The Builder's Throne

by J. A. Cipriano

  “Right.” I touched the talisman. “How long will this work?”

  “Until the Dark Blood Core expires.” She shrugged. “That length will vary depending on how deep we go into the Darkness.”

  “Why is that?” I fingered the talisman, and it throbbed like a miniature heart beating in time to a frequency I couldn’t discern.

  “Stronger things lurk deeper within the Darkness.” She smiled. “Where do you think the Generals come from?” She gestured at the surroundings. “The creatures here live by pulling dark energy into themselves and using it to suffuse their life force. Here the Darkness is thin, much like how air is thin on a tall mountain. The deeper you go, the thicker it will become, which will cause the talisman to work harder and expend its life faster.”

  “So, I should have brought three or four,” I replied, suddenly feeling dumb. I’d only had Sam make the one.

  “We will not travel so deep today that you should worry.” She turned on her heel and gestured toward the burning mountain behind her. “We only need go there. That is where Belial hides.”

  “What about Dred?” I asked as the angel began to walk away, heading toward the mountain. Each of her steps along the ashen ground seemed precise, making me wonder if she’d plotted out the exact course of each footstep.

  “Dred will not be here. He is far too busy hiding.” She shrugged. “Once you have decided to meet with him, he will risk meeting with you, but until then, he cannot.” She nodded to my talisman. “He has no one to make him another, and the one he has is forged from the core of a dragon lich. Strong, but not nearly enough to risk unnecessary appearances.”

  “On the one hand, I find it hard to believe Dred is scared of anyone,” I said, watching her closely. “On the other though, I’ve fought a General, so …”

  “Indeed. It is as all things are. You would have thought Dred unbeatable until you experienced something stronger.” She smiled at me. “Now, you do not even consider him a threat though you still should.”

  “I suppose that’s true,” I replied as she stopped and peered at the path directly in front of us. It blazed with a flame that rippled outward with such intensity the ground beneath had turned molten, and I could feel the heat wafting off of it like I was standing next to a blast furnace.

  “Now, let me concentrate. I must clear a path to the cave’s entrance.” She waited until I assented before turning to face the inferno once more. As she shut her eyes, a kusarigama appeared in her hand, reminding me of the Dark General’s weapon. Golden light blazed along the haft of the weapon as she began to slowly spin the chain.

  With a flick of her wrist, she sent the spiked ball on the end of the weapon whipping forward with a thunder crack of sound. It burst through the flames with so much force, the wind snapping off it extinguished the flames, pushing them back toward the edges of the path while simultaneously cooling the ground.

  The molten stone solidified like ice as a wave of frost spread out across the path, and as she recalled the barbed end, I found myself staring in awe at the crystallized, frozen flames just beyond the edges. She had literally frozen fire. It seemed insane

  “The frozen heart will not hold back the flames long,” she said, starting forward like what she’d done was completely reasonable. “We must reach the entrance to the Tormented Plains before then otherwise we will be consumed.”

  Gripping Caliburn tightly, I followed her, and my first step on the frozen earth sent cracks spider-webbing out across the surface. I could feel the press of heat from the ground below beneath my boots, and I wondered how hot it had to be for me to actually notice it. The fact that I could feel this heat, well, it made me think I might be walking on the surface of the sun.

  “The Tormented Plains? Sounds like a great place,” I mused, wiping the sweat from my brow.

  “It is where the Key of Torment is hidden, and since it is not meant to be found easily, well, it is the perfect place.” She looked at me over her shoulder, that same sly smile back.

  Seeing it made me nervous. I might have been powerful, but I’d never have been able to do what Jophiel had done. It made me wonder just what else she could do, especially since she seemed so much smarter than me.

  Actually, that wasn’t true at all. It made me want to forget all about this and her. To go back to Heaven. Only I couldn’t do that. I needed her help, and as much as it scared me to go along with her, if I didn’t find Belial and regain her armament and mark, I’d never get strong enough to defeat the Generals.

  Then they’d come, and I’d be too damned weak to stop them.

  That would not be allowed.

  I would follow this to the end, and I would get stronger. For Gwen, Michelle, hell, even for Lucifer. I would get strong enough to save them all.

  No matter the cost.

  7

  The face of the cave had been carved into the head of a massive dragon whose body curled back along the slopes. Instead of scales, fire burned along its ashen flesh, blazing in a way that made the whole of it seem alive. Flames spouted from its open eyes as it stared down its beaked mouth at us.

  “I thought there was supposed to be an entrance here,” I said, turning to look behind us. The frost had long since turned to steam, and the fire had begun to retake the path behind us, boxing us in.

  While I knew Jophiel could probably reopen it if need be, running away wouldn’t help, and besides, I could feel Belial’s power grow stronger with each step forward. She was inside that thing, inside that mountain somewhere, and I would find her.

  “There is.” Jophiel turned to look at me. “You must not see with your eyes, Arthur. You must feel the ebb and flow of the universe. All things are then knowable and obvious.” She shut her eyes and turned away from me. Then she strode forward, passing directly through the flames in front of her before stepping through the dragon’s closed mouth. As her body disappeared through solid stone, I stood there, mouth agape.

  Did she really expect me to just walk through the wall with no more instruction than her cryptic words?

  I wasn’t sure, but as the seconds turned to minutes and the fire burned closer and closer, I realized she wasn’t coming back. At least not anytime soon.

  No. I had to follow her through the flames.

  Flames so hot that even with all my strength, worried me.

  “Well, there’s no use being a pussy about it,” I said aloud right before I sucked in a breath that scalded my lungs. I fought the urge to cough, to exhale violently, and instead savored the burning heat as it tore through my body. Then I slowly let my breath out, and as I did, I focused on calming down, on putting the concentration exercises I’d learned from Annabeth to the test.

  She could calm down so thoroughly it was like her heart had stopped, and while I’d never gotten that good at it, I was a lot better than I had been.

  I took another breath and this time the heat of it no longer bothered me. By the fourth breath, my heart had stopped pounding. By the sixth, I was at ease even as the fires raged all around me.

  Fixing my sight on the dragon’s waiting maw, I looked for a clue as to how to open it, but I saw none. Then again, Jophiel hadn't seemed to have any trick. She’d merely strode forward into the blaze unafraid.

  So why was I scared?

  I was the Legendary Builder.

  I shut my eyes and moved forward. With each step I took toward the dragon, I felt the heat coming off of it sear my flesh. The ground beneath my feet seemed to crack, and the sounds of my own sweat sizzling on my flesh filled my ears. Pain fought to turn me back, to make me cry out, but I ignored it and concentrated on breathing, on inhaling one superheated breath, holding it for a step, and exhaling.

  One step. Breathe in. One step. Breathe out.

  Repeat. Continue. Move forward.

  The fires grew worse, and I could see them leaping from the dragon’s stony façade in my mind’s eye. That was fine though. I wasn’t afraid of pain, of suffering. For my friends, I could endure that an
d more. I would not let them down.

  I took another breath. Another step.

  I exhaled again. Took another step.

  My skin felt like it was burning like I’d spilled hot grease across the whole of my body. Each breath charred my lungs until I could scarcely breathe.

  I ignored it all, pushed it all down.

  I was the Legendary Builder, and I could do this.

  I moved forward and felt resistance. Pain, unlike anything I’d ever felt before, ripped across me, searing every nerve and dousing me with white-hot agony. That moment felt infinite. That second, unlivable, but even though everything in me wanted to flee, to turn back, I pressed on, ignoring that voice inside my head that told me I was too weak.

  I was Arthur fucking Curie, and I was far from weak. I took another step, and as I did, the pain fled, vanishing so suddenly it was like being hit with a bucket of cold water.

  My eyes snapped open, and I found myself staring into the depths of a cavern with no end. Other caverns spiraled off it, spreading out around me like a kaleidoscope of hidey-holes. It was like being in the middle of an ant nest. Tunnels above, below and everywhere in between.

  “I knew you would make it.” Jophiel looked over at me, one hand on her hip. “Even though the odds were not in your favor.”

  “Eh?” I asked, taking a breath that not only failed to burn me to a cinder, but it also tasted like peppermint. In fact, it was so delicious, I took another.

  “All the models I ran gave you less than a three percent chance of passing the ordeal, of successfully stepping through the dragon’s maw.” She gestured at me. “But yet here you stand, victorious.” She smiled. “It means I will have to develop an even better model to predict your behavior.” Those words made her practically squeal with excitement. “It has been so very long since I’ve had to do that.”

  “Great,” I said, taking another breath before approaching her. My footsteps seemed to echo in the cavern, bouncing off the walls, so they felt like they came from everywhere and nowhere all at once.

  “It is, Arthur.” She pursed her lips, turning toward one of the largest tunnels. “Which way do you feel Belial?”

  “You know, you could have told me what was going to happen with the dragon thing,” I gestured behind me.

  “In every model where I told you that moving through it would cause you to experience great pain, you failed. You either psyched yourself out and didn’t try, or you gave up.” She shrugged. “Only those in which I left you to find out on your own did you succeed. I may expect you defy the odds, but I am as I am.” She turned back to and looked me over, green eyes flashing. “Now, which way do you feel Belial?”

  As her words filled my brain, I tried to ignore them. Would I have really failed because she’d told me? It seemed unlikely, but then again, maybe she was right. While part of me wanted to be pissed off about it, I didn’t see the point. Still, that behavior had to be nipped in the bud.

  “I appreciate that,” I said, meeting her emerald gaze. “But in the future, please tell me so I can make my own rational decisions.” I waited for her to respond, and when she didn’t, I continued. “Unless you would like to stop working together.”

  “You know you will not succeed without me or you would have done so.” She looked me up and down once more. “But I will heed your request. I will inform you of how impossible trials are for you to complete beforehand. Now,” she gestured back at the tunnels, “where is Belial?”

  “That one.” I pointed to the one to her left.

  “No.” She shook her head. “That is incorrect.” She paused a beat. “Why did you lie?” She huffed a breath before continuing. “I can tell because of the way your cheek twitched ever so slightly. It means you are unsure of yourself.” She pointed at my hand where it gripped Caliburn. “Combined with the flex of your wrist as you gripped your sword, it makes me think it was not actually you being unsure. It made me think you needed to defend yourself. Why would you need to defend yourself, I wonder? Only because you told me something falsely and expected reprisal.” She looked right at me, and I felt naked before her. “So, why did you lie to me, Arthur?”

  “I wanted to know if you knew the right way or not,” I said, suddenly feeling like an idiot. Not because she was so obviously smarter than me, but because I was worried I did need her help. If that was true, there was no way I could stop her from making me walk off a cliff. It might just be better to cut ties now and find a different way.

  “Oh.” Her cheeks reddened. “Is it odd that I didn’t think that at all? I had expected you to assume I didn’t know at all, and even if you did, I expected the information to be irrelevant.” She took a step closer to me before stopping. “Why did you care?”

  “Why does Dred trust you?” I said instead of answering. The truth was, part of me had wondered if she would purposely let me go the wrong way as a teachable moment, and now I knew she would not. At least not here and now. That meant success was the most important thing.

  “Why should he not?” She shrugged once more. “Have I given you reason to distrust me?” She waved a hand. “I mean you, personally, Arthur.”

  “No.” Because I didn’t want to talk to her about this anymore, I turned to my right and made my way toward where I felt the pulse of Belial’s life-force. Once again, my footsteps echoed, and as I tried my best to staunch the sound of them by moving as quietly as I could, Jophiel slunk soundlessly over to me. Hell, even the swishing of her dress made so little sound that it was practically without sound, despite my better than average hearing.

  “How do you move so quietly?” I asked the angel as she moved directly to my left, so she was neither behind me nor in front of me. It was good because I didn’t want her at my back where she could attack without warning, but I also didn’t want her in the lead where she could walk me into a trap.

  “Practice.” She nodded to the ground. “Each place along the ground has its own identity, a way in which it will react given any situation. All are knowable, and most can be predicted. I simply step in such a way as to maximize the odds for my silence.”

  “Great,” I muttered. She was a walking supercomputer. That wouldn’t help me. Instead, I stopped trying to walk quietly and concentrated once more. I let my breathing slow, and merely stepped, allowing my body to feel the nuance of the ground before me, and as I did, my steps grew quieter.

  “Impressive.” Jophiel nodded to me. “It took Dred a month to get to where you are now.” She touched my arm, just a quick casual brush with her fingers. “I wonder if you will surpass him in all ways, Arthur.”

  “I have already surpassed him.” I touched fixed my vision on the dark cavern ahead. The only illumination came from scatterings of effervescent moss along the crags in the walls, and as we progressed further from the main room, it grew darker and darker.

  “In some ways,” Jophiel said. “In others, you are lacking. Now, watch the next step. It will hurt.”

  “What?” I said right before the rock beneath my foot gave way, and I fell to my death.

  8

  As the sinkhole opened beneath my feet, I flung my left hand out. As my fingers slid over the smooth stone, I called upon the power of Greed. Power leaped from my gauntlets as the composition of the rock beneath my fingers filled my mind’s eye, but I didn’t care about that so much as I cared about changing the face of the cliff as I fell to my death.

  With a jerk of energy, I ripped the dark stone outward into my palm. The jerk of my entire body ripping to a stop tore through me, drawing a gasp from my lips as I hung there over the infinite abyss. Below, I could feel the hunger of emptiness like a warm breath.

  Above, I could see Jophiel looking down at me with a smug smile on her face. Her red hair fell around her face in a crimson frame as she watched me drive Caliburn into the stone beside me. As the blade sank deep into the rock like it was made of Styrofoam, I tried to put my weight on the handle to boost myself up. Only, before I could move more than a fraction of a
n inch, my sword cut through the rock, slicing downward in a way that let me know what would happen if I followed through with my plan.

  My sword would just slice through the rock, and while it would slow me as I fell, it wouldn’t have stopped me. As that realization filled my mind, I pulled the weapon free and slung it into my scabbard. Then I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself even though adrenaline was surging through my veins. My heart hammered in my chest, but I pushed it away. Mammon’s power had worked like it had last time I’d been in a similar situation.

  Focusing on the task at hand, I began to climb, using the Relentless Grips of Greed to propel myself upward, one handhold at a time. My muscles began to scream in agony as each and every movement racked my body. What’s more, I could feel the air around me growing thick with heat. The walls radiated it, and as I moved, I realized my sweat was starting to evaporate.

  “What’s going on?” I called, looking up to see Jophiel watching me curiously.

  “The hole is closing itself.” She pointed beyond me into the darkness, and while I followed her gesture and saw nothing, she continued. “Dark Magma will soon surge upward like a geyser, filling the sinkhole with superheated rock. You should hurry. While you may survive such trauma, I do not think finding yourself sealed within a tomb of stone optimal.” She took a quick step back so I couldn’t hear her. “I will await you here.”

  “Can’t you just fly down and get me?” I snarled, making an effort to redouble my effort, only despite doing so, the rock grew harder to control. The composition of the stone was changing, forcing me to expend more and more effort with each handhold I pulled free, and while I was only a few dozen meters from the top, I knew I’d never make it in time. At least not from the way the heat was roiling below me. Worse, I couldn’t even seem to alter more than these tiny fingerholds. It pissed me off because otherwise I could have made myself a ledge and just leaped to the top.