Did Leopold have some sort of lecherous attack that obliterated the clothes of the women around him?
Nathan asked the old man as such. He received a glare in return.
“I’m not sure what to say about the fact that the first thing you ask me is if I am responsible for this nonsense,” Leopold grumbled.
“Well, you are the only one wearing clothes,” Nathan said.
“My apologies for being the only person with magic resistance,” Leopold retorted.
The two jades implanted in Seraph’s collarbone glowed for a moment. Nathan raised a hand, and a square flickered into existence.
A shimmering wall of light appeared in front of him. Seraph projected a wave of magic power against him, but it exploded uselessly against the protective barrier he cast.
“So you did activate it,” Seraph muttered.
She stared at him in wonder and lowered her tonfas. He recognized the exotic weapons, as several mystic foxes used them in his timeline. An odd weapon to see being used by a human Champion.
“You seem to be in a rush to interrupt me,” Nathan said.
“My objective here is to kill all of you,” Seraph said. She gave him a beautiful smile, the sort that a normal man would remember for a long time to come.
Nathan shrugged and held a hand out to Leopold, as if to gesture for him to continue.
“I can’t say I disagree with her,” Leopold said, narrowing his eyes. “I’m as curious as she is about what you did. But given she is trying to kill us, I suppose I should explain things to you.”
“I’d appreciate that,” Nathan said.
Fei moved in front of Nathan, holding her scimitar up and summoning a blue flame over its length. Seraph gave her a dismissive look, before turning her attention back to Nathan.
Monitoring Seraph, Leopold explained, “She has a regeneration ability. It’s an immensely powerful one, capable of healing even serious wounds within seconds. I’m assuming that it also makes her resistant to pain and physical injury. Cut her belly open, and she’ll ignore it. The flesh will stitch itself back together within seconds. I don’t know about limbs, but I imagine that will only hurt her for a few minutes at best.”
“I suppose you’re not a renowned Bastion for nothing,” Seraph said, not bothering to look at Leopold. “Most people underestimate my regeneration ability.”
“I appreciate the compliment.” Leopold smiled. He continued, “Her other ability isn’t a force blast, unlike what Sunstorm said. Rather, it destroys nonliving material. Weapons, clothes, the ground, buildings, and even spells. She seems to have difficulty against magic more powerful than her own, judging from the fact that she struggles to destroy my weapons and armor.”
Well, that made for an intriguing pair of abilities. Most duogem Champions had a lot more raw offensive power backing them. But a powerful regeneration ability coupled with a magical attack that couldn’t kill people was a very strange pairing.
“What about her enhancement?” Nathan asked.
“Pure speed,” Leopold answered.
That made Seraph even stranger.
Nathan had never heard of Seraph in his timeline. Sunstorm never mentioned her. Narime and none of the other Champions from the Federation had brought her up. Given her role in the Federation and starting this war, he found that rather odd. Had Torneus scrubbed her so thoroughly from history?
Part of him wanted to capture her. But she was dangerous.
More to the point, he couldn’t rely on Kadria to reawaken her emotions and trust in him. Seraph was an unknown quantity.
Everybody looked exhausted. Seraph appeared unharmed, other than her clothing. But everybody else was covered in scratches, cuts, and all manner of minor wounds.
Nathan realized that—contrary to expectations—Seraph was an endurance fighter.
She outlasted her opponents and took them down after they exhausted themselves. She destroyed their weapons, their armor, and even their spells. Then, when they showed weakness, she finished them off.
“How did you activate the binding stone?” Seraph asked, focusing on her topic of interest.
“Do you really think I’m going to answer that question?” Nathan smirked at her.
“Given your victory is guaranteed, I don’t see why you wouldn’t,” Seraph said.
“Then what? You run away the moment after I answer your question?” Nathan shook his head. “I’m not stupid. I have the binding stone. I don’t intend to share my secrets to just anyone. Sunstorm already explained your role in the Federation, and your relation to Torneus.”
Seraph narrowed her eyes and clicked her tongue. She glanced at Sunstorm, as if to suggest that she was annoyed that her identity had been given away. In response, Sunstorm shrugged.
“He already knew about Torneus,” Sunstorm said.
“Is that so?” One half of Seraph’s lips turned upward. She fixed her gaze firmly on Nathan. “Well, I suppose the only way I find out more is to defeat you.”
Nathan let out a laugh. He drew his sword. With a flicker of willpower, he summoned a pair of glowing triangles around the hilt.
Instantly, Seraph surged forward. Nathan barely followed her movement.
Blue flames filled his vision as Fei tried to protect him. A blast of power blew the fire away. Fei’s sword disintegrated with another blast of power. Seraph paused her charge and shifted her stance.
Eyes widening, Fei stepped back and tried to protect herself without a weapon.
Enough time had been bought, and Nathan unleashed his spell. A cage of earth exploded from the ground around Seraph. She covered her chest with her tonfas and blasted waves of magic around her. The hardened dirt crashing toward her disintegrated into clouds of dust. But more and more earth burst from the ground in a never-ending tide.
Within moments, Seraph found herself buried beneath a hardened dome of earth.
Fei leaped back and held her position in front of Nathan. He took the opportunity to quickly summon clothes for the women. Seraph might break free momentarily, but a few moments of respite were all that was necessary for the others to get dressed.
Plus, it helped him stay focused if the women wore something.
He also summoned weapons for them, and imbued magic into them from the binding stone so that Seraph’s magic wouldn’t destroy them as quickly.
As he predicted, Seraph’s waves of magic soon burst through the earthen prison. She broke free seconds later.
A pair of fourth rank spells glowed in Nathan’s hands. Seraph’s gaze latched onto his hands. She reacted quickly and leaped backward. To no avail.
The buildings nearby reached out to grab her, as if they were extensions of Nathan’s will. Seraph lashed out at them with her magic. But the magic imbued in them from the binding stone weakened her power, and she was unable to destroy them. She was beaten down to the ground.
Rolling as she hit the dirt, Seraph changed tactics. She charged Nathan again. This time, she pulverized the ground with her waves of power. Dust blew up into the air in dense clouds and prevented him from seeing where she was. But he still felt her presence.
He raised his hands. Triangles appeared at the end of each fingertip, each spell filled with the power of the binding stone.
The triangles burst into brilliant light, and each lanced forward into the cloud of dust. Seraph screamed as several of the projectiles of light punched through her, and she tumbled out of the dust. The moment Fei saw Seraph appear, she charged.
Tonfa met scimitar in a brilliant flash of sparks. Seraph’s gem ability slammed into Fei with all the might that she could muster, but could not destroy Fei’s sword. Much to Nathan’s chagrin, the same could not be said of Fei’s clothes.
Seraph’s leg swept out, and Fei darted back. Leaping to her feet, Seraph raised her guard. Fei pointed a scimitar at her opponent. Then she blinked when she saw her ungloved hand. She looked down at herself, grimaced, and looked back at Nathan with an upset expression.
Ther
e was no time to deal with Fei’s concern over her nudity, and Nathan planned to end this.
He had proven his superiority. Seraph lacked the raw power to match his binding stone. With the overflowing power of a binding stone and over a decade of experience using them, he had easily overwhelmed her gems. Seraph didn’t stand a chance.
He began to cast a supercharged fourth rank spell. Seraph scowled and fell into a defensive stance.
Before she could charge him, Nathan charged her. Seraph’s eyes widened, and her tonfas glowed with magic. His sword slammed into her weapons. Light burst out across the clearing.
Seraph crashed to the ground. Nathan followed through, placing his sword against her neck. Another spell glowed around his sword. The glowing squares hovered menacingly around the hilt of his blade.
“Why didn’t you kill me with that earlier spell?” Seraph asked.
“You asked me a question earlier,” Nathan said. “The answer is simple: I can activate the binding stone because I know how to unlock the wards. A lock is only as safe as its keys. And I have the keys.”
Seraph stared up at him. Then she laughed, and said, “That’s it? No grander secret? You had the code to the wards protecting the binding stone? How anticlimactic.” She stopped laughing. “Then again, something like this is to be expected of you. You’ve beaten me every time, not by being supremely powerful or having the largest and greatest army and Champions. But simply by outmaneuvering me at each turn.”
Seraph clapped. Or at least, she tried to. She found it hard while holding her tonfas. She looked down at them, and considered dropping them, but decided not to.
Somehow, Nathan found the clapping less irritating that he normally would. He’d had some unpleasant experiences with women clapping around him recently.
“Is this it then? You cut off my head, and the Federation is defeated?” Seraph said.
Nathan paused. Normally, this would be the end. He had slain more than his fair share of Champions. He didn’t even know Seraph personally. Kadria had no way to reawaken her lost memories of him.
But for some reason she appealed to him, and not simply physically. Her looks were striking, and her body certainly called out to his. It helped that she was all but naked right now.
Maybe it was the fact that she seemed thoughtful, Nathan thought. Most Champions were pure warriors. Nathan had only considered one of his Champions to be a true strategist. Some of the rest had been commanders, but never advisers in the sense of people he trusted to help guide him in life or manage his fortresses.
Some of them had such talents, but they came from their lives before they were Champions. Whereas it seems that Seraph was different. That intrigued Nathan, because it appeared that the path she walked was wholly different to the path that probably any Champion or Bastion normally walked.
“Was there something else that you wanted?” Nathan asked. He wondered…
“If we’re talking about things I want, then it would be for you to have entered my life many, many years ago,” Seraph said bitterly. “Given such a thing is impossible, I’m afraid the knowledge that Sunstorm is in safe hands will have to suffice.”
Nathan stared at Seraph. Nobody else spoke or moved an inch. Empire soldiers crept through the open gate now that the battle had ceased. But they knew that something was happening and didn’t intervene. They made noise but Nathan shut it out.
“I can offer you atonement,” Nathan said.
“Isn’t that what death is for?” Seraph responded. She closed her eyes.
“Perhaps. But there are many ways to atone. I can make you my Champion, and your atonement will be toward all the soldiers in the Empire and Federation whose lives you cost, and the civilians whose livelihoods you ruined.” Nathan didn’t remove his sword from Seraph’s neck. He wondered if he was making the right choice.
“And what if I betray you? What if Torneus makes me a better offer in the future, and I can escape my atonement?” Seraph said. Her eyes remained closed.
“Then the Watcher Omria will judge you. She will know you for who you are, and you will suffer for your choices.” Nathan tilted his head. “More to the point, I will be your Bastion. If you turn on me, I will destroy you. Atonement through death never stops being an option.”
Seraph let out a bark of laughter and opened her eyes. “Well, it seems you’re not entirely naive. I’d say you’re a fool to recruit an enemy, but Sunstorm seems loyal to you. And the fact that you’re aware of your ability as a Bastion to keep your Champions in check makes you a step above Theus.”
Theus didn’t even know how to keep his Champions in line with the powers of a Bastion? Nathan shouldn’t have been surprised, given what he had heard about that idiot.
“So, you accept?” Nathan asked Seraph.
“I do.”
With that, Fort Taubrum fell into the hands of the Empire. The soldiers seized the fortress and took the Federation troops prisoner. No Federation reinforcements arrived.
Nathan loved to believe that this was the end of the war. That he had accomplished what he came back in time to achieve. In truth, he wondered if he had instead set this timeline on an entirely different path. One that he didn’t understand in the least.
But, for now, he was victorious. The Empire had defeated the Federation, and Seraph was his.
Chapter 44
After the battle, life returned to normal. Not that Nathan normally described his life as normal.
Anna’s soldiers swept across the region. She sent some home—particularly the beastkin she had recruited using Leopold’s authority—but hired many of them permanently.
With her expanded territory, she needed a larger army to maintain it. Most of the guards and soldiers from the Federation couldn’t be trusted to protect the region under the Empire, so Anna provided her own soldiers. Additional soldiers increased the financial burden on her, and the war with the Federation meant she lacked the trade income she needed to pay her soldiers. For the time being, Nathan supported her soldiers using his power as Bastion.
Officially, nobody ruled the new territory. But Anna had led the army that captured everything east of Gharrick Pass, so Leopold used that as an excuse to place her in charge of it. Nathan protected the region as Bastion, and Anna ruled it.
Hopefully, this arrangement remained permanent, as Nathan preferred working with Anna over most of the nobles he had dealt with in the past. She had a good head on her shoulders and worked well with his Champions.
Seraph settled in surprisingly easily. She spent most of her time working with Anna and assisting her with the paperwork for the new region. Under Theus, she had run the province. That made her a good fit as an assistant to help Anna quickly establish itself in a new region. Nathan appreciated a Champion that handled his paperwork for him. The farmers and merchants appreciated a steady hand, even if they remained worried about war.
Normally, an invasion came with significant ructions. New merchants moved in, and old merchants were booted out. But Anna was no old money noble with significant connections. She took the land as she saw it and allowed the people already there to maintain what they had. That kept her existing inhabitants happy, preventing any rebellions from rising up. It limited her own financial growth, but Anna couldn’t gain much from abusing her power anyway.
Not all the merchants were happy, especially those that relied heavily on trade. Relations between the Federation and Empire remained frosty. Which was a polite way to say that war had not been formally declared, but could be considered to be ongoing regardless.
The Federation never launched a counterattack in response to the Empire’s assault. But Theus remained in Forselle Valley with his Champions. Small armies massed on the borders, but never crossed.
Occasionally, Nathan sent Fei or another Champion out to chase away an army that grew too large. No battle ever occurred, as neither side wanted bloodshed. But it served as a reminder that open warfare could break out at any moment.
Torneus h
ad yet to open negotiations with either Leopold or Nathan. Not even Anna heard anything from him. Torneus was clearly bitter over his loss.
As such, Leopold returned to the capital with Ciana. He took with him the political prisoners that Nathan had captured during the battles with the Federation. Those prisoners were the key to making this war favorable for the Empire. Without them, other nations might intervene and make this turn out exactly as it had in Nathan’s timeline.
Getting the Emperor himself to intervene was risky. But Nathan and Leopold saw no other choice. They needed to stop Torneus, and they needed to do it without causing the war to grow to involve other countries. Nathan strongly suspected that he had replaced one war—the war that he knew from his timeline—with a different war that he knew nothing about.
So it what was that Nathan whiled away his time, preparing for future battles to come. He fortified Fort Taubrum and Gharrick Pass. He trained his Champions. He learned more about the current timeline. And he enlarged his army, especially his beastkin knights.
Many of the beastkin that fought against the Federation returned to Gharrick Pass in the weeks following the battle of Fort Taubrum. They had been impressed by Nathan. If Nathan took them at face value, he might say that they wished to swear fealty to him and fight for him as knights.
In truth, he suspected that most of them realized that he wouldn’t send them to their deaths futilely. That made him a safe option for long-term employment. Being a beastkin was harsh sometimes. Many of them grew up with stories of veterans being sent into the meat grinder. While the battle of Nair’s tower had involved many beastkin casualties, very few had been fatal. Comparatively, that made Nathan a highly capable commander.
With so many beastkin joining his side, Nathan finally had the chance to build up an army capable of fighting demons without the aid of Champions. As much as he wished otherwise, Nathan couldn’t be everywhere at once. There would be times that demons invaded one of his fortresses while he was absent. His Champions needed soldiers capable of assisting them. That meant knights wielding enchanted weapons and armor, and who were trained to fend off ferocious demons.
Heretic Spellblade Page 37
