Killing a gold ranker was hard. Killing a couple of dozen was extremely hard. The standard solution to killing things that excelled at not being killed was afflis, pg Jason at the tre of his team’s pn to hahe pirates. As the entire purpose of the fight was to demonstrate Jason’s power to the world, that worked out nicely.

  The first stage was for Jason to fight the pirates alohis was the part of the pn that took the loo talk Humphrey into, and several tingencies were in pce should it go poorly. There had been a lengthy discussion of what ‘going poorly’ entailed, with Jasuing that getting decapitated ‘wouldn’t be all that bad.’

  Stage two of the pn had twer ditions. The first was Jason spreading enough afflis to the pirates that they would be signifitly impacted by the time the rest of the team appeared. The other was Jason biting off more than he could chew aing the snot kicked out of him. At that point, Team Biscuit, plus guest member Farrah, would go on the offensive.

  Sophie’s Eternal Moment power allowed her to massively accelerate her own timestream. At gold rank, she could extend the power to the whole team, although it had the same exhausting effe their stamina and mana as it did her. The result was the team approag the pirates at teleport-like speed, without the brief but critical moment of dimensional disorientation that came from an actual teleport. They were long past throwing up like first time portal travellers, but in a gold-rank battle, every moment crucial.

  On Jason’s signal, the team arrived, seemingly out of nowhere, and were immediately ag. Jason, having ripped a hole in his torso removing a harpoon, vanished. At the same time, Belinda’s Force Tether power yahe entire pirate crew into a ical ball of squirming limbs.

  Belinda’s power set didn’t spew deluges of va or blinding streams of magical light. Her gold-rank upgrades didn’t create sandstorms and tsunamis like Sophie’s Wind Wave, her back from the dead like Humphrey’s Immortality. Force Tether’s modest gold-rank upgrade was to increase the pulling force when the power was first activated. The extra strength didn’t st long but owerful enough to squish even a cohort of gold-rankers into a tightly pressed cluster of surprised and angry yells.

  Powerful attacks like Clive’s Wrath of the Magister or Farrah’s Lava on inflicted massive amounts of damage, but while their streams of energy were rge and powerful, gold rankers were fast and their fights spread out. It was hard to inflict sustained damage from such abilities on one enemy, let alone multiple. A big floating ball of pirates, however, made the perfect target.

  The strength of the tether was already fading, leaving only a short window in which the pirates were left ripe for area attacks. The team was already ag, Farrah inundating the pirates in a deluge of va. Belinda used her own Mirric to replicate the spell, revelling in the ce to unleash such fshy magic for herself, even if it wasn’t really her ability. It was more than just a ce to throw fancy spells around, however. At gold rank, Mirric allowed both herself and Farrah to use Lava on a sed time, ign the usual cooldown.

  Other members of the team were piling on damage as well, such as Clive atop giant-sized Onslow. Standing on a ptform pre-cast with a bat ritual, his Wrath of the Magister spell was just as powerful as the va streams, if not more so. Sophie’s Wind Bde power didn’t share that strength, but the ing effect worked like a blender with the pirates so clustered up.

  The team had taken full advantage of their moment of surprise, unleashing their attacks the instant they arrived. Jason had taken that moment to appear inside Onslow’s shell, stepping out of a shadow to be attended by Neil.

  “Are you okay?” Neil asked him.

  “Never better,” Jason said.

  “You don’t need me to heal the hole in your torso that’s the size of your head, then?”

  “Well, maybe not never better.”

  Neil gave his head an exasperated shake, already pushing Jason onto a ritual circle pre-drawn on the floor. Neils’ most potent healing spell, Grand Renewal, required ritual magic to work, like some of Clive’s powers. At gold rank, and with a magic circle already i closed the gaping wound in an instant. Jason didn’t waste time, rejuring his cloak as he floated out of the shell’s open sides, arms spread wide.

  ***

  Lenora watched as the pirates endured a barrage that she was certain would have annihited any defensive empt oh, magically enhanced or not. There was a massive array of magical sensors poi the standing stones and the surrounding area, all monitored by her staff.

  “What sort of readings are we getting off of this?” she asked.

  “Ma’am, the magic up there is hitting the maximum on every scale we have. What’s going on up there could dig out NORAD, which has a mountain of magical protes. And is inside an actual mountain.”

  “Are we in danger?” Barry asked.

  “Yes, sir. robably ehe odd gng blow, but if they turn that kind of power on us directly, we’re cooked.”

  “Where’s Asano?” Barry asked. “One of the cameras spotted him vanishing right before the pirates got blindsided.”

  “He’s probably ihe giant flying tortoise,” Lenora said.

  “That’s what I figured. I just wanted you to say something that makes you sound like a character in a children’s book.”

  He respoo her ft gre with a grin.

  “Oh, there he is,” Barry said, pointing at the main monitor.

  Lenora turned her attention back to the wall on monitors as Jason was floating out of the tortoise, arms held out to his sides.

  “Does he think he’s Jesus?” Lenora asked.

  “Maybe,” Barry said. “The giant hole in his chest seems to have miraculously healed.”

  The pirates had pulled themselves apart by that stage but remained in close formation, still hindered by the tethers. They looked the worse for wear, their flesh marred by afflis and scored from attack magic. There was a moment of calm as the two groups faced off, the focus on Jason at the front of his team. The audio pickups stopped produg the hiss of interferend Jason’s voice came through. It didn’t sound like a digital reprodu, or as if it was being transmitted at all. The words rang like the pronou of a god, not heard with the ears but felt with the soul.

  Feed me your sins.

  A red glow shone from within the pirates, their life force made ma, stained with sickly shades of yellow, purple and bck. The tainted colours oozed from the light, like pus from an ied wound, moving through the air towards Jaso in their wake were sparks of blue, silver and gold, popping like fireworks. The red light flinched from the sparks, diminishing even as it was reabsorbed into the pirates’ bodies. The taint flowed through the air to Jason and was absorbed into his body.

  With the audio no longer blocked, Lenora aaff heard the roars of fury from the pirates, who uhemselves at Jason, ending the lull in bat. From behind Jason, a man with rainbow scale armour, dragon wings and a massive sword unched past him, as if shot from a on. When his sword impacted the lead pirate, the explosion of pure force was like a bomb going off, the thunderous sound of it shaking the sky.

  The entire cohort of pirates were shot away like pellets from a scattergun. Even the ial force of the bst sent droumbling and knocked several fixed cameras out of alig. The man stood in the air, held aloft by his slowly beating wings. His team had had their hair and clothes whipped savagely but seemed otherwise ued.

  “That’s some sword,” Barry said as Lenora shot out orders.

  Half the camera feeds were knocked out or misaligned and she was direg her people to repair what they could from the trol room.

  “Probably best not to send a to fix them,” Barry mused.

  ***

  Jaso out a low whistle, unheard as the sound of the bst was still fading. The pirates were scattered across the sky, over the town and beyond. By the time quiet returned, so had Humphrey to his team.

  “What’s that special attack called again?” Jason asked. “Boom Town?”

  “Unstoppable Force,” Humphrey told him. “As you well know.”

  “It did look unstoppable. Especially with Neil giving it a boost.”

  “Don’t g to give my powers weird he team letting you actics is bad enough.”

  “I thought the ‘Sud Cut’ tactic worked pretty well.”

  “That doesn’t even make sense.”

  He turned from Jason to survey the sky into which he’d knocked all the pirates. He then addressed the team through the team’s voice chat el, to include Rufus and Taika below.

  “The transdent damage Jasohem with won’t finish off gold-rankers, but it’s going to knock them about. Sophie, Rufus, Taika. Did you pick out the healers while they were fighting Jason.

  “Yeah.”

  “Yes.”

  “Sure did, bro.”

  “Snatch them up. Don’t give them a ce to teract Jason’s afflis. Jason, Farrah and I will move individually to hit them while they’re scattered. Lindy, Neil and Clive, move as a group using Onslow. Stash, support them.”

  A puppy leapt out of the tortoise shell and turned into a rainbow-scaled dragon. The team members shot off, including Rufus and Taika below. Taika transformed into a golden eagle and Rufus moved through the air like an ice skater, silver light gleaming under his feet.

  “ we ge it up?” Jason asked, already heading for one of the pirates. “Bring them to me and I’ll turn their afflis into suppressive force. Keep them alive.”

  “I thought the pn was to kill them,” Humphrey said. “To make a show of it for the people of this world.”

  “That was the pn,” Jason said. “But the idea behind it was to show the people of Earth that I’m not the person I was when I left. I definitely would have killed them then. We did need a show, but we skittled them pretty hard, for everyoo see. I think it’s enough.”

  “You won’t get an argument from me,” Humphrey said.

  “It’s the right move,” Farrah said. “For you, Jason. I don’t care if they die.”

  “Don’t risk yourself just to keep them alive,” Humphrey directed. “Py it safe and put them down if you have to.”

  “I’ll see about softening them up some more,” Jason said. “Mine is the judgement, and the judgement is death.”

  In the sky, silver clouds appeared out of nold and blue light fshing within them. Heavy rain fell, not water but droplets of transdent light. The gold-rank variant of Jason’s execute power, Verdict, did nothing to Jason and his team, or the security forces below. To the scattered pirates, every glowing drop annihited flesh, sending rainbow smoke burning off their bodies. Already having transdent damage hollowing them out from the ihe pirate crew ent force, making a break for the ship still in the air.

  ***

  In the main chamber of Lenora’s bunker, Anna watched the monitors. Many of the feeds had been knocked out, although most had been subsequently restored. She watched the annihiting rain, recalling Nigel’s story of the vampire annihition in Asano territory. His trembling voice as he described an apocalyptic vision of blood and sparkling rain. Of power that belonged not to a man but the wrath of an angry god.

  She hoped that would not be repeated here, or her job was going to get harder. A dispy of power was ohing, but when people started using religious metaphors, things were getting out of hand. She wondered about the Ameris, who had been waiting to intervene.

  ***

  Jason touched his sword to the pirate colpsed on the floor of Onslow’s shell.

  You have absorbed all [Holy] afflis from [Elenore Boatwell].An instance of [Hegemon’s Mercy] has been inflicted for each affli absorbed.You have gained an instance of [Benevolent Hegemon] for eastance of an affli absorbed.The woman slumped even more as her powers were suppressed. Jason looked down at his sword, both the first and st gift he had gotten from Gary, and smiled. Jason’s powers had no mer them on their own, but through the legacy of his friend, they always would.

  “Thank you, brother,” he whispered.

  “Some of the pirates are making it to their vessel,” Humphrey said through voice chat. “There’s too many to ourselves. We should call out more people from our ship.”

  “It will work better politically if we use the locals,” Jason said. “I know they won’t be reliable, but they at least keep an eye on the ones we haven’t rounded up yet.”

  “Alright,” Humphrey agreed. “That will free us up to move on the dimension ship.”

  “Rufus, signal the yanks,” Jason said. “Tell them to be careful, just watd not fight.”

  “Do you think they’ll listen?”

  “No.”

  “Rufus, Taika,” Humphrey directed. “Stay bad wrahese locals. Keep them alive. Everyone else, move on the ship.”

  ***

  Jota and Nata had withdrawn from the space over the standing stones before bat had begun. Hiding amongst the evacuated buildings of the city, their gold-rank perceptions were enough to track the events of the battle, despite the distance. As Jason and his team moved towards the ship, they felt a wave of magic pulse from it.

  “They’re running,” Nata said. “They’re going to dimension shift.”

  They watched Jason slow down as the rest of his team kept moving. Floating in the air, he lifted an arm towards the dimension ship and made a graspiure with his hand. The prow of Jason’s own ship opened like a crocodile’s maw, revealing a giant blue and e eye ihen a single w out, not spoken but created.

  No.

  Jota had entered the messerick of speaking through aura manipution, usually employed to impress the ignorant masses of undeveloped worlds. That word, pushed from the ship’s giant eye, was simir, but something more. There ower to it, a force of and that belonged not to messengers, or even their astral kings, but to gods.

  His eyes locked onto Jason’s vessel, even as a wave of power swept out from it and over the pirate vessel. The gathering dimensional energy in the pirate ship dimio nothing. Jota didn’t spare it a gnce.

  “Asano’s ship,” he said, his voice breathless with shock. “It’s a temple.”

  “To what god?” Nata asked. “The only aura I felt e from it was Asano’s.”

  “Exactly.”

  ***

  One of Lenora’s camera drone operators mao pilot one of their drones aboard the pirate ship, but the camera feed shut off almost immediately. They did get an audio feed, but it was only scraps of sound interspersed with the hiss of white noise. Everyone in the and room listetentively anyway. Sometimes it would be the person eared to be leading Asano’s group barking dires. Other times it would be the wordless sound of bat, or a cut of screams of fear and panie time they heard piteous begging for mercy.

  Finally, the feed came back fully, with even a static filled image appearing on the monitor. Someone was holding the droaring into the camera so closely they could see right up the man’s nostril.

  “Neil,” Jason’s voice came through. “Put that thing down.”