“Rich? Do you think we’re going to make it?”

  Yuki swallowed her own stupid words, flinching at the scowls and despairing looks on so many faces, even if her words had been too soft for any newly reforged level 0 apprentice to hear.

  Richard Li smiled as he leaned beside her, giving the hand he held a gentle squeeze. “Absolutely!” His eyes lit up with a bright intensity that warmed Yuki’s heart. As if he was hope, shining in the gloom even as they fled as fast as an exhausted-looking headmaster could send them racing back to the city, the recently revealed and admittedly handsome Prince Levalier alone gazing out with the cool authority of a commander, the farthest thing from a terrified child. Which made sense, she supposed. He was controlling some 2000 troops, if that wild red-headed elf who Yuki was pretty sure was Elonia’s secret half-brother… had truly gifted the man his revenants.

  Regardless, when Levalier whispered an order to the one revenant now stationed inside with them… a seven foot tall statue of living bronze, who for some reason wielded only the bottom half of his massively long spear with the thick end of its butt spike facing up so it looked more like a 12-foot-long maul than any proper spear. The revenant nodded like someone who was fully cognizant of his environment, his commander, and his orders.

  Even if the creature with the fiery green-gold eyes never said a word.

  “We’re going to get through this, Yuki! Don’t you worry. We’re feeling the pressure now, but now is when heroes rise up. Heroes like ‘Lord Silver’ who we’ll pretend isn’t Elonia’s secret half-brother fighting for justice behind the scenes… heroes like you! Ascended by a beautiful queen into the hero you were always meant to be. A hero who fought to save us in our darkest hour! And even if you can never attend Mistridge, you will always have a sacred place in all her hearts.” Richard enthused with a voice lifted to catch everyone’s ears.

  Yuki blushed when tired gazes became thoughtful, anxious eyes lightening with smiles as more than a few boys and girls bowed their heads.

  “Thank you for your service, Yuki Summers. Your sacrifices won’t be forgotten,” Said none other than Prince Levalier himself.

  Yuki, suddenly feeling flustered, just bowed her head. “It’s… I can still attend college and I can still take some classes. Just not ones that tap into other planes of existence.” She swallowed a lump she hadn’t been expecting. Sad she was missing out… yet surprisingly tempted by what Wyrmwood had shared earlier with a reassuring smile, just for her. “And the headmaster thinks I’d make a fantastic Arcane Cook. He says he senses the potential, and once I’m attending I can replace my old stupid profession with one that actually interests me… one that has nothing to do with killing... and I once placed in my school’s baking competition… not that that matters, or anything.”

  Jack grinned. “I think you’d make a fantastic cook, Yuki. I’ve had your cupcakes and they’re killer.” He dared a chuckle, even as he still tenderly held the maimed girl now sleeping in his arms. “I told you way back whenever, that if the world hadn’t ended, we could have set up a killer deli and bakery combo. We could have called it Corned Beef & Cupcakes.” His face lit up with an animated smile. “Hell, we could still do something just like that, once we learn some cool magical food prep professions at magic university and make our own deli in New Arcadia! I’m sure Elonia can set us up with a sweet retail spot, and we’ll prove we’re worth it when we generate lines going for half a block!”

  “Sure Jack, dream on,” she snarked, cheeks flushing, hating how much she was actually warming to Jack’s idea, both of them losing themselves in stupid fantasies that had absolutely nothing to do with fighting to her last breath like the hero she swore she would be. Yet half the students were actually smiling like they were entertained by the idea.

  “If you guys can seriously build an old style deli with a cupcake counter? I’ll go every day after class,” promised one girl who couldn’t have been older than a real-life sixteen, and half the kids around her, both ancient and no older than they appeared, nodded their heads in solemn accord.

  Prince Levalier himself solemnly bowed his head. “New Arcadia would be fortunate to boast such a restaurant. Every hero deserves a profession that fills his or her heart with joy… when not burdened by the demands of their calling.”

  “I’m not a…” Her words cut off when Richard gently squeezed her hand.

  “I think you’ll make a wonderful cook and baker, and I hope you and Jack will let me try one of everything.”

  She snorted at that. “Well, if you’re really good and—”

  Her words cut off when his lips claimed her own and suddenly, somehow, he was holding her so tightly and their hearts were pounding and she had never felt so fiercely happy or wanted to cry so bad as she savored the boy she was falling so hard for as the world came crashing down and no one said a word, not one damn word as the kiss lingered so sweet, so passionate and she hungered for so much more…

  If only everyone was working so hard at NOT paying attention to them. They had space, but not that much, and nowhere to hide.

  Richard broke off the kiss with a warm smile. “Sorry, I think I tripped on your cuteness, there. Don’t mind me.”

  She snorted, squeezing him tight, whispering in his ear. “Shut up and do that to me again.”

  So he did.

  Only breaking it off… right before she made use of the blanket that a smirking Jack had actually had the gall to toss her from the storage pouch he had been smart enough to have thought to equip himself with after his transformation… when Elonia jolted up from her stupor by the headmaster’s side with a wild-eyed cry.

  “Your Grace! We live to serve!” Richard urgently said when Elonia, totally not bothering with queenly decorum in their now pretty darn informal and close company… looked like she was just a desperate heartbeat away from crumpling. Her voice was strained when she spoke, and Yuki didn’t blame her a bit.

  “There’s a second pressure point! They’re trying to break through!” She sobbed, fresh blood spurting from her nose as she crumpled. As if she were the one being stabbed, and not the land itself.

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  Whatever flickers of hope they might have had by the shocking sight of seeing an elven boy no older than them, a Terran hero, actually take on tens of thousands of vile bugs and force them into a stalemate, turned to glassy vacant-eyed looks of despair.

  Elonia sobbed. “They’re about to break… Eric! Help me!”

  Yuki winced, hating what she feared were desperately kept secrets because of course she got it. Just like a wide-eyed Jack got it. Just like that obnoxiously poised Prince Levalier got it, calling Ernest Slaughter ‘Dreadlord Silver’ from the moment they met.

  Ernest wasn’t Elonia’s half-brother or hidden ace. He was the same cocky obnoxious kid who had accompanied them for their laughably bad attempts at a diplomatic counsel… the same trip that had netted them a band of Bronze-Tier mercenaries… and why exactly had they surrendered? Becoming their allies? Besides the wonderful twists of fate Richard seemed so capable of, when the stakes weren’t quite this catastrophic… and it all made sense.

  Of course the boy risking his life for absolutely nothing in return to save this doomed kingdom was her twin brother. No matter how clever his disguise was, her own Shadow skills detecting nothing at all.

  But right now that didn’t matter, no more than the sobs of desperate hopes crushed once more because tears would get them nowhere. Instead, she forced her gaze to meet Levalier’s solemn countenance. “Are the revenants ready? I think… I think we might have to take my master up on our… tactical withdrawal.”

  For some reason, Levalier’s features paled at her awkward words, bowing his head.

  A prince, bowing his head to her.

  “You master. Of course. Yes, Lady Summers. They are ready to serve and defend our charges at all costs.”

  She scowled at that. “Just Yuki is fine… Prince Levalier. Your ranks a helluva lot higher than mine.”

  For some reason he flashed a bemused smile at that, saying only. “My Sarissophoroi are ready to fight at my…” His eyes widened, and even Yuki caught it… the way the bronze soldier trapped in here with them seemed to glow.

  Suddenly flashing with brilliant sparkles that tasted like Wrath and fury.

  Several girls whimpered. Even Yuki felt her stomach clench. If those revenants, for whatever reason, went haywire… yet Richard was laughing with wonder.

  “Oh he did it. That wild GENIUS of a Contender actually infused his creations with a Dreadlord’s powers! Can’t you just feel it?”

  Prince Levalier’s flash of anxiety turned to a look of wonder. He chuckled softly, shaking his head. “He did indeed. For him to truly understand his rank and infuse all of his creations with such a boon… even so many miles away…” He sighed. “I’d like to think this was a sign. A sign that we might actually pull through.”

  Yuki scowled. “Sorry, what are you guys talking about?”

  Levalier’s eyes lit with awe. “Dreadlord Silver’s strike forces can now…” He shook his head. “I’ve never… no, there is no recording of such a wonder in all the battle treatises I’ve studied.”

  “Spit it out already!” Huffed an exasperated Jack, who winced at the look this earned him. “I mean… give us a clue, Your Grace?”

  Levalier smirked. “It means that our Dreadlord can unleash a Weaponmaster’s feats.”

  Yuki blinked. “Okay… I too have weapon feats… is he multiclassed? Fuck. Of course he is.”

  The handsome purple-eyed youth’s features crinkled in an awed smile. “It means he can channel his weapon feats through his revenants.”

  Yuki blinked. “Wait… you mean…”

  “Yes. One hundred thousand Bronze-Tier sentinels… or however many he has, can now strike with the coordinated power of titans.”

  Jack blinked. “Okay… that does sound pretty badass. But what does Dreadlord mean anyway?”

  “It means any Silver or Noble Deep Bronze who actually has the sworn service of ten thousand Bronze elites in their employee,” said none other than Senren, tears streaming freely down her cheeks as she leaned her head against Jack’s chest, as comfortable as she could be, missing the majority of three limbs. “During times of war… mercenaries under your hire will also count toward that number.”

  She flashed a mirthless smile. “Needless to say, very few nobles or even Silvers can boast such a number. Not before they’ve achieved Deep Silver as true monsters, of course. Most Silver Houses might have a hundred Bronze warriors in their employ. And the true powerful Houses it’s rarely worth the bother of messing with? They might have a thousand Bronze-tier Sworn or more.”

  Jack blinked, processing the breathy voice of the girl he was holding so protectively. “So, wait… if a thousand Bronze Sentinels makes you a Badass Silver House… and if our good friend Ernest has a hundred times that number… what does that make him?”

  Levalier flashed a bitter smile. “If we can’t stem catastrophe, it makes him a beloved footnote in the desperate fight to rescue our home. A hero that will forever be remembered for his sacrifice, should he fall.”

  Jack’s eyes flared with heat. “Wait, this makes no sense! We agreed that some evil Silver-Tier fuck released some curse that triggered this catastrophe, right? But a Silver’s a super badass if he has a thousand Bronze marching under his banner and he’s a Dreadlord if he controls ten thousand… but this fuck had unleashed how many thousands upon thousands that keep multiplying?”

  “This is because it is much easier to destroy than to create, Jack,” said none other than the headmaster himself. “The malignancy in question unleashed primal chaos that he had absolutely no intention of controlling, for such cannot be controlled… and allowed it to feed upon the wild potency released by an ascending world. It cannot be directed any more than a Hyperion Core that various monstrous fools might actually get on a planet’s surface, even if normally multiple fields of repulsion make that such an impossibility that Dreadnoughts commonly rest in outer orbit, buoyed up by nothing more than that natural repulsion.”

  Wyrmwood sighed, his intent gaze measuring them all even as he casually shared secrets they sensed very few natives were ever permitted to hear. “When those ships are destroyed, fragments might fall into orbit, but the core itself shoots away at sub-light speeds and are basically lost forever. Yet should some fool actually manage to lock or create one near a planet’s surface, where strong arcane forces prevent it from flying free again… In such tragic circumstances as those, few things are more powerful than a Hyperion Cascade. A reaction that could destroy Silvers and wipe civilizations off maps, if not an entire world. Yet unleashing such destruction is the farthest thing from control. And the plague of locusts our ultimate nemesis unleashed is far closer to a Hyperion Cascade than elite forces.”

  Jack scowled at this before his eyes widened with disbelief. “But, wait… Wait, wait, wait! Ernest is still killing them and raising them to serve him, right?”

  “Correct,” Wyrmwood said, lips curving in a bemused smile. “And what does that tell you, Jack?”

  Jack laughed with wonder. “It tells me that our boy actually managed to turn an uncontrolled doomsday device into the ultimate recruitment drive!”

  The headmaster solemnly dipped his head before the looks of awe reflected on the faces of half the class. “And pray tell, Jack, what happens if our hero of the hour, blessed with a Master Class that allows him to do what no one else can… fails in achieving pristine recruitment?”

  Jack paled and lowered his head. “If he falls, or his forces are overwhelmed… or if he just can’t keep up? Then I guess Earth is sort of fucked.”