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Libelle’s laws require all citizens between the ages of 19 and 29 to take part in a compulsory three-year period of military service known as Exaltation.
Citizens who take part in Exaltation are known as exalts. Some exalts fall in line with direct military activity while others take part in the national tournament to earn their ranks. Regardless of chosen Exaltation procedures, all exalts answer to Chrysid and the Chevalier.
05 | Fire, Ice, and Metal
Cracks marred the Eighth Pillar’s black sentisuit. Pulsing red lucidium veins blinked with a beat of urgency. Julian Laurent had hidden away to run his suit’s regen module and self-repairs. However, severe and irreparable structural damage left the suit in a visibly critical state.
Laurent looked disheveled through the tinted visor of his helmet. Something about the cocky smile Liam saw before had changed. His auburn hair clumped in sweaty strands over his face, and smears of dried blood painted his lips and nostrils.
Whatever impact he’d suffered through the alkali bomb’s blast had rendered his suit unreadable to the Chrysid network’s monitors. They had no way of knowing whether his sentisuit’s armor integrity was at seven or seventy percent.
“Nym, can you get a read on this guy’s status?”
“No… he’s completely blacked out on my read. We’re going to have to fight him blind. He drops when he drops.”
“Fantastic,” Liam answered flatly.
“How is this guy still alive?” James growled.
“You guys really thought that little bomb of yours could take me out?” Laurent said with a cackle. “Oh, you two are terminally optimistic, aren’t you?”
Iron cords materialized at Liam’s fingertips and then wove into the structure of his preferred weapon. At the end of the materialized chain formed a spiked orb—a meteor hammer. Liam kicked up the orb and gathered momentum in practiced, rhythmic sweeps.
Nearby, James conjured his own weapon. Ice formed at his hands, forging a lance made of ice. Cold mist billowed off the ice.
“I was going easy on the two of you. Felt a little pity, y’know, what with losing poor Jove and all.”
Laurent’s equilibrium visibly wavered as he approached.
“Sympathy play’s over, now. You’ll never reach her… I won’t let you. You’ll never reach Serena. I’ll protect her… I… am the Eighth Pillar…”
Liam looked to James, speaking through their comms in a channel unheard by Laurent. “He’s off his game.”
“What?”
“He’s rambling and disoriented,” Liam explained. “I’m thinking he sustained some kind of head injury in that blast. He’s off-balance—trying to muscle through a concussion, probably.”
“Do you really think you’re even worthy of seeing her?” Laurent roared as he closed the distance between them. “My beloved Chevalier?”
“You think he’ll go down easier this time?”
“No,” Liam shook his head. “If his cortisol levels are spiking, his aetherbreak gauge will only fill up faster. Keep your distance.”
“How do you suggest that? We’re on a bridge, Liam!” James snapped. “There’s only straight at him or straight away from him!”
Laurent’s laughter rumbled through their helmets.
“The most divine spear bearer, guardian of Libelle’s sacred light… who protects the protector?” The Eighth Pillar rambled. “I… I will protect you, Serena!”
Liam wasn’t about to wait for Laurent to come any closer. He launched the meteor hammer at Laurent, who narrowly dodged on clumsy legs. The fire exalt snorted and laughed at Liam’s missed attack.
Just as Laurent moved to summon a pillar of fire, Liam jerked the chain back and landed the spiked orb into Laurent’s back. A blood-curdling scream erupted from Laurent as sparks and flames billowed from the back of his suit.
I must have landed that hit on his lucidium converter…
Before Laurent could launch another onslaught of flames, the spiked orb exploded into a spiraling web of metal tendrils. Liam guided each cord with gestures until Laurent was entangled in a web of heavy metal cords.
Laurent roared and summoned another storm of fire, more chaotic than the last.
To stop Laurent from writhing and summoning flames, Liam tightened the cords. Despite Liam’s efforts to keep the amalgamation high in tungsten, the heat produced by the exalt’s erratic fire melted the cords.
“Damn it, I can’t hold him!”
James leapt up over a rising mound of ice to strike from above. Despite his wavering equilibrium, Laurent evaded the attack and barged at James through fire and melting metal cords.
Laurent screamed, “I am the hand of the Chevalier—the hand of a GOD!”
Liam summoned another meteor orb and with enough precision he smashed it right into Laurent’s face. As the meteor at the end of the cord flung back into orbit around Liam, Laurent’s flames burned out around them.
Cracks spiraled across Laurent’s visor. Liam could see red lights flashing across Laurent’s face. Warning signals from his system’s UI—warnings of a compromised helmet.
“Freeze him out,” Liam called. “His helmet’s breached!”
James lunged for Laurent with another crystallized javelin aimed directly at his helmet. Laurent tore away in time to dodge the ice exalt’s attack.
Laurent landed several punches on James before he seized the ice lance. The two wrestled for it as flames spiraled around them. James’s growing spikes of icy stalagmites puddled around the two.
With a roar, James thrust his body weight against Laurent, straight for the sharpened tip of a rising ice stalagmite. Laurent grabbed James and re-oriented their trajectory. The sharp tip of the stalagmite rose behind James and Liam’s breath caught in his throat.
Rolling waves of mist and steam obscured the exalts and the ice before Liam could witness inevitable impalement.
“James!”
Liam heard their struggle beyond the steam and fog. He shifted his meteor hammer’s orbit into a defensive rotation as he neared. Melted runoff rippled around his boots.
Damn it… I can’t see anything!
Liam eyed the party member list in his helmet’s interface—it listed both Laurent and James as “LOCATING…”
“Damn it,” Liam hissed, “James!”
As the steam cleared, he saw the hazy form of his brother crouched over a pinned Laurent, fist crashing repeatedly into the damaged helmet’s visor. Liam was close enough to hear the scrambled voice of the AI within Laurent’s cracked helmet
