“What the hell?” Hector glared at the figure of Conflagration high above.

  “The guy’s famously been questing his entire adult life,” Piercing said. “You can’t expect him to make rational decisions. If he sees something unusual, he’s going to try burning it.”

  Hector turned to Captain Devin. “Thoughts?”

  “Conflagration is a level eleven Sage. That makes him an invaluable ally against any human force that threatens your life or your autonomy. He’s also a liability when you are engaging in your primary mission. You must determine if his value outweighs his cost. I suggest we wait for him to admit defeat aboard a shuttle and rescue him if that is still possible.”

  “This is ridiculous,” Hector growled.

  Esther made a dramatic gesture towards the sky. “That used to be you, Hector. I swear every day it was some new insanity.”

  “While I will forever be grateful you all put up with me, right now I have to make a hard decision. If we ever run into a Xian Lord, I’m going to need that guy standing beside me.” Hector was ready to advocate for dragging Conflagration away after he made his first strike. He never got the chance. At that moment, the miasma took on lifelike texture, completing its transformation. That coagulation caused the presence of the miasma to grow by orders of magnitude.

  In an instant all Hector could focus on was the battle within his realm. The resonance hit hard and he didn’t have a choice about whether or not he would engage. He pushed cosmic energy into his realm to dampen the influence, but his hungry aperture drained everything he gave it. The exercise would be phenomenal training if it didn’t threaten to steal all of his reserves in the middle of a battle.

  He vaguely realized he was being moved by his friends. Isolated stimulus reached his mind. Being yanked hard in one direction. Later on someone dropped him to the ground like a sack of potatoes. His body was fine, of course. Probably better than the surface of the ground. Finally he was tossed onto his face and shortly after the floor rose quickly. All the while he was feeding his voracious realm with every bit of cosmic energy he could get into it. The overwhelming pressure gave no sign of relenting.

  In a moment of clarity, Hector remembered when Conflagration had contended with him on the previous world, trying to burn a rift out of existence while Hector converted miasma. The other Sage had been strategically sloppy, limiting his efforts to supporting the most essential bits. Desperate to weather the storm of contrary resonance, Hector began to mimic that feat.

  There were a lot of threads to his realm that specifically dealt with chaos. Miasma was chaos bent to a specific intent, but that specialization removed a lot of the variation. He shifted his conceptual weight to lean more onto the relevant transformation path, excluding the alternates. There was also a good bit of his understanding of intents that could be minimized.

  Specializing the function of his realm to the extent necessary was like learning to play a musical instrument – and Hector didn’t know how to play any instruments. The lacking conceptual space had forced him to make some clever hacks that he now found far less impressive. He eventually succeeded in his task only because of his intimate familiarity with the thing he’d created.

  Finding the right threads to hold his conceptual tension on let him emerge from his catatonia. Hector blinked a couple of times to reset his eyes. The shuttle was hovering far above the monster, whose head was the size of a major city. Conflagration was cracking his whip at the beast, causing patches of fur to burn away. Members of his retinue were debating rescue versus abandonment.

  Hector felt something stir within him. It wasn’t just his realm. The truth of his insight had embedded itself in multiple of his apertures over time. With sudden clarity, he understood something. The monster might have no soul, but its substance had entered into an arrangement that mimicked one. Though he’d never given it much thought before, it always seemed odd that spent miasma never reformed into new monsters.

  What he grasped now was that each bit of miasma that attuned into a piece of the pseudo-soul underwent a permanent alteration. It could never reset to a fresh state where it might join another collective. It would forever be part of the whole – even if that whole ceased to exist. More than that, while the pseudo-soul remained intact, the entire entity was vulnerable in a way he could exploit.

  Hector stared down at the monster and the Sage. He needed to make sure Conflagration survived. Perhaps even more, though, he wanted to claim that miasma. He almost acted on impulse in that moment. Hector caught himself early enough that he was able to evaluate his instincts.

  Was this a questionable imperative coming from his moral instincts? Possibly. But it also seemed like just the kind of benefit he needed if he intended to meet the aggressive deadline set by Evelyn. At a personal level, he really wanted a win. The Dragon situation might seem like the highlight of his life to everyone who witnessed it secondhand, but it had been a decision to throw himself into the jaws of death. For his friends, yes, but he didn’t welcome his end. This beast before him… he wanted to fuck it up.

  “I’m going in. The rest of you stay up here.”

  “Hector!” Isabel seized his arm.

  “Stay here. That’s an order.” Quick as a blink, Hector popped her hand free and slapped the door control. He was waiting there before anyone else could react. Captain Devin’s robotic body was the first to catch up to events. The man tilted his head as he studied Hector. No doubt he was surprised by the show of supernatural speed Hector put on.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Hector was a little surprised himself. He never learned any speed techniques. In the end, though, he was a level nine Xian now. The laws of physics weren’t the absolute rule for him that they were for others. If he put his energy and his will behind an action, the results could not be ordinary.

  As the door slid open, Hector slipped through and fell. With careful application of his domain, he aimed himself towards the head. Things died fastest from brain damage. If his reasoning was correct, the moment of death was his chance.

  The tiger head that was his target would not require good aim to reach. Its surface area was such that it would be hard to miss. He steered towards the back of the flat head, where skull would meet spine. The eyes might be an easier entry to the brain, but the monster would be far more aware of his presence if he attempted that. He cut his speed just before landing hard, bending his knees to absorb the impact.

  Around him the orange fur rose higher than his head. It was almost impossible at the scale of his surroundings to know if he was actually on target. A massive thump nearby put Hector on alert. He extended his mental sense to identify the source of the sound and discovered a Xian coming towards him.

  The stalks of hair parted to reveal Darius. The man nodded to Hector as if they’d just encountered each other while out for a casual stroll of the neighborhood. “We are killing it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good.”

  Hector began to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. “Just like that? You trust I can handle this thing? Don’t tell me you’ve bought into the Lord Dragonbane bullshit.”

  “I have little regard for Lords. You came here to kill something, so I will assist. If we fail, I will carry you to safety.” Darius paused. “Or perhaps you will carry me.”

  “Well, I do need help digging a hole. I want to get to the brain.”

  “Try not to convert my chaos bolt.” With no more words, Darius fired a bolt at a forty-five degree angle to blow open a deep gash. The ground they stood upon shook in response. “I hurt the bastard’s feelings.” Darius continued digging the hole.

  They briefly had to stop when a paw descended from the sky to scratch at the annoyance their excavation inspired. The size of the monster worked in their favor. Its claws failed to find them. Then it was distracted by a concussion that had to be a fire whip.

  After clearing the area in all directions, Darius began firing directly downward. Hector assisted by clearing the hole, converting miasma with a combination of domain and realm. He desperately restored while it was Darius’ turn to dig. His realm continued to suck down energy at ridiculous rates. It was beginning to look like he might be in a race to win before his reserves expired.

  While they were climbing deep into a hole illuminated only by Hector’s talents, he probed at an issue that perhaps he should have let be. “What is going on with Riley?”

  “She rapidly improves her cultivation.”

  “You know that’s not what I’m asking about, Darius.”

  “My intent to not answer should be equally clear.”

  “Do you understand what the situation with Esther was about?”

  “I am aware.”

  They reached solid bone at that point and had to work hard to break through. It required the full attention of both of them for a time. When they had a section removed large enough to fit through, Darius fired several bolts to pierce the elastic membrane around the brain. Hector peeled apart the flaps they'd created with his cables and they crawled into the neural tissue.

  “You’re in love with her,” Hector accused.

  “We’re still talking about this?”

  “I just don’t understand the problem. She’s not taking your rejection well.”

  Darius only fired his bolt more, creating sprays of gunk that Hector had to clear.

  “What is the problem, Darius? Is it because you’re a eunuch?”

  “I am not a eunuch.”

  “Sorry. I don’t mean to label you like that. Your condition –”

  “I mean that I am no longer a eunuch.”

  Deep within a brain the size of a borough, Hector stopped his efforts to kill the monster. “I don’t understand what you’re telling me.”

  “Restoration. She felt compelled to act. Your friend Zelda helped. There were things called potent stems from the Jinn. I am… intact.”

  “That’s great, Darius.”

  “Yes, yes, now let us kill this beast.”

  Hector had intended to sever the tissue around the brain stem, but he couldn’t tell which direction that might be from his current position. He pointed in a random direction, then converted the mess Darius created with his bolt. “If you’re intact then why are you hesitating?”

  “Why would I let someone I care for ruin her life? You always hoped I would learn your silly virtues, did you not? Well, the consequence is I cannot take what I want. Not when the cost would be paid by her.”

  “Darius….”

  “Surely you cannot be so ignorant, Hector. I am broken. As is Riley. If she returns to her prince, she can have status. His kingdom is lost, perhaps, but she will understand her true worth if a noble man marries her. All I have to offer is disappointment. There is no happy future. Now let us kill this monster before you run out of energy.”

  Hector didn’t know what to say to change his friend’s mind. Nor could he deny the concern Darius brought up. By now he’d run critically low in his reserves. If he could finish the monster off soon, energy wouldn’t be a problem. Otherwise, they should start thinking about retreat.

  “Fire straight down, then.”

  Darius did as he was bade, blowing a hole that began to gush blood in rhythmic pulses. They’d pierced an artery. Hector converted the fluid as it sprayed free, then gestured for Darius to fire upwards instead. They climbed up to avoid the flow of blood.

  They had to blast a few more times to get above the rapidly rising liquid. The final blast revealed the smooth wall of a brain structure. “The thalamus,” he muttered. Though his knowledge of brain anatomy was not deep, he’d done enough body enhancement to know how to identify many structures by name. “I think it’s important. Blow it up.”

  No sooner did Darius shoot the structure than they were thrown into free fall. That could only mean one thing. The tiger was unconscious and falling towards the ground. The distance from standing to collapsed would not be inconsiderable at the scale of the monster.

  Hector wrapped his arms around Darius and prepared to cushion their fall.