Harlan watched his Otherself and Hellon run down the hall before he turned to face the monster in front of him.
He was certain that the ascended shouldn’t be allowed to get so far from Reino and whatever magic bound them there, but considering everything, Fae involvement wasn’t a shock.
As he told his Otherself to before, he began to shift.
His form was rather simple, he added bone plates across his body, lengthened his teeth, added a tail with a club on the end, and gave himself an extra set of arms on his back just for casting spells.
He wasn’t sure what this thing was going to do, or what it could do, so he didn’t want to go too far in his transformation.
The ascended continued to just walk towards him at a leisurely pace until it was roughly 10 feet from Harlan.
It held a catching pole in its left hands, as it had three arms, one on the right, two on the left.
It lacked any definition between the neck and head, its eyes were haphazardly placed around the cylindrical head with a flat top, and he couldn’t see a mouth on it.
Its body was mostly human, but its skin was so tight that one could see every muscle cord tighten and loosen, not an ounce of fat on it.
It took a combat stance and inched forward.
He knew very little about the Ascended, but they at least shouldn’t be able to shift its body, it should still work within physical limits, unlike Harlan, who could change according to his needs.
Harlan made the first move, keeping a wide stance and only using one hand so the other would be free for catching the pole.
It spun the rod and deflected Harlan’s punch.
The Ascended was far stronger than he expected, and while it couldn’t break Harlan’s plates, it had the power and speed to knock his arm out of the way and then grab his leg.
When the open end of the pole encompassed his leg it locked into a closed circle.
With his leg locked in the pole the Ascended lifted him over its head and slammed him into the marble floor.
When it tried to do so again, Harlan deactivated hover while overhead and the Ascended couldn’t hold him up, but it was quick thinking, and braced the butt of the pole against the floor.
Harlan tried to use flight to shift his position and twist the arms of the Ascended, but it opened the circle completely, making it seem like just a normal pole.
Harlan hit the floor but it didn’t take advantage, rather it backed away and observed.
It was the right call, but Harlan couldn’t tell if it just had good combat instincts or if it was smart.
If it had gotten closer he would’ve smashed its head with his tail.
Both of them just stared the other down.
It spun the pole around, not having any real effect, it was simply a tic of the person who was turned into the Ascended bleeding through.
It quickly cast a lightning bolt, and Harlan quickly countered, the bolt was drawn to his fingertips and he swiped it away, sending the bolt harmlessly into the wall.
The eyes of the monster narrowed and both of them began to circle around one another, throwing out the occasional spell just to test the others reaction.
A group of soldiers wearing yellow bands came around the corner to help, but when they drew near Harlan just fired a barrage of bolts at them, more than they could deflect or block and of many elements.
He was hoping to have drawn the Ascended to attack so he could let out another spell at close range.
Instead it continued to watch.
Harlan let out a blast of sound and hid under a powerful veil to avoid it blowing out his ears.
The Ascended grasped its head and backed closer to the wall.
Harlan rushed out of the veil to follow up, yet it immediately countered the attack by holding out the pole and bracing against the wall.
It lacked the power to break Harlan’s plates easily, but Harlan’s leap mixed with it shaping the tip of the pole into a bident broke through, though because of changes to his organs, the points slide past rather than puncture them.
With the pole through Harlan’s chest it then shifted again into a halfdome on both ends, then the pole shortened to press against his chest, weighing him down and restricting his movement.
Harlan swung his tail over his head, and let loose more spells he had at the ready from the hands on his back.
The Ascended jumped back and let out its own spells to counter Harlan’s.
It grabbed hold of Harlan’s head and all of the eyes focused on him.
Harlan and the Ascended were frozen in the hall, soldiers rushed past them.
“Shouldn’t we kill him?”
“If Mindkiller has him trapped, it means he isn’t sure about killing him in an outright fight. Do you really want to be the one to wake that monster up?”
Harlan headbutt the Ascended when it tried to attack his mind, once it was stunned he just needed a few solid hits to kill it.
He stood over the body of the creature and thought that it seemed too easy, but that wasn’t the important part. He saw soldiers rushing past him into the medical wing and he moved at breakneck speeds to deal with them.
He ran through the men, tooth and claw killed anything that got in his way.
He felt powerful.
Harlan stepped into the infirmary, Adina was there with the newborn.
“I missed you.”
“You must have me mistaken for someone else.”
“Harlan, I missed you.”
“How did you know?”
“Because I’ve always known when you are around. Do you want to hold her?”
He moved forward and held the newborn.
Dawn and Darrath entered the room.
“Papa, is that my new sister?”
The Ascended only have a vague idea of who the people in Harlan’s mind were, that there were two Dawns, and it picked the wrong one, as well as bringing in Darrath, those were simple mistakes, the idea that this man was from outside of the veil never even crossed the Ascended’s mind.
That Harlan had a way to easily break the mental cage was also something which it did not understand.
Harlan focused all of his emotions, heightening them to the point that he flew between suicidal depression and world ending rage in an instant.
As the creature tried to maintain a hold on his mind there was an intense blowback and it stumbled back in reality, its grip on him broken.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Harlan quickly reined his emotions back under control, but even at baseline, his anger was at a fever pitch.
He skipped forward, leaving after images.
The Ascended couldn’t react to the heavy blows that landed on its stomach.
In another instant he had it against the wall, with one hand he held its head, with the other he was plucking out its eyes one by one.
He let it drop down to the ground, then he rose into the air as it tried to crawl away.
With a gravity spell and no hover, he dropped down with full force, bisecting it.
He started to pry the transforming pole from his body, but it was not soulsmithed, it was something Fae in origin, Instead he shifted his own body to push it out.
When it clinked against the ground he picked it back up, he thought it would be an interesting object of study.
He could feel his body burning up, his heart was beating in his ears.
The void mist made him strong, and in bursts it was completely safe, but in a longer fight like this it could prove fatal for him just as his enemy.
He shifted his body, adding vent holes in his back and returning to his base form.
Soldiers had moved in during the fight, and he could see them amassing in the hall outside of the first infirmary room.
His body was burning up with a fever, but the fire in his mind was hotter still.
He rushed forward, each strike tore men in two, each spell bored holes through them more than just the first target.
Harlan didn’t remember the fight, just that he started at one end of the hall and then was at the other, covered in gore.
He took a deep breath and returned to the door on the other end of the hall.
Harlan moved with confidence and with his hands up.
Adina was in labor and Ximena was delivering the baby.
Claude raised his blade to Harlan.
“Who are you?”
“So many have asked that today… I am just a man, nothing more. The champion and a woman have moved to turn the defenses back on. Golden, would you like assistance?”
“You are talking to me now.”
“Boy, do not presume to threaten me.”
Adina screamed out.
“LET HIM HELP.”
“We don’t even know who-”
She grit her teeth and stared at Claude, without a word he understood her message.
Harlan moved to Ximena.
“How long has it been?”
“Not long, but she isn’t a normal human. I think we can have this done in another 30 minutes.”
“Very good.”
Eventually the arrays and wards and golems turned back on, the gate and communication disrupting spells were bound to stones inside of the security room which Hellon broke.
The halls were quickly flooded with archmagi and soldiers from every nation.
The enemies removed their yellow bands, but everyone was being detained regardless of whatever protests they cried out.
Ragne, Reino, The Confederacy, none of them had authority here, not compared to the academy staff and the archmagi who left these nations.
Hellon returned to the infirmary room.
“Where is Harlan?”
Claude asked.
“He died.”
“How bad?”
“He’ll be back, I hope.”
“The champion is alive.”
“How do you know?”
“I do.”
He couldn’t say it, but he was confident that if he died he would just know.
It wasn’t based on anything, but if Dawn and him had an unexplainable link, it would seem sensible that he would have one with his Otherself.
As Harlan pulled the baby from Adina, Dawn arrived.
She looked at him and he looked at her.
“Harlan? Why do you look like that?”
“You are mistaken, I am not the champion.”
She didn’t know why he was hiding it, but she went along with him.
“My mistake then.”
He checked the child for any injury and snipped the umbilical cord with a windblade along his fingers.
As he cradled her in his arms and continued to check her for any other issues using his spells, he couldn’t help but feel it.
His blood ran through her veins, but this was not his child.
He quickly handed her off to Adina, who was sweating and weak.
“Woman, bring her a tonic, something lighter on the stomach.”
Hellon ignored how rude he was being and looked through the cabinets for one.
As she did, archmagi came in and started to round up the students.
“CLEAR THE ROOM, EVERYONE MUST REPORT FOR QUESTIONING.”
“I am Hellon, healing teacher and divination teacher. I need to stay for my patient, she is the wife of Archmage Changeling.”
She showed her teachers ring as well as pointed to her robes as proof.
“You may stay then. EVERYONE ELSE, FOLLOW US.”
With all of the students out Claude, Claudia, Yara, and Ximena were still there.
“All students, come with us.”
“It’s fine, go with the archmage.”
“And who is that?”
“An agent of The Darkness, he helped us to fight off the enemies, he even killed an Ascended in one on one combat.”
That got a raised eyebrow from the man, and he had to call someone who was more involved in the actual command structure in the case of emergencies to figure out what to do.
In the end, he was to be left alone until Hirum or Sepul arrived to figure it out.
With just the three of them, no, the four of them in the room, Adina was crying as she held her daughter.
“She’s so perfect.”
“She has her mothers eyes.”
“And her fathers nose.”
Harlan remained away from them, he didn’t even want to look.
“Hellon, can you just… go out for a little bit?”
“Are you sure you want to be alone with him?”
“I think it would be pointless to remain alone with you and the child, the woman should stay.”
“My name is-”
“Hellon, please. You, stay here, I want to thank you, we might not be alive if you hadn’t arrived.”
Hellon remained outside, though with all of the windows broken there wasn’t much privacy anyway.
“You can put up a veil if you’d like.”
Harlan snapped his fingers and one was up, and not a weak one either.
“Do you want to hold her?”
“I am death, there is no sense in-”
“Harlan, please, I know you want to.”
“I am not the champion, I am… just a man.”
“You can’t lie to me. I know you aren’t my Harlan, but I can just feel it, you are him, another him.
Did he make a copy of himself? Is that why you can’t admit it? Because it is outlawed.”
“I have no idea what you mean.”
“Can you look me in the eyes and deny it?”
He looked at her, the sunlight beaming through the windows lighting her face along with her daughter, her eyes seemed to shine like emeralds.
The reality was that she looked awful, she was drenched in sweat, her eyes were red and bloodshot, she was pale and drained.
But to Harlan, none of that mattered.
“I’m not… I shouldn’t be here.”
“I can tell, you are hurting. What happened?”
“When I held her, do you know what I felt?”
“Love.”
“I feel everything that I cannot have. I have a son, not by blood, but I sent him away. I said it was to keep him safe, but that is a lie, I did it so he didn’t see what I will become. The thought crossed my mind that I should kill the Harlan here and take his life, but to do that would be to abandon my people to death at the hands of my enemies. This place, these people, these are not mine, not anymore. I have my child, I have my mother, I had my love, now I have my duty, and that is what will drive me.”
“What was her name?”
“Viviane, Vivi…”
She pulled him, trying to get a hug, but he resisted.
“It’s ok, you can be here, just for a little bit, you can let it out. I know being alone isn’t what you are made for.”
“Thank you for helping me get closure. Now I think I can really let go.”
He pried her hand from his wrist.
“You aren’t a stoic, you can’t pretend that you are. You’ll just build up until you break down again.”
“Maybe, but when I do, I’ll take millions of my enemies with me. Goodbye, I hope you and I never meet again.”
He stepped back into a void gate.
All he could feel was the warmth of the newborn's life.
A maid came to check if he was back every 10 minutes.
“Mercedes has requested that you-”
“I need to rest, can this wait for at least a half day?”
“A man claiming to be Edmond Dantes has arrived, and while he hasn’t done anything yet, people are anxious.”
“Tell Mercedes to try handling it on her own, she may use my Otherselves as she sees fit.”