The surprised looks being sent his way by hundreds of Administrators in their changshan tunics, turbans, robes, and three-piece suits was gratifying, and the desperate promises messaged to him from a handful of women wearing silken kimonos, qipaos, enchanted blouses, and power suits was surprising. He was just grateful to sense people fleeing from the various counsel chambers.

  Even the cynical, hawk-eyed men and women from other other council chambers who hadn’t responded to Eric’s desperate warning, upon spying what their fellow Administrators were doing while Malice spent long moments roaring his hate and fury, were quick to follow suit.

  Not everyone, regrettably, but Eric had done what little he could.

  Malice’s awful curses made the air bubble and scream as the arcane screen panned along the trail of tiny paws leaving a trail of footsteps melted right into puddles of fused glass upon the lifeless earth before revealing the portal that the twisted creature was so confident that Eric would never be able to enter.

  And he was right, knowing Eric and his vulnerabilities far better than Eric could bear to accept.

  But clearly Malice hadn’t accounted for everything, as a rather large rabbit glowing with Hyperion radiation dared to approach a portal that no force on Earth would have allowed Eric to touch.

  “NO! NO! YOU ARE FORBIDDEN FROM ENTERING! YOU ARE YOUR MASTER’S SLAVE, SO YOU ARE FORBIDDEN!” The demon roared.

  Bunbun’s answer to that was to touch the portal, whereupon she began to fade away in a dazzling shower of brilliant sparkles even as Eric felt the hideous burden in his ES Space start to fade, as if those cores were now light years away.

  But what Eric appreciated the most, what he could just make out, were the tiny paws Bunbun was displaying even as she looked RIGHT at Malice’s giant eyeball shaped monitor floating right above her.

  Giving him a double-fingered salute before fading away in a dazzle of light as Malice’s furious screams rocked the crumbling realm around him.

  Screams that hardly faded, no matter how much altitude Eric gained, racing up into the heavens just as fast and far as he could, terror turning into something entirely different as the pain of his body became an awful ache in his heart.

  Fully regenerated eyes gazed upon the brilliantly shining stars he now raced toward, holding none of his gifts back as he felt the fierce love that his beloved familiar felt for them all as she made her choice.

  The half-step Gold now far below Eric stumbled to his knees upon the lifeless soil that bubbled away to nothing upon contact with the monster warping Earth itself. The giant abomination squeezed his fists and howled his rage, glaring into the dozens of chamber portals and consigning countless shrieking administrators that had failed to flee to hideous flames that consumed them utterly, both body and soul.

  “Goodbye, Eric.”

  For a heartbeat in time, he was one with his beautiful familiar, looking so serene, so peaceful. Simultaneously his beloved rabbit and the passionate streamer who had died before she ever truly got a chance to live.

  “But live we did, hero of my heart. We forged a tale like no other, didn’t we?” She whispered in his mind even as she floated in the air upon a massively high platform of tortured steel anchored to the far side of the rift that had been so well barred from Eric and anyone who shared his blood… yet from the other side had no wardings at all. Because why would Malice make slipping through or taking down his own portal any harder than it had to be?

  Even now, the softly glowing rift served as an anchor for the shockingly high scaffolding that only tortured soul steel could have endured, reminding Eric of nothing so much as a hypothetical lunar cable, so high did it soar above the Earth-like moon that was nothing but billowing clouds, deep blue oceans, primeval jungle and a hideous citadel of tormented steel that might have partially collapsed, but by and large looked intact, Eric saw to his dismay from Bunbun’s stratospheric platform.

  His dying familiar gave a happy little chuckle. “Good thing I’m technically a revenant linked to your Vitality, Eric, because no pure mortal would survive being this high up. But at least I think I understand how Malice managed to make use of so many of those Hyperion Cores his servants forged before we closed down those operations for good.”

  Eric shuddered even as he continued racing for altitude the equal of his beloved familiar’s, whispering a few words to assure a swirling bubble of recycling air would keep his Vitality at max, with plenty of oxygen to breathe, even if Hyperion Blazer and his mad resistances meant that mundane radiation or indeed, the increasingly low pressure and frigid air didn’t phase his body at all.

  Bunbun flashed Eric a heartfelt smile. “Do you know what the true wonder of it all is, Eric? At this perfect altitude the cores are in perfect balance. They aren’t streaking off to the heavens, and they aren’t crashing down to the ground. Best of all, they’re leaking almost no radiation. I’m actually healing all the hideous damage they did!”

  For just a heartbeat, Eric allowed himself a wild flare of hope, even as he glared down at his distant nemesis. He was painfully aware that what he was planning would probably end him, yet Eric knew as well that if he wanted to save his home… if he wanted to give his twin the gift of an empire that would stand the test of time and survive this nightmare...

  If Elonia and the shocking number of survivors were to ever savor the dream off a happy and peaceful life, or have any shot at life at all… Eric swallowed, gazing down with tears in his eyes at the precious sanctuary below him. His beautiful world of billowing clouds, blue oceans, and lush green forests. Even in the midst of a chaotic ascension, it held such wondrous potential.

  Potential that would be forever lost, if the abomination daring to feed upon Eric’s home wasn’t stopped for good.

  Eric’s heart began to pound with furious resolve and dismay in equal measure, preparing himself for what was to come.

  “That’s good, Bun. You drop those cores and cut close the gate.” He flashed a gentle smile. “You’re a fully autonomous Greater Revenant and my Underlord. So don’t worry, you’re life is no longer tied to my own.”

  Bunbun chuckled sadly. “I know what you’re going to do, Eric. Crashing back down to the Earth, letting gravity enhance your MACH 4 start as you take full advantage of Speed Racer to compel Earth’s gravity to drop you at shocking speeds, since we both know that air resistance is now your bitch. And if you actually end up hitting the ground…”

  Eric nodded. “Yup. I’ll be hitting with something close to god rod impact. Me and three million of my closest friends.”

  Bunbun hissed. “We’re talking about extinction level meteors here, Eric!”

  Eric nodded even as he raced for outer orbit, desperately going over the perk selections, looking for a miracle. Yet there was nothing along any sort of orbital bombardment tree. Only perks that might allow them to better survive accidents or impacts that would be a hell of a lot less than what he was about to generate.

  He sighed. He might be able to buffer his own ability to resist friendly fire, but that was it.

  “I know, Bun. And the resilience of the barriers between differing territories is a lot stronger than we had first thought. Especially with wild ascending regions. And I just warned Elonia and Wyrmwood. I hope…” He shook his head. “There’s a half-step Gold demon below, Bun, eager to harvest a billion souls and ascend upon the pyre of our home. We both know this has to happen.”

  “And it will kill you. Even with that final perk point I see you just invested in a Friendly Fire perk, so your own revenants can’t accidentally hurt you or stab each other in a frenzied battle. Why? They never have before, Eric. And you’re so much faster than any of us, but it hardly matters now. That will do NOTHING to save your ass from your own impact, Eric!”

  Eric flashed a bitter smile. “I know. But if the air’s filled with flying spear heads from shattered shafts, I’d rather they not hit me when I’m going that fast. And the perk still counts as another 10% modifier to several other perks so… yeah. I’ll be hitting that much harder. There’s that, at least.”

  Bunbun sighed. “Well, that makes two of us fools for a higher cause, then. Because I can’t just drop these hyperion cores to float here… in the heart of our enemy’s sanctuary, where, for all we know, either he or another fuckhead goblin stooge will just form another gate to Earth and toss them through again!”

  Bun’s beautiful blue and fully regenerated eyes glittered with fierce determination. “No, Eric. I still… the souls I saved reformed in my sanctuary along with the cores. And that’s not all.” Bunbun’s mental voice filled with wonder. “I’m now the host to countless souls. They’re now in the exact shape of the weapon that Malice had forged to take out Earth in a single quark-bomb of explosive hate.”

  Eric’s eyes widened at that, yet he could feel it. Feel the bomb that had been reforged in the heart of his familiar’s ES Space. A space that, thanks to her Revenant status, was freely enterable by all the legions under her care. “Wait, are you serious? You’re Underlord status means… a quarter million souls just swore themselves to your cause? Are you serious? And they’re all taking the shape of… shit!”

  Bun nodded. “Yup. This awful world that looks so peaceful from space is so thick with souls in screaming torment that my heart bleeds. And all they want… all that every single one of them wants… is to be free. I was able to instantly recruit just as many as you can raise with a single Call to Battle, snapping them free of their chains of torment, now that Malice has left this world, even if he could summon himself back here in the blink of an eye. But I’m now at maximum and there are millions upon millions of souls trapped here that I can’t claim, and they wish nothing more than to be free. So I’ll be racing down to the ground almost as fast as you. Before I hit, I’m dropping the soul-bomb and we’ll all go to heaven on the pyre of our enemy’s ashes. But before I do that… I’m closing the gate and breaking our connection, because the backlash will obliterate even you, Eric. Even should you survive what you’re planning. That’s how fucking strong this quark bomb will be.”

  “NO!” Eric, fatalistically accepting his own very likely demise, felt a sudden surge of dismay at the fatalistic acceptance in Lilly’s voice. “We don’t stop. We don’t ever stop, Bun. You have a daughter doing her best to clear or at least survive in that pocket world that Mother Dearest herself consigned her to. You were her confidant and bodyguard before I recruited you for full time Eric duty. Go back to her. She needs you. Hell, bring her back to Earth. We’ll close that gate as well and we’ll keep our daughter safe! Or at least… you can keep her safe.”

  Eric blinked away the hot tear in his eye, whipped away by the body hugging whirlwind of constantly regenerating fresh air he had bubbled around himself with the same magics that had once allowed him to effortlessly overcome the toxic fumes of an Orange-tier rift.

  He gazed down at the precious blue globe he had never for the life of him expected to see from low Earth Orbit, sensing so clearly Lilly the girl shaking her head.

  “Sorry, Eric. This is how it has to be.” She flashed a sad smile. “I sent Elonia a message. Besides being surprised as hell to find out that she has a niece… she swore she would do everything in her power to make sure that she gets home safely. And Eric?”

  “Yes, Lilly?”

  “I’m sorry we never got a chance to be a family for real.”

  “Lilly!”

  “I’m closing the gate now. Thank you for giving me a chance at life. I won’t let you down.”

  “Lilly, wait!”

  His words abruptly cut off as his former familiar and friend used Greater Abjuration to close the gate… and severe their own connection as well.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  “Fuck!” Eric howled into the void, blinking back furious tears as he sensed the outraged scream of the monstrous titan even now transforming to something dark and hideous in the world below. Eric shook away the dismay he felt, hating that this was how it had to be. His dismay turned to a horrified gasp when he spotted how the clouds of an entire continent, far beyond one isolated midnight territory, were swirling in an ever growing cyclone.

  A twisted aerie mask, as if Terra herself was howling.

  An ever-growing scream.

  Heart pounding, Eric leaped from nothing and began his descent, pumping his legs with everything he had in air so thin it was hardly atmosphere at all, which only increased his speed as wind resistance was near zero even without his Speed Racer perk in play. His interface kept track of his speed as he sprinted with everything he had, feeling a shiver of wonder the equal of his furious resolve as he simultaneously shifted his perspective so Terra was in front of him, not under, and his traction was absolute, even as he allowed Earth’s gravity to claim his too mortal form with every bit of traction that 10m/s2 allowed because it seemed that not even an ascending planet’s glory kept Earth’s gravity from gripping just the tiniest bit stronger as Eric howled through the stratosphere, the spinning world growing closer and closer, though still just a bowling ball in size, for all that he knew exactly where he needed to be, but more than anything else, he wanted to go FASTER!

  Faster than his desperately pounding feet could take him, gravity itself now propelling him faster than he could race even down hill at the perfect angle.

  So he dared that which in any other time would imperil everything, flashing transcendent wings he tried so hard to forget were folded so tightly to his soul. Wings that could so easily presage the ultimate transformation and compel his immediate ascension and exit from the world he loved… Superheated perilous wings that risked devastating and warping the world almost as severely as the monster trying to ascend below.

  Wings he would no longer dare unfold even in the safety of hyperspace, now fearing that such terrain wasn’t safe at all.

  Wing he would unfold only here and now, miles above the ascending titan below.

  A slowly ascending titan that was even now making its ponderous way to the sanctuary Eric had given so much of himself in forging.

  A sanctuary that Eric would save at all costs, even as he spread his wings and screamed, Earth’s Trophosphere now shuddering with the cry of the Phoenix hurtling to the Earth once more as the System screamed messages of its own.

  SYSTEM-WIDE ALERT!

  HOSTILE GOLD-TIER ASCENSION IMMINENT!

  HOSTILE ENTITY IS HARVESTING SOULS OUTSIDE OF SYSTEM PARAMETERS!

  YOUR HOME WORLD IS IN PERIL!

  ALL STRICTURES HAVE BEEN LIFTED!

  MANDATORY QUEST FOR ALL CONTENDERS IN PROXIMITY TO NEW ARCADIA / NEW YORK STATE!

  SAVE YOUR WORLD AND BE FETED AS A HERO, OR PERISH!

  “Surge Centuria! Imperator Imperat Tibi!”

  In the blink of an eye, a single hurtling phoenix was joined by 3 million Bronze Tier companions that were traveling just as fast as he.

  Eric’s heart was pounding with terror he refused to call anything but exhilaration even as he sensed his sister’s terrified cry, sensing death coming for her and all she loved.

  Eric plumbed the absolute depths of Battletime as his speed came shockingly close to what a god rod would achieve from low earth orbit, so dense and compact and aerodynamic that air resistance had little effect at all… weapons that could achieve a velocity thirty-fold that of the speed of sound.

  A speed Eric sensed he was damn close to hitting, Battletime allowing him to stretch his perception of time to a be over seventy times what a lightning quick Olympic Fencer would experience while truly in the zone. Which meant that instead of going so shockingly fast that oblivion struck before he could even think, he was effectively in a race car going over 300 miles per hour. Which was itself shockingly fast, even with over 800 Finesse helping him to hold the wheel.

  He recalled all too well the one time Elonia had insisted he try out her ridiculously souped up street racer.

  That had not ended well.

  Fortunately, his target was now a mile high demon straight from the bowels of hell.

  A half-step Gold that somehow knew. Knew to turn at just the instant a desperate roaring Eric struggled to turn his death plunge into a level charge, wings flaring with blinding heat that would have obliterated all life for miles in all directions, had this territory not already been reduced to rubble and ashes.

  “YOU!” The towering giant roared in hyper-speak as the distance between them closed in the blink of an eye, Eric forced to lock gazes with a monstrous face that looked so horrifyingly familiar, even as it raised a massive sword of pristine darkness, the blade dripping with the pristine essence of Malice and hate, warded by a crackling field of ebony darkness that no Earthly force could counter.

  “THIS ENDS NOW! DIE, YOU MONSTROUS BRAT!”

  Eric’s desperate cry was that of the phoenix, summoning forth a blade of his own.

  Malice’s eyes lit up with what might have been surprise or even fear at the weapon now in Eric’s hands.

  A blade of freezing brilliance over a core of transcendent fire hotter than any star, radiating the wild hot fury of a supernova. It was the farthest thing from Eric’s dachi, for the phoenix had no need for toys. He embraced a weapon every bit as long as Malice’s own. A tool of destruction that had once carved through dreadnoughts by the score.

  As one they struck, their blades and wards exploding in mutual annihilation as Eric’s ultimate attack failed to pierce his near Gold-tier sire’s flesh.

  PHOENIX STRIKE!

  CONGRATULATIONS! THE PHOENIX HAS RISEN! YOU REMEMBER WHAT WAS ONCE FORGOTTEN!

  Phoenix Strike has reached Transcendence!

  Skill Check: Critical Success! You have successfully synergized Piercing Strike with Transcendent Strike!

  You have successfully knocked aside GOLD-TIER Reaver’s Blade!

  Rank 14 Combined Essence TRUMPS Rank 10 Armor of Malicious Hate!

  You have PIERCED your Foe’s Defenses!

  WARNING!

  Your foe has placed GOLD-TIER Talisman of Abjuration in play!

  Your attack has been ABJURED!

  In a twisted moment of nul-time too fast to be registered as anything but a memory, he saw his foe’s features twist into a wild grin, fingers flashing with Gold-tier fate cards that Eric had no chance in hell of countering as the glorious revelation that had filled him with such shivering wonder, FINALLY remembering the miracle of destruction he had once summoned so effortlessly by his mother’s side… was forgotten once more.

  “What’s yours is mine always, you castoff brat!”

  Fate card of TWISTED KINSHIP has been put into play!

  Phoenix Strike revelation has been TORN FROM YOUR MIND!

  You have LOST your most recent breakthrough!

  (NOTE! Your blade is infused with the power of 14 essence tiers! You have avoided neuronal searing! Your skill remains intact! - Present skill remains at 19. Bonus insights are now no more!)

  You have suffered CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE hurtling into your target!

  Charge skill check (Modified by Wings of the Phoenix, Dread Lord’s Carapace, Mithril Armor, Speed Racer II, and 438 Physical Resistance. MITIGATES Instant Obliteration to Catastrophic Injuries!

  You have FAILED to take out your Gold-Tier foe in a single strike!

  System messages flickered in his mind, also in nul-time as Eric’s foe, unarmed and unarmored but showing absolutely no injury at all, laughed coldly in Eric’s mind.

  “It will be good to sup upon your soul, brat. I might even let you live long enough to see what I do to your sister.”

  Eric, mind and body, already screaming in unthinkable agony that stretched forever in that frozen moment of time as broken phoenix passed ascending demon, still managed a mental smile.

  “I think you’re forgetting something, you deadbeat piece of shit.”

  And the joy Eric felt as Malice’s smirking demeanor turned to wide-eyed horror as if only in that instant sensing what the brilliant mile-long blazing sword Eric had wielded and flashing wings had hidden.

  The three million roaring revenants with wildly flaring coronas of System perks, skills, and magical potency abused to such a screaming degree that they actually looked like prismatic phoenix wings that suddenly flared bright, so DAMN bright, in the instant Eric had made contact, as Mach 30 Kinetic force was boosted by something unspeakably glorious as 3 MILLION spears tipped with the essence of Wrath tore into and through Malice in the blink of an eye.

  YOUR ALLIES ENJOY A FRENZY BONUS OF 20%+16%+(20%*670xspeed of a charging knight) = 15,516% Damage bonus!

  FULL Charge boon in effect!

  3,000,000 hypersonic missiles infused with the essence of WRATH hitting with kinetic force 15,516% GREATER than pre apocalypse god rods have successfully OBLITERATED GOLD-TIER OPPONENT!

  Shockwave backlash is FATAL to everyone below Deep Silver! Even you, Hero!

  Eric’s soul screamed furious protest in the final split second of his existence as he made his plea before a strangely sympathetic looking deity, smirking before Eric’s desperately held character sheet.

  “Really, Eric? A perk to avoid accidental spear thrusts you would use to deny nuclear fusion purchase?”

  The world rocked with Conceptio’s laughter.

  “Why not? Technically… it’s a legal use of your perk!”

  FRIENDLY FIRE PERK IN EFFECT!

  YOU HAVE AVOIDED BEING ATOMIZED BY YOUR OWN REVENANTS!

  YOU ARE THE FIRST TERRAN TO ELIMINATE A HALF-STEP GOLD OPPONENT!

  YOU ARE THE FIRST BEING WITHIN THIS GALACTIC SECTOR TO ELIMINATE A HALF-STEP GOLD OPPONENT!

  SURVIVING TERRAN COUNSEL HAS BEEN INFORMED OF YOUR FEAT.

  LOCAL SECTOR COUNSEL HAS BEEN INFORMED OF YOUR FEAT.

  IMPERIAL COUNSEL HAS BEEN INFORMED OF YOUR FEAT.

  CONGRATULATIONS!

  YOU HAVE EARNED A PRISTINE SILVER TITLE!

  CONCEPTIO HAS MADE YOU A TITLE!

  THE PHOENIX ASCENDS!

  LET THE GALAXY FEAR YOUR WRATH AS WE COLLECT EVER MORE PRECIOUS DATA!

  Note. You are presently unable to accept the boons of this title until you reach Silver. (Seriously, this should be a Gold-Tier title, but the System’s edicts stop at Pristine Silver. Congrats! And sorry about your planet!!)

  Eric, even in the extremis of his agony, pretty damn certain that the shockwave released with the absolute obliteration of Malice had basically doomed him, wasn’t a complete fool. He understood the hint he had been given even as he mentally screamed with dismay. Because it didn’t matter that he had actually managed to twist his inertia in that final heartbeat so that instead of hitting the ground directly he had effectively pulled up from his dive to strike his opponent point-first with his blade, assuring that all the bonuses his revenants needed for him making first contact would activate. It didn’t even matter that if he had dared that madness alone, Malice would have torn out his heart by now. Because flaring forbidden powers and 14 essence ranks meant nothing against 10 essence ranks when used by a halfstep Gold. Yet it had been just enough to crack through his opponent’s armor.

  His desperate maneuver had actually worked!

  And that was the horrific problem. Even doing everything he could to avoid a direct hit with Mother Earth herself, his three million revenants had hit their Gold-tier target with sufficient force to generate fusion. Even now, the shockwave would be propagating like mad, and it didn’t matter that his final screaming command in Battletime before consciousness got twisty was the immediate retrieval of ALL his 3 million troops, even the ruined remains, before they blasted around the globe like pinballs doing god knew how much additional damage.

  Yet he was chillingly certain that impact with Malice, impact using multiple insane perks and the flaring wings of what he had once been before to assure he generated an absolutely catastrophic degrees of kinetic force… sufficient to kill a half-step deity, was also sufficient to wipe out the planet they fought upon.

  He felt that even as Battletime reached its limit and Hyperion Racer perk screamed and he knew he only had the tiniest fraction of an instant to make his plea before the shockwave and radiation being generated, not to mention the atmosphere-destroying fireball, utterly destroyed his home.

  Because he had surrendered a Silver-Tier Perk once before.

  He screamed his plea as his ruined body hurtled out from a shattered Earth to the cold black void of oblivion, terrified that it might already be too late.

  Battleforged Book 5, Phoenix Fire, is now live on Amazon!

  If you wanted to grab a copy (It's on KU!) or even just leave a review, I'd be extremely grateful for the support!