When Herald finally lifted his eyes from the blood dried across his hands, the Great Wall was still in front of them. He stared at it, trying to understand how Vinayaka could have carried them across an impossible stretch of Kurukshetra without taking them beyond the barrier.
The Wall towered ahead, close enough now for Herald to distinguish individual watchtowers and the soldiers lining its heights. Farther along the colossal structure, one section had been torn open completely, broken stone forming a wound wide enough for an army to march through.
They were close enough to see safety, yet they were still outside it. Herald’s legs threatened to fold beneath him as that understanding settled in, and around him the others looked no more capable of taking another step than he felt.
Madam Althea leaned heavily against Facade, her face drained of colour while spiders worked around the stump of her missing arm. Facade’s enormous wings dragged through the sand behind him, while Lanthea had returned fully to human form but kept her knees slightly bent as though straightening them would send her down.
Peril had planted the Vel into the ground and was using the spear more as support than a weapon. Culpa remained beside Erudite, who looked as though Vinayaka had taken something from him that ordinary exhaustion could not explain.
His breathing came in shallow pulls while one hand stayed against the side of his chariot. The other hung beside him, and the gemstones on his rings clicked softly against the wood whenever his fingers trembled.
Shouting rolled down from the Wall before anyone could recover. "Survivors! There are survivors outside!" soldiers called as archers crowded the battlements and guards poured through the enormous breach.
"Move!" another voice shouted from below, and the men outside the breach began running toward them. Armour flashed between drifting curtains of stone dust as more soldiers followed.
Relief finally loosened some of the tension in Herald’s body, though he did not trust it yet. Only a few hundred steps separated them from the opening now, and after everything Kurukshetra had taken from them, that distance looked almost merciful.
Then someone appeared between them and the Wall. Herald’s breath stopped as whatever relief had reached him disappeared before he could properly feel it.
There had been no flash of light, no footsteps and no disturbance across the sand. The Knight simply stood where empty ground had been a moment earlier, with Pinaka resting loosely in one hand.
Blood from those he had killed stained the black armour, yet nothing in his posture suggested exhaustion. He looked as though he had been waiting for them.
Nobody moved because nobody had anything left to spend. Herald tried to tighten his grip around the Yama Danda, but his fingers answered slowly, while Peril forced himself straighter beside him and nearly lost his balance.
Facade’s wings twitched once before falling still against the sand, and Althea did not even lift her head. Several of the stranded soldiers who had escaped Kurukshetra with them lowered their weapons without being told.
One man simply released his sword, and the blade struck the sand with a dull thud. The Knight took his first step toward them before the sound had fully faded.
Culpa moved at the same moment, but Erudite caught her wrist before she passed him. "No," he said, though his grip lacked enough strength to hold her if she truly chose to leave.
She looked down at his hand before meeting his eyes. "If we do nothing, he kills us here."
"Culpa, you’ve already spent too much." Erudite tried to tighten his fingers, but the tremor running through them betrayed how little strength remained. Read this novel at novelping(.)com for the best experience.
"So has everyone." There was no teasing in her voice now and no grin hidden behind the words as she pulled her wrist free.
Culpa turned toward the soldiers still rushing through the breach. "I know I can’t beat him," she said, watching the narrowing distance between them and the Knight. "I just need to make him waste time."
She stepped away from the others and formed the first mudra. One foot slid across the sand as her fingers shifted into another position, and then her entire body began to move.
Her arms crossed, separated and twisted before folding again while her hands passed through mudra after mudra. Each motion flowed into the next, and golden lines began tracing the path of her feet through the sand.
Her breathing sharpened as the sequence accelerated. More golden lines appeared around her until the patterns overlapped beneath her movements and light gathered around her exhausted body.
"MAYA ASTRA."
The world filled with Culpa as ten figures appeared, then twenty, fifty and more. Before Herald could count them, the multiplying bodies began changing into other people.
One became Peril while another took Herald’s shape, and others shifted into Facade, Erudite, Althea, Lanthea and soldiers from the retreat. Dozens became hundreds until an entire army stood between the Knight and the wounded.
Herald stared because they were not lifeless copies. Each illusion breathed, adjusted its grip or shifted its weight differently, while some limped beneath false wounds and others carried blood across armour that had never been struck.
Culpa’s dance ended with her hands locked into the final mudra, and the false army charged together. Swords descended, spears thrust between moving bodies and arrows crossed overhead until the Knight vanished beneath the attack.
Pinaka remained lowered while the first illusion reached him. His fist passed through its face, scattering golden fragments as he turned, caught another by the throat and hurled it through three more bodies.
All four broke apart before they touched the sand. A spear came toward his spine, but the Knight shifted half a step and allowed it to pass beside him before driving his elbow backward.
The attacker’s head vanished into golden light as six copies of Herald closed from different directions. The Knight moved between them before any of their staffs could reach him.
One collapsed with its chest torn open while another struck the sand hard enough to burst apart. He caught the false Yama Danda of a third, dragged the illusion forward and shattered it with his forehead before turning toward the remaining attackers.
The swarm kept coming until hundreds of bodies transformed the space before the Wall into another battlefield. Golden figures pressed around one black-armoured man so tightly that Herald lost sight of him.
Then the illusions began flying back out.
One burst apart overhead while another hit the sand already dissolving. Three disappeared almost together, followed by ten more as the Knight emerged from the crowd.
An illusion of Peril drove the Vel toward his throat, but the Knight trapped the false spear beneath one arm and snapped it. He drove the broken half through the illusion’s chest, scattering another burst of gold across his armour without breaking stride. Get faster updates on NovelPing.
Culpa’s fingers had begun trembling badly enough for Herald to see it from behind her. She held the final mudra anyway, sending the remaining illusions forward while the Knight answered each attack with the shortest movement necessary.
A palm shattered one body before a knee folded another. He caught a third by the face and drove it into the ground, already turning toward the next attacker before the illusion beneath his hand had finished dissolving.
Hundreds became dozens, and the dozens dwindled until only five remained. They rushed him together, but four shattered almost immediately while the last circled behind him.
The Knight turned, caught its wrist and drove his palm through its chest. Golden light burst outward before fading across the sand, leaving him standing alone where an army had existed moments earlier.
Culpa’s hands finally separated as her knees gave way beneath her. Erudite caught her before she struck the ground, barely keeping himself upright as he took her weight.
She had never expected Maya Astra to defeat the Knight, and Herald understood that now. She had only needed those hundreds of bodies to delay him long enough for everyone else to get closer to the Wall.
It had not been enough.
The Knight stepped through the fading golden light as a command thundered from above. "ARCHERS!" someone shouted from the Wall, and Herald looked up to find hundreds of bows already drawn along the battlements.
"LOOSE!" Bowstrings snapped together, sending a dark wave of arrows across the evening sky while the guards outside the breach continued advancing.
The Knight did not look upward. Pinaka moved once, too quickly for Herald to understand the motion, and a violent force tore through the incoming barrage.
Arrows smashed against one another in midair until broken shafts and arrowheads rained across the sand. Several guards raised their shields as debris struck around them, and their advance slowed.
They had been running out to rescue survivors. Now their faces showed that they finally understood what stood between them and the wounded.
One officer raised his weapon anyway. "Get them inside!" he shouted, and the soldiers around him tightened their formation before continuing toward the Knight.
Erudite’s eyes widened as he watched them advance. "Don’t!" he called, but the distance and the noise swallowed his warning before any of them reacted.
The Knight turned toward the approaching guards, but a horn rolled across the sky before he could move. Its note was deep enough for Herald to feel beneath his ribs as it travelled over the broken Wall and out across Kurukshetra.
The soldiers faltered, and even the Knight stopped. Herald lifted his head as a shadow moved across the clouds above them, descending steadily toward the breach.