by Billy Wong
He pushed himself to an even faster pace now that he knew what kind of monstrosity Rose face. The doors to the throne room came into view just before the laminated wood panels shattered. The smoking body of a woman flew right through the heavy portal, like a human battering ram thrown with the force of a tornado.
"Mom!" both their children cried as they ran to their crumpled mother's side.
"I'm fine," Rose said, shrugging them off. She stood and yelled to Finn, "Let's get him together!"
He peered through the shattered doors at their enemy and took a step back. The creature looked to him like the very incarnation of evil power, though perhaps in part because it combined features of one who strove for so long to kill his kids and another that had come closer than most anything to killing him. "Thing that hurt my wife, you're about to die," he taunted, though it felt forced as he doubted his ability to back up his words.
To his mixed disappointment and, embarrassingly, relief, it said, "Not now. We have more important things to do than fight you." It levitated into the air, and only now did Finn realize it held a limp King Matthew by the collar. Lightning shot from it to blast a huge hole in the wall, no doubt in preparation to fly away.
Finn drew his axe which he raised to throw, only for Rose to put her blood-covered hand on his forearm and push it down. Obviously, she didn't want him to risk accidentally killing the king. Stopping to look at her, he breathed a sigh of relief. She was not lightly wounded, with gashes on her arms, chest, and sides and bad burns over her neck and shoulder, but not gravely so either. He wrapped her in a tender hug. "I was afraid I was going to lose you."
"I was doing fine until he grabbed Matthew as a shield. He's more powerful than Justin was, but less coordinated... like maybe he hadn't adjusted to the fusion yet. It might not stay that way for long, though."
"So that was Justin?" Amber asked. "What does he want with the king, why did he just ignore me and Jacob when it's always been his goal to eliminate us?"
Her brother shook his head. "It's not exactly Justin, but him merged with the Shadow—I guess doing so created a new entity, with perhaps different priorities. We should probably still call him Justin for simplicity. It looked like he was trying to do something to Matthew with his soul magic, maybe put him under his control?"
"Good thing I followed up on that hearsay and we interrupted him, huh? Too bad he got away, now where do we go to find him?"
"No idea," Rose admitted. "I should have suspected Justin wasn't dead, since the last time we killed him his body reverted to an indestructible spike. I suppose we all bought too easily into the notion the golem's attack could completely destroy him, perhaps because we wanted to..."
Amber touched her face. "So are we going to just wander around looking for him without any real clue as to where he might go?"
"Hey, it works often enough," Finn said. More seriously, he added, "But a better start would be to ask people if they saw which way he flew, to help us narrow it down."
Jacob didn't look so convinced that would be good enough. "But in case we can't find him in time, shouldn't we warn everyone the king might not be himself if he returns?"
Rose shook her head. "It's not so simple. Depending on his level of control, he could make many believe nothing's wrong with Matthew and side with his pawn ruler."
That was bad. Even discounting Rose and Finn, Kayland was the most powerful nation on their continent, and with its army added to his own considerable might and that of the monsters he could easily bring under his control again, Justin would be off to a good start in taking over the world as seemed to be his new goal. Even if they convinced some of Matthew's enslaved state, it might only lead to dreadful civil war.
Finn grunted. "Then we'll have to stop him before it comes to that."
She wiped away tears as she agreed, "Yeah, one more time, to end what I started two decades ago by destroying his life..."
"It's not your fault. You did the best you could."
"I did, didn't I?" she said with a sad chuckle. "At least my failures have never been for lack of trying." They went outside, where they learned Justin had fled towards the south. Jacob theorized that he might return to the Spire of Pental out of familiarity to his Shadow-part, and his parents agreed it was as good a place as any to check out first. Rose addressed the twins. "You two stay out of this one, all right? You've grown up to be great people, and I'm so proud of you... but Justin's just too much, and I couldn't survive losing you."
"Mom, you could survive anything," Amber said. "And besides, I wouldn't die too easily even against that thing."
"He's more powerful than he's ever been. Are you sure you want to face that?"
"Every little bit will help, and I couldn't bear it if you died either."
"I love you, Amber." She put her hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Take care of your brother."
"Wha-" Before she could finish, Rose clocked her with a hard punch to the chin, trying to knock her out. Though Amber was dropped to the ground rubbing a sore jaw, she muttered, "Gods, you can't have expected that to work. I'm your daughter, remember?"
"Yes, you are." She couldn't seem to help a smile as Amber jumped to her feet, showing only a little wooziness from the blow that would have felled an ox. For a moment, it seemed as if she would try again to render her daughter unconscious, but in the end she caved and said, "Fine, you can come. You better not insist on the same, Jacob."
"Well, what else would I do, let my sister go off to possibly die while I hide at home? I'm a man now... technically, so I should have some balls." He shrank away a little. "Please don't knock me out."
Finn slapped his back. "Well, if our son wants to be brave and a man, why not let him? None of us might be able to match Justin alone, so what does it matter if he's a little weaker; we can all take care of each other."
Though she seemed more worried for him than Amber, Rose grudgingly agreed in the interest of fairness, and they headed off to seek a decisive battle.
Chapter 13
Many days of hard riding after they set out, the Spire of Pental drew close. Before the family could reach it, they spotted Matthew walking down the road. "What happened?" Amber asked. "Where's Justin?"
"I escaped when the monster left me alone," the king said in a monotone. "As for where it is, I don't know."
Rose hardly believed him, given Justin would have had all the time in the world to do what he wanted. "He's probably under control. Let's take him with us for now and keep looking for Justin."
Matthew didn't protest. They had only taken a few steps forward, however, when his kidnapper landed before them. Knowing he no doubt meant to finish her and her loved ones off, Rose scowled. "This ends today."
Justin grinned, metallic teeth shining in the sun. "Indeed. But not in the way you think." She heard cracking wood and turned to see a gigantic mound of corpses burst from the trees along the road, constantly reshaping itself as it reached forth with extending and retracting pseudopods of dead flesh. "A masterpiece, isn't it?"
It was the largest and most bizarre undead creation Rose had ever seen, and she realized what a bind they found themselves in. How were they supposed to handle both Justin and his gigantic servant at the same time? Amber made an effort to answer that question for her, shouting, "I've got it!" as she rushed the house-sized mass.
Rose wasn't sure how she could defeat the creature, but hopefully she would at least be able to hold it off for a while. She spun and punched the king like she had her daughter, laying him out cold. "Jacob, take Matthew and keep him safe!" He scooped him up and ran, relieving Rose that he wasn't the rebellious sort like Amber. "Finn... this is it." At her side, he nodded grimly.
Justin smirked. "You don't really think you can win, do you? Your deaths will just be one more stepping stone to the completion of our United World."
"And what do you plan on doing with 'your' world?" she had to ask.
"We don't know yet, actually. But it'll be better off united than divided,
in any case."
Rose might have thought that once, before she'd ever been anyplace besides her hometown of Hullel, but things were different now. And even if Justin had been right, his method of achieving unity certainly wouldn't do humanity any favors. "Think about what you're doing. If you stay on this path you'll become no better than any of those would-be conquerers I've killed so many of over the years."
"We're stronger," he replied. "Stronger than you, and thus able to enforce our will whether or not you think it's right."
That was what it always came down to, wasn't it? While she didn't doubt she'd fought on the right sides most of the time during her decades as a warrior, she had certainly needed her great strength to allow that right to prevail. The world wasn't always a just place, when the evil proved stronger than the good, but even if she would be the weaker she would try her very best. "We'll see."
"We will!" He came on, and even as he ran forward showered her and Finn with balls of fire which they managed to avoid by rolling in opposite directions. Darting straight for Rose, Justin leapt and grappled her, only to take a heavy mace blow to his back from Finn. While he stumbled, Rose pulled free and slashed at his side.
Her flaming blade didn't penetrate, but the demon hissed in mild pain as sparks flew from his skin. Claws swiped at her face. She ducked and again Finn hit him from behind, doing little damage but annoying him enough to make him turn. Now it was Rose who struck at his back, scoring his hide just a bit. Damn, he seemed so much tougher this time... She tried to heat and re-cool his shell to weaken it like before, but he kept dodging the spells and she stopped in lieu of continuing to waste too much energy. Teamwork and persistence would be what won this fight, if she and Finn did.
Unable to keep from checking on Amber, Rose looked to her to regard a frightening sight. The girl hacked valiantly at her gargantuan foe with sword gripped in both hands, hewing away pieces of flesh and bone from the mishappen mass, but it hardly seemed slowed by what amounted to scratches for all its bulk. Though she dodged swipe after swipe from tendrils of clumsily flailing dead matter, the number of attacks eventually became too much. Catching her in the middle, a makeshift paw crushed her against a roadside boulder, making her cough blood.
Seeing her wounded, Rose cried at Finn to fight harder. They laid into Justin with new vigor, taking painful wounds from claws and magic in retaliation. Blood staining the dirt over which she staggered, Rose managed to knock Justin down with a hard shoulder tackle which nearly dislocated her joint. She turned on her daughter's enemy, blasting the undead behemoth with a powerful cold ray which would hopefully slow it enough for Amber to deal with on her own.
"Enough!" Justin screamed, and hope nearly vanished with the expanding explosion which erupted from his body to send Rose and Finn flying away like children's dolls. In one move, both were badly injured, bones broken and insides ruptured by the earth-shaking impact. Finn's howls of agony tore at Rose's heart, and she feared again he might not make it. Somehow, though, he stood as she did, gasping in pain and drooling blood, and defiantly faced the monster. Despite his brave effort, Rose sensed he would not survive even one more blow like he'd just received. As Justin charged her ailing husband, she dashed to intercept him before he could rend his life and her heart.
Wounded though he was, Finn held off the demon lord for a moment by ducking behind his wide steel shield. Then it was two on one again, the couple flanking and swinging away at their impervious opponent but with growing despair as they failed to do appreciable harm. Again the demon started chanting a powerful spell. Rose shoved Finn out of the way of a lance of fire which pierced her chest. Black blood sprayed from her mouth as it seared into her vitals. She stumbled away struggling to breathe. Justin followed, his claws lashed out as to impale her below the ribs. She partially dodged the blow. Instead of plunging into her torso, the claws merely gouged deep gashes in her side while they passed.
Though her wounds bled freely, her pained mind remained clear for now. Rose grasped the wrist of the hand that had just missed gutting her and spun behind Justin. She wrenched his arm up in a hold which would have snapped a normal man's like tinder while she wrapped her other arm around his neck. Yet Justin was not even close to an ordinary human by now, and even with absolutely no leverage began to power out, moving his arm back down in spite of her flawless technique. Hooking his leg with her own, she tripped him, buying herself time as she landed under him. But then he ripped free of her grasp and turned, plunged a hand down with fingers spread wide. Each of his talons pierced into a different part of her torso, and she wailed. Finn tried to grab him from behind, but Justin snapped his head back into his face and he tumbled away.
He raised the claws of his other hand before Rose's face while she gurgled blood. "Now we ascend, and you die."
#
Watching his dreadfully wounded mother catch Justin's wrist and struggle to keep his razor claws from her eyes, Jacob could barely keep himself from fainting as he shook with pure fear. He knew he should do something, but what contribution could he make? He probably couldn't physically even harm Justin, and any distraction he provided would be momentary before he was swatted like an insect. Mom needed his help, and he longed desperately to save her, but how...
Then he considered how her adversary still spoke of itself as "we" instead of "I" and thought of something. What if Justin and the Shadow had not fully integrated, could he make the composite's halves conflict with each other by making one question the other? He stepped forward. "Justin! What are you doing? You used to be so concerned with killing me and Amber to save humanity from yourself, now you ignore us in favor of pursuing world conquest when the evil power is stronger than ever in you?" The monster slowed its attack on Rose, turning its head to look at him. "For that matter, didn't you use to be a patriot, dedicated to the service of your country? How can you kidnap your king and use sorcery to override his will? I think the Shadow has corrupted you, and leads you on a dark path from which there'll soon be no return!"
"The Shadow..?" it murmured, as if gaining—or regaining—awareness of something. "No... I don't want to be evil..."
He wanted to say he was evil anyway, knowing it was Justin speaking, but replied instead, "You need to free yourself from its influence! Isn't there any way you can purge it from yourself, or separate-"
"No, do not listen to him!" another said from the same mouth. "You cannot-"
"Use your magic!" Jacob cried. "If you can manipulate the soul energy within your body, you should be able to..."
A white glow came over Justin's body, and he yelled, "Begone, foul presence! You are not needed, I alone should possess the power."
"You will not remove me! You are the one who will be 'gone!'" The glow intensified, to the point Jacob could no longer see the creature but as a mass of blazing light. Being much closer to it, Rose shielded her eyes. Then there was a loud grinding sound, and no one knew what to expect—until, out of the light flew a naked human male.
"Justin?" Finn said, his incredulity giving way to rage as he hefted his mace and stomped forward. "You accursed bastard, I'm going to bash your brains out!"
The man, looking as young as he must have over a decade ago before his transformation, didn't even acknowledge him. "I'm human," he whispered, looking at his hands. "What have I been doing all this time... have I been acting in the way I sought to prevent... was I wrong?"
"Yeah you were wrong, and I'll kill-"
Rose yelled, "Finn, stop! He's not the danger now!"
The light from which Justin had emerged died down. At its heart stood a warped figure—ripped open and twisted, but reshaping itself back into a humanoid form. The Shadow, rebuilding itself without Justin. "You will all-"
Blood pouring from the deep punctures in her front, Rose shoved herself up and lunged. She stuck her sword into the opening in its chest out of which Justin had come before it could close, channeled a fiery explosion through it with a spell that blasted the creature's upper body apart so
that pieces flew in all directions. Its legs toppled onto the ground, then shrank together into a rocky blue spike with metallic accents.
"Live," Rose said, "while you die," then collapsed.
#
Her eyelids fluttered open to the sound of, "Is she...?" and Rose realized her daughter was speaking, still alive. She felt Finn's huge, gentle hands stroke her face and hair, and smiled.
"Rose, how are you?" he asked.
She looked up at his frightened face, her blurry eyes unable to quite meet his wide ones. Turning her head sideways to spit a great gout of blood, she choked out, "I-I think one of the claws went in my h-heart."
"Mom! Mom!" Jacob wailed, voice full of sorrow.
She hoped she'd be able to prove his grief unfounded, and said, "I've been stabbed in the heart before, more than once and by even bigger weapons. How many times have I been skewered through my chest? My heart's as unwilling to quit as I am. She's a good girl, even if she has a hole in her, she'll keep working while she's hurting... It's just that Justin got a f-few other organs, too."
"Please live," he begged, and squeezed her hand. She nodded.
"So how the hell did you take care of that mound of carcasses?" Finn asked Amber, probably to change the subject from Rose's health.
"Set it on fire. It didn't seem to have any idea how to save itself."
"I guess my cold spell didn't help you too much, huh?" Rose said.
She shook her head. "No, it did. Its limbs started breaking off after—that was what made it possible for me to win. It couldn't get the torch out, once I stuck it in. So thanks—now tell me how to help you."
"Pick her up," Finn answered, knowing as she did there was little else to do.
Amber gingerly lifted her in strong arms, making her scream in pain despite all her care. "I trust you'll be okay, Mom. I know you've survived just as bad before."
"Yeah, but I'm getting old."
"Well, maybe you can stay in bed for two weeks this time instead of one."