Chapter 38
“Open ground,” Brianna had said. “Easily cleared enemies. Plenty of space for us to array ourselves as we deem best. Plus, the monsters there aren’t prone to wander. We can clear an area, take our time setting up, then summon Eclavistra.”
Harald had glanced at Nessa, who shrugged her agreement, and so it was decided.
Nervous excitement filled Harald. They were here at last. The previous two days of waiting had near driven him mad, but now, with the combat at hand, he felt uncertain, doubt assailing his mind.
Were his conjectures sound? Was he dooming his friends? Could they win? Would they all die here, under this brazen sky amidst this perpetual inferno of translucent bronze fire?
Brianna strode forth, magnificent, statuesque, her great blade, Wyrmfall, propped over one shoulder.
In short order, she cleared the plaza of rock snakes, and when a Thunder Lizard trundled in, tail crackling with lightning, she flew to it, blurring through the air, and smote its head apart with one savage blow of her burning white sword.
She made it look easy.
The crew mounted the low hill of crushed bone that rose in the center of the clearing, escaping the bronze flames so that it felt as if they stood on an island surrounded by whispering metallic fields. There they dumped their packs, then turned, uncertain, to Brianna.
The Level 14 Gold-ranker had become the natural locus of their group. Even Nessa seemed unwilling to press the issue.
“All right.” The giantess allowed Wyrmfall to dissipate. “Let’s plan to fight in half a bell. Meditate, pray, do whatever you need. Sam, I imagine you and Exeros need a moment, right?”
The mote of burning light descended to become the scarred Seraph. His gaze was for Sam alone, who paled, bowed her head, then nodded.
They quit the island together to walk toward the closest cliff.
Harald felt his heart break a little as he watched them go. This would change Sam. Make her stronger, yes, make her his equal if not far greater, but it would change her nature. Her fundamental sense of self. He knew her. She’d see blood on her hands forevermore.
“Harald, let’s walk the perimeter,” continued Brianna. “Don’t want any surprises. Nessa, Vic, Kársek, keep a weather eye out for locals.”
Kársek nodded, expression grim, and manifesting his rune hammer, he sat cross-legged and stared out across the burning expanse toward the great cleft in the cliff walls from which the Thunder Lizard had come.
Brianna smiled at him. “Ready, Harald?”
“Ready,” he said, forcing a smile in return, and followed her down into the sea of flame.
* * *
He was nervous, and rightfully so. What they were about to attempt was so ludicrously suicidal that it went beyond honor and into the stuff of legend.
Yet, when Brianna studied Harald sidelong, she saw in the young man something reassuring, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on why.
Not just the work of his Crown of the Abyssal Tyrant, though she could feel that pressing on her Artifacts, her powers.
There was something more.
Not mere resolve. Not desperation. Not raw charisma.
Something deeper. Something more fundamental. Her instincts, her Predator’s Clarity, intuited a force at play, an interest, that she could only attribute to the Fallen Angel herself.
Actions, if they were of sufficient magnitude, drew the Fallen Angel’s attention. Not that the fallen Archon would intervene. But there was a rightness to this suicidal folly that she couldn’t shake, and that sense came from the young man behind her.
From Harald.
“The question you must be asking yourself,” she began, knowing that her job was to settle him, to prepare him for what was to come, “is how do you kill something greater than you?”
Harald startled, glanced at her wide-eyed. He was still so young.
“That’s the question my Class answers.” She pitched her voice low, injected a little amusement into her tone.
Looked ahead, surveying the cliff. “It’s what I do best, and it’s important that you understand my role as the line-holder in the battle to come.
I’ll be able to stymie even an arch demon due to three qualities of mine. ”
She ticked off her first finger. “I’ll get to her, and she won’t get away from me.
I have three powers that allow me to close with anything.
Once I pick my target, the distance between us ceases to matter.
I don’t have to give chase, my power allows me to close with them, again and again, each time my victim tries to run.
Once I arrive, I lock down the fight. My target and I stay together until one of us drops. ”
“Even an arch demon won’t be able to get away from you?”
Brianna smirked. “I’ve locked down dragons, and they’re more mobile than a demon queen stuck in a seven Throne containment field. I’ll get her attention and hold it.”
Harald nodded.
“Second. I get harder to kill the longer the fight goes. My Drakenhart Cuirass—” She rapped on her armor, “dramatically reduces the potency of all enchantments, auras, curses, psychic pressures, environmental warping that target me. It grows heavier the more magic it absorbs, but I’m strong enough to ensure that isn’t a problem. ”
Harald nodded again, wide-eyed.
“But beyond that, I have powers that reflect tremendous blows back on the attacker, my constitution adapts rapidly to all attacks so that they become less effective as the battle wears on, and I can maintain full speed, strength, and cognitive sharpness for hours—my body draws on reserves pulled from my future. I pay the price after the fight. Most battles? My enemies don’t realize they’re losing until it’s too late.
They hit me the first time and see me rocked.
They hit me again, and it works less. By the tenth blow, they’re feeding me more than hurting me.
The smart monsters realize they’ve lost by around the third-minute mark. The dumb ones keep hitting me.”
“Again, will this hold true against Eclavistra?”
Brianna sighed and looked away. “Honestly? Probably not. But I’m not telling you I can defeat her.
My goal is to just hold her for as long as you need to drain her dry.
I’ll defer the price, and keep swinging long past the point where my body should have stopped.
Once we win, I’ll pay the price all at once.
Won’t be pretty. But I’ve done it before. ”
Harald nodded.
“Finally, nobody dies near me.” She ticked off her third finger.
“Anyone who takes a killing blow within my radius of influence won’t die.
They won’t heal, but they’ll stabilize and remain at the threshold until Sam can get them up.
It’s the promise my Class makes: as a Knight, I don’t merely slay monsters but am also charged with protecting my companions from them, too.
And if the blow is such that even my powers can’t save them, my cloak, the Crimson Vow, will trigger its Martyr’s Intercession.
I’ll cross time and space to block the killing blow myself. ”
“Damn,” said Harald softly.
“So.” She took a deep breath and peered into a vertical gash in the cliff.
She already knew it was empty, but movement kept Harald moving, made him, in turn, look around, take ownership of the terrain.
“I’ll lock her down. I’ll hold her attention.
And even if she manages to get an attack past me, I’ll shield you all.
With Sam’s seven Thrones empowering her Abilities, I’ll be tougher than I’ve ever been. But I just wanted you to know, Harald.”
She stopped then and faced him full on. “I’m possibly the best suited raider in all of Flutic to handle this fight.
Everything about me craves the battle that others flee .
” She placed her hand on his shoulder. “I’ll hold the line.
I give you my oath. You focus on draining her from within with your abyss.
For as long as you need, I’ll see to it that she’s held at bay. ”
Harald nodded jerkily. “So—you said before we didn’t have a chance. You…”
Brianna chuckled. “Gallows humor before a battle. Would I be here if I thought there was no chance at all?”
His chest caught, and then he exhaled, shoulders relaxing, and returned her smile. “Right. Of course not.”
“Won’t be easy.” She gave him a slight shake before releasing him. “But I think we’ve got a hell of a chance.”
“Yeah,” he whispered, then said it again, with greater assurance. “Yeah. We do.”
They resumed their patrol of the perimeter. Brianna kept her demeanor calm and confident.
But all the while she kept thinking, again and again, the angels wept, an arch demon. An actual demon queen. My death will be worthy of song. A pity nobody will live to tell the tale.
* * *
Kársek drank deep of the Earthblood. It was rich and mineral-infused in this low level of the dungeon.
With calm and deliberate patience, he layered it again and again within his soul, then hammered it down into a thin wafer of brilliant power before layering more.
He had discovered this technique only the week before at Alabenthos’ sanctum.
A means to saturate himself with almost four times as much fuel as before.
All that it asked for was time, focus, and precision of thought.
Those Kársek had.
The process was meditative, and his thoughts wandered. Thurak. The Rune of Severance. He’d only used it yet once thus far, partially out of fear, if he were honest with himself, but also because it was a Rune not lightly used.
It unwove the world.