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The first attack came in the form of an enormous yellow crystal, crashing through the trees like they were nothing. When Harper pierced it with a white beam, however, the boulder exploded into chunks, clearing out a small section of the forest.

Andres and Desmond were immediately visible, which meant the other three were probably about to flank them.

‘On your left,’ warned Garovel.

‘Right, too!’ said Mehlsanz.

Hector raised metal walls on both sides, but as he was too far away to strengthen them with his soul, the three opponents broke through almost instantly. On Hector’s side, there were two women. They could only be Tessa Shelrick and Nola Pauls, though he didn’t know their faces. On Helen’s side, there was Conall.

Desmond had already lobbed an arm at the party, but a white beam detonated it before it reached them. Harper had one more beam, and he spent it on Tessa, cleaving her in two before she even reached Hector.

Nola, however, still made it to him. He raised another wall and rolled out of her path, but she smashed through it anyway and caught him by the ankle. Metal spikes shot out of his entire leg, piercing her. She didn’t seem to care very much and just pressed his foot against the ground.

His foot sunk into the rock. Melted into it. It was suddenly stuck there, and confusion was about to get the better of him until Garovel’s voice reached him.

‘Don’t panic. Protect yourself.’

Nola reached for his head next, but a full suit of spikes leapt out of his body, skewering her more completely than before, even raising her off her feet.

“You little fuck!” she yelled, spitting blood.

He struggled for leverage on his sunken foot and retracted his spikes. She fell toward him, and he punched her square in the face at full strength.

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Roman arched his path toward the aircraft with bursting shock waves, each one affecting his body, breaking dozens of bones and putting pressure on every one of his muscles.

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“Be back as soon as I can,” said Roman, letting Voreese latch onto his back. And as he crouched down, everyone took a step back. It wasn’t quite far enough, however. He shot up into the sky, leaving a shock wave in his wake that cracked the ground and nearly knocked Hector on his ass.

‘Holy shit!’ thought Hector, looking up with wide eyes to see Roman and Voreese dwindling from sight.

Then Garovel pointed suddenly. ‘Karkash.’

And Hector saw the Vaelish man as well, diverting up and after Roman, obviously wanting to intercept him.

Harper raised an outstretched arm with a closed fist. He didn’t need more than a moment in order to take aim, and then a beam of solid, white light flashed into existence all at once, cutting the sky in two.

Karkash instantly lost an arm, a leg, and half of his torso. He ceased flying up and spiraled off into the forest below.

‘Nice shot,’ said Darsihm, bobbing his head at his servant.

It was an alteration type, Hector knew. The ability to manipulate light waves. Garovel had learned of the man’s power after his long strategy meeting with the other reapers and had then been kind enough to impart that knowledge to Hector, as well. But even though he’d known about it beforehand, seeing it firsthand was something else. And just like that, the Lt. General had already crippled Karkash, at least temporarily.

Hector could hear the enemy drawing close now. They didn’t seem especially concerned with keeping quiet, whooping and hollering over the already raucous sound of their vehicles pushing down the narrow path.

Then the noise died down, the cars’ engines shut off, and Hector could hear people exiting the vehicles.

‘I sense a lot of souls over there,’ said Darsihm, ‘but only ten are making their way closer. Half of them are floating, so it would appear we have five opponents.’

‘Until Karkash gets back,’ added Garovel.

‘Keep the formation,’ Mehlsanz reminded them. ‘Don’t let them separate you.’

From there, a heavy period of silence seized the area. The Abolishers did not show themselves in order to exchange words.

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Garovel led the way. Hector’s motorcycle wasn’t suited to the dirt road, nor was he accustomed to riding on such terrain, but he managed well enough. The path diverged, and Garovel chose the narrower one. The branches grew uncomfortably close, even brushing Hector’s helmet as he passed, and in his rearview mirror, he could see Roman’s black BMW scraping its way through.

The forest abruptly gave way, replaced by a wide area with enormous pillars of natural stone. It was a kind of rocky hill, accented in green by swathes of moss, and the pillars themselves were an odd sight. Only two, there were, rising out of the uneven ground like a misshapen tuning fork. The northern pillar was almost twice the height of the southern one, but they were both still larger than an average building. Each one cast a long shadow in the amber dawnlight.

Hector parked his bike and dismounted as Roman pulled up next to him. He took off his helmet, feeling the dewy air against his face again. “Can you still sense them?” he asked.

‘Yeah,’ said Garovel. ‘But I can sense our friends now, too. Shouldn’t be much longer.’

And indeed, it was not. After a couple minutes, the other three reapers arrived from the opposite path, along with the Queen and Harper. Everyone gathered around.

‘I sense Karkash at the head of the group,’ said Garovel. ‘They’ll be here in under a minute.’

Then came the sound of a distant airplane, and everyone’s attention was drawn to the sky. From where they all stood, they had a clear view of the small aircraft.

‘Shit,’ said Garovel.

‘It’s too far away,’ said Mehlsanz. ‘We can’t sense who’s on board or even how many there are, but I highly doubt it’s a bunch of civilians who just happen to be flying by.’

Voreese swirled over to Roman and grabbed his shoulder. ‘Leave it to us,’ she said.

‘You can’t just shoot it down,’ said Garovel. ‘There might be innocent soldiers inside.’

‘We can’t let it cross the border and attack a town, either,’ said Voreese. ‘Don’t worry. We’ll use a delicate touch.’