The figure stopped.

I frowned. They could see me from that far away? I lowered my hands and the figure kept walking closer. I decided to observe for a little while longer. The figure was approaching at a leisurely pace, after all.

“Where’s the rest of the army?” asked Kelser. The figure had gotten close enough for Kelser to see them with his light magic.

“There isn’t an army,” I said.

“No army?” said Bain Rusta. “What do you mean there isn’t an army?”

“There is a single person walking down the road in the distance,” I said.

“One person?” repeated a spirit. She was the female spirit from the Senate, the one who could actually hold her tongue a little. I remembered she had introduced herself as Taoc.

“It makes sense. Remember how we didn’t see any signs of fighting anywhere across the country? It would be a lot easier for one person to hide their tracks than it would be for an army,” I said.

“No, that isn’t the problem here. How could one person have defeated all of our warriors outside of the city?” said Taoc.

“Magic,” I said.

“Even your magic isn’t that powerful, Cas,” said Kelser, his face grim.

“That person isn’t using my magic,” I said. “I’ve seen other kinds of magic before. Among the humans, for example, the Immortal of Evil had given his magic to some of the priests and elders that I fought against. That person must be using an Immortal’s magic.”

Kelser readied his magic. “I think I should test their magic.”

“No,” I said, “let me observe them for a second.” I squinted my eyes and focused on the figure with light magic. I still couldn’t make out the figure’s features. Their face was hidden by a cloth up to their nose from the bottom and until their eyebrows from the top. And a thick hood drooped over their face as well. They were walking confidently down the road, seemingly unconcerned by the threat of a magical bombardment. This was going to be a difficult fight. Yet, I let out a sigh of relief.

“All of you, prepare your magic,” said Kelser to the humans as the figure walked into range of their magic.

The humans raised their hands, pointing to the figure that had only just walked into their sights. Spirit Taoc bit her nails as she hovered above the ground. The other spirits were arranging the fairy troops below. Archers filed out over the top of the walls. Traps and secret weapons were primed. The tension in the air was palpable.

“Based on everything we know, I believe the enemy is an Ikon of the Immortal of Madness,” I said as I stepped onto the very edge of the top of the wall.

“How can you be sure?” asked Kelser as he stepped onto the edge and raised his hand as well.

“Because there were always only two possibilities. If it wasn’t an Ikon, it would be the Immortal himself. And despite how powerful that figure may be, he is certainly no immortal,” I said. “Do you know what happened when I met the Immortal of Madness? Dancing. Everything was dancing.”

Kelser, Bain Rusta, the spirit Taoc, and even the other people around us all had confused looks on their faces.

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“Dancing?” said Kelser at last. “You mean the Immortal made you dance?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “He made everything dance. The earth, the plants, the animals, my body, my mind, perhaps the air, the space, perhaps time itself, everything was dancing; dancing a wild dance, chaotic, uncontrollable, primeval, as if the dance had not been imposed on us by a higher power, but pulled out of some deep dark part of our origin, our essence. That dance was the most terrifying yet natural thing I have ever experienced. Trust me, if your body starts to dance and the world around you begins to swim and swing, you better hope the Immortal is in a good mood. Oh, and you also better be ready to be thrown centuries into the future over the course of a conversation. No, believe me, fighting an Ikon capable of eradicating entire cities is far more reasonable than having to go against the Immortal of Madness.”

I smiled. “That’s close enough. Are we ready to begin?”

Kelser took a deep breath and nodded. Bain Rusta gave his silent assent. Taoc hovered nervously up and down. The humans formed fireballs at the tip of their hands.

The sun peeked out from the clouds, sending a ray like a spotlight on the battlefield. The heat of the day mingled with the heat of the fireballs around me. I took a deep breath and jumped off the wall.

---

Fireballs shot out overhead. A beam of concentrated light focused on the figure in the distance, who stepped aside. The light incinerated the ground behind where the figure had been, the fireballs crashed into the earth, setting the grass ablaze. I cast air magic to slow and guide my fall, before grabbing onto the wall with magic hands. I slingshot myself towards the ray of sunlight peeking out of the clouds with both of my hands extended.

The figure finally leaned forward and began racing forward in earnest. So far, they were avoiding every spell with ease, which made sense because of the large distance between us. I knew I had to get just a little bit closer. The humans would support me from above the walls, and the demon and fairy soldiers could flood out of the gates at any moment, ready to overwhelm the enemy with their numbers.

The Ikon seemed to know this, because they began to glow silver.

I narrowed my eyes. I was almost at the sunbeam. I put even more energy into my motion magic, propelling myself forward. The figure wasn’t being slowed by Kelser’s concentrated light at all, since it took too long to focus. But if I could just reach this natural concentration of light.

The Ikon cried out. Loudly.

My ears began to throb. A ringing sound filled my head, like a bad case of tinnitus. I grit my teeth, lunged forward, and felt the warmth of the sunlight on my hands. In my head, a figurative lens seemed to form, and a sparkle appeared in the arm, like a small star plucked from the night sky. The sparkle turned into a shining disc, ethereal and intangible, as if it had been made by light itself. The disc rotated and swiveled, until it was at just the right angle to do what needed to be done. I moved my hands, which were trembling as if they were straining against something taut and heavy. I yelled. Light reflected. And a powerful beam appeared almost instantaneously in front of me, my eyes unable to tell how fast pure light was able to travel the distance.

The light fell squarely on the Ikon. One moment the robed and hooded figure was there, the next, they were drowned out by the deadly light, vaporized in a literal flash.

A shadow appeared overhead. I craned my neck. The figure was in the sky. The sun hid behind the clouds. Kelser’s concentrated light fell on the figure as they traveled through the air, unable to dodge. The figure crossed their arms in front of their body, and barreled through the beam of searing light until it disappeared.

The figure’s robes were charred, but intact. They showed no reaction despite taking such a powerful spell head on. Fireballs fell on the figure’s body, but most of them fizzled out as they touched the silver glow around the Ikon’s clothes. The Ikon did not even brace for those spells, as if they held it in contempt.

The Ikon was still far from my position. I grit my teeth and began a new series of spells. I launched globs of water, tons of stone, and even some of my own fire and concentrated light, but the figure sidestepped them easily. I couldn’t be sure if the Ikon could ignore my spells as easily as they had the humans’ spells, since my wisdom was much higher. The Ikon was approaching the first ramparts and trenches I had set up. They ran right through the earthen ramparts and jumped right across the trenches. All the while, they ignored the humans’ spells, sidestepped mine, and braced for a couple of Kelser’s more powerful attacks.

Finally, the Ikon reached the moat, which was really just a diversion in the river that I had created. It was too wide to jump in one go, and even if they could, they would be a sitting duck for my concentrated light magic. I prepared the spell. The Ikon kept racing forward. I grit my teeth and aimed my spell for the air above the moat. The Ikon kept running and running, until they were right on the edge of the water.

And then they kept running. Right along the surface of the water.