Rusa jumped back for a split-second before lunging forward again, changing up her tactic and slicing at Drim from a different angle. Her opponent barely blocked in time, and just as their blades clashed once more, she pulled away immediately, readjusting, and trying again using an entirely different tactic. No subsequent attack was the same, all different moves and styles. And with each one, The Royal kept muttering only one word over and over as they initiated each plan. “Execute.” “Execute.” “Execute.”
“Execute.”
“Will you please stop saying ‘execute’?!” Drim protested as he blocked the newest attack aiming for his stomach. “It makes it sound like you’re actually trying to kill me!”
“You better act like I am if you don’t want to die,” The Royal spouted with clear sincerity. “Shortly after I joined up, you asked me to study the abilities and move sets of each member, so that we’d be prepared to counter anything if someone suddenly went rogue. And that includes you, Drim. Don’t think you can beat me with anything but your best!”
“Well why do I need to?” The king was still confused. “If you’re actually trying to take Rathe’s place, shouldn’t you be trying to touch the stone. You know I’d try to stop you, but it’d have to be more productive than this.”
“Because I’m trying to solve this civilly,” the woman’s words didn’t quite match her actions. “Jaid said the person who attempts the merge needs to have a strong will. So I’m going to prove the strength of mine here and now, ensuring there’s no doubt that I should have the right to try!”
“I see,” Thorn’s words were a bit more serious but still respectful. “Then I need to match your sincerity!” the demigod began to fight back properly instead of just holding the defensive line. “But don’t think I’ll let you or anyone else risk your life on this chance!”
“And why not?!” The Royal refuted. “Out of everyone here, I have the biggest incentive to attempt ascension. I’m already cursed with immortality, so there’s no reason to inflict it upon someone else. And becoming a demigod would give me the chance to do something important with my long life, instead of constantly being reset with ever changing goals and dreams. Who knows, it may also someday give me the opportunity to die like Rathe did. This may be the only chance I get at ensuring a proper death down the line.”
“I’m sorry, Rusa, but I still can’t allow that!” Drim outright refused. “I can understand your situation and point of view. Yet as long as there’s a single percent chance that any of you could die from trying, then I won’t let you. And you wouldn’t go to heaven or hell either, that’d be it for your soul.”
“If an eventual death is what you want, then we can find another way, I’m sure. Either through science or divinity. There are so many paths open to us. We’ll do it right, without having to put your soul or the potential ruination of this world on the line.”
“And ultimately, this circumstance is because of me. I can’t let anyone else shoulder the burden of my decision. I’m the one who killed Rathe knowing full-well that she’d have to be replaced. So it falls to me to be held accountable.”
“Then we really will have to fight this out!” Rusa picked up the pace of her attacks, slashing like her life depended on it, which it very well could.
Drim had been playing ‘nice’ so far and not using his powers, but since Rusa couldn’t be talked down, he couldn’t afford that luxury any longer. The man spawned a portal beneath their feet and dozens of vines shot up around his opponent, trying to capture her. But she was ready for it, slicing through each effortlessly before they could even make a move.
The Slayer then tried to grab her directly, to drain her lifeforce and age her past her prime, but The Royal kept her distance, never getting within arms reach. She really did know him well, knew all his tactics and moves, prepared for any eventuality. So it was setting up to be a long, drawn out fight. And with everyone standing around, he couldn’t get too crazy with his attacks. But he’d do so if necessary if anyone tried to intervene.
“Should we stop them?” Kada asked openly to the rest of the group when things started to escalate.
“I’m not sure,” Tize was genuinely stumped about the best course of action. “But if they’re preoccupied fighting, it means neither will let the other make an attempt at the stone. That gives us a chance to discuss this properly. And now it makes sense why Drim was so eager to end our sync when the fight ended. He didn’t want me reading his mind about what came next.”
“Well let me have a look at this ‘core’ thing,” Ahvra began to pad her way across the room with skittering, excited steps. “Don’t worry, I won’t touch it! Since it’s invincible, it means I can’t dissect it anyways. But let’s see what kind of flows it has. Have a scanner from Nathym I can use too.”
Just as The Witch got close to the opening in Rathe’s workshop, though, Drim glanced over at her for just a moment to confirm her position. Rusa had caught on to his little twitch and followed his line of sight, deducing his intentions when she saw the little glint of green. “Ahvra don’t, it’s a trap!” The Royal had to cancel her current line of action to shout and try and warn her.
Hidden amongst the shelves of dolls, more vines erupted from the energy Drim had implanted into the wall when he’d first arrived. If the fact that the workshop was unscarred hadn’t made it obvious, the newly born demigod had been able to detect the concentration of divinity. So he’d known immediately where the core would be hiding and had set the trap up well in advance. And of all people, The Slayer couldn’t have asked for a better person to spring it.
The vines wrapped around Ahvra, but they didn’t just grab her. Several of the pointed tips also skewered into her limbs and embedded into her nervous system, disabling them from functioning. And the pain was so great, that the small girl immediately passed out, unable to suffer it any longer. They then reeled back, pinning her against the wall. While a crueler path than Drim would have liked to take, Ahvra in particular needed to be taken out of the picture entirely.
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And the plan worked better than expected. That small diversion was just what he needed to break Rusa’s concentration, to give her a blind spot she wouldn’t have allowed for otherwise. She was likely still expecting her to attack him and would be ready for it, but he did something else unexpected, and called a name that had been absent in the previous battle. ❝Asset!❞
Though Rusa registered what Drim had said immediately, it was already too late for her to escape. And she certainly didn’t anticipate a surprise hug from behind as the king’s thrall was suddenly summoned. Though they already had their quarry in a tight grasp, it wasn’t enough for the servant to meet their benefactor’s expectations.
Asset’s body began to break apart into wooden vines of their own. And they wrapped around Rusa, turning into rigid armor, almost identical to Tize’s synchronization. But the purpose wasn’t to boost The Royal’s power, but to lock her in place. In mere moments, the plant-person had shifted entirely into a cage that surrounded Rusa’s entire body, as if they had become her and taken her spot, just a little bulkier because of the trapped prisoner inside, with only her iridescent eyes allowed to poke through.
“I’m sorry, Ahvra,” Drim apologized to her first now that the impromptu fight had come to an end. “Not that you can hear this, but when you wake up, I hope you can forgive me. You had to be removed, since you were the only one who could defeat me instantly without killing me.”
“And I’m sorry to you as well, Rusa,” he returned his attention to what was essentially a wooden statue. “Sorry that it had to end this way. But at least with you, I don’t have to hold back.”
The Slayer took a rapid step forward and sunk his blade into Asset’s chest. It protruded out the other side, with Rusa’s blood dripping off the metal down onto the ground. He didn’t let it linger long, pulling it back just a moment later. And the wooden armor didn’t stagger from the wound. Instead, it morphed back slowly to the being’s original form, appearing with a new baby Feyjrusa in Asset’s arms.
“Thank you for answering my summons,” Thorn expressed his appreciation. “And for your assistance in dealing with my present situation. But this isn’t your fight, so I won’t ask you to stay for the rest. You may return home.”
“As you command,” the plant-human was still perpetually struggling to grasp the free-will part of their existence, and that anything Drim asked was a request and not a demand. “Feel free to call me for anything else. And we, I, thank you for helping us see justice served for the death of our world. Our gratitude will be eternal.”
“Erm, right,” the demigod didn’t know quite how to respond to that. “Actually, if you could do me one more favor. Take the child and the other little ones back with you. They don’t need to see this.”
Drim glanced around. The atmosphere had certainly tensed from his latest actions, and now the others were starting to accept the gravity of the situation. What lied ahead was most certainly going to end in violence, action being the only way to have their voices and opinions heard. And those around him were bracing themselves for what they’d have to do—what needed to be done to stop their king from marching himself to his death.
“Of course,” Asset agreed immediately. “I will take them home with me and care for them until they can be retrieved. Come,” they nodded towards the two ‘little ones’ who were sitting off by themselves. Pox didn’t seem to outright accept the situation himself, but Drimini grabbed him and flew to the only other of what could remotely be called her kin. And together, the four of them vanished, the summoning undone, returning Asset and the others back to thrall’s knoll.
“Do we really have to do this?” The Fiendish King asked as his subjects tended to their weapons and prepared themselves for another fight. “I’m sure I must have convinced some of you that this is the best course of action, or that it’s inevitable. So why can’t you all just accept my choice? I’m doing this of my own free-will. I’d much rather this life end on a happier note. So instead of hurting each other, why can’t we just say goodbye for now?!”
“Because you’d hate it!” Xard spoke for the crowd, his voice booming with genuine anger, upset that he even had to say the words. “I can think of no fate you’d despise more than ruler of all! You already don’t enjoy being leader of the group, you can’t stand it when we actually treat you as our king, and you’re dreading that you’ll actually win the presidency.”
“It’s time for you to stop self-sacrificing and allow yourself to lean on someone else for a change! Just because you were born differently, it doesn’t make you any more special than any of us. The world is not just your burden alone to bear. You’ve done so much for us, so we owe it to you to stop you from making a mistake that’d leave you miserable until the end of time!”
Mallea then bled her heart. “And no matter what you say, Drim, we would be losing you, some part of you. Even if you look just the same, act just the same, our relationship with you would always be different. We’d lose you to this new responsibility. And while we’d try to keep things as they were, continuing serving you, treating you like family, it would eventually tear us apart. And some of us don’t want to live in a world without you, even if you are the world itself.”
“Let’s not forget that your role’s not done yet!” Kada had to remind him. “We have the election to secure and Project Fiendless to launch. Just because there’s a new avenue, it doesn’t mean you get to throw away all of our dreams and hard work! And we need you to see it through. You may think your part’s done, but you’re wrong! It all hinges on you to put the final pieces into place. Maybe we could do it without you, figure it out, but we simply don’t want to!”
Jaid then added one last piece, “And your job for me isn’t done yet. Maybe you misunderstood me. I said to take over the world, not become it! While those who were threatening the peace are dealt with, we’re still not at the end yet, and I’m not satisfied with the results. So until I am, you don’t get to quit!”
“You’re right…” Drim could only sigh. “All of you are right. Every word. But nothing you can say will change my mind! Even if you all hate me for it, this is the path I’ve chosen! And, I didn’t want to have to do this but… Stand down!”
Though his words rang with authority, the others could only blink at him with confused looks. His demand wasn’t as absolute as any of them expecting, especially throwing off the man who had said it. Why hadn’t Eleen’s power worked? Even with Rathe’s death, their Curses still functioned just fine. Was it because her ghost had been destroyed?
Did that mean she was really gone? Drim hadn’t exactly had the time to try and resonate with his heart to get a full grasp of the situation. But since the incident, he’d found it hard to believe. Maybe she really was gone for good and he’d have to accept that. It was a mixed bag of feelings, but The Fiendish King didn’t have the luxury of dwelling on it.
Because those he’d just tried to control didn’t take the ‘attack’ lightly, and they were moving ahead with their retaliation. The leader’s subordinates staged a coup. And all at once, Drim saw the full might of the Fiends For Hire coming right for him.