“Noah,” Tim said, looking up from the control panel of the Transport Cannon as the room slipped back into its now-typical chaos.

There were just a few too many people in it to keep orderly — and with Bird trying to convert anyone of age she met to the school of naked fighting, things certainly weren’t going to get calmer anytime soon. She seemed very convinced that Ulya could be converted to the cause.

Through the yelling and the dozen or so heated conversations unfolding through the room, Tim caught Noah’s attention with a wave. The old man stood above the control panel of the Transport Cannon, a pensive look on his features.

Noah made his way over to Tim, squeezing through half a dozen conversations along the way. Even if the Transport Cannon had enough room for everyone to fit into it, there certainly wasn’t enough to get around without stepping one someone’s foot by accident.

“Something wrong?” Noah asked.

“I’m not sure if wrong is the word I would use,” Tim replied. He rifled through the stacks upon stacks of paper piled over his work area, sending some of the looming white towers swaying treacherously.

One of them shifted a bit too far. It pitched over, sending a mountain of papers crashing down toward Tim’s head. The old man didn’t even glance in its direction. He just flicked a finger. A faint bubble of purple energy coiled out from him and enveloped the papers mid-plummet. They froze in place, then floated back up to re-stack themselves meekly.

“Impressive,” Noah said. He meant it. That had required a pretty significant amount of focused control. Space Magic was one of the most difficult schools to manipulate. It was relatively easy to crush something, but to re-stack a bunch of papers without putting so much as a wrinkle within them was something else entirely.

I don’t think I could do that myself if I wanted to. My abilities are too focused on destruction. Maybe if I had time to set up a Formation or knew it was going to happen in advance… but to react that quickly and without much extra attention at all? Shit, Tim. You’re really becoming quite the monster.

“You know what I’ve been doing recently, right?” Tim asked. He didn’t even seem to register that the immensity of the feat that he’d just accomplished.

“Vaguely,” Noah allowed. “You’ve been investigating the spatial weights of the empire… or something like that.”

“Something like that,” Tim agreed with a nod. His gaze didn’t leave the paper before him. He studied it for a few moments longer before letting out a thoughtful hum. “There’s something odd. I wasn’t able to notice this back when I had Rank 3 Runes, but with the increased senses the Rank 5 gives me, I’m picking up far more than I ever did before.”

“You found something?” Noah asked.

“I found a lot of somethings,” Tim replied. “Patches. Areas of… dead space, I suppose. Where the magical densities don’t add up the way they should. I’m not quite sure what the best way to describe it is. Gas, perhaps?”

“Gas?” Noah’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“Ah. My apologies,” Tim said. He reached up to another one of his paper stacks. A sheet slipped out from within its center, heralded by tiny motes of purple light that seemed to guide it down into his hands. Tim held the paper up so Noah could see it. “Take a look.”

The paper had a large circle on it full of a dozen little dots, all seemingly randomly placed.

“Wait,” Noah said. “Is that—”

“The makeup of gas,” Tim said. “My Rank 4 Rune… when I focus it into an imbuement in my eyes, I can change the way light passes into my eyes by modifying the distance it spans. It’s a modification of a telescope but condensed to an incredibly small level. Then, by freezing a very tiny section of gas with spatial magic, I can just barely make out what I believe to be small particles within it. I know this might be novel, but—”

Holy shit. Tim made a microscope in his eyes and found fucking atoms.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit NovelBin for the authentic version.

“No, I know what you’re talking about,” Noah said slowly. “Atoms. That’s what we call them.”

Tim paused. “We?”

“You know I’m not from here,” Noah said. “We discussed that. Briefly.”

“We did,” Tim said quietly. He looked up from the paper to Noah. “You know more about these… atoms?”

“Not much,” Noah admitted sheepishly. “There were some among my former people that dedicated their lives to researching this kind of thing. What I know is the equivalent of a sixteen year old’s basic training.”

Tim stared at Noah for a moment longer. Then he shook his head. “I will forever wonder just how much knowledge you have. But this is not the point. Your understanding of the subject makes this easier for me to explain. You know that these atoms seem to travel around at a random pattern, bouncing within the container that holds the gas?”

“Yes,” Noah said. “What of it?”

“I want you to imagine that pattern,” Tim said. He looked back to the Transport Cannon’s control panel. “Imagine it permeates the world. That is the lattice of magic that I have been observing. I suspect there are layers beyond just Space, but Space is all I can observe.”

“Right,” Noah said. “I’m following.”

“Now imagine that random patches of this random, energetic gas are… still,” Tim said. “Frozen and unmoving. But not just that. They’re no longer random. They’ve been arranged into neat, straight lines. Perfect ones.”

“Order,” Noah whispered, realization finally settling in on him. “It’s Order.”

“Yes,” Tim said. “Someone has put patches of the world into order. And it is not a good thing. It’s more like they’re dead.”

“Right,” Noah said grimly. “The Night’s Shadow. The giant stone tentacle thing that attacked Arbitage. That’s the effect it had.”

“Exactly,” Tim agreed. “I noticed those quite early. It was a bit hard not to, given that a fair section of Arbitage became one of those zones. But my problem is that these are new.”

The hair on the back of Noah’s neck prickled. “New? As in the Night’s Shadow is back?”

“I don’t know that much yet,” Tim admitted. “But that isn’t all. You recall the barrier, yes? The one surrounding the Arbalest Empire?”

“I do,” Noah said. “The one separating the Arbalest Empire from… whatever it is that lies out there. The one presumably keeping us stuck in here until we reach Rank 7 and become strong enough to push through it.”

“That one,” Tim said with a nod. “Well, I do think a Rank 6 could push through with sufficient effort, but that’s beside the point. I believe I have found a weak spot within it. An area in which the barrier is starting to fail.”

“You mean—”

“Yes,” Tim said. “I think we could potentially breach the barrier if we were to try to push through it in that spot.”

“Shit,” Noah breathed. “We could leave the Empire.”

Tim nodded. “It wouldn’t be easy. I expect you would probably need to further damage the barrier, probably by a significant amount. But you’ve managed to take out some incredibly powerful enemies… and I know what you can do to Runes. I suspect replicating that feat would allow you to create an incision. One big enough to allow us all to leave this empire.”

“Shit,” Noah said again. He swallowed. “How far is it?”

“Within range of the Transport Cannon,” Tim replied. “So long as I have time to properly power it. But Noah — that hole is not natural. You must know this. I have been trying to determine what caused it, but there’s only so much I can tell from afar.”

That took a fair bit of the wind right out of Noah’s sails. “I see. It was smart of you not to go on your own. That’s a great way to end up missing. This is huge, Tim. Well done.”

“Thank you,” Tim replied, his cheeks coloring slightly. “I thought it might be prudent to inform you of the damaged barrier’s presence. It could be a good option for an emergency retreat.”

“Yeah,” Noah said. “More than a good one. We may very well need that information, Tim. Please keep up what you’ve been doing. We need to look to the future. This empire is rotted to the core. And if you find anything else out, let me know. In the meantime, I have more preparations for tonight.”

“I will,” Tim said. “But what happens tonight?”

Noah’s eyes turned to Brayden, who stood talking with Silvertide at the far side of the room. “I pay back a favor to my brother.”

***

A droplet of cold sweat rolled down Father’s back. Strain burned in his muscles and wound through his soul. The Long Night seared against his palms like primordial ice — but he refused to release it.

Pain had ceased to be a deterrent many years ago. It held no more interest to him than joy or passing fancy. It was just another useless manifestation of emotion, a relic of warning from a body that hadn’t quite kept up with his soul.

But even if the pain had carried any true meaning to him, it would have mattered little. His mind was leagues away, deep beneath the Arbalest Empire, where it had been for the last day. He was far too close to accomplishing his final task to allow himself to be distracted. Father drove his power deeper still, using the Long Night’s presence like a blade.

And, finally, his efforts were rewarded once more.

A whisper slithered through the very being of the Arbalest Empire. And, with its passing, a second seal crumbled to nothing but fading memories.

Father’s lips didn’t even twitch. His work was not yet done. He simply turned his attention to the next of the seals.

What was once five is now three.

And soon… it will be zero.