The Multipede slipped from the earth, as silent as a shadow on the far side of the squat tower.

Go, Beef urged, his voice echoing through his Hallow Call. Attack!

Risen Inquisitors and Plaguerats shot forth, lumbering over the reservoir, getting within twenty feet of the Paladins before they were spotted.

"An ambush!" one of the Paladins cried—moments before they were crushed beneath the weight of a grizzly-sized Plaguerat. Metal groaned and scraped across the stone surface of the reservoir as the Paladins spun, wielding their blades against Yyero's creatures, only to gawp in shock when the Inquisitors followed close behind.

"Our allies are twisted against us!"

Cut them down!

Hallow Call is level 99!

Beef's command echoed through the Risen, and their eyes burned with blackened green light. They tore into the Paladins, savaging their foes with sword, claw, and thick, enchanted clubs. Beef stood back, hands clenched around Bedlam.

"We need to join them," he said.

"Hold on," Archie cautioned. "We need to wait until the right moment."

"Those aren't your allies!" the Hierei shouted, her attention taken from the explosive battle on the far end of the reservoir. "They shine with an unclean light! This isn't rot. It's necromancy!"

"Okay yeah," Archie said, "now's the time."

“Finally! Relentless Charge!”

The Risen parted and Beef shot forward, horns lowered and tore through a line of Paladins in a single, devastating move. The warriors fell back, and those that weren’t crushed outright found Bedlam swinging through their defenses. Golden blades and crimson shields were battered aside, crumpled as if they were made of tinfoil.

"Unbound!" Hierei Quist shouted. "Cease your fighting! Kneel!"

The words shook the air with the sense of a command, and for a moment Beef felt a foreign Will shove against his own, but it lasted for no more than a second before he shook it off. The Authority in the Hierei’s voice fizzled out, melting into the air like an icicle in a furnace.

"No! Someone is contesting my Authority." Quist’s eyes widened. "Someone is contesting the Hierophant’s Authority."

"Yeah," Beef shouted, smashing his hammer through another Paladin's skull. "That'd be Felix."

Quist screamed, and golden light poured from her channels, washing over the Paladins in a liquid wave. A visible wrath clouded their Spirits, pulsating as wine-dark blood, while Strength flooded Bodies that seized up mid-battle. Beef’s Risen struck out at them, but their blows glanced off of the golden radiance that seemed to transmute their very flesh. It shone from within them, emitting from the crevices in their armor before congealing into free-floating plates around them. More and more clanked into place, interlocking in familiar ways, until Beef was staring into the glowing visage of a familiar foe.

"You made light construct mechas? That's unfair!"

Every single surviving Paladin now stood easily at Beef's height, each of the two hundred plus enemies gleaming with translucent golden panels that held their true Bodies in stasis within their centers. Blades, each of them twelve feet long, and bright shields formed in their puppet hands and with a clanking glare, they surged forward.

They weren’t known as the Order of Strength for vanity’s sake; the Paladins moved with a clockwork precision, their immense weaponry striking all at once along their frontline. The Risen were brutalized. Plaguerats and Inquisitors fell, burnt apart by their magic and sliced to pieces by their immense augmented Strength.

Three came for Beef, hemming him in on all sides. His hammer met their blades, blocking two of the strikes before Hallow's Graven Aegis met the third. They broke through the attack, hurling them aside before Bedlam's icy hammerhead shattered their golden plates.

"Razorhail!"

Crystalline spears blasted their shields apart, over and over, but the light regenerated too fast, reforming the shields and armor plating only moments after breaking. We can't damage them fast enough,

Hallow sent.

Now?

No, we must wait. Archie needs to get into place while her defenses are down. We keep fighting. Beef caught another strike, this time on his arcanite shoulder armor. It bit down into the metal, but it did not pierce him. He could tell he was gonna be sore in the morning, though. Come on, Archie! Move your butt!

Ahead, the ground rippled, and a strain of tremoring strings flitted at the edges of Beef's Affinity. He knew that song. Beyond the foes, through the layers of golden light, he saw his friend, Archie, slip ahead.

I think the time is now, Beef sent. Multipede! To me!

Multipede, his enormous desert centipede, rumbled around the tower. It roared above the battle, causing the Paladins to stare up in alarm, before it hurled itself to the reservoir wall.

Beef lifted a hand. “Open!”

The segment just below its head, where its throat was clutched by chitinous folds, split open, revealing a hollow interior packed full of green light. Figures poured forth, thundering down across the reservoir in stone bodies, each an equal to Beef. Led by a screeching black Risen Hatchling, two hundred Eidolon Exults marched. They did not speak, but they blazed with necromantic Mana in their eyes and across their chests.

"Exults! Kill!" Beef dropped his hand.

As one, the Risen Exults charged, their Strength slamming them headlong into the Paladins.

Yin streaked across the empty air dominated by the wet spray of the dozen waterfalls. Air howled past Vess’ ears as Yin pressed his Agility to the limit and bright Mana vapor poured from his scales like clouds among the spray. Ahead and below them, the Lizard and Titan were trading lightning-fast blows, their strikes exploding into golden light and orange-red blossoms that she could feel from hundreds of strides away.

We need to keep them separate, Vess sent.

Yes, I have an idea. Yin opened his mouth and roared. “Adherents of Ophidia!”

Water Dragons poured forth from Yin's clawed hands, each one an equal to his Drake size. They surged forth, eight serpentine creatures dropping down upon the far end of the reservoir. Half of them spun around the Titan while the other four wrapped across the broad body of the Lizard. The mortal foes’ attacks faltered, their limbs bound tight, but only for a moment.

“Body of Light!”

“Molten Scale!”

The serpentine Dragons sundered all at once in a burst of golden radiance around the Titan, while the four on the Lizard flash-fried into steam. They were free—but it had been enough.

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“Stop your fighting!” Vess and Yin landed between them. Her glaive and Spears pointed at the Titan while Yin rose up, his mane rippling in the wind as he faced down the other.

"I do not know you, Lizard, and you do not know me, but we are allies—”

“You're Vessilia Dayne, Dragoon of Pax’Vrell."

She blinked. "I am.”

“And you are Yintarion of the Cerulean Skies. A Dawn Drake."

"That is true.” Yin preened despite himself. “Has our fame reached even the decrepit sewers of Amaranth?"

The Lizard ignored the question. "You still fight for the Fiend?"

"We do," Vess said.

"Then yeah, we're on the same side. All of us," he said, staring at the Titan.

Vess raised an eyebrow. Imara—no, Gabby—stared back at the Lizard, seemingly flummoxed. Her greatsword, made of solidified light, wobbled.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb, Gabby," the Lizard said, his voice rumbling, yet somehow slightly reedy. As if he were more used to complaining about inconveniences than threatening people on a battlefield. "I've seen you, just like I've seen your brother and all the rest. I've got Bondsight."

Gabby's sword knocked Vess's spears out of her way, transforming mid-strike into a halberd. Vess pivoted, her Spears rotating around the Titan’s flanks. Gabby grimaced at them. "I don't know what that means, dude."

"It's a Skill. It lets me watch all of the Unbound. It's why I know all of you."

"And it's how you've been avoiding me," Gabby said, realization dawning. "You've been keeping tabs on our movements."

The Lizard grinned. "I couldn't let you get too close, not while my work was unfinished."

"What work?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"You just said you trusted me, that we're all on the same side."

"Yeah, we are. But you're still hiding things."

“The fact that you are both willing to talk is encouraging,” Vess said, forcing a smile they couldn’t see through her Dragon helm. Gabby’s broad face twitched just below her eye. "And lends credence to what Felix has insisted: that you are to be trusted.”

Gabby’s face was stone. “He said that?”

“He did. I trust him as I trust few others…and I’m leery to extend that to you. So tell me, why are you serving them?" Vess jerked her chin toward the Hierei.

Gabby let out a soft exhalation when she saw Quist fighting against Beef and his surprise Exults. "Huh. They're holding their own against a High Grandmaster."

Her Authority is blunted, but they still haven’t finished the fight. Yin seemed worried, though he didn’t shift his posture before the Lizard. We need to resolve this. Now.

"You do not answer us,” Vess said, louder. “Why are you serving the Hierophant?"

"Because I have to. I made a bargain.”

“Siva is dead. All Oaths are broken—”

"This goes deeper than Oaths. I'm here because it's the only option I have. I'm fighting him because—" Gabby bit through the last word as if trying to swallow it back down. "I listen, and I obey. Anything else is blasphemy. Do you understand? Anything else."

Yin growled, but Vess stepped forward, her spears dropping.

"Felix said you were reckless, but not dumb," Vess said, setting the butt of her glaive on the ground. "Was he wrong?"

Gabby licked her lips beneath her open-faced helm. Her eyes flicked to the side as if she were checking the chaos behind them again.

"What I say is weighted against me. As for what I do—" She lifted her halberd, and it glowed so brightly Vess couldn't see beyond it.

"I don't want to kill you!" the Lizard shouted. "You're trapped, same as us!”

“Then you know I don't have a choice here."

Light burst, and Vess leaped away from the great axe that bit into the reservoir's surface. Stone shattered, splintering in all directions as pieces sheared away, falling into the waterfalls below, and the fight resumed.

Beef tackled through a Paladin, his Exults shattering their armor repeatedly as he brought Bedlam to bear. The ice hammer broke through the inner shell, sundering blood-red plate and revealing the human within.

"Vile monster! You'll die at the hands of—"

"Shut it!" Bedlam silenced him for good, and the golden mecha armor vanished like a popping soap bubble.

"Beefhammer, is it not?"

"Hierei Quist," Beef greeted her as she stomped closer. The Paladins had moved away from him, focused entirely upon the Exults. Quist’s giant golden armor was larger by half than all the rest. She glared down at Beef from within her gilded cocoon, the arms of her mecha-like construct flexing around the haft of a massive greataxe.

"The boy trapped in a Minotaur's flesh. Do you not tire of this fight? Do you not wish for peace?"

"Yeah," Beef said. "I'd love some peace."

"Then join us. Together we could break the hold your emperor has on this world. Only then can we truly protect the Continent.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“The Fiend has done more harm than good with his meddling. He has waltzed into a power balance he knows nothing of and shoved his fist onto the scale—raising an empire around the Hierocracy is reprehensible. Siphoning our Authority and weakening our borders is even worse. The people you put in danger number in the millions. The Hierophant could have kept them safe. What will the Fiend do when the Ruin arrives?"

"We have a plan," Beef said, with his shoulders sagged. "Felix won't tell me details, but I trust him. Right?" he thought. "Felix wouldn't just act without thinking. He wouldn't abandon us. No, no, this is—"

A screech tore the air, sharp and high, and a shadow flashed across his vision. Blackened green fire scorched the Hierei, eating through her golden armor like acid. It spat and sizzled, fighting the Skill’s insane regeneration, and Fafnir curved around to land on Beef’s shoulder. The Risen Hatchling was huge now and her talons pierced through the gaps in his armor.

Pain shot through him, hot and bright, and Beef gasped. He felt the tendrils of a Mind Skill reaching for him across the gulf of his core-space. Alongside the pain, an instant rage ignited in his chest.

"You ass!"

Beef swung Bedlam, knocking through a conjured shield that the Hierei slammed to the earth between them. The ice hammer hit it and rebounded, ringing like a gong. The remnants of interference vanished like fog beneath the morning sunlight. His Mind cleared.

"You're trying to trick me, you jerk!”

Quist sneered. “If you wish not to be fooled, then you should not be so stupid!"

Beef dove desperately away from the greataxe that dropped down onto his position. It sheared through the reservoir, driving a chasm into the high Tier stone. Beef rushed forward, intent on retaliating, but the lady freed the axe easily and sliced sideways.

“Entropic Paradigm!”

Chitin rose at his command, five-foot thick walls of it—but the axe burned through it. Strengthened material cleaved before it, melting in the light, forcing Beef to stumble backward out of range.

"Razorhail!"

Crystalline darts screamed into the Hierei, impacting her radiant shield. They stopped, stuck fast in the light, before Quist swung axe and shield in tandem. Hallow’s forearms morphed, the necromantic crystal thickening into faceted, dual shields of her own—but even so, she was swept off her feet and sent careening across the reservoir.

"Relentless Charge!"

Beef shot forward, his horns lowered and Bedlam spinning in his grasp. He shattered through Quist's armor, breaking apart a great chunk of her leg. She cried out.

"Hallow Call!"

Risen Exults raced from the press of Paladins, their fists bringing their mighty Strength to bear against the woman's broken leg. The armor failed there, sending the Hierei toppling onto her back.

"Halt!"

“Again?” Beef shook off the command. "Your Authority is no good anymore, lady."

He brought Bedlam to bear, and at his side, his Exults dropped savage blows onto her as well.

"Impudent fool!" A pulse of golden light threw them all back, and she struggled into an upright position. Beef rolled to his feet, joined by Hallow, but the Exults were slow to rise.

Where is he?

Focus on her, Beef! We need to end this!

"I am a Hierei of the Pathless. I have the strength of my god running through my channels. You will not break me!"

A small shape leaped through her chest, phasing beyond her armor and trapping himself between her golden plates and her actual body. Archie grinned, his molten dagger held up to her neck.

"You talk too much!"

He cut her goddamn throat.