Science and Sorcery Box Set

by Ryan Tang

  Bringer nodded along as Lonely identified obscure Lord after obscure Lord. The Flare Man idolized The Tooth Man, and his name was almost as idiotic.

  "You really do know the strength of every House."

  "Almost every House. I didn't know about you."

  "That was by design. I gave up on Ransom battles a long time ago. They are designed so that I'd never achieve my goal."

  "What goal?"

  Lonely thought that Bringer would finally start talking about the sphere, but instead, the brown-eyed man changed the subject again. It'd been the same yesterday. Bringer leaped from subject to subject with such speed that Lonely felt like he was treading on unsteady ground.

  "How important do you think your knowledge of every House is? It's the only thing that's allowed you to survive this long, is it not?"

  "I suppose."

  Because he'd baited so many arrogant Lords into attacking him at the beginning, he'd been able to build up a store for himself and Gallant. But now people knew better than to challenge him. It would have saved him for good if he'd brought down The Tooth Man with his team, but his plan had failed.

  Bringer's voice was bitter.

  "When we arrive on Old Earth, what will matter more? Another warrior? Another brainless thug like The Tooth Man? Or someone who can gather our forces together, someone who can identify the enemy's weaknesses, someone who can tell us whether or not we are likely to win a battle? Of course, you are more valuable! The Constellation claims to believe in survival of the fittest. But there are different kinds of fitness."

  The man's praise made Lonely feel good despite his suspicion. He was slowly starting to put things together. It still felt like the man wanted to use him as an advisor. Lonely's knowledge of all the Houses was the only possible thing that set him apart from the rest. He also had his piloting skills, but that mattered little in the face of Liquid State Eternium.

  Bringer pointed back at the screen.

  "Our current Constellation is weak and full of hypocrisies. All these things they say. The Lords are the freest and the greatest. Do you feel free? Do you feel great? Do you feel like we can crush the Ignorants who are supposedly far below us? I do not. We have only valued one kind of strength, and single combat will do us little to no good in the great fleet battles we'll need to fight against Old Earth. And even when considering single combat, there are far better ways than Ransom battles."

  Bringer spat on the floor.

  "We are not the finest warriors who ever lived. The Singer has grown weak and complacent. New stars like your sister and All Range will be wasted as well, withered away from lack of practice. They aren't even teaching the children about House battles anymore. Imagine what would happen if we flew to the colonies and challenged their finest warriors to Ransom battles."

  The angry rant continued, and Lonely found himself captivated by Bringer's passionate words.

  "'The Constellation is a crucible from which the brightest stars emerge!' Have you heard that line before?"

  Bringer gave a bitter laugh.

  "Think back to my battle against The Tooth Man. I beat him. I collected his ransom. But nothing has changed, nor did either of us get stronger. Now, if The Tooth Man intended to fight me again, then he would train and grow more powerful. But he won't do that. He'll just pick on the weak to regain his strength. He'll hope my ranking doesn't rise higher than his. As long as it doesn't, I can't challenge him. Pillaging the weak is the most effective way to raise your so-called score. When was the last time you saw a real upset? We tried to create a world where warriors trained endlessly. Instead, we created one where the lazy strong prey on the helpless weak. That is the result of each Lord searching for their self-interest."

  Everything Bringer said was known, but Lonely hadn't thought about it so explicitly before. Even one of the most exciting fights of the last few years, the Surgeon against The Tooth Man, had been a rather one-sided affair. The Surgeon had mercilessly pierced The Tooth Man's joints, leaving his Paragon a shambling wreck. And she'd only challenged him because she'd gotten annoyed by his boorish behavior. Otherwise, Lords in the top 10 rarely fought each other.

  Bringer stared into the night.

  "Even in single combat, the area the Constellation pretends to prize, we are weak. The Lady in Blue was able to defeat a machine infused with Liquid State Eternium. Did you know that? And she grows stronger with every passing day."

  It must have been his Familiar that allowed Bringer to see Old Earth. Lonely wondered what the sphere would let him do.

  "Soon, House battles will be completely forgotten. The Constellation's best Ransom battlers have been trying to erase House battles from history for decades now. Yes. House battles are terrible and destructive. But war is destructive. It's not a game like our Ransom battles. What will our battle for Old Earth be? A House battle? Or a Ransom battle? We are training for something that does not exist, and not even doing a good job training for it in the first place."

  The plain-faced man put a comforting hand on Lonely's shoulder.

  "And besides. Many good warriors fall through the Ransom battle cracks. The Constellation would rather waste you than put you in your rightful place."

  Lonely shivered and brushed the hand off.

  The man smiled. He looked bemused.

  "Sorry about that. Let's turn back to my lovely map."

  He gestured, and all the Castlecraft became specks again.

  "We only have one hope for success. We must unify the Constellation!"

  The words sprang out of Lonely's mouth, practically unbidden. He didn't truly believe the words he spoke, but it was what he'd been taught his whole life.

  "The most important thing is for each Lord to pursue his own goals and self-interest. No Lord would receive instruction from another, especially when it comes to the Conquest. Otherwise, we wouldn't be the freest and greatest."

  Bringer chuckled.

  "Even the victim repeats the words he was taught since he was just a boy. But this is my goal. This is my self-interest. I wish to forge a new Constellation. A Constellation where the Conquest will actually happen. A Constellation where the Lords are united under a single banner. We will develop truly strong warriors by forcing our best to fight each other. We will teach and treasure our brilliant strategists instead of disdaining them."

  He pointed outside and grinned like a little boy.

  "I will create a single kingdom before the stars, and you are just the man to help me do it. We won't be able to control the Lords with Ransoms. The only Nobles who fall for that trap are those like you, due to the quirks with the rankings. But a House battle will allow us to threaten anyone we want."

  Bringer held the sphere out again, and this time he let Lonely take it. The dull metal was clearly Eternium, but it'd somehow lost its shine. He turned it around in his hand. The sphere was so smooth it was a little hard to grip. It slipped between his fingers. It felt strangely heavy in spite of the small size. The metal was wholly unique.

  "You're aware of the Abandoned Six, right?"

  "Yeah."

  "Hatred. This sphere's Aspect is Hatred."

  Lonely's eyes narrowed. Hatred was one of the strongest gods, if not the strongest after Chaos, but he'd been lost before even the Nobles' exile. He'd fallen during the destruction of Old Earth.

  "You hate the Constellation, right?"

  "I wouldn't say..."

  Lonely trailed off, and Bringer giggled again.

  "You don't hate it? Not after our conversation today? But before, when you realized how they'd treat you?"

  Lonely supposed that he did hate it. And it didn't hurt to admit it to himself or to this man. He still wasn't sure how Bringer planned on using him, but right now, it seemed like he had to take the strange man's whims seriously to find out what the sphere did.

  "Grip the sphere tightly and hate."

  Lonely did. He thought about The Tooth Man and how he was little more than a bully and a vulture. If only he had a F
amiliar, The Tooth Man would be freefalling down the standings to his demise. He thought of Drowsy, Scry True, and Forever. They'd abandoned him at the last moment. They called him a Freak and an Ignorant.

  It only would have taken a single kick.

  The sphere seared in his hand until it became so hot it seemed like the metal had burned itself through his skin. Lonely's eyes widened. Then the heat disappeared all at once. For a few moments, nothing happened, but Lonely knew better than to ask. A question right now would only earn another bemused comment from Bringer.

  The wall on the far side of the room crumbled to pieces, and the plain-faced man clapped his hands in joy.

  "Thank you! Thank you! I'd been meaning to do some remodeling."

  The room on the other side was identical to this one. Now that the wall had crumpled, the two screens connected seamlessly together. A strange rotting smell suddenly blew through the room. Bringer winced and pinched his nose.

  "Agh. Nothing I could do about the smell. Corrupted Eternium will always smell worse than shit."

  When Lonely stepped forward, the other man hastily waved him off.

  "No. No. No. It's poisonous. Don't go near it."

  Lonely hastily stepped back.

  "How does it work?"

  Bringer pulled an identical orb out of his bag.

  "Once you put a shard of Eternium inside, the orb amplifies your hatred. It allows you to destroy all Eternium just like it, no matter how far it may be. The orb you have right now was set to destroy my wall. It won't work on the rest of my home, of course, I won't let my own sword skewer me. I had someone come and make that wall for me."

  Then the plain-faced man smiled and put his hand in his pocket again. He withdrew it and handed over an unmistakable shard of indigo and blue Eternium. He threw. The shard of The Tooth Man's Eternium plinked against the sphere in Lonely's hand. The smooth surface rippled and then absorbed the Eternium shard completely.

  "Imagine if you used this on a Paragon. Or better yet, a Castlecraft. Of course, it'll be different when you use the sphere from farther out. If you'd used the sphere from your house, the wall would have taken a day or two to fall. It'll take time for everything to crumble, but crumble it will. We will bring down this hated Constellation together."

  CHAPTER 7: BIG BROTHER

  The shots bounced ineffectively off of his entrenched position behind the massive asteroid. Lonely smiled and prepared his counterattack.

  Bringer's simulator perfectly replicated all properties of a Lord's Paragon, Familiar, Aspect, and Sinsworn Armies. In addition to the practice consoles, Bringer had given the siblings a hundred strong Sinsworn from his personal collection. The simulator now reflected that Lonely and Gallant had 51 Sinsworn each. Lonely still didn't understand why the mysterious man wanted to ally with them so badly, but it wasn't as if their House had a choice. If they refused, Bringer would destroy them. And besides, the plain-faced man had a point. The Constellation, which prized men like The Tooth Man, deserved to burn. The young Noble smiled. If all went well, he wouldn't have to worry about The Tooth Man for much longer.

  Lonely surgically portioned off part of his mind, assigning it to the Sinsworn at the very edge of his squadron. He needed to make more complex maneuvers with that one. Commanding Sinsworn was much like commanding Eternium. The spinning core of the Paragon drones linked directly to your mind, but manipulating them while also managing your personal machine was a formidable task.

  The others he planned on sending in a generic wave. Controlling more than three units at a time was considered virtually impossible. Sinsworn battles often came down to mass-fire tactics. The stronger the will, the more machines you could finely control.

  The selected machine end split away from the others, unleashing a torrent of gunfire to cover for its diving allies. The other machines held their fire. Once they got into range, the massive barrage of gunfire could end the fight immediately. In a House battle, strategy reigned supreme. Lonely's heart sang with excitement. In a House battle, you could win even if you didn't have a Familiar.

  Gallant whirled towards Lonely's revealed units. She let out a cry of enthusiasm as her jellyfish-like machine swirled into battle. Gallant's drones charged behind it, morphing and twisting with every second. Lonely wasn't the only one who benefited from House battles. It was almost like the two siblings had been born for them. Gallant's overpowering emotions never dissolved her Sinsworn. Instead, they manifested themselves in a series of increasingly bizarre mutations. The black Paragon dove directly in front of Lonely and split its arms into four writhing tentacles, each with a razor-sharp Eternium stinger at the end. The machine directly behind it loomed high above every other Paragon on the battlefield. Its legs had lengthened and narrowed, transforming into an enormous pair of stilts. Gunfire rained down from the improved vantage point. Lonely beat a hasty retreat. Gallant giggled, and then her jellyfish sprouted swords at the end of each of its eight tendrils.

  It was indubitably impressive, but Lonely could do her one better. In the world of single combat, there was no way he could overcome his younger sister. But here, he had ranged weapons and strategy.

  Lonely raised the rifle on his personal machine and aimed loosely for Gallant's amorphous command unit. He fired, once, twice, then three times.

  The tassels flew up and effortlessly deflected the blows. Gallant hooted in excitement.

  "Get over here, Big Bro!"

  She charged forward, even further past her line of transforming soldiers, and right into Lonely's trap. His charging Sinsworn raised their rifles all at once and repeatedly fired in unison.

  Gallant cried in shock. The tassels lashed out, but the gunfire was simply too relentless. The swords plinked again and again. Before long, bullets started streaking back out from the flurry of blades. Gallant had cleverly transformed some of her tassels into revolvers so she could mount a counterattack. But as the barrage continued, she stopped paying attention to her Sinsworn soldiers. The majority of the half-transfigured machines stopped moving at all. They hung uselessly in the air. A few stumbled half-heartedly forward, but it wasn't any use.

  Lonely easily picked off the immobile machines, firing careful shots straight into their cores.

  Somehow, Gallant broke through Lonely's barrage before he decimated her army. His sister let out a high-pitched cry of triumph. Her Paragon must have spouted over fifty tentacles. Lonely could see his sister's machine starting to fizzle. The Paragon simulators could even recognize when Gallant's emotions were getting the best of her.

  "Yes! I got you this time Big Bro! Watch out!"

  His sister was completely oblivious to the Sinsworn Lonely had concealed almost directly behind her.

  He drew his sword, but only as a distraction.

  Gallant began to shout, calling for her Finisher.

  Two shots straight to the cockpit later, and the simulation was over.

  "What?"

  Gallant threw up her hands in surprise. Then she groaned when she realized what had happened.

  "Big Bro! How do you keep winning? I can never beat your plans! This is so much harder than a regular fight!"

  Lonely smiled. It was the first time Gallant had ever said something like that. Lonely had won a few of their duels before. He could beat Gallant sometimes when his sister didn't use her Familiar, but that was just cheating. It was just Gallant going easy on him so he could win.

  But in the House battles, Lonely had won six out of their six fights. He had similar success against the AI's training module. By now, he was taking matches even on the highest difficulty setting.

  In the drooping half-tank half-bubble, Gallant's Familiar hissed angrily as it slowly tore apart a piece of bloody red meat. Gallant would never express disappointment at a loss, but her Familiar felt free to vent away a portion of her master's frustration.

  Gallant groaned and reached for a book.

  "Alright. Let's see what this text has to say about squadron battles."

&nb
sp; The two of them still had so much to learn about Sinsworn tactics.

  Bringer had given them massive tomes that discussed everything from individual squadron tactics to the movements of entire fleets. There was a seemingly endless record of the most famous battles ever fought. Lonely couldn't believe he hadn't learned this at school. He couldn't understand why Gallant was learning about Thel rolling around in bed. This was what the Nobles needed to know for the Conquest. This was the real war. The Ransom battles he'd spent his whole life losing were only a stupid game.

  Gallant frowned as she stared at the page.

  "What does this mean? How do I defend against a flank? I don't even know what a flank is!"

  "It's when you bring a machine around the side to catch someone on the back."

  "Oh, is that how you beat me?"

  Lonely laughed.

  "Sort of. To be honest, I just got lucky there. I hadn't meant to do that. I just took advantage when you got distracted."

  He still had a long way to go. Lonely intended to be the greatest Sinsworn commander in the entire Constellation. In a House battle, plans actually mattered. Commanding the Sinsworn drones was just like commanding the losers he'd scraped together to fight The Tooth Man, only the drones wouldn't betray him.

  Gallant threw the book aside.

  "Man. Even just keeping track of where all the enemies are is hard!"

  It wasn't a problem for Lonely. Lonely had spent his entire life keeping track of where his enemies were. After all, a single stray blow to his Familiar-less Paragon meant instant defeat.

  Lonely smiled and walked over to Gallant's control panel.

  "Look. You're too focused on your own machine."

  "But my machine is the best!"