Six figures stood within the church of the Cloak in Aurus. Each one was an avianoid, each bore a grim, resigned turn of the beak, and each was ready for war. More than that, they were prepared for what was about to come through the seemingly blank hallway in front of them.

Space rippled ever so slightly, and Zolyra Rosescale returned to Aurus. The six tensed, and one of them spoke. "Commander Rosescale. Must it come to this?"

Zolyra stared down the leader of Torch's church, the man who had very narrowly avoided the loss of his role and head by throwing enough chaff between him and Lagori's failed coup. She wasn't going to let him distance himself from this one. "You all heard the truth of it yesterday, or have you twisted it so much you've been blinded to it?" Years worth of disgust was unloaded onto the Cleric, yet Zolyra had to reserve the words she really wanted to use.

Ashier drifted through the break next, cautiously, and blinked their cloud eyes at the assembled Clerics. "Honored champions of the Octyrrum," they greeted, recognizing the significance of each from the robes they wore. "But how? And where is Time's representative?"

"Hourglass' church here has fallen to the enemy's influence," Zolyra barked out, being careful with her word choice. She knew the Tyrant wouldn't have time to accept the whole story now and would get around to that when Soraso was less than dust. "I reached out to the other churches as soon as I had that beast talking, and that was enough. I've developed two halves of a plan, now we bring them together. We're hitting Time's church out of the gate, burning it to the ground under our combined strength while we assemble and add Cleric support to our squads."

The leader of Cloak's church, with a bit of graying in the feathers around his unusually serious eyes, glanced sideways at the Torch Cleric before addressing the Tyrant. "She has the right of it. Our god was here, granting us guidance through Proxy, when Time and Knowledge forgot common sense and conspired to slay his host. They will both repent for this sin, but only one will live to learn from it. Join us in righting this region, journeying Tyrant, for not even we can hide from the ravages to come should we fail."

"Well said, brave one." Ashier closed their eyes, and then nodded. "The rest are following us through. Come, faithful. Let us bring divine retribution to traitors and monsters alike."

…

The short battle in the gun battery had thoroughly convinced the team that Padri wasn't worth bringing. It wasn't that he'd be useless in battle, but he was level 3. Daniel was almost certain the main power core was still corrupted, which meant the average of their levels would significantly impact the danger they'd face. The Engineer simply couldn't pull his weight, and he was graceful about being left behind in the armory.

For the same reason, Thomas and the rest were ruled out despite the value they might have added. Daniel was about to guide the team out when Alex stopped him. "I figured it out. Like I said, super weird, but I think it can help. It's called Ode to the Wanderer."

"Your powers have the weirdest names," Daniel said as he looked it up, Alex sharing the information through Identify Creature. "Aren't odes like poems anyway?"

"Bard powers are like that," Evalyn explained. "Taloran is a singer but has some whose names specify instruments. Art forms are interchangeable."

"That's a weird sente- woah."

Ode to the Traveler: (Ability, Dexterity, Spell, Domain: Astral, Cooldown, Level: 3)

You possess the Power to create an Astral Clone with a performance using a moderate amount of Mana. Once created, this clone may act as a source for both your senses and Bardic Music. If the clone is destroyed, it cannot be created again for one hour. This is a Magical Ability that functions in areas of Magical Suppression, however powers Channeled through it may not.

-

Astral Clone (Concept, Domain: Astral):

A duplicate of a living Creature that exists solely in the Astral. This vessel cannot be imbued with a soul or allow one to Astrally Project. This vessel is immune to Damage: Physical and most types of Damage: Magical. Destruction of a clone does not typically harm the summoner.

The second entry was sparse, likely owing to Daniel's contact with similar topics being weak enough to limit the info he'd get. It was an intriguing ability overall, and if a vessel couldn't possess a soul it should theoretically mean she wouldn't contribute to projection difficulty. He'd say the extra she'd add as a level 1 wouldn't account for much, but her odd power situation threw a wrench into that logic.

Daniel looked at Alex and saw every bit of worry he was feeling. He thought back to when Murdon had asked if he wanted to stay in the village or fight, and what he'd imagined sticking to the sidelines would look like. His Spoke had given her the perfect power to let her help despite her pacifism, and yet this was the worst place she could use it.

It was a time for quick decisions, and so he made one. "If you want, we'll try it out. But you're keeping a hand on the rift, and I want Thomas on standby with Flash Balance."

"Got it Guy," Thomas said, quickly standing at attention by Alex, who was looking at him skeptically.

"How am I supposed to play one handed?" She rolled her eyes and propped a bare knee on the multicolored rift next to the rest of the team waiting to deploy. Her bow began to move across the strings, but no sound played. Daniel still felt something he could best describe as his teeth being on edge, and he flashed Hunter a thought.

Switch with me.

Oh, now you want to switch?

You don't? Fur rapidly spread across his body and he caught Shuni looking on with conflicted interest. The floating cat body problem had to be awkward for her because it was for Daniel. He distracted himself by honing in on what he'd wanted the body for: Sense Astral.

It was far vaguer than his other senses, both because of what it was and his experience in using it. Either way he could feel an odd resonance coming from Alex's instrument, rippling through space, and beginning to coalesce right beside her. That and the infernal whole body itching that represented the corruption everywhere, even safe rooms. That was his main concern with Alex using her ability here, though if only her consciousness was being projected it should be fine, and Thomas could instantly cancel the ability at the first sign of trouble.

Stolen novel; please report.

The process completed after about a minute, and Alex lost her balance as it did so. Both he and Thomas were prepared to respond, Daniel shifting back into human form in case he had to override something like with Bekali, but she waved them both off. "Sorry, just disoriented. It threw me into it right away, wasn't expecting that. So much weirder than the first thing, it's like I'm this ghost all of a sudden."

"Any odd feelings? Itching?" Alex gave him a strange look when he added that but didn't comment.

"No. It doesn't feel like it's taking magic to keep up either, it's just there now." Her gaze grew unfocused. "I can move it too. If it can teleport, I could follow you!"

Evalyn, as team leader, had to be the bad guy. "If you can't be hurt through this normally, I'd say that's fine. But Alex, you'll be watching us fight. It's not clean. Hunter and Tak regularly take injuries that would make a lesser man faint, and it's rare any of us go completely undamaged. I can't stop you from doing this, but think about that. Could you handle seeing your brother wounded, bleeding so much it spills onto the ground?"

Daniel wanted to argue that his armor would cut down on the gratuitous bloodshed, but it was a fair point. Alex would witness everything. The thought of the partial corruption Khiat's head had been inflicted with surfaced in his mind and that made him shudder.

Alex's face was set. "I can handle it. It's not something I ever wanted to do, but I can. If only because it's worse to have to worry about you while you're away."

Evalyn nodded, remaining strict. They were losing time and the pressure was getting to her. "Then get that ghost moving. Oh, and I lied, by the way. Thomas, if you're worried about how she's doing for even a second, cancel her power."

"Y-yeah." He blinked up at her, admiration and a bit more in his eyes. "Just promise to look out for yourself as much as these idiots." Were they still back in Aughal before the siege this would've been accompanied by a pickup line or something similar, but all there was was an earnest smile.

Evalyn's team leader persona broke for a second as it caught her off guard too. "If that's what it takes, then I guess I'll keep myself alive. Alright, we need to get moving. Last call, anyone?" Willow turned from inspecting the captured quillion, the sparrow freely manifesting on her shoulder and gazing at Alex as if it could see what she was doing in the Astral. She shook her head sadly, while Padri tried to convince Tlara to help him refine his commands in the background.

Wingcraft left the armory, four of them holding onto Padri's armed cutters in the process. While the Engineer himself was a problematic presence, they wouldn't turn down his creations. Theoretically incorruptible damage sources that wouldn't contribute to rift difficulty were exactly what they needed. Alex did have to dismiss and recreate her clone, though, as it couldn't use the rift to teleport.

"Still able to cross over?" Daniel asked, holding a sending stone paired to his sister's while at the base of the cargo elevator once she'd teleported back.

"Yeah. Jeez is it weird though. It's like playing a VR game except I can't feel my body. Only… I can still use my violin if I want to." A few jumped as they were walking when what sounded like the start of Glimpse of Dawn began to project from empty space, though Alex cut it off prematurely. "Another thing, I think there's another spell I can work out but it's like trying to do a hard crossword puzzle."

Daniel gave quick mental directions to Hunter to pass off, then asked, "Wait, when did you get into virtual reality games?"

"I never really did, Ami was just dating this complete tech bro a couple years back. He had a headset and brought it to one of the gatherings you, uh."

"Didn't go to," Daniel finished. "It's fine, that's just not something I could've seen you doing."

"Right, because I'm a glorified violin stand in your eyes."

"Well, what are you doing right now?" There was no response through the sending stone, and the team had finished the short walk to what seemed like a dead end. He braced himself and then spoke to the group in general. "There's something here that can take us to the back part of the ship. Based on the map we'd just have to climb up once we take it and it'll cut down on half of our trip overall. I even have a map line leading straight toward it now that we're close enough."

"You're talking about that thing that almost ran us over?" Khiat asked with concern. "What if it tries that again?"

"It hasn't so far." He could feel the skepticism coming off of everyone, even Alex somehow. "Look, Bekali was controlling… let's just call it a cart on rails for now. Alex, this place is a subway," he added, for her benefit. "The rift there is held by an elite, so the only risk is if they left a strong one at it. Otherwise, it won't move."

Evalyn stuck her head through the illusory barrier, thinking the plan over. "There's not a lot of cover there. Room to fight, sure, but if it has area attacks we'll be at a disadvantage."

Sigron formed his shield into a tall, narrow shape mostly to tap it onto the ground. "Cover you."

"Oh, right." She scratched at the back of her neck with a half-smile. "And your taunt power could help lock them down. We could advance under Area Denial, but I don't think we can waste that much time with how slow you move. We'll have to keep songs muted too, but I could charge a Songbolt with Investiture on approach."

Evalyn beckoned them ahead and then lowered herself into the tunnel, trusting that the team would have detected danger this close. "Let's do it," she said after everyone had dropped. "Standard formation but be ready to retreat if we need to…"she trailed off briefly as she saw the arrow Khare had painted to highlight the entrance during the first ruin dive. They'd seen the marks before, but it hit differently now that they were preparing to fight. "Smoke bombs," she continued, shaking herself out of it. "Shuni and Daniel, I want you ready to give us cover if we need it. I'm not taking the possibility of a level 3 or 4 elite lightly. We are not losing anyone here."

…

While the team was able to approach what the Arcadian called 'Transport Car 7' without issue, they soon found a practical issue with the plan as Shuni reported. "That whole thing is sealed up," she whispered under muffle sound, gesturing to the shape vaguely visible a hundred meters away. Daniel could make it out better with Hunter's Night Eyes, the oblong single-section subway car standing out far better with the enhancement.

And indeed, the two doors on the top third of the 15 meter long transport made from the same toughened material as the walls around them were closed. "Didn't want to try opening them. Not seeing anything, but getting a ping off of Sense Danger from inside. Thinking whatever's guarding it is in the lower section."

"Hunter, can you sense it?" The ringcat tilted his head forward and sighed.

"No. Traces of its scent, maybe, but nothing living." At his prompting Daniel took the hybrid body, starting to wish there was some way he could store it. Ideally he'd have Beast Mode on cooldown to swap into it if needed, but if he reverted now he'd lose access for an hour. Between Unyielding Tenacity and the unawakened powers it wasn't a sacrifice he could make, despite how bad he felt making Hunter wear it for him.

Screw it. "Evalyn, think I'll keep this body for the fight. Quarters seem too tight to risk any good shots, might as well go melee."

The Bard nodded. "Good chance for me to see what it can do."

"Imagine less glowing lightning blasts and more straight up killing potential," Shuni added helpfully.

Hunter grumbled with that, any relief he might have felt from being back on four legs quashed by the comparison. "Can't find it."

You're still amazing, Hunter, Daniel thought privately to him. You've got a new defensive ability and I'm sure you'll be better than me once you catch up. The words helped, but there was lingering discontentment that even the oncoming fight couldn't help. It was a lot of things weighing on Hunter, from Shuni to how he fit in the world, and there were no good or easy answers. All he could do was give him every encouragement as they took it a day at a time.

Tak eyed Daniel with a troubled expression but didn't voice his concerns either. "We should flush it out. Bad to go in there when we don't know what it can do. Hard for all of us to fight too."

"Any specific idea?" Evalyn asked, Tak shaking his head in response.

"We've got these things," Shuni said, pulling out a red smoke bomb with a more muted enthusiasm, having caught the interplay and now worrying about the trouble she might have unintentionally caused.

Daniel rooted through his stockpile as well while withdrawing elemental claws, not liking what he saw. "I didn't make many of the damaging smoke bombs. A lot of other stuff got in the way. We'd only need two or three to fill that place up, but it could take more if the elite can ignore the damage or disperse the smoke."

"There are the cutters," Alex reminded them over sending stone. "Also, just tried to walk in there but I still can't go through solid objects."

"You shouldn't have done that," Evalyn sighed, already finding his sister more problematic a hanger on than Padri. "You're using a power you just awakened. What if it noticed you?"

"It didn't," she shot back. For all she was trying to take things seriously, Alex didn't have any combat instincts. "I was just trying to help."

"Do you remember why I was angry at your brother back on Earth?" Evalyn's question silenced Alex, leaving Daniel to wonder exactly what she meant. Whatever it was had gotten to his sister. "Alright. There's not much we can do if we can't force those doors open, but if that's the case we'll just bypass this and run down the tunnel. Tak and Hunter, I want you on the right side in case it can get out from the inside. The rest of you on the other side. Daniel, you try first, then Shuni. I want Sigron ready with Area Denial to block it if it's too strong. I'll be up top to buff everyone when it starts. Anyone disagree?"

"I could probably open the door too," Tak pointed out. "If any of us can."

"You're the only two I can trust to fight up your level for any amount of time. Daniel may be good, but you two together have him beat there." Across his Empathic Link, Daniel felt Hunter's spirits pick up a little.

"What about the cutters?" Daniel asked, echoing Alex's question. "It's not a good idea to have them close by at the start, but we could use them to zone afterward."

"I'll send them back to create a firing line. Khiat, if there's time you should get behind them once the smoke is out."

The dusker gripped her bow, hand shifting to hold it closer to one end. "If I have to, I can fight it off. I won't be good, but I won't freeze anymore." She nodded at Sigron who smiled back at her.

"Sounds like a plan. Let's do this."

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