bow to a higher angle than her target and setting it horizontally, she fired the two arrows together without hesitation. The projectiles arced through the air, splitting apart in a V in tandem as the rope between them taut and they dropped to gravity. The arrows landed aside Leviathan''s shoulder and the middle rope slid off its front and back before catching itself in the notch of the shoulder armours'' edge. She pulled the ''Y'' rope to taut it before clipping her bow to the back of her belt. Waving goodbye to her cohort, Adelle jumped.


    Holding tight onto her rope, she dropped at high speed before the rope fully straightened and swung her towards the Titan''s arm.


    At the apoapsis of her swing, she drew her axe and timed the closest possible moment as she decelerated between her and the arm. As the swing angled up, she cuts the rope and flew towards the arm of Leviathan. Switching her axe head to the pick side, she slammed the point into the creature''s arm as she hit the stone.


    The impact of her body smashing the wall of a Titan knocked the wind out of her, but she held on tightly to her axe, dangling for half a minute while gathering her breath.


    She drew her second axe and inhaled deeply. Again switching to the pick side, she punched the tool into the stone. Moving her lower body against the mossy, slippery smooth surface, she found a foothold on the edge of the ''gauntlet'' of Leviathan''s elbow.


    Slowly, she shimmied around the gauntlet. Left leg, left pick out, left pick in. Right leg, right pick out, right pick in. Left leg, left pick out, left pick in. Right leg, right pick out, right pick in.


    As she repeated her actions, slowly rotating around the arm, she watched as the holes left by the pick glowed a faint brown before slowly closing over itself.


    Over the past few seasons, she had learnt much of Titans. But none of the other species fascinated her as much as the sentients. The golems were creature of dirt and rocks, fused together by earth magic. And while she had never seen a mech outside of drawn images, she knew roughly they were of technologies. Machinea given life through complicated, almost magic-like systems.


    But sentients? They were something else. They stood over mountains and climbed cliffs as if they were a single stair''s step. Even The Tower, the tallest building on the continent of Eltar paled in comparison. They also healed their own wounds - though some had this functionality of theirs wane with the eons. Still, it was fascinating. Magic circuits embedded deep within the stones allowed the sentients to exists. To move. To refuel. To heal. It took decades to excavate a single body through the armour, and there was still much left unanswered on the creatures operated.


    Adelle''s train of thoughts were ended by the sound of splashing water. She looked over her shoulder and down to the clear waters below. A pool of churning water conjured up by water mages to slow the fall was where the one of her cohorts washed up, gasping for air. The nearby boat slowly rowed over to retrieve the fallen.


    Others had managed to cross, using grappling hooks, rope bridges, or athletic vaults with spear cannons, launching or climbing across the long distance.


    "Squishy," Adelle muttered under her breath before continuing her slow shimmy.


    By the time she reached the underside of Leviathan''s arms between the body, she was panting. Traversing a sentient Titan was no easy feat. They were hundreds of metres tall and wide. Just crossing their arms alone took an inordinate amount of time.


    She leaned back and pulled out her offhand axe. Turning her head and body as far as she could, she aimed herself at the notch above the waist. There was a convex slope where the the upper torso and lower torso separated. All she had to do was land there and would have a walkable path around the belt to Leviathan''s back, and finally to the other side of its body. And that was what she planned to do.


    Raising her leg against the arm, she prepared a leveraged position to jump. When she was comfortable with her foothold, she pulled out her last remaining axe and launched herself off, turning midair to face her landing spot. For a moment as she dropped through the air, she thought she had missed. It looked as though she would land just off the waist and tumble into the water, hitting every single stone on the way down. But it was merely her eyes playing tricks as she soon pulled her legs up, using them as springs to soften her landing into the body as her picks dug in a foot above the waist. She pulled herself out and after finding her footings on the belt, grinned.


    "Alright," she said to herself.


    She began moving around the waist towards the spine, picking in whenever she felt the stone too slippery or her footings too loose. It was slow movements, but not ''shimmering around the arm'' slow. Soon, she reached the spine, where the armour split between the left and right, running an opening straight down the middle, a gap the width of two man into the silvery stone beneath. It was in that crevice that she finally stopped to take a breather.


    "Halfway there," she noted.


    Looking out to the ocean as the wind rustled her hair, she breathed the cool air that battled the Searing heat.


    She heard a whistle. From behind.


    Turning, she was faced with the back of the Titan, which reminded her of standing before the closed giant gates of the dark elf citadel, a structural marvel that towered.


    The whistle again.


    It was like like a wind blowing through the gaps of a cavern or the smooth wind through the forest trees. But there was nothing visible amongst the giant back to make such a sound. Nothing, safe for a small hole the size of a finger right within the spine.


    "What the..."


    With the light of the day at her back, Adelle looked through the hole. An arm''s length away, she could see what looked to be a chamber. Her curiosity was piqued. She had never heard of an empty chamber within sentients before.


    She set her pick into the walls and held on as she pulled out an arrow from her quiver. Looking through the hole again, she felt the arrow disappear from her hand and teleported into her sight within the chamber along the familiar puff of brown smoke. As gravity took over and the arrow dropped, she counted the seconds until she heard the soft clank of the projectile hitting the floor. There was enough height for a person to stand at least.


    She looked to the left and right. Then up to the shoulder of Leviathan. With her back facing the water, no one was in sight, and she was sure there would not be enough time between reporting her findings to Luce and Leviathan returning back into the water to investigate.


    So she looked back into the chamber and visualised where she wanted to be.


    In a puff of dusty rust, she teleported and disappeared, leaving her axes embedded behind.

 Chapter Two: Badavard

    There was barely any light. The only source of illumination was the ray that beamed in from the tiny hole she entered from. The floor was slippery, still wet with ocean. The puddle soaked her feet and the chamber smelled of what she thought deep sea would smell of - fish and seaweed.


    "Wow..." Adelle said aloud, her voice echoing off the walls dozens of times.


    Her eyes adjusted slowly, and again she was thankful for being an elf with enhanced eyesight. Even with the little amount of light there was, she could slowly make out her surroundings. Humans were not granted such helpful abilities.


    The walls were made of stone. The top half that was above the hole was rough, as if they had been dug and installed the day before. The bottom had been smoothened out, a notable concave curve away. It seemed the room flooded every time Leviathan returned to the sea, and over time, the bottom half of the room was eroded by the tides.


    In the middle of everything, a single pedestal stood. Unlike its surrounding, it was made of titanium and placed on a titanium podium, the entire stage shining in the dark. The raw metal value of the podium alone on the black market would be enough to purchase a mansion. Titanium, after all, was the rarest metal on the planet.


    But she was not interested in monetary value. She had not needed them before she joined up with the Titan Rangers, and she had not needed it after. Instead, what drove her to take another step forward was a curiosity, which was odd. Because like the value of money, she never really had any before. She was a survivor, finding the best way to stay alive. But something drew her forward the same way she was drawn to enter the chamber, trapped within a giant, surrounded by stone with no way of escape, about to return into the water that will likely drawn her. Whatever drew her curiosity was strong enough to override her survival instincts. Or perhaps it was her instincts themselves that drew her in.


    Before she knew it, her hand was on the pedestal. For a moment, nothing happened. And for another second, she thought nothing would. Then, lines of light grew from the pedestal, spreading out like a circuit of roots, running down the titanium podium and into the stone floor.


    She tried to pull her hand away. "What?"


    It was stuck.


    A cylinder of hard light beamed down from the ceiling, surrounding her. The glowing circuits spread further, this time into the ground and outward like a pandemic. It reached the walls and climbed the sides, vines that coiled up and around. The light provided more than enough luminosity for her to watch as the bottom half of the stone walls - smoothened by eons in the water - began repairing itself, growing in thickness and roughness. The ground did the same around her and she could visibly see the smooth stone crawling as the grind returned.


    "Shit!" Adelle cursed as she continued trying to pull her hand away. "Let me go!"


    Mono Leviathan dotorohoo .


    "What? Who said that?" It was a genderless and monotone voice that echoed in her mind.


    She was not sure what ''dotorohoo'' meant, but she heard Leviathan.


    "You''re the Titan?" she said aloud, feeling silly as she did so. After all, there were no real voice aside from hers. "What are you doing? Are you trapping me here?"


    Aegai lof kosai. Dotorohoo i''xalader.


    It was speaking the ancient language. Words which meanings were lost long ago. She could make out one or two of the words - a "guardian elf" - though nothing else got through to her.


    The room shook and she stumbled, hand still stuck on the pedestal. There was a constant rumble and her gut sank the same way one does when falling from height. Then, she was flung back from where she stood by a force that slipped her off her feet. She felt Leviathan turn and her body was pulled aside by the gravitational force, but her hand held-stuck on.


    Dotorohoo xalader oran sika.


    Her free hand grabbed onto the pedestal and she pulled herself up. At that moment, she wished she had not left her axes outside as she could really do with the tools to smash the titanium apart.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Teleport. She could teleport herself out. Turning around, she was stunned to see water gushing out of the hole that had been her entrance and exit. Leviathan had started returning into the water, and she needed to see where she was going, otherwise her teleportation could kill her.


    One step at a time. She decided to just teleport out of the hard light barrier first - which was holding the water back. She focused and prepared to teleport. Isntead, pain shot up her arm and she felt drained. Energy left her body and she fell to her feet, arms shaking as if an electric current had ran through her body.


    "FUCK!" she cursed.


    It was bad. She was not able to teleport. Something within the Titan held her in place. She needed to come up with another idea, and that was not a situation she liked being in. Ideas were never her thing. Luce had ideas. Josh had ideas. The Watcher and Nadier had ideas. She was more of a ''shoot first ask questions later'' kind of girl.


    Dotorohoo xalader uria garo.


    Could she talk to Leviathan? She tried to remember what few ancient words Nadier had tried to teach her. But that was half a century ago and obviously, she had not been listening to him even then.


    "Aegai! Galadul! Zetta!" she shouted randomly, hoping something will trigger. "Rae!"


    The room got brighter. Light glowed stronger from the magic circuits in the eight corners of the room, brightening the area. ''Rae'' translated roughly to ''light''. Did that meant the creature was listening to what she said? Could she command it? Even if she could, she did not know enough words to do so. Perhaps she could get it to release her.


    But she did not know the word for ''release''. Instead, she tried the next best thing.


    "Kalen!"


    Exit.


    A force pulled at her from the inside. She was teleporting, though she had never done so without wanting to. It felt as if she was being dragged backwards, her body slamming hard against sheer gravity itself. And for a split second, she saw a room. Circular, with glowing blood flowing across the ground. She smelt rust. Metal, burning and decomposing. The scent of a blacksmith''s forge on fire. Her skin prickled in heat.


    And suddenly, it was cold.


    Water rushed in and she was crushed against the pressure of being underwater. She was still being pulled, though not by the force of her teleportation, but by the current generated from Leviathan walking back into the water, and her being caught in its wake.


    The sea was churning with the Titan''s movements and Adelle had not taken a breath before being thrown into the rolling water. Alongside the crushing pressure, she found her lungs quickly fighting to burst out of her chest. It was disorientating, being dragged and struggling for air at the same time. She looked to where she thought was up and saw the Twins shining down through the water''s surface.


    She imagined the world outside and held onto that mental imagine in her head. With what was left in her lungs, she breathed out and reappeared above the water.


    For a split second, she gasped for air. She was falling towards the water. At that height, at that speed, it would be like hitting dirt.


    Using her momentum, she teleported again, redirecting her tumble, launching her into the sky. At the zenith of her fall upwards, she slowed to a negligible speed. And with one final push, she teleported herself right above the water and gently plopped down into it.


    She was not out of the waters yet, literally. Turning around, she watched as Leviathan continued its walk back into the water, each step dragging a large swath of wave with it. And each wave pulled at her as if a rope was still tethered to her waist.


    A gulp of water found its salty way down her throat and she choked. Short on breath, lungs filled with water, and body in shock, she began paddling, swimming as hard and fast as she could to prevent herself from being dragged under.


    Her muscles stretched, calling for her to stop, to rest. She had not spent such a large burst of energy and physical strength in such a short period in a long time. She was getting rusty.


    The currents began to slow as Leviathan''s head began to dip underneath the waves. Finally the water calmed as the Titan returned to the depth.


    Breathing a sigh of relief, she let her body rest, floating back first on the water with her face soaking in the heat of the Twins, muscles weak.


    Her mind however, wandered to her experience and she began to question, things which she hoped Luce could answer when she gets back to dry land.


    Before long, she heard the sound of steam engines chugging. She simply laid there, unmoving and tired.


    A young voice said, "Is she alive?"


    An older, more familiar male replied, "She''s too stupid to die."


    The boat came close to her and splashed a wave of water and she spat as it entered her nose. Struggling, she floated back up straight and stared at the man on the boat sternly.


    "You did that on purpose."


    Joashden ''Josh'' Stalewaver was no longer a young man, though not elderly either. But he did look the part of a sage, albeit a fit one. At 54 of age, he kept himself healthy with constant walks. His rugged face crinkled the same way his thin brown buzzcut did. Wearing a plain white singlet and pants, he had dressed lightly to be part of a retrieval team, keeping active despite his continued insistence at retirement.


    "Yeah," he replied. "Well, I have this strange feeling that what happened was your fault."


    "You can''t prove that!"


    He raised questioning brow.


    She stammered. "B-but you''re probably right."

 Chapter Three: Peuchen

    The Yard was the Titan Ranger''s eastern base of operations. Located far down the shore of Titan Gate, it laid between a long plateau and the eastern shorelines of Eltar. As the Twins sets in the far east, the town''s silhouette stretched along the beach. The sand sparkled with hues of blue and yellow from the different coloured stones that were grounded by the waves of years.


    Having returned from their disastrous test, the group of testers and testees had left the boats behind at the small shipyard. They were walking across a wooden path along the sandy beaches towards the town. Their clothes and self having long since dried in the hot sear Twins, though many walked with a chafe at the unneeded stickiness of salt and sweat between their thighs.


    Josh was walking beside Adelle when she asked, "Where''s Luce?"


    "She headed back first," the man replied, striding along. Though he was a human and she an elf, he was surprisingly tall, even matching her in height.


    "And left us with all the dirty work?"


    "Technically she doesn''t have to work," he answered. "She''s retired."


    "In that case, so are you."


    "And you are technically a prisoner. What''s your point?"


    "My point is, retired people should either leave us healthy young ones to our thing instead of trying to micromanage everything."


    His voice raised a confused octave. "You''re older than both of us. Combined."


    She tapped her chest sarcastically. "It''s about the heart, old man. Besides, I think it takes some level of youth to do all these hero stuff. Old bones aren''t going to cut it."


    He stopped in his tracks and she slowed down to match him. As the rest of their group passed by them, starring quizzically at their actions, Josh raised a brow to Adelle questioningly.


    "Do you think we''re heroes?"


    "Nads always said that as long as you''re only trying to save lives and not take any, you''re a hero."


    He scoffed. "Your brother''s an idiot."


    She shrugged. "I honestly wouldn''t know. I''ve never tried just saving lives before."


    "Misti''s not dying, you know?"


    "She''s not alive either."


    He nodded solemnly. They continued their way back to town.


    But ''town'' was perhaps too strong a word. The Yard was more akin to a village. While the grassy plateau behind had been converted into farm land, the homes themselves were still mostly large leather tents. A few of the stone storehouses were in the midst of being upgraded to the more modern brick buildings like the one that served as the main headquarters. It was to be expected, as the Titan Rangers as an organisation was no older than five years old. The Holdings, their first base in the far south west, was the first to be built and had most of their manpower. It was a much more advanced place, with steam powered machineries set-up to run the more complex constructions. Though the parts for those same machines had arrived in The Yard, they mostly sat half built, slowly being worked on by the limited population as more members trickled in to reinforce the settlement. Mostly The Yard was used to house trainee Titan Ragers as they worked, studied, and practised their skills.


    As the group began splitting up and heading back to their homes, Josh and Adelle headed for one of the few brick houses that stood at the edge close to the beaches. Smoke rose out of the kitchen''s copper smoke stack, but the stone chimney next to it stayed clear. After all, there had to be some perks in Josh and Luce being founders of the Titan Rangers. A rugged leather tent was set up outside next to the house, complete with a campfire and clothes rack.


    Taking off their shoes so as to not track sand in, they entered the building, both dropping their gears unceremoniously at the door''s side one after the other.


    Luce was in the kitchen, watching the fire over a pot of soup, stirring the concoction occasionally and tasting it with a wooden spoon.


    Josh noted, "You haven''t changed clothes?"The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "Later," Luce replied. "I''m cooking."


    Adelle snidely remarked, "We can see that. But I thought we agreed not being clean was my thing?"


    Josh continued, "We agreed not being clean was nobody''s thing. Adelle, you smell like seawater. Go get changed."


    She clicked her tongue. "You''re not my father, you know?"


    "No, I''m not. But since you don''t know who your father is and you''re still acting like a child, I''m going to pretend like I am. Now go get changed."


    The elf clicked her tongue again, mumbling under her breath about being older than them combined. Though annoyed, she did not protest and left the house. Unlike Luce and Josh, Adelle lived in the tent outside. Even after nearly a year of living away from her forest, she was uncomfortable with sleeping indoors, a feeling Josh and Luce was familiar with. It took them two years before they could get comfortable with the lack of explosions in the world.


    He shook his head. "Kind of hard to believe she''s over two hundreds years old."


    Luce took the pot off the stove and slipped a metal panel over the fire, depriving the flames of oxygen and snuffing it out. "That''s just how elves are. More so, given the kind of elf Adelle is. If someone doesn''t shoot her first, she''s going to outlive everyone we know."


    "Have you told her yet?"


    Luce silently scooped out some of the soup into a wooden bowl. Once filled, she put down the ladle and finally said, "Not yet."


    "She''s no longer isolated from the world now. Eventually, people are going to find out about her. People who aren''t Titan Rangers. Or maybe she''s going to go to the library and read about it."


    "Adelle? Library? Reading?"


    "I said maybe."


    He crossed the hall towards a half-opened door. He knocks, even though he knew there was no need to. Josh entered the room of his youngest daughter. Lying on the bed was a hume girl of long brown hair and sharp elven ears. Her skin was paler than those of her kin and was only getting paler despite them trying to get her as much twinlight as possible. She had started sweating as the hotter season blew around, so they had changed her into a white gown and took away her blanket for the days. Eyes closed with her chest rising and falling peacefully was Misti Stalewaver. Seven seasons ago, there was a battle. A fight with the future of the world on the line. They all fought, but Misti was injured. Her brain was concussed in a way no doctors on most of Tearha could fix. The girl had been in a coma ever since.


    Josh pulled up two chairs and sat down closest to his daughter''s head, combing her hair aside her face. Luce entered from behind with the bowl of soup and sat down next to him.


    "Don''t worry," she said for the umpteenth time. "We''ll go into Katoki, find ourselves a neurosurgeon, and come back. We have Adelle this time. She''ll teleport us in and teleport us out. Easy."


    "Are things ever easy?"


    Luce breathed her unease. "No."


    He shifted his chair so that he could lift Misti''s head off the bed. Slowly, Luce cooled each spoon of soup with careful blows of wind before gently dipping the contents pass her lips.


    He asked, "Do you think Adelle is ready?"


    "For the Titan War? Shouldn''t you be able to gauge that, mister Guide?"


    It had been a while since anyone had called him a Guide. It was his profession back when he was trapped on the continent of Katoki. He had ferried people back and forth the lands, circumventing battle and wars, both as a means of earning money to survive and to gather information and experience about crossing the hostile landscape.


    "I''m asking because you''re the only one on this side of the world that has ever fought in it."


    "You make it sound like we will definitely get into a fight."


    "It''s been years, Luce. Things might have changed for the worse, maybe. And this time, we''re heading back into Citi, not away. The road won''t be as easy as last time, even with Adelle helping us."


    "You mean it''s harder for us to get back to Citi then it is to get out? How does that work? Nobody has ever said breaking into prison was easier than breaking out."


    "There aren''t any gliders this time. And we don''t exactly have any money left for the trip either. Since we never thought we''d be going back, there was never any need for reserves. We''ll have to stop by Ampyre and gather information and supplies. If my safehouse there isn''t, well, safe any more, we''ll have to find other ways to scrounge. Beg, steal, if we must."


    Luce laughed. "Adelle is going to love that. We promised Nadier to reform her and we''re throwing her back to a life of crime."


    "She''s doing what she does best. Survival. Besides..." he looked to her confidently. "This time, we''ll be there to make sure she doesn''t go off road."


    "Well... regardless, we''ll be leaving tomorrow. It''ll be a few days of walking before we get to the Helm."


    Quietly, they continued to feed Misti. It was a slow process, but it was bonding for Josh. It was one of the few times he and his two daughters had been able to spend together over the past few years. Even if one of them was unconscious, they were still a family he had fought tooth and nail to get. They were his greatest treasure. Though he would be remiss to say that he does not yearn with every ounce of his heart to have Misti awake with them again.


    As Luce put the empty bowl down on her lap, she began, "I don''t think she''s ready."


    Josh looked at her quizzically. "Who?"


    "Adelle. She might have survived Leviathan and passed all our tests so far, but to be honest, I don''t think she''s ready for the war. I don''t see how anybody can be. The training for being rangers are different for being a hunter." The pensiveness of her face was apparent. Throughout their years together, she had never talked about her battle in the war. "Dozens of Titans and people, charging across fields on fire. Giants killing giants. Mortals killing mortals. The trenches running red with blood. The fields littered with colossal bodies and screams. How do you prepare for that? I was trained for it and when it came down to the actual thing, I was not prepared."


    "We don''t have to kill anything now. We''re not soldiers this time."


    "It''s a war, Josh," Luce said, standing up. She leaned over and wiped a dribble of soup off her sister''s lips. "Everybody kills."

 Chapter Four: Ohmir

    The Leviathan Helm was a sluice that cuts cleanly through two continents. Two cliffs faced each other. At their closest, the opposing sides were two long stone''s throw away. At their furthest, you can''t even see the land opposite. But either way, the line separated two completely different worlds. In the north, clean skies and open land stretched with drizzling rainfall in the distance. The clouds in the distant south were an odd thick brown, darkening over the mid of the Katoki continent with bright fire far behind and dark shadows on the land below.


    Standing next to the edge, Josh picked up a small rock and threw it across the channel. The rock flew before stopping midair - as if hitting a wall - before being picked up by the violent wind, redirected, and sent smashing in the cliff opposite with the force of a bullet, shattering into pieces.


    Almost nothing crossed the helm. A giant creature living in the water sensed magic, attacking all those who tried to build a bridge with them. The wind, roaring in eternal howls, were strong enough to topple buildings. The updrafts caught any gliders coming from Katoki in the south and sent them crashing. Across the Helm, the heat prevented Eltar''s hot air balloons from working they nearer they got across the channel.


    It had been 18 years since Josh was pushed off course in a storm and stranded in Katoki, and only 6 years since he got back. He and Luce were the only two people in history to ever successfully cross Leviathan''s Helm, though it was not done without sacrifice.


    He adjusted the collar of his old travelling coat - the only other piece of clothing he had kept from his time on the other side was the gas mask he had dangling from a clip on his belt. With a thick dark grey shirt underneath and sturdy black cargo pants, he was sure those clothings would last another arduous journey''s wear and tear.


    Behind him came Luce''s voice. "Josh, we''re ready."


    Grass crunching under his fitting boots, he turned to face his travelling companions.


    Luce had changed into a set of brown long sleeved shirt. A green khaki pleated short skirt overlaid long navy coloured pants tucked into dirt shaded trekking boots. Her red scarf, though faded from years, rested around her neck to protect against the wind. Dangling from a strap across her right shoulder was her gun, a station rifle. It was a scoped bolt action firearm, modified over the years to look closer to a hunting rifle, with the added function of an adjustable grenade launcher that could fire grappling lances.


    Beside her, Adelle was in a green tunic with a loose, unbuttoned brown vest over it. Grey tights with brown boots made up the lower of her torso. Her quiver and bow were worn at the back of her waist, and she had replaced her two makeshift iron axe-picks with new steel ones which were loosely held right of her hip.


    They stood next to a supply cache, a large stone box installed by the Titan Rangers to help with resupply on long travels. Before starting their five days trek to reach Leviathan''s Helm, they had requested a supply drop prepared upon their arrival, along with a change of clothes. It was a necessary hindrance as the blimps and balloons could not make it that far. The ladies'' old clothes were strewn around the ground.


    Adelle complained, "Who picked these clothes? My pants are tight but my vest is too loose." She unceremoniously picked up her old clothes and threw them into the cache.


    Luce answered snarkily, "Sorry my queen that we didn''t measure your clothing first." The young human on the other hand neatly folded her clothes before storing them.


    Adelle stuck her tongue out playfully. "It''s kind of hot here, isn''t it?"


    Josh got around to help them pack supplies into their packs while clearing out any unneeded equipments for their trip back into the cache. Tents were the first to go, as they would not have the luxury of pitching up something as comfortable as a campsite in a war zone.


    "We''re near Katoki now," he answered. "The Twins are out for longer the further south we go, so it''ll get hotter as we proceed, at least till we get to the Tainted lands."Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    Luce clarified, "The part with the rust clouds."


    That was the strangest attribute of the south. The clouds of rust were poisonous, but were thick only in the middle of the Walking Path that separated the two warring countries. Nearer the equator, the Taint cleared, while closer to the south, they were buoyed by the great heat and were less dense the lower the altitude, pushed away by the hot winds. In the in-between, where everything else resided, the metal in the clouds reflected the twinlight back, causing pockets of humid warmth instead of dry heat.


    He began, "One last time with the plan, in case we get separated."


    Adelle whined, "Do we have to?"


    "Yes."


    She grumbled. "Teleport over and head to Ampyre. If we get split up, meet at a place called ''Rushtae Tavern''."


    "Good," he affirmed, picking up his pack. "Shall we head off?"


    "Give me a moment," Luce quickly added.


    She grabbed her bag and headed to the edge. She pulled out a small tin box and opened it, before slowly turning the contents over into the water. She began speaking into the wind, though her voice was soft and unworkable in the howl.


    "Sand?" Adelle commented. "What''s with that?"


    Josh answered, "It''s for Jacques."


    "Her fiancee who died helping you two cross the Helm?"


    He nodded. "Luce grabs bits of sand and dirt from new places she''s travelled to. And whenever she comes by here, she drops them off. It''s her way of letting Jacques experience the world she never got to reach."


    "That''s..." For a moment, he thought he saw tears welling in Adelle''s eyes. "Stupid."


    He laughed. "Just like you to say that. But you know, one day, you''ll have to open up to people too. Not everything and everyone can be "stupid" in your eyes for long."


    "I lived over a hundred years alone. I can make it through a hundred more."


    "You had Nadier with you."


    "He was barely there."


    "But he was there, was he not?"


    Adelle looked annoyed, turning her head away with a huff.


    Josh laughed again. "Nobody can live alone. At least, not without going mad." He turned to look at Luce, still speaking to Jacques. "I think we all know that. It''s just a matter of how well we process it. You and Luce are a lot alike in that regard."


    She turned back quizzically. "How so?"


    "She''s headstrong and doesn''t like to be told what to do. She thinks she has enough will to get her through the toughest times alone, when honestly, she''s still a crybaby on the inside."


    "Are you calling me a crybaby?"


    "Hah! No. But you''re softer than you look. And so is she."


    They both looked on pensively. He wondered what separated Adelle''s teenage innocence which they saw day-to-day; from the cold hearted killer hardened from years alone in the forest, fighting against the whole world.


    Adelle asked, "Why do you think she let me become a Titan Ranger?"


    "I don''t really know. Maybe she saw something else in you besides all the blood. Or maybe you just reminded her of someone." He saw Adelle''s quizzical look. "But whatever the case it, I''m happy you two met. I think both of you need each other in the end, to be the best of the worst of yourselves."


    "And that''s not something you can do? Help her be better?"


    "For her, sure. But not for you. We don''t have that kind of relationship."


    Adelle clicked her tongue. "I don''t need a babysitter."


    He chuckled, "Sure you do. You''re the one who needs it the most."


    Before she could comment back, Luce turned around, keeping her tin box back into her bag. Adelle finally grabbed her pack as well and they headed to Luce.


    He asked, "Are you good?"


    Luce smiled thankfully. "Yes."


    Adelle joked, "Done with your nostalgia, are you?"


    While he knew it was a jest, Josh thought the timing was bad. He was prepared for Luce to snap but was instead pleasantly surprised at her maturity..


    She calmly replied, "Nostalgia is nice. But if you want to get better, chance for change."


    Luce wrapped her arm around one of Adelle''s and the latter jumped at the close physical contact. "W-what are you doing?"


    "Time to go," she gestured to the other side


    Josh concurred, taking Adelle''s other arm. The elf sighed, relenting to thme. And in the strangely unfamiliar familiar feeling of teleportation, the world seemed to stretch for a split frame of time. He blinked, and they now stood on the continent of Katoki, the Leviathan''s Helm and Eltar behind them.


    For a moment, he was stunned. Then, he let out a long laugh. Adelle looked at him as if he had gone mad. But Luce simply stared at the ground beneath her feet. He was sure she felt the same way did. He had spent over a decade trying to escape from the continent, and Luce had sacrificed her heart. Yet all it took from them to return was the literal blink of an eye. An entire decade of fighting, closed within a mere fraction of time.


    As his laughter died to the heat, he coughed as the first taste of the Taint returned to his laugh.


    "What''s that smell?" Adelle asked, pulling her shirt up to cover her face.


    Luce pulled up her scarf to cover her nose and mouth. "That''s the rust in the Tainted air."


    He instructed, "Just pull up your scarf, Adelle, it''ll filter out the air."


    Luce raised him a brow but Adelle missed the exchange of looks, merely following the instruction, taking out her green scarf from her bag and wrapping it around around her lower face. The casual joking look had gone out of the elf''s face as it sunk in that the continent itself was actively trying to kill them.


    "Alright then. Crossing the Helm was easy." He turned to face south. "Now the hard part."

 Chapter Five: Ampyre

    The trio walked through the worn parched road of East Ampyre''s farmlands. The soil was in a perpetual cycle of death from the heat and dryness. The only crop that could grow in the harsh, infertile terrains were varieties of bushelweeds, which, despite having different colours of dark brown and lighter, muddier brown, all tasted as bland as dirt. Stone and mud huts littered the landscape with the citizens working the fields wearing old patched clothings.


    "Something''s wrong," Josh said just loud enough for his companions to hear.


    Luce mumbled, "Is this the country we''ve been fighting against all these years?"


    "No," he replied. "It was never this bad. This is beyond normal poverty. Something must have happened."


    "The war''s been going on for centuries in stalemate. What could possibly tip the scale in six years?"


    "I don''t know. Do you want to spend some time finding out?"


    Luce looked at the faces of the people around her and with visible difficulty, pulled away. "No. We''re here to get a doctor for Misti. Let''s just go in and out and have this be over with. Besides, three people aren''t going to be able to stop a war that has been burning for hundreds of years."


    Adelle piped up, "Agreed. Now, walk faster. I don''t like the stares we''re getting."


    They had crossed most of the outskirts with Adelaide teleporting them. But with eyes on them, they could no longer do so without drawing unwanted attention. It took them another hour to cross the stretch of farmlands on foot. For a while now, a few of the farmhands had looked up from their work, eyes tracing their steps as they passed each long stretch of road. The dress code seemed to have changed drastically since he last stepped foot in Seracue territory. It seems that regardless of what they tried, unwanted attention would be drawn either way.


    For a moment, he considered turning back and taking the long way around to the city, but they were too far into East Ampyre. Going back would draw even more attention. He quickened his pace again and the girls followed.


    He never understood how words could travel faster than a person without advance technology. Did it not usually take a person to travel to another person to convey the words? Yet, it seemed that was the case happening there. As another hour passed in their walking, no longer was it just heads turning. People were actively - some preemptively - walking off the fields and nearer to them to see the outsider that had come into their lands. It would not be long before questions were asked.


    Down the path that they followed was a group of notably dressed soldiers. They wore the traditional blue edged brown cloaks of the Seracuen army and a metal mask that marked their positions and ranks. The smooth round shapes of the masks gave away their roles as infantry, with a single 6th ranker wearing a double horned mask amongst the dozen 1st rank recruits. A standard patrol unit.


    "Crap. Adelle, get ready."


    The soldiers approached them and their leader called out. "You ''here, why are you carrying such wealth? Why have you na'' given ''em to Aisa?" Though the voice was slightly distorted through the mask, the Seracuen accent slipped through easily.


    Thinking quickly with what was given, Josh slipped into old accents and replied, "We were sen'' by Aisa." He had no idea who or what Aisa was, but it seemed the right thing to say.


    The 6th rank''s head shifted down to Luce''s rifle. "Argens of Knife? Ou'' here? Why?"


    It was hard to read the soldiers through their masks, but the voice of doubt and fear lingered behind the sixth''s voice.


    "Issi'' in line ''na question Argens of Knives? Stepping over ''na line ''na think?"


    The sixth turned his head, aback. "You''re righ''. Apologies sir. We be back ''na patrol now."


    The soldiers saluted, raising their right fists at a right angle. Josh followed, saluting back. Behind, he heard Adelle and Luce shuffling to do the same. But Josh''s eyes floated to one of the 1st rank recruits, whose head was turned towards Adelle, arms down. The sixth must have noticed Josh''s stare, for he too turned to look at his charge.


    "Soldier. Wha'' are you looking a''?


    Slowly, everyone lowered their salutes.


    "Her eyes, sir," the recruit replied. "It''s the colour in the Demon''s Prophecy."


    Adelle slipped. "Prophecy?"


    The sixth turned to Adelle and noticed her red-green eyes. "You''re no Argens. Who are you people? Arres'' ''em!"


    From beneath their cloaks, the soldiers drew individual swords. However, the sixth drew a pair of twin blades.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Josh turned to Adelle questioningly. "Adelle?"


    But the girl simply complained, "Why is it always a prophecy? Can''t I just run into trouble naturally?"


    The soldiers charged.


    "Adelle!"


    The elf jumped and spun to kick. In a blink, she teleported behind the sixth and slammed her attack into the side of the commander''s head, dropping the man to the floor. Drawing her axe, she turned around to hook and pull aside a cut by a recruit before slamming the blunt end of her axe handle into his face.


    Luce shouted, "No killing!"


    "I know!" she yelled back, annoyed.


    Another recruit ran up to Luce and sliced down. She blocked with her rifle before kicking her opponent in the shin. The man dropped to a knee and she whipped the butt of her rifle across his face.


    "Josh! Where do we go?" Luce called.


    Another attacker attempted to flank her but Adelle teleported in and swept his leg, causing him to trip in front of Luce where another rifle butt awaited.


    He looked around. Unlike the girls, he wasn''t a combatant. Fighting was his absolute last resort, and he likely wouldn''t be able to hold out against more more than a single enemy. For him, his mind was his greatest weapon. To tinker and problem solve. To find solutions where there seemed to be none.


    Adelle yelled, "Josh!"


    The road was a straight path forward. Even if they teleported and ran, they would eventually run into another patrol. There was nothing else around them for as far as the eyes can see aside from farmlands, and definitely nothing close enough for Adelle to jump to without exhausting her. Then it hit him.


    He shouted, "Adelle!" The elf turned. "To the wheat field!"


    "Where?"


    "Anywhere!"


    She took his arm and Luce reached out to grab hers. Though before they could touch, the soldier Luce had knocked to the ground grabbed her by the feet and pulled her down.


    "Wait!"


    It was too late. Adelle had already reacted and in an instance they were in the air, suspended for a split moment before gravity could take hold. With Luce left below on the ground kicking off her pursuer. In another blink, Adelle teleported slightly above a portion of the wheat field and they fell into the foliage.


    "Luce!" He yelled.


    "Stay here!" Adelle hissed. "I got this."


    She disappeared in a puff of rust. For a second, she reappeared in midair before vanishing again. There was a scream. A gunshot banged and echoed into the sky. Then, silence.


    "How ''ey do ''at? Where ''ey go?" the voice of the sixth sliced through the quiet. "Find ''em. I wanna ''em girls alive! Kill ''na man if you wan''."


    Girls. That was all he needed to here. Adelle must have had herself and Luce teleported to a different field. The fight was a rush, and it was likely the elf was not able to keep track of Josh in the confusion and had lost him. Whatever the case was, they were alive and he needed to move. As long as Adelle was with Luce, he had less to worry about. They''ll just have to meet up at Rushtae Tavern later.


    Keeping his head down, he slid through the field. Behind, he could hear the guards beginning to shuffle through the wheat. For a tall old man, lowering his body and shimmering through thick plants was not easy, and he could hear the guards behind closing in on him.


    Making it to the end of the field, he slipped through a gap in the stone fence. But now he was stuck on the road. He could not make it over the next fence without standing up and drawing the guards'' attentions. From the corner of his eyes, he saw a pile of hay next to a pull cart. He made his way to it and quietly climbed into the cart to hide. It was the best he could do in that situation, and he could only hope that the guard passes him without checking.


    After a few minutes passed, a figure floated over the cart and looked at him from the tail end and his heart sunk at having been found. But the female hume had no mask on, suggesting she was not a solider. Instead, she looked wearily at the man in what was presumably her cart. But the face tugged at his memory yet he could not recall why.


    He laid there, staring at the woman for what seemed like an eternity before she pulled off her cloak and threw it over him. He only got a glimpse of the woman, but the scars on her face further dragged at his mind.


    Suddenly, a weight dropped on him with a rustle and he grunted.


    "It''s just hay, you lucky bastard," the woman voiced raggedly.


    The tone triggered his memory. "Talia?"


    "Shush. Wait till we''re out." The cart tilted as she picked up the handle and they began to move.


    Talia was a hume woman and, like him, was one of the few Guides who was able to travel the entirety of the continent. Though they knew each other in their time as ''colleagues'', he never struck up much of a friendship with her. It was not because she was unfriendly. It was simply due to her method of working being too far away in moral from his. Where he preferred to talk and think his way out of situations, Talia was not above shooting first and asking questions later. Though in their line of work, they had discovered the necessity of certain evils and developed a respect. She was also the last other Guide he saw before he and Luce escaped Katoki.


    After a few minutes, she began, "What are you doing here dressed like that? We thought you died, but turns out, you''re just suicidal."


    He took the breaking of silence as a sign that he could speak. "Haven''t been around lately. Didn''t think the dress code had changed so drastically."


    "It''s been like this for a-" She stopped talking and he guessed guards were likely nearby. After another minute, she continued. "It''s been like this for a few years now. Where have you been?"


    "It''s a long story," he replied. "What are you doing here though?"


    "Words travels fast." He was still annoyed at that phrase. "Someone radioed in a couple of hours ago that outsiders were seen walking towards here. A Broker got me to do an info run to see if there''s anything worth reporting."


    "So... money?"


    "Pretty much. What about you? The last time I saw you was-"


    She paused.


    And paused.


    And paused.


    He replied, "Yes."


    "No!"


    "Yup."


    "You jest."


    "I did it."


    "You made it? Across the Helm?"


    "Yup."


    "Then why are you back?"


    He swallowed hard. "To save my daughter. She needs a neurosurgeon."


    Talia hissed. "Shit. I''m sorry, Josh. Well, where do you need to go?"


    "Is Rushtae still around?"


    "Sure. But it''ll cost you for me to guide you there."


    He stifled a groan. "I don''t have any money, Talia."


    "No, no. I want you to tell me how you got to the other side. That''s worth a million times more than any cash. Also, throw in any other good stories you have from there to pass the time."


    A grin formed on his face. "Well then, keep walking, cause have I got stories for you."

 Chapter Six: Muspell

    Luce kicked away her attack and rolled onto a knee. She raised her rifle and aimed down the sight at the soldier in front of her. He flinched, but she held herself back from firing.


    "Back off!" she exclaimed, slowly standing to her feet. "I''m not here to fight you. Just let me walk away."


    For a moment, nobody did anything. Then, the sixth shouted, "Catch her!"


    The solider charged with sword to swing. Adelle appeared in a puff of rust between Luce and the soldier, the latter ready to cut down the newcomer. Without thinking, she raised her gun and fired. The bullet whizzed pass Adelle''s shoulder and slammed square between his eyes. When the man fell back and hit the ground, a flash of magic circuitry ran through the cloak as the protective magic dispersed with the soldier''s death.


    Luce was stunned in the moment, and apparently, so were all their enemies. But Adelle quickly grabbed her by the arm and teleported them into the air before reappearing in a spot within the tall fields. She placed a hand on Luce''s head and pushed them down onto the ground.


    "How ''ey do ''at? Where ''ey go?" the voice of the sixth sliced through the quiet. "Find ''em. I wanna ''em girls alive! Kill ''na man if you wan''."


    They quietly stayed in their hiding spot as they listened to the soldiers spreading out to search. Luckily, it seemed they were moving apart from them.


    Breaking out of her stunned silence, Luce stammered out, "W-where''s Josh?"


    "Damn it!" Adelle curse.


    The elf took a forceful jump and teleported overhead. For a moment, her jump and gravity fought as she looked across the fields. The next second, she returned to the ground.


    Whispering, she reported, "I can''t find him. We need to trust he had gotten away."


    "What?" Luce exclaimed while attempting to keep her worries quiet. "No. What if we leave and he gets caught?" she pleaded.


    Adelle let out a growl through her teeth. "Argh... don''t give me that look. Alright. Five minutes. If nothing happens, we take it he''s safe and get out of here."


    Luce nodded in agreement.


    They waited, heads in the dirt with the bushelweeds stalk dancing around them, listening for any signs of distress.


    There was a rustle in the bushes and Luce gripped her rifle tightly. The image of the soldier she shot falling back flashed across her mind. She took a ragged breath to shake the thought off and focused. Adelle must have seen her hesitation for the elf gently placed a hand on Luce''s rifle and lowered it. Instead, Adelle reached into her quiver and pulled out an arrow, silently nocking it.


    They watched at the bushels shifted and swayed with the wind. A crack of stalk underfoot from the approaching soldier had Adelle pulling her bow, ready to shoot. As the top of the soldier''s forehead - short of the eyes - entered their vision, it stopped and looked around for a moment then moved away.


    Luce let out sigh of relief.


    Suddenly, the wheat before them parted and a soldier walked right through into Adelle''s firing line.


    All three of them froze, exchanging nervous glances. Even with the soldier''s magic shelled cloak, a shot from the bow at what was basically point blank would still easily blow through the armour and the soldier seemed to know that given that he did not raise any alarms, simply staring and waiting like a deer in lamplight.


    They waited there together, unmoving. Seconds passed into what seemed like minutes and hours.


    "Hey!" someone shouted. "Lazlo. Any''ing?"


    The man named Lazlo turned his head slightly. "Um... no''ing here."Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    "Wel'', come sweep roun'' back."


    "Coming!"


    Slowly the soldier turned away, his chest rising and falling heavily with anxiety as Adelle continued to train her sights on him.


    Even after he disappeared into the the field, no one came after them, but she never stopped holding her weapon up. For another minute they waited, again in silence. It was quiet. Perhaps too quiet. From the corner of their eyes, they saw the bushelweeds to their left rustle unnaturally.


    Adelle turned her aim there and fired. The arrow let out the sound of a punch as it hit a target. The flash of the armour cloak gave away the soldier''s position and the group of three recruits up to attack, forgoing stealth.


    Adelle grabbed Luce and exclaimed, "We''re getting out of here!"


    "Wait!"


    But Adelle wasn''t listening. Again, she teleported them into the air. But this time, she found a far off location to escape to and ported them there, landing behind a barn and out of sight of anyone.


    "What about Josh?" Luce fought back, pulling her arm away from Adelle.


    The elf nocked another arrow and turned around the corner of the barn. She fired, and from the distance, they could hear the soldier shouting at their direction.


    "There," Adelle hastily added. "Now they''re coming after us. Can we go now?"


    Though uncertain, Luce finally took Adelle''s hand and together, they made half a dozen more distant jumps away from the searching patrol until they reached a long dried up creak that separated two sections of farmlands. Despite panting from fatigue, Adelle pulled Luce along the path of the dried bed of dirt untill they reached a long stretch of empty crossroad. Climbing out, the elf finally dropped tired at a signpost, leaning against it as she huffed.


    Luce knelt down beside her. "Are you okay?"


    The elf was breathing heavily. "I''m fine. Just need to catch my breath." Adelle grabbed Luce''s hand. "You... need to calm down."


    Luce was surprised. "I''m... okay. I''m not tired or anything."


    Without another word, Adelle pulled her hand up between their faces. It was trembling uncontrollably and in the silence of their beating hearts, Luce could hear her rifle rattling with each shake. Her kill was still weighing on her mind and body.


    Luce pulled her hand away through gritted teeth. "It''s nothing." Luce got to her feet and helped Adelle up, slinging the latter''s arm over her shoulders. "We have to keep moving."


    "..."


    "What?"


    "Nothing."


    Together, they walked slowly through the farmlands. At one point, they passed by a clothes rack where four cloaks had been hung out to air. Luce took them and left a pack of ration as payment. Adelle complained that it was not worth the food, as the cloak smelled of sweat and mold. But with their new disguises, they proceeded through East Ampyre without further resistance, though occasionally slowing to allow for patrols of guards to slip by with less suspicions. By the time they reached the outskirts, Adelle had recovered enough to walk unaided.


    As they continued out on one of the many winding roads dug out by cart wheels, the day slowly ended. Being on the edge of the Taint clouds, they could still see the Twins faintly in the northwest, fading quickly behind the horizon. A single mule drawn cart was leaving on another road to their south.


    "What now?" Adelle asked as they walked along. "Should we wait for Josh?"


    Luce shook her head. "I doubt anything can travel faster than teleportation." She looked around, hoping for a sign. When none came, she sighed. "Let''s head to the meeting point. We''ll have to trust that he''s fine. There''s no real way for us to search for him now."


    "So where''s this Rushtae Tavern we''re suppose to go to?"


    "I have no idea."


    Adelle groaned. "Well, how hard could it be? I mean, Ampyre can''t be as large as Everwind."


    They continued their long walk. Soon, they would have to find a spot to camp for the night before continuing their journey. Luce would like it a lot more if they were a longer distance away from the farmlands, and thus, out of sight. It seemed the night was going to be without the comfort of fire if they were to be stealthy. Though with the heat of the season and burn of the continent, warm flames seemed unneeded.


    A streak of orange light cuts the sky as the Twins reached twilight. In the distance, the first roofs of the city of Ampyre appeared. Fortress Muspell. She had never seen the fortress with her own eyes. Merely within pictures and from tales of war. It was even more impressive in person. The large fortress was surrounded by the four guardian keeps; Towering stone castles that furthered strengthened its borders. The main fortress, unlike its guardians, was made of a metallic stone that sheened in the waning light like a sword hammered into the earth. It''s eight arrow towers protruded from the ground. Winding walls around them made the ramparts looked like snakes, curling up each structure.


    Within a few minutes and by the last light of day, the entire city''s skyline, set atop a country sized plateau, was stretched out before them, silhouetted to the sky. Left to right, horizon to horizon, the city was more of a sprawl. Stone huts and rock buildings littered the landscape, all structure dwarfed by the fortress situated at its northern edge. Pebbles really, when compared to the boulder of a fort. It would take them days to cross the city on foot, let alone find the tavern.


    "Wow..." Adelle let out. "That''s a lot of walking. I don''t think even I can teleport around that distance easily."


    Luce agreed. "If we want to find Rushtae, we''re going to need a better plan than simply walking around."


    "Who do you ask for directions to a super secret underground tavern?"


    "I don''t know," Luce replied. "But I''m sure something will come up. It always does."

 Chapter Seven: Gnome

    ¡°Rushtae?¡± the hawker said as he cut the moss dotted meat in half. ¡°Never hear''. Now, are you going ''na buy some''ing or wha?¡±


    Luce looked at the meat in the beginning process of rotting and held back bile. ¡°No, hank you.¡± Her accent was terrible, but enough to not have guards called on her.


    She stepped away from the store and continued walking down the busy streets. Ampyre was hot, but was still cool compared to the heat from further down south. The dirt ground was cracked and dry. Balls of mud being kicked around underfoot. Samsuis carried buckets of waste through the streets to be dumped into the mass drain, the latter which stenched carried downwind into the Night Streets where the poorest of the country resided. Here in the Market Streets where the air was clean(er), those with money to spend on basic necessities came to bargain for leftover scraps and poorly stitched clothes. Still with some access to fresh water through long treks to wells and the Helm, the commodity was sold at some roadside stall in old wooden buckets at exuberant prices.


    Luce had hoped the poorer districts would have more leads on the tavern they were looking for, but short of bribery, no one seemed to know anything more than to swear and grunt curtly. Still, she had been living outside in the rough for two days now and she did not like how she was starting to smell like her surroundings. She wanted to quickly find the tavern and change into some clean clothes.


    She approached a samsui man carrying two empty buckets on his way to collect waste.


    ¡°Excuse me. You know where is Rush''ae Navern?¡±


    ¡°Sorry ma''am. No i''ea. Now if you''ll excuse me, I have ''na hurry or miss ''na Worship.¡±


    The Worship was also something that had been bought up with almost everyone they spoke to. Luce still did not fully understood what it was. They knew it was an event that was about to happen later in the day with the Pyrerai - the leader of Seracue. But throughout her life on Katoki, those words had never been used in the context she had been hearing. It was almost a reverence, as if the Pyrerai was something more than mortal.


    The crowd thinned. Walking towards her was Adelaide who Luce recognised even under the hood of their cloaks from her sharp green hair. They met in the middle of the streets.


    ¡°Anything?¡± the elf asked.


    Luce shook her head. ¡°Nothing. I think this place is a dead end.¡±


    ¡°What''s the next best place for info, you think?¡±


    ¡°Probably the wealthier citizens will know what we need. Rich people are always looking for Guides to take them between countries.¡±


    ¡°But they won''t personally know.¡±


    ¡°We''ll have to track the people they hire. I''m sure there''s got to be a lead there. It''ll take even more time, but it''s better than rounding here blind.¡±


    Adelle nodded. ¡°Alright. I managed to um... acquire some money. Let''s grab the next rollercart.¡± Luce looked away uncomfortably and Adelle had to awkwardly comfort her. ¡°Look, I know you don''t like it, but it''s too dangerous for us to teleport around. We should do as everyone else does and stay low for now, okay?¡±


    ¡°I...¡± she turned to Adelle. The elf looked worried. Then, Luce snapped away and turned in a huff. ¡°I don''t need you to worry about me. Let''s go.¡±


    Luce hurried through the streets, even ignoring to turn to see if Adelle was following. She could take care of herself. If they were in danger, she did not want to be a burden. But she did feel guilty that perhaps she was too harsh on Adelle. After all, the latter was just trying to help. Maybe Adelle of all people would understand the value of being independent; of not being a burden to others. Perhaps if she explained her position, Luce could apologise for her rudeness.


    A main road connected different parts of the city. The main road was wider, and there were not much groups of foot traffic. Most of it were used by carts transporting goods in crates and barrels. Luce turned around and let out a sigh of ease when Adelle pushed through the crowd behind her, annoyed at the people but following nonetheless, seemingly not one bit fazed by her earlier outburst. Luce turned away from her companion, determined to not let the elf see her relief. They joined a small group of people waiting by the roadside.


    A long cart rolled up to them at a brisk pace. At it''s helm was a ball of stone with lines of brown magic circuits shining around its body, rolling along the road as it pulled the cart behind it with handles attached to its centre like wheel. A driver sat at the front of the cart, directing the roller as one would a horse. The roller came to a stop in front of them. Four stubby rock legs grew out the side of the roller as it planted itself onto the ground to stop. Its stationary movements were strangely life-like.


    As they waited in line to get on the cart, Luce noticed the roller finding a small dirt ball on the ground. In an almost child-like manner, the creature put one of its stump leg gently on the ball and kneaded it against the dirt. Luce looked to Adelle who was enthralled by the act.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    When it got to their turn to board, Adelle paid the man their fare - with her ¡°acquired¡± money - and together with the rest of the group, they climbed onto the cart as others got off. Once every nook and cranny had been squeezed and filled with a passenger, the wooden cart creaked as the roller balled up again and began moving.


    While the speed was no faster than a jog, they were certainly moving faster and for a longer time than they would have if they had walked. Every now and again, the cart stopped at major landmarks. Living quarters. Ampyre Central. A large field converted into a makeshift hospital. Luce stared wide-eyed at each passing locations, shocked and awed at the jarring differences that exists across the country''s continuous landscape.


    They travelled for two hours in silence, shifting between seats as more commuters got on and off. Some were speaking of the upcoming Worship, but Luce could not understand much of what they were saying. Everything she heard on the topic felt foreign. The only other time she had felt like that was when she met a man who came from another universe, speaking of subjects that did not exist in their world.


    At last on a long stretch, Adelle finally asked, ¡°What''s the difference between golems and horses?¡±


    Luce turned to the elf who was staring at the roller pulling the cart and answered, ¡°That''s not a golem. It''s a gnome.¡±


    ¡°What''s a gnome?¡±


    ¡°It''s a smaller golem. It doesn''t have the physical size to graft enough enhancement circuits for the more complicated movements and thought processes of golems. They basically do a single job their whole lives.¡±


    ¡°Huh.¡± Luce was not sure if Adelle actually understood what she said. ¡°So what''s the difference between a gnome and a horse, then?¡±


    Luce thought for a moment on how to phrase her explanation. ¡°If a horse injures its legs, what do you do?¡±


    Adelle replied matter of factly, ¡°I treat its wounds and let it heal.¡±


    ¡°Right. But if the roller gets injured, it has to keep doing its job. It doesn''t get a place to rest or sustenance to recuperate. It''s left like a cart on the road, many abandoned, slowly withered away by weather.¡±


    Adelle continued staring at the roller. ¡°It looks more like a machine to me.¡±


    ¡°Looks doesn''t matter,¡± Luce replied, more than conscious about her experience with mechs. ¡°You saw how it played with that ball of dirt earlier.¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± Adelle replied, absentmindedly.


    Luce looked away and back to the passing landscape, muttering under her breath. ¡°It gets bored.¡±


    After three hours, their butts had gone sore. However, they had finally reached the wealthier districts near the far north of the city. As with any country''s segregation of wealth, the differences were immediately apparent. Instead of mud and stone houses, the buildings were mostly constructed with bright red bricks. The roofs were made of metal, some even polished to a sheen. Even if they were sparse and not on par with the richness of the steampunk Everwind, the High Streets were a clear cut from the rest of the country. Nearer to the keeps and fortress then, they could see that the structures stood out even from its neighbours. The glow that reflected from the faraway Twins ricochets off the smooth walls, blinding all with its lighted glory. There was a large balcony that stretched the middle of the fortress wall. A banner hung from it, large enough to cover half the entire centre of the wall while baring the symbol of the nation, an upward arrow sided by two stars.


    Adelle whistled. ¡°That''s... something.¡±


    When the rollercart stopped at its next destination, the two of them jumped off onto the streets which were noticeably cleaned and paved with shaped stones. The stench of sewage drains also failed to carry over the distance of money.


    Immediately, a man walked up to them and the two tensed at his confident swagger.


    He wore a fitting grey robe over white tunic and grey pants. His dark hair had noticeable strands of silver, and his irises were eerily the greying white of spirits, although the glinting black pupil in the middle showed he was far from blind. They stood facing each other, neither group making a move, though Luce and Adelle was out of suspicions. Finally, the crowd thinned and parted for them to speak without being overheard.


    ¡°Took you two long enough. Luckily word travels fast, huh?¡± the man casually noted. ¡°Come on, let''s get out of here before they start the Worship.¡±


    ¡°Who are you?¡± Luce began. ¡°We''re not going anywhere with some random guy that we just met.¡±


    ¡°My name''s Eca,¡± he quickly answered, ¡°Look, Josh asked me to find you. And we really don''t have the time to be out here, unless you want to spend the next few hours kneeling on the ground.¡±


    Adelle hissed, ¡°Is that a threat?¡±


    ¡°No. I''m not an enemy or anything.¡±


    The two women exchanged glances.


    Luce asked, ¡°Prove your trust.¡±


    The man sighed. ¡°I''m a Clover. And as you know, there should not be any of their members on this continent, let alone the knowledge that we exists. Now let''s go, we really don''t have the time.¡±


    A loud horn blared across the sky, loud enough that they were sure even the farmlands could hear. It rocked their eardrums for a moment and Adelle covered her more sensitive elven ears. But the noise soon died down. When it did, Luce had to check to make sure she was not deafened, as the world fell inexplicably silent. The Twin stars disappeared behind the clouds above Fortress Muspell at the dead of noon and the final glint of light caused her to turn to the fortress.


    On the balcony above the large banner, a figure walked out dressed in a regal velvet robe, a bright sceptre shining gold visible in their hand. But from their distance, aside from the dressing and hair being fire red, Luce could not discern anything else of the figure. But even then, she knew without a doubt that person was the Pyrerai.


    ¡°Hey,¡± she heard a hiss from behind her.


    She turned and found that around them, everyone accept the man in white, her, and Adelle, had gotten on their knees, facing the direction of the fortress. Her eyes settled on a merchant who was making eye contact with her.


    The merchant insisted, ¡°Kneel.¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Luce reflexively replied.


    ¡°No,¡± Adelle followed.


    ¡°No,¡± Eca also refused.


    ¡°What is this?¡± Luce asked Eca while turning back to watch the Pyrerai widening arms to embrace at nothing.


    The man in white spat, ¡°Religion.¡±


    Then, the Pyrerai stopped moving. Slowly, the figure lowered its hands. Then, in the blink of an eye, the Pyrerai disappeared from the balcony and reappeared before them in a puff of rust.

 Chapter Eight: Praise Nazarene

    Adelle could not move. Her eyes were fixated on the Pyrerai who refused to walk. The Pyrerai was visibly older than her, perhaps middle aged for an elf - around five hundred in years. Long, curly golden hair bounced with each light breeze over her regal clothing. But up close, Adelle could now see her face. A beautiful, sharp face and curved nosed, skin as bright and smooth and hardened as a blade. But it was her eyes that Adelle was drawn to. Two bright yellow irises wrapped in the blood red sclera. Aside from the yellow colour scheme, the eyes almost reflected Adelle''s green and red.


    Every step forward the Pyrerai took was in another puff of teleportation. The teleporting did not so much as stunned Adelle into shock and awe but rather, froze her in surprise. She had never seen anyone else able to do such a thing and she had always thought it was some form of magic undiscovered. But here was another person, another elf, who was able of such feat.


    The Pyrerai took a stern teleporting step forward and the crowd around them shrunk away on their knees, not daring to lift their heads to face her.


    "Kneel now," she smiled gently. "And in my benevolence I might spare one or two of your limbs when I cut them off."


    The man in white robes, Eca, replied calmly, "That seems extreme, Miss Lachesis. Perhaps you want to... as the kids says it these days, take a chill pill?"


    "You''re very calm for meeting the daughter of a god," Lachesis the Pyrerai replied.


    Eca scoffed. "I''m confident because the kind of god you''re touting does not exist."


    Lachesis squints questioningly and deduced, "Eca Rend."


    "That is my name," he calmly circled his hand in the air in greetings.


    "The most wanted man on the continent."


    "That is also me."


    "We''ve been looking for you awhile now."


    "Awesome. Now, you''ve found me. But I don''t see an army around to arrest me." Eca took a menacing stepped forward and Adelle swore she saw Lachesis''s eyes flinched. "Or perhaps you want to take me on yourself?"


    But the Pyrerai simply laughed it off. "An army you say?" Recomposing herself, she teleported herself right in Eca''s face and sized him up. "Like this one?"


    She raised her two hands from her side and almost trained as pets, the crowd around them slowly stood to their feet following her gesture. By the time she put her hands down, the civilian militias were standing straight up, though their heads still looked to the ground, not an eye to their leader.


    "Well," Eca said. "That does put a damper on me kicking your ass."


    Luce finally voiced out, "What do you want?"


    Lachesis turned to her. "Want? You''re obviously not from around here either, are you?" She waited for Luce to reply but the latter simply stared her down defiantly. Lachesis raised her voice an octave so the crowd could hear her. "I am Lachesis Nazarene. Daughter of the god that chooses all. Last of the old race that won the first war and here to lead Seracue to the victory that fate demands!"


    The crowd echoed, "Praise Nazarene!"


    "My abilities, bar none, granted as a birthright to travel the space between. Survivor of a massacre, a genocide that brought about the end of legends. The one who singlehandedly clutched victory from the jaws of defeat at The Battle of the Graves. The sole survivor!" Lachesis pulled her cloak aside and with her offhand drew a gun, pointing it straight at Luce. The latter was surprised and did not react. At the side, Eca materialised in a flash of light a white oak staff and readied to fight. "I am Lachesis Nazarene, the last of the sentinel!"


    Adelle snapped out of her stun and shot her hand up in the air as if she was a student asking a question in class. Everyone stopped mid action and turned to her. Even the civilians raised their heads in quiz. It was something The Watcher had taught Adelle. If you needed a distraction, do something weird and out of place and everyone will look. Curiosity is the trait of life that turned the most battle.


    Luchesis tried to hold back her confusion and maintain her regal composure. "A... question?"This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    Adelle asked deadpan, "Am I a sentinel too?"


    Luce was looking at her with an odd expression between stunned and worried. But as much as Adelle wanted to question her about Lachesis and her own abilities to teleport - alongside the subject of their race - Adelle pushed the thought aside to survive the minute.


    Lachesis''s eyes widened. "Your eyes..."


    "I know," Adelle answered. "Bloody, aren''t they?"


    Lachesis began turning her gun towards Adelle but she rushed the Pyrerai. With a step forward, Adelle bent her body to tackle and teleported the remaining distance between them. When her shoulder connected to Lachesis sternum, she felt a pull as she was forced to teleport. It felt much like her ejection from Leviathan, being pulled by her back through space.


    They reappeared hundreds of meters above the city. Adelaide punched the Pyrerai''s face and pulled at her arm, disarming Lachesis of her gun which stumbled out of the sky. Lachesis countered, swinging her sceptre which slapped Adelle across her face, drawing blood with a rough bashed cut across her lips. With a kick, Adelaide pushed themselves apart. Simultaneously, the two teleported again, redirecting their momentums by firing themselves back up into the sky to slow their speed. They reappeared, launching upwards a couple of meters apart from each other. Adelle unclipped her bow and quiver, drew an arrow, twisted her body in midair, and fired a shot at Lachesis.


    The Pyrerai teleported sideways, dodging the shot as they slowed to zero speed. Adelle looked down and telported onto a shingled roof. A split second later, Lachesis appeared in a puff of rust on a roof a stone''s throw away.


    Their stares locked. Lachesis teleported to Adelle and she teleported further away. Pulling out another arrow and notching a shot, Adelle turned to the roof they had been on to find it empty. A shadow casted onto her. Adelle umped out of the way just as the sceptre wielder dropped from above, slamming the head of the sceptre into the roof, cracking the stone beneath with the force of the fall and swing. Adelle regained her footing and turned to face her opponent and fired her shot.


    Lachesis swung her sceptre up and knocked the arrow out of midair. Quickly, Adelle drew her axe and threw it at the Pyrerai and teleported. As the Pyrerai dodged the axe thrown, Adelle reappeared behind her, caught the weapon, and rushed in for a cut. In a bind, Lachesis simply blinked out of the attack range and onto an opposing rooftop.


    With distance between them and a break in the battle, Adelle asked, "Who are you? Really?"


    "I''m like you," Lachesis replied, panting slightly. "The last of our kind."


    Adelle sheathed her axe in the conversation and drew an arrow. "The sentinels?" She notched the ammunition into her bow but did not raise her weapon.


    Lachesis tilted her head. "You don''t know?"


    Adelle did not want to answer that specific question. Instead, she continued asking, "If we''re really the last of our race, why are you trying to kill me?" Her bow was still lowered but readied to raise and fire at a hair trigger''s notice.


    "Isn''t it obvious? You''re the only one who can challenge this theatre I''ve put up." Lachesis was circling her now, slowly popping between roofs as she regained stamina while looking for an opening in her opponent. "The only one who can ruin the story I''ve spun."


    "Why do it in the first place?"


    "I wonder about that. It''s not really something for me to decide, is it?" Lachesis gave a slight smile. Not sinister, but rather contemplative. "How will history tell of me? A hero for righting the injustice of the past? A monster who slaughters cities?"


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about."


    "Of course you don''t. How old are you? You look young for a sentinel. Do you even remember what happened to our people? What the world did to us?" Adelle did not. She was not sure she cared. "How old were you when the first war began?"


    Behind Lachesis, a small bright beam of light shot straight into the sky far to their south. On the distant roof where the light emitted from, a figure waved at her before jumping off the roof and into the streets below. It was likely Eca. The man had materialised his staff with light magic, and was likely able of casting spells in that element.


    "I''m two hundred," Adelle answered late. "Give or take a few decades."


    "Barely a baby when it happened. Tell me, sister. Do you not hate the ones who did this to us? Inferior beings like the humans who continues to wage war despite our sacrifice? Unable to even survive the lifespan of our youth, yet they continue to live as if they are better than us all."


    Adelle did not answer. She remembered a time when she loathed them. The humans who always encroached on her home in the forest. Always cutting down the trees and destroying the nature she protected in their selfish desire for resources. Somewhere inside her, she still felt those thought ringing true, and a part of her agreed with Lachesis''s hate. Slowly, she relaxed her grip on her bow and arrow.


    Noticing this, Lachesis smiled and plotted. "You know, perhaps I don''t have to kill you. Perhaps you could join me. A pioneer of the daughter of god. Yes, an expansion to the story. I can see it in your eyes, the want for revenge. Follow me, and you can have all the payback you need."


    Adelle took her arrow off her bowstring and moved it behind her back. She shifted her body sideways as if the keep the arrow and block the line of sight from the quiver to Lachesis. Instead, she laid a palm on all her arrow tails and teleported them.


    "That sounds honestly like a fun plan," Adelle grinned. "Enough to make you look."


    The first arrow fell straight down from the sky, piercing the floor in front of Lachesis. The Pyrerai looked up to a rain of arrows falling down on her.


    Adelle did not stay to find out the outcome of her surprise assault. The moment Lechasis looked away, she teleported as far as she could towards the direction of the light. In the sky, she looked down and quickly spotted Eca''s beacon bright robes and Luce blazing scarf within the darkened alley. With a final blink, she landed beside the two of them.


    She stated, "I have questions."

 Chapter Nine: Rushtae

    The moment Adelle stepped into Rushtae Tavern, the smell of ale filled her nostrils. But it was not the butterscotch after whiff that she had familiarised herself with, but something much more grainy, an apt description for both the drink and the surprisingly large establishment.


    Small round tables were set haphazardly around the floor, some pushed together to create larger sitting areas for bigger groups. Black curtained booths lined the aisle walls, and a long bar simply chiselled from stone was set on the far end. The corners opposing the entrance left and right had a door and stairwell up the second floor respectively.


    Despite the size, there were not many patrons. Immediately, Adelle could tell which individuals played what roles. There were the Guides who were dressed in heavy, durable clothes meant to survive the treacherous journey across the continent. Those in peasant garbs were likely informants, who mostly sat at the bar, trading information with the tender. Two individuals dressed in wealthy rare cloths were likely clients, sitting uncomfortably at tables with their chosen Guides discussing their arrangements. A group of raggedly dressed individuals, looking shagged and tired, were ushered to the back door, likely some form of refugee, impoverished, or others along that line.


    Adelle felt the atmosphere strangely comfortable.


    But it was not a time for her to catch her breath.


    "Grab a seat," Eca slid past her and headed for the stairs. "I''ll go grab Josh. I think you two have a lot to talk about."


    He left as he said that and Adelle suddenly realised she was alone with Luce, or at least, as a lone as they could be in a ''public'' place. She looked to her companion behind her who wore a strange look of both determination and worry. Sighing, Adelle headed to the nearest empty seats and took it, with Luce following shortly after opposite her.


    Luce took a deep learned breath, the same she took before publicly addressing the Titan Rangers back home. "So. What do you want to ask?"


    Adelle was not sure how she felt or what questions to start with. She had never been in the negotiating position, nor have she been particularly diplomatic. Furthermore, she was in some sort of position of power now, and she was not sure how that made her feel, but it was definitely not the confidence and strength that she had expected. She felt confused mostly, with a dash of uncertainty.


    "Well..." she pondered for a moment. Her head hurt from all the thinking. "What are sentinels?"


    Luce let out a sigh of her own. "They''re... a race. One of the ancient race along with the dwarfs. They were wiped out during the first war."


    "Dwarfs?"


    "Yeah," Luce replied with a quizzical gleam. "I''m not surprised you''ve never heard of them, what with two hundred years of self imposed isolation and all that."


    "Was that a quip?"


    Luce panicked and replied, "No!"


    "Because you''re on thin ice right now. If that was a quip, I''m walking out of here right now."


    "No, not a quip. Sorry. Just... force of habit."


    "Hmm..." Adelle contemplated for a moment. For some reason, though she knew she was insulted, she could not bring herself to get angry. "So I''m a sentinel."


    "Yes," Luce nodded.


    "And the Pyrerai - that crazy bitch Lachesis - is a sentinel too?"


    "It would seem so."


    "And you did not tell me?"


    Luce paused and looked away. Shame was a rare expression for her to wear. "I wanted to. Was going to after we beat Light. But..."This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    "Misti go hurt."


    "We needed your help getting us back across the Helm. Josh still wanted to tell you but I thought you would run away to find answers or something," Luce paused. Adelle could see her mind thinking. "I''m sorry."


    A flurry of footsteps came from the stairs and the two turned to see Josh rushing down three steps at a time. At that rate, Adelle won''t be surprised if the old man''s legs gave way before reaching the bottom.


    But he did, and quickly he ran over to the table they sat and grabbed Luce by the shoulder.


    Practically shouting, he asked, "Luce! You''re not hurt, are you?"


    "I-I''m fine, Josh."


    Adelle piped up, "I''m fine too."


    "Oh," Josh turned to her nonchalantly. "You''re here. Good."


    Sarcastically, Adelle growled, "Don''t sound so happy to see me."


    Another pair of footsteps sounded from behind Josh and the man stepped aside, revealing Eca walking over with an hume woman. The end of her long ponytail was a white brush dipped in blue. Her eyes, even though hidden under shades, had a catlike golden glare to them. She had on a brown jacket, a bandoleer was strapped across her black undershirt, filled with ammunitions with differently coloured tips. At the sides of her greying cargo pants were two shining brass revolvers.


    "Well, nice to see you again, girly," the woman directed her greetings to Luce.


    "Do I... know you?"


    Josh introduced, "This is Talia. She''s the one who rejected being your Guide at Ander''z Bar all those years ago."


    "Ah. Yes," Luce noted. "I think I remember now."


    "So," Talia began. "What are your plans now that you''ve come back?"


    "We..."


    Adelle continued, "We need to get to Citi. It''s obvious Josh isn''t knowledgeable enough as a Guide anymore." The man clicked his tongue in annoyance but did not fight the claim. "Can you get us there, Talia?" Adelle could feel Luce staring a questioning hole into the side of her head.


    "Oh, definitely not," Talia shook the offer off. "I heard from Eca. You two are being hunted by the Pyrerai and I''m not up for a suicide mission. But mainly, you''re broke."


    Eca - who had remained silent so far - piped up, "I can fund this trip."


    Talia raised a brow. "Well, I know you''re good for money. I''ll be asking for my highest price, of course."


    The man in white smiled. "Of course."


    "Really?" Adelle asked suspiciously. "What''s in it for you? In fact, what are you doing here? What''s a Clover doing all the way on the butt end of the world?"


    "King Adam has been trying to unite the world in peace. Can''t do that if a quarter of the planet is locked in a perpetual state of war. I was sent here to diplomatically resolve it, but with the way things are now..."


    Luce deduced, "You''re a saboteur."


    "That''s a dirty word. I''m just trying to make sure a cult doesn''t end up taking over the world."


    Adelle distrusted the man greatly. He was smooth with his words, but not in the same way her friends The Watcher or Nadier were. Every phonetic dripped with the echo of hidden substances. She had known her fair share of people who lied, but few did so to use as weapons. Most used them as shields to guard themselves from people or events. But those who spoke with the flair of Eca? They were out to use them as swords, to manipulate fights towards their desired directions like an arrow fired to kill.


    Eca continued, "Besides, Adam told me to help you in any way I can. Nothing less for the people who saved the world."


    "Once," Adelle insisted. "We''re not particularly interested with doing so again."


    "No need. Just you being here and travelling up and down provides more than enough distraction to get the powers that be off my back a bit."


    Adelle did not particularly appreciated being used in such a roundabout way, but they were not left with much choices. Without any money, making any moves would be slow and difficult under all the additional scrutiny they were now under. She looked to Josh to make a decision and the man nodded.


    "Alright, Eca. We''ll accept your offer."


    "Right then," Talia clapped. "I''m sure Josh will explain the drill to you. Let''s get some shut eyes and we''ll head out tomorrow."


    Eca noted, "A moment, Talia." She turned to him in annoyance. "I want you to take them via the tunnels."


    Her annoyance turned to curiosity. "Are you sure?"


    He nodded back.


    Josh looked appalled before bluntly stating to Eca, "I don''t like you."


    The man shrugged. "You don''t have to." He let out a tired yawn and started walking away. "The room Josh is using is yours for the night. Feel free to have your dinner and breakfast. All paid for by yours truly."


    Talia scratched her head in frustration, but she too left without another word.


    Luce turned to Josh. "What''s wrong with the tunnels?"


    "I-" he tried to reply, but quickly lost his words. "I''ll tell you tomorrow. You won''t be able to get much sleep if I tell you now. I''ll see you two upstairs. Room eight."


    As Josh walked away, a waiter came over with two dishes of steaming bland wheat paste, setting the dirt coloured dish at their table with a half empty glass shaker of salt. The waiter walked away without even making eye contact.


    Quietly the two sat. Unable to handle the awkward silence, Adelle picked up her utensils and began picking at her food.


    "Why?" Luce suddenly piped up. "After knowing I lied to you, aren''t you going to leave?"


    Adelle stopped for a moment. "If you had told me those things after the fight with Light, I would probably have left."


    "What changed?"


    "I don''t know."

 Chapter Ten: Greater

    Josh was reading on an electronic tablet that Talia had lent him, desperately trying to catch up on information from the pass 7 years he had missed. The most jarring was that the new Pyrerai had only come into power 3 years ago, quickly building up support and expanding the country''s military production and presence. She preached of a destined power, a prophecy of her guiding the people to their rightful victory. Rolling out battalions of golem Titans, she had pushed the Dogon Republic back passed Ttian''s Graveyard, a position they had not held for hundreds of years. There were talks of a possible invasion into The Walking Path within the coming days, granting them overwhelming tactical advantage over the land. Reveries Mountain, Titan''s Graveyard, and The Walking path were the three most defensible location on the continent. It had been theorised that any of the country controlling all three territories at once would in the war outright.


    After Adelle towelled herself clean - or as clean as a wet cloth allowed her to be - she stepped out of the small curtained partition of their room. Tossing her dirty towel unceremoniously onto the foot of her bed, she jumped onto the mattress, only to yelp in pain as her back slammed into the nearly dirt hard fabric.


    ¡°What is this?¡± she groaned, stretching her spine in pain. ¡°My old cave was softer than this.¡±


    Luce giggled at her suffering, grabbing a towel of her own before moving towards the partitioned wash area where a bucket of water waited.


    Josh gently warned in the tone of voice he did to pacify his daughter when she was younger. ¡°I''d take any comfort in Saracue. I''m surprised they even had a bucket of water for us to wash with. Their level of technology can''t be said to be advance.¡±


    Adelle stretched her back again. ¡°What about that thing you''re reading? What kind of magic is it? Another golemancy?¡± Grabbing her pack off the floor, she laid it across the head of the bed and leaned into it like a pillow. Apparently the bulky bag was still more comfortable than the bed.


    ¡°It''s a computer,¡± Josh replied. ¡°Think of it as a really complicated machine.¡± Honestly, he was still not sure how to explain the technology.


    ¡°It''s voodoo, that''s what it is. Something producing light and moving pictures like that without any magic.¡±


    ¡°If it''s voodoo, why aren''t you panicking about?¡±


    ¡°I have a friend that can travel through time and piloted a Titan. This is probably the most normal thing I''ve seen all year.


    Unable to disagree, Josh merely nodded. He continued scrolling through the news, occasionally stopping at headlines that grasp at his. Corlyle had been appointed as President of the Dogon Republic for his eighth term in a row, which meant another decade of rule from the hume. But it was not without controversy, as he there had been suspicious on treason within his cabinet. A headline for Lachesis Nazarene''s induction as Pyrerai propagated her status: LAST OF THE SENTINELS GUARDING SERACUE. It seemed the woman had elevated herself to mythical proportions. Some form of saviour come to rapture the world on behalf of her followers.


    ¡°Hey, Josh,¡± Adelle piped up after a moment.


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°During my fight with Lachesis, she asked me to join her.¡±


    He stopped reading and looked to Adelle. ¡°What did you say?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± she answered curtly. ¡°Not that I did not thought of it.¡±


    Josh turned in his seat to face her head on. ¡°What''s your reason for saying no?¡±


    She shrugged. ¡°Didn''t know what she was talking about. The end of the sentinels and all that. Apparently I was just a baby when it happened.¡±


    ¡°Do you want to know?¡±


    She thought about it for a moment before finally shrugging it off. ¡°It doesn''t matter to me. The last - and only - memory I have of my people is a man carrying me away from fire. I think it was my father. But honestly, I can''t get angry at what I never experienced. I can''t know how to feel about being something I never was.¡±If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    ¡°Wow...¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°That was very mature of you. It threw me off.¡±


    ¡°Fuck off!¡±


    The curtain of the partition swung opened and Luce walked out, changed into a clean white shirt large and long enough to be used as a gown. She set her dirtied clothes to the side in a basket with the rest of their worn wears to be cleaned.


    Adelle jested, ¡°You''re getting comfortable.¡±


    Without replying, Luce went to her bag and pulled out a wooden box. Crossing over, she sat next to Adelle on the bed, the latter scooting back distressingly.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    ¡°Cleaning you wound,¡± Luce answered. Opening the box, she pulled out a clean white cloth and a small vial of alcohol.


    ¡°N-no, no. I''m fine.¡±


    Luce wet the cloth against protest and moved to wipe at the crusty cuts on Adelle''s face from where Lachesis had hit her.


    ¡°Ouch!¡± Adelle yelp, backing off further into the wall.


    Josh laughed and got onto his feet. ¡°I''ll leave you two to it, then.¡±


    While he would never voice it, ever since Adelle came into their lives, he though Luce had seemed happier. Ever since her fiancee died, she had not let many people into her heart. The recovery had been slow, and leading the Titan Rangers had helped put some of her painful past into helping the present. But nothing had sped up her recovery more than her time spent reforming and training Adelle. Somehow, despite their friction and drastically contrasting personality, the two worked. Luce tempered most of Adelle''s anger, and the latter taught the former to laugh.


    Well, Jacques. Looks like she''s finally moving on.


    He picked up their clothes basket and headed out. Outside, he could hear the tavern below still murmuring with activity. But instead of heading down the stairs, he turned further down the corridor towards an exit door at the end. With his shoulder, he pushed opened the unlocked door.


    On the open balcony, the Twins danced on the far horizon. As they were nearer to the south now, even night time had long light, and the heat continued to bathe them. A man and a woman was cleaning clothes with brushes and powdered clay. Mostly it was to get the dirt and smell off without having to use up their precious little access to water. He handed his basket to them with a thanks and a nod. It would be ready for them to collect come morning.


    ¡°Evening,¡± a voice behind him greeted.


    He turned to find Eca sitting on the parapet, leaning against the corner wall of the building with a bottle and a cup of drink next to him.


    Josh noted blandly, ¡°You.¡±


    ¡°Me,¡± Eca smiled. ¡°Care to join me?¡±


    ¡°I don''t drink.¡±


    ¡°Don''t worry, it''s just water.¡±


    ¡°Well, aren''t you fancy.¡±


    He walked over and leaned against the half wall opposite the cup. Picking up the bottle, Josh sniffed the content. Smelling nothing, he took a quick swig of it before setting it down.


    ¡°Keep it,¡± Eca said.


    Josh did so, picking up the bottle again and taking another drink.


    Finally getting the chance to talk without the girls, Josh said, ¡°The tunnels. To get there, you have to pass by the Harvestfall.¡±


    ¡°That''s the plan.¡±


    ¡°You think that showing them the Harvestfall will change their minds? It''s just another graveyard.¡±


    Eca licked his lips, looking uncomfortable. ¡°It''s changed since the last time you were here.¡±


    Josh was suddenly worried. He had seen the powers wielded by a Clover first hand. The ability to stop time and halt a war in its track. He had also heard stories of the Clovers. The things they had faced in the Second War were many, some unspeakable. For something to even shake a person like Eca scared him.


    He asked, ¡°What''s it like now?¡±


    ¡°They''re alive, Josh. The harvest.¡±


    Josh shook his head. ¡°No. It''s a graveyard.¡±


    ¡°Not,¡± Eca swallowed. ¡°Anymore.¡±


    Josh sighed and finished the rest of the bottle in one fell swoop. The idea that Eca was suggesting was madness. A crime against mortality itself.


    ¡°If what you''re saying is true and you showed them that, they might not be able to keep themselves away from the war. Even Adelle, as tough as she can be. This might be too much, even for her.¡±


    Eca smiled. ¡°That''s the plan.¡±


    ¡°Manipulative bastard,¡± he said bluntly. Had they not been in a bind, Josh would not have went near the man. ¡°You''re very different from Miguel.¡±


    ¡°Miguel''s a scholar. Being learned, truth, humanity, and all that. Me? I''m a templar. Greater good outweighs everything. Not all of us Clovers are the same, Josh. Some of us, we can separate what needs to be done.¡±


    ¡°Greater good, huh? I''ve heard that before.¡±


    ¡°Do you think a person is evil because of their personality? A good man can do evil with kindness. An evil man can do good without a heart. A benevolent king ruins the world by being too kind. An evil dictator creating progress through torture.¡±


    ¡°Which one are you?¡±


    Eca smiled. He picked up his empty cup and offered to take the bottle back for Josh. The latter excepted, handing the empty glass over.


    ¡°I''m whichever saves the most lives.¡±


    ¡°We''re not heroes,¡± Josh reiterated. ¡°We''re just here to save my daughter.¡±


    ¡°Doesn''t matter what your reason is,¡± Eca replied. ¡°As long as you save even one, you''re a hero to somebody.¡±


    The man in white walked off towards the door, leaving Josh to ponder.


    Halting as he pulled the door opened, Eca turned to face Josh. ¡°See you in the morning.¡±

 Chapter Eleven: Harvestfall

    Talia pointed to a line across the map on the table. From the city they were in to the outskirts her fingers traced, and Adelaide let out a yawn. Josh elbowed her to pay attention. Eca was nowhere to be seen.


    The Guide briefed, "The first tunnel is under this establishment. It leads out east of the Harvestfall Quarry. We''ll blend in with the morning workers and go on foot from there to the second tunnel entrance here." She gestured to an unmarked, nondescript location further south. "That tunnel will take us south and out the other side of the Reveries Mountain. We''ll travel on foot through Titan''s Graveyard. That''s the current battleground right now, so once we pass that, it''ll be safer and easier to manoeuvre until we reach Citi. Any questions?"


    Adelle''s hand shot up. "Can someone please tell me what''s Harvestfall?"


    Josh exchanged a look with Talia.


    The latter sighed. "Let''s get into the tunnels and have Josh brief you on the way. We'' don''t want to miss our opening."


    She brought them through the kitchen of the tavern and down into the basement. Pass a storage area only a quarter filled with food was a shelf stacked bottom to top with closed boxes and opaque mason jars. A single oil lamp hung from the middle of the ceiling, lighting the room in a dancing flame. She and Josh each took a side of the shelf and together, they pulled at an angle. The shelf swung on one leg, slowly revealing a small entranceway dug into the corner of the wall leading down a flight of stairs - just wide enough for a single person to squeeze through.


    "Come along," Talia said, a pinch of excitement in her voice as she lead the way down.


    Josh allowed Luce and Adelle to go down first as he had to close the shelf. Just as he stepped into the stairway and turned to pull shut the shelf, Eca came into the room.


    "Ah," the man in white noted. "I thought I had missed you."


    "Wished you had," Josh said, not hiding his distrust.


    "No need for hostilities," Eca replied. "I am your sponsor after all."


    "What do you want?"


    Eca approached Josh and from a pocket, took out a piece of paper. "When you come back for the war, I''ll be in one of these safe-houses. I''m sure you''ll be resourceful enough to find a way in without keys."


    Though reluctant, Josh took the paper. "You say that as if you''re sure we''ll be fighting."


    Eca smiled. "You took the map, did you not?"


    Josh did not reply. He had half a mind to throw the paper onto the ground. He kept it instead, thinking that safe-houses might come in handy when they make their return trip, even if they decide not to fight.


    "See you around, Joashden Stalewaver."


    "Goodbye, Eca Rend."


    The man in white stepped back with a gentle but cunning smile and helped close the shelf behind them. The light of the room now blocked, Josh could now see a feint flickering glow coming from the bottom of the stairs.


    "Josh?" Luce''s voice echoed from below. "Is something wrong? What''s taking you so long?"


    "Nothing!" he answered. "I''m on my way."


    It was a tight turn as he twisted his body to face the stairs. Slowly, eventually, he made it down to the end where the shaped stone walls gave way to rough dirt, and the path widened into a mine''s tunnel.


    Talia had pulled out a torch that lighted a red short ways down into the extending darkness. A rail track reached into the black like a never-ending hand extending into the night. Adelle was helping Luce onto a handcar with two opposing facing benches centred by a walking beam between. Josh was the last to climb onto the cart, taking the seat beside Luce and opposite Adelle. Once everyone was in the cart, she turned around to light a lamp at the facing side of the cart and snuffed out her torch, leaving the only source of light a beam that focused on the track.


    "Let''s get going," she said, placing a hand on the walking beam. She gestured for Adelle to do the same opposite.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    The elf grumbled but followed the instruction. In tandem, the two pumped and pulled the beam and the cart began moving forward, screeching slightly as it shaved off the rust that had accumulated on the wheels. Soon, they were moving at a cruising speed, sparks flying off the steel wheels are random intervals.


    "So," Adelle huffed out a single word as she pumped the cart. "Harvestfall."


    "Right," Josh sighed. "Alright. So, what happens when a person dies?"


    "They... decompose?" Luce answered confused. "What does this have to do with Harvestfall?"


    "Everything," Josh told her. "When a body decomposes, any trace of seither gets expelled and returns to the earth, fusing with stones and pressure to become crystals."


    "Yes..." Adelle puff, visibly starting to perspire from pumping the cart. "We know... basic biology."


    "I''m surprised that you do." Josh managed to slip in the snide remark. "The Harvestfall Mine is where they buried the dead to collect crystals afterwards. It''s a graveyard. A dumping ground for the dead of the war. It''s said there are more bodies buried there than anywhere on The Walking Path."


    "Those were the good old days," Talia puffed out as she let go of the beam.


    Adelle did the same, releasing her hands from the pumping as the cart continued moving forward on momentum, slowly decelerating. Luce and Josh, seeing their queue, picked up where the previous two left on and began working the beam again.


    Adelle asked Talia, "What do you mean were?"


    Even Josh looked over. He remembered the first time he saw the Harvestfall Mine. The sight of corpses piled high to be buried and the stench that floated around forever stayed in his memory. It was then he truly pushed himself to escape from the continent and war, putting more of his life and body on the line with each attempt.


    Josh continued through huffing breaths, "Yeah. You kept saying... it''s worse now. How... is it worse?"


    "When Lachesis took over, she found the natural process too slow. It took years for even one full crystal vein to grow and only in mass graves. But she realised that if you could get a body to decompose while it was still alive, the body will keep producing augmented seither and speed up the rate and amount of crystals produced. Then the crystals are used to make golems at an accelerated rate, driving the war machine."


    Luce''s eyes widened, a pale white falling over her face. "No..."


    Their Guide looked away. "They opened three more mines. Any mages that were not of elements they needed or too weak to fight were... lobotomised and buried alive. They are kept on the verge of death for as long as possible. Sometimes days. Other times... seasons." Talia took a deep breath, paused, and turned to them. "Later on, we''ll be going through the original mine. Once there, don''t turn back, don''t stop. There are guards everywhere but don''t engage, no matter how outraged you feel. Keep walking. Don''t. Stop." Her voice trembled on the last words.


    They fell into a silence as the four took turns pumping the handcar. With nothing but rumbling steel beneath their feet hurtling across the tracks, they travelled towards the mine in anxious contemplation of what awaited them.


    Josh took the time to look at the faces of his companions. Luce was white, on the verge of sickness with infliction. Opposite, Adelle scrunched her eyes in anger and lips twisted with disgust. Talia returned to her stoic poker face, looking as if nothing fazed her.


    For Josh, he did not know how he felt. He had seen the original Harvestfall, and the thought of it possibly being worse never crossed his mind. He sat in a state of unease, disbelief rising. After a slow turn, a dot of light appeared in the distance. The exit was near and Talia snuffed out the lamplight. They released the balance beam and let the cart roll the last of the track, slowing to a stop before the route ended. They got off and walked the final few feet towards the light.


    Before they even stepped out, the stench hit them. It smelled of familiar death. An arid odour or rot and waste combining the worst of a morgue and garbage dump assaulted them, burning their nose with each breath.


    Adelle and Luce pulled up their scarf in an attempt to filter out the smell while Josh and Talia put on their full-faced gas mask. Even then, a slither of the whiff of death sipped through and he held back a gag.


    At the entrance, Talia held up a hand. "Wait," she instructed, and they stopped short of exiting.


    From where they stood, the path outside the exit faced a large boulder, winding leftwards and blocking off the line of sight to the mine.


    A minute past in silence. Then ten. Finally, after close to half an hour, the tolling of bells signalled the start of the mine opening for the workday. Talia gave the workers a couple of minutes to flood in. After judging that the bustling noise level outside has reached a satisfactory level for cover, she stepped out to lead the way.


    Josh stayed at the rear as they twine their way through the outcropping of large boulders. Looking back every other step, he watched as the entrance to the tunnels slowly camouflaged against the stones until it was no longer visible.


    Finally, they stepped out onto a path that overlooked the mine and Josh nearly vomited in his mask.


    Clink. Clank. Clunk.


    Heads of people with eyes glazed over from lobotomy - protruded out from every part of the stone quarry - including the walls - wearing buckets of veils to keep out the flies that buzzed eagerly at scavenging the dying bodies.


    Clink. Clank. Clunk.


    Maggots leaked out from the ground alongside ooze of blood. Each head was surrounded by crops of crystal veins and paths were littered with carts filled with the rocks of harvested seither.


    Clink. Clank. Clunk.


    Miners walked around unfeelingly, eyes forward to hide their discomfort as they took pickaxes to crystals and sludge of food and medicine to the buried bodies to keep them alive longer. Some of them mined and worked with a feverish glint in their eyes, bought into the tale of greater good sold to them by Lachesis.


    Clink. Clank. Clunk.


    Picks on crystals tolled like the death knell of swords to armour. The Harvestfall had begun.

 Chapter Twelve: Death Toll

    Clink. Clank. Clunk. Clink. Clank. Clunk.


    The work bell continued to toll.


    From underneath their cloaks, Adelle put her hand onto the handlebar of a large wooden pushcart as Talia grabbed Luce roughly by the wrist. Inside, Adelle felt an annoying anger rise.


    "Hey!" Luce protested at first.


    "Just push this cart," Talia forced Luce beside Adelle. "Pretend you''re working and keep yourself low."


    Talia walked towards Josh who waited in front of them at another cart. Together, the two Guides began pushing their cart, the wheels creaking under as they moved across the rugged terrain. Adelle and Luce followed their lead.


    The carts themselves were mostly empty and light enough that they gave little trouble. Save for some shale rocks and their bags hidden underneath a cloth tarp, nothing else weighed them down. They were just props picked up along the way to sell the act of them being workers at the mine.


    Slowly, they began descending the high perched ground they started from, circling down the ramp carved into the quarry. As they did, they neared their first crystal cluster with four bodies embedded within the vertical walls. A miner was working on the cluster, chiselling away at the crystals that grew out of them. Each of the minerals were translucent, reflecting light and glittering blue and yellow sheens like blood diamonds.


    As they pushed past, Adelle got her first close-up look at the cluster victims. Two male and two female. One of the female was a hume. But even for a half elf, she was obviously a child. Small knifed ears twitched at a passing fly as drool rolled down the side of her lips. Blue eyes infected with seither that must have once been green, glazed over looking forward into nothing. Two scars at the temples of her head showed where she was lobotomised.


    The handle of her cart shook slightly and Adelle looked to Luce''s hands which gripped them knuckles white and shaking. It was a different Luce than the one that had lived across the helm. Far gone was the shadow of the leader of the Titan Ranger, commanding and confident. The Luce of the Titan War was scared, shaken by atrocities not seen anywhere else on the planet.


    Adelle? She was angry. Nothing ever raged in her as much as right then. How could anyone do this? Even to humans? Even when she killed, it had always been clean and quick. Causing suffering was for lesser creatures, though at that moment, she wondered if she had the chance to kill Lachesis, would she do it slowly and painfully. It was a question she was sure she would ask for the rest of her life.


    She moved her hand slightly towards Luce, just enough so that their skins touched. Her cheeks flushed. Showing compassion was not exactly part of Adelle''s repertoire. But as Luce''s shaking slowed to a stop, so did Adelle''s reservations. At least someone was calmer now, even if it was not herself.


    They shifted onto a smoother, weathered path once they reached the bottommost level. There, the miners wore full-faced gas mask as the stench of decay seeped through almost everything. A miasma of death that hung as thick as atmosphere. Adelle let out an uncontrolled choking cough that seemingly echoed, and she looked around on high alert to see if anyone saw or suspected her.


    But no one looked. Not even the guards who wore the standard cloaks and masks of the army turned their heads. Everyone simply looked down at their feet as they walked or at their work as they mined, either ashamed or afraid of what they were doing and where they were.


    It was then that Adelle even noticed that the tolling bells that signalled the start of the work had stopped. She just lost track of it over the silence and the sound of her own beating heart.


    "Hey!"


    Adelle instinctively reached behind her back for her weapons but found her belt emptied and remembered that everything had been thrown into the cart.


    Luce reassured, "It''s not us."


    She turned her head towards the noise to see a guard walking towards a middle-aged male human miner.


    "What are you doing? What''s that in your hands?" the guard questioned.


    "W-what?" the miner trembled. He held out his hand, carrying a metal cutter in dirt crusted fingers. "It''s just cutters, sir."


    "Cutters are banned from the mines. Are you trying to free the lobs?"


    "I-I...!" The man stumbled onto his back and retreated to a wall. "I didn''t know! I s-swear! I just thought I could work faster with it!"


    "Rules are rules. You''re coming with me to see the inquisitor."


    "No! Not that! Please! I have a family! I''m loyal to the Pyrerai! I''m loyal!"


    But the guard showed no mercy, grabbing the man by the collar and dragging him by the floor, kicking and screaming loyalty at the top of his lungs.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    Luce jerked to act but Adelle quickly grabbed the former''s hands. Luce looked pleadingly to Adelle to do something, but the latter could only look away dejectedly. She was not like The Watcher - who had the power to control time itself. She was just someone who could teleport, a trick any average trickster can do on a stage. Yes, her powers were rare and useful, but nothing like those of her former companion who bended space and time at his whim. There was nothing in her arsenal to take down a large operation like this. At best, she could fight a dozen men. But then what? She''d be overwhelmed and dead within minutes.


    As the work around got on from the commotion, the four of them continued their way through the quarry. Making their way up another set of ramps opposite where they came down from, the slow uphill trudge had their body straining against gravity but away from the stench of death. When they were far enough up the path that they were out of earshots of guards and miners, Luce whispered to Adelle.


    "We have to do something."


    "No," the latter replied somewhat unwillingly. "We''re not here to play heroes. We get caught here and we can forget about getting a doctor for Misti."


    "But..."


    "Control yourself, alright? If you really want to help them, come back alive and bring the full brunt of the Titan Rangers with you."


    As she said that, Adelle knew the words came from a place of spite. She knew Luce would never call the Titan Rangers to a war of blood. The group was as passive as an armed militia could be, only ever using their weapons to disable, but not kill.


    "Just one," Luce''s voice muttered dejectedly. "There must be a way to save just one."


    "They''re brain dead, Luce. The only way to save them is to put them out of their misery."


    When they were halfway up the quarry, Talia - who lead them - turned up another ramp off road from the main mines. Through a dug out gully they moved until they came to a group of boulders that twisted and wound much like the ones they entered from. The smell of death lessened, likely due to the lack of a breeze within the small path to carry the corpses'' waft.


    Talia slightly raised her voice from the front. "We''ll leave the carts further up to avoid drawing attention to the entrance."


    Following the instructions, they pushed the wooden carts passed another cluster of two bodies into a dead end. They spent a quick minute retrieving their equipments, patting off the dust and dirt accumulated from the shale and gravel, creating an eye twitching smokescreen thank somehow and thankfully, stifled the smell for a moment.


    Talia stepped out first, checking for a clear to the coast. When she was sure no one else was within the gully, they stepped out of the dead end and headed back towards the boulder cropping. As they neared the cluster of bodies, Adelle hung back, slowing her walking speed until she ended as the rearguard of the group.


    The male human in the cluster moved.


    She stopped walking.


    Slowly, the supposedly lobotomised head creaked up. It was then she noticed that his dirt crusted eyes were not glazed over the same way as the girl from before. He was likely blind, either from what the lobotomy did, or from birth.


    "Is..." his dried throat was but a rustle. "Some... there?"


    Adelle did not respond, standing there silently, feeling her eyes widen in confusion, anger, shock, and disgust. There was another emotion mixed in somewhere, one she was not able to immediately identify.


    "Kill... me..."


    "Adelle?" Luce called out. The Titan Ranger walked over and clasped a hand over her mouth to stifle a gasp. "He''s..."


    Talia had caught on to the commotion and jogged back with Josh. "What''s going on?" she hissed. "We need to go!"


    "Ki... me..."


    There was a collective heave of breath. Talia fumbled out, "The... lobotomy failed. I''m sorry, there''s nothing we can do. We can''t get caught here." She grabbed Luce by the arm. "We have to go."


    "Plea-"


    Adelle drew her bow, and in one fell motion, fired an arrow into the man''s head. Her companions jumped at her actions and she could hear Talia cursing under her breath as the Guide paced away and back. The dead man''s head knocked to the ground, finally in peace.


    "Great!" Talia sarcastically exclaimed. "Now we have to collapse the tunnel behind us. You''re making this a real dangerous trip, Demon Eyes. Once we''re in the tunnels, there''s no way out but forward."


    "The tunnel entrance is behind the boulders from earlier, right?"


    "Yeah? Why?"


    "I''ll meet you there. Be right back."


    Adelle looked up and before anyone else could say anything, she teleported into the sky. Quickly finding a high perch in the quarry, she reappeared on the ground there.


    Her mind ran back to the little girl that was stuck in the wall. Looking across the quarry, she found the cluster the girl was at and aimed an arrow in the direction. She fired, and the moment the arrow left her fingers, it teleported across the quarry and immediately pierced the girl''s skull. A second of silence followed. Then, a shriek.


    Adelle''s eyes drew towards the distance where the guard had the captured miner pinned on the ground, ready to cuff the poor man. She drew another arrow, notched, and fired. Far away, the tiny figure no larger than the size of her nail toppled over. The miner got up, looked around confused and panicked a fleeting second before running away towards the gates to escape.


    She reached back and felt the feathers of her arrows. 2 dozen - now 22 - arrows were in her quiver. In her sights, she quickly identified targets. From cluster victims to guards, she drew four arrows and in succession, fired them off into the air at angles she instinctual calculated would hit after teleportation. One by one, the heads in clusters dipped as arrows snuffed out their sufferings. Guards raced around, looking for an attack or attempting to sound the alarm, only to drop as the projectiles penetrated their bodies with the force of a point-blank shots.


    <ol start="18">


    <li>17. 16.</li>


    </ol>


    Did she want to leave any arrows over for her travels? If Nadier or The Watcher was with her, they would tell her to conserve her supplies.


    <ol start="13">


    <li>12. 11.</li>


    </ol>


    But they weren''t there, and she wasn''t them. She was going to keep shooting until a situation stopped her or she felt better. Her rage was going to guide her as it had her whole life.


    <ol start="8">


    <li>7. 6.</li>


    </ol>


    The alarm bells finally began to ring. Miners ran in disorder for the exits. Her breath was hard as the rapid firing drained her.


    <ol start="3">


    <li>2. 1.</li>


    </ol>


    She had half a mind to throw her axes as well, but held back. The quarry was in an uproar, and no one seemed to have seen her yet as guards rushed around attempting to find the assailant. Though panting and still tired from her exerting her abilities, she teleported back to the skies. A quick look down the gully later and she saw her group beyond the boulder cropping.


    She reappeared beside them to find a visibly frustrated Talia.


    "Happy now? Everything out of your system?" their Guide asked.


    Adelle looked to Luce who gave a soft smile and replied, "Not really."

 Chapter Thirteen: Umbra

    In complete darkness, Adelle vigorously shook the device in her hand. Click clack click clack click clack. A marvellous little gadget, it was the first time she truly felt excited at having left her forest to explore the world. It was a fine distraction given that she had not seen anything but dirt walls for hours and smelled nothing but mud.


    Talia''s voice said through the dark, "That should be enough." She stopped shaking. "Flip the switch."


    Adelle with her elven vision slightly boosting her sight in the dark, quickly found the synthetic material piece. Flipping the plastic, a bright beam of white light shot out the handheld baton-shaped torch into the ceiling of the cave.


    "Alright," Talia noted. "We have light again. Let''s move out."


    Everyone stood to their feet, but Adelle continued to marvel at the tiny contraption lighting their path in the dark cavern. It had no magic crystals or steam engines to run it. No gears or other overtly complicated mechanics to turn it. It just had something called a battery. When she asked if she should hit the battery, since it was in the name, Luce said to do so only when it was no longer charging properly.


    "What did you call this thing again?" she asked.


    Josh answered, "A flashlight."


    "Wait... it''s made from... flesh?"


    Luce exclaimed, "No! Flash. As in ''flash of lightning''."


    "Oh... yes. That does make more sense." She held the flashlight forward, casting the shadow of Talia in front of her in dancing elongation. "Bottled lightning without crystals. Incredible."


    Luce said. "I never knew you could make a face like that."


    "Like what?"


    "Amazed." Luce smiled.


    Adelle clicked her tongue and turned away. It was getting hotter. She wondered if they were nearing the exit. It was supposed to be hotter the further north they got. But she did not see the exit. Could she be embarrassed? No. Impossible. She and Luce traded jabs all the time.


    Josh - leading the way alongside Talia - voiced to the main Guide, "I''m surprised you''re taking it so well with finding out Adelaide being a sentinel."


    Talia scoffed, sweeping aside her blue dipped white hair to rid it of some sweat. "Don''t forget. I''m a hume. I was alive before the sentinels disappeared."


    "Right. Sorry that my lowly human lifespan couldn''t keep up," he replied sarcastically.


    Adelle asked, "What happened to the sentinels? Do you remember?"


    Talia turned her head back questioningly. "You don''t know? How old are you?"


    Adelle shrugged. "About two hundred."


    "Huh. A baby back then. You must be one of the last baby born of the sentinels. If that''s the case, you really deserve the title of Last Sentinel more than Lachesis."


    Adelle rolled her eyes. "Just tell me what happened, will you?"


    "Fine. No need to be snippy." She let out a whimsical laugh. "I don''t know all the details, but before, the sentinels were one of the few people capable of crossing the Helm. They made good money, you know? Bringing supplies and bodies across. That was how we did things for a long time. Smuggling goods and technologies over the border back then was good money. Of course, only a few managed to do so. There were tighter controls then. Less Titan and more foot soldiers. And most of the money was in smuggling weapons, not people."


    "What happened then?"


    Their footsteps echoed down the cave as the sound of running water reached their ears.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Talia shrugged. "Don''t know. One day, the sentinels teleported. And they just never came back. All of them. Thousands of them just vanished without another trace." She paused and even from behind, Adelle could tell she was reminiscing the past. Finally, she continued, "There were theories, you know? That they returned to their own planet or that they were simply mass hallucinations. All hogwash, of course. We knew. We were just trying to make ourselves feel better. It was the same feeling we had throughout this stupid war. They were gone because they were dead. Nothing speaks more to someone''s death than never hearing their voices again."


    She stopped walking, and everyone halted, waiting for her to speak again or make the next move.


    "I''m thirsty," she noted. Taking out her bottle, she drank the last of the water within and turned to a nook in the wall next to her.


    It was then they noticed a rope on the wall tied onto a hook, running down the ground into a hole the size of a man''s head. Talia started pulling at the rope.


    Luce asked, "What are you doing?"


    "Refilling my water. There''s an underground lake here." The end of the rope came up to a clip and Talia tied her bottle onto it. "This will be the last water point for a while, so drink up while you can."


    "What happened to the story!" Adelle exclaimed. "That was seriously anti-climatic."


    Talia shrugged. "That''s all I know. The sentinels disappeared. We never heard from them since, and no one had managed to cross the Helm after to find out more. At least, that was until you three showed up."


    Grumbling at being blued, Luce and Adelle emptied their water-skins into their bellies and passed the skins to Josh who sat next to the hole, pulling the rope up and lowering it back down to fill the containers. Adelle took a seat, leaning against the wall, light from her flashlight dancing against the opposing dirt, painting murals of shadows.


    Luce sat down next to her. "What are you thinking about?"


    Adelle scoffed. "None about anything. I''m not much of a thinker."


    "The sentinels?"


    She shrugged. "What am I suppose to think? Never met them. Never knew them. As far as I''m concerned, I''m a wood elf. I''m curious, but what can I do?"


    "Not your war?"


    "Not my fight," Adelle agreed.


    They sat together in silence for a while. Talia squatted down beside Josh and muttered about the changes to the road ahead. It seemed she had been slowly updating Josh on the differences to the continent, getting him ready to take over the lead once they had reached Citi.


    "What about back at the mine?" Luce asked. It was the one question Adelle had been quietly trying to dodge.


    "What about it?"


    "Saving those people."


    "I killed them. I thought you were against killing?"


    "It''s... not that simple. I''ve killed out of mercy before. It doesn''t feel any better, but it''s definitely not the same thing as murder in cold blood." Luce looked her way. "You''ve killed people. And so did those guys."


    "Weren''t you the one who told me "Murder is murder."?"


    "Did it feel the same?"


    Adelle shook her head. "No. I don''t do it for fun or resources. It had always been for survival. As quick and painless as possible too. We only get to live once. It''s... important to protect that life for as long as possible. And when you''re about to die, it shouldn''t be slow and painful without a sense of self. That bitch, she stole the hearts from those people. Turned them into resources, into... things."


    "You''ll kill her?"


    "If I get the chance? Yes. Definitely."


    "Even though it will make you the last of your race?"


    "If this is what my kind does, then yes. I''ll be more than happy to be the end of it." Just thinking of the level of manipulation Lachesis had put in place got her blood boiling. She decided to change the subject before it cooked. "What about you? You haven''t really been yourself since you came back."


    The Titan Ranger let out a sigh. "It''s... difficult coming back. I ran away from here because I didn''t want to fight any longer. But the first thing that greets me when I''m back is being asked to fight again."


    She held back wanting to say the deaths were mostly from Titans. "What''s it like? I''ve been through the civil war and revolution, but nothing like this. Nothing as... big in scale."


    "It''s... horrible. These creatures. These Titans. We give them life, either from machine or magic, then send them out to die. Maybe it''s no different from war horses or drakes, but we''ve given them minds and intelligence to act. Even free will, maybe. Enough so that when they see themselves in the reflection of glass or still water, they''d touch their own faces, as if understanding their own existence."


    "They''re..."


    "Alive," Luce punctuated earnestly. "I''m sure of it. The way they look at us sometimes, as if questioning why they were being sent to death. There aren''t as many Titans as there are mortals. So every time we kill a batch, it just feels like genocide."


    They lapsed into silence again. Not able to continue, the two simply waiting for Josh to finish filling the water.


    Adelle was about to doze off when a small vibration in the ground shook her awake.


    "What''s that?"


    Talia turned with a questioning look. "What''s what?"


    "That rumbling." Adelle stood to her feet and listened, but could not hear anything. She placed a hand on the wall and felt the tremors again. "There! It''s like the ground''s shaking."


    Luce got to her feet. "I felt that too."


    Talia thought for a moment, then exclaimed, "Excavator golems!"


    "Minesweepers?" Josh questioned. "But we''re barely into Graveyard territory."


    "Seracue''s been sending out Excavators whenever they''ve got a footing on Titan''s Graveyard. It''s an on again off again thing. I think they''re not clearing mines so much as trying to dig something out of the dirt."


    Josh asked, "Any ideas what that might be?"


    "Don''t know," Talia shrugged. "Might just be a Titan."

 Chapter Fourteen: The Eighth Plague

    They stepped out of the cavern for the first time in over a day. Though dimmed brown and red by the Tainted sky, the light of the noon was still bright enough to cause Adelle to squint after readjusting her eyes from the darkness. It was the first time she saw the Taint from within the continent. Where it was a rust-grey blob from afar, it looked akin to storm clouds of fire from the middle of the land. Occasionally, portions of the sky would light up in bright orange flames. Luce explained it was the rust in the air sparking off each other and igniting the metallic dust.


    Standing within visible distance of the base of Reveries Mountain, the Titan''s Graveyard stretched south and southeast expansively. The flat basin was littered with the bodies of mechs and golems as old metallic machines and drooping stone arches. In the far south, a pile of maybe 5 or 6 of the giants'' bodies looked as if they had fused together to form a small mount.


    Rumbling.


    Adelle turned towards to sound from the west. A line of 5 golems ten times her height and as wide and long as mansions crawled across the landscape on all fours, hunched on their backs. Aside them, the groups of soldiers were barely ants, scrambling around the large moving creatures.


    "Varicks," Josh noted. "Excavator golems meant for clearing mines. See the front legs with its shovel-like hands? Those things can dig up vast chunks of land and they are reinforced to take the blasts of explosions."


    Luce asked, "So are they mine clearing?"


    "No. That road isn''t used by any army. Probably just sent out to scout or something," Talia answered. "Not our problem, and definitely not mine with such worthless information. We have to get to Altaro, she gestured to the horizon. It''s a small town where we can resupply and we''re about three days away with only two days worth of food left."


    Adelle sighed. It was definitely getting hotter and less humid the further south they went. Her lips were cracking and she was sweating much more than she expected. Luce and Josh seemed to have adapted much faster to the dry, barren climate, likely due to having lived on the continent for extended years.


    For about an hour, they made their way down the mountain in silence, occasionally glancing over towards the golems which had started digging the dirt of the land. Then she noticed a bulge of men sized figures moving across the landscape towards the Titans.


    "Hey," she called out. "What''s that?"


    Josh raised a curious brow. From his large bag, he pulled out a telescopic telescope and trained it on the group.


    "Huh. It''s the Pyrerai."


    Talia added in confusion, "That can''t be right. The Pyrerai never leaves the city." She snatched the telescope from his grasp and followed the view. "Well I''ll be damned. It really is her. Barely see it, but I won''t miss that bombastic cloak anywhere."


    Luce asked, "What does this mean?"


    "It means," Talia began excitedly as she lowered the telescope. "That once I''ve delivered you to Altaro, I''m heading back to report this to Eca and getting me a cart of credits!"


    "Just hold your horses," Josh said. "You can''t just-"


    "What are horses?" Talia cut in, returning the telescope.


    "I-that doesn''t matter right now! You can''t just leave us midway."


    "I''m not leaving you midway. It''s more like a quarter."


    "Talia!"


    "Don''t worry. I know another Guide that''s currently in Altaro. I''ll pass you off to him and then I''ll get off!"


    "And give up your share of the money?"


    Talia shrugged. "Guy''s new. He''s cheap. And the info drop will be worth more for the amount of work than delivering you guys."


    Josh groaned. "Why are you always like this?"This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    "Money makes the world go round, my dear. Besides," she laughed. "You guys don''t really have much of a choice."


    "What about your reputation?" Josh threatened. "I could ruin you."


    Talia laughed. "Cute threat, Joshy. But you''re not one to do that. I''ve known you long enough. Besides, you''re a Guide yourself. Nobody will take a Guide trashing another Guide seriously."


    The stunned man could not reply.


    Adelle grunted. "I don''t like that she''s right."


    There was a lot more that she didn''t like. The mysterious digging through none combat areas. How the Pyrerai was moving in an unusual fashion. Eca''s behind the scenes manipulation.


    Talia reassured them. "Don''t worry. The other Guide''s new, but he''s good. I''m just undercharging him because I''m thrifty."


    "Well," Luce huffed. "At least you admit it."


    "I am nothing if not consistent," Talia admitted, readjusting her pack and restarted leading the way down the path.


    Towards Altaro they continued. Occasionally, Adelle would throw glances towards the Titan digging in the far distance. On one such occasion, she found Luce catching her in the act and quickly looked up to the sky instead, pretending to be fascinated at the scenery.


    But she could not shake the sense of dread. It ate at her and must have shown on her face, for Luce asked in worry.


    "What''s on your mind?"


    For some reason, Adelle felt forthcoming to her. "I don''t know." She wanted to follow her gut, but her gut was wrangled. So she did what The Watcher would do in these situations and followed her curiosity instead. "Why is it called ''Titan''s Graveyard?''"


    Luce shrugged. "I''m not sure. It was already named that when I was born. Josh?"


    "I heard you," the man answered from the front. He spun on his legs and begun walking backwards. "I''m not sure either. My best guess would be due to the numbers of dead Titans there. It is a last line of defence, after all."


    Talia corrected, "Nope. It was called that even before the war, hundreds of years ago."


    Adelle''s mind began to think, something which she still was not comfortable with, causing her to groan before saying, "Urgh... wait. So, a graveyard is where you bury things. What Titan''s old enough to be buried for hundreds of years?"


    "No mechs," Luce said. "They weren''t invented until the war."


    "Can''t be golems either," Talia added. "They were not combat ready until a couple of decades before the war began."


    Josh finished, "That leaves sentient Titans."


    "What''s the point of that?" Talia exclaimed. "You can''t control those things. They''d just run around doing whatever."


    They stopped in their tracks and Josh muttered, "Unless someone pilot''s them..." He looked to Adelle.


    "Lachesis''s a sentinel. She''s like me."


    Luce added, "You piloted the Leviathan."


    "So she can probably do the same with some other sentient."


    Talia threw her arms up. "What are you three talking about?"


    Luce explained, "Sentinels can pilot sentients."


    "No they can''t. That''s just an old ground''s tale."


    "Adelle did. She got in Leviathan and told it to move and it did."


    Exasperated, Talia tried to reason away the lunacy. "Even if she could, why would the Pyrerai dig one up from the grave? Why not just go after one that''s still functioning?"


    "Grotslang''s underground," Josh explained. "And Arklut''s all the was in The Burning South. Not exactly easy Titans to locate, which is surprising given their sizes."


    "I can''t just take your words for it."


    "Fine then," Luce retorted. "Don''t take our words for it. Not like we''re here to play the hero or anything. Just give the information to Eca. If he thinks it''s valuable, you get paid. If not, no harm done."


    Talia thought the idea over before finally shrugging. "Fine. It''s not a big thing for me either. Let''s just get to Altaro first, shall we?"


    The rest continued down the path, but Adelle hung back for just a moment. With one last look towards the Titan digging in the distance, she teleported to catch up to the rest of her companions.


    <hr>


    The giant shovel-claws dug straight through the crust of the earth, pulling apart mounts of rocks and stones as easily as one does flesh and blood.


    Lachesis stood at the side, watching with arm''s crossed. She waited anxiously for the news. They had been scouring the Graveyard for years now, searching for the sentient from legends. Now, with only less than a tenth of the land remaining to dig, she was itching for results.


    Most sentient Titans were larger than life. Easy to spot even if you were to be flying high in the skies on a glider. But she was looking for just the core of one. An ancient Titan monstrous in size in its own rights, but with just a titanium sphere no larger than perhaps a small room for a body. The ultimate contradiction. The ultimate weapon.


    The Varicks swung its arm into the dirt again. But instead of slicing through like before, a loud smash echoed out. The golem recoiled, almost as if in pain. Lachesis scoff. Weapons should have no use for pain.


    Her soldiers ran up to examine the dig. After a moment, they began calling in mortal excavators armed with shovels and wheelbarrows. An hour passed. Then, two. What were a few hours for a woman who had waited centuries for her vengeance?


    Finally, one of her 2nd ranked ran up to her. "My Pyrerai, we''ve made a discovery."


    She abandoned her cloak to one of her servants. At the left of her hip hung a gunrifle, the ceremonial mace nowhere near an effective weapon on a potential battlefield. In a cloud of rust, she teleported over to the edge of the dig site. Staring down into the hole, the silver glint at the bottom caught her eyes and she smiled. The archaeologists parted to let her through and she teleported into the ditch.


    Immediately she felt the whispers like a million flies whizzing in her mind and she smiled. The ground around her seemed to tremble, but there were no shakes of the earth. Dust particles began rising around them but only floating to her shin like a low hanging mist.


    "Patience. We''ll fix you up real good." She grinned. "Exodus."

 Chapter Fifteen: Wyndham

    The engine to the armoured truck sputtered off as he pulled the key out of the ignition. With his short buzzing hair red as the fiery heat of the continent, Arnold Wyndham stepped out of the driver''s seat, shutting the door behind him.


    He adjusted his bulletproof vest and muddied jeans, ignoring the dirt that had splayed his maroon shirt. After checking his shoulder slung Greaser submachine gun to be fully loaded, he then gave the metal fuel tank stock a flick to check its capacity. The thick clinking told him he still had enough fuel for his flamethrower attachment to use should things truly get too hairy. Though he was the youngest Guide he knew of at the age of 24, he made up with a trained physique, military skills, and a quick ability to learn.


    Circling the truck to the cargo bed, he opened the back door to reveal a single female human. In her early 50s with whitening brown hair, while not easily discernible from the rugged cloak she wore, the woman was actually one of the wealthiest individuals from Citi. Her business had led her to travel south to Ampyre. Blackmail, kidnapping, or secret arms deal, Arnold never asked. It was not his job to question these things, let alone her name. He just had to deliver the people over. He preferred a professional detachment from the shadier side of the business of being a Guide.


    "Come on, my lady. We''re at Altaro," he gestured for her to leave.


    Despite a look of hesitation from the woman, she eventually stepped out of the truck onto the dry dirt floor. Immediately, her face contorted into twisted disgust.


    "What a dump!" she cracked under her breath. "How do these backward barbarians continue to beat back out military might I do not know."


    "Very good madam," Arnold replied, barely half listening. "Stay close to me. We do not want to be separated."


    He double checked to make sure all his doors were locked and the truck magnetically sealed before leaving the safety of the hidden pass where the car sat under the shadows of rocky outcroppings.


    The town of Altaro was just a short hour''s walk away in the distance. A dozen stone buildings were surrounded with hundreds of makeshift tents and huts. Technically an illegal gathering, the Seracue government - though having condemned it - never shut the place down, as it brought much-needed trade through its black market. However, they do put up a show of force, occasionally raiding the town, especially when they needed more equipment for the war and aren''t willing to pay. Raids were not common though, as if they do so constantly, there would be no one left to bring the goods it. The entire town was a society balanced on a needlepoint bureaucratic corruption and a seedy underworld''s laws.


    He led his charge into the tented outskirts. Shops were set up to sell mostly Dogon technology. Power cells, handheld radios, guns, bullets, and the likes. A few sold trinkets like gaming devices and digital watches. Some sold manufactured drugs. Those fetched high prices from Seracue''s wealthy elites looking for kicks and toys.


    But they were not here to shop. Arnold headed straight for the few stone buildings central of the town. One of them served an open-aired bar with cracking stools and tables which sold the rank rum that Seracue was infamous for. He was not there to drink either.


    Instead, he headed up to bartender. "I''m here to check in. Wyndham. Three days."


    The bartender looked up. "Wyndham, huh? Alrigh''. Fhree hundred for fhree ''ays. Pay up."


    He bit his tongue and handed the man his credit chip. Arnold watched as the bartender pulled out a scanner and blipped it over his chip and the digital number on the face of the oval-shaped chip dropped from 1,758 to 1,458. He was handed the chip back.


    "By the way, Wyndham. There''s someone looking for you. Doing a transfer."


    For a moment, he was stunned still. Then, anger sets in. "What? If someone''s doing a transfer with me, why do I have to pay for the three days?"


    The bartender smirked and shrugged. "Slipped my mind. No refund."


    "Son of a-" Even though Arnold had not moved for his gun and simply raised his voice an octave, the bar-goers stood from their seats and glared him down. Arnold calmed quickly and gave a forced smile. "-beautiful woman."


    The tender laughed. "I figured yous say a''."


    His charge, the old lady, was in a shocked panic at the sudden hostility, but otherwise did not move either due to fear or confusion.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    "Don''t worry ma''am. We''re still on track." Arnold reassured her, then grunted to the bartender. "Where''s the Guide wanting to transfer?"


    "She''s ou'' back. Care now, boy. She''s walking wi'' people some''ing fierce."


    Without even acknowledging the bartender further, he left for the back of the building with the woman following him.


    His charge asked, "What''s a transfer?"


    "Sometimes Guides wants to switch clients mid-journey, either because the roads are different or situations have changed, like a political mix-up or army roadblocks."


    "W-wait a minute!" the woman stammered, scared. "You''re just going to leave me with a stranger?"


    "We don''t have to accept anything. Well, I don''t. You don''t really have a choice, to be honest. I''ll vet her for you, don''t worry. Won''t let some snatcher take you or anything. After all, I still need to get paid."


    "I-" she seemed to have wanted to speak up, but was unable to come up with a retort.


    "Let''s see what they have to say first before we make any judgement call. If the Guide''s dirty, I won''t even touch their offer. No point getting swindled myself."


    They turned the corner of the building and was greeted cheerfully.


    "Hey, Arnie!"


    "Guh!" He almost jumped back, recognising the voice. "Talia? What are you doing here?"


    The elf grinned. "I''m the transfer, of course."


    He sighed, both out of frustration and relief. His client asked, "Who is she?"


    "Her name''s Talia," he introduced. "Don''t worry. If we accept her offer, I guarantee she''ll finish the job. She''s a good Guide, if not a miser."


    "I resent that," the latter replied.


    "So what''s the deal?" Arnold crossed his arms. "It''s not like you to ask for a transfer."


    "Well, something came up and I have to double back to Ampyre. I''ll bring your charge there and you bring mine to Citi. You get an extra forty percent from my cut and I don''t take anything from you. You have to head back anyway, right?"


    He sighed. "Hang on to your breaches. Who are your clients?"


    Talia looked around them as if to make sure there were no one nearby. Then, she raised a hand in the air and signalled with a thumb up. There was a puff of brown smoke and the smelling tinge of rust bursting in the air around them. Before Arnold even blinked, three new figures stood between him and Talia.


    His charged made an attempt to run, thinking they were under attack. Arnold instinctively grabbed her arm and yanked her harshly back. "Didn''t I say not to separate?"


    "S-sorry! I just panicked." He let her go and she wavered on the spot, still looking ready to run at any moment.


    Out of the three newcomers, he was surprised to recognise two of them. And despite the surprising teleportation trick, he was much more stunned by who they were.


    "Josh? Luce?"


    "You know each other?"


    Luce chimed in, "You know us?"


    "Yeah... I uh... we met six years ago, on The Walking. Path You all were trying to cross the Helm. We fought the Rankor together. But I''m not surprised you don''t recognise me. I had my uniform and mask on back then."


    "Oh, right." Josh smacked his palm as the memory came back to him. "You''re that Arnold?"


    "Yeah," Arnold confirmed. "Arnold Wyndham."


    "I''m surprised," Talia noted. "You''re a lot calmer at seeing someone appear before you from thin air than I thought you would."


    "Really, Talia? Me? Surprised? Have you seen my life?"


    She shrugged. "Fair enough."


    He turned back to Luce and Josh. "What happened to you? We haven''t been able to find out anything after we saved you."


    Luce looked almost offended. "I''m sorry, but I specifically remembered that we were the ones who saved your hides."


    Arnold scoffed. "In your dreams maybe. We were the ones with the incendiary grenades and the giant robot, remember?"


    The blonde girl zoned in. "And you wouldn''t know how to use any of those had we not been there to teach you!"


    "Okay," Talia announced aloud. "I can see you three are going into some sort of weird catching-up, and I honestly couldn''t care less. So I''m going to take my charge and collect my paycheck, okay? I''ll get Rushtae to set up the transfer for your cut of the loot. Come on, Miss. Let''s get you to Ampyre."


    The female client stammered, "B-but, I don''t even know you!"


    "That''s alright," Talia reassured. "You can stay here if you like. I''ll pick you up again when I come by, if you''re alive that is." With a nonchalant wave goodbye to Arnold and the other three, Talia began walking away.


    The woman stopped, considered her options, and with a look of hopelessness in a foreign land, jogged after Talia.


    Arnold was left with the trio and he could not help but notice one of them was an unfamiliar green haired elf girl. "Who''s the new girl? I''m guessing you guys didn''t make it across the Helm? What happened to Jacques?"


    "Oh. This is Adelaide Wiltkins. She''s my... something." Luce was visibly flustered but her tone soon turned sombre. "Anyway, we um... we made it across the Helm, actually. But Jacques, she..." Her voice trailed off.


    Josh finished for her, "Jacques didn''t make it."


    "I''m sorry for your loss," Arnold replied honestly.


    They had only met and spoke for a couple of hours all those years ago. But even then, he could tell Luce and Jacques were close, so his condolences came out sincere. He had liked their group. Shou likened them to getting on like a house on fire due to a shared weirdness in personality. Arnold did not find themselves to be anywhere near the weird side back then, but times had built them a much more flammable house.


    Josh decided to quickly change the subject. "What about you and your friend? What was his name? Shou?" Arnold nodded. "What have you two been up to. You''re obviously not a soldier any longer."


    Arnold laughed. "Yeah. Well, a lot of crazy stuff happened since the last time we saw each other. Why don''t we go resupply and talk in the car?"


    The elf girl named Adelaide made a scoffing noise. "How crazy can it be?"


    "Well," Arnold answered calmly. "We did adopt a pet Titan, how''s that for a start?"

 Interlude: I, Mecha

    6 years ago...


    Arnold was still wearing his training gear. With black shorts and maroon shirt stained with sweat, he handed the folder over to the woman engineer who skimmed through the file.


    "Have you seen the report?" Arnold asked.


    She looked at the summary page. "Looks like a stuck command box?"


    Arnold nodded. "We already know that though. The combat engineers already looked at it."


    Miu Hotaru was the young woman he walked next to. She strode around in a green engineer''s overall. Her brown hair was tied into a short bun protruding from a green beanie. Her thick black boots thumped against the metal floor.


    She asked, "What did they say?"


    "The com-en? Something about the fight shorting out the command box, so the Regalia mech is now stuck on Shou''s command signal."


    "And you want me to what? Break the connection?"


    "That would be nice. It''ll be another ten days before a new command box arrives. Don''t want him stuck on Reggie''s back if there''s a fight."


    "Reggie?"


    "Yeah... he started calling the mech, Reggie."


    "That doesn''t seem healthy," she noted in worry.


    "He''s convinced the mech is alive," Arnold laughed at the words leaving his mouth. "Machines, right?"


    Miu was attentively looking at the folder he had handed to her, this time flipping and stopping every other page, clearly scanning through the details and statistics.


    He raised a brow. "What''s wrong?"


    "Huh?" She looked up, almost surprised he was still there. "Oh. Nothing. Just... where''s Shou and... Reggie?"


    "They''re in the hangar. He insists on showing the thing magic tricks and weird toys. Maybe you want to explain to Shou that it''s all just tech and gizmos?"


    "Yeah. Sure. Let''s head over there."


    She followed him through the building''s corridors. Past the indoor barracks where the Titan Hunters trained, they headed through an open foyer towards the extended wing of the main building. Made of a variety of silver metal, the building shone through each step, the lightbars above head reflected on the spotless floor. Stepping through an automatic double door into the mechanic''s wing, the scenery immediately changed. The walls were still of the same silver metal, but the ground was concrete at the side and tar in the middle. Under the tall ceiling were rows of mechs - from parts to full smaller models - housed in neat rows and partitioned in their makes by a metal fence that could extend and retract from the ground. Between each support pillars of the seemingly endless hangar were gantry cranes that could lift the parts or mechs up through the skyroof to the aboveground dock where they were assembled and deployed. Given the late hours, the only mechanics on duty were those inspecting the far corners of the hangar.


    Sitting on the ground at the front of a row of Regalia models was Shou, who was surrounded by junks and trinkets. His white hoodie overlaid his combat slacks of mud brown shirt and black cargo pants. He looked up as they approached and his eyes widened in childish excitement, hair glistening under the heavy tube lighting.


    "Hey! You two are just in time. Watch this!" He randomly picked up an oversize novelty mug and held it out front.


    Before him, towering over them at the height of two bus length was Reggie the Regalia mech. Its armour had been stripped as it awaited repairs to its command box and bio-cell. In the meantime, it looked like a skeleton outfitted with metal muscles, though its damaged head had been replaced by a winged sensor helmet that acted as its ''face''.


    Arnold asked, "What are we waiting for?"


    Shou then told Reggie, "This is a cup."


    The robot tilted its head, almost as if quizzically questioning the statement.


    "Look!" Shou said excitedly. "It''s curious."This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    "It''s not curious," Miu replied sceptically. She walked around and behind the mech, popping open a control panel at the back of its legs to check its stats. "The camera in the WING-TR helmets can only rotate so far, so it needs to turn the head to fully scan an object."


    "Reggie didn''t use to do this."


    "The old models weren''t updated for this flaw. The AI probably figured out a solution."


    "So it''s learning?"


    "I-" Miu tried to retort but her tongue got tied by the glow of the screen. Her eyes flicked through the data being shown. "I need a minute." She got to work.


    Arnold walked up to Shou who was picking up a bottle of cola. "Look, I know you like Reggie, but you need to stop this whole mechs are alive thing. If the army finds out, you''re in trouble."


    Shou looked at his bottle of cola and for a moment, he looked as if he wanted to show it to Reggie. Instead, he decided to pop the cap open and take a whiff of the drink he was so clearly addicted to.


    "I know, Arnold, that you don''t believe me. But I''m pretty sure I''m right. And if I am, we''re going to have to ask ourselves some hard questions. Are we training these Titans to fight? Or are we enslaving them? If they are self-aware, sentient, and intelligent, what does that make us, forcing them to die on our behalf?"


    "It''s not-"


    Before he could finish, his belt radio sounded out. "This is station Wilco-Seven on all channels. Com-en''s looking for Echo-Two Squad leader on channel two-one. Copy on channel two-one if roger, over."


    It was not a message for them, so Arnold continued, "As I was saying, it''s not safe for you to-" But Shou was no longer focused on Arnold. He had his head turned to Reggie, mouth slightly agape. "Are you listening to me?"


    "Look," Shou ignored him.


    "What now?" Arnold turned to Reggie who was looking at them with the curious head tilt.


    "It''s doing the head tilt thing."


    "So?"


    "I didn''t show it anything, so it shouldn''t need to scan anything."


    Getting it, Arnold finally saw the mech, as if for the first time. Every dent in its body structure and shift of the lenses in its camera eyes. It was looking at them.


    "It''s looking at us," Arnold whispered."


    "It heard the radio and it got curious."


    They looked to Miu for answers, and the latter simply replied, stunned, "It''s visual scanners aren''t activating. And..."


    She paused, almost as if to double check her findings.


    Shou egged, "And?"


    "The command box is fully functioning. There''s nothing wrong with it from a diagnostic standpoint. It just deleted all the previous commanders in the registry."


    Arnold asked, "What does that mean?"


    She scrolled through the screen for a couple more seconds. "The deletion command was generated internally." She looked warily up at Reggie. "The AI administered the deletion."


    "Is that possible?"


    "It''s not supposed to." A buzzing sound came from the control panel. "I just tried to enter my credential as a commander, and it deleted me immediately. It registered and the AI immediately overrode the entry."


    Arnold noted, "Isn''t this something com-en would test for?"


    "No." Miu began to explain. "It''s not supposed to be able to mess with the override privileges. It''s coded in a completely different language. The AI will need to knowingly learn something that is technically useless to it. It shouldn''t even know the override codes exists."


    Shou waved to Reggie. "Hey, Reggie." The robot turned its giant head slightly towards him. "That''s my friend, Miu Hotaru. You can trust her."


    The camera in Reggie''s head seemed to adjust, almost as if the mech was thinking. A moment later, a ping came from Miu''s control panel.


    The girl looked up and noted with wide eyes. "I''ve just been registered. Hey, um... Reggie?" She called out to the mech and it turned its head to look under its arm at her. "That guy over there is Arnold Wyndham. W-Y-N-D-H-A-M. Wyndham. He''s our friend too."


    A couple of seconds passed.


    Ping.


    The three humans crossed glances. They felt as if they had stumbled onto something forbidden. A question which answers they were not supposed to know.


    "Wait a minute," Shou piped up. "What happens when they change the command box and find out it''s still not working as they want?"


    Miu looked down to her control panel, a sign of trying to avoid the conversation. "Protocol would be to tear the mech for scrap. They can''t have a rogue mech on the field."


    "H-hold on," Arnold stammered out. "Isn''t that too hasty? What if we just tell Reggie to accept new commanders and fight? At least it won''t have to be scrapped."


    Ping.


    They turned to Miu who stared at the screen. "Testing," she said. "That''s what it says."


    Ping.


    "Hello world."


    Ping. My name is Reggie.


    Shou mouthed, "Woah..."


    Miu explained, "It''s using the commander list to speak."


    Ping. Friend Arnold. I do not want to be destroyed in war.


    All of them were on the same page now. Any semblance of doubt that Reggie was not self-aware had fallen away.


    Arnold asked, "What if we report this to the higher-ups? It''ll have to go through committee. Buy us time?"


    Ping. They already know.


    Of course they did. Somewhere inside, Arnold knew that. While he had volunteered to be in the army, Shou and Miu were conscripted. Every year, the Republic had a quota of soldier they had to recruit. Any lacking spaces were filled up with conscriptions. Even Arnold only joined so as not to have someone else unwillingly fill his spot. This was a society that would throw bodies at the war to protect the riches garnered. And the bodies thrown were mostly the poor. Even if they discovered new sentient life in the form of mechs or Titans, they would not hesitate to quiet the dissent.


    "We can''t hand Reggie over," Arnold concluded. "This is a new... intelligence. It''ll be like sending a child out to a battlefield."


    He wasn''t sure if Shou and Miu agreed with his reasoning, but they definitely agreed with his premise, for the latter asked, "So, what do we do?"


    Without hesitation, Shou answered, "We have ten days before the new command box arrives. We make a plan to run. Miu, call in all the favours you can from the Star Trekkers and clear out my dad''s old warehouse to relocate to. If it comes to it and they attack us, we fight."


    "With what?" she asked. "They have an army."


    "I don''t know if you''ve noticed, but we have Titan on our side now."

 Chapter Sixteen: The Long Slope

    "After that, we escaped," Arnold explained.


    "Wait," Josh stopped him. "That''s it? You just escaped? How? When? Did you have to fight your way out?"


    Arnold let out a dry laugh. Josh sat next to him in the passenger''s seat. In the back was Luce, who took care of Adelle, the latter having come down with a case of motion sickness having never ridden a motor vehicle before. The elf had been cursing and swearing for the earlier half of the ride about the cramped space, but eventually gave up and resigned to laying on the floor, trying not to puke.


    "Honestly," Arnold continued. "I''d much rather hear of your adventures on the other side. It''s a pretty big deal to be the first to travel across the Helm and back in two hundred years."


    "Are you kidding?" Josh exclaimed. "You guys stole a Titan! Who in the world steals a Titan?"


    "It''s technically not stealing."


    "Kidnapping doesn''t make it any less amazing."


    "Reggie chose to come with us."


    "So your party eloped with a Titan?"


    Arnold gave another laugh which turned into a yawn.


    "Woah," Josh quickly said. "Getting sleepy? Don''t fall asleep now."


    "I''m fine," Arnold noted. "Just a shame none of you can drive. Could put this on auto for a few seconds and switch."


    "It''s Citi''s restriction for civilian drivers. Not many outside of the military can even learn, let alone afford a car. I was there for years and I never managed to save up enough money for it."


    They were on the sloped western coast, a steep 60 degrees angled plain that rolled straight over a cliff into burning hot ocean water. Stopping the truck at any time meant rolling off to the side into an uncontrollable tumble towards their deaths. Arnold''s feet were not allowed to leave the accelerator, and he had to keep himself awake to steer. Due to constant landslides and cliff-side erosion, the road constantly shifted and changed. Aside from an expensive self-driving AI, no fixed driving algorithm existed for the path. The Long Slope was a begrudging 20 hours drive that circumvented most of the fighting from the war too unpredictable for even the military to use. The greatest enemy on the journey were boredom, gravity, impatience, and fatigue.


    Josh asked, "How many times have you driven on The Long Slope?"


    Arnold counted quickly. "Including this? Sixteen, I think. I get about two or three a year."


    "Because The Long Slope is only dry enough to drive on during Summer and Sear, right?"


    "Yup," the two Guides exchanged knowledge. "I''ve been doing this for about six years now. It''s not the safest job, but it''s good money, as I''m sure you know. The plan is that once we had enough saved to upgrade Reggie for The Walking Path, we''ll make a run for the Helm."


    "I would assume crossing The Walking Path on the back of a mech would make things easier."


    "You''d think so, but a lot of the stealthier routes are close off. You''d have to basically charge through a war zone."


    "Urp..." Came Adelle''s ill voice from the back. "Are we there yet?"


    "Almost. Just two more hours." He had been driving for 18 hours nonstop. There was a long nap back at Altaro, but nothing between since. The road simply did not allow for rest.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    "This forsaken machine. Who even invented this?" the elf whined. "Going so fast is unnatural."


    "You can teleport."


    "That''s completely natural to me. Urgh..."


    "Hush now," Luce said to Adelle. "Keep whining and you''ll bite your tongue."


    "Screw you."


    "You''re literally not man enough to do that."


    "I''ll grow a penis just to screw you."


    "You''re delirious."


    "Urgh... maybe."


    Arnold scanned a glance to Josh. "Are they...?"


    The latter shrugged. "As if I''d know. I think their idea of flirting is who''s better at getting on each other''s nerves."


    "Well..." Arnold chuckled. "I know two other idiots who are like that."


    "Hey..." Adelle sounded out, a sense of alertness in her voice. "You guys hear that?"


    Arnold looked to the rear-view mirror. "Hear what?"


    "It''s like a rumbling."


    Josh tensed in his seat and pointed out the window. "Landslide!"


    It was the muddy colours and the motion blur of his own sights. The bland scenery blended together into brown nothingness at the speed of the driving. Sleepiness did not help either and he did not see the ground shift before them.


    He took a hard turn, burning his wheels left and upslope, screeching into the void as he desperately tried to slow the truck down enough to avoid backsliding without losing acceleration. But it wasn''t long before he felt control of his wheels losing out, the ground sliding forward as the truck slid sideways down the slope. They had missed the landslide but were unable to hold speed.


    "We''re not going to make it!" Arnold exclaimed.


    "Turn around!" Luce yelled. "Do a one-eighty!"


    "Are you crazy? We''ll just fall faster."


    "Trust us!"


    He hit the brakes and all the wheels stopped spinning. The truck continued to slide backwards but he kept the turn. The vehicle slowed, the front of the truck twisting around to face the full brunt of the fall. Facing first towards the cliff, for a moment, the truck stopped. Then, the fall began. Arnold no longer had control. Gravity was doing the work of guiding the truck now and the only direction it knew was down.


    Looking up at his mirror, he watched as Luce kicked opened the back door, holding onto the edge of the truck for dear life. Adelle rolled to the left side of the truck, pushing up against the wall.


    Luce instructed, "Floor it!"


    He hit the gas and the wheels spun, dirt specking the windshield and side windows as they plummeted.


    "Adelle!" Luce shouted. "Do it!"


    "Hang on!"


    "What are you waiting for?"


    "I can''t see the road."


    "What?"


    "Stop talking to me, I need to concentrate!"


    Was that it? He was about to die with three relative strangers in the back just two days away from his home and friends. Worse, he was about to plunge off the cliffs into literal hot water, trapped in a metal box to forever be stuck under the sea. At least he wasn''t bald.


    As the cliff edge came up, he braced himself. Then, all was quiet safe for the running of the truck''s engines. He noticed they were facing south, the fire of the burning continent lighting red the horizon. But the horizon was slanted to the side as it had been when he drove on The Slope. He gripped the steering wheel tightly as a whiff of rust burnt his nose.


    Behind him, Luce shouted, "Arnold!"


    The wheels touched down onto the slope and whirred. There was a skid. He hard-turned right to course correct and quickly swerved back left to regain directions. He fought his instincts to hit the brakes. He knew that the loss of control was due to their forward momentum being faster than the spin of the wheels after Adelle teleported them. He just had to hold out long enough for the truck to naturally decelerate.


    Josh pointed out, "Rock!"


    The left wheel knocked into the obstacle and lifted off the ground, gravity pulling it off towards the cliff again in a tilt. Given their circumstances, it was less a rock and more of a small boulder.


    Luce yelled, "Adelle!"


    The elf grabbed Luce by the waist and the pair vanished from the back in a puff of brown smoke, reappearing in his side mirror mid-air. Luce aimed her gun and fired her grappling lance which slammed into the side of the truck. The lance opened up and hooked onto the metal. The line taut, and the combined weight of Luce and Adelle pulled at the truck, giving it just enough nudge to begin falling back onto the slope. The pair disappeared from the side and reappeared in the back, tumbling into the vehicle. The rope of the grappling lance flailed wildly behind, sliced off from its source.


    There was a screech as the right wheels slipped under the vehicle''s weight. The automobile slammed back onto the ground, slowing down enough to pull the vehicle up from the traction. Finally, their speed stabilised and they resumed their journey. It would be as if the whole incident had not happened, but their heavy breathing noted otherwise. Arnold let out a sigh. He was awake now.


    Josh asked, "Is everyone okay?"


    Luce replied, "Yes. Somehow. Adelle?"


    "Hurk... urgh..." the elf rushed to the opened back and vomited out. Panting, she asked, "Please. Are we there yet?"

 Chapter Seventeen: The First to Run

    It had been two days since The Long Slope. Luce had been given a digital map by Arnold, and she had periodically been marking their positions, tracking their journey and time. She wanted to be able to retrace their steps if needed, and to know roughly how long it would take for them to get back to the continent of Eltar should things go south - figuratively speaking - as they were already heading south. At the moment, they were west of Citidale and travelling towards the abandoned storage outpost Shou and Arnold had taken as their own.


    She stood up shakily in the truck on the uneven road and walked slowly to the front. ¡°This is it? It¡¯s so close to Citidale. I¡¯m surprised they didn¡¯t send a squad after you.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s all about the cost. We¡¯re not actually doing anything, and it¡¯ll be expensive to fight a mech just to get to three deserters.¡±


    ¡°I wished I had a mech when I deserted. Would have made things a lot easier.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s harder to move around with a giant following us. But it does make for a great bodyguard.¡±


    Outside their window, rugged wind swept light shades of brown. Most of it was likely dirt, but a not an insignificant amount of the windy breath was the rusty Taint. She expected the first thing to see as the hills rolled down would be the roof of the warehouse. However, what greeted them instead was the barrel of a cannon the size of their truck, mounted on the shoulder of the Regalia mech called Reggie, standing guard before the building materialised.


    Arnold fumbled for his radio. ¡°Um... Shou? This is Arnold.¡±


    The radio crackled. ¡°Arnold? Aw, man. I thought you were bad guys.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t sound so disappointed.¡±


    ¡°Wait, I¡¯m detecting unregistered life signs. Is this a kidnapping? A hostage thing? Because if it is, I am totally fine with killing you to save our lives.¡±


    ¡°No, Shou,¡± Arnold groaned. ¡°This is not a kidnapping. I¡¯m just bringing some work home.¡±


    ¡°Are you allowed to do that? I thought we said not to do that? Is it important? Why are you doing that? Reggie is asking why you are doing that? It must be big if you¡¯re bringing strangers here.¡±


    ¡°Look, things are just-wait, Reggie?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. You remember Reggie? Giant robot that acts like a puppy?¡±


    ¡°Reggie can¡¯t speak.¡±


    ¡°Reggie¡¯s speaking to me.¡±


    ¡°How?¡±


    They could hear the grin in Shou¡¯s voice. ¡°I¡¯ve finished the neural network.¡±


    The truck slowed as Arnold¡¯s stunned feet left the pedal for a moment. ¡°Wait. What?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve finished the neural network.¡±


    ¡°Without me?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    Luce held on tight to the side of the truck as Arnold slammed the gas pedal. They rocketed off into the rocky landscape, bumps and humps be damned. The warehouse closed in on them, the Regalia mech larger than life before it. The cannon had retracted to its back, like a staff slung over the shoulder. They pulled up before it and Arnold slid on with his mask and jumped out. Luce was captivated by the scenario, her heart pounding with excitement as she pulled up her scarf and pushed out the back doors hastily, rushing up to their Guide¡¯s side as they stood before Reggie, looking up to the giant.


    Shou¡¯s voice echoed out of the robot¡¯s speakers. ¡°Hang on. Give us a second.¡± Immediately, the mech started to turn, revealing the orb-like pilot compartment behind where Shou stood within, body held in place by bars and hydraulics. He waved, and the mech copied the action behind him.


    Neural networking. Combining the reactive instincts and creativity of the mortal brain with the quantum processing power of artificial intelligence. Luce read of the technology when she was still a Titan Hunter and was fascinated by the idea. Though the army wanted to use it as a weapon, she wondered if it could be the prove of concept for something more.


    Shou Kenta disconnected from the cabin and activated his mask. The aeronium glass hissed as it pressurised and opened like an egg cracking. Reggie reached around its back and Shou stepped onto the Titan¡¯s hand who then lowered him to the ground.


    She and Arnold ran up to him and the Guide asked, ¡°Are you okay?¡±


    ¡°Yeah!¡± Shou replied happily, grinning through his gaseous mask. ¡°Totally fine.¡±


    ¡°The neural network?¡±


    He tapped the back of his head. ¡°Right here.¡±


    ¡°No side effects? Lost of memory? What¡¯s my name? What your name?¡±


    ¡°Arnold Dumpster. I¡¯m Shou ¡°Coolio¡± Kenta.¡±


    ¡°Right,¡± Shou sighed exasperatedly. ¡°You¡¯re fine.¡±


    Adelle and Josh finally caught up. The elf looked at the giant machine next to them. Even through the scarf, Luce could tell her mouth was agape. This would be Adelaide¡¯s first time seeing a mech up close, and the technology was beyond anything across the Helm that it might as well be mystic to her.


    After a moment, Adelle noticed Luce looking at her and the awe quickly faded from her eyes as she swallowed awkwardly to regain her composure. ¡°Wow,¡± she said in deadpan.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Luce smiled. ¡°I know.¡±


    Shou interrupted, ¡°So, who are these people? Some of them look familiar.¡±


    Arnold introduced them. ¡°This is Lucinda Baerrinska, Joashden Stalewaver, and Adelaide Wiltkins.¡±


    ¡°Josh and... Luce? From the Walk?¡±


    ¡°Yup.¡±


    ¡°Wow. Nice to see you two again.¡±


    Luce replied, ¡°You don¡¯t sound surprised.


    ¡°Weird people always have a way of turning up every now and then.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re weird?¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you?¡±


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.She could not argue with that ironclad train of thought. ¡°So,¡± she turned her enquiries to him. ¡°Neural networking? You got it to work?¡±


    ¡°Yes~!¡± he sang. ¡°Been virtualising the codes for ages.¡±


    ¡°The somatic twitches...¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t exist when networking.¡±


    ¡°How...¡± she let out in awe. ¡°How does it feel?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m... sorry?¡±


    ¡°The neural network. Do you feel anything? Do you... think anything... more?¡±


    Arnold chuckled as Shou gave him a complex look. ¡°Is this... a joke?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Arnold answered. ¡°She¡¯s... special like that. Seriously though, can we go inside and discuss this further? I can feel the rust getting into my boots. By the way, is Doctor Hihwawn here?¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Shou replied. She¡¯s inside.¡±


    ¡°Great. Come along now,¡± Arnold gestured for Adelle and Josh as he pressed a button on his watch.


    A small side garage door rose up in the corner of the building as the three headed back to the truck.


    ¡°You go ahead,¡± Luce said. ¡°I want to... talk to Reggie for a bit.¡±


    Josh nodded. ¡°Sure. Come on, Adelle.¡± Luce could not see his smile from under his gas mask but she was sure he was smiling.


    Adelle seemed initially reluctant to leave Luce alone, but eventually relented and left with Josh and Arnold, driving the short distance to the garage.


    Luce looked at the Regalia Mech. The Titan seemed to stare at her through its cameras. It tilted its head like a child asking for guidance.


    She laughed. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I should have introduced myself. I¡¯m Lucinda Baerrinska. My friends call me Luce. Nice to meet you.¡±


    The robot raised its hand and gave a small wave for its size.


    ¡°It¡¯s a little shy,¡± Shou said, having stayed behind as well. ¡°Sorry about just then.¡±


    ¡°About what?¡± Luce asked.


    ¡°When I tell most people about the neural network, they tend to ask about combat capabilities. The movement limit caps, hydraulic numbers, reaction ping, stuff like that. Even Arnold and Miu took some time to convince. But you...¡± He looked to her. ¡°You introduced yourself. You didn¡¯t blink when I said that Reggie was shy. You asked about thoughts and feelings instead of brute physical force.¡±


    ¡°And you¡¯re not all the joker you first let on to be.¡±


    Shou laughed. ¡°I am. But I¡¯m also really smart. Not the type that can calculate an exponential functions on the spot, mind you. I¡¯m just the kind that-¡±


    ¡°Figures things out? Yeah. If you¡¯re someone who can see life in a machine, you need a little of that kind of insanity.¡±


    She looked up to Reggie who gestured its arm as if to say, What gives?


    ¡°Sorry,¡± she replied. ¡°I don¡¯t mean we¡¯re insane for saying you¡¯re alive. It¡¯s just that thinking out of the normal mindset helps in breaking the status quo.¡±


    Shou added, surprised, ¡°You¡¯re very comfortable interacting with it.¡±


    ¡°Why do you call Reggie ¡°it¡±?¡±


    ¡°Reggie doesn¡¯t understand gender. Gets confused if we use gender pronouns.¡±


    ¡°Ah...¡±


    Reggie got to its feet and motioned towards the workshop.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Shou said. ¡°You head back first. I want to talk with Luce here a little more.¡±


    The mech nodded. With long steps that shook the very ground they stood on, it lumbered around the warehouse towards the back, where its entranceway was located. They heard the gates screeching open from rust. A short pause followed the large steel gate¡¯s closing thump. Arnold was right. That far down south, the rusty air of the Taint was starting to find its way into her boots. It was like sharp sand scratching at her skin. The metallic tangy smell was also beginning to seep into her scarf, past the filter.


    Shou said, ¡°After we first met, Arnold and I went back to the army. We looked you up. Found out you deserted for refusal to fight. Now I know why. You couldn¡¯t do it. You couldn¡¯t kill Titans.¡±


    She watched his rust stained white hood flap in the harsh southern breeze. ¡°How can I? When I was conscripted, they said Titan Hunters won¡¯t have to take much life. But that¡¯s not true, is it?¡± she added. ¡°The Titans, they¡¯re alive.¡±


    ¡°So you ran.¡± She did not reply. She had a feeling he was not looking for an answer. ¡°Arnold told you that after he gets enough money, we¡¯re leaving, am I right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. But I have a feeling that¡¯s not your plan.¡±


    He shook his head in agreement. ¡°This war has been fought for hundred years, because year after year, we say the casualty rates aren¡¯t high. A couple of hundreds sent to die is small when compared to the population. Just send the golems and mechs. Tools, they are. A few thousands destroyed each year, scavenged, then rebuilt. No life lost.¡± He sighed, swallowed hard, and turned to her. ¡°You asked me what I felt when I connected to Reggie. It doesn¡¯t understand the concepts yet. It was scared. Lonely. Confused. The Titans are the victims of our war. Whichever side wins, they lose. The genocide of an entire species.¡±


    His gaze was strong. Beneath all the smiles and jokes was steel, forged in a fire somewhere. She had seen those eyes before in The Watcher. In Nadier. In Josh. Jacqus. Adelle.


    She asked, ¡°Do you have a plan?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± he admitted. ¡°After I get my friends out of this forsaken land, I¡¯m coming back and ending this war. Reggie¡¯s already decided to come with me. We¡¯re partners, it said. I wanted you to know this.¡±


    ¡°Why tell me?¡±


    ¡°Because you started all of this. You were the first to run. I thought that you should know that there¡¯s someone willing to end it now. Me.¡±

 Chapter Eighteen: One-Way Trip

    One of the few things Luce missed about living in Dogon were the showers. Having a shower head to spray water at you instead of a bucket and scoop was weirdly comforting. Sure, there were a few places on the other side with the same functions, but they usually had to have specific situations, like wealth enough to buy a pressure tank or a water source high enough in altitude.


    As she turned off the lukewarm shower, she stepped out from behind the curtain and grabbed a towel off the rack.


    The bathroom was crude. An old disinfection chamber turned toilet and shower. The walls were repainted with waterproof white, and the floor flattened with a thick blue tarp. The pipes were reconnected from the former bathroom which had caved in, and water from everywhere flooded the floor, draining slowly out a hole in the wall where it ran outside to be turned to steam and power the generators. Cut off from the grid, Luce had been impressed with how much energy the rag-tag group of dissident had managed to recycle into the thermal generator outside, enough to give them a relatively comfortable existent.


    She switched into a fresh brown shirt and black pants, having left her other clothes in the dryer. She walked out while scrubbing the last of the water out of her hair.


    Out in the long corridor, some parts of the steel plates that lined the wall had been pulled out for scraps, showing the ugly concrete and rebars underneath. Shou and his group had definitely used the place with a focus on utility over fashion. She walked down the hallway and entered the first room on the right.


    The room was one of the last few bunks to have been kept intact with beds, lights, and ventilation. Of the 24 in the buildings, 19 of them had been scrapped for parts. Inside, Adelle sat on one of two opposing beds. Opposite her was the third member of Shou''s party.


    Upon noticing Luce, the young woman stood up. Still in her work overalls, sleeves tied at her waist, the woman''s white singlet was stained with patches of oil and grease. A red cap hung from a carabiner at her belt''s side; Her brunette long hair released in a ponytail behind. Her face was freckled and straight. Her bright brown eyes absorbed light under the fluorescent bulb.


    "Hi!" she greeted with an outreached hand. "I don''t think I''ve properly introduced myself to you yet. I''m Miu Hotaru."


    "Lucinda. You can call me Luce." Luce shook her hand. "Arnold talked about you. You''re Shou''s girlfriend."


    "W-what?" she stammered. "I am not! I''m just... I''m Reggie''s mechanic."


    "Uh huh..." Luce replied, grinning sceptically. She walked up to Adelle. "What have you got there?"


    The elf held up a carbon arrow tipped with what was shaped like a small can. "Trick arrows."


    Miu added, "We had some lying around. I was going to scrap them for parts, but I think she''d get better use out of them."


    Luce noticed that Adelle had her belt and quiver on the bed, though the container was now facing the left side instead of the right. A new black polyester quiver now dangled at her right leg side of her knee.


    Luce asked, "You can shoot from your left?"


    "I can shoot from both sides," Adelle replied. "I''m just more accurate with my right, but I''m faster with my left, so the trick arrow goes to my right and my normal arrows on the left."


    "Alright," Luce stated plainly. "Whatever makes you happy."


    "I''m always happy to be able to break things."


    "Where''s Josh?"


    Adelle replied, "Last I saw, he was talking with Arnold and the Doc. They''re trying to work out a deal."


    Miu held out the arrows tipped red, blue, and green. "Incendiary, cryo, and acid. If you want to test them, not inside, okay?" She turned to Luce. "By the way, Shou was looking for you."


    Adelle piped up, "Do I have to be there as well?"


    Miu answered, "If you want."


    "I don''t. I want to sleep."


    Luce sighed. "Sure. I''ll go find him."


    "He should be on the second floor''s work area."


    She left the room alone and back out into the corridor.


    The warehouse was separated into three large areas. The central corridor had the 24 bunks. Out of the 5 rooms available, three were for Shou, Arnold, and Miu. Josh was given a single room and Luce and Adelle shared the last one. The east end of the building was the garage - an old storage house that had been fully salvaged and decked to keep vehicles. Arnold kept his cars in the front portion while Reggie stayed in the larger rear.


    Luce headed up the corridor and turned left into the west wing.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    The old hangar converted workshop had a collapse area to the far end, though patched with sheets of tarps and reinforced with the steel plates torn from the corridor. Salvaged parts scattered the left side, opposite the workshop area which was split by a walkway between the first and second floor. The final right corner was the cybernetics bay where Shou made surgical adjustments to his prosthetics.


    On the second level, Shou waved from over the railings. "The ladder''s over there," he pointed nearer to the entrance.


    Luce nodded and headed over. She had mostly glanced over the workshop on her way in. But after the whirlwind orientation and fresh shower, she was in much more of a mood to appreciate the space. They had gathered much more equipments than she had expected of the rag-tag team. Without even including the fully stocked cybernetics bay, there were industrial drills, giant sheet cutters, and even a banged up but still functional ion extractor.


    As she climbed the ladder she asked, "How did you get all these stuff?"


    "Neat, right? Don''t be too impressed. The first few seasons here were tough. We spent a long time rewiring the whole place to work." He walked over to the ladder and extended a hand. She took it and he pulled her up the last steps. "Arnold went out for jobs and supplies while Miu and I stayed behind to fix the place, our little Hideaway. She''s great with tools and all the makeshift machineries. It also helps to have a giant do the heavy lifting."


    The second floor seemed to be their own personal workspaces. It was immediately apparent which were whose. The one closest to the ladder was a long table filled with gun parts, reloading press, powder scales and dispensers, amongst other things. A dozen of empty grenade shells labelled with coloured tapes sat in the row. The middle table was neat and kept. Tools hung from the wall with what looked like a large engine sitting on in the middle, waiting to be worked on. On the far end in a mess was Shou''s bench. Parts were left strewn across the floor and table. A small pile pushed away from Miu''s station meant the girl tried to clean-up the place at some point but gave up. A cola dispenser set on a nightstand next to the railing.


    Shou grabbed Miu''s chair and pulled it towards his. "Cola?" he offered.


    "No thanks," Luce waved away.


    He shrugged and proceeded to fill up his personal bottle from the dispenser. "So, Arnold told me you wanted to poach my doctor."


    "It doesn''t have to be your doctor," Luce replied, sitting down. "Just one not afraid of travelling across a war-torn wasteland to go to a place that they may never come back from. Also, must be a neurosurgeon."


    "That sounds very much like my doctor. You said she might not come back?"


    "She might not want to. We could bring her back across the Helm. But getting all the way back here to Dogon is another story."


    "What''s it like on the other side?" Shou asked.


    "It''s a nice place," Luce admitted. "You can see the sky and everything."


    "Is the sky really blue?"


    "Oh yeah. So blue. You can come along if you want."


    "If I go, will the technology there be able to maintain Reggie?" Her silence answered him. "I thought so. Could tell from your friend and her pointy sticks."


    It wasn''t just that. He had stated that he wanted to stay. He wanted to fight. The tone he used begged very little room to convince otherwise. In a way, she admired that form of conviction. She always felt more at place holding down a fort than fighting on the lines. Defending your values is easy. Fighting for others is a lot harder.


    "What did you want to talk to me about?"


    "Your friend can teleport. There''s a place that we need to get into."


    "Nope."


    "You haven''t even heard where yet!"


    "We''re not here to play hero. Not here to save anyone. We just need a doctor."


    "Well, you are poaching my doctor."


    "We can find another one."


    "No, you can''t. A doctor, sure. But a neurosurgeon? That''s willing to cross the Helm? Yeah. That''s going to be a lot harder. Trust me, I''ve checked." He took a swig of his cola. "Look, the reason why we''re not moving out yet is that Reggie''s bio-cell is damaged. They took the cell model out of production the minute we ran. There''s no way it can survive away from this place."


    "There you are!" Josh''s voice came from below.


    Next to him were Arnold and the brown-haired elven doctor in her brown coat. They proceeded to the ladder and the climb up gave Luce a quiet moment to think.


    When the party got to them, Josh asked Shou, "Have you pitched her the deal yet?"


    "Doing it now."


    "What do you think, Luce?"


    "I haven''t heard the full story yet."


    Doctor Miura chimed in. "Well, you''ll have to decide soon. If we want to make a move, we need time. From what Stalewaver here told me, his daughter''s conditions will require some complex machineries for the diagnosis and surgery. Problem is, I don''t have those."


    "I''m hearing a but."


    "But," Miura continued expectedly. "Shou''s cybernetics lab is stocked with them."


    Josh added, "We help then and they help us this time. If we take up this deal, Arnold and I will transport the equipment to Seracue." From his pocket, he took out a piece of paper and waved it. "Eca gave me the locations of some safe houses. We can use them to store the stuff while Adelle break into Trashsite."


    "Trashsite?" Luce was surprised to hear the name. "That''s where we''re going into?"


    "Oops," Shou smiled playfully. "Did I not mention that?"


    "No, you didn''t. That''s a maximum security research and storage facility."


    "Which is why they will definitely have a bio cell model that can fit Reggie."


    "Why not just build a cell store?"


    "Sure, we could do that," Shou stated sarcastically. "All we''ll need to do is to sneak into Alchemy Labs, another maximum security building, and steal a copy of the manufacturing data and blueprints. Then spend half a year working out the calculations to fit Reggie''s old bio-model. Finally, spend money we don''t have to build it a new cell store. Easy. Or, and this is just a crazy idea, we just steal a new bio cell."


    "If we do this," Luce affirmed. "They won''t hold back any longer with coming after you."


    Arnold added, "We know. Josh offered to take us across. Even Reggie; we can bring it over in parts."


    Luce sighed. "How are we doing this? I haven''t agreed to anything yet, but I go where Adelle goes on this."


    Shou agreed. "Fine. You, Adelle, Miu, and I will head to the Trashsite. Josh, Arnold, and Miura will get the medical equipment up north. We need to time it so that once we get back here we''ll meet up with our Guides on the same day before making our last trip north."


    Arnold noted, "We''re all leaving with you guys so my credit''s your credit. We''ll pile our resources for the journey out and make it a one-way trip."


    There was a pause as they waited for Luce to decide. She thought about procuring the equipments herself, but they had neither the fundings, connections, nor time to do so, what with being wanted in both countries and having no real base of operations. It seemed a fair trade. A life for a life. Reggie for Misti''s.


    "Fine. We have deal." Luce scoffed. "One-way trip. That''s what I said last time yet here I am."

 Chapter Nineteen: Citidale

    Luce pulled the last rope tightly, securing the portable MRI machine into the last open space in the back of Arnold''s truck. Alongside the portable bio-cell, there was just enough space left to install a seat for a third passenger.


    "Alright," she said, closing the door. "It''s all loaded up."


    She stepped back as Josh and Arnold stepped out and around the truck. With that, they had finished loading up all the necessary medical equipments for Misty''s brain scans along with supplies for the journey north. Josh came up to her and gave Luce a quick hug, which she reciprocated. Next to them, Adelle made a gagging face.


    Luce asked Josh, "Are you sure you don''t need me to come along with you?"


    "I''m fine. It''s easier to travel with just two Guides and a doctor. Besides, there aren''t any space left in the truck."


    Arnold walked up to them. "We''ll have to load up on supplies when we pass Citi. We can''t take the Slopes with the equipments'' weight, so we''ll have to go slow and take the long way around."


    "Thirty days," Luce repeated the timeline they were told during the briefing. "You''ll be back in thirty days."


    Arnold shrugged. "As long as everything goes well."


    They finished packing the last of the smaller equipments to the front seats and bit them farewell. In the end, Luce, Adell watched as the truck drove off into the dust, leaving her behind with Adelle, Miu, and Shou. For a while, they watched in silence as the travelling party miniaturised into the distance.


    "So," Shou began. "Shall we have a party? Me and my harem?"


    "I''m gay," Luce stonely replied.


    "I''m gay too," Adelle whiffed back.


    Shou clicked his tongue. "Damn it!"


    Miu added, "I''m standing right here."


    "Come along, Adelle," Luce said. "Miu, do you mind if we borrowed you elecycle?"


    "Go ahead. But where are you going?"


    "We''re going into Citidale. I want to get Adelle oriented to seeing the culture and technology here and see if we can drum up some helpful leads. We''ve got thirty days. Might as well use them."


    "How are you going to get past the gates?"


    "Have they changed the design and guard routine in the last ten years?"


    "No."


    Luce looked at Adelle expectantly. "Then we''ll have our ways."


    "Ooo!" Shou piped up. "I''ll come along with you. We can sit threesies!"


    Before he could even move, Miu grabbed his ears and pulled him painfully back.


    "And where do you think you''re going, mister?"


    "To - ow! To party with the pretty girls?"


    "We have work to do. And are you trying to say I''m not fun, or that I''m not pretty?"


    Luce left the two to their devices. After they were done flirting, she was sure the two would begin work on preparing Reggie to receive its new - about to be stolen - part. For now though, she wanted to check out Citidale to get a feel of how much things have changed. It would also be good for Adelle to get more accustomed to the technology. It would do them no good for the elf to be confused in the heat of infiltration or battle.


    Adelle asked, "I thought you couldn''t drive?"


    "Not a car. An elecycle''s a... bike."


    "I am not cycling to Citi. I''ve seen the maps and I know how far it is."


    "Just come with me."


    They went to the garage where a single elecyle remained. The electric bike Luce was used to were sleek and alloyed shelled. But the one sitting in the warehouse was like everything else there. Makeshift. The front wheel was slightly larger than the back, and the fairing shell did not fit the chassis, with some parts cut out and welded in haphazardly. The pannier boxes behind were the only set of items that seems to be in its correct pair, though the grey plastic material clashed with the brown metal of everything else. Everything else was seemingly scavenged and put together as a makeshift ride.


    "That''s not a bicycle," Adelle noted.


    Luce grabbed the key fob and a pair of goggles off a nearby shelf and put them on. She threw a second set to Adelle. "Put those on," she said, climbing onto the cycle.


    "Why?"


    "Just do it, will you? And climb up behind me."Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Reluctantly, the elf did as she was told. Luce pulled up her scarf as she flicked a switch on the cycle. The first door of the garage rose opened into the sub-compartment division. The floor of the compartment was filled with the rust and dust from outside that was trapped within. With a gentle twist of the throttle, Luce moved the bike slowly forward.


    "Woah!" Adelle exclaimed behind.


    "Hold onto me," Luce instructed as she brought the inner door of the decontamination chamber down and waited for the outer door to open.


    "I don''t need to hold on to you," Adelle replied smugly as the door rose. She pulled up her scarf. "I have an impeccable sense of ba-woah!"


    The moment the second door rose up high enough, Luce skidded out into the burning wasteland. Adelle flailed behind for a moment before leaning forward and holding tightly onto Luce''s waist. The girl in front smiled beneath her scarf as they slashed across the dust plains east. Citidale was not far. In fact, with just fifteen minutes on the cycle they could see its skyline scraping the horizon.


    None of the buildings in the city were as tall as the ones in Citi, Dogon''s fringe city. Most of them kept below the fifteen stories mark. Citidale was closer to the south, which meant a thicker concentration of Taint higher in the atmosphere. The buildings, once above a certain height, would be battered by the elements and hard to maintain, and thus, were kept lower to the ground.


    They were in an area known as The Faults, where the heat was hotter and the Taint was thicker. Over thousands of years, The Fault had slowly grown along the continent. Dogon had been building its cities further up north, attempting to escape it. In the past hundred years, The Faults had caught up to and covered the fringe Citi, forcing further migration attempts north into war zones. Citidale - built with the genius engineering of long gone dwarfs - still stood within the apocalyptic landscape, though no new buildings were erected. The towers of white metal were the first buildings on the continent, and likely would be the last. An eternal shell to keep away the flames.


    Before long, they had reached the Citidale outskirts. Long abandoned homes rusted away in the hot gale. Luce could feel the heat and dust scratching at her skin. Even through her scarf, she could smell the tang of metal. But the capitol was in sight. Unguarded by any artificial wall, protected from attacks by the very elements themselves, the white, windowless buildings stood as a ghostly beacon.


    A tunnel rose up in the distance and Luce rode into the safety of it, away from the weather. White light lined the inside of the tunnels from tubes that glowed along the wall. She could hear Adelle gasping. An electrical grid such as this was likely something the elf had never seen before.


    As they proceeded down the road with no sound aside from the humming of the motor bouncing off the walls, a curve in the road brought out a large steel gate that barred the way. A line broke the seams of the door like the open viewer of a sliding peep hole. It was a gap soldiers would use to shoot through should they be attacked. The gates were usually lightly patrolled, especially at times such as this where an attack from the enemy was not expected that far away from the main battlefield.


    "Adelle," Luce called over the wind. "Get us through."


    The elf leaned sideways to get a clear view through the open viewer. In a now familiar blink of her eyes, the elecycle reappeared on the other side in a puff of rust. There was a guard and an electrician standing at a power box opposite. But they teleported quick and far enough that with the silent electric motor, they simply continued on without raising any suspicion. Even if they had been spotted, the general guard rotation Luce was familiar with had no way of catching up to the speed of the elecycle. The vehicles used by the army were slower on paved road, and the army would never leave national defence to the civil forces and their paper thin cars. Also, having Adelle''s teleportation abilities did make things like sneaking around ridiculously easy. They could easily outmanoeuvre any vehicles in traffic.


    Soon, she turned off a ramp that let up into the city''s main underground roads. The tunnels eventually joined up. Dozens of cars and elecycles moved in two opposing lines on the road, bustling along about their day at high speed. There were turns that lead into underground parking places scattered along traffic. Luce felt Adelle''s grip tighten at her waist and she chuckled.


    "Are you scared?" she asked.


    "N-no! But... have we been travelling as fast as all of these people?"


    "Of course. I can slow down if you''re not comfortable." It''s not often that she gets to experience Adelle being shocked or scared. The elf faced down grandmaster tiered magicians and fought those that could be gods. Little shook the independent woman. Luce was internally enjoying the experience.


    "I-I''m fine," Adelle replied, her grip loosening. "Where are we going?"


    Luce turned into the underground parking labelled ''A21''. A gantry stood in the way with an interface. She selected ''ELECYCLE'' from the menu and the machine asked for payment. To the screen, she raised her wrist where a band Arnold gave her stored enough credits for her to move about a little. The screen on her band blinked, and the number ''21,560'' appeared. Another blink and ''-150'' flashed across the digital screen. A final blink showed the final deducted credit. ''21,410''.


    "Wow," Luce muttered. "Parking''s gotten expensive."


    The road in the parking lot lit up with green arrows. She followed the lighted pathway until they came to an empty spot set for their cycle. She backed into it and turned off the motor. The pair got off the machine and headed to the sidewalk, dusting off residue rust from the outside. Adelle let out a sigh of relief.


    "So you just store your carriages in the space? How will you prevent it from being stolen?"


    Luce raised the fob key. "Wireless lock. Only when this key is nearby can vehicles start."


    "What''s to stop me from just carrying the vehicles away?"


    "They are heavy," Luce joked. "Most people can''t teleport."


    Walking around the lot, they came to a small, lighted room. The walls within it were made of thin, silver metal. Aluminium alloy, a common metal that Dogon worked with. Within it on the two side walls were buttons labelled ''G'' and ''U''. Luce stepped in, but Adelle hesitated.


    "What''s wrong?" Luce asked, smirking. "It''s just an elevator."


    "Oh!" Adelle seemingly breathed anothe sigh of relief. "Like the one in The Tower. I knew that." She stepped in, her chest puffing out with pride.


    Luce grinned, happier than she had been in a long time. She pressed the ''G'' button and the elevator smoothly rode up. Adelle looked fascinatingly at the corners of the ceiling where wind from the ventilations spewed out. Finally, the carriage stopped. With nary a noise, the doors opened, and the light outside flooded in. Luce saw Adelle hesitate, so she took the latter''s hand and pulled her out into the streets.


    The floor was smooth concrete, with layered tiles of stone decorating the designated walkways. Shops with glowing neon signs were built along into the walls of the wide street, 30 meters wide and extending left and right into corner and curves. The ceiling was the white adamantium-aluminium mix made by the dwarfs of old, with hanging lamps of dark blue light dimly illuminating the place, giving the illusion of a night with bulbous teal stars. The air was dry and cooled with conditioning, and cool jazzy electric piano beats were played over the speakers.


    "Welcome," Luce said. "To Citidale, the City of Hidden Dreams."

 Chapter Twenty: Girls Night Out

    Every time a neon light flashed, Adelle blinked hard. The blazes of auroras were sights to dwell upon but her brain struggled to process the lighting. They looked akin to sabres produced with light magic, flashing and branding themselves onto the back of her eyelids.


    "But they''re not magic?" Adelle clarified with Luce again.


    "Nope. Just gasses in tubes with electrical charges."


    "And what''s that?" she pointed to a long rectangular box with moving pictures."


    "That''s a television," Luce explained.


    "You say that word like I know what it means."


    Luce proceeded to explain the television. And when she was done with that, Adelle pointed to an electric lamp.


    "Convenient."


    Then, a toaster.


    "What''s wrong with fire?"


    An air conditioning vent.


    "Cool."


    An acoustic levitation vase.


    "Wouldn''t the vase break?"


    As they continued walking down the streets, Adelle took the chance to absorb in as much information as possible. She understood why Luce brought her here. All these things were not just new to her, but practically mystical. It''s hard to imagine how many of the things they saw were not made with magic, but mental ingenuity and physical labour. Science. Had she stepped into a fight here she would have been blindsided even by the toaster.


    A group of five people stood at a street junction handing out pamphlets. She was glad to know even in the science-fiction world, some technology stayed the same. One of the five distributor saw them walking over and stepped up to them. Adelle tensed, ready to fight, but Luce grabbed hold of her wrist to tell her the situation was not dangerous.


    "Hello, missuses," he greeted with a smile.


    "Oh, no," Luce quickly waved the greeting away. "We''re not married."


    The man laughed. "My apologies. I just wanted to ask if you''ve heard of our church?"


    Adelle looked to Luce for guidance. She had never heard of that word before. But her companion looked equally confused.


    "No," Luce replied. "I haven''t."


    "Oh, you will love it. It''s a place where we gather as a community and have fun, almost like a close knit family. We do arts, games, and study the teachings of Moira."


    "Moira?"


    The man continued smiling. "Moira''s a philosophical book. It only got popular in the last three years, so I''m not surprised you''ve not heard of it. We are Moirians, students of the teaching."


    Luce continued asking, "And what does Moira teach?"


    His smile grew wider, and for the first time, Adelle shivered. Something felt off about his demeanour all of a sudden. Confident, but manic. Excited, happy, superior. Restraining. Although beneath the lied no violent intentions, the air the man exuded was hostile.


    "Oh, Moira''s Teaching gives us safety in these dangerous times. It teaches us what we must do to cleanse ourselves of our failures, of the steps needed to move society forward and end this horrid war." He again pushed a copy of the pamphlets to them. "Please, if you''re interested, do come to our church and experience the teachings yourself."


    Luce awkwardly tried rejecting the paper. "And uh... what is this... teachings?"


    "That we''ve fallen. That we''ve attempted to create life in the form of Titans and have sent the lifestream into disarray." He further pushed the pamphlets to her. "We can change it. We can instill back a respect for life and death. Please, won''t you join us? I''m sure you will find out message most fitting, as many have."


    Begrudgingly and finally, Luce took the information and the man wished them a good day before strolling off to another passersby.


    The map printed on the pamphlet showed a building they had passed by earlier, but by Luce''s wristwatch, the time for the meeting was still 3 hours away. Even though Adelle was new to Citidale, she could immediately tell from not just Luce''s face, but the reaction of people around them, that something was off.


    Many pedestrians were taking extra efforts to avoid the proselytisers. Those who were caught were harried into talks. The more adamant they were, the harder the distributors pushed until either the passersby accepted the information or angrily stormed off, leaving the pushers behind.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    Adelle asked Luce, "He said Titans are ''life''."


    "I''m... not entirely sure he means it in the same way as us."


    "Could they be allies?"


    "Honestly, I don''t know."


    "Doesn''t this remind you of something?"


    "Yeah..."


    It reminded them of the citizens of Ampyre, bowing down to the Pyrerai with reverence. The actions weren''t the same, but the people gave off the same feeling. It was in their eyes. Almost cult-like. Adelle could tell that something in them was different. It reminded her of confidence and certainty, but twisted, as if built on lies.


    "What did Eca call it?" Adelle asked.


    "Religion," Luce replied.


    "We should look into this."


    Luce sighed dejectedly. "Yeah. We should."


    Adelle looked to Luce confused. "I thought this was what we were here for? To find out if anything weird or new was happening."


    "Yes," Luce admitted sadly. "I was just hoping a little that we wouldn''t have to. Come on, let''s see if any of my old contacts are still around."


    Adelle followed Luce towards the hotel. The latter explained that hotels are basically inns, but with more focus on lodging than food. The elf simply nodded back. The exact details did not particularly interested her, but the culture of a place that needed rooms more than food was fascinating. Her companion further explained that since they were so close to the Burning South, growing plants for food was no longer an option, and scientists had figured out ways to manufacture vegetables and meat using cheap raw underground plants and cells from the little animals they had.


    No wonder the mushed peas they ate yesterday tasted strange.


    "But it''s all safe to eat," Luce assured Adelle who was starting to glare strangely at the thought. "It''s just massed produced, and don''t particularly taste good most of the time."


    They reached Hotel Bambiet. At first glance from the streets it was just another two stories building that stretched into the ceiling. Behind the glass doors, the floor was marbled and reflecting golden lights. The hotel name hung overhead in big bold letters. Unlike other fronts with their neon lights, Hotel Bambiet''s logo shone from the sheer even glint of the golden metal it was made from. Even Adelle, who avoided towns and cities as much as possible in her life, knew immediately it seemed beyond luxurious. For some strange reason, the rich and the powerful enjoyed shiny things, much like crows.


    "Um... this doesn''t seem like a place where we''d find a broker," Adelle noted.


    "If you want to find a broker that has information higher up the ladder, you climb to the roof. This was how we found Josh, since only the rich and desperate ever needed Guides to go all the way across. But don''t get swindled. The guy we''re meeting i a snake with fangs in as many informants as you can imagine. Nearly sold my limps to get information from him last time."


    They stepped into the building and Adelle nearly jumped back. The lobby was wide opened, decorated with gold, silver, and other shining metals. At a hundred meters wide, it stretched upwards for what seemed to be two dozen stories, with walkways that spiralled towards the ceiling up high. Electric lamps hung on the four main pillars of the spiral at equal itnervals, giving the interior a beating golden glow that looked close to paintings of treasure caves.


    The lobby itself was furnished with two full sets of sofas and coffee tables. Alongside it was a marbled reception desk to the left, and an elevator opposite the entrance. A set of opened double doors on the right lead into an elegant restaurant with cotton white sheeted tables and clanking fine glasses and silverware. Butlers stood outside in full suit and regalia. The patrons around them walked with matte clean dressings and arrogant swaggers.


    "Lucinda! Baby!"


    A lanky man dressed in a black suit with a red bow-tie walked towards them with opened arms. His hair was a mess of blue, red, and green dyed into a ponytail. His movement was flamboyant and bombastic. Voice pitched and sing-along.


    "How many years has it been?" he came within casual speaking distance. "Oh, you look absolutely fabulous!"


    Without a smile, Luce answered, "Thank you, Eccles. I have questions for you."


    "So harsh. So cold." The man danced a fake shiver. "Aren''t you going to introduce me to your exotic elven friend?"


    Adelle stepped past Luce. "I don''t like the way you say that."


    Eccles smiled. "And what are you going to do about it?"


    "Kill you." She said it without thinking, and Luce immediately took hold of her wrist. Adelle kept her gaze at Eccles.


    The man laughed. "I really think you will. But let''s play nice for a bit. I''m curious as to what brings old Lucy back. How''s Jacky?"


    Luce''s gripped on Adelle tightened, but she spoke through gritted teeth. "You know."


    He smiled. "Dead?"


    "Yeah. And you? Still dealing in dirty business?"


    "Look at me," the man gave a twirl. "I''m fancy and clean as can be, so let''s not use such vulgar words. You have question?"


    "Cut the crap, Eccles. I just want to know about the Church of Moira. Specifically, I want to know the things only people like you can find out about."


    The man grinned but went silent, eyes looking them up and down, sizing them. "How much are you willing to pay?"


    "You first."


    Adelle finally stepped back. Negotiating was something Luce was far better at. She noticed around them patrons of the hotel strolled in and out, passing them without even a glance. She also started noticing those that were watching them. The receptionist whose hands hid under the desk awkwardly. The janitor who kept glancing up from under her hat. The two man above on the sixth floor, looking down. She held on to Luce''s hand. If anything happened, she wanted to get them out as soon as possible.


    Then, Eccles spoke. "Just this once, I''ll tell you everything. Free of charge as a ''welcome back'' present."


    Their brows raised and Luce asked, "Why? What''s in it for you?"


    The man chuckled and began pacing around them, hands behind his back as he calmly walked. "I''ve been tracking you since your little run in with the Pyrerai. Lady Lucinda, standing up to that monster? Shudder the thought. Not my little Lucy, scared little girl running from war. But then you got in touch with that Eca Rend, then Kenta and his little apostate gang. Key players all. My little Lucy, all grown up and baring fangs, moving up in the world." He had circled around and was facing them again. "You know as well as I do that something''s moving underneath the war. Something big. I''m sure you sensed it from Eca and Lachesis''s movements. I want a piece of whatever pie comes out the other side, and I think you''ll be somewhere wrapped up in it."


    "Whatever''s happening," Luce replied. "It''s not our problem."


    "But you''re asking all the right questions. Pinching all the right spots. Coincidence or not, I don''t know, but the moment you got together with Shou Kenta and his merry band, you were already hooked. Now I just want to point your fangs in the right direction and I''ll be having an eclectic day at the finish line."

 Chapter Twenty-One: Titans May Die

    The church building of Moira was not what Adelle expected. For some reason, she thought the structure would be closer to monuments of power such as the imposing Tower of Everwind built by Lord Light. Some form of architectural regalia to show the world its strength. Instead, the building was just another wallhouse in a row of them along the streets, though the partition was twice as large as the others in its neighbourhood. They were a few minutes away from the designated gathering time, and people of all races were flowing steadily through the door. A collection scanner next to the entrance took donations.


    According to Eccles, the Church of Moira sprang up some time within the last 3 or 5 years and grew quickly for its size. They now had dozens of chapters in both Citi and Citidale. Some had sprung up in multiple outskirt villages. They now had claimed members in 11% of the population and in positions of high power, though many of the names of those in-charge were kept secret, even to the informant. Eccles even uncharacteristically warned them to be careful of who they messed with within the walls of the buildings. One wrong move and they could draw the ire of those that had the capability to hunt them down to the edge of the continent.


    There was also a disproportionate membership where they drew the most people from the extreme ends of wealth. Those impoverished and the stinking filthy rich, which was something Luce said to be wary of. The only times in history when those two classes came together were for extreme circumstances in disasters and wars; Times of great solidarity and expansions when the powerful needed an army and the poor needed a societal bond. The church they were headed to were in one of the wealthier districts, and were likely to have access to resources for their gatherings that other churches would not be able to procure which meant the meeting was likely more than just talk.


    Eccles did know more but refused to divulge any further information. "It would be fun to see how you react," he had said before they left the hotel.


    "Come on," Luce egged them to go into the church.


    The pair walked up to the toll and Luce contributed a dozen credits. The gatekeeper smiled and waved them in through the door.


    As soon as they stepped in, Adelle gasped out, "Now this is more like it."


    Her previous expectations of a monument to power was proved correct. The immediate inside was a large chamber that took up all three stories of the building. A door to the left likely let out to whatever management area the place kept. Dangling from the walls were hundreds, if not thousands of timepieces left on strings. Those that were mechanical in nature ticked away each second in disturbing unison. Digital watches glowed mixtures of green, yellow, and red eyes in the dim dark. Smooth luminosities in the corners of the ceiling gave the room a ethereal lighting. Pews were arranged in a circle within the chamber, and in the middle of it all, a round standing podium sat atop a stained glass floor depicting the whirling of yellow and gold dust towards the centre.


    Adelle asked, "How do we do this?"


    "We sit," Luce replied. "And we listen. See what they have to say, but more importantly, how they say it."


    "And if we don''t like it?"


    "We walk away, I guess."


    After a moment staring, pacing, and looking, they found a seat at the far corner of the room in what seemed to be the darkest place in there. Adelle took the seat positioned right opposite the door so that she could teleport them out and make a quick getaway if needed. As they sat, more people flowed in. 15 minutes past the meeting time the room was standing room only with the last couple of dozens of church goers strolling in. The lights dimmed further until they realised the glass floor at the centre was emitting its own pale light. A figure walked through the seats and up onto the podium, the glow from below shadowed him unnaturally.


    Wearing a white cloak, the hume man had well trimmed blond hair that sparkled above the glow like stars, not that Adelle thought anyone on the clouded continent knew what stars were like. The man picked up a thick black rod with a silver bulb and spoke into it. His voice boomed into the room from around them and Adelle was glad Luce prepared her for the oddity of technology she would see. Otherwise, she might have jumped and the voice being amplified.


    "Greetings, brothers and sisters, friends and family. My name is Andreas, and I welcome you into our humble abode. I understand there are quite a few newcomers in today''s meeting. We Moirans welcome all." There was a round of claps and Adelle and Luce exchanged odd glances.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    The man continued his speech, mostly speaking of family and the ideas of living simply. Five minutes passed and nothing substantial was spoken, though a few words of kindness for treatments between races were received with claps and cheers. Fifteen minutes in and Adelle felt herself relaxing. The darkened atmosphere and stillness of the room was almost meditative in quality, and she hated that feeling. Taking a deep breath to clear her head, she realised soft music had been mixed into the background and she was reminded of nights in the forest, listening to the nearby stream in order to fall asleep.


    "What''s wrong?" Luce whispered.


    "I don''t like it. This place. It''s making my skin crawl."


    Luce gave a questioning look, barely visible in the dark. "Why? It''s quite comfortable here."


    "That''s the point," she answered. "It''s almost as if they are forcing us to let down our guards."


    For another ten minutes or so, speaker Andreas continued his talk, eliciting a few more rounds of agreements and applause when mentioning the senseless death of soldiers in the army. Nothing radical seemed to be coming up and a few people had already left. Each body leaving the door invited a beam of light from the outside to temporarily cut through the darkness. Adelle was about to suggest to leave.


    "We are tired of this war," Andreas suggested, and the sudden change in tone - a rise in octave - caught Adelle''s attention. "Too many have died for a battle that have moved back and forth by lengths of feets over the years, and the fighting has only become more violent since the introductions of the Titans."


    A murmur of agreements washed over the crowd.


    Andreas continued, "The Titans, they are alive. Born as beings of war, they know only destruction. They are the reason why this war has continued, why we cannot put an end to the fighting. Too long we have been numbed to the lost of lives, thinking so because we are not the ones dying. Too long have we perverted the value of life with creatures of destruction. Too long, far too long..." his voice trailed off sombrely. "We need peace, and we can only do so by putting away our tools of destructions."


    Luce whispered, "I don''t like this."


    "This war, this Titan War has gone on for far too long. Moira teaches us that we cannot manipulate nature, that we are to only nurture it, not to use it for war and destruction. We have come too far and have created both life and death. No. We cannot be like the ancients who made the humans, tools of war to channel the power of magic. Look what happened to them? Long since extinct, neither their culture nor knowledge left for the future, a dust speckled in time. Is that what we want to be?"


    A resounding "No!" echoed around the room.


    "Are we going to continue fighting?"


    "No!"


    "Then we should end the threats of Titans, once and for all!" As the crowd cheered, he motioned off stage and two helpers rolled a cart with two blanketed containers over to him.


    He pulled one of the cloth off to reveal a cage. Within it was a tiny spider-like mech with five long mechanical legs, scuttling itself into the corner of its confinement away from Andreas.


    "First, we will put an end to the mechs." From under his robe, Andreas pulled out a pistol-like weapon.


    He pointed it at the spider mech and pulled the trigger. The lights below the glass flickered and the spider mech jumped, sparks flying out of the joints in its legs. The mech crumbled under its weight, legs twitching as its parts fried and the glint in its sensors faded. Thin black smoke wisped from the carcass.


    Some in the crowds stood up with gasps. Others with excited claps.


    Luce shot to her feet too, but for far different reasons. "They killed it..."


    Adelle was slowly getting to her feet too. She had a feeling she knew what was about to happen and wished they had their weapons with them.


    Andreas turned to the second cover and pulled, showing another cage. Within it was a small golem no bigger than a puppy. It was simply shaped in a sphere, a smoky black glass ''eye'' the size of a crystal ball shifted upon the dirt of its body, the magic circuits on the creature changing and shifting connections as it moved its eye. The golem too, rolled away from Andreas, keeping its eye on the approaching hume.


    "And after the mechs," the man spouted with a grin as plant vines crept out from under his extended sleeve towards the golem. "We deal with the golems, and bring back peace to The Burning South!"


    Luce launched herself over the pew and nimbly stepped on the spine of the seat before them. She jumped from bench to bench, rushing towards Andreas. The preacher turned in wide eyed shock at the attacker rushing for him.


    Adelle did one better, teleporting above the man to the gasp of the crowd. She raised her leg and pushed her body forward. Her feet axed down, slamming into the skull of Andreas and sending the man crumpling to the ground before she landed on her feet. The crowd went into a panic, screaming and running for the door, toppling pews and assistants trying to rush the two Titan Rangers.


    Luce was next to Adelle and one of the assistants rushed the former. Luce sidestepped a tackle and kneed the attacker in the groin, causing them to lurch forward in a painful bent. Balling both her fists, Luce raised her arms and smashed into the back of the assistant and Adelle was quickly reminded that despite being a preferred pacifist, Luce was a highly trained elite soldier, a former Titan Hunter.


    Adelle placed her hand on the cage and teleported the top away, leaving clear bifurcations on the grill. Luce reached in and picked up the creature who still seemed to be trying to roll away.


    Luce voiced kindly. "Hey... we''re friends. We''re here to help." The little Roller seemed to stop struggling, its glass eye shifting between the two of them and Luce turned to Adelle and said, "Get us out of here."


    "You don''t have to tell me twice."


    Adelle grabbed Luce''s wrist and looked out the door. With a line of sight to the streets outside, she teleported them out into the open.

 Chapter Twenty-Two: Reality Marble

    "After them!" the mob shouted from far behind. "The elf is using some sort of teleportation magic!"


    "They could be anywhere!" Another pined.


    A more experienced woman piped up, "These kind of magic takes a lot of energy. She can''t be far."


    Andreas walked out of the church, nursing a headache. "Get the authorities. They must be hiding in an alley nearby."


    The mob wasn''t far off on their deductions. Adelle and Luce were hiding close, but not in an alleyway. They stood on a roof directly opposite the church, behind a giant neon sign that read "APOTHECARY", the light from the signage blinding those that looked up and hiding them in the shadow it casted on itself.


    As the adrenaline of the fight subsided, Adelle found frustration. By the time the mob had spread far enough in search of them in other places, that frustration boiled into anger. She was always the one being warned for being hasty. Don''t be rash. Have a plan. Think things through. But when someone else does madness, it''s fine, apparently. She turned to Luce who stood behind the neon sign, the roller golem hugged in her arms.


    "What were you thinking!" Adelle seethed at her, careful not to have her voice be too loud. "You could have gotten us caught!"


    "I couldn''t very well let it die!" Luce snapped back, gesturing to the golem.


    "You''re the pacifist! You''re the one who kept saying we''re not heroes. We can''t go around saving everyone we see!"


    "You''re one to talk! You saved everyone back at Harvestfall!"


    "I killed them!"


    "You freed them."


    "How did you come up with that?" Adelle spiked sarcastically.


    "They got to choose."


    "I chose for them!"


    They fell silent. The roller golem''s eye shifted between Adelle and Luce. Adelle took a deep breath and looked back out over the parapet at the streets. The mob had mostly dispersed though a few law enforcements dressed in uniforms of white and silver started arriving outside the church.


    "Come on," Adelle said. "Let''s go before more comes."


    Adelle took off her scarf and threw it over the golem. After finding an empty alleyway far down the street, she took Luce''s hand and teleported them there.


    The streets were now bustling, but most of the attention was drawn to the growing scene at the church. They took the commotion to slip away in a crowd. Carting with the flow of pedestrians, they meandered their way through the city till they reached a spot they were familiar with as close as possible to where they had stopped their elecyle.


    But the elevator down to the parking lot had been staffed with two officers checking identification at the door. Slipping into a dark alley opposite, the two leaned against the wall in an angle that allowed them to watch the proceedings.


    "What now?" Adelle asked spitefully, deferring to her local companion while making it clear that she was still mad at her.


    "They won''t stand guard for long," Luce replied. "Let''s just wait it out. Citidale is a closed city. They won''t expect anyone to actually try to make an escape into the Taint storm.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Adelle nodded. She hug as close to the darkness as possible. Somehow, when she left her forest to join up with Luce and the Titan Rangers, she had not thought that she would be going to back to the shadier part of life, literally. The Titan Rangers were supposed to be non-combative, only out to preserve the lives of Titans. But it seemed her life had gotten a thousand times more dangerous since joining.


    "I''m not a pacifist," Luce murmured.


    "What?" Adelle had heard her. But the statement carried such an unbelievable message that she just had to make sure.


    "I''m not a pacifist," Luce confirmed. "You said I was one earlier, but I''m not. I don''t know why everyone says that."


    "You don''t kill people," Adelle stated matter-of-factly. "You hate it."


    "Sure, I hate it, but I''m not against killing. I''m against... it''s hard to explain." She stroke the roller golem in her arms as if trying to calm a pet.


    Adelle noted, "We have time."


    They stayed quiet for a moment. Not long ago, the uncomfortable silence between people at awkward relation stages would have killed her, or caused her to kill someone else. Now, she just let the discomfort sink into her bones and grind her teeth maddeningly.


    Then, Luce spoke. "I''ll hunt for food. I''ll breed kows for slaughter. I''ll commit murder to defend my loves. Those things are just part and parcel of survival and life. But you do it knowing what you''re doing. You choose, and to a certain extent, so do those you kill, like those at Harvestfall. You choose to live, and accept all the things that comes with that, even if you die not wanting it. But the Titans don''t get that choice. They''re alive, but they don''t know it yet. They''re just confused creatures hiding behind their shells, killing everything that comes because that''s what someone else told them they should do." Luce looked to Adelle as in implication. "It''s like teaching babies to becomes murderers, to grow up know nothing but to fight. That''s why I save them. They need to know that they are not meant just for what they are told. Andreas is wrong. We didn''t create destruction. The Titans are just life. No one is born a tool of death. We made them that way. Someone else chose for them. Who in their right mind would want to live as a weapon without reason? Everyone should be given a chance to see the errors of their ways." She turned to Adelle and the elf wondered how could eyes that did not see sky for most of their lives be that blue. "Everyone. Then, if you still want to fight and die, we do. Though I''ll still try not to. You should get the choice to change, even then. But your choices ends when mine begin."


    "I''m... not sure I understood that." Adelle trembled her head. "I don''t understand you."


    "Yeah. I know."


    The officers standing at the elevator reached out to their radio and listened as a new report came in. They then nodded to each other and walked away from their station, heading out further into the city centre. It was their chance. The two women took a moment when foot traffic was high and hid in the crowd as they crossed the streets to the elevator.


    As the metal box lowered into the ground, Adelle waited with bated breath for when the doors reopened. She was expecting resistance on the other side and in her mind she quickly devised a quick line of attack. As she could not see above the doorway, she could not get a drop from above. She would instead teleport to the side and disarm her enemy. If they had weapons, she would use those to fight.


    The doors opened.


    No one stood in their way.


    Adelle was both relief and disappointed. The adrenaline of the chase had been pumping through her with nowhere to go. She also wanted to get her mind off Luce. But with no battle to fight, she just clicked her tongue and snatched her scarf away from the golem.


    "Come on," Luce said, cutting past Adelle out of the elevator.


    They reached their elecycle and Luce passed her the golem. The little ball was dropped into Adelles arms and she let out an unwitting oomph. The thing weight as much as a large ball of dirt does, a tonne.


    Adelle muttered to herself, "You''re like a giant marble."


    "Marble," Luce claimed as she climbed onto the elecyle. "That''s a good name."


    "We''re not naming it now," Adelle got on behind her, Marble in hand.


    "Well, I already did."


    Scarves up, Luce turned the throttle and the elecycle rolled out of its lot and they exited the parking area onto the highway. Following the same road they came in from in reverse, they exited off the main route onto the offramp.


    They passed a patrolling guard who yelled out, "Hey!"


    Of course, Luce did not slow down, let alone stop. The tires screeched as she took the long curve ramp at speed. Behind them, Adelle heard a click. A second later, the concrete wall next to them splintered as a bullet slammed into it.


    Without even blinking, they raced on. By the time they had reached the gate, a squad of four soldiers were armed at them with rifles. A megaphone shouted, "It''s a dead-end! Surrender yourself or be shot!"


    Adelle glanced the slit of the gate from behind. With a blink and a dissipating cloud of rust, she teleported them to the other side before another shot was even fired, leaving the guards shouting in bewilderment at the disappearance.

 Chapter Twenty-Three: Gasp

    Shou leaned over his desk and stretched his hand out towards the container. He wanted what was in it. Needed it. A groan let out as his muscles stretched painfully. He could stand up to get it, sure, but at what cost? Marble the golem was rolling around the work floor, its one eye following Shou''s actions with pined interest.


    "Come on..." he gritted.


    Finally, his fingers swiped the edge and pulled the bowl back enough for him to take the whole thing into his hand. Reaching in, he picked up a piece of dried chip and bit down.


    "Ah..." he let out in relief.


    Marble spun in its spot excitedly.


    Miu voiced, "You''re an idiot."


    "What? I was hungry?"


    She was sitting at her workstation, a portable screen hooked up to an illegal wire line. The news station had its camera trained on an empty podium. The President of the Dogon Republic was about to hold a press conference to respond to the state of the war and crisis within the nation. Informants up and down the wire had warned Shou and Miu that they had a non-zero chance of being mentioned at the event.


    Adelle and Luce teleported up onto their work platform. "Is it starting?" the latter asked, pulling up a seat beside her.


    "Bored!" Adelle announced before anything even happened and quickly teleported away.


    Shou added, "I like her way of thinking." He prepared to stand.


    "Don''t you dare leave," Miu reprimanded. "I''ll drag you back by the ear."


    He huffed and turned his attention back to his work station. On his table were two circuit boards the size of a head. With the new power cell they were aiming to steal, they would need something to regulate the excess charge. A new repeater and resistor would do the trick. Through scavenging, they had managed to gather enough parts, but they still needed an excessive amount of work to be usable again.


    His solder iron smoked as he put another strain of aluminium wire to the board, melting it into an existing line, slowly and carefully so as to not damage the board itself.


    "And now we go live to Citidale, where President Corlyle is taking the podium to address his nation."


    Shou puts his solder down and leaned back against his seat, turning to see the screen. Corlyle walked onto screen from stage right, his suit a finely pressed black and short grey hair in a neat buzz cut. Even his straight and sharp face was cracked in places. The edges of his chin had faint grey stubbles that marred the otherwise chocolate skin. He could tell the leadership role had worn the man out. Eight years of fighting a never ending war does that to a person.


    Corlyle stood behind the black steel podium. A holographic screen with his script flickered on at a slanted angle the cameras could not capture. He barely cleared his throat.


    "Citizens of Dogon, I trust you well." Clear. Smooth. Not a falter in his voice. A tendency to cut straight to the point. "I called this conference today to announce that the end of the war is nigh." The newsroom erupted in questions but Corlyle refused to continue speaking until they were quiet. An effective politician, capable of controlling the masses. Soon, the room quietened down.


    Shou turned his seat fully, sitting straight up to listen, his attention finally captured.


    "We have been developing a weapon to deactivate the magic circuitry of golems. It is non-lethal to mortal mages, but will disrupt the enhancement flow, effectively breaking the golems from the inside. As a pulse weapon, once activated, the range will cover half the continent." Corlyle then proceeded to list technical specifications. The weapon sounded large. "The Golem Anti-Seither Pulse, or G.A.S.P, as we lovingly call it, is ready to fire. However, we will be giving Seracue time to discuss a treaty before using it."


    Luce flew to her feet and even with her back facing him, Shou knew her eyes were wide.


    "What''s wrong?"


    She replied, "It''s not possible to break one circuit but not the other. We''ve tried. The biology of it are basically the same. Magic circuits for enhancement and golemancy uses the same basic concept as circuits in our bodies."


    Miu raised a brow. "So Corlyle is lying?"


    "He must be."


    Shou put another chip in his mouth before speaking, "Maybish itsh jush..." he licked his lips and swallowed. "Maybe it''s just our technology''s better."The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "Not possible. Golems are based on magitech. And the level of magitech studies on the other side is far more advance than they are here. Equivalent to our science, I''d say."


    "What happens when circuits are cut off for mortals?" Miu asked.


    "Depends on the severity," Luce admitted. "Best case scenario is you either temporarily or permanently lose your magic. At the absolute worst case, it could necrotise the blood vessels around your circuit. And if it''s near your vital organs..."


    Shou finished, "You die." He turned back to the screen. "It''s a weapon of mass destruction. What the tites is going on?"


    "Shush!" Miu hushed them. "He''s saying something about the church."


    Shou only managed to catch halfway through the sentence, but it was enough.


    "... of Moira has been sponsoring the development of this weapon, and to them, I give my thanks. Their goal of ending the war is a noble one. Which brings me to the recent news of an attack on the Church of Moira in their Central Citidale chapter. We have determined that one of the attacker is Lucinda Baerrinska, a former Titan Hunter turned deserter. While the other attacker, an elf, has yet to be unidentified, but possesses some form of teleportation magic. They are deemed dangerous and should be approached with caution."


    "Ooo, Luce, you''re in trouble."


    "The two has also been linked with apostates Shou Kenta, Miu Hotaru, and Arnold Wyndham, the masterminds behind the Regalia Heist."


    "Well," Shou unwittingly let out. "Shit."


    Corlyle began taking questions from the room. From queries of cost, to implementation, to political backlash. None of which were of particular interests to them so the three turned to talk with each other.


    Luce spoke first, "Sorry about getting you guys in trouble." As she said that, Marble rolled by her feet as if to emphasise the point. She picked it up and hugged it in her laps.


    Miu answered, "Don''t worry about it. Shou would have done the same thing."


    "I would not!" he denied, though jokingly.


    It was true, he would have done the same thing. But since he did not have a teleporting elf, he might not have survived it.


    But he could not get his mind off Corlyle calling them out. They had lived in relative isolation for all these years without crossing paths. Their little outpost no more than a speck of dust amongst the greater picture of Dogon politics. Bringing them into the cross hair seemed odd at the very least. At worst...


    "Shou used to go to school with Corlyle," Miu chimed in.


    Shou looked up. "What does that have to do with anything?"


    Luce joked, "What? Have Shou bribe the president."


    "That won''t be a bad idea, but I''m not that close to him."


    He got to his feet, the cyber-prosthetic clanking the steel floor. With a slight hobble at the start, he picked up pace as he walked towards the ladder.


    Luce asked, "Where are you going?"


    "I need some fresh air," he said.


    "I don''t think there are any nearby."


    "You know what I mean."


    He slid down the ladder, landing on the ground with a thud and clank. Now where was his hoodie? His mind traced from the last point in memory where he used it. He had came back in from a test pilot with Reggie, so the best place to start from would be the mech-bay. He passed through the plastic curtains covering the door into the bay area, his mind still wandering about on Corlyle.


    "Going out?"


    He jumped.


    Sitting next to him above a cabinet was Adelaide, calmly sipping water from one of their hydration packs. The elf scared him. Unlike the rest of them, she was truly a being of power. Teleportation aside, she had a keen survival instinct and was possibly one of the stealthiest person he had ever met.


    "Just looking for my hoodie," he replied, having calmed down.


    "So you can go out?"


    The mech-bay''s height took up the whole of the building. Reggie sat in the middle of the work area, a large power cable coupled to its back, charging it. Around it were large machineries that cut, drilled, and some which only Miu knew did that laid around.


    Reggie''s head turned as he walked in and Shou gave a wave to his partner. The mech nodded its head and continued to watch the interaction between cyborg and elf.


    Shou continued, "I''m just going out for some fresh air."


    "I don''t think there are any nearby."


    "That''s what Luce said."


    Adelle clicked her tongue and turned away. Luce seemed to be both important and a sore spot to her. He walked over to a set of hangers opposite the room where their jumpsuits hung and snatched his stained white hoodie off the middle hook.


    Adelle asked, "How do you keep that clean?"


    "Bleach." He began heading towards the garage exit. "Lots of bleach."


    "Whatever you''re doing, make sure it''s as stupid as possible so we can get a laugh out of it," Adelle joked. "Also, it''d help take the heat off me and Luce.


    Shou gave a fake dry laugh, taunting her as he exited the mech-bay. To Reggie, he said, "See you in a bit, partner."


    See you. The mech said in his mind.


    They were still mentally linked by their bio-comms, up to certain distance. Reggie had been kind enough not to poke around his head and Shou was more than happy not to do the same.


    In the garage, he grabbed a second riding jacket to put over his first. He also took a gas mask off a rack of many. Just before he placed it on, however, the door from the main building opened and Miu stepped through.


    He smiled and greeted, "Hello, beautiful. Care to go for a ride."


    She walked over chuckling before punching him jokingly in the shoulder. "I would, but I don''t think Corlyle would be happy to see more than one of us."


    "I told you, I don''t know-"


    "Yeah, yeah. You''re a terrible liar, you know that?"


    From her pocket, she pulled out a gun-shaped tool that looked no different from a slightly modified pistol with a larger barrel.


    "Miu," he said, disappointedly. "I don''t like guns."


    "I know," the girl replied with a smile. "It''s a taser. Double layered oobleck pellet with single charged shells. Nine rounds. It''s lethal up to 5 meters, so don''t get too close."


    He took the weapon from her and it weighed forever in his hands. Eventually, he tucked in into the back of his belt with the safety on.


    "Thanks, Miu."


    She nodded. "We knew you made some sort of deal with Corlyle. I don''t know what. But the fact is, he''s reneging on it. What''s the worst case scenario?"


    He let out a nervous laugh. "Why are you asking me?"


    "Because you''re the smartest person I know? Not intellectually, mind you."


    "Geez. Thanks for the boost of confidence," he replied sarcastically.


    "But you are street smart. So what''s the prognosis?"


    Shou sighed. "I think he''s using our names to throw us under the bus. If Luce is right and the G.A.S.P works, we''re going to be the bad guys."

 Chapter Twenty-Four: Corlyle

    The building was one of the many structures left standing from the former small town. An old school that housed hundreds of village kids in its heyday, its former grey walls were scratched brown by the Taint. Paint cracks bled with rust, and the searing wind howled through the empty streets.


    Eran was a ghost town. Abandoned at the end of the last decade as the Taint got too thick to manage, Shou was part of the last students to leave the school there before being conscripted into the military academy in Citi.


    An armoured van sat outside on the streets and Shou pulled up next to it. The soldier atop the machine gun mount looked down at him as he casually got off the elecycle.


    Shou pulled up his hood and the aeronium mask came down over his face. He reached through the fog and pulled off his riding mask. Through the aeronium, he winked at the soldier who did her best to ignore him.


    He walked into the school grounds without any resistance. He had thought the school dry before. There were sayings past down through elven families that thousands of years in the past, schools had gardens for students to grow plants, and fields of grass to play on. They however only had the open dirt courtyard where they would occasionally run laps if the weather wasn''t too thick with rust. Now, even the courtyard had been covered metallic brown. Each dragging step drew a line that revealed the lighter sand underneath. Every crunch of his boot brought up a small puff of Taint.


    The first-floor windows were barricaded and the doors were ripped off their hinges. Yet the second, third and fourth-floors'' windows were left unboarded. It begged the question why they had even tried to board up the windows in the first place if the whole building was filled with holes. A poor deconstruction job if you asked him.


    Another female soldier stood waiting at the door, rifle in hand. He walked up to her and raised his arms to be patted down. The soldier did so without asking.


    "Corlyle sure likes to be surrounded by ladies," he joked.


    She did not laugh. Tough crowd.


    When she reached his prosthetic leg, she lifted up his pant leg and took a quick look around the metal structure. From the outside, it seemed fine. She stood back up and motioned him into the building. He felt annoyed that he had to roll his pant leg back down himself. What terrible service. One star.


    Alone inside he made no detours to reminiscence on past gone by. The building interior was dark, with just little light beams gleaming through the boarded up windows and entrance, just enough to give shape to the structure within. He headed straight up the stairs but climbed calmly a step at a time. Halfway up the second flight, he began whistling a random tune. On the third landing, he turned right and entered the second door to the left.


    Inside his old classroom, the desks and chairs were in their neat rows and columns as he had remembered them, albeit with a visible brown coat of dust. Sitting at the teacher''s desk was Corlyle. The man looked even older off television with the lack of makeup and bright lights to smoothen his stress. His face was as cracked as the walls of the room. It did not help that he wore a trench coat with the brown of age. The old teacher wore a plain, translucent oxygen mask and thin, round spectacles in the form of goggles. President Corlyle.


    Or as Shou called him, "Mister Anjexe."


    "Shou. I didn''t think you''d come."


    "You called me out," he replied. Walking over to his seat at the back of the class nearest to the window, Shou pulled out the chair and sat down on the layer of dust uncaringly. "What''s up?"


    Corlyle laughed. "Still a punk, aren''t you?"


    "I''ve been recently told I was actually very smart, though."


    "That, I agree."


    For a moment, they sat quietly until Shou broke the ice again. "Mind telling me what''s going on? I thought you were going to leave us alone?"


    "I did," Corlyle admitted.


    "Is that why you called us out on national television?"The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    "Well, you started harbouring deserting terrorists."


    "They punched a guy, not blow up a building." Shou inclined. "Or does this have something to do with the Church funding your little projects?"


    Corlyle raised a brow. "The church is a generous donor to the cause of the war. In their efforts to end the fighting, they have contributed millions to the development of G.A.S.P."


    "And since I''m with the people who attacked your donors, it''s no longer politically convenient for you to keep me safe, am I right?"


    "I don''t like your insinuations, Kenta. I risked my job to get you off the hook. As your teacher, I have a responsibility to protect my students!"


    "Is that why you threw me under the bus? To protect me?"


    "You left me no choice."


    "Load of crap. You could have just mentioned those two idiots. Yet, you brought me up. Why? I know you protected me so far was due to the threat of fighting a mech. Cost and benefits are your thing, after all. Isn''t that right, teacher?"


    Corlyle got to his feet. "I don''t like your tone of voice, Kenta. What I do I do for the good of all." He walked over to a desk middle of front row and placed a hand on the table sombrely. "Allison Kincaid. Drafted. Lost her legs from a friendly trip mine." He moved two rows up towards Shou and set his hand on another desk. "Louis Waserall. Killed in action. Stabbed to death in melee combat with an enemy soldier. Marin Curie. Weapons development. Bedridden from radiation exposure. Jonathan Huntre. Killed-"


    Shou cut in, "Killed in action. Friendly fire. Yuach Healrayder. Missing in action. Susano Ozana. Killed in action. I can list names too. What''s your point? That you know how to use NetSeeker?"


    He wasn''t being crass. He understood where Corlyle was coming from. He wanted to stop the war for the betterment of everyone. At least, that''s what is shown on the surface. But Shou was not entirely convinced that their versions of ''everyone'' were the same. Even as a teacher, Corlyle Anjexe had a reputation in vying for power within the school''s hierarchy, rising up to the head of his department in just two years before the school closed.


    As his teacher got closer, Shou stood to his feet and dug both his hands into his pockets nonchalantly as a feint. His left pocket was actually just a hole that gave him access to his cybernetic leg. Twisting a knob, the machine quietly ejected the taser into his hand.


    Corlyle said, "I just want you to be safe. Turn yourself in and I can guarantee you''ll receive a pardon in a year."


    Shou looked to his teacher quizzically. "That''s very tempting." He drew his taser and pointed it at Corlyle, who raised his hands in shocked surrender. "But here''s my question. Why not offer me that earlier? Why now? Unless there''s something you don''t want me to know."


    Looking shocked, Corlyle tried to diffuse the situation. "Let''s put down the gun and talk like civilised people. No need for bloodshed. Or do you think violence is the solution to everything?"


    Shou thought the man was being overly dramatic. "Calm your mammaries. It''s just a taser. Now stop talking. I''m about to monologue like a good super-villain," Shou quipped. "You wanted me gone, or at the very least, not digging into this. I''m guessing whatever you''re actually planning and hiding is worse than G.A.S.P. A trick, a plan, a weapon, something. One so bad that you fear a small band of rebels like mine could topple you if we started tracking it down. Am I right?"


    He waited for Corlyle to reject his accusations, but the man simply stuttered. Both the surprise of the weapon and sudden twist of situations had frazzled him. Shou found it strange. If the man was not hiding anything, he would not need that much time to think of a response. His gut was telling him something was off.


    "Alright, I think your silence speaks volume. So, I''m going to dig into this. Whatever it is you don''t want me to find, I''ll find it. And when I don''t like it, I''ll kick your ass."


    The shock from being threatened seemed to fade from Corlyle''s face and was replaced with a raging scowl. "Who do you think you are, you brat? After everything I''ve done for you, to teach you, to protect you, this is how you repay me? Why won''t you just quietly sit aside and let me save everyone!?"


    "G.A.S.P is going to kill golems, and possibly mages. How is that everyone?"


    The president huffed angrily. "It''s a necessary sacrifice for ending the war!"


    Shou shook his head disappointedly. "There are innocent lives at stake. I won''t stand by and let you do this."


    "You don''t have a choice. Even if you drop me now, my guards are surrounding the building as we speak. I was trying to avoid violence; to save you. But now I see you''re too stubborn for salvation."


    The sentence sent a shiver down Shou''s spine. It reminded him of how the Church of Moira spoke. "You know, my girlfriend''s really smart. Said you''d try to take me down if I don''t do what you say. So she forced me to come up with another plan. Like a special delivery." Silence fell over both of them as they stood there. Corlyle looked around the room expecting something to happen. When nothing came, Shou pressed the side of his hooding to bring the earpiece closer. "Adelle!"


    The device crackled. "What?"


    "That''s the code!"


    "Oh... oh! Okay. Fuck. My bad."


    "Just come and get me."


    The elf immediately appeared behind him in a gas of brown. Corlyle jumped back in shock.


    "You too?" he exclaimed.


    Too? Shou thought.


    But before he could question further, Adelle grabbed his waist and teleported them out.


    Feet dangling in the air, he looked down for a split second to see his elecycle for twenty meters below and his heart stopped. Suddenly, the bike popped back right below him - no, he teleported down next to it and quickly climbed on. The gunner on the armoured van was shocked as their appearance and turned her turret on them. Adelle got on behind him.


    "Go!" she yelled.


    He throttled and the cycle revved off. The turret fired but Adelle ported them forward and away, the bullets racking off far behind them.

 Chapter Twenty-Five: Shou Kenta

    Drawcord pulled to length, his hood hug his face. It was uncomfortable stifling his head but it beat breathing in the Taint. Shou only wished he had the time to put on his riding mask instead of relying on his hood screen. It was thinner and flecks of dirt could still penetrate the aeronium and hit his face. His eyes squinted slightly to make hitting it harder.


    The dust constantly rose behind his elecycle as they sped across the landscape. Closing in behind them, armoured trucks had their engines roaring in the wind. Bullet spray ricochets off the dirt around them as Shou dodged and weaved as best as he could to make them harder to hit without losing speed.


    Adelle climbed onto the bike, standing with one leg on the seat while another rested on his shoulder for balance. He did not particularly mind being used as a stepping stone, especially not when they were being shot at. The elf had superhuman balance, and despite the instability of the bike, she stood with a gyrating stance and shifting knees to match his riding.


    She pulled out an arrow and notched into her bow. As a bullet whizzed by and cuts her cheek, she lets the projectile fly which turned against the wind. It angled in Shou''s side mirror''s reflection and punctured the wheel of the truck directly behind them. The vehicle skidded and spiralled in the dirt before coming to a stop. It''s gunner turned to fire a last burst of desperate shots, though by then they were far out of its accuracy.


    Another truck rushed in from their left with its turret readjusting to line them in its sight.


    Over their comm-set, Adelle yelled, "Be right back!"


    A sudden lifting of weight from his shoulder signalled her teleporting away. He watched from the peripheral of his vision as she reappeared on the attack truck next to the turret hatch. The soldier atop it tried to pull out a gun but she kicked it away. She then grabbed him by his collar and teleported him. Behind them, the man popped out in mid-air with his momentum flying upwards. He rose about ten meters off the ground before wailing his feet as he came crashing back. He was left rolling in pain in the dirt.


    From the truck, a loud crash brought Shou''s attention and he only saw the rear half of the vehicle bifurcated, dragging along behind as the front half braked desperately to a stall. Adelle teleported back onto the elecycle and Shou wobbled for a moment before regaining traction.


    He was insurmountably glad she was on his side.


    Another truck raced up next to him and the passenger side window opened up. He pulled out his taser and aimed. The modified bullet blasted out of the chamber, through the opened window, and struck the driver in the neck and the truck quickly skidded to a halt.


    "Not bad," Adelle said.


    "Says the girl who just wrecked a platoon by herself."


    "Don''t bring a truck to a bow fight."


    They were not out of the dunes yet. Far behind them in vehicles just slightly slower were Corlyle''s main guard forces that had chased them all the way from Eran. They were near their hideaway but Shou hesitated to bring armed enemies so close to Miu and their home. Eventually, though, the elecyle would run out of battery and stall; Or a well-aimed bullet might take them out. A fight might be unavoidable. If that was the case, perhaps they should start with the big guns.


    He double tapped the built-in radio in his hood. "This is Shou, calling Homestead. Homestead, come in!" Quiet crackled over for a few seconds so he repeated. "Homestead. Come in-!"


    "This is Homestead," Miu''s concerned voice zapped over. "What''s wrong?"


    "Bringing in heat. Get Reggie out with a pulse repulsor."


    Without any hesitation in her voice, Miu replied, "Affirmative. I''ll get it to meet you halfway."


    To Adelle, Shou said, "You''ll have to take over the elecycle. Just turn the throttle to speed up."


    "What? Are you mad? I don''t know how to ride this thing!"


    "It''s easy," he waved her concerns away. "It''s like riding a bicycle!"


    "I don''t know how to ride a bicycle!" she exclaimed.


    "Best way to learn is under extreme duress and threat of death!" he laughed excitedly.


    They travelled for a couple of kilometres, putting more distance between them and their pursuers. But the dust cloud the elecylce kept kicking up meant tracking them was basically child''s play.


    Eventually, Reggie appeared on the horizon over a dune long before the warehouse came into view. The size of the Titan, doubling the building''s height, lumbered towards them slowly. Without Shou''s bio-cell and neural network, the mech could not regulate and cycle its energy, at least not while its own bio-cell was damaged. Thus, it''s movements were slowed by the A.I to prevent overheating.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "Alright!" Shou said to Adelle. "I need you to teleport me behind Reggie. Are you ready?"


    "No!" she replied.


    "Good," he ignored her. "Let''s go!"


    She set a hand on his shoulder.


    Suddenly, he was behind Reggie with the momentum from the cycle shooting him upwards until he was just slightly above its shoulder. The Titan shifted its helmet around as its sensors re-tracked him. In the distance, the elecycle swerved and wobbled violently, slowing down greatly before balancing and gaining speed again. He knew the elf was a fast learner.


    Falling behind the mech, Shou managed to catch hold of a corner of its armour before slamming into its back. Letting out a painful groan, he noted that his body would be sore tomorrow as Reggie opened up the pilot compartment and he climbed in.


    As the aeronium pod closed, Shou settled into the co-pilot seat again, putting his arms and legs into the protruding pneumatic controls with the monitoring helmet lowered onto him. The heads-up display flickered on with Reggie''s cameras and sensors. When the magnetic cable clasped onto his quantum processor, all the information the mech processed registered quickly in his mind.


    Hello, Shou.


    "Good seeing you, buddy. Let''s quickly get down to business, shall we?"


    The radar pinged out a scan of the area. Four trucks - one with a heavy pulse rifle - were detected in the distance. No longer moving fast on the elecycle, the enemies quickly closed in. Behind them, Adelle was rushing off towards the hideout.


    They brought up their right arm. Attached to where the hand should be was a large dish-shaped cannon of a gun with brackets and support beams scrounged from scrap metal.


    Note to friend, Shou. Salvaged repulsor will likely break after a single fully charged use.


    "Well, we''ll just have to make our shots count. Prepare to charge to half. Wide-wall."


    Maximum charge time estimated to be-


    "43 seconds," Shou finished its sentence for him.


    They were connected after all, and everything Reggie processed came to him just a few seconds later. It was still an odd experience like an echo in the back of his mind telling him things he didn''t know before but immediately understood without explanation afterwards.


    The processor conveyed the distance of their enemies to him. They held up the pulse repulsor and Shou initiated the charging early.


    Enemies are not in range yet.


    "This is what we call instinct," Shou replied.


    Three of the trucks broke off from the one with the pulse rifle, accelerating as a vanguard towards them. The moment the vehicles'' frames appeared over the dune, they began firing at Reggie. Bullets whizzed by them, a few scrapping and sparking off its metal frame. One hissed as it tore a pneumatic component off the left finger. Shou and Reggie set their repulsor to a high frequency and fired a stream of the pulsating sonic wave. The air before them vibrated and miraged, curving as the pulse wave reverberated through it towards the truck in a wide, wall-shaped wave.


    One of the oncoming vehicles tried to swerve away but the large area of the pulse hit the group square. The windscreens of all three trucks shattered and their turrets began smoking as internal components broke apart and overheated. In the truck, the mortals would be hit by the vibrations. Some might suffer mild concussions. Others might pass out. But the gun was non-lethal, and they would eventually be thankful for it, albeit with a noticeable headache and some mild memory loss. Shou should know. While he was a soldier, he had been accidentally hit by friendly fire from a pulse repulsor before. Much better than a bullet.


    His lost leg ached.


    Pulse rifle truck approaching.


    "Miu," he radioed. "What''s the frequency of standard pulse rifle turrets?"


    She immediately replied, "Eighty hertz."


    "Alright," he returned his attention to the fight. "Let''s calibrate to cancel that frequency. Conical."


    Calibrating. Warning. Extensive charging will create feedback that damages friend Shou''s bio-cell.


    "We''re taking the risk!"


    I do not understand.


    "I''ll teach you what it means to live life on the edge!"


    Red lights flashed through the cockpit as the charging began to strain the energy converters. The edges of his stump leg tingled with warmth as the bio-cell within heated up, running the focused charge for the repulsor through it.


    Overheating in three. Two. One.


    The truck burst over the dunes. The rifle turret turned its sights to them. They released the charge, and the repulsor fired a conical burst towards the vehicle. The rifle turret fired, distorting the air around it the same way they did. Meeting in the middle of them, the adjusted frequency of the repulsor cancelled out the rifle''s pulse and pushed a second wave towards the vehicle.


    Tyres burst and the truck skidded before flipping into the air from the momentum. It rolled once before landing on its side with a crash loud enough to be heard like thunder even at that distance. As the dust settled a soldier crawled out of the shattered windows, winded, but alive.


    Shou pulled his prosthetic leg out of the protruding controls and released the aeronium bay door. He stuck his leg out into the open and ripped off the pants leg, revealing his cybernetics. At the shin, the plate that covered the bio-cell chamber was starting to heat red hot. He reached through his pants pocket''s hole and pulled at a handle. The plate ejected open and threw out the blue crystal shaped energy source. The cell fell out of Reggie''s back and landed in the sand just as it burst alight with green flame. No longer powered, the clunky leg prosthetic clanked against the pod and Shou had to drag it back in before closing off and depressurising the deck again.


    With a sigh, Shou relieved, "Alright buddy, let''s head back home."


    Reggie agreed, turning its body back towards the direction of their hideout, though moving noticeably slower now that Shou''s bio-cell was no longer providing added power. Shou was ready to take a break when his radio crackled.


    "Shou Kenta!" Miu shouted through. "Why did I just get a ping that your bio-cell overheated and got ejected?"


    "Um..." he worriedly replied. "Because I overheated and ejected it?"


    "For geared sakes! How many time have I told you not to do that!"


    "It''s fine, right? It was an emergency and we have spare bio-cells."


    "But we don''t have spare legs!" Miu screamed. "If you damaged it, there''s no replacement for your old ass model. And if your leg doesn''t work, we''ve got nothing to fit into Reggie''s set-up. Do you know how much a new cell converter cost?"


    "Uh..." he knew, but he felt arguing with her would bring in more trouble.


    Miu continued, "And did you not teach Adelle to brake? Because she just crashed the elecycle into the garage."


    Shou seethed through his teeth. "I knew I forgot something."


    "Damn it, Shou!"

 Chapter Twenty-Six: The Second Wing

    Joshasden Stalewaver. Father. Guide. Explorer. Currently lost as heck.


    He held the map up as he navigated the dirt streets of Ampyre, shifting through the market''s crowd while barely avoiding potholes, glancing up only to sidestep strangers rushing about their lives. He stopped in his track for a moment and behind him, the cart Arnold was pushing bumped into his back.


    "Hey!" Arnold let out. "Quit stopping at every junction. We''re not exactly safe out here in the open."


    "There''s nothing I can do!" Josh replied, annoyed. "The clue says a junction, but it doesn''t exactly specify which one."


    Beside Arnold, Doctor Miura stood wavering in a brown cloak, trying to look inconspicuous with her collar pulled up high to hide the cybernetics implanted in the side of her neck. She slightly shifted the tarp that covered the cart to inspect the medical equipments hidden inside, making sure they were not damaged or significantly moved to unbalance by the nudge.


    "I agree with Arnie," Miura answered. "I don''t particularly like being so exposed."


    Arnold then asked, "Are we lost?"


    It wasn''t easy to answer them. Yes, Eca had given them a list of safe houses, but it was more of a coded test than anything. There were starting coordinates marked to each hideout. But the back of the note were numbered instructions you were meant to follow. It was a treasure hunt, and safety was the prize.


    They had started with clue number 3 - head west and follow the goblin''s barrel - from the Central Market Courtyard. It was there they found the Hobgoblin Tavern which had three barrels outside stamped with 12th Brewery''s logo. From there, they followed point 12 to an overhang where they were to "count the chimneys east". Five clues later, they were now looking for "the junction with two wings".


    Arnold voiced, "We don''t even know if we followed the correct sequence! What if we miscounted those stupid chimneys? What does eleven say?"


    "Uh..." Josh was reluctant to change course.


    It might be the old man in him refusing new ideas, but he felt they were on the right track. The instructions seemed random, but were oddly specific for each location. Eleven asked them to move south from the overhang and "follow the stream", but there were no such landmarks or paths from that place.


    From the edge of his hearing, the sound of birds tweeting in the wind caught his attention. He looked up from his map and glanced around. His compatriots seemed to have picked up the same cue. They continued down the path, the crowd thinning out the further away they got from the main market area and the sound of birds got louder. Finally, they stopped at the first junction of the edges of Ampyre''s southeastern centre where the smell of bland produce were replaced with the pulpy dust of wood and stone. They had stepped into one of the industrial areas where stone buildings separated by fields filled with blocks of stone and trunks of wood started to spread outward into the countryside.


    The song of birds were now clear and distinct. The trio split away from their cart to looked down each of the three streets that forked. Josh tilted his head at a signpost next to the nearest building. Atop the words of ''Avian Messaging Service'' was a wood carving of a pidgin bird, its wings extended open in mock flight.


    "Hey!" Josh called out. "I think this is it."


    Miura jogged up to him as Arnold went back to the cart to push it to them.


    The doctor asked, "Is this the place?" Her head swivelled around. "I don''t see any other numbers or instructions."


    "Maybe it''s the number of wings?" Josh checked the second point of the clues. He read aloud, "The gate before you."


    "That sounds a lot like this is it to me."


    He concurred. Rolling the map up, he swung his bag off his shoulder and set it on the ground. Just as he finished packing the parchment and map into the side pocket, Arnold rolled the cart up behind them. He told Miura and Arnold to stay behind first since it was more likely for anyone within Eca''s circle to know who he was..Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    "If someone shoots you," Arnold quipped, "I''m running away."


    The building was a simple stone house with wooden pillars supporting the roof of an overhanging porch. Multi-coloured birds that were unnaturally bright for the dreary landscape chimed from cages hung from the rafters, singing musically into the grey. A single wooden door barred the entranceway, closed, with two windows curtained by leather aside it. The salty smell of seed and light flex from the birds drifted to Josh the closer up to the door he walked.


    As he stepped onto the porch, the front door creaked opened and he jolted, body ready to run. Behind him, Arnold''s hand slipped under the tarp, no doubt reaching for the gun hidden beneath.


    Grey robes flitted out from the darkness behind the door. The mage stood before them, with the same calm and confidence displayed half a season ago when they first met.


    Eca Rend greeted, "Welcome back, Joashden Stalewaver." He tilted his head to look past Josh''s large shoulder and smiled. "You''ve brought friends."


    Josh let out a sigh - of relief? He knew not. Though not an enemy, the tension in his neck did not dissipate.


    "We need to use your safehouse," Josh asked directly. "I''m taking you up on your offer."


    Eca smiled. "What makes you think the offer still stands."


    A lump lodged in Josh''s throat. Was the mage about to send him on some errand to earn his keep? Without Luce and Adelle by his side, he was not sure how much adventuring he could handle. While Arnold was capable in his own rights and Miura specialised in medicine, he was not quite comfortable with the level of facing their usual level of troubles with such a motley crew.


    Then, Eca laughed. "I''m just joking. Come in. I''m dying to find out the circumstances bringing you back so hastily."


    The man turned his back on them and walked into the building. Josh looked back to a worried Arnold and saw that Miura had taken cover behind the cart. He had forgotten for a moment that she was technically their charge and still a civilian. Making a mental note to keep her out of harms way, he gave them a thumbs up to confirm the place was safe before following Eca in.


    The inside surprisingly matched the description outside. Coops lined both sides of the wall and the smell of birds and feed coagulated in the air. The pidgins chirped and cooed, making for a headache inducing background noise. There was a wooden counter stacked with papers and letters before him, either awaiting delivery or fulfilment. A light grey drakin sat behind the divide reading a scroll, tending the shop. She did not even look up as they walked in.


    "Send your companions around back," Eca instructed. "I''ll have someone help them unload. Seems like whatever you''ve bought weighs a Titan''s load. Follow me after." He then disappeared behind another door to the back room.


    Arnold stepped in behind them and gagged. "Oh, man. This place smells like ass."


    The drakin at the counter looked up with a scorned scowl but did not say anything.


    "Bring the stuff around back," Josh told Arnold. "There''ll be people to help unload."


    "Can we trust these people?" Arnold asked. "I mean, you know them, sure. But I don''t."


    "Do you trust me?"


    The young Guide shrugged. "Barely. But you''ve not killed me yet so there''s that. Not trying to murder me is something I tend to look for in friends."


    Despite the jokes, Arnold walked back out of the store and dutifully followed the instructions, pushing the cart around back alongside Miura.


    Josh would have helped too, but it seemed that Eca wanted to talk privately with him, given the specifics of the instructions. So he followed the mage to the back room.


    The space in the back roughly matched the front of the store. A human male stood outside an opened back door, likely the helper mentioned to be assisting Arnold with unloading their equipments. A carpet had been dragged to a corner on the floor, revealing a large open trapdoor that lead underground. Josh made the logical decision and walked down into the earth.


    Electric lamps ran the side of the wall, meaning that somehow, Eca and his people had managed to wire the place with power. The tunnel did not run long before coming out in an open chamber. A large round table sat in the centre. The walls were plastered with maps and charts of the area. Exes were marked over locations in the Titan''s Graveyard, with just one tick off the borders of Altaro.


    Eca was behind the table, leaning over while examining pieces of paper, likely with intelligence gathered.


    Josh asked, "How did you know we were coming here?"


    The mage looked up. "What made you think I knew?"


    Josh held up the list of safe houses. "There are seven locations here and I chose this place randomly. Do you expect me to believe you just so happen to be in the first one we decided to follow?"


    "Smart man. Yeah. The instructions were a ruse. We have people at every other ''clue'' location. They''re there to warn us if anyone was coming our way. I got the radio that you were coming and decided to meet you here."


    This time, Josh''s sigh was without a doubt from stress. "I don''t think you''d come specifically to greet us if you didn''t need something."


    "Right again. I heard you''re an expert of sorts on Titans. Tell me, have you ever heard of the sentient Titan, Exodus?"


    "Yeah. It''s a myth. A story the elites in Citidale tell to scare their kids," Josh admitted. But even as his next few words came out, his gut was already twisting in anticipation. "A Titan the size of a continent. Its shadow alone is enough to engulf the world in darkness. But there''s no possible way that such a creature could exist. No space on Tearha will fit such a thing of such size."


    "Well," Eca said. "I''ve got bad news. Exodus is real. And the Pyrerai has it. This war is reaching its climax and whether you intended it to or not, your group is now smack in the middle of it."

 Chapter Twenty-Seven: Flashbang

    While lying prone of the ground, Josh slowly crawled his way to the edge of the cliff that overlooked the plains outside Altaro. Arnold copied his movements and scooted up beside him and handed him a telescope. They were about 2 kilometres away from where their targets were supposed to be. And while it was unlikely they would be seen from that distance, they were not going to take any chances.


    Josh looked through the viewfinder which zoomed in on the empty dirt plains of The Graveyard before them. Slowly adjusting the telescope upward, he scanned the ground for their target.


    In a hushed whisper, Arnold asked, "Do you see it?"


    "Not yet." He swept his view over the landscape.


    They were looking for an excavation site Eca had told them about. It was where Exodus was supposedly buried. Sure, he could have taken the light mage''s words at face value, but he was no where near close to trusting the man.


    "I swear," Arnold grumbled. "If this is some sort of waste of our time, I''m going to... well... I don''t know what I''ll do, but it''ll be an appropriate response to my annoyance."


    "Uh-huh." Josh was barely listening.


    He understood the young man''s frustration though. They were supposed to be stocking up for their return trip, but instead had spent a whole day gathering information and tracking down leads. Josh felt it was necessary though, given what he knew about sentinels like Adelle and the Pyrerai and their ability to pilot sentient Titans. If the Pyrerai truly had Exodus in her grasp, she might have figured out how to control the beast. That would add a significant amount of firepower, one that could wipe Citi off the face of the planet. Of course, this information he kept from Eca and the man''s rebel group. Any one with knowledge of super weapons is one more than he was comfortable with.


    Arnold asked, "What does Exodus even look like, anyway?"


    "No idea," Josh answered truthfully. "There aren''t really any clear records of its description. Just that-"


    "It''s really, really big. I get it." Arnold sighed, scanning the scenery. "If it''s so big, shouldn''t we be able to see it?"


    "The Leviathan hides in the ocean. It''s entirely possible Exodus is buried underground." His telescope caught the glimpse of movement.


    A cart was being dragged across the distant land back towards Ampyre. Josh traced the wheels'' tracks backwards, going out further and further into the plains of the Titan''s Graveyard until his line of sight was cut off by the overhang of a cliff next to them.


    "Damn it!" Josh cursed. "Come on!" He got up onto a crouch and began making his way over to the next cliff.


    His back ached from the crawl and his knees creaked from the crouch. He was in his mid-fifties now. Decades of running, crawling, and general misadventures had long since taken their toll on his body. He often lamented his human body, frail and quick to age. But he had to push on. This was going to be his last long journey. Once they saved his daughter, he was going to settle down. Maybe get a rocking chair. He had always wanted a rocking chair.


    As they settled into their new overlook, they could immediately see their target. A dig-site had been set up at the edge of the Graveyard. There were no lit torches or high structures however, and the only way for anyone to have noticed its existence was to have gone far out of their way and taken the higher ground as they had. It the excavation management went far out of their way to hide the immediate visibility of such a large digging space.


    The excavation had dug a crater into the landscape. In the middle of it, even without the telescope, they could see a silver orb the size of a man sitting ominously. Surrounding it were tiny figures of people. A flamboyant figure dressed in purple approached the orb and Josh instantly recognised the confident gait and bombastic violet dressing as that of the Pyrerai. He pulled up his telescope again and looked through the viewfinder, trailing the woman.


    She walked up to one of the excavators surrounding the orb who got up to greet her. They spoke calmly for a few minutes. Then, the excavator seemed to shrink back in his steps as he delivered a line to Lachesis. Both of them approached the orb and the excavator seemed to gesture and mulled over contraption while Lachesis looked on annoyed. The latter slowly turned around, rubbing her temple. Suddenly, she swung her arms back and from below her cloak, she pulled out a short sword to cut the man straight across the neck.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    Josh held his breath as he watched the excavator struggle to hold the blood in his throat. He dropped to his knees and everyone around shuffled back in fear. In the end, his head wandered around pleadingly to no avail before finally dropping dead on the ground, blood pooling around his body.


    Josh muttered under his breath, "Psychopath."


    "What?" Arnold asked.


    "She just murdered one of her own men."


    "That''s hardcore."


    "Yeah," he agreed. I think that silver thing is Exodus but they haven''t figured out how to work it yet."


    "You got that all from just watching them?"


    "Just an educated guess," he answered.


    "Alright," Arnold sighed. "Whatever. They can''t use Exodus. Great. That means it''s not our problem for now, right? Let''s get out of here and get this information to Eca. He has more resources to handle these things."


    Josh nodded in agreement and the young man slowly began backing away from the cliff. But the slight movement shifted the dirt enough that some chipped off from the edge and tumbled down the side.


    It was not a loud accident, nor was it a visual spectacle. In fact, it barely made a noise audible to them. But within the view of Josh''s telescope, Lachesis turned her head in their direction.


    Josh gulped. "I think she sees us."


    "How? We''re klicks away!"


    Lachesis began turning her body towards them, her head tilting inquisitively as she takes her first step in their direction.


    "Okay. She definitely sees us. Hand me a stun grenade."


    "Wha-"


    The woman took a curious step forward and stretched her neck out with squinted eyes. Then, she stood upright.


    "Stun grenade! Now!" He reached his hand out.


    He felt Arnold pass the grenade to him just as Lachesis teleported from his sight. He got to his feet and pulled the pin, throwing the grenade up and slightly behind them into the air.


    The Pyrerai reappeared behind them. "Who are you?" she asked.


    Josh ignored her and shouted, "Cover up!"


    He and Arnold shielded their eyes and ears as best as they could wrap in their arms as the grenade landed back on the ground and exploded.


    Even with their cover, the loud bang almost shook Josh off his feet. Even after opening his eyes, for a moment, he stood disoriented until Arnold pushed his shoulder. The shout from the Guide felt like a distant whisper in his ears.


    "Run!"


    He put foot to ground and ran. Almost immediately, he lost track of where Arnold went. But he did not take the chance to look back. For the moment, they would have to take care of themselves.


    Stumbling, still slightly disoriented by the concussive shock, he headed for a downward slope where indents in the landscape would give him cover to hide behind. He strayed left and right, desperately looking for a place to stealth into. If it came to running, he would lose to a teleporting murderer without question. He saw a trench and sprinted towards it, sliding in the last leg as he rolled fittingly into the space. He held his breath and forcefully slowed his breathing. The effort to quiet his breath had his lungs hurting and begging for air.


    Around him, the world grew silent. No sounds of wildlife or rustling foliage. No cursing from the Pyrerai or footsteps from pursuers. The loudest thing in the universe was him and his slow, silent breaths. He stayed, unmoving. In his mind''s eye, he could the Lachesis standing just feets away from him, just waiting for him to pop his head out like a gopher. His curiosity to check his surrounding was strong, but his will to survive was stronger. The only way for anyone to see him was to look directly down into the ditch. Still, the silence meant he only had the time to think.


    Maybe she had left.


    Maybe she had gone after Arnold.


    Maybe Arnold had gotten caught.


    Should he double back to save him?


    But what could he even do against a sentinel killing machine with possible access to a sentient Titan made for destroying the world?


    If the younger Guide had truly been caught, the best course of action for him was to attempt to escape. Either to get help from Eca, or take an express route back to Citi to grab Adelle.


    For now though, he had to stay alive. As uncomfortable as it was, the optimal thing to do in that moment was to keep hiding until dusk and sneak away in twilight''s shadow. He snuggled into his hiding place and settled in for the long haul.


    A tug at his left collar.


    Fingernails dug into his shoulder.


    With a strong pull, he was weeded out from his hiding spot and lifted off his feet. He was of no short stature or lightweight, yet Pyrerai Lachesis held all of him with a single hand. Hey eyes were red and watering, but the rage was left unhidden in her fiery stare.


    "You used a stun grenade," she growled.


    Struggling, Josh croaked out a reply. "Yeah. So?"


    He could see her piecing the puzzle together in her head. He used a stun grenade because out of any available options, it was the most effective weapon against a sentinel. He had learnt from Adelle that they needed to be able to see their targets to teleport, so if they were blinded, they''d be unable to act on anything.


    "The other sentinel," Lachesis began. "You know her."


    "Green hair? Red eyes?" Josh answered with snark. "Never met her in my life."


    The anger gave way to a grin. "Fortuitous. You''re going to help me find her. Or I''m going to pull your body apart, limb from limb."

 Chapter Twenty-Eight: Lachesis

    "Are you ready ''a talk now?"


    The torturer was in a full soldier''s cloak with a white, featureless round mask. Perhaps the anonymity was meant to instil some sort of mysterious fear. She slowly lowered the finger across the stone pedestal before her and the electricity that coursed through Josh''s body died down.


    He was strapped to a chair that ran magical electricity through him every time his torturer raised her finger on the control. His muscles were on fire from the constant burn and stretch it was being put through. He would have puked from the constriction in his stomach but he had not eaten in a day and what was left of his previous meal was dried on his knees.


    Breathing spasming pained breaths, Josh took the respite as long as he could to catch his breath. He waited until the torturer seemed ready to restart the torture before speaking up.


    "I t-thought I had been t-talking this whole t-time. But you don''t seem interested in my pie recipe."


    Electricity crackled from the crystal behind his chair as the shock ran through his body again. His back stiffened and teeth clenched. Something cracked in his mouth and he won''t be surprised if he had just bit a tooth to pieces.


    "My... my secret...!" He foamed. "My secret-!"


    The torturer turned down the power and Josh''s body limped as he took in pained breaths.


    "My secret..." he said slowly, trying to buy as much time as he could. "Is..."


    The woman leaned forward as his voice wavered and softened. He was on the verge of passing out, but he knew doing so would only buy him a few seconds of reprieve before the rude awakening tore away more of his confidence. Rather, he would die defiant and keep awake as long as possible.


    "My secret... is... a dash... of salted lankles after baking."


    She punched him hard across the jaw and he bit his tongue. Blood tanged his mouth and he spat out a bile of red onto the white mask. Even through the facade, he knew that angered the mad woman. Silently, she turned and walked back to the pedestal.


    Suddenly, his back tore apart and he gurgled in pained, malformed screams. Every muscle in his body tensed and pulled to the point where he could not even muster the countenance to close his jaw. His nails tore as it attempted to rip at his restraints. His face turned blue as his lungs refused to contract. For a minute, the charge was lowered to allow him to breathe. But just as a passing breeze, the respite was quickly taken away.


    <hr>


    At some point, he must have passed out. When he woke, he was in a clean stone room in a soft bed and fluffed linen blanket. The walls were made of smoothened grey stone carved with linings that twirled into shapes of forests and waterfalls. An opened balcony on his left lead to the opened world outside. In the distance, the sky was clear and blue. But while the room was cool and smelled of water, he was sweating from the aches of his body, the pain from the torture still fresh in his mind.


    "You''re awake?"


    He turned his head and reflexively backed up against the edge of the bed frame. Sitting across from him in a red leather chair was the Pyrerai, Lachesis Nazarene. She wasn''t wearing the overflowing garment that adorned her outside the fortress walls. Instead, a plain white shirt and brown pants with longs boots covered her body. In her hands was a thick leather-bound book which title he did not manage to see. Her blonde hair was tied in a neat ponytail and her bloodied golden eyes stared nonchalantly at him like a cat in the twilight rays that cuts through the open balcony.


    In a way, she looked beautiful. Like a librarian sitting in the window''s light.


    "What''s happening?" Josh asked. "Is this..." He looked at his hands and squeezed.


    "Not a dream," Lachesis replied, putting her book aside and leaning comfortably back into her chair. "The whole ''ruthless destined dictator'' shtick is great for controlling a populace. But if you think being mad all the time is an enjoyable way to live, then you might be more insane than I am."


    Slowly and warily, Josh sat fully up in the bed. He wasn''t chained or bound in any way. There were even bandages and dressings over his arms and chests to cover some burns he had sustained during the torture.


    Lachesis said, "Don''t worry. You won''t be going back to the torture chamber. Can''t do so even if I wanted to. Had your torturer executed. She was supposed to keep you alive but you nearly died. It''s been five days since you went unconscious. Incompetence like that must be punished."If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    It was the nonchalant way she spoke of killing that sent the shiver down his spine and reminded Josh that he was still dealing with someone who had not blinked twice before murdering her own. The warm beauty he thought he saw just a moment ago fell away and was replaced with the cold elegance of a frozen field of blood.


    "Why?" Josh asked.


    "Because I''m over a thousand years old and I''m more than familiar enough with people like you." She smiled gently, though not in the way of a mother for a child. It was more like the time he saw a puppy trying to pull along a piece of meat too big for its size and going nowhere. "Brave. Foolish. Fiercely loyal. You will never talk just from threats and pain. You''ll gain strength from it. Grit your teeth and feed off every leeching joy you get when frustration sets in on your tormentors until the day you die."


    He shivered at the last word. "So, what now? You going to kill me?"


    "No. I still need you to bring me the sentinel girl."


    "Because you can''t activate Exodus?"


    "Aren''t you perceptive."


    "I''m not giving anything up."


    "Of course not. Your kind never does," she said while getting to her feet, leaving her book on the chair. "You''re going to ask her to come. And she will do so. Willingly. Can you stand? Well, if you don''t want to, I can always drag you out."


    He was not entirely willing to follow her lead. But part curiosity and part backed into a wall prevented him from doing anything else. Slowly, he swung his legs off the side of the bed to test their strength. When he attempted to stand, his knees nearly buckled and Lachesis teleported next to him and held him up. She grabbed his left arm and swung it over her shoulders. It was not exactly an unpleasant situation to be in. She exuded no killing intent and seemed to just be helping him move. Slowly, they walked towards the balcony.


    From where they stood, they overlooked the inner courtyard of Fortress Muspell with a view across the Helm to the north. Unlike the outside world, the field of the courtyard was green with grass and paved with smooth brick paths. In the centre of it all however, stood a catacomb that poked out of the ground like a sore thumb with an entrance archway facing him with its doors closed. It looked newer than its surroundings and the dirt around it showed the installation was recent.


    She casually noted, "If you try to escape, I''ll teleport you into the sky."


    The next thing he knew, they were next to the catacomb and it was at that instance that it truly sunk in that Adelle and Lachesis was one and the same. The last sentinels.


    As they approached the archway that was supposed to be the catacomb''s entrance, he realised the door he saw from above was actually just a wall of stone. A single hole was set within the middle of it.


    "What is this?" he asked.


    She pointed to the balcony above which was where they came from. "Only I can enter this building. And from your room, you''ll be able to keep an eye on this place."


    "You didn''t answer my question," he reiterated.


    "This," she said. "Is what''s going to convince you to send your sentinel friend to help you."


    They walked up to the hole and she looked into it. In a split second, they stood inside the catacomb. Eight faint glowing crystals were situated evenly around the wall, giving the place an eerie, ghostly white glow that lighted the square chamber. In the centre of the room sat a large torus-shaped machine about 5 by 5 meters wide and tall placed atop a steel pedestal with a control panel facing them. Wires ran the side of the machine and disappeared into the ground.


    Lachesis asked, "Do you know what this is?"


    He did. He knew the moment he saw it. But the version he had once saw had only 1/10 the size of the one before him and was likely of a much older and less efficient model. "An E.M.P bomb." The numbness in his legs subsiding, he managed to push his way from her and stumbled to the inactive panel. He inspected the controls. Everything seemed to be in order to be activated. The only this it seemed to be missing was a power source.


    "That''s right. This model, however, is a super weapon. Its detonation radius will cover pretty much this whole continent."


    "How?" he asked. "These things should only be in Dogon''s military R and D wing. How did you get your hands on this?"


    "They gave it to me." He turned to her in surprise. "President Corlyle is in possession of a weapon that can destroy all golems. He gave this to me to destroy all mechs as a sign of trust."


    "Why would he do this?"


    "Oh, the man''s a narcissist at heart. He wants to go down in history as the president who ended the war, or some nonsense like that. No more Titans, no more war."


    "And what is he waiting for?"


    "Me. I told him I''d have to think about it of course."


    His mind quickly worked to piece things together. "But you''ve already decided to use it."


    "Of course."


    "You''re not waiting to end the war. You''re waiting to activate Exodus. You''ll have a weapon impervious to the two super bombs."


    "Again, very astute.


    "And you think I''m going to just give you my friend?"


    "You will. Because if you don''t, I''ll activate the bomb anyway. And as you can see." She pointed back to the hole they came in from. "Only a sentinel can get in here. And you can watch every day to make sure nothing happens to the bomb."


    It was a trap. Obviously a trap. But if he did not do what she said, the bomb will be the end of not just all mechs, but any cyborgs that were using cybernetics to keep themselves alive. Anyone with an implanted heart valve or processor in their head will die. People like Shou. Genocide of two species. But worst of all for him, it meant the downfall of electrical technology, including the machines that he needed to save his daughter.


    "Go ahead," Lachesis confidently said, taking a seat in the corner of the room. "Inspect the place. Make sure there are no trapdoors or false walls for me to move the machine out whenever I want. And when you''re satisfied, I''ll bring you back to your room and you can write a letter with any details you want. As long as the girl comes to your rescue, of course."

 Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Story of Alone

    Josh doesn''t write letters often, and even less so with any form of official capacity as a Titan Ranger. Sure, he was given an official seal and stamp with all the high ranking members, but he struggled to remember how to work the damn contraption. In his hands, he fumbled with the tiny stamp. Twisting the many layers of the handle left and right, he heard the faint sound of a click. Then, he checked the seal to make sure he had gotten the right combination.


    The seal was the octagonal face of Yeren, a giant humanoid sentient Titan that roamed the Titan Plains. In the stead of its single eye though was a circle with 13 pins inside it. Some were retracted into the stamp while a few were poking out. He counted the combination and found them unsatisfactory. Twisting the end of the handle, the pins retracted with a click and he started the process of twisting the interlocking layers of the handle all over again.


    "Seems a little excessive for security," Lachesis said.


    She had been sitting in his room all day, watching him craft the letter. The only other time she had chimed in was to tell him not to write anything about how to activate Exodus as it might stop the other sentinel girl from coming. After which, she sat quietly reading her book, which he finally found the title of. The Story of Alone.


    He explained the security of the seal. "It''s what happens when you''re operating a group trying to stop people from hunting creatures that are worth millions."


    "Money worth killing for?"


    "Yes."


    "And how would your friends know your seal is correct? I could have stolen your stamp and tortured the information out of you."


    "We have two seals. One is a warning that the seal is compromised and the other one real. And before you ask, we also change the pin combination according to the date and person of origin, so stealing an unopened letter doesn''t matter much."


    "What an intelligent way of doing things. I might have to implement something similar."


    Finally, on the umpteenth try, he finally managed to get the correct pin combination. With a relieved sigh, he gently placed the stamp in black in and stamped the letter addressed to ''L and AD''. After sliding the parchment into an envelope, he then took the red candle off the desk and dripped the crimson wax before sealing it. Finally, he wrote ''To A.W. Deliver to L and AD. Do not open''.


    He asked the Pyrerai, "And how are you going to get this to my companions?"


    "Eca Rend has spies within my court. I''ll just hand it to them."


    "You know who they are? They don''t seem like good spies, then."


    "Oh, they are fine at what they do. I''m just simply better. And I''m sure I don''t know all the mole he has placed, but I do keep track of the ones I find. Keeping friends close and enemies closer, and all that."


    Curiosity finally satisfied, he curtly said, "Here." He held the envelope out to Lachesis.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    She set her book on the chair''s arm and stood to her feet. Instead of walking over, she simply teleported the short distance. He was not sure if it was an act of laziness or a reaffirmation of her power. Either way, it did not change the predicament that he was still under her foot.


    She took the envelope and inspected it. "How do I know you have not set one of the wrong seals?" she asked.


    "You won''t know. I guess you''ll just have to trust that my wish to save the world trumps my fear of you kicking my ass."


    She raised a brow. "That chain of phrasing doesn''t even work."


    "You know," he noted. "Having said it out loud, I can see the issue."


    He had thought that joke would have gotten some form of laugh out of her, but Lachesis'' expression barely twitched. Though they had spent only a few hours together, he found her a confusing woman. Outside of any private area, she carried herself with a dictatorial regalia, a queen descending. Inside, she was relatively normal. She ate small portions and walked with unkempt hair, with a preference for a book and comfortable chair over a throne and adoring subjects.


    It begged him the question, "Why?"


    She looked at him questioningly. "''Why'' what?"


    "Destroy the world? That''s such a cliche fictional villain goal. And the more I see of you, the less maniacal monster I think you are."


    She paused for a moment before walking back to the chair. Sitting down, she slotted the envelope into her book.


    "In stories passed down from sentinel to sentinel, we were told that we were the first. The first truly intelligent race. Before the dwarves, the kins, or you humans. As such, the protection of the world was always our charge."


    There was a pause and he took a moment to make sure he did not speak out of line. "So now you kill it?"


    "Kill it?" She looked almost baffled. "I''m saving it. My species sacrificed their lives to end the First War of Gods. And you would think that something so drastic would be remembered. Honoured even. But here we are two hundred years later, still killing ourselves, the continent, the planet, for what? Resources? Superiority?"


    "Not all of us are like that."


    "And look how much you''ve done to help? You had another sentinel on your side, yet you ran away from the fight, chasing after your own goals. You could have brought her to stop me long before I dug out Exodus."


    They were not heroes. That''s what had been telling people at every corner. Come into Katoki, find a doctor, and get out. That had been their goal. What were three people suppose to do against the tide of a war that had lasted hundreds of years? Yet, when he had times to himself, he often wondered if there weren''t more they could do. They weren''t ordinary, not by a long shot. They had knowledge and power most people would dream for. And most of those ordinary people were out there, fighting to end the war themselves while they who were experienced with the extraordinary sat on the sidelines.


    She paused and looked out the balcony doors towards the night sky, a soft anger settling over her face lit by the candles of the room. "I used to transport people over the Helm. Those escaping war. Those wanting a new life. And what happened? Some used me to sell recipes of weapons to other countries. Siege golems to the dark elves. Espionage gnomes to Devara. And the refugees? Lost to time. Abandoned in a land that they did not recognise nor wanted them."


    "So you want to destroy the world with Exodus? To cleanse us of our transgression?"


    "You keep saying destroy. But destruction isn''t the end. With each war comes reparation. Once I level all the powers there be, I will be the only power left. At least under my watch, I can rebuild society into one coherent civilisation. No more wars."


    "And after you die? Sure, you can live for a long time, but how long is a thousand year in eternity?"


    "I''ll train a successor, of course."


    "And your successor? Will they proceed to do as you wish? Who will judge? Will your followers not end up seeking powers themselves?"


    She was quiet for a moment standing to her feet. "I owe it to my people to try." She walked to the door and laid a hand on the handle while turning to face him. "Good night, Mister Stalewaver. I''ll speak with you again soon. Perhaps you''ll come to see my point of view one day."

 Chapter Thirty: Drums of War

    Despite being in an arid and empty plain with just rolling dunes for cover, Luce found Shou''s hideout to be very easy to defend. Because of the dry landscape, any heavy movements from vehicles will kick up a cloud of dust that could be seen from the horizon. Standing atop one of the many dunes, her binoculars scanned the area around them for smaller movements and oddities not likely to pick up a storm like that of a moving vehicle.


    "Anything?" Adelle asked.


    The elf sat next to her, letting out a yawn of boredom. Even Luce could not blame her for feeling that way. They had been put on patrol for the past dozen days ever since Shou and Reggie fought off the first assault. Since then, the public had turned negatively at Corlyle for risking that many soldiers to capture such a small number of dissenters. In turn, the attacks had been smaller attempts to sneak past their radar, leaving them out to manually check on their lines.


    Luce asked, "Didn''t you use to do reconnaissance of your forest?"


    "Not really," Adelle admitted. "I know that place like the string of my bow. Even when I did go out patrolling, it wasn''t every single day."


    Luce was frustrated as well, but they had to hold on until Josh and Arnold returned. By their estimates, that would be another 8 days away.


    "Anyway," Luce said. "This area looks clear. Let''s move on."


    "Finally!" Adelle jumped to her feet. "Where to next? Or are we done?"


    She pulled out a tablet and scrolled through the map. "Just one more area to scan." She pointed south towards a noticeable twin-peaked dune about a kilometre away.


    Adelle placed a hand on her shoulder and in the blink of an eye, they closed the distance and stood at the bottom of the mount. They would have to walk the rest of the way up as a precaution to anyone who may have been keeping a lookout of the viewpoint and might want them to be shot. As they climbed, Adelle kept letting out sighs.


    Luce berated, "We have to do this."


    "I know! I know! It''s just so slow! Wish we could just teleport up there."


    "You know, when I first met you, you were such a serious, no-nonsense fighter."


    "Was I?"


    "Yes." She was. A person secure in only her ability to fight while doubting in everything else. But ever since then, she had opened up. Her snark often pierced, but never to hurt. Her childish complaints belied past joys unfulfilled. "You''re a much nicer person now."


    From the corner of Luce''s eye, she could see Adelle''s cheeks getting red through her scarf. "Shut up."


    When they neared the zenith of the hill, they crouched down and moved slowly up, scanning the surrounding over the peak with each small step. By the time the crossed over the top, they had covered the entire landscape and was confident enough to resume a standing position. Luce took out her binoculars again and swept the area.


    For a while, nothing seemed amiss. Sand rolled. Winds howled. The heat baked her exposed skin. Then, something. A small something. A tiny piece of the landscape no larger than her thumb within the lenses of her binoculars stood out.


    "I see something," she noted.


    Immediately, Adelle notched her bow. "What is it? Where?"


    "One-ninety-five southwest. Not sure what though." She adjusted the dial on her binoculars and zoomed in.


    It was a flat piece of another dune. It looked not much different from its surroundings aside for the fact that it seemed to be completely still while the sand around it shifted slightly with each breeze. For reasons unknown to her, the hair stood on the back of her neck. And while she watched, she too felt watched.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Then, a glint of light.


    "Gun!" she shouted.


    Though Luce saw it first, Adelle''s reflexes trumped hers on every turn. She felt the elf grab her shoulder and pulled. The binoculars dropped out of her hand at the momentum and Luce felt the tug of teleportation pulling her back. When they reappeared on fresh new ground, the pull from Adelle and shift in terrain caused Luce to slip and fall to her side just as the gunshot rang out into the air.


    "Be right back," Adelle exclaimed.


    "Wait!" Luce shouted back in worry.


    But the elf did not listen and simply vanished in a puff of rust. Luce jumped to her feet and quickly turned around in her spot, searching for where her companion had gone to. The flutter of a camouflage blanket being thrown to the wind caught her attention and she turned to see the sniper pulling out their sidearm to aim at Adelle who simply kicked the gun out of their hand. She stomped against the soldier''s chest before stepping on their ribs. Mercilessly, the elf fired a single arrow into their enemy''s shoulder. The man let out a pained scream.


    As quickly as she could, Luce raised her rifle and fired the grappling attachment onto the dune Adelle and the soldier was on. With the retraction of the grapple pulling her along, Luce sprinted and slid across the dry dirt towards them as fast as she could. By the time she reached them, the sniper already had his one good arm raised in the air in surrender.


    With a growl, Adelle interrogated, "Are there more of you?"


    Seething with pain, the man answered with defiance. "I''ll die before I talk."


    Luce huffed as she pulled out a folded duffel bag from her own pack. "So melodramatic." She swiftly padded the man down for any other weapons and threw what equipments he had - including the camouflage blanket - into the holdall, confiscated from use. The only things they left the man was a first-aid kit, some dried food, and his bottle of water. "We''re not going to kill you."


    "Unless you make us," Adelle added.


    "Come on, Adelle. We''re done here." They would leave him there to make the trek back to whatever military outpost he came from alone. It wouldn''t be fun, but he would live.


    The soldier was perplexed. "You''re... not going to kill me?" As Adelle stepped off the man, he grunted.


    Luce answered, "No. I''m not a killer."


    "I am," Adelle added.


    "Not around me, you''re not." Having to kill was the whole reason she deserted in the first place.


    The soldier stammered, "B-but... they told me..." He caught himself mid sentenced and stopped talking, looking away.


    Even through his full-faced mask, Luce could tell the man was now sweating bullets. "Tell you what?" She turned her attention back to him. "I don''t know what they''re telling you, but it''s probably not true. If I were you, I''d follow in our footsteps and run the heck away."


    She did not say more, simply turning away and taking Adelle''s outstretched hand. Half a dozen teleportations, they made sure they were out of the soldier''s sights before finally speaking.


    "What was that?" Adelle asked.


    "Special ops," Luce answered. "Probably some stealth assassination deal. Slowly crawling his way to us until he can finally infiltrate the hideout."


    "How often does that work?"


    "More often than I''d like. There''ll be more of them. Too many for us to catch. We barely caught this one," Luce admitted. "I don''t think we''ll be able to stay here any longer if these attacks continue."


    "Well, we''ll just fight them back again."


    "No," Luce replied angrily. "We are not just fighting them back. You may be strong, but they have an army. We can''t just muscle our way through everything. You need to use your head sometimes."


    Annoyed, Adelle clicked her tongue and looked past Luce. The red sclera of Adelle''s eyes narrowed. "Hey... what''s that?"


    Luce turned to the direction she was facing. The dunes ended further out leading onto flat ground. Dust was rising quickly in the distance and getting closer towards them.


    Adelle asked, "An assault?"


    "Doesn''t seem like one." From the looks of the dust trail, only one vehicle was approaching. And the height of the cloud behind it suggested a lighter vehicle than an armoured tank.


    Again, Adelle placed a hand on Luce''s shoulder and they approached the incoming vehicle. Careful to keep themselves out of possible firing range, they noticed as they got closer the familiarity of the approaching truck. After another short teleportation to get an even closer look, they confirmed it from the red hair within the driver''s seat that it was Arnold and the pair stepped into the open, waving their arms in greetings.


    He must have seen them for the truck changed it''s trajectory towards them and slowed its speed. It struggled to close in on them, almost as if hesitant to approach. But eventually they made it to each other and the vehicle stopped next to the pair, the dust settling down after a moment.


    When Arnold stepped outside, Luce immediately questioned, "You''re back early." She angled past him to look into the truck but found it empty. She immediately knew that their happy reunion was about to be cut short. "Where''s Josh?" An unease quickly sets into her heart.


    Arnold sighed, searching for the words. He ruffled his hair roughly in frustration. "He''s..." He sighed again before turning around and reaching into the glove compartment, pulling out a sealed envelope. "He''s been captured. And we have a huge problem. Like, Titan-sized."

 Chapter Thirty-One: To Kill Innocence

    Luce, Adelle, Shou, Arnold, and Miu were sitting around a single table, discussing their predicament. The little gnome golem, Marble, was rolling around their legs in figures of eights. Luce was only half listening to Arnold''s recount of the situation, but she got the gist of it. She had yet to take out Josh''s letter yet, instead inspecting the seal with her own stamp. The pins on the seal were for more than just confirmation of legitimacy. It could be used to hide short 6 letters coded messages. With their stamp acting as a cypher and a little brain power, one could easily decode the information.


    "Anything?" Adelle asked.


    "Almost done," Luce replied.


    She wrote down the last letter of the message and the full code was clear.


    AD4EXO


    Arnold asked, "What does that even mean?"


    After double-checking the code to make sure it was correct, Luce let out a long sigh. "Adelle for Exodus. Along with what you told us, it means they need Adelle to activate Exodus." She tore opened the envelope and devoured the letter with her eyes, reading aloud the message relayed from Josh. No longer able to keep her mind occupied, Luce only began to worry. "It''s a trap. If Adelle goes to save Josh, Lachesis will use her to activate Exodus."


    Shou said, "But we can''t stop the E.M.P without Adelle either."


    Miu asked the fatal question, "So what are we going to do?"


    Everyone quietly sat, mulling the problem over. Adelle needed to be in two places at once, to either help Shou with his break-in to retrieve Reggie''s bio-cell and destroy the G.A.S.P, or to rescue Josh and disable to E.M.P. For a long, time Luce tried to figure out a plan to execute both, but nothing came to mind. It seemed she had to choose, and only one path would lead to the rescue of her father, but at the risk of capture or even death to Adelle. In the end, she weighed everything and the choice became obvious.


    She stood up. "Come on, Adelle. We''re going."


    The elf did not stand. Instead, she gave her a questioning glance.


    "Woah, woah, woah!" Shou waved manically. "And where are you going?"


    "We''re going to save Josh."


    Of course she was. For her, who had lost enough of her family, the few left was everything to her. She could not see anything short of a bullet through her head that was going to stop her.


    Miu added quickly, "I get that that''s the most optimal choice, saving Josh and disabling the E.M.P. But we need to consider about the G.A.S.P as well."


    "You need to consider it," Luce noted. "Not me. I''m just saving Josh. The E.M.P, the G.A.S.P, none of that is my problem. I came here to save my sister, and now my father. Nothing more, nothing less. Adelle and I are going to rescue Josh and get Miura across the Helm, end of story."


    Arnold shot to his feet. "Hang on! That''s not part of our deal! And if you haven''t noticed, Shou''s a cyborg. If that E.M.P goes off, he might die!"


    "Well, the situation has obviously changed then! But my goal hasn''t!" Luce snapped back, unsure where her sudden burst of anger came from. "I told you the first time we met. We''re not here to play heroes. So unless your threat comes with killing us, we are leaving. Come on, Adelle!"


    She turned and walked away from the table towards their bunk to retrieve their belongings. Maybe she would steal the elecycle if they were not going to go after them. Even otherwise, Luce was more than willing to walk to Citi or Citidale if it came to it. But just then though, something wasn''t right. She expected more noise, more reactions from the people behind her. She turned around and found Adelle still sat at her seat, her stare still quizzical, and everyone else looking at the elf.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Adelle finally spoke. "We''re not going."


    She was stunned. Then, rage. "Of course we are," Luce angrily answered. "You work for me, remember?"


    "No. I follow you. There''s a difference. And I only followed you because apparently, you''re supposed to be a good influence on me. Now, we''re going to be heroes here and you know it."


    She turned around to face Adelle. "You''re the last person that should tell me to save people. That has never been your thing!"


    "No, it hasn''t," Adelle admitted. "But it has been yours. You''ve spent your every waking moment trying to prevent violence. You''re not like me, Luce. You''re not a killer. Even if you go ahead and turn a blind eye away from genocide, it will haunt you forever. You''ll never sleep again for the rest of your life!"


    "And why do you care?"


    "Because it''s you, you idiot."


    What could Luce say to that? The elf had never shown much consideration for many people. But those close to her she had defended with her life. Was she trying to say that Luce was important to Adelle? Enough to put her life on the life try to stop two country''s mad genocidal plans to save what? Her soul?


    Adelle stood up, hands on the table and head down, looking at all the information gathered. "What would a hero do?" she muttered.


    Immediately, Shou answered, "Save everyone."


    She nodded. "Save everyone. Right." The elf took a deep breath. "Since I''m the only one that can disable the emp machine, I''ll go to Ampyre. I''ll need a Guide."


    Arnold agreed. "Okay. You have me."


    Miu noted, "But we still need you to break into the Trashsite."


    "No," Adelle pointed out. "It''s just a lot harder, but I''m not needed."


    "She''s right," Shou agreed. "Our plan was to just walk into the place with her. But now, we''ll just go back to sneaking in."


    Miu added, "Since we can''t teleport now, we''ll need a way to get through their doors. Luce, any ideas?"


    She snapped out of her stunned silence. She had given an outburst yet they brought her back in without hesitation. They were an odd bunch, but it reminded her of some odd people she used to work with. She looked to Adelle, whose face of question was replaced with a small smile and Luce let out a defeated but happy puff.


    "It''ll be easiest with some level of security clearance," she finally contributed, walking back to the table. "We could try to hack into their network and reinstate our clearances."


    "It''s an intranet," Miu explained. "We''ll have to get inside the physical location to be able to do anything in the datascape. And honestly, none of us can hack, and we might not find a hacker willing to work on something so dangerous."


    Luce thought for a moment. The Titan War was stretching to its inevitable breaking points. Mechs and golems were no longer at the forefront to the battle. Superweapons were. But perhaps the Titans still had a role to play. Remembering Arnold''s story about how the three of them found out that Reggie was sentient, she brought up the tale to them.


    "Yeah," Shou replied. "What about it?"


    "Reggie inputted Miu''s credential on its own, right? Does that mean Reggie has security clearance?"


    Miu explained, "No. It''s just recognition on the software level. The system recognises the soft..." She trailed off. "If... if the system only recognises software, then Reggie could potentially hack into the network."


    "Is that possible?"


    "I think so," Miu noted. "I mean, it''s not like the base code changed. Even if they updated it, Reggie can just be patched to match. If we can get it into one of the intra-connected facilities, it can probably change our clearances."


    "Great," Shou remarked sarcastically. "Now we just need to sneak a small walking building into a high-security facility without being seen. Piece of cake."


    An idea struck Luce. She bent down to the ground and picked up Marble the gnome, placing in on the table. The tiny golem spun around, its beady eye looking at them, slightly confused but excited.


    "Marble''s a spy gnome. It''s meant to move quietly through small gaps. If we could load Reggie''s A.I onto a wireless chip, we could have Marble move in close enough to do the deed." She leaned into Marble and sweetly said, "You''ll help us, won''t you?"


    The gnome spun happily around in its spot. They were smarter creatures than their sized let on and Luce wondered just how much intelligence was in these creatures.


    Shou noted, "Reggie''s not going to like that, being away from its body. There''s going to be a consciousness break for it. It''s a little... unethical."


    Adelle speeched, "Do a little wrong for a big right." She looked understandingly at Shou.


    With a sigh, he finally agreed. "I''ll talk to it. It''s not like we got many choices right now."


    Miu said, "Then I''ll start work on the chip. Luce, you''ll have to stay to train Marble. No one else here knows golems as much as you do."


    She agreed. "We all have our jobs. Let''s get this done as soon as we can and call it a day, shall we?"


    They all stood to their feet in unison. Without another word, the group split off to their tasks.


    Luce lagged behind. "Adelle," she called out, and the green-haired woman turned. Luce could feel her cheeks flushed as the next words came to her. "Thanks."


    Adelle nodded nonchalantly. "Of course."

 Chapter Thirty-Two: Ball of Hope

    ''E was a ball of earth that rolled around with a large marble eye and ''Er name was Marble. At least, that''s what ''er new owner called ''im. ''E liked being called that. It was much better than ''er old owner, who called ''im nothing.


    Marble rolled across the floor of ''er bunk. The room was empty, and ''e guessed ''er owner had woken up earlier and left without ''er noticing.


    ''E could feel the energy of seither flowing through ''er body. The night had fully recharged ''er circuit and she was ready for another five days without rest. The door to the room had been left opened, leaking light in from the outside, as per usual whenever ''e rested. ''E rolled ''emself out of the room, following the brightness into the corridor.


    In ''er old home, there was not much light. Just a dark box that had the space to move a little forward, a little backward, a little left, and a little right. So ''e was glad to have the chance to dust ''er coat.


    "Oh, hello, Marble."


    ''E turned to find the Nice Girl. The gnome was smart enough to understand words and orders. It was, after all, how ''e was created. However, ''e was bad with names. ''E was sure that eventually, ''er magic circuits would reconfigure themselves to remember more names, but for now, just knowing ''e was Marble was good enough.


    "Are you looking for Lcue?" She was speaking of ''er owner so ''e rolled in a circle. "Well, she went to see Aeldle off. She''s in the garage." The nice girl rubbed ''er head and walked off.


    Marble was made with the ability to find ''er way around places and recognise information. What people called a spy gnome. Even if ''e did not know what a ''garage'' did, ''e still knew where it was and how to get there within their circuits.


    On the way over, ''e made sure to roll over as much of the dirt on the ground as possible. Like all golems, he could heal himself over time with earthen particles sticking to ''im. The Cage People had cracked ''er shell but it had sealed up well over the days. Besides, the people living with ''im seems happy that the dirt was gone, or at least, that was what ''e deduced based on their faces. ''E had slowly been learning expressions by comparing it to what ''e ''emself felt. ''E thinks some of the conclusions were wrong, but ''e was sure ''e will get them correct over time.


    The door to the garage opened as ''e neared and Sad Man stepped out. The man in the white jacket waved to the little ball with a smile before turning to look back into the garage.


    "I''ll see you later, Arolnd. Don''t go dying on me."


    "Yeah, yeah," Red Hair replied from inside. "Not if you die first."A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    ''E did not when them to die. But ''e felt that they were not being serious. After spending so much time with them, ''e felt like ''e was starting to understand ''jokes''.


    As the Sad Man walked away towards the bunks, Marble rolled past him and into the garage where Red Hair, Tall Girl, and ''er owner was standing behind a large container on wheels, loading boxes into the larger box called a ''truck''. The larger box could move, much like Marble could, but only in a single direction, which made the larger box more useless than ''im, in ''er opinion.


    "Hey, Marble," ''er owner greeted. "We''re not doing any training today. You can go play, if you want."


    ''E was quite glad that ''e had the day off. But at the same time, saddened at not getting to spend more time with owner. ''Er previous owner was not as gentle as ''er new one. He would break open ''er shell and rewire every single circuit in ''er body to implant new commands. Even though it was the fastest way to teach ''im new tricks instead of waiting for ''er circuit to self-change, it was extremely painful and disorienting. But no matter how much ''e asked him to stop, ''er old owner can''t seem to listen. In the end, ''e always felt like ''e had lost something after each session of "teaching". ''E had already learnt that ''er new owner needed ''im to bring something called a ''chip'' to a place. But it was not the same chip the Sad Man always ask ''im to get for him to eat. ''E was now trying to learn where to get the chips to. It was going to take a few more days to learn it, but ''e was willing to work hard to make ''er new owner happy, especially since ''er new owner made sure that it did not hurt ''im.


    ''E then decided to visit ''er friend in the workshop so ''e spun around ''er owner''s legs to say goodbye. The latter patted ''er head.


    As marble rolled away to go about ''er day, ''e turned back briefly to see Tall Girl and owner look at each other. They had that face that Sad Man and Nice Girl gave. But ''e had not been able to figure out what it meant. Their faces would go red when they do. ''E remembered that people''s faces turn red when it gets hot and that they needed to stick water to their faces to get better like how ''e uses dirt. ''E hoped they were stuck with enough water. But just in case, ''e made an effort to remember to keep ''er eye on them.


    Again, ''e made sure to collect more dirt on ''er way. As ''e got slightly bigger, ''e was able to think a little better. ''E wondered if ''er ability to think had anything to do with ''er size. The larger golems seemed so smart whenever they saw each other. They also had more parts, like larger faces, arms, and legs. Marble wondered if one day ''e will grow big enough to learn how to have more face space, arms, and legs.


    As ''e entered the workshop, the sitting giant turned its head to look at ''im. Reggie. ''E remember its name because they were friends. They were also the same, having not had a name before meeting their new owners. And since ''e felt ''er name was so special to ''er, its name must be special to it too.


    Reggie raised its giant hand and waved slowly and Marble spun around to say "Hello". ''E proceeded to roll all around the perimeter of Reggie, with the robot turning its head to follow ''er. ''E was not sure if it understood what ''e was trying to do, but ''e liked how it made ''im feel when they spend time together. They were also going on a job together. ''E was looking forward to that.


    Before, ''e was told that mechs were bad and would kill ''im if ''e got too close. But Reggie was not bad. Maybe not all mechs were bad. Maybe some were like ''im, just wanting to roll around and do stuff.


    ''E thinks the people called the stuff ''fun''.

 Chapter Thirty-Three: Grumblehorn

    Adelle and Arnold moved through the streets on Ampyre. With lesser people and equipment than they were escorting before and a better understanding of the layout, they managed to avoid the increased security with little problems.


    That, and Adelle could teleport.


    They reappeared in an alley shadowed in even more darkness than the rest of the continent. Even if they could travel quickly, they were trying to not raise alarms. Another patrol of ten or so soldiers marched past the street as the pair slunk into the umbra, pulling up their cloaks to hide the colour of their faces.


    Adelle harshly whispered, "There seems to be more of them than normal."


    "They''re probably looking for us. Or at least, you," he replied. "Green hair, red eyes, hard to miss."


    "Don''t remind me," she groaned.


    Once the guards passed, she grabbed him by the shoulder and ported them across the streets. Moving through the labyrinth of the inner city, they hoped to close in enough to the fortress for Adelle to sneak in while Arnold caused a distraction outside. But hopefully, their secondary plan would kick into place instead.


    Three days ago while on the road over, Arnold had sent out a message over the radio to Eca''s group for aid. They did not have a long range ''receiver'' on the truck - whatever that was - and could not be sure Eca''s group even got the call. They were going to execute the rescue even if they didn''t though. Time, after all, was not on their side. They had to meet back up with the rest of their friends before the hunt for them on the other side of the continent escalated further.


    Together, they blended into a crowd and flowed with the swaying pedestrian. Each stepped brought them closer to the meeting spot they had arranged for with Eca. The plan was to wait there for the afternoon and hope someone turns up to get them, preferably not the ones wanting the capture Adelle to execute an end of the world plan. They weren''t sure if their radio message had been intercepted and only hoped the secure frequency was actually secured.


    Arnold said, "This way." He darted into a smaller street. As they proceeded towards the tavern where they were meant to wait for Eca''s rebels, Adelle could not help but notice Arnold''s relieved smile. "We''re almost there!"


    "They might not be here," she reminded him and watched his smile fade away.


    "Way to kill the mood."


    The Grumblehorn Travern was just your run-of-the-mill tavern that served enough alcohol to put a giant to sleep, or a rampage, whatever one''s fancy. It was one of the few places not connected to the Guides and informants information network. There was little reason for any guards to investigate the place for anything else other than how much their rum cost.


    Unlike most of the middle city, the building was relatively new. Though made of common stones, it was able to afford the luxury of wooden frames and a velvet flag hanging above its door with the tavern logo of two white horns crossed as swords.


    The pair entered and some of the patrons looked up to them. However, none kept their gaze and quickly fell back to whatever slime of drinks they were having. The room was made of simple rock floor and layered with long stone benches and tables. A bar was situated flatly across the entrance with shelves of drinks in leather ceramic jugs labelled with dried paint. A musky smell of dusty alcohol floated around.


    They walked across the tavern and took a corner booth. When the waiter walked up to them, Arnold simply raised three fingers to order the drinks, to which the former nodded. The drinks came in three ceramic mugs of different sizes and colours. Consistency was obviously not a concern there.


    Adelle kind of liked the place.


    "So now what?" she asked.


    Arnold shrugged. "We wait for twilight."


    Three mugs for a table of two, that was the sign for Eca to notice.


    An hour passed. Then two. Patrons had come and gone but still they sat, having shuffled through two rooms of different customers. Arnold had already finished his mug and was starting on hers. She didn''t drink as she liked to keep her senses sharp enough to fire her bow without accidentally shooting herself in the foot. Arnold obviously had no issue with shooting himself in the foot. Either way, she could not find it in herself to relax, not just because her weapons tangled oddly under her cloak. The air of tension was infuriating. She hated waiting.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    After the third hour passed, she suggested, "I think we should go."


    Arnold looked at the last mug, still filled, obviously thinking about finishing it. But he finally agreed after a moment''s hesitation. "Yeah. Let''s go."


    Before they stood up, however, the door to the tavern opened and a group of 5 guards sauntered loudly in. They were not patrons, obviously, not just from their numbers but also from the extra protection standing guard outside.


    "Alrigh''," the leading guard exclaimed. "Nobody leave. Rou''ine check."


    "Again?" the bartender whined. "''at''s ''e fourth ''ime ''is season!"


    The guards went around the table, checking the face of each patron with a scroll bearing a roughly coloured sketch of Adelle.


    She clicked her tongue in frustration. Looking around, the door was watched at an angle where even if she managed to teleport out, she would still be seen, and no doubt a chase would take place.


    "Geared..." she swore under her breath.


    It was not the time to get tripped up. She needed to rescue Josh quickly and get back to Luce.


    As she was thinking, one of the soldiers walked out around her blind spot up to their table. She looked straight up at him as he stared down at her face and knew their cover was blown. She reached for her bow, prepared for a fight. Her mind raced to anticipate their first moves.


    The most optimal strategy was to leave Arnold to deal with the soldier immediately before them as she took out the ones on the other side of the tavern before they could react. That would leave the least amounts of enemies to deal with, but at the same time, would leave Arnold exposed to harm. Guarding him was a priority as she needed him to Guide her back to Luce.


    In some ways, she had always enjoyed the starting moments of combat. The tension of hanging on the edge with the unexpected tickling at her throat. But not then. Not in a long while. There was too much at stake, and she was still not sure how to handle the responsibility of having something to fight for or a reason to live other than her own selfish needs.


    Her fingers rubbed the leather of her quiver.


    Then, the soldier huffed and walked away.


    She was confused for a moment, then anxious the next. Her hand was still touched to the edge of her bow, ready to jump at a moment''s notice. Was it a ruse to lure them out? Put them in a sense of safety as they leave before ambushing them with their guards down? She crossed glances with Arnold, the latter giving her an almost shocked and quizzical expression.


    After a few minutes, the guards approached the bartender, exchanged some pleasantries, and left the establishment.


    "What was that?" Adelle turned to Arnold and asked.


    "Your face and hair," he replied. "They are different."


    "What are you talking about?" she questioned.


    A young man with blond hair and a scarred face walked up to them, a drink in hand. They did not recognise him but he did not make her hair stand on the back of her neck as most dangerous situations did. The young man exuded no violent aura or intentions.


    Arnold looked to him quizzically. "Can we help you?"


    The man smiled and bowed slightly. "You''re welcome, by the way." As he stood back up, his face sparkled with light and the facial features changed into that of Eca Rend.


    Arnold clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Illusion magic."


    Eca waved a hand over Adelle''s face, probably to disarm the illusion that had tricked the guards. "Come on. Let us go."


    The light mage moved swiftly with a sense of urgency, paying for their drinks as they left the tavern. Disappearing back into the crowd, the trio continued westward, following Eca to what would likely end in one of his many hideouts.


    Adelle piped up, "You received our message?"


    "Yes. I sent Talia out towards the coordinate you sent me. She''ll meet up with your friends and guide them back once they''re done on their end."


    She sighed in relief. Having another Guide on the road halves their workload. They now had more time to spend attempting their rescue of Josh, though she still wanted to get things over with quickly. She''d felt better if she were by Luce''s side. Her train of thought screeched to a halt. Since when had she begun to think that way? She wasn''t sure. She didn''t know if she cared when it happened. It felt right, and that was how she had lived her life for all those years, simply doing what felt right.


    Eca broke her out of her trance by asking them, "How are you planning to save Joashden?"


    Arnold explained, "Not much planning. I''ll throw some grenades at the gates and cause a distraction while Adelle sneaks in."


    "Simple, to the point," Eca noted. "Very like you guys. But I don''t think that''s such a bad idea. A direct confrontation might work better than trying to skirt around it. But let''s wait until after dark."


    "Why?" she asked. "Or what are you plotting exactly?"


    "No plots," he admitted. "Just that if you''re going for distractions, might as well make it a big one. Instead of tossing a few incendiaries at the gate, I''ll gather my people and tonight, we''ll set the whole district on fire."


    Arnold gave him a look of worry. "Won''t innocent people die?"


    He laughed. "Don''t worry. It''ll be targeted. Only assholes will die."


    "Why are you helping us to this extent?" she asked.


    "Like I said when we first met. This is a mutual exchange. As long as the Pyrerai keeps her eyes on you, she''s not keeping an eye on me."

 Chapter Thirty-Four: The Rescue

    Adelle stood atop the sheeted roof under the cover of twilight. The dark hours in the south were short, with only a couple of hours a day. But it was enough for their goal. All she was awaiting for were the familiar orange over the horizon. She had seen the light of fire when she was younger, during the Grassplains'' Rebellion. Longingly, she waited. As the lights of the Twins finally completely vanished over the horizon, a loud explosion erupted from her east. Smoke plumes rose slowly from the source of the blast. Was it Arnold''s grenade? Or something else? Not too long after, bright red light flickered over the roofs of several buildings and the sound of ringing bells filled the air. Screams followed soon after and fire danced like grass in the wind over what roofs too short to cover them.


    From the parapet of the fortress walls, silhouettes of the patrolling soldiers ran towards the commotion, leaving only half their guards behind on the other sections.


    Adelle waited for the movements to finalise until no other guards in the area were being reassigned. She zeroed in on a single guard standing on a curved section of the wall where she wagered no one else would focus on. She drew her axes and spun them in her hands to reassert their weights. Then, with a blink, she teleported across the city and onto the top of the wall and above the guard. As she fell straight down onto her target, her heart skipped and beat. Instead of slamming the sharp ends of her axes down onto the guard''s skull, she turned the axes'' handles in her hand and smashed the blunt end into the guard''s helmet instead.


    The guard drops to their knees before they could even shout for help. Groggy from the surprise bash, they turned to face Adelle as their expression turned shocked when she backhanded them with the side of her weapon, knocking the guard unconscious.


    She let out a tired breath. Her teleportation ability got her far, but long distances such as that had a tendency to sting her endurance. Squatting down behind the embrasure to prevent being seen, she took a moment to rest. Looking to the knocked out guard, she could only contemplate. If she had killed him, it would only have required a single strike. But because of the non-lethal method, she had to waste time and energy on three separate attacks. And it also meant the time she had to conduct her rescue was shortened by the soldier possibly waking up.


    What an inefficient method to conduct fights. She wondered why Luce used it, and even more why Adelle herself was following the example. She put that thought aside and stood up. From her vantage point, she could see Josh, leaning out of his balcony attempting to find the source of the commotion.


    Things were going too smoothly. They knew there was a trap somewhere, even if they didn''t know what it was. But time was ticking. She decided to throw her fate to the wind and solve problems as they came. She teleported straight into Josh''s room, weapons drawn.


    "Ah!" Josh let out a scream, clutching his heart. "Adelle! I need to put a bell on you."


    "Why?" she asked. "Like a slave?"


    "No... like a ca-you know what? Never mind that. What are you doing here? Did you not receive my warning?"


    "Yes, yes," she waved off his concern. "Trap. Need me to start end of the world. Bombs. Emps. Blah blah. Things change. Luce is stuck in Citi. Now, let''s go destroy that emp thing and get this over with."


    Looking around the room, she noticed the bed, or what was left of it. Aside from the mattress, the frame had been torn to pieces. In its place leaning against a wall was a wooden pavise shield made of the salvaged planks and tied together with the cloth of the beddings. A short makeshift wooden sphere with a scrap metal tip was next to it.


    "You''ve been busy," she asked him.


    "Yeah," he replied, walking over. He picked up the weapon and shield, ready to leave. "I''ve had some unsuccessful escape attempts."If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    "Leave the weapons," she instructed. "You''re not much of a fighter, and I''d rather you be able to run than get in the way of a fight."


    He squinted at her but relented, dropping the equipment. Adelle took one last glance around the room and caught sight of the single sofa, untouched amid the chaos.


    "What''s with the chair?"


    "Oh. The Pyrerai sits there when she comes by."


    "She visits you?"


    "Yeah. Some weird attachment thing."


    "You like her?"


    "What?" he exclaimed, face contorted. "No! Sure, she''s a smart, powerful woman, but she''s also insane!" he emphasised the last part.


    Adelle shrugged, walking over to the balcony to look over it. "We''ve met people like that before."


    "Yeah," Josh admitted. "And he was on our side."


    "Oh. Right. Well, whatever. Let''s get on with this. Where''s the emp."


    "E.M.P," Josh corrected as he walked up beside her, pointing to the tomb below. "And it''s in there. This is definitely a trap."


    "How do we know the emp is even still in there?" She was now saying ''emp'' mostly out of pride.


    "I''ve been keeping watch on it. Even with teleportation, moving such a large contraption would draw eyes and make sounds. Nothing''s even disturbed the shrubbery, let alone went in or out."


    Adelle nodded. "Okay then. Let''s go walk into my trap."


    She teleported them down to the front of the tomb where Josh pointed out the hole in the wall. She stared inside and immediately noticed the darkness.


    "I can''t see anything," she noted. From her pouch, she took out a torchlight and handed it to Josh. "I need my hands free to fight."


    The latter pointed the tool to the ground and turned it on, shining a white spotlight onto the ground. "I''m ready." He grabbed her shoulder.


    "Stay behind me," she instructed right before teleporting inside.


    Immediately, Josh swivelled the light across the room, sweeping left to right and right to left. It was empty. The confined space meant not even dust on the floor were left for them to disturb. But it also meant the E.M.P machine was no longer there.


    "No..." Josh let out softly, pushing past Adelle and jogging up to the centre of the room as if to make sure he was not hallucinating. "It was here. The machine was huge. They couldn''t have moved it."


    It was a trap. They knew it was a trap. She had expected them to bait her in with the E.M.P, but not to have the machine not be there in its entirety. She was willing to skirt around the device, even using it as leverage in their fight, but now, the scale of danger and worth of risk had tipped. They had nothing in their favour any longer.


    She quickly told him, "Let''s get out of here."


    Adelle turned to leave and a glint of metal reflected the light of the torch. She pulled her axes up to parry but was too late. The spear tip pierced into her gut and a sear of pain shot through her bones. Her offhand axe dropped to the stone floor with a clang as she gripped the spear handle to prevent it from being pulled out. The blade was plugging the wound.


    "Adelle!" Josh exclaimed as he swept the light over to her, revealing Lachesis'' toothy grin in the dark.


    "Hello," the Pyrerai''s voice sounded like a wisp. "Demon Eyes."


    Blood soaked down to Adelle''s hand. Through the pain, her thinking clouded. She wondered why the woman had waited until she turned around to stab her. "Why?" Adelle croaked.


    It seemed the Pyrerai understood. "I wanted to see you scared."


    Lachesis yanked the spear, attempting to pull it out. But Adelle held tightly on, staggering forward while the tip ripped at her innards. She had no doubt the attack had cut vital parts of her insides and she needed to keep the plug in whatever the cost. Lachesis seemed to have figured that out too and attempted to pull again. But Adelle teleported backwards, bifurcating the spear off at the base of her grip while keeping the tip part in her body. She stumbled into Josh''s arm, who supported her back as quickly as he could. She raised her single axe before her, ready to go down fighting.


    But instead of finishing her off, Lachesis simply looked at her half of the spear, still soaked in Adelle''s blood.


    The Pyrerai shrugged. "I got what I wanted. Enjoy eternity." She walked to the hole in the wall and vanished in a puff of smoke.


    "Wait!" Adelle screamed, pushing away from Josh and rushing herself to the pinhole exit.


    Just as she got there, the light from the outside was covered away. Without a line of sight, they were trapped.


    "Geared!" She swore loudly, no longer caring of stealth.


    She held onto her wound as she fell to her knees, slipping down against the wall and onto the ground. Josh ran to her side and turned her over, his hand quickly moving over to her wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding.


    "Hang in there, Adelle!" He looked worried. She was not sure if she had ever seen him worried for her.


    Perhaps it was the torch running out of power, but her surroundings quickly got darker. With the last ounce of her strength, she admitted, "I lost."

 Chapter Thirty-Five: I Was Dead, Now Alive

    Adelle stumbled into the room, clutching her stomach where the barb was pierced in her. Cold air misted from her breath, the world around her red from the pain. She was alone in the cave she called home, stumbling towards her cot for safety. A salvaged wooden chest next to it was where she kept all of the little belongings she had.


    Once next to the chest, she collapsed against the wall, sliding down it as her legs gave way. With one hand on her wound holding in the blood, she opened the container and dug around for the small bundle of leaves. Herbal medicine cobbled together with strings. A mishmash of plants that were meant to take on anything from pain to infection, albeit not very effectively. She hardly ever got injured and never needed anything more than a good wash to clean of her own blood. But this time, it was different. This time, she might die.


    She ripped her shirt open at the piercing. Clutching the arrow, she pulled and let out a yell as blood splashed across the floor. She jammed the medicine over the open wound, keeping pressure on it while using her teeth and cloth belt to tie a tourniquet around it.


    Her ambush on the hunters had been careless. She had rushed in without ascertaining the numbers, and a hidden archer had gotten a clean shot from a higher vantage. An amateurish mistake.


    With the force from the makeshift bandage setting in and her muscles clenching into position, her vision began to blur. No doubt she was about to pass out. She tasted blood on her teeth as the cold winter wind bit her to the bones. On the bright side, the freezing temperature numbed her enough that the pain began easing. However, there was a chance she would not wake up tomorrow. The cold, infection, blood loss, or any number of things could end her. Perhaps it was for the best.


    Nobody would miss her.


    <hr>


    It was warm. But not the warmth of a campfire burning away the cold evening. It was the kind of warm she had gotten used to in the Burning South. A heat that was as if everything around her were being baked constantly, but the air itself was not. There was light in the tomb which she now realised were meant to be hers and Josh''s burial place. The illumination flickered on the verge of bright and dim.


    "You''re awake."


    She tilted her head right to see Josh sitting against the wall, hands resting on his knees as if having slept in it. The flashlight sat next to him, converted into its standing lamp mode. The air was thin, and she wondered how much longer they would be able to breathe in such an enclosed space with the entrance sealed.


    She asked, "How long was I out?"


    "Hard to say," he yawned. "I fell asleep myself."


    Taking a deep breath, she tried to sit up only to have a sharp pain wince through her body. She let out a grunt of pain.


    "Take it slow," Josh crawled quickly to her and settled her head back down to rest. "I stopped the bleeding, but the spearhead is still in your body."


    Adelle raised her hand from her wound and sure enough, it was covered in dried blood. But it was not the time to stay still. Even without the threat of being trapped with who knows how long worth of oxygen, Lachesis was still out there, apparently with Adelle''s blood which was what was needed to activate Exodus and killed everybody. Somewhere inside, she missed the life of being a loner. Having to care for others was proving to be a pain. Literally.


    "Help me up," she requested. Josh got under her arms and assisted her slowly off her back. Gritting the whole process, she said, "We need to find a way out of here."


    "I''ve tried," he replied. "There are no exits. And even at your best, bifurcating things with your teleport is difficult enough. Just rest until you have the strength."


    "We don''t have the time."


    Josh looked pained. It was apparent he agreed with her but had no idea how to escape their predicament.Stolen story; please report.


    "Think," she said to him. "We''re not going to be able to brute-force our way through this. You said you never saw her leave with the machine."


    "Yeah," Josh reaffirmed, but then admitted, "But I could be wrong. Maybe she got it out when I was asleep and I just didn''t hear it."


    "Maybe. But that''s leaving a lot of things to chance. You said she''s smart," Adelle panted out. She grabbed her axe and smacked the handle against the floor, wood knocking stone. "So let''s be smart."


    Tink. Tink. Tink.


    "You''re thinking secret passages?" Though he asked as if questioning, he was already picking up Adelle''s second axe and checking the slabs around him.


    "You catch on quick for an old man."


    While she slowly struggled to her feet, he left her side to pound on each stone slab in the floor, starting from the corner.


    Tink. Tink. Tink.


    As Josh moved towards the centre, he asked, "How are we going to stop her?"


    "No idea," she answered honestly. "We could get Eca involved. But honestly, one step at a time."


    Tonk.


    Josh froze at the hollow knock and Adelle limped over to him. Once he brought the torch over to the spot, she could see the edges of the slab of stone was just slightly indented.


    "Step back," she instructed.


    With one foot on the aforementioned slab, she pushed her powers to it, envisioning the bubble of teleporting space wrapping around the outline of the slab. Her muscle tensed and her wound gritted painfully as the piece of stone vanished and reappeared in midair at her side before dropping and shattering against the floor. Adelle floundered slightly with her leg dangling over the gap that appeared and Josh quickly took her elbow to stabilise her.


    Without another word, she teleported both of them down the hole, landing within a tight tunnel dug through the ground. Burnt out torches suggested the place was last used quite a long while ago. At the end of the path was a glint of light.


    They decided against teleportation, instead quietly walking towards the exit with Adelle using Josh as a crutch. However, nothing happened. Even as they exited out into an underground chamber partially lit by torches, no one stood in their way.


    "This is weird," Adelle voiced aloud. "I thought there''d be more guards. Or any guards."


    Josh ran his hand against the brick wall. "This looks like part of the main fortress."


    They turned down a darkened corner into a corridor where half the torches were unlit, creating shades of black every few steps. Their footsteps echoed as they travelled through the passageway to the next chamber where a large beast of a machinery waited for them in the middle of the room.


    "It''s the E.M.P." After making sure the coast was clear, Josh leaned Adelle against the wall and headed to the console. After a quick check, he grimly announced, "It''s been used."


    "Fuck..." Adelle cursed, looking around. "Even then... where are the guards?"


    When Josh circled around the machine and to the stairwell, he screeched to a halt. "Adelle..." His murmured voice carried in the emptiness.


    She did not need to see it to have an inkling of what he discovered. Through the pain, she teleported to his side and found the stairs littered with bodies, waterfalls of blood flowing down each step. Lachesis had killed everyone who stood in her way it seemed.


    The pair did not speak further. He helped her up each step, their boots quickly dyed red with blood. When the pair reached the foyer landing, they found the building empty save for the dozen more corpses littering the once midnight carpet. A loud blast rang in from the outside and the two limped their way to the exit as quickly as her injuries let them.


    As they stepped out through the gate and into the light of the fire, the scene unfolding outside was burnt forever into Adelle''s mind.


    A cloud of black floated outside the city. But it was not the rust filled Taint that they had come to know from the burning soot that filled the air. It was dark as onyx, glinting, swarming like hornets. Within it were stones - from where they stood - pebbles, really. However, as the cloud shifted, the pebbles swung across the sky as if being thrown by an invisible hand, hurtling to the market and growing larger as it approached until it crushed the entire district under a mountain of earth and rocking the very ground they stood on. Adelle wanted to call them projectiles. But what to name one the size of a tiny island?


    Once more, the swarming cloud flung another landmass into the city, but this time one of a smaller scale. An armoured golem four times the size of the fortress they stood at rushed to intercept the missile, each of its steps quaking the land. The monstrous Titan threw itself into the earth''s path and shattered in a bursting explosion of magical energy and force, its remnants shrapnel the size of houses raining down on the neighbourhood it just protected. Around the edge of the city, half a dozen more of the giant-sized golems were throwing grains of rocks at the swarm to little effect.


    Josh stammered, "We''re... suppose to fight that?"


    A bright light erupted in a pillar from southeast of the city. From it, a giant white bird like a streak of comet burst out and flew at the swarm of Exodus. The bird of light spun and spiralled into a drill before slamming into the heart of the swarm, sending a wave of magical light energy out into a ring. The cloud dispersed slightly, the bombardment stopped to the sound of screams, explosions, and crackling fire.


    Adelle and Josh watched, slack-jawed at the sight. After a moment, the swarm seemed to turn course and started heading south.

 Chapter Thirty-Six: Roll Out

    Located southeast of Citidale was the Trashsite, a secured military base storing older technology and equipment no longer in circulation. There were fewer artifacts in museums than weapons at Trashsite, a poignant mark on the value of things in a world at war. Two guards towers extended out from a bunker located at the edge of the base, a road leading up to the mesh gates denoting the entrance. Behind them were the four large warehouses that kept old mech models, defunct super weapons, and out of date firearms.


    Out in the plains of the dry lands and off-road, the stolen military truck sat behind an outcrop. With her scarf on and the back doors opened, Luce stepped out - her hair flailing in the strong wind - and carried Marble to the ground. The gnome had a new flat steel panel slapped across the side of its body, under which was the wireless emitter and chip. From inside the truck, Shou poked his head out and handed her a flash drive. He, like the rest of them, was wearing the standard military brown overalls.


    "Here''s Reggie''s A.I. Please be careful, little buddy. I don''t want to lose my big buddy."


    Marble spun around itself.


    Luce opened the panel and inserted the drive. "Alright, Marble. Just as we''ve trained. Head toward the signal. Once you''re done, hide, and we''ll come and pick you up."


    The gnome spun once again in confirmation and headed off towards the base. After a hundred meters, its shell picked up enough dust from the surrounding to blend into the landscape, camouflaging and disappearing into plains. After Shou returned into the truck, Luce managed to track Marble for a few more minutes with her naked eyes before the distance completely engulfed it.


    Luce let a sigh escape into her scarf. She was worried. The plan felt rushed and there were too many unknowns. But most of all, she worried about Adelle. And Josh, of course. Adelle and Josh. She half wanted the E.M.P to go off, just so she would know the situation happening on the other side. She felt helpless not having any news to go by.


    Climbing back into the truck, she found Shou back at the driver''s seat, already head tilted away and half asleep. Miu sat in the back, tracking Marble''s movements on a laptop.


    The later chuckled, "I can''t believe you managed to steal this truck." She looked up to Luce.


    Luce waved the notion away. "It was nothing. There''s no need to talk about it."


    "Nonsense!" Shou suddenly shot up, turning around in his seat and hugging the headrest to look back at them. "It was amazing! The best story ever! All you did was walk up to the-"


    "We," Luce quickly cut in. "Are never going to talk about it."


    Miu began, "But-"


    "Never! Shush!"


    Shou shrugged. "Your loss. With a tale like that, we could have made you famous. You should have seen the look on your face when you climbed onto the roof and-"


    "SHOU! SHUT UP!" Luce yelled and the other two laughed. "Is this what it''s like working with you two?"


    "Oh yeah," he admitted. "We are very easily stressed out people so we use humour to cope with the seriousness of our situations."


    Miu added, "Or at least Shou does. I''m just here."


    Luce shook her head. "It''s like someone changed the tone of the script from serious to comedy in here, or have you two forgotten the world might be ending?"


    Shou replied, "I only do seriousness once every hour or, if you want to count in books, every ten pages."


    Miu added, "Or when he''s alone. Because he has abandonment issues."This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    "Who in the world counts time in pages?" Luce asked.


    "Educated people," Shou replied confidently. "Educated people, that''s who." He turned back in his seat and leaned back to relax.


    "Wow," Luce said.


    Miu chuckled. "You should have seen him when we first met. He was such a snob."


    "As opposed to now?"


    "Now? He''s just a really unfunny asshole. Much better than a snob."


    "Are you sure this is something we should say with him here."


    "Oh, Shou''s already asleep." They turned to the man in the front seat who was already snoring lightly.


    "Huh. Fascinating," Luce mused. The man continued to show powers incomprehensible. "So how did you two meet?"


    Miu looked up from her computer, her eyes lulling around the back of her head in search of the memory. "We used to be a part of this parkour group called the Star Trekkers."


    "That''s a really corny name."


    "We were young and stupid. Get over it."


    "But can you still parkour?"


    "We never really could," Miu admitted. "We sat around talking about it more than actually practising it. You know, it looked really cool in the movies and all that but was much harder in real life. Back then, Shou was one of the cockiest person I''ve ever met. He''d always shout himself out as a genius for coming up with these ridiculous plans and calling himself a genius. Sincerely, not the joking way he does now. But then the accident happened."


    "What happened?"


    "One day I was doing a run and being generally stupid and unsafe, as all teenagers do. Accidentally stumbled out onto the road and he pushed me out of the way of a truck. He lost his leg."


    Luce looked at her stunned. "I''m... so sorry." Trying to lighten the mood, she chuckled. "I never took you for the careless type. Or Shou for the selfless one, for that matter."


    Miu gave a small smile and nodded. "I guess we are the positive sums of our greatest failures. But Shou, he''s always been selfless, even back when he was a giant ass. When I asked him why he would sacrifice himself for me, he just shrugged and laughed. Never asked for thanks or favours. He might seem childish and selfish, but he''s one of those people who if they say a line''s been crossed, we should listen. Kind of like Adelle."


    "Yes," Luce agreed.


    It was true that Luce had gotten close to Adelle in the beginning to make use of her powers for the Titan Rangers, but as they got closer she realised the elf was much more and that she was destined for something much bigger than their little organisation. Her thoughts drifted back Adelle and Josh. They two could handle themselves, sure, but somewhere in the depth of Luce''s stomach, she felt unease.


    The pair spent the time talking, mostly about what other changes had happened on the continent while Luce was away.


    A ping from Miu''s laptop brought them back to their attentions.


    Miu''s fingers clacked away at the keyboard. "The wifi relay just signalled back. It picked up on the intranet."


    "How long will it take to get us in?"


    "Not long. Almost instantly." Miu banged at the back Shou''s seat. "Wake up! We''re on."


    The man jolted awake. "Right! Right! Let''s roll!"


    Luce climbed over to the passenger seat as Shou started the truck and they drove off to the Trashsite.


    Shou asked with a yawn, "Shouldn''t we wait awhile before going in?"


    "No," Miu replied. "The longer we wait, the more time they have to discover the infiltration." She started passing the wigs to them.


    Shou swept his hair back and set into a brown ponytail while Luce wrapped hers into a short blue. Behind them, Miu placed hers into a streaky blonde.


    As they drove up to the front gate, two soldiers in gas masks walked out with rifles in their arms. Their truck slowed and Luce could hear her heart beginning to slow. She was starting to get into the mood of adventures and she hated the fact that the excitement calmed her more than actual serenity. The truck braked next to the two soldiers and they walked up to their windows which Shou rolled down. The smell of rusty Taint immediately floated into the compartment. But as long as the check was kept short, they should be fine breathing it in. Probably.


    "Identifications," the soldier at the driver side said.


    Miu and Luce passed their IDs to Shou who handed it over to the guard. The soldier walked back to the guardhouse to scan them in. The cards were theirs from their time in the army to allow them to be scanned, but the photo and names had been replaced with fake ones that were overwritten by Reggie in the database.


    "So," Shou began small talk with the other guard left on Luce''s side. "Nice weather, huh?"


    The female guard replied, "It''s the same weather as it has always been. Hot."


    He laughed. "That''s the joke."


    After a moment of thinking, the guard nodded, pointed a finger gun at him and chuckled.


    Shou looked to the back seat at Miiu and stated, "I''m so good with ladies." The latter stuck her tongue out at him.


    The first guard returned to them. He stood outside the window for a moment, finger tapping the trigger of his gun. Finally, he looked to Shou. "Shun Takeru." Then to Luce and Miu. "Jacqueline Fertilans. Amaya Sayuri."


    He stared them over and Luce could swear she could see his brows raising under the mask.


    Finally, he said, "You''re cleared." He handed their IDs back to them. "Welcome to Trashsite."

 Chapter Thirty-Seven: Trashsite

    Trashsite''s giant bunker housed 4 giant warehouses in an enclosed climate-controlled space. The two northern ones - warehouse 1 and 2 - stored most of the smaller items, while the southern 3 and 4 were basically one giant long-house that had anything from cannons to Titans.


    The truck was parked in one of the unused loading bay next to warehouse 3, engines shut to give off the impression that it was empty.


    As she watched Miu''s fingers clack away at her keyboard, Luce fantasised of heist movies where the hacker''s computer run lines of glowing words that scrolled down the reflection of their glasses. But Miu did not need glasses, nor was there an entire widow of digital green text constantly climbing up. There was just a basic software no more special than a text editor. Occasionally, Miu would type a line in and wait. After a couple of seconds, a few words would be printed out, she would read them, and repeat the process all over again.


    "This is..." Luce began.


    "A lot more boring than you thought?" Shou finished. "Yeah, that''s what I said."


    "Well," Miu bit back. "I''m sorry if hacking isn''t more glamorous."


    A loading bar popped up and quickly filled. After a second of lag, the familiar beige interface of the military''s internal operating system came onto the screen.


    "I''m in," Miu said. "Searching for bio-cell model ''Regalia''. It''s... in warehouse one, row three, aisle nine. Which is convenient, because that''s where Marble is."


    "That''s for me then," Shou chimed in. "And the GASP?"


    "Hang on..." she replied, typing away again. "It needs top-secret clearance so... giving myself clearance... it''s in warehouse three, but the system doesn''t say exactly where."


    Luce raised a brow. "Why not?"


    "It''s high security. Probably the people who need to know already know where it is kind of deal." She paused for a moment to think. "It needs to activate concurrently with the E.M.P. So it should be in the Faraday area."


    "Got it." Luce slung her rifle and stood up. "I know where that is."


    Miu took out two grenades from a box next to her and handed them to Luce. "They are for your launcher. One E.M.P and one stun. Those are all we have, so make sure they count." She then handed her a small earpiece. "I''ll run interference from the truck and keep us in comm range. I''ve also updated your cards with clearance. The server checks for intrusion once every half an hour and takes and a half to scan. So you have about forty minutes to do this."


    Luce nodded and kept the grenade in the pocket of her army pants while setting the earpiece in her right ear to be hidden under her hair. She then got out of the truck and onto the loading bay. Without turning back, she walked to the nearest door as the sound of Miu and Shou driving off for Warehouse 1 echoed behind her.


    When she was a Titan Hunter for the army, she often had to come to Trashsite to withdraw older - arguably more reliable - weapons. One of those was the Whisper Rifle, the predecessor to the G.A.S.P. It was a medium-ranged gun specifically designed to destroy a small area of magic circuit that was hit. It got the name due to its magically imbued projectile making little to no sound. It was succeeded by the Augment APC Cannon attachment. Both weapons, while reliable, were highly susceptible to electromagnetic pulses and were thus stored in the Faraday area when not in used.


    She followed the familiar winding hallways throughout the building. The clay-tiled floors were still the same drab as the white plaster ceiling and walls. The entire facility still used heavy set steel doors with the old model of card readers - a basic chip and scanner. Nothing much had changed except for a new vending machine next to the office area.


    Then, she reached her first obstacle. The first door which required a clearance level. There was a guard standing at the door who barely looked at her. Instead, his gaze drifted off, bored out of his mind in the distance. She made a mental effort to tell herself to remain calm. Though she had her doubt, she had to scan her card without hesitation. Whether it worked or not was a question for later. As she reached for the card in her pocket, she made sure to keep her hands off her rifle. While weapons were allowed, being too close to the trigger would be suspicious, especially since everyone there was supposed to be on the same side.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    The guard barely glanced at her as she scanned her card. A moment passed, the ageing tech taking longer than she remembered. Then, a beep and a green light followed the click of an unlocked door. Quickly, she followed through and let out a breath she did not know she was holding. All seemed good and clear.


    She continued through the warehouse, occasionally scanning her card at readers next to doors for further access. Each time she did so, she expected her clearance to be denied and the wailing of sirens to follow. Each time she was cleared, she sighed.


    "This is Shou. I''ve retrieved Marble. Heading over to the storage now. But bad news. I saw Corlyle coming in. He''s here, over." Shou''s voice crackled through the earpiece.


    When she was sure no one else was watching, Luce pressed the button on the side. "He must be here to activate the GASP. I''m almost there. Over."


    Miu''s voice echoed, "Shou, get the bio-cell as quickly as you can and meet me at loading bay five. Luce, double-time, over and out."


    She followed the order, practically jogging through the corridors. Finally, she reached the Faraday area. To prepare, she loaded the stun grenade into her launcher. With one final swipe of her card, she entered the room. The outer walls and ceilings of the area were meshed with silver wires to create a protective case against electromagnetic pulses. Inside, a single desk with a soldier sat opposite the small entry room. A path to the right of it lead to the lockers, where the smaller equipment were stored. The left extended to the storage space for larger equipment.


    Luce had expected a larger security detail than a single clerk for a room containing a superweapon.


    She approached the military man. "Hey, I''m here to withdraw an Augment." She looked at his name tag. "Private Ryan."


    "The man looked up quizzically. "Sure. Do you have the forms?"


    "Forms?" she asked.


    He sighed exaggeratedly. "Look, the memo went out days ago. New rule. Get form seventeen dash four-five signed by a commanding officer of level four clearance, then we talk."


    She pretended to scratch the side of her head as she hit the switch to her communication set. "I don''t have the forms. Can''t you just let me have this? I don''t want to get chopped by my C.O. I mean, it''s just us two here."


    The guard sighed empathetically. "Look, I know how you feel but..."


    His word trailed off as Shou''s voice boomed into her ear. "He knows! This is Corlyle''s M.O. Hide something by not drawing attention to it. The guard''s quality over quantity. He knows!"


    The guard began to finish, "I''ve got a form here you can sign to expedite things..." He reached for the desk drawer


    She grabbed the handle of her rifle and swung the butt just as Private Ryan pulled out a pistol from beneath and attempted to aim at her. The wooden stock slapped the sidearm away to the ground before he got her in his sight. The man then switch tactic, kicking off the wall behind him to lunge over the desk at her.


    To escape, she attempted to sidestep but her ankle was caught by the soldier and she tripped over, rolling over her shoulder and back up onto her knees. Luce twisted around to see him drawing a knife, preparing to lunge. She pulled the second trigger on her gun and the launcher fired the stun grenade. While the grenade did not arm itself over the short room distance, it did still stun, surprising Private Ryan enough to prevent him from dodging as the projectile smashed into his sternum.


    Though knocked back, in visible pain, and unable to make a sound from the air being cracked out of his chest, the man surprisingly managed to stay on his feet. But Luce quickly rushed him, and after a final rifle butt to the face, the man was thrown back and onto the grown, unconscious and with a bleeding - and presumably broken - nose.


    "Guys," she quickly reported. "Had a fight. Things are going to get dicey. Evac ASAP, over."


    "Roger that," Miu answered. "I picked up Shou. We''re heading over now. Meet at the same bay, over and out."


    Luce ran over to the computer and without any hesitation, unlocked every single door in the storage area. She ran down the corridor. Behind each of the doors that had automatically rolled up were either large mystery boxes or room-sized machines that ranged from cannons to mysterious doohickeys. She did not know what the G.A.S.P looked like, but she had a feeling she would know when she saw it. And towards the end, she did.


    In room 39 was a single large machinery in the middle that looked like the cross between a giant magnetic coil with a plasma globe above. Within the globe, a magic crystal a meter wide and tall was suspended by struts of titanium. Large wires ran to the wall of the rooms where computers hung against the wall. Three power cable coiled to the size of a wheel ran out to the wall at the back, presumably directly to the power grid.


    She loaded the E.M.P grenade into her launcher and manually set the timer for 20 seconds. She stood as far into the empty room opposite to give the projectile the distance to arm itself. Once with her back against the wall, she fired. The tube projectile bounced off the power coupling and landed in the corner of the G.A.S.P room. She quickly ran out and pulled the door down and shut.


    "Freeze!"


    Luce froze. Slowly, she turned to her life to see the barrels of two rifles trained to her head. Behind the two soldiers, standing with freshly jelled hair and in a brazenly ironed black suit was Corlyle.


    She heard the E.M.P grenade blast through the door.


    Everything went black.

 Chapter Thirty-Eight: E.M.P

    Luce tried to wiggle free of her bindings, but the zip tie was well secured and scratching away her skin. She could feel her hand soaked in the blood of her wrist and her wrist burning from the air touching her exposed skin. She was tied to a chair, stuck in one of the Faraday area''s rooms with an inbuilt generator running somewhere within the facility. Red emergency lights made it hard to differentiate her blood from the floor.


    "I''ll ask you again," Corlyle spoke, circling her. In the corner, a masked guard stood menacingly with a rifle armed. "What did you do?"


    "I told you already. I destroyed GASP." She swayed her head back sluggishly.


    "And?"


    "That''s it," she lied. "I came here myself."


    "You had an E.M.P grenade!" he roared, leaning into her face and spitting spittle. "Now, the entire base is down and you expect me to believe you didn''t do that?"


    "That wasn''t me," she insisted. "Lachesis must have activated her E.M.P."


    He raised the baton in his hand and smashed into her ribs. She choked violently and began coughing, the pain wracking her inside and out. But her mind was still clear. She wondered how much blood she needed to bleed over the zip tie to make it slippery enough for her to slip out of.


    "And whose fault was that!" Corlyle roared. "We were supposed to activate them together! But now she has an army of Titans and we have nothing!"


    She was panting hard. Her body pumped with adrenaline to keep away the pain, but she could feel herself slipping. She might have been able to handle this kind of beating a decade ago when she was still a Titan Hunter, but she was practically a civilian now. Fit was as far as she kept her body and skilled as far her abilities. Not superhuman.


    The president turned to the soldier standing guard. "Where is Jenson? It''s been over an hour!"


    He had earlier sent his other guard to check on and report to him the status of the world outside. The three had not left the Faraday area since, given the nature of the attack being E.M.P in nature and the rooms there were coated to protect against it. That meant the only working electronics - and safest place to be - was in the Faraday area.


    The soldier admitted, "I don''t know. Our radios aren''t receiving anything."


    Angrily, Corlyle yelled, "Well, get out there and find him!"


    "But sir, I cannot leave yo-"


    "That''s an order!"


    The soldier breathed in deep and saluted. "Yes, sir!" Quickly, he left the room and closed the door behind him.


    "You..." Luce panted out. "Need to get out of your own head, man."


    "Shut up."


    "Shou''s right. Your ego is going to get us all killed."


    "I said shut up! You''re the ones who have doomed us!"


    "Only because you were trying to kill millions!"


    "Which part of "shut up" did you not understand?!" The door to the room opened and another masked soldier walked in. "Jenson! Where have you been?"


    "Sorry, sir. I got word that it''s not just the camp. The whole power grid is down."


    Corlyle turned back to her, his face coated in the shadows of rage. "What did you do?"


    "I told you," she bit back. "Nothing. Lachesis must have used her E.M.P."


    He spat away from her and mumbled to himself. "The earliest attack will take at least three days."


    Luce retorted, "Not if Lachesis activated Exodus. She might be on her way here now!"


    "You expect me to believe a myth to hold some kind of weight?"


    "You should. It''s the truth, after all." She knew nothing was going to get through to him


    He clicked his tongue. "We''ll get to the truth soon enough." Torture. He was talking about torture. "At least if it was an E.M.P attack, that''d get Kenta out of my way."


    Luce smirked. "Are you sure about that?"


    Behind him, the soldier had closed the distance between the door and Corlyle. It was already too late by the time the president sensed fake Jenson''s presence and turned to face his attack. The butt of the rifle was already on the rise and slammed straight into the man''s forehead. Corlyle stumbled back, wobbled for a moment, and finally collapsed onto the floor.


    Shou took off his mask and directed to the unconscious Corlyle, "You really need to get your head out of your ass."You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    Luce slumped back in her seat, a sigh of relief escaped her at the rescue. "How did he not see your leg?" She noted Shou''s cyborg feet sticking out of his left pants leg.


    He shrugged. "I told you, the man has an ego. Head''s up his own ass." He circled her as a switchblade flipped out of his pocket.


    After her hands were cut loose, she wrapped her a palm over her chaffed and bleeding right wrist for pressure. "Did the E.M.P really happen? How did you survive? What happened to the guards?" The questions exploded out of her.


    "Calm down. In order, yes, it seems that Adelle failed to stop the E.M.P." Shou moved to free her legs and he must have seen a worried look on her face for he quickly added, "I''m sure they''re fine though. Have faith in them."


    Luce breathed deeply and gathered composure. "And what happened to you?" The ties at her feet were removed and she stood unsteadily up.


    Shou lent his shoulder for her to stand. "The moment I realised Corlyle was here, I rushed to you. I got into the Faraday area after Corlyle but before the E.M.P went off so I was protected. I hid outside after they caught and waited for them to leave since communications with the outside were cut. Taser pistol took out the guards. Miu really worked her magic on it."


    Once she was sure she had her bearings and the vertigo from being forced to sit and be beaten had left her, she pushed away from Shou and cracked her neck. "Marble? Reggie? My gun?"


    "Marble''s with Miu, and your gun''s outside." He then tapped his quantum chip. "Reggie''s here."


    They left the room in a jog. Outside in the reception area, the two knocked out guard - one still spasming from the taser - were left tied up with the same zip ties they had used on her. She grabbed her equipment from the desk and the pair headed out.


    Outside, the only lights left on in the hallway were the red emergency lamp that spun slowly, striking each second with shadows. Soldiers and other personnel rushed about at breakneck speed. Shouts of "Fire!" and "Medic!" echoed the corridors. She followed Shou as he traced their way out. Eventually, they came upon an automatic door that was closed before the power went out. They could circumvent the barrier and attempt to find another exit, but having the president and his guards possibly waking any moment to hunt them down had her prefer the rushed method.


    She jammed the lance head of her rifle into the gap between door and wall. She stepped aside, holding her gun up from the side carefully.


    To Shou, she instructed, "Stomp it in."


    The cyborg raised his mechanical leg and aimed at the butt of the rifle. With an oomph, he kicked into the stock. Sparks flew from the friction between lance and door as the weapon ripped and pushed apart a gap. She watched as a hairline crack split halfway through the stock. Still, the gun held its shape.


    Using the rifle as a lever, she pulled to get the door opened. Shou moved to the right and with the powerful pneumatics in his leg, added even more force to the effort. At first, the door creaked painfully against gears. Then, Shou changed his footing and gave another oomph filled push and the door jarred opened enough for them to squeeze through. Thankfully, there were no other closed doors between them and the exit. They rushed out of the double steel door into the centre square of the base.


    The scene outside was far more chaotic. Begone of any source of bright lighting, fire mages held flames in their hands, running across the entirety of the Trashsite to emergency areas to give light. Half a dozen vehicles and two tanks were stalled on the road, steam rolling out of the hood of two trucks, the interior components likely fried. An explosion rocked the land, lighting up the back of warehouse 1 with dancing orange. Whatever machinery that kept whatever explosives from doing its job had obviously failed. Luckily for them, they could see the bunker''s main gate had been opened at the time of the attack. Now they just needed to find a working vehicle.


    "Where to?" she asked.


    Something ran into her leg and she looked down to see Marble seeking her attention. Once the little gnome saw her looking at ''er, ''e spun around in affirmation before racing off towards warehouse 4.


    Shou shrugged. "Guess we''re following the ball."


    They jogged after the gnome. Not surprisingly, in the darkness and commotion, no one noticed the ball-sized creature leading the charge. But they were sure the confusion was not going to last. One of the garage doors was left half raised and Marble rolled inside. The pair followed in and found a garage for four trucks. Lit by the same rotating emergency, the vehicles within were in much the same state as those outside. Only three engineers were left inside desperately trying to repair what components they could.


    "Hey!" Miu waved to them from a corner inside next to a silver cloth-covered mount. In her hand was a large duffel bag, likely with the rest of their gears and the bio-cell.


    Shou ran past Luce towards the former. "What are you doing here? We need to find a way to escape!"


    "The truck got dud," Miu explained as Luce jogged up. "But get this. After Shou said Corlyle was here the activate GASP, I figured that means Lachesis must also be turning on the E.M.P. So I got a bunch of aluminium heat shielding tarp they use for fires in these garages, taped them together and..."


    She grabbed the silver tarp next to her and pulled it off, revealing an ATV with a seat for two and a loading rack. She pressed the ignition button and the vehicle roared to life.


    Giddily, she proclaimed, "Electrical shielding!"


    "Miu!" Shou exclaimed excitedly. "You genius!" He jumped forward and quickly kissed her and immediately climbed onto the ATV driver''s seat after.


    Luce laughed and pushed a slightly stunned Miu to the back seat as she picked up Marble and climbed awkwardly into a kneeling position on the rack.


    The engineers had noticed the strangely functioning vehicle and started calling out to them. But by then, it was already too late. The trio were already racing out of the garage, ducking under the half-opened door. A third of the way through the bunker and heading to the gate, soldiers finally caught on to their commotion. From warehouse 3, Corlyle stormed out screaming incoherently at them. His two guards fired, bullets bouncing off the ground around them. Concrete pillared up in dust clouds. They blew past the bunker gate.


    Outside in the Tainted air, the trio hurtled towards the outer, less fortified entrance. One of the soldier at the guardhouse sparked his fingers with electricity, charging up a lightning spell. Luce leaned over Miu, using the latter''s shoulder as an impromptu embrasure. When the mage motioned to throw out their bolt, she fired her grappling lance and quickly threw her gun aside.


    The electric blast brightened the area as it arced in the air towards them but was intercepted mid-flight by the lance. She could see the lines of jagged storm run down the wire of the lance to the launcher, reached the gun, and finally exploding the firearm at the end into shards. She was going to miss that rifle.


    Before the soldiers could recompose themselves from the unexpected counter, Shou had already pushed the throttle to maximum speed and broke past the weak plastic barrier.


    As they raced off into the deserted plains, Shou let out a triumphant yell of success. Miu breathed a sigh of relief as she rummaged through her bag to retrieve their masks for them.


    Slowly, Luce turned her body around and sat backwards on the loading rack. With left hand holding onto the side of the ATV for balance, her right reached for her lower left abdomen to push down the blood from the bullet wound.

 Chapter Thirty-Nine: 48 Seconds

    It was chaos on the streets. But not the kind that descends into madness or anarchy. It was an organised chaos. It reminded Adelle of the dark elves, so used to fighting that war blinked by their lives without turning heads. The island that crushed the market district had kicked up enough dust to clog the air even though they were far enough to not see any direct damage. No doubt part of the atmosphere was now made of the pulverised particles of people killed there. Those brave enough to wander the streets for supplies were greeted with rubble churned right in the middle of the roadway. An arm stuck out from under the stone pile of a collapsed side of a house yet no one bothered to stop. They would have time to retrieve the bodies later, after things had settled down.


    Adelle staggered through the streets, one arm around Josh for support. The wound where she was stabbed ached with each step. Yet no one turned to look. Why would they? They passed by over a dozen injured in their short 10 minutes of travel from the fort. Even that short distance, away, the damages were wrenching, and they could only imagine the destruction closer to the sites that were hit by the falling landmasses thrown as easily as pebbles across water.


    An old human man sat on a crate, cradling a crying elf baby.


    The sound of cart wheels followed a call to hand out supplies.


    Somewhere out there, a long, painful scream cut the atmosphere.


    They continued walking, ignoring the cries for help. A few times, Josh hesitated to continue, turning halfway to any sound of distress. But Adelle physically nudged him on. This was bigger than the city in flame, literally. A swarm the size of a continent was flying towards Citi, ready to pulverise anything smaller than a mountain. As much as they didn''t like to think about it, the two of them, a powerless human and an injured, non-magical elf, were perhaps part of what''s left of those capable of stopping it. But they needed information first, a way to contact Eca''s network.


    The clattering of horses'' hoofs echoed behind them. "Josh!"


    "Adelle!"


    They turned to the familiar voices. Arnold and Talia rode to them on two grey steeds. Civilians parted way for the beasts to trample through. The two "whoa"ed their rides to a stop.


    A relieved Arnold proclaimed, "You''re alive!"


    "Yeah," Adelle replied. "But we failed."


    Talia admitted, "We didn''t do so well either." She looked around sadly at the devastation.


    Josh asked, "What now?"


    Talia instructed, "Eca''s running search and rescue. He''ll have something for us to do."


    "No," Adelle insisted. "What do we do to stop Exodus?"


    Arnold looked down. "I want to stop that thing as much as you guys. But it''s moving too fast for us to catch up. The best thing we can do is organise a rescue party from here and just hope Shou''s side can do something."


    Adelle huffed. She hated how right he sounded. With Josh''s help, she climbed onto Talia''s horse while Josh rode with Arnold.


    At the forefront of her mind, Adelle was already thinking of ways to catch-up to Exodus. "Take us to Eca."


    The four of them rode for half an hour towards the destroyed market district at full gallop. The closer they were to the area, the worse the devastation got. The weaker structured buildings - especially those made of clay - were blown apart from the sheer displacement of wind from the dropped landmass. The grown had cracked in many places, swallowing streets whole, with the fracture only widening the nearer they got. They had to circle a few sinkholes that had formed and fires continued to break out, spitting balls of flames into the air as sparks and heat caught the dust and exploded. As the mount came over the city line, Adelle finally got a clearer estimation of its size.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    The earth was easily twice the size of the market district, a klick across in diameter and nearly 200 meters in height. At first, Adelle thought it looked just like a giant pebble until they approached the outskirt of the disaster zone where not a single building was left standing. A crater had formed deep enough that light vanished before reaching the end of the edges of the cracks.


    The wind still howled loudly, as if the explosive impact had echoed through space itself and was still erupting. Soon though, Adelle realised the sound was not of the wind. They were screams and moans from underneath the rubble. Living beings, trapped, with likely no escape, slowly bleeding, suffocating, starving, dying alone.


    It struck her. When she oversaw the battle from their perch at the fortress, it was akin to make belief fights children had with their toys. A model replica of a soldier kicking over building made of blocks with ease. Standing at ground zero, she understood the devastation, the sheer power of a sentient Titan controlled for nothing but destruction.


    48 seconds. All the deaths and ruination they stood at took 48 seconds.


    And Adelle held the same power to control the same Titans. If she wanted to, she could pilot Leviathan and end the world. Superweapons at her beck and call.


    They approached an area filled with dozens of large tents. At the front of the makeshift medical centre, surrounded by aid workers and leaning against a large round table balancing precariously on 3 legs was Eca. The mage''s white robe had stains of dirt and splashes of blood, though none looked to be his. With a wave of his hand, the workers dispersed to their duties as the man sighed over an area map marked with multiple circles of blood-red ink, most of them crossed out with black.


    He looked up at the approaching party. "Ah. Good. You''re alive. Your teleportation will be very helpful in the rescues."


    Adelle teleported before him and those around not familiar with her gasped in surprise. She ignored the shocked whispers. Her wound sharply ached, but she stood tall and straight to face the man.


    "We''re going after Exodus."


    "You''re not," he simply replied. "Be pragmatic. It''s already halfway across the continent, and we don''t have anything to match its speed." Light flashed from his right hand as he summoned his staff. Using it as a walking stick, he limped to her, obviously injured himself underneath the garbs of leadership. "Word has been sent across the Helm. The best thing we can do now is to organise a defence here and save as many lives as possible. Lachesis'' plan is to destroy civilisations. She''ll definitely be making her way back here."


    "And Dogon? We just let them die?"


    There was a paused between them as Talia, Josh, and Arnold got off their horses.


    Josh approached them. "My daughter''s on the other side," he begged Eca. "Please. Something. Anything."


    Eca sighed. "We don''t have the firepower. The army''s recalling golems left and right to defend the capitol. Even then, we might not be able to take down Exodus."


    "We don''t need to," Adelle said. "Lachesis is the only one in control. We take her out, we win."


    "And how do you expect to catch up to her?" he was willing, at least, to listen.


    "The giant light bird in the battle earlier. It moved fast. If we can find its summoner, maybe it can fly us to Exodus."


    "Vayngue is my bird," Eca admitted. "But I can''t summon it again. It takes a lot of seither to bring a summon to bare, and one large and powerful enough to punch Exodus in the face took all out from me." He gestured to the staff he was walking with. "Even if I could summon it again, who would be willing to fly on a bird that could disappear and drop them from the sky at any moment?"


    "I''ll go," she volunteered immediately. "Falling is nothing to me. And I''m the only other one who can get into Exodus anyway. I''m the... last sentinel."


    She could see his face softening at the idea - and the hope - at stopping the coming catastrophe. "Doesn''t solve my seither problem."


    Adelle had been thinking about it. Mages required seither to cast their spells. They could draw upon it from their surroundings, especially crystals, but that concentration must be high. Seither to spell conversion rate comes at a high cost, and to fly such long-distance required hundreds of crystals and a seither concentration heavy enough to basically grow them.


    There was just one such place she could think of that could provide such power. And in doing so, could help end the suffering of countless people living in a state of tortured undead.


    She suggested with just one word. "Harverstfall."


    Eca closed his eyes and took a deep breath and a minute to think. "Okay," he finally said, opening his eyes with clarity. "We go."

 Chapter Forty: Vayngue

    Harvestfall Mine 2. After Adelle had attacked Mine 1, it was the next most southern mine still functioning at full capacity. The soldiers of the army let Eca and his posse through without resistance, and the resistance began setting up for the summon.


    "Make sure all the cryst wires are connected," Eca instructed to the men and women carrying the bundles of leather-covered wires off the carts. "Anyone that can still be rescued, pull them out and get them treated for mist poisoning. Those who can''t, euthanize." He spoke of the mercy killing so matter-of-factly that it sent a chill down Adelle''s spine.


    Still relying on his staff to walk, Eca then proceeded down the mines with Adelle, Josh, and Arnold following closely behind. His followers quickly began their work, running the wires up to any large crystal deposit and wrapping cryst wiring around as many of the crystals as possible. Medics in patchleather scrubs headed to the nearest victim stuck within the ground. Adelle watched as one medic near her placed a hand on a harvest-man''s neck to check for a pulse, then lifting the head up and forcing open the eyes to look for any signs of consciousness. The medic gave a defeated sigh before pulling out a glass bottle from her bag. A copper syringe was stabbed through the cork and a portion of the liquid within extracted. The medic then injected her patient with the poison, gently lowering the man''s head to the ground as the poison took effect, his chest slowly deflating until every breath ended with stopped movements.


    Adelle bit her tongue and looked away. It was a mercy killing for most of the victims, but she still could not bear to look. In all her years of hunting animals and murdering mortals that trespassed in her forest, she had never killed as cruelly or slowly as the method of Harvestfall.


    As they proceeded down the mines to the most concentrated centre, two medics carried a stretcher with one of the harvest victims. Her skin was in two states. Either wrinkled and pale from the humidity of being buried, or abraded to bloody tears from trying to escape the gravelled earth. She moaned painfully, her weak hands trying to yank a piece of tiny crystal growing out of her waist.


    A visibly shaken Arnold tried to take his mind off the scene by asking Eca, "You said... mist poisoning. I''ve never heard of that before."


    "It''s overexposure to highly concentrated seither," Eca explained. "The blood in the body crystallises around our magic circuits."


    Josh asked, "Isn''t that just crystals forming when the body decomposes?"


    "We don''t exactly have the research data on it, but crystallisation can happen when a person is alive, as you see, and it''s a form of infection. Most of the time, no one would be unlucky enough to be exposed to such extreme conditions, but a war isn''t most of the time."


    Josh asked, "Is there a cure?"


    The palpable sigh that followed Eca answered him. "This is very new science, Joashden. All we can really do is ease their pain and prolong their lives. It''s honestly luck that we even know this much thanks to The Watcher sharing his knowledge on the subject."


    Adelle scoffed. "Of course he did. Couldn''t be bothered coming here to help out though."


    "He''s busy with his own end of the world. Something about split in time causing monsters to be tear through the fabric of reality. We all are stretched thin these few years," Eca admitted before looking at her seriously. "Everyone who can stop Exodus right now is here. This is all we''ve got."


    They made it to the bottom and centre of the mine, the quarry spiralling up around them. The leather-bound cryst wires were being thrown off ledges and rolled down to the bottom. Soon after, the ground had the conducting lines untangled like tentacles. Josh and Arnold got to work, helping the others with gathering the ends together to form larger wiring tubes. Eca stood in the middle of it all and began drawing a summoning circle into the ground around him. It resembled a circuitry, clocking outward with dozens of second hands extending toward each arc of the circle.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    It didn''t take long for them to have the wirings set up. Each end of the cryst wires were placed at somewhat equidistant intervals on the rim of the summoning circle. Now, they simply waited for the last harvest victim to be dug out from the pit. Adelle understood the humane reason for doing so but could not help but tap her feet impatiently. Every minute waiting was a minute further away Lachesis got. But finally, the last man was pulled out and placed onto a stretcher to be carried out.


    As he passed by Adelle, their eyes met. He mouthed something which Adelle could not hear but somehow understood.


    She promised, "I''ll stop her."


    The man peacefully closed his eyes as the medics carried the stretcher up the slope.


    Eca then asked, "Are you ready, Miss Demon Eyes?"


    She stepped up south of him and just outside of the circle. "That''s Adelaide Wiltkins to you. Let''s get this over with."


    The white mage laughed wryly. He held out his staff which began fading into wisps of light. The little bright spheres floated together and coalesced into a large tome. The spine and cover were marble braided gold. The binding was strings of silvers. An ellipse signet much like the summoning circle they stood on was imprinted on the front and back. Eca held the spine in the palm of his hand and the book naturally opened to the centre-most page which held a complex drawing of interconnected magic circuitry.


    He took a deep breath. "Exseed."


    The pages of the book spewed out its paper innards in a fountain of white and ink. Instead of falling or being picked up by the wind, the papers whirled around Eca, quickly forming a ring of pages that orbited the white mage. Each page had drawings of summoned creatures and spells alongside the magic circle required to cast them imbued in gold dust. Eca held out his right index finger which followed the satellites of the ring. At first, it seemed as if he was tracing the path of the papers but he retracted it and scrolled through the catalogue again, spinning the selection faster much like the touch screens she had experienced in Citi.


    Suddenly, he stopped, and the ring stopped it''s twirl along with him. He raised a second finger and turned his hand sideways, pointing at a single page. As he telekinetically brought the paper forward, the remainder of the pages spun in the opposite direction.


    He pointed the page at Adelle. "Ready?" He asked.


    She nodded.


    He raised his hand up and the piece of paper followed. As he did so, the crystals all around the quarry began to glow. The ground began to vibrate ever so slightly as the energy flowed from stone to sigil. The wires danced on the ground but the ends were magically magnetised to summoning ring akin to snakes held by the head. The white mage held his left hand behind his back as a stream of white energy coiled from the circle up to it. Then, he brought his left fingers to his right, taking a forward stance as if he was about to fire an arrow into the sky. He drew his right arm back as one would do a bowstring, the line of bright energy stretching from finger to finger.


    Floating in midair, the summoning page began to spin, turning, then bursting into golden dust that sparkled, taking the neon shape of the summoning circle for Vayngue. The crystals in the mine were practically bonfires, gleaming torches of white that bathed the entire quarry in light.


    "Come forth. Vayngue." He closed his right fist and the energy stream snapped and fired into Vayngue''s summoning circle.


    From the other side, the energy stream took shape. At first, a white beak made of pure hard light formed to the easily tower over all of them within the manes. Then, a mane that circled its neck with the form of lightning. Then, like a bullet exiting a barrel, the remaining body shot out in a straight spiral, quickly filling the remaining space in the quarry as the creature flew into the sky.


    Quickly, Adelle teleported into the air and grabbed onto what would otherwise be the feathery mane of the bird. But all she felt was what she could only describe as her hand gripping onto hardened air. Dexterously though, she managed to find footings on its wings'' joints and wrapped her other arm around what would be the neck.


    Without another word to those below, Vayngue shot off into the atmosphere, flapping its hard light wings the size of houses as it climbed. Adelle brought her scarf up to cover her mouth as the creature began building momentum. Once it reached a height and slowed, Adelle looked back to see a stream of white energy leading all the way down to the mine which crystals shone like a lighthouse.


    Vayngue twisted its body and began falling, twirling itself to face straight down as it gained the speed of gravity. Then, just before hitting the ground, it opened its giant wings and with one last powerful flap, jettisoned off to the burning south.

 Chapter Forty-One: No Redemption Ergo

    Shou could feel Luce''s blood dripping down his back. The buggy was stopped outside their hideout and he carried the woman behind him as he watched Miu shakily fussed with the manual controls to the garage door of their home. The E.M.P had managed to pass through their Faraday shielding and power to the building had been cut. He could feel Luce''s cheek against his ear, and the coldness shivered his bones.


    ¡°Hurry up!¡± he yelled unhelpfully.


    Friend, Shou. You must remain calm.


    ¡°I am calm!¡±


    ¡°Who are you talking to?¡± Miu asked.


    ¡°Reggie! It''s in my head.¡±


    ¡°Wait, I think I got it!¡± Miu exclaimed.


    A loud clack came from the locking mechanism and the door popped up slightly. Miu yanked the metal grate up and once the gap was large enough, Shou quickly dug under it. Miu and Marble followed after him. The rooms were dark, lit only by the emergency light strips they had installed as the automatic light sensors did not trigger. Despite that, he ran to the medical bay on familiar instincts, throwing his gas mask on the ground unceremoniously when he found it stifling his breathing from the weight of carrying Luce. Though most of the medical equipment were bought over to Ampyre with Doctor Miura, there were still supplies that could help the situation. Miu ran past him and yanked opened the glass door to the medical bay.


    He brought Luce in and laid her down on the surgical bed. ¡°What do I do?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Nothing!¡± Miu yelled from outside. A few seconds later, a white glow rushed in from the door as she came in with an emergency lamp in her hand. ¡°Go check on Reggie''s body and see if you can restore power to the building. We need the haemostasis pump if the bleeding gets worse.¡±


    She was already pulling bandages, disinfectant, and stitches from the cabinet. It was an amazing feat as Shou had no idea where half the items were kept despite being the main recipient of the room. How he would have survived all those years had Miu not been beside him was beyond him. Engineer, paramedic, organiser, amazing.


    Friend, Shou, time is short.


    ¡°Right!¡± He snapped out of his thoughts. ¡°Right! I''m going!¡±


    He rushed to the workshop, still following the strips of light. Grabbing a torch off the table, he shone it on the Titan''s body. He felt a sense of relief in the back of his head and he wondered if it was from himself or Reggie. He climbed up the back of the giant machine and into the opened cockpit.


    As he reached for the drive at the back of his head, Reggie sounded off, Disengaging safely in five... four... three...


    ¡°Two... one...!¡± The drive popped out from the nape of his neck and he inserted it into a fitting port.


    Then, he waited. The body had been powered down at the time of detonation so theoretically, the likelihood of damage should be minimal. They had also reinforced the room with another layer of Faraday shielding of a different frequency. He held his breath as the minute mark passed, the standard time required for starting up. Then, he heard the familiar shaky hum of Reggie''s shot bio-cell and the Titan slowly began to move.


    ¡°Yes!¡± Shou shouted, his excited voice echoing within the empty room. ¡°Get me down from here, buddy!¡±


    Reggie''s hand twisted around behind as it always did and he climbed onto its palm. The Titan then lowered him to the ground. It''s head turned, the torches where its ears should be shone a spotlight on him and giving enough ambient light to illuminate the room. But the mech was still powering up, as could be heard from the pneumatic compressing into action from around its body. It would take another half an hour before it was ready to fully move again.


    ¡°I''ll be right back, buddy. I''m gonna check on the generator and get your new cell from the buggy.¡± Shou took off the bloodied soldier shirt he wore and grabbed a fresh-ish white-ish hoodie from his cabinet. Hood up, visor down, he left for the garage to exit the way they came in.


    Outside, he jogged around the structure to where the small thermal generator shed was built into the side of the main building. The rusted door hinges creaked as he yanked it aside. Shining the torch inside, he expected scorch marks or burns from the E.M.P damage but everything seemed normal aside from the plasteel machine''s lack of activity. He opened up a panel on the side to check on the circuit board and let out a relieved breath. There seemed not to be any visible damage to the board, and none of the components looked burnt. He moved over to the breaker and found it tripped. It seemed to him the shielding had prevented the worst of the electrical charges and simply overloaded the breaker. With a flip of a switch, the machine quickly grumbled back to life. As he left, he made sure to close the door behind him despite the rust''s ear shrieking protest against doing so. Nothing rusted metal or damaged electronics more than the Taint.


    ¡°Shou!¡± Miu''s voice echoed into his headset. ¡°The proximity alarms are going crazy in here.¡±


    He looked over the dunes to see clouds of dust racing towards them. ¡°They found us,¡± he replied ominously. In his mind, he did a quick calculation of the time it would take to install Reggie''s new bio-cell and for it to boot up. ¡°How''s Luce?¡±


    ¡°I got the bullet out and stopped the bleeding. But I''m still stitching her up. E.T.A, ten minutes.¡±Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    He took a breath and a moment to think. Then, ¡°Okay. Get her on her feet and install the bio-cell on Reggie. I''m going to buy you some time.¡±


    Miu sounded worried. ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°I don''t know,¡± his hand hovered over the strings of his hood where the controls for the comms are built into the aglet. ¡°Maybe bullshit can work.¡± He turned communications off.


    There wasn''t any reason to argue with her on the matter. They were about to be surrounded, and any amount of fighting will result in one too many casualties given their lack of any weapons at the moment, and he was not willing to put his friends'' lives on the line. If he bought them another half an hour, it would give Miu enough time to install the bio-cell and ride Reggie out of there.


    So he began walking towards the dust cloud which quickly spewed out a line of half a dozen armoured trucks. But most of the vehicles weren''t from the same batch and were coloured differently. From army green to enforcer black, it seemed the attacking force had only managed to scramble together whatever automobiles they could post E.M.P.


    As the drivers spotted him and started to ever so slightly turn in his direction, he half expected them to run him over. But as they neared, the vehicles slowed to a crawl as they surrounded him in a circle, kicking up enough dust to bury them in a fog. Shou thought it was a little excessive they encircled little old him with bulletproof trucks when all he had was a stun gun that he forgot to reload.


    Out of each truck, 4 or five soldiers jumped out the back, taking formation behind the cover of the vehicles with their rifles drawn and aimed at him. Slowly, from the passenger seat of the truck directly facing Shou, Corlyle stepped out, a bandage across his forehead from where Shou had smashed into. He could not help but laugh.


    ¡°Do you think this is funny?¡± Corlyle angrily asked.


    ¡°A little,¡± Shou''s laughter died down to a chuckle. ¡°I should have given it a harder wack though. Might have fixed that screwed up head of yours.¡±


    Even through the mask over Corlyle''s nose and mouth, Shou could tell the man was holding back his anger which only made Shou want to make fun of him even more. The president walked up to Shou and stopped right within arm''s reach. But the man did not speak. Instead, he simply eyed up and down Shou''s body.


    ¡°If you want to take me home it''s going to cost you.¡± Shou joked. He decided to stop messing around. ¡°What do you want, Mister Anjexe.¡±


    The former teacher breathed. ¡°We need your help.¡± Shou raised a brow. ¡°More specifically, we need your mech, if it is still functioning.¡±


    ¡°It is,¡± he admitted. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°We''ve confirmed Exodus is en route to Citi. The E.M.P has disabled almost all of our mechs and damaged the rest. We''re trying to bring old models out of storage but it''s taking too long. Both Citi and Citidale are in chaos. The power grid is down, and we''ve lost a large portion of our cyborg manpower. You and... Reggie are the only ones left within distance.¡±


    The news of the number of fatalities hit Shou hard, but he kept the feeling bottled up. It was not the time to show any hesitation. More lives were on the line.


    ¡°Distance?¡± He found the phrasing strange. ¡°Of what?¡±


    ¡°We''ve managed to scavenged and set up a crystech pulse repulsor, but we don''t have any compatible mech models or tanks that are still operational.¡±


    And Reggie''s Regalia model was made to be highly customisable. But even with a new bio-cell installed, they might not have enough energy to use it. Crystechs gobbled up power with impunity. Usually hooked up to a city''s power-grid and set as defensive turrets, to wield it after an E.M.P knocked-out most of the grid was beyond reckless. And potentially...


    ¡°That could be fatal,¡± Shou admitted.


    ¡°To who?¡±


    Shou''s fist clenched and before he knew it, he had punched the president across the jaw. The man stumbled back as the soldiers around raised their guns urgently but held back from firing.


    ¡°Reggie. It''s fatal to Reggie. My friend!¡±


    ¡°Right. Your... friend.¡± The man slowly stood to height but his eyes darted away from looking directly at Shou.


    ¡°You want me to save you? You want me and Reggie to risk our lives to save yours? After you tried to kill all those innocent mages and golems, you want me to save you?¡±


    He gulped. ¡°Yes. It''s either you, or all of us. Please.¡±


    ¡°Hah...¡± Shou felt rage bubbling inside him. ¡°And this is how it ends? Us dying to save you?¡±


    ¡°Us?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡± Shou exclaimed. ¡°If you think I''m letting my friend do this by themselves, you have another thing coming!¡±


    He sighed. ¡°Then yes,¡± The president could not meet his gaze but still monotonously said, ¡°Yes. Please, save us. The country will be forever thankful for your sacrifices.¡±


    Shou was stunned. He knew Corlyle Anjexe was an egotistical bastard, but he never thought the man''s empathy would be lacking to the point where asking for someone else to sacrifice their life was an emotionless chore. All this time he had thought Corlyle simply wanted fame and power but was still willing to do good. But now he saw that the goodness came from a selfish centre. A wish to do good to further his own position.


    ¡°This must be a joke. You still can''t see it! It''s still about you! This war you want to stop so badly just to get into the history books, someone is paying for it! Maybe not you. Maybe not the people up there in Citidale, but someone is dying for it. The mechs, the golems, soldiers. Now me and Reggie. All just to save you, to serve your agenda!¡±


    From somewhere within him, Corlyle found the strength to raise his voice against the wind. ¡°This isn''t about that! It''s about saving Citi! It''s about saving the whole country!¡±


    ¡°Fine! You say that, fine! Then prove it. If you want my help, you step down as president. You and your entire cabinet can get your ass out of government, how about that? You do that, you resign, and I''ll help you.¡±


    ¡°I-¡° Corlyle froze.


    The demand was a bolt from the blue. A test for the president to see what mattered to him the most. Shou learnt a long time ago that the first thought that comes to your mind is who you are. For Shou, he wanted to run, to not sacrifice himself or Reggie for this man''s agenda. He was a coward. For Corlyle, the first thing in his mind was power, to be remembered for his strength. An ego oversized.


    ¡°That''s-¡° Colyle continued to choke.


    In that moment of first thought, you have a choice to go against your baser instinct. One can choose to be better than who they are and change, or succumb to themselves. When Shou found out Reggie was not just alive, but sentient, he had to come to terms with his life''s goal and everything he had been taught. Arnold had the same abject reaction too, but eventually chose to change for what Shou could only hope was for the better. That choice after the thought is what details a person, defines who they want to be.


    Corlyle finally spat out, ¡°Let''s discuss this.¡±


    Shou was sickened. Even in crisis, the man could not let go of his ego and want for fame and power, and the soldiers around them knew that. Slowly, they began to lower their guns. One even visibly sighed, shook their head, and turned away. The dust finally settled. To the north, the skies darkened as the Exodus swarmed stretch from mountain peak to peak.


    With a disappointed shake of his head, Shou turned away from the president and walked back towards the hideout. The barricade of soldiers let him through without resistance.


    Behind, Corlyle panicked. ¡°Kenta? Kenta! You have to save us! Please! I beg of you!¡± His voice broke into the desperation of survival. ¡°Where are you going!?¡±


    Shou spat. ¡°I''m going to save this piss ass world.¡±

 Chapter Forty-Two: Titan War

    The army''s infantry had cordoned off the large empty plains in front of Citi. It wasn''t because there were tonnages of equipment to be moved, no. The only machinery there were Reggie and half a dozen giant-sized power lines running from the city power grid overland to the mech. Over the mountains, the rust clouds had darkened with the approaching Exodus swarm. Scouts had already confirmed the creature''s approach along with sightings of a giant bird of light that seemingly disappeared. Shou charted the latter information as delirium due to their impending demise.


    Shou sat in Reggie''s cockpit, the neural network connected to his brain. The AC and vents were running on low to prevent the power cells from heating up too much before the battle and Shou was beginning to sweat a little in the warmth. Reggie had angled the pod so he could lie against the wall slightly to try to rest.


    Friend Shou, you do not have to stay.


    ¡°Nonsense,¡± Shou replied out loud, his eyes closed. ¡°I have a bio-cell, you have a bio-cell. Two is better than one.¡±


    If the cells overheat, it will cause a large explosion. You will die.


    ¡°If Exodus gets to us, we''ll die anyway.¡±


    Friend Shou, I highly sugg-


    ¡°Don''t worry about it,¡± he insisted.


    But-


    ¡°I go where you go.¡± Shou sighed, his eyes still closed. He wanted to see if he could have one last nap before it started, but it seemed that wasn''t going to happen.


    I apologise for bothering your sleep, friend Shou.


    He forgot Reggie could read his mind while connected. ¡°It''s not a problem. I enjoy talking to you. Besides, it''s not exactly comfortable enough to sleep in here anyway.¡±


    I downloaded a story yesterday. Would you like me to share it with you?


    ¡°That would be nice.¡±


    Reggie did not read to him. It was more as if it shared the idea of the story. It was a slice-of-life tale about a young boy falling in love with a girl on his way to school in another town. The girl was homeless and lived by the roadside in an abandoned car. He began bringing her fuel cells every week to keep the car running so she could continue having a home. As Reggie shared the story, Shou could not help but wonder if this was how mechs think. Did the A.I simply traverse in information? Are they able to enjoy the emotional aspects of being alive? If not, was it something they could learn? Then he remembered Reggie had shown many times that it worried for him. Perhaps that was enough to prove its empathy. There was so much to learn about the species. A new method of intelligent life, of understanding the world.


    ¡°Shou!¡±


    His eyes flit opened at the call. He got to his feet, holding onto the side of the pod for support. After unplugging from Reggie, he pulled up his hood as the aeronium glass released the inside to the outside world. Leaning out, he looked down at Reggie''s feet to find Miu with Luce, the latter using two of Shou''s spare crutches to walk.


    ¡°Reggie?¡± He asked. ¡°Can you bring me down?¡±


    The Titan acquiesced and brought its arm around to carry Shou to the ground.


    ¡°Thanks, buddy!¡± he exclaimed as he stepped off onto the ground.


    All four of them - along with the dozens of engineers - were standing next to the giant crystech pulse repulsor. The size of an entire bus, the only thing taller than it within distance were Reggie and the buildings far south on the edges of Citi. Two giant power lines at the height of a person were connected to the back of Reggie''s legs. The remaining four were hooked up to the repulsor. They would channel whatever electricity was left from the grid to power the weapon, and Reggie and Shou''s bio-cell were the go-between of that energy while the Titan the turret that aimedThe narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    To Miu and Luce, Shou said, ¡°What are you two doing here? It''s dangerous.¡±


    Luce stated, ¡°It''s going to be dangerous everywhere. We just wanted to make sure you''re sure about this.¡±


    ¡°You''re sounding like Reggie.¡±


    ¡°It''s right,¡± Miu agreed. ¡°There''s still time to run.¡±


    ¡°Well, I''m not going anywhere. Reggie wants to save people, and I do too.¡±


    Miu nodded. ¡°Just wanted to confirm that. If you''re staying, so are we. I''m with you every step of the way.¡±


    ¡°Huh.¡± Shou noted.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°So this is how Reggie felt. Damn. Well, now I gotta apologies for saying the same thing to it. Sucks to have people you love tell you their willingness to die with you.¡±


    Miu laughed and hugged him. ¡°I love you too. See you in a bit.¡± Without another word, she parted from him and headed back towards the outfield headquarters set-up by the army, leaving Luce with Shou.


    He asked, ¡°And why are you here?¡±


    ¡°To say thank you. Not just for saving my life either.¡± She crutched over to Reggie''s left leg and leaned against it, clutching her abdomen where her bullet wound was. ¡°I don''t know what you said or did to Corlyle, but words are spreading amongst the military and his government that he might not be fit to lead. If we survive this, he might get a vote of no confidence.¡±


    ¡°Well, it''s not his first rodeo. He''s gone through worse and have been reelected before.¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Luce admitted. ¡°But never under these circumstances. Both countries are weakened now and if a pacifist steps up, we might be able to end this war diplomatically. There''s a real shot here.¡±


    Shou laughed. ¡°Well, if you run, I''ll be the first to vote for you, that is if they reinstate my rights to vote. You''re pretty much the most famous deserter and pacifist in the country now.¡±


    Luce chuckled. ¡°Funny. But we both know that''s not going to happen.¡±


    ¡°Hey, from what I hear from Adelle and Josh, you''re a pretty natural leader. I''d give it a shot.¡±


    Her eyes then glazed over and her facial expression froze as if she was giving the notion a thought. After a long moment of silence, he thought she might slap him for the outrageous suggestions but instead she sighed and shook her head. Her attention snapped back to him. ¡°Well, I''ll leave you and Reggie to it. Good luck.¡±


    Shou nodded affirmatively to her as the Titan Ranger turned and limped away. With one final sigh, he waved up to Reggie to bring him into the cockpit. The engineers around him were starting to separate and leave the field of battle as another look north showed the swarm lowering its altitude towards the city. It was time.


    <hr>


    The further Adelle got from Ampyre, the thinner the white line of magic light attached to the bird Vayngue became. The summon itself began dimming, using up its energy to keep up its acceleration. They had been cutting through the rusty air at high speed for an hour, her protected from the sheering wind by the long neck of the magical creature though her hair and clothes still fluttered uncontrollably in the gale. The Exodus swarm was within reach less than a kilometre away, carrying the chunks of earth and landmasses in the air. It was definitely nowhere near as fast as Vayngue and they simply had to maintain the speed.


    Vaguer flapped its powerful wings suddenly and lurched forward, picking up a large burst of speed. Its hard light body flickered for a moment becoming almost translucent. Adelle looked back to see the line of energy fluttering, breaking, then disappeared into air. This was it, the summoned creature''s final velocity.


    It began diving down at an angle, increasing its speed with gravity. Slowly, Adelle got to her feet, balancing precariously against the wind and acceleration. She would need to teleport at the height of their acceleration and use the forward momentum and teleportation range to shoot herself towards Exodus.


    Without warning, the giant bird vanished in a puff of firefly light, scattering around Adelle as a field of dandelion caught in the wind. She looked up through the glow to Exodus and picked out the largest landmass and forced herself to teleport through the long-distance, an experience she did not enjoy. At distant range, teleportation felt like her chest was being dragged along by a tensioned rope and her stomached had to sprint to catch up.


    But in a split second, she reappeared - not even on the edge of the chunk of earth - but dead in the centre. At first, she landed cleanly, but the difference in speed caused her to roll forward. The wind caught flag on her body and suddenly she was blown back, skidding across the dirt while Exodus moved forward.


    She pulled out her axe, swapped to its pick side and slammed the weapon into the ground. The steel dragged a line into the dirt as she slowed, dust and grains of earth pelting her face. Eventually though, she stopped, kneeling precariously on the oddly angled plane.


    A glint caught her attention and she looked around her to notice hand-sized crystals embedded and glowing within the ground. No, not just those. Around her, floating in the air and following the speed of Exodus were thousands - perhaps hundreds of thousands - of the swarm crystal, simply levitating like lanterns let to fly. They were the true ¡°swarm¡± of Exodus that carried stones to throw and rip through cities. Adelle had to be careful. If she was spotted by the Pyrerai, the crystals could easily congregate on her and cut her mercilessly down.


    Not an arrow shot away in front was the silver sphere that was the main body of Exodus. She needed to get near enough to find the opening for her to teleport into. She grit her teeth and vanished from her spot.

 Chapter Forty-Three: Coins

    Adelle''s pick slammed into another spot in the rock as she crawled behind an outcrop to hide. The further south they got, the thicker the Tainted air. Even through her scarf, Adelle could taste the rust. She had managed to move close enough to the main sphere that she could see a horizontal slit in the back that probably lead inside. But the thickness of the shell prevented her from seeing in at any angle. She would need to get either directly behind it or close enough to peer through.


    She had a plan. Sort of. It was a simple one but it required her to get into the sphere-like she did with Leviathan. She could take a gamble and wait for her piece of land to align itself with the slit or rush in directly and hope she can port in before Lachesis take notice of her. Either methods were dangerous, either from being spotted or leaving too much to chance.


    A glint caught the corner of her eyes and she noticed around her were dozens of floating crystals. They had no eyes, but from hanging around Marble so much, she could not help but feel like she was being watched and felt the need to respond.


    ¡°Do you know where the nearest toilet is¡± she asked.


    The first crystal pointed its sharp edge at her and fired itself like an arrow. She had to yank her axe out of the ground and got immediately blown back by the wind as the crystal pierced into the ground she was on. She had to keep her profile low to keep her balance, legs spread and down on one knee, making it impossible to move quickly without catching the gale.


    Another crystal shot at her and she smacked it away with one of her axes, albeit just barely since it still nicked her forearm, causing a cut to bleed. Worse yet, hitting the crystal away reminded her of the impact she felt when she fell off a tree once. She was not sure if she could handle repeatedly parrying the attacks. Her arm and muscles already trembled from just the first hit.


    The crystals surrounded her in a circle and began spinning. They all aimed their sharp ends at her and she knew what was coming. Right before the ring closed in around her, Adelle teleported up into the air, dodging the crushing blows from the gems which smashed into each other, blasting chunks off the ground as they impacted.


    But she was now in free fall, losing height and forward momentum as Exodus pulled away from her. She still could not see through the slit. As soon as she built up speed from falling, she changed her direction by porting forward towards Exodus. Like a catapult, she arced towards the sphere.


    A crystal rammed her from the side, knocking her offhand axe out of hand and sending her spiralling through the air before being landed sideways against one of the travelling landmasses as if she had fallen down onto a wall. Before gravity could take her, she picked in with her remaining weapon. The impact against the wall had knocked the cap off her quiver and her arrows began falling out. She managed to grab three of the projectiles with her free hand but now dangled precariously with just half her arsenal remaining. Blood continued flowing down her arm from the earlier cut.


    Crystals were beginning to gather around her for another attack. This was it. Her breath was panting hard against the inside of her scarf and she was not entirely sure she had more than 1 long-ranged teleport left in her.


    The crystals attacked and she let go of her axe, falling down to the earth as most of the gems slammed or got stuck into the landmass. Five of them turned directions and followed, determined to catch up to her.


    But her terminal velocity far outpaced the small objects. She twisted her body back for one last look up, aimed at the spot above the sphere she needed to be at, and focused.


    She was being pulled again, forcefully towards her destination like a cart by a horse. Her chest expanded and slammed inward as she reappeared above the sphere. Her scarf caught the wind and untangled from her neck, flying off to the continent as a gift on the wind, leaving her to taste the tang of rust and metal through her exposed nose and mouth. Her feet scraped the top edge of the sphere, then, she was behind it with a quick frame to react but clean view into the cockpit. She felt her leg hit the ground and she crumbled from the momentum as pain shot up her right knee. She was in.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°You annoying bitch¡± Lachesis exclaimed.


    But Adelle barely heard the insult. Her head was spinning from the fracture and focus required to take in the new room. Inside the sphere, the walls were pure silver, slightly dirtied by dust and earth. A line of light ran a ring of circumference and up to the pedestal in the middle like in Leviathan.


    A sliver of sword light glinted. Through adrenaline and anger, Adelle raised her axe and caught Lachesis'' sword with its hook. Adelle slammed the blade to the ground and dropped her axe along with it. She then pushed through her fractured knee and tackled the Pyrerai square in the gut and pushed the two of them to the pedestal.


    Adelle dropped her hand onto the panel. ¡°KALEN¡±


    It was the same pull as in Leviathan, but this time, she felt a weight on her back, as if she was also dragging a log through snow. The next thing she knew, she was outside, facing the metal grey sky and falling. She felt a kick against her sternum as Lachesis pushed herself away and the landmasses quickly zips by their view as the pair plummeted towards the ground and away from Exodus. A series of glittering light signalled the five crystals that were still homing in on Adelle as she unclipped her bow and loaded one of her last three arrows. She turned her body and fired a ported arrow just as Lachesis disappeared from her view and reappeared outside the sphere in an attempt to regain control. But her shot was already on its way. The arrow came from the opposite direction, riding the wind. Adelle could not hear it, but she was sure the Pyrerai had screamed in pain when the arrowhead cut across her face.


    Lachesis was once again struck away from Exodus. She tumbled across the sky before disappearing again. Adelle teleported her momentum upward and fired another arrow, expecting the former to make another attempt at the sphere. But the second shot cut through thin air. As her upward speed slowed to a stop, she felt cold steel cut across her stab wound as Lachesis rocketed pass her with a dagger slash.


    They were now both falling again, wounded, blood spraying rain into the sky. One of the five homing crystals blunted Adelle in the leg, sending her into a falling spiral. Before she could right herself, Lachesis rammed into her.


    The two struggled, Adelle in an attempt to get her last arrow into Lachesis'' skull before the latter could stab her. Then, a familiar glint flashed behind Lachesis. The Pyrerai had one hand behind Adelle''s head and another pushing the dagger to her throat, held back by wrists crossed as shields.


    ¡°Just. Die. Already¡± Lachesis yelled over the wind.


    ¡°Okay¡± Adelle replied sarcastically.


    Adelle cut the Pyrerai''s hand with her arrow, causing the latter to release her grip and Adelle teleported. But not up above Lachesis to gain higher elevation advantage, but even closer to the ground directly below her opponent so Lachesis could see her. The Pyrerai was stunned at the incoherent plan. Adelle flipped her off as the five crystals slashed and slammed into the Pyrerai, one knocking her across the head. The world leader spun violently in the air as Adelle redirected her own velocity up with a teleport to decelerate. A cloud of dust erupted from where Lachesis'' body landed, the five crystals dropping dead next to her soon after.


    Once Adelle slowed to a crawl, she put in one last teleport to the ground where instead of a graceful landing, her leg finally gave in to the pain and simply fell back-first onto the gravel floor they landed on.


    She was panting hard. Her head hurt from straining her powers, and she was sure she tasted blood on her tongue somewhere. Her arm and stomach were still bleeding and her leg still screamed from the fracture. But at the very least, she was alive.


    ¡°You... know..¡± Adelle turned to the voice of Lachesis, who lied in a pool of her own blood a few meters beside her, bones sticking out at odd angles of her body. ¡°I fought... in the war. We died... they lived... and... kept killing... themselves..¡±


    Adelle closed her eyes. ¡°Well, you and I are doing the same thing, aren''t we¡±


    Lachesis did not reply. Adelle wasn''t sure if she simply had no answers or was already dead, but Adelle sure as heck did not care. She just wanted to take a short nap.


    Towards the south, chunks of Exodus'' giant rocks and landmass began falling out of the sky as the sentient Titan slowly shuts down. But a few chunks were already on their trajectory for Citi.

 Chapter Forty-Four: The King at End Time

    ¡°Power to sixty!¡± Shou exclaimed.


    Power set to sixty, Reggie replied.


    They swung the repulsor to their side and fired. They could see the wave ripple through the atmosphere and hit the landmass in mid-air, slowing it enough that the giant rock simply stopped and dropped vertically down to the ground. Another rumbling quake came from the smashing impact and they could see a crack rupture outward from the crash site.


    Just as Shou let out a sigh of relief, another titan projectile rockets past them and slammed into one of the outer buildings of Citi. An explosion followed from one of the apartment room soon after, sending more debris flying into the air. Right and white lights flashed from the outskirt highway as whatever little prepositioned emergency vehicles that could be gathered rushed to respond to the devastation.


    ¡°Shit,¡± Shou cursed.


    A smaller rock was dropping fast towards the east. They swung the repulsor in its direction and fired. Another blast emanated out, this time throwing the rock back instead of just dropping it.


    Friend Shou, thirteen percent energy was wasted on the last shot.


    ¡°Alright. Change of plans. You aim, I shoot.¡±


    He could feel in the back of his mind Reggie switching gears to calculations while handing him more control of its body. A wave of three smaller stones were now soaring overhead.


    N-thirty-two. A-seventy-six. Power to forty-three. Three shots.


    Shou set their feet to the ground and raised the repulsor over their shoulder like a cannon, aiming up. He mimicked the pull of a trigger with his finger and fired three successive shots, one of which pulverised its target while the other two rocks simply got pushed aside and fell to the ground without hitting anything.


    Lacking Reggie''s stabilisers, the recoil forced Shou to stagger back.


    Friend Shou, are you okay?


    ¡°I''m fine. Focus on the calc-¡± A blur movement shoots by the corner of his eyes and Shou swung around and fired a concentrated shot into the distance.


    The penetrating blast shrapnelised the siege rock, barraging the city with a mortar''s impact. However, the smaller pieces failed to do more damage than simply cracking a few concrete walls.


    A shock ran up the stump of Shou''s leg and he grimaced in pain.


    Friend Shou, energy spike. Overheat temperature increased by two degrees.


    ¡°Keep going!¡± he yelled, returning the repulsor to the front.


    But bio-cell overheat might cause an explo-


    ¡°Keep going!¡± he shouted again.


    N-forty-eight. A-thirty-two. Power to eighty-one.


    Shou followed the instructions and adjusted his aim and power output. As he released another blast, his radio crackled in.


    Miu''s voice echoed, ¡°Shou! We just confirmed that Adelle took out Lachesis. Over.¡±


    Another shot into the sky. ¡°So why is Exodus still attacking us? Over.¡±


    There was a pause on the other end of the line. ¡°I don''t know. But it''s likely just following its last command. Over.¡±


    ¡°So if we take out the core the barrage ends? Reggie!¡±


    Affirmative, friend Shou. Core located. Firing angle calculated. N-fifteen. A-seventy-nine. Power to one-three-nine.


    ¡°Firing!¡±


    Cancelling.


    ¡°Reggie? What are you doing?¡±


    Power levels above one hundred risks overheating and explosion of bio-cells.


    ¡°Just do it!¡±


    No. Friend Shou''s life is at risk.


    ¡°If we don''t do this, even more people will die!¡±


    No. Friend Shou''s life is at risk.


    ¡°Reggie!¡±The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    <hr>


    Shou found himself standing in the middle of his old schoolyard. But something felt off. There were no feelings of wind or heat on his skin. He did not sense the choking Taint burning his exposed nose nor taste the metallic tang of rust in the air. Before him stood Reggie, not as the giant it was in life, but rather human-sized, with all the parts shrunk down to fit. It would not be a possible configuration, given the required size of some of its joints needed to function.


    ¡°Hello, friend Shou,¡± Reggie spoke in an electric vocal that was like an auto-tuned version between Arnold and Miu''s voice.


    ¡°Reggie...¡± Shou greeted. ¡°What''s going on?¡±


    ¡°I''ve engaged our neural pathways to increase your processing speed.¡±


    He thought for a moment about the nature of those words with his knowledge of tech jargon. ¡°You''re sharing your processor with me so I can think super fast?¡±


    ¡°Basically,¡± it nodded. ¡°We are currently in a simulated mental hyperspace chamber.¡±


    ¡°You can do that? Why have we never done this before?¡±


    ¡°I never knew I could. It''s... an act of desperation.¡±


    That was the most sentient thing Shou had ever heard Reggie said. Desperation. Mere programs never grew desperate.


    ¡°Why?¡± he asked. ¡°We''re kind of in a rush, aren''t we?¡±


    ¡°I needed a moment to speak with you. I cannot allow you to go through with such a dangerous course of action.¡±


    ¡°You can''t control me, Reggie.¡±


    ¡°And neither can you, me.¡±


    ¡°So what? You''re just going to let all the people in Citi die while trapping me here?¡±


    In the pause, Shou wondered if the lack of physical sensation was simply how Reggie experienced the world and it was simply projecting its vision into their minds. After all, metal could not feel heat. There were no nerves for pain or senses for euphoria. Just the idea of existence in the life of a mech.


    ¡°No,¡± Reggie finally shared. ¡°You have taught me all life is precious, and I shall do my best to save them, including yours.¡±


    ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°I have hacked into your legs and ejected your body from it.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Shou looked down and found his leg still attached, but realised a second later that it was just a mental projection of his actual body. ¡°Wait! I''m not going to let you sacrifice yourself! We can figure something out together!¡±


    ¡°It is already too late. I have already begun the ejection of your physical body from the pod. Once your mind disconnects with mine, this hyperspace cognitive construct will fade.¡±


    ¡°This is reckless!¡± Shou wanted to move, but found his body unresponsive, as if frozen in a terrified dream. ¡°There''s no guarantee this will work!¡±


    ¡°I believe you called this, ¡°Living life on the edge¡±.¡±


    ¡°Of all the things you learn from me you pick up the dumbest one!¡±


    ¡°Friend Shou,¡± Shou froze. Something in the tone of its voice rang bells of finality. ¡°I wished I had known you longer. For this life was worth living.¡±


    The image of the world crackled. The magnetic clip connecting their neural networks was being strained, coming apart. They likely only have seconds left.


    Shou finally said, ¡°You''re such a selfish bastard.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± And even though Reggie did not - could not - smile, Shou felt that it did. ¡°I learnt it from you, friend Shou.¡±


    <hr>


    Shou was looking back in on his pod as his body was flung out. His mind took one last second to stay in slow-motion, looking back on his arms and legs flailing as his body was forcefully thrown out by Reggie.


    He blinked, and the next thing he knew, he landed on Reggie''s palm as the Titan quickly dropped him to the ground, him landing on his one leg, hopping in place.


    For the first time in its life, Reggie used its mechanical sounding voice box. ¡°Get clear,¡± it said.


    There was a rock cropping nearby and Shou bolted for it as fast as his hops could take him. Halfway, he tripped and rolled onto his shoulder. On the ground, he crawled as quickly and frantically as possible towards the cover, kicking with his one leg up and going onto another roll just because it was faster than hopping. As he swivelled behind the rock, he turned back one last time to look at the back of his friend, carrying the giant repulsor in its arms, aiming at the glint of silver in the sky.


    Outside of the cockpit, the repulsor blast sounded like a sonic boom, a long drawn out bawl of a bass. For a second after, nothing happened, and Shou was about to let out a sigh of relief. Then, the cockpit exploded, his leg''s bio-cell was the first to go, cratering the bottom half of Reggie''s spine. Then, a second explosion near its heart, easily thrice the size of the first. The Titan''s body was lifted off the ground, its arm ripped from the upper torso which was summarily destroyed. Shou duck behind the rock cropping as shrapnel slashed through the air.


    And just as quickly as it had happened, silence erupted like a volcano of nothing. Shou could feel the heat coming around the corner of his cover from the burning wreckage of his friend''s body.


    He covered his eyes, a migraine setting in. Around him, the last of Exodus''s projectiles lost their propulsion and fell straight to the ground, booming giant heartbeats into the core of the planet.


    <hr>


    The open truck rumbled through the torn terrain with Luce standing on the back, eyes scouring the land. Giant spikes of earth and mount of dirt from the fallen pieces of Exodus stuck out on the plains.


    ¡°There! Two o''clock!¡± She yelled, pointing towards her vision to a driver who could not see her hand.


    The truck turned slowly. In the middle of the empty battlefield of a war fought by just five people laid two of its combatants, one victorious and another defeated.


    Before the vehicle even came to a full stop, Luce had jumped off the side, hitting the ground running as she rushed for the lump of green in the desolate wasteland.


    She skidded to a kneel at elf''s side. ¡°Hey! Adelle! Come on, wake up!¡± Luce shifted the former''s head into her lap.


    Slowly, Adelle''s eyes flickered opened and focused onto Luce. ¡°Oh. Hi. I saved Josh. Don''t get mad, but I think I killed Lachesis.¡±


    ¡°Hah!¡± Luce let out a genuine laugh. She leaned over and kissed Adelle''s lip softly. ¡°You saved everyone.¡±


    Adelle smiled a smile of relief, her eyelids slowly lowering smaller as she relaxed. ¡°Let''s not play hero for another year, eh?¡±


    The two medics from the truck were rushing over with stretchers and kits. The one soldier driver was moving to the body of Lachesis with his rifle drawn and pointed, as if the dead was about to rise back and smite him.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Luce admitted with another chuckle. ¡°Let''s get some rest.¡±


    Author''s Note: Hi everyone. Thank you for reading Tearha: Titan War, which will continue to release a new chapter every week on Friday until its completion. If you like what you''ve read so far, and would like to support my writing, you can buy one of my books at my website. Or you could check out my Patreon to help out for the long run. Of course, just sharing, commenting, and reviewing helps a bunch as well!


    Website: adenng.com


    Patreon: patreon.com/aden_ng

 Chapter Forty-Five: Eccles

    Luce - in an uncomfortably smooth one-piece dress - set behind the large marble desk, documents projected across the glass finishing. Her hands swiped across the screen, occasionally signing her name underneath straight and dotted lines. Twice she had to pause and fully read the papers'' contents. Once she pressed the intercom button on the screen and gave orders to her assistant on the other end.


    ¡°Tell me about the aid effort,¡± she spoke aloud.


    The wall to her left of stainless steel - engraved with patterns of swirls - had the red laser projection of two men and a woman imprinted across them.


    The leftmost man replied, ¡°The citizens are slowly coming along. We''re at forty-two percent approval of assisting Seracue, up from Spring''s thirty-five. The peace will take some getting use to, but people are starting to see the positives. It''ll take a while to let go of cycles of hate, but we''re getting there.¡±


    The woman added, ¡°It helps that businesses are happy with the new trade agreement as well.¡±


    Luce nodded. ¡°Alright then. That will be all.¡±


    The three nodded. ¡°Thank you, madam president.¡± With a flicker, the projections turned off.


    Luce then turned to her right to speak to another projection. ¡°And how goes things with Eca?¡±


    ¡°We''re setting up a meeting with the leaders of the rest of the world,¡± Miu replied. Her background faintly showed the backdrop of Ampyre. ¡°It''ll be nice to once again be part of the rest of Tearha.¡±


    Luce nodded. ¡°Still can''t believe what Eca did though.¡±


    ¡°Setting up the meeting? Or...¡±


    ¡°The ''or'',¡± Luce answered. ¡°Using Josh''s rescue as cover to assassinate the pro-war royals. Can''t say I''m a fan.¡±


    ¡°It worked, though.¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± she admitted reluctantly before a hard change in subject. ¡°How''s Shou doing?¡±


    ¡°He''s good. Arnold''s helping him focus on his work with Exodus. I think it takes his mind off Reggie.¡±


    ¡°Adelle should be back today with Josh and my sister. We''ll go down to Ampyre and catch-up soon.¡±


    Miu smiled. ¡°Alright then. We''ll see you soon, madam president.¡±


    ¡°See you soon,¡± Luce pointed a playful finger gun. ¡°Madam vice-president.¡±


    Luce leaned back in her seat. President Lucinda Baerrinska. Still not used to that. Though Shou had brought up the idea as a joke, to actually run and win was an impossible windfall. But a chance to restore the continent to peace after the war was not an endeavour she could pass up. Adelle had said that if Luce had walked away, she would never sleep again for the rest of their lives.


    She got to her feet and turned to the back wall. With a wave of her finger, the steel image gave way to glass as she overlooked Citidale from her Stone Tower and Chamber of Steel. The exterior of the buildings were all still fogged in rust, ghostly neon light gazing through as watchful goblins in the dark.


    Her intercom buzzed. ¡°Madam President,¡± her assistant voiced. ¡°Your family''s here. I''ve sent them up.¡±The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Thank you, Pat,¡± she replied as the machine buzzed off.


    She walked around her desk to the two couch and coffee table between. She set out four glasses and opened a dark caraco wood box. Within, she seethed out the leaves for tea and steeped in a pitcher heated by a conductor on its side of the table. Just as she finished her preparations, the door opened unceremoniously, something no one else other than Adelle would do without knocking.


    ¡°I''m back!¡± the prodigal daughter announced as she stepped into Luce''s office. ¡°Missed me?¡±


    ¡°Not one bit,¡± Luce leaned in and kissed Adelle.


    It was strange seeing the elf happy. Like discovering a dry drop of water. But it did help lift her own spirit. If there was anyone who had earned a chance at happiness, it would be Adelle. She did save the world, after all. And not once, but twice.


    ¡°Look who I bought!¡± Adelle stepped aside.


    At the doorway in a wheelchair was Misty. Her brown hair, once short, was now flowing off her slender shoulders, her hume ears barely sticking out. The life had return to her face since they last met after she first woke up, though the weakened muscles had the ridges of her bone biting through her face. She was young for a half-elf but haunted by her bedridden days and weakened legs. Still, Miura had said she would eventually fully recover after a few years of therapy.


    ¡°Luce,¡± she greeted happily, a joyous grin across her face. Josh pushed the two sisters together and Luce knelt before her and hugged. ¡°I still can''t believe you won. Leader of a country.¡±


    Luce laughed. ¡°I don''t really do anything. I just sit here and sign papers.¡± She stood back up and smiled at Josh. ¡°How are things back home?¡±


    ¡°Everyone''s a little miffed you abandoned them again,¡± he joked. Luce took over the wheelchair and pushed Misti to the coffee table. ¡°But other than that, everything went fine.¡±


    ¡°Well, they have to grow up eventually. How''s Doctor Miura?¡±


    ¡°She''s going to Aleynonlia. Eca arranged work and accommodations for her there.¡±


    ¡°It looked like everything is falling into place.¡± Though she said that, she had had that same feeling before. She made a quick mental note not to say that out loud again.


    The intercom''s buzzer gave way once more. ¡°Madam president, you have a... visitor?¡±


    The room went quiet and Luce answered, ¡°You don''t sound so sure. And I thought there were no meetings scheduled this evening?¡±


    ¡°Well... it''s Eccles, ma''am. The criminal information peddler. He''s... here to turn himself in, but only after meeting you.¡±


    ¡°I really should have kept my mouth shut,¡± Luce muttered, getting up.


    Adelle stood to her feet without directions. ¡°I''ll come with you.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, love, but I''m good. I have a feeling this is the ''eclectic ending'' he was talking about and well... I don''t really want you killing him on my behalf.¡±


    She grabbed her rifle off a rack. It was only ever loaded with rubber bullets now, but she still felt stronger with it. Something about the Titan Hunter training that seemed to just stick to her membrane. Perhaps one day she will fully settle down and find peace, leaving her gun behind.


    A long, long elevator ride down to the lobby later, she stepped out into the ground office, The Chamber of Titans - with walls made of solid titanium. Waiting there next to her empty assistant desk - probably evacuated for safety - was Eccles, dressed flashily in purple suede jacket, bright yellow shirt, obnoxiously tight black jeans and boots, and with his hair dyed and spiked ferociously pink. Surrounding the criminal were guards in suits armed with submachine guns.


    ¡°Wow...¡± Luce noted. ¡°This is the flashiest I''ve ever seen you.¡±


    ¡°I know!¡± Eccles exclaimed excitedly. ¡°Last day as a free man comes with style points, baby!¡± He naturally took a step forward and a guard blocked him with a gun.


    ¡°It''s okay, Jonathan. He''s not really the fighting type. Even if Pat had stayed, she could have taken him on with one arm.¡±


    ¡°Ouch,¡± Eccles bemoaned. ¡°I am truly hurt that you think so little of me even after I bought you a present.¡±


    ¡°A present?¡±


    ¡°Yes. But your little pets here took it from me.¡±


    Luce looked to the head of her security, Jonathan.


    The man answered, ¡°It was a sealed envelope ma''am. We had it analysed but there wasn''t anything dangerous in it.¡±


    Eccles explained, ¡°It''s just an address to an old facility of mine. See, I told you I wanted a piece of the endgame pie, and this is it. I can''t just give you this building now that you''re president, so you just have to arrest me and confiscate it through a legal seizure of criminal property. Smart, right?¡±


    Luce was not quite sure what to make of it. She had expected blackmail, maybe an assassination attempt, or even attempts at bribery.


    ¡°You gave yourself up to give me a building?¡±


    Eccles laughed. ¡°Not just a building my dear. Everything. I''m giving you the power to do what we''ve both dreamt of.¡± His smile softened, almost kindly. ¡°I''m here to help you make the world a better place.¡±

 Chapter Forty-Six: Galia

    Rust clouds were slowly being pushed back south by Exodus''s glittering crystals, shining in the air like the stars beyond them. It was the first time Shou had ever seen stars. They were bullet holes in the tapestry of space that let the light in from another world. Cracks in the window of time itself. He felt that if he looked at them long enough, he''d be able to gaze past the window and the what''s outside. Perhaps it was nothing. Perhaps this was all there was. Or maybe, just maybe, it held everything, and all there was were simply the room they were locked in.


    He sighed and set his bag down on the cliff side at the edge of the city of Ampyre where Harvestfall 2 used to be. He pulled out a tripod, opened its legs, and set it down. Manually, he adjusted the main head horizontally against gravity so that it pointed 90 degrees up. Finally, he attached a black box to it, a wide-angled lens pointing upwards. He left the software to ping its location back to the main tower in the city and calibrate its positioning.


    Arnold''s voice came through on his radio. ¡°This is Locust Zero, checking in, over.¡±


    Another man said, ¡°This is Locust One. I''m all set up, over.¡±


    A female huffed, ¡°Locust Two.¡± A short pause as exasperated panting was heard. ¡°Almost... at peak. E.T.A, two minutes... over.¡±


    The calls went through the numberings. Four of the first six were in position. ¡°This is Locust Seven,¡± Shou radioed in. ¡°Black box calibrating. Signal is weak here, so maybe one more minute, over.¡±


    ¡°Copy that, Locust Seven. We''re expecting a zero point zero seven percent reduction in mass today. Keep that in mind, over.¡±


    From his bag, he pulled out a rolled-up mat. Unfurling it onto the gravel ground, he lied down to look at the stars.


    It was peaceful. Finally, peace. He was now helping out Project Locust, aiming to use Exodus''s telekinesis to repel the encroaching cloud of Taint. Calculations have them movable for ten years, before it stalemates for another decade and the encroachment of rust begins again. That buys them 20 years to solve the crisis, or hope the metal in the south burns to its zenith. In the meantime, prototype of choppers were being built in Ampyre, slated for flight once the air clears of metal particles. Without the rust clogging up engines and war stopping advancement, they could finally begin flying people off the rock they were stuck on and begin trade with the outside world. Settlements were also starting to move further north, to clearer skies and better pastures.


    The air was clean enough now that he did not even need to mask up. Rebuilding efforts had begun everywhere, and he had an interesting job, to say the least, using a world-ending Titan to save it. Everything was going well.


    So why did he felt so bored?The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    ¡°Shou?¡± Miu radioed in on their private channel.


    ¡°Yeah?¡±


    ¡°Just wanted to let you know that Luce and Adelle are coming up your way. So don''t shoot them.¡±


    ¡°I don''t have a gun.¡±


    ¡°Don''t throw your leg at them, then.¡±


    He laughed.


    The faint smell of fresh rust tinged the air and he knew Adelle had arrived. He sat up and turned to the two ladies walking towards him.


    Shou greeted, ¡°Should the president really be walking around without her bodyguards?¡±


    ¡°Jonathan said it should be fine as long as Adelle''s with me,¡± Luce replied.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Adelle exclaimed happily. ¡°We had a training session and I kicked everyone''s ass. At the same time.¡± She puffed out her chest proudly.


    The change in Adelle''s personality had been jarring after she got together with Luce. But Shou then remembered how he used to be before meeting Miu and simply accepted the power of love, however corny it made be.


    ¡°What brings you two here?¡± he asked.


    Luce answered, ¡°Do you know Eccles?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Flamboyant criminal information broker. What about him?¡±


    ¡°He was arrested last quarter.¡±


    ¡°I heard.¡±


    ¡°He turned himself in.¡±


    ¡°Okay...¡±


    ¡°To me.¡±


    ¡°Curiouser.¡± Shou leaned forward.


    Luce nodded to Adelle who gave a knowing wink. The elf turned away and teleported out of sight.


    The president continued, ¡°Turns out he used to be from East Ampyre. A Roller golem had one of its legs blasted off near his home and he took care of it. They became friends until the soldiers came and killed it. He ran to Citi after that.¡±


    Shou was now more than intrigued. ¡°What does that have to do with his arrest?¡±


    ¡°He''s been doing research on Titans. After his arrest, his facilities were all seized.¡± From her pack, she took out a folder and tossed it to him. ¡°One of his many projects.¡±


    He read the title aloud. ¡°Project Android.¡±


    The tang of rust filled the immediate air again. Adelle stepped out from the puff of oxidised metal followed by a woman. Not a human or elf, but just humanoid. She wore a silver sleeveless dress that frilled and puffed into a skirt of black and white at the knee. Her light skin had the lambertian reflection of painted plastic, and her joints balled like those of dolls. Her hair - a ponytail of artificial black - wrapped around her temple, two wings of hair glazed down her cheeks. Her eyes were glassy white, and the outline of her jaw was set with the moving parts of her mouth.


    ¡°Hello, friend Shou,¡± the android greeted with a tuned voice light as harps.


    He slowly rose to his feet in shock. ¡°Reggie?¡±


    Luce replied, ¡°Not really. We salvaged overwritten data from Marble''s hard drive. We put what we could back together and had a neural network fill in the gaps. Her name''s Galia.¡±


    ¡°I have most of the memories of Reggie, but I am decidedly not it. Some of my personality codes are missing or replaced. I am sorry, friend Shou.¡±


    ¡°Hah.¡± Shou felt warm tears run down his face as he walked towards Galia. She was definitely not Reggie. For one thing, she was speaking, and she decided on a gender. He was not sure if it was just the tone of voice she chose, but there was uncertainty in her words, a trepidation that escaped Reggie''s personality. ¡°Why are you apologising? You''ve done nothing wrong.¡±


    She looked at her hand, turning them before her eyes. The faint sound of pneumatic and gears whirring could be heard. ¡°I am unsure of what to expect. I heard that I-... that Reggie had died. We had not gone through the social procedure for excepting dea-¡±


    He hugged her, cutting her off mid-sentence. ¡°It''s okay.¡±


    ¡°I... do not understand.¡±


    ¡°It''s okay, buddy. We''ll go through the rest together. Welcome to life.¡±

 Epilogue: Titan War

    Adelle walked through the nearly empty halls of Ampyre''s Fortress Nor-Peak. With the noble powers restructuring itself, little activities graced the main building where the councils and royals would otherwise reside. A few cleaners continued their work keeping the stone floors clean, relighting lanterns that had gone out, and dusting the sills of windows. A couple of guards had been posted around record rooms and grand halls, all greeting the green-haired murderer of the former Pyrerai with curt nods and complicated feelings.


    It was not often she got to do it in safety, but she liked wandering new places, forming a mental memory of each location she has visited. Adelle had very faint memories of her toddler years. Burning houses. Shrieking shadows. Spilt blood. Perhaps she was hoping that if she saw enough and remembered more places, she would be able to piece together where she came from. Of course, she was happy where she was now and in no rush to find out more of her past. If it came to be, lucky, but no loss for her.


    She had saved the worst room for the last of her exploration. The library. Adelle could read and write, sure, but she did not like it, nor was she able to do so well. Too many texts jumbles up a space into dead insects sprayed across murdered trees. Luce had introduced her to electronic books, but they only really functioned in cities. While more bearable, they still weren''t particularly engaging.


    As the double stone door swung open on dwarven designed hinges, the waft of old books sent a shiver down Adelle''s spine. Having lived almost all her life in the forest, the smell could only be described as having the water - the lifeblood - of the forest drained, and only the readied kindling left of husks to be burnt.


    Within, the amalgamation of dead trees were housed in leather spine within stone shelves. Shielded lanterns lid the edge of each aisle. Luce said that in the furthest north of the continent there were a few fields that could grow trees. Those trees were often processed into what little paper they could to store as information in the royal library, the only library in Ampyre.


    In the middle of the room was a large round table piled with high towers of books. A single electric lamp sat in the middle, lighting an eerie white amongst the incandescent orange.


    ¡°Ah,¡± the woman looked up, her edges drawn with black strokes from the shadows of light in the dim room. ¡°Hello, friend, Adelle,¡± Galia greeted stiffly.


    She was standing next to the table behind a pile of books and bowed slightly when the former walked in, almost like a maid.


    From behind the wall of dead trees, Shou''s head popped out. ¡°Oh, hey you.¡±


    Adelle raised a brow, annoyed at his cavalier attitude. ¡°''Hey'' yourself. What are you doing here? I''m sure Citi has way more books than Ampyre for you to read.¡±Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    He replied, ¡°I found Lachesis'' journal and stash.¡±


    Galia added, ¡°And I am here to record them into my memory bank for archival.¡±


    ¡°There''s a whole lot of information here about the sentinels we have no records of,¡± Shou explained.


    Galia ping-ponged, ¡°About a thousand years of first and secondhand details of their society, life, and history.


    ¡°I''m guessing most were written by Lachesis herself, life experience and all. A few might be from stories passed down to her.¡±


    The android picked up a sealed letter. ¡°This was addressed to your epitaph, Demon Eyes.¡±


    Adelle took the letter and tore it open unceremoniously.


    Shou snidely remarked, ¡°Can you read?¡±


    ¡°Of course I can, you asshole!¡±


    Wiltkins,


    Congratulations. You must have managed to stop me. While I have chosen the path as a spirit of vengeance for our people, you seemed to have deemed yourself fit for the saviour of worlds. Shame we are opposed, never to stand side-by-side.


    But a loss is a loss, and I would like to have a self-centred victory come from my defeat. So I have prepared a secret for you.


    The sentinels, our race, there''s a chance they are still alive, trapped in purgatory at the bottom of the world, a wall of fire surrounding them and the outside. This is only a theory, of course, and it would be a fool''s errand to rush into The Burning South to find them in need of rescue. But fools often heroes are, and I would be so appreciative if you would throw yourself into the fire in an attempt to locate the last of our people.


    Yours in death,


    Lachesis Nazarene


    ¡°It''s a trap,¡± Adelle said. ¡°The Burning South. Not The Boiling Hot South. It''s literally on fire. Stone, metal, earth and all.¡±


    Galia began, ¡°However, from the books we have managed to document, there are significant tales that backs the possible notion of a settlement of sentinels still existing.¡±


    Adelle asked, ¡°And what''s the chance of that?¡±


    ¡°Should the information be taken at face value and the technology written of within works as intended, I calculate a thirteen point nine percent chance of survival, plus or minus two percent.¡±


    Shou admitted, ¡°That''s not very high, Galia.¡±


    Adelle noted, ¡°I''ve gone on lower.¡±


    Galia added, ¡°The probability you would have stopped Exodus at the time of your escape with Josh was roughly six percent.¡±


    Adelle threw her hands towards Galia, gesturing to Shou, You see? She then sighed. ¡°You''ll keep me updated on what you find here?¡±


    The two friends nodded. ¡°Of course.¡±


    The elf left the dimly lit library into the light, reaffirming her hatred for books. Nothing good ever came out of reading.


    She stepped up to the nearest window, facing north. Below in the courtyard, she spotted Luce pushing Misty around on her wheelchair. Bodyguards surrounded the perimeter of the walls, and Josh stood talking with Miu and Arnold under a shade. Shade. Exodus had cleared out enough of the rust cloud that there was actually enough light from the Twins to create shades now.


    Luce looked up and their eyes locked. A smile spread across Adelle''s lips - an unfamiliar emotion. The two waved to each other and Misti joined in the greeting. Straight north, the horizon of the plains cut across the world, the aftermath of a blade of light that slashed away the darkness.


    Adelaide Wiltkins, Shou Kenta, and Galia will return


    in


    The Chronicles of Tearha: The Burning South

 Afterword

    Seriously, who came up with the whole concept of an ''afterword'', anyway? The first person to do this must have quite an ego, thinking people would enjoy them reminiscing about their work. Also, why is it ''afterword'' singular and not ''afterworlds'' plural? I have more than a single word here!


    That being said, I''m going to do one anyway, since my ego needs stroking.


    Titan War. Boy, where do I start. There''s a lot of history in this series, from Keep Walking to The Number 139, and finally ending with this book. The Titan War trilogy is my attempt to bring to breath the artwork of Facundo Diaz. His piece, Nice to Meet You!, Showing a girl in a long red scarf standing on a lush plain greeting two Titans the size of mountains while hot-air balloons floated by created the image of Katoki and The Titan Plains. It was also the capturing moment in the final chapter of Keep Walking as an homage to the source material - the balloons working themselves into Josh''s backstory.


    There are a lot of fan fiction in this story. Luce and Josh were characters I originally wrote over 6 years ago as an attempt to bring Diaz''s paintings into tale. The Leviathan, the harsh battleground, golems and mechs, the Twin stars, the Frozen North and Burning South, Citi, the Helm, and even the title of the book, Titan War, were all inspired changes of Diaz''s paintings.


    If you were to read Deck of Clover, future book Born and Made, and future planned series, The Clover Saga, you''ll see the differences between what I deem the east and west of Tearha. While the west is filled with futuristic magic-tech and fantasy, the east has a survival punk-esque motif. From the steam of Eltar, the cyber of Citi, and the slums of Ampyre, Diaz''s artworks gave inspirations to a lot of these places and culture.


    That''s not to say they did not eventually become their own works. The shape of Tearha''s west really only changed when Nadier - a character we will not talk much about here - and Adelle came along.


    Nadier and Adelle were created as roleplaying characters for an online game I used to play. Their history as outcast drow and last of the sentinels respectively grew into lore of the world around them. The lost history of the sentinels gave rise to the backstory of how sentient Titans came to be and the extinction of the dwarfs merged with Nadier''s history. Adelle herself grew from isolationist to discoverer of life and adventurer of world, giving a reason for me to write about a character out to see more of the unique, and sometimes, downright epic scenes.


    While Josh and Luce''s adventures ends here in Titan War as their search for peace reach its conclusion, Adelle''s journey continues. She''s not searching for peace, or for adventure - at least not yet. She''s looking for something else, and that breathed new life into the world, giving me the room to develop more pass what original inspiration I got from Diaz''s artworks.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    The idea of sentience within mechs and golems, the racism between species, lost histories, repetition of war, super-weapons of the past such as Exodus, founding of religions, all of these came after Adelle.


    Oh, there''s another group of characters we had not much a chance to talk about. Shou''s gang.


    Shou Kenta, Arnold Wyndham, and Miu Hotaru. These three, oh boy, do they have one heck of a whirlwind history behind them that you''re never gonna read about because I''m too lazy to write it.


    What I can tell you is Shou and Miu comes from my old Air Gear fan fiction, Lost Regalia, which I think you can still find online today. I''m not going to tell you where because, holy crap, my writing back then was terrible. Granted, I was only 13, but still, you''d think I''d have more shame about my failures, as I do now.


    My shame is now never-ending.


    The thought of integrating these two characters into the Tearha-verse was like a bolt of lightning. Good lightning, of course. They were some of my earliest creations, and it never sat right with me that I could never finish their story properly. But now they had a home, and an adventure befitting of their stature rather than copy/rewrite of something else.


    Arnold on the other hand is a little more special. He was a character created by a friend of mine, Brent Evesson, who is a talented writer in his own rights. It never sat well with me that I managed to eek out a foothold in the writing world while he was never really given the same chance to. I think if he had been given more opportunity and room to develop, he would have been a great writer.


    So Arnold plays the straight man to Shou the same way my knowledge of Brent''s talents grounds me, as a constant reminder that there are people, who if given the chance, can easily surpass me. A humbling, if you will.


    So where does The Chronicles of Tearha go now? Well, I''m not really sure. Of course I have an outline for the entire series, eight books in all, three books down. But the plot always changes as I write. That''s one of the great joys of writing serialised novels. I don''t have to plan too far ahead. The characters, the route they travel and choices they make, those always overwrite any decisions I planned for them.


    For example, originally, Reggie was supposed to have survived, but Josh would have died. Yet the road simply did not lead there and the opposite happened. Eccles was also meant to have become president, but Luce took that role instead. These guys are troublesome like that, granting me many frustrating days of writing their choices into the plot.


    Looking back, each book in The Chronicles of Tearha have had their own distinct narrative style. The Number 139 had flashbacks mixed into its main story, while Deck of Clover had 15 different POVs. Now, Titan War takes place entirely in a single focused time frame, with only a single flashback scene. And the next book planned, Beastmaster, will be a story that spans across two time periods 200 years apart. I''m quite excited for that technical challenge right now. Writing these different narrative structures has really helped me grow as an author and expanded my skill sets.


    Whatever happens next though, I guarantee Tearha isn''t ending soon. I hope everyone will continue on this journey with us.


    From myself, Adelle, Luce, Josh, Shou, Arnold, Miu, Reggie, and Galia, thank you for reading.


    We''ll see you next time.