Chapter Two
Denny stood in their doorway.
That was all Vester had time to register before an armored fist slammed into the bridge of his nose and sent him flying down the hall like a ragdoll.
He hit a wall, bounced, felt his back strike the floor and his knees flip up over his head, and ended up having somehow landed upside down against the kitchen doorframe.
He’d impacted with a crack that took far too long to register as the door breaking—he’d momentarily thought it had been his spine.
“You killed Jack!” Denny roared, charging in through the door with his fist raised a second time.
The Hero might have hit Vester again if he hadn’t suddenly been blindsided by Dent’s massive arm coming out through the workshop corridor to clothesline him.
Denny’s feet went out from under him and his body hit the ground like a sack of anvils.
That didn’t stop him from dodging the descending hammer-hand a second later.
Dent’s massive iron frame shifted, the thick maul pulling up out of the floorboards while the follow up ax-hand swung down.
Denny had no choice but to roll backward to avoid having his leg cleaved off, and then Dent was herding him back toward the door.
By that point Vester had regained his wits, so he used Decoy Snap to reposition himself in the stairwell that led upstairs and began shifting the interior of the building around with his illusions to ensure no one could aim in through the windows.
Shadows and smoke now seemed to fill every pane of glass, and ebony gargoyles emerged from the ceiling to give the place a haunting aura.
Vester’s Party hadn’t been idle either. Kora appeared in the kitchen doorway, a tower shield held up to protect the pair behind her, and had a scimitar crackling with flames in her other hand. Behind the kitsune were Krysta and Skylar. The Hospitality Mage thrust her staff forward.
The silver tone on the outer curve of the steel shepherd’s crook glowed for a moment, then Denny’s entire body slowed down.
The Hero moved like gravity had increased on him a thousand-fold, which meant he was unable to block a vicious uppercut from the iron golem.
Dent’s hammer caught Denny in the center of his chest and sent the tall man flying back out through the door onto the street.
“What is happening!” Skylar yelled, unable to see past Krysta and Kora.
“Oh, just the Hero coming to visit,” Vester managed, though his words were slurred from the broken nose and swollen jaw. He flexed his neck and mouth, fairly certain Denny had cracked several bones in his face—fortunately, Krysta’s Sanctuary was already mending the damage.
Vester moved down off the stairs and came alongside Dent so he could get a clear view out the door.
He saw no sign of his twin brother, though there was a pile of broken fencing across the street and several cracked cobblestones that suggested Denny had ricocheted off the road and into their neighbor’s lawn.
He caught a glimpse of Denny’s brown hair emerging from the bushes, and then the Hero was completely shrouded in a brilliant white flame—roaring straight toward Vester like a cannonball.
The Hero’s fist slammed into Dent’s broad chest and the golem rocked backward, the puppet having stepped between Vester and his twin.
Denny’s fists pounded on the iron frame, and Dent’s body began coming apart, shattering under the impact of the Hero’s gauntlets.
Skylar was close enough that her Repair Aura was working to kept Dent together, but Vester could see that it was a losing battle—the cracks and tears in Dent’s iron body were growing worse by the moment.
He raised his hand, intending to hit Denny with a Deprivation Cage, but froze when a blast of lavender light from the doorway suddenly surrounded him.
Vester’s soul ignited in purple flames.
It was a surreal experience to realize that he’d achieved a level of pain so great he just…
stopped feeling it. He was aware he was in agony, yet none of it registered on his consciousness.
It came with the unfortunate side effect of leaving Vester paralyzed, as the same distance that separated him from his pain also numbed his body and cost him his ability to react.
Reve didn’t have that problem.
A scream echoed from the stairwell a second before something hurtled over Vester and then swept past Dent.
Vester had no idea how Reve’s wings didn’t clip Dent—she couldn’t even open them properly in the house—yet she managed to twist past the towering golem and slam her mithril fist into Denny’s face so hard the man hit the ceiling.
A telekinetic wave actually bowed the walls of the house, cracking the wood, and it blasted Rachel backward. It wasn’t until the shockwave hit her that Vester even realized the Soulsage was there. Once Reve’s attack sent her flying, Rachel’s magic broke and Vester was able to move again.
Decoy Swap got him outside, where Vester swiftly took in Rachel being healed by Davis.
Emma was channeling something, a white spire forming around her body like a crystal lighthouse made of pure light.
Denny was inside, which left Kimmy unaccounted for.
Vester wasn’t going to wait until Emma got off whatever spell she was working on, so he lunged across the street.
If Reve’s hit hadn’t left Rachel so groggy, she might have gotten her warning off on time for Davis to shield them.
As it was, Vester moved too fast—he was among them by the time the golden barrier formed around them.
Trickster’s Cane had appeared in his grip while he raced across the cobblestones, and its tip flicked out to tap each of them.
Deprivation Cage activated, and all three began thrashing.
The spell completely cut them off from outside stimulus: no smells, no sounds, no sights, nothing to tell them what was going on.
Rachel froze, clearly unsure what to do.
Davis blasted an aura of golden light around himself, which actually had the byproduct of mending the last of Vester’s broken nose.
Emma simply… sat there. It was like the girl had no idea what to do without access to the outside world. She just began trembling and crying, unwilling to move at all. The spell she’d been gathering completely collapsed into faded sparks that hit the ground with a dull hiss.
It was the massive bang from behind him that reminded Vester there was still the problem of his twin brother to handle. He spun in time to see Reve block the swing of Denny’s sword a second time, though her metal arm split along the back to reveal the adamantine bones and silver muscle fibers.
Vester caused an illusory inferno to roar into being around Reve, counting on her Perception Aura to allow her to see through it.
The Avatar of Life didn’t even flinch, yet Denny dove backward to avoid the heat he felt on his skin.
The distance let Li Ra blast him with three fast shots from one of her pistols.
The oni was half out of an upstairs window, straddling the sill and bracing her gun across her forearm. She hit Denny three more times before the weapon glowed red with a demand to cool off. Her shots had broken the heavy armor across his chest, punching into the metal and leaving glowing pits.
Denny went to rush back in, his sword aimed at Reve, only to clang off a tower shield.
Kora’s muscles bulged with the effort of stopping the Hero’s attack, though that didn’t stop her from flicking her tails to send a wall of stone rising from the street to collide with Denny’s chin.
He was too tough for that to take him down, but it did send him stumbling back.
Krysta and Skylar had made it to the doorway, and Vester saw Ripper and Woody had moved into position behind Reve, the golems shifting outward in preparation of a pincer attack.
Things weren’t looking good for Denny, and while Vester was mad at being sucker punched, he couldn’t let his Party kill his brother.
“ENOUGH!” he bellowed with the full might of his Freeform Illusions.
Vester had never really tested how loud he could make an illusion, and the wave of sound almost stunned him.
It was like thunder had just erupted over Porter’s Walk.
If his voice hadn’t been magic, he was sure it would have rattled or broken the windows around him.
Reve actually stumbled, with Li Ra, Kora, and Krysta not looking much better. Their sensitive ears were no doubt left ringing from the explosion of noise—though it had served to get Denny’s attention perfectly.
The Hero’s gaze snapped around to focus on Vester, only to realize that Emma, Rachel, and Davis were basically helpless.
Vester had coated Trickster’s Cane in the illusion of its rapier form, though he hadn’t actually activated Unfettered.
The ‘blade’ appeared to be hovering at Emma’s throat.
“If this battle continues, I can guarantee Jack won’t be the last friend you lose,” Vester said, voice now soft.
He’d told Denny that he would gladly be the villain of Denny’s story if it meant he could live his own life… and now he was forced to play the part. Vester ensured an illusion of his own disdainful face kept his true expression masked—he couldn’t show weakness.
Denny didn’t seem to know what to do, so Vester pushed on.
“I will not apologize for killing a man who tried to murder me repeatedly,” Vester said.
“If you think I’m some monster, then you’d best ask yourself why your friends still breathe. They’re blind, deaf, and dumb to the world. I could stab them and they wouldn’t even feel it. They’d just grow weaker and weaker, then die, never understanding what happened. Is that what you want?”
“You bast—”
“No,” Vester cut Denny off coldly. He’d reinforced his voice with magic once again, though without raising the volume quite so high.
“This entitlement you feel that makes you think your way is the only right one is over. You don’t get to lecture me on wanting to live freely or having my own life and goals. You don’t get to act like the golden boy any longer. Your goddess is a murdering cunt,
and you’re following her orders like a blind dog. That behavior got your asshat of a friend killed. Take some personal fucking accountability.”
Denny didn’t seem to know how to respond. His face was flushed with rage, and Vester could see the muscles in Denny’s jaw bunching, yet his brother just stared in helpless confusion. The man’s sword drooped, and Vester gave thanks that his own Party wasn’t pushing for the fight to continue.
“Every time we’ve clashed has been because you’ve come after me,” Vester pointed out.
“Except for the sparring match, Jack was the aggressor, or you were trying to throw your weight around. If you’re angry that you’ve lost each time, tough luck. You don’t get to come to my house, again and again, and then act the victim when I defend myself. You fucked around, you found out.
Stop thinking you’re the main character and get over yourself.”
Denny’s jaw dropped, and Vester realized that he had allowed his persona to slip, talking the way he would have back on Earth. He was too frustrated with Denny to truly care, but he knew it could cause him problems later.
Vester let smoke flow around his rapier, and Denny tensed, but it was just a fancy way to dismiss the illusion of the blade. Vester swept Trickster’s Cane in a circle and grounded the cane against the cobblestones with a sharp click that echoed up and down the street.
“Take your fucking friends and go, Denny,” Vester ordered.
He triggered Phantom Form and walked through Emma like a ghost.
She never even reacted. He strode straight up to Denny and then passed through his brother’s body as well.
Then he came to a stop next to Reve and turned to face his twin. “I’m tired of this bullshit.”
“You’re harboring the Dark Lo—”
“Go,” Vester said, once again interrupting his brother.
“I don’t care for whatever justification you think you have. And I’m done listening to your shit. You were the aggressor, you lost. You can take your friends or you can watch them die. Throw up your barrier and we’ll crack it like an eggshell. They’re helpless, and you can’t stop all of us.
You couldn’t stop me alone. Don’t push this. If you do… you’ll be left on a field of ash.”
Denny stared at him, and Vester felt his heart break at the hatred in his brother’s eyes. The Hero flicked his eyes at the trio Vester had walked away from.
Davis fired off another blind healing spell in an attempt purge Deprivation Cage’s effects; Rachel’s magic kept popping and fizzling, whatever the Soulsage was attempting apparently unable to function while she was disconnected from the world; and Emma, Emma just cried, silent, unmoving,
completely disconnected from everything around them.
Vester suspected it was the tears that convinced Denny to give up.
He saw the exact moment his brother’s shoulders slumped, and knew they’d won.
Denny backed away and picked up Emma in his arms, then carefully slung her over one shoulder.
No one interfered as he put Davis over his other shoulder and lifted Rachel up like a keg and began waddling down the street with them.
“Why did we let them go?” Reve asked bluntly once Denny was out of earshot. She was flexing her metal hand like she wanted to tear something with her nails. “We had the advantage.”
“Because he’s still my brother,” Vester said. The Avatar of Life glanced at him, then gave a reluctant nod. “Was anyone hurt?” Vester asked, turning to face his Party. “Other than Reve’s arm and my face, I mean.”
“Dent’s pretty messed up,” Skylar replied. “And I banged my elbow on the doorframe coming outside,” she whined with an exaggerated wince. “You might have to carry me inside and nurse me back to health.”
The joking complaint got a weary chuckle from Kora. The kitsune was rolling her shoulder, and Vester noted she hadn’t put away her shield yet. Krysta cast her ranged heal on Kora, then each of them one after another, and everyone seemed to relax.
“This doesn’t bode well for us,” Kora observed, staring at Denny’s back while the Hero made his way down the street. “Attacking us in our home, in the middle of Porter’s Walk, in defiance of all the treaties between the Adventurer’s Guild and the Church of Light…”
“Yeah,” Vester agreed. “It’s one thing to do something like this down in the dungeons where no one can see it… but we’re on a public street and it’s early in the day. A full fight could have destroyed this whole block.
We’d best head down to the Guild and send some couriers to make sure our deliveries get brought to us there instead of here.”
“Do you think they’ll attack again?” Krysta asked, clearly anxious. Skylar wrapped the pandali in a one-armed hug, cuddling Krysta to her. Krysta’s tail returned the gesture, wrapping around the both of them.
“Unfortunately yes,” Vester said with a nod. “Denny’s too stubborn to let Jack go, so we’re going to have to be ready.”