Reluctantly Roy nodded, returning his gaze to the shadow adept that was stalking them down. He hated separating from Kimoura, but he trusted in his mentor’s reasoning as well as the ability of his companions. He had to if they were going to survive.
“I’ve been waiting too long for this...” Wrath uttered, allowing his shadow aura to flare. “The dark gods have smiled upon me. Your reckoning is upon you. Now, you shall feel my WRATH!”
Tendrils of dark spirit energy erupted from the spirikai’s form, snaking through the air like living shadow as they centered in on their targets.
//////////
Shadow skill: Darkness Barrage
//////////
Roy rolled to his left as a pair of shadow tendrils zeroed in on his midsection, narrowly avoiding the technique before shifting back to his feet. Remley mirrored his movement, dodging to his right as twisting shadows darted within inches of his flesh.
Then came Kai.
The beast adept let out a bestial roar, taking his lion form as he charged Wrath’s position, deflecting the bolts of shadow with his dawnbreaker axe as he took aim at his foe. Quinn dashed in opposite him, drawing out his bone blades and reinforcing them with earthen might.
As the pair closed in, Wrath leapt into the air, leaving a shadow-forged coffin in his wake.
//////////
Shadow Skill: Exploding sarcophagus trap
//////////
Before Kai or Quinn could flee, the coffin door swung open, engulfing the pair in a wave of volatile shadow energy that scorched their flesh and drove them into the wall.
“Get him now, while he’s airborne!” Zyr growled as he fired off lines of explosive spider silk at Wrath. Yoshiro followed his lead, launching his twin water serpents at the shadow adept as he ascended towards the ceiling...
Once again, Wrath was prepared.
The shadow adept spun as he reached the hall’s ceiling, channeling spirit energy into his palms as his boots met celling stone. Then as the techniques reached him he pushed off, spiraling back towards the floor as he performed an impossibly narrow dodge.
“Shadow spear!” Wrath roared as he set his sights back on Remley, taking aim at the flame adept as shadow energy swirled around his form. A breath later, the man’s body was transformed into a living spear of darkness, a weapon too mighty to deflect and too fast to avoid.
Time seemed to slow as the wrath spear barreled in, its black tip gleaming like fresh ink as it closed in on Remley’s chest. Roy tried to react, tried to reach for his mentor in desperation. It was then he realized that the time-slowing sensation he felt wasn’t just a feeling. No, it was quite real...
And the cause was Varyon Risen.
“Brother!” Varyon shouted as he leapt in front of Rem, his movements enhanced by his trademark temporal sphere. A breath later, the shadow spear collided with the temporal adept’s chest, shredding his innards and spraying his lifeblood across the once pristine floor.
“NOOO!” Remley shouted as his bonded brother fell before him, the light in his eyes fading fast as Wrath reassumed his natural form.
“Pity,” the shadow adept mocked as his gaze once again rested on Remley. “I wanted him to see you die.”
Remley began to ready a counter blow, but Roy beat him to it. With clenched teeth, the void adept dove forward, channeling divine aura into his palm as rage clouded his soul. “Focus on this, you bastard! DEEP FREEZE!”
Icy blue energy erupted from Roy’s palm, pooling on the floor as it took the shape of an icy pillar that he drove into Wrath’s exposed side. For once the shadow adept winced, backpedaling as the divine power forced him away. However, after a quick reset of his stance he managed to stop Roy’s power dead in its tracks.
“You’ll have to do better than that!” Wrath growled, pressing his palms into the ice as shadow energy coursed through his channels. A breath later he shattered the icy pillar, sending shards of ice in every direction, forcing back Quinn and Kai who had begun to approach his flank.
“What the Hell do we do?!” Roy growled, falling back as Wrath began to ready another technique.
“Attack from all angles!” Remley shouted back, unable to hide the growing desperation in his voice.
The remaining wolves began to circle the shadow adept, taking aim at their foe with spirit skills ready at the tips of their fingers. However, Wrath merely smirked, seemingly unfazed by the spiriteka that now surrounded him on all sides. For as much as Roy didn’t dare to admit it…
Their opponent was still in complete control.
“Lets even the numbers a bit,” the shadow adept said, giving his fingers a subtle snap. A breath later the head of his shadow phoenix jutted through the doorway, latching onto one of Zyr’s spider limbs before swiftly yanking him right out of the hall.’
“Two down,” Wrath mocked, lifting a pair of fingers as his other hand juggled a technique. “Who’s next?”
Foolishly Kai charged in, goaded by the man’s mocking tone and overconfident in the power of his dawnbreaker axe. Just as quickly, he found himself unconscious and pinned to the far wall, a dozen shadowy thorns protruding from his fur.
//////////
Shadow Skill: Darkness Barrage
//////////
For a moment, things began to appear hopeless as Roy watched his comrades fall one by one. Then he heard it… the voice of his mentor, a voice that always seemed to lift them out of the darkness.
“Enough!” Remley growled, eyeing Wrath with unmatched contempt as he pulled on his sleeve until his steel brotherhood insignia was visible. “Steel brotherhood technique: Seven blades of-“
The flame adept’s words were cut short as Wrath dove forward, grabbing Remley’s jaw in a single hand before channeling a massive amount of shadow aura into his arm and slamming the man directly into the stone floor.
Roy winced as he watched his mentor’s eyes flicker shut and his lifeblood began to pool on the floor, flowing freely from the grizzly gash in his head. He even tried to fend off their vicious attacker, only to be tossed aside by a pulse of his shadowy aura.
As his options began to dwindle, Roy Skyworth watched as the shadow adept rose to his feet and set his sights on him… And in that moment, in that very instant, he realized that this was a fight they could not win.
Chapter 22
Choices
Leila Aurora Rose paced carefully around the dragon god statue, spear clutched tightly in her grasp. On the far end of the hall, her guildmates had gone to war against the shadow adept, a struggle that would define them or leave them dead. She wanted to be there, wanted to fight at their side with her spear. But part of being a guild leader meant believing in her companions… for she had problems of her own to address.
“Kimoura, get ready,” the wind adept growled, trying to follow her opponent’s movements as she slipped in and out of view. Like her, Jeska was a wind adept, a cultivator with an element that lent her a natural fleetness of foot. However, where Leila had trained for power, it appeared Jeska had trained for speed.
“Too slow,” the wind assassin said as she dashed past Leila’s defenses, dragging her tri-blades across her abdomen before dancing back out of range. Kimoura attempted to step in and counter but the woman again showcased her superior dexterity, landing a fade away high-kick on her forehead and staggering the light adept back.
“Damn the gods,” Leila growled, resetting her stance as Jeska once again began circling their location. The two of them were going to be picked apart in seconds if they didn’t find a way to slow her down.
“Any ideas, Lei?” Kimoura whispered, standing shoulder to shoulder as she wiped away a line of blood trailing from her lip.
Leila scoffed, unable to hide her frustration. “We need to find a way to slow her down so I can shove my spear down her-“
Before the wind adept could finish, Jeska charged in again, spinning as she struck.
//////////
Wind skill: Cyclone Strike
//
////////
The assassin’s tri-clawed gauntlets danced across their flesh, shredding the flesh of both Leila and Kimoura and forcing the pair to separate. And once again, Jeska was gone as quickly as she came, avoiding a counter blow before either woman could recover.
Blood began to trickle down the side of Leila’s face as her gaze re-centered on her nimble opponent. Dammit, it was clear that they could not keep this dance up forever. They were getting battered and they hadn’t so much as scratched their nimble foe. If only they could slow her down, then perhaps they could test those likely frail defenses. They just needed a reason to make her stop...
Suddenly an idea sparked in Leila’s mind. “Kimoura, can you take a hit?”
The light adept nodded, her gaze resolute. “Better than anyone.”
Leila met her gaze, conveying everything she needed to know in a single glance. “Then take one.”
Once again, the wind assassin leapt in, darting between the two with her claws ready to strike. However, rather than try to evade, Kimoura stepped in the woman’s path, ready to meet her head-on...
And meet her she did.
Jeska’s claws penetrated Kimoura’s shoulder, piercing the woman’s flesh and sending her lifeblood spewing across the floor. Immediately Jeska tried to recoil the blades but the light adept refused, latching onto the woman’s wrist and holding true.
“What in Eon are you doing?!” the assassin growled, caught off guard by her suicidal technique
Kimoura merely grinned, masking her immense pain as she held the assassin close. “Slowing you down... for this!”
A breath later, Leila charged into the fray, her body completely covered in inky black energy as her dark passenger took hold. Jeska tried to squirm away, tried to avoid the coming barrage, but she could do little as her reckoning approached...
For in Roy’s earthen terms, she was a glass cannon... and it was time for her to shatter.
//////////
Darkbeast skill: Underworld Lance
//////////
Black energy filled the area as Leila unveiled her mightiest technique, pouring all of her divine power into a single blow. As she made contact her jet-black spear tore through Jeska’s midsection, annihilating her flesh and quite literally sundering the woman in two.
A breath later, her soul essence floated into the air, signifying the death of the once mighty spirikai... and just like that, Jeska of the shadow tigers guild was no more.
“Hell of a job, Moura,” Leila said as she helped remove the tri-blade from her shoulder. Kimoura responded with a simple smile, a gesture that carried a profound and sometimes unseen strength.
Despite their bodies being broken and bleeding, the pair of adepts reset their stances and gathered their auras, turning their attention to the battle at the hall’s far end. They wouldn’t quit... No, they refused to stop until only the sky wolves remained standing.
Unfortunately, there weren’t many left to speak of.
****
Roy stumbled back as the shadow adept approached him, utter fear creeping up from the pit of his soul. His companions were dwindling... Varyon was slain, Zyr had been lost to the clutches of the dark Phoenix, Kai had over a dozen holes in his flesh and Remley lay bleeding out on the cold, stone floor. Only he, Quinn, and Yoshiro remained... and while each of them was a skilled adept in their own right, none held the skill required to down such a fearsome foe.
“One by one, they all fall,” the shadow adept mocked as he closed in on Roy’s location. “One by one, each of you become nothing more than a fading memory lost to the ether...”
Roy grimaced before firing back at the man, taking aim at his face with an empowered strike. Wrath caught the blow in a fist comprised completely of shadow, forcing his appendage into the ground as the void adept cried out in pain.
“Bastard!” Roy growled.
Wrath chuckled before slamming his boot into Roy’s chin, sending the void adept sprawling. “Perhaps I am, but what will it matter if you're dead.”
Once again, Wrath raised his hand, preparing to eradicate the void adept with one of his multitude of techniques. Unfortunately for him, the sky wolves weren’t quite finished just yet...
//////////
Dread Hunter Skill: Bone Hammer
//////////
In an instant, Quinn emerged in between the pair, a weapon in his grasp that looked more like a dragon’s femur than anything else. Without hesitation, he slammed the ivory bludgeoner into Wrath, briefly forcing the shadow adept to a knee as he let his earth energy flow.
“Get the others out of here!” Quinn growled, directing his orders at Roy as a look of profound pain came across his face. A breath later, Wrath stood back up, knocking Quinn’s weapon away before unleashing a hellacious technique.
//////////
Shadow skill: Pain Prison
//////////
Dark tendrils of shadow energy rose from the floor, surrounding Quinn so tightly that the man had barely the room to breathe. Worse, Roy could see the barbed shadows tearing at his flesh, cutting through the man’s tunic and restricting his movement so tightly that he couldn’t even pull off a technique.
Without speaking, Wrath activated a second technique. A breath later, a giant hand of shadow materialized around Yoshiro, slamming him through stone and into the neighboring hall.
Frantically, Roy’s eyes surveyed the room, unable to come to terms with what was happening. Nearly all of his companions had fallen or were on the precipice of defeat... and yet his opponent seemed as fresh as ever.
“No, dammit!” Roy growled, unable to accept that fate. He’d worked too hard to build something on this damned realm to see it all taken away so quickly.
Once again, Wrath smirked as he directed his palm at Roy’s chest. “It all has to end sometime, outrealmer... Now die.”
A mighty bolt of spirit energy left the spirikai’s palm, blasting Roy in the chest and sending him careening into the far hall. He flew through the air, soaring over the polished stone floor until body came to rest on the large, circular table, sprawled out as his lifeblood flowed free.
Was this it? Was this where he died again... laid out in a castle atop a mountain in another world? He managed to glance down at the smoking hole in his midsection… perhaps it was.
Slowly, the void adept’s mind began to drift as the pain and blood loss began to take over, as the sound of Wrath’s approaching footsteps echoed in his ears. Images appeared in his mind eye... thoughts of Kimoura, of his time with the sky wolves, of his meeting with Zekefreid, the so-called herald. Then, something else came to the forefront... a nagging feeling that he’d felt the first time he had entered that room.
Despite the pain, Roy rolled to his stomach as his gaze centered on one of the pristine dragon statues protruding from the table’s edge.
“Grab it, boy...” Yoshiro said, his voice barely a whisper as his broken body lay crumpled on the floor. “Grab it, and let his favor be known.”
Roy didn’t quite understand what Yoshiro was saying, but he couldn’t deny the pull he felt from the serpentine statue. And so, with no other options left before him, Roy leaned forward and grabbed the dragon’s head...
Then everything faded to black.
Suddenly, Roy was no longer in the ivory castle. Instead, he found himself standing in a cave of ice. Opposite him, a fearsome creature towered over his tiny frame, imposing its icy will with its immense power and unwavering gaze.
Roy Skyworth had found himself in the presence of a dragon.
“Wha- what the Hell? What’s going on?”
The dragon shifted, a subtle move that to Roy felt like an earthquake. His eyes, a pair of icy crystalline orbs locked onto the void adept, peering through his flesh and directly into his soul.
Slowly, the dragon’s mouth opened, his voice deep like rolling thunder yet more elegant than forked lightning.
“Do you desire the power to save the one you love?”
Roy’s ey
es went wide. “Wait... what are you saying? Do you mean Kimoura?!”
The dragon’s head shifted ever so slightly, a gesture that Roy could only assume was an affirmation to his question. “You were brought here to serve, to lead a great army and fight in the name of Bahamut... But that path is one that is walked alone.”
Roy’s cheeks reddened and his pulse quickened as the words rolled off the dragon’s tongue. “What do you mean, alone?” Roy shouted. “You’re saying she and the others’ll die?!”
Again, the dragon made a subtle nod. “The adept of shadows will slay your friends, and you will be left to suffer. Through that pain, you will build an empire of flame, one that will burn so brightly that it will extinguish shadow itself...”
Anger flooded Roy’s senses. “So everyone I care for dies again? Just like that?!”
Suddenly, the dragon’s maw twisted into what one could assume was a smile. “There is another way....”
Roy stepped forward, coming within mere inches of the majestic beast. “Tell me!”
“Take that which already flows through you... take my power and save the ones you love.”
“And... and that’s it?” Roy replied, his mind racing in a thousand directions at once,
The dragon let out a soft bellow, causing the ground to once again shake. “There is always more, mortal. But for now... yes. Denounce Bahamut and accept me as your god, and the power that you need will be yours.”
Roy’s hands fell to his sides as the gravity of the situation began to weigh on his shoulders. If what this creature said was true, then he had the ability to save the entire realm... but for what? He’d already put duty above all else during his life on earth, and it had earned nothing but heartache and painful death. He’d lost his wife, his daughter, his everything. Now, he’d built something just as beautiful… and he was supposed to just throw that all away? Was that truly his destiny once again...
Slowly, Roy raised his fists into the air, a look of resolve returning to his face.
The Adept Archives: Volumes 1-3 Page 58
