The reverb of explosives and gunfire sounded in the distance. It had been like this all morning. Summers was now sure something was happening at the base. If not a full-scale assault, it was close enough to have him worried. And to make things worse, the group trailing him had grown to around thirty. Far too many for him to fight alone. And given the noise, the situation to his front was even more dire.

He stumbled on an errant rock, nearly falling on his face. At this point he’d been up for days, and it was starting to wear on him.

Elias chuckled as Summers dusted himself off. Summers did his best to remind himself that, technically, executing a prisoner in cold blood was a bad thing. He reached for his gun anyway.

“Whatever’s happening over there, call them off,” Summers glared back.

Elias’ laughter trailed off.

“They won’t listen to me, or him. Not anymore.” He hesitated. “You know you can’t win. Even if you kill us.”

“What?”

Elias tapped on the side of his head.

“These people, you might kill a few of them, but they – he, can unmake planets.”

“And that somehow makes you better?”

“You really don’t get it.” He gestured up. “That, that’s coming no matter what happens. Do you really think you can fight it?”

Summers looked up to the sky, that spot of emptiness wasn’t visible at this time of day, but he knew it was there. And after what he’d seen in the city, he wasn’t sure how to answer, but if what he was being told was true. . .

“What is it?”

“That -- is God.”

“Seriously?”

Elias laughed.

“I have no idea. They thought it was the progenitor of life. But all they really know is that it hates people, and it’s coming.” His laughter took on a manic tone. “It’s coming. . .”

Summers stared down at the man, that lined up worryingly well with the elves’ myth about the hamr.

“Coming back for the rest of its body. . .” Summers glanced back, seeing several figures in the distance. He needed to get moving. “Look, if that asshole in your head really thinks he can fight it when his entire civilization didn’t stand a chance, he’s insane.” Summers lowered himself to Elias’ level. “You want to win me over, tell me what his plan is -- aside from brainwashing a bunch of innocent people.”

“With what they know-”

Summers held up a finger.

“You're still waiting for those geniuses of yours to come back and figure something out, aren’t you?”

Elias didn’t respond.

“Thought so.”

Summers turned, dragging a now silent Elias behind him. As he did, something caught Summers’ eye, he turned to find one of the many merchant signs Synel set up carved into a tree. Looking up the road, he saw another.

“Oh. Oh shit.”

After some searching, he found a cave not too far off, in the same direction as the symbol. He dug around in his pack, grabbing the flare gun he’d scavenged. With a moment of hesitation, he angled it towards the sky, and fired. It would be hard to see in the daylight, but the base was close enough now that they wouldn’t miss it. Hopefully, Pat and the others would know it meant he needed rescue.

Then again, they might not know it was him. Just to be sure, Summers fired another flare into the nearby brush. A small fire kicked up, growing surprisingly fast. The ecosystem here was fucked anyway, and if nothing else, they’d know the samr wouldn’t burn down a forest for no reason. He, on the other hand, was just the type of stupid to do it to get their attention. Hell, it might just slow down the people following him.

His work done, Summers continued towards the distant, thankfully barren, cave.

Summers stifled a yawn. He’d set up behind some rocks and waited for his inevitable rescue. And waited. After several hours, nothing had happened. Meaning the others either couldn’t get to him, or they hadn’t realized what the flare meant.

Something shifted outside, and Summers’ entire body snapped to attention. Seemed the people following him were finally coming to check what he was trying to do. Frankly he was surprised they’d taken this long. Likely, they knew this was one giant bottleneck. Summers angled his weapon on the entrance. The second someone poked their head into the cave, he’d make sure the others would know what coming inside would mean.

As he watched, the sound of metal skittering across the ground caught his attention. A grenade clattered to a stop almost directly beside him.

Some part of him, some detached part that wasn’t worried about being blown into tiny, wet pieces, was impressed at the sheer accuracy of the throw. The rest of him was screaming for Summers to do something. He listened to the second part, lunging forward, and chucking it out the cave with everything he had.

At that same moment, one of the black-eyed soldiers chose to break from his cover. The muffled boom, followed by the spray of red told Summers that the grenade had either hit him, or detonated close enough for that to be a non-issue.

A second man sprung out, but this time Summers was ready. He dropped the other man, and the two that came after him. As he reloaded, the sound of an engine nearby told Summers that staying in view of the entrance was not a good idea. He grabbed Elias and retreated to a small passage that looped back on itself. If that grenade was any indication, these people didn’t care about Elias’ safety. Meaning threatening him was worthless. Best case scenario, it was some run of the mill Humvee that was carrying several more people that wanted to kill him. Worst case-

A muffled WHUMP sent both Summers and Elias to the ground. Summers scrambled to his feet just as he felt an overwhelming sense of ‘wrongness’ wash over him. A familiar wrongness.

“Ah, fuck.”

Someone had made a portal nearby.

Summers heard gunfire as he rounded the corner, only to find Pat unloading a rifle into an honest-to-God tank, its barrel angled at him and Asle. Summers pushed into the space beside Asle and yelled.

“Close it close it close it!”

Asle had already complied before she even registered that he was next to her, and the tank, thankfully, disappeared, leaving an empty stretch of stone in its wake.

“Holy fuck,” Summers fell onto his ass as what had just happened caught up to him. A second earlier, or later, and there was a good chance they’d all be ugly smears on the rock.

Both Asle and Pat looked similarly shaken. Both knew what a tank was at this point, and the damage it could do. The group stared at each other before their collective brains kicked in.

“Asle!” Summers got to his feet. “Are you okay?”

It was only that that he registered the bandage on her head. One of her eyes was covered. Summers stopped.

Asle must have noticed his expression because she smiled.

“. . .It doesn’t hurt.”

Summers tried to reign in his reaction, that wasn’t what she needed right now.

“What about Orvar? Did he-”

“He. . . died.” Pat said, simply.

“Christ. . .”

“Come on,” Pat put a hand on Summers’ shoulder. “We need to get back to the base.” He turned, glancing at Elias. He didn’t even realize he’d brought the man along. He looked nearly catatonic, taking in the landscape with his mouth hanging open.

“Where. . . what is this place?” Elias asked.

Summers looked at Asle, her injury, and then Elias. He didn’t feel the need to answer the man’s question, instead, he started dragging him.

As it turned out, Orvar’s quick thinking had managed to save Asle, at the cost of his own life. Asle’s eye was a lost cause, the shot had only clipped her, but put her down long enough that Orvar’s squad had made the smart move and gotten her back to their temporary base in the obsidian world for help. That had left them stranded, but the few healers they had managed to help her. It had also kept her and the others out of the fight. The samr apparently knew about Asle’s power, and they’d pounced on the base the moment they thought she was out of commission.

Thankfully, Pat had been there, and they’d had enough time to prepare. The samr were met with every bit of ordinance they had, including enough landmines to constitute a war crime and cause a lot of trouble for the locals for years to come.

“How’s the base?” Summers looked to Pat.

“We’re holding on, but I don’t know how much longer we can manage. The recruits are burning through ammunition quickly, and the more. . . exotic weapons seemed too risky to use.”

“Good call, after what I saw those Humvees do, they could be just as dangerous to our people as anyone if they don’t know what they’re doing. What’s happened so far?”

“The attacks are coming in waves. We think they intend to exhaust us.”

Between the fatigue of fighting for days on end and blowing through their limited resources fighting the dregs of their forces, that might not be a bad strategy. And it would be easy for a group that could control their people like drones.

“Stop!” Elias shouted.

Summers glanced back at the man.

“What-” Summers stopped, noticing Elias looking at one of the very large, spherical holes in the obsidian world. Gaping at it.

“Impossible,” Elias said.

“What? What is?”

Elias’ gaze went slowly from the scar in the earth, to its base, to the ground beneath him.

He didn’t respond.