“Really?” she asked, staring out over the horizon. She could see nothing, and the city was just as dead. “I’m surprised she isn’t here now. Can’t you teleport?”
“I’m keeping her back with barriers…which she will destroy very soon.”
“Then what is the point of this conversation? A pep talk to keep me going forward?”
“No, I want you to come with me,” he said. She didn’t expect that.
“Where? Where can we hide?”
“Not here,” he said. “But I have a place. We can talk more there, and should your motivations align with my own, we may be able to join forces. I could even train you if you like.”
“How can I trust you?” she asked, staring directly into his eyes.
“You can’t right now. But either way, you must make a decision of whether you’ll go or stay.”
“And if I stay?”
“I don’t know what will happen to you. You might be killed. You might not. I’m not sure what her motivations are.”
“This Sorcerer that’s coming…who is she?”
“We are almost out of time,” he said, his eyes quivering. “I need an answer.”
“I…” she turned to Alicia and Milo who were doing their best to listen to their talk. She glanced at Kace whose eyes were cast to the floor. “Where is Olivia?”
“Transported with the rest of the Cimmerian army. She wouldn’t be coming with us even if you wanted her to. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t allow it.”
“I know,” she said. “Tell me. What’s your name?”
“Casimir. And the Sorcerer coming to intercept us is Ember. But we must conclude here. What is your answer? She has just broken through my last barrier.”
“We wait,” Remi found herself saying. Casimir wasn’t surprised or scared in the least.
“Then that’s what we will do,” he said, plopping down onto the dirty roof with his legs crossed.
“You’re fine with this decision?”
“If we’re to work together in the future, we must do what is best for everyone. To gain your trust, I will defer to your judgement on this one.”
“I take it she’s not as strong as you?”
“Oh, she’s ridiculously powerful,” he said.
The whole house underneath them suddenly shook, as if a giant had punched in one of the walls. The vibrations were so violent that it knocked Remi off her feet. Kace fell to one knee as he scowled and looked from his left to right.
Remi lifted her head slowly and behind Kace and Casimir was their opponent.
She was wearing a cloak similar to Casimir but her head was nearly bald. The little that showed was bright orange, and her eyes were as green as emeralds. Her lips were pursed tight as she strode forward, her hands encased in diamond gauntlets with large spikes sticking out from each knuckle. When she was half-way to Casimir, the spikes extended into long claws.
Casimir smirked and leapt to his feet, so gracefully that Remi didn’t even see him move.
Ember stopped in her tracks.
“What are you up to, Casimir?” she asked, her voice distant and haunting.
“I’m leveling the playing field.”
“You know that your plan has already been evaluated and discussed. We knew this day would come.”
“Then you won’t be surprised by anything that happens next.”
“No, I won’t,” she said confidently as she put up her forearms into a defensive position. She took off running toward Casimir and he stood there waiting for her when Remi intervened.
She couldn’t help herself.
She had to know where she stood.
Remi appeared behind Ember and brought her eidolon down upon the back of the Sorcerer’s head, putting all the strength she could muster into the blow.
But her eidolon shattered.
And it had barely hit the Sorcerer’s scalp.
What hurt more was that Ember didn’t even miss a beat. She kept running toward Casimir and they both vanished when they were only a couple of steps away from each other. Remi fell to one knee panting heavily from the blow her shattered eidolon gave to her spirit. Kace rushed to her side.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Guess I’m no match for her.”
“None of us are. Better to let Master Casimir take over.”
“Where are they now?”
“In some part of the city probably, exchanging blows.”
“Have you seen them fight before?”
“No, but I’ve seen the Master train. We are really no match for them.”
“How does someone get that strong?” she groaned as he helped her to her feet. Seeing that it was safe, Alicia and Milo rushed to their side.
“We should probably leave,” Milo said as Remi scanned the skies.
“No, not yet. We’ve finally got to see two of the Sorcerers. I want to learn everything I can about them. No matter how little that information is.”
“I can take us up,” Alicia said, stripping off her clothes and throwing them to Milo. She began transforming when the house shook once more. Remi kept herself steady and searched the roof for one of the Sorcerers. Casimir appeared out of thin air at the far end, walking toward them casually.
“She hurt me,” he said calmly as he approached them with a confident stride. “But she should be occupied for a few seconds. What is your—”
He was interrupted as a shriek pierced the skies. They all looked up to see a rain of warriors dropping from the clouds, appearing out of thin air. They were all outfitted in ragged clothes and none of them had much muscle to them, but their countenances were full of rage.
“Get out of here,” Casimir said as he vanished again. The rain of warriors fell onto the roof and started running toward them the moment the soles of their feet hit solid ground.
Remi unsheathed another eidolon and met the first warrior. He wasn’t even looking at her as they engaged. It was like he was just staring off into space, and yet, he still managed to duck under Remi’s swing, uppercut her in the stomach, grab her hair and then knee her in the face. Remi fell onto her back as he quickly ran over and kicked her in the stomach. Remi grunted as she slid to the edge of the roof.
She swiped at his legs but he leapt into the air and she missed. She jumped to her feet and swiped at his chest but he back flipped away as another warrior took over for him and leapt into the air to kick her. She activated her armor form to take the brunt of it, but to her surprise, the warrior’s kick was strong enough to send her over the edge.
Although the fall didn’t hurt her in the slightest, she was still shocked by how much power these grunts had. She deactivated her armor form and scrambled to her feet. She heard a roar above and saw that there were dozens of warriors climbing all over Alicia in her dragon form. She couldn’t see Milo from where she stood, but she was sure he was hiding somewhere.
Remi sucked her teeth and ran forward just as a warrior landed in front of her and roundhouse kicked her in the face. Her face slammed against the clay house and she kept spinning along the wall, barely missing the warrior’s follow-up kick. Remi summoned her eidolon again but this time she made sure it wasn’t so big.
Holding it like a dagger, she lunged toward the warrior as she heard another land behind her. She couldn’t hit her assailant at first, but she used the energy she had in reserves pour into her speed, and not her stopping power. Eventually, as she picked up in speed, she was able to nick the warrior, and then after a couple more seconds, she was able to lodge the dagger in his temple.
But she wasted no time. She wretched the temple from the warrior’s head and turned to attack the second, receiving a punch to the face as a result. She shook it off and kept swiping until she was able to thrust it into the warrior’s chest. A surge of energy went from her new artificial arms into the hilt of the blade and it became her normal purple Falchion, growing large enough to protrude out his back. Remi pressed a foot against the warrior’s
abdomen and pushed it off of her blade. He fell onto his back and didn’t back up.
He started disappearing into the air as his body turned into ash.
“And that was just two of them,” a voice said behind her. She swung her eidolon and Ember caught it with one hand. She crushed it and Remi cried out in pain, falling to her knees as the shards of her soul sprinkled down around her.
“You have a strong will,” Ember said. “To still be awake after losing two eidolons like that.”
Remi tried to catch her breath but the wind was knocked out of her. She gasped and fell over onto her side, heaving as the dust around her lips kicked up into the air. Ember watched her with no expression on her face.
“I don’t see it,” she said. “I don’t see what makes you special.”
“You wouldn’t,” Kace said, dropping down between them.
“Run along,” Ember said casually. “Casimir is wounded enough already. I don’t want to make his heart bleed from losing one of his favorites.”
“I’m not a thing,” Kace growled, dropping to all fours and slowly transforming into his Quietus form. Ember looked at him with a bored expression. “Your Master is on the roof, having lost a considerable chunk of his power. I would go to him instead of foolishly attacking me.”
Kace growled at her through his sharp fangs as Ember looked back to Remi. Remi still hadn’t gained her strength, but she had caught her breath. She was trying to slow down her breathing as she listened to Ember speak.
“I’ll be leaving now,” she said. “And with the dragon in tow.”
“Why do you want her?” Remi asked. “Why is she so important?”
“Knowledge is the Sorcerer’s greatest weapon,” she replied. “And the dragon possesses much of it. Having been around for a long time, she has seen much. She has killed many, and with each death, she gains insight. Not to mention that she was once the pet of one of the most powerful of us. Since he’s let her go, we’ve been searching for her ever since. But our vision was blinded by the veil over her mountain. Darkheart was hidden from us. But the moment she stepped past the veil, we realized where she had been kept.”
“You knew that I would find her,” Remi said, sitting up. “I had a better chance of finding her since I was a weapon too.”
“Exactly, but it doesn’t matter now. We have what we want.”
“What happened to Darkheart?”
“It’s gone,” Ember said coldly. “The mountain and all of its inhabitants are gone.”
“No!” Alicia growled from behind Ember, back in her clothes. Ember turned and scowled at her.
“How did you break free of my warriors?”
“I’m stronger than I look,” she said, gritting her teeth as tears streamed down her eyes. “You killed them all?”
“Every last one,” Ember said with no remorse. “But it wasn’t personal.”
Alicia growled and clutched her chest as she staggered up against the clay house. Her teeth began to grow sharp as her right hand began to turn a deep, dark red. “I’m tired of being used,” she said. “I’m sick of people like you thinking you can decide who I am.”
“I know what you’re thinking,” Ember warned her. “Don’t. I only need you alive. Your limbs are expendable.”
“They’ll grow back,” Alicia growled as she clenched her fists tight. She pushed herself off the wall and glared at Ember with murderous intent.
Kace attacked first, lunging right for Ember’s throat. Ember jammed her arm straight through his stomach and out the other side as Alicia opened her mouth and shot a stream of fire at her back. Ember ignored it as Remi rolled to Ember’s left and cocked back her arm. She lunged in to punch the Sorcerer’s cheek and then activated her armor form at the last second to keep up the momentum. Ember was hit with the steel at full force.
Ember didn’t move through it all.
She swiped her free hand up and chopped off Remi’s armored right arm. Remi’s armor form disappeared as she jumped back and put a hand to her stump. Thankfully, she hadn’t lost any flesh in the process. Ember threw Kace’s unconscious body into the wall. He slumped down into a bloody mess.
Ember turned around to face Alicia, her face taking all of the fire that the dragon Mistress could spit out. Ember stepped forward slowly and Remi ran between them. Alicia stopped her assault.
“Get out the way!” Alicia shouted.
“It’s not working!” Remi said as she stared Ember in the face. “And you’re not taking Alicia.”
“I am,” she said when Casimir landed behind her.
“I’m awake,” he declared flatly, then he vanished and reappeared in front of Remi. Remi staggered back in surprise as he pushed Ember away with both hands. The Sorcerer stumbled back and grinned a little.
“I need an answer,” Casimir said into the air. Remi huffed and looked at Ember.
“Let’s go,” Remi declared. Casimir nodded and a pillar of light engulfed them all. Remi couldn’t see if Ember was attempting to stop them or not, but what she did feel was safe. One second she was breathing in the thick dusty air of Cimmerian and in the next, she found herself in a field of short grass, dandelions and clean thin air under a warming sun.
Chapter 40 – The End
“We’re safe?” Milo said as they all found themselves sitting in the grass. Alicia, who was sitting next to him, tackled him to the ground and rubbed her rough skinned cheek against his. He screamed in agony as she laughed.
“That we are,” Casimir replied, standing up to face them all. “While we are under this barrier, we are blinded from the other Sorcerers, but take one step outside of it, and this field and all that it entails will be compromised. This location can only be used once. Once any of us leave, we’ll be hunted.”
“Where is this?” Remi asked, inspecting her lost arm.
“Paragon, technically, but far off in the countryside. In the last century, only two people that weren’t Sorcerers came out this far, and due to the barrier, they didn’t see anything that I didn’t want them to.”
“Another cage,” Alicia muttered as Casimir sighed.
“In a sense, yes,” he said. “But at least we are trapped together.”
“What do we do now?” Remi asked, standing up. “That Sorcerer back there…we didn’t even annoy her, let alone hurt her.”
“She’s the least of our problems unfortunately. She will undoubtedly tell the others of what I did here today. All of their plans will be altered, and new strategies will be put into motion, no doubt involving the three worlds entirely.”
“And what did you do exactly?” Alicia asked.
“Have you ever played a board game with a child? And then they get so mad that they overthrow the board instead of losing the match? In a sense, I childishly knocked over their game.”
“Weren’t you involved in it from the start?”
“Not as much as you might think,” he said. “But what matters now is that Alicia is still safe with us. We can take the time to determine what she knows that they don’t. We need to find out what they don’t want leaked out into the war.”
“Besides your existence?” Milo asked. “I mean, knowing that you all are really out there is a big deal.”
“Not really,” he said. “Our presence won’t change the war. That is certain.”
“But why?”
“It will merely postpone it, as both sides come together to combat us. They would lose, and consequently be enslaved. The Sorcerers don’t want this. They would rather the mystery hang over them, so that they can manipulate the course of events in the background.”
“But why?” Alicia asked. “Why do all of this?”
“Because at some point, one Sorcerer will win their game. One single Sorcerer will defeat all of the others and become more powerful than the rest, incorporating their power into his or her own.”
“And then what happens?”
“Well,” Casimir said. “That Sorcerer becomes God.”
***
“Not yet,” Alicia said, stretching her neck up to see Kace and Casimir discussing something in the distance. “But I don’t think he wants to harm us.”
“Not yet,” Milo said.
“We’re in over our heads,” Remi admitted. “The war between Cimmerian and Paragon…it pales in comparison to this.”
“No, it matters,” Alicia sighed. “Because it’s probably being orchestrated by the Sorcerers entirely.”
“We’ll have to question everything we’ve learned,” Remi said. “Everything. The Great Collision. Bastion. The Sages. The war. Everything.”
“We have a little time,” Milo said. “But not much. The Sorcerers will be looking for us more than before. We’re an actual threat now that we’ve aligned with one.”
“Do you trust him?” Remi asked him.
“I don’t know about trust…but right now I’m kind of looking at it the same way you and Olivia thought of each other when you journeyed together. You might not ever be the best of friends, and you ended up becoming enemies in the end, but in that moment, you needed each other. Right now, he needs us, and we need him.”
“No, it’s worse,” Alicia said. “We need him far more. You saw how little we did against Ember. How are we ever going to be strong enough to combat that?”
“We’ll have to learn what the Sorcerers know,” Remi replied, staring at Casimir and Kace. “You heard what Ember said. Knowledge is the weapon the Sorcerers employ. At one point in history, forming an eidolon was seen as the most powerful thing one could achieve in their growth as a warrior. Now it’s looked down upon, and the more I use it in this world, I see just how weak it is. The Sorcerers have been around for centuries. They know a lot more than we do. That’s the only difference between us and them. We might not be able to beat the Sorcerers in hand to hand combat, but we might be able to outsmart them.”
The Complete Seven Sorcerers Trilogy Page 38
