Page 399

There was a flicker of memory—a flash of Aimee laughing in the surf, cheering her on as she learned to ride the waves. For a heartbeat, Taly’s chest tightened, but the goddess’s power surged, drowning the feeling.

What did it matter?

This wasn’t the same world, and Taly wasn’t the same girl.

The guards tried to seize her, but Aimee pushed them back with a blast of steam that erupted from her palms. The hiss of boiling air drowned their shouts as they stumbled back, shielding their faces.

“Taly,” she tried one last time, her eyes pleading.

But Taly’s gaze caught on Aimee’s afterimage—a flickering ghost of a moment not yet fully realized. It wavered, beginning its retreat.

Aimee hesitated, just for a breath. But the afterimage was still peeling away. Then she followed it. Without another word, she vanished into her glamours, leaving Taly alone on the platform.

It took a moment for the realization to settle. To fully make its way through the ranks of undead and their keepers.

The first sounds were murmurs, hushed whispers spreading among them. Eyes widened, glancing between theAion Gate and Taly, still bursting at the seams with light and power.

They didn’t know what had happened, only that they no longer had their god to protect them. This was the moment where either fear or conviction would take over.

A rallying cry rose above the ranks as a shadow mage with eyes like fire stepped forward. “No mercy! No surrender!”

For an instant, they faltered—then confusion hardened into desperate resolve. Mages clinging to their last vestiges of purpose led the undead army in a charge.

Weapons were raised, spells crackled to life, and the ground trembled beneath the feet of the advancing force.

Taly turned to face them, completely calm, her face serene.

Then a deafening explosion tore through the air from the south.

“Woo!” Kato crowed as the explosion ripped through the battlefield like a thunderclap.

“My turn.” Eula braced herself, the metal plates on her left gauntlet shifting and peeling back to reveal the barrel of a cannon. There was a buzz of machinery, lights flickered, then—

“Woo-hoo!” Kato grinned and pumped his mechanical fist as the missile carved through the undead force in a spray of body parts and sparks.

“I’m definitely getting one of these.” Eula swung her suit’s massive arm as the first of the undead rushed them, sending a heap of brittle bodies flying.

“Did you see their faces?” Kato shouted over the comms. “Ooh, look, that one dropped his weapon.”

The cockpit hummed with the familiar symphony of engines and hydraulics. Kato found it soothing. The suitresponded to his slightest shift in balance, amplifying his strength and speed as he ran.

His heart raced in time with the rhythmic pounding of the suit’s feet against the ground. The world outside the visor passed by in a kaleidoscope of color. Sparks and arcs of magic exploded around him as he dove into the undead throng, throwing them aside to find the real prize.

For every undead soldier, there was a shadow mage controlling them. They tended to stay at the back of the rank.

He plucked that rat-bastard off his feet.Squeezedhim like the traitor he was. The mage’s head popped like a grape. As his body went limp, shades began to drop.

“Keep it up!” Eula urged, sending out a barrage of plasma bolts.

Fists and swords pounded against the suit, echoing inside the cockpit as alarm bells sounded. “Uh-oh,” Kato said.

“What do you mean‘uh-oh’?”

On the display, Kato watched as the enemy turned as one. Tiny markers swarmed across the screen, a flood of red closing in on their position. “I think the distraction worked a little too well.”

“Shit.” Eula tossed a hulking shade—a nightmarish amalgamation of different parts of different people—like she would a bag of flour. Its body hit the oncoming wave, knocking them down like bowling pins. “Might I suggest a tactical retreat?”

“You know, I always heard that cardio was good for—hey! Wait up!”