The chaotic magic fought him. It sliced his blue robes to shreds. It cut his arms. But Caster pushed through the pain. He reached Elias. Caster threw his arms around Elias’s floating body. He grabbed his friend tightly in a desperate hug. "I've got you," Caster shouted in Elias’s ear. Then, Caster became the grounding rod. He pushed his own clean, pure blue magic directly into the chaotic red storm. He forced his own stable soul to connect with Elias’s wild, broken spell. The reaction was immediate and absolutely devastating. KRA-KOOM! The wild red magic found a path. It rushed out of the glass flask, flowed through Elias’s blood, and slammed directly into Caster’s body. Caster screamed. The pain was infinitely worse than burning. The wild magic felt like a thousand sharp needles piercing his very soul. It tried to mutate his heart. It tried to tear his mind in half. But Caster held on. He gritted his teeth. He planted his bare feet firmly on the floating floorboards. He for

"Archmage Spellbound!" the guard shouted, pounding on the heavy steel door. "Step away from the forge! Put your hands on your head! We have Archmage Lysane!"Caster’s heart completely stopped beating. The heavy iron hammer slipped from his tired fingers. It hit the concrete floor with a loud, ringing CLANG. He stood frozen in his dark laboratory. The red magical alarm lights flashed in the hallway outside, casting harsh, bloody shadows through the small barred window in his door. Lysane was captured. The velvet trap had finally snapped shut. Caster had done everything General Verne asked. He had built the dark purple batteries. He had built the glowing blue Resonant Shards. He had played the part of the obedient, defeated old man. And it had not been enough. General Verne’s assassins had found the brave woman with the snow-white hair. "Open the door!" the guard roared, kicking the steel. Caster took a deep, shaky breath. He forced his panic down into the dark. He could not let th

CLANG. CLICK-CLACK. The heavy iron bolts on the door of Vault Nine were sliding open. Someone was unlocking the door from the outside. Caster spun around. He dropped his iron tongs. "No," Caster panicked. "General Verne said I had until dawn!"The heavy steel door swung open. It was not General Verne. Standing in the doorway was Chief Artificer Vane. Vane looked incredibly angry. His bald, scarred head was shiny with sweat. His massive, mechanical steel arms whirred loudly. The yellow liquid in the glass tubes on his arms bubbled with heat. Behind Vane stood four heavily armed guards. "Well, well, well," Chief Artificer Vane sneered. He stepped into the private forge. He looked around the room with deep suspicion. "The great Alchemist demands absolute secrecy. He hides in a dark room. What are you really doing in here, old man?""General Verne gave me this room," Caster said, keeping his voice perfectly steady. He stepped in front of the furnace, trying to hide the melting sil

The rain fell in thick, heavy sheets. It was not a gentle, quiet rain. It was a violent, freezing storm. The wind howled through the broken streets of Glassview like a pack of angry wolves. Thunder boomed high up in the dark, cloudy sky. Lightning flashed, painting the ruined city in sudden, sharp bursts of bright white light. At the edge of Fort Ironcliff, the heavy steel gates were wide open. The military base was in absolute, total panic. The giant brass war horns were blowing continuously. HROOOOM! HROOOOM! The deep, terrible sound shook the muddy ground. General Elandra Verne’s army was mobilizing. Thousands of soldiers in dark gray steel armor marched out into the freezing rain. Heavy transport trucks roared, their engines spitting black smoke into the wet air. Giant cannons were being pulled by teams of massive warhorses. Every single soldier wore a glowing blue crystal on their chest. The Resonant Shards. Caster’s invention. In the middle of the noise and the chaos, nobod

"If Thorpe reaches Glassview..." Solon gasped, his eyes rolling back slightly. "If his army breaks our walls... he will not just conquer the city. He will harvest it. He will put a million innocent people into those glass tubes to fuel his empire."Solon looked at Caster one last time. "You have to stop him, Caster," Solon whispered. "You are the only one who understands the math. You have to break his engine."Solon’s hand suddenly went limp. His grip on Caster’s wrist loosened. The quiet, brave archivist let out one final, soft sigh. His pale eyes stared up at the dark, raining sky, but they did not see the storm anymore. Solon was dead. Caster knelt in the mud for a long time. The freezing rain poured down on his back. It washed the blood off his hands. He gently reached out and closed Solon’s eyes. "I am sorry, my friend," Caster whispered to the quiet corpse. "You were braver than all the generals in this city."Caster slowly stood up. He picked up the glowing red blueprints f