TERRA

  MAGITECH LEGACY BOOK 7

  CHRIS FOX

  CHRIS FOX WRITES LLC

  Copyright © 2023 by Chris Fox

  All rights reserved.

  CONTENTS

  Cast of Characters

  Previously On

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Interlude I - Nebiat

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Interlude II - Utfak

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Interlude III - Utfak

  Chapter 7

  Interlude IV - Aran

  Chapter 8

  Interlude V - Voria

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Interlude VI - Aran

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Interlude VII - Utfak

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Interlude VIII - Nebiat

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Interlude IX - Miri

  Chapter 17

  Interlude X - Xakava

  Interlude XI - Voria

  Interlude XII - Aran

  Chapter 18

  Interlude XIII - Aran

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue

  Note to the Reader

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  The Magitech Chronicles are vast, and we now have a dizzying array of gods, demigods, drifters, Shayans, planets, and other stuff. Below you’ll find a mostly complete list to remind you who’s what.

  If you find anything missing, please shoot me an email at chris@chrisfoxwrites.com and I’ll get it added!

  This list is massive, so if you’re listening to the audio version feel free to hit next track if you don’t want to hear it all. For the rest of you I put it at the front so you’d remember there’s a list if you get lost keeping track of all the names.

  Kemetians & The Vagrant Fleet

  Briff- Dragon hatchling tech mage and Jerek’s best friend.

  Dag- Jerek’s father. Former Arena sensation.

  Jerek- Relic hunter and captain of the Word of Xal. Also a self-styled historian and has been to Sanctuary, the city of the gods that no one has seen in tens of millennia.

  Kurz- Vee’s brother and a soulcatcher.

  Miri- A personal shopping assistant and all around badass Jerek met on the Inuran trade moon. Hopelessly in love with Jerek, but would never admit it.

  Seket- A paladin of Inura transported through time from the height of the dragonflights to serve under Jerek.

  Vee- Inuran artificer and member of the lurkers descended from the Vagrant Fleet’s technicians, who stayed behind to tend to the fleet when it went dormant. Sometimes love interest for Jerek. Currently in love with Inura.

  The Confederate Pantheon

  Malila- The guardian of Xal. A demon queen who rules the Skull of Xal.

  Kazon- Brother to Voria and son of Jolene. Kazon was mindwiped alongside Aran.

  Xal- One of the eldest gods in the sector and also one of the largest repositories of void magic.

  Bord- Bord is a lower-class Shayan born in the dims at the feet of the great tree. Kezia’s boyfriend.

  Ducius- Thalas’s father. Current Tender on Shaya. Hates Voria. Kind of a lot.

  Kezia- Bord’s girlfriend and Confederate tech mage.

  Thalas- Son of Ducius. He was executed by Voria for insubordination during the Battle of Marid.

  Voria- Daughter of Jolene and Dirk. Sister of Kazon. Currently life goddess.

  Nara- Former space pirate, now powerful demon god.

  Pickus- Pickus is a freckle-faced grease monkey turned tech mage who has somehow found himself as Voria’s right-hand man.

  Aran- War hero and powerful demon god.

  Sergeant Crewes- The guy who trains war heroes and demon gods.

  The Remnants of the Dragonflights

  Drakkon- The Guardian of Marid. Dwells on the world of the same name.

  The Earthmother- A Wyrm of tremendous power. Sibling to Virkonna and Inura. Killed by Krox during the godswar.

  Inura- The undisputed master of air in the sector. Inura was the chief architect of the Spellship. Sibling to Virkonna and the Earthmother.

  Krox- One of the most ancient gods in the sector. Nebiat is in control of Krox.

  Marid- Wyrmmother of the water flight. Devoured by the Ternus ships that formed Nefarius.

  Nefarius- Nefarius is a void Wyrm of immense power who ascended to godhood in the earliest days of the godswar.

  Neith- The first arachnidrake and the eldest of the draconic siblings. Sister to Virkonna, Inura, and the Earthmother, but much, much older.

  Shaya- A mortal raised to godhood by Inura in order to defend her people. Died doing exactly that. Now entombed under the great tree on the planet Shaya.

  Virkonna- The Wyrm of air, sister of Inura, Neith, and the Earthmother. Virkonna is known as the mother of the last dragonflight and helped Inura build the first Spellship.

  Necromancers & the Unseen Fleet

  The Devour of Hope- Daughter of Necrotis and powerful necromancer. She devoured her own name and now eats the names of others.

  Necrotis- Necrotis’s true identity is unknown, but she is a daughter of Inura and was a long time Outrider during the height of the dragonflights. Now ruler of the Maker’s Wrath and possibly the most powerful necromancer in the sector.

  Tuat- Eldest son of the Wyrmmother, and self-styled God of Death. Tuat was banished and his name removed from all official histories.

  Utred- Annoyingly smug necromancer and son of Necrotis.

  The Shipmother- The legendary lich-god, an unliving who is at least eighty millennia old.

  Siwit- A bright rising star within the necromancer ranks, Siwit wears three centuries, a child among his people.

  Shipfather Uldris- A minor demigod and tutor to Siwit.

  The Krox

  Frit- Frit is an escaped Shayan slave, one of the Ifrit, who were molded by Shayan slavers into beautiful women made completely of flame.

  Kahotep- Son of Nebiat and grandson of Teodros.

  Nebiat- Daughter of Teodros, granddaughter of Krox, and mother of Kahotep.

  Teodros- Son of Krox, father of Nebiat.

  Everyone Else of Note

  Reevanthara- Annoying Mary Sue god who has, like, every power imaginable. Reevanthara architected the Great Cycle, and is perhaps the oldest surviving god and the only known one who remembers the creator being.

  Talifax- Guardian of Nefarius. Talifax’s age and race are unknown, but he is rumored to be nearly as old as Xal.

  Jolene- A powerful Inuran matriarch. Mother to Kazon and Voria.

  Skare- A powerful Inuran patriarch, who worked with Talifax to raise their dark goddess.

  PREVIOUSLY ON

  You know that annoying feeling when you pick up a sequel and have to make that monumental decision? How well do you remember the previous book in the series? Do you dive right in or do a reread?

  Especially this far in. Seven books in the main series, and six in Magitech Legacy. It’s an investment, no doubt. This time I did the work for us. I listened to Tech Mage, then jumped into Dying World and re-listened to all of Legacy, since it’s been two years since the last book.

  Here’s what happened in Disintegrate, told from Jerek’s perspective.

  Last time on Magitech Legacy…

  Hey, there, uh, random person. Don’t make it weird. Last time you made it weird.

  Here’s the short version.

  Disintegrate started with Frit having been killed by Tuat, an ancient death wyrm of immense strength and body odor. Necrotis had challenged her to a duel, Frit accepted, and Tuat ambushed the fire goddess and slew her.

  In short…we’re screwed. The Confederacy faced Necrotis without the aid of the demons, because the Confederacy voted to exclude them (I didn’t get a vote). Necrotis used that against us, and it all went sideways. She poisoned Colony 3, wiping out our food supply, and then did the same thing to Yanthara.

  We were losing on literally every front.

  Because we desperately needed food, I was dispatched to find it and decided to investigate the old Ternus caches from when they arrived in our sector. Pickus says their MREs last centuries, and I wanted to put that to the test.

  The story started with me finding a tank full of larvae at an old Ternus facility, one of the ones they created when coming to our sector from Earth. We learned that a species called the Gorthians (that doesn’t ring any alarm bells or anything) have infested some of the Ternus command structure.

  That will be important to this book, but wasn’t something we could deal with then.

  Necrotis had just taken the Sword of Virkonna from inside the Sanctuary storm and animated her ship, the Maker’s Wrath, as a giant mech. It was pretty cool, I mean except for the part where our sector was on the receiving end of it.

  Thankfully we had a Xal’Aran. He teleported in the Titan Xal, the planet-sized demon-god, and wrecked Necrotis’s day. It was a brutal fight, but she was forced to retreat.

  She would have gotten away, but Kurz was on her ship, and she thought he was loyal…until he rammed a Shard of Gortha through her heart.

  Speaking of…the Shards of Gortha are part of the titan of void. Get enough of them together and they create permanent Fissures. Someone did that. There’s a massive Fissure spreading across the sector, which means the whole thing will
be swallowed by the Umbral Depths within two years.

  Yikes.

  How about the long version?

  How about the long version?

  The story kicked off with my team exploring the old Ternus cache from their trip to Earth. We’d been tasked with finding food, any food, because every scrap was needed. Our reserves were dwindling on every world, and Necrotis’s blight was currently destroying the jungles of Yanthara with no known cure. Not even the Lady Voria could stop it.

  Our best bet remaining is the Krox, ironically, our former enemies. Frit is far weaker since Necrotis killed her and stole her divinity, but, hey, Xal’Nara managed to recover her soul and resurrect her, so I still call that a win.

  We need her to counteract Nebiat’s influence among the Krox. She appears to be the dominant religion, and having attended a “school” on that planet, I can tell you that would be really, really bad for the sector long term. Nebiat is vindictive and petty, and I can’t believe I just wrote that down where she can read it.

  The Krox homeworld is lush. They have near endless food, or at least enough that they could alleviate the worst of the famines that are only just now beginning.

  I didn’t find much in the way of food at the Ternus outpost, but what I did find were two tanks of psychic slugs we later learned were called the Gorthians. Gortha being the titan of the void seems rather suggestive, no?

  The cache also included more Shards of Gortha, which we learned during our previous adventures drain magic. What we didn’t know until recently is that if you get enough shards in the same location, they’ll tear a permanent Fissure in reality. That can’t possibly be relevant, right?

  A group of adventurers used billions of Shards of Gortha to kill the spirit dragon Tuat, the death god who slew Frit, and then nuked him right into the Umbral Depths. Yay, right? Tuat was bad news. Anyone who could take down Frit is.

  In the process, the shards tore one of those mega-Fissures in our sector, and if our estimates are correct, then it will be completely swallowed by the Umbral Depths in less than three years. At the time we learned this, Necrotis was still a massive threat.

  She crushed the necromancer fleets, which are now only a shadow of a remnant of their former strength. She took out our food-producing worlds. Then she started lapping up magic. She started with Hotep, the water god whose body is what caused the Sanctuary storm.

  Necrotis used the Maker’s Wrath, now a giant mech (still cool, even as a bad guy), to yank the sword out of Hotep, giving her a divine weapon on par with Worldender.

  We gathered everything we had, the Talon with Crewes, the Spellship with Lady Voria, the Flame of Knowledge under a now-mortal Frit and her dragon hubby Kaho, and went to war with her. I flew the Word, and much to my shock, helped blow the shit out of that damned robot, but Necrotis summoned a clone of the Maker’s Wrath from the spirit realm, and things were looking grim.

  Xal’Aran translocated in the Titan Xal, which was even more impressive than Necrotis’s robot. They brawled, and it was maybe the best duel I’ve ever seen. Both were blade masters, both wielding god-forged swords older than our sector that could bisect a moon.

  Necrotis fled to the spirit realm, and Xal pursued. This turned out to be a trap, and the Titan Xal was being pulled into the maw at the center of the spirit realm. Things looked real bad for us. Necrotis came back swinging, and I did what I could to contain her along with Crewes, Voria, and Frit.

  Then the Titan Xal came back out swinging and decapitated the badass robot. He even had a witty one-liner, which I still haven’t managed to pull off. Maybe there’s an online course I can take?

  Of course, Necrotis escaped in said head, right back into the spirit realm. I was pissed. I’m so tired of cliffhangers, and after all the crap Jolene pulled, I just want a villain to die for once.

  Just die!

  Kurz heard my plea. Necrotis had taken him on as a ward, and to be honest, I was worried he’d gone over to the other side. He hadn’t. Kurz recovered one of the Shards of Gortha and rammed it into Necrotis’s back. That bitch was flung into the Umbral Depths, where she’ll get to meet Gortha up close and personal.

  We won. Barely. The sector is in ruins. The confederate fleets are in ruins. We’re running out of food. And there’s one tiny detail I left out until now.

  At the Ternus facility where we found the slugs, we also found Shards of Gortha and an arcanotome, a Lovecraftian communications device used by an empire of aliens we’d never encountered, who call themselves the Ganog.

  Vee was the one who activated the tome. She did it by jamming a spike into her temple, and that spike is still there. We have no way to remove it. She’s attached to this alien collective, and that scares me. Are they watching us?

  I think maybe so.

  Right when she plugged into the tome, a fleet of blue ships teleported into the system using something they call warp. These Void Wraith attacked the demons and learned from Xal’Aran why that is a really, really bad idea.

  He met with their VI aboard one of their harvester ships, and they warned us that the Ganog would come for us soon. That the Fissure spreading across our sector was prophesied, and that the Ganog are servants of something called the Nameless Ones.

  That brings us to the present. We need to find out how deep the infection in the Ternus command structure runs. We need to convince the Krox to share food and medicines with the rest of the sector. Most importantly, if we can’t stop that Fissure…we need to find a new home.

  Thankfully my cyborg buddy Harry missived me from Ternus to tell us he’d found the Sam Houston’s flight recorder.

  He can help us find Earth.

  But we also have a new problem. Remember those Ganog I mentioned? They’ve found our sector and their prophesied Fissure, and they’re getting ready to invade. Their goal?

  To free the Nameless Ones from the Umbral Depths so they can swallow the entire galaxy…as a warm up for our whole reality.

  Buckle up. Shit just got real.

  -Jerek

  PROLOGUE

  Utfak had failed to escape. Failed to flee from the Imperium before his master had yanked the leash, dragging him back to court for yet another invasion. He had failed to escape, and now he never would. The prophesied Fissure had opened.

  The final war had begun.

  Utfak’s twin hearts thudded in his chest, and all four nostrils flared as the Imperial Dreadnought initiated warp. The signal was picked up by the balance of the fleet, a dozen of the largest dreadnoughts backed by a swarm of fighters that would clog any system.

  Through the enormous domed roof over the ship’s open interior lay the Azi homeworld, a murderous grey-green ball, and on that world stood the clan’s true power, that which had given it ascendance for the last six decades.

  Their planetstriders.

  Three titanic Saurian beasts that dwarfed the very mountains around them stood ready for travel. Their mounds had been knocked to rubble, and lights blinked upon the metal harnesses that enslaved the ancient beasts, each taller than any mountain the world could boast, large enough to crush a city block without notice.

  The warp completed and reality spun and broke and remade itself. Gone was the Azi homeworld, and in its place lay a large brown world broken by patches of blue. A few stations and satellites surrounded their unsuspecting target, but there were far more winged forms. Forms that were similar enough to the planetstriders to awaken the scholar within him.

  The winged serpents seemed to come in all sizes as they flitted through the atmosphere or down to the world. None seemed aware of the newly arrived Ganog fleet, which made sense. They had arrived past the planet’s moon, hidden in its shadow, their black ships visible only from the telltale purple glow of the drives.