Lucas fell to the ground as his mental fatigue caught up to him. His connection to Percival was temporarily severed, so Lucas could remain conscious. As Maxwell approached him, Lucas turned to him with a glare. “Who’s behind this?”

  Maxwell hesitantly stepped back. “From the traces left behind. The command to self-destruct came from a king-ranked mage named Julius Espine,” Maxwell answered.

  “Where is he?” Lucas asked as he got up.

  “I don’t know,” Maxwell answered.

  Lucas gritted his teeth.

  “What the hell was that?” Augustus shouted as they watched the golems go rogue and suicide-charged the severiumite city.

  “Maxwell reported that a king-ranked mage took control of the golems,” one of the agents informed.

  Before they could discuss things further, an alarm began blaring. “What is it this time?!” Augustus yelled.

  “A universal rift opened sir!”

  “Again?!” Augustus replied in annoyance. “Is it from the same universe as the last one?”

  “No sir.”

  “Just fucking great,” Augustus rubbed his forehead in frustration.

  Things were going so well. Had this last attack gone smoothly, they would have been able to use this success as a reference for future projects requiring support from the royal government.

  But someone had to sabotage the operation and now, they needed to deal with another threat. “What are we dealing with here?”

  A footage of a rift was shown on one of the screens. The rift was in the middle of a ravine located near the northern edge of the south sector.

  “How many are coming through?” Augustus asked as they observed the rift start to ripple violently.

  “Just one sir,” an agent replied.

  The whole observation room watched as a single figure shot out of the rift with so much speed and force that it caused the ravine to collapse from the sonic boom.

  “Where is it heading?” Augustus asked as they watched as the figure create another sonic boom as it took flight.

  “Based on their trajectory, they’re heading for the southeastern sector.”

  “Inform the military and the mage association. Tell them they got another one incoming and fast,” Augustus ordered. “Get me visual on it.”

  “Target is moving too fast for the satellites sirs,” an agent replied as they showed rapidly changing images on the screen.

  “Sir, Vanessa Eldragon is intercepting the target.”

  “Prepare our teleportation magic on standby to send some reinforcements,” Augustus instructed. “We don’t know what we’re dealing with here.”

  Elise groaned as she looked around the scorch land after barely surviving an explosion so powerful that it changed the landscape. Akina and the others were fine, but the dark knight that had protected them was kneeling motionless as he held on to his lance that was planted into the ground.

  They had survived because of him. He did that even though this was supposed to be a suicide mission.

  With that in mind, Elise decided that she wouldn’t be wasting this life that was given to her. And she’ll prove that by facing the opponents heading towards them and surviving.

  A low rumble echoes through the scorched land as a seven-feet tall severiumite steps onto the field. His eyes glow with ancient malice. Behind him, another smaller severiumite slithers smoothly, shield raised, blade twitching with anticipation.

  Dante, the lone male soldier left, slams his shotgun into the ground, activating its barrier mode. “Contact. Defensive formation now,” Elise and the others quickly got into formation.

  Orion, one of the mages, raises a hand, slowing the air in a bubble around the scorched land. “We control this space,” he mutters, his voice already strained from channeling.

  Lucan, the other mage, draws a flaming sigil into the air. “Wardline set. They’ll have to cross the ring to reach us.”

  Akina vaults onto a raised platform created by Lucan, pistols spinning. “I’ll keep snake-face busy. Don’t let the big one touch me.”

  Elise, prone behind cover, speaks calmly: “Targeting the big one. Beginning elemental cycling.”

  “I am Vorthak,” the big one growled out.

  “I am Sethiss,” the smaller one hissed as he drew his blade.

  Vorthak steps into the wardline—and triggers Lucan’s sigil. A wave of fire explodes around him, but the brute charges through with a roar, swinging his great sword in a horizontal arc. Dante meets it with a barrier pulse from his shotgun, deflecting the venomous slash.

  Akina blurs across the side, drawing Sethiss' attention. Her bullets phase through his shield—but he anticipates, twisting and countering with a lightning-fast thrust. She narrowly avoids it, flipping over him and tagging his back.

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  Elise fires a lightning round at Vorthak, but he deflects it with his great sword, absorbing some of the energy into his weapon, causing it to glow green. “That’s new,” she murmurs, recalibrating.

  Orion, gritting his teeth, distorts gravity under Sethiss, causing the serpent-warrior to stumble. Lucan capitalizes, sending a wind blast that sends him skidding backward.

  But they’re not done.

  Vorthak leaps—supernaturally high—crashing down in front of Dante. The impact sends a shockwave, cracking the ground beneath them.

  Dante plants his feet and roars, unleashing a full-concussive blast that hurls Vorthak back—but barely. “He’s not slowing down!”

  Akina, breathless but grinning, zips between platforms. “Switch targets! I’ll distract the big guy!”

  Orion casts a zone of reduced gravity around the field, allowing Akina to move like she’s flying. She cartwheels over Vorthak, emptying her mags into his armor joints. “Found the soft spots!”

  Lucan creates a fire vortex beneath Sethiss, forcing the serpent to leap. As he does, Elise times her shot perfectly—Crack!—an ice round hits his shield mid-air, freezing it partially.

  Dante rushes Sethiss mid-fall, slamming his shotgun into the frozen shield, cracking it further. “Back off!” he growls, throwing him with brute force toward the scorched ground.

  Vorthak, enraged, calls upon his own dark magic. His blade glows and corrupts the air around him. A wave of venom surges forward.

  Orion counters, warping the air and redirecting the cloud over the field. “You won’t touch the get past!”

  But the toll shows—Orion falls to a knee.

  “Orion!” Lucan rushes to support him, casting protective wards around his body.

  The battle drags on. The ground is cracked and scorched. Smoke rises from Lucan’s broken ward line. The fire wall has vanished. Magical fatigue sets in.

  Orion stumbles, nose bleeding. “Can’t… hold spatial field much longer.”

  Elise has only two elemental rounds left. Her breathing is shallow, her scope cracked. “We need a fallback.”

  Akina’s pistols click empty. “I’m dry! Gimme thirty seconds to recharge!”

  Dante stands bloodied, armor cracked open, shielding the team from Vorthak’s charge. “No time. They’re coming—hard!”

  Vorthak, enraged and tireless, slams his great sword into the ground—shattering the ground beath them.

  Sethiss, shield repaired by dark enchantments, darts forward in a blur. Lucan tries to cast—but too late. Sethiss slashes across his chest and knocks him flat.

  Orion collapses beside Lucan, trying to shield him. “Fall… back…”

  Akina tries to leap away, but Vorthak snatches her midair and throws her like a ragdoll into the ground. She crashes hard, dazed.

  Elise lands a direct hit—her last ice round—on Vorthak’s leg, freezing it in place just long enough for Dante to ram his shotgun barrel into the beast’s chest and fire a desperate shockwave.

  It only stuns him for seconds.

  Sethiss raises his blade over the fallen Lucan.

  Vorthak lifts his sword once more toward Dante.

  The humans are outmatched. Exhausted. Defeated.

  Just as Sethiss’s blade falls—

  Suddenly—

  A sonic boom shatters the air. Something enormous slams into the ground, sending chunks of stone flying.

  The serpent warriors halt, instantly, senses alert.

  Through the dust and debris, a hulking silhouette emerges.

  Clad in black armor, glowing faintly with red runes, a cybernetic golem steps forward. Eight feet tall. Humanoid. Armor styled after a dark knight—sleek but brutal, with a massive great sword on his back and a lance mounted to one arm.

  His single crimson eye scans the battlefield. His voice is deep, mechanical, and ancient:

  “A knight shall eliminate every threat.”

  Sethiss lunges—but is stopped midair as the knight simply raises a hand and crushes the air around him with a telekinetic burst. The snake warrior is hurled backward, smashing into a boulder.

  Vorthak snarls and charges. He swings— The knight catches the corrupted great sword with one hand, halting the momentum.

  CLANGGG

  With the other, he swings his lance in a wide arc, slamming Vorthak across the field, cracking stone.

  Elise, watching in stunned awe, murmurs: “How is he still standing...”

  Orion, barely conscious, whispers: “That knight is a golem created by Iris.”

  Elise turned to Orion. “Golem?”

  Dante, now crawling toward Akina, shouts: “We need to regroup—this thing just bought us a chance!”

  Lucan, coughing, channels his last magic into a barrier dome, giving the humans cover.

  Sethiss, recovering, throws his blade telekinetically— The golem raises one finger and halts it midair, then spins it back, sending the blade skimming across Sethiss’s own armor.

  With a telekinetic boom, the golem lifts both snake warriors into the air and slams them into the scorched earth. They rise again, but slower—wounded, panicked.

  Sethiss, reeling, hisses. “This… machine… should not exist…”

  Vorthak, now limping, grabs Sethiss. “We retreat… now.”

  They attempt to run away, but the golem raises its lance and takes aim. The lance erupted with aura, blazing like a purple flame. With a mighty throw, the golem launches the lance through the two severiumites, leaving massive chunks missing from their bodies as they fell lifeless to the ground.

  “Damn... they should have just sent that thing alone...” Orion commented as they regrouped.

  “I thought you were dead,” Elise said as she approached the golem with Akina leaning on her for support.

  “My system was under manual guidance by my lord through our soul connection,” the golem replied. “Connection severance required recovery.”

  “What kind of monster is Iris to make a golem like that,” Dante mentioned as he collapsed to the ground.

  “Who cares. We’re just going to starve to death here anyways,” Lucan spoke up.

  “That is not true,” the golem responded.

  “What do you mean?” Akina asked.

  The golem responded by stabbing its sword into the ground and releasing a wave of aura that shrouded its whole body. Then the group noticed a rift opening behind the golem, absorbing its aura to form.

  “Don’t tell me...” Elise stared at the rift with tearful eyes.

  “You all resolved yourselves to die, but I will not allow it,” the golem declared.

  Lucas watched as the survivors crossed through the rift and came back home. He turned to Maxwell who looked exhausted. “You did well.”

  “It’s the least I could after failing to notice that someone messed with the golems,” Maxwell replied. “It’s a good thing that you had a soul connection to your golem, otherwise, this wouldn’t have been possible.”

  “I still owe you one for this,” Lucas mentioned. “May-” he was interrupted by his phone ringing with an unknown number. “Hello?”

  “Mr. Atican. This is Augustus Shieldheart of the CDA,” the person introduced himself, but before Lucas could ask any questions, the man continued. “I called to inform you that another individual that came out of a Universal rift is heading to your sector.”

  “My sector?” Lucas raised an eyebrow.

  Augustus Shieldheart ignored his confusion. “Whatever or whoever it is, they are coming in fast and is powerful enough to cause a ravine to collapse by simply flying out of the rift.”

  Lucas sighed.

  Another headache to deal with.