Zelda’s eyes widened at the calamity approaching them. Until this point, she’d managed to bury negative emotions beneath frantic activity as she often did. No inconveniently timed flashbacks to losing Rodrick. No despondence. No panic. Just tackling one task after another until there was nothing left to do.

  Seeing the lightning strike educated her expectations. She’d heard the word ‘lightning’ and thought she understood what a Tribulation was about. This was not that.

  The bolt zigzagging towards them was massive and intense beyond the mundane. Its energy signature held every element of humanity save one: cosmic energy was not represented in the composition of the lightning. This was literally everything else condensed down into certain doom.

  Isabel’s rambling explanations were relayed to Zelda by the Jinn radio technology, so she understood the theory of charges balancing. That was the foundation she built her rituals around. Yet witnessing the event, she wondered if the primitive superstitions of the Xian might be correct. Perhaps the heavens were angry.

  A hefty tug on her energy reserves. The silver-blue strike veered off course and struck the transit sphere instead. She saw Hector scream in agony, veins swelling in his meaty neck and exposed arms. The deafening thunder drowned out any sound he made.

  That single initial blast drained ten percent of her reserves in an instant. She wanted to ask Isabel how many more to expect, but worried the answer might be disheartening at a time when they needed hope.

  Thunder shook the earth beneath them as another bolt formed in a sky empty of clouds. Death leapt towards them. Zelda flinched away, closing her eyes against the glare. This bolt was more intense than the last. Twenty percent of her reserves disappeared in an instant.

  Still alive, she opened her eyes to witness Hector’s transit sphere slowly shrinking. Whether intentionally or reflexively, Hector was withdrawing it from the world and dooming himself in the process. Zelda screamed at him to stop, but her words were lost beneath the fury of the thunderous heavens.

  A third bolt descended, judgment from on high. Zelda squinted and held up one hand as a shield. That let her witness the redirection of the lightning. Simultaneous with a draw of fifty percent of her reserves disappearing, the lightning came within twenty meters of Hector and diverted at a sharp angle to ground itself against the rapidly shrinking sphere. Then what she feared came to pass. Hector’s transit sphere vanished entirely.

  Even if he was able to summon it back in time, the ritual had been broken. It couldn’t be resumed without a recasting. Zelda’s insight, which she managed to encode in her realm despite its esoteric subject, did not lend itself to quick action. It used resonance to facilitate the combining of Arahant domains. Rituals worked better in her presence, became stronger and more efficient. She could do nothing to make them cast faster.

  As a massive glowing river charged down from the heavens, the Sage of Piercing jumped forward, breaking the line of the ritual circle to slam his palm into the chest of Hector. His other hand stretched towards one of the two still-open rifts. Space shifted and the rift swelled in size as it drew nearer.

  With eyes wide, Piercing triggered some effect with a harsh application of his realm. His fingers pierced through the flesh of Hector’s chest to directly brush against the soul envelope. As the distance between Hector and the rift shrank to the point that Piercing grew two-dimensional with the extreme length contraction, a massive charge passed through the Sage.

  Space reverted to its normal dimensions in a blink.

  The overloaded Sage of Piercing exploded into gore.

  And the river of lightning crashing down on them turned ninety degrees and flowed directly into the rift. Reality trembled. Discharges flashed within the targeted rift, jumping from point to point along its jagged perimeter, diving ever deeper into the vast interior of the pseudo space.

  At that moment, Hector broke through to level ten. The newly forged Lord collapsed unconscious even as his realm’s influence struck the world like a hammer. The third rift began to glow as white lightning rose from within its depths. In the distance, the miasma tainting the landscape fluoresced all at once. Every monster in sight exploded.

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  The resonance from Hector faded to nothing, but the world was still in turmoil around them. The Tribulation continued to attack whatever essence Piercing transported into the rifts. Zelda couldn’t even imagine the impact of the final act of the Sage. Hopefully the world wouldn’t die as a result. Hopefully it meant Hector would be spared the rest of his Tribulation. Or even that his injuries would be minor enough for Restoration to put him back together.

  Above, the sky thundered. Static discharges crackled amidst the clouds. Zelda had the impression that the heavens couldn’t locate their target. Any expectation that the rifts might be targeted were misplaced as those sealed themselves shut. So far as she could tell, the entire world had been rid of miasma by the lightning.

  When the final bolt fell, it aimed straight for the rune circle where Hector’s transit sphere previously floated. It wasn’t the largest strike to fall, but it was the only one to land on naked earth. The ground exploded, sending everyone tumbling.

  It took several minutes before Zelda felt well enough to sit up. Her body ached all over, but she didn’t think anything was broken. The scene around her was hidden beneath a veil of acrid smoke that burned her lungs. She climbed to her feet amid the groans of the other Arahants and Conrad, exultation rising in her heart.

  Had they really cheated the Tribulation? One of their number traded his own life to achieve the outcome, but they appeared to have done the impossible.

  If so, this went far to justify her inclusion in Hector’s retinue. Herself, Persuasion, and Restoration never integrated into the core group. They were not warriors following the Lord Dragonbane into the thick of things. They were support staff. Restoration was on hand to treat injuries. Persuasion could help with negotiations if that ever came up. Zelda had just been there in the background, an extra mouth eating into the dwindling food stores of Cruiser Erin.

  Had she been intended to bring Hector safely to level ten all this time?

  She searched the area for Hector – the actual Lord they served under. The smoke was dissipating, letting her make out several forms. The Xian were already back on their feet. One of them crouched over a figure on the ground with palpable tension, an arm extended downward.

  Zelda stumbled towards them, heart in her throat. She jerked to a halt when she was within a body length. The person below Darius was not Hector, nor was the extended arm friendly. The growling demands drew fresh horror from her.

  “Tell me where you’ve taken him.”

  The level nine Arahant man had a line of flesh turned to bloody ash in what was clearly an electrical wound. Beside him lay a dropped rune sword. His breath came irregularly and his eyes were dazed. The stranger was not long for life.

  Darius pressed the palm he used for his chaos bolt to the man’s chest. “Where is he?”

  “The Dragonbane is bound for Maya.”

  Zelda spun about, trying to find any sign of Hector. There was nothing. If not for this man’s presence, she would assume her friend dead. “Why? What can Bluff want from him?”

  “Fuck Martin Bluff,” the man wheezed. “And fuck Restraint. I serve the Church.”

  “The Church?” Zelda struggled to understand the connection. “You don’t understand what you’re doing. Hector is needed on Aes. The very future of humanity depends on it.”

  “You think the future is what matters most? Our past is at risk. All of existence will have never been if the Origin of the Ophanim is not secured. Your Dragonbane is a candidate. Those fools think they deliver him to Bluff, but hidden servants will ensure Dragonbane is available when the time comes.”

  With every word the stranger wheezed, his vitality plummeted. That he spoke of his plans at all could be attributed to his rapidly approaching death. Zelda received the impression this man wanted to assure himself that his life mattered. That the mission he fell upon was sacred.

  They were surrounded by Xian at this point. Conrad joined them as well. There wasn’t much to do, though. Other than watch Darius turn a corpse into grist with savage punches. No one moved to restrain his venting.

  In the aftermath, Esther reached out to Cruiser Erin and requested extraction. They boarded the shuttle in numb silence. Back aboard the main vessel, they gathered in the office area of the first floor. It was a space typically only Hector would go. But now there was no Hector and Esther had led them there as if she had a plan.

  “A team from Svarga took him. We need to go to Maya.”

  “Permanent rune formations protect the orbital region of the Arahant home world. If my singularity actually managed to open there, I would be destroyed upon arrival.”

  Esther tensed as if she was about to explode, but her words were reasonable when she spoke. “Then get us to Union Central. We’ll storm the permanent portal there.”

  “The System will help us,” Riley whispered.

  “Right.” Esther jumped on the suggestion. “We will ride those Slingshot Skills to Maya and bring Hector back. No matter what it costs.”