Nothing less than a thousand of their Kingdom’s best had any hope of defeating her, but even with that, she was just too powerful. With the thousand alone, she would not have lost. Her senses would have been overloaded for sure, but it was the equivalent of facing an army of Terr. Nothing for a Sage to be concerned about.
It was her wound that ultimately killed her. She probably sensed no danger coming from the King and made her move. But since he had absorbed a Sage, he may have had all those years to adequately study them, including their transformations. When she attacked, he was able to wait for the exact moment he could take the advantage, a half a second before her senses sounded the alarm. With such a wound keeping her focus divided, the thousand were able to slowly but effectively cut her down.
Because based on what James was feeling now, he was confident of one thing:
Jester could not win on his own.
“Be gentle,” Jester cackled as he ran forward with his silver eidolon stretched out before him like he was jousting. James waited until it was just about to hit his neck, then he swung his arm up from his side and parried Jester’s eidolon with his own. He continued sliding the blade across Jester’s until it reached the clown’s neck and through it. Jester’s head came clean off but James didn’t take it as a sign of victory. He swung around and let his arm embrace a mind of its own, lashing at the clown’s falling body like a whip until he was nothing but pieces of colorful cloth and flesh. He was amazed by how there was no blood or organs spilt, simply chunks of him, as if James had been chopping wood from a tree.
To his horror, the pieces began quivering and moving towards one another, fusing and regenerating at a frantic pace. Every time he blinked, it seemed like a new appendage had been made whole. James searched for the core of Jester’s essence with his eidolon but found none. How could he die if he wasn’t really alive to begin with?
James considered chopping up the pieces even more but decided to let Jester make himself whole. Maybe he could get some information out of the madman as to how he could perform such a feat.
“What are you doing, James?” a deep voice shouted from behind, interrupting his thoughts. He recognized who it was before he turned to face him. It was his mentor and friend, one of the few adults he actually respected:
Arimus.
But his teacher had definitely seen better days. James’ eyes instinctively glanced at the lost right arm, only an empty sleeve remaining. He noticed his teacher’s skin was singed beyond repair. Though his face was relatively untouched, his forearms were scabbed and cracked. His beard had lost much of its hair and his eyes were weary. Even as he climbed the last of the mountain to reach his pupil, his body audibly ached in James’ ears.
“Arimus, what did they do to you?” James asked out of concern, but Arimus shook his head.
“Do not worry about me,” he said. “You should be more concerned about your enemy. Why are you allowing him to regenerate?”
“I need more information about Zen-echelon.”
“You won’t receive anything from him. He’s psychotic. If Prattle couldn’t uncover his secrets, how will you?”
“I plan on forcing them out.”
“I see your newfound power, but you’ll need more than that. You’re not invincible. Evidently, none of us are.”
“It doesn’t matter what you do,” Jester laughed, his upper half completely formed now. “It will all be over in a matter of days.”
“Say your last words,” Arimus said. “Then we will allow you to know peace.”
“The ether,” Jester smiled. “It’s done spreading.”
“Quit your lies,” Arimus barked as Jester’s smile stretched to its limits.
“No lies to tell,” he said. “The ether has spread over all of the Kingdoms. Why? Is it sooner than you anticipated?”
“If this is true, what happens now?”
“My master makes his move,” Jester chuckled. “And if I kill two of the last Sages here and now, I’ll probably be given one of the Kingdoms for my own. I’ll make sure to request Allay. It will be fun subjecting your family and friends to all the delicious tortures I can think of.” He licked his lips. “And don’t worry. I won’t kill Catherine. I’ll make her my queen. We’ll have a lot of little Jesters running around in no time.”
James took off the clown’s head for the second time. Arimus placed a hand on James’ shoulder.
“Allow me to assist you,” he said as he unsheathed his windmill-shaped eidolon from behind him. “Though I can’t be sure, I suspect this creature has a regenerative property that will surpass the limits of our human body. I fear that simply chopping him into pieces will end up with us hacking away for the next month.”
“What do you suggest?” James asked.
“Go ahead and do your work. I’ll call upon my winds to finish it. Even blades have their limits. In which case, you need to rely on more finesse and gentler tactics to get the job done.”
James cut Jester down to the best of his ability and then let Arimus take over. The winds coming from the center of his windmill eidolon wrapped around each piece like a ring and then squeezed, slicing each chunk into finer and finer dust until there was nothing visible. When Arimus was finished with that, he sent a large gust to wipe off the top of the mountain like a broom, sweeping the ash and dust into all directions. When he was finished, they both sheathed their eidolons.
“If he can regenerate after that,” Arimus replied. “It will take a very long time.”
“Then we’ll have to-“
A sucking sound was heard from the sky above, and they both followed the source. Catherine had been released of her binds and was now falling past the mountain and to the surface. Still unconscious, there was no way for her to catch herself.
Arimus began to speak but James had already started running. Still in his heightened state, he only had to take three strides before he catapulted into the air, directly toward the Princess. He caught her in mid-air and held her tight in his arms, caring little for what lay below him. They were still falling and picking up speed, but all James could do was hold her and get ready to bear the force of their landing. He dared not stick his eidolon into the side of the mountain for fear that he may hurt her with the sudden jolt.
But thankfully he didn’t have to worry long as Arimus caught them with one of his winds and brought him back to the mountaintop in one swoop. He let them down gently just as Catherine’s eyelashes began to flutter. She smiled when she saw James looking down at her, holding her in his lap with a cheesy grin on his face.
“You look rested,” she smiled. “I’m glad, but –“ She rushed to her feet and glanced around angrily. “WHERE IS HE?”
“Dead,” Arimus said. “Or so we hope. James and I dispatched him.”
“How did you find me?”
“Eidolon,” James replied as Arimus nodded.
“Same. Once I caught on to your location, I made my way here as fast as I could. James was here first. Did he hurt you at all?”
“No,” she groaned, rubbing the back of her head. “But he knocked me out once we got to the mountaintop. I don’t remember anything after that, but I did feel myself falling. Lucky someone caught me…so how’s the mission going? How’s Kyran, Scarlet and Dominic? I assume they made it out of Quietus okay.”
“Kyran said that Dominic and Chloe had died.”
“But Dominic was alive the last I saw him,” Catherine said. “Did he say what killed him?”
“No, just that he had died. He didn’t seem very talkative, even for him.”
“And Scarlet?”
“Both Scarlet and Kyran headed to Zen-echelon. I’m confident they arrived by now. From here on we’re just waiting for their return.”
“And the stones?”
“In my care.”
“Then we head for our last destination: Prattle. That way, once we meet up, it will all be over.”
“I think we have more to concern ourselves about than that. Before h
e died, Jester said that the ether was complete and Zen-echelon was prepared to make its move.”
“All the more reason why we should head to Prattle. Let’s finish this by getting the last stone.”
“And what if Zen-echelon attacks Allay in our absence?” Arimus said calmly. “Everyone would be lost.”
“If Allay falls, then we’ll be forced to align with another Kingdom, but either way, we will have a people. There should be no more division if Zen-echelon starts attacking openly. The entire world would see what he’s doing and respond accordingly. I think that if anything, we’ll be attacked personally like with Jester.”
“Well, then to Prattle we go, Princess,” Arimus nodded. “I was just making sure this is what you wanted.”
He began walking away slowly as Catherine turned to James in awe.
“You’ve changed since we last saw each other,” she said as James glanced down at his robe and laughed.
“More training from Chloe coming to fruition, I guess. This was the first time I attempted it and Jester was so crazy he gave me the time I needed to prepare. I’m glad it worked though. There’s no way I would have won otherwise. He was ridiculously strong.”
“So how did you do it?”
“We’ll talk while we travel,” James said, ushering her forward. They rejoined Arimus who listened attentively as the young Sage continued, slowly letting his robe disintegrate into the air and his former clothes to reappear.
“If you’ve transformed, then you are now the strongest amongst us,” Catherine said.
“I doubt it,” James admitted, rubbing his hair. “I’m realizing more and more that we all have the same capabilities. I think Chloe just thought outside of the box so she took risks that others saw no profit in. Think about it. If our souls break, we die. Why would someone play around with that?”
“Why did you?”
“Because she said it was the only way I could become stronger. I had to focus solely on my training.”
“So what did you learn?” Arimus asked.
“The light that engulfs us,” James continued, staring at the palms of his hands. “We never question where it comes from. All we accept is that it’s like a signal, letting us know that it’s time to pull out our eidolon before it disappears. When it blazes bright, we’re always so quick to unleash our eidolon and attack that we don’t study it at all. We never ask ourselves what it is exactly.”
“So what is it?”
“I think it’s our soul emerging. And if so, this is very important. Because that means that light is the source of our power. We limit our own power by not harnessing it and using it to its full potential. So often we just take our eidolon from it and then put our soul back in its safe when we could achieve so much more. So this time, instead of just reaching for my eidolon, I let it spread. I focused on transforming myself…and my soul - that limitless source of energy, gave me what I needed. One body part at a time, I was able to become stronger than ever, and only because I allowed my soul to simply do what it’s been doing ever since I became a Sage. We can all do it, Arimus.”
“Perhaps, but it sounds as if you need time to reach that level of power. Jester waited for you out of sport, but your enemy might not be so merciful next time.”
“True,” James said. “But if our enemy is winning already, it’s worth the risk. I’m telling you – Chloe would not have lost against the Quietus if she hadn’t already been wounded. And I’ve learned recently that Zen-echelon may be afraid of the Sages. It’s got me thinking that we have more power than we realize, and Allay wasn’t just attacked for fun. The siege was planned.”
“If Zen-echelon hates Sages so much, then Kyran and Scarlet will have a difficult time there.”
“Maybe,” Catherine spoke up. “But with Kyran’s stealth and Scarlet’s power, they should have more than enough to retrieve the stone. I mean, I shudder a little whenever I see Scarlet in battle. She’s never lost…never…”
* * * * *
“Damn,” Scarlet muttered as she leaned onto the hilt of her halberd eidolon. The staff was taller than she was, but it still managed her weight. She closed her eyes for only a second when she growled in rage, picked it up from the deep mud and pointed it straight at Thorn.
“INCINERATE!” she bellowed as a tsunami made of lava erupted from her eidolon’s center and threatened to engulf Zen-echelon’s King. He looked up and whistled at the size, but he refused to budge. Instead, he thrust his right palm forward and just as the tsunami was to hit, it flowed around him as if it was dodging at will. The tsunami continued to flow behind him and then came back to life with fury as it flew right back at Scarlet.
Scarlet’s jaw dropped as she threw up her arms to shield against the wave. The lava hit her with full force, sending her off her feet and into the smoldering mud. She growled as she felt some of her hair burn away, but at least it didn’t hurt that much. She had been hit by her own attack many times before. It was, after all, part of her personal training. She knew that in order to become a great warrior, she had to build up her tolerance to pain, but the way this battle was going, she wasn’t sure if she could take much more.
They had only been fighting for about a minute, but in that small window, he had humiliated her both physically and of spirit. She gave her all in striking him down but he refused to even draw the steel sword at his side, a weapon so insignificant compared to an eidolon that it might as well have been a slingshot. He merely dodged and punched her. Each blow of his fists covered in uncanny strength, making her feel as if she would fall unconscious each time one connected. Now she kept her distance, but still, nothing affected him.
“So will you join me now?” Thorn shouted to her as she huffed.
“I’m not finished yet!” she yelled. Thorn chuckled and placed his fists on his hips.
“The hour is growing late, and I want an answer. Tell you what, I’ll come over to finish this now, and I promise, that no matter what I do to you…no matter how severe the wound, I will heal you and bring you back to full health. Is that a good proposal?”
“Don’t you touch me!” Scarlet shrieked as Thorn patted the hilt of his steel sword.
“I won’t,” he yelled back as he finally drew the blade. Scarlet grunted and nearly dropped to one knee. She could still feel the imprints of his fists all over his body, and that was when he had been on the defense! Scarlet groaned and cursed the ground as she thought of Chloe, that idiotic prodigy that gained her Sage abilities so easily. What would she do if she was here?
Wait. Scarlet thought in disgust. Why am I even thinking about this?
Scarlet gripped her staff and climbed back to her feet as Thorn slowly approached, giving her a moment to gather herself. Thorn began increasing the speed of his stride, but she refused to wait for him to come to her. No, she would meet him head on.
Scarlet ran forward, shouting as loud as she could, swinging her eidolon at her sides and using all the information it could give her to devise a plan. At last, just as they were about to clash swords, her eidolon told her that his left side was far weaker than his right – an old hip injury from a battle long ago. It was at least a chance.
Scarlet focused all her attention on his right, preparing to pierce through him as she kept herself open, allowing Thorn to make any wound he desired, even a fatal one. If she was going to lose her first battle to this man, he was going to at least remember her for the rest of his life.
Scarlet jousted forward with all her might, knowing that if he parried, the steel sword was not dense enough to counter her eidolon. To her surprise, he allowed the thrust. Her halberd eidolon stabbed him in the side, and she continued twisting with both hands as he made no move to stop her assault. He simply took his steel sword in hand and systematically stabbed her over and over, through the right shoulder, her left lung, her stomach, her heart, and so on, until Scarlet’s eyes went soft and her breathing was cut short. Falling unconscious, he allowed her to fall as her eidolon still remained lodged i
n his side. He snickered and removed it as if it was a bee’s stinger, and then threw it into the mud next to the fallen Sage. He sensed movement behind him and turned.
“Ah, Kyran! My friend! How good to see you!”
Kyran glanced over at Scarlet’s fallen body and then back at Thorn.
“She started it if you must know,” he chuckled. “Now, how about we go inside and talk? I’m sure you have many questions, and I take it you’ll want to engage me in more of a battle of the mind than one of physical prowess?”
“Something like that,” he muttered. Thorn smiled.
“Wise decision,” he said as he reached down, grabbed a handful of Scarlet’s hair and then began walking toward Kyran, pulling her lifeless body behind him, still face down in the mud. “Don’t worry, she’s not dead. I was very delicate with her.”
“Even if she was, it wouldn’t concern me.”
“Oh that’s right,” Thorn said as Kyran joined him in stride to the castle entrance. “You want her dead anyways. Well, if you choose, I can grant your wish right now. It would save you a heap of trouble…or, do you want her to stay alive for some reason?”
“Allow me to consider it.”
“Oh, come now, this isn’t a test of your allegiance. We haven’t even had a decent conversation yet.”
“Regardless, my hesitation of her immediate death shows that I’m not completely convinced I should abandon my friends and Allay.”
“Point taken,” Thorn said. “But I really don’t care either way. Whether she lives or dies is entirely up to you. Her presence doesn’t affect my plans.”
“Then keep her alive. Just in case I have to lay siege to your castle.”
“Once again, a smart decision.” Thorn slammed open the castle door and two female servants, dressed in black nightgowns met them in the lobby. Thorn held up the fallen Scarlet by the hair until her feet was dangling off the floor. “This woman needs to be bandaged and medicated. A bath wouldn’t hurt either. Make sure she survives.”
Hail to the Queen (Sage Trilogy, Book 3) Page 9