53. The Mastermind #2
My prodding into his decisions that thrust me into confinement ceased, power searing through my veins as if it remembered me.
Agony and ecstasy became indistinguishable as the ancient presence of my father awakened within the deepest pits of my soul.
My blood no longer felt like blood. It became liquid potential, coursing through my body with the weight of forgotten ages.
Everything else around me slowed, and the shadowed corridor stilled, the dust clinging to the stale air stopping on its own.
No, not on its own, for I had commanded it.
Beneath the billowing silence, I sensed invisible threads woven through every living thing, choice, and future.
Beyond, countless paths of fate branched infinitely.
They bent toward my will and buckled to my command.
Pieces of my humanity loosened their grip with the realization—fate was no longer an untouchable force.
Instead, it lay before me as a moldable tapestry awaiting the gentle command of my fingers.
“W-What the hell?” I whispered, my mind fumbling to keep up with the mysticism of my existence.
“Do not act so surprised. You have wielded my abilities before, fragments of them.” A towering presence bloomed as an outline, walking with casual elegance through the darkness.
The notable drape of robes slid across the stone, dusting each cobble upon the figure's approach—Jaskor.
“Let this be a display of the surface of your potential, as your reign will far surpass mine. It is time you learned to trust yourself, for you can lean on me for aid and guidance, but only you can become a master of your own mind. Strategy and leading with logic are your greatest assets, and only when you release that doubt will you become an unstoppable force.”
Just as soon as the mirage had manifested, it vanished, the squelch of wet tissue drawing me back to reality. It was slow and deliberate, as though slabs of raw flesh were peeling themselves free from a frigid surface. It echoed off the pillars, another scrape following as it shifted overhead.
With its impending approach, I loosened my hold and tuned my focus solely on the looming creature. Immediately, breaths hitched around me, and Syoran spun in my direction, his brows drawn together in pointed accusation. “Could you stop fucking with—”
Before I could silence him, something enormous released its grip on the ceiling and fell like an executioner’s blade.
Crimson muscle and blackened spines erupted from the shadows, its massive frame unfurling midair with terrifying grace.
Elongated claws spread wide as though they had already chosen where they would sink, while sinewy limbs twisted around one another.
Behind them, powerful hind legs ended in polished black hoofs that cut through the tension like a battering ram, driving the monstrosity downward with devastating force.
Its tail snapped, scattering fragments of stone and various debris as its cavernous maw peeled open, revealing row upon row of jagged teeth.
The force of its landing became the lever of its attack as it hurled itself forward in the same breath.
One claw carved through the air toward my throat while another reached for my chest. Ducking beneath its attack, I found my sharpened dagger and ripped it free, slashing through both of its arms with little challenge.
It reared back, its shriek sharp enough to rattle the surrounding walls.
Broken chunks tumbled from the structural pillars and landed with sickening cracks.
Dust erupted, blanketing the hallway in a thick cloud as I pulled the collar of my linen up to cover my nose and mouth.
Breathing in, my golden gaze narrowed on the beast as its eyeless face settled inches from mine.
Pincers twitched above and below its skull as it spoke with guttural depth. “Alastair Seridean, the Son of Jaskor the Mastermind and the Coin that Spins. Tell me, boy, do you feel you are just as impenetrable as your father? Mind, body, heart, and soul?”
My jaw tightened, and I directed my command at the four others awaiting me. “Get the fuck out of—!”
Taloned fingers I swore I’d rid it of clamped around my throat, hoisting me from the ground with sickening ease. Fumbling to adjust my hold on my dagger, I kicked through the air uselessly. It tightened its grip, crushing the breath from my lungs as its mouth curled into a grotesque grin.
“No!” Leilani’s scream tore through the corridor, and she struck like a bolt of lightning.
With an expertise only she wielded, she spun her sword, slashing across its forearm.
Polluted blood bloomed, and its hand instinctively vanished from my neck as it flung me to the side.
Crashing into stone, I sucked in a mouthful of oxygen while she pressed forward before the being had a chance to recover.
Her steel danced through the hall in a relentless storm, each strike cracking plated flesh and driving the monster backward. Where it swung with crushing strength, she danced between every blow, cutting deeper each time it lunged toward her.
With a deadly smile, she slipped beneath a sweeping claw, pivoted around its towering frame, and drove her blade into the muscles of its back.
The creature roared and spun, but she was already gone, appearing at its flank before it could finish the turn.
Another cut. Then another. Inked life force splattered across the light stone as its jagged spines splintered beneath her relentless assault.
It lashed out with enough vigor to shatter pillars, but she avoided each attack.
Hand slamming into the floor where she had stood only an instant before, she vaulted over its sweeping tail.
Landing lightly on one foot, she carved across its face before springing clear of its snapping maw.
Every movement was effortless, every step measured, as though she’d memorized the entity’s fury before it’d even begun.
For the first time, uncertainty flickered across the monstrosity's grotesque face. Motivated by its fear, she surged forward, sword driving a flurry of precise strikes to its chest and shoulders. The Krythid stumbled back beneath the onslaught, each wound forcing it back another reluctant inch, because it wasn’t overpowering her.
It was losing.
Frantic swings vanishing, its posture settled. Sinking to the floor, the pincers that once twitched with taunts and mockery stilled. Even in the stillness, it was calculating, and when its body shifted, it became clear that the fight was far from over.
Arm sweeping across the debris-laden hall, it angled its clawed fingers in an attack. She reacted exactly as she should have, and she parried. Deflecting the blow with her raised weapon, her mocha irises glinted alongside the tainted steel, and that was exactly what it had been waiting for.
While her sword served as a shield, the creature’s tail uncoiled from its body with horrifying speed.
“Leilani!” I screamed, the warning leaving my lips a fraction of a second too late.
The barbed stinger flashed between us before piercing her stomach. A rasped cry fell from her as the Krythid withdrew with the same fluid motion, taking a step back as if the strike had been nothing more than the final move in a carefully planned hunt.
Her sword slipped from her fingers, striking the stone with a lonely clang. She looked down in disbelief before her eyes found mine, a single tear slipping down her cheeks at the building realization—the venom the monstrosity wielded would be her downfall.
Bottom lip quivering, her knees buckled before they collided with the floor. Swaying once, her body followed, but I didn’t miss the five words she uttered. “I-I love you… I-I’m s-sorry…”
Every sound around me disappeared, the creature and corridor fading. There was only her and the unbearable certainty that, despite all the power awakening within me, I had failed the one who had never failed me. I hadn’t been able to protect her. I hadn’t been able to save her.
I’d failed.
I’d failed.
A visceral scream tore free from my throat as the weaving of fate became nauseating reality.
The woman I loved had been destined to fall from the beginning, another pawn in a grand scheme I loathed to be a part of.
My involvement in the prophecy and the damnation of my autonomy had served as her downfall, and because of it, we wouldn’t share a future.
There would be no more sunrises with her by my side, no more joyous laughter to fill my darkened nights.
All purpose and reasoning would vanish alongside her, and with them my reason to fight would plunge into an abyss filled with uncapped anger.
It was an unmanageable fury that I would leverage, one I would carve through kingdoms, rulers, and gods with, for they had thieved me of the one thing I needed to keep going.
Without Leilani, there was nothing.
Blinking through the hot tears that fell steadily down my cheeks, I lifted my chin.
Every ounce of wrath I harbored settled on the entity responsible for her demise as I freed both swords from their sheaths.
Leaning into Jaskor’s promise and the implications of all he’d spoken, I fixated on his words.
“Only when you release that doubt will you become an unstoppable force.”
Raw indignation boiled until nothing else remained as I stepped off the ledge of sanity and detonated.