Masters of Fate

by A. K. DuBoff

  I laughed. “I think all of us have changed our thinking about what’s really important.”

  Kaiden placed his hand on his abdomen. “With that said, we should probably eat before venturing out the save the universe.”

  “Very true,” Maris agreed. “A hero shouldn’t try to save the universe on an empty stomach.”

  I smiled. “Glad our priorities are in order.”

  23

  “Okay, are we ready to do this?” Fed and with my sword in hand, I looked around at the members of my team gathered around the Evangiel’s viewing-sphere.

  Kaiden nodded. “We should probably go before we realize this is insane.”

  “For the record, I am well aware how crazy it is,” Maris said. “But Hoofy agrees this will work, so I’m in.”

  “Whatever will get me back to my family,” Toran stated.

  “All right,” I said. “On three.”

  At the end of the countdown, we simultaneously placed our hands on the viewing-sphere.

  The plan was far from straightforward, but it was clear. We’d scout ahead via the 7D pathways to get back to the energy core chamber. Knowing now that the chamber was directly below the column we’d seen rising from the facility’s roof, we could guesstimate the core’s placement within a reasonable measure without having to return to the chamber itself. With any luck, Hoofy could help us drop in from 7D close enough to our destination that we wouldn’t need to remain in 6D for long. As soon as we’d established that location in our relative spacetime, we could begin the next phase.

  Reality unfolded around us, and the ethereal filament bridge resolved underfoot with the viewing-sphere floating between us.

  Hoofy was waiting nearby. “Come, we must move quickly.”

  I sheathed my sword, and we raced after him as he loped along the bridge toward our destination. The pathway branched and turned several times along the route. A few of the intersections seemed familiar, but it was clear to me that we’d be lost without Hoofy as a guide. As skeptical as I’d been about the unicorn at times, he was now an integral member of our team.

  Eventually, we neared the intersection of bridges I remembered from our previous extraction from the 6D plane. Seeing it now from a distance, the complex junctures reminded me somewhat of a tree.

  “This is as close as you can get from here,” Hoofy said.

  “Is the center of that intersection the energy core?” I asked. Something about the formation drew me in—a sense of great power within it.

  Hoofy shifted on his feet. “The core’s position is not a coincidence. Hurry, we don’t have long before your ship moves out from alignment.”

  Reality folded around us again, replaced by darkness. Slowly, my eyes began to adjust to our new surroundings. We were standing near the base of the power station wall in 6D, only four meters from one of the sentries.

  “Quiet,” I mouthed to my friends, hoping they could make out the instruction in the low light. I pointed upward toward the vine-cover wall.

  No sooner had I moved than a series of alien vocal clicks broke through the darkness.

  “Go!” I dashed to the wall with my friends, jumping as high as I could to get a head-start on the climb. A protective shell cast by Maris appeared around me, but I didn’t trust it to hold back the attacker.

  The Sap snapped at our heels as it started to climb the wall after us, far faster and nimbler than we were. All the same, I was happy we were in its plane so it couldn’t jump ahead of us like we experienced in the engagement back in our spacetime.

  I drew my sword and tried to swing at it, but it was too far away. Rather than waiting for it to catch up, I figured I should keep climbing and confront it on the level surface of the rooftop instead.

  Kaiden shot a crackling lightning beam downward to buy us extra time. As thankful as I was for the help, the use of magic in combination with my sword being drawn would likely draw every Sap in the vicinity to our location. So much for a stealthy entrance and exit.

  I reached the top of the wall and pulled myself over the lip. Leaping to my feet, I turned back to face the pursuing beast.

  Rather than one head, ten cleared the ledge.

  “Run!” I shouted to my friends. Toran’s telepathic resistance wouldn’t be enough to give us an edge against that many at once.

  “Where did they come from?” Maris yelped while heading for the facility’s central column up ahead.

  “No clue,” Kaiden replied while sprinting next to her. “Whose crazy plan was this?”

  I groaned. “Yours!”

  Toran jagged to the side two paces ahead of me. “Watch the hole.”

  We sidestepped the opening we’d ripped in the skylight on our last visit. I risked a glance over my shoulder and saw the ten Saps we fanning out into a semicircle to trap us. Their attention was fixed on us, and two were headed directly for the hole.

  A surprised yelp sounded a moment later as one dropped inside. The second jumped at the last second to avoid falling, leaving us with nine pursuers. To get an accurate location for the core chamber, we’d need time to get situated near the column, and that would be impossible with the Saps after us. We needed to fight.

  I came to an abrupt halt and dove sideways, positioning myself between the path of two Saps at the center of the pack. I angled the blade toward the creature on my right, the tip just grazing its chest as it reached me. The creature instantly began to dissolve, and I swung the sword to my left a moment before the other Sap could snap at me. The second creature turned to ash as my blade connected. Seven remained.

  My friends had stopped running and were positioning themselves back-to-back five meters from me. Five of the remaining Saps ran to surround them and two headed for me.

  “It will be ours,” a voice hissed in my mind.

  “You said that already.” I swung at the one closest to me, but it leaped back. “Not going so well for you.”

  “Submit.”

  “Nope.” I kept my gaze averted, lest they try a telepathic assault. I wasn’t sure eye contact was necessary, but it certainly seemed to make it easier for them to get control.

  The other Sap made a strike toward my legs, whipping its barbed tail up to slash my face.

  I leaned back to avoid the sharp point, and it missed me by mere centimeters. Recovering my balance from the sudden shift, I blindly thrust my sword toward where the creature’s torso should be. The blade met resistance, and a moment later the tail turned to ash as it flitted by.

  Letting out a growl, the remaining Sap backed out of my reach. “You are nothing without your blade.”

  “I’m not giving it up, so we won’t have to find out either way,” I replied in my mind.

  My limbs started to feel heavy, making it difficult to move. I sensed the creature’s control closing in around me. I tried to resist the telepathic influence as it beckoned me to turn my head and look at it. My sword was too heavy. I dropped my arm to my side, my grip loosening.

  “Elle, fight back!” Toran called in the distance. He seemed so far away.

  “This can all be over. Give in,” the voice urged me.

  It would be so easy to let go. I wouldn’t have to fight anymore. I wouldn’t have to be a hero. I was so tired from the stress and responsibility that had been weighing on me for weeks.

  For a moment, I was tempted. But the Saps didn’t understand that ‘easy’ wasn’t our way. We were driven by a deeper commitment, and I wouldn’t give up.

  I shook off the attempted telepathic seduction, charging the Sap. I swung for its neck, slicing off its head at the base of its skull before rounding on the others that were going after my friends.

  Kaiden and Maris were frozen in place while Toran desperately tried to protect them. I rushed to his aid.

  The five remaining Saps jumped backward as soon as they saw me, but I gave them no opportunity to retreat. I slashed at them, leaping and spinning to avoid their counterattacks. Eac
h disintegrated in turn as my blade made contact.

  Moments later, it was over. Only small piles of black dust offered any indication there had been a fight.

  “Wow,” Kaiden murmured. “Remind me to never upset you.”

  I smiled sweetly. “I’m unlikely to go into a murderous rage if you don’t pick up your laundry. Probably.”

  “No time for chit-chat!” Maris resumed running toward the central column.

  I took off full speed after her. More of the Saps would no doubt be after us any moment. We needed to get in position before they arrived.

  We ran the remaining distance to the column base, glancing over our shoulders occasionally to see if we were being pursued. By the time we reached the column base, a second wave of Saps was coming for us—at least three times the previous force.

  “Shit, we have to do this now!” Kaiden said.

  “Okay, let me make some estimates, hold on.” Toran assessed the column, looking around its side to gauge thickness and checking our rise relative to the roofline.

  The swarm of Saps was halfway across the open span. We had seconds before they’d be on us.

  “We have to go!” I urged.

  “This way.” Hoofy’s voice called to me, and reality folded into nothingness.

  With a flash, the view of a sandy plane resolved around me. I took an unsteady breath as I adjusted to being in my physical form again. The nausea was even more intense this time—possibly due to having a different exit point than where we transitioned into the higher plane—and I had to resist the urge to double over.

  My friends were looking rather green themselves.

  “Everyone okay?” I managed to ask.

  “Yeah,” Maris replied weakly. “That was too close.”

  Toran’s brow was furrowed. “I wish I’d had time to take proper measurements.”

  “It will be close enough,” Hoofy assured in our minds.

  “Yeah, based on that last disruptor explosion, this entire place will be ancient history,” I said. “Let’s just signal the Evangiel and get out of here.”

  “All right.” Toran beckoned us to him. “I believe the power core location would be approximately twenty meters below us relative to this plane.”

  “Okay.” Kaiden pressed behind his ear to open a shared comm channel. “We’re in position,” he said as soon as the connection chirped.

  No reply came at first.

  “We see you, Dark Sentinel team,” the Evangiel’s communications tech acknowledged. “Position marked. Shuttle is on its way.”

  This was the part of the plan that left us the most exposed. We had no way to transition back to the higher plane from here, so we had to wait for a shuttle to bring us back to the Evangiel. At that point, we could re-enter 7D through the ship’s viewing-sphere and then use those pathways to navigate to the location of the other sphere on the planet.

  I kept my sword drawn as a precaution. “Strange that the location is underground here.”

  “Not really. We can walk through walls as easily as stepping over a chalk line when we’re on the higher planes,” Kaiden said. “A lot more than that, actually.”

  “Still, knowing there are such different landscapes out of sight…” I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t witnessed those other planes myself. To have my awareness opened to such a broader perspective, this plane and everything I’d taken for granted in life seemed so restrictive now.

  “It’s incredible.” Maris traced the toe of her boot through the sand. She stopped and bent down. “Hey, this is more of that crushed crystal. A lot of it.”

  Now that she mentioned it, I realized the walls sloped upward slightly and we were actually at the bottom of a massive, shallow dish. Normal sand had blown in, but the presence of crystal was unmistakable upon closer inspection.

  “What was this place?” I wondered aloud.

  “A location of great influence,” Hoofy said, still nowhere to be seen. “When the Ancients still ruled this world, it was their holiest of sites—the nexus of their power. Those pure of spirit could use places like this to ascend to the higher planes, to become beings of pure consciousness. But, the Overlords tried to force their ascension through twisted means. They destroyed the crystals in the process, and these ruins are all that remain.”

  “Must have been beautiful to see so many crystals here,” Maris said.

  “I never saw it for myself, but the elders always spoke of the magnificent crystal tree that once stood here. Its branches still live on in the network of bridges. It is said that all planes could be accessed from this place.”

  My heart dropped. “Wait, all the planes?”

  “So it was said.”

  I shook my head. “No, no, no! If that’s true, then the spatial disruptor might not behave how we planned—5D on its own, boosted to 6D from the anomaly. But, if this epicenter has different properties, is it possible that it would take out the higher planes, too?”

  Toran paled. “I can’t say with any certainly that it wouldn’t.”

  “We have to call off this plan!” I cried. “The Saps aren’t the only hyperdimensional beings here. The bridges, the unicorns, the window maze…” My stomach turned over. How could we have overlooked that possibility before?

  “Eliminating this threat is more important than the preservation of one location. The hyperdimensional pathways can be rebuilt. Trapping the Overlords, however, is not an opportunity likely to come again.”

  I couldn’t believe how dismissive Hoofy was being. No wonder the other unicorns were furious with him.

  “Why didn’t you tell us this place was special?” Maris asked, distraught.

  “The others are content to turn a blind eye, but while I was trapped, I did nothing except watch the Overlords plot their dark designs. I have seen their evil spirits and know they will not stop until they achieve their goal. Temporarily relocating from our lands is a small price to pay, to make sure no other races suffer at the Overlords’ hands.”

  “Stars, this isn’t what I thought we were signing up for,” I murmured.

  “I did not mean to mislead you,” Hoofy said. “The sacredness of this place was spoiled long ago. Our actions now can finally begin to heal those past wrongs.”

  I wasn’t entirely convinced by his logic, but I did recognize the truth in the words. We held the power right now, and we’d vowed to do anything to save our worlds. Displacing the hyperdimensional beings on this planet wasn’t right, but allowing billions of others to die was a greater injustice.

  The roar of an approaching engine broke the silence, and I looked up to see our shuttle approaching on autopilot.

  “We have to move forward,” I said.

  My teammates gave grim nods of agreement. We were in the fight to the end.

  24

  “All right, Phase One: complete.” I settled into my usual seat on the shuttle.

  I still had misgivings about using the spatial disruptor in a place where it might result in collateral damage, but the more I thought about it, the more I found myself agreeing with Hoofy’s viewpoint.

  “Okay, so now we do it all over again?” Maris questioned.

  “More or less,” Kaiden replied.

  The most difficult parts of our mission were still to come. As soon as we were back on the Evangiel, we needed to reenter 7D and make our way to the location of the viewing-sphere on the planet. We would then transition back to our normal spacetime so we could send the pickup signal to the Sanctum, which would blast a hole to the chamber to serve as an egress point for us to take the planet’s viewing-sphere with us. At least, that was the plan. Given how not-swimmingly our first phase had gone with the unexpected attack, I had no illusions that accomplishing the next tasks would be any easier.

  Our shuttle flew on autopilot to the Evangiel’s main hangar. After completing the decontamination protocol, we quickly made our way to Central Command.

  Colren met us in th
e corridor outside the lift. “Well done,” he said as soon as he saw us. “We’ve run a geological survey of the site you identified, and we found a dense mass near the specified depth. We’ll use that as the target for the spatial disruptor when the time comes.”

  “Just have to get the viewing-sphere,” I said.

  He nodded. “The Sanctum is standing by to meet you. The Evangiel will be waiting at the pickup point.”

  “All right, we’ll see you again soon,” Kaiden said while we headed for the viewing chamber. He paused, giving us the look of someone potentially saying goodbye for the last time. “Thank you,” he murmured.

  “Just doing what’s needed.” I turned my attention to the task at hand.

  It felt like we were running in circles, but the viewing-spheres were the only way we could transition into the higher planes from our normal spacetime. Movement between the higher hyperdimensional planes after that initial transition seemed easy enough—at least with Hoofy’s guidance—but we had to work within the constraints of the system.

  Knowing the Saps would be going on the offensive and practically had eternity at their disposal compared to our present time passage, we hurriedly gathered around the viewing-sphere.

  “Ready?” I drew my sword, and my friends nodded. “Okay, on three…”

  As soon as I completed the countdown, we initiated the transition. The world unfolded around us and we returned to the filament bridge in 7D.

  “Welcome back,” Hoofy greeted us, trotting forward. “This way.”

  We ran down the bridge after him. I found my stomach settled faster this time, presumably because my body was getting used to the bizarre transitions. I still couldn’t believe what I was doing, let alone that I’d done it enough to be getting accustomed to it.

  Our path along the bridges took us further toward the right than our previous route. Based on how long we’d been running, I knew we must be getting close to our destination. I was just about to ask Hoofy how much longer it would be when the unicorn unexpectedly slowed his pace. Up ahead, a herd of two dozen unicorns blocked our path.