They walked down the dusty rows. They passed books titled The Purging of the Nulls and The Holy Fire. Elara felt a deep anger looking at them. They were books full of lies. They reached the very center of the Archive. There was a large, round wooden table. Sitting on the table was a single, large metal tube. It was made of dull gray iron. It was locked with heavy metal clasps. "This is it," Elara said. She reached out to touch it, but stopped. "It is locked with a blood-seal. If I break it, it will explode." Drogo leaned over the table. He tuned his Void core again, making his finger vibrate at a high speed. He carefully tapped the metal clasps. The lock thought he was a High Mage. The clasps popped open. Drogo opened the iron tube. He reached inside and pulled out a massive roll of thick paper. He unrolled the paper on the large wooden table. It was not a normal drawing. The paper was magical. As soon as it was unrolled, glowing blue lines lifted off the paper. It created a 3D

Drogo walked in front. He used his dark magic to push the terrible smell away from Elara. He created a small bubble of clean air around her so she would not get sick. The ground became slippery. Thick, green slime covered the rocks. Strange, glowing bugs crawled on the walls. "It is getting louder," Elara said. She had to speak loudly so Drogo could hear her. A deep, roaring sound filled the tunnel. It sounded like a massive waterfall. "We are close," Drogo said. They turned a corner and walked out onto a high stone ledge. Elara gasped. She covered her mouth with her hand. They were standing inside a cavern so big that it could hold a whole mountain. This was the Grand Intersection. Fifty massive iron pipes stuck out of the cavern walls. Black, green, and sick yellow water poured out of the pipes. The dirty water fell hundreds of feet down, crashing into a giant, churning lake of filth at the bottom. The smell was horrible, but Drogo’s magic bubble kept the worst of it away f

The booming voice of the machine echoed in the white metal room. "WARNING. CITY DROP IN TEN SECONDS. NINE. EIGHT..."Drogo Payne, the Abyssal King, was trapped. His giant, black stone hands were glued to the massive green crystal. The machine was the Primary Pylon. It was the anchor that held the Emperor’s rich, floating city in the sky. Because Drogo had attacked it with pure, brute force, the machine had started its fail-safe. It was going to drop the entire Upper City onto the slums, killing everyone."Drogo!" Elara screamed from the doorway. Her pale hands pulled at her gray hair. "Let go! You have to let go!""I cannot!" Drogo roared. The green light from the crystal was blinding. It was acting like a massive, magical magnet. It pulled on his dark Void energy. It held him fast. "SEVEN. SIX. FIVE." the machine counted down. Its voice was perfectly calm. It did not care that millions of people were about to die. Drogo looked up at the ceiling. Through the thick rock, he could h

Drogo kept his eyes closed. "What is a snap-back?" he asked calmly. "It is like a giant rubber band!" Elara explained, panic making her voice high. "The Pylon is pulling all the gravity in the room into a tight ball. If you do not match its frequency soon, the rubber band will snap! It will release all that trapped gravity in one single explosion!"Elara looked up at the groaning ceiling. "If it snaps," Elara cried, "the explosion will vaporize this entire cavern! It will destroy Sector 4! It will break the bedrock, and the Floating Spires will drop anyway! We will all die! You must be perfect, Drogo! One tiny mistake, and the world ends!"The stakes could not be higher. Drogo had millions of lives resting on his broad shoulders. He had Vesper, Pip, and old Silas depending on him. He had Elara, who had given up her entire life in the Light to help him. He could not fail. Drogo tuned his internal gravity. He felt the massive, heavy Wub of the machine. He felt the exact weight of it.

The golden light poured down from the broken ceiling like a violent waterfall. It was too bright. It hurt the eyes. The dark, dirty cavern of Sector 4 had never seen the true sun before. Now, it was filled with the angry, burning light of the Emperor’s army.Thousands of Elite Sentinels fell through the massive hole in the earth. They stood on flat, glowing platforms made of solid golden magic. The platforms floated down, carrying the soldiers like elevators of light. The Sentinels wore shining silver armor. They carried long, sharp spears. The tips of the spears crackled with yellow lightning. High above them, High Priest Orion stood on the largest platform. He held a massive sword that burned like a piece of the sun. "Kill the monster!" High Priest Orion’s voice echoed down the deep tunnel. "Protect the Anchor! Burn the darkness away!"Drogo Payne, the Abyssal King, stood at the bottom of the white metal room. He looked up at the descending army. He did not run. He did not hide.