>>>Author’s Note!

Shit’s about to get pretty real. You may have noticed my style is a bit improvisational, but upcoming is a plot-point I’ve been wanting to hit for a little over a year. That being said, I don’t know exactly how I’m going to get through it. Every morning I sit down, practically a blank slate, and what comes out can vary wildly depending on the day and my mood. I’m going to be uncovering story only a handful of hours before you do, which is exciting.

I just want you to know, no matter how bad it gets, it was always the plan to come out the other side okay, so please stick with me for the (hopefully) gratifying, cathartic payoff.

>>>Author’s Note complete!

***Matthias, Healer, Master of Illusion***

Kate, Suppan, Euaha and Matthias stepped off the train, the adventuring party glancing around the train yard. Massive stacks of logs were placed here and there without any rhyme or reason, some partially toppled to the ground.

As if prompted by some signal, hundreds of Juntai civilians emerged from behind everything big enough to conceal them, charging toward the train like rabid animals, their eyes wide with desperation and fear. They didn’t seem to have any ill will towards the four of them, simply jostling to get on the train.

“Careful, little people,” Euaha muttered, shoving a juntai man out of his way. The falling man bumped into Suppan, which shoved the slender Gadveran wizard into Matthias’ arms.

Nice! Matthias thought, giving the gigantic Genosian warrior a mental thumbs-up as he steadied Suppan while people streamed past them, filling the train up in a matter of seconds.

There was a bit of a commotion around the head of the train, and a moment later, the train’s wheels started running in reverse, gradually picking up speed as more and more people piled onto the massive steel containers. People were hanging on to the sides and climbing up onto the roof of the living areas, covering the entire train like a writhing human moss.

Well that was weird, Matthias thought, watching the train heading back toward Calvin’s March.

“Matthias,” Suppan said, drawing his attention. She looking up at him. Suddenly, the ilethan illusionist realized he was still holding Suppan’s shoulders.

“Ah right,” Matthias said, letting go and stepping back, fishing in his vest for the letter to cover his embarrassment.

Kate rolled her eyes.

Matthias unfolded the letter and scanned the words, double checking their mission.

“Alright, after the train ride, we’re to wait here for an hour, then head toward the big spinny metal thing.”

He glanced up and spotted the gigantic glass dome that rose above the entire city, with an enormous metal flywheel spinning at a speed that challenged the human eye.

“Well, that seems fairly obvious,” He said, tucking the letter away again.

“Does it bother anyone else that the train didn’t exist when that letter was written?” Kate asked.

“The young miss is full of surprises,” Euaha said with a shrug. “It does not bother me, Instead it reinforces the belief that what we are doing is for a higher power.”

“We got paid, that’s a good enough reason for me.” Kate said with a shrug. “Still, the whole ‘future vision’ situation creeps me out. I like my free will.”

“If we do not deliver the services we were hired to provide, we will default on the rewards we have enjoyed thus far. I for one have grown accustomed to having my own laboratory at the Tower and a monthly stipend to fund my experiments,” Suppan said, adjusting her glasses.

“You’ve grown accustomed to dawdling, a life of luxury hasn’t been kind to your figure.” Kate said, pinching Suppan’s belly only for the counterspeller to swipe her hand away with a scowl.

Matthias had the emphatic opinion that Suppan could absolutely get a little more robust, but he didn’t voice it, for obvious reasons.

“I am eager to get the second half of my payment, though. Money’s a little tight this month.” Kate said, adjusting her sword belt, and superstitiously touching each of her knife handles in order.

“The first half was enough to buy a mansion, wasn’t it?” Matthias asked with a frown.

“I blew it on a bad investment.” Kate said, which was her code for ‘I lost it gambling.’

Matthias shook his head, staring at the sky. “Gods, if you can hear me now, let this be our last job together.”

“You should be praying for help killing this guy, because if it’s as bad as it sounds in the letter, things could go sideways real fast.”

Matthias glanced up at the city sprawling out in front of them, partially on fire, smoke pouring up into the sky. He inhaled deeply, steeling himself. “For once, you might be right.”

His words were punctuated by a flash of white and a deafening crack as a column of lightning ten paces thick fell on the fleeing Juntai.

***Calvin***

Calvin saw the lightning crash over his train, causing those clinging to it flaking off like some kind of burnt crust. Made of people.

Okay, this has gone too far. The adults need to step in here.

Yeah, this is weird.

Above the train was a tiny figure floating in the air, either one of Force’s men or the Diocese himself. Either way, he needed to be stopped.

Calvin was currently in the shape of half a dozen highly modified giant wasps, he couldn’t have a meaningful conversation with the man until he took his natural form again, but…A meaningful conversation could wait until after the guy was put down.

Calvin spread his miniature swarm out, feeling the thick Warp in the air sink into his Summons, priming them to Trigger Bad Penny as soon as they started dropping.

It wouldn’t be necessary.

It wasn’t Force, but Calvin did recognize one of the Legends that followed the diocese around. The man had a bit of a crazy in his eye as he swung his gaze around to look at Calvin. His eyelids were peeled open wide, pupils darting around in a near-panic.

What the fuck?

“Cruth!” the man shouted at the top of his lungs, aiming his bracer toward Calvin.

For the first time in his life, Calvin dodged lightning. Admittedly, he was in a different body whose Physical Attributes had been multiplied to an ungodly amount via Atom Ant, There were six of him flying in a confusing pattern, and Chimera had ensured he was able to warp space to accelerate in any direction he wanted at the drop of a hat…But still.

Calvin dodged Lightning!

Take that Karen! Calvin thought as he hurtled toward the Juntai soldier. The man’s jaw dropped for an instant before Calvin’s insects slammed into him.

Hmm, can’t sting him, cuz that’ll be lethal. Don’t wanna decapitate or de-limb. Guess we’ll have to settle for an old-fashioned beating.

Waste not, want not.

Calvin rammed into the legend at full speed, simply pitting their Endurance attributes against each other.

It hurt a little, because Juntai Legends tended to err on the side of Body, but each of Calvin’s wasps was the equivalent of thirty-one giant wasps of equal size and strength, all packed into the same space.

Abyssal steel could penetrate his carapace, but there weren’t very many arms strong enough to provide the power it would take. Karen and Baroke came to mind.

This guy? He was not Karen and Baroke.

The Juntai soldier flew away with a strangled cry, tumbling into the distance.

Not quite enough. Calvin thought, sending more wasps to finish the job. They swamred around him, ramming into the bastard over and over, passing him back and forth like a bunch of kids playing volleyball.

He got a few good shots in. One lightning bolt even managed to poof one of his six summons.

Calvin saw hope leave the man’s eyes when the Warp reached a critical point in one of his wasps, and it split in two, right in front of his gaze, rendering his effort meaningless. When the lighting stopped crackling out of the man’s body and he finally went limp, Calvin let him fall to the ground.

One down, Calvin thought glancing out at the city. He burst into motion, tackling the next royal soldier out of the air, and the next.

What in the Abyss could have inspired them to slaughter their own people like this? Calvin thought.

Dictatorships have killed their own people since time immemorial, but this feels different. It seems to me like the people doing the butchering are just as terrified as the people getting butchered. Oh, right, that’s what we’re looking at.

What?

A witch hunt. Witch hunts have a long and noble tradition from before humans had the capacity to literally become witches. The formula is: You make up some scary propaganda, get everyone riled up and terrified that there’s an imaginary enemy lurking amongst them. Give them some arbitrary, made up metric to identify the enemies that just happens to coincide with people you want slaughtered. Then the people are driven by fear to lynch these ‘witches’, desperate to make the fear go away.

It’s a method usually used by people in power to eliminate dissenters or outlying ethnic groups, although they had somewhat fallen out of use in favor of more sophisticated means while I was alive. Although, I guess since there’s no internet, pattern recognition AI and advanced spyware, it’s more practical to do it this way…something about this witch hunt doesn’t seem right, though. It’s a little too out of control.

Tell me something I don’t know, Calvin thought, performing the same trick on another floating Juntai warrior. The closer he got to the city center, the thicker the Warp became, the intangible feel of mass death clinging to his skin.

It wasn’t enough to trigger a Break, thankfully. Calvin didn’t want to pass out in the middle of a city currently being riddled with lightning.

“Calvin, is that you?” A voice tingled Calvin’s antennae, and he turned to look at the Diocese of Trade. The handsome young man had a twitching smile that was just a bit too wide. He was wearing a traditional Juntai headdress that covered his skull, but Calvin’s sharp eyes –there were thousands of them – could make out just the tiniest bit of blood lurking under the side of the man’s headdress.

Ah, I think I see what’s going on here.

Calvin made sure there was no one else around and pulled himself out of Heart of the Swarm.

Shifting

Multi Gradual Split.

40/47 Bent remaining.

Calvin appeared in midair, then caught himself by lowering his Mass and buoying himself up with expanding air from his compressed air component.

He wanted to feel the man’s gaze with his skin.

As soon as he was able to devote his attention to Feel Intent, he could sense the man’s crazed hunger, the desire to consume everything Calvin was. The man’s gaze felt unclean, and devoid of empathy. Nothing like the amiable yet cunning Former Diocese of Trade. Calvin only knew one person with a gaze like that.

Carem.

Well, on the bright side, you can totally kill him without pissing off the Diocese now.

****Tzen Chu****

“And there he is,” Llortan said, craning his neck up at the two figures facing each other in the sky. “It’s time to find out if the money I spent on this thing will be worth it.”

Rather than draw the little metal device from its sheath, Llortan reached into a back pocket and pulled out a shiny black metallic cylinder, far longer than the depth of the pocket would suggest.

“Aren’t you going to kill him?” Tzen asked, curious. Llortan had never pulled out anything like this before.

“One way or the other, yes,” Llortan said. “But if I shoot him with this,” Llortan patted the device on his hip, “he gets weaved right back into the cycle of reincarnation. It’s an absolute last resort if this is the guy we’re looking for. If this is the guy we’re looking for, I want to keep his soul on my mantle.”

The last few words were spoken in a tone that sent chills up Tzen’s spine.

Llortan pressed his pebbly finger into an unseen depression on the machine and it split into three parts with a soft hiss, forming the legs of a tripod. Out of the center a liquid ball of pearly silver rose above the stand, forming a perfect sphere in a matter of seconds.

“I want to be sure.” Llortan glanced up at where the two began fighting, cocking his head to the side. “If the ravager manages to finish the fight too quickly, I’m going to need you to keep him busy for a while. Preferably up there in the air where I can get a clean read on him.”

Tzen looked up and immediately regretted it as a sheet of lightning split the sky, nearly blinding him, followed by the humming of a thousand insects, the shouting of young women, and several more explosions paired with blooms of heat that threatened to sear the skin from his face.

The last thing Tzen wanted to do was dive headfirst into that, but the Bolesian prince had enough experience with the Harbinger to know that Llortan had a casual ‘or die,’ attached to the end of each of his requests.

Llortan whistled as lights and colors began to appear in midair in front of the strange device, odd symbols that appeared to be a language appearing and disappearing in a flash as the Harbinger poked the strange panel of glowing air.

The silver sphere turned into a bowl-shape, orienting its concave face on Calvin Gadsint, who was even then battling through the sky against what appeared to be an Eighth Break Legend wielding living lightning.

“Dum de dum…”

A spinning wheel appeared on the panel of colored air… then a symbol popped up, followed by more symbols, scrolling upward and disappearing under the first one.

To Tzen it was confusing and perturbing, but Llortan’s rag-covered face widened in a grin, before his buzzing voice began to laugh. Despite the creature’s strange voice, he could feel the hate oozing through the laughter. There was no humor in it.

“I found you, you son of a bitch!”