Isabel conducted a training session in the dining room while Hector ‘supervised’. He spent the entire time performing the Reverse Priming Technique of aura training. Due to conversations he’d had in the past with various experts on cultivation, Hector wanted to try doing as many different training exercises as possible. He figured he would hit his aura and domain from every conceivable angle every single day to spur growth.

  Esther, Darius, and Riley were attentive students, but the Shuttle Technique in particular was quite challenging to execute. His friends rapidly revealed their lack of aperture coordination, causing the typically affable Isabel to grow ever more frustrated. He suggested they take a break when lunch preparations began. Everyone quickly agreed with his suggestion.

  Early afternoon, Restoration returned in the company of a moody Zelda. The Savant was in the middle of ranting at the Sage. “I used up the entirety of my energy reserves on that ritual to fix the physical issues. The bones are set and the muscles attach where they’re supposed to. She will have to learn how to walk again on her own.”

  “I could have fixed her movement patterns in five minutes! All I needed was some help lowering her mental defenses!”

  “My ritual was designed for the specific physical alterations you requested! Try to be grateful for my help! That was a random woman you fixated on helping, not a member of our team!”

  Hector clapped his hands to get their attention. “Let’s calm down. Restoration, you need to accept that you will need to prioritize care for the next year. We’re going to see a lot of injured people. You can’t help all of them. Not even most of them. Maybe not even anyone who isn’t one of us. It’s not an ideal situation, but if we are to save all of existence, then you need to start thinking in terms of triage.”

  Restoration wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I understand your position, Lord Dragonbane.”

  That wasn’t agreement, he noted. Best not to push at the moment. He tapped his earpiece. “Cruiser Erin, if we have everyone aboard I see no reason to stay longer.”

  “Acknowledged, Lord Dragonbane. I will begin liftoff procedures immediately. Do you want to receive personal notifications any time we enter flight? Standard procedure is to make public announcements only for actions such as entering and exiting a singularity.”

  “I’ll leave that to your discretion.”

  “Understood. Be aware that my map of miasma veins are dated and it may take a few days to find a world suitable for your purposes. Singularity travel does not allow detection while passing through the primordial, either, so we won’t discover the presence of miasma until we arrive.”

  That seemed more evidence of the inferiority of Jinn travel to Hector. The first indictment came from the fact that they could only reach universes bordering their current one. Beyond that, he vividly recalled when leaving Earth for the first time how War Barge Kevin barely escaped a dying universe, straining his engines during the desperate escape so that he had to return to Terra for maintenance. Now he learned that Jinn vessels were blind while riding through the spatial bridges formed by singularities.

  A transit sphere suffered from none of those drawbacks. Hector could wander through the primordial, weaving between universes to get to a specific destination. He also had the ability to sense his surroundings while moving. And of course he could escape from anywhere – even a dying universe – so long as he had a minute or two for his sphere to rise into reality.

  They were gone from New Mart within the hour. The next stop had no monsters to fight. Nor did the one after that. Though Cruiser Erin did report that the second world was in the midst of a nuclear winter. In other circumstances, they may have offered food and medicine to the suffering population. Because their primary mission had priority, they did not stay.

  On the fifth world they visited, there were open rifts. Unless a monster invasion was advanced, Cruiser Erin required several hours to analyze a planet from orbit to make such a determination, but Hector knew before they fully emerged from the singularity. His realm, quiescent ever since he woke, came to life with a fierce eagerness.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  He gathered his retinue together in the dining room for a planning session. From his time with the Reconquest, he knew how to coordinate a patrol through monster-infested miasma. “This first time out I want us to be cautious. I’m not sure how my realm operates. If it doesn’t clear free miasma on its own, then we’re still limited to the range of my domain, which has about a twenty-five meter radius.”

  Esther asked the big question. “How does this work without Fred?”

  “We will get dropped at a distance and walk in.”

  Piercing pulled a face. “Not to sound like a whiny bitch, but some of us can’t run ten miles and still be ready to rumble.”

  “We’ll take it slow this time to make sure there aren’t any problems.” Hector looked around the group. “Order of battle. Zelda, Restoration, and Persuasion will be staying behin. Captain Devin, are you joining us? How about you, Conflagration? Excellent, happy to have you both. I’m assuming everyone else will be participating. Let me know if any of you have a reason to sit out.”

  When silence met his question, Hector continued. “We have two Jinn cyborgs: Captain Devin and Conrad. Two Arahant Sages: Conflagration and Piercing. One Titan: Ajax. And five Xian: myself, Isabel, Esther, Darius, and Riley. Let’s go down the list and make sure everyone is combat ready. I want to hear about energy reserves, equipment issues, and anything that might impact performance.”

  Everyone reported on their status. As expected for their first deployment of the campaign, there were no concerns. That concluded what could be planned in advance. Everything else would be speculation until they knew the specifics of their environment.

  “To the extent possible, Cruiser Erin will provide assistance remotely. Due to concerns over friendly fire, we shouldn’t expect more than air space denial. I’m hopeful we’ll be able to close a rift. Ultimately this first one is a shakedown run. We’ll adjust as we learn our capabilities better.”

  Five minutes later, Cruiser Erin gave them the details they needed. Three rifts existed on planet, two having appeared in densely populated cities as was usual, the final hanging in the sky over an uninhabited volcanic isle. None were particularly large. This world apparently sat on the outer edge of a miasma vein, barely deep enough for an invasion to begin.

  The information presented a difficult choice. A deserted island would be the perfect place to hone their strategy. Meanwhile, clearing the danger from either city would have a far greater impact in terms of human lives saved. How much would bystanders increase the risk to his team?

  “Cruiser Erin, how are the cities fighting back?”

  “Based on drone footage, they’re sending in mounted cavalry with flintlock rifles and sabers.”

  “Then they’re unlikely to be a threat to us. Bring us to the nearest city. If it looks like the locals are doing anything inappropriate, laser them.”

  Cruiser Erin gave them an ETA of ten minutes and they staged themselves in one of the shuttles. The pilot sent a feed from a drone onto a monitor in the passenger compartment. Hector studied the layout. No building was taller than three floors. Construction involved stone blocks and clay-fired roof tiles. Streets were hard-packed dirt filled with mutilated bodies, the wreckage of carriages, and roaming monsters. Wisps of dark mist floated on the wind.

  “The buggers are only human sized,” Piercing observed.

  Hector pointed to a badger ripping apart a horse. “That doesn’t make them harmless.”

  “I’m no horse. Not unempowered, either.”

  The shuttle shuddered when it launched, then went still as its own gravitonics took over. Its pilot asked for any preferences on landing sites. Hector instructed him to minimize risk to himself and his equipment. The follow-up question was about extraction points. Hector didn’t know how to answer that one. Patrols on Aes generally didn’t plan for rapid withdrawals. And his experience with the Lord General’s army was even less help – the Xian went into every battle with utter faith in their victory. “That shouldn’t be necessary today. If things somehow go bad, most of us can fly to safety.”

  He missed whatever was said next because his realm felt like it had suddenly inflated. The change was disorienting. It inspired an instinctual response. He threw his willpower at his realm and felt the force project outwards. Realm and miasma resonated with each other, locking into synchronicity like aligned magnets. Anything he brought to bear within his realm would impact external reality. It apparently worked the same in reverse. The presence of the monsters created an uncomfortable pressure in his realm aperture.

  “Whoa, are you lighting the place up, Hector?”

  As the doors of the shuttle rolled open to either side, sparks flickered into existence for miles. From a distance it looked like magic pixie dust on the wind. The pockets of miasma closer to them gave a different vibe entirely. It was reminiscent of an angry bug zapper frying insects to death with dangerous pyrotechnics.