Chapter 340. Introducing the Enemy (Patreon)

​​Zilverna woke up knowing he’d see his mother by the end of the day. It was Euryphel’s payment for Zilverna’s help handling bad press in Selejo. The public really had castigated the Crowned Executor for putting Cunabulus into lockdown. Zilverna vaguely knew the real reason, of course–it had been a precaution in case the Skai’aren and his mom appeared in Cunabulus and had a showdown with some enemy ascendant.

Anyway, he’d done his best to smooth things over and Euryphel had kept his end of the bargain, inviting Zilverna to see his mom. Finally.

Now Zilverna’s stomach was in knots despite his self-assurances that everything would be fine. He just didn’t understand–didn’t know why she hesitated, why she didn’t want to see him, why she spoke to Kaiwen using the mysterious communication artifact from the ascendant world but never paid him the same courtesy.

When she had left with the Skai’aren just a few months ago, he’d been at a loss. His mom was so strong, indomitable, reliable. A constant that never wavered in his life. And suddenly, she was gone–dead, or at least never coming back, at least not within his lifetime. Or so he’d thought.

Zilverna learned to fear the Skai’aren when he went through his own Infinity Loop trial, training against the monstrous practitioner ceaselessly. And when he went up against the Skai’aren in the Ho’ostar Peninsula war, that fear sank into his bones, staved off only by his mother’s assurances of power.

He’d always taken his mother’s ability to hold entire cities ransom with End as a matter of course. She was the Eldemari, the closest thing he could think of to a god among men, benevolent and heavy-handed. And like a god, she wielded her End to terrible effect, tying the lives of her practitioners to the lives of thousands, maybe even millions of civilians. She took upon herself the weight of their lives.

He simply couldn’t fathom doing the same. He was also an End practitioner, but the thought of extinguishing so many people with a metaphorical snap of his fingers didn’t sit right with him. Such power in his mother’s hands, however, felt natural. She was worthy.

Which led him back to the sour, churning sensation in his stomach. His mom didn’t want to see him. Kaiwen assured him it wasn’t anything to do with him, and he tried to believe her. Intellectually, he believed her–he knew his mom loved him. But he couldn’t help his innermost feelings and doubts that said she didn’t want to see him because he was a disappointment.

Albeit through unnatural means, his mother had ascended and now wielded the full powers that ascension entailed–so far as Zilverna understood. She was immortal.

What would it feel like to be immortal, and know that your child would grow old and die, returning to dust in the blink of eternity’s eye?

Again, he knew it was stupid… but what if she didn’t want to see him because his insignificance and his fleetingness would just make her sad?

Zilverna rubbed at the bridge of his nose, wishing he had a Life practitioner handy to eliminate his headache. Were he in Selejo, he could summon one in an instant, but he’d traveled to Ichormai a few hours ago with Kaiwen Chowicz at his side. Ichormai was a stunning architectural marvel. It had numerous galleries with elegant furnishings and exquisite paintings, and that was just the outer palace. The inner palace was a lush network of courtyards, idyllic and kept in perfect shape by Sun, Life, Moon, and Mountain practitioners.

Zilverna couldn’t stand the beauty and splendor. He wasn’t in the mood. So, he’d left Kaiwen’s side and squirreled himself away in one of the libraries, a small one that was devoid of people. He’d set himself up at a desk, connecting his glossY to one of the public glosscomp displays so he could work on a bigger screen and use a real keyboard.

The only thing that took his mind off seeing his mom was work.

Then, suddenly… someone entered the library, one of the mid-ranked guardians, a Moon practitioner with dark hair. She looked at him and nodded.

It was time. Feeling suddenly faint, he swiped his glossY from the desk and slid it into his jacket’s inner pocket. He rose on unsteady legs.

“Hello, Prime Zilverna,” she said, nodding her head.

How he hated that title–not that he let it show. “Hello, Guardian.”

She gestured for him to follow and led him through the labyrinth of the palace with sure steps. Finally, she stopped before a door. A familiar figure was waiting there–Kaiwen. The Moon practitioner guardian gave Kaiwen a small smile.

Suddenly, words carried by wind elementalism whispered in Zilverna’s head. “The door will open to the lower level.”

It was Euryphel. They all must have heard the same message as the guardian turned the doorknob and pulled the door ajar. Sure enough, the threshold led to a different part of the palace that didn’t match their current surroundings. It felt more sterile and was eerily quiet.

She then led the Selejan duo to a room filled with other officials Zilverna recognized. All of them were from the former SPU aside from himself and Kaiwen. They shot him appraising looks as he took his seat at the long, ovular table, but seemed more familiar with Kaiwen, giving her knowing nods.

Zilverna didn’t have any mental energy left to feel self-conscious. He just exhaled and sank into the leather of his seat. No doubt any Life or Death practitioners present would sense his elevated heart rate, and any Remorse practitioner could probably pick up on the flurry of thoughts straining to push through his passive mental defenses. He figured that was why Remorse practitioner Prime Ezenti was looking at him funny.

There wasn’t anything he could do about his agitated state, so he just… let it go. He breathed in, breathed out.

Then, the door opened.

The first person he saw was Euryphel, but his eyes immediately took in his two companions. On one flank, the man of his nightmares, the Skai’aren. Normally, his attention would have been fully focused on the necromancer, but in this case, it was overshadowed by the person on the other flank–his mom.

He nearly lost it then and there. He bit his lip to keep it from quivering and clenched his fists.

She was really here. She was really alive.

Her eyes met his. That was when he realized something was wrong. She looked different, oddly younger, a bit more doll-like. It was like someone had taken his mom, made a lifelike puppet of her, and animated it to have her bearing and mannerisms.

It was maybe the freakiest thing he’d ever seen. Freaky on a deep, instinctive level. Part of him recognized this person as his mom, while another part said NOPE. How had she become like this–it had only been a few months since she’d left!

A question slipped from his mouth. “Mom?”

As he spoke, his mother was actively entering the room. She took a seat at the head of the table, directly to the left hand side of Crowned Executor Euryphel. She averted her gaze, refusing to resume eye contact.

She really doesn’t want to see me, Zilverna thought, feeling like his worst doubts were all being simultaneously confirmed. He wished he could just melt into the floor and disappear.

Kaiwen squeezed his hand reassuringly under the table. It only made Zilverna feel self-conscious. She seemed suspiciously unsurprised by his mom’s weird appearance.

Suddenly, a voice crashed through his mind like a sledgehammer, annihilating his passive defenses. “Zilverna!”

It was ridiculously rude. He flinched but kept his composure, refusing to look around at the people in the room to find the culprit. Who the heck–

“Zilverna,” the voice repeated, this time less abrasively, “your reaction when you saw your mother is why she didn’t want to see you. She didn’t want you to see her changed.”

Changed? Zilverna thought, taken aback by the mental voice. Sure, his mom looked weirdly fake, but that didn’t matter. She was his mom–he just wanted to know she was okay. Why does she care what I think about her appearance? And who are you?

“It’s Ian,” the mental voice responded.

Zilverna’s eyes widened slightly, his heart skipping a beat. His eyes locked onto the necromancer’s. The Skai’aren gave him a small nod.

Since when did the freaking Skai’aren have mind powers? Zilverna couldn’t handle the unfairness of the world. Sure, he had two affinities, End and Sun, but the Skai’aren’s Death affinity was like, two peak Death affinities combined. At least it felt that way. And now he also had Remorse?

Was he, like, mind controlling his mom or something? How else would they be buddy-buddy after the war? The Skai’aren had literally kidnapped her, after all. It was all suddenly making sense… His eyes flitted to Euryphel. Why hadn’t Eury warned him that the Skai’aren was controlling her?

He suddenly remembered an offhanded remark Mom had made a few months ago about Eury and the Skai’aren having a… thing, and that being the reason why they were allies.

What have I gotten myself into? Zilverna wondered to himself, suddenly feeling like a seal surrounded by sharks.

“Zilverna, I’m not controlling your mother,” the necromancer interjected. “I couldn’t even if I tried, my affinity is awful, but I wouldn’t do something like that regardless.”

Zilverna wasn’t exactly convinced, but he didn’t think the Skai’aren would lie. The man was terrifying, but as far as Zilverna knew, he was honest. Besides, in the loop, Zilverna learned quickly that the man had a bizarre fixation on his own mother. Threatening the Skai’aren’s mom was pretty much the worst thing Zilverna could do. It always led to a painful demise.

Zilverna liked to think that the same man wouldn’t mind control another man’s mom and lie about it, just out of some kind of… mom respect?

Ah, what am I even thinking! Zilverna lamented inwardly, knowing he was just going in circles.

Before Zilverna could mentally ask anything else, the silence in the room was interrupted by Euryphel rapping his knuckles on the table. “Thank you, everyone, for making yourselves available on relatively short notice, especially when I keep most of you quite busy.”

Guardian Urstes, one of the guardians that Zilverna knew by name, chuckled softly and leaned back in his seat. The rest wore serious expressions, their eyes glued to the forms of the Skai’aren and the Eldemari. Now that Zilverna was less absorbed in his own thoughts, he took note of the reactions of others.

They all recognized the ascendant duo instantly. How could they not? Watching their faces, Zilverna sensed a mix of nervousness and shock. He wondered if everyone was surprised, or if a few people had been warned beforehand, like himself.

Probably some people had been warned, like Urstes, who seemed so nonchalant, and Prime Ezenti, whose gaze focused less on the Skai’aren and Eldemari than on the others, likely gauging their reactions at Euryphel’s behest.

Euryphel exhaled sharply. “You all know who these two are, and now you’re part of a very small group of people who knows that they’ve returned. I’ll let them introduce themselves, however.”

The Skai’aren spoke first. Unlike Zilverna’s mom, he didn’t look too different. He had the same dark hair and pale skin, though his eyes had an odd rainbow sheen to them. There was an aura to him that Zilverna had only felt while in the loop, an aura of indomitability, of invincibility. Absolute confidence.

From what Zilverna had seen in real life, before the man’s ascent, he’d been more unassuming. Less overbearing. It made sense, given that in the loop, the man really had been invincible–whenever he died, he returned in perfect form. He wasn’t so invincible in real life.

Was he just that confident in his abilities as an ascendant? It had only been a few months–surely he couldn’t have become that powerful, right?

Ian addressed the room, interrupting Zilverna’s musings. “I am Ian Dunai, also known on this world as the Skai’aren. In the ascendant world, Eternity, most know me as Ascendant Dunai.” He inclined his head toward the Eldemari.

“Hello, everyone,” she began, her voice the same as Zilverna remembered. At least something was unchanged. “I am Maria Sezakuin, also known on this world as the Eldemari. In the ascendant world, I am known simply as Maria, as I am not a true ascendant.” She scanned the room, making eye contact with everyone–aside from her own son, of course. “All of you, save Zilverna, are in the Darkseers. You have my deepest gratitude for all your efforts.”

The dark whats? Zilverna once again felt like a child masquerading among adults.

He suddenly felt a mental tap on his mind–the polite, normal way for a Remorse practitioner to make contact. Zilverna permitted it.

“The Darkseers is an organization dedicated to saving this world from the Infinity Loop’s soul corruption,” the Skai’aren’s mental voice explained. “Me and Maria are aligned with the Darkseers in this goal. That’s why we returned.”

You’re trying to save the world? Zilverna clarified, dubious.

“Yes.”

The introductions then went around the room, with everyone stating their name and position. After that, Euryphel took over. He began by explaining what had happened in Chemissa. Zilverna listened with only half attention since he’d already heard some of the details from his cousin days ago.

Needing a distraction to settle his thoughts, he reached for the pitcher of water and glassware at the center of the table and made to pour himself a drink. Of course, Kaiwen intervened by siphoning the water directly into his glass.

He took a sip as he considered how to respond to the Skai’aren’s claims about wanting to save the world from soul corruption, of all things. For now, he decided to roll with it. So that’s why you and Mom are working together. I guess that makes sense.

“We’re partners.”

Yeah, understood.

“I don’t know if you do. I’m dating your mother.”

Water misted over the table as Zilverna involuntarily did a spit take. Everyone looked at him, and the Crowned Executor’s sentence cut off.

If Zilverna could die from mortification, he would have.

No way Euryphel didn’t see this happening in a scenario, Zilverna lamented. He could have warned me but didn’t. Traitor!

Zilverna’s eyes flew to the Skai’aren. Sure, he was admittedly not bad looking, and was extremely powerful, and, well, he knew his mom liked younger guys… but what the heck! Moreover, why did the Skai’aren speak so stiffly? Y’jeni, ‘I’m dating your mother’–he spoke to Zilverna like a parent even though they were less than ten years apart in age.

Once again, Kaiwen squeezed his palm to calm him. With her free hand, she collected the water spat onto the table and deposited it in a napkin, leaving the table’s surface pristine.

Euryphel resumed his train of thought. “This brings us to the issue of Achemiss, the ascendant whom they tried to assassinate–a man who seeks the end of this world to secure his immortality.”

Zilverna’s ears perked up. He’d never heard that name before. Achemiss. A mononym like the Eldemari. Was it a courtesy name?

“The assassination failed and Achemiss is in hiding. So long as he lives, this world is at risk. And unfortunately, he has a myriad of abilities and experience centered on keeping himself alive.”

Euryphel began detailing how Achemiss could masterfully control necromantic avatars from a distance and described how he was a master artificer, capable of making powerful artifacts by harvesting the souls of strong practitioners.

“We have his artifacts in our possession, but nothing is stopping him from making new ones,” Euryphel said somberly.

“Time is of the essence,” Prime Ezenti said, running a hand through his white hair. “The situation is worse than I feared.”

“But we know where he’s likely going to go,” the Skai’aren interjected. “And we know who he’s probably going to ally with.”

Zilverna’s mom concluded the sentence: “Sere.”

Euryphel steepled his fingers. His blue-green eyes glinted. “Which brings us to why I’ve summoned all of you here–to devise a plan. One that even a crafty, thousand-year-old Dark and Death practitioner can’t escape.”

While Zilverna recognized that he sometimes acted like an idiot, he wasn’t stupid. After hearing everything that Euryphel said, he had his own conclusion.

A man that was impossible to kill even when caught by surprise, even after having his body and soul destroyed… a man that, with his Dark affinity, could move through walls and disappear while controlling necromantic puppets almost indistinguishable from real people at far distances. A man that wanted his artifacts back and also wanted to watch the world burn.

Such a man was their enemy.

We are so screwed.