Metaworld Chronicles

Tianjin.

The Tower.

Gwen Song, Regent of Shalkar and preeminent guest of the city's defenders, sat in the lotus pose behind her uncle, channelling her immense cargo of vitality into Jun Song's rapidly depleting Astral Body.

She dared not use Almudj's Essence, for the serpent would not know of Jun nor her feelings for the great man and would perceive her uncle as a "stranger" to be rebuked.

"Uncle, please wake up..." She spoke to the back of Jun's broad back. Her temple throbbed, her frontal lobe blissfully unburdened by the carnage in the city below. Her only desire now was to see her uncle healed, for which she was willing to pay any price.

"Gwen." Her Babulya's voice was calm and soothing. "Keep your flow of vital energies consistent."

Only Klavduya had the clearance to join the private recuperation chamber provided by the Tower. There was foremostly the matter of skill—and then there was the issue of the Song's family secret, which the Tower chose to respect. As for her Yeye, the Patriarch had confidently declared that he trusted them to pull Jun through and would remain firm in his service to the "people" in this dire time.

Her grandfather's trust was welcome, but unlike her professionally trained Babulya, she felt ten thousand Fire Ants eating away at her innards, simultaneously invading her lungs and arteries. That Jun's Mother could be so calm was a testament to the enormity of her grit, for Gwen wanted nothing less than to scream and shout for her Clerical companion to arrive at this precise instant.

Her Babulya's fingers wove another pattern in the air, forming incantation after incantation, each aided by the complex tools the machine nurses had set up to infuse Jun with as many injectors as his alchemical limits could sustain.

On her uncle's chest, the usually benign Kirin Amulet was the colour of pale bone, its semi-opaque surface pulsing with what appeared to be tiny veins. From what she could see, the amulet's jade flesh had fused into Jun's skin, nesting violently and bloodily into the space between his collarbones.

"He's not getting better…" Gwen mumbled.

"No, he is not," her grandmother muttered, a sickening utterance as profane as her uncle's comatose body when Golos had arrived in the Tower as a winged fury. "Its Necromantic drain is not aimed at his body."

"What is it, then?" Gwen asked, feeling her vitality being pulled into the Kirin Amulet, something like a reversal of when she had used the Core to absorb the Essence of her newly slain foes.

"It's attempting to replenish…" Her Babulya mopped the sweat from Jun's brow with her fingers, evaporating the perspiration as she maintained the vitality of her son's mana organs. "The Soul Well, I assume. For reasons we all know, the Songs never did investigate their heirloom on an academic level."

"Gogo says that the jade protrusion outside might have something to do with it." Gwen maintained the vitality flow, not even considering that she might eventually exhaust herself. "I saw something similar in Burma that was used by Ruxin. It's a node anchor concerning the city's ley lines. It likely has something to do with that power failure we saw."

And if the Jade Pillar was similar to Ruxin's device, then was the Yinglong involved? Her mind steered close to an unlikely conspiracy. But the paranoia was improbable, for the Yinglong would never harm Ayxin's husband, at least according to her new aunt.

DING—! A Message bloomed.

The door to the circular operating chamber opened.

"SEN—!" The sound of the Ginseng's incoherent speech was sweet music to Gwen's ears.

"Evee—!" She called out, fully expecting to see her saviour, her blonde-haired goddess, appear and make everything alright.

"Companion Lindholm is preoccupied." The face that answered her was not that of sweet Evee but the grim visage of Sir Mathias Rothwell.

The Knight clunked into the sterile chamber in full battle armour, both arms cupping the fibrous Ginseng saviour.

"Matty?" Gwen peeked behind the man just in case. "Why are you here? Where's Evee?"

"She's dealing with the Kirin Egg." Mathias dropped a bomb with a word. "But she hopes to join you soon."

Her body threatened to jump up and holler, "A WHAT?" However, her present duty was to her uncle. From Mathias' arm, Sen-sen climbed from the Knight's armour, skirted around her entirely, and then arrived in the lap of her Babulya.

"Are you here to help, little one?" Her grandmother was no stranger to Elvia's Flora Sprites.

"Sen—!" The Ginseng nestled itself, then distended its arms until its root network invaded and entwined around Jun's torso. "Sen—Sen—SEN—!" It waved at the Knight.

"With that, I shall be on my way back to Companion Lindholm." Having delivered his cargo, the Knight Protector excused himself for the door.

"Is Elvia in danger?" Gwen felt her chest tighten.

"Not when I left," the Knight replied. "And hopefully not when I return."

Gwen nodded. Right now, she had to see that her uncle was safe.

At the edge of her vision, the Knight paused at the chamber's threshold. "Magister Song?"

"Yes, Matty?"

"Even now, Elvia is thinking of you," Mathias said. "Please do not forget that."

For some reason, the man's reassurance only served to rekindle her paranoia. Should she go and see Elvia? Was her uncle alright now, with the help from Sen-sen?

"Gwen," her babulya interrupted her dithering. "Extricate yourself. Go to your friend if you have to. Sen-sen and I shall take it from here."

Gwen waited until she could feel the flow of vitality from the root vegetable before she withdrew her arms. Suddenly, a wave of dizziness struck, one dispelled a breath later by the recirculation of her Almudj's Essence.

On the operating bed, Sen-sen's tendrils began to crackle with a faint blue tint, signalling the channelling of the Yinglong's Essence into Jun's body.

Almost immediately, Jun's deathly-pale face took on a healthier hue. The Yinglong's Essence was counteracting the parasitic invasion of the Kirin Amulet.

"Thank Sen-sen for that." Gwen relaxed a little. "Mathias?" She searched for the Knight.

Evee's Knight Protector was gone.

"Don't tell me he just left…"

"Rushing to your friend, as his oath dictates." Her grandmother's words were wise as always. "Elvia is fine, at least right now. She is on the other end of Sen-sen's healing, vigorously channelling the Yinglong's Essence."

"Righto." Gwen felt a warm wave of relief wash over her. Tilting her head, she leaned in closer to the Ginseng. "Evee, can you hear me? Where are you now?"

"Sen!" The Ginseng recoiled from the butcher of its limbs.

"Stop intimidating Sen-sen," her Babulya shooed her away with her eyes. "It's said that its mistress is busy or something like it."

Making an internal promise to never de-limb Sen-sen again, Gwen's gaze landed on the amulet still adhered to her uncle's chest. Though still lodged within Jun's flesh, the horrible veins had somewhat retracted. "Babulya, when and how will you remove that?"

"Let Jun stabilise first." Her grandmother also appeared haler after seeing Jun's markedly improved health. "I can feel the Yinglong's mana forming a barrier around it, nullifying… whatever the Song's shamanistic sorcery had failed to dislodge."

Her Babulya mopped more sweat from her son's forehead. "I should have asked Jun to remove it long ago. We could have given it to you after the wedding if we just upset your grandfather a little. I doubt this could have happened with your blessing from Almuldj."

"But Percy..." Gwen's recollection landed upon the promise her uncle had made in Huangshan.

"Of course, there also exists the probability Percy would be wearing both pieces," her Babulya told her an unfortunate truth.

"I see… wait…P-Percy!" Gwen jumped at the name. "Is he alright? What's happening with his piece?"

"He should be too far away to be affected by whatever is occurring here," her grandmother assured her. "I hope he's doing his job of looking after Ayxin. If something happened, we'd know about it by now."

Now that her uncle's health was improving, Gwen tasted a very unpleasant bitterness in her mouth, a foulness she recognised as guilt. She had withdrawn from the heat of the battle to ensure her uncle was alright, leaving the Undead free reign to frolic within the city's inner Districts.

How many men and women who had initially cheered for her were still alive? And if so, were they still fighting? When she withdrew, so had Golos, leaving no Flight nor Mage capable of pushing back the Brass Legion.

SHIEEEEEEK— The theatre's doors opened without warning.

A man with an entourage stood at the entryway. From his regal attire and rank slip, she recognised the Magister to be Tianjin's Tower Master.

"Magister Song. Regent."

"Tower Master."

All slightly bowed their heads.

Gwen bowed slightly, her palms sweaty as the suspicion of an admonishment for leaving the PLA's men grew.

"How's Captain Jun?" the man asked her grandmother.

"Recovering, though not out of danger yet," her grandmother replied. "What's the matter, Secretary Wong?"

"Percy Song is your grandchild and the Regent's brother, correct?" The Tower Master, his face as guilty-looking as her own, did not correspond to her expectations. "If so, I fear I bring dire news."

"About…?" Gwen did not need her Divination Sigil to know that shit was about to hit the fan.

"There was a thwarted attack on Lord Ayxin's pavilion. The details are unclear, but mother and child are unharmed, and the CCDI is investigating."

"WHAT—?!" Gwen had to fight her Australian instincts from unleashing a string of vibrant expletives. "Then, is Percy alright?"

"About that. My men just told me about receiving Magus Percy Song an hour ago. He had arrived in the infirmary with a sword wound, received healing, then disappeared."

"The little shithead! He came here?"

Her babulya's fingers paused, though the old woman quickly regained focus. "Gwen, speak with the Secretary outside."

Nodding, Gwen and the Tower Master stepped out and shut the glass barrier.

"You don't know where he's gone?" she continued her inquiry on her wayward brother.

"Worry not. Percy was fully healed before he left." The Tower Master waited on her before speaking again. "Magister Song. Not to dismiss your worries, but please listen. I've spoken to Secretary-General Miao Yang-Bò, and we have decided that we need your help and discretion with the developing events in Tianjin."

"The Shoggoth?" Gwen guessed the man's thoughts at once.

The Tower Master lowered his head. "It is best to cut our losses where possible. We're willing to forgo the northern port, the greater inlet, and the surrounding Districts. The members of the Inner Party have already delivered their consent, as has Central."

How typical. Old men talk, and young men die, Gwen mouthed silently to herself as she studied the stooped figure of the Tower Master, a man who usually bowed to no one. However, neither the Shoggoth nor the city was her concern right now.

If Uncle Jun's Kirin Amulet had gone cannibalistic, what did that portend for her brother?

"Can you find Percy now?" She asked.

"Perhaps." The Tower Master opened both hands to communicate his lack of knowledge. "Mao knows why he left his devices in the Tower. We've since recovered them… but your brother was gone."

FUCK! Gwen felt her brain swell against her skull. What the fuck was Percy thinking? Playing hero? Did the boy want to outshine their Uncle Jun or what?

"Then find him." Her tone grew less accommodating and kind. "Pardon my frustration, Tower Master, but you want me to land a Shoggoth in the city's limits without finding my brother, who might be among them? Do you think I am willing to do that?"

The Tower's highest authority nodded as if expecting her answer. "In an ongoing conflict zone, Regent Song, the resources required from our Diviners to use Clairvoyance and manually search for one wayward boy would be extremely ill-advised."

Gwen placed both lands on her stubborn hips.

"…That said," The Tower Master continued without missing a beat." I have given the order, and the team is now searching potential hotspots for Percy Song's whereabouts."

Gwen forced her resting bitch-face to relax.

"I apologise." She bowed her head at the Tower Master. "Shall we retreat to the control room then? Magus Kuznetsova shall draw the Mandala while we wait. As for the summoning location, I shall require an independent platform with Force Shielding and about fifty-thousand HDMs of raw minerals as consumables. Petra will have the rest of the materials on hand. An official request must also be sent to The Shard in London, though I'll authorise it now."

"How long would it take to establish the Mandala?" The Mage followed up with an important question.

"As long as it takes." Gwen's tone grew cold once more at the Tower Master's impatience. "To find my brother and retrieve him."

Tianjin.

The Base Plate.

Elvia Lindholm, Knight Companion, Vessel to the Yinglong, was happy in the existential certainty that this was the junction in which her destinies entwined.

In her right hand, her imbued Relic of the Ordo Bath, nourished by the Faith of a billion believers over a century, rapidly unravelled its psychic energy, bringing down a golden claymore of St George upon its sinful objective.

In her left hand, with the throbbing of her vital energies pounding in tune with her palpitating heart, her store of Positive Energy fled into the aether, fuelling the healing prowess of her Ginseng Spirit.

CRACK—BOOOM—!

The jackhammer claymore rose and fell again, driving itself into the risen monolith that was the Kirin's Egg. With each strike, she felt acutely the scattering of its collated energies, like dust falling from a tin roof assailed by hammering hailstones.

On the surface of the egg, cracks and fissures as fine as spider webs could be seen with the naked eye, their interiors glowing golden with the invasive power of Faith, transforming the smooth, crystalline exterior into the likeness of a Kintsugi artefact.

CRACK—BOOOM—!

Her complexion waned. The exhaustion of delivering destruction and repair was not something she had considered, for her flesh desired rebellion and her Astral Soul threatening wholeheartedly to sunder itself should the stress remain unabated.

But none of that mattered to Elvia. Not the agony of her conduits nor the threat of losing her magical abilities.

Right now, Jun Song was being saved.

In a dozen minutes, the Kirin Egg would be sundered.

To ask for more would be an arrogance worthy of a cardinal sin.

"Companion Lindholm!" The voice accosting her arrived in the wake of two silvery meteors, each landing a fair distance apart to not disturb her multi-casting.

Without delay, Sir Kass and Reginald took up defensive positions, invoking the Faith-fuelled protection of their armour to shield herself and her body from evil.

"The Nazarene saves." Elvia gave them each her warmest smile as the men took their places, their Abjuration magic filling her unprotected body with confidence. "Thank you for arriving so soon."

"When Mathias said he had to leave you," Sir Kass confessed behind his ceremonial Crusader's Visor. "I had feared the worst."

"I was certain we would find you being assailed or worse by that snivelling Necromancer." Sir Reginald grinned before affirming their defences with a Greater Bless, turning them into golden beacons. "How long til the Kirin Egg is cooked?"

CRACK—BOOOM—!

Sir Kass made a happy whistle as the ring of dust rang out.

"The shell should fall within the quarter hour." Elvia read the damage of her spell to her party. "Assuming that's the end of it."

"Whatever may come, we shall endure." Sir Reginald's voice sounded like ringing steel as he tapped into the Sigil by his right pauldron. "By his rod and staff, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we shall fear no evil—Greater Heroism!"

The upper-tier blessing rang out, its impact upon their bodies pealing like a church bell, removing the weakness of human doubt from the blessed few. Elvia felt bathed in holy water, her mind focusing easier now that her Knight Protectors had given their word.

In truth, not even she had expected that aid would arrive before her circumstances turned dire. As Sir Reginald had joked, events usually took a turn for the worse at the worst possible time. If she were with Gwen, an Undead Abomination might fall out of the sky to ratchet upward the narrative tension of the moment.

Now, even if the PLA were to accost her over Percy or Mei, she had someone who could spare the time and effort to explain. Likewise, if an agent of Spectre or an Elemental should find them, Sir Reginald and Kass should be able to fend them off for some time.

CRACK—BOOOM—!

Her surroundings flared as forge fire sparks cascaded, casting shadows in every direction.

"WHO GOES THERE—?" Sir Kass levelled his Spellblade, instantly illuminating the southern corner of their perimeter, revealing the silhouette of a young man.

"Good Lord!" Sir Reginald's voice rose by several decibels, though his stance did not move a millimetre. "Percy Song! What sick miracle is this?"

Elvia as well had to redouble her mind's focus.

Why would Percy Song return to them of his own free will? Did Gwen's brother have a suicide wish?

From what she knew of the boy's abilities, he could barely take on Mathias, much less a Senior Knight Protector like Reginald or Kass.

"Hold your position," Kass spoke through his visor slit. "This has to be a trick."

Elvia raised her right hand.

The golden claymore lifted into the air.

CRACK—BOOOM—!

"That's my egg!" The figure of Percy Song shouted at them, both arms raised in protest. Though soiled by mud and debris from hair to ankle, the boy seemed unscathed by Mathias' strike. "How dare you try to destroy what's mine!"

"What a proud admission of guilt." Sir Kass's voice grew low and dangerous. "We'll wield that against you, boy. When we return your corpse to your disappointed family."

"So the little Judas is responsible for the city's fall." Sir Reginald's aura grew suddenly sharp. "Can you even fathom how many innocents died? Kass, cover me."

Sir Kass' faith shield doubly enveloped all three of them as Sir Reginald's Flame of Wrath manifested, ready to deliver heaven's disdain. In the sacred texts, it is said that aeons ago, such a sword had punished the Israelites for King David's trespass of God's will.

"May the Nazarene have mercy on your soul, boy!" The Knight swung his sword.

Without the need for Elemental Spellcraft, tapping into no rents in the Axis Mundi, a flamberge almost six meters long and half a meter from edge to edge fell upon the figure of Percy Song.

Where the blade landed, pure destruction followed, stronger than any mortal flame from the Element Plane of Fire. The earth shattered, the air thrummed with golden mana, and the shockwave made it seem like the sword had split the base plate's eastern edge.

Elvia's heart constricted as the dust rolled out. Even Gwen would be seriously hurt if she took on such a strike without adequate preparations.

For someone of Percy's level, he might as well be an NoM. If so, had Sir Reginald done it? Was her quest so easily resolved? The occurrence was too surreal, too convenient.

"Kass!" Reginald's voice could barely be heard as the next CRACK—BOOM— resounded, sending dust in every direction. "The kid's not alone! He—"

Her Knight Protector's voice cut off in the next second, together with the Aura of Protection he had laid over them and vice versa.

The attack was visible only at the edge of her vision. There, Elvia saw a blade only visible because it drank in all light, space and distance. With only a little effort, it had penetrated the Faith-fuelled aura of the Knight Protector, catching the man by surprise as it passed through his body.

The mana boom that followed was a golden explosion from Reginald's Relic, now inexplicably untethered from his Astral Soul.

CRACK—BOOOM—! Her spell resounded.

There was no fantastic spurt of arterial blood, for before Sir Reginald even fell, the ground beneath him opened up, revealing a lamprey fiend with a circular maw of teeth, swallowing the Knight wholesale.

GWEN?! Elvia's heart neared a potential arrest. Had her friend come to defend her brother? Had Gwen finally discovered her lies and deceptions?

A female figure slipped into view from behind the newly excavated trench dug by Sir Reginald, her sylphlike, sashaying figure emerging from the uprooted, skeletal trees like a snake slithering from the foliage of a gothic Eden.

A porcelain complexion.

Lips as carmine as oiled rubies.

And an alluring mien that may have graced the temptress of Babylon herself.

"Elizabeth Sobel!" The Knight Companion's voice, mousy and meek it might be, was enough to pierce the thundering clamour of her claymore of light. The horror she felt almost managed to mangle the interplay of vitality and destruction flowing from her Mana conduits.

CRACK—BOOOM—!

Elvia felt all the hope she had accumulated disintegrate.

Somewhere behind the woman, a boy coughed, trying to expel the glowing Faith particles from his lungs.

Percy Song! Alive and well!

Elizabeth Sobel, in the flesh!

And Sir Reginal, slaughtered like a mewling lamb, with not even a spec of blood to salt the soil.

"Foul Void Witch!" Sir Kass stood between her and Sobel; his blade levelled at the woman's throat. Upon his breastplate, the Sigil of St Michael glowed resplendently. "You shall not best me so easily, woman!"

Sobel ignored the Knight.

"I remember you," the woman in black lace purred, her likeness so similar to Gwen that Elvia felt an optic whiplash whenever she tried to focus her mind. "You're the Healer from Sydney, the one who was with Henry's kitten, yes?"

Elvia had no answers, for she was struggling to maintain her focus. Then, to their surprise, Sobel sauntered a little apart until she stood behind the slightly singed Salt Mage still facing Sir Kass.

Slowly, with an eroticism that made her thoughts strange, Sobel wrapped a pale white hand around the neck of the immobile Percy until her fingers cupped his chin like an adoring owner holding the face of a disobedient pup.

"Naughty, naughty…" Sobel chided the teen statue. "You never told me you were Percy Song… brother to our Henry's little pussy cat."

Elvia felt her skin come alive as though invaded by Void worms. From the looks of it, Percy was as much a prisoner of Sobel's presence as they were. If so, did that mean they were not allies? Or at least they were not on the same side? If so, was Percy truly responsible for the Shielding Generators? Was all this a convergence of strange destinies… or was there a greater conspiracy afoot?

And if there was a conspiracy, why isn't Sobel stopping her shattering of the Kirin Egg?

Why isn't Sobel killing her outright to stop Jun's healing?

What was known and what wasn't? What was planned, and what was a coincidence?

Unfortunately, Sobel's chiding of Percy lasted only a second. Ruffling the boy's hair, she planted a hand on her hip, then gestured toward them.

"The Knight can leave. The Cleric stays."

The strange instruction crawled up Elvia's spine like a leech.

CRACK—BOOOM—!

The aura of Faith around Sir Kass flared, an aspect of the magic of Faith that made one's spell-casting a glorious affirmation of one's beliefs. Unfortunately, another aspect of large-scale Faith magic was the need to recite the litanies, even if performed in silence.

In response, their midnight-clad assailant drew a few inconsequential marks in the air, each tearing apart the time-space of the Prime Material.

From rents that looked like blackened wounds of the world itself, monstrous Void Fiends, each more strange and grotesque than the last but all armed with gibbering mouths hungry for vitality, shot forth toward Sir Kass.

"IRON MAIDEN!" Kass' spell manifested just in time, turning his Faith shield outward in a sudden display of uncharacteristic aggression. A hundred shards of Faith-fuelled light shotgunned the approaching horde, skewering the first dozen on pale spikes of holy flame.

"SHAA—SHAA—!" The strange Caliban things tore themselves from the spikes, not healing but unheeding what should be fatal wounds.

"Shield of Faith!" Sir Kass stood his ground, overwhelmed but refusing to backstep. Shielded by the Knight's aura, Elvia's hair whipped around her face.

Again, an indistinct crescent passed the corner of her eye.

"SIR KASS!" She called out, damning her inability to help. "THE SWORD!"

Kass caught the soundless sword with his Spellblade, resulting in a blue-white spellfire erupting across his left flank. The Knight immediately swung left, catching another unseen Void sliver that Elvia could not see.

After that, however, the Knight's skill could only carry him so far.

The Void Fiends dogpiled him, immobilising the Knight as their weight shifted the Shield of Faith. Kass fell to his knees as he dodged and parried another blow from what Elvia now recognised as the infamous Morden's Blades.

CRACK—BOOOM—!

"SIR KASS! USE YOUR CONTINGENCY RING!" Elvia pleaded, knowing Kass was sworn to defend her to his last breath.

The Knight unleashed a final burst of Faith Magic, setting a dozen Void Fiends alight.

In the aftermath, their eyes met for a final time, his apologetic, hers full of desperation.

Then the monsters piled on like boys scrummaging for a football, transforming the space around him into a living pool of twisting sinews and snapping mouths.

The crescent blades returned, penetrating first the creatures keeping Kass in place, then the man within.

A few seconds later, the light of Kass Faith Magic could no longer be seen, leaving only a sterile space of churning Void matter.

"Oh God…" Elvia did not want to cry but lacked the training of Yue or the grit possessed by Gwen. These Senior Knight Proctors were Seneschal Ashburn's men, followers of the Faith that had served the headmaster since their days as Squires. Now, in this foreign place, by the hand of some cruel woman, they had met their inglorious ends, their lives lost for no purpose. “Oh God, O God, O God…”

Her sole remaining hope was that Mathias would not arrive, that even the full exhaustion of his Flight would not give her Knight a chance to play protector. As for Gwen—the possibility of inviting her friend to rescue her from Sobel did not exist in Elvia's mind.

Sobel laughed, a long and callous burst of sadism that made Elvia sick to her very being. "God? There's someone up there, my dear. There are many of them, in fact, whole pantheons in the Planes between Planes, and yours isn't one of them."

CRACK—BOOOM—!

Great chunks of jadeite fell from the Kirin Egg.

In her Astral Soul, Elvia could feel the burden of Negative Energy finally falling from Jun Song's body.

So close.

She was so close.

The laughter stopped.

"Percy," Sobel suddenly called upon the young man standing stoic as a granite sentinel, one awed by the display of her unrivalled power. "I have a sudden fancy."

Both Elvia and Percy could not help but regard the smiling Void Witch.

"This girl tried to get you killed." Sobel gestured to the enormous rent in the ground made by Sir Reginald's attack. "I think it's only right that you have your revenge, don't you think?"

Elvia's gaze shifted to Gwen's brother.

The young man was staring straight at her, his eyes as unhinged as any asylum in-patient she had aided in the past. Was it fear? Elvia wondered, suddenly sympathetic. Or did he realise no blessing was at the end of his desolate pilgrimage for power?

CRACK—BOOOM—!

Another chunk of the Kirin Egg fell. Percy's eyes grew suddenly focused, his body alive with vindictive malice. Raising both hands, the young man stepped into the air— then reappeared behind her.

Every hair on Elvia's neck rose in protest.

"Did your Yinglong foresee this?" Percy's voice was like jagged salt crystals. "Did my sister?"

Skeletal digits, cold, clammy, and alive with Necrotic Energy, wrapped around her slender white neck, strangling her.

"Don't you dare talk about your sister!" She managed to choke out even as her channels faltered.

From the folds of her Cleric garb, her final defence revealed itself, erupting into a mass of tendrils to strike at the Salt Mage. Poisoned vines, tipped with needle-sharp spines that would deliver paralytic and fatal poisons, slid between their legs to incapacitate the Mage.

At the same time, Elvia willed a final surge from both her spells, sending every mote of Faith into the Claymore of Light, simultaneously commanding Sen-sen to expend its all.

CRACK—BOOOM—!

Her world grew dim.

Elvia's limbs grew senseless even as Kiki connected with her target, overwhelmed by the voracious hunger of the Drain Life flooding her mana conduits. Near-instantly, her Flora Sprite wilted, meeting a natural enemy in the Salt Mage, doomed by its mistress' inability to pump it full of revitalising, counter-active Positive Energy.

"Who will save you now?" Percy's voice was joined by bursts of delight from Sobel's obscure figure. "Where's your Dragon now? Vessel? Where is Gwen? Does Gwen save, even now?"

Innumerable tendrils of Negative Energy invaded the base of her skull. Feebly, Kiki stabbed at the young man's salt-encrusted exoskeleton armour.

"Gwen…" Elvia felt no regret, only acceptance.

She had seen this before in a vision, though the city had yet to fall this time, and there was no Dark Sun or Kirin to menace her surviving friends.

She had done enough. Perhaps her Contingency Ring would catch her, and she would wake up in her Rectress' infirmary, ready to tell her tale.

But hadn't she chosen this path?

She was so tired… and having done all she could, didn't she deserve a long rest?

Tianjin Tower.

The Control Room.

"Sir," the weary voice of the Tower's Chief Diviner floated through the command comms. "We found Percy Song."

"Good work." Besides Gwen, the irate Tower Master breathed a sigh of relief. "Engage the city-wide Clairvoyance. Let's show Regent Song that her brother is safe so we can salvage what's left of the city."

"… Umm…" Tianjin's Chief Diviner's voice shook like the Tower's exterior shielding every time the magma struck. "I don't think…"

Gwen's breathing grew slightly more audible.

"Is Percy Song alive?" Tower Master Wong met her gaze with feigned calmness.

"He is, Sir."

"Then bring him up on the Lumen-Screen! Magister Hu!"

To Gwen's displeasure, it took another agonising three seconds for the immense display unit to open the channel to the Divination Magister's Tower-empowered Clairvoyance.

When the slightly blurry vision finally appeared, it was akin to the top-down view of an entry-level drone.

Gwen stares at the lumen projection.

Tower Master Wong stared as well, his mouth half-open with growing shock.

The whole Control Room stared, their tasks suddenly forgotten.

"Fuck." Richard swore beside her.

Gwen knew what her eyes saw.

But still, her brain struggled to process the mess of information being injected like hot lead into her ocular nerves.

The foremost notable figure in the image was the unmistakable mana signature of her dear Elvia, glowing as a golden bonfire, one hand outstretched to empower some giant claymore of light.

The figure at the centre of the vision, which would be almost dismissible were they not looking for him, was her brother.

Around the two of them were innumerable Void Fiends, their presence so familiar to Gwen that she had to double-check the whereabouts of Caliban, now digesting its feast of Necromancers.

And when she followed the direction of their lamprey bodies' vector lines, her eyes arrived at a presence she would recognise anywhere.

Sobel.

Elizabeth. Fucking. Sobel.

"What in Mao's name…" The Tower Master muttered. "… Are those monsters yours? Regent Song?"

"No." Gwen felt her mouth move. "That's Elizabeth Sobel." Then, her voice choked. "And that's my brother… and my Evee."

Tower Master Wong touched a hand to his forehead. "Magister Hu, is this…?"

"It is a live broadcast, Sir," the echo in the room returned with the worst possible news. "And… they're at the Base Plate, fourteen kilometres away…"

"That's not good," Wong remarked in her direction, reading her mind before the intrusive thoughts could even arrive. "We… can't teleport the Tower, Regent. If we move, the battle group below us and Tianjin's inner Districts will be overwhelmed."

Gwen was still processing the Tower Master's future-proof refusal when the figures in the Lumen-caster began to move.

Sobel gestured.

Percy moved forward.

Then, before she could even react, her brother was behind Elvia.

"Fuck'n oath." Richard banged the projector panel. "Jesus. Fuck."

"Sir!" The voice of the panicking Magister Hu echoed in the control room. "I don't think we should keep watching. That's the Yinglong's Vessel and Secretary's Song's…"

"T-take me to them," Gwen muttered before her faculties caught up. "Master Wong. I need to be there, NOW."

The Tower Master's jaws clenched as his eyes grew cold. "Regent Song. I have been very accommodating thus far. However, we had a deal."

"A… deal?" Gwen felt her hands reaching out to strangle the man before restraining herself.

"I promised to find your Brother," the Tower Master said. "And you shall lease us the Shoggoth. Now, your brother is found. To deliver you to this… Elizabeth Sobel would not give me the Shoggoth the city needs."

"I'll do it!" Gwen almost barked the words. "But FIRST, MY BROTHER! AND MY EVEE!"

Beside her, Richard reached her side and took her by the arms. "Gwen, deep breaths. Petra, come to the Control Room. We have a situation."

"TOWER MASTER WONG!" Gwen's voice rang out, her Clarion Call activating on instinct. "THIS ISN'T A TIME FOR GAMES!"

"A dead War Mage," Wong did not appear moved by the loudness of her demand. "Does not summon the Shoggoth we need. A dead Song without Dragon blood is better than losing a Regent of the Mageocracy."

"That's my brother down there!" Gwen felt as though she was stuck on a one-loop track. "That's my Elvia!"

"And who might save them?" Tower Master Wong remained infuriatingly professional, even stepping away to give her space. "Regent Song. I know they're your family, but who doesn't have family or loved ones here? My responsibility is not to you or your feelings. I am responsible for the citizens of his city—and for that reason, I must ask that you act professionally as befitting a Regent of your station. We need the Liberator of Shenyang, Gwen Song. If you are not that person, Lord Regent of the Mageocracy, please leave Tianjin to fend for itself."

For several heartbeats, Gwen considered falling to all fours and begging the man with every promise she could muster. Her body, however, refused to bend the knee.

Above them, the lumen screens suddenly flared.

"TOWER MASTER!" The voice of the Diviner tolled across the open war room. "There's another mana signature! It's…"

The Eye of Clairvoyance forcibly drew into focus, revealing a Base Plate no longer juxtaposed by a contest of light and dark but a newly sprouted sea of scarlet flames.

But Gwen could not hear the complaints the Magister Diviner provided or the Tower Master's frustration.

In one Dimension Door, she was already on the flight deck. In another, she was northward of the Tower, her Omni Orb pointing the way.

The Lightning mana in her conduits boiled and burned. Her Flight Magic was Maximised and Empowered even as she readied herself for the exhaustion of a dozen consecutive Dimension Doors.

Fuck the Tower.

Fuck their Shoggoth.

She would get her Evee and her brother back, for a world without them isn't worth having.

CRACK—BOOOM—!

Elvia felt lifted from the floor, tugged by her neck and tossed through the air until she landed roughly on the ash-strewn ground, separating from Gwen's groaning brother. Her first concern was her link to Sen-sen, which was still maintained. Her second was for her Claymore of Light, which had unfortunately ended before its task was done.

Earlier, inexplicably, her world had erupted into scarlet fire. Her first thought was of Yue, but her friend had not inherited the carmine flame of her mentor but rather possessed the black flames of an Ashen Nightmare.

As such, who was it then that had disrupted Percy's attack?

With the heat raging around her, she did her best to take in her new bearings. She was not burnt, meaning whoever launched the attack had excellent control. Percy, however, had been scalded thoroughly. After being tossed like a stir-fried cabbage, the Salt Mage landed with his suit charred and his hair singed, and what looked like third-degree burns on patches of his body. Nonetheless, the treacherous child was conscious, even if concussed and winded.

What had launched them from the blast's epicentre was neither Sobel nor Faith Magic—but an invisible, supernatural heat that had consumed all the Void Beasts surrounding them.

Again, the dark slivers of Sobel's blades flickered at the edge of her vision.

SPAK—!

The echoing clang of a similar implement twice the size but just as agile and wreathed in scarlet flames parried both blades, sending them astray.

SPAK—! SPAK—! SPAK—! A dozen exchanges took place faster than Elvia's eyes could register. Elvia hoped to the high heavens that neither Mathias nor Lulan was her defender, for both would only sow the seeds of their demise.

She heard a pained grunt, and then Elvia saw her saviour, a young man with dark red hair dressed in archaic Mage robes that looked a century out of date.

SPAK—! SPAK—! Another flurry of immovable objects meeting an unstoppable force occurred, the speed almost simultaneous in the perception of Elvia's mana-deprived mind. Try as she might, she could not lift her legs nor move her body beyond the meagre movement of lifting herself from the floor by her elbows. There remained a mass of Negative Energy in her body, and without healing from an external source, her life was still in danger.

"And just who is this?" Sobel's voice was not happy. As she spoke, more rents into the Quasi-Elemental Plane of the Void poured forth a new army of her eyeless minions. "Ah. I see you, Dragon-kin of the Ancient Reds. Why are you here?"

Operating only on whispery fumes of Essence, vitality and mana, Elvia felt a wave of vertigo overwhelming her body, making her so dizzy as to near-empty the contents of her stomach. It was Dragon Fear, and in her current condition, all she could was try not to retch.

"Me?" Came an enraged response that sounded more like the localised eruption from a small volcano. "You don't recognise me? Well, I know you, Void Witch! You're the cradle robber that took me from my nest!"

Slylth McAllister Morden, the true scion of Sythinthimryr, the Red Queen of Carrauntoohil, was screaming internally.

Vobit! Vobit! Vobit! The train of his inner thoughts tooted in tune to the parrying of Elizabeth Sobel's blades.

His spell, taught to him by the originator of Spellcraft, was far more efficient than the crude variant wielded by his foe. However, from the increasingly assertive ripostes from the twin blades wielded by the Void Witch, his loss was a matter of time.

Why had I intervened? Slylth groaned internally. Wasn't I an audience member, not a cast?

He had never planned to come to Tianjin.

Having taken a friendly tour through the ISTC network to Seoul, he had initially intended to fly to Shanghai and announce himself at the border. There, he would crash the wedding, something he had always wanted to experience since hearing stories about the Yinglong's scion. And he was confident that the Yinglong, his Mother's junior, would not refuse entry to a visiting nephew.

And then, somewhere over the Yellow Sea, Slylth became distracted, as a young Dragon ought to be, by the Essence flow of a Great Shoal of Mermen on route to Tianjin.

Even more interesting was that they were following a Great Shoal of Undead Mermen from a distance—while also harassing and fighting the foul tide.

With a burning curiosity, he had flown closer to inspect the Shoal, whereupon he had found that they were worshipping an idol in the likeness of the female he had hoped to meet!

Was this fate? Slylth, as a Red Dragon unfamiliar with Divination, did not usually believe in predestination. However, meeting the female's worshippers en route in an ocean so vast that even a Great Shoal was but a speck-upon-a-speck could only be fate.

And so he followed the Shoal, at the end of which Slylth was given front-row seats to the assault of a Human city unaffiliated with the Mageocracy, meaning he could fully enjoy the spectacle without twitching a spell finger.

And sure enough, as fate would have it, he soon saw the female that had eluded him for half a year.

Having reached the end of his journey, Slylth now seriously pondered how he should introduce himself. Was he to make an impression?

Perhaps a happy surprise?

Sure, the girl was busy with an Undead invasion into a city. To show up while she was knee-deep in the Undead and say, "Hello, I got a spell for you," wasn't likely to win any favours. Just as well, if he simply intruded into the range of the Human Tower, wouldn't they consider him a threat? Though the Chinese Tower looked pitiful compared to the ancient construct that was his home, the shielding could still make him dizzy and disorientated, both terrible for meeting a haughty female.

He, therefore, observed the battle for a while, noting that the female was as strong as the rumours. As a living Void Sorceress, she was, as the lumen-vids had prescribed, a premier War Mage with unparalleled capacity for carnage and destruction.

Worse still, she did not appear to need his help at all with the Necromancer Cabals, a feat that would have given him pause.

By Mother's beard! How strong was this woman?

To Slylth, the answer to such a question was very important for a young Dragon on the prowl, even if the answers were grim.

Still, the human calamity below was a splendid diversion from his boring aeons of learning Spellcraft. Despite being a Human, his mentor possessed only disdain and apathy for his kindred. Now, Slylth could see why. Witnessing the Humans flee for their lives, the Golems crushing the Undead to be destroyed in turn, and seeing the final bouts between survivors and invaders were all very interesting.

With curiosity, therefore, Slylth's innate True Seeing eyes had wandered across the battlefront until it landed at a strange fount of highly repressive Essence. From the racial memory of his kindred, he recognised it as belonging to that of a far-removed cousin race, the Kirin Tribes of aeons ago—the losers of a long-ranging territorial conflict.

Which, according to what he was seeing, was playing out even now.

Tapped into a ley-node was a dormant Kirin Essence, long sealed inside a stasis vessel used for hibernation in epochs when the Axis Mundi grew too hostile and unstable even for Dragons.

On the other end, inexplicably confusing, was a Vessel of the Yinglong, easily recognisable with its lightning-charged Essence, trying to break the stasis receptacle with Human Faith Magic.

For what reason the Vessel would attempt to quash the sleeping Essence of the Kirin Tribe was completely unknown to Slylth. Still, the female performed a steady job breaching its defences, disrupting the healing slumber of whatever had sealed itself within.

After a few more strikes from the golden claymore, Slylth realised he recognised the likeness of the small female with the haloed hair. The fact pleased him, for it meant the target of his travels would not be far and should soon join them.

Next, two Knights of the Ordo Bath joined the girl.

For an academic like Slylth, the development was far more interesting than the dying humans in their hundreds of thousands, for this was the type of Dragon-business that his Mother had spoken about, the type that used to rage all over Terra in the olden days when their kind toyed with the sorcery of Faith. To a young sovereign like himself, the lively diorama below was better than a first-time visit to the British Museum with its collated loot of the civilised world.

Slylth was counting down the forty-odd strikes required to grind down the jade carapace of the egg when a portal opened a little distance from the trio.

From a Quasi-Elemental Plane that made even Slylth shiver, out stepped a regal-figured female and a stooped young man.

His draconic eyes focused upon their faces.

Then, with genuine violence, twin jets of blue flame shot from Slylth's human-form nostrils, destroying his styled facial hair.

He recognised them both!

The chid-man was known to him from the dossiers given by London Imperial, being the brother of the female he desired to confront.

As for the woman—Slylth's Mother had been adamant that this Human was the singular culprit responsible for his adventure in the mortal world.

Without question, the woman was Elizabeth "Morden" Sobel—once partner to his mentor's heir. From Master Morden's retirement to the death of his descendent at her hand, this Sobel was involved in it all!

Still, Slylth had not anticipated that his abductor would waltz in front of his face. What a fruitful journey his adventure had become! Surely, if he could subdue her and bring her back to Carrauntoohil, Mother would be infinitely pleased.

Lowing his altitude, Slylth considered all the spells at his disposal. Should he shroud the area with a skin-searing Sirocco? Perhaps subject Sobel to a haphazard Forced Teleport? Or maybe, he could smite them all with a Mass Petrify and bring them back as trophies?

While Slylth measured his options, the theatre continued, with each player entering the clearing to speak their lines.

The Dragon was considering whether a Sonic Lure would be enough to eavesdrop when suddenly, the unimaginable happened.

Out of nowhere, the Ordo Knights attacked Gwen Song's brother!

Mother's beard! Slylth felt his Dragon Heart jump start. What a turn of treachery! Should he help?

Should he—

Mother above! Sobel just slew a Knight and is now conjuring Void creatures! Why isn't the Cleric retaliating? What are they talking about now? And—

Blessed Mother! The brother is performing a profane rite on the Yinglong's Vessel!

In hindsight, Slylth McAllister Morden confessed that he had moved without understanding the consequences. He wasn't sure who to save, so his thought had been to prevent the death of both by repelling Sobel. Following his will, the mana in his magically endowed heart had rushed out to fill his conduits, tearing open the Elemental Plane of Fire so he could slip through its gap and reappear below.

On exit, the Sirocco he had been entertaining erupted from his robed body, moulding itself around the girl but tearing the boy away to be tossed like a rag into the bushes.

Without delay, he also conjured the most potent human magic in his arsenal, the new and improved Morden's Magnificent Blade as taught from the horse's mouth.

SPAK—!

As luck would have it, his blade had manifested just in time parry a series of rapid blows from two inferior manifestations of the spell he had hoped would subdue the Void Witch.

Now he knew why Mother had told him to "hold your horses in a row."

SPAK—! SPAK—!

It was extremely discerning for Slylth that Sobel's face remained amused and keen. Through the pressure placed upon his single blade, he could feel the ravenous Void mana eating away at the white-hot Elemental Fire imbued upon his implement. Sobel's mental prowess, signified by the velocity and rigidity of her blades and the fact that there were two of them, was also leagues above his mere two centuries of incubation.

SPAK—! SPAK—! SPAK—!

Sparks and spellfire flew in every direction.

If Sobel were to take her intervention seriously, Slylth was positive that he would soon become fertiliser for her Void Beasts.

SPAK—! SPAK—!

If so, there was only one solution available to Slylth.

"Hold!" He backed away with a graceful turn, landing away from his assailant. "Do you not know your crime?"

Thankfully, Elizabeth Sobel did stop as Slylth had hoped.

However, her blades hovered like a pair of poised scissors, ready to snip his short life shorter.

"My crime? Ah… I am so steeped in sin, young Dragon, that sin puckers on sin…" The woman's smile made Slylth's heart palpate, a feat accomplished only by his Mother's wrath. "But you have surprised me. The last thing I had expected to see here was the egg I had… handled once upon a time. So you came to find me? Why are you not attacking? Where did that hostility go?"

Slylth tried to make sense of the woman's taunt, but his mind filled with blanks. Simply put, he had never been in such a position at any point in his life, except perhaps when he was egg-napped. But Mother had been there to retrieve him that time, and he was snugly sheltered in his egg, unlike now.

The thrumming Void Blade drew closer, appearing like the horizontal jaws of some invisible Void Behemoth.

Slylth thrust out his chest as a show of defiance. "You wouldn't dare!"

"I wouldn't?" The Void Sorceress made a motion with her hand.

While she waited on his answer, a Void Beast with the likeness of a giant salamander with no eyes dragged the moaning brother of Gwen Song back toward her heels. Another creature, something like a lamprey with far too many tentacles to be a terrestrial existence, arrested the blonde Vessel and dragged her to Sobel's side.

The Cleric of the Ordo Bath was drained and delirious from Necromancy—comparatively, the brother remained winded and unable to speak from Slylth's ongoing Sirocco.

To his dismay, the woman in black wove her fingers through the air, then dismantled the fever he had afflicted upon the sibling. The invocation, he noted with great unhappiness, was the very same form of mystic Spellcraft he had been taught, that of sorcery unique to House Morden.

Is she going to eat them later? Slylth couldn't help but allow his imagination to run wild with possibilities. Wasn't she making one fight the other? Humans were so confusing!

Elizabeth's Sobel's soul-piercing gaze once more fell upon himself. "So. Why should I withhold my wrath, gosling? Our Accord had set fire to the great Illaelitharian himself. What do you possess that could even begin to threaten me?"

"Because…" Slylth wanted a more profound retort, but the only answer he could give was already out. "… My Mother will soon be here! Then, you'll truly regret harming us!"

Sobel's svelte figure paused for a fraction of a second. Unfortunately for Slylth, the woman's face was not afraid but amused and enlivened with mockery.

"You mean to say that the Red Queen of Carrauntoohil would leave the Axis Mundi unguarded?" Sobel's swords drifted closer with every word.

Slylth's Morden Blade thrummed, taking up the defence of its master. A dozen spells entered his mind, the foremost of which was his best teleportation spells.

"You mean to tell me that an ancient Dragon would leave its sacred, existential duty and encroach into the land of another just to save a whelp?"

The woman's eyes were twin pools of cool murder, so royal in their blueness that his mind likened them to his Mother's most cherished jewels. The blades drew closer, not enough to kiss his hide but enough to slice and dice. A few seconds more and Slylth knew he would have to put his life on the line.

"Do your worst, witch!" Slylth wrapped his silent sorcery around himself, weaving three spells into one. "MOTHER WILL COME FOR YOU!"

CRACK—!

The sky split asunder.

A line of living, livid lightning tore through the space between elements, spewing an Essence older than Slylth's beloved Mother's Heart of Flames.

The night briefly turned to morning, then back to the tepid, depressing darkness of the besieged city.

Sobel, still unfazed, afforded herself the time to turn her gaze away from Slylth so that she may regard the new arrival.

The hysterical phantasm of lightning faded, revealing the crow-black silhouette of a young woman with raven hair knotted into a ponytail. Her face was wet and desperate, lit by motes of Conjuration as they cascaded from her armour like dusted snow.

Their new arrival was not a figure of death and destruction, as Slylth had hoped.

She was tired and hagged, and the bloodshot whites of her emerald eyes displayed the aftereffects of one suffering from spell fatigue.

"No… No… No…" groaned a soft voice behind Sobel, so full of despair that Slylth felt the emotion like an oily slick against his transformed scales.

Sobel's eyes drifted from their new arrival to Slylth, then back to their latest addition.

"That…" the Void Sorceress' face could barely suppress her delight. "That's your mother?"

Gwen knew her actions were the most reckless, stupid, dangerous, lose-lose choice imaginable.

But she had to do it.

Her Evee was in danger.

And Percy was insane or mind-controlled.

And the Tower Master of Tianjin was threatening her with some bullshit, hoping to get her to put the lives of his city over that of the two people she most cherished in this world.

And that was why she left the Tower, used up all of her mental faculties to make haste—and thankfully arrived in the nick of time.

But now that she had arrived, Gwen admitted, as she had earlier predicted—that she had no solutions, plan, or hope of surviving this encounter, much less saving her brother and Evee.

"That's your mother?" Elizabeth Sobel's bedroom voice was exactly as she had recalled from their encounter in Sydney, though her words were as inexplicable to Gwen as the witch's deeper motives.

Her stare met that of Sobel's, then moved onto the crumpled form of Percy under one of Sobel's Void Beasts. Her brother was badly wounded by fire and combat, Gwen could see that, but he was alive enough to stare at her intently with beckoning eyes.

Worse still, to Sobel's right, she could see Elvia, not wounded but drained of vitality, crumbled in a heap like a broken doll. Her blood boiled—though now that she was here and in the presence of the villainess, Gwen's impulse for action was rightfully quelled.

As for the strange young man with the Draconic Aura, the field of fucks she held for him was barren of all life.

Nonetheless, the young man stared at her.

She stared at her Evee.

Her brother stared back at her.

Sobel's eyes meandered between them.

The Void Beasts announced their oppressive "Shaa–."

On a distant horizon, a low rumble of thunder announced the arrival of her Thunder Dragon backup.

Breaking the tension, her brother expelled a mouthful of dark blood from his seared lungs.

"The Tower…" Gwen managed her threat with such calm that she surprised herself. "… is coming for you, Sobel."

Sobel did not move to mock her nor reply but instead looked in the direction of the Tianjin Tower.

Sensing the woman's thoughts, Gwen mentally willed her Thunder Dragon to take an overwatch position to intercept the Void Sorceress like a poised rifle chambered with a four-ton living bullet.

"I would normally doubt anyone who would speak those words…" Sobel spoke in her general direction, her overtly feminine vocals filling Gwen's ears as a careless whisper. "But you're a rather special existence, kitten, so I must give you the benefit of the doubt."

Gwen noted that the two Morden Blades she had spotted earlier were turning on their axis toward herself. This was good—for they were no longer so close to Evee— but also bad—for her command of Walls of Force was sub-par and not nearly instant enough to save her from Sobel's imminent displeasure.

Some distance away, Golos looped once more into range.

"Such a special existence…" Sobel purred, making Gwen's stomach queasy. "What a curious ascension, little one. To think you're allied not only with that Old One but Tyfanevius, the Yinglong, Illaelitharian, and now, even the scion of Sythinthimryr calls you Mother. Just how many Mythics are you in bed with, dear? Did Henry plan this for you as he had planned for me?"

"You worry too much about what might transpire tomorrow," Gwen decided she would ride the woman's thought train rather than contest them, her mind catching and rearranging words as they flowed past her frontal lobe. "I would worry about the next few minutes. Before my arrival, I told my Brother and Sister-in-Craft that you were here. You remember Gunther, don't you? He'll tan your delicate hide, and we'll mount it in the entrance lobby of Sydney Tower for all to see."

To Gwen's amazement, the Void blades retreated a few inches.

Was my bluff working? Gwen prayed to Gods she did not recognise or know for support, for neither the Tower nor Gunther was coming.

"Gwen." Sobel's hostility evaporated as a smile blossomed on her peerless, ivory face. "I understand what you are trying to do. I also share your belief that nipping a weed in the bud is best before it seeds..."

Gwen forced Almudj's Essence to circulate.

The splitting headache lessened with every passing second—but not nearly enough to fight one as experienced as Sobel.

"... But do understand that neither you, the gosling, your nun, nor your brother are a part of my plans here in Tianjin. We all have our duties, kitten, and there's nothing worse than complicating a planned operation."

Gwen lowered herself until she was only a few inches from the ground. "Am I to trust your mercy now? We both know the answer to that, Elizabeth Sobel. My Master will have his peace. You have my word on that."

"Oh, my pretty puss…" Sobel made a tsk sound between her teeth, as one might make to tease a cat. "We both know that's not true."

"Try me." Gwen could only go all in with her worthless poker hand. "I know we can't defeat you, Sobel. But keeping you here until the Tower shifts in with my Brother-in-Craft is a matter of time you can't afford. When that Planar Disjunction hits, where are you going to go?"

Sobel's demeanour, Gwen noted with her rapidly rising heart rate, was growing very dangerous indeed.

"EE-EE!" Ariel materialised in the sky above.

"SHAA—SHAA—!" Caliban slithered into being, immediately challenged by a chorus of "Shaa—" from Sobel's legion of creatures.

Their eyes met.

To Gwen's dismay, the woman's smile returned.

"Well played, kitten," Sobel spoke so nonchalantly that Gwen felt her Divination senses clang like the cascading pell of church bells. "I find myself both in disbelief and yet fear that your lies have enough truth in them to be a threat. Therefore, I shall give you this victory."

To her horror, Sobel stepped back just enough to land between Evee and her brother.

SHIT, SHIT, SHIT, SHIT! Gwen's head felt like a jubilee in July.

"Therefore, I shall have myself an insurance." Sobel gestured first to her precious Evee, then to her one and only brother. "Our… goal here in Tianjin is accomplished. Between the Cult of Juche and Zodiam's Brass Legion, this blight of a city will fall whether you aid them or otherwise. Believe it or not, I am a busy woman, and I've tarried here too long…"

Gwen tried to think of something significant to say, but all she could see was Evee's half-conscious face begging her to flee—and Percy's impotent shame as he begged her with his eyes.

"Anyway." Sobel studied her with the air of Magister Wen during their first foray into Void Mana. "I will take one of these two with me, and keep them safe, watered, well-fed, fattened… until they're more useful than they are now…"

"DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE—" Gwen heard her voice blurt out. Somewhere close enough, Golos circled into range.

"I shall let you choose." Sobel's ruby-red lips split into a wide, capricious smile of grotesque innocence. "That's right. You chose who I shall take; the other will be freed without condition. Isn't free will wonderful, Gwen? Dearest Henry never gave me a choice like that. I was only expected to obey."

"YOU SICK BITCH…" Gwen could hardly hear the woman over the pounding blood in her head.

Sobel cooly drew an incantation in the air.

At her behest, a Void-slit opened into the lightless yonder.

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK. Gwen couldn't hear herself think.

Calamity! The voice of Golos intruded. Do I strike now?

"Choose." Sobel gestured left, then right. "Or I choose."

Her eyes swung from her brother on the right to her lover on the left.

Must she choose? Of course. But how could she choose? She loved them both. Not equally, but differently, both with a fierceness that rivalled her own life.

“G…Gwen…” Her brother's voice eked from the charred heap that made up his silhouette. "Don't let her take me…"

Percy! Her poor Percy! How could she abandon him? She wanted to do good by Percy in this life. They could have a wonderful sibling relationship! He could be someone, and she would be there to support him. He would have his children with Mei; she would be an aunt, and everything would be wonderful, super, sweet, and…

"Gwen…" Elvia's voice, sweet as nightingales, joined by a choir of angels, made its audible self known.

Her Evee had been assaulted by Percy, with the Necromantic Magic taught by their grandfather no less. Gwen knew that this was what she saw. However, she refused to believe the horror was unrelated to Sobel's doing.

"Evee…" she couldn't help but moan the name of the girl whose name was imprinted like a tattoo on her heart. The girl who was her saviour, her singular rock in this insane world of might, magic and monsters.

"Ah…" Sobel's voice pierced the daydream of her indecision like a red-hot scalpel. "So, you've chosen."

"Sis—!" Percy's hoarse voice barked from the retreating tide of Void flesh. "How… how could you?—NO! TELL HER NO!"

"It's a good choice," Sobel tittered sardonically. "I, too, would pick a lover who is a Vessel and a noted user of Faith Magic over a deluded, mewling sibling. You know this is true. Our mutual Master didn't even acknowledge the boy's existence. He was that useless."

The command to change her choice choked in Gwen's throat. Try as she might, it would not escape her lock-jawed lips.

Like a petulant adolescent tossing an un-loved rag-doll, Sobel's creature expelled Elvia's body toward her, allowing it to flail and fall.

On automatic, Gwen reached out, her body manifesting a Dimension Door subconsciously to catch her dearest Evee mid-air, heedless of the strain it placed upon her exhausted mind.

At the same time, a violent rush of air announced the passage of Golos as it sought the disappearing Sobel and her bitter cargo of brotherly love, only to be met with the criss-crossing arrival of a pair of Void-fuelled Morden's Blades.

"Dodge!" the young man in red howled something in Draconic, parrying the attacks with his sword as Golos pulled a hard left, narrowly avoiding losing one of his wings and two limbs.

"Long ago…" Sobel's trailing voice lingered like perfume in Gwen's mind as the Void-slit drew close, swallowing their Master's murderess wholesale. "I chose as you did. I hope the decision serves you well, kitten. When we next meet, let us have tea…"

The final close of the soundless slit was punctuated by the roar of Golo's crash landing carving a canal in the landscape.

As for Gwen, she felt only the softness of Elvia's body in her arms, the lulling weight of her head against her forearms, and the stench of Necrotic Energy that permeated the sweet body of her dearest Cleric.

Percy…

Alarmingly, she found that she could not think of Percy. Her brother's pleading face was no longer in the forefront of her mind. What she wanted now was to see Elvia alive and well, sweet and smiling, hail and golden and criticising her for making such a selfish, fucked up choice.

"Evee!" She carefully lowered her friend against the feathers on her thighs. "Are you alright? Are you…"

Tearing off her gauntlets, she placed a finger against her friend's nostrils.

Warm.

Her friend lived still.

Frantically, her mind fumbled through her Storage Rings until she found the Spellcube Petra had acquired for the occasion. Placing the milk-white cube with its stowed spell from their Babulya against her friend's chest, Gwen activated the releasing Glyph.

Like an injection of sanctified holy water, the Greater Restoration flooded into her friend's body, dispelling the Negative Energy and reaffirming her friend's vitals. Though undirected by a professional, the sheer force of the Positive Energy was enough to kick start Elvia's Astral Body so that her rejuvenating Positive Energy could initiate self-repair.

Elvia coughed, her lungs drawing inward greedy gasps of precious air.

Gwen felt so glad that she could cry.

Or perhaps, she was already crying, for her vision was too blurry to see Elvia's face.

"Umm…" A voice sounded behind her. "Sorry to interrupt. My name is Slylth McAllister…"

"FUCK OFF!" She barked at the source of the voice. "FUCK OFF NOW!"

"Alright… alright…" the dejected voice backed away. “I’ll er… here… when you’re done…”

"Evee." She leaned in close to Elvia's hagged face. "Are you alright now? Can you hear me?"

A pair of white-gloved hands, soiled by blood and dirt, touched her wet cheeks. "Gwen…"

"I am here, Evee," she could hardly choke out the words. "You're safe now."

"Is…" Elvia's voice grew stronger with every syllable. "Is Jun safe…"

"He was pretty much stabilised when I left…" Gwen said. "Evee, you did your best."

"Is Ayxin…"

"Everyone is well," Golos's voice rumbled behind them, stumbling into view in his Human form. "As is their child. If Brother-in-law had perished, Ayxin would know… and trust me, we would all know if Ayxin was that upset. Our father thanks you, Vessel. You have done your duty splendidly."

"Percy…" Elvia's tone grew painful. "Is he…"

Golos snorted.

"I'll find him." Gwen felt the guilt in her heart like a Morden's Blade skewering both atriums. "Don't you worry about that, Evee? It's not your fault."

"But it is my fault." Elvia's face was against her neck. “I am so sorry, Gwennie… I am so sorry..."

"Don't be." Gwen held the girl close, feeling every sob and choke that quaked between their bodies. "Maybe Sobel will let him go… maybe…"

"Umm…regarding your brother," the voice of the Draconic youth once more resounded. "I think it's a bit more complicated than that—"

"FUCK OFF!" Gwen suddenly wanted to turn around and tear the Dragon-man in half. She knew she had just forsaken her brother, but as Sobel said, this was a choice she had made. Beyond that, the city was still under siege, and there still existed a possibility of tracking down Sobel and recovering her brother through the Tower—though the bridge she had burnt with Master Wong didn't help. And she had to tell babulya and Yeye that she fucking lost Percy.

"Gwennie—" Elvia's hand pulled her face back toward the two of them. "Slylth saved my life."

Gwen took a deep breath; Elvia's kindness was akin to plunging her superheated brain into an icy bucket of well water.

She stood, helping Elvia to her feet as they turned. From the earlier conversation and her Detect Magic, she knew the young man was not a human but a Golos-like existence.

"Please allow me to apologise." Gwen bowed her head. "I am Regent Gwen Song, and this is Companion Elvia Lindholm. Over there is Golos, a scion of the Yinglong. Thank you for saving Elvia. Who might you be?"

The young man looked on the verge of tears. “I am Slylth McAllister Morden…” The Dragon-kin's expression possessed such relief that Gwen almost forgot to process the name he had just announced.

"Magus… Morden?" She felt her brain bloat. "From the Scottish Isles? From the line of Magi Morden? What… what are you doing here?"

"Ah…" the young Morden, related to her Master by six degrees of separation, put both hands on his haughty hips. "I am… OH MY MOTHER'S BEARD."

Except for Morden, whose eyes were already wide, all three turned their heads northward.

On a murky horizon, hovering like a giant maw, a swallowing sun rose to the city's north, engulfing the pale light of the long night's war-wary march toward dawn.

"Gwen…" Elvia's plea came across like a kitten's soft whimper.

"I know… I know…" Gwen could read her friend's mind like a book. "I want to help as well, Evee, but the bitch has Percy."

"No… not Percy." Elvia's breath blew against her crow-skin armour, tickling the rows of arrayed feathers. "There's still one more complication to care for, Gwennie. One more calamity to resolve. By the Yinglong's reckoning, this Kirin obelisk is responsible for Jun's condition. It is impervious to Spellcraft. Only Faith Magic that alters the nature of causality or the usurpation from a higher order of Dragon-kin may stop it."

Following her finger, the threesome redirected their simmering frustrations toward the enormous jadeite lode jutting from the baseplate of the Tianjin Tower.

As one, the scion of the Scarlet Summer Flame, the Vessel to the Yinglong of the Answering Thunder, and the kin of a cheeky, multi-hued snake studied the protruding Jade Lode with absolute prejudice.

On cue, seared by the gaze of the foursome, the protruding jade began to shrivel and shrink.