General Elandra Verne walked out onto the metal platform. She walked right up to Caster.The icy, cold, professional mask she usually wore was gone. She was smiling. It was a massive, victorious smile. Her pale blue eyes shone with the light of total triumph. She raised her hand and clapped Caster hard on the shoulder."You did it, Archmage!" General Verne laughed. It was the first time Caster had ever heard her laugh. "It is perfect! It is magnificent! You are a genius!"Caster looked at her. He felt completely hollow. "It erased the stone," Caster whispered, his voice trembling. "It ate the earth.""It did exactly what I wanted it to do!" Verne said proudly. She looked across the canyon at the floating black ash. "With five of these cannons, I can walk to the border of the Crimson Alliance and demand their total surrender. If they say no, I will erase their capital city in ten seconds."She turned back to Caster. "You have secured the future of Glassview, Caster Spellbound," Verne

The water ran from the metal pipe. It was freezing cold. It hit the bottom of the steel sink with a loud, splashing sound.Caster Spellbound stood in front of the sink. He was in his new military quarters inside Fort Ironcliff. The room was just a cold, gray concrete box. There were no windows. There was only a hard, narrow bed and a single, bright white light bulb hanging from the ceiling.Caster pushed his hands under the freezing water. He grabbed a rough, square bar of strong yellow soap. He began to rub the soap between his hands. He scrubbed his fingers. He scrubbed his palms. He scrubbed the backs of his hands.He was trying to wash the dirt away. But his hands were already clean. He kept scrubbing. He pushed the rough soap hard against his old, wrinkled skin.He could not stop. Every time he closed his gray eyes, he saw the dark, empty crater in the Red Canyon. He saw the massive, ten-foot-thick stone fortress turn to gray sand. He saw the gray sand turn to black ash, and the

Caster lifted his head. "General Verne wants perfect peace for Glassview," Sikoa said. "She wants to stop the war. And how is she going to do it? By completely erasing her enemies from existence. By turning the Crimson Alliance into a giant, empty crater of floating black ash."Sikoa stepped back into the center of the room."The Warden wanted to stop pain by erasing choice," Sikoa declared. "General Verne wants to stop war by erasing the map. What is the difference, Caster? Tell me. What is the difference between the dark god you killed and the woman you are working for right now?"The words hung in the cold, white light of the concrete room.They hit Caster like heavy iron hammers. He stared at Sikoa. He tried to think of an argument. He tried to defend his actions. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.There was no difference. The Ash Warden was a monster of cosmic consequence. General Verne was a monster of human ambition.But their methods were exactly the same. T

"Open the door, or we will blow it open!" the angry guard roared from the hallway.Inside the small, dark concrete room, Caster Spellbound looked at Sikoa. The heavy steel door bowed inward slightly as a heavy metal boot kicked it from the outside. They were completely trapped. The loud, red magical alarm lights flashed rapidly, painting their faces in harsh red shadows."I cannot fit back through the air vent fast enough," Sikoa whispered urgently, holding her sharp steel daggers tight. "If they catch me in here, we both die."Caster did not panic. His brilliant mind worked incredibly fast. He looked around his makeshift laboratory. He did not have any blue Tower magic, and he refused to use his new golden magic. He had to use ordinary science.He grabbed a heavy glass jar filled with bright yellow sulfur powder. He grabbed a second jar filled with strong, clear acid."Hide on the ceiling," Caster commanded in a low whisper.Sikoa did not ask questions. She jumped. She was incredibly

The red energy did not explode like a bomb. It did not burn the ground like normal fire. It mutated the earth.Where the red beams touched the gray rocks and the brown dirt, the ground instantly began to bubble and twist. The stone turned soft and fleshy. Massive, jagged spikes made of sharp, red, bleeding bone erupted from the ground. The earth itself looked like it was turning into a giant, sick, living monster. The terrain bubbled and swelled, creating walls of flesh and bone that blocked the Glassview bullets completely."By the Light," Caster whispered in pure horror. "It is changing the molecular structure of the earth. It is corrupting the physical matter.""Keep watching," Verne growled.In the hologram, the Crimson soldiers aimed their weapons higher. They shot the screaming red beams directly at the giant, glowing blue magical shields protecting the Glassview army.When the red energy hit the blue shields, the shields did not shatter. They did not crack like glass.The blu