They continued working on the exo-suit for an hour and a half. They finished attaching the arms and firmed up the connections, then smoothed it down so it was barely a rod of metal running along the back of Lessa’s arm, with straps to keep it tight—and so it could do its job properly.

  When they reached the joints, that was where there was a little more bulk, but the motors were still relatively small. They cannibalized motors mainly from automaton hands. The strength came not from their size but how much Aes flowed through them.

  Then came the legs. They attached it near the base of her spine (of course, with an opening to let her tail through), and gave a slightly more rigid frame to support the rest of the exo-suit, but otherwise, the legs were simple.

  “How does it know which way I want to move?” Lessa asked. “It’s not like it’s plugged into my brain, is it?”

  Perril laughed. “No, sadly. But when you try to move your arm, it recognizes it, amplifies it, and opens the right channels to fuel the right motors. It simply amplifies any movement you’re already making.”

  As soon as they plugged in the last leg, the suit was finished.

  Jace stood in front of her, and glanced up and down. “You don’t look too different. A little more mechanical in the legs, I guess, but I don’t think I’d even be able to tell at a glance.”

  “Is there enough fuel in it to test it?” Lessa asked.

  Kinfild provided, “With how long the accumulator nodes have been running, I’d say there’s more than enough.” He had been working at the top of the crystal array apparatus, drawing in a little more Aes, but in a more refined, controlled manner than Jace had been.

  Somehow. Jace didn’t even know how to draw in less at a time, but he chalked that up to Kinfild’s greater Aes control. By now, though, the entire flow had slowed to barely a trickle of golden dust, and Kinfild’s tag now read: [Level 39 Wielder – Soul-Circle Opening – Fourth Stage].

  Jace himself had almost completed his advancement. With his excitement of working on Lessa’s exo-suit, he’d barely been focussing on the soul-circle at all, and it had drifted down his spine, barely a couple finger-widths away from his core. Given a few more minutes, he’d probably finish advancing.

  But for now, he stepped to the side, and pressed his back against the wall, trying to keep as far away from Lessa as he could while she tested her new abilities. He pulled the rifles out of the way as well—which he’d been helping her whittle down to a more manageable size. They trimmed down the stock and shaved the grip until she could wrap her hand around it and grab the trigger, then cut a slice out of the center of the barrel.

  The cooling fin was probably important, so they couldn’t cut it off, but they took out a slice of the center and shortened it by nearly two feet, then welded the muzzle and cooling fin back on.

  She raised her hands and hopped a little, and the suit responded. With a pump of her legs, it nearly flung her a foot off the ground. She landed in a crouch, then sprinted to the other side of the room. She crossed it in a few steps, then skittered to a halt. “By the Split, this is awesome!” she exclaimed.

  The motors whirred as she adjusted her stance. She slipped a little, then accidentally turned to far, and tried to turn back, but accidentally took a step, and ended up crossing half the room again.

  “It’ll take a little effort to control, but…” She eyed the hallway outside, narrowed her eyes, then put on a mischievous smirk. “Jace?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Race me.”

  “Huh?”

  She reached out and snagged his Whistling Blade from its sheath, then took a step away. “If you want it, you gotta catch up.”

  “Hey!” He reached for his sheath, but was a few seconds too slow.

  Lessa took off across the room, then sprinted out one of the doorways, moving back into the hallways outside. With a sigh, Jace activated his Lighvein card, then, after multiplying his stats, took off down the hallway after her. A few seconds after he started, the floor began shifting and the walls turned, but it didn’t matter when he had a fortification technique going. It slowed him down a little, but when each step carried him a few meters, it was inconsequential.

  A shield gate rippling into existence between him and Lessa, though, did throw a wrench in his plans.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  He turned, using the movement of the floor to his advantage, and took an alternate route.

  She was fast now. About the same speed as him with the fortification card active, though perhaps not able to match his Strength rating.

  For a moment, he narrowed his eyes, wondering why no one else was using exo-suits like that to make enhanced mortal armies, but this was only possible with repurposed Luminian technology.

  Every intersection he passed, he glanced to the side, and Lessa was right there on the opposite side. He just had to get back over and…

  The next intersection, she wasn’t there anymore. He stopped, then turned, and sprinted toward her hallway. A shield gate had probably just blocked her way.

  When he arrived, he found her standing in an empty hallway, bent over, panting. She only stepped to keep pace with the shifting floor. Her exo-suit seemed fine, and the power pack was intact, but the bottom sphere didn’t glow at all.

  “Are you okay?” Jace called.

  “I’m fine!” she replied. “Just…suit ran out of power.”

  “I think next time, you’d better let it charge up more,” Jace said. He slowed to a walk, and as he approached, the floor and walls stopped moving. “And I guess you can only use it for a little while. Especially if you’ve charged your rifle for a little while.”

  But, already, the power pack’s light shimmered back to life. It was recharging quickly, especially now that she wasn’t moving. She bounded forward and caught him in a hug, and this time, the impact nearly toppled him.

  “Thank you, Jace!” she exclaimed. “Thank you so much.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said. “But I wasn’t the only one who made it.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, I’m gonna thank Perril and Kinfild and Ash too, but without you, they would’ve left me on the surface, or sent me back, and I wouldn’t even be here. They wouldn’t have considered the possibility.” She clenched tighter, and this time, with the exo-suit’s enhancements, Jace actually gasped.

  “Sorry!” she exclaimed. “I—I need some practice with that.”

  “It’s alright,” he choked out. “I’ll live. Just…if you want a hug, take the suit off for now. You’re kinda painful to try to hug.”

  “Yeah, alright.”

  “Now, we should probably get back to the center and make some cards,” she said. “I do kinda have to repay you for this.” She let go of him and stepped back.

  “It’s not something that needs payment, Less,” Jace said. “You’re a friend, and that’s what friends do.”

  “Well, then, this friend is gonna make you some cards!” she proclaimed, then handed him back the Whistling Blade. He took it and tucked it back into its scabbard. “But…uh, this time, I’m gonna walk.”

  When they made it back to the central room, Lessa gave her thanks to all the others, then took up her main rifle and tucked it into the slot on the exo-suit’s back. Slowly, as it charged, the notches along the barrel began to fill up with magenta light.

  They emptied the rest of the storage ring, and with all the extra cards they’d gathered, they had nearly twice as much arcane material as before—which had to be enough to reforge a card without any problems.

  After filling Ash’s wilting furnace with cards, they turned it on, but it’d take a little time to melt them down, and in the meantime, Jace handed Lessa the Lightvein card. It was alright, but they could do something better with it.

  But, before he could help her work on it, a pang of spiritual energy shot through his gut. He blinked a few times, then drew his attention inward.

  “Uh, Kinfild…the soul-circle thing just hit my core,” Jace said.

  Kinfild, who had been sitting cross-legged at the edge of the room, managing his new attribute shards and Aes infusions, opened his eyes and marched over. “Very good. You are advancing.”

  “What do I have to do?”

  “It’s not as rigorous as the other steps,” Kinfild explained. “But you will need to give it one last push to make it sink all the way in, then bind the pillars together. The true act of blending will come later.”

  “Sorry, Less,” Jace whispered through clenched teeth. “I’ve just got…I think I’ve gotta do this now.” The other advancements had been kinda time-sensitive, so there was no reason to think this one wouldn’t be.

  “It’s perfect, actually,” she said. “You’re concentrating on Aes and using it, and it’ll let me see the card’s paths a little better.”

  Jace nodded, then focused on the core once more. He concentrated most of his will above the soul-circle, then pushed downward. With a pop, it entered the core, pushing through the ring of pillars and settling down in the center.

  He could hardly envision the soul-circle anymore, but the pillars seemed to be blocking it, keeping the different arcs he’d cut apart.

  “Shift it around,” Kinfild said. “The circle likely isn’t in the correct orientation to bind properly. There is a correct orientation.”

  Jace concentrated his will on one side of the circle and turned it, and it spun slightly. It resisted a little whenever an arc segment touched a soul-circle pillar and got jammed, but eventually, it slotted in place.

  There was a subconscious click and a burst of resonance, and with a soft boom, the soul-circle bound in place. Pressure built on the surface of his skin, then pulsed off, sending a wave of energy out away from his body.

  When he opened his eyes, it felt like waking up from a long rest, and his mind felt calm and clear. The pain in his forearm, where the metal, artificial bone joined with real bone was gone, as if his body had just…accepted it as part of the advancement. Perhaps it had.

  Inhaling slowly, he turned to Lessa and said, “Was that enough? Or did you need me to do more?”

  “I think I’ve got it,” she said. She held up the card and waved it to cool off. “See what you think.”