Landon countered the horrible feeling with his own soul. He pushed his immense, powerful love for Claire into his palm. He pushed his deep loyalty to Kade, Marcus, Navarro, Jin, Sera, Juno, and Silas. He pushed the warm, beautiful hope of the entire human race into the cold metal. Landon matched the frequency of the alien magic perfectly. And then, Landon sent a single, powerful, vibrating shockwave of pure Kinetic Peace into the beast's chest. The sound was not a loud explosion. It was a deep, resonant, beautiful humming sound. It sounded like a massive, crystal singing bowl echoing across the entire underground cavern. The monster froze perfectly still. The dark, buzzing alien voice inside the armor suddenly let out a horrific, high-pitched scream of absolute, mind-shattering panic. “NOOOOO! THE LIGHT! IT BURNS!”The bright white kinetic vibration traveled instantly through the entire suit of black armor. The dark energy acting as the magical glue could not handle the pure, har

"We cannot fight that," a young mother cried softly, holding a rusty pistol. "They will slaughter us." Ayo heard her crying. He remembered how he felt when the Iron Order had locked him in a cage. He remembered feeling completely helpless. But then, Ayo remembered Landon Hale. He remembered how Landon had stood completely alone in the courtyard, glowing with white light, and told them that they were not slaves. Landon had told them to fight for their freedom. Ayo’s shaking hands completely stopped. His fear vanished. Ayo took three heavy steps forward in the deep snow. He stood completely alone, exactly halfway between the giant civilian army and the massive Iron Order army. He raised his stolen blue laser rifle. "We are not slaves!" Ayo roared at the top of his lungs. His young voice cracked, but it was filled with absolute, pure, unbreakable bravery. "We will never kneel to you again! If you want this crater, you have to go through us!" The Iron Order commander laughed a cruel

The Iron Order soldiers stared at the giant hole in pure horror. They had just watched a skinny, dirty teenager completely outsmart and destroy their greatest, heaviest weapon. The soldiers lost all of their courage. They realized they were fighting a war they could never, ever win. You cannot defeat people who are not afraid to die for their freedom. The Iron Order commander looked around at his terrified army. He looked at the thousands of angry, heavily armed civilians marching slowly toward him. The commander dropped his megaphone into the snow. He slowly raised his hands high into the air. "We surrender!" the commander yelled loudly. "Do not shoot! We surrender!" One by one, the hundreds of black-armored Iron Order soldiers dropped their laser rifles onto the icy street. They fell to their knees in the snow, raising their hands in defeat. The battle for the surface was completely, officially over. The Vanguard had won. The city was finally, truly secure. The thousands of

The giant, pale hand of the Star Eater held Landon Hale high in the air. Landon dangled over the dark, empty abyss. The terrifying, ancient monster from deep space was pulling him closer and closer to its gaping mouth. The monster did not have eyes. It only had a massive, black hole filled with thousands of spinning, jagged teeth. The air around the monster was incredibly freezing. It was colder than the deepest winter in Milwaukee. It was the cold of empty outer space. Landon felt his bright white Kinetic Echo magic dying. The monster was sucking the power right out of his blood. His muscles felt like heavy lead. He could not breathe. Far below him on the stone floor, Claire Arden was screaming. "Landon! No!" Claire cried at the top of her lungs. Her beautiful face was covered in tears. She raised her glowing golden shield, but the magic was too far away to help him. Landon looked down at her. He tried to smile, but his face was frozen. He wanted his last thought to be of her.

“I cannot run away, Kade,” Landon thought weakly into the web. “He is too fast. His aura is too wide.”“We will distract him!” Marcus roared in the mind-link. "Hey, tin-can!" Marcus shouted out loud. Marcus stepped out from behind the broken stone pillar. The giant, bearded man raised his heavy automatic shotgun. He aimed directly at Rauth’s smooth black helmet. Marcus fired three heavy steel slugs. General Rauth did not even turn his head. The heavy steel bullets flew into the gray aura surrounding Rauth's body. The exact second the bullets touched the dark magic, they instantly rusted, melted, and turned into completely harmless gray dust. The dust fell gently to the floor. The bullets never even touched the armor. "Your toys are useless, fat man," Rauth whispered without looking at him. Rauth raised his left hand and pointed a single finger at Marcus. A tiny, fast bolt of dark purple lightning shot out of Rauth's finger. The lightning hit Marcus directly in the chest. Ma