Despite his revelation, Angel wasn’t exactly sure why someone would want to set him up with a Star Fragment. There was always the possibility he was just an unlucky passerby and had been chosen as its host due to proximity, but he was starting to believe in coincidence less and less with every day.

He let out a weary sigh. The only thing he knew for sure was that the Star Fragments wanted to bring back Old World Magic. They wouldn’t betray him, at least until that happened. Afterward… well, that was another story. He’d have to tell Tilly, but letting her know without warning the Star Fragments that he was aware of their true nature.

To his great annoyance, all of that had resulted in absolutely no further progress with Magicore Command. Considering it was directly tied to the Star Fragment, he left it alone and settled for preparing some canisters for the fight ahead.

Most of the others slowly rejoined him at their makeshift camp. Silver and Tilly were both covered with small scratches that had already almost completely healed, and Alison looked lost in thought.

Lilian brought back some food for them to eat. Even though they didn’t need it anytime soon since they’d eaten recently and their magic would sustain bodies for at least another day or two, it was a welcome distraction.

Once they’d finished, Angel gave Alison and Tilly some more instruction on rune crafting before they all pulled out their sleeping materials and went to bed.

The following morning came slower than Angel could have thought possible and faster than he wished. Captain Brod was mid conversation in his commanding office when they arrived, flanked by two soldiers. Jonas sat at the table in front of him, as did several other men.

“This is the group that Jonas brought in with him,” Brod said, breaking the conversation to nod in their direction.

“Are you sure they’re trustworthy?” the soldier to Brod’s left, a hawk nosed man with narrow eyes and thinning black hair, asked. “They look like bandits and children to me.”

“Any body we can get against these crazed cultists is a good one,” another man said. “It’s the plan they’re requesting that I draw issue with. We won’t be sending men to their death for no reason.”

“Relax, gentlemen,” Brod said. “I promised to hear them out today again, and I want your input on their plan, which I trust they’ve improved since we last spoke. They’ve gone against the Reawakening multiple times if their story is to be believed. Jonas trusts them, so we should at least consider the option. We don’t have the luxury of being picky.”

The soldiers settled down and Brod gestured for Angel to speak.

“We’ve got a few more things that might make this less of a suicide run,” Angel said, walking up to the large three dimensional map of the city on the table. “I have access to a System artifact which was able to inform me that the Buried Gods use heat to see. We can throw their sensors off by setting off explosions and fires in areas that we want to move through. They're hypersensitive, so they won't be able to make people moving out amongst the residual heat. It’ll remove almost all of their firepower, leaving only the Reawakening clones to fight against.”

Brod’s brow furrowed. “Are you certain this information is correct? We have some Hunters in our ranks, and none of them said any such thing.”

Angel pulled Blue out of his bag, but didn’t activate it. “My artifact is better than theirs. This is an automated assistant of some sort that I found within a Great Catacomb. I have no reason to doubt anything it tells me.”

That was a complete lie, especially after the Star Fragment had commandeered Blue for its own purposes, but Brod didn’t need to know that.

“Hold on,” another soldier said. “You’re suggesting that we hide our movements by destroying the city?”

“Well, not all of the city,” Angel corrected. “Just the outskirts and the desert outside it, so we can get up to the Buried God’s feet before it can stop us. I’m hoping that you guys have some form of ranged explosives that we could throw into the desert.”

The man looked like he wanted to argue, but Brod held a hand up. “Let’s hear everything they have to say out before we start questioning any further. Assume we do as you suggest and bomb our own city. How does that let us destroy the Buried Gods and the Reawakening?”

“Well, on your own, I don’t know if you could,” Angel said. “You could probably stop the Buried God by removing everyone from within it so they wouldn’t have any more people to sacrifice, but I don’t know if you could destroy it.”

“There’s a but in there somewhere,” Brod said.

Angel nodded. “I possess a way to destroy the Buried Gods. If I can get inside one and have enough time, I can destroy it.”

“And what of the other one?” the hawk nosed man asked.

“I’m hoping that’s the one you all storm, just long enough to get everyone off it. You don’t want to get caught fighting in it since I have no idea what the Reawakening has done, but if you can remove their power source, the Buried God isn’t anything more than an ugly metal mountain.”

Conversation broke out around the table, and this time Brod did nothing to stop it. He pressed his lips together and leaned against the wall, drumming his fingers on the stone. It took several minutes before the talking calmed down to a manageable level.

“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” a large soldier asked.

“What reason would I have to lie?” Angel countered. “We saved Jonas from your prison specifically so we could find you and stop the Reawakening. There’s no way for me to prove anything I’ve said without actually putting it into practice, so either you trust me or you don’t.”

The man frowned, but gave Angel a slight nod.

“What about the stronger Reawakening members in the area?” Brod asked. “Three of them have the strength of a magistrate, and the fourth is their leader. Blackstone’s magistrate was killed by him, so none of us have a chance. Are you saying that you do?”

“In a fair fight? Probably not,” Angel replied. “Don’t fight the strong ones if you can avoid it. We’re trying to destroy their Buried Gods, not take on the entirety of their army. If we’re lucky, I can take down a fair number of them in the Buried God I go for. Meanwhile, you need to minimize the time you spend in the other one. With any luck, we’ll be able to avoid them entirely.”

“With the Buried Gods gone, if even half their army is stuck in the one the Seeker blows up, we’d have a fighting chance,” one woman said, rubbing her chin. “It’s a massive risk, though. There are so many things that could go wrong. The leader could stumble into the Seeker’s party and kill all of them. We could be wrong about the explosions and get killed by the Buried Gods before we even get to their feet. I could go on for ages.”

“Let’s pose a better question,” Brod said. “While I think we need to lay out a lot more detail if we even want to consider this plan, let’s think about the alternative. Do we have any other options? With every passing day, our people are being slaughtered and our Tinkerers are likely being taken farther away.”

Silence passed over the table.

“Then I think we have our answer,” Brod said grimly. “But let’s do this the proper way. All in favor of attempting to storm the Buried Gods and rescue everyone we can from within them? We let the Seeker and his party go for the other one and try to do what they can there with a skeleton crew to assist them while we focus our main forces on the other Buried God. Worst case is that we save half of our people or die in the process. We can’t just sit here for much longer.”

The hawk nosed soldier raised his hand, followed by the woman. Several other hands raised until just over half of the table was in agreement. A few more people gave in. In the end, only two people remained opposed to the idea.

“Then we have our path,” Brod said. “Expedite the process of bringing all the men back to base. We’re going to need to strike hard and fast if we want any chance at this. Get to it.”