“Do you see anything?” Lessa asked. She raised a hand to her forehead. “Because I can feel the pressure now.”

  “It’s definitely Deity Making,” Jace said.

  “Yeah, but do you see it?”

  “...No, I don’t see anything.”

  The eye of the storm was travelling quickly, and Jace didn’t want to set the Gull down for long. He flew to the far side of the eye and landed at the very edge. There were still a few clouds above, and the winds were still intense, but it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as outside the eye.

  “We won’t have long before the storm catches up to the Gull,” Jace said. “But that Sentinel has to be here somewhere.”

  “Can you pinpoint it with your senses?”

  “It feels too broad. Something that strong is creating a massive swell of pressure.”

  “Or it’s really big.”

  “I hope not. We probably would've seen it by now.”

  From the ground, the eye of the storm was even more massive. Winds whipped by still, and the stadium of clouds edged in around them on all sides, but it was still a few kilometers across.

  Jace drew his Whistling Blade, triggered [Questforger], and began walking. The tracking needle pointed directly to the center of the eye.

  Once Lessa joined him, they broke into a run, racing toward the center. They jumped over fallen trees and ponds of water, running until they reached a ridge. The spiritual pressure ahead was nearly unbearable, and it was making the edges of his vision swim. He was going to need to do something about that.

  But that wasn’t a problem for right now.

  “Look,” Lessa said, pointing off the ridge while keeping one hand on her rifle. “There’s something down there.”

  Jace laid down on the ridge, pressing his belly against the soggy ground, and peered between two fallen logs. For good measure, he veiled himself, just in case the Sentinel could sense them as well.

  The thing ahead of them had to be a Sentinel. It was about twice the height of a human, made of coiled up black fibres and coated in a bluish-white bone armour, like the chitin of an insect. Its head was a skull with nothing but black fibres whirling below it and two glowing violet eyes in the eye sockets.

  “That doesn’t look like something the Split would create,” Jace said.

  “It’s supposed to be a monstrous test for your world, not a stuffed animal,” Lessa replied.

  It carried a long spear made of white bone in one arm and a round shield in the other arm, and both weapons swelled with resonance and presence.

  “Alright then,” Jace said. “If you can keep its spear arm occupied, I’ll try to disable its weapon and go for a kill.”

  “I can do that,” Lessa replied. “But be careful. I’d bet that thing can kill you in one or two hits.”

  “I—”

  Before Jace could give her his assurances, a golden sheet of light sprang up in front of him, flickering as if it had a bad connection. Dust still puffed out of his chest, but it wasn’t sure what form to take.

  Finally, after a few seconds of flickering, the dust twisted itself into a set of letters, reading:

  [Welcome home, Champion. New DESTINED Quest available: Kill four (4) Sentinels in one (1) week. Reward: five thousand (5000) units of Aes each.]

  [New subquest available: Control your spiritual pressure and shield yourself from offensive pressures. Reward: three hundred (300) units of Aes.]

  “Finally,” Jace muttered.

  “New quests?” Lessa asked.

  “It wants me to go after the Sentinels.” It was a little late, but in the past, the Split hadn’t given out destined quests until after he’d gotten himself entangled in the questline some other way. It’d finally registered them getting involved with the Sentinels.

  Which meant the Sentinel had probably noticed them too…

  “Get down!” he shouted.

  A moment later, the Sentinel pointed its spear. Plasma lightning crackled around its tip, and a magenta beam seared off the weapon, cracking through a fallen tree where Lessa had just been standing and reducing it to dust.

  The Sentinel flashed toward them. Jace tried to bat its arm up with a swipe of his Whistling Blade, but instead of stabbing him with its spear, it bashed him with its shield, sending him staggering back. Plasma seared his forearms with heat and electricity crackled through his body, and he tumbled to a halt, twitching.

  Clearly, it had a lot more Potency than he had Resistance. He triggered [Purify], washing away the residual shocks before racing toward the foe with a [Hyperjump]. The Sentinel held out its spear, but Jace ducked beneath it, then swatted the weapon out of the way. He had to get it away from Lessa and give her time to line up a shot.

  It fought like a machine. Each swipe was calculated, like it knew exactly what he was going to do. Its limbs accelerated instantly, and it aimed its swipes perfectly. After a few near misses, Jace triggered [Questforger]’s deeper ability to see into the future slightly, just enough to give him an edge. He drew closer, pushing the card to the limit just to occupy the monster’s weapons.

  Then Lessa blasted it. A bolt shattered its shield, sending bone chunks flying. She fired two more shots, aiming for the shield’s weak points.

  “Nice!” Jace shouted. “Good shot!”

  He deflected a spear swipe, then spun away. The Sentinel was open to attack, now, and it was up to him to finish it.

  But that was easier said than done.

  18

  BOUNTY

  Jace had to stop deflecting. It was going to get him killed. He spun his Whistling Blade, trying to get a better angle and slice the Sentinel’s spear in half, but he wasn’t fast enough.

  The Sentinel flashed to the other side of him, moving so quickly it almost created doubles of itself, and it flickered like lightning.

  Jace spun just in time to knock the spear aside with a vambrace, saving himself from taking a sharp tip through the gut, but not enough to stop the plasma from searing his arm. Raw heat blazed through the gauntlet, and it began glowing red-hot. He yelled, but it was cut short when a bolt of plasma-lightning shocked through his spine, making his entire body go rigid.

  The Sentinel pulled back its spear, preparing to impale Jace. There was nothing he could do about it, not as the current made all his muscles clench and quiver. His body wouldn’t respond, despite all his nerves firing with blazing, roaring pain.

  Lessa fired a blast at its head, and the plasma struck its skull near the top. It would’ve killed a Wielder below Nascent Heart, but the Sentinel barely flinched. A small puff of bone shot off the top of its head, but otherwise, it was unharmed.

  “So its shield was weaker than its armour,” Lessa said, backing up. “Neat. Uh, Jace?”

  The pulses of electricity faded away as the Sentinel lost physical contact with him, and Jace wrenched control back of his body. He’d probably have some horrible burns beneath his armour, and steam was rising from his shoulders, but he was still alive.

  He bent down and grabbed a handful of twigs and debris, then used [Wanderer’s Banishment] to fling it through hyperspace. It caught the Sentinel in the side, and the force of the blow sent it ragdolling across the landscape. A tree burst apart as the Sentinel careened through it.

  Jace glanced around, trying to quickly take stock of the situation. Now that the Sentinel wasn’t marching across the land, the storm had stalled around it. The storm had been following the creature.

  But at least they didn’t have to worry about getting caught up in the clouds as it moved.

  “Do you have a plan?” Lessa asked. “Other than just hitting it?”

  “It’s too fast!” Jace panted. “And [Questforger] is about to lose its predictive capabilities.” On cue, the technique card sputtered out.

  “I’ve got five more shots charged up,” Lessa said. “I can try to pen it in, but I don’t think I can pierce its armour. It’s a plasma-aspect monster, and my rifle is plasma. It’s strong against the same element.”

  “I think I can work with that,” Jace said. “If you can stop it from moving around, I can get in there and finish it.”

  The Sentinel raced forward again, bounding back over the land like nothing happened—like it hadn’t just been hit by an object soaring through hyperspace—and jabbed its spear at Jace. He backed up, narrowly avoiding the swipe. Then Lessa blasted it in the shoulder.

  It was just enough to make it stagger. She hit its other shoulder, then the center of its head. Jace went after its spear first, trying to neutralize its biggest weapon. He used a [Hyperdash] over to it and triggered [Radiance] to increase his speed and strength as much as he could.

  He pinned the spear under his foot and slashed at it, hoping to cut it in half. The Whistling Blade sang and seared, and he pumped it full of Aes. It bit into the side of the spear, cutting a centimeter or two in before losing momentum. He reached up to attack again, but before he could bring his blade down, the Sentinel shook him off. It reached for his throat with its free hand, but Lessa blasted it in the wrist, deflecting its fingers.

  Jace rolled back and away, then moved his blade up to block the next blow. He accelerated the weapon, aiming for the same spot that he’d made the indent, and smashed through with a heavy swipe. The spear shattered and shards of bone flew off in all directions.

  For a moment, the Sentinel paused, as if shocked by the loss of its weapon, but it turned back to Jace.

  “I’ve got two shots left,” Lessa said. “I can stagger it again.”

  “Wait!” Jace exclaimed, holding up a hand. “I need to recharge [Hyperdash]. I think I can make something else work.”

  “Got it. I‘ll find a good position, then.” She backed up, navigating to higher ground. The Sentinel tried to chase her, but Jace jumped into its path, blocking its hand with a heavy swipe and catching it across the palm.

  He battled the Sentinel for another minute, holding on until [Hyperdash] came off cooldown. Dodging, ducking, hitting its armour. It still had its innate abilities with lightning, and every time he took a hit, plasma lightning sent tremors through his body. He blocked what he could with [Channel Net], creating a shield of hyperspace Aes, but in this form, it wasn’t very strong, and the Sentinel kicked through it with ease.

  But then [Hyperdash] came off cooldown.

  “Now, Lessa!” he called.

  A bolt of plasma seared over his shoulder, then crashed into the Sentinel’s chest. The impact stalled it, like it’d just been shocked by a tiny electrical pulse, and it stepped back slightly. She fired another into its shoulder, tilting it back just slightly.

  Jace used [Hyperdash] to close the distance, then sprang up to the beast’s eye, bouncing off its now sloping chest carapace. He pulled back his Whistling Blade, then rammed it into the Sentinel’s eye socket, piercing deep into its head. The beast screeched, leaned back, and thrashed, as if trying to launch Jace off.

  It blasted out a surge of pressure at him, trying to knock him off with an invisible wind. It didn’t move the air, but it pushed on his core like opposing poles of a magnet. With such concentrated spiritual pressure, it felt like a vein burst in his head. His nose began bleeding, and his eyelids grew heavy.

  And the wind was expanding. Soon, it’d reach Lessa, and surely, such concentrated pressure would kill her.

  “No…” Jace breathed. “I can’t let you do that.”

  He didn’t know how to concentrate his own pressure, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t controlled his own presence before. He’d practiced veiling himself for months now. If he could just do the opposite…

  Instead of holding his Aes tight, he willed it to all the extremities of his body, demanding the pressure to expand. He narrowed his eyes, barely clinging onto the Sentinel. His fingers clutched blazing bone, his skin blistered and burned, and it took all his focus to create a bubble of spiritual protection around himself.

  The pressure lifted entirely. The Sentinel’s effects didn’t matter. But he wasn’t done. Tightening his jaw, he focussed the bubble of pressure he was emitting into a wedge, hardening it in front of him and softening it behind, protecting Lessa from any of the mortal-killing pressure.

  With the pressure situation under control, he could finally deal with the Sentinel. He wrenched his blade to the side, then triggered [Radiance]. The sword cracked through the beast’s head and shattered the skull, spewing black liquid out from within. Its eyes dimmed and the plasma stopped whirling across its body. Its chest began to crumple, and before it could take Jace into its implosion, he launched himself backward.

  As soon as he landed, the Sentinel burst. Shards of bone flew, careening over the ground, and Jace had to duck behind a log to hide from them. When he looked up, the only remains of the Sentinel was a pile of white iridescent dust blowing away into the wind.

  Then Jace registered the plume of dust racing into his chest. It was a waterfall, a spike of red-hot energy driving into his bones so quickly and so intensely that he fell to his knees again.

  Lessa raced over, holding his shoulder. “Are you alright?”

  “I’m—” Jace coughed. “I’m alright. Just…quest rewards and the Aes bounty all at once.”

  A sheet sprang up in front of him, and as he contended with the stomach-ache-inducing surge of Aes, he looked over it.

  [Quest complete: Kill Sentinel. Reward: five thousand (5000) units of Aes.]

  [Subquest complete: Control your spiritual pressure and shield yourself from offensive pressures. Reward: three hundred (300) units of Aes.]

  [DESTINED quest progress: Kill four (4) Sentinels: 1/4]

  Jace sighed, squinting, waiting for the pain to slowly subside. Above, the storm dissipated. The massive winds stopped and the surges of lightning returned to their normal shade before ending entirely. In a half-minute, the sky was completely clear, with only a few wisps of cloud high up in the atmosphere.

  The wind slowed, and it felt so quiet he could practically hear Lessa breathing as she knelt beside him.

  Finally, Jace opened his main sheet and glanced over it, trying to gauge how well he’d done. The first section of his main status read:

  [Gathered Analytics]

  Name: Jace Scott Baldwin

  Classification: Hunter

  Advancement Progress: Spirit Burning (12.9%)

  Immediately, his heart sank. Only twelve percent. Sure, there was likely more progress that he’d gain from revelations and insight, but just by killing Sentinels and completing quests, he was never going to advance far enough to stand a chance against the Generous Hand.

  “That’s not a good expression,” Lessa said.

  “No,” Jace replied. “I don’t think I’m going to make it.”

  “Like, you’re dying?” she exclaimed. “No⁠—”

  “Not yet,” he replied. “Sorry, bad phrasing. Like, I’m not going to advance fast enough. This Sentinel put me at almost thirteen percent.”

  “Oh…” Lessa said, trailing off. “Anything we can do?”

  “I have no clue.”

  She scrunched her face. “Well…”

  “Okay, question. Is there any way I could generate a quest that could grant Aes? And what if I used [Questforger] to…well, literally give myself infinite Aes.”

  “How?”

  “That’s the question.” Jace pressed his lips tight together and scratched his chin. “Do you think you can tell me how the Aes intake mechanism works? Use your candlefolk abilities to see into the Split?”

  “Sure, but you’ll actually have to intake some Aes. Just a little bit, so I can see how it works.”

  “I think I can solve that. There have to be some monsters around here somewhere, and the sun’s going to go down soon.”

  19

  SENTINEL CORE

  First, Jace searched around for the Sentinel’s core and anything it left behind. The core, of course, was of utmost importance.

  After a few minutes of sifting through the puddles, and of Jace tossing aside fallen logs, they uncovered a core at the bottom of the lake. It was a swirling, steaming ball of plasma with a hard, eggshell-like casing. When Jace tapped it with his fingernail, it rang out like he’d tapped a crystal glass with a fork.

  The Split identified it as:

  [Sentinel Core: Deity-Making equivalent]

  “Yep, that’s it,” Lessa said.

  “Where should we put it?” Jace asked. “Can it just go in the Gull?”

  “How hot is it?”

  “Not hot enough to melt metal.”

  “Then it shouldn’t cause any problems.”

  Still, for good measure, they let LeeKay scan it to see if it had any anomalies. He couldn’t identify anything, so they tucked it into a storage compartment beneath the Gull, isolated from anything it might react poorly with.

  Then, Jace and Lessa waited for sundown back at the Drowning Gull. They created a campfire and heated some rations, and Jace kept his eyes out for any sign of the military. Surely, there were still some functional satellites that could pinpoint him?

  But nothing came. Perhaps they were preoccupied with something else.

  While they waited, Jace examined his injuries. He pulled off his armour, revealing plasma and electrical burns all across his body. His muscles felt like scrambled eggs, but in reality, they were probably more like cooked meat.

  As soon as Lessa and LeeKay saw, they retrieved the medkit from the Gull’s supply compartment, but Jace didn’t find himself as concerned as them. It would heal soon enough. In fact, it was already starting to feel better. Yeah, it still stung, but it was nowhere near as bad. Perhaps it was because he knew his body would heal most of what he threw at it in a matter of days with how high his Vitality was. Probably faster, now.

  But Lessa still insisted on cleaning the injuries, and LeeKay agreed. LeeKay opened up a nozzle from the side of his head and sprayed the worst of Jace’s injuries with an antiseptic which they found in the medkit. The spray was clear and felt like it evaporated as soon as it landed, and Jace simply closed his eyes to block out the sting.