2024-07-22 10:30:34
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Chapter 704
"What will happen?" Sikoa asked."The machine will overheat in ten seconds," Solon explained. "The glass will crack. The pressure will release harmlessly through the safety vents, but the delicate internal gears will completely melt. The forge will be a useless block of slag metal. No explosion. Just a very hot, very broken machine.""Red to the right. Blue to the left," Sikoa repeated, memorizing the instructions. "Stay here and stay quiet."Sikoa slipped away.She did not walk down the stairs. She climbed onto the metal pipes hanging from the dark ceiling. She moved like a spider, crawling silently above the bright lights and the busy factory floor.She crawled directly over the heads of the ten heavy guards.The guards were looking down at the slave workers. They did not look up.Sikoa reached the wall. She hung upside down by her knees from a thick iron bar. She reached her hands out. She grabbed the
Chapter 703
Sikoa looked at Solon. The thin archivist was trembling in the cold wind. "He is too hurt," Sikoa said to Caster. "He cannot fight. I will go alone.""You cannot go alone, Sikoa," Solon said, stepping forward. His voice was weak, but his pale eyes were full of stubborn bravery. "You are a master of stealth. You can sneak past any guard. But you do not know the math. You do not know how to safely dismantle a highly volatile magical engine. If you just smash a purple battery with your dagger, it will explode and wipe out the entire city block."Solon patted his own chest, wincing in pain."I read the blueprints," Solon said. "I know how the machines work. You get us inside. I will break the engines safely. We are a team."Sikoa stared at him. She hated seeing her friend in pain. But she knew he was right. Without his big brain, her sharp knives were useless."Fine," Sikoa sighed. She grabbed a thick, heavy gray blanket from the ground and
Chapter 702
The massive black hand of the Ash Warden fell from the sky. It blocked out the stars. It was the size of a continent, made of thick, heavy, dark gray ash. It came down to crush Caster Spellbound, Archmage Lysane, Sikoa, and young Kira into dust. Caster did not move. He stood on the edge of the cliff. He opened his arms wide. He did not build a shield. He did not throw a fireball. His eyes glowed with a pure, brilliant golden light. "I forgive you," Caster whispered into the roaring wind. The giant hand crashed down. Sikoa squeezed her one good eye shut. She prepared to die. But the crushing weight never came. Instead of a loud, terrible explosion of breaking bones and shattered rock, there was only a soft, quiet whoosh. Sikoa slowly opened her eye. The giant black hand had hit Caster’s golden light. The moment the violent, angry magic of the dark god touched Caster’s absolute, peaceful surrender, the magic broke. It could not hurt what it could not fight. The solid, heavy ash
Chapter 701
Caster Spellbound dropped his wooden stick. It clattered loudly onto the stone floor. He stood perfectly still. He opened his arms wide, exposing his unprotected chest to the incoming, deadly strike. He refused to fight. "Caster, no!" Lysane screamed from the ground. Elias’s sharp red claw swung toward Caster’s throat. Caster closed his eyes. He reached deep, deep down into the very bottom of his soul. He found the tiny, humming golden seed. He did not wake the seed up to use it as a weapon. He did not turn it into a wall of gravity. He did not use it to blast his enemy away. He just let the golden light fill his heart with absolute, unconditional peace. He accepted his friend. He accepted the anger. He accepted his own death. The golden magic flared. But it did not explode outward. It glowed softly, warmly, radiating from Caster’s skin like a gentle, morning sunrise. Elias’s sharp red claw hit Caster’s chest. But the claws did not pierce the flesh. The moment the chaotic, ang
Chapter 700
Caster frowned deeply. He looked down at his own chest. Deep, deep inside his dark, empty soul, the tiny golden seed was sleeping. The hum was very faint. The golden magic was a strange, unknown power. It was born from the collision of human sacrifice and cosmic consequence. It was not the magic of destruction. It was the magic of absolute truth. "If conflict feeds it," Caster whispered to himself, "what starves it?"He thought about the phantom of young Jace in his soul-scape. When Caster had fought the ghost, the ghost had grown stronger. But when Caster had stood up, dropped his defenses, and accepted the ghost's anger... the ghost had vanished. You do not defeat a burning fire by throwing dry wood onto it. You defeat a fire by taking the wood away. You defeat consequence by accepting it. You defeat hatred with absolute, unconditional peace. "Surrender," Caster breathed. His eyes widened. "Complete, total surrender."It went against every instinct he had. He was a soldier. He
Chapter 699
Caster pointed to the red beams shooting across the valley. "Every time a soldier pulls a trigger, they create chaotic energy," Caster said. "Every time a man hates his enemy, he creates heavy, dark emotion. The Ash Warden eats that energy. Conflict is its food. War is its fuel."Sikoa gasped. She looked down at the heavy, stolen rifle lying in the dust near her boots. "If we shoot it..." Sikoa whispered in horror. "If we shoot it, we feed it," Caster confirmed. "If we throw a bomb at it, we give it more mass. If we hate it, we make it heavier. The harder we fight, the faster it grows."The entire concept of the war was completely backwards. Archmage Vane had built the purple necrotic batteries to destroy his enemies. Elias Thorpe had built the red soul-engines to conquer the world. They thought their massive weapons would make them kings. But their massive weapons had just set the table for a monster. By fighting the biggest, bloodiest, most magical war in history, the two armi
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