Chapter 307: Crashing the party (Patreon)

“Warptunnel stability at ninety-six percent,” the captured Peilor who I’ve tasked with keeping me informed chimes with a tremor in her voice.

I’m hovering in spiritform next to Alec, now in the Command Centre, having left communications behind in the capable hands of Trisha. After all, few beings are better at communicating than a hive mind.

While Commander Haron seemed a bit sceptical when I told him everything’s going according to plan, he didn’t seem inclined to interfere. He warned me he’d be ‘closely monitoring the situation,’ however.

Well, not like he could miss what’s about to happen, anyway.

I lick my lips, my eyes never leaving Suri, who’s hooked into a special pedestal in the very centre of the room.

The controls.

After all, what the Voidcannon essentially does is massively empower someone’s Spatial Skills. In the end, it still requires a sapient being to control most of its functions.

It’s a big responsibility, but I find I have a lot of faith in Suri.

Next to her stands the captain with his big Hoig, his cooperation required as part of the Voidcannon’s security measures. Next to him are Akir and Agath, who are keeping him under a tight watch and proving that no security measures are a match for a sudden invasion of a flood of powerful spiritual beings bent on mental domination.

And I do mean a flood, as the Realm of Imagination has built up a larger stable of former Ascendants than I originally expected. We actually got enough volunteers to form two teams of nine—not counting Trisha, who’s in both teams. Team Kong, led by Agath, is here with me in the Command Centre, while Team Horror is still hunting down any last Peilor hiding away inside the Voidcannon.

Like Team Kong, Team Horror is named for its leader, in a way. I actually jokingly suggested the name after I found out that its leader, Timmy—a giant rabbit that I’d seen around Hangspire but never really interacted with—grew up in and was once the Apex of the most horrible Realm I’ve ever visited: the Realm of Creepy Friggin’ Carrots.

Timmy thought it was hilarious, and it stuck.

Anyway, directly above the control pedestal hangs a projection of our targets: Big Bortha and the Twinstar. As I glance up at them, the latter suddenly disappears, and a split second later, reappears half-inside of Big Bortha.

“Warp successful,” my informer chimes needlessly, softly adding, “may Starmother have mercy on us.”

I clench my hands into fists, waiting for what we expect to be inevitable. Come one come on come—

The orange star explodes, rapidly followed by Big Bortha and finally the blue star. The released Heat from the first half of the Twinstar expands the Aether around it into a ball of Astreum growing in one direction, while the Cold from Big Bortha creates a mass of Boreum growing in another. Finally, the massive bolt of released Electric Energy disappears in the distance.

“Heck yeah!” Alec whoops, offering a high-five to Loudmouth, who doesn’t notice, staring at the display with his mouth hanging slack.

I immediately shush him, not wanting to risk any break of Suri’s concentration.

Because next is the hard part.

“Pocket dimension creation initiated,” the Peilor next to me chimes, still narrating Suri’s progress. “Pocket dimension forming... anchor point stabilising... and—”

In the projection, a thin shell of deep blue light surrounds the Starlight Palace.

“—formation successful.”

I shake my head, letting out a breath as I unclench my fists. “Suri, you are a queen.”

Alec shoots me a disapproving look and shushes me. I roll my eyes.

“I’m quite sure we’d agreed on advocating for a democracy, dear,” Suri chimes tersely in response, contrarian as ever. “Now please hurry up and go install those anchors.”

Before I can initiate anything of the sort, however, I’m interrupted by Trisha.

“Oh dear,” she starts urgently. “I’m afraid we have a problem; I just got word from Yog that Mara has unexpectedly made an appearance at the launch party after all!”

I close my eyes and swear under my breath.

Starmother hadn’t RSVP’d—we triple-checked—and either way, we’d hoped to start our plan before the event commenced, but Kaitlynn’s trial got pushed back just a bit too far.

Honestly, the odds of her coming to something like this were low in the first place. Starmother makes veryfew actual public appearances. We’re pretty sure the reason for that is that she’s not a true hive mind. Starmother most likely relies on a massive mind-meld to keep all of her clones on the same page. And I sincerely doubt her clones trust each other without it.

That’s also why we’re confident we can get all of her at once. I’m sure Trisha has drones hibernating in odd places, just in case, perhaps even in other Realms! But Starmother would never allow a clone of herself that much autonomy.

Even letting out the original once in a while must be a matter of compromise. I bet the main hive even has contingencies in place in case the original tries to abscond somehow.

But there’s no point discussing probabilities and what-ifs anymore, as this is now the situation, and we have to deal with it.

“Well, that blows,” Jacob states curtly. “What are we going to do about it?”

Before he even finishes his sentence, the projection in the centre of the room shifts, now showing the Final Hub. The massive, free-floating, hexagonal-based prism makes for a nostalgic sight, despite the lavish decorations littering the islands inside, which are furthermore jam-packed with tiny, mingling figures.

“What’s all the fuss about?” Alec asks, scratching his neck. “It’s only like, one measly part of her hive, right? Can’t we just worry about that later?”

“No, we can’t,” I say with a sigh, running a hand through my hair. “Her grip on Peilinor is too strong. The Realm of Imagination might be safe for a time, but as long as she’s around to order the Peilor’s council and military, Earth will be in jeopardy. Moreover, if we don’t take her out in one fell swoop, she can always disappear to some far corner of the Realm and rebuild, come back stronger. Damnit! Any chance we can trap the Final Hub inside the pocket dimension as well?”

“Inside?” Suri chimes disbelievingly. “Where?! Both the pocket dimension and Elysia barely fit around Starlight Palace, and the lynchpin of this whole plan is that their borders have to perfectly overlap, so Starmother can’t escape either!”

“You’re right,” I say, shaking my head. “It’s too late to mess with all of that. Which means... we’re going to need to hunt her down ourselves.”

“You want to go hunt down and kill the Peilor’s Godqueen,” Jacob repeats incredulously, “in the middle of a gala full of the most important and powerful Peilor?”

Agath grunts. “Bold. I like it too!”

“What? No!” Jacob protests. “I wasn’t admiring the idea; it’s suicide!”

“I have to agree,” Suri chimes. “With all due respect, Emma, unless you bring more forces than we can spare, I don’t see how you’d stand a chance of taking her down.”

“Actually,” Dave replies thoughtfully, “we may have a chance. Look at the projection.”

I quickly turn to glance at it, my eyes widening when I notice the now-included, rapidly expanding ball of Astreum that was half of the Twinstar mere seconds ago. Its projected expansion shows no sign of stopping, and judging from the distance currently still between the two, it will hit the Final Hub at some point in the future.

For a moment, I consider the problem might be about to resolve itself.

However, Starmother’s original body, who’s apparently in attendance at the Countdown Event being held in the very place where I killed Avalan, is a Yang crystal. A little Heat is not going to destroy her.

“Killing her might be too big of an ask,” Dave continues, “but once that hits, we could try to make use of the confusion to pull off a scheme. I’m not sure what we could do, however...”

I rack my brain, feeling the seconds slip by as a silence lingers over the room. If we can’t kill her, then what can we...

“We don’t need to kill her to win!” I blurt out, my eyes widening. “The problem is that she’s separated from the hive, so all we need to do is get her in the damn Pocket Dimension, then Goddess can take care of her! Suri, could you—”

“Pinpoint a single being over incredible distance and unerringly Warp them into the massive pocket dimension I’m maintaining around the Realm’s most powerful being?” she chimes dryly. “What do you expect me to say here, dear, ‘Hold my beer’?”

I roll my eyes. “Can you do it, yes or no?”

Suri is quiet for a moment. “I could probably spare some attention to open up a Warp tunnel,” she admits reluctantly. “But I would need a way to get a lock on her position first.”

I whirl upon the captured Peilor who was keeping me informed earlier. “You, tell me there’s a way to do that!”

“There’s a way to do that,” she immediately chimes.

“Great! Wait, is there actually, or were you just saying what I told you to say?”

“I was just saying what you told me to say.”

I apply my palm to my face.

“But you probably could use a homing beacon,” she continues after a moment. “We normally use them for long-distance Warping, but the only thing it does is relay its exact position to the Voidcannon.”

“Perfect, get us one of those,” I order.

She instantly Warps away, host and all.

I turn back to find Dave looking at me expectantly, as well Jacob, Alec, Loudmouth, and the full team of spiritual beings.

I suck in a breath, then make a decision. “All right, here’s the plan. Team Horror is still on defence here at the Voidcannon, Team Kong is still going out to place the anchors around the pocket dimension, because those tasks are both mission critical.”

Goddess can keep Starmother occupied for a bit, but Elysia needs to descend before she can start bringing her true force to bear. And more importantly, Elysia needs to descend so the raptors can use their collective Imagination to form a bubble around the arena that keeps Starmother from abandoning her bodies and escaping in a spiritual fashion.

“Meanwhile,” I continue, “I’m taking that beacon to the Countdown Gala, with whoever of the Blue Dragons is willing to accompany me.”

The old plan was for us to divide ourselves over the anchor-placing and defensive teams, but truth be told, infiltrating the Voidcannon was our most critical job. The Ascendants can handle the rest here, and by contrast would stand out far too much in the Final Hub.

However, I’m also painfully aware that my friends are our most vulnerable troops. Apart from being the only ones with their physical forms on the line, they’re also still the weakest spiritually, even after Trisha’s Blank Essence Transfusions. Hence why I’m not about to order them to risk their lives once more.

Alec, Jacob, Dave, and Loudmouth exchange glances.

Alec scoffs. “Pssh. If you think we’re letting you have all the fun, think again!”

“Yah,” Loudmouth croaks, puffing up his chest. “Loudmouth coming too; Loudmouth true hero!”

Jacob lets out a long-suffering sigh. “Heck, I guess there are worse ways to commit suicide. Worse reasons too. Count me in.”

Dave just smiles, but his face says it all.

Finally, unexpectedly, Farouq chimes in as well. “I suppose it would be rather a shame to miss out on this party, having come this far. I’m willing to come along if you’ll have me.”

I feel the corner of my own mouth creeping up as well. “Of course, you’re more than welcome. And for the record, Jacob: screw suicide. Today, we’re committing Regicide.”

The Warp tunnel Suri kindly provides dumps us smack-dab in the middle of the hexagonal, transparent Final Hub, near the floating conical stands.

Alec immediately lifts a hand to shield his face from the Heat radiating off the Expanding ball of Astreum that rumbles audibly to our right. While he was raring to shuck his grey robes and reveal the shiny new armour he’s sporting beneath, I thankfully managed to convince him to lay off for now.

Considering the chaotic circumstances we’re throwing ourselves into, Alec, Jacob, and Loudmouth looking like Starshade Agents for a moment longer can only help us.

Farouq is back on Loudmouth’s forehead, while Jacob returned Sudo’s empty crystal to its former spot. We figure its lifeless nature shouldn’t stand out too much under the circumstances.

Dave, however, ended up jumping off the Warp-platform at the last second, saying he had an idea and that he’d catch up later, so we went ahead without him.

I almost regret all of our efforts to appear non-threatening when a nearby Peilor mounted on the forehead of a golden-skinned Hoig spots our arrival and adapts his hurried trajectory to make a beeline towards us. “You there!” he shouts, the tone he’s taking against a group of Starshade Agents betraying his rank as a Lustrous Tier Peilor, if his cut hadn’t already. “What is the meaning of this? Don’t play dumb now; I felt you Warp here from the Voidcannon, which means you—”

“YOU WISH TO TELL US STARMOTHER’S LOCATION,” I Command him right before he reaches us.

“I last saw Starmother over there,” he chimes promptly, as his host lifts one of her arms and points at a floating island made entirely of Boreum, that’s now rapidly evaporating. “But it was a while—”

“YOU WISH TO FORGET YOU SAW US, AND FLEE IN A PANIC.”

He leaves, screaming non-stop.

Whoops. Might have overdone it a little.

“All right, fan out and find her,” I order. “No time to waste, but try not to make a scene! Loudmouth, stay close to me; Trisha, stay out of sight and keep me apprised.”

Trisha managed to fold one of her drones into a backpack which Alec is carrying, so she can serve as a relay. Since her drones are comparatively weak, her presence shouldn’t stand out too much.

As for Loudmouth, I don’t quite trust him not to get in trouble somehow, and he’s currently carrying rather precious cargo in his gullet. Namely the homing beacon.

Jacob immediately launches himself, and Farouq quickly warps Loudmouth away. Meanwhile, I set Alec afloat, and provide a set of short-lived Boreum steps for him to push off on, while quietly directing my voice to Trisha. “How long until the Astreum impacts us?”

It takes a bit, but soon enough I hear her voice whisper right next to my crystal. “The technicians estimate it’ll take another three minutes or so. They’re also saying that, while we’re at a reasonable distance, it’s still going to be rather bad...”

“We’ll make it through. Warn me before it hits, okay? How’s the situation otherwise?”

“Commander Haron is leading a squadron towards the Voidcannon, but his progress through the layer of expanded space is slow for now. Team Kong has been Warped over to the pocket dimension, and their efforts to deploy the external anchors have so far only been met with minimal resistance.”

“Good,” I reply. “Let me know if anything unexpected happens.”

We quickly make it to what’s left of the Boreum island, but Starmother doesn’t seem to be here; or at the very least, her presence isn’t immediately obvious. Because one problem with finding Starmother, is that we need to manage to recognise her.

According to Suri, her crystal is the same shade of pink as her spiritform, so that’s something we’re on the lookout for, but apparently she only ever uses a host once—kind of like one of those insanely rich heiresses that wears a new dress every day—so we have no idea on what kind of creature she might be mounted.

Peilor and their hosts are passing us by left and right, mostly moving away from the expanding ball of Astreum, but none of their crystals are pink. Apparently it’s considered a bit of a faux pas to mimic Starmother in that sense, which is good news for us.

Still, even with that, it’s going to be difficult to find her in this sea of people, so I decide a change of plans is in order.

“Halt!” I shout at a passing Flawed-tier Peilor, prompting them to stop. “Where is Her Highness?!”

“I-I don’t know!” she stammers.

Undeterred, I stop another passing Peilor, and another, putting as much authority in my voice as I can. Finally, on the third try, I hit gold.

“She went that way, towards the Astreum!” a Solith-tier Peilor replies. “She’ll protect us, right?” he adds, hopefully.

I don’t reply, immediately Warping Alec in the indicated direction, Loudmouth and Jacob hot on my tail.

As we head straight for the approaching blast, the distant rumbling grows into a roar, and Alec has to squint against the light radiating off it. “Are we sure this is a good idea?” he shouts over the noise.

Just as I’m about to answer, a grand voice echoes throughout the Hub.

“Now darlings,” it drawls. “You’re not all afraid of a little Astreum, are you? Come, let us stop it together.”

Turning my attention to the source, I spot a being hovering all the way at the transparent wall, looking out at the approaching conflagration. And when the shadow of some debris passes over it, I spot a flash of pink in its reflection.

Got you!

Author's note:

Thanks for reading! ^^