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  There were a few of the Annas with us just in case. They'd stay aboard in the city. This was the original Anna’s show.

  I landed the Graven atop the Helix.

  There was a delegation waiting. I only recognized some.

  King Carnage was dressed in red. He had the ability to generate weak spots in systems and exploit them. Queen Witchgaze could compel others with a glance. I recognized another from historical records, King Kilakas. In the past, he had lost his holdings in struggles with King Boreas. Obviously his fortunes were on an upswing now. Kilakas had the power of invulnerability, which made him close to indestructible.

  Two I didn't recognize were both young women. One wore a silvery gown showing nearly as much cleavage as Anna, the other wore a set of antiquated-looking armor with a sword at her waist.

  I scanned both to get a sense of their capabilities.

  Queen Veya

  Power Level: 229

  Queen Veya possesses a Dimensional core that has the ability to alter the gravity field around people and objects. This allows her to crush or levitate with a basic use of her abilities and with greater skill can provide strong physical defense and offensive capabilities.

  Queen Forge

  Power Level: 331

  Queen Forge possesses an Upgrade core that grants her the ability to create armor and weapons with unique properties and to continue to upgrade them. While they start weak, over time they can become incredibly powerful.

  Judging by Queen Forge's power level she was already formidable. Before, Queen Astrid had always been the strongest of the old Scholarium nobility having consumed thousands of hearts in her time. That Forge was now stronger meant either she'd gained a lot of power in the short term or had been biding her time in silence before making her move.

  I sent the results of my analysis to Anna.

  "Welcome, Queen Anna," Carnage said with a tilt of his head. "Duchess Emma, Duchess Astrid, Duke Boreas. Welcome to the Helix."

  Those titles were carefully chosen, I was sure. They were expressing their intention to treat Anna as an equal, not a superior.

  I barely had time to register the blip in the Graven's Bio-reactor as multiple systems failed and a meltdown began. The ship exploded behind the gathering, shrapnel tearing into my drone and all the humans of our party, but stopped short of the welcoming delegation by a wall of pure gravity.

  Reality flickered and rewound, a disconcerting reversing of events. King Boreas had only gotten stronger since joining us. The rewind took us back to ninety seconds before we'd disembarked from the Graven. We were again inside the ship.

  "So that’s what it feels like to be on the other side of that," Anna said.

  "They dare. The Helix is off-limits to power plays," Astrid said.

  I said, "Treachery is your nature. That was Carnage’s doing. Veya's shield also activated quickly although that may have been instinct. I've already closed the errors in the system that made the explosion possible. That doesn't mean he can't cause more. It is what he does."

  "Do-over then. Let’s go," Anna said.

  Once more we stepped out of the Graven and once more Anna approached the welcoming party.

  "Welcome, Queen Anna," Carnage said with a tilt of his head. It was as far as he got. Anna plunged her hand into his chest and tore out his heart. Carnage barely had time to look startled before he tumbled over. Anna tossed the heart over to Astrid, who took a large bite out of it as if she were eating an apple.

  "Empress Anna," Anna said, with a firm look of the others. "I would remind none of you to forget it."

  There was an awkward sort of pause. Blood spread out from under the corpse of Carnage.

  "Empress Anna then," Queen Veya said, her readiness to respond suggesting both her collusion in the plot and proving her ability to adapt fast. At least acknowledging Anna’s title quickly earned her some points.

  Witchgaze prodded at the corpse with a foot. "I never did like that man. I like you opening with a kill even less. It has never been your style before."

  Anna said, "I don't like being here and I don't like any of you. I like the thought of you working for Vinci even less. None of you are fools and you know what is coming. I know that Carnage thought your odds were better with Vinci than with me."

  "Well, he doesn't think it anymore," Witchgaze said wryly.

  The lights of the Spire flickered and died. With the Graven's sensors I could detect their weapons systems going offline. I wished that were all that I detected

  There was activity along every border that we shared with Vinci—a lot of activity. The swarm was on the move.

  I told them, "Vinci is making her play. All Helix systems are offline, Carnage must have set an overload in place for the reactor before he died, just as he would have the Graven."

  Kilakas stared at Boreas and grunted, "You rewound? Bastard."

  "You never could tell. Moron," Boreas said, looking smug.

  "I knew about the ship. I didn't know about the Helix," Veya said.

  There were missiles incoming. Without access to the Helix's sensor net I couldn't tell what sort, but I doubted that Vinci intended her opening salvo to be gentle. This was her chance to wipe out the Scholarium leadership and take out Anna in one blow. If Carnage had succeeded in his plan things would already be in chaos and the shutdown of the city’s systems would have been attributed to us.

  "Can you get their defenses back online?" Anna asked me.

  I was trying, but they were unfamiliar and hostile systems. While some backups had power, I was an intruder and the network was trying to keep out.

  "If you can pretend to be a competent leader and actually get the rest of these pathetic has-beens to swear loyalty," I said.

  If the Helix came under my control I'd have a lot more ability to begin affecting repairs on the systems.

  "You heard Emma," Anna said, glaring at the Helix rulers.

  "We don't even know if this threat is real," Witchgaze said, frustrated. "You can't expect us to swear loyalty on the basis of that."

  "I can gain control of the city by you swearing allegiance, or by killing every single one of you that hasn't. Your choice, and we're running out of time," Anna said. The overly revealing gown she wore rippled into overly revealing body armor.

  Kilakas at least seemed interest in the sight. I suppose that when you were invulnerable you got into the habit of making stupid choices because nothing could hurt you.

  "Empress it is, then. I love the armor," Kilakas said.

  "The man both has a fine eye and gets to keep his life," Anna said.

  Queen Forge rested her hand on the hilt of her sword and seemed to be considering her chances.

  "Empress," Witchgaze said, after a longer pause.

  That was enough. Three out of the four remaining rulers was a majority.

  The Lands of the Scholarium have been added to your Empire

  Twenty-two new cities are online

  The Helix was among them. Carnage had really done a lot of damage to some key power relays. In their current state it was a long repair, but now that I was in control I was able to absorb some of the city’s landscape for Bio-matter to fuel organic replacements.

  The lights flickered and came online. The city’s sensors detected the incoming missiles and raised the defense screens, blue energy shields springing into place.

  "I suppose I make four," Forge said.

  10

  The missiles were still two minutes out from the Helix. For me that was virtually an eternity. The Scholarium been more or less in perpetual war for a very long time and their defensive systems were already very good, but mine were better. I took down the shields to begin some rapid upgrades to their emissions frequencies. With a few tweaks I could give them some ability to absorb radiation.

  Elsewhere Vinci had her mechaswarms crossing borders. It wasn't a matter of where, it was everywhere. Our lands were being hit from every side, as was the Scholarium and the Fallen. Even for Vinci it wasn't
a sustainable pace—this was her attempting to overwhelm us while she had some element of surprise, hoping to exploit every weak spot that she could for maximum effect.

  It was the equivalent of starting a fight by running straight at your foe, screaming, and swinging weapons in both hands. If you were prepared and competent it wasn't especially dangerous. If you weren't paying attention or inept, it could be absolutely devastating.

  The Scholarium hadn't been idle. With access now to their systems I knew their defense plans and preparations for dealing with Vinci's mechaswarm. Project "Discoball". I didn't know the scientists involved and I wasn't sure I wanted to. Their designs were energy inefficient, but they did have some hint of style.

  I waited for the mechaswarm to cross the borders before triggering them. Crystalline spheres erupted into the sky, each containing a core of crystal dust and shards of elemental power crystals.

  They lashed out with colored beams of light packed with elemental properties. A long line of rat-like mechs were incinerated and a swarm of aerial drones got hit by a freeze blast that sent them crashing to the ground with their wings iced over.

  The spheres were obliterating anything and everything in their general vicinity including any Scholars who hadn't already found shelter. It wasn't an ideal solution. At least it was stopping the mechaswarm in its tracks.

  I had a similar strategy along our own borders, although I hadn't invented any new technology for the purpose. I'd long used Bio-bombs when I needed to destroy a large area quickly and while the miracles of SCIENCE helped me to get a little more yield, the fundamentals remained the same. With the surface of the planet to toy with I had a vast supply of Bio-matter and that meant I'd made a lot of bombs.

  I didn't need Sylax or the Annas to fend off the waves. Killing the machines wouldn't hurt Vinci—disabling factories or communication hubs would. Four strike teams consisting of five offensive personnel, plus two of Ophelia's second generation Healers each, created small squads with incredible attacking force and regenerative ability. And they each had a purely organic stealth ship to reach critical targets.

  The missiles were seventeen seconds out from hitting the Helix. It was time to reboot the shields and make sure there weren't any problems. I engaged the new systems and they sprang back into being, energy glowing a faint green this time.

  The missiles were close enough for me to get a proper scan of them. They weren't simple dirty bombs filled with nuclear waste. There were nuclear bombs of the type that Sylax wanted to use with an additional core of crystal dust. I hadn't done any research on what effect crystal dust would have on a nuclear blast. I had to assume it was there to amplify the yield.

  The shields of the Helix were suddenly still inadequate. They might survive a direct hit from standard nuclear bombs. However, with the enhancements they wouldn't hold. This would be enough to kill everyone in the city.

  "I need a temporal freeze. As long as you can give us," I said to King Boreas.

  "Done," Boreas said.

  I could feel myself shrinking. A bubble of space around King Boreas was still moving in normal time while the rest of the world had frozen, and most of my computing cores were out there. I had the processors in the Graven to work with. It would have to be enough.

  "The missiles incoming are too strong for the shields to stop. If they hit, Anna and Kalikas should survive, but I doubt any of the rest of you will," I said.

  "I have shields," Veya said.

  "I've already taken into account your lackluster power set and it isn't enough to save you."

  "You have people who can teleport. You could get us out of the blast zone," Witchgaze said.

  "And ensure your selfish survival at the expense of everyone else in the city? Yes, probably."

  "If it were my city I could upgrade the shields further," Forge said.

  "Queen Forge, I grant you authority over the city of Helix," Anna said without hesitating.

  Forge closed her eyes for a few moments. "Done. I won't know how well it worked until time picks back up."

  "Which I’ll remind you is in finite supply," King Boreas said, the strain in his voice evident.

  "Is there anything I can do?" Anna asked.

  I'd already been wondering. It was dangerous to draw too much on her powers. She did have the Agate crystal inside of her. In theory she could output way more power than the local power sources, but I wasn't sure how the blast would affect her—and if Anna lost control she would wipe this city out.

  "What if I crush the missiles prior to detonation?" Veya asked.

  That was a plausible solution. With her control over gravity fields she could implode them.

  "I can get you in range. If you weren't advertising your unimpressive assets with quite so much desperation you might be fine, but oxygen deprivation and temperature are going to knock you out quickly," I said.

  "Did that bitch just interrupt us putting off mass destruction to insult my breast size?" Veya asked.

  "You get used to it," Anna said.

  "Given the amount of cookie fat inflating yours, I'd never say anything similar. Anna, I could use you to amplify the shields. Hopefully we won't need it. I'll get the rest of you to safety just in case. You can unleash time," I said.

  Boreas nodded and I felt my mind expand once more.

  I spent a nanosecond updating all my cores on the plan and considering it with my enhanced intelligence. Nothing stood out as a bad idea, although with my full intellect returned I realized I could also use the Annas to hit the missiles directly. While none had gravity control abilities they did have telekinetic powers that were similar.

  Given their power levels, I was concerned about the reaction with the crystal core. I didn't think Veya had the push to accidentally trigger it. The Annas might unless they were very careful with their powers.

  The instant time resumed I put the Annas in the Graven to work. One ferrying the Scholar royals away in a series of quick jumps and another grabbing a hold of Veya and teleporting to the closest missile.

  The missiles were still high in the atmosphere. By the time Veya had crushed the first, her skin was already turning an unhealthy shade of blue.

  I tied Anna into the city’s power network. It was too dangerous to have her as a primary power supply. If any of the missiles slipped through she could function as a backup.

  I prepped the Mountain just in case. If the situation got bad I could try to get her back in containment, assuming she had enough control left to manage that teleport.

  Veya destroyed a second missile. A layer of frost was beginning to form on her skin. I had a Medbay on the Graven, I could at least hold her in stasis even with grave physical wounds until I could get her healed.

  I remained convinced that she was in on the plot to kill us earlier. For the moment that didn’t matter. Almost all of our trusted allies had tried to kill us at one time or another. If you carried your weight, you got forgiven. With two missiles down she was pulling her weight.

  There were five in total. Veya managed to neutralize the third before passing out. The Anna providing her transport blinked her back to the Medbay and then teleported to the fourth missile, encasing it in a telekinetic shell and crushing it.

  It was as I feared. The excess power triggered the crystal core and the missile exploded short of the city. The clone was caught in the blast, not so much burned as atomized. Still, with her accelerated healing a spinal column was already regenerating when it crashed to earth.

  That left one missile. The second Anna clone had finished teleporting away the royals, leaving her teleportation powers temporarily exhausted. I could have hit the remaining missile with the real Anna. That seemed even riskier than having her power the shield.

  I let the city take the hit.

  The explosion rippled along the shield and the power supplies dipped dangerously low as the ground rumbled. The land around the Helix would instantly be an irradiated wasteland.

  The shield held and the city sti
ll stood.

  11

  This wasn't our first time going to war, but this was different. In the past there were always factions more powerful than ourselves that we could play against each other, or more powerful allies to be won to assist in the fight.

  We’d brought the Scholarium on board, but they weren't saving our lives—we were saving theirs. We were the powerful force saving them from another. While it was better to have the Scholarium on our side, and if we could recruit the Fallen the same would apply, we didn't actually need either one. It was a matter of denying a resource to an enemy.

  Unfortunately, there were no surprises to pull out. Fortunately, we knew this was coming—although we hadn't expected it to come quite so soon. My Bio-bombs had bought us some time destroying the initial waves hitting our territory. The Scholarium's plans were also a success. Project Discoball might be energy-inefficient, but it did a fine job of killing mechs. The Scholarium could be counted upon to excel in destruction.

  The Fallen weren't doing as well. When they were the Righteous, much of their defense had been from existing in a reality where the rules didn't favor the Powered. When you had the only guns that worked, you won a fight. Their military paradigm just didn't demand heavy defenses and they were already paying for it. Despite their abilities, they were being overwhelmed.

  Did I care to help? I had already saved them once and I didn't want that sort of thing becoming a habit. However, I didn't see where I had a choice. Supplies of the metals Vinci sought had been found in their territory and there might be more.

  Still, I wasn't going to divert any of the strike teams. And the Juggernauts weren't ready to fly yet.

  That left my drones. I couldn't win a war of attrition with Vinci, not long-term. Her ability to create mechs outpaced my ability to create drones in my growth vats. I didn't need to win the war though, just the day. Vinci couldn't keep this surge up. Another hour at most and then she'd have to break off and give her factories time to manufacture the next wave.