Riven didn’t baulk at the gun being pointed straight at him. Aross wasn’t amused, nor did she seem willing to drop her act that she was going along with Orbray. In fact, Riven wouldn’t have been surprised if she fired the gun once he got a little closer. Batty, old woman, as Viriya had said.

She didn’t shoot him though, which was something of a relief. Crazy she might be, but she wasn’t insane. Not yet at least.

Riven needed to get that gun back. He’d gone too long without one, and he was getting antsy at not being able to shoot like everyone else. The blue Coral sword was great and all, but he needed to be able to make use of range when the opportunity arose. Limiting his arsenal was a bad idea.

“Get back in the car,” Riven said as he approached the Invigilator.

Aross didn’t move. “And if I don’t?”

“I think you can drop the act now,” Riven whispered. He shouldn’t need to be whispering, not with the noise of the battle overtaking everything and how no one was near enough to overhear them. But still. Something about the Invigilator’s face told him that he had to be careful. “Everyone who could stop this is either dead or dying or in the process of being defeated. Get in the car, and we can leave.”

“I will not leave my son.”

Riven sighed, then stared over. Viriya and younger Aross were still fighting. He shouldn’t have looked. Now he was entranced by the exchange of blows.

Viriya fired her gun again but Aross was still protecting himself with his white Essence. Bullets pinged off his armour, and he struck Viriya with his own fists. She jumped back and shot again, but still to no effect. His defence was impermeable.

When Aross charged in again, Viriya put away her gun and raised her fists like a kickboxer getting ready for her next bout. Aross threw powerful punches, sharp jabs aimed at her face that she blocked, then a strong hook into her guts that Viriya effortlessly danced away from.

She swung in her own fist fast as a viper striking. Too fast for Aross to block as well. He didn’t need to. Viriya hit him right in the face, but like with her bullets, her hand hit him and bounced back. She scowled, the red on her knuckles visible even at this distance. What in the Chasm was that bastard’s Essence made of?

Aross threw another punch and Viriya dodged and blocked those as well. He was wearing her down though. Sheathed in the white Essence, his fists had to be as hard as the rest of him, and Viriya was cringing away from every impact. She kicked him, but he didn’t even budge, returning an elbow jab that took her in the shoulder. Viriya stumbled back. She righted herself quickly to lash out at his feet, but Aross only shook where he stood.

Then he punched her right in the face. Riven winced. This time, Viriya fell back, thumping down to the ground as she clutched her bleeding lips. She was wounded.

But it wasn’t something that would keep Viriya down for long. She rose, her green eyes burning brighter and harsher than the trucks and cars that were aflame. With a yell, she charged in. Her blows were wild and chaotic, and Aross retreated under the assault, covering his face as she hammered away at the rest of his body. His Essence made sure he wasn’t hurt much, if at all, and he periodically struck back with his own punches and kicks.

Viriya took them all in stride. She got jabbed in the guts and her knee was struck by a vicious kick. None of it stopped her. She had descended into juggernaut mode, and despite his incredible defence, Aross was still falling back.

Aross pulled himself away, disengaging from the fight for a moment. Viriya didn’t let up as she rushed forward. But the breathing space he got was enough. The white Essence shifted a bit, the silvery flecks disappearing and turning more transparent. When Viriya charged in again, Aross moved like the wind, white Essence burning the air around him. Fast as she was, Aross was now faster all of a sudden dodging her whirlwind of blows like he saw them coming even better than Daynom had.

Viriya missed with her diving punch and the momentum made her lurch forward, which Aross took clear advantage of. He grabbed her by the shoulders and flipped her over his shoulder.

She went flying and when she landed this time with a thump that made Riven wince, she didn’t get up as quickly as she had done before.

Viriya wiped the blood from her mouth and beckoned Aross, a bloody grin challenging him to finish the job. Riven wanted to warn her that she was taking things too far, that their job was getting out of here with the Invigilator, not killing every enemy they came across, but distracting her at such a crucial time was dangerous. The younger Aross charged at Viriya. He reached her fast, launching into a volley of punches and kicks that forced her back step by step. She danced around him, and everywhere she stepped glittering green dots popped up on the ground.

Riven peered. Then his eyes widened. The blood. Viriya had daubed the blood from her mouth with her Essence, and wherever it fell, it infected the ground with the same emerald glow.

Aross wasn’t paying attention. He was focusing solely on hitting Viriya, who was playing a complete defensive game as she blocked or dodged his punches and kicks. His vicious jabs were staved off by her forearm, and his kicks hit nothing but thin air as Viriya danced away.

A few moments later, Viriya’s trap was complete.

When Aross lunged in with his next blow, Viriya took the blow on her shoulder. She punched him in return, which did nothing to push him back but it did leave a red print of blood on him. A red blood print that glittered green as well.

Viriya jumped back. Far back. She landed outside the glittering green circle. Then it broke.

The ground churned up around Aross and all the earth shattered as chunks shot towards him. He didn’t try to block the rocks shooting towards him. Instead, his white Essence shifted again and the silver flecks were replaced by transparent ones again. He jumped. The entire reaction had taken mere fractions of a second.

Riven raised his head high. Aross had jumped very high indeed, and he wasn’t coming down anytime soon. He looked faded as he hung in the air, like a washed-out apparition that had been granted some semblance of human form by the white Essence.

It shifted again, and his silver flickers returned. He rammed down like a meteor.

Viriya dived away as Aross made to land right on top of her. The impact shook the entire area and Riven trembled along with the cars as cracks spread out from the point of impact, a filter of dust obscuring everything.

Aross approached her, but Viriya tapped the ground, her star back in her right hand. A glittering emerald carpet covered the whole area, and the younger Aross stopped for a moment. He was ready for the same trick. Her gun was back in her hand, and when she fired, Aross made the silver flecks return in his white Essence. The earth erupted around him, the street breaking up and throwing rocks and dirt everywhere as the bullet bounced of his Essence-reinforced body.

Viriya didn’t charge into the maelstrom. She spat the blood from her mouth and ran back towards a truck. Riven frowned. What in the world was she doing? Fast as ever , she reached the truck in heartbeats. Viriya then shot another bullet, embedding it in a car behind Aross.

Then his eyes widened. Of course.

By the time the dust hanging in the air had cleared enough for Aross to see, the truck Viriya had run towards and touched was already hurtling towards him. It charged in too fast for Aross to dodge.

Beside Riven, the Invigilator tensed but didn’t move or shout.

The truck crashed into Aross. Its momentum and the pull of the bullet lodged in the car carried it past the point where the green dust still weaved in the air. The truck took him with it as it collided with the car.

Invigilator Aross screamed.

“Fucking arsehole!” Viriya shouted. “Stay dead!”

Riven moved quickly. He ushed the shocked Invigilator into the car, then hurried over to the driver’s seat. Longswords were a right pain in the arse when it came to moving quickly and he threw it into the passenger seat beside the driver’s. “Viriya! Come on!”

She glared at the point of collision for a moment before hurrying over. Viriya didn’t even bother pushing the blue sword out of the way. She sat down, slammed the door closed, then yelled at Riven to get going. Which he was only too happy to do.

Muttering a little apology to Mhell, he turned on the ignition and thumped down on the accelerator. As the engine roared and the car rushed forward, the collided truck and car moved and shifted. Younger Aross was crawling out from the wreck without a single sign of any injuries.

“Does he not know how to die?” Viriya exclaimed.

Riven was too busy trying to get the car out of there to bother replying. Faster, faster. They need more speed if they were to evacuate this battlefield before their time was up and the soldiers started to catch up with them. Before younger Aross came after his mother, which Riven felt certain he would.

The enemy Essentier jumped high as his white Essence replaced the silver flecks with transparent blobs. Riven would have assumed Aross’s Essence simply removed the silver flecks altogether, but it became clear there was something there, for the light twisted and shifted as though it was a prism of sorts. Then it hit him. The burning Essence. It latched onto things—the air, the road, the car. And everything it latched onto was recreated by the white Essence near Aross. Well, the consistency of the material was. That’s why Viriya couldn’t hit him hard enough. He had turned his Essence to the consistency of the same steel that made up cars when fighting, and then light as air when jumping.

“The white Essence,” Riven said without taking his eyes off the road. The soldiers had come back to regroup under the renewed assault of the spectres and the townsfolk, and though Riven didn’t care about running any of them over, he had to keep an eye out he didn’t ram into a truck or a car. “It transfers properties, doesn’t it? Whatever it touches, the Essence becomes that. Like if it burns the air, then it mimics the properties of air—light, transparent, and so on. Burning the ground makes it grey and hard. I’m right, aren’t I, Invigilator?”

The Invigilator of Rennervation Demesne didn’t answer. She had regained her composure after seeing her son alive and well. Riven glanced at her through the mirror. What was wrong with her?

“Viriya,” Riven said, nodding his head back at the Invigilator. “We need to act like proper kidnapers.”

Viriya frowned at him, then nodded. She brought out her newly-acquired gun, pointing at the Invigilator. “Listen here, Invigilator. We’re taking you with us and there’s nothing you can do about it. So I suggest you lay back and try to be as compliant as possible to make it easy for everyone.”

“There is nothing—”

The younger Aross jumped in front of the car. Riven swerved the car to avoid him but then he jumped on the car.

“Shit!” Riven shouted. “Get off!”

Aross hammered down on the windshield instead. It shook under the blow, and the impact sounded like it was being struck by bricks instead of hands. He was right. Grey flecks danced in the white Essence enwreathing him. Aross’s Essence did take on the property of whatever it burned.

Viriya pushed her hand out the window and fired at him. The bullet bounced off. Of course, he couldn’t be hurt while he was as strong as the street.

“Give back my mother,” he demanded.

“Get off our damn car!” Viriya shouted back.

Aross only hammered the windshield more. Riven tried to look past him, but it was impossible, especially with the white Essence shining so bright right in his face. He was going to crash into something at this rate. Then everything would fall apart.

“Tell your son to get off, Invigilator,” Riven said. “He can’t just get a free ride.”

Invigilator Aross was silent. A lone glance at the mirror revealed that she was only staring at her son.

Great. Everything was up to Riven once again. He rammed his foot down on the brakes and the car came to a screeching halt. The younger Aross had no brakes though. Riven, Viriya and the Invigilator were jerked forward in their seats, but the enemy Essentier went flying off. He landed on the ground with heavy thumps like boulders dropping.

Riven didn’t wait to see if the bastard was all right. He had dallied enough, and it was about time they got out of this madness. He floored the accelerator again, and the car shot forward. There was a gap not far off, a small space between the weaving mass of soldiers, townsfolk, and Spectres, that screamed at Riven as the path to freedom.

Never mind Mhell. The Nec—no, the Deadmage—would find a way out for herself. The car collided with a few soldiers who screamed as they fell or dived away, and several townsfolk had to jump out of the way too. Unlike them, the ghosts didn’t care. Riven charged through them all, trying his best to avoid anyone but still mainly focused on getting out.

Mhell’s madness opened up before him as he barged through the gap. The Essentier’s whirls had formed everywhere around her, boxing her into a little prison. The only thing keeping them at bay was the outpour of grey Spirit which was even then being sucked into the whirling maws of lime green Essence.

She was trying not to look flustered, but something about her told Riven that it was mostly for show. Mhell was having difficulty against the Essentier.

Riven sighed. The one Deadmage he’d allied himself with, and she turned out to be weak. That took his thoughts to when he’d faced the one at Welmark, the one who had stolen Rose’s eye and nearly killed his brother.

A brother who was now dead.

“We’re being followed,” Viriya warned.

“What?” Riven turned his head to look. Didn’t matter what was in front of him if he was going to be caught anyway.

Viriya was right. Half of Orbray’s entire contingent was following him. Enough of the soldiers had regrouped and returned to their vehicles and started up their cars and trucks, barging through the press of townsfolk and Spectres in their effort to catch up with their kidnapped Invigilator. Riven floored the accelerator but the car felt as though it couldn’t go any further even if he had attached rockets on its back.

They rushed through the street, leaving the site of the battle behind, but the chase didn’t end. The soldiers hounded them still, honking their wild horns and throwing their wild cries. Riven did his best to take narrow streets and twist and turn as much as he could without slowing down too much. It didn’t help much. Orbray’s soldiers were desperate to keep up with him and they didn’t care when some of their trucks tipped over at the hairpin turns, or when one of their cars skidded and crashed at.

“How do we get away?” Riven asked. Frustration was making its presence felt and the car’s sides scraped against a building’s wall as he turned into a narrow street.

“I have an idea,” Viriya answered.

She threw her arm out of the window again and started to shoot behind. Most of her shots missed wildly, and most of the ones that managed to hit did no damage. These were vehicles built specifically for war. A few shots from pistols built for close-range combat wasn’t going to do much damage.

What was her damn idea? To make them so overconfident with her terrible shooting, they started making stupid mistakes?

Then Viriya shot the back of their car.

Riven didn’t have time to stare at her, but he would have if he could have. “Have you gone nuts? Why are you—?”

The questions died on his lips as the mirror revealed what was happening far behind. Orbray’s soldiers were screwed. The earth rose in a great gout from behind and rolled forward in a grey-and-brown wave, rushing in far faster than any of the cars. Rocks and chunks of earth crashed into the cars and trucks, upending most, and making them crash into each other. The whole party following them was swamped, but the rocks didn’t stop.

Oh right. Viriya had shot their car. That tidal wave of broken road was coming right for them too fast to even think of getting away.

“Riven!” Viriya shouted.

“I’m trying!”

Riven had to give credit to Viriya’s brilliance, but then he had to curse her lack of foresight too. She’d brought trouble and a lot of it. Surely she should have seen that attempting to pull in something by shooting the car would then require them to stave off said something.

There was no time to dwell on any of that. He swerved the car to the left, shooting the car into a narrow street. The rocky wave changed direction, which slowed it down considerably. Attempting to come at the car in a straight line, they were held off by the buildings that blocked their path. Sure, Riven could have focused to create a shield, but what he really wanted was to get the Chasm out of Tollisett and away from the rest of Orbray’s soldiers.

Riven didn’t stop even when they passed out of sight of the last building in Tollisett. No telling how far Orbray’s influence reached. The best they could do now was make as much space between themselves and anything Orbray could throw at them. Well, that and get to a place where Orbray wouldn’t know to look for them.

The car hurried away under Riven’s inexpert guidance, and they were soon lost in the gloom.