bookpower Book 4-23.3: Cycles
Book 4-23.3: Cycles
Marron glared at the corpse at his feet.The Iron Skin warrior had a large hole burned through where his right eye had been. The only expression on his face was surprise and none of the fear that he would have felt. If he had taken more than an instant to die anyway.
The past year had been a great ordeal. His transfer from the Watchtower to Fort Aegermonth took longer than he expected and when he managed it, Niamh took even longer to get her transfer papers done.
It had been near the end of the Season of Water by the time he managed to get to Fort Aegermonth, and by then, Knight-Commander Lucille Kinnock had already started a slaughter. The barbarians escaped further north, handily avoiding the powerful duchess. Even worse, she hadn’t managed to rescue any of the captives.
There was a Tidelands to the north. There was no other way that so many Wyldlings and Chaos Lords came out of the snow. The duchess and several cohorts from the so-called private legions of the south had stormed across Rumiga and were fighting in the frozen north. There were even several squads of Colossi, from Agminis, though they were mostly Koinos class. He saw a single Certus class though, which was about five paces tall and roughly a tenth wider than the Koinos. It was still made of lacquered wood over a metal frame but the exposed surface wasn’t covered in runescript. From what Niamh told him, Certi Colossi were dual-armoured with the delicate runescript layered in between.
By the time he arrived in Aegermonth, the battle had changed. Now, the barbarians moved to more advantageous terrain, and the Imperials were now in pursuit.
There was a reason why they haven’t made a real effort to conquer the Frozen North. There was too much wasteland, it was too rotting cold, and there was barely any supply. Logistical lines were stretched thin, and Wyldlings attacked any supply caravan they could find.
Before he knew it, the majority of the year had passed and he was no closer to finding his sister!
He’d been on hunter-killer missions for Seasons and this was marked his hundredth kill. The barbarian had nearly a dozen blood-red slashes on his chest but it wasn’t enough to protect him from Marron’s penetrative shot. Not when he devoted the majority of his Knight advancement on it. It had only taken a single attack, consisting of several combined shots, from two longstrides away. The barren tundra was an advantage for him in this sense.
The barbarian hadn’t been alone. He led a small group of youths on a hunting expedition, from the looks of their baggage. The other barbarians had fled as soon as their leader died, and of course, Marron let them go. How else would he find their camp?
Well, that was enough of a lead.
He followed the tracks they left on the snow. Unexpectedly, or perhaps he should have known better, the tracks led him to a pine forest. He spotted the attempted ambush from a longstride away, and from the manic look in their eyes, they had no intention of leaving without his blood on their hands. Well, he sniped all five of them within seconds of each other.
Then he made the rest of the trek to recover whatever gear they had. Nothing. Not a map, or food. Nothing.
He was running short, too, and it was about time to return to Aegermonth to make his report and resupply. Niamh should have a fresh batch of jade cartridges too. They were much more common on this side of the Zarek Mountains. Technically, he could recharge the empty cartridges with him, but his efficiency was abysmal. He’d spend ten lumens to recharge one. If he was lucky.
It took nearly a week of travel to get back to Aegermonth. It was already the 78th Day of Air.
“I wonder if Mum will arrive?”
She should be arriving--no wait, she should have arrived at Rumiga City by now. Maybe she was already on the Commuter Tram to Faron’s Crossing.
Ah. Only Rami was there. He wondered, too, if she knew what happened to Da and Yuriko. Two weeks every two years was a very short time to be with her children. He was lucky. By the time she had to leave for Realmheart, he had already Awakened and would have boarded at Agaza anyway. But Kato, Yuriko, and Rami suffered in her absence. And now, Mum had decided without even consulting Da or Yuri of her decision to force his sister into a path she didn’t want.hough probably not without the colourful flare-up that a planar Veil usually made when someone of her power entered.
When she stepped out into the ice, she felt it. The essence within her Well rushed out of her pores and dissipated into the air. It was much less than the last time she entered. She formed her Protective Field, but the negative pressure still affected her enough that she knew she wouldn’t last a week in here.
It was still too light. More must die and donate their Chaos to the plane. With a rueful shake of her head, she jumped back into the swirling Chaos.
End of Book 4