Devil's Waltz

by Dante Sakurai

  "Row?" she said as a larger wooden building passed by.

  "Yeah?

  "That was actually a bit clever. Ya can’t blink while on real mounts, and this doesn’t even need Stamina to keep running. You’d make a good engineer—in the real world."

  Not a dummy for once. "Yeah. Sazar’s ring is more than enough to sustain its mana core. It makes it run faster too."

  "Make me one later."

  "Sure, anything for you."

  "Anything?"

  He coughed. Maybe he shouldn’t have said that. "Don’t get ahead of yourself."

  "Awwwww."

  Rowan’s eyelids fluttered. A little something was missing. "Where’s Fluffy?"

  "Oh, she’s clinging to me like like a backpack. Her threads are super flexible."

  Fluffy gave a squeaky bark from behind. Good enough. For a ball of yarn it sure knew how to remain quiet. And she? Rowan didn’t want to know how Gabrielle knew it was a girl.

  Rowan eyed Greenwood Spine. The great beast and its kin were closing in—flying over the farmlands. The timing was too good. Rowan pinged Zaine to get ready.

  Soon enough, he caught back up to the others at another weedy field. They were already in sieging range of the city walls, the dome shield glistening gold. What a sight it was. What a contrast it made against these slums. Beyond those ivory walls was heaven in comparison. Rowan had nothing to say. Farcical. Simply farcical.

  "Well," Ambiguous said, a palm on her hip, "aren’t you two a snug pair of love-birds."

  Ayla snorted. "Dark couple my ass."

  Zaine said, "Careful. You could be taken out together."

  Gabrielle hummed a note. "But our Mana Shields stack like this." She really didn’t want to let go, much to Rowan’s delight.

  "That’s true," Zaine mumbled as a ballista on the wall fired a bolt of light mana.

  At Redwing’s command, an Icy Harpy dashed into its path. Golden-white light flashed, and the Harpy sublimed instantaneously. Its tiny bone marshmallow core fell fell onto a roof, breaking into dust and crumbs.

  Redwing hurled a Mortar Shell in response. The frothing ice arched high into the air and crashed onto the dome. The explosive impact made no waves against the shield; it wasn’t liquid like the spire’s water shield. Solid, glass-like mana. The ice dispersed in seconds.

  Rowan examined the shield.

  Light Mana Shield: Tier 10

  Shield Points: 999,905,780

  Dark Resistance: Maximum

  Other Resistances (Average): High

  Armor: High

  Draesear’s horns! A billion shield points. This was going to take a while—a very long while. Those Demonic Trebuchets should’ve came along for the raid, but Gabrielle had been adamant on keeping them back to protect her town.

  "So," Ayla said. "What’s the plan?"

  Rowan swallowed a lump. "Just wait."

  "Hehehe. This is gonna be good." Gabrielle hugged him tighter, her breasts pushed up against his back. Her left hand trailed closer to his waist, rested on his hip bone. Naughty girl.

  On cue, the first Young Red Dragon coiled tight and streaked into the swarm of Undead and Demons. It met its end in seconds. Only two imps fell from its suicide charge. Ayla salvaged both, then positioned to claim the falling Young Red.

  Fire consumed the Young Red’s corpse before Ayla could raise it, and next to the great beast it resurrected in flaming vortex. Fucking hell. This was the most overpowered boss Rowan had ever seen.

  "Whaaaat?" Gabrielle whined. "That’s sooo broken! I want a refund!"

  Zaine grunted in agreement. "At least it’s just Red Dragons."

  The onslaught began anew, a tide of fire washing over the slums. Red Dragons, young and old, blazed into the swarm without care for their lives. Each kamikaze lizard chipped almost nothing away at Rowan’s frontlines, but like hundreds of ants nibbling away at a worm, Harpies and Clawed Imps rapidly dwindled in numbers.

  Rowan did all he could to bolster the frontline fliers, gulping from a Mana Draught flask and summoning Harpies five by five. Gabrielle offered a curse here and there whenever a lizard strayed too close. One lizard took a bolt of light to the tail from the wall ballistae. Lucky.

  Redwing and the few wall-ballistae kept trading back and forth, slowly. The shield was down by half a million points now. Redwing might as well not bother. Though thankfully, they didn’t have any of Gabrielle’s superior Battieries that could connect to an area shield.

  Zaine’s knuckles whitened around his sword as the great beast neared. He looked back at Rowan and Gabrielle. "If I die again, I doubt you’d be able to bring me back with just one anchor without Divine Inter—"

  "Soul Tether gained a few tiers when you rebirthed. I can do three anchors now."

  Those sharper features brightened considerably. "You should’ve mentioned earlier."

  "Ya didn’t ask."

  Rowan nodded. "You were too busy chatting with the Dark Humans."

  Zaine exhaled. "Let’s just do this." He disappeared with a fiery swirl.

  The party followed down a muddy back-alley. Adrenaline pumping, Rowan blasted incoming Young Reds, his bony stead overtaking the demigod and leading the charge directly toward the great beast, and the great beast noticed as it did its meteor dance, its eyes shifting. Its ravenous kin, reviving endlessly, dove for the alley.

  The swarm melted and disintegrated in droves. Every last minion piled in to buffer.

  An Elder Brute’s mortar stunned hundreds of Clawed Imps and Harpies. Red Dragons punched through, claws blazing.

  But it was too little too late. The party halted under the great beast, Zaine chanting.

  A Young Red swiped at him. Gabrielle skelefied it with a bullet-spray of curses.

  From multiple gaping maws, streams of white-hot fire bathed Zaine. His health bar trickled downward. Ayla tossed him Life Tethers, plugging the leak.

  Gabrielle planted an Invulnerability Totem into the mud, ready to tap it any moment.

  Zaine finished his garbled chant. Dark-light mana engulfed his body. He sheathed his sword and rose two feet into the air, arms spread wide. Light mana blazed at his left palm; dark at his right. He brought the two opposing magics together and shot the black and white sphere into the world’s ceiling.

  And the ceiling cracked—then shattered. Large glassy pieces fell onto the great beast. It shrieked in pain and canceled the meteor. Those enormous wings outstretched and started beating. It dared to retreat. And its kin retreated, every lizard turning in sync.

  Rowan slowed their flight with a blizzard, but it wasn’t needed.

  Draesear was here from the void in all his demonic glory, peering through the broken ceiling. For a split-second, those spinning flame orbs for eyes focused on Rowan, but he wasn’t afraid this time. There was nothing the dark god could do to take his beautiful Gabrielle away short of tampering with her fully-organic brain, and Rowan knew well the AI wouldn’t risk that. She was safe in his grasp for a long time to come.

  The great beast flew as fast as its titanic body allowed—toward the dome! Perfect. Rowan licked his lips in anticipation. Gabrielle’s nails dug into his chest and stomach.

  Draesear’s bony finger emerged from the void. That sphere, that greater nuke, a black spiral outlined with white expanded at the tip of his sharpened nail. Like before, all color drained from the landscape, sucked into the sphere. But unlike before, Draesear pointed at the fleeing great beast. The black ceiling rippled. Rowan held his breath. A glistening point in the night, the nuke drifted toward its target and accelerated to sonic speeds.

  Gabrielle activated the Invulnerability Totem with a tap. Seth and Redwing, carrying Skylar and Viola, dove into its range. The swarm pulled in as close as it could, but not all could be saved from the fallout.

  The nuke collided with the great beast’s underbelly. Darkness and light consumed the world for seven of Rowan’s frenzied heartbeats, every muscle in him pulled taut. The Invulnerability Totem’s lukewarm ma
na kept the nuke’s heat at bay.

  The fallout dimmed as the totem’s power waned. Rowan’s head swiveled left and right: A web of cracks diffused across the golden dome, the nearby slums had been reduced to fine sandy dust, and the great beast of prophecy was nowhere to be seen. The great beast was no more! Its kin were no more. Only falling pieces of glitter remained.

  Well, it was only a T7 Boss. I don’t know why I was so worked up over it.

  Out of breath and heavily weakened, Zaine sank to a knee and palmed mud. Draesear’s Pity counted down in his list of debuffs.

  Gabrielle’s arm abruptly rose and pointed. "Loot! Loot! Loot! Get it before they steal it from us!" She jumped off the Pale Horse’s skeleton, fetched her broom, and blasted off with crazed enthusiasm.

  Ambiguous and Ayla followed on their Mana Shards, and, of course, Rowan wasn’t going to risk Redwing. He sent half of whatever remained of the swarm to their aid.

  Oh, and Fluffy was now clinging to his back. She purred and snuggled between his shoulder blades, a nice feeling. If this was all she was good for, then Rowan was fine with it. This was looking more like a prank by the minute. Practical jokes wouldn’t bother him too much as long as things continued going his way.

  Then from the right, on a Light Shard, Jonathan Bladestrider came flying in. His face was red with hate. "ROWAN BLACK! IT’S ME! JONATHAN! THIS IS YOUR END, YOU GOD-FORSAKEN MONSTER!"

  A single Tainted Ice Blast finished him.

  "Do you know that buffoon?" Zaine asked.

  "Apparently I do!" Rowan madly laughed into the night.

  Chapter 46

  The Final Hour

  Rowan, yet again, worked on re-summoning his Undead swarm while mounted on the Pale Horse’s skeleton, entrenched in sand. Draesear’s nuke had leveled half a mile worth of slum. Next to him, Gabrielle hoarded the handfuls of loot gems into her pouch for later sorting and distribution. He breathed through his bubbling protests, for he had promised her any loot or crafting materials—as per the deal. Perhaps his deranged lusts at the time had made him a tad irrational.

  Ayla crossed her arms. “Remember, I want my fair cut.”

  “Same here,” Ambiguous said.

  Edward said, “Don’t forget I’m in charge of agriculture and mining in your empire.”

  SoSo murmured her agreement, “I’d like a gear upgrade.”

  Even Skylar and Viola, on Redwing’s back, asked for any relevant gear for their classes. Zaine too. Everyone wanted a cut of the loot pie, understandably. Materialism helped maintain an amiable tone of civility among these darkies.

  Gabrielle giggled happily. “Don’t worry, everyone! You’ll all get your stuff—after I take what I want. It’ll all trickle down to you.”

  Ayla scowled. “And how much are you going to take?”

  “I killed the beast,” Zaine grumbled.

  Gabrielle stuck her tongue out at him. “My totem kept us alive from the splash, and I kept you alive all this time.”

  Rowan held up a palm before the bickering could get out of hand. “That’s enough. Back to the battle.” There was still the task of finishing off the city’s shield and capturing the central castle, which was turning out to be a real grind. Zaine’s ultimate had chunked the shield for less than 30%; however, the glassy solid magic had one major weakness in comparison to a liquid barrier: the web of cracks was giving way in many places.

  Jagged holes offered a myriad of points to flood through. Redwing’s Mortar Shell sailed among the stars and slipped into one trapezoid hole. A puny wall-ballista exploded in a mess of ice and wooden splinters.

  Bad bone dragon!

  “Redwing! Aim for the damned shield!” Rowan yanked that leash and sighed. “This is going to be hard.”

  Zaine looked at him quizzically. “How so? We have a Primordial Yarn. Unless they have a legion of Fire Lords, this will be very quick.” The comment set off a shocking bomb among the group, eyebrows jolting upward all around. “Seriously? You haven’t figured out what it can do yet?”

  Rowan blinked, sniffing sandy air. “Fluffy’s not useless? I thought it was a prank.”

  Skylar asked, “Is it a bomb?”

  Zaine’s head shook. “You genuinely believe I would let something useless hog most of my elite minion slots?”

  A tiny smile quivered in Rowan’s cheeks. “Yes?”

  “You’re an idiot.”

  Rowan waved off their laughter, growling. “Just show us what it can do. Gabrielle, get Fluffy off my back.” He didn’t want to risk accidentally killing it with a squeeze.

  Smoke swirling, she materialized behind him and most-carefully pulled the sleeping ball of yarn from his shoulder blades, pink threads unraveling around his chest and neck. Fluffy woke with a mewing cry as though unhappy to be called into battle. Gabrielle calmed her with affectionate strokes. “Aww, there there. Gabby’s here. You’re weak to fire? Dun’ worry! The meanie dragons are gone forever. I killed em all just for ya.” She giggled. “Now, please take over this city for me as a thank you.” She held the level one Demon high. “Go Fluffy! You can do it!”

  “Mew mew mew.” Fluffy jiggled thrice and glowed with pink mana. She bounced from Gabrielle’s palms and hovered several feet in the air. Every last pink thread started shifting and twirling.

  “Get back,” Zaine said urgently. And he was serious, pinging the party four times. He blinked away.

  “Why?” Rowan called to him, frowning, as Gabrielle followed without question.

  Ambiguous seized him by the elbow in a vice-grip. The scene flashed purple, the blink taking him fifty meters to the left.

  Fluffy’s trumpeting shriek echoed across the dunes, “Meeeeeweeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

  Out of nowhere, from Fluffy’s small body, thick fibers flooded the area, an explosion of brown and beige. The dense forest of threads started gathering and weaving by themselves as though grasped by invisible hands and knitting needles. Within seconds, hundreds of upon hundreds of… giant, angry-faced teddy-bears were stitched together, spiked mallets for hands waving about. The teddies marched toward the ivory walls, kicking mini sandstorms with each stride.

  Rowan sucked in a massive breath and held it. He leaned back on the saddle, toes curling tight. Now I’ve seen it all.

  Gabrielle jumped in the sand. “It’s the attack of the hundred-foot teddies! Go! Go! Goooo!”

  “Oh my lord,” Ambiguous chuckled.

  Ayla and the twins were as speechless as Rowan.

  Fluffy wasn’t done. She shrieked again, and gray fibers shot out from her body along with strands of pink. In the air, the invisible hands knitted three-dozen pterodactyls from the gray and tipped them with balls of pink on their talons. They flew high into the air with blurry speed, each as speedy as Gabrielle’s broom. With fancy loop-de-loop aerobatics, they dropped pinkish balls onto the shield. The bombs detonated with gaseous pink clouds, each chunking the shield for hundreds of thousands of points, tens of million in total.

  Rowan’s face was frozen astonishment, his pulse slowly drumming in his skull. This couldn’t be happening.

  Zaine had a look of satisfaction on his teenage Dark Human face. “Just as the book described.”

  “Sorry I doubted you!” Viola called from above.

  “No need to apologize. You can make it up with a duo-dungeon run later. Just you and me.”

  “Wha— What? Did you just—”

  “Just kidding. You’re far too weak to run with me.”

  Flustered, Viola looked away. “Jerk!”

  Skylar burst into hearty guffaws.

  Gabrielle cast Viola a smug glance. “Told ya!”

  Rowan’s face thawed at the sound of their casual chatter. Only darkies could be so casual before the sight of ensuing chaos. He looked back at the marching teddies. From the city walls, bug-sized defenders rained a fire of various elemental missiles and arrows onto the teddies. None made purchase against their glowing fabric apart from a few fire blasts, which managed to set one teddy’s
foot ablaze for a split-second. The blackened fabric regrew and knitted back together, good as new.

  The first teddy reached the walls. Its mallet-arm flared with pink mana and swung high—then back down onto the shield. The single strike shattered hole in the glass large enough for the teddy to walk through. It began wailing on the walls in earnest, pummeled it into the ground. Into dust.