Chapter 1
This time, their little games went too far. Those arrogant Princes will pay. They’ll answer to me personally. They could have taken a shot at me; I didn’t care. All they did was disgrace their Clans and throw away their men. Let the brats have their fun. But killing old Aks… I’ll never forgive them for that. With that thought, I crouched down, pressing my hand against the small opening, and closed my eyes. The Spatial Worm was close. The cowardly creature that had run from me across this entire world was now desperately trying to burrow deeper. I could sense its fear, its frantic urge to escape. But it was too late to run, little one. “Consume,” I whispered. Darkness surged from my hand, reaching the panicked creature in under a second. The deafening scream of a dying beast rang in my ears, followed swiftly by silence, and then… nothing but darkness. * * * Traveling through Portals isn’t exactly a pleasant experience, let me tell you. Your physical body dematerializes, its information threads through the void between worlds, and then reassembles on the other side. It’s rough on the mind and your energy balance. And if you’re using just the remains of a sealed Portal, a pinch of off-world worm, and raw elemental force to get through, the experience gets even less enjoyable. My vision blurred, my head pounded like someone had hammered it twice, and every cell in my body ached from exhaustion. But it was worth it! Because instead of those cursed dunes and endless dead sand, there were trees all around me! Real, green, living trees! The scent of pine hit me like a slap, the sound of rustling leaves — which I hadn’t heard in a year — was pure bliss to my ears, and a cool breeze brushed across my face. Absolute heaven. “Home, sweet home,” I murmured, smiling as I got to my feet. Instinctively, my hands reached for the broad leaf of a nearby plant, where a few drops of water gleamed. Just enough for a single sip, but it revived me a bit. My tired mind started remembering what life felt like. With that small bit of moisture, and the realization that my third attempt at returning home had finally worked, all my pain faded away. I stretched with a contented sigh, took a deep breath of the clean forest air of my world, and dusted off my black cloak, the only item to survive a year’s worth of close encounters with the Element of Time. That ruthless force had turned everything it touched into lifeless white sand, so none of my other belongings had made it through. A sudden influx of oxygen snapped my brain back into action, leaving only a slight weakness, hunger, and an annoying dryness in my mouth — nothing a good meal, some solid sleep, and a couple of quarts of prime imperial liquor couldn’t fix. “Although this might be harder to restore,” I muttered with a touch of frustration as I activated the elemental Seal. A year in the insatiable desert of Time had drained my connection to my native Element of Darkness down to nearly nothing, and that rough inter-world crossing had consumed the last dregs of my energy. All I had left were crumbs — barely enough to fuel anything useful. Great. This was going to take more than a day to recover. Forget a day; it would take years of hard work and clearing Portals to restore what I’d lost. And believe me, the Princes responsible for this mess were going to answer for every drop of my valuable off-world energy that had gone to waste. “I’ll have to use the Tower’s Source,” I concluded reluctantly. The magisters are going to chew my ear off again. Marcus, you need to be more economical! Marcus, that energy belongs to all humanity! Marcus, you’ve left twenty floors in the dark again! But when it comes to sealing the toughest Portals and replenishing the Great Source more than the rest of humanity combined, the old cranks couldn’t care less. With that thought, I released the Seal and looked around. Were trees in the Empire always this huge? For the last couple of years before being trapped, I’d done nothing but jump from Portal to Portal, with breaks for food, sleep, and the occasional romance. I’d started to know some foreign worlds better than my own — the very one I was supposed to protect. Right now, though, I couldn’t begin to guess exactly where I was. The trees were so monstrously tall that I couldn’t see the sky, let alone the Tower of Argus — the greatest achievement of humanity and a flawless landmark, nearly three thousand feet tall. I’d been counting on spotting it on the horizon. I hadn’t expected my improvised Portal crossing to deposit me directly into my bed on the ninety-ninth floor, but I didn’t think it would drop me far from the Tower either. Home had to be close. All that was left was to figure out which direction to go. And just then, I heard the sound of an engine in the distance. People — always a good sign. They might not feed me, but at least they could point the way. Truth be told, I missed human voices, too. After a year in the desert world, it wasn’t the Element of Time that brought me closest to death but sheer boredom. “Maybe they’ll even have shoes…” I muttered, glancing down at my bare feet. The sound of the engine grew louder, and a few seconds later, weaving skillfully between the massive trees, a vehicle with a battered imperial crest came into view. Only, the vehicle looked… strange. It was a black, angular pentagon with an open cabin and a long bed, but the oddest part was that it didn’t have any wheels. Or rather, it did, but they were arranged horizontally and didn’t touch the ground. “Out of the way, you bum!” a burly driver with a wild look bellowed. The strange, elongated pickup swerved slightly to the left, making no move to slow down. Not very polite. Then again, I did look like a complete vagrant — a scraggly, dehydrated body, unshaven face, covered in sand, and with a torn cloak hanging over my bare chest. Recognizing me as the First Paladin of Argus was out of the question. In the truck bed, I spotted three more men, all in combat gear, and one of them manning a silver gun that vaguely resembled the imperial “Aron” machine gun. Two of the soldiers glanced at me briefly with disinterest, but one, dressed in armor with a red star insignia, cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, voice raw with urgency, “Run, man! Save yourself!” Why was he yelling? He nearly lost his voice. He should have been paying more attention to his surroundings. A barely noticeable stone fin protruding from the ground was moving directly toward the pickup’s path. I almost felt sorry for the poor guys. They had hardly any elemental response. The squad was clearly not from a Gifted Clan. What bad luck to run into a B-class portal creature outside the Tower’s perimeter. With a dull thud, something from underground sent the pickup flying, spinning in midair before crashing down on its side.
