The capture of Arascus marked a sharp dee in our study of Divinity. There were more like him in the past, but Arascus was the st oh enough boldo fully test the strength of Gods and Goddesses. Fer’s experiments with drinking the essence of other Divines, Anassa’s weaving of delicate strands to push sorcery further, Baalka’s experimentations on minor Divines, Irinika’s madness geors, even Olephia’s curse ut to the study table.

  Now though, I look at the Pantheon and I see the most precious knowledge and studies of ourselves have pteaued. The expnation is rather simple of course, maybe it could have beeed if we started sooner, but no tradition of testing was ever structed as we rebuilt the world in those first two turies. By the time we were done, I would not trust Maisara or Fortia to test their strengths on me, likewise they would not trust me to test mine on them. Kavaa is the only didate, but her allegiao the Pantheon has already weakened and needless healing offends her. Essa may be the biggest victim of this most of all, magic requires testing subjects yet there are none.

  - Excerpt from the White Pantheon’s Closed Library: ‘A World Slowing Down’, written by Goddess Alsaria, of Light.

  Iliyal pulled the trigger as he aimed directly at that glowing blue sensor array of the turioihe gemstones cracked, the sensor array spun to an undamaged part and the automaton lowered its give to protect its vision with the bde. His mind quickly started to work as he thought of how to get past them, disabling them without artillery edream, there was no ce of that happening whatsoever.

  So men would have to be sacrificed. Iliyal turned on the spot, his bck coat spinning around him as he silently picked out the weakest to be left behind. Those would be the lure, the others would enter with him. “CLEAR THE ENTRANCE!” Iliyal shouted. “TEAMS ONE AND TWO, OEAM THREE, HOLD THE MAIN GATE, TEAM FOUR, AIM AT THE TURIONS!” He waved his swords towards the two massive round balls on three legs, with four arms each. They took a step forwards as his eyes sed further into the corridor. A squad of Padins was already behind the giant bulk of the maes, shields were lowered, spears were pointed forwards aood at the ready with crossbows.

  Sorcerers would have been good to have right now, although Essa’s invasion had e too fast and pns had ged. Iliyal took a deep breath as men in bck re-arrahemselves around him. More Padins were starting to appear at the top of the utions. Some were armed with greatswords, others held crossbows, if they started to fire... “TEAM TWO! ABOVE!” Iliyal raised his pistol and took a shot at one of the men looking through the sights of his crossbht at the elf.

  But Iliyal was faster, his bullet ched into the bottom of the maps helmet and mao sneak in through the man’s visor. He fell backwards leaving a trail of blood in the air as Iliyal ran to take cover behind one of the vans. Team Two opened fire on the men at the top of the keep, dust and stone from where they impacted into the utions started to fall down, but a few more men fell were the rifle’s rger calibre mao pee through steel pte and it was enough to get the Padins at the top of the fortress to take cover.

  Team Three opened fire once again to suppress the men trying to encircle from behind, and the Padins stuck between the inner and outer wall stayed in their positions. Iliyal quickly thought of a way to deal with the automatons. “SAPPERS!” He shouted. “EXPLOSIVE T!”. The sapper team quickly got to ting, it took them four rounds of bursts.

  “TWENTY-THREE remaining sir!” One of the sappers shouted back from behind one of the other bck vans, he started to run over, past crossbow fire, then dropping himself and diving under Iliyal’s vehicle, he crawled uhe safety of that bck armour.

  Iliyal k down to speak to the man who had his bald head stig out from underh the vehicle to speak over the incessant bring of gunfire. “ they be thrown?” Iliyal asked and the man made a sour face, his eyes thought for a sed. Iliyal had talked with enough to know when they were thinking of a feasible solution to an unfeasible question. The answer would be no. He clicked his fingers o the man’s ears and hurried him along.

  “No sir.” The sapper replied. “The wires have to be stu, they’ll break off mid-flight.” Iliyal nodded and closed his eyes. This would have to be reported to Kassandora, he would not accept that artillery shells could not be shrunk down to fit into human hands.

  “Uood.” Iliyal said, he looked into the inside of Drayim Keep. square stoiles were being cracked uhe thunderous footsteps of the turioinels as they slowly made their way forwards. They had made it half way through the corridor, and the Padins behind them were slowly advang onwards behind the cover. A few men opened fire on the maes, bullets harmlessly bounced off their ons and embedded themselves into the stones around them, or just bounced off the heavy tower shields the Padins were holding. One lucky shot mao pee the shield, the man faltered, fell bad was quickly repced by another of Maisara’s soldiers ihick grey pte armour.

  Iliyal looked where to set the explosives. The turions were only moving slowly because they were proteg the men behind with their massive bulk, but they could be almost as fast as Fer if pushed to it, and just as durable. Iliyal turned and spun, the keep had to have more tharance. He refused to believe that there wouldn’t be a side door, a batrance, even a window they could smash a in. Pns ged immediately and quickly. “AROUND THE KEEP! TEAM OHAT WAY!” Iliyal swung his bde behind himself and around the fort. There were more buildings here, storehouses from the looks of it. They didn’t have the time to iigate it now though, and Iliyal was never oo bet on his own luck. A hundred years with Leona had traihat out of him, if there was a tunnels leading from those homes and into the keep, they would remai.

  They would lure the automatons around them, make a single full rotation around the keep and then ra. The corridor that made up the entrance was huge, but there had to be smaller staircases where the turioinels would not be able to fit. The fortress was simply too small to be built entirely for beings rger than most Divines. Iliyal shouted out order after order. “SAPPERS! AROUND THAT ER! LAY A TRAP, BLOW THEM UP!”

  More thay men answered in their own way. Some roared, some shouted a loud ‘yes sir!’ Some just started pag forwards. They took cover behind doorways and lunged into the long shadows cast by the moon. Uhe cover of the night, the bck shirts and trousers melted into the darkness. Iliyal should have gotteo wear long-sleeves and bacvas too, that would be for ime.

  A squad of Padins was caught out of positions as the thunderous footsteps of the turions started to speed up, they were accelerating out. “GET THE CHARGES PREPPED!” Iliyal shouted as he retreated from the van and ran forwards, sword draistol ready. Three men with automatic rifles ehat no Padin was left standing as they he er of that small storehouse. Sappers immediately dived behind it and started ying the blocks of pale explosive putty on the ground.

  Further on, Team One, led by Stalker, dived out from the building and sprinted behind crates. Two men were dropped by crossbow bolts, their dark clothes ging disc into an even bcker bck as they bled out. Iliyal stopped the near sappers and waved his swords to signal the men to move faster around the keep. One of those who had taken a crossbow hit to the chest mao lift his head off the ground, he held his rifle in shaky hands, he took aim, and he emptied his magazihe ctter of steel shields and swords bounced off the walls as Iliyal caught sight of them. “FURTHER ON!” Iliyal shouted.

  Team Two, peaked from behind the storehouse, their team leader shouted. “We’ll supress! You move on!” He shouted and patted two of his men on the back. They dived out of cover and onto the ground, then started emptying the magaziwo more men peeked out from behind the building, one kneeling, oanding over him, and y down their own hail of lead.

  “THERE’S A DOOR!” Stalker shouted suddenly over the din of Padins shouting to each other, the cacophony of guhe cttering of metal and the thunder of the turioinels marg forwards. They had left the keep now. Iliyal thought for an instant about trying to race past them, if he could make into the Divine Armoury, the euation would be flipped, but where its entrance even y would take at least an hour to find with all his men. By himself, he could spend aire walking around in there.

  “SECURE AND BREACH!” Iliyal shouted back.

  “THEY’RE ING!” The sappers shouted from o Iliyal and the elf just in time to get a ce to duderh the blow of a give. It smmed into the storehouse and tore through the stone wall, sending bricks and shards of stone flying into the shields of the Padins behind it. The other turion was just as close. “GO!” The sapper shouted as he stuck more wires into the putty and pulled out a detonator. “CLEAR FOR BLA-“

  The man’s shout was suddenly cut off as anive pierced through his chest. Iliyal took a step bad retreated to the numbers of team two. In this courtyard, there were already over fifty Padin’s lying on the ground, a small puddle of dark crimson blood. Stalker’s Team One pushed further onwards, meing out bsts of gunfire as they took down Padins behind the keeps utions or on the walls. The wall of men with shields retreated once again as they realised they wouldn’t be able to close the gap. Most likely they had orders to let the turions deal with the invaders, that is what Iliyal would do. Better to draw the fight out ahe unstoppable automatohe main fist.

  Iliyal turned back around to get one g the turions. He never believed in luck, but for once, all he could say was that luck saved him. He saw the sapper lift a shaky hand and stare up at the automaton as it took a step past him. The thing crushed stone cobbles into pulp as it trod. Iliyal dived backwards as the sapper pushed the button with whatever strength he had left. Explosive set off explosive, several men were caught i, both Padin and Legionnaire, fire engulfed them, shards of metal blew off the automaton and it started to topple to one side.

  And then it stopped toppling as the dust began to clear. Two of its arms were being used as repts for the damaged leg, the other two were charred but unscathed. Iliyal took a heavy breath as the mae took oep forwards, give anchored into the ground as a walking stick. And then the mae started to speed up one again.

  Iliyal cmbered backwards on the ground, the heavy coat saved him from tearing his skin apart on the sharp fragments of stohat fell from the air. The turion took a step forwards. Cobblestone cracked underh its weight. Ahunderous step echoed off the castle walls as Iliyal’s men fell further back. The elf grabbed his pistol and opened fire into the mae’s blue sensor array. A few of the crystal cracked, one shattered into delicate mist. The sensor array rotated around the spherical body, the damaged part retreating to the rear as Iliyal clicked the trigger on his gun. Another bullet bounced off gold-broing and the pistol clicked.

  Iliyal rolled to the side as the mae’s give smmed down from overhead and cut the stones around him. He rolled again, grabbed a windowsill and threw himself backwards. The mae took aep to close the distance as Iliyal’s men raced around the entire keep. Any Padins towards the front were still mowed down by the leading Team One, but it was obvious they were takiurn fire from crossbows. The gunfire was getting sparser and sparser.

  The pn in Iliyal’s head ged once again. This was merely a failed assault, and if it pushed the White Pantheon onto Lubska, so be it. That didn’t matter at this point, he had to save his own life. It would be a retreat, into the walls, over them, then run back to the vans. Risky, and most of his men would no doubt die, but there was no other way.

  And then his pn stopped when a shadow engulfed them all. The moon was eclipsed for a moment by a bird with a huge wingspan.

  An eagle cried from overhead.