Eik and the messenger, whose name he realized just then that he had forgotten to ask for, arrived almost immediately after General Mn’Toakh and Clan Leader Gul.

  One of the lead analysts of the primary team responsible for monitoring the condition and development of the Chasm, the Expulsion, and the proximate worlds affected most heavily by the effects of the phenomenon had only just launched into a complicated briefing of the situation.

  Even just the first few sentences of the report were so stuffed with head-splittingly technical, sciency jargon that he would really rather turn around, go back outside, sit and twiddle his thumbs on a bench and wait for the others to listen, understand, summarize, and then deliver to him an account abbreviated to about two or three sentences of simple, kindergarten-level statements.

  But he didn’t turn around. After all, he had… somewhat of a public image to maintain. And while pretending to be an expert was sufficiently out of his depth to even make the attempt, he could at least try to nod along here and there, scratch his chin with a contemplative frown as if the ol’ noggin wasn’t running idle, and take mental notes to ask the others about all of it afterwards.

  Seeing them enter, the lead analyst cleared his throat, beckoned them over, and started over from the beginning, only for Andihar and another S-ranker to arrive as well, pausing the briefing for a second time.

  General P?lse and one more S-ranker managed to enter before the analyst could begin for a third time and they were all there to listen all the way through.

  Eik would be lying if he said he wasn’t surprised that he actually managed to comprehend the overall situation as well as the most important takeaways. As it turned out, listening to complicated reports about this and that almost every day for years did apparently eventually pay off.

  The gist of the issue was exactly what he had already been told at his house.

  Two Chasm proximate worlds with which the Alliance had previously had an established connection that allowed them to monitor various conditions and parameters had gone dark. That was, as a matter of fact, not a common occurrence and was being treated as a high priority emergency.

  The monitoring functioned as an early warning system for any events on those worlds which was either developing faster or more severely than standards should dictate. And as one might imagine, such early warnings were supposed to arrive in the form of comprehensible readings, not the total absence of any contact.

  “So, wait, I’m not sure I understand…” Eik interrupted as the lead analyst suddenly seemed to find it pertinent to explain the exact function of one of the numerous pieces of magically operated equipment they were using to monitor the many proximate worlds. “What are these blackouts telling us precisely?”

  “Well, that is the major issue, isn’t it?” the analyst said, pulled away from his equipment. “Ordinarily, a lack of measurable feedback like what we are seeing here would most certainly be the result of either a mistake or error on our part, or of a malfunction in or on the source we are measuring.”

  “And?”

  “And we have ruled out either of those as possible explanations. Troubleshooting performance here at home, both of equipment and of our own, is easy once we know that there is an error to look for in the first place.”

  “But if the fault is over there, then presumably, you wouldn’t be able to tell because the fault would be interfering with your feedback,” Eik argued.

  “That’s what one might think at a first glance, yes, but as I mentioned earlier, we have quite a wide range of different instruments, techniques, and skills involved in the entirety of the process at all times which means that, if there is interference somewhere at the source, there will be other readings still active which can report such an occurrence. The fact that we are seeing a complete breakdown like this is… well, frankly, it’s unprecedented. I’m tempted to say that both of those world have up and vanished from the cosmos of the Unified Mass outright,” he spluttered, excitement at the conundrum and fear of the implication clearly warring within the scientist. “I certainly can think of no better explanation.”

  “And you’re sure it’s not human error?” Eik asked.

  The analyst huffed with indignation. “Of course I’m sure! I am the foremost analyst of this team! We are more than capable of recognizing an issue with our own performance when there is one, and in this case there is not!”

  “But you’re saying the more likely scenario is the complete disappearance of two worlds?” Eik asked with a frown.

  “What else could explain it?”

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  Eik shrugged. “The Lord of the Moon comes to mind. Isn’t it a little too coincidental that all of this is happening right as he is becoming a threat?”

  “I am of the same mind,” Andihar added as Gul and Mn’Toakh nodded their own agreement. “It seems like a plausible assumption that the Lord of the Moon is responsible or partially responsible for this strange blackout phenomenon.”

  “That’s nonsense!” the scientist insisted. “We are talking about entire worlds here. We are not talking about tricking an insect into thinking the sun has set by putting a cup over it. It is not just a localized blackout. There is no feedback anywhere on any of the worlds. Even the Lord of the Moon wouldn’t be able to do something like that?”

  Eik’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?”

  “Of course!”

  “How can you know?”

  The man was quiet for a moment as his brain made up an argument. “Well, it’s not so much that I know, but… I mean, it’s a preposterous notion that a single entity could influence such a vast area so completely and so severely. And it’s not even just one world. It’s two! Are you aware that both of those world are larger than the one we’re standing on right now, respectively?”

  “Well, first of all, I’m not suggesting that this is something that dumb bastard has done all on his lonesome. We know for a fact that he employs minions of which at least some wield power greater than any S-ranker in the Nidafjeld Alliance. You might have noticed their destructive power yourself when they attacked Gimleh to devastating effect just recently,” Eik argued.

  “Not to mention the fact that these minions appear to have a peculiar power that all or most are capable of harnessing,” Mn’Toakh broke in, joining Eik with conviction. “We have, on several occasions, including the attack on Gimleh, witnessed these spawn of the Lord of the Moon release a black, acrid substance into the atmosphere at frightening rate.”

  Eik nodded and let her take over for him.

  “It has a foul smell and seems to naturally form a thick, opaque layer right beneath any local cloud cover. During the attack on Gimleh, we learned that at least some of the spawn are capable of absorbing this miasma in order to both regenerate at extreme rate as well as gain a direct and near instant increase to their power.”

  The expression on the lead analyst’s face, as well as those of his colleague who had been listening in, grew gradually more concerned as they listened.

  “But besides that one effect, we haven’t been able to figure out what other uses it might have. Considering the fact that, at times, these spawn sacrifice their own ability to fight and survive against us in order to expel their payloads, even when alone, there has to be another application besides absorbing it to power up.”

  “I have heard of the miasma of which you speak, and even witnessed it for myself a few days ago, yes. But that barely covered a few square kilometers of Gimleh’s air space. Are you suggesting this same phenomenon is responsible for the disappearance of two worlds?”

  Eik sighed. “You said you saw how much there was, right? Well, that was from a single spawn,” he said. “I personally shut that down. It barely took me five seconds. So that was five seconds’ worth from one spawn. Imagine a hundred of them releasing miasma for a day straight. A thousand for a week. A hundred thousand for a month!”

  Whispers ran through the room as the other analysts discussed the revelation with hushed voices. Eik would have expected these people to know this already, but with the scale of organizational chaos in the Alliance, the dissemination of information must be suffering more than he had thought.

  “But it’s…” the lead analyst tried but stopped himself. At this point he looked more like a man who would really rather not face how dire the situation was.

  “We’re facing a Worldbreaker, man!” Gul growled, grabbing the flustered scientist by the fabric of his coat. “Get used to throwing any standards you might be tempted to judge possibility by out the window. Science is dead!”

  “He means our fundamental understanding of the limits of the power of a single being can’t make sense of current reality. We need to tackle this issue with both our eyes and minds open.” Andihar mediated for the grumpy clan leader. “Worldbreakers can do things we wouldn’t think possible. And their rate of growth is more than extraordinary, so we can’t expect the prognosis on that front to match reality either.”

  “Your confidence in those statements is misplaced,” the lead analyst said, regaining some of his skepticism. “The truth is none of us can know what a Worldbreaker can do or, in fact, whether they even exist or ever did exist. It’s ancient history.”

  “No, we can know. We have one on our side as well.”

  At that, every single analyst in the room dropped any pretense of work and stared openly while the lead froze mid-gesture. Mouth bobbing open and closed like a struggling fish, it took a few seconds for his brain to locate an appropriate word. “… What?”

  Eik raised his hand. “Yeah, me too. Surprise, I guess.”

  The analyst narrowed his eyes to slits. “You…? You’re a Worldbreaker?”

  “Uh huh, yeah.”

  “How?”

  Eik just shrugged. How the hell was he supposed to know that?

  “I don’t believe you.” The statement was flat and forward.

  “You know, that makes sense,” Eik admitted. “But nonetheless, here we are.”

  “You’re—”

  “Permanent booster pills, unprecedented rise to power, the ability to create an Awakened, sentient being out of thing air,” Gul listed with irritation, counting each point on a finger. “Personal power that could very likely completely wipe out not just one but all civilizations of the Alliance. X-ranker— No, that’s right, Supreme Divinity of Fuckin’ Toxin, is what the title of his power rank is,” the old man raged and held up Eik’s forearm as the glowing letters etched themselves into his skin as confirmation.

  With eyes like Petri dishes, the analyst put his face all the way up to Eik’s arm. “Well, I’ll be…” he whispered, disbelief mixing with excitement. Seeing the certitude on the faces of the strongest of the Alliance, the man seemed to come around.

  “You say you can’t monitor the worlds,” Eik began, folding he sleeve back down. “Does that mean you can’t open a fracture either?”

  “We have not made the attempt,” another analyst replied, presumably a fracture specialist. “But if it is truly a matter of miasma interfering with reception and the worlds are still there, then we should be able to, since we still have the coordinates.”

  Eik met the gazes of his fellow warriors. “Try it. I’m going through.”

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