Twenty minutes in, movement caught their attention.

  A Starspawn emerged from the flames of a collapsing house.

  It looked like twisted rebar brought to life. Six spindly, leg-like appendages carried a central mass wrapped in coiled steel, while four arm-like extensions ended in flowing, white-hot tips.

  The creature spotted them and immediately toppled sideways.

  Then it began to roll.

  The grinding shriek of heated metal against asphalt filled the air as it accelerated, ripping chunks of road free to build momentum.

  “It looks strong,” Dorian muttered, drawing his blade. “But it’s no Fiend.”

  Kesi tightened his grip on his weapon. The baseball bat reforged with two Fiend axe heads had become a brutal, jagged battleaxe. He nodded once.

  At the last second, Dorian surged forward. Will flared at his feet as he launched himself into the charge. His drop-kick hit dead-on, halting the rolling Starspawn with a bone-rattling impact.

  Kesi followed immediately, leaping in with a downward swing. His axe cleaved through one glowing limb, sparks spraying across the street.

  The creature whipped around, lashing out with its remaining arms. Kesi barely avoided the strikes, rolling clear as the Starspawn coiled inward, trying to trap Dorian beneath its mass.

  Dorian pressed the attack. He hacked into the glowing side, severing two more limbs in quick succession. Only one arm remained, along with the core.

  Kesi struck again, burying his axe into the center of the coiled mass and wrenching it apart.

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  “I think the rebar’s armor!” he shouted, ducking the final arm’s swipe. “Its body’s inside the coils!”

  Dorian didn’t hesitate. He drove his blade into the gaps Kesi had opened, braced a foot against the creature, and forced the coils apart.

  There it was.

  A thick central stem, pulsing faintly.

  He clenched his Will around his fist and drove it down like a piledriver.

  The Starspawn convulsed once, then went still.

  It began to disintegrate, but the coiled rebar didn’t. The twisted shell remained intact, glowing faintly as it cooled, just like the glassy claws and teeth they’d seen before.

  The Remnant was unremarkable. Kesi absorbed it without issue.

  The rebar, though, was something else. Light. Durable. Perfect for weapons.

  They scavenged the coils, reforging their gear to incorporate the alien metal. Earth-made materials simply weren’t holding up anymore. Starspawn remains were becoming their lifeblood.

  Hours passed.

  They hunted without pause, empowering Kesi again and again. His control over his Will grew at a startling pace. By the time he absorbed his twelfth Remnant, the manifestations of his Will were as potent as Dorian’s were at twenty.

  Some people, it seemed, were simply more attuned.

  By the end of the day, both of them carried twenty-four Remnants worth of power. Their strength was frightening.

  That was when they found the Fiends.

  The first was a humanoid, twelve feet tall, with two arms and two legs. The similarities ended there. Its torso terminated at the shoulders, opening into a hollow cavity that burned like a furnace where its head should have been. Its hands were massive, obsidian gauntlets fused directly to its flesh. Similar plates armored its shins like molten greaves.

  The second Fiend moved on four limbs. Its head unfurled like a flower, lined with hooked petals ready to snap shut and incinerate anything caught inside. Vertical slits along its sides vented heat in rhythmic bursts. Spines like a lionfish’s jutted from its back, glowing faintly.

  They stood amid the charred remains of a neighborhood street they had clearly destroyed.

  Dorian and Kesi raised their weapons.

  Before either could move, the humanoid Fiend clanged its gauntlets together. The sound rang out like a struck bell, and an invisible pressure wave rippled through the street, making smoke and ash swirl.

  Six lesser Starspawn emerged from the haze.

  “Were they hiding?” Kesi asked, slowing.

  Dorian’s eyes narrowed. “Those two are Fiends. The others are normal Starspawn. They gathered them here.”

  A trap.