They were attacked once more when they stopped to set up camp for the night, this time by a group of Wargs. The large, spiderlike creatures erupted from the sand in a circle around them within seconds.

One lunged for Alison, having marked her as the weakest link in the group. Lilian threw the girl out of the way with one hand and drew her huge sword with the other. The Warg caught the blow with its jaws and started pushing Lilian back.

Angel leapt to the side to avoid getting skewered by another Wyrg’s sharp legs. He sent a bolt of lightning screaming at the monster in front of him. He didn’t have time to used the relic empowered version, but the spell still struck the Warg in the eye and blew it apart with a sizzling pop.

He fired his grappling hook into the beast’s huge abdomen and swung, flying past its jaws and landing on the monster’s back. He pressed his palm to the Warg’s head and a new canister clicked into position in his arm.

Icy tendrils spread across the Warg’s head, turning its skin blue and sending cracks spiderwebbing across it. Angel reared back and drove his fist down with all the force he could muster.

The blow shattered the Warg’s exoskeleton and his hand drove deep into hits head and through its brain. It collapsed to the ground and Angel leapt off, rolling as he hit the sand to avoid another beast’s attack.

He turned to face it, but Tilly’s pet bird monster was faster. Jake blurred across the sand and took to the sky, its claws blurring as it ravaged the Warg’s face. Blood splattered across the sand and the Warg let out a series of terrified clicking noises, backpedaling and trying to remove the savage bird from its face to no avail.

Meanwhile, Silver and Lilian had dispatched one Warg each. Two more of the monsters laid on the ground beside Alison, smoke rising up from their charred corpses. She leaned against Tilly, breathing heavily but still awake.

The Warg that Jake had gone after finally collapsed, covered in jagged wounds from its head to its abdomen. The bird had even managed to rip off one of the creature’s legs and use it like a spear, driving the appendage clean through one of the Warg’s eyes and through its mouth.

Blue light exploded out of the Wargs, flooding into all of them. Angel flopped to the ground and let out a whistle. “Your bird is terrifying, Tilly. I don’t remember those things fighting that well a day ago.”

“He wasn’t fully conscious before, I think,” Tilly said slowly, rubbing her forehead. “His memories before yesterday are a blur, but after it they’re very sharp.”

“Were you able to try and link with one of the Wargs?” Angel asked.

“No. I think I was able to communicate with the Star Fragment a little, but when I tried to link with the spider things, I felt my connection with Jake start to weaken. I was worried that it would break the connection, so I stopped. I’d rather have Jake than these ugly things.”

“Probably a good decision. Lugging a huge spider around would be difficult. At least Jake is humanoid. And it sounds like you’ve somehow given him a level of intelligence,” Angel mused. “That’s fascinating. I wish we had more time to study the Star Fragments. If I can emulate them…”

“After we deal with the Reawakening, you’ll have all the time in the world,” Lilian said. “But try not to get distracted until they’re dealt with.”

“Well, maybe a little distracted is okay,” Silver said. “Only if you can get me magic powers too. I think I’d like to be able to fly.”

They all chuckled. Luckily, they hadn’t gotten to far into setting up camp, so it only took a few minutes to pack everything back up. They traveled for another few minutes on their artifacts, leaving the Wargs far behind to seek a better place to spend the night.

This time they were unbothered. The night passed and the morning dawned. A thin black line rested on the horizon behind them. Angel narrowed his eyes and examined it for a few moments.

“Sandstorm is coming,” he warned. “A big one, not another one of those bird flocks. We need to reach Blackstone before it catches us.”

The others voiced their agreement and they hurriedly set off. After a few more hours of travel, they got their first glance at Blackstone. The city looked more like a huge mountain than a manmade structure.

It was easy to see where the city had gotten its name. Massive black rock peaks rose into the sky, some tall enough to scrape the clouds. Dozens of tiny holes covering the city marked the windows, but there was no discernable building material aside from the stone. One of the massive peaks stopped halfway up, ending in a jagged crater.

Blackstone didn’t even have walls, although there were several dozen Magitech cannons scattered across its peaks. It would have been oddly beautiful if not for the two Buried Gods flanking the city.

Each stood as tall as Blackstone’s tallest points, fading in and out in the clouds. Their eyes were dim, but still bright enough to see from where Angel stood.

“Two of them?” Silver asked, tilting his hat back to squint at the huge monstrosities. “Shit. That’s not good.”

“Their eyes are barely on,” Angel pointed out. Wind howled in the distance, and he raised his voice slightly. “They aren’t fully powered.”

“More powered than the first one, though,” Lilian said grimly. “Human sacrifice, unless the Reawakening decided to swap to using artifacts to power them instead.”

“You’d need so many artifacts to power something of that size that it would never happen,” Angel said. “Maybe if they were going through a blimp cannister every minute, but I doubt they’d have nearly enough for that.”

“How can we fight two of them? We barely managed to escape one,” Tilly muttered.

“That one was active, and Reave was in it,” Angel said. “The fact that neither of these have lit eyes probably means that Reave isn’t actually here. He must have gone on with the Key and left two of the Buried Gods behind to hold the town.”

“So that means they’re run by Mind and Shield?” Alison asked.

“Probably something like that,” Lilian said, but a frown creased her features. “I didn’t think Mind would control one of them, though. He’s not very strong, and using Magitech of that size has to be incredibly taxing.”

“Mind is a noncombatant, right?” Silver asked. “That means he’ll be easy to deal with.”

Lilian nodded. “For the most part, yes. He had a pretty strong attack when paired with Body where he established a mental connection between a target and her, then she used her powers.”

“Well, he won’t be doing that anymore,” Angel said with a grim smile. “So Mind will be essentially defenseless if we can get inside the Buried God. I’m sure there will be a bunch of those clones milling about, but as long as the Buried Gods themselves can’t fight back, we’ve got more than a fighting chance.”

“I agree, but something tells me it won’t be so easy to get into them a second time,” Silver said. “The Reawakening can’t be completely stupid. You’ve snuck into the Buried Gods twice already, so they’re sure to have guards and a fair amount of defense this time.”

“A good point,” Angel said. “Lilian, do you know just how many clones the Reawakening has? Would they be able to overrun the entirety of Blackstone?”

“Almost certainly not,” Lilian replied. “There might be a thousand or two at any given time – unless more were hidden somewhere. Enough to hit the city hard and fast, but not enough to completely control it for an extended period of time.”

“You think we should sneak into the city, then?” Alison asked. “The Buried Gods look like they’re pretty close to it. We might have a better chance of getting inside if they can’t see us coming from super far away.”

“But how do we get to the city?” Lilian asked. “There’s a good chance they’re ready for us. We might get spotted heading in.”

Angel turned back to the sandstorm behind them and rubbed his chin. “You know, I think I might have an idea.”