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by Matthew Siege

  "And your punishment was the floating orb shit, right? You know, having to teach beginners the basics, and all of that."

  "That was our penance, yes. The thirteen challengers who were consigned to the Citadel at the time of our transgression. The rest of our race was enslaved."

  I leaned against one of the columns, suddenly not caring that there was water cascading down my back and along my bow. "Holy shit..."

  "Holy shit indeed. Our misfortune is to your advantage, though. We would not have knowledge of this Nursery, were it not for our loss. The Evvex are blind to it."

  I nodded. I'd already put some of that together. All the bastard that had shoved its way into my mind had wanted to know was where I was. It sure didn't act like it was used to not being able to locate a challenger, blaming the Yvarre'en immediately. "Nursery, huh?"

  "We currently reside in a sanctuary. The Citadel we occupy will soon spawn others, and whoever controls the top floor will be the only race to influence their location and temperament."

  That sounded like bad news for everybody, not that I'd be around to see it happen. "I'll admit that doesn't bode well, but the place you're calling a sanctuary has been a fucking gauntlet. Sentient plants, deadly assassins, this gigantic blob of goop that sucked me up... It wasn't exactly a walk in the park, Toot."

  He shrugged, but this time he'd had enough practice that the gesture looked natural on him. "It wasn't meant to be. And, as a point of order, the 'goop' did not 'suck you up'. You stood your ground willingly and allowed yourself to be absorbed."

  I shut my mouth and turned my brain on. He was right, of course. But the way he was saying it was like he was handing me the key, and I spent a moment scanning for locks instead of yapping. "You guys, the Yvarre'en, set all of this up for me."

  "Yes."

  "And you tricked the Anulkins into standing guard."

  He sighed. "The plural of Anulkin is still Anulkin, but you are otherwise correct."

  I smiled and shook my head. "And those fucking bombs that magically appeared. The Veldan Exploders. You put them there."

  "True."

  "What would have happened if I had used them?"

  "You already know."

  I nodded. "The ooze was holding back a tsunami of water. If I'd been dumb enough to blast a hole in it, I'd have been washed over the falls, hitting the ground without the benefit of the gelatinous thing's shock absorption."

  "Adam?"

  "Yeah?"

  "If you keep making sense, I will be forced to regret my vote against you. We were trying to teach you that sometimes the only way to win is to change your goal."

  "And the nightmare I had to endure across the black squares, just now? What was that supposed to prove?"

  "You are an interesting specimen. You are dying. There are ways to prolong your life, but you refuse them. Why?"

  I got angrier than I was ready to deal with. "Because wasting away, my skin bruising at the slightest touch while I puke up half my food and can't shit the other half out isn't 'living'. Neither is watching the people you love wish you were already in the ground so that they could stop hurting."

  I felt his hand on my shoulder. It was warm, and he gently dragged me away from the water and the column to stand in the bright, open space between them. "Is crawling on your hands and knees, breathing poisonous air and tearing your flesh to ribbons for your trouble closer to your definition of living, then?"

  "No. Of course not."

  "And what of offering your body to the egg in your last moment, should it require more sustenance than the water could provide?"

  "That was different! If I had to go, at least it could mean something. I had to at least try to protect the egg..." And there it was, my light bulb moment. Toot had been straight up telling me that my experiences beyond the Glade had been specifically designed to manipulate me, and I was only now seeing how deep that went.

  Toot held out his hands in a futile gesture that he absolutely nailed. "Anger is understandable, but we had to see if you were worthy."

  "You play God with me, and I'm supposed to feel sorry for you motherfuckers, is that it?" I wanted to take a swing at him, but all I'd do was bust my hand. No, you know what? Fuck it. I planted my feet and hit him hard. He was too tall for me to target the skull, and my fist smacked into a space on his metal torso just above the origin of his voice.

  It hurt. A lot.

  -2 Hit Points

  -3 Dexterity

  Toot staggered, though I think he did that simply to make me feel better. "You misunderstand. The Yvarre'en's time is over. We need your time to be better spent."

  I threw up my arms, wincing as I did so. "Why? You said it yourself man, I'm dying. If you want to improve somebody from Earth so bad, why not talk to Atlas or Neve or Sabine? How can you assholes be so smart and not see that there's no return on your investment with me?"

  Without warning, one of his hands knifed through the air in an unmistakable request for silence. He cocked his dead skull to one side as if listening, the rest of his body instantly quiet.

  I didn't dare move. I even held my breath for as long as I could and stretched out with my senses, though all I heard was the sound of endless water sliding down the lesser Citadels.

  "Did you tell them where we were?" His angry whisper was so severe I had to fight to hold my ground.

  "Of course not! And who?"

  He shuddered for a moment, a mechanical nervous tic that made me think he was ramming more computations through his mainframe than it was built for. "If not, how have they found us?"

  Now I did hear something, a hiss of air and a faint splash in the distance where before there had been only soft patter. One by one I saw bulky forms materialize from the shadows, lit from beneath by the ground.

  No two were alike. Some dripped with tentacles. Another unfolded bladed wings and unslung a rifle from where he'd strapped it to his side.

  The closest had a thick braid of wires trailing from the back of his head to his spine, and he pointed at me. ->You told me to 'shut the fuck up' when you arrived in the Citadel, human. I am here to see if you can make me.<-

  "Kreeg," Toot breathed with something close to reverence. "How?"

  The Evvex were all around us. I turned around in place slowly and counted them.

  Thirteen. Every last one of them.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  I was surprised when, after all of the sarcasm, Toot deferred to me. "What should we do?"

  "We fight."

  If the skull could smile, it would have been smiling now. "They are ruthless adversaries that have crafted themselves from pieces of the vanquished. No single tactic will work against them all. Fail to dispatch them if you have the chance and you won't get another."

  "When I have the chance, you mean."

  "I am aware of the linguistic subtlety and yet I stand by what I said."

  The Evvex were clearly enjoying this, taking their time as they slowly closed the distance between us.

  I'd counted thirteen before, but I was wrong. One of the Evvex held a chain that trailed off into the distance. I followed it with my gaze to where a new, familiar shape now caught the light in the background. Bloody and broken, the tank-like ant XAR I'd blown up in the duel stumbled pitifully forward as his handler advanced.

  All of the air went out of me. I'd killed that one, which meant that I was his Nemesis.

  Which meant that he could find me... I pointed at the XAR. "Toot?"

  "Yes?"

  "You know that duel I had? The one you said were unable to observe?"

  "Let me guess, Adam. You slayed that one?"

  "Yep. I slayed him into little tiny pieces."

  "That explains the Evvex. They used him to track you. The only thing that can overwhelm Citadel defenses are abilities purchased from the Citadel itself. At least your inability to foresee this as a consequence of your actions justifies my vote. Thank you for that..."

  "What happens if I die in here?" I asked h
im.

  "You will respawn in the Glade after waiting your allotted time. What you should be asking is what happens to the Relic now that the Evvex are here. The answer is simple. It belongs to whoever possesses it."

  Right. Of course.

  Shit.

  "Well, where is the fucking thing, then?"

  "It will make itself known. It cannot hide, nor may it select one victor over another."

  Now or never, then. I reached into my pocket as surreptitiously as I could and pressed the button in the middle of the Summoning Stone. If the Evvex saw what I was doing, I was a goner.

  You may summon one willing ally from your Faction. Who shall it be?

  Up until now I had been thinking of magic as nothing more than glorified adrenaline, simply adding it to the mix for a burst of speed or strength. Now though, I reached into the stone and threw everything I had at it. If it overloaded and took me out with it along the way, at least I'd have died trying.

  The magic I was manipulating burned like fire. Ran through my veins like acid, but I didn't let up.

  Skill: Stratagem

  New Score - Thirty-Six

  Skill: Catalyze

  New Score - Nine

  You may summon two willing allies from y—

  You may summon three willing allies f—

  You may summon four willing allies from your Faction. Who shall they be?

  Pushing for more than that seemed foolish, especially since I didn't know if Neve and the abductees would be counted as part of my Faction. Sabine, Lucas, Atlas, Isaac!

  I'd been expecting at least a couple of them to not be in the Citadel at the moment, but I lucked out when all four of them snapped into being right beside me.

  Gasping for breath, I managed to choke out, "I'd love to give you all more of an explanation, but the skull guy's a friend. The other ones are not."

  Yes, we were badly outgunned and woefully outnumbered, but I couldn't help but feel a wave of relief just the same when I saw the determined looks on each of their faces.

  Thankfully, dispute the suddenness of their arrival, they were ready to go. Sabine smacked her hands together and ignited that crazy blue fire.

  Kreeg, the Evvex with the wire dreadlocks, was the quickest to engage, flanked by three more. He was acting like the leader, and Atlas stepped toward him and roared.

  I thought perhaps the sound was designed to intimidate, but I watched as corners of some of the baby Citadels near us cracked and splintered. The pieces that fell to the ground didn't stop there, skittering to him and climbing quickly up his form. They lined his limbs and added mass to his body.

  I'd never seen Atlas use his powers before, and I watched in awe as more and more of the black rock integrated with that which was already on him, each piece fitting perfectly to encase him in armor composed of the same stuff the Citadel was made of.

  "We got a destination?" he asked as the stones slotted themselves in around his neck, some of them climbing higher. Judging by the urgency of his tone, communicating with him would soon be harder.

  "We're here for a Relic. I think you'll know it when you see it," I told him.

  "It is here," said Toot. Ahead of us, beyond Atlas, past the now-charging Kreeg and farther even than the woeful XAR, a towering Citadel was lowering itself into the ground. Atop it was a sphere of golden power, radiating light and heat and sound in every direction.

  Over that noise I heard a sizzle of power as Lucas dumped energy into his enhancements. He hadn't said anything to me yet, but I hoped that was because he was focused on the task at hand and not due to any grudge still held against me.

  He and Sabine were a good pairing. Atlas was picking up speed, and Lucas and our Blitzer were right behind him. Toot and I raced after, with Isaac bringing up the rear.

  He was speaking to my mind as well, using his Telepathist powers as we ran.

  Yeah.

 

  Yep.

 

  Sounds about right. Apparently, that's Kreeg. You missed it but we've already traded threats.

  Kreeg began to glow with a flickering yellow light that made him easier to focus on.

  Before I could answer, Toot surprised me by aiming his arm over Sabine's shoulder. The whole thing then rotated smoothly on a cunning strut at the elbow, his hand swapping with his bicep and his bicep unfolding into the long barrel of an energy weapon. "Mind your heads, everyone," he said politely, launching a withering barrage of projectiles ahead of us.

  "So much for being forced into the role of helpless bystander, huh?" I called out to him.

  "I guess I feel guilty for correctly voting against you." Wherever the salvo struck began to glow orange, and one of the Evvex to the left of Kreeg was already howling as the energy ate him up.

  My shout of triumph died in my throat as an Evvex with dozens of slavering jaws lining its body reached over and grabbed the edge of the other one's wound, tearing the glow away. The one Toot had shot was injured, sure, but that didn't stop him from spitting something foully viscous into his hands and smearing it on his wounds.

  Toot fired again, but a smaller Evvex leapt into the path of the salvo and did, well, something. One moment the air was a blur, and the next there were a dozen or so orange blobs sputtering motionless in the air between us and them.

  I felt my jaw practically hit the floor as the creature batted a few of the hovering energy projectiles out of his way. Atlas skidded to a halt, and we all pulled up short as well.

  "Guys?" he called back, over his shoulder. His voice was hollow, but at least we could make it out. "You're all seeing the same thing as me, right? That one's not dying anymore, and that other one is treating that crap our robot shot at them like it's a damn pinata."

  Whatever bullshit I had been trying to believe about us having a chance of winning in a shootout died right there. It was a race, pure and simple.

  "I need you to buy me some time, Atlas."

  "You're the boss..."

  Now that we had stopped our forward momentum, it gave the Evvex that had been trailing time to start assembling something that looked disturbingly like a piece of artillery from a number of components they'd been carrying on their back.

  This shit gets worse by the second...

  Isaac thought at me.

  Isaac, can you mess with their heads, or anything?

 

  Toot says they incorporate pieces of their victims.

 

  Hop around inside the good guys' heads then, okay? Let them know that the only way we win is if one of us gets to that Relic first. Everything else is pointless.

 

  The platform was no longer sinking. Instead, all of the Citadels around it were pushing even closer. They built a square staircase all around it, until I was staring up at something that reminded me of a Mayan pyramid.

  The Relic was even brighter now, its glowing radiance so overwhelming that it hurt to even look at it. When I fought through the pain, narrowing my eyes to squint through involuntary tears, I saw shapes flickering within. They grew clearer, and then they rushed through my soul and seared themselves across my eyeballs like a brand.

  It was as if there were a dozen different movies being played over the top of one another. Kreeg looking smug, playfully tossing the Relic from one hand to the other. Then it was back on the pedestal a
nd Sabine was dying across it, the huge wound in her chest painting it crimson. Then Kreeg again, this time using the object of our desire to smash Toot's skull to dust.

  I saw a vision of myself up there too, diving for a Relic that ran with blood and winning the race.

  "It sees what may yet happen," Toot said from beside me, snapping me out of my head. "Only one of the visions is real, though all are equally possible at the time of viewing."

  I don't think he intended for that to inspire me, but it did anyway. There were obviously a lot of ways the shit had been shown hitting the proverbial fan, but one of the outcomes clearly portrayed me gaining possession. "So you're saying there's a chance," I said to him, unable to resist throwing in a wink.

  Toot's skull stared at me in the ultimate deadpan. "I did not think of it that way, but I suppose I am."

  The artillery was almost complete. I watched as steam and vital fluid pumped through its frame, allowing it to extend stumpy legs and load itself with a heavy shell that lay beside it.

  I had no way of knowing what it did, but the other Evvex were suddenly very interested in giving us a wide berth.

  "Let's take that thing out," I said, reaching into my quiver and concentrating on something explosive. The heavy arrow that manifested in my hand felt like it'd pack a punch, but it was too early to worry about how much damage it would do. After seeing Toot's shots frozen in the air, I wasn't holding out much hope for mine.

  But that was where Atlas came in. "Try leading with something weaker," he rumbled. "And let me do my thing."

  I took his advice and replaced the first arrow with a second. This one was as mundane as they came, though I aimed and fired it with malicious intent. Right on cue, the same damn stunted Evvex that had stopped Toot's energy slugs hopped over.

  As expected, it froze my arrow with ease. Unfortunately for it, the next thing flying through the air was Atlas himself as he launched his body mass at the troublesome alien. They went down in a crunching tumble, and I thought the Earthling was getting the better of the fight.