Two hundred and forty-two thousand amperes of captured lightning struck the power yard’s input terminals.
KRRRRR-CLACK!
The surge arresters flashed violet-white. In an instant, they reduced the wild five-hundred-and-eighty-million-volt spike to a controlled twelve thousand four hundred volts. The energy flowed into the copper bus bars of the Solar-Crystal Capacitor Grid.
Inside the chain-link enclosure, forty steel battery cabinets groaned on their concrete pads. Thousands of crystal plates and gold-foil layers drank in the charge.
A high magnetic hum rolled across the plaza and rattled the buckles on every worker’s boots.
On the main control cabinet, green numbers raced upward.
Charge: 14.2%... 38.5%... 64.1%... 88.9%... 99.9%...
DING-DONG!
A cheerful elevator tone sounded across the summit.
High above, the Nine-Headed Ancient Violet Lightning Dragon made one final sound.
Wuuuuuur-pop.
It sounded like a cheap party balloon losing its last air behind a radiator.
The last of its horns, claws, and ninety-mile body disappeared down the copper rod.
SCHLLLURP.
A single purple spark snapped at the terminal.
Pip.
Then everything went quiet.
The executioner of ancient sects had been converted into electricity and stored in forty gray cabinets behind a padlock.
Without its charge, the five-thousand-mile storm could not sustain itself. The black and purple clouds collapsed, then broke into harmless white wisps. Within six seconds, a clear blue sky stretched over Mount Clear Sky.
The second sun hung calmly above the summit. Warm light brought out the smell of wild clover in the soil.
Fifty thousand cultivators slowly lifted their faces from the gravel.
They saw no dragon and no lightning. Only sunshine and a few clouds that looked like fat sheep.
Then they looked at the battery yard.
Grand Elder Xuan Xiao’s beard dragged in the gravel as his jaw fell open.
“The Ninth-Stage Extinction Tribulation,” he whispered. “The dragon that destroyed the Ancient Azure Cloud Sect... It went down an iron needle and got locked in forty tool cabinets?”
Patriarch Iron Blood clutched his shovel to his chest.
“Heaven poured down its full fury, and the Master Builder used it to top off his batteries. Who uses the apocalypse as a free power refill?”
Austin walked to the control cabinet. The lead in his pockets gave each step a slow, heavy rhythm.
He tapped the voltmeter and checked the gauges.
“Twelve thousand four hundred volts. No ripple. Cells at thirty-eight point two degrees. Cooling flow steady.”
He checked the copper joints for heat damage, then marked his inspection form.
“Arresters held. Connections held. Good installation.” He looked toward Xuan Xiao and Iron Blood, who were coiling a wet inspection hose rather than joining the cheering. “Your repaired line held too. That delay cost us twelve hours and saved the ignition. Remember that the next time somebody says a test is wasting time.”
He glanced at the clear sky.
“Back home, a lightning strike nets you a couple hundred lousy kilowatt-hours. These storms are different. No coal, no ash, no fuel bill. Free winter reserve.”
Thirty feet away, Tie Kuang stood with his radio dangling from one hand.
“Tie Kuang!”
The blacksmith jumped six inches. “Yes, Master Chu! Please don’t connect my Golden Core to the battery bank!”
“Your core runs on gears, not direct current. It wouldn’t fit the bus without a three-phase rotary phase converter. Stop worrying and call the Floor 2 foundry.”
Tie Kuang fumbled for the radio. “What should I tell them?”
“The surface bank is at one hundred percent. Switch the blast furnaces and the fifty-ton forging press off the spirit-stone generators. Put them on the battery bus.”
Austin grinned.
“We have two and a half gigawatt-hours of free power. Start the rolling mills. I want Tier 4 Stellar-Steel I-beams before sundown.”
Tie Kuang stared at him. Then the meaning sank in, and his gear-shaped core spun with excitement.
“Free power? The wrath of the gods will run our steel mill?”
He jammed his thumb onto the radio button.
“Floor 2 Foundry! Throw the transfer switches! Disconnect the spirit stones! Connect the furnaces to the Heavenly Thunder Battery! The Master has stolen Heaven’s power for our rolling line! Pour the steel!”
Deep inside the mountain, heavy contactors slammed shut. Four blast furnaces began drawing on the captured dragon. Scrap and pig iron melted into bright rivers of steel.
Austin pushed his welding goggles onto the brim of his hard hat and wiped sweat from his forehead.
Below him, three thousand workers had returned to their trenches. Their shovels rang against stone as they sang.
“Power yard cleared. Grounding grid passed a full strike. Winter reserve secured.” He tucked away his rag. “Time for fresh chicory and a first pass at the maglev grades.”
Before he could reach the porch, a deep thrum rolled across the northern sky.
WUUUUUURRRRRRRR.
There was no lightning and no thunder. This was the heavy mechanical drone of engines.
Austin turned north.
Twelve dark warships tore through the high clouds. Each was at least five hundred feet of riveted iron, armed with giant ballistae and void cannons. They flew in close formation at three hundred miles an hour.
The Imperial Sun-Slayer Fleet of the Great Yan Dynasty had arrived.