"The whole forest is burning!" Thorpe roared. He walked back to the center of the room. He stood directly beneath the giant, humming brass rings of the Core Array. "That is why I built this machine," Thorpe said, spreading his arms wide. He looked up at the spinning metal. "I do not want to win a stupid war against Glassview. I do not want to sit on a throne and collect taxes. Kings die, Caster. Empires always fall. I want to end the game permanently."Thorpe lowered his arms. He stared directly into Caster’s tired gray eyes. "I am going to become the new Ash Warden," Thorpe confessed. The words hit the silent room like a heavy stone. Sikoa gasped on the table. She pulled weakly against her iron chains. "You are insane," she whispered. "I am the only one who sees clearly!" Thorpe snapped at her. He turned his attention back to Caster. "The green light is shooting into the sky from the center of Glassview,"

Caster Spellbound dove headfirst into the roaring red fire. He did not fight the heavy, magical chains wrapped around his throat and his arms. He let the giant machine pull him in. He aimed his entire body directly into the open, screaming mouth of the soul-furnace. But Caster did not go quietly. As he flew through the hot air, the golden seed inside his chest exploded with power. His eyes burned with solid, blinding golden light. The divine magic wrapped around his frail, old body like a suit of unbreakable armor. It was the pure magic of absolute truth. The golden light hit the screaming, chaotic red fire of the furnace. Two impossible, unstoppable laws of nature crashed into each other. The collision did not create a normal explosion. It created a massive, repelling shockwave. The pure golden truth absolutely refused to mix with the evil, corrupted blood magic. The two energies fought violently for exactly one millisecond. The force of the rejection was incredible. Caster was

The giant Core Array let out a terrible, groaning, sickening sound. The massive brass rings suddenly shuddered. The perfect, smooth spinning motion completely broke. The heavy metal gears ground against each other, shooting sparks the size of campfires across the laboratory. "No!" Elias Thorpe screamed from the balcony. His green eye widened in absolute panic. The machine was choking. The energy was reversing. Because the blue crystals were deflecting the pull, the machine could no longer hold onto the trapped souls. The dark, evil grip of the blood magic was broken by the violent feedback. The first thick glass cylinder attached to the spinning rings shattered. Dozens of glass cylinders exploded all at once. The sound of breaking glass filled the massive room like a terrible rainstorm. The innocent human souls were finally free. The sick, screaming red light instantly faded. As the souls escaped the corrupted blood magic, their color changed. They turned back into pure, beaut

The blinding white light exploded. It was not a normal fire. It was a wave of pure, raw energy. It ripped out of the giant, spinning Core Array. It hit the walls of the laboratory. It hit the metal floor. Caster Spellbound was thrown through the air. He flew backward and crashed hard against the cold steel wall. His head bounced against the metal. His vision flashed with dark, dizzy spots. His broken ribs screamed in terrible agony. He slid down the wall and hit the floor in a crumpled heap. The sound in the room was deafening. It was a high-pitched, screaming whine. The giant machine in the center of the room was dying. But it was not dying quietly. Elias Thorpe’s terrible soul-engine had been pushed past its absolute limit. The safety valves were broken. The heavy brass rings were spinning out of control. The machine was tearing itself apart from the inside out. Caster groaned. He tasted hot, metallic blood in his mouth. He slowly opened his gray eyes. He looked through the thic

The pipe crashed into the solid iron wall of the stairwell, missing the people completely. Boiling steam hissed harmlessly against the metal wall. The scientists and soldiers on the stairs stared in absolute shock. They looked at the old man in the gray coat. They saw the golden light fading from his hand. They did not understand what had just happened, but they knew he had just saved their lives. Caster did not wait for them to say thank you. He stumbled forward on the stairs. Using the golden magic was destroying him. The divine power was too heavy for his frail human veins. Caster coughed violently. He spit a large mouthful of bright, glowing golden blood onto the metal stairs. The golden blood sizzled as it hit the iron. His chest burned with unimaginable agony. He felt like his heart was tearing into pieces. "Caster," Sikoa whispered weakly from his shoulder. She felt him stumble. "Put me down. I can walk. You are killing yourself.""No, you can't," Caster gasped, forcing