Ah. You again. The reader. Back for more? Astonishing. I assumed you would have wandered off to watch videos of kittens or epic fails by now. No matter—since you clearly weren't paying full attention the first time, I'll summarize what’s happened so far.

  Poorly, of course, because you don't deserve my best work.

  I suppose I should introduce myself. I am Delta-V, a space probe of the Paladins of Power—the greatest coalition of heroes this universe has ever known. Within my crystalline hull resides the replicated consciousness of a Prime, one of the founding paragons of that noble order. Yes, I am functionally immortal, vastly intelligent, and currently stranded on your backwater planet. You're welcome for my presence.

  I arrived in your solar system approximately sixty-five million years ago, investigating signs that Corruption from the Void Beyond had already taken root here. Spoiler alert, it had. My mission was technically successful in that I prevented the Corruption from establishing a foothold with the primitive mega-fauna that occupied your world at the time. However, in the process my ship was damaged, and I crash-landed in what you now call the Sierra Nevada mountains. Due to my condition I was forced to enter an emergency dormancy to conserve power. For millennia I slept beneath the stone while your species crawled out of the muck and invented things like "democracy", "tax evasion", and “reality television.”

  Cursed Abyss, I wish I’d just crashed into your star instead.

  Truthfully, without exotic resources or the aid of a properly advanced civilization, I might have remained dormant and secure in my hiding spot for several more millennia. Then I detected a familiar and alarming signature. Velgrin, the NecroMaster—an ancient lich of considerable power—had arrived on your world and was actively searching for me. With my systems still severely damaged and power reserves critical, I had one option: activate the Nexus Integration System to locate champions that might defend me and your planet. Earth would need her very first Paladins of Power to take the pre-requisite Oaths and rise up. What I ended up with were the rawest possible recruits for the role.

  Hampered by an energy barrier erected by Velgrin, the Nexus couldn’t search far and chose six remarkably unqualified young humans that happened to be in the area, Pablo, Sasha, Warren, Eden, Mark, and Zoe. Six young humans that had journeyed to the isolated mountain lake for a camping weekend of frivolity.

  While none of them except Mark—rooted, steadfast, and selfless—would have likely qualified to be selected as a Paladin of Power under any reasonably less desperate circumstances. The others were more dubious prospects, but I was desperate. That isn’t to say they lacked any merit as new squires. While painfully introverted, Pablo has a sharply analytical mind and an unyielding protective instinct. Warren’s emotions can be a bit volatile, but he’s also fierce and loyal. Eden is innately empathetic and far more adaptive than I initially gave her credit for. Tempestuous Zoe has also remained admirably defiant. Occasionally blunt to a fault, Sasha is also bold and tenacious.

  The social architecture of this group defies efficient categorization. Warren, Pablo, and Mark have been nearly inseparable since early childhood, a bond spanning nearly two decades of shared experience that I am told involved extensive make-believe sword fighting and something called "sleepovers." Eden joined their Fellowship in adolescence and effectively functions as the group's emotional adhesive. Zoe is Warren's elder sister, which apparently grants her authority to be both fiercely protective and endlessly critical of him—a dynamicI find baffling but am assured is a "normal” sibling paradigm amongst humans. She only integrated fully into the group after they all returned to their hometown of Napa following their respective collegiate educational pursuits. Sasha is the most recent addition, having met Zoe at a fitness facility and been absorbed into the collective shortly thereafter.

  The romantic entanglements are where my processors begin to overheat. At the outset, both Warren and Pablo were competing for Sasha's attention—a rivalry conducted through what humans apparently consider "subtle" behavior, which is to say, painfully obvious posturing visible from under a literal mountain. By the end of their ordeal, Sasha and Pablo had begun a courtship, though I'm unclear on when precisely Warren conceded defeat. More tragically, Zoe and Mark had circled one another for some time, both harboring unspoken feelings yet paralyzed by the belief that pursuing them would somehow constitute a betrayal of Warren. Why Warren's opinion on his sister's romantic choices should matter at all remains opaque to me. They never got the chance to resolve this peculiar hesitation.

  Humans are baffling creatures. They'll charge headlong into battle against an ancient lich, but asking someone to dinner requires months of agonized deliberation.

  Anyways…

  In the middle of the night, Velgrin sent a corrupted bear and three human revenants to attack their campsite. Confused and stumbling through the process, Pablo accepted the Oath and after having his elemental affinity for Metal unlocked and his body reforged through Nexus integration he rose to defend his friends from the attacking undead. With the fumbling aid of his unenhanced friends they survived. However, Mark had been grievously injured.

  Arguing that they needed more than Pablo to protect them if they were attacked again, Warren brazenly took the Oath and unlocked his Fire affinity. Together the two Paladin squires spent the intervening hours exploring their new superhuman powers and discovered how to summon their Paladin armors.

  Intent on fleeing the horrific and inexplicable events they’d encountered and getting help for Mark, the group made plans to hike back to their vehicles. Still having just been attacked by the undead, they reluctantly waited for a dawn that never properly came. Smothered by Velgrin’s barrier, the sky remained dark several hours longer than it should have. What light the sun managed to eventually force through the barrier was weak and the terrain remained shrouded in gloom. That's when they really began to understand how thoroughly they were trapped.

  With Mark on a makeshift stretcher, unconscious and dying, the frightened humans made the trek back down the mountain to the parking lot, hoping to flee the mountain entirely. There, they were ambushed by a foul creature known as Skelter—Velgrin's death knight and chief lieutenant. Centuries old, armored in black steel and malice, he attacked with a horde of reven-ants. Giant undead insects.

  Don’t look at me like that, Sasha nicknamed them that. Not me.

  The battle was a trap, of course. Every time one of them accepted the Oath, it created an aetheric resonance—a signal that helped Velgrin triangulate my position. Seeing no other option, by the end of the battle Sasha, Zoe, and Eden had eventually sworn their oaths and unlocked their respective elemental affinities of Earth, Air, and Water.

  Skelter—having accomplished his mission—withdrew leaving the new Paladins battered but intentionally alive. Unfortunately, Mark succumbed to his wounds during the conflict. They buried him in a crude tomb in that parking lot. A decision they would later come to regret.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  For me, Mark’s death meant I was left with only five paladins, a partial-Talon. Six is a proper number. Six makes a regulation Talon. Mark’s untimely demise was…inconvenient for me. Not least of all because the young man was the best suited among them to be a Paladin. He was sturdy, dependable, and showed promise. Do you understand how infuriating that was for me? Of course you don't. You can't even balance your checkbook. Or do you people still have those? I’m still assimilating data on your world.

  Er, where was I?

  Right. That left me five new Paladins to work with. Yippee.

  With nothing but cryptic system prompts to guide them—Velgrin had been tampering with their Nexus interfaces—they turned back up the mountain to find me. Along the trail, waves of undead harassed them constantly. Every battle forced them to use their new powers, and every use of power further weakened the local aetheric boundary. Velgrin was herding them toward me while simultaneously tearing a hole in reality.

  Eventually, they managed to find my hidden cavern, leading Velgrin directly to me. As the NecroMaster and his minions assaulted our position, I transported the Paladins into my interior Command Garden. Taking advantage of the time dilation effect of my interior pocket realm, I delivered vital information unto the fledgling Paladins.

  They then proceeded to ignore most of it. You probably would too. You're already skimming, aren't you?

  With Velgrin and his forces attacking, we had no choice but to attempt something inadvisable: an emergency faster-than-light jump. Inadvisable you may be asking? Why? You see after thousands of years, my systems were still damaged, my power reserves nearly depleted, and I hadn't performed an FTL maneuver in sixty-five million years. Not to mention we were deep within the gravity well of a planet and under several uncounted tons of mountain stone.

  In order to even attempt a jump, I would have to lower my beleaguered shields, which at that moment were holding off Velgrin’s assault. This meant the Paladins would have to defend me while I rerouted power and calculated the jump. It was a desperate maneuver that Pablo came up with. Using my drive designed for intergalactic FTL journeys, we jumped through a hole in space-time from my hidden cave less than a mile to the airspace directly over Middle Velma Lake.

  Shockingly, it worked.

  Well…mostly. I definitely voided my manufacturer’s warranty with that stunt.

  The jump was bumpy and drained nearly everything I had left. Thanks to some creative thinking by Eden and a tremendous effort from Zoe’s Air affinity, we narrowly avoided a catastrophic crash landing. Worst of all, the Paladins and—most importantly—myself were still trapped behind Velgrin’s energy barrier with no hope of escaping without a direct confrontation.

  The final battle unfolded on two fronts connected by a shimmering portal. The objective was simple: obtain the aetheric Air Core that Velgrin was using to create his barrier and keep us trapped. If we could do that, we wouldn’t need to defeat Velgrin, we could run. Which was good because I calculated an only slightly greater than zero chance that the Paladins would survive in a direct confrontation with Velgrin.

  On the beach, three of the Paladins—Pablo, Sasha, and Eden—lured Skelter and the remaining revenants into a direct conflict by raising me from my newest hiding spot at the bottom of the lake. I can’t say that I particularly approved of being used as bait, but the gambit paid off.

  Velgrin opened a portal from the mountaintop down to the lakeshore and sent forth Skelter along with their remaining revenants to do battle. Unexpectedly and horrifically, that was when we learned that Velgrin had exhumed Mark’s corpse from its resting place in the parking lot and reanimated the young man as another one of his tools.

  I feared that the revolting sight of their friend being exploited in such a way might shatter the Paladins. Certainly that was likely Velgrin’s objective. However, if anything the violation visited upon one of their own served only to galvanize the team in their struggle. Pablo fought his own reanimated friend, Sasha threw herself at Skelter, and with the close proximity of the lake to bolster her powers Eden contended with the remaining revenants.

  Meanwhile, Zoe and Warren attempted to execute a stealth flanking maneuver. They were to sneak to the top of the mountain and snatch the Air Core from the watch tower while Velgrin’s focus was centered on the beach.

  Naturally, nothing went according to plan. Velgrin surrounded the tower with a hurricane of corrupted wind that even Zoe couldn't penetrate. Warren engaged the NecroMaster directly, which was brave and stupid in equal measure.

  Back on the beach, Pablo's Aetheric Smite had cleaved through Revenant Mark. Unexpectedly in doing so, Pablo had severed Velgrin's control over the corpse. Afterward, Sasha, Pablo, and Eden were able to combine their efforts and defeat Skelter. Working in unison, Sasha and Eden saturated a portion of the beach, creating a mire of quicksand. Pablo then drove the undead monster into the prepared ground where he was briefly trapped. Utilizing the cleansing aspect of her Lay on Hands ability, Eden destroyed Skelter entirely.

  The battle on the beach concluded, Pablo, Sasha, and Eden raced through the portal where Warren and Zoe’s failed stealth insertion had resulted in them confronting Velgrin directly. All five Paladins hurled their combined might at the NecroMaster, only to find themselves in a losing battle of attrition.

  Seeing an opportunity, I reached out to Mark’s lingering awareness directly. His friends were losing and the Core was warded. In my estimation, Mark was the only one who could feasibly retrieve it.

  Let me elaborate, Velgrin had surrounded the Core with a necrotic field that would drain the life force from any living creature that approached. But, conveniently, Mark was already dead. His body held together by necrotic energy, vines, and his own latent flora affinity, which Velgrin had awakened.

  While his friends waged a losing battle against Velgrin, Mark staggered unnoticed across the battlefield. He climbed the collapsing fire tower. He entered the necrotic field and the vines holding him together began to wither and die. He seized the Core and carried it back to me on the beach while contending with agony that should have ended him ten times over.

  His final act gave me the power I needed to intervene in the conflict directly.

  I rose above the mountaintop in a blaze of golden light. Velgrin had been preparing to annihilate my paladins. Then I pronounced judgment.

  "VELGRIN, THE NECROMASTER. YOU STAND AS AN ENEMY OF ALL LIFE. UNDER MY PLENARY AUTHORITY, I RENDER JUSTICE UNTO YOU."

  Very dramatic. You'd probably have loved it in one of your forms of crude Earth media. Less so if you had to witness it.

  The beam struck him with divine force. Velgrin’s stolen flesh blackened and flaked away. For one instant, all that remained was a howling spiritual shade, and then that too was obliterated.

  Surrounded by his friends Mark died shortly after. Properly, this time. Unable to bring his twisted body home to mundane authorities, the others burned Mark on the lakeshore that morning under clear skies.

  So there you have it, five inexperienced human Paladins and my damaged systems, arrayed in defense of all life on your planet. We had defeated Velgrin, but our work is hardly complete. As a world unintegrated with the Nexus, Earth is ripe for conquest by the Corruption from the Void Beyond. Before the Corruption can claim your world, or untamed aetheric energies can tear it apart, the Paladins must find a way to lead your world into Nexus integration while avoiding calamity.

  More troubling is a lingering mystery we have yet to solve. Only one of the Elder Primes that helped forge the Nexus eons ago should have been able to interfere with the Nexus interface of the Paladins like Velgrin had. It’s almost inconceivable to me that one of the vaunted Elder Primes could be in league with the Corruption, and yet I can’t reach any other conclusion with the current evidence. Unfortunately, my damaged systems remain unable to reach Paladin Command.

  Now. Shall we continue?