Chương 49: 48 Anti-Astral Defense System

"Tony, we have to go!" Ingred called. I grunted under the pressure, gravity pressing down harder as we got closer to the Anti-Astral Defense System.

"Hold on!" I said, wrenching a lid off a wooden crate. I exhaled at the red sticks of explosives packed in straw—dynamite, or some analog, meant as mining charges.

"Good idea," Bianca said, prying the lid off another crate.

"We're not winning in a fair fight. He's on par with an Uncle or an Aunt." I summoned the backpack I'd looted from the Dread Knight, dumping out its contents. Rope, anchors, a crowbar, and other common dungeoneering gear spilled out. Quickly, I packed the charges into the bag.

"That thing's charging!" Ingred said, voice climbing as she turned to the obelisks towering over the ruined tops of buildings. I could feel it, the pull, siphoning my vitality away. That thing was thirsty. And it was drinking. Flipping the flap back over the pack, I sent it back into my inventory, where, in theory, it should be safe from environmental factors. Bianca met my eyes while placing her charges into a tin pail. It winked away. She nodded once.

A bundle of five bolts for the dragon bolt pistol had fallen from the pack, and I scooped them up, shoving them into my pocket. I bit my tongue, face tight as I breathed the heavy air.

"Well," Naomi said, tipping her tricorn up.

"Let's do this." We marched to the final ring of cover, which appeared to be the ruins of townhomes from some long-dead society. The hum pulsed, each wave making my hair stand on end like a ripple of static electricity. I ducked low, then crawled to a tipped wheelbarrow. The nexus between the monoliths had changed; no longer a blur in the air, but radiant ripples swelled, caged by an unseen barrier between the four spires. I counted a dozen armed men and Drake-kin from my vantage point.

They cast wary glances inward at the Anti-Astral Defense System. Thaddius and Lonnie stood closest to Puppetmaster. An Ogre slug pistol hung in Thaddius' tight grip, and the matronly Lonnie gripped her skirt at her knees, as if preparing to run at the first sign of trouble.

"Battle plan?" Bianca sent over the psionic channel.

"Ingred, hit those clusters with area of effect spells," Naomi ordered.

"I'll try. I'm low on Mana."

"I have a shot," I conveyed, dragon bolt pistol winking into my hand. On my belly, I slowly extended the thick weapon, bracing the barrel on a tipped shovel. Its trajectory cone beamed forward, powerful and relatively narrow. The trajectory shaft arced down too fast, pulled down by the artifact's gravitational pull. I painted my father's back with its light. Puppetmaster faced the gap between spires, hands plunged into the rippling radiant waves. He tensed, leaning into it, tail bracing his weight like a tripod.

Something hovered at the Anti-Astral Defense System's nucleus, a glowing white orb trailing a dry stem. My eyes widened. I'd seen it before. For half a moment, when Naomi lost control at the Coppersmeldt's clubhouse. The same sickly, toxic light.

"Tony," Naomi's voice pressed into my mind.

"He wants it. The light. The whisperer."

"Then we make sure he never gets it," I returned, regaining my sight picture.

"I have the shot." Crouching across from me, she lifted her left hand, and several sharp, fist-sized stones lifted into the air beside her.

"Take it." Sorry, father. My finger tightened—then froze. Papa.

"Tony?" Ingred asked. I shook my head, jaw clamping down, and squeezed off my shot. The dragon bolt pistol roared, a weapon designed for a creature much larger than me, bucking in my hands. The bolt zipped down the track, barreling at Puppetmaster's exposed back. A blade of system-white light arced behind him, slicing the projectile from the air.

"He's warded!" Ingred exclaimed in the psychic channel. Thaddius and Lonnie flinched, whirling in our direction. The slaver chieftain bellowed an order, and slavers and Bloodwake soldiers charged. I rolled back behind cover as trajectory cones swung our way, chips of stone and dirt blasted around us. An ice blast sailed at a cluster of slavers, arching down too fast and detonating prematurely. My thumb compressing the release, the barrel on my dragon bolt pistol flipped to the side, ejecting a casing.

Naomi rose, casting her hand forward, and her hovering stones launched at the enemy. I snapped the barrel back into place on another shell and rose, aiming. Two Dread Trooper swordsmen charged in thick armor plate, double-sided curved blades spinning in their hands. I sighted one and fired. Pain shocked my hand from the blast, but the weapon packed enough of a punch to slam through a breastplate. The other one roared, flame sputtering between his jaws. He locked up, eyes going milky white. Thanks, Naomi.

I vaulted the wheelbarrow, cutlass coming up to finish him while he was incapacitated. A ghostly chain lashed from the ground, snapping around my wrist and jerking me back. I snarled as it pulled my sword hand down. My gaze came up, locking eyes with Lonnie, who smiled at me with a finger pressed to her temple. Three slavers with swords zeroed in on me, and I switched my blade to my left hand.

"Tony, the chain's not real!" Naomi cried.

"It's in your head." I blinked in surprise as I watched the ghostly manacle dig into my skin. Felt real enough to me. I swung, trying to cut the illusory chain. Steel shrieked against steel, and the force of impact shocked my arm. It had to be real. The swordsmen arrived, and I fell back, pivoting around my tether as I parried a rapier and batted a cutlass aside.

"Danger close, Tony, get down!" Bianca hollered, touching the fuse of a small stick of dynamite to a Coredwarf horn, smoldering from her brow. I jerked at the chain, and illusory steel bit flesh. I rolled out of a trajectory path as a rifle round snapped past, my anchor tearing at my shoulder.

"Stuck!" I cried frantically, batting at three blades as my attackers fanned around to surround me. The dynamite hit the ground behind the petrified Draconic knight, and I dropped low, covering my head. A blade scored the back of my hand, then the ground heaved. The smoldering Drake-kin knight sailed over my head, slamming into the slaver with the rapier, and the others screamed as they leaped away from the fireball. I howled as I ducked under the heat.

<<Passive Buff: Apex Wrath: +1 Fire Resistance>> Two more dynamite explosions roared across the plaza, blasting slavers away. The heat washed past, and I waved the flames off my burning sleeve. Naomi threw herself on my back, hands clasped to my temples.

"Tony, see!" The spectral chain faded from view, torn skin from its bite vanishing.

"All in your head!" she shouted. I shook my arm, the shock to my shoulder socket suddenly non-existent. My eyes went wide.

"Move!" I grabbed her and jerked her out of the thick trajectory path of Thaddius' Ogre slug gun. I yanked her wrist, towing her along as four different trajectory shafts washed towards us. Dirt blasted at my feet, a hornet of lead zipping past my ear, and I pulled up sharply as a ball tore through a fold in my shirt. Trajectory Read. The Feat that paid dividends. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Naomi jerked her hand, yanking a man's pistol to the side, making him discharge it into his comrade's thigh. A pair of Frost Strikes streaked across the plaza, missing but sending three men reeling for cover. Bianca shrieked a bestial howl, muscles swelling under skin as she shifted. A crocodile's snout elongated, rows of sharp teeth lining her long jaws, and her shirt tightened over her shoulders as she inflated. The hum of the Anti-Astral Defense System droned with a sudden influx of energy.

Naomi began relaying the adjustments to the battle plan.

"Tony, we need to get—""There you are," Lonnie's voice cut into the channel.

"Listen closely, children." On our psionic link, she nailed all four of us at once. Neurons ruptured, a high scream of psionic agony drilling directly into my brain. I howled, dropping my cutlass and clasping my hands to my head as the sound bore me to my knees. Bianca slammed down hard, a chimeric form twitching from a seizure.

"I was wrong, Anton," Lonnie's voice said, a lullaby undertone to the shriek of synaptic noise. She started down the dais, middle finger pressed to her temple, other hand outstretched.

"I vouched for you. Thought you'd make a good ally!"

"Kill them while they're down!" Thaddius bellowed, his voice a whisper under the wailing attack. Men charged with swords and knives. Blood welled in my eyes as my entire body seized. Behind me, Ingred dropped to her face, twitching.

"The Raven Reaper was right," she said sweetly.

"Never trust an outsider." Naomi caught herself on a hand before she could pitch forward, muscle spasming, then her head came up, a mask of fury.

"Still—here!" she snarled. <<System Warning: Unauthorized User: Dathurul>> <<Eldritch Possession Detected>> Then the orb at the center of the Anti-Astral Defense System strobed. An image blinked in my mind. Only for a moment—a sphere of white light flashed in midnight darkness, sediment suspended in the air reflecting its glare. Naomi's milky white eyes flashed with a white radiance that matched the sphere within the Anti-Astral Defense System.

"Thieves!" She howled. A second voice, beyond sound and beyond time, layered over her.

"Give me my Lantern!" Then Naomi rose, blood weeping freely from both eyes. She screamed, throwing her hands forward. Lonnie's eyes went wide, and her head snapped back. The synaptic shriek winked off, and my chest heaved, my body hot as a flame.

"Naomi!" I cried, shying back away from her. Whatever was at the helm of her mind, it wasn't her. The slavers let out a war cry, descending on us. I snatched my cutlass, rising on shaking legs. The orb in the Anti-Astral Defense System strobed again, its eldritch light igniting the plaza in steady intervals. Naomi's eyes matched the flash. Something remained suspended in the air in front of Naomi, trapped in the after glare. Four figures drifted in empty space, made of threads.

I'd seen something like it before, in anatomy books—nervous systems, isolated from a body. The light flashed again, and their forms sharpened. A flash, and bones intertwined with the nervous systems. Flash, flash, flash. Organs, muscles, and then skin layered over the figures suspended in the air. I shielded my eyes, blinking white splotches as the four newly summoned Deep One brutes dropped, landing heavily on the plaza. They roared—fishy-humanoid fusions, mutated into weapons.

Naomi's eyes went pearlescent, an alien smile twisting across her lips as seawater misted around her, condensing from nowhere. Her finger lifted, pointing, and the Deep Ones charged, sprinting for the orb suspended in the Anti-Astral Defense System. Slavers staggered as the brutes plowed into their ranks, tearing with claws, teeth, and pincers. My jaw dropped as I shifted towards Naomi, who fell wearily to her knees, tears of blood streaking down her cheeks.

Lonnie collapsed, motionless, smoke drifting from empty eye sockets. Thaddius's Ogre slug pistol belched as he blasted a fair chunk of a Deep One's lung out of its back, but the brute's strange anatomy kept it up. I sank back down, conjuring my dragon bolt pistol and reloading it half blind. Thaddius drew a broad-bladed falchion and hacked the Deep One's head free. It collapsed heavily. The slavers took down a second one, though four of their bodies now littered the dirt.

Two Drake-kin knights double-teamed another, scything double blades, carving into it. I snapped my pistol shut and sighted Thaddius—the final real obstacle. His gaze snapped to me, and he jerked his slug gun around. Our trajectory cones overlapped. We fired at the same time. Sparks sprayed in the middle where projectiles met. Shrapnel sank into my left shoulder and clawed my face. The slaver jerked, a line of blood opening on his neck. He grinned, thick fingers touching the cut.

"Anton, m'boy, don't you worry, I'm coming for you next!" One of the Deep Ones had impaled a Bloodwake knight with a black iron spike, and the other felled two more slavers before they hacked it down. With a single Deep One remaining, Thaddius sprang forward with uncanny speed, cigar trailing smoke. He struck, broad cutlass blurring, and the final Fish Brute dropped. I snapped my dragon bolt pistol shut on another shell and shot at the Ogre. Too fast—the round snapped past but carried to an unintentional target.

The heavy bolt drilled through two slavers who had stacked too closely. Gravity doubled, and my knees bent under the pressure. Puppetmaster screamed, the Anti-Astral Defense System swelling in power, ripping dust into the air across the entire plaza. I gritted my teeth, craning my head. Ingred stirred but remained lying down. My bones buzzed as I forced my head to turn the other way. Naomi remained fixed in place, on her knees, eyes wide, hands shaking. Bianca stepped into place beside me, now towering over me.

"It's just us, Tony. You ready?" My hand tightened on the sword's handle.

"The Ogre's mine!"

"I've got the Drake-kin knight and the last slaver." I nodded. Crackling, coalescing vapors began spiraling around the outside of the Anti-Astral Defense System. Ahead, Thaddius jerked a finger at us, and Bianca and I started forward. I squinted through the gale, air ripping at my shirt. A war cry escaped me, sound muted to the roar of power. The wind ripped Thaddius' bowler hat from his wide, ogre brow. My feet kicked under me, fighting the pressure.

He reared back with his falchion, and I ignited Empowered Windmill form. Thaddius bellowed, striking down. My arc of white light met the blow, edge to edge, spraying sparks and notching his blade. He grinned as our blades locked, smoldering nub glowing between his teeth. He pressed down, adding his weight to the increased pressure. I hissed through my teeth as my knees started to buckle, then I shucked a shoulder, throwing my elbow high and tossing his falchion aside.

My cutlass darted three times, striking sparks off his blade as they clashed. He lunged, his heavier weight resisting gravity's press better than mine, and his meaty fist blurred forward. His punch struck me in the chest like a hammer, and my ribs flexed inward as I was blasted back. He followed up with a double-handed swing. I rolled under his steel, lashing out an X of cuts and opening his shoulder.

With a snarl, he jerked his sword back at me with a lateral cut, and I sheared down with both hands, sword trailing a luminescent track. The top half of his blade spun out into the raging dust. My mana dipped into red, and I dropped the empowered form. I would not lock myself out of my inventory this time. Behind me, the final Slaver lay motionless, and the Draconic knight slammed Bianca back with a powerful kick.

"Anton, m'boy!" Thaddius boomed, hefting his half-blade, severed edge glowing with heat.

"I knew I liked you. You were right, we are kindred spirits!"

"We couldn't be more different!" I snarled, chest heaving, and ribs aching.

"Sure you are," he spat around his cigar.

"You'll see. You just need the proper motivation." His eyes darted past me to the fallen form of Ingred. Her icy blond braid lay across her forearm.

"You couldn't strike her before. Now I understand!" My eyes widened. He bolted, trying to skirt around me to get to her. I cried out in panic, legs burning as they fought the oppressive weight of the air pressure. He barreled through the heavy atmosphere like an anchor through water. Surging, I cut him off, and he struck with his half sword. I turned it aside with a parry but staggered under the blow. His hand darted forward, snagging me by the neck.

I gagged, and he hefted, whipping me around like a child's toy before slamming me back down. My shoulder flared in pain, something cracking in the joint.

"See!" he bellowed with a laugh, the nub of his cigar smoldering and flaring in the wind.

"Motivation!" I swung up, and he caught my wrist, driving my hand to the stones and knocking my sword free.

"Do you feel it, Anton?" Thaddius growled, the air around us humming and alive.

"The power—that's where we derive our right to take." The smoke on his breath stung my eyes. I clawed at his hand, and it loosened just enough to let in a garbled breath.

"Mercy—that's how you lose what you love." I dropped my free hand, reaching for my inventory with my mind. A few whispered, garbled words slid past my lips.

"Speak up, boy!" Thaddius growled, grip loosening further on my throat.

"I said—" I started, banishing the backpack at my side back into my inventory.

"You got a light?" I seized the single stick of dynamite I had slipped from my stash and jerked the fuse up to his cigar. His eyes went wide as it sputtered to life. He shoved himself back, but I curled up with him, clinging to his neck. I rammed the stick down the back of his shirt. A roar of rage and panic blasted me in the face. His cigar dropped from his lips. I kicked off him, impacting the ground face-first as I covered my head. The ground rocked, flames and concussive force wracking my body.

Burns and shrapnel tore across my legs, back, and hands. I blinked as gravel rained and pink mist drifted around me, my ears ringing like bells.

"Tony!" Bianca hollered as she jogged away from the Drake-kin knight, a new stripe of blood marking the side of her shirt. My gaze snapped over, and she pointed. Puppetmaster roared, body tensing, hands plunged into the maelstrom. A conduit of white light lanced up from the Anti-Astral Defense System. Gravity quadrupled, slamming my face into the ground, and a gale blasted away from the monolith. I screamed, going completely deaf for a moment.

Lying face down beside me, Bianca's hand found mine and squeezed tightly. From the moment I'd set foot on this cursed Islet, I'd felt the Anti-Astral Defense System drawing inward, consuming. Now it threw everything out all at once. The earth buzzed, radiance burning. Then it cut off. I lay motionless for a full minute, body trembling, then I rolled onto my back. A new hole yawned in the sky, its edges glowing with heat, a crimson haze of harsh light filtering through. The blast had punched straight through.

<<System Notice: Timer Update>> <<Time to Seal Collapse: 03: 03: 01: 20: 16: 17>> Something caught in my throat, and I choked. We weren't fast enough. Nine days. The blast had knocked nine days off the timer. Then the hum started again as the weapon started recharging.