“That might have something to do with the fact that you caught the last one off guard.” Nyxie reminded him. “That won’t be an option here.”

“Agreed.” Eli nodded before turning to Zee. “How bad is the damage?”

“Not great.” The desert elf admitted. “Our original plan was to push towards the far wall and the crystal at the same time to keep them off-balance and make sure we don’t get flanked. I don’t think we have the troops to do both anymore.”

“Fuck.” Eli swore, shaking his head as he looked around. “Alright. We’ve probably got a few minutes to figure something out before they rally and hit us again. What are our options?”

“Blitz towards the crystal.” Naz suggested. “Fast and aggressive. Plant the bomb and get the fuck out.”

“And have to fight while flanked the entire way?” Aratessa questioned. “Better to try and sneak in quietly.”

“What if another Titan shows up?” Minerva countered. “I doubt they’ll be fooled by our magic.”

“How close do we need to be to set off the bomb?” Aria asked. “We could ask the admiral to bring it to our front line and set it off there.”

“We shouldn’t take any chances.” Eli shook his head. “Prometheus said there’s magical defenses around the crystal itself that we need to take out first. If the blast is negated by those defenses, everything we’ve done will be for nothing.”

“So what’s the plan?” Vespera asked.

A plan slowly formed in his mind as he looked at his bond mates. He knew it would involve putting the people he loved in harms way, but it also stood the best chance of success. Gritting his teeth, he mulled it over for a moment longer before speaking.

“We draw in more Titans.”

There was a long silence before Freya spoke. “You want to do what?”

“Eli, the last Titan killed an enormous number of our troops.”

 “That’s only because I was out of position and wasn’t ready.” Eli replied. “This time, we’ll be ready.”

“I still don’t understand how drawing in more of them is going to help us.” Minerva interjected.

“Did you see how many of their own troops the Titan killed?” Eli asked, gesturing to the battlefield. “For every one of us, it took down at least ten of them. And we can increase that ratio by making sure the fight happens farther away from our troops.”

Nyxie tilted her head in thought. “It…might just work. If seeing one Titan get killed broke their morale, seeing more than one die might just shatter them.”

“Giving us a chance to blitz when the time is right.” Naz finished.

“How exactly do you plan on drawing in more Titans though?”

“By giving them a really tempting target.” Eli responded. “Royal Bloods.”

“Royal Bloods? As in plural?” Lilly asked. “But there’s only one of…” She trailed off. “Oh.”

“Yeah. My mana shield will protect you to a certain extent, but it’s still going to be dangerous. So I’m not going to do it unless-” Eli started.

“We’re in.” Aria interrupted him.

A round of nods from the group confirmed her assertion. “Alright then.” Eli said before barking rapid-fire orders over the radio. “Admiral. Get everyone to pull back to the portal point. Set up a defensive line and hit them at range.”

“We’re abandoning the mission?” He questioned.

“No, just changing tactics. We can’t risk the army while there’s still more Titans lurking around, so we’re going to draw the rest of them out and take them down before we advance again.”

“Understood. Good hunting.” Admiral Wilson replied.

With a grim nod, Eli and his retinue set out over the battlefield at a jog. They quickly passed their army’s battle line as it retreated, moving into the contested ground between forces. When the Titan army finally began to rally and advance again they stopped their march, clearing a space roughly in the middle of the enormous building so that they’d have space to fight the oncoming horde.

Taking a deep breath, Eli closed his eyes and sat on the floor cross-legged. He began to envision the constellation of stars representing his bond mates shining upon one another, one at a time. A network of golden threads flared to life around him, connecting each woman to both him and one another. Their disparate magics began to coalesce into one as they started to fling spells into the oncoming horde, decimating their front ranks instantly.

Sweat formed on his brow as he continued to link his women together. The intense mental concentration required to sustain so many connections forced him to keep his eyes closed and tune out the noise around him, trusting that his bond mates and retainers would keep him, themselves, and each other safe. More and more threads snapped into place around him, forming a spiderweb of delicate bonds that he could barely hold together.

Suddenly, the epiphany hit him. Not a spiderweb. A wheel. One where I’m the hub, connected to all the others via spokes. And everyone is connected to each other via the rim.

The change in mental model snapped into place, easing the pressure on his mind to the point where he barely noticed the strain. His eyes snapped open just in time to see the front ranks of Titan soldiers crash into his bond mates only to be utterly annihilated a moment later. For a moment he could only stare in wonder at the golden threads, watching them pulse as the women in his life drew on one another’s magic to beat back the oncoming hordes.

Eli slowly pulled himself to his feet, unable to keep a grin from growing across his face. He watched as Isla alternated between tossing shards of ice and balls of fire into an enormous group of ratkin held aloft by Lilly’s spatial magic spell. His grin grew when he saw Vespera and Minerva work in tandem to cast flaming spears of light through a group of Orryx, skewering them easily. An outright laugh escaped him when he saw Naz teleporting through the shadows, appearing behind ratkin mutants just long enough to decapitate them before disappearing again.

The power his women held had reached truly terrifying levels.

In the chaos of the battle, one of the few women in their group not bonded to Eli found a use for her powers. Nyxie’s chittering voice magnified a hundredfold, echoing through the cavern. It caused every nearby ratkin to cover their ears in pain for a moment before turning and running the other direction.

“What did you say?” Eli asked, turning to her.

“I told them that the Royal Bloods are here to exact their revenge for the invasion of Earth.” She shrugged. “Seems to have worked.”

By some unspoken agreement, the group continued to advance as the ratkin fell back. They each took a moment to drink a mana potion and heal their wounds as they began their climb over the accumulated bodies of their enemies. When the Titan forces finally rallied and charged once more, they were met with a renewed magical assault that lit up the building around them.

Enemies fell by the hundreds as waves of ice and fire combined with choking vines and whirlpools of swirling sand. Magical attacks bounced off the golden shields around each of his bond mates and overlapping gravity shields repelled more traditional projectiles. Anytime a creature closed to within melee distance they efficiently killed it with a skill level far beyond their own, calling upon instinctive orcish magic to guide their blades.

Realizing he didn’t have to do much except for maintain the connection, Eli casually strolled through the battlefield and watched the carnage. Every spell cast around him seemed to send a tingle down his spine, as if to remind him that he’d truly turned himself into a conduit for all types of magic. Furrowing his brow, he started to focus on the individual feelings generated by the use of each school of magic and came to a startling realization.

They all feel exactly the same. He blinked in surprise, his second epiphany of the last few minutes building upon the first. Magic was never supposed to be broken into schools. It would be like a wheel with a broken rim. No, this is what magic is supposed to be – unbroken, whole, and pure. Just like Athena said.

He wasn’t entirely sure how he came across this revelation, only that he knew it to be true in his bones. It was like he was colorblind all his life, and could now suddenly see the world in all its grandeur. In the same vein, he also knew that if he tried to explain it to someone else they’d likely look at him as if he was crazy – just the same way he looked at Athena when she tried to explain it to him.

As the feelings of shock washed over him, a golden light began to glow from his skin. It started in his tattooed hand but quickly spread up his arm, across his torso, then up to his face and down his legs. All around them the Titan forces who saw him performed an abrupt about-face before retreating once more, terrified of what they glimpsed.

“Eli?” Aria asked hesitantly after turning around to see what scared them off.

“Yeah?” Eli asked in return.

“You look…different.”

“Holy shit.” Naz agreed.

Seeing that the Titan forces were in full retreat once more, Zee pulled her phone out of one of her pockets and tossed it to him. He caught it and turned the camera around to face him, eager to see what his mysterious new form looked like. The sight that greeted him almost caused him to drop the device in shock.

I look different. He thought to himself in a detached sort of way. This must be my 7^th power.

Hovering over his head was an ethereal crown of pure mana that sparkled with golden light. Its glow matched the hue of his skin, eyes and hair, all of which had been changed during his transformation. His body seemed to pulse with a golden illumination as he slowly levitated higher and higher, giving him a birds-eye view of the battlefield.

“Got eyes on more Titans.” Admiral Wilson reported over the radio. “Two of them this time.”

A rush of confidence swelled within Eli as he sighted the two creatures. With barely a thought the glow around him intensified and he shot through the air, powered by nothing but pure magic and determination. The shouts of his bond mates echoed in his radio as he left them behind, cruising smoothly over the horde of ratkin.

Suddenly, bolts of lightning shot up from the horde towards him. Each one individually was tiny, firing out of the mouths of ratkin and tracking him through the air. Before he could even think to dodge it hit him, the miniscule spells doing nothing but refilling his mana.

It was only when he heard the ratkin below him crying out in pain that he slowed down to reassess. More bolts of lightning raced towards him from the horde as he did, including some larger ones from the ratkin spellcasters and mutants. His golden eyebrows shot up in surprise when he saw hundreds of them keeling over and passing out, and the thought that they weren’t intentionally casting the spell dawned on him.

The realization that he was draining their mana at a distance suddenly popped into his mind like an unbidden thought. Similar to his previous epiphanies he wasn’t entirely sure how the knowledge came to him, but somehow he knew it to be true. He spun in a slow circle for a moment, collecting the mana from creatures in a 300 foot radius around him before rocketing upwards towards the Titans.

If Prometheus’ ring had turned Eli into the perfect Titan-hunter, then his new form elevated his status to that of apex predator. He only had to come within 50 feet of the Titans before they suddenly went rigid, their bodies unable to move. Eli’s ring glowed with the brightness of a small sun once more but this time his magic protected him from damage, allowing him to see the ratkin forces scampering away.

“Eli, what the fuck was that?” Zee demanded angrily over the radio as the glow faded.

“I killed the Titans.” He replied robotically as he looked down to find them charging recklessly through the mass of retreating Titan soldiers.

“What…how?” Aria asked.

“I absorbed their mana into the ring.”

“At range?!” She pressed. “That’s impossible!”

“Not for me.” Eli replied.

He demonstrated his newfound mastery of magic by wordlessly summoning a hail of ice javelins using a careless, half-formed gesture. They rained down on the retreating Titan forces below him, unerringly stabbing through heads and hearts. A moment later he followed it up with a flaming tornado that tore through their ranks further away, then a field of thorny vines that easily snared and choked the life out of any ratkin in a quarter mile section to his right.

“Eli, stop!” Vespera shouted. “You’re going to burn through your mana if you keep going.”

“I don’t think so.” He replied as he surveyed the carnage, realizing that he’d just killed several thousand of their forces in mere seconds. “I think I’m beyond that now.

“Eli, you’re scaring me.” Minerva said as she flew up to him warily. “You’re talking strangely, and-”

“I’m not being strange.” He interrupted, even as his clinically detached voice betrayed him. “I just finally see the truth of magic. I have become its avatar.”

“That sounds like something a Titan would say…” Nyxie trailed off.

“Or someone who thinks they’re a god.” Aratessa added.

“Fuck that. Eli, you get down here right now!” Naz shouted into the radio angrily. “We’re going to finish this together!”

“No, I don’t think we will.” He shook his head. “Get back to the rest of our troops and open a portal to Earth. I’ll finish this myself.”

Their cacophony of protests were suddenly silenced when he forcibly teleported them through the shadows back to the middle of their command post. A moment later the nuclear bomb appeared on the ground below him, carried to him at range with barely a thought.

Without pausing to consider how powerful he’d truly become, he wordlessly used his magic to make the bomb float upwards before grabbing it midair and pulling it through the building. He skimmed 30 feet above the ground the whole time, draining the mana from every nearby fleeing soldier to keep his own reserves topped off. It was only when he neared the crystal that he stopped, running into a magical barrier mid-flight that kept him out.

Not a problem. He thought to himself, placing a hand against the shield to turbocharge his mana drain abilities.

The power that came along with the rush of mana into him was intoxicating. He felt almost drunk with it, knowing that reality was no longer absolute – it was an opinion that could be catered to his every whim. Looking down he saw terrified Titan soldiers sprinting away from him as fast as their feet would carry them.

On an impulse, he pointed at one of the hundreds of ratkin airships above him. A thin beam of golden light fired from his finger, cutting a hole in the side of the blimp. He rotated his finger in a minute circle, causing the hole to expand rapidly and the war machine to fall to the ground.

Somehow, he knew that draining the mana barrier would take several more minutes to complete so he amused himself by repeating the process for a second airship. It was quickly followed by a third, then a fourth. By the time the barrier disappeared he was surrounded by the burning hulks of dozens of them, each one raining down firey debris on whatever remained of the nearby ratkin troops.

Satisfied with the work he’d done, Eli resumed his advance towards the crystal. His magical senses and the fact that he wasn’t draining any more mana told him there was nothing to stop him from reaching it anymore. When he neared he carefully placed the bomb next to the crystal, using his magic to trigger the timed activation rather than wasting time keying in the code.

“Eli!” Zee shouted a moment later. “The admiral just told me the bomb is armed! It’s going off in 5 minutes!”

“Yes.” Eli replied distantly. “I defeated the magical defenses and armed the bomb. You should get everyone to leave before it goes off.”

“You need to get out of there too!” She insisted.

He almost took a step towards the other side of the building before stopping. Why? Why should I leave? This puny thing can’t even begin to stand up to a spellcaster like me. He paused for a moment. No, not a spellcaster. A god!
A moment later, the remainder of the Titans began to step through portals around him. If only to give himself a challenge while he waited for the bomb to go off he mentally put a stop to his ranged mana drain, instead choosing to meet the creatures mastery of magic with his own. He darted from one to another, placing his hands on them to drain them instantly before darting towards his next victim.

As the last one fell though Eli looked up to see a blonde figure eying him with fear in her brilliant blue eyes. She floated above the ground powered by magic in a crude facsimile of Eli’s spell. Even though she was wearing armour similar to his, he could see the slight bulge in her stomach as she rested her hand atop it.

Aria. He thought. My love, my fiancée. The mother of my child.

The thought seemed to snap him out of whatever trance he was in. His golden skin faded as he dropped his hammer and triggered a transformation that tore through his armour. He beat his draconic wings towards her and in one smooth motion snatched her out of the air before racing towards the open portal at the end of the building.

“Eli!” She shouted. “We’ve only got a minute left! Get the others!”

He pushed his flying skills to the absolute limit, roaring at Freya’s coldheart phoenix form in an effort to make her turn back. Fortunately for him she got the message, performing an abrupt aerial about-face to reveal that Lilly was riding on her back. The two of them somehow found more speed before Eli dipped once more, snatching a still-sprinting Zee and Naz directly off the ground and into his claws.

“Thirty seconds!” Zee shouted.

As he crossed the halfway point of the building, Aratessa teleported directly onto his back and nestled her legs between the large spikes covering him. Seconds later Minerva zipped over to his side, depositing a screaming Vespera on his back as she did. He looked up to see the last of the troops they’d brought with them streaming through the portal, their equipment and weapons abandoned in the mad dash to leave before the explosion.

Finally, the dragoness in Eli’s life descended from above them and roared to her mate. She flapped her wings and traded altitude for speed, moving far enough ahead of him that he could see a terrified Nyxie clutching one of her back-spikes and screaming in terror. The sight was almost comical to him, and it would have caused him to break out laughing if not for the fact that they were all seconds away from death.

The illumination of the explosion bloomed brightly behind them just as they crossed the event horizon of the portal as a group, tumbling into the enormous way station on Earth. Milliseconds later the portal closed behind them, snapping shut just as a gout of flame and a roar of sound shot through it. In the chaos and shouting that immediately followed Eli triggered a transformation back into his human form, ensuring that all of his bond mates had made it through.

When he was sure they were safe, he promptly passed out.