Chris Pitt ripped his hands downward and screamed a string of curses into the swirling dust. The absolute spatial authority anchoring millions of tons of bedrock collapsed entirely. The inverted valley plummeted back toward the planetary crust at terrifying speeds.

Six hundred thousand soldiers and the massive interconnected stone web entered a catastrophic freefall. Boulders the size of fortresses crashed against one another while the pulverizing sandstorm engulfed the descending army.

’If we hit solid rock, the entire Vanguard dies,’ Iron-Scale calculated.

He braced his boots against the plummeting network of stone and unleashed the full capacity of his emerald core. Colossal updrafts roared directly beneath the falling troops to fight the terminal velocity of the tethered web.

Gulag slammed her palms against the interior of her earthen shell. She extended her magic far below the falling army to seize control of the approaching impact zone. She violently churned the solid crust of the Third Continent, liquefying the compressed rock into a vast basin of loose sand to cushion their landing.

Chris tumbled uncontrollably through the chaotic debris field. He thrashed his limbs in a desperate attempt to manifest a new gravity well. He lacked any physical leverage in the freefall, and the abrasive dust cloud clung tightly to his golden armor.

Iron-Scale tracked Chris through the storm and recognized a fatal flaw in his defense. He extended his claws to condense the localized cyclone around his target, funneling the pulverized bedrock directly into his unprotected face.

Microscopic stone flooded the Herald’s airway. Chris gagged violently, inhaling a large mouthful of abrasive sand. He clawed frantically at his throat while his lungs filled with pulverized rock.

He coughed up blood and wet dirt as his physical form rejected the invasion. The intense physical trauma shattered his concentration, causing his last glowing gravity wells to blink out of existence.

’Got you,’ Krax thought, baring his fangs.

He used the sudden shift in momentum to launch his massive frame off a nearby falling boulder. He closed the distance through the descending debris and intercepted Chris mid-air.

Krax swung the flat broadside of his greataxe directly into the golden chest plate. The concussive strike caved the armor inward and knocked the breath from his lungs.

The tethered web of soldiers slammed into the liquefied basin of sand. Iron-Scale’s emerald updrafts absorbed the worst of the kinetic shock, turning a lethal collision into a wave of shifting dunes and rolling stone.

The earthen cocoons cracked open to reveal the surviving Vanguard infantry.

Krax crashed into the dunes a moment later, driving Chris face-first into the dirt. He planted a broad plated boot between the Herald’s shoulder blades, pinning him completely to the ground. Chris convulsed under the massive weight, wheezing pathetically while he tried to clear the mud from his throat.

Syra materialized from the shadow cast by Krax’s towering figure. She knelt beside the twitching captive and pressed a condensed blade of darkness directly against his neck.

Chris hacked violently, spitting a clump of bloody mud onto the sand. Krax pressed his plated boot deeper between the golden shoulder blades. Syra held the condensed shadow blade tight against the captive’s neck.

Iron-Scale stepped over the rolling dunes, uncoiling the lengths of star-iron chains to bind him since star-iron nullified magic.

Suddenly, a blinding pulse of golden energy erupted directly from Chris’s chest plate.

He bypassed his hands entirely to detonate an omnidirectional repulsion field from his core. The concussive blast slammed into Krax’s torso. Krax flew backward and crashed through a shattered earthen cocoon. Syra instantly dissolved into a dark puddle to evade the kinetic shockwave.

The expanding force ripped the metal chains straight out of Iron-Scale’s grip.

Chris staggered upright. He wiped a streak of dirt and blood from his mouth. His golden armor glowed with renewed intensity as he floated a few inches above the ground. He raised his arms, distorting the space around him to form a defensive singularity.

"You lot of lizards and goblins! I will crush you all! How dare you touch me with those filthy hands of yours!"

Ten miles away, the ruined Sun-Spear capital burned under the midday sun while Megan walked over the pulverized sandstone streets. Her designer heels clicked against the debris as she spotted three injured native soldiers huddled beneath a collapsed stone archway.

"Go away! Leave us alone!" They clutched broken spears with trembling hands.

"Don’t worry. I am not going to hurt you," Megan said with a smile on her face. "I am here to help."

Megan raised an elegant finger toward the ruins. A searing beam of pure white light instantly vaporized the stone and reduced the hiding survivors to ash.

"Heh, Peasants!" Megan sighed. "As if I am going to let them stain my clothes."

A massive shockwave rippled across the eastern horizon, visibly warping the sky over the distant dunes. Megan lowered her hand to stare at the distorted clouds.

’He is actually having trouble with those animals,’ Megan thought. She summoned a halo of radiant energy around her body and launched herself into the sky like a comet. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Back in the valley basin, the Vanguard commanders pressed the attack.

Gulag ripped massive stone spikes from the liquefied sand, launching them toward Chris. He shattered the incoming projectiles with isolated gravity wells. Krax retrieved his greataxe from the dunes and charged blindly through the falling debris.

A blinding pillar of incandescent light struck the center of the battlefield. The extreme temperature instantly fused the loose sand into a massive crater of smooth glass.

Krax shielded his eyes and skidded to a halt, while Iron-Scale raised a forearm to block the intense glare.

Megan descended from the sky, hovering gracefully beside Chris. Her radiant aura illuminated the ruined basin. She glanced at the dented armor and the bloody sand coating his chin.

"Look at the mess you made," Megan commented, crossing her arms. "I leave you alone for an hour, and you get yourself buried."

Chris scowled, keeping his hands raised to maintain his spatial shield. "Kill them. They use some kind of abrasive dust. Keep them at a distance. They are not the usual pests. They know how to fight and use their powers."

Up in the sanctuary, Red remained seated on his throne. He watched the holographic projection shift as the second Earthling entered the fray.

’Two targets in one location,’ Red analyzed, resting his chin on his knuckles. ’The combat parameters just shifted entirely.’

Glitch uncurled from the base of the throne and let out an eager chirp. The infant anomaly stared up at the projection with glowing blue eyes, hungry for the dense divine magic radiating from the Heralds.

Red reached down to scratch the Void-Weaver behind the ears. He was perfectly content to let the Vanguard test their limits against the combined might of his former classmates.