SPLIT CHAMPION

  BOOK FOUR: POLARITY

  FELIX TAYLOR

  Copyright © 2025 by Felix Taylor

  Cover art by Teddy R.

  Cover typography by Inorai.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or scanning without written permission from the author.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  felixtaylorbooks.com

  CONTENTS

  The Story So Far…

  Book 3 Final Status

  1. A Worthwhile Trade

  2. Hyperdrive Upgrade

  3. Departure

  4. Crimsonhaven

  5. Up The Line

  6. Headquarters

  7. Kirra

  8. Call a Friend

  9. Ash’s Journey

  10. The Outcast

  11. Grand Theft Planet

  12. A Changed Home

  13. The Ranch

  14. Sentinels

  15. Crafting Plan

  16. A Minor Detour

  17. Welcome Home, Champion

  18. Bounty

  19. Sentinel Core

  20. Veins of the Universe

  21. A Hint

  22. The Second Sentinel

  23. Center of Attention

  24. Helicopters

  25. The Fleet

  26. The Next Card

  27. Water Sentinel

  28. The Rest of the Galaxy

  29. Cutting the Split

  30. Impact Channel 2.0

  31. Perth

  32. The Split’s Balance

  33. The Citadel Tower

  34. Solutions

  35. The Next Upgrade

  36. Change in Plans

  37. The Last Sentinel

  38. Back to the Ranch

  39. Into the Nightmare

  40. Cracking The Spear

  41. A Flicker of Hope

  42. Reflection

  43. The Broadcast

  44. In Peril

  45. Testing

  46. In Transit

  47. Finishing Touches

  48. Marshalling

  49. Last to Arrive

  50. In the Atmosphere

  51. The Comms Array

  52. Boarding

  53. The Generous Hand

  54. Fragmentation

  55. Why Fight It?

  56. Burning

  57. Balance

  58. Cleaning Up

  59. Final Status

  Epilogue

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  THE STORY SO FAR…

  Book One Recap:

  Jace, a young man working at a ranch, is given a choice: Become a Champion for his world, or wait patiently for the apocalypse to come to Earth in five years. As a Champion, he must represent his people. The only problem? He doesn’t exactly know how to do that.

  Worse, instead of being granted time to prepare, a card Wielder named Byseg Stenol finds his family, killing his father and brother and “severing his ties” to the old world.

  The next thing Jace knows, he wakes up in a different world. There was something wrong with the process that transferred him between galaxies, and it’s caused a disintegration of his body. He absorbs a crashed starship’s hypercore to keep himself alive, using it as the start to his arcane journey.

  After a few days of searching, he meets Kinfild, a Wielder from the same Order as Stenol—but not hostile. Kinfild brings Jace into the nearest city to recover.

  Before long, Darklings attack the village. It’s an ominous omen, confirming that Jace’s presence is a herald of end-times in the galaxy he arrived in.

  Kinfild leaves to investigate the Darklings and seek the aid of the rest of his Order, and plans to leave Jace behind. But Jace strikes a bargain with a local Candlefolk named Lessa, and together, they escape—after getting a Whistling Blade for Jace, a type of glass sword made for Wielders, which concentrates plasma along its blade to improve its cutting ability.

  Jace and Lessa catch up to Kinfild and tag along. First, they travel to Crimsonhaven, home of the Crimson Table Order, where Kinfild seeks information on Byseg Stenol, and where his old teacher is. Through a series of trials, they learn that Stenol is attending a gala.

  They sneak into the gala, where Stenol pitches his plan: he and his master, the Generous Hand, will throw the galaxy into war, overthrow the Realm of Artanor, and seize power for themselves to prevent the coming darkness. Jace, Kinfild, and Lessa attempt to escape, but they are thwarted and captured.

  Stenol brings them to a planet outside the Wall, where he has been preparing an army of kobolds. He will stage an attack on an important planet in the Realm, which he hopes will show the rest of the galaxy the Realm’s weakness and throw them into war.

  Jace, Kinfild, and Lessa escape, though Lessa stays behind to buy them time. Jace and Kinfild travel to the galactic capital, Kinath-Aertes, where they try to warn the First Attendant. The First Attendant won’t believe them, and so they take matters into their own hands.

  They travel to the Celacor System, rescue Lessa, and participate in a long battle to save what remains of Celacor. In the battle, Jace fights and defeats Stenol. They are, however, too late to protect all of the system. The casualties are high, and the Eastern Alliance declares war.

  Jace, disillusioned with the system, sets off with Kinfild and Lessa to help where they can, unburdened by allegiances, until they see their next big chance to make a difference…

  Book Two Recap:

  Four months have passed since the war began. Jace, Lessa, and Kinfild have been travelling the galaxy, helping where they can. However, Jace’s advancement has slowed. So when they hear of a new dungeon opening on a planet called Ifskar, they jump at the opportunity.

  When they land on the planet, they soon find out that the dungeon has been taken over by a Scavenger’s Guild already. While sneaking into the dungeon under the noses of the Scavengers, Jace finds himself caught up in a duel with one of the young heirs of the guild.

  Worse, the Scavengers are under the command of the Generous Hand, who has dispatched one of his servants to the planet. Rallemnon, a kyborg Wielder, has been tasked with claiming the loot at the core of the dungeon: the Halcyon spear.

  Jace delves deep into the dungeon and faces the guild’s heir, defeating him, and is forced to kill him. But soon after, Rallemnon finds them, and concerned that Jace might find the Halcyon Spear before him, he attacks.

  Jace and Lessa survive the encounter, but barely. One of his hands is replaced with a mechanical hand, but Lessa is in far more dire condition. They must seek out a healer for her.

  Sneaking into an underground camp of the scavengers, they enlist the help of Perril, a draw-healer who harvests the Vitality of other creatures to heal targets, and Ash, a servant of Lady Fairynor with a noble bloodline—and the strongest claim to the throne of Artanor.

  With Lessa healed, Jace and the others pledge to build her an exo-suit with the automatons they find within the dungeon. With Ash and Perril’s help, they complete the exo-suit while diving deeper.

  Along the way, they uncover a room depicting the fall of the Wall, which would unleash the Enemy upon the galaxy.

  Finally, they reach the core of the dungeon, and just in time to catch up with Rallemnon. Working together, they defeat him, but barely, and claim the Halcyon Spear for themselves. With the dungeon defeated, a section of it rises up into the atmosphere, which they use to meet up with the Luna Wrath and escape. The Scavengers attempt to stop them, but Jace and the others evade them.

  Jace and his new team arrive back at Kinath-Aertes, where they meet Lady Fairynor. She gives them an option for a new quest: they can travel to the galactic core, to the Sevencore Academy, where they will study and grow stronger than ever before, all while learning more about the Hand.

  Jace and the others accept the new quest.

  Book 3 Recap

  Before attending the Academy, Jace and Lessa prepare. First, they steal an improved Vault Core, then test the Halcyon Spear and learn a few of its abilities. Finally, they travel to a market, where they acquire the last of the equipment that they need for their time at the Academy—which includes an aspect Masker for Jace to hide his aspect.

  While they prepare, Lady Fairynor and Ash discuss their plans for the future, and Lady Fairynor reminds Ash that, one day, he will need to take the throne of the Realm.

  When they arrive at the Sevencore Academy, Jace immediately meets his roommate, Min, a sheltered boy from the galactic Core. Soon after, he meets Lerril, an old friend of Min’s who has become a rival—which he later learns is because Min falsely reported Lerril to the Inquisition.

  Jace and Lessa pass the entrance exam, along with Lerril and Min, and they go on to participate in their studies. Meanwhile, Kinfild, Ash, and Perril stay nearby, keeping watch and keeping the Luna Wrath ready for a quick escape.

  Jace advances through the last stages of Soul-Circle Blending with the help of the academy resources, and begins on his advancement through Nascent Soul. Me
anwhile, Lessa learns about cardsmithing, crafting, and other runic formations. In order to help fund their advancement, they take part in the local starfighter races.

  They are assigned an old, crumbling starfighter, the Drowning Gull, which they make modifications and improvements to over the course of the semester, as they slowly climb their way through the race’s rankings.

  In Jace’s studies, he meets Dr. Elgin, the combat instructor, and forms a bond. Moreover, the headmaster, Dr. Tamaldin, is helpful, and seems to have known other students similar to Jace in the past. However, Jace angers a teaching assistant, Bené.

  As the semester drags on, Jace advances through the Nascent Heart stages and participates in races and the school’s combat tournament. But outside the core, the war rages on, and the Realm’s power is waning. The Alliance threatens to make a large push, and they’re running out of time.

  Jace and Lessa attend a winter gala ball, where they search for information about the Generous Hand. They pose as inheritors of a large sum of money looking to purchase a starship, which they use as a cover to get an introduction to a secret shipbuilding company in the core.

  After exams for their first semester, they visit the shipbuilding planet, where they see the Hand building a massive ship. LeeKay steals the schematics for it, but not before the Hand himself arrives. He reveals that he knows Jace is a worldjumper as well.

  Jace and Lessa narrowly escape, before running back to the academy to find the encryption key they need to unlock the schematics. But when they arrive, they find the Inquisitors waiting for them, ready to imprison them.

  Jace and Lessa allow themselves to be captured, then narrowly escape into the depths of the academy, where they hunt through the archives. They find the Hand’s ancient journal and the encryption key they need.

  Together, Jace and Lessa defeat the head inquisitor, then barely escape with their lives aboard the Drowning Gull.

  They meet up with Kinfild, Ash, and Perril back at Lyvarion, where they plan their next moves. Ash will return to Kinath-Aertes, where he will help with the war effort. Meanwhile, Jace and Lessa have a month before the Hand’s plans will take effect.

  Before they can set off, however, another worldjumper arrives.

  BOOK 3 FINAL STATUS

  [Gathered Analytics]

  Name: Jace Scott Baldwin

  Classification: Hyperspace Vagabond

  Advancement Progress: Spirit Burning (0.3%)

  [Attributes]

  Strength: 92

  Vital: 180

  Resistance: 272

  Agility: 102

  Potency: 2

  [Technique Cards Socketed (7/7)]

  Hyperdash (Reforged)

  Wanderer’s Banishment

  Purify

  Radiance

  Questforger (Reforged)

  Channel Net

  Impact Channel

  [Titles]

  Worldjumper #5 (this Title cannot be removed). Effect: You have a Mark of Fate. Agents of chaos and darkness will seek you, knowingly or not.

  Champion (this Title cannot be removed). Effect: You can interact directly with the Split.

  Witness of the Ancients. Effect: You viewed a Luminian megastructure for the first time. +1 Agility.

  Delver of Ifskar (this Title cannot be removed. Effect: You braved the depths of the Ifskar Tomb and purged the dark stain. +10 Vitality and +10 Strength.

  1

  A WORTHWHILE TRADE

  Chapter 1:

  Three days spent scouting the woods around the Candleshire. That was all Jace allowed for himself. Any longer, and they’d be wasting too much time. He had a strict deadline, and he wasn’t going to ignore it.

  He’d almost finished preparing the training course. Both for him, Lessa, and their new guest. A route through the woods, dodging trees and jumping ravines, or using old training dummies that Lessa had acquired from a prairiewalker.

  The Candleshire was a lot larger than Jace had initially imagined. Technically, it was a clump of villages, an arrangement of land and houses, not just a single city, and it sprawled for many miles. It meant that, for average mortals, it would probably take an entire day to make it through the training course.

  He could do it faster, though.

  Jace sprang through the treetops of the forests east of the shire. They didn’t wrap all the way around the Candleshire, of course; there were plenty of open spaces, but he’d left the woods for last.

  Whenever a jump—fortified by [Radiance]—didn’t work, he used [Hyperdash] to cross the distance, keeping track of his route below and marking it with tiny splotches of red paint or flags or pretty much whatever they could find in the shire. At the moment, Lessa was running the route on the ground, and LeeKay was making a holographic map of it.

  Jace was on his own.

  Which made it all the more annoying when he spotted a column of smoke rising in the distance, reaching up over the treetops. There was no one else living in these woods—it was too dangerous for mortals to stay out at nighttime now, with all the darklings around.

  Jace paused for a few seconds, heaved a sigh, then altered course and stopped marking his route.

  When he got closer to the fire, a few presences sprang up in his spiritual awareness. About ten mortal men, two of them being Soul-Circle Opening Wielders, and one Soul-Circle Blending. Jace veiled himself, then crept closer, descending slightly into the canopy to keep himself hidden better.

  The mortals were wearing the silver armour of Koedor-Terginian soldiers, but the Wielders were all Watchmen. That was unusual, given that most Watchmen served with the Realm—and the Alliance always field Wielders from their own Orders. If these guys were working with the Watchmen, then it had to be on the direct orders of the Generous Hand.

  But at the moment, they all sat around a campfire, nursing it while heating up travelling rations.

  Jace spun around, hiding behind the thick trunk of a tree and bracing himself on a pair of spread branches. What were the chances they were here for him?

  He couldn’t let them leave. What if they had already seen him or Lessa, and would report this to the Generous Hand—or someone up the chain of command who could?

  Jace shook his head, then, without another moment’s hesitation, he used [Hyperdash] to flash through the tree and emerge a few feet above the ground. He landed with a thud, then spread his arms and said, “Good evening. I take it you guys were, uh…looking for me?”

  The soldiers all jumped to their feet and pulled the plasma rifles off their shoulders, and the Wielders glanced at each other.

  “Well, here’s the thing,” Jace said. “And I’ll take that as a yes, by the way. I’m not going to let you out of here, and you guys are probably going to try to kill me, anyway, because that’s what pretty much every Watchman I’ve met has tried to do. Right?”

  The Watchmen slowly nodded.

  “Alright, let’s get this over with.” He couldn’t count how many times he’d said that in the past few months. If only people would just leave him alone.

  The Watchmen charged, and Jace side-stepped away from both of the Soul-Circle Opening Wielders, using [Radiance] to propel himself faster. The soldiers opened fire, but he triggered [Channel Net], creating a wall of blue light between him and the soldiers. Their plasma blasts splattered against it harmlessly.

  Jace drew his Whistling Blade and sprang toward the nearest Wielder. He rammed the blade through the man’s chest, then ripped it up, killing him in a flash of sizzling blood. The Soul-Circle Blending Wielder charged at him, and he retreated away with a spin, grabbing a handful of dirt and twigs and pebbles from the clearing floor, before launching them at the Wielder and triggering [Wanderer’s Banishment].

  The debris and the card cleaved through the Wielder with ease. The upper half of his body slid to one side. The last Wielder tried to run, but Jace reset his cards with [Purify] and launched himself in front of the man.

  The Watchman tried to stab him, but Jace deflected the blow and cut the man’s head off in a blink, using the superior speed and body strengthening of [Radiance].

  The mortal soldiers, however, would still be an issue. A few of them had taken off through the woods already. Jace dealt with the ones who remained, keeping his head up, then used [Questforger] and his speed to track the rest. They didn’t make it far.