IM2: Chapter #47 (Patreon)

Ignoring the sinking feeling in her chest, Velin let out a breath and focused.

“What does that mean? I need more information.”

“One of the runes is… damaged. I don’t know how to fix it. It looks like there is a section that needs to be rewritten.”

Glancing toward the fight between Aciakko and Thorn, Velin bit her lip. The best solution would be to get Thorn over here, but that was a near impossibility. He was barely able to keep pace with Aciakko as it was and Velin was afraid that any distraction would break whatever tenuous hold on the fight he currently had.

[Eve, can you help fix the runes?]

[No, sorry. I’ve already taken a look at them and I don’t understand what is going on well enough to be sure of a solution. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to Thorn’s rune knowledge. I do have an… idea. It's just… not a very good one.]

[Why are you starting to sound like Thorn? Ugh, anything is helpful at this point.]

[I might be spending too much time with the big guy. There is a genius here that rivals Thorn, and he happens to like us. If he was willing to help, and we had some Destiny Points to grease the wheels, he may be able to do it.]

Thinking about it for a moment, Velin nodded.

[Fine, what do we need to do to make that happen?]

[Thorn has to be okay getting rid of his safety net,] Eve replied, her voice deadly serious. [I’ll need three Destiny Points to do it, but that’s all Thorn has left.]

[Can you use mine?]

[You haven’t had any left for a long time, Velin.]

Biting her lip, Velin’s eyes darted to the fight between Thorn and Aciakko. Little by little, Thorn was starting to fall behind, and instead of trading blows, now he was just trying to survive. On the one hand, emptying his Destiny Pool would mean that a single mistake would be enough to kill him, but on the other hand, if they couldn’t get the portal working, he’d probably end up dead anyway.

[Okay, let's do it. You ask Thorn for permission. I’ll make sure he survives.]

[His survival is not what we’re worried about,] Eve said. [It's… nevermind.]

Before Velin could ask her what she was talking about, Eve left the channel, leaving Velin wondering what she was missing. Across the battlefield, Thorn was having a miserable time as he fought against Aciakko. There was no doubt that she was giving it her all to kill him, but since that wasn’t possible she seemed to have settled on hitting him as hard as she possibly could. Despite his incredible martial skill, Aciakko was a step above him and she used every single ounce of her skill to punish him.

Dodging past a stab, Thorn used Blink to instantly move behind Aciakko, only to catch a foot in the ribs as she snapped a heel hook into his ribs. Grunting, Thorn grabbed her leg and squeezed as hard as he could, triggering Fissure at the same time. Recognizing the spell, Aciakko punched Thorn a dozen times in the blink of an eye, knocking him back and ripping her leg from his grip. Unable to get out of the way in time, she felt the skin on her hip open up as the world broke. Flipping her dagger around, she lunged forward, trying to stab into Thorn’s thigh, but he used his staff to push off the ground, causing her to miss.

[Hey Thorn, I need to use your Destiny Points,] Eve said, her voice serious.

[But we were leaving them for…]

[I know,] Eve said, cutting him off. [But the portal is damaged. We either need you or Levandi to fix it, and you are clearly not available.]

[Fine. We’ll cross our fingers and hope things don’t go sour.]

[Oh, they will,] Eve said, her voice completely matter-of-fact. [There is such a low probability of things going our way that we need to assume that if we do this, we are already in the worst case scenario.]

Falling silent, Thorn’s expression shifted through a dozen emotions in a moment, finally settling into a strange humor.

[If that is where we are then we might as well embrace it.]

[I don’t like that expression, Thorn.]

[You have my permission to use my Destiny Points, Eve.]

This time, it was Eve who fell silent. Though, in her case, it was because she was running every conceivable scenario through a simulation to see if there was a viable path forward. Thorn could feel the heart in his chest heating up as she worked feverishly, and just when he thought he would start breathing fire, she spoke again, her voice exhausted.

[The dagger is the only chance.]

Feeling the Destiny Points leaving his body, Thorn let out a laugh. Strangely, despite the fact that his safety net was gone, he felt freer than ever. Seeing the strange look that he was getting from Aciakko, Thorn didn’t bother explaining, and instead he doubled down on his attack, not bothering to block her counter blow. Up until this point, the two of them had been trading blows, but always going on the defensive at the last second, not allowing their opponent’s attack to land.

This time, however, Thorn abandoned all pretense and simply attacked, intent on trading his attack for hers. Thorn’s strategy caught Aciakko off guard and at the last moment, when she lessened the strength of her counter-attack to defend, his strike slammed into her, throwing her back. Ignoring the large wound that opened on his shoulder, Thorn just grinned and rushed forward. Unable to make sense of the shift, Aciakko suffered another three hits before she realized that Thorn had gone crazy. Pulling back, she stared at Thorn, trying to get a read on him. Suddenly, she realized what was going on and let out a laugh.

“Ahaha! Did you realize that the portal isn’t going to work? Isn’t that what you have been trying to delay for? Too bad for you, I damaged it before I came to attack you! All your waiting will be pointless!”

“My only focus is on killing you,” Thorn said, his voice light. “What comes after that, well, anybody’s guess.”

“How pathetic, Thorn. Are you still prattling on about killing me? You can barely scratch me, let alone kill me.”

Estimating how much energy he had left, Thorn gripped his staff tightly and began casting his spells.

“Only one way to see which one of us is right.”

[Biting Wolf Chains: Earth]

[Fissure]

[Fissure]

As Aciakko dodged the chains, she nearly ran into the two Fissure spells that Thorn had cast. Grunting in pain as what little remained of her tail was clipped, she threw herself at Thorn, but instead of blocking or dodging, he instead continued to cast.

[Earth Dividing Blade]

[Earth Dividing Blade]

[Entomb]

[Covering Darkness]

[Crushing Darkness]

[World Wolf’s Bite]

Every single spell he knew was thrown at Aciakko in an unbelievable display of casting speed. Mana flowed so fast and freely that the battle was forced to a halt as the spell’s fallout rolled across the remains of the camp. The clash of the spells caused the air to distort but Thorn kept casting, doing his best to hit Aciakko with everything he had. At first, she was content to wait it out, dancing past the spells he cast with deceptive ease, but soon, Aciakko realized that such a tactic wouldn’t work.

No matter how fast she dodged, she wasn’t faster than Earth Dividing Blade, and no matter how strong she was, she couldn’t break the endless surge of earth that came with Entomb. Realizing that she had to do something, she twitched, looking up at the sky, before charging Thorn. Vaulting over World Wolf’s Bite, she pushed off of it and slipped through the Triple Stone Spears that followed it. Getting closer and closer to Thorn, she gripped her dagger, imagining the feeling of thrusting it into his neck and watching the curse it carried consume him.

Closer to the hill, Akira was fighting against Prince Felix, though to call it a fight at this point was not very accurate. To anyone paying attention, it looked more like bullying than anything else, though that had more to do with the seemingly endless numbers of magical shield items that the Prince carried as opposed to any leniency on Akira’s part. She was just bashing him into the ground for the sixth time in the last minute when her ears perked up.

With a disdainful sniff, she turned and sped away, crossing the battlefield in a few bounds. With her current size, Akira was incredibly eye-catching and anyone who saw her coming moved quickly to get out of her way, while those who did not were flattened as she charged over them. Heading to the northern part of the battlefield, she spotted her new prey and pounced, using her tails to execute a mid air turn that took her past Kroxl’s spear. Scooping Master Artificer Levandi up with her tail, she took off again, leaving a trail of flames in her wake.

A moment later, at the top of the hill, Velin was staring at a confused looking man in a jewel encrusted robe. She had been introduced to him when the Tardoff clan first arrived on the third strata, but when Akira dropped him off, she had nearly choked, unable to believe this was the genius that Eve had been talking about.

[Eve, is he really going to be able to help us?]

[If he can't, no one can,] Eve said, matter of factly. [Repeat after me.]

Swallowing her disbelief, Velin stepped bowed her head to the confused artificer.

“Master Levandi, I am sorry for the rudeness of this, but we need your help. We are working to restore a teleportation circle, and have run into a problem. Master Thorn recommended you as the only one who can solve our problem.”

Holding up his hand to stop her, Master Levandi shook his head.

“I’m sorry, I can’t help you. I have not yet completed the project, despite my best efforts. I thought I was close, but there has been no progress. Where is Master Thorn, by the way? I want to talk to him about the notes he gave me last time we met. What a fascinating theory he laid out. I can feel that there is a kernel of genius in it.”

“Master Levandi, all we need you to do is look at the circle and try to repair it. It already works, or at least will once it's repaired.”

“What do you mean, it works?” Master Levandi said crossly. “I just told you, all our efforts for short range teleportation have failed.”

“This is a long range teleportation circle.”

Shaking his head, the Master Artificer was going to reject Velin again when he suddenly stopped, as if struck, and began muttering.

“Long range? Wait, long range? Where is this circle? You must take me to it! Thorn?! Where is Master Thorn? I need my scribe! Why is there no blasted ink and paper? What sort of barbarous place is this? And who is making that racket? Tell them to be quiet, I can’t think in such a din.”

Watching Levandi rush off toward the portal where Ingo was working, Velin bit her lip and glanced at Eve who was on her shoulder.

[Are you sure about this?]

[What Alph is to alchemy, this guy is to spatial magic,] Eve said, her voice not quite as confident as she would have liked it. [But enough about him. We’ve got a bigger problem to deal with.]

[You mean Aciakko?]

[No,] Eve said, her voice soft. [Thorn.]

The object of Eve’s worry was currently engaged in the most intense fight he had ever experienced. Holding nothing back, he was doing his best to pin Aciakko down or at least disarm her. His sole objective was to get the dagger from her, but it was clear that he was running out of time. The feeling of danger that had been growing in his heart had reached a breaking point, and with a soft sigh, Thorn knew that Eve was right. They were out of time. Suddenly, the mana that was pouring out of him endlessly faltered, and the spell he was casting failed, creating an opening.

Fear shot across his face as Aciakko took advantage of the opening and darted forward. With his casting rhythm lost, Thorn tried to retake the initiative, but Aciakko was not about to let him, In a flash, she was close and she bounced up, her long legs wrapping around his chest. With one of his arms pinned to his side, and his staff blocked by her other arm, Thorn had no way to defend against the dagger she thrust toward his neck.

Aciakko’s face twisted with savage glee as she mustered all of her strength, intending to stab the dagger into him, but with one last, herculean effort, Thorn threw himself to the side, bringing both of them to the ground. That shook Aciakko long enough for Thorn to cast a spell. Spitting out an arcane command, Thorn summoned stone chains that wrapped around Aciakko’s hand and head, preventing her from stabbing him. Unable to shift her strength to break the chains lest she let him escape, the Axaz woman could only strain against the chains, trying to force the dagger into Thorn.

Rolling in the dirt, they strained against each other, one trying to break free and the other trying to complete his attack. Thorn wanted to summon another spell, but Aciakko was pumping all of her remaining mana into her aura, completely forcing all of the mana that wasn’t of the fire attribute out of the nearby area. Thorn had never seen an aura used like this, but unfortunately, this sort of lesson was the kind that was learned too late. The only mana he had access to was the mana coming out of the Atlas Star, and all of that was being sent into the chains to keep Aciakko’s dagger from stabbing him.

An enterprising warrior in a golden robe saw that Thorn was trapped and rushed forward, only to find, to his horror, that Aciakko’s aura didn’t care whose side he was on. With a shriek, he caught fire, burning to ash in only a few moments. Everyone nearby took a quick step back, afraid to even get close, as Thorn continued to struggle against Aciakko. It seemed like all he could do was hang on bitterly, watching as, inch by inch, Aciakko’s dagger crept toward his neck.

“This is it, Thorn. The end of your struggle.”

Her speech was slightly muffled because of the chain in her mouth, but the wicked smile on Aciakko’s face spoke clearly enough. Straining against her in stony silence, Thorn suddenly nodded.

“You’re right. Goodbye Aciakko.”

Darkness flashed in Thorn’s eyes as Aciakko’s shadow suddenly grew and stretched, forming teeth, fur, and gleaming silver claws. Unable to move because of how tightly she and Thorn were entangled, Aciakko could only watch in shock as a giant Moon Wolf bit down on her head.