Oliver did not hesitate. He did not feel the crushing pressure of panic. He simply acted. "General Vega. Sergeant Miller," Oliver ordered. His cold voice commanded total obedience. "Aim your weapons at the largest cracks in the blue glass. Do not shoot the monsters. Shoot the edges of the breaking light. Your plasma heat will temporarily fuse the energy together."Vega and Miller raised their heavy guns. They aimed at the failing blue rings on the left wall. "Fire," Oliver said. The blue plasma hit the cracking wards. The intense heat acted like a magical welding torch. The purple cracks stopped spreading. But it was not enough. On the right side of the shaft, a giant Stone Golem smashed its head against the barrier. The blue ring shattered. A hole the size of a truck opened up. Dozens of screaming Shadow-Stalkers poured through the hole, diving straight toward the slow civilian barges. "They broke

"I do not accept this solution," Oliver commanded. His metallic voice grew slightly louder. A tiny, buried piece of his human heart was fighting against his cold logic. He hated losing assets. He hated losing her. "There is an alternative method. We will use the plasma batteries. We will reverse the polarity."Oliver tried to push past her. He reached for the blue crystal. Lira placed both of her glowing hands directly onto Oliver’s chest. She touched the dark alien coin fused into his armor. "There is no other math, my cold Commander," Lira smiled. It was a smile of pure, heartbreaking love. "Your logic is perfect, but this is about sacrifice. I am already a ghost. My time ended millions of years ago. Let me be the shield."Oliver felt a strange, terrifying tightness in his throat. His perfectly controlled breathing broke for one single second. "Negative," Oliver said. He tried to pull her away from the crystal. He grabbed

Commander Oliver took a slow, heavy step toward Captain Iris. He raised his sharp titanium knife. The glowing red fire in his right eye burned with dark, evil hate. The alien coin in his chest whispered terrible commands into his brain. It told him to kill his friends. It told him to cut away his human weakness. Iris backed away. She hit the cold metal wall. She held her broken arm and looked up at the terrifying, half-metal face of the man who used to be her friend. "Oliver, please," Iris whispered. Tears fell down her dirty cheeks. "Fight it. This is not you."Sergeant Miller raised his empty heavy machine gun like a club. He prepared to swing it at Oliver’s head. General Vega pulled a small combat knife from her boot. They were ready to fight their own Commander to save Iris. Oliver did not blink. He prepared to strike. Suddenly, the bright silver light in the room died. The air grew impossibly cold. The metal floor cracked loudly. A deep, horrible rumbling sound shook the ver

The strange man on the black glass stairs looked exactly like Commander Oliver. He had the same cold, gray eyes. He had the same sharp, pale face. But his right arm was not made of dark, evil metal. His right arm was made of pure, glowing white Builder crystal. "I am the original design," the crystal man spoke. His voice was perfectly smooth. It echoed with ancient power. "You are corrupted. You are infected by the dark."Oliver stared down the stairs. His black Wraithborn arm hung at his side. He did not feel fear. He did not run his equations out loud anymore. The math lived silently and coldly inside his perfectly empty mind. He simply observed the new enemy. He noted the heavy energy radiating from the white crystal arm. Before Oliver could draw his knife, a deafening explosion shook the room behind him. The heavy iron doors at the back of the chamber violently buckled inward. The thick metal groaned and screamed. "The doors are breaking!" Sergeant Miller yelled. He raised h

The sky above them turned to pure, blinding white fire. A hundred heavy plasma cannons fired at the exact same time. The human Grand Fleet from Earth wanted to erase Commander Oliver. They wanted to burn the rusted barges and everyone on them. Oliver did not have time to speak. He did not have time to raise a magical shield. A hundred ship cannons would melt his shield in a single microsecond. Oliver acted with cold, flawless math. He spun around. He swung his black metal right arm and smashed the main control panel of the silver Ark. "Engines dead!" Oliver roared. The glowing blue engines instantly cut off. The anti-gravity magic failed. The three heavy metal barges dropped like stones. They fell out of the air just as the massive wave of laser fire washed over the space where they had been floating. The heat was apocalyptic. It melted the stone walls of the cavern. It turned the air into boiling steam. The barges fell fast into the dark. They dropped below the line of fire.