"I killed three Rift-Stalkers by myself," Marcus said, and there was pride in his voice, but also something else—a need for approval that Reidar recognized because he had seen the same thing in Jake's eyes when he first met him. But Jake was older, while Marcus was just 9.
Reidar put both hands on Marcus's shoulders. "You did well, buddy. You protected your mom."
Marcus's composure cracked for a moment, and Reidar saw the boy underneath the soldier. The kid who just wanted his dad to come home and tell him everything was going to be okay.
"I'm going to get you both out of here," Reidar said, standing up and looking at Martha.
"Where? The city is surrounded by monsters. The Aegis can barely hold the barriers. And now there are portals opening everywhere. We felt the tremors." She looked at the window. "What's happening, Reidar?"
"The Church of Unbinding," Reidar said. "They had people inside Kingsgate for months. They were planning to poison the food supply with parasitic eggs that would turn everyone into monsters. My army has been taking out their operations since I got here, but their leaders, Jorik and the Progenitor, opened the portals as a response. It's his backup plan. If he can't control the city, he'll destroy it."
Martha stared at him. "Your army?"
"I have almost 50,000 summons in Kingsgate right now," Reidar said. "They're fighting the church members and securing the infected food. But the portals are a new problem. I need to deal with them before monsters start pouring through the portals."
Martha looked at Marcus, then back at Reidar. "You said you were going to take us somewhere safe."
"I will," Reidar said. "But I can't do it right now. If I leave before the portals are dealt with, the entire city falls, monsters will plague the area, and if something too strong comes out of the portal, not even I might be able to defeat it." He took her hand. "I need you to stay here, behind the barriers, with the Aegis. I'll come back for you."
"You said that last time, but you are still leaving," Martha said.
"It's just for a couple of hours," Reidar said and squeezed her hand. "I came back from another planet, Martha. I crossed a world full of monsters that made the ones here look like insects. I killed things that should have killed me ten times over. I am not going to die in the same city where I used to work."
Martha looked at him. Her eyes held his, searching for something. Doubt, maybe, or fear, or the kind of false confidence that people put on when they knew they were lying, but she didn't find any of those things.
"You are promising."
"I am."
"Come back, Reidar…"
"I will."
Marcus stood between them, looking up at Reidar. "Can I come with you?"
"No," Reidar said. "Your job is to stay here and protect your mom."
"But I can fight—"
"I know you can," Reidar said. "That's why I need you here. If anything gets past the barriers, you're the last line of defense for the people in this building. That's your mission. Can you do that?"
Marcus held his father's gaze for a moment and then nodded. "Yes, sir."
Reidar ruffled his son's hair. Then he kissed Martha's forehead, and she closed her eyes and leaned into it.
"Stay inside," Reidar said. "Don't eat anything that didn't come from the vendors. The church's infected food might already be in the Aegis's supply chain."
Martha nodded.
Reidar turned and walked out of the room. He didn't look back, because if he looked back, he would see their faces, and if he saw their faces, he would want to stay, and if he stayed, then everyone in Kingsgate would die.
The building's staircase was filled with people trying to get somewhere to sit. Reidar pushed through them, moving against the current, seeing how their eyes went wide as they read his nametag and stepped aside.
He reached the ground floor and walked out into the open.
The sky above Kingsgate had changed.
The seven portals that had appeared across the city were no longer just pillars of energy. They had expanded, and from this distance, Reidar could see that the nearest one, located somewhere on the eastern side of the city, had grown to at least fifty meters in diameter.
It was giving off light that pulsed, and each one brought with it a sound like thunder that made the settlement tremble.
Through the Overmind Consciousness, Reidar connected to his army and saw what was happening.
The first portal had already opened completely.
Monsters were pouring through it. They were creatures Reidar didn't recognize. Six-legged beasts covered in bony plates that charged through the portal in packs of dozens, their levels ranging from 450 to 530.
Behind them came larger creatures, slow-moving but massive, with armor thick enough to absorb most attacks and eyes that burned with the demented frenzy as all the other monsters did.
<Shit…> Reidar thought. <Let's hope this is the worst this portal has to open.>
Reidar had no idea what planet this portal connected to or what kind of creatures lived there, which meant the monsters pouring through could be weak and barely a threat to his army, or they could be strong enough to tear through his defenses and slaughter everyone in Kingsgate.
His Eternal Death-Host was the first to engage. A battalion of Dread-Bastion Juggernauts had been patrolling the area when the portal opened, and they moved to intercept the monsters coming out from the portal in the area. The undead warriors formed a wall in front of the portal's exit point, and the first wave of monsters slammed into them.
The Juggernauts held. Their skills activated, and the first monsters that struck them staggered as the reflected damage tore through their bodies. Ghost-Strike Inquisitors fired their bone-and-shadow arrows, punching through the plated armor of the incoming creatures.
But the numbers were the problem. The portal was spitting out monsters faster than his summons could kill them, and each new wave pushed the line back a few meters.