Oliver stood over his fallen friend. He did not smile. He did not celebrate. He put his combat knife back into his belt. He knelt down and checked the pulse on Jax’s neck.Thump... thump... thump.It was a normal, human heartbeat."The tether is severed," Oliver announced calmly into the quiet room. "The Overlord has been expelled. Captain Jax is unconscious, but his vital signs are stable."Captain Ren slowly lowered her hands from her face. She stared at Oliver with wide, terrified eyes.Foreman Cole and the miners slowly stood up from the wall. They looked at the unconscious Jax. Then they looked at Oliver.They did not cheer. They were too scared to cheer. They had just watched their Commander dodge plasma fire like a ghost, catch a swinging heavy gun with one hand, and cut an invisible string in the air."Commander," Ren whispered, taking a step forward. Her voice was shaking. "What... what did you just do?""I executed a localized tactical strike on an enemy command tether," Oli

"It is a tactical advantage," Oliver said. He closed his metal fingers slightly to dim the light. "The hidden ladder is blocked. The Overlord knows we are here. We cannot use the standard paths.""Then how do we escape?" a miner asked, crying. "We are trapped miles underground!""We will not be trapped," Oliver said smoothly. "I have mapped the entire subterranean network. I have located a secondary route. I call it the Spiral Ascendant. It is an old, natural fault line that leads directly to the lowest level of the city’s civilian bunkers."Lira floated down from the ceiling. She hovered next to Oliver’s ear."The Spiral Ascendant is highly unstable, Oliver," Lira whispered. "The Rift magic is boiling the rock there. If you take these fragile humans through that path, the floor will collapse. They will fall into the magma."Oliver did not look at the ghost. He looked at Captain Ren."Captain Ren," Oliver ordered. "Do you have portable Anchor-stabilizers in your supply packs?"Ren nod

The red screens in the underground bunker glowed like fresh blood. The heavy steel walls shook. The terrible, deep voice of the Overlord echoed through the hidden speakers. The monster was not in the room, but his mind was in the computer. He had followed the alien black coin in Commander Oliver’s hand."Your perfect math... belongs to me now," the Overlord laughed.The twenty-two miners screamed. Young Sam covered his ears and fell to the floor. Captain Ren raised her plasma rifle, but she did not know what to shoot. There was nothing to shoot. The enemy was inside the wires.Captain Iris backed away from the red screens. "Oliver! You brought him inside! The bunker is compromised!"Oliver stood in the center of the white room. He did not panic. He did not drop the coin. He looked at the red screens. He analyzed the data."The Overlord is broadcasting his consciousness through the Key of Echoes," Oliver stated calmly. "He is using the coin as a wireless bridge. He is hacking the loca

Inside, the alien black coin was resting quietly. It glowed faintly. Oliver picked up the coin with his black metal right hand. The coin and his hand were made of the exact same dark magic. When they touched, they synced perfectly. The purple light brightened.Oliver felt a rush of cold, dark data flow up his arm. It did not hurt anymore. It felt powerful."The Overlord is watching the neighbor planets," Oliver whispered to himself. "I must inform the Council."Oliver walked to the back of the room. He approached the large, secure quantum communication terminal. This was the machine that could talk across the universe, reaching the core worlds of humanity.Oliver pressed his metal hand against the scanner. The machine hummed loudly. VMMMMMM.A brilliant, liquid silver light exploded in the center of the room. The post-singularity glow illuminated the broken walls of the city hall. It was a beautiful, pure human technology.Three giant faces appeared in the silver light. The Travele

A shadow stepped out of the bright purple light. The shadow turned into a pale woman wearing a flowing silver dress. She had completely white, blind eyes.It was Lira. The ghost of the dead dimension.Billy and Iris gasped and stepped back. They had never seen her before."Do not be afraid of the ghost," Oliver stated cleanly. "She is a rogue operative. She provides tactical intel. Lira, explain this map."Lira floated in the air. She looked at the giant, glowing web of red strings. Her white eyes looked very sad."You are looking at the Overlord’s mind, Commander," Lira whispered softly. "You are looking at the true Wraithborn empire. This is the Rift Network."Lira pointed her pale finger at a large, glowing red dot on the map."Every red dot is a planet the Wraithborn have conquered," Lira said.Oliver looked at the map. There were not just ten red dots. There were not a hundred.There were millions of red dots. They stretched across thousands of different dimensions."My god," Bil