-Finn-
The sky didn't just look like a storm; it looked like a bruise that was being pressed.
Standing on the high battlements of the North Gate, I watched as the first wave of Gideon's constructs detached themselves from the tree line. They didn't run like men. They glided, their rusted greaves scraping against the frozen earth with a sound like a thousand sharpening knives.
"They're hitting the North-West quadrant first!" Jasper yelled, his looking-glass pressed to his eye. He was frantic, his fingers dancing over a magical ledger as he calculated the impact points. "Finn, the resonance is highest at the base of the tower. If they breach the secondary ward, the whole wall will drop!"
"I've got it!" I shouted back.
I didn't use my hands. I reached into the very air, feeling the static that Gideon's presence had whipped into a frenzy. In the past, my lightning had been a wild thing—unpredictable and dangerous. But today, with the school's heart beating beneath my feet, it felt like a precision tool.
I threw my arms wide. Blue-white bolts of kinetic energy roared from my fingertips, arcing over the stone merlons and slamming into the center of the construct line. The explosion didn't just throw them back; it shattered the obsidian cores in their chests, turning the smoke-monsters into harmless soot.
"Nice shot!" Soren called out. He was stationed at the top of the main stairs, his claymore glowing with a steady, white light. A few of the constructs had started to scale the sheer rock face, their clawed fingers digging into the stone. Soren leaned over the edge, his blade a blur of silver. Every stroke sent a construct tumbling back into the abyss. "But there's hundreds more coming!"
Below us, in the clearing between the gates and the forest, Asher and Alexia were moving.
They looked like a dance of shadow and light. Asher had shifted partially—not into the full wolf, but into a hybrid form that gave him terrifying speed and claws that could rend iron. He was the shield, circling Alexia, intercepting any construct that got too close. Alexia moved with a calm that chilled me. The silver fox was a blur at her feet, and every time she raised her hand, the golden light of the school flared, pinning the constructs to the ground as if the gravity itself had increased.
"Jasper, they're clustering at the main gate!" I yelled, seeing a group of larger, armored wraiths hauling a massive log made of black shadow. "They're going to ram it!"
"Finn, don't hit the log!" Jasper screamed, pointing his glass at the center of the cluster. "It's a void-trap! If you hit it with lightning, it'll suck the mana out of the battlements. Aim for the feet! Break the ground!"
I pivoted, my heart hammering. I closed my eyes, focusing on the moisture in the soil, the minerals in the rock. I didn't throw a bolt; I threw a pulse.
The earth in front of the gate didn't just break; it liquefied. The armored wraiths plummeted into a sinkhole of mud and jagged stone, their "ram" falling uselessly into the pit.
Despite our successes, the sheer numbers were staggering. For every ten we broke, twenty more emerged from the dark of the forest. I could see the faculty on the other towers—Professor Aris was raining down vials of liquid fire, and the gardening staff had animated the trees at the edge of the clearing to fight back. The mountain was a cacophony of screams, explosions, and the high-pitched whistle of magic cutting through the air.
"He's not even trying to fight us yet," Soren said, appearing beside me as he kicked a construct off the ledge. He was breathing hard, his chest heaving. He looked toward Gideon, who remained stationary by the tree line, his staff pulsing with that rhythmic, violet light. "He's just draining our resources. He's waiting for us to tire out."
"He's waiting for Alexia to overextend," Jasper added, his face pale as he looked at the readings on his compass. "Look at the gold light around her. It's getting thinner. She's trying to hold the whole perimeter at once."
I looked down. Asher was buried under three of the constructs, his snarls echoing up the wall. Alexia was reaching for him, her hand outstretched, but her knees were shaking. The fox was yapping frantically, its white light flickering like a dying bulb.
"We have to go down there," I said, my voice cracking. "We can't hold the wall if they're killed in the courtyard."
"If we leave the battlements, the Silencers will follow us out and flank them," Soren countered, looking back at the few remaining Council guards who were still trying to rally in the Great Hall.
"No," Jasper said, his eyes widening behind his spectacles. He looked at the school's main tower, then back at me. "The school isn't just a battery. It's a resonator. Finn, if you and I combine our frequencies—your kinetic energy and my harmonic calculation—we can turn the battlements into a massive pulse-wave. We can clear the whole clearing in one shot."
"Will it hold?" I asked.
"It'll burn out the wards for five minutes," Jasper said, his voice grim. "But it'll give Asher and Alexia a clear path to Gideon. It's a one-shot deal."
I looked at Soren. He nodded once, a sharp, warrior's gesture. "I'll cover you. If any of those things make it up here while you're channeling, they'll have to go through me."
I stepped to the edge of the stone, my boots at the very brink of the drop. I reached out and grabbed Jasper's hand. His grip was steady, despite the trembling of his fingers.
"On three," Jasper said.
"One." I felt the lightning building in my chest, hotter and heavier than it had ever been.
"Two." The school seemed to lean into us, the very stones humming in anticipation.
"Three!"
The world went white.
A wave of pure, blue-gold energy erupted from the North Gate. It didn't arc; it expanded like a ring of fire. It swept across the clearing, vaporizing the constructs, leveling the mud, and blowing the shadows back into the trees. The sound was like a thunderclap that never ended.
When my vision finally cleared, the clearing was empty. Thousands of constructs were nothing but ash on the wind.
But the golden dome above us was gone. The wards were dark.
"Go!" I screamed, collapsing against the stone as my magic spent itself.
In the center of the empty clearing, Asher surged up from the pile of ash, his form shifting back into the man. He grabbed Alexia's hand, and together, they began the sprint toward the only thing left standing in the dark.
Gideon.
He wasn't smiling anymore. He raised his staff, the violet light turning into a jagged blade of pure shadow.
The siege of the walls was over. The duel for the soul of the school was about to begin.