A sparking sense of satisfaction wove through me at the sight of my little sprite’s effectiveness. In the battles I had fought so far, I had noted how my Illumination Aspect countered the dark threads to some extent. That was one of the primary reasons I had believed Reflection would work perfectly to beat them back.

  Now, with the way my sprite shot through the threads like they were no obstacle at all, I was even more convinced Illumination was the way. In fact, the little orb of light threads almost seemed to take to the black strands like electricity took to metal.

  As if they conducted Illumination, somehow.

  Still. That alone wasn’t going to be enough. Not even close. The sprite was the size of my thumbnail. Maybe cherry-sized, at best. Great, now I missed cherries. Point was, it would take too long to make a significant dent in the besieging bugs, much less actually end them itself.

  Which was where its second property came into play. Whatever it touched, it could remotely infuse my mana threads into the target. That allowed me to not only extend the range of my Aspects enormously, but also bypass requirements such as most Gravity Affixes requiring some level of direct contact.

  So, I channelled Infusion. I decided to use the Blight Swarm’s own power against it.

  As I reined in the sprite’s destructive power, the black threads remained standing despite continuous brushes of the light orb. More importantly, they were soon overtaken by a sea of violet threads from Gravity, turning massively weighty in mere moments.

  I grinned as the besiegers finally started slowing down. All the Aspects flung from the guards and the military had been bouncing off thanks to the dark energy. Flames didn’t scorch at the intensity they should have, lightning failed to crackle, ice melted far too quickly, and even physical attacks were rebuffed more often.

  Maybe I should have been thankful I hadn’t faced that kind of resistance from the black threads on Ring Four, but I was too focused on my goal. I had to—

  “They’re almost here!” This time, the warning came from Lujean. If even he was consternated, then it was definitely something to pay attention to.

  “Keep them busy for just a second,” I said. “I’ve almost got this.” I turned to Khagnio as the others got ready to fend off the frankly enormous horde we had led behind us on a merry chase. “I’ll need you to haul them in from the rear once we’ve found a way past this siege. Well, I’ll need your tail.”

  Khagnio harrumphed. “Way to objectify a Scalekin, mageling.”

  He dashed off, Stealth activating to make him disappear before I could reply that my knowledge about the relationship Scalekin had with their appendages was next to nil.

  There was no time. I focused on what I needed to get done here.

  With the besieging monster now hauled to the ground, I had room to assault them via other means. Mostly, this just meant creating bursts of Flare with Concentration to prime them up. They didn’t work at first. Just like the Aspects used by the other defenders, the heated lances I created were getting repelled. I needed a different approach.

  So, I focused on Imbuement from Illumination. Light had worked well so far to tear through the dark lines of the Netherthreads.

  It worked here again. Really well, too. When accompanied by the brilliant flashes of sunlight, the bursts of heat tore through the dark webbing trapping the creatures. This time, the creatures burned. Shrieks raged out into the air, the monsters struggling to rise, but the weight of so much Gravity held them down. Kept them trapped.

  I felt a hint of mana exhaustion tapping me, drawing on the Threaded Reinforcement that turned my chest as leaden as my arms. But I didn’t relent. These things had to die. Now.

  “There’s the opening!” a gruff voice shouted from the Ring Three side of the battle. “Assault! With all you’ve got!”

  The professional defenders took the command to heart. If I had thought they had pelted out their Aspects before, now, they held absolutely nothing back. Of course, several were busy fending off the monsters on the walls, the bugs diving in from above, and the creatures that had made it through the gate.

  But the rest who were free joined me with incredible ferocity. I was almost tempted to gawk. If only the people of Ring Four had access to all those myriad Aspects…

  Everywhere the dark strands snapped to create openings, a storm of powers rained down. Tornados of white and red fire drilled into the hapless monsters at a point a couple dozen feet from me. At another location, parasitic vines had wormed through to start eating away at the monsters. Rocks rained in, blood burst with icy shards, weapons materialized out of nowhere.

  Those Aspects were crazy.

  I thought we were turning the tide here. That my arrival had set things in motion so that we could fulfill the plan we had set out to accomplish. The monsters would die imminently and then we’d be through, on our way to the Nether Vein.

  Even at the back, the forces I had dragged in were dealing with the monsters I had dragged in too. Hamsik, Khagnio, and all the rest were working wonderfully.

  But the Blight Swarm really was upping the ante.

  I didn’t know where the next beast came from. One minute, we were all massacring the insectoid creatures invading our homes. Next, the black net ripped apart as a dozen monsters—dead or alive, I couldn’t even tell—went flying away like something had exploded underneath them.

  Something had. A different monster had burst into being, one way or another. It stood tall but humanoid, save for the extra set of arms jutting out of its armoured shoulders. Plates of metallic chitin covered its slim form, its eyes glowing a deep red. The clicking of its mandibles had to be the most threatening thing I had heard that whole day.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  It attacked. Me. It attacked me.

  Of course.

  I didn’t even have time to think about it. The monster was ridiculously fast. I just brought up my mace in time to try and deflect its onrushing blow. Now was when the new Power Augmentation I was envisioning would have come in so handy.

  As it was, the monster’s powerful blow jolted my arm terribly and sent my mace flying. I just managed to retreat myself, trying not to let the feeling like I had been hit by a giant anvil on my arm get to me. The humanoid, armoured bug was screeching out, apparently enraged at me for daring to survive its blow.

  Another quick rush. It would have reached me if I hadn’t jumped up, Siphon letting me reach pretty high.

  That just revealed a set of buzzing wings on the monster’s back. Right, of course. At least it couldn’t be that fast in the air. Gutran’s little perception training had allowed me to spot that its incredible speed came as a result of the sheer power it used to throw itself forward. Power generated in its legs. That was impossible in the sky.

  “Cultist!” someone shouted. “Get back!”

  My back was to the defenders on the Ring Three side now. As my enemy rushed through the air again, proving me right that it was indeed fractionally slower in air, I plummeted by reversing Siphon into Infusion.

  The monster sailed past my earlier location with a furious roar. At the same time, the guards and the military fired another storm of Aspects. Lightning blitzed into the humanoid bug, strange bubbles of energy popping around it. Even a storm of vines erupted from the ground beneath, wrapping the creature and starting to drag it down.

  It ripped free from everything. I could only stare as the vines were shredded, as it shed one of its destroyed carapace plates to simply start growing a new one.

  “Gods-cursed Pits!” someone shouted. “How’s that thing still alive?”

  Good question. If that had been me, I’d have been reduced to ashes.

  The monster screeched again, so loud this time that my ears started hurting. Hated when they did that. It was about to attack me again. This one seemed even more desperately attracted to the Netherthreads within me than the rest I had fought so far. It was determined to reach them, so much so that it simply ignored the attacks on its back.

  I channelled Field Manipulation quickly, intensifying the attractive force with Infusion. It made the monster stumble, thankfully, but it was wholly unsurprising that it was getting back up just a few seconds later.

  The only good thing was that its singular focus on me meant the other defenders could pelt it with their Aspects and force it back down.

  Which gave me the time I needed to find my mace.

  I thought that when I whirled around, I’d need to find a way to desperately fend off my aggressive new enemy. But that wasn’t the case. Several of the defenders had sortied out from behind their walls, engaging the creature directly to keep it busy.

  But it was way too powerful. The tanks approaching with tower shields were all bashed backwards, several flying entirely off their feet. Everybody firing from a distance with various Aspects failed to get past its chitinous armour.

  The monster’s defence was aided by more of the Netherthreads, which were coagulating together to turn into livid, shimmering dark tentacles.

  A few of the more enterprising defenders tried to attack even more directly. One Plumefolk had spread her wings to dive down with a halberd, a storm of ripping wind circling the blade. Another Rakshasa in a guard uniform was ramming in with two spears, one alight with blue fire and the other encased with glowing ice. Yet another man had conjured a huge hammer made of crystalline purple threads.

  They were all swept away. Just as the various attackers got close, the black tendrils speared outwards all around the monster.

  I could only stare, mouth agape, as everybody was repelled at once. Up, down, sides, didn’t matter. Every single person was stabbed backwards. The Rakshasa with the spears got pierced in turn, while the Plumefolk was shot out of the sky. Poor Scalekin with the huge magic hammer got his whole head perforated with the thick, spiking tendrils.

  Silence landed on the battlefield for a moment. This thing…

  My eyes were dragged upwards. I stared at the flashes bursting across the sky, at the huge luminescent pillars still shooting upwards, at the cloud of what looked like green vapour manifesting crystals to kill airborne bugs hundreds upon hundreds of feet above us. The Councillors were busy with monsters as bad as this one or worse. We were on our own.

  The humanoid bug approached me. Apparently, it was well aware that the force it had just shown meant no one was about to foolishly attempt interrupting it again.

  It had me all to itself. It really did. Everyone else was busy with their own shit. The Councillors had bigger threats to take care of. My own little squad was desperately repelling the huge army we had dragged along behind us before they moved on through the gates and on towards the Nether Vein.

  And the city defenders were either recovering their casualties or else dealing with the bugs resurrecting themselves via the threads I hadn’t destroyed yet.

  My grip on my mace’s haft tightened. It wasn’t the only thing I had picked up. In my other hand was the body of a fallen, oversized armoured beetle. I was just glad my Gold-ranked Power could pick up the whole carcass with one hand.

  “You think you’ve got this in the bag, huh?” I said, eyes on the relentless monster. “Yeah, well, think ag—”

  Naturally, the monster had no interest in letting me monologue. It charged at me, once again employing speed so blindingly fast, I couldn’t even think about how I wanted to react in real-time.

  Good thing I had already prepared. Agility’s Augmentation was already active. Javelin-like strands of mana rippled as the monster touched them, jerking me away to one side to evade the rush. And even then, even with Reflexive Mana firing on all cylinders, my opponent’s swipe still managed to catch my waist, leaving a gash through my armour that sprayed blood on the street.

  I did my best to ignore it. I really needed to Sacrifice some pain again. Instead, right that moment, I Sacrificed the bug carcass my Augmentation had jerked along with me with zero reduction in speed.

  [ Sacrifice

  You have Sacrificed 1 [Moderate] Remnant of a Gold-ranked Swarmlord [1] / 1 [Major] Soulshard of an Ascendant’s Work [2]. Windfall bonus activated.

  Reward [1]: Essence of a Gold-ranked Swarmlord now manifests around your body with tangible prowess for 3 hours. All Iron-ranked Attributes raised by 15 Ranks, all Silver-ranked Attributes raised by 10 Ranks, and all Gold-ranked Attributes raised by 5 Ranks for every battle encountered for the next 3 hours.

  Reward [2]: Soulshard link with host established due to presence of a different Soulshard of another Ascendant’s Work. Ascendant Soulthread Affixed to manifested Essence of Gold-ranked Swarmlord for 25 minutes. ]

  The same power I had burned through the last time I had Sacrificed one of the monsters came at me again. A rushing force, like electrified waterfalls, churned through my veins and muscles. The aura of the insect I had just offered up as tribute manifested around me with bristling, armoured power.

  As the humanoid monster turned to face me, my mana core churned. I could see the shade of dark energy that had seeped out of me all this while thickening. With it thickened a roil of emotions spiking through my mind.

  Doubts about the plan, fears about what would happen when that occurred, recollections of all the ways I had failed so far. The spectre of my Path Evolution was haunting my psyche.

  Thankfully, the rippling threat from my opponent drowned out every other emotion except the need for survival. For complete and total focus.

  I growled. Time to throw back that bastard.