The whooping screech of what could only have been an alarm greeted Angel as he ran through another fork in the tunnels, led by the Star Fragment. He emerged into a small room with three guards, each protected by a red bubble of energy.

Angel’s arm whirred and a canister clicked into place. The hole in his palm opened and the cylindrical relic emerged from within it. An empowered earth spell shot from his hand and struck the ground. Spikes erupted from the metal, punching clean through the defensive barriers of all three men and suspending them in the air like grotesque ornaments.

He swept past them, descending deeper into the Buried God. Several more groups of guards ran at him, but his improved spells tore through their defenses like paper. The cooling system on his arm was running at max power and his shoulder was starting to get to an uncomfortable heat, but he ignored it.

The Star Fragment’s crackles grew more energetic with every passing second. A dull hum filled his ears and his skin prickled as invisible energy washed across him. Angel’s lips tingled uncomfortably and his hair shifted and twitched even though the air was stale and immobile.

His tunnel came to an end before the first door that Angel had seen in the Buried God. It was more of a circular hatch in a wall, covered with runed inscriptions and glowing with Old World Magic. If a power source was anywhere, he was willing to bet his arm that it was probably right in front of him.

Angel reached for it, then paused. He pressed his lips together and studied the wall for a moment. The Reawakening would never leave the most important part of the Buried God unattended, and he doubted they’d let the task be handled by a few guards.

He pulled a thin metal rod from his travel pack. It was just a piece of scrap metal, but it would do for his current purposes. He took a steadying breath, gathering his resolve before balling a scarf up and stuffing it into his mouth.

A few seconds later, the metal rod clattered to the ground at his feet, its tip stained with blood. Angel spat the scarf out and grabbed the door by its handle, ripping it open and stepping through.

Red light painted the room before him. A sphere was suspended between two pillars that ended in jagged claws, electricity crackling from it and into the Buried God. Two guards flanked the pillars, and Body stood beside them, her wooden staff in her hand and a lazy grin on her face.

“Stop,” Body commanded. The word tore through the air with palpable force.

Angel jerked to a halt, baring his teeth in a furious snarl. “Where are my students, you wretched hag?”

“You’ll find them soon enough,” Body said, waving her staff. The guards lowered their weapons and moved to flank Angel. “Reave said you were a fool, but I didn’t think you’d come charging straight back to us. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were on our side.”

“You disgust me,” Angel spat, his arms still locked at his sides. “You slaughter innocents for something that could be obtained for free if you had enough brains to power a rat.”

“Then you’ll be more than happy to help us find it,” Body said, approaching him. “Your mind is weaker than I expected. Were you so thoroughly broken by my last interaction with you? Pathetic. The Star Fragment is wasted on you, but it’s the only thing stopping me from killing you where you stand. I’d rather not break such a priceless artifact by killing you while you’ve got it. If you give it to me of your own will, I might consider sparing your life.”

“You know something?” Angel asked. “When you’re dead, nobody’s going to miss you. If the Reawakening had tried to help the world, you would have been truly immortal. Instead, you’ve chosen to fade into the sands of time, forgotten by even the vultures that will gnaw on your ugly, miserable corpse.”

“Insults help your feeble little mind, do they?” Body asked with a smirk. “That didn’t answer my question, though. I won’t give you another chance.”

“I’m sorry,” Angel said, the corner of his lip quirking up. “It’s a bit hard to hold a conversation right now.”

A trickle of blood ran down from one of his ears, tracing down his cheek and dripping onto the lapel of his shirt. His arm swung up, whining with power as the plates started to rattle and glow. An enormous bolt of lightning tore from his arm, screaming across the room and striking Body.

The spell hurled her into the wall and sent the staff flying from her grip. Angel dove out of the way as the guards swung their blades at him, narrowly avoiding getting bisected. He hit the ground in a roll and shot back to his feet, steam still rising up from his shoulder. He staggered, nearly losing his footing, but managed to keep himself upright.

He grabbed one of the guard’s swords with his metal arm, ripping it free from the man’s grasp and backhanding him with enough force to cave the metal mask in. Angel turned to the remaining man and fired a normal bolt of lightning. The final guard crumpled to the ground in a smoking heap.

Angel stalked over to Body. Her shirt had been melted to her chest from the power of his spell. Her eyes were rolled back in her head and her hair blackened. That didn’t stop him from placing his palm above her chest and firing another canister.

A metal spike erupted from beneath her, punching out through her chest with a loud rending screech. Sparks showered across the floor as the Magitech within the woman was ruined.

“You see,” Angel explained to her corpse. “I can’t hear right now. Sorry about that. I don’t want to hear anything from scum that bring children into their fights.”

He put a foot on her chest and pushed down, forcing her further into the spike. There would be no miraculous recoveries for her. Not even Angel could repair the damage that had been done to her internals.

He ripped her free of the spike and reached into her chest with his metal arm. Using Liquid Metal, he melted through the remaining Magitech in his way. His hand wrapped around a small orb and he pulled it free.

Body’s Star Fragment was a shimmering sky blue. Something about it filled Angel with unease. He pulled his pack open and tossed the orb in without touching it.

The gruesome task done, Angel turned to the sphere floating between the pillars. Lilian’s old core, if he had to guess. The amount of power flowing through it told him that trying to simply take the relic out would result in nothing at best and a massive explosion at worst. He reached out with his metal arm, allowing the greedy arcs of energy to lick at the electricity arcing off the relic.

“Go on,” Angel said. “Eat up.”

The Star Fragment needed no more encouragement. A wave of power rippled off Angel’s arm, reaching out and enveloping the relic with purple energy. It hissed and sputtered. Beams of faint light shot out from it, traveling into Angel’s arm instead of the Buried God.

He gritted his teeth as his arm started to heat. Steam shot from the back of his arm as his cooling system desperately tried and failed to keep up with the rapidly increasing temperature. His eyepiece dinged, falling down of its own volition.

Error: Source energy is too large to consume safely.

Temporary drainage can be achieved, but the target can not be depleted.

Would you like to proceed? [Y/N]

“Yes, damn it,” Angel snarled.

Searing pain shot down his arm. He cried out and the purple energy shot back into him, vanishing without a trace and taking the electricity surrounding the relic with it. The sphere remained suspended in the air.

Suppressing the pain coursing through his body and the smell of burnt flesh filling the room, Angel touched the sphere with a metal finger. A jolt of energy knocked his hand away and threw him to the ground.

He groaned, pulling himself back upright. The relic wasn’t going anywhere, that much was certain. The Buried God simply wasn’t something he could beat in raw magic. Still, he’d done some damage to it, however temporary it might be. On cue, the lights in the room dimmed slightly and a rumble ran through the floor.