The Soul Engine Ch. 26 (Original Fantasy) (Patreon)

A/N: The confrontation that Mikael has been waiting for is finally here~

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Mikael is more than ready to kick in the large double doors and lay down a can of whoop ass on Zadicus fucking Quinn. However, right before he can, he notices something. The doors aren’t locked. How can he tell? Well, there’s a simple, easy trick to checking that sort of thing you see. Namely, the fact that one of the doors is actually half an inch ajar makes it clear that they aren’t locked.

Blinking at the sight, Mikael looks to the others and brings a finger to his lips. Then, he creeps forward and slowly pushes the door open. Its large and heavy, but with the amount of strength he’s packing right now, it doesn’t prove to be all that resistant. Best of all, it doesn’t even creak as he slips into the Lord’s Quarters undetected.

“-telling you, I need assistance! The city is in open revolt against me! This is a plot by the Zuverian Empire to swoop in and take control of Alether, I swear it! That bitch Dawnguard brought some sort of heavy ringer in and has completely turned the city’s populace against their rightful Lord!”

Mikael blinks as he sees Zadicus looming over a skull of all things on the far side of the room. Has the Lord of Alether gone insane? Has his mind shattered because he can’t comprehend why he’s lost control of his city so readily? And what was all that nonsense about Thayla and the Zuverian Empire trying to take over Alether? Oh sure, Thayla WAS in on it all… but Zuveria had nothing to do with it. This was personal. And completely of Zadicus’ own doing.

Just as Mikael is contemplating all of this and considering how to best initiate ‘negotiations’ with the City Lord… the skull suddenly lights up, its eye sockets glowing with unholy energy as it speaks right back at Zadicus in a garbled, heavily modulated voice.

“Have you located your charge yet, Mister Quinn?”

Mikael exchanges confused looks with the other members of his group, even as Zadicus freezes in place for a moment before scowling angrily down at the skull.

“What?! No! I already told you, I think she left the city! If she were still here in Alether, I would have found her by now! But that’s besides the point. I’m telling you that a chunk of Ocreatha is about to be annexed by the Zuverian Empire and you’re still focused on that damn bitch!”

There’s a brief pause, and then the skull lights up again.

“It pains me to see that you think you can lie to me, Mister Quinn. After all this time, one would think that you would know better. The situation in Alether has nothing to do with the Zuverian Empire. The Knight of the Rose within your walls acts without the knowledge of her Nation AND her Order. The people of Alether have turned against you because of your own inability to lead them.”

Zadicus blanches as the garbled, modulated voice on the other end of the skull-like communication device lays out his failures in a succinct, deadpan fashion.

“That’s not-!”

“Goodbye, Mister Quinn.”

A moment later, the skull’s eyes glow even brighter. Then, itfractures, seemingly of its own accord. And then it begins to compress in on itself, experiencing a small implosion that leaves behind nothing but dust. Zadicus stares at the empty space on his desk where the skull sat for a long moment in disbelief and shock.

THUNK.

And then he looks up, because Bula has just let the head of her battle axe sink into the floor of his quarters, drawing his attention their way. Mikael supposes he shouldn’t be surprised that the half-orc had reached the limits of what constituted as ‘stealth’ for her. In the end, stealth and Bula just didn’t fit together in the same sentence, did they?

Still, Zadicus’ eyes widen at the sight of them all standing there. In fact, they grow progressively wider as he registers each individual person. First Mikael, who he has nothing but hatred and general anger in his gaze for. Then Thayla, much the same. Bula, who he has the gall to look betrayed by of all things. And finally…

“Avina…”

Mikael’s Soul Mechanic is the shortest of their group, so it’s not surprising she’s the last to be noticed. Still, the look Zadicus gives her is a mixed bag to be sure. Mikael thinks he detects incredulity right alongside anger and befuddlement. He also looks down at the dust in front of him almost longingly, as though he would give anything to have the skull back in this moment.

But no matter how long he stares at the spot where the skull once sat, it does not return. In the end, the Lord of Alether throws his head back and laughs.

“Fuck me! Just my luck, isn’t it?! I get thrown to the curb because I can’t find one stupid bitch… and just as they wash their hands with me, you turn up right before my eyes!”

What? Mikael throws a glance at Avina, who has gone stiff at Zadicus’ words. It’s obvious that whatever he’s going on about is news to her. Glaring daggers at him, the freckled Soul Mechanic steps forward with a growl.

“I’m afraid I won’t be repaying anymore of your oh-so-generous loan, Quinn. Regardless of exactly who controlled the purse strings.”

Zadicus blinks for a moment and then lets out another derisive laugh. It’s the kind of laugh that makes Mikael want to punch the other man’s face in. Or maybe that’s just Zadicus in general. Who can say?

“Stupid girl! The loan was never the point! It was just a lever to control you with. Fuck, you’ve really made a mess of things, Avina.”

Before Avina can demand clarification, Thayla steps forward, lifting her sword and pointing it at Zadicus.

“Zadicus Quinn. You are accused of numerous crimes. Abuse of the Summoned Hero Ritual! Utilization of Memory Alteration Magics! Slavery! Mistreatment of your citizens! The evidence against you is ironclad so I will not ask how you plead. Surrender now and prepare to stand trial for your actions!”

Looking equal parts amused and irritated, the scarred City Lord shakes his head.

“So you figured it out, huh? What? Did Avina tell you? Is that why you two are working together? I sent you after her for the express purpose of driving her further into my arms and now look at you both. Thick as thieves. But if you knew the sorts of things she’s gotten up to…”

Zadicus trails off there, clearly trying to sow division in their ranks. Mikael isn’t having any of it though. Enough of this fucking bastard talking out his ass. Mikael wanted answers, and he wanted them now. Stepping forward, he rips the mask off of his face and glares Zadicus’ down.

“She learned it all straight from the source, Quinn. She learned it all from me.”

For a moment, Zadicus just stares at him blankly. Then, his eyes sharpen in recognition and he lets out a noise of disbelief. His gaze snaps from Mikael to Avina and a laugh of disbelief leaves his startled lips.

“You stole the body. You know I had that old drunk killed for his ‘fuck up’? And all this time… it was you.”

Thrusting her chin out, smiling confidently, Avina nods.

“Yes. It was me.”

There’s a beat of silence as Zadicus just looks at them all. However, Mikael feels a pit developing in his gut as he realizes the Lord of Alether doesn’t look nearly as afraid of them as he should. In fact, he looks surprisingly at ease despite facing down their combined might. The reason why becomes apparent a moment later when his eyes dart to Thayla’s raised sword and he scoffs.

“Enough of this.”

Mikael’s eyes widen as an unbelievable pressure suddenly drops down onto his shoulders with a wave of Zadicus’ hand. And he’s not the only one either. A grunt from Bula, a sharp exhale from Thayla, and a cry from Avina alert him to the fact that all three women are experiencing the exact same thing. More than that, they all go crashing down to their knees from the pressure, Bula included. She’s only driven to one knee, while Thayla is forced to both. Avina though is clearly faring the worst as she’s pushed to both her hands and her knees.

He’s the only one left standing, frozen in place as Zadicus gives him a curious look but ultimately smiles all the same.

“Did any of you stop to think this through? Confronting a Lord in his own Tower? Just because you got past the barrier doesn’t mean I’m defenseless. In fact… here, out of everywhere in the city, I’m at my strongest. You cannot kill me here. You cannot even touch me. You-!”

He cuts himself off… because Mikael has suddenly taken a step forward. The smile drops from Zadicus’ face and his brow furrows in consternation. A redoubling of the pressure that the Lord of Alether is exerting falls upon Mikael’s shoulders… but it’s not enough. Because Mikael is calling upon all of the power in the Soul Engine right now. He’s burning through energy like never before. He consumed hundreds of human souls down in the Colosseum, and now he’s burning through dozens each moment.

“M-Mikael… t-the ring!”

Avina’s pained words manage to reach his ears from behind him. And Mikael sees it as he takes another step forward. The hand Zadicus is waving… it has a ring on it. One with a glowing gem set into the filigree. The Lord of Alether waves the hand at him again, but Mikael just grits his teeth… and lunges forward, bringing his sword up in a flash and a truly herculean feat of effort.

A sharp cry rings out through the Lord’s Quarters as a finger goes flying through the air with a ring attached to it. Zadicus Quinn drops to his knees, cradling his injured hand in shock and pain as blood pours from the stump left behind by his missing digit.

Mikael can’t bring himself to care though. Moving in, he grabs the bastard of a wizard by the front of his robes and points the tip of his sword at Zadicus’ throat, right under his chin. The City Lord goes still at that, eyes focusing up on Mikael’s face.

“No more tricks. No more games. You’re going to go with Thayla quietly and admit your wrongdoing and crimes to whoever she brings you to, you bastard. If not, we’ll let Bula have you. But first… first you’re going to fix me.”

Zadicus blinks at that, looking baffled by the demand.

“… Fix you?! Avina already brought you back to life! And somehow gave you enough power to overcome a Lord’s Domain at that! Fix you? You seem plenty fixed to me!”

Snarling, Mikael tosses his sword away so that he can curl his fingers into a fist and sock Zadicus across the face. The Lord of Alether lets out a strangled cry at the blow. Despite mostly pulling his punch, Mikael feels a crunch as he’s pretty sure he fractures Zadicus’ cheek bone. As a result, Zadicus winds up thrown to the ground, with Mikael going with him.

Pinning the other man beneath him, Mikael snarls as he grabs Zadicus even more tightly by his robes, having to restrain himself from slamming the man’s head back against the floorboards a few times to really get his anger across. He needed Zadicus in his right mind. Still, hopefully the pain from the one blow he had allowed himself would be enough to sharpen the bastard’s focus.

“You know what I mean, fuckface! I want my memories back! You scooped out half of my mind and shoved the fragments of a bunch of killers into their place. Fix my fucking head! Fix my memories!”

He shakes Zadicus as he speaks, jostling and jolting the City Lord. But finally, he slows down enough to give the man a chance to formulate his response. Of course, when he finally does… it’s not anywhere close to what Mikael wants to hear.

“Oh… that’s what you want? H-Heh… idiot. Why would I keep your memories? Why would I keep the memories of any of the idiots I summoned to fight for me? Waste of fucking space. No fighting. No battling. No bloodshed. Utterly worthless.”

Mikael freezes up for a moment… and then sees red. With a roar, he finally gives in to that urge to slam Zadicus into the ground a few times, pounding and pummeling the wizard as Zadicus chokes, the air driven out of his lungs time and time again. There’s no physical strength to Alether’s Lord. He’s a weakling through and through, without a single ounce of muscle to his person. It’s… quite easy to manhandle him, especially without that ring of his that gave him control over the Tower’s defenses.

It would be even easier to kill him. Mikael very nearly does. The dead men in his head are all crowing for it. Egging him on. Encouraging the bastard’s death. But if it were just them, Mikael wouldn’t be struggling to resist the urge quite so much. No, it’s not just them. It’s Mikael himself. For the first time in his life, Mikael himself truly WANTS to kill someone. Not just needs to. Not just has to. But WANTS to do it. He wants Zadicus Quinn dead.

Only one thing stays his hand in the end, eventually forcing him to stop throttling the bastard and slamming him into the floorboards of his own quarters. One last glimpse of hope.

Zadicus is dazed by the time Mikael finally ceases his abuse, but he doesn’t let that stop him. Slapping the man across the face a couple times is enough to make his eyes refocus on Mikael.

“How do I go home? I was told every Hero summoned to this world is given a condition. What condition did you give me? What do I have to do to be given the choice to go home?”

Silence hangs for a moment… and then Zadicus grins. It’s a bloody grin, the man having bit his own tongue at some point from the look of things. He snorts… and then has the gall to laugh in Mikael’s face.

“Heh… eheh… ahahaha! You don’t! You poor, stupid bastard! You never go home! You-!”

SMACK!

He has no problem slapping Zadicus again. This time it’s a backhand, and one strong enough that Mikael’s knuckle tears away a strip of Zadicus’ flesh. The Lord of Alether gasps, looking worse and worse for wear. Mikael doesn’t care. He screams into the man’s face.

“EXPLAIN! What does that mean?! What the fuck did you do?!”

His words slurred and a little delirious, Zadicus nevertheless explains.

“S’loop hole, y’see… the condition… the condition I set for ‘very Hero I summoned… was to ‘die for me’.”

… What?

Zadicus grins again, looking so unbelievably smug and proud of himself.

“Heh… but the ‘ero is supposed to get to choose. And if they’re dead… they don’t get to choose. You’re a special one though, a-aren’t you? Guess… guess we know for sure now…”

Mikael furrows his brow.

“Know what for sure?”

Giggling some more to himself, Zadicus shrugs.

“… we know what happens when a Summoned Hero who’s died completing their task is brought back from the dead.”

He stares blankly until Zadicus lifts himself up and whispers the answer.

“Nothing. Nothing happens. You don’t get the choice. You don’t get to go home. You’re stuck here. Forever. You-urk!”

Mikael’s hand is suddenly around Zadicus’ throat. Gripping down tightly, he cuts off the other man’s airflow. Zadicus’ face rapidly begins to purple. But the Lord of Alether doesn’t have the chance to expire from lack of oxygen. Nor do any of the other people in the room have the chance to stop Mikael. Because the very next thing he does is form his other hand into a fist and drive it straight through Zadicus’ skull, pulping his head in a single blow.

His fist meets the floorboard under Zadicus’ head and tears right through that as well as an inhuman, unearthly roar leaves Mikael’s throat. A strangled, desperate sort of roar. The sound of a dying animal, one might say.

Perhaps its proximity. Perhaps its because he has Zadicus’ brain matter all over his fist right alongside the splinters from the wood he just busted through. Either way, Mikael doesn’t even have to try. His Soul Engine glows brightly beneath his chestplate and a moment late he absorbs the dead Lord of Alether’s soul.

Mikael seizes up, back arching as he shudders. His eyes damn near roll back in his head from the single most powerful pulse of power he’s ever received. Something changes in him in that moment, even as he pulls back from Zadicus’ corpse. Something in the Soul Engine has diametrically been altered by absorbing the wizard’s soul.

But… did it even matter? Kneeling there, slumped on the ground, Mikael stares down at his kill. His eyes are empty. The power of the Soul Engine thrums through his body, but his mind… his mind is an utter mess. And he’s never going to be able to fix it either. His stolen memories are gone, tossed away by a cruel and petty tyrant, an uncaring and unfeeling greedy little toad of a man. Meanwhile, his chance to go home is forever closed to him by a loophole in the Hero Summoning Ritual big enough to drive a fucking car through.

He was never going home again. He was never going to be whole again. This was it. Now and forever.

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A/N: And so Zadicus Quinn dies. Not with a whimper or a bang, but with a whisper and a laugh. But he dies all the same.

Not to worry everyone, this story isn't wrapping up any time soon. In fact, it's just beginning! This might be a low moment, but we'll be out of the slump soon enough!

Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, and if you have the time drop me a comment, they mean a lot!

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