"Here is the plan," Caster said. His mind was racing, building the most dangerous, impossible strategy he had ever created. Sikoa stepped closer to listen. Lysane leaned close to her mirror in the cave. "I have the silver kill-switch ring," Caster said, holding up his right hand so they could see the plain metal band on his finger. "I can freeze the entire Glassview army with a single thought. I will trigger the collapse of General Verne’s forces. I promise you that.""But if you freeze them, Thorpe will harvest them," Sikoa reminded him. "Yes," Caster nodded. "Which means I cannot trigger the ring until Elias Thorpe’s machine is completely broken."Caster pointed to the glowing red blueprints on the floor. "We are not going to stay in Glassview and watch the battle," Caster declared. "General Verne is marching her army to the western valley to block the Crimson Engine. The two armies are going to crash into each other tomorrow morning.""While they are busy fighting each other in

An hour later, the rain finally stopped. Caster Spellbound sat in the driver’s seat of the heavy gray military truck. He hated driving. The machine was loud, and the steering wheel was heavy. He was no longer wearing his simple brown cloak. He was wearing the uniform of a dead man. He wore thick, dark gray canvas pants. He wore heavy black leather boots. He wore a thick, gray waterproof jacket. On his head, he wore a wide steel helmet pulled very low over his eyes to hide his face. The jacket was too big for him. It hung loosely on his frail, old body. On the shoulder of the jacket, there was a patch that read: ARCANE LOGISTICS CORPS. Sikoa sat in the passenger seat next to him. She also wore a stolen gray uniform. She had hidden her black eye-patch under a heavy pair of military goggles. She kept a heavy magical rifle resting on her lap. "I cannot believe we are doing this," Sikoa muttered. She looked at the forged deployment papers resting on the dashboard. "If they check thes

Caster grabbed a heavy, flat iron wrench. He grabbed a piece of rough flint stone from his bag. He scooped a tiny bit of the silver paste onto the end of a thin brass wire. He held the brass wire directly over the hissing crack in the purple glass. He took a deep breath. Clack. Caster struck the iron wrench against the flint stone directly over the paste. A bright, hot spark of normal, physical fire flew from the stones. The spark hit the silver paste. Instantly, Caster jammed the hot, sparking silver paste directly into the crack on the purple glass. The dark magic screamed. SKREEEE! The purple light flashed blindly. Caster held his bare thumb directly over the hot silver paste, pressing it hard into the crack. The hot metal burned his skin terribly. The smell of burning flesh filled the air. Caster did not pull his hand away. He pushed with all his physical strength, holding the pressure inside the glass. For three agonizing seconds, the battery shook violently. It was fi

The drone exploded into a cloud of sharp metal pieces and burning red fire. The trapped soul inside the red crystal let out a high, tragic, wailing scream as it died completely. "Keep shooting!" Vance yelled. But there were too many drones. The swarm swooped down. They moved with terrifying, unnatural speed. They did not fly in straight lines. They darted left and right like angry insects. The drones opened their metal jaws. Instead of shooting bullets, the drones spit thin, highly concentrated beams of dark red energy. Hiss! A red beam hit the mud exactly two feet in front of the sandbags. The mud instantly boiled. It bubbled and twisted. A sharp, jagged spike of bloody red bone shot up from the dirt. The corrupted planar energy mutated the earth on contact. "Take cover!" Sikoa yelled. She pushed Caster’s head down just as a red beam shot over them. The red beam hit a young soldier standing next to Caster. The boy screamed. But the blue Resonant Shard on his chest flared t

The soul was released. It was no longer trapped in the machine. It vanished into the air, finally allowed to find peace in whatever world comes after death. Without the burning soul to power it, the heavy brass drone was just a useless piece of dead metal. It slipped off the side of the tower and fell. It crashed into the mud far below, completely broken. Caster pulled his burned, bleeding hand back. He breathed heavily, clinging to the cold iron ladder. He looked up. He was only ten feet away from the main control box of the Relay Tower. The dark red needles of the smaller drones were sticking out of the blue wires. The sick purple color was spreading rapidly upward, almost reaching the giant spinning crystal at the very top. "Not today, Elias," Caster growled. He climbed the last ten feet quickly. He reached the heavy metal control box. It was locked with a thick iron padlock. Caster did not have the key. He did not have the time to pick the lock. He raised his heavy, wooden