?Isaac stood trembling, covered in a cold sweat despite the desert heat. Beads of moisture rolled down his forehead as he stared at Phantom, his gaze flickering between her eyes and the Rank A glove on her hand. To him, she was no longer just a rookie who had lost a duel; she was a shadow cast by a monster.

  ?"You. You’re his apprentice?" Isaac’s voice was barely a whisper, thick with a terror that made Phantom’s heart sink.

  ?Phantom looked at him with a deep, quiet sorrow. She knew how terrifying Agent X could be; she had seen him kill without giving it a second thought. She knew his twisted views on the lives within the realms, but seeing this level of trauma in a fellow Incarnate was different. Agent X was never like that toward her. She felt a surge of confusion. Why would he kill an ally?

  ?"Do you really know him?" Phantom asked softly.

  ?Isaac let out a sharp, jagged laugh. "Know him? I was paired together in a situation an outer year ago. We had a disagreement, just a small one about how to handle a group of rebels. I thought we should negotiate; he thought we should just clear the path. Before I could even draw my bow, he killed me. I don't mean in a duel. He killed me in the situation. He didn't even hesitate. I had to spend the rest of the mission sitting in the spectator room, forced to watch him slaughter everything in his way. And now he’s teaching you? A cold-blooded killer is mentoring you. So I can only assume you will walk the same path."

  ?Phantom didn't argue, since she knew what Agent X could be like to the summoners and native people. She couldn't change the image Isaac had of her murderous and blunt mentor. She felt a heavy burden settle onto her shoulders. She wasn't just here to train anymore; she had to prove that she wasn't a reflection of the obsidian demon. She had to prove she was going to be different—that she would strive to be the hero she set out to be.

  ?"I’m sorry that happened to you, Isaac," Phantom said, her voice steady and sincere. "But I’m not him. I’m here to help as many as I can, and I’m going to make sure we all get through it."

  ?Isaac didn't look convinced. He kept his distance as they began their trek toward the giant mountain that loomed over the city. Alice, who had been watching the exchange with an uneasy silence, finally spoke up to break the tension.

  ?"The Summoner said the artifact is housed in a chamber near the mountain's peak," Alice noted, her eyes scanning the horizon. "If it’s as unstable as she says, we don't have much time."

  ?As they reached the base of the mountain, they found the power station—a structure of ancient stone and humming copper wires. In the center sat the artifact: a jagged, pulsating crystal that radiated a violent, flickering orange energy. The air around it smelled of ozone and scorched earth.

  ?"It’s too far gone," Isaac said as he examined the ley lines. "If we try to stabilize the internal frequency, the feedback loop will just accelerate. It’ll blow the mountain and the city with it."

  ?"Then we replace it," Phantom said, looking up at the massive waterfall cascading down the mountainside nearby. "We destroy the crystal and build a hydropower system. The mountain already provides the energy; we just need to capture it."

  ?Isaac looked at the waterfall, then back at the infrastructure. "I can build the conductors and the transmission lines. With my speed and lightning, I can forge the copper and set the grid in minutes. But who’s going to move those massive stone blocks to divert the flow? And who’s going to dispose of that crystal without setting it off?"

  ?Alice stepped forward. She reached into her mental Stash, her hand disappearing into a ripple of light instead of the standard dark void. Instead of a sword or a bow, she pulled out a small, pristine white rabbit. It sat in her palms, twitching its pink nose innocently.

  ?"A rabbit?" Phantom asked, tilting her head.

  ?"Don't let the look fool you," Alice smiled. "Higher-rank Tamers can store multiple beasts in a separate space in the stash, but this little guy is my favorite. He’s incredibly strong and faster than anything I’ve ever seen."

  ?She placed the rabbit on the ground. It blurred—a white streak of motion—and a second later, a massive boulder near the riverbank shattered into dust under the force of its kick.

  ?"Okay," Phantom said, feeling a spark of hope. "Alice, you and your rabbit handle the water diversion. Isaac, you start on the electrical grid. I’ll handle the crystal."

  ?Phantom approached the pulsating artifact. She called upon her new fire ability, but she didn't let it erupt into a chaotic blaze. She focused, visualizing the heat as a surgical tool. She needed to melt the crystal’s casing and neutralize its core without causing a concussive blast.

  ?She watched Isaac work out of the corner of her eye. He was a blur of blue sparks, his fingers moving with impossible precision as he fused metal and laid out the conductors. He was still glancing at her every few seconds, waiting for her to snap, waiting for the "apprentice of a monster" to show her true colors.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  ?Phantom took a deep breath, her hands glowing with a controlled, intense orange light. She would prove to him—and to herself—that power didn't always have to be a weapon of slaughter. It could be a tool for salvation. Phantom got into the stance of an archer and began to draw back from her fist. A small swirling of flames began to build as she tried to focus the shot as much as possible. She needed the shot to pierce, not explode.

  ?Isaac stopped working as he sensed the power building behind him. His face became overwhelmed with horror as he saw what she was about to do. Before he could scream and tell Phantom to stop, she let go of the fire. It slammed into the side of the crystal. The crystal seemingly absorbed the attack and became an even brighter orange than before. Isaac began to panic as he looked at the crystal that appeared to be overloading.

  ?He yelled to Alice, "Have your rabbit kick that high into the sky before it blows up!"

  ?Alice turned around to see what Isaac was talking about. Just as she saw the crystal, it began to lose its color almost completely, the internal energy snuffed out by the precise heat. Isaac let out a breath in relief. Phantom crossed her arms and just shook her head. "I need you to at least try to trust me."

  ?Isaac just stared at her for a second before wordlessly going to check out the neutralized crystal.

  ?Isaac stood by the crystal, its soft orange glow giving off just a little heat. His hands were still trembling slightly as he wiped the soot from his brow. The silence where the artifact’s hum used to be was eerie, filled only by the roar of the nearby waterfall.

  ?"We don’t have time for a traditional forge," Isaac said, his eyes scanning the mountain’s edge. "Alice, can your friend find us a vein of copper? We need raw conductor material, and we need it quick. With that crystal down, this whole city is without power."

  ?Alice gave a sharp whistle. The white rabbit’s nose twitched once, twice, before it vanished in a snowy blur. It darted up the cliffside, its paws finding purchase on vertical stone that would have been impossible for a human to climb. Within seconds, a series of muffled thumps echoed from a ridge above. Heavy chunks of reddish-brown ore began to rain down, landing in a neat pile at Phantom's feet.

  ?"Isaac, I need the molds," Phantom said, looking around the clearing.

  ?Isaac didn't argue this time. He moved with lightning speed, his body flickering with blue static. He traced the precise dimensions of a turbine into the flat bedrock near the stream. "Alice, have him stamp these out! Deep and precise!"

  ?The rabbit hopped onto the bedrock. With a series of kicks that sounded like piston fire, it hammered the stone. Each strike was a blur of incredible force, precisely hollowing out the shape of curved turbine blades and a thick central shaft directly into the mountain’s crust.

  ?Phantom stepped up to the copper pile. She didn't just throw fire; she held her hands over the ore, funneling her heat into a white-hot pillar of thermal energy. The copper shivered, then turned a glowing, molten orange, flowing like thick syrup into the stone molds the rabbit had prepared. The smell of molten metal filled the mountain air, thick and metallic.

  ?"Isaac, the wiring!" Phantom shouted over the hiss of cooling metal.

  ?Isaac reached into the molten pool with a hand shrouded in a dense magnetic field. Instead of burning, the electricity in his palm acted like a vacuum. He began to back away, pulling a thin, glowing thread of copper out of the liquid metal. He moved with frantic grace, spinning the thread into a massive, shimmering coil around the generator’s stationary frame. The air crackled with the sheer volume of electricity he was channeling to shape the wire into a perfect induction coil.

  ?While the metal set, the white rabbit blurred toward the waterfall. It began kicking massive boulders into the riverbed, creating a makeshift levee that forced the water into the new stone channel they had carved.

  ?"The turbine is set!" Isaac called out, his voice strained. He used a final, blinding arc of electricity to weld the copper blades to the central shaft. The metal fused instantly under the heat of his power. "Alice! Break the dam!"

  ?Alice looked to the rabbit. With one final, earth-shaking leap, the small beast struck the base of their temporary levee. The stone shattered, and the full weight of the waterfall redirected, crashing down the new path with a thunderous roar.

  ?The water slammed into the turbine blades. For a heartbeat, the heavy metal groaned, resisting the flow. Then, with a low, guttural hum that vibrated through the very soles of their boots, the shaft began to spin.

  ?Isaac grabbed the massive transmission cables, his eyes glowing blue. "Connecting to the original grid now!"

  ?He slammed the leads together. A surge of pure, clean power rippled through the copper lines, racing down the mountainside toward the city below. One by one, the distant lights of the streets flickered to life—not with the violent orange of the crystal, but with a steady, cooling glow that felt far more natural.

  ?Phantom watched the city light up, then looked at Isaac. He was staring at the spinning turbine, then back at her hands—the same hands he had expected to bring only death. He looked away, his expression a mix of relief and lingering doubt, but the hostility had finally begun to dull.

  ?"It's done," Alice whispered, picking up her rabbit, who was busily grooming its ears as if it hadn't just moved a mountain.

  ?The three stood silently on the ridge, looking out over the city. From this height, the sprawling stone streets looked like a map of stars reflected on the desert floor. They stayed there for several minutes, simply taking in the impact they had made on this world. For the first time, Phantom felt like an Incarnate was something more than just a weapon—they could be builders.

  ?A few moments went by before Isaac broke the silence. "Ready to go, everyone?" he asked, his voice softer as he put his last dagger back into his personal stash.

  ?Phantom tucked her glove away and gave a thumbs-up. Isaac then looked to Alice. He could barely hear her whisper something along the lines of, "I'll see you again soon," before she gently returned the rabbit to her white stash ripple. With a final nod from Alice, Isaac reached for the Recall Crystal in his stash. With a sharp, decisive crack, he crushed the crystal, and the desert world dissolved into white light.