Chapter 55: Legion
Subject: Gillis The Cartographer Location: Malisacade - The Blightbane Guild - Arla's Forge
As soon as they began to tumble to the lower floor of the Blightbane Guild Headquarters, Gillis activated the Slow Fall spell on impulse.
Virawind currents picked up beneath them, visible as pale green gusts of energy. These generated squalls fought to counteract the pull of gravity, preventing them from all from tumbling from a height that could have caused death or paralysis.
The spell was the fastest and easiest to cast among those in its grouping. As a tradeoff, it was inefficient, especially for long falls.
Curious how Caim was feeling about his actions, the Hexknight twisted around mid-descent. He caught sight of the seeker’s palm glowing green. As Caim pressed it to his chest, wisps of translucid green light exploded from his hand and wrapped green strands of energy around his body.
Caim’s eyes flitted first to Mille and then to Marian. With just that glance, they too experienced the same visual change. Marian looked to Mille with an inquisitive glance. Mille, whose faron anatomy was flickering bursts of muted red, nodded slightly. Presumably, this was a kind of protective spell.
He doesn’t even know how irregular his magical talent is! That spell just now completely bypassed their inherent resistances with no preparations on their part. I would love to study him and that magic, but I really need to focus on ending this as soon as possible. This perilous situation won’t best me!
The seeker mage looked straight at Gillis and the knight’s blood froze. This man was willing to risk harming himself and his allies if it meant killing Gillis. He didn’t seem to think his allies would die from the fall, but a life paralyzed was as good as a death sentence for a commoner. Was it a risk he was willing to take, or did he have some other strategy?
It was perhaps more disturbing that Caim’s stare bore only a trace of hate. It was less of a personal grudge and more comparable to how Gillis felt when he was removing those obstacles of terrorists, who were only in the way of his real objective here in the city.
Who else would go this far to prevent a Hexknight from purging subhumans? It was suicidal, it was many other things that he couldn’t even think of right now. And Gillis didn’t even have any intention of killing those people!
He has a self-destructive moral fixation. That makes two of us. The difference between him and I is that I can shoulder the flame of ambition without burning to ashes.
“I recognize this place,” Caim commented to Gillis, nodding up at bright lanterns on the ceiling and then down to the stadium floor. “We’re in Arla’s Forge, where seekers are initiated, and where they train. It’s a wide-open area where we can let loose without worrying too much about collateral damage. Speaking of, let these two clear out before we begin.”
Marian and Mille glanced at each other silently. Mille, who seemed to have a better handle on Caim’s personality, gave her tacit approval. The faron quite probably held more influentiance within the organization than her title would lead one to believe.
That’s power a faron should not have, according to theocracy doctrine.
Gillis considered asking one more time for Caim to consider ending this peacefully, but the seeker was determined to kill him or die trying. He could only nod in agreement.
Hopefully, he’d be able to end this with Caim alive. Caim would then owe a life-debt. Though Gillis didn’t understand the meaning behind the name, it was fitting that this place was called a forge.
This seeker was a precious ore, a rare find. With enough time, this villager savage could be tempered into something serviceable, just as Gillis himself had been tempered by his years of training and practice in the field..
As they got closer to the ground, he could see what Caim meant. He’d expected to see the duel platforms and strength training equipment, but he didn’t anticipate a maze-like arrangement of artificial obstacles in the center of the sprawling chamber. Seekers apparently trained in environments that tested their reflexes and situational awareness. These constrained corridors would make for a better duel ground against a more powerful opponent.
When boots touched down, both Caim and Gillis urged the other two to run as far away as they could.
“Tell no one of this,” Gillis demanded. “It would only harm Caim’s chances of survival. Trust that a Hexaline Knight of Progress can handle this.”
He looked over to Caim to see how he felt about this statement, which could have been perceived as a threat, but the seeker was already turning the corner of a distant obstacle.
“He isn’t a bad person,” Mille insisted, while Marian tugged on her arm to run. “I don’t think he sleeps, he’s weird, but he-”
“I know. Trust me. It is better if everyone lives through this.”
By taking off into the maze, Caim was trusting that Gillis wouldn’t destroy everything around without regard for collateral damage. He was right. This was one of the few times Gillis thought of fighting with this handicap, the shackle of the strong, as enjoyable.
That’s right. Make me earn you, Caim.
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Subject: Caim Location: Malisacade - The Blightbane Guild - Arla's Forge
Caim could hear his own heartbeat pounding while he ran to put as much distance between the Hexknight and himself as possible.
He paused and drew another Shard of Legion forth from the spell’s reservoir of unknowable depth.
“Defend here,” he ordered.
The bipedal construct “resonated” in response to the command. He learned pretty quickly that it did not have the best understanding of the concept of moderation. A floor above, the now-disintegrated Shard had asked Caim if it should attempt to free itself in order to obey his command to attack, destroying itself in the process.
He began running again. As quickly as possible, he hoped to reach a more defensible position, leaving behind as many Shards of Legion as he could realistically field on the twisting training ground.
This would be so much better if I actually knew this terrain! But I didn’t have enough time to get settled, let alone enough time to train in here. Though, it’s possible they shift these big structures around to keep people on their toes.
Besides, training here would have never worked. How did other mages train? Who cared? As grateful as he was for Scion, it just wasn’t enough to use against a Hexaline Knight. Yet, Scion was always careful to aim around him with its attacks, so there were tradeoffs.Speaking of, I should pester that knight wherever he is. Return to me, Scion.
Caim conjured his familiar guardian and didn’t even wait for it to request orders before resuming his sprint away from Gillis’s general direction.
“Fly low until you reach those stairs out of the pit,” he instructed. “Then, rise high and attack the one you were ordered to attack before.”
“Sequential command detected. Failure. Cannot access command memory. Who is your enemy?” Scion replied, a tad more articulate than usual.
It didn’t seem to remember his previous order, so Caim was forced to improvise. He tried to picture Gillis in his mind as clearly as possible, passing that image on to Scion. It was more difficult to do while fumbling around in the maze.
“Attack this one.”
Scion accepted the order and went off on its suicide mission. Caim continued summoning Shards of Legion, pausing only for brief moments when he found himself trapped by a dead end.
When he finally did reach the far side of the maze, he leaned against an artificial base colored to look like a mossy outcrop. The moss was red, but still distinguishable by Caim, who had seen the very same moss on his walks to Riventread.
A stream of bright light pierced the dimly lit chamber, from somewhere deep within the maze. It cast dizzying shadows as a streak of lighting might.
If he concentrated, Caim could feel where his Shards were stationed. He could still command them remotely, and he would know where Gillis was depending on which unit encountered him.
Caim was really getting the hang of this magic at this point. He was just a little proud of all he’d accomplished in this short time.
Should I use Comprehension? He considered, but then quickly tossed out the idea. No, it takes too long, and I need to concentrate on the battlefield.
Comprehension was the only spell he didn’t know how to use properly. He had been trying to tell Alice about it this morning, but he wasn’t in the best frame of mind at the time. It wasn’t designed for combat. Instead, it was a utility-themed information-gathering tool. Comprehension might be able to find Gillis in this maze, but he’d already found a better way.
Caim felt one of his Shard soldiers react to something in its vicinity. It didn’t wait for orders before lunging forward. He slid around the corner of an obstacle and focused on holding the battlefield in his mind.
“Stay functional as long as possible,” he ordered, turning his attention to the nearby soldiers. “Group up and surround the enemy.”
Arranging Shards into small groups based on location in the maze, Caim traversed the twisting passages partly based on memory and partly based on trial-and-error. He “watched” them follow the commands with unexpected vigor.
While attempting to glean more information about the attack from his interconnected constructs, delving into the information they transmitted, Caim accidentally wound up “inside” one.
He could feel his senses constrained by the vessel, like being enveloped in a kind of “localized darkness”. Before him, a lone figure stood out amidst shadows, the outlines of darkened structures, and the vague empty spaces between them, hurling missiles of flaming crimson.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
The Hexknight.
One of the missiles collided with his body. He felt the foreign object penetrate the metal exterior, severely damaging the Shard of Legion hosting his consciousness. It hurt, unexpectedly, and unexpected pain had the tendency feel all the more intense.
Without meaning to, Caim formed his vessel’s jagged arms into elongated and sharpened points. He charged Gillis, who’d become distracted by two more encroaching Shards.
Just as he reached his target, the knight pivoted to face him, widening his eyes.
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Subject: Gillis The Cartographer Location: Malisacade - The Blightbane Guild - Arla's Forge
It was unexpected to see so many of these conjured soldiers infesting the maze, and so shortly after the quarry had fled.
Gillis wasn’t in over his head, but he knew one thing: this mage had power.
He’s stumbled upon an original spell! I’m confident this is the first time he’s cast it, but it is already this stable. I need to find him before he falls comatose. Failing that, haste is still the difference between life and death.
All spells had a price. This included mental energy expenditure, physical sacrifice, external resources, and more. It usually went that the more powerful the spell, the greater the price. That wasn’t always the case, but it was a general assumption that usually wouldn’t steer you wrong.
Your first time successfully casting a spell was sure to be the greatest price. Miscasts down the line are still possible, but they are the exception. It is only after honing your skill that you are gradually able to expend fewer and fewer resources to get the same result.
One of the creatures took on a moonlit glow. The head-like outcrop atop its torso started behaving strangely, twisting in place, unlike the others.
What’s it doing?
Unwilling to risk what might happen if it got too close, Gillis targeted the torso with a concentrated Breachbolt barrage. Chips of glittering metal broke apart, indicating it sustained damage as easily as any of the others.
A fresh pair of enemies trapped Gillis in the maze, catching him on either side. It was like they were somehow communicating with each other, rather than mindlessly following Caim’s directions. And then there was that other summon the seeker used. What a bizarre specialist Caim was.
These new threats were closer, and Gillis already knew they could detonate rather destructively. It was a short-range, however, so all he had to do was break free of this encirclement.
The reason the Hexknight hadn’t already taken to the high ceiling of this arena was that he only knew magic to help him land. Once grounded, he couldn’t get back into the air without resorting to using a dangerous propellant. Flight spells were within his reach, but there was only so much time in the day, and there were also side effects not to mention outrageous cast costs.
Search magic is one of my specialties. Why haven’t I found him yet? And why is it so hard to detect these things of his? Magic should produce an echo.
Just as one of the new constructs was destroyed before it could detonate, Gillis turned just in time to see an arm like the tip of a spear aimed for his back. He spun around and dipped low, using momentum to toss the glowing creature away.
It was smaller than him. Minor feats of acrobatics like these were all his body was really capable of, magically augmented or not. His knight’s training was a nightmare he never wished to relive, having barely passed enough of the strength trials to be considered for his true talents.
That vice-captain of mine would tell me to commit more to my weekly training regiment. But I’m not the only one who hates it. Who says a mage, squad captain or no, should have to be so fit.
That was just a pathetic excuse, but launching a close-ranged Breachbolt through the unstable, transformed creature’s back to destroy it for good made him feel a little better.
As it died, it seized up unlike any of the others, like it was in pain.
In a way, Caim’s words had really honed in on an insecurity of his. Shroud’s development of late had relied heavily on the advancements made by mages like the two of them. The Hexknight knew that the Channeler was of the same mind: over-reliance was weakness.
Caim, it this feeling I’m having about you right now that makes me want to make you an ally of my cause. We don’t have to be fighting. Latice, I blame you and that despicable woman whispering in your ear for this position I’m in. I really hope I don’t have to kill him.
A Channeler would take their title and immediately enact policies related to their political platform. Framed as divine judgement and accessorized with quotes of scripture as it was, power dynamics in Shroud were merely a different kind of politics than was the norm in the ally nations.
The 48th Channeler had been spouting the same rhetoric as Latice: “the war never ended.” The attacks today and the sparks throughout the neutral zone past The Barrier gave credence to this stubbornness, but it was not a reality Gillis wanted to accept. It was not a finality he wanted to entertain. Not yet.
Couldn’t people be better than this? The Shaded Theocracy had been in isolation all this time and prospered despite inheriting a ravaged post-war nation from the ancestors.
Was Gillis faithful? The answer would have to be “yes, but...”, and he would use his remaining words to examine what faith really was. Science was faith, in part, just a different kind from religious prophecy and from fearful appeals for divine protection.
He wanted to believe that rationality could bring prosperity, that prosperity could bring kindness. He wanted to believe that Caim felt the same. The dream The Cartographers came to share, the project they’d struggled to realize, that was this Hexknights faith.
A flash of light reflected on the surface of one of the maze’s obstacles, signaling something happening behind the Hexknight. He spun around to face yet another example of a mage who had luck on their side.
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Subject: Caim Location: Malisacade - The Blightbane Guild - Arla's Forge
It hurt terribly. It was a pain that dug deep and lingered in Caim’s very core.
D- Did I just die?
No. His vessel had died, not him.
But I was connected to that Shard of Legion when it was destroyed. I definitely touched death for a moment there.
The question was… did he try to do whatever he did before again? Shards of Legion were converging on the Hexknights position at his command, and there was a wealth of puppets to exploit.
“Do you all feel pain?” he asked the collective entity called Legion.
They responded with a feeling of confusion that he would voice with the phrase “unrecognized command”.
Back into the fray I go.
When he assumed control of the second Shard, he found himself facing the back of the Hexknight. Though the pain from the first “death” hadn’t completely faded, he understood the feeling of controlling this body better now.
The Hexknight spun around and Caim immediately strafed right to avoid the spell he knew was coming, even before it was cast. Though the puppets legs were sluggish, they were able to carry him out of the way.
Gillis’s eyes widened and his lips mouthed words that Caim couldn’t hear through his Shard’s body, which lacked hearing. Actually, that was not completely true. It could still sense sound, but the way it did so was peculiar. It felt the reverberations of sound through its body, approximating source and more information based quality. The system was primitive and words were too complex a vehicle to be deciphered.
Caim took advantage of the surprise to close the distance and stab with the tip of a sharpened arm. The Hexknight narrowly avoided the attack, but he couldn’t dodge Caim’s other arm. Unfortunately, the arm that had connected with the knight’s torso just shattered against his defensive barrier.
Caim wasn’t going to wait to feel death again, so he jumped bodies into a Shard of Legion to the knight’s other side. It was a weird thing seeing the body he’d just inhabited get destroyed in front of him.
Another attack and another deflection, but he could feel the barrier weakening. This time, Caim wasn’t able to jump bodies in time, and he felt a sharp pain rip through him just before transferring.
The Hexknight saw Caim’s new vessel twitch with Caim’s agony, and he froze. He stopped mid-cast, and Caim saw the man’s hand cleave the air to find a new target in a distant Shard, not the one Caim was currently occupying.
Gillis pulled a crystal from his uniform and crushed it to his chest, inhaling the luminous blue dust it generated until it was all gone.
Why did he stop? He should have used that time to kill this Shard.
One reason. He froze because he knew Caim was in this particular Shard, and he observed that Caim could feel a warped kind of pain when his host “died” with him.
I can use this.
It was the best plan he had right now.
Caim ordered his Shard of Legion to fall in line behind him, rather than swarming the knight where they could be easily killed without harming the one he was using. This was the feint, an obvious desperate tactic to mitigate the annihilation of his small army. While he did this, one Shard was ordered to wait out of sight for Caim’s signal.
The shaken posture and of a proud Hexaline Knight was something to behold, a smile long since wiped away. Caim’s Shards weren’t trivial threats, but they did not warrant Gillis’s full strength, it would seem.
The knight spoke again. This time, Caim “heard” meaning in inarticulate sounds.
“Misunderstood.”
He looked profoundly saddened.
By now, Caim’s concealed Shard had infiltrated Gillis’s waning shadow. He ordered the remaining Shards behind him to back up and fall still. They weren’t useful anymore.
Seeing this, the Hexknight’s face showed a glimmer of hope. The man must have thought his words had gotten through.
Just a little closer.
To continue distracting the Hexknight, Caim clumsily gestured. Gillis smiled when he recognized an attempt at communication, parting his lips again.
“Protect.”
Protect what? Protect me? It doesn’t matter. I don’t need to listen to whitewashed ethics and decoy promises. I’ve already won.
He ordered the Shard to self-destruct close enough to Gillis to shatter his protection spell, knocking him on his backside in the process. Before the Hexknight could reapply his shielding, Caim formed one arm into a weapon and the other into something resembling a jagged clamp.
Caim grabbed hold of his prey’s throat with his gripping arm and drove for the heart with the other. Before he could plunge deep into flesh, he caught sight of Gillis’s empty stare. The look of a man who’d resigned himself to his fate.
Faltering for just a moment, Caim second-guessed what he was about to do. Then, he noticed that none of Gillis’s clothes were the slightest bit damaged by the explosion. It wasn’t thick armor. Sturdy or not, it should have been damaged. Distracted, he loosened his grip.
How does the shielding magic even work? Something about this feels “off”.
The Hexknight smiled appreciatively at Caim’s unintentional slackening on his throat. Standing up, he cast a powerful spell.
Beams of light fired out and bounced off multiple surfaces, utterly ravaging the helpless Shards of Legion still frozen behind Caim, sparing only the one he currently occupied.
Gillis stood in front of Caim’s vessel and waited.
He wants me to leave this Shard. I’ve lost but he still doesn’t want me to feel the pain.
Accepting the reality of the situation, Caim did this, ending up back where his real body was waiting for him. The connection between him and the last Shard abruptly cut out.
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Subject: Caim Location: Malisacade - The Blightbane Guild - Arla's Forge
I don’t know how to feel about this. Was he toying with me by letting me think I’d won? After all that, could I not even come close to harming him?
Fighting the Hexknight had been nothing like fighting the blightbeasts. It wasn’t only that it was more difficult to defeat an intelligent opponent, it was also that it was emotionally taxing. He’d described this to Mille when he first arrived in Shroud. Caim didn’t want to have to do this kind of thing.
Do I really have to do this kind of thing? Probably, but...
He wasn’t tired, but there was a bitter taste in his mouth. More bitter than blightseed residue.
Master Override [ Surrogate Protocol Activated ]
“While I’m overjoyed at your decision to take your future into your own hands, this fight is just a distraction. Come, we have many things to discuss,” a familiar voice reached out.
Without waiting for an answer, he was forcibly pulled away. Caim’s vision grew distorted and the world around him faded from his senses.
It wasn’t teleportation magic.