A scaly body stood in front of Ace, its slender form glistening with light. The reptilian demon had a snakelike head, with nostrils flaring beneath big dull eyes. Its face was flat, almost human, giving him the impression of both lizard and man. A forked tongue carried a hiss out of its body, and it bore long fangs as its muscles bulged. Ace was ready when it came at him this time, throwing up his guard as a piston fist flew. His bones came apart like porcelain and Purple's other arm erupted with fire. The other fist came at Ace like a fireball and he flipped back, fixing his arms in the air. One shattered again as he stopped a rushing blow with his palm. Purple’s leg whipped up and he slashed down, catching the meat on his umbra blade. Light dripped as Purple tried to overpower him; his brow tight as the leg pushed harder. It wasn’t frustration, but confusion born of the demon’s resistance. Why didn’t the Umbra take its leg apart? Why was it failing after weakening light effectively before? Purple twisted its body into the push and Ace gave in, skipping a few paces back. Its leg had already healed when it dropped down, strong enough to launch it into another charge.

It came and he swung, missing as it slithered under his blade. Its fist twisted toward the back of his head, and he pulled to the side, dark edge cutting into the arm. Purple stopped it with a flex, holding him still as the other arm swung. It shattered his ribs with a jackhammer impact. He coughed up blood as his body jerked back. Dazed, he almost missed it as a haymaker flew. Instinct drove umbra through the veins, dulling the blow that whooped his jaw. A fireball fist crashed into his face, launching him back as Umbra dulled that too.

The strikes had done their job, however, leaving him dizzy even as his wounds healed. Purple stood back, watching him rise, and his knees buckled as he put weight upon them. His breath suddenly stopped, and as the panic of that came and left, he realized his vision was blurred. He tried to look at the Purple, but only found a blob waiting. Letting out a sound of disappointment, it shot forward. Another blob fell, driving something through it! Ace’s vision cleared just in time to see a spike shove through its chest.

“Aappo!” Called the figure holding it on the other side.

Ace understood, leaping at Purple, driving his blades deep into its neck. He wrenched its head free and smoke covered the gaping wound. Its head broke into flecks of light, leaving the body in the stranger’s hands. No, Ace realized it wasn’t just a stranger when he looked down. The thing bore a magenta body, bare except for long hair and a long, leaf skirt. It lowered its mouth to Purple and bit in, drinking until it was only blue. It dropped the body and rose to Ace’s height with a smile.

“Daoppio oaba soba enk.”

“What?”

“W-what…” The demon breathed in the word. “I said your help is valued.” It breathed out. “I was sure I would fade away until you came, now I have a little longer.”

“Aren’t you a demon?” Ace couldn’t believe it was talking. Magenta tilted its head.

“Demon…” It tasted the word. “Am I? I don’t know.”

“What do you know? What’s your name?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you know why that thing attacked me?”

“You felt familiar to it, like a light it hates. It didn’t want to see if you were the same one, it just wanted to kill you.”

The Number frowned. “Why did you help me?”

“I know what you are! I don’t want to fight you.”

“What am I?”

“A Dark God.”

His eyes went wide. “What does that mean to you?”

“Your darkness casts the light into oblivion. You are the face of death for us gods.” It looked him up and down. “Though, you are currently limited by a body of flesh…”

⁘⁛⁘

King’s group found the room they were looking for. It was hexagonal, with panes standing at every corner. Grooves were carved into the floor to make an arcane circle, with a console rising like a podium to mark one end. As equipped as it was, Micaela couldn’t help but gape. She didn’t know what she would find, but she didn’t expect a room with as much as this. King, however, remained unsurprised. Khalaf couldn’t hide his, reminding her of the position they shared. As much as the spectral man knew before, he was in the dark now, and only King was comfortable there.

“How did you know this place would be here?” She asked.

“I didn’t, but I knew the Umbra would shape it, even if I haven’t terminated my Luminance.”

“Wait...are you saying this whole building—”she gestured—”and I guess the spear too are made of Umbra?”

“I think all of it is.”

“All of it?”

“This room, the spear, the overcast. All three are Umbra, and so is this.” He held up his band. “At least, I’m pretty sure it is.”

“All right, you have to walk me through this one.”

“I think you have to read New Dawn’s research to get it all, so don’t fault yourself. All of New Dawn’s rituals were about manipulating the light, rather than forming a connection with it. The Luminance bands are about us, and our armor is just our light condensed so we don’t go Gray.”

“Rituals, not research?”

King nodded. “Ritual research if you prefer, but definitely rituals. New Dawn didn’t discover the equipment to manipulate Luminance after spending a few months in their lab. They observed rituals and techniques, checking thousands of years of religious and occult text. They used modern technology to make the rituals work but…”

“They’re still rituals.”

“Yeah, and all of them were about acting upon the light, as if that was all you could do. Even the harbinger process works on the same method: pulling light out of something to put it elsewhere.”

“It was like they could only bestow the power.” Micaela nodded.

“Exactly. Like the light was in limited supply.”

“And we know that doesn’t make sense because Cerulean would have never gone this long.”

“Which thus means New Dawn had a reason to believe it.”

“And, of course, the best reason the light might seem finite to them is that Umbra erodes it, New Dawn was never going to think that Umbra manipulated it. They must have thought something else was behind the bands.”

“Which means the bands were never designed to maintain power. Even with the edition of the halos.”

Micaela crossed her arms, “All right, I get it, but now we come back to me. How exactly am I going to help us with that.”

Khalaf flew up beside her with his arms crossed as well. “I think I can answer that one.” He drew a symbol in the air. “Let’s say I’ve been turned into a machine by the Umbra—a tool to draw in light. Because of my enslavement at Cerulean, I had plenty of time to figure out the math behind the machine. I learned how to be the thing that manipulated the light, even if I can only adjust it’s direction around me.”

“So you think turning me into a Harbinger will change my perspective.” Micaela nodded, “But let’s consider being a Radiant Acolyte.” She pinched her chin. “This process would allow me to skip several of the castle’s steps, allowing me to become a lightbearer with the press of a button. However, unlike Khalaf, my transformation will be closer to bearing rather than, let’s say, a lens.”

“Which will allow us to look at the Luminance Band from three different angles. One in the dark, one through a lens, and one with illumination.”

The researcher laughed, “New Dawn would probably be jealous right now. We have a strong dream team here.”

“I know Legend was my title, but may I say I’m happy to be apart of this one?” Khalaf smirked.

“Well don’t write it yet, we still need to do the transformation process. Micaela, could you step inside the circle.” King moved up to the council.

The woman obliged, but as her foot touched the outer edge she stopped and sharply turned. Something was still missing from their conversation, and she suddenly knew. People became loose batteries when exposed to too much of one god’s light. What would happen to her when she was exposed to that and the light of a million others?

“Is there something we need to worry about?” She looked at the men. “Like, what’s going to happen to me when you start up.”

“Right…!” King’s fingers froze. “You might start drifting.”

Khalaf shook his head. “There’s no might to it, you will start to drift. It’ll be up to you to fight it.”

“How did you do it?” Micaela turned to him.

“I don’t know, but I think it might have something to do with the way New Dawn chose us. We all had magnetic personalities. Maybe that means something more than just an ability to pull people in.”

The researcher’s eyes shot to King. “I’ll be honest, I wasn’t exactly Ms. Popular in school. If this is a deal breaker we better tear the contract up now.”

“It’s not.” King replied. “For New Dawn it would have been a problem, but I’m further along in their research than them. With the Luminance Hacker, you’ll be fine. I just have to reprogram your Luminance after the process.”

“Well I think I still have to ask if this is safe. We don’t know how Cerulean made me a Radiant Acolyte, are we sure we should move forward with New Dawn’s process?”

“That’s one-hundred percent why I want to do it. We already know what happens to a normal person after the process—New Dawn had five examples, and one is nearby.” King’s eyes moved to Khalaf. “But regardless of how Cerulean used Sector Two, there was a chance you were going to rise to the ranks of One. You had the potential to reach Lightbearer, and theoretically, that means you would have transformed based on your Refraction.”

“What ever I become will have a powerful Illuminating mind… No matter how I look at it, you have to do this. I want to do it too. I have to see what’s on the other side of this.”

Khalaf snickered. “That’s curious, I didn’t expect you to get on board so fast.”

“I guess I’m just fascinated. I was just a peon back in Cerulean, looking at numbers, making things work. It was an honest job but it was nothing; I didn’t feel like I was apart of anything. After finding out about Umbra, the darkness, and people like King, it makes me feel like I got something real to do. I can make being a Radiant Acolyte mean something. If everything New Dawn has done all comes from darkness, imagine what we can get from light!”

“Imagine what we can get from darkness too.” King looked at his band. “You’re right Micaela, you mean something different for the light. I feel like Fang might be on the other side of that. She’s the only one who can push the envelope of the Umbra.”

Micaela looked up. “Do you think she’s all right?”

King smiled. “Of all of the Numbers chosen for this mission, I’d tell you she’s the one most likely to graduate. If you told me only one of us would make it back, it’d definitely be her.”

The researcher’s eyes widened. “You’re that confident in her?”

“Remember what she asked you on the way to the Castle?”

“Between the King and Queen, who would be the best person to talk to about an alliance?”

“Yeah.”

“I can’t guess what goes through her mind, but I can tell you this: when Fang has a plan, there’s nothing that can stop her from achieving it.”

“What’s her current plan?”

“To take the city back.”

⁘⁛⁘

The first break in the Spear was high above the city. From her platform, Fang could see the land stretch, even despite the overcast turning buildings into shadows. The sight left her breathless, seeing for the first time how truly big the city was. She felt like she could stay here all day, but there were other things on her mind, demanding she cut the sightseeing short. Except, she couldn't. With the spear broken her lift could go no further, leaving her suspended in the air. The rest of the structure loomed above her, out of reach but whispering in the back of her mind. This was not where she should stop. This was not the end of her climb. She could go further faster, and the whispers insisted upon it. Fang glanced down from her perch and wondered what was keeping it in the air. The feeling of control rushed up her arm as she touched the floor, tethering her to unseen power. At once, she knew it wasn't suspended, but held aloft by particles that couldn't pull themselves together. She pulled for them, gathering dark clouds to fill the gaps in the spear. They flowed up to the branch beneath the tip, sealing the wounds with black nimbus. Fang felt storms brewing within them and pulled those too, whipping together swirling portals. She pulled one together before her and stepped through each in quick succession. The last one dropped her on the spear's branch, but she couldn't pull at the blade before a sight filled her eyes.

A gray stood with rapiers shoved through its legs and back, keeping it upright as six more glowed around it. They all glowed blue, sending rivers to its feet as a woman raised a final blade. She was not an unfamiliar figure, but not one Fang expected to see again so soon. Princess Celine Klein paused as the girl emerged, turning the rapier toward her as if it was always meant to be.

“Why are you here?” Fang demanded.

“I could ask the same thing of you.” The Princess smiled. “I messed up letting you get away. I didn’t think you’d give me the chance to fix my error.”

Fang looked at the Gray. Celine followed her eyes.

“I get to kill two birds with one stone.”

The Number summoned her blade and Walker. “It seems like Cerulean still refuses to make a different choice…”