Queen Mother Yalerox stared at the walls of the fortress that should have been hers. She'd battered it with storm after storm, ripping them up from the south and dumping entire lakes' worth of water into the clouds. The defenders in the walls should have drowned by now. Their walls should have fallen apart.

How dare they resist her? She wanted that fortress. It belonged to her. This world belonged to her. She would visit death upon it.

Death. The voice spoke it to her. Yalerox didn't want to listen. She'd killed plenty in her time, of course, but they'd always been for a purpose. This time, the death she wanted to bring had only one purpose: death for death's sake.

But fury filled her against her wishes. She began summoning another storm.

An aura slammed into her. Then a wave of pressure and heat. She held the spell against that insane, massive pressure—and then against another wave of it. And another.

Whatever it was, it was killing her children at an incredible rate. But it couldn't kill them forever. Every being Yalerox had fought had flagged eventually, grown tired. This one would, too, S-Ranked or not. And when it did, the Eye of the Storm would be ready for it, and her children would feast.

Even if one out of a hundred survived, that would still be thousands of the lowest-ranked ones. And that would be enough.

Queen Mother Yalerox focused her attention on the fortress and on the storm that would break it. Let her children deal with the intruder.

She had more important work to do.

The Light of Dawn was three miles ahead.

And he was awe-inspiring.

Even at seventy percent, his spells had raised the temperature in front of us by almost fifteen degrees. Waves of blazing-hot wind rocked the trailer on its shocks below me and left a metallic taste in my mouth even through the hazmat mask. The briefing had prepared me for that. It had also explained that it was a side effect of Angelo Lawrence's radiation skills destroying my taste buds. According to the briefing, Sarah could fix that later.

The mask's lenses had gone welding-mask dark, and the radio was silent. There was too much radiation in the air for radio waves to make it through.

Nothing could possibly survive the Light of Dawn.

But the monsters didn't know that. Or they didn't care. Maybe both.

"Holy shit!" Ellen wheezed. She gasped for breath as she dropped a third Shadow Boxing on the cluster of C and B-Ranked monsters swarming Jeff. He stood on the edge of the trailer. None of the monsters was intact. Some of them were actively falling apart as their bodies succumbed to radiation and wounds. Arms and legs sloughed off under black and maelstrom armor.

But they were here. Swarming the convoy. The screening teams hadn't been able to stop them.

Neither had the Light of Dawn.

"Casting! Left side! Sophia, cover!" I shouted.

The healer dragged Yasmin to the trailer's right side; the support screamed, then bit it off. I fired a Slicing Bolt into the biggest, most intact B-Rank monster I could see. It hit as the thing's arms slammed into Jeff's shield. I doubled the cast with Lightning Strikes Twice. Then, when the monster only lost a single arm, I doubled it again.

It fell off the trailer. I shifted to three wounded C-Ranks. Thunderbolt stance. Two hands on the blade. A heavy slash to the closest enemy. Howling Blade. Wind echoes ripped across all three. Two more blows, and two were dead. The last was on the ground.

We were drowning in portal monsters. And my core was screaming.

"Kade, plan?" Yasmin asked. She'd pushed herself to her feet and stood, wobbling, as Sophia pressed a hand into her stomach.

The stench of death and pain wafted through the air. It wasn't just our truck; in fact, the front of the convoy had it even worse than we did. But none of the vehicles could get any speed. Our thunder run across the desert had turned into a mud-bogged crawl as the clouds overhead dumped rain onto the sand-caked road.

"We need to go faster," I said.

Ellen rolled her eyes. "No shit, Kade. How?"

I thought for a moment. Ellen threw an Orb of Darkness across the truck. It slammed into a monster. I stabbed another, and Jeff taunted four more to the truck's edge.

Jeff was the key.

Whoever they had tanking up front couldn't do what Jeff could. We needed to fight our way forward and switch with the point team—no matter who they were.

"We'll move up. Go truck-to-truck. Don't get on the ground unless you have to. Once we're up front, we support Jeff. He drops a Split-Second Shield across the front of the convoy, and we push the shield forward."

"That's so stupid!" Yasmin yelled. "Jeff can't do that."

"If you give me enough support, I can. Load me up. Everything you have—especially Mana regeneration." Jeff looked pale. But under the nerves was determination. He was going to do this. And he really thought he could.

I nodded. "I'll grab what supports I can and send everyone else back to help defend the rear."

"Right."

Jeff moved. Ellen dropped a Shadow Boxing where he'd been standing, then another, and as the two skills crushed the monsters he'd been fighting, we withdrew over the semi's top. Wheels splattered bloody mud against the side of the truck. I stabbed a monster. It screamed as chitin and armor parted. I kicked it, and Jeff ran past me. He threw himself through the air and landed on the back of the next truck up.

Another explosion lit up the sky, followed by an orange-white mushroom cloud that filled the air in front of us. A moment later, the blast wave rippled across us.

This was insane. Absolutely insane. We had no business fighting to get closer to Angelo. Every fiber of my core struggled to get away from him—from the aura and aggression and sheer, cold hatred—no, not hatred. The sheer, cold calculation that contrasted with the man's powers like the gray storm clouds overhead contrasted with the white-orange-black mushroom clouds he was creating.

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Instead, I leaped to the next truck. Then the next one.

By the time we got to the lead truck's cab, a half-dozen supports had thrown buffs on Jeff or tagged along with us. The other delvers had—mostly—listened to me. Or maybe they just wanted any plan that wasn't 'fight until you can't anymore, then keep fighting.' Either way, Jeff was practically glowing with Scripts, Bindings, and a half-dozen auras.

He climbed onto the hood, then planted both his feet on the bumper. Right behind him, Yasmin grabbed one shoulder, and Sophia the other one. "Ready!?" he yelled over the engine and screaming monsters.

"Ready," I said.

He activated Split-Second Shield. The blue hex grid expanded across the convoy's front, and he grunted from the effort. On cue, the driver revved the engine, and the truck lurched forward below us.

Jeff's face was covered in sweat almost instantly. The shield lasted all of ten seconds before it started flickering on and off, dulling the rippling explosions' shockwaves and letting them through in a pulsing, 'off-off-on, off-off-on' beat. Sophia pumped healing into Jeff as the first monster reached him and a spiked arm slammed into his chest.

Then I didn't have time to watch him anymore.

Thunder Wave. Lightning Strikes Twice. Flashstep an enemy attack. Rain-Slicked Blade into a half-melted B-Rank Legionnaire. Cuts to my arms. To my stomach. One across my forehead and cheek that wouldn't stop bleeding into my eye.

Nothing lethal. But taken together, it was a lot of damage. A lot of pain. And Ellen wasn't doing any better. She'd taken hits. So had Yasmin and Sophia.

But the moment I had a chance, I glanced into the truck.

The speedometer crept over twenty-five.

It was working.

The tide was endless. It wouldn't stop crashing into us. And all I could do was keep fighting. My Scripts were running, and I'd spent all my Bindings keeping the truck clear. I lunged. A monster howled, then Thunderblade activated, along with Gustrunner. I was a lightning bolt, carving back and forth across the trailer bed as it picked up speed.

Jeff's Split-Second Shield had helped. The trucks had topped out at twenty-five, though. We needed more. The monsters kept coming. Slicing Bolt cut through rad-weakened limbs. My sword flashed. Ellen threw another Orb of Darkness into the monsters.

We needed help. With Jeff…occupied…and Yasmin and Sophia both supporting him, Ellen and I couldn't keep the rest of the truck clear.

Jeff was the linchpin. He had to stay there. And the two of us had to keep this truck moving, or the convoy wouldn't make it to Carlsbad Fortress.

Another distant—but much closer than ten minutes ago—explosion rocked the convoy. And I made a decision. There were consequences, and I'd face them later. But right now, I needed help.

I summoned Cheddar.

The Stormlight Serpent erupted from his dimensional space like a third sun—this one half-obscured by storm clouds. I quickly sent a mental image, this one to guard the farthest side of the trucks, but to avoid other delvers if he could.

My skin burned, and I tried to spit metal from my mouth. A line of sunlight ripped across the trailer's edge. Monsters screamed. Truck engines revved. Pepperoni appeared, shredding a C-Ranked monster with a blast of lightning. The convoy's speed crept up—but it still wasn't enough.

A B-Rank monster, missing a pair of its arms and with its spine bent nearly parallel to the truck, clambered up. I dropped into Mistwalk stance and parried the first two blows. The impacts sent shocks up my tired arms. Then I used Mistform, went incorporeal as the blows kept raining down, and shifted to Thunderbolt stance. Rain-Slicked Blade sliced through the monster's twisted spine. It roared in pain, and I kicked it off the truck.

The semi behind us rolled over it with a series of bumps and thuds. That wouldn't hurt it, though. The wheels weren't portal metal.

And on we fought. Cheddar fried more C-Rank monsters. I stabbed until my elbow ached and I bled from my arms and legs. Pepperoni vomited lightning onto the horde in front of the convoy.

"Attention," the radio crackled, and I realized that I hadn't seen an explosion in almost…ten minutes? How long had we been fighting? And had Angelo stopped attacking just to get a message through? "This is the Light of Dawn. I am increasing my power to eighty-five percent in thirty seconds. Beginning Power Plant and small-scale Fusion reactions. Take cover if you can."

He had.

I started counting down. There wasn't anywhere to go. We couldn't slow down. The monsters were like an ocean all around us. And we couldn't speed up. Angelo was out there.

The first explosion rippled across us, and my hair stood on end as the flash lit up the day and a mushroom cloud large enough to form lightning of its own sprouted in front of us. Then another. Then another. And then a fourth and fifth.

A minute later, we hit the decaying mushroom clouds. And the monsters stopped.

It was like a bathtub faucet had been turned off. One minute, we were drowning in portal monsters. The next, it was silent except for the radiation crackling against Jeff's Split-Second Shield. The convoy raced across the desert, speedometers edging up to forty-five, then to fifty.

Sweat poured from every pore in my body. I wanted nothing more than to take a drink. Instead, I splashed my bottle over my head. It hissed and steamed. That wasn't a good sign. How hot was it?

But still, it was a moment to relax. To listen to the roar of Angelo's firestorm, and to brace ourselves for what we'd find on the other side.

Jeff threw himself down next to me, leaning against the back of the semi tractor. "Jesus Christ. The next time you want to use me as a battering ram, I'm saying no. Never again, Kade, you hear me?"

He was covered in cuts. His armor had been shattered in a half-dozen places. Yasmin and Sophia flopped off the truck's roof a moment later. Neither looked good; Yasmin was pale and breathing rapidly, while Sophia looked completely drained.

"I hear you. It was a bad idea," I said.

Jeff snorted. "No, it was a brilliant idea. But next time, make Deborah do it, yeah? She can take it."

I snorted. "Gladly, Jeff. Gladly."

We sat there and waited to erupt from the ozone-scented, skin-tingling clouds around us.

But we didn't. Instead, the clouds changed. Where they'd been orange-white and filled with hate, fury, and righteous anger, they were suddenly jet-black.

Jet-black, with a hint of red-orange at the base, right where Carlsbad Fortress was.

I stared up at the raging wall of cloud that churned overhead. Wind whipped at my hair and clothes, pushing a hundred fifty miles an hour—or more. The convoy's trucks slowed, then stopped as lightning rippled across the entire sky above me.

And rain—cooling rain—splashed against my skin as we stared up at a full-blown hurricane. Steam poured off of us.

"Oh, shit," Ellen muttered next to me.

I nodded. This wasn't a normal A-Rank monster. There was definitely a Paragon behind this. And whatever it was, it could summon a hurricane capable of resisting the Light of Dawn at eighty-five percent. Either that, or he hadn't tried his power against the storm's.

But there wasn't another option. We couldn't go back. We couldn't look for another way in. And by the smoke in the air, Carlsbad Fortress was under siege and about to break. We only had one move.

I thumped the truck's roof, then yelled at the top of my lungs. "We have to go through it!"

A second passed. Two. Then the truck's diesel engine roared, and the convoy started to move toward Carlsbad Fortress.

And the storm overhead redoubled.

Core breaks.

Eugene had studied them for thousands of years.

It took a rare person to ignore the threat of their core coming apart and keep pushing. Most people would call someone like that a maniac—or a fool. But Eugene knew better.

Granted, most were fools. That was indisputable.

And Kade Noelstra? The kid was a maniac.

But he also had no choice. Stormsteel cores always broke eventually. It was part of the Path. All Kade could do was decide when it happened—and all the God of Thunder could do was decide how to proceed with the kid afterward. Almost every pupil he'd taught had been smart. They'd chosen to shatter their cores in a safe place, at a safe time.

Kade wouldn't get that choice. And that was perfect for Eugene. After all, none of his disciples had managed to reach his level. A few S-Rankers. A handful and a half of As. But nothing worth harvesting. Nothing that could propel the God of Thunder to the final stage of his own growth.

Eugene hoped Kade would be different when the time came. He didn't know what different would look like—just that something had to change. Eugene couldn't keep trying the same thing over and over. That only brought the same results, and he needed something new.

His own future was counting on it.

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