"What can I even do to help? I’ve seen how strong Jace is, and how much of a head start he’s had."

  "You're eager, aren't you? But you still haven't told me how or why you're doing this. This is important information for your advancement, and if I don’t know, I can’t help you. I need to craft your program around it."

  "Did you ask Jace that?" Ken demanded abruptly.

  Kinfild lifted his fingers. "Apologies, I mean no offense. Is asking that an offense in your world?"

  "So you didn't ask Jace."

  "No, because I could see I wouldn't get a good answer. He was lost. He didn't know what he wanted. In truth, that was an answer in of itself. You don't seem the same. You’re harder to read."

  Ken grimaced. "I am…?"

  "Let's start simple. How did you get here?"

  "I was...just leaving the hospital."

  "You were injured?"

  "No, uh. No. I was leaving the hospital, though."

  Kinfild sighed.

  "Look, before I left, my world had kinda been going to shit,” Ken said. “Magic apocalypse and all that. Some people seemed to be enjoying it, but me? Before it all began, I was set. I was supposed to go to school. I got good grades. I had admission to a good bio-science program, and I was going to be a doctor. Then the world fell apart and universities closed.”

  Kinfild stroked his chin. “The Split isn’t supposed to take someone with purpose in their world. It’s supposed to take someone who’s fallen out of fate. Someone deemed cosmically useless, but still someone with drive.”

  “Well, cosmically useless is a good enough way of describing it,” Ken muttered.

  “You didn’t sound useless.”

  “I was after the apocalypse. I wasn’t a doctor yet. I was just a guy with no purpose.”

  Kinfild sighed. “Why did you want to be a doctor? Was that your parents’ decision or yours?”

  “Mine,” Ken grumbled. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “I cannot force you. But⁠—”

  Before Kinfild could finish, the transmitter crackled from the cockpit, followed by the warbling extra alarm indicating that it was a wireless telesignal sent from far across the galaxy. Was it Jace?

  Kinfild jumped to his feet and marched to the cockpit, then accepted the transmission. A flickering hologram appeared above the transmitter box.

  It was Ash and Perril, sitting in the seats of their freighter. It was hard to tell from the poor quality hologram, but Ash was awfully pale. He said, “Kindild. I have had no success rallying any fleets to us.”

  Kinfild hung his head. “It seems that you have more important things to be doing than calling me, then.”

  “I am going to Light the Stars. But we’ve…delayed too long. I need your help. I can’t spread the word in person anymore. Travel to the transmissions station on Santuree. When the lightning begins, you must send out a telesignal and rally the fleet to you first—I will transmit my seal-code to you, and you can re-transmit it afterward to prove that these orders are from me directly. We have to hope that Lighting the Stars is enough to convince them to follow me.”

  That was more assertive than Kinfild had ever heard Ash before. Kinfild tilted his head. “Why rally them to me?”

  “If I send them to Kinath-Aertes right away, the Alliance will pick off the small fleets one at a time. No, you must attack at once and break the siege."

  Kinfild nodded. “I understand.”

  “They’re raising the shields around Kinath-Aertes, Kinfild, and Homefleet is drawing within. We don’t have much time, and we have to make this work.”

  Kinfild bit back a remark about Ash taking his sweet time to Light the Stars, but late was better than never. At least Ash was making commands, now. “I’ll muster the fleet at Santuree. Now go. Do what must be done!”

  He cut off the transmission before Ash could say anything else and waste any more time, then glanced back at Ken. “You get your wish. We have a mission. I want you to run the training course one more time while I prepare the Wrath for departure.”

  “Yes!” Ken exclaimed. “I only understood like half of that, but I’ll make do. Thanks, Kinfild!”

  Kinfild shook his head as Ken lowered the boarding ramp and sprinted off into the fields outside the ship. “Worldjumpers…”

  Ash arrived back at Kinath-Aertes as the planetary shield finished activating. A layer of blue scales shimmered around the planet, and then a layer of orange scales beneath it, preventing anything from travelling in or out via hyperspace or realspace—save for the single shield gate above the Citadel Tower.

  It was a ring of white stone suspended high in the upper atmosphere, which most people believed was non-functional, but was truly a focus for the planetary shields. They drew energy out of the ancient Luminian structures beneath the surface, and couldn’t be active all the time—only in emergencies. But Aes had been building up for centuries, and the shields could survive weeks of heavy bombardment.

  As he approached the ring of floating white stone, he broadcasted his seal-code, alerting the local gate operators that he had arrived. The shield deactivated inside the ring, allowing him through, along with a few other approved transports—refugees from nearby star systems.

  He raced down to the surface, navigating between the Homefleet battleships. They hovered like clouds in the atmosphere, chuffing smoke, thrusters glowing. All of them aimed their massive barbette turrets up toward the shield gate. As the weakest part of the shield, it was the most likely target for the Alliance to attack.

  As Ash circled down, navigating around the Citadel Tower, he picked out a sight rising over the distant mountains at the edge of the city. It was a battleship with a long, angled prow and a thin midsection, much like the rest of the Realm battleships. But everything was bulkier. Everything had more armour.

  And of course, it was massive. Nearly fifteen miles long, bristling with weapons, and with shields rippling all across its surface.

  That was the Dreadnought, pride of the Realm’s navy. A pit filled Ash’s stomach. No matter how massive it looked right now, it wasn’t going to be enough if the Alliance breached the shield gate.

  But he had a job to do. Tightening his grip on the control yoke, he descended toward the Artanor Hall and the adjoining Citadel Tower.

  29

  CUTTING THE SPLIT

  After hopping out of the Drowning Gull, Lessa took up the Halcyon Spear, pulling it out of its storage compartment, then raced after Jace, using her exo-suit to catch up. Once she reached him, she held it out, and he took it.

  Jace had kept track of her with his arcane senses, just in case, which was how he knew what she was doing, but he was more focused on finding the Sentinel.

  Jace and Lessa sprinted to the eye of the storm, only to find a puddle. There was nothing around. Sure, there were some rocky walls around them, in the distance, but even those were melting under the intense erosion of the wind and rain.

  They stood on a shelf of rock, surrounded by deep canyons that the torrents of rushing water had eroded. He glanced down into the canyons, trying to find the Sentinel in the cracks, but there was nothing. He didn’t want to waste [Questforger], but there was no other way.

  Triggering the card, he traced the arrow with his eyes as it deployed a quest to find a Sentinel.

  The arrow didn’t know where to point. It flickered around Jace, pointing at a slightly downward angle.

  “What’s it doing?” he whispered.

  “I’ve got no clue…” Lessa replied. “I—wait…could it be below us?”

  “Below us?” Jace tilted his head.

  “Or all around us.”

  The water. They were standing in a massive puddle where the Sentinel had just been.

  Jace swallowed. "Oh god. Do you think it can⁠—"

  The water behind them exploded. A geyser burst up, creating a tidal wave that almost knocked him off his feet. Lessa would have gone flying if she hadn't jumped over it.

  The Sentinel burst out from the geyser and swung at Jace's back. It had long fingers, almost like a bat's wings, but each was a blade of bone. Water whirled on the edge of each blade like a chainsaw, and they whistled with a painful screech as they sliced past his nose.

  One grazed his cheek, and it barely put in any effort to break his skin. The water just sawed through, unbothered.

  He slid back, heels creating a frothing wake in the water. He only caught a brief glimpse of the rest of the Sentinel, but it had a similar armour plate structure to the others—only its armour was faintly blue. The initial barrage of missiles and conventional weapons hadn't done much to the Sentinel except leave smouldering marks all across its body, but it had evaporated much of the water in the area and drained some of the Sentinel's Aes.

  And more importantly, it had created gaps at the edge of the current shelf of eroded rock they fought on, allowing water to streak away. Soon, the Sentinel wouldn’t have much water at all to fight in.

  Jace slashed at the beast with his Whistling Blade, holding it in one hand while gripping the Halcyon Spear in the other. As he retaliated, Lessa fired a bolt of plasma at it, but the creature disappeared, melting back into the water and becoming part of the puddle.

  "Can you track it now?" Jace asked. "Do any kind of Candlefolk Split-seeing magic or something?"

  Lessa concentrated on the water, eyes focusing. "I'm noticing a pattern. There's a massive concentration of energy..." She pointed down at a ripple in the water. "There! Right there, there’s a swell of spread out Aes."

  The ripple wasn't natural. There wasn’t much wind at all in the eye of the storm, but this ripple was flowing in the opposite direction of what little there was.

  "It's coming from behind us," Jace said. "Get behind me."

  He triggered [Radiance] and braced for impact, then timed a swipe. The Sentinel burst up from the water in a geyser again, creating a wave, but Jace broke it, and Lessa was in position to fire immediately.

  As Lessa fired a bolt of plasma over his shoulder, he swung, slashing through the column of water. His blade caught on something solid, then broke through. Lessa's blast pierced straight through the column's center.

  When the Sentinel emerged, it tried to cut them both—tried to slash Jace in half at the waist with its clawed fingers. He blocked the slash, cutting edge of his blade scraping against bone.

  It would have sliced through the bone claws if not for the water swirling and protecting them. As it was, the plasma and concentrated hyperspace-aspect Aes caused it to heat up. Steam hissed, light flared bright, and the Sentinel bellowed with effort. But it couldn’t break through his blade.

  The water-aspect of the Sentinel had no Resistance, and apparently not enough Potency to overwhelm him.

  Better yet, his and Lessa’s attacks had caused more than just its armour to smoke. They'd attacked its form as it was emerging. Its flank had a massive hole in it where the plasma had pierced, and its pauldron hung loose, swaying on a thread of flesh like it was fabric.

  “There!” Jace called, pointing. “That’s what we need!”

  He used a [Hyperdash] to launch himself toward the Sentinel, then swiped upward through the loose strand of flesh, cutting the pauldron free and leaving behind a blackish-gray cord, like a thick strand of silk.

  Lessa rolled in and snatched up the pauldron, then shouted, “We need to sever its connection with the Sentinel!”

  Jace nodded. “Get your runes on it and tell me when you’re ready. I’ll keep my combo saved up. And I’ll keep the Sentinel away from you while you work!”

  “Got it!”

  Jace sprinted toward the beast, holding his sword out to the side, and holding the Halcyon Spear the other way. He’d never used a spear in combat before, and he wasn’t sure if he even had all the know-how (well, he knew he didn’t know how, but he could use it with what he knew about the sword, couldn’t he?).

  It was harder than it looked, and he knew instantly that trying to wield the Halcyon Spear like this was the wrong choice. It didn’t feel like it was giving him any kind of boost. In fact, it was probably just making everything more difficult. He had to use the Whistling Blade one-handed, and when he tried to use the spear like a sword, it didn’t work. It was too heavy, and it didn’t have a sharp edge.

  But what other choice did he have?

  He attacked, lunging forward, trying to use the spear’s piercing ability to carve straight through the Sentinel, but it didn’t let him. It turned into a puff of water, slunk down into the puddle, and raced behind him to attack.

  Reversing his grip on his sword, he jabbed behind him, then whirled around to defend himself from the rising Sentinel. It stayed focussed on him and him only, which was perfect, but the waves threatened to push Lessa off the shelf of rock.

  “Oh, don’t you dare,” he snarled at the Sentinel.

  So it slashed at him, claws moving in a blink, almost too fast to track. He ducked under the slash, but it followed up with a flurry. Each attack came too quickly to track, and he relied on instinct to block them.

  But he wasn’t always successful. The Sentinel’s claws ripped a cut down his back, or slashed his flesh-and-blood wrist, almost taking the Halcyon spear out of his grasp.

  Finally, Lessa shouted, “I’m ready! I’ve got it!”

  “On my way!” Jace said. He didn’t know exactly where to cut, but he drew an imaginary line in his mind between the Lessa and the Sentinel, held up the Halcyon spear, then used [Hyperdash] while pushing the same whispers of intent into the weapon as before.

  He raced through the invisible line, and in his mind, there was a faint pop. Like he’d driven down a hill with a stuffed nose, and suddenly, his ears had pressurized. He emerged from hyperspace on the edge of the shelf.

  “Almost there!” Lessa called.

  “I’ll give it one more go!”

  Triggering [Purify], he reset all the cooldowns of his cards, then used another [Hyperdash], flinging himself back through the imaginary line with the Halcyon Spear raised.

  There was a crash. It was like the hyperspace channel he was travelling through shattered, golden glass crumbling apart. It happened in an instant, too fast to perceive, and he emerged with a pop.

  There were plenty of other channels still—probably hyperspace capillaries, like what he’d just broken—but he had the distinct impression that he’d just destroyed something fundamental.

  A sheet of golden light flared up in front of him, warning him about something, but there wasn’t time to read it. The Sentinel was charging at him, its claws poised to pierce his gut, but he spun to the side just in time, and it only left a thin gash along his arm.

  “Lessa!” he called. “Did it work?”

  “It worked!” she shouted.

  “Awesome, now— Duck!”

  The Sentinel disappeared in a puff of water, then emerged behind her. It thrust its claws out, but she’d ducked down, and they narrowly avoided her head. Jace launched himself at it, using [Radiance] to increase his power, then slashed at its chest. It disappeared before the blow hit.

  “It’s not as durable as the other Sentinels,” Lessa replied. “If we can land a few good hits, we might be able to cripple it.”

  “We don’t want to leave this thing alive. It’ll grow in power again, and the missile strike won’t have helped us much.”

  “Cripple it, then kill it right there.”

  “Fair enough.” It shot up behind Jace, but he slashed through it as it rose, dislodging a plate of armour on its chest. It disappeared again almost as soon as it had formed up. “It’s weak as it emerges,” he said. “We have to time it right and aim for its head.”

  “That’s not going to be enough,” Lessa said. “You can damage its armour, but you won’t be able to kill it like that.”

  “You think you can finish upgrading [Impact Channel], then?”

  “If you buy me time.”

  “That, I can do.”

  30

  IMPACT CHANNEL 2.0

  Jace survived until Lessa finished the next card. He saved as many technique cards as he could—he knew how [Impact Channel] worked.

  After a few minutes of dodging, slashing, and desperately trying to keep the Sentinel from targeting Lessa, she exclaimed, “It’s finished!”

  Jace ducked under a swipe of the monster’s claws, then jabbed out at its gut. It disappeared in a rush of water. It emerged behind him, and instead of moving to block it, he rolled away.

  Over the fight, he’d landed plenty of hits, but nothing that actually did lasting damage. The Sentinel was still on its feet, still in fighting condition, and still trying to kill him. And it’d done more lasting damage to him than he could return.

  Blood trickled from a cut on his forehead and from a gash down his arm. His foot stung from where it had jabbed him as it had risen out of the water, and a thin wound in his gut made every swing grate with pain. It was nothing irreparable, but it was going to catch up with him. Already, he was starting to get lightheaded.

  These were battles of endurance. But he’d already endured enough of this fight for a lifetime, he figured.

  “Lessa!” he shouted. “Throw it! I’ll catch it!”

  She whipped it through the air, sending the card spinning toward him. He snagged it between two fingers. It was made of a gray material that felt more like plastic than flesh, and was shaped roughly like a card. It was faintly transparent, and struck him more like a dragonfly’s wing than muscled or skin. He socketed it, then read the description:

  [Technique Card: Impact Channel]

  Grade: Rare

  Type: Utility

  Compatible Classification: Hunter

  Compatible Aspects: All

  [For the next ten (10) minutes, traps all excess impact capacity from cards used, and channels it. Triggering this card again will funnel all impact capacity into the next card used, improving its effect proportionally. The impact-gathering efficiency of this card has greatly increased. This card has a cooldown period of one hour.]