The start of the ascent went surprisingly well. Alex had half-expected the entire enormous tree to come alive the moment he and Claire set foot in its gnarled, white bark. He’d been prepared to jump right into a fight as everything came alive around him.
Instead, nothing had happened. Their feet had landed on solid, if old, wood. And that was it. A part of Alex wondered if the tree being white meant it had died and withered away somehow, but he wasn’t optimistic enough to pin his hopes on that.
He and Claire made their way up the massive trunk. It wasn’t particularly difficult. They used the huge growths and sprawling branches that jutted from the center trunk to ascend toward the Disruptor far above them.
Both of them kept their eyes out for monsters on the way up. None showed themselves. The strange lack of enemies within the area around the Disruptor never failed to set Alex’s hair on end. Somehow, the Mirrorlands not trying to kill him was more unsettling than when it was.
He could tell that Claire was just as on edge as he was. Her jaw was clenched and her movements were jerky and sharp. Having an actual enemy to fight was much more preferrable to wondering what it was the System had in store for them.
But wondering was all they could do. Wondering — and climbing. And so that was what they did.
And before long, they stood before the Disruptor.
Coils of purplish-red mist passed by his body like fingers trailing through water, caressing his back on their journey through the sky. Far below him, the ground seemed to sway. The only thing between him and it was the large branch he stood on now.
He swallowed as he stared at the Disruptor, adrenaline making his heart pound like a hammering smith. The metallic ship far larger than Alex had initially thought. It stood somewhere around fifty feet high, looming far above him.
A faint whine emitted from it, interrupted by rhythmic squelching thumps that arrived in conjunction with the undulating purple flesh within the Disruptor’s core. The very ship seemed to be breathing.
“Gods, talk about gross,” Claire said. She shifted her weight from foot to foot. “I don’t even know where to start. It’s huge.”
“Just start ripping at it, I guess,” Alex said. “I’d guess that the power source is probably at the top. Or at the bottom. Or in the middle. One of the three.
“Very helpful,” Claire said dryly. She craned her neck back to squint up to the very top of the Great Tide’s Disruptor. Alex followed her gaze. It wasn’t very useful. The family hadn’t been kind enough to print a schematic or a giant red target identifying the ships heart anywhere on its surface. After a few more seconds, the Dhampir heaved a sigh. “Shit. I think you’re right. I’m just going to have to start digging at it. You ready?”
Alex re-summoned all of his monsters, having dismissed them for the climb. Glint, Spark, and Princess all emerged around him and silently waited a command — or an enemy.
“At this point, I’m going to pop from the anticipation. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Just make sure you don’t get knocked off the tree,” Claire warned as she approached the base of the Disruptor. “Because, Mind Palace or no, you aren’t going to heal from a fall at this height.”
“It was about the sentiment.”
Claire snorted. She reared back, taking aim at the exposed mass of pulsating purple flesh within the Disruptor’s silvery armor. Then she drove her blade straight into it. The sword sank all the way down to the hilt, carving deep into its target without resistance.
A wall of pressure slammed into Alex’s chest like a hammer as a scream tore through the Mirrorlands. His eardrums ruptured in an instant as he was hurled off his feet, thrown from the branch like a discarded doll.
Spark blurred, leaping from the tree after him. The Knight Wraith slammed into Alex and wrapped his arms around him. There was a sharp jerk in Alex’s stomach and he felt the world shift around him.
His feet landed back on the white bark and he staggered, heart slamming even more furiously in his chest. Glint and Princess had both been hurled from where they stood as well and were well on their way toward the ground.
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With a thought, Alex dismissed them. Canceling his summons was far too slow to let him use it to let his monsters dodge direct attacks, but they definitely weren’t going to be falling to their deaths anytime soon.
Alex didn’t waste time watching them return to the Spatial Mirrors. His gaze was transfixed on the Disruptor.
The silver ship wasn’t a ship anymore.
Its top had split open, thick triangles of metal peeling back like the petals of a blooming flower to reveal a pulsating pillar about the size of a man. A bulb at its very top burned with brilliant purple light. Crackles of Rift energy hissed and popped around the orb as miniature portals ripped open.
Strands of energy extended from the portals, reaching out to each other and snapping together with buzzing cracks. Two of the portals lurched together, droplets of water flowing through the canvas of the misty sky. Then another joined. And another, and another.
Within moments, the portals had all merged together to form a massive disk burning in the air above the bright tip of the Disruptor. Pressure rolled out from within the portal. It bore down on Alex’s shoulders, trying to force him to his knees.
Claire ripped her sword free of the purple flesh and took a step back, lowering into a fighting stance as she fought to keep from stumbling. Then she reared back and drove the sword back into the Disruptor’s side.
Another scream ripped through the Mirrorlands. But, this time, Alex was ready for it. He grabbed onto Princess, who braced him with one hand while digging her other into the branch of the tree beneath them.
The wave of pressure that exploded from the Disruptor slammed into them, but it failed to knock anyone from their spot.
But they had far bigger problems than that.
The portal buzzed with increased intensity. A miniature storm roiled within its murky surface, streaks of lightning carving across the face of the purple disk in slow motion. And then, from within the portal, the point of a sword emerged.
Alex and his monsters all readied themselves. It seemed that the Disruptor’s reinforcements were arriving. He couldn’t exactly attack a sword, but the moment he saw the hand holding it, they would strike.
The sword, made from a black slab of obsidian lined with brilliant purple crystal that had been sharpened to a razor edge, sliced down from the portal and slammed into the trunk with a loud crunch.
And Alex stared at it in confusion. The portal snapped shut an instant later, confusing him even further.
There was no hand around the hilt of the sword. It was just a sword, devoid of an owner.
“What the hell?” Alex asked. “Did they fuck something up?”
A loud crack split through the air. It was followed by several more in rapid succession. The metal around the flesh that Claire had stabbed split — but not from damage. Perfectly straight lines appeared within the sleek silver surface of the Disruptor.
She took a step back, raising her sword before her.
Segments of the Disruptor shifted out of the way with a hiss, revealing a compartment of purple flesh hidden in the ship. A hiss of steam burst from within the chamber. It thumped, illuminated for a brief instant by crackles of pink lightning racing within it.
There was a man seated in the center of the chamber. Tubes dangled from his body, running from him to the walls of the ship.
He shifted. Rose to his feet, nothing more than a shadow in the pulsing purple prison. Another arc of pink light passed through the chamber as a second hiss echoed out. The tubes split away, squelched against the walls, splattered to the ground.
“I’ll deal with this!” Alex hissed to Claire. “Time, remember? The orb thing at the top is definitely the power source. Grab it while I distract whoever this—”
Lines raced up the sides of the Disruptor. Segments of metal split apart, transforming into segmented metal limbs that ended in wicked-looking blades. Claire’s lips thinned.
“Deal with the ship. I’ll get the guy,” Alex said.
“You sure? The ship seems a whole lot scarier. Probably more up your…”
Claire trailed off as the man took a lumbering step out of the shadowed chamber and into the red-purple light of the Mirrorlands. The man was huge. He stood at easily twelve feet tall, but Alex barely even noticed his height for more than a brief moment.
They’d been wrong. The man hadn’t been wearing armor. His body was the armor. Or at least, it was part of it.
Thick metal rods ran throughout the man’s body, impaling him and connecting him to the metal shell surrounding his body. Parts of his flesh had been melted; grafted right into the metal itself. Purple liquid dribbled down the man’s metal armor and across the spikes that ran from it into his flesh.
The only un-damaged part of his body was his face. It was completely hairless, shaved as smooth as that of a baby. His eyelids fluttered as if in sleep as he took another lumbering step forward.
Bark cracked beneath his heavy sabaton and he extended a hand. It slammed down on the hilt of the sword, fingers stiff.
Then man’s eyes snapped open. They burned a brilliant purple, like two miniature suns had been trapped within his skull.
There were several loud pops as stitching that Alex hadn’t even noticed popped and tore around the man’s lips. They pulled apart to allow a deluge of purple fluid to pour out from his mouth and splatter across his warped chest.
Loud crunches echoed out from the man’s metal fingers as they ground to a close around the hilt of the sword embedded in the tree. Purple liquid dripped down the blade’s surface and sizzled against the metal with a loud hiss.
“Have I not served penitence enough?” the man whispered. His burning eyes focused on Alex. “If I kill you, will it end?”
“You know what?” Claire asked, swallowing. “I’ll take the ship.”