Caster Spellbound dropped his wooden stick. It clattered loudly onto the stone floor. He stood perfectly still. He opened his arms wide, exposing his unprotected chest to the incoming, deadly strike. He refused to fight. "Caster, no!" Lysane screamed from the ground. Elias’s sharp red claw swung toward Caster’s throat. Caster closed his eyes. He reached deep, deep down into the very bottom of his soul. He found the tiny, humming golden seed. He did not wake the seed up to use it as a weapon. He did not turn it into a wall of gravity. He did not use it to blast his enemy away. He just let the golden light fill his heart with absolute, unconditional peace. He accepted his friend. He accepted the anger. He accepted his own death. The golden magic flared. But it did not explode outward. It glowed softly, warmly, radiating from Caster’s skin like a gentle, morning sunrise. Elias’s sharp red claw hit Caster’s chest. But the claws did not pierce the flesh. The moment the chaotic, ang

Sikoa looked at Solon. The thin archivist was trembling in the cold wind. "He is too hurt," Sikoa said to Caster. "He cannot fight. I will go alone.""You cannot go alone, Sikoa," Solon said, stepping forward. His voice was weak, but his pale eyes were full of stubborn bravery. "You are a master of stealth. You can sneak past any guard. But you do not know the math. You do not know how to safely dismantle a highly volatile magical engine. If you just smash a purple battery with your dagger, it will explode and wipe out the entire city block."Solon patted his own chest, wincing in pain. "I read the blueprints," Solon said. "I know how the machines work. You get us inside. I will break the engines safely. We are a team."Sikoa stared at him. She hated seeing her friend in pain. But she knew he was right. Without his big brain, her sharp knives were useless. "Fine," Sikoa sighed. She grabbed a thick, heavy gray blanket from the ground and

"Mercy is the heaviest magic of all," Solon whispered. He closed his eyes to rest. "That is why Caster is the only one strong enough to hold it."They drove for two hours. They crossed the dark, muddy expanse of the Rift Plains. The massive battle had stopped. The armies were scattered and confused by the giant, dark god sitting in the distance. Sikoa steered the truck around deep craters and broken cannons. Finally, they saw the glow. It was not a clean blue light. It was a sick, bloody, screaming red light. They had reached a forward operating base of the Crimson Alliance. It was a cluster of heavy, dark red tents set up in a muddy canyon. The giant walking mountain, the Crimson Engine, was miles away, but this small camp was a supply line. It was a Blood Forge. Sikoa parked the truck behind a tall pile of rocks. She helped Solon out. They crept slowly toward the largest red tent in the center of

The heavy, dark purple cannon pointed directly at Sikoa’s face. Inside the ruined red tent of the Crimson Alliance, time seemed to stop. Sikoa stood in front of the pale, bleeding archivist, Solon. She held her sharp steel daggers tight, but she knew daggers could not cut a laser beam. Standing in the broken doorway was General Elandra Verne. But she was no longer a human woman. She was a towering monster. She had grabbed the raw, toxic purple batteries in the War Foundry. The dark magic had mutated her. Her crisp gray uniform was replaced by jagged, freezing armor made of black steel and solid purple ice. Her eyes were pitch black, burning with pale gray fire. "I am going to break you," the mutated General hissed. Cold, purple fog spilled from her gray lips. The giant cannon attached to her right arm hummed. A blinding, sick purple light gathered deep inside the barrel. Sikoa did not have blue magic. She did not

"You look ridiculous, Caster," Elias laughed. The thick glass tubes on his neck bubbled with red and purple liquid. "Sitting in the dirt like a beggar. Is this your great victory? Doing nothing?""I am holding the peace, Elias," Caster said softly. He looked at the horrible, spinning sphere in Elias’s chest. "You have destroyed your own body. You have ripped out your own heart.""My heart was weak!" Elias shouted, stepping closer. "My heart was full of stupid, human feelings! Fear. Pity. Defeat. I cut it out! I replaced it with perfection!"Elias pointed his massive, brass-piston arm at his own chest. "Look at it, Caster!" Elias bragged. His green eye shone with pure, absolute fanaticism. "You said life and death could not mix! You said blood magic and dark ash would mutate the world! But I solved the math!""You did not solve it," Caster said sadly. "You just built a bigger bomb.""It is a Planar Fusion Core!" Elias yelled proud