Chapter 11
The Game
“We’re not going to play any game of yours, Golbrucht!” Terrill’s assertion caused each weapon to be directed at the interloper aboard their ship. While most weren’t unsettled by the smirk he wore, Terrill remained on edge, seeing that look upon his friend’s face. He began to wonder if Atrum had been fully pulled under by the consciousness of Golbrucht, but he didn’t let it show on his face. Not with the Fiend right before him. “You made us play yours all the way through Adversa, but now we’re back in Dimidia. On our turf. We’re not dancing to your tune.”
“No, just the old man’s, am I right?”
“We’re here of our own accord!” Lumen insisted, closing ranks, though Golbrucht showed no fear. If anything, his scoff indicated a true lack of it. “We’re going to take you down because we wish to.”
“Playing right into prophecy’s hands. Humans are so predictable.” To prove his point, Walter jabbed his spear forward, the skyship turning. Golbrucht avoided the blow, gripping the tip of the spear and pushing it back. “You all run endlessly on, following the parts cast for you, heedless of how you perpetuate the cycle of fate. Terrill Jacobs, surely you’ve come to learn by now why I wish to break the balance? You’ve seen it in this motley crew you’ve gathered alone, how their memories conflict and clash.”
“Hey, we’re made of sterner stuff than that!” Floyd shouted. He didn’t engage like Walter, keeping a wary distance while the Fiend set his eyes upon the redhead. “Humans might be predictable to you, but if we’re so easy to calculate, you wouldn’t have tried to manipulate us. Makes me think we send your own little game off the rails.”
“That’s all I wanted from the very beginning.” Golbrucht’s laugh settled into their nerves, an uncomfortable tingling making Terrill hold fast, as though his sword could fall from his hands at any time. “While those two play their game for the soul of this world, I plan to rip it straight out and overturn the gameboard. But over time, I found myself in a game of my own, against you, Terrill Jacobs…and Little Miss Light.”
“Krysta? I don’t remember either of us ever engaging in a game against you.” Terrill was faster than the Fiend anticipated, kicking into Atrum’s chest and sending him flying towards the stairs for the deck. Leaping over chairs, Terrill brought his sword down, only for the boy’s rapier to manifest and block the strike, his cold, red eyes seething with hatred.
“Not by choice, but you challenged me and my designs, even after I was done using you, like destiny and the flow of souls were taunting me for my ambitions.” An aura of darkness, like smoldering fire, coated the blade and Terrill leapt back to avoid any surprise attack. “You were the wrench, and she was even worse. But it’s clear she’s the missing member from your little band. Does she feel guilt over letting you go astray for so long? Or is she just playing to the old man’s advantages?”
A sharp bolt of lightning struck to the side of Golbrucht’s head, damaging the walls but no vital systems. Torry’s fingers were held, crackling with the sparks of her magic, and she stepped forward, walking through the gap in the chairs. “Why are you here, Fiend? To taunt us about our friend, the Lifeblood of Light? Or some other reason?”
“So, you’ve discovered that truth: the woman who hid away. If you consider me a monster, I shudder to think what you would consider her, the precious Lifeblood who lied and lied, leading you toward doom.” Golbrucht hadn’t been scared by Torry’s strike in the slightest, brushing away his ashen hair, and twisting Atrum’s face with some sort of grim satisfaction. “I already told you why I’m here: to start the game. I know Clay told you, that we Fiends are the antithesis to those Blessed. If you’re said to be in accordance with fate, then we could be said to oppose it. And with every breath we shall.”
“Too bad you don’t have many breaths left!” With a swift shadow, Charles crossed over the chairs, his blades swinging for Golbrucht. The sword once again blocked it, but the older Guardian proved to have more strength. “You’ve attempted to manipulate each of us into doing your bidding, throwing away your tools when you’ve finished using them.”
“Tools? I’m not fixing something, my dear puppet!” One hand off his rapier, Golbrucht created shadows in his hand and thrust forth. This was one Lumen intercepted, his blade shining with light to cleave the attack. At this, Golbrucht leapt back, scowling at the boy that had bested his machinations. “I want to break this system that cursed me and all the others. Break down that Adversa that I was so close to eradicating.”
“And what good does that accomplish?” Terrill vaulted himself over the closest chair, spinning his sword and bringing it down to meet the blade. They were near to the stairs now, but there was no room left to move, not without causing damage to their only means of transportation. “That place is a direct link with Dimidia to magic, a piece of people’s souls, but you want to get rid of it. Why?”
“To complete this world, and free me!” Golbrucht’s hand flew out, and Terrill met him, darkness and earth clashing in the space of the skyship. Pieces of metal bent, pulled in towards the site of their clash. Terrill’s snarl of frustration was matched only by his eyes boring into the Fiend before him, no longer matching those of his friend. “When Adversa is destroyed, the Lifebloods eradicated, then Crea’s long-drawn plan will be at an end, but not on her terms. This world’s soul will fuse with the physical body that is Dimidia. The cycle of souls will end, and this fate that has cursed me will be gone! What does it matter if the fusion kills a majority of humans? I’ve done worse, waiting for this chance to be free!”
Freedom. There was that word again, one that made the energy around Terrill spike, wood turning to stone that splintered the interior of the skyship. Walter was shouting for him, demanding him to stop, and he retained enough of his mind to obey the words that were being asked of him. With a push forward of his knee, Terrill had enough weight behind his strike to cause Golbrucht to set off balance, his attack disrupted. Terrill’s fist followed through, encrusted in stone and striking the Fiend’s stomach. A mighty heave later and Golbrucht crashed through the top of the roof, the hole producing a new pressure that lifted those in the cabin upwards.
Terrill didn’t give time to rest, bounding for the stairs and leaping them three or four at a time until he skidded onto the deck. The wind whistled past him, echoing in his ears as his clothes fluttered and flapped about. He was joined rather quickly by all but Walter, who could be seen flying the ship. All five of them stood opposite Golbrucht, who no longer shared the confidence he had arrived with.
“You’ll never be free, Golbrucht. Not if you destroy Adversa. Not if you kill off humanity. Because you Fiends are always going to prisoners of a destiny you can’t control.”
“And what else would you do, Terrill Jacobs? Do you even understand what a Fiend is? Or is that the part you haven’t figured out yet, when it’s the most important part? The part that ties everything together?” Something in the way Golbrucht was asking, pained and desperate, reminded Terrill of Winifred, as if exposing some bond they all shared as these creatures. But while Winifred’s held bereavement, Golbrucht’s held nothing but hatred and disdain. A want to break the world to sate his lust for freedom and prove he was not bound by any shackles. “Fiends are just like you: humans who struggled against fate. And in that moment of a death so horrendous, one ordained by the flow of souls that decided fate, we clawed our way out to defy it. We cursed this world. Our souls, in their final throes not Blessed, ripping a portal wide. Our bodies and souls intertwined, twisted in an abomination.”
“But wouldn’t that…be the same thing?” Torry asked. Her hand had let go of her beret while she considered this, the headwear flying off the ship. “If the soul joins with the body, then you’re Blessed.”
“No. Because the Lifebloods had your soul absorbed, properly joined, no strings attached. As ordained, but free from fate. But we Fiends, our bodies met our souls, and we became two in one. Both body and soul at the same time; not one, or the other. Erased from history, but omnipresent in it all the same. It is torture!”
Terrill’s arm relaxed at Golbrucht’s words. He wasn’t alone, Lumen and Floyd lowering their blades at Golbrucht’s wretched confession. The truth of the Fiends.
No, the truth of the very world they lived in.
Terrill’s hand shook on his sword. Clay had called them antitheses. He had shown the ugly, distorted soul of one who was broken by fate. Ever forced to join it, yet existing outside it all the same. They could plan against it, but in the end, in their crying out, all of the Fiends were shackled to that flow that had perpetuated, and so long as it existed…
“There’s no saving you…” Terrill whispered. Every lash of the words Winifred had always spat at him became real. How she hated the idea of him saving everyone, and hated the idea of him saving her.
Because the only way to save her was destroying everything.
“And now you see the merit, do you not, Terrill Jacobs? Lumen?”
“So, wait, that’s why you needed Terrill running around Adversa? Because it didn’t matter what you did? Then what about your Phantom Knight, and Terrill’s friend, Atrum?!” Floyd was shivering, too, but as fire began to consume his body, it became evident to Terrill of the pure rage he was manifesting. “You forced them to be the same as you because you couldn’t deal with your lot in life?”
“Life? Fiends are not among the living, boy. Kill us, and we cannot die. Our souls are rejected by this world’s flow, time and time again!” Floyd didn’t care, steam pouring out from his body and washing over them all. His body vanished from its spot, and the next thing Terrill saw was Floyd’s foot crashing upon Golbrucht’s head. The Fiend cried out…and so did Lumen, reacting to the blow placed upon his soul. “Careful now, boy. Will you really destroy the soul of a friend? So precious a thing.”
“Shut up!” Floyd roared, spinning around and punching into Golbrucht’s side with his fiery fists. It pushed him back along the deck, clutching to his side. “You play some sick, twisted game, thinking because you were bound to some tormented existence, it gives you the right to control everyone else’s fate. You garnered war, tricked people and souls, fed on their despair…”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“I only did what humanity is destined to. Wasn’t it you who helped kickstart the war in Invaria, after all?”
Terrill’s gaze snapped up, realizing what had gotten Floyd so riled up, and his own body wished to pummel Golbrucht right then and there. Floyd was the one with the first crack, swinging his leg again, only for his foot to be caught by a hand, and his body twisted around. Floyd landed on his knees, springing back up, and Terrill was right there with him, their pair of blades flashing out towards Golbrucht’s.
“Humanity…is stronger than our failures!” Floyd shouted, his head butting against the sword to give Terrill the leverage to push in and stab their enemy’s shoulder. Once more, Lumen grimaced, and Terrill hesitated, realizing just whose body he was harming. Golbrucht smirked, but before he could mount his counter attack, Terrill felt Floyd grab him and pull him back, out of range of the shadowy globe that was cut in two by Charles. Torry joined the older man, creating a shield of ice that she directed at the Fiend. Floyd’s words were unrelenting, however. “We’ve made mistakes, but even with those failures we don’t just accept that’s the end. We don’t give in to fate, destiny, or whatever kind of crap you Fiends come up with to justify your actions.”
“How wonderful it must be to be Blessed,” Golbrucht said, beginning to laugh a hollow cry that stretched to the sky. “Yet even you must see then how the cycle must be broken, and Adversa ripped away. Why the Lifebloods must be destroyed!”
“You destroy those Lifebloods and there will be nothing left for this world!” Torry warned, receiving the wrath of Golbrucht’s red eyes.
“Then there will be nothing left. Nothing but the Blessed and the Fiends, and you, my dear Chosen One.”
“Me?” Lumen asked, stepping forward to find his path barred by Charles. Terrill stood taller, scowling at the Fiend that tried to take things one by one. “I…I won’t be your puppet! I’m choosing to live! For me!”
“Would you bind yourself so thoroughly? Atrum is the Adversan piece of your soul. When it is destroyed, he would be destroyed, and you with him. But if we join, we can break the cycle that cursed us both: me to an endless hell and you to a death without meaning!”
“Shut your damn mouth, Golbrucht!” Terrill didn’t know what made him snap, but he knew his foot had pounded the ground, and with it, a plinth of rock pummeled the Fiend in the stomach. Lumen grunted, stumbling back, affected by the force, but Terrill walked forward, all of his magic pooling around him. “Death without meaning? You caused that death! You and your Fiends, who wanted to try and defy fate but ended up cursing everyone else to it, unable to save anyone, even yourselves.”
“For what other purpose do you think I’ve brought the plan this far, Terrill Jacobs?” Golbrucht dusted his body off, his eyes flashing with malice. “I corroded the world, breaking down the Lifebloods, and now we stand at the edge. One little push and this world will be renewed, Adversa no more! In its place will be a complete world that can reclaim the name Implere! We will be fr-”
Terrill and Floyd had both reached Golbrucht, socking him in the face and driving him backwards. Their action made clear what they asked Torry and Charles to do, the both of them standing in front of Lumen. The Fiend seethed with hatred towards them. “Freedom? You left that long ago when you abandoned your humanity and started killing everyone. There’s no death that has meaning, Golbrucht, and you’re the progenitor of all of it!”
“Hah, I am?!” Golbrucht’s fists tightened, and Atrum’s wild hair lifted with the wind. Orbs surrounded his figure for a moment, like all of the elements were coming to bear around him. The strings of his soul flashed black. “It’s the old man who’s forgotten his humanity! The Lifebloods that have lost theirs! Millennia they spent in those husks, unfeeling, uncaring, letting humanity scamper about its whims. What is it to them if a human disagrees with their end, or the plan set by the world? They’re just a-”
“-a stone cast in a river. Yeah, we’ve heard that rhetoric!” Terrill slashed down, his blade blocked, but Floyd darted in from the side to lob a fireball that struck Golbrucht, catching him off-guard. “That gives you no right to damn everyone else! It’s their choices to be made!”
“And for those that survive, their choices will be endless! No more will we be dictated by a flow of souls! By a goddess who couldn’t care less and a steward who marshals its flow to some unseen end. We will be FREE!” With his final word, Golbrucht’s strings tightened, swinging one of the orbs around as it became spears of ice. Terrill coated his arms with stone and met it head on. The ice shattered, and Terrill swung his leg up to find it blocked by a stony shield. As Golbrucht tried to hold that, Floyd circumvented his defense from behind, moving faster than the Fiend could see, and swung his leg with a kick. This one barely managed to be blocked by the metal blade, beginning to melt from Floyd’s intense heat.
Terrill brought his fist back and sent it shattering through, onward to Golbrucht’s face. He was sent sliding back at the impact, leaping over the hole in the deck of the skyship. “Free from what, Golbrucht? ‘Cause the way I look at it, you’re just fulfilling your role as King of the Dark more every day. You really want to break fate? Then you step forward and make your own damn choices. And if it’s not enough, we’ll break fate ourselves, but we won’t do it your way!”
“Choices… Hah.” Terrill and Floyd didn’t stop their assault, their weapons flying up to match ice and stone once again. The three didn’t relent, getting close to one another. “We tried to make choices once, only to realize that like strings, we were tied to the Lifebloods. Now, they can be tied to me, by my will and soul. Otherwise, it is all futile.”
“I don’t believe that!” Terrill pushed in more, cracking against the ice, his steel sending lines up it. “I’ve seen it in the world of souls you tried to discard. People who fought against your machinations for war. People who wanted to fight against the Shadow. They didn’t do that because fate made them, but because they wanted to. No choice we make is futile.”
“No? Then how about we start the game where you tried to prove that: Valorda!” His glee was unmatched, and with a wave of his hands, the two elements switched sides, pummeling Terrill and Floyd across the face to send them flying back, where Charles caught them both. “I’ll retreat, and send a vast horde upon the kingdom you tried to save so much, and you can see how your choices lead. Kill me or save them. Because no matter which you choose, the result will be no different.
“I will shatter this world’s flow. And Lumen, you will be my new vessel, a body that will prove the existence outside of fate.”
“I…”
“Lumen, don’t you even think about it,” Terrill snapped, pushing to stand. The winds were growing harsher, the threat of a storm on the horizon, and he knew there would only be one chance to end their situation on the skyship. “You can live life without needing someone like Golbrucht to validate your existence, or to defy fate. We’ll prove it on our own. You want a game, Golbrucht? Then we’ll topple the king. Walter, turn us vertical, now!”
As he had against Blaise, Terrill sent earthen energy racing along the deck, creating locks of stone to keep Charles, Torry and Lumen attached to it. The order was heeded, and the skyship began to flip in its most unnatural way. Surprised by the sudden movement, Golbrucht dropped, slipping right past Terrill and Floyd, who held to the hole in the deck just long enough before following after, their weapons screeching down for their enemy.
His eyes widened, and he brought an orb forward, only for Floyd’s blades, burning hot, to cut through it. “Looks like you’re growing weaker! Not enough Lifeblood for you?”
Terrill decidedly didn’t taunt Golbrucht, allowing his boot to do the talking. He twisted around in midair, aiming for Golbrucht’s chest. The Fiend attempted to reach for his blade only to freeze, the iris of his eyes flickering to a different shade. Atrum was interfering.
The brief loss of control was everything Terrill needed, and both he and Floyd broke through to lay their feet on Golbrucht’s chest and send him flying off the skyship right before Walter righted it, dropping them back down to the floor. Terrill landed on his feet, while Floyd was less lucky, but all of them became mobile as Terrill released his spell.
“What kind of reckless stunt was that?!” Torry screeched, causing Terrill and Floyd to both wince. “You nearly got us all killed.”
“Yeah, but we got him off the ship.” Floyd’s point shut Torry’s mouth, though she was still fuming as she stared at him. That soon gave way to her chewing her bottom lip with thought, settling in on the information that Golbrucht had given them to chew.
It was quite a bit, Terrill reasoned, as he stowed his blade away. Fiends being created when the body came in physical contact with the corporeal soul of Adversa through a struggle against the fate ordained for them. A few months ago, Terrill would have thought it some kind of parable, but now…
“So, what’s our next move?” Charles asked, taking Terrill away from his own musings on the subject. He could see the Guardian helping Lumen to stand, but the boy’s gaze was elsewhere, as if following Atrum. Golbrucht’s words had rattled him, offered him a different, more certain path, and it scared Terrill that unlike Atrum, he was willing to take it.
There was no consoling him, either, as Walter’s voice rang through the hole to capture their attentions. “For starters, you might want to look towards Valorda.”
None of them knew where Valorda was, relative to their position, but it wasn’t hard for Terrill to find. The beacon had been set there. Terrill took a step forward, looking over the ocean, and the sea of black haze could be seen rising like a tornado over the capital city. He shuddered, feeling the presence of the monsters within, and all five on the deck watched as Golbrucht’s latest ploy was put into motion.
“A choice…” Lumen sighed out. They could all feel the gravity of that decision on the tip of their tongues. Indeed, Walter had already begun to turn the skyship in its direction, the sun setting as they turned towards it, making Valorda look aflame.
“Our choice,” Terrill confirmed. “But we’re not alone. And this is a battle we don’t have to fight on our own. Golbrucht gave us a choice: kill him, or save Valorda. So, we’re going to do both.”
“And how do you propose we manage that one?” Charles asked. None of them could take their eyes off the besieged city as it drew closer, but Terrill answered by clapping Torry’s shoulder.
“By splitting up. Torry, do you think what Golbrucht told us about the Fiends is true?”
“I can imagine it. The Lifebloods reacted here, nearly causing cataclysms by breaking down,” Torry said by way of answer. Terrill could feel her muscles tightening, readying for the next phase. “I can imagine there could have been similar cataclysms in some way in the past, and that each of them would tie to the Lifebloods. But the only way to know for sure is by examining one.”
“Then that’s what you can do.” Terrill cracked some of his knuckles, feeling the black wind of the monstrous creatures that Golbrucht was creating over Valorda. Charles growled, and Terrill wondered if he could feel the influence of the Lifeblood of Darkness in Golbrucht’s actions. It set their course. “Then the rest of you are heading for the Lifeblood of Darkness. Considering his state, I wouldn’t be surprised if Golbrucht is there, and we can confirm things.”
“And if the Lifebloods go crazy again while you’re in Valorda? If he uses them to destroy the country?” Lumen challenged, but it was Torry and Floyd to the rescue once again.
“I don’t think he can do that. Maybe he’s trying to affect all the Lifebloods, but maybe he can’t. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have needed to send his monsters to Serotin.” Torry breathed out, careful to not inhale the black mist as they were upon Valorda. “Just a theory. I’ll have to see the Lifeblood to be sure.”
“And besides, I’ll back Terrill up,” Floyd said, thumping his chest and taking his place next to Terrill. “I nearly let Valorda be destroyed once before. I’m not letting it happen again. I’m still an ambassador, after all.”
The silent bond between the two caused them to nod, and nothing more was shared between the companions on the ship. Terrill and Floyd stepped forward. For a moment, Torry reached out, grabbing ahold of Floyd’s hand and kissing him. He returned the affection and faced forward with the confidence of a man carrying the responsibility of the world. Terrill shifted gazes to Charles and Lumen, knowing the former would care for the latter. Knowing they would all see their task done, with the implicit and unspoken command between all of them.
It was time to defeat Golbrucht and his Fiends.
The skyship passed over Valorda, rocked by the sudden wailing of monsters that screeched, howled, and prepared to consume their ship. Lumen wouldn’t let it, his hands shining with a defensive force. The stone walls of Valorda began to slide below them, and the screams of the people under siege of a terrifying force they had not seen in fifteen years echoed upwards.
Terrill took a breath, and then the plunge. He and Floyd jumped off the skyship, and into the battle below.