Chapter 142. Wrath I (Patreon)

[ warning: this chapter has a horrible cliff hanger. truly terrible it's disgusting. if the next chapter was completely edited and polished i would just post them as one...but alas. ]

The light was white purity. It curdled and faded into a golden radiance, then melted into auburn sunset and ultimately melded with dark clouds from the city’s destruction. The palace was finally visible, dull grayscale hues revealed as opulent reds and golds.

The Cuna had been cleaved in two, its halves separated by a gaping wound where Ian and Euryphel sheltered under shields of wind and bone. On the other side of the chasm were the Eldemari and Chowicz partially hidden in the remnants of the palace.

Ian didn’t have a single moment to appreciate the Cuna’s exposed architecture: He was already moving when the descendant’s hammer swept aside the mountain, eyes snapped shut to block out the radiance. With singular focus he pounced toward Chowicz, the water elementalist’s form crouching defensively on the ground, a barrier of clear liquid blocking the tumble of shorn rock. Maria was to her side, hands contorting in some kind of pattern, but Ian ignored her completely: If Euryphel said he would take care of Maria, Ian wasn’t going to interfere.

Suddenly Ian began to writhe, his body wrested from his control. He gritted his teeth, eyes wide and veins popping in his jaw. Is this...Ari?

“It’s the Eldemari again, Ian. Go to Chowicz; let Bluebird handle Ari. Try your utmost to take out the retainer no matter what.”

“Should I...kill us?” Ian could sense that Euryphel was similarly wracked by convulsions, his body plummeting through the air.

“You don’t have the time. Besides, I told you I can handle it. I stand by my word.”

Chowicz flicked her hands forward and sent out a wave of water that solidified into a barrage of thin icicles. The ice spikes hovered and rotated like drills in the air, then fired.

Ian roughly shoved himself to the side, the Eldemari’s affliction affecting even his control over his body with Death energy. Three of the spikes impacted his armor but didn’t pierce through it. Instead, they dissolved, sending subzero temperatures coursing through his upper body. Ian winced at the numbing pain.

She’s not trying to kill, but distract, Ian realized. She’s waiting for Ari to finish me off. But you’re not the only one with ways to increase your range: You can’t keep me away. Ian’s shark tooth whip surged forth, thrashing erratically through the barrage of ice.

Ian could sense the prince trying to keep pace with him, his hair streaming out wildly in the wind, most of it having escaped his hair tie. His forehead was furrowed in concentration, falling behind as Ian continued to move towards their adversaries.

Ian could sense Ari’s vitality above them like a white sun and saw her radiance in the periphery. He was trying to reach Chowicz as quickly as possible, but the descendant’s attack was inevitable.

“Ari is attacking with beams of light. Let Bluebird handle it, but be careful.”

A flash of light streaked past Ian, scorching the earth below. Bluebird launched from Ian’s shoulder, intercepting a second beam with a bright metallic thud. The glosSword shuddered from the energy, before it sent a blast of spiraling blue-black energy towards Ari. The woman sneered and waved her off-hand, a small buckler of light expanding out in front of her. Bluebird’s attack splashed off the buckler like water, utterly ineffectual.

Meanwhile Chowicz grabbed Maria and tugged her away from the ledge of their outlook. The Eldemari seemed completely unfazed as the retainer pulled her backwards, eyes locking on Ian and ignoring the prince.

Chowicz moved her hands upward, pillars of ice encasing the two women from the ground to the shoulders. The water elementalist then rotated her fingers as though turning a lock and the ice cracked, then shattered, revealing sets of heavy ice armor. Instead of falling to the ground, excess ice formed into gorgets and helmets that encased the women from the neck up. The heavy ice plates didn’t seem to impede their movements, watery segments binding translucent plates together at joints while Chowicz used her affinity to lessen the armor’s perceived weight.

“The Eldemari has you in a reciprocal binding with Chowicz,” Euryphel warned. “You’re going to have to stop her without causing serious injuries.”

I’m trying, Ian grunted, his body shaking under the Eldemari’s ensorcellment. Ian’s whip slashed forward against Chowicz’s chest, scoring a lucky hit and drawing a sliver of blood despite a thick manifestation of ice. He winced and sharply inhaled as he felt an identical injury carve a path on his own pectoral. The infinitesimal moment of contact wasn’t enough for him to gain control over the elementalist’s body, so he prepared to strike again.

“Iggy, the descendant is tough! I need help!”

Ian blinked furiously and continued forward. “You need to hold her for a second longer.”

“Not going to focus on me?” a high, feminine voice called out. “I tire of playing with toys.” Ari’s statement was barely audible over the action. Suddenly a beam of light shot out and struck Bluebird. The glosSword froze, its wings twitching.

“Iggy...going to lose the gems in another hit. I won’t be able to help.”

Ari wasn’t like what Ian imagined: In Achemiss’ initial vision of Ascendant Ari, the woman met Ian head-on and killed him; she hadn’t needed to use her Light affinity as far as Ian knew. Ian could imagine an unknowing version of himself being overconfident, assuming that just because he was talented and a half-step ascendant, he was destined to reach a higher plane.

In the present reality, Ari seemed to be taking her time dealing with him.

Ian sent his whip out again to impale Chowicz, the water elementalist leaning into the attack as she oriented Maria away. Ian unflinchingly sent the whip into Chowicz’s less-protected palm, the teeth sinking deep into her flesh. He felt blood trickle from his hand, but Chowicz was finally his.

Or so he thought. Without warning, a crust of ice traveled up his whip, toothed joints shattering one after another. Chowicz severed the connection and immediately began to skate away on a wave of ice, Maria held protectively to her side.

Ian recoiled in shock. His mind convulsed, his limbs were numb and trickled with blood. “One more chance, Eury. How much time do I have?”

“We don’t.”

Ian looked down at Euryphel. The prince’s brow was furrowed and soaked with sweat, his eyes were wide with fear. “I couldn’t stop her, I’m sorry. We need to get out, Bluebird is going to blow. I tried everything I could do to stop this but now it’s too late.”

“What?”

“When Ari strikes Bluebird with her hammer, she inadvertently breaks the energy tether between Bluebird and the pocket dimension’s fusion reactor. We have to get out of the blast radius now!”

Ian grabbed a hold of Euryphel and flew upward. His body fought him at every step, still entangled in the Eldemari’s fate trap.

“Stupid bird,” Ari hissed. She leapt forward and swung at Bluebird with the full might of her hammer. The glosSword emitted a terrible screeching noise and crumpled inward, then fell into the chasm below.

“Iggy, I’ve taken critical damage! I don’t know what’s happening!”

Ian gritted his teeth. Bluebird isn’t really alive, he reminded himself, though the words felt oddly hollow. “Eury, where do I go?”

“I don’t know, all my scenarios just end in blackness. Just...get away.”

Ian saw Chowicz and Maria continue to escape outward over the earth, a slick of glinting ice marking their passage. Ari was hovering in the air, her armor softly glowing. Then she struck out with her hammer, again, a ray of light streaking into Ian and Euryphel and sending them careening toward the ground.

“Eury, I can hardly keep aloft when my body is still being wrested from my control. I thought your secret technique could handle the Eldemari’s bindings?”

“I’m waiting...”

“Why?” Ian looked down at the prince. Euryphel was physically exhausted but his eyes betrayed intense concentration.

“Trust me. In three seconds, I need you to start heading toward the chasm splitting the palace. Three, two...one.”

As Ian turned, the space right where he would’ve flown went up in a column of fire that was so hot it bypassed his riftbeast soul gem to singe his hair.

“Who did that!?” Ian wondered, eyes widening as he threw himself back toward the palace, Bluebird, and Ari against his better judgment.

“The Eldemari.”

“How did her Sun affinity get so strong?”

“I’d presume the same way your affinity did.”

Coming from the opposite direction, Ian once more beheld the swarm of circling souls covering the horizon. Where before they were partially obscured by buildings, now they shone like a rainbow tornado. In the foreground was the sundered palace and the descendant, her hammer held to the side. She looked just as she did in the vision Ian saw through Achemiss, dark, unbound hair flowing down ornate plate armor, eyes narrowed in distaste.

Meeting his gaze, Ari’s lips curved downward and she slammed her hammer into the air, the motion oddly ponderous, as though the descendant were pushing against viscous resistance. A ray of light zig-zagged into the jagged maw of the ruined palace.

“Ig...gy.”

A geyser of cyan light burst out and consumed everything in the surrounding area, stretching even to Ian and Euryphel over one-hundred feet away. Ian’s shield deflected the energy while the prince’s wind blasted it back, while Chowicz and the Eldemari were far enough to avoid the blast completely. Ari, on the other hand...

When the light faded, the ascendant was crouched on a toppled hunk of earth, her hair in disarray, a cluster of golden bucklers arranged into a sphere around her body.

“I forgot how small this world is,” the descendant stated. “Small in size and in thought, the returned weak, miserly...unwilling to enlighten others. So small and afraid and stupid. Frogs who venture beyond the well, only to return to its darkness, staring balefully at the sky...waiting to die.”

“Ian...she’s going to strike me, but I’m not going to die.”

Ian blinked rapidly, his eyes reddening, a breath choking from his mouth. “What? I can protect you–”

“It’s inevitable, but like I said...I can select the best of all outcomes. Be calm. Carry on so I can help you when it counts.”

While the duo conversed in thought, Ari continued her monologue. “I’m the first descendant your world has seen that’s stayed for more than a smattering of seconds. I’m not going to point fingers now, but someone interfered, ruined my momentum, but also...piqued my curiosity. Said someone perhaps believes you can defeat me.” Ari’s expression was solemn, her posture immaculate.

“Talk soon.”

Without warning, Ari swung out with her hammer and a ray of light lanced toward the prince. At the same time both he and Ian writhed in place, the Eldemari wielding her influence from afar to strike at the worst moment. Euryphel’s head moved just to the left of Ari’s assault, the light piercing instead into Ian’s shoulder, wedging itself into his armor.

“She...what?” Euryphel thought, his body shuddering. “She never did that in any of the scenarios...”

Ian croaked for breath, his vessels and muscles nearly cooked alive inside his chest. I...I’m not sure this is so easy to fix. Compared to when Byrrh pierced him in the heart with a concentrated beam of light, having a wider area of flesh cooked through was...potentially catastrophic.

But unlike Byrrh, she missed my heart, Ian thought. That’s the only reason I’m still going. His left lung, on the other hand, was half defunct and collapsed, while his left arm was completely immobilized at the shoulder joint. Ian closed his eyes in agony, clenching his teeth as he set to repairing the damage.

The descendant sighed. “Foresight is truly the most obnoxious power to face. One runner is already more than enough, and here I’m dealing with two...” Ari struck out again, but this time the ray of light disappeared off in the distance behind Ian. A moment later, Ian keeled, his entire right side flaring with pain.

“She attacked Chowicz. You’re lucky Maria’s retainer is tough enough to block a direct attack, else you might be dead.”

Ari snorted coldly. “Like I said, those with foresight are a scourge: Twice I don’t try to attack you, and twice you nearly die. I’m curious as to the identity of your supporter...I wonder if they’re starting to feel foolish. You can barely move.”

Euryphel suddenly growled and darted forward on a billow of wind, his body swerving ungracefully left and right. “Don’t interfere, Ian!”

Ari narrowed her eyes and held up her hammer, her upper lip curling in distaste. “I might be underthinking this, but if death is what you want, I’ll deliver.” When she swung her hammer this time, Euryphel reached out his hands, the limbs trembling. Just as the light struck him, the prince cried, out, eyes rolling back in his head. Far away, Ian heard someone scream...

With a gasp, Ian felt the Eldemari’s ensorcellment shatter.

Ian pulled Eurphel’s form to his side protectively, his mind in disarray. The prince wasn’t breathing, his heart as still as the void...

Karen Euryphel Selejo...I’ll bring you back if it’s the last thing I do.