“Doesn’t he want to interfere with the world?” Nathan asked, confused.
“He can’t do it directly. We need to infiltrate. Crawl in, and convince dumbasses to ruin everything for us. That’s his whole schtick. He convinces the world to destroy itself for him, then eats it. Mister Inevitable over there would have been a three course meal, instead of a three piece trophy.” Maura gestured to where Thanatos’s corpse had been, as it had disintegrated.
Despite how pressing the rest of the war felt, he needed to know the answer to his next question.
“Why did he remember everything? Thanatos, that is,” Nathan asked.
“I don’t know that,” Maura whined. “We never truly die. Kadria says stuff about infinite infinities and crap. I don’t get that. All I know is that if I die, I still remember what happened beforehand. It just feels like I get compressed together sometimes. There are times I remember multiple versions of the same world.”
Narime’s tails lowered as she tried to make sense of the conversation she listened to. Nathan waved her to put up with this, but he suspected he had some explaining to do later.
“So, Thanatos might not have been the same one, but a version that inherited the memories?” Nathan asked.
“Stop asking difficult questions. Don’t you have things to do? Once you finish up here, I can help you conquer the world or something. That’s what we’re here for, right? You want to rule over everything, and we’re going to help you pull it off.” Maura stared at him.
“I’ll get back to you on that.”
“Spoilsport.”
Nathan walked away from the succubus and toward one of the walkways. Narime joined him, and so did Seraph.
For some reason, Astra stood at the edge, staring at the bottom clearing with an expression of confusion.
“Is something wrong?” he asked Astra.
“They’re gone,” she said.
He almost asked who, but one look confirmed who she was talking about.
Almost all of the dark elf defenders had vanished. Most of the towers remained occupied, but the defenders at the far entrance had left. Nathan didn’t see any Champions or elite spellblades.
He looked again, certain his eyes were playing tricks on him.
A pit formed in his stomach. Something was very wrong in the Spires.
Inside his armor, he felt the warmth of Alice’s mirror as it glowed against his chest.
Chapter 40
Nathan withdrew the mirror and activated it. Alice’s face appeared. She looked harried, but well.
“Don’t scare me like that,” she said, relief erupting on her face. “You took so long to answer that I…” She coughed.
“If you’re assuming the worst, that’s not good,” he said. “How’s Aleich?”
“Holding up. There’s… No, we’ll talk about that later. I’m fine. Anna’s fine. It’s you that I’m worried about, Nathan. What happened at the Spires? I still can’t reach anyone on the wireless. Grandpa says that Councillor Veleria isn’t responding to her mirror. Castle Forselburg has been reporting insane leyline readings.”
Nathan let out an explosive breath. That had been a lot to take in.
At least he had confirmed that whatever Thanatos had done was detectable by his devices. That might be useful in the future.
“We’ve defeated the Messenger. The problem is that the dark elf defenders have vanished,” Nathan said, staring at Astra.
She stared back at him.
Alice didn’t respond.
“I think this is a second coup,” Nathan said.
Astra leaped over the cliff, her cape fluttering behind her. Narime shouted after her, while Nathan merely shut his eyes.
“This doesn’t seem like a coincidence,” Alice said. “But how can our enemies time an attack by a Messenger?”
“They can’t, but someone else can,” Nathan said.
Looking back at Maura, he faced up to reality.
Whatever might be going on with Falmir and everyone else, Nathan had ascended to a level of power that his true opponents weren’t the mortal rulers of this world. Falmir’s king, the Spires’ Council, Torneus, and everyone else were pawns in a huge game.
The players were Omria and this chaotic monster that controlled the Messengers. The more Nathan meddled with their plans, the more they fought back against him.
The time for secrets had passed. If he hadn’t made the deal with Maura and Laura, would Nathan be staring down another apocalypse?
If he went back in time, to when he stood in Gharrick Pass and decided whether to defend the Spires or focus on the civil war, was there an alternate Nathan who didn’t come here? Or one who came the long way? What happened to them?
He realized he didn’t want to know. That he didn’t need to know.
But the thought chilled him nonetheless. He had grazed oblivion for the second time. This time, he had averted it through his own decisions, rather than the generosity of a Messenger who felt he might be useful to her.
“I need to go, Alice. Stay safe. At all costs,” he said. He moved to switch the mirror off.
“Wait!” she called.
He froze.
“Whatever you do, Nathan, keep the dark elf Bastions alive,” she said. “Their Champions are the only people defending the Houkeem Desert. Everyone else has abandoned it to fight in the war. If we lose them, we lose everything.”
“Right.” He nodded. “Thanks for the reminder, Alice.”
She smiled at him. “Of course. I love you, Nathan. Stay safe, and I’ll see you soon.”
He blinked, unsure if he had heard her correctly.
Then the mirror deactivated and her face vanished.
When he looked up, Narime stared at him in disbelief.
“Have you really not realized that she wants you?” she asked him, her tails ready to hit him at a moment’s notice.
“I knew she was interested in me, but not to that degree,” he said defensively.
She hit him anyway.
“First Anna, now Alice. You have a real blind spot for nobility,” Narime said. Then she narrowed her eyes. “No, you have a blind spot for anyone you never met in your old world. Is that why you aren’t sleeping with Seraph.”
“The Spires—”
“Can wait a minute. Seraph has waited over a year now. I thought I was loyal, but she’s something else, Nathan. Don’t take her for granted.” Narime’s voice had an edge to it.
He raised his hands in surrender. “I’ll talk to her when this is over.”
“Do a lot more than talk to her,” Narime said.
The knights appeared to be exhausted from the earlier battle. As he didn’t know the state of the Spires, Nathan was hesitant to send his army out. He needed someone to remain in command.
“I’ll do it,” Seraph offered. “If we need to move into the city, my gem ability will be the most useful to support the knights. The rest of you will burn the whole place down.”
Sen and Fei looked down, twisting guiltily.
“Thank you,” Nathan said.
He turned to the Twins, who were sitting cross-legged on the ground and eating what looked like noodles. They attracted a lot of attention in the process, and not just because they were Messengers.
“I need you both to stay here and reinforce the gateway,” he ordered them.
“Seriously? You realize our…” Maura trailed off as she tapped her head. “Special techniques might be useful dealing with this nonsense, right?”
“I’m not doing things your way. I’m doing them my way. Stay here and keep the gateway open. We might need it in a hurry,” he ordered.
“Yeah, sure.” They shrugged at him and returned to their food.
As Nathan and his Champions left the portal, none of the dark elves stopped them or even approached them. The few they saw stared at them from a distance. Astra was long gone, he realized.
But he knew where she had gone. The Jormun Spire.
Once outside, they f
ound themselves inside a reinforced cavern. This, too, was empty. Nathan knew that the binding stone was nearby, but he ignored it. Like Alice had said, the dark elf Champions were vital to the defense of Doumahr.
The cavern exited onto a huge platform that overlooked the Spires. They stood on the side of the Gharrick Mountains, north of Forselle Valley. The many sandstone towers that made up the city rose up to the clouds in front of them. Below them was the city sprawl.
Nathan saw soldiers openly battling each other down there. Fires raged. Magic flew around.
“We need to avoid that,” he said. “Narime, teleport us to the Jormun Spire.”
Given the distance, it only took her one trip to take the six of them: Nathan, Narime, Fei, Nurevia, Sen, and Ciana.
The moment they appeared in the lobby, Nathan knew something was wrong. Screams and shouts echoed off the walls. Heat washed over his skin.
A huge fire roared on one side of the lobby. Nobody tried to put it out.
The doors had been blown apart and their remains littered the room. Outside, hundreds of dark elves fought each other.
“This is absolute chaos,” Nathan said, staring at what was happening.
Nurevia’s face was as pale as a ghost. Her limbs shook as she saw open revolt in her homeland. Nathan tugged her arm, and she followed along.
A few guards noticed them, but seemed too shocked to do anything. Or perhaps they were terrified of fighting three duogem Champions.
Whatever the case, they made a beeline for the elevators. Surprisingly, they still worked.
Unfortunately, Nathan lacked the key to go to the council floors. He slammed the lever as high as he could.
Then they waited. None of them said anything as they rose. The echo of battle and slaughter entered the open elevator shaft. As they passed each floor, they heard a snippet of the madness taking place there.
When they reached the top, they found Astra.
She stood in a corridor, surrounded by corpses. As always, she remained pristine. Untouched by the blood around her. Her ability to kill from a distance meant no one got close to her.
Nathan saw two monogem Champions among the dead. The rest looked like soldiers, including several spellblades. None of them were a threat to Astra.
But the fact they had attacked her spoke volumes.
“Astra, do you know what’s happened?” he asked her, ignoring the scene of devastation.
“Council chamber. Lockdown,” she said. Her eyes bore into Nathan. “Too late.”
Nathan suddenly realized what was wrong about meeting Astra on this level. She had a key to the upper levels. If she was here, that meant she couldn’t reach those levels using the elevator.
“Lockdown?” he asked.
Astra didn’t answer.
Nurevia did. “It’s standard procedure if the Spires are threatened. Upper levels of the Spire are shut out. Elevators won’t access them. The council chamber has an extra shield as well, given how important they are. The idea is that they can survive even an attack by Champions in there, until help arrives.”
Nathan shut his eyes. That pit in his stomach grew larger.
“Let’s hope that’s true,” he said. “And that the only reason they’re in lockdown is to protect the Council.”
The others stared at him. Astra didn’t. Her expression suggested that she suspected the same thing he did.
A true coup attempt could strike fast enough to get inside the council chamber. The lockdown might protect the perpetrator, not the Council.
Or, in fact, the perpetrator might be on the Council. Too many things could go wrong right now.
They found the stairs to the upper level. These were locked down as well on this level, but Fei made short work of the magical protection and then Astra ripped the steel doors apart.
The next level contained dozens more guards. They ignored them. Nathan urged Astra on.
Dark elves chased them higher, flinging spells after them on the stairs. The strange wards of the Spires increased in power as they rose.
“Why can’t we teleport again?” Sen gasped out as she deflected a spell.
“The wards will interfere. For all we know, they might send us a mile into the air. Then we plummet to our deaths,” Narime said.
“That might not be that bad,” Sen said.
Nathan rolled his eyes and hoisted her onto his back. Unlike the Champions, she didn’t have enhancements, so she felt the fatigue of a battle plus running up flight after flight of stairs.
The other women glared at Sen in jealousy.
“Don’t any of you dare slow down,” Nathan warned, recognizing the expression on Fei’s face.
When they reached the uppermost floors, the stairwell stopped. There were even more guards here.
Astra swept them aside, sending bodies flying everywhere.
Then she pointed across the room, at a spiral staircase on the far side of a marble hall. “There. Stairs to chamber.”
Nathan had only used the lift before. Of course Astra knew how to navigate the Spires normally.
They ran forward through the open hall.
Suddenly, Ciana stopped. She turned and faced where they had come from.
“Go!” she shouted.
Nathan and the others stopped dead, staring at her. He gestured for them to continue. Time was of the essence. He could deal with his beloved horsegirl.
Dozens of dark elf soldiers poured into the hall. More surged through the stairwell they had come through. There appeared to be no end of them. Their screams and shouts blended together as they roared toward Nathan and Ciana.
Behind him, Fei and the others ascended the staircase.
“Ciana, we need to—” Nathan tried to say.
She cut him off by activating her gem ability. Her diamonds flared with light and a glimmering barrier of silver light bloomed into existence across the hall. Fireballs and crossbow bolts bounced off it. The dark elves slammed into it, flailing against it.
Nathan felt the power pouring out of her as she maintained the barrier. Her gem couldn’t maintain this for too long.
“Nathan, trust me. I’m your Champion. I am your shield. That means I’ll protect your heart as well. If it hurts you to kill them, then I’ll keep them from you.” She gave him a bright smile. “I’ll hold them back. Go.”
He stared at her.
For a moment, he wanted to yell at her. Tell her how stupid it was to do this.
He saw the resolve in her eyes. He remembered her face when she lay in the rubble, unmoving, her diamonds shattered, and her body twisted and ruined.
“No,” he snapped.
“Nathan—”
“Ciana, there is nothing I won’t do to keep you safe and with me. All of them?” Nathan raised his arm and it glowed with magic.
Some of the dark elves realized what was about to happen. They tried to flee.
He blew them away with a bone-shattering blast of wind. Most of the traitorous guards survived, but dozens died. More were brutally injured. Limbs pointed the wrong way, and blood oozed out on the marble floor.
Ciana’s expression turned distraught. Tears welled up in her eyes.
He gripped her shoulders. “I lost you once. I can handle doing awful things. If it means I never see you like that again, it doesn’t matter. Never try to sacrifice yourself for me. Please.”
She nodded, then slammed into him with a rib-crushing hug.
After what felt like an eternity, they separated. Her barrier vanished and they rejoined the others. Their pursuers didn’t follow.
Despite sending the others ahead, it didn’t matter. A steel cocoon surrounded the council chamber. It crackled with unfamiliar wards.
“I can’t penetrate this,” Narime said.
Fei also shook her head. She had likely tried earlier. He saw broken crossbow bolts and daggers on the floor. Nurevia’s efforts. The ground looked charred as well.
Astra glared at the black steel wall that barred them from going fa
rther.
“Let me try,” Nathan said.
He drew on his binding stones and cast a high rank spatial spell. With a swing of his arm, he removed a huge chunk of steel as though it wasn’t there.
“That’s the Twins’ technique, isn’t it?” Narime said.
“A poor mimicry,” he corrected. “Laura vaporized a wall like she was cutting open a cake. I’ll need to do this twice more before we can go through. Astra, get out of there. You can’t fit.”
The dark elf glared at him as she tried to fit through.
“I might be able to,” Sen offered. “My tits won’t get in the way.”
The other Champions gave her looks of pity, other than Ciana, who commiserated.
Nathan ignored them and carved the cocoon open. Astra kept herself in check until he was done.
The moment afterward however, she bounded through. He ran after her.
An awfully familiar voice echoed off the walls as they ascended the ramp to the central chamber. No guards tried to stop them. There were no Champions in here. Bodies had been piled up in a corner. Nathan recognized most of them as the spellblades who protected the Council.
Nathan and Astra stepped out into the open chamber.
A sense of déjà vu struck him. The five councillors sat in their chairs, with soldiers next to them. In the center of the chamber was the traitor responsible.
This time, however, Astra swept her arm at the soldiers first. Each of them held blades against the throats of the councillors. Her opals glowed as she killed all five of them with a single swing of her arms.
“Nathan! How?” the man in the center shouted in shock.
Astra raised her hands to kill him, just as she had her Bastion months earlier.
“Astra, stop!” Nathan yelled.
She did so, but the look of fury on her face didn’t fade. Only her trust in Nathan stayed her hand.
“Sureev, what the hell are you doing?” Nathan asked the man standing in the center of the council chamber.
Chapter 41
Nathan had been open to several possibilities regarding the traitor in the Spires.
One of the councilors was an obvious choice. If they started a coup and eliminated the other councilors, they could claim to be on whichever side had popular support. A very savvy political move that suited the dark elves.
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