Chapter 301 - Sworn on the Stars

Chapter 301

Sworn on the Stars

Alexander stepped out of the portal, which vanished behind him, and back onto the fortress roof where Droney was waiting for him.

The avalanche filled the horizon above the fortress. A wall of snow and shattered rock and earth, grinding down the mountainside, close enough now that the sound of it drowned out most of the noise around them. Close enough that he could feel the vibration through the concrete and metal beneath his boots.

The team was spread across the roof.

Maximilian’s barriers formed a shrinking box around them, each new layer smaller than the last as the Dragon Lord gave ground. Skar’Vathos crouched behind him, wings folded, waiting.

Annie and Julia stood, backs turned, near one of the holes in the ceiling. Augustus stood near the other, waving his wand in arcs, materializing ethereal hands and using them as sacrificial limbs to catch spells aimed at the surrounding barrier. Titanic held the far side, arms outstretched, his invisible field catching spells and sending them back the way they came.

Above the barriers, Artensah and the other Exalted circled with dozens of reinforcements. Gold and black robes filled the sky, pouring fire into the shields.

Talia’s voice cut across the comms. “Caroline, now.”

“On my way.”

Augustus was the first to move. He dropped through the nearest hole in the roof without a word, spellbook following. Annie went next, wings flaring as she fell through. Julia reached the edge of a gap and stopped.

She looked at Alexander. A soft smile crossed her face, but she didn’t say anything. Then she dropped through the hole.

Skar’Vathos dissolved in a smattering of fading energy as Maximilian dismissed it. The Dragon Lord backed toward a hole in the roof, throwing up barrier after barrier, each set progressively smaller and tighter. Titanic followed him, arms still stretched wide, somehow deflecting attacks before they even reached the shields.

Alexander backed toward the same tear in the ceiling, watching Artensah, hovering in the air.

Their eyes met.

Alexander grinned and waved. “It’s been fun.” He frowned. “Except for the time you murdered an entire city of people. I’m still pretty pissed about that, actually.”

Artensah’s eyes narrowed. The whisper slid into Alexander’s mind one final time.

“That is only the beginning, Machine God. We are coming for your world. You cannot stop the Grand Exodus. Nothing can. And once we are settled on your planet, I will come for you and everyone you care for. I swear it on the Stars.”

Alexander’s grin slipped from his face. Before he could respond, a massive explosion tore through the air.

He turned.

Caroline burst out of the mountainside. Rock and snow erupted outward around her as she tore free, trailing debris. She’d hit the mountain from the other side, roughly halfway up, and punched all the way through, somehow shearing it in half at the same time.

Alexander’s eyes widened as the top half of the already diminished mountain began to slide toward them, joining the rest of the avalanche. The rumble was so loud now it drowned out the sound of his own breathing.

“We’re leaving, Rooke,” Maximilian shouted. “Right now.”

He and Titanic dropped through the hole in the ceiling. The barriers above began to fail one by one as the Exalted pressed the attack.

Alexander followed, Droney already flying ahead. Metallokinesis pulsed hard as he raced downward into the courtyard where he’d arrived a month ago. Where he’d first faced Keda, and finally killed Flashpoint. He glanced to the side, at the door that led to a jade healing pod, and wished he had time to grab it.

He’d forgotten to tell Augustus about it amid the chaos and other priorities. Hopefully he’d remembered to grab the OACS.

Ahead was the gateway. Through it, he could see home. The Sanctum, filled with metal barricades and turrets. And everyone else, already through, already safe, waiting for him.

A blur of white tore past him. Caroline beat him to the gateway by a full second, crossing the threshold while barely slowing.

Alexander rotated in the air just before the gateway. He swept out both arms and clenched his fingers into fists.

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The fortress answered. Metal walls folded inward. The ceiling compressed. Structural supports buckled and collapsed, tons of alloyed metal crushing down around the gateway from every direction, burying it under layers of the fortress’s own skeleton.

Alexander passed through the gateway a fraction of a second before the fortress collapsed entirely around it, sealing the opening behind him in a tomb of twisted metal.

He landed and slid to a stop. Reaching into the ring, he pulled out all the remaining alloy plates taken from the wizard world and sent them hurtling at the gateway. Already the metal from the other side was bulging as the avalanche crashed down onto the remains of the collapsed fortress. Plate after plate slammed across the face of the gateway, overlapping, before he began to fold them around the edges, top to bottom, left to right, Metallokinesis straining to hold them in place.

The others realized immediately what he was doing. Julia and Caroline raced over and braced the plates, adding their strength to his. Titanic raised both hands, presumably helping, though as always there was no visible evidence of what he was doing.

Augustus swept his wand through the air, and dozens of ethereal hands joined the effort.

Then Maximilian’s chains burst out of the alcove wall surrounding the gateway. They snaked between the others, wrapped twice around the gateway and the overlapping plates, then snapped taut.

The rumble bled through the metal and echoed off the walls of the Sanctum. Together, they pushed and pulled, holding back an entire mountain from another reality as it buried the gateway on the other side.

A minute later, the sound stopped, leaving the Sanctum surprisingly quiet but for the heavy breathing.

Alexander relaxed Metallokinesis slowly, easing the power away but ready to ramp it back up to full force in an instant.

The others did the same, one by one, until Caroline lowered her arms and landed in front of the gateway.

Before he could heave a sigh of relief, Alexander was assaulted on all sides. Julia. Annie. Augustus. Gabriel. Talia. Each of them piled on, arms wrapped around him and each other. Felix and Gilly joined the mix.

Everyone was speaking, each person raising their voice louder than the last.

Alexander closed his eyes and laughed.

***

Half an hour later, Alexander sat in his usual spot at the meeting room table.

The group hug had quickly devolved into a shouting match of questions, and while he’d tried to answer what he could, it was obvious he was going to spend the next few days being interrogated over and over again. After a month spent mostly alone with only Droney for company, he was surprisingly okay with that. Part of him still wanted to get back to the workshop, of course, because there was a lot to be done. But for once, that desire was drowned out by the need to spend time with his people.

Besides, there was going to be a lot he needed to get caught up on too.

The round table dominated the sub-basement room the way it always had, thick dark wood with holographic emitters built into its surface. Screens lined the far wall, cycling muted news feeds from all over the planet. Even silent, the images painted a picture. And it wasn’t pretty.

The snack bar beneath them had been raided shortly after everyone arrived. Annie had emptied the entire thing onto the table, apparently deciding that a full room required the full inventory. She occupied her usual seat with a small pile of opened packets in front of her, but for once her feet weren’t on the table.

Alexander had a feeling that was because of one particular guest.

Augustus sat immediately to his left, wand resting on the table. Julia sat to his right with his hand held in her lap, close enough that her shoulder occasionally brushed his. She still hadn’t said more than a few words since the reunion, but she hadn’t left his side either.

The rest of Grimnir had spread out around the table. Talia sat beside Jasmine, exhaustion visible in the tension around her eyes as the two spoke quietly. Gabriel sat with his hands folded and an appearance of calm, but Alexander could tell there was something forced about it. Carmen, Frank, and Helena occupied seats nearby, while Felix and Gilly completed Grimnir’s presence around the table. The pair had become familiar enough that a purple, winged alien and a blue, six-eyed alien no longer drew a second glance.

Their allies filled the spaces between them.

Caroline Delvane sat directly opposite Alexander. He was fairly certain she’d chosen the position deliberately. The gash across her face had already closed, leaving a nasty scar that would probably be gone by morning. Her arms, still marked by dozens of healing cuts, rested on the table while she watched him with an expression he couldn’t quite read.

Maximilian sat with golden eyes half-lidded, Raelene nearby, and Draven standing behind her chair with his arms crossed. Even here, he took his responsibility to protect the brain behind the Throne of Scales seriously.

Cash leaned against the wall near the doorway. Even with the serious atmosphere, Alexander caught him glancing at Annie every now and then.

He was going to have to speak to the speedster at some point. Annie could fight her own battles, and she’d probably tell him so if she knew what he was thinking, but it was more important now than ever to make sure anything between them was handled carefully. The alliance between their guilds was far too important for unnecessary complications.

The Ten of Clubs had been invited so he could relay the discussion to the rest of the Royals. The big man had merely grunted, taken up position against the wall, and crossed his arms.

Commander Lesley Hamment, leader of the Triple S mercenary group, rounded out the group.

Augustus had decided the man had earned a place, and Alexander concurred.

Technically, Grimnir had violated their contract when they pulled Triple S back from the Beastworld to assist in the defense against the wizards. He didn’t need to be a lawyer to understand the consequences of that.

But the man had committed his people to the fight without so much as mentioning the breach. They were mostly held in reserve, securing only the Sanctum on this side and the courtyard on the other, but even then a couple of them had been lost when the palace’s magic hit the fortress.

Grimnir would do what they could to make them whole, but death remained a finality that even all the power in the room could not undo.

Alexander looked around the table and took a deep breath. It was good to be home.

“Thank you for coming to get me,” he began. “I have so much to tell you. And I think I know what causes the cataclysm.”