The centipede raises its head as I approach the hole in the wall. It’s surrounded by burning corpses and mangled skeletons.
It isn’t attacking. But I can see the flames churning in its maw. Is it building power? Giving me time to regret my choices?
The ground blurs slightly in my vision. It’s at least three stories down.
Am I afraid of falling? Would I die from this height?
“You can cast first-class spells?” Rakel asks. “I thought…”
“Of course,” I say. “I can cast Heaven Ascent, remember? It’s just risky. Because I draw power from the soul.”
“Drya… it could hurt her?”
I nod and raise a hand to the scab on my chest.
“I hope you’re right,” I say. “I hope Pepper can fix the seal.”
Rakel’s brows furrow.
“Maybe it’s selfish to you. But this life. This soul that’s been given to me. It seemed troublesome at first; but to me it is a gift. A gift I don’t plan on squandering. If that involves risking everything. I suppose it will have to do.”
Rakel makes a small, choked noise and steps forward.
“Aerida,” my name sounds like a sob on her tongue.
Ugh. Why is she getting emotional?
I turn and drop through the hole. Wind whips around me.
Sorry Olexandrya.
“Heartsworn Cloak: Gleaming Soul.”
My mana swirls around me, igniting the air itself into golden fire. It envelopes me, clinging to my body like a second skin.
Heartsworn Cloak is Moonlight Tranquillity taken to the next step. Instead of allowing me to access the flames, they pour out passively.
I kick off a ledge, compressing blazing mana at my feet. The brick crumbles as I fly across the courtyard.
The centipede unleashes a dense plume of white fire.
I straighten like an arrow and thrust both hands out. My fire extends, spearing the centipede’s attack and splitting it.
I spread my arms, whipping my flames outward like massive twin blades through the centipede’s body. The flames scatter, ripping through the walls of two nearby buildings.
Rubble pelts the ground below as the centipede’s carcass falls into burning pieces.
I propel myself upward as more creatures fall from above.
I feel it. The twist in my chest. It’s like a hole opening within me. For a moment I’m taken back to that golden courtyard where I stood against Olexandrya.
I won’t burn myself up. I won’t burn us up. We’ll just have to burn enough to finish this.
The village spins beneath me. I can make out the full scope of it. Collapsed buildings. Streets reduced to trails of rubble. Walls still standing despite the destruction within.
Nearby, the bat is mid-turn. Flying at an angle. The snake is there on the bat’s back.
With a wingbeat, it turns towards me.
I double over, aiming both hands past my feet.
“Carnal Haze!” Fire explodes from my hands, launching me over the bat as it passes by.
“You can’t match me dancing around like that!” the snake calls, aiming a hand at me.
I spin in the air, twisting a fireball into being and thrusting it at the snake.
An orc appears from thin air, taking the fireball to the chest.
The bell rings. Pepper’s mana spikes. I’m hyperaware of it.
“I’m starting to understand!” The snake yells as the bat turns to charge again.
The orc falls, consumed by flames.
I propel myself off another Carnal Haze, meeting the bat’s charge. But that hole throbs and I’m struck with spasms in my limbs.
My own momentum hurls me into an uncontrollable spin.
Something appears above me and I accidentally burn through it. Its body comes apart around me.
“All of those people!” the snake yells as the bat circles around. “Their souls. Their very beings! Its all a part of me! It is me! Starvation. Starvation isn’t what I am! I am more!”
“Dancing Aces!” I push through the pain and clap my hands together. Embers scatter around me. I direct all of them towards the snake.
Hold on, Olexandrya. Just a bit more!
The embers scatter across the air, meeting the approaching bat like a closing net.
“Pointless!”
Another cloud of skeletons. Each perfectly lined up with one of my embers. They’re blown apart instantly, their bodies blasted to bone and ash.
Seriously? How can the snake summon them so precisely?
More appear above me, waving their arms as they fall.
Something changes. I feel it the instant it happens. A glow swallows the village below. A tidal wave of blue energy sweeps from the center, overtaking everything.
Streaks shoot upward, spinning towards us.
I tuck my arms, preparing for blows.
But they go around me. They don’t miss. They actively swerve around me.
Each skeleton is hit by one of the blue streaks.
The bat is hit by several streaks along its body.
“What?” the snake gasps. “The seal? What happened?”
The skeletons are pulled towards the ground.
I propel myself again, turning towards the ground.
Blue light gleams and blobs thicken within it. All the monsters, dead or alive, are being absorbed by the blue light.
The seal. Peppers done something. Is it killing them? Returning them to where they were summoned from?
“Are you kidding?” I laugh despite myself. I can’t stop the surge of exhilaration. This happening. “Pepper!”
“Higher!” the snake calls. “Fly higher!”
The bat pumps its wings, and several of the blue threads snap. It starts rising higher and higher as more ropes snag onto it.
“That’s why I did it!” The snake claws at its face, peeling away skin and muscle. “That’s what the Demon Lord needs. “Perfection!”
A gust whips up, blowing me away from the bat. I propel myself again, fighting to keep my limbs steady. I easily overtake them and land on the bat’s head.
The bat lets loose a high-pitched squeal and beats its wings harder.
Wind rushes through, throwing my hair up behind me.
The snake is just ahead. Its mangled tail is curled around the bat’s neck.
We’re so close. I’m so close.
My flames scatter, swallowing the bat’s thick head.
“Just a bit longer!” The snake yells. “I’m so close! Perfection!” It starts chanting the word, each time coming out more like a scream.
This thing is actively attempting to rewrite its very soul before my eyes. I can’t let this happen.
“They’re all here. They’re all me. Together. Perfection.” The snake takes the pose again, and my stomach falls out. I won’t make it.
I release Heartsworn Cloak and gather the remaining flames into a blade between my hands. I propel it with everything I have.
The sky opens up above us. Blacks spreading like spilled ink. The snake’s mana. My flame is stopped in midair as if pushing against a solid wall. But I’m not blown back. The mana is contained, compressed to one spot.
“Heaven Ascent: Deep Twisting World Of Perfection!”
Screams. They spill out of the sky above like unholy rain. Hundreds of voices calling out in a strange harmony.
The dark sky splits into faces. Eyes and mouths carved into the blackness, they push against each other, fighting for room to exist.
This is it. All of them. Exposed to the world.
“Carnal Haze!” I ignite the flames of the arrow, propelling it further.
My flame strikes the snake’s wrist, severing the hand before sinking into its ribs.
The snake screams, flailing backward. The sky erupts, that darkness bursting like a bubble.
The bat flaps harder, tearing free of the blue ropes. The snake’s screams reverberate in the air. The bat twists and jerks its head, knocking me off.
I sprawl, unable to control my fall.
More creatures appear: spiders, gryphons, orcs, skeletons, centipedes. But they’re all instantly snatched up by the blue energy.
Have I disabled the snake? It shouldn’t be able to heal itself. It shouldn’t be able to cast Heaven Ascent again.
No. I can’t depend on that. This thing has showcased abnormal abilities. It adjusted its Heaven Ascent with sheer will alone.
We have to make sure it’s finished. But I can hardly move my limbs. Everything is spasming and my head is buzzing.
The world spins as the blue of the village rushes up at me. I’ll be fine. Rakel will catch me.
Blue streaks rush by me, catching more monsters as they appear in the air.
I continue to fall. I pass by the tallest rooftops that make up the courtyard. The ground is too close.
Rakel?
“Rakel!” My scream is drowned out when a blur slams into me. I’m yanked into a spin that turns my stomach inside out. I squeeze my eyes shut as everything comes to a stop.
Two hands hold tightly to me. Rakel is there when I open my eyes, holding me in her arms.
Around us, the bricks and walls are painted in blue glow. It even flows along the ground like untouchable water moving around us.
There’s a gleam in Rakel’s eye that makes me glare at her. The blue lig
“I told you,” Rakel says. “Didn’t I?”
I roll out of her arms and land on my side with a grunt.
“Hey!” Rakel starts to kneel as I get up.
“It’s still alive,” I say, grabbing her arm and pulling myself up with it.
The sky is streaked with blue. At least ten ropes are attached to the bat. It’s flapping desperately, seemingly holding its own.
“You can’t fly back up there?” Rakel asks.
“No.” I scan the courtyard. “We’ll need another—” the words die in my throat.
Because Olexandrya is there. She’s standing on top of a tower beyond the courtyard. Her tunic ripples in the wind, and she has a single broadsword raised over her head.
How? How hadn’t I detected her moving? Her mana is completely erased. There’s no sign of her at all beyond her physical presence.
Pure silence.
I’ve heard of this.
“It’s those swords of hers,” my master had told me. “They’re alive. They consume mana. When she wants to cloak herself, she stores her mana within them until the very moment she strikes. Within the swords, the mana may as well not exist until the second she needs it. And more often than not, one strike is all she needs.”
Olexandrya swings the sword.
I’m blinded for a moment. It’s as if the sun rose directly in front of me.
“Drya!” Rakel yells. “What did she do?”
I squint against the light and see two things.
Olexandrya collapsing onto the rooftop and the bat split apart.
Olexandrya’s sword falls off the roof, and she lands facedown on the edge.
One of the bat’s wings has been severed from the body, and it begins to fall.
Was that all she had? It’ll have to do.
Rakel starts to run towards the tower, but I grab her arm.
“Now’s our chance,” I say. “No hesitation!”
“But Drya is…”
“No time! We kill that thing now!” I gesture to myself. “Look at me! I’m fine! If I’m alive, it means she’s alive!”
Rakel just nods.
I grab Rakel and wrap my arms around her.
“Uh…” she stares down at me. “What?”
Above, the bat is growing closer. Its severed wing spins in the air. It flaps desperately with the remaining wing. I can just make out the snake on its back.
The snake hasn’t abandoned the bat. Why? It has to be planning something.
“I’m going to launch us!” I snap. “We’ll meet that bat and rush the snake! You have to hit it with the Hollow Core! No matter what, do you understand?”
She stares hard at me for a moment and nods again.
“Alright. I think I’ve only got one or two more in me. It’ll be tight.”
Casting spells is too risky. My soul is still unsteady. But I can manipulate mana. The most I can do is get Rakel up there and give her an opening.
I gather mana at our feet and bend my knees. Then, I release and we’re launched upward. The world zips by, wind squeezing us together as we’re thrown out over the bat.
The bat turns as it falls. Its massive body twisting over itself. A tornado blooms under it, slowly stretching towards the ground below.
More streaks of blue shoot up, spearing the bat several times over. Its body glows from within as the blue spreads. Its skeleton is faintly visible.
The snake is on its neck. It’s tearing into the flesh of the bat’s neck. Why? I notice its tail growing. It’s consuming the bat’s soul to regenerate itself. Of course, I hadn’t even thought of that! That means the hand will heal. Which means the first-class spell was pointless. And it means Heaven Ascent remains a threat.
I push on Rakel’s side as we spin through the air, shoving her towards the bat.
“Me first!” I yell, hoping she understands. “You finish it!”
We land together near the middle of the bat’s back. The body recoils beneath us.
I charge at the snake.
The tornado grows, and the bat starts rising again. Its wing dangles limply as it does. Is it even alive, anymore?
“This is it!” The snake calls, tearing free of the bat’s neck. It whirls, whipping a fully healed tail at me.
I drop off the side of the bat, letting the tail zip past. Then, I compress mana at my feet and kick off of it, lunging at the snake. I land on its tail, pinning it to the bat’s neck.
Rakel comes in next, having leapt overhead. She catches the snake by the head and drives her knee into its face.
“Rakel!” I call, yanking on the tail. But I’m not strong enough. It rips free, tearing up my hands.
The snake lunges, slamming into Rakel. They topple onto the back, rolling together.
I shake my bloody hands and chase after them.
“Yes!” the snake screams, driving its fist into Rakel’s chest.
Rakel staggers a step and delivers an uppercut that throws the snake onto its back. Then she raises a hand. She’s going to do it, she’ll cast Hollow Core!
I tuck my head, running faster.
The tail blurs, cutting up the flesh of the bat’s back. An entire chunk of back moves, throwing off Rakel’s footing.
“Shit!”
The snake spins, swinging the tail again.
I get there first, stepping in front of Rakel. I gather mana for a moment, just enough to cushion the blow. It still strikes my chest like a blade.
The pain is astonishing. For a moment, I only see white. By the time my vision clears, I’m falling.
I watch Rakel lunge, green energy in hand. But the snake moves, spinning out of the way.
The energy explodes, and Rakel is launched off the bat. At the same time, the bat is pulled apart by the blue streaks.
The snake is left hovering in the air as the bat’s body collapses into the tornado.
No! Damn it! What now?
Rakel falls towards me, keeping her body straight to fall faster. What’s the point of that, to catch me? Does she not realize what’s about to happen?
Behind her, I see the snake raising its hands. It takes the same pose it’s taken every time before. I don’t need to hear the words.
The sky darkens yet again. Nothing will stop it. Even from the glimpse of its Heaven Ascent, I’m sure it will kill us.
I can sense the ground growing closer. One more spell. Consequences be damned.
Rakel reaches for me as she gets closer.
I extend my arm, but I don’t grab her hand.
Sorry again, Olexandrya. I really hope this doesn’t kill us. But these are your people, right? Surely, you’d rather take the risk.
Rakel’s eyes widen.
I twist, planting my hand in her back. The pain is instant. Something breaks in my arm. But I don’t hesitate. I do two things separated only by a heartbeat.
First, I envelope Rakel in a cloak of my mana. Only to dampen the effects of what I do next.
“Heartsworn Cloak: Carnal Haze!”
Everything else. All of my blazing mana is compressed between my hand and Rakel’s back.
For a moment, it’s just a flash. A sun blooming between us.
“Drya. Rakel. Both rocks,” Pepper had said. “World not kind to rocks. To make world kind. My role.”
I won’t soften the world for Rakel. But… I will make sure she gets to where she needs to be; so she can do what rocks do best.
I try to yell something to that effect, but it comes out like a shriek as Rakel’s back explodes and we’re blown apart.
I watch her rise like a comet towards the snake.
I have this odd feeling. This assuredness that it will be okay. I have no justification or logic behind it. Maybe it’s just a desire. Maybe it’s the trust Olexandrya spoke of.
Rakel spins once and throws back a hand. The green energy blooms and streaks behind her like a scar ripped open on the air itself.
The snake doesn’t see her coming.
Rakel drives the energy into the snake’s chest. It’s the last thing I see before I hit the ground.
1Added clarification that the snake's hand was healed when it consumed the bat's soul.