Scatter! He is not the Boss!Keal's voice cracked with raw panic as he leveled his Vanguard rifle, his finger squeezing the trigger just as the monster wearing Idris's face blurred out of existence.The Curator did not run; he simply deleted the physical space between himself and the rescue squad. He reappeared in the center of the formation, his pitch-black eyes devoid of anything remotely human. A violet blade of condensed dark matter extended from his right wrist, humming with the sick, resonant sound of digitized souls.The guard nearest to Keal did not even have time to scream. The violet blade sheared cleanly through his heavy hyper-steel chest plate, turning his armor and his ribcage to ash in a microsecond. The man collapsed in two separate pieces, his blood instantly vaporized by the heat of the alien weapon.Fall back! Keal roared, firing blindly into the smoke.Blue plasma rounds struck Idris's body, but they splashed harmlessly against a shimmering, localized gravity field

The steel gates of Vanguard Outpost slowly opened.. They did not open for a king or a queen. They opened for a ghost.Rhea Knox pulled her silver armor across the strong steel gate. She left a trail of blood on the clean concrete floor. Keal helped her. He had a splint on his left arm. His face was pale and sad.The courtyard was usually full of people. There were three thousand survivors.. Now it was quiet. The mechanics stopped working. The guards put down their guns. Everyone looked at Rhea Knox. She was the leader of Vanguard. They looked behind her for Idris. They looked for a shield. They looked for a coat.Close the gates Rhea said. Her voice was loud and clear.A young guard was scared. He swallowed hard. His hands were shaking. Commander Knox, where is the Boss? Where is Idris?Rhea stopped walking. She looked up. Her face was dirty and bloody. She was very sad.. In her eyes there was a lot of anger.Idris Cole is a prisoner Rhea said. Her voice was loud. The Sovereign System

The fight on the titanium wall was not a battle. It was like machines taking human life.The Curator walked through the infantry like a storm of violence. His ankles were completely broken, the bones grinding against muscle and nerve with every step.. The Curator did not care. The Curator used Idris Coles body like a stolen car ignoring the warning signs of failure.A soldier swung a baton at the Curators head.The Curator did not move out of the way. The Curator caught the baton with his hand. The electricity went through Idriss nerves making his muscles lock up. The Curator just smiled. The Curator used the locked muscles to twist the soldiers arm ripping it out of its socket before driving the baton through the soldiers helmet.Blood sprayed across Idriss face sickening.Inside his mind Idris fell to his knees. The floor of his mind was shaking with the trauma of the damage. He could feel the bones in his legs. He could smell the burning and the copper smell of death.You are going

The descent into the earth was crazy.Millions of tons of steel and broken glass fell into the huge hole in the ground. The light from the Central Sanctuary. It was completely dark.Rhea Knox did not fall like someone who was hurt. She jumped down like she was in control.Her red suit glowed with a lot of heat. It cut through the thick clouds of dust. Her four long arms swung out. Broke big pieces of falling rock before they could hurt her. The thing in her blood that made her strong was working well. It made her feel like she could fight.The person inside the strong suit was screaming for one thing.Idris! Rheas voice was loud. It echoed off the walls of the hole.Below her Idris was falling and could not stop. The thing that was inside him was trying to keep his body from getting hurt. The big piece of building that hit him on the surface hurt him badly.The thing inside him did not have a connection to the Spire so it had to use Idriss body to protect itself. It wrapped Idriss arm

The crater was not still. It was moving like it was alive.Keal stood at the edge of the destroyed Central Sanctuary. The heavy shovel was slipping from his hand because he was shaking. The storm with ash was blowing around the surviving Vanguard soldiers. It was covering their faces with dust.. Nobody was looking at the storm. Everybody was staring at the center of the hole in the ground. The earth was moving up and down.It was an scary movement. Thump. Then it stopped for a moment. Thump.Keal yelled, his voice was breaking. He was telling them to step and make a line of defense. The Vanguard scouts were running up the rocks of the canyon. They were pointing their plasma rifles at the moving earth. They were breathing hard in the air. They had just seen a god fall and a city collapse. Whatever was moving under the ground was not human.Idris Cole was in a place.The emergency healing process was not gentle. It was like an attack on his body. The tiny drop of Rheas blood was changin