by Dante King
“Now,” Nydarth breathed, “you can unleash your true power, Master.”
“Or I can experiment a little,” I countered.
I studied the enemy ranks as I dipped into my reserve of Vigor. The Wysaro captains howled orders at the demons and pulled their forces back away from Mahrai’s golem to regroup. I stretched out my free hand, and Plank Pillars erupted from the gaps in the pavestones under their feet. I fed the wood technique with the raw Vigor of the world around it, and in seconds, a rough maze appeared in the courtyard.
Barbed walls stitched together and broke the ranks of the enemy into a confused mess. The Vigor it cost barely scraped the surface of the power boiling within me, and the rush of excitement threatened to break my focus as I hovered over the battlefield. The guards scrambled to reorganize, but the demons took a simpler approach. Their claws dug into the thick walls of the makeshift maze in preparation to climb over my obstacle course.
Not on my watch.
I waved the Demure Rebirth, and a huge Sandstorm washed over the top of the maze. Choshi giggled as I concentrated the biting sand at the black forms of the demons. They fell from the barriers with screeches of pain and ducked down against the thorned walls to avoid my earth technique. I pulled the Depthless Dream from my back with my free hand.
“Once upon a time, Master, you’d never have dreamed of such power,” Yono breathed. “And now you turn the tide of battle as a master of the elements. How may I serve?”
Her sultry voice tingled through my mind and sent a chill down my spine. I stabbed the trident downward and combined the fire and water pathways within me. My body adapted instantly, and a potent Acid Cloud appeared at the center of the maze. The edge closest to the tower burned and shattered as my allies tore through the enemy and picked off the enthusiastic stragglers.
I stretched the Acid Cloud outward, boosted its power with raw Vigor, and the sickly green cloud rushed through the corridors of the maze. The screech of agonized demons joined their human compatriots and filled the courtyard with screams of pain.
“Their fear, their terror!” Nydarth exclaimed. “Bow before your god, traitors and abominations! None of you will escape the justice of the Immortal Swordslinger!”
Chapter Twenty-Six
I left Nydarth to her ringside commentary and descended through the air to watch the chaos unfold. I’d bought my friends time, and I wanted to see how they were holding up against the onslaught.
Hamon’s blazing form appeared in the midst of a fleeing pack of guards. Their eyes widened with terror as they attacked their prince, but Hamon was a force of nature. He turned aside their weapons with casual flicks of his hands, and bursts of devouring flame enveloped Jiven’s men. Their howls abruptly vanished as their flesh washed away in a cloud of ashes.
A laser-like Untamed Torch tore through a guard to Hamon’s right and punched a hole in his chest the size of a trash can lid. Vesma pierced another guard’s throat with a vicious thrust, ripped out his jugular, and kicked the corpse into another knot of guards. A demon blindsided her from the left, and her skin turned translucent as Vesma used her Physical Augmentation. She deflected a serrated sword with her bracer and caught hold of the demon’s face with a red-hot hand. The demon screamed as her fingers burned through its fur, punctured its skull, and pierced its brain. Vesma tossed the demon aside without a second thought and leapt to support Mahrai.
Mahrai’s skin flickered as she constantly switched from her armored form to her regular flesh. She caved in human skulls with savage swings of her new staff and armored herself against the demon’s claws and swords. Without any pure elemental damage, she couldn’t directly harm the demons, but her golem more than made up for it. The stone monolith bowled over the black-furred creatures of hell with punches and shoulder charges while also using the wooden walls of my temporary maze to puncture the monsters’ thick fur.
“Why do you not strike them down in one fell swoop, Master?” Nydarth demanded. “Unleash Choshi’s true potential. Crush them all. Bring down this castle on their heads and end this battle once and for all.”
I didn’t know the extent of my powers now that I had mastered Environmental Augmentation, but by combining a Ground Strike with the Demure Rebirth, I probably could have destroyed the entire castle and a reasonable amount of the mountain itself. But now wasn’t the time to test my limits.
“Cinder’s still in here somewhere,” I reminded Nydarth. “The castle might be overrun, but it doesn’t mean that I have to destroy it to end this. We simply need to find the source of the attack.”
I landed beside Hamon, impaled a demon on the Depthless Dream, and swung it around to face its fellows. I pushed a Crashing Wave through the trident, and the snarling creature shot away from the Immense Blade like a bullet. It crashed into a thick spike on one of my Plank Pillars.
“They’re not slowing down, Swordslinger,” Hamon grunted. “There are too many, even with your impressive power. They seek to keep us from the inside of the castle.”
“Then let’s ruin their party,” I said, “and light this place up.”
I slid the Depthless Dream into its place on my back, set the Demure Rebirth beside it, and drew the Sundered Heart from its sheath. The sword came free with an animalistic moan, and flame danced from the blade’s edges. I pushed fire through my channels and combined the raw Vigor of the environment with the increased efficiency of the sword as a channel. Hamon lifted his hands toward the walls of my acid-laden death trap.
Untamed Torches raced out of us, tidal waves of flame careening over the stone floor of the courtyard and consuming everything it its wake. The Plank Pillars vanished into clouds of ash. The flames turned green as they consumed my Acid Cloud, and glass rained from the sky as the heat crystalized the last remnants of my Sandstorm above the maze. Our attack obliterated the demons and mercilessly devoured the human guards who had turned against their own.
In seconds, we cleared out the entire courtyard.
But Hamon was right. Fresh Lesser Demons streamed out of the doors to the castle, with howling war cries and rusted weapons held aloft. Even a firestorm had only stemmed the flow for a second. We had to find the portal that let the demons onto this plane and close it. If we didn’t stop them here, their numbers would overwhelm Flametongue Valley.
I strode toward the surging tide of demonic warriors. Dual sets of eyes glittered with malevolence as they howled guttural cries and swarmed in to dogpile me under a mass of claws, blades, and reeking body odor. Hamon joined my side, unleashed another torrent of fire, and filled the air with their ashes. A lone demon outstripped the pack and sprang at me. Nydarth growled appreciatively as I tore the monster in half with a whirling slash and sprayed the ground with its organs.
I’d relied on Physical Augmentation before, but it still drew directly from my own personal store of Vigor. I needed a way to use my new Environmental powers to boost my defenses and keep my energy ready for the fights to come.
Hamon reduced yet another demon to a spray of ashes, and I recalled the first time I’d fought my old nemesis with a new element. I reached out with Compress Ash and took the ankle-deep blanket of carbon from the ground at my feet. A touch of Environmental Vigor fortified the technique, and I shaped the ashes into a suit of armor. Smooth, polished ash latched onto my feet, raced over my skin like water, and hardened into obsidian-like plates. The Immense Blades were left untouched.
A demon slipped past an attack from Hamon, and its blade skated off my new armor with a shower of spikes. I kicked the monster’s legs out from under it, pierced its throat with the Sundered Heart, and incinerated its body with an Untamed Torch. The demon’s remains latched onto my ankles, formed itself into greaves, and finished my protective coating with a second layer.
Hamon halted his onslaught and stared at me for a long moment. “You have outdone yourself, Swordslinger,” he said quietly.
“Stop complimenting me. It’s weird.”
I peppered a demon to his ri
ght with a spray of Stinging Palm thorns. The wooden projectiles caught fire as Vesma hit the creature with a bolt of Untamed Torch, and I turned to the others. Mahrai’s golem stomped forward. Chunks of its joints had vanished in the attack, but it still looked more than ready to bowl over more demons. Vesma swept her hair out of her eyes and spun her spear to intercept a demon’s attack.
“I’m going in,” I said. “We need to stop the source, or we’ll be out here all night.”
Vesma nodded, pushed fire through her new spear, and decapitated the demon. “We’ll keep them busy. If we can draw more of them out into the open, then it’ll take the pressure off you for a few minutes.”
“Not that you really need it,” Mahrai said. “Get in there, Ethan.”
I flashed them a grateful smile and broke into a sprint. Demons sprang at me from all sides, but their claws couldn’t pierce my new armor, and the Sundered Heart made short work of them. Hamon joined me, shoved aside groups of monsters with waves of fire, and we reached the doors together.
I sheathed the Sundered Heart at my side and pushed outward with my palms. A trickle of Crashing Wave sprinkled from my skin but then caught the raw Vigor around it like a match. A few drops became a torrent of clear water, and the technique slammed into the demons as they streamed through the door. I directed the wave with a flick of my fingers, bowled their feet out from under them, and swept them away from the doors.
Hamon let loose another burst of fire. Steam filled the doorway, blinding the demons and scalding their flesh. I tucked in my head, used a little Physical Augmentation, and barged through the entrance to the castle. I caught a demon on my left pauldron on the way in and smashed it into a wall. Its claws raked over my ash armor futilely. I swept its feet out from under it, drew the Demure Rebirth, and busted its skull with a vicious blow. Steam filled the hallway, half-obscuring my sight, but Hamon’s fiery figure was impossible to miss.
“Follow me!” he shouted above the din.
I ducked under a sword, dislocated a demon’s knee, and shoved it aside. We sprinted down a staircase into a long corridor. Torches flickered in sconces along the walls, and red tapestries fluttered at the violence of our appearance.
“Do you know where Cinder is?” I asked.
Hamon caught the danger in my tone and shook his head. “I know where she’s likely to be, Swordslinger. The dungeons are the hardest place to reach in the entire castle, and the easiest to defend. Come, I’ll show you the way.”
We started down the long, narrow corridor, but a pack of demons appeared around the corner. I recognized the creatures. They weren’t the Lesser Demons that had swarmed us en masse earlier. The Greater Soldiers snarled, and their bulkier muscle stretched under their armor-like fur as they swarmed through the hallway.
I switched my warhammer for my sword and reached out to the torches around us. Flame Empowerment built the small fires into a raging inferno, and I added a touch of raw Vigor to the fire. Hamon sent a blue-white Burning Wheel into their midst that turned the tapestries to ash. The fire cleared a second later, and the only thing left of the demons were their ashes and white-hot weapons on the floor.
We sprinted down the hallway, took a right turn, and ran headlong into a tighter pack of Greater Soldiers in a small mess hall. Two long tables were in the center of the room, and a cluster of chairs stood around them. Three humans dived for cover and flicked Untamed Torches at us over the dining table as Hamon and I took on the demons. A fireball hit my side, flared up into a pleasant wave of heat, and dissipated against my ashen armor.
“Want some exercise?” I asked Yono as I pulled my trident from the harness.
“Oh, yes please, Master,” she replied smoothly. “I’ll happily do anything you ask.”
I smacked a demon in the face with the shaft of the trident and washed the air of the mess hall with a thick Acid Cloud. Human shrieks echoed through the hall, and the demons forged blindly toward me.
Whips of pure flame snaked from Hamon’s hands, and he ripped a Greater Soldier in half with a deft blow. Gore splattered over my back as I ducked under a demon’s sword and pushed the Depthless Dream forward. Water streamed out from under the table and instantly flooded the room. One of the enemy Augmenters leapt up onto the table, but I impaled him from below with a sharpened Plank Pillar. His life ended with a gurgling scream, and he dangled from the wooden spike like a horrific meat puppet. I turned my attention to the Crashing Wave technique and focused my energy into stilling the water as it lapped around our ankles.
The small flood turned into a sheet of ice. I ripped my feet free from the sudden skating rink, and Hamon freed himself with a burst of fire, but the surviving Augmenters weren’t so lucky. I kicked the dining table over with a burst of fire-assisted strength. The hefty oak furniture smashed into them, and their ankles dislocated as they failed to free their feet in time. One of the Augmenters looked up in fascinated horror as I strode over to him.
“Where’s Jiven?” I asked.
“Gone. He won’t return,” the man gasped. “And nor will you stop us.”
I smashed a kick into his jaw, and his head came apart around my increased strength and hardened armor. The second Augmenter’s hands flared, but I pierced his heart before he could summon the will to attack. A Greater Soldier slammed Hamon into the wall behind me, and the prince’s burning aura dimmed as the creature manhandled him like a toy. Its huge paw tightened around his throat, even as its fur blazed from the sheer heat of handling a fire elemental.
“Need help?” I called.
“I’m—” Hamon began.
I activated Flame Empowerment on the demon’s burning fur and fed the technique raw Vigor. The monster’s grip vanished as I burned it to cinders. Hamon collapsed on the frozen floor, and steam hissed off his flaming form as he caught his breath.
“—fine,” he finished.
“You’re a long way away from fine,” I told him plainly. “How much faster are you killing yourself by throwing around this much power?”
“I will endure,” Hamon managed. “Until my task is complete.”
He straightened up and met my eyes. Sheer, iron-willed determination shone through his flaming irises, and I studied him for a moment. Hamon’s face had been a picture of calm the whole way through our battle so far, and this was the first glimpse of serious emotion I’d seen from him. I had to admit, it was enough to convince me that Hamon was right.
He’d see this through to the very end, come hell or high water.
“Which way to the dungeons?” I asked.
Hamon pointed behind me, and I slid over the icy floor to the next door. I took the thing off its hinges with a kick, slipped the Depthless Dream back into its place on my back, and entered the next hallway.
Another staircase to my left led downward, and a rotten stench rolled up from the depths of the castle. Hamon limped into the hallway behind me, and we started down the stairs together. Power crackled through my body, and I couldn’t help but enjoy the satisfaction at how much damage I was able to bring to this fight.
“You grow closer to immortality with every kill, Master,” Nydarth said. “We can feel it at the center of your being. Soon, you will have the ability to release us. To give us physical form. Don’t stop now. Not when you are so close.”
I considered the thought for a moment. “All of this, and you still can’t do it?”
“We are still bound to the Blades, Master,” Yono told me. “Nydarth speaks truly, but she neglects a simple detail. Our power grows with you, yes, but there is one more power you must learn to truly unchain us from our bondage.”
I thought back to my training and the missing piece of the puzzle. “Spiritual Augmentation. That’s what you need, isn’t it?”
“Focus on the task at hand,” Yono advised. “Prevail, and we’ll speak of it later.”
Hamon watched me closely as we reached the bottom of the stairs. A few gutted torches smoked, and he waved a hand to re-light the sconces. Light flar
ed around us, illuminating ghastly corpses piled on the floor. I recognized the Clan Wysaro robes, but the people that wore them barely looked human. Their faces had been torn away, organs discarded wantonly over the stone floor, and shattered bones jutted out from weird angles.
Fury boiled in my gut. Some of the corpses had been harvested for organs, or eaten by the demon creatures in the castle. It reminded me of the deranged villagers in Danibo Forest. Except these weren’t monsters who’d been eaten, but humans.
I fought off a wave of sudden nausea as I turned my eyes away from the carpet of rotting human flesh. Hamon dropped to a knee to study one of the closest bodies. His expression was unreadable as he stared down at the corpse.
“That’s not Cinder, is it?” I asked, fearing the woman who led the Wysaro was already dead.
Hamon shook his head. “No. She may still live.” He straightened. “My father will pay for this.”
I gritted my teeth as my stomach threatened to empty its contents. “How close are we to where Cinder might be?”
“Close,” Hamon answered.
Flight flared around my feet, and I lifted myself into the air to avoid desecrating the corpses any further. Hamon made his way through the hall as I pushed myself through it. A darkened archway loomed ahead of us. Fleshy growths of blackened tissue pulsed around the archway, and bars of yellowed bone barred our progress. I landed in front of the horrific doorway, pulled the Demure Rebirth from my back, and raised the warhammer to break through the barrier.
“Who could have done something like this?” Choshi whispered in horror.
“Monsters,” I answered grimly. “Let’s just hope that Cinder is still alive.”
I swung the hammer, and the bones shattered like glass. I added a burst of strength to my body and stepped through the darkened archway. The smell of decay invaded my senses and made my head spin until I took a brief moment to center myself.
