⫸ [ TIME: 03:15 AETHELGARD STANDARD TIME ]
⫸ [ LOCATION: THE SUN-SPIRE – LEVEL 50 ]
⫸ [ STATUS: ASCENT ]
The Sun-Spire was not designed for walking. It was designed for beings who could float.
The central staircase was a spiral of floating gold discs that hovered in a magnetic column. There were no railings. There were no supports. Just a vertical shaft of anti-gravity platforms stretching up into the blinding light of the tower's apex.
Elian stood at the base of the shaft. He looked up.
"Elevators," Elian grunted. "I hate elevators."
He checked his battery.
◤ SYSTEM STATUS ◢
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
⬢ Battery: 10%
⬢ Warning: Life Support failing. Cooling pumps running at minimum capacity.
⬢ Ambient Temp: 80°C (Rising)
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
The heat inside the tower was not atmospheric. It was radiated. The walls hummed with the energy of the Grand Array. It was like climbing inside a microwave.
"Grom," Elian ordered. "You take point. Test the weight."
The Giant stepped onto the first floating disc. It bobbed under his massive tonnage but held. The ancient enchantments were robust.
"We move," Elian signaled. "Deep-Kin, watch the rear. If they flank us we are dead."
They climbed.
It was a slow, nauseating ascent. They jumped from disc to disc. Fifty meters up. One hundred.
At Level 80 resistance appeared.
Disciples of the Golden Crow dropped from the upper platforms. They didn't scream. They didn't chant. They simply fell on the intruders like kamikaze pilots, their bodies wreathed in suicide flames.
"BURN WITH US!"
One disciple landed on a Deep-Kin warrior. He didn't cast a spell. He detonated his own Core.
BOOM.
The explosion blew the Dwarf and the Cultivator off the disc. They fell screaming into the darkness below.
"Don't let them touch you!" Elian shouted.
He raised The Arbiter. He didn't aim for the head. He aimed for the center of mass.
The railgun thumped rhythmically. Thump. Thump.
Bodies turned into red mist before they could land.
But there were too many.
"Gha-Kull!" Elian roared. "Form a roof!"
The Deep-Kin understood. Ten warriors raised their shields above their heads. They interlocked the heavy iron plates.
It formed a tortoise shell of Void-Steel.
The suicide bombers hit the shields.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Fire washed over the metal. But Void-Steel did not conduct Aether. The magical fire splashed off the shields like water off a duck.
"Keep climbing!"
They moved up the spiral as a mobile fortress. Elian walked in the center, shooting through the gaps in the shields.
He felt the heat rising. His skin felt tight. The numbness in his fingers was spreading to his elbows. He was cooking in his own suit.
[ Warning. Core Temp: 39°C. Heatstroke imminent. ]
"Almost there," Elian wheezed. "Just a little higher."
⬡ ─── ⬡ ─── ⬡
⫸ [ TIME: 04:00 AETHELGARD STANDARD TIME ]
⫸ [ LOCATION: THE APEX CHAMBER ]
⫸ [ STATUS: THE THRONE ROOM ]
They reached the top.
The final disc locked into place.
The room before them was a sphere of glass. Through the transparent walls Elian could see the entire volcanic sector stretching out to the horizon. The suns were rising, painting the ash clouds in violent shades of violet and orange.
But Elian wasn't looking at the view.
He was looking at the machine in the center.
It was a pedestal made of unknown black metal. Floating above it, suspended in a containment field of pure white light, was the Titan Heart.
It was biological.
It was the size of a car engine. It looked like a lump of muscular rock, veined with magma. It beat with a slow, tectonic rhythm.
Thum-thump... Thum-thump...
Every beat sent a pulse of golden light through the floor. This was the generator. This was the source of the shield that protected the mountain.
And sitting in front of it was the Keeper.
He sat on a floating throne. He was old. His skin was like parchment stretched over bone. He wore robes that seemed to be woven from sunlight itself.
Wires of gold ran from the floor into his spine. He was plugged into the city.
◤ THREAT DETECTED ◢
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
⬢ Subject: Patriarch Sol (Golden Crow Sect)
⬢ Class: Tier 4 (Nascent Soul)
⬢ Status: Connected / Meditative Fugue
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
[ Commander. Do not engage. ]
[ The energy readings coming from that entity are off the scale. ]
[ He is not a biological organism. He is a Psionic Reactor. ]
Elian froze. The entire squad halted. The pressure in the room was physical. It felt like standing at the bottom of the ocean.
"He's the CPU," Elian whispered. "He's running the defense grid. He's processing the data for the entire shield."
Lin trembled behind him. She fell to her knees.
"The Patriarch... he is the sun."
"He is a battery," Elian corrected softly.
He looked at the cables connecting the old man to the floor. The Patriarch's eyes were closed. He was breathing in sync with the Titan Heart.
"He's distracted," Elian realized. "Maintaining a shield this big takes 100% of his RAM. If he disconnects to fight us, the shield falls."
"Grom," Elian signaled with a hand gesture. "Flank left. Gha-Kull, flank right. Do not attack. Just be ready."
Elian walked toward the pedestal. He moved slowly. He kept The Arbiter lowered.
He reached the containment field.
The heat here was incredible.
External Temp: 300°C.
Elian's armor hissed. The paint blistered.
"A.R.C.," Elian whispered. "How do I disconnect it?"
[ The Heart is held by a magnetic confinement field. The emitters are at the base. ]
[ If you disrupt the emitters, gravity takes over. The Heart falls. ]
Elian looked at the base of the pedestal. There were three crystal nodes pulsing with light.
He raised his boot.
The Patriarch's eyes snapped open.
They were not human eyes. They were pits of white fire. There were no pupils. Just infinite, burning rage.
"VERMIN."
The word was not spoken. It was projected directly into Elian's skull.
Elian staggered. His nose began to bleed. It felt like an icepick had been driven into his frontal lobe.
◤ NEURAL TRAUMA ◢
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
⬢ Cause: Psionic Interference
⬢ Damage: Cerebral Cortex Stress
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
The Patriarch did not move his body. He raised one withered finger.
The air around Elian solidified.
Gravity increased ten-fold.
Elian was slammed to the floor. His armor creaked. The servos whined as they fought the invisible weight.
Grom and the Dwarves were flattened instantly. They were pinned like insects.
"YOU DARE WALK IN THE HOUSE OF GOD?" the Patriarch projected.
Elian struggled to breathe. His ribs groaned. The Patriarch wasn't using magic. He was using Telekinesis. He was manipulating the fundamental forces of the room with his mind.
"Not... God," Elian wheezed. He tasted copper. "Just... Admin."
Elian couldn't lift his gun. He couldn't lift his head.
But his hand was near his belt.
Hanging from his belt was the Solar-Drive Disc he had salvaged from the glider. The anti-gravity engine.
"A.R.C.," Elian choked out. "Overload the disc."
[ Warning. Creating an uncontrolled singularity. ]
"Do it!"
The Patriarch frowned. He sensed the energy spike.
The disc on Elian's belt flared.
It didn't create lift. It created a localized gravitational distortion. A chaotic bubble of zero-G.
For a split second, the Patriarch's telekinetic hold was disrupted by the conflicting gravity waves.
The weight vanished.
Elian didn't try to stand. He rolled.
He rolled directly into the pedestal.
He smashed the butt of his railgun into the first crystal node.
CRACK.
The containment field flickered.
The Patriarch screamed. It was a sound of pure mental agony. Disconnecting the system was ripping his mind apart.
"STOP!"
Elian smashed the second node.
The field failed.
The Titan Heart dropped.
It fell out of the suspension light. It hit the floor with a wet, heavy thud.
The moment it disconnected, the lights in the tower died.
Outside the glass walls, the massive golden dome that covered the mountain flickered and vanished.
The Grand Array was down.
The Patriarch collapsed on his throne. The cables ripped from his spine. He convulsed. He was no longer a god. He was an old man unplugged from his life support.
"Grab it!" Elian shouted.
Grom scrambled forward. He grabbed the Titan Heart.
It sizzled against his skin. It was hot as lava. Grom roared in pain but he didn't let go. He shoved the pulsing organ into a reinforced sack made of Scuttler leather.
"We have the package," Elian yelled. "Move!"
⬡ ─── ⬡ ─── ⬡
⫸ [ TIME: 04:15 AETHELGARD STANDARD TIME ]
⫸ [ STATUS: ESCAPE ]
They ran for the stairs.
Behind them, the Patriarch was trying to stand. He was bleeding from his eyes. He was whispering a curse that made the air curdle.
"BURN... THEM... ALL."
The tower began to shake. Without the stabilizing field of the Heart, the volcanic energy beneath the spire was becoming unstable.
"The place is coming down!" Lin screamed.
They reached the stairwell.
But the floating discs were gone.
Without the power from the Heart, the anti-gravity system had failed.
There was no way down. Just a three-hundred-meter drop into the dark.
"Dead end," Elian said.
He looked at the glass walls. He looked at the outside world.
They were five hundred meters up.
"Gha-Kull," Elian asked. "Can your people survive a fall?"
"WE ARE STONE," Gha-Kull said. "WE BREAK THE GROUND. BUT THE FALL IS TOO HIGH."
Elian looked at Grom. The Giant was clutching the sack with the Heart.
"We don't fall," Elian said. "We slide."
He pointed The Arbiter at the glass wall.
"Shoot the glass!"
The Deep-Kin didn't hesitate. They threw their axes. Elian fired the last of his ammo.
CRASH.
The massive window shattered. The wind howled into the room.
Elian ran to the edge.
Below them, the architecture of the Golden Crow Fortress sloped outward like a pyramid. It was a steep, sleek incline of polished obsidian tiles.
"It's a slide," Elian shouted. "Use your shields! Ride the roof!"
Gha-Kull laughed. It was a manic sound.
"A STONE SLIDE! YES!"
The Deep-Kin jumped. They placed their iron shields under their butts and launched themselves out of the window.
They hit the sloped roof of the lower tier. Sparks flew as iron met stone. They accelerated instantly.
"Go!" Elian pushed Lin. She screamed as she fell onto a Deep-Kin's back.
Grom jumped, clutching the Heart to his chest like a football.
Elian looked back at the throne room. The Patriarch was glowing with a final, suicidal light.
Elian jumped.
He hit the roof. The friction was instant.
He didn't have a shield. He had his ass.
His Exo-Suit screamed as the ceramic plates ablated against the obsidian.
[ Velocity: 80 kph. ]
[ Warning. Armor integrity critical. ]
[ Enjoy the ride Commander. ]
They slid down the side of the mountain fortress. It was a chaotic, terrifying descent. They were surfing an avalanche of their own making.
Behind them, the top of the Sun-Spire exploded.
The Patriarch detonated.
A mushroom cloud of golden fire bloomed into the sky.
Elian watched it in his rearview mirror as he plummeted toward the Ash Flats.
"Mission accomplished," he whispered.
Then he hit a bump and went airborne.
[END OF CHAPTER 25]