Light The World: Semiautomatic Sorceress™ Book Four Read online

  LIGHT THE WORLD

  SEMIAUTOMATIC SORCERESS™ BOOK FOUR

  KAL AARON

  MICHAEL ANDERLE

  This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright © 2021 LMBPN Publishing

  Cover Art by Jake @ J Caleb Design

  http://jcalebdesign.com / [email protected]

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  A Michael Anderle Production

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  LMBPN Publishing

  PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy

  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  Version 1.00, December 2021

  eBook ISBN: 979-8-88541-040-3

  Print ISBN: 979-8-88541-041-0

  THE LIGHT THE WORLD TEAM

  Thanks to our Beta Team:

  John Ashmore, Larry Omans, Kelly O’Donnell

  JIT Readers

  Dave Hicks

  Deb Mader

  Diane L. Smith

  Wendy L Bonell

  Zacc Pelter

  Paul Westman

  Editor

  Skyhunter Editing Team

  DEDICATION

  This book is dedicated to all my past English teachers. Thank you for cultivating my love of creative writing.

  — Kal

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  to Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  to Live the Life We Are

  Called.

  — Michael

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  The Story Continues

  Author Notes - Kal Arron

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  Connect with The Authors

  About Kal Aaron

  Books By Kal Aaron

  Books By Michael Anderle

  CHAPTER ONE

  Lyssa’s life had been filled with difficult choices, and the letter she held was another of those annoyances.

  There was no point in not sending it. Procrastination rarely helped and often hurt.

  She handed Sumira the sealed envelope. That interaction highlighted another problem.

  In Lyssa's months on Last Remnant, she had become used to relying on the servant girl, along with the constant presence of masks on both Shadow servants and Illuminated.

  Her comfort with the idea of a personal servant and the questionable style requirements on the island convinced Lyssa she should leave. If she’d only had to worry about herself, she might have already left. Her discomfort didn’t outweigh her obligations to others.

  Sumira bowed her head. “I’ll see that it’s taken care of, Miss Corti.”

  Lyssa sighed as Sumira stepped out of the room. “Is breaking up with a man by letter when you are thousands of miles away from him a total bitch move?”

  “I fail to see the problem,” Jofi said. “However, I’m not an authority on what constitutes a ‘bitch move.’ Perhaps you should consult a human friend.”

  Her pistols, in which the spirit’s body resided, remained comfortably snug in the holsters hanging on the wall. Although Lyssa avoided speaking to him when Sumira was around, the servant’s presence wouldn’t have mattered. Other things had changed during her time in Last Remnant, but she was still the only one who could hear him.

  “You don’t see the problem with breaking up with a guy by snail mail from thousands of miles away?” Lyssa asked. “I’m not saying I was ready to move in or demand an engagement ring, but it did feel like something was there.”

  “Severing your romantic ties with that man is logical after everything that has happened. Given the perils associated with your role in the Society, anything more than transitory amorous encounters should be avoided, particularly with Shadows. You’d only endanger him with a continued relationship.”

  “’Transitory amorous encounters?’” Lyssa snickered. “This is one for the books. My spirit-bound guns are telling me I should stick to booty calls. Nice.” She tried glaring at the weapons to intimidate Jofi, but it felt silly. “I see your point about dating, but that’s not what this is about.”

  “Then what is it about? If you make your intentions clearer, I might be able to provide more useful feedback.”

  “Plenty of people break up with people by email or text, but breaking up with someone in a letter? That’s both cold and old-school classy.”

  “Classy?”

  “Sure.” Lyssa patted her chest. “Maybe this isn’t so bad. It’s like I’m a Jane Austen character. I just swear, drink, and shoot people a lot. You’re right. Bill still thinks I’m on Crete, and the fact that I can’t be honest with him proves it’s better for both of us to end this before it gets too involved and some assassin blows him away with a spell.”

  “I’m glad you’re being reasonable,” Jofi replied. “I’ve noticed an increase in emotional decision-making since you recovered your brother. I’m concerned it will affect your efficiency on jobs.”

  “An increase in emotional decision-making?” Lyssa scoffed. “As opposed to the single-minded, obsessive investigation and quest for vengeance that drove me for the last fifteen years? Yeah, nothing but pure logic there. Just ask everyone I alienated during half my life.”

  Being right didn’t absolve her from being a bitch to the many people who had tried to help her throughout the years, including her foster parents.

  “I worry about you,” Jofi said. “Although your general stability is better, additional improvement is needed.”

  “Isn’t that sweet? My guns want me to see a therapist.”

  “An unstable mind will only harm you.”

  “Mental healthcare in Last Remnant is kind of messed up,” Lyssa said. “The last thing I want is someone poking around in my head with sorcery. I think I’ll stick to chatting with friends and family.”

  “You misunderstand,” Jofi said. “I believe that retrieving your brother hasn’t restored the fundamental emotional equilibrium you desired. In that sense, your quest was a failure.”

  Lyssa didn’t respond, taken aback by the bluntness of the spirit’s evaluation.
No matter how often they talked, his fundamental alien nature remained since he was a bound spirit forced to deny his true nature.

  “I have him back,” she replied. “That’s enough.” She walked over to the table and picked up the pistol magazines stacked on it. “Enough about me being broken. Being good at shooting things will help me far more on jobs than being at peace with the world. Ready for some exercise?”

  “As always,” Jofi replied.

  In the months since her showdown with the possessed Elder, Lyssa had been expecting Jofi to change. His seal had been broken, albeit temporarily, and she’d been able to draw on more of both her own and his power thanks to a mysterious voice that claimed to be her Night Goddess regalia.

  Her regalia hadn’t talked to her since then, and she needed to walk lightly around discussing the matter with Jofi. Target practice was an easy way to keep testing their new limits together while preventing her skills from rusting. It also staved off boredom.

  She hadn’t realized how being a Torch warped her perspective. When Far Ones weren’t invading, Last Remnant was too peaceful.

  “I’m glad they are being supportive and supplying you with enchanted ammunition,” Jofi added.

  “Except for showstoppers,” Lyssa said, “and I no longer have any here. Not only that, but I also doubt that the only person on the planet I can work with to make them is Serafina. That means they’re purposely trying to screw me.”

  “There is little reason to have such powerful ammunition on Last Remnant,” Jofi replied. “You seem to forget you are unusual among Illuminated in your preference for firearms.”

  In her showdown with the Far One, Lyssa had managed to produce showstopper-like effects without using the special bullets. That indicated that if she drew on the maximum potential of her regalia and Jofi, she didn’t need any help.

  The problem was she couldn’t even get her regalia to talk to her. Assuming she’d be able to produce her ultimate spell again was poor tactical thinking. A woman couldn’t go into a life-or-death battle with a weapon she couldn’t rely on.

  “Trust me,” Lyssa said. “In a hundred years, it’ll be nothing but gun-toting Sorcerers.” She headed toward the door. “I think I’m just getting antsy.”

  “I’ve found that shooting things helps you calm down.”

  Lyssa laughed. “True!”

  * * *

  Lyssa crouched behind an outcropping. A soft wind blew dust through the arid, hilly terrain.

  Every inch of Last Remnant had been sculpted by sorcery over the millennia until nothing remained of the original landscape. She hadn’t appreciated that before, but now she understood the value of having every possible environment available for sorcery experiments and battle practice.

  She took slow, even breaths as she waited. A glowing sphere covered with spikes rose from behind a hill and zoomed over it, close to the ground, humming low and dull.

  Lyssa popped up and fired three rounds. The sphere blew apart in a satisfying kaleidoscopic explosion, complete with sparks. She spun and downed another target when it zipped behind her.

  “Take that, you stupid spheres!” she yelled. “How do you like that?”

  “Why are you taunting something without intelligence?” Jofi asked.

  “Because it’s fun.”

  The ground rumbled. A shiny, clawed metal hand burst through. A sinister-looking helmet with glowing eyes followed the hand.

  Lyssa squeezed off a round and nailed her target between the eyes. The bullet sparked and bounced, leaving a deep gouge.

  “Huh,” she muttered. “A standard round worked last week against that exact target.”

  “Perhaps you didn’t achieve a good firing angle,” Jofi offered.

  “No, I nailed that bastard. We’ve been showing stronger power, not less. Does anything feel different to you?”

  “Not that I can say.”

  “Then they upped the difficulty.” Lyssa scoffed. “They could have told me.”

  “Isn’t it better to prepare for all possible surprises?” Jofi asked.

  She hated it when he was right.

  The metal humanoid construct finished pulling itself out of the ground and lumbered toward Lyssa, knocking off residual dirt and pebbles with each step. It might be tougher than it had been during her last training session, but it wasn’t any faster.

  With an annoyed grunt, Lyssa ejected her conventional magazine and caught it. She stuffed it in her pocket and reloaded with penetrator rounds.

  She waited and lined up her shot, this time holding her breath. A single trigger-pull launched her penetrator into the forehead of the construct. A bright flash obscured the damage until the target fell forward, revealing the hole in its head.

  Lyssa wandered over to the construct and prodded it with her boot tip. “Nice and effective.”

  She put her penetrator-loaded pistol away and drew her second gun, which was loaded with conventional rounds. As she swept the hills seeking a new target, Lemurian script filled the sky.

  STOW YOUR WEAPONS, TORCH.

  Lyssa tucked her pistol away. “I hope they’re not mad I blew that thing away. I didn’t need training in hopeless battles. I’ve fought plenty of those.”

  Footsteps sounded behind her. She turned to see Samuel waiting for her in all his white-suited glory.

  To her frustration, Lyssa couldn’t bring herself to crack a joke. It had been months since her last fast-food reference about the Elder.

  The man had kicked so much ass in the Heart of Remnant, taking on the Far One, that she couldn’t look at him the same way. She’d had her issues with Samuel over the years, but he’d proven he wouldn’t let evil do what it wanted to, even when his life was on the line.

  That bravery and determination had elevated him to the Tribunal, which her mind tried to reject every time she saw him since he still looked the same. His white suit was integral to his regalia, the Distinguished Aristocrat. Joining the Tribunal hadn’t changed that.

  “Hey, Samuel,” Lyssa said. She tucked her hands in her pockets.

  Back in America, it would have been an odd sight to see Hecate in a full skull mask and dark aura talking to someone who bore more than a passing resemblance to Colonel Sanders. On Last Remnant, it was about as noteworthy as eggs for breakfast.

  “The last construct was significantly hardened,” Samuel said. He motioned at the downed hunk of metal. “I asked them to increase the strength of all the targets for this session.”

  “It was you?” Lyssa frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because I wanted to see if you would notice.” Samuel stared at the downed construct. “We’d wondered if your increased power would ebb the farther the incident receded into the past. Part of sorcerous power involves your will. The less we lead you on the matter, the better and more useful the fundamental test will be.”

  “What do you think?” Lyssa motioned to her regalia. “You think I have her in here, after all?”

  They’d talked before about the best way to handle Jofi going forward, given what had happened with her regalia. Lyssa understood the necessity of keeping secrets, but they’d openly discussed the matter of the alleged help from the Night Goddess in his presence. It would be easy for the spirit to assume her enhancement was related to that and not anything involving the secret seals on his power.

  “I don’t know what to think,” Samuel told her. “None of us do. You also haven’t mentioned another discussion with your regalia since then.”

  Lyssa smiled. “You got me there. I know I didn’t imagine it, and we both know I pulled off a crazy amount of power in the battle.”

  “I reviewed all our evidence recently and convened with the relevant experts.” Samuel looked annoyed. “We can’t find anything that would explain what you experienced, assuming it wasn’t a pain- or ritual-induced hallucination. The minor spiritual perturbations aren’t that different. There’s no point in discussing this. Nothing has changed since then. I’m sure you’d rathe
r not linger here for months for pointless experiments that yield no real answers. The only thing we have confirmed is your increased power. That’s useful and no cause for concern.”

  “That’s your call. Now that the Tribunal isn’t infested, I trust it more, which means I even respect your decisions half the time.”

  Samuel’s mouth twitched. “However rude that might be, I can’t say it’s an unreasonable position to take, given your experiences.”

  “That’s fine. As for lingering, I don’t have a problem sticking around. It’s not like you have cured Chris.”

  He gave her a look she hated: pity. “Miss Corti, you need to be prepared for the possibility that we might never be able to restore your brother’s sorcery.”

  Lyssa forced a grin to hide the stinging pain in her soul. “Samuel, everyone told me he was dead and I’d never find him. I did, so I’m going to keep my stubborn hope alive.”

  “I bring this up because I’m going to argue to the other Tribunal members that you should return to the United States very soon,” Samuel said. “I need you to be mentally prepared for that.”