One thing Riven prided himself at was spotting silver linings. With his Essence shield around Olsten’s head now destroyed, he was free to use his Essence armour. Which he did to make sure his landing in front of the research facility didn’t crush him to a pulp. Damn Olsten’s latest throw had blasted Riven all the way to the facility’s doors. Fun times.

He crashed down hard, bounced once, then stopped by scraping his fingers against the ground. Riven got up, shaking all over but thankfully saved from any pain by his armour. He looked over back to where the battel was still raging. Even at this distance, it was obvious Glaven and Weathering were still going at it, Glaven’s current of swirling air lashing against the flares of red from his opponent.

Riven couldn’t see Olsten, but the bastard couldn’t have been up to anything good. He was no doubt aiming to help Weathering one way or another.

He was about to rush back into the fray when a shout stole his attention. Riven whirled around, then gasped and stepped back as one of the facility’s windows exploded in a belch of flames. The front door burst open and several of Orbray’s soldiers rushed out. They stopped at the sight of Riven for only a second before half of them fanned out around and levelled their rifles at him. The other half began throwing flaming projectiles into the facility buildings with wild hoops and yells.

They were going to burn the whole facility down.

“What in the Chasm are you doing?” Riven asked.

“This place has been officially decommissioned by the High Invigilator,” said the man who had first spoken to Riven earlier in the night. “As such, we’ve been charged with the duty of seeing to its timely deconstruction.”

“You’re burning it down.”

“Call it what you want. Fact of the matter is that this research facility isn’t going to be here for long. But what’s the matter with you? Left your little milk bottle behind?”

Despite the bloom of heat as more fires sprung up, giving rise to screams from within, Riven grew colder and colder. “What about all the people you rounded up?”

The man shrugged. “What about them?”

“Where are they?”

“Where do you think?”

Inside. Burning along with everything else. Riven swallowed, now colder than permafrost. He’d lost track of Nivi in the chaos of the fight and hadn’t seen her when he’d glanced back at the chaos. Had she returned to the research facility and had got caught by the soldiers? Was she now with the other employees and researchers, shouldering the burden of burning to death alongside them? No, he couldn’t let that happen. Couldn’t let that become a reality.

“There’s nothing you can do,” the man said. “This place is bu—”

Riven jumped at him. The soldiers shot but their bullets cracked into his Essence armour, leaving him unharmed. Their leader was too surprised to react, and Riven punched the bulky man right in the jaw, sending him sprawling onto the steps of the facility. The other soldiers rushed at him, and he jumped over the leader, aiming straight for the open door.

But the man shouted again. “Halt!”

His order stopped the other soldiers form charging in, and also stopped Riven from blindly rushing into the inferno. He could feel the heat of the flames hard now, the blaze making his sweat evaporate and prickling his skin all over.

It was the tone of the leader that stopped Riven, though.

“Are you going to abandon your brother just like that?” the man asked. “However strong he might be, he can’t hold off two powerful Essentiers all on his own for too long. Go rush into the flames for all I care, try to save the people in your precious facility. But you can’t have both. Someone’s going to die tonight, be it your damn brother, or the ones inside.”

Riven whirled around at the man’s words, eyes going straight back to the fight between Glaven and Weathering. The fight that Olsten was no doubt barging into. Glaven had done well to fend off Weathering for so long, but the man was right. No way could he handle both Weathering and Olsten together all by himself. Something told him that those two had a lot of practice working together as well.

It was distant from here, but Riven could still make out the specifics of the fight. Glaven was parrying everything Weathering threw at him, her sword unable to get past his knife despite the greater reach. But Glaven couldn’t get in a strike either. Anytime he got close, his opponent’s red Essence slowed him down, leaving him vulnerable to a sword blow.

For some reason, Glaven wasn’t able to make much use of his Essence either. His stars floated over his head like ethereal lamps, but he never got the chance to do anything with them. Maybe he was too busy fighting to Command anything, or maybe there was nothing to Command out there.

Then Olsten charged into proceedings. Weathering disengaged from her sword fight with Glaven, giving Olsten a clear path for shooting his gun. Glaven did Command this time, one of his stars shooting into the ground and making a thousand spikes shoot out into that forest of rock spires again.

Riven and the soldiers only watched, mesmerized by the fight.

The two enemy Essentiers fell back, both Olsten and Weathering getting away before they got skewered. Weathering went so far as to use her Slowing Essence to pause the spikes coming at her, then severed them all with her sword. She rushed forwards, the combination of her sword and her Essence cutting a swathe through the spikes Glaven had Commanded up. Olsten fell in behind her after navigating the rocky forest.

Glaven Commanded one of his stars again, this one cavorting in the air and gathering a little gale around it. The blast of air thumped around Glaven, its whipping winds lashing at Weathering.

It didn’t stop her, the red Essence eating away the wind. Riven blinked. Time. That had to be it. Anything coming into contact with Weathering’s Essence wasn’t simply slowing down, but was having their time slowed to nothing.

Glaven dived away from Weathering’s charge, the swipe of her sword missing him by inches. But behind her, Olsten was ready. One of Glaven’s stars landed down, right into the path of the bullet Olsten had fired. There wasn’t even any contest. Glaven’s golden Essence, bursting into a spray of red, blue, and violet, swamped and put out the teal like water on a flame.

There was a series of rapid Commands from Glaven, and the bullet zipped back the way it had come. Olsten fired several more shots, but none landed a blow. The bullet Glaven had Commanded took them all out one after the other, whizzing through the air and changing direction at will, creating force and momentum and energy out of nothing.

Weathering sliced it out of the air.

Olsten’s teal Essence flared bright and Glaven flew back. Weathering charged in, trying to take advantage of Glaven’s momentary lapse in concentration as he fell to the ground. He barely fended off her fatal blows, but a few of them got past his knife and struck him on his leg, shoulder, upper arm, and his chest, leaving crimson lines oozing liquid red.

It looked as though Glaven might be overwhelmed, and Riven’s heart clenched as though Olsten was still affecting it with his Essence. But his brother jumped back all of sudden, giving himself breathing room.

He breathed in deep, then his stars went crazy. Two descended into the ground and one whirled around in the air, dashing everywhere as though it had been possessed by an insane spirit. Even at this distance, the shift was evident. Glaven stood straighter as though he no longer had to worry about the two Essentiers he was facing, both of whom were taking steps back. A strange sensation came in, an immutable change in the very air that Riven felt on a subliminal level.

The ground shook as though there was an earthquake, and Glaven jumped forward. An almighty crack resounded through the air and Glaven rose into the air, supported by a floating rock big enough to crush the car. Riven might have been far away, but the cracks shooting everywhere on the ground was easy to spot. Air swirled around Glaven, forming an enormous tornado like the one that had popped up with the Deadmage.

Like the soldiers around him, Riven gawked. This was the Municipier’s true power.

Glaven would be safe. They’d all been very foolish to doubt him. Riven turned and ran into the building, the guards yelling behind him. They came after him, their screams and yells only propelling Riven to move even faster. The wound Nivi had done her best to heal twinged, but Riven only ran faster. She’d done so much for him. The least he could do was get her and everyone else out of this pyre the soldiers had crafted for them.

“Get him,” one of the soldiers yelled.

“Stop,” shouted another.

One shot his rifle. “Die!” The bullet missed him entirely.

Fires swirled around Riven everywhere. Entire rooms were burning, walls cracking and floor feeling like lava. He stopped at a chamber where the inferno was blazing high, the flames twisting and curling around the centre like a fiery tornado. Like Glaven’s tornado.

Riven shook his head. He’d made his choice and he’d have to believe in it. He’d have to faith in his brother. That was what Mother told him to do, right?

He stood still for a second, pausing his breaths to hear as well as he could. The prisoners might be making some sort of noise. Were those screams from somewhere distant? Riven couldn’t be sure, but the building was burning down and the soldiers behind him weren’t about to relent on their chase. He had no time to ruminate.

Riven turned left and ran on. His heart seemed to freeze, emphasizing the silence—besides the crackling fire and the building breaking apart—and letting him know just how much he’d screwed up. There was no one in this direction. He’d come the wrong way.

No. No it couldn’t be true. He had to make sure. Riven paused, but it was as he feared. There was no one in this direction, those distant screams having disappeared as though they’d never been.

He turned. They’d been to the right. Riven focused for a moment, making sure his Essence armour was all over him. Orbray’s soldiers came rushing into the corridor, rifles aimed at Riven, but there was no time to worry about those bastards. He charged forward, his armour absorbing the blast of their bullets with minute cracks all over. Riven didn’t stop when he reached the soldiers, barrelling through them as though he was a bull, throwing them back as they collided with him. He’d be damned to the last Realm of the Chasm before he’d let a bunch of mooks stop him.

Riven charged through them, past the swirling inferno that had reminded him of Glaven’s tornado, then through the opposite corridor. He didn’t need to pause this time to confirm his suspicions. The screams were louder, drawing him forward like he was a fish caught on a hook.

 But the soldiers. Those bastards would prove troublesome if they reached the captives. No, Riven would have trouble enough bringing everyone out of the fire. He had to take care of the soldiers beforehand.

Riven paused. He took a deep breath, then turned around. His face set in a hard line, and for all his running, his breathing settled. He’d never been this cold before. The soldiers began running into the corridor without any order as though they were fleeing the fire too. The only difference was that they were brandishing their rifles, ready to kill.

Monsters. They were ready to annihilate an entire building full of innocent people. And these arseholes called the Deathless monsters.

The soldier in the lead pointed his rifle at Riven and fired. The bullet hit the golden armour and stuck there in a crack. He didn’t get another chance to fire. Riven charged at him, and the soldier froze, taken aback at the sudden display of aggression. His training kicked in, or perhaps it was some deep-buried instinct to survive, and the soldier swung his rifle like a club as soon as Riven got close. It shattered on his armour, leaving not even a single scratch.

It was Riven’s turn next. As the soldier took a frightened step back, fear contorting into a hint of a scream bubbling out of his throat, Riven punched him full in the face. The soldier’s feet lifted off the ground at the sheer force before he slumped the floor. He didn’t move.

The second soldier had stopped at the little brawl that had taken mere seconds. He made to turn and run, but Riven was ready. His armour disappeared, and a golden sphere formed around the soldier’s head. The man fell.

More soldiers were coming in, readying to shoot. Riven pulled away the shield from around the second soldier’s head and reformed his armour before he was blown to bits. No matter. The soldier was down and out, and just for good measure, Riven stomped on his head, grounding his boot into the back of the man’s head.

“That’s far enough.” It was the leader of the soldiers. “Kill him, now.”

The soldiers got ready to fire, but Riven didn’t give them much of a chance. He dashed into their midst, and the cramped corridor meant they couldn’t space themselves far enough to safely use their rifles.

All the better for Riven. A grin worked out onto his mouth, his eyes roving over them all, drinking in their obvious fear. Was this what it meant to be so powerful?

Riven was a force of chaos among these spindly soldiers. The first that he punched crumpled to the ground and doubled over like a bent rod of iron. Another sprayed blood from his mouth and nose, screaming as he fell to Riven’s fist. A panicked shot went out, but it missed Riven, hitting another unfortunate woman. No not unfortunate. The bastards all deserved this.

Even that soldier who looked no older than Riven.

They paused, both Riven and the young man. Another man screamed, firing his rifle. The bullet lodged over Riven’s temple and he flinched.

“Gut him!” someone screamed.

The boy-soldier did so. Or tried to. His rifle shattered like the other one’s had when he clubbed Riven’s golden Essence-wreathed head with it. Riven kicked this time, sparing the boy’s face. The young soldier fell back, making the wise decision to not get back up again. Or maybe Riven had killed him.

No time to wonder. There were more men and women, and they all attacked him this time, all together in a concerted effort bent on overwhelming his defence. They nearly succeeded. If Riven hadn’t been fuelled with as much rage as he was, struggling furiously with his punches, kicks, and spit flying everywhere and felling the thugs with every blow.

In the end, the only ones left were three men—two thuggish ones who were looking to slink away, and the soldiers’ leader.

Riven had eyes only for the leader. Credit to the man, he held his ground and didn’t move, even when the other two soldiers turned and ran at Riven’s approach.

“You won’t come out of this alive either, Morell,” the leader said.

“I think you’re talking about yourself.”

The man brought up his rifle but Riven was already there, his hand clamping over the muzzle of the rifle. It exploded as the man fired, Riven’s armour cracking around his fist. The leader cursed, but that was as far as he got. Riven punched him as he had done to the others. Stupid soldier didn’t go unconscious, but Riven didn’t stop, stomping and kicking until the man was no longer moving.

Riven stepped back, golden armour dissipating. His eyes jumped from prone body to prone body, all of them lying beaten down and in danger of being consumed by the flames. For just a moment, he was possessed by the urge to drag them all out of the building. Wouldn’t it be fun to see them all wake up and find themselves alive? But his heart was a block of ice, and he didn’t even know if he had time to save those who deserved to be saved.

He rushed the way he was supposed to be going. The others were waiting to get out. Riven had to free them before the whole place collapsed.

#

There were two more soldiers standing guard in front of the cafeteria where the facility workers were being held. They shouted as soon as they saw him. Riven, of course, made no secret of his approach. There was no time for subtlety.

They fired their rifles. Riven’s armour let nothing touch him, and he crashed into them with the same fore and fury as he’d done with the soldiers before. They fell before his onslaught, and it took him a little time to ensure they wouldn’t be a problem going forward. It was becoming easier and easier to ignore the blood and the way the bodies had contorted on the ground.

The door to the cafeteria was locked, but a good kick sent it flying open. The rush in Riven’s blood simmering throughout the whole fight with the soldiers reached a peak as he entered the room, eyes falling on the dozens of people trapped in the area. There were groundskeepers, janitors, researchers, all of them tied, bound, and forced to stay within. Riven’s breath became harsher every second. Those damn bastards had thrust everyone into the inferno’s maw, regardless of their involvement in matters here, not a single thought given to any form of innocence.

At least the workers here had the sense to get under the many tables strewn all over.

“Riven!” Nivi said, pushing herself out from under one of the tables. “Thank the Scions you came. But what happened to those two outside?”

He knew she didn’t mean the soldiers. “Glaven’s taking care of them. You came back just to get cap—” Riven stopped himself. Nivi hadn’t been captured. Or if she had, she’d found a way to free herself. Unlike the others, her hands and legs weren’t bound by ropes, though there was a loose section around her ankles that was surely going to make her trip. “What happened?”

She gave him a devilish smile. “Did you really think we were just going to wait here and die?” Nivi coughed as a trail of smoke descended on her. “We were going to force our way out. I got free of my binds—in fact, never got properly tied in the first place—but you need to help still.”

Riven had been afraid of this. His eyes scoured the area, but there was no sign of two people Riven had been hoping to see. “Franry and Arrilme. Where are they?”

“I had to hide them in the basement. That’s how you need to help. Please find them and get them out of there. They won’t be able to get out of there alive without your Essence.”

Behind Nivi, the others were beginning to crawl out from under the tables. Not everyone, for there were still those who were waiting to be freed from their binds, but quite a few already. Nivi had been busy.

“Where’s the basement?” Riven asked.

Nivi gave him directions, and Riven set off after getting reassurances that they’d be able to make it on their own now that there were no soldiers to worry about. Well, Riven hoped there weren’t any more soldiers lurking. He had no time to see to Nivi’s party if there were. Chasm, why was he being thrust these damned choices all the time. First between Glaven and the facility, now between the workers and the Deathless.

Despite his fears, it didn’t take too long to find them. Which was a good thing considering the fact the place was breaking apart. With every step, Riven heard walls falling down, pipes bursting open, ground cracking apart under the stress of the heat. There was too little time. The whole facility was going to fall soon. Riven barged through the burning hallways, down smoke-filled flights of stairs, and eventually found himself in the basement.

But it wasn’t the Deathless he’d been seeking that made him stop. No, it was the sight of all the Sept.

There were boxes upon boxes here, all the collected Sept that the facility used for their experiments to conduct research neatly stacked away. They were well-organized, refined ones kept marked boxes, unrefined stored in jars and barrels of various sizes, and several collections for different uses stored in differently-sized bottles. Some vials were no bigger than Riven’s littlest finger, while other bottles were too big to carry off by himself.

It was the sheer capacity that floored him though. So much Sept. With this much at hand, the possibilities were endless, right? He could do so much.

“Riven!”

The cry tore his gaze away from the Sept. Franry was running at him, and it was only then Riven saw the smoke flooding the room, its stains covering nearly everything. The glow of the Sept had made it all seem quite clean near the beginning.

Franry stopped his mad dash before he jabbed Riven with one of his many spikes. “Ma’s been acting very strange, Riven. Can you help us? I think all this smoke might be getting to her.”

Rivne looked around, but the smoke was a strong curtain. How had he not noticed its density before? “Where’s Arrilme?”

“Come and see.”

Franry led him through the smoke. Riven covered his face and screwed his eyes, but the boy didn’t have to do anything of the sort. As a Deathless, he wasn’t in danger of suffocating or dying from smoke inhalation, in the way Riven was. But then, how was Arrilme affected by it?

They found the Spectre near the back wall. She had pressed herself against the wall to provide minimal contact with the smoke in the room, as though the bricks, plaster, and pain would open up and let her get away if she pushed hard enough.

“Arrilme,” Riven said. “It’s me, Riven. I came to get you both out of here.”

The Spectre didn’t seem to recognize him. Her eyes were glazed over, distant as though she was lost in a trance. Riven sucked in a sharp breath—a mistake with all the smoke around, as it infiltrated his lungs and made him cough. That didn’t dislodge the thought burning through his mind, though.

Arrilme was stuck in the Beyond.

She was feeling the pull at least, even if she wasn’t completely there one way or another. Memories crashed into Riven’s mind like meteors. He was back with the Cataclysm. Back fighting for his life against an impossible and glittering monster, where the world had warped and gone hazy, where nothing was recognizable beyond a tiny distance ahead of him. A world where he’d have gone insane if he’d stayed there for too long.

“It’s the Sept, I think,” Riven hypothesized. “I’ve seen this in Deathless before. In fact, most of them get like this, where it’s as if they’re not really here. It’s because she’s feeling the pull of the Beyond.”

Franry was apparently too practical to care about any hypothesis. “How do we free her?”

“Let’s just get out of here first.” Riven was afraid Arrilme might struggle, but she didn’t struggle or make any move at all when he grabbed her. “Can you take as much Sept as you can?”

Franry frowned a bit, but then followed his orders. Smart boy saw there was no time to ask too many questions. Riven was glad for it. It seemed counterintuitive after he’d mentioned that Arrilme’s condition had likely rise because of the proximity to all the Sept. Thank the Scions he didn’t have his Sept crystal on him, though there was the worry if it would be all right after Glaven and the others were done with their fight.

But he needed as much Sept as he could gather. Letting this entire stash go to waste seemed like a criminal offence.

In fact, Riven himself took as much as he could fit on him. He stuffed smaller bottles inside his jacket, used rope lying on the walls that hadn’t burned off yet to lash several medium-sized barrels and boxes together into a contraption he could carry off, and took two more large bottles that he could fit under his arms. Riven almost laughed. He was worse than a thief who had just discovered a long-forgotten tomb of some ancient ruler.

Franry rejoined him, holding enough bottles in his arms to obscure his entire top half. His voice came out muffled. “Time to go?”

“Yes,” Riven replied.

They started but were then forced to stop. The ceiling of the basement cracked like thunder and burning debris crashed down in front of them. Burdened by his loot as he was, Riven still pulled Arrilme and Franry closer to him, a few bottles slipping out of the boy’s grasp and shattering on the floor to spill Sept.

Another crack, this time right above them, and Riven focused. The pressure shot out to form a hemispherical shield around the three of them, debris bouncing off it and crashing to the ground.

They were safe.

“Are we there yet?” Arrilme asked groggily. “Have we reached the Beyond?”

“What does that mean?” Franry turned to face Riven, both his voice and his eyes spiking with fear.

“It’s okay,” Riven said. “Don’t worry, we just need to get out of here.”

Riven grit his teeth together as he stared forward. How were they going to get out now? The fallen ceiling had blocked the doorway and there was no way to dig themselves out. If the basement was breaking under the stress of the fires and the heat, the whole place was going to crash in on itself soon.

As if to prove him right, the facility groaned. More debris fell, all burning and thumping down everywhere. Their time was up.

Riven kept up his focus. He had his Essence to shield Franry and Arrilme so they should be safe. But for how long? If they were buried around a mound of rubble, suffocating at the lack of air and the choking heat, then—

He had his shield! Riven could use that to get out of this mess, right? Of course, there had been that time he’d stopped a damn Cataclysm of all things. Ridiculous. But this was similar in that he had access to a ton of Sept, and with all that power, it shouldn’t be hard at all to force their way out.

Taking in a deep breath, Riven expanded his shield further outwards. Pressure thrummed in him, rushing out with the force of a thousand-yard-high waterfall, pushing his shield to fill the whole basement as golden lines shot from him in an unending stream. Despite the piling debris, the expansion didn’t stop. If the sounds could be trusted, the whole building had crashed down around them, and all Riven saw through the light-golden film was rubble and fire. Tiny cracks in his shield popped up at the impact with falling debris but his Essence papered them over. Riven could only hope that Nivi and the others had made it out safely.

It worked. Impossibly, with his Essence gushing out of him like an irrepressible ocean current that Riven was caught in, the golden shield blew up to enormous proportions. What parts of the building that had still stood after the collapse were now broken and shoved away by the giant hemisphere. Its diameter had to be bigger than a field now.

With some effort, Riven shut off his Essence flow. The shield dissipated, leaving the three of them standing in an enormous circle of grey tiles, all the fire and rubble ringing them like a giant wall.

A wall Riven had no trouble breaking down as he led Franry and Arrilme, a smaller Essence shield carving a tunnel right through it.

“You made it!” Nivi exclaimed as soon as she saw them. Somehow, they had made it right to where she had led the rest of the survivors. She rushed over and came to a sudden halt when she neared them, looking from one to the other as if unable to decide who to embrace. She settled for a bright smile. “I think that’s your doing?”

Riven glanced back at the circular wall of debris, a mountain that was still burning at several spots. Orbray’s soldiers had to be buried within there somewhere. “It is.”

A shriek from the distance forestalled any further conversation. They all turned. Glaven’s Essence was warring that of Weathering’s and Olsten’s, his golden orbs leaving trails of red and blue, his enormous tornado still going strong and smothering the crimson and teal Essence he was battling against.

“I have to go,” Riven said. “Take care.”

He charged off. Glaven was waiting. Bastard wasn’t ever likely to admit it, but he needed Riven’s help. And for all the rest that Riven might have needed, he had a ton of Sept now, and he needed to use it.

He needed to save his damn brother.