High above the dirty, yellow smog of Rustgate, Auditor Isaac sat at his smooth glass desk. The walls of his office were made of spotless white marble. There was no dust. There was no noise. The heavy glass windows blocked out the terrible sounds of the factories below.Isaac liked the quiet. He liked things to be clean. He wore a pure white suit. His dark hair was combed perfectly flat. He sat very still, his pale gray eyes staring at the glowing digital screen on his desk.Outside his window, far down in the valley, a massive cloud of black dust was still rising into the sky. Sector Four of the junkyard had been crushed. The foolish Overseer had dropped millions of tons of solid iron to kill one single anomaly.Isaac did not care about the dead people in the junkyard. He only cared about the numbers. And the numbers on his screen were wrong."Enter," Isaac said softly. His voice was smooth and polite.The heavy wooden doors of his office opened. Dr. Vance walked in. The official city

The dark tunnels under the City of Iron were like a giant, cold maze. Water dripped from the cracked stone ceiling. Drip. Drop. Drip. The sound echoed in the endless black hallways. The air smelled of old rust, rotting garbage, and sour acid.Rick walked at the front of the group. He held his black wooden staff tightly in his right hand. He used it like a crutch. He was limping. His dark gray coat was covered in mud, gray ash, and dark blood.Behind Rick walked fifty people.They were the survivors from the giant iron furnace. When the Overseer dropped the heavy metal ceiling to crush Sector Four, Rick had used a massive wave of his green Earth Qi to hold the sky up. He had created giant, glowing green roots to catch the falling roof.That magic had saved their lives. But it had drained Rick completely. He was empty.Now, they were hiding deep underground. They were walking through the forgotten pipes that led to the old, abandoned acid vats.Luna walked near the back of the group.

Luna looked across the large concrete room.Rick had cleared the dust from the little boy's throat. The boy was crying loudly, breathing clean air again. Rick smiled and patted the boy's head. But Rick did not stop. He immediately moved to the next patient. An old woman with a broken arm. Then to a young man with a deep cut on his face.Rick moved like a machine. But he looked like a corpse. He was stumbling. His hands shook violently. Every time he tied a stitch, he coughed up dark gray fluid. He was slowly killing himself to save these strangers."I cannot tell him, Ash," Luna whispered, hiding her shoulder under the cloak again."Why?" Ash asked."Because he is empty," Luna explained, tears rolling down her cheeks. "He has no magic left. To heal this infection, he would have to use his own life energy. He would have to give me pieces of his own soul. And he does not have enough soul left to give."Luna looked at Rick's tired, dirty back."He carries the whole world on his shoulde

Luna stood alone. She held Rick’s black wooden staff in her left hand. She only had one arm, but she held the heavy wood tightly. She stood directly over Rick’s body. His skin was gray. His chest did not move. His heart was completely silent. He had taken the poison from her shoulder, and it had stopped his pulse.In front of Luna, the five White Coats spread out. They wore spotless white uniforms. Their faces were hidden behind surgical masks and dark goggles. In their hands, they held small, sharp silver scalpels. The scalpels glowed with a blinding, cold white magical light. They were assassins sent by Auditor Isaac."Get out of the way, little girl," the lead assassin said. His voice was muffled and cold behind his white mask. "The doctor is dead. We are just here to collect his body.""You will not touch him," Luna growled. Her brown eyes burned with fierce, protective fire.The assassin laughed softly. It was a cruel sound. "You have one arm. You have no magic. You are nothing

The scavengers slowly lined up. They kept their heads down. The robotic dogs sniffed the people. The red lights flashed slowly. Beep. Beep. The dogs sniffed the tents. They sniffed the mud. They found nothing. Every single sick person, every bloody bandage, and every drop of medicine had been perfectly hidden before the guards even turned the corner."The camp is clean, Commander," a guard grunted in frustration. "No defects detected.""Move to the next sector," the Commander growled angrily.The patrol marched away. Whirrrrr. Clank.As soon as the guards were gone, the old man sorting copper wires looked around. He placed his hand flat on his chest and tapped it twice. Safe.The signal passed backward through the junkyard. People came out of their hiding spots. The mother with the sick baby returned to her tent.The junkyard was acting like one giant, living, breathing organism. The Underground Code was working perfectly.A mile away, hidden in a deep, abandoned subway tunnel, Rick