by A F Kay
It only took Ruwen a few seconds to see something wrong. It also explained why the elite squad hadn’t wanted him too close. They probably assumed he’d been responsible for the temple destruction near the oil lake, and even though his armor differed, his cloak remained the same. He spoke to Elder Vachyl again in Chat. The revival baths look vaguely like ours. Not anything like the ones I saw at the Naktos temple.
Elder Vachyl responded a few seconds later. They resembled ours to fool us.
Yes, these are fake. Ruwen’s stomach clenched. What are you doing to prepare for an attack?
Most of our people are still in the Temple. It has locked all the exits.
Lir, why have you locked your doors?
Protocol 143.26.1 states—
Stop. Just tell me the reason.
I believe I am in danger.
Ruwen’s army had already moved out of the depression, quickly marching back to New Eiru, and Ruwen and his team joined them. He glanced at the dead bodies scattered across the ground, feeling guilty for leaving them there, even if it was only for a few hours. And while this might have functioned as a trap, it had also served as a distraction.
Ruwen desperately wanted to get back to the temple and see Hamma. He wanted to yell at her for being so stupid and hug her and tell her how sorry he was for failing them. She had sacrificed herself, taken an attribute penalty, and used who knew how many of her precious Prayer Points. Her sacrifice filled him with guilt.
Half the army had made it to the lake when Lir spoke to Ruwen again.
The disturbance now matches tunneling parameters, Lir said.
If they’re moving that fast, it must be a very small tunnel, Ruwen said.
I do not have enough data to confirm that.
Open at least one door to let troops out.
As you wish, Architect Starfield.
Ruwen spoke to Elder Vachyl. The temple senses tunneling. If they’ve moved over twenty-five hundred feet in less than two hours, it must be small. Likely their plan was to draw the main army out, and attack with a small force brought in with rapid tunneling.
That makes sense, Elder Vachyl said. We have a few thousand troops outside already.
The temple will open a door to allow more warriors out.
Excellent. We have done well, today.
Some of Ruwen’s anxiety disappeared. The enemy's plan had been clever, but through excellent planning and their own cleverness, along with some terrible sacrifices, they’d soon claim victory.
As the first troops neared the city and Ruwen came up on the lake, Lir spoke to Ruwen again.
Enforcing protocol 143.26.1, Lir said. I am under attack.
New Eiru’s city walls stood a hundred feet high, and the temple stretched another hundred feet higher than that. Ruwen stopped in shock as the temple sank out of sight.
The tunneling operation hadn’t been small after all. In fact, it had swallowed the entire temple.
Chapter 76
Ruwen focused on Whiskers, who had stayed in the city. The cat remained in its city scouting state and looked like a small house cat. From the view, Whiskers had hidden in a crack along the northeast wall. Ruwen could make out the distant gates, and what he saw filled him with dread.
A hole over five hundred feet wide had appeared in the center of New Eiru, filled with water. Ruwen watched as the top of the temple disappeared into the new lake. Naktos troops poured out of the east side of the lake, each group brought up through the water by a Haffa follower. The Haffa transporters would then move to the west side of the lake and dive, probably to fetch more Naktos troops. Every twentieth transporter didn’t have a group, but a mobile revival bath.
Ruwen focused Whiskers on the gates, and his stomach turned. Naktos had already taken control of the gates and enemy Mages sent Fighters up the walls at a dizzying pace. While troops had continuously exited the temple ever since the main army had departed, most of New Eiru’s people remained in the temple, trapped. Hundreds more had likely died when the lake formed. And most of the surrounding area, including the silos, were filled with Merchants, who were already dying.
The sound of combat erupted from the top of the wall and Ruwen could see it with his own eyes. At least fifty guards plummeted to their deaths as the Naktos attackers pushed them off. Shifting back to Whiskers, Ruwen counted over a thousand more troops, and they continued to arrive at a dizzying pace.
They had lost New Eiru.
And Ruwen’s army would soon be within striking distance of the now occupied city.
Ruwen focused on Elder Vachyl using Chat. Temple is underwater. City is occupied. Tell the Commanders to fall back to the crystal forest near the dungeon.
Elder Vachyl didn’t argue or demand details. At once.
Ruwen spoke to his team and the three groups of Void Band Workers he controlled. Retreat to the crystal forest north of the city. Spread the word.
What is your status, Lir? Ruwen asked as he sprinted around the lake and turned north toward the Shattered Sun dungeon.
I am dropping vertically at fifteen feet per second through a slurry of salt water and fine stone particles. My spatial value has dropped six significant digits in accuracy, and stream coherence is under ninety percent. All revivals have paused. I will require an Architect to recalibrate.
Elder Vachyl spoke to Ruwen through Chat. I don’t think we can help you. The Stone Mages say there is too much water outside the temple for their magic to be effective. The Water Mages say there is too much stone. I am reluctant to allow a Spatial Mage or Observer to move past the temple walls if the environment doesn’t warrant it.
Elder Vachyl’s update gave Ruwen cause to worry. Lir, can you block the enemy from teleporting into the temple?
I have blocked sixty-seven attempts already. The previous vibrational interference has ceased, and visibility has returned. I will reach the bottom of this hole in three minutes, reaching a depth of three thousand feet.
I thought we looked that deep with the Temple Guardians.
You requested the Guardian assigned to recheck under New Eiru.
When I wanted help saving Lylan at the cavern.
Yes.
Guilt threatened to overwhelm Ruwen, but the Overlord pushed it away. He might have been able to prevent this. But the more he thought about it, the faster the guilt faded. This attack had been executed with precision. With the speed they were tunneling, it was likely they hadn’t been under New Eiru until the last moment. It was as if they knew what would happen.
Ruwen stopped, causing his group to stop as well.
“What’s wrong?” Sift asked.
Ruwen’s skin prickled as understanding washed over him.
“He knew,” Ruwen said.
“Who knew?” Lylan asked.
Ruwen clenched his hands in frustration. “Uru’s Blessing. It was too big. Too obvious. He knew something would happen here. Probably before the war even started. Who knows how long they’ve been planning and practicing for this day.”
“You’re not making much sense,” Bliz said.
Clarysa and Colyn looked concerned, and Tremine had narrowed his eyes in thought. Xavier stared at the sun.
“Naktos, maybe Haffa, too,” Ruwen said. “They would have seen Uru’s Blessing reappear in multiple timelines.”
“That doesn’t help,” Sift said.
“It means I should have expected this,” Ruwen said. “I’m to blame.”
“Now that I understand,” Sift said.
Lylan punched Sift, who frowned and rubbed his shoulder.
“Let’s keep moving,” Ruwen said. “We’re almost to the crystals and then we can figure out how to fix this.”
As Ruwen ran again, he focused on Rami. It was Uru’s Blessing right? Impossible to miss when using the Architect Role to glimpse the future.
Probably, Rami said. The destruction of his underground temple by the oil lake also might have tipped him off. Or the maiming of one of his favorite artists.
Wow, I’m responsible for all those things.
I think you should expect that. Your destiny is to change the Universe. So this is only going to get worse. You need to prepare better and assume the other gods will have glimpsed pieces of your plans.
Have I already failed? Did I mess this up past fixing?
Without the temporal abilities of the Architect Role, Rami said, I have no way to know. And you still lack the experience to use or understand it. The good thing is you never planned for this, which means fewer possible timelines had your response. You could still surprise them.
Ruwen summarized his problems. There are over ten thousand enemy troops inside the city we just fortified. We’ve lost access to the temple and our ability to revive the dead. Naktos is already bringing his revival baths into the city and will soon have all the advantages we thought made us unbeatable.
After a slight pause, Rami responded. I never said it would be easy.
Can you give me a hint?
Mom already warned me to stay out of this. Rami paused and then added. You know everything she does is with a purpose.
Ruwen did know. The purpose in this case was to keep Rami from helping Uru’s Champion in life and death situations. A stipulation the other gods had forced on Blapy when they agreed to Rami and Ruwen’s bonding.
Taking back New Eiru seemed impossible. Thoughts of Hamma, trapped in the queue, made his heart ache. He’d thought they’d have reunited by now. Instead, he had been forced to retreat from his own city.
I have stopped falling, Lir said. The attacks on my hull have intensified.
Ruwen’s chest tightened in worry. What does that mean exactly?
If the enemy power expenditures remain constant, my integrity will collapse in two hours and thirteen minutes.
Can you fight back?
My offensive weaponry has long since been repurposed. Without an Architect to provide exact navigational parameters, I am stuck in my current location.
What happens if your integrity collapses?
I will lose coherence, the current revivals, and the revival queue.
When you say lose, do you mean die?
The queued are already dead. But their backups will be lost, and future revival will be impossible.
A groan escaped Ruwen, and his throat tightened.
Rami, please set a timer for two hours and twelve minutes.
If he didn’t figure out a way to retake New Eiru and save the temple in the next two hours, hundreds of thousands of people would die forever, including Hamma.
Chapter 77
Clapping Brawlers were the first layer of defense around the Shattered Sun, and they had redirected the army toward the lake. The Commanders had kept order and the army rested in organized rows, waiting for Ruwen’s commands.
Nineteen minutes had passed since Ruwen had received the terrible news. Phoenix had arrived, having sensed the massive disturbance at New Eiru. Ruwen had summoned the most experienced Commanders, and they stood among the large crystals along with Ruwen’s family and friends.
Ruwen removed his Overseer’s Cowl, explained the situation, and asked for solutions.
The only sounds came from weapons bumping into plate, leather armor creaking, and shifting feet on the small crystal shards that littered the ground. No one said a word.
Ruwen looked at Tremine. “Anything?”
Tremine frowned. “Attacking underground is out, as that is a Naktos specialty. If we could bring part of the mountain down, it might destroy the army, but could also increase the time to reach the temple. Fire is a weakness, but they have access to a lake, and could put out any flames. The walls are fortified, and even with so many Workers here, it would take too long to breach them. We just don’t have the power needed to make an assault viable.”
Ruwen listened to silence for thirty seconds before speaking again. “Forget about the city. Can we save the temple?”
“We don’t know what’s attacking the temple,” Clarysa said.
“The water pressure would crush your lungs long before you reached three thousand feet,” Tremine said.
“We have to assume Haffa’s troops guard it at that depth,” Colyn said. “So even if you made it down there somehow, you would not be safe.”
“If their purpose is to destroy the temple,” Lylan said. “Then they’ll have rigged the hole to collapse. It is useful to them right now, but if we somehow figure out a way to retrieve it, they’ll destroy the walls before we make much progress.”
“Phoenix?” Ruwen asked.
Phoenix rubbed his chin. “The problem is the salt water and stone slurry that surrounds the temple. There are no Cultivation experts in that for the same reason Uru doesn’t have Mud Mages. The combination is hard to manipulate. This is more proof that Naktos and Haffa have worked together for a long time.”
Ruwen wanted to collapse under all the bad news, but the Overlord kept him standing.
Phoenix looked sad. “While we can’t help with any attacks, we can help shield from a safe distance, and heal any wounded.”
Ruwen nodded. But there wouldn’t be any attack because the situation was hopeless. Anger and frustration filled him, and he wanted to scream. He knew another failure was imminent, because he wouldn’t allow Hamma and the hundreds of thousands of people still in the queue to die forever.
The Scarecrow would appear before that happened. He would use his Spirit to save them. And then doom them and everyone else, to obliteration by the gods.
Xavier floated ten feet away, still staring at the sun. The Celestial Remnant’s indifference to everything made Ruwen even angrier. “Xavier, what can you possibly see that’s more interesting than our survival?”
Xavier continued to look at the sun as he responded. “Your survival does not matter.”
Ruwen’s hands clenched.
“None of us matter,” Xavier said. “Long after we die, this sun will still shine. The power of light, filling the darkness, warming it, spreading life. That is what matters.”
The answer shocked Ruwen. He knew that Celestial Remnants were usually born in exploding stars, and he’d assumed Xavier was, in a way, staring at home. But the philosophical answer shocked Ruwen. And there was something else. A tiny pinpoint of cold in Ruwen’s mind that meant his Cleverness attribute had made a connection.
Ruwen sat, crossed his legs, and cleared his mind. He focused on Xavier’s words, repeating them in his head like a chant, waiting for the other threads to connect. Long after we die, this sun will still shine. The power of light, filling the darkness, warming it, spreading life. That is what matters.
Minutes passed, and Ruwen struggled to keep his thoughts clear as the time pressure squeezed him.
Rami’s last comment to Ruwen swirled around Xavier’s words. She had been talking about Blapy. You know everything she does is with a purpose.
Careful to keep the focus on Xavier’s and Rami’s words, Ruwen thought about his last few interactions with Blapy. She had bargained to give Fractal room to expand. She had forced Xavier on them. She had created the amazing dungeon mark for the Shattered Sun and this beautiful crystal entrance. She had created a portal to—
Ruwen stopped reminiscing as the pinpoint of cold grew into a shard. He examined the thought again. Blapy had created the amazing dungeon mark for the Shattered Sun and this beautiful crystal entrance.
Ruwen winced in pain and contemplated the obvious thing these memories had in common: the sun. He pulled up his right sleeve and willed the mark into visibility. The mark glowed and gave off heat.
Immediately another memory surfaced: Sift sitting in this exact crystal forest. Ruwen had thought the crystals looked like candles as they concentrated the moonlight at their tips. He had thought Sift was meditating, but he’d said this instead: Sifting the moonlight. These crystals reflect the light, which makes it easier…
Another memory exploded into Ruwen’s mind from immediately after Blapy had created the portal to Fractal. He pictured it again:
Smaller pieces of clear gem littered the ground, absorbing the moonlight, amplifying it, and giving the area a twilight feel eerily reminiscent of the Spirit Realm.
The common threads were the sun and the crystals. Ruwen grabbed his head as that thought caused a network of ice to crawl through his brain.
Memories came quickly. One of Ruwen firing Xavier’s spell back at the Celestial Remnant, a distant one of Tremine explaining optics and setting paper on fire with curved glass, and Ruwen using Harden to compress the Spirit in his Core.
Ruwen squeezed his temples and rocked back and forth in pain. He pushed Last Breath away, not wanting to interfere with his Cleverness attribute as it pieced all these unrelated memories into a solution.
The memories swirled in Ruwen’s head the sensation like razors shredding his mind. The pain became so intense that even the memories all blurred, and he rocked in place, groaning in agony.
With a sudden snap, like a leather belt pulled tight, the memories formed into an idea and his mind turned so cold it burned like magma. He gasped at the unbearable pain and passed out.
Chapter 78
Ruwen opened his eyes to find Sift shaking him. Sift sighed in relief and then narrowed his eyes. “What is wrong with you?”
“I have an idea,” Ruwen said.
Sift nodded. “Well, that explains it. Even your own body is trying to stop you now.”
Ruwen glanced at the timer. His idea had taken fifteen minutes to form, and he’d blacked out for another five. He only had eighty-two minutes to make this work.
The faces around Ruwen all looked concerned. He understood why, but for the first time he had hope, and didn’t want to take the time to explain. Instead, he would just show them.
Ruwen pulled on his Overseer’s Cowl, stood, and faced a direction with no people. He triggered Glow, increasing the ability to its brightest setting. Although there were much better options than this ability, he figured many of the Workers would have it.
Reaching down, Ruwen grabbed a crystal off the ground. The crystal was an inch thick and the length of his index finger. It looked flawless.
