by Dante King
I laid into them, lashing out with sword and trident. Horned heads flew. and disfigured bodies fell as I tore through the cluster of demons so fast that they had no time to respond. The last of them was turning toward me, its body mud-caked and its movements slow, when I sliced its legs from under it with the Sundered Heart and caught it through the throat on the Depthless Dream. It stared at me with a shocked expression, black eyes wide, as the water magic of the trident coated it in ice.
I flicked the wretched remnant of the monster into the mud, and it shattered into a thousand frozen shards. It seemed that my spirit weapons were more powerful against these infernal foes.
Priests and golems were advancing on me, weapons raised, so I sank into the ground once more and let a Hidden Burrow carry me away.
I popped up on the other side of the battlefield. Here, Elorinelle had found a vantage point on top of a statue of an earth god, its body built of craggy muscles and its face like the side of a mountain. From there, she was shooting arrows at the enemy, but some of them had spotted her and were climbing the statue.
One of the climbers looked at me in surprise after I’d sprung from the ground. An Unswerving Shadows priests let go of the statue with one hand and channeled a Sandstorm. I countered with a Smothering Mist that turned his technique to mud, and the globs dropped to the ground. The cultist reached for the dagger at his waist, but before he could get there, I stabbed him with the trident. The prongs went all the way through the statue he was holding onto and stopped when they hit the stone. I pulled out my weapon, and the cultist lost his grip before his bleeding body fell to the ground.
I swung the Sundered Heart and caught the other two climbers across their legs. Both of them—a human and a demon—screamed and fell to the ground next to me. The demon clawed at my leg and took a chunk out of my Frozen Armor before I chopped it in half. The human, dragging himself to his feet, drew a sword and swung at me. I parried the strike with the trident, then cut him down
“Oh, yes,” Nydarth said, her voice wavering with excitement. “That’s more like it. Let the enemy’s blood flow.”
“Such strength,” Yono said, her voice smooth as silk across bare skin. “Such skill. Show us your power, mighty Swordslinger.”
“Use us as we were meant to be used,” Nydarth said.
The air around me swirled and filled with sand as Tahlis appeared, spear in hand, from out of the dirt.
“Want to team up?” he asked with a grin. “Or are you too busy showing off by yourself?”
“We’ll use Hidden Burrow together,” I said.
“Of course. Just follow my lead.”
“No. It’s time I showed you what I can do with earth techniques.”
Tahlis wore a wry smile as he summoned a Sandstorm that swirled around us. I channeled a Hidden Burrow, and the ground beneath me softened for me to pass through it. I felt the flow of foreign Vigor as Tahlis performed an identical technique. Standing back to back, the pair of us sank into the ground.
I focused on purposefully directing our route, using a breathing technique to ensure my every action was of single intention. I knew where I wanted us to go, and I didn’t waver from the thought as we shot beneath the ground.
A moment later, we popped up in the middle of a pack of demons.
Tahlis flung out another Sandstorm, temporarily blinding the closest demons. They hissed, growled, and flailed wildly with their claws. I killed the two closest to me with swift stabs and cut the legs out from beneath a third, while Tahlis wrought similar carnage behind me.
I smiled at what I was about to do next.
“Down!” I yelled.
Tahlis had barely finished pulling his spear out of a demon when I activated Hidden Burrow. I wasn’t sure whether the variation I’d used would bring us both down, but it did. We both sank into the ground and popped up again amid a surprised-looking group of Unswerving Shadows priests.
“Death to the Swordslinger!” a priest yelled.
They were all quick to react, and one blocked my first attack with a swift rotation of his long-bladed spear. He counter-attacked with a swing of the butt of the weapon, then flipped the blade around in a slashing arc. I dodged the first strike, parried the second, and stabbed him through the shoulder with the Depthless Dream. The spear fell from his hands, and he sank gasping into the mud. I ended his life in a spray of blood.
“This is fun,” Tahlis said. “But I think that Lord Ganyir might need your help.”
Across the battlefield, the Lord of Gonki led the Pathless on our right flank. He had become a focal point for the demons still swarming from the palace. The cult’s priests clearly really wanted Ganyir dead and were sending all the minions they could to achieve that end. Without any Augmenting or special weapons to help them, the Pathless were unable to harm the demons and were being driven back. Ganyir himself wasn’t using his powerful techniques for some reason but was just fighting with his fists, Vigor giving his gauntlets the ability to harm the demons.
After everything else he had done, I knew that he could do more. Had he been wounded? Was he out of Vigor? Was he holding back for some reason?
Regardless of the cause, Tahlis was right; Ganyir needed help. He was on the verge of being overrun by the demons. I sank into the ground once more and used the Hidden Burrow to travel to him.
I still wasn’t as accurate as I would have liked to be with the Burrow, so instead of appearing right beside Ganyir, I emerged amid the demons in front of him.
At least the move caught the horned enemies by surprise. As they turned to me, I ran one through with the trident and cut another down with the sword, while Ganyir used their distraction to grab two by the heads and smash them into one another. As the bodies dropped, I stepped over them and joined him.
If the Lord of Gonki had been injured, he wasn’t showing it. Rather than revealing pain or exhaustion, his face was alight with excitement.
“Watch out!” he bellowed, then swung past me. His fist collided with the face of an oncoming demon, ripped away its jaw, and sent it flying into the one behind it.
I brought my weapons to bear on the stream of creatures rushing at us. I darted and thrust with the Depthless Dream, creating a space around us where no demon could safely tread. When one of the more adventurous hellions advanced, I ran it through with my sword or Ganyir smashed it with his armored fists.
Ganyir laughed and grinned. “I’ve never felt so alive. Thank you for finally waking me up, for giving me the fire to take my city back.”
“It’s part of the Swordslinger’s Path,” I said. “To inspire as well as to fight.”
“Then you make a damn good Swordslinger,” Ganyir said.
A demon slashed at him with its claws. He caught it by the arm and twisted. There was a sharp crack as bone burst through the creature’s skin. It snapped at Ganyir with its teeth, and he took the opportunity to grab it by the head. With the creature’s arm still in his other hand, he slammed the two together, driving the shard of protruding bone into its eye.
“Why don’t you use your earth techniques against them?” I asked. “I’ve seen how much power you have and what sort of techniques you can unleash. You could wreak havoc on this lot.”
As a demon charged at him, Ganyir grabbed it by the throat. He flung it to me, and I sliced it in half. The pieces flopped into the mud, oozing thick, black blood.
“If I did that, I’d wreak havoc on my own palace too,” Ganyir said. “I don’t want to level my city, lad. I need somewhere to put my people!”
There was a clang as the palace doors burst open again. A fresh wave of demons spewed forth, their faces hideous and snarling in bestial fury, their bodies covered with mismatched fur and scales. Clawed hands raked the air as they rushed howling at us.
“We have to change things,” Ganyir said as the first of the demons reached us. He grabbed its flailing arms and twisted it around to fling it into the mud, then stamped on its head. “We’ll never get inside if they keep s
ummoning more.”
“I could fight my way in and tackle them,” I volunteered. “What should I be looking for? Will it be a group of priests, Augmenters, some sort of magical portal. . . ?”
A pair of demons rushed at me carrying clubs covered in barbed and rusted spikes. One of them screeched as it swung its weapon. I ducked beneath the blow and cut the monster off at the ankles with the Sundered Heart. As it fell, the other one stepped over it and swung its weapon high to bring a crushing blow down on my head. But before it could make the attack. I thrust the Depthless Dream up through its groin and into its abdomen. I twisted the trident, the demon grunted, and it fell, bleeding and twitching, across its companion.
“Saruqin will be behind this,” Ganyir said. “Get to him. and the demons will stop coming. It’s our chance to win this battle as well as the war.”
He stamped on one of the demons I’d brought down, finishing it off with a surge of earth through his armored boot.
“Are you coming with me?” I asked.
Ganyir glanced at the Pathless who stood behind us, fending off more demonic attacks. He shook his head.
“My people need my leadership if they’re to survive this. Lone assaults are for legendary heroes, not lords with the burdens of a clan on their shoulders. Go find Saruqin and hold to the mantle of the Swordslinger.”
The demons were still advancing but I didn’t wait for them to come to us. I charged headlong at them, swinging my weapons as I went. I ducked beneath the lunging arms of one demon, straightened, and flung it back behind me for Ganyir to deal with. Another ran at me, and I slammed into it with my shoulder. The impact jarred my arm and nearly shook the Sundered Heart from my hand, but it hit the demon even worse, and it went sprawling on the ground. I strode over it, stamping on its chest as I went past.
I darted between the advancing demons, slicing and stabbing whenever I had a chance but not slowing to finish them off. If one blocked my way, I cut it down or took a sidestep to get past, but always my focus was on the palace doors and getting to them.
I reached the edge of the mud-slicked square, still fighting against the tide of onrushing foes. If they had all chosen to stop and fight me, I never would have been able to get through. But the demons remained eager to reach Ganyir, driven on by whatever orders or summoning bound them. They slashed and hissed at me as they passed, but I was a distraction, an obstacle in their way, just as they were distractions and obstacles to me. The battle had become a chess game, victory dependent upon taking out the opposing king. It all came down to whether I could beat Saruqin before his minions slew Ganyir.
The steps of the palace were marble, each one a different shade of gray, running from black at the bottom to pure white at the very top. Their beauty was sullied by the demons rushing down them, though their numbers were starting to subside. One almost ran straight into me, and I knocked it aside with a swing of both my weapons that tore a great chunk from its black-furred chest. I dashed up the steps, taking them two at a time, weaving through the last of the oncoming horde and up to the top.
I spun behind a pillar as another wave of demons stormed from the entrance hall and down the palace steps.
This chamber had been turned into a shrine. A statue stood at the far end, granite carved into the shape of a hugely muscled demon. Embedded in its chest was a swirling portal, a miasma of black and red currents. Horned and scaled monsters poured out of the magical gateway, crossed the entrance hall, and moved past me to the palace steps.
In front of the statue was an altar with large urns of incense sticks smoldering at each end. The room was full of their smoke, deep and earthy but with something rotten underneath, and I had to steady myself as the fumes made my head spin. In front of the altar knelt a figure in a yellow cloak, their back to me and their hands folded in their lap, apparently deep in meditation.
Saruqin. I’d found the man responsible for all the horrors in Hyng’ohr.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Even with his back to me, Saruqin radiated power. It was in the air all around us, a magical presence like that in my spirit weapons, yet somehow more intense and unrestrained.
I advanced slowly toward the altar, the weapons glowing in my hands, and the air between us crackled with Vigor. I noticed that the ground beneath my feet was not tiled or made of stone, but packed earth. Powerful Augmenters could probably use Hidden Burrow on tilted ground, but it would certainly be easier to use packed earth.
So, this shrine was Saruqin’s playground, a sanctuary where he could use his earth techniques at their most effective.
Even so, I had earth abilities of my own now.
As I crept toward him, I kept my eyes on the portal, but it seemed that there were timed gaps between demonic waves. Unless I wanted to fight against Saruqin and a demonic horde, I’d have to deal with him quickly.
“Ah, the would-be Immortal Swordslinger,” Saruqin said without moving. “Tell me; how are you finding Gonki Province?”
“Get up, turn around, and face me, you coward.” I tightened my grip on my weapons. “I’ll show you just how much I’m enjoying it.”
Saruqin laughed. His shoulders shook, making the yellow cloak tremble down his back. That back remained turned to me, despite the weapons in my hands and the threat I so clearly represented. This wasn’t a man who was easily perturbed.
“You killed Horix,” Saruqin said. “A rather impressive feat for one so young and impetuous. How are you finding Nydarth and Yono? Are they good servants?”
That drew an angry snarl from the spirits of both weapons—low, aggressive noises that echoed within the chamber of my mind. I couldn’t help but react, even though his back was to me. I lunged at Saruqin and stabbed with both weapons, but they struck empty air. He’d vanished into the ground, using Hidden Burrow to escape.
Laughter came from behind me, with a waft of that exaggerated body odor. I spun around and saw Saruqin standing there, with his hands clasped behind his back. He was around six feet tall and dressed from head to foot in ragged yellow robes. Strips of torn cloth the color of turmeric swathed his hands and feet. The only part of him not covered with that ragged material was his face, which was concealed behind a pale metal mask, its only features holes for the eyes and mouth. He radiated authority, the kind of casual calm that came from knowing that his power was absolute and that, in this place at least, no one could challenge him and live to tell the tale.
The anger of Yono and Nydarth was powerful. They hated this place, hated this man, hated the dark magic being perpetrated here. They wanted nothing more than to tear him apart.
“They speak to you, don’t they?” Saruqin asked. “Whisper in your ear and tell you how important and powerful you are? Did they ever tell you what they have to gain from your growth in power? What can be won by simply using an Elemental Core as it was intended to be used?”
“For demonic purposes?” I asked.
“No,” the cultist said. “To grow stronger. As Augmenters are meant to be. Why share out the rewards among the many? Why toil by slaying beast after beast when you can simply have all their powers at once?”
Saruqin’s lies had been tearing the Gonki Valley apart, and I wasn’t going to let them get into my head.
I sheathed the Sundered Heart, but if Saruqin mistook that for a gesture of peace, then he was sadly mistaken. I flung up my free hand and channeled. A ball of intense flames appeared in my palm as I summoned the Untamed Torch before I flung it at him.
Saruqin waved his hand, and the flame vanished. Behind his mask, his face was completely hidden. I had no idea how close I had come to harming him. Was he alarmed, relaxed, uncertain? There was no way of knowing with that blank visage and the steadiness of his tone.
“The stronger those weapon spirits grow, the more influence they have over you,” Saruqin said. “I can almost hear them, young Augmenter. They twist your mind and convince you that their growth in power is a good thing. Did you ever think about what would happen when they
finally transcend their chosen housing? Do you really think that they’ll stand by you, rather than leave you behind, impotent and powerless?”
He sounded so reasonable, I was almost tempted to believe him. After all, I was new to this world, and he had clearly lived here for decades. He knew its magic, knew its politics, knew its powers. Of course he understood it better than I did.
The swords had certainly shown a yearning for power, a desire to have me lean on them. What else was their eagerness to fight if not a longing to taste more of my Vigor flowing through them and to prove their value to me, to make me rely on them more and more?
But I wouldn’t be fooled by the truth of his words. Every falsehood contained some sliver of truth within it.
I channeled the power of wood. A spray of Stinging Palm thorns shot through the air, each one a hard, sleek, and deadly dart, some of the best I’d ever made.
Fire flashed from Saruqin’s hand. The thorns flared, blackened, and crumbled into ash.
I sank to my knee and punched the ground. A Ground Strike rippled out all around me. The incense pots rattled, and one fell with a crash onto the ground. But around Saruqin, the Ground Strike vanished, leaving him standing, the area beneath his feet unaffected by my technique.
As I rose, I pointed at Saruqin’s face and channeled acid, that strange and deadly combination of water and fire. A green miasma began to form around the priest’s head. He clicked his fingers, and there was a flash of flame that evaporated the cloud before it was even fully formed.
I’d never faced an opponent who could so easily dismiss all my powers. My shoulders tightened. and sweat ran down my back as I tried desperately to think of what might get through. This was power beyond anything I’d faced before, far greater than Horix or the Radiant Dragon Guild’s clan enemies. This was something from beyond the normal limits of Augmenting.
