Endburn: Chapters 35-36 (Patreon)

Chapter 35

When she arrived on the battlefield, Nauda saw that her side was engaged in a full desperate retreat... and that was the best she could have hoped for. She had expected a slaughter.

Instead of a Tymetronese army stretching across the horizon, there were only seven burning figures. Seven Dominions on a single battlefield, which was unprecedented for this war. It wasn't quite all of them, suggesting Tymetron still held something in reserve, but it was enough to destroy any position they encountered. There was no way that Norron could take advantage, either, not unless they wanted to pursue a strategy where both sides annihilated weaker opponents. Aside from being morally reprehensible, that policy would rapidly lead to their loss as the continent was destroyed.

Now that they had brought reinforcements, however, things didn't look much better. Nauda had used her weirkey along with Melitta and the Sword of Asplundat, which still left them outnumbered more than two to one. They might impede the Dominions to save their armies, but it would cost them, and no doubt Tymetron hoped they would overextend and one of them would perish.

"Cowardice!" The Sword of Asplundat screamed as she unleashed her amber lightning. But as effective as it was on the Tymetronese armies, as it crackled over the Dominions they all defended themselves.

Instead of joining in the assault right away, Nauda took what might be her last calm opportunity to analyze the enemy. Most were familiar to her: Theo's rival, the man in demonplate, the woman with a giant Ethereal Floor, the man with demon claws, and the Dominions with the gold storm and ghostly burst techniques. But there was one more, a man in a full suit of armor who looked unfamiliar.

As the battle was joined, Nauda decided that was the potential weak link. Tymetron might be trying to run a shell game, just like Norron had, and passing off a weaker soulcrafter. The space between sides became a chaos of techniques that Nauda had to weave through to reach her opponent.

When she pushed through the golden storm, the armored figure jerked back in shock. Nauda landed a blow to the face - and took a burst of cantae the next second. It smashed her high into the air, where she was promptly assaulted from two sides by other Dominions.

Pushing herself to the limit, Nauda utilized all her agility and managed to escape them to a safe position. That left her facing three Dominions... yes, three. The new armored figure had definitely used Dominion-tier cantae.

Norron wasn't the only side that could elevate new Dominions.

~

After participating in the battle between aeons, Theo hadn't expected to receive another desperate call so soon. But he forced himself to move, and when he arrived on the battlefield, he saw that the emergency hadn't been exaggerated.

There was no time to evaluate the full scope of the battle: Dominions on their side were being overwhelmed by seven enemy Dominions. His first impulse was to help Nauda, who was struggling against multiple opponents, but Fiyu had come along with him and was already racing away within her stealth technique. Instead he scanned the battle and then flew toward Melitta.

She was struggling against a soulcrafter with two demon claw blades, barely keeping him back because another Dominion was shooting ghostly projectiles at her back. He noticed that one of her usual bladed gauntlets was gone, replaced with a heavier shield gauntlet that must have been a backup. It clearly wasn't up to the task.

When Theo arrived he cast a technique from each hand: a torsion bolt into the bladed Dominion and a portal in front of Melitta's position. The projectiles might be ghostly, but they were still cantae, so they entered the portal and were directed into the enemies elsewhere in the battle.

Melitta didn't hesitate: she trusted the portal at her back and landed a blow on the swordsman's shoulder. But when Theo tried to rush in to press the advantage, the Dominion retreated in a whirlwind of blades that deflected all projectiles. Meanwhile, the ranged Dominion had noticed the portal and stopped taking shots at them.

"Thanks," Melitta said in the brief break. "Did you bring Guchiro?"

"Just Fiyu and I," Theo answered. "We don't want to bring higher tiers into this. So be careful."

There was another Dominion coming toward them, an unfamiliar suited figure, so there was no more time to talk. Theo tried to support Melitta by anchoring her position while they fought, but she wasn't as familiar with the technique as Nauda, so their coordination needed work. In the chaos of a high tier battle like this, he had no time to build up to a singularity.

Even if he had, the air was rocked by an implosion that drained away all cantae. Theo sighed and turned to face Jazin.

~

When she had arrived, Fiyu's heart had leapt when she saw Lifemate Nauda being oppressed by multiple opponents. Her lifemate was not so threatened by the golden storms rolling over the battlefield, but the woman fighting her at range had an Ethereal Floor and could become extremely dangerous at any moment.

Fiyu needed to be careful as she approached, because the gold storm that her stronger allies shrugged off could still harm her. She managed to dodge around the globules of metal and arrived in stealth, her cantae blade slicing toward her opponent's back. Somehow the woman felt it coming and leapt away, though that bought a little more space for Lifemate Nauda.

Ghostly strikes screamed toward them the next second, and Fiyu was shielded only by her lifemate throwing her body in the way. Fortunately, Lifemate Nauda had reinforced herself many times, and now at Dominion she could easily endure such attacks. They smiled at one another briefly before Fiyu slipped back into her stealth technique.

Though she longed to throw herself into the fight with her allies, she knew her limitations. Unless she was cautious, she could become a liability instead of an asset. She needed to choose her openings carefully.

Coordinating with Lifemate Nauda would be easy, but there were a great many Dominions converging on her. It was also easy to work with Friend Theo, but he was on the opposite side of the field. The Sword of Asplundat was hurling techniques in all directions and could easily be a danger to Fiyu, while Melitta...

Yes, that was it. The Wavefront's top soulcrafter was current doing battle against a Dominion in gold armor, whose flinches underneath the metal suggested a degree of uncertainty. Fiyu would hunt them.

~

As earth and sky wheeled around her, no order remaining for long, Nauda was somehow clipped by a golden projectile. It couldn't break her skin, but it did drive her through the air at immense speed.

Before she could regain her balance, muscular arms closed around her from behind. She felt the demonplate armor behind her at the same moment an arm wrapped around her throat. The Dominion had her in a headlock and it seemed like he intended to choke the life from her, if she wasn't torn apart by projectiles first.

Nauda slammed an elbow into his side, drawing no more than a grunt. But the next time she struck, she used the blow to detonate a shockwave of nullification that both wiped out all the gold in the region and stunned her opponent.

She smashed her skull back into his face and managed to push free. When she turned, expecting an attack, she saw him throwing aside his broken helmet and grinning through bloody teeth.

"Good," he said. "More!"

They clashed together as they had before, but now that she had ascended, Nauda's raw strength was superior. When she managed to land a kick on his leg, however, she was surprised that the demonplate armor resisted the blow. His defenses were no joke, perhaps comparable to hers.

It would have been interesting to fight him now that they were on more equal terms, but they didn't get a chance. Cantae rippled over the battlefield as an Ethereal Floor was unleashed and suddenly a monstrous form strode over the ground. The Sword of Asplundat launched another bolt against it, yet the amber lightning crackled over the Ethereal body apparently harmlessly.

Neither Nauda nor her opponent wanted to let go, but the explosion blew them apart.

~

With the arrival of the outsiders, Melitta judged that the battle was no longer impossible, just very risky. The Tymetronese strategy of putting all their Dominions in one place couldn't be sustained for long and only made sense if they could smash through Norronese positions. With every minute the battle continued, the costs on every other warfront mounted.

Still, in a fight like this the slightest error could mean death. All of them would be pushing as hard as they could, meaning there was a real risk of fatal injury instead of safe retreat. So this was the worst possible time for her to be preoccupied by soulcrafting.

She couldn't help it: when she looked at these foreign soulcrafters, she saw things that took her breath away. Melitta was not an overly modest woman, and she had fought other Dominions even before this war had made such battles commonplace. Her soulhome had been well-constructed, certainly in comparison to the weaker Tymetronese Dominions, and she'd had years at this tier to continually refine all of her sublime materials.

Yet she was being equaled or outdone by them. Ever since Nauda had ascended, her defenses had become unreal, and that was without losing a variety of techniques and armaments. What kind of soulhome did she have that could reinforce her own body so much?

In a different way the outsider was even more intimidating, because she still didn't understand his soulhome. He had so many techniques, yet his body was reinforced, yet he also had apparently unending reserves of cantae. It didn't seem possible that so much could be packed into a single soulhome no bigger than hers.

Smaller, actually. As Melitta fought, she reflected that both of them hadn't fully soulcrafted their sixth floor and wondered just how much they would grow. In their current states, she still had a few small advantages over them, but once they finished their Dominion floors they would leave her behind entirely.

Her thoughts were swept away when the giant began thundering across the battlefield, aiming to sweep them all away. Melitta didn't even attempt to fight it directly, instead targeting the golden storm user. With everyone distracted by the Ethereal Floor, Melitta actually got close and dealt several rapid blows that made the Dominion crumple over until they disappeared into a weirkey.

One down... before Melitta could even feel proud, she felt another explosion of cantae.

This one was from the Ichili woman, erupting in a storm of light. Each bolt accomplished little on its own, but the giant was so large that a massive number of them impacted. Fiyu was still a Stronghold, not even tapping into her Ethereal Floor, yet she drove the giant back. Just how efficient must her soulhome be, and how brave was she to enter a battle like this?

Yet another comparison. Melitta threw herself into the battle again, resolving to fight before she became the weakest Dominion on the continent.

~

As another implosion wracked his body, Theo desperately forced himself to keep going. Jazin was coming after him relentlessly, using both geodes and his beam technique to turn the battlefield into a maze of death. Even without the other Dominions creating threats from the sides, Theo struggled to keep up.

Fighting against Plutalgion had allowed him to absorb immense amounts of power, yet it also left him feeling scorched. In a fight like this, against such an agile and clever opponent, efficacy made a far bigger difference than raw strength.

Jazin was frowning as they fought, dissatisfied even though he was pressing the offensive. Theo realized that he had an unexpected advantage: Jazin was fighting cautiously, concerned that Theo was faking his weakness or attempting to set up some other plan. Once he figured out that Theo wasn't back to 100% efficiency after the aeon battle, Jazin would exploit his advantage ruthlessly.

Neither of them got the chance, because the swordsman with demon claws intervened. Theo barely evaded the first swing and the second caught his armament coat, throwing him to the ground. Jazin followed up the next second, an entire ring of geodes imploding around Theo, tearing apart his techniques and leaving him vulnerable.

Demon claws slashed down toward him, only to be rammed aside as Nauda arrived. She reached down to help Theo, pulling him to his feet, but they were surrounded by opponents. Jazin, the swordsman, and two figures in gold, all closing in at once.

~

At their best, Nauda thought she and Theo might have won, even outnumbered. But she had been worn down and Theo had yet to fully recover, so they were hard-pressed. She took a slash to the shoulder that actually broke her skin and she staggered, struggling to keep her back to Theo.

Something was strange about the melee, as if one of the Dominions wasn't fighting like the others. There were two figures in gold... was one of them a clone or illusion? The new Dominion using illusions might make sense and explain why there weren't as many attacks incoming as she would have expected. Yet something about the entire scenario just felt wrong...

"Who is that?" Jazin was staring at the golden figures, even more surprised than she was.

Without warning one of the armored figures charged into the other Tymetronese Dominions. Before, it had been moving in an ordinary manner, yet now it revealed a surprising ferocity: it slammed into the other golden Dominion, launching them so rapidly that they served as a projectile plowing into the swordsman, sending them both tumbling across the wasteland.

The figure pivoted smoothly, charging toward Jazin. Geodes exploded in his path, but they only seemed to tear away an outer layer of gold. Underneath was a burly man with an enormous beard dyed yellow and red, and an expression of absolute savagery on his face.

Somehow he charged through the geode implosions and almost got his hands on Jazin, who shot upward at the last second.

Theo had begun firing bolts to ward off the other opponents and Nauda realized he was right: whoever this man was, they couldn't afford to ignore an apparent ally. In fact, as they fought together Nauda realized that he really was a Dominion, but not one she'd seen before, and she didn't think he looked Tymetronese at all. Just what was going on?

With a new ally on the battlefield and the Ethereal Floor spluttering out, the Tymetronese soulcrafters retreated and then fled. They had come within a hair's breadth of breaking Norron, but their gambit had ultimately failed.

Instead of celebrating that, Nauda instead stared at the strangely bearded man. He loomed next to her and swung his hand, yet his pounding on her back was... friendly?

"Fantastic!" he roared. "Such strength at your age... wish I could have seen you wrestle Giatrice!"

Now that the battle was apparently won, the others were approaching to observe the new arrival. Melitta was binding a wound some distance away, Theo looked thoughtful, and the Sword of Asplundat glared suspiciously. Fiyu was a short distance away, also suspicious, frowning at the new Dominion just in case his back-pounding became less jovial.

"We're glad for the help," Nauda said, "but who are you?"

"Come on, don't you recognize me?" His grin suggested he didn't expect it. "We're allies!"

"You were at the Gold Wastes palace," Theo said quietly. "I don't think we spoke, however."

"Not bad! My name is Balvinn." He stepped back and gave an elaborate bow that belied his barbaric appearance. "One of the only remaining Dominions of the Gold Wastes."

"I thought Tymetron wiped you out," Nauda said before she could stop herself. Fortunately, it didn't seem like he took offense.

"It was a grim day for us, no question." Balvinn shook his head. "I'll hold the shame of not being able to save Giatrice until the day I die. But the fact was, I wouldn't gain anything by throwing my life away. So I went into hiding, doing my best to keep Tymetron from enslaving my people. Seemed like a futile war, until I heard that someone liberated everyone enslaved in a certain prison mine..."

"Well, glad we got something out of a good deed," Nauda said on instinct. Balvinn roared and slapped her on the back again, to Fiyu's disapproval.

She wasn't sure exactly how Balvinn had figured out the truth, but a few Gold Wastes soulcrafters had filtered back home, so it wasn't out of the question. He'd also broken the Tymetronese attack, so she didn't think it could be a deception: there was no long game that made more sense than winning the battle here.

So, somehow, they had gained a new ally. It was only one step in a much longer war, but Nauda let herself enjoy it for a least a little longer.

"You gave Tymetron a bloody nose," Balvinn said, his smile spreading a little too wide. "That's a good start, but I say we give them a bloody stump."

-

Chapter 36

Many times over the previous years, Dhan had felt that House Blacksilver was expanding faster than it could fully support, but he had never felt it more strongly than now.

The idea of a single battlefield with over ten Dominions on it was madness, utter madness. On a few occasions he'd been given no choice except to fight a retreating action against one of the Tymetronese Dominions and every single one of them had been a desperate ordeal. There were a few who didn't impress him as fighters and only had the advantage of a tier over him, but others were hard veterans who he knew he couldn't possibly beat.

So many new Dominions had appeared over the course of the war that people were beginning to devalue the rank that had once been mythical. Some had even asked Dhan if he would ascend before the end of the war, which was absurd. It was all he could do to defend House Blacksilver's interests across the continent.

Perhaps it could have been different in another life. There had been a time when the civilian leadership had leaned less on him, allowing him to focus on combat. If he had been able to spend all the past years soulcrafting, and spent more time traveling between worlds to find more sublime materials, perhaps his Stronghold floor would be complete and ready for ascension.

But he didn't live in that world. It was all very well for some to suggest that it would have been more efficient for him to spend time soulcrafting instead of fighting, but if he had done that, countless lives would have been lost.

Even with his help, the war was going poorly. Maybe not in an overall sense, from the view of generals looking at a map, or people on the street sharing rumors about the most recent battles. They had certainly done better against the overwhelming empire than anyone had expected.

Fighting on the ground, Dhan couldn't bring himself to call any of this winning. Even with all of House Blacksilver's efforts to relocate evacuees, cure illnesses, and care for orphans, the toll of the war would be immense. Just thinking about all the changes that would be wrought by the sheer number of people moved across the continent was enough to make heads spin. The old world, divided between the three major powers, felt almost quaint now.

That wasn't even the worst of it, as they'd learned in the wake of the newest attack. The eastern bay was a dead zone after the swarm of demons, which had enraged many undersea factions that were usually more friendly to the continent. While everyone had been focused on the army of Dominions, another of them had been sent to a bloodcrete production facility and destroyed it, spreading plague across a huge tract of the Asplundat Movement. The consequences of those acts would resonate for generations even if they won.

There was a bitter sort of silver lining: with so many Dominions distracted or injured: the Grand Dominaton had been unusually effective on the battlefield. Dhan himself had fought alongside it, preventing ambitious Strongholds from striking while taking advantage of the massive blasts.

Those fights had earned them a whole swath of territory to the northwest, and some even spoke of resettling evacuees in those territories. Dhan commanded the opposite everywhere he could and he'd convinced the Blacksilver leadership: they didn't return to the reclaimed space, they used this time to pull civilians further away from the war fronts.

Everyone celebrated now, but Dhan was certain it would get worse before the end.

~

In the wake of the battle, everyone wanted to talk to Balvinn, and Theo had to admit that it was reasonable for him to wait his turn. There were much more proximal concerns than the information he wanted, even if the deeper schemes might matter more in the end. So for a time he patrolled the borders, making sure that Tymetron wasn't trying another push and keeping smaller armies under control.

Within a few days, however, he eventually got an opportunity. Balvinn was interested in everyone who had ever been involved with the Gold Wastes, and had no problem with barging his way through social conventions, so it wasn't too hard to set up a meeting.

"I knew you kids had potential," Balvinn said as soon as they met, slapping Theo on the shoulders. "First time you came in and demanded deadgold, I thought there was something to you. But I never dreamed you'd be a Dominion already, ha!"

"I wish we could have been there," Theo told him honestly. "We couldn't have survived without you holding off Tymetron so long."

"Think nothing of it. Nothing will make the tragedy right, but we can at least bring them down." Balvinn's grin faded as he stared northward. "I wish I could tell you that you have an army waiting for you. There are certainly a lot of furious men and women back home. But most of the top soulcrafters are dead, and the rest can't afford to draw the empire down on them."

"We don't expect you to win the war for us. Just having you helping will do a lot."

"Too bad we can't have some proper matches, but... after, after. Maybe you can spend some time in the Gold Wastes once Tymetron is gone."

"If we survive," Theo said, since he was already overcommitted. "On that note, I have to ask you about what happened. I don't need the gory details, but we need to know how Plutalgion beat Giatrice, after she held him back for so many years."

"Aye, I thought it would be the Goldreaper, but we had plans for him." Balvinn stood back and folded his arms across his chest. "Now, I didn't see every detail. Can't repeat every word that was spoken. If I had, I'd probably be dead too. But I can tell you that Plutalgion had outside help. Wasn't anyone huge or impressive, either, just a little man in a hooded cloak."

Theo took a carefully controlled breath. "Anything else you can tell me? Fithan? What tier soulcrafter?"

"Not Fithan. He was difficult to pin down, just like Plutalgion himself. I almost thought they might be from the same world, though they could hardly look more different. Anyway, we all underestimated him, and that was how Giatrice was laid low. Crying shame."

"Thank you. I suspect that was a man named Vistgil, but I don't know enough about him for that to be much help. Has he been around since?"

"Never saw him before or after. I figure Plutalgion called in a favor." Balvinn abruptly frowned. "Oh, and one odd thing. This Vistgil, if that's his name, didn't attack straight out. If they had ambushed together, I'm not sure how things would have gone. He acted like he was playing support, baiting Giatrice to attack him."

No doubt that was connected to the ambiguous restrictions that prevented Vistgil from attacking directly. It didn't seem likely that the clue would actually bring Theo any closer to answers, but it did fill in the gaps about the shape of the overall scheme.

All of the trouble with Tymetron had begun during the Chasm of Lamentations, forced based on a pretext. It couldn't be a coincidence that Vistgil had been involved then, and if he had helped Plutalgion start the war that was additional evidence. Most likely Vistgil was still working in the shadows, pressing the Salebrante and other organizations to prevent other powers from eliminating Tymetron. That might explain why they'd started an endburn instead of trying to conquer Norron, though it didn't offer any hint as to why Vistgil wanted any of this.

"So?" Balvinn asked gruffly. "Does that tell you anything?"

"Well, if you see him again, don't attack," Theo said. It was a weak answer, but it made the larger man laugh and clap his shoulder again.

"Hah, I'll remember that! Believe me, though, I'm not gonna throw myself into a fight against an Ophaon. Demonweaver gave me this scar, right here. Hard to believe that she's gone."

"Tymetron is a lot weaker than when it started, but not weak enough. This could still go very badly for us."

"Believe me, the Gold Wastes know that. This isn't my home, but I'll be with you until we throw out the old empire."

They spoke for a while longer and Theo thought that he could get along with Balvinn, even if the other man had an almost diametrically opposed personality. It would be interesting to learn more about soulhome blueprints in the Gold Wastes, but Theo couldn't justify spending the time when there was so much to do.

Once on his own, he flew back to their secure base in the Blacksilver complex. Even if Vistgil hadn't been involved at all, the war for Norron mattered and he would have fought it to the end. But learning about the secrets behind this war, and how Vistgil had used it to eliminate an aeon-class soulcrafter, made him all the more committed.

Most likely there was no grand scheme to be overthought and the war would simply move a lot of pieces so that the Nine Worlds were more like Vistgil wanted. Giatrice was dead, the Underqueen had retreated, and all the major inter-world factions were intimidated. What happened here, the details beyond the immediate victory or defeat, could have repercussions for years to come.

Within, he found Senka sleeping across the couch, barely opening an eye when he entered.

"How are you feeling?" Theo asked.

"I could manage another shot," she answered, "but I'd revert again. Do we need me lucid?"

"I think it might finally be time, b-"

Senka popped upright and flew to him, grabbing his shirt. "For real? For sporping real?"

"I hate to say it's because we have to, but I think this is one of our best options." Theo pried her hands off his shirt, not ungently. "But we're going to need to sell it to everyone else, and that won't be easy. That's why our next step is buying us enough time to go back to the Bloodfire Pit."

"I'm in. All the way in. I can throw in a blast and you can keep me in a cage or something."

Soon enough Nauda and Fiyu came to join him, as he'd requested. They were all looking forward to being able to have a little time off together, but when they saw his expression, they found seats quietly. There would be time for camaraderie later... potentially much later.

"At this rate, we lose the war when Plutalgion recovers," Theo said. "I don't like it, but the odds are aggressively against us: they'll have two aeon-class soulcrafters to our one. We've burned the Underqueen and Dave and just about everyone who might be willing to fight - maybe the House of the Lost would help, but they're hard to communicate with at the best of times."

"I fear my relative cannot win," Fiyu said sadly. "We have spoken of this. Even with extenuating circumstances, even buying him more time to soulcraft, Plutalgion is too formidable a foe."

"That's one of the main reasons none of the inter-world organizations have ever messed with Tymetron before, and why they're holding back now. But there's a resource we haven't been fully using: Senka is one of our few methods of aeon-class cantae."

"I just need to reach another river," Senka told them. "I'd be far more useful, I promise."

"But can we actually get you there?" Nauda asked skeptically. "You spent months trying to search the Bloodfire Pit and you still didn't find a river. Now however many of us go will be pulled away from the battlefield, and we barely have enough soulcrafters as it is."

Theo had already been over all those issues in his head, but he earnestly went through it with them, since it was possible that they saw an angle he couldn't. Nauda revealed more information about her recent encounter with Tythes, which she'd forgotten to mention before. That was another nasty variable which he hoped to figure out eventually, but it didn't change the simple mathematics in the end.

"I'm not suggesting that we abandon the war now," Theo said. "In fact, I think we need to take a while to buy us more time. Put some new plans into motion that will make Tymetron hesitant to attack. If we can pull it off, by the time they resort to their worst tactics, we'll have another weapon on our side."

"The Dominions aren't going to like this," Nauda said. "Meaning Crintak and Melitta and... well. Someone will have to convince them."

"I think that should be you. I can join in to lean on them, since I've been right about a lot of things so far, but they'll need someone they trust to tell them this is in their best interest. You can do that a lot better than I can."

"What about me?" Fiyu asked.

"Actually, you're a key part of this." Theo turned to her, trying to discern her soulhome through her shielding wall. "How long do you think it will take to have your Ethereal Floor saturated like you wanted?"

"Perhaps another month. Probably a little more. I'm sorry, but the process-"

"I'm not criticizing, I'm just viewing that as the basis for our timeline. We aren't leaving until Fiyu ascends: she's caused them enough trouble now, so they'll be hesitant once they know she's a Dominion. That gives Nauda and I about a month to convince everyone and put plans in place."

"Do you think it's actually possible?" Nauda sat back and folded her arms, but she was already coming around to the idea. "Keeping everyone alive, I mean. Tymetron has almost ended the war more times than I want to count."

"There are other plans I've never been able to try, starting with Navim..." Theo shared all his other ideas, the ones that were too unformed or inconvenient to have worked out so far. They were more enthusiastic about some than others, but in the end they agreed that it was possible, and none of those plans would weaken Norron.

Nauda didn't object to handling the negotiations and Fiyu was happy to serve as messenger while her soulhome saturated, which left Theo with a little more time. There were many places he needed to go, but for now, he got out his old maps and set to work.

-

I worry I'm going to repeat myself, but one of the things I was aiming for in this book is exploring strategy when it comes to a multi-tiered world. Often in fiction where certain characters are far stronger than others, only the most powerful individual becomes relevant; while this is simple and easily focused on central characters, I've never found it as engaging. Even in a cultivation-inspired system with large gaps between tiers, I think that you'd need more complicated tactics.

So how would real people in such a world develop overall strategies of warfare? This book is one of my attempts to answer that question in an interesting way. I wanted the aeon-class soulcrafters to feel powerful and important, but not simply do everything themselves. Likewise, I wanted Dominions to continue to feel relevant instead of being forgotten once the next tier is introduced.

And beneath that, of course, we still see other tiers playing a role, and you don't need to fight at all to have an impact if the world has any kind of coherent politics. That's my goal, anyway, so I hope readers find it as engaging as I do. ^-^