“Fair enough.”
“Come on,” she said, waving her hand for them to follow. Running through the snow at a brisk pace, Remi headed for the Cimmerian army since they were closer. It was gutsy move, meeting them head on, but she was feeling confident. Her legs felt so powerful that they might as well be tree trunks. She strode forward with the elegance of a deer and the presence of an elephant. She could probably kick someone to the moon in her present condition.
Chapter 51 – Don’t We Know You?
What are you doing, Remi?
The thought pounded against her mind as she ran toward the incoming army. The catapults, the soldiers in full body armor. The fire. The ready weapons. She was running right at them while a group of young Delilah ran behind her. They could have killed her at any moment, but she left her fate in their hands. Brace was noticeably stronger than Ember, but she left the Sorceress alone because she trusted that she wouldn’t do anything crazy. She didn’t call out for Pedro and Alicia because she was sure that they would reveal themselves at the right moment.
There was a lot of unwarranted trust being thrown around, but it was a part of her repertoire that had rarely backfired on her. They didn’t believe in her and follow because she was stronger than him. To the contrary, she was the weakest out of all of them, but she fought against the odds when a sane person wouldn’t.
Everyone looked for a leader, mentor and guide.
But how many were available, and acted as if they had nothing to lose?
One of the Cimmerian catapults fired off, sending a ball of fire her way. She unsheathed her eidolon and analyzed the contents. There wasn’t any rock underneath. It was all hay and clay and other materials that were easily dispatched with. She raised her eidolon high and waited for the precise moment to strike. Just as the ball of fire was about to engulf her, she split it in two with one stroke, sending the two halves crashing into the trees at her sides and catching them on fire. The Delilah behind her kicked up some snow to help with the flames but mostly they kept their eyes focused on the task at hand.
One more ball of fire came her way and she dispatched in the same way. The Cimmerian soldiers rushed her head on but she wasn’t afraid. Just when they were about to cock back their hands to strike, Remi shouted to them at the top of her lungs, screaming so loudly that it gave them pause.
“WE SURRENDER!”
The cry worked. They weren’t so ready to cut her down now, and she fell to her knees as her eidolon disappeared. The Delilah behind her looked at each other in confusion, but then they followed suit. The catapults came to a halt, and the Cimmerian army stopped their march as a large man with a beehive beard made his way to the front of the line.
“What is going on here? Delilah surrendering? Wait…you aren’t Delilah.”
“No, sir, I’m not,” Remi admitted. “I have no allegiances.”
“Then why do these Delilah follow you?”
“Because we are united against a common enemy. The Sorcerers are in battle as we speak.”
“No such thing exists.”
“Then come with me and see what they’ve done. Your Cimmerian assassins have been slaughtered along with the Delilah’s.”
“What do they want?” the large burly man asked. Though he was still on edge, at least he was now listening.
“There is a Sorcerer named Ember that I am aligned with. She’s a good person. But the other looks to kill us all. He’s desperate. And the only way we can defeat him is if we all come together to do it.”
“How do I know that you aren’t lying? How could I possibly trust you?”
“You can’t,” a young voice replied from behind. As soon as Remi saw who it was, her heart dropped.
“Hello, Remi,” Casimir said. “I didn’t think we would meet so soon.”
“Who is this?” the Cimmerian General demanded.
“Don’t say just yet,” Casimir said. “Or I will have to get started.”
“What are you doing here?” Remi asked.
Casimir looked at the puzzled army around them. “I’m with Brace.”
“But why?” Remi cried. “I thought you were one of the good ones. If I did anything to push you to working with that psycho then—”
“No worries,” he replied, giving her a curt smile. “It wasn’t you. The way I acted…so pleasant. So nice…that wasn’t the real me. I just knew that being aggressive wouldn’t work with you so I tried a different approach. When that didn’t work, I weighed my options, and I realized that siding with Brace was the right move. I was supposed to be his back-up in case he got into trouble, and her I am. I recognize that bringing the armies together won’t be good for us. You understand, right?”
“I understand that we’re all just pawns to you,” Remi replied. “And that there’s nothing you can do if we decide lobbing off the heads of our kings and queens.”
Remi’s comment was all the Cimmerian General needed to hear. He unsheathed his massive greatsword and pointed it right at Casimir’s throat.
“You’re a Sorcerer?” he asked more than declared.
“I am,” Casimir replied. It was all that the General needed to hear. He went for the jugular, but Casimir realized that the time for talk was over. Though he was small, he was able to grab the blade of the General with his bare hands and smash it in his grip. Without hesitation, he punched a hole through the General’s chest and kicked him into the snow.
Remi and the Delilah leapt to their feet. Remi went for her sword but Casimir sped over and kicked her hand away from grabbing the hilt. Before she could respond, he punched her across the face, sending her into the snow. He stepped on her abdomen and smiled.
“I can’t kill you just yet. There’s so much more you can do for us. But that doesn’t mean the people around you aren’t safe.”
Before he could say more, the Delilah opened fire on him. But with a few quick dashes and sidesteps, he was able to dodge their bullets and dispatch them quickly, using his bare hands to squeeze their necks and take their lives. When he was unable to choke them, he would casually thrust his arm through them. It was so brutal that Remi was momentarily stunned.
But after the eighth man was killed in less than a half a second, she rose to her feet, despite the pain in her jaw and stomach. The Cimmerian army engaged Casimir, but the Sorcerer sped through the army with such grace and ease that it was as if they were fighting a ghost. When some tried to run, Casimir turned all of his attention on them.
Remi couldn’t allow this. If she couldn’t stop this massacre, what was all the training for?
It was time to see what she could do.
Her body began to vibrate and quiver as she ran, and in a few seconds, she created an afterimage of herself. She was moving so quickly that it was like two Remi’s were running side by side, perfectly in sync.
She picked up the speed so that she could catch up with the zipping Casimir and then at the last second she held back. The afterimage appeared in front of him while she stayed behind. He responded with a quick jab to her face, but all he hit was air. As the afterimage disappeared, Remi leapt into the air and slammed her eidolon-infused blade into Casimir’s back. The impact knocked him off his feet and his face went sprawling into the snow.
In one swift movement, he rolled onto his back—blade and all— and then leapt to his feet. He grabbed the hilt of his blade and ripped it out of his back just as Remi punched him in the face. She was brutal in her approach. As soon as she punched him once with her left, she fused energy into her right and hit him with another. She grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him close as she turned her left hand into a makeshift eidolon. She jammed it into Casimir’s chest and head-butt him at the same time.
Casimir head-butt her back and she nearly went unconscious.
“I’m sick of you,” he growled as he reached out and grabbed her neck. He didn’t get to apply any pressure as he suddenly howled out in pain. Pedro’s blade was piercing right through his chest, and he wasn’t lett
ing up on the slicing. With all his might, he continued to pull up with the blade, slicing even more into his chest cavity.
Casimir’s eyes went red with rage and Remi backed away as she rubbed her throat. She kept one eye open as she coughed. There was no turning back now. She had seen what Ember became when she was pissed, and that was from someone that was always angry. She had no idea what someone with the kind of calm Casimir possessed would do.
“You better help me,” Pedro shouted, but to Remi’s surprise, he wasn’t talking about her.
A wave of fire rained down from the heavens and engulfed both Pedro and Casimir in flames, melting the snow around them instantly. The Cimmerian army backed off but they had certainly switched gears. Instead of branding swords, they prepared their bows and arrows. If they couldn’t strike Casimir down, they could try to at least slow him down through projectiles. Remi noticed that a few of the Cimmerians had even picked up the guns that the fallen Delilah had dropped.
“General Bosen,” a tired, gaunt looking man in a huge fur coat replied. He stepped up to Remi and nodded. “I’m here to help anyway possible.”
“In those flames,” Remi replied in awe. “The Sorcerer is in battle with two of my friends, and I don’t know if they can win. For now, we wait, and be prepared to give our lives in order to take that thing down.”
“That’s really a Sorcerer in there?”
“Have you ever met anyone else that can take out half your army like that?”
“Cimmerians pride themselves on putting their differences aside in order to take down their enemy. We are proud and selfish, but we know how to squash that when necessary. To see my men…” he paused from being choked up. “To see them run away like that…I know that our enemy is formidable. I know…that it’s an enemy that we can’t allow to live.”
“Then let’s put our differences aside,” Remi said, turning to face him. “Not just between Cimmerians, but everyone. Paragon, Delilah, Cimmerian…we are all being controlled and manipulated by the Sorcerers—our self-proclaimed gods. The kingdoms of old had to came together to take down Thorn, but it was too late then. Let’s not make the same mistake. We’ll have plenty of time to tear each other apart later.”
“If the other groups are willing to listen, then so will I.”
“I agree,” an older lady replied. Wearing a modest blue sweater and a green dress that was covered in snow and dried blood, she stepped in front of Remi and the General as if she had been standing there all along.
“Who are you?” the General asked.
She bowed humbly. “I am Ingrid. And I am one of the high-ranking officials in Delilah. I was overseeing the battle from afar, but once I caught word that there was a Sorcerer on the field, I had to see this with my own eyes.”
“Aren’t you afraid of getting hurt?”
“In my old age?” she giggled. “Heavens, no. Besides, I’m too stubborn to die.”
“The Delilah will listen to you?” Remi asked.
“They will,” she replied. “But not without some convincing. We are poised to take this war, so it will be difficult to jeopardize that status.”
“Hmph,” the General replied. “As pompous and haughty as always the Delilah are.”
“And as arrogant and bloodthirsty the Cimmerians are. See, I can hurl out insults too.”
“The fire,” Remi whispered. All eyes turned to the pillar of fire which had now vanished instantly, as if it had evaporated into thin air. Remi looked to the skies for answers, but she couldn’t see Alicia at all.
When the smoke cleared, and the scorched earth began to emerge, Pedro and Casimir were in the midst, alive and relatively well.
Casimir was still awake, but he was now bound in thick steel wires that had been bent back with Pedro’s bare hands. Pedro was breathing heavily, and he looked like he was about to faint, but the Sorcerer was subdued. It was in that moment, that Remi realized just how strong he was compared to her.
He glanced over at her and smiled.
“Anyone want to see a Sorcerer up close?”
Chapter 52 – Wants and Needs
“You subdued him without knocking him unconscious?” Remi asked as she approached them cautiously.
“I had to get him weak enough that I could tie him up,” Pedro replied. “Knocking a Sorcerer out is next to impossible. I would have to kill him to do that, and we don’t want that.”
“How were you able to beat him?” General Bosen asked.
“Gave it my all,” Pedro sighed. “And I barely came out ahead. I would have died if I was fighting Brace.”
“Ember,” Remi said. “Where is she?”
“She’s okay,” Pedro said, closing his eyes. “She and Brace had a scuffle, but Brace took off. Don’t know what happened.”
“I wounded him,” Ember said, coming from behind a large oak. She was leaning up against a tree with a large gash across her forehead. It was still bleeding.
“Are you okay?” Remi asked.
“No,” she said flatly. “I…need to rest.”
“And we’re supposed to trust this one?” General Bosen asked.
“She’s on our side,” Remi said, though she knew that wasn’t entirely true. “If Casimir and Brace had been here and she hadn’t, we’d be dead right now.”
“What’s Casimir doing here?’ Ember asked suddenly, pointing at the bound Sorcerer.
“He attacked us,” Bosen said. “And he killed hundreds of my men.”
“He’s with Brace,” Remi said.
“So…they are teaming up,” Ember said bitterly. “I’m not surprised.”
“Whatever we do,” Pedro sighed. “We have to move fast. If Brace got away then he’ll be going into seclusion. Next time we see him, he’ll be a lot more powerful.”
“I forgot about that,” Ember muttered. “We could do the same.”
“It’s pointless,” Remi said. “We’ll just be going back and forth, fighting and retreating until someone gets the upper hand. I don’t want to take the chance. Our best bet is to get the numbers, and next time we see him, we can take him down.”
“I’m sorry, how is he getting stronger?” Bosen asked.
“The Sorcerers…” Remi said, glancing momentarily back at Ember. “They’ve found ways to age at an insanely slow place. There are pockets on Terra and elsewhere in which time moves at a crawl. They go there and train or observe while Terra and the other two worlds move at a faster pace. It’s the greatest source of her power.”
“Time…” Ingrid’s voice trailed off. “That’s interesting.”
“Does the Delilah know anything about this?” Bosen asked her and the elderly woman shook her head.
“No, no. It’s just interesting.”
Remi wasn’t sure if she was telling the truth.
“We should try to take care of the other Sorcerers now,” Pedro said. “We’ve got Casimir. We can get the others.”
“Do you think you’re up to it?” Remi asked. She looked over at Ember. “Both of you? You two are the heavy hitters.”
“I’d rather fight the others now rather than later,” Pedro said. He turned to General Bosen and Ingrid. “Our enemy is among you. You may not think so, but they are, manipulating the war and making moves behind the scenes, and the longer you allow these spies to be in place, the less control you have. I have the ability to identify them.”
“You want us to take you into our cities?” Bosen asked.
“I know that you might not have the clearance or authority to make this big of a decision. But…you’re going to have to. Even if it causes trouble with your higher-ups. It’s up to you. Either way, we’re coming. I just hope that we don’t have to fight through your people in order to get our targets.”
“We’ll cooperate,” Ingrid said. “But I may have to talk to them a little first.”
“No, the decision has to be yours. Someone you trust could be a Sorcerer in disguise.”
“We can go to Cimmerian,” Bosen said. “I would ra
ther get our cities clean now before that monster warns one of the others and they start flooding the place.”
“What about you?” Ember said to Casimir. “Anything you want to tell us? Like why you would be so stupid to align yourself with someone like Brace? He’s insane!”
“I have nothing to say to you,” he said. “None of you. And if you think you can extract the information out of me, you’re wasting your time.”
“I know,” Ember replied, standing over him. With a sudden whip of her hand, Casimir’s head fell off his shoulders.
“HEY!” Pedro shouted as he shoved Ember away.
Remi rushed to Pedro’s side and glared at Ember, ready to fight her if need be, but Ember looked at peace. She yawned and took a few steps away from them.
“Oh, that feels good,” she said as she began playing with her fingernails.
“Well, it looks like the Sorcerers are down to six,” Pedro sighed.
“What just happened?” Alicia asked, rushing to their side. She was back in her human form and fully clothed.
“Ember just got a little stronger, and so did every other Sorcerer,” Pedro sighed. “She killed Casimir.”
“We could have used him!” Remi shouted.
“No, you couldn’t,” Ember said. “And he would have escaped the first chance we got. You want to go and hunt Sorcerers while keeping one with us? He would have killed us all, and you know it? At least now we don’t have to worry about him.”
“That’s not how I want to do things,” Remi shouted.
Ember huffed. “You’re the only one, child. Pedro is ready to kill. Alicia is not opposed. If it wasn’t for the voices, then she would gladly do it. I’m ready. You know these armies are. You’re the only one not getting it. What was your plan? Capture each and every Sorcerer and then convince them that destroying the world isn’t in their best interest?”
“It doesn’t matter. Killing each other should be a last resort.”
“I don’t know why you follow her,” Ember said to Pedro.
He shrugged his shoulders. “She’s cute.”
Ember rolled her eyes. “Get me out of this nightmare.”
The Complete Seven Sorcerers Trilogy Page 49