Starbreaker: Volume 3, page 41
No! Be angry! she shouted while simultaneously projecting a barrage of moving images into his head. They just tried to poison you!
And they truly had, Sylvas discovered as the premonition played out in his mind, his eyes quickly dropping down towards a small, spray-like device that had fallen to the floor of his tent. At a glance, he could see that it radiated a truly mindboggling mix of poison, dream, and mental affinity mana. So much so that he was certain that if he so much as touched a drop of it that he would end up in a coma for days.
“Damn it,” Sylvas cursed as he then realized what was happening. A member of his own security detail had just attempted to betray him. It was that thought that prompted Sylvas’ immediate follow-up strike at his would-be abductor as he pushed himself up from his prone position, his fist tearing through an all-too-weak shield before impacting upon the guard’s helmet. The blow, and the impossible weight that it had arrived with, was enough to not only instantly shatter the protective armor but also activate the Ardent crest upon the traitor’s body, enveloping them in a protective aura of white.
“Hina! What is—” a low-pitched voice started to demand right as another white helmet appeared in the tent’s open entranceway. But those few words were all that they were able to get out before Sylvas’ gravity spike hit them in the throat, turning their voice into an incoherent gurgle before another white light of an activating crest filled the air. However, by that point, Sylvas was airborne, the gravity shear tearing apart his tent all around him as he ascended upwards, and the rage that Mira had called for rapidly blooming in his chest.
“Shit, he’s awake!” a panicked voice from below called out right as a wave of fire rose up to try and envelop Sylvas, only to be buffeted aside by the well of gravity protecting him.
Where the hell is Vaelith? Sylvas wondered as he scowled at the weak magic being sent at him, discovering that there were another three Ardent from his security detail and what looked like a single member of the research team standing before the remains of his tent.
She was here, Mira answered as Sylvas shot forward towards them, his hand clawing out in a slashing gesture. It was enough to send one of the four instantly to the ground as a crescent of gravity lashed itself across their back, all but shattering their spine in a blink. But she woke up and left a short while ago.
The answer only served to deepen Sylvas’ anger, especially as another wave of hastily cast magic was unleashed to meet him, this time a barrage of ice and lightning. Unlike before, however, he didn’t wait for the attack to reach him, instead burning a portion of the prodigious amount of mana that he carried within to cast a teleport spell. Shifting places as fast as the universe would allow him, Sylvas then reappeared on the ground directly amidst his attackers.
With just enough time to hear a panicked yelp from the three of them, Sylvas snapped out two massively overpowered gravity spikes in quick succession. The first crumpled the arm and shoulder of the ice-wielding traitor mid-cast as if it were paper, the damage more than enough to activate their crest and send them into a white-hued oblivion. As for the second, the lightning wielder, it was no less fierce, except directed towards their feet. The result had the better part of Sylvas’ attacker being literally torn from their feet with enough force to create a small crater on the ground from the resulting impact.
From which, of course, a pale light began to emanate from.
With that final act, all of Sylvas’ armored attackers had been accounted for, leaving him hovering just before the last and final member of the traitorous group, an elven woman, one of the eidolon experts from the expedition team.
“T-This isn’t… this isn’t what it l-looks like!” she stammered as the shock of what Sylvas had just done set into her, eyes going wide with terror. “W-we, were just—”
“Trying to poison me,” Sylvas interrupted in a cool rage, a part of him trying to force himself into Clearmind but, for the first time in a long time, failing. “Don’t try and lie to me, I already know.”
Terror filled the woman’s face as she started to shake her head fervently.
“N-n-no! We weren’t!” she practically shouted while starting to take rapid steps backwards. “W-we were trying to protect—”
“Then why are you trying to run?” Sylvas cut in once again as he effortlessly floated after her. “You must know that if you do that, I’ll have to stop you.”
But no sooner did Sylvas begin to do so, did she abruptly reverse course and charge directly at him, a flash of magic appearing in her hands.
His reaction was immediate in the instant that followed, his hand instinctively coming up to stop her. Or, rather, as he very quickly discovered, to stop the kinds the threats that he was used to facing. When his outstretched hand connected with her chest, it did not halt her in place, rather instead it plowed straight through into her heart and out her back.
“What—” Sylvas’ surprise eyes went wide for the split second it took to realize what the traitorous researcher had done. She hadn’t been built for war like him and the other Ardent. She had been normal, weak, and completely devoid of any protections that he was used to fighting. Including the Ardent crest that had saved her other companions.
She chose to kill herself rather than let you capture her, Mira pointed out in a soft voice as Sylvas withdrew his arm from the now-dead woman and let her fall, blood, bones, and gore clinging to him. It was a mess that prompted to him close his eyes and take a deep breath to steady himself. And before you ask, no, I didn’t see it. Not in time. The paradigm isn’t fully reliable yet… There are too many paths appearing all at once still.
She must have known something important, something that she didn’t want me finding out, Sylvas replied once he was able to force Clearmind upon himself, masking the simmering cauldron of rage that filled his heart. He had let his guard down on this expedition, around his security team as well as the researchers, thinking that they were safe, thinking that he could trust them based on Wartback’s word alone. But the fallen bodies surrounding him had proven that he’d been wrong. Very wrong.
We need to find Vaelith and figure out what— Sylvas started to say to Mira only to cut himself off when a flash of revelation shot through the both of them, having been masked in the immediate chaos that had followed his waking.
Wait…it’s gone, Mira whispered from within his mind, her shock mirroring his own. The blood wolf. It’s…gone.
And it truly was Sylvas discovered as he stretched out his senses and realized that the overwhelming presence of the eidolon was nowhere to be found. After having been immersed it in for as long as he had been, its absence felt like a palpable, physical thing.
One that was understandably terrifying, too.
It can’t have been set loose. We would have absolutely noticed that, Sylvas said quickly as he checked his internal slate, discovering that it had been roughly five hours since he’d gone to sleep. That made it roughly the exact middle of the night as time went on Strife, the time when the most people were asleep and resting. The perfect opportunity for the traitors to spring their attack. They must have moved or banished it somehow. I can’t think of anything else that would explain it being gone.
Me either, Mira offered as Sylvas began to move, leaving the remains of his tent behind in favor of rushing down the side tunnel that he and several others had set their sleeping quarters up in, if only so they could be away from the near-blinding glare of the worldsoul. As he moved, Sylvas paused to check the nearest tents only to discover that they were empty. None of the researchers, his friends, or the remainder of his security detail were here.
Where is everyone? It's too quiet, even for this late, he eventually said after finding his third empty tent and getting close enough to the main chamber that he should have heard something. It was a puzzle that filled him with worry and anticipation until he finally rounded the last bend that led to the main chamber and found the worst possible answer to his question.
He found Ironeyes and the rest of his security team.
They all lay in pools of their own blood amid one of the shared meal areas, draped across the tables and chairs as if they had been dropped there by some mad giant. Letting out a strangled cry as he rushed forward, it didn’t take long for Sylvas to reach his friend who had fallen against a table, his throat slit from ear to ear, and his crest nowhere to be seen. Glancing downward at the dwarf’s body, he saw that some sort of metal rod had been stabbed through his thigh. It was charred and partially melted, the dark patches scarring the stone all around him, telling Sylvas all he needed to know.
He’d tried to fight back, even when they ambushed him, he said to Mira, doing his best to hang onto Clearmind. But whoever did this…they planned ahead. They knew what he could do. They knew what…what everyone could do.
A quick sweep of the others confirmed that assessment, for upon each body that he looked at was a similar device of some kind.
A nullification spike? I’ve read something about—
Don’t think about all that right now, darling. Mira interrupted. We need to keep moving, keep searching.
To what end?
To vengeance’s end. Someone has absconded with a planetary annihilator, tried to poison you, killed one of your friends, and who knows what else. We need to find out why. We need to find out if they’re still here. Can you do that for us, Sylvas?
He felt his heart harden, even from under his paradigm. I can. I can do this.
Letting his senses rush out in every direction at once as he shifted his focus, it didn’t long for Sylvas to confirm that he was entirely alone down here. Kalisdrothan, Bael, Malachai, and all the others who should have otherwise been down here were missing. In his mind, that meant only one thing. His senses stretched out towards the gate that had brought them here and discovered an all-too-familiar dip. One that shouldn’t have been there.
“They closed the gate,” he stated, no longer concerned if there was someone around to hear him. “They closed the gate and locked us down here.”
Then it’s a good thing that we have a key.
Chapter 51
“Everything the Alliance has told us, made us believe, is a lie. They are not our protectors. They are our jailors, controlling all that we see and hear. They work to keep us blind and dumb, placated, and weak, while they, the masters of all, gorge on the secrets the universe has to offer. That ends today. It is time we rise to take back what is rightfully ours. It’s time that we take back control of the truth.”
—Truthseeker propaganda, Anonymous
Sylvas tore through the air at speed, his flight taking him through the passages far faster than his body could ever hope to carry him on the ground. He moved so fast that it was barely more than a ten count from when he bid a final farewell to Ironeyes that he reached the gate, casting a Gravity Spike to open it the second he was within range.
Reacting instantly, there was the same flash, the same concussion, that there had been the first time, and Sylvas found himself looking through a mirror and into pandemonium. Before him he saw a full-scale battle in progress on the far side of the portal, the crack and thunder of magic and violence reaching his ears.
It looks like we aren’t the only ones who realized something was amiss! Mira exclaimed as Sylvas plunged through the portal without so much as a heartbeat of hesitation, guiding himself straight upwards the moment he was through. Shedding speed from there, his first act was to assess the battle, spotting perhaps the most critical thing there was to notice by virtue of its sheer presence.
The blood wolf is still in stasis! He exclaimed with relief as he spotted the eidolon at the center of the room, instantly relieved to see that the spellforms covering it were still intact and that it was in fact not slaughtering everyone. However, that was about the extent of the good news that he could find in the battle that he charged into. With all the spells that were flying around, all it would take was just one ill-timed deflection or miscalculated mark to hit the thing, break the stasis, and end the world.
Shifting his attention from there, Sylvas next discovered that he’d just passed Kalisdrothan who had been cowering behind one of the pillars of the gate. But fortunately, he wasn’t alone, for Bael was standing over him with a shield up to protect them both, even going as far as to cast a new one to keep fire from striking the blood wolf.
Good, at least he’s paying attention to things, Sylvas thought with relief, watching an errant blast of magic splash across the shield just at that moment. Wincing as it did so, he quickly followed the magic back to its source and saw that it had come from the far-left line of the battle where two members of the research team that had by some twist of fate pinned Kaya down by one of the chamber pillars. But if that wasn’t enough of a problem in its own right, Sylvas spotted the forms of both Luna and Orson on the ground on either side of her held in the suspended animation of the crests. Granted, it meant that they were still alive, but only by the thinnest of margins. One stray blast could spell their end.
Which meant that was exactly where Sylvas needed to be.
“About time you showed up, stanzbuhr!” he heard Kaya shout out as he hit the ground right behind the researchers, the force of his impact causing them both to whirl towards him, sudden fear written upon their faces.
And for good reason considering the mana he poured into the spell that he then unleashed on them.
They were tougher than the others…and is that…armor? he noted a brief moment later when he was standing over the twisted remains of the researchers, noting that they both were wearing a matching set of shimmering, vaguely crystalline-looking clothes. While it hadn’t been enough to do anything more than slightly blunt his magic when he unleashed his spell, it had somehow stopped them from being crushed into the size of a coin as he’d intended. After a second’s thought, he shrugged, the mystery one better suited for another time. Whatever it is, it didn’t help them enough to matter.
“I’m sorry I’m late,” he said, attention shifting as Kaya rushed out from his pillar to meet him, noticing that despite her face being half-covered in blood, she appeared to be otherwise fine. “Now tell me, what the world happened here?”
“Kraghin got stabbed in the back is what happened!” she immediately spat with more vitriol than Sylvas had ever heard from her, the two of them wasting no time in rushing towards the main battle. “Got an urgent call of panic from one of the researchers up top that a horde was seen on the horizon and that a handful of their surveyors were missin’. It sent half of us racing up top through this damned place to respond, but we never made it. The traitors hit us with some sort of…trap along the way. Dropped Luna and Orson in a blink with wicked magic I ain’t ever seen before and about did the same to Vaelith.”
The dwarf paused to make a spitting sound as they reached the main battle’s edge, Sylvas then discovering that there was yet another handful of researchers wearing the same crystalline clothes he’d seen on the other, plus two more Ardent from his security team.
“Don’t know how she survived it,” Kaya added as they readied themselves to join the brawl. “But she ported us out and back down here where we fell into this mess. Well, most of us at least. Haven’t seen Gharia or Harvan since.”
Sylvas felt his Clearmind tremble yet again as Kaya finished her explanation, the allure of the rage he knew he should have otherwise been feeling without its mask almost cracking his composure. But even so, he resisted it, shifting his focus to the battle in front of him or, specifically, where he saw the aforementioned instructor and Malachai on their back feet as they fended off the traitors’ assault. Trusting that Kaya would follow him, Sylvas didn’t waste another second before lifting himself off the ground and plunging himself into the chaos, intent on changing whatever tide had kept the otherwise twin forces of nature at bay.
And with Mira’s aid, devouring and processing the torrent of magical energy before him, he quickly found it.
Right by the two Ardent traitors, the box they’re standing over, she told him right as he cast a gravity spike that sent one of the researchers cartwheeling through the air. There’s a clutch of Tandonian Roc eggs inside it. The life mana that they’re pouring out is what’s keeping your prince at bay.
That was all Sylvas needed to know as he adjusted his flight, spiraling and twisting in the air to avoid a blast of magic and a hastily conjured wall of force. Then, when he was certain he’d drawn enough attention to give Kaya a clear path into the battle, he cut his flight, increased his weight tenfold, and cast teleport. In a blink, he shifted places with his now-plunging momentum taking him directly into the chest of one of the two Ardent traitors and bearing them straight to the ground with a crash. Hearing and feeling the soldier’s armor crack from beneath the titanic impact, Sylvas gave the man no time to recover from the surprise attack, his fist coming down with the force of a falling meteor upon their helmet and burying itself into the stone behind it. The crest that the man wore spluttered once and then went dim. There was nothing left for it to save.
One down, Sylvas thought through the numbness of Clearmind as he scrambled to dismount from his target, quickly spinning towards the second Ardent traitor, all while surrounding himself with a gravity shear in anticipation of needing to fend off an attack. But he soon discovered, he needed have not worried, for when the white armored betrayer came into view, they did so with two long metal blades protruding from their body. As clear a sign as any that Kaya had made it into the fray. Make that two.
Whirling to his feet from there, Sylvas then turned his attention towards the nearby crate that had prompted his arrival, the thick aura of life mana making it impossible to miss. But despite its effect on the battle, Sylvas didn’t move to destroy it with a blast of gravity. Instead, he sliced his hand through the air and opened Cold Storage, sucking the box and the eggs it contained into it. The effect was all but immediate in the seconds that followed, with a surprised shout calling out from the researchers who had otherwise been engaged with both Vaelith and Malachai.
