by Billy Wong
She took his hand and squeezed it. "I'm sure you'll be fine. I wasn't with the playhouse as long as you and Eli anyway, and always thought about a possible future change of career. I've just begun looking higher than being a city guard."
"Are you sure about this?" both Vincent and Cordy asked, then looked at each other in surprise.
Sam laughed at their echoed words. "I haven't made a final decision yet. But I'm leaning towards it. We'll save Eli first, and then see."
"I haven't seen you perform in a while," Drea said, "but from what Cordy's told me, I think you'd make a fine knight."
"And I think I'd be proud to battle evils and collect scars like you two."
"Gotten over it already, huh?" Drea nudged her hair back forward to cover the sliver of ear again. Her voice sobered. "It isn't all glory and prettying ourselves up, though. Sometimes you'll have to watch good people die, friends too. Are you ready for that?"
She honestly wasn't sure. But she said, "My father died protecting the people of our city. If I'm to live up to him, I should at least be strong enough to accept the sacrifices of others willing to do the same."
Drea slapped her back. "It never gets easy for any of us, no matter how strong. But your way of looking at it seems like a good start."
They traveled over windswept plains and rolling hills taking less time than usual to rest, before finally reaching the mountain range that separated their land from the ocean. "Are we going to catch up soon?" Sam asked worriedly as they hiked up steep, narrow trails through the mountains. Judging from their sweatiness and occasional winces from pain in their feet, it looked like she and Vincent still had the toughest time negotiating the terrain, not seasoned explorers yet after all. "If we don't before something happens to Eli..."
"The Paladins' latest tracks are only a few hours old," Drea said, "so we should meet them soon. The extra hours I had us march for the past days weren't for fun." Clearly not given how sore their legs were. "Now let's move even faster so we do catch up."
A short time later, they came into view of a pair of golden doors set into the side of a mountain, slightly ajar. "That's the way to the Font of Essence," Cordy said. "The Lord Paladin must already have gone in." Standing in double ranks before the doors were the score of masked Paladins who had accompanied him, no doubt guarding against potential interference.
Drea looked to her fellow knights. "Cordy, you and the others handle things out here. I'll go ahead with Sam and Vincent and escort them to confront the Lord Paladin."
"Go ahead?" Sam asked. "How are we going to do that when they're blocking-"
"Just follow me! Try not to kill anyone before we know what they're doing, but if you aren't able to spare them so be it!" They charged down a slope towards the gathered Paladins, who bunched up closer together while they tightened their ranks. Four stood directly in Drea's path, Sam and Vincent right behind. Drea cut straight through one's shield and half severed his forearm, dodged another's sword slash and kicked him away into his fellows. She uppercutted a man with her hilt, lifting him on his toes. As he crumpled senseless, Sam jumped over him to knock out a fourth with a kick to the face. Lucky that his companion's body had blocked his view until it was too late. "See, I knew you'd get it," Drea said while they ran past the fallen. Sam wasn't sure the foe Drea last hit hadn't been killed by the potentially neck-snapping shot, but didn't put further thought into it. Right now her concentration was all on helping her friend.
They dashed down a long rocky tunnel, the clangs and shouts of battle fading behind them. Sam hoped to see Eli and the mastermind behind his kidnapping once they reached the chamber she glimpsed ahead. Drea said the Lord Paladin was more of a leader than a fighter? Maybe she and Vincent could even settle their grievance against him themselves. She was still glad for the assurance Drea's company gave. Just in case the Lord Paladin's experience proved too much or there were other surprises left in store... They emerged in a large circular chamber with the entrance to another tunnel on the opposite side. Standing between the two passages was a figure resembling a twelve foot tall ape with green scales instead of fur and gigantic claws. With each exhalation from its crocodilian jaws, dark noxious smoke blew out.
"A daimon?" Sam breathed as it fixed red eyes on them. Vincent took a step back. "How did it get past the Paladins?"
Drea looked concerned, moreso than she might have expected. Maybe it was a particularly powerful type, or one she hadn't seen before. "I suspect it didn't get past them so much as it's cooperating with them. But why would a daimon..."
The creature's mouth moved, and Sam was surprised to find it could talk. "Are you not intelligent enough to understand? There are those among this race too who are unsatisfied with the state of our world."
"What do you mean the state of our world?"
"The perpetual war between daimons and anjeli with humans hiding in fear amid it, and for what purpose—the Lord Paladin intends to bring it to an end, and I will gladly aid him."
Sam started. "End it how? You don't mean by destroying the world, do you?"
It laughed, a harsh grating sound. "Only a child would first imagine the solution to one of the world's problems being to destroy it."
"How, then? And what does Eli have to do with it?"
Drea interrupted. "What are you doing, wasting time talking to this beast? We should hurry up and kill it before it's too late for your friend."
She worried about that too, but replied, "Just a few more words. I want to hear this before proceeding."
"Gracious of you to allow me the privilege of speaking." The daimon's humorous tone took her off guard. "Anyway, it was thought the Essence Divider could not be damaged by any means available in modern times. But since a supposedly indestructible shield created with the same magic left behind by the Perfect Ones was recently destroyed, the Lord Paladin theorized the Essence Divider could be affected in the same manner."
"You wish to destroy it?" Vincent's eyes widened. "But wouldn't that mean..."
"Yes. The three races and their war would soon become obsolete, because all born after would be Perfect Ones once more."
"That's so reckless!" Sam snapped. "Sure our era has its troubles, but we barely know anything of the times before we were divided. Who knows what consequences that would have, or if the Perfect Ones separated themselves for a reason?"
"We tire of this flawed time. Even if there was a reason the world changed, let it return to its original state, so that a better future might be achieved."
"A better future, or absolute destruction? We don't know either way." Destruction, she fancied hearing Drugamor's voice whisper. Dammit, now wasn't the time to think of that! "Anyway, how does Eli figure into this? If a mage is required for this method, aren't there other mages?"
Drea said, "We're wasting too much time. If you don't move, your friend could be dead and that's not the worst that could happen. You can ask Eli later, or the Lord Paladin. Right now let's go!" She rushed the daimon.
"She doesn't seem wrong to me," Vincent said, and followed. After an instant's hesitation, Sam did too. Drea reached the monster first, jumped high in the air and chopped at its face. It blocked with its claws, hurled her back while exhaling a large cloud of smoke. Drea landed coughing on her feet, then stumbled and almost fell. Sam stared in surprise until she got a whiff of the fumes, and she too grew lightheaded and weak in the knees. "What's going on?" Vincent asked groggily, clearly feeling the same.
"Its magic taints its very breath," Drea said with a shake of her head to clear it. "The more you breathe in, the more it'll damage your lifeforce."
The daimon seemed to grin, though its lips scarcely bent. "I was born to slay the Anjeli Royals, or so my sire told me. But perhaps it will be good practice to kill you first."
Drea set her jaw with resolve. "You might not find me an easier opponent." She looked to Sam and Vincent. "Maybe you two should go on ahead. You probably won't be able to do much against this one, and if you inhale too much around
it you'll become too weak to move. Go save Eli while I handle this."
"But what if there are more daimons?"
"Hopefully there won't be, or you can handle them." She sprang at the daimon, missed a slice at its legs as it jumped back with unexpected swiftness. Its claws swept down; she parried one set, hopped aside from the other. Again she coughed from the proximity of its breath. "Just go."
Sam exchanged looks with Vincent. "I suppose we should. Go around!" They split up to avoid being easily targeted at once and ran around the daimon towards the far tunnel. It lunged at Sam, making her forget in fright to breathe, but Drea leapt in from the side forcing it to turn and defend. It blocked her attempt to cleave its breast, yet her followup kick knocked its huge form to its back. Such power in her legs... A deafening roar sounded as it exhaled a great cloud of smoke, driving her back. Then Sam couldn't see any more, for she had to round a bend in the passage.
"Think she'll be alright?" Vincent asked anxiously.
They heard a furious bellow, a noise of flesh ripping and a loud thud. "I'm sure she is. That was probably her killing it just now." An even more frightful cry sounded, then a crunch as of rock breaking. "Or not. But still, Drea should be fine." She hoped.
They sprinted on through winding tunnels which sloped down, deeper and deeper into the earth. Sam felt the air grow hotter, and wondered if they approached the fiery heart of the world. Not that they had time worry to about that. If the Lord Paladin and Eli could survive wherever they'd gone, she better just hope she and Vincent also would. Finally they ran into a immense cavern, many times bigger than the one where they'd met the daimon. Its entire vast ceiling shone like it was covered in gems, yet it appeared just to be one smooth face of rock. At the back of the chamber ran what resembled a great waterfall, only instead of water, it looked to be white energy that made up the fall. A river of souls, or..? No. Not the Font of Souls, but the Font of Essence that infused souls to determine what race each was born into. A golden rectangular contraption ran between the walls to the Font's sides so that the flow of essence passed through it like a dam, and parted in three upon exiting its bottom. Sam gaped in awe; this was the one thing that separated human, anjeli, and daimon.
On the ledge before the device stood Eli and another man facing it. "Unleash your power," the bald stranger of medium height was saying in his raspy voice, "and free this world from its stagnation!" Sam gnashed her teeth. The hated Lord Paladin.
"But what is it," Eli asked, "and how do I know if it's right?"
"Heed the wisdom of your betters and do it, foolish child."
Sam rapped her axe against the floor. "Is that betters or elders? In our experience, they aren't always the same."
"Especially when the elders are Paladins," Vincent added.
Eli saw them and broke into a smile. "Sam, you're okay! And Vincent? Wow, you guys came for me..."
The Lord Paladin turned, drawing the twin swords at his hips and holding them up as in a warning to Eli not to move towards his friends. He was a fleshy-faced man nearing sixty, wearing a white cape over the typical gray armor of the Paladins. Regarding them with weary-looking eyes, he said flatly, "So two made it through. Only children, though?"
"These children are about to teach your wrinkled ass a lesson," Sam said. "But before that... how the hell does Eli have the power to destroy the Essence Divider?"
"Do you need to know? Very well, if you wish I will tell you. You may have heard that a few are born who can use the magic of more than one race." Sam remembered the daimon Cordy had fought, which could use the anjelis' creation magic in addition to the daimons' destruction. "Somehow, their souls were bonded with multiple types of essence. Why or how is unknown, but it has been discovered that they are able to harm the Perfect Ones' creations."
Sam stared in disbelief at Eli, and he looked back awkwardly. "Are you saying he's a Perfect One, and thus able to destroy what they made?"
"Perhaps, or perhaps not. We do know if he has the potential to match the strength or scope of their power. But it seems his ilk replicate some trait of the Perfect Ones which allows them to bypass their defensive enchantments. Although he didn't remember, your friend blasted his way out of the rubble of his house in addition to protecting himself. When I learned about this while searching for a human gifted with multifaceted essence, I knew I had found someone capable of carrying out my plan."
"But why are you in such a hurry to turn the world upside down?" Vincent asked. "Do you have any idea what the consequences of such an act might be, when the current order has stood as long as anyone can remember?"
The Lord Paladin bowed his head. "It's sad to hear such notions from a young person. Does an order being established make it ideal? I have long tired of this endless cycle of war. Let something new replace it."
"Nobody's claiming the established order is perfect," Sam replied. "Of course the world is flawed. But at least we've learned to live in this flawed world. Is it really worth it to force change with unknowable results, if the result could be utter chaos or worse?"
"It is worth the risk. I have seen enough of our current order to know it is not worth perpetuating. If all come one step closer to gods, will the world not be more divine? Eli, destroy the device."
He looked quite unnerved now. "I-I don't know if I can—what exactly do you expect to happen?"
"Don't do it!" Sam said. "He means to end the divide between humans, daimons and anjeli by making all yet to be born be Perfect Ones instead. But we have no clue what would happen in that scenario, so we can't risk it."
"Do it for a fresh future," the Lord Paladin insisted. "And because I'll kill your friends if you don't."
Vincent spat. "You kill us? I'd like to see you try. We've been trained by greater warriors than you."
"Even if so, that does not make you them."
Sam raised her axe. "No, but it'll be enough to beat you, you insane bastard! You think you can use us as keys to your ridiculous plan? No chance will that pass."
He stepped towards them, making her and Vincent grip their weapons tighter. "Oh? I think after I kill one of you, your friend will be more than ready to cooperate to save the other. I can tell he loves you that much, from the way he moaned your names in his sleep."
"Don't do it, Eli!" she said. "Even if we fall, you can't give in to him."
"Let's see how his will holds up."
The Lord Paladin darted at Sam, quicker than she would've thought. She parried one of his blades, jumped back hastily from the other but took a grazing cut that opened her sleeve and left a thin red line on her arm. It burned just a little, but the fact she'd been hit at all so early made her wary. "He's fast," she warned Vincent as he moved to aid her.
She and Vincent attacked at once. The Lord Paladin defended without much trouble, guarding against each of their weapons with one sword apiece. Even if he wasn't on the level of Drea, he seemed far from being "just" a leader. It impressed Sam how readily he found openings while being assailed by two foes, making his flicking counters with much greater ease than she frantically deflected them. Hammering away at his guard which showed no signs of give, she grew ever more sweaty and heavy-limbed. He slashed Vincent's shoulder, causing him to yelp, and with Sam distracted stabbed her in the hip. They both staggered back, Sam almost wishing Drugamor was with her now as pain filled the flesh around her wound.
"This isn't looking the best for us," Vincent said.
She agreed, and knew something had to change soon if they were stay in this fight. She imagined how much different it would be if Drea or Cordy were here. No, they couldn't rely on other people all the time, especially not now. They had to think of a way themselves. But she couldn't tell Vincent anything she planned for fear of the Lord Paladin hearing and thwarting it, so she grit her teeth and fought doggedly on hoping he would pick up enough on her cues when she did go for it. Minor wounds accumulated on both her and Vincent's bodies; in spite of trying time and again to spread out enough to flank him, confuse h
im with erratic movements, or just strike from unusual angles, he adjusted without missing a beat and continued bullying them around. Her breaths ever more ragged, a perilous idea came into her mind.
Sam turned and ran. "Where are you going?" Vincent asked, his voice heightening towards panic. He struggled badly to stave off the Lord Paladin's onslaught alone, backpedaling as chips flew off his shield, and she felt guilty about leaving him to fend for himself.
"To get help! There's no way we can beat him without Drea or Cordy."
"But by myself, I can't..."
She gulped, fearing he would not survive long enough. "Sorry." She passed into the tunnel and out of his sight.
After a few seconds of listening to the clashes of weapons and hearing the Lord Paladin say, "Look how easily your coward friend abandons you to die," she stepped back out. She was glad Vincent proved good enough to last until she confirmed the enemy believed her gone, though he looked to be in big trouble now as his shield fell from his arm in halves. Lining herself up with the Lord Paladin's position, she threw her axe. He saw it coming at the last instant and blocked, but being unprepared it knocked him off balance. Seizing the opportunity, Vincent stabbed him in the flank. He grunted and stepped back while Sam ran over to retrieve her weapon.
She snatched her axe up and advanced on the reeling man, blood dripping out under a shaking hand he pressed against the deep wound. "You surrender, Lord Paladin? We don't have to kill you here, if you accept that this is over."
His eyes smothered with fury as they shifted between her and Vincent. "This is hardly over. You presume too early." He reached into a belt pouch, removed a large onion-like nut. Oh no, shit! Sam dashed forward attempting to stop him, but he parried her swing and threw the nut into his mouth. Her followup blows failed to breach his desperate defense, which regained strength as he chewed and swallowed. No, he was going to be... He blocked so authoritatively her fingers ached, then hurled her back with a kick to the middle. Bent in sickening anguish, she clutched her liver. The Lord Paladin smirked. Sam pictured the vast vague shape of Drugamor superimposed over him. "Now the real fight begins."
