Limits applied to everyone. Kar had hoped he could find a way to defy them. At least one more time.
He tripped in the grass, exhausted, and barely brought a shield he’d forged up in time to block a powerful strike from a shadowcryst. The blow still knocked him off his feet, and he dropped the shield.
Kar was done. Adrenaline had pushed him far, but he couldn’t move any longer, no matter how much he wanted to.
The remnants of well over a dozen shadowcryst were scattered all around. Kar had taken all their collective power, then been forced to forge most of it into armor and weapons that kept breaking. The more he struggled to concentrate, the worse his forgings turned out.
He raised his right arm just in time to stop a stomping blow from the creature assailing him. Something in his chest cracked sickeningly under the force of the blow anyway. Kar shadow-healed himself without thought, and traded one pain for another.
A cylinder bearing broke the creature’s leg, and Kar reached out with his left hand to grab hold.
For the first time since the day before, Kar found himself losing the struggle to out-absorb his opponent. He groaned, and arched his back, as his foe tore more and more Dark Energía away. He was holding a lot of it.
The beast grew, second by second, until it towered above him.
Kar weakly tried to break away, but his vision was fading. He felt like he was drowning as his body started seizing.
A blade of Focus-forged metal punched through the shadowcryst from behind, its tip emerging through the front of the thing's chest. Something vital must have been struck because light burst forth from the creature, and then it collapsed in the grass next to Kar.
Human and Valorcryst battle cries followed, but Kar paid them no heed. He only had eyes for Melisdra, who stood over both the fallen Shadowcryst and Kar. She stared down at him with a cool glare and something far deeper than disappointment.
Get in line. Kar thought to himself. Her disappointment only mirrored his own.
He laid his head back in relief, and stared up at the blue sky overhead. Hazy smoke from the fires in Darby spoiled the view.
“Can you walk?” Melisdra asked him.
“I’m sure I can.”
She didn’t move to help him stand.
Kar gathered his arms behind him, and pushed himself to his feet exhaustedly. The ring around his shoulder broke then, falling in pieces to the ground. He and Melisdra both stared at its remnants for a moment, then at one another.
The last of the nearby shadowcryst had been brought down by Melisdra’s companions. A band of both Valorcryst and human Focusers. Erio was among them. He pulled his lance free from the center of one shadowcryst, to let it fall motionless, then walked over to join Kar and Melisdra.
“For what it's worth,” Kar said, “I didn’t mean to open the Causeway, and I tried to close it back.”
For the first time since he’d known the Valorcryst, Melisdra trembled with barely controlled emotion. “Do you know how many your actions have killed?”
Kar swallowed, feeling dizzy on his feet. “Too many,” he whispered.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
She sheathed her blades violently, and jerked her head for Kar to follow.
Aldwin and Derek joined the group. They both looked haggard and spent.
Even now, Kar could spot more shadowcryst headed their way. They were peeling off from the mass still at the walls. The larger titan, however, had turned back toward the heart of the town. It seemed to be retreating toward the Causeways.
“What’s happening there?” Kar asked, gesturing vaguely toward it.
Melisdra and Erio both turned to look.
“Another Void Herald has arrived through the Bore.” Erio answered. “The Shade-Titan will battle it for dominion, and the victor will take control of the shadowcryst here in Dagenar.”
“Another…” Kar mumbled, “was that man I killed last night the first Herald?”
Melisdra turned sharply to look at Kar, her cryst eyes narrowing. “You—killed the Herald at the Causeways?”
Kar nodded meekly.
She appeared to reassess him. “I had assumed he’d lost control somehow and been struck down by one of his thralls.”
“How did you manage it?” Erio asked reverentially.
“uh-I’m not sure.” Kar said, holding up his left hand to present the ring on his middle finger. “He’d put up some kind of invisible barrier that broke when this got close to it. He seemed really surprised, and I was able to stab him.”
“Let me see that.” Melisdra said, stopping and turning back toward Kar. He held out his hand. His right arm trembled powerfully, and Melisdra side-eyed it while taking hold of his other hand to inspect the ring there.
“I noticed this before but didn’t think anything of it. Where did you get it?”
Cracked lips stung as Kar licked them nervously. “Found it. In a ship. Underground.”
Erio and Melisdra both looked at him confused.
“Do you know what it's made from?” Erio asked, leaning in close to look at it himself.
“It’s manifested crystal…” Melisdra muttered, “but I can’t sense what kind of Energía it’s formed out of.”
“Neither can I.” Erio said.
Kar pulled his hand back, feeling self-conscious. He had assumed they would know what it was and how it worked. Thinking back though, Ember hadn’t known what any of the rings or that staff Kar had found were either. Then again, Ember hadn’t seemed to remember or know much of anything.
“The Herald’s death has given us time, at least.” Melisdra said, turning to continue walking. They all fell in around her as she led them on a roundabout approach toward the fortress. “That Shade-Titan is a brute, but not intelligent. If the Herald had lived, he would have had the shadowcryst through our walls before the night was through.”
A flicker of hope stirred within Kar. “If you can help me get back to the Causeway, I think I can close it this time. I almost managed it last night, it was flickering just like it did when it first opened.”
Melisdra laughed bitterly. “I lost over half my soldiers and a score of Valorcryst trying to reach it yesterday.” She glanced over at Kar.
He had drawn even with her, pushing himself to match her long strides. “But we have to close it…”
“No.” She said forcefully, shaking her head. “We, do not. You have to move on to the next trial, while I try to salvage this situation.”
Kar missed a step, feeling wounded.
“As things stand,” Melisdra continued, “my hope is that this new Herald is wounded or worn out fighting against the Titan. We can stage a push if that happens and attempt to drive the shadowcryst back beyond the Causeway. If that succeeds, we can build a barricade within the Bore and defend from there. We’re used to such fighting.”
“But—“
“This isn’t a discussion!” Melisdra yelled at him.
The others pointedly looked away from them, Valorcryst and human.
Kar set his teeth, feeling like a small child.
“I’ll accept that you didn’t intend to open the Causeway. But either way, you’re far too dangerous for me to allow you to stay here any longer. The Source may have a plan for you, but I wash my hands of it.”
That stung.
Erio drew even to the other side of Melisdra. They were half the distance to the fortress walls now, and a host of cryst-soldiers and their Valorcryst commanders had sallied forth to make a safe path for them.
“He has been Marked Melisdra.”
“And I say the Source should have Marked another!”
Uncomfortable silence fell, absolute save the sounds of their small force treading through the tall grass.
Erio tried again, “We can’t abandon him.”
“We’re not,” Melisdra responded, “you’re going with him, from here on out. If anyone can keep him in line, it's you. But he must move on, immediately.”
She turned to address Kar then. “I’m taking you to the Hall of Trials. There’s a portal door there, and an Essence basin. Beyond that will be the door to the last Trial of this Vault. You and your party must go. We’ll send you with supplies.”
“Although…” she paused, sharing a guarded look with Erio, “you should be able to clear the fifth trial quickly, unless you die in the effort.”
Follow - Favorite - Rate - Review Here!
Patreon!
