Chapter 50: The Raid on the Portal Facility

Perspective: Various (Warnado, Kay, Astro, Jennifer, Rose)


Warnado hopped from one foot to the other, fists held before him, trying to psych himself up for the carnage to come. However, any time he thought about the coming battle, he thought of the sun gleaming off the sweat on Glibby's face as he ranted and raved, heard the clatter and roaring of battle all around him, smelled the burning of flesh and metal. Eventually, he resorted to physically slapping his cheeks to get himself to focus.

"You're going to survive, and then you can talk all about it to demon-grandpa. A nice, milk-and-cookies ending to paper over all the trauma."

He nodded in agreement with himself but felt unconvinced. He looked to his right and saw Amanda sharpening an axe. She smiled and waved with her weapon-hand. He felt a little more convinced.

Voidblade warped back in, and everyone looked up. They were on a small ridge overlooking the portal facility. About twenty in all. Warnado, Amanda, Tyron, Urist, an assortment of veteran infantry and combat mages, and now Voidblade.

As Tyron and the enderman went off into the corner to whisper about whatever new intel they had, Warnado surveyed the landscape.

To the North stood the facility. In the briefing Voidblade had told them it consisted of a few warehouses, a factory, and a central command building. Not that big all things considered. However, even from this ridge, Warnado couldn't see anything except the thick, high walls and the upper floors of the command centre, which loomed over everything else. Its central position almost made it look like a head, and the walls like shoulders. The audible hisses and groans of the pipes and water tanks covering the command centre's walls and roof only further encouraged this interpretation of the facility as an angry giant waiting to step on them.

To the South was a vast desert, dry and dead. Apparently, about a day's walk from where he stood, he would reach a mountainous, vibrant jungle, but he couldn't imagine it then. It was dark, and Kay had been very strict about them sticking to night-vision potions, or in his case his innate version, instead of lights to avoid unnecessary visibility, so Warnado had no idea what colour the sand was and no way of checking. This also meant he had no way of dispelling his fear that it was all grey with dust and ash. Everything looked black and white in the hue of his night-vision.

Additionally, now that the sun had slipped back beneath the horizon, the desert was surprisingly cold. He gripped his robes tighter around him and began to burrow in the sand with the toes of his shoes. He had heard that, when you're in a tundra, it's warmer to burrow under the snow and coat yourself in it. He wondered if you could do the same with sand.

Just before he could summon a tonne of sand to cover his body and boldly whisper that he was "Scratchy the Sandman", however, one of the soldiers tapped him on the shoulder. Tyron had orders to give.

Or, rather, Kir did, while Tyron nodded sagely.

"Base scouted. Portals for Brines. We hit walls from South, weaken defence of gate and courtyard. Shadow and mages from North - same objective. Kay attacking gate, going through to command centre - Brines will split from him. No gate to West. No attack there."

Warnado looked around as the soldiers nodded. Amanda sidled up to him, shrugging calmly in response to his confused expression. He clenched his fists to stop himself from fidgeting and tried to look less like a deer in headlights.

Another salvo of information:

"Marinus Bul, Attorney at Law on-site. Probably inspection. Capture or death a secondary objective, though pursue if possible. No preference for dead or alive."

The instructions stopped and Warnado smiled as he remembered winding Bul up back in the Tower. He would crack so easily if they caught him. They wouldn't even have to… Warnado frowned as he tried to think about what people did during interrogations. He had a difficult time imagining torture. Violence was this big, blunt, cartoonish thing for him, that always went for a killing or knock-out blow. He would probably suck at torture, but he got the impression he wouldn't want to know someone who was good at it either.

He looked at Amanda and wondered if the Dreamweaver counted as torture. He remembered the way Amanda had cried - something she had never done before or since - and concluded that it was. He tried to tell himself Marinus would deserve whatever the Book did to him. If they caught him.

###

Before he knew it, they were dodging the redstone searchlights. It was easier than he expected. The lights moved slowly around the desert, and the guards were even slower. They didn't expect a fight.

Voidblade warped up to the nearest spotlight, there were muffled sounds of screaming, the searchlight stopped moving. Some dark-clad figure flopped off the wall and landed in a small explosion of sand at their feet. The searchlight started moving again, even slower than before.

They waited until the spotlight was at a further point from their position, then the soldiers pulled out grappling hooks and began to climb. Warnado, knowing he only needed half the time to float up there, took the opportunity to take a look at the corpse. Tyron was already kneeling over it.

It was a mage. Warnado could sense the magical energy decaying away from him, like radiation. Tyron confirmed it when he flipped the body over and revealed that it was wearing a set of black robes with the Tower insignia on the chest. Warnado felt himself tense up. Tyron looked at him, and then flew up to the top of the wall with a heightened sense of urgency.

They'd expected some magical resistance - it was a portal facility after all, that implies some magical element - but if there were so many mages around that they were even taking shifts as nightguards, that was not a good sign.

Warnado arrived on top of the wall moments later, just in time to see Voidblade relinquishing the searchlight to one of their own combat mages, who cast a spell which set it back to scanning the surroundings on its own.

Their party advanced quietly along the wall, in the direction of the Eastern gate and the courtyard. They met little resistance, clearing out a few sentries as they went, until they came near to a brightly lit window on the wall of the command centre. It looked like a breakroom, and several guards milled around inside. Warnado thought he heard laughter. The courtyard was only two hundred meters away, but if they got any closer, they would be immediately sighted.

Urist also tapped Tyron on the hip, pointing out a patrol that would soon climb the steps to the spotlight they had cleared out. They had to act fast. Tyron reached into his inventory and, in a flash of blue light, produced some TNT. He offered it to Warnado.

"Just imagine it's a taco," Tyron grunted. "And teleport it into the break-room."

Haltingly, Warnado took it. His hands were shaking so Tyron didn't let him light it. Urist initially offered, but Amanda stepped forward with a match and did it first. Warnado tried to let gratitude wash over his anticipation of guilt and thanked her as the block flashed white.

He looked at the breakroom and saw a grey cylinder. That would be his tether. He closed a fist around the flashing TNT, and when he reopened it, the cylinder was there, slightly covered in jam. It might have been a gas canister, or a thermos of soup, miniaturised to fit in his palm by the spell, just like the TNT had been a moment ago. Whatever it was, he dropped it the second he heard the explosion.

The breakroom was in flames. Smoke obscured the casualties. Warnado felt ill and tried to think of some other function it might have had other than breakroom.

While Warnado tried to reconcile himself to what he was doing, Tyron barked orders the quarter-demon barely heard. Alarms sounded, their party started running toward the courtyard. Warnado saw the first signs of real fighting ahead. Urist and Tyron were leading the charge, cutting through a gathering crowd of sentries. Warnado drew an energy bow and nocked an arrow but couldn't get a clear shot at the soldiers pushed forward around him. A couple of archers were slowing down to fire at the patrol Urist had noticed, now fast-approaching. The warping sounds of enderman teleportation started to draw near.

Then, a flash of bright white light from above. A mage floated above them, glowing like a flare, and in the skies around them other mages started to gather. Some emerged through portals; others appeared to bleed into view, as though the sky were a skin for them to shed; others still flew up with alarming speed. Soon, they were raining fire on the infiltrators.

Instinctively, Warnado fired an energy arrow at one that was still ascending, but it bounced off a red-tinged shield. However, the mage in question made the mistake of gratefully nodding in the direction of another. Warnado followed the nod and saw the source of the shield.

At the centre of the cloud of mages, one barked orders as red lightning sparked from her fingers. A slender, aethereal woman in a long, white gown was the source of the shield, Warnado could sense it. He watched as several archers fired up at the mages, each time being foiled by one of these red shield spells.

"Tyron!" Warnado called.

Tyron decapitated an enderman and turned to face Warnado. The demon-child pointed to the aethereal witch, and the Dragoknight responded by equipping his stone wings and flying off to break their enemies' air support.

As Tyron pirouetted through the sky, dodging spells on his way towards his target, Warnado nocked another energy arrow and took aim. Tyron and he had discussed this circumstance. Tyron would brute force the shield, Warnado would take the kill shot.

He got down on one knee to stabilise, trying to keep focus as one of their soldiers was frozen by a stray spell, and shattered on the ground nearby.

Tyron began to plummet as he raised his stone wings to block a fireball, then immediately swooped back up, flying at full-speed towards the white-clad witch. Seeing him coming, the witch reinforced her own shield and sneered. Tyron raised Kir and roared, slamming into the shield. It broke, and the witch momentarily lost her poise, having to fight to remain airborne.

However, before Warnado could release the arrow, an obsidian boot sent him sprawling. An enderman stood over him, readying to plunge its purple sword down and into his guts. Warnado raised a shield, cocked an eyebrow and mouthed 'do it' to his opponent. Grinning confidently, the enderman obliged, but as the blade made contact with the shield, it exploded. Both shield and sword vanished in a surge of green light, and the enderman limped back, clasping its melted hand and wailing before vanishing in a cloud of purple particles.

There was now a fully-fledged battle on top of the wall, and as near as Warnado could tell it was not going well for the good guys. Several of the infantry were dead, and one of the combat mages was already starting to look a little tired as he blocked yet another spell - this one a burst of lightning. Squads of mercenaries and mages were starting to gather in the courtyard and at the foot of the wall. They also didn't appear to be making much more ground towards the courtyard, with Voidblade and Urist inching forward, and Amanda just about holding the rearguard in a flurry of fierce blows of her axe. And Tyron could be seen lurching around the skies, desperately avoiding spells with little opportunity to retaliate.

Warnado tried once more to fire at the witch protecting the mages in the sky, but no spell he mustered seemed capable of breaching her shield. Beyond a condescending smirk, the witch didn't even bother to retaliate, instead leaving that to the mages she was defending. Warnado noticed that it wasn't a singular large shield, but a series of smaller shields being summoned in response to each individual attack. This was an adept who would not be easily baited.

That was when Warnado noticed a faint, red glint in the background. It quickly became a much stronger, orange glow. And then a second glint appeared. Now the orange glow was a fiery missile, rapidly approaching the witch. Her shield shattered under the force of the blow, and before she could stabilise herself, the second missile slammed directly into her, incinerating her completely.

Initially, most of the mages didn't appear to notice what had happened and continued throwing projectiles as though they still had an adept shielding them from any potential attack. However, Tyron wasted no time in slashing his way through the cloud of magic-users, and soon there was substantial confusion in the ranks. Some began to raise their own shields, others became even more aggressive and began to fire on Tyron with all their power.

That was when the source of the fiery missiles made herself known. Warnado watched as Talita, a nice old lady who hung around with Shadow, appeared above the wall and began to send similar missiles into the cloud of mages, conducting them like an orchestra as they weaved between shield-charms to strike vulnerable combatants. Warnado whooped as he saw it, not having realised the rather frail-looking old woman had been capable of such power. She turned her head and gave an incongruously wholesome smile as she burned another enemy mage to cinders.

Warnado turned around and saw Amanda effortlessly dodging the attacks of a large pigman. Rose's training had really paid off. Unfortunately, he couldn't help but notice a crowd of similarly large and scary-looking fighters following the pigman.

"Hey Amanda!" he called.

"Busy here, Helix!" she grunted as she parried a blow and stopped the pigman's advance.

"Put like one meter between you and the star of Babe 3: Revengeance."

She leapt back and looked at him expectantly. As a result, she didn't see the yellow-tinted forcefield he put between her and the pigman. When the pigman tried to charge her, it slammed right into the forcefield, and the forcefield promptly exploded in his face while leaving Amanda unharmed. The forcefield served as a magical shrapnel grenade, firing a brutal fusillade of lightning spells down the wall at the pigman and those following him. Wounded beyond fighting, the small column retreated. The rearguard had held.

"You're getting creative," Amanda laughed.

"Eh," Warnado shrugged, feeling a little more himself. "What can I say, I'm a genius. A handsome, handsome genius."

Tyron then landed back on the wall, kicking a mercenary off the wall as he did so.

"You can quip later, kid. To the courtyard! Now!"

With Talita and a handful of other members of Shadow's coven now guarding the skies, the party charged along the wall, breaking through the ranks of human defenders and slashing wildly to discourage any enderman skirmishers.

Soon, they were overlooking the courtyard.

To the North, Shadow and other members of her coven could be seen, blasting spells in every direction. Warnado's mentor herself was floating high above, pointing out targets and slinging her own spells, a similar strategy to the Tower's adept mage with the key difference being that the shield-casting witch had lacked the safety of Shadow's immortality.

Meanwhile, the Eastern wall was littered with corpses, apparently because of ranged combat. Arrows, large knives and icy javelins protruded from many corpses. In places the walls seemed mutilated, as though slashed by the claws of a mighty beast, and with various blades planted within the bricks at unnatural depths. Many casualties seemed noticeably charred, smoke still rising from their bodies. Those Tower forces still atop the wall scrambled back and forth, avoiding projectiles and sometimes dropping dead for apparently no reason, clutching their rib cages. In the courtyard, full columns rallied, though they were unprepared. Many were still equipping their armour as they lined up to face the gates.

The mages tasked with defending the gate swarmed like angry wasps, apparently dodging various projectiles too small for Warnado to make out.

Warnado readied a ball of electricity and hurled it at one of the swarming mages, catching them square in the back and sending them dropping. Unfortunately, just as he congratulated himself, he felt himself lift from his feet. He exchanged a look of surprise with Amanda, then found himself shooting down into the dirt of the courtyard. He slammed into the ground face-first and felt the wind rush from his lungs. Despite this, he used levitation to get back on his feet quite instantaneously, only to be knocked back on his ass by a clod of dirt that looked suspiciously like a fist.

Warnado looked for the source: a mage slowly approaching, sword in hand. He was white-clad, like the witch. And he had a similar aura of aethereal confidence. Warnado decided to call him the warlock, then summoned a flare to blind him. The warlock methodically raised his sword-arm to cover his eyes as though dabbing sweat from his forehead, not looking quite as disoriented as Warnado had hoped. Trying to capitalise on this moment, Warnado summoned an energy shuriken and hurled it at his enemy.

The shuriken stopped spinning suddenly, then shot back in the other direction and winged Warnado's leg. The demon-child's mind struggled to catch up to what had happened. The warlock's other hand fell - he'd used telekinesis to send the shuriken back.

A new plan forming, Warnado stood back up and summoned a lightning forcefield behind the warlock and yanked it in with telekinesis of his own. The warlock handily sidestepped, and Warnado only just redirected it into a crowd of mercenaries. Warnado found himself lifted upwards again, this time his body going rigid and floating slowly towards his opponent, who brandished his sword gracefully.

Then, a jet of fire came flying down at the warlock, and Warnado landed shakily on his feet. The warlock blocked the attack with a wall of rock. Warnado looked for his saviour, and with a little disappointment saw Astro slowly approaching. Astro's jet of fire stopped, and the warlock dropped his defence. The two glared at each other. To Warnado's annoyance, the warlock finally looked determined, as though he'd met a worthy opponent.

To Warnado's even greater annoyance, the warlock had miscalculated. Astro cocked his head, and the white-clad mage's neck twisted one hundred and eighty degrees, breaking immediately.

Astro cautiously approached the corpse and prodded it with his foot.

"Sorry about the other day," he muttered reluctantly to Warnado.

"No problem," said Warnado with even greater reluctance. "Thank you for the help."

A pause for breath. Tyron and the wall party were now pushing down into the courtyard itself, strategically seizing control entrances and exits. Amanda was holding down a gateway on the side of the central command building alongside Urist, hacking at the limbs of enemies, while the dwarf caved in the skulls of the wounded.

"When's Kay going to show up?" panted Warnado.

Boom! The gate came crashing down, and from either side, a trail of silver-turning-purple flame extended until it reached the central command building on the other side of the courtyard, establishing an effective cordon. And walking up the center of this voidflame highway, Warnado could see a party of familiar expressions: Destiny's vengeful scowl; Jennifer's embattled half-smile; Steve's wary furrowing of the brow; Rose, demure as ever; then, finally, the arrogant, infectious grin of Kay himself as he roared in triumph at this display of power.

"Round about now," said Astro redundantly.

"Yeah, I can see that," snapped Warnado.

"I know, that's the joke."

"Your jokes suck."

"Hey, I just saved your life."

"Fine, they don't suck... but they're not good either."

Astro sighed, and the two began to walk up the cordon, towards the commanding party.


I beamed as Astro and Warnado approached, though I didn't immediately greet them. Instead, I turned to the Brines, and their small column of soldiers. I had been cautious to give them experienced troops, but not any who might be considered a protege or spy of mine. A gesture of trust.

"Steve, Jennifer, take your detachment and secure the portal technology and any specialists. The mages should give you sufficient cover, though we'll do the best to thin their ranks as we advance along the cordon," I paused a moment to admire the Book and I's voidfire demarcations, "The remainder of the party shall enter the command centre and attempt to prevent the destruction of blueprints. If possible, we shall capture Marinus Bul. If neither objective is achieved within the next," I checked my watch, "Half hour, we'll regroup here and reassess the situation."

Steve and Jennifer nodded seriously.

"We'll handle it, Kay," said Steve.

"They won't know what hit them," said Jennifer with a chuckle.

"I'm sure they won't, now off you pop!" I encouraged.

I opened a gap in the voidfire cordon, and they charged straight into the path of a column of human mercenaries who had been cautiously approaching the barrier. I gestured to our pack of four archers, who formed a circle and aimed arrows at the ground. The Book and I opened a portal at the centre. They fired through. The column of mercenaries was weakened.

"You have kept your word to cover them, now we must enter the command centre. No more distractions," urged the Book.

I more or less agreed and made sure to start walking before I greeted Astro and Warnado. No more time to stand around.

"Destiny," I muttered. "See if you can't winnow the ranks a little bit for the Brines. Don't let it slow you down, though."

Destiny shrugged and drew her bow, firing arrows over the voidfire in the direction of any Tower forces in Steve and Jennifer's general direction. However, her hands were shaking for some reason, so it amounted to potshots. Shadow's mages were clearly offering more meaningful support, blasting apart Endlings, giants, and entire columns of humans in and around the factory. I contemplated whether I should tell Rose to go out there and start shredding columns - since her ritual she now seemed well capable of it.

"You're thinking about politics again. The grunts on the ground are unlikely to risk voidfire if they don't perceive us as an immediate threat to them. Besides, they already have orders to defend the Northern and Southern walls. Leave them be and we'll get a clean shot at the central building."

I smiled.

"If you want me to remain commander, I must be seen to do my job. Mustn't I?"

The Book almost sighed.

"You are more likely to be seen favourably if you breach the command central quickly, allowing us to better satisfy our goals of obtaining portal blueprints and capturing Marinus Bul."

"That's more like it," I encouraged. "Best of both worlds."

I was trying to encourage the Book to consider the political dimension more. If it was going to keep encouraging my distrust of Shadow, it was going to have to help me outwit her. We needed to be one in all spheres, not just combat.

Finally, I addressed Astro and Warnado, increasing my pace.

"Warnado, not that it isn't good to see you, but are you not supposed to be with Tyron?"

"Yeah, but this warlock dragged me down into the courtyard… and Astro saved me."

He said the second part as though swallowing a horrible medicine. I smiled appreciatively at my friend.

"Well done," I stressed. "And don't be ashamed of accepting some help. Astro's had my back for years, he'll have yours no less faithfully.

I took a look at his leg, saw it bleeding.

"How would you like to stick with us?" I asked. "I need someone Marinus might want to talk to."

The Book never groaned, but if it did, it would have at this exact moment.

"Relax, my friend," I coaxed. "He's a powerful magic user even if he is unrefined. He won't slow us down… And if he doesn't come with us, he might end up fighting alongside Shadow and who knows what she might put in the poor lad's head about you and I."

"Very well."

We were about halfway to the command centre, and so far, there was no real attempt to stop us. I scanned the battlefield. Reinforcements weren't flowing in as readily as they had a few minutes ago, but there was no way this was the base's whole force. Where were the rest?

There was a strange, watery sound. Something deep and echoey. I recalled the first time the Professor explained sound to me - that it was all rippling molecules. It sounded the way I imagined that process - like a crashing wave heard from the bottom of a lake.

Then, I saw something odd in the middle of Tyron's half of the courtyard. I asked the Book to remove my night vision for a second, so I could see colours normally. The light in a specific spot was shifting, distorting, remixing itself. The image kept changing, sometimes showing flashes of bronze, obsidian, and glass, instead of the grey stone of the wall. And there were hues of darkness, brightness, all colours and none, swirling about the spot in half-visible haloes.

Finally, a familiar gloved hand emerged, and placed its fingers on the edge of the distortion and tore its way through. The Entity was here. I saw other distortions begin to form, and other manifestations stepping out.

The fighting slowed, and all eyes were on the original manifestation. I, however, didn't stop walking.

"You-are trespassers here," said the Entity. "But I am not… unmerciful. You are small creatures, faced with the enormity of all-things. Surrender. You may live… to see my world realised."

"Do not respond. No grand-standing," advised the Book.

I kept walking.

"What-is your response?" The Entity asked.

I could feel its eyes on me, but I didn't look back.

We reached the steel door of the command centre, and I turned.

"Shadow," I called out. "I have business to attend to inside. I leave the Entity in your capable-"

Shadow promptly came flying in like a comet, yelling with uncharacteristic anger: "We have unfinished business, you stagnant, brother-stealing bitch!"

Suddenly there was a flash, but not a flash. The opposite of a flash. The light vanished from a spot about the size of a person somewhere in the sky over the factory. Where once Shadow had floated, now a mass of silhouettes writhed. Not just that, a sizable chunk of reality around her had also decided to take a vacation, only a jagged patch of mind-splitting nothingness remained.

I struggled to look at it, it made me terrified in a way I hadn't quite felt since I tumbled into the Void at Zine Craft - a refusal to accept what you're looking at, because it should not be. Yet, I knew I needed to better understand this.

"Book, would you be a dear and help me look at her without crippling fear?"

"Yes, it is about time you understood what we are dealing with."

As I looked up, my eyes took on a different tint. I saw the world in something that felt like black-and-white but was vastly more intricate. I could see black, I could see white, and I could see the colours that comprised them, or could, or might not.

I saw the others cowering away from Shadow around me. Destiny had fallen to the ground. Warnado had fixed his eyes shut and lowered his head. The archers gazed on, trembling and awestruck. Only Astro and Rose still had their senses and were working on demolishing the door. Then, I cast an eye across Shadow and felt next to nothing. I fought the urge to laugh.

"This is serious, look closer."

The Book guided my eye to the central manifestation of the Entity, and I saw the shape beneath its armour. It was formless, rippling. And yet, while Shadow's description of the creature as 'stagnant' at first seemed irrational, I soon understood what she meant. It was in perpetual motion, in an unchanging, perfect loop. It did not change, because if it did, it would destroy itself. It was Order, because it had to be. Suddenly, I understood the possessions - it didn't wilfully suppress consciousness, it could not accept consciousness other than its own. Only information.

"And the other…" said the Book, with an energy that almost felt tremulous.

I was intrigued. Not just on a personal level, but existentially, the Book was terrified of Shadow.

Then, the Book guided me to Shadow, and I saw it...

"Oh," I chuckled aloud. "That is interesting. No, we're on the same page now."

Remembering others might hear me, I continued within:

"No, we must do something about this. Quite soon."

"I am glad we are finally agreed."

Shadow was entropic. The mass of writhing silhouettes wasn't something to see past - it was the answer in itself. Like the Entity, she was formless. But unlike the Entity, her being did not crave a form, nor did it accept the forms of those things around it. In this state, she was like a poison, sickening reality around her, breaking it down. Like the Entity, she would make everything like her. But unlike the Entity, she could not hold anything in this state. It would become like her for less than an instant before becoming nothing. Left unchecked, she would unravel and unravel and unravel until there was no string left to pull. Until she was alone in a Void of her own making.

She and the Entity were at a stalemate not because they were on the same power level, but because they were incompatible. When they interacted like this, Order and Entropy canceled each other out. The Entity was water, Shadow was oil. Similar in nature, different in detail.

I looked down at my hand, and summoned a small rift in my palm, and saw similar forces at work within it. Saw a path forward. I smiled a tranquil little smile, and put my other hand on Warnado's shoulder, steering him toward the command centre.

"I believe…" I thought. "I shall need access to your full arsenal."

"Excellent. There is no more room for squeamishness, if we are to survive."

"Oh, we shall do so much more than survive."

As Rose shredded the door open, we were agreed. We were certain of our purpose. We were one.


We have, by this point, more or less realised that there's a trap waiting for us. An impromptu trap, but a trap, nonetheless.

We've been walking through for about five minutes and haven't encountered anyone, or indeed any blueprints. Every chest, filing cabinet and desk we encountered on the ground floor has been cleared out, but poorly. There're loose leaves of paper scattered on the floors of most offices. Some chests have been burned, but a bit of magical analysis didn't find any remnants of paper, so it looks like an improvisation by an overzealous grunt. I almost appreciate their imagination.

The working theory I've proposed is that they've sent some Endlings to gather literally everything and teleport it back to the top of the command tower, and then buy time for Bul and the administrative staff to recover and or burn the important bits. It follows that they're not just going to risk us walking in on them, however, so those same Endlings are almost guaranteed to be sent back to slow us down. Probably any other security staff. Hence, an ambush is impending.

When I put this idea to Kay in substantially less than half as many words, he smiled serenely. His eyes have a silver hue, and if I look at them closely, I can almost see tongues of flame dancing across them. Every now and then he claps Warnado on the shoulder and looks momentarily like a blind man.

Destiny is in the lead, Rose taking the rear. Each flanked by soldiers.

The halls are silent save the clatter of armour on stone. We reach the second floor. Destiny holds up a hand and looks back at me. I heighten my senses. I hear restrained breathing. Heartbeats of humans. Heartbeats of Endlings. Three heartbeats feel too close together somewhere nearby, but I don't think much of it. Four rooms? I scan the doors. Two near the beginning, two near the end. That makes sense. I signal my findings to the others.

Kay is unmoved and signals for us to walk forward, all the while holding a hand open before his face, as though reading the lines to discover his own fortune.

We reach the mid-point between the two sets of doors, when Kay signals for us to stop. A split-second later he closes his fist and flame hisses all around. There is screaming. Doors fly open, men come out screaming and burning. Silver-turning-purple fire. Warnado covers his own mouth.

We hear warping sounds and suddenly the Endlings are amongst us. Eight or so. Armour half-destroyed but bodies unharmed. Talons and swords fly. Soldiers collapse. I sever an Endling's spine, and it warps away screaming. Then, explosions.

At the start and end of the corridor, the ceiling is blown open and enemy combatants drop down. More Endlings, still armoured. Dozens of humans.

Kay laughs.

"I can't say I'm not a little startled. Rose, come with me to the far end. We'll clear a path forward," he turns to me and says, mildly: "Astro, hold the fort a moment."

Rose rushes forwards with two soldiers who have been flanking her, lashing knives out every which way. Kay steps forward, silver flames around his feet, and with a motion like descending slips out of view, out of the world. Suddenly, I see Apotyre, his sword, cleave a man in two at the far end of the corridor, then another, and so on. He emerges back into the world for a moment, smoke leaping off him like rats from a ship, and screams before plunging back into the void.

I begin to bark orders. Try to get the troops into formation, but the Endlings make it difficult. Warnado and Destiny are parting the tide of human mercenaries bearing down on us from the other direction. I summon shields strategically to help, I dismember any Endling that enters my field of view. And I'm not letting much slip from my field of view, hurling my eyes this way and that, wheeling around, a sail buffeted in every direction by the winds of a storm.

Eventually, though I have no real way of knowing in such a mad scramble, I get the sense we're winning and heighten my senses to try and assess how many more we have to kill. Substantially fewer heartbeats, human or Endlings. Except… Three heartbeats too close together. Right above-

The ceiling spits flame and I stagger away, a magical shield guarding myself and a nearby archer. Another is not so lucky, collapsing with a face full of shrapnel. Smoke obscures my view.

I hear something slam into the ground, but amidst the smoke I cannot see it. I lower my shield, flourish my sword and the cloud dissipates. Claw smiles at me. "Surprise!"

As Claw moves towards me, I freeze up, feeling his namesake rip through my stomach all over again. Warnado and Destiny see him and immediately spring into action. Destiny rolls into his path and hurls an icy javelin at his face. Warnado leaps into the air with a huge energy axe. Claw catches the javelin, swings it back behind him and breaks it over Warnado's flank. The demon-child, disoriented, bounces off Claw and lands in a heap on the floor. Destiny ducks under Claw's mace, then is shoulder-charged into the wall. Claw is coming straight at me.

But I have recovered. Despite the old wounds still shrieking at me like banshees, I enter a fighting stance as Claw leaps into a roundhouse kick. Just before his boot connects with my skull, I summon a forcefield and stop him in his tracks. Then, just as he tries to pull back, I fold the ward back around the boot and hold his leg in place. He glares at me, I smirk.

As I hold him in place, Destiny sends an arrow beneath the plates of his armour and pierces his scales. He bellows in pain, and it sounds as though three voices are screaming at once. Warnado comes in with a huge, glowing hammer that looks like a cross between a meat tenderiser and a vision of hell and swings down at Claw's obsidian chestplate. With me holding his leg like this it will be damned impressive if the blow doesn't tear his leg off. I look at Claw with smug triumph. Orange light glows from between his scales.

The leg breaks free from the stasis I'm holding it in, but the forcefield holds. He uppercuts me with my own damned spell and sends me flying. I stop my descent before I break my neck on the floor, see him break Warnado's summoned weapon with a mace, and shunt his way on to Destiny, who summons an icy sword and flames in the shape of a buckler.

I hurl myself back into the melee, as does Warnado, now armed with an aethereal weapon I don't recognise, though it appears mechanical.

"Chainsaw time!" He screams with a mixture of pride and excitement.

We trade blows with Claw as long as we can. However, he is simply too fast, too strong. At one point Warnado, his chainsaw shattered into pieces, attempts to mount his back and begin to garotte him with another summoned weapon. He falls away with the pattern of Claw's scales burned into his hands. Our last surviving archer takes him aside to try and treat him.

Destiny pirouettes narrowly past a mace blow, then slams the flaming buckler into his forearm. Its flames intensify until they turn white hot. I can see the obsidian and scales melting, bleeding into each other. The mace catches her breastplate just over the stomach. It dents. She coughs blood, and not a second later is kicked in the skull.

Through one of the several holes in the ceiling, I catch a glimpse of Kay on the floor above us, casting fire about everywhere and looking as though he had just been for the loveliest massage. He passes out of my sight, and I hear a scream. A man falls through the same hole, a look of supernatural terror frozen on his face. He is dead. Kay is clearly enjoying himself far too much to have noticed Claw's arrival.

Rose is similarly nowhere to be seen. I assume she is aloft with Kay. I sigh. It is time for my trump card.

"Very well," I mutter. Then, more audibly, I shout: "If you're in there, Fire, I'm sorry. There was no other way"

I found a book on the Mencur-Besh in Fire's room. I know their physiology. I focus my mind's eye on the place where his spine and skull connect, specifically on the first vertebrae. I raise a hand, and make a cutting motion.

I physically feel my spell stop barely a fraction of a fraction of a millimeter into the vertebrae. Claw twitches almost imperceptibly and turns. I made the same cutting motion. Then again. And Again. Each time it's just not enough. And then, I fall to my knees. I'm exhausted. I can't go any further. I struggle to stay awake as Claw lifts me to my feet.

Claw's scales are no longer permeated by the orange glow, and so don't burn me to the touch, but the scales still feel nauseatingly warm. He looks me in the eyes. He has a finger pointed at the centre of my forehead, adjusting it with precision. I recall the images which appeared in the newssheets, depicting Mini's body - a crossbow bolt in his brow. I wonder if this is deliberate.

"Kay!" called Claw. "Do you want a glimpse of your future-"

A sword flashes out of the Void and catches Claw on the jaw. Scales go flying. No blood.

I just about feel myself drop onto the floor as Claw experiences a deeper wound on the leg. He goes to the middle of the corridor, ready to defend himself.

I feel someone dragging me away. It's Warnado, hands bandaged copiously. The fighting is over, only Claw remains.

For a third time the sword emerges from the Void, but Claw is ready. He grabs the hand holding the blade and wrenches his attacker into plain view. Kay shrieks his way back into the Overworld, only just warding Claw away with a jet of Voidfire. He steadies himself against the wall, panting and letting off smoke. Destiny is back on her feet, benefiting from the healing magic of the battered but still-living medic.

"Claw," wheezes Kay, doubled over. "I really wish I could give you the great rematch you so clearly want right now… but I'm really fucking tired. And besides, Marinus Bul is waiting for me upstairs." He lifts his head, the serene smile is back. "Rose, would you do the honours of beating Claw for me?"

"My pleasure," says a voice from above.

Knives cut through the ceiling like a flood breaking a dam. Claw retreats. The torrent of knives follows him, and Rose chases it on, further intensifying the storm of metal. Soon, both disappear from view.

I recover just enough strength to stand, what remains of our forces regroups, and I am shepherded towards the command tower. Everyone looks a little shaken. Everyone except Kay, whose burning eyes are tranquil beyond comprehension.


It didn't take long for Rose to chase Claw into a dead end, forcing him to stand and fight. With a grin she threw a large blade at the center of Claw's chest, her opponent reacting quickly and deflecting it with his claws. Carving up the guards upstairs had been trivial, but this might actually be interesting.

It was obvious that thrown knives wouldn't achieve anything, not only were their trajectories predictable but there was a limit on how sharp steel could be. Rose clenched her fists, sending a surge of concentrated murder into her fingers.

She lunged forward with her hands straightened, the edges of her palms cutting through the air with a sharpness beyond anything a material blade could achieve. Claw was a fast opponent, but Rose almost equaled him in this regard. Her first strike glanced off his forearm, peeling off the coat of scales that he had in place of skin, his roar of pain music to her ears.

Claw's mace came swinging at Rose's head, only to be reduced to metal dust by the sharp strands of her hair whipping around. She felt a mild impact but nothing she couldn't handle. Her next slash hit home on Claw's weapon arm, her palm cutting through scales and muscles, only briefly slowed by bone.

This threw Claw off-balance for long enough that Rose was able to gather up energy for her finishing blow, sparks of angry yellow energy arced around her right arm as she wound up her swing.

She heard the grinding of stone and the rending of flesh as she carried her swing through, the cutting edge extending far beyond her hand. Then, as the dust settled, she took a look at her handiwork, a huge notch had been carved out of the concrete and before her lay Claw, bisected at the height of his stomach.

Rose stopped her smirk halfway, something was off. There should have been more blood, more innards spread across the floor, but there was none of that. Narrowing her eyes, Rose focused her power again.

Claw's entire body flashed grey for a moment. To Rose's surprise, he began quite literally pulling himself together.

Claw's voice practically oozed from his mouth: "Getting real tired-" it was interrupted as his lower end reconnected with his upper end, "of all this supernatural crap."

Claw slowly sat up, clearly not intent on attacking.

Rose shot: "What was that?"

Her opponent took his time with his answer, a calm look on his face, as far as Rose could read his scaled expression at least.

"Simple, Entity won't let me die. Even shares a good deal of its energy with me to make sure. I guess I'm important." Claw shrugged.

Great. Now this was a situation Rose was familiar with, there had been immortals in her world too and some of them had stood in the way of her old master's plans. Getting rid of them was often inconvenient and always temporary.

Still in position to attack again, Rose asked: "So, what now? I can keep cutting you apart until we're done here."

Claw chuckled. "No need for that, I got what I came here for. Looks like your general is already well on his way to where he should be. I'll be going then."

As soon as those words had left Claw's mouth, he disappeared in a cloud of purple particles, something Rose had come to associate with endermen or their pearls, leaving Rose thoroughly unsatisfied. She discharged her accumulated energy in another slash, completely tearing down the wall in front of her. A gust of cold desert night air came rushing in.

Rose slowly made her way back towards the site of their big indoor battle. What had he meant with that? Kay being on his way...

She thought to herself: "Probably about the power trip he's on, but that's business as usual for me, the job wouldn't be the same without a power tripping master. My old master did that too from time to time, made shows of smashing rocks with his bare hands after infusing himself with power, things like that. I didn't complain back then, and I won't complain now, as long as he doesn't do something completely unreasonable."


Jennifer tried not to look at the clash occurring overhead between Shadow and the Entity. Not that it was obviously more flashy or awe-inspiring than any of the confrontations taking place across the walls or the courtyard, but because it had a strange effect on those who looked at it. They either couldn't bear to look at the fight, or they couldn't stop staring.

Jennifer had been in the first group and found herself wincing and averting her eyes before continuing the march onwards. She had felt that same animalistic desire to run which she'd felt when Shadow reappeared after the Battle of the Hill. It was deeply unpleasant, but this horrible fear had given her the leeway to realise most of the soldiers weren't following. She had called to Steve, who had moved away even more quickly than her, and they had recovered their men from their stunned state.

Now, most combatants had risen from their stupor, all except the mages. A few of the Entity's magic-users and the combat mages were still going, but Shadow's coven had stopped altogether. They wouldn't divert their attention from their master's fight, chanting precisely. However, despite their precision, Jennifer couldn't make out a single word and it only hurt her head when she tried to understand. The words were not only hard to understand, but they did also not want to be understood. The only hint as to the chant's true contents was the expression on the mages' face, which betrayed a wide-eyed, desperate joy.

But Jennifer had bigger concerns. Steve counted down on his fingers. It was time to take what they'd come here for.

Three. Two. One. Breach.

Crack! Steve shoulder-charged the door and the melee began instantly. A pigman with an axe hacked at and bounced off Steve's armour. Steve lopped the offending arm off without slowing down. Jennifer rolled in after, allowing the troops to rush past her, and lodged an arrow into the eye of another pigman.

A small line of human mercenaries tried to hold an inside door against the advance, but Steve rushed right between them, bringing down the door as he did so. One of the staggered guards tried to hurl an axe at his back, but an enterprising, surprisingly old Villager-woman called Olanna bisected him with precision. The other troops made short work of the door's defenders and flooded into the room on the other side.

Jennifer followed cautiously, nocking another arrow, and entered into a well-lit warehouse area filled with chests, furnaces and crafting tables, all connected by a series of pipes and hoppers. Immediately before her was a lowered area where cowering workers, Tower soldiers and her own detachment jostled and fought. However, victory was certain. Jennifer decided it was time to become sure that the tech they needed was actually there.

She hopped the fence and saw a relatively isolated crate on the edge, with an unarmoured enderman standing on top of it, their claws ready to deal with any challenger. Jennifer remembered when the majority of enemies they faced were as poorly equipped as this, and felt briefly nostalgic, then loosed the arrow into their jaw. The enderman teleported behind her, as expected. She equipped her sword and plunged it into the creature's chest.

She approached the chest and saw two workers hiding behind it.

"Hi," she said, with a brief but sincere smile.

She slotted her sword under the lid of the crate.

"Uh, hello," said one of the workers, a skeleton in green overalls. His jaw clicked audibly every time his teeth connected, and the voice he produced was low and gruff. "I'm Xylo, like the phone. No, it's not a nickname, my parents just had a really weird sense of humour."

She chuckled. "Pleasure to meet you, Xylo."

She spared a glance around to make sure this wasn't a distraction and saw Steve beheading a giant in the background. Xylo was no threat. She began to pry the lid up.

"You know, it's not a political thing," continued Xylo. "Working for these Tower guys. They just offer good money. Whatever they're doing that's ticked you guys off so much, we're not part of that."

Jennifer didn't respond because of the effort of opening the crate. Finally, it popped open, and she took a second to appreciate her handiwork. Very neat. No damage to the crate.

"We really aren't a part of that, we just make the parts."

Xylo started to back away slowly. There was a flash of bright white light through the overhead windows. The fight between Shadow and the Entity must have been intensifying.

"Oh, sorry, I was distracted," Jennifer said, hurrying to un-equip her sword and reassure the skeleton labourer. "No, don't sweat it, you're civilians. We're under strict orders to leave any civilians unharmed. You're safe."

Jennifer left out the part where she had needed to remind Kay that there might actually be civilians working for the Tower.

"That-that's good to hear," breathed the skeleton with some relief. He nodded confidently to his friend, a skinny pigman, though they remained crouched behind the crate.

Jennifer began to ruffle through the parts.

"So, is this a full machine, or only part of it?" she asked.

"Well, I'd have to answer those questions under considerable duress," said Xylo with a knowing smirk.

Jennifer shot a sidelong glance at the remaining mercenaries, who Steve and the soldiers were making short work of.

She graciously pulled out her sword and pointed it at the skeleton.

"Okay, but only to save your street cred," she mumbled wryly. Then, more loudly, she added, "I DEMAND you tell me what I need to make a working portal." She made sure to jab the sword for emphasis.

"Oh no! Don't kill me, please!" wailed Xylo. Then, in a low tone, "Okay, so, the device you're looking at there is the dimensional selection device. That lets you choose a dimension from the known database, but if you don't have one of these," he patted a slightly larger crate adjacent, "You're just looking at the specs. This thing turns your standard Nether portal into something capable of interdimensional travel."

He seemed very proud as he said this.

"Thanks, Xylo, do you have a manifest of the parts?" She jabbed the sword again playfully.

"Yeah, just here," he said and produced a checklist from his pocket.

Jennifer lowered her sword and sorted through the parts in comparison to the list. Everything was there in the first crate. She put the lid back on and beckoned a bloodstained Olanna and another soldier over to carry it away. She then opened and began to inspect the second crate.

"I have to ask though…" Xylo began enigmatically but trailed off.

Jennifer looked up and saw him sitting on another nearby crate.

"You want to take the Tower down?"

"Yeah," she said confidently.

"But, why? Folks like us, we have nothing. Poor as dirt. No real leadership. Sparse resources. I died in a famine, and in fifty years of undeath I never made more than a pittance as a blacksmith. Then, the Tower comes in, tells us they killed some king I'd never seen half the country away, and that we'd been integrated. That they were looking for blacksmiths. I tell them I'm one and volunteer. Suddenly, I'm being trained up, I'm getting good pay, a pension - I don't even know what that is but it sounds great. And I'm not the only one. Is what they're doing really so bad?"

"I don't know if they've told you this, but they're not just invading worlds, they're trying to make all worlds become one. To force everyone into it."

Jennifer realised she'd tried to check the same part twice and cursed herself. She saw Olanna shooting Xylo a murderous look.

"Interdimensional cooperation is fine, but people deserve a choice."

"They have told us about that," Xylo continued cautiously. "But you know, they sent that Acquired Worlds guy, General Forgelight, to do a big motivational session a while back. Address the workforce and all that. He told us up front about this plan. Said they'd make One World, One People, One Society. No more tinpot kings and neglected backwaters. Everything part of the same, fair unit. Now, I don't know if that's true, but he seemed to believe it. And why is that so wrong you guys need to come in and carry out a massacre like I've just seen?"

Jennifer locked eye with eye-socket. It's hard to read a skeleton's facial expression, but the way he'd clenched his jaw and pulled his head back betrayed someone teetering between fury and terror.

Obviously, Jennifer hated the Tower, but she understood he didn't have the same reason to. Something about it seemed awfully brave about his decision to keep arguing the toss.

Olanna didn't see it that way.

"You want to talk about massacres?!" She shouted.

She let her end of the crate drop to the ground with an awful clatter. Jennifer felt bad for her but prayed she hadn't damaged the parts.

"That enderman you were cowering behind works for the Ender, you know what she does on a daily basis? You know how she got to be so big and important?"

"Lady, I didn't mean any disrespect-"

"Her boys ransacked my village. My husband can't walk because of them. Or - or your Forgelight, some idealist! I'm sure he's lovely to you bootlickers, but if your village so much as asks him to wipe his shoes on the way in he'll strip the whole place for parts!"

"I'm sorry but-"

"Don't you backtalk me, you collaborators need to appreciate how lucky you are we don't kill you all right here, right now."

"Olanna! You've made your point, get back to work," warned Jennifer.

The Villager-woman scowled and returned to carrying away the goods.

Jennifer finished her inspection and gestured for more soldiers to start carrying it away.

"Listen, Xylo," Jennifer began. "A fairer world sounds great, but the Tower aren't the ones to deliver it. They take what they want, and they kill who they like. They've treated you okay so far, but don't think that makes you safe from them. We tried negotiating with them, even after they trapped me and Steve in this torn-up rag of a world, and then we discovered what they were doing to their prisoners - people they had kidnapped unprovoked and tried to force into service. So, we stopped negotiating, and now we just want them gone."

"Sure," said Xylo with more than a little ice. "I guess the status quo suited some folks just fine."

Jennifer made to respond, but Steve placed a hand on her shoulder.

"We have just over five minutes to make the rendezvous, Jen," he said apologetically. "We need to go."

Jennifer nodded goodbye and turned her back on Xylo. There was a booming sound, and another bright flash of light through the windows above, and the workers went back to hiding behind cover.


There were around ten of us left as we approached the office in the command centre. Myself, Astro, Destiny, Warnado, and a handful of soldiers. The soldiers instinctively took up breaching positions because I had trained them well. My fellow officers looked fairly dinged up. Physically, I wasn't doing great either, but I hardly felt it. The Book's full power coursed through me for the first time, and it was exhilarating.

I had burned entire battalions, I had struck inescapable fear into the hearts of men, I had seen the workings of the world, and walked the Void with reckless abandon. Admittedly, this last task was hard on me, and as I approached the door, I felt more than a little nauseous. I mumbled calmly to Warnado something about opening it for me.

Warnado frowned and I watched as the energy coalesced in his hand, streaming into his grasp from the world around him. Then, as he fired it, I watched the door break from its hinges. I warped in, and saw Marinus Bul, that unremarkable little lawyer, yelp and drop a pile of papers. An armour-clad Endling stood behind him, already holding a dossier.

Time slowed down. My soldiers filtered in after me. The Endling didn't go for his sword, he reached out to take Bul by the shoulder and warp away to safety. No attack would be fast enough.

"There is one," the Book said alluringly.

"Do it."

Suddenly I felt a jolt, and I saw the scattered lights of consciousness flying around inside their heads. My own voice erupted from within me, deep, ancient, and echoing.

"Be still!"

And so, they were. The lights had stopped moving. Then, Destiny's icicle hit the Endling right between the eyes, much to her surprise, she had merely hoped to prompt a premature teleport.

"Kneel."

Bul did so, eying me with utter terror. I laughed.

"Give me the blueprints for your portal technology."

He grabbed the dossier from the dead Endling's arms and filtered through. Finding them, his arm shot out towards me and trembled. I leafed through them.

"Excellent work, Bul. Say thank you."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Say you are grateful for having seen a friendly face in this desolate land."

"I am grateful for having seen a friendly face in this desolate land."

"Say you are even more glad you finally found someone worth obeying."

"I am even more glad I finally found someone worth obeying."

"But you are going to have to depart soon."

"But I must depart soon." A tear ran down his cheek.

"And that it truly has been a pleasure."

"It truly has been a pleasure."

Then, I told him to slam his head into the corner of the desk. Then, I told him to do it again. And again. And again. Again! Until he finally slumped onto the ground, his skull caved in and blood spilling from the cracks.

The power was intoxicating. This was power no king or god had ever wielded. Power that could burn the world to cinders, to ash, and then command it to be rebuilt.

"Carry his corpse outside," I decreed. "It is right that he should see the coronation. All of you go down there." Astro attempted to say something dreadfully uninteresting, so I simply urged: "Now. I will join you shortly."

Knowing full well he would obey me, I went up to the window, and saw Shadow clashing with the Entity, and for the first time I didn't see threats. I saw impudence.

"They should bow to us," encouraged the Book.

"They will," I agreed.