by J. Cee
“Climb up, not over. I have a hunch.”
The smooth and flat glass walls offered no footing, but the passages were narrow, barely allowing one person to pass through them. Ceph placed one foot on each wall and pressed as hard as he could to jam himself between them. He push outwards with his hands as well, hard enough to hold himself in place. Then, he shuffled up the narrow space between the passage’s walls. It was painstakingly slow, but a minute later, the top of his head was pressed against the ceiling.
From his precarious position, Ceph looked out at the landscape of lights and glass. Yes! It was as he had guessed. Ceph dropped down to the ground in one quick motion.
“The lights. They’re a picture.”
“Picture?”
“Like when you’re a kid, you’d play with different colored beans. You’d arrange the colored beans to make a picture.” Ceph realized his mistake. Aeri had no childhood memories. “I mean, when I was a kid, I would play like that.”
“What’s the picture?”
“It’s hard to tell from this angle, but it looks like an animal. It’s some kind of foot or claw.”
Aeri’s head shot up at Ceph’s comment. “Like a dragon’s claw?”
“Now that you mention it, maybe. I bet you’re right.”
“Great. But if we’re near the foot, where are we supposed to go?”
“What’s the most important part? The head?”
Aeri didn’t hesitate to poke his chest. “The heart, of course.”
Ceph rolled his eyes. “This isn’t a romance story.”
Aeri gave a harder thump to Ceph’s chest. “Do I look romantic right now?”
Ceph coughed. “Well, depends what you mean—”
“What I meant is that for Greater Beasts and more powerful imbued creatures, the heart is the most important aspect. You can live without a spirit pool, but you can’t live without a blood pool.”
“Fine, fine. The heart it is.” Ceph pointed. “Somewhere in that direction, unless you’re going to tell me that dragons don’t have their hearts in the same place as us.”
Ceph sighed. This wasn’t the first time he had discussed dragon anatomy in an unsavory situation.
Aeri smiled with a mock sweetness. “Nope, just like you and me.” She folded her hands over her own chest. Ceph blushed and looked away.
Ceph and Aeri headed in the direction where they guessed the heart was. Every once in a while, Ceph would climb the walls again to get another perspective on the picture. As Aeri had deduced, the picture looked to be forming into a red dragon against some kind of background landscape.
They were somewhere near the dragon’s underbelly, about halfway to the heart from their initial position, when Aeri shouted and pointed into the distance.
“Looks like a Soulstrike!”
Ceph watched a speck of violet light shimmering in the distance. The distortion from the glass walls made it difficult to make out details that were far away, but the violet color of the Soulstrike stood out against the more mundane colors of the Glass Vaults.
“Must be Jexaka,” Aeri said.
The direction of the Soulstrike was the same as the dragon’s heart. Ceph and Aeri rushed forward as fast as they could, no longer complaining about bumped noses or other minor annoyances. It wasn’t a maze anymore. It was a race, and they were losing.
“We should be close to the heart now,” Ceph said.
“There.” Aeri pointed at a nearby section of walls with no colored lights. “That area looks different.”
Ceph and Aeri made their way into a cubic room that was about five meters across. As soon as they both crossed into the room, a new glass wall slid into place, trapping them.
“That’s good?” Ceph ventured.
The glass floor directly underneath their feet pulsed with light. A pressure bulged against one of his feet. Ceph leapt away. He saw Aeri stumble backwards too.
Two glowing lights remained where Ceph and Aeri had been standing moments before. The flat surface of the ground bubbled up at these two points, as if something was straining to break free. A moment later, two glass spheres about the size of large fists emerged from the floor and floated to the level of their eyes.
“Careful,” Aeri warned.
Each glass sphere shot forward, one towards each Onceborn.
Ceph cried out as a glass sphere slammed into his body before bouncing away. He checked his blood pool.
“That hit took away twenty-four blood points!”
Aeri rubbed her shoulder. “Mine took away six.”
The glass spheres swooped back for a second round of attacks. Ceph tried to roll away but the sphere clipped his lower left leg.
“Ouch! Another twenty-four blood!”
Aeri had managed to dodge the attack directed at her. “Your blood pool is 240?” Aeri asked. “Each hit is taking away ten percent?”
“Time to stop this.” Ceph held up his hand to cast a Soulstrike at the closest floating glass sphere.
“Ceph, no!”
Aeri’s warning came too late. The glass sphere darted to the side, Ceph’s Soulstrike passing by with no effect, until it hit the far glass wall.
“Uh oh.”
Ceph dove as the reflected Soulstrike bounced back towards him. In the small room, the Soulstrike ping-ponged back and forth, turning into a lethal hail of self-inflicted attacks. The glass spheres dipped, attacking again.
Aeri drew the sword Zeudah had given her. She swiped at a glass sphere but it jerked back at the last second, staying out of her range. Aeri spun with the momentum of her swing, then leapt with an outstretched left hand. At this close distance there was no room for dodging. Her Soulstrike hit the glass sphere and shattered it into a thousand small shards.
In the meantime, Ceph had managed to parry the errant Soulstrike, stopping the chaotic attack. He was currently holding his sword up in a guard position as the remaining glass sphere hovered above him, trying to dart past his defense.
He feinted at the glass sphere, corralling it towards Aeri, who approached from the other side. Ceph caught her eye. Aeri flicked her eyes towards the corner of the room, then upwards. Ceph nodded in understanding.
The glass sphere shot down at Ceph, who readied his sword. This time, he didn’t back down. He swept his sword across himself from right to left to right, then swept upwards from left to right, and finally slashed straight upwards. The glass sphere dodged higher and higher to stay out of Ceph’s reach. Meanwhile, Aeri had jumped towards the corner of the room, stepping off one wall with her right foot, then off the other wall with her left foot, twisting her body as she jumped higher. She slashed down at the rising glass sphere, shattering it before landing on the ground.
Ceph looked around the room for any other threats. “Is that it?”
Aeri opened her mouth to speak when the room floor disappeared. For a split second, the two Onceborn floated weightlessly. Then, they fell.
The fall through the narrow chute lasted for what seemed like a minute. Ceph flailed about upside down when he noticed that Aeri was using the walls to guide her body. He pushed off one wall to flip himself back upright. He raked one hand along the wall to steady himself.
Ceph and Aeri landed with two booms in rapid succession. Corpus. Ceph flexed his ankles but saw that his spirit-laced body hadn’t been harmed at all by the long fall.
They were in a rectangular room. One end of the room led to what looked like an endless straight passageway lined with lights. Ceph squinted. Was there something at the end? He couldn’t be sure with all the lights confusing his vision.
“Is that the artifact down there?” Ceph pointed down the passageway.
“Ceph.”
Ceph froze at the warning in Aeri’s voice. He slid his eyes to the side. Aeri was facing Jexaka. Ceph’s right hand reached down to his sword hilt.
“The artifact is mine!” Jexaka screeched. “Leave, and I’ll spare your lives.”
“Ceph, you go get the artifact. I’l
l deal with this.” Aeri and Jexaka began circling each other.
“Deal with me? Or deal with us?” Jexaka laughed.
Ceph watched Jexaka blur. He rubbed his eyes. Two Jexakas stood before him.
“Not again,” Aeri muttered.
Both Jexakas smiled. One of them bolted past Ceph and into the passageway.
“Ceph, go!”
Ceph turned to chase the fleeing woman. As soon as the first Jexaka left the room, a glass wall dropped from the ceiling behind her. Ceph threw himself to the ground and rolled past the descending obstacle. The wall slammed into the floor, separating the original room from the long passageway.
Ceph locked eyes with Aeri through the glass partition. Then, Aeri turned to parry a Soulstrike with her sword while Ceph rolled to the side to avoid a slash from his copy of Jexaka. As Ceph came to his feet, he saw the ground glowing where he had just stood, as well as under Jexaka’s feet.
Glass spheres began emerging from the floor.
Chapter 30
The two women eyed each other warily. Jexaka shifted to Aeri’s left side, looking to distance herself from Aeri’s sword hand. Aeri responded by shifting to her right and Jexaka’s left. They ended up circling as they jockeyed for an advantage.
“Killing you is a waste.” Jexaka lowered her sword slightly. “Together we can destroy the Everborn.”
“What you’re doing is wrong.”
Aeri cast two quick Soulstrikes, one right after the other. Jexaka parried both with her sword.
“Who made you the arbiter of what is right and wrong?”
Jexaka sent two Soulstrikes at Aeri in return. Aeri parried the attacks with ease.
“Even a child can see that you don’t care about what’s right.”
Aeri dashed towards Jexaka with a frontal attack. Jexaka blocked Aeri’s slash, twisted her blade around Aeri’s, and flicked the tip of her weapon at Aeri’s face. Aeri bent backwards to avoid the strike, but Jexaka’s flick transitioned into a downward lunge. Aeri knocked Jexaka’s blade aside while falling into a backward roll, returning to a guard position several paces away.
Jexaka grinned. “Of course I don’t care about what’s right. I care about what’s strong, about winning.”
A blur streaked past Aeri. In an instant, Aeri was knocked to the side with a painful shock to her midsection. Aeri rolled away to face Jexaka, who was now behind her. Her eyes dropped for a second to Jexaka’s feet. She had attacked with the Rush skill, using the footwear stolen from Aeri.
Jexaka smiled at the recognition in Aeri’s eyes. “See, the strong win. That’s all that counts.”
Aeri didn’t have a proper counter to the Rush skill. The skill would recharge in a minute, which meant another free attack against her. Aeri looked around the glass-walled room, searching for anything she could turn to her advantage. Rush was only one skill. She had to beat Jexaka. She had to find a weakness.
Aeri cast first one, then another Soulstrike, both missing Jexaka by a glaring margin. Jexaka stared at Aeri in confusion, followed by mocking laughter. Jexaka had stood still while Aeri’s attacks flew past. The errant Soulstrikes ricocheted off the glass walls. Aeri sprinted forward while casting a third Soulstrike straight at Jexaka.
Jexaka’s eyes widened in surprise as she realized what was happening. She tried to twist her body away while parrying the Soulstrike from the front. At that moment, the two ricocheting Soulstrikes slammed into Jexaka’s body from different angles. Aeri completed the attack with a jab of her sword’s point into her enemy’s exposed stomach. Jexaka cried out as the multiple attacks struck.
Aeri retreated out of Jexaka’s range and locked eyes with her opponent. The anger contorting Jexaka’s face was one of embarrassment, not pain. Aeri had been right. While using the Twin Paradox, Jexaka’s attention was split in two and prone to mistakes. Not only had Jexaka failed to counter Aeri’s tactic, but she had forgotten to cast a shield to at least reduce damage once avoiding the attacks was impossible.
“You mistake arrogance for strength,” Aeri said.
Jexaka roared and charged forward, her sword a whirlwind of metal cutting in all directions. Aeri parried the strikes, stepping backwards and sideways, drawing Jexaka closer to a wall.
Once Jexaka was adjacent to a wall, Aeri cast a Soulstrike, missing her mark again on purpose. This time, her intended target was close enough so that Jexaka flinched, readying her sword to parry the attack. However, Aeri’s attack bounced off the wall next to Jexaka and struck her right side. The extra distance from the bounce had interfered with Jexaka’s timing, preventing a successful parry.
Jexaka stopped fighting and sheathed her sword. “This is foolish. Do you know what my true strength is? It’s that none of this matters. I can kill you. You can kill me. No matter what happens, I’ll be back. That’s true strength. That’s why I’ll always defeat you.”
“Like the Everborn? The very ones you plan to destroy?” Aeri snorted in disgust. “Is your plan to destroy them or to replace them?”
“We are stronger, faster, and smarter than the Everborn. They are but pale imitations in our realm. We deserve to take their place—we who are reborn in full.”
“Now you mistake mortality for weakness. You think because we can die, that we’re weaker. You’re wrong. What do you fight for? Pride?” Aeri sheathed her sword. “We fight to live, so that our people can live. Our mortality is our strength.”
Jexaka spat. “Empty talk. When you’re nothing but a bloody smear on the ground, no one is going to care about your lofty ideals.”
“You could join us instead,” Aeri offered.
Jexaka laughed. “Don’t you know what you are? You’re slaves. Slaves to the Everborn. Slaves to the Creator. If you weren’t already so pathetic, I might pity you. But enough. Your precious mortality awaits.”
Jexaka crouched down with her hands out front in a grappling pose. Her intent to aim for a clinch was clear to Aeri. Once the two fighters were locked together in an embrace, there would be no parrying or tactics. Each would pour Soulstrike after Soulstrike at point blank range into the other’s body with only shields to soften the attacks. The first to run out of blood points would die.
Aeri took a step backwards, but she realized that Jexaka’s Rush skill would have recovered. Giving Jexaka space would only give her room to execute a Rush attack leading into a clinch. Close, then, but not too close. Aeri took three steps toward Jexaka with both hands raised. Her sword remained sheathed, as a mere Steelstrike wouldn’t prevent a grappling attack.
Jexaka shot forward, leading with her right hand. Aeri dodged and whipped her left leg around in a circle as she lowered herself, sweeping Jexaka’s legs out from under her. Jexaka let herself fall, exaggerating the motion to flip backwards, then pushed off the ground to leap at Aeri with both hands stretched out. Aeri darted backwards and rolled sideways out of Jexaka’s trajectory.
“You fight like a coward,” Jexaka sneered.
Her right hand shot out again at Aeri, but this time violet energy glowed in the outstretched palm. Aeri stepped into Jexaka’s body and spun, sending her left elbow cracking into Jexaka’s jaw followed by a chop to her arm. The Soulstrike skimmed across Aeri’s body, missing it by a hair’s breadth. Aeri’s counter had been meant to neutralize both Jexaka’s physical strike and the ensuing Soulstrike, but it brought her too close.
As Jexaka’s left hand closed on her right shoulder, Aeri threw her body to the ground to wrench free. While falling, she slipped her left hand into the gap between her shoulder and Jexaka’s hand, sending a Soulstrike. The resulting attack slapped Jexaka’s hand away, and Aeri once again rolled free.
Not waiting for Aeri to recover completely, Jexaka activated her Rush skill. At that short distance, both fighters collided in a heap against a glass wall. It was impossible for Aeri to escape this time. Seeing that she had no choice, she immediately seized both of Jexaka’s hands, one in each hand, as if the two were dancing.
The two stood, hand
s held, each trying to overpower and throw the other. Jexaka’s right hand glowed violet, but Aeri’s left hand glowed violet to match it, and the two Soulstrikes canceled each other with a dull warmth between their palms. Jexaka’s right hand and Aeri’s left glowed once more. Jexaka’s left and Aeri’s right glowed. Jexaka’s left and Aeri’s left glowed. Aeri had guessed wrong. Both pairs of clenched hands flew apart in a painful shock.
Before Aeri could escape, Jexaka pushed her back against the wall, smothering Aeri’s face and eyes with her outstretched palms. Aeri couldn’t see but reached out to grab Jexaka’s neck in a stranglehold. Violet energy seared into Aeri’s right eye over and over again, while she responded with Soulstrike after Soulstrike into the soft flesh of Jexaka’s throat. Their skin glowed with the color of shields. Both fighters screamed.
It’s up to you now, Ceph, Aeri thought.
* * *
Ceph ran several steps down the passageway, but each time he took a step forward, another glass sphere rose from the ground. Jexaka, in the meantime, hadn’t moved from her position near the beginning of the passageway.
Two glass spheres swooped down at Jexaka, while another pair attacked Ceph. Ceph drew his sword and pierced the nearest glass sphere while ducking as the remaining sphere zoomed past where his head had been.
“Hey!” Ceph parried a Soulstrike.
Jexaka was haphazardly sending Soulstrikes at the glass spheres, not caring if her attacks missed and struck Ceph, who was further down the passageway.
Ceph had taken his eyes off the glass spheres to deal with the incoming Soulstrikes. He grunted as one of them knocked him back towards Jexaka. Corpus. A quick glance showed that Ceph had lost ten percent of his blood pool from the single hit.
Jexaka kept her sword sheathed but sent another Soulstrike at Ceph. She had destroyed one of the glass spheres as well, leaving two total. Ceph parried Jexaka’s attack and rolled to the side to dodge a sphere. He saw another glass sphere bud from the floor where he had been standing. Fighting in the passageway was insane.
“Hold on, can we take a break? Truce?” Ceph held up his hands to Jexaka for a second before smashing another glass sphere with his sword.