Page 141 of The Edge of Dawn

The structure radiated a dark, pulsating energy.

An alien energy, not too dissimilar to the aura he felt when he was near a black hole.

The circles were rotating slowly. A faint, low-pitched hum emanated from the device.

In the center of the oval structure was a narrow opening, just big enough for a person to fit through. The dark, gaping maw seemed to suck in everything around it, including scattered particles of light.

A group of Kordolians stood in formation around the entrance.

He counted twelve in total. Warriors. Fully armed and decked out in military-issue armor suits.

Tarak was close to him now, coming up through the narrow tunnel.

“The coordinates are set,” one of the unknown warriors said, his voice echoing throughout the cavern. “Back to the 21st revolution of the reign of Emperor Ilhan. Before he became First Division. Our orders are to go to the place where he’s detained and kill him. Then we return to the Kythian entry point and get out as quickly and quietly as possible.”

“What if we get intercepted?”

The warrior laughed darkly. “By who? We’re an official military Division. They’ll know us by our uniforms. We can say we’re there on Lord Isnarek’s orders. Nobody will question us. If they put up any obstruction, we’ll just kill them. Understood?”

The other warrior nodded. “Yes, Sir!”

“All right. Let’s move. Remember, all we have to do is kill Akkadian and anyone else that gets in our way. You will not interfere with anything else. This does not change our existence. We’ll all be better off once that fucking demon is eliminated.”

“That’s for sure,” another one growled. “But… what if he…?” A note of uncertainty entered his voice.

“He can’t do anything to us. We’re going back to a time before they made him into one of those monsters. The Tarak al Akkadian you’ll encounter is nothing like the one we know now. He’ll be easy to kill, believe me.”

The leader stepped forward into the dark entrance.

And then, he disappeared.

Shit.

Dragek moved. He pulled himself up onto the rocky banks of the pool, not caring if they detected a disturbance in the water. He ran toward the machine—the portal—still in the state of qim, leaving wet footprints behind on the rocky ground.

He didn’t care.

Time was running out.

Another went through. Then another.

He reached them.

“What the fuck?” One of the warriors raised a plasma gun and fired wildly, but being unable to see Dragek, his shot was way off.

He reached the group and pulled the long sword from its sheath at his back.

Then he went to work, taking advantage of the confusion.

He stabbed one in the back, straight through a layer of Callidum armor. Tarak’s sword was excellent—one of the finest blades he’d ever wielded. He pushed the dead soldier off his blade and moved to the next, slashing across his unprotected neck.

The soldier let out a gurgling cry, then fell silent.

Tarak was somewhere in the periphery, quickly crossing the distance.

He took another one through the eye, dodging a counterattack, a vicious blade aimed at his neck.

That was three down. Another one had escaped through the portal. That made at least four who had entered the tesseract. Three dead. Five remaining on this side.

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