I shifted my attention outward and raised force constructs around the clearing, moving barriers that intercepted anyone attempting flanking attacks. The enemy weapons struck my force fields hard, making many shudder or break, but they still served their purpose.

  When their attempts to aid their superiors failed, most of the remaining Lawkeepers rallied together and moved toward me—those who’d managed to survive the lightning storm I’d unleashed in their midst, anyway. I wasn’t sure whether to admire their bravery or pity them for the divine compulsion pushing them to their deaths. A single spell was all that it took to end their threat. I dropped the temperature in front of them with Cone of Winter’s Debuff, the air frosting solid in an instant as bodies slowed, froze, then shattered under their own momentum.

  My attention returned to Samvek just in time to see Darros planting his feet and throwing his hands wide as golden sigils flared around him. The lattice between him and Vespa thickened, lines of life mana snapping taut as he redirected another killing blow meant for her straight into his own chest. He roared through the pain, armor deforming and repairing in the same breath, holy energy surging to keep him standing. Vespa never even flinched, already repositioning with fluid steps, trusting the bond to carry the cost.

  That freedom allowed her to press the attack on Samvek. It was clear that she’d done something to speed up her own attacks, because for the most part she was keeping up with him. I could already sense that the Psi reserves he had were nearly drained. The enhancement ability was impressive, but we’d have to figure out how to manage it since he didn’t have any direct ability to regenerate Psi.

  I got distracted watching them fight and almost didn’t notice when Vespa suddenly veered off to attack me. Precognition gave me just enough of an edge—feeding me a set of sensations rather than images—that I was able to dodge in time.

  Vespa moved like a blade sliding between heartbeats, her attacks subtle and perfectly timed, aiming for joints and gaps, seeking to end the fight instantly. I intercepted what I could with force constructs shaped into angled planes, catching her strikes and turning them aside by inches. The ones I missed skimmed past close enough to burn, but never landed clean, my body shifting to where it needed to be.

  Since he didn’t have to worry about Vespa, Samvek met Marken again with a thunderous clash, spear and lightning coming down together. This time, he tore through. Hunger flared visibly around him as Marken staggered, Vitae ripping free in a rush Samvek couldn’t entirely control. I felt the spike through our bond, raw and intoxicating, and heard when Samvek let out a sharp breath as the stolen strength flooded him. His next strike came harder, faster, the spear punching through armor and driving Marken to one knee.

  The light faded from the Dreadnought’s eyes, and Samvek fell to his knees with a gasp. I knew all too well how potent the raw surge of Vitae could be. I needed to finish the battle, but after that, I’d have to make sure Samvek didn’t become addicted.

  Vespa shouted something sharp and commanding, and Darros answered by slamming his hammer into the ground. A wave of binding light surged outward, trying to lock Samvek in place long enough for Vespa to finish him. I countered instinctively, throwing up layered force constructs that fractured the spell into harmless shards of light. Lightning answered my will a heartbeat later, slamming into Darros and blowing him off his feet in a shower of sparks and shattered stone.

  That was when I saw it clearly—the true power connecting Darros and Vespa. There was both mana and spiritual energy to it, locked in a dance that was all too familiar to me. All the mana was raw here, but life mana was one of my affinities after all, and I recognized it when I saw it. I reached for it without hesitation, slipping my awareness into the flow and asserting control the same way I would over any other living current. The connection resisted, rigid and authoritative, but it bent under my grip, strands unraveling as I seized the flow and cut it clean. A combination of Spirit Singing and my affinity was all that it took. I lacked the level of control I would have had when using the system back home, but it was enough. Their ability was powerful, but lacked finesse.

  But Vespa and Darros were professionals, and even with the death of their comrade, they were still on mission. She lunged forward and stabbed straight at the kneeling Samvek, or at least that’s what she tried to do. A three-layered force construct stopped her magically enhanced thrust, leaving her wide open.

  Wayfinder opened a deep cut in her abdomen. Her eyes bulged as she staggered back a step from the unexpected injury, but she quickly recovered.

  Darros screamed as the redirection failed. “Sister!”

  He charged at me, swinging his hammer, but was too slow to hit me. I ducked and wove around him, all the while using force constructs to keep Vespa at bay. I’d noted the same last name, but finding out they were brother and sister helped explain the spiritual connection they had.

  Darros came at me with a roar that carried the rage of family threatened, his hammer arcing toward my head in a blow meant to turn my brain into pulp. As dangerous as he was, it was refreshing to know that their façade of perfect order was just that—a façade. Push hard enough, and it would bend, twist, and perhaps even break. I slid inside the swing, Wayfinder already extended, the polearm’s shaft catching his forearms and redirecting the force just enough that his weapon tore past me instead of through me. Lightning snapped from my free hand and crawled across his armor, not enough to kill him, but enough to stagger his step and break his rhythm. He was strong, terrifyingly so, but I had no choice.

  Vespa tried to exploit the opening her brother had created. I felt her intent spike and threw up layered force constructs without even thinking, three more angled planes snapping into place between her and Samvek. Her blade struck them in rapid succession, each impact shuddering through my constructs and chewing away at their integrity, but they held long enough. I saw frustration flash across her face for an instant before she shifted tactics again.

  Darros repeated his trick and slammed his hammer down, the ground flaring with law-ordained light, trying to pin me in place. They weren’t exactly the most imaginative bunch, once you learned their patterns.

  I let the energy wash over my boots and stepped through it, trusting my balance and my read of the flow of mana. Wayfinder came around in a tight, brutal arc that bit into his side, cutting deep enough that blood sprayed across the stone. He grunted and tried to pull back, but I stayed on him, lightning bursting from the blade as I drove it forward again.

  The second strike broke something fundamental. His aura faltered. The rigid certainty that had anchored him unraveled as the law magic lost coherence without Vespa’s support. I twisted the polearm and wrenched it free, then stepped in and drove it straight through his chest, feeling resistance give way as his body finally failed him. Darros sagged forward, hammer slipping from numb fingers as the light in his eyes dimmed and went out for good.

  Vespa froze for half a heartbeat when she felt him die. That pause cost her blood. I surged forward and caught her across the midsection with a slashing cut that opened her armor and scored deep into flesh. She hissed in pain but didn’t panic, shadows already folding around her form as she retreated in a blur that my force constructs couldn’t quite pin down.

  She vanished as suddenly as she’d appeared, leaving only a faint distortion in the air and the coppery scent of blood behind. My senses were generally pretty good, but whatever spell or ability she’d used hid her even from me.

  I considered chasing her for half a second, then turned away when I felt Samvek stir. He was pushing himself back up, breathing hard, lightning flickering weakly around his hands as his Hunger receded to something manageable. His eyes met mine, clear again despite the exhaustion, and I nodded once to let him know we were still standing.

  The battlefield went quiet after that, the handful of remaining Order members breaking and running. I stayed where I was, Wayfinder held low but ready, until the last of them were out of sight. The fight was over, but the cost of it lingered in the air, heavy and undeniable.

  The silence afterward felt heavier than the clash itself. I let my aura roll outward in a controlled wave, not a threat so much as a statement, and watched adventurers tremble as it passed over them. But they stood their ground. That really said something about them in my mind, given that not one of them was over level eighty. None of the adventurers stepped forward to challenge us—most wouldn’t meet my eyes at all—and why would they? We weren’t their enemies. Fear and respect had settled into the same uneasy place, and that was fine by me.

  I pulled out my silver tag and held it up, while locking eyes with their obvious leader. “We good here?”

  He nodded. “Sure, we are. And let me say, that was the most impressive battle I’ve ever seen. But with the number of them that are in Basetown now, I wouldn’t put money on you being alive by the end of the day.”

  “How many?”

  “Rumor is that another hundred came, along with some bigwig who makes these guys seem like weaklings. But you know how adventurers are. They tend to gossip more than my gran.”

  I chuckled, then turned back toward Samvek. He was upright now, shoulders rising and falling as he steadied his breathing, the crackle of lightning around him reduced to a faint shimmer. “You good?” I asked quietly, keeping my tone even.

  He nodded once, jaw tight, and I could feel through our bond that Hunger had receded to a dull ache rather than a driving force. “Yeah. That Hunger is quite something. I could see how it would be bad if you got that class before having time to build up personal discipline. But it’s also pretty useful.” With that, he displayed a notification for me.

  Hunger has activated, and your hunt has been successful. You have spent a portion of the Vitae you claimed from your victim to gain 2% of his strength (208).

  He shook his head. “Two hundred strength is great, even if it isn’t that huge of an amount to us. But that was from one victory. I’m starting to wonder if I can actually catch up to you in stats.”

  I nodded. “We’ve got a lot to talk about, including Psi, but out here probably isn’t the best place to do so. I expect she’ll be back with reinforcements before too long.”

  I turned my attention to the pylon that had broken down Samvek’s spatial mana. About two feet high, it hummed with a distorted rhythm, the mana flowing through it in a way that bent the local rules of space and handed control to whoever held its counterpart. I could feel the pull of it like a hook in my gut. It had a similar spiritual weight to the items Tad made, but it felt more compressed. I looked to Samvek, who nodded, then reached out my hand to grab it.

  The pylon pulled free from the ground without any effort.

  Teleportation Lock Pylon

  Set item, 6 of 25, linked to a control rod.

  Range: 1500 feet.

  Linked. I didn’t like the sound of that, but it gave me what felt like a good idea at the time. Save for Winter was essentially its own pocket dimension. It stood to reason that if I threw it in there, they couldn’t use it to track me, and I’d get to keep it for future experimentation. I was still a tinkerer, after all.

  But it wasn’t a good idea.

  The moment I tried to put it in Save for Winter, space screamed. The backlash detonated outward, throwing everyone off their feet as the air folded and snapped, and I was hurled a hundred feet into the mountainside, hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs. Stone shattered around me, and I hit the ground, forcing my body back into motion before the pain could settle.

  I was on my feet in seconds, shaken but functional, and that told me everything I needed to know. Samvek shook his head. “I thought you knew that spatial storage and space disrupting items wouldn’t play nicely together.”

  A quick leap had me standing next to him again. “I was able to store the spatial mana crystal.”

  “Right, but that’s just a battery. It wasn’t actively using spatial mana.”

  “Fair enough. Can’t blame a guy for trying.”

  “Tell that to them,” he said as he pointed at the adventurers who were still struggling to get back up, “If they’d been any closer to us, not all of them would have made it. I blame myself. You’re so capable that I keep forgetting how many things you still don’t know. For now, we should leave the pylon. If it’s linked to something else, they can probably trace it. I’d have liked to take it, too, but it isn’t worth the risk.”

  I looked at my boots for a moment, knowing he was right. “We need to warn Tad, anyway,” I said. “It sounds like things are about to get rough.”

  Chapter Thirty: Decisions to Make

  We teleported straight to Samvek’s room, then immediately reached out to Selena via group chat. “Where are you?”

  There was a tension in her voice that caught me off-guard. “Wait, is that the kind of husband you’re going to be? Are you always going to be checking up on me? Controlling my every move?”

  “Uh, who are you, and what did you do with Selena?”

  The tension faded to laughter. “You’re no fun if you’re not going to react. Isn’t that the way women from your world used to speak? While you and Lana were at the Bazaar, I binged a bunch of Lifetime movies, I think they were called.”

  I could only shake my head. “The only reason that I’m not seriously concerned over that statement is that I know you’re messing with me. But on a serious note, we encountered some powerful members of the Order. Ended up killing two of them, but one got away. We teleported to Samvek’s room, and I needed to know if you’re okay before we did anything else.”

  “I guess I could get used to you being concerned about me. But, yes, I’m okay, considering all the recent news. Clay and a mage named Oliver showed up today. They are trying to get Tad to leave Basetown, but he’s being stubborn for some reason.”

  “We’ll be right down. I have something to add to this conversation.”

  We ended up taking a private room the inn had made available off the main hall. It was small enough that it got crowded quickly as more people showed up, but everyone deserved to hear this. Once the door was closed, it was my party of three, Tad, Fara, five elves, and two humans. Tad was the first to speak. “Oliver, let me introduce our new friends. You already met Selena, but this is Silas and Samvek.” Then he looked at me. “This is Oliver. He’s a Grand Mage from the human empire, but he’s thrown in his lot with us, for the most part.”

  “I won’t betray my nation, but I don’t see Tad’s efforts to be in conflict with the empire. In fact, after learning about awakening and what it really entails, I’m more than certain that the Order has been actively working against our people.”

  “Oliver is also that other party member that Clay was talking about,” Selena added. “Unless he has some hidden power, I’m confident we can trust him.”

  Clay chuckled. “I told you she could be blunt. She’s also more powerful than any of us from Aerth. I’d even include Tad in that, despite what you’ve said he’s done in the past.”

  I didn’t want the conversation to get sidetracked. “We aren’t here to compare power levels.” Who was I kidding? I couldn’t help myself. “But as it stands, yes—the three of us are more powerful than any of you. Samvek and I just fought a trio from the Order who were all in the mid 300s. We killed two of them and drove off the other.

  “Before anyone mentions it, yes, they outleveled us significantly, but we are strong for our levels. I already explained to Tad what it means to be a Forerunner where we come from, as well as the advantages that we’ve been granted, so I won’t go into it. I’m pretty good at sensing potential in people, and Tad is stronger than his level would suggest, as well. But none of that matters if we don’t come up with a plan.”

  Samvek and I went into details about what we’d been up to inside the dungeon. I talked about how I’d taken inspiration from the awakening I’d witnessed, but gave my take on the differences between the two processes. “Two things were true with both,” I said. “It took an extraordinary amount of power to kickstart the changes, and a connection between us was required. Our connection was one of friendship rather than prince and subject. I don’t know if that structure can work for you, or if the Fey System has a different set of requirements than mine.”

  Oliver shook his head. “All this talk about different systems has my head spinning. I trust Tad and he trusts you, not to mention that everything you say has the ring of truth, but it’s still a lot to take in.”

  “Trust me, I get it. When I learned about the Heavens System, I didn’t even believe magic was real, let alone that anyone on my world could actually practice magic. Ironically, I discovered later that in the past there had been practitioners of magic, but they had drawn their power from the mother of dragons. It’s odd how all myths seem to have some basis in truth, somewhere in the multiverse.”

  “Priest Bahran would say that was the infinite finding expression in the finite,” Samvek said.

  “All of that said, I can say that the ones we fought were stronger than those you fought while we watched, Tad. One was a Dreadnought like your two, but the others were a Law Warden and an Inquisitor. She was the one that got away.”

  Oliver looked at Tad. “That’s unfortunate. If she got away, she will tell the others. Their seers will find us wherever we are.”

  “You’re forgetting how the world obscures me and my allies,” Tad said. “The system is hiding me, and on top of that, something about my nature makes me difficult to find. I don’t dispute that eventually they’ll find us, but I’ve been running for the past few months. If our new friends will help us, I want to make a stand.”

  The impulse in me to agree on behalf of everyone was instinctive, but I was trying to get better at that. I looked at Samvek and Selena. “I can’t make that decision on my own. We’ll need to talk it over, but I’ve been thinking. There are two ways we could help you, and in fact help ourselves.