by Andrew Rowe
He paused his attack immediately to turn toward me. “Arguably my susceptibility to magic rings.” He blinked. “And apparently I’m still forced to answer your questions honestly.”
I grinned. Finally, something to work with.
“Okay, Derek. What would be the easiest way to free you from the ring’s control?”
“You’d have to take it off.” He turned back to swinging at the ice wall after answering, but I wasn’t done with him.
I kept crawling, talking while I moved. I needed to keep him busy. How?
Oh, I’ve got this.
“What is everything that happens in the first book of the Blackstone Assassin series?”
It was a pretty fair gamble that he’d read it. Practically everyone in our generation had, and it was required reading in a lot of schools.
He turned toward me, frowned, and began, “Well, it’s supposed to be his life story. He begins by talking about...”
I tuned him out. More crawling, less Blackstone.
He turned back to the task of chopping at the wall, but he was clearly distracted. His swings were going slower and seemed almost aimless.
I was half way to the blood splotch when Orden appeared at the top of the stairway and turned to Derek. “Derek, stop prattling and knock these children out. Start with Sera.”
“Yes, Professor Orden.”
Resh.
I turned around, finding Professor Orden stalking toward me.
“That was a clever idea, Corin, but it’s over now.” She shook her head, preparing another globe of flame.
A glance downward showed me Vera’s location — face-down on the floor, unmoving.
I turned back to Professor Orden with a grimace. “You’re quite right, Professor. You’ve put up a great fight, but it’s time for you to surrender.”
I reached into my pouch.
“Cute. But you’re the one out of tricks.”
I raised a single eyebrow. “Am I, now?”
I threw the bell at her.
The bell rang mid-flight, but it wasn’t charged with mana anymore, so I didn’t vanish.
I fixed that with a gray mana blast from my gauntlet when it got close enough for her to be in range.
With my attunement on, I saw air mana and transference mana swell out of the bell to envelope Orden — only to dissipate with no effect.
Orden shook her head. “Adorable. You must be getting desperate to try to teleport me, Corin. Teleportation defenses are the first thing a Wayfarer learns.”
I probably should have expected that.
“Since it’s obvious you’re not going to surrender, we’ll do this the hard way.” The globe of fire in her hand swelled from fist-sized to pumpkin-sized.
There was no way my barrier could handle that, even with the amount I’d recharged it.
I raised my gauntlet, hoping to hit the sphere and combust it, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough.
Orden raised her hand to throw the sphere — and then her head jerked forward. And she fell.
Jin appeared right behind her, shaking his head. He had a pistol in his hand, facing backward. He’d smacked her over the head with it. “She really needs to stop forgetting about me.”
He kicked her body once, flipping her over and down another couple stairs, and then knelt and put a hand on her forehead. I saw a ripple of mana appear over her body. “That should keep her out for a while.
He hit her from so close that her shroud barely cushioned the blow, I realized. Not a bad tactic. But what did he just do to keep her unconscious? Was that an item or his attunement?
I was about to ask when Derek landed next to us and punched Jin straight in the chest.
Jin flew backward off the stairway and out of my sight.
I turned my gaze up to Derek. “I was really hoping that knocking her out was going to free you.”
Derek turned his head down to me. “No such luck.”
He jumped to dodge a lance of ice from Sera, then turned his gaze back toward her.
I reached forward to try to grab Derek’s ring hand, but he just pulled it out of the way and then jumped upward to swing at Sera.
Vanniv flew in the way.
Derek slashed him across the chest, drawing a streak of blood, and Vanniv crashed to the ground.
Sera screamed as Vanniv fell, and pointed a hand at Derek. “Wyvern, handle him!”
The wyvern swept downward as Derek descended from his jump, aiming to pierce Derek with its tail. He side-stepped, grabbed the tail, with his off-hand, and chopped the barbed end off with a twitch of his wrist.
Sera hurled another blast of ice at him, but he deflected it as the wyvern screamed in pain and flew backward.
Derek leapt upward again, swinging his sword and sending a golden shockwave of cutting force toward the wyvern.
The wyvern fell to the floor in two pieces, vanishing a moment later.
I blinked. That was a powerful attack. I’d never seen anything tear apart a spire guardian like that.
We were in a lot of trouble if he decided to hit us that hard.
As Derek landed, he swung a backhand. Jin reappeared, staggering with a bleeding nose.
“Not going to work on me,” Derek remarked sadly.
Sera turned her head downward. “Corin, Jin, I need you to buy me thirty seconds!”
Thirty seconds? I doubted I could buy five.
I debated options.
Jin just set his jaw and jumped on Derek’s back.
Curse it, I could do that, too.
I crawled closer and grabbed Derek’s left leg with both arms.
“Seriously?” Derek flailed and twisted, trying to dislodge us. I lost my grip first, but Jin was surprisingly strong.
That was when I first noticed Jin’s orange aura — one he’d finally stopped suppressing.
It was nowhere near as impressive as the flashing green around Derek, but it was an incredibly welcome sight.
With my grip failing, I raised my demi-gauntlet and shot a couple blasts of transference mana into Derek’s side. They failed to carry him off his feet like they would have with anyone else I’d hit, but each hit shook him and distracted him while Jin managed to slip him into a choke hold.
And while we struggled, I heard Sera incant with crystalline clarity.
“Serpent of the deepest depths,
Mother of a thousand spawn,
Power beyond mortal grasp,
I call upon our bond.
My strength to yours is nothing,
But my soul to yours demands,
Fulfill the oath we made as one,
And come to my command!
Seiryu, I summon you!”
The entire chamber vibrated.
The room flooded with the power of air and ice.
And, at Sera’s command, Seiryu the God Serpent, her final summoned monster, appeared.
It was a rampart of glistening scales of the brightest blue, its coiled form filling nearly every available inch of the chamber. It was not the full size I had seen before. Even with her enhanced mana, Sera could not have hoped to summon Seiryu at its full strength.
But this...
In Seiryu’s presence, I could do nothing but stare. Even just the aura around it was oppressive, overwhelming — and stark blue. Sapphire.
Derek, it seemed, was less impressed.
He jabbed an elbow backward, and as Jin staggered, he spun and struck Jin across the face. Jin fell backward, collapsing on the stairs.
And Sera, coughing, fell from the sky.
Seiryu moved ever-so-slightly as Sera fell, catching her atop its serpentine head. She landed hard, coughing again, but righted herself.
Even from a distance, I could see that the glow in her eyes was fading.
“Seiryu,” she pointed a hand at Derek, “Freeze that man.”
And with that, she collapsed against the serpent’s head.
Derek drew his second sword, facing the god beast head on with a look of grim d
etermination.
Seiryu took a deep breath.
And, realizing what was about to happen, I pushed myself off the stairway.
I hit the floor just before Seiryu exhaled. My back screamed in agony, but the ring flared to keep me conscious.
The blast of permafrost from Seiryu’s jaws spread across a quarter of the room. The sole pillar that was caught in the blast cracked and fractured, and even from the floor, I felt a numbness sweep across my entire body. My barrier flickered into place, then cracked completely apart as the ice continued to slowly spread across the room.
And the breath was still going, the ice still spreading.
In a moment of clarity, I managed to reach into my backpack and pull out the cloak, awkwardly dragging it over the top of my body before the next pulse of cold washed over me.
My legs, fortunately, were already so numb from pain that I barely felt them freeze.
The cloak’s magic offered precious little protection, but it was enough to keep me conscious through the blast.
And as the cold gradually seeped away, I realized that I might have been the only one still awake and aware.
Aside from the giant god beast, of course.
I carefully extracted myself from the cloak, dragging it over my legs and feeling it begin to melt the thin layer of ice away.
Sera had slipped off the creature’s head and fallen to the floor.
Derek was still standing, frozen inside a massive block of ice that enveloped nearly that entire quarter of the chamber.
Within the clear ice, I could still see his flaming sword burning. I could still see his Emerald aura burning bright.
And I could see the ice around beginning to shiver and crack.
You have to be kidding me.
Shivering, I turned my head toward Seiryu. “Uh, Seiryu. Hi.”
The vast god beast turned its head toward me, eyes narrowing.
“I’m Corin, your Summoner’s brother. And ally, just to be clear. Since she’s out cold, I’d hope you’d be willing to help me.”
“State your will, brother of my Summoner.”
The chamber shuddered as the god beast spoke, and I trembled along with it.
“That guy she asked you to freeze is actually one of our friends, and he’s being controlled by the ring on his right hand. Any chance you could remove it and free him?”
“I can sense the ring, but it is too small. You must remove it. I will clear the necessary ice.”
A moment later, I was floating toward the frozen section of the room, and a section of ice began to visibly melt away.
That meant that the ice around Derek was cracking faster, too.
Seiryu levitated me right next to the Derek’s hand. He tried to twist it free to take a swing, but for once, I was faster.
I reached out and yanked the ring off Derek’s hand.
Derek shivered and his Emerald aura flared out.
The ice around him cracked and shattered.
And, now cleared from the ice, he turned his head toward me.
“Th—thanks.”
And with that, his aura vanished, and he fell flat on his face.
I didn’t even try to catch him. I was too startled.
With that resolved, I turned toward Seiryu. “Thank you, truly, Great One. I don’t suppose you could summon Katashi to help us sort this situation out?”
“No, that is not among my abilities.”
I nodded. “Sera — your Summoner — is she okay? Can you heal her?”
“Her condition worsens every moment I remain here.”
The creature’s face twisted into something that I assumed had to be a frown.
“I will grant her a fraction of my strength to sustain her, and then I must go.”
I nodded. “Thank you, Great One.”
The god beast’s eyes met mine. “Do not thank me. It has been centuries since a Summoner as weak as she was brave enough to approach me. I preserve my own.”
With that, the beast turned its gaze toward Sera. And then, with an almost loving motion, it nudged her with its nose and breathed outward again. There was no feeling of cold this time. From my position, I could feel only a surge of energy, almost electrical, in the air.
I saw Sera, still prone on the floor, take in a gasp of breath — and then shiver for an instant before going still.
“It is done.”
Seiryu took one final glance in my direction, dipped its head in something resembling a nod, and then vanished into nothing.
And finally, I felt like I could breathe again.
The first thing I did was crawl over to where I’d dropped my cloak when Seiryu had levitated me.
Then, with my arms sore from effort, I crawled over to Sera and draped the cloak over to her.
“It’s finally over,” I mumbled, carefully pulling fragments of ice out of Sera’s hair.
“It is.” Jin’s voice. He stood Vera, shaking his head.
I was glad to see that he was looking better. He’d wiped the blood off his nose, and though he looked a little shaky, he didn’t seem to have any other obvious injuries.
He turned his head toward me, smiling sadly. “I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to make that date for the winter ball, Corin.”
And then Jin fired two bullets into Vera’s back.
Chapter XXIII — Finishing Moves
I leveled my gauntlet at Jin and fired a blast of transference mana immediately, but he just stepped out of the way and shook his head.
“I really am sorry about this.” He turned his gun back to her and pulled the trigger again — only to hear a click. With a shrug, he discarded the empty gun and drew a dagger from inside his coat.
I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what was happening.
So I fought.
I fired again, this time managing to graze his shoulder and knock him back a few steps.
“Irritating,” he said. “But you can’t stop me. If she’s not already dead, I’ll finish it soon. Don’t worry; I have no interest in hurting you.”
“What are you doing? Stop!” I tried my legs again. The ring had been doing great work. I made it to a half-standing position before my legs collapsed under me again.
Jin sighed. “Just stay down, Corin. It’s nothing personal, but she’s a threat.”
I trembled. Not with cold this time, but with rage. “A threat? She’s unconscious, Jin!”
Jin took a step closer to her, and I fired again. He deflected the shot with his dagger, but the force of the impact nearly forced him to drop it.
Jin shook his head at me. “Not an immediate threat. A long-term threat. I can’t allow you to hand her over to Katashi. Not after everything we’ve just learned. Not after everything she’s done.”
“Okay, I can understand having moral concerns about making god beasts, but this is not the way—”
“It’s not about that, Corin.” Jin sighed. “It’s about protecting my own people.”
“We stopped Orden already, Jin. There’s no need to worry about her tricking Dalenos into a war.”
He closed his eyes. “That was never the concern, Corin.”
“What are you talking about?”
With a sigh, he reopened his eyes. “I’m not from Dalenos. I’m from East Edria.”
I clenched my hands into fists. “You. You’re the Edrian spy that everyone has been so worried about?”
Jin chuckled. “I thought your mind would jump that way. That’s why I never told you. Everyone from Edria must be a spy or a traitor. No, Corin, I’m not a spy. I’m just a student who happened to be born in East Edria.”
He shook his head, giving me a sad smile. “You want to know why I never told you I’m from Edria? Because there’s nothing but hatred toward Edria here. Never mind that I’m from the part that was conquered in the same war that Valia is always talking about.”
I...couldn’t argue with that. Not really. If he’d told me he was from Edria, even East Edria, there was no way
I wouldn’t have associated him with the Six Years War. I wasn’t above judging people by their place of birth, as much as I wanted to be.
I would have to be better in the future.
I shook my head. “You gave Dalen as your last name, though.”
“My last name is Dalen, Corin. You remember the story from class about the Unbroken Queen? My family were among her retainers. Where I come from, everyone in service to a family uses their family name. Even when the queen finally perished, we kept the name.”
I nodded. “I remember the story. That still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here, though.”
“There’s no conspiracy, Corin. I’m just a transfer student. I never showed you my attunement because I’m a Mesmer. That’s an Edrian attunement. I’m Sunstone because we take our tests at a younger age. I’m not an assassin. I’m not even that much of a patriot, truth be told. But when I hear people are making artificial attuned to use as weapons against my home? I pay attention.”
“Only for defense,” I tried, but the line sounded weak, even to me.
Jin tightened his hand into a fist. “Right, right. I’m sure they’d never realize that they had enough weapons on leashes to try them out. Maybe just wipe a small city off the map to scare Edria a little. You know, as a defensive measure. With acceptable civilian losses. It’s not like they’d be Valian citizens.”
I clenched my jaw. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe someone would use an artificial attuned like that. But you’ve seen Vera. You saw her with Echion. She treated him like a brother, not a weapon. She’s one of the ones that would try to stop this kind of madness.”
He shrugged. “Might be true, but right now? My best bet here is to make sure she never makes it to Katashi — so that he launches the attack that he promised you. And maybe, just maybe, he’ll be thorough enough to eradicate the monsters on your council that were pulling the strings on this whole plan.”
I narrowed my eyes. “And the people who live near the tower? Our civilians? Katashi said he was going to send Seiyru next time, Jin. The real Seiryu — not a manifestation like Sera made. A fully-grown god beast, unleashed with the purpose of destruction. That’s exactly the type of thing you’re trying to stop!”
Jin’s jaw tightened and he turned his head to the side, unwilling to meet my gaze. “You’re right. I’m behaving just like Orden, in a sense. I know that. I value my home over yours. And, if need be, I’m willing to sacrifice your home in order to save mine. Maybe that makes me just as much of a monster as the people I’m fighting. Maybe it’s just human nature.”