Chapter 31: The 32nd Strand: Reaching the Sky
The air on the balcony of the Zenith Spire was thin and freezing, but Carson McCain felt like he was standing in a furnace. The Solar-Lance was fully charged. The satellite, a weapon of mass destruction known as the "Sovereign-Slayer," was focusing its lens. A beam of concentrated fusion energy was about to descend, traveling at the speed of light to erase the Lower Sector from existence.
"Sir," Aura's voice was frantic. "The energy output is off the charts. It's a Level 15-tier strike. No physical shield can stop it. You have to evacuate!"
"If I leave, ten million people die," Carson said.
He unstrapped the Star-Shedder and the hilt of the First Blade. He held them both—one in each hand. He didn't look at the Governor or the Saint. He looked up at the golden star in the sky.
"Master Hobs said that Level 15 is the ability to rewrite the laws of the planet," Carson whispered to himself. "I don't need a law. I just need a wall."
He closed his eyes and pushed his 31st strand to its absolute limit. He began to compress his Qi—not into a disc, but into a single, microscopic point at the center of his chest. The pressure was so intense that his skin began to crack, gold-white light leaking from the fissures.
He was forcing a breakthrough. He was trying to birth the 32nd Strand—the "Aegis" Strand.
"00:10... 00:09..." the automated voice of the Spire announced.
"CARSON, STOP!" Hobs' voice crackled through his comms. "You'll explode! Your body isn't ready for the 32nd! You're trying to contain the power of a star in a mortal frame!"
"I'm not mortal anymore, Master," Carson said.
As the timer hit 00:01, the sky turned white. The Solar-Lance fired. A pillar of golden fire, a mile wide, descended from the heavens. It was the wrath of the Emperor, a strike intended to end the McCain rebellion before it truly began.
Carson McCain didn't hide. He stepped off the balcony, suspended in mid-air by the sheer pressure of his evolving Qi. He raised both hands, the Star-Shedder and the First Blade hilt crossing in an "X" formation.
"32nd Strand: The Sovereign's Shield!"
The collision was silent at first. The golden beam of the Solar-Lance hit a tiny, glowing sphere of white light three miles above the city. For a second, the world seemed to hold its breath. Then, the shockwave hit.
The clouds for a hundred miles were instantly vaporized. The windows of every building in New Seattle shattered. But the beam didn't hit the city.
Carson was holding it.
His muscles were screaming, his blood was boiling, and the 32nd strand was burning through his meridians like liquid sun. But he was holding the Level 15 strike. He was a lone man standing against the fury of an Empire, and for that one minute, he was the stronger of the two.
"Reflect," Carson wheezed, his voice sounding like cracking mountains.
He twisted the blades. The golden beam didn't just stop; it was redirected. It shot back up the path it had come, traveling through the atmosphere and slamming directly into the "Sovereign-Slayer" satellite.
A second sun appeared in the night sky as the Hegemony's primary orbital weapon exploded into a billion pieces of scrap metal.
Carson felt his 32nd strand flicker and die. His energy was spent. His body, broken and charred, began to fall from the three-mile height, tumbling through the empty air toward the silent, stunned city below.
But as he fell, he didn't feel fear. He felt the "Flow." And the Flow told him that the Emperor had just lost his best tooth.