Chapter 752: Formation

Andrew watched the Imperial troops enter the fight.

The infinity marks turned in his eyes as he followed one group into the ruined streets. The view remained clear. Cutting Adam’s contact had not cost him the All-Seeing Eyes.

Andrew turned the Asura core in his hand, then slipped it back into his storage ring. The Emperor had recognized him. Being one of his favorite descendants would not excuse stealing the power that held Mars down.

The core had broken that contact. He was in no hurry to test it against Adam himself.

In the street, the Imperial soldiers reached the vampires protecting the wounded and attacked almost immediately. A short laugh escaped Andrew.

The commander had done what Andrew expected. Give the Empire a valid emergency signal and reports of vampires, and it would arrive ready to kill them. The soldiers had no reason to question the information while enemies stood in front of them.

Even seeing two vampire forces fighting each other had not changed that.

Andrew shifted his attention to Alex and Mingyue.

They had moved the artificial Progenitor away from the buried ritual. Their army was smaller, but its commanders kept it together under pressure. The wounded no longer tied the pair to the pit as they had at the beginning.

Thepes had power. He was still learning to use it, and the two heirs kept denying him time. Andrew had lost years of preparation when Kael brought them into his operation.

A few more years would have let him finish his preparations. Instead, he had been forced to send Thepes against the two heirs early.

Alex’s hammer struck a blood blade. Thepes turned with the impact and struck again. His movements were improving, yet the pair kept finding ways to cover one another. He could hurt either of them. Finishing one without the other interfering was proving much harder.

Andrew’s smile faded.

He hadn’t put this much effort into the plan just to give them another opportunity to grow stronger.

His attention moved toward the service yard.

The organ remained inside the formation he had left between the damaged warehouses. Green smoke filled the barrier so thickly that the flesh could only be seen when its glow strengthened.

The civilians were gone.

Their blood, qi, and souls had fed the organ. There were no bodies left for anyone to drag from the yard and identify.

Andrew had chosen them because they could be brought there without attracting the pair’s attention. Their gratitude to General Kael had made the last part easy.

Now the organ was doing the work he had kept it for.

It had belonged to a daughter of Arachne. The power rising from it carried that origin, strengthened by everything his formation had forced into it.

Andrew did not need to send the Spider Progenitor a request.

He had placed her daughter’s organ in the middle of a battle between Progenitors and an Imperial fleet.

His eyes followed the response beyond Proxima.

She was still approaching, faster than he had expected when he first broke the emblem. He had noticed her speed before leaving for Mars. Now, with the battle still raging, she was closer again.

The bait had her attention.

That did not mean he controlled what she would do when she arrived.

Andrew looked back at Thepes.

If the artificial Progenitor tried to take her power, she would answer. If the Imperial commander treated her as another enemy to bombard, she would answer that too. Alex and Mingyue would have to make their own choice while surrounded by people they refused to abandon.

He only needed the threats to meet.

After that, their pride and interests would do more than any order he could give them.

A weapon struck a building near the service yard. The upper floors collapsed, throwing debris against one side of the barrier.

Andrew watched closely.

The formation held, but the smoke inside it swelled. Thin green streams began rising above the warehouse wall, drifting toward the adjoining street.

That smoke would draw attention. He considered returning long enough to protect the formation from another direct hit. Then his gaze moved across the Imperial ships and the cultivators below them.

Too many eyes were turning toward Proxima now. If Adam found him beside the organ, it wouldn’t matter which army won here.

The Asura core was still in his storage ring. He wasn’t going to lose it by standing beside the bait when she arrived.

The formation had already done its job. She was coming. Andrew left it alone.

He watched the organ’s light pulse through the green smoke, then turned his All-Seeing Eyes toward the approaching presence again.

The Spider Progenitor would find her daughter’s remains surrounded by violence.

Andrew wanted to see which of them she reached for first.

***

"King, something is spreading near the northern service yard."

Vesa’s voice reached Alex while he was turning Thepes’s blade away from his chest.

"What kind of thing?"

"Green smoke. There is a formation inside it."

Alex’s gaze moved toward the streets beyond the battle.

He couldn’t see the yard clearly from his position. Smoke from the ruined buildings covered much of that part of the city, and an Imperial ship stood between him and the clearest view.

Thepes pressed him before he could change his angle.

Alex blocked, letting the force push him sideways rather than back toward Dorian’s soldiers. Mingyue moved with him and cut at Thepes’s exposed arm.

The blood blade split. Thepes pulled the loose blood back toward his body and formed it again.

"Keep our people out of it," Alex told Vesa. "I’m coming closer."

"Don’t touch the formation until I’ve checked it," Vesa said.

Alex stayed clear of the formation itself. The smoke hid most of it, and Vesa had yet to identify what it was feeding. He wasn’t sending more of their people into that street until he had seen it himself.

Alex shifted the fight toward the edge of the ruined avenue, where he could look past the Imperial vessel without flying over his own army.

Mingyue moved with him. "What did she find?" she asked through their bond.

"Another formation. I don’t know what it’s for yet."

"That smell?"