Zak crashed through the dense foliage, chasing after the Technophile. The slippery enemy threw an offensive treasure behind him and it hovered in the air, halting as soon as it left his hand. Zak felt a terrible energy emanating from it and he swung his mighty axe, unleashing an unstoppable wave of force from its wicked edge. The energy slammed into the grenade-shaped gadget but was completely absorbed as the small device started shaking and crackling with lightning. It suddenly disappeared and his Buds screamed a warning as a thundercloud the size of a man apparated directly above his head. He tried to run even faster but the cloud only roiled and followed him, getting larger by the second. He could feel the immense energies brewing in its murky depths and knew he had to finish this quickly.

He quickly flashed forward, using his Bud of Trees to appear out of the vegetation in front of his quarry. He didn’t want to have to use his best abilities, as every Technophile had recording devices implanted in their eyes, but he’d just have to make sure the records were unsalvageable so some old monster didn’t come after him for killing this scion. He switched over to his Bud of Desolation, a series of lucky encounters having granted him the ability to use two different Buds. He swung his axe at the man’s head, edge infused with Desolation, but a shimmering blue shield appeared and stopped the attack in its tracks. Truly, Technophile technology was amazing.

Zak, realising his time was almost up, used the zone ability he’d gained on ascending to Bud. He didn’t have much control over it, but this close, he didn’t need any. The field of Desolation spread out from his body, effortlessly passing through the man’s shield, and making his flesh start to crack and flake away into ash. The attack used up almost all his Sunlight and took a heavy toll on his body, but it was a guaranteed finisher. The man desperately pressed buttons on his futuristic looking suit, but nothing could stop it and he got weaker and weaker. Zak lifted him up and held him above his head as he felt the energies in the cloud reach a peak. A massive bolt of lightning was released from the cloud, as large around as a Drasil, but it slammed against the man’s shield, which had sprung up again. The two powerful forces warred above him, but the shield gave first, cracking and splintering away. The unlucky man’s body burned up in a flash, but the storm was seemingly spent, as no electricity came down to fry Zak. He peeked out from under the charred body and sighed in relief as the cloud was gone. He dropped the corpse, disgusted at the mouth-watering smell of roasted meat. He knelt to loot the man but froze, shocked. The man had on a Cosmic Storage Ring!

Excerpt from “Acceptance of the Fall”

Prince Jas Everradiant, of The Secular States of Jas, was afraid.

Since coming to Earth, much of the fear he’d grown up with had disappeared, only rearing its ugly head when Musa told them about his abilities. A life spent dodging assassins and weathering betrayals had made him into the man he was, but being with Musa and Mike (and even Birgitte, though he wouldn’t admit it) was slowly changing him into the man he wanted to be. His father, Jas Everwatchful, had seen the echoes of the future that said his son would die if he stayed on Ega. He’d never said anything about him also dying if he came on this stupid delve.

“Oh fuck, they’re swarming past! We’re fucked.”

Birgitte swore far too much in his opinion. This time though, the expletives were justified. The timely Graft that the man with the flamethrower and that doctor with the weird accent had performed had given them an instrument to hold the horde at bay, but with their escape route gone and the only man who could make another one hip-deep in bloodthirsty deer, their options were limited. And as Birgitte had just pointed out, the animals, dumb as they were, had figured out they could simply go around the man with the big death stick. We’re fucked.

“Woman, I swear on the Sun, if I expire because you refused to do the prudent thing and flee, I will haunt you and your progeny until the end of time.”

“Even now, Jas? We might die here, and you insist on talking like some fucking history book.”

He played up the “foreign prince with an exotic way of speaking” role as much as he could because it made people underestimate him and think him some fop with pretty words. Musa and Mike knew the truth of course, even helped him maintain the façade if someone caught him at a bad moment. He would tell Birgitte eventually. If we make it out alive. For now though, he’d wring as much enjoyment out of her frustration as he could before he took an ice bolt to the face.

The man with the flamethrower was giving a valiant effort at keeping the deer at bay, but there was only so much one Bud could do against a swarm the size of the one assailing him. A few started slipping past, getting torn to shreds by the students’ guns and abilities, but more and more were taking the long way around and avoiding the silvery flame. He didn’t need his years of strategy and tactics education to see it was only a matter of time until they were overrun.

Birgitte had, amazingly, dragged Jas’ heavy shield with her when she was carrying him to safety, and he brought it to bear now. It was heavily dented, with a large paw imprinted in the metal where the Dire beast had hit it. His dagger was still inside the Burrow however, so he started charging up his only weapon, the large crystal embossed in the rectangular aegis. It glowed dully, growing brighter by the second, but still much too slowly. Come on, girl, your prince demands it. He mentally urged the shield to accept more and more of his energy, the man drinking in Sunlight and channelling it straight into the crystal.

The stags in charge of the assault weren’t remaining idle. After seeing that their usual spears of ice wouldn’t work against the flamethrower guy, a large box of thick ice had materialised around the man. It had no effect however, as the flames continued to pour through as if the walls were no impediment at all and a few seconds later, the man himself walked out of the box like it wasn’t even there. They changed tactics, now sending a barrage of ice towards the doctor, still sprawled unconscious some ways behind Flamethrower. I’ll learn his name eventually.

This gambit failed too, as Flamethrower pointed a hand at the limp body and it turned translucent, every attack simply sticking in the ground underneath him. Why is he not falling through the Earth? Human Concepts are strange. The crystal Jas was charging now shone brilliantly within his shield. He felt impotent watching Birgitte and the others dealing with all the deer that got past Flamethrower, and couldn’t wait to join in the glory of battle himself. His father had never disparaged him for the relative uselessness of his Seed, instead telling a young Jas not to fight hard, but to fight smart. Luckily, the capacitor crystal would allow him to do both.

“Jas! Little help here!”

Birgitte called for him as the deer had gained enough of a foothold to start flinging a few shovel-sized shards of jagged ice at the hostile crowd before being ripped apart by focused fire. Jas smiled and ran forwards, jumping in front of Birgitte as a well-aimed ice bolt broke against his shield instead of her skull.

“I believe you requested a dashing, rakishly handsome saviour?” He teased.

“Fuck you, Jas.” She responded with a laugh.

The battle seemed to be at a standstill, the chaos reigning all around them offset by the cute, ghostly fawns staggering around. Neither side falling back but neither side able to advance. Something will break. It always does.

Unfortunately, he was right, as Flamethrower’s eponymous weapon sputtered, then disappeared. There was a moment of frozen shock across the battlefield, then everything happened at once. It was like a dam burst as the gigantic herd of deer surged forth, filling the gap they had previously left around the man. The stags sensed weakness and sent forth ten, twenty, then fifty thick lances of pure ice towards Flamethrower. They dug into the ground through his body, Flamethrower having gone translucent himself. It seemed to take all his concentration though, as the doctor, still unconscious, lost his intangibility. His body took exception to occupying the same space as the myriad ice spears still stuck in the ground beneath him and burst in an explosion of gore, painting the environs red.

Flamethrower looked back at the bloody scene with a pained expression, wanting to rush over but not wanting to draw the stags’ attention towards the students. Jas, a lot more inured to death than most of the others, simply tightened his shield straps. It’s showtime. A grin threatened to split his face as he tensed, ready to do the most idiotic thing he’d ever heard of.

“Follow me.”

He left Birgitte questioning, then cursing, then following as he ran towards the oncoming rush of deer. His crystal was now visible across the whole battlefield and, with a thought, he accessed the energy within as he screamed a wordless battle cry, only metres away from the enemy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Barbara Fletcher, Chancellor of the Academy, was angry.

She had worked hard to get where she was. Damn hard. And this Shade-damned clusterfuck was threatening to not only take it all away, but decimate a group of the most talented Seeds she’d seen in decades. Sun give me strength.

She was currently flying towards the troublesome Burrow in a helicopter she’d “commandeered” from one of the well-to-do families in New London. She’d catch heat for it, but only success mattered at this point and she would do whatever it took to achieve it. She idly fingered her rosary, a string of beads around her neck with a stylised burning Sun as the pendant. Ever since she found her faith, her life had only seemed to get more complicated. She had had a meteoric rise in both power and responsibility since becoming a Stenari. Of course, meteoric is relative when your lifespan is measured in centuries, not decades.

Her Concept seemed made for someone with the level of devotion she had, further cementing her belief in the Sun’s guiding light as she’d manifested long before she even considered looking at religion. She could only hope it would be enough against whatever was keeping Juggernaut from making contact. Her mind was wildly running through the plethora of possibilities, but he was a Flower. Only Worldshaker and a few of the Aberrants running around could put him down. Worldshaker was wherever demigods went when they weren’t saving the world and if it was an Aberrant, they would have seen it moving into the area. No matter how she twisted and turned the problem in her mind, it always came back to one probable cause. The Prophet. He was a Gardener and not beholden to the same rules other cultigens had to follow. Humanity only had one. Who knew what a hostile alien wielding that much power could do.

If she’d had her way, their precog never would have left and they could have possibly foreseen whatever this was. Of course, if the precog had never left, he’d likely have been targeted but Barbara had full confidence in the security of her Academy. It was the biggest concentration of raw destructive force in the world, save Mafui’e, just by virtue of the staff. Of course, the old men on the Guild Council didn’t care and would happily blame her for this despite her pleading to keep him until the Seeds had come back from their first delve. They can all rot in the Shade.

She looked out at the Sun, the blazing ball of rejuvenating energy steeling her resolve. No matter. I will save these children, then worry about the damn Council. She trusted the Sun to illuminate a way forward.

A flash of intensely bright white light lit up the forest ahead of her. When I am lost, Your radiance lights a path through the darkness. There was another flash, and another. They’d been heading straight for the Burrow, but Barbara told the pilot to head for the flashes, just on the outskirts of the Drasil’s territory. She took off her seatbelt and stood up in the chopper, staring piercingly at the spot the flashes had come from. Her eyes, superhuman ever since she bloomed past Seed, could make out the sight of a battle taking place. The Elvan prince was leading an offensive with just his shield? Another bright flash appeared, and she could see it was from the large crystal in the centre of his shield creating the light. It was shining dazzlingly as a thick beam of light, so strong it seemed to distort space around it, emerged from the crystal and cut down dozens of the frigid deer he was attacking, mercilessly slicing through their bodies. She could see half of a bus, dripping water for some reason, and several huge ice boulders dotted around the area they were fighting. She couldn’t see Juggernaut or any of the Buds she’d sent, though she’d recheck when she got there. Speaking of…

“Get higher, I can go faster on my own from here.”

The pilot climbed, increasing in altitude until Barbara was confident. She glanced at the Sun one last time, tucked her rosary under her black vest, and, tensing her legs, launched out of the helicopter, her feet denting the metal with her force. She shot off like a cannon towards the commotion, the wind whistling past her ears and making her glad she tied her hair back. She tapped into her Flower of Fervor.

A red-orange nimbus slowly faded into view around her as she fell, growing brighter and brighter as she let her Roots spread out all around her. A quirk of being a Stenari with her Concept was that wherever there was Sunlight, there was enough of her own religious Fervor in the air to feed off. She was doubly empowered under the light of the Sun, and she would bring its wrath down like a hammer on any who would threaten those under her care.

She flew faster and faster, now looking like a meteor entering the atmosphere as she discharged flame behind her to rocket forward. The crowd of students had noticed her by now, as it surely looked like there were two Suns in the sky, and one was getting closer. The Elvan boy was pointing and telling something to the pink haired girl next to him, and they started shouting something at the other students. They all retreated from the press of deer that were starting to turn her way. A few of the stags seemed to realise the threat she posed and joined forces, constructing a massive dome of ice so thick it poked out above the trees, growing thicker by the second. She felt a new source of energy entering her soul and looked at the students. The Elvan boy was talking to them all and as he talked, the students’ belief in her joined her own belief in the Sun and was channelled into her body. Smart. This kid has done his research. The glow surrounding her only got brighter, now blinding to directly look at, and she radiated heat like a small star. The treetops underneath her started blackening and charring despite how fast she was moving and how far above them she was.

She smiled, task not forgotten, but revelling in the Sun’s power. If only they could all feel this.

The ice dome started sloughing off water, melting away as quickly as the stags could build it. The structure was still the tallest, toughest thing around, but it was no match for the sheer might of the Sun. She got close enough to see the individual expressions on the students’ faces and most of them were in shock. Understandable, she hadn’t cause to go full divine punishment in a long time.

The ice retreated as she got close, not even touching her as her potent heat showed its superiority. She zipped into the dome, its roof completely melted away and landed with a BOOM, cratering the ground and annihilating everything within the remaining ice walls. She stood up, footing slightly unsteady from the forest floor melting under her feet. She hadn’t even needed to actually do anything, the force from her landing and the ambient heat from her nimbus destroying every living thing within the dome in one fell swoop. The remaining ice, much diminished, had protected her students from the full force of her descent and any burning debris that splashed outwards.

She looked around at the charred hellscape she’d created. It seemed they were done here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Musa Mirzadeh, adopted son of the illustrious clan and heir to the Mirzadeh fortune, was stunned.

He hadn’t been rendered speechless in years, but here he was, unable to even make a sound. As far as he knew, the man was still in Mike’s family home, unresponsive as ever. Yet here he was. And he’d handed Musa an impossibility. The sword was a graft-chimera famously used by Mike’s father, Vulcan, to hold Dagon back all those years ago for just long enough that the Academy Flowers could arrive and drive it off. He had only been a Sprout at the time. Like me. He realised with wide eyes.

Musa looked back at the wolf in wonder. He could now make out individual hairs poking up between gaps in its wooden armour. He could hear its thundering heartbeat and slightly laboured breath as it healed from having its paw roasted. His eyes narrowed. It’s healing.

He ran forward, moving faster than he ever had, firmly beyond human limits now. His new body would have a trial by fire. Musa imbued the sword with Remembrance and swung once more. A great arc of blue flame was flung outwards, hitting the wolf under the chin and setting its armour on fire again. He left nothing to chance though, and slashed at the wolf repeatedly, each slash leaving a wide crescent of flame that shot out towards the wolf, eventually setting the whole animal ablaze.

As dangerous as this was, Musa was enjoying himself. He was wielding a blade he’d watched movies about, his body hummed with the energy of Florescence, making him faster, stronger and tougher than any natural human in the world and he had bloomed into a badass Sprout ability. He glanced back at Vulcan, still standing in that easy contrapposto he always had, at least before the incident. He hadn’t moved at all, not even reacting to his son lying unconscious near a burning monster.

Right.

Musa leapt off to the right just as the burning, howling wolf shot past like a freight train. The voice of his power was now clearly Vulcan’s, switching from its usual androgynous alto to his deep bass, yet the man was still motionless. Is he even actually her-

Roll. Forward. Left. Jump. Run.

He instantly rolled to his left as a burning paw descended on his head, just missing his leg. He sprang forward under the wolf’s body and dragged his sword along its belly as he ran. It turned above him and he dodged to the left as its mouth snapped shut inches to the right of his torso, flames licking at his uniform. Musa jumped up, higher than he expected he could, and pushed off the incensed beast’s now raised snout, propelling himself towards the edge of the clearing. He landed, but hesitated as he was not going to leave his friend to die.

A blade of compressed air whistled to the left his head, just missing him. A burst of pain exploded from the area and he clapped a hand to his ear, realising it had been completely severed. Another screamed towards his leg and he jumped, but without the guidance of his power it wasn’t the right move and his leg was sliced off below the knee, gushing blood. The adrenaline kept him from feeling its full impact but he recognised the severity of the injury. Shit, why isn’t it dying?

He studied the humongous beast, fully aflame and crying out in pain, but seemingly still combat ready. The flames had completely subsumed it, but its monstrous healing ability was keeping pace with the burning, leaving it in pain yet just as dangerous as ever. I can’t win this. Even with the boost from his earlier bloom, he was still too weak to kill the enormous antlered wolf.

He held his sword blade to the stump of his leg and filled it with Remembrance. It burst into flame and cauterized his wound, though he still needed to get away somehow. He desperately searched for some way to get his friend but it looked hopeless. I will not fail. I’m too fucking close to fail now.

He hopped back into the tree cover and assessed his situation. The wolf couldn’t smell or see him because of the roaring inferno around its head, but could somehow sense him when he got close. It would probably eventually suffocate, but both he and Mike would be long dead before that killed the beast. It just had too much energy. He needed to even the playing field.

Musa pushed his Sprout hard, stuffing the sword full of his Concept and it burst into flame once more. He turned his attention to the Drasil.

Ten scorching slashes of blue-white flame rocketed towards the massive evergreen, digging into the wood and igniting the whole thing. The wolf went ballistic, jumping around and sending blades of air everywhere, the ground slightly shaking with the weight of its steps. Mike was too low for them to hit him but Musa still worried and redoubled his assault on the gigantic tree.

The wolf started running around in a panic, setting the surrounding foliage ablaze in its search for him. He continued hitting the towering conifer, but just like the wolf, it seemed to be able to out-heal the damage. Its slight tug on his Sunlight increased, and a pressure descended on the glade. He knew this meant something was about to happen and, frantic, dumped all the Sunlight he could into the blade and shot a pure white beam of plasma at the malicious plant.

His beam bisected it, slicing straight through the bark and igniting the forest behind it. The area was now awash in the flames of the mighty conflagration and the intense orange light made the sweat of his face glisten. The tree started tipping, cut in two by the overwhelming attack, but the pressure didn’t cease. It hit the ground with a crash that rattled his bones and the wolf let out an ear-splitting pained howl. The pressure still made itself felt. The tug on his soul had stopped, so the tree was expending the last of its energy.

Musa could only watch in horror as a bolt of white energy shot out of its stump and hit Mike. No!

His prone body lit up as the white energy outlined his form. He popped out of existence. NO!

Musa dropped his sword, the weapon disappearing as soon as it left his grasp. Everything seemed so distant and muted.

A sudden ray of red-orange power shot through the wolf’s head, punching through its brain and killing it instantly. Jas and Birgitte ran into the glade, saw his injured form and raced towards him, talking over each other. He didn’t hear a word they said, only staring at the spot Mike had disappeared from.

I failed.