Angelo Lawrence stood on a section of the 303 Wall. He wasn’t quite by himself; Bernard the Wall stood on one side of him, Deborah Callahan was on the other, and the Spark of Life was helping to hold him up and heal him at the same time. He barely felt her hands working on his self-inflicted burns and cracked, rad-weakened bones. None of that mattered. The two tanks protecting him didn’t matter.

  In all the years he’d been the Light of Dawn, he’d never gone all-out this close to Phoenix’s walls. But in all the years he’d been the Light of Dawn, he’d never had to choose between bringing his power to bear on the desert outside or letting the monsters scale the Wall—and the 303 Wall’s defenses weren’t built for a siege of this scale. They were built to withstand thrashing, lightning-quick assaults from smaller portals. A true S-Rank power, determined and prepared, was more than it could handle by itself.

  “I will continue,” he mumbled.

  Bernard looked over his shoulder. “You’re sure?”

  “I am,” Angelo said quietly. “I will begin the Demon Core procedure now. Please have patience. I have been doing this a lot over the last several days, and—“

  He coughed painfully as Sarah’s hands moved up his back and started pushing Mana into his lungs.

  “Sarah, please. I will need your assistance soon, but not right now.”

  As the S-Rank healer nodded and glared hard enough that he felt it in the back of his head, Angelo Lawrence began going all-out. His own core flared to life, and the Demon Core flared up to match it. Power poured out of him, and a massive mushroom cloud erupted across the desert.

  He’d been pushing himself for days. Any normal man would have succumbed to his wounds a long time ago. But there, on the 303 Wall, Angelo didn’t care about any of that. He was safe here, Sarah wouldn’t allow him to die, and the Wall itself was prepared to resist his assault. He could push himself to his very limits in defense of the city.

  Another cloud formed a half-mile from the first as a five-kiloton explosion went off, then another, and then a third. He kept up the pace, restricting the size of the detonations in favor of sheer volume.

  After all, the 303 Wall could resist his strength, but only for so long. The longer he could buy it, the better off everyone would be.

  Rain-Slicked Blade.

  Flashstep.

  Howling Gale.

  The last group of monsters fell, and when I looked for the next Scaling Construct, there wasn’t one. I sucked in a breath and looked left, then right, trying to find the next enemy. There had to be another enemy. It couldn’t be over. Not yet.

  I needed more.

  There. In the distance. A B-Rank monster, six spindle-thin arms and a body that was more silk than brass. It stood on its section of the wall, string pouring downward toward its allies in the hellstorm below. I rushed it. Stormstong lashed out. An arm came off in a shower of sparks and arcing lightning, then a second one. Then a thrust caught the machine in the chest, and it crumpled to the ground. I spun and pushed it off the edge.

  It fell into Angelo Lawrence’s cataclysm below; the two C-Rank mages had stopped trying to compete with him altogether. In a vacuum, it looked like he was still holding back, but the sheer number of explosions was overwhelming. While none of them were individually a threat to Phoenix, the 303 Wall’s defenses crackled and sparked as they tried desperately to filter the sheer amount of radiation blowing in on the steam-driven wind.

  If they failed, Angelo would have to stop or risk contaminating all of eastern Phoenix.

  But I didn’t want him to stop. I collapsed into a cross-legged, sitting posture and unsummoned Stormsong, then put my hands on my knees. Jeff stared at me for a second, and I cleared my throat, spitting in a futile attempt to clear the taste of warm metal. “Stormlight Bond. It’s going to go whether I want it to or not. Can’t stop it.”

  He nodded. “Make it fast.”

  “It’s instant.”

  “Make it even faster.”

  The Law-Learning process was quick. In reality, it only took a fraction of a second. But once I entered the trance, I could take my time. Cheddar was nearby, and the moment I slowed my breathing and opened my eyes on top of my lightning-hewn, rain-slicked mountain, the winged serpent was there.

  I couldn’t see him, though. The storm overhead felt different than the usual barrage of wind and lightning. The downpour seemed to come from directly above, the sky a uniform, bland gray in every direction. Even Phoenix’s lights didn’t make a difference against the oppressive blanket covering the desert in every direction. But somewhere in the gray, whether hiding or not, was Cheddar.

  The last time I’d pushed the skill Familiar Bond had become, the God of Thunder had been watching. He’d pushed me toward the Law of the Godray, but my own core or Cheddar had resisted. This time, I couldn’t feel his presence at all.

  This time, it was just Cheddar—hiding in the clouds—and me.

  And all I had to do was understand what he and the new Law were trying to teach me.

  As I stared up at the rain, breathing in through my nose so the water wouldn’t get in my lungs, the uniform gray blob slowly gave way to different shapes. Dark gray so black it looked like coal suspended above the city, and clouds so light they were almost white. They seemed almost to fight in the sky overhead. But still, no Cheddar.

  I kept searching. He had to be somewhere; I could feel him. But everywhere I looked, as the dark clouds and the light ones struggled in the rain-filled sky, I only saw clouds and rain.

  And, gradually, the white clouds lost, and the sky darkened into a massive thunderhead. I braced myself; the Law was about to make its lesson more obvious. The thunderhead built and built overhead, and the rain grew cold and fast.

  I stared up at it, unblinking, trying to understand as the black thunderhead built up and the sun tried vainly to pour around it. That thin, silver halo around the cloud felt like the last glimmering bits of hope that I could understand this Law—but at the same time…no.

  No. That couldn’t be it.

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  The thunderhead built and built, its shape flattening out into a massive anvil—the kind that poured down lightning on the world beneath it. The kind that kids were afraid of. And I laughed at it.

  The cloud overhead was a trick.

  Instead of continuing to watch its deceptive silver linings and black anvil, I reached out, shutting my eyes and touching Cheddar’s back. “There you are, buddy,” I said.

  The serpent had grown again. Its damaged wing was still nothing but shadowy cloud; it loomed over my head, a thin lining of silver around it. But the rest of its body took a moment to form, seeming to congeal out of the darkness around me, and as it did, the cloud overhead slowly returned to its flat, gray color. The rain didn’t stop.

  But I understood the Second Law of the Stormlight.

  Silver linings deceived.

  Law Learned: Second Law of the Stormlight

  The returning storm—and the receding one—blot out the light. They eclipse the sun, cut off the moon, and permit only the slightest bit of glowing brightness to make it past. As the Stormlight seems brighter for the clouds, so too does the black thunderhead trick the eye with a thin halo of light. By understanding the relationship between light and shadow, cloud and sunlight, you have taken a step from the Stormsteel Path: silver linings deceive.

  Your familiar grows in strength.

  When I opened my eyes, the steam cloud over the 303 Wall had shifted slightly. A wide swath of it looked nothing like the rest of the nearly-white bank of vapor; instead, it was dark black, with crackling lightning rippling across it in the shape of Cheddar.

  “Done? Great,” Jeff said. He hadn’t moved an inch, but he offered me a hand, and I took it, letting him pull me to my feet. “Nothing’s changed—it’s been about a second—but I’ve got a feeling this isn’t over yet.”

  It wasn’t over yet.

  We had five minutes to breathe, regenerate Mana, and recover—and I put those five minutes to good use. Cheddar was all but invisible overhead, and the steam bank and hot rain didn’t seem to bother him, so I pushed a mental image to him, and he responded instantly. He disappeared out over the desert, blended in so perfectly with the steam clouds that the only way I could keep track of him was as a faint, dark blur where his shadow-wing went.

  The mental images I got back from him were…disturbing.

  The dome of steam over Phoenix was only a hundred feet thick—or even less, in places. Overhead, it was barely enough to mute the desert sun. But even that thin layer was constantly replenished by the evaporating rainwater below and by something far off to the east. It thickened as it reached the ground below, into an almost impenetrable wall. And beyond that veil of mist, there were monsters.

  Many, many monsters.

  Cheddar’s mental images weren’t as strong as Ellen said Pepperoni’s were. I couldn’t see the details she could. But they were enough to get the idea; there were a lot of monsters out there, they were, on average, A-Rank, and the vast majority of them weren’t rushing toward the walls.

  That was a head-scratcher, but only for a few moments. Queen Mother Yalerox’s army hadn’t all been mindless monsters, either. The higher the rank of the portal world, the more organized they seemed to be. It wasn’t enough to be sure—after all, Yalerox had been many things. A-Rank, a Paragon, and a queen with a history. It was possible she was unique. But my guess was that she wasn’t. Whatever—or whoever—was in charge of the Carlsbad Portal Break had some strategy.

  I needed the GC library so I could confirm my suspicion.

  Instead, I got another wave of Scaling Constructs.

  They hit the wall in a tight group this time, a quarter mile north of our position. As they dug in all at once, the massive wall started to shake. I glanced at the C-Rank team’s leader. “Can you cover this? We’re shifting to cover that.”

  “Got it. Be fast,” she said. Then she started giving orders to her two tanks and mages, and in seconds, they’d redeployed into a much thinner line. Hopefully, it’d be enough.

  Raul, Jeff, and Ellen followed me north at a full sprint, but by the time we’d gotten there, A and B-Rank monsters had flooded onto the wall. Blades and strands of razor-covered silk lashed against the armored hulk standing alone against them. I didn’t have time to figure out who the tank was, though. Before I could so much as say anything, a pair of monsters surged toward me. Jeff intercepted, his shield buckling under the twin blows, and the fight started all over again.

  I shifted between stances as fast as I could, earning and spending Charges in a brutal rhythm as I tore into the brass-and-silk monsters. Touch of Shadow-empowered Thunder Crashes echoed across the wall; I didn’t have time for a full combo. I used Lightning Chain to grapple toward the closest Scaling Construct.

  Ellen’s Shadow Shapes rippled across the battlefield. A dozen black tendrils shredded the weakest monsters and grappled the stronger ones. I let Raul move in to fight the wounded ones; my entire focus was on the Scaling Construct.

  Options. Stormbreak would knock it out. But there were seven friendlies. I couldn’t exclude them all; I’d hurt someone if I cast it, and I’d slow myself down badly if there wasn’t enough Mana to feed it—or if there was too much. Too risky. The Polarity Shift combo was slow. I needed more speed—needed to react to the other Scaling Constructs. My Negative Space aura rippled out. I pushed myself harder. Windwalk. Thunderblade. Every speed buff I had. Then I focused on stemming the flow of monsters.

  A gigantic tower shield slammed down next to me. I put my sword into it with Rain-Slicked Blade.

  It bounced off. “Easy, boy,” a thundering voice rumbled.

  I looked up at the shield’s owner. He was massive. Easily the biggest man I’d ever seen, almost eight feet tall and at least five hundred pounds in his armor, armor that made the Wall look almost weak. The shield that had stopped my sword was familiar, too.

  Bernard the Wall. Leader of the Coyotes.

  It wasn’t just Bernard.

  I felt a little stupid as the massive tank and a second, almost-as-massive tank crushed the remaining Scaling Constructs over the course of about thirty seconds—especially when I recognized the two spellcasters they were allegedly protecting.

  Angelo Lawrence, the Light of Dawn.

  And Sarah Cullman, the Spark of Life.

  “Come on,” I muttered to Jeff. “Let’s get back to our section. They’ve got this.”

  He didn’t move, though. Instead, he watched the two tanks as they fought. Neither seemed to care about the B-Rank monsters that seemed to be nipping at their heels. Steam poured off their plate armor in massive plumes as rain evaporated on it and sweat did the same thing underneath it. Even as gigantic as the two of them were, though, none of their motions were wasted. They were powerful. Efficient. Smooth.

  The second tank’s helmet was full-faced, and I didn’t recognize the armor at all. It was vaguely blue, with gold highlights, and their sword looked like part of a matching set. They couldn’t be S-Rank, though—as powerful as they were, they weren’t anything on Bernard the Wall.

  “Come on,” I said again. “Let’s go.”

  “No, Kade Noelstra,” Angelo said quietly. “I believe the worst of it is over for now.”

  I turned and stared at him. Then I blinked. Then I stared some more. He looked like death warmed over, even in his tailored suit. Thin to the point of being emaciated. Not an ounce of fat on his body. Steam rose around him, almost as thick as the clouds just past the wall. His eyes were bloodshot slits, and he coughed in a massive fit.

  “Sarah, now is the time,” he said. Then he coughed again.

  “They’re out there, digging in,” I said. “We need to—“

  “Counterattack?” Angelo interrupted. He stared into the distance, and a single explosion shook the wall. Then he stopped and closed his eyes. “We have been preparing that for some time. If I could have held for another couple of days, our maneuver would be ready. As it is, however, the city of Phoenix is surrounded. My ancestors would call it invested. Our counterattack will come when we can afford to spend the resources on it.”

  “What do we do, then?” Ellen asked.

  “Simple. We have reached an impasse. The S-Rank monsters outside cannot breach the walls with attacks like what they have just launched. We are unable to break free from their siege with what we have at our disposal.” Angelo coughed, then winced. “Thank you, Sarah.”

  “Of course, Angelo.”

  “Therefore, the siege of Phoenix will continue until one side or the other shifts the balance of power. Now, Kade Noelstra, please return to your post. The defenses will hold, but even so, we must keep up appearances for the civilians.” Angelo coughed once more. Then he looked to the other tank. “Deborah, please help me up. I want to see what is out there.”

  Deborah—of course it was Deborah—walked to Angelo’s side. A massive arm reached out, and the weak-looking man grasped it and stood on the edge of the 303 Wall, looking out at the impenetrable fog that stood all around Phoenix.

  I turned and touched Ellen’s arm. She started and looked away from her third-round opponent. Then she shivered. “Something is wrong with her.”

  I felt it too, and as we retreated to our section of the wall, I couldn’t help but look back at her. Her eyes met mine below the helmet, and for once, I didn’t feel an ounce of malice or anger there.

  “Yeah. Something is very, very wrong.”

  The first book in my Apocalypse Engineering series, Voltsmith, is available on Audible (and Kindle Unlimited)! Voltsmith is a LitRPG Apocalypse in the style of Systems of the Apocalypse, with hints of Savage Awakening and a healthy dose of crafting LitRPG thrown in for good measure.

  Apocalypse Engineering has been an ongoing project for me for over a year. It was first released on Royal Road in February of last year. It’s been a long road from web serial to ebook, and finally to audiobook. Thanks to Royal Guard Publishing’s help and John Joseph Rodgers’s voice acting, here it is!

  And, if you’re a Voltsmith enjoyer who’s been waiting for the second book, I have an update on that as well. Apocalypse Engineering’s Book Two is in the editing process and will be released on Kindle as soon as it’s finished, and Book Three is in drafting right now!

  Kindle/KU:

  Audible: