Chapter 7: The Unwelcome Heroes
The Oculus Drone returned two days later, its crystal array dim from the expended energy. Kael downloaded the data into his analysis slate. The images that flickered to life were of stunning clarity.
The Sunstone Spire's plaza was packed with nobles, soldiers, and a terrified, hopeful populace. King Valerius stood on a high dais, looking every bit the benevolent ruler, his face etched with concern. He gave a speech about unity, sacrifice, and a "cleansing light from beyond."
Then the ritual began. Mages channeled oceans of mana into a colossal runic circle. The air screamed. The sky tore.
And five figures stumbled into existence, bathed in blinding, otherworldly light.
Kael froze the frames, studying each one.
Hero 1: Leo. He matched the artist's vision almost perfectly. His armor was a seamless, grey-blue biomorphic shell that seemed to breathe. A transparent visor covered his face, data streaming across it. He immediately touched a device on his wrist, and a holographic interface sprung to life. He looked around with the analytical, slightly disdainful gaze of a scientist examining a primitive culture. Assessment: Primary Threat. Technological rival. Arrogance detected.
Hero 2: Chloe. She was taller than expected, her silver-and-gold plate armor ornate but functional. A greatsword was strapped to her back, its hilt wrapped in white leather. But her most striking feature was her presence. Even through the drone's recording, she seemed to project an aura of absolute conviction. She knelt first, not to Valerius, but to the sky, her lips moving in prayer. When she rose, her eyes shone with a fervent, unshakeable light. Assessment: Ideological Threat. Fanatical. Immune to nuance.
Hero 3: Arawn. A hulking man in furs and bone armor, carrying a massive, rune-covered hammer. A barbarian archetype. He roared at the sky, beating his chest, reveling in his new strength. Assessment: Brute force. Predictable.
Hero 4: Lin. A slight, androgynous figure in dark, close-fitting leathers, who seemed to fade into the shadows of the Spire even in broad daylight. Two slender shortswords hung at their hips. Assessment: Assassin/Scout. Stealth primary.
Hero 5: Talia. A young woman in simple green robes, holding a staff of living wood topped with a glowing gem. She looked terrified, hugging her staff like a lifeline. A healer or druid. Assessment: Support role. Non-combatant potential.
Valerius welcomed them with open arms, spinning his tale of the tragic coup, the mad prince, and the rifts. The drone's audio pickups caught Leo's comment to Chloe: "Primitive energy signatures. Their 'magic' is just unrefined physics. This should be a simple cleanup operation."
Chloe's reply was solemn: "Our virtue must be our guide. We are here to restore balance, not to judge their ignorance."
Kael's jaw tightened. They had already convicted him. Valerius had given them a narrative, and they had accepted it without question. The final clip showed Valerius leaning close to Leo and Chloe, pointing to a map. "Our intelligence suggests the fugitive is hiding in the industrial regions to the north. His… machinations leave a trace. Find him. Bring him to justice."
The transmission ended. The hunt was now intercontinental, and interdimensional.
Kael spent the next week in a fever of production. The Null-Pulse Cannon took shape—a bulky rifle-like device with a wide, dish-shaped emitter. It fired a concentrated beam of chaotic mana and directed electromagnetic interference designed to overload magical constructs and unshielded electronics. He also produced a dozen Seeker-Darts: small, guided projectiles that could track heat or mana signatures, delivering a payload of conductive gel that would short-circuit anything they hit.
He was testing the capacitor alignment on the Cannon when Borim burst in, his face ashen. "They're here."
"Who?"
"The otherworlders. Two of them. The shiny knight and the man in the strange armor. With a full contingent of the King's Silver Hawks. They're at the main gate. The foreman is stalling."
Kael's mind went preternaturally calm. He had hoped for more time, but the scenario was within parameters. "They'll search every workshop."
"Aye. And my wards are good, but not against whatever those two are packing." Borim looked at the Aegis Suit on its stand, the Fulcrum Core pulsing softly. "You meant it, didn't you? The 'trouble' you're in. It's you he's after."
"Yes."
Borim swore violently in dwarvish. Then he straightened. "The back tunnel. The old ore chute. It's collapsed, but the first ten yards are clear. It comes out near the slag ponds. It's a death trap, but it's a chance."
"You'd help me? Knowing what it means?"
"I'm not helping a prince," Borim growled. "I'm saving a damned brilliant artificer from a pack of sanctimonious interlopers. Now move!"
As Kael began sealing himself into the Aegis Suit, they heard raised voices from the front of the smithy. A commanding female tone. Chloe. "In the name of the summoned Heroic Covenant, we demand entry. We sense a… dissonance here. A stain of unnatural craft."
Kael grabbed the Null-Pulse Cannon and his pack. He nodded to Borim. "When they ask, tell them you hired a nameless vagrant who fled an hour ago. South, towards the forest."
Borim gave a sharp nod and turned, stomping towards the front, already bellowing. "What's the meaning of this? This is private property!"
The Aegis Suit sealed with a hiss of pressure. The HUD flickered to life. Kael moved to the back wall where Borim had already shifted a heavy shelf, revealing a ragged hole in the stone. He crouched and entered the dank darkness of the ore chute.
He had gone twenty feet when his audio enhancers picked up the conversation from the smithy, amplified by a drone he'd left behind.
"...hired help. Skilled, but odd. Kept to himself. He left."
Leo's voice, smooth and confident: "Scanning… Residual energy signatures. High-level kinetic and thermal manipulation. This is him. Or his workshop. He can't be far."
Chloe: "Search everything. Tear this place apart if you must. No hiding place for sin is sacred."
Kael accelerated, using the gravitic core to lighten his steps. The chute narrowed. Then, ahead—a solid wall of rubble. The collapse.
He was trapped.
He could hear the Silver Hawks entering the back room. "Sir! There's a tunnel!"
Kael turned, raising the Null-Pulse Cannon. He would have to fight his way out. He calculated odds. Low.
Then, a deep crunch and a rumble came from behind the rubble. Dust filled the chute. With a roar of falling stone, the collapse suddenly cleared, not from his side, but from the other. Light—the ugly, orange glow of the slag ponds—streamed in. Standing in the new opening, hefting a massive hydraulic ram attached to a mining walker, was Borim's foreman, a grizzled human named Grint. He gave Kael a sharp, grim salute.
"Boss said to watch the exit. Go. We'll delay 'em."
Kael didn't waste the gift. He surged through the opening, emerging into the hellish landscape of the slag ponds—a series of bubbling, toxic lakes of industrial waste. The heat was immense, even for the Aegis Suit. He powered towards the treeline beyond.
"TARGET SIGHTED!" a voice boomed, magically amplified. From the refinery's main wall, he saw Leo, standing atop the battlement. The Technologist raised an arm. A panel on his forearm opened, and a swarm of ten palm-sized drones, like metallic insects, shot into the air with a high-pitched whine. They streaked towards Kael.
Seeker-Drones.
Kael spun, raising the Null-Pulse Cannon. He fired. A wave of visible distortion, like heat haze, erupted from the emitter. It washed over the lead drones. Their lights flickered wildly. Four dropped from the sky like stones, smoking. The others swerved, their targeting confused.
"Interesting!" Leo's voice crackled over some communicator. "A localized EMP effect! Primitive, but effective!"
From another part of the wall, Chloe descended not by stairs, but by jumping, her armor glowing softly to cushion the impact. She landed in a crouch, drawing her greatsword. It ignited with pure, white flame. "CEASE YOUR FLIGHT, WRETCH! SUBMIT TO JUDGMENT!"
Kael turned and ran, leaping over a steaming fissure. Chloe pursued with preternatural speed. She was fast, her virtue magic enhancing her physique. She closed the distance.
"YOU SPREAD CHAOS WITH YOUR TOYS! YOU SULLY THE NATURAL ORDER!"
He couldn't outrun her. He spun again, dropping to a knee. He didn't aim the Cannon at her. He aimed at the ground between them, at the thin crust over a slag channel.
He fired.
The Null-Pulse hit the ground. The chaotic energy didn't just disrupt; it violently agitated the unstable, magic-tainted slag. The channel erupted. A geyser of molten, toxic waste shot into the air, directly in Chloe's path.
She skidded to a halt, raising her sword. A shield of white light sprung from the blade, deflecting the worst of the splash. But she was forced back, her advance halted by a wall of searing death.
"YOU DARE DEFILE THIS LAND FURTHER?!" Her voice was filled with outraged fury.
Kael's voice, amplified and distorted by his helmet's vocoder, boomed back. "I DARE TO SURVIVE! ASK VALERIUS WHO TRULY DEFILED THIS LAND!"
He didn't wait for a reply. He activated the Wayfarer Bracelet. The logic loom had pre-calculated a short-range jump from this location, a contingency. The four crystals glowed. Space wrapped around him.
Leo, from the wall, saw it. "Spatial displacement! He has teleportation tech! Track the energy signature!"
But the jump was clean, stable. Kael vanished from the refinery's hellscape, leaving the two Heroes staring at the spot where he'd been, one with analytical frustration, the other with righteous, burning anger.
He rematerialized in the cold, silent heart of the Sunfall Depths, in a mineral chamber he'd tagged weeks prior. He sagged against a wall, the suit's systems cycling down. He had escaped. Again.
But the game had changed. He had seen their capabilities. Leo's tech was advanced, but derivative. Chloe's power was potent but linear. They were powerful, but they fought with preconceptions. He fought with adaptation.
He opened a comm channel on a secure, encrypted frequency he'd established with a repeater drone. A single, pre-arranged pulse. A message to Borim: I am clear.
A few minutes later, a return pulse. Not from Borim's receiver. It was on the same frequency, but the data packet was alien, laced with a mocking, digital signature. It contained only three words, translated from a foreign code:
"RUNNING MAKES IT FUN."
It was from Leo. He had not only detected the comm pulse, he had hacked the encryption in seconds and replied.
Kael stared at the message in his HUD. A cold smile, unseen by anyone, spread beneath his helmet. The rival had announced himself. The hunt was no longer just survival.
It was a duel
And Kael, the Tecnomancer, had just finished his first true round of testing