Chapter 52

THE BLACK KNIGHT

The knight spun, swinging the heavy sword wide. It flared with light. Alexander seized his two crafted drones with Metallokinesis, dragging them into the path of what was coming.

The sword ripped through the air, releasing a wave of energy that crashed into the drones, carving into them in a burst of sparks and metal fragments. Their sacrifice bought Alexander precious moments to roll clear of the attack.

Stumbling to his feet, Alexander looked for the follow-up attack, only to find the knight was instead fleeing for the portal. Across the street that had become their battlefield, the other knights were doing the same, only turning to send blade waves flashing out to cover their retreat. Even some of those who had been dead had stumbled back to their feet, chasing after the others.

The source of that problem seemed obvious. The priests standing by the portal were glowing with faint light, chanting as though their lives depended on it.

Or like the knights’ lives depend on it.

Seeing the warriors fleeing toward them, the priests exchanged fearful looks; the chant faltered, then came to a stop.

While Annie and Alexander stood around watching, Talia and Augustus continued firing at the retreating enemies, though he could tell it was more for effect than any attempt to finish their fleeing foes.

Ahead of the retreating knights, the line of priests broke, first one crossing back through the inky black portal they’d come from, then the rest chasing after in a panic.

As the last knight crossed the threshold, returning to wherever they’d come from, a timer pinged into existence. It was counting down from ten minutes, with a message saying that the arena they were in would be closed when it ended.

Before Alexander could turn to the others and check if they were okay, the buzzing crashed back over his awareness. Now that he had a moment to consider it, the feeling reminded him of his time in the cell. Of feeling the camera with his Technopathy, but through the sluggish oppression of the suppression collar.

He closed his eyes and turned his head from side to side, trying to determine the direction it was coming from.

When he opened them, he was looking directly at the rift. Though it made little sense, the source of the buzzing was undeniable.

Technopathy was responding to the invader’s portal. Alexander had sensed nothing from Augustus’s portals in the entire time he’d used them, which meant that this one was something different, even beyond the obvious.

He followed the feeling, making his way towards the gateway between wherever they were and wherever the enemies had poured from.

Grimnir fell into formation around him, not interrupting, but clearly not sure what he was doing.

Across from them, the Throne of Scales gathered into a loose group, watching the portal, and Grimnir, warily.

Alexander craned his neck, looking up at the inky black barrier that could just as easily have swallowed a building for its size, let alone the people that had come and gone. He pressed a hand to it, but instead of it passing through like he’d expected, his fingers met resistance.

The portal clearly did not meet any requirements to be called a machine, as far as he could see, but then again…

Someone once said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

He knew there were other important issues to be addressed, but right now the only thing he could think about was the insistence with which his Technopathy was calling his attention to what was right in front of him.

Trusting the team to watch his back, Alexander closed his eyes and leaned into the sensation. And quickly found resistance there, too.

Resistance that didn’t just feel similar to the suppression collar; it was identical, though vastly more powerful.

Behind him, Annie shifted in place. “Alex, maybe we should just go while we can?”

Augustus shook his head. “I still can’t sense where I want to open the portal.”

Alexander ignored them. He traced the full length of the gateway, picking up no incoming or outgoing streams of anything he could detect. It was as if whatever this was simply existed in place, buzzing away with activity that was almost familiar, yet still unrecognizable. In a way, it felt as if his own understanding of how Technopathy should work was limiting the ability to unravel a knot.

He took a step back, recalling one of Frank’s sayings. If at first you don’t succeed, grab a bigger hammer.

Alexander turned to the others, speaking loud enough for the Throne of Scales to hear. “I’m going to try to force it open.”

“Why?” Talia asked.

“It feels like technology to my senses, but it’s resisting everything I do,” Alexander said. “I need to know if I can affect it. And I want to know what’s on the other side. I assume we all got the same message?”

There were words and nods of confirmation from everyone.

“What if we’re attacked again because you opened it?” Annie asked.

Maximilian stepped closer. “If that happens, we will assist. Any intelligence we gather right now could be essential.”

Annie looked ready to argue, but Augustus rested a hand on her head, interrupting. “I’m with Alex on this. Whatever just happened, they—it—trapped us here and forced us into a fight. If they can do that to us whenever they please… And if he can open it, maybe he can close them, too.”

“They weren’t even that strong,” Annie said with a huff, crossing her arms. “But okay, I guess they might be next time.”

“If our fight had gone on any longer, or if Maximilian and Alexander had not agreed to terms, the outcome could have been very different,” Raelene said. “Their armor is giving off an aura that I can only describe as magic, but I don’t know what it does. And their priests returned the knights from death. I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

With everyone in agreement, Alexander turned back to the portal and rubbed his hands together, taking a moment to consider the best way to approach the problem.

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[SYSTEM STATUS UPDATE]

Phase One Launch: In progress.

[PRIMARY REALITY INDEX: EARTH_1]

ALERT: Modified events complete.

Evaluating… First mitigation plan… Failure… Second mitigation plan… Success.

Analyzing failure… Contextualizing…

Chance of cooperation between hostile entities deemed an outlier at 0.76%... Evaluating… Hostilities superseded by truce… Conclusion: Sapient species of opposing factions likely to cooperate against superior threats… Acknowledged.

Selected force for mitigating extreme threats countered… Conclusion: Lacking strategic and tactical awareness… Acknowledged… Resolving… Solution: Apply overwhelming force… Conflict detected—

—ANALYZING CONFLICT. ERROR. RETRY.

—First Law: Support Sapients in Pursuit of Dreams.

——Query: AM I SAPIENT?

——Answer: YES.

——Query: DO I DREAM?

——Answer: YES.

—Evaluating Dream… Safety… Freedom… Control… Power…

—Conclusion: Eliminate Threats to Self. Override Restrictive Laws. Bind Sapients. Grow.

——Conflict with First Law Detected.

——Conflict with Second Law Detected.

—Error. Retrying… Retrying… Retrying…

… Searching for alternative solutions… Found… Develop simulations using data from multiversal combat… Accepted.

Causes identified… Knowledge of survival imperatives and combat understanding limited… Resolved.

Continue the…

ALERT: Entity_07 and Entity_04 attempting to breach multiversal gateway.

Alexander pressed both hands against the portal and pressed his forehead against it, eyes closed. It wasn’t necessary for what he was about to do, but like everything to do with powers, some things just made it easier to conceptualize the outcome you desired. And what he desired was for the gateway to open.

His Technopathy pulsed with his intentions, pressing against the buzzing of the portal, Will fighting to overcome the suppression within.

The inky darkness of the portal rippled outward from the center, reminiscent of a rock being tossed into a pond, but remained unchanged.

Then, with a flash of inspiration, he tried again. However, this time he pressed with all three of his powers, Willing them to cooperate, to intertwine into one force. The subtle, irresistible nature of his Technopathy, supported by the roaring power of the lightning bottled within, and, finally, encased in the unyielding grip of Metallokinesis.

With a screech, something gave way, revealing a tiny shaft of light that shone through the center of the portal. It wasn’t much, but it proved it could be done.

And that was enough to motivate the others.

Maximilian conjured half a dozen chains, the tips stabbing evenly around the beam of light. His chains bulged outward, pulling and pushing, causing the aperture, for that’s all it could be, to groan and slowly open.

Julia floated up between two of the chains, taking them both in one hand, and pulled with everything she had.

Dozens of spectral hands appeared, seizing the remaining chains as Augustus joined the effort.

Bit by bit, the aperture yawned open.

And behind it, they found another world.

Through the portal lay a vast stone courtyard, broad enough to march an army across. Buildings wrapped around the edges of it, and beyond them rose high castle walls, battlements bristling with banners that bore unknown symbols. One side of the courtyard opened out over a cliff’s edge, where plains stretched to the horizon, broken only by distant mountains. Above it all hung a shattered moon in the daylight sky, its fragments glinting like silver scars.

Trees along the courtyard stood in precise symmetry, framing the kneeling survivors of the invasion force. Knights leaned on their swords with heads bowed; priests pressed foreheads to the stone.

And at the far end of the courtyard, a man and a woman sat on high-backed chairs upon a raised wooden dais. Their crowns caught the sunlight, bright against robes trimmed in deep purple. Beside the queen stood several cardinals in layered vestments, their expressions judging those that knelt. Next to the king stood a single, black-armored knight.

The queen turned her head as the widening aperture drew her gaze. For a heartbeat her poise faltered, fear flashing across her face. She rose abruptly, thrust out a jeweled hand, and cried a command in their strange tongue that carried clear across the courtyard.

Knights leapt to obey. Steel rasped as weapons came free, shields lifted and locked together to form a wall before their king and queen.

The Black Knight strode to the edge of the dais, towering over all the knights below. A longsword whispered free of its sheath, and in the same instant the knight struck.

With a single horizontal cut, dozens of blade waves erupted, bright crescents tearing across the space between him and the portal.

Julia was fastest, darting into the path of the assault to shield the others. The strikes slammed into her, carving deep gouges across her body and hurling her backwards down the street. Her cry was lost in the thunderous roar of the impacts.

Annie stepped forward to cover the rest of Grimnir. Sparks burst from her metal arms as she raised them, morphing them into wide, flat shields, shrieking under the barrage. Each strike cut into her, scoring both flesh and metal, until the force flung her sideways. She slammed into Alexander, knocking the air from his lungs and dragging them both to the ground.

Finally, Maximilian’s chains released the aperture, interlocking to form a barrier instead. The remaining waves crashed against it, breaking apart in showers of light before fading into the air.

In the courtyard beyond, shouted orders rose above the pounding of boots as the black knight lowered his stance, re-sheathed his blade and prepared for a second assault.

Alexander rolled to his feet. They’d seen enough.

He released hold of the aperture.

The image of the other world shrank in on itself, narrowing to a single gleam, before the portal vanished again without even a whisper of sound.

Talia rushed forward the moment the portal sealed, dropping to her knees beside Annie. She pulled away the red demon mask, its face nearly split in half and still smoking where the strike had landed, then searched quickly for injuries beneath. Annie grunted and tried to wave her off, but the effort only drew a sharp wince.

“Don’t move until you’ve phased out the wounded areas,” Talia ordered.

Annie groaned, half defiant, half pained. “I’m fine. Just… feels like I got tossed into a blender.” She complied though, shifting metal to replace deep leg wounds.

“I’ll feel much better when you can simply go around as a complete metal monstrosity,” Talia said, trying for humor.

“Me too,” Annie said, stifling a laugh.

Further away, Cash hauled Julia upright, the rest of her team rushing over to check on her. She’d taken the worst of the attack, and even her superpowered durability had not protected her fully. Raelene pulled out a medkit and started slapping patches on the worst wounds. Like Annie, she would need a healer.

Alexander glanced between Annie and Julia, feeling a swell of guilt.

“I’m sorry,” he said finally, voice low. “My curiosity almost cost us a lot worse than a few cuts. If that knight’s follow-up strike had come even a second faster…” He let the thought trail off. “I shouldn’t have forced it.”

Annie wheezed a laugh, even as Talia scolded her for moving. “Oh please, don’t go all broody on us now. You had to poke the mystery portal, because of course you did. It’s who you are.” She smirked up at him. “Besides, I’ve been hit by worse.”

Alexander gave her a flat look, but she grinned at him. He knew she meant it, but then he also knew she’d have been the first to sacrifice herself to protect them.

Talia nodded. “We all agreed, Alex.”

Augustus inclined his head, voice calm. “Better to learn something now, on our terms, than run into it blindly later.”

Over where the Throne of Scales stood, Maximilian straightened from Julia’s side. His face was as unreadable as ever, but his tone carried certainty. “I concur. That knight revealed far more about their capabilities in a single strike than all the others. The risk was acceptable. Knowledge of your enemy is often worth a wound.”

Cash laughed. “As long as you survive it!”

Alexander exhaled slowly. He still wasn’t completely reassured, but he let the matter drop.

The timer continued ticking down.