The Desert Fights Back
The desert continued with the stubborn determination of something that had never heard the phrase enough is enough. Dune followed dune beneath an enormous burning sky, each one looking suspiciously similar to the last, until even the most optimistic members of the group had begun regarding the horizon as a personal enemy. Airi was the first to surrender to the sand, dropping dramatically onto the slope of a dune and spreading her arms as though preparing for burial. "I feel cooked," she announced. Daichi Moriyama, who had spent the last hour adjusting his glasses only for them to slide immediately back down his damp nose, muttered that he was fairly certain he had begun seeing mirages of himself seeing mirages. Even the naturally cool air surrounding Renji's small furred partner had weakened under the relentless heat, and Yuto had taken to walking almost directly behind Haruto simply to steal whatever narrow strip of shadow he could manage. Shun's equipment had become too warm to use comfortably, Misaki had stopped pretending the heat wasn't bothering her, and Renji had abandoned whatever dignity required him to look unaffected by anything. Caelan alone remained physically comfortable, circulating ki through his body to regulate his temperature, though even he was becoming thoroughly tired of staring at sand.
For several minutes he had walked in unusual silence, brows drawn together as he considered their problem. That expression had already become familiar enough that Misaki noticed it immediately.
"What are you thinking?"
Caelan looked toward a broad outcrop of stone protruding from the next dune.
"That yesterday's idea wasn't actually bad."
Renji stopped.
"No."
Caelan looked at him.
"I haven't said anything yet."
"You looked at a rock."
"The rock isn't the problem."
"The last rock nearly killed us."
"It didn't nearly kill anyone."
"You flew headfirst into a cactus."
"That was a steering problem."
"That is not reassuring."
Caelan walked toward the outcrop anyway.
Airi brightened despite herself. "Are we making another sled?"
"No."
Renji visibly relaxed.
Caelan placed one hand against the stone.
"We're making a flying one."
Renji's relief disappeared.
The others watched while Caelan cut a wide slab free using narrow currents of compressed wind. This time he did not bother carving runners beneath it. Instead he smoothed the top, rounded the edges and left the bottom broad and flat. Once everyone had moved back, he stepped onto the stone, bent slightly at the knees and extended both hands. Wind gathered beneath the slab with a low rushing sound. Sand spiralled outward. The rock trembled.
Then it rose.
Only a handspan at first.
Then half a metre.
Airi stared.
"You could do that yesterday?"
Caelan glanced at her.
"I hadn't thought of it yesterday."
Renji closed his eyes.
"Of course."
The floating slab steadied beneath Caelan's control. Currents of air supported it from below while smaller streams curled along the sides, keeping it level. It was not elegant, nor was it anything Caelan would have proudly presented to one of the formation masters back home, but it floated, which immediately made it far superior to their previous transportation.
Caelan gestured.
"Everyone aboard."
Shun stepped onto the platform cautiously and immediately crouched to inspect the air beneath it.
"You're maintaining lift by creating continuous upward pressure while balancing lateral instability?"
"Yes."
"How much concentration does that require?"
"Less than listening to you explain it."
Shun ignored that and climbed farther aboard.
Soon the entire group had settled onto the stone, along with their partners. Caelan stood at the front while Sparky climbed onto his shoulder, apparently deciding that if the invention failed, being close to its inventor offered the best chance of survival.
Airi sat cross-legged near the centre.
"This is already better than walking."
"We haven't moved," Misaki pointed out.
"Still better."
Caelan glanced back.
"Hold on."
Renji immediately grabbed the edge.
Haruto laughed.
"You're learning."
Wind roared behind the slab.
The platform shot forward.
Everyone lurched backward.
This time, however, the stone did not spin.
Caelan adjusted the surrounding currents with small movements of his hands, lifting them smoothly over the crest of the first dune. They skimmed across the desert perhaps a metre above the sand, fast enough for a cool breeze to rush over the passengers without turning the ride into yesterday's catastrophe.
Airi raised both arms.
"This is much better!"
Renji, whose hands remained firmly wrapped around the edge, refused to agree on principle.
Caelan grinned.
"See?"
"The fact that you fixed your terrible idea does not retroactively make it good."
"It worked eventually."
"That's the philosophy of someone who shouldn't be allowed to build things."
Even Misaki laughed at that.
The desert began slipping rapidly beneath them, golden slopes rising and falling while the floating stone sailed across them with a long trail of disturbed sand behind. After hours of slow walking, the sudden speed was glorious. Airi leaned backward and let the wind catch her hair. Yuto moved closer to the front until Haruto caught the back of his shirt and informed him that falling off would rather defeat the purpose of escaping the heat. Daichi finally stopped complaining. Shun began taking notes again.
Sparky, strangely, said very little.
He sat near Caelan's feet, watching him control the platform. Tiny currents curled around Caelan's fingers, strengthening or weakening depending on the slope ahead. Nothing about the process appeared particularly difficult for him. Sparky had already watched Caelan destroy a grove of Barkmaws with a hurricane, fight Gorgonbeak in silver-and-blue armour and somehow survive things that would have terrified most young Aetherkin.
But it wasn't simply that Caelan was strong.
Sparky had watched him fight for people who had distrusted him.
He had watched him step between danger and others without needing to be asked.
Strength, Sparky was beginning to understand, could mean more than surviving.
He eventually climbed closer.
"Caelan?"
"Hm?"
"Can I ask you something?"
Caelan kept his attention on the dunes ahead.
"You just did."
Sparky frowned.
"You know what I mean."
"Go on."
The little Voltkin looked down at his paws.
"How do I get strong like you?"
Caelan glanced at him.
Sparky's expression was completely serious.
The others nearby gradually quieted.
"Training," Caelan answered.
Sparky waited.
Caelan waited too.
"That's it?"
"What did you expect?"
"I don't know. Something more impressive."
Caelan smiled faintly.
"Training usually isn't impressive. You strengthen what you're bad at. You improve what you're already good at. You learn how your body moves, what your abilities actually do and what happens when someone doesn't fight the way you expected."
Sparky's ears lifted.
"You trained like that?"
"Everyone where I come from trains."
"Even when you're already strong?"
"Especially then."
Caelan shifted the platform around the side of a particularly steep dune.
"Getting stronger isn't just hitting harder. If that were true, every idiot with big muscles would be unbeatable. You learn how to move. How to think while you're fighting. How to conserve strength. How to recognize what the other person is doing before they finish doing it."
Sparky glanced down at the sparks dancing across his paws.
"I've never trained properly."
"Then start."
"I've only lived in the wild. I fought when I needed food or when something attacked me. Nobody ever taught me."
Caelan looked at him again.
"That means you've already learned some things."
Sparky blinked.
"Surviving is training too. Just not very organized training."
That seemed to cheer him slightly.
"But where do I start?"
Caelan thought for a moment.
"First, figure out what you want your strength for."
Sparky stared.
"Why does that matter?"
"Because training gets unpleasant."
Several of the children laughed quietly.
Caelan continued.
"When you're tired, hurt, frustrated and wondering why you're doing something stupid for the thousandth time, having a reason helps."
Sparky looked toward the others riding behind them.
"I want to protect people."
Caelan nodded.
"Good enough."
The little Voltkin's eyes brightened.
"Will you train me?"
Caelan looked him over.
"You might regret asking."
"I won't."
"That's what people say before training."
Sparky's tail crackled.
"I'm serious."
Caelan smiled.
"Fine."
Sparky nearly bounced.
"You'll really do it?"
"Yes."
Sparky thrust out one paw.
Caelan looked at it.
Then bumped his fist against it.
"Just don't complain later."
"I'm not going to complain."
Caelan laughed.
"Definitely going to complain."
The peaceful journey lasted perhaps another hour.
That was, Caelan would later decide, a surprisingly generous amount of time.
The first warning came from Sakura.
Misaki's small avian partner suddenly twisted around, feathers lifting.
"Something's behind us."
Caelan looked over his shoulder.
At first he saw only sky.
Then shapes emerged against the sunlight.
Dozens of winged creatures circled high above the desert, their dark crimson feathers almost black against the evening sky. Their eyes glowed with the same empty aggression Caelan had already learned to associate with corrupted Aetherkin.
Misaki stood.
"Blightwings."
The nearest creature folded its wings and dived.
"Sakura!"
Light burst across the platform.
Sakura's body expanded in a rush of flame, evolving into Emberwing. The great crimson bird launched herself from the floating stone and climbed sharply into the sky.
Fire gathered along her wings.
A burning volley crossed the air and struck the descending Blightwing directly, knocking it away in a tumbling spiral.
Then more appeared.
Renji swore.
"Front!"
Across the dunes ahead came moving points of flame.
They grew quickly.
Humanoid creatures formed almost entirely from living fire were racing across the desert, propelling themselves with explosive bursts from their arms and feet.
"Pyrekin," Shun said.
"How many?"
Shun looked.
Then stopped counting.
"Too many."
Caelan sighed.
"Of course."
The enemies did not attack him.
Several Blightwings began dives, only to redirect toward Misaki, Airi or the others when their paths would have required them to strike Caelan directly. The Pyrekin hurled flaming projectiles at the floating platform and its passengers instead.
Destiny's Chosen held.
Unfortunately, that did not prevent them from trying to destroy the thing carrying everyone else.
Caelan swept one arm outward.
Wind spread around the stone in a curving barrier.
Three fireballs struck the compressed air and burst apart.
"Everyone who can fight," Haruto shouted, "do it now!"
Light flashed across the platform.
Renji's partner evolved first, expanding into the great white-and-blue wolf known as Frostfang. He leapt from the platform and landed running beside them, paws barely sinking into the sand before a blast of pale-blue flame left his jaws and intercepted another incoming attack.
Daichi's aquatic partner transformed next, becoming the massive tusked Tidemaw, whose heavy body landed in the sand with enough force to throw up a cloud around him. A hardened projectile launched from between his tusks and struck one of the approaching Pyrekin squarely in the chest.
Airi lifted her Resonance Linker.
The green symbol of Sincerity glowed.
Flora burst into light.
A moment later Cactara landed heavily on the platform, boxing gloves raised.
"Finally!"
She spun.
Hundreds of hardened needles flew outward, forcing several Blightwings to break formation while others struck advancing enemies below.
The green Sigil within Airi's Linker flashed again.
A soft pulse spread from Cactara.
Fatigue eased.
Frostfang's next blast grew larger.
Emberwing's flames brightened.
Shun stared at the readings.
"The Sigil is amplifying the resonance between Airi and Flora."
Airi held onto her hat.
"Less studying! More not dying!"
"Both are possible!"
A fireball nearly hit him.
Shun ducked.
"Point taken!"
Caelan shifted his stance at the front of the platform.
The floating stone banked hard around another volley.
Everyone leaned.
Renji shouted, "Could you warn us?"
"Wouldn't help!"
"TRY!"
A Blightwing swooped toward Yuto.
Emberwing intercepted it in midair.
Another pair approached from opposite sides.
Cactara showered one with needles while Frostfang drove the other away with cold flame.
The number of enemies kept increasing.
Daichi looked behind them.
"I don't want to alarm anyone."
"No sentence beginning that way has ever helped," Renji snapped.
"We are extremely outnumbered."
"We noticed!"
Caelan looked ahead.
A canyon split the desert.
Wide.
Deep.
The platform could cross it.
Probably.
He narrowed his eyes.
"Everybody hold on."
Several people shouted at once.
"What?"
Caelan drove both hands backward.
The wind beneath the platform compressed.
"Hold on!"
The stone accelerated.
Air screamed past them.
The edge of the canyon rushed closer.
Airi's eyes widened.
"CAELAN—"
The platform launched.
For one astonishing moment, they were flying.
Not skimming.
Flying.
The canyon opened beneath them.
Several children screamed.
Airi screamed happily.
Renji did not.
Renji's scream contained several words that would have gotten him into trouble at home.
The Aetherkin continued firing behind them as they crossed. Emberwing and Frostfang attacked in midair, driving back the closest pursuers.
Then the platform struck the far side.
Hard.
Stone cracked.
Everyone bounced.
Caelan forced wind beneath them, slowing the impact enough that nobody was thrown free, but the slab split down the middle and collapsed into the sand.
For several seconds there was silence.
Then Daichi lifted his head.
"Are we alive?"
Airi sat up.
"That was amazing."
Renji turned toward her.
"No."
Caelan stood and brushed sand from his clothes.
"Worked."
Shun stared at the two halves of the stone.
"Technically."
Caelan looked back across the canyon.
Most of their pursuers had stopped.
Several Blightwings circled above the gap rather than immediately following.
The group relaxed.
Only slightly.
Caelan didn't.
He had turned toward the opposite horizon.
Something was approaching.
A great many somethings.
Shapes rose from behind the dunes ahead.
Large reptilian creatures with dark armour-like hides. Other dinosaur-like beasts whose eyes were empty and wrong. More Pyrekin. Winged creatures wheeled overhead.
The army spread outward until the desert itself seemed to be moving.
Haruto's face lost its colour.
"No..."
The others slowly turned.
At the centre of the approaching force walked one figure alone.
Eidon made no attempt to hurry.
He strode across the sand with theatrical confidence, golden-brown fur gleaming in the sunlight and a long coat moving behind him despite the still air. Polished dark lenses covered his eyes. Every movement suggested somebody who believed the entire desert existed solely to provide him with a stage.
His laughter carried ahead of him.
"Well, well."
The army slowed.
Eidon spread both arms.
"The little travellers from my ship."
His grin widened.
"You do make things unnecessarily difficult."
Caelan watched him.
Then the amusement vanished from his face.
There was no need for Eidon to attack for Caelan to understand.
The difference between them was immediately apparent.
Gorgonbeak had been strong enough to bypass Destiny's Chosen, but he had still been an opponent Caelan could defeat once he became serious. Eidon was different. The pressure rolling from him was heavier, deeper and unmistakably beyond Caelan's present level. The paths surrounding the creature did not close when Caelan considered battle. Worse, the futures in which Eidon struck him were perfectly possible.
So were the futures in which Caelan died.
His fingers tightened almost imperceptibly.
For the first time since arriving in this universe, Caelan was standing in front of something he knew was stronger than him.
If Eidon decided to kill him, Caelan could not rely on Destiny's Chosen to save him.
And if they fought directly, there was every possibility that Eidon would succeed.
Around him, the others did not possess Caelan's understanding of fate, but they could feel enough.
Nobody spoke.
The army alone would have been a nightmare.
Eidon made it worse.
Several creatures were Adult stage.
Others were Elite.
But stage alone meant very little compared with the sheer weight of the being walking at their centre.
Haruto stood near the front.
His small partner moved beside him.
"Haruto?"
Haruto did not answer.
His hands were trembling.
The approaching reptilian creatures blurred in his vision.
For a moment he was no longer seeing them.
He was seeing Gravefang.
The monstrous thing his partner had become when Haruto forced an evolution that neither of them had been ready for. Bones where armour should have been. Rage where thought should have been. Power without control.
His own mistake.
His own fault.
"Haruto?"
His partner touched his leg.
Haruto stepped backward.
"I can't."
Everyone looked at him.
His voice dropped.
"I can't make you evolve again."
Eidon laughed.
"Oh, that's precious."
Haruto flinched.
The army began spreading around them.
Misaki stood close to Sakura.
Airi held her Resonance Linker tightly.
Renji's jaw clenched.
Their partners had already spent too much energy during the chase. Even if they evolved again, nobody knew how long the forms would last.
Caelan lowered one hand.
Wind stirred around his fingers by instinct.
He could fight.
That did not mean he could win.
Against the army alone, there might have been options. The weaker creatures couldn't attack him directly, and with enough room he could tear through large numbers of them while the others defended themselves.
But that was not the battlefield in front of him.
Every creature surrounding them could attack his companions.
And standing behind them was Eidon.
Stronger than Caelan.
Strong enough to attack him.
Strong enough to kill him.
If Caelan committed himself to protecting the others, Eidon could attack him while his attention was divided. If Caelan focused entirely on Eidon, the army would tear into everyone behind him. Even summoning his Azure armour and lance would not change the basic problem.
They were trapped.
Caelan's eyes moved across the battlefield, searching for something he could use.
Nothing presented itself quickly enough.
Airi hugged Flora close.
"This isn't it, right?"
Misaki's face was pale.
"No."
She sounded more determined than certain.
Eidon took another step.
"Finished deciding who dies first?"
A brilliant pink-white streak crossed the battlefield.
Nobody had time to react.
The streak struck Eidon directly in the chest.
BOOM.
The master of the army disappeared into a plume of sand.
Every head turned upward.
A tiny figure hovered above them.
He was scarcely larger than Sparky, but shining wings beat behind him with such speed that they blurred into light. A pointed helm covered his head, and a narrow spear almost twice his own height rested in both hands. Radiance streamed from its tip.
The little warrior pointed it toward Eidon.
"That was for talking too much."
Eidon erupted from the sand.
"You!"
The newcomer's wings flashed.
He descended just enough for the group to see his face.
"Name's Luminel," he said sharply. "You can thank me after you've stopped standing where the army is."
Eidon snarled.
"You miserable glow-mite!"
Luminel twirled his spear.
"Still talking."
Light exploded from the weapon.
Eidon threw up one arm and blocked the strike, but the impact pushed him several metres backward.
Caelan's eyes narrowed.
Luminel was strong.
Very strong.
Strong enough that Eidon had stopped paying attention to them.
That was the opening they needed.
Luminel glanced over one shoulder.
"Move!"
Nobody argued.
Misaki grabbed Sakura.
Airi scooped up Flora.
The exhausted evolved partners began reverting one after another, shrinking back into their Juvenile forms as the energy required to maintain their Adult bodies finally ran out.
Caelan watched Luminel meet Eidon again.
Their collision cracked the air.
Power rolled across the desert strongly enough to disturb the dunes around them.
Caelan needed no further convincing.
Whatever Luminel was, he belonged in Eidon's weight class far more comfortably than Caelan did.
Then Caelan turned.
"Everyone together."
Renji looked at him.
"What are you doing?"
"Getting us out."
"We don't have the stone anymore."
"I noticed."
Caelan planted one foot.
Ki flooded his body.
Wind gathered.
Not the wild pressure of a hurricane.
Controlled currents.
Precise.
They curled around the group, lifting sand away from their feet.
Haruto looked down.
"We're floating."
"Not yet."
The wind strengthened.
Everyone rose several inches.
Airi tightened her grip around Flora.
"Caelan."
"Hm?"
"Please tell me you've done this before."
"No."
Renji made a strangled sound.
Caelan grinned.
"But I've moved heavier things."
That was apparently supposed to help.
It did not.
He stepped forward.
The entire group moved with him.
Wind cradled them inside a broad moving current, keeping children and exhausted partners clustered together while Caelan ran at the front. He did not carry them high. That would have made controlling everyone unnecessarily difficult. Instead their feet hovered barely above the dunes as the current pulled them after him.
Then Caelan accelerated.
The desert blurred.
Daichi's glasses immediately tried to leave his face.
He grabbed them with both hands.
"TOO FAST!"
Shun's hair flattened backward.
"I CAN'T SEE!"
Airi was laughing.
"WHEEEE!"
Renji looked at her in disbelief.
"WHY ARE YOU ENJOYING THIS?"
"WHY AREN'T YOU?"
Yuto clung to his partner and laughed breathlessly as they skimmed across the dunes faster than any of them could have run.
Behind them, flashes of pink and gold lit the horizon.
Luminel and Eidon were still fighting.
Caelan did not look back.
He increased the wind.
There was no reason to conserve strength now.
Every additional mile placed between Eidon and the others was worth the ki.
Miles disappeared.
The burning blue of the sky gradually softened toward evening orange. The sounds of battle faded. Dunes continued rolling beneath them until finally even Caelan could no longer sense the violent clashes behind them.
Only then did he begin slowing.
The wind weakened gradually.
Everyone descended.
Their feet touched sand.
Daichi immediately sat down.
Renji followed.
Shun adjusted his glasses with a hand that was still shaking.
Airi remained standing.
"Again."
Every boy looked at her.
"No," Renji said immediately.
Caelan bent forward, hands resting against his knees while he caught his breath.
Maintaining that much precise wind around so many moving bodies while pushing them across such a distance had taken considerably more out of him than simply throwing a hurricane at an enemy.
More importantly, he had not forgotten what remained behind them.
Eidon.
A being stronger than him.
A being who could kill him.
And somewhere beyond the dunes, Luminel was fighting that creature alone.
After a moment Caelan straightened.
"See?"
Renji stared at him.
Caelan gave them a thumbs-up.
"Easy."
Shun looked at his windswept clothes, then at Caelan.
"Your definition of easy is deeply concerning."
Caelan smiled.
Nobody had the energy to argue further.
Behind them, far beyond the dunes, the last flashes of Luminel's battle disappeared beneath the darkening horizon.