Chapter 334 - Runebreaker (Patreon)

Fire danced in the sky as the ruined stronghold crumbled all around as Zeke took a few precious minutes to rest and recover as best he could. The rapid regeneration associated with activating [Cambion’s Awakening] via demonic mana had healed his body well enough – even his arm had regrown – but in doing so, it had wrought enough spiritual damage that he could scarcely think without being rewarded with creaking pain. If he’d kept going any longer, recovery might have taken months. Even now, with pure mana flowing through him and soothing his more ephemeral injuries, full recovery was a long way away. Hopefully, he’d have at least a couple of weeks to soak in the Crimson Spring once he’d taken care of the dwarves.

“Based on my knowledge of you, I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Eveline remarked, still confined to his mind. [Bulwark of the Triumvirate] remained in place, preventing her from manifesting her ghostly form. “You seem to bounce from one disaster to the next without much pause. Even when you should rest, you just keep moving forward to the next disaster.”

Zeke didn’t open his eyes. Instead, he remained seated in the center of the courtyard, focusing on pushing mana into his skill. The more unattuned energy he could harness, the more effective [Cambion’s Awakening] would be. Still, it was a mindless task, and it left far too much room for introspection. The last thing Zeke wanted to do was to descend into the depressing pit of memories that was his inner thoughts, so he kept his mind focused on his plans for the future.

Not the battle – he knew what he needed to do there. Instead, he thought about his friends and the inevitable reunion. His connection with Pudge, Tucker, and Talia had faded to almost nothing the moment he stepped into Mal’canus, but those bonds were still there. The one Zeke shared with Pudge was much stronger than the connection between him and the others, but that was to be expected.

“You miss them,” said Eveline.

“I do.”

“I had a friend once,” she stated. “He betrayed me, I think. Or maybe I turned on him. My memories still aren’t…everything is still fragmented. But I think I miss him. I wonder if he misses me, too.”

“I don’t know how to answer that,” Zeke admitted. Convention told him that he should have lied and said that, whoever was out there was probably pining for Eveline’s company. However, with the bodyless demoness stuck inside his mind, Eveline would know that it was, at best, a polite exaggeration. At worst, it would be an outright lie. Because Zeke had some experience with betrayal, and the moment Abby had turned on him, everything had changed. There were times when he missed her. More than he wanted to admit, really. But mostly, he just felt numb to the memory of the woman he’d once loved.

Was that normal? Zeke didn’t have enough experience with relationships to say for sure, but he suspected it wasn’t particularly abnormal. Certainly, Eveline – who could only remember having a single friend – was in no position to dispute it.

“I don’t know the answers, either,” she said. Then, Eveline fell silent. Zeke could still feel her presence roiling in a corner of his mind, but she’d somehow closed herself off. It was almost like she was asleep. Or a turtle who’d retracted inside her shell.

For the next half hour, Zeke focused on pushing as much mana as he could through his spiritual body. It wasn’t particularly pleasant, but it didn’t really hurt, either. Instead, it felt like taking an ice cold shower after spending a day working in the heat. But it was definitely effective, and soon, he judged himself fit for another battle.

It would have been nice to have a few days to focus on healing, but the dwarves could send reinforcements through the portal at any moment. If that happened, Zeke would be back at square one. No – he needed to advance and keep them off-balance. Otherwise, he’d lose the advantage of surprise.

He rose, saying, “I guess it’s time.”

Eveline uncoiled herself in his mind and gave the equivalent of a mental sigh before saying, “I suppose it is.”

“You don’t sound as enthusiastic as you were.”

She responded, “Just anxious. Most demons never get the chance to ascend to the heavens.”

“I’ve seen a lot of demons up there,” Zeke said. He didn’t really subscribe to her categorization of the parallel realms as Heaven and Hell. Nor did he think of himself as an angel. However, doing so did make discussion much easier. “Hundreds, even.”

“Pockets of demonic mana,” she stated. “That’s why the locals keep attacking this stronghold, by the way. They can smell the other side of that portal. Even stuck behind this wall in your mind, I can feel the sweet heavens beckoning me to go forth and conquer.”

“Huh.”

Was it some natural instinct that drove them forward? Or was it something more human? Envy, perhaps? Anger over the disparity of their situations? Maybe it was a little bit of everything all rolled into one.

“You’re going to behave over there, aren’t you?” Zeke asked.

“As if I can do anything from in here,” was her answer. Zeke was about to respond when she let out another sigh and said, “Oh, I’ll be fine. I’m not going to go on some sort of murderous rampage the moment I’m set free. I do have more self-control than a wild beast, you know.”

“I hope so.”

Zeke didn’t say anything else before he rose to his feet and started forward. Passing through the keep’s huge double doors, he was beset by a sense of familiarity. Despite the stonework bearing a number of cracks and whole walls having crumbled into piles of rock, it looked much the same as it had during Zeke’s first trip through the stronghold. His memories were a little muddled – after all, being suddenly immersed in the demonic atmosphere had sent him into a berserker rage, and even when it faded, he’d found it difficult to think straight – but he remembered the way well enough. Soon, he found the appropriate path to the portal chamber, which was an enormous, circular room, at the center of which was the gateway to Heaven.

After spending so much time bathing demonic mana, he could feel the sweet scent of the uncorrupted atmosphere billowing out of the portal. It called to him like nothing ever had before.

“That feeling, multiply that by about a thousand times, and you’ll understand why many demons spend their whole lives dreaming of crossing over,” Eveline remarked, her mental voice hoarse.

Zeke could only marvel at the willpower it would take to resist such a call. He was only half-demon, and yet, he felt it so keenly. Could he resist if he’d felt what Eveline described? Would he even think to attempt it? After all, demons were at war with what they considered angels. Why wouldn’t they try to take the fight to their enemies’ doorstep?

Even Zeke felt a tinge of resentment on the demons’ behalf. The high-and-mighty gods had cursed them, and for what? Because they’d made a few mistakes in what amounted to a blink of an eye? On the scale of eternity, an Earthly life of evil was tantamount to a singular mistake, and one resulting in –

“You’re spiraling,” said Eveline. Her voice broke the spell, and some of those thoughts faded. They weren’t precisely alien, but they weren’t exactly his own. It was as if an external force had pushed all the right buttons in his mind, and he’d reacted accordingly. “Focus on your humanity.”

Zeke took a deep breath and followed her instructions. It wasn’t easy, but after a few seconds, he marshalled his willpower and brought his thoughts under control. When he managed it, he asked, “Is that what they feel? All that resentment?”

“Yes. That and more. Don’t misunderstand, though,” Eveline answered. “We are not what anyone would call good. Most of us are petty, vindictive, vengeful, and outright evil. Some of that is the result of circumstances, but there is a such thing as evil that exists beyond outside influence. Some are simply born with a black heart. Remember that, because that’s what separates the truly powerful demons from the chaff.”

“And you?”

“People can change,” she said, not bothering to deny that she was one of those. “In my case, hundreds of years of forced introspection made me rethink some of my priorities.”

“What did you find?” Zeke asked, once again thumbing the ring around his forefinger. It had never twinged with Eveline, but then again, he had no idea if such a thing would even work on her.

“That I am not the person I thought I was,” she answered. “I haven’t…I haven’t had time to figure it all out, though. So, that’s as much of an answer as I can give you.”

“Good enough, I guess.”

And it would have to be, because he had no idea how to separate his mind from Eveline’s spirit. Not without killing her, a path he’d already discarded. For better or worse, she was along for the ride.

“That’s the spirit,” she said, her voice regaining a cheerful tone. “Blind acceptance is always the best policy. In my experience, at least. Not for me, mind you. But for my…ah…colleagues.”

“Shut up.”

“But it’s so empty in here! I need something to occupy my mind!”

“It’s not empty!” Zeke growled.

“Well, there’s fighting. And a little self-loathing. Some regret. A lot of space devoted to your previous –”

Zeke tuned her out. The last thing he needed was to listen to Eveline dissecting his thoughts and memories. He knew that territory well enough that he had no interest in having someone guide him through it. Instead, he focused on the portal, and to his surprise, some of the demonic resentment had faded into the background. It was still there, but with Eveline droning on about his memories, it didn’t have the hold it’d once claimed. And second by second, it was fading away.

“Thanks,” he muttered aloud, then stepped forward. He strode across the chamber, barely noticing the typically angular dwarven décor, then mounted the dais holding the portal. It looked like a rough-hewn gateway of black crystal, the frame twisted into unnatural shapes that, when Zeke looked upon them, sent a pang of agony coursing through his mind.

“Poorly wrought,” remarked Eveline. “These dwarves meddled with forces they did not understand. It’s a wonder they managed to create a working gateway at all.”

“They’ve kept it open all this time so they could try to rescue Dáinn, right?”

“I think that if they’d truly wished to do that, they would have done it decades ago,” Eveline said. “Instead, they made a token effort powered by slave labor. Enough to perhaps placate some, but not enough to tax their resources.”

“Apathy,” Zeke guessed. He’d long since noticed that the dwarves of Min Ferilik lacked a certain verve for life. It didn’t take a leap of logic to assume that it had steered them into doing the bare minimum to keep up appearances.

“The corrosion of demonic mana affects angels in curious ways,” Eveline said. “Some of you grow twisted and mutate. Others fall apart altogether, eaten from the inside out by the corruption. Perhaps these dwarves were affected as you say.”

“They were,” Zeke insisted, certain of his conclusions.  Not that it changed anything. It wouldn’t alter his plans in any way, so the debate was more academic than practical.

So, instead of continuing the discussion, Zeke stepped through the portal and back into what he considered his own realm. The effects on his body were immediate. For one, the sudden lack of demonic mana – it was present, but only in a bare trickle of power – left him feeling almost like he was suffocating. Thankfully, its prevalence had been replaced by the thick cloud of earth-attuned mana that suffused the entire cave system beneath the mountain. Second, he felt a shiver flow up his spine.

“It’s freezing!” he hissed, looking around for any enemies. There were none. The cavern was completely empty, and it looked as if it had been abandoned in a hurry. Tools and equipment lay on the ground, and a few unlucky dwarves appeared to have been trampled to death.

“Yes. Hell is hotter than Heaven. What a surprise,” was Eveline’s deadpan response. Then, she remarked, “Looks like they all came rushing in when you attacked the stronghold. I wonder if they managed to send out a message.”

Zeke’s eyes soon swept across the cavern to the entrance, which was barred by a heavy gate. Behind it was a troop of dwarven warriors wearing similar armor to what he’d seen on Roknag.

“I think they might have.”

“Do you suppose they want to talk it out?” asked Eveline.

The leader bellowed a challenge, and Zeke shook his head. “No. I’m pretty sure they’re not the talking type.”

“Well, at least you know how to deal with them now,” she said, her voice hopeful. “That has to count for something.”

Zeke didn’t respond. Instead, he summoned his hammer and stepped down from the dais upon which the gate to hell had been positioned. Then, without paying the dwarves any mind, he spun around and attacked the structure. His hammer hit with pulverizing force, but the crystalline frame remained unharmed. So, he hit it again. And again.

In the background, he heard some of the dwarves laughing humorlessly at his expense.

“Those are fake laughs,” Eveline said. She didn’t object to Zeke’s course of action because she knew his plan. “You can tell by how loud they are. Nobody projects like that – not naturally, at least.”

“How would you know?” Zeke growled between one-handed swings. He’d begun to get a little feeling back in his injured arm, but it would take far more than the short rest he’d allowed himself to heal properly. “Demons might laugh entirely differently.”

“True,” she mused.

“But I think you’re right.”

“I usually am.”

Zeke kept up his assault for a few more minutes, and predictably, the dwarves behind the gate continued to laugh at him. However, the leader cut off in a hurry when Zeke embraced his braided runebreaking technique and brought it to bear on the gate. It shattered the second he made contact.

“Runebreaker,” said Eveline as the gate’s frame crumbled into dust. It had been held together almost entirely by the runes, so the moment Zeke’s technique shattered that structure, the gate couldn’t even support its own weight. “I like that. But it does beg the question – what do we call the other one? Everything-else-breaker?”

“Not the time, Eveline,” Zeke muttered, as he faced down the now-panicked dwarves. “But I like Runebreaker, too.”