“That doesn’t make any sense at all,” Angel said, losing his train of thought and staring at Soul in disbelief. “All you ever wanted to do was find Old World Magic.”

“Oh, Angel,” Soul said, shaking his head. “You were my most promising student, you know. A natural talent for working with Magitech, marred by a stubborn streak that I could never grind out of you. I was seeking Old World Magic all right, but not to bring it back. You weren’t there during the Great War, boy. I saw what it did to the cities. To the Barren. To all of us. It is a cursed, wretched thing that the common man should never have gained access to.”

“The common man?” Lilian asked, her eyes narrowing. “We were fighting for the common man!”

“And what do you think I’m doing now?” Soul asked, drumming his fingers on the armrest of his chair. “I am taking a sharp sword from the hands of children before they cut themselves with it.”

“Then why join the Reawakening in the first place?” Alison asked. “If you were going to try to destroy Old World Magic, wouldn’t they be going against everything you wanted?”

“That’s exactly why he joined,” Angel said, realization finally falling upon him. “That’s why they’re so damn incompetent. Soul found the people that would be strong enough to pose a threat and possibly bring Old World Magic back. He joined them, integrating himself into their ranks, and designed Magitech to help them. But I’d be willing to bet that’s the angle I missed. Your Magitech was intentionally flawed, wasn’t it, Soul?”

“That’s my boy,” Soul said, a grin stretching across his face. “It was some of my finest work. So subtle that those bumbling fools would never notice. A steady stream of minute amounts of metals directly into their bloodstreams. It’s healed by the magical energy within them, but it builds up over time, impairing decision making them easy to manipulate. Lilian withstood it because of her Star Fragment’s unique gift. The others were not so lucky.”

“Why go through all of that?” Lilian demanded. “You and Heart were the ones that sought us out. We thought we were going to fix the world, you bastard!”

“Twofold reasons, Lilian,” Soul replied, sounding all too happy to explain. “First, if I made enough noise about wanting to restore Old World Magic, I knew the fanatics would flock. You have no idea how many survivors of the Great War showed up, hoping to join the ranks of the great Reawakening. They never made it past Heart, of course. We thinned the herd of those that would oppose us long before they could ever even begin to realize what was really happening. Soon, after a few hundred years, we had hunted down every great Tinkerer that survived the Great War.”

“When Heart died?” Lilian asked, taking a step back.

“Died?” Soul asked, rising from his chair with a sinister grin. “Oh, Lilian. Heart never died. He never even lived.”

A creak to Soul’s left drew their attention as a chair spun around, revealing a gangly man. His body was entirely made out of Magitech parts, each one intricately detailed and covered with rune work. His metal face split into a grin and skin sprouted all over his body, stretching out like a living blanket to wrap the figure’s face. At its core was a glimmering red Star Fragment.

Within seconds, the metal was covered in a mask of a kindly man’s face, tanned and wrinkled by the sun. “Hello, Lilian.”

Lilian screamed, charging at Soul and swinging the blade at his neck with all her might. He didn’t even budge. The weapon struck him with a loud clang and bounced off, a new dent in it.

“Ouch,” Soul deadpanned. “That was rude.”

Angel’s hands clenched, but he didn’t even bother trying to attack Soul directly. He knew the strength of his magic, and it wasn’t going to even scratch the man. He needed something else, and that meant he had to keep the man talking. He gestured for Alison to stand down and save her energy.

“Stop, Lilian,” Angel said. “You can’t hurt him, and one counterattack could kill you. He wants something from us.”

“Very good,” Soul praised, taking a blow across his chin and not even flinching. Lilian raised her hand to hit him again, breathing heavily. Instead, she spat on his cheek and took a step back to stand beside Angel.

“So? What do you want?” Angel demanded.

“I discovered the Vault about a hundred years ago,” Soul said, sitting back down in his chair and crossing one leg over the other. “Unfortunately, I also discovered that the last remnants of Old World Magic were very well protected. I required an enormous amount of power to open the Vault.”

“The Buried Gods,” Angel muttered. “You weren’t using them to find anything. You were charging their cores to use as batteries?”

“This is why I didn’t kill you when you were a child,” Soul said, clapping politely. His face darkened and he dropped his hands. “And then you went and did something I didn’t want you to.”

“We destroyed some of the Buried Gods,” Lilian said.

“That’s right. You ruined my batteries, and I needed all of them.” Despite his words, Soul didn’t seem as angry as he should have been.

Angel’s focus moved to Heart. Soul’s words from earlier were still resonating in his head. Every Star Fragment had a purpose. So what did Heart’s do? The man, if he could even be called that, was entirely machine. With the number of runes on him, Angel wouldn’t have been surprised if the man was as resilient as a tank.

His eyes widened imperceptibly, and he squinted at Soul. He looked identical to how Angel remembered him. What were the chances of two completely organic bodies being that similar?

“So you’re going to help me out,” Soul continued. “The magical energy in your bodies isn’t much, but if I combine it with the rest of your companions and the remaining Reawakening members headed this way now, I should just barely have enough.”

Angel flexed his fingers, sending a mental request to his Star Fragment to keep itself contained. He’d only have one chance at this.

“Why did you train me in the first place?” Angel asked. “You brought me up to want to find Old World Magic. Was there even a purpose, if that goes against everything you’re truly working for? It’s not like a random child ever would have been a threat to you.”

“Even I get lonely,” Soul replied with a shrug. “You were a fun side project, but you were too damn interested in Old World Magic. With your talent, I really did hope I could fix those misguided notions of yours. Unfortunately, it was not to be.”

“Last question, then,” Angel said. He nodded in Heart’s direction. “What does his Star Fragment do?”

Soul’s head turned for just an instant. Angel leapt for the man, purple lightning crackling across his arm, and wrapped his metal hand around the other man’s face. He slammed Soul’s head into the back of the metal chair with a bang.

Energy flooded into Angel’s arm as his Star Fragment drained Soul. Soul screamed as his skin melted away, revealing the metal beneath.

Alison thrust her hands forward, drawing two runes in quick succession. Twin bolts of jagged yellow lightning streaked past Angel and struck Soul in his hands, sending a shower of sparks raining from him.

Soul snarled and jerked his head up, breaking the Seeker’s nose with the back of his own metal hand. Pain flared and Angel’s vision flickered, going black for an instant. He didn’t let his grip on Soul slacken and continued to siphon magic from him.

Lilian slammed her sword into Soul’s stomach. It bounced off with a grating screech, but she didn’t relent. The sword rose and fell in a series of unrelenting bangs. Heart rose from the other chair, running at them.

A huge flash of light lit the room up. Heart flew back as an enormous blast of magic flew from Alison’s hands and struck him, hurling the metal man over the edge of the platform. He tumbled into the darkness below, vanishing without a sound.

Soul’s slammed one of his hands into Angel’s stomach, tearing through skin and muscle like paper. Blood spouted from the wound as Soul ripped his hand free. Lilian threw her sword aside and tackled Soul, holding his hands down with all her strength.

He threw her free, sending her flying into one of the chairs, and then reached up. By now, there was nothing left of his flesh. All that remained was metal and runework.

His hand wrapped around Angel’s arm. Sparks flew as his grip started to tighten. Then his body jerked. The purple energy coursing through him delved deeper, wrapping around his core. Runes warped and gave way, disappearing in puffs of smoke as they burnt up.

Soul let out a furious howl, then crumpled like a pile of scrap. Within seconds, all that remained of him was smoking metal.