PreCursive

  Three things happened simultaneously, then.

  The first was that Travers swiped the ID card he had retrieved from the recently animated bones of his long-lost lover. The minute the small piece of pstic reached the end of the reader, the blinking light on the console switched from red to a solid green. Hidden mechanisms and gears in the walls to the sides of the vault door came to life smoothly, and the gigantic doors began to slide open slowly.

  The second was that the beeping of the AutoMats abruptly ceased, causing a sudden, ringing silence to echo up and down the halls we were in. The red LED of the defense robots no longer blinked with the sounding of their scanners.

  Instead, it strengthened. In fact, so much so that a long, thin, red beam projected itself from the front of every single one of the murder roombas.

  It didn’t burn what it touched.

  But it was marking the target.

  Travers.

  And I.

  The third thing was that my cast of Thorn Cloak activated, buoyed by my new Talent Starfire Veiling.

  Only…it was different now.

  Instead of a cloak comprised entirely of crimson red thorns, burrs, and snarls, it was instead a cloak of night. In a rolling wave, the silk of my cloak transformed itself into a reflection of the night sky, complete with stars. Only, these weren’t the pure white light of stars that truly existed within the void beyond the sky.

  They were blue. Bright blue, and visibly burning with shing azure fmes. Each and every one of them seared through the void, and framing it all were familiar shapes. As if what I wore was still a true cloak comprised of cloth, the stitching of the garment was hewn from the crimson red of my common theming, the endlessly crawling crimson of my thorns. It flowed in lines of thread along the edges, almost seeming like the border that kept the wavering fme contained in my cloak from spilling out into the world, edging along and framing it all.

  At first, I was confused. The function of this enhanced version of my Thorn Cloak didn’t seem all that different, despite the different theming. I appeared to still be camoufged and fading into the background of the Atrim, thankfully to the extent that none of the AutoMats were able to get a lock on me. Was this really all that Starfire Veiling had done?

  And in the midst of all of that, I felt it.

  The enhanced Skill had a secondary trigger to it, waiting just out of my reach.

  In the moments before I touched upon it, I looked up from my brief, awed inspection of my newest ability, and intended to meet Travers' disguised eyes.

  Only…

  They were no longer the illusioned orbs of Cecily Montbnc.

  In that brief moment, Travers had dropped his illusion of his daughter’s mother and reverted to his true undead state. All around me I could hear a sudden humming coming from the hundreds of AutoMats that surrounded us as the targeting beams painting his figure intensified.

  I met the glowing orbs of the Lich before me…

  And exchanged a nod with him. For once, I didn’t get the impression that Travers despised my very existence. Instead, I received a sincere parting.

  “Good luck,” He breathed

  And then the AutoMats fired.

  From dozens and dozens of guard drones leapt intense beams of searing hot red light that screamed through the air, far more powerful than the apparently weak beam I’d seen back at Harlow’s ir. I was lucky that I’d already ducked and rolled out of the way from the seemingly endless barrage of fiery death that the AutoMats were bombarding the ancient Lich with.

  There was no way I would have been able to survive that. I would have been atomized from such an assault in an instant.

  But not Travers.

  Instead, microseconds before they impacted him, the Lich raised one hand…

  And a bubble shield of cold, deathless, green Mana enveloped his skeletal form. The rays of searing hot beams collided with the shield, and they were found wanting.

  At least, initially. Inside of that safe zone, I could see the undead Doctor grimacing from the effort to sustain his defense.

  Even though it had only been seconds since the console had been activated, I decided it was time to stop dawdling. I reached for the secondary activation of my enhanced cloak, and triggered it before the doors could fully open.

  Instantly, I disappeared from sight. Where before my cloak had only been camoufging me from sight, it now seemed like I was truly invisible. Looking down, I couldn’t even see my own body, even if I moved my hand from outside of my cloak.

  So.

  This was the true power of what Starfire Veiling had done for Thorn Cloak. I couldn’t help but wish I’d gotten this cloak st year when I was actually acting as a covert Agent and assassin.

  It probably would have helped.

  Might have just encouraged me, though.

  I shook off such useless thoughts and turned to face the monstrously huge vault doors blocking the way into the core control room. Turns out, they weren’t the only set. The outer doors must have been three feet thick, but apparently, that wasn’t enough for the Netherim. Beyond the first ones, I could see that another pair was starting to open. And beyond that, another.

  At least nine whole feet of strange, ceramic-like steel protecting their power core.

  And it hadn’t been enough to stop Lucretia, in the end.

  I had to duck into the opening of the first doors to escape the barrage against Travers, as the AutoMats started to whirr and circle the atrium, almost like they were searching for a weak spot in his shield. If I hadn’t, I probably would have been cut in half just as an unintended casualty. As it was, I had to wait while the second set of doors opened enough for me to step into that gap.

  But the third set turned out to be the st. As they slid open, an intense, searing light spilled out in the darkness of the hall before the control room, and I finally learned just what an Aetheric Fusion Collider truly was.

  It was a star.

  A captured, artificial star composed entirely of purest Mana and Ki.

  I braced myself against the wave of wind and heat that rolled over me, barely registering the rge, spherical chamber that the captured sun sat smack dab in the middle of. To the best of what my quick gnce could tell, it wasn’t as well put together as the rest of the core sector was. There were great rents in the walls through which massive, thick cables could be seen running up and down through. Some were cut in half, some were not, and I could see sparks of what seemed to be electrical power occasionally flying out of them.

  I didn’t see a single AutoMat inside this chamber. It made me think the Wyrm didn’t allow them inside its holdfast, not even to repair the possible ancient battle damage.

  This chamber might not have been opened once in the st five millennia. Possibly more.

  More than that though...

  I didn't see the Shurengan who had inadvertently followed us into this hell within. No crimson and bck-furred saber-tooth cats were in residence in the Core control room, despite what Harlow had told us.

  Had the former Security Chief lied?

  But I didn't have time to consider that any longer, because the bulk of my attention y upon the star.

  It was massive, easily over twenty feet in diameter. Violent streams and waves of verdant Ki and oceanic Mana cshed endlessly in the artificial star. At any moment, one type of converted Aether would dominate the bulk of the sphere, only for that to change at a moment's notice in an eternal war. The entire star was suspended over a small podium of a…different kind of metal, while huge rings of that same familiar material slowly rotated around the sphere, almost like the revolution of a sor system.

  My lips parted in pure shock as I recognized it.

  That…that wasn’t the strange ceramic steel that the Netherim has seemed to be so fond of. That was Primordium. The same metal that Tzo had called an outright myth. The same metal that had taken a Greater Spirit to condense the smallest amount.

  The same metal that comprised my new prosthetic limb.

  And here, the Netherim had built an entire power core, ringed in tons of the mythical metal.

  How…? Where did they get it all?

  I didn’t get the chance to goggle at the titanic feet of engineering before me for long. I was brutally reminded of my entire purpose down here when I saw faint movement in the mass of shifting emerald and sapphire power.

  A faint, sinuous outline floated up from the bottom of the sphere where it had been lingering. I hadn’t noticed it at first, mistaking it for a mere darkened patch at the base. Perhaps a connection to whatever system was maintaining the edifice? But no.

  Now there was a slim line seemingly swimming through the Aetheric fire of the core, upright and no longer than my arm. It floated through the shaped pool of pure energy like it was so much water.

  That had to be my target.

  The parasite Lucretia had impnted in her own people’s lifeblood.

  The Wyrm that had haunted Kawamara for millennia.

  Tatsugan’s true form.

  Two bright yellow lights opened up on the dim outline of the creature, around where the head was.

  They fshed.

  I don’t know what it was that saved me then. Maybe it was fate. Maybe it was the sounds of battle from behind me, a reminder of how hazardous this bunker was.

  But my instincts suddenly screamed at me.

  I ducked, and that was the only reason I didn’t die.

  A thick, continuous spear of burning Mana and Ki, mingled together into a ser, screamed through the air as it passed overhead of me. I watched, breathless, as it soared all the way past me and far down the hallway Travers and I had so carefully strode down what felt like only moments ago. It traveled so far that I could see down to the intersection easily. Not only that, but the st, third door that led to the core chamber hadn’t fully opened when the Wyrm fired in my direction.

  The heat of the beam had been enough to melt both sides of the doorway opening, and the edges of it glowed cherry red as they dripped molten steel to the floor.

  I may have dodged the first bst, but I was doomed if the Wyrm fired again. I had no room to maneuver where I crouched.

  But nothing came. Those barely visible golden eyes simply stared in my direction, without ever seeing me.

  I wanted to breathe out in relief as I realized what happened, but I didn’t dare make the noise.

  It couldn’t see me…

  It couldn’t see me!

  The Wyrm had just fired in the general direction of the opening, at around normal height for someone. It’d hoped to sy whoever had been curious and capable enough to reach the core chamber and open the doors.

  But it had missed, because my newly enhanced cloaking Skill made me ft out invisible.

  And there y my chance.

  Carefully, I slowly started to edge my way forward as the doors slid open more and more. I tensed as I felt another bst from the Wyrm nce overhead, but to my surprise, I heard something else.

  A sound akin to a ringing gong.

  Risking a quick gnce back, I saw that Travers had briefly stepped away from the console and into line of fire down the hall, as he dealt with the AutoMats. The beam from the Wyrm had skimmed the dome shield around the Lich, and the sound I’d heard was the mingled Mana and Ki scattering off the surface. Hastily, Travers ducked back out of the way, once more focusing on the robots. For a moment, I was confused as to why he’d done that…

  But then I realized the gift he’d given me.

  Travers was the only person the Wyrm had sighted since the opening of the door. He’d deliberately drawn it’s attention to make the creature think he actually was the only person down here.

  A smile crossed my lips, and I turned back around once more. This time, I slid forward much more confidently, although I was still careful not to make noise as I did so. In moments, I had entered into the chamber proper, and as I did so, I couldn’t help but grimace.

  The heat from the thrumming Aetheric core was much more intense once you were actually inside here. It wasn’t more than I could handle, but it was making me wonder how I was going attack the Wyrm if it was hiding in the heart of an artificial star.

  How the hell was that thing surviving such temperatures?

  God, that wasn’t even the only issue. As I slunk along the edges of the spherical chamber, circling the creature still watching the hall, I was dismayed to see that it really was in the exact center of the core. That meant there was at least ten feet of burning hot Aether on each side of the Wyrm.

  I didn’t have a way to hit it, buried in that near psma as it was. As hardy as Oninite was, there was no way it could survive those temperatures.

  I would know. I’d forged all of those weapons.

  Even if my extendable spears might just have the length to hit the monster, I’d have to throw them in order to do that. If I did, The Scintilnt Bde wouldn’t st to strike the monster before the Skill faded.

  And that was the only way I was willing to sy it. As far as I was concerned, I couldn’t be certain of this thing’s death otherwise.

  An idea…did occur to my own Core Ring, as I was considering the entire edifice of the artificial star. Specifically…

  The Primordium.

  I grimaced but reluctantly agreed with it. That…might work.

  But I’d have to distract the Wyrm to the extent that it drew closer to the edge of the sphere. Luckily, I had another idea of how to accomplish that.

  I mentally sighed and reached for Manifestation of Agony to cast it. In moments, the little Sprite of mingled crimson thorns and azure fme sprang into being, my Core Ring neatly sliding inside. As it did, I dove off to the left of the construct, while said Sprite did the same to the right.

  Good thing, too.

  The Wyrm immediately swiveled to face our previous position and fired. The searing hot beam of Mana and Ki missed both of us and scored the outer wall of the chamber, severing several different cables inside in a shower of electrical sparks.

  I stayed away, wary of any stray shots as my Sprite reoriented midair.

  And stuck its little thorn thumbs into its non-existent ears and waggled its eight other thorn fingers, blowing a soundless raspberry as it did so.

  That was my Core and I’s grand scheme.

  Mockery.

  The barely visible glowing golden eyes inside the core…

  Narrowed.

  The Wyrm fired at the Sprite once again, and the chase was on.