NOVEL NEXT V12: Chapter 3
V12: Chapter 3
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Interlude: Riegert
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I expended all the ammunition I was given and that led to the destruction of the Ascendant's chassis.
That gave me a few minutes to meet with the Guardian's Champions.
They recognized me, which was a boon.
"Riegert of the Holy Axe! What are you—
"Your people have allied with mine considering the new threats. I've come here to see you and your expedition safely withdrawn at any cost, especially with your Divine Engine." The Divine Engine turned to look at me with wide eyes. I gave it a short nod. "You two focus on alleviating the pressure on the rest of the expedition. I'll take this Tyrant on."
"It's dead—
"It is not." I shook my head and matched the 'gaze' of the phantom currently inhabiting armor. I gestured at the de-legged and disarmed chassis. Its baleful eye was shattered, the tendrils destroyed, and the legs shot off, but there were a multitude of lights all over it. "These ones are their Champion. Those of them who are the least cursed by the Ancients. The strongest of their people… and it's been listening this entire time."
There was a hiss of latches unclasping and a faint crackle in the air.
The scent of blood spilled across the battlefield, as an Ascendant clambered out of the chassis. She was half a figure of beauty and half an abomination. Everything from the waist down was a mass of tendrils of red flesh and tumors with many mouths filled with fangs and multitudes of eyes. Above the waist was a living statue dedicated to a goddess of beauty with flawless skin, entrancing features, and long white hair.
"If you bow your head and supplicate, I will spare your life, my lesser." She spoke in our tongue and looked upon me with pure black eyes. She slithered off her container onto ground soaked with the fluid composed of the bodies of slaves. I had seen them throw screaming slaves into tanks that turned them into a source of life for the Ascendants. The thick, red liquid-jelly was the condensed essence of mortals. "The Undead are to be purged for their betrayal, but those who acknowledge our superiority can be spared the blade."
"I'm afraid I must decline. Spared of the blade means living under the whip, until I am unfit and turned into fuel." The Ascendant Champion tilted her head into a nod at my words. From the same tank she occupied, two flying constructs came forth and each one carried a blade as tall as her. She took one in each hand. More blades emerged as she slithered on countless tendrils. It almost appeared to be a gown of flesh beneath the waist. I looked idly towards the Divine Engine of War and to Catherine. "Go. I can't fight at my fullest while protecting either of you."
The tan-skinned young woman with blazing red hair seemed apprehensive at my words, but Catherine nodded.
"May fortune favor you in this battle, Lord Riegert." She tilted her helm at me, before moving away with the Goddess in tow. I nodded in return. "This one will reach our lands even if it costs me my life."
With those words, the phantom left to rally her forces, while I shouldered my axe and walked towards the Ascendant Champion.
"You are strong." The Ascendant acknowledged and I felt my chances of survival lessen immediately. If I were underestimated, then my chances would have been better. I searched through every catalogue of strategy that I had and considered every underhanded trick. From a mere glance at the Champion-equivalent, I knew I was outmatched. I was a general and a leader. This one was a specialized tool for killing armies. My natural predator. "That weapon you wield… so those who we tried to usurp long ago left behind much more than we thought in that vault of theirs."
"They should have left more. Defeating the entire world is a tall order with what they left, honestly." I reached the edge of her range and tempted her with a step to the side. Instead, she just readied her blades. No circling and playing for time, unfortunately. "Would you mind granting me your name? I deserve at least that much, right?"
"You know of our customs well. Your people have been watching and waiting. Seeing our measure. Hm. The recent conflicts between us and the barbarians in the forests… those were your doing. A fine stratagem our borders will be ablaze with war, soon." My chances of survival dropped more and more as she spoke. I couldn't let her live. She was extracting information from mere hints and making leaps of logic that I would expect from Khanrow. This wasn't someone I could spare. "Ah, I smell your fear, but there is not a single hint of retreat in your form. You know my strength and choose to stand against me for your people no matter the cost, then."
"Can't let someone as smart as you live. I've got a daughter to protect." If Ilych were here, she would defeat this monster and recover after the battle with no permanent harm. Rita would kill it before it knew it was threatened. Morgan would tear it apart, put it back together, and comb through its brain for any ounce of information she could gleam. Jack? He would have this land shattered with cannons and sorcery from the sky. "I apologize ahead of time for all my underhanded measures, Ascendant. I'm going to be very unseemly."
"I am Raven, Tyrant of the Frontier, and all who stand against becomes mine." The tendrils of her gown came apart and I found myself looking at dozens of living faces. Some were other Ascendant, others were Demons, and more were of the Stymphalians. Their mouths were open in silent screams, but I saw cognition in their eyes. Their magic still coursed through them… and into her. "Your mind and soul will become mine. The vault of the Ancients will free me from this curse… and I will rule over the world in its entirety."
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With only the slightest hint of regret, I cast aside what little hope I had left of surviving this, and felt relief settle on my shoulders.
This Ascendant, with all her power, strength, potential, and ambition, was the perfect target for me to spend my life killing.
This one was someone who would make their mark on history, if they didn't die here.
I gave a silent prayer to my ancestors as thanks, while unshouldering my axe.
Thank goodness, I could remove this creature from the world before it could gain enough strength to threaten my daughter.
With that in mind, I unleashed everything that I had with a guttural yell and a charge.
The earth turned to mud beneath her feet. Winds blew and dust gathered to impede her vision. A poison cloud came forth from my maw and surged towards her.
"Begone!" A yell came forth. A distorted, discordant sound from dozens of throats and mouths. A burst of power surged and broke apart the barrage I sent. A flurry of blades surged towards me. The amulet on my neck came to life and formed a barrier of wind around me that knocked them off course, but they surged back towards me as if held by invisible hands. They harried my barrier of wind and I felt it heat up against my skin. "Be purged!"
The declaration from innumerable mouths and voices struck me. It was a combination of physical phenomena and more esoteric effects. I felt a wave of weakness overtake me, like I was once again old and unrejuvenated by Ancient technology, and my concentration wavered. At the same time, a wave of force struck me and my charge was nearly stopped. The ground around me cratered and cracked, sinking and compressing, while I dug in, found grip, and charged forward anyway.
Ten strides remained between me and the Ascendant.
Close enough for me to not miss.
I let loose with sanctified lightning. Holy magic was made to be used against the Ancient's former foes, and lightning was nearly impossible to dodge. I directed the strands of lightning with my gaze, feeling my helm grow warm as I cast them so close, but Citadel alloys were resistant to heat. Thus I was able to send a barrage of lightning at the Ascendant and it roared with fury as began a counter charge after I drew first blood.
Numerous heads came apart against my lightning. Like blooming flowers of flesh, they superheated and broke after being struck with the pure-white strands of crackling energy. Even those not directly hit were electrocuted and silenced. Though I nursed the hope that I was ending suffering, my focus on killing them was lessening the strength of the Ascendant's assault.
My barrier came apart as my lightning ravaged the Ascendant, and the swords found gaps in my armor. I had to twist, turn, and move through the pain as they bit deep and hungrily. The Ascendant, realizing the threat I posed, went for my knees, my arms, and joints to try and slow me, but I long ago knew how to suppress pain and move forward while protecting those parts of myself.
She raised her two blades and brought them down. A great furrow was carved into the earth. Invisible blades surged towards me while an earth-shaking scream slammed into me at once.
But I did not stop.
I empowered my charge and sacrificed my left side. If I created a barrier, that would mean stopping my lightning, so instead I gave what I could. The edges of the invisible slashes shattered Citadel alloy and came apart against my toughened skin and muscle. Pain bloomed across my body like a battering ram slammed into me, while searing heat surged through my muscles. Deep cuts always felt like something was burning into one's flesh.
But my sacrifice cost lest than I anticipated, as despite the pain and the damage, my left arm was still functional as I reached the Ascendant.
With both hands, I gripped the shaft of my axe, and I executed an upward swing that I practiced and used countless times.
My father taught me to finish every fight decisively and quickly, then survive the aftermath by reaching healers.
I taught Ilych to do the same.
Unfortunately, there were no healers here.
My axe crashed vertically where woman and horrific flesh met. The Ascdeant's mouth moved, but my ears were burst by the earlier scream. The many limbs she had came together and tried to pushed against the edge. She was sacrificing flesh and strength so that my blade wouldn't carved through her stomach, her spine, her heart, and her skull.
If she used all of them to that end, she may have succeeded.
Instead, some of her limbs attacked me at the same time. Thrashing tendrils and blades sliced and broke through my armor, while I committed everything to a single, upward swing. The faces that I was unable to destroy suddenly came aglow and flames spewed forth from their maws and eyes and surged upon me. The clothes I wore came alight, my armor broke, and blades slashed into my skin and muscle.
But my axe was already embedded into the Ascendant, all I needed to do now, was hold on and channel into it all that I had.
I did not know if I actually roared, by my throat was strained as I exerted everything that I had from my mind, body, and spirit into finishing my final blow. I poured every bit of power I had left into my axe and it came alive with holy power and began to burn the flesh of the Ascendant to ash. I propelled it forward with magic as I summoned every ounce of strength I had left from my burning, flayed form.
Slowly, but surely, my final blow went forward. It cut through toughened tendril, bit further and further into sculpted flesh, and reached soft innards that burned upon contact immedietly.
Darkness crept into my vision. Pain began to burrow through all my efforts to suppress it.
Most importantly, though, my strength was being sapped as I was being burned and cut apart.
But I was almost there.
I pushed through, I burned all that I had, and called upon every moment that could drive me forward.
My father's death allowed me to reach the base of the Ascendant's spine even as my vision went black.
My first defeat and the death of my wife allowed me bring my axe up through three more vertebrae and into her diaphragm.
My daughter's first-time using magic allowed me to break through a ribcage stronger than steel, while all feeling in my legs left me.
As my lungs burned, I remembered her smiling as she held up her first artifact gained through her own efforts, and I cut through the Ascendant's heart.
That was enough, some part of me cried, but I made myself remember.
I made myself remember seeing a world filled with monsters bearing down upon the home she created for herself.
With that I called upon all that I had left, and forced my axe upward and out of the Ascendant I had buried it into.
From its throat, up its jaw, and out of its skull.
I killed enough to know that I did that, even with all my senses besides touch gone.
Only then, did I allow my axe to fall out of my hands.
Then, I fell onto my back.
Pain threatened to engulf me, as I lay limp and immobile, and with coldness seeping into what was left. I could no longer feel the burning of the Ascendant's magic, nor even the sensation of all the cuts left on my body. The broken parts were fading away, and so was the pain that they brought, and slowly I realized that this was how I was to die.
Beyond the lands where my bloodline was trapped for millennia.
Killing a monster that would've brought terror to my people and my family.
On a battlefield from which an army would retreat with precious cargo in tow.
I thought that I would die as the lieutenant of a warlord and leaving my daughter to the same fate.
Instead, I die for a nation that I wanted to see flourish for my daughter' sake.
Better than I could've hoped, yet I would've still wished to see more.