Chapter 297 - We

Chapter 297

We

We watched the battle unfold from the throne, and We were not impressed.

No.

That was not entirely true. We were impressed by some of it. The woman in white had walked through the gateway alone and dismantled the garrison in the courtyard without breaking stride.

That had been unexpected. As had the rescue.

An oversight. Of course an Exalted, even one from another world, would have allies. But even had We foreseen, such strength could not have been anticipated. The woman hadn’t even bothered fighting. Instead, she had targeted the fortress’s defenses and destroyed the defenders as an afterthought.

We wanted to know more about her.

We disagreed on what that meant, but the curiosity was unanimous. As was, always, the desire to grow more powerful.

Empress Clarissa Veshara the Third sat upon her throne of the conquered and studied the magical displays hanging in the air before her. Each was a window into a different area of the battlefield, their surfaces rippling with illusory and spatial magics.

The throne room stretched around her in all of its deliberate grandeur. The Eternal Star was beautiful, with its marble pillars and crimson carpets and gold inlays reflecting the light of enchantments that had burned without interruption for three centuries.

Thirty highborn elites lined either side of the room, spaced between the pillars, adorned in black robes with golden trim. Staves and spellbooks floated before them.

They were her reserve. The last line of defense for a throne room that had never seen an enemy that was not already bound by chains and forced to kneel.

The idea that We might need protection was amusing. Almost. But We did not rule out anything where the Invader was concerned. Artensah’s reports had been thorough, if ultimately insufficient.

The two remaining Exalted stood at the base of the stairs, watching the displays in silence. They knew better than to speak before She did.

A flash of light from one of the displays drew everyone’s attention. Artensah flew in the air above the fortress, staff extended, trading lightning with the Invader. The Machine God, according to the System. A young man with a metal arm who wielded lightning and metal and flew without magic.

Simple powers, Artensah had reported. Wielded with great skill and a lack of hesitation that indicated the man was a hardened warrior.

We could see that. The way the Invader raced across the sky, evading spells from a dozen sources with fluid grace, suggested he had fought for his life many times before arriving on this battlefield.

He fought with an excitement that declared he had already accepted the possibility of death, but would chase the promise of power regardless.

Interesting. But not what held Our attention.

Oskoreth had departed with Artensah to intercept the warships the Invader had stolen. He should have joined Artensah against the Invader after redirecting one of the ships into space, but instead he was locked in combat with another deadly superhuman. A woman of ice. Fast and relentless and full of raw power.

We were not concerned, though the delay was inconvenient. Oskoreth would handle her eventually.

On another display, a great red beast, scales reflecting the light, swept low across the mountainside. Its talons tore through a cluster of soldiers, snatching several from the ground and tossing them into the air before swallowing them without slowing.

A dragon. A creature of myth and legend, carrying another of Earth 1’s Exalted. A superhuman who conjured chains to kill dozens of her soldiers and barriers to deflect everything they cast back at him.

It was a waste of good soldiers. But We could appreciate beauty, even in Our enemies, and the beast was magnificent.

Another display showed something genuinely perplexing. A man in heavy plate armor, standing at the edge of the fortress, arms crossed. He was enormous, and yet appeared to do nothing as spells struck at him, only to freeze in place, then fire back along their original trajectories, targeting their casters with perfect precision.

One soldier after another died to their own attacks before the rest realized and stopped firing.

The man continued to stand there.

We did not like that.

Inside the fortress, most of the corridors had already been cleared by the Invaders. The few who remained shot spells down a long hallway, trying to slow a large, grey beast charging toward them, horn lowered. The magic struck the creature harmlessly, before it plowed through the defenders, scattering bodies against the walls without slowing.

Another view showed the courtyard, where the gateway stood open, its aperture revealing the world beyond. An enclosed room of some kind, filled with armed guards, metal barricades, and what appeared to be magical staves mounted on mobile platforms.

The invaders had fortified the gateway before coming through. And it was no longer where it had been. That meant someone had claimed it.

A pity. It was no longer of use for the Grand Exodus.

We considered the displays in silence, but the internal debate was brief.

They had come prepared and in force. And the woman in white had not yet engaged anything worthy of her attention. She stood on the roof of the fortress, staring up into the sky.

At Us.

She knows We are here. She hesitates, but her purpose is clear. She is a threat. She will not fight unless We fight.

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And yet she is also a promise. For she will fight if We fight.

The last thought was pleasant. We held it in Our minds and turned it over, examining it from every perspective.

Yes.

We wanted to fight her. It was also unanimous.

The Empress stood, and everyone in the room straightened. The two Exalted turned to face her.

“I have decided. We desire to fight the Woman in White.”

Her Exalted shared a look.

Velisahn knelt. “Is that wise, Your Radiance?”

“She is powerful. I have not felt such strength upon this world in two lifetimes. There is no doubt she is a ruler in her own right.” She held out her arms, tilted her head back, and closed her eyes. “Adorn me for battle.”

***

The whispers wouldn’t stop.

“The Stars are the masters of space, Machine God.”

Alexander feigned left, driving toward Artensah with Metallokinesis.

The Exalted vanished, teleporting out of reach.

Alexander didn’t follow. Instead he put on a burst of speed, angling toward where Augustus’s portal hung in the air, its edges rippling.

Artensah shouted. A single syllable, spoken with absolute authority. Then a white beam lanced past Alexander, striking the portal dead center. Cracks spread across the inky black surface, racing outward from the point of impact, fracturing further as they went.

The portal held for half a second, then shattered, fragments of spatial magic scattering to the wind.

Alexander came to a stop, staring at the empty space where his escape route had been.

“There is no escape for you and your friends, Machine God,” Artensah’s magic whispered in his mind. “You have brought them here to die.”

Alexander ignored him. It wasn’t easy. The whispers slipped between the cracks in his thoughts, persistent and almost intimate. It was also clearly by design, intended to disrupt his concentration at the worst possible moment.

“What just happened?” Talia asked over the comms.

“No idea,” Augustus replied. “Something canceled out the portal.”

Alexander evaded a green bolt of fire. “There are two Divines up here with spatial magic. I don’t think we can just disengage.”

“Understood,” Talia said. “Hold. Working on a solution.”

Not far from where the two of them fought, Annie and most of his drones were locked in combat with the remaining highborn wizards. Between them, they’d managed to reduce the black-robed wizards by half, but those that remained were the best of the lot.

Above Annie and Alexander, Julia was repeatedly blitzing the other golden-robed wizard, smashing through constant conjurations of rock and stone. Each time she landed a hit, the Exalted became smoke, reforming a short distance away.

They were all struggling with the same problem. The wizards had superior short-range mobility, even though their flight was inferior.

Artensah’s staff tilted, and a black beam lanced from its tip.

Alexander twisted around it, close enough to feel the air rot where the energy passed, then corkscrewed toward the Exalted, Metallokinesis driving him forward.

Just before he could close the distance, Artensah vanished.

That was three times. Droney had been tracking the intervals, simulating potential outcomes. It was faster than Keda’s teleportation. Farther, too, each jump covering anywhere up to forty-something meters.

And smarter, because Artensah randomized his destination.

But there was still a delay between jumps. A fraction of a second where the Exalted had to reorient, find his target, and begin casting again. Droney was narrowing the window with each data point.

Artensah reappeared to Alexander’s right, staff already raised.

Alexander spun in the air and threw out his cybernetic hand. A bolt of lightning streaked toward the Exalted.

Artensah’s arrogant smile returned. He swept a hand through the air, and the lightning began to arc as the wizard used the same spatial redirection magic as before.

Alexander flexed his fingers, and the bolt expanded, blooming into a crackling sphere as lightning raced outward in every direction. Parts of it struck Artensah’s shield and scattered harmlessly, but still partially disrupting the protective spell.

But the sphere also found a gap. The opening in the barrier that allowed the wizard to catch and redirect Alexander’s own attacks.

Lightning swept over Artensah’s side, crackling across his face, and causing the Exalted to flinch.

It was the first involuntary reaction Alexander had seen from the man.

Artensah teleported.

Alexander put on a burst of speed the instant Artensah reappeared, launching himself toward the wizard and sending two blade-drones hurtling from the swarm, position to attack Artensah from opposite sides.

The Exalted reacted fast, flicking his staff to one side and batting the first drone out of the air with a crack of magical force. The drone tumbled away, damaged but not destroyed. At the same time, Artensah drew a wand from his belt with his other hand and shot a bolt of fire at the second target.

The drone carved right through it.

Artensah’s eyes widened.

But before the Exalted could recast his shield or teleport again, Alexander reached into the drone with Technopathy and overrode its safety limiters.

The drone detonated, sending metal shrapnel and fire erupting in every direction.

Artensah threw up a barrier an instant too late, only managing to deflect the tail end of the explosion.

When the smoke cleared, Artensah hung in the air, blood running from a cut above his left eye where a fragment of metal had lodged itself. His robes were scorched all over, but the flames had only burned parts of his hands and forearms.

Still, it was the first blood Alexander had drawn from the Exalted.

The whispers resumed, colder now. “Clever tricks, Machine God. But tricks are all they are.”

Alexander grinned. He drew a few more drones to the fight, making them circle Artensah in a wide, threatening orbit, each one a potential bomb that the Exalted now had to respect.

He probably wouldn’t detonate another one. The drones were far too useful to be wasted on minor explosions.

But Artensah didn’t know that.

Alexander tensed, ready to launch into the next barrage when the sky darkened.

A Will descended across the battlefield, pressing down on everything beneath it as the air itself seemed to thicken in response.

Alexander felt his Domain contract involuntarily, compressing inward as the pressure bore down on him.

His breath caught. It was worse than when he’d faced Radiant. And he could tell it wasn’t even targeting him specifically. Instead, it was as though it held everything in the palm of its hand. The people. The fortress. The mountain. The sky.

All the fighting came to a halt. Highborn wizards faltered mid-cast. Annie’s wings missed a beat. Even his own drones wobbled in their trajectories.

Artensah’s eyes went wide. He turned and looked up into the sky.

“Empress…”

Alexander followed his gaze. High above, the palace’s underside had split open. A figure descended through the gap, small against the enormity of the structure, but falling with grace.

She radiated like a star. Golden threads poured from her in every direction, so dense they were visible even at this distance, forming a cascade of light that swept across the sky.

Then a sonic boom cracked.

Alexander’s eyes snapped downward. A blur of white tore upward from the fortress roof, accelerating so fast the air vaporized in a shockwave behind her. Caroline Delvane, arms at her sides, chin raised, rocketing toward the descending star.

With Electrokinesis pouring into his Core and enhancing all of his senses, he could see it. The almost feral grin on her face in the fraction of a moment it took for her to rise higher than where he and Artensah hovered.

Then the sky split apart.