Chapter 225: Moving with Intent (2/2)

He turned around, stunned at his surroundings. I set him down, keeping him standing even as his knees wobbled. The Sentinel gave him a look of disdain, eyeing his weakness. Torix shook his skeletal head,

”It's a pure stasis. All was null, and for me, no time has passed. It worked just as our experiments predicted.” Torix glanced at his status, ”Uh, seventy messages already? Ugh.”

The Sentinel stared between us, ”What did you mean by 'experiments'?”

I said, ”I stored him in this pocket dimension I have control of. It's untraceable apparently, letting me smuggle Torix onto Giess.”

The Sentinel glared at me, ”You admit crimes to me? Do you forget who and what-”

I slapped his shoulder, ”Come on man, you're off duty. Besides, we have a lot to take care of, like, I don't know, saving a planet from getting glassed?”

Torix nodded, clasping his hands behind himself, ”Indeed. I'd imagine saving billions of life forms takes precedence over a petty case of smuggling. Wouldn't you?”

The Sentinel sighed, ”Fine. Where will we go, and what will we do?”

I turned to Torix, ”That's a good question.”

Torix kept reading messages, ”In all likelihood, we cannot prevent the glassing of Giess any longer. Even if we destroy all the silvers, Lehesion, and the Adair family within the next three weeks, Schema will be sending a message with this planet's utter destruction.”

The Sentinel glared at Torix, ”Then you're not stopping the glassing?”

Torix raised a palm to the Sentinel, ”We shall still attempt it, but I doubt we can sway the decisions of a godlike entity such as Schema. Instead, recruiting those that cannot escape takes precedence. In this case, that means offering sanctuary for the gialgathens as they are the most sentient and most useful to us and our cause.”

He waved his raised hand, ”In my eyes, the most justified course of action would be uniting with Chrona, Krog, and Kessiah. We'll be able to leverage their base of operations most effectively once there. As we cut our losses, we'll be relying on you to lead them once there.”

”Can do.” I pointed in the distance while glancing at the Sentinel, ”Can you teleport like an Overseer can?”

The Sentinel pulled his spears from his back, the ornate engravings catching my eye,

”Yes, but only to places that I've been to.”

Torix opened a map of Giess, showing the location of the encampment known as Elderfire. The Sentinel pointed to a site about halfway there, ”I can warp us this far.”

Torix closed his status, ”Excellent. That's about 50% closer than I imagined we would be.”

The Sentinel swung his spears in circles overhead before lunging forward. His legs landed ahead as he stabbed the lances into the air, the violet blades rippling with arcane energy. They tore through space-time, the continuum around us buzzing.

The Sentinel jerked back while pulling the spears apart. A high pitched ringing echoed out around us along with a shockwave. The Sentinel sheathed his spears along his back, and the lances thudded across his back as the electromagnets activated. Stepping up to the portal, he grabbed the edges of the tear and pulled apart. He struggled for a bit, so I stepped up.

I channeled The Rise of Eden, encompassing him within the aura. Grabbing the edges of the tear in the continuum, I yanked up. The dimension caved in my wake. I stepped along the bottom, stomping the bottom of the portal under my heel. It opened a view to a dessert, the dry air pouring out of the tunnel.

Holding it open with my hand and foot, I gestured to them both, ”let's go.”

The Sentinel looked at me before peering towards the portal. He stepped through with a shake of his head. Torix followed, his skeletal hand cupping his chin.

Stepping into the desert, the hot sand crackled under my feet. As I stepped out of the portal, space-time slammed shut, sending out another wave through space. Sand dusted into the air, flying away with the wind. I walked through it, finding myself standing atop a dune of sand. I lifted the Sentinel and Torix, launching us into the air. As we beamed forward towards the coordinates, I turned and asked Torix,

”Where too?”

Torix pointed into a direction, and I pulled us along. As we traveled towards Elderfire, I tore strips of my armor off and melted them. I stored the glowing liquid within my dimensional storage, aiming to use the utility more now. Torix reviewed the messages from earlier, his gaze focused and littered with concern. As he closed his status, he turned to me,

”Be prepared when we enter Elderfire. Tohtella made her first genuine assault on the gialgathens while you and I were traveling here.”

I pulled us forward, the three of us speeding along like a missile,

”How bad was it?”

Torix winced, ”Very.”

After a few hundred miles of dessert, we reached a set of ruins along with an oasis in the desert. Perhaps oasis was a bit too strong of a word. It was more like a waterhole. The refugees built Elderfire on some ancient ruins, and the supposed spring was actually just a well of water. Various gialgathens drank from this pool and used it to keep their skins hydrated. Otherwise, their hides would crack under the harsh winds and heat here.

That's probably why they chose this isolated position. The genocide of the gialgathens escalated as the panic of the planet reached a fever pitch. With hiding as the goal, the gialgathens settled in a good spot. They abused espen's amphibious nature here. To attack, enemy forces had to cross a dessert as well, and staying here also gave the gialgathens a great view of their surroundings. While safe, this position still came across as desperate.

That fact unsettled me. To my understanding, the gialgathens had always overwhelmed the espens in martial might. Turning the tables would be no small feat. Either way, we landed among the ruins of the old city, the general malaise and dismay verifying my assumption. The attack must've left a nasty scar then. Walking past the collapsed pillars, Gialgathens huddled under the shade, their different shades and sizes a feast for the eyes. On a different day, they'd be the majestic creatures I remembered.

Now they bundled together, many of them injured. Their body's carried fresh scars and still scabbed over wounds. They lacked the pride and noble bearing I remembered from the gialgathens I saw in the past. I winced at the sight, but it made sense I supposed.

The guy they worshipped as a god was a puppet for the enemy. Their stronghold was decimated by that same idol in less than a single day. Now they faced a relentless force intent on exterminating them. Seeing their broken spirits and humility, it made me miss their cocky demeanors from before all this happened.

And still, I questioned how this kind of thing happened.

After passing dozens of these worn down derelicts, we reached the well of water at the heart of Elderfire. Chrona stood at the entrance to what was a rift opening. It opened up to an underwater domain with fish and other creatures swimming through it. The time mage peered up at me, her eyes weighed with exhaustion and her chest lowered. It caught me a bit off guard.

Beside her, Kessiah sat down on a block of stone, attending to an endless array of wounds. Dark circles sagged under her eyes, her will extended to its absolute limit. Above them both, Krog flew and spoke to several armored gialgathens, ordering them to patrol the area.

As we stepped up, Krog glared down at us. He flew down, his feet crushing stone under his clawed feet. As he grimaced at me, I found new scars over his face, neck, and body. His wings carried a few extra holes. In his eyes, the spirit of a warrior burned bright.

In just a moment, I understood who was leading this entire effort.

Krog kept his head high, his pride still there. There was a subtle desperation and relief in his words as he nodded to me, ”Thank you for your arrival, leader.”

His respect caught me off guard. Something awful must have happened. I glanced around and spread my arms, ”So, uh, what happened here?”

Krog glanced at Chrona, then back to me, ”Several of our cities were assaulted this morning before dawn. It happened after the Shapeless Arbiter killed several of the standing members of the rebels.”

I raised an eyebrow, ”Shapeless Arbiter?”

Torix leaned towards me and whispered, ”They call Althea by that name.”

I shook my head, ”Good god, what has her so motivated all of a sudden?”

Torix shrugged, ”Perhaps something more personal occurred.”

I made a note of that before hearing Krog out. The red and orange gialgathen continued, ”They retaliated with a fierce counterattack.” Krog shivered,

”A mass of Hybrids assaulted our cities. It was a complete and utter slaughter. Our forces are in turmoil. I cannot organize them or gather moral.”

I narrowed my eyes, ”And this happened this morning?”

Chrona stepped up, leaving her station, ”Yes. Up till now, the rebels hounded us like weaklings. They nipped at our heels, but they never openly confronted us. Today was different. They darkened the sky with their numbers, the Hybrids raining down like an endless storm.”

I glanced around, ”Ok, and what did we do to stop it?”

Krog looked at me, ”I organized the retreat from Selarelia and Monothel. Chrona and I stopped them in those two cities. We were unable to stop the masses in other locations. From the messages I've received, they are war zones.”

Torix skimmed a few of his messages, ”This report mentions that most of those caught in the crossfire weren't killed. What did you mean by that?”

Chrona steeled herself, ”It meant what it says. Before this attack, we believed this was a genocide. We all believed that we were to be culled. This isn't so.”

I glanced between them as Krog's eyes grew distant,

”No, it is not something so simple. They aren't killing us. They never were.”

A spark of realization sprung through my chest as Krog growled,

”They are harvesting us.”